Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.
Novahead
by Steve Aylett
Promo copy:
About to quit the failed experiment of civilisation, fake detective Taffy Atom is detained by one last case – a boy with a bomb in his mind. But what’s the trigger? Pursued by cops, mobsters, mercenaries and a mechanical swan, Atom carries the bomb and trigger through Beerlight City, the single holdout of creative mischief in a world overtaken by the trend-led Fadlands. By the relentless principles of gun karma Aylett’s final Beerlight book lands you in the Delayed Reaction Bar and fixes you a glass of antifreeze with everything in it. Listen to your heart. It will not stop slowly.
I reviewed the previous Beerlight book, Atom, for Nova Express.
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| Describing Steve Aylett’s wild ride Atom is a lot like holding water in your hands. The thought stays with you for a mere moment until it just runs through your fingers. You remember the experience vividly, but are unable to accurately explain the sensation.
Three figures emerged from Atom’s brownstone. A cloaked cadaver cradling its gored face, followed by a naked Atom and the fat gent carrying a fishtank between them. In the tank’s gloom rocked a giant mouth with a tail.
Atom is Taffy Atom, private detective (or private defective as he is referred to early on). His partner is Madison “Maddy” Drowner, weapons designer (Creator of such unique weapons as the Syndication bomb, which strips the pretext out of everything.) and best friend Jed Helms, an intelligent piranha. With even stranger villains, Aylett’s world is Dick Tracy on acid. Like a runaway Maltese Falcon, the plot defies description. With only glimpses and moments of what we know and how it should be, it all somehow makes sense.
It is a testament to Aylett’s skill that he keeps the reader’s rapt attention throughout. His sense of humor is dead on, with several passages demanding to be read aloud. His timing is exemplary, and Aylett knows when to give the reader a breather. With all the excitement and laughter, I loathed for the adventure to end. Luckily for me (and other readers), the climax is oddly satisfying.
“Ladies and gentleman,” said Atom, “if you’ll indulge me. I have assigned a musical note to every grade of human lie. Here’s my rendition of the President’s inaugural address.” And he took out a clarinet.
Aylett maintains the insanity right up until the last page playing a game of psychic chicken and refusing to swerve. Atom takes you on a wild ride far afield of ordinary fiction (SF or not), and it’s a ride not soon forgotten.
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Needless to say, I’m looking forward to Novahead.
Happythankyoumoreplease
Promo copy:
Josh Radnor (CBS’ Emmy-nominated ”How I Met Your Mother”) wrote, directed and stars in happythankyoumoreplease, a sharp comedy centered on a group of 20-something New Yorkers struggling to figure out themselves, their lives and their loves.
On his way to a meeting with a publisher, aspiring novelist Sam Wexler (Radnor) finds Rasheen, a young boy separated from his family on the subway. When the quiet Rasheen refuses to be left alone with social services, Sam learns the boy has already been placed in six previous foster homes and impulsively agrees to let the boy stay with him for a couple days. Dropped into Sam’s chaotic, bachelor lifestyle, Rasheen is introduced to Sam’s circle of friends; Annie (Malin Akerman) who has an unhealthy pattern of dating the wrong men, as well as an auto-immune disorder which has rendered her hairless, Mary-Catherine (Zoe Kazan) and Charlie (Pablo Schreiber) whose potential move to Los Angeles threatens their relationship, and Mississippi (Kate Mara), an aspiring singer/waitress who tests Sam’s fear of commitment. When Sam’s unexpected friendship with Rasheen develops, he realizes adulthood is not about waiting for the right answers to get the life you want, but simply stumbling ahead and figuring them out in the process.
Featuring a brilliant young cast and music from breaking indie musicians, happythankyoumoreplease deftly captures the uncertainty and angst of what it is to be young, vulnerable, and desperate to find out who you are – or perhaps more importantly, who you want to be.
Hexed: The Iron Druid Chronicles
by Kevin Hearne
Cover by Gene Mollica
Promo copy:
Atticus O’Sullivan, last of the Druids, doesn’t care much for witches. Still, he’s about to make nice with the local coven by signing a mutually beneficial nonaggression treaty—when suddenly the witch population in modern-day Tempe, Arizona, quadruples overnight. And the new girls are not just bad, they’re badasses with a dark history on the German side of World War II.
With a fallen angel feasting on local high school students, a horde of Bacchants blowing in from Vegas with their special brand of deadly decadence, and a dangerously sexy Celtic goddess of fire vying for his attention, Atticus is having trouble scheduling the witch hunt. But aided by his magical sword, his neighbor’s rocket-propelled grenade launcher, and his vampire attorney, Atticus is ready to sweep the town and show the witchy women they picked the wrong Druid to hex.
Part II
Stuff received 6/5/11 Part I was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon
