Weekend Reviews, and stuff.

Well, another great few days for reviews – if this keeps up, we’ll have to start considering dropping the “Angry” from Angry Robot;  maybe upgrade it temporarily to Slightly Miffed Robot – our equivalent of defcon 3.

First off the block, a review of Moxyland from Not Free SF Reader:

A rich kid that is an independent media producer, a walking corporate advertisement addicted photographer, a street activist, and a corporate programmer with subversive sympathies. All of whom think they can make a difference, or at least get ahead. In for a shock, this lot.

Meanwhile, Bibliophile Stalker Charles Tan, had this to say:

Right from the get-go, Moxyland reads like a post-cyberpunk novel that’s updated for modern times. You still have the greedy mega-corporations, the hackers, and the street slang but instead of outdated technology, Lauren Beukes fills the details with both familiar and not-so-familiar ubiquity. The strength of Beukes is that she writes with such passion and sensibility, a style completely her own, that the novel comes out as fresh and dynamic. She packs all the attitude and confidence, giving Moxyland a distinct character.

Gill Polack really liked Moxyland, despite sort-of not wanting to:

I didn’t want to like Moxyland for the first fifty pages. I didn’t want to like it because my brain said “Not more Doctorow.” The society resonates better than Doctorow’s societies for me and the characters have more depth.

Kaaron Warren has been teaching the internet to cook. Prawn Curry over at Foodpast.com. It’s difficult to quote from this feature, but I’ll give it a go:

My character Steve [in Slights] has an almost adversarial disinterest in food, which is very, very, very different from me. It’s part of her character. I do tend to judge people in part on the way they deal with food. I don’t think this is shallow. I remember winding a friendship down when a woman refused to eat nuts because they were fattening.

Thea at  The Book Smugglers has reviewed 40 books so far this year (that’s books reviewed – she’s actually read more! Where does she get the time?), and I’m delighted to state that Slights by Kaaron Warren is up there at number two in the “Best of 2009 so far” list”.

The same Bibliophile Stalker that reviewed Moxyland, above, also read Slights and stated:

Slights is this weird animal (in a good way) that’s atmospheric and different from a lot of novels that’s out there, and not just due to the subject matter, but because of the author’s talent and skill.

Charles, you can stalk our bibs any time!

And finally (for now), over at LoveReading, Angry Robot is the Featured Publisher for July. We’d fall down on our knees and exclaim “we’re not worthy”, but for the fact that we’re quite certain we are.

Enjoy your Monday.