Book Lovers Inc.
Romance Novel Reviews, Author Interviews, Commentary
3 Oct 2013 
ARC Review: Parasite by Mira Grant
Format read: eARC from NetGalley
Series: Parasitology #1
Genre: Science Fiction, Biomedical Thriller
Release Date: October 29, 2013
Number of pages: 512 Pages
Publisher: Orbit
Formats available: ebook, audio, hardback
Purchasing Info: Author, Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository, SymboGen.
Book Blurb:
A decade in the future, humanity thrives in the absence of sickness and disease.We owe our good health to a humble parasite – a genetically engineered tapeworm developed by the pioneering SymboGen Corporation. When implanted, the tapeworm protects us from illness, boosts our immune system – even secretes designer drugs. It’s been successful beyond the scientists’ wildest dreams. Now, years on, almost every human being has a SymboGen tapeworm living within them.But these parasites are getting restless. They want their own lives…
My Thoughts:
Good news everyone! SymboGen Corporation, the separated-at-birth twin of Umbrella Corporation, will cure disease in a few short years though the revolutionary introduction of a lab-grown GMO. There are only a few side effects….
Well. Only …
Sunday Cravings
Whoooo, it’s Sunday! There’s been some, shall we say, DRAMA going on. Which I have decided to copy with in the traditional Alaskan way. GLACIER MARGARITAS FOR EVERYONE!
Some people didn’t want to come with me. Until I told them I was buying. I also planned out how I’ll spend $1 million dollars if I ever win the lottery. Then we did a $100 million version, but I ran out of frivolous things to blow it on and started doing good deeds. Which is less fun to drunkenly contemplate. (Whoo! lets give half a mill to Planned Parenthood so they can do abortions in Texas. Whoo! Wait, I’d rather talk about the luxurious vintage train vacation again….)
Either amount would be one helluvan accomplishment seeing as how I never play the lottery. Maybe I could marry money? Who wants to marry a book reviewing workaholic legal aid attorney?
While I start reviewing …
Retro Review: Biting the Sun by Tanith Lee
Format read: Paperback.
Genre: Science Fiction, Dystopian Utopia.
Release Date: October 5, 1999.
Number of pages: 384 pages.
Publisher: Spectra.
Formats available: Paperback.
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Amazon, IndieBound, BetterWorldBooks.
Book Blurb:
In a world dedicated to pleasure, one young rebel sets out on a forbidden quest–.
Published for the first time in a single volume, Tanith Lee’s duet of novels set in a hedonistic Utopia are as riveting and revolutionary as they were when they first appeared two decades ago.
It’s a perfect existence, a world in which no pleasure is off-limits, no risk is too dangerous, and no responsibilities can cramp your style. Not if you’re Jang: a caste of libertine teenagers in the city of Four BEE. But when you’re expected to make trouble–when you can kill yourself on a whim and return in another body, when you’re encouraged to change genders at will and experience whatever you desire–you’ve got no reason to rebel…until making love and raising hell, …
Bookish PSA: They Are Coming For Your Books!
Be Warned Book Lovers! As we speak uptight, inbred groups of uber-conservatives are collecting fuel for their bonfires. That fuel? Your BOOKS.
Not just any books mind you. Specific books. I presume they burn better. ARM YOURSELVES!
This is why Librarians undergo mandatory martial arts training before getting their MLS. They need to defend the books from the book-burning hordes year-round. The rest of us only pay attention during Banned Books Week.
Since 1982 the Librarians have been begging for your assistance defending those books that are being banned from classrooms, blocked from store shelves, and attacked in libraries for:
Filthiness, (I concur. Books are digusting. Especially the library books in the children’s room. Sticky disease vectors.)
Deviance, (Lies? Nonconformity?)
Troubling, (What does this even mean? That the book made you think about things? The horror!)
Nudity, (Do these people even undress when they bathe?)
Profanity, (What’s the goddamn problem with a little fucking …
Sunday Cravings
Holy shit, it’s Sunday already? Where did my Saturday go?! Hell, where did my week go?
It is 28 degrees Fahrenheit as I type this, so in case there are any doubters out there….
Which means it is clearly time to stock up on books! Before the road is closed for avalanche blasting, or the internet is down due to storms, or I have a psychotic break in the coming darkness. (Yes, the singular is correct. There is one road.) This week we’re stockpiling….
Marlene: Corroded (The St. Croix Chronicles, #3) by Karina Cooper.
My rival, a collector of bounties like myself, has murdered one of my own. In consequence, I have been removed from my house, my staff, and all who would support me. I have nowhere else to turn, so I beg asylum within the Midnight Menagerie, London’s decadent pleasure garden.
Micajah Hawke’s dominance there will …
Adventures at WorldCon
Labor Day weekend, 2013. Two intrepid Book Lovers abandoned their posts at BLI, and headed to the Armpit of the U.S. for a festival occasionally know as “WorldCon.” Broiling temperatures so hot that iPads refused to function could not keep Book-Lovers from their Tribe.
These are their stories.
(Eds. Note – Be sure you read this introduction with the Law & Order IntroVoice.)
*****
Marlene: I went to a lot of terrific panels. The “Just a Minute” panel on Thursday night with Paul Cornell, Connie Willis, Mur Lafferty, Emma Newman and Gary Wolfe was side-splittingly funny. There were a lot of others, as well as a whole bunch of times I really could have used a clone. Possibly two or three clones. Somebody needs to get right on that.
Cass: Are you INSANE?! Don’t you know what happens when you clone yourself? One of you always has to die. (Spoilers …
The Book Lovers Go To WorldCon!
This last Labor Day weekend, two of your intrepid Book Lovers abandoned their posts here at BLI, and headed to the Scariest Place in the U.S. – commonly known as Texas – for WorldCon. No amount of terrifying Texan legislation or overpriced airfare would keep these two Book-Loving speculative fiction fans from joining in The Con of Cons.
These are their stories.
(Eds. Note – Be sure you read this introduction with the Law & Order Intro Voice.)
*****
Marlene: I have already blocked out my vacation for next year. We’re going to London! It had been too damn long since we’ve either taken a vacation or gone to Worldcon, and we’re not letting that happen again. This was too much fun and damn but we needed the break.
Last year at Dragon*Con we were both thinking we should have been at WorldCon instead. We were …
Sunday Cravings
Why hello everyone! Contrary to all expectations, I survived Friday the 13th!
Damn, guess that means I’ll have to pay off my massive WorldCon credit card debt after all.
As far as I’m concerned this coming week is a little light on drool-worthy titles, but I appear to be in the minority here at BLI headquarters. Let’s see what books are contributing to the structural de-stability of my fellow Book Lover’s homes….
*****
Alisha: The Burning Sky (The Elemental Trilogy #1) by Sherry Thomas.
Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she’s being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells …
Bookish PSA: Books Kill
Today is Friday the 13th. An inglorious and dangerous day. Prone to rampant murderous rampages, and all manner of unspeakable tragedies.
It is my rather sad duty to inform you all that by the time you are reading this, I shall most certainly be dead.
My untimely demise was foreseen by Chuck Wendig at WorldCon. Whilst chatting with him about the utter perfection of Blackbirds (Someone explain to me how he failed to win the not-Hugo?), he was overcome with a premonition of death. Specifically, mine. Which was inscribed in the book for posterity:
“You will die when this book literally burrows into your brain.”
How could I possibly infer today as The Day? Well what OTHER date of the year would one expect books to become self-aware and begin acting upon their primary themes?
(Note: Angry Robot is clearly in on this. The next …
Review: Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Format read: Paperback
Series: N/A
Genre: Science Fiction, dystopia
Release Date: February 5, 2004
Number of pages: 352 pages
Publisher: Abacus
Formats available: ebook, paperback, audio, hardcover
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Site, Book Depository, IndieBound.
Book Blurb:
Taxation has been abolished, the government has been privatized, and employees take the surname of the company they work for. It’s a brave new corporate world, but you don’t want to be caught without a platinum credit card–as lowly Merchandising Officer Hack Nike is about to find out. Trapped into building street cred for a new line of $2500 sneakers by shooting customers, Hack attracts the barcode-tattooed eye of the legendary Jennifer Government. A stressed-out single mom, corporate watchdog, and government agent who has to rustle up funding before she’s allowed to fight crime, Jennifer Government is holding a closing down sale–and everything must go.
A wickedly satirical and outrageous thriller about globalization and marketing hype, Jennifer Government is the best novel in the …
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| 5 Stars: Perfect! I Love It! | |||||||||
| 4 Stars: Awesome Book! | |||||||||
| 3 Stars: I Liked It! | |||||||||
| 2 Stars: Not bad, but maybe not for me. | |||||||||
| 1 Star: Didn't like it! Did Not Finish it. | |||||||||
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