Smallworld by Dominic GreenMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
THIS ONE IS FREE FOR THE KINDLE. GO GET IT BEFORE THEY CHANGE THEIR MINDS.
I honestly did not mean to begin another book before finishing Silas Marner. However, Silas Marner isn't the sort of book I can read in bed before going to sleep. I have to be wide awake to pay attention and pick up on the subtle humor and other excellences therein.
So I turned to my Kindle, which I hadn't turned on in over a month as I recall. I was looking for short stories, figuring I could read one and put it down easily.
Turns out I was wrong. This collection of short stories that all are actually pieces of one larger story is indescribably amazing. Funny in a way that sounds corn-pone if I try to describe it, these stories are also gripping and will keep me up reading until I finish each one so I can see if the problem is solved, the danger averted.
Here's the description:
A strangely captivating novel from Hugo-nominated author Dominic Green. Mount Ararat, a world the size of an asteroid yet having Earth-standard gravity, plays host to an eccentric farming community protected by the Devil, a mechanical killing machine, from such passers-by as Mr von Trapp (an escapee from a penal colony), the Made (manufactured humans being hunted by the State), and the super-rich clients of a gravitational health spa established at Mount Ararat's South Pole.The children's names are laugh-out-loud hilarious, but surprisingly you get so used to them that after a while you know exactly who is being spoken about.
Not done yet but I already know that this is one that I'll be giving as a gift as well as getting for myself in real paper, ink, and glue for rereading. I like it that much.
Also was able to immediately download it into iTunes ebooks
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletehey,look! b&N has it free for the Nook too.
ReplyDeleteFree is my favorite price.
I recently read it myself and there was much to enjoy about it. At first I thought all the Puritan sounding names would be used as a swipe at religion populated with ignorant science-hating people. Quite the opposite in fact and seemed to turn the stereotype on its head.
ReplyDeleteThere were certainly many funny parts involving the "devil" and then later the prisoners. Though a lot of it was dark humor.
One thing that soured me on the book was the totally vulgar and gratuitous reference to the Virgin Mary which I found very sick. It kind of sapped my enjoyment of the book. With that once sentence removed I would have enjoyed the last section of the book as much as I enjoyed the first two/thirds.
It's free also at Kobobooks.com
ReplyDelete666 is the number of pages in the BandN edition. Que Twilight zone music.
ReplyDeleteMichael d
Jeff ... that will teach me to wax enthusiastic before finishing a book, right? I just got to the comment you mentioned. It was unmistakable. Even though it is reacted to with revulsion by others around and retracted, that is like telling the jury to disregard the evidence they just heart. One wonders what prompted the author to make sure that piece of vulgarity got in there. Oy! That said, I still do love the book. I'm just going to wince every time I see it.
ReplyDelete