THE WAKING: DREAMS OF THE DEAD BY THOMAS RANDALL: Christopher Golden, author of The Boys Are Back in Town and coauthor of The Map of Moments, takes a journey away from his usual stories of the magical and horrific to tell a story of a different kind of horror and the macabre for a younger audience. Because of this, Golden is writing under the pseudonym of Thomas Randall, taking us to Japan and its complex culture and ancient supernatural legends.
Kara Foster’s mother was killed in a car crash, leaving her and her father alone. After years of studying Japanese culture and learning the language, they emigrate to Miyazu City where tall and blond Kara will be starting at a new school where her father teaches English. She is terrified, wanting to make friends and fit in, but also knowing she is a gaijin or foreigner, and will have to work hard to gain the respect of others. She eventually befriends the rebellious Sakura and learns of the dark history of Sakura’s sister at Monju-no-Chie school. On the spit of land known as Ama-no-Hashidate she was murdered by a group of school girls for having the love of a boy she had no intention of returning. And now those girls are started to turn up dead, through mysterious circumstances, while they all appear to be having terrible nightmares involving girls without faces and terrifying cats with sharp claws and teeth – Kara included. Sakura believes it to be the haunting spirit of her sister, exacting revenge, but as Kara discovers, it is something much worse.
Christopher Golden has outdone himself in taking the reader deep into Japanese culture, quick to explain how and why habits and characteristics are different, but at the same time he has a great horror story at the heart of Dreams of the Dead that will keep you riveted to the very end. And the good news is this is the first of a ongoing series by Thomas Randall and includes the prologue and first chapter to the next book in the series, Spirits of the Noh. ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE KNIGHTS OF CRYSTALLIA BY BRANDON SANDERSON: In Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians you learned of the truth about our world: that the librarians are evil and have been lying to you your whole life. In Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones you learned what lengths the libraries will go to to keep the wool pulled over your eyes, as well as how far back through time this goes. Now Alcatraz is back, through the guise of the bestselling author Brandon Sanderson (the perfect cover), to tell more of his story, and to help you learn the truth about our world.
It’s finally time for Alcatraz to journey to the other world, the one where he is better known. He travels with Grandpa Smedry to the Free Kingdom city of Crystallia, and after once again being involved in a serious accident that he only just manages to survive, he discovers that he’s a giant celebrity here. He is the subject of a bestselling adventure series written by a member of the government, and enjoys himself in meeting with people who care little for him, but just wish to be close to him for reasons of fame. Bastille, who has been stripped of her armor and bodyguard title, is to be put under a tribunal to decide if her actions were serious enough to prevent her from regaining her title. At the same time there is a city under siege, and there are some evil librarians in Crystallia acting as liaisons looking to negotiate.
Alcatraz will have to use his unusual but incredibly powerful talent in this different world, under different conditions, ultimately putting him to his greatest test yet. As always, Alcatraz has endless advice to offer: buy his books, read a lot, and buy his books. Yes, he can be quite repetitive. FLESH BY RICHARD LAYMON: Welcome to an idyllic American town where life seems simple, except for those who try to make it something else. Then Eddie, driving along in his van, attempts to run down a high school girl innocently riding her bike. She throws herself off the road, saving her life, while Eddie crashes, burns and dies. Meanwhile the evil thing escapes from Eddie’s body in search of new hosts. It needs a new live body to feed and become stronger. The town will never be the same.
HELL HOLLOW BY RONALD KELLY: There’s something enrapturing about a story involving some kids who are heroes that save the day. It reminds us of times when we were young, going out on fantasy adventures in our own little worlds. Hell Hollow is one of those stories set in the rural town of Harmony, Tennessee. The secret of the evil of Hell Hollow has been hidden and forcibly forgotten by its residents for a long time, until it is awakened and will involve four bored kids looking for some excitement during their summer. Then there is the killer who has yet to be captured, on the run from the law, continuing to mercilessly kill. And the rape victim who is on a specific mission. All of these characters will play a part in Ronald Kelly’s Hell Hollow. Kelly uses a descriptive, colorful writing style that matches the tone and plot of the book, keeping you hooked.
THE BOX: UNCANNY STORIES BY RICHARD MATHESON: Having never read any of the writings of the classic horror great Richard Matheson, I was delighted to discover the relatively new release of The Box: Uncanny Stories to tie in with the movie adaptation of the short story “Button, Button.” The collection unsurprisingly kicks off with the aforementioned story offering an average American married couple the opportunity to win a large sum of money if they push this one button. The catch is that whoever presses the button will know that someone will die, though it will be someone they don’t care about. I’m not sure how they’ve made a feature length movie out of this, but the story nevertheless forces one to question one’s moral compass to see if it’s pointing in the right direction. At the end there’s a wonderful twist that is a signature of most of the stories in this collection. This story was also adapted as an episode for The Twilight Zone, as was another story in the collection, “Mute.”
The stories are not just entertaining, but force one to think about their own lives and how they live them day to day; what choices would they make? “Girl of my Dreams” is the story of a woman who has the ability to see when people will die and the man who uses her to blackmail them for exorbitant amounts of money. “Dying Room Only”: a couple who stop at a gas station, but when the husband goes into the bathroom and never comes out, things take a turn for the worse. One of the most interesting stories in the collection is “Creeping Terror,” all about Los Angeles being a living city that begins to send its roots into cities throughout the country, causing citrus and palm trees to grow in places where it isn’t possible, as people begin getting fast cars, dressing like Hollywood stars, and tanning.
Whether you’re looking for some great works by Matheson, looking for a new writer, or have a penchant for short story collections; you will thoroughly enjoy The Box: Uncanny Stories. And the thing I always like about short story collections is if you don’t like the story you’re reading, then just skip to the next one!STEPHEN COLBERT’S TEK JANSEN BY JOHN LAYMAN, TOM PEYER, ET. AL.: Tek Jansen is the true super hero the likes of which Batman, Superman, and Captain America aspire to be. It is why we are riveted to his adventures, moved by his might and honor, astounded by his strength and cunning, and blown away by his prowess and masculinity. Up until now we have only been able to get our Tek Jansen fix through the limited time slot of The Colbert Report, but that’s all about to change with the publication of the first hardcover volume of Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen. This volume will satiate your fix and then some. Bursting with stories, capers, and action-packed adventures, the glossy, colorful artwork will have you racing through and living the tales with Tek Jansen’s voice in your head. Included in the collection is the Harvey Award-nominated “Invasion of the Optiklons” and “Horn Like Me.” Whether you’re a Tek Jansen die-hard fan, or have only just heard the name of this great human being for the first time, you’ll want to get yourself a copy of Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen.
THE WORLD IN SIX SONGS: HOW THE MUSICAL BRAIN CREATED HUMAN NATURE BY DANIEL J. LEVITIN: Bestselling author of This is Your Brain on Music (which continues to be popular) returns with The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, in which he posits that one of the first abilities that ancient human beings developed was music through sound and singing and the feeling this created within us, leading to developments in language and community and the forming of our ancient civilizations.
Through music and its growing complexity, humanity’s thought process was able to develop and progress. Levitin breaks down music to its basic song elements, theorizing that there are six types of songs that are instrumental in our development, whether millennia ago, or for each of us alive right now. These songs, each with their own chapter, are songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, and love. Levitin goes into depth with each song, providing clear examples in recent history, as well as many of his own case studies and examples from his life.
What makes The World in Six Songs not just a book of Levitin teaching and telling like a textbook, is that he includes himself in every chapter, revealing his own experiences and actions throughout his life and how music and these six specific songs have played a role from his childhood to the writing of this book. In this way the reader sees and feels the humanity of it, and is able to empathize and understand all the better for it. UNDER THE DOME BY STEPHEN KING: If nature abhors a vacuum, then humanity abhors normalcy; which is why we seek out things that are unusual, stories that are out of the ordinary. And Under the Dome may just be one of the strangest, and yet both fascinating and compelling stories ever written.
Imagine the quintessential American town – Chester Mills, Maine – where life has rolled along at its own sedate pace since the beginning of time; it is a simple life that many envy and yearn for, while others disregard and ridicule. Now imagine that an invisible dome forms around the boundaries of the town, trapping everyone and everything inside, as well as preventing anyone and anything from entering; all that is able to pass through is air since it is composed of tiny molecules. From now on the humble citizens of Chester Mills must live off of whatever supplies and reserves they have. Then add some classic, unique and outright bizarre Stephen King characters; you’ve got yourself a very special story, weighing in at over a thousand pages.
There’s Dale Barbara, an ex-military man who came to Chester Mills to get away from everything, working as a cook at Sweetbriar Rose. After getting into a serious fight with the town bullies – who include the sheriff’s son – he’s all set to quit town, but the dome falls down before he’s able to make his escape. Now he’s trapped inside with a whole mess of people who hate his guts and would sooner see him dead.
Jim Rennie – known as “Big Jim – is the town’s Second Selectman, a member of the three-member team that makes up the governing body for Chester Mills. Only Big Jim has everyone in his pocket, owning him favors, and he’s also been running an underground scheme that’s making him a very rich man. He also thrives on power and being in charge, and when the dome comes down he thinks it’s the greatest thing in the world; his calling from god to take charge once and for all.
Julia Shumway is the editor, publisher, and devout writer for her very own Chester Mill’s Democrat, continuing the family business, and always looking for a great story and a way to reveal the true, seedy underbelly of Chester Mills that she knows exists. After Dome Day, she knows Jim Rennie is up to something and will stop at nothing to expose him for the fraud he is.
And 13-year-old Joe McClatchey, a good-looking nerd with all the answers, but he also has some important ideas about what exactly the dome is and what might’ve made it happen. While the town slowly devolves into pandemonium, he spends his time trying to find out the cause of it all.
Stephen King conceived this book, originally titled Cannibals, early on his career, but was never satisfied with the story. Now he has delivered the weighty tome of Under the Dome, where lines will be drawn, sides declared, alliances forged, and enemies and allies made. Many people will die – which is no surprise for a King novel – but the wild thrill ride will keep you addictively reading, aching to find out how it all ends. LEVEL 26: DARK ORIGINS BY ANTHONY E. ZUIKER WITH DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI: Anthony E. Zuiker, creator of the popular TV show CSI, has released what is referred to as the first “digi-novel.” The book is partnered with the Level26.com website, where the reader at the end of certain chapters is directed to enter a keyword on the site to unlock a clip that relates to the book and the particular chapter just completed. Combined with occasional illustrations, Zuiker is trying to make this the new revolution in book technology. Sadly, overall the affect falls short of being revolutionary, and something that hopefully won’t be happening with other books.
The story is about a serial killer, known as Sqweegel, who has been killing and torturing for decades and all forms of international government, including the CIA and FBI have not only been unable to catch him, but fail to find a single shred of evidence to who the man might be. Because of this, the killer has been designated a Level 26, the highest level ever created for a murder. The question is who can they bring in to actually catch this guy?
While the premise and story initially seem compelling, the plot soon spirals out of control into the completely far-fetched, with the video clips featuring over the top acting that more disengages the reader from the book than engrosses them. Level 26 is a book that some may enjoy, at least for what it’s trying to do, but it sadly falls far short of achieving its goals. WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CAPED CRUSADER BY NEIL GAIMAN ET. AL.: Neil Gaiman, bestselling author and writer of the renowned comic book series, Sandman, was asked to write a two-part series about Batman and was given complete choice of what story he could tell. In his introduction, Gaiman talks about how Batman was one of the first TV shows he watched as a kid, and this was then the first comic book he ever read, and regardless of all the comic books he read after, and all the characters he created, he always had a special spot for Batman. Because Batman never gave up, no matter what.
In Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader, Gaiman does the story of what happens when Batman finally dies and can rest at peace. Brilliantly illustrated by Andy Kubert, and inked by Alex Sinclair, they perfectly capture the noir, colorful look of Batman, while combing the styles of all the different artists who have illustrated for Batman before. The deluxe hardcover edition also features Gaiman’s four other Batman stories, the most entertaining of which is A Black and White World featuring Batman and The Joker behind the scenes waiting to go on.
Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader blends the fantastic world of Batman with all the familiar characters, combining Gaiman’s writing skill and some incredible artwork, making it a must for any Batman fan. FABLES VOLUME 12: THE DARK AGES BY BILL WILLINGHAM, MARK BUCKINGHAM, ET. AL.: The Eisner award winning comic book series returns at a poignant moment. The great war between the good and evil fables is finally at an end. All should be right with the world. The fables should be able to return to their Homelands. Everything should return to normal, as it once was, centuries ago. Except this isn’t the case.
The fables in our world are slowly recovering from the war, surprised at the few numbers that died, while on the Adversary’s side, the number of dead are immeasurable. That is except for Boy Blue, who suffered an injury from a magical arrow. The fables’ best doctor thinks he has him all cured, but Boy Blue isn’t getting any better; in fact each day he looks much worse, one step closer to death, which would be wrong for one of the greatest heroes of the war. Meanwhile there are those in the Homelands who are searching through the spoils, and they inadvertently awake a dark and terrible creature, a bogeyman that haunts our dreams, hides under our beds at night, and terrifies us from the closet. He is the one whose power the fables have been using for so long to use their magical devices, and he’s very angry.
The Dark Ages reveals a fascinating new plot line, reassuring any Fables fans that now the big war is over, Willingham isn’t done by any means, but merely with an important chapter in the Fables storyline, with plenty more tales toe tell. The use of magic and power for the war was at an immense cost, as The Dark Ages shows. The question now remains who will live and who will die with this new evil loose amongst the fables. DISTANT EARLY WARNINGS: CANADA’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION EDITED BY ROBERT J. SAWYER: Readers who either don’t read a lot of science fiction, or don’t read a wide breadth of science fiction, may look at Distant Early Warnings and wonder: “Canada has science fiction writers?” Then they’ll read down the list of the stories included in this collection by authors like Julie E. Czerneda, Nalo Hopkinson, and Robert Charles Wilson, and think to themselves: “They’re Canadian?” And finally they look and see that Distant Early Warnings is edited by Robert J. Sawyer, a brilliant science fiction writer who has won just about every award possible, and think: “He’s Canadian too?” Not only is science fiction alive and well and being skillfully created and written in the great country north of the United States, but it is in fact home to some of the best science fiction writers alive today.
In Sawyer’s wonderfully short and precise introduction – he knows to not bore the reader with a lengthy passage talking about what he thinks about Canadian science fiction, but lets the stories speak for themselves – he explains that the title comes from “a string of radar stations in Canada’s far north designed to detect incoming Soviet bombers during the Cold War.” The collection kicks off with the best story, “In Spirit,” where it is the near future and a new form of technology exists where it is possible to travel back in time as a holographic image to view events of the past. While still in its testing stages, a prisoner is chosen, giving him the opportunity of freedom if he goes through all the stages of traveling into the past. What is eventually discovered is that this man was involved in the September 11th attacks and he is being punished by traveling back to the catastrophic day and being made to experience action and reaction through the eyes of those who suffered. Then there are those strange people who seem to somehow recognize him during his travels, which should be impossible. The collection features stories that work on many different levels, like “The Ray-Gun, A Love Story” by James Alan Gardner, as the reader wonders how far the character will go to protect his very special artifact. Then there is Robert Charles Wilson’s haunting and disturbing tale, “The Cartesian Theatre,” which explores the idea of cloning and what is the true meaning of life, living, and the idea of a soul.
Sawyer kicks it up a notch with his lightning round at the end of the book, featuring stories by himself and others in the collection that are only a couple of pages long. And when you’re done with this collection, Sawyer makes sure to point out if the authors have won awards, and what other works they’ve published, to give the readers ideas on what to read next. If anything, Distant Early Warnings will open the mind of any reader to some of the great work and literature being produced by some of today’s Canadian authors.
PRINCESS OF LIGHT BY MARIE BILODEAU: We all react to different situations in different ways. The question is when we are tested to the extremes of our endurance, whether we will succeed or fail. In the genre of fantasy, readers find an escape in characters that defy the odds and triumph, often with magical powers. Marie Bilodeau has done just this with Princess of Light, the first book in the Heirs of a Broken Land series.
Princess Cassara Edoline always thought herself an ordinary princess, living in an ordinary kingdom, in an ordinary world. And that all changed when the Wall of Loss started to fail and the dark creatures entered her world. She fled with little more than a magical amulet, leaving a destroyed kingdom, a murdered family, and a brother now in the clutches of the invading hordes. But Edoline is learning things about herself, learning that she has powers within her she never knew about, powers that, with the magical amulet, can stop the evil flooding into her world. She will also use those powers to rescue her helpless brother. But first she needs to find out what is wrong with the Wall of Loss and see if she can fix it.
Princess of Light employs many of the tropes of your ordinary fantasy, and yet there’s a reason many fantasy fans eat up and read anything with a fantastical element; it’s the fantastical characters that face unbeatable odds and somehow are able to fight back. Edoline is one of those powerful female characters that readers will feel the thrill to read about in this first book of an interesting new series.
NO DOORS, NO WINDOWS BY JOE SCHREIBER: It’s been recommended that writers should stick to writing what they know when it comes to writing, and what better character can a writer write about than him- or herself . . . a writer. But the writer in Joe Schreiber’s new novel, No Doors, No Windows, is one with a dark, disturbing past that even he doesn’t fully understand until the last few pages of the book, and has worked hard to forget and stay away from. One hopes that Joe Schreiber isn’t anything like his character, Scott Mast.
Scott Mast wanted to make it big as a writer, but it never happened. So now he spends his days living relatively well, writing copy for greeting cards. He currently lives in Seattle and is happily far away from his family and old life where he grew up. That is until his father dies and he must return home to New Hampshire, finding an alcoholic loser of a brother with a son who he neglects and fails at being a decent father to. As Mast contemplates what he can do to help – there’s the touchy history of their mother having died fifteen years ago in a horrific fire – he discovers a unfinished manuscript his father was apparently working on. It’s about a very special house where there are no corners or edges; everything is curved and rounded. In this house there is a door that leads to “the black wing,” where there are no doors, and no windows; where terrible things happen. But the story is unfinished and Mast decides that he must finish the book himself. After meeting up with an old girlfriend (their failed relationship is its own doomed story), he stumbles upon a remote house that turns out to be exactly like the one in his father’s manuscript.
And so Mast rents the house and begins writing the story, feeling a strange presence overtake him when he is adding to the manuscript. He knows it has something to do with the house, but he doesn’t know what. Meanwhile his brother falls deeper into his booze-filled spiral, leaving young Henry alone and abandoned. The clues gently fall in to place with each chapter, as Schreiber leaves the read wanting more, forcing the turning of the page, and the need to know what is the story behind Scott Mast and his strange mental state; what’s the story behind the house; what’s the deal with Mast’s brother; and most importantly: what’s the story behind the Mast family that deals with the dark history of the town. Horror readers will enjoy No Doors, No Windows for its psychological thrill ride that doesn’t get revealed and resolved until the very last pages of the book. STAR WARS: DEATH TROOPERS BY JOE SCHREIBER: All good horror novels have a foundation using a familiar horror trope, whether it be zombies, vampires, deepest darkest space, or creepy children. The really great horror novels employ multiple tropes to become terrifying, page-turning nightmares that the reader simply can’t put down. Star Wars: Death Troopers is one of thoxse horror novels.
The Imperial Prison Barge Purge is on its way through deep space to a distant and forgotten moon to deposit its cargo of five hundred of the galaxy’s most ruthless prisoners, as well as two teenage brothers who are there on a nonexistent charge. Everything is going as expected, or at least as expected as can be for Trig and Kale Longo trying their best to stay alive and wondering how their lives have come to this, until the Purge experiences engine trouble. Fortunately there is a Star Destroyer nearby that is a derelict, abandoned. Two teams are sent onto the destroyer with a couple of engineers to raid it for engine parts. They return coughing and getting sicker by the second. Zahara Cody, chief medical officer, scrambles to do what she can, but the sickness gets worse and people begin dying. The virus spreads throughout the barge and soon bodies are dropping everywhere. All that remain are the few people who are somehow immune: Trig and Kale, and Zahara to name a few. Zahara also discovers two familiar characters locked up deep within the bowels of the ship in solitary confinement.
Then all the bodies come to life. And these zombies are smarter than any we’ve seen before; they adapt to each situation, always looking to kill and conquer, always in search of fresh meat.
Joe Schreiber’s Star Wars: Death Troopers employs a number of great horror tropes that all combine to form one great novel that will have readers hooked from start to finish. He manages the plot well, with riveting cliffhanger chapters, and make it impossible to put down, while slowly dishing out the details so that full understanding and realization is not reached until the last few pages. But these are all important facets of a great horror novel. THE INHERITANCE OF ROME: ILLUMINATING THE DARK AGES 400-1000 BY CHRIS WICKHAM: Many people refer to the period of 400-1000 as the “dark ages.” After the fall of Rome, when society in Western Europe shut down, people went back to simple, primitive ways – terms like savages and barbarians are often used – as they squabbled and fought against each other, killing mercilessly for a bit of land; the only beacon of hope the growing light of Christianity. I’ve never been a fan of the term “dark ages,” or all the connotations, thoughts, and ideas that people – historians and laymen alike – infer from it. Thankfully there is Chris Wickham: a Chichele Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford and author of Framing the Middle Ages. Wickham has worked hard to educate those who are unsure or simply don’t that the period from 400-1000 was one of the most important growth period of ideas, invention, and thought in the history of Western Europe. The Inheritance of Rome does a fantastic job of explaining this in comprehensive detail with viewpoints from all of Western Europe, including the Near East with the Byzantine Empire. I won’t lie to you; this isn’t an easy summer read; it’s a heavy book in every sense of the word; but if you’re looking to educate yourself on what exactly was going on between the fifth and eleventh centuries in Europe, after reading The Inheritance of Rome, you will have amassed an impressive amount of knowledge and be able to defend yourself and the period against anyone who attempts to call it the “dark ages.”
Wickham begins with a concise wrap up of the waning centuries of the Roman Empire, setting the stage for the focus of the book, which is divided into four parts: “Part I – The Roman Empire and its Break-up, 400-550”; “Part II: The Post-Roman West, 550-750”; “Part III: The Empires of the East, 550-1000”; and “Part IV: The Carolingian and Post-Carolingian West, 750-1000.” While the time periods of each part do overlap, this doesn’t prove to be a problem as Wickham is analyzing different areas, but also does a great job of linking what’s happening in a particular location with what was going on in another location in the previous chapter. The author uses maps, illustrations, diagrams, and photographs to illustrate points about the constant trade, migration and commingling of societies, cultures, and kingdoms that continued to thrive during this period and were instrumental in setting a foundation for the eventual High Middles Ages and beginning of the renaissance. Wickham does have a theme and clear point to make, which is in the title: most of Western Europe had at one time been either a part of or bordered with the most dominating and impressive empire the world has ever seen, so it makes perfect sense that most of these different cultures would try to maintain and emulate the ways of Rome, which helped spark a genesis for new forms of writing, new ways of trade and negotiation, new forms of farming, a new judicial system of laws and ways, and forced societies that had been sheltered, supported and lapped from the bosom of Rome for so long, to gain their independence and establish themselves as individuals, with unique technology, development, and cultural ways, which helped give rise to the likes of the Merovingians and Clovis, the Carolingians and Charlemagne, Alfred the Great, William the Conqueror, and many others.
The Early Middle Ages has always been my most favorite period of history and I’ve never been able to explain succinctly why. It has something to do with the fall of Rome and leaving this vast world of different peoples and cultures to live on their own and develop their individuality whilst maintaining contact and trade with each other. It’s about the countries of Western Europe beginning, with the birth of many of the renowned cities we know today. The Inheritance of Rome helps fuel my interest and love for this period. And as more knowledge, evidence, and archaeology about the period is discovered, the more we learn that the “dark ages” is a great misnomer that should be stripped from this important period of discovery and development. HEAT WAVE BY RICHARD CASTLE: Richard Castle is the international bestselling author of the successful Storm series, featuring his heroic, recurring character, Derek Storm. After publishing 25 books, Castle decided he’d had enough of this character and in his last book, Storm Fall, Derek Storm met his precisely timed end. But Castle is back with a new book, possibly a new series, and a new and beautiful detective by the name of Nikki Heat.
In Heat Wave we meet Nikki Heat for the first time as she deals with a case of a New York real estate tycoon who has committed suicide by plunging to his death from the balcony of his high-rise home. Heat skillfully examines the crime scene and soon puts the facts together: the man was murdered. And so begins this fast-paced thriller as Heat puts the details and facts together, bringing her closer to finding out the identity of the killer. But there is someone chasing her, looking to “get rid of her” before she gets too close. Heat finds herself unavoidably partnered with a successful magazine journalist looking to research NYPD’s finest for an article. While Heat finds Jameson Rook initially to be a waste of space, she finds herself attracted to him, and under all this pressure, Rook becomes a safe refuge in this “storm” of a case.
Castle does an impressive job of balancing the gritty, crime scene details; the crucial steps of a unsolved crime; along with some very human characters with some very human needs. When Heat and Rook get together there is a tangible frisson that jus leaps of the page, making readers hot and heavy under the collar. Castle has admitted to doing some of his own research through working with NYPD, but one can’t help but wonder if Castle is getting up to anything like what Heat and Rook end up doing together. One could blame it on the heat, but this reviewer thinks there’s something deeper going on here.
CRUSH BY ALAN JACOBSON: After the runaway success of Jacobson’s first Karen Vail novel, The 7th Victim, our impressive FBI profiler is back in the fantastic follow-up, Crush. While the pressure may be on Jacobson to make his second Karen Vail Mystery be just as good as his first, in my opinion, Crush is better. Jacobson is now comfortable in writing vail and lets her explore her boundaries and limits, coupled with having the agent be in a foreign place.
At the start of the book, Vail is on vacation in the beautiful wine country of Napa and Sonoma counties. After the stress, pressure, and near-death experiences of The 7th Victim, Vail can certainly use the break, and has been so ordered by her ASAC. But as Vail and her boyfriend, Detective Robby Hernandez, are about to enjoy a very expensive wine tour, they are told it’s been canceled and they’ll receive full refunds. Vail’s curiosity gets the better of her and she soon finds that a dead body is the culprit. Her profiling skills automatically kick into gear as she strategically maneuvers herself onto the task force, leaving Hernandez by the wayside. But this is who she is.
Now on the Napa County Major Crimes Task Force, Vail teams up with Investigator Roxxann Dixon, as soon more bodies are discovered each with telltale signs of the “Crush Killer.” Then the killer begins contacting Vail, threatening not just her life but that of her son if she doesn’t do exactly what he says. But the wine industry is an important part of the nation’s economy, and the political issue of whether to release the details to the press creates more enemies for Vail. Ultimately it will be up to her to manage and keep the task force together, and catch this Crush Killer before he gets to anyone else.
Jacobson has not only written a full-throttle thriller that will keep readers hooked to the very end, but also educates them in the niceties of wine tasting and drinking, as well as some of the different kinds of wines offered by our wine country; not to mention the number of real locations used the in the book. Crush is a story that will have you entranced, causing your mouth to dry up in a craving for that tasty red liquid; and after finishing the book you’ll feel the urge to check out Napa and Sonoma counties to see if they really are as beautiful as Crush says they are.
HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY BY AUDREY NIFFENEGGER: The many fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife have been waiting years now for Niffenegger’s new book and the wait is finally over. Her Fearful Symmetry doesn’t disappoint, with a new and very different cast of characters set in beautiful London and centered around famous Highgate Cemetery. Niffenegger went out of her way in researching this book, spending time in London, as well as volunteering to work at the cemetery herself. The result is another moving novel that appears simple at first, but becomes further complex and moving as the story progresses, the characters growing on you, making themselves a part of your life.
When Elspeth Noblin dies, she wills her beautiful London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina, but with a few caveats: their parents are never to enter the apartment, and the twins must reside there for a full year before they may choose to sell it. With the apartment comes a substantial inheritance. The twins, now twenty-one, are still undecided on what to do with their lives, moving from school to school, spending every moment together – they are still virgins and have never had any serious relationships for fear of having to be apart. They seem to adhere to many of the stereotypes of twins. But the further one gets in the book, the more one finds that Julia and Valentina may not be destined to spends their lives linked together.
They move to London, to the apartment, viewing the sites, and waiting for inspiration to strike and help them decide what they want to do – they have enough money to live off for the time being. In the building they meet some very special people and each befriend them in different ways. There is Martin, a man plagued with obsessive compulsive disorder, who refuses to take any medication, and has sealed himself in his apartment, the windows covered up, the rooms filled with boxed and carefully-wrapped items. He spends his days trying to make it across the room by counting and doing things repeatedly. For his day job he creates complex crossword puzzles with his computer, never needing to move from the confines of his humble abode. His wife, Marijke, has abandoned him, unable to take his ways anymore, and has moved back to Amsterdam. One day Martin hopes to leave his home, take a plane, and reunite with her once again. Then there is Robert, Elspeth’s mysterious and elusive lover who is also living off an inheritance, and spends his days writing a never-ending book on Highgate cemetery where he volunteers. And finally there is what appears to be a ghostly presence living in the apartment with the girls. But ghosts aren’t real, right?
While the head jumping and narration switching from sentence to sentence may take some getting used to, it is a style that works for the book. The result is a novel that is just as moving and memorable as The Time Traveler’s Wife, perhaps in some ways more so for some. Regardless, Her Fearful Symmetry, once read, is a book unlike any other.
BLOODBORN BY KATHRYN FOX: Dr. Anya Crichton, the brilliant forensic pathologist from Without Consent and Malicious Intent returns with her most chilling case yet. Two young girls have been brutally attacked: one is left dead, the other raped and abused, barely surviving. Crichton is pulled into the case, and the reader soon learns that the doctor will stop at nothing, due to her care for anyone abused and victimized, but also drawing in some history involving herself in an abusive situation. Crichton must work with the young girl, making sure she full recovers to testify against her attackers, the ones who murdered her sister. Now the girl must face a courtroom and the dreaded Harbourn brothers. This is a family that is used to breaking the law and getting away with it; they’ve been doing it for years, know their ways around the law and how to string the courtroom along, and expect to do the same with this case. But Crichton isn’t going to let them get their way.
Author Kathryn Fox, who is a medical practitioner with a special interest in forensic medicine, knows how to keep a reader hooked from start to finish. Anya Crichton is similar to Patricia Cornwell’s Kaye Scarpetta, but because of her background, there is more depth to her character, as readers see she is a pathologist for a reason: to stop whoever it was that abused her, and to prevent others from getting away with their crimes. Fox employs a gritty, descriptive writing style, not holding back on garish, bloody details. At the same time Crichton is a very human character, caring for others, with friends and emotions, as well as an extracurricular habit of playing drums.
Bloodborn is a medical thriller that will satisfy any fan of Patricia Cornwell or Kathy Reichs, as well as addicted viewers of TV shows like C.S.I or Bones. Bloodborn is a great place to start in discovering the impressive Dr. Anya Crichton, and after readers can move onto Fox’s other books featuring Crichton in her debut with Malicious Intent and Without Consent, as well as Skin and Bone.
THE CHOSEN – RISE OF THE DARKNESS BY C. A. MILSON: Set in Australia, The Chosen – Rise of the Darkness is a story that can be told anywhere, in any country, on any planet, but it is a story that we are all familiar with; one of the war between good and evil, in a battle of power, might and magic, and the inevitable question of who will triumph? In the small town of Winmont, the Ancient Legion has been awoken and will stop at nothing in its effort to destroy everything. But in the balance of life and the world, there must be a good to fight the evil. Alex Manning is The One – though he of course doesn’t know this at first – but in a world where the supernatural is an everyday existence that, if not respected, can take you life within a breath, he is the only one to stop this evil. In this world knowledge is power: knowledge of the ways of the paranormal and how to fight them. The question is whether the young Alex Manning will be up to the task of stopping the Dark Forces?
DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN BOOK ONE: PRODIGAL SON BY DEAN KOONTZ: In the Frankenstein trilogy, bestselling author Dean Koontz goes on a tangent from his usual novels with this short series taking on arguably one of the two most famous horror novels of all time (the other being Dracula, of course), but putting a whole new spin on it that will leave readers reaching for the sequel.
In a world much like our own just about everyone knows about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. What everyone doesn’t know is that it was based on a legend about a scientist known as Dr. Frankenstein. Only he somehow managed to make himself immortal and is now alive and well in the twentieth century, living in the United States. And over the last century he has been busy. His new and improved “creatures” now walk the streets as ordinary looking humans with extraordinary powers. Only some of them are starting to “malfunction,” killing innocent human beings in the process. Victor Helios, as the doctor is now known, doesn’t care, continuing to create, with the goal of taking over the world with a perfect race.
Then there is Deucalion, Frankenstein’s original monster, who is now forced to come to the Untied States to face the growing evil and put a stop to it. Meanwhile detectives Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison get to deal with all the mangled and destroyed bodies that keep showing up, trying to put the pieces together and figure out what is really going on.
Prodigal Son is a strong start to the trilogy that reveals Koontz still has some great stories to tell. With an abrupt end, readers will be grabbing for book two, City of Night, and book three, Dead and Alive, which is now available.
GREEN BY JAY LAKE: From the science fiction author of Escapement and Mainspring comes something totally different. Green is clear a novel that Jay Lake has put a lot of heart and soul into, with carefully chosen wordings and phrasings, along with a unique story. The first in a trilogy, Green is a book that will be a welcoming read to those who’ve ever felt they didn’t belong and will be an eye-opener for those who’ve never experienced this.
Green is a girl sold by her father at a very young age and stolen from the simple world she has known and forced into a form of servitude and training. While she doesn’t know what she is being trained for at first, it is grueling, abusive, forcing her to lock away the simple memories of her father and home for protection. Her training ranges from cooking and the making of clothes, to the martial arts and the use of weapons. She soon knows she has few friends in this harsh world. Eventually she will be sold from the Pomegranate Court to become a concubine to some man she’s never met, under the orders of the Duke.
Named Emerald at the end of her training and the arrival of her “monthly courses,” she proclaims herself Green, killing the mistress who beat her for years, and escaping the confines of the court, leaving the town of Copper Downs, and fleeing back to her home, hoping for love, respect, and a place to belong. There she finds a father who doesn’t remember, and the ox Endurance – her symbol of survival – a withered, dying animal. Fate takes her back to Copper Downs, now a trained assassin, she becomes wrapped up in the political intrigue, becoming a formidable adversary to anyone stepping in her path.
A fantasy world with an oriental flavor that has gods and goddesses who are real and live with us, but at the same time are not infallible. Lake also introduces unusual creatures who live among the peoples and proudly crosses the “bestiality” line much as he did in Mainspring, which may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Lake should be somewhat applauded for doing this with a character who has never belonged or fitted in anywhere.
Green is a book with poetical lines and paragraph that force to the reader to take their time. This may force some to give up, but the result by the end of the book is a magical tale that is well worth the read from cover to cover.Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
ICE LAND BY BETSY TOBIN: In Tobin’s second novel, after Bone House, she takes on the world of Iceland in the year A.D. 1000, setting the stage with research details of Viking and medieval Iceland, combining it with a host of characters from Norse mythology. The main character, Freya – one of the Aesir (gods) – has her own problems to deal with in life and love, while a host of other characters including Odin, an unusual dwarf, and a group of giants deal with their own subplots.
JULIAN COMSTOCK: A STORY OF THE 22ND-CENTURY AMERICA BY ROBERT CHARLES WILSON: From Robert Charles Wilson, author of Spin, comes an original future tale in the style of The Postman and Stephen King’s The Dark Tower. It is the 22nd century and our world is a different place, just as we know it will be. After the halcyon days of the early 21st century, there were decades of war and suffering and a reset for the planet. After the Efflorescence of Oil and a number of cataclysmic events: The Fall of the Cities, the Plague of Infertility, the False Tribulation, and the days of the Pious Presidents, the American flag now stands proud with sixty stars and thirteen stripes under the control of the Dominion. But one man named Julian Comstock is looking to change that.
President Deklan Comstock rules with a mighty fist, hand in hand with the Dominion, subjugating Americans while sacrificing thousands of troops in the ongoing war against the “mitteleuropans”. He has already sent his brother into harms way and had him “sacrificed,” keeping his rule as President certain. But in the small town of Athabaska his nephew Julian Comstock is a young boy with dreams of becoming a great man. Told from the viewpoint of his best friend who has hopes of becoming a writer, Adam Hazzard chronicles Julian’s life from a young age as close friends, to fighting in the army and become a national hero, to overthrowing his evil uncle and becoming rightful president. Always a leader, he has goals of ending the rule of the Dominion and reestablishing the former atheistic doctrine, the age of reason, and celebrating his hero, the great Charles Darwin, in a biographical film. Told in a strong, chronicling voice, Julian Comstock is a powerful novel.
Wilson has created an incredible and memorable world with some fascinating events that have come to pass. While the story of Julian Comstock is an important one, readers are left wanting more about the last century and exactly why things are the way they are, what’s going on with the rest of the world exactly, and what’s in store for the future. This is hopefully a strong first book in a series that will explore this unforgettable world that Wilson has put so much work in creating.
ROSEMARY AND RUE BY SEANAN MCGUIRE: For those looking for a fresh dosage of new reading after getting the latest fix of Dresden Files, look no further than the fresh voice of debut author Seanan McGuire and the first in her October Daye mystery series, Rosemary and Rue. Think Harry Dresden, but make him female, set her in San Francisco, and accept that the world of Faerie not only exists but has portals linking to our own world and the characters of fable are very real and terrifying.
October Dae is a changeling (half-human half-fae) who has never really felt she belongs in San Francisco, or the realm of Faerie for that matter. A private detective, who seeks to help out her kind when they are in trouble, has her world changed when she is turned into a koi fish in the opening pages of the book and finds herself trapped beneath the waters for fourteen years and six months. The spell finally breaking, she returns to a very different San Francisco. While she attempts to acclimatize to this future world, a high ranking elven lady is found murdered, and as Toby investigates she finds herself magically bound to the woman until the mystery of her death is solved.
And so begins a fascinating story wonderfully blending the incredible sights of San Francisco and its noire foggy nights with visits to the world of Faerie where everything is new and very different. McGuire even provides a glossary for those having trouble with the faerie jargon. With three books slated for publication (and McGuire currently working on book five) the author doesn’t give too much away in this premiere tale, but just enough to leave readers hungry and wanting for more. Fortunately they won’t have to wait too long, with the second in the series, A Local Habitation, due out March 2nd 2010.
Check out Seanan McGuire's interview on BookBanter in Episode 14.
THE END OF EMPIRE: ATTILA THE HUN & THE FALL OF ROME BY CHRISTOPHER KELLY: When people hear the name Attila the Hun, thoughts and ideas immediately come to mind, both pro and con. Some think of him as a ruthless barbarian who slaughtered without thought or mercy. Others think of him as an impressive leader who was able bring an end to the greatest empire the world has ever known. Christopher Kelly, a professor of ancient history at Cambridge University and author of a couple of books on the Roman Empire, presents a complete biography in The End of Empire of Attila the Hun, while also educating readers on the downfall of Rome. After finishing it, readers will then be able to make their own assessment of the kind of man Attila truly was.
Kelly begins a little before the arrival of Attila, setting the stage with a weakening Rome and what’s going on with its infrastructure. There are the barbarian tribes on the very border of the empire, shunned and mistreated by the Romans, causing attacks and uprisings. Amidst these barbarian groups come the Huns from the distant steppes, perhaps seeking a more hospitable land. Kelly is quick to point out what is known and what is speculation. Kelly lays out Attila’s history from birth, his rise to power and issues with his brother. Eventually he becomes ruler of the Huns, launching attacks at Rome. But Attila is a brilliant leader and strategist, forming alliances and negotiating deals and treaties where necessary to initially protect his people, but ultimately to gain the upper hand. One gets the sense that perhaps Attila was doing this not only just for the Huns, but the other barbarian groups who have been so shunned and mistreated by Rome. Kelly takes the reader through years at a time, advancing Attila’s age, and supplying important information and events, eventually leading to the great ruler’s death and the legacy he earned from his people.
The End of Empire is a fascinating history book, providing an in-depth look at the causes and events with the fall of Rome and the incredible story of the man known as Attila. His writing style is clear and easy to understand, keeping the reader interested, balanced with lots of photos and illustrations, and the short chapters keep the reader focused until the end. The End of Empire is a great biographical piece for readers looking not to get lost in the long, drawn-out debates of an old professor, but to read an incredible story about a renowned and often misunderstood person that will keep them hooked until the very end. NORTHLANDERS VOLUME 2: THE CROSS + THE HAMMER BY BRIAN WOOD AND RYAN KELLY: Wood continues his powerful Northlanders series in this second volume with a look at two cultures fighting over one piece of land. The year is 1014, the place is Ireland. The Vikings have invaded, quickly taking over and subjugating most of the people, claiming what they consider to be rightfully theirs. But there are some who disagree, including one hero, Magnus, who seeks to wipe out any Vikings he sees, while doing what he must to protect his precious daughter. Magnus is a powerful warrior, who seems unstoppable, yet his one failing may be that he has lost his mind. But Lord Ragnar Ragnarsson thinks little of this, stopping at nothing to end Magnus and clear the way for a full Viking conquest.
In The Cross + The Hammer, Wood takes a brief break from his main character, Sven, to address another part of the world where the Vikings are making themselves known. Even with a different artist, the work is fresh and interesting, maintaining an acuteness to detail and accuracy, while Wood does his work in telling a story that may well have happened at some time in the eleventh century.
THE HUNGER GAMES BY SUZANNE COLLINS: From the author of the bestselling Underland Chronicles come the first in a brilliant new series that will change how you view your everyday life in more ways than you can count. Collins has taken a science fiction archetype – a doomed future world where everyone gets by, barely – with a certain cast of characters that sets off the readers emotions to unknown bounds.
North America. The future. Now known as Panem, it is a changed world, the country divided into districts, each district with its own industrial focus – minding, farming, manufacturing. For the most part, many in the districts struggle to get by, struggle to survive. Our main character, Katniss Everdeen, is a sixteen-year-old girl who has spent her life helping her family – her mother and younger sister – hunting for food and scraps, fighting to keep them all alive. She is a teen beyond her years.
The annual event of the Hunger Games arrives: a stark reminder of how worse things could really be if the Capitol didn’t control the districts. A boy and a girl – between twelve and eighteen – are selected from each district and forced to participate in the Games. Katniss’s younger sister gets picked, and Katniss does what she’s always done: steps in front, volunteering in her sister’s place, saving her life. Then she is off to the Hunger Games.
In the style of The Running Man, it is a nationally televised event, akin to the gladiatorial games of Rome, with much pomp and circumstance. Twenty-four kids find themselves put into the “ring” – an unknown terrain that may or may not be habitable – and with the sound of a gong and the start of the games, they must fight each other to the death until one last child remains standing. The children find themselves under constant pressure, to survive in the environs, to defend themselves against each other, and if the viewers get bored, creatures may be released to keep them on their toes.
The Hunger Games is one of those books that could be shelved in the young adult section for its use of teen characters, or the science fiction section for its powerful storytelling of a future world with some undeniable and harsh similarities to our own, or the fiction section for is strong characters who deal with very human emotions while fighting each other to survive. This is strongest in Katniss, who knows how to hunt and fight for herself, but knows little of love and caring for those other than her family, and yet in the Hunger Games sometimes you must make allies to survive, at a cost, for eventually you will have to kill your ally.
The Hunger Games will have you on the edge of your seat, flipping the pages, but also wanting to read slowly and savor the incredible story, and at the end you’ll be somewhat annoyed by the abrupt ending. Have no fear, the sequel, Catching Fire, will be out September 1st, while Collins continues work on the third book in the series.Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
BALL PEEN HAMMER BY ADAM RAPP AND GEORGE O’CONNOR: While the cover and title will certainly be misleading for some readers who look at this graphic novel for the first time, I recommend they read the inside flap for a description. It’s not about S&M and violent sex games, but in fact a world where a sickness has wiped out a considerable amount of the population. In the style of Children of Men, people are fighting to survive, fighting for food, and fighting to get a sample of the vaccine that will cure them of the lethal sickness. With a harsh, rough art style that lends greatly to the dark and doomed storyline, Rapp introduces a subplot on top of all the sadness with the murdering of innocent children. If the characters don’t comply, they will suffer for it, so what choice do they have? Rapp does introduce some happiness with the girl depicted on the cover searching for the musician whom she fell for, but Ball Peen Hammer ends before this is possibly reconciled, leaving the reader wondering if there’ll be more or is that the bleak end of it all?
CATCHING FIRE: HOW COOKING MADE US HUMAN BY RICHARD WRANGHAM: From the professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University, as well as the co-author of Demonic Males and co-editor of Primate Societies, comes Catching Fire, a thoroughly researching book on the importance of the discovery of fire and how it changed Homo sapiens sapiens forever.
While initially thinking Catching Fire would be a in depth foray into our ancestral humanity, looking at different hominids and what it was that led to the discovery of fire and going on from there, I was pleasantly surprised to discover a book more in the style of Michael Pollan’s Omnivores Dilemma. While the origin of fire and cooking are certainly discussed in this book, the true story here is how humanity has benefited from cooking, and how it has aided us on the evolutionary path to making us the dominant species on the planet. Wrangham boils it down (pun intended!) to energy and how when foods (especially meats) are cooked, more energy is generated from consuming them. The author scientifically breaks this down by analyzing the energy gained from raw meats as opposed to cooked, as well as vegetables, revealing the problems that some vegetarians and vegans can have in needing to make sure they get enough energy from the foods they consume.
Reading Catching Fire will educate you in a number of ways: you will learn the importance of our ancestors learning to cook foods and further are evolutionary development, but you will also learn why it is we cook foods – on a biological level – and how it can change how we grow and develop, both physically and intellectually.Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
CALIFORNIA TRIPS BY RYAN VER BERKMOES, ET. AL. : There’s a reason we all live in California (for those of you who don’t, read and learn why): it’s the best state in the nation! Those of us who call California home already know this, but with so much to offer from the Golden State, it can be tricky sometimes to decide what one should do and where to go. Lonely Planet’s California Trips presents to you all the answers you’ll need with “68 themed itineraries, 1147 local places to see,” covering the entire state, as well as some side trips to Nevada and Mexico.
The book begins in the Lonely Planet style of over twenty pages of glossy photos illustrating some of the beautiful places and spectacular vistas California has to offer, along with crucial page numbers for entries on each of these locations. This is followed by one of the most extensive and complete list of contents ever created, with trips organized for California, Northern California, Central California, and Southern California, then by theme, by season, and Expert-Recommended trips. Each trip is numbered, featuring a clear map with paragraphs on different numbered points from the map. On the last page of each section is “trip information” with specific places to visit – whether it is to eat, sleep, or be merry – along with contact details and websites where possible.
California Trips is a travel book with few photos or pictures illustrating the places to visit, but that’s because this is a guide book to help you choose where to go and get you to that location safely, and then no photo or picture will compare to actually being there, wherever it may be in the great state of California.Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE COLOR OF WATER BY KIM DONG HWA: In the second book of the trilogy, The Color of Water, Ehwa is now a growing girl and boys are on her mind all the time, but readers can see the beautiful woman she will become. And yet she still has a lot to learn about life, the world, and more importantly, men and what they can be like. Fortunately she has her mother to educate her on the ways of the world and the ways of men and their desires. Ehwa is a naïve young girl, but a fast learner. With the expression “third time’s the charm,” Ehwa has high hopes for this third, new boy in her life, Duksam. Friction grows between Ehwa and her mother, as the girl is always wanting to go out and find Duksam, while ignoring her duties and chores. Ehwa has also attracted the eye of an old man who will do everything he can to get her. There is also jealousy growing between Ehwa and her mother, who receives infrequent visits from her “picture man.” Hwa continues his beautiful artwork and wonderful poetic words that combine simile through nature to educate Ehwa and readers about love and life. Readers will be left anxiously waiting for the conclusion of the trilogy, The Color of Heaven.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
BINKY THE SPACE CAT BY ASHLEY SPIRES: In the first of what will hopefully be a long and successful series, written and illustrated by Ashley Spires, comes Binky the Space Cat, a wonderful original cat story that combines both the realistic and hilarious antics of a cat (cat owners will be able to laugh along and sympathize), as well as an entertaining storyline. Binky is your ordinary, unusual looking cat that knows the world is under threat from aliens. His human masters call the aliens bugs, but through a process of elimination, he has worked out that bugs and aliens are one and the same. He protects the humans from the aliens constantly; it’s his job in return for foods and pettings. Then one day he finds a membership form and kit for becoming a space cat in his giant bag of food. How much will it take to become a true space cat? How will he build his spaceship? And what will happen to his humans? All will be revealed in Binky the Space Cat!
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
CAHOKIA: ANCIENT AMERICA’S GREAT CITY ON THE MISSISSIPPI BY TIMOTHY R. PAUKETAT: Journey back to the eleventh century when North America was a wide open continent teaming with wildlife and nature, where the native peoples were in the minority, where natural resources were in abundance, and where life was different. Travel up the Mississippi and when you get to a place near to what would one day be the city of St. Louis, you will find great flat-top pyramids reaching into the sky, and a place teaming with activity and people. You have reached the ancient and once great city of Cahokia.
Excavations were begun in the area of what would turn out to be the city of Cahokia in the early twentieth century, with a combination of some lucky guesses for sites, and with the great revolution to map America with highways, crucial archeological digs were discovered. In some cases, prosperity destroyed some of these sites, but many others were found and excavated. Author and professor of anthropology at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Timothy R. Pauketat, weaves the history and story of this city and culture with the incredible work that was done to excavate and learn about it.
Cahokia is a short book filled with facts and details about a place that few know about, but through crucial research and discovery, it is possible to ascertain through subsequent Native American tribes and populations, what this great city was once like. In this way, readers find out what the stories and mythologies of these people might have been, as well as why the pyramids were built, and why there was such large-scale human sacrifice going on. While there is a lacking in photos and pictures to aid and illustrate in Pauketat’s narrative, Cahokia will still startle you and leave you in awe of what was once a great American city that remains relatively unknown. PANAMA FEVER: THE EPIC STORY OF THE BUILDING OF THE PANAMA CANAL BY MATTHEW PARKER: In this brilliant historical epic that rivals and in some ways exceeds David McCullough’s mighty tome, The Path Between the Seas, from the author of The Battle of Britain and Monte Cassino, Matthew Parker tells a tale that will not be ready lightly in Panama Fever. For those looking for a quick, short story about how the Panama Canal got built, turn away now. For those wanting to know how much back-breaking labor, how many lives were lost, how many companies and families were bankrupted, and how many countries were brought to both war and shame, Panama Fever is the book for you.
Divided into three large chunks, Parker begins at the absolute beginning with the discovery of American by Columbus and the original idea that was developed to create a passage across the narrowest part of Central America, providing access to the great Pacific Ocean. It wasn’t until centuries later that plans were begun to see about creating a canal through Central America, linking the two great oceans.
In the second part, “The French Tragedy,” readers learn that France was one of the first countries to begin an excavation in an attempt to create a canal. Organized and run by the great Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps, who was already popular and famous after the successful and completion of the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal project was to be his life’s greatest work. His undoing lay in his demand that the canal be made all on one even level, which in reality was an impossibility. Thousands and thousands died from malaria or yellow fever, due to the swamps and ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes, coupled with primitive medical techniques. Labor was imported from Jamaica, but the fever had no preference for skin color or class standing. The project was forced to stop and restart multiple times due to a combination of these factors, and the extreme cost and incorrectly predicted timeline.
In “The American Triumph,” President Theodore Roosevelt proclaims that an US-controlled Panama Canal was vital to American industry and to protect and defend the United States from attack. With Panama under Colombian control, Roosevelt instigated a coup – though profusely denied it – for Panamanian rebels to overthrow their Colombian rulers. Then the US went in, taking over Panama after lying to them about their proposed freedom, and work was begun on the canal which was finally completed in late 1913.
Panama Fever is a book that holds nothing back, giving all the gritty details, the body counts, the political slandering and corruption, as well as the amazing history of how this little canal became such a historical undertaking. Filled with numerous photos, illustrative maps, and diagrams where necessary, readers will feel satiated with knowledge about the Panama Canal and its historic albeit tainted creation.
WHAT’S NEXT? DISPATCHES ON THE FUTURE OF SCIENCE: ORIGINAL ESSAYS FROM A NEW GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS EDITED BY MAX BROCKMAN: For anyone who wonders what the near future holds and what exactly are all those scientists doing with the grants and tax dollar funding they receive, What’s Next? is a book with some answers. Featuring eighteen original essays that have never been published from some of today’s best scientists, What’s Next? will insight a curiosity in the reader on advances and research that is being made in the many fields of science.
While a little patience and perhaps some scientific background is recommended, as these scientists are not authors of multiple books and tend to get very detailed and complex in their essays, readers will find news and answers in the fields if neurological research, behavior, how humans think, the nature of time, and where our idea of morality possibly arises from. Global warming is addressed in a most interesting essay that analyzes a warming world where the Northern Rim becomes further habitable, but leaves readers with the question of how many people will want to move into the undeveloped heartland of Russia?
What’s Next? is a collection of some very interesting and insightful essays that give readers news and information on some areas of research and science that may not be readily available to them through magazines or newspapers, or perhaps are only available through expensive science journals. Perhaps a book to truly show “your tax dollars at work.”Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
DEAD MEN’S BOOTS BY MIKE CAREY: The intrepid exorcist, Felix Castor, returns under the skilled writing hands of Mike Carey, and this is his biggest adventure yet! After ignoring calls from a fellow exorcist, John Gittings, he finds his friend dead, an apparent suicide and feels guilty. He agrees to work with the wife in putting her husband to rest, along with dealing with a slimy lawyer who’s trying to execute Gittings will to be cremated. At the same time Castor is brought onto a case about a man who’s been brutally raped and murdered. As Castor begins putting the facts together it’s starting to look like a dead female serial killer may somehow be behind it all. Joining up with his quasi-friend and succubus-turned-exorcist, Juliet, and importing some help from his zombie friend who always has answers, Nicky Heath; Castor will have to travel to Alabama to get some answers and put the case together. Dead Men’s Boots continues in this third book in the excellent series that just gets better with each new release. If only the US could get the books published as fast as the UK, which already has the fourth book out, with the fifth due out in the fall.
Check out Mike Carey's interview on BookBanter in Episode 16.
ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE SCRIVENER’S BONES BY BRANDON SANDERSON: Welcome back to another “fake” review for the supposed fictional book in the Brandon Sanderson series, Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones. I’m just pretending to be a book reviewer, but I know the truth about the real world and I’m going to tell you a little more about it. Don’t let the librarians or teachers see this! Brandon Sanderson is really a penname for Alcatraz Smedry, who’s out to stop the evil librarians who are controlling the world.
In this next book of his biography, Alcatraz tells the story of how he has to travel to the great library of Alexandria, in Egypt. Yep, it’s still there, with every book and piece of writing ever recorded. No, it wasn’t destroyed. See how you don’t know the real truth. He’s going there to find out about his father, who he’s never even met. He’s traveling in this really cool giant glass dragon, along with his family: his cousin Sing, who’s talent is always tripping at the wrong moment; his cousin Quentin, who’s talent is to speak gibberish; and his cousin Australia, who’s special ability is she wakes up looking ugly, or looking like whoever she was dreaming of. As you might’ve guessed, the Smedry family are all named after prisons.
But if Alcatraz wants to find his father, he’ll have to get past the terrifying library curators, who will suck out your soul if you pick up any of the books in the library of Alexandria. And then there’s the Scrivener’s Bones who are on his tail. Will he survive this time? I’m not going to tell you, it’s too dangerous, just go out and get the book and find out for yourself.
Check out Brandon Sanderon's interview on BookBanter in Episode 2.
ALCATRAZ VERSUS THE EVIL LIBRARIANS BY BRANDON SANDERSON: I write this under the pen name of book reviewer Alex C. Telander, so I can keep the librarians happy and unsuspecting. If you’re reading this, then you must’ve heard about the supposed “fictional” book, Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians. Good for you! You have taken the first step to learning the truth.
This book isn’t really by Brandon Sanderson, it’s a cover for the true story and biography of Alcatraz Smedry. In this first book in the series you’ll learn about Alcatraz and why he’s always breaking everything he touches. It’s because that’s his special power. In fact he thought he was an orphan – yeah, like Harry Potter – only turns out he was just being protected. On his thirteenth birthday – after burning the kitchen down because he broke the stove – he gets a bag of sand as a gift from the parents he never knew he had, an inheritance, and it get stolen. His grandfather appears from nowhere and just rescues him in time – his special ability is that he arrives late for everything, really handy when you’re being shot at.
Alcatraz soon finds out that the world isn’t what he thinks it is, that there’s other places he never knew existed, but it’s all because of those evil librarians; they’re behind everything. They’ve pulled the wool over our eyes for a long time, but if you’re reading this, then maybe you’ll read Alcatraz’s story and find out what the truth is. The evil librarians control everything, but it’s up to Alcatraz along with help from his family and an appointed bodyguard, a girl who’s a knight of the Crystallia, to try and stop these librarians and get that important bag of sand back. Because the sand can be used to make lenses which have special powers, and this sand will make a lens that can read any language, even the ancient language which nobody knows how to read.
So now you’ve read this fake book review about a fictional book called Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians by Brandon Sanderson, go out and get the book at any bookstore – avoid the library, ‘cos that’s where the evil librarians are – and find out what the real world is like. Think The Matrix, only better!
Check out Brandon Sanderon's interview on BookBanter in Episode 2.Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE EDGE OF THE WORLD BY KEVIN J ANDERSON: With the completion of his Saga of the Seven Suns, Kevin J. Anderson returns with a brand new series, Terra IncognitA, and the first book The Edge of the World. This world consists of two great and vastly different empires: to the north lies Tierra, to the south Uraba, and linking the two peoples is the melting pot of a city, Ishalem. The book begins with a formal and grandiose truce being made between the two cultures, but Ishalem is an old city, and as an accidental fire breaks out, the city brought to burned cinders. The Urabans believe it was a planned assault by the Tierrans, and war immediately breaks out, forcing the Tierrans to flee back to their lands for protection. With minor attempts being made to repair the damage and help avoid the ongoing war, the empires seek to explore the oceans around them with the hopes of discovering new worlds.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
WILD THYME, GREEN MAGIC BY JACK VANCE : In this wonderfully published collection of Jack Vance stories from Subterranean Press, coinciding with the release of a tribute collection to the great author, Songs of a Dying Earth, one finds twelve stories covering Vance’s career of the sixties and seventies. It includes his first ever published story, “The World-Thinker,” as well as many others like “Chateau D If,” “Green Magic,” and “The Seventeen Virgins.” Edited by Terry Dowling and Jonathan Strahan, along with occasional after commentary from Vance himself, as well as featuring excerpts from a 1986 interview and some short biographies written by Norma Vance, his wife; Wild Thyme, Green Magic is the perfect introduction to those looking to read Jack Vance for the first time. Alternatively, if you’re a long time fan, you’ll want to have this beautiful edition on your shelf to peruse, skim, and voraciously read whenever you want.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE COLOR OF HEAVEN BY KIM DONG HWA : In this concluding volume to the Color trilogy, Kim Dong Hwa takes the relationship between Ehwa and her mother to a new level, for the little girl is now seventeen and a blossoming woman. The women find they have more in common than they thought, as they wait and yearn for their lovers who are far away, wondering when they will return. Nevertheless, Ehwa still has some crucial lessons to learn from her parent. But Hwa must bring the series to a close, and he does so with Ehwa’s betrothal to Duksam, and their beautiful wedding. Her mother says goodbye to the daughter she’s had in her home for so long, and while her lover now returns to her for good, she finds herself once again looking out from her home, waiting, this time for the return of her daughter who she now misses greatly. Hwa’s artwork and scenery continue to astound, while The Color of Heaven does an incredible job of revealing facets of Korean culture rendered in such a beautiful way.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
WIRELESS BY CHARLES STROSS : From the author of the Hugo-nominated Saturn’s Children comes a collection of short stories featuring a number of novellas and one previously unpublished work. Wireless kicks off with the strongest in the collection in “Missile Gap”: its 1962 and the Cold War is in full sway with the Cuban Missile Crisis, and then something catastrophic happens. Somehow all the continents and oceans of planet Earth are transported across the universe to the Large Magellanic Cloud where everything is situated on a giant flat disc that is greater than the landmass of a million Earths. The inhabitants of this new Earth now find themselves trapped there, the gravity too great to pass beyond the disc. And then there are the new continents beyond the known landmasses to be investigated. Meanwhile the Cold War is still going on. One of the best science fiction stories I’ve ever read, leading into some very interesting works including mobile farms that are a pest and a cyber adventure co written with Cory Doctorow. /Wireless/ is a great collection for those who know Stross well and are looking for more original material, or for those looking to discover this author for the first time.
HEROES OF THE VALLEY BY JONATHAN STROUD: Jonathan Stroud, author of the bestselling Bartimaeus Trilogy, returns with Heroes of the Valley, a wonderful original tale that deserves to be in the annals of the Icelandic Sagas alongside Leif and Erik. A young adult book that anyone of any age can enjoy for the action, the setting, and the tension between its strong characters.
Halli Sveinsson is a teenager who feels he was born in the wrong time. He dreams of the past when the great heroes lived – Svein, Arne, Hakon -- and fought the dreaded trows to keep them out of the valley, protecting the villages and people within. Now their cairns are all that remain, protective burial mounds that keep the trows away and serve as a reminder that no one should pass their boundary. The people of the valley no longer have any weapons; all disputes are solved by the Council. Halli’s mother and father, Astrid and Arnkel, serve as lawgiver and arbiter of the house.
But Halli finds life in the valley extremely boring, which is why he is a very mischievous child. When the Hakons from the other side of the valley come to visit for the annual fair, there is competitive tension between the houses. An argument breaks out between Hord, the arbiter of Hakon’s House, and Brodir, Arnkel’s brother, which turns into a fight that leaves Brodir dead. Halli witnesses it all and vows revenge on the Hakons. This begins a series of events that will change the entire dynamic of the valley that has been quiet and calm for so long. Then there is the pretty Aud, daughter to the arbiter of Arne’s House, who Halli befriends and becomes close to. Halli will need all the allies he can find to keep the honor of his house’s name and maintain the memory of the great warrior, Svein.
Heroes of the Valley is a healthy mixture of adventure and history, with some strong lessons on what it means to be good to your word, respectful of your elders to a degree, and that sometimes you need to challenge the status quo. It is a book about the importance of family, but also that one should encourage the independent spirit of any person, be they boy or girl. Jonathan Stroud has delivered another impressive novel that goes beyond just a good story; a book that will be welcomed on anyone’s shelf.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE SWAMPS OF SLEETHE BY JACK PRELUTSKY, ILLUSTRATED BY JIMMY PICKERING: Jack Prelutsky has written ten anthologies of poetry and over forty “kid-friendly.” Long considered the “unofficial poet laureate of schoolkids”; in 2006 he was officially named the nation’s first Children’s Poet Laureate. In this collection, which Prelutsky attributes to his love of Star Trek, he takes you on a wild ride around an imaginary universe, showing you what the many different planets could be like. While essentially all of them seem to have some creature or some attribute that will kill you – begging the question of why anyone would ever want to visit outer space – he nevertheless reveals to the young reader the wide variety of alien life that could be out there. Richly and colorfully illustrated by Jimmy Pickering, it’s a great book to read to kids, with Prelutsky’s large vocabulary and heavy dose of multi-syllable words, which will have parents reaching for the dictionary to give exact definitions. But with the bizarre and colorful aliens, kids will be thoroughly entertained, along with a game where some planet’s names are anagrams to be solved (answers are in the back of the book). The Swamps of Sleethe is a fun book to teach kids lots of new words and perhaps to start them on the first step to an obsession with science fiction.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE THREE ROBBERS BY TOMI UNGERER: Tomi Ungerer, recipient of the Hans Christian Andersen award for illustration, and “one of the world’s most famous and best-loved children’s authors,” brings readers a fun tale that feels like something from the minds of the Brothers Grimm. It begins dark and scary, but ends with joy and happiness. The three robbers are feared throughout the land: “women fainted. Brave men ran. Dogs fled.” With their pepper-blower (for blinding the horses), their large red ax (for chopping the wheels off the carriage), and their blunderbuss (used for threatening the passengers), they take their plunder to their secret lair. Then on one night there is no plunder but a little girl, so they take her to their laid. When she asks them what they do with all their plunder, they are speechless. Deciding to do good, the three robbers buy a castle and adopt orphans and helpless children, giving them a better life. Using a simple chalk art style with few sentences and lots of big pictures, kids will enjoy this colorful book. The story feels like an original fairy tale with a clear message of needing to be caring to others (just make sure you ignore the fact that the money was ill-gotten).
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE CURIOUS GARDEN BY PETER BROWN: Liam is a young boy who lives in a gray, dreary city, which is filled with lots of tall, ugly buildings, and black asphalt roads. Then one day he discovers in an abandoned railway station a touch of color: some wildflowers and plants. Wanting to create more color in the gray city, he tends to the tiny garden, pruning, watering, and even singing to it. At first he prunes and waters a little too much, but learns how to be a good gardener. The tiny garden grows and grows until it begins taking over the station and moving up and down the railway line, adding more and more color and life to the unattractive city. Then fall and winter comes and the flowers wither, losing their color. Liam returns in the spring and begins working again on his growing garden, except now many other people are helping, making the garden grow and grow. Eventually the city is a colorful, bountiful place and the complete opposite of what it used to be. The Curious Garden is a wonderful tale about what you can do if you don’t give up and really put your mind to it. It’s also an important message about how we should be “greening” and adding color to our cities to make them better places to live in.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
JAKE RANSOM AND THE SKULL KING’S SHADOW BY JAMES ROLLINS: Jake and Kady Ransom are the children of brilliant archaeologists who tragically and mysteriously disappear while on a dig for ancient Mayan artifacts. Three years later the Ransoms are suspiciously invited to a new Mayan exhibition at the British Museum, commemorating the memory of the missing archaeologists. It turns out to be a PR stunt, but Jake and Kady get to enjoy the special Mayan artifacts before anyone else. It is the miniature pyramid that intrigues Jake, noticing that the doorway is an usual shape that two pieces of a glyph – the last items the Ransoms got from their parents – fit exactly into. When inserted, there is a bright light, then darkness.
Jake and Kady awake to find themselves in another world where there are very different people from different moments in time: Mayans, Vikings, Romans, even Neanderthals who have been there for many thousands of years. They live in the great city of Calypsos. Here they are protected from the dinosaurs that walk about outside looking for prey. The Ransoms find themselves in a time long, long ago, where there are many dangers. There is also the Skull King, once an elder of Calypsos, who is now looking to take over the city and subjugate its people. It will be up to Jake and Kady to figure out a way to stop the Skull King and somehow find a way back home, to their time.
Bestselling author James Rollins kicks off a great children’s book series with Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow which is a combination of adventurous Indiana Jones with some fascinating history of the different cultures of the world. Focusing on the Mayan people and their culture in this first book, the rest of the series promises to be just as action-packed and educational. Jake Ransom and the Skull King’s Shadow is a book to be enjoyed by anyone of any age.
Check out James Rollins' interview on BookBanter in Episode 9.
BLUEBERRY GIRL BY NEIL GAIMAN, ILLUSTRATED BY CHARLES VESS: Writer Neil Gaiman and illustrator Charles Vess have collaborated on some incredible works in the past with Sandman and Stardust. In Blueberry Girl, the story began as a beautiful and positive wish for a friend of Gaiman’s, a mother to be. Now with the carefully chosen words of Gaiman, and the lush, fresh, and moving art and color of Charles Vess, everyone can enjoy this tale.
It is the story of a young girl, a baby at first, who must grow to adulthood and is wished on every step of the way to be treated well, to experience life to its fullest, to follow her dreams, to have good times and bad, highs and lows. There is some classics Gaiman mythology with the opening page: “Ladies of light and ladies of darkness and ladies of never-you-mind, this is a prayer for a blueberry girl,” a clear reference to the fates; there’s even a quaint fairytale reference: “Keep her from spindles and sleeps at sixteen.”
Blueberry Girl is a book to be cherished and kept for generations, passed down from mother to daughter to granddaughter. It is a story to inspire the best in a young girl and give parents the utmost hope and respect for her. It is a fable that will only get better each time you read it or tell it to a young one.
TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA BY SHAUN TAN: Artist and writer Shaun Tan returns with another spectacular piece of artwork. Unlike bestselling The Arrival, Tales From Outer Suburbia features both entertaining and moving short stories and flash fiction, combining with beautiful original artwork, making the reader savor each word choice and brush stroke on the page.
Like The Arrival, this is also a commentary on our current western civilized society of suburbia and what it really means to be ordinary and bland, with everything perfect and the same. Tan looks to shake up this foundation with bizarre stories that have deeper meanings that go beyond a simple tale. There is the story of Eric, the foreign exchange student, who looks and acts very different and is just strange, but upon going back to his home, leaves an indelible gift. The story of the sea cow, or dugong, that miraculously appears on the lawn of a family going through personal troubles, giving the child something new and different in his life. In “Grandpa’s Story,” grandpa tells the tale of the special journey he and his newlywed wife had to go through that was dangerous and life-threatening, but ultimately brought them closer together.
Tales From Outer Suburbia is a collection of unique stories that will have you grabbing it off the shelf at least once a month, perhaps to escape from the ordinariness of your life, or to just be entertained by the bizarre. Ultimately, you will be comforted by these stories, as each of them serves as a cathartic tonic.
SCIENCE FICTION CLASSICS: GRAPHIC CLASSICS VOLUME SEVENTEEN BY H .G. WELLS ET. AL.: In this seventeenth volume of graphic classics one might’ve expected the series to have stretched beyond its ability to delight and entertain, and yet this volume offers some of the best stories yet, done with some great adaptation and some truly original artwork.
Volume 17 kicks off with a bang with the graphic adaptation of H. G. Well’s famous War of the Worlds. Writer Rich Rainey must be commended for condensing the novel into just 48 pages, and yet maintaining enough storyline and action to be true to the original book. The artwork from Micah Farritor helps set the scene of the nineteenth century, giving each of the characters a very human look. As for the aliens, Farritor borrows from the classic look of War of the Worlds, but also adds his own style.
A day in the life of a man who looks much like George Jetson is the setting for the next story: Jules Verne’s “In the Year 2889.” Stories from Stanley G. Weintraub and Arthur Conan Doyle are included, each presenting their own unique art style from a different artist. Graphic Classics Volume 17 is a great addition to the collection, leaving readers looking forward to what’s to come next.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE COLOR OF EARTH BY DONG HWA KIM: The first in a trilogy, the graphic novel The Color of Earth is now available to English-speaking (and reading) audiences. While author and artist, Dong Hwa Kim, has published a number of graphic novels – or manwha as they are called in Korea – like My Sky and The Red Bicycle, this trilogy represents a new foray for him. Ehwa is a young girl who doesn’t have a father, and her only role model is a single mother who is mocked by men at the local tavern she owns and runs. In her early years, Ehwa looks down on her mother for allowing men to treat her this way, but as she grows into womanhood and becomes interested in boys, she begins to understand more. Her mother knows that the men are harmless, but when they go to far, she is quick to stop them or at least stick up for herself. The Color of Earth explores Ehwa becoming a teenager and her first simple relationships with boys, as well as her mother finding a new love in her life. The trilogy is continued in The Color of Water, and has become a bestseller in Korea among both men and women, for Kim has a talent for telling a beautiful story, but also for getting to the heart of humanity. It is a story that will grow on you and become a classic like A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
AD: NEW ORLEANS AFTER THE DELUGE BY JOSH NEUFELD: Originally serialized in SMITH Magazine, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge by Josh Neufeld is a remarkable graphic novel that manages to capture both the raw look of a city attacked by natural forces, but also to reveal the emotions and reactions of people who remained in the city, and those who watched from afar. Told from the viewpoint of six people New Orleanians, they each experience Hurricane Katrina differently, but ultimately suffer loss. There is Denise, who experiences the pandemonium at the Superdome. Abbas, and his friend Mansell, who live out the storm first within the market that Abbas owns and runs, and then on the roof as the water level rises. The Doctor, who remains in the French Quarter throughout the hurricane, a haven for others, miraculously unscathed. Leo – a comic book collector – and Michelle who leave New Orleans in time, but lose everything they own. And Kwame, a Pastor’s son, who leaves before the storm and has his life irrevocably changed. A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge is the next great graphic novel in a growing genre of journalistic or non-fiction graphic novels, that combine words and art to tell incredible stories of real life and real happenings.Check out Josh Neufeld's interview on BookBanter in Episode 14.
THE EVOLUTION OF GOD BY ROBERT WRIGHT: From Robert Wright, author of The Moral Animal and Nonzero, comes a controversial book that is sure to set off the ire of most if not all religious groups. In The Evolution of God Wright gives readers a complete history of religion from our ancient prehistory when fire was something novel and new and ancestral people saw spirits within every rock and tree, to the modern day clash of faiths throughout the world.
Divided into five sections, Wright begins at the very beginning, exploring why people looked to create spirits and gods in objects and the ether to help give a reason behind phenomena like natural disasters, cataclysms, and what happens when a family member dies. He explores these ideas both at the scientific level and the psychological, reducing faith to its component parts. Wright then moves onto the advent of monotheism, Christianity, and Islam, providing a history lesson and analyzing these world-dominant faiths under the same parameters. In the last section, “God Goes Global,” he addresses the state of today’s religions and what it means to us on a global scale.
The Evolution of God doesn’t look to refute religion, or decide which is better or truer than the other; Wright is just telling a history of the evolution of religion and faith through our ancestry to our present. Whether you’re an atheist or are deeply religious, you will nevertheless find The Evolution of God an interesting read, whether you agree with it or not.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
ANTIMATTER BY FRANK CLOSE: Frank Close is Professor of Physics at Oxford University, a Fellow of Exeter College, and has written a number of books, including Lucifer’s Legacy and The Void; so he really knows a thing or two about relativity, quantum theory, and more importantly, antimatter. Close says he wrote the book after a BBC Radio 4 discussion in 2007 that sparked a lot of emails and questions concerning antimatter and its possible power, especially when considered in the hands of the US military or perhaps a terrorist organization. Coupled with this is the new movie of Angels & Demons, based on the Dan Brown book, involving an antimatter bomb secreted beneath the Vatican.
In Antimatter Close does his best to dispel this notion of antimatter being something that can be easily made and used for devastation. He takes readers on a history lesson into the discovery of antimatter, as well as explaining how it was physically found from a mathematical point of view. This book is not for those who don’t have a solid grasp of mathematics, otherwise readers will get lost in the jargon and mental loops and whirls. But for those who know math and want some questions answered about this relatively new and certainly misunderstood “matter,”Antimatter is a short and perfect book for this.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE COSMIC CONNECTION: HOW ASTRONOMICAL EVENTS IMPACT LIFE ON EARTH BY JEFF KANIPE: Jeff Kanipe has established himself as a valid science writer, author of Chasing Hubble’s Shadow and A Skywatcher’s Year, as well as being the former managing editor of Astronomy magazine and editor in chief of StarDate magazine. In The Cosmic Connection, he takes readers on a thorough five-billion year history of Planet Earth and all the pot-shots and catastrophes that have been thrown at it over the millennia, which have left giant craters pock marking this big rock we call home. Kanipe points out early that we are living in a relatively calm time of little activity from an astronomical perspective and apart from a few near misses, nothing that might threaten our very existence.
Split into chapters that focus on volcanic and seismic activity on the planet, the sun, and what space is throwing at us, Kanipe provides plenty of details and diagrams. While at times the author seems to repeat himself and state the obvious, The Cosmic Connection is nevertheless an interesting history lesson on what catastrophic events that would’ve wiped out our species in a second have taken place in our past.
ALWAYS LOOKING UP: THE ADVENTURES OF AN INCURABLE OPTIMIST BY MICHAEL J. FOX: It’s been about seven years since actor Michael J. Fox published Lucky Man, the story of his acting life and how his world changed when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The book was a bestseller and Fox now returns with his next book, Always Looking Up, which documents his life after the release of Lucky Man, the creation of one of the most successful charities ever, The Michael J. Fox Foundation, and how he has continued to always stay positive.
An incurable optimist: Fox cites himself as an optimist and always staying positive. He opens the book with the beginning of an average day in Michael J. Fox’s life, as he slowly gets out of bed, dealing with “dystonia” as it cripples his feet, and the meticulous steps he must take to get up of a morning, put on clothes and slippers, go to the bathroom, and make it to breakfast while battling with constant tremors, as his limbs move in all directions at once. It is a harsh and sobering look at Fox’s life that immediately makes the reader realize two things: 1) their daily ablutions are nothing compared to Fox’s, and 2) how incredible it is for a man whose every day is like this to keep a positive attitude and live life to its absolute fullest. And while a lot of this courage and optimism comes from within Fox, he is quick to point out and almost obsessively repeat that it is not solely because of him, but due to other factors such as work, politics, faith, and family. He dedicates the book to his wife and children, then proceeds to tell his story for the next two hundred pages, constantly reminding the reader that without these people in his life, he wouldn’t have made it.
Always Looking Up is divided into four parts, as Fox discusses each subject as opposed to going through his last seven years chronologically. In “Work” he tells of when he made his decision to leave Spin City – while confronting a turtle in Caribbean waters no less! – to how he went about setting up the Michael J. Fox Foundation, at first with the help and advice of Lance Armstrong. In the second part, “Politics,” Fox discusses his developing level of activism through the Bush administration and the important 2006 election. In “Faith” Fox admits he has never officially subscribed to a named religion, but nevertheless maintains a faith in everything he does, adhering to tenants and certain commandments that are common to all religions. In the final part, “Family,” Fox pours out his heart and emotion about his own parents and siblings, growing up in Canada, his incredible children, and his remarkable wife who have been his foundation.
Fox started the Michael J. Fox Foundation at first to find a cure for Parkinson’s disease, but it has since become an important charity not just for Parkinson’s, but for scientific research and discovery as a whole, for the driving spirit to help others in need and make this world a better place. Fox asked for a deadline for curing Parkinson’s when he began the foundation; that deadline has now passed. Yet Fox continues his work, his hope, his optimism, offering it as advice to all others who have ever doubted something. It’s very easy to just give up. Michael J. Fox is someone who has never done that.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
LONELY PLANET CALIFORNIA BY SARA BENSON, ALISON BING, ALEX AVERBUCK, AND BETH KOHN: In this wonderful new edition of Lonely Planet California, featuring a field of California poppies on the cover, you will find 131 detailed maps and lots of new features, sidebars, recommendations, and spotlights, improving the book over the last edition. It’s the ideal book for any Californian or person visiting California, whether you’re looking for an extended excursion or a quick trip somewhere. The book features a detailed table of contents laid out by location, or there’s the quick-reference full index immediately taking you to where you want to go.
Lonely Planet California has lots of features and sidebars on not just the “top five” places or towns to see, but entertaining items like “top five trendy SF restaurant ingredients” or “top five star-studded SOCAL socials.” Descriptions feature some entertaining creative writing along with crucial details about specifics of a town or location. The best thing about the book is the cross-indexing, where if there’s an entry about it, the page number will be next to it so you can find it right away. I know I’ll be keeping Lonely Planet California within easy reach on my shelf, for whenever I leave the home and head off into the wilderness of this great state.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
ONCE IN A LIFETIME TRIPS BY CHRIS SANTELLA: From the author of Fifty Places to Sail Before You Die, as well as the other Fifty Places to . . . books, comes a unique collection of locations on and above our planet: Once in a Lifetime Trips: The World’s 50 Most Extraordinary and Memorable Travel Experiences. Having visited most of the these places himself, Santella doesn’t just try to give readers some truly special and awesome places that our planet has to offer, but to make a unique trip, journey, or experience out of it. The book is divided by definition of how one can reach certain places: by sea, in the jungle, in the mountains, in the country, in the city, and even in the sky. Each location has a two- to three-page entry featuring one or two photographs highlighting it, as well as a storytelling description of how one can best experience this unique place told through second person.
Some predictable places are mentioned, like Easter Island, the Galapagos, climbing a mountain in the Himalayas. And some (if not a good percentage) of the places mentioned are out of most peoples’ price ranges, such as: “The world’s greatest opera houses by private jet” and “Visiting the International Space Station,” while others require extreme fitness and skill: “Heli-skiing in New Zealand’s southern alps” and “Coasting on the king’s trail of Sweden.” Nevertheless, Santella does provide a detailed page at the end as to how one can take a trip to each of these unique locations and whom they should contact. While a map may be needed for some readers to know just where these places are, they will at least delight and give reader’s ideas about what they might like to do to make their next trip extra special.
ALADDIN’S LAMP: HOW GREEK SCIENCE CAME TO EUROPE THROUGH THE ISLAMIC WORLD BY JOHN FREELY: John Freely takes on a subject he clearly already knows a lot about, having written books on Istanbul, Turkey, Crete, and a good portion of Asia Minor. In Aladdin’s Lamp he goes into extreme detail in revealing how we are today able to enjoy the Greek classics of Plato, Homer, and many others. While the book at times takes on an almost classroom-like routine with chapter after chapter, throwing more information in an almost dry, regurgitative sense; Aladdin’s Lamp is nevertheless a very interesting book into the history of the classics and how they survived.
Freely begins at the beginning, perhaps going on for a little too long, but clearly relishing in telling the reader about some of the great works of the Greeks, with the likes of Archimedes, Plato, and Pythagoras, and what it is they found out in a time when science was a barely flourishing discipline. While on the one hand these were some amazing people who were able to come up with standards of architecture, and a surprisingly close approximation of the circumference of the Earth, Freely needs to get on with the reason for writing this book, and not give us a history lesson on Ancient Greece.
The first third of the book done, Freely finally goes into the next chapter of the Islamic world, how Baghdad was a paradise of the world that flourished with culture and literature. It was because of a number of circumstances, and the constant mixing of peoples with trade from throughout the Western World, that these sacred texts were first preserved after the fall of the Rome and then the Byzantine world, and then translated.
While the information may be overbearing at times and Freely lacks in a certain storytelling quality of making the book as enjoyable as some other works of nonfiction, Aladdin’s Lamp does provide insight into the turbulent times of the early Middle Ages, when civilizations and countries rose and fell within the blink of an eye, while culture and literature and science was kept – at times in secret – to be read and enjoyed by future generations.
PHYSICS OF THE IMPOSSIBLE: A SCIENTIFIC EXPLORATION OF THE WORLD OF PHASERS, FORCE FIELDS, TELEPORTATION, AND TIME TRAVEL BY MICHIO KAKU: It’s become a pretty much accepted fact now that a lot of the great future inventions we see on the likes of Star Trek, Star Wars and just about any show involving science fictionare not going to exist within our lifetimes. But the one-word question you must be asking yourself then about things like time travel, teleportation, and deadly laser cannons is when? Thankfully the great scientist and bestselling author, Michio Kaku, has lots of answers for you.
In Physics of the Impossible, Kaku breaks down what the future holds for humanity with its great inventions by what he calls Class Impossibilities, divided into Class I for possible inventions within one or more centuries, Class II to cover the next millennia, and finally Class III which ranges from hundreds of thousands to millions of years. The likes of force fields, telepathy and starships are covered under Class I, faster than light travel and parallel universes in Class II, and perpetual motion machines (which never run out of power and can continue indefinitely) under Class III.
The brilliance with Kaku is that while he is discussing all these interesting subjects, he is also going into depth about physics and mathematics, covering the history of the development of certain subjects, and subliminally educating readers in complex physics. Kaku even provides a clear definition with plenty of similes for relativity, thermodynamics, and quantum theory.
Physics of the Impossible is the perfect book for any type of nerd, as well as any person who wants some answers to why we don’t have flying cars and transporters yet. No science background is required, as Kaku breaks everything down to its simplest form. The result is a fascinating book that gives one hope for future inventions, possibly even within our lifetimes.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE LINK: UNCOVERING OUR EARLIEST ANCESTOR BY COLIN TUDGE: In what was touted to be a publication so astounding that it required specially sealed boxes with “untitled” printed on the side and a very specific laydown date, //The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor// didn’t lead a revolution in science or shock the world as much as expected. The book begins with a hypothetical story of how a lemur-like creature some 55-33 millions years ago was gassed at a lake sitting on top of a volcano, dropped into the water and sank into the mud below. Then over millions of years, with further layers compacting and preserving the skeleton, it now stands as one of the most complete skeletons ever discovered.
//The Link// tells the detailed story of how the skeleton, known as //Ida//, was found and how it is the supposed “missing link” and the first step that animals made into becoming primates and eventually humans. With the creation of a new genus, //Darwinius//, there is currently only this skeleton as its single member: //Darwinius masillae//, or //Ida//, as it’s discover, Dr. Jørn Hurum (though not the original discover) dubbed it after his daughter. //The Link// is a good anthropology book, giving a history lesson on our ancestry and the ancestry of many animals and how this new species may fit into it. The criticism against it is that there still remains a lot of be research, discovered, and confirmed about Ida, and many scientists around the world have objected to the overly-publicized nature of this skeleton and it being called the “missing link.”
While time will tell what more Ida has to offer, for now, //The Link// remains a interesting book, with facts on Darwinius masillae that should be taken with some suspicion. But then isn’t that how all science is done?
THE STRAIN BY GUILLERMO DEL TORO AND CHUCK HOGAN: From authors Guillermo del Toro, who needs no introduction except for maybe two words – Pan’s Labyrinth, and maybe two more, The Hobbit; and Chuck Hogan, of Prince of Thieves and The Standoff, comes the first book in a trilogy about vampires of a different variety coming to take over the world. In a horror-thriller that is a combination of classic Michael Crichton with some War of the Worlds and a foundation of Dracula, The Strain is a fast-paced book you’ll be tearing through from cover to cover, and then feeling sad it’s all over and having to wait for the sequel; while in the back of your mind you’ll be wondering what the movie might be like.
A Boeing 777 is scheduled to land at JFK; it touches down according to plan and as it begins taxiing to the terminal it suddenly shuts down, all lights go out, no communication coming from the plane. When the authorities reach the 777 to investigate, they find all the window shades closed, the engines turned off, and no sign of activity. Opening the emergency exit over the wing, they find all the passengers sitting peacefully in their seats, appearing dead. The Canary Project, a rapid-response biological hazard team under the CDC is mobilized, headed by Dr. Eph Goodweather to investigate. There are a couple of survivors who are rushed to hospital, the rest taken to the morgue.
As Goodweather slowly begins putting the pieces together, the pale corpses in the morgue come to life and return to their homes, infecting others, increasing the number of vampires exponentially. The biology of these vampires involves a retractable stinger that elongates the mouth and launches with rapid speed at the victim. A former professor, Abraham Setrakian, who knew this day would come, joins forces with Goodweather to try and stop this growing army of vampires. Otherwise they’ll take Manhattan within a week, the country within a month, and the world in two months.
Del Toro and Hogan have created a unique war here in the humans vs. the vampires, as these vampires are akin to the zombies of 28 Days Later: seemingly unstoppable and outright terrifying. The Strain will keep readers on the edge of their seats and wanting more.
THE KINGMAKING BY HELEN HOLLICK: Originally published in Britain during the early 1990s, The Kingmaking is the first book in the Pendragon’s Banner Trilogy from British author Helen Hollick. With the tagline “a novel of Arthur as he really was,” Hollick certainly does her research in bringing to life the possible idea of a war king known as Arthur that would grown to become the magical, immortal legend.
The Arthurian legend is an interesting one that has seen and continues to see countless retellings, due to the fact that there is very little evidence proving the existence of a warrior king known as Arthur; mentions of Merlin and Guenevere are even rarer, while Lancelot is a complete fabrication by Chrétien de Troyes in the twelfth century. What is known is that the fifth century was a very turbulent time for Britain with the desertion by Rome and its forces; the invasion of the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes; and the invading forces of the Scots and Picts from Ireland and Scotland respectively. Britain was a melting pot of different peoples, and the Britons were left wondering what to do after being supported and protected for so long by the Romans. It was in this time – it is thought -- at the dawn of the Middle Ages, that a warrior king arose to defend the Britons and lead them to defending their country.
Hollick uses Wales as her setting for Arthur and his people, using Welsh names like Gwenhwyfar (for Guenevere), Cunedda (for Gwenhwyfar’s father), and Uthr (for rightful king of Britain and father to Arthur). While Camelot is thought to be located near Glastonbury and Tintagel is to be found in Cornwall, with the invading forces pushing the Britons back, Wales was a very likely location for Arthur and his people. Hollick also uses characters who were known to exist, like Vortigern who supposedly ruled the Britons for some time and was purportedly the one to invite the Germanic forces from the mainland to defend the Britons against the Scotti and Picts. There is Hengest and Horsa, the ruthless Saxon Brothers, Hengest’s daughter Rowena, as well as some of Vortigern’s own offspring, Vortimer, Catigern, and his daughter Winifred.
Hollick writes of a world and life that is becoming somewhat familiar, with the growing genre of medieval historical fiction, joining other epic novels like Pillars of the Earth, World Without End, and Cathedral of the Sea. These are not the romanticized and glamorous characters of Chrétien de Troyes, Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, or the famous musical Camelot. It is a cold, harsh world, where much blood is shed and many die. Hollick does a wonderful job of balancing the narrative with the different characters, and not just keeping it to one person as is common in other Arthurian sagas. She also maintain the historical accuracy, using the tools and the skills that existed in the world of the fifth century, and yet making The Kingmaking a fast-paced, action-packed start to one of the best Arthurian series to be written.
THE MAP OF MOMENTS BY CHRISTOPHER GOLDEN AND TIM LEBBON: Bestselling authors Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon continue with the next novel of the Hidden Cities series, after Mind the Gap, with The Map of Moments set in the remarkable city of New Orleans. The authors take on the divisive issue of Hurricane Katrina and the wrecked city that was left after August 2005, bringing to life the noir underbelly of New Orleans, as well as throwing in a healthy dose of the fantastic. The Map of Moments is a great book you won’t soon forget.
Max Corbett is a college professor who left New Orleans for what he thought were some very good reasons, the most important of which was Gabrielle. A student and love of his life for a short while. She stole his heart with her beauty and vivacity, then she cheated on him, so he left. Then Hurricane Katrina happened. He never called anyone, doesn’t know who’s alive and who’s dead; more importantly, he hasn’t heard anything from Gabrielle . . . until he gets the call with the news.
Max goes to New Orleans for the funeral and to face his demons. He is then told by a strange man that there’s a way he can go back and change history; there’s a way he can save Gabrielle. But first he has to travel to the special locations on the map he is given, The Map of Moments. Each moment will take him back to an important moment in time, a place that was monumental in New Orleans history. As Max travels back to each of the moments, he learns a lot, as he slowly puts the piece together, the mystery grows and unravels before him. It is a dangerous world of black magic and the fantastic, not to mention the people who know what he’s up to and are out to kill him.
The Map of Moments is what happens when two great storytellers get together: a fantastic story set in an incredible city, with heavy doses of magic and mayhem. It will keep you riveted to each page, as you pray for it never to end, but still wanting and needing to know what happens.
Check out Christopher Golden's interview on BookBanter in Episode 12.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
LAMENTATION BY KEN SCHOLES: New author and winner of Writers of the Future, Ken Scholes, offers up the first book in a projected five-book series known as The Psalms of Isaak, featuring the complexity and political intrigue of George R. R. Martin and the artistic touch and historical feel of Guy Gavriel Kay. Lamentation is a subtle fantasy novel that does not seek to dazzle readers with nonstop action, but introduces readers to a complicated world where there is no clear definition between good and evil for the different kingdoms, where each decision that is made will have important and far reaching ramifications.
Lamentation begins with the end of a beloved city, Windwir of the Named Lands. All that remains is a curling column of smoke reaching into the sky after the casting of a catastrophic spell that razes the once great city to nothing but ruin and dust. The main characters of the kingdoms of the Named Lands – Rudolfo, Lord of the Ninefold Forest Houses; Petronus, the Hidden Pope of the Androfrancine Order; Sethbert, Overseer of the Entrolusian City States; Jin Li Tam, daughter to the king of the Inner Emerald Coast – all pay witness to the devastation and must now begin putting the pieces together to find out who is behind this terrible destruction and to punish them accordingly. The evidence rests on the word of a young boy, Neb, who witnessed the event, along with the survival of a merchservitor named Isaak who proclaims he is to blame for it all. Yet he is but a robot, a machine that was ordered to do this; human hands and minds are ultimately behind this cataclysmic event.
Ken Scholes has created a wonderfully original world where it is not immediately clear who is fighting on the side of good and who isn’t. Each character must be severely question on where their intentions lie and what they hope to achieve. Scholes also uses a fresh blend of steampunk where there are mechoservitors to perform important duties, and mechanical birds that are used to send messages, as well as a special kind of magicks that uses elemental forces and materials for abilities like invisibility and speed. Lamentation is the first book in a great new series from a strong new voice in the world of fantasy.
Ken Scholes will be interviewed in Episode 21 of BookBanter available December 1st.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES BY JANE AUSTEN AND SETH GRAHAME-SMITH: Wait a minute! Check that again. Did you read it correctly? Yep. Definitely says Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. And the cover proves it. Well now, there’s something you don’t see everyday.
Writer Seth Grahame-Smith has an eclectic oeuvre, author of Pardon My President, The Spider-Man Handbook, and The Big Book of Porn; he’s now a member of a growing group of writers who’ve decided there’s more to Pride and Prejudice than just the words penned by Jane Austen. In Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Grahame-Smith works on a simple premise: what if in the world of Mr. Darcy getting to know Miss Bennett the dead did not stay dead, but became zombies searching for delicious brains. Grahame-Smith has created a new art form here in taking a good percentage of the original text and inserting his own text alongside it. His talent is in using the same voice as Austen, so that the new scenes featuring zombie mayhem and impressive martial arts skills from the Bennett sisters are written in the same tone and therefore aren’t different or jarring.
There are two different schools of training in this world. The Bennett sisters are trained martial arts professionals, having spent years training under Master Liu in Shaolin, China. They each know how to use a variety of different weapons, though Elizabeth is best with her katana. When the five are together, facing a horde of zombies, they execute the Pentagram of Death fighting move that never fails. While Mr. Darcy was trained in Japan, under his aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh, the most famous zombie killer in all of Britain. Along with the help of her highly trained ninjas, she is unstoppable. That is until she must face Elizabeth Bennett in an ultimate showdown over Mr. Darcy’s hand.
Austen fans need not worry that Grahame-Smith has ridiculed a work of art, but has merely added and in some ways “improved” it, giving the story a new look and new subplots. He even provides a Reader’s Discussion Guide at the end of the book. The last question reads: “Some scholars believe that the zombies were a last-minute addition to the novel, requested by the publisher in a shameless attempt to boost sales. Others argue that the hordes of living dead are integral to Jane Austen’s plot and social commentary. What do you think? Can you imagine what this novel might be like without the violent zombie mayhem?” After reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies you won’t be able to.
Seth Grahame-Smith will be interviewed in Episode 19 of BookBanter available November 1st.
CITY OF THIEVES BY DAVID BENIOFF: From David Benioff, author of The 25th Hour and screenwriter for The Kite Runner, comes an original tale of adventure, laughter, and ongoing mystery set against the backdrop off World War II and the Siege of Leningrad. City of Thieves is a fast-paced, enjoyable book that will have you telling your friends about it.
Lev Beniov is a Leningrad local, fondly referring to the city of his birth as Piter after Petersburg. Left to fend for himself with some friends, he spends his days starving, foraging for food. When a dead Nazi falls from the sky via parachute, he ransacks the body for food. He is soon captured by the Russian army and is imprisoned expecting execution, because all findings are required to be turned over to the Russian army. In prison he befriends an unusual man named Kolya, a deserter. The Colonel surprisingly offers the two a deal for their freedom and survival: to find twelve eggs in less than week for his daughter’s wedding cake.
And so begins a most unusual adventure, filled with danger, horror, and hunger. But Benioff keeps the book fast-paced and entertaining with the back and forth banter between the main characters: Lev is a seventeen year old virgin, and Kolya is a very vocal sex addict. While at times the language and actions of the characters force readers to remind themselves it’s 1942, it is nevertheless a quick read that you won’t soon forget.
SUM: FORTY TALES FROM THE AFTERLIVES BY DAVID EAGLEMAN: There is one absolute certainty in this life and that is that we are all going to die, at some time. Battles, wars, and crusades have been waged and fought for days, years, and even centuries over what exactly happens when we shuffle off this mortal coil and . . .
From David Eagleman, who heads the Laboratory of Perception and Action at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and is the founder of the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law, comes a unique and unusual book called SUM: Forty Tales From the Afterlives. With a strong cover quote from Philip Pullman, SUM presets forty “What ifs?” as Eagleman ponders the many possibilities of what might exist in the next life, if there is one. For some it would be a fantasy come true, for others a nightmare; a personal heaven, or a feared hell.
Eagleman approaches the book from a scientific point of view, analyzing each possible afterlife in an empirical way and weighing its validity: some entries are short, some are long; some have a lesson to teach, others propose a moral at the victim’s expense. And what can the reader take from SUM? Don’t expect to be convinced one way or another from Eagleman on whether there really is an afterlife. It is a collection of entertaining stories that at the very least will stimulate the intellect into dreaming of another world.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
WAKE BY ROBERT J. SAWYER: From an author who has written a number of books and has won just about every award a science fiction author can comes one of the most original and fascinating novels to be published in a long time. It’s one of those books that has just as much right to be on a fiction shelf with other literature classics. Wake is the first in a trilogy about a blind girl, Caitlin Decter, who undergoes new and theoretical surgery in Japan to bring back her sight. With an implant in one eye, signals are sent to a small machine via bluetooth, which Caitlin refers to as her “eyepod.” Patches and downloads for the software for the eyepod are made online, as Caitlin returns to Canada. With a new patch, she begins to see something that is not real life. She soon realizes it’s a view of the Internet through a browser though she has no control over what she’s seeing. Then with another patch update, Caitlin begins to see through the eye with the implant and her life is changed. Yet there is still something on the Internet that is apparently alive, communicating with her at first through her restricted sight and then online with her, and it’s intelligence is growing rapidly. The book ends at this point, along with something very strange going on in a China, and an ape who is somehow able to paint pictures of people.
Wake is a book that will grow on you as you read it. Sawyer has done a fantastic job of researching the science, but also throws in lots of references that any savvy Internet user will recognize, appreciate, and be amused about; as well as putting the readers in the mind of a blind person and how they do the amazing things they do each day. By the end of the book readers will be impatiently wanting the sequel, Watch due out in 2010.
Check out Robert J. Sawyer's interview on BookBanter in Episode 13.
VICIOUS CIRCLE BY MIKE CAREY: Mike Carey, author of the great graphic novel series Lucifer, and after the success of The Devil You Know, the first of his Felix Castor series, returns with the next installment in Vicious Circle. Nothing much has changed for Castor. Life is still really tough on him, he’s not making a lot of money, and taking whatever jobs he can to stay afloat. Meanwhile his emotional baggage and history continue to weigh on him, as he tries to ignore his past. But then he mysterious lands a job that promises to pay well and does at first. He must track down a girl, well actually the dead body of a girl, well specifically the ghost of a dead girl whose parents have lost contact with her and want her back. Castor also gets called on to help a succubus who has turned over a new leaf – even if she is still extremely tantalizing – to find out what is going on in a church that left people dead and the surrounding neighborhood terrified. Finally he helps out the Metropolitan police department with some very strange and satanic homicide cases.
As the story develops, the plot thickens, and it’s no real surprise that everything is linked. Seeking out the help of a zombie friend to get him some info, something really weird is also going on in London: people keep dying, more so than usual. Castor finds himself up to his neck, deep in it, and this time, if he doesn’t do it right, he won’t survive. Neither will his friends, the only people he cares about.
Carey ratchets up the adventure, the mystery, and the excitement with Vicious Circle that will leave readers gasping for breath at Castor’s near misses, as he barely survives to fight another day. Just in time for the third book in the series, Dead Men’s Boots.
Check out Mike Carey's interview on BookBanter in Episode 16.
LONG WALKS, LAST FLIGHTS AND OTHER STRANGE JOURNEYS BY KEN SCHOLES: Ken Scholes is the author of Lamentation, a five-book series called the Psalms of Isaak. For those looking for some other examples of Scholes’ writing (and if you read and loved Lamentation and need something else by him right away), then Long Walks, Last Flights and Other Strange Journeys is the book for you. Featuring sixteen stories and one novella, it is a great collection that shows the true range of this blossoming author, as well as his love for not just story, but strong characters.
The collection begins with a wonderful preface from Patrick Swenson and a glowing introduction from James Van Pelt. With the very first story, “The Man With Great Despair Behind His Eyes,” it is clear that Scholes has a knack for telling unique stories. The story is about Meriwether Lewis and his journey across North America after a special meeting with Jefferson; on the other side of the country he meets with a man close to death who is a supposed time traveler from the twentieth century. “One Small Step” explores a world where chimpanzees have been trained as workers and mount an uprising against the humans on the surface of the moon. “Edward Bear and the Very Long Walk” is the story of a toy robotic bear that is the last hope for the world, but with each step is brought closer to his demise, but first he must complete his quest.
With each of these stories, Scholes hasn’t simply created an incredible story, but unique characters that you immediately care about, whether they’re human or not. You are moved in their journey or quest, supporting them, wanting them to make it to whatever the end is. When they falter, you falter with them, sadness in your heart; when they triumph, you smile along with them. Long Walks, Last Flights and Other Strange Journeys will keep you comforted in the wait between Lamentation and Scholes’ next book in the series, Canticle, as you continue to enjoy the great writing from this new author.
Ken Scholes will be interviewed in Episode 21 of BookBanter available December 1st.
THE CROWN CONSPIRACY BY MICHAEL J. SULLIVAN: Released in October 2008, The Crown Conspiracy is the first in a six-book fantasy series known as The Riyria Revelations. Author Michael J. Sullivan includes all the tropes of a good fantasy story, leading one to think this an ordinary, in some ways stereotypical, fantasy tale. The Crown Conspiracy is anything but stereotypical or predictable.
Our main characters are nothing but low-life thieves: Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater, although they are very good at their jobs. The story begins with the introduction of these intrepid characters and their next heist to steal a particular item within the impenetrable confines of the king’s castle. But as soon as they have their hands on the item, the trap is sprung, and they find themselves part of an elaborate plot. At their feet lies the lifeless body of the king.
From here, the story kicks into high-gear, taking the reader on a while ride. In this world it is important to know who your friends are and who are your enemies; it is also important to keep your enemies closest. As the story unfolds, we learn that while they may be common thieves, they are very smart people. They also realize that the idea of being a good person is starting to rub off on them, as they no longer do anything for a fast buck.
By the end of the book, everything seems to have sorted itself out. Royce and Hadrian are now doing very well for themselves, as well as being close friends of the king. But clearly all is not as it should, since this is the first book in the series. Fans will have to wait until April 2009 before they can get their hands on the next chapter in the Riyria Revelations: Avempartha.
Check out Michael J. Sullivan's interview on BookBanter in Episode 10.
PRIVATE MIDNIGHT BY KRIS SAKNUSSEMM: From the author of the quirky and outright bizarre Zanesville comes a new novel that takes the classic noir detective story and boils it down . . . then bakes it . . . then deep fries it; and throws in a bunch of sex and kinky stuff. The resulting recipe is Saknussemm’s Private Midnight.
Saknussemm harnesses the voice and feel of a classic, noir detective novel from the very first page. Detective Birch Ritter has everything a detective of his type needs: a crummy, tough job that takes up all his time, he seems to never sleep, and has a sordid and dark past filled with tragedy and bad choices that constantly come back to haunt him and the reader. Private Midnight has two stories going on: one is the case that Ritter needs to solve, and the horrifically mangled bodies keep turning up; the other is a strange introduction to a type of therapist who uses elaborate mind-games combined with dominatrix-style sex acts, all with the apparent goal of getting Ritter to pour out his heart and his past, and move on with his used up life.
Whether you’re looking for a gritty detective story or something with some sexual spiciness to it (or perhaps both), you’ll thoroughly enjoy Private Midnight, with its unique voice and complex story that will leave you turning the page just to find out what’s going to happen next.
OUR STORY BEGINS BY TOBIAS WOLFF: In this new anthology, one of our most eminent short story writers, Tobias Wolff, offers up some old stories – some we’ve seen before – as well as new and fresh tales. Our Story Begins is a perfect introduction to the writing style and complex plot-minded mind of one Tobias Wolff.
This book is an in-depth look at the many facets of life and their most important part: people. Wolff doesn’t always look to tell a simple and complete story with a beginning, middle and end. Most of the stories in this collection offer more of an insight into a slice of this world or that life; a snapshot into a relationship or specific decision. The full consequences and events don’t always unfold, and we may not know as much as we might like with back story; nevertheless, we immediately become attached to these very real characters and the very human decisions they make.
Wolff takes readers on a journey they won’t soon forget with Our Story Begins, as they travel the world and meet some very strange characters, as well as playing a part in some very moving relationships and families. A required read and book deserving a space on everyone’s shelf as not just a sample of Wolff’s skill, but a supreme example of the contemporary short story.
THE COLLECTED WORKS OF BILLY THE KID BY MICHAEL ONDAATJE: From the author of The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje, comes one of his first published works, now available in paperback featuring a new afterword by the author: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.
A short book of only 130-odd pages, it features a collection of stream of consciousness poetry, prose, and photographs surrounding the legend of Billy the Kid. In the afterword Ondaatje discusses how he began collecting pieces about Billy the Kid early on in his career, researching what he could, and writing short pieces of poetry, imagining what Billy the Kid (also known as William Bonney) was actually like. The poetry is written in the style of e e cummings, with short stanzas bursting with description and scenery as the reader sees through Billy the Kid’s eyes.
The book is not your average story with a beginning, middle and end, but more a collection of poetry, prose and photos, almost like a documentary collection, except Ondaatje wrote a lot of the fiction, drawing from his own life experiences and incidents. The Collected Works of Billy the Kid is nevertheless a fascinating read featuring Ondaatje at his best, revealing his skill and power with words, while offering up an interesting albeit unusual history on the legendary outlaw.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
WARBREAKER BY BRANDON SANDERSON: While just about everyone is hanging around and waiting for The Gathering Storm (due out November 3rd), first in the concluding books of the Wheel of Time series being written by Brandon Sanderson, readers might like to try out one of Sanderson’s first books that has been available for free as an ebook on his website for some time. It is more in line with his first book, Elantris, than his fantastic Mistborn trilogy, Wheel of Time and Sanderson fans will find plenty to occupy themselves in Warbreaker.
Sanderson delivers another unique magic system all about color and breaths. Breaths can be bought and ingested, and with each increasing number of breaths, one has more power to do things like bring inanimate objects to life and even create a zombie-type being from the dead. There is the royal house where all royalty possess many breaths and show this in their ability to glow and whose hair changes color to fit their moods and emotions. Then there is the land of the gods and those gods who have returned from the dead. Warbreaker is a complex world that has a lot of detail to offer the reader which, while not one of Sanderson’s best works, nevertheless will delight fans and entertain them until November rolls around.
Check out Brandon Sanderon's interview on BookBanter in Episode 2.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE DOOMSDAY KEY BY JAMES ROLLINS: Commander Guy Pierce and Sigma Force return under the prolific writing hands of bestselling author James Rollins. In The Doomsday Key, Rollins brings lots of different and seemingly individual elements together in a fast-paced adventure that will leave you reading on the edge of your seat.
Three bodies are discovered on three continents, all murdered under mysterious circumstances, and all bearing a unique Pagan symbol: a cross within a circle. Sigma Force are brought in to investigate. As the facts are discovered, it is revealed that the giant Norwegian corporation Viatus is somehow behind it all, a company that specializes in crop and seed development. As Pierce and the gang dig deeper, they find themselves involved in an unsolved mystery that goes back thousands a years. The question is whether they will all be able to stay alive long enough to solve it.
Rollins has outdone himself in The Doomsday Key using a variety of historical sources from the Domesday Book, to the Druids and Pagan religion, to the history of Neolithic Britain, to the early days of the Christian church. Combining these with present day biotechnology and the Doomsday Vault – a real seed vault under heavy protection in the Svalbard archipelago near the North Pole – he skillfully brings it all together into an incredible story that is perfect for readers waiting for the next Dan Brown book.
Check out James Rollins' interview on BookBanter in Episode 9.
CEMETERY DANCE BY DOUGLAS PRESTON AND LINCOLN CHILD: Preston and Child return with their next deep and dark mystery featuring Special Agent Pendergast, and this may be the creepiest one yet. This time Pendergast, along with Lieutenant Vincent D’Agosta, are investigating a strange series of attacks that soon turn into killings. The problem with the investigation, led by Captain Laura Hayward, is that the few witnesses, as well as camera footage, points to the attacker being someone who was reported dead and buried ten days ago.
As Pendergast and D’Agosta dig deeper and deeper, they find themselves involved in an underbelly of New York never before seen, involving an unknown and sinister cult that specializes in animal sacrifices, employing Obeah and Vôdou. While they don’t want to fully admit it, the attacks look like they are being done by what can only be classed as a zombie. As the city begins to get riled up over this, Pendergast and D’Agosta find themselves caught up in a matter that reaches far back into Manhattan’s early history.
Cemetery Dance will have you turning the page, wanting to get to the end, not just because of the action-filled and faced-paced writing style, but because in your mind you know there’s no such thing as zombies and there has to be a logical explanation for this . . . doesn’t there?
Check out Douglas Preston's interview on BookBanter in Episode 13.
AVEMPARTHA BY MICHAEL J. SULLIVAN: Our intrepid duo return in the second installment of The Riyria Revelations to solve another mystery and fight another day. Before Royce and Hadrian barely have time to settle after the fun had in The Crown Conspiracy, they find themselves pulled into a new problem: a young woman needs their help as her village is being attacked by an unknown nocturnal creature.
The town of Dahlgren is an idyllic place, except now it is visited each night by an ancient monster looking to terrorize and kill everyone. Royce and Hadrian know they can't take on this beast by themselves, at least not without some impressive magic, and call on the help of their old friend and brilliant wizard, Esrahaddon. Hadrian does his best to protect the town and its people, fortifying it, and having everyone hide out in the fortress each night. Meanwhile Royce and Esrahaddon journey to the ancient elven tower known as Avempartha. There they hope to confront the beast and kill it. But everything doesn’t go according to plan, as it never does, and Hadrian learns some very important things about himself.
Like The Crown Conspiracy, Avempartha is a perfect stand alone book, as well as being a sequel; it can be read either way. Sullivan ramps up the action and story, as we learn more about the characters we’ve come to like, as well about the incredible world he has created. At the same time more details are revealed about the growing overall story, leaving readers waiting in earnest for the next installment.
Check out Michael J. Sullivan's interview on BookBanter in Episode 10.
THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM BY JAN GUILLOU: As a medieval historian and a big fan of historical fiction, family members from Sweden have been telling me for years to learn some Swedish so I can enjoy the fabulous bestselling Crusades Trilogy from Swedish author Jan Guillou. I still have yet to improve my language beyond basic Swedish, fortunately this isn’t a problem anymore. The first book in the trilogy, The Road to Jerusalem, which has done very well in Europe also, is now available in English to American readers.
The title may be somewhat of a misnomer, with an emphasis on “road to,” as the main characters never even make it near to the Holy Land. However as this is a trilogy, readers know they’ll get there eventually. In this first book, the year is 1150, and readers are introduced to Arn Magnusson, a boy of noble birth who is sent to a cloister where he learns the ways of the church, as well as some expert training in weaponry and horse riding from a master. Eventually leaving the cloister, Arn is reunited with his family who is expecting a humble monk, find a powerful, but pious warrior. After committing and being charged with a grave sin, he is forced to become a member of the Knights Templar at the end of the book.
On the surface this seems a simple story, and readers may have a little trouble with the many Swedish names and words (a pronunciation guide would’ve been helpful; fortunately I at least know how to sound those foreign letters: å sounds like “awe,” ä with a soft “e” sound like “egg,” ö and ø [ø is the equivalent in the Norwegian and Danish alphabets] have an “er” sound), but Guillou does an incredible job of analyzing and revealing medieval twelfth-century life in Scandinavia. In the style of Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth and World Without End, Guillou isn’t obvious and overbearing with the history, but reveals it through plot and story, allowing readers to make deductions for themselves. And for those who’ve seen the Swedish tre kronor or three crown flag and symbol prevalent throughout Sweden will have their questions answered in The Road to Jerusalem.
Guillou probably could’ve combined the trilogy into once massive book à la Ken Follett, but instead you have a fun trilogy that begins with a strong foundation and background for those not too familiar with the period and area, continuing in the second book, The Templar Knight, due out May 2010.
THE HUNT FOR PLANET X: NEW WORLDS AND THE FATE OF PLUTO BY GOVERT SCHILLING: Dutch author Govert Schilling is an internationally acclaimed astronomy writer who has published more than forty books and written for many publications, including New Scientist and Science; he even has an asteroid – 10986 – named after him. In The Hunt for Planet X, he answers just about every question you might have about our solar system, from why Pluto was demoted from being a planet, to who discovered which planet, when, and how.
In a volume divided into thirty chapters, Schilling covers everything from the days when planets, moons, and other galactic objects were first discovered – giving a brief history lesson on each person and how they discovered said object – up to the present with why Pluto isn't a planet any more, to what's being discovered right now, and what the future holds for astronomy. The book is filled with glossy photos of the important people in astronomy, as well as the planets, asteroids, and whatever else Schilling is talking about. There's even a helpful index and extensive chronology in the back of the book, starting with Galileo, taking readers on a quick journey through time up to 2007.
The Hunt For Planet X is a great resource for any (scientifically minded or not) person looking for answers about our solar system, what exactly people are looking for up there in the great blackness of space, and how they're finding it. It is an invaluable reference for those wanting either quick answers or long discussions on the mysteries of space.
| CONTAGIOUS BY SCOTT SIGLER: Scott Sigler began his writing career by recording podcasts of his books and attracting the interest and support of listeners around the world. This eventually landed him a publishing contract. After the success of last year's Infected, Sigler quickly followed up with the sequel Contagious. It looks like the world is pretty much doomed. The aliens have invaded and they're slowly taking over by infecting people on the genetic level with a virus that grows and takes over the body. Symptoms of the virus including indicators of the common cold, as well as the apparent need to kill your fellow man for no apparent reason, and some scary looking blue triangles. Humanity's hope rests on the shoulders of former football star Perry Dawsey who was actually infected, but under the skillful hands of Margaret Montoya, was brought back from psychopathic insanity, albeit agonizingly. Dawsey now has the ability to know where the aliens are mounting a new offensive, but he is a reckless killer who gives new meaning to the term loose cannon. Sigler has a specific over the top style, holding nothing back. His characters are loud, large, overbearing, and not for those looking for finesse. But this world is a tough place, and you have to be tough to make it through. It's all about balancing the costs: how much are human lives worth? Under the government of a new President, decisions have to be made, quickly, with little time to consider repercussions. It is, after all, the end of the world. |
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Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE SOMNAMBULIST BY JONATHAN BARNES: Welcome to a Victorian England where a little bit of magic still exists, as well as some possible time traveling, and some of the strangest and most unusual characters you’ll ever meet. There is the title character, the Somnambulist as he is known. An outlandishly tall giant who never says a word and is a strange looking creature who attracts the interest and eyes of everyone he passes, and has an addiction to milk; as a matter of fact milk appears to be the only thing he ever consumes. He also possesses a unique condition whereby he can be stabbed and skewered by any object through any part of his body, any number of times, and not suffer any pain, blood loss, or apparent harm. He is a science-defying freak who is never thoroughly explored in the book. Then there is Edward Moon, the other member of the magic duo, who has a penchant for sleeping with freakish looking women with the more disfigurements the better; the bearded girl is his favorite! Moon fancies himself a skilled detective with a successful history except for one case that went terribly wrong. Alas, this is also not fully explained in The Somnambulist. The story begins with the bizarre death of an actor and builds to a complicated and stupefying conclusion that will leave the reader trying to wrap his or her mind around it.
Want to get yourself a copy? Click HERE for Amazon.com
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE BY SALMAN RUSHDIE: Sir Salman Rushdie, best known for The Satanic Verses which earned him multiple death threats forcing him to leave his native land and live in Britain, returns with what he calls his “most researched book” which took “years and years of reading,” in The Enchantress of Florence. A remarkable novel told in a way that mixes story with history and fable, making it seem like an enchanting tale á la 1001 Nights that leaves one wondering which parts of it are true and which are from the imaginative mind of Rushdie. An enigmatic character from distant Florence pays a visit to the Mughal emperor Akbar the Great. Through Rushdie’s eyes we see two very difference worlds: the high renaissance of Italy juxtaposed with that of India. The magic in this story is indirect and subtle lending it a romantic and fantastic air that simply adds to the setting and plot. It is Salman Rushdie at his best, telling wonderful, moving, magical stories within stories.
Want to get yourself a copy? Click HERE for Amazon.com
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
RASL BY JEFF SMITH: Writer and artist Jeff Smith, of Bone fame, returns with an original concept in Rasl. In The Drift, Rasl is a classic young tough guy who's been messing around with magnets and magnetic fields and has invented a way of traveling across dimensions into parallel universes. It takes a lot out of him each time he drifts, explaining his alcoholic ways. For his occupation, Rasl is an art thief, stealing art from other dimensions to sell in his own. But in this first volume, something is terribly wrong. There's an assassin out to get him, following him somehow across the dimensions. It's nonstop action for Rasl, as he tries to save his skin, while continuing to research the powers of magnetism that make it possible to cross the dimensions of space. Rasl is a great new story from Jeff Smith, who will be publishing two more volumes in the series.
Want to get yourself a copy? Click HERE for Amazon.com
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
BORN TO BE GOOD BY DACHER KELTNER: In a time when this world seems a bleak place with suffering and death across the continents, economies plummeting, societies approaching collapse, and a general despair in the air, one has little else to turn to. But then there’s Born to Be Good. Dacher Keltner, professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and director of the Greater Good Science Center, presents a book that offers hope in humanity to those who feel there is none. The first part of the book is spent on the Confucian concept of jen, “which refers to kindness, humanity, and reverence,” as well as Keltner’s thoughts on the Eastern Religions and what they offer in “being good.” The second part of Born to Be Good is spent researching and delving into the anthropological reasoning behind being a good person, and how it exists intrinsically in our DNA and our species, proving examples in other animals, as well as Homo sapiens. The last part of the book combines these two spheres of thought into a cohesive whole using what Keltner terms the jen ratio. Keltner fully believes there is absolute goodness in humanity, and Born to Be Good is an uplifting and enlightening read in these dark and dower times.
Wan to get yourself a copy? Click HERE for Amazon.com
THE CANTERBURY TALES BY GEOFFREY CHAUCER, TRANSLATED BY BURTON RAFFEL: The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written by one of the greatest writers in history, up there with William Shakespeare himself. Originally published in the late fifteenth century, it has appeared on high school reading lists, and serves as one of the most important medieval texts – if not the most important – ever written and published.
Chaucer tells the story of 29 pilgrims who set out on pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. Pilgrimage was a common event in many people’s lives in the medieval world, especially if they were looking to be pious and guarantee their ascent into heaven; it was also a good way for those who had committed sins to be absolved of their actions. The Host of this pilgrimage sets the stage in the “General Prologue” by asking each of the pilgrims to tell four stories; two on the way to Canterbury, and two on the way back to London. The storytelling will help pass the time, but will also serve to enlighten the group about the lives and actions of the pilgrims.
While Chaucer never fully completed his 124 stories, ending at 22,, there is nevertheless a wide selection of stories from most of its main characters. “The Knight’s Tale” is the story about two royal Theban cousins who love the same woman. There’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” as she discusses her life of five husbands and the importance and sacrifice she has made in marriage and being a wife. “The Miller’s Tale” mocks the life of a carpenter who is fooled into believing a flood is coming, while the clerk sleeps with his wife. In the final story, “The Parson’s Tale,” the Parson talks for a long time about the importance of being just and pious and faithful to God.
The Canterbury Tales is not just a collection of entertaining stories from the fifteenth century, but is a most fascinating insight into the way of life of these people, what they considered funny or sad, what they wore and ate, and what sort of a role the church truly played in their lives. Chaucer even inserts himself into his book, arguing back and forth with the Host, as he is challenged to tell a superior story.
In this new translation from Burton Raffel, much of the original text is preserved, even though Raffel admits that in any translation, it is ultimately going to be different as it is that, a translation. Nevertheless, where possible, Raffel keeps and maintains the rhyming scheme, giving life to the stories and making the old oral tradition of storytelling come alive off the page. This new translation of The Canterbury Tales is perfect for anyone who enjoys these old texts, or for a student having trouble reading the early Middle English; it is even ideal for families to learn through reciting the stories aloud and hearing these classics come to life through voice, as they were originally meant to.
HOW TO LIVE: A SEARCH FOR WISDOM FROM OLD PEOPLE (WHILE THEY ARE STILL ON THIS EARTH) BY HENRY ALFORD: Henry Alford has written for Vanity Fair, The New York Times, and The New Yorker, and is the author of Municipal Bondage. In his latest book, How to Live: A Search for Wisdom From Old People While They Are Still on This Earth, he does just that, providing insight and viewpoints from those who will not remain for much longer on this earth to give those who still have a while to go a greater respect and appreciation for life and what one can accomplish with it.
In the first chapter, Alford lays the ground rules, explaining that while there are certainly intelligent young people, one is most likely to find experience and wisdom from those over seventy who have simply lived much longer. Beginning with his stepfather and mother, Alford moves on from interview to interview, surprised at the response he gets from perfect strangers. In addition to interviewing some famous people like Edward Albee, Harold Bloom, and Phyllis Diller, it is the people we know nothing about who tell the most moving stories; like the retired schoolteacher who survived Hurricane Katrina, but lost her home, all her possessions, and even her husband, but still lives each day to its fullest. While How to Live is not all fun and games with some sad and sobering life stories, Alford balances it out with some funny stories like his descriptive tour through Sylvia Miles’s stuffed and cluttered apartment.
Whether you start the book with expectations and preconceptions, or pick it up for curiosity’s sake, you will ultimately be surprised and delighted with what people who have spent at least seventy years on this planet have seen and what they have to say about it and life.
DAEMON BY DANIEL SUAREZ: Daniel Suarez has designed and developed enterprise software for the defense, finance, and entertainment industries, as well as being an independent systems consultant; he’s also an avid gamer. So it’s no surprise that in Daemon he has created a world and plot that involves all these facets, resulting in a fast-paced, riveting, exciting novel that is a combination of classic Michael Crichton and The Matrix.
Daemon begins with Matthew Sobol, a renowned computer programmer and video game designer, dead from cancer. It is upon his death, when the obituary is posted online, that the dormant daemon is unleashed upon the world. In this world – just like our own – everything is automated and computerized: banking, transportation, defense, government, patient records; there are few things remaining “off the grid.” The daemon works fast and incredibly efficient, beginning a systematic takedown of technology and world systems, causing deaths and the collapse of companies, and a financial meltdown that is scarily similar to the current economic climate.
It’s up to Detective Sebeck and computer genius Jon Ross to try and stop the daemon somehow from destroying everything. Then there is The Grid, the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game – in the style of World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online – created by Sobol, where the daemon secretly begins recruiting the disaffected but brilliant youth who play the game as part of its efforts to bring down technology and society.
Whether you’re a gamer, a computer person, a network specialist, an Internet aficionado, or just someone who likes books about technology and possibly the end of the civilized world, Daemon is the book for you. Expertly written by Daniel Suarez, who knows exactly what he’s talking about, Daemon is a book that will have you on the edge of your seat from page one to the very end, and waiting for the sequel, Freedom, due out in 2010.
Check out Daniel Suarez's interview on BookBanter in Episode 8.
Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.
DEATH’S DAUGHTER BY AMBER BENSON: Calliope Reaper-Jones has a simple life in New York, a city she loves. She cares little for her boss and job, but enjoys the fashions and the stores, and is on the lookout for the perfect hunk to marry and spend the rest of her life with. And Calliope thinks she might’ve found him, when she’s all set to go on a first date and finds a monster standing outside her door. The monster isn’t in her imagination either, but the first in a series of events, including the meeting of a little faun, that eventually breaks the “forgetting spell” Calliope had cast. It is then that she faces the stark realization and forgotten fact that she is Death’s daughter.
The reason her perfect little life has been dramatically changed is because her father, CEO of death, as well as the “members of the board” and Calliope’s sister who is an assistant to her father, have all been kidnapped. Which mean’s there’s no death, the life and wealth and immortality afforded the family of death will be voided and they will lose everything. So it’s all up to Calliope; she must become Death to save the family. Only this was the one thing she never wanted. She will also have to complete three trials to prove herself to the gods that she can do the job. She meets Woden, Persephone, and Kali who just really has it in for her. And the first of the trials is merely to capture one of Cerberus’s puppies, the veritable hellhound of hell.
Amber Benson, author of the Albion series with Christopher Golden, and who played the character of Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, does a great job creating some compelling and interesting characters in this original story. Calliope is a strong protagonist that you don’t want to mess with, while Kali is a goddess you never want to get on the bad side of. Then there’s the Devil’s protégé who just turns Calliope to horny mush whenever she sees him. Death’s Daughter is a funny, entertaining story that gives you a healthy dose of mythology mixed with some great characters and thrilling plot. A recipe that leaves readers anxiously waiting for the next book of the trilogy due out next year.
Check out Amber Benson's interview on BookBanter in Episode 6.
Want to get yourself a copy? Click HERE for Amazon.com
DROOD BY DAN SIMMONS: Our Mutual Friend was the last book that Charles Dickens wrote “THE END” to and published. On June 9th, 1865, Dickens was on a train journey with his mistress. A section of track over an upcoming bridge was missing, but the warning to stop the train hadn’t been set far enough away, and at this time for a train to make an emergency stop it was required to pull the emergency break on each car. It was a catastrophic and devastating accident, like that of a horrific plane crash. Most of the cars were destroyed, almost all the passengers killed or horribly injured. The only first class car to make it in one piece was Dickens’ car. He survived, going back into the train that was hanging off a the edge of the bridge to get his coat which contained his latest chapters for Our Mutual Friend. Almost five years later, to the day, Charles Dickens died. It was after this incident, known as the “Staplehurst disaster” – where Dickens could never travel comfortably again, fearing for his life – that the author began his obsession with death, the mysterious, the macabre, and the paranormal. He began the most strenuous and exhausting series of readings of his life, which almost killed him. He also began work on The Mystery of Edwin Drood, his last book which he never completed, but remains to this day one of the few mysteries which has never been solved.
Wilkie Collins, a fellow writer and good friend to Dickens in the last years of his life, is the unreliable narrator in Drood. On the outside, Collins reveals himself as a caring and dutiful friend to Dickens, but he hides many secrets: his addiction to laudanum, consuming glasses of it each day while others take only drops; as well as to morphine and opium. He suffers from rheumatic gout, which affects most in a specific area, but in Collins’ case he suffers the agony throughout his body and especially in his head, often rendering him helpless with pain. It is through this drug-addled mind that we see Victorian England and the last years of Dickens life. Collins has also been visited throughout his life by another version of himself who he communicates with and when unable to write, hands over his pen to this doppelganger; as well as a tusked creature that he fears. Wilkie Collins is clearly not of sound mind.
Then there is the character Drood, dressed in black hat and black opera cape. First seen by Dickens while searching for survivors at the Staplehurst disaster; yet each person that Drood attends to mysteriously dies. He lives within the deepest bowels of London, in the Undertown. Beneath the stench and horrors of Dickensian London exist nightmares never dreamed of, and it is here that Dickens goes to visit Drood, joined by Collins. Simmons doesn’t hold back with the vivid detail of this world, shocking and disgusting the reader, but forcing them to unstoppably turn the page and keep reading.
The story continues, balancing the literary world as Collins writes and publishes his books, while Dickens performs his exhausting readings; then there is the growing mystery of Drood and his recently acquired acolytes who bare the same haunting, macabre visage which terrifies Collins. And yet to satisfy his opium addiction, Collins must travel each week into the Undertown to receive the necessary drug.
Simmons does another incredible job with his new book, after the success of The Terror, creating a complete and detail-filled world as seen through the eyes and addled mind of this unique character. Weighing in at over 777 pages, it is a heavy tome that could continue on and never end. Drood is a special book that will stay long in the mind and thoughts of the reader, long after the last page has been turned, as he or she contemplates the meaning of Drood and what Dickens was really trying to do with The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Check out Dan Simmons interview on BookBanter in Episode 4.
Want to get yourself a copy? Click HERE for Amazon.com
I SAW YOU . . . EDITED BY JULIA WERTZ: The next time you pay a visit to Craigslist (and I’m sure you check it every day now for the job postings), look under the “Personals” column and you’ll see a option titled “Missed Connections.” It’s where men and women seeking women or men recount a recent chance meeting with someone who captured their heart in the blink of an eye. Perhaps it was a short but sweet conversation over the purchase of a latte; or gazing into one another’s eyes on the train to the work; or even the smile from a distance. We all see people each day, strangers whom we wonder might be; strangers who might even be the one. But then the opposite of serendipity blocks your path and you never see the person again. If this is the case, then Missed Connections is for you; where you can pour out your heart to that human who stopped you in your tracks for a second, with the lone hope that he or she may one day read it and somehow find you.
In the fall of 2006, Julia Wertz, cartoonist and creator of The Fart Party, put up a blog requesting comic strips from volunteers inspired by “Missed Connections”. Soon her inbox was overflowing! In I Saw You . . ., Wertz collects them together, providing a short introduction to why and how she did this. The result is a very entertaining book featuring a wonderful variety of artwork from some of today’s finest graphic artists as they take a sentence or two and turn it into something happy, or something sad, but always entertaining piece of art.
So whether you’re looking for a laugh, or for your heart strings to be pulled by some sad words and some sad eyes, I Saw You . . . is the book for you. A perfect paperback to read through in your spare time, while on the bus to work in the morning, as you glance up at that special someone looking right back at you, never to see them again.
THE THING ABOUT LIFE IS THAT ONE DAY YOU’LL BE DEAD BY DAVID SHIELDS: David Shields, author of Dead Languages and Body Politic: The Great American Sports Machine tackles a heavy subject that most of us spend each and every day trying to ignore and pretend will not happen as much as possible: death. The title says it all, and Shields doesn’t beat around the bush, putting the irrefutable truth right there in front of you. It’s the one guarantee in life and Shields wants to tell you all about it.
Part science lesson into our slow but inevitable demise, and part personal experience from Shields’ life; The Thing About Life is That One Day You’ll be Dead is divided into four parts: Infancy and Childhood, Adolescence, Adulthood and Middle Age, and Old Age and Death. The book began as an idea when Shields forced himself to come to terms with his father’s old age, at 97, and the fact that he would soon die; while his father maintains a vitality and optimism that he’s going to keep on kicking. Shields takes you on a step by step journey, from birth when the process of death truly begins, offering nonstop facts about growth, development, and the progressive steps towards death; while throwing quote after quote from every person you can think of about life and death.
The book doesn’t attempt to answer anything, nor force the reader to make a decision on death or life. It is an introspective journey into the biology of humanity, peppered with personal anecdotes from Shields, leaving the reader to make his or her own decision on how they feel about the fact that they will – as we all will – one day die and cease to exist.
AGINCOURT BY BERNARD CORNWELL: There are few battles in the history of the world that are most remembered by name, even by those who know or recall little from their high school history classes. The Battle of Hastings is one; the Battle of Trafalgar is anther; the Battle of Thermopylae is perhaps another, known to a lesser extent. Then there is the Battle of Agincourt (or Azincourt, as it is known in French), which took place on October 25th, 1415. For many, William Shakespeare springs to mind with his immortal play, Henry V, and “we few, we happy few.” Or perhaps the image of Kenneth Branagh making a memorable performance as the king who battled unbeatable odds. Ultimately its is the battle of the few triumphing over the many. And now Bernard Cornwell has finally written his take to put our questions and qualms to rest in his classic, skilful style.
It was an stunning and in some ways incomprehensible victory of the British over the French in the midst of the Hundred Years War. And what was the key advantage? The British longbow. Cornwell has already explored the beauty and importance of this historical weapon in the Grail Quest Series, and returns with one of his strongest characters yet in Nicholas Hook. The name is real, taken from a list of archers of the time, along with most of the other characters in the book. But Cornwell is not simply spinning a great, adventurous yarn from a relatively unknown piece of history. The Hundred Years War, and in particular the Battle of Agincourt, is well documented. In Agincourt, we do not see the familiar heroes who defy the odds; many die, many suffer. It is a bloody, harsh reality, this war, that in some cases will leave the reader stunned with the graphic description.
In Cornwell’s best piece of writing to date, he doesn’t hold back, giving many gritty details and revealing a tough and sad world. But ultimately we all know the British eventually triumphed; it makes for a much needed and happy conclusion to this ugly battle that left so many dead. Agincourt is a special book that deserves a place on any medieval historian’s or medieval fan’s shelf, as well as an important spot for any Cornwell fan. It is a book that will provide many answers, as well as both entertain and delight, and terrify and repulse. Cornwell tells it the way it really was: cold, exhausting, painful, and very bloody.
Check out Bernard Cornwell's interview on BookBanter in Episode 5.
THE BLACK MIRROR & OTHER STORIES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF SCIENCE FICTION FROM GERMANY AND AUSTRIA TRANSLATED BY MIKE MITCHELL, EDITED BY FRANZ ROTTENSTEINER: In this fascinating new collection from Wesleyan University Press readers get to see a great anthology of original science fiction from Germany and Austria spanning over a century of work. Editor Franz Rottensteiner offers a lengthy introduction spanning the entire history of science fiction in Germany and Austria, going into detail on the important authors starting back in the eighteenth century and continuing up to the present. Rottensteiner also does a great job of discussing German and Austrian writers who were eventually published in American magazines and anthologies and became popular in the United States.
The anthology is divided into sections by era, the first five stories being published in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. In this early period, science fiction stories were a lot more ponderous and philosophical, critiquing the way of life and its meaning and worth. In the next era, set between the World Wars, Hans Dominik in “A Free Flight in 2222” has the world not developing space travel and making it to the moon until the early twenty-first century; but after this hurdle is reached, we travel on to each of the planets by the end of the century. It is an interesting outlook from 1934 on a space race that in reality began with the moon and essentially stopped there.
In the title story, “The Black Mirror” from 1983 by Erik Simon, the world has made first contact with an alien race, but because of the distance, ships from Earth and ships from their planet take years to arrive. And now the aliens are arriving with a new invention: a giant silver mirror of immense beauty on one side that cannot be broken or shattered. On the other side is a black mirror that is in fact nothingness. It is a black hole in which an unbelievable darkness can be seen, and whatever is thrown into it, disappears forever. At first humanity is delighted at this amazing invention, and then begins to consider every possible item that can be tossed into it, without regarding any consequences. “Bit by bit , they’ll throw the whole universe,” one alien says to the other, uncertain as whether humanity has doomed itself.
In stories from the more recent period, there are stories debating the merits of technology and the Internet and whether in the long run it will benefit or hinder humanity. What is perhaps most interesting in this collection is that science fiction stories from Germany and Austria are really no different from those written by American authors. Ultimately, humanity has always and always will hold a great fascination for the future and what it may entail, no matter what country or culture they are from. The Black Mirror is a great science fiction collection that opens a great window into a world of foreign literature that many English speakers have never known, which will hopefully lead them on to reading more of these works from other countries.