Short Book Review: Character-Driven Time Travel Romance

Death at a Highland Wedding (A Rip Through Time Novel) by Kelley Armstrong (St Martins)

Death at a Highland Wedding is the fourth installment in  Kelley Armstrong's “Rip Through Time” time-travel novels that feature modern-day homicide detective Mallory Atkinson, who has slipped 150 years into the past to Victorian Scotland. By now, three books later, she's developed meaningful relationships with the people around her and is using her training as an assistant to undertaker Dr. Duncan Gray and Detective Hugh McCreadie. That’s all the backstory a reader needs, since Armstrong skillfully weaves in the relevant material as the plot unfolds. The important thing is that Duncan and Hugh, along with Hugh’s independent-minded sister, Isla, know Mallory’s true identity and trust her investigatory skills.

Now the four are off to a beautiful highland hunting lodge for the wedding of Hugh’s younger sister. All is not well, however. The new gamekeeper has been laying traps that threaten not only local wildlife but the poor folk accustomed to traveling freely over the estate. Soon, Mallory and her friends are caught up in a series of increasingly bizarre mysteries that culminate in the murder of one of the guests, for which the inexperienced young constable arrests the groom.

The combination of time travel and murder mystery would furnish an entertaining read, but Armstrong goes further. Her sensitivity to relationships, the vulnerability of women in the 1870s, especially those without rank or money, and Mallory’s compassion and quick insight all make for a deeper story. It’s not necessary to have read the preceding volumes to enjoy Death at a Highland Wedding, although you’ll likely want to gobble up as many of the adventures of Mallory and her friends as you can find.

Short Book Review: If Cats Could Type

Starter Villain, by John Scalzi (Tor)

Charlie seems like an average guy, having given up his career as a journalist for substitute teaching that barely pays for groceries and cat food. He’s kind and sweet, a sucker for a cute cat or two. His current dream is to buy a landmark pub, although it’s unlikely the bank will approve the loan. To make matters worse, his siblings want to sell the house they jointly own. Then his long-lost Uncle Jake dies, and before Charlie realizes what’s going on, he finds himself heir to a supervillain business and the target of his uncle’s rivals, a cabal of rich, soulless multinational predators. Along the way, Charlie discovers a knack for negotiating with wisecracking sentient dolphins who threaten a strike if their demands for better working conditions aren’t met, intelligent spy cats who communicate via typewriters, and a terrifyingly competent henchwoman.

It's all brilliantly witty but with an undercurrent of thoughtfulness. Again and again, Charlie demonstrates how logic, common sense, and an utter lack of deference to bullies can and do prevail. The dialog is top-notch, as are the reversals and plot twists. Having grown up in a union family, I heartily cheered for dolphin workers’ rights.

Fun reading for you and your cats.

Book Review: Superb Hard SF from Katharine Kerr

Haze, by Katharine Kerr (ARC Manor)

Katharine Kerr is one of the most versatile writers of speculative fiction. Although many readers know her best for her long-running “Deverry” fantasy series, she also writes superb urban fantasy and hard science fiction, with such works as Polar City Blues and Freeze Frames. Now she returns to a far future when interstellar civilization depends on travel through hyperspace stargate shunts. Kerr’s universe is richly detailed, enormous in scope of space and history, replete with ancient grudges between sapient races, current politics, and plots-within-plots. And a mystery: the shunts are supposed to be permanent, anchored at each end to nearby planets, but something—or some ONE—has accomplished the impossible and destroyed a shunt. Which vital route will be the next target?

We are drawn into the story through Dan, an immensely talented starship pilot capable of linking with a ship’s AI to navigate the shunts. Like other pilots, he uses the drug Haze to blunt his craving for the transcendent experience of hyperspace when he’s not working. But Haze is highly addictive, and Dan’s use of it has gotten him cashiered out of Fleet, destitute, and turning tricks on Nowhere Street on a backwater planet to feed his habit. When Fleet offers him a way back to his old job, under the care of his former lover, Devit, and enough Haze to keep him functional, Dan doesn’t have a choice. There’s a reason he’s refused treatment for Haze addiction, a secret he guards with his life. Disguised as merchant traders, he and his new crew begin investigating the disappearance of the shunt. And that’s when things start to go seriously wrong.

Kerr’s use of Dan as an initial viewpoint character who introduces us to this world is brilliant. He’s at turns fallible, aggravating, and heart-breakingly attractive. The offspring of a noted film beauty, he’s been genetically modified to be sexually irresistible to both men and women, and to unconsciously respond to their advances. Devit has been the only person in his life to care about him as a person, but at a terrible cost. In this society, both bisexuality and polyamory are widely accepted, but relationships like theirs are fraught with challenges. Anyone who’s ever loved a person with substance abuse issues knows how painful and impossibly difficult it can be. As Devit grows closer to legendary cyberjock Jorja, their problems and the choices both must face become more urgent.

As the mystery unfolds, with a nuanced pacing of plot reversals and surprises, layers of both human and alien cultures emerge. One of the more fascinating of these is the relationship—sometimes symbiotic, often sullenly adversarial—between human pilots or cyberjocks and the AIs that run ships, stations, archives, and more. Scholars find themselves at cross-purposes with the military that is supposed to protect them. Old feuds between species simmer just below the surface. The revelation at the end is highly satisfactory, meticulously plotted, and a fresh surprise.

It's hard to list the strengths of this remarkable novel because there are so many. They include exceptional world-building, social systems and relationships, hardware and AIs, and most of all, the characters. People find themselves trapped with no healthy way forward, like Dan and Devit. They try new strategies and alliances, not always successful. As they confront new situations or old ones come back to haunt them, they struggle to move beyond the past. Wounded, recovering, and scarred, their lives can never be the same. In other words, Kerr’s fully rounded characters change and grow in ways that drive the story forward.

Award-worthy and highly recommended for lovers of space science fiction.

Short Book Reviews: A Cozy Battle-Orc Fantasy

 Bookshops & Bonedust, by Travis Baldree (Tor)

Is there such a thing as a cozy high fantasy with a female battle-orc heroine? Elves, dwarves, enchanted swords, necromancers…and spicy romance novels? Yes to all of this, because Travis Baldree has invented the subgenre!

Bookshops & Bonedust is a delightful prequel to Legends and Lattes, although each works beautifully on its own.

Recuperating from wounds incurred in the hunt for a powerful necromancer, battle-orc soldier-of-fortune Viv finds herself in the sleepy beach town of Murk with nothing to do. In desperation born of overwhelming boredom, she follows the literary suggestions of Fern, the ratkin owner of a dying bookstore. Any fantasy reader worth their salt knows what comes next! Not only is Viv drawn into the enchanted world of novels but she sets about reviving the bookstore, complete with a surprise appearance by the elf author of fabled romance adventures. Along the way, Viv encounters a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a retired mercenary turned baker extraordinaire, a mysterious traveler in gray, and a talking bag of bones. All is not hunky-dory in Murk, however, for the necromancer responsible for Viv’s injury is still on the loose…

I loved every page of it!

Book Review: The Conclusion of the Rook and Rose Trilogy

 

Labyrinth's Heart, by M. A. Carrick (Orbit)

Labyrinth's Heart completes the “Rook and Rose” trilogy by M. A. Carrick (in real life, Marie Brennan and Alyc Helms). The story began in the Venice-like city of Nadežra with the arrival of con-artist Ren, bent on impersonating a long-lost cousin of an aristocratic family and thereby worming her way into rank and riches. An uneasy peace between the nobility and the natives they oppress barely holds in the city. Between the Robin Hood-like Rook (which turns out to be not an individual person but a vocation transmitted through a magical mask), gangs tussling for territory, and the mind-controlling medallions left over from “the Tyrant,” Ren soon finds herself acting several, mutually incompatible roles. One of them, by the way, is a reader of special tarot-like cards, a “patterner.”

At the beginning of Labyrinth's Heart, Ren’s precarious balancing act comes crashing down with the arrival of a scheming social climber who knows her true story and will not stop at pressuring Ren to get what she wants, even at the expense of Ren’s now beloved family. Ancient malice awakens, the oppressed classes rise up against tyranny, and mystery piles upon mystery.

The three volumes weave together old evils, cursed clans, transcendent magic, political corruption, social upheaval, and a love story or two. Together, they form a long, slow simmer of a story that shines with its sympathetic characters and rich cultural setting. The cards used for “patterning” divination are particularly vivid, with a cohesion and archetypal resonance that makes them utterly believable. (The authors designed a deck of these cards that will soon be available.)

I’m a huge fan of the work of the authors and I loved these books. However, since this is a review, I must offer a few caveats. One is that the volumes should be read fairly close together. It had been several years since I read the middle book, and I found myself struggling to recall too many events, characters, place names, and clan relationships.

Two, a corollary, is that Labyrinth's Heart is not a stand-alone. There’s simply too much backstory for a book entire in itself, although the authors make a valiant attempt to supply synopses of previous books, character lists, glossary, etc.

Three is that one challenge of such a long, complex story lies in the sheer number of characters, each with a backstory. The inevitable result is that Ren, who was the front-and-center protagonist at the beginning, fades from time to time into a lesser position when everyone else’s story comes to a climax and resolution. Along with that complexity comes a multiplicity of endings. It’s a bit like the final volume of The Lord of the Rings, where the story does not end with the destruction of the One Ring or even with the hobbits returning home. Indeed, it goes on for chapter after chapter, and so, too, does the “Rook and Rose” saga. This is a good thing for readers who are sad to say good-bye to this marvelous world and its people; not so much for those who want a single, definitive “they lived happily ever after.”

A minor point is that Grey Serrado (Ren’s love interest, among other roles) has grown up thinking he was cursed (what looks like psychological child abuse turns out to have a basis in reality). How that came about and how it’s resolved play out in Labyrinth's Heart. The problem for me is that I never picked up on his being cursed in the first two books, so I was a bit taken aback when it became an important secondary thread. All these are minor quibbles, however, compared to the grand, sweeping scope of the books.

I leave you with one of the many beautiful, poetic lines from “Rook and Rose”:

May you see the face and not the mask.

Book Review: Alt-Wild West Meets Religious Cult

Red in Tooth and Claw, by Lish McBridge (Putnam)

Red in Tooth and Claw opens in an alt-Wild West setting that's close enough to historical to make the reader feel comfortable with conventions and expectations, yet just "off" enough to be creepy. Sensory descriptions and a truly marvelous POV character voice create a sympathetic protagonist (orphan Faolan, a girl masquerading as a boy whose grandfather guardian has just died) in a vivid, three-dimensional world. In a scheme to gain control of the grandfather's farm, the mayor concocts a scheme to ship Faolan off to "the Settlement" for their own good. Since Faolan is still a minor, she hasn't much choice. She stuffs the deed to the farm into her grandfather's watch, tucks the watch into the toe of an oversized boot, and pretends to be meekly obedient. I'm with her every step of the way at this point.

The Settlement is run by an eerily familiar-sounding cult that worships "the Shining God" and is run by the oily (as in snake-oil salesman) "HisBen" ("His Benevolence").  Despite their isolation, the Settlement is inordinately rich--behind its stockade, there's ample food, for example. Faolan is not the only kid who's been sent there to get them out of the way, and she soon makes friends and allies as well as enemies. She makes plans to escape, encounters a band of Rovers, falls in love, and gets catapulted into a horror mystery when people disappear and bodies appear. Something's out there, thirsting for blood.

For me, this is where the book loses the skillful evocation of the first part. The world is just enough askew from our own to make Faolan's predicament believable. When Faolan, who's finally gotten a decent meal when she arrives at the Settlement, thinks this place might not be so bad, I'm screaming, "Danger! Danger!" It's delicious, shivery stuff. 

Then come the Rovers, who could have provided a counterpoint to the secretive Settlement leaders, with their bond with their horses and the natural world. But, and it's a huge but, the Rover culture is a slap-dash amalgam of generalized Native people cultures, Hollywood-style Roma, and Western Europeans. Many elements of their culture are poorly thought-out, often incongruous with each other. The Rovers, and especially Faolan's love interest, Tallis, lack the thoughtfulness and depth of the earlier settings. 

By the time the monster makes an appearance through a trans-dimensional portal opened by HisBen's rituals, I was so disappointed, I no longer cared what happened. I knew that Faolan would get her very own sweetly tame monster, defeat HisBen, and live happily ever after with Tallis. (I was right.) What began as one type of story devolved into something quite inferior. I really, really wish the author had applied the same solid world-building and dramatic tension as in the opening to the rest of the book and not tried to switch genres.

Short Book Review: A Romp Through Lovecraft's Arkham

 The Ravening Deep (The Sanford Files), by Tim Pratt (Aconyte)

I’m a long-time fan of Tim Pratt, from his imaginative science fiction to his thoughtful, accessible novels set in gaming worlds. I quite understand why he undertook an adventure that’s part of Aconyte’s Lovecraftian “Arkham Horror” series—it’s a hoot! While it helps to have a superficial knowledge of the mythos, it’s not necessary. Pratt guides us into this world of mysteries and cults, the superficial normal, and the deeply horrific reality beneath.

Poor Abel Davenport! First, his fishing business dries up, then in a drunken stupor he unwittingly becomes the chief priest of a long-dead god (a gigantic, planet-devouring starfish, I kid you not), and before he knows it, the spirit of the aforementioned god has cloned him into extremely not-nice doppelgangers in its scheme to recover the last bit of its mortal flesh. Then there’s Diana Stanley, a shopkeeper who joined Arkham’s Silver Twilight Lodge in the mistaken belief it was a service club, only to learn, once it’s too late to back out, that its rituals are far darker…and bloodier. Ruby Standish, cat burglar par excellence, joins forces with Diana and Abel to pull off a heist at the Silver Twilight Lodge. Now the three of them must convince Carl Sanford, master of the Lodge, where the true danger lies. Part horror novel, part thriller, and very much part tongue-in-cheek romp, The Ravening Deep is a quick, delicious read that left me wishing for the next adventure…and just a wee bit wary of my seafood.

Verdict: Great fun, even for those not familiar with Lovecraft’s Arkham.

Book Review: Beware the Real Neverland

 The Adventures of Mary Darling, by Pat Murphy (Tachyon)

Peter Pan: We’ve all read the book, seen the play, or watched the animated film, so we know the drill: In Victorian London, three children are swept away to Neverland by PeterPanSpiritOfYouth, where they have many adventures battling pirates led by the dastardly Captain Hook. They leave behind a frantic, ineffectual mother, a bombastic, equally ineffective father, and a drooling dog nanny. Author Pat Murphy asks, Is that really what happened? What if Mary Darling had once been spirited away to be a “Mother” to the Lost Boys, despite her insistence that she is not a Mother? What if she understands all too well the deception and peril of the place and its capricious leader?

In Murphy’s retelling, after emerging from the first horrific shock of finding her children missing, with only one place they could have gone, Mary Darling determines to rescue them herself. Under the innocuous facade of a Victorian wife lies a powerful woman who has fought her way free of Neverland with considerable piratical skills. Of course, she encounters opposition, first in her husband, George, who is loving but befuddled by her “independent ways.” A more significant barrier comes from her uncle, Doctor John Watson, who enlists his friend, Sherlock Holmes, in determining what ails her. Holmes decides that Mary is the prime suspect in the disappearance of her children.

As Mary embarks on her quest to rescue her children before they either starve to death in Neverland or fall prey to Pan’s careless disregard for human life, her past reveals itself in layers. In past and present, we meet old friends and allies, people whose lives have been forever altered by their contact with Neverland. We also discover the reality behind J. M. Barrie’s imperialistic misrepresentation of indigenous peoples, the role and power of women, and the importance of memory.

The Adventures of Mary Darling is a brilliant re-imagining of a familiar tale, laying bare its folly and portraying the ingenuity, skill, and heroism of Mary and a host of other characters, invented and glossed-over. My favorite was James, a sweet gay boy, one of a series of Pan’s “Toodles,” and who later as Captain Hook proves to be one of Mary’s staunchest and most able supporters. It should come as neither surprise nor spoiler that Mr. Holmes never appreciates his loss in insisting that logic is the only reality.

Highly recommended.

 

Book Review: Victorian Detective Thriller Noir

 The Nightingale Affair, by Tim Mason (Algonquin)

A deliciously twisty Victorian detective thriller focusing on a serial killer with a sinister signature targeting Florence Nightingale and her valiant nurses, first in 1855 Crimea (“the Beast of the Crimean”) and twelve years later in London.  Nightingale has dedicated her life to improving the wretched conditions in the British military hospitals in Turkey, despite fierce objections from the male doctors around her. When young women start turning up dead, their mouths sewn shut with embroidered fabric roses, Inspector Charles Field (the real-life inspiration for Charles Dickens’s Inspector Bucket in Bleak House) is dispatched from England to Turkey’s famous Barrack Hospital to find the killer. The suspects abound: doctors, military men, journalists, and others, most of whom would gladly see Nightingale and her uppity women packed back to London. The death of the prime suspect closes the case.

In the second timeline, the killings have begun again just as a movement to enfranchise more voters—men for now but women in the future--is getting underway. As Field gets drawn into the current investigation, he wonders if he’d gotten the wrong suspect back in Crimea or are the new killings the work of a demented copycat.

Along the way, Field encounters real figures of the day, from Benjamin Disraeli and John Stuart Mill to novelist Wilkie Collins and, of course, Florence Nightingale herself.

I found The Nightingale Affair to be a fast, absorbing read. The story moves swiftly from present to past, past to present, with characters I cared about, plot twists, chases, and intrigue.

Trigger warning for gore and misogyny-related violence.

Book Review: Rain as a Luxury of the Very Rich

 The Rain Artist, by Claire Rudy Foster (Moonstruck Books)

In a dystopic future, the Earth is so polluted that pure water is a luxury enjoyed only by the ultra-rich. Rivers have run dry and the seas have become so heavily saline that whales are extinct. Quadrillionaires throw artificially generated “rain parties,” complete with handmade bespoke umbrellas created for each occasion by Celine Broussard, the last umbrella maker. The front of her workshop is rented by a florist, who seems to be a gentle soul, happy to arrange artificial flowers, but who is actually a far darker, far more dangerous character. And that’s before we learn just how dark and dangerous he really is. As a result of a dynastic power struggle, Celine finds herself framed for the patriarch’s murder. Soon she’s on the run across a devastated landscape, along with her terrifyingly competent tenant and a young woman desperate to terminate an illegal pregnancy.

I loved the gorgeous, sensually evocative prose that drew me into each setting through the direct experiences of the character. I loved even the unlovable characters and how the author portrayed their crimes and shortcomings in a way that allowed me to change how I felt and make up my own mind about them. I loved how the characters changed, finding both courage and fellowship on their flight.

In many ways, The Rain Maker doesn’t fit the usual dystopian-thriller genre. With sureness and skill, the author draws the reader into the world and its inhabitants, beginning with very accessible scenes and progressing, layering subtle details upon details, into a world like and unlike our own. She doesn’t hit us over the head with bizarre elements as she slowly and carefully creates a world in which they are plausible. In this way, the book is generous with its welcome to readers who are familiar with the genre as well as those who are new, naïve.

Gorgeous and unsettling and ultimately filled with hope. Highly recommended.

Short Book Reviews: Another Fun "Laundry Files" Novel

 Season of Skulls (A Novel in the World of the Laundry Files), by Charles Stross (Tor)

I’ve loved “The Laundry Files” by Charles Stross since the first adventure, a delicious blend of spy action adventure and Lovecraftian horror, with a dry sense of humor and a touch of romance. The series begins in a present-day world where magic is a branch of computational mathematics (i.e., if you get sufficiently powerful computers, they tap into magic, often with results you really, really don’t want, like awakening ancient powers and opening gates to other dimensions). Now, many volumes later, Britain is under “New Management” and the Prime Minister is an Elder God of terrifying power. Eve Starkey, once the hyperorganized assistant to an unscrupulous magician, is just trying to get her life back and stay under the radar…and fails at both.

This latest installment has all the tension, wit, and quirky imagination of its predecessors, but with a bit more, very satisfying romance thrown in. Poor Eve has been through so much, and her ex-boss, perhaps not-so-ex-husband is such a loathsome toad, she deserves a little happiness in the end. Stross delivers all this and more.

Great fun for lovers of the series

Short Book Review: Mammoths and Mystical Talking Birds

 Mammoths at the Gates, by Nghi Vo (Tordotcom)

What a gem this novella is! It’s a bouquet of reading delights with very cool premise, memorable characters—both human, avian, and elephantine—gorgeous use of language and dramatic tension.

Chih, a wandering cleric, returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey only to find…mammoths at the gate. It seems that after the death of their beloved mentor and head of the abbey, the mentor’s relatives want to bring the body to their ancestral home, a move that appalls the other clerics, as well as the “nexien,” magical talking hoopoe birds that preserve history. I loved the names of the birds, such as Almost Brilliant and Myriad Virtues. The author’s words painted a cloistered world so believable and vivid, it was hard to keep in mind this is fantasy.

I definitely want a nexien of my own! Can I name her Serene Chaos?

Highly recommended, and since it’s part of a series, there’s even more to savor.

Book Review: A Brilliant, Addictive Fantasy

 The Will of the Many, by James Islington (Saga)

The Will of the Many sets a heroic coming-of-age tale in a richly imagined, magically imbued empire. The Catenan Republic has many echoes of our own Roman Empire in names, language, conquests, politics and rivalries, and powerful families, but with a crucial difference. Its operational principle is the Hierarchy, in which masses cede their “Will,” their strength, drive, and focus, to those above them, with each successively higher rank accumulating more power. This kind of moral and physical slavery is an engraved invitation to abuse.

Within this cauldron of oppression, a young man calling himself Vis ekes out a living working by day in the orphanage that houses him and at night in the underground of street fighting. Vis has a secret: he’s never ceded his Will, and the whip scars on his back show the price of his defiance. But he harbors an even deeper secret, one that means his death if it were discovered.

Vis's life takes an abrupt turn when a Senator, very high in the Hierarchical ranks, recruits him into his aristocratic family to solve a murder and ferret out a secret in the elite Academy, one that can tear the Republic apart. It’s an all but impossible task and the price of failure is worse than death.

Vis is an engaging character, at once courageous, beset by the overwhelming nature of his task, desperate to protect his identity, and touchingly fallible. He’s perfect for bringing the reader into the often-bizarre, often-familiar world of the Academy. His friends, allies, and enemies within the school, as well as his patrician adopted father, are all beautifully drawn. Best of all, the dramatic tension and action scenes are hands-down some of the best I’ve read.

Beware, though, the book is addictive. And just when you think it’s got to wrap up, you find out it’s the first of a trilogy.

 

Book Review: A Sword and Sorcery Flop

 Red Sonja: Consumed, by Gail Simone (Orbit)

I tried hard to like this book, but I failed. I never overcame my initial, extremely unpleasant impression of Red Sonja as callous, self-centered, and incompetent. Even the queen she beds and betrays dives headlong into revenge without a second thought. Jumping from one POV character to another further disrupted any engagement with the story.

Sword and sorcery in the tradition of Robert E. Howard is a stylized subgenre. The tropes are distinctive but consistent: larger-than-life characters with larger-than-life adversaries, colorful settings with mythic overtones, exaggerated action sequences, and a tendency toward florid prose. Consistency with Howard’s literary style without becoming ridiculous amounts to a high-wire act. In the hands of a master, the elements come together like an amusement park ride: breathless, engaging escapism that is ultimately emotionally satisfying. The best of these stories work by evoking psychological resonances (see Joseph Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey) in an immersive reading experience.

Alas, not only was I unable to connect with any of the characters in the book’s opening, but too many details strained my credibility even by the standards of the subgenre. For example, Red Sonja is remarkably unaware of her surroundings, allowing enemies to sneak up on her on a regular basis. She’s just plain incompetent at basic survival skills. Many details about riding and horses are wrong in the sense of being ignorant. (Example: a skilled rider on a familiar and extremely well-trained mount does not haul on the reins to halt but uses a shift in weight and pelvic angle.) Once my confidence in the author had been impaired, other things that might not have otherwise kicked me out of the story became barriers, like “firing” arrows in an era before gunpowder. That’s a linguistic bobble that has become commonplace and can be excused in an otherwise consistent setting.

On the plus side, Simone occasionally comes up with a memorable turn of phrase, action, or characterization (but not, alas, of Red Sonja).

I checked other reviews, both critical and defensive, to see what other readers thought. I wondered if I was missing something because I hadn’t read all the modern stories. The reviewers divided mostly into two camps: those with extensive knowledge of the Red Sonja novels and graphic and those who just want a fun reading experience. Some of the former novels are either critical of the many lapses in geography, nomenclature, and history, while others insist that this book cannot be properly appreciated without in-depth knowledge of the franchise. I disagree with the latter.

Good storytelling is good storytelling, regardless of genre. Nobody expects high literary values from sword and sorcery, but perhaps that is a mistake. Consider the work of Tanith Lee, C. J. Cherryh or C. L. Moore. Unfortunately, Gail Simone is not in their class.

 

Book Reviews: Two Fantasies by Martha Wells

Martha Wells has become one of my favorite authors. I loved her “Raksura” series and was bowled over by her “Murderbot” novellas. I thought I would follow her across genres. Two of her recent releases soar in terms of world-building imagination, but fall short in dramatic shaping and plot structure.

Witch King, by Martha Wells (Tor)

Witch King opens with a mystery as demon Kai (not “a” demon, THE demon) wakes up in captivity with a mage attempting to seize control of his magic. His immediate goal is to free himself and locate his companions. This proves to be both easier and far more challenging than it appears on the surface. For one thing, Kai’s last (dead) host body has been murdered and he’s in another, quite unfamiliar (and much less fit) body; for another, he has no idea how much time has elapsed since he’s been unconscious (a lot), what political changes are afoot in the world, and where the wife of his closest ally has disappeared to.

So far, so good, and Wells does a superb job in introducing complex characters, an unusual system of magic, and millennia of history and world-building without dumping expository lumps on the reader.

Wells then shifts to the distant past when Kai inhabited a volunteer body and lived in a rich, joyful, and emotionally warm culture. From here, the two timelines alternate chapters. A few characters, such as Kai who is almost immortal, appear throughout, but many others (many, many others) are specific only to one. Still more are alive and active in the past but distant memories in the present. Because the focus is on Kai and a few others who are present in both times, I had to search for other clues as to where and when I was.

Both storylines are filled with action and wonderful characters, situations, and relationships. Each one would be more than enough for a novel in itself. Some readers will love the weaving back and forth and all the myriad ways the past informs and shapes the present. I was one of them, but only at first. As the book went on, however, I found it increasingly frustrating trying to orient myself—which time is this? what’s been going on? who’s still alive? and, most importantly, what is the present goal or threat for the protagonist? There didn’t seem to be a single plot arc, a building dramatic tension that carried through in both past and present. It didn’t help that my favorite character from the past is long since dead in the present. Within each timeline, unrelated problems arise and are resolved. I could never figure out what the overall “Big Bad” was, especially after one candidate villain after another is eliminated. The “Big Bad” at the end seemed to come out of nowhere. Mark Twain famously said that life is “one damned thing after another.” Fiction must play by a different set of rules.

Witch King is hugely ambitious, filled with imaginative elements, compelling personal drama, and a huge landscape across time as well as space. Wells handles these elements with the effortless skill of a seasoned professional, but fails to shape them into a single dramatic story.

 

Wheel of the Infinite, by Martha Wells (Tor)

Wheel of the Infinite starts with a fortuitous encounter on the road between Maskelle, a confident and immensely powerful magic wielder, and handsome, enigmatic swordsman Rian. After she saves his life, he and a band of motley other characters accompany Maskelle to the heart of the Celestial Empire. Much later, we learn that she’s returning from exile after being judged a traitor and much, much later, that her task is to help remake the beautiful, orderly mandala known at the Wheel of the Infinite, thereby ensuring peace and harmony for the Empire. At turns, the action moves swiftly with leaps of dramatic tension or as slowly as any travelogue. In this, it reminded me of The Lord of the Rings (the books, not the movies), which alternated between seat-of-the-pants action and pages upon pages of passing scenery. Also that there’s a quest, although in Rings, the mission is much more clear and consistently present.

Maskelle was one of my favorite characters in a long while. She’s an older woman, always a plus with me, she’s quite comfortable with her sexuality (double plus), and she’s terrifyingly competent as a magician (triple plus). Once the question of whether she’ll decide it wise to take Rian as her lover is settled, he pales by contrast as a character. Many, many other characters appeared (and disappeared, some temporarily, others not so much) but weren’t around for long enough to engage my sympathy.

As with Witch King, the premise, world-building, magical system, and protagonist in Wheel of the Infinite were all marvelous. The book is highly ambitious, offering fresh, original takes on time-honored tropes. Its sheer size and scope break down under their own weight. It’s as if Wells, whose novellas and shorter novels are tightly plotted gems, hasn’t quite made the leap to books of this length and complexity. Nevertheless, both are enjoyable reads with many twists and innovations. While neither worked perfectly for me, I’m eager to read her next project.

Book Review: A tour-de-force of the heart

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman (Penguin)

This marvelous debut novel is mainstream, not genre, but with overtones of “domestic thriller” and superb handling of an unreliable narrator. The growth of the central character skillfully parallels the gradual revelation of her past.

At first, Eleanor Oliphant seems to be a tediously bland, often annoying office worker. Her social skills leave a great deal to be desired, she’s compulsively routine-bound, and she rebuffs every effort at friendship. Although she insists to herself and to everyone else that she is completely fine, her weekly phone chats with her emotionally abusive Mummy result in weekly bouts of heavy drinking. Her doomed infatuation with a third-rate singer provides more fodder for Mummy’s manipulations.

At first, I thought that her problem was that she was a functional alcoholic, but the situation turned out to be much more complex and nuanced. From the beginning, there are hints of a deeper, darker story. When Eleanor and Raymond, a big-hearted if physically unattractive IT guy, rescue an elderly man who collapses on the street, Eleanor gets drawn into new social circles and relationships. The walls she has built around her profound emotional damage begin to crumble. Needless to say, in Honeyman’s capable hands, there is more than one surprise along the way.

Highly recommended. A tour-de-force of the heart.

Audiobook Reviews: Kate Elliott's Court of Fives

 

Court of Fives trilogy (Court of Fives, The Poisoned Blade, The Buried Heart) by Kate Elliott (audiobook)

I’ve been a fan of Kate Elliott for a long time, admiring her thoughtfulness and nuanced presentation of relatable characters wrestling with complex social issues. Plus great action sequences and world-building. I found this trilogy in audiobook format through my public library (hooray for libraries!). It had been around for awhile, the first volume (Court of Fives) having been published in 2015.

After the patriarchal kingdom of Saro invades and conquers the land of Efea, a colonial-style caste system perpetuates the resulting conquerer/conquered elite/slave dichotomies. The fact that the aristocratic Saroese are light-skinned and have straight hair and the Efeans are dark with “coiled” hair evokes echoes of British imperialism in Africa or the post-Civil War America. Here, as in Elliott’s ficticious realm, people from different castes will inevitably meet, fall in love, and have children. Jessamy and her sisters have grown up in such a family; their father is a common, untitled Saroese who has risen to military prominence due to his extraordinary skill. His wife in all but name is a perceptive, generous Efean who excels at caring for everyone in her orbit.

Jessamy has a secret: she has been training to compete in the Court of Fives, a sort of Olympic trial combinng strength, agility, quick-thinking, and speed—and she does so anonymously, against her father’s wishes. He does his best to protect his mixed-race girl in the larger world of Saroese dominance. Jessamy’s secret rebellion and a chance encounter with Kalliarkos, (a Saroese prince in line for the throne) ignite vicious political infighting, simmering Efean rebellion, betrayals within her own family, and a discovery that will transform forever the relationship between the two peoples.

The result is a coming of age story fueled by Jessamy’s burgeoning insight, courage, and maturity, and the her (and the reader’s) step-by-step discovery of the history of this world, the power of rebellion, and the emergence of the leadership this world needs so desperately to survive. The resulting tale is neither a quick nor superficial, but rich, detailed, and ultimately satisfying.

Highly recommended.

 

 

Book Reviews: A tale of two memoirs

I love to listen to audiobooks while I work in the garden, take a walk, or cook a meal. Recently, I borrowed two memoirs from my public library and was struck by the contrast. Both were written by famous people and narrated by themselves. I was curious enough about each of them to listen to their stories.

The first was Spare, by Prince Harry (Random House), mostly because it popped up on my screen. Okay, I thought, his perspective on growing up in the shadow of Princess Diana’s death should be be interesting. His life has been very different from (or, in Brit: to) mine.

Being in the public spotlight does not qualify a person to write a compelling memoir, nor does belonging to a royal family confer the ability to narrate with clarity and emotion. Spare fails on both counts. The charm of Harry’s accent lasted about five minutes, long enough for the emotional shallowness—a combination of the dry text and the manner in which it was read aloud—and lack of awareness of his elite white privilege to wear thin. Since I know from my own experience what it’s like to lose a parent unexpectedly, I hoped I’d be able to connect with Harry’s loss. I found his denial of Diana’s death understandable as a child. The problem was that Harry, the adult looking back, seemed to not have gained any insight or grown beyond denial as a childish survival strategy. I heard no understanding of how much he’d matured through adversity, the pain he’d walked through. No connection between that loss and the subsequent estrangements from other members of his family or the mental health issues with which he struggled later in life. But there was lots about the privileged life where everything was provided without him having to work for it and which he accepted without question.

I finally gave up, so I never got to hear about his military service or his courtship with Meghan Markle and how they made a life for themselves apart from his royal relatives. I wish them well, but I found little in this audiobook memoir to attract and hold my interest in who Harry is as a person.

 In contrast, Lovely One, A Memoir, by Ketanji Brown Jackson (Random House) was a joy from start to finish. Jackson is the newest member of the US Supreme Court and the first Black woman to be
confirmed to that post. As a student, she excelled in public speaking and debate, tackling challenging topics with determination and extraordinary eloquence. Her facility with communicating complex ideas shines through her narrative, as does her love for her family, her capacity for enduring friendship, her passion for justice, and her unwavering courage. Whether she is talking about the African origin of her name, the environment of racism and misogyny prevalent in here field even today, her and her husband’s struggles to maintain separate careers while raising two daughters, one of whom is autistic, she speaks with unusual clarity and persuasiveness. I loved every minute of her story. In another life, I want to be her best friend.

Highly recommended.

 

 

Book Review: Mysterious Stone Circle

 Stone Certainty, by Simon R. Green (Severn House)

The stone circle at Chipping Amesbury has been the subject of stories going back centuries. It’s said to be a gateway to the Other Place, abode of monsters and demons. When the stones were moved, the circle became quiet. Now the new landowner is restoring them to their original gate-like configuration, and he wants to film a documentary about the re-placing of the last stone. Besides a production crew and two newscasters, he’s enlisted Alistair Kincaid, the youngest ever bishop of All Souls Hollow, is an expert in Britain's ancient stone circles, and actress Diana Hunt. The two became notorious in their last encounter, when the pair of them hunted ghosts and solved a murder. Of course, spooky things happen: mysterious mists, bloodthirsty sounds…and a dead body, pinned to the ground in the center of the circle with a pitchfork.

The story resembles a “haunted house” mystery, with a fixed location and a limited number of people who vary in their susceptibility to belief in ghosts, demons, and the horrors of the Other Place.  But Alistair and Diana learned from their previous adventure that there is usually a rational explanation for weird events but murder is very real. Without giving away too much, Green masterfully creates expectations, allows the reader to interpret events, and always plays fair with what he reveals. The result is a brilliant, nuanced exploration of belief, superstition, and persuasion.

Book Review: An Ambitious New Novel from Valerie Valdes

Where Peace Is Lost, by Valerie Valdes (Harper Voyager)

I am of two minds about this new space fantasy by Valerie Valdes. On the one hand, I loved her previous novels, delightful, supersonic-paced space adventures with  fascinating and occasionally romantic relationships between humans and aliens. Smooth prose and colorful characters teamed up with complex, long-view plots with action reversals and quieter moments. Where Peace Is Lost is more ambitious, with higher stakes and deeper interpersonal and inner conflicts. The book opens with a sympathetic character with a mysterious past, one that is revealed in tantalizing hints. Kel Garda appears to be just another refugee living on the edge of an isolated star system. Her secrecy breaks down with the arriveal of a long-dormant war machine, suddenly reactivated. It is designed to carve a swath of devastation that will destroy an entire ecology and displace thousands of people, possibly killing every sentient creature on the planet. Kel and a local friend team up with a pair of fortune hunters who claim to be able to disable the machine. Of course, the strangers are not what they seem, either.

As Kel’s past comes to the surface, so does that of one of the strangers. At this point, the book veers from space adventure featuring a character with a conflicted past to an “enemies to lovers” romance. The transition is uneven, approaching and then retreating from the depth of reconciliation required not only between them but within each. Valdes handled interspecies romance in her previous novels so well, I found the retreat into formulaic “love conquers all” jarring.

For all my difficulties with the love story, Where Peace Is Lost is a grand adventure with a huge canvas, a worthy addition to Valdes’s bibliography. Perhaps the best part are the poetic lines from Kel’s past:

Where peace is lost, may we find it.

Where peace is broken, may we mend it.

Where we go, may peace follow.

Where we fall, may peace rise.

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