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THE REVENGE OF THE ROSE – Michael Moorcock

Posted by Daniel on January 3, 2023
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: 3 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

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Three novellas in one title, as seems to be the pattern with the Elric books. “Concerning the Fate of Empires,” “Esbern Snare; The Northern Werewolf,” and “A Rose Redeemed; A Rose Revived.”

Elric, the albino prince of the doomed city of Melniboné still cavorts with his friend Moonglum when Elric is visited by a dragon who brings the prince to the ghost of Sadric his father. Sadric needs Elric to find his soul which is currently being kept in a wooden box in a land far away, and reunite spirit and soul. If Elric fails, he will be paired with Sadric’s ghost, at which time bad things will happen.

On his journey to find the lost soul, Elric will gain an ally – the warrior princess Rose. Elric and Rose have a mutual enemy, Charion, a high valued, undead agent of Chaos. They need to deal with Charion or Chaos will rule without check. But a couple of demons make it more challenging.

Just before completing his mission to restore Sadric with his soul, Elric learns that Rose’s involvement in the fight against Charion was all about revenge for what Charion had done, destroying her people.

I bought this book when it first came out but I’d not read it because I had fallen behind in reading the series at the time.  It was, I believe, the 8th book in the series then.  Now in this new definitive (?) collection, this becomes the 6th book in the Elric saga.

Elric has always been philosophical but I think there’s more talk and waxing philosophic in this volume than there is swordplay – and that’s not why we read these kinds of books. There is a little bit of high stakes conflict with Charion, but that almost feels secondary to Elric being able to reflect and get morose about the world.

This is not a strong addition to the series and I’m curious why it’s being moved up in the order of the books.

Looking for a good book? The Revenge of the Rose by Michael Moorcock is a late addition to the Elric saga, low on action but high on existential philosophy.

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

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The Revenge of the Rose

author: Michael Moorcock

series: The Elric Saga #9, The Elric Saga #6

publisher: Saga Press (2022 collection); Ace (1991 edition)

ISBN: 9781534445710 (2022 edition);  9780441718443 (1991 edition)

hardcover, 851 pages (2022); 244 pages (1991)

THE VANISHING TOWER – Michael Moorcock

Posted by Daniel on January 2, 2023
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: 3 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

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It’s Elric time again, as I am working my way through the entire series.

As with the four previous Elric books, there are three ‘books’ between the covers – likely novellas or novelettes.

In the first, “The Torment of the Last Lord,” Elric and his faithful servant Sancho Moonglum head off to confront the evil wizard Theleb K’aarna but they are beset upon by strange and terrible monsters. They are ill prepared for this battle and Elric calls upon an ancient god to help them, but the god refuses and they are captured and his sword, Stormbringer, lost.  When they are taken away Elric finds a woman in coma who speaks to him (this is Moorcock, remember) and tells him many things, including where to find an item that will help him defeat the wizard’s army.  But that item is on the other side of the world, so Elric has to take a magical bird that she somehow supplies, after some effort finds the jewel that will help him defeat Theleb K’aarna, but also finds a jewel that should awaken the woman.

Battle ensues, Stormbringer returns, Theleb K’aarna flees, woman awakes, love is made.

The second ‘book’ in this volume is “To Snare the Pale Prince.” Elric and Moonglum are off in a quiet village recuperating from their recent adventure. They are nearly undefeatable when facing armies and evil wizards and maniacal kings, but the pair of them get hoodwinked by a couple of young ladies who steal the Ring of Actorios – the ring that Elric must use to summon supernatural assistance.

It is, of course, a ploy on the part of Theleb K’aarna and Elric and Moonglum will fight more monsters.

The final piece is “Three Heroes with a Single Aim.” Elric connects once again with other incarnations of the Eternal Champion to visit Tanelorn – the refuge for tormented souls. The three-in-one eternal champion must enter the Vanishing Tower together to defeat an evil wizard (but this time it’s not Theleb K’aarna).

While the 1977 edition of this book still sits on my shelf, I don’t remember if I read it or not.  There were times when the story seemed familiar, but I recognize that all three of these stories seem similar to stories in the previous volumes as well.

While I like the Eternal Champion theme, I recognize that it isn’t explained particularly well in the Elric books. In a nutshell – all the heroes (at least all of Moorcock’s heroes) are incarnations of the same person but in different realities and from time to time, they meet to fight together.  And as time runs differently in different realities they sometimes know each other and sometimes don’t.  Sometimes they remember shared battles that haven’t happened yet.  Yes, it’s all a bit metaphysical and the Elric books are often quite philosophical and existential.

This particular volume didn’t excite me too tremendously. There was either a lot of senseless fighting or a lot of brooding.  Sometimes at the same time.

For a short time I enjoyed the middle story, which, although a little ridiculous to have Elric and Moonglum taken in by your average prostitutes, was a little more on the relaxing side after all the heavy battling and brooding from the previous story, but then it, too, turned darker.

This is part of the Elric saga so I’m glad to have read it, but if I wasn’t a little OCD about book series, I’d probably have skipped it.

Looking for a good book? The Vanishing Tower is part of the Elric series by Michael Moorcock, and in that regard it is worth reading, but it’s not a particularly strong addition to the series.

I received a digital copy, as Volume 2 in The Elric Saga, from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Vanishing Tower

author: Michael Moorcock

series: The Elric Saga #4, Elric Chronological Order #6

publisher: Daw (1977); Saga Press (2022)

ISBN: 0879976934 (1977) 1534445714 (2022)

paperback, 175 pages (1977)

Happy New Year

Posted by Daniel on January 1, 2023
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

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OLAV AUDUNSSØN: III. CROSSROADS – Sigrid Undset

Posted by Daniel on December 30, 2022
Posted in: HISTORICAL FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: 4 stars, Book Reviews, Books, Historical Fiction, Literature, Reviews. Leave a comment

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I have come to look forward to these Olav Audunssøn books!

It is medieval Norway – the 1300’s – a time of great upheaval for the country from internal politics to neighboring conflicts with Sweden and Denmark. And what is happening on a country-sized scaled is reflected in the life of Olav Audunssøn, a moderately wealthy land owner racked with guilt over past events and his estrangement from his son, and who wonders what the future holds for someone like himself, now in midlife and looking toward his waning years.

Olav accepts an opportunity to be a part of a merchant ship headed to England – though this is clearly more about Olav trying to escape his past than it is about being on a merchant ship or traveling to England.

In England Olav meets a woman, at church, who he at first thinks is his beloved Ingunn (though clearly it can’t be). The resemblance is so striking to Olav that he imagines this woman with all of Ingunn’s traits and when he believes she’s inviting him back to her home (he doesn’t speak her language nor she, his) he’s full-on in his Ingunn fantasy. But reality teaches him a hard lesson.

Olav returns home to a son who now stands up for himself and is ready to strike out on his own. But Olav won’t be alone for long … the Swedes are invading.

These books are so well written and so beautifully translated that the reader is pulled into the story and brought along on the journey. We don’t feel like observers, but participants.

This volume, in the four book series, had a bit of  a Gulliver’s Travels feel to it – much more episodic with mini stories that each had their own solution (the sailing, the woman who looked like Ingunn, the confrontation with the son, invasion of the Swedes, etc) rather than all intertwined throughout the course of the novel.

This might be my least favorite of the books in the series that I’ve read so far. Olav behaves here ‘out of character’ for what we’ve seen of him to this point. While I recognize that he is changing – and struggling with his changing – the instance with the woman in England feels way too different from everything else we’ve seen of Olav.

But … the title of this volume is “Crossroads” and Olav is clearly at this intersection and wondering (and wandering) what the rest of his life holds in store. If there’s a sentence in this books which defines this volume it would be: “It became clearer to him how little a middle-aged man counted in the world when he’d been stripped of everything, such as property and powerful kinsmen, that increased his worth.”

The book ends with the clash with the Swedes and Olav taking on the new role of organizing a muster of farmers to protect and defend their land. I will be interested to see how much this plays into the final book.

Looking for a good book? Olav Audunssøn: III. Crossroads by Sigrid Undset and translated by Tiina Nunnally, is an absolutely engaging tale of a man in medieval Norway trying to find his path in life and understand how he fits in to God’s greater plan.

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

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Olav Audunssøn: III. Crossroads

author: Sigrid Undset

translator: Tiina Nunnally

publisher: University of Minnesota Press

ISBN: 9781517913342

paperback, 216 pages

BEYOND THE WALL – James Lowder, editor

Posted by Daniel on December 29, 2022
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: 4 stars, Book Reviews, Books, non-fiction, Reviews, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

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One of the signs of a pop culture success is the ‘jumping on the band-wagon’ to capitalize on that success. I don’t mean this to be as negative as it sounds. Take, for instance, a book of essays like this – Beyond the Wall – which has a number of people examining different aspects of the popular book and television series A Song of Fire and Ice by George R.R. Martin. This book certainly wouldn’t exist if the series weren’t extremely popular (where are the books like this on Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber or Louis L’Amour’s Sackett series, or Jan Karon’s Mitford books? And honestly, they may exist, I can’t say I’ve looked for them, but it’s more likely that they haven’t seen the pop culture success that Martin’s books have seen.

The up-side to this is that for those of us who enjoying digging a little deeper into a series, or who appreciate new viewpoints or learning something new, we have that opportunity through books like this.

I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of Martin’s books (mostly because I’ve only read the first one and only seen the first season of the HBO hit series), but I’m certainly more interested in exploring both based on some of the essays in this collection (and because I’ve waited long enough to read this book and write this review, there’s a new television series set in this world, which should renew interest in a book such as this).

First, I’ll note that I appreciated Linda Antonsson and Elio M. Garcia, Jr.’s comment in their article, “The Palace of Love, the Palace of Sorrow,” that “readers identify with characters, not socioeconomic trends, so it’s natural to position protagonists and antagonists as the primary instigators of events.” Readers of my reviews will note that I comment on this quite often.

One of my favorite essays in the collection is Myke Cole’s “Art Imitates War” in which, early on, he writes:

If there’s one specific area I like to hone in on, it’s Martin’s facility with character. Martin routinely steps into the mindsets of a wide range of characters who are nothing like him. … Each one fully realized. Each one authentic. And each one suffering from intense trauma. Martin’s not very nice to his characters. Westeros is a rough place to grow up. Every single major character in the saga is horribly traumatized at some point, and that trauma is exacerbated as their stories evolve. It’s in that trauma, and how his characters react to it, that I see Martin at his best.

That Cole has been to war multiple times, and responded to domestic disasters makes him keenly aware of what emotional trauma does to people.

I thought that the piece by Matt Staggs, “Petyr Baelish and the Mask of Sanity” was quite well written, with observations such as:

One of the great charms of Martin’s epic is that the author avoids the good versus evil dichotomy present in much of fantasy fiction, instead opting to present a more textured, realistic human tableau. Just exactly who the heroes and villains are depends on one’s perspective, and even then neither designation is necessarily static: the despised monster of one book may be the hero of another, or vice versa.

and

Martin doesn’t introduce an external source of evil in his work because it isn’t required. There is corruption and depravity and sin in A Song of Ice and Fire, but it can all be ascribed to human fallibility. Supernatural evil is exceptionally rare, and when it appears, it is almost uniformly alien.

Caroline Spector’s essay, “Power and Feminism in Westeros” was also a powerful and well-written piece and John Jos. Miller’s article “Collecting Ice and Fire in the Age of Nook and Kindle” was as much a fascinating and informative look at book publishing and collecting as it was a connection to the Martin saga.

Fans of the Song of Fire and Ice books and series will definitely want to get some extra insight into these books.

This book contains the following:

Foreword • Stories for the Nights to Come by R.A. Salvatore

Introduction • In Praise of Living History by James Lowder

“The Palace of Love, the Palace of Sorrow • Romanticism in A Song of Ice and Fire” by Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García, Jr.

“Men and Monsters • Rape, Myth-Making, and the Rise and Fall of Nations in A Song of Ice and Fire” by Alyssa Rosenberg

“Same Song in a Different Key • Adapting A Game of Thrones as a Graphic Novel” by Daniel Abraham

“An Unreliable World • History and Timekeeping in Westeros” by Adam Whitehead

“Back to the Egg • The Prequels to A Song of Ice and Fire” by Gary Westfahl

“Art Imitates War • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in A Song of Ice and Fire” by Myke Cole

“The Brutal Cost of Redemption in Westeros • Or, What Moral Ambiguity?” by Susan Vaught

“Of Direwolves and Gods” by Andrew Zimmerman Jones

“A Sword Without a Hilt • The Dangers of Magic in (and to) Westeros” by Jesse Scoble

“Petyr Baelish and the Mask of Sanity” by Matt Staggs

“A Different Kind of Other • The Role of Freaks and Outcasts in A Song of Ice and Fire” by Brent Hartinger

“Power and Feminism in Westeros” by Caroline Spector

“Collecting Ice and Fire in the Age of Nook and Kindle” by John Jos. Miller

“Beyond the Ghetto • How George R.R. Martin Fights the Genre Wars” by Ned Vizzini

Looking for a good book? Beyond the Wall is a collection of essays about George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice series (both books and television), edited by James Lowder. There are some definite gems among the collection that will have you looking at the series in some new light.

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

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Beyond the Wall

editor: James Lowder

publisher: BenBella Books, Inc.

ISBN: 9781936661749

paperback, 220 pages

BE THE SERPENT – Seanan McGuire

Posted by Daniel on December 28, 2022
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: 4 stars, Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

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Book sixteen in the October Daye series – a solid urban fantasy series by one of the top writers in the genre!

October Daye is now married (to the King of Cats!) and life is supposed to become much more domestic – which might terrify October somewhat since she’s never been prepared for this kind of life. After all, what need is there for domesticity when you are a Hero among the Fae? But trouble can come from family and friends. If your Toby Daye … especially from family and friends!

While some of Toby’s family have certainly been a thorn in her side, she has, at least, known where they stand and how much she can or cannot rely on them. But deception from long-time friends might blindside October.

In the opening pages of the book, author Seanan McGuire notes that the events that unfold here in book 16 are something that she’s planned from the very beginning of the series. This just adds to my already high esteem for McGuire. I mean, sixteen books?  That’s a long game plan.

The book has most of the usual players, though not all of them have leading roles in this one (Tybalt, surprisingly, has very little to do other than be Toby’s focus of relaxed attention), and we have the typical running commentary from Toby about all of those around her. There are the usual threats and Toby’s cautious reflections on what’s happening about her.

What is new with this book, is the lack of ending.

That’s right … although this has been an on-going series, the books I’ve read have still managed to be complete stories. But this book has what others generously refer to as a ‘cliffhanger’ – meaning, there’s no real ending here, you’ll have to wait for the next book to finish this story.

I like McGuire and I really like the October Daye series, and I can’t imagine not reading these books, but I always take away at least one star for giving me a book to read that doesn’t have an ending.

Also as usual, there is a novella at the end of the book.  This one, “Such Dangerous Seas,” gives us some insight on one of the characters who’s always played crafty to me.

Looking for a good book? If you haven’t read any of the October Daye series and you claim to like Urban Fantasy, you’re missing one of the best. Be the Serpent by Seanan McGuire is the 16th book in the series, and continues the well-established tradition of fantasy storytelling. But be warned, while you should read the whole series, you can’t read this book and expect a conclusion.

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

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Be the Serpent

author: Seanan McGuire

series: October Daye #16

publisher: DAW

ISBN: 9780756416867

hardcover, 384 pages

THE FERRYMAN – Justin Cronin

Posted by Daniel on December 27, 2022
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: 5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

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If you were to combine a sci-fi read like Logan’s Run with a concept like Russian nesting dolls, and you might get a book like Justin Cronin’s The Ferryman.

Prospera is a remote paradise, created by a mystery person known only as The Designer. In Prospera, citizens live long, fulfilling lives, away from the horrors of a crumbling world. Citizens have an embedded chip that measures the quality of their lives – physical and mental – and when that chip registers that the quality of life falls below 10%, it is time for that person to ‘retire’ – meaning to take the  ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are prepared to start all over.

Proctor Bennett has had a good career as a Ferryman – someone who helps guide a retiring citizen through the retiring process (occasionally enforcing it) – until the day he has to shepherd his own father, who does not go quietly and who leaves Proctor with a cryptic message. At this same time, Proctor is noting that he’s having strange dreams and, more alarming, his own life monitoring percentage is dropping fast. Much too quickly, Proctor is forced into retirement and the ferry ride to the Nursery. But there he encounters rumors of a resistance group known as “Arrivalists” who are stirring up a revolution … one in which Proctor Bennett is key, even though he doesn’t know it.

I’m not sure I would have been drawn to this book if it weren’t for the success of Cronin’s popular The Passage series. I am glad that I did read this, however, because this sort of intricate plotting and revealing of story is right up my alley.

Earlier I reckoned this with Russian nesting dolls, but I might also compare it to, as Shrek might say, an onion, with layer upon layer upon layer of story which Cronin deftly peels away to reveal the story underneath the story.

This story went to places that I did not anticipate (note that I do not read generally synopses before reading a book – or if I do, a significant enough time has passed that I forget why I was drawn to a particular book) but looking back on it, I think there were sufficient clues so that the reader savvier than I might not be quite as surprised. However, the sometimes disorienting experience while reading this is a large part of the appeal.

And of course, there’s character.  I do love character-driven stories and I think this is very much a character-driven novel. Proctor Bennett is every bit as confused as the reader through the twists and turns and we really do get inside his head through this.

If there is a downside, which prevents me from giving this a full five stars, it’s that all the other characters are less well defined. I recognize that some of this has to do with the unknown realities of the world(s) Proctor goes through, but in at least one case, there’s a character who seemingly becomes vital to the story revelations, and I don’t think that even here, that character ever really comes into sharp focus.

It is October when I write this, but the review won’t appear online until December.  Even so, the book isn’t released until May.  I suspect there will be a good media blitz but don’t take that chance … mark your calendars right now so that you don’t miss this book.

Looking for a good book? The Ferryman is the newest book by Justin Cronin and it will engage and deceive you in all the right ways.  Go read it.

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

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The Ferryman

author: Justin Cronin

publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 9780525619475

hardcover, 560 pages

Happy Kwanzaa

Posted by Daniel on December 26, 2022
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

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MERRY CHRISTMAS

Posted by Daniel on December 25, 2022
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

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PRISON OF SLEEP – Tim Pratt

Posted by Daniel on December 23, 2022
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: 4 stars, Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy. Leave a comment

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Zaxony (Zax) Delatree lives an unusual life.  Every time he falls asleep he wakes up in a new world. Every waking day a new adventure – sometimes pleasant, sometimes life-threatening. It had been a lonely existence until he had met Ana – a companion who was one of The Sleepers – a group of travelers also existing between the worlds. But Ana had gotten irretrievably left behind on a world long ago and Zax now has Minna, a new companion who has found a way to travel the worlds with Zax.

The good news for the duo is that they are no longer being pursued through the worlds by Lector, a psychotic man who wanted full control of the ability to world hop. The bad news is that there is a cult of travelers who know the method of world-hopping (a parasite in the bloodstream that lives between dimensions and releases a toxin that provides the strange travelling). The cult are servants to The Prisoner – a being trapped between dimensions – and they believe that they only way to free their leader is to collapse all the different worlds – meaning the complete destruction of thousands of worlds and trillions and trillions of lives.

Ana has found a way to catch up to Zax and now Zax, Ana, and Minna are on a new journey to save all the worlds.

I really love the concept of the series (duology?).  As I believe I mentioned in my review of the first book, I think this is one of the most creative concepts I’ve come across in a long time. And of course there’s a tremendous challenge for Pratt – not only is he creating a world in which Zax and friends travel by way of sleeping, he’s creating multiple worlds inside this world.  How fun is that?!

This book didn’t have quite the excitement level as the previous book.  In part, because it wasn’t so new to us anymore (not much you can do about that), but rather than being chased, Zax becomes the chaser. Sort of.  (Yeah, I know, it’s a little confusing to try and sum up something rather complicated.)

There’s a large focus on Ana and her story – what happened to her and how she works to reconnect with Zax (every other chapter is hers). This seems really important (and it is), but when they do finally reconnect, what feels like it should be pretty momentous, kind of fizzles for me. Although I respect that this re-encounter also feels pretty authentic.

For me, Tim Pratt is a name that I will continue to read and there aren’t a lot of authors whose books I will be guaranteed to read.

Looking for a good book? Prison of Sleep by Tim Pratt is the second book in the Journals of Zaxony Delatree series and is an incredibly original scifi concept, well worth reading.

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

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Prison of Sleep

author: Tim Pratt

series: Journals of Zaxony Delatree #2

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 9780857669421

paperback, 288 pages

THE RECOVERY AGENT – Janet Evanovich

Posted by Daniel on December 22, 2022
Posted in: OTHER, Uncategorized. Tagged: 3 Stars, Action/Adventure, Book Reviews, Books, Reviews. Leave a comment

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Gabriela Rose is a Recovery Agent.  If you have something lost or missing, then Gabriela is your go-to person to recover it for you. In her first adventure, by popular author Janet Evanovich, Gabriela is working on behalf of her own family. She’s in need of money to prevent her family from having their home wiped off the map. And big money means high risk and Gabriela is always willing to take that risk. For this adventure she’s in search of the Ring of Solomon.

Gabriela has tracked legends and rumors regarding the Ring and she’s confident that with the help of a rare map leading to a different archeological site that she believes holds the key to the final resting place of the Ring, she’ll be successful. But that map is currently in the hands of her ex-husband, Rafer.

Gabriela and Rafer couldn’t be more different – where she is driven, he is relaxed – and he insists on traveling with her in her search. But being together only serves to remind Gabriela just why he’s her ex. And if personal conflict isn’t enough to put the search in danger, the fact that a vicious drug lord wants that ring, and he isn’t afraid to leave a trail of bodies to get it, might prove to put an end to this series before it even begins.

This book is just begging for comparisons to Indiana Jones and/or Lara Croft. Seriously – given the strength of the two iconic series’, is his simply a jumping on the bandwagon, trying to capitalize on their success?  There is VERY little difference between Gabriela Rose and the aforementioned characters with one exception … the others are actually quite exciting while Gabriela Rose is quite vanilla.

The Recovery Agent reads like one of Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels in the jungles of Peru.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing, except that this isn’t a Stephanie Plum novel. This is billed as an adventure series, but the focus is not on the adventure, it’s on Gabriela Rose (which normally I’d really appreciate since I like character-driven stories) and Ms. Rose, for being a ‘recovery agent’ is pretty tamed and dull.

Although I’m far from a Stephanie Plum expert, I’ve been reading the most recent volumes in that series and I’m not seeing much difference between the characters. I had presumed that this new series was intended to be different, more adventurous than Plum, but it’s got the same silliness and fun, similar supporting characters, and other than a tropical location, the same general feel.  In the Plum novels I’ve read, I’ve never truly felt any danger for Stephanie and friends, and while this has the potential for greater danger, even the cruel drug lord would fit in a cozy mystery without any trouble.

Still … it is written in Evanovich’s easy style, making this a breeze to read, and sometimes that’s just the ticket. I would read another volume with the hopes of the excitement level to be increased, but if it reads the same, it would be my last.

Looking for a good book? The Recovery Agent by Janet Evanovich is a new series that combines the general appeal of Stephanie Plum with the concept Lara Croft and Indiana Jones, but the similarity to Evanovich’s Plum character is all too obvious making this series not particularly new.

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

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The Recovery Agent

author: Janet Evanovich

series: Gabriela Rose #1

publisher: Atria Books

ISBN: 9781982154912

hardcover, 320 pages

OUR NATIONAL FORESTS – Greg M. Peters

Posted by Daniel on December 21, 2022
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: 4 stars, Book Reviews, Books, non-fiction, Reviews. Leave a comment

Peters_OurNationalForests_jacket_061421.indd

I am, admittedly, a sucker for just about anything related to our National Parks and National Forests system – especially books – so this immediately caught my attention.

Author Greg M. Peters offers some insight to various aspects of our (U.S.) National Forests system.  Peters has had a long career with the Forests – though not as a ranger – and he’s able to draw on some insider knowledge. There’s nothing too scurrilous however – Peters was a faithful employee, not a disgruntled one.

The book covers a lot of ground (pun intended) – perhaps a little too much so as we get a little bit of information about a lot of topics in a brief book (under 300 pages and full of photos and illustrations). We get ‘the story of Eastern National Forests’ and the ‘art and science of growing trees’ in the first two chapters and the ‘restoring America’s grasslands’ in the third. The fourth chapter, about the ‘Native Voices’ and the challenge of Indigenous People’s ability to be heard in the conversation about the land. That their ancestors lived harmoniously with the land well before the arrival of the white man should be proof enough of the need to have their voice at the table in any conservation conversation.

Along the same line, the last chapter in the book was perhaps the most important to me. “All the People’s Land” opens (or continues) an important conversation about diversity in outdoor America.  I’ve watched a number of documentary films about this and how some of us (I’m Caucasian, male) have taken this for granted but how such a large portion of the population, specifically Black and other BIPOC persons don’t typically take advantage of our National Forests and largely because they have never felt welcomed and even in today’s world, they feel like an oddity. I’m glad that Peters addresses this subject even if there are no easy answers or solutions to how to get people of all races and backgrounds into the outdoors.

Fires have to be a major problem for our national forests, and this is addressed in the chapter “After the Burn.” But I found this to be a little too specific about the Eagle Creek Fire which took me out of my reading this book in some generalized ways to suddenly reading about something very specific.  And something which, for me, was not something I was very aware of, so I was left a bit confused.

Overall, a slightly above average book.  I’m glad to have read it and if someone were looking for a recommendation specifically about forests or the outdoors, I might suggest this, but it’s not high on the recommendation list.

Looking for a good book? Our National Forests by Greg M. Peters is a nice, general overview of the American National Forests, and addresses some challenges to the program which should not be ignored.

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

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* * * * * *

Our National Forests

author: Greg M. Peters

publisher: Timber Press

ISBN: 9781604699630 

hardcover, 280 pages

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