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40th out of 46 books
—
16 voters
My rating:
add to my books
The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl
by
Tim Pratt
In this debut novel, acclaimed short-story author Tim Pratt delivers an exciting heroine with a hidden talent–and a secret duty. Witty and suspenseful, here is a contemporary love song to the West that was won and the myths that shape us….
As night manager of Santa Cruz’s quirkiest coffeehouse, Marzi McCarty makes a mean espresso, but her first love is making comics. Her cl...more
As night manager of Santa Cruz’s quirkiest coffeehouse, Marzi McCarty makes a mean espresso, but her first love is making comics. Her cl...more
Paperback, Bantam Spectra Book, 416 pages
Published
November 29th 2005
by Spectra
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Finally...I finished the book. Author sets up a vivid scene, and can take you place. But the book is odd. First half of book took a lot of wading through, because it was setting up the story. Last part of the story grabbed this reader and she wanted to finish the story to find out what happened.
The story is about a girl, Marzi, who draws comics and works in a coffee lounge in Santa Cruz. Two years ago, she had a bit of a break-down, dropped out of school, and started re-claiming ...more
The story is about a girl, Marzi, who draws comics and works in a coffee lounge in Santa Cruz. Two years ago, she had a bit of a break-down, dropped out of school, and started re-claiming ...more
If, from the title of this book, you think it’s a graphic novel, you’re very close. The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl is a book about a woman who writes and illustrates a cowpunk (an odd combination of steampunk and a Western) comic book titled The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl. Her name isn’t Rangergirl, though, it’s Marzi (short for Marzipan), but her life does begin to take on some strange similarities to the main character of her comic book when she starts to see visions of her charact...more
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Marzi McCarty works as a night manager at the Genius Loci coffeehouse in Santa Cruz and by day creates The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, a cowpunk neo western comic book. Rangergirl is the best sort of heroine doling out her own brand of justice but things turn decidely strange when her imaginary Rangergirl world starts to alter the real world. Full of quirky, cool characters and a super deadly bad guy called the Outlaw this novel rocks! With imaginative, sharp writing, a heroine with sideki...more
I found some of the concepts in this book really interesting - concepts of the genius loci - the spirit of a place - what I sometimes refer to as "the little gods". Also concepts about how reality is based on perception, even more so when dealing with such things.
I also really enjoyed the blending on the Wild West theme onto the modern setting.
But even though the premise was pretty awesome, and it deals with a lot of interesting concepts and plot ideas, the s...more
I also really enjoyed the blending on the Wild West theme onto the modern setting.
But even though the premise was pretty awesome, and it deals with a lot of interesting concepts and plot ideas, the s...more
This is amazing. Really amazing. I was born in Santa Cruz and have visted some friends that went to college out there and so I'm fairly familiar with the town and Pratt does a good job of making the town seem like it's filled with both normal and crazy people, but that's just to be expected. Which is true. It IS Santa Cruz after all.
This book is seriously one of the best books I've read in the past two years. It's exciting and has crazy stuff going on next to normal stuff and there's the "...more
This book is seriously one of the best books I've read in the past two years. It's exciting and has crazy stuff going on next to normal stuff and there's the "...more
Absolutely fantastic. I'd put a *bleep*ing in there too, if there weren't gentle readers with soft ears out there. Pratt's description and use of location really makes the book, though the hilarious characters and the inventive plot sure do help as well. Without a doubt, he's my new favorite fantasy author, and without a doubt this is the best of his full-length fiction out there (so far, anyway).
Disclaimer: I generally don't like Westerns, even with sci-fi in them, so this one was a stretch for me. It was ok. I did like the Santa Cruz setting. I think his style is better-suited to short stories, so I recommend Hart & Boot & Other Stories, which I loved, instead.
I have been reading Tim Pratts short stories for a while this is his first novel.[return]The Coffee shop Genius Loci is a gateway to the spirit world. Our Heroine author of the Comic Book The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl finds herself fighting the spirit of desolation that wants to break through It isis already affecting those she knows. Can Art triumph over desolation?
Marzi, comic book artist and part-time barrista fights evil entity with the power of art! The actual comic creation side of it is a bit too vague for my liking, especially given how important the stories are, but at least what is given is reasonable.
Apart from the whole "art creates reality" trope which I always enjoy, it's also got some fun superhero/western mashup going on. It's very much in the zone of stuff I like.
Apart from the whole "art creates reality" trope which I always enjoy, it's also got some fun superhero/western mashup going on. It's very much in the zone of stuff I like.
This book was a bit stange for me at first, but then I started to like it. The main characters in this book are Marzi McCarty, (short for Marzipan) her friend Lindsay, her other friend Jonathan, Jane, Beej, Denis, and the Outlaw. Marzi is just working at the coffeehouse Genius Loci, when an earthquake hits and a regular Beej starts going on about some earthquake god, dressed like a Native American with skin like cracked sandstone. Marzi just thinks she's seeing things, again. Marzi has jus...more
This book has an interesting premise, but it's one that I can't really put in a review without it being massively spoiler. There's a little more angst than I like, but it's a nifty blend of art, imagination, and coffee.
Borrowed from a friend, who liked it a lot more than I did. It's an interesting premise, but I don't do well with books where the rules and realities change at the will of the character, for no discernible reason. I liked some of it a lot, but the ending ultimately didn't seem to make much sense, meaning that it didn't unfold naturally from the ongoing plot.
I picked this up at the library on a whim. It's marked as "sci-fi," but it was really more of a combination of fantasy and western, which in theory appeals to me. The story centers around Marzi, a comic book artist who must stop an ancient and evil god. Pretty standard fantasy fare, right? Right. And to be frank, a little too formulaic. I found myself wishing the comic book Marzi draws (about a Western hero named Rangergirl whose adventures parallel Marzi's own) was an actual thing, an...more
Rangergirl. I want to write some intensely intelligent review of this book. I want to praise the coming of what I think could be one of the best books I've read in years. My brain is a bit too jumbled, though, from reading the last 369 pages in one go today.
Couldn't put it down for longer than a few minutes without it pulling me back in, through the dirty, grimy world it set up for us, an overlay of modern California and the rampaging Old West drawn so beautifully I could practica...more
Couldn't put it down for longer than a few minutes without it pulling me back in, through the dirty, grimy world it set up for us, an overlay of modern California and the rampaging Old West drawn so beautifully I could practica...more
Takes a bit of time to introduce the characters and set everything up, but once the story gets going it really sucks you in. Quite literally.
The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl is a hugely impressive debut novel and one of the best I've read in a long time. A cracking story - peopled with well rounded characters and somne genuinely funny one-liners - that merrily tramples over a range of genres. Well worth checking out.
The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl is a hugely impressive debut novel and one of the best I've read in a long time. A cracking story - peopled with well rounded characters and somne genuinely funny one-liners - that merrily tramples over a range of genres. Well worth checking out.
The parts of the book that were good were notable, but the setup went on for a long time and became boring.
It's not my kind of read so it took me a while to get into it. But very enjoyable. I like the story and how it came together. The ending seemed a bit of a let down though.
Tim Pratt is,to say the least, an interesting fellow. And this book is a grand example of why. Not to mention the fact that many of us have been to the coffeehouse in the book..truly.
I liked this, it reminded me a little of a mix between Joe Lansdale, Tim Powers and me. I guess there is also a touch of William Browning Spencer's "Zod Wallop", too.
Really fun fantasy with great characters and a lot of art/comic/movie references. That's basically all I need.
I wanted to enjoy this one more than I did. It was a fun premise, but the writing wasn't fantastic at first. I read it on vacation, so it was a good beach book.
This book is for people who like Charles De Lint but could use a break from fairies and are willing to try cowboys, earthquakes and a scorpion Spinx instead.
I loved this book. It was so creative and just pulled you in. I would recommend to anyone looking for a creative, well written novel.
The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl does some neat new tricks with the old fantasy convention of world-to-world portals. An easy recommendation.
A lot of fun in the beginning, but then it got to rushing at the end, like the writer couldn't wait to be done.
I know the author or I wouldn't have bothered. But it was fun.
Vanessa
marked it as to-read
Kathryn Fulton
marked it as to-read
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