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All posts for the month September, 2015

14 – Peter Clines

Posted by Daniel on September 30, 2015

Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, MYSTERY, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Horror/Dark Fantasy, Mystery, Reviews, SF/Fantasy, Thriller. 2 Comments

I knew nothing about this book, or the author, before digging in to it. And reading it on my Kindle, I didn’t even have the cover copy to give me a hint. What I found inside was as much a surprise as what Nate tucker and friends discover behind the door to room 14!

Nate Tucker is a bit down on his luck and looking to ‘find himself.’ His semi-permanent temp job is mind-numbing but he needs what little he makes from it. After a tip about a cheap apartment, Nate moves into a charming old brownstone with rental prices unbelievably low. But when something seems too good to be true, it probably is. There are little oddities about his apartment that have Nate curious. There’s the kitchen light that, no matter what bulb he puts into it, the light becomes a black light. And then there are the bright green cockroaches with the extra leg.

Tucker meets some of his neighbors and, with the help of neighbor Veek, convinces them that the apartment building is a mystery that needs exploring, starting a journey that will pit the brownstone residents against time and space.

Author Peter Clines does a tremendous job building this story. Introducing the characters, establishing small moments that intrigue and bewilder and act as steps to bigger and possibly more dangerous mysteries — the most curious of them: what is behind the heavily padlocked door to room 14?

I was completely absorbed in this story. The characters were not heroes but average men and women, perhaps even slightly below average (in terms of social behavior). They formed an unlikely bond, based only on the fact that they live in the same building, and share their interests in the quirks of the old brownstone. Despite the fact that Veek began the quest to learn more about the building, it is Nate who becomes the de facto leader of the group and leads them to astonishing discoveries.

Clines adds a few topical, pop culture references and does more than offer a nod to the master of science fiction horror, H. P. Lovecraft, giving the wise reader a few chuckles along the way. But mostly it builds suspense. Slowly. Step by step. Apartment by apartment. The tension builds and then Clines opens a false door and lets the reader breathe a little bit before taking us to the next suspenseful moment. This building of the story and suspense was really remarkable. You just don’t find writers doing this well very often!

I do have one small complaint with the book…. The witty banter and snappy comebacks offered up by the apartment dwellers was fun for a while, but 1) they all the sounded the same. Because it seemed as though all the characters were witty and had a variety of one-liners to spout, all the character dialog began to sound the same, and 2) it grew tiresome. Despite the clever puns or snappy repartee, it happened so frequently I wondered if I were inside an episode of Gilmore Girls! It definitely took away from the individual-ness of the characters and while the intent was to let the reader breathe after a bit of tension, it really only served to get me frustrated that in the course of just the one book, I already knew the sorts of things they would say.

But I do like a story that has high stakes, and this one reaches out and offers up a lot of obstacles (from padlocked doors to tunnels to the center of the earth to Cthulhu) and the stakes are about as high as you can get … the future of humanity.

This is a book to savor.

Looking for a good book? 14, by Peter Clines, is a thrilling mystery that blends genres with horror and science fiction in the best of ways and should be on your reading shelf.

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

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author: Peter Clines

publisher: Permuted Press

ISBN: 1618680528

paperback, 352 pages

OTHER GODS – Stephen Mark Rainey

Posted by Daniel on September 29, 2015

Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Horror/Dark Fantasy, Reviews, Short Stories. Leave a comment

Good, solid horror fiction can be difficult to find and it pays to look for it from the publishers who specialize in the genre. Dark Regions Press is a publisher that is well worth checking out if you appreciate the darker fiction. And if you go, put in an order for Other Gods, a collection of short fiction by stalwart author Stephen Mark Rainey.

Rainey’s fiction works so well for a couple of reasons. First there are his character, who are well-drawn and real people in interesting and tough circumstances. They are people we see every day. They are like you and me…heck, they ARE you and me. And when you can write about real people, the reader finds it easy to become invested in the outcome.

And then there are the settings. Many of his stories seem to have an outdoors element to them, making nature a partner in crime to the horrors that take place. As someone who loves the outdoors myself, this also adds to the investment in the story.

And of course…the writing itself. How can you NOT be giddy to read a story that begins:

Dawn approached with a belligerent smirk, its gold-pink tongue licking the horizon slowly, deliberately, as if to savor the taste of the agony it would soon inflict. — “Antidotes”

Rainey’s writing is good. I was looking for a different word to describe it, but decided that just stating it flat-out, honestly, was the best way to put it.

Not every story was a stand-out to me, which is not unusual in any collection. “The Fire Dogs of Balustrade” did nothing for me, whereas “Circus Bizarre” and “The Lake of Shadows” really caught me.

I highly recommend this collection to fans of Rainey and to anyone who may be looking to read some short, dark fiction.

Most of the stories have been previously published in magazines or anthologies. This collection includes:

“Rips in the Tent: Introduction” by Elizabeth Massie
“Fugue Devil”
“Rapture in Black”
“Sky of Thunder, Island of Blood”
“Other Gods”
“Antidotes”
“Circus Bizarre”
“The Lake of Shadows”
“The Jack-O’-Lantern Memoirs”
“Silhouette”
“The Violet Princess”
“Elegy”
“Epiphany: A Flying Tiger’s Story”
“Signals”
“The Fire Dogs of Balustrade”
“The Transformer of Worlds”
“The Devil’s Eye”

Looking for a good book? Fans of the dark/horror genre will want to turn on the lights and read these collection, Other Gods, of fiction by Stephen Mark Rainey.

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Other Gods

author: Stephen Mark Rainey

publisher: Dark Regions Press

ISBN: 1626410666

paperback, 294 pages

JUPITER’S LEGACY – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on September 28, 2015

Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Graphic Novels, Reviews. Leave a comment

A child living in the shadow of a famous parent is often difficult, for the child can rarely live up to the expectations of being as great as the parent. So what happens when the child is the flesh of superheroes?

Jupiter’s Legacy takes a not-too-unfamiliar story (the days when superheroes have aged into retirement) and put a new spin on it. This story tells how a group of friends follow Sheldon to an island that is not on any maps. There, the youths discover a race of aliens who promise to give the intrepid humans super-human powers. The powers may give these people special abilities that allow them to perform special feats; to rescue; to save, but ultimately, these people are still human — with all the baggage and frustration that entails, such as jealousy and the desire for power.

Having served as humanity’s protectors and now aging, Sheldon (aka Utopian) has been the leader of the group, but dissent among them (led by Utopian’s son) brings about some drastic changes. With a coup, a new faction of superheroes takes over and forces changes ‘for the better.’ Not all the superheroes agree with the changes, but because the leadership has absolute authority, the dissenters go in to hiding.

It is hard to hide, however, when you have super powers, and when you have children with super powers.

I found that this is one of those difficult-to-review books. There moments that I found interesting and enjoyable (more specifically, the second half of the book), and there were times that I just wanted to put the book down and not bother reading any more. The initial set of characters that we meet (Utopian and his friends) never felt heroic or even like-able. This is however, set-up. We’re given the back story, and the moral codes of the main characters — drawing lines, if you will, between the factions of heroes.

Perhaps we don’t need this much set-up, though. The situation isn’t that unique. And all the characters in the beginning are despicable … even the valiant Utopian is short-sighted and egotistical. Perhaps if we saw more blending of the characters in the second half, mixed in early, we’d be much more likely to enjoy the journey.

The art is interesting. There’s definitely a European feel to the art. I know that doesn’t do it justice, and perhaps even confusing to some. I find the lines sharp and angular and yet the general look is soft and gentle. The coloring stands out as appealing.

I really wanted to like this one, and ultimately came away with some good impressions that have me interested in reading on, but I was mostly just confused and ill-enthused early.

Looking for a good book? Jupiter’s Legacy is a graphic novel using some older themes (aging superheroes) and struggles at the start to hold the reader’s interest, but eventually develops into an intriguing story.

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

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Jupiter’s Legacy, Book One

author: Mark Millar

artist: Frank Quietly

publisher: Image Comics

ISBN: 1632150093

hardcover, 120 pages

PAINT IT – Mari Bolte

Posted by Daniel on September 25, 2015

Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: Art, Book Reviews, Books, non-fiction, Reviews, Young Adult. Leave a comment

NON-FICTION WEEK

I’ve reviewed a number of art-related books on this blog, and for good reason … I began my education as an art student and haven’t fully abandoned it, so I have a keen interest in the fine arts. This book, Paint It, by Mari Bolte, has been in my to-read queue for over a year and I think that the main reason I didn’t get to it sooner was that I was thinking that this was intended for elementary school children, and I didn’t think I was ready to review such a book (I like to practice what the book teaches in a case like this).

What I discovered is that this is for the advanced student or the beginner adult. There are terms and practices here that I highly suspect would go over most students’ heads. The opening paragraphs, describing pigments and binders alone might be more than most would want from an art book. Children want to dig in. As an adult, I really appreciated the refreshers on some of the information, as well as learning some new things about some of the mediums that I haven’t worked in.

The photos here, and the paintings themselves, are colorful and extremely attractive. I greatly appreciated Bolte’s playfulness. For instance, she writes: “There are many ways to paint the same object. Pick one object and challenge yourself to paint it in three styles—realistic, stylized, and abstract. Can you do it?” And then she proceeds to paint a simple fox in realistic, stylized, and abstract form. This is such an important lesson and shows the budding artist that there is no one, right way to create art.

As someone who has often painted pictures from photos I’ve taken, I really appreciated her comments: “It’s easy to paint your favorite photo with watercolors. But why make an exact copy? Instead, focus on the space’s lights and darks (values), shades (tones), and basic shapes.” And again, she provides examples from her own work, and she explains the process of how to create something similar (in this case through an eight-step process).

While this book is possibly geared toward a younger readership, I found this to be such a valuable resource that I’ve ordered a physical copy to be used as a resource for my own purposes. It is packed full of useful information, tips, and techniques. This is highly recommended.

Looking for a good book? If you, or someone you know is at all interested in painting, this book, Paint It, by Mari Bolte, is an extremely valuable resource and should be within arms reach for every artist.

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

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Paint It: The Art of Acrylics, Oils, Pastels, and Watercolors

author/artist: Mari Bolte

publisher: Capstone Press

ISBN: 1623700094

paperback, 143 pages

WRITE IT YOUR WAY – Education.com

Posted by Daniel on September 24, 2015

Posted in: CHILDREN'S, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Children's Books, non-fiction, Reviews, Young Adult. Leave a comment

Write it Your Way is a fantastic writing workbook, but possibly better for children a little older than targeted.

One of the more unique aspects of this book is that it doesn’t just focus on writing, but also on reading. It offers samples from classic literature and explains different aspects of the writing. In part this makes a better reader, but this also informs a better writer. And of course, using Alice in Wonderland as one of the examples gets bonus points from me.

After learning a little about reading and what to look for, the book moves to a Journal Prompts section. Again, this is a wise move, as regular writing, and regular journal writing is essential for writers. The journal prompts tend to focus on things such as what kind of superhero power would you like to have, or what kind of wishes would you ask for from a genie. I felt that this was slanted slightly more to the young male audience, though I suspect that’s a pretty stereotyped response. I think I would have liked to have seen some prompts that were more ‘neutral’ in tone.

There is a section on writing poetry, which I find difficult to assess. I’m not much for poetry, myself, though I’ve written and published some. And I found it odd that Haiku’s were included as a writing assignment, though the definition of a Haiku was not. Okay…not entirely true… the books says that a haiku is:

Haiku is a Japanese style of poetry that consists of three main components, although they are not necessarily required: Haiku has three lines, with the syllable pattern 5-7-5. Haiku poems are usually about a contrast between two items. Many haiku poems have a seasonal reference.

This was a little confusing, even to me and I can’t imagine an elementary school student making sense of this. So…a Haiku does NOT have to have a syllable pattern of 5-7-5? And would a third or fourth grade student know what a ‘syllable pattern’ means?

I did like, however, the ‘opinion writing’ section. Not everyone will write fiction, but most successful adults will need to write some sort of reports or forms, and essays and memoirs are a very popular form of writing today. This was handled well.

The book is very colorful, and will certainly attract a younger reader’s attention, though some of the material inside will go over their heads. There is information on where/how to get more worksheets for free, from the internet, which is a nice addition and helps for teachers who may use this in class.

Looking for a good book? There are parts of this book, Write It Your Way, that I would find useful today, for myself, and parts of the book that I think could be beyond even the above average student’s ken, but altogether I think this is a book worth using, and libraries and teachers should really find it helpful.

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

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Write It Your Way: A Workbook of Reading, Writing, and Literature

author: education.com

publisher: Dover Publications

ISBN: 0486802701

paperback, 112 pages

100 Things You Will Never Do – Daniel Smith

Posted by Daniel on September 23, 2015

Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, non-fiction, Reviews. Leave a comment

This is one of those books that I consider to be a ‘bathroom reader.’ It is filled with sometimes interesting little facts, and in this particular book it is couched under the idea that these are things that perhaps can be done but most people will not do them because of a variety of difficulties. A few times (not too often) I did think to myself, “And why does he think I will never do this? I may actually do this.” But of course this isn’t really a book about things you will never do, it is a book about things that are difficult to accomplish and explain (very briefly) the sort of preparation that one needs to accomplish these sorts of goals.

As I said, this is a bathroom reader. There are 100 interesting/difficult/challenging actions here in only 256 pages, which is also full of photos for each ‘thing,’ so nothing gets too in-depth and each is pretty easy to read.

But beyond a bit of trivia, couched in a slightly different format, there really just isn’t much to this book. This is precisely the sort of book I would pick up in a book store, flip through the pages, perhaps mutter, “Hmmm. Ah.” and then put down again, forgetting all about it. It didn’t even offer me much that was new to me. If there was a ‘thing’ that I would never do that I was not already familiar with, then I typically found it something that was not at all interesting to me. The other items I felt I already had a better understanding for than what was presented.

A book to momentarily enjoy if you should receive it as a gift, but otherwise the 101st thing would be ‘to read this book.’

Looking for a good book? 100 Things You Will Never Do, by Daniel Smith, is a trivia book of interesting things that humans have done but most of us will never attempt, and reading about them here is only slightly interesting.

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

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100 Things You Will Never Do: And How to Achieve the Impossible

author: Daniel Smith

publisher: Quercus

ISBN: 1623654688

paperback, 256 pages

ECOLOGY AND RELIGION – Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim

Posted by Daniel on September 22, 2015

Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, non-fiction, Reviews. Leave a comment

NON-FICTION WEEK

I have long wondered why churches weren’t being more active and vocal about the need for environmental and ecological controls over God’s earth. In the early 1990’s I read a book (God is Green) that opened my eyes to this issue. Now, John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker, leader figures on this issue, have written an authoritative work on the intersection of Ecology, Religion, and Ethics. Ecology and Religion is an exhaustive account of the needs for the various organized religions to step forward and take charge of world-wide ecological issues, and also details the work that’s been done, along with the various world council meetings to discuss world ecology.

This is an important book and anyone with an interest in the world’s health and future (and that should be all of us), or an active member of any church, should make this required reading. We’ve left the maintenance of the planet up to the politicians long enough and only the power of the pious can possibly prevent further catastrophe.

The book does get a little dry in the reading and it took me a while to get through this, but I DID keep coming back to it because of the issues it discusses (which are important to me), and there is a lot of information here.

This might not be for the casual reader with an interest in the subject, but rather for the student (of any age) or professional. One thing that I was hoping to find was more hands-on practices for the lay person. What can I do to help the ecology, in the name of a religion? Judging from this, it would be to attend some conferences. But I suspect there is more to it, this simply is not the guide. It is, however, the comprehensive report on what is being done on a global scale.

Looking for a good book? Ecology and Religion by John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker, is a thorough look at the global, religious efforts and world ecology and is a must for serious students of the issue.

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

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Ecology and Religion

authors: John Grim and Mary Evelyn Tucker

publisher: Island Press

ISBN: 1597267074

hardcover, 280 pages

THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS – Sy Montgomery

Posted by Daniel on September 21, 2015

Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Memoir, Nature, non-fiction, Reviews. Leave a comment

This book took me completely by surprise, and in a fantastically good way.

First, author Sy Montgomery manages to capture the reader’s attention with the subject matter (octopuses [which is the correct way to write the plural of octopus, and Montgomery explains why]), but she holds the reader with her gentle narrative, which strokes our interest much the way she gently pets some of the octopuses in the New England aquarium. What we learn is that an octopus is incredibly smart and each has a distinctive personality and an incredible memory, recognizing humans even after months of not seeing them.

Montgomery shares with us some of the known science about the octopus (they have three hearts, a beak like a parrot [though we hardly ever see it], and their suction cups have chemoreceptors so that they can taste whatever they touch. They are bright and playful. A popular toy in aquariums is a pill bottle which the octopus can un-cap (and re-cap) fairly easily.

Right from the start it is clear that Montgomery has fallen in love with the octopus, and it doesn’t take long for her passion to become infectious and we, too, want to touch and stroke and let an octopus taste our hands and arms with its tentacles. But for all the differences there are between octopus and human (and it feels as though there couldn’t be many animals with a greater difference), it is their similarity that appeals. It is their personalities, as Montgomery describes them, that fascinates. Why does an octopus tenderly explore the hands and arms of two people, but then squirt the third? Why will they eat the offered fish from some, but not from others? Do they intentionally create problems in their tanks (plugging up valves so that the tanks over-flow) and sometimes escape their watery confines?

I did wonder at one point if the octopus that Montgomery was writing about actually had such human characteristics or if it was Sy Montgomery anthropomorphising the animal, and I was hypnotized by the writing to believe in it. I’m still not certain. I do know that while reading the book, I was eager to find a nearby aquarium that had octopuses so that I could visit and hopefully have some of the same experiences as Montgomery.

Upon more reflection after having finished the book, I really am not sure how much of the personalities of the different octopuses is really there, and how much of it was wanted to be there, by Montgomery. But I don’t know why it wouldn’t be there. The more science learns about our natural world and the animals, the more it seems we realize that man is not the only intelligent creature on the planet, and a book such as this may go a long way in helping people to recognize the inter-connectedness of all life.

This is a powerful and addicting book.

Looking for a good book? The Soul of an Octopus, by Sy Montgomery, is a fascinating memoir/science book that will have you wanting to get a membership at your nearest aquarium so that you can spend time with octopuses.

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

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The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness

author: Sy Mongtomery

publisher: Atria Books

ISBN: 1451697716

hardcover, 272 pages

LOCK IN – John Scalzi

Posted by Daniel on September 18, 2015

Posted in: SF/FANTASY. Tagged: Audio Book, Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

I was doing some significant (for me) commuting the last few months and so I made some good use of my Audible account and picked up some books to listen to. Lock In is only my second book by John Scalzi, but it won’t be my last.

Lock In is about social issues and the breaking down of barriers for those with accessibility issues in a sci-fi setting. A virus, a strain of the bird-flu, strikes the earth and when the wife of the devoted President of the United States is struck with the syndrome that will be named for her (Haden’s Syndrome), the President devotes his energy and resources for finding help for sufferers of the syndrome.

Lock-In is when a person becomes trapped in their own bodies. Their minds are as able and agile as ever, but there is absolutely no motor control over their bodies. What is ultimately developed is a robot body and the means for mental transfer. Someone with Haden’s Syndrome can have a physical body that is cared for in a medical ‘tomb’ while the person inhabits a durable body, allowing them to walk and talk and do pretty much whatever they would in their flesh body. These ‘shells’ are referred to as ‘threeps’ due to their similarities with C-3PO, a robot from the film Star Wars. This process of mental transference can also be done with humans (an ‘integrator’), so that a living, breathing person can host the mental and psychological ‘being’ of a ‘Haden’ so that the person with Haden’s can experience things like taste or (most often) sex.

But the Haden’s (the sufferer inhabiting a robot body) come to experience discrimination and they begin to bond, having a common experience … the stereotyping and discrimination of their being based on their illness and subsequent robot-like appearance. So it’s big new when the FBI hires Chris Shane, a rookie and a possibly the second-most famous Haden (after the First Lady) in recent history. Shane is partnered with a veteran, Leslie Vann, and the two are immediately on a case of what appears to be a hate crime against Haden’s. A Threep in a carbon-fiber shell is difficult to kill, but the physical human form is still susceptible to injury and Shane has to uncover a series of mysteries and protect her outside life.

Scalzi’s writing is quick and easy and also entertaining. He blends genres here, with the mystery story and the medical sci-fi, and he does it extremely well. I recently also listened to Mira Grant’s Newsflesh series and there are some interesting similarities, mostly dealing with the advanced medicine and diseases. Grant’s virus creates zombies, Scalzi’s, androids.

What I find most interesting and wonderful about this is that Scalzi writes a best-seller style sci-fi book that is entertaining, but he also manages to make some very strong commentary about social issues and how we as a people deal with handicaps and discrimination.

I mentioned that this was an Audible book. Lock In is available by two different readers, Amber Benson or Wil Wheaton. It happens that when I went to look for a book to purchase, Benson’s version was on sale, so that’s the one I bought. While I’ve listened to other books read by Wheaton, and enjoyed them, I’m really glad that I bought the Benson narration. It was sharp, exciting and Benson really brought the character of Chris Shane to life for me.

I realize that the name Chris Shane is pretty much gender-neutral, and in my mind, because of the narration of Benson’s, the character is female. It changes very little in the story (a couple of lesbian-type references that would be heterosexual sex references otherwise). But as I look at other reviews, I see people referring to ‘his’ and ‘he’ when mentioning Shane. To me, Shane is feminine. I don’t think this is a mistake, but that Scalzi planned it that way. I think he’s sneaky like that.

This is a book worth reading, and if you enjoy listening to books, I highly recommend the Amber Benson reading of Lock In. My Audible edition included a novella with a great deal of background information on the virus and the timeline of what was done to develop the Threeps.

Looking for a good book? Lock In, by John Scalzi is an exciting medical sci-fi mystery story that manages to have a strong social impact as well. It is a MUST for science fiction readers.

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Lock In

author: John Scalzi

reader: Amber Benson

publisher: Audible Studios

ASIN: B00KY6Y8PS

length: 11 hours (unabridged)

THE NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES – Fritz Leiber

Posted by Daniel on September 17, 2015

Posted in: SF/FANTASY, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

THROWBACK THURSDAY: REVIEWING A REISSUE

Dover Publications is a reprint publisher and I’ve really enjoyed a number of the works that they’ve selected for re-publication. This novella from Fritz Leiber, a giant in the golden age of fantasy and science fiction, is a once-lost treasure.

Leiber is often associated with fantasy, and more precisely, Sword & Sorcery (a term he coined), but he did write more ‘conventional’ science fiction as well, as is evident here. This story is a post-apocalyptic tale, written about the same time as some more famous post-apocalyptic novels (Alas, Babylon [1959] and A Canticle for Leibowitz [1960]).

This story follows a loner, a scavenger, Ray, as he tries to survive in The Deadlands (an area of the United States devastated by nuclear holocaust). He encounters a woman, Alice, both of them showing signs of radiation poisoning, both of them wary of the other but looking to trust someone, somehow. As they meet, they slowly begin disarming in front of one another, to show that they are safe. Once completely naked (the only way to show that they aren’t still hiding something) they enjoy a more intimate encounter.

Ray and Alice, mostly out of convenience, stick together and encounter another Deadlands survivor, whom they come to call Pop. The trio, sticking together for safety in numbers reasoning, engage a stranger who lands a spaceship-like craft in their area. They hijack the ship, press a load of buttons hoping to find an auto-pilot. They have no destination other than to get away from where they are. But is the grass greener on the other side?

This story definitely has a dated, 1950’s/1960’s feel to it, but at the same time could easily appear in a sci-fi magazine today. Post-apocalyptic stories are still vogue, and Leiber’s themes of questioning man’s morality and what it means to be human are still strong themes in today’s literature.

This is a story well worth reading.

Looking for a good book? This reprint of Fritz Leiber’s The Night of Long Knives is a short science fiction novel from the early 1960’s that is still a strong read today.

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

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The Night of Long Knives

author: Fritz Leiber

publisher: Dover Publications

ISBN: 0486798011

paperback, 112 pages

TOUR OF DUTY: STORIES AND PROVOCATIONS – Michael Z. Williamson

Posted by Daniel on September 16, 2015

Posted in: SF/FANTASY, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy, Short Stories. Leave a comment

Michael Z. Williamson is an author whose name I recognize but whom I had never read until now. I’m not quite sure why this is, other than the fact that there are simply more writers and books than the average reader can keep up with and as I might stand in front of a row of books at the book store, trying to choose a title and/or author I would look for books that might appeal to me, and military science fiction has never been high on that list for me. I’ve read Joe Haldeman and Pournelle and Heinlein and even, more recently, Brad Torgerson, all whom are often writers of military based sci-fi, but it’s never been a primary or strong interest for me. And so Michael Z. Williamson pops up in my book review queue, and I put it off. I associate him with military sci-fi. Even the title of this book, Tour of Duty, speaks to the military aspect. But I get around to it because it is short stories, and I love reading short stories.

And I really enjoy this work.

Every story in this collection is well-written. The stories are exciting and the characters strong individuals. I actually looked forward to sitting down and opening up this book and being transported away to some other place and experiencing some sort of journey. This is precisely what you look for in short stories, and it is this sort of collection that will lead a reader to the author’s longer works.

The ‘provocations’ on the other hand …. Williamson ends the collection with some essays on personal battles he has endured. That he has an ax to grind and is resentful and bitter is more than just a little apparent. I do not, in any way, mean to suggest that Williamson is in the wrong with any of what he has to say, and his attitude is understandable, given the situations he writes about. But the tone is so forceful and so angry, that it is difficult to read the works objectively (and clearly he doesn’t want us to be objective…he wants us to stand up with him and fight off ‘the man.’

But what I get from these essays is … well … have you ever walked in to a science fiction only bookstore, or visited a science fiction or comics convention? There are individuals at these locations who are always ‘right’ and who always seem to have a beef with someone or something, and of course the individual, being the more intelligent and full of more common sense, doesn’t understand how no one else sees his/her problem. And this individual is never shy. S/he speaks loudly so that others can hear. Have you encountered this sort of individual? That’s how these essays came off, to me. The written form of these diatribes by people I generally want to dis-associate myself from. Right or wrong, doesn’t matter. It’s the very fact that I have to have this in front of me, that I don’t enjoy.

It means the book ended on a note that was less than delightful, and that’s too bad, because the stories here are worth reading.

This book includes the following:

“The Humans Call it Duty”
“Time in The Freehold Universe”
“The Brute Force Approach”
“The Price”
“Desert Blues”
“One Night in Baghdad”
“Port Call”
“Naughty But Duty”
“The Sword Dancer”
“Wounded Bird”
“The Groom’s Price With Gail Sanders”
“The Bride’s Task” (with Gail Sanders)
“Heads You Lose”
“A Hard Day At The Office”
“Misfits” (with Gail Sanders)
Provocations:
“April Fool”
“Crazy Einar”
“So You Are Going To Be Raided By Vikings”
“Random Maunderings About The Celtic Peoples”
“The Manly Way To Cook Meat”
“The Ten Manliest Firearms”
“Ten More Manly Firearms”
“The Mosin Nagant”
“On Reparations Generally, For The Descendents Of People Long Departed”
“My True Encounters With The Indianapolis Police Department”
“Inappropriate Cocktails”

Looking for a good book? Tour of Duty by Michael Z. Williamson, is a collection of really good, military-oriented science fiction short stories and some so-so non-fiction.

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

* * * * * *

Tour of Duty: Stories and Provocations

author: Michael Z. Williamson

publisher: Baen Books

ISBN: 1451639058

paperback, 352 pages

A STITCH IN CRIME – Cathy Elliot

Posted by Daniel on September 14, 2015

Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: Book Reviews, Books, Mystery, Reviews. Leave a comment

I have some friends who are quilters, and coupled with the fact that I’ve rather recently discovered that I enjoy the mystery book market, I thought I’d broaden my reading a bit and try this mystery in the “Quilts of Love” series. What I’ve learned is that there are a LOT of different kinds of mystery stories and I’m not enthusiastic about them all.

A Stitch in Crime is considered a ‘cozy mystery.’ A ‘cozy’ is a mystery with very little violence or blood. If it’s a murder, it happens ‘off-stage’ or out of view of the reader. The detective is usually an older woman, an amateur, in a smaller (intimate) community and the criminal is apprehended without much struggle. Think of the old television show Murder, She Wrote.

I don’t think I am a fan of the cozy mystery.

For me, a good story needs to have conflict — obstacles that the main character must challenge him/herself with overcoming. Mysteries typically provide great obstacles: who, how, where, when, why? If the set-up, or the impetus for the mystery, isn’t the crime, then what is there to attract the reader to the story? It would be the characters or the location. Here, I am definitely not the prime target market reader. I do recognize, however, that there is an audience out there for this sort of story (my wife would be one of them).

With all this in mind, I try to look at this book from the perspective of someone who might want a cozy mystery, and even there I felt this book was lacking. Mostly this was just plain dull, with characters that didn’t appeal. What sounded interesting to me, was the theft of a valuable quilt piece (“When a renowned textile expert goes MIA and the famous Wentworth heritage quilt disappears, Larkindale’s reputation as a tourist haven is at risk.”), but this doesn’t happen until WELL into the book. Prior to this we have a LOT of set up and dialog that gets tedious and I never felt it was moving me toward something and so it seemed to get slower and slower.

Main character, amateur sleuth Thea James, never comes across as capable of running a quilt show, much less solving a mystery. I was not amused by her, nor felt any empathy toward her. She was, in so many ways, like many of my neighbors. Nice people, all of them, but I’d be bored silly if I followed any of them for even a day.

Looking for a good book? If cozy mysteries are your thing, you might enjoy this book, but the story and the characters are mostly bland and dull.

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

* * * * * *

A Stitch in Crime

author: Cathy Elliott

series: Quilts of Love #25

publisher: Abingdon Press

ISBN: 142677365X

paperback, 240 pages

Looking For a Good Book

Reviews, comments, and the occasional blog postings about books and reading.

Archives

All posts for the month September, 2015

14 – Peter Clines

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

OTHER GODS – Stephen Mark Rainey

JUPITER’S LEGACY – graphic novel

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

PAINT IT – Mari Bolte

NON-FICTION WEEK

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

WRITE IT YOUR WAY – Education.com

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

100 Things You Will Never Do – Daniel Smith

ECOLOGY AND RELIGION – Mary Evelyn Tucker and John Grim

NON-FICTION WEEK

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

THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS – Sy Montgomery

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

LOCK IN – John Scalzi

THE NIGHT OF LONG KNIVES – Fritz Leiber

THROWBACK THURSDAY: REVIEWING A REISSUE

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

TOUR OF DUTY: STORIES AND PROVOCATIONS – Michael Z. Williamson

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

A STITCH IN CRIME – Cathy Elliot

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

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