Monday, May 29, 2006

I Can't Believe I Actually Finished It

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a scam publisher insulted science fiction and fantasy writers by, basically calling them all hacks? And Have you ever wondered what would happen if a group of SF and fantasy writers retaliated by writing the worst book possible and getting the scammers to agree to publish it? No, I never wondered that either, but it happened, and the result is Atlanta Nights by Travis Tea (note the pun).

While I'm on the subject of literary scammers, I'd just like to mention the name of Barbara Bauer and state that she is on the 20 Worst agents List. If you want to know why, I'm posting this, check here or here. Feel free to send me one of your legendary Cease-and-Desist notices. It's lonely in here, and I might just print it out, frame it, and hang it on my wall. Now back to your regularly scheduled review.

Before I get any farther into the review, I should point oint that the publisher of Atlanta Nights, Lulu.com, is not the scam publisher in question, that would be Publish America. Once the writers involved revealed their little sting operation, PA revoked their offer. I find the whole thing extremely funny. If you want more information, buy the book and read the Afterword.

Atlanta Nights is almost certainly the most remarkable book I've ever read. The book is chock full of extraordinary plot devices including characters who change their sex from one chapter to another, or change their race, or come back from the dead. There areIf you're reading this, Barbara, also numerous creative uses of spelling and grammer. The authors are also obvoisly very ecologically friendly, as the recycled one chapter by using it twice. I should also note that cutting edge technology was used to allow a computer to generate one of the chapters--I hope it was chapter 34, because I would be seriously worried about the mental health of any human being who could write like that.

I'm going to give Atlanta Nights -5 out of -5 yo-yos. Now, see if you can figure out if that's a good thing or not. Up next, I'm reading C. J. Cherryh's The Chanur Saga.


1 comment:

ohdawno said...

Thanks for keeping the list up on Google Hits for Barbara!

Dawno, Absolute Write Blogging Forum Moderator

PS - Atlanta Nights is what first drew me to Absolute Write. It's a great "how not to write" reference book.