Redshirts by John Scalzi

Any geek worth his or her salt will know where the title for this book came from. For those of you who aren’t Sci-Fi nerds, it comes from Star Trek and a “redshirt” is a low ranking crew member who accompanies the Captain and other bridge officers on dangerous missions away from the ship. The redshirts almost always die. This concept is so ingrained into Star Trek lore, that J.J. Abrams even included it in his movie re-booting the franchise a few years ago. Here, Scalzi puts his own unique — and hilarious — spin on the idea in his newest* novel. (*Dang it, I wrote this review when the book came out last June, but we’ve had too many hold requests on it for us to promote it on our blog until now.)

Regular readers of this blog may remember what a huge fan I am of John Scalzi, and will note that I have blogged about several of his books before. So, suffice it to say, that I was really, really looking forward to this one! Ensign Andrew Dahl is a recent graduate of Space Fleet Academy and newly assigned to the Universal Union’s flagship vessel Intrepid. He makes a few friends with other new crewmen (and women) while waiting to board the ship and as soon as he’s on board he’s approached by the Chief Science Officer, Q’eeng. Dahl is accompanied to his assigned department (Xenobiology) and on the way Q’eeng asks him if he is interested in participating in away missions. Dahl isn’t necessarily keen to leave the ship on any dangerous missions, but he gets the impression that Q’eeng wants him to agree, so he does. After a few strange incidents in the Xenobiology lab, he and his friends discuss the odd start to their assignments in the mess hall — and they all seem to have noticed some of the same strange things about the U.U. ship Intrepid. Everyone on board, from bridge officers to department heads, to crewmen (and women), behaves VERY strangely about away missions.

Soon, Dahl and some fellow ensigns accompany a couple of Lieutenants to a space station which emitted a distress call to which the Intrepid has responded. The two away teams find themselves in some very deep doo-doo because the machines on board the space station have gone berserk and are killing all the humans. Needless to say, once the survivors have returned to their ship, Ensign Dahl and his crewmates begin to put two and two together about why everyone board is so twitchy about away missions and working directly with the bridge officers.  As the tagline on the front of the book says, “They were expendable … until they started comparing notes.” What follows is a rollicking send up of that old sci-fi show we geeks love, which also has some thought-provoking big ideas – and “meta-ness” – behind it.

If you liked Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide series of books, if you enjoyed the movie Galaxy Quest,  and definitely if you are a Fan of Star Trek (Trekkie or Trekker), you have got to read this new novel by this award-winning author and all around cool guy.

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Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

 Serial killers scare me.  Just the idea of them gives me the creeps.  Why then, you must ask, did I pick up a book about serial killers?  Well, I had heard that Dexter was a little different.  And trust me, “a little different” is putting it nicely.

Dexter Morgan is likable, funny, mild-mannered, and blends in entirely as a nondescript human being.  The only thing different about him, according to Dexter himself, is that he probably lacks a soul.  Because of this tiny defect, Dexter is a serial killer.  But, don’t be put off, he’s one of the good guys. He only kills those truly deserving; the bad guys who earn death by their heinous crimes.  And Dexter’s job as a blood splatter expert on the Miami Police Department put him in prime place to keep up his helpful habit.  But, then a serial killer emerges that commits such perfect crimes that Dexter finds himself intrigued or even jealous.  When the killer’s style veers too close to Dexter’s own particular activities, Dexter doesn’t know whether to be frightened or flattered.  And starts to doubt his own innocence in the whole matter.

I was quite surprised that I enjoyed Dexter as much as I did.  The book is a perfect balance of humor, horror, and intrigue.  There is just enough horror (i.e. cut up bodies, unknown killers, and general creepiness), yet there is enough of something else to keep it from being full on horror.  For me, the humorous, self-deprecating, often ridiculous narration by Dexter keeps your from being pulled in too far.  The author, Jeff Lindsay, has managed to create an entirely unique idea and one can tell why the series of books and the show based upon them are wildly popular.

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The Egyptologist by Arthur Phillips

The only book that I can compare The Egyptologist to would be one of my other all-time favorites, The Prestige. Both of these books are supremely well-executed exercises in the unreliable narrator. As with The Prestige, The Egyptologist consists entirely of either journal entries or letters written to and from the main characters of the novel. This lack of knowledge given to the reader ends up making the entire novel a crazy thrill-ride where you, the reader, are called upon to make your own judgments about what is really happening. There is no simple point in the book where some omniscient narrator tells you what happened. There are at least two people constantly telling you different versions of the same story, and you are left wondering who to believe.

Ralph Trilipush is an aspiring archaeologist with a sordid, mysterious past. Ralph is the discoverer of what appears to be ancient Egyptian pornography: The Admonitions of Atum-hadu. Atum-hadu is thought to be a pharaoh that never existed, but Ralph isn’t so sure that he wasn’t a real king. So Ralph sets out to Egypt to uncover the tomb of Atum-hadu. Meanwhile, back in Boston where Ralph’s fiancee and creditors are waiting for him, Harry Ferrell, a private detective who came on to this case through an entirely different case, is starting to suspect Trilipush of foul play, and voices his concerns to involved parties, which starts a chain of events leading to a mind-blowing conclusion.

The Egyptologist is truly everything one could want in a novel. Great characters, interesting plot and great writing. Throughout the entire book, Phillips maintains a darkly comic tone to all these events, especially in the journals of Ralph Trilipush. But once the reader reaches the final climax of the book, the last 40 pages are some of the spookiest, most disturbing that I have ever read.

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Diary by Chuck Palahniuk

Diary takes place in the form of a “Coma Diary” by Misty Tracy Wilmot, Her husband Peter, who had been slowly losing his mind is found comatose in the garage after a failed suicide attempt. After her husband dies, she starts getting calls from people whose houses Peter had remodeled; they call to say that they are missing a specific room of their house. So now Misty has to deal with them as well as her snobby mother-in-law, her creepy daughter, and the strange events goings-on of the so-called, “sophisticated,” island her husband dragged her to.

Palahniuk’s method of jumping from present to the past keeps us drawn in and engaged. The small fish shaped island by the name of Waytansea, in which all of this takes place is now infested with tourists and the natives will do anything to drive them away, but at the same time need the money they bring with them. How does all of this tie in? In the darkest way Chuck Palahniuk can imagine with his own twist of humor this book wraps up very nicely with an amazing anti-climactic climax.

Another great book from one of my favorite authors. It is entertaining and has some completely surprising plot twists. This book is intense and not for the light-hearted.

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Check out Chuck’s website The Cult.

The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall

If they gave prizes for the best first line of a first novel, Brady Udall would have no competition:  “If I could tell you only one thing about my life it would be this: when I was seven years old the mailman ran over my head.”

Pronounced dead by paramedics, Edgar is taken to the local hospital where he is revived by a doctor who, henceforth, assumes a rather unusual custody of Edgar’s life. Throughout the course of the novel, Edgar meets a host of characters who have the best and sometimes worst intentions for his well being. Through rehabilitation, torture and attempted suicide Edgar, through the grace of God (though he doesn’t know it), perseveres.

Udall has created a cast of characters that are quirky, flawed, and brilliantly imagined. The story is engaging and triumphant. The writing is superb. An excellent read that truly inspires. Highly Recommended!

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The Executioner Always Chops Twice: Ghastly Blunders on the Scaffold by Geoffrey Abbott

If you ever find yourself facing execution, be absolutely certain the executioner is not drunk. Or poorly trained. Or squeamish. Or mad at you. Otherwise, you might be in for an even worse day than you expected. Abbott’s book chronicles several centuries of execution methods and the unpleasant results that occur when things go wrong.

If you can stomach the horrific nature of the subject, this small book is written in a lively and witty manner. Organized into chapters by execution method, each incident covered gives a short background on the person(s) involved, what they did, and what went wrong when their time came. Abbott also reports some of the famous last words of the condemned, newspaper and other contemporary accounts, and interesting bits of trivia.

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Down and Out in Paris and London – George Orwell

Have you ever washed dishes? I’m not talking about washing up after dinner. I mean a dishwasher job at a restaurant. Well, I have. Of the numerous degrading and humiliating experiences I’ve endured in my lifetime, it has to be in the top five. Some of my degrading and humiliating experiences were so rotten that I am sure I have blocked them out so I can go on with my life. One can say that there is something noble in an honest day’s work, however, when I look back on those days I don’t recall ever feeling noble or anything else for that matter. I do remember vacillating between misery and just feeling numb, so I guess I felt something. You are constantly derided and chastised by your fellow co-workers. You are constantly covered with a vomitous, gelatinous substance. You are covered in water. Water that gets into your shoes and makes your jeans feel great in 90-degree weather. Your hands become infused with bleach and when you collapse into bed at night you will constantly be awakened by the bleach fumes when your hands go anywhere near your face. That was my experience, a middle-class, middle-brow, know-nothing from the suburbs.  I cannot imagine what it was like for George Orwell A.K.A.  Eric Blair. Mr. Blair received a King’s scholarship to Eton. One of the top preparatory schools in the world then and now. Blair was raised upper middle class in England at the height of the power and reach of the British Empire. He could have gone on to Oxford or Cambridge and who knows where from there but I am certain he would not have been washing dishes unless he wanted to, which apparently he did. Orwell/Blair took this burden upon himself. He decided that he wanted to see how it was to be truly poor and destitute. He became a vagabond and at one-point was washing dishes in a grimy bistro in Paris. He slept outside covered in newspapers, begged for food and eventually became quite sickly. Well, I don’t want to give away too much. The book is excellent. If life’s got you down, read this. You will be greatly appreciative of your station when you finish the final page.

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Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

When  J.D. Salinger died last year, I, like everyone else who cared, started to reminisce about Catcher in the Rye, his most prominent work. As an adult I can look at Catcher in the Rye from a somewhat wiser perspective. When I first read it, some 31 years ago I was thirteen, perhaps the perfect age. The emotional connection was visceral and sort of all encompassing. I then wanted to read everything by Salinger. The first one I attempted and never finished until about 1o years later was Nine Stories. As far as I can recall, I made it to the the third story. Ten years later I finished the book because I supposed I needed closure. At the time I was still in the throes of adolescence and I was not impressed. Now at 43 I have finally arrived. Understanding these stories and appreciating them for the works of art that they are gives me insight into my own character. In one way or another I can relate to all of these stories. The stories are warm, melancholy, literate and down to earth. The conversations sound like something you hear everyday from strangers and the people you love. Perhaps that is the feeling I get from these stories. I feel as though I am greeting an old friend from long ago. The warmth is there, the familiarity is there and yet somehow it is strikingly sad and distant. The sadness in these stories is not tragic, rather they evoke a certain world weariness that feels comfortable because it’s so real.

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Nation by Terry Pratchett

In a parallel reality to Victorian England, a plague wipes out most of the country’s population–including the first one-hundred-thirty-nine people in line for the throne. The remnants of the British government must locate the next closest heir and his daughter, Ermintrude, both of whom are abroad.

At the same time, a giant tidal wave destroys a particular island nation. Only young Mao has survived, because he was off on an island undergoing his test to become a man. He has left his boy soul on the island, so he arrives back at the Nation—not a boy, not a man, soulless—to bury the bodies of everyone he has ever known. The wave also wrecks the ship carrying Ermintrude back to England. The princess alone survives the wreck and leaves her old identity behind, changing her name to Daphne.  Together, Mao and Daphne try to fathom the tragedy and rebuild their lives as other survivors begin to arrive on the island.

Pratchett does not conceal the grotesque reality of death.  Nor does he avoid the intense spiritual and emotional questions that accompany the clash of cultures in a post-apocalyptic world.  The characters wrestle with identity, cultural heritage, language, racial prejudice, religion, friendship, love, and grief. The philosophical questions are subtle and inconclusive, deftly woven into the narrative.  And underlying all of it is Terry Pratchett’s quirky sense of humor–especially poignant in this dark context.

Although written for young adults, Nation resonates with a broad audience.  The book is neither long nor difficult to read, but it tackles important questions that are sure to keep you thinking even after you put the book down.

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The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman

I was surprised by how very much I enjoyed this wonderful debut novel. Revolving around the lives of the current staff of an English language daily published in Rome, the narrative is broken up by snippets from the past that give the reader greater insight into the paper than the characters themselves have. Each chapter is a short story about one of the characters; the way they weave together to tell the story of the paper itself is a delightful surprise.

Each of these vignettes has its own flavor, and while some are happy or redemptive, most highlight the feelings of futility that must haunt many newsrooms as newspapers are overtaken by the realities of the digital age. Regardless, this is an excellent debut novel with characters any reader is sure to remember. The interconnected stories all tie together beautifully. This is a must-read for debut fiction in 2010.

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