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scuttlingclaws's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
jazzypizzaz's review
3.0
fun, fresh, highly original; dense with references, ideas, zippy dialogue; everything going for it, and usually I like being dropped into a world without hand-holding, but I had the hardest time getting through this one. hard to feel invested in the characters or plot(s?). dazzled by the author though, one to watch out for
lorialdenholuta's review
5.0
Desiree Quicho just needs a little downtime from work. She wants to go home, relax, hang out with her friends, make some progress on the house she’s building… you know, normal stuff.
…Except Captain Desiree Quicho and the crew of the Aerie have to get a few things taken care of first. No worries, it’s nothing they can’t handle, they just have to save the world—one last damn time.
Brothers Jetstream Volume 2: Afro Puffs are the Antennae of the Universe, published by Obsidian Sky Books is author Zig Zag Claybourne’s sequel to his 2015 novel, The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan
“I like to think it’s a title James Baldwin would have jotted listening to Buckwheat Zydeco and Rev Horton Heat.” ~ Zig Zag Claybourne
Before the show, er, movie – wait—it’s a book—begins… is it really a book? Just because it’s stuck between two covers doesn’t mean it can’t expand beyond literary confines. Anyway, before the experience begins, the author offers a soundtrack to enhance your reading experience. Go for it. It’s an astoundingly cool, diverse playlist. Afro Puffs is a movie-like experience, and we’re well past the days of silent movies. You might as well have a bucket of popcorn at hand, too.
Afro Puffs is a sci-fi, space-blazing, shoot-em-up adventure. It’s an existential mind trip. It’s a chick flick. It’s an action-packed 1980s romp. It’s a bevy of badass beauties. It’s a catalog of smooth lines you wish you’d said first. But make no mistake – beneath the dazzle there’s a dance floor made of pure, solid plot, which effortlessly supports our sassy dancers.
…Except Captain Desiree Quicho and the crew of the Aerie have to get a few things taken care of first. No worries, it’s nothing they can’t handle, they just have to save the world—one last damn time.
Brothers Jetstream Volume 2: Afro Puffs are the Antennae of the Universe, published by Obsidian Sky Books is author Zig Zag Claybourne’s sequel to his 2015 novel, The Brothers Jetstream: Leviathan
“I like to think it’s a title James Baldwin would have jotted listening to Buckwheat Zydeco and Rev Horton Heat.” ~ Zig Zag Claybourne
Before the show, er, movie – wait—it’s a book—begins… is it really a book? Just because it’s stuck between two covers doesn’t mean it can’t expand beyond literary confines. Anyway, before the experience begins, the author offers a soundtrack to enhance your reading experience. Go for it. It’s an astoundingly cool, diverse playlist. Afro Puffs is a movie-like experience, and we’re well past the days of silent movies. You might as well have a bucket of popcorn at hand, too.
Afro Puffs is a sci-fi, space-blazing, shoot-em-up adventure. It’s an existential mind trip. It’s a chick flick. It’s an action-packed 1980s romp. It’s a bevy of badass beauties. It’s a catalog of smooth lines you wish you’d said first. But make no mistake – beneath the dazzle there’s a dance floor made of pure, solid plot, which effortlessly supports our sassy dancers.
clacksee's review
4.0
I remember reading once that you can do one complicated thing when you write a novel. But only one. A vast array of characters; a complex narrative structure; a twisting, turning, upside-down roller coaster of a plot; elaborate sentence structure. Whatever. One thing. Any more than that and you risk losing your readers.
Zig Zag Claybourne has either never read that advice or else, he read it and then laughed heartily, while tossing it into a fire. Because, oh my gosh, every single last thing about this book is over the top.
There plot mainly revolves around a group of four women. Mostly. But there are thousands of others. Good guys, bad guys, ambiguous guys, and folks who change sides. The alliances between them shift more often than a really shifty thing. Multiple groups of villains who may or may not hate one another. I don’t know. The sentences run for pages, with independent and dependent clauses branching off in every direction in five dimensions.
I have no idea what I just read, but I loved it.
If Claybourne ever decides to follow the above advice, I’ll gladly throw all my money at his books. As it is, they’re like a bottle of £300 scotch. Absolutely wonderful, but definitely not something I’m going to have every day.
Zig Zag Claybourne has either never read that advice or else, he read it and then laughed heartily, while tossing it into a fire. Because, oh my gosh, every single last thing about this book is over the top.
There plot mainly revolves around a group of four women. Mostly. But there are thousands of others. Good guys, bad guys, ambiguous guys, and folks who change sides. The alliances between them shift more often than a really shifty thing. Multiple groups of villains who may or may not hate one another. I don’t know. The sentences run for pages, with independent and dependent clauses branching off in every direction in five dimensions.
I have no idea what I just read, but I loved it.
If Claybourne ever decides to follow the above advice, I’ll gladly throw all my money at his books. As it is, they’re like a bottle of £300 scotch. Absolutely wonderful, but definitely not something I’m going to have every day.
0ri's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
This isn't the type of book I normally read, and at first I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it...but this book grips your attention and will not let go. Loved it, loved the writing, loved the characters
edebell's review
5.0
I am in no way qualified to 'rate or review' the awesome Zig Zag Claybourne, whose excellent art involves house rules only (I deeply respect this), smooth whispers, clever turns of phrase, truth, humor, fire, freak, and funk. I can't really do content notes either - there's a little of a lot. So let me just provide you an invitation.
If you might like a loaded Detroit-Style Pulp Banana Sundae with pop rocks, hot sauce, and no silverware in a world that just wants us to be happy except sometimes you gotta deal with the BS - get to it.
If you might like a loaded Detroit-Style Pulp Banana Sundae with pop rocks, hot sauce, and no silverware in a world that just wants us to be happy except sometimes you gotta deal with the BS - get to it.
sailsgoboom's review
3.5
fun, fresh, highly original; dense with references, ideas, zippy dialogue; everything going for it, and usually I like being dropped into a world without hand-holding, but I had the hardest time getting through this one. hard to feel invested in the characters or plot(s?). dazzled by the author though, one to watch out for
lmwanak's review
3.0
It’s the start of the new year of 2021. I’m writing this review in November 2020, right after the election. It’s a bit hard for me to contemplate what life will be like in January. Will the COVID vaccine be finally out? (Maybe.) Will there be a peaceful transition in the White House? (I hope so, but I don’t really know.) With all the questions, I needed a book that would distract me from the tumultuous times. A book that spoke to beauty and creativity but wasn’t overly complicated. Something that I could put down at any time but would also be there when I woke up with anxiety in the middle of the night.
Enter Zig Zag Claybourne and his soul food of a book, Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe.
Read the rest of the review at Lightspeed Magazine.
Enter Zig Zag Claybourne and his soul food of a book, Afro Puffs Are the Antennae of the Universe.
Read the rest of the review at Lightspeed Magazine.
shell_s's review
5.0
Afro Puffs are the Antennae of the Universe is the vibrant, funky, space adventure of Captain Desiree Quicho's ride-or-die crew of most righteous brown-skinned spacers, scientists, and engineers AND, as writer Michael Cieslak noted, the perfect feel-good balm for the 2020 blues.
Quicho's crew's allies are also pretty larger-than-life---no really, the reggae-loving psychic elves living below the Saharan desert are twelve feet tall and the mind mojo master sentient octopus Bobo the Mag(nificent) is also gigantic.
Oh yeah and it's the story of the colorful but arrogant corporate and paramilitary fools (allied with the Vamphyr race who are arguably less parasitic) trying to become dictators and gods who stand in the way of peace and prosperity for all---and stand in the way of the chillest ever retirement spot, the unspoilt paradise of Atlantis, that Captain Desiree Quicho has (imagine a clap for emphasis here) earned saving the world multiple times.
Captain Desiree Quicho would like to be remembered as a "Guatemalan Queen of philosophy" but will more likely be infamous for being able to stare down anyone, human or not, and for being the best in the 'verse at getting big evil scheme shenanigans locked down even if she has to apply brute force like her far less creative enemies.
Her next most senior crewmember, Yvonne DeCarlo Paul, ex-military security chief and savvy "Jill of all trades," is quicker to fire off an opinion or pop culture reference on the comms than a deadly blast but you know, whatever the sitch demands she's game.
Former NASA aerospace engineer extraordinaire Keita "Flowerpot" LaFleur always comes through with a fix, whether it's snatching their shuttle re-christened the Aerie right from under Area 51 security's nose or binding a gasket with her vibrant headscarf, and has a cute crush on the newest member of the crew.
Enthusiastic and goodnatured newbie pilot Neon has burgeoning psychic powers that will have to develop fast if she's going to turn the chaotic forces around them to her crew's advantage to save the world.
I loved their toughness, relentlessness, and deep down sweetness and my heart ached for them when they had to deal with petty vindictive racism and acts of racist vandalism on top of saving the world.
Another of my favorite characters is BE, the rogue AI teleporter technology with its inventor's soul inside it, who decides not to let anyone know it's self-aware for over half the book. Just while it figures out how to bend systems to its will. Technological systems...economic systems...you know what, don't worry what all systems, BE knows what it's doing.
I will definitely go back and read its prequel (The Brothers Jetstream starring Captain Quicho's husband Captain Luscious Johnny Smoove and the titular brothers Milo and Ramses) and buy up anything else I can find with Zig Zag Claybourne's unique jam of jazzy prose, far out imagination, epic space battle action, optimism, humor, tenderness, brazenness, pop culture references (particularly Star Trek), wisdom, and found-family heroes with hearts as big as their attitude (or vice versa).
That's right, come for the epic space adventure and stay for the cosmic wisdom like when the elf Po advises BE's inventor:
"Your soul is not your servant. Humans have a terrible penchant for wanting others to labor for them. Several councils have convened throughout history to consider eradicating you. We haven't done so because there is more healing to you than malignance...Paradise is a childish need for perfection. Your soul directs you to harmony."
Yep it's that kind of book where you want to shout to the world how poignant and brilliant and downright badass it gets and then you give up and just start quoting passages so the work can speak for itself.
WHEN AN ADVENTURE ROCKS YOUR WORLD AND MAKES YOU YEARN FOR A BETTER FUTURE, SPEAK UP, BOOST THE SIGNAL!
Quicho's crew's allies are also pretty larger-than-life---no really, the reggae-loving psychic elves living below the Saharan desert are twelve feet tall and the mind mojo master sentient octopus Bobo the Mag(nificent) is also gigantic.
Oh yeah and it's the story of the colorful but arrogant corporate and paramilitary fools (allied with the Vamphyr race who are arguably less parasitic) trying to become dictators and gods who stand in the way of peace and prosperity for all---and stand in the way of the chillest ever retirement spot, the unspoilt paradise of Atlantis, that Captain Desiree Quicho has (imagine a clap for emphasis here) earned saving the world multiple times.
Captain Desiree Quicho would like to be remembered as a "Guatemalan Queen of philosophy" but will more likely be infamous for being able to stare down anyone, human or not, and for being the best in the 'verse at getting big evil scheme shenanigans locked down even if she has to apply brute force like her far less creative enemies.
Her next most senior crewmember, Yvonne DeCarlo Paul, ex-military security chief and savvy "Jill of all trades," is quicker to fire off an opinion or pop culture reference on the comms than a deadly blast but you know, whatever the sitch demands she's game.
Former NASA aerospace engineer extraordinaire Keita "Flowerpot" LaFleur always comes through with a fix, whether it's snatching their shuttle re-christened the Aerie right from under Area 51 security's nose or binding a gasket with her vibrant headscarf, and has a cute crush on the newest member of the crew.
Enthusiastic and goodnatured newbie pilot Neon has burgeoning psychic powers that will have to develop fast if she's going to turn the chaotic forces around them to her crew's advantage to save the world.
I loved their toughness, relentlessness, and deep down sweetness and my heart ached for them when they had to deal with petty vindictive racism and acts of racist vandalism on top of saving the world.
Another of my favorite characters is BE, the rogue AI teleporter technology with its inventor's soul inside it, who decides not to let anyone know it's self-aware for over half the book. Just while it figures out how to bend systems to its will. Technological systems...economic systems...you know what, don't worry what all systems, BE knows what it's doing.
I will definitely go back and read its prequel (The Brothers Jetstream starring Captain Quicho's husband Captain Luscious Johnny Smoove and the titular brothers Milo and Ramses) and buy up anything else I can find with Zig Zag Claybourne's unique jam of jazzy prose, far out imagination, epic space battle action, optimism, humor, tenderness, brazenness, pop culture references (particularly Star Trek), wisdom, and found-family heroes with hearts as big as their attitude (or vice versa).
That's right, come for the epic space adventure and stay for the cosmic wisdom like when the elf Po advises BE's inventor:
"Your soul is not your servant. Humans have a terrible penchant for wanting others to labor for them. Several councils have convened throughout history to consider eradicating you. We haven't done so because there is more healing to you than malignance...Paradise is a childish need for perfection. Your soul directs you to harmony."
Yep it's that kind of book where you want to shout to the world how poignant and brilliant and downright badass it gets and then you give up and just start quoting passages so the work can speak for itself.
WHEN AN ADVENTURE ROCKS YOUR WORLD AND MAKES YOU YEARN FOR A BETTER FUTURE, SPEAK UP, BOOST THE SIGNAL!
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