The Dying Earth By Jack Vance

Review written by Bowden P. (Trey)

Yes, I know I read Eyes of the Overworld first, instead of this
The Dying Earth. And you know what? I’m glad I did. Otherwise I
might not have read Eyes of the Overworld.

I’ll admit I’ve heard about The Dying Earth for years
from older friends, critics, etc., etc. Somehow, I never got around to
reading it until recently. Is it worth the praise that’s been heaped
on it for years? I’m not so sure…

The Dying Earth is a short story collection, with following
chapter and character names:

Turjan of Mir
Mazirian the Magician
T’sais
Liane the Wayfarer
Ulan Dhor
Guyal of Sfere

On reading the book, I see some some of the sensawunda elements of
Eyes of the Overworld with its weird creatures, ancient ruins
and names with no obvious antecedent. “Ulan Dhor” is the best example
of this with his quest to Ampridatvir and obtain the lost powers of
its legendary ruler, Rogal. There there are the flying vehicles and a
weird society that echoes some of the themes of his Planet of
Adventure series. It was fun and neat, plus we get to see some of
the accomplishments of future humanity. And the depths it can sink to.

The book also shows some of the elements I liked of Eyes of the
Overworld with “Liane the Wayfarer” who is a spiritual cousin to
Cugel the Clever and every other low highwayman or bandit that ever
drew breath. The twist in the story also echoes much of Eyes of the
Overworld as well.

The rest, well, they seem derivative. Good, but derivative of Conan
and other sword and sorcery pulps. “Turjan of Mir,” “Mazirian the
Magician” and “T’sais” all seem to draw from sword and sorcery
(especially with “Turjan of Mir”) and elements of gothic horror – all
of the remaining stories.

Did I like it? Yes. To me it was like reading a Conan story, but with
Conan as both swordsman and sorcerer, and occasionally elements of the
post-apocalyptic in “Ulan Dhor” and “Guyal of Sfere.” I know I’m
showing my age, but elements of “Ulan Dhor” made me think of Thundarr
the Barbarian or moments during games of Gamma World.

Was it worth all the talk about it? Maybe. When it was published in
1950, it was ground breaking and probably was up into the 70’s. Since
then, its become a classic. And like all classics, its not to
everyone’s taste. I give it three stars.

Likes: Sensawunda moments; Combining different genres (sword and
sorcery and post-apocalypse); Showcasing the range of Jack Vance’s
imagination (especially in “Ulan Dhor”); The occasional hints at how
things went in the future; The hints of things ‘Man Was Not Meant to
Know’ in the various stories and with the demons.

Dislikes: Characters as deep as the typical sword and sorcery pulp;
stiff (if occasionally funny) dialogue.

Blind Date Disasters / Eat Your Heart Out by Jill Shalvis

Review by Cynthia F. (frazerc)

The setup for this charming and frequently giggle-worthy book is simple.  Identical twins – who until recently have always lived together and now live in separate condos six steps apart – cause confusion to the men in their lives.

Blind Date Disasters

Cami is a newly graduated interior designer who has decided to start with redesigning and redecorating her own condo to be a showplace of her skills.  She expects the contractor she hires to be experienced but grumpy and grizzled – she gets buff and hunky Tanner McCall who looks VERY experienced.

Tanner McCall has been anticipating this job since it marks his return to work that he loves [not that he resents nursing his father through a health crisis the previous year] and he can certainly use the money.  He figures the client will tell him what she wants done and then disappear and let him work.  He does not expect a bed-rumpled, blanket-wrapped cutie to answer the door at 11 am while mumbling about people showing up at the crack of dawn.

After surveying the work she wants done he suggests she leave because of the mess and noise associated with the renovation.  She refuses and proceeds to conduct her personal and professional phone life in front of him.  Which is why he knows about the blind date her mother who guilt tripped her into agreeing to – and why he is in her kitchen the next morning when she calls [having already tried her sister’s condo and her Mom’s house] trying to find someone to come rescue her after her date abandoned her on a back road in the High Sierras.

She appreciates Tanner coming to rescue her, she really does, but did it have to be him?  And she really doesn’t appreciate the advice he gives her at all…

Then her first professional client bribes and blackmails her into another blind date – this time with the client’s son.  Tanner is still there when the date shows up and he immediately knows what the snake wants with Cami.  So he follows and rescues her again, this time from a date that thought a quickie before dinner was a great idea…

The blind date disasters are amusing and the relationship between Tanner and Cami develops believably. The behavior question he points out is one valid for many people; why doesn’t she just say no?  Why are her wants and desires less important than others?  She does finally start listening to her own wishes and learns to say ‘no’ to others while [of course!] she learns to say ‘yes’ to Tanner.

Eat Your Heart Out

TV food chef, Dimi Anderson, is the star of a cooking show – one that isn’t cooking up good ratings when bucking a sleaze-TV show on another channel.  So the parent company sends her a new producer, hotshot ‘fixer’ Mitch Knight, who arrives riding a Harley and wearing leather.  He informs her and her team that the show is going to turn up the heat or get turned off entirely.  He insists a radical makeover of the star is the first step.  The second step?  Mitch as Dimi’s personal ‘sexyiness’ trainer and onscreen assistant – adding both heat and humor to the show.

The new ‘sex kitten’ chef – and the new menus Mitch is allowing her to prepare – are working. The ratings and the phone calls are both way, way up!  And she’s learning how to walk in the high heels [although she still misses her apron]; now if she could just learn how to deal with Mitch she’d be good.  Except Mitch makes her want to be bad, real bad, in a really good way and he’s only temporary.  He’ll only be there until the LA bosses need him to take off somewhere else and save another show…

These are both warm, fuzzy reads.  The sexual tension is hot but the sex is not explicit.  The humor is enjoyable and the supporting characters are delightfully quirky.  The mistaken identity twin joke is not overused so adds humor without boring the reader.  A good, happy read!

Review by Matt B. (BuffaloSavage)

Ross MacDonald wrote only about a dozen short stories starring his series hero PI Lew Archer. One reason is that MacDonald probably preferred the elbow room that writing novels allows authors. Another may be that the period in which he wrote the stories, 1946 to 1965, coincided with the shrinkage of the market for short fiction in men’s magazines like Argosy and Manhunt. The collection The Name is Archer is comprised of seven stories: “Find the Woman,” “Gone Girl,” “The Bearded Lady,” “The Suicide,” “Guilt-Edged Blonde,” “The Sinister Habit,” and “Wild Goose Chase.”

“Find the Woman” was MacDonald first piece of detective fiction. Although he dashed it off in only two days in 1946, it won a prize of $400 (about $4,300 in today’s money) and was first published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.  To my mind, the best story was “The Suicide” because MacDonald shows deft characterization and uses characters and themes he was to explore in later novels, such as youth headed for trouble, miserable families, and past misdeeds haunting the present.  Anthologists, however, have chosen “The Suicide” only twice for now-forgotten collections. They have preferred to collect “Guilt-Edged Blonde” in no less than eleven anthologies – one of which was The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories.  I think is it the most undistinguished story, because it feels like it could have written by a lot of hard-boiled writers of the 1950s.

I liked the fluent well-designed prose. MacDonald has a fine sense of place (Southern California) and is skillful is sketching out characters quickly. He didn’t weigh down sentences with the labored metaphors and similes that we find in the early Archer novels like The Drowning Pool, The Way Some People Die, and Find a Victim.

While I can’t recommend The Name is Archer to readers new to Ross MacDonald, I’m sure that his admirers will get a charge out of reading about Archer just starting to work as a PI in Los Angeles. The seven stories in The Name is Archer plus a couple more are reprinted in the collection Lew Archer, Private Investigator.

Mainspring by Jay Lake

Review by Bowden P. (Trey)

I know a lot of my reviews are positive, and seldom dip below 3 stars. Mainly because its much more fun to write about books I like, rather than ones that irritate, bore or worst of all, waste my valuable free time. So, for a change of pace, I thought I’d write about one I didn’t care for very much: Mainspring by Jay Lake.

Mainspring is an interesting addition to modern fantasy, as well as the clockpunk and steampunk genres. And while interesting, its got flaws. The best I can give it is 2.5 stars.

Mainspring has one of the most interesting settings I’ve seen outside Celestial Matters by Richard Garfinkle. How so? Well, in Mainspring the metaphor of the Clockmaker God is made manifest – Earth is part of a vast celestial orrery, with a vast gear as part of the world (the Equatorial Wall) that divides the world into Northern and Southern hemispheres.

Believe me, this impacts the world. Its a different, if familiar world. The British Empire spans the Northern Hemisphere with its conventional and aeronautic navies, with its only rival being China. Queen Victoria still rules even though it is the early 20th century, well past her death in our timeline. Christianity is different, with a Brass Christ that was broken on a gear by the Romans, 12 is a holy number and clocks play a role in worship.

As intriguing as all of this is, it is only background though. Mainspring is about Hethor Jacques, a 16 year old apprentice clockmaker in New Haven Connecticut, a colony of the Crown. There, he is warned by the angel Gabriel, that the world is winding down and that he must rewind it. Gabriel gives him a feather and then vanishes. While Hethor has some practical knowledge, and is good with his hands, he’s honest, too good for this world and as thick as two short planks. He shows the feather to his master and is promptly accused of theft by his master’s son and expelled. This expulsion is only the beginning of Hethor’s journey to the south, with side stops at a legendary dungeon of Boston, being pressed into the Royal Navy on an Airship on an expedition for the Equatorial Wall (something reputed to devour empires).

Mainspring has some of the most incredible world building I’ve seen for a fantasy novel. That alone makes it memorable.

However, it has its flaws. My biggest lies with Hethor. This is someone who has a Destiny. But he grates on me, never seizing the initiative and being the luckiest individual ever. Or just chosen by the author to be the viewpoint to show off the mad, beautiful world he built.

And while I liked the worldbuilding, I’m not sure Lake went far enough in his worldbuilding. I’d have thought the world to be more different due to the changes, bent out of recognition should be more likely. As it is, its overly familiar. And I have to ask, where are the slaves that Chief of Ropes Al-Wazir’s father were gathering with most of sub-Saharan Africa cut off from the world? In too many regards, it feels like “a god did it” is the explanation for most of the world

Then there is the Southern Hemisphere. When Hethor gets there, the book changes becoming a slog to read through. He falls in with a tribe of what I think are Australopithicenes who help him out of the goodness of their heart. Even escorting him well beyond their home ranges.

What makes it a slog is that the exploration and sensawunda that highlighted the first half, disappears. At which point Hethor’s flaws and Lake’s shortcomings as an author come to the fore. Instead of showing off the world, we’re treated to a mess of religion and philosophy. Not always something I look for in my leisure reading.

All in all, I didn’t care for this as much as I hoped and I guess that’s why I feel as strongly as I do. 2½ stars.

Likes: God as a Clockmaker metaphor made manifest in the world; The Equatorial Wall; Tribes of marauding angels; Extinct hominids (austraolopithicus and gigantopithicus I’m pretty sure of , maybe neanderthals as well) and animals populating the Southern Hemisphere; Airships.

Dislikes: The second half of the book, specifically the rather preachy bits; The personality of the tribe Hethor falls in with; Geopolitics of the setting – I’d have hoped for more changes; Hethor, for not being that interesting and too passive (you’d think he’d never heard the phrase “Put your trust in God, but keep your powder dry.”

Suggested For: Clockpunk and steampunk fans.

Stalking Susan by Julie Kramer

Review by Cheryl R. (Spuddie)

#1 Riley Spartz mystery. Riley is a television reporter in the Twin Cities, MN area–until recently, a top-notch investigative reporter. Her star has fallen considerably over the past year, however, as she struggled to put her life back together after the very public death of her husband Hugh Boyer, a former cop who had been working as chief security for the Governor of Minnesota when a firebomb intended for the Governor killed him while cameras were rolling.

So Riley is intrigued when a long-time police source (now retired) throws her a lead about a couple of murders that happened exactly one year apart, both featuring women named Susan. There were other similarities that weren’t revealed to the public, but no other connection besides the name could be found. Upon investigation, Riley finds several other Susans who died on November 19, some more than a decade ago and not in the Twin Cities area, and not all were classified as murder. Between that case–which was a hard sell to her manager–and the pet cremation fraud that her boss has her working on, Riley doesn’t have much time to be mooning around any longer. The pet scandal actually turns into a real ratings booster, and when someone begins following her around and leaving dead flowers for her, Riley’s not sure if it’s someone associated with the vet’s office or from her Susan investigation. As Nov. 19 approaches, Riley’s anticipation rises, but her world collapses when her friend who was the source is arrested for the murder of another Susan on that night.

I really enjoyed this book–I actually picked it up randomly from the community bookshelf in the break room at work when I finished my regular book and hadn’t brought a backup with me. The bright yellow cover drew me to it and when I read the flyleaf and realized it was set locally and written by a local author I opened it up…and had a hard time putting it down.

Although I’ve never been a fan of “the news” (which, IMO, is mostly NOT news and a load of horse puckey! LOL) the story was intriguing from the beginning and I learned a few things along the way. It’s well-written with an easy-to-read style, the main character was interesting and appealing, the local flavor is excellent, and there’s a good balance of action and introspection. Although I had one of those ‘gut feelings’ about the bad guy fairly early on, I wasn’t sure of the motive or how the crimes were actually committed. It’s been awhile since I read a real page-turner, but this was definitely one of those. Won’t be long til I read the next in series.

Carnival by Elizabeth Bear

Review written by Bowden P. (Trey)
That was a fun and challenging read. Its about two Old Earth Cabinet Coalition (OECC) diplomats sent to the matriarchal and feminist world of New Amazonia, seeking their apparently limitless supply of energy. To make it more complicated, Earth and its two dozen odd colony worlds, are ruled by the Governors, AIs that wiped out 90%+ of humanity, almost all of the Western developed world (so anglos are rare and forcibly maintain an ecological balance (on Earth this means a population of 50 million forcibly confined to cities). Adding to this, the two protagonists Vincent Katherinessen and Michelangelo Kusanagi-Jones are gay, something that is not done in the OECC, and resulted in their exile from each other nearly two decades ago. Ostensibly, they are on New Amazonia to retrieve human art and artifacts thought lost during the Governor’s purges of humanity.

Then there is the plot. Whose got the McGuffin? In this case, the limitless energy. The government of New Amazonia does. And it wants to keep it, but in the face of the OECC would like to keep and not become another colony world. Thus a delicate balancing act of family, clan and political alliances begins. This is further complicated by New Amazonian extremists and the remnants of an ‘extinct’ race. I use quotes because its not entirely clear what happened to them…

I liked it – 3½ stars. Yes it stretched me, as hetero as I am I liked Vincent and Michelangelo. They were nice, sympathetic and pretty cool.

Likes: Being stretched in viewpoint characters that I’m not necessarily comfortable with, but sympathetic to their goals and personalities; Conspiracy, conspiracy, which conspiracy are we with again? I’m not sure I liked this, but it did add some interesting pieces to this and did not turn into an idiot plot because of it; Neat social design with New Amazonia. On the read I gave it, it made sense; The fate of Earth and the Governors. That would be a story to tell; The utility fog wardrobes and what uses they could be put to. I’m not sure that they weren’t Drexlerian nanotech (i.e.: nano-magic), but they sure were fun.

Dislikes: Occasional idiocies from the New Amazonians; Idiocies from the OECC government; Deus ex machina resolution (Rot 13’d for your protection: Gur nyvraf ner fgvyy gurer – gurl hcybnqrq gurzfryirf vagb fhofgengr pbzchgref naq ner bayl abj abgvpvat gur abfl uhznaf. Juvpu yrnqf gb bar qrpvqvat gb snpr qbja gur tbireabef arngyl erfbyivat gurz naq gur guerng bs naarkngvba.)

Suggested for fans of Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette and gay heroes. Or any SF fan that wants to stretch their comfort zone.

Confessions of a Vampire’s Girlfriend by Katie MacAlister (writing as Katie Maxwell)

(Ben & Fran #1 & #2  Got Fangs & Circus of the Darned)

Review by Cynthia F. (frazerc)

Publication Date: 11/2/2010

Pages: 368

Fun read!

‘Confessions of a Vampire’s Girlfriend‘ is an omnibus edition of two very funny young adult novels published under McAlister’s pen name of Kate Maxwell: Got  Fangs? and Circus of the Darned.

Got  Fangs?

Our heroine is Fran, a 16-year-old girl who thinks she’s a freak. Yes, I know most 16-year-olds think they’re freaks but Fran is definitely not your average girl. She’s 6 feet tall and, in her words, built like a linebacker, her parents are divorced, her mother is a witch (for real, not the kind most teenagers think of), and then there’s the fact that she has to wear gloves all the time since if she touches you with her bare hand she gets a quick visit to your head.

Since her father has just picked himself up a trophy wife he has sent Fran to stay with her mother. So Fran is now stuck in a trailer with her mother traveling around Europe as part of a ‘GothFaire’.  Some very odd people are part of the fair – including magicians who can do real magic, a psychic with a dead boyfriend (really dead, like a couple of hundred years dead), and a demonologist who dresses, talks, and behaves like Elvis.  Her best friend at the fair, is Imogen, a 400-year-old Moravian woman reads palms and rune stones.

Our hero is Benedikt, Imogen’s younger brother. (Younger, but not that much younger.) Benedict is a ‘Dark One’, a soulless vampire. Unlike many of the more popular vampires, ‘Dark Ones are truly cursed. Not their fault, in most cases, as their curse is the result of something an ancestor did. But there is a cure, if a Dark One finds his Beloved and bonds with her he gets his soul back.

Benedict has been searching for his Beloved for almost 300 years. He plans to love her and protect her and decide what’s best for her. Then he meets Fran, and she is his Beloved, but she’s not too sure about the love thing, is not impressed with the protect part and he better get over the idea of making her decisions.

So here’s never-been-kissed Fran, with an instantaneous super hot boyfriend she’s not sure she’s ready for, with baggage she’s really not prepared for, and a white witch mother who is really unhappy with the thought of her 16-year-old daughter dating the soulless undead and the power to do something about it.

The plot is pretty light involving Fran solving the thefts at the fair, acquiring a very old horse, and being forced to read palms at the fair to earn the horse’s upkeep. Of course there is the part about Ben dying, or the part where she and Imogen beat up a demon, and the part where Fran learns that a Mississippi kiss is better than an Iowa one… (Read the book for an explanation of that one. Oh, and don’t worry about Ben, he’s sort of immortal.)

Circus of the Darned

Fran is still at the GothFaire which has now moved to Sweden and joined with a group known as the Circus of the Darned. These folks are not average either, since they are part of a religion that still worships the Norse gods.

During this story, Fran acquires a necklace imbued with the power of Loki, raises a group of thousand-year-old Vikings who think she is a goddess and want her to get them to Valhalla.  Along the way she has to take the Vikings shopping, meets the goddess Freya, who is annoyed at being called from a party in Venice, motorcycle riding Valkyries who have been staying at a resort in the Mediterranean, and Loki who wants her horse (don’t ask why) and his necklace back. In the process she gets herself cursed by Loki (but she keeps her horse and the necklace), her Vikings get sent on to Valhalla, and her romance with Ben advances a little.

The sequel to these two books is called ‘In the Company of Vampires’. It is not a young adult story, though it is certainly Ben and Fran’s story.  It is also #8 in the Dark One series published under her Katie McAlister name.

Dark One

1. A Girl’s Guide to Vampires (2003)

2. Sex and the Single Vampire (2004)

3. Sex, Lies and Vampires (2005)

4. Even Vampires Get the Blues (2006)

5. The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires (2007)

5. Bring Out Your Dead (2006) (in Just One Sip)

6. Zen and the Art of Vampires (2008)

7. Crouching Vampire, Hidden Fang (2009)

8. In the Company of Vampires (2010)

9. Much Ado About Vampires (2011)