The Hutt Recommends: The Past Is Red

 The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente

   A novella set far into the future when we, the Fuckwits of the past, have finally destroyed the planet with our constant consumerism and greed. The ice caps are gone and the oceans have swallowed everything in blue endlessness except for small patches of human resiliance. Our girl Tetley lives on an island of garbage floating above the ruins of cities that were once taken for granted the way Garbagetown will never be. Especially not by Tetley who's sacrificing so much for its continued existance. She will tell you that Garbagetown is the most wonderful place, that it's full of hope but that there are some secrets that are better kept secret.

I LOVED IT THOROUGHLY.

   Beautiful language and imagery for a future we fear. Phenomenal pacing; everything fell into place right when I needed it to. It took me three days to get through in the middle of a work week and I'll gladly sacrifice some more sleep to read this again when time's right.

The Hutt Recommends: The Magnus Archives

 The Magnus Archives by Jonathan Sims

The Magnus Archives is a horror audio series written by Jonathan Sims distributed by Rusty Quill and can be easily accessed through Spotify.

I usually get bored with horror podcasts, but after being recommended The Magnus Archives from two independent sources I was ready to give it a try. My expectations were as low as they could get, but I'm ready to admit I was hooked after the first episode; lured in by the bait of an angler fish in a dark alley in Edinburgh... Every episode is a manageable 20 minutes long and consists of interweaving stories of paranormal experiences - on the one hand there are the witness statements, but then what really happened to the old Head Archivist of The Magnus Archives? And what was she looking for in all those old statements? What's going on in the basement?!

I've gone through three seasons already and am going to start on season four soon. It's an excellent balance between suspense and pure creepy.

The Hutt Recommends: The Diary of a Bookseller

The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell

"It is a strange phenomenon that, when customers visit the shop for the first time, they tend to walk very slowly through it, as though they are expecting someone to tell them they have entered a forbidden zone, and when they decide to stop, it is invariably in a doorway. This, of course, is incredibly frustrating for anyone behind them, and since that person is usually me, I exist in a state of perpetual frustration. Anthropologists insist that it is an instinctive human response on entering a new space to stop and look around for potential danger, although quite what sort of danger might be lurking in a bookshop - other than a frustrated bookseller whose temper has been frayed to the point of violence by the fact that somebody is blocking the doorway - is a mystery." 

   Shaun Bythell's diary of a year of his observations as a second hand bookseller in little rural Wigtown, Scotland, is both hilarious and, for me as another person working retail, very relatable. He's a lovely mix between the misanthropic Bernard Black (from Black Books) and an exasperated Giles (from Buffy) which is just my kind of dry sense of humour.

The Hutt Recommends: The Echo Wife

The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey

   Evelyn Caldwell is devastated after her divorce from her cheating husband. It not just that he was cheating and it took her so long to notice, but he used her research in cloning to secretly create a genetic replica of her that is everything Evelyn is not. Martine is gentle, obedient and most of all the kind of motherly woman Evelyn could never be. That she promised herself never to be. 

   Evelyn would choose to just throw herself back into her research and put another part of her life in the deep pool of forgotten things, but now her cheating husband is dead and both Evelyn and Martine will have work together to bury the evidence or both their lives are forfeit. 

   You'll remember Gailey as the author who wrote about cowboys on hippos, which I absolutely adored thanks to it being humorous, intelligent and absorbing throughout. In the case of The Echo Wife "humorous" is most definitely not the word I'd use, but it sure made my head spin. I adore the way Sarah Gailey use their words - I was glued to the pages all the way through. It fucked me up, it did.

The Hutt (kind of) Recommends: Autonomous

Autonomous by Annalee Newitz

   Our hero Jack is a drug pirate. She pirates drugs and distributes them to the less fortunate like some pharmaceutical Robin Hood, but has lately run into some unexpectedly bad drugs which has put her reputation in danger of being ruined entirely. She has to salvage what she can, all the while running from law enforcement.
   The agent and the A.I. on her tail will not only have to sift through all the disinformation Jack leaves behind, but also deal with their growing affection for each other.

   I enjoyed the story and most of the characters, but I have so many opinions (no, really? me?) on the gender issues of this book - to simplify, in my eyes it makes a mockery of trans* experiences. The relationship between Elias and Paladin is weird and frustrating and I wanted to scream from the top of buildings that Elias is a testosterone-damaged homophobic prick and Paladin deserves their autonomy just for having put up with Elias' garbage for so long.
   But that might just be me, right? (Hint: it's not just me.)

   It's an entertaining read with lots of thrilling heroics and some new exciting ideas. Though I have issues with some aspects of the book I think Newitz is on the track towards something amazing if only lessons are learnt and themes improved upon.
   I will recommend it nonetheless.

The Hutt Recommends: DEADLINE

DEADLINE by Mira Grant
#2 in Newsflesh

I don't read zombie fiction very often but stumbled over the first book of the Newsflesh series (FEED) and found the description quite captivating. A book written by a female author about a female blogger in a zombie-infested world? Could this really be what would let me enjoy reading about zombies?
   Answer? YES. Yes, it was.
   I devoured Feed (haha...) and put Deadline on my to read-list for later. 
   In January I finally bought Deadline and finished it in three days. If I hadn't had to go to work I'd have finished it much sooner seeing as I couldn't put it down once I had it in my stubby lil' hands.

BEWARE, SPOILERS AHEAD (make sure you've read Feed first):
   Ex-blogger Shaun Mason is a man without a mission. These days. His mission used to be poking zombies with a stick while someone filmed it, but then his sister died and suddenly playing with dead things wasn't as much fun anymore. His news team is still the best at what they do, but assuming the wheel after Georgia was never something he strove for.
   And then one day a researcher from the Center of Decease Control shows up on his doorstep with a scoop that can make even Shaun's shrivelled heart beat extra hard.

   We know the characters. We know the fight. We all want to know what the ever-loving hell is going on at the CDC. And Mason is the exact right amount of sarcastic little shit paired with whiny but brave hero that I enjoy. His inner struggle and the friendships portrayed in this series are engaging and down to earth.
   I have books #3 and #4 in my bookshelf.

The Hutt Recommends: Sea of Rust

Sea of Rust by Robert C. Cargill

Humanity is dead. Done and dusted. Have been for a long time.
What did they expect when they created A.I. who could process such complicated thought processes as "why am I"?

With human kind lost forever after the A.I. vs humanity war thirty years ago, the robot Brittle is trying to navigate the wasteland left behind. Being created solely for the purpose of being a caregiver for a human forces Brittle to search for a new meaning to existence in a post-human world. In the midst of haunting memories from the last war against humanity, Brittle watches warily while robots turn against robots and open conflict is soon unavoidable. But which side will Brittle find himself on?

I loved it. A lot.

The Hutt Recommends: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
#1 in the Wayfarers series

HOLY FUCK BECKY.
I was blessed with this recommendation as a counterweight to all the male authors flooding my list of scifi I want to read and I had no expectations coming into this.
So again: HOLY FUCK BECKY.

   Rosemary Harper is running away from a troubled past and therefore doesn't expect much when she joins the crew of the Wayfarer as their clerk. She expects a bed, food, a way to see the universe, colleagues she'll keep a safe distance with and if she's lucky she'll find some mind-numbing work.
   But life aboard the Wayfarer is much more exciting than expected. A diverse crew of different species and cultures makes her realise that the importance of chosen family is much greater than that of blood.

It's all of the things I've ever wanted with scifi;
Pro's

• it's feel-good scifi, easy on the brain
• it also feels a bit like Firefly, but you know... well written...
• it's entirely character-driven
• speaking of characters: interesting characters is my jam
• not everyone is straight and that's never a bit deal
• it fucks with the gender binary system, because aliens, and that brings me life
• any one culture seen as strange from an outsider's perspective, even humans'

Con's

• it's entirely character-driven and that's not for everyone
• the general plot is kinda... thin
• there isn't much tension or conflict to speak of which some readers find dull

   I like a good plot as much as anyone but to me it's not a true necessity if there are interesting characters in its stead. The fact that it was built like a tv show with episodes moving towards a general purpose was thoroughly enjoyable. I cried loads of happy tears, and even more loads of sad tears.
   I'll give it a good 10/10, would cross the universe to read again.

The Hutt Recommends: Parable of the Sower

Parable of the Sower (Earthseed #1) by Octavia E. Butler

God is Change.
So writes Lauren, the First of the Earthseed.

   Our future world has fallen under human's destructive influence and left are only islands of relative security protected by high walls and armed guards. Lauren grows up in one of theses gated communities outside LA the daughter of a preacher. In the midst of the pollution, drugs, arson, kill or be killed, and theft, her father does his best to keep what semblance of civility and culture he can within their community. To make matters worse Lauren's got what's called hyperempathy; the ability to feel other people's sensations, be it pain or emotions, as she observes them. Not only that but she's also a doubter - a doubter of her father's god and a doubter of how the future will treat the human race. Little by little, she pieces together a belief system she grows to call Earthseed, to comfort her and let her hope for a better tomorrow.

   However, their community is struck by tragedy and Lauren's family is murdered along with most of the other families living with them. Together with a lucky few survivors she decides to head north and maybe, just maybe, get to start anew amidst the dangers of the world outside those collapsed comforting walls.

   I was enthralled all the way through.
   If you've ever, like me, had your differences with what people describe as God you should read this. If you've ever, like me, fretted about what damage we'll do to each other tomorrow you should read this. It's in the same vein as The Hunger Games but somehow more hopeful and definitely more philosophical. I just regret not having read it much sooner.

The Hutt Recommends: The Road

The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

   Only about thirty pages into this book I was just about ready to put it down and never pick it up again. Reason? I really don't like children. There's nothing like a child to infuriate me into impossible dimensions. They're an inconvenience in any given situation and in The Road whats left of humanity is dealing with a lot of serious post-apocalyptic stuff. However, I did decide to soldier on and continue. I have after all finished much more maddening books.
   Skip forty pages ahead and I was thoroughly hooked.

   In a post-apocalyptic world a man and his child are travelling along a road. Everything is gone. It burned down and there's nothing left. Except the Road. And surviving.

   It's dark, oh so dark, yet just when you think it can't get any worse... it lets you up for air and the sun finds its way through the clouds for just a moment. And that's when McCarthy will pull you under again and bury you under the ashes of his post-apocalyptic world.
   McCarthy is an author of few words - what you get is what you need to make your brain go in all kinds of dark directions.
   It was an amazing ride. 10/10 would go again.

The Hutt (kind of) Recommends: What's Eating Gilbert Grape

What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges

(rereading this after... 'many' years, and it's surprisingly neither scifi, fantasy, nor supernatural in any possible way)

Looooong before John Green was accused of over-using the Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope (which he did in Paper Towns but entirely unmade by the end of the book) there was Becky in Peter Hedges' What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
   Gilbert Grape lives in Endora, Iowa, with what remains of his family.

'Endora is where we are, and you need to know that describing this place is like dancing to no music. It's a town. Farmers. Town square. Old movie theater closed down so we have to drive sixteen miles to Motley to see movies. Probably half the town is over sixty-five, so you can imagine the raring place Endora is on the weekend.'

   There isn't much that Gilbert doesn't hate and even less that he enjoys. He's twenty-four and just about everything in his life is gnawing at his dead insides -  his lack of experience, his fat and ever-growing mother, his servile big sister, his desperate little sister, and his mentally disabled baby brother are only what he has to deal with on a daily basis.

'She turns off the light and says, "You must have been having a bad dream."
"Huh?"
"A bad dream. You were having a bad dream."
"Oh," I say, "Is that what I'm having."'

   In the middle of all of this there's suddenly Becky on her bike, riding in circles around Gilbert and speaking words of such hope about life Gilbert hasn't been able to feel in years.

   This is a soul crushingly painful story.

   It's sexist, fatphobic, ableist, sexualises a 15-year-old, but it's also all of these things because Gilbert doesn't know where to direct all of the hate he harbours for himself. He watches idly while his family and life slowly shatters all around him. He does not stop this. Just as he can see his fat mother slowly wear down the floor underneath her own feet toward a literal crash he can sense his own life metaphorically crash in on him in slow motion. There are so many things in his life that he hates that he's completely lost his ability for love, whichever way it would be directed. Waking up and seeing the same unchanging surrounding is killing him. Yet he doesn't change. Listening to people telling him how much he looks like his father, the same father who committed suicide in the house he built for his family, brings Gilbert further into darkness. Is that to be the family future?

   Well written. Dark. Disturbing.
   I still like it as much as when I read it the first time. 

The Hutt Recommends: FEED

FEED by Mira Grant
First book in the Newsflesh trilogy.

   In 2014 both the common flu and cancer are eradicated by dedicated scientists, the antidotes easily distributed like airborne viruses to the populace. So far, so good. What the scientists didn't count on was how the two antidotes would react once they had to coexist in a living host. Not well as it turned out. The antidotes blended into a new kind of virus and anything with a body mass above that of a medium sized dog would upon death be turned by said virus into a flesh-eating corpse. You lived, you died and then you returned.
   They call it the Rising.
   In the near future when zombies are a real threat and people are mostly isolated to areas with strict security measures, running and tending news blogs with material from outside your own safe zone is the new daredevil profession. Georgia and Shaun Mason are two such daredevils dedicated to finding and delivering the Truth. Now hired to do the biggest job of their careers following a presidential candidate around the country they happen upon information that could answer crucial questions about the Infected.
   They decide to stay devoted to the Truth.
   Even if it'll kill them.

Some spoilers ahead:
   I skimmed through a few of other people's reviews of this book before writing my own and something that people have reacted to is the lack of zombies in this supposed zombie novel. Well... that's what the critics said about The Day of the Triffids; a supposed science fiction about alien invasion that didn't have all that many triffids in it... The point I'm making is that I don't really care about the zombies. Couldn't care less. I care about the people coping with an existence where zombies is something one needs to be worried about. It's the characters that make the story interesting. Therefore, I enjoyed this book. It's about people. Not zombies. Though there are zombies... You get it.
   Do you know something else I appreciated? NO ROMANCE ❤️ Well, there is some background romance going on, but nothing that necessitates more than a few sentences at most (as is the descriptive "they like each other and are now dating and getting it on" kind of sentences).
   Georgia never uses her "feminine wiles" to get to information. She doesn't even consider it. The one male character that doesn't respect her simply because she's a woman is supposed to be seen as a despicable human being.
   All female characters have their own arcs. They're there for a reason more than decoration.
   The story makes sense. From the virus to the politics.

   Maybe the fact that I'm not very used to being thrilled about the portrayal of female characters in books skews my perception a wee bit, but I DON'T GIVE A SHIT. Still thrilled. Still a good story.
   I spent the last 70 pages crying my eyes out. Because OF COURSE people die in books with zombies in them. Especially when it's been hinted at throughout.

All in all:
Read FEED.

The Hutt (kind of) Recommends: Black City Saint

Black City Saint by Richard A. Knaak

I've played Diablo since I was fourteen years old. For a very long time it was also the ONLY thing I played. If the legends and history of Sanctuary, and Tristram, hadn't intrigued me so I wouldn't have discovered Richard A. Knaak's stories at all. The legends of the Sin War and the stories about Zayl the necromancer all have special places in my bookshelves.
   Obviously, I needed to know whether Knaak had written anything else relevant to my interests and that, my friends, is how I stumbled upon Black City Saint - an urban fantasy tale featuring true 1920's flappers, bootleggers, shapeshifters, dragons, Feirie and saints.

   In Prohibition time Chicago there are worse things than getting mixed up in bootlegger wars to worry about, something Nick Medea is trying his very best to not let people find out about. He's been the immortal guardian set to guard The Gate between this world and the world of the Wyld - the dark Feiriefolk  - these past 600 years, ever since... Well, suffice it to say it's been a bumpy road from once being called Saint George to where Nick finds himself now.
   Ever since The Night the Dragon Breathed and set Chicago ablaze some 50 years ago, more and more of the Wyld have been found on the wrong side of The Gate. The more of the Wyld that gathers the larger the problem it gathers around. Like moths to a flame they gather.
   Nick has to look inward to a part of himself he deeply mistrusts to solve this riddle, at the same time as people from his troubled past resurrects and resurfaces.

   Black City Saint has a lot of the elements I like about Knaak: the somewhat sombre but relatable main character, a sarcastic familiar, plenty of dry wit and a lot of action. Unfortunately, it also has all of the things I don't like about Knaak: too many small characters, a lack of female characters* and a way of getting stuck somewhere in the middle of the story and drone on about something rather insignificant before throwing the final boss fight in your face.
   However, it was well worth it for the sarcasm! But honestly I'd rather read 'Kingdom of Shadow' and 'Moon of the Spider' again if I had to reread anything Knaak. Humbart Wessel brings the best disembodied quips to the party.

 * Black City Saint doesn't even pass the Bechdel test;
the only conversation between two named female characters happen
off screen and is only mentioned to have happened. It's absurd.

The Hutt Recommends: The Day of the Triffids

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Now this is classic scifi!
   More than slightly sexist, but not to the point where you want to high five a man's face with a chair (like I frequently find myself wanting with Heinlein). It's a classic, published in the early 50's, suffering of all the brain damage I expect male scifi writers from that time to suffer.

   A plague of blindness came down upon human kind after a spectacular meteorite shower and in the aftermath a certain kind of intelligent and carnivorous plant takes full advantage of the ensuing panic. Our main man, Bill Mason, is one of the few lucky people to have come out with his eye sight intact after the meteorite shower. It's chaos and the rest of the book is spent trying to make heads and tails of life after the Apocalypse.
   One of the most frequently voiced criticisms against The Day of the Triffids is that there isn't nearly enough Triffids. I disagree. I think it's more interesting to hear about how humans react to disaster/apocalypse/alien invasion. That was the appeal of the movies Jaw and Alien - we dealt more with people's reactions than with the actual monster and that's what made it great. Just how do you rebuild society again when 80% of the population is blind and most of the men who still have their eyesight suddenly turn into arrogant harem-building dictator wannabes? If you can distance yourself from the sexism, which is more telling about the author than anything else, it's interesting.

   I enjoyed it.

The Hutt Recommends: Revolution

Revolution by Russell Brand
(Politics is cool, yo.)

Let me start by saying that I've never really taken to Russell Brand as a comedian, with the specific exception of when he appears working in tandem with Noel Fielding, but despite my aversion to his stand-ups I have observed that he has on occasion put forth a few thought-provoking sentiments in interviews and that had me curious.
   I stumbled upon Revolution on audio, read by Brand himself, as I anchored in a well-known bay in the depths of the internet. Having listened to a lot of books of varying quality in the last few years I figured that Brand's particular kind of insanity compacted into 9 hours of audio files wouldn't infuriate me more than some of Heinlein's more sexist scifi (of which I haven't bothered to finish a few because of said sexism). Normally, I just listen to books on my way to and from work and I rarely find myself trying to find excuses to go for a walk or take a detour in order to keep listening for "just a few more minutes...".
   I can happily announce to you that with Revolution, I did just this.

   I studied Politics at university and am familiar with most of the ideas Brand brings forth, anarcho-syndicalism seemingly being at the forefront, which certainly makes it easier to take in and understand what basis of ideas Brand works from. This book requires more reading, obviously, as Brand's grand ideas are all snippets of other people's grand ideas. It lacks depth in ideology but as I read it, it's supposed to - you're meant to finish the book and go "hey, here's a great idea to read more about and possibly incorporate in my everyday life". Revolution starts with individuals and ends with societies; it starts with civil disobedience at the face of inequality and ends with the subversion of an unjust system.
   What Brand lacks is what most leftist ideologies lack these days - a grand theory. A utopia and a way of reaching it (but please do tell me when you find a comprehensive handbook to building coherent alternative societies). On the left we cry for equality and justice but have no viable ideas of how we could practically build that kind of society. We say we want to include everyone, but say nothing of how we are to do that or proceed from there. I think this is why right-wing parties have gained so many followers lately - they have an idea of how to hands-on "solve" our societal problems and even though their ideas are terribly short-sighted, fear-mongering and is kicking the wrong people in the face, people can see solutions. Scared and desperate people are easy to manipulate with populist propaganda hiding a more sinister ideology.

   Corporations is who we should be kicking in the face.
   Capitalism is what we should oust from our lives.
   We should be building community instead of undermining it.
   Brand gives us the choice between Capitalism or the Planet, and he's right.

   All in all, yes, Revolution has that Hollywood yoga pants vibe; a celebrity with a history of living it big trying to convince others less fortunate that changing the societies in which we live is as easy as pie even though we might not have the monetary funds that makes it so easy for Brand himself to make his ideas heard.
   However, Brand is in his own way very charming and rather funny and Revolution is well worth a read. If you like that sort of thing.

The Hutt Recommends: the Caves of Steel

The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
The first of the Robot novels (of which I, Robot is number 0.1).

Simply put, it's a murder mystery set a few thousand years in the future.
   A more roundabout way of describing it would be to say that humans have colonised space and created artificial intelligence. On Earth this means everything from overpopulation, ever imminent starvation and extreme pollution to robots obviously robotic-looking taking over simpler duties in workplaces. Discord is growing. In Spacer colonies it means bureaucracy is king and empathy is dead - humans with any gene defect are euthanised as to avoid the troubles so rampant on Earth - and advanced humanoid robots are the latest secret project.
   Then: murder.
   A Spacer is murdered on Earth and Detective Elijah Baley is called to the scene to solve the murder before the partner he's forced to take on does. I present to you: humanoid robot R. Daneel Olivaw, the latest of Spacer technology. In fact, so recently out of production that nearly no one knows he's a robot (indicated by the 'R' before his name which Baley conveniently leaves out whenever introducing him to anyone seeing as no one likes/trusts robots).
   They set forth on a journey together not only solving the case but also a much deeper political plot.

   This is classic scifi at its best! We're presented to big questions on existence, the fear of tomorrow, what it means to be human, and what makes a good society. It's philosophical and deep yet easy to take in without getting lost along the way or sacrificing the plot only to present some strange view on the human condition.
   Caves of Steel is also obviously a child of its time and being first published in 1954 means that I had a hard time finding any female characters, even more of a hard time finding women with any sort of agency. There's Baley's wife, but she's not of much use to the story. After that the list of female characters abruptly ends and yes, of course that sad fact makes me grumble but I have to admit to preferring this kind of representation in classic scifi (which is barely any at all) instead of the kind I've found to be rampant in a lot of Heinlein's scifi where women are either vapid and useless or manipulative whores (Door into Summer (publ. 1957) and Time Enough For Love (publ. 1973), being the worst of what I've read so far, jeez... I couldn't even finish Time Enough it was so bad). Then on the other hand, I expect so much more out of anything written after the 1980's (thank the gods for Carl Sagan) than I do out of what came before (e.g. the Robot novels). I desperately need people of my generation to be better than their predecessors and write better (ie MORE INCLUSIVE) fiction but that does not mean that I'll excuse bad representation in classic scifi.

The Hutt Recommends: Dandy in the Underworld

Dandy in the Underworld by Sebastian Horsley.
(TW: substance abuse, suicide mention)

"When Mother found out she was pregnant with me she took an overdose. Father gave her the pills. She needed a drama from time to time to remind her that she was still alive. The overdose didn't work. Had she known I would turn out like this she would have taken cyanide." p.1

This is how the autobiography of Sebastian Horsley takes its flying start, and it continues in the same self-deprecating spirit. With every page Sebastian takes us through a life of escapades littered with absurdity and vulgarity.

   After growing up one of three children born of negligent addicts in what I can only describe as an abusive setting ("Indeed, everyone in my life who should have been vertical was horizontal."p.38) Sebastian sued his father for a large sum of money, consorted with convicted murderers, went to art school and fell in love all before seeing his twentieth birthday. He'd move on to get married, commit adultery, get divorced, continue to make art, do heavy drugs and sleep with prostitutes in between making massive amounts of money on the stock market. Even Sebastian could see his addiction to crack getting overboard so he got himself into a clinic. Stayed clean for a while. Started doing crack again. Got off of crack. Got into heroin. Got off heroin. Constructed a few art shows that didn't do too well. It wasn't until he went to the Philippines to have himself crucified in front of a camera team that he found himself in the spotlight not only in the UK but internationally.

   The main theme is dandyism in all its eccentricity; it is always the subject to which Sebastian unrelentingly returns to.

 "I was a disciple of satin and Satan." p.263

The book is revolting at times, shocking... most of the time.

   This also happens to be one of my favourite books. Sebastian Horsley was an artist of words, a wordsmith in truth, and Dandy in the Underworld is proof of that. Yes, some of these recollections are at the height of absurdity but always described in such an elegant, witty and brilliant way that you can't help but keep reading and taking it in. Here is the man who started doing heavy drugs, make 'art' with his own excrement and have frequent meetings with prostitutes before the age of twenty. He would later also get crucified, get banned from entering the US for 'moral turpitude' and make a YouTube Guide to Whoring.

   I have great trouble remembering that this was in fact a real person who died of an overdose in 2010, only three years after the publishing of this autobiography  and only two days after the premiere of the one-man show based on the book. His friend Toby Young, a journalist you might also know as the writer of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, commented that "if it had been suicide Sebastian would not have passed up on the opportunity to write a note" and considering what a slave to drama dear old Mr Horsley was, that sounds pretty much on the nose. So he made a book out of it. Dandy in the Underworld ends with what I can only interpret as the finale and finishing touches to a suicide note of epic proportions.

 "I came into this world a king, I leave it a wild card. I believe in being nothing - but with as much style as I can." p.322

This book is not for everyone. I love it.

The Hutt Recommends: The Brothers Cabal

The Brothers Cabal by Jonathan L. Howard.

Remember when I rather bluntly hinted that this book would hit the Swedish market? I got it for Christmas last year and devoured it rapidly shortly after.

   Last time we got to read about Johannes and Horst one brother was slipping into unconsciousness and certain death by garden demon, and the other was, quite frankly, in a pile of ashes.
   What I really missed after moving on to the second and third parts of this series, and Horst's untimely demise, was the kind of quick-witted banter that passed between the two brothers. Nothing quite compares to brotherly love as shown through sarcastic insults.
   Here, I finally get my wish.

   In a satanic ritual, Horst Cabal is risen from the dead. Well, he's still a vampire so... still dead. But at least not in ashes. Anyway! Horst lives! (Kind of.) Resurrected (-ish) by an occult conspiracy he is to lead an army of the undead in the forthcoming war to create a land of horrors - a nation of supernatural beings. The more Horst is told of this nefarious plan the less enthused he is by the idea of it all. Not even the fact that he would actually be the ruler of the vampiric race of this new nation of supernaturals can rouse what little fighting spirit he ever had. He just wants his old way of life back - a little recreational drinking, respectfully seducing women into romantic yet strangely morally appropriate encounters. It doesn't take a genius to see that it would be impossible for him to fight the whole cult on his own though. He needs help. Perhaps the kind of help you can expect from a heavily armed sarcastic necromancer with a searing hatred for evil wizards with unfashionable trousers...
   Johannes.

   Demons from alternate dimensions. Soup. Rebels. Airplanes. The moans of the undead. Tentacles.
   No zebras this time. But there is a werebadger.

   I know some people have made this book out to be the weakest of the series because of the lack of Johannes in the first half of the story, but since I adore Horst I was entirely blind to the problem. Having felt for the entirety of the third book that Johannes had lost sight of the core of his initial life mission, the return of Horst to remind Johannes of his past promises gave me new hope to see progress. Well. I didn't quite recieve all that but there'll be more books. (The Fall of the House of Cabal just came out. A title not at all ominous. No, not at all. I need it.)
   I prefer this book over both the second and third parts of the series but the previous parts are vital to follow along. It's just so much more entertaining to shove someone so blantantly different from Johannes into the spotlight and make them cooperate. Force them to interact and fight for a common goal.
   Now shoo, go read it.

The Hutt Recommends: The Name of the Wind

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss.

First of The Kingkiller Chronicles.

   The road of life has been long, winding and most arduous for Kvothe – adventurer, famous musician, arcanist and living legend - now living out his life quietly and as anonymously as possible as an innkeeper in a rural town. He's been across the world and seen many things, been hunted by demons, studied the arts of magic and swordsmanship, spent time with the fae and is even rumoured to have killed a king...

So when Chronicler is attacked by demons on the road and Kvothe saves him (which also leads to Chronicler realising just who his saviour is) he offers to put Kvothe's story on record as thanks. After some consideration, Kvothe agrees and with that our story begins.

   I really enjoyed this novel. It's a story within a story within a story, because while we're listening to a life as told by the old Kvothe, young Kvothe is chasing a completely different story - the layering is excellent. Sure, we might have heard the story before; brilliant young man becomes hero, but it's still a welcomed story and Rothfuss actually does something quite new and exciting with it despite the predictability that experienced fantasy readers might feel. It leaves you wanting for the next part of the story.

My big weakness nowadays, especially with fantasy and scifi fiction, is finding the major female characters and analyzing them to bits. In this case we have in our main girl a variation of Sexy Lamp with Manic Pixie Dream Girl syndrome. Lets be frank; I hated her. The story could have gone on without her and been better off for it. I know Kvothe would be better off without her, that's for sure.

   The novel's on the heavier side with 700+ pages so if you're not in to  that you can download it and instead listen to 40+ hours of Kvothe's adventures. In either case, I recommend it.

   With the immense success of Game of Thrones I'm very surprised that the rumours from several years ago that Kingkiller Chronicles were going to be adapted into a tv series haven't given results yet. I guess we'll just have to give them a few more years...

...just like we seem to have to give Rothfuss a few more years for the continuation of the Kingkiller Chronicles.

The Hutt (kind of) Recommends: Something More Than Night

Something More Than Night by Ian Tregillis.

The story makes a running start when the ashy remains of the murdered archangel Gabriel rains down on Earth to earn the attention of our wannabe gumshoe and voluntarily part-time exiled angel Bayliss. Though mystified, Bayliss knows that this is the time to get cracking on finding a replacement for old Gabby which he sets out to do... to find that not only was Gabriel murdered but the Jericho Trumpet has gone missing, setting Heaven on the cusp of overwhelming crisis and the victim of a con job millions of years in the making. Somehow Bayliss knows that he's been played the fool by heavenly powers that want to make certain none other than old Bayliss himself gets fingered for the job. On top of that he fumbles the angel recruitment process and is suddenly stuck with the hot-tempered Molly. Bayliss now needs to solve a heavenly mystery AND act babysitter for a newborn angel whilst not getting in the way of the more belligerent members of the Heavenly Choir or the METATRON.

I was about ready to give up on the book soon after getting started on the first chapter. The book didn't speak to me at all (Bayliss and I obviously don't get along - he's a sexist douche canoe), until I finally reached chapter 2 and was properly introduced to Molly Pruett. Not only does her name sound a lot like another fellow redhead (my favourite mother hen Molly Weasley née Prewett from the Harry Potter books) but also, she's a lesbian whose story arc does not overuse, fetishise or stereotype her sexuality. (Without spoiling anything, the name is basically the one thing the two Molly's have in common. That, red hair and a temper.)

The narrative is split between long parts, often chapters, where Bayliss narrates and the other long parts, also often chapters, where a third party narrates Molly's actions. I got through the book much the same way I got through A Song of Ice and Fire - I read through the boring chapters (Bayliss or Daenerys) to get to the good bits (Molly or Tyrion/Jon/Cersei).

I read a review of the book in passing that explained how the cover was better than the book itself and... they're not wrong. Sadly. Or maybe I'm just not the noir detective story type AT ALL. (I'm not, really.) And don't get me started on the physics! I don't have a degree (not even close) but Tregillis has a doctorate in this stuff and likes showing off a bit.

This book was not for me.
But I finished the fucker nonetheless.