REVIEW: Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Going Bovine 

by Libba Bray

“These are hard times. The world hurts. We live in fear and forget to walk with hope. But hope has not forgotten you. So ask it to dinner. It's probably hungry and would appreciate the invitation.” 

All 16-year-old Cameron wants to do is detach and snark and perhaps get with his sister's hot friend. When he comes down with Mad Cow disease, however, everything is off the table. There is no cure. That is, until Cameron sees a beautiful punk rock angel in his hospital room who tells him he must go on a quest to find Doctor X, rescue him from the forces of darkness threatening to destroy the universe, and get his cure. With nothing to loose, he sets off on a roadtrip across America with a hypochondriac dwarf and a lawn gnome who claims he is the god Baldur from Norse mythology.

The thing that hooked me before I even picked up the book was that this was a retelling of Don Quixote. I regret to say, I have never read the original, but there were definite iconic moments I grasped, like tilting with windmill giants, the sidekick, the black knight, and the family who keep trying to bring him back to their reality.

The beginning is brilliant. Cameron describes the best day in his life, the day he went to Disney World, until he rode on the It's a Small World ride, had a weird feeling that they had all died and this was the afterlife, and nearly drowned trying to find what was behind one of the access doors in the ride, sure it was something mystical. Fast forward to 16 years later when Cameron is pretty unlikable. He doesn't try, because why should he? But that all changes when he accepts the quest. He discovers there are things worth fighting for.

This book has some pretty incredible moments. Bray captures images with such weighted specificity. Every piece of the landscape informs the emotional state of Cameron. She is brilliant at creating these moments where reality completely bends and a veil is torn to see what metaphysical things are going on beneath every day life. And yet you are never quite sure if Cameron is really there. Is he traveling across the US, or still hallucinating in his hospital bed? Did he see those fire giants with swinging arms, or was it the disease? She creates these scenes that instill mind-bending terror and awe at the inexplicably and dispassion of such occurrences. In the end, it doesn't matter if it all happened in his head or not. His emotional journey from apathy to deep and painful caring is the same. Bray doesn't pull punches and lets the story play out to it's often heartbreaking conclusions. It is a beautiful and HI-larious story about connecting, and living life and having adventures while you can.

She also gives some great commentary on media and modern public schools which made me laugh.

I highly recommend this book.

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Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne

Monument 14

by Emmy Laybourne

“Your mother hollers that you're going to miss the bus. She can see it coming down the street. You don't stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don't thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not- you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.

Only, if it's the last you'll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you'd stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.

But the bus was barreling down our street so I ran.” 

Dean is on his way to school, sometime in the near future, when the apocalypse hits. A massive volcano sets of a chain of events (hail storms, earthquakes, tidal waves) that lead to the bus crashing right outside a Greenway (basically a Walmart). Kids die and the survivors take shelter in the store. The earthquakes lead to chemical weapons escaping from NORAD, and soon no one can go outside without risk of contamination and violent reactions. Dean and the kids (ranging from kindergarten to high school) must work together to survive in the midst of of the most devastating disaster in the nation's history.

As you know, I love survival books. This is probably one of my favorites. It has a milder Lord of the Flies feel, with hormones raging, but not to the extent of the classic. Alliances are forged and broken, love is found and lost. Yet, we never really get too close to any of the characters. They are all still mysteries in Dean's eyes. You get the feeling that you can never really know a person, even if you are locked in a Walmart with them during the apocalypse. The kids are smart, blocking ventilation, creating zones, using resources wisely, creating a home and a routine for the younger kids, finding ways to communicate with the outside world. You wonder how long this community can last and if their destruction will be internal or external. The ending is surprisingly the end of a section, but hardly the end of their story. I am not at all surprised to find out that there are several more books in this world after the end of the story, and I can't wait to read them!

REVIEW: Kraken by China Mieville

Kraken

by China Mieville

“And the continual non-up-turnance of so valuable a commodity as a giant squid—the thought of getting their alembics on which made the city’s alchemists whine like dogs—was provoking more and more interest from London’s repo-men and -women.” 

Billy Harrow works at the Darwin Centre, a museum and research facility in London that is focused on evolution. Their prized possession is a dead, preserved giant squid. When the giant squid suddenly disappears, Billy is thrust down the rabbit hole (so quickly I had to put the book down for a sec) into an insane London underbelly full of magic and cults, criminals and police. Along the way, he discovers that the theft of the squid somehow sets off the chain of events that will lead to the end of the world. He must learn the rules and break them all if he is to save London, and the world, from a fiery doom.

Did you understand that synopsis? I'm not sure I did.

This book is insane, and often you have to do mental backflips to grasp what is going on, who is fighting who, who did this horrible thing and why? But it is really good.

It's China Mieville, who gave us the equally complex Un Lun Dun. He loves himself some London underbelly. They also share themes: the importance of words, the un/destined hero, and prophecy informing present action. He also gives us a giant new helping of world building, species and rules. Some are similar, like the house that contains a forest in Un Lun Dun vs. the Embassy of the Sea (a house that contains the ocean) in Kraken.

Other things are completely new: reading the future of the city through cutting open the (literal) guts of the street, the Tattoo (a parasitic villain who lives on a man's back), Chaos Nazis (those who believe that the core value of Nazism is decadence and dress like deranged clowns), Goss and Subby (a nightmarish duo: a man who talks mostly nonsense and a silent boy who are responsible for most bloody catastrophes in history), angels of memory (the anthropomorphic protectors of museums and libraries), and most importantly, the cult that worships all things squid-related.

No, not Cthullu, though that is what I thought for the first few chapters. And the strange thing is, Mieville manages to take us from laughing about the ludicrousness of worshiping cephalopods as gods to being incredibly moved by the devotion of one particular devotee (I won't give away who).

There are so many joyful and clever inventions in this book, and often they don't feel like belong to the same world. You wonder if Mieville has all these crazy ideas in his head and then decides to take all of them and funnel them into one book. But somehow, he makes every single one of the crazy ideas relevant to the plot, even unnamed characters you gloss over for the first 3/4 of the book. As far out as it goes, he manages to tie it all back together. When the climax finally comes, you realize where everything was going and that it could only end this way.

And I love that Mieville is a NERD. He sprinkles so many references to nerd pop culture in there (some of them very obscure). One entire segment is devoted to a man who is so much of a Star Trek fan that he basis his magic on Star Trek's technology.

The characters are incredibly exciting too: Wati (a Egyptian spirit created to serve the dead in the afterlife who rebelled and is now a union organizer), Collingswood (a sassy and brassy doesn't-give-a-fuck cop chick with self-taught magic mojo), Smiley the Chameleon (a man whose power it is to make you think that you probably know him, doesn't he work in the office down the hall?).  It was a joy to watch Billy Harrow transform throughout the book, not through a one time test, like with Bilbo and the Spiders, but gradually, absorbing information and strategy as he goes. He begins as protectee,  walking behind his guide and protector, then beside, then offering plans as a co-combatant, then leading the group against the apocalypse.

While Mieville has this crazy, brainy, intricate and often perplexing style, he sprinkles in moments of whimsy, like "squididity" and "squid pro quo." Silly little puns to make your turning brain go "meh heh" and give it a break.

All in all an excellent book. Bit of a steak meal, though, so I'm going for something lite next.

REVIEW: A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

A Dirty Job

by Christopher Moore

"It was watching Madeline Alby eat cheese with every ounce of her being, like it was the first and best time, that made him realize he had never really tasted cheese, or crackers, or life. And he didn't want his daughter to live that way ... He wanted her to experience all the glorious cheese of life."

Charlie Asher is a Beta Male, with all the wonderful neuroses that implies. He is happily married to the clever, funny, steadying Rachel who balances out his panicked fidgeting with a calm, wry presence. That is... until she dies, and Charlie is shanghaied into becoming a Death Merchant, effectively a reaper, who collects the souls of the dead which are stored in objects, and helping them move to their next life. Oh, and he is now a single dad.

This is my favorite of all the Christopher Moore books I have read (Lamb and Fool). While along with Lamb, it has spiritual truth mixed in with its sharp, naughty humor, A Dirty Job also has heart, deep compassion, and a rich, full-bodied flavor... if that makes any sense. Lamb and Fool were based on established characters, whereas A Dirty Job is all Moore. He lets his devilish creativity out to play, and the love he puts in to every one of the people (and animals) of this book is palpable.

The first chapter is one of the most perfect pieces of writing I have ever read. If is heart-warming, witty, irreverent, shocking, and primal-screamingly tragic at the same time, and it sets the tone for the rest of the book. Moore makes you fall in love with Charlie and Rachel, and then smashes that relationship away from you in the blink of an eye.

The rest of the book is devoted to Charlie mourning his wife, discovering he is "a Death," and coming into his own as a snazzy-suit-wearing, sword-cane-wielding purveyor of ensouled objects, all while trying to raise a daughter (Sophie), fight rising evil, and placate the whirlwind of zany characters that inundate his life. While some of the characters are comically, and occasionally uncomfortably stereotypical (Ms. Ling and Ms. Korjev, Charlie's neighbors who look after Sophie and are referred to as the "great powers of Asia"), there are also characters like Inspector Rivera, a cop who has seen a lot of weird stuff, so takes things like Charlie throwing firecrackers in the sewer drains or trying to kill old ladies with cement blocks in stride, or the Emperor of San Fransisco, the homeless wanderer with the weight of the city on his shoulders, or Minty Fresh, the mint green suit wearing African American giant, or Lily, the goth chick who works in Charlie's second hand store. Or Sophie's hellhound babysitters. Or the triumvirate of spirit women called the Morrigan who live in the sewers and are trying to royally fuck with, and possibly eviscerate Charlie and all his friends.

This book is not perfect. It starts out with one kind of pacing, and then suddenly newborn Sophie has dialogue and she is five. The book spans a lot more time than expected. The story seems to be structured like a beaded necklace, with awesome bits strung together with "and then some stuff happened for a few years." Its not really a huge problem, just jarring at times.

The author also seems to lose his way towards the end, uncertain as to how to get to his resolution. There is a lot of driving around to different locations, as if the author didn't know where the final stand against evil would be, and some exposition monologing just when you expected the epic throw down. However, when it comes, it is plot-twisty (though a bit obvious) and satisfying.

If you like Clive Barker's Weaveworld, any Neil Gaiman, Terry Prachett (my review of Hogfather) or of course Christopher Moore (my review of Lamb), you will love this book.

ARCHIVED REVIEW: The Napoleon of Notting Hill (11/11/10)

The Napoleon of Notting Hill

by G.K. Chesterton

It is 1980 (the future) but everything is pretty much the same as at the turn of the century. Everything has become more gray, more normal, and the king is chosen through alphabetical order, since it is just as good as through birth.

In this humorless world lives Auberon Quin, a satirist, who thinks everything is funny. When he is chosen to be king, he decides to turn the world on its head. He draws up a proclamation, separating London into her different burroughs, making them walled cities, and commanding the Provosts of those cities to wear garish medieval garb, speak in high romantic language, and be followed around everywhere by trumpeters and halbriders.

Then, he meets the one Provost who takes it seriously. Adam Wayne sees romance in everything, everything is significant and glorious. Adam believes this so passionately that he starts a war over a road that will go through his neighborhood.

I loved this book so much! The entire book is an extended parable, examining those who don't take life seriously, and those who take even a lamppost deadly seriously. I was intrigued because I never knew which side G.K. Chesterton was on. He let each side speak their piece.

My favorite moment in the book involves Adam Wayne recruiting for his army and he goes into a succession of shops. The first is a grocer, and instead of seeing a plain grocer, he sees a purveyor of exotic goods from all over the world, and recommends he organize his shop by country, decking each display with silks and incense and artifacts from the country. He sees the chemist (pharmacist) as a dark, benevolent sorcerer, with a shop full of strange vials and colorful liquids.

He sees the ordinary as extraordinary, and by the end of the book, he has changed the world.

If you liked this book, you may also like:

Essential Essays of G.K. Chesterton

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton

ARCHIVED REVIEW: The Dream of Perpetual Motion (8/9/10)

The Dream of Perpetual Motion

by Dexter Palmer

This was a very well-written book. It was very hard for me to get into at first because I had just gotten off the brutal, visceral and surgically precise style of Joe Abercrombie, so I had little patience for Palmer's dreamlike writing.

In this book, you often do not know who the narrator is. You think it's the main character, who says at the beginning that he is writing his journal, but then it switches to third person. It often goes back and forth in time, and uses the writings of other characters to augment the main character's point of view. Its one of those books where you know how it will end, and you read to figure out how it gets that way.

The story takes place at the turn of a century, at the beginning of an industrial revolution. It seems like a steampunk book, but you are never really sure what world you are in. All you know is that it is a world changing from an age of miracles to an age of machines, a metaphor for the transformation from childhood to adulthood, from wonder to apathy, that carries throughout the book.

The main character is Harold Winslow, whose made a choice early in life to have his destiny irrevocably tied to the famous and elusive inventor Prospero, and his secluded adopted daughter Miranda. At first, you think it is a retelling of the Tempest, but it turns out that Prospero chose his name and that of his daughter to mirror the characters in the play. He has tried to shape his life to emulate them.

At times the book is a bit disturbing, b/c the main character is very detached from life. Horrific things start happening, and they are made all the more horrific because we see them through the lens of someone who has no emotional response to them.

Recommended for those who like steampunk, Shakespeare, and books like The Book Thief (though I don't believe it is as good).

If you liked this book, you may like:

Fool by Christopher Moore

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams