Book Review: The Dark Lord Bert, by Chris Fox

The title of this book caught my interest immediately.  After reading the first sentence of the book description, "How does a 1-hit-point goblin become the Dark Lord", I was intrigued further.  I didn't even bother reading the rest of the description (well, I eventually did AFTER I started the book).  After seeing this sentence, I thought that this story would be similar to Goblin Quest (great book BTW - you can find my review here).  It is, kind of.  Within the first two chapters I was having a great time.  The names of the characters, and some of their deities, are funny.  I can mention them here, as they already appear in the book description:  Crotchshot (name comes from his cursed weapon), Brakestuff, and the deity Knowsbest.  After reading chapter two, I felt this story is likely going to have a lot in common with The Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg (reference here).  Of course, if this were the case, this had me wondering:  what would this make Bert?  After all, part of the story is told from his perspective.  Verrrryyy interesting.  I thought Bert's identity might be alluded to in the next few chapters, but even by the end of the story there are no additional clues.  Perhaps he's just an NPC?

What does a 1-hit-point goblin look like?  Well, at one point he considers a chicken to almost, but not quite, large enough to be his mount.  Much smaller than I was expecting.  I'm used to goblins being much larger, thanks to the Rankin & Bass production of The Hobbit back in 1977 - the goblins are much larger than dwarves and hobbits!  While I did play Dungeons and Dragons as a teenager, I don't think I paid much attention to how big most monsters were, so perhaps this size is accurate?

This is an interesting world, and the concept is definitely a mixture of other ideas - it's not similar to any one thing that I've read before.  There are elements of Guardians of the Flame, just not as much as I thought.  The main elements that are in common are role-playing, alighnment fulfillment, and party interactions.  Also, it certainly feels like there are elements of Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline - there are certainly references to Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek and Star Wars, in addition to references to other fantasy works - Lord of the Rings most prominently.  There may also be elements of Neal Stephenson's REAMDE (not sure; I haven't read that one, but I have a vague idea what it is about).  Commonalities with these last three are interesting, as these are all science fiction novels.

Anyway, this was a fun, easy read, and you really find yourself rooting for Bert.  I'm definitely interested in hearing more about how this world works, as there is definitely an immersive role playing element to this story which is only hinted at.  Things seem setup for a sequel - one of the characters even mentions that this is likely.

If you like Dungeons and Dragons, you'll probably enjoy this one.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from my readers.  Have you read this book?  Are there similar works that you enjoy?  Please leave a comment!

Book Review: We are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor

I saw this book on amazon quite a while ago (many months at least), and it caught my interest, but I was hesitant to check it out.  I recently noticed that it had over 2,500 ratings, and the combined rating was 4.6 out of 5 stars.  So I decided to check it out - if it was good, it is the first book of a trilogy.

The basic story is about AI - sort of.  Really, a human mind uploaded into a computer to be an AI.  This isn't the first story of this kind that I've read.  A few other stories that include a similar concept of uploading a human mind into a computer include Heechee Rendezvous, by Frederik Pohl, and Mindscan, by Robert J. Sawyer.  There are many others that deal with interfaces between a machine and a human mind, but I personally haven't read very many about specifically uploading a mind into a computer - but I'm sure there are probably many others that I'm not aware of.  And, for the most part, in the story told by We Are Legion, the main character, Bob, isn't really an AI - the only artificial element is that he exists in a machine.  For the most part, his personality and memories are intact - he just doesn't have a body.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

This story is about Bob Johansson.  Bob has come into some money, so signs up for a service (with some of his newfound wealth) which will freeze his head upon death, and then be uploaded into a computer simulation when the technology exists, so he can live on.  Naturally, the story immediately takes a bad turn and Bob is killed by a car.

He wakes, for lack of a better word - perhaps, he was turned on, would be better - to find that it is over 100 years later and he has indeed been uploaded into a computer.  He can't see, he has no appendages, in fact, he can't talk initially - he must learn how to again (of course, as a machine, it takes considerably less time).  The world has changed drastically - and not for the better.  He also learns that the extended life he paid for before he died has been voided - he is now corporate property, and a slave.

During his training, Bob learns that he is being groomed for something big, but they won't tell him what.  While he excels at his training, doing better than other candidates which were evaluated before him, he quickly learns that being an intelligence uploaded into a machine isn't all it's cracked up to be - there are potential viability problems, that I won't go into (aye, you'll need to read the book).  He eventually learns that he will be the AI portion of a Von Neumann probe (a self-replicating machine to be used for exploring the universe).  This sounds very exciting to Bob - if he makes it through the training.  The first part of the book focuses on this training, and before he knows it he is ready to launch into space.  He leaves at a time when all is not well on Earth, and global conflict is imminent.

The second part of the story deals with his tasks once he reaches his destination - an 11 year journey away at close to light speed.  Naturally, over the course of his journeys, he makes copies of himself - which has interesting and sometimes funny results.  Eventually, Bob has a "todo" list, which gets quite long with items that there is no real time to handle.  Sounds just like real life, huh?

As Bob and his copies roam the galaxy, they quickly learn that the universe is not a very hospitable place.  Furthermore, it is dangerous out there.  It turns out he's not the only probe that was successfully launched from Earth.

This was a great story, lots of fun, and very original.  Overall, Bob is a very interesting...group of characters, and they come up with interesting solutions for some of the problems they encounter.  Oddly enough, even AI's can be plagued by Murphy's Law.  I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

Have you read this series?  What did you think of it?  I'd be happy to hear from you - please leave a comment.

The War of the Worlds: A George Pal Classic

I remember when I first came across The War of the Worlds.  I was watching some Saturday afternoon TV when I was a teenager, and this was the next movie to air.  It looked interesting, so I stayed tuned, and it was great - this was probably in the early 1980's.  The film originally came out in 1953, and I have to say that the special effects are still amazing to this day.

I had known about The Invisible Man, by H.G. Wells.  In elementary (grade) school, the big three were:  The Invisible Man, Dracula, and Frankenstein.  I had not heard of The War of the Worlds, and was also not aware that Wells wrote this one as well. 

A handful of years later, I was introduced to old time radio - various companies made popular radio shows from the 1930's and 1940's available on cassette tape:  Abbot and Costello, Burns and Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Shadow, The Green Hornet, etc.  Eventually, I came across the original Mercury Theater broadcast of The War of the Worlds that starred Orson Welles, and found it interesting that the live broadcast apparently fooled some listeners into believing the Earth was really being invaded by Martians.  The style of the program contributed to this - the earlier portion of it had sections of a radio journalist interviewing people at the crash site that would have sounded convincing enough.  That is, until you listed to the program further, and heard the narration of Orson Welles himself.  I remember the closing of the broadcast included an apology for alarming anyone.

While listening, I found it interesting how much the radio show differed from the film - it followed the book more closely (well, that's much easier on radio, isn't it?).  While I found it interesting, I also found it on the slow side, bordering on boring.  I prefer the George Pal film version much more, and I feel the filmmakers made some choices which make the story more effective from a visual standpoint (in much the same way that The Wizard of Oz differs from the book).

What were some of the things that made the film more effective for me?

The "manta"

First, the design of the alien ships.  Not tripods, like in the book.  The ships are shaped like manta rays, with the heat-ray as a cobra-like head on a long extension.  In addition to the heat-ray, they have skeletal beam weapons mounted on the sides (you need to see the film to know what this means), rather than the poisonous black smoke from the novel.  And, actually, these ships do kind of qualify as tripods.  While they appear to fly through the air, in certain scenes, you can see they are held aloft by three almost invisible "energy" legs.  The tripods also had tentacles for manipulating things, which are missing from the ships in the film.  When the heat-ray itself fires, it has a very scary sound.  A sound which clearly indicates that something bad is going to happen.

As described in the novel

Second, the look of the Martians.  I the book, they are described as round creatures the size of a bear, with brown bodies, V-shaped mouths dripping saliva, disk-like eyes, and 16 whip-like tentacles.  This would have been immensely difficult to pull off in the film.  Instead, they had a bipedal figure, much like a man, but with very broad shoulders, skinny arms and legs, and a single large eye with red, blue, and green lenses.  Their fingers also ended in suction cups.  To me, this is a much creepier and disturbing design.

From the film

There are many other differences between the book and the film, but these are the ones that made the biggest difference for me.

A few elements which are missing from the George Pal film are featured prominently in the 2005 remake made by Steven Spielberg.  First, what the martians do with captured humans - they are certainly captured and carried in baskets behind the tripods.  Second, the fast growing "red weed", which we do see in the film, without any real explanation of what it is.  While these scenes from the novel are present, they are somewhat difficult to decipher what is really going on.

The War of the Worlds remains one of my favorite 20th century science fiction films - far superior to many films that were made decades later with incredibly inferior special effects and stories.  It wasn't until many years later that I learned that George Pal was responsible for many other classic science fiction films - The Time Machine, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, and Destination Moon (based on Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein) to name a few.

If you have never seen it, you should.

Any other big fans of this film out there?

Book Review: The Farm, by Matt Moss

This book popped up as a recommendation somewhere online (I can't remember where), and the concept immediately appealed to me.  The blurb mentioned similarities to Lost, Westworld, and "many classic SciFi tales".  The concept sounded simple.  Five men find themselves as slaves on a farm.  They know their name, where they were born, and how old they are.  No memory of how they got there.  No memories of friends.  No memories of family.  But, as the story progresses, they learn that they do have memory of other things.  For example, if they were a scientist, they remembered science facts.

This concept reminded me very much of two things.

First, the TV show Persons Unknown.  A similar concept - a group of people find themselves in a town that they cannot leave.  There is always a barrier which prevents them from leaving.  While their memories are intact, they have no idea how they got there.  Unlike The Farm, there are no people in who are obviously in control - everyone seems to be in the same boat.

Second, the novel Seed, by Michael Edelson.  Fifty people wake up on a compound which they cannot leave.  Again, they have no memory of how they got there.  Great read - you can find my review here.

I never watched Lost, but I can say that some elements of Westworld are definitely present.

The men are forced to work the fields around the farm by two farmhands.  They are told to do as they are told and not to break the rules.  The farm consists of the fields, a barn, where the five of them will sleep, and a white mansion across from the barn, with a gated wall that they can't see behind.  The work ends up being plowing massive fields, in some cases the size of an American Football field, by hand with a hoe, and then eventually planting corn, also by hand.

Eventually, they learn that the farmhands have a boss - the landowner.  As the men continue to work, and learn more about each other, some strange things start to happen.  Also, the men notice that the farmhands start behaving strangely sometimes - mood swings, and other odd behavior.  Eventually, the main character, the slave named Cole, is invited into the mansion to meet the boss - and things get even stranger.

Things continue in this way until we learn what is really going on, which was a complete surprise to me - based on the path to get there.  The revelation is something that I have seen before, but this adds a fresh twist to it.

I wasn't aware of it when I bought this book, but this is apparently the first book of a series.  The Farm was just published in the last half of 2019, so it may be a while for the sequel.  I am interested in where things will be going.

This was a satisfying, quick read - finished it in only two days, since I couldn't put it down.  If you like the works I've mentioned above, you will probably like this one.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from my readers.  If you have read this book, I'd like to hear from you.  Please leave a comment.

Book Review: The Great Hunt (The Wheel of Time #2), by Robert Jordan

I enjoyed The Eye of the World enough that I ended up reading The Great Hunt relatively soon after (well, Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings in between).  The story starts off relatively soon after the last events in The Eye of the World.  Our group of adventurers is still in Fal Dara after Rand fought the Dark One, and the Horn of Valere was retrieved - along with a mysterious, broken piece of heartstone.  Rand continues to struggle with who he is.  He still very much dislikes the Aes Sedai, and wants nothing to do with them, and plans to run off alone, to protect those around him from any harm that could come from his wielding of the One Power and being driven insane by it.  While he knows that he and his friends Mat and Perin are ta'veren, he also thinks he is cursed with the ability to channel, and will eventually go insane.  He does not even remotely suspect he is the Dragon reborn.

Rand's plans are quickly preempted - the Horn is stolen, along with the dagger that Mat found in Shadar Logoth in EotW.  Without the dagger, the Aes Sedai won't be able to cure him, and he will shortly die.  And, the Horn has been stolen by a very dangerous enemy.  Both must be retrieved quickly.  And so begins the hunt.  Nynaeve and Egwene travel to Tar Valon to begin their training to be Aes Sedai.  And while all of this is going on, there is an invading army from across the sea.

In general, things are more fast paced in this story than they were in EotW.  We learn more about the Horn of Valere, more about the dagger from Shadar Logoth, and more about the invading army.  There are many surprising turns, and we get to see a few peripheral characters from EotW again.  Rand has several struggles that continue - his confused love for Egwene, his struggle to accept that he channel the One Power, his distrust of all Aes Sedai (and his desire to not be controlled and used as a false dragon), and his struggle to accept that Tam was not his father (and how did he come to possess a heron mark sword when he was just a farmer).

There were several surprises for me at the end of the story.  The realization of who the invading army is, their use of a'dam (a horrifying concept - you'll have to read the book to understand), and several other things that come to light (like, what is the broken piece of heartstone that was found with the Horn of Valere).

Overall, this was a better story for me, and I'm looking forward to finding out what happens next.  Of course, there are still some slow moments that get dragged out quite a bit, which I hear from others is a continuing issue with the series.  But, not too bad in this volume.

As always, I'd like to hear from my readers.  If you have read this series, I'd like to hear what you thought of this book and the series.

Book Review: The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive #1), by Brandon Sanderson

This is the first book I've read by Brandon Sanderson.  It was highly recommended to me, so I bought a copy a while back but had not gotten around to reading it.  The same had happened with Richard Jordan's Wheel of Time series - I bought The Eye of the World and then never got around to reading it.  I recently learned that WoT was going to be an Amazon TV show, so decided to read EotW.  It was a little on the slow side, but I enjoyed it.  After telling a friend this, he said the Stormlight Archive by Sanderson was better.  So, The Way of Kings ended up being the next book on my reading list.

I have to say, the size of this book was intimidating.  At around 1,252 pages (mass market paperback edition), this was easily the largest book I've ever read - and I've read some big ones.  Battlefield Earth, Under the Dome, 11/22/63, The Stand (interesting that the last three of these are by the same author, Stephen King) - these are all at least 200 pages shorter in length.  The only novel which comes to mind which is actually longer would be War and Peace, and perhaps Les Miserables.

I found the first chapter, the prelude, to be very interesting - a few characters speak at the end of a battle against mysterious beasts, and they refer to many unknown things.  And then, the novel proper jumps more than 4,000 years into the future (kind of like EotW, but I don't recall an indication of how far into the future things were supposed to be - hundreds of years, at least, I would think).  The first chapter starts with an assassination which is underway, and it is pretty action filled.  And then after this, things slow down for a bit - but they remain interesting.

The viewpoint changes between a handful of different characters, engaged in different areas throughout the world.  In some cases, a viewpoint character only appears a single time in the book - usually in one of the "interludes", and sometimes it will be a few hundred pages before you revisit a particular character again.

The pattern of storytelling is linear for most of the characters, but it isn't for at least one.  For example, for this character, we start in the present, then jump ahead eight months, then visit different periods some number of years in the past, and then ultimately revisit a critical event that spans a gap in the story for this user, finally revealing events the reader has been wondering about for hundreds of pages.

In many ways, this story reminded me of James Clavell's novel Shogun, where the author throws Japanese words at the reader that they are expected to remember them later on.  The same is true here, but in this particular case it isn't about language, it's learning about the world that Sanderson has built.  We hear mysterious names for all kinds of things:  Voidbringers, Spren, Heralds, Radiants, Soulcaster.  The list goes on and on.  In many cases, explanations are given for many of these things, but in others it's just the tip of the iceberg - I imagine there is much more to be revealed in coming volumes of this series (#4 out of ten is getting released in November, 2020).

The level of world building here is staggering - reminds me a bit of Neal Stephenson's Anathem, which, if I remember correctly, was MOSTLY world building, with not much meat to the main story, until things started to get really interesting towards the end.  But, The Way of Kings is interesting - all the way through.  Complex story lines that become related when you least expect it.  Incredible depth to the characters.  Interesting and varied cultures.  Surprises, shocks, plot twists, mysterious events - there's plenty of all of these.

I think the oddest thing is the Spren.  These were confusing to me for a while.  At first, they appear to be a manifestation of emotion, or in some cases, other things.  We do gradually learn that they are much more than that.  From things I've seen about the world of The Stormlight Archive, we are just starting to see the beginning of the magic system, which already appears involved, and will be getting more complex in later volumes.

This was a fantastic read, and a great story.  I'm really looking forward to continuing the series.  Highly recommended!

As always, I'm interested in hearing from my readers.  If you have read this series, I'm interested in what you think.  Please feel free to comment.

Book Review: The Eye of the World, (The Wheel of Time #1), by Robert Jordan

Let me start out by saying that my favorite fantasy series for many years (we are talking decades here) has been The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, by Stephen R. Donaldson.  I originally read this series twice.  The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant I thought was good, but not as good as the original.  I had the opportunity to re-read the entire series when The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant came out - so, 10 books in total - and re-evaluated my assessment of the Second Chronicles.  There were things I either missed or didn't appreciate the first time around - entirely possible since I was probably age 15 at the time.

Yes, I DID get started with The Lord of the Rings before starting Thomas Covenant.  But, it was never my favorite, for a number of reasons (IMO, very popular due to the fact that when it first appeared, there wasn't anything else like it).

I did manage to get through the books, mostly.  My assessment was the following:

• The Fellowship of the Ring started slowly, but was interesting, then reached a point when I thought I would not continue when Tom Bombadil showed up.  It reached the interesting point again when they reached the Mines of Moria.
• The Two Towers was very good, and I enjoyed it all the way though.
• The Return of the King was good through the destruction of the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom.  After that, things got so boring I just couldn't finish it, and I never have.

In my opinion, the movies by Peter Jackson were far superior - especially the extended versions.

Over the years, there wasn't much for fantasy that I was really into or enjoyed reading - until I encountered The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, which got better and better with every book.  This is still a favorite series, but I've become frustrated by the waiting game that has started establishing itself with multiple writers these days (George R. R. Martin and Robert Jordan fit under this umbrella as well - understood that Butcher has had some major life events the past several years, so I cut him some slack).  Books were coming out every 1 or 2 years, and were getting longer and longer.  When the next book in the series comes out, it will have been 5+ years, which is tough for a series with a complicated, ongoing story line.  Plus, he's writing a second series as well, The Cinder  Spires, which is a steampunk adventure (one of the better ones I've read), so this "waiting game" trend will continue.

However, The Dresden Files differs from Lord of the Rings and Thomas Covenant - it's not "high fantasy", it is "urban fantasy" - it takes place in modern day Chicago, not in an invented world.

As a side note, I also enjoyed the Codex Alera series by Butcher.  The first book was amazing, but the books continued to get larger, and I found by book 5 (Princep's Fury), things were getting long winded and the story wasn't as interesting - I have yet to read the final volume.

Shortly after encountering Dresden, A Song of Ice and Fire was recommended, which, like Codex Alera, started off well enough, and the action continued through book three, and then the waiting game started for the final books.  I didn't finish books 4 and 5 (which were originally 1 book - the action all takes place simultaneously, but there isn't much action).  Similar to Lord of the Rings, the HBO production was better, even allowing for the disappointing final season.

Anyway, I've known about The Wheel of Time practically since it first appeared, but most people I knew at the time did not really count it as fantasy (as can be noted from earlier paragraphs, I've since learned that there are many sub-genres of Fantasy), and over time, many of the books were disappointing to fans, so I had a tendency to avoid these books, especially when it looked like Robert Jordan would not be finishing the series.  Brandon Sanderson was selected to write the final book, which ended up becoming three books.

This latter item was a big red flag for me.  Both A Song of Ice and Fire and The Wheel of Time were originally envisioned as trilogies - now the former is expected to have seven books, and The Wheel of Time, now that it is concluded, has fourteen volumes.  At the time, my concern was that both series were heading in the same direction, and neither would actually be completed.

But, a few people had advised me that the early books were quite good, and somewhere in the middle the story grinds to an absolute halt, with some number of books not really contributing to the main story, at which point many people just gave up.  I've also been told that the conclusion, mostly written by Brandon Sanderson (based on notes from Robert Jordan), more than makes up for it.

Well, I decided to give the series a try.  I bought the first book...and then it sat on a shelf for years and I somehow never got around to reading it.  Now that Amazon is making a TV series out of it, I decided it was to try reading it.

My initial reaction is a mixed bag.  The writing is good, but the pace is a little slow - at least 60 pages until something remotely interesting takes place, and then for a 150 pages the main characters are fleeing, occasionally with some interesting facts revealed.  The biggest detractor is the descriptions - three pages to describe what a village looks like when the characters enter it is a bit much for me - and my understanding is that this gets worse in later volumes.  I've heard rumor that these books could be cut in half with the amount of rambling description which is really unnecessary.

There were a few odd things.  One chapter started off with a few pages that took place in the present, and then the rest of the chapter was a flashback, from the end of the previous chapter that dealt with these characters up to the present.  This was a very odd flashback, and seemed unnecessary, given the linear flow of the rest of the book.

I also found it strange that the author decided to split the central characters, who were all traveling together, into three smaller groups, and then spend five whole chapters on the flight of two of the characters, while not adding much in the way of story progression - just the characters running from town to town.  I believe this accounted for close to 100 pages of story.  For the most part, a single chapter covered the same span of travel for the other two groups of characters.  This just seemed an odd choice to make.

Anyway, once I was about two-thirds of the way through, the characters all came back together, and the story picks up pace, and we start to learn more interesting things.  At this point, there were several surprises, and the story did not take the direction I thought it would.

I had a "what the hell happened" moment during an encounter near the end of the story.  Perhaps this is just the author trying to keep things mysterious, and maybe we'll learn more about what really happened in later books.  We'll see.

Overall, despite the slow places, I did enjoy the story and it held my interest - enough that I had a strong desire to read the second book.  I will stick with it as long as it keeps me interested, and when it slows down too much, I'll re-evaluate whether I continue.

I know that many people have read this series over the last 30 years - I'd be interested in hearing from others who have read this book and the whole series.  Please feel free to leave comments.

If you are looking for an interesting read, while slow at times, check this one out.

Book Review: Earth - Last Sanctuary, by Christian Kallias

I came across this series by accident.  I either saw it on Twitter, or I saw it in the "customers also bought" section of another book on Amazon - I can't really remember where.  This is currently a series of 10 books - I got the first trilogy in a Kindle box set for $0.99.  There are a few novellas in the series between some of the books, and there is even a sequel series now.

I checked out the reviews on Goodreads and Amazon - they were mostly positive, although there were some that complained about bogus science, stating that the author should go back to the 6th grade.  This complaint made me want to check out the series anyway.

It made me remember back when Stephen Baxter's first novel Raft was published.  Reviewers made a big deal of the fact that his novels got the science right.  Raft first appeared back in 1991, and science fiction has been around for a long time.  Take the Barsoom series (John Carter) by Edgar Rice Burroughs; A Princess of Mars was published in 1912.  This was a good story, especially for the year it was released, and I'm sure there are all kinds of problems with the science.  I also remember a foreword written by Arthur C. Clarke which indicated that all the early science fiction writers got lots of space science wrong - after all, nobody had ever been there (this foreword can be found in the novel Encounter With Tiber, by  Buzz Aldrin).

I'm sure there are science problems in all of the TV shows I grew up watching:  Battlestar Galactica (the original series in 1978), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979), Star Trek (1966), Space: 1999 (1975), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974).  The fact that the science may have been wrong did not detract from my enjoyment watching these shows.

So, why should it effect my enjoyment of a novel?  Such a science argument should effectively wipe out all works of fantasy - they are impossible, so nobody should read them.  Well, given how many fantasy novels exist, I'd say this is a pointless argument - many people enjoy fantasy.  So, why can't we have many subdivisions of science fiction - some which are deadly serious, with correct science, and others which border on the ridiculous but are still entertaining (yes, I'm a fan of The Orville TV show - every bit as enjoyable as Star Trek).

Within the first few chapters, I see similarities with Battlestar Galactica and the anime TV show called Star Blazers in the US (formerly Space Battleship Yamato in Japan).  While reading this book I learned that the author was a big fan of Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, and Stargate.  By the midway point, I definitely saw some Babylon 5 influence, and perhaps some inspiration from the Battlestar Galactica reboot (from 2004), and the mythological elements of Stargate.

It's not a bad thing that these books have elements drawn from other sources.  Some may complain that it is just duplication of other material, but I feel these books definitely put a new skin on the concepts, and there are definitely some original ideas here.  This is an easy, enjoyable read, with some nice surprises along the way - certainly ones that I didn't see coming.  Of all the shows I've mentioned above, would have to say the story style is most like Star Blazers, which means that it also follows suit with many anime from the "Super Robot" period of Japanese animation in the mid-to-late 1970's (Grandizer, Danguard Ace, Gaiking, etc) - lots of escapes and over-the-top action.  Reading this series definitely brought back great memories from my childhood. 

If you are looking for action of this style, this series is a good read.  We get to see the growth of the main character, Chase, through his journey throughout the series.  The friends he makes are explored in depth, and they have interesting backgrounds and motivations.

I'm getting to this review rather late - two years after I read the series through book 8.  I took a break from the series during a difficult time, and have not yet completed it, but I will.  The action continues and the various mysteries continue to be revealed as far as I read - very entertaining all the way.  I can't really say too much without revealing some of the main components of the story, so you will have to read it for yourself.

Highly recommended.

Book Review: Monster Hunter Legion, by Larry Correia

This is the fourth book in the Monster Hunter International series.  The third book, Monster Hunter Alpha, was pretty much a solo mission for Earl Harbinger, the leader of MHI.  Monster Hunter Legion brings back the rest of the crew, including Owen Zastava Pitt, the protagonist of the first two books.  I thought it was great that we got more background on Earl in the previous adventure, and we learned more about his background and his secret condition - but I kinda missed Owen, the accountant who survived a werewolf attack and got recruited by Earl to become a Monster Hunter.

The story starts off with a most of the teams from MHI attending the first International Conference of Monster Hunting Professionals, which is being held in Las Vegas and is being attended by many other companies of Hunters from around the world.  Things start off with a bang, with immediate ties to Earl's adventure in the previous book, and things get kind of messy - though not necessarily because of a monster, and I won't reveal the details.  Let's just say, things are not always as they seem.

You might wonder how can such a conference be held, when monsters and the organizations that hunt them are supposed to be secret?  This is explained in detail, and we eventually learn who organizes the event, and it was a big surprise for me.  There's more going on right under our noses than we are aware of, or could even imagine.  There is a war coming, and we will have allies from unexpected places.

Eventually we learn that humans are, at least, partially responsible for the current crisis - and this is an enemy that cannot be killed by pumping them full of lead.

While this fourth installment brings back Owen, and more is revealed about Julie Shackleford's situation from past events in the series, it has a different tone than the other books, but that doesn't make it any less effective.

This is a good continuation to the series, and I'm looking forward to reading book 5.

Book Review: Remanence by Jennifer Foehner Wells

This is the second book in the Confluence series.  I read book one in 2017 and it was one of the best books I read that year.  I've been looking forward to reading this one, but I've had a large number of books on my "to read" list, so it has taken a while.

Remanence picks up pretty much where Fluency left off.  Jane has a two-fold mission that she is undertaking with several of her former NASA crew members.  First, return the ship which they found in Fluency to its makers.  Second, seek out more of E'Brai's race, the Kubodera.

This story took a turn that I both did and did not expect, which is somewhat strange.  We learn during Fluency that there are a few things going on.  First, all sentient races have been under attack by The Swarm.  Second, there is no knowledge of what started the mysterious plague that wiped out E'Brai's crew, leaving him stranded in the asteroid belt of Earth's Solar System.  In Remanence, we learn a great deal more about what has been going on.

While searching, Jane does indeed find other ships; damaged, with no crew, and frequently with a dead kuboderan floating in space.  This reveals that the plague is not an isolated event - it is widespread.

Ultimately, Jane finds a world, and its populated moon, which have been ravaged by the same plague that killed E'Brai's crew - and, like E'Brai, not a single soul knows where it came from or how it started.  We finally get to meet the aliens who created the ships and harnessed the Kubodera, although they have reverted to a pre-industrial society that is barely holding on.  All of their technology, which was based on the squillae (think organic nanites), could not be trusted after the plague, so none of it is used.

Jane's relationship with E'Brai', begins to change, as she proves her trust of him over and over again, giving him more freedom.  We learn more about E'Brai's race, where they come from, and how they are harnessed into the ships.  As with the first book, there are many surprises when it comes to the relationship between these two characters.  Very inventive.

As a side note, I recently started watching the TV show Farscape, which aired from 1999 - 2003.  In this show, there is a living ship - a Leviathan named Moya.  There is a pilot for the ship, which is physically linked in many ways to Moya, and acts as a middle-man between the crew and the ship.  In addition to having a pilot, the ship also has a control collar, which limits the independent actions of the Leviathan.  To me, this all seems somewhat similar to E'Brai's situation, with his limited freedom and servitude, and his complete control of the ship - although I don't believe the ship itself is truly alive.  I wonder if there is some inspiration here?

At the conclusion of the story, we do learn more about the plague came, and as you could expect, things are far worse than anyone could have dreamed.

Highly recommended read!  I'm very interested in reading the next three books in the series, but the "to read" list is quite long and ever changing.

As always, I'm interested in hearing from fellow science fiction and fantasy readers.

Have you read this book?  What did you think of it?

Book Review: Artemis, by Andy Weir

I absolutely LOVED The Martian - both the novel, and the Ridley Scott film adaptation.  So, naturally, I needed to read Weir's next book.  This is quite a different story.  While there are some science based elements to the story, and I learned something new about moon dust that I had never heard before, it is nowhere near the level of The Martian, which is almost like a documentary of the near future.  Artemis may have more in common with Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, than any other story which I've read - both are about colonies on the moon, and involve a struggle for control of the colony.  At least, as far as I can recall - I never finished the Heinlein book, as the pace was too slow for me, and the elements weren't as interesting (plus the fact that I'm very hit or miss with Heinlein - some I really liked, and others I hated with a passion).

Anyway, Artemis is about Jazz Bashara - a criminal of sorts who grew up on the moon after moving there when she was at the age of 6 with her father.  She has a typical poverty-level job (if I remember correctly, a delivery person for some kind of UPS-like organization), and makes extra money on the side by smuggling things into Artemis.  Nothing dangerous, like drugs or weapons, just things that people desire which may not be allowed, so by that standard Jazz is hardly a criminal.  And, she's inventive and prosperous - by undercutting all her competition, she's the only game in town, and people are willing to pay handsomely - money which Jazz is saving to somehow make a business which will make her wealthy.

As it turns out, there are three kinds of people on the moon.  The poverty-stricken, who do all the work locally, those who have become wealthy by offering services which have made them wealthy, legitimately or otherwise, and the super wealthy, who are typically tourists to who can afford to pay anything to take a vacation on the moon in luxury.

All of a sudden, Jazz's dream of being wealthy seems possible.  She is asked to perform a task that will make one of her wealthy customers more wealthy, while making herself rich as well.  Her task is a difficult one, but she formulates an excellent plan to pull it off.  And then, she finds herself pulled into a struggle for control of the moon's economy, and people are out to kill her.  The stakes continue to escalate, and ultimately Jazz isn't sure who she can trust.

I don't want to reveal too much, as it will spoil the story.  I will say that Jazz somewhat reminds me of the character Tavi in Jim Butcher's Codex Alera fantasy series, particularly in Book 1, Furies of Calderon.  Tavi is quite clever, and so is Jazz.

While not as scientifically riveting as The Martian, this is still a very entertaining and creative tale.

Highly recommended!

I really interested in what Mr. Weir will be doing next.

Book Review: Paradox Bound, by Peter Clines

I've read the first two of the Ex-Heroes series by Peter Clines (out of order - I wasn't aware it was a series when I found book #2), and I enjoyed them very much.  I've also really enjoyed two of his standalone novels (in fact, I think I liked them more than the series).  The first was 14, a Lovecraft-style (or is that Lovecraftian?) horror novel.  The second was The Fold, an awesome SF novel, which, if I remember correctly, is in the same "universe" as 14, and actually makes reference to the events in that story.  So, when I saw that he had a new standalone novel out, I was really excited to read it - it was just a question of finding an appropriate slot in the reading queue.

Paradox Bound does not disappoint.

The premise?  Time travel.  No...wait, not really.  History travel!  Traveling across the US mostly within the 200 years since America was formed.  And, no, not in a modified DeLorean - a "steampunk'd Model-A Ford" is the vehicle of choice - and the driver wears a Tricorn hat and carries a flintlock rifle.  (Naturally, the choice of car gave me flashes to the Clint Eastwood film Heartbreak Ridge - it's used in a dirty cadence that talks about female naughty bits:  Model-A Ford and a tank full of gas...you can look up the rest at your leisure).

After meeting this history traveler a few times, Eli's curiosity gets the better of him, and he tries to learn more about who this anachronism is, after which he finds himself pulled into a race against time.  The traveler is only one of many, and they all have the same goal.  They are all searching for something which has been lost - something which was created by the founding fathers of America.  And, they are all being pursued by...something.

I can't reveal much more than that without ruining some very interesting elements of the story.  For me, this tale was very original.  The take on history-travel is very interesting in this story.  It isn't really time travel - you can only travel to very specific places and times, and it has more to do with perception and boundaries than it does with mysterious pieces of technology like Mr. Fusion and the Flux Capacitor.  Although, these items are referenced in the story - there are actually some nice pop culture references throughout the book, just not at the level of Ready Player One (a great book by another author with a similar sounding last name).  Given how the history travel works, the travelers choice of a Model-A Ford is very logical, and is well explained.

I also have to say that the mysterious "something" that pursues them is also a very original creation - unlike anything I've read before.  In short, without revealing very much, a group of very different individuals with some rather unique abilities.

As far as I can guess, the title of Paradox Bound may have a dual meaning, or may refer to one of two different elements of the story.  Of course, when it comes to their mysterious pursuers, they are somewhat paradoxical themselves, so perhaps there's a triple meaning.  Once you've read the book yourself, what does the title mean to you?

All around, a very highly recommended book!

As always, I'm interested in hearing what other people think.  Feel free to leave a comment.

Book Review: Don't Panic, by Neil Gaiman

I came across this recently for a good price, and since I'm a big fan of the Hitchhiker series, I thought I'd take a chance on it, even though I'm not a fan of the fiction of Neil Gaiman.  This is a non-fiction work that details the creation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in its many forms:  radio show, TV show, computer game, and books.

When I first encountered the Hitchhiker's Guide, the first novel was recommended to me by a high school friend.  I had a hard time finding it - all library copies had waiting lists, and all local book stores were sold out.  This was around 1982, just before the release of the third book, Life, the Universe, and Everything.  I eventually found a store with a copy, and voraciously attacked the first two books.  I believe I eventually had to wait for a mass market paperback edition of the third book to be able to read it, and I attacked that too.

I thought the first two books were amazing, but I found the third to be quite different.  It was written differently, though I couldn't quite put my finger no what was different about it.  It just read differently, and the material was somewhat different.

Then I learned that there was a British TV series available on PBS, which essentially covered the material in the first two books, leaving off with Ford and Arthur being stranded on prehistoric Earth.

When the fourth book, So Long and Thanks For All the Fish, appeared, I wasn't interested in shelling out the money for a hardcover, but managed to get it cheap through a book club.  I was very confused about how the book started, and it was a short, disappointing read compared to the others.  What was going on?

Eventually, I heard that the books were based on a radio show - which I could not find anywhere.  In 1992, Mostly Harmless was published, and I took a chance on it - this was after two Dirk Gentley books that I was very disappointed by.  They both fell flat for me - I couldn't even make it half way through.  I was also very disappointed that a major plot element of the first one was very similar to a Tom Baker Doctor Who story called City of Death.  At the time, I didn't know that Mr. Adams was responsible for two Doctor Who stories, the other being The Pirate Planet, which was part of The Key to Time story arc which was the entire 16th season of the show. and aired in 1978/1979.  So, I eventually learned that he used elements of his own Doctor Who story in the first Dirk Gentley book - and, this wouldn't be the first time, as I learned from Don't Panic.

Two or three years later, I was able to obtain recordings of the original radio show, which actually aired as two separate series.  I was amazed to find that much of the material in the first two books was much the same, although the order may have been slightly different, but much of the material from the third book wasn't present - there was a ton of other material that never got used for the book.

After reading Don't Panic, I now understand why the third book reads so differently from the first two.  Rather than trying to map a radio script, which was serialized, into a book, this was an attempt to write a story as an actual novel, which was very hard for Adams.  As it turns out, he hated every book he wrote while he was working on it, that is until he was writing the next book he hated - at which point, he found he liked the previous one he wrote.  It is strange that he initially didn't want to be a writer, but then chose it as a profession, even when it was so difficult for him.  He was famous for missing deadlines.

Reading Don't Panic also helped straighten out the puzzlement I had when I saw a book at the bookstore with the following title:  Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen.  When I saw this, I remembered that the Krikkitmen were a major plot element in Life, the Universe, and Everything.  I thought that this was surely a mashup - someone decided to combine elements of Doctor Who and Hitchhiker's, and have fun with it.  As it turns out, this book is based on an original Doctor Who story, written by Adams, which never got made.

It was also very interesting to learn that at one point in time, a plot element of Life, the Universe, and Everything included a world on the brink of nuclear war which is pushed over the cliff by a change-of-address card fouling up a computer, which didn't make the final cut of the book.  This was interesting to me, since just a few year's later, Terry Gilliam's film Brazil had a similar element.  The adventure of the central character, Sam Lowry (played beautifully by Jonathan Pryce), is started by a fly fouling up a printer changing the name Tuttle into Buttle in a criminal report, which leads to the wrong man being arrested.  As it turns out, Adams had associations with others from the Monty Python group besides Gilliam.  At one point, he was working on a script with Graham Chapman, and he collaborated on Starship Titanic with Terry Jones - Jones wrote the book based on the text-adventure written by Adams.  It makes me wonder if the "change-of-address card" idea was some form of collaboration in one direction of the other, but Don't Panic doesn't address this question, it is just my observation.

Speaking of text adventure games, there is such and adventure for The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.  The idea of a text adventure started way back in 1975-1976 with the original "Colossal Cave" adventure by William Crowther.  Eventually, a company called "Infocom" created dozens of such games, like Zork, and eventually Adams was approached to create the Hitchhiker game.  Apparently, Adams designed and wrote more than half of the game while working with an Infocom engineer.

Don't Panic is a very revealing account of the turbulent history of the creation and continuation of one of the most successful, inaccurately named science fiction trilogies in history.  A very entertaining and interesting read - I recommend it to all fans of Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker books.

As always, I'm happy to hear from my readers.  Please feel free to comment.

Turning it up to...11

The number 11 has been quite a popular idiom since 1984.  In short, one of its meanings is to take something to the extreme.  It has become almost, but not quite, as popular as the number 42, made famous by Douglas Adams in his novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy published in 1979  (in fact, although the novel brought the number's attention to the entire world, it was first used in the original radio show in Great Britain which aired in 1978).

But, back to the number 11.  I've been seeing many references to it in novels the last few years - most recently in the book Tricked, which is the fourth book in The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne.

For those that aren't aware, the number 11 was made popular by a film titled This is Spinal Tap, a film by Rob Reiner (yes, Meathead from the Normal Lear TV show All in the Family).  The film is a mockumentary/rockumentary about a fictional British heavy metal band called Spinal Tap.  In a particular scene in the movie, the character Nigel Tufnel (played by Christopher Guest, who you may remember as Count Rugen from The Princess Bride) brags about how their amplifiers "go to eleven", to given them that additional "push over the cliff" during a show. 

Well, after all, one higher number makes it louder, doesn't it?

Other references I've seen:

• An electronic guitar toy that my kids had when they were younger had a volume knob which went up to 11.
• In the movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, one of the competing bands turns their amplifiers up to 11.
• The volume control on a Testla Model S car goes up to 11.
• David Tenant, the 10th Doctor Who, uses his sonic screwdriver to turn the volume of a pipe organ up to 11.

There are at least two or three other novels that have had this reference in the last few years, but they have been so far in between I can't remember which ones.

But, it's nice to see another number getting lasting attention - 42 has had the spotlight for far too long.

Have you seen this term used anywhere else?

You can find a proper definition for it here:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_to_eleven.

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.