Guest Reviewers

Ayn - Ayn, is our really good friend Rob. He is responsible for introducing Nick and Steve to each other, and the rest is, as they say, history. Rob has a way with words that few people we know (and we know a LOT) are able to employ. He is passionate about his reading and writing and therefore was a perfect fit for our team.

Fellfrosch - You know him as Dan Wells, the author of some of our favorite novels, I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER, MR. MONSTER, and I DON'T WANT TO KILL YOU. In our midst, we affectionately call him Dan the Jerk-face, or Dan the Cylon. Check out his site at http://www.fearfulsymmetry.net/


Steve

Steve is your typical reader of books who loves to tell you what is good and, more importantly, what he hates. He grew up reading Lloyd Alexander, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Terry Brooks. Then he got a job at a Waldenbooks. In addition to improving his literary tastes, he was soon doing a lot of the managing duties there, and helped that particular store become the Numero Uno ranked store in the country. It was during this time that he decided his taste in books was better than everyone else’s (duh), and his customers/friends/family agreed.



You will know Steve, in person, when you see the most attractive guy in the room. That's him. Seeing him is a feeling like being bathed in sunlight.



Favorite Authors: Steven Erikson, Tom Lloyd, Jonathan Maberry, Brian Lumley, Joe Abercrombie, James Barclay, Chris Wooding, Sarah Pinborough



Steve is an aspiring author himself. Check out his work at:

http://stevendiamondwriter.blogspot.com/


Nick

Nick is a self-important nihilist with a messiah complex who is entirely too pleased with himself, and is probably more attractive than you imagined. He is an avid reader, voraciously devouring all books he can lay his hands on. He has very heated opinions. About everything, but most specifically books. When he was told "Oh, you like fantasy? I bet you love Harry Potter," he very nearly committed many terrible, violent, and unmentionable acts.

If you are ever lucky enough to see Nick in person you will recognize him as the one hitting on your sisters. Yes. That was plural on purpose.

Favorite Authors: R. Scott Bakker, Joe Abercrombie, Scott Lynch, George R. R. Martin, J.V. Jones

Nick's personal blog can be found here.


Who the Heck are These Guys?

Welcome to Elitist Book Reviews. Let’s start by saying we are psychic. Seriously. How so, you ask? Well, we each had the idea to make this review blog on the same day. While Steve was emailing Nick the idea, Nick called Steve to pitch the same idea. Give us another more plausible alternative to being awesome psychics (Hint: there isn’t one).

So who are we?

Just a couple guys with much better taste in books than you.

So, we figured since all our friends, our family, our acquaintances, and even random strangers in bookstores (including, sadly, the employees of the bookstores) come to us for book advice, that we may as well give this kind of advice on a psuedo-professional level.

We will be posting reviews for primary Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Mystery, but not strictly limited to those genres. Our reviews will be posted during the week, with the weekends as our time to relax.

We hope you enjoy the spoiler-free reviews, and we will do our best to best to tell you what books to either avoid, borrow, or buy. You should do exactly what we say.

Seriously.

And in case you are wondering, we will be brutal, and we will be mean if we don’t like the book. That’s part of the fun isn’t it?


University of Fantasy

Here is a central location for all of the courses in our University of Fantasy.

FANTASY 101: An introductory course on a few choices for books to enter the genre. We disagree on the best approach, but that works out better for you since you get two different, but equally viable options.

FANTASY 102: A very brief selection of other subgenres in the Fantasy section of speculative fiction. We recommend a number of YA, Steampunk, or Urban Fantasy here.

FANTASY 201: 6 books that we think you should absolutely read to further your fantasy book education. And what we think is law.

FANTASY 202: Primarily a step into the Horror genre, and a small explanation of what exactly the horror part of the fantasy genre is.

FANTASY 301: This is where the learning curve jumps, but where the reward is the greatest. These are our favorite books in the genre. Period.


ELITIST CLASSICS
Elitist Classics--Part 1: The Fantasy genre owes a debt to these authors and works. 6 influential picks that paved the road for today's works.

Elitist Classics--Part 2: Mystery & Horror are far more important than anyone cares to admit. Just look at these authors!

Elitist Classics--Part 3: Science Fiction & Steampunk. Imagining the future, that is what these literary giants did. Classics one and all.


Contact Us

Because we know you are dying to talk to us. Literally.

If you have been mulling over a book for a while now, and you just don't know if you should spend your hard-earned moolah, shoot us an email. Chances are we have either read it already, own it, or have been wondering about that title ourselves. If the book looks like it sucks too much, and we can't even get close to it without vomiting a little, we'll try to get a guest-reviewer.

Contact us at elitistbookreviews@gmail.com


News

8-31-2009
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Facts of life. Kids are born, and school starts. Due to Steve's new kiddo, and Nick's new...classes, we are going to due a test run of a scaled back review system. This is something we had planned from the beginning, because really who has time to read five books a week and review each, as well as keep up with other commitments. Now that we have a healthy backlog of reviews for you to help make your choice of future reading, we think now is as good of a time as any. We will be doing 1-2 reviews a week, as well as (maybe) a University log (see the Spotlight on the front page).

As always, feel free to send us compliments and complaints (complaints to Steve, compliments to Nick). We love hearing from you, both in email or in the comments section.


8-10-2009
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We want to congratulate Neil Gaiman on winning the 2009 Hugo Award for Best Novel for his work THE GRAVEYARD BOOK! As you'll recall, we reviewed it, and we voted for it. We figured it would win, and aren't really all that surprised to see that we were right. This is a fabulous honor for Gaiman, and his second Hugo Award (he won with his AMERICAN GODS in 2002).

Go check out all the Hugo winners!

http://www.thehugoawards.org/


The Rest of Them

Vanessa-Vanessa is the mother of three young children, so not only is it impossible to surprise her, it also takes some considerable antics to impress her (EBR is on the right track, but it remains to be seen...). She's raising up her brood right, though, because the next generation of geeks cannot be trained on Star Wars alone.



Favorite Authors: Lois McMaster Bujold, Robin McKinley, Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Robert Jordan, Judith Merkle Riley



Dan-Currently a graduate student in the esoteric art of rocket science simulation, he spends his days beating his computer to a pulp and/or gnashing his teeth through copious mounds of technical publications. Nights are split between more of the same (glutton for punishment, this one) or writing his own fantasy fiction. He never sleeps. Father of three perfect children that all want to grow up to be just like him: tall, smart, and good-looking. Reading awesome books fills his down time, with a focus on those that are well-written works of old and new masters. He has little patience for poor writing and plots that don't grab by the throat, the heart, or the funny bone. When found in public, he will usually be seen weaving through masses of people with his face nose-deep into the most recent book. Yes, he's that good.



Favorite Authors: KJ Parker (duh), Daniel Abraham, R. Scott Bakker, Joe Abercrombie, Steven Erikson, Robert Jordan



Shawn-Shawn is an avid reader as well as a concept artist for a video game company making him instantly the coolest guy you have ever met, or even read about (well, except the main EBR guys...yes, we still edit here). He is a voracious reader of anything he can get his hands on, and has the immediate knack of knowing if a book is good or not when he reads it. Those close friends of his often reserve judgment on books they have read until they hear what Shawn tells them what they should think. He is extremely attractive and often has to fend off women and small woodland creatures that follow him around.



Favorite Authors: Vernor Vinge



Bryce-Bryce Moore is an author, librarian, and a big fan of YA (although he tends to read pretty broadly: everything from Science Fiction to Thrillers to Fantasy to mainstream lit--pretty much whatever he feels like reading at the moment). In addition to being a full-fledged book geek, he's also a film geek (don't get him started talking about adaptation theory), board game geek, video game aficionado, and tech junkie. He blogs every weekday over at http://brycesramblings.blogspot.com/. To find out more about his writing and books, check out his website: http://brycemoore.com/.



Favorite Authors: Terry Pratchett, Stephen King, Garth Nix, CS Lewis, Neal Stephenson, Orson Scott Card


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