spoiler alert

Me Before You

Posted on September 28, 2016

Novel Ideas makes its return after too long away. This episode is about Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, a story about a quirky quirkster and a sad sack in a wheelchair. In this one we discuss ableism, depression, class, and assisted suicide, subjects which may cause you to feel icky. We also talk about our obscure theories (this book is secretly an eff you to rich people, this book is an anti-athlete author tract), what constitutes “a thing” (the internet, disabled people, therapy), why career counselors probably shouldn’t push you towards stripping, and that brief moment where Ben gets super judge-y.

The music bump is “The Queen Bee” by Sammy Nestico as performed by the Count Basie band.

107 – Me Before You – Feels Kinda Icky

Our recommendation: Reads easily enough, but you’ll feel icky if you think too hard about it.

Ben: 5/10 on the initial read, 3/10 by the time Gabs and I were done talking about it.

Gabs: 3/10 after we talked about it.

Holy crap, one of us did some research for this episode! Here are a couple of links that Gabs referenced:

Video:

http://youtu.be/Z9bkWJtm-mU

Articles:

http://cdrnys.org/blog/advocacy/hollywood-lies-i-prefer-my-disabled-girlfriend-alive/

http://alexschadenberg.blogspot.ca/2016/05/boycott-me-before-you-disability-death.html?m=1

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged ableism, annoying tropes, anti-athlete author tract, assisted suicide, Ben gets judge-y, bestseller?, buying a girl, class, depression, disabled people exist, discrimination litmus test, entitlement, failed self-promotion, free spirit, hate reading?, holy crap research, icky-ness, immaturity, Jojo Moyes, Me Before You, naivete, obligatory marriage, person first language, questionable narration change, rape backstory, rich guy motivations, rom-com bad relationship checklist, romance, single mom, spoiler alert, stripping and tourism based economy, the internet is a thing, therapy is a thing, underrepresentation, WHAT IS HAPPENING.

The Fifth Season

Posted on November 5, 2015

This month Novel Ideas discusses The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. This is a recently published fantasy novel, released this summer, so those of you who are inclined to worry about spoilers: There will be spoilers. In this episode we talk about interesting narrative structure, justifiable anger, cast diversity, and slavery parallels. We also mention that Atlantis is not a thing, pirates with ambiguous sexuality, systematic oppression (and why it is bad), and why one shouldn’t ignore a floating amethyst Washington Monument outside of their window.

The music bump is “Lava Lands” by Jeff Lorber, created by his brain, but not violent enough to sunder a continent. Kinda funky though.

99 – The Fifth Season – Brain Volcanoes

Our rating: We were in agreement that this might be the best thing we’ve read this year and not just limiting that to books read for the podcast.

Ben: 10/10. Great world building with deep and complex characters. Not to mention a heavy dose of badass.

Gabs: 9/10 Rings. Lots of unanswered mysteries, but cast diversity is greatly appreciated.

This entry was posted in Episodes and tagged agency, Atlantis is not a thing, cast diversity, choice, EEEEEEEEK, epic fantasy is humorless, fantastical racism, genre confusion, giant floating obelisk, interesting narrative structure, John Scalzi's Big Idea, justifiable anger, mystery, N.K. Jemisin, name changes, non-white non-male authors, oppression is bad, POV shifts, sexually ambiguous pirates, slavery parallels, spoiler alert, systematic oppression, The Fifth Season.

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 Fellowship of the Ring

Posted on January 16, 2013

Welcome to Middle Earth (or possibly New Zealand), as we discuss The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien this week on Novel Ideas. This is an obscure fantasy tale with an even more obscure feature length movie that no one has seen. Also, the Peter Jackson movie that everyone in the world has seen. In this episode, we cover the big issues, such as: world building, the logical way to divide an epic story in three parts, and the lack of female characters. We also cover more philosophical questions, like whether elves bang, if Gandalf is shy, and Tom Bombadil’s ADHD. I also attempted a tweak with my audio processing, so if it sounds weird on your listening device of preference, please leave a comment.

The music bumps are from Howard Shore’s excellent score to the movie version of Fellowship, specifically the theme that probably comes to mind when you think of that soundtrack.

35 – The Fellowship of the Ring – Hobbits Are The Best

This entry was posted in Admin, Episodes, Movies of books and tagged ADHD, alternate endings, audio experiments, coy wizards, do elves bang?, elven incest, Galadriel like a boss, hobbits are like altoids, imaginary racism, J.R.R. Tolkien, Legsly and Gim Gams, logical sequencing, LOTR fanfic pitches, movies of books, needs editing, obscure references, smoking is awesome, spoiler alert, The Fellowship of the Ring, Tom Bomadil-hole, unnecessary characters, where are all the women at?, world building.