Secret identity issues

 I was really happy to see that Keith Hartman released a new novel this year, since his other 3 novels have been entertaining and fun and rereadable. 

So, Confessions of a Former Teen Superhero has what we want from a novelization of a four color comic, with cosmic powers, supervillains, and angst. Since it's Hartman, the hero we're getting as a POV character is queer, and his life without the cape is a shambles. 

Poor Josh. He lives in his mom's basement, and due to his need to go save the world, he has issues getting and keeping employment. Yes, he moonlights as Kid Quasar, complete with a Superman-esque backstory of being an alien sent to earth as a baby, but who gained superpowers when his transport got too near a quasar on the way. He can fly and is invulnerable to bullets, plus he has super strength. Problem is, outside of his skin tight black and gold costume, he has the body of Clay Aiken back in American Idol season 2. 

Josh's mom sets him up with Rick, who leads us in to the idea that Superheroes in this world get sponsorship deals. Rick is part of an agency that works for the current wunderkin Comet Boy, a super speedster who leaves flames in his wake, and seems to always rescue celebrities or save the world where people can film it. 

Not that Quasar Boy doesn't have his fans, there's Tiffany, the obsessed stalker girl who puts herself in jeopardy to get Quasar Boy's attention, plus a few "Mean Girls" men who basically love screwing capes. (Due to my own censorship and the fact I like to keep this blog PG-13 at the outside, I'm sure adults can read between the phrasing on that one and get the idea.) He also has a super scientist Arch-Nemesis, Doctor Nightmare, who winds up providing a heck of a lot of humor through the book. (Really, it's a bit like if Batman and Joker went out for beers and started discussing their personal lives at one point.) 

As the book progresses, we meet other minor superheroes, like Super Surfer (whom just about everyone refers to as Super Stoner) and La Tarantula, the female Mexican Wrestler. And of course, a finale when the masks more or less come off everyone out of camera range.

I found myself loving this book, less because it manages to humanize Superheroes in a way the DC Shared Universe movies have decidedly failed to do (Ok, that was uncalled for. But the DC animated universe has done a better job of making the characters more relatable to viewers than the Live Action one have ever done.) and more because I can better relate to Josh than I would like to admit. (I realize Marvel downplays queer characters for International sales, but with 4 phases, we deserve more than one guy mourning his husband at a support group at the end of Phase III.) I mean, yeah, Josh is fighting the fact he feels ugly because out of costume, he finds himself unattractive surrounded by underwear models and fitness trainers. While I'm surrounded by less...athletic...body tyoes, I feel his pain, as siomeone who's been a fatass most of my life. (Off topic. Even when I got down to 180, I still felt like a fatass.)

Two good things come out of this. One is that it seems to be the start of a series *fangirl squee*, and two, it gives me a chance to recommend another good read to people.

Vampires in fin de siecle St. Louis?

 So, a recent Amazon search turned up another new series by Morgan Brice, this one set in 1896 Missouri. (That search turned up other happy things, as we'll see over the next few entries.)

Peacemaker inaugurates another new series for Brice, this one centered on two (in modern terms) gay men working for the Paranormal Secret Service of the US. Neither knows the other one has an interest in men. Both are attracted to each other. However, in this era, when such things were illegal...

Anyway, Owen Sharps is a medium, who can see and occasionally speak with ghosts. His partner, whom he meets on the train from New Pittsburgh, is Calvin Springfield, a psychometrist, who can read objects. They are replacing tow missing agents in St Louis who were investigating some rather shady land deals around train rail spurs. As part of their compensation, they get a rather Steampunk pullman car and a witch butler named Winston. 

Both have a female contact in St. Louis; a woman muckraking reporter and a pinkerton showgirl. 

While the story follows the beats of a normal meet/cute, they do get involved in a plot by an ambitious vampire to open the gates of hell in a limestone mine, and do eventually realize the attraction is mutual.

While anyone who has read Brice before (or probably her Gail Z. Martin books as well) will recognize the plot devices and pacing,I am giving her credit for doing her research on homosexuality in the era, finding the least offensive slang for the men involved and presenting ways they could seek companionship in an era where such things were highly verboten. 

While this book shares several bones with other series by the same author, the setting drew me in, and I really did wind up enjoying it.

It's a nice day for a white wedding

 Finally getting around to Point Blank by Morgan Brice, the latest book in her BadLands series. (Much as I enjoy her writing, I kind of wish all of it was available in print, since tablets are inconvenient for me to try to read on when I'm travelling to and from work.)

Any rate, Simon, our psychic medium tour guide and shop owner is finally tying the knot with homicide Detective Vic. However, since nothing is ever that easy, we wind up with 3 powerful witch ghosts out to destroy each other and most of Myrtle Beach before the blessed event. 

If you're reading this series, you have an idea of how the plot works, although this time there's a bunch of subplots about wedding jitters and exactly how just how many things can go wrong before you reach the altar. (Yes, I was nodding along quite a bit, although we didn't serve shrimp at our reception.)

Of the numerous Brice series, this is by far the most realistic, since both main characters are older, neither are particularly rich, and much like Agatha Christie, the mysteries come to them. That, and they have actual refraction times. (Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my smut erotica, but the first Witchbane novel really made me wonder how either POV character had energy to do anything after screwing 5 times in 12 hours.)

And it is nice to see them get the wedding they deserved, and finding out how much their friends actually do care about them. 

A fun addition to the series.

I'm Thor, show me where it hurts...

 I know Neil Gaiman took some flack when Norse Mythology was first released mainly because he wasn't so much making new mythology for the Aesir and Vanir as much as he was retelling his favorite tales from the Eddas, but honestly it's kind of nice to have an introductory text to the myths, since there really aren't that many accessible texts introducing readers to the stories. And given this one is written in a PG tone, it would probably help children reading/watching Marvel's Thor get a better grip on the source material.

That being said, I'm not a huge fan of Norse mythology, so it's taken me some time to delve into Gaiman's book.

The first thing to note is that this isn't a complete retelling of the cycle. He glazes over Odin hanging on the world tree and Odin's eye in the Well of Mimir. Many of the Gods who get brief mention in the more complete sources aren't even mentioned in here.Which is fine, since Norse mythology doesn't lend itself well to Greek style retellings, where you can isolate a particular God for one story or two that illustrates who they are and how they function in the pantheon. 

Was there information in here I wasn't overly familiar with? Yes, more than a few of the stories were one I had not heard, or had not heard quite as much of as what's in here. (Freya's marriage to the ice giant, for one; Thor drinking 2/3s of the ocean another. Was also nice to get a fuller story on how Tyr's hand wound up in Fenrir's stomach.)

Ultimately, I ended up enjoying it. As much as I loathe the Norse, Gaiman does a good job of making an engaging narrative out of the stories he decided to retell. And it would be a fabulous resource for folks looking for something that doesn't cure insomnia like the Eddas.

A gay old time!

 Before we dig deep into reviewing Mabel Maney's Nancy Clue and the Hardley Boys in A Ghost in the Closet, I should preface this with some background. I first read this in 1995, having bought a copy at a now defunct bookstore across from Wright State University. I don't quite know what I was expecting (at 19, likely angsty erotica with the Boys realizing their long buried love of other boys... You know, Brokeback Mountain, with its 90 minutes of angst and 1 minute of pleasure, although that came out LONG after this one), but at any rate, I wasn't particularly thrilled with it at the time. Here, in 2023, I found myself laughing hysterically and appreciating it in its full 90's irony. 

So, evidently two books precede this one, although I have never seen them, let alone read them, that set up the messy love triangle between Jackie, a San Francisco detective; Nancy Clue, a plucky girl detective of societal import in River Depths; and Nurse Cherry Aimless, who can't decide which girl she loves more. 

Nancy and her friends and rivals start the book off at a dog show, where men in trench coats try to purloin purebred poodles! Nancy, concerned about losing Cherry's love, winds up dragging her chums Frank and Joe Hardly in to solve the mystery and win Cherry back from Jackie. With a lot of help from Uncles Willy and Nellie, the plot careens deep into 1959 High Society as everyone gets wrapped up in a mystery involving the kidnapping of not only dogs, but Frank and Joe's parents, Mr. and Mrs Fennel P. Hardy, with an emphasis on the Atomic Age!

That's the basic plot, and anyone who ever read the series being parodied here can probably guess some of the twists and turns contained within. Although, with the addition of Velma and her girlfriend Midge, we also get a few Scooby Doo traps late in the book. 

Maney does an excellent job of capturing the revisions made in 1959 to both series, when the hardcovers were heavily edited and repackaged for the new age. (Evidently, the original versions from the 30s and 40s were really racist and overly wordy.) It's all here, from Nancy's glove box being a bag of endless holding and being able to disguise herself with a mere change of clothes to Frank and Joe's patented Detective kits and the random ability to have learned whatever skill was needed for the narrative by a sentence insertion describing how they got the merit badge in boy scouts. 

Double entendres and innuendo fly like scared geese throughout, although some of the best funny bits point out to modern readers exactly how much language has shifted since the era this is set in, although there are some rather serious bits hidden in the humor, like the Sanitorium where troubled women wind up. Honestly, in many ways, it reminds me of The Brady Bunch Movie released the same year, except in the case, the characters aren't anachronisms in the setting. 

While I can't say it's on my list of favorite reads, I will say it's a hell of a lot better than I judged it in 1995.

Catch a falling star

 I'll be honest and say the first time I read Neil Gaiman's Stardust, I wasn't particularly impressed. However, this most recent rereading was a much more fun experience, and I can't help but wonder if the edition I have no isn't expanded from the original novel, or if I somehow just missed things the first time. 

Anyway, the novel is set in the Victorian era, in the town of Wall, where the wall has a gap in it that leads to Fairie. Once every nine years, a great fair happens on the other side of the gap, which is also the only time the people of Wall let people pass through the gap. Young Duncan Thorn, in love with a barmaid, winds up enchanted by a slave girl held by an enchanted chain, and winds up...er...conceiving Tristran under her influence. As Tristran grows up, he's not allowed to go to the fair. However, one night a star falls in Fairie, and he promises the woman he longs for that he will go retrieve it for her in exchange for his fondest desire. 

Said star, Yvaine, is not happy about falling after getting hit with a Topaz necklace thrown by the 81st lord of the Stormhold. (Neither are the 3 surving princes of Stormhold, who have to find the topaz to claim Lordship. The Lilim, are quite happy she fell, since they can use her heart to regain their youth.) 

Anyway, Tristran does find the star, and the other 2 major plotlines resolve themselves with very little interference from Tristran. And in the end, everyone gets what they deserve.

The movie, while really well done, did change around a few plot elements, and greatly expands the role DeNiro did so well. (In the book, he has maybe 2-3 lines.)  

While not my favorite book by Gaiman, it's still an exciting read that has improved with age.

Welcome to Manderley. I'm sure you'll be very happy here.

 So, the novelist known as Riley Sager has released a new thriller/mystery in The Only One Left. Like previous volumes from Sager, it doesn't quite stick the landing, but the rest of the performance is strong enough to make up for that. 

Now, as I mentioned on FB as I was reading, the book starts off strongly in Gothic tradition, and veers sharply into Hagsploitation (AKA Grand Dame Guignol) before synthesizing into a curious mix of both. We'll return to this in a sec.

We spend the book following Kittridge McDeere as she becomes a caregiver in 1987 for the local Lizzie Borden, along with typewritten pages from her patient, as her patient narrates past events. 

So, Kit gets assigned (after a 6 month suspension) to caregive for Lenora Hope out at the Hope's End mansion on the Maine coast. Lenora, in 1929, was accused of slicing her father's throat in the Billiards room, stabbing her mother in the hall, and hanging her sister Virginia from the chandelier. However, there was no evidence to prove the accusations, so Lenora was never punished. However, Lenora did get polio and lose use of her legs, and a stroke took her speech and use of her right arm. 

Kit, as it turns out, was suspected was suspected of killing her last patient, either through neglect or actual malice, as a bottle of opioids was left by the bed, and the patient somehow swallowed all of them before dying. 

In the meantime, Hope's End is built on the side of a cliff that's slowly trying to become part of the Atlantic. The only servants in the house are Mrs. Baker, former governess to Lenora and Virginia; Archie, the chef who's been with the family since the late 20s; Jessica, the young maid; and Carter, the young and handsome groundskeeper. We find out Lenora's most recent nurse, Mary, packed up and left in the middle of the night. Or so everyone assumed until Kit finds her body in the sand at the base of the cliff. In the meantime, we find out through Lenora's slowly typed memoirs the horrors of growing up in the house, and becoming pregnant out of wedlock with a servant's baby. 

The plot thickens quite a bit, as every secret about what happened the night of the murders and the aftermath get revealed. Most of it, yeah, makes sense and has support in the prose. However, the final twist really doesn't, and is a bit like having aliens show up in a western. (Well, that an a throwaway line of the last page, which feels a bit like a chef throwing an extra seasoning into the broth just to make sure nothing is wasted.) 

While the Sager books are hit or miss for me, this is one of the better efforts, and I found myself quite enjoying the crumbling mansion on the cliff and its secrets.

Blast from the past

 Lightning was the first Dean R. Koontz book I ever read, and for that reason alone, it has a place on my shelf. it lead me to bonding with my 8th Grade reading teacher, who I adored, and lead down the path to other authors in similar genres. I could have sworn I had reviewed it on here, but NaBrO. 

Anyway, the book opens with a OB/GYN being held at gunpoint by a blond man with a gun. Said man keeps a doctor from delivering a baby. Said baby is Laura Shane, whom the Blond visits occasionally throughout her childhood, never aging. We also see a man pursuing the blond, named Kokoshka, who wants to kill Laura once he figures out why Stefan, the blond, is meddling with her life. We see Laura grow up and become orphaned at 11, move in to an orphanage, only to be nearly molested by a custodian. We meet her friends, the twins Ruthie and Thelma, and the occasional roommate Tammy, who tries to commit suicide a few times.  

Ruthie ends up dying trying to save Tammy when Tammy lights herself and the orphanage on fire. 

Laura goes to college, meets her husband Danny, becomes a successful novelist, has a kid named Christopher. 

Then comes a fateful day when her Guardian appears again, this time saving her from a truck crash. Which is all great, until Kokoshka shows up and tries to kill everyone. Danny winds up dead, Stefan vanishes with his beacon. Laura gets a year to prepare, during which she becomes a marksman with a rather large arsenal of weaponry. (In the late 80's, Koontz was always obsessed with weapons and technology, and half the time speaking either for or against both.) Anyway, Stefan comes back after being shit, along with several pursuers. Which leads to Laura, Stefan, and Chris going on the lam. We finally find out where (or more precisely WHEN) Stefan is from, and the rest of the book concerns destroying The Institute in the era it exists in. 

While it is a bit dated, and really silly in a few places, not to mention the slobbery kiss to Reaganomics at the very end, it's still a good yarn a few decades on,

Gryphons of Love

 In what I was hoping was the next Volume of her Founding of Valdemar series, Mercedes Lackey instead started a new "Modern" Valdemar series in Gryphon in Light, centering on k'Valdemar Vale gryphon Kelvren and longtime character Firesong. There are other new characters floating around in here, like First officer Hallock, who gets mortally wounded early on in combat during an uprising in the northwest of Veldemar; his wife Ginny, a healer's hand; Jefti, a poor boy who is enamored with Kelvren; Three Ghost Cat warriors; a wing of Iftel gryphons; an unpaired companion; and a Firecat, as well as a few tervardi, dhyeli, and hertasi. Much like the group in Mage Storms, this ensemble (with cameos and callbacks to previous series) are being called by the gods of the world to do something. 

Mind you, it takes half the book for the expedition to get started, let alone off the ground. The first part focuses on Hallock, who gets a gut wound, is dying until Kelvren heals him. This inspires Kelvren to use up what magic he has to heal Hallock, which in turn leads to Kelvren nearly dying. This gets Treyvon involved, and he uses an old rite to recharge Kelvren. Given it hadn't been used since the original mage wars, no one was quite dure how it worked, or how it worked. It more or less supercharges Kelvren, who manages to set off a Diplomatic incident, get treated as a danger at k'Valdemar Vale, and eventually get diagnosed by Firesong as being in danger of spontaneously combusting. 

Eventually, a portable Heartstone gets strapped to Kelvren, and Firesong proposes an expedition to Lake Evendim to see how the Mage Storms affected Ma'ar's old kingdom. Which is great, until just about everyone and their brother sends people to go. Including supernatural creatures with direct pipelines to the Gods of the world.Seems something is happening at the Lake, and those in the mortal realm need to go investigate. 

By the end of the volume, we aren't there yet, but we do see a lot of the Pelegirs, and meet a new as of yet unnamed creature that appears as smoke and may or may not be attempting to possess people. 

As a start, it takes some time to get going, but once it gets going, it gets more engaging, making us wonder what exactly awaits our heroes at the lake.

3fer

 So, being lazy and writing one big entry to cover Amber & Ashes, Amber & Iron, and Amber & Blood by Margaret Weis. 

Picking up not long after the end of the War of Souls, the Dark Disciple trilogy follows Mina around after the death of Takhisis, and helps us better understand the little lady who started this great big war. 

We open on Mina being courted by Chemosh, Lord of Death. This doesn't work so well for Krynn, since Chemosh, annoyed by Sargonas trying to rule the Dark Pantheon, wants youthful followers, which means he imbues Mina with the ability to more or less make people of Krynn living vampires. 

One of the first Beloved being Rhys's, a monk of Majere, brother, who kills off the cloister. Rhys is upset by this, and winds up becoming a monk of Zeboim, the sea witch. Who wants him to track down Mina with help from one of the new style Kender who can speak to the dead. 

Eventually, we get wrapped into a plot involving the Hall of Sacrilege (a store room of relics collected by the Kingpriest of Ishtar) that's been buried under the Blood Sea since the First Cataclysm. Given it's an old Tower of Magic, Everyone is surprised to find ot Nuitari has restored it and plans on moving the Black Robes in, in exchange for giving his brother and sister towers of their own. 

Mina, as an offering to Chemosh, raises the tower out of the sea. Which leads to Majere revealing to the remaining pantheon exactly who and what Mina is. 

Seems ol' Mina is actually the love child of Paladine and Mishakel, who was hidden from Krynn to prevent ruining the balance. Which leads Rhys and Nightshade and Atta (the dog) to try to get Mina to Godshome. 

While the books are a bit far fetched, even for the RPG genre, it's a lot of fun to see the Krynnish pantheon act like Greek deities, squabbling over everything and getting to know them a bit more closely than what we've had in the past series. It's also fun seeing how people who worship one god in particular also leave offerings for others gods just to cover bases. 

Fun reading, if not quite as epic as other stories in teh series.