A VOICE IN THE NIGHT – Jack McDevitt

Posted by Daniel on March 13, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I am only somewhat familiar with author Jack McDevitt through his Alex Benedict series, which I have really been enjoying. When I saw the opportunity to read a collection of McDevitt’s short stories, I was eager to take advantage of it.

Most of the stories here have been published previously in a variety of magazines, the earliest being in 1986 and the most recent in 2017. Thirty years of solid science fiction is quite impressive!

I was mostly impressed with McDevitt’s writing.  While I typically don’t go in for ‘hard’ science fiction, and I’ve always imagined Jack McDevitt as a hard scifi author, I really just found a lot of good stories, scifi in nature. The stories were interesting, with themes that caught my attention.  I did notice that a number of the stories relied on a ‘surprise’ ending, but that’s probably not too unusual with short stories.  My favorite story was probably “The Play’s the Thing” – which is probably not a surprise to those who know me – in which a highly authentic AI version of William Shakespeare is created and writes some new plays, including a comedy (in the Renaissance sense) of women living on the moon.

Overall this was a really solid collection, and unlike a lot of anthologies, there wasn’t anything here that I disliked. If you want to break up your novel reading, consider these stories.

The title story is an Alex Benedict story, but, as a fan of the book series, it didn’t really excite me.  It was fine a a short story, but I didn’t see anything special about it being part of the Alex Benedict series.

This book contains the following:

Jack McDevitt, History Builder by Martin L. Shoemaker
“Searching For Oz ”
“The Law of Gravity Isn’t Working on Rainbow Bridge”
“The Adventure of the Southsea Trunk”
“Combinations”
“It’s a Long Way to Alpha Centauri”
“Lucy”
“Listen Up, Nitwits”
“Midnight Clear”
“The Lost Equation”
“Blood Will Tell” (Co-written with Tom Easton)
“Blinker”
“Friends in High Places”
“Maiden Voyage”
“Waiting at the Altar”
“The Play’s the Thing”
“Oculus”
“Good Intentions” (with Stanley Schmidt)
“Molly’s Kids”
“Ships in the Night”
“The Pegasus Project”
“Cathedral”
“The Last Dance”
“Excalibur”
“A Voice in the Night”

Looking for a good book? A Voice in the Night is a collection of short stories by Jack McDevitt.  It is a good, solid set of short stories that really ought to be enjoyed by anyone who likes good science fiction.

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

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A Voice in the Night

author: Jack McDevitt

publisher: Subterranean

ISBN: 1596068809

hardcover, 464 pages

THE CLEARING – Dan Newman

Posted by Daniel on March 11, 2020
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Dan Newman’s The Clearing is billed as an eerie thriller, and the book opens with a murder, which definitely has a strong, eerie overtone and was perfect for pulling me into this story. Unfortunately, the rest of the book was quite flat.

Nate, a young man, travels back to the island of St. Lucia, where his father has recently committed suicide. But the suicide of a diplomat is not the story here.  As a young teen, Nate was caught up in an incident in which he and three friends went off alone into the wilderness of the island, but one of the boys didn’t return. Now he has to not only face the shock of his father’s death, but a past that has haunted him for many years, as well as the almost animalistic nature of the island itself.

The narration of the book bounces back and forth from the era when the teen boys discovered the brutal truth of death, to the present day, with Nate trying to come to terms with his past on St. Lucia. This back and forth storytelling is not uncommon, but I didn’t find it necessary. In fact, I tended to find the story of the past much more interesting than the present. The teen Nate was wide-eyed and impressionable, and what he sees has the strength and horror the way a good horror thriller should be.  The older Nate is clumsy and remarkably unsure of himself.  I really wanted to skip these chapters.

There is a lot of time spent on create a mood or an atmosphere for the book. Getting the proper mood for this sort of thriller is really important, but it definitely should not be all-consuming, and the story just develops too slowly to really be engaging.

The back and forth nature of the narrative was distracting and I didn’t quite understand why we were going back and forth. Typically, about the time I wonder ‘why’ in a book, the author will reveal something that lets us know why this has been important.  I didn’t get that here.  I really felt I had two distinct stories going.

I was mostly bored with this book, except for the opening chapter and one chapter about three-quarters of the way in, when something finally happened.

This is not recommended.

Looking for a good book? The Clearing, by Dan Newman, is a moody, dark thriller that spends more time on creating the mood than it does on developing a story.

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

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The Clearing

author: Dan Newman

publisher: Diversion Books

ISBN: 1682300501

paperback, 246 pages

LOUIS L’AMOUR’S LOST TREASURES VOLUME 2 – Louis L’Amour and Beau L’Amour

Posted by Daniel on March 9, 2020
Posted in: SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized, WESTERN. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I’m the type of reader who is always fascinated by the writing process, so looking at early and unfinished works by a prolific author is something that really interests me. This is the second volume of “Lost Treasures” from the Louis L’Amour and much like the first volume, this contains a wide selection of works in various states – from the first ten chapters or so of a novel, to treatments and outlines, and even two versions of the beginnings of a story.  Not everything here is what we might expect of L’Amour (a western), but everything reflects his easy style.

While most of us know the name of Louis L’Amour as the writer of pulp western fiction, Louis wanted to branch out and write in other genres.  But Louis was a product of a specific publishing age. The model of cheap pulp paper pumping out exciting fiction helped make him a success, but it also held him back because the publishers felt his readers would only identify with his western fiction.

In addition to the two different beginnings of a novel, I also really enjoyed reading a story or treatment and then Louis L’Amour’s notes to himself – asking where the story is headed, who are the characters, what is the motivation, etc. It’s as though he had a scene in his head, which he wrote down, but he had no idea what was supposed to happen from this moment.

The Louis L’Amour catalog is now managed by his son Beau L’Amour and Beau sometimes adds his own knowledge to the creation of these unfinished works. These could be overdone, or embellished, but I get the sense that Beau is being quite straightforward – sometimes admitting that he doesn’t know the origins of a work, but can make a guess based on places Louis visited, and when.

The proposal for the non-fiction book sounds incredibly fascinating – it is a book I would definitely have read.

This is an unusual book, because not only are these not quite short stories, they truly are unfinished works.  You have to really enjoy the writing process, or the works of Louis L’Amour, to enjoy this.  Fortunately, I enjoy both.

This book contains:

WHAT IS LOUIS L’AMOUR’S LOST TREASURES?
INTRODUCTION BY BEAU L’AMOUR
1. THE BASTARD OF BRIGNOGAN: Two Beginnings to a Historical Novel
2. MAC ROSS: The Beginning of a Western Novel
3. DAM AND TIMBER: Notes for an Adventure Story
4. THE QUEST FOR THE BEAR: A Complete Adventure Story
5. KILLS BEAR: The First Three Chapters of a Frontier Novel
6. BEN MALLORY: Seventeen Chapters of an Adventure Novel
7. THE DEATH OF PETER TALON: The Beginning of a Western Novel
8. THE JADE EATERS: A Treatment for a Motion Picture
9. THE FREEZE: The Beginning of a Science Fiction Story
10. BEN MILO: The Beginning of a Crime Story
11. IN THE MEASURE OF TIME: A Complete Adventure Story
12. THE PAPAGO KID: The Beginning of a Western Novel
13. KRAK DES CHEVALIERS: A Treatment for an Adventure Story
14. IBN BATUTA: A Proposal for a Nonfiction Book
15. SHANTY: Two Beginnings to a Western Novel
16. KRAG MORAN: The Beginning of a Boxing Story
17. STAN DUVAL: The Beginning of a Crime Story
18. LOWIE: The Beginning of a Western Story
19. SOUTH OF PANAMA: A Treatment for an Adventure Story
20. THE ROCK MAN: Notes for a Television Series
21. BORDEN CHANTRY II: The First Ten Chapters of a Western Novel
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Looking for a good book? Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volume 2, edited by Beau L’Amour, is another great collection of early and unfinished works by one of the great storytellers.

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

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Louis L’Amour’s Lost Treasures: Volume 2

author(s): Louis L’Amour and Beau L’Amour

publisher: Bantam

ISBN: 0425284921

hardcover, 576 pages

MISS ICELAND – Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

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

So many of the books I have read lately have been written in a best-seller style … written with the intention of capturing attention and holding on to the reader with lots of exciting action and intrigue. And by reading so much of this, I gotten into a bit of a flow – a reading pattern – so that when I started this book, I was caught off-guard and actually not very interested right away.  But about a quarter of the way in, I really connected with the main character, realized that my disinterest was my own fault, and started the book over.  And I’m glad I did.

It is the 1960’s in a remote town in Iceland. Hekla wants to be a writer, and so she packs up her Remington typewriter and heads to Reykjavik and moves in with her gay friend, Jón John. Hekla learns that the world – at least her part of it – is quite misogynistic and doesn’t want a young woman to write. What they want is for Hekla, who happens to be a pretty young woman, to be in the Miss Iceland pageant.

Hekla, a woman writer, and Jón John, a gay man in the 60’s find themselves constantly on the outside of an accept society, which brings them closer and closer together, until Hekla moves in with a man … a young man who says he is a writer.  He hangs out with all the right friends, and they talk about writing and literature all the time, but Hekla never tells him that she is writing her own novel. Instead, she publishes a few things using a pseudonym (and all of her boyfriend’s friends spend time wondering who the magnificent new writer really is.

The boyfriend is hurt at first, when he learns that his Miss Iceland-like girlfriend s actually a better writer than he, but he comes to accept and support her.  But she never feels truly comfortable with him, and move back with her gay friend, where she feels truly supported for who she is.

This book is really powerful and dark and  beautiful.

I’ve read critics who written about the darkness and loneliness found in Scandinavian literature, usually associated with the mystery novels (reaching a bit of a peak with the Stieg Larsson books). But I found that loneliness captured supremely well here, and supported with just enough of a ray of hope to have me feel good at the end.

Although set in the 1960’s, it doesn’t have to be.  There’s enough of the world that is stuck in that mindset that this, unfortunately, could take place today just as well.

This is one of those rare books that I will read again. Hekla’s quite strength and determination, the fact that she keeps focused on what she wants to do, despite everyone telling her what she should do or could do without even trying, is motivational.

My only complaint is a technical one … my advanced reading copy did not format well for the Kindle and I sometimes struggled just to follow a sentence or understand when there was a break, but it was definitely worth the effort of sticking with it and reading to the end.

Looking for  good book?  Miss Iceland, by Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, it a tremendous, motivational, and somewhat dark book about a a young woman making her own path in a very male dominated world.

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

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Miss Iceland

author: Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir

publisher: Grove Press, Black Cat

ISBN: 0802149235

paperback, 256 pages

DOROTHY MUST DIE – Danielle Paige

Posted by Daniel on March 4, 2020
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Amy Gumm is a young girl from Kansas who finds herself swept up in a tornado and dropped into the land of Oz.  Of course she’s familiar with the famous story of Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz … who doesn’t know it? But Oz looks different.  There’s still a yellow brick road, and Munchkin’s, and flying monkeys, but the road is crumbling, the monkeys can be executed for acts of rebellion, and the wicked witches just might be on the ‘good’ side.

Amy learns that things have changed, and not for the better, because of Dorothy. Dorothy, it seems, found a way to return to Oz and she’s taken control in the most wicked of ways. Those who aren’t with her are summarily executed, and so Dorothy has a large, but more scared than willing, following.

And such dictatorship control has led to the creation of the Revolutionary Order of the Wicked – a resistance group that has now recruited Amy because they are convinced that Amy is the only who can kill Dorothy, and in order for Oz to return to its former glory … Dorothy must die!

I’ve read many (not all) of the books in the Oz series by L. Frank Baum and I’ve wondered why more people haven’t written new books and stories set in this world, so when I saw this series in my local library, I was very interested in giving it a read.

Author Danielle Paige has done some homework and created a new, awfully dark, story with many of the characters we’re already familiar with (mostly from the film).

Despite the ruin we find in this world now, and the evil control held by Dorothy, it is fun to visit this world. Paige has done well to show us the changes and have us longing for the world we remember.

The big hurdle, however, is the characters.

None of the characters resembles those we’ve met through the original books or the classic film. We first have to accept this very divergent Dorothy (which I never really bought into), and then the blind following by the Tin Woodsman and Scarecrow and Lion, and a Lion who rips the arm off a servant (in front of a crowd) with his teeth.

The story is interesting (if you like dark fantasy), but really it could have been about anyone because we don’t have much here that resembles our known characters, other than their history.

Looking for a good book? Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige is pretty good dark fantasy but only barely average as a story set in the land of Oz.

I borrowed this book from my local library.

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Dorothy Must Die

author: Danielle Paige

series: Dorothy Must Die #1

publisher: Harper Collins

ISBN: 0062280678

hardcover, 452 pages

EXECUTION IN E – Alexia Gordon

Posted by Daniel on March 2, 2020
Posted in: MYSTERY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Wedding bells become a funeral dirge in Alexia Gordon’s latest Gethsemane Brown mystery!

A domineering bride-to-be wants a picture-perfect wedding and part of that picture is the lighthouse on the cliff.  Gethsemane has to work hard to stop her dead friend, Eamon, who formerly lived in the house, from killing the entire party.  But it turns out that Eamon is the least of her concerns when members of the wedding party begin showing up dead. Gethsemane spots her friend Verna standing over one of the bodies and learns later that the groom was Verna’s ‘ex.’  Verna couldn’t possibly be responsible for the killings … could she?  Gethsemane is in a race against time to prove Verna’s innocence before the Garda lock her away.

The previous Gethsemane Brown book was a little bit of a let-down for me, and I really missed the music connection that I felt defined Gethsemane and the Gethsemane/Eamon relationship.  This book doesn’t have much of a music connection either, but I didn’t miss it as much this time around.  The relationship with the members of the wedding party was tight and well-defined enough that I was really absorbed in the story.

This is one of the few mystery series’ that I look forward to reading.  Our protagonist is a highly educated woman and typically makes smart choices.  Too many of the other cozy-type mysteries I’ve read have protagonists who succeed more by accident than by plan. Gethsemane may get some help from the after-life (which is done exceedingly well) but the decisions are still hers.

This is a series to read, but I highly recommend starting with the first book to best understand the characters.

Looking for a good book? Execution in E by Alexia Gordon is a delightful cozy mystery (book #5 in the Gethsemane Brown Mysteries series) and well worth reading.

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

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Execution in E

author: Alexia Gordon

series: Gethsemane Brown Mysteries #5

publisher: Henery Press

ISBN13: 9781635115154

paperback, 262 pages

IMPLANTED – Lauren C. Teffeau

Posted by Daniel on February 28, 2020
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Emery Driscoll is a college student who, like most young girls, is keyed in to the popular ways of staying connected with friends.  In this era, it is through neural implants that allow one another to communicate immediately and by direct thinking.

Emery is blackmailed into becoming a courier for a darkly secret organization and her neural connections are cut off from the rest of the world who uses the implants to communicate.  Imagine a teen today not allowed to have a phone to send texts or IMs.

It seems that Emery has a rare condition which allows her to carry encoded data in her blood, undetected. Now she can transport all manner of secrets from one point to another … she just has to bleed a little to do so. Her blackmailers will take advantage of this for as long as possible. And of course, Emery is ultimately expendable.

In her domed city of New Worth, there are different factions working to either claim freedom from the dome, or to ensure the safety and security of the domed city – depending on which side one feels most attached. Emery isn’t sure she agrees with her blackmailers – but does she have a choice?

The early chapters of this book where wonderfully engaging.  As author Lauren C. Teffeau set up this world for us, I was really caught up in it.  But as the book moved on from showing us the world, to telling us the story, I lost interest.  While I was really enjoying learning about the world that I was in, I was never really drawn in to the characters, so their story just never got very interesting for me.

I also had a strong sense of déjà vu as I read through this.  It wasn’t too long ago that I read another YA sci-fi book about a courier, and the implant communication is some pretty classic sci-fi.

Looking for a good book? Implant by Lauren C. Teffeau is a pretty average sci-fi book, probably best targeted to teens.

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

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Implanted

author: Lauren C. Teffeau

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857667998

paperback, 400 pages