Sean’s Comments (group member since Dec 29, 2015)

Sean’s comments from the Universal Geek Book Club group.

I had high hopes for this book. I was looking forward to a bit of back office views of superheroes, I was looking for a 'what if' world filled with Buffy-esque superheroines.

I don't honestly know what I got instead. This was weird. It wasn't bad. It just was all world building with a lackluster story lacking a sustainable plot.

After I finished this memoir, I was wondering if Lindsey was hampered or bolstered in her career by her religious beliefs.

On one hand, if she was more 'in the culture' of rock n' roll, she may have gotten better gigs, been more prominent in certain circles, but the other hand, she had to carve a unique path for herself because of the restrictions of her beliefs. This unique path help set her apart from everyone else and forced her to entertain in other ways than 'being an attractive woman in front of an audience.'

Discussion

Jeff wrote: "I straight-up hated Sookie as a character."

This is for others to answer, but is Sookie one of those characters you are supposed to be slightly annoyed with, like Buffy?

I came to this book as a lover of the podcast. I enjoy the absurdity and the quiet menace of Night Vale. I probably would have enjoyed this book more as a companion piece after I discovered the podcast.

I didn't enjoy it so much now. It felt... forced? I think Paul hit the nail on the head that the preamble to the main story was too much and everything seemed to be unnecessarily drawn out.

I did find the general story to be compelling and loved the (at times) forced cameos of my favorite characters. Mayor Dana, the only radio station intern to survive, who should have been the focus on a Night Vale book, felt a bit too forced. Steve Carlsberg's presence was perfect, though.

I liked the book resolved one of the big mysteries in the Night Vale universe, so it felt worthwhile. And I enjoyed it built on the NVU by giving us King City (as opposed to just having Desert Bluff). I am way behind on the podcast so I don't know how any of the book played out in the show.

All in all, this is a book for people who love the podcast. I can only imagine how people who don't listen to the show would understand it.

Jeff wrote: "I finished Abaddon's Gate (The Expanse series) and like the previous books, loved it. I really want to tear into the next one, but I think I'm going to hold off and savor these first 4 books a bit."

I just finished Caliban's War and immediately wanted to read the next book but I had to start Welcome to Night Vale and read American Gods again (sometime before April 5! But the cliffhanger at the end ... gah!

Honestly, the Expanse novels are some of the best sci-fi I've read in a long time. After reading the first book, I wanted to restart Star Wars RPG because I had so many more ideas. Then the second book blew my mind even further.

This feels like Firefly prequels - the Universe before Earth Got Used Up.

As for Jim Butcher's stuff... that first Dresden Files book is amazing noir... Dresden is a protagonist who gets treated very poorly by his author.

I wanted more. There was such potential in analyzing geek culture using this unique paradigm and it fell short. I enjoyed it a lot, just not what I was hoping for.

Paul wrote: "Do you think this book qualifies as Cyber Punk?"

There wasn't any sense of a 'cyber' world in these books, which is sort of my goto qualifier for cyberpunk. Bladerunner didn't have much in terms of a cyberspace/net/augmented reality - and it is generally considered cyberpunk.

'Koko' gave us a corporate governed future (similar settings like ScorchScorch and Jennifer GovernmentJennifer Government) and had a high level of tech.

I really treated this as if it were a story just about the militant physically augmented thugs of cyberpunk.

What I felt was missing was the feeling of the masses, poor, ravaged by the oligarchies running their lives. It was hinted at, in terms of the amount of human death that people shrugged off, but there wasn't the clear line between the two.

Great question, I'd love to know what you think and if it isn't classified as cyberpunk, what is a better classification?

Jeff wrote: "I've been going a little crazy with The Expanse series. I read book 1 (Leviathan Wakes) about a year and a half ago, then started and finished book 2 (Caliban's War) just recently. The series just ..."

I think I'm going to start reading The Expanse series this month. I've just been hearing too many good things about it and since Pandora Star, I've been missing out on epic sci-fi.

What did bother me was Depressus was being made into a big deal then dropped, both literal..."

That is a good point. It did just disappear as a factor by the end, which is a shame because I though thought it was an interesting take on future diseases like "black shakes".

Bleu wrote: "Oddly enough, the gore didn't really bother me. Maybe it was because it was in book form -- if it was a movie I wouldn't have been able to watch it. But I thought the brutality of the world made it..."

This is sort of a switcheroo for us... I don't tend to be so reactive to gruesome details like this, but I think it was due to the fact I was really captivated by the main character so I was more involved than normal, instead of my more cold aloofness.

This was a fun book, but gruesome. Seriously, if you have a weak stomach, you may want to hold up reading this.

How did everyone else feel about the 'marking' rituals in combat? I liked it - kind of - to define just how brutal the world was (as if mass suicides weren't brutal enough), but the detailed description was ... well not to my taste.

We favor new to old, unique to derivative, and lesser known to mega-famous.

We look for books that tell a unique story, give a unique perspective, and appeal to geeks.

We take suggestions from everywhere and generally select the books that can be read within a month and doesn't bore us to death.