Monday Meme III

Dearest Methadone Clinic Patrons,

Here's to hoping that today's post doesn't lead you to fall off the wagon. Stay strong, or you know... At least try to stay awake for Monday Meme:
Confession Bear

Cold Days (book 14 The Dresden Files) -- Jim Butcher

HARRY DRESDEN LIVES!!! After being murdered by a mystery assailant, navigating his way through the realm between life and death, and being brought back to the mortal world, Harry realizes that maybe death wasn’t all that bad. Because he is no longer Harry Dresden, Chicago’s only professional wizard.
He is now Harry Dresden, Winter Knight to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness. After Harry had no choice but to swear his fealty, Mab wasn’t about to let something as petty as death steal away the prize she had sought for so long. And now, her word is his command, no matter what she wants him to do, no matter where she wants him to go, and no matter who she wants him to kill.
Guess which Mab wants first? Of course, it won’t be an ordinary, everyday assassination. Mab wants her newest minion to pull off the impossible: kill an immortal. No problem there, right? And to make matters worse, there exists a growing threat to an unfathomable source of magic that could land Harry in the sort of trouble that will make death look like a holiday.Beset by enemies new and old, Harry must gather his friends and allies, prevent the annihilation of countless innocents, and find a way out of his eternal subservience before his newfound powers claim the only thing he has left to call his own…His soul.

It is hard for me to give an honest review of this book as I am a bit of a fanboy about the series. I have long awaited this release with baited (insert Tim Curry voice) antici-pation.

Harry Dresden is back, now with an actual body! Not unlike HBO's True Blood, at the end of the last book I was left with more questions than answers.

• Will Harry live?
• Will he keep his old friends?
• Will he fundamentally change now that he has signed on with the Queen of Darkness?
• Will Harry's daughter show up in the story?
• How do I get a dog like Mouse?
• How did Mac get his bar listed as neutral territory under the Unseelie Accords?
• Will Jim Butcher ever release a recipe for some of Macs beers?

The answers are as follows:

• Yes
• Yes
• Yes/No (HA! How do you like THAT ambivalent answer?)
• Not yet
• I can't (the Landlord doesn't want me to have pets)
• Unanswered (STILL!!!!)
• I'm waiting Jim... I'm waiting.

There isn't much I can really write about on this book without severely giving away the plot twists. The few things I can say is that Jim Butcher wrote Harry with the same nerdy/wise-ass dialogue that he always has which is to say: Kind of formulaic. 

Please don't get me wrong, the book stands on its own in the series. One of the things I love about this series are the ancillary characters. Jim is one of the few authors that I've found that invests almost as much time developing the supporting cast as the main characters.

I truly look forward to book 15. Hopefully, Jim can get better soon (he is currently suffering from gastroenteritis) so that he can get back to entertaining me!

For The Win- Cory Doctorow

My post for today covers a book I've read three times so far.
FTW by Cory Doctorow

I've included the book jacket copy from Corys website:

In the virtual future, you must organize to survive
At any hour of the day or night, millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual “gold,” jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world’s poorest countries, where countless “gold farmers,” bound to their work by abusive contracts and physical threats, harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay.
Mala is a brilliant 15-year-old from rural India whose leadership skills in virtual combat have earned her the title of “General Robotwalla.” In Shenzen, heart of China’s industrial boom, Matthew is defying his former bosses to build his own successful gold-farming team. Leonard, who calls himself Wei-Dong, lives in Southern California, but spends his nights fighting virtual battles alongside his buddies in Asia, a world away. All of these young people, and more, will become entangled with the mysterious young woman called Big Sister Nor, who will use her experience, her knowledge of history, and her connections with real-world organizers to build them into a movement that can challenge the status quo.
The ruthless forces arrayed against them are willing to use any means to protect their power—including blackmail, extortion, infiltration, violence, and even murder. To survive, Big Sister’s people must out-think the system. This will lead them to devise a plan to crash the economy of every virtual world at once—a Ponzi scheme combined with a brilliant hack that ends up being the biggest, funnest game of all.

This book covers a lot of ground and while it is listed as a Young Adult book, I would recommend it to ANYBODY interested in learning something new. One of my favorite parts of this book is the surprising economics lesson you receive. There’s a lot of money in play and the plot is entangled in the intricacies of markets and both virtual and real. It is necessary to the plot to know a little about how these things work.

His characters are believable and complex. They are fallible  interesting and sometimes distasteful, and FTW doesn't offer simple redemption or punishment, but satisfying and real conclusions for each of them. They are from all around the world, but then that’s the beauty of the internet, paths can cross without either person needing to leave their chair and Doctorow handles the multiple cultural and linguistic collisions well.

Another great part of the book, that pairs up (obviously) with the economics is the organisation of labor into unions. As a union member myself (shoutout to my brothers and sisters) I feel strongly about workers rights no matter where they may be, or what they may do.

Some of you (geekier people) may recognize the name Cory Doctorow. He is a co-editor for BoingBoing.
Aside from writing posts on one of my favorite websites, and writing fantastically engrossing books he is also a force to be reckoned with in the world of copywrite law. And as such has made every single one of his books free to download as an Epub.

If you are interested in reading FTW, please check it out here: http://craphound.com/ftw/download/

If you're not making art with the intention of having it copied, you're not really making art for the twenty first century-- Cory Doctorow

Author of the day- Jonathan Lethem

I have decided to make Jonathan Lethem my author of the day. He should be thrilled by such publicity (knowing all ten of you are reading this, five really if you don't count those poor saps nodding off from their latest Methadone fix).

I first discovered Jonathan when his most recent book at the time just went into paperback. The title of the book Fortress Of Solitude (I'm such a superman nerd, it's sad) grabbed my eye and I was in a rush to get to work.  I then spent the rest of that day completely blowing off customers and shirking responsibilities just to read that book. I was sucked in from page one.

Two days later after killing that book and dying to read some more of his work, I went back to the book store ready to pick up his entire work (or however much $40 would get me). Sadly, they only had one other book by him Gun, With Occasional Music. I was blown away at how different the writing styles were between the two books. So much so in fact, I immediately went to the library and picked up his collection.
The most interesting thing about this author is not that can he imagine a story that will hook you without the lazy use of deus ex machina, not the fact that his characters could actually have a life of their own were they to become real (I'm looking at you Bella). The most interesting thing is that EVERY SINGLE book of his has a different feel, a different flow, and a different writing style (unlike Dean Koontz who has written 75 gazillion books that are all the same).

If you are looking for a good read, please go to his website and pick up a book. you will not be disappointed.



side note: looking through his website, I found his fathers paintings (holy crap! I need to get a few prints) also, his brothers blog (NSFW) which has now become one of my favorites (gotta love graffiti!)

The Dresden Files-Patiently waiting

Reciepe for a Harry Dresden book:

2 parts Hard-boiled detective gumshoe novel
2 parts Low fantasy
1 parts Star-Wars references

 fill shaker with ice, add all ingredients, shake vigorously until you hear cussing.

I am a big fan of the Dresden Files books by Jim Butcher. He writes these books as a easy read, but not so easy that you would see the books in the YA section of a Library.

synopsis of Dresdens world taken from the great wiki:

In the world of The Dresden Files, magic is real, along with ghouls, vampires, demons, spirits, faeries, werewolves, and other mythical monsters.Harry Dresden works to protect the general public, who are ignorant of magic and the dark forces conspiring against them. This makes it difficult for Harry to get by as a working wizard and private eye. The Chicago PD's Special Investigation unit, when led by Karrin Murphy, regularly employs Dresden as a consultant to help solve cases of a supernatural nature.

The White Council, the recognized governing body of Wizards, has decreed the Seven Laws of Magic, which all magic users are expected to follow. Breaking any of the laws carries a death sentence except under very rare and special circumstances.

In The Dresden Files universe, each species (humans, faeries, vampires, etc.) has its own political and societal rules and organizations. The human wizards depend on the White Council, while faeries may belong to either the Summer or Winter courts, or they may belong to neither court, in which case they are known as Wyldfae. Vampires may belong to any of three vampire Courts, be it the White, Red, or Black Court. There are rumours of a Jade court based in the far east.

Jim Butcher has created a world where I not only hope Harry wins, I have a sick curiosity about just much abuse Harry can take before he reaches through the computer and beats his author on the head with his own keyboard.

So far there have been 13 novels written about Harry and 1 book of short stories. the next book set for release is November 27. I have been waiting a while for this one and can guarantee that you will be getting a full write up on this book.

The Casual Vacancy

The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (yes THAT J.K. Rowling)

The novel covers the death of a local Councillor, Barry Fairbrother, who croaks in the parking lot of a local golf course. As news spreads throughout town, chaos ensues. The problem arises in deciding whether the estate "The Fields" (which includes a methadone clinic, Bellchapel) should remain as part of Town.

After the election date is announced, the children of those who are standing for election decide to make damaging posts on the Councils online forum. Andrew, is the first person to do so, operating under the name "The_Ghost_Of_Barry_Fairbrother" and informing everyone on the forum that his father had bought a stolen computer. Sukhvinder follows, posting that her mother, Dr. Parminder Jawanda, was in love with Barry. Thirdly, Fats Wall posts, claiming his dad Cubby, diddled a kid.

This book also follows Krystal Weedon. Krystal lives in The Fields with her mother Terri who is a hooker and dope fiend, and brother Robbie. Kay, ( the obligitory Social worker) is determined for Terri to stop her druggie ways and take responsibility for the care of Robbie, however, Terri relapses (of course) and her drug-dealer ends up raping Krystal. Obviously fucked up from yet another traumatic experience in her life. Krystal has hooks up with Fats in an attempt to become preggers. It is during one of these hook-ups that Robbie runs away from the pair in a park, eventually falling and drowning in a river, despite Sukhvinder's attempt to save him. Krystal is so distraught she kills herself via heroin overdose, the novel culminating with her funeral.

The novels major themes were Politics, Class, and Social Issues (such as drugs).
All of which Ms. Rowling, should be able to write about properly, as she was living in the lowest caste of society without being homeless prior to her HP being published.

I feel this book is more CRASS than CLASS. I don't think I went two pages without being assaulted by more "fucks" and "arse" than was even close to necessary for the point of the narrative. I really hope J.K. doesn't stop writing, but I do hope this book comes off the top sellers charts. I feel this book has stayed up there due to her previous achievements.

This is J.K.'s first attempt at an adult book, and it kinda shows. Now please don't get me wrong. I loved her HP series. So much in fact, that when I was last in Orlando I spent a large part of my time at Universal Studios IN the new Hogwarts section.

I was hoping to make my first "official" book review to be something awesome. I guess I was disappointed twice.

I will now leave you with some photos of Hogwarts in Universal Studios.