Friday, January 2, 2009
Razor Girl Love Cuts Both Ways by Marianne Mancusi
This is a silly campy novel. It is a postapocalyptic
zombie romance. The main character, Molly Anderson, is
a tribute to William Gibson's Neuromancer. She has
ocular implants and razor claws.
The book starts out as Molly Anderson is falling in love
with Chase Griffin, the boy next door. This is during
the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. People start
turning into pus filled, man eating zombies. There are
of course references to George Romero films.
Numerous cliches abound. They have the feeling they are
meant to be there. Molly must shoot Erin her best
friend who has turned into a three eyed zombie. Molly's
father is a mad scientist who makes
supersoldiers.
Switch to six years later. Molly has been in a fallout
shelter. When she comes out of the fallout shelter, she
immediately tears apart a zombie with her razor claws
saving Chase Griffin her high school fling. He of
course looks like the cover of a romance novel. Fabio
here I come.
The novel switches back and forth between high school
zombie apocalypse; and the end of the world wasteland.
Molly must get to Disneyland to save her father. She
brings Chase Griffin and his eight charges, child
survivors of the apocalypse.
This novel is silly and fun. It is competently put
together. There is sex, zombie killing, and cliches;
lots of cliches. Marianne Mancusi writes young adult
novels and action romances. This is her blog
http://mariannem.blogspot.com/
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Daily Thoughts
Jack Kerouac's poem in the center of San Francisco Chinatown's Jack Kerouac Alley. Daily Thoughts
I am reading Marianne Mancusi, Razor Girl Love Cuts Both Ways, an action romance. The book is part of the Shomi Fiction action romance series. It is very campy. During the first part of the book, they even include some words on George Romero. On the Shomi Fiction site, you can see the author Marianne Mancusi in a gothic lolita cosplay outfit. This is kind of entertaining. http://www.shomifiction.com/ . It makes the book both contemporary and a bit geeky.
The book is published by Dorchester Publishers. They also do the Hard Case Crime line of noire mystery paperbacks which I really like also. http://www.hardcasecrime.com/ . I have read a bunch of Dorchester paperbacks including Max Allan Collins, Ms. Tree. I like the publishers campy irreverent style. It is making them well known very quickly. http://www.dorchesterpub.com/ .
I watched Walt Disney's The Sword In The Stone, 45th Anniversary Edition this afternoon. This is based on T.H. White's Sword In The Stone written in 1938. It is the first part of The Once and Future King, a classic of fantasy. People still ask for the book occassionally. The movie brought back memories from when I was a child. I remember seeing it when I was seven years old in the theater. Sometimes, it comes on television. The screenplay is written by Bill Peet who is one of my favorite childrens book writers.
I really like the way that Arthur or wart as he is called in the film is transformed first into a fish, then a squirrel, then a bird. The animation is wonderful. It has a whimsical quality to it. These are my favorite parts of the movie. It is a nice reminder that using your brain is the best way to get ahead in the world.
Ekaterina Sedia who wrote The Secret History of Moscow has a new novel, The Alchemy of Stone. It is supposed to be a steampunk novel. I am looking forward to reading it.
Jonathan Carroll also has a new novel, The Ghost In Love, it is supposed to be a paranormal fiction novel, but as all of his novels, it probably has some very unusual philosophy woven into it as well.
I searched http://www.worldcat.org which lists the holdings of a lot of the public and academic libraries in the United States and found 196 listings for Jack Payne's Six Hours Past Thursday. I am going to place an interlibrary loan for the book this Saturday when I go back to work.