Constituent Service by John Scalzi
A small novella by John Scalzi. Was debating whether or not to even write about it, it’s more of a snack than a meal. But people like snacks. Scalzi seems to be eschewing serious stuff like Lock In and The Collapsing Empire for humorous science fiction (at least in terms of what he’s producing). I don’t know what the market is like for that genre, but I enjoyed this story. It’s like an episode of a TV show, or maybe a pilot, with some sitcom one-note characters (not a slight–you don’t need heavy character development in comedy) solving a low-stakes mystery. This takes place in a politician’s office, as a lowly assistant to an alien rep on Earth deals with citizen complaints.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
(unfinished)
I thought this was a “not your usual fantasy” book, but I missed that it’s advertised/reviewed as a “cozy” book. When I see the word cozy I immediately substitute “low stakes” or “not about anything”. As in nothing matters to the protagonist, and thus nothing is going to matter to the reader. The goal of a book is to change the reader, or at least offer a point of view on something. To slip into someone else’s skin. But I say if you don’t come back from that a little different, the skin didn’t do its job. I mean, look at the reviews. Do any of them even mention fairies? Are there any fairies in the book? You know, the book that’s titled “Encyclopedia of Fairies”?
“Ah, n-now, eventually you do plan to have fairies in your, in your book about fairies, right? Hello? Yes?”
The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French (The Lot Lands #1)
Now THIS is the reason I read. Years and years, weeks and weeks, tossing away story after mediocre story. And then… every once in a while… you strike gold.
It hits all my right buttons. It’s got good characters, good writing, good pace and plotting, good worldbuilding. And it has all the pluses and premiums I like–twists, irreverence, sex and violence, humor and levity. It’s full of friendship and love and adventure. A flawed main character who makes mistakes, does the best he can with the knowledge he has, but gets his goalposts pushed back. There are wizards and humans and monsters (even slimes, which seem to be in every RPG). If you like the lore of Warhammer, but don’t want to go down a rabbit hole, this is the book to read. But everyone in this story is having fun.
In every story, 99% of the time, the characters hate what they’re doing. I guess that’s the nature of the beast of storytelling, but it gets repetitive. Bruce Wayne doesn’t want to be Batman, but he feels it’s the only way to honor his parents. Hercules doesn’t want to have to do all these labors but the gods are forcing him. Scrooge is a grinchy old miser, but he doesn’t like it. It doesn’t make him smile.
So when you find characters who actually like what they’re doing, I latch on. That’s why I like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Snoopy, Mickey Mouse, Superman, Mario, Spider-Man, Kermit the Frog, Iron Man, Buffy. These are all people who like what they’re doing. They joke and slap each other on the backs. They’re half-friends and half-family.
Good Game, No Rematch: A Hilarious Memoir of Video Games, Personal Growth, and the Intersection of Comedy and Nostalgia by Mike Drucker
Mike Drucker is a Hollywood writer of some sort. He’s worked on SNL, Jimmy Fallon, Samantha Bee, and others. In this memoir, he writes about the video games in his life. It lit a lot of nostalgia flames for me, and it’s surprising how similar our life trajectories were. A dad who was disappointed his son wasn’t into sports, dressing up as Mario with what was lying around the house, playing Sierra adventure games, the “joy” of buying and using a Power Glove, an obsession with Mortal Kombat, the N64, Final Fantasy VII, etc. Then he gets all the dream jobs–working at SNL, working at Nintendo, working at IGN. Guy has the life I want.
But it doesn’t end well. I mean, the guy’s not dead, he’s still got half a lifetime ahead of him. But he has no friends or family around him to speak of. Just video games. He lives alone in an apartment, is divorced, and plays solo RPGs. The last chapter is about him replicating his childhood arcade in his apartment during the pandemic, using all the cabinets he’s bought (since he has so much disposable income being single and childless). He strings up lights, puts on rave music, pops some popcorn and cheap frozen pizza and… sits there.
He doesn’t share it with anyone because he has no one to share it with, besides Instagram. There’s no conclusion or lessons learned. It’s kind of sad actually. He ends up job-hopping, gets married and divorced in a year, best friend (and only friend, who he only met online) dies of a terminal illness. Kind of a bummer of a read. It sounds like he’s talking about how video games were responsible for everything that was ever good in his life. But it doesn’t end with him happy. Just lonely.
The Magician of Tiger Castle by Louis Sachar
I love Louis Sachar. He wrote a lot of great books, which I read in my youth more than once. Not just the Wayside School books, but other MG/YA books like There’s a Boy in the Girl’s Bathroom. He wrote Holes, an award-winning book and movie. This is his first fantasy book for adults, so I had to pick it up. It’s definitely in his signature style. And that style is short declarative sentences.
The narrative is mostly summary. There’s not much dialogue, but it’s very accessible. However, the plot tends to meander/wander. It’s not a very grand story. Maybe I’m spoiled on so many fantasy stories that are about the end of the world or even alternate dimensions where everyone’s going to die or be enslaved. This is not that. But there are some nice actual medieval life/history instead of Renaissance fair schtick). It’s a strong four stars.
Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different by Chuck Palahniuk
I have never read anything by Chuck Palahniuk, but I’m well familiar with Fight Club. No one who was a teenager in 1999 wasn’t. I saw way too many posters of Brad Pitt holding up pink soap in various dorms. When this came across my FYP, I thought I should give it a read. It’s rare to find a book about writing from a contemporary author. (I can’t wait to see Colleen Hoover’s instructional tome.) But in the meantime, there’s Chuck.
He reads like a grandchild of Kurt Vonnegut, but raised on nothing but Ren & Stimpy. His other books, which he refers to as one would expect, do not sound appropriate for children. They don’t sound appropriate for life. He makes a big deal about how people keep fainting when he reads this one gross story (not that he only has one gross story). But he’s also got a lot of love for his mentor and colleagues. Somehow, they lucked out with being in a constructive class that produced published authors.
Did this help me learn how to be a better writer? Eh, a little. It was definitely better and more understandable than Writing 21st Century Fiction: High Impact Techniques for Exceptional Storytelling by Donald Maass. But I think I’ll need to re-read it, at least the stuff I highlighted. This guy writes way different books than I do, so I’m not sure if I should take advice from this guy. He seems to sell books using shock value and gross-out plots.
Polybius by Collin Armstrong
(unfinished)
I wasted money on this. The first chapter seemed promising–capitalizing on the urban legend of an arcade game that kills people/makes people kill/locks you in a mystery dimension/what have you. But the writing style is awful. Seventeen percent in, and he’s still introducing characters. Telling instead of showing. Using no dialogue. No one interacts with each other. I can’t figure out who I’m supposed to be rooting for or what the book is about. This should have been a slam-dunk horror book about a killer video game in the eighties, integrating elements of creepypasta and analog horror. But it’s dull, like a straight-to-Tubi horror movie. Watch Angry Video Game Nerd’s short film instead.
