Lesa's Book Critiques: The Dispatcher #1 by John Scalzi

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Dispatcher #1 by John Scalzi

Whatever: Yes, All Those Author Services and Book Club Emails Are Fake, and No, Don’t Send Them Any Money by John Scalzi

 Whatever: Yes, All Those Author Services and Book Club Emails Are Fake, and No, Don’t Send Them Any Money by John Scalzi  

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Tale of the Wicked by John Scalzi

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Tale of the Wicked by John Scalzi

Lesa's Book Critiques: An Election by John Scalzi

 Lesa's Book Critiques: An Election by John Scalzi

Lesa's Book Critiques: Constituent Service by John Scalzi

 Lesa's Book Critiques: Constituent Service by John Scalzi

Lesa's Book Critiques: The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi

 Lesa's Book Critiques: The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi

Lesa's Book Critiques: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

 Lesa's Book Critiques: When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi

Making Money in the Next Four Years, and Why You Need to Plan Now to Support Your Favorite Creators by John Scalzi

 Making Money in the Next Four Years, and Why You Need to Plan Now to Support Your Favorite Creators by John Scalzi  

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Starter Villain by John Scalzi:   Reviewed by Kristin One morning, Charlie turns on the news and discovers that his long lost and extremely rich uncle is dead. Not that...

Lesa's Book Critiques: STARTER VILLAIN BY JOHN SCALZI

 Lesa's Book Critiques: STARTER VILLAIN BY JOHN SCALZI

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in August 2023

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Books Read in August 2023: I read nine books in August and completed all of the books on my 20 Books of Summer list. I did not review them all, but did better than usu...

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Head On: John Scalzi

Bitter Tea and Mystery: Head On: John Scalzi: This is the second book in a two book cross-genre series with elements of both science fiction and mystery genres. The first book, Lock In ...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi: Reviewed by Kristin Jamie Gray* thought that a performance review would be an excellent chance to showcase their ideas and innovations, bu...

Lesa's Book Critiques: THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY BY JOHN SCALZI

 Lesa's Book Critiques: THE KAIJU PRESERVATION SOCIETY BY JOHN SCALZI

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi:   Reviewed by Kristin John Scalzi has a warped sense of humor. And I like it. I’ve always liked science fiction, but I used to belie...

Jeanne Reviews: A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi

Please welcome back to the blog Jeanne of the Bristol Public Library today with her latest review. For more reading suggestions, make sure you checkout the Bookblog of the Bristol Public Library.

 

A Very Scalzi Christmas by John Scalzi

For the uninitiated, John Scalzi is an award-winning science fiction writer who employs a good bit of humor in his works. A co-worker is a fan, and she encouraged me to read Redshirts, which is a take on the hapless redshirted crewmembers who usually end up getting killed in order to add a little tension to a story without bothering the main cast. I was a tad suspicious, first generation Star Trek fan that I am, that this was going to make fun of a show that I’ve followed since 1966 but I ended up being pleasantly surprised so when Kristin started gently promoting A Very Scalzi Christmas, I wasn’t hard to convince. 

As the title implies, this is a collection of seasonal writing:  sketches, short stories, lists, etc. There are interviews with Santa’s lawyer, who represents NicholasNorth LLC in all its litigation, a list of New Year’s Resolutions (some of which involve NOT inventing vindictive robots), the worst Christmas specials, and an interview with the Christmas bunny.

 

My favorites were the short stories.  “Christmas in July” begins one warm sunny morning when people awaken to discover Christmas trees and presents—and not just any presents, but the perfect present for each recipient.  Naturally, this causes all sorts of confusion and a great deal of interest from the military who would very much like to know how every house was infiltrated.  “Sarah’s Sister” takes a more serious tone as a ten year old girl is not exactly thrilled about becoming a big sister, especially not on Christmas Eve.

 

I did enjoy some of the interviews, especially the one with the innkeeper—yes, THAT innkeeper—who explains about the whole animal shed thing and wonders about the inappropriate gifts brought by those kings.

 

I think that I would have enjoyed some of the lists more if I had read them instead of listening to them on cd.  There was a cast of readers who did a very good job, but some things I just find funnier if I read them. 

 

Overall, this is a delightful collection.  A colleague introduced it at one of our book club meetings and it has proved a revelation to some of those readers who equated science fiction with seriousness. 

Bitter Tea and Mystery Review: The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi

Bitter Tea and Mystery: The Collapsing Empire: John Scalzi: The Collapsing Empire , published in 2017, is the first book in a science fiction trilogy about an empire of worlds connected by travel via...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Interdependency Series: The Collapsing Empire ...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: The Interdependency Series: The Collapsing Empire ...: Reviewed by Kristin John Scalzi’s imagination is out of this world—literally. I recently reviewed his science fiction novel Reds...

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Redshirts by John Scalzi

Bookblog of the Bristol Library: Redshirts by John Scalzi: Reviewed by Kristin Most Star Trek fans are familiar with the concept:   On the original series, if you were a minor character w...

Writers Who Kill: Old Man's War: A Review by Warren Bull

Writers Who Kill: Old Man's War: A Review by Warren Bull: Old Man’s War  by John Scalzi: A Review by Warren Bull image by dushyant-kumar on Upsplash I was intrigued by the title and t...