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.

★★★☆☆

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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.

★★★☆☆

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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.

★★★☆☆

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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.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 6, 2013.

The Viscount and the Witch

By Michael J. Sullivan – Ridan Publishing – October 8, 2011

Review by Robin Marx

I wasn't familiar with this author or his Riyria Chronicles series, but this short story has motivated me to investigate further. The title story itself is a bit sleight and ends abruptly, but the characters (well-meaning soldier Hadrian and his cynical thief comrade Royce) and their interactions were appealing. Fans of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories may notice a similar vibe.

The sample Riyria Chronicles book chapters included in the e-book have also piqued my interest. I've added the first book to my shopping list, and I look forward to seeing if Sullivan's plots live up to his characters.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #Fantasy #TheRiyriaChronicles #TheViscountAndTheWitch #MichaelJSullivan

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 4, 2013.

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

By Lois McMaster Bujold – Baen Books – November 6, 2012

Review by Robin Marx

It's always a treat when a new Vor book arrives. This book focuses on one of the series' supporting characters rather than Miles Vorkosigan himself, but the book was no less satisfying because of it.

Like Cryoburn, plot took a bit of a back seat in this book, with the characters first and foremost. The story itself was interesting, but it progressed in a much quieter direction than the first quarter of the book suggested. There was also less action than I expected. I'm used to the diplomatic direction the recent Miles stories have taken, but cousin Ivan has always been a man of action. This series' books are gradually turning from science fiction novels into romance novels with science fiction trappings. And you know? Strangely enough, I'm OK with that. Bujold's well-rendered characters have always been her strong point, and they feel so real and familiar to me that listening to their conversations and spending time with them is enough. The mortal danger so common in previous volumes isn't necessary to keep my interest. Ivan and his family are like old friends, and new character Tej is a worthy addition to the cast of characters.

I look forward to the next installment in the series, and I hope it lasts forever.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on June 21, 2012.

Travellers' Rest

By James Enge – Pyr – December 3, 2010

Review by Robin Marx

This sword & sorcery story plays out almost like a spaghetti western, with the moody wizard-swordsman Morlock Ambrosius and his dwarfish companion happening on a tiny hamlet with a dark secret. Both the characters and story remind me a great deal of Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, sharing driven, melancholy characters, a tense atmosphere, and weird events. This free Kindle novella was released by James Enge's publisher Pyr to introduce readers to his Morlock Ambrosius series, and it certainly succeeded in capturing my interest.

★★★★☆

#CapsuleReviewArchive #BookReview #SwordAndSorcery #Fantasy #JamesEnge #TravellersRest

This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 12, 2014.

Werewolves in Their Youth

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

Review by Robin Marx

This collection of short stories is mostly fluff. Highly engagingly written fluff, but fluff nonetheless.

While Chabon has a reputation of being a little more plot-oriented than most modern capital-L Literary authors, most of the stories here are primarily character studies and little “slice of life” stories, many with a minor epiphany towards the end. Almost without exception, the protagonist harbors some sort of deep-seated resentment towards another character (embittered husbands abound in particular), then something happens and they show some small sign of either moving on or hinting towards a reconciliation with others.

Only a few of the stories stood out for me. One involves a husband trying to cope with his wife's decision to bear her rapist's child—heavy and sensitively rendered—and another is one of Chabon's August Van Zorn series of Lovecraft pastiches. The latter stood out not only because it deviated from the formula used by the preceding stories, but because it was so much fun. Chabon gleefully borrows tropes and names from Lovecraft while still telling a legitimately good and spooky little story about a town with an ominous secret. This is the Chabon I like best, one that doesn't discriminate between high- and low-brow genres, instead mixing the best of both worlds.

Had it been written by any other author, this collection would probably warrant two stars. But even when the plots are so thin and meager, Chabon's voice and characterization are so consistently strong that even his more bare-bones, samey output is still undeniably a pleasure to read. While not recommended as an introduction to Chabon, existing fans should enjoy it.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on June 21, 2012.

The Book of Taltos

By Steven Brust – Ace – January 8, 2002

Review by Robin Marx

This omnibus collects the fourth and fifth volumes in Steven Brust's Dragaera series, Taltos and Phoenix. I read the first three books collected as The Book of Jhereg about five years ago, and while I remembered a bit about the world Brust presents, those stories had completely faded from my memory. I expect the same will happen with these two installments as well. The world of Dragaera is interesting and appealing, but other aspects of the books aren't quite as strong.

Although published fourth, Taltos is chronologically the first story in the series. It introduces Vlad Taltos, a human assassin operating in the Dragaeran Empire. In an interesting twist, the tall, magically-adept Dragaerans (nicknamed “elfs” by the humans) are the dominant species in Brust's world, with humans (called “Easterners” by the Dragaerans) generally relegated to the fringes of society. This book covers Taltos' youth, with a parallel plot-line involving a quest into the Dragaeran land of the dead. The story provides a good deal of insight into the character of Taltos, as well as describing how he gained some of the powerful allies that feature so heavily in the other stories.

The other book in the omnibus, Phoenix, was the more troubled of the pair. In this story, Taltos is called upon by a goddess to assassinate the king of a minor nation. Just why this is necessary is never satisfactorily revealed, although there's some hinting about portents, etc. There's another thread dealing with the human liberation group Taltos's wife belongs to and it's struggle with the Dragaeran Empire, but this plot seemed fairly muddled as well. The ending was much better than the rest of the book, however; Taltos and the final pages of Phoenix are good enough to earn three stars, rather than the two I would've awarded otherwise.

I'm starting to thing Brust may not be the author for me. I find the world of Dragaera interesting and I'm fond of fantasy crime stories (Lankhmar, etc.), but the plots in this volume were a little weak. The Vlad Taltos character is well realized, but the (unnecessarily numerous) supporting characters basically seem to have one shtick. There's Sneaky Guy, Thief Girl, Uptight Swordsman, etc. Whenever Sneaky Guy appears, he's being sneaky, that's it, there's no further development. Uptight Swordsman is Uptight, and Long Cat is Long.

Vlad Taltos's “voice” (the books are written in first person) also rubs me the wrong way. He relates the story in a very casual, modern tone. He talks like every Joss Whedon character, basically. (It didn't surprise me at all to find out that Brust has written a full-length Firefly fan-fic novel.) For some readers (who may also be Whedon fans), this is probably not a drawback. However, I can only take Whedon in small doses, and when Brust (speaking through the character of Vlad Taltos) is describing life and death struggles and the fate of nations in a Whedonesque flippant, detached manner, I find I can't muster up much emotional involvement in the story. If the narrator isn't taking things seriously, why should I?

I own one more Dragaera omnibus, collecting the next two volumes in the series. I'll read Athyra and Orca before deciding whether to keep going or to abandon the series entirely.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 20, 2019.

When Gravity Fails

By George Alec Effinger – Arbor House – January 1987

Review by Robin Marx

This sleek cyberpunk novel is set in the Middle East after the decline and Balkanization of the Western superpowers. It focuses on Marîd Audran, a low-level fixer in the Budayeen, the seamy red light district of an unnamed city. When a number of his acquaintances are viciously murdered, he finds himself breaking a number of his personal rules—including becoming entangled with powerful underworld figures and adopting personality-changing cybernetic enhancements—in an effort to find the chameleonic killer.

While very different in terms of subject matter, this book reminded me a bit of the contemporaneous Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams: solid cyberpunk fiction that includes popular cyberpunk genre hallmarks while adding some innovation of its own. Like many of the best cyberpunk novels, When Gravity Fails draws inspiration from hardboiled detective novels, peppering the narrative with shady cops, dangerous mob bosses, femmes fatale, sympathetic bartenders, and a world-weary protagonist. On the other hand, the Middle Eastern setting and “moddies” (personality modifying software) in particular felt very fresh. I was also pleasantly surprised to see multiple transgender characters presented as sympathetic human beings in a book published in 1987.

When Gravity Fails had everything I like to see in cyberpunk fiction plus some new twists. I look forward to reading the sequels.

★★★★☆

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