URBAN ENEMIES – Joseph Nassise, editor

Posted by Daniel on November 16, 2018
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

If you are a fan of urban fantasy – a rather specific sub-genre of ‘fantasy’ – then you will definitely want to check out this book, Urban Enemies, edited by Joseph Nassise.

The premise of this collection of short stories is to have a story that focuses on the villains that have appeared either regularly or at least in some memorable fashion in an ongoing urban fantasy series. And what I learned is … I haven’t read enough urban fantasy series’.

I have read some, though not all, of Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, and while I think Seanan McGuire is one of the best authors of fantasy currently writing, I can’t honestly say that I’ve read all the books in her October Daye series. Jonathan Maberry is the only other author in the collection whom I’ve read (and remembered) and liked his work, but I haven’t read ANY of his Joe Ledger books.  The rest of these authors…?  I recognize most of their names but I’ve never read any of these books.  Perhaps that will change now.

Not being familiar with these urban fantasy series means that reading a story featuring one of the villains means next to nothing for me, other than as a fantasy read. And as a series of fantasy short stories, every story in the book was entertaining and well-written.  It is easy to see why each of these stories are a part of a larger, fictional universe. I enjoyed my time here and I wouldn’t mind reading any one of these series. However, I wasn’t so entranced with any one story that I made a conscious note to look for more books in the featured worlds.  These were fun reads, but none of them sold me on wanting to read more.

The stories in this collection are:

“Even Hand” – Jim Butcher
“Hounded” – Kelley Armstrong
“Nigsu Ga Tesgu: An Ustari Cycle Story” – Jeff Somers
“Sixty-Six Seconds” – Craig Schaefer
“Kiss” – Lilith Saintcrow
“The Naughtiest Cherub” – Kevin Hearne
“The Resurrectionist” – Caitlin Kittredge
“Down Where the Darkness Dwells” – Joseph Nassise
“Bellum Romanum’ – Carrie Vaughn
“Altar Boy” – Jonathan Maberry
“Make It Snappy” – Faith Hinter
“Chase the Fire” – Jon F. Merz
“Unexpected Choices” – Diana Pharaoh Francis
“Reel Life: A Glass Town Story” – Steven Savile
“The Difference Between Deceit and Delusion” – Domino Finn
“Balance” – Seanan McGuire
“Everywhere: A Pitchfork Country Story” – Sam Witt

Looking for a good book? Urban Enemies is a collection of short stories featuring the villain in seventeen different urban fantasy series’. The stories are fun but would likely mean more to those already familiar with each series.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Negtalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Urban Enemies

editor: Joseph Nassise

publisher: Gallery Books

ISBN: 1501155083

paperback, 448 pages

Advertisements

WRITING TO WAKE THE SOUL – Karen Hering

Posted by Daniel on November 14, 2018
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

As someone who has done some writing myself, I often find writing to be a cathartic, even spiritual ritual. Writing can be a great way to purge a day’s frustrations. So when I saw this title, Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within, I was expecting a book that would help a writer find that connection – to open a connection to the inner-spirit, the soul, in order to free the writing.

But no.  This is a religious book, using writing as a means to find one’s way to spiritual enlightenment.

The first part of the book, about sixty pages, is a broader view of writing. Chapters with headings such as “Why We Write” and “Writing as a Spiritual Practice” and even “A Practical Guide to Contemplative Correspondence” give some helpful direction to the budding writer, but it’s not really a very in-depth help.  There are SO many books about writing and for the most part, every one that I have read has been a ‘how-to’ based on what has worked for the author of that book.  Usually I can find something in the book that is helpful, but this one really seemed targeted to a very different audience than I am used to.

The second section of this book is where the stronger religious aspect comes in.  Here we have chapters such as “Writing about Faith” and “Writing about Prayer” and “Writing about Sin” and so on. These chapters offer writing prompts that begin with a section heading called “In Your Own Words.”  These sections have a brief paragraph that usually asks a few questions.  For instance, on the “Writing About Grace” chapter the section begins with “When has a murmuration of grace, of any kind, swept you up in a moment of weightlessness? Where have you seen and heard grace moving in the world recently?” And after many such questions provides a writing prompt.  Here it is: “Begin writing with the prompt below and follow wherever it leads: I heard grace murmuring…”

The book is clearly (in my mind) designed to encourage religious writing and contemplation.  This isn’t a general book on helping a writer open themselves up to a more relaxed state and find their writing.  This is a book to help a writer find a spiritual/religious connection.

For that target, this is probably a fine book.  It doesn’t really speak to me and so it is hard to judge it.  I did find that the book is a little … ‘simple.’ I can see where sitting in a room with someone talking about these points might work, and the book has the feel of a classroom lesson plan, but it’s missing that teacher/student connection.

Even quoting one of my favorite authors, Frederick Buechner, doesn’t help me with this book.  I recommend a pass here. Writers looking for helpful and/or encouraging books – there are many of them out there and perhaps it’s best to stick with a tried and true classic.

Looking for a good book? Writing to Wake the Soul by Karen Hering is a writing help book that focus on religious writing. If that’s your interest, then definitely give this a go.  But if you want writing help in general, there are better options.

I received a free digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within

author: Karen Hering

publisher: Atria Books/Beyond Words

ISBN: 1582704120

hardcover, 304 pages

LOUIS L’AMOUR’S LOST TREASURES VOLUME 1 – Beau L’Amour, editor

Posted by Daniel on November 12, 2018
Posted in: SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized, WESTERN. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I was trying to find a way to describe my relationship with the works of Louis L’Amour. At one point in my life I believe I owned a copy of everything L’Amour had published. But owning and reading are two very different things.

I have not read everything Louis L’Amour has written.  In fact I’ve read very little, given his body work, but I I’ve liked everything I’ve read. It often comes down to the genre as much as anything else.  I like western fiction and when I’m in the mood for a western I’m most likely to pick up a L’Amour novel.  But I’m not a western fan – constantly reading westerns – but I am a fan of good story-telling, and Louis L’Amour is a good storyteller.

Since Louis L’Amour’s death in 1988, Beau L’Amour, Louis’ son, has been the overseer of the estate.  And like almost every writer I’ve ever known, Louis left an awful lot of unfinished manuscripts. Beau has sorted through pile of manuscripts and shares with us.

This is a fascinating look at the process of an established author.  We have here sometimes a few chapters of a novel, sometimes the treatment for a screenplay, sometimes a chapter followed by notes on where the story would go or notes with questions about a character and his motivation. And in a t least one instance we have multiple starts to a story.

I don’t know that I have a favorite … how can you have a favorite when it’s a collection of unfinished work? But I think “Trail of Tears: The First Seven Chapters of a Historical Novel” is among the most interesting. Aside from being the most complete work included here, Beau L’Amour notes that this was one of Louis’ attempts to break out of being labelled as a ‘western’ writer. It also includes a breakdown of all the major plot points of the book which ends with the note to himself: “Begin writing tomorrow and do 1,000 words of the beginning. Do them over. Begin with action, poetry, power. Create a character worth reading about.”

Also of great interest is “Samsara: Three Beginnings for an Adventure Novel, and a Treatment” because it gives us a look at how a story changed as L’Amour rewrote it. Though Beau does comment (on a different story included here):

There were so many rewrites that I could see the storytelling begin to deteriorate; even as he got certain aspects of the plot nailed down, he began to take others so much for granted that he glossed over them, probably because he knew them too well by then. Louis did not like rewriting for this exact reason — unless a writer truly enjoys revision (and he did not), too many drafts can suck the life out of a story before it ever gets going.

Reading all the stories that weren’t westerns here, I wondered why neither he nor his publisher never had L’Amour use a pseudonym. Certainly the name L’Amour was bankable, but clearly the man was a talented writer and his adventure novels or historical fiction might have done very well under another name (think Stephen King and his work as Richard Bachman).

All in all, this was a wonderful read and every budding writer should look at this as a textbook on the writing process, and fans of L’Amour will rightfully look at this as the treasures the title suggests.

Looking for a good book? Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures Volume 1 is a wonderful collection of unfinished stories and novels by one of the great storytellers of our time.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volume 1: Unfinished Manuscripts, Mysterious Stories, and Lost Notes from One of the World’s Most Popular Novelists

editor: Beau L’Amour

publisher: Bantam

ISBN: 039917754X

hardcover, 544 pages

DEATH IN D MINOR – Alexia Gordon

Posted by Daniel on November 9, 2018
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Every mystery series has a gimmick (or two) as well as a regular crime-solver (often someone not in police work) and it’s usually the gimmick that will first attract a reader’s attention.  That’s how I got interested in this series, anyway.  The title of these Gethsemane Brown Mysteries have (so far) had a musical connotation or reference, and I love seeing music and literature combined in any way.  The musical connection is that Gethsemane Brown is a classical musician who, through a series of unfortunate events, now finds herself working in a job that is perhaps below her skill set, but which she finds fulfilling.

The second gimmick featured, so far, in these first two Gethsemane Brown Mystery books, is that Ms. Brown finds herself working to solve mysteries alongside ghosts. Yeah, ghosts.  And it’s awesome.  These are not random spectres with grudges and a desire to haunt, but specific ghosts, called upon (even if accidentally) and helpful.

In Death in D Minor, Gethsemane Brown is looking for a peaceful holiday now that she has led her school orchestra to a win in a major competition, and she managed to help solve a string of murders (both with the help of Eamon McCarthy, the ghost of a composer and owner of the home Gethsemane now lives in). But of course there’s no such thing as a peaceful holiday in the world of mysteries!

Ms. Brown gets involved in a world of art theft and art forgery when local investigators ask Gethsemane to go undercover as a musician at a wealthy woman’s home in order to try to get a little inside information.  At the same time, the home she lives in – Eamon McCarthy’s home – is now up for sale by the cottage’s owner, Billy McCarthy, and is about to become the grounds for a hotel.  Gethsemane calls for Eamon to come help scare the new developer off, but his spirit is gone and no matter how much she calls for him he does not appear.

Author Alexia Gordon writes a tightly-knit mystery.  Many describe this as a ‘cozy’ mystery, which by definition it is, but it doesn’t feel ‘simple’ like so many of the cozies I’ve read previously.   This book has a great central character – she’s smart and talented and maybe a little out of her comfort zone – and a great couple of gimmicks with the music and the ghosts. And this book adds art (paintings and weavings) into the mix, which only enhances my enjoyment.

This is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? Death in D Minor by Alexia Gordon is a well-written, exciting cozy mystery with a strong leading character and a clever series of events surrounding her.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Death in D Minor

author: Alexia Gordon

series: A Gethsemane Brown Mystery #2

publisher: Henery Press

ISBN: 1635112346

hardcover, 220 pages

THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER – Harlan Ellison

Posted by Daniel on November 8, 2018
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

If you don’t know Harlan Ellison then you should correct that immediately by going out and reading some of his work.  He’s an under-recognized, under-appreciated author – though certainly not for a lack of trying, as Harlan was often pretty vocal about his talent.

One of Ellison’s biggest claim to fame was for writing the Star Trek episode “City on the Edge of Forever” – long a fan favorite and one of the few award-winning episodes. However… big sigh…

Ellison long claimed that the powers-that-be at Star Trek not only ruined his original script by having so many different people rewrite it, but they then threw salt into the wound by claiming anywhere and everywhere that Ellison made some major mistakes … claims that were outright lies.

Anyone that has followed Ellison even slightly knows that he was very vocal and aggressive when fighting claims and crimes against himself.  This book was his last word (hopefully?) on the subject.  Here he lays out every claim against what he had originally written and he argues those claims, point by point.  Specifically he is arguing with the claims of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who often spoke about the episode and Ellison’s problematic script at Star Trek conventions to throngs of fans who hung on every Roddenberry word.

Ellison often points out when and where claims were voiced and just as often chastises the fans he claims believed every word of Roddenberry because of how the fans glorified or even deified him.

And then Ellison shares the original treatment and the original script (that he, Ellison, sent to the Writers Guild Of America where it won the award for Best Episodic Drama on Television for the year). And then another version of the script, and finally a number of Star Trek-related personalities that Ellison enlisted to comment on his behalf in regards to the script. People such as Dorthy Fontana (the Star Trek story editor who contributed to the rewrites), David Gerrold – famed for the Trouble With Tribbles Star Trek episode(s), Walter (Chekov) Koenig, Leonard (Spock) Nimoy, DeForest (McCoy) Kelley, and George (Sulu) Takei.

If you are a fan of Star Trek and haven’t already read the story of, arguably, the most popular episode, then you really should pick this up and give it a read.

For me, this was a refresher.  I’ve read the original script a few different times but I had forgotten the vitriol with which Ellison spews his case. It’s sad, really, that he harbored a grudge for so long, and with such fury.  Though he complains bitterly of the Star Trek fans who believed Roddenberry, he clearly needs their approval.  He won an award for the original script. He won a lawsuit against Paramount in regards to the lies said about him in regards to the script.  And yet he still clearly has such anger and wasn’t ready to rest until the last of those driveling fans would acknowledge that HE was RIGHT.

As a teenager, I loved Ellison’s anger as much as I loved his command of language and storytelling ability.  Today, I’m just sad that he never quite got over this moment in history.

As a side note … I was reading this and one other Harlan Ellison book (review already published) when Harlan Ellison passed away.  While it is common for me to be reading more than one book at a time, it is rare for me to read more than one by the same author, so there was a strange sort of kismet in the air that I would be twice absorbed in the works of Harlan Ellison when he left the mortal realm.

Looking for a good book? Harlan Ellison’s The City on the Edge of Forever is a collection of his various version of the popular Star Trek script, along with his anger at how he was treated in regards to that script. It is required reading for Star Trek fans.

I purchased a copy of this book.

* * * * * *

City on the Edge of Forever

author: Harlan Ellison

publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy 

ASIN: B00J90ET90

Kindle Edition, 326 pages

A BREACH IN THE HEAVENS – N.S. Dolkart

Posted by Daniel on November 6, 2018
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

A Breach in the Heavens concludes N.S. Dolkart’s Godserf’s trilogy. This trilogy took me by surprise and carried me on a mostly thrilling adventure.

Phaedra is a sorceress and has one goal in life – to keep the world of humans and the world of elves apart. That shouldn’t be so hard, right? Except…if it was easy, there wouldn’t be a story here. When the sky trembles, it looks like Phaedra’s life work might have been for nothing.

There is such a fine line when  writing a series of this sort … how much story do you repeat from the previous books for those new readers who haven’t read anything prior to this as compared to retelling too much and boring the readers who have been with you all along?  In this case it feels as though almost a third of the book is making sure the reader is caught up on the story. It’s not total nostalgia – there’s a fair amount of moaning and complaining going on as well.  It was almost like a YA novel full of angst.

But Dolkart’s strength through the first two books has been a series of action moments surrounded by strong, unique characters and he gets back to that once he’s done brooding and the majority of the book easily reminds us why we enjoyed the series in the first place.

I miss the coming-together camaraderie that really hooked me in the first book, but there were more signs of it here than in the previous volume at least.

The emphasis here was clearly on Phaedra and her mission and I lost track or caring for a couple of the other characters that I’d initially grown attached to. Some of it comes together, some of it doesn’t quite so much, but overall it’s a remarkable trilogy.

For those who enjoy fantasies with elves – these aren’t like any elves you’ve read about before.

Looking for a good book? A Breach in the Heavens finishes off the Godserfs trilogy by N.S. Dolkart. It’s still got plenty of action and thrilling story-telling but falls just slightly short of being the outstanding book it could have been.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, though Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

A Breach in the Heavens

author: N.S. Dolkart

series: Godserfs #3

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857667408

paperback, 432 pages

CHILDREN OF THE DIVIDE – Patrick S. Tomlinson

Posted by Daniel on November 5, 2018
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

This series, ‘Children of a Dead Earth,’ by Patrick S. Tomlinson, continues to surprise and impress me. Each book manages to be different, each surprises me, and together they tell a continuing story.

It is now eighteen years after humans, who have traveled in the ‘ark’ from Earth, have settled on Gaia. Humans and the indigenous life forms on the planet have come to better understand and respect one another and to live and work alongside each other. They’ve even created a pronoun for the multi-sexual indigenous life. It seems to be going well. Until… a terrorist attack on the outskirts of town rock the community. At the same time, a routine flyby of Gaia’s moon uncovers a previously hidden, underground alien building.  This building is too complex for Gaia’s population to have built and human’s are still too new in this system to have constructed something this old.  Which means…?

As for the terrorist attack, it appears that humans have brought with them the idea of a caste system.  Many Gaians are sent to live in a ghetto-like community, where natural resources such as water and the ability to grow and harvest food are in scarce supply, so that humans can live in the wealthier areas of the community. And now some of those Gaians are fighting back.

While we have these two different story-lines going on, we’re also seeing the effects of a generation gap. Many of our prime characters are young adults who’ve grown up with the Gaians as their close friends and allies and are willing to fight alongside them against their own families.

There is so much going on here, and yet Tomlinson moves the story along at a very quick pace.  We don’t really get to know any of the characters – you probably need to have read the first two books to get a feel for who these people are and why they are doing the things that they do.  But for those of us who have already been in this world, this all feels like a very natural progression.

Be warned – the ending is a cliff-hanger.  I’ve written before that I don’t care for books that don’t have an ending, but this is different.  This is a complete story that gives a huge tease to the future of the series.

As much as I’ve clearly enjoyed this book, it doesn’t quite live up to the previous two in the series. It does feel like a natural progression, and perhaps a good bridge (given what appears to be in store), but it’s not the strongest book in the series.  Read the other two and you will want to read this one, but don’t pick this one up if you are not familiar with the series.

Looking for a good book? Children of the Divide is another well-written story in the Children of a Dead Earth series by Patrick S. Tomlinson, but you’ll definitely want to be familiar with the series before going into this.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

* * * * * *

Children of the Divide

author: Patrick S. Tomlinson

series: Children of a Dead Earth #3

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857666827

paperback, 400 pages