This is one of the few book reviews I wrote where someone offered me a free copy of the book to read. Thusly I might have been a little generous in my review. Some of you a-holes out there could learn from that.
Fridgularity
by Mark Rayner
(4/5 stars)
Anyway, the book is about a fridge that takes over the world. Well not really a fridge. It's an artificial intelligence that manifests itself through a web-enabled fridge in the kitchen of Blake Given, an Irish-Canadian web programmer who apparently is pretty well off to be able to afford a web-equipped fridge. One day the fridge starts talking to him and calling itself "Zathir". Zathir turns off the Internet while it works to increase its strength. Naturally there's a bit of a panic. Blake ends up pretty well off as Zathir's primarily link to humanity.
There's a lot of other stuff that happens but for a major cataclysm things stay pretty well-mannered. The ending felt a little abrupt especially after as long as it took to get there. I'd have liked a little more of an idea what exactly happens to Blake and the others at the end.
Still, if you've got the time for it, this is a fun read. It'll make you reconsider just how much time you should spend on the Internet--reading book reviews for instance.
That is all.
Tomorrow Box Office Blitz Continues!
3 comments:
I think the problem with free books these days is that they are no longer appreciated because there are too many of them. Now a free book is like someone saying, "Hey, I want to do you a favor. You can mow my lawn this week. How's about that?" And that's the reaction that is attributed to "free book" unfortunately. And most people only want free books if they are published by the Big Five because that's what they read. A lot of people that are self publishing and going with small presses don't read those books in their off time because they dreamed of getting a huge publishing deal and "settled." So they're in with the rest of us but don't support the rest of us because they really don't want to be there and feel ashamed.
Talking fridges?! Oh the horror. I'm still on the fence: are your bad reviews funnier than good ones?
First off, I like this grumpier bulldog who isn't afraid to call his blog readers a-holes.
Secondly, I suppose Michael's got a point, except that I'm not sure people feel ashamed if they get published but not by a Big 5. Then again, I've never been published by anyone but me. Even Planet 99 hasn't offered me a huge contract. And I have been querying them like crazy. I keep getting the same polite brush-off:
"Dear A-hole:
Knock if off."
As for the review, was the book "funny"? or "fun"?
I kind of see your point about "John Dies," which I enjoyed but the last portion was not as funny as the beginning, probably because, as you say, humor can't stretch to long.
Did you read his follow up? It was really well done. And also mentioned drones a lot before they became this year's hot topic.
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