recently read/listened to
The Stone Man - Really cool/scary/eerie scifi story. A man of stone appears in the UK and begins to walk in a straight line across the land. Guns, bombs, whatever are useless at stopping or even slowing it's progress. Buildings fall, people flee and panic, and no one can stop it from reaching it's destination: one unlucky victim. When it comes back, no one has any idea of what to do except to give it what it wants. Society is forced into sacrificing to these things. Told from the POV of someone with mild Asperger syndrome, it's a nice take on the terror of inevitable doom.
Where the Hell is Tesla - Adventure story throughout the multiverse in hopes of finding Tesla and saving the world. Fun story, felt kind of like John Dies at the End but much lighter. Perhaps file under "dude lit"?
Wicked - Finally got around to reading this retelling of the Oz story and by god it was good. Wicked fills in the gaps of why the Wicked Witch ended up being wicked. I got The Magicians vibe from this book. The writer fills in the political/religious/social stuff in the Oz world. This is a sad book.
A Confederacy of Dunces - Amazing funny but more than funny story about a big guy in New Orleans. The hero is lazy, endearing, intelligent, opinionated, irresponsible, in love, whiny, and a whole lot of other things. It's amazing how bad the main character is and yet so lovable too (for the reader if no one else). Think Thomas Aquinas, extremely overweight, living in the 60s, constantly at war with the modern world.
Pippi Longstocking - Always wanted to read, finally got to. Pippi is an expert liar. Her lines made the story worth it. She must have been part of the inspiration for Lyra in The Golden Compass.
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Post nuclear war, a monastery in west Texas keeps alive fragments of the learning of the 'ancients.' The story is episodic like Foundation and follows the course of the world getting back onto it's feet, returning from savagery to computers with a new renaissance along the way. The Roman Catholic church is one of the few things to survive the apocalypse, so future, albeit increasing distant from our own world, has this cool antiquated quality. There's a whole recurrence of issues of faith vs reason, pope as political or spiritual leader, conflict between church and state. Fun.
