Book Reviews
Review: “Team of Darkness” by Tony Ruggiero
In the twenty-first century, amidst six billion people and surveillance equipment able to tell a gnat’s sex from outer space, four monsters hid together in caves just outside the city of Kacianik, Kosovo, for nearly a century, until they attacked a captain of the US Army and left witnesses.
General Stone could barely contain himself. Vampires. Real life, blood sucking, coffin dwelling, God damned vampires. What if they could be captured? Studied? What if they could be kept under control and compelled to follow orders?
Review: “Love in the Time of Fridges” by Tim Scott
When I reviewed Outrageous Fortune earlier in the year, I referred to it as absurd . . . in a good way. Absurdist science fiction. Because it wasn’t laugh out loud comedy, it wasn’t The Hitchhiker’s Guide, but it sure wasn’t taking itself too seriously either.
Review: “Dust” by Joan Frances Turner
In Dust we get to experience zombie matters from the eyes of the source, as it were, and what a strange experience it is. The undead are not romanticized in this novel, so you might not want to eat before or during your reading session. Nausea may ensue.
Review: “The Prestige” by Christopher Priest
This is an odd, hard to define, impossible to put down book, first published in 1995, but out in a new paperback edition. The reason I’m bringing it to your attention is primarily due to news of an upcoming film: Christopher Nolan, director of Batman Begins and one of my personal favorites, Memento, will begin shooting an adaptation of The Prestige this month.
Review: “Orphanage” by Robert Buettner
Robert Buettner is a great writer. Seriously. Anyone who can keep me not only interested in a military SF book, but also interested enough to read it in less than THREE DAYS is doing something right. You just don’t want to put the book down.
Review: “Red Glove” by Holly Black
Red Glove is promoted as a YA novel, although I’d put it more at the 18 year old to adult end of the spectrum than the 13-16 year old range. If your kids are old enough to watch the “Sopranos” or “The Riches” and they like those shows, then this is the right book. Much like those shows, Red Glove contrasts the supposed glamour of a criminal lifestyle with the pain it causes our hero. A younger reader might only see the glamour and magic and miss the misery.
Review: “Roil” by Trent Jamieson
Trent Jamieson’s Roil, the first book in The Nightbound Land duology, promises… and delivers.
Review: William Shakespeare’s “Star Wars” (Audiobook)
Seeming like a gag gift to get for people like me — where you know that we like Star Wars but you’re not sure what exactly we already possess in our collection — William Shakespeare’s Star Wars is an audiobook full of surprising quality and intelligence that should delight any fan of The Bard or of the Beard of George Lucas.
