author: Annalee Newitz

name: Steev

average rating: 3.73

book published: 2017

rating: 4

read at: 2019/04/13

date added: 2019/04/13

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
Mixed feelings about this book. It brings up a lot of super interesting issues and builds a fascinating future world. However, the simplistic and largely unearned character development and dialogue and human interaction, plus all the overt exposition isn't really my cup of tea, to put it generously, or to be more critical, those things make the book feel like a clumsy YA novel. Or maybe that's just how genre SF is and I never really noticed before? Or forgot?

I've been reading Newitz's journalism for about 20 years (or at least it seems that way) and I'm certain she's smart and knowledgeable. But she's got a ways to go before her fiction is something I'd consider literature.

author: Sam Lipsyte

name: Steev

average rating: 3.00

book published: 2001

rating: 4

read at:

date added: 2019/02/15

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
This is a great book. Laugh-out-loud funny, dark, profound. Poetic and snarky and satiric and brilliant. Certainly Lipsyte got better after this first novel. Homeland and The Ask are better. But if you're a fan and a completist, definitely read this.

The drawbacks are that Lipsyte is one of those authors that is all about style rather than realism. His books are bit like Aaron Sorkin's scripts. Nobody really talks that way, but, but it's so good that you don't care. Except you wouldn't want to read only this kind of thing. It's like poetry, rather than a story you can believe in. And that's fine.

author: Harry Crews

name: Steev

average rating: 4.02

book published: 1976

rating: 4

read at: 2019/01/29

date added: 2019/01/29

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
I like this but it was pretty brutal. Kind of like a 70s version of Cormac McCarthy. Lots of senseless pointless violence, graphic sex, racism, misogyny. But there is a deeper thread somewhere. Southern redneck ex football player jock has an existential crisis in the midst of A bachanalian redneck mega party.

author: David Foster Wallace

name: Steev

average rating: 3.82

book published: 1987

rating: 5

read at: 2013/01/04

date added: 2013/01/04

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
This is an excellent novel, especially considering that it's DFW's first novel, written when he was what, like 24 or something? It's interesting to see some of the same general features and issues that he put in Infinite Jest. A sort of comedic and surreal science fictionalism; a large wasteland off on the fringes of the narrative; a dysfunctional powerful family; a structure that allows for lots of asides and loosely connected but also sort of independent stories and ideas. It's just pretty goshdarned great.

author: David Wong

name: Steev

average rating: 3.94

book published: 2007

rating: 5

read at: 2013/11/20

date added: 2013/11/22

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
This is the kind of book I just don't want to put down. It's hilarious, a bit scary, profound, and profane. In the middle of fighting zombies and mutants and demons, the narrator throws around some great wisdom as well as some comedic slacker banality. It's brilliant, and once you pick it up and open it to the first page, you won't need me or anyone else to persuade you that it's worth reading. You'll just keep reading.

author: David Sosnowski

name: Steev

average rating: 3.91

book published: 2004

rating: 4

read at: 2016/06/11

date added: 2016/06/11

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
This is a funny book. A fascinating book, a piece of science-fantasy with a classic "what if" that is expertly followed through on: What if vampires existed, and they managed to turn basically everyone on the planet into vampires? What would happen? How would civilization go on, and what would it look like? And how many comedic situations would ensue?

It's not extremely literary or complicated or deep. It is a beautiful little story about relationships and parenting and parental love, chosen family, loss, and nostalgia. It's a book that I would think would appeal mostly to vampire fans. In addition to than that demographic, it probably would have done quite well marketed as young adult fiction. It's a very clean, PG-13 book - although it refers to a lot of ultra-violence and super hot and bloody erotic vamp-sex, everything is at a distance, like the old romances where the lovers tumble into bed and then the scene fades to black. The humor, the double entendres, are at time a tad bit too clever and too frequent, but it's that kind of book. (I guess someone categorizing it in a literary way would call it a farce?)

Full disclosure: I am/was a vampire fan; not an obsessive one, but I used to devour Lestat novels pretty ravenously. Also, I knew David Sosnowski years (like almost 25 years!) ago, back when he only wrote poetry and would show up at the Ann Arbor Poetry Slam and pretty much kick almost everyone else's ass. Then he started writing novels. He's a great guy and a great writer and I'm psyched to read this.

(Note: I'd love to read more of this kind of thing that gets even more deep into the possible science of how vampirism could work. Like what's the exact biochemistry of the process? How can blood be enough to sustain them? etc etc... )

author: John Scalzi

name: Steev

average rating: 3.82

book published: 2012

rating: 4

read at: 2016/08/04

date added: 2016/08/04

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
A worthwhile read, if you're a science-fiction fan with the ability to laugh at the cliches of the genre. This is not great literature, but it was never billed as such. It's a light satire of sci-fi television, but it also gets a little bit heavy and touching during the 3rd act.

The writing quality is a little hit-or-miss. Scalzi is clearly proficient, but the dialog is often straight out of the playbook for bad situation comedies, the kind where every character can't let anything be said without some dumb comeback. Despite this, I found the concepts and the emotional content to be compelling enough to keep me going.

author: John Scalzi

name: Steev

average rating: 3.81

book published: 2012

rating: 4

read at: 2016/08/04

date added: 2016/08/04

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
A worthwhile read, if you're a science-fiction fan with the ability to laugh at the cliches of the genre. This is not great literature, but it was never billed as such. It's a light satire of sci-fi television, but it also gets a little bit heavy and touching during the 3rd act.

The writing quality is a little hit-or-miss. Scalzi is clearly proficient, but the dialog is often straight out of the playbook for bad situation comedies, the kind where every character can't let anything be said without some dumb comeback. Despite this, I found the concepts and the emotional content to be compelling enough to keep me going.

author: David Sosnowski

name: Steev

average rating: 3.90

book published: 2004

rating: 4

read at: 2016/06/11

date added: 2016/06/11

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
This is a funny book. A fascinating book, a piece of science-fantasy with a classic "what if" that is expertly followed through on: What if vampires existed, and they managed to turn basically everyone on the planet into vampires? What would happen? How would civilization go on, and what would it look like? And how many comedic situations would ensue?

It's not extremely literary or complicated or deep. It is a beautiful little story about relationships and parenting and parental love, chosen family, loss, and nostalgia. It's a book that I would think would appeal mostly to vampire fans. In addition to than that demographic, it probably would have done quite well marketed as young adult fiction. It's a very clean, PG-13 book - although it refers to a lot of ultra-violence and super hot and bloody erotic vamp-sex, everything is at a distance, like the old romances where the lovers tumble into bed and then the scene fades to black. The humor, the double entendres, are at time a tad bit too clever and too frequent, but it's that kind of book. (I guess someone categorizing it in a literary way would call it a farce?)

Full disclosure: I am/was a vampire fan; not an obsessive one, but I used to devour Lestat novels pretty ravenously. Also, I knew David Sosnowski years (like almost 25 years!) ago, back when he only wrote poetry and would show up at the Ann Arbor Poetry Slam and pretty much kick almost everyone else's ass. Then he started writing novels. He's a great guy and a great writer and I'm psyched to read this.

(Note: I'd love to read more of this kind of thing that gets even more deep into the possible science of how vampirism could work. Like what's the exact biochemistry of the process? How can blood be enough to sustain them? etc etc... )

author: David Wong

name: Steev

average rating: 3.96

book published: 2007

rating: 5

read at: 2013/11/20

date added: 2013/11/22

shelves: fun, novels, own-it

review:
This is the kind of book I just don't want to put down. It's hilarious, a bit scary, profound, and profane. In the middle of fighting zombies and mutants and demons, the narrator throws around some great wisdom as well as some comedic slacker banality. It's brilliant, and once you pick it up and open it to the first page, you won't need me or anyone else to persuade you that it's worth reading. You'll just keep reading.