Category: All Sorts of Reviews

What the … ?

*@&%!!…

Death by Dr. Zaius, one of many missed opportunities in this anthology of short stories, Machine of Death. All of the stories are about a machine (of death) that tells you how you are going to die. It takes a blood sample and spits out a card with a cryptic word or two. The title of each story reflects the manner of death. More misses than hits and many missed opportunities.

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Here are my top six Philip K Dick novels. (Spoilers, probably)

Philip K Dick alternate realities, codpieces, dark scanners, and time out of joint.

Man in the High Castle
Dick’s best novel. Story about an alternate reality, where Axis powers win WWII. Except the actual reality is reflected in a book with a cool title. But that reality, where the Allies win, is different than the reality the reader believes to be true. So whose …

Harry Potter or Blade Runner, Crazy Codpieces Take Writing to Another Level

What do Harry Potter and Blade Runner have in common?

JK Rowling wrote seven long-winded Harry Potter novels that were Stephen King long and featured a pedestrian writing style and absurd story lines. These novels all became best sellers and blockbuster movies.

The movie Blade Runner was based on a Philip K Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Dick wrote more …

Pirates of the Caribbean Priest-Mermaid Love Subplot

Quite often when I am watching a movie and sometimes when I am reading a book, I find I am more interested in a side story or supporting character than I am in the protagonist or the main plot line. This is especially true when I feel that the protagonist is in no real jeopardy. Often, it’s the supporting characters that bite the dust, so I feel more …

All the Starring Characters in Lost

You may think that I haven’t blogged in a while, but you’d be wrong. Actually, I’ve blogged plenty. Unfortunately, those entries were virtual blog posts—virtual in the quantum sense, not in the Lawnmower Man sense. Those blog posts just blinked in and out of existence like a virtual particle. Keep an eye out. Maybe you’ll see one or two of them reappear, like a character from Lost.

I saw …

This month’s Unpublished Guy Fiction Panel: Dr. Zaius, William Blake, and William Gass.
Dr Zaius: Clearly All the Pretty Horses illustrates the warning given to us by the Lawgiver.

New York Times book reviewer, Madison Smartt Bell, said All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy had “”magnificent scenes that make Faulkner’s story “Spotted Horses” seem almost forgettable” What did the Unpublished Guy fiction panel think? This week’s panel includes Dr. Zaius, William Blake, and …

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Unpublished Guy Fiction Panel (left to right): William Blake, Dr. Zaius, Mrs. Butterworth

Each month, more or less, the Unpublished Guy Fiction Panel discusses a novel or short story. This week: Franz Kafka the Complete Short Stories.

William Blake: Kafka, Kafka. burning bright. In the fiction of the night; What existential void. Could dissemble thy inexplicable asymmetry?

Dr. Zaius: To paraphrase this fiction collection’s dust jacket flap, I would describe reading this tome of …

Novel Critique: Apes with Bald Kneecaps

Let’s hear what the Unpublished Guy fiction panel has to say about the novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was developed while the movie was being filmed.

Dr. Zaius: Blasphemous. This heretical book posits an upside down world where the lawgiver, represented by a giant black brick, forces ape to evolve into man. Arthur C Clarke’s pride walks hand in hand with his idiocy that he should spout this …

Dr. Zaius Rates the Literary Journal, Paris Review

Unpublished Guy: Dr. Zaius, what literary publication will you share today with the readers of this blog?

Dr. Zaius: This month, I would like to discuss the Paris Review. Specifically, I would like to discuss issue 110, which published the story “The Ape Lady in Retirement” by T.C. Boyle. Initially, I was skeptical about this story. What could a man have to say about a female …