I Am Far Too Impatient

I don’t buy genuinely new books very often, and I pretty much never feel like I have to go out and grab one on the day of its release… but Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell was an exception.

Unfortunately, I could not find it in a bookstore the day it came out… I guess I assumed it would just be there, like a CD or DVD. Not my smartest hour. Unfortunately, since I am currently apartment hunting with no permanent address, I can’t really go ordering it off of Amazon either. So, I must simply sit and stew without it. Sigh.

As to why this is so frustrating to me: Crystal Rain, Buckell’s first novel, really gave me that final push I so desperately needed to up and start reading science fiction already. (Although, marathon viewings of “Firefly” didn’t hurt to get me into the mindset… good God I’m a geek.) Basically, I saw this review and immediately couldn’t resist.

Isn’t it great when you just act without a second thought and everything works out?

Anyway, Buckell calls Crystal Rain his “Caribbean steampunk” novel, and I think that just about sums it up. It’s an exciting, action-packed story with an incredibly fleshed out world and aliens that actually feel alien. It’s also nice to see that now and then a writer can actually put together a novel with an overwhelmingly non-white cast without it being some kind of issue, or the focus of the book. It’s simply part of the novel’s setting.

Oh, and Buckell writes bad-ass very, very well… which I always respect in an author. If you didn’t think a character named Pepper could scare the sh*t out of you (in an ambiguous, on-his-own-side kind of a way, no less) then you better think again.

So, while I’m sure that Ragamuffin is great, due to the finer complications of retail sales I will not be able to give a real opinion on it anywhere near as soon as I had hoped. Ah well, that’s life. If only I hadn’t slogged through a freakin’ torrential downpour just to get to the (unnamed major book chain) on the day of.