The Nezovats in Despair

This weekend I completed the reading of The Nezovats in Despair by Michael Zyskind. It is his first published novel. As a way of generating buzz, he asked me to review the novel on Amazon in exchange for giving me a free copy of the book. I have done this once before and I have to tell you that always attracts my attention! I really like discovering new authors, especially fantasy authors who have an original tale to tell.

This novel is subtitled "Book One" and is obviously the first of a series. The Nezovats are a race of tiny beings that live in the attic of a HOUSE. Their town of Nezoville is built in a 20 foot by 20 foot space mostly out of wood, and periodically the Nezovats must venture out into the HOUSE itself for supplies. The book's description says the Nezovats are the size of lego people but methinks they are smaller than that considering there is a passage in the book where a fly actually picked one up and flew with it.

When I began to read I was expecting some sort of "Borrower's" story but it wasn't long before I realized it was really quite different. Mr Zyskind has created an entire society, pretty intricately it appears, although certainly not all is detailed for the reader here in this first book. The writing style is what I call "smart" in that a definite writer-reader partnership is required. The reader must pay attention to pick up subtle hints dropped by the author in order to truly understand what is going on in the plot. The story itself takes place over the course of just one day, but it is a day unlike any other. The mysterious leader of the Nezovats, Lord Efron, is nowhere to be found but just what his role is in the events of the day is yet to be discovered.

The book is published by Sense of Wonder, a small press that seems to be publishing some cutting edge fiction. I do have a complaint though: it has been a long time since I have encountered so many typos and mispelled words in a published novel. A little more polished editing is in order. The book is also written from multiple points of view and it can be a struggle to keep the characters straight. And one of them is written in 1st person POV. But by the last third of the novel, the major characters shown through the rubble pretty well. I noticed as I read I tended to picture the Nezovats as little humans but kept getting yanked back to reality every 20 pages or so when there was a reference to their two hearts ("the pounding of my hearts was deafening"). That was sort of annoying but then it did serve to remind me these little guys aren't human...perhaps this was a writer's tool to remind us just what we are dealing with. I do think the book did a good job of setting up the society as well as the overall plot situation and I am glad I read it. I also wish the second book was available now so I can see what happens next.

Speaking of next, I've begun my next thriller/adventure novel: The Reincarnationist by M.J. Rose. With my luck this will turn out to be the first in a series as well...oh well.

A Gentle Madness

For quite some time now (more than 20 years) I have classified myself as a bibliophile. In my mind that means I love books...everything about them from reading them to collecting them and in my dreams I like to write them. So it was with great anticipation that I began to read A Gentle Madness by Nicholas A. Basbanes. This has been my morning reading book (the one I read for 30 minutes or so before I head off to work each day) for the past couple of months. It has been a fantastic read for me and always puts me in a good mood first thing in the morning.

The title alone is fantastic. I can think of no better way to describe the often illogical mania people like me have for books. We are, I think mad in many ways and yet it is a non-threatening sort of madness. I have been crazy about books since I was a little boy and used to gaze up at my parents crowded book shelves in the living room. And to this day, when I have a couple of minutes to spare, I love to glance over the titles in my own library at home, reminiscing about past reads and anticipating future adventures. A gentle madness indeed.

Mr Basbanes does a fantastic job of cataloguing most of the famous and infamous bibliomaniacs in history. He describes the famous historical collectors as well as modern examples. He discusses what they do and how they do it and somehow is able to get into their psyches and examine why they do it. Of course not all are the same but they all do seem to share the same indescribable love for books. Some collect for the benefit of mankind while others do it for their own bragging rights. I enjoyed reading about the collections that 19th and 20th century collectors put together, fantasizing about what it would be like to be rich enough to build the kind of library they could. But I think I preferred reading about the more common person who put aside other pleasures of life in order to pursue their passion on a more modest basis. I guess I identify more with them. I also enjoyed the story of Stephen Blumberg, known as the most successful book thief of the 20th century. He had stolen more than $20 million dollars worth of books from libraries all over North America before being arrested in Riverside California in the early 1990s. In his mind he was accumulating a collection and preferred to think of the books as on an inter-library loan. This was definitely a gentle madman.

This book gave me an interesting perspective. First, it's nice to know I am not the only one out there with my "disease". But secondly it helps clarify the purpose of my own library collection. You see I don't collect books just to have books. I don't collect books because they might be valuable someday. I collect books in order to read them and so I think I am slightly different than most of the people discussed in this book. I guess I am a collector of "reading experiences" more than of books. Although I rarely depart with a book that I own, even after reading it and even if it is unlikely I will ever read it again. I love to see it on the shelf and remember the time I spent with it. So I guess I am still mad...but gently so.

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.