Nixon, you dolt!

I'm going to preface this post with an old meme, mainly because I spent the entire book thinking about it.

Just finished The Cassandra Project by Jack McDevitt and Mike Resnick. Which starts with NASA PR guy Jerry Culpepper fielding a strange question about declassified Apollo-era recordings on the 50th anniversary of Eagle's landing on the moon. Among them was a recorded message involving an earlier Apollo astronaut named Myshko saying that he was ready to go down to the surface. (I looked up the missions on Wiki, I think they created a few things for the purpose of the plot.)

From there, we watch as Jerry tries to find the truth among the recordings; as President Cunningham tries to figure out what's going on, since he's being accused of being clueless or deceitful, depending on who gets asked; and Bucky, the billionaire businessman getting ready to do the first private moon landing gets involved, trying to find out why Myshko landed on the far side of the moon in the Cassingham Crater.

The problem with all of this revolves around the idea that, as science fiction, almost everyone is going to jump to the same conclusion I did (which is reflected by bad hair guy above), so the what isn't exactly a surprise. Why Myshko landed, what he found, and why both Cold War USSR and USA covered it up. (Seriously. About halfway through, we find out that photos of that area of the moon had been doctored in both countries' archives.)

What we end up finding out in the process of solving a 50 year old cover up is the real reason for the Watergate break in, why Nixon and the Soviets jointly covered up what was in that crater, and some very interesting insinuations of why such an important event was not recorded in the annals of human history.

While I did not agree with the reasoning behind the cover up, mainly because my frame of reference is a LOT different from those who would be most affected by the reveal, I can understand why the characters took the action that they did.

I liked the writing in this, since it didn't get all that bogged down in things that weren't advancing the plot. Much like a Sherlock Holmes story (which gets referenced towards the end), everything works together to come to a conclusion. I also enjoyed that Bucky wasn't a Rand-ian hero; while he enjoyed the benefits of capitalism, he was also looking at ways to improve the world. (And profit at the same time.)

Despite the occasionally conservative politics that get inserted here and there, what comes across the strongest is a love of exploration and the need for human kind to start going out again. The arguments are there in the text, from overpopulation  to the sheer wonder that comes from setting foot somewhere other than Mother Earth. And, of course, the idea of visiting those who visited us.

I'll point out that I was born in 1975, so I missed Apollo and Skylab, so most of my astronaut desires focused on the Space Shuttle and the idea of being out there. And at its best, this book brought back that sense of wonder from my childhood.

He wanted a "13" but they gave him "31"

I'll preface this by stating that I have no tattoos, nor will I probably ever get ink done. Among other things, there's never been much that I've felt strongly enough about to permanently scar it on my body. On the other hand, I do enjoy seeing what other people get tattooed on themselves and I watch Ink Master on occasion.

Which brings us to the book of the evening: Angel's Ink by Jocelynn Drake, first in her Asylum Tales series.

The basic set up is that Gage runs a tattoo parlor (The Asylum) in a bad part of an unnamed town (Probably Cincinnati. Among other things, the author is in Covington, Kentucky, and one of the characters lives in a part of town referred to as "Over the Rhine"), assisted by Trixie (an elf with a past, usually disguised by a glamour) and Bronx (a troll who also has a past.) Gage is one of the few Warlocks to escape "The Ivory Tower", the ruling elite of Witches and Warlocks who tend to only get involved with humanity and other supernatural races only to crack down on the things they don't approve. (I'm sure a few of my friend would quibble with the titles, but it's her world, I just read about it.)

In a page straight out of The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, we find out that Gage has a Warden named Gideon who's supposed to keep Gage from using magic for anything other than defensive purposes, punishable by being dragged before the Council for probable execution.

Anyway, the narrative ball starts rolling when Tara walks in to the shop. Tara is dying of cancer, has a very short time to live, and believes she's going to go to hell. As such, she asks Gage to tattoo her with angel wings. Now, given this is urban fantasy, Gage and his cohorts aren't normal tattoo artists. They use special ingredients to make the ink into potions that can rather enhance them. In the case of Tara's wings, he adds a tuft of a feather of an angel's wing to the potion.


Which is all well and good until a member of the Grim Reaper's local shows up and explains that this had the side effect of making Tara immortal. And if Gage can't fix this, the Union will be quite happy to collect Gage's soul in 3 days when Tara's time was to have come.

Add into this mix Gage's old mentor, Simon, coming back to try to kill Gage as an act of political house cleaning, the Summer Court of Fairy coming after Trixie, Lilith, a talking cat, the mob, the black market (including a guy who sounds like David Lo Pan in my head when I read his dialogue), and you have a fairly good yarn. While I think the series will improve over time, especially if the author doesn't keep inserting new plot threads every other chapter (so much going on...most of these would make awesome books in their own right as the characters develop), it is a bit rough trying to keep track of every addition to the cast.

Also, I'd point out I knew this was fantasy during the one big smut sequence about halfway through. Not only does the woman finish first (twice), but the man wants to cuddle and talk afterwards.

From Russia with WTH?

When I first opened Nightwatch by Sergi Lukyanenko (translated from Russian by Andrew Bromfield), I was reminded a bit of Vicki Pettersson's Signs of the Zodiac series. (Which I should finish reading at some point. Even if I was annoyed at the odd treatment of my own sign in the novels.)

This was mainly due to the approval by both the Daywatch and the Nightwatch on the first page. Much like Pettersson's Zodiac, warring factions of supernatural beings work to save/enslave humanity. Unlike Pettersson, these warring factions of Light and Dark have a very strong treaty in place that (while there are workarounds) pretty much keeps both sides in check.

The Nightwatch is the side of light. As such, most of the three inter-related stories contained within are narrated by Anton, a former paper pusher in the Nightwatch who's been thrown in to field work. (I say most of, because there are bits and pieces in 3rd person that have to do with the real focus of the particular vignette.

The first part deals with an undecided Other (folks who join the watches are Others...wizards, vampires, etc.) and a woman with a very large curse hanging over her. (As a note here, Others become fully formed others when they enter Twilight, kind of a an Astral Plane, or the Umbra for those of you who play White Wolf games. How you react to the Twilight pretty much influences whether you go Light or Dark and what kind of Other you become.) The second follows a servant of the Light who keeps killing off servants of the Dark. And the third concerns Anton's girlfriends and the things she's going through on her way to becoming a Great Sorceress.

Really though, the central conflicts in the novel seem to lie in the theme of "How much done in the name of Good is really Evil?" To a lesser extent, we're also getting an echo of Babylon 5's Vorlon/Shadow war, in Authoritarian policy versus Darwinian politicking. (The girl who recommended this book to me [she read the trilogy in Russian, bless her Hungarian heart] tells me that the next book is told from the Daywatch perspective, and explores more what the side of Dark is like. So while this one is really Angels with Filthy Wings, the next book will probably be Demons with White Washed Tails.

Wow, something good came out of Cincinnati!

I really shouldn't insult the Queen City like that, but it has it coming.

Ever After, Book 11 in Kim Harrison's The Hollows series, starts with the kidnapping of Rosewood Syndrome babies and ends with more evolution in the relationships between the series' central characters.

For those who've never delved into The Hollows before, the premise is fairly simple. Several years before the series starts, genetically modified tomatoes ended up killing off a large majority of the human population. As such, the "Interlander" species (These include, but aren't limited to: Witches, Vampires, Weres, fairies, pixies, and only recently, Elves.) came out of the closet to save society.

Rachel Morgan is a witch. Over the course of the series, we've learned that she was a baby born with the normally fatal Rosewood Syndrome, and that a local businessman named Trent Kalamack's father ended up curing her. (Rosewood Syndrome being a genetic disorder in witches that is something of a failsafe to keep witches from kindling demon magic. Yes, demons.) Trent himself is a rather shady character, although as the series has progressed, he's become a heck of a lot more complex, rather than playing an eel Rachel can't quite get stuff pinned on, and instead become a morally ambiguous supporting character in his own right, working for the greater good, even if it is against the law.

Anyway, the kidnapped babies that start this installment have been taken by Ku'Kox (I may have that spelled wrong, I had to return the book today, so I can't reference it), a demon created by the other demons many eons ago because the only female demon is nuts, making sexual reproduction a lot chancy. Ku' is not a nice demon. That he was imprisoned beneath the St. Louis arch should say something to his power level. His goal is to cure the Rosewood babies (by blackmailing Trent), destroy the Ever After (the parallel reality on the other sides of the ley lines that demons inhabit), then use the rosewood babies as his own personal meat puppets so he can exist of the Earth side of the lines. All while framing Rachel for the gradual but rapidly deflating Ever After.

Unfortunately, Ivy (the living vampire business partner) is out of town for most of the novel, appearing in a very limited role towards the end. Even then, she's mostly relegated to entertaining a minor character introduced only a few books ago.

It's a good addition to the series, and more interesting than the last installment. I'm kind of happy I didn't give up on the series after book 4, when I felt Rachel was jumping every shark she could. As things have progressed, so have the characters and the writing, and the journey has been fun to experience.

This is a Thesaurus. Let me show you how it works...

This post is a bit of filler, because I'm just getting in to Kim Harrison's new Ever After, but not far enough in to really review it.

So, instead I'll discuss a specific author whose books I found yesterday while working on a project.

Eventually.

As I mentioned previously, my library has been mostly boxed up for a few years following my move from Missouri back to Ohio. Well, yesterday, I wound up buying a 5 shelf bookshelf, which also lead to the absolute joy of assembling it. Given I haven't taken an Industrial Arts class since 8th grade, this was a bit on an adventure. I did, however, manage to put it together and began the fun of unloading box after box of books onto its waiting shelves.

As you can tell, I need more bloody room. I still have another box or two, plus books floating around the house. Also, a few of the books I put out were ones I haven't read. (Those were mainly parts of lots I bought on EBay to get a specific title. Which means I now have 2 Zodiac Chillers, specifically Twisted Taurus by Ellen Steiber and Never Love a Libra by Vicki Kamida, [As a side note, the advice of the second title is sound, and the former is also true of the breed.] and a bunch of other YA horror titles.) Also, I found out I have two copies each of Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City, David Eddings' Castle of Wizardry, Dean R. Koontz's Lightning, and Catherine Adkins' When Jeff Comes Home.

Anyway, when I posted the pictures to FaceBook last night, a friend of mine in Ottawa noticed the David Eddings on the shelf (second shelf from the bottom, on the right hand side). Which brought up a discussion on Eddings.

Eddings wrote 2 pentads and two trilogies that I enjoyed. (The pentads being The Belgariad and The Mallorean. The Trilogies being The Elenium and The Tamuli.) Unfortunately, those are not all he's written.

Given both pentads center around the same characters and both trilogies also center around the same characters, it's fairly safe to discuss them as two series.

The Belgariad and The Mallorean center around Garion, his very great grandfather Begarath, and his very great Aunt Polgara. (The latter two get their own novels written after he finished the series.) Both center on folks wondering around fighting an evil prophecy.

The Elenium and The Tamuli mostly center on Sparhawk and his friends as they try to fight an evil God.

(Yes, I'm greatly simplifying things here. We're discussing 16 volumes of verbiage.)

While they're all generally fun reads, with lots of humor, I did find myself spending every book wanting to mail Eddings a Thesaurus. Because every character in ever novel says everything either "blandly" or "sardonically". By the time I reached the end, I was about to start scratching out every repetition and replacing it with a synonym.

He's also wrote Regina's Song, which involved identical twins, one of whom is murdered and the other who more or less goes catatonic afterwards. That one was fun. The ending was a bit off, but hey...

It still beat the pants off of The Dreamers. I tried reading the first book, put it down halfway through, and returned it, mainly because I believe book burning is evil. Although technically, in this case, it would have been euthanasia. Putting it out of my misery.

And then there was one of his early novels, The Losers. While I appreciate the allegorical nature of the novel (basically, a tale of fallen angels and redemption), it got really bogged down in an very vitriolic anti social worker screed that managed to eclipse everything else he was trying to say.

So, yes. I have Eddings on my shelf, and I have enjoyed much of his work. I would highly recommend some of his stuff. I just wish he'd retired before even trying to write The Dreamers.

It's a wonderful Maltese Falcon?

Slogging through The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams. This isn't to say that it's a bad book, it's just very dense in a few spots and my normal reading times keep getting curtailed by other pursuits that I can't seem to shake.

I've also been hesitant to start writing this, since I'm almost to the end and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell is going on.


The basic set up is this. When humans die, a demonic prosecutor and angelic defense advocate show up in a bubble of frozen space and hold a trial for the dead soul in front of a Principality. Bobby Dollar (nickname for the Angel Dolorial) works as an advocate, trying to save souls from being damned. (There are 3 options for sentence, since Purgatory is an option in this universe.)

To qualify, this is how it's supposed to work. After one case to give us an idea of how the system works, we follow Bobby to another incident where the soul doesn't show up for his own court date. Which really isn't supposed to happen. Which of course sets in motion a plot that's involved several layers of bureaucracy on both sides of the afterlife, a guy who got his family curse reversed in a unique way, dead sisters who set their parents on fire, a monster that predates the old testament, and a character I'm trying to figure out a trope for. Is she the Bond girl? A love interest? Or, given the hard boiled narrative, the femme fatale?

While I'm enjoying the story, the pacing could use a little work, and I would have appreciated more breadcrumbs earlier to grab the imagination more. (Because really, my mind was going full Buffy Season 5 plot twist with one character, although that seems to have been disproved now.)

Spending time with old Sci-Fi

Many many years ago when I started coming out, there wasn't quite the amount of gay fiction available as there is today. And a good majority of what was available wasn't readily available to me. (Given I couldn't go to an adult store to get one of the "Adults Only" novels, and the book stores where I grew up didn't have a Gay and Lesbian interest section as of yet.)

These days, that isn't so much of an issue. Thanks to the internet, gay men are a click away, bookstores on-line and in storefronts have gay and lesbian interest sections, and the variety of fiction is much less limited.

But, back in the very early 90's...not so much.

I was blessed to meet a lesbian named Dakota when I really started coming out. Dakota was a councilor at a camp I was at, and was the first person I met who ever came out to me. She had a workshop one night on gays and gay issues, which I attended, and it was there that she passed out a wonderful list of books of interest for gay men and lesbians. Mind you, it was only about 7 pages, and about 4 of those pages were non fiction (mostly under the old Allyson imprint), but still, it gave me things to read that my small town library might actually have in stock. (Let's see. I remember Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles being on that list, The Front Runner (which I've still never read), and a little book called Ethan of Athos by Lois McMasters Bujold. I found that particular book on a school field trip to Dayton, OH, in a large book superstore that is no longer there.

I remember the terror in buying the book, and hiding my purchase from my classmates. And reading it furtively in my room. I was kind of disappointed at the lack of Jackie Collins-type literary smut, but I also wound up engrossed in the book, which was a very quick read. (Years later, I met the author at a book signing at the very same store I bought the book at in the first place and had her sign it for me.) 

Anyway, my roommate also got a Nook for Xmas, and I've been giving him a hand downloading audiobooks via the library. (He listens to books at work, since he has a desk job.) A few days ago, I found him Ethan of Athos while looking for one of her other series. I got it for him, and wound up re-reading my copy in the course of a few hours.

Ethan is a reproductive specialist on a planet of all men. He runs one of the many facilities with uterine replicators allowing men to reproduce without the aid of "uterine replicators on legs." However, given that the planet's society was founded with only 8 different uterii, it's not surprising that they wear out after 200 years. It comes as kind of a shock, though, when replacement uterine cultures show up that aren't human, boxes empty, etc. Thus how Ethan manages to get delegated to travel off world to find out what happened to those uteri. He leaves his rather flighty sometimes lover behind, and manages to engage in a wonderful adventure aboard Klein Station.

Well, I enjoyed the adventure. Ethan... not so much. He grows quite a bit, but remains true to his character throughout. There's no sudden discovery of latent heterosexuality by the end, he doesn't die... Which is a better fate than most gay characters get. While none of her other books feature a gay main character, she does have several supporting characters who are sexual minorities, none of which are stereotypes. When I started coming out, this was something I very much needed. As such, I highly recommend this and the rest of her work to anyone who likes Space Opera and Fantasy.

Men are (Guinea) Pigs

So, Percy Jackson has to cross The Sea of Monsters to save Grover from the cyclops.

And it's a pretty darn good adventure.

We start off, much like Harry Potter in reverse, with Percy finishing his school year before returning to Mud Blood (er Half Blood) Camp. Which would be easier if not for the fireball throwing giants trying to kill him in a spirited game of dodge ball.

Annabeth appreas and helps save his bacon, although the end up taking Percy's friend, Tyson along with them. Turns out Tyson is a baby cyclops, one of the sons of Poseidon and a nature spirit.

Whcih leads to camp, which is under attack, and something about the land being poisoned.

(Yes, skipping around in plot line a bit.)

Which, given Percy's dreams of Grover being trapped by Polyphemus (the cyclops from Homer's Odyssey), who also has the Golden Fleece...

Much happens in this book, most of it directly lifted from The Odyssey. The order's a bit off from what I remember of the last time I read through Homer, but most of the big events are in here. Scylla and Charybdis, the Sirens, Circe, Polyphemus... Heck, Grover's keeping himself from being eaten by pretending to be a female cyclops and delaying the wedding by unraveling his wedding train every evening. About the only event that doesn't get mentioned in here is the seven years Odysseus spends cavorting with Calypso.

Also, Tantalus shows up, and I giggled at how his curse worked outside of Hades. 

And it still manages to work in Values We Want Installed in Young People like any good YA novel should. Things like being nice to special needs children, particularly if you're related. Don't hog all the glory, allow other people to take care of a quest.

It's a quick read, but it's a fun read. I'm still smiling about how every time the hydra loses a head, 2 more Monster Doughnut stores open some place.

All the Pretty White Horses...

Valdemar. Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about with just the name, but for those who don't, The Kingdom of Valdemar is the setting of most of Mercedes Lackey's long running Heralds of Valdemar series. Quite a few of them actually. And covering many many epochs of time within said kingdom.

The woman is nothing if not prolific.

Redoubt is the latest, set a few centuries before the bulk of the novels in the setting. (There are two trilogies set earlier on the time line that these, The Collegium Chronicles.) Which is up to 4 books, probably the longest she's written around the same main character. I also thought this one was supposed to be the last in the series and in the setting, but I certainly hope not, particularly give exactly how many loose ends are flying in the wind at the end.

The Chronicles series follows mainly Mags, an orphan boy who starts this particular series as a virtual slave in a mine. (It's one Carol Burnett short of being Annie.) Mags ends up getting Chosen by Companion Dallen, and whisked away to Haven, the capital of Valdemar. (Companions are basically big spirits creatures that are often mistaken for horses.) Through the course of this, we've seen Mags go through training as a Herald (Heralds being folks who perform duties on behalf of the crown with their Companion. It should also be noted that any sitting Queen or King is also required to have been chosen.), make friends with a Healer, a Bard, and a civilian, create a new game, and solve familial problems.

Problem is, until this volume, Mags has known very little to nothing of his family. We do know some folks causing issues for the crown seem to recognize him, and we know they got hired by Karse to the south. (Karse has been a long standing enemy to Valdemar. Although this changes in the Mage Storms trilogy, this series is set before that one. ARGH! Chronological continuity in no way reflects the order the books were written. Thankfully, most of em have a handy timeline in the front so you have some idea when the hell you are.)

As such, by the end of this one, we have a better idea of who Mags parents are, a pithy sermon on what actually happened to Karse, and a nebulous antagonist waiting for a new volume.

Redoubt remains well written, and thankfully, Megs' dialogue is no longer quite as colloquial and dialect-y as it was in earlier volumes. (I hate reading books where I have to read the lines out loud to get some idea of what the hell someone is saying.) I'm hoping sdhe does have another book coming, since the nebulous antagonist has not been mentioned in any of the other books or anthologies to my knowledge. (She's usually really good about keeping continuity straight.)

I would also add that if you haven't read any of the Valdemar books, they are good old fashioned sword and sorcery fantasy. And many contemporary Urban Fantasy authors owe Mercedes a debt for paving the way for strong female leads in fantasy novels. Also, the second trilogy, The Last Herald Mage, introduced a true rarity, a gay male main character, Vanyel. Vanyel also got not one, but TWO lifemates. And a circle of gay friends. And in later novels, one of his descendents is something of a gay pimp.

Her other series are also interesting, if usually co-written. I will admit to not being enamored of her Elemental Masters series, but the SERRAted Edge novels and the Bedlam's Bard series are fun. Diane Tregarde is also fun, even if it did start some real life drama. (Google that one. People evidently thought it was real.) Really, just hit the library/bookstore.whatever and look for her stuff. You can't really go wrong.

From Fairies to Tier Na Nog

When I set out to start this blog, I originally mentioned how many of the books I was reading dwell in similar trope.

So, I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised when I switch from one book that dealt heavily with fairie courts to one dealing with Celtic mythology, even if the characters are also wrapped up in Norse and Roman mythology as well.

Yep, most of the way through Trapped, book 5 in Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles.

A quick recap for those who haven't had the pleasure as of yet. Atticus is a Druid from pre-Roman invasion Britain. (Technically Irish, but he's been everywhere, since this is the modern age.) Over the past 4 books, he's fought the Celtic pantheon (he stole a sword from Aenghus Og, slept with the Morrighan, and annoyed Brighid), fought a coven of witches, had a knock down drag out fight in Asgard, fought Hel alongside Coyote.... Yeah, there isn't much of a lack of action and mythological cross fandom shipping.

Book 5 picks up about 12 years after the end of the last one, with the training of his apprentice nearing completion. All that's left to do is bind her to the earth with tattoos applied with thorns. Which gets complicated first by the appearance of Loki, then a trip to Tir Na Nog, which leads to another fight with Brighid, and some fun trying to bind Granuaile at the foot of Olympus, where one very annoyed Bacchus is trying to get to him.

In the meantime, it seems the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim are also hunting Atticus, for reasons that have not as of yet been revealed.

In may ways, this series occasionally feels bogged down in comparative religion (Hell, Jesus of Nazareth showed up in one of the first two books), but...really, the writing is good, the pace is great, and you never know exactly where things are going to end up by the last page. I mean, you can surmise Atticus will live (particularly since Book 6 comes out this summer), but there are so many machinations to get through before you get there.

I highly recommend this series, even if I don't always agree with some of his portrayals of the Gods. Although I will admit I cheered every time some snide remark was directed at Thor, since I honestly don't like Thor. Unless Thor is Christ Hemsworth, at which point I'll just turn the sound off and enjoy the show.