Until the popular Guardians of the Galaxy movie was announced, the obscure team of space faring goofballs were an unknown quantity to most. I fall into this category, so I tracked down a few volumes of the older books and really enjoyed what I read. The movie is, of course, fantastic and the sequel can’t …
Apparently it’s music week here at Geekly, because after the punk-rock showdown that was The Unnoticeables, we now have Last Song Before Night, a decidedly different take on what happens when you mix magic and musicians. Ilana C. Myer’s debut—coming out today!—introduces us to a world of uneasy peace between the vast network of musician-poets …
You know the adage “don’t judge a book by it’s cover”? Of course you do. No matter how much you might want to take issue with that, just don’t judge this book by this cover. I’m not sure what happened, but the text and the image don’t match at all. The jaunty, over-bright colors, the …
The board game market has become saturated with small bluffing games; One Night Ultimate Werewolf, Love Letter, Coup, Kobayakawa, Ca$h and Guns. Bad Beets is a game that deserves to be in your collection, and I would say should even replace many of those listed previously. Fast play, fun theme, and creative bluff calling …
Angels are tricky. They’re not like vampires or werewolves (obviously): their motivations are opaque, and their weaknesses are practically nonexistent. They make poor monsters as a result, and even poorer heroes, prone to perfection as they are. Even worse, they’re often portrayed as extensions of a greater force; it’s not even clear if they have …
I have never been what one might call “artistic.” In the 3rd grade, when we had to make an animal out of clay, I made an alligator that looked more like some sort of spiky worm. My best drawings all involve men and women made of very intricately detailed lines known as “stick figures.” Needless …
Perhaps no other book has influenced my thinking about freedom of expression and the power of art as much as The Merro Tree. Yet when I tell people that, I get blank stares. It’s positively criminal that this book isn’t up there with Fahrenheit 451. Then again, Fahrenheit 451 is the kind of book that you …
People complain that they’re sick of vampires, that they’re overdone or just done, and I can understand that. There have been a lot of (ahem) pale imitations of Stoker and Rice, far more than good and original vampire fiction. But I’ll never really get tired of vampires, the same way I’ll never get tired of dragons …
Full disclosure: I am a librarian. (Among other things.) Librarian stereotypes are largely mild, often going so far as a severe, buttoned-up woman who shushes people and no further. But of course, then we have the Sexy Librarian, most notable for nearly breaking up Troy and Abed that one time… …and the eager naïf, perhaps …
One of the most common ways to build a fantasy setting is to base it on some certain aspect of the real world and then make as many–or as few–tweaks as possible. For a long time, all we got were variations on medieval England. Then, slowly, other times and cultures began to trickle in. We’re …