Mar 27
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Rachel and Thomas Comment: Fun fact! Megalatemeskephalesigakertomesephobia is the actual Greek for the fear that a large decapitated head is silently sneering at you.
Published 2012
(Average: 7.78 out of 10)
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March 27th, 2014 at 9:44 am
Very, Very Large Brother is watching you!
March 27th, 2014 at 10:00 am
Welcome back.
Can I just say ‘Behind You’?
March 27th, 2014 at 10:00 am
If I get an artist to do my portrait. I definitely want it to be within a stargate.
March 27th, 2014 at 10:55 am
Hey, someone’s in need of a gameshow.
March 27th, 2014 at 11:17 am
‘My name is Bob Roberts Robertson, and I’m running for councilman of the Apocalypse.’
March 27th, 2014 at 11:22 am
Is that the Ace Books logo or a neat little ice pyramid?
March 27th, 2014 at 11:49 am
Kind of like that giant head in Zardoz. Except with more people-friendly skills.
March 27th, 2014 at 12:27 pm
The Laundry Files…
A series of science fiction spy thrillers…set in a world where a computer and the right mathematical equations is just as useful a tool-set for calling up horrors from other dimensions as a spell-book and a pentagram on the floor.
Goodness, my computer has certainly called up a horror from another dimension to-day!
March 27th, 2014 at 1:48 pm
I like to think the kneeling figure is actually modelling a particularly impressive Ascot Lady’s Day hat.
March 27th, 2014 at 2:40 pm
“Whoa, I know there was a giant sneering head of Tim Robbins floating around here somewhere. Where the heck did it go?”
BTW, too many “esses” in this guy’s name for my taste.
March 27th, 2014 at 2:40 pm
When the blurb says “literate, etc.” is it speaking of Lev Grossman? If so, why is it on this book?
What does it mean that a book is literate? I think it best quoted from Michael Dirda: “… to praise an author’s prose as literate is to offer faint praise at best. Sentences should always be literate—isn’t that the rock-bottom desideratum of any writing?”
March 27th, 2014 at 3:19 pm
@NGpm—Yeah, just like “demonstrates the author’s story-telling skills.”
Speaking of blurbs, there’s been a good bit of witty GSS commentary over time regarding the nearly ubiquitous “NY Times Bestselling Author” meme. Perhaps this canard can be put to rest for good by noting that the current purveyor of that august claim is Rush Bloody Limbaugh’s Rush Revere and the First Patriots. ‘Nuff said, perhaps?
March 27th, 2014 at 3:32 pm
I knew the invention of front-loading washing machines would lead to no good.
Anyway, It’s good to see our beloved GSS back in service once again.
The Chinese site is OK, but after I visit it, my screen saver changes to a disembodied head of some guy named Admiral Zheng He and the word, æœä»Ž flashing in multi-colours along with a suggestion that I by Scrill Toothpaste!
In fact I think I’ll go out and purchase thirty cases of Scrill toothpaste right now.
March 27th, 2014 at 4:42 pm
Speaking of the Times blurb, why does the second set of footprints in the snow disappear when it hits the blurb?
March 27th, 2014 at 5:53 pm
It’s as if the book is sneering at us in contempt.
Perhaps the cover artist confused “smart” with “feeling superior.” A very common fallacy.
March 27th, 2014 at 6:13 pm
The sneer is probably intentional, as I believe the Floating Head is that of the megalomaniacal old-time-religion preacher character, not that of Our Hero.
March 27th, 2014 at 8:00 pm
@B. Chiclitz #10:
I believe the author’s name was originally Karel Stroß.
March 27th, 2014 at 9:28 pm
Easter Island’s Moai Heads, Special Remastered Edition, proved a costly failure.
March 28th, 2014 at 1:48 am
It’s a decent enough book, and part of a very good series, but Mr. Strauss has had nothing but trouble with covers. This is probably the best one any of his books has ever gotten, alas.
It’s almost-sorta excused by claiming that it happens in the book, because something vaguely similar (people go through a portal to another dimension) happens, but at no point does a giant sneering human face appear behind two people in a wintry forest.
March 28th, 2014 at 1:59 am
I dunno, I think this one’s OK.
http://thewordofward.co.uk/?p=298
March 28th, 2014 at 5:23 pm
Why do I feel like punching this book right in the cover?
June 4th, 2014 at 11:35 am
I’m telling you: That’s Vince McMahon.
October 20th, 2014 at 12:27 am
This is exactly what it was like for me to upgrade my Macintosh to OS X. Only more colourful.
November 14th, 2014 at 8:50 am
“Bow down to my teeth! Submit to them!”
November 26th, 2015 at 11:34 am
@DSWBT#23: You mean the smugness became nauseating?
July 15th, 2022 at 5:16 pm
When does the ‘last hope’ countdown officially start? Given that it’s humanity, probably at least 1000.
July 15th, 2022 at 5:27 pm
@SI: it’s not just any Stargate, it’s Stargate Saskatoon! Pretty sure the pilot for that spin off was shelved… even the Canadians didn’t want to be in it…
PS – @Rachel and Thomas – it’s awful, good find!
July 15th, 2022 at 10:05 pm
This is a very good series, with very bad covers. I might be a couple books behind, but I’ve read most of them. They’re great fun, though get darker as it goes along.
They are much more entertaining and wittier than anything Lev Grossman’s put out, too, so the blurb may be praising with faint damns.
Bob (not his real name) isn’t a cheesy grin kind of guy. That’s actually the prosperity gospel/Quiverfull televangelist/recurring villain.
If you can imagine 007 plots mashed up with Lovecraftian horrors emerging into our world, being carried out by a mild-mannered computer scientist who still has to keep up his TPS reports, and is regularly out-machoed by the women in his life … Bob’s your uncle.
(I’ll get me coat.)
July 16th, 2022 at 2:31 am
“Look upon my Supreme Court nominations, and despair!”
“If you can imagine 007 plots mashed up with Lovecraftian horrors emerging into our world”
Oh, that was just _one_ book in the series. It’s sort of a series of variations on a theme – there’s the Lovecraft-mashed-up-with-superheroes book, the Lovecraft-mashed-up-with-vampires book, the Lovecraft mashed-up-with-epic fantasy book, the Lovecraft-mashed-up-with-a-caper-movie book…
July 16th, 2022 at 10:04 pm
@Bruce: The Lovecraft mashed up with Upper Class Twits/Tories (several books), The Lovecraft mashed up with er, Lovecraft…
Bob is out-macho’d by the women in his life in all the books, though. It doesn’t bother him much.
I really do recommend them to anyone who likes a good laugh with their non-splattery horror. Although what happens to the televangelist’s (spoiler) is very gruesome indeed, as are the unicorns.
July 16th, 2022 at 11:54 pm
@Bruce, @GSSxn: might I recommend the Lovecraft-mashed-up-with-a-90s-anime-dating-sim-visual-novel “Sucker For Love”? It’s a riot… and a damn good one. 🙂
(To quote the trailer’s subtitles: “((excited eldritch noises))”)
July 17th, 2022 at 10:56 pm
@Leak: I don’t have anything that does Steam.
However, I have seen a couple episodes of the anime “Nyaruko”.
July 18th, 2022 at 4:00 am
@Leak: well, it looks more cheery than Saya [1]: does the world still come to an end if you pick the wrong ending?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saya_no_Uta
July 18th, 2022 at 7:28 am
@Bruce: since the world is just several eldritch gods dreaming about it, waking one up ends the world they had been dreaming in any case – but the protagonist is so memorable that he survives in their dreams… but it’s all in good fun…
Of course, there’s also several bad endings, but there’s also ample checkpoints…