Just finished A Dirty Job

Overall, it was a pretty enjoyable read.

The cover gave it all away, the cover should have been as described as the Big Book of Death.

Charlie and Minty reminded me somewhat of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect.

Lily would not have given Ray a freebie. Goth chicks never give out freebies.

Ray and Jane (I thought) were great characters.

Mrs. Korjev and Mrs. Ling were a bit much though.

The Sewer Harpies were awesome, but I wish they had been used more. They spent far too much time as shades and not enough time as fully realized demons. (or whatever LOL)

The wit and humor ranged from blunt force trauma obvious, to quite complex and subtle. Just the way I like it.

The whole Beta Male schtick was dead on and frickin funny!

I got the Autographed copy. Any idea how many copies were autographed?

I don't know about any goth kids you've ever met, but the ones I grew up with would give it up to anyone or anything...
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"The First Annual Boobathon Queen. "

http://www.upnorthgeorgia.org

Just finished.

Enjoyed myself...but I'm pissed.

What's with the Captain Obvious slap together ending? I spent the whole book knowing about Sophie, but telling myself "that's too obvious, Chris is better than that." This book had sooooo much potential leading up to the final chapters and then it just pooped out.

Was Chris rushed at the the end? Did he need to tie things up in a hurry? Was he sick of telling the tale? Someplace to go?

I love Chris. Love his work. While this was no "Fluke" (Pun intended. Sorry, Chris, that one sucked the big one.) it left me just as angry. It was a lovely Chinese dinner with no fortune cookie. It was a wink-wink massage without the happy ending.

I demand a rewrite of the last 80 pages! This book jumped the shark as soon as Lily banged Ray with no real reason to do so. (Yes, it's all explained in the book, but it's seriously out of left field and clumsy.) Give me twists, give me turns. Don't telegraph each move and give me a wham-bam wrap in 80 pages where you should use 200 to really flesh it out.

On a side note, I'm also pissed about the way the Sophie character is screwed over the entire time. Passed around like a trinket, then left without her mother AND father in the end. "Waiting for her daddy to come get her"?! What the hell is that? Charlie gets turned into a Squirrel Person and abandons her again? Why this resentment for the Sophie character? Charlie didn't need to croak. This was the last nail in the story's coffin for me.

I guess I'm ticked off because I was so into this book. Really having a good time and then the consistency and story telling took a crap. It's not a touchdown if you don't cross the goal line. I know what Chris is capable of and this wasn't it. I though it was going to be awesome, but instead of "Coyote Blue" I got "Casey at the Bat."


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The Dude abides.

Windmillwacker wrote:

Just finished. Enjoyed myself...but I'm pissed. What's with the Captain Obvious slap together ending? I spent the whole book knowing about Sophie, but telling myself "that's too obvious, Chris is better than that." This book had sooooo much potential leading up to the final chapters and then it just pooped out.

Of course it was obvious that Sophie was the Luminatus, but the humor in the story was that Charlie's over-active, beta-male imagination led him to believe that HE was the personification of death. I don't see what merits a "trick" ending brings to a book. Personally, I get tired of M. Night Shyamalan's last second "reveals" in his movies. They always seem pretty anti-climactic.

Lord_Chimmy wrote:

Of course it was obvious that Sophie was the Luminatus, but the humor in the story was that Charlie's over-active, beta-male imagination led him to believe that HE was the personification of death.

Yes. Only Charlie has enough information to put it together that Sophie is the Luminatus, but he's just blinded himself to any idea that it's not him. As much as he loves Sophie, Charlie is an awful lot about Charlie.

But the secret isn't a secret to the reader. It's perfectly obvious to the reader. Hell, it's perfectly obvious from the cover of the book. But don't take my word for it - that's what Chris says.

And that said....

Welcome, Windmillwacker and Black Crowe. We're always ready for new faces around here. You should start by checking out the rules and giving them all the respect they deserve.

To see who (or what) we are, check out some of the items in Who's Who, especially

The Getting To Know You Survey,
the pictures in I've been staring so long...
the silliness in The Origins of your User Name and Another Questionnaire

Thanks for the welcome. Hope I didn't cross any lines too much, I thought this was a spoiler warned thread.

As for the idea of "tricky" endings...

I don't need that to make the book, just something to wrap my brain around more. If you know what's going to happen by the end of the first third, why read the rest? Humor. Sure, that's the big draw but I thought this story could have gone deeper and been more satisfying.

What if Charlie had been the big "D" after all?
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The Dude abides.

Also just finished the question sheet!

Cool beans! This board will be a blast!!
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The Dude abides.

The book was great, but I as well was pissed at the obvious ending. How Charlie ever came to the conclusion that HE was the big D I will never know. Not anywhere in the book did it give away it might be Charlie, it's like he woke up one day and say, Hey, I'm death! When right in front of his face his daughter was making people die by just saying "kitty" to them. Wasn't that even slightly a clue to him that his daughter might in fact, be death?

Great book, not dissing Chris, but the ending was just horrible.

Sal wrote:

[...] How Charlie ever came to the conclusion that HE was the big D I will never know. Not anywhere in the book did it give away it might be Charlie, it's like he woke up one day and say, Hey, I'm death! When right in front of his face his daughter was making people die [...].

I understood that part of the plot to derive from Charlie's over imaginative nature as a beta-male, especially with the sewer harpies being after him. So, it's reasonable to think that Sophie's "kitty" thing just fed into that imagination; after all, if he's the new Luminatus, how appropriate that his new daughter, has something like "the gift," as it were, even if daddy can't quite understand the whole thing yet.

Your mileage on this interpretation may vary.
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"If you allow yourself to be offended, then you're a bit of [a] nitwit."
(Christopher Moore)

Know something? Posts like this drive me off the board. Why? I have to get up every day and do it again. I don't have to read reviews on Amazon, or in the paper, but this is my board, and because I've deigned to particpate with my readers, I read these posts. Then I have to go to work.

It's not particularly easy to come up with funny, entertaining stories. It requires more confidence, often, than I can muster. So when I sign on to my site and read people slamming my last two years work, well, it sort of undermines the process.

So, all well and good that you guys didn't like Dirty Job or Fluke, but realize, that when you bring it here, you accomplish one of two things -- you undermine my writing, or you undermine my participation on the board.

And realistically, would you have me recall the 150,000 American copies of Dirty Job in print and rewrite the ending? Ever heard of that happening? Would you have me contact the translators in a dozen countries and tell them that some mook from East Lansing didn't like the ending so I need to restart the process.

Here's a look inside. My new book is due in three weeks. The cover is done, the PR is done, the catalog copy is done. I got a note last Thursday from my editor saying this: "You'll have the manuscript to me on August 1st, I'll have it back to you on August 3rd, then you need to have all the rewrites in New York by August 8th."

I'm currently maybe 2/3rds of the way through the book. I have no idea whatsoever how it ends. I will come up with something. And in the midst of this process, I'll be able to look back here and find the confidence I need to just fucking wing it -- because if it's not perfect, well... I'll have five full days to fix it, along with any spelling, grammatical, or logisitics issues that my arise in the edit.

I'm out for the next month. I can't afford the hits under this schedule.

Chris ...
You know that 99% of us love your stuff. Write it for us. Let the good fans propell you forward.

Every time I see a post like this it reminds me of this analogy ...

It's like going to a gourmet cooks home, and telling them you didn't like the meal.

Come on people.
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My Book
My Myspace

My analogy: going to the home of new parents and telling them they've just given birth to a really fugly child.

Like I told doug. Takes some crusty balls to come onto an author's website to bitch about his work. Not saying you have to like it, but takes fucking balls to bitch about it.
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"Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind; it doesn't take you anywhere, but it tones up muscles that might." Pratchett

Perhaps some of the newbies don't realize that this is a FAN board. If you aren't a fan, you should start a board of your own to criticize. We only criticize Chris for his choice of shirts, nothing more.

DanaMichelle wrote:

Perhaps some of the newbies don't realize that this is a FAN board. If you aren't a fan, you should start a board of your own to criticize. We only criticize Chris for his choice of shirts, nothing more.

The Boardello Rules are funny, I laughed my naked ass which was sitting on a pile of AG books off when I read them. I think what you wrote about above should be Rule #1, and new people signing up to the Boardello should have to read the fuckers.
On this page there are 3 posts I'd be irked at if I was AG, by noobs with 1, 9, and 10 posts respectively.
Prolly haven't even had their full body cavity search by Joe or Y yet.
Fuckin mooks.

"Those who can, write, those who can't, review".
-Some Guy

I am sorry

Chris,

I am sorry. I and I am sure other fans did not really understand how vulnerable you can be. I think most fans, me included, think that you are incredibly intelligent, confident and beyond us "lowly humans." Many of us do not understand that you are just like us and have the same fears and worries. We all put you on a pedestal and think that you will take any criticism as an actual compliment. Why do you say? I think that you are open enough that we (fans) think we can tell you how we feel. Your fans love you and think of you as a friend. We did not realize that you have feelings and insecurities just like we do. Really, aren't you god? Thank you for the honesty. Don't go away.

Good luck on your new book. You should know that all of your fans are armchair writers. We think we can do better until we actually try it. It is harder than it looks. Duh.

Julie
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Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.
Robert Heinlein, Time Enough For Love