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THE PENGUIN BOOK OF MERMAIDS – Cristina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown, editors

Posted by Daniel on August 28, 2020
Posted in: MYTHOLOGY, OTHER, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

If you are like me, when someone says “mermaid” images of Ariel from Disney’s The Littlest Mermaid film, or Daryl Hannah from the film Splash come to mind. Though lately the other image might be a creature looking half human, half fish, with piranha-like teeth – from Mira Grant’s excellent book Into the Drowning Deep. But if you are expecting a collection of these sorts of mermaids, you will be sadly disappointed.

Editors Cristina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown have gathered mermaid stories and legends from all over the world. The term ‘mermaid,’ however, is quite loosely defined for the purposes of gathering the stories for this book.  Any human-like creature that lives primarily in the water is acceptable here.

It did take me awhile to get used to this concept that the idea of a ‘mermaid’ could be so drastically different from culture to culture. For instance, this book contains a tale from the Passamaquoddy tradition, here titled “Of the Woman Who Loved a Serpent Who Lived in a Lake” in which the ‘mermaid’ is more snake than fish, and male.  It’s an odd tale as the woman who interacts with the serpent/mer-being is a vessel for the serpent’s poison, transferring it to her husband’s (multiple, as they die shortly after being with her).  My note from the reading is simply: “Mermaid?”

I enjoyed this collection quite a bit, and I enjoyed expanding my knowledge of the mermaid concept, but at the same time, I can’t say that this was overwhelmingly ‘good.’  Only one story/legend stood out for me: “Julnar the Mermaid and Her Son Badar Basim of Persia.”  Wait … does this sound familiar?  It should … it’s more commonly known as “Julnar the Sea-Born and Her Son Kind Badr Basim of Persia” and it’s the 23rd chapter from Tales from the Arabian Nights.

This is actually one of the things I really appreciated about this book … the research of so many different sources for mermaid/sea-creature stories.  I also learned a few things (“Ningyo, the Japanese word for mermaid, has no gender.”) and it did occur to me that the purpose to read a collection like this is not so much for ‘pleasure’ but for knowledge or perspective or cultural significance or social significance (which is not to say some of us don’t take great pleasure in expanding our knowledge or perspective or …).

Looking for a good book?  If you are willing to expand your horizons and your concept of what a mermaid is, you should give The Penguin Book of Mermaids (edited by Cristina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown) a read.  But don’t expect too many stories that project a Daryl Hannah style creature.

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

* * * * * *

The Penguin Book of Mermaids

editors: Cristina Bacchilega and Marie Alohalani Brown

publisher: Penguin Books

ISBN: 0143133721

paperback, 368 pages

THE GIRL IN RED – Christina Henry

Posted by Daniel on August 26, 2020
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Ooooohhhh … I really salivate when I see there’s a new Christina Henry novel out! And could I have read anything more topical right now?

In the same way that Ms. Henry took the Alice in Wonderland stories and reset them in a darker world using different (but recognizable characters) and retold the action and themes of the story, she has taken on the grim fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood.

The world is in the middle of a pandemic and Cordelia, who never goes by the name Cordelia but prefers to be called ‘Red’ for the red jacket that she wears constantly, and her family have chosen to avoid going to the government ‘camps’ (set up to protect the people, of course) and are going to head out to Red’s grandmother’s place – a remote home in the woods, sheltered from much of the current pandemic.  It won’t be easy … driving would make them obvious targets, but Red’s mom and dad are concerned about the walk because Cordelia is handicapped with a false leg (a childhood injury). But before they strike out, Red’s mother comes down with ‘the cough’ and then one of the roving gangs comes to the house to have a little ‘fun’ with the family just because they are black.  Mom and dad promise to hold the gang off as long as possible so that Red and her brother Adam can make their escape and get to their grandmother’s house, making them promise not to leave each other.

Red and Adam, quarreling constantly (they are siblings, about the same age) sneak into towns, trying to find food and other supplies that they can use on their journey.  But such resources are harder and harder to find as gangs and militia units have formed to make a steady sweep of communities to clear them of food.

In one gas station mart, Adam and Red discover the body of, presumably, the shop owner.  Finding bodies isn’t all that unusual for the pair, but this particular body has a hole in chest, from the inside to out, and slithering blood stains on the floor around him. Just what they need … another thing to worry about. But while Adam immediately thinks about the movie Alien, Red is convinced that there’s a logical explanation and nothing to worry about.

A little further on, Red and Adam are caught by a military group when the siblings try to clear supplies from a big box store. The leader of the group interviews the pair and ‘take a blood sample’ – though Red doesn’t buy it. She does learn, however, that there is indeed something insidious, something government sanctioned, causing the holes in peoples’ chests.

She learns this too late to save Adam, and Red is on her own until she runs into a pair of children, siblings, like she and Adam, but much younger.  Out of concern for the youngsters, she convinces them that they’d be better off walking with her to her grandmother’s house (they had no goal other than to stay away from the gangs).

There really is so much going on in this novel.

First off, I read this while self-quarantined due to the COVID-19 corona virus, so the background for this story – a virus that has had a deadly affect on the country – was amazingly topical.  And while the fact that Red and her family were African-American wasn’t central to the story, it was there and of course my time in quarantine corresponds with the death of African-American, George Floyd while being restrained by police.

So…we have a devastating virus.  Some people get it, some don’t, and the Government (capital ‘G’) is trying to lock people away in camps.  We have hometown gangs running rampant. We take a step up from gangs to non-official militia groups who are reportedly kidnapping women to be their slaves while they raid and loot. And we have the military, trying to control the militia and secure civilians.

Among these groups we have only one good person and even with that, Red doesn’t trust him at first, though he proves himself worthy.

We also don’t meet many citizens – anyone not swallowed up by gang, militia, or military – not alive anyway, but the one we do meet turns out to be helpful.

I definitely get caught up in Henry’s writing.  It is deliciously dark without being gross. Even the darkest moments, the descriptions of having to kill someone (in a kill or be killed situation) are handled quite well. It was fun to spot the parallels to the Red Riding Hood story (or at least what I remember of it) but I have to admit that I chuckled every time we were reminded that Red is walking through the forest on her way to grandmother’s house.  And we were reminded of this a few times.

I did not need the creature coming out of the chest. It was brought in late in the book and didn’t add much to the story (and was left rather unresolved – this felt like a set-up for another book). I understand the analogy to the fairy tale (“the better to eat you with, my dear”) but there really was enough here to not have to go down that particular path (pun intended).

The book felt disjointed. There was so much focus on Red and Adam and staying together and scavenging supplies, and then they weren’t together and the focus was mostly just on getting to grandmother’s house, with the kids. There was danger mixed in (obstacles to overcome) – the rape gangs, the slaver militias, the big bad wolf, er, military, but each came in somewhat piecemeal with very little overlap.

This is the sort of book that feels good to read it – Henry’s writing is delicious – but upon reflection there isn’t a whole lot here and what is here feels like it belongs in a different story.

A book by Christina Henry is better than most, but this is not her strongest work.

Looking for a good book? If you like a dark spin on fairy tales, give Christina Henry’s The Girl in Red a read. It’s a fun take on the Little Red Riding Hood fairy tale, but it may not make a last impression.

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

* * * * * *

The Girl in Red

author: Christina Henry

publisher: Berkley

ISBN: 0451492285

paperback, 293 pages

MISADVENTURES OF A MAGICIAN’S SON – Laurie Smollett Kutscera

Posted by Daniel on August 24, 2020
Posted in: CHILDREN'S, SF/FANTASY. Tagged: , , , , , . 2 Comments

There aren’t many twelve-year-old’s who know magic, but Alexander Finn was trained by the best … his father. But right now, Alex can’t see how magic could possibly help him.  His father has died and his mom has moved them to her hometown of Orchard, Maine. Things couldn’t look bleaker and Alex doesn’t even want to unpack.  To do so would be to admit and accept these changes – something he doesn’t want to do.

One afternoon, while poking through his father’s desk, he discovers a deck of cards hidden at the back of a drawer.  Alex quickly discovers that this is no ordinary deck – even for a magician. In this deck, the face cards come alive. King Anton, Queen Olivia, and the Jack of the Hearts become Alex’s closest friends and they, in turn, want to help Alex and his mother as they settle in to their new life.

Alex learns of a magic competition in their town (how convenient!), which he probably had a good shot at winning based on the skills he learned from his dad, but with the help of his special deck of cards, he’s practically guaranteed the top spot. But there were others who thought that they had a good shot at winning and maybe didn’t appreciate newcomer Alex’s tricks, for after the competition, Alex discovers that his deck of cards has gone missing! Alex desperately wants these cards back … not only does he consider them friends, and they are highly unique, it remains one of the last connections to his dad and he’s not ready to give that up so easily.

This book is a sweet, gentle, coming-of-age story with just the hint of fantasy that should appeal to middle school readers. The idea is clever – what middle school boy (or girl) doesn’t like magic and hasn’t checked out books and tried to learn it on his/her own?  Okay, maybe I’m just putting myself out there… I certainly did this at about Alex’s age (right before wanting to become a master puppeteer).

As sweet as this is, I never completely bought in to the story. Some of the action/responses felt a little bit forced on me (a need to move the story forward or to identify a character in the quickest way possible) and I felt more a voyeur to the action than being brought right in to the story.  Still, I can see some readers enjoying this.

The author, Laurie Smollett Kutscera, also provides her own artwork here to help illustrate the story.  It is equally sweet and gentle and appropriate for the targeted reader.

Looking for a good book? Misadventures of a Magician’s Son by Laurie Smollett Kutscera is a gentle coming-of-age story for middle school readers. Some readers will likely connect easily and really enjoy Alexander Finn’s adventure while others, like me, will find it cute, but not particularly memorable.

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

* * * * * *

Misadventures of a Magician’s Son

author: Laurie Smollett Kutscera

publisher: Blue Whale Press

ISBN: 1732893543

hardcover, 178 pages

THE PHOENIX AND THE CARPET – E. Nesbit

Posted by Daniel on August 21, 2020
Posted in: CHILDREN'S, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother, the Lamb, who were last seen in Five Children and It are back for another adventure in The Phoenix and the Carpet. This adventure starts as the children are playing in the nursery with some fireworks and they accidentally burn the rug. (Wait a minute … children in a nursery are playing with fireworks?  No one has a problem with this?  … We have to remember that a ‘nursery’ could have been used for many years, and not just for infancy and this was a very different time when Edith Nesbit wrote these books more than 100 years ago.)

The replacement carpet was delivered the next day after their father went out to acquire a new rug. As they unrolled it, an egg fell out.  The children, being good and honest children, try to return the egg to she shop where father had purchased the carpet, but the owner refused to acknowledge that anything would be inside his clean and proper rug. So they children now had an egg, which accidentally rolled into the fire and then hatched a Phoenix – which, to no one’s surprise it seems, spoke to the children.

The Phoenix tells the children his story which includes how he came to be wrapped in the carpet and reveals that the carpet is a magic carpet which can fly and transport the children anywhere they can think to wish to go. The children put a lot of faith in the trustworthiness of the Phoenix and the carpet as they swoosh off to adventure, only to discover that it isn’t quite as smooth sailing as they had presumed.

I like Edith Nesbit’s books. I don’t know how long ago it was that I first discovered her work, but I think Nesbit’s name deserves to be as well remembered as Lewis Carroll’s or Frances Hodgson Burnett’s, but unless you are really a devotee of children’s literature, Nesbit’s name is slightly forgotten, despite the constant reprinting of her books.

Dover Publications has reprinted the original 1904 work here, unabridged and with a selection of the original drawings for the book by H.R. Millar. “A selection.” I wish I knew what that meant.  There are 21 drawings here, to go with the twelve chapters. These pen&ink drawings are fantastic and I’ve always appreciated this period when a few drawings were included in a book like this.  If there are more that would go along with this book, I’d love to see them.

The story is really fun. It’s adventurous and quaint (in a good way).  This is the perfect book to read aloud to a child at bedtime – particularly if that child is too old for picture books, beyond chapter books, but maybe not ready for the heavier themed stories in longer works. Even with something like children playing with fireworks in the nursery (which all seems very natural when you read it) this is a good choice for young readers.

Looking for a good book? The Phoenix and the Carpet by E. Nesbit is a delightful, whimsical, fantasy tale of children exploring England (and beyond) on a magic carpet, with a talking Phoenix as their guide.

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

* * * * * *

The Phoenix and the Carpet

author: E. Nesbit

series: Five Children #2

publisher: Dover Publications

ISBN: 0486828808

paperback, 272 pages

THE CITY OF MIRRORS – Justin Cronin

Posted by Daniel on August 19, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Justin Cronin finishes off his epic, The Passage, trilogy with The City of Mirrors.

Time has passed since ‘The Twelve’ got their butts kicked. Life is good and the sense of real community is growing again. Amy is missing but she is being seen in peoples’ dreams. And we get to know Zero.

We really get to know Zero.

Zero, once known as Timothy J. Fanning, was the original viral, the original vampire, who started what became the end of the world, is now 150 years old and he wants people to know his story.  And if you’re a 150 year old vampire, father to all the other vampires, you get what you want. Which means we have to listen in.  And Zero’s story, only about a quarter of this book, at nearly 200 pages, is a book in itself.

He gives us a bit of a sob story, but what he really wants is to face off against Amy – Amy, the savior of humanity if she can win the final battle. But where is Amy?  Will she actually appear?

And surrounding this novel-within-a-novel, we get a bunch of other stories – a wrap up of humanity.

I thought that the first book in this series was great – filled with excitement and danger, with a ton of questions.  It made me eager to read the second book.  But that second book really felt rough to me.  This one feels just as rough, but in a different way.  Here we have the last book in a very long series, which took a number of years to complete, and it feels like too much effort went in to making sure everything was wrapped up nicely … combined with a backstory that didn’t get told in the previous 1300 pages of story.

Maybe it’s because the story of these people wasn’t very fresh in my head (sorry, but I was not going to go back and reread those first two books) but I kind of didn’t care too much through most of the book.  There were moments, however (just as with the previous volume), that were really fascinating. The question about Amy – what happened to her, where is she, will she face off against Zero?  – kept me going here. But this is a damned long book for just this.

I definitely feel like I jumped on the bandwagon with this book.  The first book was really good and it got a lot of good publicity.  Many of us were eager – desperate even – to read the follow up.  And then we felt committed.  We’d spent hours reading a lot of pages. It was just going to be a waste of time if we didn’t read to the conclusion, right?

I think I need a t-shirt that reads “I read all of The Passage series”

Looking for a good book? The City of Mirrors by Justin Cronin concludes a series, and if you’ve read the first two books you might want to finish it off.  On the other hand, you could go on and read three other books with a better chance that you’ll find satisfaction with one of them.

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

* * * * * *

The City of Mirrors

author: Justin Cronin

series: The Passage #3

publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 034550500X

hardcover, 602 pages

CORPORATE GUNSLINGER – Doug Engstrom

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

Thank you, Doug Engstrom!  Corporate Gunslinger is a tremendously unique, remarkable literary experience.

Kira Clark is an aspiring actress. She has financed her education through loans. And with acting being what it is, she borrowed just to pay rent or to pay the premium on her school loans.  with debt compounding, Kira faces a grim reality.  Her loans were secured with a ‘lifetime services contract’ – meaning if she defaults, the bank will control every aspect of her life. With her debt now out of control and no means to pay it back, Kira resorts to the only option left open to her … she becomes a corporate gunfighter.

In this world – not so much a future world, but an alternate reality (and sadly not so far-fetched) from our own – there is no Judge Judy or small claims court, filled with lawyers trying to make deals so that they can claim a share of the payout.  no, the final legal recourse is a duel, old west style.

After a solid year of training, Kira goes to work for TKC Insurance. Anyone challenging a claim against TKC Insurance – if they decide not to payout for instance – the legal recourse is to fight a one-against-one gunfight duel against the insurance company’s representative.

How it works is that the two fighters go into a single changing area to prepare for the fight.  If either does not come out of the changing room and onto the dueling field by a specified time, the duel is forfeited and the standing fighter on the field is declared winner. If both face off, the last fighter standing is declared winner. The duel is generally skewed toward the insurance companies, of course, since they have trained and prepared their agents.

Kira quickly rises up the ranks of successful duelists, though admittedly in large part by psyching out her opponents who will often not even show up to the field. But even in an actual duel, the safest way to ensure a win is to score a kill shot, guaranteeing that the opponent goes down. But killing people, even though it’s legal, it’s her job, and those people always have an out, takes its toll on Kira. Unfortunately, her debt is deep and she’ll be doing this a long time, or until someone kills her.

How do I describe to you how utterly fantastic this is? The commentary on our culture is so spot on.  We are a nation obsessed with greed and with violence (just note the rise in interest in MMA-style fighting).  How far-fetched is it, really, that those in control of both (greed and violence) combine them? We’ve done it before (the gladiator games of ancient Rome) so it seems likely that it’s only a matter of time before we do something similar again.

Regular readers of my reviews will know that I often talk about how much I prefer character-driven stories, and while I’ve extolled on this concept, the character of Kira is just great.  She sees her role as a gunslinger as just an act – a part to play, just like any other she might, using her theatre training. But some of her kills get under the facade and she questions what she does.

Kira’s professional ‘Second,’ Diana Reynolds – who personally trained Kira and saw something unique in her – is a wonderful balance for Kira, both in the story as a character, as well as for the reader to not constantly have Kira’s personality at the forefront.

While I am a male and my viewpoint is clearly skewed, I thought that these three leading female characters (Kira’s closest friend is Chloe) were written with warmth, strength, and integrity. It takes some courage for a male author to decide that his three central figures will be female and Engstrom handles with grace.

Finally, it certainly helped my enjoyment of the book that this is set primarily in the U.S. Midwest and I could recognize the basic landscape.

Looking for a good book? Corporate Gunslinger by Doug Engstrom is a powerful, well-written tale. The copywriter for the book cover lays it out perfectly: “Greed means debt means violence.”

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

* * * * * *

Corporate Gunslinger

author: Doug Engstrom

publisher: Harper Voyager

ISBN: 0062897683

paperback, 320 pages

FIRST YOU WRITE A SENTENCE – Joe Moran

Posted by Daniel on August 14, 2020
Posted in: NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Has ever more been written about less?

I am always on the lookout for new, clever books about writing (and believe me, there is no shortage of such books) and this one definitely caught my interest. But reading it was sometimes a long, slow journey through Alphabetland. It wasn’t until I was nearly halfway through the book that I felt it actually got interesting.  If I wasn’t committed to reading this, as a reviewer, it’s most likely that I would have stopped well before I got to the better parts.

Author Joe Moran loves the sentence.  I mean really loves the sentence.  So much so that the opening sections of this book are his tribute, homage, love notes to the sentence. Am I overstating this?  There are seven chapters in this book.  The first one is called “A Pedant’s Apology Or why I wrote this book” and includes sentences such as:

A mathematical equation and a written sentence have much in common. Both rely on symmetry and balance, often asserting a connection between the seemingly different. Both explain reality in as elegantly concise a form as they can. Both reduce randomness to inevitability, their equals signs or clauses falling into place with a rightness that renders the inchoate and incoherent suddenly clear. Both tell us something about the world outside themselves— but both also swim in their own kind of beauty.

And while Moran is clearly passionate about which he writes, I can’t say that he was convincing.  There are necessary elements of good writing, and a strong sentence structure is a key part of that.  Yeah, I remember freshman English.  That’s like a lecture or two in a classroom, not an entire book.

Moran never loses site of his obsession with the sentence, but as we get further into the book, the writing becomes more interesting and he gives us little nuggets of wisdom (in the form of sentences, of course): “A long sentence should feel alive, awake, kinetic, aerobic – like a poem.”

What I appreciated most was when Moran began to discuss ‘flow.’ “Flowing sentences are forward-facing, drawing what they need from the previous sentence and then setting up the next one.”  This seems like a fairly obvious statement, but given some of the books I read, more writers could use this reminder. But the real wisdom comes with: “Flow should feel natural but almost never is.” Ah yes … so many writers need to feel the inspiration but forget that it really takes work.

There are plenty of pearls here. For instance:

“Listen, read and write for the sentences, because the sentence must be got right or nothing will be right.”

“A sentence is not about self-expression but about editing your thoughts into a partly feigned fluency, building a ladder of words up to a better self.”

But on the whole, I think that Moran could have taken some of his own advice:

“Reading a sentence should never be a grim duty. This obdurate fact about writing stays true however much you scale is up. Most paragraphs are longer than they need to be, likewise most chapters. Most books go on for fifty pages longer than they should, We forget this because it is less effort to speak than to listen. Writing is not a sermon, and as some point, sooner than we think, we should stop.  No one is ever as interested as we are in what we have to say.”

I know some people who might find this entire book of interest (I’m thinking of you, K), but those people are generally too busy writing their own works to spend the time on this.

Looking for a good book? First You Write Sentence by Joe Moran is not just a primer on writing well or sentence structure, but practically an ode to this building block to better writing.

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

(for well-written sentences)

* * * * * *

First You Write a Sentence.: The Elements of Reading, Writing … and Life

author: Joe Moran

publisher: Viking

ISBN: 0241978491

hardcover, 240 pages

I, CRIMSONSTREAK – Matt Adams

Posted by Daniel on August 12, 2020
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

If you have been following my blog for any length of time, by now you must know that I enjoy superheroes and superhero fiction.  Finding books, as opposed to graphic novels (essentially book-length comics) was, at one time, relatively rare, though there’s been a bit of a boon in such titles.

I read the follow-up to this book (II, Crimsonstreak) awhile back and I wasn’t really enamored with it, but when I found this book at the back of a long queue of books to review, I thought perhaps the first book in the series might explain some things that I was missing in the second book.

The story (sort of): Chris Fairborne (the superhero known as The Crimsonstreak) is the son of superhero(ine) Miss Lightspeed and supervillain-turned-good Colonel Chaos. His mother is killed, his father takes over the world, and he, Chris Fairborne, is framed by his father, sent to a prison for criminally insane supervillains, where he plots, for three years, to make his escape. Meanwhile he watches newsfeeds of Crimsonstreak standing next to Colonel Chaos. Hmmm, how can that be?

There’s potentially a lot going on here, but for a story about someone with super speed, the book reads tremendously slow. Action is not the name of the game in this superhero tale, instead, reflection and planning, mulling and musing take up most of the pages which made this quite dull for me (sorry … I want to see my superheroes in action, or nursing wounds from a recent action).

There’s also a real sense of magic-wand-ness here.  The authors waves his hand and something is cleared up or another character changes his ways or something on the verge of happening is no longer a threat. The author as deus ex machina is not something I want in my popular fiction.

As with the next book in the series, the book is loaded with extras.  ‘newspaper stories,’ journal entries, and superhero biographies.  I may have enjoyed these more than the story itself.

Perhaps this is just a case of Matt Adams the author and me, the reader, not being a good fit for one another.  It happens. But as the reader/reviewer, I can’t recommend this book.

Looking for a good book? I, Crimsonstreak by Matt Adams is a lethargic superhero story that will not leave you wanting for more.

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

* * * * * *

I, Crimsonstreak

author: Matt Adams

series: The Crimsonverse #1

publisher: Candlemark & Gleam

ISBN: 1936460262

paperback, 351 pages

TORTURE OF THE MOUNTAIN MAN – William W. Johnstone & J.A. Johnstone

Posted by Daniel on August 10, 2020
Posted in: Uncategorized, WESTERN. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

In Audubon, Texas the sheriff, Andrew Peabody, is out of commission when, while trying to arrest a criminal, a bullet rips through his chest.  The local doctor says it doesn’t look good – the bullet is too close to the heart and he knows he doesn’t have the skill set to remove it safely.  But it so happens that Peabody’s deputy sheriff, Dalton Conyers, happens to be brother-in-law to one of the most renowned surgeons in the world. He’ll wire his sister and ask if her husband can come and help.

There’s never a good time to be without the sheriff, but it couldn’t be much worse.  The railroad company is sending tens of thousands of dollars to the Audubon bank so that they can hire laborers to construct a new line. But a tough gang of criminals are going to try to get that money for themselves.  Enter Smoke Jensen, a tall, tough, fast-drawing mountain man who evens the odds just by showing up.

I’ve generally enjoyed the Johnstone books I’ve read in the past few years, but this one kind of let me down. Though William W. Johnstone’s name is in large print on the cover (he died in 2004) and niece J.A. Johnstone is attributed to carrying on the brand from the elder Johnstone’s notes, this book did’t have the same ‘feel’ to it.

In general, I found the author of Torture of the Mountain Man to be talking down to the reader.  We couldn’t be trusted, it seems, to pick up on hints and clues – things needed to be repeated.

“Why was it you tried to kill im?”
“On account of he is the son of a bitch that kilt my brother.”
“So, that’s how come you know ’im, huh? ’Cause he kilt your brother?” Claymore asked.
“Yeah.”

We also have a fair amount of characters asking leading questions, just to get a little information dump.

“Yeah, I remember Cutter MacMurtry. I remember his brother, Hatchett, too. They both worked for Pa until Cutter got arrested for killing Father Grayson and his wife and two little children. All for just over a hundred dollars as I recall.”

Although my favorite is still the simple, direct approach: “By the way, captain of what?”

I typically see this kind of writing in self-published or small press publishers, but I don’t expect to see it when there’s a respected author’s name attached to it (even if it is just a brand now).

I don’t remember having any issues with this style of authorship with the previous Johnstone books I’ve read.

The story arc is decent and very direct.  There’s not much subplot going on here.  Bad guys. They want to steal things.  Good guys need help and the hero arrives. It was entertaining enough to keep me reading, despite my feeling treated like a novice reader.

Lastly … I don’t understand the title.  Torture of the Mountain Man. The “Mountain Man part I get.  That’s Smoke Jensen.  This 46 book series is called The Last Mountain Man.  But where… what … was the torture?  The word Torture itself is used only once … in the title of the book.  It does not appear anywhere else (we can check these things pretty easily now). And that’s okay to not actually use the word, but I expected to see Smoke feeling tortured (if not actually physically being tortured), and I did not.  This strikes me as nothing more than hyperbole to make the book sound much more exciting than it is, and that, along with the writing style, now has me just a little leery about picking up another book by the author(s).

Looking for a good book? Torture of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone doesn’t quite hold to the excitement and quality of previous books by the authors, but if your OCD won’t allow you to miss a volume in your collection, you might still find something to enjoy here.

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

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Torture of the Mountain Man

authors: William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone

series: The Last Mountain Man #46

publisher: Pinnacle Books

ISBN: 0786035536

paperback, 384 pages

THE MORTAL WORD – Genevieve Cogman

Posted by Daniel on August 7, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

“Peace” is the word as the dragons and the Fae are negotiating for a peaceful accord between the two nations. But the talks are being challenged when a key diplomat in the process is killed, stabbed in the back.  To investigate, both sides agree to bring in Irene Winters – a bit of a rogue Librarian and spy.

The Library – the organization that Irene works for – is a secretive library organization in which Librarians travel between different realities stealing special books in order to make sure that the most important works are preserved.

Now Irene has to work with both factions to find out who the murderer is, and why he or she wanted to damage the peace talks.  Helping Irene is Peregrine Vale, a talented detective whom Irene trusts, and Kai, a dragon prince who trained to be a Librarian and who now may be romantically involved with Irene.

There are plenty of suspects in and among the group of negotiators, but Irene is not one to rush to judgment.  She needs to move quickly, though, because someone doesn’t want her to get too close to discovering who has done this.

This series has taken the reader on many adventures and if we’ve come to learn anything it’s that we don’t really know what we’re about to get into. Although we still have dragons and Fae and a lot of animosity, this book was less robust action and more about solving a mystery.

The story moved along swiftly and the book was finished before I knew it, though I never felt that this was a ‘page turner’ for me. I also never really felt that the peace talks were in danger. While the whole point of Irene being there was so that the talks could continue, I never got the impression that they wouldn’t.

Irene really is no longer a trainee or new-comer to the work of the Library (I believe she even references this at one point), and a big part of the fun in the early books was that she was finding her way. I see this book as the first big step in her maturing and seeing things in a different way.

I feel like I should like this series more than I do.  The concept is great and the world(s) is well defined, and the characters are unique and brilliant. But I just don’t manage to connect with these people.  I enjoy the books fine, but I definitely don’t get the same overwhelming glee as many other readers.  This book in particular was one of the weaker ones for me, in terms of bonding with the characters.

I’ll look forward to the next book or two, and hope that I can really connect with the characters.

Looking for a good book? The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman is the fifth book in The Invisible Library series, focusing more on other inhabitants of this world (dragons and fae) than on the Library. The mystery is well done, though the outcome was never in doubt.

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

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The Mortal Word

author: Genevieve Cogman

series: The Invisible Library #5

publisher: Pan Macmillan

ISBN: 1509830723

paperback, 418 pages

MONSTERS & CREATURES – gaming

Posted by Daniel on August 6, 2020
Posted in: OTHER, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I first played Dungeons & Dragons (or “D&D” as it’s commonly known) back in 1977.  A number of the people I first played with are still good friends (some have passed on, with others I’ve simply lost touch).  And while I was never able to get my own children interested in playing D&D with dad, my 23 year old son now has a regular group that gets together, some of them online, three times a month, to play the latest edition of D&D.  Which is to say … D&D certainly has staying power!

For the most part, D&D is adaptable and playable for any age, though some of the manuals might get a bit complex.  Finally the publishers of D&D manuals are offering up a quality book of monsters and creatures that are likely to be around and good campaign.

The artwork is something that will be noticed first and foremost by anyone considering this book.  There aren’t a lot of lavish scenes – this is mostly a painting of a creature at its fiercest with just enough other background to identify a habitat.  But the artwork, credited to “Conceptopolist,” is really top notch. This is exactly the kind of art one expects to see in a D&D manual.  It’s sharp, strong, and evokes strong emotion.

The written detail on each beast is only two or three paragraphs long – just enough to get a feel for what makes the creature dangerous. It’s brief, but works very well for the target audience.

What I like the most, I think are the “DO’s” and “DON’T’s” for each creature … “DO THIS: Aim wide. Their displacement ability means these wicked beasts are never where they seem to be. DON’T DO THIS: Don’t stick to a schedule. Displacer beasts are clever enough to remember the schedules of travelers passing by on a regular basis…”

The category of beasts is broken down by terrain type (Caverns & Dark Places; Forests, Mountains & Other Terrain; Moors, Bogs & Boneyards, etc) and as we begin each new terrain there’s a short scenario, as if a Dungeon Masters was telling the players what they see ahead of them. This wasn’t necessary for me, but it might be nice for the young DM to get a feel for how to set up the action.

All in all, this was a nice book and I can easily see giving this as a gift to the young role-player – but I wouldn’t want to face any of these creatures on my first foray into a quest!

Looking for a good book? Monsters & Creatures, a new book for Young Adventures from Dungeons & Dragons, would be ideal for the young or new Dungeons & Dragons role players.

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

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Monster & Creatures

author: Jim Zub and Stacy King and Andrew Wheeler (Dungeons & Dragons)

publisher: Ten Speed Press

ISBN: 1984856405

hardcover, 112 pages

CREATIVITY: A SHORT AND CHEERFUL GUIDE – John Cleese

Posted by Daniel on August 4, 2020
Posted in: HUMOR, NON-FICTION, OTHER, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Who better to write a book about creativity than John Cleese?!

If you pick up this book thinking it will be a Monty Python-like humor book, you might be disappointed.  But if you pick this up hoping to find some tips on how to discover or enhance your own creativity (as well as why it’s important), in a light, cheerful, and … dare I say it … creative manner, then you should be thoroughly pleased.

If you are familiar with John Cleese (and if you aren’t you probably wouldn’t bother picking this up) you can probably ‘hear’ him reading this.  He writes just as he speaks, making this easy and delightful to read.

Cleese wasn’t always a creative comic (actor and writer) … he initially studied to become a lawyer before getting involved with “the nicest bunch of people” while studying at Cambridge. Since that time, he’s discovered a few tips and tricks about being creative.

What Cleese writes makes a lot of sense, and it comes from research which he quotes, and his own observations. If you were to sum it up, I believe it would be that creativity can’t be forced, but it can be coerced and sometimes we need to recognize it for what it is.  This latter part is particularly important.  Cleese notes that when he and friend Graham Chapman were trying to write together they would grow frustrated during periods of creative ‘blockages’ – though after an entire week of work, they would typically come up with a certain amount of good material, week after week.

“We came to understand that the blockages weren’t an interruption in the process, they were part of it. For example, when you eat, the bit where the fork returns empty to your plate isn’t a failure. It’s just part of the eating process.”*

Wow.  That’s actually kind of brilliant.

The book is brief … very easy to read in one day … but packed with insightful help and plenty of wit and charm. Just what you’d expect from John Cleese. He makes a strong case for reasons why creativity is important in everyday life and not just for the ‘creative types.’  But even those of us who consider ourselves creative will probably find a gem or two of advice that can be applied to our work (I know I did).

I highly recommend this book.

Looking for a good book? Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide by John Cleese is not only creative and clever, it is insightful and helpful and a great reference.  You should get a copy.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
*Note: Quotes are from an advance review copy of the book and may not reflect the final published version.

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Creativity: A Short and Cheerful Guide

author: John Cleese

publisher: Crown Publishing Group

ISBN: 0385348274

hardcover, 112 pages