On one of my last library trips, I happened to glance at a display rack, catching a glimpse of some blurb how this book is something Neil Gaimen fans would be immediately taken. Given said blurb was via Publisher's Weekly, I took it with a grain of salt, but I did enjoy reading J. Lincoln Fenn's Poe anyway.
We start off meeting our narrator, Dimitri Petrov, who narrates the book in First Person Present Tense. (Which, as mentioned previously, takes a bit of adjustment.) Dimitri lives and works in the small New York town of New Goshen, writing obituaries for the local paper.Given the average age in New Goshen is well over 60, he keeps quite busy with this. He has a casual flirtation with Lisa, who works at a receptionist at the local nursing home; Lisa is also a source of information that rarely makes it in to the obituary.
Dimitri's boss, Mac, decides that Halloween night would be a perfect excuse to send Dimitri (and Mac's son, Nate, who does editing work) to a seance at the local run down haunted mansion, Aspinwell. The medium is their coworker Myrna's sister, Maddy. Aspinwell has quite a history, involving murder and fire, and all the gothic conventions. Lisa, who has never met Dimitri, crashes the party for reasons that don't become clear until the midway point.
Given the book wouldn't have much of a plot without a narrative hook, Myrna succeeds quite well in channeling a spirit for the seance. It in fact causes some violence within the medium, who crashes through the rotted floor of the mansion. Mac goes to get help as Lisa and Dimitri head to the basement to rescue Myrna. Well, they try, anyway. Dimitri finds out the hard way there's a well in the basement when he falls into watery darkness.
Cut to a few days later when he wakes up in the morgue. Now thankfully, due to being misdiagnosed, the hospital takes rather good care of him as he recovers, if only to avoid a lawsuit. Mind you, Dimitri is still semi remembering a woman he saw in the well, whom he nicknames Poe. Poe continues to haunt Dimitri after he's released and begins to sort of date Lisa. Poe starts off doing poltergeisty activity (broken windows with the glass making patterns), but eventually settles into using Dimitri's mother's poetry refrigerator magnets to pass on some basic information. Well, at least until the dreams/hallucinations start.
We also learn a bit of Lisa's backstory. Like her paranoid schizophrenic brother who tried to kill her.
Eventually, all the plot threads connect, wrapping up exactly who Dimitri's parents were, what's so important about his ring, what's really going on with Lisa's brother, and why the heck Rasputin (yes, Rasputin) had two magical grimoires.
It's a bit uneven at times, and things seem to be last minute additions toward the end, but for the most part, it remians interesting and fun to read. It even gets bonus points for Dimitri;s relationship with his guardian, which reminded me of several conversations I've had in a similar vein.
Also, it has about as much in common with Gaiman as a horse has with a crab.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
The Revolution Will not be Televised, but it will be Tweeted.
A bit of preface to this entry. A few years back, a friend of mine recommended I read a book by Walter John Williams. Sadly, I wasn't able to find that book until recently (I know own the paperback and the nook version), but the library DID have a book called This Is Not A Game. That particular book followed a character named Dagmar Shaw around as her ARG (Alternate Reality Game) went off the rails and wound up with murder and Russian Mafia hits.
I found out recently, and quite by happy accident, that Mr. Williams has since released 2 more books about Dagmar. The first, Deep State, is much like it's predecessor in the very layered approach as to what the heck is actually going on.
The prologue introduces us to two geek at an American listening post in the mountains of Turkey. They've been trapped for a few weeks due to a military junta displacing the government, making it impossible to do anything resembling their contracted jobs. As the military approaches the listening station, they try to escape, but find out as they stop at a monastery, that they have the XBox, not the laptop with the very classified files on it.
Cut to: Turkey a few months later, where Dagmar and her Great Big Idea team are running an ARG to promote the new James Bond movie, Stunrunner, featuring Ian Attila Gordon, a Scots pop star. Most of the puzzles have to do with crosswords that are roughly the same in Turkish and English, making it easier for players in Turkey and North America to play along. However, during a stop in Ankara, Dagmar and her crew get to forcibly meet General Bozbeyli, now president of Turkey and leader of the junta. While the entire thing is a PR event, Dagmar ends up trading veiled barbs with Bozbeyli, who in turn makes life difficult as the game rolls into Istanbul (not Constantinople).
As the game ends, one of Dagmar's liaisons, Lincoln, hires her for government work. This sets up the next part of the novel, as Dagmar, a few of her Great Big Idea people, and some hires of Lincolns converge at the RAF Airbase on the Greek side of Cyprus. Their mission, astroturf a revolution in Turkey to overthrow the ruling junta. Using crowdsourcing, spam e-mail, and a few instigators on the ground, they set off at achieving this goal, which takes up the bulk of the book.
There's much thematically here, as we see echoes of the Arab Spring, with news going out via twitter... Revolution creep, wherein other countries start demonstrating with the Turks... Using crowdsourcing to get information needed to advance the goals. There's also push back from the junta, whom no one believed to be technologically savvy. It actually reads a bit like the old movie Hackers, only a lot more informed on what's possible.
Mind you, it's obvious Williams has researched Turkish culture and civilization, and he does an ok job of getting most of it across. However, parts of it sent me running for wikipedia and other online resources looking for better explanations of what the heck he was talking about. Which I found really can't be explained in simplified terms. (Alevi, Kurds, TCP/IP....)
What I'm left with after reading is a desire to see Turkey myself, maybe even sailing the Bosporus myself to Greece. My suggestion would be to keep Google Image Search open, to get a feel for the sights as the characters find them, from the Hagia Sophia to the phallic stone where Aphrodite first walked out onto the sands of Cyprus.
I found out recently, and quite by happy accident, that Mr. Williams has since released 2 more books about Dagmar. The first, Deep State, is much like it's predecessor in the very layered approach as to what the heck is actually going on.
The prologue introduces us to two geek at an American listening post in the mountains of Turkey. They've been trapped for a few weeks due to a military junta displacing the government, making it impossible to do anything resembling their contracted jobs. As the military approaches the listening station, they try to escape, but find out as they stop at a monastery, that they have the XBox, not the laptop with the very classified files on it.
Cut to: Turkey a few months later, where Dagmar and her Great Big Idea team are running an ARG to promote the new James Bond movie, Stunrunner, featuring Ian Attila Gordon, a Scots pop star. Most of the puzzles have to do with crosswords that are roughly the same in Turkish and English, making it easier for players in Turkey and North America to play along. However, during a stop in Ankara, Dagmar and her crew get to forcibly meet General Bozbeyli, now president of Turkey and leader of the junta. While the entire thing is a PR event, Dagmar ends up trading veiled barbs with Bozbeyli, who in turn makes life difficult as the game rolls into Istanbul (not Constantinople).
As the game ends, one of Dagmar's liaisons, Lincoln, hires her for government work. This sets up the next part of the novel, as Dagmar, a few of her Great Big Idea people, and some hires of Lincolns converge at the RAF Airbase on the Greek side of Cyprus. Their mission, astroturf a revolution in Turkey to overthrow the ruling junta. Using crowdsourcing, spam e-mail, and a few instigators on the ground, they set off at achieving this goal, which takes up the bulk of the book.
There's much thematically here, as we see echoes of the Arab Spring, with news going out via twitter... Revolution creep, wherein other countries start demonstrating with the Turks... Using crowdsourcing to get information needed to advance the goals. There's also push back from the junta, whom no one believed to be technologically savvy. It actually reads a bit like the old movie Hackers, only a lot more informed on what's possible.
Mind you, it's obvious Williams has researched Turkish culture and civilization, and he does an ok job of getting most of it across. However, parts of it sent me running for wikipedia and other online resources looking for better explanations of what the heck he was talking about. Which I found really can't be explained in simplified terms. (Alevi, Kurds, TCP/IP....)
What I'm left with after reading is a desire to see Turkey myself, maybe even sailing the Bosporus myself to Greece. My suggestion would be to keep Google Image Search open, to get a feel for the sights as the characters find them, from the Hagia Sophia to the phallic stone where Aphrodite first walked out onto the sands of Cyprus.
Thursday, February 20, 2014
It's not really shapeshifting, but it is!
As I recall, I wound up picking up In A Fix by Linda Grimes because the review of the second book sounded interesting.
Given how mediocre the first book is, I doubt I'll find out how true that statement is.
Ciel Halligan assures us early on that she's not a shape shifter, but constantly shape shifts throughout the narrative. She does so by borrowing people's auras and becoming them. Which aids her in her job as a "facilitator", wherein she takes over the life of a person in order to facilitate something they themselves can't do. At the start, she's impersonating Mina, a well-to-do socialite trying to get her boyfriend Trey to propose to her on vacation in the Bahamas. Which is fine, until the cabin they're co-habitating explodes.
This is when we get to meet her "brother" Billy. (Her mom's best friend's step son.) Billy, of course, is dolled up as Queen Elizabeth II. We hear about how close knit the adapter community is. We meet her other "brother", Mark, who's a CIA spoook, and we eventually meet her biological brother Thomas, the lawyer.
And we get fed a silly plot about neo-Vikings trying to get Sweden to man up. We get some really bad erotica, and a female author who obviously has no idea how male parts work. (Which wouldn't be a big deal, but one of the bits involves Ciel adapting to become a frat boy with a twitchy penis.)
And honestly, even if the book remains readable and mostly interesting, it's very hard to get past the narrator telling us she's not a shapeshifter and the spending several scenes shapeshifing to escape from any number of women in jeopardy cliches.
That, coupled with the mildly incestuous love angles, really didn't endear me to the idea of reading another book in this series.
Given how mediocre the first book is, I doubt I'll find out how true that statement is.
Ciel Halligan assures us early on that she's not a shape shifter, but constantly shape shifts throughout the narrative. She does so by borrowing people's auras and becoming them. Which aids her in her job as a "facilitator", wherein she takes over the life of a person in order to facilitate something they themselves can't do. At the start, she's impersonating Mina, a well-to-do socialite trying to get her boyfriend Trey to propose to her on vacation in the Bahamas. Which is fine, until the cabin they're co-habitating explodes.
This is when we get to meet her "brother" Billy. (Her mom's best friend's step son.) Billy, of course, is dolled up as Queen Elizabeth II. We hear about how close knit the adapter community is. We meet her other "brother", Mark, who's a CIA spoook, and we eventually meet her biological brother Thomas, the lawyer.
And we get fed a silly plot about neo-Vikings trying to get Sweden to man up. We get some really bad erotica, and a female author who obviously has no idea how male parts work. (Which wouldn't be a big deal, but one of the bits involves Ciel adapting to become a frat boy with a twitchy penis.)
And honestly, even if the book remains readable and mostly interesting, it's very hard to get past the narrator telling us she's not a shapeshifter and the spending several scenes shapeshifing to escape from any number of women in jeopardy cliches.
That, coupled with the mildly incestuous love angles, really didn't endear me to the idea of reading another book in this series.
Monday, February 10, 2014
Abyssinia
I posted about Tales of the City back in October not long after finding out that Book 9, The Days of Anna Madrigal, would be released this year. Happily, the book indeed got released, and I finished the book Sunday on my lunch break. Amis tears. If I were a drag queen, my mascara would be running.
It's a very touching book and a fitting end to a series that started in the 70s and has continued sporadically since then.
As Days starts, we find the nonagenarian Mrs. Madrigal living quietly in San Francisco, being helped by FTM trans person Jake (who's hysterectomy was one of the plots in the last book, Mary Ann in Autumn). A phone call from Brian Hawkins informs us that he's found a new woman to ride around in his Winnebago cross country. We find out shortly thereafter that this mystery woman is someone we met back in Significant Others. Wren Douglas, the World's Most Beautiful Fat Woman, as she used to be known, is now Mrs. Brian Hawkins. Brian and Wren end up taking Mrs. Madrigal across state borders to Winnemucca, Nevada, where a young Mrs. Madrigal grew up as Andy Ramsey at the Blue Moon Brothel.
In the mean time, Jake, Amos (Jake's cis-gendered partner), Shawna (Brian and Mary Ann's adopted daughter), Michael, and Ben (Michael's much younger boyfriend) plot a trip further south in Nevada to Burning Man. Jake has created an art car to honor Mrs. Madrigal as a pioneer in the trans community. Shawna wants to get pregnant at Burning Man, preferably with Ben's sperm. Michale is worried he's too old and fat to enjoy himself. He's also grossed out by Shawna's sperm request.
And between all of these plots, Mrs. Madrigal keeps flashing back to being 16 at the Blue Moon, revealing her past. And oh wow, what a humdinger that is. Margaret, Mother Mucca's good friend and older call girl, helps Andy find himself, usually with turquoise pedicures and shimmering nightgowns. We meet Lasko, the handsome Basque and Mexican boy who works at the local Pharmacy, when not in school or helping at his parents' restaurant. Andy had a bit of a crush on Lasko, who he once watched running in native costume at a festival. Lasko...oh Lasko. The love story here is like so many young loves short and very poignant. While I can't say I ever went to quite the extremes Andy and Lasko did, I understand all too well the desire to hurt someone you care about because you yourself are hurting. I'm not sure I needed that reminder of my misspent youth.
At Burning Man itself, we find out Mary Ann is also there, eventually bringing back some of the magic from the earlier books, where coincidence abounds. (There are a few passages where Brian tried to explain the magic of coincidence that permeates the series. While it's slightly unbelievable, it's also quite charming.) And the serendipity effect is still blossoming here, what with Jake's trying to be ex-gay boyfriend from the last book being strongly hinted at being dressed as a satyr at Burning Man, as well as pretty much falling in at all the right places towards the climax of the novel.
One thing I both loved and hated was the ending. It's quite enigmatic. While I assume one thing, it's written in such a way that many other things might also be true. And, as sad as I am that the series in ending (again), this is as good of an ending as we could have wished for. At least it doesn't end with a sympathetic character going off the deep end and moving to New York.
It's a very touching book and a fitting end to a series that started in the 70s and has continued sporadically since then.
As Days starts, we find the nonagenarian Mrs. Madrigal living quietly in San Francisco, being helped by FTM trans person Jake (who's hysterectomy was one of the plots in the last book, Mary Ann in Autumn). A phone call from Brian Hawkins informs us that he's found a new woman to ride around in his Winnebago cross country. We find out shortly thereafter that this mystery woman is someone we met back in Significant Others. Wren Douglas, the World's Most Beautiful Fat Woman, as she used to be known, is now Mrs. Brian Hawkins. Brian and Wren end up taking Mrs. Madrigal across state borders to Winnemucca, Nevada, where a young Mrs. Madrigal grew up as Andy Ramsey at the Blue Moon Brothel.
In the mean time, Jake, Amos (Jake's cis-gendered partner), Shawna (Brian and Mary Ann's adopted daughter), Michael, and Ben (Michael's much younger boyfriend) plot a trip further south in Nevada to Burning Man. Jake has created an art car to honor Mrs. Madrigal as a pioneer in the trans community. Shawna wants to get pregnant at Burning Man, preferably with Ben's sperm. Michale is worried he's too old and fat to enjoy himself. He's also grossed out by Shawna's sperm request.
And between all of these plots, Mrs. Madrigal keeps flashing back to being 16 at the Blue Moon, revealing her past. And oh wow, what a humdinger that is. Margaret, Mother Mucca's good friend and older call girl, helps Andy find himself, usually with turquoise pedicures and shimmering nightgowns. We meet Lasko, the handsome Basque and Mexican boy who works at the local Pharmacy, when not in school or helping at his parents' restaurant. Andy had a bit of a crush on Lasko, who he once watched running in native costume at a festival. Lasko...oh Lasko. The love story here is like so many young loves short and very poignant. While I can't say I ever went to quite the extremes Andy and Lasko did, I understand all too well the desire to hurt someone you care about because you yourself are hurting. I'm not sure I needed that reminder of my misspent youth.
At Burning Man itself, we find out Mary Ann is also there, eventually bringing back some of the magic from the earlier books, where coincidence abounds. (There are a few passages where Brian tried to explain the magic of coincidence that permeates the series. While it's slightly unbelievable, it's also quite charming.) And the serendipity effect is still blossoming here, what with Jake's trying to be ex-gay boyfriend from the last book being strongly hinted at being dressed as a satyr at Burning Man, as well as pretty much falling in at all the right places towards the climax of the novel.
One thing I both loved and hated was the ending. It's quite enigmatic. While I assume one thing, it's written in such a way that many other things might also be true. And, as sad as I am that the series in ending (again), this is as good of an ending as we could have wished for. At least it doesn't end with a sympathetic character going off the deep end and moving to New York.
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Fur flying everywhere.
I'll preface this by stating I wasn't sure how much I'd like The Silvered by Tanya Huff. I love her other books, but I loathe werewolves. Thankfully, my love won out and I really enjoyed reading about Mirian Maylin taking on prophecy and becoming part of a duo out to overthrow an Empire.
The book opens on said empire's invasion of Aydori borders by Captain Reiter and his rag tag band of Imperial shields are sent by a prophecy to retrieve 6 pregnant mages from far off Aydori. In the meantime, Mirian Maylin has been told not to return to University, having not mastered more than the first level in any of the 5 magical disciplines. Not that that's stopping her mother from trying to set her up with any member of the pack, the werewolves that act as protectors of Aydori. Because were Mirian to become Mage-Pack, that would increase her mother's societal standing and hopefully get the Pack to start banking with Mirian's father. Which leads to a scene at the Opera, where the Mage-Pack (women) mated with the Pack (men) try very hard to keep people calm in the beginning of the invasion, telling folks to wait until morning to begin pulling further withing Aydori borders to the more defensible capital. Mirian also catches the nose of one of the unmated Pack, who tells her she smells amazing. (Pretty much any Pack we meet throughout the book says this or something similar. Given most of those saying it are barely out of adolescence, I assume her amazing mage powers smell like pizza.)
Anyway, Mirian sees Captain Reiter capture 5 of the most powerful members of the Mage-pack and takes it upon herself to go report the taking of the mates to the Pack fighting on the front lines. Whereupon she gets captured by Captain Reiter, who thinks her to be the 6th Mage. Lord Tomas Hagan, nephew of the Pack Alpha (who just died to Imperial weaponry) finds and rescues her, leading to a rather hurried race against both Captain Reiter (trying to re-capture her) and whatever fate will befall the 5 Mage-pack members once they reach the Capital of the Empire.
Which we as readers get to see in rather graphic detail. See, The Emperor has declared both Mages and Pack to be abominations, less than human, and expendable. Thus why Pack pelts are worth money in the Empire. His grand plan involves mating the beasts with the other beasts to get Mages he alone controls. (The Empire is a very science heavy realm, where magic is dying out. Even though most of the decisions the Emperor makes is based on Soothsaying.)
It's actually quite brutal in places. And the gay subtext in this is hard to miss, particularly since Ms. Huff is married to a woman. One of the biggest themes here is the idea that by declaring someone as less than human, it's a lot easier to torture them and kill them, because they're nothing but an animal. And again, Ms. Huff has no problem portraying gay male relationships in her fictions. We meet a were in the Empire who's paired with a soothsayer who end up taking Tomas and Mirian in about 2/3rds of the way through the narrative. They, along with the mental ghost of Mirian's mother as well as heroines of books Mirian read provide a little levity to the story. (Seriously. The mother's instructions on how to be a proper lady crop up at inopportune times during the chase.)
Another bit of subtext falls under the idea that the more society advances and become more civilized, the less room we have for magic and wonder in that society. Which has its good and bad sides.
Really though, I ended up liking the book. While it's not listed as series fiction, I wouldn't complain if she returns to this world for another story or two.
The book opens on said empire's invasion of Aydori borders by Captain Reiter and his rag tag band of Imperial shields are sent by a prophecy to retrieve 6 pregnant mages from far off Aydori. In the meantime, Mirian Maylin has been told not to return to University, having not mastered more than the first level in any of the 5 magical disciplines. Not that that's stopping her mother from trying to set her up with any member of the pack, the werewolves that act as protectors of Aydori. Because were Mirian to become Mage-Pack, that would increase her mother's societal standing and hopefully get the Pack to start banking with Mirian's father. Which leads to a scene at the Opera, where the Mage-Pack (women) mated with the Pack (men) try very hard to keep people calm in the beginning of the invasion, telling folks to wait until morning to begin pulling further withing Aydori borders to the more defensible capital. Mirian also catches the nose of one of the unmated Pack, who tells her she smells amazing. (Pretty much any Pack we meet throughout the book says this or something similar. Given most of those saying it are barely out of adolescence, I assume her amazing mage powers smell like pizza.)
Anyway, Mirian sees Captain Reiter capture 5 of the most powerful members of the Mage-pack and takes it upon herself to go report the taking of the mates to the Pack fighting on the front lines. Whereupon she gets captured by Captain Reiter, who thinks her to be the 6th Mage. Lord Tomas Hagan, nephew of the Pack Alpha (who just died to Imperial weaponry) finds and rescues her, leading to a rather hurried race against both Captain Reiter (trying to re-capture her) and whatever fate will befall the 5 Mage-pack members once they reach the Capital of the Empire.
Which we as readers get to see in rather graphic detail. See, The Emperor has declared both Mages and Pack to be abominations, less than human, and expendable. Thus why Pack pelts are worth money in the Empire. His grand plan involves mating the beasts with the other beasts to get Mages he alone controls. (The Empire is a very science heavy realm, where magic is dying out. Even though most of the decisions the Emperor makes is based on Soothsaying.)
It's actually quite brutal in places. And the gay subtext in this is hard to miss, particularly since Ms. Huff is married to a woman. One of the biggest themes here is the idea that by declaring someone as less than human, it's a lot easier to torture them and kill them, because they're nothing but an animal. And again, Ms. Huff has no problem portraying gay male relationships in her fictions. We meet a were in the Empire who's paired with a soothsayer who end up taking Tomas and Mirian in about 2/3rds of the way through the narrative. They, along with the mental ghost of Mirian's mother as well as heroines of books Mirian read provide a little levity to the story. (Seriously. The mother's instructions on how to be a proper lady crop up at inopportune times during the chase.)
Another bit of subtext falls under the idea that the more society advances and become more civilized, the less room we have for magic and wonder in that society. Which has its good and bad sides.
Really though, I ended up liking the book. While it's not listed as series fiction, I wouldn't complain if she returns to this world for another story or two.
Thursday, January 30, 2014
This is why AfterMASH lasted maybe 6 episodes.
This promises to be as brief as the book itself was.
After Dead by Charlaine Harris is the wrap up of the OSuthern Vampires, detailing what happened to just about everyone in and around Bon Temps (or from other vampire kingdoms who got mentioned throughout the series.)
I was expecting more in the way of narrative; instead, it's an alphabetical by last (or only name) encyclopedia giving each character usually a sentence to a paragraph detailing how their live progressed after Dead After After. Some of the bigger players (Sookie, Bill, Eric, and Sam) get a page to a page and a half.
As nice as it is to know more of the fates of those who we're leaving behind, I kind of wish this wasn't published, since Dead After After left it so we the readers could make up our own endings. (On the other hand, maybe this will kill some of the Bill/Eric poorly written slashfic out there.)
And a few entries hint that maybe more will be written about those specific characters. Which would be good, since the setting itself is interesting, and following around someone other than Sookie could be fascinating.(Hell, I'd read a one shot following Pam around, just because she's so off the wall.)
As a side note, I'm about half way through my actual book, so that review will hopefully land next week. This is more or less a one off, since it took me about 45 minutes to read while I was doing some other things.
After Dead by Charlaine Harris is the wrap up of the OSuthern Vampires, detailing what happened to just about everyone in and around Bon Temps (or from other vampire kingdoms who got mentioned throughout the series.)
I was expecting more in the way of narrative; instead, it's an alphabetical by last (or only name) encyclopedia giving each character usually a sentence to a paragraph detailing how their live progressed after Dead After After. Some of the bigger players (Sookie, Bill, Eric, and Sam) get a page to a page and a half.
As nice as it is to know more of the fates of those who we're leaving behind, I kind of wish this wasn't published, since Dead After After left it so we the readers could make up our own endings. (On the other hand, maybe this will kill some of the Bill/Eric poorly written slashfic out there.)
And a few entries hint that maybe more will be written about those specific characters. Which would be good, since the setting itself is interesting, and following around someone other than Sookie could be fascinating.(Hell, I'd read a one shot following Pam around, just because she's so off the wall.)
As a side note, I'm about half way through my actual book, so that review will hopefully land next week. This is more or less a one off, since it took me about 45 minutes to read while I was doing some other things.
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
And we're back in Valdemar.
So, I found out a few months ago that I'd missed the release of Bastion, book 5 in Mercedes Lackey's Collegium Chronicles. A trip to the library remedied that issue, and I'm happy to report that it's a welcome addition to the Valdemar canon.
I'm still unsure if the rumor about this series being her last foray into Valdemar is true or not, or even if this is the last book in the Chronicles. I can see where it could be, since she tied up one of the bigger loose ends left from Redoubt, however, I find myself not wanting it to end here. Then again, characters in Valdemar seem to either die at the end of their story, show up as cameos in other stories, or in Vanyel's case, both. As much as I disliked the Chronicles at the beginning, Mags and Bear and Lena and Amily have grown on me. Particularly after Mags' dialect stopped interfering with the flow of the dialogue.
So, Bastion starts with Mags returning to Haven from his rather arduous trip to Karse courtesy of his old people. Since it becomes increasingly obvious the people his parents came from aren't going to stop trying to kidnap him back to whatever land they come from, a way is found to send all of our protagonists on Circuit concurrently, with the idea of faking Mags' death somewhere along the way to get the Sleepgivers off his back in perpetuity.
Thus Mags goes riding off with Herald Jakyr for his circuit, hitching up later with Lena and her mentor Lita (Head Bard at the Collegium who also has a history with Jakyr) and Bear and Amily, who are spreading around the herbal healing packets Bear started a few books back to help in cases where a Gifted Healer is unavailable (or the herbs can save a Gifted Healer's energy, etc.)
The sextet sets up a hub in The Bastion, a series of caves in the middle of the area of the circuit they're riding. As it turns out, the caves were once part of a Vale used by the Taledras (Hawkbrothers), and the caves were home to the hertasi (lizard folk). The caves were also where the bandits found and killed Mags' parents back before Book 1.
After visiting a few villages and towns as part of the circuit and facing various difficulties with them (one is indifferent, one is in revolt, and one is essentially a model town), the group gets snowed in by a blizzard. Which gives Mags time to go exploring other caves in the system, looking for clues as to the identity of his parents. Where he meets a character I refer to as Deus ex Machina, who more or less solves the riddle of Mags' existence over the course of a chapter. (Seriously. He becomes a much more interesting character after the Great Reveal, but his presence and back story are a bit... shoehorned. Plus he's essentially an Amish Assamite.)
As the book ends, it looks as if all the major plot elements of the series thus far have been resolved one way or another, although I really hope there's another book discussing what happens after. Because, really, there are other stories that I'd love to hear told from this particular period.
Which really is a sign of how much it improved as it went on.
I'm still unsure if the rumor about this series being her last foray into Valdemar is true or not, or even if this is the last book in the Chronicles. I can see where it could be, since she tied up one of the bigger loose ends left from Redoubt, however, I find myself not wanting it to end here. Then again, characters in Valdemar seem to either die at the end of their story, show up as cameos in other stories, or in Vanyel's case, both. As much as I disliked the Chronicles at the beginning, Mags and Bear and Lena and Amily have grown on me. Particularly after Mags' dialect stopped interfering with the flow of the dialogue.
So, Bastion starts with Mags returning to Haven from his rather arduous trip to Karse courtesy of his old people. Since it becomes increasingly obvious the people his parents came from aren't going to stop trying to kidnap him back to whatever land they come from, a way is found to send all of our protagonists on Circuit concurrently, with the idea of faking Mags' death somewhere along the way to get the Sleepgivers off his back in perpetuity.
Thus Mags goes riding off with Herald Jakyr for his circuit, hitching up later with Lena and her mentor Lita (Head Bard at the Collegium who also has a history with Jakyr) and Bear and Amily, who are spreading around the herbal healing packets Bear started a few books back to help in cases where a Gifted Healer is unavailable (or the herbs can save a Gifted Healer's energy, etc.)
The sextet sets up a hub in The Bastion, a series of caves in the middle of the area of the circuit they're riding. As it turns out, the caves were once part of a Vale used by the Taledras (Hawkbrothers), and the caves were home to the hertasi (lizard folk). The caves were also where the bandits found and killed Mags' parents back before Book 1.
After visiting a few villages and towns as part of the circuit and facing various difficulties with them (one is indifferent, one is in revolt, and one is essentially a model town), the group gets snowed in by a blizzard. Which gives Mags time to go exploring other caves in the system, looking for clues as to the identity of his parents. Where he meets a character I refer to as Deus ex Machina, who more or less solves the riddle of Mags' existence over the course of a chapter. (Seriously. He becomes a much more interesting character after the Great Reveal, but his presence and back story are a bit... shoehorned. Plus he's essentially an Amish Assamite.)
As the book ends, it looks as if all the major plot elements of the series thus far have been resolved one way or another, although I really hope there's another book discussing what happens after. Because, really, there are other stories that I'd love to hear told from this particular period.
Which really is a sign of how much it improved as it went on.
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Witch, please.
I'll admit, when I picked up Babayaga by Toby Barlow, I was expecting more about houses dancing on chicken legs and iron hags that what is actually contained within.
What I got instead was a screwy meditation on love and lust set in 1959 Paris. You know, France, not remote Russia, and really not Russian peasants.
We instead start off with Zoya, a young woman whose lover notices that she doesn't seem to age. She takes him for a walk around the Latin Quarter and throws him into a large iron spike hanging above a gate. Seems Zoya and her friend Elga, the more traditional crone are very slow to age witches who have existed for a very long time.
Then we have Will, an advertising executive who also quasi works for the CIA. (a side note towards the end points out that most ex-patriots in France at the time were in one way or another on the Agency dole.) Who ends up enchanted with Zoya after a chance meeting on a Paris train (that doesn't emerge in London rain). But not before Will gets wrapped up with Oliver, a fairly wealthy American ex-pat who's somehow tied in with other espionage within Paris. We also can't forget Vidot, the police inspector, who spends most of the book as a flea, courtesy of Elga, who he confronts about the murder of Zoya's lover from the start of the book.
Honestly, of all of the characters, including an Orthodox priest who's brother is Elga's rat companion, and a chorus of dead witches who fill the pages with poetry every once in a while, Vidot is the one who gets the largest part of the hero's journey. Using ingenuity, he navigates Paris as a flea, finding his wife is having an affair with an Italian man with a wife of his own, escaping a flea circus, finding Elga, and finally winding up riding around with Will.
Zoya and Elga become much more interesting characters as we explore their back stories. Both were horribly abused, but found each other in the company of other witches. The problem with their journey prior to the contemporary setting is that it reads quite a bit like my English Seminar class of Gender, Language, and Literature syllabus. When Elga recruits a new witch to help her take out Zoya, we get an entire lecture on how men think they have all the power and build statues to their penises with faintly submissive feminine figures to worship around it. And how women actually are more subtle creatures who castrate men when they least expect it. It's really not subtle about this message either.
On the other hand, in the fourth act, as we finally start finding out what the heck is actually going on, and all the plot lines start to coalesce, the book improves mightily. Not enough to make me ever want to re-read it or pick up any of his other books, but it was satisfying, if a lot silly. Just honestly, it seemed like the over arching themes were literal cuckolding and figurative castration, neither of which makes for something fun to read.
What I got instead was a screwy meditation on love and lust set in 1959 Paris. You know, France, not remote Russia, and really not Russian peasants.
We instead start off with Zoya, a young woman whose lover notices that she doesn't seem to age. She takes him for a walk around the Latin Quarter and throws him into a large iron spike hanging above a gate. Seems Zoya and her friend Elga, the more traditional crone are very slow to age witches who have existed for a very long time.
Then we have Will, an advertising executive who also quasi works for the CIA. (a side note towards the end points out that most ex-patriots in France at the time were in one way or another on the Agency dole.) Who ends up enchanted with Zoya after a chance meeting on a Paris train (that doesn't emerge in London rain). But not before Will gets wrapped up with Oliver, a fairly wealthy American ex-pat who's somehow tied in with other espionage within Paris. We also can't forget Vidot, the police inspector, who spends most of the book as a flea, courtesy of Elga, who he confronts about the murder of Zoya's lover from the start of the book.
Honestly, of all of the characters, including an Orthodox priest who's brother is Elga's rat companion, and a chorus of dead witches who fill the pages with poetry every once in a while, Vidot is the one who gets the largest part of the hero's journey. Using ingenuity, he navigates Paris as a flea, finding his wife is having an affair with an Italian man with a wife of his own, escaping a flea circus, finding Elga, and finally winding up riding around with Will.
Zoya and Elga become much more interesting characters as we explore their back stories. Both were horribly abused, but found each other in the company of other witches. The problem with their journey prior to the contemporary setting is that it reads quite a bit like my English Seminar class of Gender, Language, and Literature syllabus. When Elga recruits a new witch to help her take out Zoya, we get an entire lecture on how men think they have all the power and build statues to their penises with faintly submissive feminine figures to worship around it. And how women actually are more subtle creatures who castrate men when they least expect it. It's really not subtle about this message either.
On the other hand, in the fourth act, as we finally start finding out what the heck is actually going on, and all the plot lines start to coalesce, the book improves mightily. Not enough to make me ever want to re-read it or pick up any of his other books, but it was satisfying, if a lot silly. Just honestly, it seemed like the over arching themes were literal cuckolding and figurative castration, neither of which makes for something fun to read.
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Back in Little Niflheim...
I've spent most of Christmas week knee deep in Pemkowet, Michigan and its troublesome eldritch community. (again, I'm not sure why people use that word in a supernatural manner, while it's picked up connotations of supernatural goings on, it still means green.) Which can only mean I'm back in Jaqueline Carey's Agent of Hel series. The second book, Autumn Bones, came out recently, and I found it a much more balanced read than the first installment.
Again, we have out half demon with a tail protagonist, Daisy, working part time as a file clerk on Pemkowet's X-Files at the police station. She's sort of dating Sinclair, the Jamaican by birth supernatural tour guide who moved to Pemkowet from Kalamazoo at the beginning of the first book. This leads to issues, as Sinclair's twin sister shows up on Labor Day to drag him back to Jamaica The twin sister he never told Daisy about. The one who serves to balance Sinclair or vice versa.
Emmeline, the sister, is an Oxford educated lawyer, working with Sinclair's mother to get her elected to Jamaica's parliament. Sinclair has no desire to go back with his sister, since under the laws of the Obeah, the further into the light he goes, the further into the dark Emmeline goes.
This causes quite a bit of grief, since Sinclair has no desire to watch his sister pull an Anakin Skywalker.
Emmeline and her mother (also Sinclair's mother) show up with an ultimatum. Come back to Jamaica or else. Mommy dearest refuses to take no for an answer, so she unleashes Sinclair's grandfather's spirit on the town, thus creating a duppy.
Most of the book revolves around this particular conflict, which gets resolved in a very satisfying manner on All Hallow's Eve. (Hel herself mentions to Daisy that she has until midnight on Halloween to fix the issue before the wall between the living and the dead collapses because of the duppy.)
In the mean time, Daisy gets it on with Sinclair following a very amusing Satyr party at the gay bar in Pemkowet, then later mambos with long time crush and co-worker Cody, who happens to be a werewolf.
We also learn more about Bethany, Daisy's best friend's sister, who lives out at Twilight Manor trying to become a vampire, as well as Stephan, a ghoul working with Daisy on her anger management issues. (Her anger acts a bit like Stephen King's Carrie. It also could cause her to claim her demonic birthright and break the Inviolate Wall.)
And we get a fairy creature, Jojo, who I came to love, if only because she started throwing out Shakespearean insults at Daisy because Daisy dared to love Sinclair. While she never broke out the Painted Maypole comment from A Midsummer Night's Dream, she did work "scullion" into several conversations.
Another new character is Lee (nicknamed "Skeletor". He evidently had as many issues in High School as I did.) Lee designs video games and helps Daisy build a searchable database for the X-Files in exchange for an audience with Hel herself.
Improved upon in this is Casimir, the gay shaman and head of the local coven. In the last book, he came off as a sissy sorcerer. In this one, he's much more fleshed out and not as bloody stereotypical.
With a few plots introduced to carry on into the next book, this one gets my award for most improved series writing. I look forward to seeing what comes next.
Again, we have out half demon with a tail protagonist, Daisy, working part time as a file clerk on Pemkowet's X-Files at the police station. She's sort of dating Sinclair, the Jamaican by birth supernatural tour guide who moved to Pemkowet from Kalamazoo at the beginning of the first book. This leads to issues, as Sinclair's twin sister shows up on Labor Day to drag him back to Jamaica The twin sister he never told Daisy about. The one who serves to balance Sinclair or vice versa.
Emmeline, the sister, is an Oxford educated lawyer, working with Sinclair's mother to get her elected to Jamaica's parliament. Sinclair has no desire to go back with his sister, since under the laws of the Obeah, the further into the light he goes, the further into the dark Emmeline goes.
This causes quite a bit of grief, since Sinclair has no desire to watch his sister pull an Anakin Skywalker.
Emmeline and her mother (also Sinclair's mother) show up with an ultimatum. Come back to Jamaica or else. Mommy dearest refuses to take no for an answer, so she unleashes Sinclair's grandfather's spirit on the town, thus creating a duppy.
Most of the book revolves around this particular conflict, which gets resolved in a very satisfying manner on All Hallow's Eve. (Hel herself mentions to Daisy that she has until midnight on Halloween to fix the issue before the wall between the living and the dead collapses because of the duppy.)
In the mean time, Daisy gets it on with Sinclair following a very amusing Satyr party at the gay bar in Pemkowet, then later mambos with long time crush and co-worker Cody, who happens to be a werewolf.
We also learn more about Bethany, Daisy's best friend's sister, who lives out at Twilight Manor trying to become a vampire, as well as Stephan, a ghoul working with Daisy on her anger management issues. (Her anger acts a bit like Stephen King's Carrie. It also could cause her to claim her demonic birthright and break the Inviolate Wall.)
And we get a fairy creature, Jojo, who I came to love, if only because she started throwing out Shakespearean insults at Daisy because Daisy dared to love Sinclair. While she never broke out the Painted Maypole comment from A Midsummer Night's Dream, she did work "scullion" into several conversations.
Another new character is Lee (nicknamed "Skeletor". He evidently had as many issues in High School as I did.) Lee designs video games and helps Daisy build a searchable database for the X-Files in exchange for an audience with Hel herself.
Improved upon in this is Casimir, the gay shaman and head of the local coven. In the last book, he came off as a sissy sorcerer. In this one, he's much more fleshed out and not as bloody stereotypical.
With a few plots introduced to carry on into the next book, this one gets my award for most improved series writing. I look forward to seeing what comes next.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Oh No! Not the bees!
You can tell a novel is going to be fun when it starts with a trip to London Undertowen to meet the old Celtic god Lud and winds up in a good Christopher Lee movie/Bad Nic Cage remake.
Since the library didn't have a physical copy of Spirits From Beyond by Simon R. Green, I had to navigate through the Overdrive Media app to download the book digitally. I'll be honest, much as I like my Nook for some things (it's great for traveling, since I can watch NetFlix and check e-mail on it), but I'm not all that thrilled about trying to read on it, mainly since any movement with the device is a bit like waving your hand in front of a TV. Which means finding a level surface to put it on, then trying to find a comfortable position. Also, thanks to an old Mad Magazine parody, any title with the word "beyond" in it auto corrects in my mind to Bayonne. Thus making many horror/thrillers all about New Jersey.
Anyway, Spirits starts with JC being lonely in his room, missing his ghost girlfriend Kim. Who shows up after about a page and a half. She tells him to return to the building he investigated back in the second book. The rest of the team, Melody and Happy, join him, and they descend into London Undertowen. Whereupon we meet reanimated Druids who are part of the Flesh Undying's effort to wake up Lud to open a big enough gap in reality to let the Flesh Undying escape. Even if that would destroy the world as we know it.
As in many of Green's novels, this is more or less a prelude into the greater story that takes up the rest of the book. Which in this case involves being ordered to investigate The King's Arms Inn which is supposed to be a routine haunting.
Given this is Green, it's anything but routine. Once the Ghost Finders get beyond the normal haunting stuff "blood that never cleans up, stuff like that) and the locals get chased out by a storm, we delve into doors that switch what lies behind them (time slips, a being from Outside that eats the unwary paying guest....), a spectacularly angry young blond, a young suicide who once loved the current owner....
And oh yes, there are naughty bad evil druids of The Wicker Man kind. Who really don't figure much into the plot as much as they do the background on The King's Arms. No bees though, which puts this a step above the horrible remake.
When they're not busy being cheeky with the preternatural, we're getting some character rounding within the quartet. Kim is keeping secrets, JC is worndering why something from Outside saved him during the fight with Fenris Tenebrae (especially after a few cryptic comments from Lud and Kim both), Happy is back on "the pills", and Melody is dealing with the fact that her love of Happy can't save him from his addiction.
There's also a rather silly running joke about as as yet unseen character known as the Traveling Doctor. Who created an Index for the Carnacki Institute archives that's bigger on the inside. Given the ending on this one, I look forward to seeing what Green has in store next for these characters.
Since the library didn't have a physical copy of Spirits From Beyond by Simon R. Green, I had to navigate through the Overdrive Media app to download the book digitally. I'll be honest, much as I like my Nook for some things (it's great for traveling, since I can watch NetFlix and check e-mail on it), but I'm not all that thrilled about trying to read on it, mainly since any movement with the device is a bit like waving your hand in front of a TV. Which means finding a level surface to put it on, then trying to find a comfortable position. Also, thanks to an old Mad Magazine parody, any title with the word "beyond" in it auto corrects in my mind to Bayonne. Thus making many horror/thrillers all about New Jersey.
Anyway, Spirits starts with JC being lonely in his room, missing his ghost girlfriend Kim. Who shows up after about a page and a half. She tells him to return to the building he investigated back in the second book. The rest of the team, Melody and Happy, join him, and they descend into London Undertowen. Whereupon we meet reanimated Druids who are part of the Flesh Undying's effort to wake up Lud to open a big enough gap in reality to let the Flesh Undying escape. Even if that would destroy the world as we know it.
As in many of Green's novels, this is more or less a prelude into the greater story that takes up the rest of the book. Which in this case involves being ordered to investigate The King's Arms Inn which is supposed to be a routine haunting.
Given this is Green, it's anything but routine. Once the Ghost Finders get beyond the normal haunting stuff "blood that never cleans up, stuff like that) and the locals get chased out by a storm, we delve into doors that switch what lies behind them (time slips, a being from Outside that eats the unwary paying guest....), a spectacularly angry young blond, a young suicide who once loved the current owner....
And oh yes, there are naughty bad evil druids of The Wicker Man kind. Who really don't figure much into the plot as much as they do the background on The King's Arms. No bees though, which puts this a step above the horrible remake.
When they're not busy being cheeky with the preternatural, we're getting some character rounding within the quartet. Kim is keeping secrets, JC is worndering why something from Outside saved him during the fight with Fenris Tenebrae (especially after a few cryptic comments from Lud and Kim both), Happy is back on "the pills", and Melody is dealing with the fact that her love of Happy can't save him from his addiction.
There's also a rather silly running joke about as as yet unseen character known as the Traveling Doctor. Who created an Index for the Carnacki Institute archives that's bigger on the inside. Given the ending on this one, I look forward to seeing what Green has in store next for these characters.
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