This review originally appeared on Goodreads on December 11, 2012.

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh

By Michael Chabon – Open Road Media – December 20, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

I'm not a huge fan of lit fic, and if this was by any other author I never would have picked it up. The book is about a diffident, sexually-confused youth and the tragically hip, too-cool-for-school circle of friends he's drawn into during his last summer of post-college, pre-career freedom. It's a coming of age story and a journey of self-discovery. Definitely not my usual thing, but Chabon impressed me with The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, and his willingness to admit his love for genre work has earned him a spot on my shelf as the “acceptable” lit-fic author.

As expected, the whole book was extremely beautifully written. The fact that this was Chabon's creative writing graduate project and his first novel is intimidating to aspiring writers, as he's incredibly skilled right out of the gate.

Unfortunately, the plot doesn't quite live up to the prose. There are two main plot threads here—the narrator learns about himself through interacting with his colorful new friends, and his uneasiness over his gangster father's criminal dealings—and they don't mesh as perfectly as they could. Chabon links them by having one of the narrator's friends, Cleveland, become drawn into Mafia-related dealings, but the connection between the two worlds comes late in the story and is rather tenuous, as it happens after Cleveland's interaction with the group of friends has dwindled considerably. As a result, the “clashing of worlds” the book describes is a little understated.

The bisexual love triangle at the heart of the story is more interesting (I never thought I'd find romantic troubles more captivating than an organized crime story) and sensitively rendered, and it seems that's where Chabon concentrated the bulk of his efforts. Some reviewers complain that the narrator is unsympathetic. I don't entirely agree, but I did find him to be a little fragile and theatrical for a twenty-something man, apt to turn on the waterworks at the drop of a hat. His friends are simultaneously interesting people I'd like to meet AND overwrought, tiresome hipster phonies. People like this aren't uncommon at universities, so I'm willing to chalk this up as super-realistic characterization rather than Chabon creating people that aren't as appealing as he imagined.

The ending was a bit abrupt but satisfying. Without giving anything away, I think the narrator made the best possible choice under the circumstances.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on November 16, 2013.

Starfish

By Peter Watts – Tor Books – July 1999

Review by Robin Marx

Starfish tells the story of the rifters, a group of misfits surgically altered and equipped to work deep undersea on a geothermal power plant. It takes a special breed to cope with the psychological extremes of such a habitat, and it turns out that those best suited to the environment are abuse survivors and sociopaths. The Juan de Fuca Ridge station ends up populated by an unusual crew that includes an incest victim, a wife beater, and even a serial child molester.

While the plot is fairly low-key for the first three quarters of the book, the setting and characters were so compelling that I raced through this book. Already set apart from the bulk of humanity by their violent and traumatic pasts, it was interesting to watch how the rifters, altered by both their implants and their living conditions, gradually became post-human. While some may find the characters unsympathetic and hard to relate to, those readers would be missing the point. They start off damaged humans and end up even more alien.

The climax was exciting and interesting, if a little cryptic in parts. This is the first book of a trilogy, and while I'm excited to see what happens next, I hope that even with the drastic changes introduced at the end of Starfish the series continues to stick with the deep sea setting.

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #ScienceFiction #Starfish #RiftersTrilogy #PeterWatts

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 6, 2011.

My Life as a White Trash Zombie

By Diana Rowland – DAW – July 5, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

This was a good book, but not a great one. It was a quick, pleasant read but one hindered by a few issues.

Much of the book reads like someone had taken a vampire novel and did a find-and-replace, swapping out “vampire” for “zombie” and “blood” for “brains”. That wasn't a major issue for me, since I like newbie vampire stories almost as much as I like zombies, but I can't help feeling more could've been done with zombie tropes to set this book apart from well-trodden vampire ground.

There are a couple other under-developed elements to the story as well. There are some hints about a nascent zombie society, trafficking in cadaver brains, but not much is done with it. There's a half-hearted mystery about a zombie killer, but this is only really brought to the forefront and, somewhat awkwardly, wrapped up in the last twenty pages of the book.

The most nagging issue has to do with the title. The narrator, Angel, is presented as white trash, but there's not much to support that, apart from some superficial set dressing (she drinks too much and does pills, she has a foul mouth). Part of the story is about how she discovers self worth, and how she isn't as trashy as other people and she herself believed, but even with that her voice comes off as too articulate and self-reflective, too suburban mom to sell the “white trash” element promised in the title (and the fantastic cover).

Even with the issues mentioned above, this was still an entertaining read, easily recommended to zombie fans. Whether or not a sequel is coming is left ambiguous, but I think I'd have to think about it before picking up any further installments. The itch has been scratched.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #UrbanFantasy #MyLifeAsAWhiteTrashZombie #DianaRowland

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 11, 2011.

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet

By David Mitchell – Random House – June 23, 2010

Review by Robin Marx

This book turned out quite differently than I expected. I'm not familiar with Mitchell's other output, but articles led me to expect capital-L Literature. The New York Times Book Review blurb on the back cover promised “an achingly romantic story of forbidden love.” The book starts out with way, with the first 175 pages chronicling a Dutch clerk's first few days in the Japanese port of Dejima and his fleeting encounters with an enigmatic local woman, but the historical romance plot is sidelined pretty quickly. The book soon turns into an almost C.S. Forrester-style adventure story—you know, the “rollicking” type—with a despicable bad guy leading an evil cult right out of a Fu Manchu yarn.

Betrayed expectations might lead some to put the book down, but if you can keep up with the sudden changes in tone, the book is consistently good throughout. I couldn't find many faults with the Japanese historical details (something that has been a frequent disappointment when reading English language books set in Japan), and Mitchell's occasionally purple capital L Literary stylings are balanced out by an earthy sense of humor. Worth a read if you like historical fiction as a genre or have an interest in Japan.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Literature #HistoricalFiction #Japan #TheThousandAutumnsOfJacobDeZoet #DavidMitchell

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on December 17, 2012.

Sleepless, Burning Life

By Mike Allen – Mythic Delirium Books – June 23, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

Created for a lesbian steampunk anthology, this novella has an exciting premise, but the execution doesn't quite manage to do it justice. The plot involves a young woman, Jyshiu, sacrificing her life to rescue a goddess imprisoned in the afterlife. Driven by love, her quest leads her up the spinning, whirring clockwork tower underpinning the universe.

The Moorcockian setting and goddess/mortal romance are intriguing, but the novella falls down at the very end. The ambiguous “choose your own ending” climax is too clever for its own good. It appears the author's aim was to keep the reader wanting more, but rather than concluding with a pleasant tantalizing feeling I was left deflated and disappointed. The story could've been fleshed out more, too. As it stands, Jyshiu's journey doesn't seem like the ordeal it should be, it needed more trials and tribulations along the way.

This was an interesting read, but ultimately an unsatisfying one. I'd like to see the story reworked into a novel, fleshed out and given an appropriate resolution.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #Steampunk #SleeplessBurningLife #MikeAllen

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 10, 2022.

The Book of Yokai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore

By Michael Dylan Foster (Writer), Shinonome Kijin (Artist) – University of California Press – January 14, 2015

Review by Robin Marx

Books about yōkai are becoming increasingly popular, even in English, but this is the clearest explanation I’ve encountered about the cultural context surrounding these folkloric monsters in Japan. It’s written in an extremely engaging manner and is a pleasure to read as well.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Nonfiction #Japan #TheBookOfYokai #MichaelDylanFoster

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 27, 2021.

Bedbugs

By Ben H. Winters – Quirk Books – September 6, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

This book will make you itch.

While I enjoyed this book, it was a bit of a slow burn. The prose and characterization were fine, but the horror elements don’t really kick in until the last quarter of the book, when it takes an exceedingly bizarre and fun turn.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #Bedbugs #BenHWinters

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 20, 2015.

Coldbrook

By Tim Lebbon – Titan Books – April 8, 2014

Review by Robin Marx

Zombie Stargate. If this premise appeals, by all means pick this book up.

The beginning was intriguing and exciting, reminiscent of the beginning of the Half-Life video game. Scientists working Coldbrook, a top-secret underground research complex, succeed in tearing open a rift to a parallel Earth. After days of passive monitoring by the scientists, one of the alternate Earth's inhabitants stumble through the portal. Unfortunately for the researchers, their first contact happens to be with a zombie.

The situation goes to hell almost immediately, and in a realistic manner. Despite all the protocols in place, one highly placed staff member has a very human moment of weakness, choosing to flee the facility and ensure the safety of his family, rather than stay for the security lock-down. While selfish characters in zombie stories tend to get their just desserts fairly soon after their betrayal, Vic remains for the remainder of the book as one of the main viewpoint characters, lending an interesting perspective to the apocalyptic events that follow.

While I enjoyed this book—the first half was unputdownable—there were some issues that kept it from greatness. Despite an abundance of action, it still felt like the second half lost steam. Many interesting elements (the culture of the alternate Earth humans, the search for a cure, etc.) were introduced, only to receive only perfunctory or lackluster development. Without revealing too much, the backstory behind the mysterious Inquisitor turned out to be a disappointment, nowhere near as exciting and cool as initially hinted. New characters (such as a biker gang leader named Chaney) were introduced too late and in too convenient a manner for me to care much about their eventual fates.

I also noticed a few Britishisms crept into the text. Seeing multiple American point-of-view characters referring to their flashlights as “torches” took me out of the story, and it was particularly jarring when a rough-and-tumble all-American biker promises scared children candy and ice cream “for tea.” Sure enough, the About the Author mentions that Lebbon is Welsh. It's a minor point, but I feel like the editor should have caught these anachronisms.

Coldbrook was a good read, but not quite a great one. While there's plenty of room left for a sequel, I think I'm satisfied with just the one book.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #ScienceFiction #Coldbrook #TimLebbon

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 2, 2017.

Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way

By Bruce Campbell – Thomas Dunne Books – October 1, 2015

Review by Robin Marx

While a work of fiction, this novel is written in the first person with Bruce Campbell himself as the viewpoint character, and the narrative is packed with living Hollywood figures like Richard Gere and Renee Zellweger. The story involves veteran B-movie actor Bruce Campbell landing a supporting role in a big budget romantic comedy called “Lets Make Love.” Over the course of the book, Campbell finds himself a bit of a fish out of water as a down-to-earth working man surrounded by Hollywood elite. Hoping to make the most of his opportunity, he throws himself into the role. Most of the book is about his awkward attempts to prepare for the role, researching the lives of doormen, southern gentlemen, relationship experts, and so forth. Over the course of the story he also offers a variety of unsolicited tips and hints to his fellow cast and crew, with the result that the rom-com begins to chart a course in a very different direction than originally intended.

The tone of the story is everything Bruce Campbell fans could hope for. Both his cocky charm and self-deprecating sense of humor come through loud and clear in his writing voice. As a result, the book reads like Campbell himself is relating tales of his misadventures to a science fiction convention audience. While Campbell is great at spinning yarns, as a work of fiction the story doesn't completely gel. The motives behind the antagonist's—ostensibly a Campbell superfan—attempts to undermine Campbell's career remained murky throughout the book. While funny, the ending also felt rushed and even more cartoonishly over the top than the story preceding it.

Overall this is a fun read and enthusiastically recommended to Campbell fans, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I have his non-fiction showbiz anecdotes.

★★★☆☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fiction #Humor #MakeLoveTheBruceCampbellWay #BruceCampbell

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 7, 2017.

The Tick People

By Carlton Mellick III – Eraserhead Press – February 9, 2016

Review by Robin Marx

What if technology could allow you to find your perfect soulmate? What if your genitalia fit perfectly together like a literal lock and key? What if your soulmate was a six foot tall mutant insect? And what if you all lived on the back of a colossal depressed dog? This novella answers these questions.

The Tick People belongs to a subgenre of weird fiction called “bizarro.” From what I've seen, bizarro is to weird tales what splatterpunk is to conventional horror fiction: it takes elements present in the parent genre and ramps them up to incredibly graphic heights.

This novella definitely isn't for everyone, it revels in grotesque, ooze-slathered descriptions of sex between the protagonist and his arthropod paramour, but it seemed to me there was more going on than just a juvenile attempt to shock the audience for shock's sake. The end result felt like it was influenced by both Kafka and Terry Gilliam's Brazil, with bits of Douglas Adams and punk mixed in.

Recommended for people who like the weirder side of horror.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Horror #Bizarro #WeirdFiction #TheTickPeople #CarltonMellickIII