Steve Lowe

The sloth: An odd tree-dwelling animal, the most commonly referred to species of which has three toes and a permanent smile on its face.

The spammer: An internet-based douchebag who sends unsolicited email in bulk.

How are these two related? In You Are Sloth by Steve Lowe, a criminal simply known as the Spammer has begun sending out emails that turn people into their power animal. When you (yes, you) are turned into a sloth, you must join with your neighbors Cross the Asshole and Randy the Retard (named so by Cross the Asshole), you must track down the Spammer, discover his dastardly plot, and reap some three-toed vengeance.

So, the first thing you'll notice is how I referred to “you” as the main character. That's because this book is written in a second-person perspective (for those not familiar with literary terms, first person is “I,” second person is “you,” and third person is “he/she/it,” to put it quickly). The second-person perspective is usually used in things like those old “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. This is not one of those. It's simply an experimental way of telling the story, and it works. I have to give Lowe a lot of credit for risking this kind of perspective. It's odd at first, but you get used to it very quickly.

The second thing is that this book is funny. It is really funny. The humor is gross, inappropriate, and yet given the characters this book deals with, it couldn't be any other way. These are very low-brow characters. If you don't like lots of feces or mature themes in your story, especially death by bukkake, this might not be the best book for you. For me, it works perfectly in the context of this story.

The story flows, the characters develop, and it's a fun journey along the way as you discover how to be a sloth. If anything, this book actually reminds me a little of Lowe's earlier book Muscle Memory. In both books, characters find themselves in different bodies and have to come to terms with themselves, what they've done, and how they've lived their lives. This similarity isn't necessarily a bad thing. I liked “Muscle Memory,” and while it's a similar theme, the story itself is completely different.

I can't really find a fault with this book. It's hysterically funny, thoughtful, experimental, and really just an outright fun book to read. You really can't go wrong here. Steve Lowe has written what is arguably one of the best books I've read all year, and I'm not exaggerating when I say that.

You Are Sloth by Steve Lowe earns 5 three-toes out of 5.… (mer)

This is going to have to be a very brief review. Otherwise, it will give too much away for a very brief book.

Wolves Dressed as Men by Steve Lowe feels like a classic take on a werewolf story. None of that touchy feely paranormal romance crap that seems to have infected most bookstores like a cancer in the last few years. The werewolves depicted in this book are brutal, animalistic killing machines.

The book follows three viewpoints: Thiess (who recently contracted lycanthropy), Jacoby (a disgraced tabloid reporter following a series of murders), and the Tracker (who is...well, if you can't figure that out...). Through each one, we see the story but through different eyes, as well as different philosophical and religious viewpoints on the worth of a man's life and his soul. My personal favorite was Jacoby's parts, mostly because we learn about the story from an outsider perspective, as well as a few bits of other information that...again, I don't want to give too much away, but let's just say that there's a reason I would categorize this under “horror” or even “science fiction” more than “fantasy” or “paranormal.” No, it does not have to do with aliens. And Jacoby is just a really interesting and identifiable character, with the feel of having a much richer background than we are given a chance to fully learn about.

Very craftily written, and I was kind of disappointed at the book's short length. I really wanted to read more. There are heavy details that are left unanswered and open to interpretation, or they could just be left open for a potential sequel. The way the book ends was brilliant in it's own way, and again could be left to the readers' interpretations, but if it's how I took it, I would absolutely devour a sequel to see where this goes.

A short but worthwhile and highly recommended read that will definitely leave you thinking.

4 out of 5 stars.… (mer)

“I shoulda known something was up when the dog meowed at me.”

And thus begins Steve Lowe's Muscle Memory, a short but hilarious take on the oft copied but rarely improved upon body-switching sub-sub-genre. And Steve pulls no punches, going after several aspects of body-switching that aren't dealt with in “nicer” material.

Given how short the book is, it's difficult to write a lot about it without giving too much away. So to sum up, Billy wakes up in the body of his wife with his own body dead, finds that most of the town has switched bodies with their “significant others” (placed in quotes for...well, you'll find out), receives a visit from investigating Agents Tim and Joey, who only give their first names because of the new policy trying to make them appear warm and friendly, and finally has his life explained by the great sage Terry Bradshaw. If this hasn't made you want to read Muscle Memory yet, then nothing will aside from a body-swap of your own. Then you can use Muscle Memory as a how-to manual for your new life.

Steve has a great sense of humor and fun. You'll find yourself chuckling frequently, and whats more impressive is the way Steve will make you chuckle at some pretty average, everyday stuff. A short but fun read and a great little unexpected journey that comes highly recommended.

4 out of 5 stars.… (mer)

WARNING: The following review contains spoilers from the first [b:Muscle Memory|9557206|Muscle Memory|Steve Lowe|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1291384553s/9557206.jpg|14443802]. My review for that book can be read here.

Do I take the blue pill and forget any of this ever happened, or do I take the red pill and see how far down the rabbit hole goes?

There's been something of an epidemic in films lately, although some could argue that it's a problem that's always been there. I refer to it as the Matrix Syndrome. Filmmakers create a great standalone film, one that is fantastic and could even be argued as a classic. That is, if they left it alone. These filmmakers decide that, rather than having the one great film, they want to turn it into a franchise, and they produce sequels that are not only terrible films, but are so bad that they tarnish would have otherwise been the sterling legacy of the first film.

When Steve Lowe announced that he was working on a sequel to Muscle Memory, I was understandably worried. Had the Matrix Syndrome infected the literary world as well? The first Muscle Memory was a very good book, with an unusual take on the body-swap meme. At the same time, it was also story of Billy's self-discovery, and of his own obliviousness of his wife's condition (postpartum depression) which he didn't realize until it was too late. It was an excellent standalone book that couched a certain appropriate emotion impact within a bunch of craziness and general silliness.

So, having read the sequel, has the Matrix Syndrome affected Muscle Memory? Yes and no.

In the first Muscle Memory, Billy swapped bodies with his wife, who had poisoned him the night before, so he was trapped in his wife's body, and his wife was now presumable in his dead body, or had been. Nearly everyone in their town had switched bodies with someone, usually whoever they were closest too at the time, while their neighbor Edgar swapped bodies with one of his sheep. You can interpret that how you want to. It ended with a machine that had supposedly cause the whole thing (at least, according to Terry Bradshaw) being switched back on, which would theoretically switch people back. Billy expects that he'll be put back in his now dead body and therefore be dead. It ended with him seeing a blue flash of light.

Muscle Memory 2 picks up right where the first one ended. Since both books are told from Billy's perspective, he obviously didn't die. Instead it appears that rather than putting everyone back where they were supposed to be, it just swapped everyone again. This meant that while several people were supposedly put back as they remained close to the one who they switched with, other swaps wound up occurring instead. We have the return of several characters and references, particularly Terry Bradshaw, Kirk Cameron, and Agents Tim and Joey from the now kinder, gentler FBI,and we even get an appearance of a very gangsta Matt Lauer (portrayed in such a way that I'm now wondering if Steve Lowe had some kind of personal run-in with Lauer that left him with a bad taste in his mouth). I can't go into much without spoiling this book given its short length, but suffice to say craziness and silliness ensue, and with more intensity than the first book.

The problem is that Muscle Memory 2 doesn't have the emotional impact that the first book had, and a lot of the silliness seems to be there for the sake of being silly and nothing else. I'll admit that I did chuckle out loud at Matt Lauer's portrayal. The author raises more questions than were answered. While not everything was answered in the first book, it still felt like we knew what we needed to know and it remained satisfying. Muscle Memory 2 raises questions that feel like they need answers that we're not given, and it left me feeling a little empty. Things also get more serious and intense that it felt like it actually dampened part of the fun that could have been had.

Don't get me wrong. Muscle Memory 2 is not a bad book by any means. It's still a fun read. But I could take a page from the movie “The Weather Man” and describe it as fast food. It may taste good, but at the end it's not really nourishing. Overall, it's not bad and doesn't tarnish the first book's legacy, so it doesn't suffer from the Matrix Syndrome, but it is disappointing when inevitably compared to the first book. I'm not sure if Steve Lowe is planning on writing a third book. As many questions and situations that came up during this book, this feels like it needs to be a trilogy, even at the risk of full-blown Matrixitis. If he does, I hope he takes a little more time to write it, as this book felt a little rushed and that some of these problem could have been dealt with with a little more time and editing.

Muscle Memory 2 earns three out of five stars.… (mer)