Review: Pete's Garage

Alexis of Tao of D&D fame published a book, Pete's Garage.

I had intended to finish it three or four weeks ago, but then life happened.

Anyway.

I finished it not five minutes ago. Here's what I think.

This book has two things going against it, right off the bat.

1. Written in first person.
2. More character driven than plot driven.

These things don't matter to some people, I tend to not like books like this.

That said, I would find myself burning through the pages. If nothing else, the book is well written, though the proofreader in me found four? mistakes and as a baptized disciple of the AP Style, I cringed at the use of ellipses.

Mere quibbles, all these.

On a scale of buy, borrow, or burn, this book is a borrower for me, and the reason boils down to personal taste.

What we have is collection of stories surrounding the owner of an old hotel-turned-practice-space-for-musicians. The stories are told as memoirs and occur sequentially. A thin narrative runs through the whole book, that of the narrator reconciling and coming to terms with his past. There are also some supernatural elements tossed in. Sometimes it feels the slightest bit schizophrenic, but it is interesting and the stories never seem to drag.

While reading Pete's Garage, I also finished Salem's Lot and a Dean Koontz book that I can't be bothered to remember. Comparisons are inevitable.

Pete's Garage ranks below the Lot, and worlds ahead of the Koontz book.

Let Alexis write three or four more books, and at the very least, he'll be well on his way to creating something truly awesome.