Category Archives: Book Reviews
Personal reviews and ratings of fiction by others.
Raising Steam – 2023 reread
Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The steam engine has come to Discworld, and the grags, the deep down dwarves who are deeply devoted to traditional dwarfish ways, don’t like it. They may even like it less than the clacks, and peace with the trolls, and accepting goblins as (gasp) real people. No, this is a step too far, one that must be stopped before they lose all that it is to be dwarfish.
This is a Discworld novel for Discworld fans, people who have visited the Disc often. Unlike most of the other Discworld books, which are easily comprehensible on their own to a new visitor, this one is not. A good background with the setting and its inhabitants is required to follow and appreciate this story. Many of our favorite characters from past books have walk-on parts. A reader who is unfamiliar with them will miss a lot. In some ways, this feels like a final curtain call for many of the prominent citizens of Ankh-Morpork, and maybe Sir Terry meant it as such. Lord Vetinari, Most Von Lipwig, Commander Vimes, Harry King, and others make their final appearance here, take a bow, and wave farewell. Then, perhaps, or so I would like to believe, they go on to live happily every after.
I like how Pratchett’s stories evolved over the years from clever humor to lighthearted and often heartwarming tales of people combating prejudice and ignorance. This one is largely a tribute to human ingenuity and innovation. There are a few signs of Sir Terry’s declining health, in this one. The prose may not be quite as subtle or as witty. The plot may be woven a bit looser than in earlier books, but Pratchett’s worst writing is at least as good as the best stuff from most anyone else. That is, of course, just my personal opinion.
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Reread: The Truth by Terry Pratchett
The Truth by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“The dwarfs can turn lead into gold…”
A young man from a wealthy and privileged family attempts to modestly go it alone in the big, diverse metropolis of Ankh-Morpork by writing a news letter for select clients. When he is literally run down by a runaway printing press, his situation changes, and he somehow finds himself as editor in chief of the city’s first mass produced newspaper. But what should go in it? How often? These and other timeless questions are addressed in The Truth.
This is one of my favorite novels, and it is always a delight to reread every few years. It’s insights on a free press, the news, fake news, public interest, bigotry, and a great many other real-world issues are as relevant today as ever. I highly recommend it.
The Illustrated Eric, Reread
The Illustrated Eric by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Re-re-reread May 2023, August 2015….
A 13-year-old magical dabbler named Eric is attempting to conjure himself a demon to grant him three wishes, when he instead snags Rincewind the wizard (or Wizzard), freeing him from a being lost between dimensions. The kid still wants his wishes, though, and for some reason, and much to his surprise, Rincewind seems to have the ability to grant them, sort of, from a certain perspective. What they don’t know is that have have both become pawns in demonic manipulations that span all of Discworld time and space.
Good story with lots of scientific, philosophical, and political satire. Colorful and complex artwork. Even a little ribbon bookmark thingy. I won’t say this short novel is among Pratchett’s best. His best are THE best. This one is just really, really good.
This illustrated edition replaced my worn out paperback. It was well worth it.
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The Masquerading Magician
The Masquerading Magician by Gigi Pandian
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Zoe Faust, a woman born in the 17th Century, moves to Oregon in the 21st. Her long life is due to an alchemical Elixir of Life, which is unique from person to person. Each alchemist must create their own, and the Elixir formula for one will not work for anyone else. Getting back to the story, she’s now living in Portland Oregon, and her roommate, a gargoyle who was brought to life by a 19th Century French magician using alchemy, is slowly turning back into stone. (The gargoyle is also a skilled French chef.) Zoe does not want to lose her friend (or his wonderful cooking), so she’s in search of another alchemist who might possibly help her reverse the gargoyle’s transformation. She suspects that a stage magician who recently arrived in town may be an alchemist, but when a murder occurs during one of his performances, the story takes a turn into murder mystery, which she feels compelled to investigate.
I think the series came to my attention as the result of some Goodreads algorithm. Whatever it was, it prompted me see if my local library had it. Unfortunately, all they had was the Large Print edition of the second book, so I checked it out. Enough backstory is included so that the reader is pretty much up to speed on the magic system and characters in short order. This book starts out as a contemporary fantasy and then shifts into almost a cozy mystery that just happens to feature an uncommon form of magic. (Alchemy rather than wands and spells, or vampires and werewolves, or gods and demons.) The good guys are reasonably likable and the motivations of the characters make sense, at least enough sense for a cozy mystery. The gargoyle character is especially fun. I enjoyed this enough to read others if the library had them but not enough to buy my own copies. My shelves are already overfilled. I suppose I could get Kindle editions, but I somehow balk at paying almost as much for an ebook as for a paper one.
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D&D and a Fixed Washer
The two most noteworthy, or at least uncommon, events of my week were that I played D&D twice (instead of once) and that my washing machine has finally been fixed after being broken for 65 days.
I first began playing the classic RPG game D&D (AD&D 1st Edition) in the early 1980s with a bunch of guys from work. We would get together about once a month at the house of whomever was serving as DM at the time. A single campaign could take over a year. When I moved about 1,000 miles away to take a new job, I had to stop playing. This was over 20 years ago, in the dark ages before high speed internet. But a couple years ago, some members of my old group (who had never stopped playing and were now, like me, all retired) talked about playing online using something called Roll20. It sounded like fun, and we’ve been playing about once a week ever since. Last week we played twice because, due to schedule conflicts, we can’t all virtually meet next week. This isn’t momentous news, but my life has become pleasantly dull, and this fell outside the norm.
The big news is that my washer is working again. The two new bullet points for the week were:
- DAY 61 (June 6th) I receive an email from Whirlpool (MainCorr@whirlpool.com) apologizing for “for any delays in responding” but not for selling me an unreliable appliance that was clearly not designed to be repairable. In fact, they don’t directly answer any of the question I posed in my May 30th email but instead simply repeat that “The manufacturer’s warranty is for repair and not replacement, return or refund.”
- DAY 65 (June 10th) A repairman from Fields Service arrives at 2:00 pm. He’s the same guy who was here a month ago (May 19th). The back of his small service van is full of boxes. He tells me all of them are for the repair of my washer. About two hours later, he tells me he’s finished, telling me he replaced every part of the washer except the outer shell, door, and knobs. He says it should now work. After he leaves, I throw in a load of whites, mostly towels, to check. It seems to work, but somehow I remain wary.
I also finished reading books 9 and 10 of the Skulduggery Pleasant series. Both were enjoyable. Pretty dull stuff, I know, but I’m tying to post something weekly, and I really don’t want to fill my blog with rantings about politics or religion or stuff like that. There’s more than enough of that kind of thing elsewhere.
New Orville, New Trek, Three Books, and a Broken Washer
Last week was an especially eventful one as far as weeks in the life of an old retired guy go. This was mainly because of new TV shows that I found interesting enough to expend a few of my remaining hours watching.
Most of my TV-viewing hours were spent on the eight new episodes of Stranger Things 4 (on Netflix). Like the previous seasons, it’s basically about a bunch of kids saving the world from monsters from a parallel dimension. What I like most about this show is the kids playing D&D, which I can relate to, having played for several years when I was younger and began playing again a couple years ago – but that is beside the point, for now. I found out later that the Dio vest being worn by the kid who plays the DM in this season once belonged to Ronnie James Dio himself, which is also cool because I’ve always been fond of Dio’s music.
I also watched episode 5 of Star Trek Strange New Worlds (on Paramount+). This episode explored identity and empathy and seeing other people’s points of view. It also had a few funny bits. I continue to be impressed by this show especially because of how unimpressed I’ve been with most of the other new Trek Paramount has produced. Although I’ve been something of a Trekker since the original series first aired, I truly hated Discovery. The crew of that ship just did not seem like Starfleet to me. And why did they turn Klingons into orcs? With Strange New Worlds, it’s beginning to look like Paramount is finally getting Trek right.
And then there was the long awaited new episode of The Orville. I’ve enjoyed this show from the beginning, too. It’s always seemed like a homage to the original Star Trek, and Season 3 continues that. It opens shortly after the first Kaylon offensive has been repulsed. This first episode explores guilt, forgiveness, and dealing with trauma as crew members sort out how they feel about Isaac, who, as a Kaylon, bears some responsibility for a great many deaths, but who is also one of the reasons the Kaylon did not succeed. It’s a good start to the new season.
I also read a few books, two fiction and one nonfiction. The two fiction books were uncommonly enjoyable, the nonfiction one, not so much.
Last Stand of Dead Men by Derek Landy
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Within the magical community, there are those who believe that magic users should rule the world because they are “better” than ordinary, non-magical people. Others believe that magic-users should remain separate and largely apart from regular human affairs. The polarization between these two camps erupts into a magical civil war in the 8th book in this highly entertaining series. The characters remain interesting, the plot is intriguing, and the pacing (as always) keeps you turning pages. This is very well written.
Mickey7 by Edward Ashton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Colonizing planets is a dangerous business, but colony ships never seem to have trouble attracting highly qualified crew… at least not for most positions. Some of these people might be called brave, some foolish, and some are arguably insane, but only the truly desperate apply for the position of Expendable. Mickey is pretty desperate. Staying on the planet of his birth would mean daily torture until he pays off a substantial gambling debt. This seems to him like a fate worse than dying, even worse than the possibility of dying repeatedly, which is an Expendable’s job. So, he applies for a berth on an outgoing colony ship. Expendable is the only slot open, and he’s the only applicant.
This is a fun science fiction story with a likeable protagonist. It has lots of sciency stuff, not unlike The Martian and other books by Andy Weir, and it also ponders the philosophical question of what makes you you. If you die, and a clone is made and loaded with your memories and personality, is it now you? Even if you feel like yourself, how do others see you? Are you really a person in their eyes?
Bullshit Jobs: A Theory by David Graeber
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The basic premise of this book, that some jobs are pretty much pointless and that the world wouldn’t skip a beat if they disappeared, is incontestable. But I think the author goes too far on too little evidence. He presents plenty of anecdotal quotes from people who believe their own jobs fall into the bullshit category, but no real assessment of whether or not these job holders are right. Not knowing what the benefit of your work might be doesn’t necessarily mean there is none.
If you’re interested, you can see my full review of this one either on Goodreads on on The Avery Slom Philosophical Laboratory web sites.
Last, and possibly least, there’s the ongoing issue I’m having with Whirlpool and a washing machine that broke down before it was a year old. Today is the 60th day I’ve been without a working washer, but someone is supposed to come next Friday (10 June) to try yet again to fix it. So, to add to the ongoing bullet list….
- DAY 54 – (May 30th) I send another email to Whirlpool (whirlpool_customerexperience@whirlpool.com) with cc to Joseph Carrita, Customer Relations Manager (joseph_j_carrita@whirlpool.com) asking how many repair attempts are required, what the cost of repair must be, and how long they believe it is acceptable to make a customer wait before they deem one of their appliances “non-repairable.”
- DAY 56 (June 1) I receive a DM Tweet from Whirlpool asking for my specific address and phone number. I provide them.
- DAY 57 (June 2nd) Whirlpool’s Twitter people call and leave me on hold while they call the service provider. Eventually, they say the service people are still waiting on two parts but will call as soon as they arrive. I ask again why Whirlpool would spend $2,000 in parts and make a customer wait two months rather than replace an $800 machine. The poor unfortunate customer liaison lady refuses to address cost at all and simply repeats that Whirlpool only repairs things under warranty. It does not replace them.
- DAY 58 (June 3rd) The service company calls to let me know that all the parts have been processed in, but the next available appointment to repair my washer is seven days away because of the need to dedicate an otherwise empty truck to all the parts needed, one of which is quite large, to ensure it is not damaged in transit. (This adds transportability and packaging to the list of Whirlpool’s logistic design flaws.) I am told this will be a three-hour job.
I sure hope they manage to fix it, this time.
Books and a Washer
This has been another fun-filled week for this old, retired guy. The one decidedly un-fun highlight was that another Whirlpool repairman tried and failed to fix my washing machine, which broke over six weeks ago. Since the 1-year warranty doesn’t say how long the manufacturer can take to fix it, I’ve been stuck without one while they try to get the parts they need. (I’ve blogged about this a few times as my frustration has grown.)
I also finished reading a few books last week. Two were mysteries set in 1958 and 1959 London. I gave a 3-star rating to both on Goodreads. They weren’t bad but not ones I’d highly recommend.
Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder by T.A. Willberg
1958 London. An apprentice private investigator for an underground (literally) organization stumbles upon several secrets as she tries to discover who among her coworkers has committed a brutal and seemingly inexplicable murder inside their own secret lair. The recipe for this story starts with a mix of classic Agatha Christie, adds a touch of cozy mystery, a good helping of Harry Potter, and a pinch of James Bond. It may be a bit underdone, but it’s really not too bad. I cant say I was taken by any of the characters, and sometimes their actions and motivations had my scratching my head, but it’s a fine historical mystery written in a classic style.
Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose by T.A. Willberg
1959 London. There’s been a mysterious murder. Miss Brickett’s secret underground detective agency is investigating, but it may have been infiltrated by, well, someone untrustworthy. And someone within the organization is rabble-rousing. Marion lane, apprentice detective, finds herself in the middle of things.
This second book in the series is much like the first. It reads like an old YA mystery (Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, that kind of thing) with a bit of Harry Potter thrown in, but none of the characters are under 20 years old. I can’t say any of them stand out. Actually, neither the good guys or the bad guys come across as especially competent or clever, and their plans and plots often seem to rely heavily on serendipity. There are some cool (albeit unlikely) gadgets and gizmos, including some battery tech that would be impressive even today.
I also read a pretty good nonfiction book about people losing their ability to focus their attention. I gave this one 4 stars and wrote a fairly long review. I won’t share all of that here, but you can see it on either Goodreads or the Avery Slom Philosophical Laboratory site if you are so inclined.
Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again by Johann Hari
Are we losing our ability to focus? Is it harder now than in the past to pay attention to things? If so, do our work habits, lifestyle, diet, environment, and (especially) social media habits have anything to do with this? The author of this book, a writer and journalist who has consulted with experts in the field of behavioral science, believes the answer to all these questions is “Yes,” and although he brings up many valid points, I’m not convinced he’s entirely right. I think the real problem may be something else. It’s not that we can’t focus, it’s that our basic human instincts are being exploited to manipulate our behavior. A side effect of this is that our focus gets diverted.
You can see the rest of this review here https://philosophylaboratory.wordpress.com/2022/05/18/stolen-focus/ or here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4731524969
Last, but not least, I finished the sixth book in the Skullduggery Pleasant Series. I rated this one 4 subjective stars and would recommend it because it’s fun.
Death Bringer by Derek Landy
The necromancers are nurturing a Death Bringer to bring about a better world, but “better” can be a matter of opinion, and what necromancers see as better may not be what most others see as better. Meanwhile, another group is trying to reestablish the Church of the Faceless Ones. Why anyone would want gods like these is difficult to imagine, but some people seem to have a deep need for that kind of thing. And while Skulduggery and Valkyrie are dealing with these threats, both are hiding an inner darkness and very powerful magic, which they are doing their best to suppress. Adding to and slightly complicating these things are a couple of inept zombies for comic relief.
This is another fast paced and extremely entertaining episode in the continuing adventures of the Skeleton Detective and his (still) teenage apprentice. Like the previous books, it is a fest of witty banter and wordplay that sometimes had me laughing out loud. It has it’s dark moments, and the characters (even the “good” ones) can be unpleasantly snarky, inconsiderate, and rude, at times, but these flaws do not dominate their personalities. They still come off as fairly likeable.
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Dark Days (Skulduggery Pleasant, #4)
The weather has been lovely here in Florida, and I really should be going outside. Actually, I should be doing yard work (weeding, mowing, that kind of stuff), but I really don’t enjoy any of that. I do enjoy reading, though, so here’s another short book review.
Dark Days by Derek Landy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The skeletal detective is trapped in the dimension of the Faceless Ones, and Valkyrie (his teenage assistant) thinks she’s figured out how to get him out. She’s not getting any official help with this, of course. In fact, it seems as if that Thurid Guild (the Grand Mage) and the entire Irish Sanctuary (like the regional Magic HQ) don’t want him back. Meanwhile, Valkyrie’s being recruited by a necromancer who seems all right, but who really knows with sorcerers into all that dead stuff? Also, there’s a temporary alliance of outlaw psychopath sorcerers who are seeking vengeance on Skullduggery, Valkyrie, the Grand Mage, and the Sanctuary in general.
This is another unpretentious fun fantasy adventure with likeable characters. I found it a highly enjoyable light read. So, on to book #5.
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The Faceless Ones (Skulduggery Pleasant #3)
The chronicle of my retirement life continues with a short review of The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Teleporters are being murdered. (These are people who can do what a Star Trek transporter does but without the transporter.) Who is killing them and why are the questions skeletal detective Skullduggery Pleasant and his teenage assistant Valkyrie Cain tackle in this third full length novel in the series. Given the title, I don’t suppose it’s a spoiler to say it all has to do with bringing about the return of the Faceless Ones.
This, like the others I’ve read so far, is an enjoyable adventure. It has lots of witty banter and loads of “action” (i.e. superpower hand-to-hand fighting). The characters are distinct and pleasantly quirky, and the plot makes about as much sense as any other fantasy story. It’s a good, quick read. I quite enjoyed it. So, on to the next book in the series….
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Playing With Fire (Skullduggery Pleasant #2)
I spend a lot of my retirement reading, so, it’s time for another book review. My copy of this one is part of a 9-book boxed set that I bought recently. I think I got a very good deal. It originally sold for £71.91, which equates to about $90.00 US. I paid $58.83. I’m not sure why I’m sharing that, but I do love a bargain. (It’s probably not healthy, but I base a fair amount of my diet around what’s on BOGO sale (buy one get one free) at the supermarket.)
Playing with Fire by Derek Landy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The skeleton detective and his teenage apprentice are back for their second adventure together. This time, they need to stop a sorcerer from bringing back the Faceless Ones (like a bunch of evil gods). Unfortunately, he has minions, magic armor, and possibly an ally (or at least an informant) in the local magical law enforcement organization. The good guys are fun. The bad guys are thoroughly despicable. There’s lots nasty villainous types, loads of witty banter, and several (sometimes too prolonged) superpower fight scenes. This series doesn’t pretend to be great literature. Actually, it doesn’t take itself very seriously at all, which I quite appreciate. My taste in fantasy leans heavily to the light side. This doesn’t have the kinds of insights or real world relevance you often find in a Terry Pratchett novel (for example), but it’s still a quite enjoyable read.
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The God of Lost Words (Hell’s Library, #3)
The God of Lost Words by A.J. Hackwith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Stories have power, which demons crave, which is why Hell’s library is under assault. First, they come for the Arcane wing; next, the Unwritten Branch. The only way to save it, may be to change it, to get other wings of the Library, which are hosted by other afterlife realms, to join them to break free. But to do that, they need a guide, a realm, and a god, and those are in very short supply. In fact, no one has seen an actual god in quite some time.
This is a marvelous fantasy story that reads like a modern creation myth. The characters are delightful and their friendships are inspiring. When I finished reading this final book of the trilogy last night, I experienced something reminiscent of the “Oh, that was wonderful!” feeling I often got at the end of a Terry Pratchett story. That’s a rare thing, indeed. Nicely done, Hackwith. Much appreciated.
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The Library of the Unwritten
The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It’s been said that everyone has a book in them, a story only they can write, and although the vast majority of these remain unwritten, all are shelved in a library in Hell. Claire is spending her afterlife as its librarian, presumably for her sins. It’s become something of a routine job for her until an unwritten book escapes and she goes to Earth to retrieve it, and she is then confronted by a fallen angel who mistakenly assumes she’s there for something else entirely, which turns out to be true, although she didn’t know it at the time.
This is a thoroughly enjoyable tale. It reminds me of Pratchett and Gaiman’s Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch in that it’s fairly witty, imaginative, has a certain charm, and features mythological characters from the Abrahamic religions and gives them a bit of personality. I found it to be a very good read.
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Until the Last of Me
Until the Last of Me by Sylvain Neuvel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I like to succinctly summarize the main plot of a story for these short reviews, but this one is a bit tough. Anyway, for what it’s worth….
There are two hereditary lines of alien beings of the same species living on Earth. Each is represented by only one “family.” They’ve been here for about 3,000 years. One is male and wants to bring the aliens to Earth, and the other is female and wants to prevent that in order to save humans. (I think it’s actually about human nature and gender and such, but I don’t want to presume or analyze. That can take all the fun out of a story.) Some chapters are from the male perspective, and focus on dark and destructive instincts. They think the female line has some kind of transmitter that will call the rest of their alien species to come here and invade the planet, and they really want to get their hands on it. The female line stresses protection and progress. The female goal is to “take them to the stars,” meaning that they are subtly attempting to get humans to understand and venture out into the wider universe. How this might prevent an alien invasion wasn’t clear to me, and I had other questions, but all in all, I really like this book. Mainly this is because of the underlying hope in human potential that resonates with it but also because of all the embedded history of science type stories it includes. Actually, I think my favorite chapter was the nonfiction “Further Reading” bit at the end. If you’re a fan of stories about human progress and the history of science, you may really like this series.
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How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse
How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse by K. Eason
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A bunch of fairies bestow magical gifts upon a baby princess—in a sci-fi universe with aliens and space stations. Sixteen years later, Rory, the androgynously named aforesaid princess, has grown into a spunky girl, trained in both physical self defense and arithmancy (what other universes might call ‘magic’), and she is not at all pleased when she is called upon to marry a foreign prince as a way to end an interstellar war. She’s all for stopping the war, of course, but the prince was something of dud the one time she had met him. That was when they were both young children; it was the same day a suicide assassin blew up their respective fathers.
It’s difficult to mix humor, fantasy, science fiction, and cultural commentary into a seamless story (I know this first hand), but this book does. The plot makes sense. So do the characters. The protagonist is likeable and relatable. The antagonist is fairly loathsome. It’s not exactly funny, but it is fun. I loved it and hereby endow it with five subjective stars.
And Then There Were Crumbs
And Then There Were Crumbs by Eve Calder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is about as cozy a cozy mystery as you can get. A professional pastry chef flees a philandering fiance in New York and escapes to a small town in Florida, where she picks up a job at a bakery, but not as a baker, as counter help. Oddly, this bakery doesn’t sell pastries or cakes or cookies, which is unfortunate because Kate, the aforesaid pastry chef, has a kind of magic ability; she can tell your favorite kind of cookie just by looking at you. She’s only working there one day before an unsavory customer dies after eating some cinnamon buns that the shop’s owner made for himself. The owner is soon arrested for poisoning the guy.
As far as the mystery goes, I had the the perpetrator, the motive, and the general means pegged pretty much from the start. As for the cozy, it couldn’t get much cozier. When Kate first comes to town, she finds the locals helpful, sharing, encouraging, and just as fond of food as she is. It’s like Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood with the warm, fuzzy addition of a friendly community dog that everyone chips into to feed and care for. (It was delightfully refreshing to read about such a lovely imaginary place. I like this about cozies. They’re a nice break from the nonstop action, conflict, and general nastiness you find in so much fiction. But, I digress. Back to the story.) So, in friendly small town spirit, Kate’s new neighbors all volunteer to help her prove her new boss innocent and get him out of jail. A lot of cooking and eating is involved.
I quite enjoyed this book even though it’s almost too cozy and the mystery is fairly predictable. It was a welcome change from the last book I read, but I won’t mention that one here.
The White Magic Five and Dime
The White Magic Five and Dime by Steve Hockensmith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Every once in a while you come across a book that you really like but you don’t really know why. This is one of those. There’s nothing overly special or unique about it. It’s a contemporary murder mystery. A woman is notified that her estranged mother has died and left her all of her worldly assets, which includes a shop in a nothing of a town in Arizona. The shop (see title) is only one of several in the area that provide psychic readings and other woo-woo services. The deceased mom was a career con-woman. The daughter would rather not be, although it is what she was groomed for. So, when it turns out that the woman’s death probably wasn’t due to a burglary gone wrong but was, instead, a targeted slaying, the daughter is not surprised, and she begins to investigate.
I like stories with clever, witty, but essentially moral protagonists. The one in this book certainly qualifies. Alanis (possibly her real name, although she’s had many aliases) is given depth in the story through flashbacks to scenes from her childhood, traveling around the country, living in hotels, and playing parts in her mother’s cons. From these you see why she is what she is, and you admire that she’s not been completely destroyed by her experiences, that she’s somehow retained both her sanity and her humanity. One of her first acts upon arriving in Arizona is to make amends with some of the people her mother conned out of money or jewelry. But I think what I find most appealing about this spunky heroine is that she’s a clear thinker, skeptical, logical, perhaps even a bit cynical. She arrives knowing that her mother, her shop, and the mystical stuff the town is known for are nothing more than ways of extracting money from credulous, superstitious tourists. But as she learns more, she wonders if the tarot cards can’t be more than just a con. In the hands of a skilled reader, perhaps they can provide comfort, or motivation, or confidence…. Rather than being used to cheat people, maybe they can be used to help them. Of course they’d need to be in the hands of someone skilled at reading people to do that. Alanis feels that she is.
There are two more books in this series. I just ordered the second, and the third is in my local library system. I’ve added both to my TBR list. I suppose you could consider that an endorsement of this one.
Bellweather Rhapsody
Bellweather Rhapsody by Kate Racculia
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A once-elegant resort hotel in Upstate New York is hosting a rehearsals and a concert to be performed by talented high school kids, and one of them, a true prodigy with a flute, goes missing. Her roommate, one of a pair of fraternal twins, finds her hanging from a pipe by the neck, duplicating the scene of a murder/suicide of a bride and groom exactly fifteen years before. But is it what it looks like? After the roommate runs for help, the body, and all signs of a hanging, are gone. Is the young flutist really dead? Did she stage a suicide to escape her domineering mother? Maybe the girl who witnessed the events of fifteen years ago and has returned to dispel lingering demons has something to do with it. Perhaps the elderly and peculiar hotel concierge is somehow involved. Or the teacher who once shot and killed a former student who broke into her home, or the Scottish orchestra conductor who has one and a half hands… All of them seem to be hiding something. They are all interesting characters in that they are bent or broken in some way. I can’t say I’d want to be friends with any of them. They’re undoubtedly a high-maintenance lot, but as fictitious suspects in a contemporary whodunit, they’re fun. I quite enjoyed this one.
Zero Sum Game
Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**BEWARE!**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Cas is a super hero. Actually, she’s a super antihero. Her super power is that she is unbelievably (literally) good at math. She knows all the formulas, constants, algorithms, axioms, and whatnot necessary to compute, well, pretty much anything faster than a supercomputer. Combined with her uncanny observational skills and her ability to judge relative distances, atmospheric pressure, wind speeds and directions, and any other pertinent variable, along with her impressive physical strength and apparently superhuman reflexes, she’s close to unstoppable. You really don’t want to annoy her or get in her way because she’ll kill you stone dead without a second thought or a moment of remorse. Like I said, she’s an antihero, so screwed up she makes Batman look psychologically well-adjusted. Cas is the protagonist of this story.
On the other side of the narrative equation is an organization that wants to make the world a better place. Unfortunately, it’s operating under the standard rationalization used by dictators, religious cults and ideologues throughout history: the ends justify the means. They also have a superpower. It’s mind control. They can make you believe whatever they want, which means you’ll do what they want, almost like a puppet on strings. It even works on Cas, although she does have more resistance than most people. The one person who does seem to be immune is her not-friend and ally Rio. Like Cas, he’s a psychopath, but as an added bonus to his uncharming pesonality, he’s also a sadist. The secret organization bent on improving the world wants to recruit him, which is how Cas gets involved. It’s a clever bit of plotting, but we don’t need to go into that for a short book review.
It’s difficult for me to come up with a single star rating for this book. There are parts that I think are brilliant. The story is interesting. The pacing is excellent. The prose is fine. There are no obvious flaws with the editing. But then there are the characters. Since this is a superhero kind of story, you can’t expect them to be believable, but they are comprehensible. They have distinct personalities and understandable motivations (more or less), and yet I found them lacking. The thing is, I like to have good guys in my fiction, at least one character I can like and relate to. It doesn’t have to be the protagonist, and they don’t have to be capital G good. Actually, it’s better if they have flaws and shortcomings and things they are striving to overcome or improve. But they need to have some redeeming qualities, and the main characters in this story really don’t have any. At least the major players don’t. An action story is like a sporting event in which two (or more) players compete, and the reader is supposed to root for one of them to prevail over the other. But in this story, I couldn’t pick a side. Since the story is told in first person from Cas’s point of view, I knew more about her than than the others, but I didn’t feel any sympathy for her. She abounds with negative personality traits. The only positive thing about her that I could see is that she isn’t worse. I certainly didn’t like her. Her primary motivations are self-preservation and revenge. Unlike her opponents, she doesn’t really have an ultimate goal or idea she’s fighting for. As far as the outcome of the fictional narrative went, I didn’t much care which side prevailed.
The Goodreads rating system is based on how much you enjoy the book, and I can’t say I really enjoyed this one. It’s a well-written, action-packed tale with lots of ass kicking, but it doesn’t have much of what I normally look for in a book. There are no endearing, admirable, or even likable characters. It’s not witty or insightful. There is no theme with real-world relevance, a tone I could relate to, or a compelling mood. This may be a great book for readers who like lots of “action,” but I’m not motivated to read any more stories with these characters.
The Portrait of Doreene Gray
The Portrait of Doreene Gray by Esri Allbritten
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The team from Tripping Magazine is investing another (possibly) weird occurrence, this time involving a pair of twins—one who appears not to be aging (much) and her sister who is. Oddly, the portrait of the younger looking one, which she keeps in a locked room, appears to be tolling the years in her stead. Her sister, who painted the thing years ago, claims not to understand why.
This is a Scooby-Doo kind of mystery, with a team of investigators looking at clues to figure out what’s really going on. Their leader (editor of the magazine) is biased toward finding the most woo-woo version of events possible. The chief writer is far more practical, and the sexy photographer is mainly in it for the fun. I wish there were more books in this series. I find them quite enjoyable.
The Way of All Flesh
The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Women are dying in Edinburgh in the mid-19th Century, but is it murder? That’s the question that Will (our protagonist) asks himself after a lady of negotiable affection, with whom he is well acquainted, dies in apparent agony. His interest is both personal and professional as he has just been apprenticed to an eminent doctor who is the Victorian version of an OBGYN.
The setting and characters are believable. The story moves along well, and the plot is interesting. I was also surprised because the person I had pegged as being behind the dire events wasn’t. The fact that I was wrong and it made sense is certainly worthy of an extra star! I tend to enjoy Victorian whodunits, but it’s the historical medical details that make this one stand out.
The City in the Middle of the Night
The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
January is a tidally locked planet, habitable only along a strip of land running north and south, with frigid cold and perpetual darkness on one side, and endless light and searing heat on the other. Sophie, the protagonist of this story, is a student in one of two major cities in this zone. She makes a life-changing (and story-starting) decision when she takes the blame for a theft committed by a friend. The punishment for someone of her disfavored ethnicity is death, and she is hurled into the freezing dark and certain doom. Except it’s not. Certain, that is, due to the intervention of native monsters who may not be quite as monstrous as people believe.
The chapters in which Sophie provides the point of view are narrated in first person, present tense. The others are in third person, past tense. This felt awkward to me, but not jarring. It was the depressing setting, the oppressive culture, and the essentially unlikable characters that prevented me from actually enjoying the time I spent reading this. Dark stories can still be compelling, but this one was not. I never became emotionally invested in the place, the people, their politics, or even in the aliens, although the latter were interestingly, well alien. The ending, well, can’t give that away, but I can say that I found it less than satisfying.
Paper Towns
Paper Towns by John Green
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A fairly average high school boy in central Florida lives next to an unbelievably uncommon girl of about the same age. She’s endearingly clever, but she’s also totally self-absorbed, casually inconsiderate, socially domineering, recklessly adventurous, and inexplicably popular. He is, of course, infatuated with her. It surprises no one when she goes missing just before graduation. She’s done that kind of thing before. But there are circumstances that suggest this time may be different. Fearing that she might be emotionally unstable enough to off herself, the average kid recruits a few friends to help him follow clues she’s left behind, seemingly for his benefit, to try to find her… or maybe her body.
I picked this up at my local library mainly because I recognized the author as the guy who did the entertaining and informative Crash Course videos on YouTube. I had no idea at the time: 1. That it had been made into a movie (so the sticker on the cover claims), 2. That it is set very near where I currently reside (a norther suburb of Orlando), or 3. What a paper town was (actually, I did, but I had never heard them called that).
Because of the age of the characters, the story is shelved as YA, but it’s not juvenile. The prose and pacing are both quite good. The crazy girl may not be overly likeable (although she is, in a way, admirable), and her imaginative pranks may be unbelievable, but her story is quite entertaining.
The Golem and the Jinni
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A Bedouin girl comes down with a mysterious malady, and her father brings her to an unscrupulous magic maker with hope of buying a cure. Centuries later, an unlikable man wants a wife, so he goes to an unscrupulous magic maker to have one made out of clay. . . . Although not necessarily in that order. These events, relayed in flashbacks, provide the backstory of a meeting between a golem bride and a jinni in New York City around 1900. The jinni has no memory of how he got there, or of anything else for the last thousand years. The golem was born only a few days ago. Each is trying to find their place in this strange new world when a chance encounter evolves into a strange friendship between them.
The golem’s plight is especially engaging. She essentially has to invent what she is on her own, figure out if and how to interact with others, and decide on a course for her future. I found the jinni character less interesting overall, but he has his moments. I’m not a fan of flashbacks, and there are a lot in this book, but they’re handled well, providing essential background without confusing or disrupting the flow of the main story (much). Pacing is good, for the most part, although it bogs down a bit in the middle with more emotional turmoil and soap opera angst than seemed necessary. All in all, a good story.
A Knife in the Fog
A Knife in the Fog by Bradley Harper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
There was a four-year gap between the first Sherlock Holmes story and the next. This well-crafted tale tells us what Arthur Conan Doyle was up to during that time. I’ll give you a hint. It involves Jack the Ripper.
Okay, I know. You’re rolling your eyes. Doyle wasn’t actually involved in hunting down the Ripper. This isn’t a true account. It’s historical fiction. A murder mystery. A Victorian whodunit. And do we really need another Ripper story to add to gazillion already out there? I can’t answer as to need, but we can always use more really good stories, and this is one. The characters have depth. Their words and actions feel real. The setting is vividly drawn and historically accurate (to the extent that fiction can be). The events described are believable. The pacing is good, and the story is intriguing. It tickles your intellect and nudges your emotions. Yeah, this is a good book. I don’t give out a lot of five-star ratings, but this earns one. I’m happy to recommend it to readers who appreciate historical fiction or a good murder mystery.
Prudence
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In an alternate Victorian British Empire, werewolves, vampires, and mundane humans coexist in staid civility. And then there is Prudence. She has the rare ability/gift/curse of stealing another supernatural person’s form simply by touching them. If she touches a werewolf, she becomes a werewolf, and the person she touches becomes a mortal human for as long as they stay in reasonably close proximity with one another. Although she is said to be something of a scandal to her family (including both of her fathers and her mother), this is a relative assessment. Within the section of privileged society in which she travels, the main concerns are fashion, reputation, propriety, etiquette, convention, manners, and tea. This isn’t quite as funny as it might be because Prudence apparently shares these fatuous values, and it’s difficult to care much about her or any of the other characters presented in the first 200 pages of the story. And when she is sent on an adventure to India in a private, state of the art dirigible to secure a new type of tea…. Well, it’s really not all that interesting. But on her journey, mysteries begin to appear, her character begins to evolve, and by the time her airship arrives, there are signs of a respectable plot emerging. Since revealing what that is would be a spoiler, I won’t. You’ll have to go through the slow buildup to it yourself if you read this. All I will say is that the last third of the book is fairly interesting.
D.L. Morrese 