Foul Ball

 After seeing a recommendation on one of my Facebook groups, I wound up getting Zak Salih's debut novel Let's Get Back to the Party, which frankly feels like it could have used a better editor and some better suggestions on how to tie this mess together. 

This is not to say its not worth a gander, but more that if there's a point to this, it's not particularly obvious, or hidden so well as to be nonexistent. 

The book is bookended by watershed moments, we open on the day the Supreme Court legalized marriage, and we end a few days after the PULSE massacre. In between, we follow around two childhood friends, who's live interact maybe 3 times in the current era of the narrative, and never particularly satisfactorily. 

The first friend we meet is Sebastian, who's moved to the DC suburbs into his father's new home, as his father is teaching for two years on the Carolinas. Sebastian has recently broken up with his boyfriend, who really doesn't want the life Sebastian does. Sebastian's flame dame Dani drags him to a gay wedding, where he encounters Oscar, who grew up in the same neighborhood as him. Indeed, they have a history we get occasional glimpses of. They exchange numbers, and proceed not to contact each other for several pages. 

Oscar, who works for an ad agency and sees gay marriage as a bad thing, since it flies in the face of what he sees gay culture to be, spends the reception on Cruze, eventually arranging a meetup with someone at an older gay bar in DC. Who ghosts him, because yeah. Anyway, Oscar ends up meeting an older activist who wrote a few books celebrating his hedonism and libertine mores as a young man. They form a friendship.

Sebastian, in his job as an AP English and AP Art History teacher at a fairly well off high school, winds up becoming an advisor for the school's LGBTQ+ group. Which is all well and good until he starts getting close to one of his 17 year old students. Not quite Nabokov close, but getting there. (I mean the closest we get to something approaching really inappropriate is Sebastian putting the boy's hoodie on a pillow and cuddling it all night. Everything else that happens between them is really just awkward mildly obsessive stuff.) 

Oscar finds out the author is writing a book about him, and finds that his libertine idol is no longer quite the firebrand he once was. Indeed, the pages Oscar reads aren't celebrations of Oscar's one night stands, but more pity for Oscar. 

At it's heart, the relationship between Oscar and Sebastian is a miss. The brief interactions we see of them as kids basically reflect some of the unfinished business we all bring forward into adulthood, but the shared intimacy here is more like the scene in the US version of Queer as Folk where Michael explains his obsession with Brian. Not deep, but more like a fantasy interrupted. And the fact that both are left with no answers, no resolution, more just a "somebody that I used to know" kind of vibe towards each other.... I realize this is likely a more realistic thing that indeed does happen in real life, but the build up to that unresolved note just isn't present to make me feel much of anything for either character. 

I mean, if Mr. Salih writes something else, I'll read it, since his writing style is interesting, but this novel is a lot underdone.

Dire Omens and Portents

 So, while most of the shocking revelations from Bob Woodward and Robert Costa's Peril were mostly revealed prior to publication. the book itself paints a much more interesting portrait than the tidbits sizzling to sell the book in the first place.

Chronicling from late 2019 to early 2021, we start with Joe Biden deciding to run for the nomination, proceed through Donald Trump's reelection campaign and COVID, and end up around the end of Biden's first 100 days in office. All with authors' style of presenting a timely backed with facts and the soul of a prosecutor presenting a case. (Hey, I read All the President's Men; other than Woodward and Bernstein describing themselves as scrappy and handsome, which is not discussed here, the writing style hasn't changed much.) 

One can wonder if the figures treated most sympathetically here were ones who talked to him, or if some of the folks regarded as villains are actually not as bad as presumed. (In particular, Bob Barr is portrayed as less an architect of the obstruction of justice as more in trying to explain to his boss exactly what the Constitution says about the electoral college voting. Lindsay Graham also is portrayed as being one of the few trying to get Trump past the post election lies that the former guy has seemingly swallowed hook, line, and sinker. Generally agreed upon as being wretched hives of scum and villainy Ivanka, Jared, and Mitch McConnell even get more favorable press here than Trump.) 

I'm sure one of the biggest critiques people will point out in relation to this (and really ALL books with either author) is their politics; frankly, one gets the impression politics doesn't matter as much as effective administration to either of them. That seems to be the big conclusion on the end of the era, while they think Trump did good with getting the vaccine out and approved (it's mildly amusing, since that same fight to get treatment or some kind of prevention into the hands of people played a big part in the narrative of the last book I reviewed on here), the complete lack of any sort of plan to do anything with it AFTER getting it out doomed the response. Well, that and going out of the way to downplay the risks of the virus, prophylactic measures that could have helped, and indeed, playing up to his base, what could have actually been a much more effective thing almost died in the womb. 

This would be one of the big lessons in here. Projects that affect an entire planet need competent administration on several levels to work. 

The events of January 6th, 2021, get a lot of discussion. As is the perilous line that certain members of the Legislative branch have to walk to "keep the base happy" vs the actual mortal danger they were in. Since we end before the current crop of (pardon my language) batshit conspiracy that overtook some of that branch in trying to justify what so many of us watched live on TV, this wasn't explored as deeply as it really really needs to be by people who can at least present as being an objective observer. (Yeah, we all, myself included, can get caught up in a narrative that may or may not be the full story.)

Of note, they avoid, for the most part, discussing the nuttery that is "QAnon", although Guilianni comes off as a complete and total idiot in the eyes of almost everyone. 

When we get into Biden's first 100 days (almost a welcome relief at this point), we get deep into the structural faults that exist in the Senate that didn't particularly exist during Biden's tenure in both the Senate and his days as Veep. (This is a discussion that also deserves a deeper dive somewhere, as the Senate generally had a reputation for having less hot heads than the House, which has changed over time as ideologues have won races for state seats there. This is not to say that ideologues haven't served in the senate, I can name several from the past few years, but more that there does seem to be a heck of a lot more unwilling to do anything now than there were, and the narrative does point this out in a few places, pointing at the strained relations between Missouri's Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley. I look at my own state, where Rob Portman (who I disagree with on a lot of things) is retiring, and we're already getting TV ads from folks more in the vein of Hawley running for the seat. 

My conclusions after reading this could be stated as follows; While some things are black and white, much of the stuff leading to those events were much more gray than anyone was portraying. While the villains remain villains, some of them were less Bond Villain, and more MCU villain. Unless there is accountability, we run the risk of repeating everything again.

Meh (An X-ers reaction)

 I for the life of my don't remember requesting Never Silent: ACT UP And My Life in Activism by Peter Staley, but it showed up, so I read it. And I spent a lot of my time reading it trying to figure out how the heck to review it. Bear with me here.

For those who don't know, Staley got involved with the AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP) in NYC fairly early on, after having worked as an investment banker who happened to be gay and have HIV. (To qualify this, his diagnosis was originally AIDS Related Complex [ARC], a diagnosis that no longer exists, and even if he did at a few points hit what has since become the t4 levels that qualifies for a diagnosis of AIDS, the diagnostic criteria was not there during the periods his cells were under the threshold.) He got involved, and got semi famous. 

Here, he chronicles his highs and lows in ACT UP, TAG, AIDSmeds.com, and more recent forays into COVID. 

This includes more than a little name dropping, dissections of long ago fights, Crystal Meth addiction, surviving while others were dying and the guilt that comes with it...

Rather than rehash this, let me just try to break down the good and the bad with the narrative as presented.

THE GOOD:

30ish years since the start of where the narrative picks up, he's got a lot of perspective, so the immediacy of things that came out during the era is not as present. (This could also be listed as bad.)

His descriptions of actions taken is vivid and compelling, as we hear about the ACT UP event where they interrupted the New York Stock Exchange to protest price gouging on AZT ($10,000 a year at the outset), sit ins at companies to get better trials for people who might benefit from the trial medications, inflating a condom on Jesse Helms's house...

His memories of people in the movement, and the tribute he pays to them, even if he disagreed with them. No man is an island, and he was a visible part with a lot of support.

His honesty in discussing addiction, STDs, and survivor guilt. All of these are things that don't often get brought into the light, and it's refreshing to see someone examine it from the eyes of experience. 

 His chapter concerning consulting on Dallas Buyers Club was eye opening. 

THE BAD:

Unlike Cleve Jones's memoir, we don't get a couple chapters of romance with a hairy Greek man; we do get a chapter on Staley's coming of age with 8 men in 7 days in London. I understand why it's here; despite his other faults, he's fairly libertine with his attitudes towards sex... it just felt a bit like braggadocio. 

I couldn't help but feel that his recaps of the internecine fighting that lead to him leaving ACT UP was one sided. I realize this is autobiography, and therefore a chance to justify his actions, but I keep wondering what the logic the opposition using in those fights. I mean, frankly, I likely would have been on his side in the situation, as his Inside-Outside strategy is more in line with the activism I joined in 1994, but I can't help but feel that we're missing half the discussion. And what little is presented of the other side, I can see why people would be resentful of his actions. 

While he does sort of acknowledge his own privilege as a white man from the Upper Class, there's a hell of a lot of Classist rhetoric thrown in unconsciously.) Seriously, at one point, after going on about going on disability after leaving the banking world, and having no real employment, he talks about withdrawing a larger amount than I make in a month from his bank to cover an impromptu recon trip. When he discusses how more well off white men got better treatment faster, there's a bit of acknowledgement, but not much. 

Based on his age, he's basically at the tail end of the Boomer Generation, and it shows quite a bit. 

I was kind of sad he really didn't get into actions that actually made the news in my small hometown, like the Die-In at St. Patrick's Cathedral. 

His complete erasure of Gen X when discussing the "Second Great Silence" (the first being Reagan, the second being the dying down of publicity after the 3 drug cocktail became the norm, making most viral loads undetectable and mostly affordable) and the advent of PrEP (Truvada, or PreExposure Prophylaxis.) He spends some time praising millennial activists, while completely ignoring any and all things Generation X did and still does. To be fair, this is Boomer ideology at its ugliest, and thus, MEH.

While I appreciate his addiction and recovery didn't dominate the entire narrative, 10 years of addiction and recovery takes up 2 pages and doesn't tie in to the narrative beyond that. 

 FINAL TAKE:

Whether or not he's taking all the credit for what ACT UP accomplished and whether those accomplishments could be credited to ACT UP to begin with are always going to be up for debate. However, he does a good job on shedding some light on events that quite a few of us did not really get exposed to in the time period discussed.

Young Cordelia

 I should have written this up a few days ago, but work has been nuts.

At a long ago library sale, I picked up Lois McMaster Bujold's Barrayar, which is another chapter in her Vorkosigan Saga, focused on Miles's mother, Cordelia. (As I mention when I review books in the saga, I have yet to read a Miles book. However, Cordelia, Ethan, and her World of Five Gods series are some of the best books I've read. So, eventually....)

Cordelia Naismith-Vorkosigan has newly married Aral Vorkosigan, following some events that evidently happen in a prior book. As the current Emperor of Barrayar is dying, he appoints Aral to be Regent for his son, who is 5ish as the story opens. Cordelia is gravid with child, and Aral is trying hard to find a balance between the Vor class (Aristocrats, usually with the title of Count) and much more socialist plebes. 

Aral's attempts at progress (at this point, a new continent is being terraformed, and a new colony being built on Sergyar) are being resisted by hardline counts, who have some control over the military. This leads to a few assassination attempts, including a gas attack on him and Cordelia, which threatens her foetus. Cordelia, coming from Beta Colony, has no issues putting her son in a Uterine Replicator with an experimental treatment to try to prevent the side effects the poison and the antidote from killing Miles. 

Of course, one Count in particular tries to stage a coup; however, the young Emperor escapes to the Vorkosigan estate and Aral makes arrangements to get him somewhere safe. Cordelia also escapes, and winds up leading a small raid on the capital to save her baby. 

As I keep saying, McMaster Bujold is a fantastic author, and her Sci-fi, while not hard core tech, is some of the best I've ever read. Well worth the read.

Threefer

 A while back, I bought a 3 in one volume of James Herbert novels for the last novel included, one that was advertised in a pulp paperback I read as a kid. 

Any rate, let's break these down.

The lead novel, The Fog, sadly has nothing to do with John Carpenter's 80's film. Instead, we're in a small village in south central England where an Earthquake manages to unleash long buried genetically modified germs that make hosts violent. (The book was published in the early 70's, but it kind of reminds me of the more recent Mad Cow outbreak.) Our hero, Mr. Holman, is a former government man, who somehow gains immunity from the germs, but given the cloud of yellow germs has an almost sentience going on, it's a long process trying to stop it. The narrative here tends to drift a bit, as we get occasional scenes of what happens to people caught in the fog before everything resolves at the end. 

In the middle lies The Spear, wherein Mr. Steadman, a former SAS and Mossad Agent now working as a gumshoe goes up against a British-German conspiracy involving the Thule Society and the Longinius's Spear. 

And last, we wind up with Sepulchre, in which Mr. Halloran, who also worked in Army intelligence, but who now works for a company protecting people from kidnapping, ends up dealing with a client trying to bring back Bel-Marduke. 

All three are breathless and pulpy reads, albeit enjoyable breathless and pulpy reads. There are prescient bits in here; in The Fog, an infected pilot steers his jumbo jet into a major London landmark, for instance. 

We also have some problematic bits and a few mixed bags thrown in. One particularly bad part is the reveal of a hermaphrodite in The Spear, whose reveal is met with revulsion and a severe beating. Both The Fog and Sepulchre include minor gay characters, which is rare in that era of horror; however, in both, the gay guys are on the bad side. On the other hand, they fact that they're gay doesn't make them evil in these narratives, they just have other evil acts they perform that do. 

Fun reads, but definitely from a different era. 

It's a different world

 My brother, Charles Ebert, published an anthology of his short fiction titled A World Where Sandy Never Died and Other Worlds, which I finished up a few days ago (and haven't had a chance to review yet, because of my hideous work schedule this week.)

This work collects 12 stories, 11 of which were published elsewhere, and each comes with a preface talking a bit about the story. Most fall somewhere under the umbrella of "Soft Sci-Fi" or "Near Future Sci-Fi", although more than a few are under different headings.  

Honestly, I was happy a story I heard him read out loud at a convention was included here ("Hauntings"), since it's almost a play on Beetlejuice in terms of trying to get rid of a problem tenant. 

We have a much more "could be current" story in "The Ossuaries", where the connections between historical atrocities and our modern age come really into focus, as does the choice between fulfilling a dream or temporarily preventing an echo or a previous atrocity. 

I enjoyed the title story, which concerns people people slipping between universes to find albums from artists who died in our world but survived in others. While I'm not as passionate about the artists mentioned in here as the author is, I kept picturing other ways to enjoy such excursions, and wondering if one could build a much larger story on world presented here. 

For me, those 3 are the highlights of the collection. They're all good and well written, but these three are the ones that stuck with me. I believe this one is on Amazon, so if you have some extra cash, give it a whirl.

This is why we tell the story

 In a case of falling victim to targeted adverts, I ended up buying Stephen Purdy's Second Edition of Flop Musicals of the Twenty-First Century Part I: The Creatives thanks to something I saw scrolling. 

According to his afterword, this came about due to a question of of a theater seminar he was leading, which lead into getting in touch with people involved in several levels of productions that are now considered failures. 

Frankly, some of them I expected to be included (Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), some I was surprised to see were considered flops (Rocky), most I had never heard of, and in a few cases (Lestat) I found myself wondering who thought they'd be a good idea in the first place. 

Anyway, the book covers 13 musicals that either did not return the money invested in them, closed very quickly, or really disappointed in other ways. (In almost every case, ticket sales were below 50% for every performance prior to closing; most shows need at least 70% to remain profitable enough to keep running.) In some cases, like Glory Days, Wonderland, and King Kong, the shows never really got taken through a lot of development processes like out of town tryouts or workshops, and therefore couldn't get the kinks worked out prior to arriving in New York. Others did well out of town, but failed to find an audience in New York (Cheeseburger in Paradise.) Some (Dance of the Vampires) had too many cooks trying to fix things (In that last case, the star of the show got all kinds of creative control, and wound up becoming "Liberace as a Vampire"). Some had dream teams of creatives, like Elton John and Bernie Taupin working with big name choreographers, but the book kept changing while the music didn't (Lestat. Again, I have yet to figure out how a condensed version of Anne Rice would work as a musical. If by some chance one of our local troupes produces it, I'd love to see it.) 

Hearing more about Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was also very entertaining, since the music I heard from it was good (written by Bono and The Edge from U2), but all I ever heard was the number of accidents involving the show. While the accidents likely did play a big part in the fact it lost $20,000,000, the number of rewrites (the first act ended with a battle between Green Goblin and Spider-Man, the second act involved a new character named Arachne trying to trap Peter in her web in dreams... The words tap dancing spiders was used to describe this. It was supposed to end with a big shot of webbing cannoned off the stage onto a screen like a splash page in the comics. Sadly, the device never worked, everyone hated the second act, so they stretched out Act I into two acts, with a thrilling aerial finale.)

Another, Glory Days, has the honor of being one of the rare shows to close the night it opens. Which is sad, since by all accounts, the show was a diamond in the rough, and ran into issue of hitting Broadway before it was really ready to be there. (It fell victim to market research saying a scaled down intimate show would play well in a cavernous setting.) Which is sad, since the plot synopsis listed with the show makes it sound like it would be a good watch, but the stress of the show evidently nearly ended the friendship of the guys who wrote it. 

Cheeseburger in Paradise evidently did really well in tryouts in more tropical climes, but New Yorkers (and tourists) evidently weren't all that interested in getting drunk and listening Jimmy Buffet songs. 

By far the one thing that sticks out in almost every story here is exactly how many good things people involved in these shows had to say about them. These folks remain invested in things that have long since gone dark, telling fun tales from behind the scenes, and discussing why they think their show didn't find an audience. 

All told, while some of the shows in here might find new life either touring or a revival either in New York or a local production, they all succeeded in opening on Broadway, a feat not every show gets. And frankly, it sounds like many of these shows deserve another chance somewhere.

Mages in this series are like Spinal Tap drummers

 And as the twofer concludes, Jak Koke's Beyond the Pale concludes the Dragoneheart Saga, wrapping up the various story lines we've been confused by for two books now. 

Burnout, now Billy, is still possessed by Lethe, and being held captive in Atzlan. Ryan has the Dragon Heart, but needs to find a way to get it to Thayla in the spirit realm. A young blood mage who is entranced by Thayla is trying to break free of her mentor. They get a new Mage, Talon (who stars in his own series), and start meeting some of the bigger names in the setting, like Harlequin, the elf who may or may not predate the 6th Age. 

By the end, everyone is either dead or redeemed, we know what Lethe is, and Ryan finally gets the answers he's been seeking. 

The conclusion here is a hell of a lot better written than the preceding books. I do have to wonder how much of it is canon, though, since it reveals a solution to a fairly major mystery in the setting. 

Really fun read to conclude the trilogy. Worth the slog through the past two books.

Ghost Gangsters

 Morgan Brice returns to Cape May with Blink, as we join Ben and Eric on another adventure in ghosts and gangsters. 

Friend Jaxon wants to reopen an old theater with the Arts Council. Problem being said theater is cursed by a strega, and Jaxon winds up in a coma. 

In the mean time, the Russian Mob and the Newark Mob are gunning for our heroes thanks to their former jobs. 

It's pretty much what I've come to expect from these, fairly breezy, a bit of smut, and the incongruity of two guys trying to protect each other from their pasts also dealing with domestic issues, like whether or not to propose or even move in together. This one does have a nice twist towards the end, involving the best Spielberg reference in print currently.

Fun, light, and good for a relaxing evening.

Locked up

 Clockwork Asylum by Jak Koke, aka Book 2 of The Dragon Heart Cycle, picks up right after the last book ended, with Burnout swimming in the Snake River, possessed by the spirit Lethe.

This leads to Ryan Mercury and Assets Inc trying to track him and the Dragon Heart artifact down. All while Ryan and his girlfriend have to deal with the investigation into the death of Dunzlekhan, in which both are suspects. 

All of which leads up to an explosive conclusion in the Dragon's arboretum as almost every faction involved in the affair wind up in DC at the same time.

While this is better paced and much clearer than book one was, it still suffers from way too many plots not quite meshing together well most of the time. 

But still, I ended this one wanting to read the finale much more than I wanted to read this one after the first.

Death of a Dragon

 I picked up the Shadowrun DragonHeart Saga a while back, since evidently my favorite Mage in the setting showed up in here somewhere. While he isn't in the first book, what is in here is kind of interesting.

Stranger Souls opens with Ryan Murphy, an agent of Dunzelkhan (Elder Dragon, and newly elected president of the United Canadian and American States) running afoul of some kind of ritual in Atzlan (formerly Mexico.) Not long after Ryan goes down, Dunzelkhan blows up in front of the Watergate Hotel in the DC Fed. 

Then we briefly meet Lethe, a male spirit tasked by Thalya to find the Dragon Heart to keep the chasm between our world and the outsiders open. 

It's a lot to process, and made more complicated by the fact that Ryan, while not dead, is however being prepped to receive possession by a gent who currently lives on as a Matrix simulation. And lest we forget, there's Burnout, the cyberzombie, who, like a certain antagonist from another franchise, is much more man than machine. 

Eventually this all winds up with the Dragon heart fallin into the Snake Rive along with an antagonist possessed by Lethe while Ryan figures out who he is now that he has two different sets of memories. 

It's engaging, but it's messy.

Making a killing on the licensing

Grady Hendrix's new novel, The Final Girl Support Group, amuses and frustrates in almost equal measure, which isn't helped by Lynette, our focus character, being agoraphobic and paranoid, nor do a few dropped plot lines through the course of the book. (To be fair, Lynette first got hung on a rack of antlers in Utah by a guy dressed like Santa who then killed her boyfriend Tommy; a few years later, the killer's brother also dressed up as Santa and tried to shoot her.)

On the other hand, given the basis of the novel, this isn't exactly a great surprise, since the mostly 70's-80's Slashers popping up in here had similar issues. (I mean, one girl, Julia, went through this universe's Scream, which was the early 90's, and Stephanie, who we meet later on, just more or less undergoes the 2009 remake of Friday the 13th. The original is represented by Adrienne, much like Nightmare on Elm Street is represented in Heather, while Marilyn went through The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dani's brother escaped the asylum on Halloween to try to kill her both at home and later at the hospital. Crazy Chrissy, who we meet towards the end, is not part of this group, mainly because she fell in love with the guy stalking her Homecoming dance, and now sells murderabelia. For those who haven't caught on to the naming conventions here, our Final Girls either share the name of the actress who survived the initial franchise offering, or have a name that's a play on it.)

The main girls here (Lynette, Julia, Adrienne, Marilyn, Dani, Heather) are all part of a long term group therapy session with Dr. Elliott. As happens with long term therapy, most everyone is in a rut, following the same patterns that they've been cast in. Adrienne now owns Camp Red Hook, which she's turned into a sanctuary for women survivors of violence. Not long after the start, a new massacre happens at Red Hook, leading Adrienne to kill herself. Someone else confesses to the murders Dani stopped, making her doubt that she did the right thing by killing her brother with a tire iron. The man who killed Lynette's family and boyfriend reveals the letters she wrote to him as part of a pen pal program and says that they'd had a sexual relationship, which sets her up as an accomplice. 

Not long after Lynette's apartment gets shot up, she starts believing that someone much have hacked her hard drive, read the book she was writing filled with her perceptions of her group mates, and is using that information to take down the final girls. (Some of this gets proven correct after all the girls get emailed copies of the book.) 

Lynette goes on the run, gets arrested, gets broken out by the lawyer she used to sleep with, then goes on the run with Stephanie in tow, thinking the newest final girl is likely also a target. 

Eventually, we do find out everything that's going on and why, but there's quite a bit of missing information towards the end, most of which involves secondary plots. 

I've seen a few posts on goodreads questioning this book vs. Riley Sager's debut novel Final Girls, and while they share similar themes, they are not the same book. While they share similar set ups, Sager's is a lot less movie obsessed, and the heroine there is less sure of her own motives. Hendrix, who's writing tends to center on various tropes and molding them into something new, takes this narrative in different directions, and doesn't make the rookie mistake of throwing the two biggest plot twists within a page of each other and 5 pages before the end. They're both fun reads. And other than a similarity of titles, they're very different reads. 

While a few loose threads brought this down a peg, I still really enjoyed this one.

Wedding Bell Blues

 Seanan McGuire's When Sorrows Come finally completes the long time coming nuptials of Tybalt, King of Cats, and October Day, one of three known Dóchas sidhe, albeit by a human father. Given how long this plot has been simmering, it's nice to see a payoff on it.

Mind you, the wedding's in Toronto, and just about everyone who's not dead, imprisoned in a deep fairie realm, or in enchanted sleep shows up for it, just in time to get suckered into an attempted coup on the High King of the West by doppelgangers acting under orders from another shadowy figure. 

Which means we're basically reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer Gets Married. Which is not a bad thing, as Buffy (despite Joss Whedon's recent revelations) remains some of the best TV made. 

But, it does mean that much of the narrative is essentially a case of let's solve a mystery while we get to the grand event at the end, which climaxes with Toby and her wedding party facing down archers while wearing formal dress. It's an awesome spectacle, cheesy as can be, but none the less deserving of a bucket of popcorn and cheering. And the sheer numbers of cameos throughout the main book (and the novella at the end, which is less a novella and more an epilogue, since Toby narrates the reception), bring a lot of plots covered in the prior 14 book back to the forefront, showing Toby how her unusual choices have lead to better outcomes for people who would otherwise not have had them. 

As to where this goes next, I cannot say. McGuire has stated she knows where October's story ends, but this seems much more of a resting point than a finale. I look forward to how this continues.

Running with the shadows of the night

 Robert N. Charette's final volume of Secrets of Power, Find Your Own Truth, is very exciting, and deftly maneuvers around several plot threads right up until the end, when it falls flat on its face during the dismount. 

We start with Twist/Sam off in Australia doing his best Indiana Jones and trying to recover a stone filled magic to heal his sister Janice of her Wendigo transformation. What he doesn't know is that said stone is a keystone keeping the totem of Spider in check. (Note to readers: most totems in the setting are "good". Insect and arachnid totems aren't.) 

Any rate, Sam's big ritual to heal his sister doesn't work, so he going looking for Howling Coyote, the Amerind shaman responsible for the Ghost Dance that reshaped North American politics not long after the Awakening. The Elves are looking for the stone, and Sato of Renraku who played a small part in book one is looking for Sam. Dodger is looking for the ghost in the machine he keeps running in to. 

Finally, in the third act, everyone finds what they're looking for, as Sam manages to recreate the Ghost Dance, and we get what feels a LOT tacked on as plot threads long ignored suddenly get tied in to the finale. Which is fine, it just feels a bit like a GM liking a players' idea enough to rewrite a plot line that they suggested into the canon. It happens, but it also feels very very tacked on. 

Was reading this trilogy worth it?

Yeah, even if the setting has developed well beyond the scope of what this early fiction presents. Which I'm not going to complain about, since it's fascinating to see how things evolved over the years.

Nice to know relations didn't improve

Robert N. Charrette's Choose Your Enemies Carefully picks up the tale of Twist/Sam and his search for his sister a few years after the events detailed in the first book of Secrets of Power. Although this time, we actually get to meet Janice, the goblinized sister. Indeed, she gets rescued from the Yomi walled neighborhood in Hong Kong in the first chapter. We gets glimpses of her as she works with another of her kind (implied heavily to be an orc or troll, although the big reveal at the end proves that assumption wrong), as she moves around the world. 

Her brother Sam, aka Twist, on the other hand is trying to raise money to go rescue her from Yomi, proving again to be an ethical Shadowrunner. He does wind up getting sucked into the books main plot through deceit by the people he cares about, winding up in England, dealing with a Circle of Druids trying to oust the Elves of Tir, which used to be Ireland. Said Druids first attempt recreates an old Christopher Lee movie (I'm ignoring Nic Cage's remake; this book predates it, plus no one is screaming about bees), then morphs into something else. 

By the end, Sam/Twist has dealt with betrayal from both Dodger, his hetero husband; and Hart, who was trying to kill him in the last book, and is now his side piece overseas. At the very end, after all the ugly chains of story resolve and we find out who all has been using everyone else throughout, we watch as Sam and Janice reunite briefly, and the consequences thereof, which will likely be one of the plot threads in the finale. 

While this book was not quite as readable as the first volume, it remained a pleasant experience. I mean, we're watching someone who's essentially a pawn learn to move outside of his programmed parameters, and how his relationship with his Dog totem is making him more of a Shaman of Justice more than anything else.I'll be interested to see how everything works out.

Falling Up the Corporate Ladder

 Thanks to the rerelease of the original Shadowrun novels as Legends, I managed to get the original Shadowrun kickoff novels, Robert N. Charrette's Secrets of Power trilogy, starting with Never Deal with a Dragon (which, based on the narrative here, is sage advice.)

Anyway, we're focused on Renraku data analyst Sam Verner, who starts off as a pet of the Director, until his siters undergoes Goblinization (aka her genetics activated and turned her into something else, like an ork, troll, or elf), at which point he gets unceremoniously transferred to the infamous Renraku Seattle Arcology. 

Not long after arriving in Seattle, like not even gotten off the plane, he and some coworkers get kidnapped by a team of Shadowrunners. Sam ends up helping the runners after figuring out their original mission was going to wind up not doing what they thought it would, which earns him the enmity of Security lady Crenshaw, who spends the rest of the book trying to prove he's in cahoots with the shadowrunners, despite his odd corporate loyalty. 

So, eventually Sam decides to get himself extracted from Renraku and choose a new path. Which doesn't go well, since the team extracting him are using the extraction to cover putting a doppelganger INTO the arcology. 

And everyone seems to be double crossing one another, from the runners, to the corporate types, to the 3 dragons that show up at various points. (By the end, we've met the Eastern Dragon Tessian, and Western Dragons Lofwyr and Haesslich.)

We, as readers, get some idea of exactly how events seemingly unrelated manage to trap Sam in a life he never expected, although we never get a real picture of the actual game he's a pawn in. I mean, we are kind of left to assume that one way or another, the actual extraction was supposed to be the sentient AI trapped in the Arcology, but who wanted it and why remain a mystery, as do the promise of freedom it was working towards. 

Sam also learns that he has access to magic, and indeed a Dog totem somewhere in the mess that leads him down the Pacific Coast and to Montreal before winding up back in Seattle again. He also meets an elf decker named Dodger whom he forms a Bromance with. (I realize the publication on this predates the emergence of Bromance and probably the concept of Metrosexuals, but honestly Sam and Dodger appear to be queer coded, even if Sam is making the beast with two backs with Sally Tseung by the end.)

Was it a fun read? Indeed. Nothing amuses quite like Sasquatches with their own dragon backed agendas, fish out of water characters, and a sci fi pulp feels. Do I wish they had revealed one particular characters motivations earlier, since we find out a major factor in her pursuit a few paragraphs before she exits the narrative? Yeah, because while it makes her motivations a lot clearer, it also feels like something thrown in with no real connection to the rest of the story, or exactly how much said plot point would likely trigger a few readers. That side, it was worth reading, and I look forward to seeing what the next two volumes bring.

Gallows Humor

 Finishing up Stephen Kenson's Talon Trilogy with The Burning Time, which wraps up Talon's story quite well. 

I'm technically skipping the second book here, Ragnarock, since I read it last year, but ok.

Anyway, Talon and his crew get sucked into a new adventure thanks in part to a run gone bad. (I mean, that's pretty much Shadowrun for "You meet at the local tavern"...) In this case, trying to get something from Cross Applied Technologies, which ends up bringing Roy Kilaro involved. Roy, who wants to become a Seraphim, is in Boston from Montreal investigating an odd data stream he found from one of Boston's chip heads. 

On the home front, Trouble, the cabal's Decker, falls back in with her ex, since the gay street mage obviously ain't interested in the slotting she's offering. Talon, in the mean time, keeps running across his ex's ghost. And it would seem Mama Iaga is using Gallow to help pull off whatever plan she has for the Christmas return of Halley's Comet. (I get the distinct impression this particular book was written right before a new edition, since a second wave of goblinization known as SURGE starts happening towards the end, who lead to less rigid character creation in the system.)

By the end, everyone gets something akin to a happy ending, other than Mama Iaga, who pretty much gets what she had coming. 

I rather enjoyed this book, particularly towards the end when Talon more or less takes an Orphic journey to find Jason, his ex. While my love life has never been QUITE as dramatic as Talon's, the emotions we get through his adventures ring quite true. These are well worth picking up if you can find them.

Pop, Six, Squish, Uh uh, Cicero, Lipschitz!

 So, when I was looking up Fourth Down and Out, both Amazon and the library suggested Andrew Welsh-Huggins edited Columbus Noir, part of a much larger series of noir anthologies set in different cities around the US. (I kind of doubt Columbus is big on that list; given the series started in 2013 and Columbus is 2019....)

Anyway, while the stories are ok, and set in places I know, not many of them would be what I'd consider noir. No leggy women coming in to a detective's office, and leading him by the nose into trouble, no real black humor, no jazz playing in the background...

No, we mostly get women murdering their boyfriends or husbands, or getting other men to do it for them. Admittedly, some of it is interesting, like the editor's story about the governor cheating on his wife, and how his aide takes care of the problem on behalf of the governor's wife after he sleeps with her...

Oh yes. Almost none of the people in here are faithful. With a few exceptions, like Yolonda Tosette Sanders' Whitehall story that involves an alcoholic woman trying to solve her brother's murder years later, most of this is people killing off significant others, either theirs or someone else's. Usually over drugs, sex, but occasionally real estate. (Craig McDonald's German Village story being a major example of this.)

I was again sad that, even in Columbus's Gayborhoods, very few gay people played a major part in any of the stories. (One minor exception being Daniel Best's story set in the Short North, but even then the gay person in question in playing sugar daddy to his drug dealer, shows up for 2 paragraphs, then we get back to the felon killing his business partner and sleeping with said guy's wife.) This made me doubly sad, given how much queer coding was built into the old noir and pulp fictions that inspired this anthology. 

On the other hand, Khalid Moalim's North Side story does address several real life issues while giving us a parable on how gossip ruins lives. (In this case, a Somali girl who's much more assimilated makes her father angry by getting engaged to a black man. While this resolves itself in one dead body, and two important people in her life going to prison, it is a look at the weird dichotomy of how African immigrants deal with BIPOC in a culture where they themselves are often viewed as BIPOC.)

Do I wish it was more like what I was hoping for? Yes. I would have even settled for more realistic Tales From the Crypt style stories, where the morality play is there, but wrapped in such shenanigans to make it easier to swallow.

Me-OUCH!

 One of the stores in the Platform I work in sells Andrew Welsh-Huggin's Fourth Down and Out, and after reading the summary on the back, I decided to check it out of the library to see if it was worth buying for mom. 

What I found was, even if Mom would likely not enjoy it, I certainly did. 

Our story opens on Private Investigator Andy Hayes getting the stuffing beat out of him over a laptop in the back of his van, with the assailant also pointing out he lost a bunch of money on a game thanks to Andy. 

We flash back to the start of this adventure, as Andy gets hired at the Cup O' Joe in German Village to find out who's blackmailing his client with a video of said client cheating on his wife with an 18 year old. Which leads to the boyfriend of the 18 year old,  which in turn leads to his parents in New Albany. 

As the book progresses, we find out several people have reasons to want the laptop, from the lady who's been writing English assignments for Buckeye football players to keep eligible; the fixer, who hired her to write said assignments; the dad of the blackmailer, who has some shady financial deals on the laptop; and Andy's assailant, who was paid to retrieve it and got a bullet to the chest and a swim in the Grandview Quarry for his trouble. 

On top of this, we have a secondary investigation into whether or not a professor's wife is having an affair, which ends up being a red herring for the real mystery here. 

Towards the end, we finally find out why Andy's relationship with the fixer is so strained, and get a really good look at (in this case fictional) dirty dealings within the athletics department at Ohio State. (I realize this situation is fictional, I said that in the last sentence. However, given what's come to light since 2014 when this was published...)

I enjoyed it, even if some of the biggest fiction in here was finding parking in German Village less than a mile away from where you were trying to go. I doubt non residents of Ohio would find much of interest here, although you never know.

Seriously?

 So, I picked up Brian Thomsen's Once Around the Realms at a long ago library sale, along with a few other Dungeons & Dragons novels, but never got around to reading it until now. There are reasons, for this, like the fact it got jammed on to my shelves and buried until I was digging around looking for something else, but... 

Anyway. I'll make it clear that the Forgotten Realms setting is likely one of my least favorite D&D worlds for much the same reason other people love it. The planet it's set on is huge, and can support any kind of adventure. Problem being, even world shaking events in the setting really only seem to create local tremors, rather than big shakeups within. (I mean, if DragonLance was set there, the people on the east coast would probably not hear about it until 2 years after the war ended.) Also, many of the really fun D&D settings that were kind of one offs, allowing adventured flavored with martial arts or Arabian things wound up getting sucked in to Toril eventually, and everyone pretty much ignores anything that isn't on the West Coast anyway. 

But, rants aside, this starts with Volothamp Geddarm meeting a traveling actor about to be arrested in Cormyr. Volo (not to be confused with Marco Volo) saves the actor, Passeport from arrest, and uses his reputation as a writer of travel guides for the Realms to get free food and lodging. Which works out well, until a certain West Coast Wizard named Blackstaff challenges Volo to travel the entirety of the Realms without crossing his trail. To prove it, he gives Volo a bag of Necromancer's gems, that will turn red (and highlight a map) when he's achieved a travel goal. 

So let's see. Early on, we meet Captain Queeg, and a Captain Bligh Ahib, who's family was cursed by a banshee, thus he's chasing a big white wail. 

Later on, we wind up travelling to a Magic heavy kingdom, where they get a stolen airship flown by a dwarf named Jonas Grumby. And of course, the airship is named The Minnow. 

 

By far the worst though, not counting the final chapter involves a landing in Maztica (a pre-Columbian setting) where Mr. Rork and his halfling servant Herve await to fulfill their dreams.

The Boomer TV references aside (seriously, there's a Jaws joke in here), it's actually a fun story with a lot of silliness. Even if you do need a map to figure out where the heck they are half the time.

Bawston

 If you can't tell, I'm on a Shadowrun kick of late, mainly because I bought the recent Harebrained Schemes games set in the world. Any rate, this inspired rereading Stephen Kenson's Talon centered books. Crossroads, the first Talon centered book, takes us from DC to Boston as someone in Talon's past has an axe to grind. 

Talon, a street mage, starts as part of Assets Inc., an established Shadowrunning group who made a name for themselves stopping an astral incursion. When we meet him, he's knee deep in trouble as an Ant Shaman is trying to turn a young girl into a Queen. (Gee, I feel like this was part of the plot of Shadowrun Returns!) Anyway, he gets back to his apartment in DC to find a female decker waiting on him. The femme fatale, Trouble, ends up dragging him back to Boston 

Here, we meet the runners who played a part in Technobabel, as Talon hires the group to help track down the person hunting him. What follows is a game of screw your neighbor, as several villains emerge, and Talon must learn to control his anger. (But honestly, I found myself sympathizing with him for much of it. I mean if someone killed my lover, I'd be inclined to summon a fire elemental to burn them myself.) 

Of interest in particular is Kenson's descriptions of how Mage magic works in the setting. Without getting really technical, of the three magic classes, Shamen run on Charisma and have a totem, Adepts are much more physical, and their magic gives them combat edges, Mages run on Intelligence, and generally work more with elemental forces. Given the Mr. Kenson's husband is a fairly famous author of books concerning modern witchcraft, the focus on the details of magic shouldn't probably be a surprise. 

As I've stated previously, seeing any kind of gay representation in an RPG book was a nice surprise. While the first time I read this, I knew next to nothing of the setting, Now, it's more fun, feeling like I have an in to the story. A lot of fun for fans of mildly pulpy scifi.

A vision of the future

 So, I managed to find my Shadowrun collection again, finally... (They've started repriniting some of the original series as Legends now. Me, being someone who doesn't mind used books, has the original pulpy paperbacks mostly.) Anyway, I started at the beginning of Stephen Kenson's original 4 novels prior to the return of the comet and the newer editions of the game that revamped a lot of system. (As a side note, much of this got dug out thanks to me starting the Harebrained Schemes Shadowrun games.)

Which brings us to Technobabel, which doesn't concern Talon, the gay Mage who figures prominently in the other 3 books, but instead gives us a vision of the 6th World's Corporate Court, infighting between Fuchi and Renraku, and some really interesting portraits of Technoshamen, folks who's personal totem spirit is the net (or Matrix, in this setting.) 

We open with doings in the Zurich Orbital, home of the Corporate Court, where the big 10 AAA corporations keep each other in check. Fuchi is bringing suit against Renraku, under the assumption that an exec from Fuchi, who received enough stock in Dunzelkhan's will to make him a board member of Renraku, has been using trade secrets to increase Renraku's share of the market. 

Then we meet a man who begins nameless, narrating his awakening in an alley, being  bodynapped by Organ Grinders, folks who sell body parts on the black market generally. As the book progresses, we find out said nameless man is now Babel, a Technoshaman (or Otaku, in the slang of the setting), able to enter the Matrix without the aid of a computer or other body modifications. As things progress, we find that Babel had a human name at one point, and he's the evidence Fuchi has been looking for. However, the spirit of the Matrix has its own ideas on how Babel should proceed. 

It's a fun story, providing all kinds of mental fodder for whenever I get around to writing up an adventure. Would I suggest it for people not familiar with the setting? Not unless they want to do a deep dig to get background information, since while things are touched on by way of explanation throughout, the world this is set in has had 6 Editions, and even with this one being set in 3rd, there's a heck of a lot of information out there. (Particularly since by the start of the next book, Fuchi broke up and one of its major players now runs Novatech.) But otherwise, it hold up well and makes for a fun read.

Finally!

 So, on the bright side, Mercedes Lackey's concluding Mage Winds novel, Winds of Fury finally has much more action than the preceding volumes. It also continues the buildup for the next trilogy.

Anyway, it starts off simply enough with Darkwind and Elsbeth preparing to return to Valdemar. What ends up happening is that everyoen, including Skif, Nyara, the gryphons, and Firesong wind up having their gate redirected to the Forest of Sorrows by Vanyel's ghost. 

Vanyel explains how his influence kept magic from the minds of Valdemar for several centuries, but with magic needed again, he's lifting that compulsion. It's also confirmed that the missing k'Sheyna heartstone is now in the basement of the Palace. 

All parties wind up in Haven, where we find out Karse has undergone some structural changes and is now allied with Valdemar against Hardorn. We also find out the vast Eastern Empire has agents in Hardorn. 

By the same token, Ancar, who's annoyed with Hulda (last seen trying to keep Elsbeth off the throne and torturing Talia), tries to open a gate, thinking it will somehow give him Adept level status. What ends up happening is that he releases Falconsbane from his prison in the void. However, we soon learn Falconsbane's trick up taking over members of his bloodline to resurrect himself, as well as getting confirmation he's an incarnation of the adepts Vanyel fought during his time. And lest we forget, his current body's former resident is still present and working with Dawnfire and Trevaylen to defeat Falconsbane once and for all. 

This eventually comes to a head late in the book, as the Heralds, Need, and the Taleydras ride to Hardorn for one final confrontation. 

Out of the three books in the trilogy, this is probably the best of them.

Moving towards a conclusion

In Mercedes Lackey's Winds of Change, we again are dealing with Darkwind and Elspeth and the K'Sheyna vale heartstone that Starblade sabotaged under the influence of Falconsbane. However, much like the first book, this one is a slow burn, mostly dealing with Skif and Darkwind's brother (Wintermoon) searching for Nyara and Need. Eventually, Firesong arrives from K'Treyva, and this begins the fun of healing the Heartstone. Which also serves to point out Falconsbane is still alive, given he's attacking Starblade. 

Anyway, the really big reveal comes towards the end, as the griffons admit that they're of Clan Kalid'a'in, the root of both the Shin'a'in and the Talyadras. 

Elspeth learns that she's descended from Vanyel, as is Firesong. 

The heartstone's energy winds up in Valdemar. 

This again, is kind of a slog until Falconsbane reappears in the last third. 

Fun, but slow.

Communication is key

 Ok, so several LGBTQ+ book groups I read have suggested P. J. Vernon's Bath Haus in breathless terms as a must read. While LGBTQ+ mysteries have long been a niche subgenre only overshadowed by Romance (and now, Urban Romance, usually written by female authors whith a mostly female and gay audience in mind), it's not often a Thriller with Gay people comes out, unless the gay folks are the villains. Which is why I was curious to read this, since the author bio identifies as male and gay. So, anyway, before we start diving into this, let me say two things. One, I was disappointed that a prediction I made after reading the description on the book jacket was part of one of the major reveals. Two, I would suggest that before one deep dives into this book, one should read The Pigman by Paul Zindel, or at least read this exerpt from it. Because honestly, I spent much of the book trying to place the players in roles of the Assassin's Riddle. 

Anyway, we're mainly focused on Oliver, a recovering junkie from small town Indiana, who's currently living with Nathan, a Trauma surgeon at Walter Reed in DC. Nathan's mother is presented as akin to say, the Evil Queen from Snow White, completely disapproving of her son dating such scum. Indeed, part way through the book, she deeds the house they live in to Nathan, knowing that he can't afford the taxes on it, so it's pretty much an eviction. Then we have Tom, one of Nathan's close friends who works for a homophobic midwestern senator. And we have Hector, Oliver's ex from Indiana who is kind of a bad memory for half the book before showing up in DC. And of course, there's the narrative hook and Aryan sex god, Kristian, who tries to strangle Oliver at the Haus Bath House in his private room at the end of the first chapter. 

So, anyway, after Oliver manages to get away and get out, we start getting better details of his life, as well as some of Nathan's perspectives on things. Oliver and Nathan have been together for a while, and are in a supposedly mutually exclusive relationship. Oliver, however, does have a few hook up apps on his phone, although he generally uses them for fantasy fodder. While Nathan is out of town for a conference, Oliver decides what he doesn't know can't hurt him and decided to go see how the other half lives. Which leads us to Kristian and the asphyxiation. (Note, both physical and emotional strangulation play a large part in the book's themes.)

Oliver now has hand shaped bruises on his throat. He tells Nathan on FaceTime he got mugged. Oliver goes to the cops and tells the detective the whole truth, counting on her discretion. However, when Nathan gets home, he drags Oliver to the police, and forced Oliver to file a false report. 

Things keep happening, like Kristian getting hired by Nathan's contractor. We find out Nathan knows about Oliver's MeatLocker account, and assumes Oliver has been hooking up all the time. This gets more complicated by Tom sending naked pics to Oliver. We also find out about a budgeting app Nathan has that sets off alerts whenever Oliver uses a credit card. 

At the very end, the full reveal of everything everyone in here has done to each other is less a surprise, and more just unveiling the entire picture of what happens when people just don't communicate with other people. 

Seriously. Just about everything that happens could have been avoided had Nathan and Oliver sat down and talked honestly, forgetting both their psychological issues and dependencies on each other. I mean, I understand why both of them were acting the way they did, but somewhere, you really just have to say "I love you, but something isn't working. How do we fix this?"

In the end, I enjoyed the read, even if it wasn't quite the potboiler it was sold to me as, even if I did have the urge to smack sense into every character in it by the final page. 

Can you paint with the colors of the wind?

 So, as a heads up, while I enjoy Mercedes Lackey and have read all of her Valdemar book (minus the anthologies), Winds of Fate (Book 1 of The Mage Winds) winds up being my least favorite book in the series. I mean, it's a good book, eventually, but it's a slog to get to the good stuff.

Half the problem is that we spend roughly 3/4 of the book getting our two major focus characters together. One, Elspeth, we already know of thanks to the previous 4 books in the "modern" setting. The other, Darkwind, marking the Hawkbrother's first appearance in Valdemar since Vanyel's time, Is an Adept mage who has turned from magic following the tragedy that followed the attempt to move his Clan's Vale and Heartstone.  

So, for Espeth, we start with her and Skif convincing Valdemar's council to let them go off to find either an Adept Mage or get someone to train them in Magic to help repel Ancar's Hardornen conquest attempts. Which takes the involvement of the Companions to get off the ground without protest. Kerowyn gives Elspeth the Magesword Need to help along the way. Elspeth quickly realizes that the Companions are in her words, trying to turn her into a fated hero. As such, she gets annoyed and takes them all to the Dorshia Plains to find Shin'a'in training, rather than getting training in Rethwellan. This does eventually wind up with the Shin'a'in leading her and Skif obliquely to the Pelagirs. 

Darkwind, in the mean time, serves on the k'Sheyna council of Elders as the speaker for the scouts. Problem is, his Father is the head Mage, and Starblade is a bit annoyed with his son. That Starblade is also being controlled by the Adept Mornelithe Falconsbane doesn't come out until later. Darkwind is also guarding Treyvon and Hydona, two griffons scouts who are living adjacent to the Vale. He also manages to pick up the catlike Nyara, who is also a double agent for Falconsbane. 

Anyway, when everyone eventually meets up, it turns into a showdown with Falconsbane, involves some Shin'a'in shaman who we met earlier, and sets up Elspeth's training as the first Herald-Mae since Vanyel. It just takes a bunch of angst to get there. 

So, yeah. Not my favorite, but it does set up the rest of the trilogy quite well.

Movie in my mind

 So, Riley Sager's annual contribution to horror and thriller literature finally arrived at the library, so I spent the past few days getting through Survive the Night. 

We open on Charlie, an upperclassman at Olyphant University in New Jersey, trying to find a ride home to Youngstown before Thanksgiving, following the murder of her best friend by The Campus Killer. She ends up getting an offer from Josh, who has reason to go to Toledo. As we get to know Charlie prior to her departure, we find the first of Sager's recurring themes, Charlie's parents are dead, and she was raised by her grandmother, the former Hollywood bit player. As such, Charlie tends to hallucinate herself in movie scenes. 

Anyway, Charlie gets in the car with Josh and a box of her stuff. And for the next few hours, we find out Josh is lying and occasionally trying to gaslight her. Charlie comes to suspect him of being the Campus Killer. Which makes the long drive through the Poconos much more interesting. 

Anyway, by the end, we know how each of the four major characters are lying, and we know what really happened. Sort of. For much of it, Charlie is a fairly unreliable narrator due to her hallucinations. I was also kind of annoyed that I figured two of the major plot twists not long after starting. 

On the other hand, the pacing with this one is probably the best of any of Sager's books, and only has one major plot point where the suspension of disbelief is in orbit around the moon. 

It's a fun read, and if you've enjoyed Sager's other books, this one is in a similar vein.

Ride on!

 Finished Mercedes Lackey's By the Sword yesterday, a rare solo volume in the series. (I mean, technically, it it's a continuation of Tarma and Kethry's story in Vows and Honor, but it picks up two generations after those adventures.) Anyway, we're south and west of Valdemar for the majority of this one, as the mage Kethry's granddaughter Kerowyn ends up rescuing her future sister in law from bandots on the eve of her wedding day. Kero winds up with the magical sword, Need, which gives its female bearers abilities to make up for ones they lack. 

Anyway, Kero really doesn't fit in with the small court her family belongs to, as such, she gets trained to be a mercenary by her grandmother and Tarma. While this does introduce her to Prince Daren of Rethwellen, he ultimately has a place as his brother's Lord Marshall after his other brother tries to kill off Selaney in Valdemar. 

So, we follow Kero in a series of deep dives over her career, seeing how they make her the woman she ends up as. In one of the early ones, she ends up saving Herald Eldan during a rout in a battle verses Karse. He helps Kero with her Mindspeech, she ends up getting hin to the border (and safety), and they end up playing games over his ransom. 

Kero eventually leaves her Company due to the current leader's incompetence. Which ends up with most of the rest of the company voting out the old leader and installing Kero as the leader. 

A few major battles later, Kero accepts Daren's invite to Rethwellen, when Talia and Dirk arrive to beg help from them for their war against Hardorn. Kero manages to bring up the fact Rethwellen owes Valdemar a debt from Kethry's time. As Rethwellen's army will take time to get there, KEro ends up taking her company across Valdemar, losing her Mages on the way. (The rejoin Daren's troops, and wind up marching through Karse, which has its own political shakes up going on, as we see later.) 

Anyway, Ancar's armies cause issues, Kero and Selaney and Elsbeth become friends, and Kero and Daren get chosen, setting up the Mage Winds trilogy. 

A lot of fun, since Kero is not very lady like.

Hello, Ratty

 So, I found a copy of Neil Gaimen's Neverwhere, which included the Author's Preferred Text. It's been a while since I last read it, but with a trip to London in a year, I felt like revisiting this rather dark and funny odyssey into London Below. (Also not, having been watching Doctor Who, I kept picturing David Tennant as Richard Mayhew.) 

For those who've never taken this journey, the story concerns one Richard Mayhew, a Scot moving to London, who gets mildly accosted by a crone before he leaves. As we return to him a few years later, he's working in Securities, engaged to charming social climber Jessica, and generally futzing about life. We get scenes intercut of a lady running from unknown assailants, until the plots converge outside a swanky French restaurant where Richard and Jessica are supposed to be entertaining her boss, Mr. Stockton. 

Richard, being a good sort, helps the injured woman who appeared in front of them rather than calling 999 as Jessica suggests. Which sets off a series of events Richard never would have imagined. The lady he saves in Lady Door of the House of Arch, part of the fantastical world of London Below, which has ties with London Above, but is kind of a satirical reflection thereof. Door's family was killed, and the assassins who did that are now after her. This would be Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar, darkly comical figures in their own right. 

Door asks Richard for help, which leads him to talk to a rat, up on a high rooftop, and down dark alleys to find the Marquis, who is a major deal maker in the Below. Indeed, he helps arrange to get Door a bodyguard at the next Floating Market. After they leave Richard's apartment, Richard discovers he no longer seems to exist in London Above. Indeed, Croup and Vandemar explain via telephone that this now means they will eventually let him taste his own liver. 

Richard, following nightmare scenes of having his landlord show his apartment with him in it, his office removed, and his ATM dispensing no money, winds up finding teh Rat Speakers, who eventually get him to the Floating Market in Knightsbridge. (Aka Harrod's of London, although the path in Below involves crossing Night's Bridge, where the night can take its toll.) 

He does eventually find Door and the Marquis, but they don't want him with them. Door eventually does take pity and add him to their retinue, which now includes the fabled Hunter, who has killed beasts in several Below cities. We hear of several duchys within the domain, and are told never to ask about the Shepherds of Shepherd's Bush. We do end up on the train domain of Earl's Court, to get to the British Museum to meet the Angle Islington. 

Eventually, Croup and Vandemar appear to inform them there is a traitor in their midst, and we do eventually see Richard become the hero. And learn the same lesson such heroes as Frodo and Caramon learned about how the Hero, upon returning home, may not be home anymore. 

Even after all these years, I still love this book.

Falling down

 Talia's big story ends on a bang in Mercedes Lackey's Arrow's Fall, as Talia takes her full seat on the council as Queen's Own, and ends up knee deep in the treachery of one of the Councillors. 

As Talia and Kris return from their circuit. Skif rides out to meet them and pass on the mess Talia is returning to, namely the betrothal proposal from Hardorn, who's kind has been a friend for ages. His proposal would betroth Elspeth, Heir to the Throne of Valdemar to his son, Ancar, Heir to the Throne of Hardorn. Everyone seems to think it would be a good idea, some more than others. Talia and Queen Selaney manage to work out a few delays in there (like Elspeth finishing her Herald training prior to anything actually happening), but it looks like a good deal. In the mean time, Dirk, Kris, and Talia wind up in a three way fight, due to Dirk and Talia's distrust of Kris's Uncle Orthallen, Dirk's assumption that Kris and Talia are a committed couple, and Talia trying to bulldoze her way into their personal feelings. 

Anyway, it's decided that Talia and Kris will ride into Hardorn a week or so ahead of Selaney to make sure everything is on the up and up. Which, it isn't. Seems ol' Ancar wants both kingdoms, and has no problems escorting his father off his mortal coil to get the first. Kris winds up dead, and Talia gets locked in the dungeon, finding out what happened to Horrible Hulda, the nurse to Elspeth who was trying to turn the Heir into the Brat. Seems ol' Hulda is a mage of the kind Valdemar hasn't seen since Vanyel's time, as is Ancar. 

A lot of really unpleasant things later, Dirk and Elspeth use their gifts to save Talia, at which point a generation of plotting comes to light and Hardorn and Valdemar go to war (which of course sets up the next few trilogies and stand alone set in this time period.) Dirk and Elspeth finally manage to admit to their lifebond, get married, and get a sweet if contrived wedding gift from beyond the grave.

Still fun reading, and a reminder of why I love this setting so much.

Fly high, little bird!

 And once again, we return to the "Modern" era of Valdemar, which as I was reminded of, is on the planet Velgarth. (I have a friend who only refers to it as such; I personally only remember seeing the planet name in this trilogy.) As such, we're back with Queen's Own Herald Talia, as she's put in her whites and sent on her internship riding circuit on the Northern Border. 

Mind you, she's paired with Herald Kris, who's working partner is Herald Dirk, whom Talia has fallen for. However, Kris is one of the most handsome in the land, and women fall over themselves for a relationship with him...

While that underlies the book, much of the focus is is on Talia's missing training, a point brought out by Kris's Uncle Orthallen, who tells Kris rumors swirl that Talia is using her Empathic gifts unethically to influence politics.  When Kris mentions this to Talia, it eats away her confidence. This finally gets corrected when they get snowbound in the Forest of Sorrows, and Talia learns the basics of control finally. It also sets up events a few books down the road as something in the Forest is watching to make sure they're ok. 

By the end, Talia is in control of her gift totally and ready for her position, but along the way, we get glimpses of how powerful her gift can be. 

Good read, and there's a definite improvement in the quality from book 1, which happens with series fiction, as the author becomes more comfortable with their creation.

Exodus

 So, Mercedes Lackey has decided to write a trilogy finally depicting the Kingdom of Valdemar, starting with Beyond. We know some of the legends, thanks to prvious volumes, but legends often don't capture the full truth. 

In this case, we're dealing with the Duchy of Valdemar, a far flung part of the Empire, that specializes in horse breeding. Duke Kordas and his wife Isla run the Duchy, working to bring to fruition a plan his Grandfather, the first Duke, came up with to get everyone in Valdemar far enough away from the Empire that they wouldn't be stuck in the perpetual loop of Imperial Politics. Thus Kordas does his best to come off as a bumpkin to avoid the Emperor's notice. 

 As it becomes apparent they have the ability to start the evacuation, Kordas is summoned to the Imperial City for the Emperor's Birthday Regatta. Which leaves it up to Isla and her lovesick sister to carry out the plan, hoping Kordas can work out everything on his end from across the Empire. (In modern terms, it looks like the Capital and the Duchy are about the distance between, say, Los Angeles and Washington DC.)  

Unfortunately, Kordas is stuck dealing with imprisoned elementals, Imperial hostages, and the fact the emperor has been making abyssal deals on top of everything else. 

Again, as we've been reading the legends of these events since 1987, the ending comes as no surprise, although the ride to get there is fascinating to read. 

Great addition.

Dont Stop Believing

 I'm hesitant to title this review with a Journey song, but sometimes it just fits the narrative.

 Grady Hendrix again, this time with his awesomely packaged We Sold Our Souls.

Which is more proof Grady Hendrix gets the best cover designs.

This one is a bit unusual as we get two characters the narrative is focused on. One, Kris Pulaski, is by far the major one, although Melanie Gutierrez is no less interesting for her role in the proceedings. 

The back of the book and the title give away the basics, that Kris was Lead Guitar for a Metal act named Dürt Würk, and the lead singer sold the souls of his band mates for fame and fortune. While that's valid, it really doesn't fill out the novel contained within. See, when we meet Kris, she's working night audit at a Best Western outside Allentown, PA. She hasn't played guitar since the band broke up, and as far as anyone, including her, knows, Kris was to blame for the break up due to a drunk driving accident. 

However, not long after her brother tells her that she needs to find a place to live, Terry (AKA The Blind King, AKA the former lead singer of Dürt Würk, AKA now singer for the less a band and more a brand Koffin) announces his retirement tour, with a few dates on the West Coast, that ends up being expanded into Hellstock '19 outside Las Vegas.

Kris, annoyed at how bad her life is compared to his, starts looking up former band mates, feeling Terry owes her something for how he built his career off their pain. The first one, Scottie Rocket, ends up shooting himself in front of her, after telling her that the album Dürt Würk had just recorded prior to the break up (Troglodyte) was a real situation, that Terry has Hundred Handed Eyes of Black Iron Mountain spying on everyone, and the only way to beat him is to play the album to the end. Mind you, after Scottie dies, UPS shows up and kills his family.

Melanie, in the meanwhile, is busting her ass as a waitress at a Hooter's style restaurant in West Virginia, encouraged by an online friend to come out for the Koffin Farewell Tour. Her boyfriend keeps spending what money he makes on video games. We get glimpses of her life between Kris's journeys, which revolve around finding out which of her former friends are in Terry's pockets, the real truth of the break up, and being held captive at a rehab facility. Eventually Kris and Melanie meet, not long after Dürt Würk's original drummer (now a crazy Viking) get to Roswell. Melanie give Kris a ride to Vegas, which leads to one of the best conversations between metalheads ever. 

Anyway, in the end, the narratives diverge at Hellstock, and we finally get to see the final track of Troglodyte play out in "One Life, One Bullet".

By far one of the biggest joys in here is when Kris is playing, and remembering what it is to perform and be lost in the moment with the music, where the screaming 440,000 cease to exist in that space. It's an awesome feeling when it happens. 

It's more horrific elements are well written, including an escape through a narrow tunnel Kris has to worm crawl through. I'm not particularly claustrophobic, but reading that section gave me pause. 

While I was concerned the plot would be a rehash of the Satanic Panic, it really isn't as much as it is about the power of creation fighting against stagnation, which is a much better moral to a story.

If you're a metal fan, you'll love it. If you're a horror fan, you'll enjoy it. If you enjoy occasional scenes of people arguing about cultural minutia, you'll laugh a lot. Well worth it.

Your mother cuts socks in hell!

 For those who didn't know, I'm becoming a fan of Grady Hendrix's novels, after finding out he had books other than Horrorstör and Paperbacks From Hell. And I mean, it's hard to resist cover art like this:

Which is the book I'm here to review today. 

My Best Friend's Exorcism centers on the friendship between Abby and Gretchen, two fairly well off white girls from Charleston, South Carolina.  Well, at least at the beginning they are. We first meet Abby, as she invites her entire class to her ET themed birthday party at the roller rink, which only Gretchen shows up for, since one of the other girls decides to host a horseback riding party the same day just to be evil. We find out Gretchen's parents are at once very religious, and as the book goes on, we find that they're also social climbers. Abby makes sure Gretchen gets exposed to the pop culture her parents forbid.

This friendship continues on into High School, even as Abby's father has gotten fired, laid off, until he's nothing more than a guy who lacklusterly repairs lawn mowers in the front yard and Abby's mom has gone back into nursing to pay the bills. This fall from economic grace also means Abby is working at TCBY, paying for a used car, and at the private school Gretchen also attends on scholarship. 

As it happens, Gretchen and Abby are among a clique of 4 girls who are both in the top 10 of the class  and the most popular. They all play Volleyball. They gather to go boating at one of the girls' lake house. 

There comes a night when they try LSD for the first time. Three claim it doesn't work for them, Gretchen goes full Reefer Madness, describing how she feels like someone is always touching her and talking to her. This is after she vanishes into the woods overnight after the acid. 

 Abby spends most of the rest of the book trying to help her friend, whop gets sicker and sicker, believing that Gretchen got attacked by one of the other girls' boyfriends in the woods that night. Then Gretchen suddenly snaps out of it, cuts Abby off, and starts "helping" her other friends. (Little things like giving one girl tape worm eggs to help her lose weight, helping another think the school's chaplain wants her as a wife.) Things happen, like a fetus disappearing on a field trip to the medical science building. Then Geraldo Rivera's special that either set off or at least amplified the Satanic Panic of the 80's is broadcast, coupled with body building evangelists coming to the school to get the kids to Jesus. 

 In the end, we finally get answers as to what's going on, and some resolution. 

 Some of the cover blurbs refer to this as a cross between Beaches and The Exorcist, I personally found it more to be the latter crossed with the pop culture minutiae  of say, Tarentino or Kevin Smith, with the actual advertised exorcism feeling at first like the one Mandy Moore performs in Saved!

And, while none of my friends were ever possessed by Pazuzu in High School, I found I understood where Abby was coming from as old friendships seem to break apart for no apparent reason. 

While I felt the ending lacked something, the book was overall pretty good. Well worth reading.

The Start of it All

 Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar, a very long running series, got its start with Arrows of the Queen. Which opens on 13 year old Talia,living on the border with her people, the Holderkin, who have bigamist marriages in their holdings, and the men have the authority. Talia, who loves reading adventures, much to the amusement of the older women of the hold, dreams of being one of the heroes of the tales she reads. However, as she turns 13, she's informed that it's time for her to either be married off, or sent to the Convent. This causes Talia to rebel and run away from the council of wives. 

As she sits in her hiding place among some ruins, one of the white horses of Valdemar, a Companion greets her, and she rides him back to Haven, not really grasping that she has just been Chosen, let alone being Chosen as Queen's Own. (Since it gets explained in this trilogy more than anywhere else in the series, the position is advisor to the Monarch, Chosen by a Grove Born Companion, always a Stallion. It's heavily implied the Herald Gifts work towards that advice, as well as divine guidance on how to advise.) Talia is taking over after her predecessor was murdered, and as the queen is dealing with the current Heir, who can't become monarch due to not being Chosen.

Most of the book is set up to give us a look at the current governance of the Kingdom, as well as players in what is the Modern Setting of the series. (Books written later in the series tend to tell tales from much earlier in the time line, or continue the story in the modern timeline after this series ends. The modern timeline seems to have ended, in terms of new stories, after Darien's Tale, since the next few series were all set several centuries earlier, and the newest one, set to start later this summer, involves the founding.)

Anyway, this means we meet later players, like Skif (who started life as a thief) and Dirk, as well as Albrecht, who we eventually find out was Chosen from longtime enemy nation Karse due to his gifts.We mostly see Talia as she trains and blossoms into a young woman. (I read these last a long time ago. As I recall, the next book concerns Talia getting promoted to Full Herald and learning to control her Empathy gift, while the final book sets up the War with Hardorn that gets the Mage Winds trilogy rolling.) 

As a starting point, it's not quite what the series becomes as it evolves and gets fleshed out, however, it does show the core of the series was there at the beginning. Worth reading, and a good place to start.

Love in the Sanitorium

 So, Morgan Brice wrote a shared universe story in another shared universe, and the result was the fairly short read that is Haven. 

We open on Austin, a private detective out of Albany, New York, who is in Saranac Lake near the Adirondacks investigating the closing of the Havenwood Sanitorium on behalf of his grandmother. Seems his great uncle was shipped there as a teen, and Grandma wants to know what happened to him. Austin also has very vague glimpses of the future on occasion, and keeps seeing a man in danger in his visions.

Jaime, who winds up being the man from his visions, lives in the area, working as a temporary head of the local historical society. Jaime can see ghosts, although he can't particularly communicate with them.

The two meet up as the investigations heat up, and Austin finds the Magic Emporium, a strange shop that appears to those in need. In this case, he gets a sheet of paper with a series of numbers on it. (That Jaime's ghosts scratch the word "safe" on a wall will let astute readers know what the numbers are for, although it takes the new lovers time to figure that out on their own.) 

Mind you, some of the locals aren't exactly happy people digging around in the past, leading to investigations of the Sanitorium being marred with rifle shots. We also see contacts between our central characters here and characters from the author's Deadly Curiosities and Badlands series. (Evidentially, Magic Emporium is a shared world thing, where numerous other authors use the ship as a plot device to tell their own stories.)

Anyway, since it is M/M Paranormal romance, it ends on a positive note, with everyone except the bad guys getting a happy ending having resolved the mystery. 

Fun little read.

The stakes are high

 I'm quickly becoming enamored of Grady Hendrix's writing, since everything of his I've read has amused me. The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires is no exception, even if it does have an ugly reminder wound around some of the narrative.

We're in suburban Charleston, South Carolina, starting in the early 90's, with a 3 year time jump halfway through. We open on Patricia Campbell, a stay at home mom of two, who left her nursing career when she married her husband Carter the psychiatrist. When we start, she's joined a women's book club, focused on getting the members to read the classics. As it's her night to host and lead the discussion, Patricia is in trouble due to the fact she's made it all of maybe 2 pages into Cry, the Beloved Country. As it turns out, more than a few of the ladies had similar issues getting into it, much to the displeasure of the leader of the club. This does cause a schism, but a new, unnamed club forms among the ladies who didn't feel like reading about South Africa, but instead prefer reading far more interesting books about things like True Crime. 

As things go on, we meet first Miss Mary, Patricia's mother-in-law, who winds up moving in with Patricia de to her dementia and lack of siblings willing to care for her; Mrs Greene, an African-American lady who comes to help take care of Miss Mary; and new in the neighborhood, James Harris, the nephew of the neighborhood old battle ax. 

We first meet Mr. Harris not long after said battle ax shows up in Patricia's side yard eating trash and biting off Patricia's earlobe. We find he has a skin condition that won't let him stay long in sunlight, and he has a bunch of cash that Patricia helps him invest. We also find out Miss Mary thinks he's the same gent from her childhood who lead to the ruin of several men in her hometown selling rat spit whiskey.  

We also find out that children have started vanishing, committing suicide, etc from Six Mile, the area of town where Mrs. Greene lives. 

Eventually, this leads Patricia to believe that James is a drug dealer, and the ladies of the club go on under that assumption, which leads to their husbands shutting them down. Indeed, Carter puts Patricia on Prozac, which she eventually tries to commit suicide with. 

This leads to the three year time jump, as the nameless book club now includes James and the husbands, and the books have shifted to things like Tom Clancy. James has lead the men into investing in a new condo development in what was Six Mile, and encourages them to take on new roles for more money in their professional lives. (Carter winds up going into private practice and is now doing lectures and selling new psychiatric medications.) 

As time passes on, Patricia figures out (with help from the ghost of Miss Mary and some extra help from Mrs. Greene) that James isn't what he seems, and the book proceeds from there, as we try to figure out what the ladies are going to do about it. 

The book is equal parts humor (like when the unnamed book club has a debate on whether or not the male lead in The Bridges of Madison County is really a serial killer), social commentary (the ladies don't really care about the poor black kids problems, but do start caring when it happens in their back yard [the police are also guilty of this, although some of that is due to the men]), and horror (the title alone should give that away.) It also carries a moral about not messing with certain women who know how to get blood stains out of white carpet. 

A good vampire yarn with some intriguing twists.

Dulak

 It took some time, but I finished Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis's The Annotated Legends, which for a while was their last DragonLance book. (Sort of. The Annotated version was released after their return, but the three books annotated in here were the last they wrote in the setting for several years.)

I'll be honest, while I enjoy this trilogy, it doesn't change the fact the themes tend to hold a mirror up to things I'd rather not ponder half the time. 

The trilogy is focused on the relationship between the twins Raistlin and Caramon, who were very prominent in the Chronicles. As Raistlin took on the black robes of evil and became "The Master of Past and Present"at the end of that trilogy, the twins have drifted apart by the start of these, which start roughly two years after, as Caramon, the big warrior has fallen to alcoholism. In the meantime, Raistlin is busy manipulating Crysania, a Cleric of Paladine (who's likely to take over the church when Elistan dies.) Mind you, the twin's half-sister, Kitiara, is busy plotting her own war, which ends up getting the plot going. 

You see, Raistlin's entire plan in this is to take Cryania back 500 or so years to the Cataclysm, then jump her ahead 100 years to a point where she'll be the only cleric in the world. Thus the Queen of Darkness will be weak enough for Raistlin to defeat and take her place as a god. (The trick being the portal to the Plane of the Abyss can only be opened by a powerful mage of evil and a powerful cleric of good.) 

Crysania believes she can redeem Raistlin, which leads her into some of the most hubristic acts a good character can make. And she pays for it, and eventually sees her faults, but it takes 3 books. Caramon spends 3 books getting sober, getting in shape, and eventually becoming his own person. Raistlin spends 3 books reaching the zenith of his power, and then finding out exactly how empty his desire is. Kitiara spends 3 books plotting to help the winner. And Tasslehoff, who ends up back in time against all proscriptions against created races going back, spends 3 books being comic relief, even if he is the force that ends up grounding the rather lofty nature of everyone else's Hero Journeys. (Races created by chaos are not supposed to be allowed to go back in time, since they allow time to be changed. Although, had Tas not gone back, the series would have ended at the end of book 2, since that's when the mountain Zhaman exploded with Raistlin's mentor in it.)(Yes, time travel and paradox play a large role, particularly in the second volume. The third volume shows us first the results of Raistlin's victory, then shows us how they shift it to a more optimal timeline. It's like Back to the Future, without a DeLorean.) 

But yes, the focus on everyone's hubris and personality flaws is painful all the way around, even with a "happy ending". In terms of the Annotations, Ms. Weis doesn't say as much in the book as she did in the Chronicles, while Mr. Hickman expands quite a bit on Campbell and his view of the characters, and how all of this sets up the further revealed cosmology in the next trilogy after the horrible book. Still worth reading.

Shirak

 And we finish the Lost Chronicles with Dragons of The Hourglass Mage, again written by Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis. This one concerns Raistlin, the Mage twin of Caramon, whom in the context of this story was last seen in Palanthus prior to appearing in Neraka during the finale. As such, there's a large gap they're covering here. 

Given these were written in the late 00's, Raistlin's fate was well known prior to this, thanks to the trilogy set after the original Chronicles, as well as the War of Souls trilogy. (As I recall, Raistlin didn't play much of a part in the Chaos War that came between Legends and War of Souls. I only ever read that one volume once, and had to remind myself that I think book burning is an abhorrent practice. Maybe I'll try reading it again eventually, since I know they went and fixed the worst of it.)

Anyway, here we have the Gold skinned Mage with pupils like hourglasses changing from Red Robes of Neutrality to the Black Robes of Evil not long after leaving his companions to drown in the Blood Sea. From here, he discovers the endless scheming among the forces of Darkness, including his half-sister Kitiara; Emperor Arakis's witch, Iolanthe; The Nightlord; the Council of Mages, et cetera. As such, most of what Raitlin does in here is to do as a Kender tells him early on, "Change the Darkness". Raistlin knows if Tahkisis wins, he'll have to beg her for scraps, instead of being able to live independently, which is, at this point in the chronology, his entire goal. (That his goal becomes to depose the Gods themselves and take over is a story for the next blog entry, as I'll be starting Legends next.)

On one hand, this gets interesting, since it does a deep dive into Raistlin's pact with Fistandantilus, which becomes a major focus of the second book of Legends, pretty much solving a riddle that pops up in that volume. (Sort of. We'll return here next time.) On the other hand, it's still fun in its own right, trying to shed light on characters introduced wholesale into the plot that weren't part of the original story. This volume, moreso than it's immediate predecessor, also feels much more like part of the original, as we follow events we know part of from a different viewpoint, showing us how certain events came to happen. 

I am concerned for my memory though, since I thought this book dived in to the whole "Black Robes restoring the Tower of High Sorcery of Ishtar", but that may be The Dark Disciple trilogy. (It's been years.)

At any rate, it's a good finish to the trilogy that fills in many gaps left by the original trilogy, and really helps express the odd nature of it's main character.