When I’m not out busting-up vampire dens at the crack of dawn, or teaching the underprivileged kids at Breakdance Summer Camp, I like to spend hours playing Xbox 360 catch-up on my geek sci-fi/fantasy novels. Here’s a sampling of two of my favorite, recent reads from my book club (in which I am the sole member):
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
This is the perfect book for folks who enjoy the Harry Potter, or for those who didn’t have much time to spend in Hogwarts (or thought that reading a series of children’s books was creepy). The Magicians follows young Quentin Coldwater’s enrollment at Brakebills magical university, where all the college students lead not-so-enchanted lives. It’s a story full of angst, sex, and magic gone horribly wrong – and in my opinion, does everything right.
The Eternal Prison by Jeffrey Sommers
This is the third book in the ‘Avery Cates’ series, so I’m really doing a recommendation of three books here. The first book, The Electric Church was so compelling and cleverly paced that I tore through it in just over a day – the other two didn’t even last that long. The series takes place in a grim cyberpunk future, following gunner Avery Cates as he barely scrapes from one near-death situation to the next. If you’re into hard-edge sci-fi or daydream about all the badass things you’d say preceding a barfight, then I can’t recommend these books enough.
I would have mentioned Chasing Dragons (the latest Quantum Gravity novel by Justina Robson), but my Amazon delivery never made it to my door, so that little review will have to wait. I also read Ender’s Game again, now as an adult, reaffirming my belief that it’s truly one of the greatest science fiction novels of our time, though in good conscience I can’t write any more than that because I think the author is a total dickhole.
Anyway, this concludes another exciting installment of the LLR Book Club!
Meeting dismissed…
