Duel The Fourth! "I Never" by Cassandra Clare Posted by Tiffany at 1:48 PM

"I Never"

By Cassandra Clare

Geektastic

Story #4, 32 pages

(Girl meets Internet Love in Real Life)

Michaela: 3.98 / 5

I loved this! It was a very cute story and I loved that the main character was only sort of into the geeky things. It seems like all of these stories are actually pretty varied, and yet they're all pretty much concerning the same thing. The online game was hilarious- you take the alias of any fictional character, from tv shows or games or whatever else you want. I'm kind of hoping this actually exists.

Tiffany: 4.5 / 5

Is the online game in this story supposed to be like Second Life? (Is that even the right name?) SL is one of those games that I've always been aware of, but I couldn't really tell you what it's about. Anyway, on to the story. This one was so good! I loved that there were different types of characters, shades between geek and non-geek. The main character was great, I liked her right from the start. She was a normal, somewhat shy girl who got dragged into a game and accidentally met the love-letter-writing, classic-lit-loving guy of her dreams. The story starts as she is on her way to a party for players of the game to meet In Real Life. I can't really tell you much else without ruining it, except that this story was perfect! Clare is apparently an AMAZING short story writer. I would love to see a collection of her short works some time in the future. (Did you read her story in Kiss Me Deadly? Fantastic!)

Books For Bears Rating: 4.24 / 5

Duel The Third! "Definitional Chaos" by Scott Westerfeld Posted by Tiffany at 11:52 AM

"Definitional Chaos"

By Scott Westerfeld

Geektastic

Story #3, 24 pages

(Geek Noir Detective Story)

Michaela: 3 / 5

I liked it. I thought it was going to be terrible. I didn't like the way he set the story up in the beginning and I hated the main character. I liked the story and T-Moon, but it wasn't enough to save this one from the boring main character.

Tiffany: 3.5 / 5

It took me a while to get into this one, but I enjoyed it. All of the game references were a bit dull and the evil/good/chaos/neutral stuff dragged on (and I hated the player names), but I loved the idea of a noir detective story with a geek as the detective. The scheming was a lot of fun, I just couldn't really get into the characters. 

Books For Bears Rating: 3.25 / 5

Duel the Second! "One of Us" by Tracy Lynn Posted by Tiffany at 1:28 PM

"One of Us"

By Tracy Lynn

Geektastic

Story #2, 32 pages 

(Cheerleader Takes Geekology 101)

Michaela: 4 / 5

I liked the outside perspective on geeky things. Because I actually like these things, I don't really know what people who don't like them think. This gave me an idea. It was sort of funny that her football player boyfriend liked these things (except it felt like he didn't really like them very much). I also learned a couple of things I didn't know. Why is there such a difference between the "old series" and the "new series" of Star Trek?

Tiffany: 3.5 / 5

As a story, this one didn't really do it for me. The main character was pretty stupid if she thought that her boyfriend was going to be grateful. It looked to me like he only had a passing interest in these things. As a guide to all things nerdy, it was fantastic. I thought I knew a bit about the world until I read this. For every one thing I'd heard of, there were two that I hadn't. I kept a list as I read and intend to make a trip to the comic book store. I even tried to get into Buffy (the TV show) but, alas, I hated it just as much as I did when it came out. Guess I'll never earn that Geek Badge.

Books For Bears Rating: 3.75 / 5

Duel the First! "Once You're a Jedi, You're a Jedi All the Way" by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci Posted by Michaela at 1:55 PM

"Once You're a Jedi, You're a Jedi All the Way"

By Holly Black/ Cecil Castellucci

Geektastic

Story #1, page 1-16

(Romeo + Juliet, ComicCon Style)

Michaela: 4.5 / 5

While I know some people who are extremely fixated on the Star Wars universe (all of my friends like either that, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Firefly, or all of the above, including myself), I have never heard of people going all out like this. I find it hilarious in a charming sort of way. The "geeky Romeo and Juliet" aspect of the story was really cute, and I thought it was written with just enough information about the "geek" way of life without overpowering readers that might not know too much about these things. I would have to say it was four and a half out of five campers saved, and it was definitely a good start for an anthology.

Tiffany: 5 / 5

I loved the characters in this story. Arizhel managed to make growling and stomping around adorable and Thomas was my favorite kind of geek: lover of all things nerdy without being a superior A-Hole. The dialog was witty and light. There were several laugh-out-loud parts. I feel that the whole story could have been nothing but dialogue and I wouldn't have minded. I'm glad that she didn't take the Romeo + Juliet aspect too far. They were attracted to each other, but there was no desperate longing to be together, just the awkwardness of liking someone that your friends were going to give you crap for. I wish that I knew a bit more about the Geek-verse. I've seen Star Wars and Star Trek and I got a lot of the references to other shows (LOVED Firefly and SG1), but I still felt a bit out of the loop. (Why do Star Trek and Star Wars fans hate each other?)

Books For Bears Rating: 4.75

Dueling Reviews: New Feature! Posted by Tiffany at 9:17 AM

What are dueling reviews, you ask? Why, they are the only recourse left to a pair of honorable ladies after they have failed to reach an agreement about a story. There have been quite a few glove-slaps to the face, declarations of "How dare you, sir!" and steely-eyed stare-offs lately. What caused us to turn from best friends to bitter enemies? Well, it's mostly because Michaela failed to appreciate the awesome that was Garth Nix's story in Zombies vs Unicorns (and maybe partly because I can't seem to stop talking trash during card games). Therefore we have agreed to meet with pistols at dawn/reviews on the blog every time we read a short story. From now on, we'll read anthologies together and post a double review for each story. Warning: there may be blood, maiming, and fainting of gentile bystanders. 

Our first Duelling Review will be over Geektastic: Stories From the Nerd Herd, to be posted in the next few days. If we both manage to survive the encounter, we will then move on to Gothic!Ten Original Dark Tales (Neil Gaiman! Swoon)