8:100 Remedial English for Reanimated Corpses by S.G. Browne

Even at Bela Lugosi University, a school for the monsters of movie and nightmares, there has always been a hierarchy that has seen vampires and werewolves at the top and zombies as the lowest of the low.  They are the targets of the pranks by the vampires, taunted (and sprayed on) by the werewolves, no one stands up for them against any of this. It's just the way it has been and always will be. But one day things come to a head after one "joke" too many goes too far. Now the zombies are marching for justice..if only someone could understand what they are saying.

A fun tale of what a monster university could be like but I also feel like with much of his work, he is tackling some underlying cultural themes that are dominant today.  I think this could be the set-up to a much longer piece that would be hilarious and thought-provoking to read.  I can only hope.  It's been too long since we've had a new S.G. Browne novel!


Page count: 20p/1,250p ytd/293,271p lifetime

21:120 Less Than Hero by S.G. Browne

What happens when your life doesn't end up going the way you expected and instead of being a highly successful businessman, you end up as a "professional" guinea-pig for the pharmaceutical companies?  What does taking that many experimental drugs for years do to a person, both physically and mentally?  Lloyd has been doing this for 5 years now and his life is just drifting along until he starts noticing that when he feels super tired and then let's out a big yawn, whoever was in the path of the yawn falls asleep and he feels instantly refreshed.  When he starts discussing this with his other guinea-pig friends, they mention similar strange occurrences with different effects such as vomiting, rashes, and incredibly rapid weight gain. They start experimenting and find that they can learn to control these powers and decide that they must use them for good.  The only problem is that they aren't the only ones who have been testing these drugs.

I enjoy S.G. Browne's generally sick sense of humor and satirical look at society and this did not disappoint. The commentary on society's use of pills to treat everything and then all the pills they have to take to counteract the side effects of the pills they are taking is brilliantly done.  


Page count: 351p/5,927p ytd/255,974p lifetime

89:120 Big Egos by S.G. Browne

So many of us have wished we were someone else, usually some one famous, to leave our boring mundane life behind if only for a little while.  Now thanks to Big Egos, you can do just that.  For $10k, you can buy a vial of substance that will allow you to imitate anyone of numerous famous people or fictional characters for a few hours.  Live it up and enjoy stepping outside of your own life.  What can it hurt?

Our narrator works for Big Egos and is a major user of his product.  It's getting the point where he spends more time as someone else than he does as himself.  Now he has his best friend hooked on them but since he can't afford the real deal, Nat's been picking them up on the black market.  Now it appears that there is a problem with the black market egos that is causing dangerous side-effects and our narrator has been asked to find those who have been using them and give them an antidote on the sly to keep things out of the news.  Of course, that means going to more and more Ego parties and it's getting to the point where he's not always sure who he is any more.  Can you lose your mind while becoming several other people?  He may be on his way to finding out.

There was so much going on in this book that I don't even know where to start.  It's insightful in strange ways, satirical, macabre in it's own way, with enough humor to keep it from ever getting overwhelming but you find yourself thinking back to the themes it brings up.

Page count: 367p/23,570p ytd/204,608p lifetime

86:120 Lucky Bastard by S.G. Browne

Nick Monday is a Private Investigator in San Francisco, or at least that's what he claims as his legitimate business.  In reality, Nick is a luck poacher.  He can steal your luck with a handshake and then sell that to whoever is willing to pay his price.  Unfortunately, his skills are catching up with him now as the head of the Chinese mafia demanding his services, someone claiming to be part of the US government wanting him to tag the mafia boss with bad luck, someone claiming to be a paying client for his PI services to find out who stole her father's luck (he did it) and someone else who is the real daughter wanting him to find the person impersonating her.  And that is just going down in one day.  Some days, it really doesn't pay to get out of bed.

Normally I love S.G. Browne's novels but as much as I thought the concept was interesting and well executed, I just did not like the voice of Nick. It really put me off the story since so much of it was focusing on his hormones and women's tits rather than all the other things happening.

Page count: 355p/22,412p ytd/203,450p lifetime