Book Review: Tarnsman of Gor, by John Norman

Original cover, 1980's

Kindle cover, 2016

This post isn't so much a review (well, it is, kind of), but is more about my encounters with the Gor series before I actually tried to read the first book, which probably took place 30 or more years after I saw the series in the bookstore.  I first came across these books when I was a teenager.  They were probably on the shelf near the Conan  books by Robert E. Howard which I was reading and enjoying - in the very small science fiction and fantasy section of the bookstore.  The covers to the Gor books looked similar to the Conan books - the artist Boris Vallejo did many of the paintings for both.  I figured they were probably similar, but somehow I never tried reading any of the Gor books.  I don't really recall why, but it may have been that the print size was really small (similar to the Tarzan and John Carter books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and the horror stories of H. P. Lovecraft) and there was much more prose than dialogue, so this would have been very off-putting for me at the time.  It is one of the reasons I didn't read any Burroughs books back in those days - I found them very intimidating.  So, I put the Gor books out of my mind.

Fast forward several years to my college days.  I made some new friends (one male, one female) who liked reading even more than I did, and were capable of reading several books in a week (very fast compared to my reading speed).  Through our discussions, the Gor books came up.  My female friend talked about how horrible they were.  I believe a phrase she used was something like "the women are slaves and they love it".  Sounded very strange to me.  A while later, a similar discussion came up with my male friends parents.  His mother talked about those books, and said that the first two or three of them were good adventure stories, but after that the volumes devolved into the authors sexual fantasies.  Not exactly rave reviews for the series.

Anyway, during this same period, I had introduced both of my friends to the Mission Earth series of 10 books by L. Ron Hubbard.  Yes - the creator of Scientology.  You'll have to trust me that his science fiction, especially the Mission Earth series and the standalone novel Battlefield Earth, are worth reading.  Mission Earth, which is a science fiction satire about an invasion of Earth, is one of the most entertaining series I've read - granted, I was in college, so my opinion of it may differ now that I am decades older.  When my friends started reading it, they agreed it was very good - so good, in fact, that my male friend read an entire volume while I was away for a 2 hour class.  The different books in the series ranged from 350 to over 500 pages, so to me this was impressive, when it took me 4 - 7 days to finish a 300 page novel.

After they told me how much they were enjoying it, it occurred to me that Mission Earth also had some sexual scenes - some of the characters were into some pretty nasty stuff, particularly in book four, Alien Affair.  So, I wondered:  how bad could the Gor books be?  They were obviously popular - 25 books in print by 1988.  After I got out of college, I started looking around to check them out and found that they were out of print, and they remained so for years - I couldn't even find them at a used book store.

Now fast forward 20+ years.  In 2016, I bought a Kindle and found that the books were available again, and the first book, Tarnsman of Gor, was available really cheap (it was on sale - probably $2 US).  So, I took a chance on it.  I will say that, for their size (200+ to 300+ pages), they are kind of expensive - many of them cost $6.99 to $9.99 for the Kindle version - more expensive than the mass market paperback price.  The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss weighs in at almost 700 pages and is $9.99.  Does that mean they are still popular?

As I started reading Tarnsman of Gor, I immediately realized that this series was strongly influenced by A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (which was written in the 1911 - the first book in the Barsoom series starring John Carter).  In Princess, John Carter is transported to Mars in some fashion (not really explained beyond simple transportation).  In Tarnsman, Tarl Cabot is transported to Gor in a well explained way - I won't reveal how.  Both Mars and Gor are alien controlled worlds.  The location of the planet Gor is interesting, especially when compared with Princess.  This is a concept I'm sure I've seen used before in a few different places, but I've definitely seen it used in a Doctor who story (when Tom Baker was the 4th Doctor).  As in Princess, our protagonist has increased strength due to the lower gravity of the world he has arrived on.

I managed to get through the first five chapters.  The book is only 219 pages long (at least, on the Kindle), so this is about 70 pages into the story.  At this point, I couldn't continue.  While there were some interesting things that were being explained and/or hinted at (such as who the Priest-Kings might really be), and an explanation of how the world has "rules", such as the restriction on technology imposed by the Priest-Kings to keep the civilization in a perpetual Bronze Age (which reminded me of Jack Chalker's Well World concept, where each of the 1,560 hexes of the world has its own climate and ecosystem, as well as restrictions on technology level), I was really put off by the long sections of prose with not much happening.  I mean, there's no action - aside from Tarl explaining how he is being trained, and describing the world around him, there is nothing really happening aside from an occasional conversation.  For me, this would be like taking James Cameron's film Avatar, cutting out 90% of the dialogue and character interaction, and then making the world less colorful and interesting - it would no longer be appealing.  I do have to admit that I did find A Princess of Mars very similar in writing style, and in story elements, but I found it much easier to read than Tarnsman.

So, at this point I stopped, thinking I would get back to it at some point.  Well, it's been a year, and I have no desire to go back and finish it.  I feel that there just wouldn't be enough payoff for the effort to grind through the rest of the book.  I really don't understand why the series has such a large fan base.  According to Wikipedia (article here), the original publisher (DAW) refused to publish anymore books in the series after book 25, citing low sales; John Norman attributed this to feminine influences, since women are slaves who are frequently beaten in the later books.  In 2001, E-Reads took over publishing all of the books, and there are now 34 novels in the series - the latest one published in 2016 - and, apparently, this series is among E-Reads biggest sellers.

To me, this sounds very much like a publishing industry issue, and censorship stemming from criticism and potential harm to reputation.  It reminds me of when I had trouble finding many of Jack Chalker's books at one point.  Specifically, his Dancing Gods series.  On his website, and sometimes in the foreword of some of his books, he would refer to issues in the publishing industry.  Del Rey refused to publish the final book in his Dancing Gods series - their claim was that the books didn't sell well (book 5, Horrors of the Dancing Gods, ended with characters in a tough situation, so Chalker was definitely anticipating some resolution in the final book).  In my experience, in Chalker's later years before his death in 2005, it was next to impossible to find any of his books at a store - until BAEN started publishing his newer books, and in turn started re-publishing some of his more popular older works, like the Saga of the Well World.  If the books couldn't be found anywhere, it sounds like they were selling to me.  These aren't the only instances of strangeness in the publishing industry, but I find it interesting that the Gor series may have had similar issues.

Maybe this book gets better after the halfway point - my impression after looking at the first few pages of book two makes me think not.  And, certainly, the degrading treatment of women in the later books is not something I would be excited to read.  Ultimately, my advice is to stay away from this series - there are much better things to occupy your time with.  While they aren't gritty stories like Gor and Conan, two of my current favorite fantasy series (both Urban Fantasy) are The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher, and the Magic Ex Libris series, by Jim C. Hines - I suspect your time is better spent there, unless you really desire the Bronze Age, alien controlled environment that Gor has to offer.  Additionally, if you do like the Gor series, you might enjoy the Dancing Gods series by Chalker - it is one of the most original treatments of what I would call Sword and Sorcery fantasy (other examples being the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard, and The Guardians of the Flame, by Joel Rosenberg, and perhaps the works of Joe Abercrombie and Anthony Ryan, but I haven't read anything by these last two).

If you have different opinions on this series, I'd be interested in hearing them.  Feel free to leave a comment.

Book Review: Origin, by Dan Brown

This is the fifth Robert Langdon thriller by Dan Brown, and I will rank it in the top two of the five along with The Da Vinci Code (which was the first book of his that I read - and I've read all of his books).  When I heard it was being published this year I was anxiously awaiting it.  While the last two books, The Solomon Key and Inferno, weren't quite as good as The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons (or even Digital Fortress, which isn't a Robert Langdon thriller), I enjoyed the story elements, and I really like Brown's writing style.  As with the other Langdon novels, the subject matter sounded very interesting to me.  In fact, my reaction to the description of the story was stronger than for any of his other books - the premise has earth-shattering ramifications.

Edmond Kirsch, a tech billionaire and former student of Robert's, is about to announce a startling breakthrough that will change *everything* by providing answers to two questions that human beings have been asking for centuries:  Where do we come from? and Where are we going?

Robert is invited to a global presentation at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in Spain, which Edmond plans to broadcast live to the world over the Internet.  Naturally, the announcement is very controversial, chaos ensues at the event, and Langdon finds himself on a desperate quest to find the password needed to complete the broadcast of the presentation to he world, or the information may be lost forever.  Langdon's companion in this adventure is Ambra Vidal, a museum director who helped Kirsch plan the event.  Working behind the scenes is an enemy who is intent on preventing this information from being revealed to the world, putting Langdon and Vidal in danger.

I thought that Origin was a great read, every bit as gripping as The Da Vinci Code.  But there are some major differences in the action of the stories.  The Da Vinci Code starts off with a murder, and then guides Langdon through a maze of mysterious symbols and puzzles that Langdon needs to decipher, leading him to numerous physical locations before reaching the conclusion.  Origin spends the first 100 pages or so working up to Edmond's presentation, after which the real quest begins, and the number of symbols and puzzles is significantly smaller in this story.  But, as with Brown's other novels, Origin is an onion, and there are many layers.  The story keeps the reader engaged with fascinating information - even during the 100 pages that lead-up to the presentation, where there is very little action.  Of course, to the reader, everything is not always as it seems, and Brown will keep the reader guessing until the very end.

Unlike the other Langdon novels, Origin is much more focused on technology, and is very reminiscent of Brown's first book, Digital Fortress.  Edmond made his fortune by creating several gadgets that we learn more about as the story progresses - so the story is filled with gadgets from the very beginning.  Central to the story is a rather impressive piece of technology which aids Langdon and Vidal on their quest.

In the end, when Edmond's revelation is finally revealed, it was not what I would have expected.  In fact, I had no idea what to expect.  But I will say that Kirsch's presentation is very thought-provoking, and it ends the story in a great way.  The plots twists and turns continue right up until the end, which was very satisfying.  If you enjoyed the other Langdon thrillers, you should enjoy this one.

Once again, I'm always interested in hearing from others.  Whether you've read the book, or my review aided in your decision to read it, I'd like to hear from you.  Feel free to leave a comment.

Book Review: Heart of Stone, by Leo Romero

I have fallen behind in my posts - this is the first one in a while.  Hopefully I can continue a regular cadence after this.

I have to say, I don't really read a lot of urban fantasy.  The main one I read is The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, and there hasn't been a new book since May of 2014.  Since the first book of his Cinder Spires series was published in 2015, my expectation that it will be another year or two before the next volume, Peace Talks (book #16), will appear.  I've been getting antsy and frustrated, and have been seeking similar works of fantasy to scratch that itch (and, no, The Aeronaut's Windlass did not scratch the same itch - I liked it, but it is very different).

While trying to find something to scratch this itch, I came across a book for the Amazon Kindle called Black Spark, which is the first book in a series called Dark Magic Enforcer.  It sounded neat, so I checked it out.  It was very heard to get into, but somewhere around the halfway point it started to get pretty good  While I do intend to check out book 2 at some point, it didn't quite reduce the itch.  You can find my review here on my blog.

Then, I came across Libriomancer, by Jim C. Hines - see review here on my blog.  This is the first book in the Magic Ex Libris series, and was most excellent!  I highly recommend it, and I will definitely be reading the next three books in the series - I've heard from Mr. Hines that no other volumes are currently planned, but wouldn't object to doing another.  I also highly recommend his book Goblin Quest (review here), and while it isn't Urban Fantasy, it is an interesting twist on the standard fantasy dungeon crawl type of story - a very interesting twist.

Now, why all this preamble?  And what does any of this have to do with Heart of Stone, a book by a completely different author?  Well, it turns out that Libriomancer is a very original story, and it makes references to many other stories.  At one point in Libriomancer, the protagonist utilizes a magical item from an urban fantasy novel called Heart of Stone.  It sounded pretty cool, so I went searching for it on Amazon.  There are many books that have Heart of Stone in the title (many of them mysteries or romance novels), but I came across this one, and it looked very much like Urban Fantasy.  But, the story didn't sound like one that would include the magical item which was referenced.  It turns out, the book Heart of Stone was created specifically for the story line of Libriomancer - it doesn't actually exist!  So, I came across this book by accident.

Anyway, the ratings for Heart of Stone were high enough, and the story sounded interesting, and I got a sale price on Amazon, so I decided to take a chance on it.  The style of the story very much reminds me of The Dresden Files - the major difference being that the protagonist of the story, Gabriel Stone, is half-human and half-angel.  Like Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, he uses some magic, a magic imbued shotgun, and a magical sword - namely Excalibur from the King Arthur legend.  He also has a very interesting deck of cards - kind of a variation of the Deck of Many Things from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons - and he's an expert poker player who loves to gamble (something that the Big Guy above kind of frowns on - he's half-angel, remember).

For me, I found the story line followed a formula similar to The Dresden Files novels:  things start off strange, something bad happens, an attempt is made to enlist aid and things get worse, the protagonist recovers and makes some progress, things get bad again, and then really bad stuff happens - in this case the end of the world is imminent.

I thought this was a great read, there were several surprises, and Gabriel shows he is not an all powerful hero by screwing up a few times.  Oh, did I mention that he can be kind of a wise-ass as well?  Yeah, kind of like Harry Dresden (he comes up with some funny names for some of his opponents).  Of course, the fact that he's half-angel and does things that can get him into major trouble with the Head Honcho of Heaven makes him a bit different.  I'm not usually a fan of books which contain religious elements such as this, but there are exceptions.  The Didymus Contingency by Jeremy Robinson leaps immediately to mind - see my review here.  In this story, aside from the angels and demons, it is all on the periphery.  The author did a good job of keeping my interested, and I really wanted to see how things would turn out, and I will definitely be checking out book 2 at some point - it is already in my queue, but may take me some time to get there.

So, if you also feel like there is a major void in your life caused by the lack of a new Dresden book, and you are looking for some salve to heal your wounds, check this one out.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from those who read my reviews, especially if you have read the book yourself, or if my review gave you a desire to read it.  Please leave a comment.

Book Review: Libriomancer, by Jim C. Hines

This was the first book by this author that caught my eye.  I've grown tired of waiting for the next Dresden Files book to come out.  Skin Game came out three years ago and there is no sign of a release date for Peace Talks yet.  I miss the days when there was a new Dresden book just about every year.  I had a need to feed my fantasy appetite with something similar.  During my search, the first book I came across was Black Spark, by Al K. Line.  It was difficult to get into at first, but got much better by the end.  My review is here on my blog:

The second series I discovered was Magic Ex Libris, to which Libriomancer is the first book.  The concept intrigued me - I'd never seen anything like it before.  The fact that a major author like Patrick Rothfuss (The Name of the Wind) enjoyed this book and found it original helped fuel my desire to read it.  I read a sample chapter and found it interesting.  Then I came across a blurb somewhere which made a reference to Goblin Quest, also by Hines.  In this blurb, it was mentioned that Wil Wheaton (yes, Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and host of the Tabletop web series on Geek & Sundry) called Goblin Quest, and I quote:  "Too f***ing cool for words!".  I immediately had to shift gears and check this book out.  I enjoyed Goblin Quest immensely, and my review can be found here.

Afterward, I got distracted by a few other books, and when I came across a reduced price for Libriomancer I grabbed it immediately.  It does not disappoint.  The magic employed by the central character Isaac Vaino and his fellow Porters is very unique indeed.  I like to think of this book as a cross between The Dresden Files and Silverlock (or for modern day readers, perhaps Ready Player One, but change the video game references into references to fiction novels).

When you were younger, did you ever dream that elements of science fiction novels or films were real?  Did you ever wish you could wield Luke Skywalker's light saber from Star Wars?  Or use a phaser from Star Trek to vaporize a Klingon on the warpath?    Or wield King Arthur's legendary sword Excalibur?  Or have your own pet Mogwai from the Gremlins film?

Well, a libriomancer could live out such fantasies.  Put simply, a libriomancer has the ability to pull objects, and sometimes small creatures, from the pages of a book, and use them in the real world.  As long as it is smaller than the pages of the book, it can be pulled from the book and used.  This is an amazing concept!  And, we quickly start to learn that while this type of magic is useful, it is also incredibly dangerous.

The story started off a little slowly, but rapidly picked up speed and wouldn't let me go.  Someone has been killing Porters and vampires, seemingly in an attempt to start a war.  Isaac pairs up with a dryad named Lena Greenwood to try and learn who is behind the murders.  We learn some amazing things about Lena and her origins, about libriomancy and the Porters in general, and about the large community of vampires in the Michigan area.  I found the ideas in this book just as interesting and engaging as anything I've read in The Dresden Files series.

This book even contains a bibliography at the end which includes many of the books referenced (though certainly not all of them).  I'm hoping the additional volumes do the same thing.  A few other novels which are referenced include:

•    Dune
•    The Odyssey
•    The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

The bibliography also lists references to fictional novels which were invented by the author for use in the story.  I went hunting for one of them, because the concept sounded cool, and I couldn't find it.  I learned later that the book was fake from its appearance in the bibliography!

This was a fantastic read and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has enjoyed The Dresden Files and feels that Jim Butcher is writing too slowly.

As always, if you have read this book, I'd be happy to hear from you.

Book Review: Tsuchigumo: A Kaiju Thriler

On Amazon, this book is listed as "A Kaiju Thriller", and more specifically as a "Project Arachne novella book 1" and was first published in November of 2015.  Since then, the author has released two other books:  Blue Moon (a Jeremy Walker Thriller), and Kaiju Epoch (described as "Blue Moon side stories").  A new author tackling More than one series at once?  That's pretty ambitious.  I wonder if there is some influence from Jack L. Chalker (who I think was the reigning king of running multiple science fiction series simultaneously for a long time - James Patterson might be the current king in thriller-land these days), Philip Jose Farmer, Jim Butcher, or Jeremy Robinson.  But none of them did this right out of the gate - they published a few standalone novels first.  As of the writing of this post, Titan's Unleashed (Jeremy Walker #2) was recently released, and it looks like the second "Project Arachne novella", titled Chimera, will be released sometime in 2018 - I can already say I'm going to want to read it when it comes out.

Tsuchigumo is your typical giant monster movie (in the tradition of Godzilla - but this takes place in America) in book form.  If you look at the cover closely, you can tell that the monster is a giant spider (you may need to enlarge the image).  The author is a HUGE fan of Jeremy Robinson's Project Nemesis series (as am I).  Originally, Blue Moon caught my eye on Amazon, but then I noticed a comment from the author that Tsuchigumo is his best reviewed book, so I took a chance on that one first.

I did enjoy this story, the characters, and the fact that it mostly takes place near Roswell, New Mexico.  While the story itself does not break much new ground, there were original elements to the story that kept it entertaining.  There are several interesting aspects to the monster - some of them were very unexpected for me.  I will also state that it is very obvious that this is the authors first novel - there are many spelling and grammar mistakes throughout the book, but the story was engaging enough that I was able to easily overlook these issues.  That is saying something - even with all those errors, I was still interested.  Over the years, there have been many books, some of them considered "classics", or on occasion they were Hugo or Nebula award winners, that I have given up on when less than 50% of the way through - they just couldn't keep me engaged.

While a giant spider isn't exactly an original monster form, the "character" of the monster *is* very original, which makes this unlike any giant monster book or film that I have experienced, so some credit is due here.

At this point, this is the only book by this author that I've read, and I hope that his writing continues to improve in future books.  I know it's possible, as other authors have gone through this experience.  Read the foreword to Jeremy Robinson's The Didymus Contingency - then go on to read the whole book, because it's great!

At some point I expect to be checking out Blue Moon, but it may be a while before I get to it.

Book Review: Pandemic, by A.G. Riddle

I have not yet read The Origin Mystery Trilogy (The Atlantis Gene, The Atlantis Plague, and The Atlantis World) by this author, but in 2016 I read his book Departure, which was an excellent science fiction story.  I've been meaning to read the first book of the Origin Mystery for quite a while, but I've had a bunch of other books on my reading list already.  However, when I saw Pandemic about to be released, I knew I had to read it right away.  This sounded like a major story.

The premise sounds simple.  First, a mysterious sunken submarine is discovered by the US Coast Guard near Alaska.  The submarine has no identification, and has been there for decades.  The boarding party suspects they will find evidence that could change the course of human history, and they do find something.  Second, there is an outbreak of a deadly new pathogen in Africa, specifically in Kenya.  The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) send experts to investigate and provide aid.

Pandemic incorporates story elements of several films that I've seen over the years and seamlessly weaves them into an extraordinary thriller.  First and foremost is Outbreak, starring Dustin Hoffman - this seems pretty obvious.  A team is sent to investigate an outbreak, and to try to contain it, followed by the discovery that this is a new pathogen that has a very near 100% mortality rate and spreads very quickly.  The second film that comes to mind is the Ben Affleck vehicle Paycheck, which is based on a Philip K. Dick short story by the same name.  It might seem strange that this story comes to mind, but keep reading - it will make sense shortly.

The final element that Pandemic draws on is what I will call "the search" - films and other stories where the main characters are on a quest for knowledge to solve a mystery that is tied to the past of the characters on the quest, or to the history of the world.  Too many films and stories fall into this category to enumerate them, but one that immediately leaps to mind is Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (if you have some favorites in this category, please comment on this post; my mind is blanking, but I know many exist).

The central character we encounter first is Peyton Shaw, an epidemiologist with her own mysterious past.  She is sent to Kenya as the leader of a team from the CDC which will attempt to contain the outbreak.  Upon arriving in Kenya she quickly learns that the disease they are dealing with is strange and does not fit the typical pattern of an outbreak.  Things become more complicated as she gradually learns that this outbreak somehow seems to be linked to her past.

Desmond Hughes is the second primary character we encounter.  His story is the one that reminds me of Paycheck.  He wakes up in a hotel room in Germany with the dead body of a man who was apparently there to do him harm.  Most of his memories missing, but he has left himself several clues about what is going on.

The characters are well developed, and most of them have very interesting backgrounds, which contributes greatly to the story as the novel reaches its climax.  The flow of the tale remains interesting throughout, as more of the truth is revealed while following the actions of several additional characters.  In the final third of the book there are numerous revelations that I didn't see coming, and we learn more and more about what is really going on.  Of course, we can guess that things won't be resolved a the end - the outbreak won't be stopped.  After all, this is the first book of a planned trilogy (book 2, titled Genome, will be released in October of 2017).

Pandemic is almost 700 pages in length, and is filled with so much story, all of it satisfying, that it boggles my mind that there are two more books coming - I'm assuming with an equivalent length.  I can't wait to see what happens next!  This is the kind of story that should be turned into a TV show - I think it would work better than The Event, which had some similar themes.  I think this would work better than Under the Dome, which was fantastic until the very end.

I have to say that Pandemic is one of the best books I've read this year, and I'm looking forward to many more stories from Mr. Riddle in the future.  If you like the films I mention above, or if you have enjoyed his previous novels, I think you will like Pandemic - check it out.

As always, I would love to hear from people.  If you have read this book, feel free to comment to get some discussion going.

Book Review: Goblin Quest, by Jim C. Hines

There are plenty of fantasy books that involve a party of adventurers who are either on a quest for treasure, or are on a mission to defeat some great evil which is invading their world.  This group of adventurers is typically multi-racial (human, dwarf, elf, halfling, etc), includes a wide range of character occupations (warrior, wizard, thief, cleric, monk, druid, etc), and more often than not contains both male and female members.  The focus of these stories is always around the adventurers themselves, their great companionship, and their ultimate victory in the end after encountering many hardships throughout the story, and sometimes, maybe losing one of their companions at some point during their quest.

  Some good examples of these stories are:

• The Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• The Dragonlance Chronicles, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
• The Guardians of the Flame series, by Joel Rosenberg
• The Belgariad, by David Eddings
• The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen R. Donaldson

I'm sure there are many others that fit this story pattern which I have not read or which I can't remember, and probably many more that I have probably never even heard of.  And, I'm sure that some of them are very good, some are bad, and others are just pale imitations of some other much better work.

Goblin Quest fits the pattern of this type of story, but is actually quite different, and I came across it entirely by accident.  I saw a recommendation for a book titled Libriomancer, by Jim C. Hines.  The concept for this book was unlike anything I had seen before, and I read a sample chapter of it in an effort to feed my longing for the next Dresden Files book.  While researching the book further, I came across a blurb from Wil Wheaton (yes, Wesley Crusher from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and host of the Tabletop web series on Geek & Sundry) about a book which he referred to as:  "Too f***ing cool for words!"  This got my attention in a big way.  I had never heard of this book before, but since I enjoyed the sample chapter of Libriomancer, I decided to read a sample chapter for Goblin Quest, after which I was immediately hooked.

The story focuses on a goblin named Jig who is pretty much the runt-of-the-litter.  He is small, weak, has bad eyesight, and is treated badly by his peers who never let him come on raiding parties with them.  Jig has a pet, which is a fire-spider named Smudge.  Fire-spiders become hot when agitated or afraid - hot enough to cause things that they are touching to burst into flame.

According to the blurb on the book, Jig ends up guiding a group of adventures who have captured him and as a result he "encounters every peril ever faced on a fantasy quest."  Naturally, the adventurers are on a quest for a very powerful magical artifact which they must recover at all costs.

The whole story is told from Jig's point of view.  As he spends time assisting the adventurers, he learns about himself and his race of fellow goblins, finding that the wider world is not what he imagined.  For example, he used to think that all it took to be an expert warrior was being in possession of a magical weapon.  During the course of his adventure, he ends up learning that most of what he has believed for his entire life is wrong.  He learns things about himself, his own people, and his fellow Goblins.  Eventually, he proves his value not only to himself, but to the party of adventurers.

Goblin Quest is a wonderfully entertaining story, filled with adventure, thrills, and humor, and the reader encounters many surprises along the way.  I could not see where the story was heading, and it was a pleasure to read.  As it it turns out, Smudge the fire-spider was familiar - he is the pet of the main character in the book Libriomancer.  It will be interesting to learn more about that crossover.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an original, funny, dungeon crawl adventure.

If you had read and enjoyed this book yourself, I'd be happy to hear from you - feel free to leave a comment on this blog.

Book Review: Europa Journal, by Jack Castle

This is a particular type of science fiction story that I enjoy.  Humanity finds something unexpected, followed by something that would seem to be impossible, and then people are on a quest to find the truth of what they have found.

In Europa Journal, humanity finds something very mysterious indeed.  In the year 2168, out on the moon Europa, which orbits the planet Jupiter, a five-sided pyramid is discovered on the ocean floor.  The pyramid seems similar to those found on Earth.  Within the pyramid, the body of a World War II pilot is found - a pilot who disappeared in 1945.  The pilot is holding a journal which details what happened to him after he and his crew were abducted by aliens.  To make things more complicated, the names of some people currently present on Europa are mentioned in the journal.

Shortly after this discovery, Mac O'Bryant and her team are transported through a wormhole to a strange planet, where they encounter many strange things.  As the book progresses, two stories unfold simultaneously:  the events which take place involving the pilot after his abduction, and the events which take place involving Mac and her companions, and eventually their paths cross.  There were times when it was initially not clear to me what was happening, or even *when* it was happening, at the start of a new chapter started, but this usually got resolved pretty quickly.

Elements of this book are reminiscent of stories I have read in the past, or even movies that I have seen.  The world that Mac and her team end up exploring reminded me very much of the book Helix, by Eric Brown, where the characters encounter some very interesting forms of life.  From a strangeness perspective, I would say that this story has some elements of Larry Niven's Ringworld as well.  There are also some elements that reminded me of the film Stargate (and the 11-season TV series spinoff).  And, of course, other familiar story elements like alien abduction and the Bermuda Triangle play a part as well.  All of these elements come together to weave a somewhat different story.

This was a refreshing twist on these familiar elements, and was an engaging read throughout, and I was pleasantly surprised that I could not see where the story was heading.  If you are looking for some different treatment of familiar science fiction themes, I would check this one out.

Book Review: The Silver Ships, by S. H. Jucha

This was an interesting read.  I found this book available to read for free in the Amazon Prime Reading offering, and the blurb about the story was interesting.  Two colony ships leave Earth to build new civilizations elsewhere.  After 700 years, they meet again - under disturbing circumstances.  Alex Racine rescues what appears to be a derelict alien ship passing through his civilizations system, and he risks his life to capture it.  Initially, his goal is to be able to claim the ship as salvage before anyone else can get to it.  Ultimately, the ship is very damaged, but ends up not being a derelict:  it contains human passengers who are all in stasis, and an artificial intelligence named Julien.  After working to restore the ship, and interacting with the humans on board, it is revealed that the two colony ships experienced very different histories.

The passengers on the ship, who call themselves Méridiens (naturally named after their colonized world), arrived at their destination and built their colony with relative ease, and achieved significant technological advances (including FTL communication and travel). Their peaceful civilization is called The Confederation, and is made up of numerous colonies across many light-years of space.

Alex's civilization never reached their desired destination and experienced a sequence of disasters that reduced the colony ships population to less that 2,000 people before they were able to recover and start growing again on their new home world which they called New Terra.  They have recovered to the point where they have begun creating an outpost on another planet in their solar system, but have not advanced much further than that.  They rely on capturing asteroids for water and resources, to avoid destroying their environment like they did with Earth (which is why the colony ships left in the first place).

Eventually we learn why the Méridiens ship is in such bad shape. They were unexpectedly attacked over 70 years ago by a strange silver ship, which managed to cripple a freighter in minutes, and seriously damage their ship before they were able to use their FTL to escape. The damage to the ship required crew members to enter stasis to be able to survive.

As it turns out, neither group of humans has the ability to deal with the threat of this silver ship. While the Méridiens are technologically advanced, due to the peaceful way of life that technology has not been focused on military offense and defense. The state of the Confederation is unknown, and their ship requires major repairs. The first half of the story is about the rescue of the Méridiens, and the second is about the two groups of humans working together to prepare for future conflict, while getting the Méridiens back home.

Alex Racine is a very interesting character. He is a genius, and he has a good moral compass. He is always interested in helping, and he almost immediately sides with the people he has rescued. Alex's interaction with the Méridiens, and with Julien, is a major part of the story. Each of the major characters grows as their trust in each other increases.

Julien is an excellent artificial intelligence, and he grows just as the other characters do, when he starts taking a liking to Alex and how he thinks.  Julien is referred to as a SADE (Self Aware Digital Entity), which is a term I've never heard before.

I also thought that the social structure of the Méridiens was interesting. If I understood it correctly, it is similar to the great houses from Frank Herbert's Dune series - just without the conflict and backstabbing (of course, this is all just learned from dialogue with the Méridiens). Although, their society is not perfect, and there are those who don't agree with certain things. They have an interesting solution to dealing with those that do not follow the orders of their House.

This is a good start to the series. It kept me interested, and I liked the characters, but for some reason I don't consider this an easy read. It's not that the language is complicated, but for some reason I could not read this as quickly as some other books that I have enjoyed. It may have been the level of dialogue in this story. But, this is still highly recommended.

Book Review: Anomaly, by Peter Cawdron

This is a first contact story that I found in the Amazon Prime Reading library.  The idea interested me immediately.  The description reminded me a bit of the novel Dragon's Egg - essentially, first contact between two species that are so vastly different, the main question is:  how would they communicate?  In Dragon's Egg, the Cheela are a race of beings the size of a sesame seed which inhabit the surface of a neutron star, and they develop a million times faster than human beings - essentially moving from agriculture to advanced technology within the span of a month on the human calendar.  More information about Dragon's Egg can be found on Wikipedia here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon%27s_Egg


The story for Anomaly sounded somewhat similar, but in this scenario humanity is in the position of the Cheela.  An alien ship lands in Manhattan, and humans can't even recognize it as a ship initially.  The alien intelligence is described as being millions of years ahead of humanity.  Ok - sounds appealing.

The original cover of Anomaly (pictured right) contains a portion of the plaque that was attached to

the Pioneer 10 and 11 spacecraft.  This plaque is mentioned in the story, and leads the primary character, David Teller, a grade school science teacher, to initiate communication with the alien ship.  I have also included a picture of the full Pioneer Plaque, which was attached to the Pioneer spacecraft, immediately below it.   David almost immediately gets paired up with Cathy Jones, a reporter who has been sent on site, and they both assist occasionally with the many scientists who are investigating the ship.

Additional information about the Pioneer Plaque can be found here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque

I have to say that the ship is unlike anything I have seen before, and the process of establishing communication, while it mirrors what I've seen in other stories, is fairly unique in Anomaly.  I also liked the fact that the breakthroughs made in learning about the ship don't just come from genius scientists, showing that anyone can contribute an interesting idea that may progress the situation.

This story covers many subjects:

• Slow progression of communication with the anomaly - trying to communicate when the difference in evolution is measured in millions of years is not easy.
• A debate about the anomaly with religious figures from many faiths who see the anomaly as a threat (and some who don't).
• International implications of first contact, and the jealousy and suspicion of other nations who feel that they aren't getting a fair chance at participation, feeling that the United States is fully in control.
• An exploration of what can happen when dealing with the unknown (riots, etc), and how people in large groups can be motivate by fear to different ends.  I think I first witnessed this kind of thing in the film The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original version from 1951).
• An examination of how peoples opinions of each other can change when they are thrown into a situation way out of their control.

I found Anomaly to be a very interesting and engaging story, although I found the ending to be somewhat underwhelming, in the vein of the film Contact (based on the book by Carl Sagan - while details of the story were interesting, the major buildup led to an incredibly small payoff involving faith).  Desite this, it did not rob me of the pleasure I had reading the story, but I was disappointed it didn't go further.  This isn't the first story that falls into that category, and it certainly won't be the last.  In Anomaly, the major payoff is in the journey to the final breakthrough in the attempts to communicate with the ship.

I would highly recommend this story to anyone who enjoyed Contact, or any number of other first contact stories (including the film Arrival, which I just saw this year).  I'd also like to say that if it wasn't for the Prime Reading program on Amazon, I probably never would have seen this book.  I'd be interested in hearing from others who have read this book, and hear what they thought of it - feel free to comment on this review.  I'd be happy to hear from you.

Book Review: R.I.P.D. by Peter Lenkov

Once again, this was a graphic novel I had never heard of until the movie came out - same as my experience with Hellboy and Men in Black.  In the case of R.I.P.D., I recognized the flavor of the material and suspected it was based on a comic, and a quick search confirmed that.  The trailer for the film looked interesting and amusing (the scene of James Hong using a banana as a gun made me smile, and I typically like Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds), but then it got really bad reviews from critics.  Reviews similar to The League of Extraordinary Gentleman and I lost interest in seeing it.  But, I was interested in its origins as a comic, so I hunted around for it.  It was very difficult to find in hard copy, and after a while I gave up - it wasn't available anywhere.  I recently came across it as a Kindle offering and checked it out.

So, what did I think of it after spending some time hunting for it several years ago?  Well, on the surface, it is a very similar story to the one told in the movie Men in Black.  An older agent who will be retiring soon starts training a new agent to protect the Earth.  Whereas the "Men in Black" are human agents who operate above the law using alien technology to protect Earth from bad aliens, the Rest In Peace Department are law enforcement men who have died and work for Heaven, protecting Earth from demons from hell and their human recruits - apparently they serve for 100 years and then can move on.  Heaven, and the R.I.P.D. is represented in a fashion similar to that of the Albert Brook's film Defending Your Life.  Essentially, it is a lot like Earth - there are offices, people stand in lines, etc.

I found this story to be readable, but rather ordinary and seemingly mediocre after seeing the films for Hellboy and Men in Black.  (IMO the Hellboy film was more entertaining than the graphic novel, and definitely contained much more humor - can't speak to Men in Black, since I haven't read the comic material, and I can't speak to the R.I.P.D. film because I haven't seen it yet.)

It was interesting that Satan makes an appearance in the story, but even that was relatively uneventful.  And, no, the Head Honcho of Heaven does NOT put in appearance (this is pretty consistent with most works that involve Hell and Satan - in fact, deceased humans appear to be the only population in heaven; I don't recall any Angels).  Overall, I didn't find this story to be very engaging, and while there were a few original ideas, ultimately it wasn't enough to keep this story from being underwhelming for me.  Perhaps I've seen and read too much  that was similar to this story?

Despite all of this, reading this book has at least given me a desire to see the film, as bad as it may be.  It looks like they added a new wrinkle to the story in the film - the men who work for the R.I.P.D. do not exist in their own bodies.  Jeff Bridges appears as a blond bombshell, and Ryan Reynolds appears as the elderly James Hong - seems like a recipe for humor to me, which I felt was rather absent from the graphic novel.  Perhaps the film will be similar to The League of Extraordinary Gentleman - mostly awful with a few redeeming and entertaining elements?  I have the R.I.P.D. film set up to record, so hopefully I'll be finding out at some point soon.

Book Review: Fluency, by Jennifer Foehner Wells

This is another book that I came across due to the new Prime reading program on Amazon.  I initially had mixed feelings about it.  First, I was excited, because the theme is one that I really enjoy:  First Contact.  In the 1960's, NASA detects an alien ship in the asteroid belt.  After decades of observation, a mission is sent to attempt to bring the ship back to Earth.  The trip itself is not part of the story - it starts off with the ship Providence approaching the derelict.  There are a few flashbacks to events where the main characters are selected for the mission - in particular, Jane and Alan, and their early interactions, where Alan is an engineer/astronaut from NASA who has been sent to recruit Jane for the mission to the ship, which NASA has been referring to as The Target for many years.  Jane is needed for the mission because she is a world expert on extinct or nearly-extinct language - NASA feels she would have the best chance of deciphering an alien language.  These were all the good expectations.

My hesitancy stemmed from a few things:

• This was an author I was not familiar with.
• There are lots of first contact stories - many of them not very good.
• While this book had many rave reviews, there have been other "free" books available through Prime that had rave reviews, but I didn't think much of (The Galapagos Incident being one of them - lots of boasting about great reviews, but it was kind of slow).
• Several reviews said that this book was a 50/50 split of space adventure and romance.

So, I definitely had some reservations going into this.  While I've read many science fiction stories that contained some intimacy, certainly 50% of the story was not what I would consider to be romance.

From the first sentence, the story pulled me in, and I will say that once the flashback to crew member recruitment started, my concern about the romance aspect started to grow - but that didn't last long.  For me, the relationship that develops between Jane and Alan is not 50% of the story - I felt the level was on par with other things I've read (Robert J. Sawyer's trilogy The Neanderthal Parallax leaps immediately to mind).

For me, this was a really good read.  The derelict ship, and what they find there, was very interesting, and I felt that while there were some elements similar to stories I've read in the past, there was still a good amount of original material here.  It reminded me of several things:

• Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama when I was in college.
• The Infocom text-adventure (yeah, I said "text-adventure") Starcross.
• The novel Saturn Run, by John Sanford, which I read last year.
• The novel The Engines of God, by Jack McDevitt

The ship is filled with interesting technology and dangers, and there are a few nice surprises that I didn't see coming.  There is some new terminology as well, related to the crews experiences on the ship.

Why is the ship here?  Why has the ship been dormant in the asteroid field for decades?  Is the ship empty?

By the end of the book, we get answers to all of these questions, although the story ends somewhat abruptly.  My assumption is that book two picks up precisely where this one leads off, but I'll find out when I get around to reading it.

I'd like to congratulate Jennifer Wells on a job well done.  Not only was the story interesting and well paced, but the writing style keeps the reader engaged.  When I was younger, I remember reading more books like this - books that you just didn't want to put down because you wanted to know what was going to happen next, and the style was very easy to read.  Novels like this are becoming scarce these days.  For example, I enjoyed the first three Game of Thrones novels.  When I got to book four, I spent over 350 pages waiting for something to happen - it just wasn't interesting.

I would suspect that fans of the novels I listed above would enjoy this story.  The romance part is not mushy and actually leads to some interesting moments in the story - I also thought it was fairly realistic.

If you have read this book, whether you enjoyed it or not, I'd like to hear from you.  Please feel free to leave a comment to this review.

Book Review: Hellboy: Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola

I had never heard of Hellboy when the film was first released in 2004.  But, it took one line in the trailer to hook me - Ron Perlman saying "...skip to the end, how do I kill it?"  I enjoyed this film immensely (the sequel The Golden Army - not so much).  Ron Perlman was perfect for the role, John Hurt was most excellent (when is he not?) as the aged Trevor Broom, Rupert Evans was great as Agent Myers, Jeffrey Tambor was perfect as Tom Manning for the comic relief, and Karel Roden made it all work as Grigori Rasputin (his voice was amazingly perfect for this role as well).

I had no idea that this came from a comic story - although, knowing that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Men in Black, and R.I.P.D. all share this origin, I should have been able to guess the same was true for Hellboy.  I did come across some of the graphic novels a short while after the film came out, but I wasn't very impressed with the look of the content - especially given the price tag for such short books.

Recently, I was able to obtain the first story, The Seed of Destruction (basis for the film) for free via Amazon Prime for Kindle, so I decided to read it - I thought it would be interesting to compare the original work with what I thought was a great film.  I have to agree with sentiments that the film is very loosely based on the graphic novel.  Surprisingly, reading the book is almost like reading a different story.  It is a bit darker and was lacking much of the humor that was in the film, and it didn't really flesh out most of the characters very well (although, I think it may have done a better job of explaining the origin of Abe Sapien than the movie did - the film was confusing for me in this area).  So, for me the film was a superior product.  If I'd read the book first, I would say it was a good starting point which was made much better.

A positive of reading the book is that events in the book clearly scream for resolution, which must be revealed in later volumes, and I will say that I am interested in learning more.  I believe I've heard the elements of at least two later graphic novels were used as base material for the second Hellboy film:  The Golden Army.

All in all, this is a story worth checking out, and I think it will be interesting to see if elements of the film, such as the humor, start to appear in later volumes.  As most are aware, films are typically inferior to the books that they are based on.  For me, this is one of the major exceptions.  The book is ok as a starting point, but the film is vastly superior.

If anyone else has enjoyed the film or read the books, let me know what you think.  Which was better for you?

For those who have enjoyed the first film but have not read the books, here a are a few minor spoilers for the book in a list of differences that I observed.  If you aren't interested - STOP HERE.

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Ok, here's a list of things that I noticed were different from the film.

• Trevor "Broom" Bruttenholm is hardly in the story, and his demise is somewhat different.
• Karl Ruprecht Kroenen is a peripheral character - he is only mentioned and plays no part in the story at all, though he makes an actual appearance at the end.  I thought he was a fantastic edition in the film.  I have no idea how much of an appearance he makes in later Hellboy books.
• Ilsa Haupstein, Rasputin's lover, is also missing from the story, making a minor appearance at the very end.
• Hellboy is ultimately not needed to open the gate and free the Ogdru Jahad - Rasputin is able to use the power from Liz to attempt to accomplish this.
• Sammael is a frog monster, and has none of the powers exhibited in the film - much cooler in the film.
• Liz plays a very small part in the story, and there does not appear to be a relationship between Liz and Hellboy.
• Most of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense is not in the story - certainly not Meyers or Manning (at least, not that I noticed).
• Most importantly, Hellboy does not fight one of the seven Ogdru Jahad (which I believe is what came forth from Rasputin at the end of the film).  In the book, they aren't even released from their prison.

That's about all I remember off the top of my head without referring to the book again.

Book Review: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

All right, this was a strange choice for me.

I have read children's books in the past, but the last one I read was the fourth Harry Potter book (Goblet of Fire), and I was feeling that the series was very quickly becoming much darker and falling more and more into the realm of young adult or adult fiction.  I have always been a fan of science fiction, and to a more limited extent, fantasy.

Growing up, I never read any of the Oz books, but I have always been a big fan of the MGM film which was released in 1939.  I used to watch it on TV every year with my brother when we were young children.  In 1989, I even watched the 50th anniversary airing of the film, which included an extra hour of behind-the-scenes material.  When the mini-series Tin Man first aired in 2007 I watched that as well (very dark, less well-imagined, and also less entertaining than The Wizard of Oz).

So, what brought me to read the original novel by L. Frank Baum now?  Naturally, it coincides with another TV show based on Oz.  I am referring to Emerald City, which premiered on January 6th, 2017.  I've seen the first two episodes and while it seemed very slow, it was entertaining, and I realized that the writers must be drawing on other aspects of the Oz series (there were characters I did not recognize), and it made me wonder what the original story was like, compared to the film The Wizard of Oz.  I was aware that the Oz series was popular enough that the following authors (among others) either wrote Oz stories, or incorporated details from Oz into some of their works:

• Philip Jose Farmer - A Barnstormer in Oz
• Robert A. Heinlein - The Land of Oz appears in his book The Number of the Beast
• L. Sprague de Camp (editor of Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories) - Sir Harold and the Gnome King
• Tad  Williams - Otherland, where Oz exists as a virtual reality.

The fact that popular authors included Oz in their own work rounded out my interest, so I did some looking around and was able to acquire the entire series as a Kindle book for free, so I started reading the first book.

I remember years ago reading the foreword to Stephen King's expanded edition of his novel The Stand.  He made a few comments regarding the making of novels into films that, as best as I can recall, are something like the following:

• Movies have a diminishing effect on works of fantasy.
• The film The Wizard of Oz is an exception to this rule.

I have to say that I agree with both of these sentiments.  When I see a film based on a book that I've read, the book is almost always better.  In fact, there are a few other films to that list of exceptions, alongside The Wizard of Oz (to name just a few):

• The Lord of the Rings trilogy from the years 2001 through 2003 - far superior to the books in my opinion.  I was very glad that Tom Bombadil didn't make it into the first film.
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - the James Mason version from 1954.  While interesting, the book was a snooze fest compared to this film - after the appearance of the squid, I couldn't even finish the book.
• Treasure Island - the Robert Newton version from 1950.  The novel was boring and I couldn't even finish it.
• The Silence of the Lambs - the book is a great place to start, but the Academy Award winning film is amazing.
• Misery - I loved this Stephen King book, but the film with James Caan and Kathy Bates (in an absolutely disturbing portrayal of Annie Wilkes) is a winner.

Now, back to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  How does the original story compare with the film?  Well, this may seem strange, but they are both winners, and they are both very different stories.  Despite the fact that this is a children's story first published in 1900, significant portions of the story needed to be removed in order to fit the material into a film that was approximately 90 minutes in length - footage that was shot was in fact cut from the film because it was running too long.

Most people are aware of the significant changes made to the story to make the film (much of this is from the 50th anniversary special with the behind-the-scenes material):

• Dorothy's trip to Oz is actually a dream - Oz it not a real place.
• Her three companions in Oz (the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion) are established as farm hands on her families farm in Kansas.
• The Wizard is established as Professor Marvel in Kansas.
• The Wicked Witch of the West is established as Miss Gulch in Kansas.
• The silver shoes which belonged to the Wicked Witch of the East were changed to ruby slippers.

But, there are many, many additional differences in the story.  One thing that really stood out for me was the claim that one of the writers of the film had Dorothy realize "there's no place like home".  In the book, Dorothy states this to the Scarecrow shortly after they meet, so I wouldn't consider its placing in the film particularly original - but it does fit in nicely with the whole thing being a dream.

Without revealing too many other details (minor spoilers here), the following are also differences in the book:

• The Land of Oz is a real place, and is surrounded on all sides by great deserts which are impassable.
• The North, South, East, and West are all separate "countries";  Gillikin Country to the North, Quadling Country to the South, Munchkin Country to the East, and Winkie Country to the West.  Dorothy travels everywhere but to the North (the Wicked Witch of the West rules Winkie Country, which is never mentioned in the film).
• Glinda is the good witch of the South;  in the movie she lives in the North.
• The flying monkeys aren't exactly the servants of the Wicked Witch of the West - their purpose is much more original than that, and they play a much larger role in the story.
• The trees which speak and throw apples at Dorothy and Scarecrow in the film are quite different in the book, and appear during a different part of the story.
• Much more happens on the journey to the Emerald City, and during their mission to kill the Wicked Witch of the West.  And the Wizard *does* tell Dorothy to kill the Wicked Witch - not to bring him her broomstick.
• The Wizard has separate audiences with Dorothy and her three companions, and the Wizard has a different appearance to each of them (effective for the time, but I like his dark personification in the film).
• The Tin Man has a large backstory which makes his desire for a heart much more convincing.
• The Scarecrow was built and placed in the cornfield the day before Dorothy meets him.

There are even more differences that I won't mention.  Altogether, this makes for a very good story, and begins weaving a tapestry that leaves plenty of room for the future books in the series to flesh things out further.  While I enjoyed learning the new elements of this story, I didn't find this book to be an easy read, which I found odd for a children's book.  There is a lot of prose and very little dialogue compared with the film, and the writing style took some getting used to, but it is definitely worthwhile read, and I see it as an excellent start to a series which has been popular for over 100 years.  I wonder if children are still reading these books today, with so many other choices available?

If you read this series, as a child or as an adult, I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on it.  Please feel free to leave a comment.

Book Review: The Hatching, by Ezekiel Boone

This book immediately caught my eye at the bookstore.  I haven't read a horror book in a while, and this sounded a bit different.  I loved the movie Arachnophobia, and this book involves an ancient race of spiders, so I was interested, and this story sounded darker than that film.  This is a new book by a new author, so I took a chance on it.  I wasn't sure I was going to like it when I first started reading, but it quickly grabbed my interest.

This is a very different story from Arachnophobia, which involves a South American spider which ends up being transported to a small, rural town in the United States, which ends up producing offspring which are extremely poisonous - if you are bitten, you die in something like 10 seconds.  But the action is restricted to this small town, with the threat of the spiders territory expanding and dominating the country.

The Hatching involves an ancient race of spiders which seems to appear in several parts of the world simultaneously.  They are about the size of tarantulas, move in swarms, and have a very different way of killing their victims.  I was reminded very much of the Arachnids in the movie Starship Troopers (though, the Arachnids are the size of a cow).  The life cycle of these spiders is more horrifying than the spiders in Arachnophobia - it is somewhat reminiscent of the movie Alien, but definitely different.  These spiders are unlike anything you've seen before, and do things that are unlike real spiders.  The book ends with the tension of the scientists starting to glimpse how the life cycle of the spiders works, and the horror of not knowing what is coming next, but knowing that it will definitely be worse than what has already been seen.

The story follows several different characters in different parts of the United States:  The President and her staff (yes, it is a female President), a spider expert at a University laboratory, a special agent who works for The Agency (I don't recall if this was every revealed to be the FBI or some other organization), a few Marines, and some survival fanatics who are prepared for a zombie outbreak or nuclear war.  As the story progresses, some of these characters meet due to relationships between various other characters.  I feel that the characters are all portrayed very realistically, as are the relationships and problems of some of the characters.

The story moves at a good pace, always keeping the potential threat of the spiders within view.  I feel that this was an excellent first effort from a new author, and I would recommend this to anyone interested in a solid read with an entirely new treatment of spiders.

Book Review: Black Spark, by Al K. Line

This is the first book in the Dark Magic Enforcer series.  I noticed it was available to read for free with Amazon Prime, so I took a chance on it.  I'm a big fan of The Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher, and those books are taking quite a while to come out these days (2.5 years since the last one came out, probably at least a year until the next one comes out), and I've been hungry for similar reading fare since May of 2014.  This seemed to fit the bill, so I decided to try it.

First off, this is VERY different from The Dresden Files.  The setup of the world is similar:  there are different councils, there are vampires, imps, fae, trolls, witches, and other magical creatures, but things take place in the real world.  The terminology for similar things is different.  In this series, all magical creatures and users of magic are called Hidden, and the usage of magic has some consequences.  There are a few other similarities, and perhaps story structure (sidekicks, friends, etc), but that is where the similarity ends.

The protagonist is not a detective, he is a Dark Magic Enforcer, and his name is Faz Pound.  His job is to track down troublemakers.  The story is told in the first person, and there is a ton of what I refer to as narration, for lack of a better word.  The protagonist speaks to us.  And speaks to us.  And speaks to us.  It isn't simple narration - it is like Faz is having a casual conversation with the reader.  He asks questions, and ultimately answers them on his own, or acknowledges that the reader doesn't know what he's talking about.  While explaining something, Faz frequently goes off on various tangents and explains those, and these tangents don't necessarily have much relevance to what is currently happening in the story.  It seemed like there was no dialogue at all in the first several chapters, and when dialogue did appear, it was very brief.

I found this writing style very irritating initially, and I had to take frequent breaks from this book.  With the lack of dialogue, and all of the prose, the story did not progress very quickly.  Things finally start to pick up, interestingly enough around the halfway point.  Some characters who will likely be around for some time in future stories turn up (an imp, a potential love interest, etc), and then some details begin to become clearer.  Things start to happen more quickly, and there is more dialogue - but the long sections of narration continue to intrude.

When I first started this book, I was thinking I was not going to finish it. The pace was very slow. After completing it, I can say that I was glad I read it.  The story was different enough from The Dresden Files, and the details of magic usage and the world are different and interesting, and there were some nice touches.  Enough of the world has been introduced that I am interested in seeing more.

My hope is that future volumes flesh out the character a bit more, and have more actual story content and less of the continuous monologues from Faz, and more dialogue and action.  It seemed like it took 50 to 100 pages to accomplish a single task of visiting someone due to all the monologue.  It occurs to me that this may be why so many people did not like the theatrical release of the movie Blade Runner - many found the narration of Harrison Ford to be irritating (myself, it didn't bother me, because there wasn't much of it, and it made it like an old-style detective story - but I like both the original and the Director's Cut).  At some point I will check out volume 2, and I hope that it captures my interest more.