“Demons” is a novella of about a hundred pages, Paranormal Fantasy with a touch of humour. It involves two separate settings: a college campus in the real world, and hell. The main strength of this book is the balance of the writing. We get just enough description to orient us and pull us in, but […]
“Twisted Cow Tales” by Debby Schoeningh
This book is not a novel. It’s a compilation of a set of newspaper articles. As such, it’s meant to be enjoyed in small batches, not read through at one go. As we expect with this sort of book, its success is mostly because of the author’s low-key sense of humour and imaginative wit. She […]
“Thad Saves the Galaxy” by C. T. Fleck
Okaaay, a different subgenre of comedy, I guess. The “Stoner Novel.” It is designed to appeal to people who do a lot of weed and don’t want to know and don’t care about the consequences of their actions in a meaningless world. “Stupid world. Stupid life. Another day in my boring existence.” The saving grace […]
“Cryptofauna” by Patrick Canning
Finally a novel about a video game that doesn’t read like a video game. While loosely based on a game format, this novel has a definite story arc and realistic, developing and wildly charismatic characters. It also has weirdly creative humor reminiscent of “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” which results in such absurdities as traveling […]
“Murder at the Grand Raj Palace” by Vaseem Khan
This is the fourth book in the “Baby Ganesh Agency” series, and probably the best one so far, mainly because of the personalities that fill the book to the bursting point. Khan’s characters are based on the comedic inspiration that if you push a stereotype hard enough it will suddenly blossom into humorous originality. Chopra’s […]
“Long Daze at Long Binh” by Steve Donovan and Fred Borchardt
This book is not your usual memoir, either in form or in substance. Instead of a narrative, the writing mimics the dynamics of two guys sitting around trading tales. One starts a story, the other picks it up, then the first takes it back and so on. A kind of narrative ping-pong. It works relatively […]
“An Accidental Messiah” by Dan Soper
I reviewed the first book in this series, “An Unexpected Afterlife,’ a few months back. The second book in the series continues the struggles of Moshe Karlin to make a place for himself in a world that considers him dead. I enjoyed the last book, but considered the humour sometimes interfered with the build of […]
The Meifod Claw” by John William Bowe
This novel is an interesting attempt to combine form with function. The writing style is intended to create in the reader’s mind the same experience the characters are going through. Since in this case the experience involves drugs, the results are interesting. The effects of drugs on the behaviour of characters can be hilarious, and […]