What it comes down to with this book is that the barriers to entry were too high. (I shouldn’t have to add the “for me” to that statement, but I will because other people are losing their mind over this book and it was nominated for a bunch of awards, so clearly SOMEONE gets it.) With science fiction and fantasy as a genre, certain barriers to entry are expected, even looked forward to. I always relish that feeling of confusion and displacement I get when […]
Meh, At Least It’s Short!
I read this both because my book club assigned it for the month of April and also because I am a Hugo voter and got a free copy of it in the voting packet. I was familiar with Anders’ work, mostly essays and some short stories, and thought this book sounded really interesting from the description. It was a combination of magic and science, takes place in the SF Bay Area, about modern life with fantastical elements. Sign me up! But this book kind of […]
Cthulhu is An Equal Opportunity Employer
What could be worse than living in the world where the mythos of Cthulhu is real and the Old Ones are merely a spell book reading away from returning to earth to devour humanity? This is the question asked in this novella, a re-telling of one of Lovecraft’s more infamous and racist stories, “The Horror at Red Hook.” Before I read this novella, I read that story in preparation. Well, more accurately, I skimmed it. I’ve read some Lovecraft and enjoyed it, when it wasn’t […]