Archives

All posts for the month July, 2020

DRACUL – Dacre Stoker & J. D. Barker

Posted by Daniel on July 31, 2020
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

In this prequel to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, co-written by Bram Stoker’s great-grand-nephew, Dacre Stoker, and J.D. Barker, the authors not only give us a little background on Dracula the vampire, but they make Bram Stoker a major character along the way. And according to the advertising copy, this is “inspired by notes and texts left behind by (Bram Stoker).”

Bram was a sickly child since birth. He and his sister, Matilda, had a nanny by the name of Ellen Crone (‘Nanna Ellen’).  “The peculiarities of Ellen Crone. That is, of course, where I should start, for this is as much her story as it is mine, perhaps more so. This woman, this monster, this wraith, this friend, this … being,” writes Bram – the opening lines of his journal in the first chapter. But I might disagree, because this is very much Bram’s story, though Nanna Ellen plays a major role in developing Bram’s interest in the vampire story.

The Stoker’s – a family of some means – bring a doctor in to see if he can help the sickly young Bram, but to little success.  When the nanny, Ellen Crone, looks after Bram (and his sister), the young boy has a normal youth’s energy. The siblings notice strange behavior on Ellen’s part. For instance, sometimes Nanna Ellen looks quite young, but then days later, maybe a week or so at the most, she appears quite old.

Then one day, Ellen just disappears.  It is years later, when Matilda is studying in Paris, that she sees Ellen – who appears not to have aged – and she reports this to Bram, which sets off his hunt for answers.

Like the original Dracula novel, this is told through multiple forms, including Bram’s journals (told in first person), and a “today” narrative (told in third person).

This changing of perspectives threw me for a loop at first. Reading in one narrative and then switching just feels awkward. But the more I got into this book, the more I actually appreciated this change as it reminded when the narrative was taking place.

While I’ve been a fan of the Dracula/vampire theme since I was in middle school, I was a little hesitant to request and read this. Having a distant relative of Bram Stoker listed as co-author seemed like such a gimmick and I wondered how good the book could actually be.  Fortunately, the writing is sharp and quite reminiscent of Dracula in its Gothic horror sort of way, but with enough modern edge to the writing to keep today’s readers engaged.

I’m no Dracula scholar, but I did pick up on a few nods to the original book throughout.

I definitely enjoyed this more than I thought I would (maybe that’s partly because I recently read a terrible ‘vampire’ novel), and I believe that even if I didn’t already have a strong interest in the Dracula/vampire concept, this is precisely the sort of horror/dark fantasy novel I would enjoy.

Looking for a good book? Dracul, by Dacre Stoker and J.D. Barker is a prequel to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, with Bram himself as the leading character, and it is well worth reading.

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

* * * * * *

Dracul

authors: Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker

series: Stoker’s Dracula #1

publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons

ISBN: 0735219346

hardcover, 497 pages

DEVOLUTION – Max Brooks

Posted by Daniel on July 30, 2020
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Can Max Brooks, author of the bestseller World War Z, hit it big again? Can he step away from the zombie apocalypse and terrorize us with another mythological/supernatural(?) creature – one that we haven’t read much about?  Yeah, he probably can.

A group of environmentalists move in to a small, isolated community (called ‘Greenloop’) in the Pacific Northwest. They appear to have an idyllic life, living off the grid, and if anyone looked capable of surviving a disaster, it would be these secluded environmentalists.  And then Mount Rainier erupted.

Now truly cut off from the rest of civilization, the group begin to realize that they aren’t quite as self-sufficient as they believed. Forced by nature to hunker down and find a way to fend for themselves they begin to accept their lot when they begin to hear strange noises from the woods, and notice that wildlife that is running from the cataclysmic eruption, but toward something in the woods that is even more deadly.  Can the Greenloop humans share their corner of isolation with whatever is out there?  If not, who will win the confrontation?

It’s not a spoiler to note that the ‘something’ in the woods near the Greenloop camp is a Sasquatch, or Bigfoot (just note the subtitle of the book). But reading it, we don’t really get to the Sasquatch moments until quite late in the book.

The book opens with an Introduction which is quite reminiscent of World War Z. The ‘author’ (we want to think it’s Max Brooks but when we get to the end we’re not so sure) explains the background to the story we’re about to read. It’s ‘factual’ of course.  Much research has been done but still the information to follow can’t be verified and the reader should “judge for yourself.”

The bulk of the book is then supposedly transcripts from the diary of Kate Holland, a Greenloop resident, who details everything from their arrival to camp, to the eruption and its effect on the Greenloop community, to the fear surrounding the unknown creatures just outside the community, to the actual attacks.

Surrounding the excerpts from Kate Holland’s journals are a miscellany of journalism reporting, mostly (but not entirely) featuring the author’s interviews with Frank McCray (Kate Holland’s brother). And there are endnotes!  All good readers know that non-fiction uses footnotes and endnotes to notate a source or provide additional information, whereas fiction doesn’t generally use endnotes, therefore this must be a factual account, right?

Brooks works this concept (making it look like a work of non-fiction) really well, with just the right amount of material from different sources. But what really makes this book a good read are the characters.  Though we tend to know Kate Holland mostly through her thoughts on the others and events surrounding her (and some from the interviews with her brother) she stands out as a quiet (maybe not so quiet?) leader among the group. We get a good, personal look at all the major players in this massacre, and by the time events unfold to the climax, we’ve become completely invested in these people and their lives.

This was one of the issues I had with Brooks’ World War Z … we didn’t connect with any of the survivors (to quote my own review). He addresses that here and for that, this is a stronger book (though I’m not sure Sasquatch will have the same selling power that zombies do).

Looking for a good book? Max Brooks improves on his ‘reporting’-style fiction and makes a stronger connection to the characters in his new book Devolution, making it a horror/thriller that will certainly chart many bestseller lists and well worth reading.

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

* * * * * *

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre

author: Max Brooks

publisher: Del Rey Books

ISBN: 1984826786

hardcover, 320 pages

MURDER ON THE SILVER SCREEN – Margaret Dumas

Posted by Daniel on July 28, 2020
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Nora Paige is the manager of The Palace movie theater in San Francisco.  She left her beloved Hollywood when her lying, cheating, no-good, movie star husband had an affair with a co-star. As a huge fan of classic movies, Nora is a perfect fit for The Palace, playing some of her favorite classic films on the big screen.

The Palace also happens to have its own ghost, Trixie – the spirit of a young usherette who died in the theater in a tragic accident in the 1930’s. No one can see Trixie except for Nora.

A movie theater showing classic films doesn’t make a lot of money and as we start this book, Nora and her staff are preparing the space for one of the four theater owners, Tommy, who plans to use the theater to make a world-wide announcement about a new tech game, created by the famous game creator, S Banks, That should become one of the biggest successes ever (mostly because of the huge cash prizes for the first to solve some of the game’s clues.

As Tommy and S Banks appear on the giant screen at The Palace to make their announcement, S Banks collapses shortly after taking a sip of his energy drink, and is later pronounced dead by poisoning.  Tommy is accused of Banks’ murder and Nora (with help from the spirit pixie Trixie) must find out who really killed Banks to get one of her business’s owners off the hook and restore some faith and credibility to her theater.

I’m typically not a fan of the cozy mystery genre, but there are a few cozy mystery authors (many of them published by Henery Press) that I’ve come to really like, and Margaret Dumas, with this Movie Palace Mystery series, is one of the newest and one of the best.

It helps that I also enjoy many classic movies. And Dumas has some fun with the reader, inserting synopses of films, complete with trivia tidbits (“She’s played by Priscilla Lane, and I forgive you if you don’t know her. She retired from films only four years later, at the ripe old age of thirty-three.”) and personal commentary (“Let me start with some history. Before there was the Internet, there was the Reference department—a room full of books and smart women. When anyone wanted to know anything, they called the girls in Reference to find out.”) when she has her character of Nora writing a column (“Movies My Friends Should Watch”) under the pseudonym of Sally Lee.  (By the way, there really is a moviesmyfriendsshouldwatch website.)

This is all fun and informative (I’m either nodding in agreement with Dumas/Paige/Lee’s assessment of the films, or making notes of films I want to watch) but what really makes this series light up is the cast of splendid characters.  I’ve seen a number of female protagonists who dither about and seem to accidentally solve the crimes, or make bone-headed moves and need to be bailed out by the dashing, single detective. Nora, though, strikes me as a very real, modern woman. Strong in many ways (on her own, running a business) but knowing her own weaknesses.

Trixie is just plain fun. From the era that Nora admires so much for the films, Trixie is caught in the past but working in the present.  The books could easily be taken over by her character, but Dumas expertly uses Trixie in just the right amount.  She does step it up a bit in this book as Nora’s friends hold a seance in order to speak to the spirit that they think might be haunting the theater. Trixie is excited by this, hoping she might be able to finally talk to more than just Nora.

All of the characters are unique and delightful and they interact well with one another.

The mystery itself is well conceived and well plotted.

My one issue here is that the whole theme of the online game, created by S Banks, is an awful lot like the convention used in Ready Player One.  A massively complex digital game. Here players download the game app to their phones and follow clues to find the big prizes, rather than actually going inside the game, but I constantly noted the similarities anytime the game was brought up.

Still, this was a lot of fun and I will eagerly read any new Margaret Dumas mystery as they are available.

Looking for a good book? Classic films, a ghost from the 1930’s, a movie star ex-husband, and a world-wide digital game collide at The Palace Theater in Margaret Dumas’s Murder on the Silver Screen … a delight, must-read cozy mystery.

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

* * * * * *

Murder on the Silver Screen

author: Margaret Dumas

series: A Movie Palace Mystery #3

publisher: Henery Press

ISBN-13: 978-1635116199

paperback, 268 pages

VALLEY FORGE – Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

Posted by Daniel on July 27, 2020
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I am finding that the older I get the more I have started to enjoy reading non-fiction, specifically biographies and histories.  And if you had ever suggested to my younger self that I would ever enjoy history, I would have laughed in your face. Ah, how we change.

Admittedly, part of my interest in this particular book comes from having lived for almost a decade in the New Windsor, New York area (home to Washington’s cantonment – his last encampment) where Revolutionary War history is all around. Also, my visit to Valley Forge with my young family is still something we talk about.  And also, strange as it may sound, there’s an art museum in my community that has (owns) the Washington Crossing the Delaware painting that once hung in the White House.  How can you not be inspired to know more about Washington, the Revolutionary War, and perhaps one of the most famous encampments, when you gaze at such representations of history?

Not too long ago I read another book by co-author Tom Clavin (Tombstone) and just as I found with that book, here too I thought that the research that was done is just remarkable. The authors mention in their epilogue that George Washington and his aides produced 17,000 official documents, and having that much material direct from the subject, even though it is more than 200 years old, is certainly a tremendous resource.

There is a lot of detail here and it can be overwhelming (which is probably the number one reason I grew up disliking history) but for those who really enjoy reading and learning about all this history (my son would be one of those), then this is an absolute treasure.

I definitely came away with a better understanding of what it was like to be at Valley Forge with George Washington and his army, but I also came away with a new picture of the man George Washington and what he had to endure (from both sides of the war) and how impressive it is that he came out as he did.

And perhaps for those who already know history pretty well (I am not one of them) this maybe is old, common information, but I have a better understanding of what foreign governments, specifically France, contributed to the successful outcome (for the Americans) to the war. I attribute my learning of these things to the solid presentation of the material by authors Bob Drury and Tom Clavin.

Looking for a good book? Making history accessible and memorable is an art and the artists, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, have done a wonderful job with their book, Valley Forge.

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

* * * * * *

Valley Forge

authors: Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

publisher: Simon & Schuster

ISBN: 1501152718

hardcover, 464 pages

THE WRITER’S PRACTICE – John Warner

Posted by Daniel on July 24, 2020
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 1 Comment

It takes a certain amount of courage for a teacher, who was taught in a certain way, and who in turn has taught in the same manner, to rethink his methods and to change the way he teaches a craft (or art). And this is precisely what John Warner has done.  After a decade of teaching writing, Warner re-thought his technique and practice and decided to change the way he teaches. That change led to this book.

I haven’t been a student for over 30 years, so I can’t say how this compares with what others are teaching, but I found the general approach to be refreshing and motivating. Warner explains some of the changes he’s made to his curriculum and why  (what I found most unusual is not requiring a research paper at the end of the class – though his rationale made much sense).

Really what this book is, is a workbook.  This is detailed lesson plans, with explanations as to why and how this might help, that the reader can immediately put into practice.  It is also a really valuable resource for writing teachers and I can imagine a few will teach directly from this book.

My interest was caught up early on when Warner discussed “flow.” Quoting psychologist Mihay Csikszentmihalyi who described “flow” this way:

The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times. . . . The best moments usually occur if a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.

Warner then describes it: “Writing is thinking, and flow is a period of extremely elevated thinking that hardly feels like you’re thinking at all.”

This is something I’ve thought about but never seen put so succinctly into words, and of course that had me eager to see what else he’d present.

This is a great resource, especially for the beginning writer, though anyone who has ever faced writer’s block might find some useful exercises here to help get them out of a rut.

This book targets non-fiction writing, but developing stronger writing skills will be helpful in any format.

I’m typically pretty suspicious of books that are writing self-help books, but I’m always on the lookout for a truly helpful such book. This may just be the book that really will be helpful to the young writer.

Looking for a good book? The Writer’s Practice by John Warner is a wonderful resource for writing teachers, and helpful workbook for writers looking to strengthen their writing skills.

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

* * * * * *

The Writer’s Practice: Building Confidence in Your Nonfiction Writing

author: John Warner

publisher: Penguin Books

ISBN: 0143133152

paperback, 256 pages

SPY X FAMILY, VOL. 1- graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on July 23, 2020
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

While it’s not uncommon for me to read a graphic novel now and again, it is uncommon for me to read manga.  I generally don’t like the art and layout style that I associate with manga.  But the description of this book appealed to me, so I requested a review copy. And not being much of a reader of Japanese comics, I had forgotten that you read manga from right to left, so for the first few pages I was frustrated with the seemingly disjointed story. Once I remembered how one is supposed to read manga, I started again, and of course it made much more sense.

The story:  “Twilight” is a master spy, known among the inner circles as someone willing to go deep undercover to accomplish a mission. His new mission is to infiltrate an elite, private school but in order to do so he’s first going to have to acquire a family – which may be the most difficult bit of spywork he’s ever done.

At an orphanage, Twilight finds a young girl, Anya, who doesn’t quite fit in even with the other orphans, and the director of the orphanage can’t wait to get rid of the little girl. What Twilight doesn’t know, though over the course of time he begins to have suspicions, is that the girl is telepathic.  She can read minds and understands that her new, fake, father is actually a spy going undercover.  What she isn’t able to do is tell him that she knows.  She’s too young to understand that she is different and has a special ability.

At first Twilight thinks this will be enough to get him to access to the school – a child he would like to have enrolled. But he begins to think that perhaps he should have a wife to present a ‘perfect’ family, given the elite nature of the school. He happens to run into a beautiful woman, Yor Briar, who needs a pretend husband to meet her family and they decide they can be mutually helpful to one another. But Yor Briar has a secret … she’s an undercover assassin. Anya knows as she immediately reads Yor Briar’s thoughts.

Now with his fake family, Twilight still has to pass a rigorous interview process at the academy and must train his temporary wife and daughter how to act like the perfect family.

I found this book to be a complete joy.  When I finished this volume my reaction was “That’s it?  Was this just a 32 page comic?” It read so quickly – I was completely absorbed in the story – and I actually double-checked how many pages I had read and was surprised to see it was more than 200 pages.  And as I reflected on all that had happened, it was pretty evident that it couldn’t all happen in a 32 page comic.  It’s just that it read so smoothly!

I liked the characters and both Twilight and Yor Briar have intriguing secrets that make me want to keep reading in order to learn more about them. I was not as interested in the little girl, Anya. I felt very unclear as to who and what she is.  At times a spoiled brat, at times intelligent beyond her years, and then suddenly as equally unintelligent.

The artwork was fine.  It was consistent and flowed well … though again, too often scenes with Anya I didn’t enjoy as they seemed to change the overall appearance of the book.

This is clearly just the set-up for a larger story, but it works well and I am definitely interested in reading the next volume.

Looking for a good book?  Spy x Family, Vol. 1 is a manga graphic novel with plenty of action and intrigue. It’s hard to go wrong when a spy, an assassin, and a telepath walk into a private school.

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

* * * * * *

Spy x Family, Vol. 1

author: Tatsuya Endo

translator: Casey Loe

artist: Tatsuya Endo

publisher: VIZ Media LLC

ISBN: 1974715469

paperback, 220 pages

BIX – graphic novel

Posted by Daniel on July 21, 2020
Posted in: GRAPHIC NOVEL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Wow.

If you’ve ever wondered at how important the artwork in a graphic novel is to telling a story, you should definitely give Scott Chantler’s Bix a read. If you’ve heard of Bix Beiderbecke but don’t know much about him and want to know more, then you should give Scott Chantler’s Bix a read. If you’ve never heard of Bix Beiderbecke but have an interest in jazz music or American history or biographies, then you should read Bix.

Bix Beiderbecke was an amazing jazz trumpet player in the 1920’s, born in Iowa to a strict family with an unforgiving father. Bix tried to live a ‘normal’ life but the call of music was too strong.  His skills were strong and he played with some of the biggest names in jazz at the time, and his name will appear on a few records.  But like something right out of a dime novel, Bix was haunted by demons – demons that often came from a bottle.  Those demons would cause him to miss gigs, and he’d regularly lose jobs.

The actual dialog in this 250+ page graphic novel is quite slim – the first word balloon doesn’t appear until page 80! – but Chantler’s art and layout is SO expressive that we don’t need dialog to understand the story or the emotions of the characters.

The story is quite basic and touches the highlights (low-lights?) of his life, so those more familiar with the Bix Beiderbecke story may not get anything new from this story (I reviewed a Bix biography in 2018) but this is still very much worth reading for the format – the dialog-lite graphic novel.

Looking for a good book? Scott Chantler’s graphic novel Bix is an incredibly well-made, unique biography that is well worth reading.

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

* * * * * *

Bix

author: Scott Chantler

artist: Scott Chantler

publisher: Gallery 13

ISBN: 1501190784

hardcover, 256 pages

RED NOISE – John P. Murphy

Posted by Daniel on July 20, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

An asteroid miner, looking to refuel and stock up on necessities such as food and, water, and oxygen, heads to the nearest space station (Station #35) with a cargo of ore to sell, which should get her enough to purchase her supplies. The Miner (as she is named throughout the book) is met be the station’s self-described ‘welcoming committee’ who try to intimidate her with a show of strength and a slough of fees for services for services that may or may not be rendered.

A corrupt stationmaster is not entirely unexpected and The Miner is willing to pay the ridiculous fees and receive a less than standard take for her ore – in part because she’s not sure she can make it to the next station on the fuel and oxygen she’s got, and there’s no telling if the next station isn’t just as, or more, corrupt than where she’s at.

But the ‘locals’ don’t exactly leave The Miner alone (which they will come to regret) since she’s new blood on the station and she doesn’t look like she would put up much of a fight. The Miner then finds herself in the middle of a three-way stand-off among the station administrators, law enforcement, and engineers.  She will choose a side, then switch, and play them all against one another until they come together with a common goal – to get rid of her.

This was one of those books that came as a total surprise to me. I knew nothing of the author and read no descriptions prior to starting the book.  It’s published by Angry Robot and they are a publisher from whom I will typically read everything they put out, and I do it precisely for this reason – to find something new that I will really enjoy.

In essence, this is a ‘western’ story turned space opera where the confident gunslinger walks into a quiet town and rescues the innocent locals from the various threats. Except this gunslinger is a woman with a katana (Japanese sword).

The story is fine. We can predict a little bit what will happen, though author John P. Murphy does bring in new sources of conflict at just the right times, but what really makes this book soar is the characters. The Miner is fantastic.  Think of Clint Eastwood as the Character With No Name in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly – appropriate not only because we know her only as The Miner (no name) but also because of her confidence and her very evident abilities.  The town she saves is Station 35, and despite a three-way fight between the locals, there’s still a resident or two who are worth saving.

The Miner’s got some bad-ass skills, and a little bits of her past are revealed through the course of the book … just enough to satisfy this reader, but also with just enough mystery still that another book is easy to anticipate.

This is not a ‘cozy’ story – there’s a lot of blood shed on and around Station 35, most (but not all) of it inflicted by The Miner. But it’s not graphically detailed and we definitely understand that The Miner would rather the antagonists lay down their weapons and walk away, but that she’ll fight to kill if given no option.

Murphy’s writing is tight and deliberate and it is very easy to fall into this book and not want to leave until the last page is read.  I had a great deal of fun here and The Miner is the kind of hero (heroine) that a reader can really rally behind.

Looking for a good book? Red Noise by John P. Murphy is exciting space opera with great characters. If you like westerns in space or adventurous sci-fi where the good guys win and the bad guys lose, then you’ll love this book.

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

* * * * * *

Red Noise

author: John P. Murphy

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857668471

paperback, 440 pages

TERMINUS – Tristan Palmgren

Posted by Daniel on July 17, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I don’t do this too often, but I’m going to use the publisher’s descriptions as posted on Goodreads, to sum up this book:

Operatives from an alien culture struggle to survive in medieval Italy, in the SF sequel to the astonishing Quietus.

The transdimensional empire, the Unity, has dissolved, its ruling powers forced into exile – but empires don’t die easily. The living planarship Ways and Means has come to medieval Earth and ended the Black Death, but it keeps its intentions to itself. Someone is trying to kill its agent Osia, who is suffering through her own exile. Spy-turned-anthropologist Meloku becomes a target, too, when she catches Ways and Means concealing the extent of its meddling. While they fight to survive, Fiametta – an Italian soldier, mercenary, and heretical preacher – raises an army and a religious revolt, aiming to split Europe in half.

I think this is a very good, very succinct description of this book.  If it sounds intriguing to you, then by all means (ways and means) you should pick it up and give it a read.  If this sounds confusing, then you and I are on the same page.

Well … okay … confusing isn’t exactly the right word.  This does make sense.  I’ve read enough scifi and fantasy and alternatve history to be able to follow the idea of an alien race, complicit in some underhand dealing that we don’t understand, coming to earth during our medieval period, and curing the black plague for reasons of their own. This is the bigger, over-arching story. But the book really follows the more immediate pursuits of the characters of Osia and Meloku and Fiametta.

And I didn’t care. I was bored numb with this read.

I really liked the first part of the first book, but once the story took on the larger scope of another empire trying not to dissolve and using earth’s middle ages as a backdrop, something shut off for me. The characters mean nothing to me (I only liked the one who didn’t make it to this book) and they are just pawns in a story that hasn’t caught my interest.  And there’s a lot of that story.

The book has a great rating on Goodreads (since I copied the description, I couldn’t help but notice) and I’m clearly going against the general reactions.  Though being out for a year and a half, I’m also surprised at how few ratings and reviews this has. Not every book is for every reader.  This one is definitely not for me.

Looking for a good book? Terminus, by Tristan Palmgren, is a follow-up to his epic Quietus. The story never captures this reader’s interest, which made for a very long, slow read.

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

* * * * * *

Terminus

author: Tristan Palmgren

series: The Unity #2

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857667580

paperback, 512 pages

WILLFUL CHILD: THE SEARCH FOR SPARK – Steven Erikson

Posted by Daniel on July 16, 2020
Posted in: HUMOR, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Captain Hadrian Sawbuck and his rag-tag crew of the Starship Willful Child continue their unusual adventures, bringing chaos and disrepute to the galaxy around them.

Sawbuck isn’t the brightest LED on the console but he’s full of confidence and he’s forever trying to laid. And maybe they are trying to accomplish a goal, but the real goal here is to offer up a laugh at the parody parallels with one or more famous science fiction television franchises.  The obvious one (to those of us familiar with sci-fi television) of course is Star Trek, but there’s a bit of The Orville (which, of course, is also a parody of Star Trek) here, too.

The book is part of a series and I read the first book (Willful Child) and I enjoyed it, which is why I wanted to read this third book as well. But I found this book lacking. It was much more work to read this book and follow the exploits of the group.  Even a parody should have a plot that takes the reader on a journey and the humor comes with the comparisons along the way.  The story here …?  I can’t really identify it for you (and if you read through the first page of Goodreads reviews, you’ll notice no one identifies the plot). Like the first book, this reads like a series of episodes, with a little mini-plot every chapter or two. But where I found the humor in the first book amusing, I found the humor here to be forced. We either work too hard to set up something funny, or characters/situation are brought in simply for their humor potential.

Only four times did I chuckle here, twice at names of characters (Captain John “Lucky” Placard and Admiral Trustworthy Honest), once as author Steven Erikson pokes fun at himself (“It’s like a … hopeless amalgam of tropes!”) and once at a juxtaposition of phrases that caught me by surprise.

Erikson clearly knows the Star Trek universe and has an appreciation for it – you can’t write a parody without a love for the subject. But trying to recreate parody magic is not easy.

Looking for a good book? If you absolutely loved the first two books in Steven Erikson’s Willful Child series, then, yeah, you’ll probably want to continue with this, Willful Child: The Search for Spark.  But if you simply liked the first book for the parody, there isn’t much here that’s different to make this worth reading.

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

* * * * * *

Willful Child: The Search for Spark

author: Steven Erikson

series: Willful Child#3

publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 0765383969

hardcover, 352 pages

THE COMPLETE AND ORIGINAL NORWEGIAN FOLKTALES OF ASBJORNSEN AND MOE

Posted by Daniel on July 14, 2020
Posted in: CHILDREN'S, OTHER, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This book holds so much appeal to me on so many different levels.  First of all, I’m fascinated by fairy tales, folk tales, and mythology. The creating of myths and legends to explain the unexplained, or to teach lessons, or simply to pass along stories to new generations is so remarkable.  We get caught up in best-seller fiction that we tend to forget these roots of story-telling.

Then there’s the absurd and the supernatural elements.  For most readers today, if I offered a novel or a collection of short stories of trolls, or people turning into pigs or horses or birds, or where witches offered up promises of riches, the responses would typically be that the readers isn’t interested in supernatural fiction or such fantasy elements.  But if it’s offered as a fairy tale or folk tale, the response tends to be different.

And then there’s the unique ‘Norwegian-ness’ to the stories.  I loved reading these and thinking that it is very likely that my ancestors were read or told many of these stories as they were growing up.

And finally, I liked how new some of these were to me, and how similar to other countries’ tales other stories were.

I have to admit, the character of Ash Lad was entirely new to me, and he appears in a number of stories in this collection. He was apparently a  popular ‘everyboy’ symbol. He is often (always?) the youngest of siblings, given the worst chores and not much is expected of him in terms of success. But of course, he is usually the one who succeeds where all the others before him have failed. The first two times I read a story in which Ash Lad appeared I didn’t think much about the character, but by the third time, I had grown to look forward to reading the Ash Lad stories.

Some stories were quite interesting for their different look at a familiar concept.  “Kari Stave-Skirt” was quite an interesting variation on the Cinderella story. And “The Twelve Wild Ducks” is the Snow White story.

Most of us have heard of frog’s turning into prince’s or swans becoming a princess, but never before have I read a story in which a cat’s head is cut off and “the loveliest princess that anyone could ever imagine” appears! (“Sir Per”)

One of the great things about folk tales is that if you don’t want to explain how something happened, you don’t have to! “There were once three brothers,” begins the story, “Nothing is Needed by the one All Women Love,” “I don’t really know how it happened, but each of them had been given one wish so they could have whatever they wanted.”

And of the greatest titles for a short story/tale would have to be: “The Blacksmith They Didn’t Dare Let into Hell.”

In addition to a quite thorough collection of fairy tales, we are given numerous forewords introductions (collected from the various Norwegian editions) that give us some valuable insight into the development and changing role of folk tales in Norwegian literature.

It took me a little longer than normal to read this book because I savored it.  The tales are often quite short, but reading too many in one sitting (certainly not how they would have been read or told to children) would have them blend together a bit.

I’ve read most of Andersen’s and Grimm’s fairy tales and it was a real treasure for me to read Asbjørnsen and Moe.

This book contains the following:

Foreword – Neil Gaiman
Translator’s Note
3 About Ash Lad, Who Stole the Troll’s
Silver Ducks, Coverlet, and Golden Harp
The Gjertrud Bird
The Griffin
The Quandary
Richman Peddler Per
Ash Lad, Who Competed with the Troll
About the Boy Who Went to the North Wind and Demanded the Flour Back
The Virgin Mary As Godmother
The Three Princesses in White Land
Some Women Are Like That
Everyone Thinks Their Own Children Are Best
A Tale of Courtship
The Three Aunts
The Widow’s Son
The Husband’s Daughter and the Wife ’s Daughter
The Rooster and the Hen in the Nut Forest
The Bear and the Fox Why the Bear Has a Stump of a Tail
The Fox Cheats the Bear Out of His Christmas Meal
Gudbrand Slope
Kari Stave-Skirt
The Fox As Shepherd
The Blacksmith They Didn’t Dare Let into Hell
The Rooster and the Hen
The Rooster, the Cuckoo, and the Black Grouse
Lillekort
The Doll in the Grass
Paal Next-Door
Soria Moria Castle
Sir Per
Little Aase Goosegirl
The Boy and the Devil
The Seven Foals
Gidske
The Twelve Wild Ducks
The Master Thief
The Three Sisters Who Were Taken into the Mountain
About the Giant Troll Who Never Carried His Heart with Him
Dappleband
Nothing Is Needed by the One All Women Love
Ash Lad, Who Got the Princess to Say He Was Lying
The Three Billy Goats Gruff, Who Were Supposed to Go to the Mountain Pasture to Fatten Up
East of the Sun and West of the Moon
The Hen Who Had to Go to Dovre Mountain or Else the Whole World Would Perish
The Man Who Had to Keep House
Tom Thumb
Haaken Speckled-Beard
Master Maiden
Well Done and Poorly Rewarded
True and Untrue
Per and Paal and Esben Ash Lad
The Mill That Keeps Grinding at the Bottom of the Sea
The Maiden on the Glass Mountain
Butterball
Big Per and Little Per
Ragged Cap
The Bushy Bride
The Tabby Cat on Dovre Mountain
Farmer Weather-Beard
The Blue Ribbon
The Honest Four-Skilling Coin
The Old Man of the House
Foreword to the Second Norwegian Edition – Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
From the Introduction to the Second Norwegian Edition – Jørgen Moe
Foreword to the Third Norwegian Edition – Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Foreword to the Fourth Norwegian Edition – Peter Christen Asbjørnsen
Notes on the Regional Collection Sites of the Tales
Index

Looking for a good book? The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe is valuable book and resource of fairy tales and anyone interested in the history of literature or story-telling, or just a great collection of classic tales, this is definitely a book to have.

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

* * * * * *

The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjørnsen and Moe

translator: Tiina Nunnally

publisher: Univ Of Minnesota Press

ISBN: 1517905680

hardcover, 320 pages

WILD JUSTICE – Loren D. Estleman

Posted by Daniel on July 13, 2020
Posted in: Uncategorized, WESTERN. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

This was my first Loren D. Estleman book, and it most definitely will not be my last.

It is 1896 and Judge Harlan Blackthorne of Montana has passed away. He’d had a long career serving out justice in the Montana territory. His ‘go-to’ person at the Marshall’s office has been Page Murdock, who was working to clean up the territories, bringing back the lawless to face trial in Blackthorne’s court. Now Murdock has one last mission – to escort the judge’s body on the funeral train back to his home state of Delaware. As the train makes stops along the way, Murdock comes in contact with many others who were touched by Blackthorne’s life, giving opportunity for reflection.

This is the tenth book in the Page Murdock series and perhaps this was a strange place to start. It feels like a wrap-up, given all the reflection. And having not read any of the previous books in the series, I have no idea how important Judge Harlan was to the stories.

There is a larger story here – getting the body back to Delaware – and we never lose track of it and Estleman wraps this up very nicely. The sense of life in the ‘old west’ is expertly captured here and the death of an old west judge is a powerful metaphor for the dying ways of the old west which is also at the dawn of a new century. We can’t help but see that Murdock recognizes this change and meeting with people who had stories about Blackthorne have the Marshall wondering about his own future.

I found Estleman’s writing style comfortable and comforting. I very much looked forward to sitting down and reading this book.  And while I have a suspicion there may not be many more to come, I do see that there are nine other books in this particular series that I will be looking for.

I don’t know why I haven’t read any Loren D. Estleman books prior to this as I’ve certainly been aware of him and he’s got a very long list of books and stories and awards to go with them all, but I’m glad to have the chance to read this.

Looking for a good book? Wild Justice by Loren D. Estleman is a western novel that reflects on the history of the old west. It is easy and delightful to read.

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

* * * * * *

Wild Justice

author: Loren D. Estleman

series: Page Murdock, US Deputy Marshal #10

publisher: Tor Forge

ISBN: 1250197090

paperback, 224 pages