Humour

Excerpt: THE COMEDIAN’S BOOK OF THE DEAD by Gary Barwin (Book*hug Press)

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Tomorrow, Book*hug Press are due to publish The Comedian’s Book of the Dead by Gary Barwin. An imaginative “underworld quest”, it’s the latest amusing page-turner from the acclaimed Canadian storyteller. To mark the occasion, the publisher has provided an excerpt to share with our readers. First, here’s the synopsis:

Death is a comedian and devoted family man, but everything falls apart when the Fates choose him to guide departed souls to the Beneath. Having to perform this new role erodes his humanity and causes him to do some perhaps unforgivable things, and when his only son dies by suicide, Death realizes he’s likely the one to blame.

Attempting the impossible, Death goes into the Beneath to beg the Fates to allow him to bring back his son. Naturally, things are not what they seem, and Death is forced to reevaluate everything he knows― everything except the deep love he has for his child. Blending Barwin’s celebrated wit with deeply moving scenes of empathy and compassion, The Comedian’s Book of the Dead is a heartbreaking and humorous journey into the joy and pain of parenthood, and a thoughtful exploration of choice and agency, sacrifice and love.

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Excerpt: THE GREAT CATSBY BY HILTON by Rod Carley & Juliette Miron (Smart House Books)

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The Great Catsby by Hilton, the latest book by award-winning and acclaimed author Rod Carley will be published shortly by Smart House Books. Illustrated by Juliette Miron, it is a “catification” of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, “a playful parody poking fun at love foiled and ambitions foisted” within an uncertain 1920s world of cats. Here’s the synopsis:

Jay Catsby, the feral son of impoverished barn cats, has built his kibble fortune selling illegal catnip. When Nick Cattaway moves in next cat-door, Catsby’s only a whisker away from winning back his beloved Daisy, the beautiful Persian he lost to the arrogant Tom Cat Burmese two lives earlier.

Fitzgerald wrote The Great Gatsby as an indictment of the reckless wealth of post-World War I America. The selfish and careless fat cats of The Great Catsby by Hilton similarly ring true.

Part of the charm of the book is that Hilton, a seven-year-old rescue tabby adopted by Rod, “writes” it. He is the voice of Nick Cattaway, the first-person narrator. Reimagining the story through the eyes of a domestic housecat has allowed Hilton to be frisky with the text. Hilton also writes the Preface.

The Great Catsby by Hilton also features twenty full-page colour illustrations in addition to an assortment of black and white drawings.

The Great Catsby by Hilton adds some much-needed whimsy to the world. In these uncertain times, we could all use a few more cats and a little more catnip in our nine lives.

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Very Quick Review: 2 DUMB DINOS by Eric Filipkowski & Nathan Hamill (Titan Comics)

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An amusing, odd comics collection

THEY’RE DUMB. THEY’RE DINOS. THERE’S TWO OF THEM!

Welcome to the irreverently silly world of two Dinos with their hooves and claws on the pulse of all things pop-cultury. Referencing everything from BK Joes, to Chinese spy balloons, to missing Top Secret White House documents to the latest Hollywood blockbuster! This collection of the cult digital comic strips, available for the first time ever in book form, is a celebration of the glorious tradition of the American newspaper Funnies immortalized by the likes of Peanuts, The Far Side, Pearls Before Swine and Wizard of Id but skewered by the humor of South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants and Drunk History.

It’s an affectionate and downright silly slice of American pie with a side order of Dino guano thrown in for free!

I’ve become a big fan of many online comic strips — the medium (especially Instagram) seems to really suit the panel structure. Favourites include Lucas Turnbloom’s How to Cat and Poorly Drawn Lines. I had seen a few of Filipkowski & Hamill’s 2 Dumb Dinos, but hadn’t really dug into the strip in any depth. Then the publisher offered this for review, and I happily dove in. Continue reading →

Very Quick Review: STARTER VILLAIN by John Scalzi (Tor)

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ScalziJ-StarterVillainUSHCSo you suddenly find yourself in charge of an evil corporation…

Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.

Charlie’s life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn’t all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they’re coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It’s up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world… be a cat.

An entertaining and unusual fish-out-of-water story about a man who inherits his uncle’s evil empire. Fast-paced, amusing, and starring some cats, I enjoyed this.
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Quick Review: INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE BRITISH PEOPLE DURING THE EMERGENCY by Jason Hazeley & Nico Tatarowicz (Quercus)

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InstructionsForBritishPeopleDuringEmergencyA very amusing handbook for these interesting times

An indispensable handbook to see the nation through lockdown, breakdown and meltdown.

As Britain enters a period of tremendous upheaval, your government has requested that everyone immediately undertake a series of life-style changes that may test the nation’s resolve.

Most of it is simple common-sense, but common-sense may be new to you, especially if you are young, wistful or an imbecile.

Indeed, it should be noted that much of what is to come in the weeks and months (and months) ahead will be new to us all. But let us remember that, not so long ago, the same was true of pesto.

We must not lose heart. With stoicism, courage and a substantial supply of alcoholic fortification, we will pull through this together and emerge from it a stronger (or weaker but more experienced) nation.

Sir Clement Apricot-Wilson,
Permanent Secretary
The Department of Unforeseen Circumstances

I was pre-approved for this on NetGalley, and decided to give it a try on a bit on a whim. I’m very glad that I did, because this is at times very funny. As it turned out, this book is just the antidote for these strange and difficult times I was looking for. Very enjoyable. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Worldbuilding Interconnectivity” by Amber Royer

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RoyerA-C3-FakeChocolateI think bats are one of the coolest animals – and one of the most maligned. Look at their faces. They’re basically flying puppies, and many species can eat up to 8,000 insects in a single night. We used to have a small colony of Mexican free-tail bats in a tree across the street from our house, and we never had mosquito issues. It broke my heart when the neighbors cut down that tree and the bats moved.

And when you talk about chocolate, and the ecosystem where it’s grown, it’s hard to ignore the importance of bats. Cacao trees grow fruit in pods with thick, waxy outsides, pineapple scented pulp, and purple-brown seeds that eventually can become chocolate.  Bats are one of the animals with the patience to chew through the pod to get to the sweet pulp. They disperse the seeds, helping propagate new cacao trees. Meanwhile, other bats are busy eating insects that otherwise might harm the trees. And still different species of bats are pollinating other plants in the same ecosystem, such as banana flowers. Continue reading →

Guest Post: “Five Books That Inspired Me to Be a Writer” by Laurence MacNaughton

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MacNaughtonL-AuthorPicPractically every human being, at some point or another, has closed the covers on a satisfying book and thought: I should write a book like that.

That initial burst of inspiration is quickly followed by nagging doubt. Do you have what it takes to write?

After all, knowing how to write is only half the battle. The other half is finding the inspiration, the self-confidence, the grit to actually write something worth reading. And the fortitude to stick with it through months or years of rewrites, revisions, and rejection.

It’s not easy. But it can be done. The best advice on toughing it out comes from those who have cranked out hundreds or thousands of pages of prose, and shared their hard-earned insights on what it’s really like to be a writer. Here are five books about writing that inspired me most. Continue reading →

An Annotated Chapter of PURE CHOCOLATE by Amber Royer (Angry Robot Books)

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RoyerA-C2-PureChocolateFirst chapters are hard, you guys. First chapters of sequels – doubly so.

And first chapters for a ‘verse where you’ve built in complicated linguistics and alien cultures with questionable morality? Well… you still have to start somewhere.

There’s a balance with sequels. You don’t want to bore the reader who just finished the previous book, and you don’t want to stall getting started telling the story to re-cap what is now backstory. But you don’t want to people to feel like they walked into the “middle of the movie” either.

I’ve been a writing instructor for UT Arlington for the past eleven years, so I’m sure if some of my students read this, they’ll get a kick out of seeing me pick apart my own work instead of theirs.

Some of what I’m about to say will be bordering spoiler territory, but I’ll try to keep it vague.

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Quick Review: IN OTHER LANDS by Sarah Rees Brennan (Big Mouth House)

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BrennanSR-InOtherLandsAn often amusing and sometimes moving subversion of entrenched fantasy tropes

Elliot doesn’t want to fight, keeps saying the wrong thing, and is definitely the grouchiest human in fantasyland.

Sometimes it’s not the kid you expect who falls through to magicland, sometimes it’s… Elliott. He’s grumpy, nerdy, and appalled by both the dearth of technology and the levels of fitness involved in swinging swords around. He’s a little enchanted by the elves and mermaids. Despite his aversion to war, work, and most people (human or otherwise) he finds that two unlikely ideas, friendship and world peace, may actually be possible.

I picked this up for my partner when it was released last summer, and she devoured it (and has since read it multiple times). This past week, we started listening to the audiobook on a drive back to the city, and I really liked what I heard: it was funny, a little gonzo, and I enjoyed the way Brennan played with classic genre tropes (and all that in just the first two hours). When we got home, I immediately started reading the book. It’s been a long time since a novel made me laugh out loud, let alone do so multiple times or consistently. In Other Lands did just that. It is not, however, just a funny book: Brennan has also written a story that often packs an emotional wallop. Continue reading →

Upcoming: KILL THE FARM BOY by Delilah S. Dawson & Kevin Hearne (Del Rey)

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Dawson&Hearne-KillTheFarmBoySo, this novel may have my favourite fantasy title ever. I can’t actually think of one that amused me as much before — although, Magic Kingdom For Sale, Sold and many Pratchett titles have been favourites for a long while. I hadn’t heard about Kill the Farm Boy until a few moments ago, when B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Tweeted about it. Written by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne, here’s the synopsis:

Once upon a time, in a faraway kingdom, a hero, the Chosen One, was born… and so begins every fairy tale ever told.

This is not that fairy tale.

There is a Chosen One, but he is unlike any One who has ever been Chosened.

And there is a faraway kingdom, but you have never been to a magical world quite like the land of Pell.

There, a plucky farm boy will find more than he’s bargained for on his quest to awaken the sleeping princess in her cursed tower. First there’s the Dark Lord who wishes for the boy’s untimely death… and also very fine cheese. Then there’s a bard without a song in her heart but with a very adorable and fuzzy tail, an assassin who fears not the night but is terrified of chickens, and a mighty fighter more frightened of her sword than of her chain-mail bikini. This journey will lead to sinister umlauts, a trash-talking goat, the Dread Necromancer Steve, and a strange and wondrous journey to the most peculiar “happily ever after” that ever once-upon-a-timed.

Kill the Farm Boy is due to be published by Del Rey in North America, in July 2018. (At the time of writing this, I couldn’t find any information about a UK release.)

Also on CR: Interview with Lila Bowen (2016); Interview with Kevin Hearne (2011); Reviews of Kevin Hearne’s Hounded and Hexed

Follow the Author, Dawson: Website, Goodreads, Twitter

Follow the Author, Hearne: Website, Goodreads, Twitter