FanFare

If "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" is your kind of language game, then Mark Dunn's Ella Minnow Pea (2001) might be your kind of book. On the small coastal island of Nollop, named for Nevin Nollop, the supposed creator of the pangram* about the dog and the fox, a cenotaph bearing the famous sentence is falling apart, letter by letter. The town council decides that destroying letters is Nollop's divine will, and bans the use of each letter as it falls to the ground--with increasingly draconian punishments for anyone caught reading, writing, or speaking them. Can a a few desperate townspeople save language--and themselves--from these letter-perfect theocrats? * Pangram: "A phrase, sentence, or verse composed of all the letters of the alphabet." [more inside]
posted by MonkeyToes on Feb 11, 2023 - 1 comment

"Dear Dr. Maddox, As I write this, I am very sad. Our beloved transporter chief has been stood up at the altar— BY THE BENEVOLENT KEIKO. ALL HAIL KEIKO AND HER GLORIOUS ARBORETUM! Sincerely, Robot Man." [more inside]
posted by CheesesOfBrazil on Jan 21, 2021 - 18 comments

A firsthand account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

Part survival narrative, part bloody horror tale, part scientific journey into the boundaries between truth and fiction, this is a Bigfoot story as only Max Brooks could chronicle it -- and like none you've ever read before.

[more inside] posted by Etrigan on Jun 18, 2020 - 2 comments

Two time-traveling agents from warring futures, working their way through the past, begin to exchange letters—and fall in love in this thrilling and romantic book from award-winning authors Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
posted by Etrigan on Jul 24, 2019 - 19 comments