27 August 2011

Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille


Synopsis: (borrowed) Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille serves the best matzoh ball soup in the Galaxy, and hires some of the best musicians you'll ever hear. It's a great place to visit, but it tends to move around-just one step ahead of whatever mysterious conspiracy is reducing whole worlds to radioactive ash. And Cowboy Feng's may be humanity's last hope for survival.

A couple of good friends of mine recommended this book to me a few weeks ago. They laughed about it and said how great it was. One of them read me some of the opening lines, and I laughed too. So I expected reading the book to be a romp through the plot, with lots of bad puns and interesting humor.

Okay, so I got all of that, but even more, I got an unexpectedly deep plot and (wait for it) a book that made me think.

Yes, I typed think.

I don't normally go for thinking books. I prefer my fiction light and fun. Sure, some depth is expected, but if I'm having a bad day I plow through it to get back to the action. I'm sure there are several derogatory terms for my fiction habits, but hey, they're my habits, so back off!

Oh, that reminds me, the other day at work I almost changed the signature at the bottom of my e-mails to “Yes, I'm still cranky”. A co-worker decided she might change hers to “Back Off!” I suggested BOMB for Back Off Monkey Boy (movie reference, anyone get it?). She laughed. I had my clever moment for the week. We moved on.

And that's what this book is like. Random (but enjoyable) tangents and deep thoughts thrown in at every twist and turn. Not like my thoughts, but real ones.

My favorite line was “I laughed, I cried, I fell over, it changed my life.” Or something like that. Sorry, I returned the book to it's owner earlier today and a six second Google search did not pull it up. It's probably everyone's favorite line, but that's okay. It's good. I loved it. I haven't fallen over about it, but that could still be coming.

So anyway, I was expecting a lighthearted romp and got a very cool, rather deep, character rich read that left me feeling sad and glad all at the same time. I guess deep is okay. Maybe, someday, I'll write a deep novel and be remembered for my quirky and realistic look into our world.

Yeah.

Right.

3 comments:

Lace and Books said...

I'm glad you liked it. I like anything by this author. There's just something great about vicious man eating rabbits and sentient swords. Not to mention Soup.

"What can I say? I laughed. I cried. I fell down. It changed my life. It was good. The end."

The verification word is Undords....I love it! I need to make that a title in a story. The Dords and Undords were at war for a millennium...

Jordan said...

I might have to give this one a try. I need a good thinking book... it's been a while!

-Jo- said...

Don't do it! My brain still hurts.
No, really, I liked it. Good book.