Review: One's Reach Should Exceed One's Grasp, or What's A Meta For?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 7, 2014
This deeply cool book has everything - it's a fantasy actioner; it's set in a brilliantly conceived fantasy world; it's full of whip-smart banter and sly observations. Running beneath it all is a dialogue about how we consume, in this book literally, our popular culture."Geekomancy" is an urban fantasy series featuring "geekomancers" in which the hook is that items of pop culture, (books, games, cards, figurines, movie clips), are actual sources of magical power, and allow possessors to use weapons and skills that are based on those cultural artifacts. (So, our heroine uses a lightsaber, while someone else has a nail gun from a first person shooter). The running discussion addresses the fact that these artifacts must be consumed, and thus lost, to power up items.This book covers a side quest by Ree Reyes, heroine ofGeekomancy (Ree Reyes). She and some of the regulars at Grognard's are trapped in the bar by villainous beasts and have to fight and think their way out. The book is a bit longer than a novella, but short for a full novel, so it it offers a very nice entry to the Geekomancy world. You don't need to be familiar with the other books in the series; you'll pick up enough to follow the action and characters within the first chapter or two.The book has a rat-a-tat feel. Some geekiness, a battle, smart-ass dialogue, another battle, an argument about what steampunk really is, a reminiscence about some pop icon, another battle, Ree thinking about her life, a conflict with another geek, a berserker rampage, then a quiet moment with magical med kits and health potions. It's rich - loaded with every kind of geek and tabletop reference imaginable - but that's all icing and the central action is always easy to follow no matter how obscure or elaborate the references are.Everything in the book is a sideways commentary on some aspect of geekiness. The relative power of different artifacts tells you what the author thinks about the merits of their sources. Each character is a version of some aspect of geekiness. Each argument between characters is a little highbrow, or lowbrow, cultural debate. Everybody in the book is a fanboy, or loves fanboys, or hates fanboys, or embraces the idea of fanboys, or rejects fanboydom, so that the whole effort sometimes reads like a poorly moderated flame war on someone's blog. But then the trolls attack again and all is forgiven.Bottom line - if you like or are interested in or are curious about any of this stuff, you really need to try a Geekomancy book. (Try to get a first edition; first editions and mint editions of things have more power.)Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book in exchange for a candid review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.