Saturday, the Twelfth of October
Norma Fox Mazer
Lizzie Skurnick Books
Fiction, YA Sci-Fi
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Fourteen-year-old Alexandra "Zan" Ford lives in a crowded apartment with her mother, father, brothers, aunt, and cousins, but she feels alone.
Nobody really notices anyone in the city, not even family. They're all too busy to talk to her about the many questions she has about life, about growing up, about
all sorts of things. Her only outlet is her diary - so when her brother steals it to read aloud to his friends, Zan snaps. She runs out of the house to her favorite
place, the boulder in Mechanix Park... and somehow slips thousands of years back in time. Primeval forests spread across the land. Strange creatures like giant ground
sloths roam about. Then she meets the nearly-naked girl and boy, and she learns just how far from home she's come.
Burrum and her friend Sonte went to the meadow to see if the honey blossoms were in bloom - but found instead an impossible girl, a stranger who speaks in odd sounds
and covers her whole body as though weak or ashamed. Burrum is certain this stranger, Meezzan, was sent by the spirits to be her new friend, and leads her home to the
caves of the People. But Diwera, the "Wai Wai" or wise woman, has doubts. In the past, strangers always meant trouble, and the peculiar items Meezzan carries have
powers beyond her own. If nobody else will heed her warnings, she may just have to take matters into her own hands.
REVIEW: I first read this book many, many years ago, and it left a strong enough impression on me that I figured it deserved a re-read when I saw it available
via my library's Overdrive service. Mazer constructs an elaborate primitive society, one about as different from Zan's modern world as night from day. Everyone knows
everyone else, and they're always talking or touching or sharing, with a deep-rooted emotional awareness and little to no concept of privacy, plus a culture that binds them
almost on an intuitive level - one that Zan, hard as she tries, can never fully tune into. Some parts may read stilted today, but the People still come across as individuals, if individuals functioning on often-alien wavelengths. Their culture ties into the theme of Zan's journey,
about what it means to be human in general and a young woman in particular (there's a moderately strong subplot about puberty and menstruation), and how she's not crazy for feeling lost in a society that's abandoned some of its most important aspects in its rush to embrace progress.
This theme is even more relevant in today's society, with electronic communication too often ousting personal connection, than it was when Mazer wrote this in 1975. Though
Zan means no malice or harm, her presence creates ripples through the close-knit society that herald changes to come, an unwitting snake in the garden from which
tragedy must inevitably result. This isn't a story of modern humans bringing wisdom and enlightenment to primitive natives, but of civilization as a slow, inevitable rot that has cost
us in ways we've forgotten to count. Misunderstandings compound, distrust breeds, but there is some sliver of hope that what was lost may be relearned. It's not a neat
and perfect ending, for Zan or anyone else, but an authentic one, enough to warrant a Good rating despite some wandering now and again (and the occasionally forced feel
of the primitive dialog, as Mazer attempts to convey the alien mindset of the People.)
You Might Also Enjoy:
The Ancient One (T. A. Barron) - My Review
The Transall Saga (Gary Paulsen) - My Review
Steel (Carrie Vaughn) - My Review
Monday, October 31, 2016
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Unwanted: Dead or Alive (Gene Shelton)
Unwanted: Dead or Alive
(The Buck and Dobie series, Book 1)
Gene Shelton
Pecos Press
Fiction, Western
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Cowboys Buck Hawkins and Dobie Garrett may not be famous or wealthy or even particularly intelligent, good-looking, or ambitious, but they do all right for themselves. At least they have a good job with an honest boss in the Texas Panhandle, roping strays and tending livestock for the modest Singletree ranch... or they used to. Just when the region's being hammered with the hardest winter in memory, an overstuffed pig of a banker turns up to foreclose on the property, and that's just the start of their troubles. A fight with a drunkard leaves the other man dead, and false accusations of horse theft and cattle rustling put a price on their head. It was hard enough finding a job in a changing frontier - now they can't show their heads in town without someone trying to shoot it off. While Buck wonders how long it'll take to be hung, Dobie comes up with the perfect solution. If the world's forced them to ride the "owlhoot trail" anyway, he reckons, why not turn outlaw for real? It has to pay more than a cowboy makes these days - and maybe they can even get that banker pig back and help their old boss with the cash. There's just one problem with Dobie's plan: neither one of them could steal an egg from a chicken, let alone money from a bank.
REVIEW: This lighthearted Western takes a little while to find its stride, but once it does it's an amusing romp, full of spirited horses and fast getaways and colorful cowboy jargon in a trope-riddled Wild West. Buck and Dobie are close friends, and where Dobie leads Buck always follows, but they just plain aren't suited to the outlaw life; Buck's too nervous and kindhearted, and Dobie, despite his tough talk and more worldly experience, is better at (cow) pie-in-the-sky ideas than actually planning, let alone executing, a crime. They also have the worst luck a pair of cowpokes ever had. Nevertheless, they persevere, in part because Dobie insists they'll learn the trade eventually and in part because they really have no choice. About halfway through their efforts, they encounter Marylou, a sharp city girl looking for some excitement and adventure on the range. She becomes key to their minimal successes, a fun and unladylike addition to the duo's dynamics. It all builds up to their great moment of revenge - which, naturally, goes completely haywire when real outlaws become involved. There's nothing hugely deep or original or startling here, but it makes for a fun, quick read.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Vengeance Road (Erin Bowman) - My Review
Six-Shooter Tales (I. J. Parnham) - My Review
A Sky So Big (Ransom Wilcox and Karl Beckstrand) - My Review
(The Buck and Dobie series, Book 1)
Gene Shelton
Pecos Press
Fiction, Western
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Cowboys Buck Hawkins and Dobie Garrett may not be famous or wealthy or even particularly intelligent, good-looking, or ambitious, but they do all right for themselves. At least they have a good job with an honest boss in the Texas Panhandle, roping strays and tending livestock for the modest Singletree ranch... or they used to. Just when the region's being hammered with the hardest winter in memory, an overstuffed pig of a banker turns up to foreclose on the property, and that's just the start of their troubles. A fight with a drunkard leaves the other man dead, and false accusations of horse theft and cattle rustling put a price on their head. It was hard enough finding a job in a changing frontier - now they can't show their heads in town without someone trying to shoot it off. While Buck wonders how long it'll take to be hung, Dobie comes up with the perfect solution. If the world's forced them to ride the "owlhoot trail" anyway, he reckons, why not turn outlaw for real? It has to pay more than a cowboy makes these days - and maybe they can even get that banker pig back and help their old boss with the cash. There's just one problem with Dobie's plan: neither one of them could steal an egg from a chicken, let alone money from a bank.
REVIEW: This lighthearted Western takes a little while to find its stride, but once it does it's an amusing romp, full of spirited horses and fast getaways and colorful cowboy jargon in a trope-riddled Wild West. Buck and Dobie are close friends, and where Dobie leads Buck always follows, but they just plain aren't suited to the outlaw life; Buck's too nervous and kindhearted, and Dobie, despite his tough talk and more worldly experience, is better at (cow) pie-in-the-sky ideas than actually planning, let alone executing, a crime. They also have the worst luck a pair of cowpokes ever had. Nevertheless, they persevere, in part because Dobie insists they'll learn the trade eventually and in part because they really have no choice. About halfway through their efforts, they encounter Marylou, a sharp city girl looking for some excitement and adventure on the range. She becomes key to their minimal successes, a fun and unladylike addition to the duo's dynamics. It all builds up to their great moment of revenge - which, naturally, goes completely haywire when real outlaws become involved. There's nothing hugely deep or original or startling here, but it makes for a fun, quick read.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Vengeance Road (Erin Bowman) - My Review
Six-Shooter Tales (I. J. Parnham) - My Review
A Sky So Big (Ransom Wilcox and Karl Beckstrand) - My Review
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Some Like It Perfect (Megan Bryce)
Some Like It Perfect
(A Temporary Engagement series, Book 3)
Megan Bryce
Amazon Digital Services
Fiction, Romance
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: In her mid-thirties, Delia still embodies the stereotypical college dropout, perpetually broke and more interested in her painting than in savings or making long-term plans... but, even though her friend Justine lets her crash on her couch for nothing, the romance of suffering for one's art eventually wears thin, even for a girl raised on a hippie commune. So, when Justine brings her an offer to paint a high-powered CEO's office ceiling, Delia swallows her pride and steps up to the job, even if it means climbing a hated scaffold and working around the arrogant embodiment of every capitalist ideal she's spent her whole life rejecting. But the moment she first lays eyes on Jack Cabot, sparks fly.
Jack didn't even want his office redecorated, but when his mother insists, he can't bring himself to turn her down. She's had more than her share of tragedy, after all, having buried two husbands and turned into a virtual recluse out of grief. Chaotic Delia brings everything into his office that he's spent his forty years denying: spontaneity, a rejection of material wealth as the measure of a life, and a refusal to submit to authority. So why can't he stop thinking about her? And why, after seeing what love cost his mother, is he now wondering what he's been missing by refusing to let love into his life?
REVIEW: Romances can make nice palate-cleansers between heavier works. They're usually fairly quick reads (as this one was - I read it in half a day, breaks included), with no great surprises so far as the general thrust of the plot goes. Here, however, I found some sour notes in the usual, familiar harmony, enough to disrupt my overall enjoyment. Delia and Jack aren't particularly deep as characters go, spending more time denying their star-crossed attraction than is strictly necessary... until Delia, the ultimate hippie-raised girl who proudly rejects society's standards and authority figures, lets one shrewish comment almost completely destroy her. (No spoilers, but the threat made zero sense, as there'd been no indication of anything resembling truth behind it... nor did it make sense that Delia latched onto it so readily and stupidly.) For large parts of the story, Jack and Delia are shunted to the side by other characters. Jack's teenaged half-sister, Augustus, sticks her growing pains squarely in the middle of the romance - and is inexplicably welcomed into their oddly cozy group, her anticlimactic issues mostly serving to distract the would-be-lovebirds from each other. Delia's roomie Justine is going through a midlife crisis with regards to her planned dream of family life and her lukewarm feelings toward her long-term boyfriend Paul, who doesn't seem interested in even spending weekends together, let alone marriage and fatherhood. Justine decides to take matters into her own hands by skipping her birth control - and here is where the book really falls flat and hard on its face. Justine and Paul's storyline falls back on every sexist stereotype in the book: all women want to be mothers and will become pregnant by any means necessary, while all men are grunting cavemen who only ever settle down because "their" woman tells them to, and because they're allowed to get out of really messy parts of parenthood because they're guys. Oh, and "oopsing" a man into marriage works, because he'll just get plastered and decide, yeah, he really does want to be a father enough to forgive the betrayal even though he'd been having second thoughts about the relationship beforehand. Yes, this was indeed written in the 21st century. I'm aware that this is a "thing" in some subgenres of romance, that some people find this relationship idea attractive, but I'm not one of them. The optimist in me wants to believe we've come farther than that, that maybe communication ought to be attempted before sabotaged contraception, while the pessimist just thanks her lucky stars she's never been that desperate to fulfill a picket-fence dream, if that's what it takes to get it. A manufactured crisis or two occurs between the leads and the secondary characters, and finally the story ends without me ever really caring about any of them. All around, it's not a terrible story, but mostly bland, with too much competition from side characters that muddle the tale - not to mention some very irritating and backwards messages on love.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) - My Review
Almost Perfect (Julie Ortolon) - My Review
Feel the Heat (Kathryn Shay) - My Review
(A Temporary Engagement series, Book 3)
Megan Bryce
Amazon Digital Services
Fiction, Romance
**+ (Bad/Okay)
DESCRIPTION: In her mid-thirties, Delia still embodies the stereotypical college dropout, perpetually broke and more interested in her painting than in savings or making long-term plans... but, even though her friend Justine lets her crash on her couch for nothing, the romance of suffering for one's art eventually wears thin, even for a girl raised on a hippie commune. So, when Justine brings her an offer to paint a high-powered CEO's office ceiling, Delia swallows her pride and steps up to the job, even if it means climbing a hated scaffold and working around the arrogant embodiment of every capitalist ideal she's spent her whole life rejecting. But the moment she first lays eyes on Jack Cabot, sparks fly.
Jack didn't even want his office redecorated, but when his mother insists, he can't bring himself to turn her down. She's had more than her share of tragedy, after all, having buried two husbands and turned into a virtual recluse out of grief. Chaotic Delia brings everything into his office that he's spent his forty years denying: spontaneity, a rejection of material wealth as the measure of a life, and a refusal to submit to authority. So why can't he stop thinking about her? And why, after seeing what love cost his mother, is he now wondering what he's been missing by refusing to let love into his life?
REVIEW: Romances can make nice palate-cleansers between heavier works. They're usually fairly quick reads (as this one was - I read it in half a day, breaks included), with no great surprises so far as the general thrust of the plot goes. Here, however, I found some sour notes in the usual, familiar harmony, enough to disrupt my overall enjoyment. Delia and Jack aren't particularly deep as characters go, spending more time denying their star-crossed attraction than is strictly necessary... until Delia, the ultimate hippie-raised girl who proudly rejects society's standards and authority figures, lets one shrewish comment almost completely destroy her. (No spoilers, but the threat made zero sense, as there'd been no indication of anything resembling truth behind it... nor did it make sense that Delia latched onto it so readily and stupidly.) For large parts of the story, Jack and Delia are shunted to the side by other characters. Jack's teenaged half-sister, Augustus, sticks her growing pains squarely in the middle of the romance - and is inexplicably welcomed into their oddly cozy group, her anticlimactic issues mostly serving to distract the would-be-lovebirds from each other. Delia's roomie Justine is going through a midlife crisis with regards to her planned dream of family life and her lukewarm feelings toward her long-term boyfriend Paul, who doesn't seem interested in even spending weekends together, let alone marriage and fatherhood. Justine decides to take matters into her own hands by skipping her birth control - and here is where the book really falls flat and hard on its face. Justine and Paul's storyline falls back on every sexist stereotype in the book: all women want to be mothers and will become pregnant by any means necessary, while all men are grunting cavemen who only ever settle down because "their" woman tells them to, and because they're allowed to get out of really messy parts of parenthood because they're guys. Oh, and "oopsing" a man into marriage works, because he'll just get plastered and decide, yeah, he really does want to be a father enough to forgive the betrayal even though he'd been having second thoughts about the relationship beforehand. Yes, this was indeed written in the 21st century. I'm aware that this is a "thing" in some subgenres of romance, that some people find this relationship idea attractive, but I'm not one of them. The optimist in me wants to believe we've come farther than that, that maybe communication ought to be attempted before sabotaged contraception, while the pessimist just thanks her lucky stars she's never been that desperate to fulfill a picket-fence dream, if that's what it takes to get it. A manufactured crisis or two occurs between the leads and the secondary characters, and finally the story ends without me ever really caring about any of them. All around, it's not a terrible story, but mostly bland, with too much competition from side characters that muddle the tale - not to mention some very irritating and backwards messages on love.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) - My Review
Almost Perfect (Julie Ortolon) - My Review
Feel the Heat (Kathryn Shay) - My Review
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Range of Ghosts (Elizabeth Bear)
Range of Ghosts
(The Eternal Sky series, Book 1)
Elizabeth Bear
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the wake of the Great Khan's death, warring brothers destroy the vast Qersnyk empire he built until the steppe grasses turn red with blood and the sky black with vultures, as the moons that mark the Khan's heirs vanish from the night skies. When Temur, son of the rightful heir, wakes alone on a battlefield, he turns his back on war and power struggles, hoping for a simpler life as he joins refugees fleeing the embattled realm... but after ghostly attacks steal his new lover, Temur must brave sorcery and hardship to rescue her - and may be riding straight into a trap.
Samarkar-la was once a princess, but her marriage ended in humiliation and disaster. Rather than be another pawn in her brother's quest for power, she instead goes to the Citadel to undertake training as a wizard. Even if she never finds her power, the training process leaves her barren, never to bear a child who might be used to threaten the Ragan crown. It's a better life than she might have hoped to live - but not without dangers, as she discovers when she is sent to investigate the fate of a fallen city and discovers instead a sorcerous taint and an unspeakable atrocity.
As Temur and Samarkar soon discover, dark forces lurk behind the unrest spreading across the land, forces bound to an ancient enemy known as the Sorcerer-Prince or Carrion-King, who rose from the mortal plane to challenge the very gods in the heavens in a conflict that nearly destroyed the world.
REVIEW: I've been meaning to try Elizabeth Bear's work, so when this title came up in Tor's eBook-of-the-month club, I figured I'd give it a try. She bases this world on Asian mythology, centered around steppelands and a nomadic race of conquerors in the vein of Genghis Khan and his Mongols. It lends the work a nicely exotic flavor, albeit one that took a while for my American mind to adapt to, with some interesting mind's-eye-candy. The skies of a realm change depending on whose culture (and gods) are ascendant, while exotic creatures like the giant rukh bird, living stone talus beasts, and humanoid tigerlike Cho-tse populate the land. Bear takes her time establishing this new world and its quirks, positioning her characters slowly and carefully before finally bringing them together and getting the main plot going, a slow-burn opening that might've frustrated me more if there hadn't been so many neat things to learn and see along the way, and decently-drawn characters to experience them with. Some few plot elements felt a little weak, and I admit I couldn't keep track of all the various realms and some of the peripheral players, but overall I found it a refreshing change of pace from the many pseudo-European fantasies I've read. I expect I'll track down the second volume soon, even if it's not a free download.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Green Rider (Kristen Britain) - My Review
The Blue Sword (Robin McKinley) - My Review
(The Eternal Sky series, Book 1)
Elizabeth Bear
Tor
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: In the wake of the Great Khan's death, warring brothers destroy the vast Qersnyk empire he built until the steppe grasses turn red with blood and the sky black with vultures, as the moons that mark the Khan's heirs vanish from the night skies. When Temur, son of the rightful heir, wakes alone on a battlefield, he turns his back on war and power struggles, hoping for a simpler life as he joins refugees fleeing the embattled realm... but after ghostly attacks steal his new lover, Temur must brave sorcery and hardship to rescue her - and may be riding straight into a trap.
Samarkar-la was once a princess, but her marriage ended in humiliation and disaster. Rather than be another pawn in her brother's quest for power, she instead goes to the Citadel to undertake training as a wizard. Even if she never finds her power, the training process leaves her barren, never to bear a child who might be used to threaten the Ragan crown. It's a better life than she might have hoped to live - but not without dangers, as she discovers when she is sent to investigate the fate of a fallen city and discovers instead a sorcerous taint and an unspeakable atrocity.
As Temur and Samarkar soon discover, dark forces lurk behind the unrest spreading across the land, forces bound to an ancient enemy known as the Sorcerer-Prince or Carrion-King, who rose from the mortal plane to challenge the very gods in the heavens in a conflict that nearly destroyed the world.
REVIEW: I've been meaning to try Elizabeth Bear's work, so when this title came up in Tor's eBook-of-the-month club, I figured I'd give it a try. She bases this world on Asian mythology, centered around steppelands and a nomadic race of conquerors in the vein of Genghis Khan and his Mongols. It lends the work a nicely exotic flavor, albeit one that took a while for my American mind to adapt to, with some interesting mind's-eye-candy. The skies of a realm change depending on whose culture (and gods) are ascendant, while exotic creatures like the giant rukh bird, living stone talus beasts, and humanoid tigerlike Cho-tse populate the land. Bear takes her time establishing this new world and its quirks, positioning her characters slowly and carefully before finally bringing them together and getting the main plot going, a slow-burn opening that might've frustrated me more if there hadn't been so many neat things to learn and see along the way, and decently-drawn characters to experience them with. Some few plot elements felt a little weak, and I admit I couldn't keep track of all the various realms and some of the peripheral players, but overall I found it a refreshing change of pace from the many pseudo-European fantasies I've read. I expect I'll track down the second volume soon, even if it's not a free download.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Green Rider (Kristen Britain) - My Review
The Blue Sword (Robin McKinley) - My Review
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