Review: Geek Heaven; Could Have Been Much More
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 24, 2014
There's a lot of potential for this book.  The beginning is captivating; so is the ending.  The ending, after the last adventure had ended, was so sweet and contained the best writing and imagery of the whole book.It's hard to classify this book.  It's part "stoner" in the tradition of the movies "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" and "Wayne's World" where laid-back observations are celebrated, part "petty politics" in the traditions of the books "The Casual Vacancy" and "Major Pettigrew's Last Stand", and part fantasy, in the tradition of, well, virtually all urban fantasy books.  Given the lack of sword-buckling adventure (there is some at the end) it falls upon the witty observations of everyday life, which it excels in doing when the Home Owners Association (similar to the condominium corporation board) is involved.  Sometimes such genre bending can pull it off, but sometimes the plot seemed aimless, especially when the book is divided up into three quite discrete chapters, each dealing with a major theme.I would think this book could be even more solid if one took the middle chapter about the Home Owners Association, and expanded into a more witty, deep, and laugh-out-loud full novel.  It takes a lot of skill, but I'm sure the author could do it, especially with the fantasy element in the background.One complaint: way too many acronyms.  I even looked some up on the Internet, and found one or two that didn't even have a full length equivalent, making me wondering if it was made up, even though the story didn't spell out an alternative.  I like all my acronyms spelled out, even those that are familiar, unless a character is using a well-known one in dialogue.Hats off for originality.