Random Review: We Rolled a Nat 1 Reviewing DREK with the Guy Who Wrote It | Original Geek

The rules of Random Review are simple: we set the topic, and the d20 sets the direction. We know what we're reviewing — we just don't know how. This time we handed the dice a post-apocalyptic novel and sat the author down to defend it in real time.

Steve and Jeff are joined by indie author Alex Grass for a review of Drek, his surreal, funny, end-of-the-world novel where a coroner ends up with the boogeyman on his gurney, three twisted religions go to war over the body, and the history of how it all fell apart survives only in the wreckage. Steve opens the segment with a critical fail — which turns into a genuine debate about whether a deliberately disorienting first act is a weakness or the whole point.

From there: worldbuilding without the dreaded info-dump, why the best writing sounds like the way you actually talk and think, and a shared appreciation for stories that are absurd enough to be believable — think Twelve Monkeys or Brazil. Plus the worst kind of story anyone can corner you with at a family gathering.

If you love post-apocalyptic fiction that isn't afraid to laugh at itself, this is a good one.

Follow Alex on Instagram @infernaltramps, and pick up Drek and his other novels wherever you get your books.

Original Geek is a podcast about Gen X geek culture — sci-fi, fantasy, D&D, comics, and everything that shaped us. If you're enjoying the show, follow, rate, and leave a review. It genuinely helps.

🎙️ Original Geek — Gen X geek culture from people who lived it.
Hosted by Steve Scarfo and Jeff Shaw.

🔔 Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube
🌐 originalgeekpodcast.com
📬 originalgeekpodcast@gmail.com
📱 @OriginalGeekPodcast on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook

Transcript

Jeff Shaw (00:00)
we actually have a book that we're doing a random review for Dreck and we have the author, Alex Grass, with us to do this random review. So hopefully Steve will not roll a one

Alex Grass (00:11)
However however you roll, I'm trashing this thing.

Steve (00:19)
Alright, welcome to the original Geek Random Review. We set the topic, the dice set the direction, we know what we're reviewing, just not how.

Jeff Shaw (00:27)
And today we actually have a book that we're doing a random review for Dreck and we have the author, Alex Grass, with us to do this random review. So hopefully Steve will not roll a one where we have yeah, which can be a critical miss. And I don't thank here we go.

Steve (00:39)
Yeah.

Alex Grass (00:43)
However however you roll, I'm trashing this thing.

Steve (00:48)
So

we should have we we did talk to Alex a little bit before. we should have told you so we also cut this segment out, so we'll there'll be some more of this exp you know expository kind of stuff. so if you've never seen one of our random reviews, then we have a list of twelve items that are AI generated. We use the old fancy 20-sided dice.

And I will roll for both Alex and for Jeff today. they're gonna be reviewing the novel Drek, which was your third book. Is that correct?

Alex Grass (01:19)
g I think it was in in publishing order, yeah.

Steve (01:22)
Publishing order it was third. So it doesn't matter, go read all. But

Jeff Shaw (01:24)
Yeah. And

and Drek, because I realize a lot of when we do these random reviews, they're things that are popular. And not that Drek isn't. Drek's popular or it should be. Anyway, but things that like we don't need to tell them what Star Wars is. so Drek is this a great novel. It if you like post apocalyptic stories like I do, you're gonna love this. you know, some some titles that leap out to me that that I like.

Steve (01:32)
Yeah.

Alex Grass (01:32)
Ha ha ha.

Jeff Shaw (01:53)
Resonating with me. Twelve monkeys. good luck, have fun, don't die. Brazil from you know, long time ago. and they're like just you know that's the most absurd version of the future, and yet, and yet believable at the same time. Totally believable. All right. So that's my

Alex Grass (02:14)
Yeah. I appreciate

Steve (02:14)
Yes. All right.

Alex Grass (02:17)
my wife would love that you b you brought up Terry Gilliam. She would love that. She b that's high praise. That's one of her favorite movies, Brazil.

Jeff Shaw (02:20)
Nice.

Steve (02:21)
Ha ha ha ha

That's awesome.

All right. So here we go. we're gonna have guests go first, Jeff, okay? All right. Alex? And I realize you don't have the list in front of you. We both have the list, so I'm gonna read it for you. you know what I did?

Jeff Shaw (02:31)
Yeah.

Steve (02:39)
I rolled a one.

Jeff Shaw (02:40)
No way.

Alex Grass (02:41)
Ha ha

ha.

Steve (02:42)
We gotta do it. Alright. So it's critical fail. the book is not just my ability to roll a dice. I don't know if you were a D guy at all, Alex, but for me this is just par for the course. the my longest running character has probably got the most natural ones in history to his credit and many character deaths from our own party. So anyway, this is not a f not a

Jeff Shaw (02:44)
Okay.

Alex Grass (03:05)
Ha ha ha.

Jeff Shaw (03:10)
And also

AI came up with this, so Well Google Gemini, how dare you.

Steve (03:12)
Yeah, so this is not a real fail.

We just use that, we use the scale because it's more fun. so the it's called the narrative fog is the type the intensely confusing, dreamlike opening act. Now this is for Drag. Stuck in the dark. The book drops the reader directly into a hyper dense, surreal post-war reality without a map. Early on the world building is so intentionally baffling and vague that some viewers threw the book down before the actual plot kicked in.

Alex Grass (03:16)
Yeah.

Steve (03:43)
So

Again, no idea that that's what it said.

Jeff Shaw (03:46)
I love that Alex

got a kick out of that.

Alex Grass (03:48)
my that's so great.

Steve (03:49)
So

again, no idea what was on the the screen until I just rolled it. I I li I quite honestly don't read these in advance, so I don't know what they are. So I will have something to say after you guys talk. I I know I haven't read direct, but I think this there's some stuff in here that's more than just your actual plot that there's there's some plot trips. Anyway, so ja Alex, what do you think of that that review?

Alex Grass (04:18)
I've I I I feel AI's vindicated itself.

Steve (04:27)
Now feel completely

free to disagree, and as the voice who wrote

Alex Grass (04:30)
No, I mean

like like listen it's you know I'll get I'll give it this AI recognizes you know like patterns, okay, or at least trends. And I I hate to reduce myself to that, but there's definitely a sense of like in many of the stories, there's a sense of like the intermediary state between, you know, reality and the unreal. And so

Yeah, it's it's foggy as shit, you know? It's it's you're sort of like grasping at at straws trying to pull together what the future looks like. And, you know, this is something that like maybe I'm not super aware of because in y when you're the writer you're done writing it and you know everything that's going on. But I've definitely been on that on the other side where I'm reading a book and I'm just like, Okay, let's see, you know, what's happening here. I don't know, but

Steve (05:25)
So look if I

Jeff Shaw (05:26)
Okay,

I'm going to give it a hard disagree.

Steve (05:26)
if I can I was gonna say, let me before you do that, because I'm gonna do this as from the voice of ignorance in terms of the actual book itself. And I will also disagree and I'll say that as a tool provides the reader and if people did throw it down, that's on them, right? when you have a tool that you use like that, when you bring someone into the middle of a confusing situation.

regardless of the actual story behind it, you've obviously done that for a purpose. You've done this because you want the reader to feel what the character is feeling. Because my guess is this character also is very confused and very, you know, trying to figure out what's happening at this point in time. And so I think if people do throw a book down because it doesn't immediately this is part of our culture because, you know, we are Gen X,

People have so short an attention span these days that they don't want to give something the time it's due, right? So if if you take a minute to get into a story, there's probably a point to it. There's probably a reason for it. So I know Jeff's gonna have some more specific stuff to talk about, but I just want before he went on, 'cause I didn't want to play off anything you said, that seems to me like a really bad way to to to read a book. If you're gonna read the book, you should be digging, you know.

the way the story is being presented. It's like it's like watching a movie by us we just did a Spielberg episode. It's like watching a Spielberg movie and go, I liked everything except the way Spielberg directs. Like, well then why would you watch the movie? It's not like you should ru you should run you want to see their perspective. That's the point. So go ahead. Sorry Jeff.

Alex Grass (07:05)
Yeah. It's like

cur like curb your enthusiasm. Loved it too much Larry David.

Steve (07:10)
Exactly.

Exactly.

Jeff Shaw (07:13)
So my what I was my hard disagree is I did not think it was confusing at all. maybe because I like this genre of post apocalyptic fiction, but also because I was it I I actually sent Steve a text with him like, I I finished Black River Lantern, we're good to go for Monday, and then like I'm gonna start Drek. And I I I read it in a day. It it's amazing.

And and I don't I disagree with the narrative fog because right away you're this this hook is is phenomenal. You have this coroner who has the boogeyman brought in on a gurney. I mean, you got how did the boogeyman get on your gurney? What like I'm sorry, but that setup has me hooked. Do I know how the boogeyman got there? No. Do I know anything about the long war that led to the apocalypse?

Alex Grass (07:56)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (08:10)
I don't know. I don't know anything. And that's okay. That's part of the point of reading a book is to be confused at the beginning and not as much at the end.

Steve (08:11)
And why is the boogeyman a real person?

Alex Grass (08:14)
Yeah.

Steve (08:16)
Yes.

Alex Grass (08:20)
Yeah,

for sure.

Steve (08:21)
Now

you don't you don't know my family, Alex, but we just had this conversation last week. It's like watching a movie with my mother. Literally it'll fade in and there's a person stabbing another person and she asks like nine questions. She's one of those Yeah, why is he doing that? Who is that? Why is that like you you don't need to know. Watch the movie. That's the point. Read the book. That's the point.

Alex Grass (08:28)
huh.

Who is that? Well the I

You you're just

d you're describing every mother. You're describing everybody. Just who is that? Why are they doing it? Why are they wearing that? You know? It's like d t doesn't someone tell them what they're doing is wrong? Cauld ki you're gonna miss the whole things, you know? But it's save save Q<unk>A for the clothes.

Steve (08:46)
Yes, this is this is probably true.

Yeah.

Yes. awesome. So, you guys ready for number two? Ready, Jeff? All right. I'm not gonna roll another one. I'm not gonna let it be another one. That's a thirteen. This is a knowledge history check for the long war scars. The piecemeal history of how society fell apart. A grounded dystopia. Grass brilliantly handles the backstory.

Jeff Shaw (09:09)
Hard roll for me.

Steve (09:29)
Instead of a massive info dump, the scars of the catastrophic war are revealed naturally through the ruined landscape, changing borders, and the lingering psychological trauma of the survivors.

Jeff Shaw (09:38)
I I agree. I think the long that there is no info dump and I it kind of speaks to that that critical miss where, I don't know what's going on right away. Yeah, 'cause you don't get to find it all out right away. And and you wanna keep reading that that's what I said. Like I I was up all night reading this thing 'cause like, what? How is this? Just one more page, just one more chapter because

Alex Grass (09:50)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (10:05)
like I I do love this genre post-apocalyptic, and I love when someone can really dig into you know society. there's this there there's this scene because it's the boogeyman and and different people want the body and immediately there's like a war over what to do with this body. And then these three religio three religions have you know you know show up. but they're

They're not what they should be. Like there's Mormons, but they're not really Mormons. Like they got it wrong. They're like, you know, Jesus had these gold plates, he could see the future, but not that great, no one else could see it. And then or Joseph Smith could see it. and and and just like these variations, how things got so twisted and then had they just get it wrong. It's yeah, and what we th you think about like when we dig stuff up from with Egyptian Egyptian hieroglyph.

Alex Grass (10:36)
Yeah.

Steve (10:37)
Ha ha.

Alex Grass (10:46)
Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (11:01)
Higher growths, we're just making a guess. Who knows? We could be entirely wrong. And so, you know, take someone, and so that's what I like that, you know, for what Alex did in creating this version of a future, it's full of the absurd. So, you know, don't look for like this isn't this isn't like so supposed to be firmly grounded. This is making fun of us, and we gotta be able to laugh at ourselves.

Alex Grass (11:04)
Yeah.

Steve (11:07)
Yes.

Alex Grass (11:07)
Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (11:29)
And I so I I I thought it was very well done.

Steve (11:33)
So I'm

Alex Grass (11:33)
Y y you you gotta stop. You gotta stop. I'm

Jeff Shaw (11:36)
Okay.

Alex Grass (11:37)
I'm t I'm I'm like turning into beet red. I c I can't. You gotta stop.

Steve (11:40)
So I'm gonna make it worse.

Jeff Shaw (11:40)
Sorry.

Steve (11:42)
So I I I again I haven't had a chance to read Dreck yet, but I will say that I think you handle Black Black River Lantern the same way. Because it starts off in the in in this action and you're like, okay, what's happening? What's going on? And I never felt, and I still haven't at any point in my read through that that it wasn't info dump. I feel like I've been learning and getting to know the characters chapter to chapter.

you know, scene by scene, I feel like you've you've taken your time and and introduced everyone to us and it hasn't been I I sometimes get annoyed when you read or watch anything and it's like the first fifteen minutes is like, you know, and I'm gonna say this, but of course it's Star Wars starts off with an info down. But it's like I don't want that. I don't don't tell me half the story. If you have to tell me half the story, then you should have written another book. Or you should have done another movie, right? And I guess Star Wars eventually did. But

Alex Grass (12:25)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Steve (12:37)
so I really appreciate that as well. Again from a different perspective from your other novel, but I totally agree. I I don't I wouldn't want to have done a dump of info. I like the way you you s lay stuff up.

Jeff Shaw (12:50)
Yeah, and I think it's h it's I mean, obviously you know better than us, but because you you've published or self published or did you Yeah. So it's

Alex Grass (12:59)
Yeah. I I'm a

indie whole hog, man.

Jeff Shaw (13:03)
All right. So but still, and we can, you know, that's something I didn't want to touch in in our evolution segment, but I think, you know, what what a lot of writers struggle with is not doing the info dump. 'Cause you've got all these ideas, right? And just how do you, you know, lay the breadcrumbs out instead of giving us the whole loaf of bread at the beginning. So

Alex Grass (13:27)
Yeah.

It's interesting. I I have this conversation or some version of this conversation with my wife all the time because, you know, she's she's always like, I wanna I wanna sh she's definitely a serviceable writer, but she's you know, she's a doctor, so she's doing medical writing, you know?

And she's like, I I really wish I could write. And and I said, like the biggest problem and I realize I see it, you know, in her writing too is people don't write the way that they talk or think. And that's how you wanna be writing. Listen, an adorned version of how you wanna be writing, you know, I definitely don't actually speak the way that I write in Drek. That would be pretty amazing. but also sort of like wearying after a while. You'd be like, god

Steve (14:09)
Mm-hmm.

Jeff Shaw (14:09)
Ha ha

ha.

Alex Grass (14:16)
You know. Here's here's Mr. Luxicography again, you know. but I think that you know a good story is not an info dump either, you know? In fact I think we all recognize what a bad story is. It's when you're captive at a dinner or at the bar

Steve (14:16)
Yeah.

Alex Grass (14:37)
Or you know, a a at at a a family get together and someone's and someone starts going, Yeah, it was in Chicago. No, it was in Peoria. Well it had to be it had to be in Chicago because because that that was the year that that Betty graduated from Northwestern. But but you know what sh Yeah, exactly. And it and it's just like all like we're just like we've got like the whole back history it's like, okay, but who got the abortion? Jesus, you know?

Steve (14:48)
Yes.

Honey, what year did Betty graduate? Then No

Right. Twenty minutes

later and they still have no idea what you're talking about. all right. So yeah, I think we're gonna keep we're gonna keep going back and forth on this stuff, but in terms of random review, so again, if you've never watched one of our random reviews, please like, subscribe, join us. follow Alex on all social media. Alex, what's your social media? Are you on Instagram or everywhere?

Alex Grass (15:10)
Yeah.

Jeff Shaw (15:11)
All right.

Alex Grass (15:30)
I'm on Instagram at infernal tramps. I I I mostly use it to to to email people because someone ruined the message function on Goodreads. And I did a little research into it and I'm like, what could this possibly be? It's a dick pic, of course. Someone just just like lit literally on Goodreads. Just just

Jeff Shaw (15:34)
Nice.

Ha ha ha ha ha

Steve (15:47)
God.

On good reads.

Do you know what's insulting

is it wasn't a just a really detailed description of a dick pic. If you're gonna send a dick pic on a site like sh like Goodreads, at least write it out for frick's sake.

Jeff Shaw (15:59)
Yeah, how dare they?

Alex Grass (16:04)
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

This is highly offensive, but it's definitely the best three thousand words I've read about a tumescent organ ever.

Jeff Shaw (16:12)
Ha ha

Steve (16:15)
So check Alex out on Infernal Tramps, and on Goodreads, just don't send any dick pics. and check out all the all the the books and we're gonna jump into our next segment 'cause we're gonna we're gonna go back in time.