Category: Back Seat Book Club

Author: Neil Gaiman

Published: 2001

William Morrow

Plot Summary – Days before his release from prison, Shadow’s wife, Laura, dies in a mysterious car crash. Numbly, he makes his way back home. On the plane, he encounters the enigmatic Mr Wednesday, who claims to be a refugee from a distant war, a former god and the king of America.

Together they embark on a profoundly strange journey across the heart of the USA, whilst all around them a storm or preternatural and epic proportions threatens to break.

Quick Thoughts:

[forthcoming]

“Hey,” said Shadow. “Huginn or Muninn, or whoever you are.” 
The bird turned, head tipped, suspiciously, on one side, and it stared at him with bright eyes.
“Say ‘Nevermore,'” said Shadow.
“F— you,” said the raven.”

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Pedro
• Scott

Recorded 05/30/13

Next Time: Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

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Author: Haruki Murakami, translator: Philip Gabriel

Published: 1992

Vintage

Plot Summary – Growing up in the suburbs of post-war Japan, it seemed to Hajime that everyone but him had brothers and sisters. His sole companion was Shimamoto, also an only child. Together they spent long afternoons listening to her father’s record collection. But when his family moved away, the two lost touch. Now Hajime is in his thirties. After a decade of drifting he has found happiness with his loving wife and two daughters, and success running a jazz bar. Then Shimamoto reappears. She is beautiful, intense, enveloped in mystery. Hajime is catapulted into the past, putting at risk all he has in the present.

Quick Thoughts [forthcoming]

“Sometimes when I look at you, I feel I’m gazing at a distant star. 
It’s dazzling, but the light is from tens of thousands of years ago.
Maybe the star doesn’t even exist any more. Yet sometimes that light seems more real to me than anything.”

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Scott

Recorded 04/25/13

Next Time: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

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Author: Neal Stephenson

Published: 1992

Bantam Books

Plot Summary – In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s Cosa Nostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous…you’ll recognize it immediately.

Quick Thoughts: [forthcoming]

“Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years. If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge. If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, and devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.”

Your Hosts:

• Sam
• Scott

This episode was recorded 03/28/13

Next time: South of the Border West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami

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Scott provides an introduction to the Cyberpunk genre.

Subjects discussed:

• Nietzsche Grandfather of Cyberpunk
• Expressionism
• Noir protagonists
• Cyberpunk themes
• How this all fits with Snow Crash
• why steampunk is not a genre

Recorded: 04/27/13

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Author:  Matthew Wayne Selznick

Published: 2005

Lulu MWS Media

Plot Summary – Fans of Spider-Man, silver age comics, and alternate history will enjoy this novel of teen angst and metahumans! This coming of age story is set in an alternate 1980’s, where people with amazing abilities make themselves known. Can young Nathan Charters find himself in this uncertain new world? Who is he, where did he come from, and is he part of a remarkable new minority…or just a misfit among misfits? Brave Men Run is at once gripping and emotional, shocking and intelligent.

Quick Thoughts: [forthcoming]

“Brave men run…in my family”

Your hosts:

• Lena
• Tony
• Scott

This episode was recorded: 02/28/13

Next Time: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

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Author: Lev Grossman

Published: August 2009

Viking

Plot Summary – Quentin Coldwater is brillant but miserable. He’s a senior in high school, and a certifiable genius, but he’s still secretly obsessed with a series of fantasy novels he read as a kid, about the adventures of five children in a magical land called Fillory. Compared to that, anything in his real life just seems gray and colorless.

Everything changes when Quentin finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the practice of modern sorcery. He also discovers all the other things people learn in college: friendship, love, sex, booze, and boredom. But something is still missing. Magic doesn’t bring Quentin the happiness and adventure he though it would.

Then, after graduation, he and his friends make a stunning discovery: Fillory is real.

Quick Thoughts [forthcoming]

“You can’t just decide to be happy.”

“No, you can’t. But you can sure as hell decide to be miserable. Is that what you want? Do you want to be the asshole who went to Fillory and was miserable there? Even in Fillory? Because that’s who you are right now.”

There was something true about what Alice was saying. But he couldn’t grasp it. It was too complex, or too simple. Too something…It was strange: he’s thought that doing magic was the hardest thing he would ever do, but the rest of it was so much harder. It turned out that magic was the easy part.”

Your Hosts:

• Becca
• Lena
• Scott

The episode was recorded: 02/07/13

Next time: Brave Men Run by M W Selznick

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Author: Koushun Takami, Trans. Yuji Oniki

Published: April 1999

Viz LLC

Plot Summary – A class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan – where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller – Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world.

Quick Thoughts [forthcoming]

“Kazuhiko could have taken his gun and aimed it at the person behind them. But Sakura wouldn’t want that. What she wanted was to leave this world quietly before they got sucked into this horrible massacre. Nothing was more important to him than her. There was no room for compromise. If this were what her trembling soul wanted, then he would follow her. Had he been more eloquent he might have described his feelings as something like, “I’m going to die for her honor.”

Their two bodies danced in the air beyond the cliff, their hands still clasped together, the black sea under them.”

Your Hosts:

• Lena
• Sam
• Scott

This episode was recorded: 01/03/13

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