first few books of the year

[geekchick]

The theme so far seems to be "comic mystery/fantasy-type stuff".

1. Anonymous Rex Eric Garcia. The adventures of Vincent Rubio, L.A.-based private detective, basil addict, and velociraptor. In this series, dinosaurs never went completely extinct and are now living among us in a parallel society and disguised in latex human costumes. Vincent's partner has died in mysterious circumstances, and his determination to find out the truth leads to finding links between the deaths of his partner and several others and eventually to a dinosaur geneticist and his experiments in cross-species breeding. I thought this was really funny, and the idea of dinosaur detectives disguised as humans is pretty original. (At least I've never run across it before.)


2. Casual Rex, Eric Garcia. Vincent's back in a prequel to Anonymous Rex. This time he and his partner Ernie investigate the Progressives, a cult who want to reclaim their dinosaur heritage, free of their human disguises. Ernie's ex-brother-in-law has joined the cult, and Ernie's ex-wife asks Vincent and Ernie to kidnap him so he can be deprogrammed. Unfortunately, former cult members have a tendency to turn up dead, and finding Rupert is just the beginning of the story.


3. Hot and Sweaty Rex, Eric Garcia. In this third installment, Vincent gets caught up in the middle of a mob war between two dino mafia families, one of which he's been manipulated into working for, the other one headed up by his childhood best friend. Awkward. ;)


4. The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse, Robert Rankin. Someone's killing off all the old nursery rhyme characters, and in the absence of Toy Town's detective Bill Winkie, it's left to Eddie Bear and his new bestest (and often clueless) friend Jack to track down the killer. Hysterical. A++++, would read again.


5. Lost in a Good Book, Jasper Fforde. The second Thursday Next novel, after The Eyre Affair. In this one, everyone's favorite literary detective has to deal with the effects of her fame and SpecOps PR, the fact that Goliath has eradicated her husband with the assistance of a member of the ChronoGuard as a way to force her to retrieve the character she stranded in "The Raven" in the previous book, several near-death-by-coincidence experiences, and the fact that she has to figure out how to save the world before it turns to fluffy pink goo. At the same time, she's training as a Prose Resource Operative for Jurisfiction as an apprentice to Miss Havisham. I enjoyed The Eyre Affair much more than this one, although it's certainly got its moments (and plenty of them). I think it's mostly the "clever" naming convention that wore on me, like agents Phodder and Kannon and their successors Walken and Dedmen for instance. As with the previous book, I think it helps to have a good background in English lit to really get the most enjoyment out of it. (My own is spotty at best.) And I want a dodo of my own even more now. Plock.

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Haven't read the 1st 2 you listed. As for Robert Rankin, if you liked his style, I have his entire collection, which might be loanable if you're nice. ;-) Re Lost in a Good Book, I agree - I think it is the weakest of the 4 in the Thursday Next series - 3 & 4 are much better.

[geekchick]

The Vincent Rubio books I found highly entertaining. I think you'd probably enjoy them, and they're not particularly taxing either. ;)

[geekchick]

The "not taxing" was of course no reflection on anything other than the fact that you've got OMGHOMEWORK!!!! going on. I'm sure you realized that, but I wanted to make sure it was clear. ;)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I figured that's what you meant. :-)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

New handle... Resistance over time to Coriolis forces keeping disturbances small-scale?

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. As far as I understand it so far, it's mainly an upper-level (jet stream) phenomenon, but I like the word and the differential equations used are intriguing, so I went with it. I thought it was both semi-descriptive and meteorologically geeky enough for me. :-)

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'd seen it referencing ocean currents, actually, but it makes sense that it'd be used atmospherically... one fluid vs. another...