Note: Tom sent me a print copy of this book in exchange for an honest review, so thanks Tom for the book and the opportunity to review it!
The Book
Leather to the Corinthians
The Genre
Satire
The Author
Tom Lucas was born and raised in Detroit, and although currently enjoying the lack of snow and ice in Florida, remains a son of the post-industrial apocalypse. Throughout his childhood, Tom found solace in comic books, Star Wars action figures, movies, cartoons, and video games. His passion for story has carried him through his adult life. Tom is a college professor, author, blogger, poet, book reviewer, and spoken word performer. When not writing, Tom likes to drive fast and take chances.
The Plot
The General and his clown army are determined to defeat the King, mad ruler of the Village, who only cares about celebrity status and bling. The story follows several characters, with the main protagonist (sort of) being a young soldier in the General’s army who fights to survive the melee, losing his humanity along the way.
The Review
This was an interesting satire of American culture that had me alternatively laughing out loud and cringing. I really enjoyed the depiction of several major fast food corporations as actual military forces battling it out for control of the hapless citizens of the Village. The General’s clown army and his hellish Necro-crofts fascinated me, as did the church of the Big Red J — basically what happens when you combine religion with comic book enthusiasts. I found the church of the Big Red J both hilarious and brilliant — and it also unnerved me a bit, because it sounded like an awesome religion to me, even though it’s clearly not supposed to be!
The writing style is fascinating — Lucas writes as if he’s a televangelist, which, considering the concept of this book, is I think a really great choice on his part. Because of the writing style, I sometimes found the book a bit exhausting to read, as it’s quite intense.
I have two major gripes with this book. One is the editing — I found a lot of spelling/grammatical errors, which detracted from the reading experience for me. I was also annoyed by the lack of female characters. About 95% of the characters are men, and the only female characters (at least, from what I recall) are sex-crazed (or having to do with sex in general). I assume this was part of the satire — that the media paints women as sexual objects and nothing more, etc. etc. But as a female reader, I guess I was looking for something … more with the female characters.
All in all, a fun read — not a book for the faint of heart, but definitely one you might enjoy if you’re a fan of political/social satire!
The Rating
4 out of 5 stars
Check out the book here: http://readtomlucas.com/
Unrelated link of the day:
Very simple yet awesome website: http://www.rainymood.com/
Source: http://imgur.com/gallery/SuaPquR
Michelle Proulx - Author 