The Library at Mount Char

Talking animals will get many cool points in my estimation. But bad jokes will not. People love this book and I get some of the appeal, it has an interesting "world." And there is a wizard's school (more or less) and a library. Oh, a few talking animals. Or the ability to talk to animals. Cool, cool...all good things...but it also has some...how do I put this delicately....butt-stuff. A great deal of butt-stuff actually. While mostly a fantasy, horror/dystopian book it attempts humor at times. But the humor is not really my style. Imagine Howard Stern but he grew up the South.  Barbecues, chewing tobacco, copious amounts of cursing and a lot things stuffed up butts. Oh, well, one guy pooped his pants, technically that is stuff coming out, but you get the picture.

Most people think it's a weird wild romp. A few people think the mythology is a mess and doesn't follow enough rules. I did know in advance that it was violent, which is certainly true. Maybe I'm dead inside but that doesn't bother me as much as the lame jokes. This book reminds me of Good Omens but instead of the British Dad jokes (eye roll) it's more lets shove an AR-15 up a guy's butt. (squints). There is a little homophobic thing going on here and a lot of rape references (most of those aren't jokes). This was published in 2015 and already comes off kind of tone deaf. Still, it got good reviews. To me, it's very 13 year old bro fantasy. Brantasy? One bad guy is so tough but doesn't understand clothes so he wears a flak jacket and a tutu. "He was wearing what? A tutu?" "Yeah, I'm pretty sure it's a tutu." That dialog is reiterated at least a dozen times. Can you do an eye roll and squint at the same time? I'd better not.

Scott Hawkins, like Andy Weir, was a computer programmer and I seem to remember a lot of lame jokes in The Martian too. Was it boob jokes? Apparently computer programmer + body part jokes = bestseller.  'Merica! I'm not including Murkami in here because he's his own brand of weird and also uniquely Japanese. Plus his ear fetish and boob comparison charts are not jokes to him....no, those are serious matters.

I think there is a joke about a monster named Barry O'Shea. I can't remember if he was a Lovecraftian monster or a iceberg with feet. I'm cool with either. Pardon the pun but why not drink a spring berry cocktail? Berry Breeze: 2 ounces of vodka, 4-5 blackberries, 1/4 ounce lime juice--muddle the berries with the vodka in a shaker with ice and shake with the lime juice.  Pour into a rocks glass with ice and top with ginger beer.  Stir gently and garnish with a lime wheel and blackberry.