Gabs rage

Inferno

Posted on August 15, 2013

The great Harry Poddercast Extravaganza continues with… Oh, it’s over? Right. In that case, Novel Ideas is back with a non-Potter podcast for the first time in several weeks with Inferno by Dan Brown, a thriller that involves Dante and lots of obscure art knowledge. This episode also launches a new theme month, Bestseller Month, where we examine books that have sold well and recently. We would like to offer a legitimate spoiler alert for this episode, as the book has several plot twists, and even we would be less interested in the story if we had known those twists in advance. If you’ve already read it, or aren’t planning on reading it soon, tune in (Like on a dial? Maybe I don’t understand the internet yet…) to hear us discuss the aforementioned plot twists, infodumps, overpopulation, and feminism. We also talk about unlikely character pairings, victorious villains, the existence of gay people, and the consequences of monologuing. In a very special turn, we also get to experience a couple of minutes of Gabs rage. Hooray!

The music bump is from Franz Liszt’s “Dante Symphony,” which is being performed during much of the climactic scene of this book.

Recommendations:

Gabs: 5/10 If you like thrillers, read it. If you like the stuff we like, skip it.

Ben: 4/10 Pretty dull for a thriller.

Plug Alert!

Check out Epic One, a collaborative fiction project involving Gabs Roman, half of Novel Ideas. The link will take you to the first chapter of an ongoing online e-book.

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged awkward dialogue, bad arguments, boring thrills, communication, consequences of monologuing, feminism, Gabs rage, gay people exist, gender balance, genetic engineering, infodumps, is Robert Langdon gay?, overpopulation, passion without evidence, plot contrivances, plot twists, potential sequels, rape as characterization, Robert Langdon knows everything, Savage Love, spoiler alert, unlikely pairings, vagueness, victorious villain, villains with motivation.

The Chocolate War

Posted on October 16, 2012

Banned book month (Novel Ideas edition) continues with The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, a YA classic that is one of the perennially most challenged books. This is a tale of corruption, disillusionment, and challenging authority, so you know that it must be a light, happy read. In this episode we talk about all of those things and the inevitable crushing beneath the bootheel of authority, as well as French names, gayness, whether there is too much jacking off in this book, and the disturbing lack of women. If all of this sounds depressing, don’t worry, our wrap up is far less disturbing than the end of the book.

The music bump is “The Creator Has a Mastertape” by Porcupine Tree, not for any specific connection, but rather a general sense of darkness. And the fact that Ben thinks it’s cool.

27 – The Chocolate War – SUBMIT

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged After the First Death, Archie is a total douche nozzle, boy's book, censorship is stupid, conformity, corruption, dark YA, disillusionment, everyone is greedy and violent, feminism, French names?, Gabs memory, Gabs rage, gay is not an insult, improbable sequel, jacking off, literally digesting a book, mixed metaphors, podcast popularity, Robert Cormier, The Chocolate War, where are all the women at?.