Heck yeah, it finally arrived.
Why do Lansdale's books so often have the best covers?
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
Hyenas, by Joe R. Lansdale
No good deed goes unpunished.
Joe R. Lansdale has used this little idiom as the basis for some of the best-written crime fiction around. And the real reason the Hap and Leonard series is so good? The characters. Lansdale doesn't construct complex plots full of double-triple-crosses, or mysteries so deep you'd need a nuclear powered submarine to chart their depths. No. This is literary crime fiction. It's all character based, and Hap, Leonard, Brett and Marvin are some of the best realized characters in all of genre-fiction.
Hyenas is a short little tale. A Hap and Leonard side-quest if you will. While it is lighter on the comedy, there are still some good laughs to be had, especially during the first half. The opening sequence is classic, and there are two great hand-to-hand fights between Hap and Smoke House, a giant brute of a thug. Hyenas is a wham-bam, short and sweet little yarn that hits hard and fast.
However, the real star of the show here is "The Boy Who Became Invisible," a short story about Hap's childhood. It does a great job of revealing part of the reason why Hap is such a hard-nosed bad ass, but one with a heart. It's a brutal little story that touches on themes of child abuse, bullies, and school violence. It's one of Lansdale's best short stories.
Hyenas is a perfect example of Lansdale's capacity to spin a rip-roaring yarn, and his ability to tell a story with heart and emotion. It's also an example of quality over quantity, because at $25 it is a bit pricey for a book not even 100 pages. But after it's all said and done, I'll never remember the money I spent; I'll only remember the stories that were told.
I got about 50 pages into "Savage Season" by Lansdale but was distracted by other things and ended up putting it on the back burner. Pretty good so far but I really hope things pick up a bit more. Have you read this one, Davis?
Yeah - quite a few years ago. I didn't love it, but I had already been really into Lansdale's other stuff at time. I always thought of Hap and Leonard as the more mainstream, or Lansdale-light. Before I had read any of the H&L books I had read Bubba Ho-Tep, The Bottoms, A Fine Dark Line, Bumper Crop, High Cotton and Dead in the West.Quoting Marley (view post)
My favorite H&L books are Mucho Mojo and Vanilla Ride.
I was beginning to think that "Savage Season" might not have been the best place to start with Lansdale but it seems to be setting up the characters rather nicely for the subsequent novels in the series. Nevertheless, I'm still inclined to finish it. "The Bottoms" and "A Fine Dark Line" both sound pretty cool from their brief synopsis.
Actually, I did not read Savage Season. I took a look at my list today. I've read:
Mucho Mojo (favorite)
Rumble Tumble
Two-Bear Mambo
Vanilla Ride
Bad Chili (least favorite)
Hyenas
I need to read:
Savage Season
Captains Outrageous
Devil Red
Veil's Visit (short story)
I am going to put 'Savages Seasons' on hold for the time being methinks because it's just not holding my attention right now. I do plan on finishing it in the near future.
I ventured out to a neat little used book store in my area today and picked up: Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire and David Wong's "John Dies at the End" for $10 bucks which was a pretty sweet deal. Has anyone read any of these?
John Dies at the End is AWESOME. Best book I read last year. It's super funny, kind of gross, a little scary, and totally wild.
Not familiar with Mistborn.
I'm getting a Wong Kar-Wai sorta vibe from that cover. :lol:
It was the snazzy cover-art for "John Dies at the End" that initially grabbed my attention. I'm now glad that I made the blind-buy considering your favorable review of book.
I've been on the look-out for some quality fantasy novels that aren't horribly cliche and Mistborn seems like it has potential. This genre has disappointed me lately.
Yeah, ya think?
I walked into a book store, saw that cover, grabbed it, and bought it.
Let me know how Mistborn is. I like fantasy, but it is so rare that I find one worth reading these days.
Another book I judged by the cover, that I loved (and the author has turned out to be a new favorite):
One of the most lyrical and poetic books I've ever read. I thin it elevates fantasy to a whole new artistic level.
And his newest one - Never Knew Another - is awesome. And he has another one coming out called Maze.
I also did a really long interview with him that should be appearing on my website soon.
Man, it's like one great recommendation after another. If only I could stay home and read all day! That is some high-praise for "Last Dragon" and you got to interview the author so you certainly have me intrigued. The fantasy genre has become stale where length has overshadowed quality. There have been so many occasions where I pick up a series which seems like it will be worth reading but it ends up just being tedious and frustratingly cliche, chock full of world-building where all of the other story-elements are neglected. Boring...
ABout 1/2 way through Playing For Thrills. Pretty good so far. I'm glad I have an extensive background in Asian cinema, because it's really given a good mental image of the setting in the book; without this, I could imagine a lot of things being very strange, especially since the whole thing is already so surreal. It reads like a Wong Kar Wai directed noir, with a splash of Hong Kong new wave.
D_Davis sees Asian guy on book cover.
Buys book.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
It's crazy. I think I've read ~8 novels written by Asian authors, and 3 of those have been this year, with ~5 more coming soon. It's cool to see that more Asian genre lit is getting translated into English.
Started John Dies at the End. I'm usually wearisome of books that are 400+ pages but so far it has my attention and is quite hilarious. The encounter with the "meat monster" during the prologue had me in stitches.
Yeah - I, too, usually question the need for 400+ pages. I almost always prefer short works. The length here is only a tad problematic. It reads more like a collection of connected novellas.
However, it's just a ton of fun.
Ditto. I'll take quality over quantity any time, thank you very much. I'm flying through these pages but I just hope it doesn't lose steam near the middle or something because that would be disappointing.
We've had this discussion plenty before, but I'll say again - I don't care how long a book is as long as it warrants its length.
"The Dark Tower" is a series of very long novels, but I don't think they'd work as a series of novellas (or, say, just one book).
Similarly, much of H.P. Lovecraft's work would have lost a lot of its effect if it had been stretched from short stories into novels.
I'm not discriminatory with regards to length. The length of a book does not indicate its quality.
"All right, that's too hot. Anything we can do about that heat?"
"Rick...it's a flamethrower."
It doesn't lose steam, but it never becomes EPIC. I think you'll see what I mean.
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