Book Review: Brief Cases, by Jim Butcher

This is the second collection of short stories in the universe of The Dresden Files.  I remember enjoying the previous collection, Side Jobs, just as much as the books themselves, so I read these as well.  I enjoyed most of the stories very much, but found this collection to be slightly different.  In the collection Side Jobs, the stories all revolve around Harry Dresden.  In Brief Cases, a few of the stories are about other characters in the series.  This made the collection a bit uneven, but still enjoyable.  Some of the stories I definitely liked better than others, and some of them I questioned the reason for their existence.

Here's my rating of each story.

A Fistful of Warlocks

This one was tough for me.  This isn't a Dresden story - the focus is on Anastasia Luccio and takes place back in the Old West, and includes appearances by Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.  It has been so long since Skin Game came out (waaaay back in May of 2014), I didn't even remember who Luccio was.  This is kind of a "Gunfight at the OK Corral" story, but with wizards and their enemies.  I didn't see the reason behind this story, and it didn't do much for me.  The pace and writing were not like typical Dresden fare.

The Bigfoot Trilogy:  B is for Bigfoot, I Was a Teenage Bigfoot, and Bigfoot on Campus

These stories were great!  It introduces a race that has never made an appearance in the Dresden books - the Bigfeet (or is it Bigfoots).  Each story builds on the one prior to it, and they introduce a great new character, Strength of a River in his Shoulders, who comes to Harry for help at the beginning of each of the stories.  These are well worth reading, and I hope this Bigfoot makes more appearances in the mainstream Dresden Files stories.  It is definitely an interesting take on the Bigfoot mythology.

AAAA Wizardry

This story covers some of Harry's time as a teacher, when he is working with young Wardens.  A suitable story for giving some background information, but no big action - this story couldn't have been very impressive, as I barely remember anything about it.

Curses

This one was a strange tale, involving the investigation of a curse on the Chicago Cubs.  We learn that the Cubs have been losing for so long due to a curse related to a goat.  Harry investigates to find the truth.  The story succeeded in drawing me in, but I have to say I found the ending a little confusing - I believe I had to read it twice.

Even Hand

While Harry does not appear in this story, it is an excellent addition.  One of the central characters is Johnny Marcone.  For a story that doesn't include Harry himself, this one is outstanding story.  We get to see inside Marcone's world, how is organization works, and we learn some very concerning things about him.  This story is an important piece of the Dresden series.

Bombshells

This story focuses entirely on one of Molly Carpenter's missions for the Leanansidhe.  She is still keeping a low radar, and is being taught by the Leanansidhe.  She ends up getting sent on a mission to rescue Thomas Raith, Harry's half brother.  During her mission, she learns that things are not always as they seem - which parallels many of Harry's own investigations.

Cold Case

This story covers Molly Carpenter's first task as the Winter Lady.  Similar to the event of some of the earlier Dresden novels, we get more background on Mab's plans, and more of a glimpse into what the forces of Winter are all about, and it isn't pretty.  Once again, Mab and her organization are involved in things that don't always what they seem to be, and I wouldn't be surprised we are getting some more background that will lead up to some explosive things in future novels.  Mab and her forces are sitting on a powder keg.

Jury Duty

This story follows Harry on a tour in jury duty, which he would like very much to avoid.  Naturally, Harry has to do a little investigating on his own.  This story was passable, but not among the best in this collection.

Day One

This story follows Waldo Butters meeting his first challenge as a Knight of the Cross.  He has been in training and seriously questions his worthiness to be a Knight.  With a little help, he learns he is more worthy than he thinks.  I'm hoping this leads to more overlap with Harry's investigations in future Dresden Files volumes.

Zoo Day

This story has an interesting format.  Harry spends the day at the zoo with his daughter Maggie and his Foo Dog, Mouse.  This story is unique in that it gets told from the perspective of all three characters.  We get some interesting background on what it is like to be a child, and what grown-ups don't remember about it.  This is a bit dark for the first Maggie story, but the style of the story makes up for that.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable collection.  Highly recommended.

Book Review: Monster Hunter Alpha, by Larry Correia

I first came across Monster Hunter International back in 2014.  It was a kind of story I had never seen before, and while it intrigued me, I wasn't sure I would like it - but it was extremely enjoyable.  In 2015, I read the sequel, Monster Hunter Vendetta, and enjoyed it just as much.  After that, I've been involved in reading many other things, and it took me a while to get back to this series.  Monster Hunter Alpha, the third installment, is just as good as the first two.

This time around, the organization Monster Hunter International (MHI) isn't in the picture.  This is a solo story for Earl Harbinger, the leader of MHI.  Earl gets a visit from an old friend who reveals that a werewolf from Earl's past is back in the United States.  It is clear that Earl has a desire to stop this werewolf at all costs for personal reasons.

As Earl tracks down this werewolf, he starts to learn that things are not as they seem, and it takes quite a while for things to become clear.  The danger he encounters is very unexpected, and there are some major surprises as the story unfolds:  Mr. Correia does not disappoint.  The Monster Control Bureau (MCB) also puts in an appearance and they manage to complicate the situation immensely.  Eventually, Earl and the MCB learn that they have stumbled into a plot that could bring about the end of the world, and find themselves trapped in the small town where it is happening.  Unable to reach out to MHI, he must trust in the representatives from the MCB and the local townspeople to help him combat this great evil.  Of course, the members of this small town are not well armed, but they come up with some creative ideas.  And, eventually, we learn that the title means.

The story moves at a great pace, and Earl finds both friends and enemies in unexpected places.  We get a good peek into Earl's past (he has been around for close to 100 years), and what his life has been like as a werewolf, and his struggles to control it.  Each chapter starts with an entry from Earl's journal, detailing his struggle with being a werewolf, and his desire to be rid of the curse and be a normal man again.  We learn many of Earl's abilities as a werewolf, what elements he has learned to control, and which elements he still struggles with - you get a real sense of what it would be like to have all the senses of a dog with you at all times, and you just can't turn them off.  Yeah, you might be able to heal quickly, and it might take a silver bullet to kill you, but you also have such a heightened senses of smell and hearing that it makes it hard to focus.

We also find that the events of the previous two books have a bearing on the story in this one.  One thing I would have really liked when reading Alpha was a refresher on the plot of the first two books - after all, it has been 3 or 4 years since I started reading the series.  I recognized a few names, but I was kind of vague on most of it, and I think it would have been nice to be able to connect the dots in a few places.

Overall, this is a great continuation of the series, and it was fantastic getting a glimpse into the past life of the leader of MHI.  Earl is tough as nails and has no fear.  If you like guns, monsters, guns, action, and more guns, you should enjoy Monster Hunter Alpha.

As always, I'd love to hear from you if you have read any of the books in this series and have enjoyed them as much as I have.  Please feel free to leave a comment.

Book Review: Not Alone, by Craig A. Falconer

I came across this book in the Kindle store back when I first bought a Kindle - probably summer of 2016.  I was immediately interested in it, and purchased it.  It then got buried under a bunch of purchases of books my some of my favorite authors and I forgot about it.  I recently saw that a sequel has been published, which jogged my memory that I had this book on my reading list.  I also recently had a very busy period where I wasn't reading any novels at all, so I started it during a free moment.

Let me say that this book is not what I was expecting.  The back cover blurb indicates that Dan McCarthy discovers evidence of a government cover-up and his quest to force disclosure.  Given the books length, about 736 pages, I expected that this would be the smallest portion of the story - I expected the majority of it to deal with first contact.

This isn't the case - and that is not a bad thing.  This is a very different kind of first contact story - and it *is* a first contact story, sort of.  What do I mean by that?  Well, you'll just need to read the book - as I said, it is a very different treatment of the first contact theme.

The story is fast-paced.  Dan's accidental discovery of the evidence, his leak of of the information, and his path to forcing disclosure, unfolds over two weeks, and about 50% of the book.  The remainder of the book deals with the events that take place after disclosure, and this is where the plot becomes much more interesting (and it was already super engaging).

The chapters count down to disclosure, and then begin counting up once disclosure occurs (a mechanism you've probably seen in some other novels).  I'm not sure I understand the countdown measurement - it is not in days or hours, and there is no hint that I could find as to what the numbering stands for.

I don't want to reveal too much of the plot, but Not Alone is interesting and engaging from beginning to end, and it doesn't disappoint - quite the achievement when the story ended up being much different than I was expecting.  There are also some very unexpected surprises later in the story.  Remember the surprise in The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle?   (What, you haven't read it?  Remedy that immediately - you are missing out!)  There is an equivalent element of surprise to be found in Not Alone.

Overall this is a very pleasing story of a young man with his head in the stars who stumbles onto the opportunity to prove that his belief in UFO's and aliens is real, and chooses to act on it.  Very highly recommended!  I can't wait to check out the sequel and see how things ultimately get resolved.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from others.  If you have read this book and enjoyed it I'd be interested in hearing from you.

Book review: Codex Born, by Jim C. Hines

This is the second book in the Magic Ex Libris series, and I felt it was just as good as the first one.  This review makes references to some things that happened in the first book, Libriomancer, so if you haven't read that book yet I wouldn't read this post any further.

This story begins a few months after the events of Libriomancer.  Isaac Vainio is no longer a field agent.  Now he is a researcher for the Porters, and he's been working on the task assigned to him by Johannes Gutenberg, the man who created the Porters centuries earlier.  He has been researching the mysterious force which made an appearance at the end of the previous story.  While the Porters protect the world from magic, including the knowledge of it, this mysterious force is something which Gutenberg himself has been keeping from the Porters.  A force which he has been aware of and feared for 500 years.

In Codex Born, Isaac is called in to investigate the death of a wendigo in werewolf territory.  He quickly learns that forces which want revenge on Johannes Gutenberg (in response to events from centuries ago) are beginning to move against him.  In the months between books 1 and 2, both Isaac and Nidhi have had some difficulty adjusting to their new relationship with Lena Greenwood, the dryad.  This relationship appears to be a split-object triangle (definition).

Isaac has also taken on a mentoring role for a 14-year-old girl named Jeneta Aboderin.  Like many of those who exhibit magical abilities, Jeneta discovered her ability quite by accident, and her talent could forever change how the Porters understand magic.  I won't reveal her talent - you'll need to read the book to learn about it for yourself.

In the previous book, we learned that Lena is a dryad who was effectively pulled from a book - the title of Codex Born refers to Lena.  In this story, we learn more about her origins - it is interleaved through the entire story as a blurb at the start of each chapter.  As it turns out, her origins can have some nasty ramifications in this story.

One of the things I like about this series is that magic has consequences. In Dungeons & Dragons magic users and clerics and Druids all require physical components to their spells and you can only use the spells that you currently have in memory.  In this series, the more magic you use the more drained you become.  This can be very dangerous, as explored at the end of Libriomancer.

An especially interesting element of this story is how Lena is shaped by the desired of her companions.  The person she is depends greatly on the company she keeps - and the relationship she has with her two lovers makes her a formidable ally.

As with the first book, the story comes to a satisfying end, building on the previous story, and revealing that the situation is rapidly becoming more dire as time passes.  All has not yet been revealed - Isaac still doesn't quite know what they are dealing with.

This is a great follow up to Libriomancer, and the looming danger continues to grow throughout the story.  I highly recommend this to anyone who has read the first book.

As always, if you have read this series, I'm interested in hearing from you.  Feel free to leave a comment.

Book Review: Old Man's War, by John Scalzi

This is the first novel I've read by John Scalzi.  When it was nominated for the Hugo award for best novel in 2006, I checked it out, and read the first few pages.   For some reason, I wasn't interested.  Perhaps I felt this had too much in common with Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers.  Perhaps the book started with too much of the first person prose and very little dialogue that I typically have difficulty with.  I can't really remember.  But, as has happened all too frequently since I purchased a Kindle, I managed to get a good price on this book so I decided to check it out.

On the surface, the theme of this story is very similar to Starship Troopers, but there are many differences, both in the story and in the protagonist.  In Starship Troopers, Juan "Johnny" Rico graduates from high school and follows a classmate into the military.  He then goes through a brutal boot camp, and then heads off to fight the "bugs" which have been attacking Earth.  I'll leave other differences for the reader to discover.

In Old Man's War, John Perry is a 75-year-old man with a lifetime of experience, who then joins the military to extend his life.  He must serve for a mandatory 2 years, and a potential maximum (and,  highly likely to be imposed) of 10 years of service protecting human colonists from all the other lifeforms in the universe (and there are several of them - some of which list human beings as a delicacy on their menu).  There is also an interesting twist on who can qualify as a colonist, which I won't reveal.

This story qualifies as "military" science fiction.  I don't reach much of that, and frankly I don't care for most of it.  I did finally get around to reading The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman, a few years ago, and I found it painful to get through.  It had some interesting concepts, which is why I continued reading it, but it really wasn't for me.  I also tried reading a few other series, but for the most part they weren't for me.  One exception was The Lazarus War:  Artefact, by Jamie Sawyer.  I enjoyed this, but did find it a bit hard to get through.  Some of it was the pacing of the book.  You can find my review here.

So, why did I take a chance on this book, other than the price?  Well, I'm 11 years older, so my perspectives are changing as I get older.  I should have taken a chance on this book earlier.  While the first few pages are kind of slow, with John Perry giving some of his background, but it turns out he's kind of a funny guy.  The story is told from Perry's point of view, and immediately the character reminded me of the character Colonel Miles Quaritch, played by Stephen Lang, in James Cameron's 2009 film Avatar.  Perry seems very focused on the things he speaks about.  The initial discussions he has with fellow recruits about the Colonial Union(CU) and the Colonial Defense Force(CDF) is interesting (early on, it is the discussion of the elevator ride into orbit).

The blurb on the cover reminds me of the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.  Essentially, the number of planets which are habitable are few and far between.  In the film, Keanue Reeves' character states that humanity is destroying our own planet, and due to the limited number of livable worlds in the universe, this can't be allowed.  In Old Man's War, it means that aliens are willing to fight over habitable worlds - regardless of whether the world is already inhabited,  Humanity must play the same game and expand their territory at all costs or risk extinction.

The technology in this story is fascinating.  Soldiers get a weapon that is somewhat reminiscent of the Lawgiver II from the Sylvester Stallone film Judge Dread - but much cooler.  And the rejuvenation process is equally cool (and was somewhat unexpected for me).  The CDF battle cruisers move around the universe using "skip" drives, and we learn a few details around how these drives work.  The way skip drives work was a surprise to me, and I'll leave it to the reader to learn about it for themselves when they read the book.

There are some very interesting alien races in this story as well.  In particular, the Consu stand out from the others.  They behave strangely and speak cryptically.  For me, this was very reminiscent of the Vorlon race in the TV series Babylon 5 (the Vorlon's rarely said anything which could be immediately understood; sometimes, but not always, whatever was said became clear later on - sometimes several episodes away, or in a few cases almost a season later).

The story is told in three parts.

Part 1 is about John's recruitment, which is an interesting process.  Those on Earth know very little about the CDF, aside from the fact that they keep the best technology for themselves and don't share it with Earth.  People are not allowed to enlist until they reach the age of 75.  Everyone expects that once they join, they will be made young again - after all, geriatric troops won't be able to put up much of a fight.  Of course, nobody on Earth knows much about what this really means, but John finds out soon enough.

Part 2 focuses on John's training at boot camp, and the details of several short missions.

Part 3 details a very important mission which is a followup to a previous mission which is completed at the end of part 2.  The focus is around some very dangerous information about one of the alien races which is in conflict with humanity, and resolving this crisis.

Overall, this was a fantastic read, and a wonderful first effort from an author, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction.  I should be kicking myself for not reading this book when I first saw it back in 2006!  I'm sure I'll be checking out other books in the series at some point.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from my readers.  If you have read this book, I'm interested in what you thought of it.  If my review impacted your decision to read this book, I'd be interested in hearing about that as well.

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.