Across The Beer Bar With…Um...I Forgot!
I am honored to have author Geoff Nelder across my bar today. Geoff is the author of an amazing and unique novel I had the honor of enjoying (and reviewing, keep going) called ARIA: Left Luggage. It's a science fiction/ medical thriller. More on that later. First to the important stuff--the charging of our glasses!
Welcome to my beer bar Geoff, what can I pour for you to start? Many times I’ve been taken in for questioning, but this is the first time the interrogation began with an a la carte invitation for a drink. I need to keep a clear head in case I have to escape sharpish so I’ll have a Brazilian thanks. Cheeky, rich, fruity aroma, black and just a hint of chocolate and a dash of hazelnut liquor. It always tickles to think that coffee started off in the African continent and is now mostly grown in South America while chocolate began in the Americas and is now mostly grown in Africa. It tickles my penchant for contradictions. Any chance of a biscotti?
See what I did there? I made you smell the coffee. Aromas are big in my stories.
Well, now that is admirable and earnest and adorable. But sorry, this is a beer bar dude, not the bloody American Bar at the Sa-voy. Here, try this Neapolitan Milk Stout from one of my favorite Michigan Breweries, Saugatuck Brewing on the beautiful west coast of the Great Lakes State….It allows you to experience a perfect blend of classic dry stout character with brilliant flavors of Neapolitan Ice Cream along with the nostalgic flavors of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry all in one glass – because sometimes ice cream just isn’t enough.
**********gives you a moment to savor it***************
Oh, hey did you see what I did there? Made your mouth water….tastes are big in my world.
What gave you the idea for the ARIA concept? At uni studying Ed Pysch, my hand was worn out making notes on cognitive behaviour and memory. Mum lost her short term memory after a stroke. She repeatedly asked me the time, and was this the same girl in my bedroom as yesterday? I became obsessed and still write stories involving amnesia. One
Liz: Well either that or "ARIA: Shades of Spanking" or "ARIA: Shades of Luggage." You know, I am all about that search engine optimization when folks are seeking The Next Big Thing. (wait! I've got it! "ARIA: Shades of the Fault in Our Stars With Spanking and a Billionaire" Don't ever say I don't do my SEO homework for titles.)
Are there more books in the series? Tell us about them. I wrote Left Luggage as a stand alone and that contrary streak in me had the urge to write a scifi with no aliens in sight, nobattles in space and a human story that was more of a mystery than a story out of this world even though it sort of is. It seems to me that when we encounter aliens we probably won’t recognize them for what they are, won’t know how to communicate with them, and not really understand why they’re here. Then readers wanted to see what the aliens looked like and why they came to Earth, so ARIA: Returning Left Luggage gives you aliens and the complications set in. The human survivors struggle, relationships stretch to breaking point yet with ironic humour. The aliens are ... strange. Like Book One it’s about human survival, apocalypse and a unique what-if.
Readers of Book one followed by Book two demanded a finale. What’s the alien planet like? Can humans live there? Have they already been there? If anything ARIA: Abandoned Luggage is my favourite because when you travel out of this mundane world, anything goes. This time it’s the aliens struggling for survival, their apocalypse and a kind of house swap on a planetary scale.
Liz: I cannot wait to read the next one!
Oh look, empty glass, what can I pour for you next? Do you have what us Brits call ‘Real Ale’? What’s that, Craft beer – excellent, and a buxom German serving wench, please?
Your wish, my command:
In case it’s too wet, can I have some lightly-salted crisps? That’s right, chips.
Liz: It is so cute when people forget that I lived in Merrie Olde England (and as a result "got" a lot of the Brit-talk, slang and jargon your characters tossed around I might add). I know crisps from chips. Never fear. And there is no such thing as "too wet" beer, for your future reference.
As for a next brew, I would highly recommend this one, a No-Parking Euchre Pils from a brewery right in my fair city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Arbor Brewing Company. These guys were the real pioneers of craft brewing in the state. It's brewed with all imported German Tettnang hops for a classic crisp, dry, full-flavored Pilsner character. It is a deep golden, medium-bodied lager. Crisp and clean with a mildly salty noble hop bitterness. ("Euchre" is a "midwestern" thing--a card game, look it up)
What book project are you working on now? While holidaying on the Mediterranean island of Malta I discovered to my astonishment that in 1551 the entire population of Malta’s sister island, Gozo, was abducted by pirates. Surely all those people’s spirits are crying out for revenge? A contemporary couple are thrown together by those ancient spirits because unknown to them one is a descendent of the pirate leader, and one is related to one of the abducted. What an excuse to make many field trips to Gozo! Xaghra’s Revenge is written, critiqued, edited and ready to roll. It has an agent in Rebecca Pratt Agency near Philadelphia, who is hawking it around publishers as we slurp.
Liz: Cool. I hope to find agency representation for my upcoming thriller novel myself, if I can manage to get it polished around all this drinking.***Pardon The Interruption While Liz Posts the Requisite Hot Dude Holding Beers***
Thanks..whew….had to slide those guys in there, you know…
Do you want to continue to self publish or do you have other plans for upcoming books? Actually, the ARIA Trilogy is small-press published by a Scottish / Texas publisher LL-Publications. My other science fiction novel, Exit, Pursued by a Bee, is published by Double Dragon and my two thrillers, Escaping Reality and Hot Airare published now as ebooks by Adventure Books of Seattle. The nearest thing to self publishing for ARIA are a couple of editor’s cutting floor chapters that have found their way in my blog and a prequel short story called Een’s Revolt on Zadig. Zadig is a moon of the aliens’ planetary system and this is a completely non-human story. However, the main character is a granddad, like me, taking his grandkids for a hike, like I do. He’s naughtier than me but otherwise a fair bit of me is in his character. You can read it for free or practically free as it is published in a Science Fiction Writers Sampler 2014 on Kindle ASIN: B00KREH10G
Liz: Who is your favorite character in ARIA: Left Luggage (I kept switching myself, which is one thing I love about a well-crafted novel). Manuel is my favourite character in the whole ARIA Trilogy ever since he caught the amnesia bug and woke up next to a ‘strange’ woman each morning, yet cared deeply for them, once the screaming died down. I can tell you as a spoiler that he survives the trilogy, and is rather like that alien granddad, Een, in the sampler prequel mentioned above.
Liz: And for a nightcap: what's your poison? As I’m not driving, I’ll have a Barley Wine beer? Falling off my bike.
Oh, easy peasy lemon squeezie: Have this, it's the Anniversary Ale from another of my favorite Michigan breweries, Shorts Brewing in Bellaire. It's a high-gravity wheat wine made with blood oranges. Flavors range from the spiciness of green peppercorns to the tang of blood orange zest. Aggressive dry hopping of Simcoe hops amplifies the citrus overtones and spiciness found throughout the beer. It does have a rather high alcohol content, but don't be afraid. I'm the Beer Wench. I'll toughen you up a bit.
NOW For the pimpage: Blurb: Today, Jack caught a bug at work. He catches a bus home. By the time he disembarks in the desert town of Rosamond, all the other passengers and the driver have fuzzy heads. Jack had caught an amnesia bug, and it’s infectious.
Imagine the ramifications:
The passengers arrive home, infecting family; some shop en route infecting everyone they meet. The bus driver receives more passengers giving them change for last week’s prices and today’s amnesia. Some passengers work at the power plant, the water treatment works, the hospital, fire station. All shut down in weeks.
One man, Ryder Nape, realizes what’s going on, but can he persuade friends to barricade themselves in a secluded valley, hiding from the amnesia bug?
“Geoff Nelder inhabits Science Fiction the way other people inhabit their clothes.”
— Jon Courtenay Grimwood
“Geoff Nelder's ARIA has the right stuff. He makes us ask the most important question in science fiction--the one about the true limits of personal responsibility.”
—Brad Linaweaver
Robert J. Sawyer calls ARIA a “fascinating project.”
“ARIA has an intriguing premise, and is written in a very accessible style.”
—Mike Resnick
Linkage:Here’s a free sample from the second book ARIA: Returning Left Luggagehttp://geoffnelder.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/free-excerpt-from-aria-book-2/
ARIA is on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AriaTrilogy ehugs to anyone that ‘likes’ it!Kindle – Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle – UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/
Publisher’s website with more details and formats. http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
And the sequel
UK Kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Returning-Luggage-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00D7TW2D4/
US Kindle http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Returning-Luggage-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00D7TW2D4/
A wikia page about me and the ARIA Trilogy is http://nelderaria.wikia.com/wiki/NelderAria_WikiLinks to buy ARIA and other of my books are on my Amazon author pageGeoff’s UK Amazon author page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Geoff-Nelder/e/B002BMB2XYAnd for US readers http://www.amazon.com/Geoff-Nelder/e/B002BMB2XY
Twitter ye may at @geoffnelder
ARIA: Left Luggage received this award as well:
And now that I am thoroughly lubricated (yes, I said that) I submit to you my review:
ARIA= Alien Retrograde Infectious Amnesia
What's worse? The scary alien monster you can see or the one you can't that slowly but surely reduces you to only your childhood memories and then…to what?
An incredibly creative twist on the plague virus concept, mixed with some of the funniest and most realistically facile dialogue I've had the pleasure of reading in a damn long time, this plot is one you will likely never be able to forget--so to speak.
The astronauts who discover the "luggage" (a case that is "left behind" by what must be some fairly diabolical aliens with a sick sense of humor) treat it carefully as protocol demands. But what I love most about this book is how very human (read: flawed) all the characters are. It's just too damn tempting so the case gets compromised (opened), and it releases some sort of invisible gas or air-borne virus that will, over time, erase your entire memory. Oh, and it's 100% contagious. Just by being "exposed" (i.e. in the same general vicinity with) someone infected you will start to go backwards in time--a sort of memory "Benjamin Button" syndrome.
Imagine it: waking up every morning and having to check your smart phone/email/hand written yellow sticky notes just to be able to recall your name, your spouse's name, your kids' names, where you live, what you should eat, what you even LIKE to eat, or medicine you need to survive, literally EVERYTHING about yourself.
Are people immune? Some, perhaps. Can it be reversed? Well, there is, maybe another piece of luggage these forgetful (!) aliens have managed to leave behind that, by the end of this novel, is perhaps the solution, no one knows for sure…yet.
For me, the value of a book like this is less the "science" part of the science fiction. Oodles of books are written with that part correct or verifiable or well crafted. Many of them have pretty darn creative premises as well (Hugh Howey's "Wool" comes to mind). However, unlike that book (I only read one of the many, it was enough for me) in this one, the author captures my imagination with his wide cast of unique characters and prose that is so sharp and shiny you risk cutting yourself on it.
I care about these people, and he manages to make me do so without a Stephen King-esque epic. In a fairly short time, by way of his clever use of dialogue interspersed with quick action, I "get" these people and I "give a shit" about their final outcomes. And I would agree that, while Manuel's story is one of the more hilarious ones (think: "Groundhog Day" only every morning it's a different woman and you have to "remember" who you both are) I'm a fan of Ryder--ALTHOUGH (one criticism here) I would have liked to have Jena be a bit less the prototypical "tough chick" and a bit more accessible. However, their connection worked for me.
I'm "Team Ryder" as we girlie girls like to say!
I also thoroughly enjoyed the way the survivalist instincts and actions of the folks who have attempted to isolate themselves from the virus are interspersed with how much they annoy each other in close quarters. People fall in and out of infatuation with each other, they fight like normal people, and yet most of them survive--with their memories intact (at least by the end of this book). There's even a sexy, Italian doctor who goes, shall we say, a little "Doctor Strangelove" on the group.
Because I write what most categorize as "romance" (although there is a fairly vocal contingent who would heartily disagree) I tend to be drawn to books and plots that are heavy on characters ("character-driven" as we jargonistas like to say). While I do not require that all characters be "likable" I do want to find them interesting enough that I am compelled to continue reading. To my mind, Mr. Nelder has done something pretty amazing for me as a non-reader of science fiction. He made me care about his characters and drew me into the entire concept with one of the funniest "love scenes" ever, between a man who is unknowingly infected by the amnesia virus who goes home and has mind blowing sex with his wife--whom he divorced already.
This book gets a "5 BREW RATING" from me. Go get it, and be prepared to lose some hours of your day dropping into ARIA: Left Luggage.
And so there you have it. Very soon Mr. Nelder shall turn tables on Your Favorite Beer Wench a.k.a. Liz and read one of her books (PARADISE HOPS) and render his opinion. I'm pretty terrified. The guy is a professional editor too. Pass me a beer, will ya Hans?
(Liz and her Muse, Hans. He is the bomb and he brings me beers)
Cheers y'allLiz
Welcome to my beer bar Geoff, what can I pour for you to start? Many times I’ve been taken in for questioning, but this is the first time the interrogation began with an a la carte invitation for a drink. I need to keep a clear head in case I have to escape sharpish so I’ll have a Brazilian thanks. Cheeky, rich, fruity aroma, black and just a hint of chocolate and a dash of hazelnut liquor. It always tickles to think that coffee started off in the African continent and is now mostly grown in South America while chocolate began in the Americas and is now mostly grown in Africa. It tickles my penchant for contradictions. Any chance of a biscotti?
See what I did there? I made you smell the coffee. Aromas are big in my stories.
Well, now that is admirable and earnest and adorable. But sorry, this is a beer bar dude, not the bloody American Bar at the Sa-voy. Here, try this Neapolitan Milk Stout from one of my favorite Michigan Breweries, Saugatuck Brewing on the beautiful west coast of the Great Lakes State….It allows you to experience a perfect blend of classic dry stout character with brilliant flavors of Neapolitan Ice Cream along with the nostalgic flavors of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry all in one glass – because sometimes ice cream just isn’t enough.**********gives you a moment to savor it***************
Oh, hey did you see what I did there? Made your mouth water….tastes are big in my world.What gave you the idea for the ARIA concept? At uni studying Ed Pysch, my hand was worn out making notes on cognitive behaviour and memory. Mum lost her short term memory after a stroke. She repeatedly asked me the time, and was this the same girl in my bedroom as yesterday? I became obsessed and still write stories involving amnesia. One
Liz: Well either that or "ARIA: Shades of Spanking" or "ARIA: Shades of Luggage." You know, I am all about that search engine optimization when folks are seeking The Next Big Thing. (wait! I've got it! "ARIA: Shades of the Fault in Our Stars With Spanking and a Billionaire" Don't ever say I don't do my SEO homework for titles.)Are there more books in the series? Tell us about them. I wrote Left Luggage as a stand alone and that contrary streak in me had the urge to write a scifi with no aliens in sight, nobattles in space and a human story that was more of a mystery than a story out of this world even though it sort of is. It seems to me that when we encounter aliens we probably won’t recognize them for what they are, won’t know how to communicate with them, and not really understand why they’re here. Then readers wanted to see what the aliens looked like and why they came to Earth, so ARIA: Returning Left Luggage gives you aliens and the complications set in. The human survivors struggle, relationships stretch to breaking point yet with ironic humour. The aliens are ... strange. Like Book One it’s about human survival, apocalypse and a unique what-if.
Readers of Book one followed by Book two demanded a finale. What’s the alien planet like? Can humans live there? Have they already been there? If anything ARIA: Abandoned Luggage is my favourite because when you travel out of this mundane world, anything goes. This time it’s the aliens struggling for survival, their apocalypse and a kind of house swap on a planetary scale.
Liz: I cannot wait to read the next one!
Oh look, empty glass, what can I pour for you next? Do you have what us Brits call ‘Real Ale’? What’s that, Craft beer – excellent, and a buxom German serving wench, please?
Your wish, my command:
In case it’s too wet, can I have some lightly-salted crisps? That’s right, chips.
Liz: It is so cute when people forget that I lived in Merrie Olde England (and as a result "got" a lot of the Brit-talk, slang and jargon your characters tossed around I might add). I know crisps from chips. Never fear. And there is no such thing as "too wet" beer, for your future reference.
As for a next brew, I would highly recommend this one, a No-Parking Euchre Pils from a brewery right in my fair city of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Arbor Brewing Company. These guys were the real pioneers of craft brewing in the state. It's brewed with all imported German Tettnang hops for a classic crisp, dry, full-flavored Pilsner character. It is a deep golden, medium-bodied lager. Crisp and clean with a mildly salty noble hop bitterness. ("Euchre" is a "midwestern" thing--a card game, look it up)What book project are you working on now? While holidaying on the Mediterranean island of Malta I discovered to my astonishment that in 1551 the entire population of Malta’s sister island, Gozo, was abducted by pirates. Surely all those people’s spirits are crying out for revenge? A contemporary couple are thrown together by those ancient spirits because unknown to them one is a descendent of the pirate leader, and one is related to one of the abducted. What an excuse to make many field trips to Gozo! Xaghra’s Revenge is written, critiqued, edited and ready to roll. It has an agent in Rebecca Pratt Agency near Philadelphia, who is hawking it around publishers as we slurp.
Liz: Cool. I hope to find agency representation for my upcoming thriller novel myself, if I can manage to get it polished around all this drinking.***Pardon The Interruption While Liz Posts the Requisite Hot Dude Holding Beers***
Thanks..whew….had to slide those guys in there, you know…
Do you want to continue to self publish or do you have other plans for upcoming books? Actually, the ARIA Trilogy is small-press published by a Scottish / Texas publisher LL-Publications. My other science fiction novel, Exit, Pursued by a Bee, is published by Double Dragon and my two thrillers, Escaping Reality and Hot Airare published now as ebooks by Adventure Books of Seattle. The nearest thing to self publishing for ARIA are a couple of editor’s cutting floor chapters that have found their way in my blog and a prequel short story called Een’s Revolt on Zadig. Zadig is a moon of the aliens’ planetary system and this is a completely non-human story. However, the main character is a granddad, like me, taking his grandkids for a hike, like I do. He’s naughtier than me but otherwise a fair bit of me is in his character. You can read it for free or practically free as it is published in a Science Fiction Writers Sampler 2014 on Kindle ASIN: B00KREH10G
Liz: Who is your favorite character in ARIA: Left Luggage (I kept switching myself, which is one thing I love about a well-crafted novel). Manuel is my favourite character in the whole ARIA Trilogy ever since he caught the amnesia bug and woke up next to a ‘strange’ woman each morning, yet cared deeply for them, once the screaming died down. I can tell you as a spoiler that he survives the trilogy, and is rather like that alien granddad, Een, in the sampler prequel mentioned above.
Liz: And for a nightcap: what's your poison? As I’m not driving, I’ll have a Barley Wine beer? Falling off my bike.
Oh, easy peasy lemon squeezie: Have this, it's the Anniversary Ale from another of my favorite Michigan breweries, Shorts Brewing in Bellaire. It's a high-gravity wheat wine made with blood oranges. Flavors range from the spiciness of green peppercorns to the tang of blood orange zest. Aggressive dry hopping of Simcoe hops amplifies the citrus overtones and spiciness found throughout the beer. It does have a rather high alcohol content, but don't be afraid. I'm the Beer Wench. I'll toughen you up a bit.
NOW For the pimpage: Blurb: Today, Jack caught a bug at work. He catches a bus home. By the time he disembarks in the desert town of Rosamond, all the other passengers and the driver have fuzzy heads. Jack had caught an amnesia bug, and it’s infectious.
Imagine the ramifications:
The passengers arrive home, infecting family; some shop en route infecting everyone they meet. The bus driver receives more passengers giving them change for last week’s prices and today’s amnesia. Some passengers work at the power plant, the water treatment works, the hospital, fire station. All shut down in weeks.
One man, Ryder Nape, realizes what’s going on, but can he persuade friends to barricade themselves in a secluded valley, hiding from the amnesia bug?
“Geoff Nelder inhabits Science Fiction the way other people inhabit their clothes.”
— Jon Courtenay Grimwood
“Geoff Nelder's ARIA has the right stuff. He makes us ask the most important question in science fiction--the one about the true limits of personal responsibility.”
—Brad Linaweaver
Robert J. Sawyer calls ARIA a “fascinating project.”
“ARIA has an intriguing premise, and is written in a very accessible style.”
—Mike Resnick
Linkage:Here’s a free sample from the second book ARIA: Returning Left Luggagehttp://geoffnelder.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/free-excerpt-from-aria-book-2/
ARIA is on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/AriaTrilogy ehugs to anyone that ‘likes’ it!Kindle – Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Volume-1/dp/1905091958/
Kindle – UK – http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-ebook/dp/B008RADGYC/
Paperback UK http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Left-Luggage-Geoff-Nelder/dp/1905091958/
Publisher’s website with more details and formats. http://www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html
And the sequel
UK Kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/ARIA-Returning-Luggage-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00D7TW2D4/
US Kindle http://www.amazon.com/ARIA-Returning-Luggage-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B00D7TW2D4/
A wikia page about me and the ARIA Trilogy is http://nelderaria.wikia.com/wiki/NelderAria_WikiLinks to buy ARIA and other of my books are on my Amazon author pageGeoff’s UK Amazon author page http://www.amazon.co.uk/Geoff-Nelder/e/B002BMB2XYAnd for US readers http://www.amazon.com/Geoff-Nelder/e/B002BMB2XY
Twitter ye may at @geoffnelder
ARIA: Left Luggage received this award as well:
And now that I am thoroughly lubricated (yes, I said that) I submit to you my review:
ARIA= Alien Retrograde Infectious Amnesia
What's worse? The scary alien monster you can see or the one you can't that slowly but surely reduces you to only your childhood memories and then…to what?
An incredibly creative twist on the plague virus concept, mixed with some of the funniest and most realistically facile dialogue I've had the pleasure of reading in a damn long time, this plot is one you will likely never be able to forget--so to speak.
The astronauts who discover the "luggage" (a case that is "left behind" by what must be some fairly diabolical aliens with a sick sense of humor) treat it carefully as protocol demands. But what I love most about this book is how very human (read: flawed) all the characters are. It's just too damn tempting so the case gets compromised (opened), and it releases some sort of invisible gas or air-borne virus that will, over time, erase your entire memory. Oh, and it's 100% contagious. Just by being "exposed" (i.e. in the same general vicinity with) someone infected you will start to go backwards in time--a sort of memory "Benjamin Button" syndrome.
Imagine it: waking up every morning and having to check your smart phone/email/hand written yellow sticky notes just to be able to recall your name, your spouse's name, your kids' names, where you live, what you should eat, what you even LIKE to eat, or medicine you need to survive, literally EVERYTHING about yourself.
Are people immune? Some, perhaps. Can it be reversed? Well, there is, maybe another piece of luggage these forgetful (!) aliens have managed to leave behind that, by the end of this novel, is perhaps the solution, no one knows for sure…yet.
For me, the value of a book like this is less the "science" part of the science fiction. Oodles of books are written with that part correct or verifiable or well crafted. Many of them have pretty darn creative premises as well (Hugh Howey's "Wool" comes to mind). However, unlike that book (I only read one of the many, it was enough for me) in this one, the author captures my imagination with his wide cast of unique characters and prose that is so sharp and shiny you risk cutting yourself on it.
I care about these people, and he manages to make me do so without a Stephen King-esque epic. In a fairly short time, by way of his clever use of dialogue interspersed with quick action, I "get" these people and I "give a shit" about their final outcomes. And I would agree that, while Manuel's story is one of the more hilarious ones (think: "Groundhog Day" only every morning it's a different woman and you have to "remember" who you both are) I'm a fan of Ryder--ALTHOUGH (one criticism here) I would have liked to have Jena be a bit less the prototypical "tough chick" and a bit more accessible. However, their connection worked for me.
I'm "Team Ryder" as we girlie girls like to say!
I also thoroughly enjoyed the way the survivalist instincts and actions of the folks who have attempted to isolate themselves from the virus are interspersed with how much they annoy each other in close quarters. People fall in and out of infatuation with each other, they fight like normal people, and yet most of them survive--with their memories intact (at least by the end of this book). There's even a sexy, Italian doctor who goes, shall we say, a little "Doctor Strangelove" on the group.
Because I write what most categorize as "romance" (although there is a fairly vocal contingent who would heartily disagree) I tend to be drawn to books and plots that are heavy on characters ("character-driven" as we jargonistas like to say). While I do not require that all characters be "likable" I do want to find them interesting enough that I am compelled to continue reading. To my mind, Mr. Nelder has done something pretty amazing for me as a non-reader of science fiction. He made me care about his characters and drew me into the entire concept with one of the funniest "love scenes" ever, between a man who is unknowingly infected by the amnesia virus who goes home and has mind blowing sex with his wife--whom he divorced already.
This book gets a "5 BREW RATING" from me. Go get it, and be prepared to lose some hours of your day dropping into ARIA: Left Luggage.
And so there you have it. Very soon Mr. Nelder shall turn tables on Your Favorite Beer Wench a.k.a. Liz and read one of her books (PARADISE HOPS) and render his opinion. I'm pretty terrified. The guy is a professional editor too. Pass me a beer, will ya Hans?
(Liz and her Muse, Hans. He is the bomb and he brings me beers)
Cheers y'allLiz
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