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Showing posts from 2011

Night of the Living Trekkies (Anderson and Stall)

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Zombies are everywhere these days. They show up in movies, books, standard TV, on the t-shirts of infants.. They have become pervasive in all aspects of our global social-cultural circles. It is strange because back when I was in school, Zombies were still a sub-culture. I do not know if this is purely an artifact of the internet culture, or if people have finally become desensitized to a point where flash mobs of gore covered f aux-corpses is just a norm; Where a life with out zombie-fear, zombie escape plans, and everyone trying to top each other with anti-zombie paraphernalia would be passe. Like Death Troopers before it, Night of the Living Trekkies (NotLT) is a geek smorgasbord. NotLT is exactly how it sounds. A novel of “Unofficial, Unimaginable, Unbelievable” proportions. I have to admit, I like living in a world where books like this can exist. Where geeks, instead of being avoided while reading them, can be approached by people asking if it is worth readi...

Happy holidays everyone

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New pajamas, happy wife, roof over our heads and smiles on our faces… Everything else is moot. Hope everyone has a safe holiday, whether you are a handful of days in, nearly done, just starting, or waiting till the next equinox.

Good Omens (Pratchett and Gaiman)

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So many people have written about this book. There is no need to rehash things. Neil and Terry talking about the writing process they went through. Quick synopsis: Satan's child is born into the world and inserted into the wrong family. What results is the ultimate experiment in nature vs nurture. When the end times come, will the son of the devil follow the evil in his genetics, or the standard well rounded human upbringing his mistaken life gave him. In the book are devils, angels, witches, witch hunters, politicians, four horsemen of the apocalypse, nuns, satanists, paint ballers, soothsayers, aliens, etc. Laugh out loud funny, but because of the varied styles in the dual authors, may not be easy for all readers to get into. Give it fifty pages before you decide though, would hate if you gave up too early, it would be a damn shame. People who wrote more in depth and are worth reading: Bonnie over at Blogcritic has a great POV. " Good Omens uses the pre-Apo...

NSFW - Rampaging F*ckers of Everything on the Crazy Sh*tting Planet of the Vomit Atmosphere

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Mykle Hansen lives in Portland Oregon and I am pretty sure he has live feeds of the max trains which he monitors avidly for footage of people reading his books on mass transit. This is where I read the majority of this book and it was the most uncomfortable experience I have had in years. If he doesn’t have such a feed, he should chat with TriMet and work something out… I would welcome a chance to interview him and dig into the crackpot lounge of his brain for cigarette butts. I loved this book, and as my introduction to the splatterpunk genre, I do not think that I could have lucked out better. If you read the below summaries and find even vacant humor, you should check this book out. Not even vacant humor?… leave this one alone. The exclusion to this logic would be every IT admin in the world, as they should read this regardless of their opinion. Monster Cocks will make them chortle between sessions of slack jaw amazement. ‘Rampaging Fuckers of Everything on the Crazy Shit...

Interview: Q and A w/Johnny Shaw, on Dove Season, future works, and pretty much anything else I could get him to comment on

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Johnny (not John or Jon) Shaw is an author here in good ol’ Portland Oregon. Back in September he launched his first Novel, Dove Season ( re view ). He hit the road touring and speaking, stopped by Wordstock 2011, then hit the road again.. Weary and in dire need of some home time, he was kind enough to set aside some time to BS via email with a fan, answer some questions, and delicately cover his bases so as not to offend his wife and mother. So read up folks, this is a present from him to us. If you have not heard of his book, check out some reviews online. Get a feel for it, then go buy the damn thing before you blow your cash on booze smokes fatty-foods internet-pornography Thai-hookers madmax-souvenirs.. or whatever your vice may be. If you still are not convinced, read this QA again and leave a comment. I will find a way to convince you that will not require band-aids afterwards. Thanks Johnny for participating :) Author’s website  johnnyshaw.net -------- Jas...

Already Gone (John Rector)

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John Rector has brought a very strong novel to the table and put it down in front of you. You should be picking up what he is putting down. Before picking up this novel, grab an industrial fan and place it in front of you facing away. When the novelized shit hits it, you will minimize the blow-back you experience. Within five pages of the opening, the ring finger of Jake Reese has been forcibly removed by a pressure instrument that is not intended to be used for surgery. Bolt cutters, normally tasked to leveraging solid metal into separate pieces, had no trouble going through the bone and flesh of Jake’s finger. Jake goes home to his wife, with his wallet intact, and his pride scuffed, and in a terrible amount of confused pain. What the heck just happened, why was it “Nothing personal” as the attacker stated while walking away. Rector’s “Already Gone” just gets better from there. I will not summarize anything further, in fear I could introduce spoilers. What I can advise is that I was ...

Dove Season (Johnny Shaw)

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In the first of (and hopefully a grip of) the “Jimmy Veeder Fiasco’s”, Jimmy is called back to his home town when his father announces he has terminal cancer and no further options. He travels back to the 100+ degree heat to spend time with “Pop” and help get things in order. Jimmy has been away from the Imperial Valley of California over a decade. He went to college, traveled the world, and planned no further into the future than a week. He was generically content with his life, even if he was not what people would call happy. It doesn’t matter though. Desert folk can move to a city, travel the world , or settle down with a chica up north, but will always have the desert inside them. Jimmy finds out very quickly that nothing has changed since he left El Centro and the Imperial area. The border is still malleable, Mexicali is still someplace that should cause a grown man to stay out of the shadows, and even though he thought he left his life behind, it was waiting or him when he came b...

Mustaine: A Life in Metal (Dave Mustaine)

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Published in the US as ‘Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir’, I apparently bought a UK import version with an alternate title/cover. The only way to properly talk about this memoir is to begin by paraphrasing Mustaine’s book regarding the stuff that everyone expects: “I was in Metallica until they kicked me out. I am so sad and bitter. I started a new band, Megadeth, which is pretty kick ass and is a metal force to be recognized. Twelve stepping is good so long as you are not to drunk to walk. Even through all my success, I continue to whine about Metallica until I have annoyed even myself…Oh look, there’s Jesus! What’s he doing here? I should ask him if he wants to jam with me..” Dave Mustaine, druggie fist-fighting front-man for metal band Megadeth. Self-titled “Mustaine” covered his mid-teen years to current, his descent into alcoholism and drug abuse, greater than ten stints in various rehab facilities. It doesn't focus solely on the negative, instead calling out the many positive t...

eBooks - Dead(ish) / Catharsis

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Recently I read a couple free eBooks that I downloaded from Smashwords. Both were very good, I read them and enjoyed them. Each of them had a number of good points, but had some areas where artifacts of the self publishing process left me wanting. Dead(ish) – Naomi Kramer , 2009, approx 48 pages http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/2679 Linda, Mike and Trent are in a complex relationship. Mike is being haunted, and has hired Trent as an exorcist to remove the unwanted spirit. Trent is not an exorcist, he is actually a detective hired by Linda. Linda is dead, and she is convinced that Mike killed her. The perspective comes mainly from Mike and Trent, but Linda is mixed in piecemeal as Trent transcribes things she says to him during meetings. One of my favorite things here was the Creative Commons aspect where Kramer advises you can update her book to remove the Australian slang and replace it with your own if you wanted to redistribute it. I thought this was a classy change that...

T2- Rising Storm (S.M. Stirling), T2 part 2

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The war between man and machine begins,But you don’t need to wait till the apocalypse to rock to your favorite jams. As not-seen-on-tv, Harper Entertainment presents a special 2002 throwback collection: all the greatest hits of the Terminator saga all in one place!  T2: Rising Storm  features the best in contemporary junk sci-fi with hits from S.M. Stirling, and homage paid back to James Cameron and William wisher, key-masters of the Terminator universe! Bringing back hits from the 80′s and 90′s, T2: Rising Storm includes classics such as: No fate but that we make. You sent your dad from the Future to save your mom and impregnate her before dying so you can be born so you can send your dad back into the past to impregnate your mom….. how does that work again? Run Run Run Run Run, Locate bigger firepower! Run Run…. Your face is blown halfway off, and I can see your metal skull Life is like a dark highway.. Also included are new and improved Terminator universe hits, remastered ...

Death Plays Poker (Robin Spano)

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This is the second novel in the Clare Vengel Undercover series. This time around, Robin Spano puts Clare in another unusual environment, a world class poker circuit/tournament where players are being choked to death.? The Royal Canadian Mounties (RCMP) have pulled her in to attempt breaking the case. She is minimally experienced, and desperate to prove herself as a proficient undercover agent. The problem is that Clare Vengel, disguised as Tiffany, the pink clothed high heel wearing trust fund kid, doesn’t know a damn thing about poker. She has studied a couple books, and knows some limited basics, and lucks out on a couple big hands. She is by no means a poker savant, she can not count cards, and even a blind man could read her tells. This is kind of the same way she approaches undercover work in general. She has a good idea what she should be doing, but cant seem to do more than luck into things. I have become a big fan of Clare Vengel. When reading the first novel (Dead Politician S...

The Wheelman (Duane Swierczynski)

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Dear Mr Swierczynski: I hate you for being such a good author. By hate, I mean envy, and by author I mean sheer awesome dude. So, to recap, I envy you for being a sheer awesome dude. I read The Wheelman over a couple day span on the local transit system. It was less polished than your later novels such as Severance Package or The Blonde. It is weird to describe pulpy books as polished, but I am sure you are picking up what I am putting down. I know it is your book and as such, you already know the plot, but bear with me while I summarize what I read. In a nutshell, The Wheelman is a back and forth tale about a mute getaway driver in a botched getaway. Robbing a Wachovia bank was easy, the plan was solid and the route out of inner Philly was mapped and ready to go.? Unfortunately, someone spilled the beans on the plan and the getaway turned more into?  From there, things just get bloody.. very very bloody. I don’t think a single character makes it through the plot with out landing s...

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse (Victor Gischler)

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I will keep this short and simple. “[...] whether you’re fleeing violent rape gangs, remembering those lost loved ones, or daydreaming of a future where wild dogs no longer roam the streets, we hope you’ll keep making Jack Daniel’s your preferred beverage.” If the above quote makes you smile a little, or want to grab a drink, this book is going to be right up your alley. Victor Gischler really nailed this. The end of the world, gang rivalry juicers, booze drugs cannibals, religious nuts, machine guns, more machine guns, Molotovs, piss poor beer…. and strippers. Well, that’s it. ‘Nuff said. If anyone wants to borrow my copy, get in line. I think there are five folks in line right now. Pages:  336 Publisher:  Touchstone (2008) ISBN-10:   1416552251 ISBN-13:   978-1416552253