Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille by Steven Brust
Read in December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
This was not your typical Stephen Brust novel. In fact, I’ve never read anything quite like this.
It’s told in first person (with a few Intermezzos of third person to fill in the blanks) of a banjo player in a folk band named Billy. We meet Billy in Cowboy Feng’s as he listens to his band mates tuning up for the evening gig. The gig is cut short by a nuclear explosion which catapults the bar through time and space to another planet. They were on Mars, prior to that on Venus, prior to that a lunar colony and original in London on Old Earth.
Eventually, we learn there is a war being fought between two factions of humanity. One faction is a society based on fear and ignorance, using a fatal disease (called Hag’s disease) as a catalyst. This society uses the disease as an excuse to quarantine itself and destroy the rest of humanity to prevent the spread of infection. The small group of employees at Feng’s bar and the band members who were accidentally (perhaps) sucked into the rebel cause, are trying to discover how to stop the extermination of billions of humans by the enemy.
The story was engaging, sometimes funny, sometimes violent and eventually reached a conclusion that was sacrificial but successful. It was an interesting read, but I’m not sure I would re-read it.
GR Status Updates:
| 12/21/2008 | page 1 | 0.45% | ||
| 12/21/2008 | page 13 | 5.83% | “Finished chapter 1 and starting Intermezzo” | |
| 12/21/2008 | page 30 | 13.45% | “Starting chapter 3” | |
| 12/21/2008 | page 62 | 27.8% | “In the midst of chapter 5 when I burst out laughing (see comment for more).” 1 comment | |
| 12/21/2008 | page 94 | 42.15% | “Billy find “Sugar Bear” but it’s not at all sweet like honey.” | |
| 12/22/2008 | page 121 | 54.26% | “Billy just found out the reason there’s a contract out on him.” | |
| 12/22/2008 | page 158 | 70.85% | “Starting chapter 13” 3 comments | |
| 12/22/2008 | page 191 | 85.65% | “Almost time for the finale” | |
| 12/22/2008 | page 214 | 95.96% | “Would have finished this except for annoying irritating absent minded husband” | |
| 12/22/2008 | page 223 | 100.0% | “Finis” |
