Lenni Reviews: The Walking Dead Fall of the Governor Part Two

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In the continuing saga of some heretofore unknown desire to torture myself, it was with a heaving sigh that I picked up the fourth and final book in this "trilogy."

If you are just joining us, here is one, two, and three.

This last installment is the assault on the prison from the Woodbury resident's perspective. If you've read the previous books and/or the comics, it's pretty clear how The Governor has a stranglehold on the town and can get them to do whatever he wants so reading about how he got people from the prison, tortures Michonne, and Michonne getting her revenge but how The Governor manages to survive Michonne's attack is interesting. You get some more insights into Bob Stookey and Lilly Caul but even then, the whole thing falls flat. I still can't reconcile Lilly's transformation into The Governor's perfect soldier but this book does provide some back info as to why Lilly freaked out after (this should NOT be spoilers by now!) killing Lori and Judith. Personally, shooting unarmed women with babies is just wrong in and of itself but yeah, the back story is nice to know.

I don't want to give too much away but I will say the book does not end with the assault on the prison. You do get to find out what happens to Lilly and Woodbury in the aftermath of The Governor's death. It should not have taken four books to say what could have been said in a wicked cool side comic ("Re-Rise of Woodbury" perhaps?) and that is in the last 50 pages or so of just... Meh. All of it just feels like a deflated balloon. Things are wrapped up and explained but there's little punch to it. I will say, the writing stays on the level of Part One; to the point with plenty of gory zombie killin and 'splodin brains. If you don't like gore (then you're reading the wrong franchise) you may be turned off by all the muck here.

If I were to sum up all four, I would say the average fan could totally skip these and be just fine. If you're dying to know what happens to Lilly after the prison? Borrow book four and start at chapter seventeen. The books are jerky and boring. I didn't hate this one, I didn't roll my eyes, I'm even short on my usual biting sarcasm here; I just yawned a lot. Save your money for the comics.

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Lenni Reviews: Pokemon Visual Companion

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I will be the first to admit I am not a Pokemon person. I stopped watching the show after season 2 or so (I can't even really remember), I've never played any of the games or collected the cards. My collective knowledge of the franchise probably couldn't fill a Poke Ball. I didn't even know there were different kinds of Poke Balls before I opened this book.

That being said, I feel much more comfortable holding a conversation with a fan after reading this book. It's a pretty comprehensive primer for the entire universe. Every character gets a blurb, every creature has a summary, and every location is covered. I wouldn't pass if you quizzed me on it (I read it not memorized it) but if a fan of the show started talking about it, I would understand what they were saying.

As to the content, most of the pictures are direct from the show so if there's something different in the card game or the video games, it's not here. That's fine by me because if you're looking for something just to dip a toe into this world, you don't want to bury someone with that much information. As a non-fan who is friends with fans, it's scary to see just how vast the entire Pokemon franchise is. This book is nice and simple: This is the show and the creatures in it. That's all. It's also NOT an episode guide. Chances are you won't see many spoilers in here.

My only complaint is that some of the stills taken from the show are a bit fuzzy but if that's the only obvious flaw I caught, this book has a lot going for it.

Except that the series came to the U.S. in 1998... This book made me feel old as hell.
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Lenni Reviews: World War Z: Book vs Movie

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I'm usually late to the party for things like this so bear with me here. I'm just gonna leap into the fray of bajillions of other people who have already discussed this to death.

When I went to see this movie, I haddn't read the book. That may be #1 of nerd sins but give me a break, my "Want To Read" list is 400+ books deep. My opinion of the movie wasn't colored by the book and I STILL thought it was funny for all the wrong reasons. The scenes that should have been tense came off slow and there are so many holes in the plot, it couldn't protect you from a horde of zombies any better than a NERF gun. The movie's only saving grace was the visuals of waves of zombies rolling over one another like fire ants. 

After reading the book, I am extra pissed at the movie. Max Books did a fantastic job of writing harrowing accounts from a wide range of perspectives (scientists, politicians, regular people, and feral children) in a gripping and at times heart-breaking story of the fallout of the zombie wars. There were parts where I cried because I was truly touched or horrified. 

In comparison, there were parts of the movie where I cried... From laughter.

So, now that I have seen what has been done to the original source material, I would LOVE to put forth this challenge to the entertainment industry: Make a version true to the book in the vein (no pun intended here) of Interview with the Vampire or Forrest Gump. The real-time interviews interspersed with flashbacks is a formula that obviously works. Get to it, Hollywood! You know it would be awesome.



Lenni Reviews: Dr. Sleep by Stephen King

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As a fan of Stephen King's work, I am certain my fangirl-ish squeel of glee could be heard far and wide when I heard Dr. Sleep came out. As a sequel to The Shining, I was super excited to find out the fate of Daniel Torrence, the child with the Shining gift now all grown up.

A recovering alcoholic; Danny works as an orderly in a hospice, using his gifts to help comfort the dying and earning the nickname Dr. Sleep. As he gets his life together, he starts to receive messages from another with a talent like his own; a young girl named Abra Stone. Abra's abilities are so strong, she attracts the attention of a group called the True Knot; who feeds off children with the Shining. The two of them must battle to stop them from devouring Abra and continuing to hunt these special children.

This book is best read if you have read The Shining first; although it stands alone as a perfectly thrilling book. Unless you read the first one, you won't get the REDRUM and Daniel's alcoholism provides much more of an emotional punch when you read in the first book about his father.

Simply put, I could not put this book down. I am such a fan of King and his writing that I have actually avoided reading his books for awhile because then I'd have to go and read 10 more; some of which would be the second or third time I've read the book. Abra is an amazing little girl; a character I wouldn't mind reading more about in the future. The True Knot are pretty damn terrifying and I had a white-knuckle grip on my tablet, anxious to read what comes next. (see here why I read this book on a tablet because the physical book was too big to carry around)

Dr. Sleep really gets to the point even though it comes in at a whopping (well, not whopping for King, anyway) 544 pages. I am thankful for this because King can really delve into detail which is great sometimes but... Let's just say I never made it through the extended cut of The Stand. There was so much back story, I hadda give it up. And while I won't spoil the ending, this King fan can safely say it is a very satisfying conclusion. This book is a very worthy successor and I do truly wonder if we will hear more of Abra in the future.

Lenni Reviews: The Walking Dead: Fall of the Governor Part One

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Like many, I tuned in for the premier of this season of The Walking Dead and as is very unlike me, I was physically in the room for the commercials. If you noticed in the title of this review, the trilogy has suddenly been transformed into NOT a trilogy. I noticed this in the commercial for the book and promptly lost my shit. Like many who pre-ordered this book (I had it on reserve since my last review) my first thought upon seeing "part one" was "Gee, thanks for the shameless money-grab." It's the most blatant act of bait and switch I've ever seen and as a fan, I am straight up insulted. This is precisely why I take full advantage of my dayjob as a librarian: I can screen a series to see if it's worth my money to own them. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not.

This is a case of not.

That being said, once I got over the "sticker shock" and got the book in my hot little hands; I remembered what a very wise teacher of mine said in high school about going into something with your mind made up beforehand. I opened to page one with an open mind.

No, seriously. I left my extreme anger and sarcasm for the first two books behind. And that was really hard, believe you me. This book comes in at a mere 245 pages; which leaves little room for a realistic transformation of Lilly Caul.

Fall of the Governor picks up not long after Road to Woodbury. Lilly still hates the Governor, he still doesn't trust her, and Woodbury is still lead by a creepy bastard who keeps zombie heads in fish tanks and a zombie girl on a leash in his house. Lilly goes on a couple raids and she seems to have he right attitude of it not being play time and you need to watch your ass. But her switch from "this guy is out of hand" to "gee, I think he has the right idea because the world is harsh and cruel" is so sudden, it is beyond belief. If the character straight out says "I think it's Stockholm Syndrome" (I'm paraphrasing here but Lilly used the term), the transition was too abrupt. It was forced to comply with the assault on the prison we all know is gonna happen.

Other than that, I have to admit, this book is MUCH improved over the previous installments. If you've read my reviews of those, that's not saying much but the fact remains. The writing in the beginning is "take this guy's thesaurus away" drab again but when the novel meets the comic, it picked up in quality. The cynic in me believes it's because the world was already built; you just hadda transcribe the events in the comic. But you can still screw up that part and Bonansinga didn't. Kudos to you, sir.

Even the new angle of the story coming from the other side of the coin, as it were, isn't enough to separate the novel from the comic. You've read the comic, you know what happens. The side story with Lilly and her new boyfriend(?) Austin is forgettable. Glen and Maggie are a better couple to watch, in my opinion. Besides, who wants to hear them muse about their relationship when you get to read the prose version of the Governor and Michonne meeting face to face. That was the best writing I have seen in this series so far. Keep it at that caliber, and I may not hate the next one from first glance.

As I finished the book, I did check out some other reviews and to sum up, I agree with them; it's a cheat. It's not fair to split up the conclusion this way and these books do NOT live up to the promise of the comic books or the show. They are forgettable at best and cringe-worthingly bad at worst. I am only looking forward to the last book to say I finished the series. Because, let's face it: We all read this story already. And it was better the first time they told it.

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Lenni Reviews: The Supervillian Field Manual by King Oblivion

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Ever wonder how to style your lair? Aquire minions? Dress to distress? Well, wonder no more because The Supervillian Field Manual by Matt Wilson and Adam Wallenta will show you the do's and don't's towards supervillain etiquette.

For me, this book is right up there with Vampire Haiku and So Now You're a Zombie, I enjoy these books despite the fact I can't really see reading them more than once. These are the ultimate comics fan coffee table books; chock full of good "advice" and comic factoids from multiple universes. And it's hilarious to read since I can recall Wilson's work on Cracked.com, I expected the jokes to be exactly what they were; dry and a bit sarcastic. Perfect for me.

If you already own books like this, this is a worth addition to your collection. The illustrations are cute, the jokes are funny, and all in all, I'm left with a smile on my face. I declare it a success.

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Lenni Reviews - Noble V: Greylancer by Hideyuki Kikuchi

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This novel is supposed to tell the story of the Three Thousand Year War from the Vampire Hunter D universe. Greylancer; vampire noble named for his weapon, is tasked with defending his race from anti-noble rebels and Outer Space Beings (aka: OSB's). 

I tried so hard to like this book. I enjoy Vampire Hunter D. It's one of my favorite animes but this book was so boring, I couldn't finish it. As a scifi geek, I found the holes in this book too large to ignore. People, places, and events pop in and out and you don't know why or if they were even important. I was so bored, I couldn't bring myself to care about anything anyway. There is nothing about the book that gives me the same sense as the anime or the comics of a dry landscape where humans struggle to survive in contrast with the decadent nobles who rule them. 

In general, this is a far cry from any book I've read set in this universe. I couldn't wait to put it down so I could go read something else. I'd skip this one if I were you, friends.

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Lenni Reviews: Ink by Amanda Sun

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Imagine life as you know it ends and you are dropped in a strange country where you barely know the language and a strange boy at school has drawings that come to life and attack you. Welcome to the life of Katie Greene; the unfortunate heroine of Amanda Sun's "Ink." After Katie's mother dies, she's sent to Japan to live with her aunt. With a rusty grasp of the language and customs, Katie struggles through school and tries to make some friends. She finds herself attracted to the resident bad boy, Tomohiro, who has these strange moving sketches.

This novel reads like a shojo manga; lost girl meets lost boy, one of the two is magical. and they fall in devoted love faster than the sakura bloom and fall. Most YA novels are following this pattern these days but the premise is very original and kept me reading despite how unrealistic the romance was to me. 

The love story was the only part of this book I didn't have complete fun with. I loved the descriptions of regular life in Japan as Katie gets used to an entire new set of cultural norms. Even adjusting to the food was noted which was fascinating. You really get the sense of friction and frustration as a complete gaijin is thrust into a world she barely understands. However, ALL the boys wanna know Katie, she's just the girl everyone wants to date. I'm sure there's the draw of the exotic; the excitement of a foreign girl with blonde hair as a fresh transfer student is bound to draw the attention of all the other kids. But I still had trouble finding the romance believable. They were in love and willing to die for one another so fast, I had to take a moment to catch up.

Then again, I think the same about most shojo manga and the stories are designed to be that way; a light, whirlwind romance with the spice of danger of the supernatural. It's a fun, simple read that will talk to the heart of every young girl dreaming of an otherworldly bishonen to fall in love with. I recommend this to any fan of shojo who is looking for a novel along the same lines.

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Lenni Reviews: Rogue Touch by Christine Woodward

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Rogue is my favorite character. In fact, I stopped reading X-Men comics for years because I felt she didn't get enough screen time to warrant my money. That changed but now I'm broke. So, when Rogue Touch by Christine Woodward came across my desk, I was excited but reticent. It's just a kick in the chest when your favorite character and childhood idol gets a crappy novel but I went into this novel with an open mind.

This novel explores the life of a young Anna Marie; a runaway who's mutant powers have just manifested and left her boyfriend Cody in a coma. Eighteen and barely making it, she encounters fellow outcast James outside the bakery where she works just standing there watching her. After getting fired and her boss accidentally touching her skin, she goes on the run and encounters James doing the same. Together, they crisscross the country, getting closer but also getting into trouble.

Woodward absolutely nailed a young and lost Rogue, already feeling lonely and heartbroken in a world she can never touch. You just want to hug her; even though that would probably kill you. The poor girl can't catch a break so it's almost a relief when she says "Screw it" and bolts out of town with the handsome and mysterious stranger. The set up is pretty standard romance novel fair; guy with hidden secrets and girl with hidden secrets meet up, fall in love, and their secrets inspire wacky hijinks. Typical but certainly not boring or sappy. Rogue was always a warmhearted woman in the comics and it shows through in this novel with how she wants to get close to her fellow fugitive help him with his "I'm an alien being hunted by my own kind" problem.

I was rooting for these two with "Young Turks" stuck in my head. The story is told in Rogue's voice and I was very grateful to have the prose written out instead in her thick southern accent. While endearing, such accents can be difficult to read at times and using my imagination to hear that smexy southern drawl was much better and allowed me to flow right through the very evenly paced and tight writing. Just like any romance involving Rogue, all you want is for everything to turn out ok because they are so obviously attracted to one another but, as is wont to happen in this genre, the universe quite literally will not let them be.

There is a coming of age aspect to this adventure and it's a fun road trip story, even with the danger. I was excited to find out how it would all turn out and enjoyed every minute. If you like Rogue and you like a little romance with your mutants than you can't really go wrong with Rogue Touch. I enjoyed it and I think you will, too.

Rogue Touch will be released on June 18th, 2013.
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Lenni Reviews: The She-Hulk Diaries by Marta Acosta

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Not having read much of She-Hulk in the past (me and her books never quite were in the same place at the same time) I was very curious to read this book. The She-Hulk Diaries are set in a time where Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, is on probation from the Avengers for her rage issues and penchant for major amounts of collateral damage. As Jennifer, she sets a series of goals for herself and awards herself points upon their completion; such as 25 culture points for listening to opera or 100 points for landing a very lucrative job with a high profile law firm.


I did learn a lot about She-Hulk and have new insight to how hard it is to balance your superhero alter ego with your regular human life. In this case, it is doubly hard considering She-Hulk is a separate personality from Jennifer Walters and is difficult to contain in times of stress. However, this book struck me as a sort of Sex and the City with superheros. This is not to say the book is bad by any means; it is an entertaining piece of fluff peppered with some pretty cool superhero battles and the legal case she’s embroiled in involving bio-engineered organs failing inside their patients is very interesting; but this book was so vapid in some parts, I physically cringed.

First off, this book fails the Bechdel Test completely. I know this test is traditionally reserved for movies but when all Jennifer and her friends seemed to talk about was how to get a man, keep a man, and what men they've slept with or dated, I couldn't help but roll my eyes a little. I nabbed some of the She-Hulk trades to read to compare to this novel and it seems there’s so much more to both She-Hulk AND Jennifer Walters than who she’s boning, has boned, or will bone. On the flip side of this, the nitty gritty of the legal case against ReplaceMax for their defective organs is very touching; with She-Hulk making surprise visits to the sick plaintiffs and Jennifer getting very invested in the case. Next to the crime fighting, these were my favorite parts of the book.

Secondly? “Shulky” is a terrible nickname and seeing text speak in novels when characters are not texting always makes my brain screech to a halt. When I was about 60% into the book; anytime a character said Shulky or described a man in conversation as “OMG! amazing” I wanted to bash myself in the face with my kindle.

In summary, if you can look past the horrid nickname and occasional conversations where “ppl tlk lke this, omg so HAWT!!” this novel is not a bad ‘day in the life of your favorite super-heroine’ story. You learn a lot about the character as a person and have some fun along the way. I identified with her insecurities and cheered for her when she stood up for herself in the face of some pretty harsh criticism and very human mishaps. This book is funny when it should be, touching when it should be, and thrilling when it should be. It’s a perfect piece of comic book novel candy. Read it and have some fun.

The She-Hulk Diaries will be released June 18th 2013.

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Lenni Reviews: Sidney Sheldon's The Tides Of Memory by Tilly Bagshane

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Political dramas aren’t really my thing. Real politics are dramatic enough and I find their considerable lack of elves, dragons, or space ships terribly disturbing. But while such books aren’t in my book queue, I cracked this book open with an equally open mind.
The novel follows Alexia De Vere, wife of Teddy De Vere and ruthless political darling of the United Kingdom’s conservative party. As the newly appointed Home Secretary (a position I hadda look up because I wasn’t exactly sure what a Home Secretary does), her hard ball stance on illegal immigrants and sentencing laws has earned her a sizable number of enemies. So, one can hardly be surprised when bodies start piling up around her.


Bagshane has some tight writing here and the characters are believable to the point where you can be annoyed by them. I had trouble identifying with Alexia not because she wasn’t written well, but because she’s a spoiled rich woman who seems to have nine lives when her mistakes come to bite her in the ass. I was curious about the outcome and it kept me reading to the end but didn’t keep me up late or anything. It’s pure and fun escapism, enough to keep me turning the pages and I’m an admitted avoider of thrillers and mysteries.

This book wasn’t good enough for me to go chasing down the other books by the same author(s) but it was a fun ride while it lasted. If you’re in to light political thrillers with a twisting plot and a fair amount of drama, you won’t be disappointed.

Lenni Reviews: The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury

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I love you guys. No, really, I do. And you better love me, too, for reading this book when I had a feeling it would be just like the first one.

Road to Woodbury suffers from the same problems as Rise of the Governor; uneven writing, cliche zombie tropes, thin characters; the works. Now, if you want to read this book or haven’t read the comics (which really, if you haven’t dafuq you doing here?), there will be spoilers for both in the review because I just can't properly express what bothered me about the book without giving away some details.

I’m serious.

Spoilers here.

Last chance...

Alright, here we go.

This novel follows Lilly Caul as she tries to survive the aftermath of the plague and ends up in Woodbury. At least the title here is accurate; there is a road and Lilly uses it to get to Woodbury and does so WAAAYYY earlier in this book than the Governor became the Governor in the first book. When Lilly gets there, she is instantly aware there is something rotten in Woodbury (bonus points if you get my Shakespeare reference). The Governor is in full on evil fuckwit mode and creepy from word one. How the wimpy asthmatic from the end of Rise of the Governor vanished is never told. But there he is in all his murdery, rape-y, heads-in-fish tank-y glory as if he was plucked from the comic, NOT from the first book.

So, there’s a time lapse. Lenni can be down with that. But not a single character drops a clue the man was anything other than complete evil from the moment he was put in charge. I get the feeling I arrive in Woodbury like this:



And also, he spends exactly two random pages having a sob session over the monster he has become. It was out of place. All of a sudden, he spends two pages out of 288 to lament how he has become a monster like his brother, Philip, in order to survive, despite the fact he hadda kill his brother and thereby Philip didn’t survive. He literally pauses to cry about being a murdering fuckwit then immediately goes back to being a murdering fuckwit. It was completely out of place and I didn’t feel any sympathy for him. I was annoyed and just wanted him to go back to killing things to make it stop.

Lilly despises him from the start (like Michonne does in the show) and wants out. She hatches a plot to kill him, it fails because: zombies. Then inexplicably, the Governor does NOT kill her like he did pretty much anyone else who looked at him funny and she vows she’s gonna kill him one day. You heard me right: The villain who tortured Michonne for biting his ear off, keeps his zombie niece (or "daughter" in the show) as a pet, does a crappy job of chopping Tyreese's head off, and kills people on a whim for the lulz lets Lilly live after she conspired to kill him and failed. Does not compute!

My other problem with this? At no point in the comic does Lilly seem to outright object to anything that happens till she finds out she’s shot a fleeing woman with her infant (Lori and Judith). And I went back to the comics and checked. Twice.

To sum up my issue: the entire book, Lilly despises the Governor and can’t want to kill him yet in the comics, she had no problem rolling up to the prison at his side. And if she was just going along for the ride for the chance to kill him, it STILL doesn’t jive because she spends the entire novel whining about the deaths of innocent people. She’s got a lot of collateral damage on her hands if the whole plot was to somehow kill the Governor in the prison. It doesn't make sense to me how "Lilly" who failed to kill the Governor in the novel and "Lilly" who killed Lori and her baby are the same woman.

I am no perfect writer. I am sure there are cliches, typos, grammar mistakes and dangling plot points in my books but something like this was like a flood light to the eyes. If you're going to transmit your property to another medium and say it's a prequel, not an alternate universe, at least have it make sense.

I didn’t want to throw the book this time but it did give me a headache. On the plus side, it read faster than the first book and the descriptions of zombie mauling and oozing, decayed flesh are enough to make you grimace. But at $24.99, I expect better. No, I DEMAND better. Because the collected comics come in at $14.99 for the volumes, $34.99 for the big books, and $59.99 for the compendiums, there needs to be more bang for my buck. More happens in any of those comics to warrant the prices than in the hardcover novels.

Well, at least it’s over and there won’t be another one.

Aww, shit...

Lenni Reviews: Dreams and Shadows by Robert Cargill

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*This review has been framed as a letter. Because I can.

Dear Mr. Cargill,

I have a bone to pick with you, mister. Your book, Dreams and Shadows, has caused me to lose sleep, having been sucked so completely into your world. Once picked up, I could not stop. I can see you have created a very in depth and ambitious world of many mythologies and characters I fell immediately in love with. You have found my dark fantasy weakness, sir, with drunken genies, wild magic, and wacked out fallen angels.

Yours is a tale of innocence lost, love, tragedy, and strength. Some parts get lost in between the education entries about specific creatures, but the next chapters pulled be right back in to Colby and his best friend and trouble magnet, Ewan.

You have been compared to Neil Gaiman, my good sir, and your novel has done to me what Gaiman’s have done; created a macabre world of interesting characters that sucked me in from word one.

Now, since you owe me for some sleepless nights of ravenous page-turning, I must insist on being repaid with another book. Go write more stuff.

~Lenni

Lenni Reviews: Zombie Cat: The Tale of a Decomposing Kitty

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With the recent success of “Go The F*ck To Sleep” I did expect a bunch more ‘kids books for adults’ to come out. For good or ill, there’s a market for these and since they amuse the hell out of me, I am proud to present a review of Zombie Cat by Isabel Atherton and Bethany Straker.

    One day, Tiddles is just chilling with his kitty friends when a nuclear power plant spill infects some field mice. One bites Tiddles and he awakens as Zombie Cat! It’s a cute story with decent art. The rendering of a decaying zombie cat was detailed enough to turn my stomach yet some gore is skipped. The scene where a pack of zombie cats attack a little girl is thankfully obscured. Still, this is not for the super squeemish or the very young. Unless you want to explain to your young child why Tiddles wants to eat his owner.

    I would recommend this book to older kids (say 15+ or a 12 year old with a decent sense of humor) who are into zombies or to adults like me who like a little gore with their cute every so often. If you like zombies, kitties, and silly, gory comics, you’ll enjoy this quick little tome.
 

Lenni Reviews: Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw

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            The end of the world arrives not with a bang, not with a whimper, not with the groans of the undead but with the unsettling sound of strawberry jam squishing through the streets of Brisbane, Australia. Yes, my friends; the human race will face its greatest tribulations in the form of a man-eating condiment.
            The story begins with our protagonist, the gainfully unemployed Travis, waking up on a normal day and wondering how the job hunt will go. Except not a sound comes from the city outside his window and when he ventures out, the jam is up to the third floor of his building. Travis and a few other survivors make their way through the nearly empty city, meeting secret agents, battling plastic people, and a cult of office workers as they try to survive the jamocalypse.
            Facing this potentially hilarious circumstance, I had high hopes for this book. However, Travis is a dull narrator and the jokes at most inspired a mild chuckle. About 50 pages in, I was tempted to give it up but kept on out of sheer morbid curiosity. I mean, the city is covered in man –eating, strawberry jam. You gotta see how this pans out if for nothing more than to stop wondering who lives or who dies and to get to see the word “jamocalypse” in a sentence.
Few of the characters are likeable if you can flush out their personalities at all. They stand in as archetypes; The Normal Guy, The Roommate, The Jerk, The Girl, The Secret Agent, and so on. I couldn’t get deep enough in the world created in the book to really care about any of them. I felt tripped up by the uneven writing; sparse descriptions in some places, witty pop culture references in others, then some really great writing in between. It was enough to make me dizzy! If the effect was to make me feel like I was bobbing in the jam itself, it worked.
Overall, I cannot say I completely hated this book, but I didn’t fall in love with it either. It’s the overall premise that kept me reading; the novelty of the end of the world in a completely unexpected fashion. If you want to read this for a silly end of the world scenario and nothing else, then you could do a lot worse. But at 400 pages, that’s one hell of an investment and it may not be worth it for you. So, with that resounding “Meh,” my final word is this book will find its niche. Just not with me.

Lenni Reviews: The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor

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With the new season debuting this fall, with every Walking Dead fan’s favorite villain making his appearance, and with another Walking Dead novel coming out in October, it seems a good a time as any to talk about “The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor.”
I do enjoy zombie novels (even though I refuse to read them at night. A girl only makes that mistake ONCE) and Walking Dead is high on my list of favorite zombie tomes. But from the first few pages, one thing is clear: If you haven’t read the comics, the novel won’t be as fun. Oh, you’ll get it; zombies bad. Eat the living. That sucks for them. But the foundations the comics built are important to understanding some of the little nuances in this book.
I wanted to love this book, I really did. But it suffers from the same dragging as the show; long stretches of time where nothing is happening. Of course, don’t get attached to anyone. It’s just not worth it. I had a hard time feeling anything for these characters anyway since they all seem to be set up to fit into the inevitable events in the comic. The writing isn’t impressive. Very drab and full of clichés. Unless there’s zombie killin to be done. Then there’s some pretty stomach churning descriptions.
The title is deceptive. It’s not so much the “Rise of the Governor” more like “The 320 Page Slog To Get The Guy Who Will Be The Governor To The Town He Needs To Be In.” I'd want to know that but it's not why I picked up the book. I was hoping for more insight to how to the plague started; figuring it was part of how this man came to be. And when you get to the end… Oh, the ending…
This made just about as much sense. (Source)

 Alright, I grew up on Twilight Zone. I love me a good twist ending. But this wasn’t so much of a twist as a surefire way to make me throw the book across the room. I won’t spoil it for you but in this humble librarian’s opinion, the ending was a twist for the sake of a twist; lacking in sense and destroying the continuity. The Governor in the comic doesn’t quite make sense now that I’ve read the novel. I read the novel for clarity, because I wanted to know how such a twisted and violent man got to be so freakin awful and all I got was more confused.
Perhaps the next installment will explain how a man is capable of what The Governor did in the graphic novels. For now, if you like this villain, you may want to skip this book. Unless you want to just read a zombie book with Kirkman's name on it. Then by all means, go for it. Lenni suggests getting it from your local library.

Lenni Reviews: "The Future is Japanese"

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“The Future is Japanese,” edited by Nick Mamatas, Masumi Washington, and Haikasoru, features stories about and by Japan and Japanese people. It’s a solid collection of short science fiction stories featuring multiple subgenres. The collection features space travel, cyperpunk, dystopian landscapes, and fantastical time travel adventures.
This collection spares no punches, thrusting you completely into each world. Like many stories, they are a contemplation on what it means to be human or what we are doing to the planet and ourselves through ruthless pursuit of high technology or illogically clinging to the past. Over all I would have to say in this book the future is absolutely Japanese; and also incredibly depressing. The darkest of subjects are handled with candid and vivid clarity producing genuine fear, horror, and sometimes even shame. One of the stories was so dark, I honestly felt as if I needed a shower when I was done.
Not every story is connected to Japan or Japanese culture but they still fit in with the scifi nature of the collection. As a geek, I was enthralled by the different takes on what the future would be like. And for you mech fans? Yes, one story does feature giant battle suits. Some of the tech talk may lose some of the less die hard cyberpunk fans and authors just drop Japanese words as if we’re already supposed to know what they mean, but the action makes up for it. Not being familiar with some of these more famous authors, I don’t have their body of work to compare these stories to. The works in this book stand alone as some pretty darn good stories. The ones originally in Japanese are solidly translated so I wasn’t left confused.
Not all the stories are winners. There were times I felt preached to or as if I was sitting in a class on cybernetics or virtual reality. But hardcore Japanophiles and science fiction fans will not be completely disappointed by this collection. There is plenty here to enjoy and at 360 pages, there is a lot of meat in the book. I’m not sure I would buy it but it’s worth picking up from your local library or borrowing from a friend.

Lenni Reviews: "Flame of Surrender" by Rhiannon Paille

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I don’t intend to start every review with a warning but, this seems to be how life goes. So, my warning here is I have not read a Young Adult book in about 16 years. When I say I started this book and three pages into it, I’m all WTF, it’s my fault, not the book’s fault. It took a great deal of reprogramming to make my brain adjust to simpler words and shorter sentences but it got there. I also may have injured something so you guys owe me.
Flame of Surrender, by Rhiannon Paille is a good fantasy story about two young people in love when destiny conspires to keep them apart. It is also a tale familiar to anyone who has had to grow up and just didn’t want to. It’s not star crossed love that weighs the heaviest on Kaliel and Krishani, it is their coming of age, the weight of their responsibilities smothering their innocence before the bad stuff even starts.
Kaliel is a living weapon called a “flame” and she falls for a boy named Krishani, whose destiny is to follow deal and replace the Ferryman. While their world is rich and well built, the romance isn’t quite there in the beginning, the kids focusing on where their destinies are taking them rather than each other.
The fantasy elements are all here; magic, soothsaying trees, everything to keep my internal geek happy while I was reading. But only while I was reading. If I put the book down, I forgot about the characters. I found myself needing to refresh my memory by going back to the previous sections to remember who was who. The timing is off, too. I was often lost between chapters; not knowing how much time had passed. The romance is also forgettable. I literally forgot the two main characters were in love until the author told me they were. The story jerks forward in some places and drags in others, making the reading experience surreal. It’s a good story, but it needed more to really grip my attention even after I put it down.
If I had a rating system (I’ll come up with something) this book would be firmly in the middle. Not bad but not the best I’ve read. If you're a hardcore fantasy fan, I'd say borrow this one if you're really interested in it.