The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty is the fifth book in a fantasy series, "Tales from the Five Hundred Kingdoms" by Mercedes Lackey. I received an advanced reader's copy for review so, against my better judgment, I read this one without having read the previous four books in the series. The cover blurbs made it sound like you can read these in any order and I have to say that is, indeed, the case. The book stands alone just fine. This is also my very first Mercedes Lackey novel. I read a lot of fantasy books but somehow her books always seemed to be slanted towards a female audience and so I just always seemed to find other books to read. The cover of this one makes it look like a romance novel. 

As you can probably guess, this is another of those "mixed-up fairy tale" stories. The titular character, Rosalind (Rosa) is protected by a Godmother (Lilly) from the Tradition, i.e. that force that tends to lead all fairy tales in a certain direction. Since Rosa doesn't want to follow Tradition and just marry any ol' prince that comes along to kiss her awake, she and her Godmother scheme to thwart Tradition and end up happily ever after anyway.

Most of the book revolves around a huge contest to determine the best prince to marry Rosa and become King but that is sandwiched between various adventures. We get to see charcters from other fairy tales, some that take part in the story (The Seven Dwarves) and others that are merely referenced (Puss n' Boots, the Frog Prince, etc). This is a nice clean book, a bit too whimsical in some sections for my taste but surprisingly clever in others. The author remarks in the preface that she had fun writing it and that seems evident as you read it. I was a little disappointed in the characterization; there just wasn't enough build-up to get to know the characters before they were thrust into danger near the beginning. Rosa seemed a little flat but I did like Siegfried, one of the princes competing for her hand. The plot was pretty straightforward but there were a couple of surprises near the end that I didn't see coming and satisfactory as well.

If you like these sort of "mixed-up fairly tales" then this one is worth a try, although I would probably wait for the paperback or download to a Kindle.

The Alchemist

Most of the time I already know what the next 4 or 5 books I'll be reading are. I just sort of plan things that way. But this time I decided to just see what popped off my shelves. Interestingly, it was The Alchemist, by Donna Boyd. I had purchased this book several years ago when I needed just one more book to hit the Amazon free shipping threshold. It looked good on the web page and it looked good on my shelf but my fantasy fiction tends towards series and thus a stand-alone book such as this one often gets forgotten. So this was my opportunity.

And it was a fabulous read! The premise is that a charismatic man enters a therapist's office in New York City after having committed one of the most hi-vis murders in history. But he claims he is not of our modern era, instead he is an immortal, born into ancient Egypt and going by the name "Han". He proceeds to tell her the story of his long life, and indeed, this is the vast majority of the novel. Han was a student of the House of Ra, where the secrets of magic and science, alchemy and engineering are learned. Along with his two best friends and co-students, Akan (a boy) and Nefar (a girl), they discover that the power than can jointly wield has unsurpassed potential. They discover the secrets of immortality and though they know they have the power to be gods, they desire to use their power to bring about a better world. But of course when you have three such great friends, that tends to be one too many, particularly when one is of the opposite sex. Their ideal world never comes to be because of their inability to resist their own power, jealousies, rivalries, and thick-headed stubbornness.

The plot was filled with intrigue and open-ended possibilities. I had no clue as to how it would turn out; I just knew I wanted to know what happened next. That for me is the mark of a great read. Ms Boyd used a style in her story telling which is very picturesque, almost poetic even, that was very refreshing. That sort of thing has turned me off before but this time it was absolutely the right way to go. It made Han’s story even more believable because it was like this man really had lived through several centuries, really had been near the seat of power in different cultures, etc. Han has a “voice” here like few other novels I’ve read. Interestingly, Ms Boyd writes under several different pseudonyms, presumably for different genres or sub genres, including romance and I can see that influence here in this work. If there is one thing I wished for in this book it would be for more of the historical eras to be fleshed out. Instead of skipping 2,000 years, I would have loved to read about Han’s adventures during that time…but then I suppose the real story would have gotten lost in the sheer size of such a novel (or series). Anyway, this book was a very pleasant surprise; perhaps I should consider more random acts of reading in the future.

“The Man Who Came Early,” was the next entry in The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century. Written by Poul Anderson, another of the great science fiction writers of the “Golden Age” I was a little worried about this one. I had struggled through a novel of his many years ago when I was too young to grasp it’s concepts and thus I found it simply boring. I’m glad I’ve had an opportunity to revise my opinion of him now because this story is probably the best of the batch so far. This time the story begins in the past, in Iceland, and a time traveler from present day, who happens to be a US Army soldier/engineer assigned to Reykjavik base in Iceland appears, having been struck by lightning in his time. No other explanation of time travel is attempted which lets the story happen. Despite the soldier’s assumption that his knowledge and experience would lead him to greatly contribute to the local society of the past, he soon discovers that he is almost helpless. The story is at once comical, intriguing, educational (Mr Anderson certainly did his homework on that era in Iceland), and sad. This one’s a keeper.

Next up: The Sculpter by newcomer, Gregory Funaro.

The Cat Who Saw Stars

The Cat Who Saw Stars, by Lilian Jackson Braun is the 18th of the series I have read to date.  It's numbered 21 in the series but, generally, this isn't the sort of series where you have to read them in order and I'm not letting the fact that I'm missing a few titles keep me from getting on with it.  The first few, yes, where the general timeline of what is going on is important to understand but by this point they are pretty much stand-alone stories with just a few references to what might have happened in the past.  And to tell the truth, every time I run across such a reference, I can't remember if that was one I read about or not.

Regardless, these books are hardly the height of literary mystery and regular readers of this blog will know I read them more for the setting and the characters than for the riddle of the mystery itself.  The town of Pickax in the county of Mooseville has such a rich texture of interesting characters that it's always fun to go back and visit.  This novel find the protagonist Jim Qwilleran, move to his beach house in Mooseville, on the shores of a huge lake (although it is never stated exactly where these novels take place, it is generally thought to be in Northern Michigan and now we find ourselves on the shores of Lake Superior).  Mr "Q" plans for a 4 week vacation there but a series of circumstances leads him to cut it short after only two.  As usual, Mr Q visits friends, gathers stories for his twice-weekly column in the Pickax newspaper, performs community functions, and pays attention to his cat's odd behavior which is always a predictor of criminal activities somewhere.  This time the cat (Koko) finds a missing backpacker's body buried in the sand along the beach and he manages to push postcards off a shelf which contain important clues pertaining to a boat "accident" that the locals have chalked up to alien abduction.  Sounds quirky eh?

It is and it isn't.  I was disappointed in this one as are many other fans of the series.  Ms Braun's age is not listed anywhere but she has to be getting on in years and many have speculated that this one was written by a ghost writer.  Indeed, much of the phrasing seems off and the plot felt flat to me.  The mystery elements seemed almost unrelated to the real story and Koko's clues were just plain uninteresting.  I really didn't care who dunnit and I wasn't even sure there had been a crime committed until the end.  And even then, Mr Q and his cats didn't solve it but rather were told what happened by a bit character within which the criminal had confided.  Odd.  But I'll keep at these novels because, at this moment I still have 6 more on my shelf still to be read (hopefully not written by ghost writers).

"Death Ship," by Richard Matheson was the next short story in The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century.  I know Mr Matheson more as a horror/science fiction author ("I am Legend") than pure sci-fi and, indeed, this story demonstrates that very nicely.  Here we have a space capsule sometime in our future carrying three astronauts who are researching planets suitable for human habitation when they come across a crashed capsule just like theirs and containing the dead bodies of...themselves.  How they deal with this and speculate on possibly having traveled through time to see their own futures and, most particularly, how they try and prevent what might be their fates, is nice subtle horror writing.

Next up: The Grays by Whitley Strieber.

Beyond the Shadows

Last night I was able to finish up Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks, the concluding volume in the "Night Angel" trilogy of fantasy novels.  Mr Weeks continues to be a major new talent in the fantasy genre in my opinion, but I felt this one to be a step below the second and two steps below the first...if that makes sense.

The first book of the trilogy, The Way of Shadows, was extremely good; a well-constructed novel that left me breathless with anticipation for the next two books.  I think what I like about it was the way the protagonist began as just a young boy in the worst of circumstances and through a series of circumstances, luck, and plain hard work, rose to become a master of his profession (assassination).  Along the way he grew as a character, coming to question the very morality of what he was doing, even though his targets ("deaders") deserved it.  The second book continued and he grew in strength and power until now we reach the third book...and it seemed like the author needed to re-invent where he was going with the trilogy.  The crux of the problem, I think, is that his protagonist has grown too powerful and has few vulnerabilities left.  How can you raise suspense with the reader when the hero can fight better than anybody, has powers like invisibility, fast healing, and, oh yes, he's immortal.  Every time he dies he is resurrected.

So here we are in the third book with an un-killable protagonist.  He does discover that there are dire consequences to his resurrections...every time he comes back, somebody else, an innocent, dies.  And usually its somebody he knows.  OK, that's a problem so now he has to be careful.  Most of the novel takes place at a larger scale than the first two books; i.e. we now learn far more about the world, itself, the major powers, and the ever-present power struggle itself.  The battles are no longer one-on-one (or one against 100) but rather on a more epic scale of armies battling one another.  Some of the minor characters from book 2 are fleshed out more now but I didn't really care about them as they seemed extraneous somehow. I wanted to see what was happening with the major characters.  And several times the pacing of the action was interrupted with lengthy descriptive passages that just served to ruin the flow.  I'm being hard on Mr Weeks here because the first book really showed what awesome talent he has.  In fact, I suspect the pacing issues may have arisen from editor/publisher requirements on length.  This volume is long as it is at almost 700 pages but I suspect if given free rein, the author would have given us a more complete experience.  Still, having said all that, I still look forward to more of this author's work.

The next short story in The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century was "I'm Scared," by Jack Finney, best known probably for writing the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" story.  As with much speculative fiction of the 1950's, the emphasis is not so much on technological explanations or scientific theories but rather on mood and setting.  The story is told in the first person POV, as the protagonist tells how he has come across a theory that as time goes on, there are more and more instances of time anomolies occurring.  He gives several examples such as a lady who is visited by a stray dog for several days and then two years later becomes the owner of that same dog as a pup.  Another example involves a man from the turn of the century (~1900) that appears in the middle of a busy street in the present day and, bewildered, gets run over by a cab.  His conclusion is interesting: as time goes on we are more and more interested in escaping our current lives (yearning for the good ol days, back when life was worth living, etc) that the result is more and more disruption in the flow of time.  Where this leads is speculation at best but I wonder what Mr Finney would think about that same concept now in 2010, when even more of us wish for a simpler time...

Next up, On The Grid, by Scott Huler.

The Bride Collector

Ted Dekker's The Bride Collector is one of the better crime thriller novels I've read.  To tell the truth I haven't read a whole lot of fictional books about serial killers and the chase to bring them to justice, preferring stories more like spy-thrillers or historical thrillers.  But when the chance came to review an Advanced Readering Copy (ARC) of a Ted Dekker novel, I decided to give it a try.

Never having even opened a book written by Ted Dekker, I wasn't sure what to expect.  I knew he had roots as a "Christian thriller" writer but I understand he has for several years now branched out into both fantasy and mainstream thrillers, the later usually featuring serial killer plots.  This book is a taut, well written novel that really leads the reader along the plotline but also reaches into the very nature of good and evil.  The main protagonist is FBI special agent Brad Raines who is faced with a serial killer situation.  Somebody is kidnapping beautiful young women, draining their bodies of the blood, and hanging them on walls of abandoned barns and other places, with nothing but a bridal veil to wear.  The reader is introduced early on to the killer, himself, allowing us inside his mind and motivations.  Seems he is fulfilling God's plan for him by offering seven brides, culminating in the perfect bride for God.

Agent Raines, based on the psychotic nature of the killer, searches for clues in several Mental Health Facilities in the area and is drawn to one particular group of patients which includes a young woman by the name of "Paradise".  Through her and her friends' eyes, we actually learn quite a bit about the nature of mental health care as we work our way through the novel.  With Paradise's assistance, and some good old fashioned police work, Agent Raines is able to close in on the killer's identity.  I won't go into further detail for fear of spoilers but I can honestly say it was a thrill ride. The pace of the novel is just right, building up the level of suspense as we near the climax and not letting go until the very end.  Mr Dekker is not afraid to take the predictableness out of the plot and make this one an original idea.  He also isn't afraid to to throw in emotional matters of life and faith and relationships, ultimately tying it all together in a very neat package.  This will not be the last book I read by Mr Dekker!

The novel will be on store shelves in April.

I've also begun the next short story collection, "The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century", edited by Harry Turtledove and martin H. Greenberg.  The first story, "Yesterday was Monday" was written by the late great science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon and is a delightful story about a regular guy named Harry who somehow goes to sleep on Monday night and wakes up in Wednesday.  I say "in" Wednesday because he has somehow gotten off the track of normal time where all of us actors live our lives and stepped into the behind-the-scenes set-building that is going on for Wednesday.  The characters there are trying to put the finishing touches on the scenery before the actors (that are still in Tuesday) arrive.  Harry, trying to get back into the normal time flow makes a quick side-trip to "yesterday" which is Monday. and sees all of the workers there that are breaking down the old, used set.  It's a pretty nice little story; I hope the others in this collection will be as interesting.

Next up, another Advanced Reading Copy, a historical novel by Kate Quinn called, Mistress of Rome.

The Successor

I've completed my latest audio book, The Successor by Stephen Frey.  Last year I listened to the first in this series starring Christian Gillette, a business mogul who becomes the leader of Everest Financial Capital, one of the largest private equity firms in existence.  That first book was filled with the tension surrounding his rise to power, but also many thriller aspects such as attempts on his life by rival power seekers.  It was a true "business thriller". 

This book is the fourth book in the series and possibly the last.  Mr Gillette has now been a powerful man of finance for many years now and in his mid 50's.  He has successfully raised absurd amounts of money for his clients and shared the vast wealth with his partners.  He has now been tapped by the US President to go to Cuba and, due to rumors of Fidel Castro's death, secure the future of American interests as Cuba joins the global marketplace.  I found the plot to be disjointed, however, and I believe Mr Frey missed the mark this time.

The business aspects of this one were mostly non-existent, with the protagonist having turned over most of the responsibilities of running the firm to Ms Allison Wallace.  Its very obvious from early on that Allison would become the "successor" as well as his love interest but it seemed Mr Gillette was the last one to figure it out.  The thriller aspects of the novel were left to the very end, added, it almost seems, as an afterthought.  The major meat of the novel instead focuses on Mr Gillete's mid-life crisis and his falling for a young 22-year old, who we readers figure out at the beginning is an actress, introduced in the very first scene.  When the author discloses that "ah-ha" moment of who this 22-year old really is, I couldn't believe he expected me to not have figured that out long before. 

I think the author had a trap to climb out of: he had a protagonist who, in the first three books had risen to such powerful heights that he had no more room for growth.  I think he tried to refocus his goals and take him in a different direction but instead he ended up thrusting him into an improbable scenario and then didn't follow through with a believable plot. I am hopeful Mr Frey will put this series to rest and begin anew.

I won't be doing any more audio books for a while.  I have reached the end of my Air Force career and will be retiring after 20 years of service.  In fact, at this point I have only 8 more days of actual work and thus, not enough time to get an entire audio book completed during my commutes.  While I have an ideal future planned that involves staying at home and working on my hobbies (reading, writing, watching movies, and playing computer games) my budget requires me to secure an actual income-producing job.  If I manage to land one in this economy and still have a reasonable length of drive to and from work I will re-enter the audio book realm.  Until that happens, I will miss them.

Wish me luck.

Black Rain

Another day in Colorado Springs means another 2-hour delay due to snow...at least that seems to be happening a lot lately. I'm not one to complain about a shorter work day, however and so this morning I took advantage of the extra time to complete the reading of my latest advanced reader's edition novel. Black Rain is the first published book by Graham Brown and is written as an adventure/thriller novel with elements of science fiction and horror.

Right off the bat I'll say this is one very good book. It reads like an Indiana Jones adventure but in the present day and with some good solid speculative science weaved into the plot. If you are familiar with novels by James Rollins or Mathew Reilly then you'll have a good idea of the style...sort of like reading a movie. In a nutshell, the novel is about a covert government agency that is launched on a quest to find an ancient Mayan temple in the heart of the Amazon. But what they find there is a huge mystery and more action/adventure than I've read in a long time.

The scenes and characters are presented clearly, so clearly that you can "see" the movie unfolding in your mind. And the plot is heavy on the action, especially the second half. The first half builds up the mystery of just what is going on here, establishes the main characters and allows us to see what is motivating the competing groups looking for the temple. Intrigue abounds and it really keeps you turning the pages. And the second half just explodes with action. Very well done.

I was so engrossed in this novel that I've added the name Graham Brown to my "Best Little-Known Authors" list. I daresay he won't be unknown for long as my copy of the book says he is working on a sequel to Black Rain. If his work is marketed well, he could be the next "big thing" in this genre. The only problem might be the title...a search of that name brings up a lot about the Michael Douglas movie of the same name as well as the album by Ozzie Osborne. Oh well.

I also completed the next short story in Louis L'Amour's The Strong Shall Live. I thought "Duffy's Man" was fun to read but also was an example of boilerplate western fiction. I thought at first this might be a very different sort of western story because Duffy is an old, fat man...wouldn't that be a great protagonist to break the cliched mold? But no, the story is about the nameless guy who works for him and is the templated wide shouldered, narrow hipped, steely-eyed hero who stands up to the bully and whips him in the end. Not much more to it than that. Hehe, still fun to read though :)

Next up: another advanced reader's edition from Amazon that I need to get to: Veracity by Laura Bynum.

The Law at Randado

Even though I didn't get to read at lunchtime for the past two days due to work commitments, I still finished up The Law at Randado, by Elmore Leonard pretty quickly. This is one of his first novels published, way back in 1954 and although he is known today as one of the all time great mystery writers, Elmore Leonard actually began his writing career with a handfull of westerns.

I enjoy taking a break from my more usual Louis L'Amour westerns because, let's face it, they do tend to be somewhat formula driven. In this book, Mr Leonard includes some of those classic western features: a green lawman, an evil cattle barron and his henchmen, and ultimately the showdown between the two. But other than that this book, like the other 3 Elmore Leonard westerns I've read, doesn't follow traditional formulas all that much. The premise is that the town of Randado has decided it doesn't need to wait for the formal legal system of the larger town many miles away so they take action on their own. They appoint their own judge and jury and proceed to drag two Mexicans from their jail cell and hang them. When the deputy sheriff returns, he must confront those that behaved illegally. Most of the novel is the resulting chase, trying to bring the bad guys to justice. I know that sounds pretty much like a formula western novel but it is Mr Leonard's style that makes the difference. His characters are not all black or white but rather colorful, filled with doubts of what course of action to take. In short, they are more "real" than one often finds in the western genre. The plot isn't exactly straight-forward and therefore is not so predictable. I'll continue to recommend Elmore Leonard's western novels to those who like westerns or those that just like a good story that won't take hours and hours to complete.

I was also able to finish up another Stephen King short story from his Skeleton Crew collection. "The Raft" was a straight-up, no holds barred horror story. It's about a group of four college kids that decide to swim out to a raft that floats in the middle of a lake. An un-named horror that has the form of an oil slick takes them out one by one in a very gruesome manner. There is no subtlety here nor "deeper meaning", just flat-out straight-forward horror. I loved it.

Next up is the second in my Amazon "Vine" review program: Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey.

Impossible Odds

I know what you're thinking...the title of today's blog entry probably refers to either my golf game or my ability to make good stock picks. That may well apply but actually, as always, I am referring to the title of the latest novel I've finished reading. Impossible Odds by Dave Duncan is the 5th book in his "King's Blades" series. I've enjoyed all of these books pretty well but some a little more than others. This one was slightly less enjoyable than the last one, Paragon Lost, which I regard as the best of the batch so far and with only one more to read.

This novel was a little different than previous books in the series and I appreciate when authors do this. I'm sure authors don't want a series to grow stale any more than readers do. This time, instead of following a single "blade" through an adventure, we get to follow three main characters, including two blades that are thrust into circumstances they really aren't prepared for and a third, older student who really isn't a bound blade at all. Their assignment seems straight forward enough but soon becomes very convoluted, in turn driving the plot into many twists and turns. We have multiple points of view which made it a little difficult for me to follow, as well as two rather lengthy flash back scenes that provided further information for the protagonists as well as the reader. They were like short stories within the novel but did, however, slow down the pace of the plotting quite a bit. And the end was a bit too contrived for my taste as if the author worked too hard to make a happy ending for all. Overall I still quite enjoyed the novel and would recommend it to all fantasy readers. However, make sure you read these books in the order they were published because while each one does stand alone, I think readers will get more out of them if read in order.

The next short story in Stephen King's collection, Skeleton Crew, was "The Wedding Gig." This one was first published in "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine" in 1980 and really serves to once again highlight King's versatility as a writer. It's a mobster story set during prohibition and told from the point of view of a band leader who plays at a small time mobster's 300 pound sister's wedding. This is a straight-up story with no traditional horror elements. Even the mobster violence is almost entirely off stage. It was another entertaining entry in the collection. But following that was a short poem, "Paranoid: A Chant." Regular readers of this blog will know I have never claimed to be knowledgable about poetry. I don't understand its appeal nor do I enjoy reading it but somehow perhaps Stephen King's poetry would be different. Well, I can honestly say I still don't enjoy it and this one was, to me, just wierd. It is from a diary of a paranoid schizophrenic and supposedly ties in with his Dark Tower series and The Stand's Randall Flagg character. Personally, I would recommend he stick to prose but then again, nobody should take my opinion on poetry seriously.

Next up is a western by Elmore Leonard: The Law at Randado

Night Over Water

I've completed another audio book: Night Over Water by Ken Follett. Regular readers of this blog will know that I listen to an audio book back and forth to work every day, about a 30 minute commute for me one way. I selected this one from the library because I have read 4 or 5 Ken Follett novels so far and while some have been better than others, I have never felt that I've wasted my time.

This novel takes place in 1939 just after England has entered World War II. It's told from multiple points of view, all from people who will take a flight aboard a Pan-Am Clipper (a truly luxurious (and historically accurate) airplane in the second 2/3rds of the book. This is sort of like a "Murder on the Orient Express" set-up although more thriller than who-dunnit mystery. Passengers include business people, aritocratic families, a debutante, a film star, a petty thief, etc. They all have reasons for being on this luxury plane ride across the Atlantic, some of them because they want to be there and some because they have to be. The thriller/action part of the plot surrounds the lead engineer of the plane who is forced to sabotage it in order to save his wife who has been kidnapped by mafia types in America. They want to spring one of their compadres from on board who is being transported back to jail in the US. In the end it turns out to be much more complicated than that even and most of the characters that were unknown to each other at the beginning are involved together in the action at the end.

This is a well-plotted novel; the suspense builds as we make our way through the story and we get to see events from several perspectives. Mr Follett does a great job building his characters and even though there are quite a lot of them, it is easy to follow the action because we know them so well. And he does a fantastic job of establishing the atmosphere. The descriptions of the scenes and especially the dialog of the characters really brought me in to the era. Sometimes it was like I was watching a Humphrey Bogart movie. The only problem I had was not with the novel itself but rather the production of the audio discs I was listening too. The narrator did a good job of voicing so many parts but it seemed like the whole thing had been spliced together one sentence at a time. It made it sort of disjointed and it definitely interfered with the "Losing oneself in the story" aspect. Regardless of that, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and rank it among the best of Ken Follett's work I have experienced so far.

Next audio book for me: Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead. Coming in at a cool 24 discs this one's going to take me to Thanksgiving to finish...

The Colorado Kid

I started The Colorado Kid by Stephen King yesterday and finished it at lunch today. I guess it goes without saying that it is a quick read. My copy is a 180 page paperback with a pretty large font so it was almost like reading a novella. Unlike most of his published work, this novel is a mystery...at least that's what the "Hard Case Crime" cover leads you to believe. I picked up my copy at the library's store a few months ago for two main reasons: 1) It's a Stephen King novel that I had yet to read and 2) I live in Colorado so how could I not pick it up for only a $1.00...

The story itself is a pretty straight forward one. It involves a young female reporter intern at a small weekly newspaper in Maine and two old geezers who run the newspaper. They tell her the story of the "Colorado Kid", a dead body that had been found several years previously, sitting propped up against a trash barrel on the beach. They test her reasoning ability as they drop clues about his death and she does very well at figuring out the correct answers. This is really more of a "coming of age" story for the young reporter than a traditional mystery tale. Stephen King's style is very much in evidence as he once again displays an uncanny ability to capture the local dialect as the two old guys tell the story. As Mr King himself says in the afterword, it is likely that many readers will not appreciate this story because there is no resolution to the mystery. Let me say that again: the mystery is not solved at the end of the book. It's not even a "Lady or the Tiger" kind of ending where there is a choice that just hasn't been made yet. Instead, we get the mystery and we get some clues that maybe this isn't just an accidental death but rather a murder. The story is about the mystery itself, not the solving thereof. Mr King's point seems to be that we are surrounded by unsolved mysteries all the time and "just thinking on 'em" is the fun part.

It is also interesting to note that this is the first book Mr King wrote after he completed his huge "Dark Tower" series. Perhaps that leant a hand in his thinking at the time.

If you need to have your mystery novels neatly wrapped up in the final pages then this one is not for you. I won't list this one at the top of my Stephen King "Best of" list but I did enjoy the characterization. And yes, I would also prefer closure to the mystery; otherwise it is just so much existentialist profundity.

"The Jaunt" is the 6th short story in Stephen King's Skeleton Crew collection. First published in the "Twilight Zone Magazine" in 1981 it concerns the process of teleportation as a means of interplanetary travel. Most of the story is about a father describing the history and evolvement of the jaunting process to his kids just before they themselves jaunt to Mars. It is a horrifying and bloody history but the process is safe now as long as the proper procedures are followed. This one is more of a science fiction tale and, indeed, references a classic story written by Alfred Bester, "The Stars My Destination" back in 1956. This is sort of ironic for me as a reader considering that just this year I read the "Psi Corps" trilogy by J. Gregory Keyes (Babylon 5 Universe) starring a character with the name "Alfred Bester". This all makes me want to seek out a story by the actual Alfred Bester. Anyway, I won't spoil the ending but rest assured that the final page of this story is classic King horror. Chalk up another winner in this collection.

Next up: Impossible Odds, another in the excellent "King's Blades" fantasy series by Dave Duncan.

Top Producer

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by Amazon.com to become a "Vine Voice". That means I get to select a book or two from their special catalogue to review, most often before it is actually published. I was excited to give it a try and so I selected Top Producer by Norb Vonnegut as my first option. I just finished it during my lunch period and am very anxious to let you know just how good this one is.

Top Producer is a "financial thriller" novel that absolutely keeps you turning the pages. We are introduced to Grove O'Rourke, a top producing stockbroker in a major Wall Street firm. Mr Vonnegut's writing style is very apparent right from the beginning, demonstrating elegant word choice and interesting dialogue that belies the fact that this is his very first novel. The action kicks off very quickly as a close friend of Grove's is murdered. The actual murder takes place in a public venue and we readers, along with a large crowd experience one of the most interesting murders to ever take place in fiction. I won't spoil that for you but rest assured it is an awesome scene.

The novel is largely a mystery novel as Grove tries to solve the murder and sort out all of the motivations of the various players. But his own life is in danger as well and thus the suspense keeps ratcheting up as he gets closer to solving the mystery. This book is well plotted, allowing us just enough clues to figure things out at the same time as the protagonist. When you get that "ah-ha!" moment, you realize the clues were there all along. And the ending is very satisfying. Some readers may struggle with the financial terminology that is sprinkled throughout but I think the author does a great job of explaining what we need to know without being condescending. The big name in financial thrillers is Stephen Frey and I feel this book stands up very well if compared side by side. Mr Vonnegut has great credentials to write this kind of story and I believe his background is essential to understanding the day-to-day pace and motivations of people in the high finance business. He writes with flare, captivates his audience, and ties together the plot most effectively. I was impressed and firmly believe he has a great future in writing fiction.

So watch the bookstore shelves in September 2009 for this one.

I haven't read the Stephen King short story from Skeleton Crew yet so will comment on that after the next book. Speaking of that, I think I'll return to the young adult series, "The Warriors" with book number 5.

Odd Thomas

I was able to drag myself away from the new Sims 3 computer game this weekend long enough to finish up Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz. I used to read quite a bit of Koontz' work, especially after reading what many consider to be his best novel, The Watcher. But then I read several in a row that seemed to fall flat and I sort of lost interest. Compounding that issue is my own "completest" mentality. I tend to want to read everything by "my" authors and if I was going to read much more of Koontz he would become one of "my" authors. So...I let quite a few years go by without picking up another Koontz novel.

I can't even remember right now how I came to possess my copy of Odd Thomas. Nevertheless, it was time for another read in the horror genre and there it was, at the top of my horror "to-be-read" pile. And, quite honestly, I knew Mr Koontz has since written several sequels...I doubt he would do that if they had not been well received. And, the concept intrigued me. Odd Thomas himself, is a 20-year old fry cook in a fictional California town. He has a pretty normal life including a girlfriend, lots of pals, and, oh yeah...he can see ghosts. He can interact minimally with them but they can't talk to him. This is a concept that has been done before but I must say, Koontz really nailed it this time. There is quite a bit of character development here and the reader really gets inside his thinking. We share his hopes and dreams as well as the more frightening aspects of his "talent'. But the book is more than just a "boy can see ghosts and helps the police solve mysteries" story. Largely due to the first person narrative format, we experience some intriguing perspectives on the very nature of good and evil, and of love and loss. The build up to the crime is well paced and brings us along for the ride. And the crime itself is a doozy; more terrorist action than crime per se. We experience the terror and the shock just as Odd Thomas does. And the final 20 pages are as emotionally charged as anything I can remember reading. I've read other opinions of this novel and most agree that Mr Koontz has returned to form with this one.

Next up is my first review under my new status as a "Vine Voice" for Amazon.com. I'm very much looking forward to Top Producer by Nord Vonnegut.

A Canticle for Liebowitz

I finished up Walter M. Miller Jr's A Canticle for Liebowitz last night and I must say I'm not particularly looking forward to writing about it today. For those of you that are not familiar with this work, it is considered a classic of science fiction, and even a classic in the entire universe of literature. Written in the 1950's it is probably one of the first novels ever written concerning a possible post-apocalyptic society.

So why am I hesitant to write about it? This book has achieved cult status. It is so well regarded by the science fiction intelligencia that to question it in any way is almost sacreligious. So of course I will proceed directly down that path and risk the scorn of those that would say I'm just not intelligent enough to appreciate it. I have never strayed from my mission to point out elitism where I find it and I don't intend to start now. Of course not everybody who raves about this book is an elitist and I'm fully aware that different books appeal to different folks. And don't get me wrong, I don't hate this book or even actually dislike it. There is a lot here that is intriguing and parts are quite thought provoking.

The premise is that some 600 years after a nuclear holocaust in the 20th century, some "artifacts" belonging to an engineer named Liebowitz have been found in an old fallout shelter. An abbey of Catholic monks who exist in a sort of Dark Ages struggle with how to deal with these artifacts. The book is divided into three parts with the second part taking place 600 years later at the onset of a new Renaissance with the final third taking place yet another 600 years later at a time of another potential nuclear war. There are all kinds of themes in this book, not the least of which is that history repeats itself and seems incapable of learning from its mistakes. Overall, the book depicts a conflict between knowledge and morality. There are huge religious underpinnings throughout with the Catholic church being the one true bastion in the abyss to which we can all hold on to in times of crisis. I do not happen to be catholic and was somewhat lost in all of the catholic rituals occurring and dogma expressed. Perhaps if I knew more in this area my interest level would have been higher. But there is also a lot of latin used in this novel, with no benefit of translation for those readers like me who are unfamiliar with the expressions. This served as yet another way for my mind to wander instead of following the plot.

But more than any of that, I simply found the story lacking. The first part was OK; I actually liked the unassuming Brother Francis who found the original artifacts and was interested to find out how an entire sect could grow from these items. But the second part was a jolt with all new characters, a different style, and different themes. The third part only served to lower my level of caring about what happened next. Overall, there are certainly less entertaining books out there but I wouldn't recommend this to the casual reader. It would, however, be a good one to study as part of a class where a lot of discussion takes place.

The third short story in Stephen King's collection, Skeleton Crew, "Monkey" had just the opposite effect on me. Here is a tightly woven story that epitomizes the short story form. And if you like horror, this is one of the greats. The monkey itself, one of those toys with the wind up clanging symbols on his arms turns out to be one fantastic creepy icon, much like clowns or creaking stairs. King uses his classic method of bringing out his characters' worst fears of childhood and translating that very real horror to them as adults. This is turning out to be a great collection of stories indeed!

Next up is Dean Koontz' Odd Thomas.

1984

Last night I completed my latest WOE reading. Some of you will remember that I try never to waste a moment, and especially not 5-10 minutes at a time if I could be doing something productive. So for most of my adult life I have engaged in what I call WOE reading. WOE stands for "While Otherwise Engaged" and is a polite way to say that I like to read when I am using the ol' WC. That's "water closet" for you young Americans. I've never read a "Bathroom Reader" but that doesn't mean I don't read in the bathroom.

So I've been reading George Orwell's classic 1984 for several months now, usually for just a few minutes at a time. Now you might think this makes it hard to stay with a novel but most of the time, at least for me, it makes it a much more drawn out process that it's like I become a part of the novel itself. This one took even longer than most classics that I read in this manner because my parents gave me a subscription to the Reader's Digest magazine for some reason and that tends to make its way in to my sacred space. I just gotta page through that sucker every time it's there.

So what can I say about this book that hasn't been said before? Having read it I can see how it has become regarded as classic fiction. Of course the year 1984 has come and gone and many folks say had it been titled "2009" it would have been much more accurate. I chose this book because my son had to read it for school (I was never assigned this one myself) but I always felt I "should" read it. So I have now. For those of you who haven't read it, it is a complex novel but with a fairly basic plot. The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a functioning member of a society in the future who meets a woman he is attracted to. Much of the book surrounds their attempt to form a relationship in this society that just won't allow that sort of thing. Of course the real point and value of the novel is to illustrate where our current society may be headed if we don't change course, a sort of anti-utopian (dystopian?) novel. This book has brought us common terms such as "Big Brother", "doublethink", and "thought police." There are long sections where Winston reads to his girl friend from the official government manual detailing how the society came to be as well as the evolution of the government-speak ("Newspeak")language. An appendix further clarifies the language constructs. I am glad that I've read this novel but at the same time I can't say that I would ever want to read it again. My political/societal views are already pretty much cemented in place and this book, while thought provoking, did not change my views. I do agree that it should be studied at the High School level though, not only for its value to the world of literature but also as a way to kick start young people's thinking on what a society should and shouldn't be.

Ultimately this can be viewed as a hopeful book in that we can all chose to insure we remain commited to a truthful society, free to pursue independent thought, and vigilant against too much governmental control.

Paragon Lost

I enjoyed a nice long Memorial Day weekend and even extended it an extra day because I was having so much fun. Well that's not the whole truth...I was, indeed, having lots of fun but my workplace actually was down for four whole days so I reaped the benefits. Besides catching up on my main World of Warcraft character and watching lots of episodes of my current TV series DvDs, I managed to do quite a bit of reading as well.

Yesterday I finished up Paragon Lost by Dave Duncan. This is the fourth published novel in his loosely connected King's Blades fantasy series. The first trilogy, "Tales of the King's Blades" all take place in the same time frame and the plots are fairly well interconnected. The second three, "The Chronicles of the King's Blades," appear to be much more stand-alone novels taking place in the same general era. Mr Duncan himself states these novels can be read in any order without losing comprehension. I would recommend, however, that you read that first set of three books prior to reading any of the last three. I think it would enrich the experience since he doesn't go into much historical detail and why things are the way they are. By the way, three young adult shorter novels called the King's Daggers also exist but I have not read them.

I really enjoy the concept of these books. The King's Blades are basically graduates of an academy of sorts where the students learn swordplay among many other aspects of life in this medieval setting. Eventually most are assigned a ward to whom they are "bound" for life. They dedicate their lives to that person's protection, sort of a medieval secret service bodyguard. There is an intriguing binding process which I will not spoil for you but one of its side effects is that the blade himself no longer requires sleep. This novel follows the life and times of Sir Beaumont, or "Beau" to his friends. Beau is one of the very best swordsmen to ever come out of the school but now his other skills will be put to the test. Beau needs to use wit and charm and guile, and even some downright dirty politics to succeed. The story is told largely in flashback. The reader first encounters him as a simple small village trainer of sword fighting techniques but we quickly get thrust back to his glorious school days followed by his difficult assignment. I tend to enjoy these sorts of plots, always intrigued to get answers to the question of how our protagonist got to a particular predicament or station in life.

Mr Duncan writes this engaging story in a most satisfactory manner. He mixes action with characterization fluidly, never allowing the plot to get bogged down nor his characters to act, well... uncharacteristically. I like the way he builds intrigue and how the characters must rely on other skills than fighting prowess to solve situations. There is quite a bit of political mechanizations involved here which makes the plot complicated and yet we never lose track or focus on what is occurring. The conclusion is satisfying and definitely wraps up the story although I, for one, am happy there are still two more to be read, even if they involve different characters.

I also completed the second short story in Stephen King's Skeleton Crew. "Here There be Tygers" is probably the shortest of all of the stories in the collection at only about 3-4 pages. A little boy in the third grade, scared of his teacher, must go to the bathroom, and encounters a tiger there. Huh? We never know what is real or what is in his imagination and the story just isn't long enough to build any suspense. But Mr King certainly does have a knack for characterization, even when give little time or space to work with. That little boy is scared! I just wish the ending was more satisfying.

I'm also making a lot of progress on my morning reading biography of Lord Nelson as well as a few other reading projects.

Next up for my main book is Walter M. Miller Jr's A Canticle for Liebowitz.

Victory Conditions

No, this isn't a blog entry about my Swedish campaign game in Empire Total War. Rather Victory Conditions is the name of the 5th and final book in Elizabeth Moon's "Vatta's War" series. This is a science fiction series that I started unexpectedly last year. You see, I was on a business trip and had run out of reading material. Now that's not a bad thing in my brain because it means I get to go to the bookstore and buy something that looks good to me right then and there. Since I have such a back load of unread books in my house, I sometimes feel like I "have" to read such and such because I've had it for so long. Many times I'll open a book that I have long anticipated only to feel like this is "old" stuff. So, there I was at the book store in...San Diego I think and I had the chance to buy something "fresh". I spent a lot of time browsing trying to narrow down my choices. I really wanted to try a new author. I finally settled on the first book of this series, Trading in Danger. It appealed to me because I really wasn't looking for hard science fiction but I figured a nice space opera would be fine. And it wasn't a straight military science fiction story either, more about traders and merchants.

So I read that book and loved it, forcing me to buy the rest of the series. Although I do like to mix up my reading with different genres all the time, I still like to read an entire series during the course of the year. It makes my cataloging easier when I write my "Year in Review." But to my chagrin, the final book of the series wasn't yet published! I had to wait until this year, at least for the paperback version and so there has been a bit of a gap from my reading of the first four to this one.

But you know what? That gap didn't matter. These books are so well written that I easily slipped back into the story line. Ms Moon writes with an easy, familiar style, that makes complicated situations much easier to comprehend. And the plot of this series is a wonderful progression of adventure. The characters interact delightfully and drive the action of the novels. I really enjoyed the way the protagonist, Ky Vatta, was thrust into very difficult circumstances and was able to bring a different way of thinking to the situation and resolve it. I also liked the behind the scenes action. In other words, take a different space opera universe like Star Trek. You get lots of info on the main plot, action, etc. but in Ms Moon's books we get to see how "normal" people deal with everyday situations. It ain't easy trying to get basic supplies from a trade depot when you don't have security identification.

This last volume of the series wrapped it all up in fine style. My only complaint is that the ending seemed a little rushed, as if the author was trying to wrap up too many loose ends. There was, however, a definite resolution to the main conflicts and an overall satisfying ending. I definitely plan to check out Elizabeth Moon's other books.

Next up is Drinkwater, an historical novel I was given in return for an Amazon review. It looks very interesting.

This Side of Paradise

I finished up my latest audio book on the drive in to work this morning. My last trip to the library resulted in a quick grab and go as I just didn't have much time to devote to browsing the shelves of audio books. I had read The Great Gatsby in High School, just as so many of us did and recall that being better than I had expected it to be. For some reason, then as well as now, the period of the 1910's - 1920's in America has never been very interesting to me, excepting perhaps World War One itself. So I grabbed This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I hoped it would give me perspective on what I remembered of his work before.

I always like to do a little research on books I read as well as their authors, particularly the classics. The first thing I discovered was that F. Scott Fitzgerald's full name is Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and in fact, he was a distant relative of the author of the poem that became America's national anthem. Maybe that's well known but that particular piece of knowledge had somehow escaped me all these years. This book itself, was Fitzgerald's first published novel, and in fact, became a best seller and put him on the map. It is largely biographical. The story goes that he began writing the novel in Army training camp during WWI, but afterwards had to beg his lady friend, Zelda to come back to him. She agreed only on the condition that he finish the novel, publish it and become successful. This he did and the rest is history.

The novel itself is a coming of age novel wherein the protagonist, Amory Blaine never really does come of age. He is a child of privilege and thus has a condescending attitude toward most others, particularly women. He suffers from low self esteem but covers it up with glibness and sometimes arrogance but depite all of that, he is still a likeable character. He is very introspective and Fitzgerald spends a lot of time having Amory try to meld together the idealistic concepts of a Princeton student with the realities of early 20th century American life. Amory has several girlfriends during the course of the novel and it is through these foils that we see what makes Amory tick and how he grows. The story is written in several different forms, through prose, poetry, letters, and stage direction. That can be somewhat confusing when done in the audio format but I don't suspect it would be a problem in normal book form.

In many ways this could be considered a romantic tragedy. There are numerous similarities with the characterizations and style of The Great Gatsby and most people agree the later work is superior. It has been so long between experiencing the two novels that I can't say which I prefer. Both are classics and worthy novels to read. While I would choose neither to take with me to a deserted island, I am glad I read (listened to) this one.

Of course this means another trip to the library as soon as I can get there. Not a bad thing to look forward to :)

For those of you who follow this blog to find out what is happening with Sweden's world domination in my computer game, Empire: Total War, suffice it to say that I over-reached a bit. I was so smitten with conquering the rest of Europe that those pesky Frenchmen rebelled to such an extent that they rose again in the middle of my empire! Yes, the French Revolution happened all over again. And then parts of Germany did the same thing! My armies were spread so thin that it took me a couple of years (game time) to supress them again and it's costing me huge coin to keep them subdued. Did this sort of thing happen to Alexander?

The Reincarnationist

This weekend was a snowy one around my house. I had actually taken Friday off work so we could install three ceiling fans upstairs. Summer is coming fast and we sure wish we had had ceiling fans in the house last year. Well it was a good thought but after picking up all of the parts, etc. we would need for the project, a huge snow storm came through on Friday and most of Saturday. The attic would have been too cold to work up there so we used that as a convenient excuse to have a lazy three day weekend. Creative excuse-making is the key to building leisure time into the schedule but it doesn't lead to timely project completion.

A great time to read right? Well..my gamer habits rose to the surface and I spent far more time playing on the computer than I had expected to. You see last week I had finished "Fallout 3", having become the last best hope of humanity and saving the world, and it was now on to my new game, "Empire: Total War". Its an extremely addictive game and I'm loving playing the role of Sweden in the 18th century slowly taking over the known world. I left off last night with the big push towards Paris, after sweeping through Berlin, Poland, and large chunks of Russia as well as gaining a foothold in the New World in Newfoundland. At least I'm not power hungry.

So...I did manage to finish up one book on Saturday morning though before everybody else in the house woke up. M.J. Rose's The Reincarnationist is a fairly fast paced thriller/adventure novel that I really wanted to like. From the cover blurbs it seemed to have all of the elements I was looking for: action, intrigue, a DaVinci Code style plot, etc. And truth be told, I was fairly well engaged over the length of the story. The concept was sound, despite what you may believe about reincarnation. I was sympathetic to the plight of the protagonist. There was some romantic attraction with other characters and there was some cool scenes/flashbacks to ancient Rome.

But the ending was unsatisfactory, to put it politely. The build up was great but the revelations at the very end were not satisfying to me at all and it was over in a heartbeat. We did not get to experience the reactions of the other main characters at all. No sense of real resolution, especially the emotional resolution that is so necessary. But that's not the only unsatisfying thing about this book. Something was missing from the entire novel that I can't quite seem to wrap my head around. It's like the elements of the plot were there but it just didn't grab me by the throat as a good adventure novel should. I think the problem is more characterization than plot; I wondered what would happen to them but I wasn't emotionally connected enough to care. I see from the author's blog that a pilot is being developed from this novel. Who knows where that will go since the quality of a novel and the quality of a tv series/show isn't always parallel. But at this point it's not one of the shows I am looking forward to in the future.

The less than satisfactory ending postponed making a good start on the next book though. I did do some reading on my Native American mythology book before starting Starlight, the fourth book of the Warrior's New Prophecy series by the Erin Hunter writing team. But the lure of conquest keeps drawing me back to the computer. Perhaps tonight will see the sacking of Paris. That should be fairly easy given the size and experience of my armies and the advanced state of my technology. No...what really worries me is the Ottoman Empire down south...

Tooth and Nail

This morning on the way into work I completed my latest audio book, Tooth and Nail, by Ian Rankin. This was the first book I had read (or listened to) by Mr Rankin. I had picked it out of the library like I usually do...it looked interesting: a serial killer is on the loose, with the interesting characteristic that he bites his victims sort of like a werewolf. I've done a little research since then and have found that Ian Rankin is one of the top selling British novelists alive today. In fact Wikipedia, if you can trust it, says 10 percent of all books sold in Britain are written by Ian Rankin. Wow, that's impressive. I also discovered this book is part of a series of crime solving novels featuring Detective Inspector Rebus.

From the moment I inserted the first disc into my car's CD player and heard the fantastic British accents of the narrator, Samuel Gillies, I was transported to London where the majority of the plot takes place. Inspector Rebus is a Scottsman and the narrator is incredibly adept at portraying the various British and Scottish accents of the characters, helping the listener to keep track of who's who. In fact, the narrator might be too good for I often found myself admiring his skill as opposed to following the plot. As a result I often found my mind wandering a bit and having to jerk myself back to the tale itself.

But that aside, I enjoyed this novel. It's been quite a while since I've read a straight forward detective novel. The mysteries I've read lately tend to be more of the amateur sleuth variety, the ones where the protagonist is a "normal" person (i.e. not a professional detective, police force, etc.) and happens to find themselves in the midst of a murder situation. In this novel, I particularly liked the other major character, George Flight, who is Inspector Rebus' equivalent in London. They work together on the case and it was a pleasant switch from the typical modern day detective novel where the protagonist is forced to work around the local buffoonery and tolerate their incompetence. I wonder if future Ian Rankin novels include Flight or perhaps he may have his own novel or two. The serial killer mystery itself was quite engaging...I didn't figure out the culprit until it was revealed in the course of the story, and yet it was entirely logical. No doubt my wife would have figured it out before hand but she is smarter than me. Nevertheless, this is always a good sign for murder mysteries.

So today I will visit the library once again and see what strikes my fancy. Can't wait.