The Edge of Reason by Melinda Snodgrass

Since my "to read" bookshelf has 16 titles I don't honestly know why I keep buying books. It's an addiction, it has to be! In any case even though I knew I had all those titles on my shelf I still wondered into Page One with a couple bucks in cash. It's to the point that I know what I want to read, but don't want to start it because it's a series. I have all sorts of series to read already so I really don't want to start another one, well that's not true, I do want to start them all of them, but the fact is I don't have time to read them! So I go in, meander about for 20 minutes before heading to the little counter for help--I know me a worker at my own bookstore needing help. So I ask the guy there who was the person that knew the most about sci-fi/fantasy--it turns out it was him--and ask him the most difficult question I get asked: "I need a great fantasy or sci-fi that is a single novel, not a series, not stand alone in a universe, but a single fully contained novel." Trust me on this, this question is a whore and loaded to all hell because everyone knows the best aspects of sci-fi/fantasy are their epic series, see Tolkien, Goodkind, Herbert, and Feist just to name a few. His face betrays exactly what I said above in a grimace, I can't blame him, but then I added the fact that I've read a whole hell of a lot already so it might be tougher than usual. We headed over to the section and as we walked he tossed a couple no brainers at me: Crichton, Bradbury, Heinlein, and Dick. All the ones he mentioned I had read save for a Phillip K. Dick whom I was not in the mood for. Then he asked a question that threw me off "how do you feel about religion?" Whew that was one thing I didn't expect at all! I shrug and give him the most non-offensive answer I could while still being true with myself "Eh I'm not a fan, it's all kinda a joke to me." Again this guy throws me off and he laughs and says "I've got a book you have to read!" Here I was thinking he was gonna set me up with a religious themed fantasy--gag--instead he shows me a local author named Melinda Snodgrass who just came out with a new book called The Edge of Reason.

The quote on the cover from George R.R. Martin reads:
"Will delight thinkers--and outrage true believers--of all stripes"

He tells me, basically, that she bashes every major world religion AND governments. Say no more my friend, say no more! Unfortunately for them it was new so I decided to hold off and pick it up with my discount at my work, but in the meantime another guy overhears us who was on break and brings up L. Ron Hubbards book Battlefield Earth. Yikes, Hubbard, really? Whole load of crazy right there. They both assure me that this one was pre-psycho lets start a religion Hubbard and I also remembered that my uncle read most of his pre-crazy books as well and like them, so for 2 bucks I picked it up. I haven't started it yet, but it should be.. an interesting experience to say the least. Hopefully I can keep my bias out of it and just try and enjoy it as a good piece of sci-fi. I'll let you guys know.

So crazy cult leaders aside, this book was amazingly entertaining! Before I go into the plot and symbolism's of the book I have to get some dumb things out of the way. Now I have no right to criticize anyone on their writing, grammar, or mechanics since I suck horribly at all three, but as a reader I have certain expectations of the authors I read. I expect that, as a professional, you won't have too many silly typos/misspellings, I expect that if this isn't your first book that your plots aren't as see through as a third graders, and I expect that your sentence structure and syntax are much more complex than that of a middle schooler. Ms. Snodgrass does a good job with most of the stuff, but I felt myself getting distracted by a rather way of talking. It wasn't horribly confusing just a couple points needed to be re-read so I was comfortable with what I read, there were some silly mistakes here and there, probably due to her editor being lazy over her, and the biggest down to her book was the fact that she kinda gave everything away within the first 100 pages. The grammar and poor editing aside, seeing an author tell all about a plot and the characters so early in a book is a major turn off. There were a couple surprises in the end, and obviously this one is a start of a series so the end itself was rather eh. By the way I took this book because the rest of the series isn't out so I have time to read my other stuff! Generally though aside from some flattish characters--whom I expect will be developed more further in the series--and a plot given away like a drunk virgin, it was a good book.

Like I've said before I'm not going to write a book report for you guys, if you're intrigued by it go pick it up! The thing that made me the happiest was the fact that she grouped ALL of the religious together, she wasn't picking on one over the other, she came right out and said that the entire idea of religions is stupid. Not only that, she made religion and their "gods" into evil creatures using superstition and stagnation to enslave mankind. Indeed one of the major characters is named Cross and he's guess who? Jesus Christ! But really he's a powerful "old one" whom has been converted to the side of reason and logic. The kickass thing about Cross that Ms. Snodgrass uses to attack religions even more is this: He's a schizophrenic! That's right, he's been here since we evolved and based on the cultural view of wherever he is he becomes either Jesus for Christians, Yehoshua for the Jews, and Allah for the Muslims. So not only are these stupid religious people fighting each other under THE SAME GOD, but they're being controlled and enslaved by every "god" throughout human history. She addresses one of the major things I have a problem with in Christianity which is the fact that in the Old Testament God was an asshole. He killed us, punished us, made us suffer, and overall enjoyed it, this is, she explains, because that's how these creatures thrive ff human suffering. Until one of the other major characters comes in and changes the view of a spiteful angry god into that one of compassion these creatures used holy wars and all those awful things that happened to become stronger. Christians always tend to play off those atrocities as God "testing us", but in reality they were doing it for their own pleasure. Oh man she did it so eloquently and so masterfully that I totally let most of her almost poor writing go and gave her a 7/10 on my list. Another theme that played a smaller role in the book was that of corruption and how if you have enough money you could be the most evil, vile person on the world and get away with anything. It also addressed aspects of homophobia, race, and family.

If you're iffy on religion or hell even if you are religious I think it's a great book to pick up! She's a lot meaner than, say, Christopher Moore's Lamb, but there are things Snodgrass brings up that need to be addressed. Hell it got a good review by the great George R.R. Martin that alone should compel any fantasy fan to pick this up!