Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Brainycat's 5 Bs (1-5, 5 highest):
boobs: 2
blood: 5
bombs: 5
bondage: 1
blasphemy: 5

I effin' love this book series. I could not put this book down. Sandman Slim is a fantastic antihero, and I put him into the same pantheon of awesomeness as Takeshi Kovacs. He's that troubled, conflicted, smarmy, quick-witted and lethal. This book is genuinely laugh-out-loud funny all the way through, both the cynical observations of human nature and the banter between the characters is classic. Kadrey did a superior job of blending the occult into the mundane Los Angeles, and does a good job of making sure the focus of the story doesn't get disappeared into extraneous details about one or the other.

Unfortunately, I don't have a very deep or broad understanding of the history of the noir genre, but I know enough to know that Kadrey has paid homage where homage is due and added his own punk rock sensibilities into the mix. A fantastic combination of the classic revenge story mixed with the Sam Spade-ish "kickin' a** and taking names" while trying to figure out exactly who's manipulating who while he tries to find the truth of his situation. This does not read like a mystery, though, as much as it reads as a thriller.

The pace of the book is impeccable, and I think with the right direction and judicious screenwriting it would translate well to the screen. It takes place in moden LA, and since Hollywood is really good at making movies about LA, it shouldn't be too hard to pull off. On one hand, the book never really challenged me like Great Literature, but on the other hand it never takes itself that seriously. It's just a rollicking good thriller infused with punk rock, Enochian biblical occultism and offhand references to pop culture. The first person narrative actually works well for a visual, expository experience - but the narrative doesn't get bogged down in unnecessary detail.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to fans of the occultish antihero type.

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Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Oh thank god I finally finished this series. Books like this are why I should get help for my OCD, was there a deep rooted childhood trauma that my mind believes it can heal if I finish reading a series of books, even though the finale is as predictable as a sunrise and the characterization is as flat and lifeless as a squirrel in the middle of a freeway?

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Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Everything I said about The Hunger games holds true for Catching Fire as well, perhaps even more so. Except the part about the snappy pace. In short, it doesn't build on the foundation of Hunger Games, but instead coasts along on HG's efforts. Actually, it was rather forgettable, as many middle books in trilogies are. It's important for me to remember this is YA fiction, and shouldn't be held to the same standards of sex and violence I usually read.

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The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I agree with everything Maciek says about this book, but I'm going to be a little more gentle with my rating because it's self-described as a book for teens.

I'm the type of reader who's never complained about too much explicit violence and/or sex in a book. I went into this series expecting there to be little of either, given that it's aimed at the teen crowd. My predictions were correct. There's a lot of sappy angst that seems to go on and on, but as I recollect my years as a teen, they were sappy and full of angst and seemed to go on and on.

What I liked about this story is that the protagonist is a capable young woman, and the plot moves along briskly enough that while I didn't get very much visceral enjoyment from the story, I did enjoy the tactical plot developments. I liked enough that I read the rest of the series, anyway.

Also, my young cousins have all read the books and now I have something to talk to them about.

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The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Usually I like the first books in a series the best. In the Laundry series, Charles Stross has absolutely left the best for last. The ending wrapped up a little too neatly, but that's ok because one does not read this series for intensive navel-gazing, but rather tongue-in-cheek hardcore nerd humor mixed with the most ridiculously (im)plausible occult scenarios.

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