Yes Man by Danny Wallace

Danny Wallace is a genius. Pure and simple. In his last book, Join Me, he placed an ad in a classified section inviting people to join him. Didn’t say what he was doing or why, just send him a picture and join him. From there, his movement became a worldwide collective of thousands upon thousands of people performing random acts of kindness. How to followup such an incredible move?

Well… when we catch up with Danny at the beginning of Yes Man, he’s in a bit of a funk. Creatively, he’s not doing as much as he’d like. He’s slowly secluding himself from his friends, becoming less and less social. And then, on the bus one night, he has a chance meeting with a stranger, who encourages him to “Say Yes More.” Just that simple. Danny’s new mission: go the rest of the year saying Yes to everything. Everything. Credit card offers online? Yes. Strange conspiracy theorist meet-ups? Yes. Hypnotic dogs? Yes! You’d think such a thing would just be an exercise in torture. But no! Danny wins $45,000 on a scratch off card. He gets promoted to a high position at the BBC (and he doesn’t even know what he’s doing). He enters a contest seeking England’s most German-looking man. He pokes a monk (and that’s not slang for anything. He quite literally pokes a monk).

Danny’s willingness to open himself to the world is an amazing experience to behold, and his growth as a human being both spiritually and emotionally is amazing. By the end of the book, Danny’s been through some highs and lows, and he’s ready to grow up and move on to the next phase of his life (nebulously dubbed “responsible adulthood”). Let’s hope that it doesn’t stick. Danny Wallace is out there having misadventures and seeing what the world has to offer, and he’s laying the challenge down to anyone: join him! Or at least, try something new. Say yes. See what happens.

(PS – unrelated to this book, Danny has started his own country. So, there’s that. http://www.dannywallace.com)

The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower I) by Stephen King

The first step on an epic journey across the wastelands... what to pack?

Imagine Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah got together and smoked a lot of hash, then proceeded to discuss the Lord of the Rings. Then, one of them said, how would I do this differently? You'd find the tale of The Gunslinger.

Roland of Gilead is wandering across the desert, chasing a nameless (or many-named) man in black. Searching for... something. Traveling... somewhere. The story begins as a traditional quest tale, with Roland making allies, finding materials, searching for clues. But soon, the story wanders off of the trail of tradition, and begins striding across worlds and genres. Roland's world is but one reality that lies above and in-between countless others. It starts to become clear that this story will not necessarily be the first step on a journey, merely the hint of a map for the journey to come.

Much of the detail comes in the form of flashbacks, so we can see Roland's past, learn about his upbringing and training as a gunslinger, and discover that he is, of course, the heir to the lost throne. This is not to say that this story is standard in any way. That's about as close to archetypal fantasy as King comes. Roland finds the Man in Black at great personal cost, only to learn that, of course, something much larger is going on (in a delightful monologue delivered in full pothead mode by the man in black).

King spent six more Dark Tower novels (and, in some tangential way, dozens of other novels) completing what may be the most massive comprehensive work ever written. The journey continues...

Those Who Walk In Darkness by John Ridley

Imagine an L.A. in the not too-distant future, where humans had learned to co-exist with superhumans. Where death defying rescues and city-shattering duels were a part of everyday life. What if the government, tired of cleaning up the mess, stripped superhumans of their rights as citizens and gave them 30 days to get out of town? What if you were the unfortunate sap who was brought on to a police special forces unit to enforce this law?

John Ridley has crafted a tense, action-packed, probably-was-intended-to-be-a-pitch-for-a-movie-but-didn't-get-picked-up-yet novel. Our hero, Soledad "Bullet" O'Roarke, is a take no guff, loner bad-ass mama with a gun. A special gun designed to take down superhumans. She uses the ordinance on her first mission out, bags herself a mutie, and is then taken down by internal affairs for using an unregulated firearms. As she fights to return to the force, Los Angeles sees a spike in Metanormal activity, and Soledad gives chase, killing another mutant while off duty. And here's where the story gets interesting: Soledad is an unapologetic racist. A bigot with a gun and a license to use it. She hates mutants because of an incident in her past where her family narrowly missed being wiped out with the rest of San Francisco in an attack by a vigilante. This time, the mutant she takes out off-duty is innocent. A girl who helped hundreds of people avoid a disaster. May have saved countless lives. Soledad doesn't care. For her, the only good freak is a dead freak. The mutant's husband, an extremely powerful telepath, wants revenge, and he's willing to kill every cop in the world to get it.

Ridley has set the stage for a very interesting character arc (assuming he writes another book in this series). Soledad could be on her way to redemption or tragedy, the answer lying in the questions raised by her final shocking acts in the book. The drawback, of course, is that Ridley seems intent on selling this to Hollywood, via animation or any avenue available, so the project may very well die on the shelf. In the meantime, Ridley has given us a story where we root for the redemption of the hero, not just her success, in a world as complex and twisted as reality, as fanciful as anything Hollywood could dream.