Looking for Your Next Book

I am a sucker for anything by or about Kim Stanley Robinson. Since I first read The Gold Coast sometime in the late 1980's or early 90's; I haven't missed any of his books since. So, when I see a book about Robinson, or examining his work, I'm all in. What I don't like, is reading a research paper, a university-style thesis, posing as a book. In classic research paper tradition, we begin with an introduction that tells us what we are going to read. Chapter by chapter, taking up nearly 15% of the book's pages, author Andrew Rowcroft tells us what we're going to read in. In detail. With 114 endnotes. There are six chapters .... well, five chapters and a coda ... dealing with different aspects of Robinson's work. But first ... what does "Apprenticeships in Narrative" even mean? In his introduction, Rowcroft notes: "This book argues that one of the most striking aspects of Robinson’s fiction is his concern with literary apprenticeship." ...

 Many years ago Amazon created something called "Kindle Worlds" which was essentially a legitimate means of publishing fan fiction. The idea was that certain works of fiction were licensed by Amazon so that authors could write fiction in the world(s), and using characters created by the original author. Sort of like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead but from more current works. There are many fans sites on the internet that already do this, but Amazon, being the giant that they are, got a lot of attention for this, and presumably saw this as another means of generating income for the company. I spent a little bit of time looking through the list of 'books' (actually, most were short stories) to see if there was anything that appealed.  Stories spun from works that I knew well? The closest I could find was this, "The Newspaper Girl" by Colton Balvanz - a short story using a minor character from Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse-Five .  Debbie Fisher...

Wow. This was incredible! I would count Grady Hendrix as one of my favorite authors, based, now, on the last six fiction novels of his I've read. His books are dark and quirky, a fantastic blend of horror and coming of age. I thought that this book was the least dark and horrific (in the supernatural sense) and not nearly as gore-filled. Oh ... there's plenty of blood and gore - there are teens having babies, after all. But while it seems lighter on the gore, it's got a powerful message that really is as dark and sinister as the witches. It is 1970 and young girls who are unwed but 'in a family way' are an embarrassment to their families and subsequently shipped off to homes for 'loose girls' and 'wayward girls.' One such home is the Wellwood Home in St. Augustine, Florida where the no-nonsense matron runs a tight ship and makes the girls earn their stay by doing chores before giving birth. The girls are also 'encouraged' to sign the necessar...

The novel follows Zachareth, first as a young boy living in his father's castle, Castle Talon. Moving into his teens, Zachareth is like a lot of boys his age - he doesn't get along with his father, he hates his studies, and, in Zachareth's case, he doesn't trust his father's advisor - the elf Leanna. It is this distrust that drives him as he craves the knowledge and power of Runemagic in order to remove the connection between his father and advisor. Although he plans to study Runemagic, Zachareth is introduced to a powerful, forbidden magic. But taking on this forbidden magic would put him on a dark path that he wouldn't be able to come back from. He is on the crossroads of a major decision when he returns to his home to find his community about to begin a rebellion and is attacked by an enemy from beyond the grave.  The line between being a hero and being a villain is a fine one and Zachareth is about to make his decision.  I did not realize, when I requested t...

Sherry Pinkwhistle is the village librarian. She's also become the local, amateur detective, solving a number of murders. But the number of murders happening in her small New England town, is disturbing to her. Nobody else in town seems to think it's out of the ordinary but Sherry is convinced there's something supernatural afoot. But when Sherry's cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by an ancient demon (and also, possibly, the spirit of the real Lord Crowell) and begins talking to her, she's more certain than ever something must be done. Along with a ragtag assortment of friends (who are not all yet convinced) and the town's newly installed priest (who isn't at all prepared for such things), Sherry creates the village's demon-hunting society. But is there anything they can actually do? Well ... "'According to my cat,' Sherry said, 'it's mostly about whether we believe that it will help.'" This was a reasonably fun c...

Investigator Ana Dolabra and her assistant, Dinios Kol, are called to Yarrowdale, a community at the far edge of the Empire, to investigate what appears to be an impossible crime. A Treasury officer disappeared, abducted from his quarters where the doors and windows were stilled locked from the inside and the entire building is under constant guard. It doesn't take long before Ana and Dinios discover that they are investigating a murder when the officer's body is discovered. The murderer, it appears, has the ability to walk through walls and manages to stay at least one step ahead of Ana while targeting a high-security compound known as The Shroud. This facility houses some of the most brilliant minds in the Empire who work fastidiously to dissect fallen Titans in an attempt to harness the magic in their blood. If The Shroud should fall to the unknown 'ghost' the entire Empire would be at peril as the Titan blood is what keeps the Empire in power. If someone were to ask...

 I fully admit that my main interest in reading this is because of the author, David Ives.  I've seen a number of his short plays (I used to judge high school one act plays and if there was a year without a David Ives play, it was an unusual year).  His plays are tremendously funny and so I thought a book written for young readers would be worth checking out. It is a dark and stormy night in 1609 in the coastal city of MacOongafoondsen (population 21) when a ship washes up on their beach. There's only one figure aboard, and a mighty strange figure it is.  It must be, the people of MacOongafoondsen think, a Frenchman. After all, this ... 'Frenchman' ... doesn't seem to understand them and all he can say is "Eek." By not answering their questions, Monsieur Eek (as he is called by the residents) is found guilty of some local crimes and sentenced to death. Monsieur Eek is, of course, a monkey ... who turns this tiny town into a frenzy. Not surprisingly, author...

Cassandra Reilly works as a translator. She's an American, living in London, when a friend (of a friend), Frankie Stevens, calls and asks for her help. The friend (of a friend) needs someone who is fluent in Spanish to accompany them to Barcelona to locate her missing husband, Ben. Cassandra sees this is an easy assignment and jumps at the chance to go to Barcelona on someone else's dime for some simple translating work. But it doesn't take long for Cassandra to realize that she may have been lured to the job under false pretenses as truths about the situation may have been withheld or obfuscated altogether. While finding herself caught up in the search for Ben amid the lies and deceit, Cassandra finds herself reconnecting and caught between two former lovers, Ana and Carmen, making her Barcelona visit anything but the fun adventure she was expecting. I thought that the beginning few chapters of the book, the set-up of our central characters ("Frankie reminded me of a ...

 Ethan Pitowski is afraid of just about everything, so when he (along with the entire class) is invited to a classmate's house to watch a horror movie, Ethan isn't too keen on the idea - even though it is the most popular by in school. Ethan's friends, knowing of Ethan's fears, encourage him to attend anyway. It's hard for Ethan to say no to someone like Olivia. But when Ethan shows up, the horror is far more than he could imagine in his worst nightmares! The movie is one that was once thought to be lost and is considered by every single person who's ever survived seeing it, as the scariest movie ever made! And the worst part is, it isn't just a movie - it is coming to life! The movie IS the monster and it's eating Ethan's friends ... or their heads, anyway - the rest of them seems just fine. But Olivia is missing and no matter how scared Ethan is, rescuing Olivia comes first. In addition to finding his best friend, Ethan needs to find a way to stop ...

 For no reason that anyone can understand, Earth's moon one day quite unexpectedly turns into a massive, round cheese ball (or, as NASA refers to it - "a newly developed organic matrix"). The moon appears to have the same mass but it has increased in size. It is also causing some massive ejections of its organic material as pressure on the core increases. One such organic ejection sends a massive hunk of cheese toward earth, which could be more destructive than the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs. For one entire lunar cycle, citizens of Earth debate and reflect on what's happening and how they want to see the end of the world. There probably isn't anyone writing better writing light, humorous, science fiction than John Scalzi. While I personally prefer his space opera sci-fi (ie the Old Man's War series, The Interdependency series, or even the non-space opera but hard-hitting Lock In series), the general reading public seems to like his humorous work ev...

 Una Chin-Riley is the poster girl for Starfleet: smart, driven, and dedicated. She's a by-the-book student, not afraid to ask questions and to quote the manual when she thinks something is being done incorrectly.  And like all really good students, she's also active in extra-curricular activities.  She's often the lead in the Academy-produced opera and she has sympathies for displaced peoples and works with groups to help people seeking asylum. Christopher Pike is an ensign, having only recently graduated from the Academy, he's back at Starfleet waiting for a hearing for an incident during his short tenure on the ship.  He's asked to give a lecture to students ... he's closer in age to them  (compared to the usually retired people who lecture) and yet he's got actual starship experience. Pike takes a liking to Una, despite her being so by-the-book and his realizing 'the book' doesn't have all the answers out in space. 25 years later, Christopher...

STAR TREK WEEK  It's never been told before, but finally we can read about the final mission of the Starship Enterprise . It's been five years and Captain Kirk and his crew have encountered many new life forms and discovered many inhabited worlds but will this mission bring about the end of the Federation itself? The mission brings Kirk full circle as they head to Archernar IV, where Kirk had his first mission as the Enterprise captain. The natives here are essentially giant, intelligent spiders, and their beasts of burden are centipedes. The story mostly looks at character growth.  How much have Kirk and Spock and bones matured, as people and as Starfleet officers during the past five years. I found this to be a well-written, interesting story and the art was generally okay (I miss the work of Gordon Purcell who worked on a number of different Star Trek comics) but there are enough oddly drawn scenes to take me out of the story. I've randomly opened to a couple of page...

STAR TREK WEEK In 2024, investigative reporter Melinda Silver tries to track down whatever happened to Gillian Taylor, an influential marine biologist who walked away from a great job at Sausalito’s Cetacean Institute, never to be heard from again. Slowly, Melinda begins to put together a picture of the people she had been with - people for whom there is no other searchable data. The only possibility it too far out there to possibly be true. In 2268, Captain James T. Kirk must delve into unknown, and off-limits territory in order to rescue and recover a Federation scientist whose secrets are wanted not only by the Federation, but by the Klingon Empire as well. In 2292, the Klingons, Romulans, and the Federation come together for a joint mission when the Osori, a race so ancient that they consider the other three races 'young.' But the mission begins to unravel when an Osori enjoy is killed and each believes the other is responsible. Author Greg Cox weaves each of these three st...