Fantasybookspot - Other Publisher

The Viper of Portello

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:28:29 -0400

The Viper of Portello is my first encounter with the work of James C. Glass. He's published a number of novels and short stories of which I know absolutely nothing. In this novel Glass provides us with an SF-tale set on a loose federation of four planets originally settled by south-Americans (where have I seen that before? Right, here). It's a tale of drug wars, revolutions and corruption, but also one of hope of a better future. While Glass definitely has a story, the execution is flawed. Despite it's potential I am not impressed with this novel at all.

The main character in The Viper of Portello is Eduardo Cabral. A young man raised in the family of one of the planet's most wealthy families. Eduardo wants to pursue a career in the arts but to please his father he joins the army instead. After several years of fighting in a drug war on another planet the unit Eduardo commands becomes the victim of a deal between his commander and the drug lords. None of the soldiers of his squad are meant to survive. The operation is poorly executed though and Eduardo and one of his soldiers survives. While recovering from his injuries Eduardo learns more about the conspiracy to destroy his unit. Unwillingly Eduardo is recruited to unravel a network of drug-related criminal activity that reaches to the highest levels of government.

During his campaign to take revenge on those who wiped out his unit he finds the work as a military assassin suits him. In a way that totally contradicts his artistic aspirations the killings satisfy his need for revenge. He discovers the side of his personality that will become known as Culebra, the Viper, in some circles. His fame attracts the attention of several parties in the simmering conflict on his home planet. Revolutionaries, drug lords and members of government both fear him and require his services. Culebra takes precedence over the artist. How long before Eduardo will be left along to work on his art?

While the story could definitely work this novel has too many problems to be really enjoyable. In the beginning of the book in particular, Glass has the annoying habit to spoil the rest of his story by giving less than subtle clues, making the book quite predictable. His world building is also far from spotless. Most of the story is set on a planet that has only been colonized for a few generation. The place is absolutely settled but certainly not overcrowded, yet for some unknown reason humanity finds it necessary to build four, impossibly high towers to house most of the population, the expense of which probably could have housed them all in villas. The technology of this world remains a bit of a mystery as well. Apparently it is possible to make a phone call to another planet with a delay that is only several minutes? Einstein would love to know how that is managed. The lack of attention to details such as communication and travel between the stars bothered me. Especially after I read the biography at the back of the book, which states Mr. Glass taught physics for a living.

The lack of attention for detail doesn't stop there though. Details on how this federation works remain sketchy too. Apparently (some of) the planets are governed by a hereditary governor but lead by an elected president. A situation that causes some political tension and eventually lead to a revolutionary movement that springs up among the planet's poor and unemployed. The origins of this conflict, quite essential to the overall story, are not revealed at all. The revolution is a vehicle for one of the characters personal ambitions and absolutely nothing more.

I'm not quite satisfied with Eduardo either. His personality could have been very interesting. The transition from Eduardo the soldier-against-his-will to Culebra the military assassin is very sudden. After two partially successful mission Eduardo decides he likes his new job to the point where he develops a second personality to be able to deal with these radically different character traits. A moment of insight and a thirst for revenge is all it takes to wake the viper. His psychology could be very interesting indeed but it is too sudden. The only thing that he seems to do when confronted with his father's betrayal is hide inside the armour of his cold Culebra personality. He goes through some pretty intense experiences in the book but it doesn't seem to touch him all that much. Almost like a chore he needs to do so he can get on with his life and art.

So much potential in this novel and so little of it is realized. It is a shame. This could be a good story but in order to become that the novel pretty much needs a full rewrite. As it is, I wouldn't recommend The Viper of Portello. The lack of detail, poor world-building and character development and the predictability of large parts of the book prevent it from being more than mediocre.

Dan Dare issue #5

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:05:59 -0400

Virgin comics has attempted to revive the character Dan Dare. In issue five of the comic, Dare confronts the evil Mekon. Mostly, this issue is a bridger for the story arc. Dan Dare has been captured and brought before the Mekon and the Prime Minister attempting to bargin with the alien.

Revivals usually involve a reinterpretation of a nostalgia character. Dan Dare, however, is left in all his perfect, stilted 1950's glory, which could be played for comic effect. Instead, the comic has stayed in the 1950s, right along with Dare. It feels as stale and dated as a bag of Lays potato chips that's been open and forgotten in the back of a cabinet for at least a year. His dialog is, of course, every bit as perfect as his manners. He is polite and unyieldingly drawn towards always doing the right thing. Readers know that, in the end, Dan Dare is good personified and that he will always triumph, no matter how sticky any situation gets.

The world, though, has (to quote Steven King's "Dark Tower") moved on, and comics have matured, as have the readers. "Dan Dare" reads more as adventure fluff with a very black and white view of the world. The bad guys are bad, the good guys are good, and cheaters never win. Many readers require more complex characters and far more complex worldviews.

So, was "Dan Dare" unreadable? Hardly. While personally, I did not find the issue to be a good read, that may have been largely due to the fact that I have not read the previous issues (and the Free Comic Book Day preview was hardly adequate to offer enough storyline to help decipher issue #5). I can see the appeal to fans of campy adventure-based sci-fi serials like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. This comic also serves as a very comforting nostalgia piece, as it is a dependable, predictable storyline.

"Dan Dare" does benefit from a great art team. The coloring and inking for the book are superb and the artwork itself is far beyond typical artwork from the 50s. Virgin has spared no expense for good paper and quality printing, which I'm sure hard-core fans will definitely appreciate.

While I, personally, did not enjoy "Dan Dare" the quality of the comic has encouraged me to look into other books Virgin Comics offers which seem as though they will be a far better fit for my sensibilities. I would recommend "Dan Dare" for anyone who might be searching for a kinder, gentler, much more likeable Indiana Jones.

Surviving Behind Enemy Lines

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:57:19 -0400

The Galactic Star Force Battle Fleet is a cobbled together remnant of human society that is trapped in a system filled with hostile aliens. Some of the humans are kept as a foodstuff by one alien race, while the group that managed to escape and desperately wanted to free them is being maniacally attacked by another alien race that simply wants to see humans completely oblitereated.

The author obviously knows a great deal about fighting techniques and strategy. It's obvious in each battle scene that this is a guy who knows exactly what he's plotting. Most of the time, it's easy for the reader to get a very clear idea of exactly what is happening with both the enemy and the heroes. The battle scenes did flat-out work in terms of consistency and strategy. There were nearly transparent rules that were followed strictly for tactical abilities with both groups as well as equipment performance. The physics in this book neither get ignored nor do they disappear conveniently.
There are also some very helpful definitions and specifications at the front of the book, especially if the reader is starting the series with the second volume.

However, this book suffered greatly from an overabundance of repitition. Everything that happens is explained at least twice and it's usually from the same perspective. If the reader missed something important in the plot the first time, they have no need to fear, they'll get a chance for a recap in the not-too distant future.

The author's martial arts discipline also left a stamp all over this book. That isn't necessarily a terrible thing, but in this one, the stamp was at least page-sized and the letters were bright red. His heroes were very strictly honor and duty-bound to the point that there isn't even the flicker of doubt that they will always do the right thing and they will always do their absolute best to save their fallen comrades. The solidarity and hope that the humans show in this book is a beautiful dream, but the problem is that humans tend to get more complex than that. People have doubts, lose their convictions, or get scared on a regular basis and those things often get in the way of the principals that just about everyone wishes they could live by.

As for the aliens, well, both races are terrible, evil creatures. The aliens are impulsive and ruled by their greed and pride, which is what tends to get them into trouble when battles against humans are concerned. Sometimes, the aliens are so completely stupid that it's laughable. Certainly, everyone makes dumb mistakes now and then, but it's hard to believe that an alien race with such a glaringly obvious species-wide character flaw would become a conquering force of any sort of threat level.

The world of this book is very sharply delineated. Those who live by honor and adhere to duty, common sense, and careful plans of action are bound to succeed, whereas those who heed their impulses and their individual pride are doomed to fail. The bad guys are very, very bad and the good guys are very, very good.

So where does that leave this book? On a pure science fiction level, it tends to dissolve into specifications, statistics, and jargon and the story is set up and knocked down so succinctly that there's nothing to get really excited about. However, if applied as a sort of philisophical allegory, it might work as a very nice thought experiment for a class. The book holds little margin for error or misinterpretation within its pages and so could be used to help illustrate differences in Eastern and Western thought as well as helping to get people thinking about what it would actually take to get people to stop fighting amongst each other for silly, petty reasons. The book is certainly a call for peace and for that, it's very difficult to fault the author. He's just trying to show a better humanity striving its way towards a utopian existence.

Some mention should be made for the diagrams and illustrations in the book. They're very well-done pencil sketches by artist Dion Hammil and while it might have been nice to see them as full pages in the book the fact that they were included was a very nice bonus.

This book is one that I would recommend to a middle-school or junior high-school aged boy, especially one who hasn't got a great deal of time for reading. The repetitiveness of the book would serve him well if he has to put the book down for a length of time before he gets a chance to read it again. It could be the kind of book that would get boys to read more, especially if they prefer to have far more action sequences in their entertainment and it offers enough in the way of ethical and moral questions that it could probably get him thinking beyond the confines of this fictional world.

Moon Age Daydream

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:42:57 -0400

Usually, in a review, I mention what I liked about a book. I certainly think that's only fair to the writer and to those who would read this review. There isn't anything good that I can say about this one.

This author writes as though he opened up a thesaurus and started choosing the biggest words that he possibly could. There is no consideration given to the connotation of any of the words and the overall effect is the reading equivalent of walking past a perfume counter on Sample Day. It's both horrifying and overwhelming. I wish that I could simply say it's a matter of this not being my sort of book, however, I've read cyberpunk, nonfiction, mainstream fiction, slipstream fiction, horror, graphic novels, classic literature, splatterpunk, and "People" magazine-which all make the fact that I could not get into this book all the more surprising. I was trying to ignore a televised football game by reading and this book was so terrible, I couldn't even do that.

It's a jumbled mess of vignettes that might make a plot farther into the book, but at 100 pages, I had had enough and simply had to give up the idea ofslogging through it. Even worse, while the science fiction and fantasy traditions have a long and sometimes celebrated tendency to unhinge the English language into new and interesting words (some of which later get inducted into mainstream language), often by splicing elements of other languages together, there is a point where a work becomes impenetrable. This book is complete with a 27 page glossary at the end which a reader must reference almost endlessly and therefore disrupt the flow of the book. I've read "A Clockwork Orange" by Anthony Burgess, and I agree with his view that it didn't need a glossary for the Nadsat lingo he created because he wrote so skillfully that readers could use context clues to figure out the meanings. Shaun Von Dragen doesn't write well enough to pull off the amount of slang he so casually tosses around the pages.

Then, there's the uncredited use of two words that I immediately recognized from Mr. Burgess's novel, "glazzies" and "guttiwuts." I don't believe that they ought to be used without giving credit to the Nadsat language that Anthony Burgess created.

There are spelling errors and horribly mangled words that could have come from the George W. Bush Vocabulary Institute. There's no need to make up cumbersome words to express something that's already got a word to describe it. In addtion, when referring to pop culture, it might be a good idea to define all of the artists mentioned in a particular paragraph. Many people, I'm certain, are quite familiar with Paul Gauguin, yet that definition is included, while a similar reference is not available for H.R. Giger. Finally, when using a credited word from a movie as popular as "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" or a book as popular as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", one should do one's best to make sure that they're actually using a word from that source. The word you were probably looking for was "scrumdilyumptious" not "scrumdilyicious."

This book is rife with these problems. I can't even in good conscience pass this book on to someone else because I couldn't bear the thought of inflicting it on them. Neil Gaiman gave some great advice in his webjournal about reading more than you write. I have trouble believing that Mr. Von Dragen does, because there's certainly no feeling for the reader that the author has a great love of and relationship with words. In Mr. Von Dragen's case, I believe that I would recommend he start his reading with those time-honored and wonderfully informative books by Strunk and White, "The Elements of Style" and "The Elements of Grammar."

Killing Floor

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 11:07:01 -0400

“Killing Floor” by Lee Child is my first Lee Child book and the first in the Jack Reacher series. Jack is ex-military, so yes, this is a tough-guy thriller. And a page-turner it is. The opening starts with him being arrested as though he is a highly dangerous criminal. He knows he’s innocent and the whole first part of the book is about him trying to get out of jail (and the dangers of being in jail). Jack has become a self-declared drifter now that he is ex-military so it takes a few events and a sexy lady to convince him to help solve the local murder, mystery and mayhem.

The mystery plot itself is quite strong throughout the book, the pace is excellent. Jack is a tough-guy so there’s the usual suspension of disbelief required for various brawls, killings and fights. Most of it is handled pretty well, especially the first half. The author sets things up quite nicely with enough side plots that it’s never boring. The writing and descriptions, especially of handguns and fighting, are quite detailed and excellent. Many of the twists and turns were brilliant.

A few issues with the story kept this book from getting a higher rating. Jack is quite the “Encyclopedia Brown” multiple times during the story. Sometimes it works well; other times you’re left thinking, “well sure that theory fits, but I can think of half a dozen other ones just as plausible.” At the beginning when he does his Encyclopedia deductions, they are fairly harmless and believable; they setup his personality and the story. These early deductions are generally unimportant so you find no need to question them. However, as the story goes on, some of his “hunches” and deductions get a little too wild and way too accurate. Serendipity and luck starts to look pretty questionable. I was able to overlook these issues and still enjoy the story, but they did seem to crop up more and more often as the book neared the end. Perhaps worst of all, when one of the guilty parties was revealed, I just didn’t feel the setup was there nor the believability. It wasn’t that the answer was too pat, it was just that the tie-in wasn’t strong enough. Since there were multiple guilty parties, this flaw didn’t ruin the book, but it did disappoint me greatly because the rest of the culprits and their guilty actions were setup much better. There were absolutely brilliant clues and setups in this book, which unfortunately made those that weren’t, all the more obvious. A few other details that bothered me: Jack doesn’t shower often yet he does a lot of walking through muggy, hot weather…and it isn’t a huge problem with the sexy woman or with him. There’s a description of how he just throws clothes away and buys new ones rather than do laundry, but given activities that involved a lot of running, fighting, and blood this detail came across as blatantly ridiculous. I think he bought clothes twice. I also didn’t believe the explanation that he didn’t know how to do laundry and had never done it. Ever.

Most of the characterization in the book was quite strong, but at the end, a few relationships were wrapped up so quickly it felt pretty inconsistent with earlier actions and motivation. This wasn’t a huge thing, but again, the devil was in the details and sometimes the little things just didn’t add up.

Overall this is an exciting read. It’s easily strong enough to hold up as a beach read or a weekend jaunt away from reality. As a first novel, it’s damn good, and I suspect that in later novels some of the missing details or inconsistencies will not be as evident. It will also be interesting to see how the author develops Jack’s character. There is a lot of room for growth here. As a “hobo” character, the author will have a lot of play in settings and characters.

The Two Minute Rule

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 15:35:54 -0400

Two Minute Rule by Robert Crais is a standalone suspense. Surprisingly, it contained less violence than Crais’ Elvis Cole PI series. Two Minute Rule is the story of an ex-convict just getting out of jail after ten years. He wants to change his life, get back in touch with the woman he wished he had married and also with his estranged son. Within the first couple of chapters, Max Holman is hit with enough bad luck the reader would understand if he just gave up and asked to go to back to prison. He has no friends except cons and ex-cons. His policeman son has been murdered. Max wants revenge, but he isn’t a violent criminal; he prided himself on robbing banks during which no one got hurt. Unfortunately, he has no resources, a minimum wage job, and as he starts to put together clues about who killed his son, his criminal past means the cops completely ignore him.

Just when you’re sure there is no out, Crais twists and turns the characters. Crais doesn’t waste words, which makes his writing style good as an audio book, although this probably isn’t his fastest-paced work. Some of the pacing is due more to emotion than action and there are parts of the book that push the believability limit. Several times when Max is pushed, violence is the natural route—Crais does a good job of mixing it up so the reader is never sure just when Max might explode and when he will be able to resist the temptation to fall back on easier means of solving problems—like violence or stealing. For an ex-bank robber with at best a high school education Max is an awfully nice guy and very well spoken. Crais does a very good job of setting expectations and giving plausible action/reactions even if there were spots where I didn’t quite believe in the grace of people involved.

The first chapter starts off with a typical Crais bang; the next three or four are a bit slow as Max’s character is developed. Max wasn’t an easy character to like, partly because he was a criminal, and partly because you don’t want to get too tied up with him in case he fails. Support characters were wonderfully drawn with just enough information to make them real. Throughout the book, there’s a sense of seeing the best intentions of the bad guys and also a sense that if they could just live long enough, maybe they’d find the motivation to change. This book gives a tiny glimpse of how difficult it is for an ex-convict to walk out of jail and stay straight. Human weakness being what it is, there are a lot of failures, but this book is about one guy, a heroic effort and lots of gray areas between right and wrong.

The book worked for me—I wanted Max to succeed and to surmount the impossible challenges. When he was tempted beyond reason and fell back a few steps, I was rooting for him. I think Crais did a masterful job of taking a criminal and turning him into a mostly good guy in some four hundred plus pages.

Just as a side opinion, my husband who reads almost zero fiction, thought the book could have been shorter. Once he gets the general idea, he's pretty much ready to just get to resolution. Just before the last two CDs, we stopped and ate dinner. During dinner we discussed probably resolutions to the story and by and large, we nailed the ending--although we did not guess the perp.

Christopher Graybill did an outstanding job reading Two Minute Rule—I’d rate his reading a 10—he used various voices to separate characters, paced well, and enunciated clearly. I’d listen to audio books done by him again.

Murder with Reservations

Fri, 04 May 2007 13:08:39 -0400

Elaine Viets has won both the Agatha and Anthony—her book, “Murder with Reservations,” is truly is reminiscent of Agatha Christie works—not too scary, but involving a murder. In the book, Helen Hawthorne stars as amateur sleuth while she cleans hotel rooms. The series is based on odd-jobs like this, all made probable because Helen is moving constantly as she hides out from her lousy ex-husband. In “Murder with Reservations” there are three mysteries really: Will Helen’s ex-husband find her and ruin her life (worse than it already is)? Will Helen figure out who killed her co-worker Rhonda? And last but not least, Will Helen find the money that an old bank robber might have left hidden in the hotel?

Viets weaves her plots around a somewhat unlikely character: Helen shows an amazing lack of spine when it comes to all three mysteries. She could face her ex-husband in court, but chooses not to. This is somewhat believable because, after all, Helen stayed married to the cheating scum for many years before leaving. Helen finds Rhonda’s body, which requires some nerve and fortitude…but then her character immediately returns to a faded, worried wall-flower to avoid being noticed by the police. The book is a mad combination of “I must do what is right” and “I must run away faster.”

I found the occasional strange analogy used by Viets rather disconcerting. Perhaps she shouldn’t write on an empty stomach:

“Her broad bosom was twin cabbages, her tight white hair was a cauliflower, and her powerful arms were blue-ribbon zucchini.”

It’s enough to put your off your vegetables for years. And it didn’t stop there.

Another woman was, “…an odd creature with a round white face like a cocktail onion.”

It wasn’t always vegetable matter: “The cheerios stared back at Helen like a heap of eyeless skulls.” Hmm. To each their own cheerio!

Helen does add two and two and uncovers the killer in the end; it is done in a very reasonable manner. Not only that, but the other mysteries and conflicts were resolved as well. All in all, I think cozy readers will find the book satisfying with its various plots, a side romance and the occasional red-herring.

Monkey's Raincoat

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 15:15:56 -0400

I admit I only read “Monkey’s Raincoat,” the first Elvis Cole mystery by Robert Crais because I heard he had a book out that was all about Joe Pike, Cole’s sidekick. Now, never having read any of Crais’ work, you may wonder why I cared about the sidekick. Simple: Joe Pike was described in a review along the lines of: the tall, dark, mysterious man that takes care of the ugly business when needed. Ah, mysterious. Quiet. Takes care of business. I was intrigued.

Of course the first order of business was to familiarize myself with the characters in order to determine if Joe Pike was indeed going to be mysterious and interesting. “Monkey’s Raincoat” is definitely a tough guy book. It has the wise-cracking, hard drinking PI, only he’s pretty young and not really jaded by life. It has the beautiful ladies that predictably fall into Cole’s lap. Cole is a rather strange blend of the typical hardcore PI mixed with a protective, sensitive type. In my opinion, the protective attributes were overdone—for example, there was a scene in the book where Cole picks a potential fight with a jerk giving a waitress a hard time. Well, fine, that was nice of Cole, but it failed to fit into the larger story, and the character had already shown his protective instincts by taking on the case at hand, quite possibly for free.

Just what was the case at hand? A damsel in distress, of course. Ellen’s husband has disappeared, along with her nine-year-old son. Cole suspects that husband Mort has run off with another woman, only there seems to be a lot of people looking for this other woman. Things get a little tighter when Cole’s client, Ellen, disappears. It becomes clear that someone was after Mort and not because he was a nice guy. He either knew something or had something important. Cole does a good job of following the clues with a satisfactory number of well-done shootouts and narrow escapes.

The story is fast-paced and the plot is quite believable—corruption in Hollywood, drug deals and of course, murder. Likeable characters are important and Crais does a good job of providing them. In the first half, I was a little disappointed; the women were looking like cardboard props. In the second half Crais pushed out some of the extraneous characters and concentrated on filling out Ellen. He never deviated from her early personality, but he grew the character in a very realistic fashion. The book would not have worked had he failed to create a woman character as important as the PI. The story and the crisis, after all, were about Ellen. Had she not come to the forefront and become less than a prop, it would have been impossible for me to care about the outcome. Luckily Crais came through.

Perhaps the strangest part of the book was the “sensitivity” of Cole that ricocheted between knowing women well and missing by a mile. Maybe I’ve just never met a guy that was sensitive and knowledgeable enough that when packing for a woman remembers not only her toothbrush, but her deodorant, gathers running shoes and purposely collects an outfit that matches well. The same Cole, as an affectionate gesture, squeezed a friend’s butt as he departed an office setting (she was a professional career type that he visited for some information.) Uh, no. I cannot see it happening. Don’t try this one at the office guys.

All in all, Monkey’s Raincoat was a fun read—and yes, I am intrigued enough by Joe Pike to go and read that adventure. I’m looking forward to it. Crais fleshes out characters well when he wants to; the book, “The Watchman” A Joe Pike novel, should be a good read.

As Dog is my Witness

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 09:48:54 -0400

Another beach read! As in the first Aaron Tucker Mystery, Jeffrey Cohen does a marvelous job of characterization in this third installation, As Dog is My Witness. The biggest strength of the series is the family setting, which is real enough to jump off the page.

Cohen is a genius in the way he weaves in his own real life knowledge—he, like the main character Aaron Tucker, has a son with Aspergers (a high-functioning form of autism.) In the book, Cohen manages to drop information about Aspergers without preaching. Ethan, the Aspergers character, is a mainstay in earlier books, but in this book, he plays an important part in solving the mystery.

The plot is fairly strong throughout, as is the side issue of Tucker managing a personal problem in the form of freeloading relatives. Tucker even managed to involve the mob in this caper and I truly enjoyed that mix-in—humor and light-heartedness are the key. Puns are part of Cohen’s style; in this particular book, especially at the beginning, they were a bit too frequent and distracting for me, but nothing that can’t be glossed over.

I would have liked to see a little more depth to the actual mystery/plot; something I thought was better developed in the first book of this series, “For Whom the Minivan Rolls.” While the side problems in “As Dog is My Witness” keep things moving, I think the ending suffered a tad from the lack of suspects. There’s a twist to the ending, but in this case, I think the simpler ending it seemed headed for would have not only made more sense, but sufficed.

Still, the book has heart, puns abound and the characters are easy to care about.

Tales of Real and Dream Worlds

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 23:48:12 -0400

Bart Stewart is, apparantly, an author who is very uncomfortable with the idea of the contraction. Consquently his dialog is almost unbearably stiff and formal in all of the pieces in this short story collection. The one story where the staid language style is actually an asset is "The Jingle", which I found to be probably the best work in the book.

"The Jingle" takes place in Washington, D.C. amidst a crisis that threatens to overwhelm humanity stemming from the creation of a commercial jingle that literally drives the majority of the population insane. It's a great artistic retaliation against the kinds of commercials that crop up, especially during the Super Bowl, and seem to overtake a person's brain. All of the military dialog that takes place fits well with Stewart's peculiar speech writing.

The concepts of the other stories in the anthology are interesting and despite the awkward dialog, I was motivated to keep reading. A cycle of three stories, beginning with "The Statuary Cats" and ending with "The Kittens of the Statuary Cats" revels in a sort of B-horror movie feel that is unapologetically cheesy and still manages to entertain. A pair of stone cats are purchased or end up in the possession of various unwitting people. It's no surprise that the cats come alive and kill people but it seems that the point of the stories is not surprise or shock or even vague uneasiness. It's just a pure melding of horror and mystery that is meant to be enjoyed. The period piece "Theater on the Air" which takes place during Orson Welle's famous "War of the Worlds" broadcast seems a little out of place since there's no underlying fantasy element to it. It's a little bit of a psychology story and seems contrived and dull.

The later stories in the book, which include the aforementioned "The Jingle", are superior to the earlier stories. It feels like a chronological overview of the author's stories to date and the stories do get better towards the end of the book. "Dumpster of the Mind" was worthy of being an episode on "Outer Limits" or "the Twilight Zone", as was "The Brick Worker." These stories were more concise and play to Stewart's descriptive strengths, rather than allowing themselves to be hampered by people trying to speak.

Granted, taking out the less satisfactory pieces would make for a very slim book, which would probably make it harder to justify the cover price. I truly don't think the collection should be outright condemned. The story plots and the ideas most certainly weren't faulty and Stewart seems to have a real gift for pacing, but he really needs to have a little help with the dialog, as it breaks the rhythm and flow of his stories almost to the point of unreadability.

If you can, definitely try to read "The Jingle", "Dumpster of the Mind", "The Brick Worker", and "Condemned to Repeat It." Stewart really hits a stride in those stories that show real potential as a storyteller. As for the other stories, they might well be left to the Dream World, rather than the Real one.

To Save The World

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:09:42 -0400

Stephenie, her Mother and her friend, Eris are mysteriously transported to Arhka. A world of talking dragons and ageless vampires. She learns of her Mothers standing in this strange world and of the energy, Ith’yra which is used by the inhabitants of Arhka to wage war, a magic, that she and her Mother, are able to wield.

Dragged into a conflict she knows little about, dealing with the politics of the various species and asked to defend a strange world against alien invaders is a tall order for any young teenager. So what will she choose, to return to earth and her studies, or fight in a war for a world she knows little about.

Personal Thoughts – There are two main female characters in this story, that drive the plot and move the reader through the story. Stephenie is a young, tomboy, with a yearning for excitement. When she is transported to Arhka, her character changes, as she learns to wield the magic, Ith’yra, and fight for her independence as her domineering Mother continues to make decisions on her behalf.

Elise, her Mother, is a highly-strung character, with secrets about a strange life on Arhka and her role as a major power on that world. Once Stephenie and Elise are transported to Arhka, there begins a catalogue of events and conflicts that enables them both to so easily use the strange magic on this world. This can easily been explained for Elise, however, I found Stephenie’s easy adaptation of her new abilities didn’t read true. In fact I found Elise and Stephenie and Eris, the friend who is transported with the pair, so similar in their construction that I had to constantly check whom I was reading about. I felt there wasn’t enough character development for any of them to stand out and take me through this story.

I found the same lacking in all the male characters that were introduced in the story, they all read the same, none stood out as particularly original. The most memorable character is Drugstag, representing the dragon species of Arhka. I liked the novelty of a talking dragon and quite liked how this character developed. I have read this Heather Hayashi is involved with game development. And the action scenes did remind me a little of a gaming scenario. However, unlike gaming, good character development is essential for a novel and I was disappointed with the weak characters of this book

Solomons Jar

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 14:02:35 -0400

Book 2 – Rogue Angel

Annja Creed inheritor of St Joan’s sword and an archaeologist, hears of the discovery of Solomon’s Jar. The fabled Jar, which Solomon used to imprison the demons that allegedly created his temple.

Intrigued, Annja begins a journey, around the Middle East to discover the truth about the Jar. Her journey brings her to the attention of a few other groups also seeking the jar and who will kill anyone who gets in their way. On top of that, there is evidence that the demons really do exist.

Personal Thoughts – this instalment has Annja travelling around Europe and the Middle East seeking Solomon’s Jar. Her investigation has various other parties, both religious and political, trying to kill her and each other, as they too desire the Jar and its fabled powers.

During her investigations she meets an English archaeologist, Pasco, and through strange coincidences the pair work together to discover the Jar and stay ahead of the other violent parties.

I found the political aspects of this book very distracting and did spoil the overall affect of the story. There is, also, a lot more violence in this instalment. In some ways this takes away from the mystery of Annja’s quest. I felt the action scenes were too plentiful and not enough character interaction included. This was disappointing, as I found Annja’s character quite interesting in the first book. The most enjoyable parts of the book were the interactions between Annja and Pasco when they met at various times throughout the story, as it gave the reader a more personal insight into the reasoning behind why so many would desire Solomon’s Jar. And delves into their own personal struggle with the idea of power and the influences of demons.

Roux, is mentioned briefly in this instalment, which I felt was a shame. There is great scope for the old warrior, after all he is 500 years old, and the story did seem less interesting with his absence.
Despite everything, I still quite enjoyed this instalment, though not as good as the first book, I still hold out hope for the next instalment in the series.

Unforgiven

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 12:48:30 -0500

A former military sniper, Reno, is hired to kill a thief. However, he has a secret, he’s the only living descendent of a family of shape shifters, and unbeknown to him his target is not only female, but also a shape shifter.

Personal Thoughts – we are introduced to Reno whilst he’s in jail, for attempted murder of a fellow officer, who raped and murdered his wife. He’s given the chance to leave prison, as long as he kills a thief, one that fights for her people. However, once he meets the freedom fighter, come thief, he falls for her charms and also learns she’s a shape shifter, a Jaguar, like himself. If he allows her to live and helps her cause, he will face a lifetime of being hunted by the law. But if he kills her, he will loose what could be the love of his life.

This is the premise for this story. Two shape shifters, find each other, under dire circumstances. They are drawn to their similarities and have to cope with their individual pain to forge a relationship that is supposed to be the deepest they will ever know, as its rare for two jaguar shape shifters to meet. The history of the Apache and the ideas behind the group, Warrior of the Light, is quite interesting. I would of liked more of the shape shifter theme in the story, but its not fully utilised at all in the plot. As with most romances, this story is focuses on what he feels, and what she feels, and how they feel about it each etc. Not, I feel, the most interesting storyline. And no characters are ever that perfect, the woman is strong, warrior like, yet vulnerable. The man is strong, protective, yet loving and attentive. Hence I didn’t find the character very realistic either.

The Alien Mind

Sat, 16 Dec 2006 12:11:20 -0500

Rivinaig has returned to earth, after spending years on an alien planet. Abducted as a youngster, with many other earth children, and now she has to adapt to living back on earth.

Personal Thoughts – The story starts with the Alien’s who adopted the earth children when a different race, the Aruk abducted them from their homes. Then the Aruk launch an attack on this colony and the children have to flee back to earth. This journey is seen through the eldest child, Rivinaig, as the story chronicles her experiences on earth.
I was confused, somewhat, as to which age group this book was written. The main character and her friend are mid teens, however the book is written in a simplistic style for younger readers to follow. Yet, some of the aspects of the story would be difficult for very young readers to understand.
The story also has very little focus and very little real depth of feeling. I found myself bored with the story and with the characters. The scenarios were not very realistic either.
Things came too easy for the main character, Rivi. Even when she was supposed to be in danger by the Aruk, I never felt there was any real threat.
It did have one redeeming quality, the story is short.

The Dark End of Town

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:49:34 -0500

Julia Pomeroy’s debut, THE DARK END OF TOWN, offers a clear-eyed look at people and their relationships, their tragic entanglements and amazing resilience. Abby Silvernale has only a brief and discouraging modeling career in New York City before meeting her student-husband who moves them back to their mutual hometown. Bantam, New York boasts a collection of townies and tourists and Manhattan ex-pats, plus views of the nearby blue Catskills on one side and the Berkshires on the other. After struggling to create an upstate haven for young filmmakers and artists, Abby’s husband suddenly dies, abandoning his 30 year-old widow. Conflicted by grief and guilt, Abby rents out her husband’s inherited land and farmhouse to another couple while living in a used trailer on the property and waiting tables at the InnBetween, Bantam’s most popular fine restaurant among locals and transplants alike.

To fill her hours and pay off the trailer’s septic field, Abby works as a typist for a rich, bombastic screenwriter who’s at his alternate home in Hollywood and as a caterer for the well-heeled and well-connected still in town. Like her main workplace, Abby’s in-between, too, almost ready to step into a fuller life, not simply working until she drops into a lonely sleep broken by sad dreams. Perhaps that’s why she accepts the pre-dawn call from her boss, Dulcie, who wants her to stake out a cul-de-sac and figure out who’s been “borrowing” a minivan. While the initial problem may seem mundane, Abby will be led onward into the deepening mysteries of a young woman’s disappearance and a teenager accused of murder.

The strength of this book is Pomeroy’s deftness with the real-world scale of tensions within her characters and their interplay with the community. She creates an accurate portrayal of the arduous lifestyle of restaurant workers, something millions of us know first-hand, but rarely read with authenticity among the many amateur sleuths who always seem to get someone to cover their shifts, don’t regularly get footsore, and who never seem to be bleaching surfaces and dumping ice until 2:00a.m. Amid the back-breaking labor, difficult customers, and everyday catastrophes, Pomeroy shows how a popular restaurant (with a bar full of social lubricant) also becomes a community hub, a place where gossip is made and exchanged and where strong relationships develop between staff and patrons. She illustrates the ambivalence toward the cyclically invasive tourists felt by the local workers and business owners that need them, as well as between the community’s wealthiest and those that become their permanent service employees. The protagonist herself is believably drawn, not extremely wise-cracking, gloomily self-absorbed, or unnaturally prescient. Her grief and the way she daily pushes it aside to get on with the business of living feel real, and Pomeroy’s writing is fittingly clean and direct.

As a reader, the toughest going for me was early on, where the rationale for Abby’s involvement in, and her boss’s irritating detachment from, the late-night van-napping seems a little contrived. However, despite any brief weaknesses in plot motivation, the characters and situations ring true, with more balance and humanity than most small-town mysteries you’re likely to find. The solution is legitimate and satisfying, though this novel isn’t for those who love clockwork puzzles above the human ones. May Abby Silvernale’s ongoing adventures continue to prove that soft-boiled crime novels don’t need to be overwrought, insipid, or unrealistic, but can instead provide richer, more complex glimpses of interesting, recognizable places inhabited by flesh-and-blood people.

The Wrekening

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 06:48:49 -0500

On the Isle of Revere, a great stone army of Shadow Warriors are unearthed. The Dragon Queen, Yavie needs to find the Wreken Wyrm Shard’s, to prevent them being used to wake the Shadow Warriors. She turns to her estranged daughter, Cwen and her companions to take up the quest.

Personal Thoughts - This book is the first in a series, that introduces the main characters in battle against dark sorcerers that would awaken the Shadow Warriors. Cwen, the daughter of the Dragon Queen, is quite an interesting character. She travels with her friend, Talin and reluctantly by another Caen, a thief who coverts her affections.
Despite her anger at the Guardians and her father, she takes on the quest to find the Shard’s and the three companions travel the lands, facing various foes and fighting many battles.
There were some interesting idea here and I enjoyed the interaction between the trio as they moved from one dangerous situation to the next in search of the Shards.
When I read some of the reviews printed inside the book, I was hoping for sharp, well crafted writing and an engrossing story.
However, I was disappointed in the general structure and flow of the storyline. The plot would skip from one scene to another, too quickly at times, which made the story a little shallow. The writing style was a little awkward at times and often I felt, wordy, taking away from the action scenes.
Some good ideas, with interesting characters, but would benefit from more stringent editing.

Destiny

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 12:09:22 -0500

The story opens with the burning of Joan in France 1431, with two men, Roux and Garin, witnessing the splintering of her sword. Then the story moves to present day, introducing a young archaeologist, Annja Creed, as she hunts for the truth behind the Beast of Gevaudan myth in the caves of France.
Annja’s journey brings her into the world of killers and monks. As all search for their own truths and will kill to protect their own secrets.

Personal Thoughts –
The story’s written from Annja’s viewpoint. During an archaeological search for the history behind a French myth, she comes to the attention of Lesauvage, a powerful killer, who also searches for the Beast of Gavaudan, but for different reasons. Also, there is a brotherhood of monks, who have kept the identity of the Beast a secret for many years and will kill to keep it a secret. Whilst trying to escape Lesauvages henchmen, she meets Roux, a 500 year old soldier, who once fought with Joan. Fate takes a part in her life and she finds a piece of Joan’s shattered sword, which for some reason chooses her.

Annja has to deal with an old feud between Roux and Garin; cursed with long life. Come to terms with her links with a powerful sword and avoid death at the hands of fanatical monks who want to keep a secret and a powerful madman who wants to discover a treasure. The author manages all these storylines well, filtering the historical information, the journey to solve the mystery and all the character’s aims without over loading the plot with unnecessary detail. This fast paced story is very enjoyable; kept my interest and made a story loosely based on historical facts more exciting.

There are many unanswered questions about Joan’s sword and its true reason for choosing Annja. I also found Roux and Garin interesting characters, with so much scope in future books to explore their lives. Overall a very entertaining read and one that grabbed my interest enough to want to read future books in the series.

The Walrus and The Warwolf

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 05:13:44 -0400

Drake, is a young apprentice to a sword maker in Stokos. On his 16th birthday, a wild night of partying gets him in more trouble than usual and finds himself judged by King Tor. His punishment is to be thrown to out to sea, three leagues from Stokos, and during his swim back he meets the love of his life.

Personal Thoughts – Hugh starts this book on a humour note as the reader is plunged into Drake’s over indulgent life of drink, women and trouble. When Drake survives King Tor’s punishment, he meets the woman who drives his lusts and gets him into more trouble. A new religion takes hold in Stokos and unfortunately the founder, his sword maker master, dislikes Drake. To escape further wrath, Drake falls in with pirates, then his troubles really start.
The whole story is written with a humours note. This works fine during some scenes, but can be quite tedious for a whole book. I felt the humour would work much better if the action and tense situation were written more seriously.
I also felt there was a lack of focus for this story. Drake flounders from one strange, difficult situation to the next. At the end of the story I didn’t feel his character or the plot progressed in any meaningful way, and this is quite a long book for nothing of importance to happen. If the author wanted to write a jolly, light heartened tale then I feel the story should have been shorter. There seems to be two versions of this book, I had the older version, which is quite long, though Ive noticed the newer version is 300 shorter.
It’s not the best story I have read, however, it is reasonably entertaining.

Dreams and Visions: Fourteen Flights of Fantasy

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 11:47:33 -0400

Dreams and Visions: Fourteen Flights of Fantasy, a wonderful collection of fantasy and science fiction stories by both children's and young adult authors, opens with Joan Bauer's "Blocked." In it, Chloe is having a terrible time finishing up yet another story involving one of her beloved princesses and the deadline is closing on in. Normally she has no problem filling out her characters, giving them life and words and, above all else, a reason for purpose. But not this time. Luckily, some of her secondary characters step forward to speak their minds. A fun tale with just the right pinch of humor, Bauer's story, which within itself trembles at the idea of being the opening tale, is perfectly placed.

"Jameel and the House of Djinn" by Suzanne Fisher Staples is a coming-of-age story starring Jameel, or as he likes to be known as in America, Jimmy. Before he can even kiss the girl he so wants to kiss, Chloe, Jameel is swept away to Pakistan via airplane because his grandfather has had a stroke. Jameel is visited by his grandfather's spirit while aboard the plane and he knows that the old man has died. Once in Pakistan, he learns that he is to become the next leader of the people. Now Jameel must decide whether to follow with his family's traditions or follow the types he's learned since living in America. Staples weaves a strong story, but ends it with a promise that everything will work out for the better. With a house full of djinn and a teenage boy at the center of command, I doubt this will actually be the case.

In "Dharma" by Charles de Lint, a Muslim boy newly nicknamed Dharma has run away from his home to join the hippies and beatniks of his generation. At a musical organization during the last week of August, Dharma meets a young girl named Button. They share the same love for music, for life, and for just being. As the night progresses, Dharma begins to worry that Button might be overdosing as she's grown cold and tired. Dharma wakes the next morning to discover she's vanished. None of his friends really remember anything about the girl. Was she a ghost? A spirit? A dream? It's these questions that de Lint leaves the reader to answer. As per his style, de Lint mixes the real and the fantastic with ease, creating a world that is both familiar and strange. This is the best story of the anthology, by far.

"Dry Spell" by Michael O. Tunnell, at first, appears to be nothing more than a witch-burning-gone-wrong story, but I will say I was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out in the end. Both Martin's sister and mother are dead, and he has reason to believe neither were accidents. After he is visited by the spirit of his mother, the task of revenge is placed on his shoulders. Martin will learn the truth of matters, but it might not be a truth he is ready to digest. Tunnell presents a dark twist at the end, one that justifies the events prior. Strong story, but not the most uplifting.

Craig and Jessica are on the track team together and both share the same amount of love for the sport in "Allegro" by Rich Wallace. One day Craig discovers that Jessica has dropped a small ring of hair. He keeps it for good luck, wearing it on his pinky toe when he runs track. As the training furthers, Craig begins to fall for Jessica more and more. But did they already have a connection before meeting, maybe in prior lives? Wallace leaves the answer up to the reader, but I felt the evidence that Craig was possibly Jessica's horse to be too weak to be substantial. I understand we're supposed to stretch our imagination a bit here, but I just had trouble seeing the point of it. And there's a small subplot involving another boy that kind of fizzled at the end. Either way, I enjoyed how Wallace portrayed Craig's voice, which helped fuel the story forward at more than just a gallop.

I absolutely loved "Depressing Acres" by Patrice Kindl. In the community development Refreshing Acres (scornfully picked on as Depressing Acres for the simple fact that every house is the same and stacked one against the other), children are going missing and their parents are even forgetting they had children. Mona is convinced this is because of Mrs. Duck, their new neighborly neighbor with a vernacular containing such words as "eat," "sweet," and "children." Eventually, Mona and her family are the only ones left in the community, and Mrs. Duck is coming for them. This one's a lot of fun, and there's an easy comparison to Hansel and Gretel except for the fact that the nasty witch moves into your neighborhood instead of the other way around. Mona's very realistic, even if her parents' reactions aren't, but once you get lost in the story nothing else really matters. The ending, devilishly amusing, is perfect.

The world is on fire in "Red Sky" by S. L. Rothman. Literally. From the group of children running, Kief and Hybream are the only two to make it to the water's edge. The others dropped out quickly. There's very little time for rest or eating or anything. They're running on instincts alone. Rothman presents a very dark tale of survival and friendship. In the little time we share with Kief, we watch him make very hard decisions and accept even stranger answers. I think there's more to the story, especially considering the creepy but mesmerizing ending, but I don't know if it'll ever be told.

In "Abra-Ca-Deborah" by David Lubar, everyone can be a magician. Except for girls. There's a local contest going on and Deborah's promised herself to win it, not just for herself but for all girls that want to do magic. And Deborah is excellent at magic, both the name-a-card kind and the one where voicing a command executes the command. When her stage props are ruined by a purposely spilled soda, Deborah seeks revenge on the young brat who did it to her. But can she still win the competition? While the moral of the story is a bit heavy-handed, Lubar still presents a fun adventure with Deborah.

"Ryan and Angel in the Green Room, a Heavenly Fantasy; or, the Ultimate in High-stakes Testing" by Mel Glenn is the story that truly stands out in Dreams and Visions: Fourteen Flights of Fantasy if only for the fact that it's written in free verse. Ryan's now in a coma after crashing his car, and while unconscious in that eternal dark place thingy, he is visited by Angel (not to be confused with "by an angel," but I'll let the reader make the connection). Angel informs Ryan that he'll have to take part in a special test to decide what is to happen with him. Unfortunately, Ryan's not too good at tests. The way Glenn jumps from one view point to another is interestingly done and the language sharp and, more times than not, clever without being too obvious. Ryan isn't too likeable as a character, but there's always that glimmer of hope that these life/death tales offer and I'm willing to take a chance on the idea that, in the end, things will be just fine.

Jessica finds a lumpy toad in the middle of the street one day in "The Youngest One" by Nancy Springer. She's a sad girl, having no father around, an alcoholic mother, and brothers that are simply never there. The only person Jessica has any real contact with is old Mrs. Warty, and everyone else in the neighborhood teases the geriatric. But Jessica hears her muttering something about toads and Shakespeare and cures for poison. Can she piece together the clues? A good story, but a bit predictable in the end and there was very little character development between Jessica and her mother. Since it was such a pivotal part of the piece, I was expecting more to it other than some background information. But the addition of Shakespearian lore was enough to make me happy.

"Baseball in Iraq (Being the True Story of the Ghost of Gunnery Sergeant T.J. McVeigh)" by John H. Ritter is very interesting. A recently deceased soldier in Iraq is visited by the ghost of Timothy McVeigh, the same McVeigh infamous for the Oklahoma bombing atrocity. It's a haunting ghost story, one where McVeigh shows the young soldier what evil really is, and by doing so, assigns his new role in the afterlife. I liked it a lot, but I'm just not sure if I'm supposed to pity such a man like McVeigh or not. I guess that's a judgment call I'll have to make on a reread.

"An Interview with the Actress Celeste; or, the Dreamer and the Dreamed" by Sharon Dennis Wyeth centers around the prediction of the local oracle. Celeste's mother is blinded, and after her father dies, she herself succumbs to a sleeping disorder that causes their lives to be that much more difficult. As Celeste's mother's health begins to fail, Celeste finds herself in immediate danger. But who will come to her rescue? This felt a lot like a fairy tale passed down by family members, and Wyeth handles her characters with care. Celeste, obviously revealed by the story's ending, has a lot to her past, which might be just enough for a sequel. I'd read it, that's for sure.

In "Majority Rules" by Neal Shusterman, a young thief is given the final say of the fate of the world. An ominous voice questions him, tests him, and shows him things he might never have seen before. But it all boils down to one simple question: if there's life on other planets, is that life hostile or friendly? Shusterman presents an interesting tale that unfolds at a good pace and ends on a high note. This one is very recommended.

The last story of the anthology is "The Hidden Girl" by Tamora Pierce. Teky and her father, a priest with a yearning to teach those uninformed, are traveling the countryside of Hartunjar and spreading the words of forbidden texts. They face death penalties after being discovered by local priests. When Teky discovers she's all alone, it is up to her to continue her father's work. Will she survive long enough to do so? Pierce is able to craft a world where, even though the idea of subservient women and the men who make them feel small has been done before, is alive with culture and codes. A very strong piece and a perfect way to close out Dreams and Visions: Fourteen Flights of Fantasy.

The Crow

Sun, 24 Sep 2006 09:03:34 -0400

This book in the Pellinor series moves away from Maerad’s story and focuses on her young brother, Hem. Hem has travelled to Turbansk with the Bard, Saliman. In Turbansk he finds himself struggling with the task of learning his Bard skills and finds himself ostracised by the other youngsters of Turbansk, due to his quick temper. One day he finds a young white crow in the city. Boy and crow quickly become inseparable. His gift, bird speech, helps when the Nameless ones dark army attacks Turbansk, and during the long days and nights of this war he finally learns his true Bard gift.

Personal thoughts - Both brother and sister are important to finding of the Treesong and the defeat of the Nameless one. In this book the author focuses on Hem’s story, following his struggle to fit in with the people of Turbansk. The relationship between Hem and his guardian Saliman is enriched, when they both face the dark army during a long attack on Turbansk. During this siege Hem’s character develops into the young adult; which will no doubt appear throughout this series. After Hem finds a White Crow, he discovers a friend in the wild bird and uses the gift of bird speech to aid Turbansk.
The war scenes in this story are not glorified. The author focuses on the horror and personal tragedy of war, how individuals pay a high price for their freedom. I was never sure if the main characters introduced in this instalment would survive their ordeals, which kept my attention and drew me into their lives.
I very much enjoyed this author’s poetic writing style. Her world is colourful and her characters have real depth, as the storyline takes you through their individual journeys.
Despite enjoying this 3rd book in the series, I did feel it was slightly overlong. The war of Turbansk is detailed and I did eventually long for the plot to move onto other issues. This book is also marketed has a YA read, however, I do not feel very young children would be able to understand or grasp some issues in this series and especially this book.

Stones of Abraxas

Tue, 12 Sep 2006 20:54:29 -0400

In STONES OF ABRAXAS, K. Osborn Sullivan has created an entertaining first fantasy novel for young adults, though some awkwardness in execution and too-conventional elements make it less immersive and compelling than it could be and than her future efforts will likely be.

David Stanhope, a 12 year-old with a 14 year-old sister, Amanda, lives in the suburbs outside Chicago. He has foolish and abusive instructors, even though his father is the shop teacher at the high school and his mother is the head librarian at his middle school. On the last day before summer vacation, we’ll spend twenty-plus pages reading about David’s best friends and their nicknames, the neighbors and their jobs and tendencies, a hypochondriac cousin, the family’s planned vacation in a rustic cottage, and his dad’s out-of-town teachers’ conference. I wish this preamble had sped by faster, because it doesn’t impact the bulk of the tale which takes place in an alternate world accessed through an unusual gem apparently forgotten in the family’s attic. Fifteen hundred years ago, it became necessary to separate the once-unified world, and the natural earth, Terra, was created alongside magical Abraxas. Once David, Amanda, and their mom are transported there by a honkin’ big ruby, the story really begins.

In Abraxas, different species control different-colored Stones and a Shield with power that was used to implement the Separation. If brought back together by the evil magician, Adrian, these could be used to make him invulnerable. This is one of the parts of the plot that doesn’t feel very fresh, but I did enjoy learning which creatures turned out to be “real” versus imaginary, and I thought the author’s collection of ruling races was unexpected and fun. Also existing in Abraxas are other spare characters of mythology like the Sphinx, a Harpy, and the Minotaur. These dethroned guardians of the gems who spend their hours playing cards in the castle basement (as depicted on the book’s cover so I’m not spoiling any surprises) were some of my favorite characters, because they unfolded with more oddness and mystery than those above-ground. There’s even a hint that the monster in the moat might have an analog in a Scottish lake in Terra, and the revelations of the natures and interrelationships of all these beings is, to my mind, the greatest appeal of the world and one that I’d welcome seeing expanded in later adventures.

I appreciate that FBS makes it a point to review new authors and smaller publishers that often don’t get reviewed, so I think it’s only fair to point out what can unfortunately divide promising titles from the more polished pack. For me, this book’s biggest problems were in the beginning, which discouraged me from reading on, and that would've been a shame, since none of those elements were ultimately pertinent to the main story and could have been excised without loss. One gotcha was the repeated reference, from the earliest pages including the Cast of Characters, to anachronistic details I don’t believe kids of the protagonists’ ages would know. Will most twelve year-olds understand the off-handed allusions to “flower children”, Grandma’s 1976 Ford Pinto, or know that the Pinto's gas tank was reputed to explode after minor collisions? I found it a long journey for a joke to have an originally cheap, thirty year-old car still running, and wondered where they’d find the regular, not unleaded, gas for it. Another distraction of being as crusty and ancient as I am was that after such pointed references to hippies and Ford Pintos, the name Abraxas kept reminding me of the Santana album from 1970 and wondering whether it was the author’s inspiration.

Also, a leading Cast of Characters is commonly seen among new authors, but is rare among the seasoned. While a play, limited in exposition and description by its very form, may need such a starting point for the characters, non-epic novels shouldn’t. And even among serious epics, the most celebrated writers seem to have decided that rather than providing a massive download in the beginning, it’s more engaging to let readers encounter characters in the context of the action where they’ll be most compelling and mentally “sticky”, reserving lengthy background for appendices readers can plumb or avoid as desired.

To me, a preliminary CoC forewarns there may be many more named and elaborately-described characters than will be essential to the unfolding of the plot, and further, it may portend a too-diffuse story focus or lack of ruthless-enough editing. Sometimes, I sense a writer has joyfully created such extensive histories and interconnections that he doesn’t want readers to miss a syllable, despite the fact the real story hasn’t even begun, so there’s no reason yet for a reader to care about these characters or retain this information. But whatever the motivation, when reading about the fantastic, getting a preview of every amazing being to come- and especially in similar verbiage as will occur later in the text- leaves the actual encounter during the story with a ho-hum quality, devoid of wonder when it matters the most.

Aside from these observations, which I mention as general gripes and which hardly occur uniquely in this young adult novel, Osborn has also achieved some very nice effects in STONES OF ABRAXAS. I think her created world is interesting and complex enough to explore at length, and she’s certainly left herself space for sequels. The lead characters and their adventures are consistently kid-scaled, and after arriving in Abraxas, their thoughts and actions ring true for their ages and personalities. They don’t have to suddenly acquire new brilliance, maturity, or the supernatural powers of prodigies for the sake of the plot. Their exposure to the new world and the impending crisis are mediated by their parents and other adults who, refreshingly, do not allow the kids to be burdened with the weight of the worst. This creates necessary fuel for the kids’ curiosities, and will trigger situations that derail and mislead them. Despite the strange fascinations of the environment and the dreadfulness of the dilemma, the kids remain pretty normal to the end, which begins to feel, in a genre now exploding with exceptionally great or awful specimens, quite unusual indeed.

Occult Crimes Investigation Unit #1: Sorcery Squad

Sat, 09 Sep 2006 00:21:02 -0400

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. It's a vanity press and often times the quality of vanity press books warrants less than a sub-par rating.

This book follows the adventures of a specialized task force in the London Police which deals specifically with crimes of an occult nature. Each member of the team (which is startlingly ethnically diverse and is obviously carefully contrived by the author) has a special talent in a specific area of magic, from a vodoun priestess to an alchemist.

It's a very slim book, at only 138 pages and it's a quick, easy read. The book follows one specific case and seems more like a written episode of CSI with magic than anything else.

A bizarre murder takes place in a small shop located in the subway system. The Occult Crimes Investigation Unit is called in on what is basically their first case. Things get complicated when the investigators realize that some very high-ranking government officials are involved.

The author strains a little and sacrifices pacing to make sure that the reader knows exactly what's going on at any given moment. While too much information is usually better than too little, sometimes the emphasis on character shifts the focus too far away from the action. This is not to say that the book is an incoherent mess. It's actually organized quite well, and though the whole thing is written in third person perspective, it shifts through the main character's points of view.

There were a few typos scattered through the book, but it really wasn't any worse than I've had in many mass paperbacks published by major publishing houses. It appears that there was at least some copyediting going on at some point before it was published. The print was clear, the book appears to be well-bound, and the cover design really isn't too bad, even if I couldn't really find how it fit with the actual book itself.

I would have liked to see a few more pages, as I think the book would have benefitted from more plot. The author probably could have used a thesaurus in a few places as well, but the writing itself was solid. The character development was fairly good and the backstory that was gradually revealed about each character was relevent to the story as a whole. The author really never got too bogged down in dissecting each character's history, and the interludes for the histories made it seem less like a potboiler and more like a serious effort to write something entertaining.

The author shows some promise and so does the series.
Bottom line: Not bad, not bad at all.

The Magus of Nastrand

Fri, 01 Sep 2006 15:42:27 -0400

A homeless man, Hatteris finds himself led by the birds to a town. Here he starts to remember about a war, the War of Raynarok, between the gods. He also learns of Odin’s plans for him and his connection to major players of this conflict. The Mayor of Nastrand, is really the trickster Loki, who plans to plunge the world into permanent darkness. Hatteris eventually remembers his task; to save the goddess Sig, and turns to some of the town’s strangest creatures for help. Soon Hatteris fights for his life as the various factions fight to survive and some difficult truths are revealed as his memory returns.

Personal thoughts – Hatteris is a strange character, confused as he stumbles into a town were strange characters and gods fight a war. The story, written from a first person POV, should add drama and a personal feel to a story. However, in this occasion it added to the general confusion, as I felt myself drowning in Hatteris’ overall confused state. Also, I felt the author wanted this place and its characters to be particularly usual. They definitely are strange and this did keep me reading the story; though I did find there strangeness a little overpowering, which made the characters less real. A main character can be portrayed as confused and other characters populating the storyline can be unusual, but the story still needs to be easily followed and understood. Perhaps in an effort to create something different there has been a loss of focus on the overall storyline.
Overall I found this story lacked focus, was written too confusingly to be enjoyed and the constant persistent portrayal of strangeness for the world created in this book only made the affect worse.

The Thief Lord

Thu, 10 Aug 2006 14:37:45 -0400

Without question, The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke did not—or rather, has not—received the literary credit it surely deserves. Originally published in Germany in 2000, this young adult citywide adventure ranks right up there with the Artemis Fowls, the Lemony Snickets, and I dare say the Harry Potters.

The Thief Lord opens like so:

It was autumn in Venice when Victor first heard of Prosper and Bo. The canals, gleaming in the sun, dappled the ancient brickwork with gold. But the wind was blowing ice-cold air from the sea, reminding the Venetians that winter was approaching. Even the air in the alleyways tasted of snow, and only the wings of the carved angels and dragons high up on the rooftops felt any real warmth from the pale sun.

Funke establishes much from the very start, almost to the point of throwing it back to the classics. There’s more than just a hint of Charles Dickens here—the city’s presence, laden with the characteristics of anything even the slightest bit alive—and quite possibly numerous pinches of Jane Yolen, Roald Dahl, and C.S. Lewis. Venice is her playground, and like a child forever stuck in an endless era of recess, she knows every nook, cranny, and chip of the place.

Victor Getz, a private detective who takes on “investigations of any kind,” is visited by the Hartliebs, a Mrs. Esther and Mr. Max. They’ve lost something. Well, two somethings, but they’re only really considered about retrieving one of them. The nephews of Esther Hartlieb’s recently deceased sister, Prosper and Bo, have run away from their home in Hamburg and the Hartliebs would really like Bo back as they’d like to adopt him the most. Getz takes the case, a bit nervously, as this is the first time he’ll be searching for children.

Now Prosper and Bo—Prosper being twelve years old and the thinker of the two—ran away on the belief that they were not meant to be separated by their nasty aunt. Having truly no idea where to go they head towards Venice, the city their mother used to tell them tales about. It is here that the two brothers meet other runaways/ruffians/rascals who follow orders under the leader of The Thief Lord. Their new home is an abandoned movie theatre, and it’s theirs to share so long as they don’t overstep the lines placed before them. The Thief Lord, also known as Scipio, is essentially Robin Hood, albeit a much younger version. Rob from the rich, give to the poor, rinse, lather, and repeat.

Things grow much more serious for Scipio and company when the shopkeeper of a local pawning business, Barbarossa, a man described to have orange hair, makes a request for the theft of a wooden wing. This item is rumored to be the missing part to complete a magical merry-go-round—one that when it finishes going round and round and round could change a person’s life forever.

The plot is pure fun, fairly nonstop, and split between Detective Getz and the two young boys. Getz has a strange tick to him; he’s constantly preoccupied about his pets, namely his two tiny turtles. It’s a humorous oddity, adding just the touch of lightheartedness to his character that is a constant in Funke’s male, fatherly figures. For more proof, see Mo in Inkheart. Quite possibly, Funke’s characters are the true reason I read her work. Here we get to share the adventure with Detective Getz, Prosper, Scipio, Hornet, Mosca, and Riccio. Yes, her children characters are more distinctive and appealing than most of the adults. For a YA novel, that’s a major selling point.

There have been several complaint that about three-fourths of the book reads just like a regular novel, and that the last section is the only place that the speculative fiction aspect reveals itself. Or for a better way of saying it, “where magical stuff happens.” I did not find this to be the case; rather, I read the book without a care of when something magical was going to happen, taken along by the hands and words of these characters, only wanting to know what happens to them and how it happens. When the big poof/pow/pazam shows it, I was ambivalent for a moment, then nodded in understanding, and continued reading. The magic at the end allows for some fun twists of certain characters, almost enough so to create a separate plotline.

A great book that’s been translated nigh perfectly from German and filled with both colorful characters and vivid settings. You’ll be sorry when it’s deemed a classic and you’re still reading Harry Potter and the Fork of Finality, Year Twenty-Six or whatever book it is that J.K. will still be spooning out long past her time. Stick with Funke and see what YA is really all about.

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children

Sat, 17 Jun 2006 12:17:22 -0400

Advent Children is an animated fantasy action movie set two years after the game Final Fantasy VII (FFVII). It may be very confusing for those who aren't familiar with the game series and particularly with FFVII, but I highly recommend it nonetheless.

Fortunately, if you're watching the DVD you get some helpful bonus features, particularly a featurette which explains the plot of the game - in fact, it's made of game footage. Even so, the movie requires some attention. Don't worry, a lot of the best anime is much less comprehensible.

'Basically', people in the city of Midgar are being afflicted by a plague called Geostigma, which turns out to be the body's immune system attacking cells from Jenova, an extraterrestrial viral lifeform.

A group of three supervillains are trying to find the remains of Jenova, who they touchingly refer to as their mother. As heartwarming as their concern is, their plans will bring about the apocalypse.

The hero of the game, Cloud, is now a delivery boy, but must again save the world, with the help of some old friends. In fact, during the major fight scene against a host of game monsters, a whole gang of his friends appear out of nowhere. As far as I can tell, the only reason for this is to satisfy fans of the FFVII.

Apart from nostalgia for Final Fantasy veterans, the biggest drawcard for this movie is how cool it is. In a shared creation like Final Fantasy, that has been worked on by some supremely creative individuals, you'd expect the movie to be good.

But the makers pulled out all the stops and delivered a coolness factor of 11/10. Seriously, the stunning settings, characters, creatures, action are all incredible, and even if you're baffled by the plot, you'll find plenty to take your breath away.

In the 'making of' feature included on disc 2, the animators describe how they took a step away from realism in their depiction of characters and action - after all, what then would be the point of producing an animated film? So we have incredible, over the top fight scenes and stylised characters.

It's worth mentioning the concept of Bishōnen, Japanese for 'beautiful youth'. It's common in anime to depict male characters in ways that would be considered effete, or androgynous to Westerners, who prefer beefcake in their heroic fantasy. Guys, if you have a strong reaction against male beauty (or for it!), you might want to think about where that's coming from, psychologically.

I should also mention that the movie is pretty funny. There's some physical humour, Final Fantasy in-jokes, and comic dialogue, especially between Reno and Rude the Shinra henchmen. Probably the funniest moment is when when we hear supervillain Loz's ring tone, which is the victory fanfare played after battles in the game.

Director Tetsuya Nomura was the character designer for the FFVII game, but had been involved with the franchise, and SquareSoft since 1992. FFVII remains the most popular edition of the game series, and one of the best selling games of all time.

Is it science fiction, is it fantasy, does it matter? The Final Fantasy universe has been developed over two decades in a wide range of media, and depicts a world where a natural magical life force has been used to create high science. Maybe it's a reverse of Arthur C. Clarke's famous line: any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology. Hehe.

Advent Children reminds us that CGI, and animation, aren't just for children, and hopefully throws down the gauntlet to Western film makers.

A must see for Final Fantasy and anime fans (add it to your collection!), a strong recommend for anyone else. I loved it.

Steve Wilson

The Dreamer

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 20:40:04 -0400

In Matthew G. McMillan's debut novel The Dreamer, book one of the Ghosts of Littletown trilogy, young Molly Parker magically travels through her dreams to the Realm of Timeless Wisdom on a quest to find the missing Mother Nature. Doing so, as promised by Father Time, will allow Molly to travel back in time and stop certain events that led to her father's untimely death in a car accident one year ago on Halloween. With the help of Owen the centaur, two magical flying horses, a couple giants, Medusa, and many other fantastical creatures, Molly will travel deep into her dreams in search of Mother Nature and the opportunity to bring back her father. But Death and the ever destructive Chaos are not far behind, reaping terror in their wake…

The main irk I had with The Dreamer was the lackluster writing and faulty dialogue, which, while surrounded by wonderful locales and magical creatures, just felt a bit jarring in the grand scheme of things. I found the way Molly spoke to both her family and the magical inhabitants of the Realm of Timeless Wisdom to be oddly unreal, as if she was much older than I originally perceived her to be. And more times than not I found characters muttering exclamations—is that even possible? I thought there would have been more switching back and forth between the dream world and the real world, but there was very little of that. It would have made the ending—as predictable as it was—much more powerful to have seen Molly's efforts equally from both sides of the event.

Granted, The Dreamer has its pluses for those willing to ignore its faults. Molly's adventure is fast-paced, allowing for an entertaining and page-turning read. And while the characters are none too deep, they vary in sizes and forms enough to please a younger reader's imagination. They can be followed without any confusion, and as this is just the beginning of a series, many will be able to travel to different realms with Molly again and again if they desire it.

Young adults will clearly find much to enjoy in The Dreamer, but adults who are fans of the young adult genre will be put off by the simple characters, drab prose, and linear plot that offers nothing else but a girl's chance to save the life of her father, which defeated any type of theme or moral about accepting the loss of loved ones and becoming stronger for it.