Chanel Heermann

A great memoir for writers

Revisado: 03-24-21

I really enjoyed this. Apparently I've been on a writing memoir binge lately.
Lots of great anecdotes. Lots of great food for thought for writers at all stages of their careers.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Cool concept, a little uneven, wrong narrator

Revisado: 03-24-21

The concept behind this anthology of scifi terror was a cool one, a heartless corporation that interfaces Planet Earth with the dangerous terrors of extraterrestrial monsters and civilizations. This was reminiscent of the old EC scifi comics.
The central theme running through it all reminds me of Ripley's line from ALIENS. "You don't see THEM fucking each other over for a goddamn percentage."
The stories themselves were a little uneven, but all worthy of attention. Tense and often splashy. Maberry's proved expectedly to be the strongest.
The biggest problem here was the narrator. He didn't perform, he simply read. And worse, his delivery was like a morning radio or game show. These were HORROR stories, and he read them like this was a children's book.
I probably would have liked this better as a print version.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

An Unexpected Treat from the Lansdales

Revisado: 03-24-21

This is the lightest of any Joe Lansdale book I've read, basically a YA novella about a teenage roller-skating waitress from small-town Texas. This one is all about family, friends, growing up, and roller derby. Yep, roller derby.
Compelling characters, slathered in Lansdale's signature wit, and read by his daughter Kasey Lansdale, a skilled actress and performer in her right. She delivers every line with perfection. This book turned my teenager into a Lansdale fan.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A difficult character in an intriguing story

Revisado: 09-22-20

Like Shirley Jackson's Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, The Drowning Girl presents an incredible example of The Unreliable Narrator, maybe the ultimate example. A young, schizophrenic woman is haunted by...something, and our perception of what that something might be changes several times over the course of the story. This is a book that is completely unpredictable, like the main character herself.
The story is meticulously constructed. The writing is pure art. However, for me, the schizophrenic illness of the main character, all told in first person, made the audiobook somewhat hard to follow. This is not an easy read. I was never sure what was happening, what was real, and the story of what happened changed several times. This is absolutely the point, of course, and both author and performer pull it off brilliantly, but for me I may have done better with a print edition. Because this was audio, I think I had more difficulty following an already tortuous storyline.
This is definitely a book that warrants multiple reads, because I could sense connections happening, even if I couldn't perceive in the first go exactly what they were.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Awesome performance for a fun, pulpy story

Revisado: 09-22-20

Clines knows how to write Lovecraftian thriller mashups. He did it incredibly well with 14 and The Fold. This novel goes back into that awesomely twisted world and delivers yet again. Total fun.
And as always, Ray Porter's narration is pure perfection.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Snakes, aliens, gangsters, and fog. What fun!

Revisado: 09-22-20

This book is like Dashiell Hammett and Robin Williams had a baby. Moore takes a whole truckload of noir tropes, mashes them up into a subversive stew, throws in piles of hilarious dialogue and endearing characters, and serves it all up with a side of weird history. I absolutely loved it.
The narrator does a fabulous job with the gumshoe tone.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A great performance and a brilliant riff

Revisado: 09-22-20

I've loved all three of Moore's riffs on Shakespeare, featuring Pocket, the randy fool from King Lear, but this one might be my favorite. It's literally a laugh a minute, and at the length of an audio book, that's a lot of laughs.
The performance is astonishingly good. The narrator uses a variety of voices and accents in such a way that you always know who's speaking, on top of some brilliant comic timing.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

More storytelling gold from a master

Revisado: 05-20-20

Nobody writes like Joe R. Lansdale. His work is full of hilarious, folksy one-liners that put a unique spin on dark and gritty subject matter. Paradise Sky tells the story of Nat Love, the famous African-American cowboy, also known as Deadwood Dick.

There are several aspects of this story that I enjoyed very much.

First is the perspective the Nat Love himself, growing up during the Civil War and its aftermath. One of Lansdale's forte's is his keen eye for human nature, particularly the East Texas and the American South and the mindset of bigotry. Bigotry, in the form of an attempted lynching, is what puts Love on his path.

In all his books, Lansdale writes about the darkest parts of the human soul, and Love's story is chock full of that, told with consummate wit and a convincing voice. We're right there with him as he's stuck in the middle of the Indian Wars, ventures to Deadwood in the Dakota Territory to seek his fortune, and wins a shooting contest that gave him the name Deadwood Dick. But the demon-hounds of bigotry are always right there at his heels.

I also really enjoyed Lansdale's characterizations of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Al Swearengen, and Colorado Charlie Utter, all historical figures that feature prominently in my own short story "Blood Lust and Gold Dust", which is also set in Deadwood at about the same time as this book. It's fun for me to see that Lansdale and I read some of the same books in our research.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Rediscover the masterpiece

Revisado: 05-20-20

This was my third go with DUNE, and the first listening to the audio book. In preparation for the upcoming movie, I jumped into the world of DUNE again, and boy was it wonderful. It gave me new appreciation of this amazing novel. Of course, my writer brain was constantly thinking, "Well, I would trim that sentence...and cut that one...." But the ride was well worth it.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

They named a horror award after her for a reason..

Revisado: 05-20-20

Shirley Jackson is the master, and this is her masterpiece. Nothing more can be said.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña