Proposes a hypothesis to explain why James Bond and his villains had such marvelous gadgets. A TERRIFYING, TERRIFYING HYPOTHESIS. Hint: It involves Ct...moreProposes a hypothesis to explain why James Bond and his villains had such marvelous gadgets. A TERRIFYING, TERRIFYING HYPOTHESIS. Hint: It involves Cthulhu.
Being insufficiently versed in BondLore, Unix, makeup, and the deeper perversities of PowerPoint, I know I missed a lot of the subtext. But what I picked up was hilarious. Also, disturbing. The text proposes that the Cold War was really a Lovecraftian age, where life could only been sustained by most people by a determination to not grapple with the true horrors lurking in the darkness right outside of our soap bubble lives. Be that Cthulhu or Mutually Assured Destruction. I for one grappled impotently and mostly internally. I know many people did decline to grapple, but my god, someone was buying The Watchmen in the 1980s.
It’s not Stross at the height of his powers. But it’s a lot of fun. The explanation for why the US Navy didn’t just take care of the problem alone makes the book worth the read. And I am a sucker for the type of hero who saves the day here.
Great Old Ones, The Great Game, English Intelligence Services, and truly truly creepy violins. Shades of Hellboy. And OMFSM, THE London Necropolis Rai...moreGreat Old Ones, The Great Game, English Intelligence Services, and truly truly creepy violins. Shades of Hellboy. And OMFSM, THE London Necropolis Railway was a REAL thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_N....
Another good bus book. I did emphasize with the moral conflict of these characters, having more monsters to slay than time to slay them. Do you slay t...moreAnother good bus book. I did emphasize with the moral conflict of these characters, having more monsters to slay than time to slay them. Do you slay the ones nearest, who are threatening those you care for, or do you hold off to help someone else tackle the Big Bad, who is just a little more remote? Our players have varying answers to that problem. Also, I just reread me some Cthulhu mythos, and was amused that the pirate harbor that is the center of much of the action is the same place where Cthulhu worshippers will be found not so many years on.
Good bus book. I'm told it has moral complexity, but I didn't really notice it. Suppose between the main POV character being both a Confederate spy AN...moreGood bus book. I'm told it has moral complexity, but I didn't really notice it. Suppose between the main POV character being both a Confederate spy AND a Pinkerton detective, I just didn't have enough sympathy for her to emphasize with her moral conflicts.
In the world-to-come, scary governments and scary nongovernments have figured out how to use live action role play and massively multiplayer online ga...moreIn the world-to-come, scary governments and scary nongovernments have figured out how to use live action role play and massively multiplayer online games to continue diplomacy by other means. Everything is monitored; everything monitoring system is infiltrated; every need in Maslow's hierarchy is a reward pellet to get the rats to run the maze and solve someone else’s problem. Our enemies are pale ghosts in the machine; no need to rewire our soldiers’ moral machinery before they are willing to shoot them.
It’s fun. Definitely science fiction. I never played enough Zork or the old text based Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to have nostalgia for it, but I liked (and miss) the people who I played those games with. This might have primed me to be more tolerant of the second person story telling than I was in Rule 34.
The book spends most of its time in Scotland, but our characters take some satisfying reconnaissance trips to cyberspace. One goes into the Mountains of Madness to retrieve really useful loot for saving the world. Shiny.
Our POV character, Mercy, isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. She’s a bridge character; a southern woman married to a union soldier; a nurse who has...moreOur POV character, Mercy, isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty. She’s a bridge character; a southern woman married to a union soldier; a nurse who has ferried her share of people across the rainbow bridge, a daughter of a dead man who isn’t so much. And she’s goin’ on a road trip. Well. She’s heading from a Confederate hospital to Tacoma via dirigible, civilian train, and that train being pulled by the REALLY BIG armored engine of the title. With mysterious armored cars. And a mad scientist. And lots of soldiers. Which keeps getting attacked. Mercy is the only medical professional they got. At some point, she’s bandaging the wounded with sleeper car curtains. Was that a spoiler?
I liked it more than Boneshaker. Maybe because the zombies weren’t as in my face, annoying me with the “people as things” thing. Don’t worry, they do show up rather dramatically. And in the valley of the shadow of zombies old enemies – oh, spoilers. Sorry.
There are lots of unresolved moral questions. Well, one got resolved. Resolved-ish. There aren’t that many ways to deal with mad scientists, I suppose. I’d be humming Bad Religion’s Biggest Killer in American History if I wasn’t listening to Wootstock audio.
Good bus book. My bus occasionally has strange smells and curious people, but we hardly ever get shot at, and never attacked by zombies. Yet. (less)
“Real cops don’t do that!” a police officer bellows at Axe Cop, before being shot by a dinosaur. Yeah. They shouldn’t. They shouldn’t drink other peo...more “Real cops don’t do that!” a police officer bellows at Axe Cop, before being shot by a dinosaur. Yeah. They shouldn’t. They shouldn’t drink other people’s brains, they should be a little more skeptical about dead crime fighters joining the team, they shouldn’t use their powers to do a whole lot of what Axe Cop does. I’m glad they don’t. Still, it’s HILARIOUS that Axe Cop does.
I’m sure I’d hate the movie, but I would LOVE to see the trailer Michael Bay would make of all this. (less)
Refreshingly bloodthirsty and almost entirely lacking in sentiment. The characters transform, Ovid style, on the whims of their creators from absurd t...moreRefreshingly bloodthirsty and almost entirely lacking in sentiment. The characters transform, Ovid style, on the whims of their creators from absurd to kick ass to absurd again, without any sort of attachment to their prior forms. Causation is no restraint on the plot, and there are ninjas on the moon.
I really wanted to like this book. People I adore adore it. And its mythical setting is Seattle. Seattle is my town. I mean, it’s not; I lived there f...moreI really wanted to like this book. People I adore adore it. And its mythical setting is Seattle. Seattle is my town. I mean, it’s not; I lived there for only eight years; only a seventh of my life, but I was conceived, (though not born) there, and it was the city where I came of age. I’m there at least once a month, and I’d give good odds it’s where I’ll die. In this book, Leviticus Blue; a scientist/inventor, Meddles With Things Man Is Not Meant To Meddle With and Seattle has to be evacuated. Not just evacuated but walled off to prevent both the deadly miasma unleashed by Leviticus and the zombies thus created from getting out. Sixteen years later, Leviticus’s son enters the city to prove his father’s innocence. His mother follows him because, OMG, ZOMBIES. Also, she knows things about his father she probably should have told him before he charged on in.
It’s a coming of age/chickens coming home/mystery novel, with zombies. Not really my genres. The narrative passes back and forth between a mother, Briar Wilkes Blue (who also happens to be the wife/widow of the man who caused the underlying catastrophe and the daughter of one of its heroes) and her son, Ezekiel. Who saw a wheel way in the middle of the air. Or, at least, an airship.
Night of the Living Dead aside, I’m not fond of the zombie trope. I’ve spent some time contemplating that, and my tentative, but not entirely satisfactory hypothesis is two fold. First, I hate the idea of turning people into something that is appropriately killable. It’s like in a world where it is no longer acceptable to vilify and hate other people, we still have this need to have killable people, so we’ve settled on dead people Who Will Not Die. I know once upon a time, zombies were killable because they were communists, or aliens, or some other terrifying other. I want to believe that our social moral order aspires to something better. Yeah, yeah, I saw the wikileaks footage. On the big screen. . Second, I take great comfort in the idea that I am but a passing moment for the matter and energy that passes through me. I live, I grow, I decay, I die, all that I am is taken up into other things. At every moment, I breathe in oxygen breathed by dinosaurs, and exhale carbon born in stars. I resent the idea that I could have continuity with something that was a rotting personification of the death urge.
But I suspect that, like so many things the cool kids like, I’m missing a piece of it. Today in my facebook feed is a picture of one of my favorite people; the woman who wrote the gay marriage law in Washington State, with her rollerblading chums, in zombie make up. Hurm.
Anyhoo, here we have three villians: Zombies; Time; and the Man Who Claims To Be Leviticus Blue. Our heroes and their plucky allies fight all three, to varying success. And In So Doing, Find Each Other. Also, zombies.
I perfectly passible bus book. But if there was a little deeper layer, there were too many zombies in the way for me to find it.
(No one resolved the zombie problem better than Joss Whedon). (less)
Nice update on the Supersoldier story. Much creepier on the second read. The POV character, John Perry, is a little bit of a Mary Sue, but hey, so was...moreNice update on the Supersoldier story. Much creepier on the second read. The POV character, John Perry, is a little bit of a Mary Sue, but hey, so was Wesley Crusher, and in my old age, I have come to love him.
Waves at, rather than explores, some pretty deep issues about identity, responsibility, loyalty, genocide, suspecting you might be on the wrong side of things, realizing that it’s your team nonetheless, and the problem of having the means of communication controlled by one entity. And the Ghost Brigades are disturbingly awesome.
I’m told it was inspired by Starship Troopers, which is also disturbing.
Definitely worth the time. Amused at the idea of it being made into a movie. For most of the story, most of the character are green. Green! (less)
Years ago, I was talking to some friends of mine about Jane Austen, and one said she just couldn’t stand her; her stuff was so sappy and trivial. It j...moreYears ago, I was talking to some friends of mine about Jane Austen, and one said she just couldn’t stand her; her stuff was so sappy and trivial. It just came out of my mouth before I thought it through – look, what’s awesome about Austen is all this stuff that’s not there. Austen’s writing through the Napoleonic wars. Prime Ministers are being assassinated in the House of Commons. England’s gone back to war with the US and like eight other countries. The Luddites are burning factories. England abolishes the slave trade. (I may embellish a bit). Austen mentions *none* of it, even thought she seemed to have such a devastating, cynical insight into how her social system functioned. She’s utterly silent about these titanic forces wrecking through and around it. It’s hilarious.
I thought my chum was going to hit me. Years later, another woman at the table gave me this for Christmas.
I’m tickled by Pride and Prejudice and Zombies because it seems like Grahame-Smith also noticed that there’s something missing from the text, and inserted zombies. The dead hand of history rising up.
I also really like it because it is so darn English. There’s this horrible thing happening, and it’s been happening for a generation. People are dealing with it. And yet, it’s not polite to mention it. The Bennett sisters are awesome zombie fighters, but even then leave their blunderbusses and katanas at home if style dictates only concealable weapons be carried. The English class structure is utterly unphased by 55 years of zombies. There are ninjas in this book. Ninjas! And yet England remains Regency England. I kept expecting Black Adder to show up.
I find the romance between Elizabeth and Darcy to be a little more realistic in this one, as they do end up fighting zombies together
It’s not a great book. But it’s a good book. And there’s zombies. (less)
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