Falling Up The Stairs
This is the first of a number of novels that James Lileks has released for the Kindle, and since I have Amazon Prime I was able to borrow it and get some idea of whether I'm going to like the ones that follow. Short answer: Yes, but...
Well, in contrast to my usual practice, the good news first. If you like screwball comedies crossed with murder mysteries, this'll be right up your alley.
Falling Up the Stairs
does a good job of juggling Brick Jokes, a veritable arsenal of Chekhov's Guns, and a nostalgic look back at Minneapolis in the 1980s. Hell, it almost made me miss the place. I won't give a plot summary here since the Publisher's Weekly squib on the Amazon page is accurate enough, but suffice it to say there is plenty of stuff going on here to keep you entertained, right down to the (completely necessary to the plot) sex scenes.
Now for the bad news. The proofreading in this edition is for shit, and I say this as someone who has suffered through the slings and typos of many a Baen edition. Not only are words misspelled, but entire paragraphs are scrambled, repeated, and broken up in a way that would make the average proofreader blow through a box of blue pencils in just the first couple of chapters. I don't know whether this is Lileks' fault or the Kindle publishing software's, but I wish to Christ somebody would fix this sort of thing before it's unleashed on an unsuspecting public.
On balance, it was worth what I paid for it, but if I'd coughed up $2.99 I would have been severely pissed.
Well, in contrast to my usual practice, the good news first. If you like screwball comedies crossed with murder mysteries, this'll be right up your alley.
Falling Up the Stairs
does a good job of juggling Brick Jokes, a veritable arsenal of Chekhov's Guns, and a nostalgic look back at Minneapolis in the 1980s. Hell, it almost made me miss the place. I won't give a plot summary here since the Publisher's Weekly squib on the Amazon page is accurate enough, but suffice it to say there is plenty of stuff going on here to keep you entertained, right down to the (completely necessary to the plot) sex scenes.
Now for the bad news. The proofreading in this edition is for shit, and I say this as someone who has suffered through the slings and typos of many a Baen edition. Not only are words misspelled, but entire paragraphs are scrambled, repeated, and broken up in a way that would make the average proofreader blow through a box of blue pencils in just the first couple of chapters. I don't know whether this is Lileks' fault or the Kindle publishing software's, but I wish to Christ somebody would fix this sort of thing before it's unleashed on an unsuspecting public.
On balance, it was worth what I paid for it, but if I'd coughed up $2.99 I would have been severely pissed.