WILLFUL CHILD – Steven Erikson

Posted by Daniel on December 27, 2018
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, HUMOR, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

I requested this book four years ago and over time I’ve forgotten what it might have been about so I began to read this ‘blind’. Lately I’ve also been interested in reading some humorous fiction, so imagine my delight to begin reading and discovering that this isn’t just a humorous story, it’s a parody that straddles that fine line of being over the top but manages to stay just inside the line.

The Willful Child is a spaceship. It is crewed by professionals and captained by Hadrian Sawback – an egotistical frat-boy type who likes to push peoples’ buttons. He is Captain James T. Kirk times ten. The ship has an AI computer by the name of Tammy – short for Tammy Wynette. And the story…? Take your top ten favorite Star Trek episodes, mash them up and fill them with infantile, sexual humor and we almost have Steven Erikson’s homage.

And let me be clear … in this particular case ‘infantile, sexual humor’ is a good thing.

Star Trek has been parodied countless times, so we’re not exactly in new territory here. This could easily be compared to one of the better known parodies, Galaxy Quest (or even the more recent The Orville) and the reason these parodies work is because the parody aspect is a launching point for the story. The characters we recognize already because they are each a pastiche of the crews of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

There is an overall story arc here, but the book reads more like a series of television episodes and I rather liked this experience. It made it easier to read this book in smaller chunks. These shorter ‘episodes’ are often recognizable as spoofs of Star Trek episodes. And like the show it’s based on, there is a hint of a message – applicable to today’s reader, but hidden within a humorous future.

The one down-side to the story is Captain Sawback. His gallivanting seemed appropriate to the story, but he came across as just a tad too much of a jerk. By itself that would be fine, but it does then call into question why others follow him so blindly.  Fortunately, I felt Sawback redeemed himself as one point.

I enjoyed this as lighter diversion and when I saw that there was a series, I’ve set out to read more.

Looking for a good book? Willful Child by Steven Erikson is a playful parody of Star Trek and well worth reading if you enjoy a laugh with your 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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Willful Child

author: Steven Erikson

series: Willful Child #1

publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 0765374897

hardcover, 352 pages

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GODS OF WOOD AND STONE – Mark Di Ionno

Posted by Daniel on December 24, 2018
Posted in: OTHER. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

In Mark Di Ionno’s Gods of Wood and Stone, two middle-aged men come to realize that they are dinosaurs in a modern world.  Though their worlds don’t intersect directly through most of the book, the men have much in common.

Joe Grudeck has spent his career as a baseball player. As a member of the Boston Red Sox, he built a reputation as a powerhouse – one of the last of the stronger, old-time players and now he’s about to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But Joe knows that what this really means is that he’s about to be forgotten except for those who wander into the museum of old ball players.  And what does he have to show for a career in the pros? Some money and a whole of random sexual encounters.

Horace Mueller is a blacksmith. He works at a museum showing visitors what the old life was like, smithing for goods.  Horace’s wife has run the family into deep debt and is now leaving him.  His wife Horace won’t miss, but Horace wants his son, Michael, to grow up understanding what it means to be a man.  But Michael just wants to play baseball.

If there’s such a thing as ‘chick lit’ then this would be the opposite – a story for men that men will understand and in which women are not particularly well portrayed.  Really.  The women here are not to be envied. There’s either Horace’s wife – a bitch who spends money without thought and tries to take away the one thing the man wants (his son); a bunch of girls ready to hop into bed with a famous ballplayer; Michael’s boss – and the subject of his fantasies – who’s really just one of the girls ready to hop into bed with a famous ballplayer; and the one female who stands out – Grudeck’s high school girlfriend, now available again, who keeps Grudeck at arm’s length while leading him on.

All through reading this book I was mentally writing my review.  I was completely entranced.  I recognize the male fear of losing the old ways.  Of feeling like a dinosaur. Finally a writer who ‘gets’ us.

The allusions here are strong and the characters are ripped from Greek pantheon. It’s exciting and invigorating.

Until the end.

To say I was let down is an understatement. I wasn’t sure where this was going to lead, though I had some hopes. Unfortunately, the story took a turn. Beginning with Michael’s 180 degree turn in behavior and showing a sudden spark of testosterone that comes out of nowhere, through his father’s similar turn, to Grudeck’s disappearance in the story, the last three chapters take away too much of what this novel built so nicely.

From a 4.5 to 5 star book this dropped down to 3.5 because I walked away at the end with such a sour taste to such an observant and otherwise strong book.

Looking for a good book? Gods of Wood and Stone by Mark Di Ionno is a book for men that recognizes a man’s fear of fading masculinity. Most of the book is a wonderful read but the ending is a let-down.

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

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Gods of Wood and Stone

author: Mark Di Ionno

publisher: Touchstone

ISBN: 1501178903

hardcover, 400 pages

JUDGE ANDERSON: YEAR ONE – Alec Worley

Posted by Daniel on December 21, 2018
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Is it strange to request a book based on a comic that I’ve never read? I’ve also never seen any Judge Dredd movies.  But I am aware of the concept and as a science fiction story I was very interested in reading this. The idea of a ‘judge’ with telepathic abilities is really intriguing to me.

Judge Anderson: Year One is actually three novellas in one book (Heartbreaker, The Abyss, and A Dream of the Nevertime).

I enjoyed Heartbreaker the most of these three.  As an introduction to this character of Judge Anderson, this was a great way to learn about her abilities and personality.  The story was generally fine (a little more on the stories in a moment) and had plenty of action to keep the reader entertained.

The Abyss also had plenty of action but I started to get confused as to her status as Judge.

The last of these really did nothing for me. By this time I felt I understood the character as well as I was going to. I was really hoping for more of the character.

Which leads back to my thoughts on the stories…. Overall this was fine, but not in any way spectacular.  This read like comic books/graphic novels without the art.  They were full of adventure, but slow on character development.  Characters develop in comics, but at a very slow pace and they tend to assume the reader already knows a fair amount about them. I was definitely hoping that since this was a novel (actually a collection of novellas) that we’d get more character-driven stories – dive into who this is – but we don’t.

It wasn’t a bad read, but I was definitely hoping for more.

Looking for a good book? Judge Anderson: Year One by Alec Worley reads like a comic book without the art. It’s full of action, but not much more. A good airplane read.

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

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Judge Anderson: Year One

author: Alec Worley

publisher: Abaddon

ISBN: 1781085552

paperback, 400 pages

THE ESSENTIAL ELLEN WILLIS

Posted by Daniel on December 20, 2018
Posted in: MEMOIR, NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

I knew nothing about Ellen Willis before venturing into this book but I enjoy reading essays (yes, I’m that guy) and I was drawn to Willis’ profile and record.

I’m not sure how to describe Willis, based on her writing. Any label I give her would only box her in to a confine too small for who she really was.

It also seems too small to say that I was highly impressed with the essays here, but I was.

The essays here encompass an incredible range – from eras (the 1960’s to the 2000’s) to topics (from radicalism to music to feminism to peace and hope and beyond) – and all are intelligently composed and carefully articulated. This is the writing of a smart, cultured, modern woman (and I mention her gender not to dismiss her in any way but because I think her gender plays a crucial role in her observations).

At times the writing was dated.  We can see the influence of the cultural thinking in the way she expresses herself on issues in the 60’s up even through the 90’s. Perceptions sometimes change with cultural changes.  Yet it also becomes all-too-apparent that we maybe don’t change enough as humans. Styles may change. What’s acceptable by perception may change. But we don’t change.  I couldn’t help but see too many comparisons to today’s politics and revolutions when reading her observations from twenty, thirty, even forty years ago.  How sad.  How frustrating and very sad.  I wondered what she would have to say in today’s political climate and about the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh (I was just finishing this book during this debacle).

I loved her insight.  “How did the sixties happen in the first place?” she writes,

I’d argue that a confluence of events stimulated desire while temporarily muting anxiety. There was wide-spread prosperity that made young people feel secure, able to challenge authority and experiment with their lives. There was a vibrant mass-mediated culture that, far from damping down the imagination, transmitted the summons to freedom and pleasure far more broadly than a mere political movement could do.

Man, that made me think… a wide-spread prosperity that made young people feel secure.  I’d never heard nor read anyone put it quite that way, and yet it feels spot on.  And what a tremendous contradiction then – feeling comfortable let them rebel. Yeah.

On sex she sums up:  “When women discuss sex in public, male prerogatives and male hypocrisy come under scrutiny. And that makes a lot of journalists (especially male journalists) nervous— not because sex is trivial, but precisely because it isn’t.” This had me wondering what she would have made of the #metoo movement.

When discussing music, one of my favorite observations was:

Watching men groove on Janis, I began to appreciate the resentment many black people feel toward whites who are blues freaks. Janis sang out of her pain as a woman, and men dug it. Yet it was men who caused the pain, and if they stopped causing it they would not have her to dig.

And just when I was thinking that everything she wrote was heavy (and most of it is) I came across her essay “Handle With Care: We Need a Child-Rearing Movement” that I agreed with whole-heartedly.

This isn’t light reading.  It took me a long time to read through this collection because every essay can’t just be read, it has to be absorbed. It has to be considered, and that takes time.

I’m sorry that I wasn’t aware of Ellen Willis when she was actively writing and I’m sorry that she’s gone because I think she’d have some very valuable things to say about the ‘Teens.

Looking for a good book? If you like intelligent, socially relevant non-fiction, the The Essential Ellen Willis really needs to be on your reading list.

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

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The Essential Ellen Willis

author: Ellen Willis

editor: Nona Willis-Aronowitz

publisher: Univ of Minnesota Press

ISBN: 081668121X

paperback, 536 pages

PAINTING WITH BOB ROSS – Walter Foster Creative Team

Posted by Daniel on December 18, 2018
Posted in: ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

You would have to be very young or have lived a very sheltered life to not know who Bob Ross was. Even if you’ve never seen his painting show (live or a rerun) the good-natured parodies are still occasionally aired.

I grew up expecting to make a career for myself in art – mostly fine drawing, but some painting, though my last actual class in oil painting was waaaaay back in high school. I’ve continued to work in art as a passionate hobby (see my blog for reviews of other art books) but working in oil paints is something I’ve never quite learned well and would like to know better.  And here comes Painting With Bob Ross: Learn to Paint in Oil Step by Step! Perfect timing!

The problem with trying to learn an art form – any art form – simply by a book is that no matter how many ‘steps’ you include something is missing.  And too often (at least for me) you can look at the pictures of the different steps and think “wait…how did they get all that?!”

I don’t have the background in oil paints that I’d like and I’ll admit that I was lost really early on in this book. One of the earlier chapters is “Basic Painting Techniques”. I know the materials and a general concept of oil painting (and how it’s different from watercolors and acrylics [which I’ve used]) but I didn’t understand the concept of ‘loading two colors’ or how to use a paint knife (I’ve never used one).  Without seeing this in action I really couldn’t quite understand it.  And unfortunately, if you don’t understand this basic technique, the rest of the book is near;y pointless since it is used in every painting featured here. And no matter how well you explain it (“Pull your paint mixture out very flat on your palette, hold the knife straight up and “cut” across the mixture to load the long edge of the blade with a small roll of paint. Holding the knife straight up will force the small roll of paint to the very edge of the blade. “) it really does need to be seen.

Something I also hadn’t really noticed before until I read through this book was how many of the paintings look alike.  This is formulaic painting. This is fine as the results can be beautiful to look at and cathartic to paint.

The book recommends not just certain types of paints or brushes, but specific brands as well. I always find this highly suspicious.  It feels like advertising and that the book is there to sell paints or thinners or brushes – not to help people paint. Now if there was mention of why the specific items (blends better, doesn’t leave bristle hairs, etc), then perhaps I’d feel better about it.

Even though this is labeled as a ‘learn to paint’ book, I don’t feel quite prepared enough to read the book and put my own brush or knife to canvas (and I had some canvasses ready). However, I still would like to try some of these techniques, but I think I need to get a little more basic learning before I’m ready for it.

Looking for a good book? Painting with Bob Ross by Walter Foster Creative Team is a nice looking book but the reader will need a little more skill than being ready to “Learn to paint” to take advantage of the lessons in this book.

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

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Painting with Bob Ross: Learn to paint in oil step by step!

author: Walter Foster Creative Team

publisher: Walter Foster Publishing

ISBN: 1633226522

paperback, 128 pages