Parker’s Breezy Reads II

Three fun reads, no matter what your needs…

I like to read. If you’re here, then you must as well. Pretty text heavy, BeachGrit. Someone once called us “cerebral,”by which they meant they thought we had too many words. Keep it short and sweet, more photos, more videos. But I’m not a photographer, I have no interest in filming people. I’ve just got a laptop and a love for blathering on.

The Relic Master by Christopher Buckley

It was recommended by Matt Warshaw, and I adored Thank You For Smoking and Boomsday, how could I resist?

The Relic Master is a heist caper set at the dawn of Lutheranism, focusing on the sale of indulgences, the venality of the Roman Catholic Church, and an absurd reliquary based arms race. You wouldn’t necessarily expect concepts like simony and translation to lend themselves to a comedic romp, but in Buckley’s hands they do so, and well.

The Reformation reshaped the western world, led to widespread literacy, delivered a crushing strong blow to the might of the corrupt superstition that was the Holy Roman Empire.

An unexpected result of the novel is my new found appreciation of the importance the Reformation. I attended a Jesuit college, and whichever dimly remembered professor was tasked with beating the information into my mind did a piss poor job. The Reformation reshaped the western world, led to widespread literacy, delivered a crushing strong blow to the might of the corrupt superstition that was the Holy Roman Empire. I’ve always felt total contempt for theological scholars, seeing as how they waste their lives arguing the minutiae of bogus belief systems meant to control. But there’s something there, a relevance not based on some all seeing man in the sky, but in our modern reality and how we react to it.

So, yeah, buy it, read it. It is very good.

Carter & Lovecraft by Jonathan L Howard

I was disappointed to learn that Howard didn’t plan to write any more novels about Johannes Cabal, his lovably evil anti-hero necromancer protagonist. Great books, the Cabal series, made better by their self contained nature. Howard’s decision to write stand alone novels that didn’t end in a cliff hanger and lead to years long waits between installments was a good one. It’s a terrible trend in the fantasy genre, no one wants to write stories that end between a single set of covers. It’s all grand world building and largely futile efforts to build a franchise.

I blame George Martin.

Howard’s decision to write stand alone novels that didn’t end in a cliff hanger and lead to years long waits between installments was a good one. It’s a terrible trend in the fantasy genre, no one wants to write stories that end between a single set of covers. It’s all grand world building and largely futile efforts to build a franchise.

Carter & Lovecraft is a treat. A self-aware noir horror in the world of Cthulhu, Howard spins gold from H.P. Lovecraft’s mythos, filled to the brim with the uncanny eldritch. Dealing, lightly, with the nature of reality, C&L follows a retired cop, now private dick, as he unwittingly unravels the sheer terror of an existence that lurks just beneath our own, voraciously waiting outside of time for an opportune moment to devour us all.

The Red Son Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown

A gross offender in the cliffhanger club, especially in book two, the trilogy is finished and it’s time to read. Yeah, the protagonist is a bit of a Mary Sue, and it deals in long standing tropes without much new to offer, but god damn is it fun. Violence and spaceships galore.

Humanity has moved beyond the shackles of Earth, picking up a dystopic caste system along the way. The planets are ruled by Golds, genetically engineered super human sociopaths created in the wake of an all out war that occurred centuries earlier. And now, finally, the masses have had enough.

For all the travails the protagonist suffers, the ending is never really in doubt. But Brown excels at engaging. Sure, you know it’ll work out somehow, especially when there’s a book or two left to go, but the fun’s in the voyage, not the destination.

Yeah, the protagonist is a bit of a Mary Sue, and it deals in long standing tropes without much new to offer, but god damn is it fun. Violence and spaceships galore.

If you prefer scifi of the hard variety, in the vein of Clarke, Asimov, Anderson, or Niven, it might not be for you. But if you’re looking for a fun read that never slows down, the kind that keeps you up well past your bedtime, you’ll love Red Son Rising.