NOS4A2

OK, once again I have been slacking on the reviews here. I have read several bizarro novels that I could have been reviewing--and getting points for--but I just haven't gotten around to it. I have also received review copies of books, which I really should be reviewing, and I'm going to try to review them, at the very least.

I got a review copy of Joe Hill's NOS4A2.This was a really cool novel. It's about a girl (and later woman) who discovers that she has the ability to ride through a bridge that no longer exists to find things that have been lost, but who loses a bit of herself as the price for making this journey. It's also the story of a man who is over a century old, who takes children to a magical place called Christmas Land, where they'll stay young  and happy forever, but at the cost of their humanity. Naturally, these two eventually meet, and become enemies.

I don't want to spoil the story for you, so I won't go into any more detail, but I will say that this is a great book.  Anybody who likes horror should get this.

Geek and Sundry

Did I ever tell you that I am a lazy lazy, lazy man? I mean, I have at least three book reviews that I should be writing. Two of them would earn me Bizarro Brigade points, and the other is for a book I got a review copy of from William Morrow. This is not a review of one of them. This is about a YouTube channel, and I'm writing it to get an entry in a contest to win something or other. I forget what, exactly.

I am talking about Geek & Sundry, who produce lots of geeky web content, most of which, I don't watch. I do however watch TableTop with Wil Wheaton, because I love tabletop games.  Also, I think his beard has evil, hypnotic powers. It's a great series where you get to see lots of geek celebrities playing games, and I've learned about a lot of games I want to try out.  Here's an embedded video of the episode about one of my favorite games:

Since this is a review blog, of sorts, I'll give Tabletop (and the rest of Geek & Sundry) five yo-yos.

The Miniature Wife

I was lucky enough to get a copy of The Miniature Wife and Other Stories by Manuel Gonzalez from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. With my love of bizarro fiction, I figured that a collection of more mainstream weird fiction would be right up my alley. I was right. It does have less gore and sex than a typical bizarro story collection, but I think bizarro fans might enjoy it, too.

This is a good bunch of stories, with some weird twists. The titular story, for instance, is about a man who works in miniaturization whose wife gets mysteriously miniaturized and starts a war against her husband. There are also stories about a hijacking that lasts for decades, a man who talks through his ears, and life in what seems to be a video game. Some of the stories also involve more traditional fantasy and horror creatures like zombies, werewolves, and unicorns.

There are a few minor things I didn't like about the stories. Too many of the stories take the form of mini-biographies or memoirs instead of the more usual types of fictional narrative, although since they are interesting biographies/memoirs, this isn't much of a complaint. However, some of them, most notably, "The Artist's Voice"--that's the one about the man who talks through his ears--do drag a little bit. Even so, this is a really nice bunch of stories