Beyond Lies the Wub by Philip K. Dick My rating: 3 of 5 stars As expected from a Philip K Dick book, that was trippy. Talky in the style of golden and silver age science fiction, but I have a fondness for the style as some of my first science fiction exposure was in that…

The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski My rating: 4 of 5 stars This book upended the way I’d thought about the Star Wars movies and stories for the past 20 years. First of all, given George Lucas’ original intention of having an endless James Bond-like serialized series of movies removes any arguments…

Sex & Violence by Jimmy Palmiotti My rating: 3 of 5 stars A recent Humble Bundle featured a sampler for Jimmy Palmiotti’s Paperfilms indie publisher. I was intrigued and went to the site where one can buy DRM-free versions of the books. Pulp is a lot of fun and it has a long history with…

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Over on the Cosmere subreddit (one of the good ones in which most people are very nice and just getting together to geek out on something), when I finished The Final Empire they warned me that The Well of Ascension was kind…

Chester 5000 XYV: Isabelle & George by Jess Fink My rating: 3 of 5 stars I thought the first book was a great example of how erotic fiction could also be a work of art. Jess Fink did so much with so little. Despite a lack of dialog, a great story was told and titillation…

Chester 5000 XYV by Jess Fink My rating: 3 of 5 stars The old cliche is that no one watches porn for the story. But books and comics have always had the ability to be more cutting edge; perhaps because the budget is so much smaller, making the stakes lower. Somehow, Jess Fink elevates things…

Amberville by Tim Davys My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is one of the top five weirdest books I have ever read. It takes place in a world of stuffed animals, but that has both almost no bearing on the story and is key to the main plot. What I mean is that it’s…

Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie My rating: 4 of 5 stars Well, that was nothing at all like I expected. I’m not entire sure what I expected, having never read anything by Agatha Christie. Mostly I expected it to be stuffy and I expected it to suck. It was written so long ago,…

The Emperor’s Soul by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars I read this book without knowing anything about it other than the fact that it takes place on the same planet as Elantris, Part 1 of 3. I didn’t have the book description as I got it from the Sanderson Humble Bundle and…

The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories by A.C. Wise My rating: 4 of 5 stars I got this book in Storybundle’s LGBT+ Bundle and the title and description of this book are what got me to pick up the entire bundle. I didn’t even realize I already knew A.C. Wise’s work from its appearance…

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson My rating: 5 of 5 stars Well, that felt like reading a JRPG – in fact there are some (very, very loose) alignments with the plot of Final Fantasy VI. But what I really mean by that is the fact that Sanderson’s Allomancy ends up reading like the mana…

Superman: The Unauthorized Biography by Glen Weldon My rating: 4 of 5 stars I already knew almost all of this; well, the outline, anyway. I’ve been reading comics on and off for three decades and ever since discovering sites like Comic Vine and reading Grant Morrison’s Supergods, it’s been easy to learn about plots and…

Frankenstein: Or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley My rating: 3 of 5 stars I finally read Frankenstein. Coupled with Dracula a few years ago, I’ve now read both famous monster books. Even moreso than with Dracula, the book was a far cry from the popular conception of Frankenstein. Things that are completely different:-the…