When I was a kid, I ran across the word "halcyon" in the dictionary and fell in love with it. It means calm, peaceful and happy. Because of my love ofWhen I was a kid, I ran across the word "halcyon" in the dictionary and fell in love with it. It means calm, peaceful and happy. Because of my love of a word, I had to take a look at The Tale of Halcyon Crane when I saw it at the library. It sounded intriguing enough for me to check out.
Now, I don't think there's really anything new or groundbreaking in this story. It's pretty ordinary and I could see where it was going most of the way. But, I was hooked from the first chapter and stayed up until 1:00 AM to finish it in a day. It completely captivated me.
The Tale of Halcyon Crane has many elements of a horror story, but I didn't find it the least bit scary. There are some dangerous ghosts, but I was never once scared by them. What captured me was the story of a young woman who discovers that her past isn't what she thought it was and that she wasn't who she thought she was. She has to find out who she is and find her way home. It was a truly wonderful story that was very well-told. I hope to see more of Wendy Webb soon....more
The series is going in interesting directions. Kitty is really growing as a character and Ben's going through some changes himself. I love Vaughn's usThe series is going in interesting directions. Kitty is really growing as a character and Ben's going through some changes himself. I love Vaughn's use of pop culture, such as Ghost Hunters in this novel. This series is strictly brain candy, but it's well-written brain candy that can be consumed in a couple of evenings....more
I'm still not much of a series person, but I'm beginning to see what an author can do by re-visiting a character and setting. The character of Odd is I'm still not much of a series person, but I'm beginning to see what an author can do by re-visiting a character and setting. The character of Odd is developing quite nicely. He suffered a tragic loss in the first novel, but he's determined not to let that happen again. In Forever Odd, Koontz not only further develops the character of Odd, he expands on the history of Pico Mundo(Small World), California. Pico Mundo is a pretty typical California desert town and Koontz makes it very realistic.
I like that the Odd Thomas novels aren't typical horror. They are ghost stories with non-scary ghosts. It's the real world that's a scary place, not the supernatural. Koontz doesn't stoop to blood and gore. I love the insight we're getting into the ghost of Elvis Presley too.
Unlike the first book, which had a definitive ending as a stand-alone novel, Forever Odd spends the last chapter setting up the transition to the next installment of Odd's story, Brother Odd. I'll be checking that out of the library next....more
The Knights of the Cornerstone is a well-crafted and entertaining read that doesn't take a huge amount of brain power to work through. I liked the conThe Knights of the Cornerstone is a well-crafted and entertaining read that doesn't take a huge amount of brain power to work through. I liked the conceit of a small town on the banks of the Colorado River where California, Arizona and Nevada meet that's populated by modern-day Knights Templar. The book has a bit of everything: mystery, miracles, adventure and romance. I'd love to see a movie made from this book....more
I'm going to comment first on the audio production of this book. Wow. I was sucked in by Robin Miles' voice from the first sentence. She narrates everI'm going to comment first on the audio production of this book. Wow. I was sucked in by Robin Miles' voice from the first sentence. She narrates everything except the dialogue in a Caribbean accent that is absolutely hypnotic. Her voicing of the various characters' dialogue is impeccable. The book is full of extremely graphic imagery and vulgar language, but Ms. Miles makes it sound so musical. I would give the audio a five-star rating.
Now, on to the text. The Book of Night Women is absolutely brutal. It's full of graphic violence, sexuality and violent sex. I have spent the last week or so with words going through my brain that one cannot use in the real world. There was not only the oft-repeated word for a black person that was common in the 18th century, but there was constant use of the c-word and the p-word for female genitalia and the c-word for mail genitalia and the f-word for what the f-word really means. About halfway through, I got curious as to the gender of the author and looked him up. As I suspected, it was a man. I was wondering because the women in the story seemed as focused on their genitalia as men. Frankly, I just don't think about my parts that much and I don't know many women who discuss their girl bits quite that much. There was a lot of rape and torture involving female genitalia as well. Sometimes, it seemed like some sort of extreme sadistic sexual fantasy. There was a lot of torture also that wasn't sexually related, and that was brutal too.
Now, I do know that slavery was a horrible institution. In fact, my primary criticism of Alex Haley's Roots is that it made slavery seem almost nice. The Book of Night Women seems to go to the opposite extreme. I found it really hard to believe that people, both white and black, could maintain that level of sadism constantly. I also didn't find the change in Lilith's character to be very plausible. I don't think the way she ended up fit with the person she was through most of the story. It was kind of a fairy-tale transformation brought on by true love that just didn't ring true in the context of the rest of the novel.
Yet, I do give this book four stars. It aroused some very strong feelings in me, albeit negative ones. I felt as if I had been tortured and beaten. James' prose is so poetic. The tempo and repetition in this novel has a kind of magic about it. It's a powerful book. I feel like I should cheer myself up with a re-read of Beloved....more
Science fiction has always been my first love. I've been reading a lot of fantasy lately simply because it's more popular and there's more good new faScience fiction has always been my first love. I've been reading a lot of fantasy lately simply because it's more popular and there's more good new fantasy than good new science fiction. So much science fiction just looks like it's rehashing old stories, I kind of yawn reading the blurbs. However, The Windup Girl has been getting a lot of good word of mouth and I really liked a couple of short stories I've read by the author, so I thought I'd check it out. I was truly impressed with the book. Paolo Bacigalupi's novel is very much like Ian MacDonald's work that I love so much. He creates a very rich and exotic future Thailand in a world that has been devastated by genetic engineering run amok. The characters are as complex as the world they live in. No one is all-good or all-bad, they're just all human. Bacigalupi is really good at the art of showing rather than telling.
Because I listened to it on audiobook, I have to comment on the production. The narration of this book was excellent. You'll probably laugh, but he sounds a lot like William Shatner did when he narrated documentaries back in the Sixties and Seventies. Will Shatner is a terrible actor, he was an excellent narrator. Jonathan Davis is also an excellent narrator. His vocal intonation was quite well suited for the Asian flavor of the novel and he never sank to the point of giving the characters stereotypical accents. I was able to tell the character's dialogue apart but never felt like I was listening to Mel Blanc. I also really, really liked the intro and outro music. It was excellent. ...more
I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I was getting Nine Dragons signed at the LA Times Festival of Books and this poor author got stuck I really wanted to like this book more than I did. I was getting Nine Dragons signed at the LA Times Festival of Books and this poor author got stuck next to Michael Connelly who had a huge line. Mr. Rice had no people getting his signature. The cover caught my eye and I asked what the book was about. It sounded interesting enough, so I got a copy.
While The Moonlit Earth has a good plot, it fell a bit flat for me. It tried to go too many directions and spent a lot of time at the end with characters explaining things to each other and trying to wrap up the disparate plot lines. It never really had a good, convincing bad guy either. I liked it, but I didn't love it and I doubt that I'll remember much about it a year from now....more
This past Saturday, my daughter and I went to the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA. Our first stop was the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore booth to get This past Saturday, my daughter and I went to the LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA. Our first stop was the Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore booth to get the lay of the land. Last year, we stumbled upon Connie Willis at their booth and had a nice chat with her, so we were hoping for some equal luck this year. We started talking to this really nice, intelligent author named D.J. MacHale. There wasn't anyone waiting to get books signed, so we kind of monopolized his time for a bit. I noticed that he had written the Pendragon series. I had heard of it and told him that I'd only heard good things about it, but I wasn't going to get sucked in to reaading a series of ten YA novels. He and I talked a bit about books and series and popularity vs. quality. His latest book, The Light is the first installment of what he promises is only a trilogy. I loved the cover and the synopsis sounded interesting. I bought a copy and he signed it with a reference to our conversation about The Da Vinci Code. Needless to say, I felt obligated to move this book up to the top of my reading pile.
When I was a kid, I loved ghost stories and tales of the supernatural. I read all those Strange but True paperbacks and my friends and I would tell ghost stories in the dark. (Remember Mary White? You'd say her name three times and she'd appear in your mirror?) Once, my best friend and I were playing with a Ouija board under a card table with a quilt over it and it scared the crap out of us by spelling out "I...W...I...L...L...K...I...." We didn't even let it finish spelling and ran out from under that table screaming. My friend, who owned the Ouija board, wrapped practically a whole roll of masking tape around it and shoved it in the back corner of her closet shelf. I think I was eleven and she was twelve at the time. I also remember my 6th grade teacher reading Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart to us and setting me on a path to read everything Poe. I'm dredging up all those childhood memories because The Light brought all of that back to me.
I will admit that The Light is one darned scary book. It starts off slow and builds in creepiness. The ending was completely shocking and unexpected. I would have adored this book when I was a kid. It has a huge appeal to my inner 9-13 year old. I know a lot of people may think that it's too scary for kids that young, but it's exactly the kind of thing I was reading at those ages. I enjoyed the trip down memory lane and I hope Mr. MacHale and his publisher get the next two installments out really soon....more
I've tried reading Jane Austen more than once. I just can't get through any of her books. Fortunately, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the DrI've tried reading Jane Austen more than once. I just can't get through any of her books. Fortunately, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls was not written by Austen. I laughed a lot while reading this and the story was engaging too. It wasn't high literature, but it was a lot of fun....more
Kitty Norville books are such quick reads, I almost feel guilty giving them such high marks. However they're a lot of fun and leave me wanting more. IKitty Norville books are such quick reads, I almost feel guilty giving them such high marks. However they're a lot of fun and leave me wanting more. I never want to throw one against the wall. Ergo, 4 stars....more
This is by far the best installment of The Dresden Files series yet. I can't even tell you anything about it without giving away spoilers. The title iThis is by far the best installment of The Dresden Files series yet. I can't even tell you anything about it without giving away spoilers. The title is totally appropriate though and I can't wait to see what happens in Ghost Story when it comes out next spring....more
As I said in my review of Wireless, I think Charles Stross, like William Gibson, is a hit-or-miss author for me. Because I really liked two of his shoAs I said in my review of Wireless, I think Charles Stross, like William Gibson, is a hit-or-miss author for me. Because I really liked two of his short stories about Bob Howard and The Laundry, "Down on the Farm" and "Overtime", I picked up a copy of the first Laundry novel, The Atrocity Archives. I was a bit surprised to see that the book consisted of two stories, "The Atrocity Archive" and "The Concrete Jungle". There was also a lengthy foreword and an even lengthier afterword. I didn't read either of those.
The first story, "The Atrocity Archive", is the first story in the Laundry universe. At about 230 pages or so, it's a short novel. I had a hard time with it because it spent so much time setting up the world and seemed kind of fragmented. When I looked at the publication information, I discovered that it had originally been published as a serial in a magazine, so that may explain the fragmentary nature of the story. I liked it, but wasn't completely thrilled.
The second story, "The Concrete Jungle" was fabulous. It clocked in at around 100 pages and the pacing was great. It was almost as good as "Down on the Farm".
Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand isn't one of the better entries in the Kitty Norville series, but it's still a lot of fun. Kitty and Ben decide to elopeKitty and the Dead Man's Hand isn't one of the better entries in the Kitty Norville series, but it's still a lot of fun. Kitty and Ben decide to elope to Vegas rather than have her mother's dream wedding. They're vacation starts out bad with a gun convention full of Ben's old bounty hunter friends and gets worse from there. Do Ben and Kitty ever get to tie the knot? You'll just have to read and see....more
I was all set to give Thirteen Orphans 3 stars. Even though it had a lot of flaws, it kept me interested and entertained. However, I downgraded it becI was all set to give Thirteen Orphans 3 stars. Even though it had a lot of flaws, it kept me interested and entertained. However, I downgraded it because of the way it ended. Rather, I downgraded it because of the way it stopped rather than ended. It was as if someone had taken a bigger book and just arbitrarily chopped it in half. I can't even call the ending a cliffhanger, it was just a non-ending. It may have been the worst non-ending ever.
As I said, up until the non-end, Thirteen Orphans was entertaining but flawed. It had way too much exposition. The characters just talked and talked and talked about what was happening rather than doing and experiencing. There were too many sequences that reminded me of the original Star Trek series. You know what I mean, Kirk and Spock encounter a culture that parallels Native Americans and spend the end of the episode definitively telling each other how the culture evolved with an exact replica of the Constitution or the Declaration of Independence. In this book, 19-year-old Brenda is Spock. Her deductive reasoning is astounding and always correct. She was on student council in high school, so she is also (of course) the most qualified of the group to hammer out treaties with the enemy. Other than ridiculousness, the book is fun but forgettable. ...more
**spoiler alert** When I was a kid growing up in northern San Diego County in the Sixties and Seventies, we used to make a yearly trek to Disneyland. **spoiler alert** When I was a kid growing up in northern San Diego County in the Sixties and Seventies, we used to make a yearly trek to Disneyland. We'd also make other treks to points north, especially Long Beach. Up until around 1974 or so, northern San Diego County was a pretty podunk place, but Orange County was even podunkier. Going up I-5 (or I-405), you saw hardly any civilization until you hit Anaheim or Long Beach. Even Anaheim would have been nothing if it weren't for the cheap motels and coffee shops lining Harbor Blvd. to serve the crowds visiting Disneyland. The rest was orange groves. On the coastal side, Huntington Beach was nothing but oil wells that we would call "grasshoppers". The town I live in now barely existed. Most of the homes in my community were built in the Seventies.
California Girl by T. Jefferson Parker does a good job of capturing Orange County life as I imagine it was in 1968. Orange groves are starting to convert to suburbia. Drive-in churches come into existence. The beach life includes plenty of sex, drugs, and rock & roll. I recognized a lot of the landmarks described in the story. Unfortunately, it seemed like Parker was trying to squeeze in every detail about 1968 Orange County. The main characters' parents are acquainted with Richard Nixon. The murder victim was a follower/friend of Timothy Leary. We even get to meet a folk-singer named Charles Manson! Sometimes, you just need to stick with the details that are significant, not try to include everything.
Despite its historical accuracy and rich setting, California Girl was a bore. It took way too long for Detective Nick Becker to solve the murder. Heck, I knew who did it about halfway through. The "twist" wasn't even a twist to me. Don't even get me going about the part where Nick and Lobdell go down to Ensenada, Mexico to take their suspect back to Orange County. That whole sequence was completely unbelievable and implausible. I just didn't buy it.
Although I rarely give authors a second chance if I don't like the first book I read by them, I will try to read another of his works. I met him last weekend at the LA Times Festival of Books and he was quite personable. I've heard that he's a good writer and he does live in Orange County. I suspect I just got a lemon with California Girl....more
Orange County, CA is home to at least 3 famous authors: T Jefferson Parker, Gregory Benford and Dean Koontz. In preparation for the LA Times Festival Orange County, CA is home to at least 3 famous authors: T Jefferson Parker, Gregory Benford and Dean Koontz. In preparation for the LA Times Festival of Books, I checked books by two of the three authors out of the library. I'm pretty sure I've read Gregory Benford before, so I skipped him.
Odd Thomas was recommended to me as a good introduction to Koontz's work. I was really pleased with the experience. I liked Koontz's writing style in this book very much and the story was excellent. Who can resist a ghost story that includes the ghost of Elvis Presley? This books was a great blend of horror, humor and pathos. Odd is a very endearing character. I like how Koontz kept the narrative very concise an didn't over-explain what was going on. He does the first-person POV very well and doesn't tell us stuff the protagonist doesn't know.
As far as horror writers go, I suspect that Koontz is a better writer than Stephen King. I will have to read a few more books by both authors before I say for certain though....more
I'm going to preface this by telling you that I saw the movie version of Shutter Island when it was in the theaters. If you haven't seen it, please doI'm going to preface this by telling you that I saw the movie version of Shutter Island when it was in the theaters. If you haven't seen it, please do. The previews really don't do it justice and I left the theater wanting to read the book. Now, it's often the case that the book disappoints when you've seen the movie first (or vice-versa), but not here. I'll say that the movie is very true to the book and really captures the atmosphere of the book quite well. And, although both movie and book have a surprising ending, it actually adds to the experience rather than detracting from it when you already know the surprise. Think about how "Sixth Sense" becomes a different movie on second viewing, but it's somehow richer when you know how it ends.
The audio book edition of Shutter Island is exceptional. The narrator's pace fits the story perfectly. When I got to the last couple of hours, I couldn't stop listening because both the story and the narration had become so dramatic. The narrator really captured the essence of the story.
This is my first encounter with Dennis Lehane, but I'm sure it won't be my last. Shutter Island is an amazingly well-done story in all it's incarnations.
P.S. I just noticed that there's an abridged version and an unabridged version of this book. The one I listened to was the unabridged version released in 2008 and narrated by Tom Stechschulte. From the sample on Audible, the narrator of the abridged version sounds quite different....more
I guess by the eleventh volume, I'm pretty well sucked into the Dresden Files series. Heck, I even picked up #12 in hardback. (It was $9.99 on Amazon I guess by the eleventh volume, I'm pretty well sucked into the Dresden Files series. Heck, I even picked up #12 in hardback. (It was $9.99 on Amazon which is the same price as the new-style paperbacks.) I'm pretty impressed how good a job Butcher is doing with keeping this series from getting stale. The characters, not just Harry, are growing and changing in interesting ways. I would like to see more of Murphy since she's been around from the beginning, but I do like how Butcher is developing the friendship between her and Harry. In a series like this, the obvious thing would be to throw the two of them into a romantic relationship and Butcher does a great job of avoiding that while acknowledging that there is often a bit of sexual tension between friends of opposite genders. If he dares to make those two an item, I'll track him down and throw my whole Dresden Files collection at him, one at a time....more
We went on a four-day weekend to San Simeon. I had taken along Last Argument of Kings because I was almost half way through. I found I just couldn't fWe went on a four-day weekend to San Simeon. I had taken along Last Argument of Kings because I was almost half way through. I found I just couldn't focus on it though. Fortunately, I had thrown Kitty Takes a Holiday into my reading bag. It was a perfect vacation read. The Kitty Norville series is perfect for a little break from serious reading. It's fun, entertaining, and has great characters. These books are light reads that don't leave you feeling empty and trashy. ...more
Okay, I've just finished book 10 of this series, and I really don't have much to say. I am probably more hooked now than ever though. At least #11 is Okay, I've just finished book 10 of this series, and I really don't have much to say. I am probably more hooked now than ever though. At least #11 is in paperback now....more