Books, Writing, and Life

9/11

2011-09-11T05:17:00.000-07:00

2001 had been a tumultuous year for me from the start. 200-2001 was my Freshman year in college, and despite earning a full ride to Union College in Upstate New York it was clear that I was not cut out for the Engineering program. Perhaps not even ready for college at all. My grades had been poor, and my scholarship reduced to where I'd had to drop out of college.

That summer I'd tried to get back on track, and gotten a job working long hours at Willow Tree Poultry Farm, which specialized in (rather pricey) chicken pies and salad. Despite the name, it was no farm. Our chickens were delivered on palettes delivered by tractor-trailer. It was mindless work, but with no debts, I saved enough to buy my first car, and while I was taking the fall semester off from school, I decided to register for a single night class at nearby Fisher College. I signed up for Anatomy and Physiology, which met for 4 hours on Tuesday evenings. The first class was set to begin on September 11th.

The morning of 9/11 was like any other day at work. I should start by telling a little about the process. Chickens were cooked by the hundreds in massive boilers. When they were finished, the basket of chicken was unloaded by a lift, and dropped onto one of a series of stainless steel tables, where they would be deboned by hand. This was an easy task, and was performed almost exclusively by retirees. There were dozens of these old guys who worked a few hours a day. It was a social atmosphere where they could get out and chat while they worked. Or instead of working. The place was pretty lax. When I say this crew were retirees, I don't mean 65. Most of them were in their 80s, and nearly all were WWII vets, with lots of stories to tell about military service, if not about combat.

So on that Tuesday, I had started work at 7:00 AM. As a youngster, I came in early and helped pack up frozen pies for shipment. After that the chicken started cooking, and when the first loads came out of the cookers, I started helping debone chickens with the old guys. Once we had enough trays, I could start my main job, which was running a device that used liquid nitrogen to chill the chicken rapidly down to where it could be used for chicken salad. Anyway, I was at the stainless steel tables with the old folks when the plant foreman, an Armenian with the unusual name of Bob Arabian came in and made a general announcement that a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. No more.

In absence of any details, this was big news...but not shocking. In my mind, I was picturing one of those little Cessnas. Probably an errant pilot had bounced off the side and crashed into the street below. At once, the oldsters on the crew started talking about the B-25 that had hit the Empire State Building in 1945. Lots of reminiscing, lots of hot air. We plant workers were cut off from everything, but periodically Bob had to visit the office for a phone call, and would bring us updates. When the second plane hit, it was clear it was no accident. And no, not just a plane, two jumbo jets. At one point Bob said the news showed the buildings burning, and in his opinion anyone on the top third of either building was probably dead. We continued working, but the news came in a flurry. The Pentagon had been hit. There were rumors that there had been a car bomb found near the capitol building, that turned out not to be true. I don't remember when we heard about flight 93, downed in Pennsylvania. I do remember one of Bob's updates: "The twin towers are no more." Both had collapsed. Monuments that I could clearly remember seeing in person, all gone.

At lunch I went home. Every station on my car radio was carrying live updates from NYC. Mom had the TV on, showing horrible footage. Not necessarily satisfying...lots of dust and rubble...but horrific. I think the worst was people jumping before the towers fell. My views on suicide are complex, and I do not judge...but those images will stay with me forever.

That night, my first A&P class was cancelled. I stayed home and watched more news. The rest blurs together.

After the tragedy, Christians all over sought solace in prayer and scripture. It was a long time before I questioned any of it, but looking back the games we played with ourselves to try and bring together the doctrine of God's omnipotence and his perfect goodness in light of the tragedy were astounding. I heard sermon after sermon. I read books. I even believed...but was never really satisfied. It wasn't the 9/11 tragedy specifically, but the question of how God can be both all-powerful and all good that helped destroy my faith later.

It feels insignificant to write what I just did. I've come a long way. From a pliant nineteen year-old, praying in bigoted fashion for our country to wake up, to an angry 29 year-old atheist, trying to avoid the jaded edge of nihilism. The tragedy of that day, however, remains unabated. We will never forget.

Denialism by Michael Specter

2011-02-13T18:06:00.001-08:00

“Confusing popularity with authority is one of the hallmarks of denialism.”

This quote sums up much of what this book is about. I was fascinated and little disturbed by some of it. I’ll take each section individually:

Vioxx and the Fear of Science – This chapter deals with the public fear of science, particularly when it goes hand in hand with corporate profit. It takes as an example the drug Vioxx, and the increased risk of death for those with heart disease. This sets the stage, more or less, because it is an example of actual malfeasance, and how it can garner mistrust…but mistrust of what? To blame “science” as a whole is foolish, and Specter makes a case that pulling Vioxx off the market completely had more of a negative effect than simply being honest about the risks, since it really was only a minority at risk.

Vaccines and the Great Denial – I was taken by surprise with this chapter and the apparent vitriol associated with vaccinations. I had no idea how far it went. When I was a youngster, I do remember one family who refused to vaccinate their kids…they all got whooping cough. Now, though, apparently measles and mumps are coming back in a big way because people are afraid of vaccinations. Why? Some very solid research has come out saying vaccines are safe. And people just absolutely refuse to believe, even in the face of an epidemic. Unbelievable.

The Organic Fetish – If denialism about vaccines surprised me, it was nothing compared to the chapter on organics and the anger spewed out toward genetically modified foods. Specter is clear that it’s not only safe to eat genetically modified foods, people are literally starving because of the self-righteousness of wealthy Americans. Organic food is not as safe, and cannot produce enough to feed the world on available land.

The Era of Echinacea – Specter has been building more and more about the consequences of denying clear scientific research, and this takes it further, in a disturbing way. I have always thought multivitamins useful, but this chapter shows they can be literally harmful, and I feel a little silly. Just because something is good for you, doesn’t mean it works in pill form…a prime example being Omega III fatty acids. When eaten in fish they are good for you, but have never been shown to have any affect at all otherwise. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg compared to “alternative” medicine. Little did I know that the National Institutes of Health has a department with a budget of over $100 Million to research…what? Homeopathy? Some of the examples were absurd, but our tax dollars are being wasted on things that have already been shown to be useless!

Race and the Language of Life – There is a bit of a shift in this chapter. It begins by mentioning another touchy area…the fact that race of a patient is a real factor in how we treat disease, because even tiny variances in genetics can mean significant things. For example, I knew someone who contracted hepatitis from a long ago blood transfusion. He was treated with Interferon. Little did I know, this only works for certain people of European descent, because of a specific mutation of one gene. The chapter continued, however, to go into genetics and genetic testing as predictors for disease. In the future, “personal genetics” will be a reality. Right now an individual’s race may be a guide for treatment, but in the near future, genetic traits will be decoded on an individual basis. Even now, for a few hundred dollars certain common tests can be done.

Surfing the Exponential – Continuing the forward-looking theme, this chapter is largely about responsibility. People cannot ignore scientific progress. Scientists have brought ancient viruses back to life in a lab. Some people have criticized them because it shows terrorists can do the same thing...but that’s the point! We can’t ignore the science, because we will be faced with it. But besides horrors, science is full of hope. Molecules have been made to produce malaria-fighting chemicals, and it’s possible there will soon be organisms to “digest” excess carbon in the atmosphere. There is promise in science, but denialism will lead us nowhere but into the darkness of superstition, where we accept the popular voice over evidence.

Sam Harris

2011-02-13T09:44:00.000-08:00

I've been too lazy to update, but my reading has taken a turn more toward nonfiction, particularly different arenas of science and rationalism, as well as philosophy and social science related to this field.

I have recently finished reading all three published works by Sam Harris, and thought I'd share. Harris has PhD's in both philosophy and neuroscience, and his books reflect that.

The End of Faith - This book was on a top 10 "essentials" list for atheists and agnostics that I recently saw. I admit to being pretty bitter about my own religious upbringing, but even i was a little shocked at the anger that comes across here. Harris pulls no punches in his criticism of faith itself. He says that any worldview based on things for which no evidence can be given is useless. More than that, he scoffs at the idea that Islamic terrorists are a fringe of lunatics. He blames faith itself. It's got shock value, but I can't say I disagreed with any of his thesis.

Letter to a Christian Nation - This short "letter" contains many of the same themes as The End of Faith. As far as I could tell it was a more concise distiallation, but specifically directed to Christian America rather than faith at large.

The Moral Landscape - In his most recent book, Harris expands on some ideas touched on in his first book. Specifically, he believes that science can determine objective right and wrong actions as defined by the good of people (both individuals and groups). Taking it further, he states that there can be morality based in science and rationality rather than faith. I thought the idea was interesting, but that the book wasn't as well written as it could have been. For that matter, I don't think Harris is a good writer. His prose can be choppy and the style jarring, but as a scientist and philosopher, his books are valuable.

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

2010-12-04T20:00:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading the novel Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin. It was recommended to me by a fellow runner/reader.

It's hard for me to know what to write about this book. Let me start by saying I thought it was excellent, and I hope to read more by Franklin. That said, I think the culture of rural Mississippi was what stuck out to me more than the plot. There are flashbacks in the story to the late '70s and early '80s. I literally kept forgetting the time period, and picturing it as pre-Civil Rights with the race relations. Maybe my head is still a bit in the sand about how backward some parts of the country really are.

I liked the Stephen King references, particularly the recurrance of the collection Night Shift, and even the short story "The Mangler," which I thought was one of King's best. Scary Larry and I could have been pals! Which leads me to another point. Why would someone obsessed with Stephen King be thought of as dangerous? King's books are at times gruesome and graphic...but they are about humanity, and more about the heart-wrenching internal struggles of people, good and bad. I think this appeals to people like me...the thoughtful, sensitive and introverted. I make no claim to be a nice guy, but I am certainly not violent, and feel a certain kinship with Larry.

I am reminded of a true news story of a young man who was indeed violent. I forget precisely who this was, but I remember it being compared to the school shootings that took place when I was a teenager (Columbine and Paducah). In the story, I was bothered by the fact that some of the books in his room were mentioned, as if they were evidence of a violent nature. It mentioned Wolves of the Calla and The Path of Daggers, without specifying the authors. The first is part of Stephen King's Dark Tower series...which is not really horror. The second is part of Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series, which is purely fantasy. How can these possibly indicate that a person is violent? The writer of the article clearly did believe it was an indication. I have no qualm about calling out the author as an ignorant moron, but the fact that it came up at all makes me wonder. Suppose one of my neighbors goes missing? Are the cops going to see my shelf of Stephen king books and put me on the hot seat?

If so, they will get an eloquent education on the place of horror in literature :p

Back to the novel itself, I thought the plot was well done, and everything tied up nicely. I was surprised by a couple of the turns, which is always nice. I highly recommend this book for mystery lovers, Stephen King lovers, and anyone looking for a great read in the vast realm of fiction.

Evan Almighty: The Atheist's Perspective

2010-12-04T19:44:00.000-08:00

This evening I watched the movie Evan Almighty starring Steve Carrell. Or, I had it on TV anyway. I may not have given it my full attention, but a few things stuck out.

Clearly this movie is too spoofish to really be called truly religious, but while religion is made light of, I thought some of the themes were disturbing. Morgan Freeman as God meets Evan's wife (name already forgotten) and says that the story of Noah's Ark is not about God's wrath, but his love.

Are you kidding me? This was so absurd, I nearly choked. It's a nice platitude, but it doesn't align in the slightest with what's in the Bible. Frankly, it's stories like these of a capriciously vicious God that helped turn me away from religion. Even as a pliant worshipper, I saw nothing cheery about the obliteration of nearly all of humanity.

Nice try making a comedy out of it, but don't BS me. If even the goofy Morgan Freeman God of this movie were real, he's got a lot to answer for.

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

2010-12-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

I already posted about the first two stories, but felt like making some concluding remarks now that I've finished. This is the 33rd book I've read by King, and while I might not put it in the top few of my favorites, I certainly enjoyed it.

I especially like a sentence from the afterword: "I have no quarrel with literary fiction, which usually concerns itself with extraordinary people in ordinary situations, but as both a reader and a writer, I am much more interested by ordinary people in extraordinary situations."

I agree, and I think this is why I like Stephen King's writing so much, especially books with writers as characters. Take 'Salem's Lot. Who has the task of battling the vampires? A trained assassin? A supergenius tech wizard? Nope. A writer and a kid. I like the characters in these stories. In "1922" it's a farmer, with maybe a bit more intelligence than necessary, as evidenced for his taste in literature. In "Big Driver" it's a cozy writer (as I've said many times, I love King's writer characters). In "Fair Extension" it's an assistant manager at a bank, and in "A Good Marriage" the main character is just a housewife. The exploration of how these people confront their situations, and the subtlety of the suspense are what makes these stories excellent.

"Fair Extension" was a shorter story than the rest, and an interesting study in revenge. I am sure very few of us have the gumption to murder someone we hated, but this story is interesting because of its passivity. Is there anyone you hate enough to allow evil to happen to them? The glee with which Streeter greets the misfortunes of his "friend" show he has the heart of a murderer, if not the balls to carry it out.

"A Good Marriage" has a more sympathetic character, dealing with an ordinary woman realizing that her seemingly ordinary husband was a murderer. I like how King mentions the BTK killer in the afterword...apparently there was a murderer whose wife had no clue as to his habits. It's frightening to think of how deep a double life could go, with those closest to them totally unaware. I think of the breakdown of my own parents marriage after 24 years. No murders (that I know of) but how well did they know each other? A lot must run beneath the surface in a long relationship like that for it to explode so suddenly as it did. I know this sort of thing makes me wary about opening up to anyone. Fascinating.

Big Driver

2010-11-28T04:32:00.000-08:00

"Why are there three hundred thousand battered women each year in America?"
"Because they won't...fuckin...listen."

I am still reading Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King, and once again I thought the second novella earned a separate post. The "joke" above was what stuck out the most, and goes back to a topic I've mentioend quite a number of times in this blog. I really have seen or heard jokes similar to the above, and I think its a symptom of a serious illness within our society. Many men still believe it's the place of women to be submissive. Many more, regardless of how they themselves treat women, propogate these kind of jokes, or post pictures of battered women online, and allow misogynists to indulge themselves that this kind of behavior is still accepted...because in some part it is.

Ben Roethlissberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers QB falls into this category, as far as I'm concerned. I don't give a flying fuck whether or not they have a case for the DA, his repeated behavior with multitudes of witnesses is enough for me. He's a piece of shit we'd be better off without. I become almost physically ill at the sight of fans cheering him. Brett Myers, pitcher for the Phillies, punched his wife in the face in front of hundreds of passersby on a visit to Boston. Not even a whiff of a criminal charge. I believe he should be in the cell next to Big Ben.

And this is only the tip of the iceberg. With athletes, we probably breeze over the numerous reports of abuse, but they are in the paper every week. Why is this scum still allowed to play? I think any substantiated claim should end a player's career forever. Period. The fact that it doesn't indicates we, as a society, still believe women should be submissive.

This completely un-objective sociological report is off topic, but it helps explain the climate Tess feels like she will have to deal with in the story. She recites the joke to herself, because she really believes that is how she will be perceived, like she deserved that rape. No, I don't think you will find more than a handful who will admit that women ever deserve rape, but I think you'll find a pretty narrow definition. Big Ben blocks himself into a bathroom with a drunk girl? Come on, it's not rape if no one hears her scream...and yes, that part comes right out of our beloved Bible, where a raped woman is put to death if she doesn't scream, and has to go to trial even if she did scream, and no one was there to hear it. I think this ancient code hangs on, and as much as it sickens me, Tess has very good reason to worry about how she will be perceived.

Which leads to her actions. I like how the story ends, brutal and bloody. No, I am not a violent person, but I do think rapists have given up their right to live, and Tess is perfectly justified. I even understand her fears leading her to take matters into her own hands rather than face humiliation by going to the police. It's hard to say whether I think she should have done it, but I can guarantee I would never vote to convict her were I on the jury.

1922

2010-11-19T12:50:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since my last post, and my reading in general has been down. If there's a way to break out of the funk, it's a new Stephen King book! I have finished the first of the four novellas, "1922," and thought it was excellent.

At first, the way it started as a first person confession reminded me strongly of Dolores Claiborne, and I wasn't sure I cared to read a similar story...but that didn't last. As the novella progressed, the tragedy of the situation made it more heart-wrenching. This is interesting, because there is no way to excuse or even sympathize with Wilf. Of all possible solutions to a given problem, murder cannot be one. Wilf's statements about an internal "Conniving Man" are hollow. Is there really a dark place inside him, or is he the darkness? It's not with Wilf that the reader feels the tragedy, it's with his son, Hank, and Hank's childish love for both his parents and the neighbor girl, Shannon.

"1922" is one of those stories where it's hard to tell if the haunting is real or in Wilf's mind. It hardly matters, but for me the haunting is appropriate, and his death inevitable. Not even worth a tear. It's interesting the way a rough farmer will be depicted reading George Eliot...Wilf is certainly erudite in a way, but it does mean he is good. In fact, his intelligence and imagination may be the source of his downfall. How else could he conceive not only murder, but of getting away with it and continuing his life without skipping a beat? If I had to take a shot at interpreting King, I'd say his imagination not only allowed Wilf to commit the crime, but was also the source of the haunting. Catch-22. The end. Brilliant.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the book!

Ron Goulart

2010-08-21T08:00:00.001-07:00

For some reason I feel I'm in the mood for light reading lately, and I've been drawn tot he comic SF writer Ron Goulart. So far I've read six of his books:

1. Calling Dr. Patchwork
2. Hello, Lemuria, Hello
3. The Robot in the Closet
4. A Talent for the Invisible
5. When the Waker Sleeps
6. The Sword Swallower

None of the books were more than 160 pages, and most I finished in 24 hours. They are probably not great literature, but I like them even when they are formulaic and predictable. I'm not sure what exactly it is that appeals to me, but I guess I needed something on the lighter side...maybe I've been reading too much Stephen King or something. The books usually feature secret agents or investigators of one kind or another, with a little secret agent romance, though definitely not of the steamy type. In fact, it seems downright ridiculous sometimes, but I find it doesn't matter. Some of his characters are married, and some not. Neither situation affects the shallow/awkward romace.

It might seem like corny stuff, but Goulart doesn't overdo it, as some have (John Zakour, to name one) and the light tone of the books underscores the fact that they are a tribute to the earlier pulp fiction stories of the 1930s and '40s. Goulart has written a number of nonfiction books on this era, as well as pulp fiction and comics. He's a writer who is also a fan. I like the combination.

Breathless Velocity: The Koontz Experiment

2010-08-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

Dean Koontz is a rare author in that I cannot get a feel for his style. I have listened to five of his books on CD without coming to a conclusion, but I have at least decided to continue with print books...which is usually a sign I like an author more than the average run.

Breathless, which came out last year, was the first I actually read. It was a quick read, and I enjoyed it. I thought it had an interesting premise. Now, I can tell that Koontz definitely has a slightly conservative bent to his books. Sometimes there will be a politically incorrect statement that makes me chuckle. In this book, there seems to be a clear reference to some kind of higher power controlling and ordaining things. This didn't bother me, but I can at least understand some of the criticism, since the implication is that evolution is untrue and that there is a God.

Now onto Velocity, which I listened to on CD. **Possible Spoilers** Again, I thought it was a good story, but I had a number of issues. First, I really don't buy the premise than an average guy would let a situation spiral so out of control that he couldn't go to the police and would commit murder and hide the bodies, all to protect himself from being framed. I just don't know that you can justify all of his actions. What actually surprised me was the judgemental tone the protagonist (and apparently the author) takes on the issue of pornography. One character has quite a bit of bondage porn at his house. I am not an expert, but I believe this is a fairly common fetish, and that this kind of porn is legal. I can see where it would spill into the "8mm" world of extreme torture and snuff films...but it's mentioned that these are the kind of tapes you can find at any adult store. It just seems like a bit of a jump for the protagonist to say "you're sick" and basically blackmail a person into leaving a community because he himself is not aroused by the content. I am not here to argue the first amendment or any issues of exploitation of the female form. I just don't know how self-righteous you can be about what other consenting adults do on film, or who is turned on by it. Save it for your televangelism show.

OK, off my high horse. The Koontz experiment continues, and nothing is resolved.

Grant County is BROKEN

2010-07-18T06:56:00.000-07:00

I managed to get my hands on a copy of Broken by Karin Slaughter very soon after it's release (kudos to my library for getting all these new books!). I read it quickly, and enjoyed it...but in a sense, this book's title reflects the series as a whole. This is the 8th book of the Grant county series, and without going into spoiler-alert detail, the series really fizzled after book #6 - those of you who've read it know what I mean. Slaughter tries, and I can't say the books are bad, but the series is broken, and will never be the same. The combining of Slaughter's other series so that Will Trent is now a main character is interesting, but it doesn't fix anything.

On the bright side, this book is set back in Grant County, as opposed to Atlanta. That helps. I still don't like Sara and her anger toward Lena. Lena is a complex character, but she's always been my favorite. There is some upturn there, but no resoltion, and I wonder if there will be more installments in the series. I'll read them...but it can never be the same.

King Channels Browning?

2010-07-18T06:32:00.000-07:00

As an English major in college, one of the least interesting classes I took was one on Victorian poetry. I am sorry if I offend any Victorian scholars, but much of the class dragged...the one exception was Robert Browning. I was fascinated by his use of dramatic monologue, where one person does all the speaking, but you get a sense of what's going on around the speaker by his reactions to other people. Probably the most famous of these dramatic monologues is the poem "My Last Dutchess," where the Duke is the speaker, and you realize he has murdered several previous wives due to jealousy. But Browning wrote some very long dramatic monologues as well, playing out protracted dramas. It's amazing how much of a story you can learn through one speaker and his/her reactions. As a writer, it's also a tantalizing way to sort of handcuff yourself. How much can you reveal at what point while restricted to this particular style?

Apparently I'm not the only one taken by the idea of the dramatic mologue. Stephen King's novel, Dolores Caiborne is in fact a dramatic monologue told entirely by Dolores herself. There are no chapters, and no other characters heard from, except through Dolores. You realize she's in a police station giving testimony, but every single detail is filtered through her words. It's probably not the kind of novel I'd like to read all the time, but it is amazing how King managed to pull it off. His style is still apparent, as Dolores gives her background and you ger to know her and her family and her struggles. It might be a stretch that she is allowed to go into so many side details when she is supposed to be giving a statement on one specific thing, but that can be excused by the small-town atmosphere and the fact that she's known the policeman from his childhood. All in all and brilliant experiment, making me wonder if Stephen King was channeling the ghost of Robert Browning :p

Horns: #2 by Hill

2010-07-18T06:12:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted, so I have some catching up to do. Recently I read Joe Hill's second novel, Horns. I can't decide if I liked it more than his first (Heart-Shaped Box) or not, but it was good. I especially liked the way the backstory of Merrin and Ig's relationship was slowly revealed, and then how more and more of the night she was killed is gleaned from insight into various characters. It's not very happy, since you know at least partly how it ended right from the start, but the story is very well executed and still manages to throw surprising twists right to the end.

There is some lightness...I enjoyed the humor in the way Ig takes on more and more attributes of the devil...the goatee, the horns, the red skin, and even the old pitchfork.

One basic element of the story is how Ig reacts to the false accusation of murder, and it made me think of how such a scenario would play. How does Ig even survive when he's seen as a pariah in his home town, and not even his parents believe in his innocence? Which leads me to Glenna...she seems kind of weak and pathetic at first, but as more and more of the story unfolds, she is a strong person who has endured so much pain in her life, and is the only one who believes and comforts Ig. She's a great character.

And it was a great book. I am looking forward to what else Joe Hill may write.

Horns by Joe Hill

2010-06-19T05:30:00.000-07:00

Joe Hill might be my favorite "new" author. I really liked his first novel, Heart-Shaped Box, and last night I just finished his second, Horns. Reading a blurb about it, I wasn't prepared to like it. A guy wakes up with horns one day? But it wasn't about the horns, precisely. The story of Ig and Merrin was brilliant, and how more and more was revealed throughout the book...and from several different viewpoints, was great. Ig sees himself in a different way from Terry, as the protective older brother, which is completely different from the twisted infatuation of Lee.

There were also some neat literary references. I can't recall most of them, but brief mention of a daughter named Regan who says ugly things about her father was a nice, subtle touch, and there are others like it. Probably more I missed. Overall, I thought the book was well-written, thoughtful, and had some great twists, right up until the end with Merrin's last morse code message. Brilliant. I hope Joe Hill has some more novels on the burner.

The Camel Club

2010-06-11T16:04:00.000-07:00

I can't say that political thrillers are my thing. I've read a few by Tom Clancy, but never really got hooked. Recently I saw David Baldacci on TV talking about 9/11 conspiracies (or lack thereof) in what seemed an intelligent manner. I was curious enough that I decided to pick up his book The Camel Club. I still can't say I'm hooked on the genre, but I still got through the six-hundred pages pretty fast. It was intriguing, at any rate. I appreciated the level-headed approach, and how the different sides are portrayed. It had more on Muslim politics and culture than I've read anywhere else. I have to admit I never knew half the stuff he mentioned. Quite fascinating, and definitely a current-events type of book. I think Baldacci has quite a touch dealing with such sensitive issues. The Clancy books I read were heavy into cold war politics, but Baldacci has to deal with a much more religious angle, and does it well.

As interesting as it was, it still wasn't the type of book that I can read every day. I was interested in the sequel (The Collectors), but decided to go with the audiobook.

Bad move. I've ranted about bad audiobooks before, and I'm going back on the soapbox today. The narrator is good. No problem there. There is no dialogue in the initial section, and the narrator does a good job with it. Then it shifts. For some reason, the producers decided to use three readers. The narrator is one, and there is another person to do the men's lines, and a third for the women. The person doing the men's lines is especially bad. I cannot get past his strong New York accent. This may not be fair, but I have always associated strong accents with poor education. I could see if one or two of the voices had this dialect, but they ALL do, and it's distracting. I m serious...the accent is comically strong.

Even so, this is not as bad as the choppiness that having three readers impart. There'll be a line of dialogue in one voice, and a tiny pause before the narrator cuts in with "she said," or something. I thought this was a very poor choice. Even if a man sounds unnatural doing a woman's voice or vice versa, it's still infinitely easier to follow a story with a single reader because it flows much better without the pauses for a new person to cut in. Now, I have listened to a few books with male and female readers before...I am thinking in particular of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and The Brief Wondrous Life of Ocar Wao by Junot Diaz. Both of these, however, had one reader do an entire segment. The Historian, for example, had separate chapters devoted to daughter and father. The daughter's section might be read by the woman, but she'd do all the voices and narration within the section. This is far superior than the broken-up bits and irritating accents of The Collectors...which I will not be finishing on CD.

Four Past Midnight

2010-06-09T12:48:00.000-07:00

I finally finished my 30th Stephen King book, Four Past Midnight. This was a "collection," but unlike most, it consists of four fairly long novellas. "The Langoliers" was 250 pages by itself! I know it comes from a different publishing mindset, but I imagine that these days, each story would have been published separately, instead of a single volume over 750 pages long.

Anyway, I should take each story separately:

The Langoliers - I have never seen the movie, and probably won't anytime soon, having heard a number of negative comments on it, but this story was excellent. The premise of a plane traveling through some kind of rip in time-space, and having only a few survivors wasn't really that original, but the King style makes the book. The characters are excellent, delving into the background of the pilot and the psycho passenger. The little blind girl's fate was especially touching.

Secret Window, Secret Garden - As always, my favorite King stories are about writers. I identify with them better, and I think they are in a sense closer to the heart of Stephen King himself. I did have to take a break from this one because I was trying to read Bag of Bones at the same time...which featured a widowed author, as opposed to a divorced author here, and I was mixing the two up. Anyway, I liked that it included guilt over plagiarism. I think all writers feel it a little bit, since there are rarely any really, truly new ideas out there. I almost tossed one of my best story ideas in disgust when the movie Jumper came out, with a very similar idea. Not that I stole it, or they did...but we are all influenced. Here, of course, the idea is carried to a psychotic degree, where the author has a breakdown when his work is said to be similar to another's. Very good story.

The Library Policeman - Maybe the most twisted story I have ever read. Not as purely horrific as some of his others, like Pet Sematary, but definitely twisted, and in a graphic way. The irony for me is that I love the library. It's always been one of my favorite places since I was very, very young (I had a library card by age 4) and still is. In fact, I spent an hour there just today, on my day off work. The atmosphere, and all the books impart a peacefulness to me. So, having it be partly the setting of a horror tale is as backwards as can be.

The Sun Dog - Not one of my favorite stories, honestly, but even within the weird plot of a paranormal camera, the reason I love King's writing stands out in the father's story. He feels he has to tell his son why he doesn't trust Pop, and the whole backstory of his bet and loan, and working extra shifts at the sawmill to save his marriage...that whole episode saved the story. I don't know who else would think to include that sort of detail on a secondary character. That's why I can't think of an author I consider superior to Stephen King.

Barbara Delinsky

2010-06-08T16:33:00.001-07:00

As I've mentioned in several posts, I am a runner, and I like to read books about running. Usually these are nonfiction, but recently I did a search of the library system, and turned up an audiobook called While My Sister Sleeps under "Marathon Running Fiction" and gave it a try.

It was definitely nothing like what I am used to. Lots of drama, and a little romance, with running only a side note. But I found myself being drawn into the story, and really involved with the characters. I thought it was a bit rough in places, but overall a good story, and I liked it enough to borrow a second audiobook, Suddenly.

Both audiobooks had a recent copyright, but only after I got it did I realize it was actually written much earlier, in 1993. I have to admit it really helped that the story began with Paige running with her cross country team! I now think Delinsky herself must be a runner.

I thought the second book was a bit rougher than the first. It still had a good plot, and I was definitely drawn in by the characters again...but the "romance" aspect was a bit much. Now, as an avid reader of science fiction - a genre long on the forefront of sexual liberation - sex scenes are nothing new to me. On the other hand, I am not used to bits of prose such as "his eyes pierced the dark with a hardness that matched his body." Maybe this kind of thing flies in a romance novel, but I have to admit I laughed out loud at the corniness of some of the lines. Yes, it's a good book, and there was a good plot, but I think Delinsky couldn't resist going a little overboard witht he sex scenes, and it made the rest of the book suffer a little.

On to some other nitpicking. In While My Sister Sleeps, the one sister is a marathon runner. I was fine with her being an "elite." I was fine with her having won several marathons...but I thought it lacked believeability when it said she had a shot to win the Olympic marathon. If she were that good, there would be a lot more national attention. A medium-large marathon in the U.S. might be won with a time of 2:50 to 3:00 hours. A big international marathon would likely be under 2:30, with Deena Kastor the only American with a shot at winning. Sad, but true. If and when another American woman climbs the ranks to International elite, believe me, I will know her name!

OK, that's enough running talk. I am on the lookout for mre Delinsky books. All complaining aside, I'm hooked on the drama.

Blaze by Bachman

2010-05-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

I am definitely in "Stephen King" mode right now, and I just finished Blaze, which is another Bachman book. It was originally written in 1973, but was only published in '07, with some minor updating. I do think it's interesting the way the timeline was weaseled...for example, King says in the into he didn't want to do a rewrite to include things like cell phones, so set it "in the recent past." So there are some post 1973 references (like to Regan as president) but none to modern devices like cell phones, or even PC's and microwaves.

I'd have to say this wasn't one of my favorite King books. I wonder if it's part of the "Bachman" style to have flawed characters that you can't really like. This is my third. Thinner had a distinct Stephen King air, but the character was not likeable. He can't take any blame, and in the end plans to kill his wife to save himself. The Running Man, as I just mentioned in the last post, featured a character who killed a number of innocent people. In some respect, you want to root for these guys, so that everything turns out OK...but they are not good people, and their own flaws make things worse.

Blaze is like that. He's simpleminded, so it's hard to hate him, and you can see that he's pliable, easily thrown into a life of crime, but that does not in any way absolve his actions, including several killings. His back story makes it sad, because it reveals how he wasn't a bad person, and with the right direction things could have been different. But this is Stephen King. You see downward spiral, and know where it will end...and in no way does this take away fom the story!

One minor note. 1973 was even before Carrie. King was only 26, two years younger than I am now, and he was already more polished than I could ever dream of being.

Bookend Books

2010-05-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

I've just recently finished two Stephen King books that are sort of "bookends" in my mind of how diverse he can be.

The first was Bag of Bones. A long 732 page journey in the first person. It follows one of my favorite themes, where the main character is a writer, and in this case is stricken with writer's block after the death of his wife. I wonder if this was one of King's own fears...that one day he'd be out of stories to tell, or just sat down one day and couldn't write. I empathize somewhat. Writing is only a hobby for me, but it's really defined me the past several years. I don't know what it would do to my mind not to be able to create.

This story is so involved, but hard for me to find anything I want to say. I liked the way the relationshp between Mike and Jo was portrayed. So loving, that it made the "secrets" she was keeping from him all the harder to comprehend...but read the book! I also liked Kyra, and the dynamic between her, Mattie, and Mike. I've had a story idea of a single mom, and a guy coming into the relationship. This is the perfect example of what I wanted to write about! Of course, now my own efforts will feel overshadowed. Oh, well. If I worried about that, I wouldn't read, would I?

The next book was The Running Man, written in 1982 as a "Ricard Bachman" novel. Apparently before anyone suspected it was King's pen name. The style is dramatically different from King's usual work...though there are shades of it when Ben's background is revealed, but only briefly. The only other Bachman book I read was Thinner, which King himself said was not a "real" Bachman book, but his own, and gave him away.

Another thing...where did "Derry" first appear. I know it's a King creation, but having it show up in a Bachman story seems like a giveaway. Unless The Running Man was the first appearance. I must look into this...

I was a little prejudiced against this book because of the movie, as has been the case on mre than one other occasion. I kind of like the corniness of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but even to me, many of his '80s movies were pretty bad, and The Running Man was chock-full of the worst offenses, in particular the one-liners Arnold tosses out. Luckily for me, and any reader, beside the basic gameshow premise and the name "Ben Richards," the movie borrowed almost nothing from the book.

On the other hand, while the book isn't corny, it's not that original. It's a dystopia that very strongly resembles Orwell's 1984 (by the way, one of my pet peeves is overuse of the word "Orwellian" so I will not use it...but the influence is clear). Besides that, Richards is a flawed character you can't really like. He's an unabashed bigot, and for me there's no getting past the killing of innocent people. Sure his conscience might bother him, but he never pauses in his flight, and for that, I cannot fogive him. The ending was a little freaky in light of 9/11, but that's as close to a spoiler as you'll get from me.

The Runner's Rule Book

2010-05-15T05:31:00.001-07:00

I've certainly fallen behind in my reading. Part of this is because of my commitment to get into better shape...I've been exerciing a lot more this year, and in the last couple of months, getting back into running. With that, I renewed my subscription to Runner's World magazine (which I first started reading in high school, twelve years ago). Like a sucker, I added to my order an RW publication called The Runner's Rule Book.

The Runner's Rule book is a collection of many of the unwritten rules of running, most of which I am proud to say I am familiar with. I may be an overweight slogger, but oh, yeah...I'm a runner. The "rules" are collected into humorous little segments. They are good for quite a few laughs, but the advice is sound.

The author of the book is Mark Remy (with the tagline "and the editors of Runner's World"). I have been a member of the online forums of Runner's World since 2006, and I certainly know who Mark Remy is. I am not sure if he's still active, but Mark was a moderator on the site, and I remember him posting quite a bit in the past. Kind of neat.

There are only a couple of issues I have: clearly Mark is a treadmill guy, and is prejudiced in favor of them, no matter what he says. I've run in temps as low as 8 degrees and as high as 92, but never on a treadmill. Also, he says if you can take your shoes off without untying them, they are too loose. Not in my opinion. A little loose is much, much better than a little too tight.

Wow, I feel like going for a run right now!

Obsidian Butterfly: Ten Months?

2010-03-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

I finally read Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton...the 9th book in the Anita Blake series. It's now been ten months since I read the 8th, so I wasn't exactly rushing.

I have mixed feelings about the book. It's by far the longest in the series so far (585 pages) and I thought the first half was a little slow. Maybe because these books are starting to get too predictable:

1) Anita hates making a big deal out of clothes...yet she sure talks bout them a lot!
2) Every meeting has to be a confrontation. It gets old.
3) There's a club full of supernaturals, and Anita has to get involved.

Some of the scenes could have been cut and pasted from other books, with just a few details changed. That was a let down. On the other hand, the second half picked up a lot, starting with Anita's visiting the second crime scene. This was around the halfway point, and after that I enjoyed the book, and I definitely think I'll be reading the 10th book (which is even longer!) but I hope that maybe the scenarios will get a little more varied. Making up a new oddball monster is fine, but it's got to be more thna that to make a book.

I might also say that Edward's always been my favorite character, even when he only made a small appearance. Having him as a major character was a good idea. As for one of the other characters...Olaf needs to die. No jokes, no confrontations, no "you saved my life," just a bullet in the head.

Cycle of the Werewolf

2010-03-13T13:02:00.000-08:00

I recently acquired and read the short book Cycle of the Werewolf by Stephen King. This is the 26th book I've read by King, though it's short enough to really be considered a short story. The pages are expanded by large chapter headers and (sometimes gruesome) illustrations.

I did like the story. It goes through a year, chronicling the werewolf attacks of every full moon, and the horror accompanying them. I don't feel as involved with the story as I do with a full-length King novel, but I thought this was well done within its brief scope.

Starbound

2010-03-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

I recently finished my brand new copy of Starbound by Joe Haldeman, just released in January. This book is the sequel to Marsbound from my previous post. This is the 27th book I've read by Haldeman, and as always, I like his style. Unfortunately, I did not like the format so much.

Marsbound was told entirely from the first person point of view of Carmen Dula, a young woman colonist on Mars. Starbound is also first person, but told from three points of view. It's a little confusing...not a big deal in itself, but I never got into the flow of the story as well as I would have liked. Also, one of the points of view is from Namir, a "spook" with a shady past. I did not like him very much, and wasn't as interested in his segments.

The aliens were interesting, both the Others and the construct "Martians." Going back to the first book, I think it's impressive that Haldeman was able to pull off a "first contact on Mars" story in this era of SF. This book is on a grander scale, which is probably why I enjoyed it less. I liked all the details of colonization and the space elevator, but not so much with the ig philosophical ideas involved with the alien/human relations.

I did like the ending. No spoilers, but it would be interesting to see a third book. On the other hand, SF lends itself to open endings...and Haldeman himself ended a first person novella with a grenade headed at the main character while he's setting explosives. Excellent!

Marsbound by Joe Haldeman

2010-01-26T18:02:00.000-08:00

Today I finally finished Marsbound by Joe Haldeman. This one was a little odd, because I started getting Analog magazine the same month one of my favorite authors began a serial in it. I thought the first part was amazing, but not having the next part immediately gave me an "out of sight, out of mind" reaction. I did read the second part...but never got around to the third. I had the issue around, but kept putting it off, knowing it was there, but no longer in the flow. Now, it's been more than two years since I read part one. I still enjoyed the ending, but it's not the same as if I read the book all at once. I guess the idea of a serial novel is neat, but it didn't work for me, and I already want to reread the story without the frustrating gaps.

This was the 26th book I've read by Haldeman, who is certainly one of my favorite living authors. Because of the way I read it, it didn't leave the immediate feeling of like/dislike I have when I read a book all at once, but looking back analytically, I really liked the story. I like the first person style, and the tone of this story is a lot like the old-school space opera I grew up with and love to this day. I hghly recommend the book...the ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, but I am even fine with that knowing the sequel is out this month!

Eating my Words...Wolf Star by R.M. Meluch

2010-01-23T14:04:00.000-08:00

Wolf Star is the sequel to The Myriad (subject of my previous review). As I said, I liked The Myriad, but was horribly disappointed by the ending, which seemingly changed around the entire timeline as the ship Merrimack encountered a singularity.

The sequel redeems it all. Following the new timeline, Earth is now at war with Palatine raer than The Hive. It's a little confusing at first, but eventually it becomes clear that the events taking place are some of the same that are in the past relative to the first book. Let me make it clear...this is not a prequel (as I have seen someone else write). Wolf Star clearly follows The Myriad chronologically, but with an altered timeline. These lines are brought together in an brilliant way.

I have to eat my earlier words about the end of The Myriad and highly recommend this series. I am looking forward to reading the next two books very much.

The Myriad by R.M. Meluch

2010-01-15T17:19:00.000-08:00

Sheesh. I don't know where to start with this one. The Myriad is a fascinating military science fiction novel. It is basically a story about the crew on the U.S.S. Merrimack, a space ship fighting the alien "gorgons" that eat any living thing mindlessly. The U.S. military is tenuously allied with Palatine...a new "Roman Empire" that has split away from Earth...against the gorgons, and have sent an advanced Intelligence Officer to aid the Merrimack. The story is third person omniscient, and has quite a cast of characters and some interesting plot turns.

I don't kow if they are all true influences, but this story reminded me strongly of many other SF stories...Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers come to mind, as does some classic military SF, like The Forever War. The navy itself brought to mind Jerry Pournelle's Co-Dominium series, and I also saw shades of Anne McCaffrey and the more recent Tanya Huff in the gender issues.

Gender is important, here. I might not be qualified to say much on it, but I thought it was well balanced in the story. There were strong women, but it wasn't a PC gag job. The "R" in "R.M. Meluch" is Rebecca, for anyone wondering.

Anway, the characters and story were great. The battle scenes were done with clarity (I often get befuddled when they are too complex) and I thought the science was as solid as it can be with this kind of advanced technology and FTL transportation. All in all, it was an awesome story for 350 pages.

Too bad the book was 375. I can't say much about the ending without spoilers, but it ruined the entire novel for me. It changed everything. The whole story is out the window after such an investment in the particular characters and details, and I just don't know where to go from there. This is the first in a four-book series, and while I will probably go on to the next book, this ending really dampened my excitement for the sequel.

First Three...

2010-01-09T18:44:00.000-08:00

I've been slacking off, but my first three books of '10 are in the bag:

1. Breakfast at Madeline's by Matt Witten - This is a mystery set here in my home town of Saratoga Springs, NY. It's neat to have a book where I recognize the street names, and even my employer (a prominent Saratoga bank) is mentioned. On the other hand, there is little else to recommend this book. The mystery is not compelling, and I do not like the main character, Jacob Burns, at all. He spends much of the book committing felonies (burglary and theft) which I do not see as justified by his one man investigation. Besides that, he is frequently unkind to others for vague reasons, and lies to his wife horribly to cover himself. I need someone better than that as a "good guy."

2. The Stepsister Scheme by Jim C. Hines - I was hesitant to pick this book up. I had previously tried to read the first of his Goblin series...I gave it a fair try. I read more than a hundred pages before I gave up. It was just too goofy and uninteresting to me. I think it helps to have human characters, to be honest. Anyway, the main characters in this novel are Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. They are definitely not Disney muffins, and the story has some pretty dark themes. I liked it for this, but I can't pretend the writing was brilliant. I'd recommend it with reserve.

3. The Third Lynx by Timothy Zahn - This is the fifteenth book I've read by Zahn, and the sequel to Night Train to Rigel, which I read four years ago. Long enough that I had a hard time remembering the details, actually. Anyway, this coninues the story of Frank Compton and Bayta and the Quadrail system. It's good, but not as great as I remember Zahn being. I can't tell if the story is just not compelling, or if I've "outgrown" this style of SF. I am planning to read the next in the series, Odd Girl Out, eventually.

2009: Reading in Review

2010-01-02T18:00:00.001-08:00

2009 was a great reading year for me. I finished 109 books, easily beating my 2005 "record" of 98 (when I first started keeping track). Anyway, because I love lists and numbers, here are a few "statistics" I threw together:

Total Books Read: 109
Male Authors: 62
Female Authors: 46
Coauthored by both: 1
Pages Read: 41,105
Average Book Length: 336 pages
Longest Book: 1,074 pages (Under the Dome by Stephen King)
Shortest Book: 70 pages (Backup by Jim Butcher)
Oldest Book: The Time Machine by H.G. Wells (1895)
Newest Book: Too Much Money by Dominick Dunne (released less thna two weeks ago)
Number of books read published in 2009: 12
Best Reading Month: August (4,900 pages)
Worst Reading Month: April: (1,715 pages)
Best Book: Neuromancer by William Gibson
Worst Book: The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
Most by one author: Seventeen by Stephen King
Most in a series: Nine (Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris)
Best "new to me" author: Karin Slaughter

Finch by Jeff VanderMeer

2010-01-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post that my last book of '09 was [i]Finch[/i] by Jeff VanderMeer. I was a little disappointed to realize that this is the third book in a cycle about the alternate-history country of Ambergris. VanderMeer says they are stand alone novels, but link together, and I wish I'd read the others first.

Anyway, it's a really neat setting, where there are mysterious creatures called "gray caps" that have taken over, making humans subservient. All their technology and building material is based on fungal life. The main character is a "detective" named John Finch who himself has a very mysterious past.

The writing style is very strange. It uses stream of consciousness sentence fragments to convey flashes of imagery. It's not bad, but it does make the flow of the story a little tough to follow sometimes.

Night Shift by Stephen King

2009-12-27T11:41:00.000-08:00

I've just finished Night Shift, which was Stephen King's earliest short story collection. I've read a few of King's short stories here and there, but this is the first complete collection I've read, and there is a lot of good stuff here. I am going to try and say a few words about each of the stories below:

1) "Jerusalem's Lot" - This story is a sort of prequel to the novel 'Salem's Lot. It is told in a series of letters by a man who lived in there in the 19th century, and shows the long history of haunting in the town. It's OK, but I can't say I care for the format. There is no publication info for this story, so I believe it's original to this collection.

2) "Graveyard Shift" (1970) - An excellent story playing on the natural fear of dark underground spaces, and the mythical "King Rat" stories.

3) "Night Surf" (1974) - This story is about superflu that wipes out most of mankind...sound familiar? It seems to be a darker precursor to The Stand.

4) "I Am The Doorway" (1971) - A science fiction horror story, very well done.

5) "The Mangler" (1972) - King shows his skill at making even the most innocuous items horrific.

6) "The Boogeyman" (1973) - A truly horrific story about the monster in the closet. Again, a great spin on something usually chuckled over.

7) "Gray Matter" (1973) - Disturbing and gruesome. Not sure what else to say about this one.

8) "Battleground" (1972) - Maybe my favorite. A hitman gets cursed back...in a hilariously spooky way.

9) "Trucks" (1973) - This one is the basis of the movie Maximum Overdrive (I think) though it is much darker and creepier than the movie I remember.

10) "Sometimes they Come Back" (1974) - Hard to classify this one. Ghost story? Anyway, it's a kind of haunting.

11) "Strawberry Spring" (1975) - Serial killer horror...a bit predictable, but I liked it.

12) "The Ledge" (1976) - A whole story about fear of heights? Only King could pull this off!

13) "The Lawnmower Man" (1975) - Disgusting. I hear this is a King classic, but I don't know why.

14) "Quitters, Inc." - No date for this one, either. A horror story about quitting smoking!

15) "I Know What You Need" (1976) - The best part of this story is that it was originally published in Cosmopolitan magazine. That made me laugh. Anyway, it's about a guy who does know just what a girl needs...in a very creepy way.

16) "Children of the Corn" (1977) - I didn't care for it. I think the truly hateful manner of the couple ruined the story for me before it even started. If the guy is such an asshole, how do you expect me to care? Also, I didn't think the idea was all that original. I've read similar in older SF. (note: I have not seen the movie).

17) "The Last Rung on the Ladder" - No date. Short and touching story; a kind of "innocence lost" theme.

18) "The Man Who Loved Flowers" (1977) - OK, but not brilliant. Perverted "love."

19) "One for the Road" (1977) - A brief sequel to the novel 'Salem's Lot. I liked it.

20) "The Woman in the Room" - No date. About a son seeing his mother die. A very depressing story to end with.

Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp

2009-12-26T13:30:00.000-08:00

So I guess I am a little obsessed with obesity and weight loss. My favorite TV show is "The Biggest Loser" and I always read any news articles about obesity and related topics with interest. It's not just a perverse interest...I've struggled with weight all my adult life. I know what it's like to always be either hungry or guilty. There's no happy middle that I've been able to find.

Anyway, that's just an explanation of why I read Moose by Stephanie Klein. It's a nonfcition book dealing with the author's childhood obesity and lifelong obsession with weight. It was interesting, at least to me, but odd in some ways. She relates weight to sex appeal and body image more than I ever did consciously...though I'm sure some of my reserved demeanor comes from that. Anyway, this book was intensely personal, and goes deep into the psychological factors of weight. My only issue is that in the personal details, others around Klein are drawn in, particularly her mother. I feel that she draws a very unkind image of her mother in this story, and while it may be accurate, is neither a necessary or appropriate way to write of someone who is still alive. Maybe I'm wrong, that was just my first impulse on reading it.

Right. Time to go jogging.

Too Much Money

2009-12-24T20:08:00.000-08:00

Today I finished reading Dominick Dunne's final novel, Too Much Money. I have posted about him before, but to recap, Dominick Dunne was a writer for Vanity Fair magazine who covered numerous high profile crimes and other society incidents, and also hosted a TV show on the same topics. Writing was a late second career for Dunne, and while he only wrote a few novels, I really admired his skill, and his apparent lack of fear in irritating some very powerful people. Dominick Dunne died a few months ago at the age of 83, with this book already slated for release.

First off, Dunne's previous novel was Another City, Not My Own, which I reviewed not too long ago, but was published in 1997. At the end of that book, Dunne kills off his recurring character, Gus Bailey, who clearly represents Dunne himself. I was wondering how he was going to reprise the character for this one. Well, it isn't elegant. The prologue says it was only a rumor he got killed, yadda yadda. It was pretty clear what happened in the last book, and bringing Gus Bailey back here is almost as bad as Michael Meyers from the multitudinous Halloween movies. Anyway, once you get past that bump, you can forget it and the story flows fine.

This is, however, definitely a book for Dunne fans. You can't really say his books make up a series, but since they do mention a lot of the same characters (who are generally real people in disguise) there is a flow from one book to the next. This book could almost be considered a sequel to People Like Us, from back in the '80s. The Altemuses and the Renthals and several others who figured into the first book are back. It's interesting, but I wouldn't recommend picking this book up without reading some of his others, especially People Like Us.

One thing that struck me as funny was the technology. I have to remember that this is Dunne's first novel since 1997. In this book he mentions email and cell phones...obvious, really, but since its his only book that does so, I guess I am used to a lower level of technology. I tend to think of him as old-fashioned, even though that's probably not fair.

On the ther hand, this novel (as well as People Like Us) is all about New York society. It's a completely different world. In some ways old fashioned and in some ways just...weird. I really liked People Like Us, because it explains the different-ness of this society more clearly, especially with the character of Bernie Slatkin (a reporter) who is briefly married to the extremely wealthy Justine Altemus. As Bernie tells his mother in law: "I'll never understand people like you." Yep. That's how I feel. I like the story, but I'll never understand people who literally think they are better beause of money that they didn't even earn.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

2009-12-23T10:01:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. This one was a real surprise to me. I reserved it from the library, and it came with a YA sticker on it. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I don't think I took it very seriously at first. It snuck up on me how good it was. Markus Zusak seems to be one of those rare writers who can make a book better just by word choice. I am always interested in these kind of technical things, and his phrasing is brilliant.

Besides that, I liked the device od Death as narrator, especially as such a sympathetic one. You feel sorry for Death having to see such tragic scenes all the time. The book was excellent, but very sad. I am not sure I've ever read a book so touching and heart-wrenching. Sure, Old Yeller is kind of sad, but doesn't have the sustained tragedy of this one.

That feels like a pretty short review for what has to be one of the best books I've read all year, but that's all I have. Sad and brilliant.

Makers by Cory Doctorow

2009-12-20T10:17:00.000-08:00

I just finished Cory Doctorow's new novel, Makers, just released last month. Briefly, I liked it, but didn't love it. It's a near future SF novel, that follows high-tech industry, inventors, and business people alike. In part it reminds me of Michael Crichton's high-tech stuff, such as Prey or the older novel Disclosure. It also brings to mind early cyberpunk like Rudy Rucker's Software.

Makers, though, is a bit mushier than either, in my opinion. The tech content is there, but the people and their relationships take a more prominent role. There's a lot of sexual tension, and one particularly pornographic scene that seemed a bit much. Not that I'm a prude, I just had to roll my eyes at the amount of detail. I also think Doctorow is not that great a pure writer. There are at least three hugs in the first hundred pages where the person hugged is rigid at first, then relaxes. Come on...mix it up a little!

Some of the content was very PC...goths are good...corporations are evil...homeless people are misunderstood and oppressed...someimes I thought it got laid on a bit thick. There is also one character who seems to go from evil to good so fast I was scratching my head, wondering what his ulterior motives were. I just thought that wasn't explained well.

Overwiew: very rough, but also enjoyable. A little dense to just breeze through, but I do recommend it to serious SF fans, as well as those looking for a speculative general fiction read.

Under the Dome

2009-12-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

It took me a month, but I finally finished Stephen King's new 1,074 page novel, Under the Dome.

Hm. That makes it sound like it took me a long tme to read because it was so long, but that's a bit deceptive. In reality, I started this book on 11/10/09. Between then and finishing Under the Dome I finished nine other books. Why?

OK, I read the first couple of hundred pages in short order. This book doesn't build up to the main event like some, but it does take a lot of time introducing characters. This was OK, but some of them are extremely flat and stereotyped. This bothered me to an extent, and I suppose it still does. Especially the sniping at religion by having the most devout Baptists basically be pure evil. I am long past it, but I was raised a Baptist, and I'm sorry, but they are nothing like the two-dimensional clowns in this novel.

Leaving that aside, I got a little bored with the novel because of these characterizations, and laid it aside. I started reading it again in short chunks, but it soon picked up and went beyond flat characters to a very complex story. I ended up reading the last 700-odd pages in a single week.

The characters are what make a King novel, and in spite of what I said about their being flat, the good and evil acts as they come together, or try to seize power for their own ends (or are just manipulated) are what make this book good. I also liked how the fact and nature of how and why the Dome was there are revealed slowly. It gives the reader a lot to wonder about the nature of life and reality as a whole in this novel. Very good.

Dawn + Failure

2009-12-12T05:44:00.001-08:00

No, this post isn't about a girl named Dawn I've failed with...that could be another story entirely...but I just finished Dawn by Octavia E. Butler, which is the first in her Xenogenesis trilogy.

The trilogy is about an Earth that has been mostly destroyed by nuclear war, but the survivors have been "rescued" by an alien race called the Oankali. This first book is about Lilith, the woman who is basically groomed by the Oankali to be a "mother" the the surviving humans as they are sent back to repopulate the Earth. Nice, right?

The Oankali, though, do not do this without their price. The book shows both sides in a very deft manner...sometimes the aliens seem compassionate, even loving. At others, they are ruthless, and even horrifying monsters. It is not clear at all whether the Oankali are good or evil, though their tampering with human genetcs/reproduction leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not sure how I feel about the book overall, but I'll be interested in reading the sequels to see what happens.

And now to the failure.

With all the attention it's drawn, I should mention a book I've given up on: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I am a great admirer of Jane Austen, and I think I'd have to say she's by far my favorite author of her era. In fact, probably my favorite between Shakespeare in the early 17th Century to Heinlein in the 20th.

When I first picked PP&Z up, it was funny. It was neat to read a familiar story with the spoofish twist at first, but as the pages dragged on I realized something...it was really only funny because Jane Austen herself is funny. It's her prose with truly random bits of zombie-killing thrown in. It stopped being diverting, and became irritating.

Seth Grahame-Smith has done something different, but I can't see that it takes any talent. The story is still good because the book is good, but the zombie parts seems contrived and shoehorned in. They do not fit, and the result is a perversion. I hate it, and will not be looking for any of the others.

Matt the White Knight: Rose Madder

2009-11-30T18:35:00.000-08:00

Ah, it's cool to be tough. Clint Eastwood tough, with the squinty eyes and .44 Magnum instant death.

But I am not. No, I have come to terms with the idea that I am so gentle that if someone walked up to me on the street and punched me in the nose, I'd probably just look puzzled. True, I am large and kind of mean looking, but even the idea of frightening someone upsets me, and the only way to be less dangerous than me is to be confined to an iron lung.

So in that vein, if I can say it without it being a politically correct pat on my own back, I hate men who abuse women. Partly this may be species imperative. Heinlein says that from an anthropological perspective, any culture that does not value child-bearers will fail. Perhaps so, but I think misogyny is a real problem, and not just in the back room of crack houses. The idea that men can (and even should) dominate women by physical force seems to prevail as an idea of extreme hilarity among some of our youth. I have seen a lot of it online, and it's sickening. If you even say "That's Inappropriate" to a picture of a bruised woman, you are dismissed as an effeminate "White Knight."

And I mean it. I literally hate abusive men. I firmly believe battered woman syndrome is cause for justifiable homicide. There is a prominent athlete, who, while on a trip to my home state, close-fist punched his wife in the face in front of hundreds of witnesses. She weighs more than a hundred pounds less than him. Any mention of his name provokes expectorating on my part. He should be behind bars, no ifs ands or buts...and now he's got a world series ring.

So I was fascinated by Stephen King's novel, Rose Madder. Partly it is sick, twisted, and disgusting. On the other hand, Rosie manages what many battered women do not, and runs away. A large portion of this story is uplifting and inspiring as she recovers and rebuilds her life.

There is a funny thing...when Rosie asks Anna about why she runs the women's shelter, she says that life is not a Misery Chastain novel (nice reference to Misery, by the way) and that there isn't necessarily a clear cause and effect. BUT. This is exactly the explanation for Norman's behavior. He's an abuser because he was abused. I don't know if this is ironic, or part of the attempt to explain Norman's twisted self. Actually, I think King goes out of his way to make Norman evil, having him commit numerous murders, and I thought it made him perhaps more horrific, but also a flatter character. Pure evil, so no one will mourn his death.

I, for one, think that if his only crime was abusing his wife, he still deserves to die.

The painting is an interesting bit. Besides having Dark Tower references to ka and the city of Lud (very cool) it's a unique trick to have a doppelganger Rose that inspires Rosie, but one so hardened that Rosie is terrified of becoming her. Very nice counterpoint. At least she has her own backbone at the end, standing up for Bill: "Do not call him a beast again. And get your diseased hands out of his hair."

Oh, yeah. Happy birthday to me.

Pirate Latitudes - A fond farewell

2009-11-26T14:08:00.000-08:00

I have just finished reading Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. This was his final book, the manuscript discovered in his computer after his death. It is saddenign to know this will be the final book, but I enjoyed it very much and it makes for a fond farewell.

This last novel is not Crichton's usual high-tech thriller...it's a low-tech thriller, set in 1665. The bulk of the story is about a privateering raid from Port Royal, Jamaica against a Spanish treaure galleon...with a lot of adventurous twists along the way. As I expected, I liked the book as much for the historical background Crichton includes as for the plot. All in all, I think it was very good.

This is the 19th book I've read by Crichton. I have read all of the novels he wrote under his own name, and a couple he did under pen names as well. It seems odd to recall now, but I realize I had never heard of Michael Crichton until after I saw the movie Jurassic Park. This remains one of my favorite movies, and is one of the few examples where I enjoy both the movie and the book very much. Jurassic Park the novel was the first of Crichton's books I read, and in the intevening years I read all his others. He was one of the few authors I kept track of carefully and looked forward to every new release. The scientific detail (or historical detail, in a few) absolutely astounded me. I know it made the books slow in coming, but the research was impressive, and shows in the pages long bibliographies some of his books include.

Yes, Michael Crichton is one author I will miss. Farewell.

A Touch of Dead

2009-11-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

I just finished A Touch of Dead by Charlaine Harris. It is a collection of five Sookie Stackhouse short stories. They are:

"Fairy Dust" - about Sookie helping the fairies Claude and Claudine investigate the death of their triplet, Claudette.

"Dracula Night" - about a celebration if Dracula's birthday at the vampire bar, Fangtasia. Very good for making Eric seem a little less cold and self-possessed.

"One Word Answer" - about Sookie's hearing of the death of her cousin, Hadley, and how she had been turned into a vampire and associate of the Queen of Louisiana.

"Lucky" - About the witch insurance agent who Sookie and her houseguest friend Amelia discover is using up all the "luck" in the area with his spells.

"Gift Wrap" - A Christmas story in which Sookie, feeling lonely, gets company to help celebrate the holiday with her.

All in all, I thought the stories were very good. It was a fast read, over in less than a day, and some of the stories did help fill in gaps I remember from the the books.

Earth Factor X

2009-11-17T17:21:00.001-08:00

Ah, november. I am still working on my NaNoWriMo project (behind) and on my reading (slow) and today finished Earth Factor X by A.E. van Vogt. It is one of van Vogt's later novels, published in 1974, and is very strange. The premise is that several alien races have infiltrated Earth by planting their own embryos, modified so that they are genetically human men...and only men. The "X" factor is human women, since all the "alienoids" become involved with earth women. The book is mainly about man/woman relationships, but from a very odd perspective. One of the main characters is a philandering, chauvinistc man. He is murdered, but his brain is saved and transplanted into a mobile robotic device...so he's sort of sexless, but also still a man. Strange. I don't feel I have the brainpower to comment much on the gender relations. The book was enjoyable in a way, but so odd I am not sure what to think, and I truly have no idea what point (if any) van Vogt was making on gender.

Thinner

2009-11-07T05:23:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished Thinner by Richard Bachman, from the days when Stephen King used that as a pen name...it has the picture of a totally different person on the jacket, and is dedicated to a fictional wife, Claudia Inez Bachman. I know of many authors who use pseudonyms, but probably none that took it that far.

Anyway, I loved the book. Part of it is the weight loss. There's no getting around it, so I'll admit that I'm 215 lbs on a 5'7" frame. The main character starts out fat, and I understand him well. I especially laughed at the weigh-in ritual. Empty stomach, go to the bathroom first...all "reasonable" cheats. I also understand the desire to lose weight, but the fear of it. He says at one point that his connection to reality relies on his mass, or something to that effect. It seems foolish, but I understand. Even fifty lbs overweight, I hate the idea of wasting away, and in this story it is taken to a horrific extreme.

The book also explores something I've thought about from time to time, and that's dealing with killing someone accidentally. Vehicular homicide is one of those odd "crimes" where a slip of judgement...absolutely harmless ninety-nine times of a hundred...can send an ordinary, law-abiding citizen to prison. I wonder how I would feel if I killed someone like that. I do a lot of downtown driving, and I see a lot of stupid people. Jaywalking diagonally across a busy intersection, crossing agaisnt the lights, running in front of me when the road is covered with snow. The main character in this book, Billy, kills an old woman (jaywalking) while "distracted" by his wife. The guilt is a little fuzzy, though he seems to feel a lot less remorse than I am sure I would, even if it was a complete accident. Even if I were absolved of official wrongdoing. To me this creates a distance from the character.

The book feels like a tragedy in the classical sense of a character you can sort of identify with, but is flawed, and his hubris leads to destruction. You get enough into Billy's head to identify with him, and his feelings for his daughter seem genuine, but he's definitely flawed. His lack of remorse for killing the gypsy woman, his dealings with Ginelli, and finally his blaming of his wife all lead to one roten decision after another, and in the the end everything goes wrong. It is a tragic ending, and brilliantly so.

Finally, I have a couple of those personal notes...my home town gets mentioned! Yep, when they trace the gypsies through Connecticut, they move through Rhode Island, and then into Attleboro, Massachusetts, on the state line with RI. I lived there for twenty years, from age five to twenty-five, and am a proud member of Attleboro High School's class of 2000. Not much to be proud of if you know Attleboro, but I'll take it. Anyway, that's where one of the gypsies gets arrested for disorderly conduct, which fits perfectly! I could almost picture the shop he got arrested at. There are a bunch of these sleazy places on Route 1, right at the state line. A big XXX theater, and specifically a donut shop/convenience store that has a tiny sign reading "Vista Donuts" and a gigantic sign reading LOTTO! In my imagination, that's where he got arrested.

The last note is on the dedication...the fictioal wife, Claudia Inez Bachman, turns up in the Dark Tower series as Claudia y Inez Bachman (nineteen letters) and is the author (or one of them, in the changing worlds) of the Charlie the Choo-Choo book that Jake buys at Calvin Tower's shop. King mentions this himself in one of the afterwards, so it's not much of a connection to make, but I can't pass it by.

National Novel Writing Month

2009-11-01T06:49:00.000-08:00

Well, November is here, and with it my second attempt at NaNoWriMo...the challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Last year I got distracted, changed themes, and ended up with a few unconnected bits that added up to 35,000 words or so. For this year, I know I can keep up the writing pace, I just need to stay focused.

I feel like I have a pretty good idea for this year. I don't generally do outlining, except in my head, but I did make out a list of characters, mainly so I didn't confuse names. I had thoughts of staying up until midnight to get a jump-start, but I was too tired. This morning I pounded out the first scene...951 words in the bag. Later I am going to a write-in at the public library, so maybe I'll have an update tonight.

For good measure, I am also starting the year-long science fiction challenge a few of us are doing at paperbackswap.com, where we'll attempt to read a book from 40 different categories in the course of a year. Bring it on!

His unending fury...Christine!

2009-10-31T16:25:00.000-07:00

I just finished Christine by Stephen King. This is the 21st book I've finished by King, but I was still a little hesitant to start it. Long ago I saw the movie, and remember it as somewhat corny. I mean, come on...a killer car?

I shouldn't have worried. Stephen King's books, and in particular the characters, have a depth that is not possible to portray on the movie screen. I especially like how the story was told...a first person section by Dennis, then a third person segment where Dennis is still the narrator, but not present, and then another first person section when Dennis gets ot of the hospital. I think the counterpoints of Dennis's "normal" family and Arnie's dysfunctional one are well done.

And then there's the cars...I love cars and everything about them, but this is a crazy new take indeed! This book was published in 1983, with the Arab Oil Embargo a fresh memory. I am sure a bit of this is tongue in cheek comment about America's love of gas-hog cars. King turns it around in a spooky way. I especially love a quote at the end about one guy "He drove a Honda Civic. No problem there."

For good measure, I did re-watch the movie Christine. It is a little corny, sure. Especially the bad and obvious stop-motion effect when the car heals itself. I think they goofed a little by not including the original owner, Roland Le Bay, as a character. The book is more about Le Bay still having a hold on the car and Arnie from beyond the grave. Making it simply about a killer car moves it down a few rungs in respectability. Even so, within its limited scope, the movie wasn't as bad as I remembered. The characters were at least believeable kids. For the record, twenty-six year-old James Dean did not look like a sixteen year-old in Rebel Without a Cause.

Magic Tech: Harry Potter

2009-10-23T07:56:00.000-07:00

Arthur C. Clarke's statement has been quoted so often it's become cliche: Any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic.

Of course, what if it is magic. Coming from a background of heavy science fiction reading, I see a lot of parallels between the magic of Harry Potter, and advanced tech depicted in science fiction. I suppose much of this is obvious...magic can automate processes in the same way real or imagined science can. Mrs. Weasley might flick her wand and have the dishes start cleaning themselves. What's that but a magic dishwasher? That's a pretty mundane example, but I could go on all day. Apparition? Been done over and over again as teleportation...even as tech-free "jaunting" in Alfred Bester's imagination more than 50 years ago. It's all about the spin. In one book it's a psionic power latent in the brain. In the other...it's magic.

Anyway, while it may not interest anyone else, the reason for this post is another connection I recently made between Harry Potter and the hardest of the hard SF: the portraits. I've always thought they were interesting. What are they? Intelligent images of real people now dead. How does that work? I can't explain the magic, but the concept has been around a while in the idea of a Turing image.

A Turing image (for the non-SF readers) is basically an AI duplicate of a person's brain...all memories and personality intact. I think specifically of Joe Haldeman's book Buying Time, where the main character's friend is killed, but he has a computer crystal containing the Turing image. He can plug it in and "talk" to his friend. The image can stay up to date and the AI software is such that it reacts as the real person would to new input...but of course it is not the real person. Just an image. This is how I see the portraits in the wizarding world.

Misery by Stephen King (make it 20!)

2009-10-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

I just finished my 20th Stephen King novel, Misery. For background, I did see the movie a long time ago. Actually, I don't remember the ending, so maybe I only saw part of it. I didn't know it was based on a Stephen King novel at the time, nor would I have cared. In fact I didn't realize it was a King novel until I saw the Family Guy spoof much more recently. I do remember thinking it would be quite horrific to be in the author's position, injured and held against his will by a crazed fan.

One line that is repeated throughout the book is about Paul's vivid imagination (yes, with the italics). I think I can relate only too well. Paul's imagining of what might happen to him, of what Annie has done, makes his situation so much more horrific. By the same token, my vivid imagination maked this one of the most realistic and disturbing books I have read. Not scary, exactly, but the descriptions are such that I was almost gritting my teeth in imagined pain along with Paul at times. So vivid.

I am curious about how personal this book may have been for Stephen King. From one point of view it's a little insulting to the reader. Did King feel suffocated by the multitude of "number one fans" in real life? Some of the details about fan letters, especially fom the woman who recreated the fictional Misery's room sound like they may have come from personal experience. I can't really blame him for it, but it seemed like the tone was a trifle bitter in these passages, and in this book "Constant Reader" sounds like an insult...even though this is how King addresses his readers in real life.

I have heard some people complain about books that feature writers as main characters, that it's a "Mary-Sue" tactic based on the writer himself. I don't get this at all, and I absolutely love the details about writers and writing. I have no illusions of my own writing greatness, but when Paul talks about "the hole in the page opening" I know exactly what he means. The getting caught up in the flow, and not seeing the keys in front of you, but visualizing the story itself.

As usual, I like the little tidbits that tie the books together. This took place in Colorado, so naturally it's mentioned in passing about the Overlook Hotel that burned down ten years ago...which is of course what The Shining was about.

Finally, I also find it interesting that at the end it's mentioned there's going to be an unprecedented first printing of a million copies for the fictional book Misery's Return. I couldn't help but notice that Stephen King's previous book was IT, which I understand had an initial run of a million copies (and who know how many after that...my copy is pretty old, but says "sixth printing" inside it). I almost wonder if King equates the two books...that he hated writing IT, but it was what the fans wanted, and was obviously extremely successful. That might be pushing it a bit, considering King's successful writing career since then in the genre, but just something that came to mind. Until next time...

Heart-Shaped Box

2009-10-19T12:55:00.001-07:00

I just finished Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. I like it right from the dedication: "For my dad, one of the good ones." Considering that dad is Stephen King, I'd guess so. I feel a little bad for Joe Hill (aka Joseph Hillstrom King) because there is pretty much no way he's ever climbing out from under the shadow of his father.

On the other hand, this book is a good start. It's a ghost/horror/love story all mixed up, and I liked it a lot. Jude, an ageing rock star, is a fascinating character. It's hard to like him with his habit of having much younger girls hanging on. He's not exactly a gentleman to his current girlfriend, and the story of how he ditched the previous one is painful. That said, he's hard to really dislike either. he's not abusive or anything like that, and seems to be generally kind. This mixture seems to create a character sort of distant, but not evil, who (even at his age) grows up throughout the story.

The horror aspect is good, with a good take on the old ghost standby. I liked the book very much, especially considering it's Hill's first novel. I guess I'll probably be first in line for his second, Horns, due out in February.

Philosophers and Earworms: Pet Sematary

2009-10-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

I just finished my 19th book by Stephen King - Pet Sematary. Considering it was published in 1983, I suppose it's a but late for me to go into raptures, but I will say this is to me the most powerful of King's works that I've read so far. I am not sure that I'd call any book literally "scary," but this one was amazingly horrific. As is often the case, I'm amazed how King crafts a story where you can see what's coming so far in advance...and still have it be so horrible. Jud's relation of what happened to Tim, the war casualty, is so unbearably awful...but you know what Louis is going to do anyway. There are so many excuses, so many perverse justifcations it's hard to be sure of the motivation. One thing is clear to me - this is horror at it's best (or worst...whatever...)

And, of course, I have to mention the Ramones. They get mentioned several times in the book, mostly with their refrain from the Blitzkrieg Bop "Hey-ho, let's go!" Besides that, they did the now famous song "Pet Sematary" just for the movie. I have never seen the movie, but I love the song and understand it better now. It is also maybe the most serious "earworm" I've had all year. I periodically get it stuck in my head and it stays there for a looong time. I like the song, so it's not bad, but I felt like it was background music for a large part of my reading...and yeah, is is playing in my head right now.

Now I have to say something about my discovery of that song. I don't want to tell too much of a story that's not mine, but on athother site I found a link to a webpage to a teen girl dying of cancer. I do not believe she was expected to live out the year, and she had "Pet Sematary" by the Ramones on her page as her favorite song. As I said, I like the song, but I can't hear it without some sadness, thinking of a life cut short. In that setting, it seems a bit morbid...on the other hand, she seems far more comfortable with the idea of death than I am.

Thinking about it, Pet Sematary makes the idea of death almost peaceful. The horror comes from the perversion and denial of final rest.

But that's for the philosophers. I should go.

Two more by The King

2009-10-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

Working my way through Stephen King's novels, I recently finished #17 and #18.

Yesterday I completed Dreamcatcher. 620 pages in 9 days. I liked the SF aspect of an alien invasion, and of course the King-type spin. It was a bit gruesome at points with the "shit-weasels" and such joys. Even so, I thought it was pretty good. Having the friends be from Derry, and linking the story to IT was excellent. The whole addition of Duddits and the psychology was fascinating...and I thought Kurtz was an excellent villain.

And to the nit-picking. Kutz's 9mm is likened to Patton's "Pearl-handled .45" Please. Even I saw the movie Patton, where a reporter makes this same mistake, asking about his pearl-handled guns. Patton angrily says they're ivory and that only a "candy-ass" would carry a pearl-handled gun. Right. Also, in the beginning Pete and Henry are driving back from Gosselin's market in a Scout 4x4. This seems to be King's favorite SUV, as I've noticed it come up in other books, but he goofs here by mentioning that this Scout is "fourteen years old." The book is supposed to take place in 2001...twenty-one years after International Harvester stopped manufacturing the venerable Scout II.

But I still liked it. On to today...I read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon in about eight hours. It was a quick, but intense read. I think it's more horrific having a nine-year-old girl for a main character. I was kind of surprised how well the premise worked.

And, of course, I am a Red Sox fan and loved the references. I never had cable gowing up, so I sometimes listened to Joe and Troop on WEEI as Trisha does in the story. King does a great (and hilarious) job of capturing how they call games. Sadly, Jerry Trupiano no longer calls the games, but I'll never forget my brother and I chuckling at his overdramatic "WAAAAY BACK!" only to have it be a fly-out.

Even more sadly, Tom "Flash" Gordon turned traitor and became the Yankees set-up man in front of Mariano Rivera. Oh, well. Innocence lost, I suppose. And speaking of innocence, I can't help but note this book was set in the historic 1998 season where McGwire, Sosa, Griffey, and even Greg Vaughn were chasing Roger Maris's home run record, all of us blissfully ignoring any rumors of steroids...

"Remember my Last, Petunia"

2009-10-13T05:48:00.000-07:00

I have been going through the Harry Potter series on audio for the third time, and having gotten to the fifth again, I'm feeling sorry for Petunia Dursley.

For obvious reasons, she only appears at the beginnings of most of the books. She is unkind to Harry, and there is no excuse for that...but I still feel sorry for her.

Imagine her life: There are two sisters, Lily and Petunia. Lily is fairly normal name, but Petunia? A bit cruel to have to live with. Then again, Lily is the good-looking one. Petunia is described as bony and horse-faced. I imagine the ungainly odd-named sister had a hard time competing from the start.

Then Hogwarts. Lily was a witch! Besides being prettier and having a nicer name, she has special powers, can do magic, and gets to go off to a special school where fairy tales are real. Being left out of this doesn't give you the right to become a bitter, and nasty person, but at least I understand.

So, being left out, Petunia goes completely in the other direction. Sour grapes, you know? She builds up the whole premise in her mind that magic is evil. Abnormal. She marries a man as far away from the magical world as she can find, and tries to ignore it...but this is a front. In the fifth book, she mentions the Dementors, and knows about Azkaban. She just happened to remember a bit of overheard conversation? I can imagine Lily and James, talking, with the resentful young Petunia, eavesdropping, clinging desperately to each word of a world she wants, but can never be part of.

Then, of course, her sister has to die a hero, and Petunia is forced to raise Harry, even given a letter by Dumbledore himself to that effect. All her resentment and jealousy at not being a witch herself are then constantly thrust to the forefront. A better person would have reacted better...but at least I understand.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

2009-10-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

This is cross-posted from elsewhere:

I just finished The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I thought it was very good, and made me laugha few times. I will definitely be reading the rest of the books.

But...

This might sound a little nasty, but I just don't get the hype. It's good and funny, but it's a spoof. Or maybe "pastiche" is better. I liked it, but there is really nothing original. It hearkens back to the space opera of the '40s and '50s. The satire reminds me strongly of Kurt Vonnegut and Bob Shaw, both of whom I also admire. Adams is good, but I guess I expected more from all the hype surrounding the book.

At it's core, I think this is a science fiction book for non science fiction readers.

Prince Caspian: Language warning...

2009-10-03T16:08:00.000-07:00

I just saw the movie version of Prince Caspian. I grew up with the Chronicles of Narnia. I read them all, and my father read the books to my brothers and I as well, as far back as I remember.

Disney mutilated it, and I will not forgive them for this one.

Caspian and Peter are both selfish fuck-ups, and people die for it.
Caspian is an ignorant turd as well, and not fit to lead.
What's with the cluster-fuck raid on the castle in the middle of the night?
Narnia is not supposed to be the pussy version of LOTR.
Furthermore, Susan is not Legolas.
Where the fuck does the White Witch tempting Peter come from?
Wait, the ground is hollow? Weak move.
Trees are not giant spiders with root legs.
River god? They ruin the point of the Bridge/Ford of Beruna.
Susan/Caspian love interest? Pathetic.
Lardass Doctor Cornelius? No.
The humor is missing, so's the fun. So's the whole story.

Fuck you, Disney.

Mark Fuhrman

2009-09-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

Since I created a post about Dominick Dunne, I figure it's only fair to make another about the guy who led me to him.

I'll say right up front I have a bit of an obsession with the O.J. Simpson trial, and there is no doubt in my mind that O.J. did it. I studied the case in a college class on forensic science, and besides Dunne's writing, I have read books by Marcia Clark and Chris Darden and (drum roll) Mark Fuhrman.

I know he is an extremely controversial person, vilified and hated even by those on his own team. I am not getting into that. I read his first book, Murder in Brentwood, and was blown away. This book is partly autobiographical, but mostly about the O.J. investigation and trial. Fuhrman is an amazing investigator, taking the evidence very carefully. Completely aside from his own role, this evidence is overwhelming.

From there, I read his book Murder in Greenwich, in which he takes on the investigation of the 1975 murder of Martha Moxley in Greenwich Connecticut. It's from this book I became interested in Dominick Dunne, and went on to read A Season in Purgatory. Here Fuhrman again takes the evidence slowly and carefully, and makes a good case that the murderer was likely the next door neighbor Michael Skakel (who was interestingly not initially suspected, and not the murderer in Dunne's novel).

I have not read Fuhrman's next two books...Murder in Spokane, about a serial killer in Spokane, Washington, and Death and Justice, which examines Oklahoma's capital punishment laws and death row.

I did, however, read his fifth book, Silent Witness, about Terry Shiavo. It wasn't a happy story when she was dying, but her past was worse. There was much less evidence for this investigation than others, but there was a lot of odd stuff pointing to her husband Michael. Sickening things, really.

A Simple Act of Murder is Fuhrman's most recent book and deals with the assassination of JFK...do we need another? Well, I think we need this one. I love a good conspiracy theory, but with all the wild theories and rumors, where is the evidence? Fuhrman treats this like any other murder, and is incredibly thorough considering what there is to work with. He looks to the simplest explanations, and in the end there is no reason to doubt that Lee Harvey Oswald was acting alone. I think I have an open mind on the matter, but to get me to believe anything else, someone is going to have to go and debunk every single bit of evidence Fuhrman brings out.

Dominick Dunne

2009-09-26T19:19:00.000-07:00

I ordinarily wouldn't post until I finished, but I am reading Another City, Not My Own by Dominick Dunne.

For those who don't know, he recently passed away at the age of 84, so I picked this book up as a sort of tribute. He's mostly famous for covering numerous high profile trials with celebrities involved. He was very opinionated, and was not hesitant in his accusations.

To me he's a fascinating person. For most of his career he worked in the TV and movie industry, and knew many people in that business well. Then in 1975 his daughter (already a film star) was murdered...strangled by a boyfriend who couldn't let her go. This guy was later sentenced to a mere two and a half years in prison.

It was only after this that Dunne (after a period of drug use and recovery) became a writer in his late 50s. I know he's a controversial person, and often seen as a troublemaker, but I think his experience with his own daughter's death and the joke of a trial afterwards makes everthing so personal for him...and he is determined that the rich and famous should not receive preferential treatment.

Here is a list of his books and my comments on them:

The Winners - Dunne's first book, which he claims was a failure. Maybe so, because I can't find a copy anywhere. I understand it deals with Hollywood and LA society.

The Two Mrs. Grenvilles - I am not familiar with the real-life event, but this is a fictionalized story of Anne Woodward, who shot her husband, claiming she thought he was an intruder, but under very suspicious circumstances...in the novel, she is a murderer.

People Like Us - A fascinating novel about New York City's social circuit. I did not realize it at the time, but all the characters in the novel are based on real people...some of whom were very upset at the characterization.

An Inconvenient Woman - I have not read this one (I plan to soon) but I think it's about another real life murder.

A Season in Purgatory - This book is a fictionalized account of the real life murder of Martha Moxley in Greenwich Connecticut in 1975. The novel features the next-door neighbor as the murderer. This book later influenced Mark Fuhrman (of OJ fame and shame) to investigate...I first heard of Dunne from Fuhrman's nonfiction book Murder in Greenwich, which was convincing enough that the official investigation was reopened and Michael Skakel (the next door neighbor and a cousin of the Kennedys) is now in prison for the murder.

Another City, Not My Own - As I said, I'm reading this one now. It's about Dunne's covering of the O.J. Simpson trial (and is at least the 4th book I've read on the trial). He was there in the front row every day reporting for Vanity Fair magazine. This book is strange, because Dunne changes the name of his own character and writes in the third person, but everyone else in the story is real. His account is unique, becaue he doesn't always focus on the trial evidence...he seems to know everybody, and deals in gossip as well as fact. No way to tell how much is true, but there is a LOT of dirt dug up that never made it ino the trial.

Too Much Money - this was Dunne's last book, and will be released in December. I plan to read it as soon as possible. I am not sure exactly what it's about, but I think part of it deals with Congressman Gary Condit and the murder of his intern, for which he was suspected.

Justice: Crimes, Trials, and Punishments - This is a nonfiction collection dealing with several different trials Dunne covered. I listened to the audio version, which is read by Dunne himself...and if you can believe it, the first section is about his own daughter's trial and murder. It is so personal and painful I don't know how he was able to pull it off. I also think it's the single most important bit on understanding Dominick Dunne.

He wrote a few other things, including a short story collection called The Mansions of Limbo and a nonfiction book called Fatal Charms. I am not familiar with the content of either. There's another book called The Way We Lived Then, which is basically a coffee table book of celebrities Dunne knew and is not very interesting unless you care about Hollywood parties from 50 years ago.

Cozies

2009-09-20T12:45:00.000-07:00

Not until I joined the book site paperbackswap.com did I ever hear the term "cozy" applied to light, fluffy mystery books. The description did not really sound like anything I would have liked, but since I've been on PBS, my reading tastes have broadened considerably.

I believe the first cozies I ever read were actually a few years ago with The Hydrogen Murder and The Helium Murder in the periodic table series by Camille Minichino. At the time, I was only interested because they featured a character who was a physicist (I was into all things Physics at the time...I even listened to an audiobook of Richard Feynman's letters).

I wasn't really thrilled by Minichino...this was still in my hardcore SF days, and these seemed like dull, formulaic mysteries. The second book actually mortally offended me because the author got the "mole" wrong. I was a good little science nerd in school, and I memorized the number to several decimal places: 6.0221367x10^23. One of the big clues in The Helium Murder was the "mole" appearing on a license plate: 6025. Um, no. She was just plain wrong, and since the author was a real physicist, she should know better.

Right. After I joined PBS I began to see that there are dozens, if not hundreds of these kind of mystery series. It's a little daunting. Because I was also interested in paranormal, I read the nine books of the Southern Vampire Mysteries. Now that I have a little more reading under my...brain...I can see that these are basically cozies with vamps and other supernatural creatures.

Today, I just finished The Chocolate Cat Caper. I guess that's secondary to my comments on cozies (especially Minichino) but I have softened enough to continue in this series. It's very light and fast, with the main character being a woman who works at her Aunt's chocolate shop. It's not my usual fare, but I can't say anything bad about the story either. I have to admit that I only became interested because the author was listed as JoAnna Carl...well, that's an unusual last name. I knowbecause it happens to be the same as mine.

I was a little disillusioned when I found out her real ame is Eve K. Sandstrom. Oh, well.

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

2009-09-19T09:00:00.001-07:00

So, with the log-awaited release of Dan Brown's 5th novel and 3rd featuring sybologist Robert Langdon, I was fortunate enough to get a copy early. My library ordered no less than 35 copies, one of which I snagged on Wednesday morning, the day after the release...

Short version: waste of paper.

Long: OK, I can't claim to have ever been a big fan of Dan Brown. I think his writing style lacks polish, and that he relies way too much on sensation rather than an actual plot, with lots of super-short cliffhanger chapters. To me, having to obviously hide information from the reader is a sign of a major hack job. Take Stephen King for example...you often know where he's going right from the start, but he's still scary. Anyway, The Lost Symbol is more of the stilted same, 509 pages divided into 133 chapters, plus an epilogue.

Some of my criticism from Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code apply here: Langdon is an irritating character to me, arrogantly making grand pronouncements tht aren't always so grand to a well-read person, and supposedly claiming tolerance for the religion of others while continually making sniping jabs at it. Not only this, Brown either is utterly clueless of Christian church history, or is deliberately twisting it to fit his plot. I suspect a combination. For example, he grandly states that the cross was not a Christian symbol until the 6th century. Really? Why does Paul refer to it in his epistles? I assume he means a a visual symbol in art or architecture, but to me it makes him sound ignorant. Being myself raised in a very religious (but non-Catholic) home, some of his generalizations are downright ludicrous.

But getting to the actual story...there is supposedly a massive national security breach. It took 400 pages to reveal it, and in the end it was a pathetic anticlimax, as far as I'm concerned. Then there's the "secret mysteries" that the Freemasons are protecting. When revealed, it's in page after page of meaningless quasi-religious blather. I was horribly disappointed and irritated with the book overall.

Cell

2009-09-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

I just finished Cell by Stephen King. It was an interesting book dealing with the idea that terrorists rigged cell phones to make people go crazy, creating a worldwide apocalypse. Overall I enjoyed the story, but I think it's probably my least favorite Stephen King book I've read so far.

Most of Stephen King's books start deliberately, building up to the plot. This one shoves you into the middle in the first couple of pages. It is gripping, but it doesn't have the same character development I'm used to in King's books. Usually he inserts background even for minor characters. here, even Clay, the main character, seems a little flat. You don't get as full a picture as usual, and I think this hurts the story.

I am alwas interested in the person a story uses...Stephen King typically writes in 3rd person limited, but switches between characters so that you get multiple viewpoints. Duma Key, King's most recent, is in 1st person, which is different, but works well. Cell uses 3rd person limited, but sticks with Clay, creating a much more narrow world than usual. Weirdly, it does switch to one of the othe rcharacters to relate a dream, but only briefly. I think the entire rest of the story is from Clay's viewpoint, and I am not sure why the one aberration was included.

Back to guns...I pointed out that a .45 reveolver would be unusual...King does later call this gun "old-fasioned" and again just "old" which makes a little more sense...Even so, I don't think ti works very well.

King's Connections

2009-09-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

I don't want my previous post to make it sound like I despise Stephen King. On the contrary, I am extremely impressed by his talent and detail, and in particualr I wanted to say something about the connections I've noticed in a few of his books:

In the beginning of The Dark Tower the little turtle carving that Callahan is carrying falls and "passes out of this tale forever like a certain paper boat some of you may remember." I had no clue what that was supposed to mean, but by chance, I started reading IT shortly thereafter...it begins with a kid floating a paper boat, and when it floats away, it has the same line: passes out of this tale forever..."

The book that really lit my interest in King was Lisey's Story. One recurring item is a poem written by Scott, that begins "The Arguments Against Insanity Fall Through With a Soft Shirring Sound." This line is repeated a number of times. Later, when I decided to read through all of King's novels, I read The Shining, and the same line shows up! When Jack is losing it, he quotes that line to himself...it is only said once, and passed off as a line from an undergrad who is now selling insurance, or something like that. To bring it back 20-odd years later for another book is amazing to me.

Going on with The Shining, the cook is named Dick Halloran. Ordinarily the name wouldn't stick with me, but only because I happened to be reading that and IT at the same time did I notice that one of the briefly mentioned soldiers from the army club that burned had the same name! I am not sure if it is meant to be the same person (the timeline isn't quite right, I don't think) but it's enough to intrigue me.

Add to that the more obvious connections between the Dak Tower novels and 'Salem's Lot, I am wondering how King keeps it straight. He is amazing, and I am looking forward to the rest fo his books, and maybe finding even more connections of that sort.

Cell by SK...and gun commentary

2009-09-06T11:59:00.000-07:00

This relates to my recent post about Dean Koontz and what I consider a major flub on his part about high-tech camera systems: Stephen King obviously has no clue about guns. I don't necessarily think he needs to, but if he wants to put specific gun info in a book, he should do a little research. I am by no means a gun expert, but having owned and fired a variety of guns, some of what he says makes no sense, and he could have remedied this with a trip to the sporting goods section of Wal-Mart.

In Cell, he has a character find a ".45 Caliber revolver" and box of ".45 Caliber" bullets. Really? Has he been reading too many of his own Gunslinger books? .45 is an uncommon caliber for a revolver these days, and even if he did find one, the shells would have to specify what kind of .45 round the were...Long Colt (for old-fashioned single-action revolvers) or ACP (mostly only used in semi-autos). Worse, he says he flicked open the cylinder and found "only one" chamber empty. Um, if one round was fired, you'd find one shell empty...revolvers do not eject shells! He also "safeties" the gun. I am sure they exist, but I have never seen a revolver with a safety. It is pretty much pointless on double-action revolvers, since they require a heavy trigger pull, and can't really be fired by accident.

Small stuff, but it bugs me.

War of the Worlds - Then and now

2009-08-23T05:49:00.001-07:00

SPOILERS!!!

So last night I watched the ABC Saturday night movie. It was War of the Worlds with Tom Cruise. I saw this movie a few years back when it first came out, and with more time to think, I have some comment on it, as well as how it relates to the book.

1) Horror - I think this film does an excellent job of captring the real horror that would accompany such an attack. I have to put myself in that position. Being honest, I am not resourceful. I'd probably be one of the first to kick the bucket.

2) How the aliens got there - I think this is a major choke job on the part of the movie. In H.G. Wells' book, the ET's arrived in capsules shot from Mars...OK, so we're sure (pretty sure) there's no intelligent life on Mars, so in th emodern movie they come from way out there. But why change the details? Instead of arriving in capsules, the machines are already buried, and the pilots are zapped down in lightning bolts. Huh? How does that make more sense? If it were me, I would have had the ET's come from another galaxy, but kept the pods. It would make a great story to have these mysterious meteors coming down all over the earth. It would be believable, too, having the ships on approach mistaken for meteors. There are millions of them out there, and thousands hit the earth every day, mostly burning up, but some making it down. And what's with the lightining? Was it generated from a "mother ship?" Were the storms part of some kind of wormhole? None of this was explained in the movie. It really bugged me to have the lighting, and Tom Cuise asking "Where's the thunder?" Exactly. I don't care how the lightining was generated, it will still displace the air and cause thunder. Get your physics straight!

3) Dakota/Rachel - In the book, the main character sends his family away, and is alone for most fo the story. I really like the modern twist, where there is a daughter to take care of. It complicates things, and makes it more emotional.

4) Blood - In the book, the Martians drank human blood. In the movie, they took blood and somehow sprayed it and it became red viny stuff. This made no sense at all to my mind. Blood does not become plant life, and if it does, a little explanation is in order.

Dean Koontz - Technology Rant

2009-08-23T05:32:00.000-07:00

Recently I've listened to three audio books by Dean Koontz - the first two Odd Thomas books, and the thriller Your Heart Belongs to Me. The last was quite interesting in the way it basically tricks you into thinking somethig's happening that isn't.

But I have a rant. Dean Koontz is a prolific writer, and can certainly afford to do a little research. He goes into great detail about the video surveillance system in the main character's house. This guy is a millionaire and everything is state of the art...except for the video system. It seems like Koontz's research is at least a decade behind. He mentions that the video system records only a frame every few seconds, so that the recording looks jerky. What is he recording on, a VHS tape?

I am in my second job now that makes use of Intellex digital video systems. Sure, they are expensive, but not for a millionaire concerned about security. In my last job, we had 16 cameras, and recorded in fairly low frames per minute to make space on the hard drives...but there was no jerky action or anything. It's not that we were state of the art, it's just how far technology has come. If we'd had a bigger budget and a few more hard drives, we could have saved recordings for a year, or forever, at the highest resolution. This would be a pittance for a super-rich guy like the book character, and the poor video system just didn't fit with the story.

Harry, A History

2009-08-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Melissa Anelli's book, Harry, A History which is about Harry Potter fandom and related stuff, especially the events leading up the release of the final book. I can't claim to be a fan of the degree described in this book, but I have my own "Harry History."

My previous job was as a security officer in an office building, during which time I was also a part time student majoring in Englsh at the local State College. There was one woman (much older than me) who for whatever reason kept badgering me to read the Harry Potter books, touting how great they were.

I, of course, had been aware of the Harry Potter rage ever since I was in high school in the late '90s, but generally didn't think much of it. Kid stuff, right? I tended to favor Hard SF, and in college got deep into Shakespeare. I never thought a YA fantasy would be my thing.

I started working Security in 2003. The building was the HQ of a local grocery chain. Books aren't generallya big deal with grocery stores, but everyone was cashing in on the Harry craze. I remember when the 6th book was released in '05, and there was a giveaway...there was a stash of the books locked in a conference room overnight the day before the release. I am not very nosy by nature, and didn't peek or anything, but this kind of hoopla was interesting to a book lover like me.

In 2005, probably not long after the The Half Blood Prince was released, I checked a book on tape out of the library. At the time I had a fairly long commute to work, and time to listen to a book on tape. I decided to give Harry Potter a try. I accidentally got the second book first (I believe the audio versions of #1 and #2 had the same publication date) and was immediately captured, if a little confused. I decided this was something that had to be read, not listened to. Oer the course of the next two weeks, I read all six existing Harry Potter books. All were from the library, so this two weeks includes time for copies to travel within the reserve system. None of them took me longer than 3 days to read. Most in under 48 hours, and a couple in under 12 hours.

When #7 was set to be released, I was as excited as any teen. My library had a copy on order, and i was able to reserve it well in advance. I don't know how many people were in line, but I believe I got it within a week. I zipped through the first hundred pages or so, then stopped. I think I was busy with work and school, and there was probably a degree to which I didn't want it to be over. I often find myself going slowly through long-anticipated books, or setting them aside to make them last longer.

But. It was a highly requested copy, and my conscience wouldn't let me hang onto it for too long. After a week of languishing, I sat down on a Sunday and blew through the final 600 pages in less than 10 hours. I have never before or since achieved that kind of pace, but it was captivated, and amazing culmination. I was sad the series was over, but I was happy.

The stuff in Anelli's book is way outide my zone. Like me, she didn't get into the books until later, but she went all the way, getting into online discussions, and evolving Harry basically into her full time job. I do have to say the phenomena of "Wizard Rock" is about the weirdest bit of info I've seen. I read a piece on it in the USA Today a while back, and Melissa Anelli goes into much greater detail, since she toured with "Harry and the Potters" at points. I had to listen to some of the groups she mentioned on YouTube. It's a laugh, but I have to say the music isn't that great. I think "Draco and the Malfoys" is the best, actually. "My Dad is Rich" and "99 Death Eaters" are both hilarious.

Karin Slaughter

2009-06-13T10:24:00.001-07:00

It does occur to me that I haven't even done a single post concerning one of my favorite new authors so far this year: Karin Slaughter. Aside from having a neat name for a mystery/thriller writer (assuming it's real) her books are great! Not happy, no, but very intense and captivating. The issues are tough, and hard to take sometimes, but the writing and stories are excellent. Here's a little overview...might have some spoilers.

I first heard of Karin Slaughter when I got her novel Triptych as a freebie. I wasn't sure I wanetd to read it, and decided to listen to one of her unrelated audiobooks first. My library had the first of her other series, Blindsighted, so I picked that up...and noticed another audiobook called Martin Misunderstood there as well. I can't say it looked interesting, but I saw it was read by Wayne Knight, who played one of my favorite movie characters of all time: Dennis Nedry in Jurassic Park.

So I ended up listening to Martin Misunderstood first. I am not sure this was a good idea. It was kind of lame and depressing in my opinion. Ironic and convoluted, but not a stellar novella, as far as I'm concerned. Still I decided to listed to Blindsighted.

And I was blown away. As I said, some of this content was very hard to take. This one deals with the invstigation of the brutal rape and murder of a woman that goes back to the similar assault that the county coroner, Sarah Linton, had survived years past. Sometimes I just felt like giving up on the book, and other times I was so horrifically fascinated I couldn't wait to see what was next.

In the end, I decided to listen to the next book in the series, Kisscut. It was worse. It dealt with child porn, and rings of pedophiles, and children so caught up and controlled by adults, they think they have no choice but to do as they are told. Of course, right at the beginning, the police chief, Jeffery Tolliver, shoots a 13-year-old girl, and it never makes it clear that this was necessary...and it haunts him later.

I don't want to sound trite and stupid, but part of me is relieved by these books. I am not in any way aroused by the descriptions of rape or child molestation...and believe me, they can get graphic. There may be many things wrong with me, but it does not extend to cruelty and domination.

Right. By then I was hooked, and had to actually read the next book, A Faint Cold Fear, which features some odd murders, and Sarah Linton's sister, Tessa, is attacked losing her unborn child. It deals a lot with Lena, the sister of the woman murdered in the first book, too. She goes from being a police detective to an alcoholic college security guard, and falls in with a supposedly reformed...but still nasty...white supremecist. The interesting thing, stylistically, is that Karin Slaughter brings back a character form the first book as the villain, though previously he'd been discounted as a harmless nerd. It was very unexpected, but I thought it worked well plotwise.

Next up was Indelible, a good part of which was flashbacks to Jeffery and Sarah's early relatonship. It was written in a different way, but I thought it was excellent...and the way the end unexpectedly tied the past and present together was very good.

The 5th was Faithless which went back to some of the more brutal and horrific things dealing with children...some of which are done in the name of religion. The one guy who really thinks he is doing God's will by burying a child alive is almost worse than the vicious, careless, killers elsewhere. Part of it also talks about domestic abuse in various relationships. Lena is back on the force as a detective, but can't bring herself to do anything about being abused by Nazi-boy, and one woman willingly takes beatings because she is afraid to lose her husband's "support." Makes me sick, and more so because it really happens.

That's all I've read of the Grant County series, but in the meantime I also listened to Triptych on CD instead of reading the copy I have. It's kind of a more urban parallel to the Grant County series, with one minor character (Amanda Wagner of the GBI) common to both. Anyway, it deals with a nasty serial rapist/killer, but is more the story is the innocent man who was framed for the first of the murders and spent 20 years in prison for it. It's a good story, though like most, not entirely pleasant.

I've had to take a semi-break from Karin Slaughter and read a few lighter books...and to my mind, almost anything is lighter. Most murder mysteries, or even horror books are not as detailed and realisic. At least not to me. Still, I have great respect for her writing, and I plan to finish the 6th Grant County book, Beyond Reach as well as the sequel to Triptych, Fractured, before too long. Fractured seems to be more focused on the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) agent Will Trent...he was featured prominently in the first book, but I wouldn't have said he was the main character. Beyond Reach is about Lena's problems coming to a head...I'll be interested to see where each goes.

It's been a while...

2009-06-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to do some updates, but it seems like everything I read is part of a series, and I'm not sure what to say with the next book coming right up.

One stand-alone novel I recently read was The War of the Flowers by Tad Williams. I'd been in a bit of a reading slump, and sort of picked this one up just to see what Williams was like. It was long (828 pages) but I figured I could just take it slow.

And I ended up blazing through it in a week, which for me is very fast. As long as it was, I almost wanted more. I loved the modern setting, and how it transitioned into the faerie world. I thought the characters were great, and the plot very well done. I have never read much of faery lore, so I might have been missing a few things with the different creatures, but it didn't seem to matter with the detailed (and humorous) descriptions.

The story had a great ending, but the end was just a beginning...I think this would make a great series, though so far as I know there are no plans to do so.

Anyway, I liked it so much, I made my Twitter name @clovereffect.

Exercise

2009-04-14T17:56:00.000-07:00

I said in my earlier post I have been in sort of a reading slump...one reason is actually a good one, as I've gotten back into running more seriously, and have a little less time for reading.

I first started running with the high school track team in 1998. I wasn't very good, but the team didn't cut anybody, and I accidentally fell in love with running. To be honest, I never cared much about the meets...long grueling days for me to spend a couple of minutes getting my butt kicked in the 800. But practice? That was something else. At first I could barely run a mile, but as time passed, I could keep going and going...I felt like the whole city was mine, and I could roam as I pleased.

I confess that since high school I dropped off. I've been on and off with running, and in the 'off' periods I've let myself get way out of shape. Earlier this year I weighed in at 217.8 lbs. I can hardly believe it, and it's just my own laziness to blame...but somehow, I am still drawn to pounding the pavement.

Lately, I've gotten back into it. I really hope I can keep with it this time. I have a lot of friends online at runnersworld.com to support me, and I've signed up for a multitude of road races to keep myself amused. And, as a reader, I turn to books as well:

Another recent book I finished is 50/50 by Dean Karnazes, which is about his running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. Pretty crazy, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed. I liked his comments about the various races and people he met...but it seemed like on every page he went into little side tracks and gave lessons on running. Don't get me wrong, this is good information, but it's the kind of thing a newbie runner will hopefully learn before getting into a serious running program. Maybe I take some of this stuff for granted...I had some good coaches as a teenage knucklehead, and have read dozens of running books over the years. I just thought this book's format was odd...and nothing compared to his first book.

Yes, in 2006 I read Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes. It really made me aware of the world of ultrarunning. It told of his getting into serious running, with a lot of detail on his first 100 mile race, and then about some of his other extreme events...like the Badwater ultra (135 miles through Death Valley) and his marathon at the South Pole, and also his first 200 mile solo run. It was about his experience, and for someone like me it was amazing. I just expected the second book to be more like that, and while 50/50 was OK, I can't claim it wasn't a bit of a letdown.

Stay tuned for more running books...I am currently reading Haruki Murakami's memoir on writing and running, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and Personal Record by Rachel Toor (another ultrarunner). Good stuff!

Lazy Days...

2009-04-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

In February, I had an astounding reading month for me. Even without taking into account the short month, I still easily broke my "record" for pages read in a month. It was neat, but there is probably a price to pay in burnout. March started a sort of reading slump, and I guess I'm not out of it yet. Don't get me wrong, I still love my books, I just haven't been able to keep up the same pace.

But...I have finished a few books and should try to do a couple of updates. I happen to know I've been keeping one person on PBS waiting for a review...sorry!

Right. The book in question is Undone by Rachel Caine. I read the first two of her weather warden books, and thought they were very good. Fast-paced and all that. But I've had too much to get to and still haven't finished the third book. I knew from the brief descrption that Undone was related to the WW books, but not how closely. Some of the same characters show up, and I can tell a number of things have happened in the WW series that I haven't read yet...so in some ways it was a spoiler fr me.

On the other hand, this doesn't bother me at all. Aside from a few side issues, Undone stands alone, and the story feels completely separate...albeit in the same world of wardens and djinn. I am the kind of clown that gets a whole series in advance and reads all the back covers, so I constantly blow some of the secrets for me. The writing itself is the most important aspect of a book, so spoilers have never really been a big deal.

I can't tell where this series is going, but it raises huge issues for humanity that (to me) seem hard to deal with in the context of a short novel. It also has a super-cliffhanger ending, so there obviously has to be more. I liked the book, but I was definitely left a little puzzled.

The characters? Cassiel the djinn turned human is the 1st person narrator. She's got a tough time figuring out the human way of looking at thing...frighteningly so at times. Luis the warden seems a little shallow, but maybe that's because you see him through Cassiel's not quite human eyes.

I am looking forward to the next installment, but I plan to read the rest of the WW books before then.

Para-updates again

2009-03-21T21:51:00.000-07:00

I recently finished two books in ongoing paranormal series, The Killing Dance by Laurell K. Hamilton and Club Dead by Charlaine Harris.

The Killing Dance is the 6th Anita Blake book, so Hamilton is now tied with Piers Anthony for 18th place on my all-time reading list, not counting Shakespeare's plays. Yeah, I'm goofy with lists like that. I suppose with that tease I might as well put down the rest of my top authors:

1) Orson Scott Card - 44 books
2) Robert A. Heinlein - 37
3) Joe Haldeman - 25
4) Michael Crichton - 18
4) Poul Anderson - 18
6) Timothy Zahn - 14
6) Isaac Asimov - 14
8) Patrick F. McManus - 13
9) Robert Jordan - 12
9) Tanya Huff - 12
11) Madeleine L'Engle - 8
11)Robert K. Tanenbaum - 8
13) Dave Barry - 7
13) Greg Bear - 7
13) Roger Zelazny - 7
13) J.K. Rowling - 7
13) Kurt Vonnegut - 7
18) Piers Anthony - 6
18) Laurell K. Hamilton - 6
20) Stephen King - 5
20) Jerry Ahern - 5
20) S.L. Viehl - 5

Also of interest...well, to me, anyway, is what percentage of an authors complete work I have read. I've read nearly all of the first four, but Poul Anderson wrote more than 200 books! I've barely scratched the surface there. Asimov is even worse, though if we discount nonfiction, it's not really close.

Further down, I own almost all of Tanya Huff's books, so she'll make a jump on the overall list, as will LKH and some of the others. It's not looking good for Stephen King and Piers Anthony. I've given both more than a fair chance, I think, but I don't like them enough to plow through the rest of their works.

But that's aside from the point. Getting back to The Killing Dance, I was really surprised by how things shook down, especially with Anita's relationship(s) with Jean-Claude and Richard. I guess I have no comment, but having a little bit of a resolution is somewhat of a relief.

I did note a couple of quotes I wanted to bring in:

Page 174: "I'd never met coffee that wasn't wonderful. It was just a matter of how wonderful it was."

Ah, so true. One more reason to love Anita! I hear people complain about 'bad coffee' from time to time, but I just shrug. All coffee can't be Sumatran pea bean, or whatever, but all coffee is wonderful :-p

Next up... page 217, speaking of Jean-Claude: "He'd Struck Jason down like a dog he didn't much like. And he was so beautiful, it made my chest ache."

This is one problem I have with the story. Sorry, but I will never like any character who can be casually cruel, or understand anyone who can love a cruel person. Those two sentences, juxtaposed, highlight my feelings in the real world.

Enough of Anita. She is easier to write about, but I also finished Club Dead by Charlaine Harris, #3 in the Sookie series. This one was pretty interesting, though definitely painful at points. Sookie is confused about her relationship with Bill, and as a first person story, the reader can share in her confusion, leaving you to wonder what's going on. I still am.

Eric reminds me of Jean-Claude. Powerful handsome, and evil.

No, I will not flinch from using that word. Some things are wrong, cultural relativism is BS.

Audiobooks

2009-03-21T21:42:00.000-07:00

I finished listening to B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton. I liked it a little better than her first book, I think. I was really surprised with this one, and I thought the plot was twisted nicely. Also, it was easier without Kinsey getting involved with a man like the first one. No offense to Grafton, I didn't think her romance was very convincing in the first book.

Again, I was a little irritated with the reader...perhaps a little more so because she proved she can do male voices without them sounding like morons...yep, the way she pitched the voice of the gay character, Wim, sounded far more natural than the rest of the 'manly' men, probably because she used a more feminine pitch. To me this makes it seem like she's trying too hard the rest of the time.

Just grinds my gears a bit.

I am now listening to The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami (if I spelled it right). It's really weird, but somehow compels me to keep listening.

Oh, and another gripe about audiobook style...this one doesn't indicate when a particular CD has ended. The CD player in my car will automatically loop the CD's, and with the clock display on, I don't notice right away. They could at least say "end of disc X" like most publishers do.

The Plutonium Blonde

2009-03-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

I finished my twenty-second book of the year last night, The Plutonium Blonde by John Zakour and Lawrence Ganem. This is the first in a series, which it looks like I am going to thoroughly enjoy.

The main character is the 'last' private detective on an Earth of the future (2057, though the technology is more extreme than I expect we'll really see by then). He's supposed to be an old fashioned kind of private-eye like Sam Spade or Columbo...but only in his attitudes. He's high tech and aided by a supercomputer and a psi-powered secretary.

The content is humorous. Slapstick at times, and intentionally corny. It works well, and it's hilarious, at least to me. Even the names are good. The main character is Zachary Nixon Johnson. Zach Johnson is pretty obviously close to the author John Zakour's name reversed. I didn't get the middle name until I came across the line by another character "You're that Nixon dick." Then I laughed.

With all the humor and outlandish sci-fi, Zach's character is great. His desire to do right and 'save the world' is genuine, and he is loyal and loving to his girlfriend, Electra. I like the fact that he's already in a serious relationship...I get a little sick of the Bond-girl love 'em and leave 'em. Here there's a strong woman partner...mostly in the background, but you don't have to wonder who Zach's sleeping with next.

Jim Butcher and Charlaine Harris update

2009-03-06T10:46:00.000-08:00

Recently, I've finished the second book of Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series, Living Dead in Dallas as well as the third book of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, Grave Peril.

I am noticing that it's hard for me to comment on series books sometimes. Living Dead in Dallas was a continuation and I couldn't think of much new to comment about. I like Sookie's character, and the unique setting...but I mentioned most of that before. This book was a good story, and it's interesting how more supernatural beings are brought into play, but that's about all I can say there.

With Grave Peril I guess there's a little more. I think the way the story is revealed is brilliant. It's first person, but you don't get as deep a reading, since there's thing Harry doesn't want to tell himself. Therefore his history and emotions are revealed slowly, a little peep at a time. This third book is more intense in that area with his involvement with Susan, and a few other things. Good stuff, but again I feel like Harry's character has been painted by now, so I have to make do with some vague thoughts.

Enchantment Place

2009-03-04T18:05:00.000-08:00

As I've mentioned before, I am in the midst of a long project collecting the entire 1,466 and counting books published by DAW. One of their unique features is their anthologies. There's usually one a month on some theme...with all original stories.

Today I finished an excellent one: Enchantment Place edited by Denise Little. The stories all revolve around the supernatural mall in Chicago called Enchantment place. Some of them overlap so well I don't see how it could have been pulled off without collaboration. There must have been some serious background setup done prior to the writing, or something.

Anyway, here are the stories and a few of m thoughts on them:

Shining On by Mary Jo Putney - About a combat veteran taking on the 'shoeshine' job at the mall. Very good for kicking off the collection, since it's told from the point of view of a guy with no experience in the supernatural world. A little action, and even some romance with the coffee shop girl tossed in. All in all very good.

The Face is Familiar by Esther M. Friesner - a funny, whimsical story about a girl accidentally bonding with a hamster familiar...who happens to be the most powerful familiar of all. Well done.

Heart's Fire by Sarah A. Hoyt - About a nonmagical girl having to track down a stolen jewel...and finding both her magic and her love. Maybe it sounds trite, but not a bad story.

The Devil You Know by Susan Sizemore - also includes a 'mundane' person who truly isn't dealing with prejudice and family issues. Interesting.

Altar Ego by Jody Lynn Nye- A woman who runs a coven-supply shop has to shield her magical merchandise, but the magic builds up and causes mysterious disappearances...weird, but kind of a cute story.

Fire and Sweet Music by Diane A.S. Stuckart - Maybe the most serious story, to my mind, where awoman must create a perfume to lure souls to hell, or be damned herself. Of course you know she'll have to do the right thing, but it paints an ugly picture of hell, and the idea that you can be damned on a technicality. Not cheery.

Make-A-Mortal by Pamela Luzier - The big friendly werebear, Ted, runs a shop that sells lifesize fuzzy human ("mortal") dolls to kids. Pretty funny.

Fang Fest by Laura Resnick - A girl accidentally makes a Vampire mobster's money-laundering shop successful, drawing attention to it and getting into trouble. Leaves you hanging, but a very good story.

Mirror, Mirror by Phaedra M. Weldon - Another kind of serious story...a mystery involving vampires and fae. Reminds me of Tanya Huff's Vicki Nelson, stylistically. Good story, though I didn't really get how the mirrors worked :(

Think Small by Melanie Fletcher - About a girl with a magic dollhouse, on the surface, but kind of a touching life-lesson story.

Cupid's Crib by Christina F. York - This one I thought was kind of dumb, featuring Cupid as a jaded shop owner who doesn't believe in true love anymore.

Witch Stitchery by Deb Stover - A witch seamstress makes prom dresses these days, though ten ears previously missed her own prom because her werebear date transformed with the full moon...and yep, the date is Ted from the Make-A-Mortal story. This seems to be a collaboration. Either that or there were character sketches ahead of time. Anyway, the seamstress has to save a girl fromt he pixies, and in the process reconnects with her love...a good story.

Answers by Elizabeth A. Vaughan - This story didn't seem to fit. It has a witch who gives 'answers' but the setting doesn't appear to be Enchantment Place. Maybe I'm missing something. It's a touching and sort of painful story.

Steel Crazy by Laura Hayden - A powerful wizard who owns a weapons shop in the mall has the Excalibur stolen and must recover it before its power causes a disaster. Weird ending.

Out of the Frying Pan by Diane Duane and ...And Into the Fire by Peter Moorwood - The two stories are really one continued, written by the husband and wife team. Unfortunately (for me) I didn't care for them that much. It's about culinary magical arts. The premise was OK, but the stories, especialy the second, weren't stellar in my book.

The Poop Thief by Kristin Kathryn Rusch - Another rather whimsical story which almost just seems like an excuse for saying 'poop' several dozen times...anyway, the poop of magical creatures has magical properties, and when it goes missing the woman who runs the familar shop must investigate...and gain her own familiar as well.

Blade Dancer - Viehl, take 5

2009-02-25T18:53:00.000-08:00

My favorite new author for 2009 so far is S.L. Viehl. I read the first Stardoc book to kick off the new year, and ead the next three in short order. Well, in mid January (while still on #2 or #3) I ordered the 5th from the system.

It never got here :-( I waited the 26 days, and PBS declared it lost in the mail, and it went back to my wish list. By then I was going through withdrawal. I'd finished #4 (and the best so far, too) two weeks previously, and had been itching to start #5 that whole time. I even went to the bookstore, and was so disappointed not to find it the clerk probably thought I wanted to strangle her.

Recently I got a semi-reprieve. I got S.L. Viehl's independent novel, Blade Dancer and read through it very quickly. It is not partof the Stardoc series, but is set in the same universe, and mentions some of the same events. In short, it was very good, and with the first few pages, I felt like I'd just gotten my fix.

Not that I know what a fix is like...just an expression! I mean it!!!

So. I loved the book. t came from a totally different perspective. Having read the Stardoc books, you see the Jorenians from a dfferent angle, and it is a little disturbing, until the resolution later. The academy training is unique and interesting, and the outcome surprising. There are some neat layers to the plot, and the story has much of the same emotional tension I have learned to enjoy in S.L. Viehl's writing. I think Jory Rask would make a great cental character for another series...but what do I know.

Oh, and just today...I got #5!!! Eternity Row was offered to me again, and this time it got here in two days. I can breathe again! That was the last one, so I can read the final three at my leisure, then wait for #9 to come out in August.

A is for Audiobook

2009-02-25T18:22:00.000-08:00

I have been listening to audiobooks in the car regularly now, and finished up A is for Alibi by Sue Grafton. For some background, when I was a lowly freshman at Union College in 2000-2001, I worked for Campus Safety (does that sound nicer than "police" or "security"? Whatever). I was a Student Escort, meaning I sat on my fat rear end (actually not as fat back then, come to think of it) and if anyone wasn't comfortable walking between buildings in the dark, I could walk with them, and had a radio to contact the regular campus cops if need be.

Anyway, I did this just a few hours a week...I think six hours on Wednesday nights in the library was my regular shift, ending at 1:00 AM. I only ever escorted a couple of people. I imagine it takes some swallowing of pride to ask some strange and dorky-looking kid to walk with them, though it proabably wouldn't have been a bad idea in crime-ridden Schenectady. I routinely saw guys I wouldn't want to be caught alone with cutting through campus.

Right. Getting off topic. When I wasn't actually escorting someone...meaning almost all the time...I could do homework or read at my own little assigned desk in the library. I often got bored, and would check out the nearby "new releases" section, and out of sheer boredom would sometimes read slections indiscriminately. I remember reading Enchantment by Orson Scott Card, who was already one of my favorite authors. I also read a couple of oddball thrillers...one where some white supremecists tried to introduce a bioweapon into a federal building in McVeigh-like fashion. Another was a truly weird story of an older guy getting his brain transplanted into his younger clone, bred for that purpose. Also, I read N is for Noose by Sue Grafton. It was an OK story, I thought, and only later discovered it was part of a long series. I've often thought of going back and reading the rest, but never really wanted to devote the time. My current answer is to get caught up with audiobooks.

So, I listened. (Might be a spoiler coming). Overall, I enjoyed the story. The investigative aspect is pretty good, but I can't say I like the "sleeping with the bad guy' thing. I never have. In James Bond movies, you know he's going to sleep with at least one girl who turns out to be a bad guy-girl. Too flat of a plot device for my taste, and degrades 'love' to animal desire. Yeah, yeah, I'm a naive romantic. Get over it. Anyway, it didnt ruin A is for Alibi but I thought it was a little depressing. The worst part for me was the reader. She gave Kinsey the most snide and irritating voice ever. Am I supposed to think she's a jerk? Also, she could not do male voices at all. Like she was trying too hard, and it came out like someone had said "imitate a really dumb guy who sounds like a pompus ass." Maybe it's just me, but the voice itself was so weird I could hardly concentrate on what was being said.

I have B is for Burglar on CD coming. I kind of hope it isn;t the same reader, but even so, I want to know what happens.

Dead Until Dark

2009-02-19T17:07:00.000-08:00

I just finished Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris - the first book of the Southern Vampire series. This book had a different tone than any other vampire novel I've read. I had a hard time putting my finger on exactly what until I read a quote from page 106, where Bill says this to Sookie:

"Just when I think you're too naive to walk around alone, you say something shrewd."

That's how Sookie is. Much of the story seems simplistic...told from the viewpint of a rather innocent and provincial girl...then you get flashes of insight. Sookie is really quite intelligent and complex. I love the way it's written. Beyond that it's also a neat vampire story (and I'm a sucker for all of them, really) and contains a well thought out murder mystery. I have the next couple of books in the series coming, and I'm looking forward to them.

Fantasy...am I the right kind of sinner?

2009-02-16T15:56:00.000-08:00

Besides my perverse love of '80's music, I just finished reading Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey, to kick off the lengthy Valdemar series. I really haven't read a lot of traditional fantasy, comparatively speaking. I guess it was part of my early life, as I remember being read the Narnia Chronicles as a youngster, and also some Tolkien later. In recent years, I've read the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan and the Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin, and a few books from crossover authors like Orson Scott Card and Poul Anderson, but that's about it.

Last year I started reading quite a bit of paranormal and urban fantasy, but I can't say I thought I'd really like Arrows of the Queen. I just picked it up on a whim just before bed, and read a little. It did seem good. Then I decided I couldn't sleep, and blew through another hundred pages in short order. I finished it the next night, and I loved it. I am not sure I can quantify why...I often have a hard time identifying with young female characters, and I'm not sure what sets this book apart, but I think good writing is good writing across genre lines. I am looking forward to the rest of the series.

Mirrors

2009-02-15T18:42:00.000-08:00

I don't watch that many movies, but today I rented Mirrors from Redbox, which creates an odd dovetail to my comments. My previous job for four and a half years was as a security guard at the headquarters of a New England supermarket chain. When Redbox came out, we got one of the first models in the office to test before it went in the stores.

Anyway, I used to work 2nd shift security, and make my rounds all alone in the dark building. Mirrors features an ex cop who is taking a job in security, and has to make nighttime rounds in a dark burned out building...some of that I could relate to. I am not afraid of the dark by any means...in fact I like it. When I used to do my night rounds in the darkened building, I felt like it was my own empire...but in Mirrors the creepiness is something else. the camera shots using mirrors are pretty clever throughout, if not entirely original, but what makes the burnt building creepy is more the mannequins. Yes, when making rounds, I have the say the easiest way to be startled is to see an apparently human form unexpectedly. For some unknown reason, our office had a couple of large Green Giant (as in the canned food) dolls, and jumoed just seeing them unexpectedly. I can only imagine wandering a building full of human forms...shadowy...surreal...looking at every one to make sure THAT one;s not an intruder. Oh, yeah, my heart rate would be up there :-o

I have to say I kind of like the idea of mirrors as windows to alternate worlds. It has been done many times. The premise of this movie isn't truly original, but it's good. I am reminded of one of my favorite author's stories: The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag, where the world as we see it is merely a painted on canvas, and mirrors lead to...something beyond. That story is at least as creepy as Mirrors. But Kiefer Sutherland does a good job. am not a big horror guy, so the acting and cinematography have to be decent for me to get into it. Even though the reason for the mirror craziness wasn't explained that well, it was enjoyable...film has its limits. I definitely liked the ending.

Heat Stroke, audio books

2009-02-13T18:39:00.000-08:00

I've been lighting it up with the paranormal lately. I'll have more coming, but for now I've just finished my 14th book of the year and 6th for February, Heat Stroke by Rachel Caine. This is the second book of the Weather Warden series. I though the book started out very slowly...Joanne's "learning to be a Djinn" stuff was a big yawn for me, and seemed to take forever for any kind of plot to form. On the other hand, onece things got rolling, the sory picked up, and I thought the ending was great. I am really looking forward to #3.

Also today I finished listening to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I listened to in only in the car, mainly while I was doing my courier runs for work. I have never been a huge fan of listening to books. It seems too passive, like watching TV. Plus, in the car, my attention is constantly being diverted by my surroundings...sure, I hear the words, but I don't have the same attention level as with a book. Because of that, I don't take audio books as seriously, and only listed to stuff that a) I have already read or b) have no intention of ever sitting down to read. But...I am glad I listened to this one. The Historian was long...26 hours worth...and I have to admit I was bored at times with what seemed to be a snail-like plot pace, but hey...I was stuck in the car anyway. Might as well finish the book. I did. I think the slow parts would have made me give up if I was sitting down and reading, but because I was a captive audience in the car, I got through that and overall I thought the book was fascinating and well conceived. More serious than the paranormal I read, slower, but more thorough and detailed. Like a historian's work. Ha!

Classic dystopia and nursery boggles

2009-02-11T10:47:00.000-08:00

Ah, what a reading list I have! I just finished two widely different books: A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Bloody Bones by Laurell K. Hamilton

The first has been on my list of things I wante dto get to for quite some time...just recently I snagged a beat-up copy (3rd printing, in fact) at the local library $0.10 sale, so I could read it at my leisure. I do think it is well written, and is a classic dystopian novel in the vein of 1984 - a social warning, I guess.

For me, the linguistic aspect may be the most interesting part. A lot of Slavic-derived words, that become clear in context, even without any familiarity with the roots. Other words I did recognize as more Latin/Romace in origin. In any case it was fascinating. The funny part is that the "Nadsat" talk was attributed to Russian propaganda among the youth, while the government in place resembles more of a Rosy Red socialist empire than a good Western capitalism. Intentional, I presume. Ah, Cold War literature can be fun.

Right. I moved from a classic novel of civil dystopia to an alternate history involving vampires, werewolves, and faeries. Bloody Bones is the fifth in Hamilton's Anita Blake series. I keep hearing this series goes down the tubes later, but so far it's holding my attention...in fact I think as far as writing style and concept, this is the best book yet. It starts out with a dull client meeting, then the cops call...and it's nonstop action. Most books that take place in a short span, in my opinion, seem to have too much detail. "Joe walked into the next room and examined the butterly patterned curtains..." type of thing. This one kept things moving, and I appreciated it.

Again, Anita Blake can be a violent and dark character, but is human and understandable for all of that. Jean-Claude was portrayed in a much different light in this book, and I thought it was a good shift...previously I've seen him as nothing but cruel and evil. He isn't so bad in this book, and I at least didn't keep wishing Anita would hurry up and kill him already :-p

On to book #6...

Software...identity and humanity

2009-02-07T19:34:00.000-08:00

After hearing so much about Neuromancer and how it spawned the whole cyberpunk subgenre, it interests me to see that one of the more respected cyberpunk authors, Rudy Rucker, predates Gibson. I just finished his book Software which was published in 1982, and expanded from earlier work in 1981.

Anyway, that's just date nerd-ism. I liked the book quite a bit. It was very short at 167 pages, but it raised plenty of interesting questions. So, if all the contents of your brain can be recorded (but the brain is destroyed in the process) and placed in a robot so that it has the same memories and responses, is it "you." Do you die? This reminds me of some other works that asks and does not answer the same questions. Notably the Arnold Shwarzeneggar movie The Sixth Day where clones have the same memories as the original. Immortality? Yeah, but you still die. There is also the older and more obscure novel by James Blish, The Star Dwellers. Almost casually it mentions their version of teleportation destroys the original person and creates an exact copy at the other end. What??? Is it still "you" if you die? I can't see it.

There is also the question of what is a person. The distinction between cybernetics and a human self are blurred. The robots think for themselves, duplicate themselves, and even enjoy sensual pleasures in "conjugation" so much like sex. Can one say the robot "boppers" are not people too?

Yeah, it's all theoretical, but this is what I like about science fiction. You can talk about big issues like that, and others...responsibility with developing technology, and even religion is touched on. I understand how some people look down on SF as escapist junk. To my mind it is considerably more socially conscious than most literature.

What? Was that Oprah asking my opinion for her next book club pick? :-p

Guess not...

Fool Moon...and size does matter

2009-02-05T17:13:00.000-08:00

I finally finished the second book of the Dresden Files, Fool Moon by Jim Butcher. I started it way back in November, but never got around to fnishing it, as I shall expound on momentarily.

The story itself was pretty good, though definitely a little darker than I remember Storm Front being. Even so, I loved it. The first-person style is perfect, and the details on werewolves are better than I remember reading anywhere else. Harry's own relationship is prety complicated, and I'm definitely curious as to where it goes Susan seems to be his girlfriend, so why does his subconscious say to ask Murphy out?

So, if I liked it why did it take me 3 months to read? OK, I picked up Storm Front from the library and ripped through it in a few days. I decided I wanted to get the whole series, and someone pointed out that I could get the hardcover omnibus editions pretty cheap. I did so, but it was a mistake. I started reading Fool Moon in the first of these. Good story, but the actual book (three novels in one) was too bulky to haul around easily. I read a lot in short snatches, and like to carry a book around everywhere...with MMPB's. I can carry them in my inside jacket pocket at work and pop it out and read a page here and there. The big hardcover I could really only read when I had time to sit down, so it kept getting pushed to the side, and almost forgotten. Until now. I gave up on the hardovers. I got the paperback version of Fool Moon from the library, and finished it in a couple of days. Portability is key. With books, size matters...

Shockball

2009-02-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

I thought I was going to take a break from the Stardoc series...but I had the fourth book, Shockball, just sitting there...I picked it up and read a few pages. Good stuff. Next day was Sunday, and I read almost 300 pages, and finished on Monday. One of my fastest reads in a while!

OK, this one might have to have some spoilers to say anything meaningful. #3 revolved around slavery and torture, and as I said, I found some of that hard to take. Switch to #4...slavery and torture, but instead of giant monstrous lizards, you have Dr. Joseph Grey Veil. A Human. One of us. The juxtaposition makes the second scenario worse.

This book, back on Earth is interesting. Reading through the series, one already knows the terran attitude about aliens, but the hateful attitude, and Cherijo's status as nonsenient property make it seem like the most alien environment so far. I'm not bright enough or brave enough to try any soul-searching on the implied racial and tolerance issues, but it does make you think.

Also, this book had the best ending of any yet!

Endurance

2009-01-31T19:37:00.000-08:00

I finished an eighth and final book for January this evening...Endurance by S.L. Viehl, the third installment of the Stardoc series. This was the hardest to read. I said before that the others are psychologically intense. This book is on a different level. Some parts are hard to take...but it does move fast, and I felt like I couldn't put the book down. I really like how the book ends, though I admit I spoiled part of it for myself...on purpose. I got the fourth book in the mail and ganced at the back. Not a big deal, but it confirmed one of my suspicions about the series, and it was kind of a relief to know Cheijo would get out of the current circumstances. The title of the book is fitting. Endurance for the character, and for the reader :-p

Zanna's gift, Orson Scott Card, and "most read" authors

2009-01-31T11:28:00.000-08:00

Today I got Zanna's Gift from the library and read it in a few hours. It is a very short book, a sad and touching story. It was written by Orson Scott Card under the pen name Scott Richards. It is unlike Card's other work in that there is no fantasy or supernatural element, but I could easily recognize his writing style and the way his characters interact. I enjoyed it very much, and it made me miss things from when my own family was closer. I believe some of the details of this story were autobiographical, which made it more poignant. This is definitely not the sort of thing I usually read, but looked it up because I read all of Card's books, and I'm glad I did.

With this, I have read 44 books by Orson Scott Card, more than I've read by anyone else. I suppose I got to it a little late, but my 12th grade English teacher...a truly amazing educator named Mr. Bennett...gave me Ender's Game. From there I looked up all books by Orson Scott Card I could find. I know I worked through the Alvin Maker stories and the Homecoming books, as well as the Women of Genesis books after my mother read Sarah. The independant books might be my favorite. I loved Homebody and Lost Boys (also patly autobiographical). I remember reading Enchantment as a college freshman since it was in the new release section. I also got my own copy of that and Treasure Box at a time when I was a lonely kid, in my own apartment for the first time with no TV :-p

I finally got to meet Mr. Card when he gave a lecture at my college a few years ago. It was over the summer and I discovered it mostly by accident checking out something else on the site...but there he was, giving a talk at (strangely enough) a conference on dreaming. I have to confess I thought the conferencees were a bunch of loony toons. Guys in long robes, and people hawking crystals and pillows to help you dream more powerfully...weird. But Mr. Card gave a lecture on the use of dreams in literature. It was over an hour long, and in a stifling hot auditorium...but I was riveted. He is a great lecturer, and if you get a chance I highly recommend getting out to listen to him.

After the talk, he was signing autographs. Having recently discovered I loved writing fiction, I got copies of his books Character and Vewpoint and How to Write Sciece Fiction and Fantasy. When I brought them up to be signed, he asked if I was a writer, and from there gave me some great advice. I was impressed he took the time to do that in a busy line with his limo waiting outside :-p But it's the kind of thing that makes him a memorable person, not just a great writer.

Anyway, I keep a tally of my "most read" authors. Here are the ones I've read at least 10 by:

Orson Scott Card - 44
Robert A. Henlein - 37
Joe Haldeman - 25
Michael Crichton - 18
Poul Anderson - 18
William Shakespeare - 17 plays, plus some poetry
Timothy Zahn - 14
Isaac Asimov - 14
Patrick F. McManus - 13
Robert Jordan - 12
Tanya Huff - 12

Beyond Varallan

2009-01-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I finished the second of S.L. Viehl's Stardoc books, Beyond Varallan. Again, I thought it was excellent.

The story itself is complex and winding...it takes you a lot of places you'd never expect. Things that stood out for me were the confsion regarding feelings and relationships. Since it's written in the first person, the reader shares in Cherijo's confusion rather than observing as an outsider. I like that, though I realize others may not.

I like the mysterious aspect as well. Toward the end it almost felt like a whodunit. I thought I was reading Agatha Christie in space! I mean that in a good way, Cherijo's revealing of the killer is brilliant. There were layers and layers to the story, and just when you think the story is over, with at least a semi-happy ending, the action picks up. A crazy whirlwind.

Yep, I had to pick up the 3rd book the same day to keep myself sane!

Tuesday Teaser/ Ladies and Gentlemen

2009-01-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

I saw this on a couple of blogs I follow and it looked fun:

Tuesday Teaser is hosted by Should Be Reading and asks you to...
1. Grab your current read.
2. Let the book fall open to a random page.
3. Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page. You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
4. Please avoid spoilers!
This weeks teaser:

"Empty sleeve'll work as a temporary patch," Mike grunted. Half a dozen smaller rocks slid free as he worked a hand back and out past his shoulder.

This teaser is from Valor's Trial by Tanya Huff...the fourth (and most recent) of her Confederation series.

Well, ladies and gentlemen...just something I've noticed. It seems like I am reading more books by women authors lately. I don't know if it means anything, but in the past I always thought I didn't relate well to women's writing. I didn't intentionaly avoid them, but all my favorites were men. As an experiment, I looked back in my journal to see what percentage there was of each in any given year:

2005 - 98 books read, 89 written by men, 8 by women, and one male/female collaboration.
2006 - 41 books read, 35 written by men, 6 by women.
2007 - 77 books read, 68 written by men, 3 by women (the rest collections, collaborations or unspecified compilations)
2008 - 40 books read, 20 written by women, 19 by men, 1 collection.
2009 - 6 so far, 5 written by women, 1 by a man

As you can see, the ratio wasn't even close until last year. I don't know why exactly. I got into paranormal, which has more women authors, but it seems like the majority of science fiction I'm reading is also by women. Getting in touch with my feminine side? Ha! I think part of the blame can go to paperbackswap with its high population of gals giving out recommendations, but in the end I just read what looks interesting, ad I honestly don't care who the author is.

Fast cars and giving up on books

2009-01-25T06:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe one aspect I forgot to comment on from Rachel Caine's book Ill Wind - Cars. This could get long and dull, but I love cars. I drive for a living, and while I can only afford a compact, I enjoy the details of the fast and powerful ones. I was intrigued at first when I saw a picture on the cover of an old fastback Mach 1 Mustang. I think those old mustangs are pretty sweet, but I had to roll my eyes at"Mach 1" which was mostly an appearance package. I was pleased to note that there is no mention of a Mach 1 in the book. I believe she has a Boss Mustang...the real performance package. Oh, and it's a gear-grabber. I loath automatic transmissions with a passion, and was very happy to see she rowed her own gears.

Not only that, her comments about Marion's Land Rover had me laughing. Old school Land Rover's were solid off-road vehicles, but somehow they became fat, overpriced gas hogs for yuppies who would never venture off road and would moan at any scratch. I recall chuckling when I read the performance stats for one of the newer models...the thing has a freaking Jaguar engine in it (both owned by Ford, you know, so they share parts) and it still had a slower 0-60 time than the Ford Escort I was then driving. Two words: Weight Penalty.

Then, of course, she gets a Dodge Viper. A true American sports car, and she calls it a throwback...which is wy I like it. As supercars go, I don't really care for the European refinement that takes you away from the feel of driving. You can't even get a three-pedal Ferrari anymore, but the Viper is built with pure sports car in mind.

Right, now that I got that out of my system, I wanted to say something about giving up on books. I've seen a lot of discussion about how long to give a book before ditching it. I, for one, have no set rule at all. I have lately found that books I enjoy grabbed me right from the start. Ill Wind for instance had me turning pages right away, and I breezed through the book. That's the mark of an enjoyable read for me. Recently I gave up on The Keep by F. Paul Wilson, which begins the repairman Jack series. I only gave it 30-some pages, but flipping through it didn't seem like there was going to be much of a change, and I had no desire for a few hundred more pages of Nazi's being haunted by some mysterious menace. On the other hand, I just gave up on Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher, but not until I'dread over 300 pages (of a 500 page book). It started out OK. The writing style was interesting, and I wanted to see what would happen, and I was curious about the furies. And then when the actual plot developed, I found the story dragging. The scenes with Tavi read like a kiddie book, then it switches to Odiana, and it's an X-rated nightmare. And I was bored. I probably hung on longer than usual because when I picked up the first of Butcher's Dresden Files books, I was blown away. I love dit and I loved the style. I recognize nothing of that in this other series. I guess I'll stick with his paranormal and leave the traditional fantasy alone.

Ill Wind

2009-01-24T07:55:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished the first book of Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series, Ill Wind. After being somehwta disappointed by Glass Houses I wanted to see what her other fiction was like, and I was favorably impressed. I finished 300 pages in two days, which for me constitutes a very rapid pace.

A quote from page 37 deails the premise for the series pretty well: "Mother Nature is schizophrenic and homicidal, and the only thing that stands between you and hideous, painful death is a couple thousand people worldwide hanging on by their fingernails. Happy, huh?"

I personally have always liked storms, and intentionally go jogging in the rain frequently. Rachel Caine does an amazing job oftransforming weather ito something evil and menacing. I loved it!

Also interesting for me is the travel across the country and the attending details. I think it's funny that she mentions Albany, NY as a city "The residents wish was bigger, being the Capital and all." I laughed. I am not sure what people in Albany think, but just north here in Saratoga, we think of Albany as a big city, and an irritating menace, with high crime on one hand, and corrupt politicians from the city on the other.

Then, of course, they go to Okahoma. I don't remember much, but I was born in Norman and her takes on it are interesting. As I recall, we had frequent tornado warnings, but none hit us, thankfully.

In any case, I loved the book. It was fast-paced and interesting throughout, and I lked the way she reveals the backstory of her history and the details of why she's on the run slowly. Plus, as usual, I really liked the first person viewpoint. It's still early, but this might be my new favorite paranormal series of '09.

Vampires for all ages

2009-01-23T12:59:00.000-08:00

I have finished two books since my last update: The Lunatic Cafe by Laurell K. Hamilton and Glass Houses by Rachel Caine. The first being the fourth somewhat gory and definitely adult installment of the Anita Blake series, and the latter a young adult vampire book.

I am not going to claim Laurell Hamilton is one of my favorite authors, but again she has a good dtory that kept me interested in continuing the series. It is much more focused on lycanthropes and other shape-shifters than the previous books, and vampires play a somewhat minor role. I don't want to give away any of the plot, but Anita struggles with Richard being not quite human, and the fact that Jean-Claude is still pursuing her amorously.

Now, I have heard time and again from female readers that they love Jean-Claude, the gentlemanly Master Vampire of St. Louis. My take is that he is cruel and evil. Gallant evil is still evil, and I can't stand him. The fact that Anita's character does have feelings for him mystefies me.

Whatever. Edward is my favorite male character. Death shows flashes of humanity. That's all.

Anyway, the second book, Glass Houses was something else entirely. The Lunatic Cafe features plenty of blood and werewolf violence, but Glass Houses is much milder. The premise of the vampires controlling a whole town is interesting, but I didn't care for the story itself that much. I guess I am just nto the target audience. Maybe it's because of what a knucklehead I was at age 16. I can never relate to young prodigy-type characters very well.

But...I found myself zippign through the pages anyway, wanting to know what happened next. Naturally, and I curse Rachel Caine and laugh at myself simultaneously, but the ending is such a cliffhanger...not and ending at all, really...I have to continue to the next book in the series.

The Warriors

2009-01-15T12:54:00.000-08:00

Not much of an update, but I did read the short story "The Warriors" by Larry Niven, which is the original Kzinti story from his known universe. It is short, but I was fascinated by the idea...humans are allegedly peaceful and nonviolent, but when attacked, they must fight the brutally violent Kzinti.

The question is, of course, what is mankind's basic nature? Is any peace at all just a facade, with violence waiting to erupt? A question raised but not answered by the short story.

Neuromancer

2009-01-14T06:53:00.000-08:00

I finished my second book of the year, and one I probably should have read already: Neuromancer by William Gibson. This is the original cyberpunk story, that spawned my favorite subgenre of science fiction. It was cyberpunk in part that mde me want to write.

I was actually introduced to cyberpunk through various short stories, most memorably "Dogwalker" by Orson Scott Card. Only now did I finally get around to reading Neuromancer and I was not disappointed.

It is hard to say much about the the story. The setting is a dark and somewhat dystopian high tech future. It is sometimes hard to follow and truly weird...but wonderful. At points it reminds me of Philip K. Dick's drug-induced altered states of consciousness. The jacking into the computer matrix produces similar otherworldly possibilities, but Neuromancer is its own kind of brilliant strangeness. Let me just say I could not read this with the half-attentive speed I often use with other books. I had to be focused on the page.

It was deep. I loved it.

Stardoc

2009-01-13T13:53:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind, but on 1/5 I finished my first book of the year: Stardoc by S.L. Viehl. It was recommended by someone on paperbackswap.com, but as I recall I picked it up at B&N when I was frustrated by not being ble to find the Jack Vance book I wanted, and didn't want to leave emptyhanded. Yeah, I'm weird like that.

Anyway, Stardoc is a fasinating (to me) mix of classic Space Opera-ish science fiction and medicine. The various alien beings provide plenty of interesting background. How do you treat something with totally different chemistry? Viehl pulled it off well.

Mixed in with the medicine, there is a pretty intense psychological aspect. The story is told in the first person by Cherijo (the doc in Stardoc). I've mentioned several times that this is my favorite style of writing, and here it lends to some pretty deep introspection on Cherijo's part concerning who she is and how she relates to others. Very well done. I have the next two books in the series, but as usual I'm swamed with all kinds of reading.

I guess that's a good thing.

Confederation!

2009-01-01T11:41:00.000-08:00

It took the whole month of December at my slow pace, but last night I finished The Heart of Valor by Tanya Huff. Its the third book of the COnfederation series, and I am not patiently awaiting the 4th book, Valor's Trial. Yes, #4 is already out, but as a DAW book I am waiting for the MMPB to be released in June '09 to match the rest of my DAW collection.

Anyway, I loved the book. The previous books had interesting twists, but this one was even more intricate as it tied things together more firmly, but leaving you guessing until the last few pages. Very well done.

This is the twelfth book I've read by Tanya Huff, and I havent found one I disliked yet. She is definitely my favorite "new for '08" author, and the newest addition to my "10+" list of authors I've read at least ten books by. This is the second fastest I've gotten to the 10th book after Poul Anderson (I read 16 of his books in two months, but they were mostly shorter).

Thus ends 2008. On to the new year!

Slooow reading

2008-12-29T15:08:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, but I did finish two books to report on: The Watchmen and Summon the Keeper.

The Watchmen is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. I have never really read comic books, so it was a different experience for me. The book was pretty interesting...not like traditional superhero stories. I don't have much to compare it to, but I'm glad I took the time to read it. There is a movie forthcoming, which will be interesting to see.

With Summon the Keeper I am back on somewhat familiar ground. This is the eleventh book I've read by Tanya Huff, and I loved it. The idea of the "keepers" holding evil at bay has a lot of potential. I recognized Tanya Huff's style as similar to that of the Blood books, but I'd say Summon the Keeper was a little lighter and more whimsically humorous. I liked it. The characters were a little one-dimensional, but even that (Dean's perfect-ness and Claire's bitchiness) was part of the funny aspect of the book. I look forward to the next in the series.

Circus of the Damned

2008-12-18T17:06:00.000-08:00

I finally finished another book: Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton, the third book in the Anita Blake series.

I liked the story, for many of the same reasons I liked the two previous books...lots of action, and a strong, human character. There did seem to be something of a shift in this book in a coupe of different areas. Number one is the violence. There was quite a bit of it previously, and maybe I'm imagining it, but it seemed to be on a higher level. Previously, there were gory crime scenes...in this one there is more of it happening in the present.

I said of the last book that the ending seemed dark...maye this violence I'm thinking of is a carryover, but I wouldn't call Circus of the Damned dark. Another shift is a softening of Anita in a couple of areas. She shows interest in men for the first time, and also has somewhat changed attitudes about vampires and other creatures.

In any case, I liked the book and I thought the ending was very good. It leaves plenty of open territory for the next book.

Reading Slump and Red Nails

2008-12-06T17:16:00.000-08:00

I have been in a major reading slowdown lately. I am continuing to read The Heart of Valor and Smoke and Ashes by Tanya Huff as well as Circus of the Damned by Laurell K. Hamilton and Ecce and Old Earth by Jack Vance. A little in each and not much in any. Oh, well.

Switching tracks back to fitness a bit...down to 211.6 lbs today. Besides that, I had a big steel bending PR. I bent an IronMind Red Nail (5/16"x7" Cold Rolled Steel) in just IronMind wraps (thin cordura pads) in 13 seconds. I have emailed the company to set up a certification attempt. For the cert, I have to do the bend in one minute in front of a judge. Should be a piece of cake. In the last six years, only fifty people have done the cert.

Fitness

2008-12-03T13:52:00.000-08:00

Yeah, this is mostly a book blog, but I need to post this for myself: today I tried to run, and it ended up being a walk/jog interval covering two miles. My first real activity besides steel bending in a while. It hurt.

Today: 213.2 lbs.

Araminta Station by Jack Vance

2008-12-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

I finally finished Araminta Station by Jack Vance. The briefest comment possible: Waiting for the other shoe to drop. That's how I felt the whole way through this book.

This is the first book I've read by Jack Vance, and the style is different and new to me. It took a very long time for the plot to get moving, and even then kept winding off into various geographical or cultural sidebars. This sounds like a recipe for a slow and boring book, but it was not. All the meanderings were interesting, and were often important to the story.

But you're always waiting for the other shoe to drop. I don't want to give too much away, but this is not a happily ever after story. It is an extremely complex story, with a number of bombshells dropped on the reader, and a nice cliffhaner ending...an ending that would, in fact, drive me crazy if I didn't already have the sequel.

Yes, this is the fisrt of a trilogy called the Cadwal Chronicles. I have #2 - Ecce and Old Earth - ready to go. Jack Vance is one of the old school science fiction writers from way back, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised to find such a complex and thoughtful story. True, he was past seventy when this book came out, and had plenty of time to hone his craft. Now I'll have to dig and see if his older books are as interesting.

What's more amaing is that Mr. Vance is still alive at 92, and as far as I know still writing. It's true what Robert Heinlein said. Writers can't stop writing.

The Laughing Corpse

2008-11-30T19:50:00.000-08:00

I have just finished my tenth book of the month, here on the last day of November (happy birthday to me, by the way) which I think is some kind of record. Number ten is the second book of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, The Laughing Corpse.

First, I am curious as the the titling of the books. The first in the series was Guilty Pleasures, named after the vampire strip club. This second book is named after a comedy club. The third, I happen to know is Circus of the Damned, which was the Master Vampire's headquarters in book #1. None of the three place names seem very important to me. The Laughing Corpse club is only very briefly involved. Seems weird to me, but also intriguing in a way. I never have any idea what to title anything...when I write I usually just pick a name for the word processor file that will remind me of the contents. I could care less about a title.

Anyway, on to the story...I thought it was very well written and complex, with danger to Anita coming from so many sides it's hard to remember what other shoe you expect to drop. Again, I love her super-toughness with a vulnerable side. She's a gunslinger, but she'll be near tears when a child is killed.

The ending seemed to come rather abruptly. It wasn't bad, but it was much darker than I expected. It reminded me, oddly enough, of Marathon Man by William Goldman (the book is much darker than the movie, for those who haven't read it). Anyway, I feel like the ending was meant to add a layer, maybe more questions to carry into the next book of the series.

The Better Part of Valor and Alien Linguistics

2008-11-29T10:50:00.000-08:00

I finished the second book of Tanya Huff's Confederation series on Thursday, The Better Part of Valor.

I liked this one at least as much as the first. A lot of the thees are similar to the first book, though the story is completely different and fresh. I am beginning to feel more "at home" in this universe and understanding the three main species of the Confederation Marines, and in particular beginning to love their dialogue.

As an aside, I love language and understanding how everything fits together. My parents met while studying at the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) at the University of Oklahoma (In Norman, where I was later born...go Sooners!) and some of their experience must have clung to me. Anyway, this carries over to fake linguistics, in alien languages (if done well...no, I do not speak Elvish of Klingon). One of my favorite series is Timothy Zahn's Conquerors Trilogy. In it, Zahn gives us a taste (often humorous) of the alien's culture and physiology through language. They had a prehensile tongue that could stiffen and be used as a weapon, so many idioms involving the tongue were added (to this day, I still often say on the other side of the tongue' instead of 'on the other hand'). It was brilliant and lightened up the story in an interesting way.

There are other examples, but suffice it to say I loved the linguistic effort put into Zahn's work, and I feel Tanya Huff has managed to do something similar...in fact more seamlessly, because the three species speak a common language, but often interject comments in their own tongue.

Beside that, the book was well written...plenty of action, but touching at points. I continue to be impressed by Huff's skill in science fiction. I hope the Confederation series continues beyond the four current books.

Valor's Choice

2008-11-24T15:20:00.000-08:00

I finished my 9th Tanya Huff novel today, Valor's Choice. It's the first novel of the COnfederation series. Here I am switching from paranormal to science fiction...interesting for me. I like science fiction. I read a lot of it, and have more of a background with it. You might think this prejudices me in favor of the book, but the opposite is true...I have read enough to be very picky about my SF.

But I was not disappointed. Tanya Huff did an amazing job that kept me riveted to the book. The chracters were interesting, and the alien races fit perfectly into the story. Beyond that, the story did a good job of dealing with the doubts and fears and questions of soldiers. They were real people, and I got emotionally attached to them, at least to an extent.

For me that's a good thing. If a charcter bites the dust in some horrific fashion and I just yawn and turn the page, it means I'm not really into it. Move along.

This story was a pretty big drift from the vampires and such of the Blood books, but I was still at least as engaged. I shouldn't have been concerned. I guess a good writer is a good writer. Out.

Seven Random Bookish Things...

2008-11-21T10:53:00.000-08:00

OK, I was tagged as part of some widespread Internet game where I am supposed to share seven bookish things about myself, and tag seven other people. I am afraid I do not know seven bookish people who haven't already been tagged...I could pass it on to some of my Grip-Strength and Weightlifting buddies who blog, but that might be suicidal.

But I might as well toss out my seven points:

1) I like all my books to be MMPB's...I like the orderliness of having them all the same size, and I can read one-handed.

2) I am extremely picky about my bookmarks. I do not use decorative bookmarks at all. Instead, I use the following system: First I tear off the proper size piece...5.5"x1.5" is opitmal. At the top I write the author's last name, and what number book it is I've read...I just did my bookmark for Valor's Choice by Tanya Huff. I have read 8 of her books, so I put "Huff #9" at the top. For collections, I skip this and go onto step 2: I write the title of the book, bracketed above and below by lines. Below that, I write the date I start the book. For keeper books, when I finish, I'll add that date as well, and put the boomark in the book at page 100 and keep it as a permanent record.

3) If you read this blog, you'll see paranormal and science fiction, but I am also a huge Shakespeare fan, both of reading and seeing performances of his plays. I own The Riverside Shakespeare and will not soon part with it.

4) I can read anywhere, and carry books with me in the car and at work. My winter coats have inside pockets that I can tuck a fai size MMPB into. I never know when I might be able to catch a page. I also have my dedicated bathroom book...40 to 50 pages a week is my average there :p

5) The first science fiction book I rember reading is Have Space Suit - Will Travel by Robert A. Heinlein, when I was perhaps eight years old. That's still one of my favorite books ever.

6) The most books I've read by any one author is 43, by Orson Scott Card, starting with Ender's Game when I was 17 or 18, and most recently reading his new thriller, Invasive Procedures written with Aaron Johnston. My favorite is probably the semi-autobiographical ghost story, Lost Boys.

7) I own over 2,000 books. I live in a 300 square foot apartment with no bookshelves.