Book-A-Minute SF/F---

February 17, 2002 12:55 AM

Book-A-Minute SF/F--- Their "minute" is so spot-on a review for those books I've read that I'm off to find some books I haven't, just on this site's odd say-so.
posted by realjanetkagan (15 comments total)

So, which ones did you get?
posted by thijsk at 1:17 AM on February 17, 2002

No Gene Wolfe, no Jack Vance, no Joanna Russ, no Avram Davidson, no Samuel R. Delany and only two Philip K Dick books. And from the authors listed--Robert Jordan? Terry Brooks?--eeyew.
posted by y2karl at 4:25 AM on February 17, 2002

Thanks. I've been looking foor that site for quite some time.

"I stab at thee! I stab at thee!"
posted by lasar at 4:57 AM on February 17, 2002

I'd love to see Doris Lessing's Shikasta series reviewed. I would but they're way too inane (if mildly brilliant) for me to wade through a second time.
posted by Hypnerotomachia at 5:15 AM on February 17, 2002

I'd be interested to hear which reviews actually made you want to read a given story. All the ones I clicked on were pretty negative and snarky.
posted by crunchland at 5:23 AM on February 17, 2002

sems a p;intless enterprise. If a book is worth knowing about then it should be worth reading in its entirety. Here,you get a plot outline. To what end?
posted by Postroad at 5:26 AM on February 17, 2002

I never took it as making one want to read the story -- I actually only clicked on those I had already read, that way I "got" the review. They struck me as topical jokes (the Harlan Ellison was especially).
posted by j.edwards at 5:34 AM on February 17, 2002

i tried reading the chronicles of thomas covenant, unbeliever one time, but gave up. now i know what happens!

also i've always been meaning to read an anne mccaffrey book cuz like dragons, but now i don't have to :)
posted by kliuless at 6:47 AM on February 17, 2002

These are brilliant. They're not cliff's notes fer gosh sakes, Postroad, they're for funny. The lloyd alexander ones had me laughing so hard I scared the dog.
posted by ook at 7:09 AM on February 17, 2002

Don't miss the bedtime stories--just enough plot to refresh aging memories!
posted by Carol Anne at 8:08 AM on February 17, 2002

ook-Yeah, you got it in one. I desperately need to read Lloyd Alexander after reading these descriptions. I also think I want to read this. I mean, who wouldn't?
posted by realjanetkagan at 9:59 AM on February 17, 2002

I used to have a whole book of these called Shrinklits {ACLU affiliate code}. QPB had a whole group of them -- they must have sold well. Then there's The Five-Minute Iliad. So, not a new idea, but quite fun -- probably most fun at the end of a brutal semester of dead-tree reading.

It's a shame the b-a-m guys don't accept submissions, which could rectify some of the gaps listed above. I can see a site like this expanding infinitely.
posted by dhartung at 10:13 AM on February 17, 2002

whoa...! dhartung, thanks! Now I *really* need a trip to the bookstore.
posted by realjanetkagan at 10:26 AM on February 17, 2002

A lot of these are funny. But some of them are just a bit too cynical and insolent for me. Like the Dune summary. Not funny, and I don't even agree with the idea behind the joke.
posted by bingo at 12:02 AM on February 18, 2002

Janet--you desperately need to read the Lloyd Alexander anyway, if you haven't, them's great books, especially Taran Wanderer. I love the Fionavar Tapestry too, even though it gets parlously close to--hell, wallows in--soap opera at various--okay, many--points.

My brother once did a five-minute remake of Gone with the Wind called GWTW.
posted by rodii at 10:31 AM on February 18, 2002