Corey Redekop's Blog, page 47

Critical Monkey - bonus disqualified entry! The Murder of King Tut: The only murder here is the death of hope.

The Murder of King Tut
by James Patterson & Martin Dugard (2009)

I have an ability, or a curse, to focus on several projects at once. But Tut was distracting me from all the other projects.
- James Patterson

I once made a vow to myself to never read another James Patterson novel. I have read three of his Alex Cross 'mysteries,' each more incompetently written than the last, and each reinforcing my belief that Alex Cross is one of the most ineffectual detectives I've ever come across. And they...

Critical Monkey entry #5 - The Stainless Steel Rat

After my last foray into forbidden territory led to nightmares and despair over the state of my mortal soul, I retreat to seemingly more moderate climes. Will I survive? Thrive, even? Read on...

The Stainless Steel Rat
by Harry Harrison (1961)

Why I might like it: I have come across references to SSR a number of times over the years. As an impressionable youngster, I was captivated by the pulpy cover that stared out at me from the paperback racks of the local Safeway. Being young, and unware of...

Monkey droppings - Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde: "Once monochrome fundamentalism gets a hold, it can be hard to eradicate."

Today, the monkey weirds out on the future of mankind.

I'm a'scared, I tells ya!



Shades of Grey
by Jasper Fforde
Penguin Group (Canada), 2009

The known had been so long dwarfed by the unknown that confusion was an easy bedfellow.

It has been a boon time for purveyors of post-apocalyptic fictions. Margaret Atwood has received plaudits for The Year of the Flood , Cormac McCarthy saw his Road hit cinemas, and all told, there is a bleakness that translates well into artistic expressions of mankind's...

Critical Monkey! Update the half-year gone! Can you handle six more months? How much torture can one person withstand?

Half-way through. Whoooo! Wheeet! Whaat!

Seriously, I am proud of all of you, you have taken up the challenge and run with it. It's not easy confronting one's demons, but there is a certain cleansing that goes along with the experience (of the bowels, if not the soul). And we still have six months to go, and there are two more possible contestants currently girding up their innards with extra fibre to have a go at it. They've got some catching up to do, but if there is one thing I have learne...

Favourites of the Decade, if such a thing is at all possible...

You know, making up a list of favourite books of the year is hard enough, but of the decade? Sheesh.

I'm not sure if I can even adequately create such a list - there's a hell of a lot of novels published in the last ten years that I never read, most of them the critical blockbuster darlings. So any list I make cannot help but be inadequate. Years from now, I'll still be reading books from this decade, and the list will invariably change. Forget years, how about days from now - I'm just...

The Best Books of 2009. Well, the books I read, anyways.

Whoa, did another year really go by? Or was that just gas? I do feel a little urpy...probably just the overabundance of gravy coating my arteries. I'll be fine.

As 2009 limps its way to a disappointing close, let's take a look back and ponder over what I've read in the past 365-ish days. These are the novels that stand out to me, regardless of their year of publication.

And they're in no order save alphabetical. It's too hard to choose a winner.



The Abortion: A Historical Romance , by Richard...

X-mas greetings to you all...

...from the Monkey.Play safe, y'all.

Monkey droppings - Amphibian by Carla Gunn: "I don't know what the crap's going on in the world."

The monkey does not like kids.

The monkey does not like books about kids.

The monkey likes this book.

The monkey puzzles, then falls asleep.

Amphibian
by Carla Gunn
Coach House Press, 2009

If I had an eraser of life, I'd start at the top of the morning and work my way down. I have a feeling, though, that whoever drew this day pressed the pencil really hard and even if I rubbed and rubbed and rubbed, little horible bits of it would still be left behind.

Ah, the glory of today's youth. So young. So fu...

Monkey Droppings - The Reality Machine by Cliff Burns

Just a quickie review today, as short and devastating as the book itself.

One hopes.

The Reality Machine
by Cliff Burns
Black Dog Press, 1997

The reality was far more ugly and ominous.
Isn't that the way it always is?

Some authors write to mirror reality. Others, not content to be restrained by the limitations set down by an arbitrarily perceived list of natural rules, try to warp reality to suit their own needs.

Cliff Burns is definitely among the latter. The Canadian author's 1997 collection The R...

Monkey droppings - Finch by Jeff Vandermeer: "I am not a detective. I am not a detective."

The monkey treks through a strange land where mushrooms hold sway over people and the spirit of Dashiell Hammett infects the most jaded of men.

Call it 'mushroom noir'.

Or maybe 'fungalpunk'?

'Spore gore'?

How about 'hard-boiled truffles'?

Finch
by Jeff Vandemeer
Underland Press

Another part of him looked down from a great height, puzzled. When did being a detective mean this? He was investigating a double murder. He was working for an occupying force that could make Stark disappear in a burst of...