Book Reviews
Review: “The Strain” by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan
Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan originally conceived “The Strain” as a serialized television series for the Fox network. After Fox execs balked at the original vision, insisting the writers inject more humor into the storyline of a modern-day vampire apocolypse, del Toro and Hogan decided to take their toys and go home. Rather than create a movie version of this modern day retelling of “Dracula,” the two decided to go literary.
Review: “Counting Heads” by David Marusek
Marusek has envisioned his world so clearly and carefully that the technical details feel like afterthoughts. References are made subtly and in passing, the way any of us would refer to a ubiquitous convenience like a cellphone or digital camera, and it takes you many pages to get a full glimpse of how this future society truly differs from our own, while remaining completely human and recognizable.
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: “Roil” by Trent Jamieson
Trent Jamieson’s Roil, the first book in The Nightbound Land duology, promises… and delivers.
Review: “Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty” by Raymond Benson
Let me begin by saying that I wanted to love this book. I love the game, I love the characters, I love reading; it seemed a natural fit. Unfortunately, it wasn’t. What I ended up reading was an “okay” version of a story that I know could have been much better.
Review: “A Companion to Wolves” by Sarah Monette and Elizabeth Bear
Now this was a surprise. Here is one of those rare books not produced as a precursor to a series.
This is not to say that the land Monette and Bear have created couldn’t support multiple visits. It is merely to say that they have constructed a tale that is complete and unconcerned with possibilities and marketing strategies beyond its own ken.
Review: “Bone Song” by John Meaney
If I had to name the style of Bone Song, I would call it Cyber-Zombie Noir. But lest I give the impression that it’s a book about Zombies let me say that Meaney has created a world with a death based Economy.
