3.5 stars Altered Carbon is a technically great book that I liked, but didn’t completely click for me in a way that I expected it to. Its premise drew me in, and the stylistic excellence of Richard K. Morgan’s prose lends itself equally well to technobabble, gritty noir dialogue, and surrealism. He’s also created a compelling, hyper-competent lead character in Takeshi Kovacs, who plays up the strong and silent thing to great effect but also employs cutting, dark humor with aplomb. The idea is this: […]
Didn’t like it then, now I do. It’s magic!
If you read my reviews regularly, you’ll probably know how much I love The Dresden Files, but that I initially didn’t like it very much, to the point where I gave up after reading book three way back in 2009. I just didn’t think the series was for me. That I thought that at the time is alternately hilarious and horrifying. I almost didn’t pick this series back up, and so I almost missed out on what has turned out to be more and more […]
“Coen Brothers meet Carl Hiaasen”
This one-liner on the cover describes this audiobook perfectly: “The Coen Brothers meet Carl Hiaasen.” If that sounds good, this might be the series for you! The first book, Plugged, introduced us to Irish soldier-turned-New Jersey-bouncer Daniel McEvoy, and the second starts right where we left him, in a bit of a mess with “Plastic Paddy” Mike Madden, trying to figure out his relationship with his delusional sort-of-girlfriend, annoyed with the most annoying best friend in the world, and revamping his casino and nightclub. As […]
“She was a blonde. A blonde to make a bishop kick a hole in a stained glass window. “
“Even on Central Avenue, not the quietest dressed street in the world, he looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of angel food.” I’m gonna admit right up front that the fourth star of my rating comes entirely from Raymond Chandler and his way with words. Nobody knew how to turn a phrase like good old Ray-Ray. I mean, what a guy. What a kick he must have been at parties. I don’t normally read books for language alone. I’m an emotional […]
Well that went downhill quickly
I was looking forward to this old school Hollywood noir in graphic novel format, but this book just pissed me off on a few different levels. The premise, a writer with PTSD and writer’s block wakes up next to a dead starlet who just happens to be starring in his movie, was so great. There are fascinating characters: the blackballed writer who just can’t deal, the smart-as-a-whip publicity girl, a hulking and somewhat shady security guy, a head over heels in love movie exec, and […]
“Questions arose. Like, what in the f*ck was going on here, basically.”
It seemed like a good point in the Cannonball to dip my toe back into the elite Infinity Pool of highbrow reading — you know, capital L Literature — and Pynchon seemed like as good of a candidate for Respected Contemporary Author as any of them. But then of course I end up reading the book of his where the protagonist is altered on one of the many favorite substances of the sixties for most of the book and it’s generally about crime and hippies […]