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79 ratings (3.19 avg)
75 reviews
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read ‎(74)
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GUD is currently reading

	03/24 GUD is currently reading: Bust Down The Door and Eat All The Chickens (issue 8) by Bradley Sands (Goodreads author) (Editor) bookshelves: currently-reading, forthcoming_reviews, gud_issue1_authors, reviews_by_kaolin, works_by_gud_authors	my rating:
	recommended to GUD Magazine by: Bradley Sands add a comment
	02/10 GUD is currently reading: The Mechanics' Institute Review: Issue 5 (Paperback) by Cynthia Medford Langley bookshelves: currently-reading, forthcoming_reviews, reviews_by_debbie	my rating:
	progress: (page 25 of 280) — 02/10/2009 03:08AM add a comment
	02/10 GUD is currently reading: Desideria (Paperback) by Nicole Kornher-Stace bookshelves: currently-reading, forthcoming_reviews, gud_issue3_authors, reviews_by_monissa, works_by_gud_authors	my rating:
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GUD's recent updates (rss)

June 17

GUD Magazine gave

to:
Revise the World
by Brenda Clough
bookshelves: reviews_by_julia

my rating:

GUD said: "Despite the updated cultural background and the focus more on romance than adventure, Revise the World continually reminded me of a Golden-Age-SciFi space opera, in the vein of Doc Smith and his contemporaries. It has the same great sense of fun, an...more Despite the updated cultural background and the focus more on romance than adventure, Revise the World continually reminded me of a Golden-Age-SciFi space opera, in the vein of Doc Smith and his contemporaries. It has the same great sense of fun, and the same lack of attention to the mundane details of characterization and plotting.

The premise of the book (and the earlier novella it's built on) is that humanity has been contacted by an alien race that has told us how to bend time and space in order to accomplish faster-than-light travel. Before going whole hog and building an FTL starship, the world's governments decide to test the theory by pulling someone out of Earth's past. They settle on Titus Oates, an Arctic explorer who died on Robert Scott's polar mission in 1912; because his body was never found, they figured he was completely out of the biological and historical stream of things, and so snatching him wouldn't change anything. (It's worth noting here that the scientists in the book don't seem to be very good ones, though they're supposedly the best. Never mind that nothing on Earth is ever completely out of the life cycle; no one ever even comments on the classic time-travel-novel paradox they've gotten themselves into regarding why his body was never found. And that's par for the course for these geniuses.)

Oates's adjustment to the world in 2045 makes up the meat of the novel; in fact, we get so involved in character development that he doesn't even get to go on the foreshadowed exciting space adventure until four-fifths of the way through the (six-hundred-page!) book. Which is admittedly a departure from the Golden-Age-SciFi sensibility I'm attributing to the book, but on the other hand, putting a heroic, stereotypically manly figure like Titus Oates at the center of things makes it feel like we're on a heroic, stereotypically manly journey whether he's exploring himself and his new social situation or exploring a new world. And there's a lot to enjoy about Titus's inner journey: how he learns to think outside of himself, and the ways in which his thinking never changes; how advanced modern folk react to his antediluvian notions despite their determination to be understanding; ruminations on how a man known for stoic heroism might make his way differently than someone else of his era; all done with a nice ironic humor. (At least I hoped it was being ironic in, for instance, Titus's notion that Edwardian British men were absolutely straightforward...and in some instances I was probably only wishing it were ironic.)

Overall, Revise the World is quite good at a few of the things it sets out to achieve. It paints a relatively believable near future (and near future is the hardest future to do well), its exploration of different lenses on reality (and how we take them as truth) is interesting and well-thought-out, it has a few great jokes, and the author manages to engage the reader in her obvious feeling of having a rollicking good time playing with a nifty premise. But the novel falls down in the details, again and again; it's clumsy in pretty much every small way I could think of. The supporting characters are caricaturish, the dialogue frequently wooden, the pacing bizarre, the point of view inconsistent, and the philosophizing and psychologizing overly belabored, and there's a plot hole, inconsistency, or implausibility on nearly every page. (Not to mention the typos.) The ending doesn't cap the story arc (what there is of it); once the romantic plotline has been concluded, the narrative just stops without resolving the mysteries about the aliens that have been built up throughout the book. (Perhaps the author is planning a sequel...?)

Many of the book's problems could have been solved by a good edit. While I like Book View Café's direct-as-possible from-author-to-reader publishing philosophy in some respects, the interference of a traditional publishing house that's paying for paper and ink isn't always such a bad thing. A few memorable moments and the author's infectious sense of fun certainly gave me enjoyment in the reading, but it was counterbalanced by slogging through writing that could have been so much better with some polishing.(less) "

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May 20

GUD Magazine added:
Deviations: Covenant (Deviations, #1)
by Elissa Malcohn
bookshelves: en_route, forthcoming_reviews, reviews_by_jessie

my rating:

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May 19

GUD Magazine gave

to:
The Death of Illusions (Eternal Vigilance Book 2)
by Gabrielle Faust (Goodreads author)
bookshelves: reviews_by_jessie

my rating:

GUD said: "Another beautiful piece of cover art should have teenage goths, emos, and creatures of the night itching to get their hands--or claws-- on Book Two of the Eternal Vigilance series.

One year on from the original "Eternal Vigilance"...more Another beautiful piece of cover art should have teenage goths, emos, and creatures of the night itching to get their hands--or claws-- on Book Two of the Eternal Vigilance series.

One year on from the original "Eternal Vigilance" book (also reviewed by GUD), Tynan Llywelyn, an immortal vampire, is battling the Vicinus in an attempt to save his own race, the Phuree, as well as humanity, from the Tyst empire's attempt to gain immortality. Despite being described by the author on her website as "technohorror", this was more of a typical Fantasy battle novel--high on action and thrills but less involved with character than the first book.

Although I didn't find much in the novel that particularly fitted the Horror genre, it works well as Fantasy, particularly for those who don't mind extremely lengthy back story and buildup. Lots of gadgets and deaths certainly make for up for lack of pace--eventually.

I was disappointed by the lack of character development, even though I was expecting a battle novel. If I don't care enough about the characters I won't be invested in whether they live or die, and the story will have difficulty holding my interest.

"The Death of Illusions" is ambitious, dark and very emo. As a teen I might have liked it more; as an adult, I felt it didn't capture my imagination in the way this author is very much capable of doing. Also, I had some minor niggles, like the over use of 'undulating'; a lot of typos; and far too much italic use in strange places. These niggles detracted from my ability to read the novel fluidly, as I found them off-putting. However, kudos to Faust for getting tentacles into the story. I did laugh at:

"Blinding pain exploded through the my [sic:] torso and I looked down to see a tentacle of blue impaling my body"--page 108

I will still look forward to more from Gabrielle S. Faust in the future--I don't think the Eternal Vigilance novels have seen her reach the best of her potential. One for hardcore vampire fans (and tentacle lovers) only, I think.(less) "

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May 08

GUD Magazine added:
The Garbage Man (Paperback)
by Joseph D'Lacey
bookshelves: awaiting_review, forthcoming_reviews, reviews_by_debbie

my rating:

read in May, 2009

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May 05

GUD Magazine became a fan of Debbie Moorhouse and Sue Miller

View all of GUD's favorite authors »

April 29

GUD Magazine made a comment on GUD Magazine's review of GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator (magazine) Issue 4

GUD wrote: "Issue 4 .pdfs on sale now! Preorder print copies!

http://tinyurl.com/cqjwx2

Hey, all friends of GUD--p...more "

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GUD Magazine added:
Queen Mab Courtesy (Paperback)
by Bruce C. Davis
bookshelves: unassigned

my rating:

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GUD Magazine added:
The Moon and the Sun (Hardcover)
by Vonda N. McIntyre
bookshelves: unassigned

my rating:

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GUD's writing

El Alebrije (extract) (Science Fiction & Fantasy)

1 chapters — updated 01/02/2008 04:06PM

description: El Alebrije teaser from GUD Issue 2

Electroencephalography (extract) (Science Fiction & Fantasy)

1 chapters — updated 01/02/2008 04:04PM

description: GUD Issue 1 comes to life with Darby Larson's "Electroencephalography" where an experiment in robot-building goes terribly awry.

Sundown (extract) (Science Fiction & Fantasy)

1 chapters — updated 01/02/2008 04:04PM

description: GUD Issue 0 leads with Debbie Moorhouse's Sundown, a near-future science fiction reflection on death and life.

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