3 Stars

All posts tagged 3 Stars

SIGN HERE – Claudia Lux

Posted by Daniel on May 22, 2023
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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There’s a corporate structure to working in Hell, and Peyote Trip knows this better than most.  He is a dealmaker, currently working on the fifth level where the basic utilities don’t work and haven’t for centuries and the only thing to drink is Jägermeister. Another dealmaker is Cal. They share some of their work and frustrations, but since they both want to move up they keeps their tips and tricks to themselves. Fortunately, Peyote sees a way to move up the corporate ladder and there couldn’t be a better time for that chance.

Peyote needs one more member of the Harrison family to sell their soul, which should have been easier than it’s been. But with their heading off to their lake house, with Ruth, the best friend of the daughter Mickey, going along, the family dysfunction will be at its peak – a great time for making a deal with the devil!

All is not fair on earth or in hell and things are not always as they seem on the surface.

This is such a promising story.  The concept gets an A+. But the execution leaves much to be desired.

Peyote seems to be the focus of the book but his story is slightly less interesting than that of the Harrison’s. Slightly. Neither is particularly engaging.  And this is the biggest problem with the book.

The story of Peyote and that of the Harrison’s would appear to be tightly linked but the reader really has to force this connection throughout the reading. We alternate back and forth and we know there’s supposed to be a connection – this is what the book is leading us to. But it takes much too long to get us there and in the meantime we’re spending more and more time for setup that doesn’t pay off.

Peyote tries too hard to come off as the suave, sassy underworld hipster. He wants to be Mr. Applegate from Damn Yankees, or Crowley from Good Omens but he’s not. And without that charisma or appeal he really is just a low level hell worker.

I really wanted to like this but at its best this just incredibly average.

Looking for a good book? Sign Here by Claudia Lux is dark fantasy masquerading as a comedy that doesn’t quite work.

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

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Sign Here

author: Claudia Lux

publisher: Berkley

ISNB: 9780593545768

hardcover, 416 pages

THE TERRAFORMERS – Annalee Newitz

Posted by Daniel on May 10, 2023
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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Two stories in one …

The Environmental Rescue Team is an old organization dedicated to preventing the collapse of ecosystems. Destry is an analyst with the E.R.T. currently working on the planet Sask-E to terraform an earth-like world. Her companion is a moose named, Whistle. But Destry discovers an ancient city on this supposedly barren world, hidden inside an old volcano. She knows what the E.R.T. wants her to do, but Destry is the one on the planet and she’ll need to make a decision, which will have repercussions one way or the other, depending on her decision.

Jump ahead 700 years and Misha, Destry’s protege, is now building a planet-wide transit system, working with Sulfur – an engineer from Volcano City. The two discover a secret about the corporation that has been buying up massive amounts of land around the planet. The information is too valuable and important not to share, but too dangerous to do anything other than keep it quiet. What will they do?

This book has some absolutely incredible world-building (pun intended). Author Annalee Newitz has really taken pains to bring us into a world that is both familiar and completely foreign. I felt as though we were dropped into the middle of the opening story and, like being dropped in the middle of a forest, we had to figure out what was happening as we made our way along.

I was excited by this and I read through this quite eagerly. But then the story changed. Or rather, then we got a new story. And I didn’t care.

Destry was a compelling character, and her work on Sask-E was fascinating – as was the company she worked for. Misha and Sulfur were quite bland and it seemed as though we went from a character-driven story to a plot-driven story with completely different characters. And the plot hadn’t hooked me enough to keep me interested.

There’s so much potential here, but the strong start disappeared and we were left with a story that needed some terraforming.

Looking for a good book? The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz starts out strong but when the book changes characters, setting, and time frame, that strength disappears.

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

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The Terraformers

author: Annalee Newitz

publisher: Tor Books

ISBN: 9781250228017

hardcover, 338 pages

GASLIGHT: LANTERN SLIDES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY – Joachim Kalka

Posted by Daniel on May 8, 2023
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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The nineteenth century … a boring time for civilization, right? Literature was dry and unimaginative. Entertainment was stodgy theatre or the comics in the newspapers. This is how we generally look back a little more than a century, isn’t it?

Historian and essayist Joachim Kalka looks at the 19th Century through a series of essays and compares and contrasts our 21st Century interests in music, film, literature, and art with that of our ancestors in the 19th Century. Our interests are not so different and the way in which we manage to enjoy these interests is not really as different as we might think.

Kalka has a clear interest in this subject and digs into the past with professorial vigor. Our interests and the manner in which we seek to entertain ourselves are not so different. Only the means by which our entertainment is produced has truly changed, is what these essays boil down to. But rather than say so, directly, Kalka expounds with what is too often an essayists flair.  Why be direct when you can be colorful?

I was intrigued early on and found Kalka’s insight clever and meaningful.  But as the book wore on I didn’t feel I was getting anything new, just different points of examination. And the writing itself seemed to be getting drier … or was it just that I was tired of reading it?

I also can’t say that I felt we were talking about 19th century ‘Anyman.’ These people were typically the better educated, higher class of people with more resources and more time on their hands.  How many farmers or field worker sat around and read Balzac or Proust in the evenings?

Looking for a good book? Gaslight, by Joachim Kalka, is definitely not a book for everyone but if any part of the description or this (or any other review) sounds appealing, then you are the target audience and you may want to check it out.

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

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Gaslight: Lantern Slides from the Nineteenth Century

author: Joachim Kalka

translator: Isabel Fargo Cole

publisher: New York Review of Books

ISBN: 9781681371184

paperback, 172 pages

LONE WOMEN – Victor LaValle

Posted by Daniel on April 28, 2023
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Adelaide Henry is heading to Montana, a state where a woman can be a ‘lone’ woman and own her own parcel of land.  She leaves California behind by burning more than bridges and she’ll carry her family curse with her … both of these, literally.

She leaves California by saying goodbye to her parents – by dousing their corpses and the entire house in gasoline and then lighting a match as the wagon she’s hired, now carrying her entire life (and a family curse) in a large, locked trunk, rolls away.

But can you really escape any horror when you’re a lone, Black woman in the middle of nowhere just after the turn of the 20th century?

On paper, by description, this is exactly the kind of book that might appeal to me … western and horror. But in practice, this had not enough to do with either.

Despite the dark promise at the beginning of the novel with the burning of the homestead, the horror here is teased throughout. I’m not a fan of the in-your-face horror, and subtlety is generally more appreciated, but I’ve often noted that subtle horror is difficult to maintain for a novel and this, to me, is a case in point. It’s a teasing of the same thing, over and over, starting from page one: what’s in the trunk?

I generally appreciated the sociological aspects of the book much more – the lone woman making her way in a dangerous territory during a dangerous time (when isn’t it a dangerous time for a woman alone?) and the need for the other lone women looking to band together, to look out for one another in this territory.  And just when I’d settle in to this being the focus of the book, we’d be teased with the horror again and I’d get frustrated, wondering what this is supposed to be – and I know it could be more than one thing, but rather than seamlessly integrating stories, this felt like one idea would unceremoniously dropped to bring about something else.

Adelaide was an interesting character and we got to know her quite well.  The others in the book are generally two dimensional, Her parents, dead before we begin the story, are more interesting than just about anyone else we meet.

I did like the western and sociological aspects of this book but the overall concept did not work for me.

Looking for a good book? Lone Women by Victor LaValle is a western/horror novel with a strong central character and interesting concept that gets lost trying to bring out a dark story.

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

3 stars

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Lone Women

author: Victor LaValle

publisher: One World

ISBN: 9780525512080

hardcover, 304 pages

THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF RANGERGIRL – Tim Pratt

Posted by Daniel on April 20, 2023
Posted in: SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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I have recently enjoyed a few of the new Tim Pratt novels and I thought maybe I would go back and read some of his earlier works. As it turns out, this is apparently his first published novel (if my sources are correct).

This is the story of Marzipan (“Marzi”) – a young woman who writes and illustrates a graphic novel by the title of The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl. That book is what one refers to as ‘cowpunk’ – a hybrid of Western fiction and steampunk.

As you might imagine, writing and illustrating your own graphic novel doesn’t make for a big paycheck and Marzi does have another job as a night manager at a coffee shop. It is there that life gets a bit wonky for her when she begins seeing some of her characters (those she’s created for her graphic novel) in the coffee shop.

One of the things that Pratt does nicely here is blend the reality and the fantasy so that we’re always guessing. Is that really a crazy woman, or is this a flight of fantasy?

Pratt also makes the concept of Rangergirl and the graphic novel sound really fun. I don’t currently, regularly read any graphic novels, but if this existed I’d definitely want to check it out.

I’m by no means a Pratt expert, but I do think one can tell that this is an early book in the author’s career. It’s not the tightest of narratives and there is a fair amount of over-explaining. Mansplaining? This pulls away from the concept just enough to take away some of the enjoyment.

‘Cowpunk’ may be a new moniker (for me) but the concept has certainly been around.  Anyone ever watch The Wild Wild West?

This was a casually fun read but I’m glad it wasn’t my introduction to Pratt – it would not have made me curious or anxious to read more of his work.

Looking for a good book? The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl by Tim Pratt is a fun, fast fantasy. Delightful in its own way, and good for a beach read, but not the sort of book you’ll be thinking about much past the last chapter.

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The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl

author: Tim Pratt

publisher: Spectra

ISBN: 9780553383386

paperback, 416 pages

THE ISLAND OF EXTRAORDINARY CAPTIVES – Simon Parkin

Posted by Daniel on April 18, 2023
Posted in: NON-FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Being from the U.S., I was moderately aware of POW and Internment camps here in the States.  I honestly hadn’t given much thought to such camps in England during WWII, but of course there were. This book examines one such camp, meant to detain Germans and German sympathizers during the war. Unfortunately, camps such as this – which are often quickly assembled – suffer from some political turmoil and lack of proper oversight and in too many cases Jews who fled Germany (for obvious reasons) were detained in British internment camps because, on paper, they were German Nationals and therefore potentially sympathizers. In worst case scenarios, they could potentially be sent back to Germany.

Just as the United States held those of Japanese descent (and Germans) in camps without regard to their actual leanings, the British over-compensated here, rounding up everyone and then addressed specific cases. The Island of Extraordinary Captives by Simon Parkin examines a few specific internees.

Even the artists (I use the term broadly) interned were numerous enough that it might be nearly impossible to really examine each of them and Parkin focuses on just a few, with Peter Fleischmann being the prime focus. Fleishmann was an orphaned teenager when he escaped Germany and was perhaps one of the most un-lucky young men on the planet as was threatened by the Germans and imprisoned by the British, Yet despite everything that befell him, he had he survivor’s instinct and the determination to follow through on his artistic desires despite everything.

The book is definitely informative, but it does suffer from being a bit wandering in the narrative. I was never quite sure if this was intended to be a history book of the event, or more of a look at some of the individuals. It could be a combination of these, of course, but frankly, because it doesn’t really seem to know the narrative tends to fall a bit flat.

I really wanted to like this more than I did.  I find that non-fiction tends to be of more interest to me as I get older, and anything that discusses art and artists will always appeal to me, but this failed to find a way to really capture and hold my interest.

Looking for a good book? From an historical point of view, The Island of Extraordinary Captives by Simon Parkin offers some good insight, but the narrative is disjointed and rambling and not a particularly engaging read.

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

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The Island of Extraordinary Captives: A Painter, a Poet, an Heiress, and a Spy in a World War II British Internment Camp

author: Simon Parkin

publisher: Scribner

ISBN: 9781982178543

hardcover, 432 pages

CULT CLASSIC – Sloane Crosley

Posted by Daniel on April 12, 2023
Posted in: HUMOR, ROMANCE, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Reading the description of this book I thought I might be in for something along the lines of the 1985 film, After Hours.

Lola is a hip, modern New Yorker.  She’s an editor, now in her early 30’s. She’s had her string of boyfriends and lovers but is currently living a boyfriend whom she will be marrying soon.

On one particular night out with some friends Lola steps away from the gathering to pick up a pack of cigarettes when she runs into an old boyfriend – someone she hasn’t thought about in a very long time. The timing, however, creates some anxiety as Lola is currently in a relationship with ‘Boots’ and she’s been stressing over whether or not this is ‘the one’ – the potential life-long marriage. Of course, running into this old boyfriend now prompts her to consider and compare.

But as the evening wears on, Lola continues to run into ex-boyfriends (and she’s had quite a few).  The meetings all feel as though they are chance encounters, but what are the odds that she should run into so many just at the time she is considering a life-changing moment? Slim, of course, but what could be behind it? There is indeed something at play, a cult, oddly enough.  A cult of ex-boyfriends? Could it be?

As Lola continues her odd night of encounters, she realizes she has fewer and fewer reasons to be delaying her wedding to Boots.

I really thought this was going to be a deliciously odd book, right up my alley, but was disappointed in the presentation.

This isn’t the exciting, quirky story I was hoping for … the kind where you eagerly look forward to the next paragraph, the next page, the next chapter, to see what comes next (more quirkiness or a revelation?!). This was a slow, methodical layering of a story. That works often enough, but with an idea so off-the-wall, we need a pace and energy to match, and this does not. Some of this has to do with the language.  Author Sloane Crosley writes with a rich, brilliant language, but that actually holds this story back. We get caught up in the prose, or stumble over the prose, instead of the action.

The concept is pretty brilliant … a cult of ex-boyfriends – and even the over-arcing story of the woman trying to figure out her life and her future life makes for a potentially best-selling book. I think I’d like to see this same concept given to a dozen different writers to see how different the stories would be because I really like the concept.

Looking for a good book? Cult Classic by Sloane Crosley is an off-beat, satire, romance that doesn’t quite provide the wit and charm that it promises.

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

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Cult Classic

author: Sloane Crosley

publisher: MCD

ISBN: 9780374603397

hardcover, 304 pages

THE FENCING MASTER – Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Posted by Daniel on March 31, 2023
Posted in: OTHER, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

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Madrid, 1868. Don Jaime Astarloa is a fencing master. He is reputed to be the only fencing master in the world to know how to execute a rare, unstoppable thrust move. Don Jaime is approached by a young woman, Adela, who asks him to be her fencing instructor.  It is a highly unusual request – for a woman to learn fencing – and Jaime insists that it would not be proper. But there is something compelling about the woman, who insists that she has had fencing training (in a country that isn’t so repressed). He agrees to test her skills and sees that indeed she is well skilled and learned and he promises to teach her all that he can. But what she really wants is to learn the thrust for which there is no counter defense.

But why would this attractive young woman (and she is attractive, of course) want or need to learn such a difficult fencing move? The fact that there’s a movement afoot to overthrow Queen Isabel II might have something to do with it.

Don Jaime gets unexpectantly caught up in a traitorous plot, sees friends killed, and learns that while his chivalrous ways are old-fashioned, sometimes the old ways are still the best.

This is a pleasant little book … if one can use the term ‘pleasant’ for a story about fencing and subversive activities. But it’s a story about a man – Don Jaime Astarloa who is facing a crossroads in his life, which mirrors the social mores crossroads in Spain some 150 years ago.  Don Jaime’s life has always been about fencing – a noble art and skill. But in today’s world (in the mid-to-late 1800’s), the gun was becoming the weapon of choice. But for someone like Astarloa, chivalry and honor are everything. How can someone kill someone else from across a field, without facing him directly?  What honor is in that?

The real struggle here, then, is within Don Jaime, who tries to find a way to stay true to himself and grow with the times. Agreeing to take on a female student is his concession to being more modern – and of course it comes back to bite him in the ass!

I like that the chapters are fencing moves – the whole book is a bit like a fencing match; beat, thrust, parry, retreat, riposte!

In so many ways this is a nice, tight little novel.

But in some ways, this doesn’t quite work.

We have a nice set-up of our protagonist, and a couple of supporting characters, but then we jump into the plot rather unexpectedly and the entire character set-up seems unimportant until the very last couple of pages. It’s almost like having two stories that converge accidentally at the end.  I was much more interested in Don Jaime’s internal struggle of staying true to himself and his beliefs than I was in the secret plot the Jaime got mixed up in!

I picked up this book at one of those free libraries you see everywhere.  I’m glad that I grabbed it and glad to have read it, but equally glad that I didn’t pay cash for the book because I’m sure the cash/enjoyment scale wouldn’t balance well.  Some other lucky reader will be picking up this same book in another little free library in another state any day now.

Looking for a good book? The Fencing Master by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, like the main character in the book, is a bit old-fashioned, trying to find a way to stay relevant in a world that has sped up and seen more action.

I traded for this book at a little free library.

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The Fencing Master

author: Arturo Pérez-Reverte

translator: Margaret Jull Costa

publisher: Mariner Books

ISBN: 0156029839

paperback, 244 pages

THE FINAL STRIFE – Saara El-Arifi

Posted by Daniel on March 17, 2023
Posted in: MYTHOLOGY, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

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In a cruel empire, in a different world, there is a caste system at work in which people are sorted by the color of their blood. Red blood (“Embers”) is for the elite group, in control of everything. Blue blood (“Dusters”) is for the working class. And those with clear blood (“Ghostings”) are relegated to being slaves.

Three women, Sylah, Anoor, and Hassa, come from different backgrounds but a bond builds between them as they each have the same goal of changing the world. Sylah is an expert at combat but she has an addiction problem that prevents her achieving what she wants.

Anoor finds herself in the running for role in society. She will have to compete in a number of categories against other, well-trained, highly-competitive contestants and the winner will be ‘the chosen one’ and will have the opportunity to change society.  Anoor’s weakest area is physical combat, and she seeks Sylah’s training to hopefully give her edge.

I was reading the hype for this book (ie: the PR from the publisher) and what got me most interested in checking this out was that this has “its roots in the mythology of Africa and Arabia.”  I really like the idea of pulling stories from old mythology and I am completely new to the world of African and Arabian mythology.

The cast system based on blood color was also a new idea for me, and I generally liked it, though perhaps I wouldn’t have minded a little more background on this.  Which is a little ironic, given what I’m about to comment on next.

I like the themes.  I like the characters.  I like the general world-building.  I did not like how so much of this book is purely set-up.  This is the first book in a trilogy and this book is over 600 pages long.  The length isn’t so much a problem except that the actual story doesn’t really start until at least the last quarter of the book.

What this means is, we have 400+ pages that is really nothing more than set-up so that we can get ready for books 2 and 3 with book 1 being only about 150 pages worth of story.

It is a very exciting 150 pages, and there’s a twist near the end that I didn’t anticipate and which I really liked (however, I have a couple of questions about how things were accomplished, which are never addressed).

I should also note that the setup is not actually all the interesting – I was bored for most of the book.  Setup for the sake of setup is dull and I believe this is an all-too-often sign of a debut author.

The actual story, in the last portion of the book, was very exciting and had me on the edge of my seat, but I’m not sure it was enough, given the bulk of the book prior to it, to have me wanting to read the next volume.  I guess I will wait to see what my reaction is when the next volume comes out.

Looking for a good book? The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi is a debut novel, the first of a trilogy, based on African and Arabian mythology. There’s some exciting story and wonderful characters, but there’s a whole lot of set-up one has to get through to get to the 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 Final Strife

author: Saara El-Arifi

series: The Ending Fire Trilogy #1

publisher: Del Rey

ISBN: 9780593356944

hardcover, 608 pages

DEFINITELY DEAD – Charlaine Harris

Posted by Daniel on March 15, 2023
Posted in: Dark Fantasy/Horror, ROMANCE, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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Sookie’s got a new boyfriend and he’s a real tiger.  No, really.  He’s a tiger.  A were-tiger.

If you don’t know Sookie Stackhouse by now, the Louisiana bayou waitress who can read the minds of other humans, but can’t read the minds of the dead (like her ex-boyfriend, vampire Bill Compton, and her ex-boyfriend, vampire Eric Northman) then there’s really no point in picking up this, the sixth book in the Sookie Stackhouse series.  Also … where the heck have you been?

In this volume in the series, Sookie learns that her cousin Hadley has passed away.  Hadley has left everything to Sookie and she is encouraged, by the Queen of Louisiana … well, the vampire Queen of Lousiana … to come and get her inheritance.  Hadley, it seems, was the secret lover of the vampire queen. But why the urgency?  The queen once gave Hadley a gift, a gift that had been given to her by the king, and if she doesn’t display that gift soon, all hell will break out at the vampire ball.

Along the way, Sookie will learn more terrible things about Bill, the man she still loves even though she doesn’t want to, will be beholding to Eric yet again, will make love to her were-tiger new boyfriend Quinn, and be set upon by werewolves.

I had a moderately fun time with this.  It’s pretty much just McDonald’s chicken nuggets in the culinary comparison to literature, but sometimes you just want a goofy read that doesn’t make you think too hard.  That would be this kind of book.

The only thing that really surprised me here (and not too much) was how straightforward and simple the plot was.  Dead Hadley’s got something the vampire queen needs and Sookie’s going to get it.  And, yup, she does.  Even the new information about Bill is hardly more than a passing paragraph or two – not even a subplot.

But, there’s vampires, werewolves, witches, and were-tigers, naked people and just a little bit of sex.  And it’s neatly wrapped up in author Charlaine Harris’s swiftly moving prose.  If you can’t read this in a day or two, you’re spending too much time on it!

Looking for a good book? Definitely Dead by Charlaine Harris is the sixth book in the Sookie Stackhouse series. Like the others, it’s simple and fast-moving with plenty of action – both physical fighting and sex. If you’ve started the series, go on, read this one too.  If you haven’t read any of the books in the series, don’t start here.  Go watch TrueBlood instead.

I bought a copy of this book at a used book store.

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Definitely Dead

author: Charlaine Harris

series: Sookie Stackhouse #6

publisher: Ace Books

ISBN: 0441014917

paperback, 324 pages

THE RUMOR GAME – Dhonielle Clayton & Sona Charaipotra

Posted by Daniel on March 13, 2023
Posted in: Uncategorized, YA. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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At Foxham Prep, the very ritzy private school for the children of Washington, DC’s elite, students are groomed to become the next generation of socialite elites and giants of industry. But they’re still students – partying, dating, fighting, and making up rumors about one another. But harmful rumors here could have such a lasting effect as to potentially alter career options. This all comes to the fore for some of the girls currently at Foxham.

Cora is the captain of the cheer squad. She’s the ‘it’ girl at Foxham. Bryn used to have it all. With Cora as her best friend and the perfect boyfriend and an all-but-guaranteed path into politics. But one mistake on Bryn’s part starts a scandal that spirals beyond her control.

The talk of the school, though, is Georgie. An overweight Geek a year ago, Georgie has had a complete makeover and now heads are turning when she’s around. Her popularity rises quickly and now even Cora’s popularity is in danger of being eclipsed by Georgie.

But the quickest way to take down a rising star is with rumors, fueled by students and fanned to flames by social media.

It’s been a long time since I’ve read a strictly YA, not a fantasy novel, full of pathos and angst. I don’t remember what it was about this book that had me wanting to read it (it must have been some really well written advertising copy) because this is not the kind of book I’d ordinarily want to dig in to.

What I like about this book is how it addresses bullying and rumors and how nasty social media can be, without being overly didactic. That’s not an easy task.

While the characters here are the elite – children of the wealthiest families in D.C. – I think most readers (typically high school teens) can relate to the issues. Our characters are elite in order to (presumably) have more to lose, making the stakes higher, creating more drama.  I’m not sure we need that, but I think readers will put themselves into these roles handily enough.

Bullying, rumors, and social media are common enough issues at any school around the country (around the world?) that this will be identifiable to most readers. There is an anti-rumor/bullying theme that runs through here, giving the characters (and readers) hope for different outcomes. But really, there are no easy solutions. And because of that, I find these books either unrealistic (if they pretend there are easy solutions) or incredibly depressing.  I’m not sure I need either. But I recognize that there is a reading public that will gratefully devour a book like this. The writing is fine. The pace is quick, but the plot is a bit slow to develop.

Looking for a good book? The Rumor Game by Dhonielle Clayton & Sona Charaipotra rushes head first into a high society private high school and takes on themes of bullying, rumors, and how quickly rumors spread on social media (and how they can’t be taken back). Teen readers who love the angsty feelings in books will enjoy this.

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

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The Rumor Game

authors: Dhonielle Clayton & Sona Charaipotra

publisher: Disney

ISBN: 9781368014144

hardcover, 480 pages

THE GOLDEN HORN – Poul Anderson

Posted by Daniel on March 7, 2023
Posted in: HISTORICAL FICTION, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

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This is the story of one of the most famous Vikings, Harald Sigurdharson (aka Harald Sigurdsson, aka Harald Hardråde) who will become Norway’s King Harald III. We begin with teenage Harald, fighting alongside his brother, King Olaf II, known as Olaf the Stout. There is an uprising against King Olaf due to his devotion and support of Christianity and Olaf is killed in the skirmish. Harald escapes to Russia and finds work as a mercenary.

Harald finds success, makes many friends in his rough life, and he’ll call upon them as he works his way back to Norway to claim his rightful place on the throne.

Although author Poul Anderson is a noted science fiction/fantasy author, I have not read many works by him, and those I did read were back in the 1970’s.  His writing didn’t make a big (or positive) impression on me and so I’ve mostly ignored his rather large body of work. This reprint caught my eye due to the Viking theme. I was not aware that it was very much historical fiction – all the characters, locations, and battles being actual people, places, and fights according to historical records. Had I known, I probably would have jumped into this read much sooner. My appreciation of the book, however, was not likely to have been very different.

This might have worked better as a history book than a novel. At least it reads very much like the history books that I grew up with – facts and figures, who met with whom, who fought with whom, how did person ‘A’ get to point ‘B’? Ready for the test? Meaning … this was dry.

Some readers and writers just don’t click, and I think Poul Anderson is one of those writers that doesn’t work for me.  Such great material – clearly something I would really be fascinated with, and yet I struggled to get through this. A Viking warrior! One who would become one of the greatest kings in Norway! How do you make this so dull?!

It’s clear that Anderson did a great deal of research and had a passion for the subject. I appreciated the historical perspective, but it almost seems as though Anderson wanted to make sure he was accurate, more than telling a ripping good yarn. That’s just an impression, and I sure could be mistaken.

When I went to Wikipedia to look up some background information on the book I notice that this book (the first book of a trilogy) is co-written with Poul’s wife, Karen.  Goodreads does not mention this on the book page.

I had high hopes, but this didn’t appeal to me.

Looking for a good book? The Golden Horn by Poul Anderson, the first book in The Last Viking trilogy, is historical fiction – strong on history, slow on storytelling.

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

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The Golden Horn

author: Poul Anderson

series: Last Viking #1

publisher: Open Road Media Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Kindle Edition, 212 pages