SHADOWED SOULS – Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes, editors

Posted by Daniel on October 16, 2017
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

If you are a reader of urban fantasy you surely have at least heard of Jim Butcher and/or his ‘Dresden Files’ series.  This anthology of short stories is set in the Dresden Files universe (it’s even considered book #14.5) – but you aren’t likely to find Harry Dresden himself making an appearance.  Instead, other authors are given permission to romp in the Dresden playground with some of the other characters.

Kerri L. Hughes, co-editor of the volume, says in her introduction that she invited authors to write stories “based on the idea that good and evil are just two aspects of a complicated and very human story” and in his foreword, Butcher writes “A lot of the people in these stories … aren’t good. But they aren’t necessarily evil, either. They need to be where they are, doing what they do.”

And that’s a pretty interesting idea (though not wholly original).

As with almost any anthology, some of these stories were hits with me, and others really couldn’t keep my attention.

Three of these really stood head and shoulders above the rest.  Perhaps my favorite here (my Kindle note at the end reads “Damn this was good!”) was “Baggage” by Erik Scott de Bie.  I felt like I was right in the middle of the story, watching it slowly unfold around me.  It was absolutely tremendous.  I’ve never read anything by de Bie before this, but I will be looking for him now.

Also coming on above the rest of the pack was “Eye of Newt” by Kevin J. Anderson (imagine Jim Butcher, William Shakespeare, and ghosts getting together – it was fun and funny), and “What Dwells Within” by Lucy A. Snyder (how can you go wrong when your opening sentence is from a telepathic ferret?).  Jim Butcher’s “Cold Case” shows why he’s a popular writer.  He works the language so smoothly.

Most of the others were pretty average reads for me.  Seanan McGuire is one of the best voices in urban fantasy writing today, in my mind and although her story “Sleepover” didn’t knock me out, the way I was hoping, it’s still better than average., with Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “Sales. Force.” being the only story that I really didn’t like.

This is definitely worth a read, especially if you are a fan of Butcher and/or his Dresden books.

This volume contains the following:

Introduction – Kerrie L. Hughes
Foreword – Jim Butcher
“Cold Case” – Jim Butcher
“Sleepover” – Seanan McGuire
“If Wishes Were” – Tanya Huff
“Solus” – Anton Strout
“Peacock in Hell” – Kat Richardson
“Eye of Newt” – Kevin J. Anderson
“What Dwells Within” – Lucy A. Snyder
“Hunter, Healer” – Jim C. Hines
“Baggage” – Erik Scott de Bie
“Sales. Force.” – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
“Impossible Monsters” – Rob Thurman

Looking for a good book? Shadowed Souls is a collection of Dresden Files-related short stories edited by Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes and is a strong, worthwhile read.

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

* * * * * *

Shadowed Souls

editors: Jim Butcher and Kerrie L. Hughes

series: Dresden Files #14.5

publisher: Roc

ISBN: 0451474996

paperback, 352 pages

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THE COMPLETE PHONOGRAM – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on October 14, 2017
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I read a fair number of graphic novels but I don’t subscribe to any online sites or magazines that keep me informed of comic book and graphic novel trends or releases. The ARCs I receive tend to be my only source  of information on what is out there. I’ve become pretty surprised at the quality of the graphic novels I’ve been reading and I’ve come across some unusual and stunning works.  Case in point: The Complete Phonogram.

This 500+ page volume is certainly not for the graphic novel newbie. This book collects a large body of work written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Jamie McKelvie, all centered around the pop music world. And magic.

Imagine being a phonomancer – a person with the ability to manipulate music – to create magic through sounds. Now follow these people with this ability as they weave through the world, spells of music being cast and relationships built and dashed to a soundtrack of magic.

I was instantly caught in the spell of this book and I really seemed to identify with one of our central characters, David Kohl, who has passed his prime in the industry but still holds a reputation and interest in the music scene.

The music scene here tends to be the British pop club scene, but, while it might offend the Brits to say so, it’s not really all that different from what I remember when I went to clubs on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood in the 1980’s.

The sense that there’s magic in music is not so far-fetched and this graphic novel takes that idea and pushes the envelope, making that magic just a little more real and a little more enticing.

The art here fits the story very nicely.  It’s not über realistic and it’s not overly stylized.  It’s something in-between that catches the theme and works well with it.

This book was a real surprise for me.  I knew nothing about it, but when I saw that it dealt with the music theme I knew it was something I wanted to look into.  The size of it (504 pages) was daunting, and it did take me awhile to get through it, but part of that was because I really wanted to be able to give it my full attention.

I’ll have to admit that there were times I didn’t entirely understand what was going and I’d have to backtrack – it usually involved magic and who was wielding it and why.

Overall, this was a really wonderful voyage into what graphic novels can be – full of wild and weird and fun ideas.  It is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? The Complete Phonogram is a graphic novel that centers around music and magic and all that can happen within both, when humans are involved.  It is weird and delightful and absorbing.

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

* * * * * *

The Complete Phonogram

author: Kieron Gillen

artist: Jamie McKelvie

publisher: Image Comics

ISBN: 1534301518

hardcover, 504 pages

GRAND PASSION – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on October 13, 2017
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

WARNING — POTENTIAL SPOILERS

Mabel and Steve are a Bonnie and Clyde type pair of thieves, robbing banks all across small towns, somewhere in rural America.  After a robbery they make love, covered in their stolen money and plan their next adventure.  Mac is a quiet but sturdy cop who’s moved to a small town after the death (by cancer) of his wife.  He’s met with a very cold reception by the other cops, including the captain, though his partner seems moderately friendly and willing to offer advice – usually “give it time.”

Their stories intersect when Steve and Mabel rob a bank in the small town where Mac has recently started working.  Mac and his partner try to stop the bank robbers.  Mac’s partner is killed and Mac kills Steve.  Mabel draws a bead on Mac, but when they look in each others’ eyes there’s an inexplicable connection and Mabel turns and makes a getaway.

The connection draws Mac and Mabel together and they both realize that there’s something fishy going on with the local cops.  Mac starts asking questions around the station which doesn’t win him any friends.  An unlikely romance brews.

It’s hard to tell much of this story without giving the story away and discovering the story as it happens is a great part of the joy in this book.

The first four chapters – which would be the first four comic issues when they were released individually – are fabulous.  This is a modern noir story with a whole series of characters just trying to do their own thing and their lives intersect.  Author James Robinson lays out a gritty, gripping story that keeps changing, keeping the reader on his/her toes.

Tom Feister’s art really helps this story move along and he captures the modern noir look marvelously.

Unfortunately, there are five chapters in this book.

I’m not going to speculate on why Robinson’s story changed so much when it got to the last chapter, but know that it does.  Characters backtrack or go completely opposite of what they’ve said in the earlier books, and when questioned about it they simply reply “I’ve changed my mind.”

And any moderately literate reader will spot the ending the moment it begins.

By the time I was into the third portion of this book, I was sure I was going to give this a 4.5 star rating, but the last portion is so bad that this drops down to two stars.

Looking for a good book? Grand Passion is a graphic novel by James Robinson and Tom Feister that really draws the reader in for a great noir story but drops the final portion so poorly that it isn’t really worth reading the story.

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

* * * * * *

Grand Passion

author: James Robinson

artist: Tom Feister

publisher: Dynamite Entertainment

ISBN: 1524103918

paperback, 146 pages

SHAKESPEARE ON PAGE AND STAGE – Stanley Wells

Posted by Daniel on October 12, 2017
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

There is no end to the number of books one can find on the works or study of William Shakespeare.  The name ‘Stanley Wells’ is certainly familiar to anyone who’s read critical essays on Shakespeare.  This book, Shakespeare On Page and Stage, is a collection of some of Wells’ essays on the Bard, his work, and performances of his work.

And mostly we’re left with: meh.

Some of these essays were interesting and from some I learned a thing or two, but the bulk of them really didn’t add anything to my knowledge or appreciation of Shakespeare’s plays.  The book collects essays in four basic themes: 1) Shakespearian Influences, 2) Essays on Particular Works, 3) Shakespeare in the Theatre, and 4) Shakespeare’s Text.

While most of this is not new information, I confess I did enjoy the ‘Influences’ section.  For some reason I am extremely interested in reading some of the source material for Shakespeare.  Was it inspiring, or convenient?  We’ll never know.

I also happened to be reading the essay “Staging Shakespeare’s Ghosts” at about the same time that I saw a production of Richard III in which the ghost were featured quite prominently, and so this particular essay really stood out for me.  I hadn’t really thought about it before, but the supernatural definitely plays a big role in many of Shakespeare’s plays.

There were a few essays that dealt with particular performances which held no fascination or interest for me.  A live performance is a fleeting thing, meant to be observed in the moment.  All the reports, the talk, the writings after the fact won’t make me appreciate what someone once did on the stage.

The entire last section, dealing heavily with Wells and his work as an editor, more-so than with Shakespeare’s work, held no appeal at all.

There’s a lot of material here in this book, and there’s bound to be something that will appeal to someone who has an interest in Shakespeare, but over-all this just doesn’t stand up to some of the other Shakespeare criticism I’ve read over the years.

This volume contains the following:

Introduction by Peter Holland
I. SHAKESPEARIAN INFLUENCES
1. Shakespeare: Man of the European Renaissance
2. Tales from Shakespeare
II. ESSAYS ON PARTICULAR WORKS
3. The Failure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
4.The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear: A Structural Comparison
5. The Integration of Violent Action in Titus Andronicus
6. The Challenges of Romeo and Juliet
7. Juliet’s Nurse: The Uses of Inconsequentiality
8. The Lamentable Tale of Richard II
9.  A Midsummer Night’s Dream Revisited
10. Translations in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
11. The Once and Future King Lear
12. Problems of Stagecraft in The Tempest
13.‘My Name is Will’: Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Autobiography
4. Shakespeare Without Sources
15. Shakespeare and Romance
III. SHAKESPEARE IN THE THEATRE
16. Boys Should be Girls: Shakespeare’s Female Roles and the Boy Players
17. Staging Shakespeare’s Ghosts
18. Staging Shakespeare’s Apparitions and Dream Visions
19. Shakespeare in Planché’s Extravaganzas
20. Shakespeare in Max Beerbohm’s Theatre Criticism
21. Shakespeare in Leigh Hunt’s Theatre Criticism
22. Shakespeare in Hazlitt’s Theatre Criticism
23. Peter Hall’s Coriolanus
IV. SHAKESPEARE’S TEXT
24. On Being a General Editor
25. Editorial Treatment of Foul-Paper Texts: Much Ado About Nothing as Test Case
26. Money in Shakespeare’s Comedies
27. To Read a Play: The Problem of Editorial Intervention
28. The First Folio: Where Should We be Without it?
29. The Limitations of the First Folio
Afterword by Margreta de Grazia
Notes
A Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Index

Looking for a good book? Stanley Wells is a noted Shakespeare scholar and his collection of essays, Shakespeare On Page and Stage, provides some insight into the playwright and his work, but nothing here is too earth-shattering or revelatory but instead is a rehash of knowledge but with Wells’ take on it.

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

* * * * * *

Shakespeare on Page and Stage: Selected Essays

author: Stanley Wells

publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

ISBN: 0198786549

hardcover, 300 pages

WAYLAID – Kim Harrison

Posted by Daniel on October 11, 2017
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I’ve discovered, having read a couple of Kim Harrison’s “The Hollows” books and the first two books in her new “The Drafter” series, that I’m not much of a Harrison fan.  Looking at the themes and plots, both would seem right up my alley, but I’ve just never been able to really enjoy Harrison’s work.

Until Waylaid.

Waylaid is a novelette bridge between Harrison’s two worlds (Hollows and Drafter).  The concept is a bit contrived since the two worlds don’t really exist on the same plane or time, but what the heck this is fantasy and anything is possible.

Rachel (from The Hollows) finds herself stranded in Detroit, 2055, and without the ability to call upon her magical powers.  The supernatural does not work where she now finds herself.  Peri is a Drafter and has the ability to go back in time to change the course of an event (though not without consequence, of course).   Something in the current timeline is not right (Rachel’s appearance) and it’s up to Peri and her Draft team to get Rachel back to the right timeline – which is more than she’s typically expected to do.

The book is only eighty-seven electronic pages long and the story and action move along at a frantic pace and I think that it is this – the brevity of the book – that I enjoy so much.  In my other attempts to read Harrison’s work, I feel bogged down in the story and I struggle to slowly wade through the dense work.  Here Harrison shows that she can tell a story swiftly and succinctly and it works.

While it helps to know the characters ahead of time, so that Harrison doesn’t have to spend time setting the reader up with character definition, we get what we need to know: someone with supernatural power finds herself in a time and place where her power doesn’t work.  Someone with the power to return her to the correct time, must strive to do so.

I enjoyed this a lot and if more of Harrison’s work could read this nicely, I’d be much more inclined to read it.

Looking for a good book?  Waylaid is a novelette by Kim Harrison that brings together her hit The Hollows series with her new Drafter series and it a remarkably tight and fun adventure.

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

* * * * * *

Waylaid

author: Kim Harrison

series: The Peri Reed Chronicles #1.5, The Hollows (13.2?)

publisher: Pocket Star

ASIN: B01AS3WJXY

Kindle Edition, 87 pages

THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR – Mindee Arnett

Posted by Daniel on October 10, 2017
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I am really behind in my ARC book reading and I’m working my way, somewhat randomly, through a backlist of books sent to me, this being one of those books.

The story takes place at Arkwell Academy – a school for ‘magickind’ and … well, let’s stop right there.  Yes – the comparison to a famous boy wizard with a lightning scar on his forehead will be made.  And should be made!  The differences, however, are enough to not confuse anyone.  One of the biggest differences being that the characters are not just young wizards and witches in training but all sorts of magically inclined kids.  Here, we focus on Dusty Everhart – a Nightmare … literally.

Dusty is sent to invade the dream of one of the hottest guys in school (Eli), which is pretty embarrassing for the sixteen year old.  But at the same time, sitting on his chest and slipping in to his dream is sort of (embarrassingly) arousing.  But it’s much more embarrassing when he suddenly wakes up and sends her dream powers back onto her.  That’s not supposed to happen.  Ever.

But that’s only the beginning.  When the dream that Dusty saw in Eli’s head start coming true, there’s a deadly mystery happening on Arkwell’s campus and Dusty and Eli can’t help but get caught up in it.

The opening sequence of this book, establishing Dusty, Eli, and Dusty’s abilities was tremendous.  I was hooked and really looked forward to the rest of the book.  I could see where teen readers (especially teen girls) would be really drawn to this book based in large part on this opening chapter.

But given this opening, the rest of the book was just a tad of a let-down. The moments when Dusty’s or Eli’s magic abilities played a key role, were interesting and often gripping.  But the rest of the mystery, around which this story is built, was boring.  I liked Duty and Eli and I even liked Dusty’s Nightmare of a mother (literally), but I never quite bought in to what they were tracking down and why it mattered.  There was something missing to let this reader buy in to the mystery.

Overall, this was interesting enough that I’d like to read the other books in the series, but not so compelling that I’m rushing out to get any of the next books.

Looking for a good book? The Nightmare Affair by Mindee Arnett is a teen/YA mystery capitalizing on the magic school theme and offers some fun, interesting characters but lacks a bit in the mystery.

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

* * * * * *

The Nightmare Affair

author: Mindee Arnett

series: Arkwell Academy #1

publisher: Tor Teen

ISBN: 0765333333

hardcover, 367 pages

THE BURNING PAGE – Genevieve Cogman

Posted by Daniel on October 9, 2017
Posted in: SF/FANTASY. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Somehow I missed the second book in Genevieve Cogman’s The Invisible Library series, but that didn’t stop me from quickly requesting this third book when I saw it was available.

I realized pretty early on in the book that I’ve missed a thing or two from the second volume, but for the most part the characters and situations are described well through the story and we’re given the information we need to make sense of the current story.

Alberich, a villain to The Library, has delivered an ultimatum — he must be given complete control of The Library or he will destroy The Library and kill Librarians along the way. The Library is very much like any other series of libraries, filled with books, but it is also a portal to other dimensions and The Library collects rare books for safe-keeping from many different dimensions.  Being a portal to other dimensions means there are other potential repercussions should The Library system fall in to the wrong hands.  But The Library tries to remain very neutral when it comes to politics and might.

Irene is a Librarian, though she’s apparently been in some trouble and is currently on probation.  But nobody knows the nefarious workings of Alberich the way Irene does and when Libraries are starting to crumble and Librarians killed, Irene may be the only one who can stop him.

This was a tremendously entertaining read, with plenty of action.  The entire climactic sequence was a true page-turning thrill-a-minute.  Cogman keeps the reader on the edge for many pages.  I remember enjoying the first book, but I don’t remember it being as exciting and thrilling as this read.

Too often I’ll pick up a book that’s mid-way through a series and I won’t have a clue what’s going on.  Here we get all the information we need to enjoy the story and because of that I WANT to go back and read the volume before this.

The Library is a great concept for an urban fantasy and Genevieve Cogman is working it very well.  This book is highly recommended for fantasy fans.

Looking for a good book? Genevieve Cogman’s The Burning Page is a thrilling urban fantasy that is a must-read.

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

* * * * * *

The Burning Page

author: Genevieve Cogman

series: The Invisible Library #3

publisher: Roc

ISBN: 1101988681

paperback, 356 pages