Tuesday, August 31, 2021

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.

Wednesday, August 25, 2021

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.

Saturday, August 21, 2021

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.


Sunday, August 15, 2021

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. 

Sunday, August 8, 2021

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.

Monday, August 2, 2021

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.