Not quite done review of Snow Crash--the layman's version

I am reading “Snow Crash” by Neil Stephenson but will probably have to read it again before I can offer any sort of a decent review. This is my first cyberpunk novel and as a person who does not know a lot about technology, it’s not easy. However, what I have done is compiled a list of things I like so far about the book and I dumped them in the next paragraph.

It is funny, the plot is beyond interesting especially if you have interest in religious history speculation (I do). I’m not saying it answers questions, I’m saying it’s fun for that. The virtual world (Metaverse) described in the novel kinda blows your mind with details and it feels like what would happen if you could actually be IN your Sim City. I’ve never played but you get what I’m laying down…right? And Juanita is my hero. She’s smart, kinda snobbish, definitely sarcastic and I could read the paragraph in which she’s first introduced three times (I did). I haven’t finished it and I hope she doesn’t get tragically or senselessly killed. I can totally see every nerd boy wanting to grow up to be Hiro. You helped develop the Metaverse, you know just enough about everything to still be a little clueless, and you walk around with swords. So what if your life sucks outside the Metaverse? Add the cute binary joke and you’ve got a pretty good time. Also there is a mission to stop the spread of Snow Crash, I’m sure that’s important. I don’t like Y.T. enough to talk about her but I should mention her and Da5id since they are kinda big deals in the book.

Then why is it taking you so long to read?

One: I went from reading it on my computer to reading it on my phone

Two: I read from it like once a week

Three: This is in no way an easy book for me to read. In no way shape or form

Four: I would have put it down but I’m afraid I’ll miss something interesting. I want to read it now as I’m typing it out.

Five: Dude, don’t be asking me questions about my reading like that.

I haven’t told you the plot… It’s hard for me to describe the plot so instead I’ll give you a picture and link. I could say something like “Stop Snowcrash. Save the World.” However, that’s only funny if you remember a time with Heroes didn’t suck.

This is a wiki site and if you go further then the plot summary there might be spoilers. I refuses to link any summary that describes Juanita as his “brainy ex-girlfriend.”

And there we have it. Melissa’s not quite done review of Snow Crash. I feel like I should do a shout out to the guy who recommended I read this book but I know he’s shy and hates shout-outs.

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Snow Crash Review half way done layman cyberpunk

The Graveyard Book

Another kid book? Really? I mean…yea. Neil Gaiman is kinda awesome in a darky moody sort of way. Part of the joy of reading his youth fiction (is that right? youth fiction? is that a term?) is that I look forward to sharing it when my kids one day….when I have kids.

The Graveyard Book at first seemed like it would be cool for really young kids. A boy grows up in a graveyard. I mean…it sounds awesome. And it is but it’s also too dark for really young readers. I definitely would say a “No” for kids under ten. I would definitely say the reading sweet spot between ten and thirteen. I don’t see a high schooler being interested in this novel (unless he or she is a cool high schooler who likes Neil Gaiman).

Well, let’s hop to this. There was a family, they got killed. Don’t spend too much time thinking about this, Gaiman doesn’t. The man Jack, however, missed one member. Small boy, around toddler age at the time. He was able to leave and went into the graveyard. Enter Mrs. Owens who vows to protect him once she realizes he is in danger. And so it is proposed and agreed that the boy will have the freedom of the graveyard and will be raised there.

His childhood is interesting. The ealier chapters could easily be short stories. There is a little bit of everything here. The view on death that the book takes is interesting as well. These ghost “live” (air quotes because they are dead) in the yard where they are buried. They observe traditions, the children play games. They court each other. It’s fun but a little depressing.

“Fun but a little depressing” pretty much sums this book. You can’t have a kid grow up in a graveyard with a little bit of a downer.

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neil gaiman graveyard book youth fiction? book revie book review

Christopher Moore-- I'm a funny guy

Okay. I have by passed Christopher Moore in the bookstore for years. His covers have intrigued me but I’ve never read his plots. One day I decided that since I was branching out, I might as well give him a try.

And so I stumbled upon “Bloodsucking Fiends.” I am sucker for a vampire story, especially a funny one. In a nutshell, Jody gets turned, Thomas C. Flood falls for her, there is a really old vampire hunting them and killing random people around the city. They must defeat the old vampire and find a balance in their vampire/human relationship.

I want to start this by saying that overall, I liked this book. It was humorous, original and was sprinkled with vampire literature references such as “The Vampire Lestat.” Most of the characters were likable and there was no part in which I felt like crying. It was a light read that didn’t feel “beach book-y. ” There is also a good twist in there. I will be reading more Christopher Moore in the future.

There. Now for what didn’t work.

Jody. She’s not as annoying as Bella (Twilight) or Sookie (True Blood) but she’s pretty damned annoying. She is selfish and though Thomas is weird, you feel kind of bad for him that he’s saddled with this woman. I hate sounding like that. You don’t always wish for Jody’s sunrise death but it comes to mind a few times. I just thought vampires weren’t supposed to be whiny. I mean Lestat whined sometimes but he had real problems. Jody just needs to lose five pounds and be able to eat French Fries without throwing up.

Remember I said this book was funny? It is. It is the type of funny that makes you want tired of laughing. Okay Moore, we get it. You are soo funny. Really, I’m laughing…can we wrap up the story…maybe give a little more to plot? No? More jokes? Okay. The humor wasn’t forced but it was a bit much and the book, while quick, could have been quicker. It felt at some points the story suffered because of his need to be quirky.

So I would definitely recommend this book for a quick read if you aren’t doing anything else for the day.

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Lion's Blood...you should read this

The sticker on the book says “Science Fiction” but the genre on the wiki page says “Alternate History” but I’m going to call it “Speculative Fiction” and split the difference. It fits all three but I’m picky.

Anyway, I was excited to read this story thanks to a post on Angry Black Woman in which Steven Barnes was named as a very top SciFi author and also a black man. I had been on a quest for black people in SciFi ever since Octavia Butler. Anyway, I came across this man and was intrigued.

I was afraid that Lion’s Blood would be too dense (read: smart) for me. He gives a lot of historical background which is great for the setting but at the end of the day, I’m a plot girl. The book’s premise seems basic enough: What if white people were slaves? Barnes goes deeper than that. He takes that question and incoporates all the hisotrical implications that come along with it. Africa is more advance while Europe remains tribal, Islam in the majority religion. And so on.

The story is set around the two completely worlds of two boys in a unlikely friendships. Aidan is an Irishman torn from his home and witness to slavery’s destruction of his family. Kai is Wakil Abu Ali’s son and therefore lives a more than comfortable life that is controlled by obligations and expectations. Kai owns Aidan, which puts a dent in their friendship because…I mean well…that’s uncomfortable.

Aidan has a dream of putting his family back together as a freeman but how far is he willingly to go? The answer: Pretty far, this is slavery! Abu Ali is known as a nice master who let’s his slaves keep their names and their religion but I mean…it’s slavery. Aidan lives in the slave quarters known as “Ghost Town.” I felt uncomfortable at the level of hate terms the slaves had for the masters (“black bastards”) but..it’s slavery.

Barnes does not sugar coat a moment of this hardship. I found myself cringing more than once reading this book. He goes into every whip, dead body and scene in which loved ones and family members are sold. The scene which Aidan’s witnesses his father’s death (not a spoiler) is also devasting. Luckily, the books is not all brutal and tears. He puts in humor and love which lightens the load of the book. Make no mistake, this book is heavy.

I was scared for a moment that I would give up and put this book down before I reached page 200 but then I kept going and after about page 250, I could not put this book down. Actually, by the time you get to “Sophia”, you know you are going to have to finish this. The book has great characters, as well. It would be easy to paint Kai as a spoiled brat and his family as monsters but Barnes did something more. He made Kai and his family real. There were times when certain members were monsters and times when they were human.

Aidan’s transformation is also something spectuclar to watch. He goes from an ignorant boy to a foolish teen to a life harden man. His friendship with Kai has a deep impact with him. It’s hard to describe Aidan without spoilers. Just know that you’ll like him more than Kai most of the time because…slavery.

The friendship is also well defined in that he defines the uncertainity of it well. The lines of master and slave don’t magically disappear from the story when they are together. Both men, Aidan more than Kai, are distrustful of the other at different points but love is clearly there.

So in short, this book was educational, had a great plot, violent (there’s a war but it doesn’t really happen til near the end still violence), it is a tale of honor and maybe I’m in my honeymoon phase but I can’t find a thing wrong with it. He clearly did his studying up on Islam and Muslims and Shaka Zulu. He even lists the books he used in the back.

I don’t have a rating system so just read the book.

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Steven Barnes Lion's Blood book review

Blood Colony or THIS BOOK WAS FANTASTIC

Tananarive Due is a name I’m going to have to get used to saying. Let’s do some back story first because I love back story.

I have been passing by her books for over a year now because I didn’t trust her. The plots sounded too good and I learned my lesson from Banks (see previous post) about plots gone wrong. I feared out dated slang and awkwardness. I won’t lie. I believe I’ve already gone through my love/hate relationship with black authors. I am slowly but surely changing my ways. I closed myself off after I got tired of Eric Jerome Dickey (there will be no reviews of Eric Jerome Dickey on this page. Sorry. No.) and the African American section of Borders is enough to make my blood run cold. We won’t go into it. We won’t.

Anyway, Blood Colony follows an immortal sect with “the Living Blood” (say it in a spooky voice, m’kay?). The Living Blood is powerful and can heal diseases in others. The main one focused on in this book is HIV/AIDS. Members and mortals of the brotherhood have been discreetly giving this blood out to countries who have been ravished by the disease. They have lowered the numbers in those places but the United States has banned the blood. It is called Glow there and has bio terrorists labels from the government.

Glow is passed along an underground railroad with the main source leading back to Fana, a powerful 17 year old daughter of immortals. After her friend is captured, they both escape the sect and are hunted down by not only Fana’s family and the Brotherhood but also another dangerous immortal sect that wants the blood back.

Basically, Fana is caught in the middle of a war that’s been going on hundreds of years before her birth and so her coming of age story will make your coming of age story look like the Smurfs. She has to make a decision that could not only effect everyone she loves but the world. The world.

Now this book is the last in a series and I didn’t know this until I got to the end. I am sooo going back to the beginning. This book was excellent with very few flaws. I feel like I can’t wait for her to continue this series. The plot is complicated yet simple at the same time. At times it can feel like a maze and at others it appears to be a comedy of errors. I haven’t read a novel of this greatness with a young black woman as the lead since Butler’s Parable of the Sower.

I had a hard time putting this book down and that feeling makes me feel GOOOD.

So in conclusion: Blood Colony is a book I would highly recommend if you like that whole history, moral dilemma, epic-ness, POC people LEADING in a sci-fi(?) type of book. I question mark science fiction because I need a better grasp on the definition.

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tananarive due blood colony review

Hatin' Post: I can't read the Vampire Huntress series

Breathe. When I first heard about vampire slayer series featuring a black woman, it didn’t quite hit me. I hadn’t quite gotten into the whole “vampire stories are totally awesome” mood yet. After finally becoming a Buffy fan, reading Ann Rice and doing other total main stream things that signify a “vampire stories are totally awesome” mindset, I got excited about The Vampire Huntress. I got thrilled.

The first thing I did was look up where to find it and found a copy at Southfield Library. I sat near the fake fireplace and prepared myself to be wowed. I was reading history…(I had only read one Octavia Butler book at this point) a black featured in a fantasy novel. NO WAY! I opened that book confident that I would catch up on the series and then be waiting at bookstores to buy the new one when it came out.

The beginning of Minion was actually pretty interesting. I was sucked in and then….

Okay, I’ll be brief because this is one hatin’ post I don’t actually WANT to do but I feel the need to get this off my book loving chest. The dialogue pretty much ruined this book for me. I put it down the first time only slightly disappointed. When I picked it up years later for the second time, I was kinda ticked. Perhaps it’s Banks over use of “slang” or her lingo (dude, these righteous and brother and sister are her crew and she loves her hood…I get it…I have mad love for it) but I was irked. Here you have a perfectly good storyline about a young Black woman fulfilling her destiny as a Vampire Slayer and adding in the dangerous love angle from the wrong side of the tracks… also the back stories of her crew… AND THE FACT THAT THEY FIGHT VAMPIRES. I shouldn’t have a problem with you. And yet, I so do.

Am I saying that books should be white suburban we are all American so we sound the same washed? Not at all. The book takes place in an urban setting, no one grew up in the average American dream that adds to the series. There is a realism there that I would LOVE to see play out on the screen. However, sometimes a narrator can just narrate without “flava” all the time. I swear I saw the word “homegirl” in there. Did people even say that after the early 90s? We should take in account now that I’m not up on slang. I’m not. Hardly at all really. But then at times it seemed like neither was L.A. Banks. The difference between us being I don’t write books that feature it.

This is long and it’s because I’m pissed. I wanted to like this series and find that I am shut out because I can’t read it. I can only hope she improved on this aspect throughout the series but bump it. I’ll try harder next time.

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Coraline: I read a book for kids

Outside of Harry Potter, I have very little interest in young adult fiction. I believe Coraline most likely falls the elementary school age level of reading. I read Coraline because 1. The movie was made of awesome and 2. Neil Gaiman is friggin awesome.

I did not regret the decision to read this 153 (155?) page book. Neil Gaiman wittingly paints the picture of Coraline’s disappointing childhood setting in the voice and logic of a young girl. The book seamless goes from the ordinary to the supernatural and back. There isn’t much I have to say about this book expect that is a pretty good read. It is dark in a fun way, if that makes sense. I would say appropriate for ages 8 and up simply because there are parts that are a tad scary. I can admit I cringed. The other mother is no friggin joke.

I fully plan on encouraging my future children to read this book and I look forward to reading any other Neil Gaiman book.

How does it compare to the movie? I rarely say this…I liked the movie better. I loved the character who didn’t exist in the book. I also really wish I would have read the graphic novel.

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