Review: Why Sh*t Happens: The Science of a Really Bad Day

Why Sh*t Happens: The Science of a Really Bad Day by Peter J. Bentley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Such a provocative title suggested something more adventurous than this, the science of everyday life. I guess that's why they called it that: the contents are interesting little bits about things one encounters in their daily life, but on the surface the topics appear very dull. The writing is serviceable, but the linking text isn't quite there.

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Review: Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by David Wong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

David Wong clearly has fun writing and just as clearly wants us to have fun reading his stuff. There is nothing serious here. It's gory, tons of crude humour, loads of violence, but most of the characters are reasonably likable.

Five stars, not because it's a masterpiece but that it is exactly what it set out to be and did so successfully.

I expect more to come in this series (he hinted as much in the acknowledgments). I preferred over the decent John Dies at the End series.

It's not for everyone. Your mind needs to be a bit in the gutter for this to work, but if you can meet Wong down there, it's definitely worth your time.

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Review: Undermajordomo Minor

Undermajordomo Minor by Patrick deWitt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was on board from page 2. I was on board at 120 when I went to bed. I should never have picked it up again after that. I had been just relating to my wife what I was enjoying about it: it has wit, it's quirky (but, at least for me, not in the usually irritating way) and it was leading to a conclusion that I felt was going to fit just right, whether it was happy or sad.

And then, on page 122 of my ebook copy, the orgy happened. Then he fell in the Very Big Hole. Then it ended. It ultimately felt pointless.

The whole book just fell off the rails. I realize the book is probably a story of love of many types (familial, romantic, even employer/employee loyalty), but it all seemed to come to nothing.

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Review: Great North Road

Great North Road by Peter F. Hamilton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It's good, I won't deny that. The idea of the story, with a mystery murder that in spite of the all-encompassing surveillance technology is unknowable. The victim, a clone that has hundreds of other running around and all of whom are accounted for. The crime scene, where all of the camera-like devices and detectors have been shut down. The method of murder, a weird 5-bladed knife. All of it points to a monster that until know was considered only a figment of the only survivor a previous similar incident.

It all works, it all plays out quite well, mostly logically. But man it's long. It's not like there are wasted words, but there are a few sections that go into details that, while interesting in and of themselves, can be glossed rather than spelled out.

Cut the middle 200 pages, this would be edging 5 stars for me. That said, this one will still stick with me for a bit.

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Review: Medicine for the Dead

Medicine for the Dead by Arianne "Tex" Thompson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I'll skip doing a review for book one (One Night in Sixes) of this series because while it was good, it wasn't great. It threw you into the deep end of what is clearly a well-established world in the mind of the author, a sort of otherworldly Old West filled with all the trappings of the genre, but with weird, almost alien tribes in place of the Native Americans that normally populate Westerns. All told, the ultimately quite straightforward story of a man accidentally killing another was complicated with a ton of details that maybe didn't quite settle.

This book takes all those trappings, all those details and makes them work. Based around a single trip across an arid desert where the victim's keeper must escort his killer to their homeland to be judged, everything comes together. All the traditions, rituals and languages make sense, the action, the motivations, the reactions, everything works.

Despite the fact that nothing much happens in the grand scheme of things, the little things are really interesting. I can't wait to see where this goes.

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Review: Ringo: With a Little Help

Ringo: With a Little Help by Michael Starr
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Here is a case of the value of information vs the presentation: I have read plenty of Beatle books, but never much about Ringo himself. They always focus on the songwriters, leaving Ringo quite underrepresented. This book seeks to tell Ringo's story.

But holy cow, the editing is just awful. Frequently whole sentences and paragraphs are repeated, slightly reworded but with otherwise identical content. It's almost like the author wrote a couple of versions of a particular thought with the intention of deleting it but then forgot to remove the alternate version. And it happens all the time. It makes for a very sloppy book.

I don't blame the author here, though. The publisher, editor, and copyeditor should have caught this.

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Review: To Say Nothing of the Dog

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

One tends to be afraid of reading series out of order. You never know what important things you'll miss, but it is very likely that you'll miss key points. Not here. The first novel (but not first story) set with the Oxford Time Travelers is Doomsday Book, but it gave you just about as much info going in as this one does. Read away, order irrelevant.

At any rate, the story is about nothing. It's practically a Victorian Seinfeld. I mean, there is a plot, something to do with a lady obsessed with rebuilding Coventry Cathedral to its exact condition the day it was destroyed in the firebombings in WW2. But it's not what it's about but how it gets there. It almost feels like a Vonnegut novel in the utter ordinariness of the characters, how even with the weirdest circumstance, people are just fundamentally focused on their own needs and wants. (Obviously, I suppose). But it's so pointless. So inconsequential.

DOesn't sound like a recommendation, does it? Well, it is. Read it.

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