Looking for Your Next Book

The literary equivalent to the Hollywood 'B' movie would probably be the pulps, or 'pulp fiction.' We don't see a lot of pulp fiction today, but I'd say that author Dan Hanks is still writing in the pulp fiction style. In Swashbucklers , our hero is Cisco Collins.  And 'hero' is the correct term.  As a child, Cisco was one of a few people who saved the world by defeating a pirate known as Deadman's Grin. Grin had been able to animate inanimate objects and turn them into killing machines.  Now a down-on-his-luck adult (his wife has left him for her fitness instructor), Cisco returns to his hometown (with his son George). He's first stunned that no one seems to remember the world-saving battle - not even his old friends with whom he fought! Cisco  works to help his friends remember what they once went through. The other thing that Cisco notes is that there are some inanimate objects are coming to life and attacking the town.  Is it possible that De...

Oof, this was good. Have you ever wondered why, during the Salem witchcraft trials era, if the women accused of being witches really were witches, they didn't perform some sort of magic to survive? I'm thinking author Brom may have wondered this. Abigail is an innocent and energetic young English girl, sold by her father to a Puritan in the Colonies. She arrives, nervous, but staying positive and looks to make the best of the situation. Fortunately, her husband, Edward, is a good man who is willing to work hard to make a good life for he and his bride. But Edward dies under suspicious circumstances, and his brother, Wallace, claims Edward's property (including his wife, Abigail) which, due to Edward's work, is in much better condition than his own. But Abigail knows enough about the local law to stake her claim on the land as long as she meets the agreed upon terms and can pay for the land when the payment (to Wallace) comes due. Abigail has a deep connection with the l...

Talus, a bard, and his companion Bran, make a journey to the island realm of Creyak. A king has been murdered and there are no shortages of suspects, including the king's six sons, the local shaman, the servant girl, or even a neighboring warlord. Talus, who is clever and insightful, will study the clues and investigate, which could prove quite dangerous, to find justice for the dead king. It is only a mildly clever premise to write what is essentially a detective mystery using a fantasy setting. Think 'Ice Age Sherlock Holmes (Talus) and Watson (Bran).' But where, then, should the author put his priorities? The mystery? The fantasy setting?  The characters?  Well, the answer of course, is all of it but the end result here is that none of it is particularly strong. Our mystery is a bit pedantic. As a modern reader, we're a little bit stuck, having a great source of history to put clues together.  If Talus becomes too insightful or too intelligent for the era he lives...

 I've used the term 'epic fantasy' to refer to a style or genre of fantasy before, but Robert Jackson Bennett's Lockland , the conclusions to his The Founders Trilogy, is truly epic in style and heart - not just as a genre description. Note that you won't want to read this as a stand-alone novel.  It requires prior knowledge of the characters and the world. Being already familiar with this world, I'm not 100% certain how it reads to a newcomer, but just based on how much I needed to recall in order to not feel completely lost, I pity anyone coming fresh to this final volume. Our heroes are Sancia, Clef, and Berenice. They've worked and fought together before, but this time they take on not just petty criminals and the occasional ruler, but someone with the power of a god.  Trevanne is our antagonist.  He is powerful and growing more so. He has been using scrivings to control not just the inanimate objects, but the people around him as well.  His goal now is...

 Arthur Herman's The Viking Heart is a history book ... well, no, it's a sociology study ... er, it's a personal memoir ... or, rather, it's ... it's a little bit of everything. Including flawed. The subtitle, How Scandinavians Conquered the World , is meant to be quite broad. We don't realize this at first, reading through the early chapters discussing the early Scandinavian explorers - the Vikings. There is some really good, really informative history here about the make-up of the early Vikings (not all one group of people [Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, etc]) and their likely intent on their raids. I should note that I assume this good history. I don't know my Scandinavian history as well as I should.  But I think I can recognize fact based on study and data as opposed to supposition.  And Herman does a fair amount of supposition based on available facts. I enjoyed the early chapters, detailing the early Viking heart and spirit and travels.  Herman makes a ...

 When you are one of the most influential sound engineers/music producers ever, it would be difficult to write a biography or memoir without a whole heck of a lot of name-dropping ... as evidenced by Glyn Johns' memoir, Sound Man . Seriously ... Johns worked with groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Steve Miller Band, Led Zeppelin, The Eagles, and individuals such as Joe Cocker, Boz Scaggs, Leon Russel, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, and hundreds of others. There is even a recording method (for recording drums) named for him.  This man has been on the inside of some of the most influential music of one of the most influential times for music. The influence he had... the insight he must have! Learning of Johns' early years provided some of the most interesting information. It would make sense that Johns began as a musician, recording several singles between 1962-1965. He began sound engineering in 1964 and continued through 2017 (work...

I've read a lot of Seanan McGuire's books (under her name and under the name Mira Grant) and I've really liked most of them, but the InCryptid series is possibly my favorite, and this particular book really turns up the heat. This is Alice's story. Alice Price-Healy once fell in love with a man named Thomas Price. Thomas was a member of the Covenant (and organization that wants to get rid of Cryptids). But love is strange and Thomas and Alice fell in love and Thomas made a bargain with this ... what...?  'being?' 'thing?' 'entity?' ... known as the Crossroads (oh ... those Crossroads books are good, too!). But part of that bargain was that Thomas couldn't ever leave his house and that they (the powers that be) could come and take him at any time. Alice and Thomas have a child together and they are expecting their second child when Thomas is taken away without any warning.  Once she has the baby, Alice then goes looking for Thomas. For fifty y...

 Wow.  This is a really remarkable book. In so many ways, reading these vast collection of letters - both personal (to her boyfriend [later her husband] and to her parents) and professional (to her agent and to publishers) - is a better autobiography than if she'd sat down to write specifically about her life. We get a pretty honest look at her personal life - from her snarky letters to then-boyfriend Stanley to the raising of her children to her feelings about the fact that her son and his girlfriend/fiancé are living together and then are expecting a child before their wedding (as well as how that doesn't go well with the young woman's family).  Everyday occurrences, from driving to child-care are covered. Based on this, she would seem to have a pretty common life.  But we also get letters that she's written to agents and publishers and editors.  Also the occasional fan or letter-writer.  A fair number of these are requests for money or questions about wh...

 Dr. Addie Cox is a literature professor - very happy with her job and the assumption that she is making a mark on impressionable young minds. It's a comfortable life and she's happy with it. Then her status quo changes when Harris Lang, a billionaire tech genius offers her a job. Lang owns an island off the western coast of the United States.  His intention was to create a high-tech fantasy resort with unicorns and dragons and magic of all sorts.  But one as real as possible, not just simple animatronics like many theme parks. There's been one problem with Lang's plan ... one of his lead designers has gone rogue and has taken over the island and put in place a powerful defensive system.  A Coast Guard ship that tried to pass through the invisible barrier was destroyed with all hands lost.  Now, Addie is to join a highly trained military attack squad to infiltrate the island and wrench control back for Lang.   Why Addie? Well, for starters she's a Dung...

 Ooooooh.  What should be one of the best, dark reads on my shelf turns out to be one of the dullest. Jude needs a safe haven.  She remembers finding some dusty old treasures in the oldest bookstore in a town full of old bookstores; Lowland Glen Books. This seems as good a place as any in a pinch. It so happens that Lowell, the bookshop's somewhat scramble-brained owner, needs an assistant and also knows of an affordable rental. So what that the rental is the grave-digger's cottage?  It just means Jude will have quiet neighbors. But the books in the shop, as well as the people in the graveyard, have stories to tell. Seriously ... what a great premise!  A dusty, old bookshop in a remote Scottish village.  Throw in a neighboring graveyard, and you've got the makings of one heck of a great dark thriller.  So where did this go wrong? Let's start with the story.  First off, it's not a thriller.  It's not a horror story.  It's a cozy mystery....

Sarah Tolmie's All the Horses of Iceland is beautifully poetic novella which, like the Edda 's and the  Heimskringla  by Icelandic poet Snorri Sturluson, lays forth the story behind a national legend.  For Tolmie, that's the story of all the horses of Iceland. And like all good legends, there's magic and the supernatural, there's good and evil, and there's a wanderer who encounters many things. On the surface, this might appear to be a tale of the horse of Iceland. In fact, we open with a poetic moment: Every horse in Iceland, like every person, has ancestors who sailed here in a ship. What has a horse to do with a ship? In a ship, a horse cannot hold on. A horse cannot row or trim sail or bail out water. A horse has no business on the sea at all. Horses were carried here, cold and sick and protesting, in open boats, frost riming their manes, from Norvegr and the Føroyar, from Irland and Hjaltland and the Suthreyar. Their sturdy kin can be seen in all those pla...