Pareidolia Book Blog: 2008

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Without Remorse (Tom Clancy)

Rating: 4.5/5
Year: 1993
Genre: Manly stuff
Read again? Yes
Warnings: You'll need wrist support. Damn book is heavy, even in paperback.

This is two, two, two books in one! Not because of the daunting 750-page count, but because of the double life of the main man, John Kelly, and the events that ultimately turn him into CIA agent John Clark. This is a sort of prequel to Clancy's Jack Ryan books, though Jack is only a supporting character here.

John Kelly is a trouble-shooter. In 'Nam his job was infiltration and extraction--if you had a pilot down in enemy territory, you sent Kelly in to get him back. If you needed something blown up, you sent Kelly to do it.

That wasn't very long ago, in the book's timeline--a couple of years, at most. It's never spelled out, but it's early in Tricky Dick's administration. Kelly retired from the Navy at a young age (he's in his late 20's), and now, back in the States, he works in demolitions. Stick with what you know, right? This is better because no one's shooting at him.

As the story opens, Kelly's just finishing up a job on a derelict oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, sending it to the bottom and garnering him a fat bonus. At about the same time as he's starting back ashore, his wife is killed in a horrible car crash.

Half a year goes by in the flick of a page. Kelly picks up a hitchhiker named Pam. She's pretty much what he needs at the moment--a warm body, someone to help him get past the memory of his wife's death. Eventually he finds out that Pam ran away from some really bad men running a drug and prostitution ring. He wants to help her put the baddies behind bars...but things go terribly wrong. She dies and he goes on a revenge kick that makes Steven Seagal look like Michael Jackson in a cage-match slap-fight with The Punisher. Actually, that's not saying much, because Seagal got asswhipped by an old man he picked a fight with on a movie set.

Kelly sticks with what he knows, using his Navy SEAL skills to gather intelligence on the enemy, infiltrate their area of operations, and kill the hell out of them till they're dead. And the bad men do die. One bad man dies very slowly and painfully after his interrogation in a decompression tank. The best thing is that there's none of that Hollywood crap where the Hero kills a bad guy and says some dumb-shit line. Killed him in a decompression chamber? "Crushing." Electricity? "Shocking." No, Kelly's more like Thomas Jane's "Punisher." Kill them and move on.

And this is all just the first half of two inches of novel.

The second half is where John Kelly becomes John Clark. The CIA and some some Pentagon guys have a mission of their own for him--another sneak-in-and-rescue job in North Vietnam. It'll be his job (as "Mr. Clark") to get into position, scope out the enemy camp, and call in the Marines. Twenty American pilots are depending on them. Everything goes to plan right up to Kelly giving the go-ahead for the assault. The Marines are minutes away from landing...and enemy reinforcements arrive. Kelly is forced to abort the plan and call for evac.

By simple stupid good luck, Kelly captures the Russian who's been interrogating those American pilots, picking their brains for military secrets. The Russian has considerately brought all his notes along.

Clancy makes this an easy--if long--read. Seven hundred and fifty pages. I've read a lot of long damn books recently, so maybe that's why the book seems to drag. I only took a half point, though, because of the great amusement I got from reading this uber-violent novel in several restaurants that had x-mas music playing.

Shipkiller, The (Justin Scott)

Rating: 5/5
Year: 1978
Genre: Thriller/Drama
Read again? Yes

It was only supposed to be a three-week tour, a three-week...okay, no. Wrong shipwreck.

Peter and Carolyn Hardin are crossing the Atlantic aboard their sailboat, the Siren. About 100 miles southwest of the southern tip of England, Siren is shattered and scattered to the seas by Leviathan, an enormous supertanker a third of a mile long and loaded with a million tons of crude oil.

Carolyn is lost.

Hardin wakes up in a hospital in Fowey, Cornwall, on the south end of England, but his nightmare is far from over. There is no justice to be found anywhere: there is no proof that Leviathan ran him down--no body, no wreckage. All official avenues quickly close to him. Driven by grief and fury, Hardin embarks on a vendetta: destroy the monster that killed his wife. Sink Leviathan.

Is he evil? Insane? Certainly many of the other characters think so, but Scott doesn't spend time trying to make us wonder about it. He does pause at points to show us that there is a human being in there, when Hardin is reminded of his dead wife, or when he has nightmares of a great black steel wall coming for him. One touching moment has Hardin realizing that he can't even remember what Carolyn looked like. He reaches for his wallet, seeking a picture of his wife before realizing that there is no picture. His wallet, his pants, these are all things he had to buy after Leviathan killed her. It's only been a few weeks.

I like Scott's style--short, direct sentences that take you where you need to be without a lot of fuss and side trips. He uses dialog for talking rather than explaining, and it has the choppy feel of actual conversation. The writing flows like ocean waves; we are drawn into Hardin's obsession, we see how it drives him to sail all the way into the Persian Gulf for just one shot at his enemy.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Index by Author

Anderson, Kevin J
Star Wars: Darksaber

Anderton, Craig
Electronic Projects for Musicians
Projects for Guitarists

Asprin, Robert
Myth #1: Another Fine Myth
Myth #2: Myth Conceptions
Myth #3: Myth Directions

Barber, Barrington
Complete Introduction to Drawing, The

Barker, Clive
Hellbound Heart, The

Beinhart, Larry
Salvation Boulevard

Benchley, Peter
Jaws

Billings, John D
Hard Tack and Coffee

Blandford, Neil & Jones, Bruce
World's Most Evil Men, The

Bonano, Margaret Wander
Star Trek: TOS--Strangers From the Sky

Brewer, Gene
K-PAX
On a Beam of Light

Butcher, Jim
Dresden Files 01: Storm Front
Dresden Files 02: Fool Moon
Dresden Files 03: Grave Peril
Dresden Files 04: Summer Knight
Dresden Files 05: Death Masks
Dresden Files 06: Blood Rites
Dresden Files 07: Dead Beat
Dresden Files 08: Proven Guilty
Dresden Files 09: White Night
Dresden Files 10: Small Favor
Dresden Files 11: Turn Coat
Dresden Files 12: Changes
Dresden Files 13: Ghost Story
Quickie: The Dresden Files (Series)

Carey, Diane
Star Trek: TOS--Final Frontier
Star Trek--TOS #31 Battlestations!
Star Trek--TOS 29: Dreadnought!

Chaikin, Andrew
Man on the Moon, A

Chandler, Raymond
Bay City Blues (short story)
Curtain, The (short story)
Farewell, My Lovely
Finger Man (short story)
Goldfish (short story)
Killer in the Rain (short story)
Lady in the Lake, The (short story)
Man Who Liked Dogs, The (short story)
Mandarin's Jade (short story)
No Crime in the Mountains (short story)
Red Wind (short story)
Trouble Is My Business (collection)
Trouble is my Business (short story)
Try the Girl (short story)

Clancy, Tom
Without Remorse

Clarke, Arthur C
2001: A Space Odyssey
2010: Odyssey 2
2061: Odyssey Three
3001: Final Odyssey

Crispin, AC
Star Trek--TOS #39: Time for Yesterday
Star Trek--TOS #8 Yesterday's Son

Daley, Brian
Solo 01--Han Solo at Star's End
Solo 02--Han Solo's Revenge
Solo 03--Han Solo and the Lost Legacy

David, Peter
Star Trek: TNG Imzadi
Star Trek: TNG--Vendetta

de Quesada, Alejandro
Quickie: A History of Florida Forts

Dillard, JM
Star Trek--TOS: The Lost Years

Donato, Ray
Rush (Guitar Superstar Series)

Feynman, Richard
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Foster, Alan Dean
Alien
Aliens
Splinter of the Mind's Eye

Friedman, Michael J
Star Trek--TOS #45: Double, Double

Gardner, Craig Shaw
Back to the Future II

Gilman, George
Edge: 01 The Loner

Gipe, George
Back to the Future

Glover, Thomas
Pocket Ref (3e)

Graham, Brad & McGowan, Kathy
101 Spy Gadgets for the Evil Genius
51 High-Tech Practical Jokes for the Evil Genius

Hammett, Dashiell
Maltese Falcon, The

Hitchens, Christopher
God Is Not Great

Hooker, Richard
M*A*S*H

Jenkins, Dennis & Frank, Jorge
Apollo 11 Moon Landing: 40th Anniversary Photographic Retrospective, The

Kim, Ashida
Forbidden Fighting Techniques of the Ninja

Krutein, Wernher
American Lighthouses

Lackey, Mercedes
Bard's Tale 1--Castle of Deception
Tregarde 01: Burning Water
Tregarde 02: Children of the Night
Tregarde 03: Jinx High
Valdemar (series)
Valdemar 01: The Black Gryphon
Valdemar 02: The White Gryphon
Valdemar 03: The Silver Gryphon
Valdemar 04: Magic's Pawn
Valdemar 05: Magic's Promise
Valdemar 06: Magic's Price
Valdemar 07: Brightly Burning
Valdemar 08: The Oathbound
Valdemar 09: Oathbreakers
Valdemar 10: Oathblood
Valdemar 11: Exile's Honor
Valdemar 12: Exile's Valor
Valdemar 13: Take a Thief
Valdemar 14: Arrows of the Queen
Valdemar 15: Arrow's Flight
Valdemar 16: Arrow's Fall
Valdemar 17: By the Sword
Valdemar 18: Winds of Fate
Valdemar 19: Winds of Change
Valdemar 20: Winds of Fury

Lamm, John
Quickie: DeLorean: Stainless Steel Illusion

Leonard, Elmore
Maximum Bob
Pronto

Levy, Matthys & Salvadori, Mario
Why Buildings Fall Down

Linford, Jenny
Lighthouses

Martin, George RR
Quickie: A Song of Ice and Fire (series)
SIF 01: A Game of Thrones
SIF 02: A Clash of Kings
SIF 03: A Storm of Swords
SIF 04: A Feast for Crows

McCarthy, Cormac
No Country for Old Men

Meyer, Kathleen
How to Shit in the Woods

Mitchell, VE
Star Trek #65--Windows on a Lost World

Morgan-Griffiths, Lauris
Ansel Adams: Landscapes of the American West

Morwood, Peter
Star Trek: TOS #48--Rules of Engagement

Nance, John J
Final Approach

Oltion, Jerry
Star Trek: TOS 081 Mudd in your Eye

Penfold, RA
Electronic Projects for Guitar

Rauch, Earl Mac
Buckaroo Banzai

Reeves-Stevens, Judith & Garfield
Star Trek: Federation
Star Trek: TOS Prime Directive

Roach, Mary
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Ross, Michael
Getting Great Guitar Sounds

Sagan, Carl
Demon-Haunted World, The

Scott, Justin
Shipkiller, The

Sherman, Josepha
Bard's Tale 2--The Chaos Gate

Sinclair, Upton
Jungle, The

Stackpole, Michael
Star Wars: I, Jedi

Straub, Peter
Floating Dragon

Takahashi, Rumiko
Quickie: Ranma 1/2 (series)

Thayer, James
Terminal Event

Toole, JK
Confederacy of Dunces, A

Unknown
Rush Complete (2 volumes) and Deluxe Anthology

Various
Quickie: Star Wars: New Jedi Order (series)

Weaver, John
Quickie: A Legacy in Brick and Stone

Weinstein, Howard
Star Trek--TNG #06 Power Hungry

Wels, Susan
Pearl Harbor: America's Darkest Day

Wilson, F Paul
Keep, The

Zahn, Timothy
Star Wars: Hand of Thrawn 01--Spectre of the Past
Star Wars: Hand of Thrawn 02--Vision of the Future
Star Wars: Thrawn 01--Heir to the Empire
Star Wars: Thrawn 02--Dark Force Rising
Star Wars: Thrawn 03: The Last Command

Zelazny, Roger
Amber 01: Nine Princes in Amber
Amber 01: Nine Princes in Amber (short review)
Amber 02: The Guns of Avalon
Amber 02: The Guns of Avalon (short review)
Amber 03: Sign of the Unicorn
Amber 03: Sign of the Unicorn
Amber 04: The Hand of Oberon
Amber 05: The Courts of Chaos
Quickie: Chronicles of Amber, The (Series)

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Star Trek: Federation (Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens)

Star Trek: Federation (Reeves-Stevens, Judith & Garfield)

Rating: 4/5
Date: 1995
Read again? Yes.
Warnings: None

Yet another Star Trek "Giant Novel." Yes, I'm avoiding the series stuff, getting the good stuff (or what I remember as good) first. I'll suffer for it later, like when I get to Sonni Cooper's "Black Fire," which I'm afraid George Lucas will buy the movie rights for--I mean, the suck's already there, so he won't have to add any of his own, which is good because he used so much of it in the 4th Indiana Jones movie.

"Federation" begins with a soon-retiring James Kirk visiting the Guardian of Forever from TOS's "City on the Edge of Forever." I know what you're thinking: "Oh, great, yet another 'time-travel' story."

No.

In this case, the Guardian is a frame for the bigger story, which is told across three time periods.

First, we meet Zephram Cochrane, the guy who invented Warp engines. It's 2061, and Cochrane has just returned from the first Warp-powered trip to Alpha Centauri. There and back in 243 days. He barely has time for a reluctant celebration, though, for one Adrik Thorsen of the Optimum Movement is after him. Thorsen wants Cochrane's Warp Drive--both as a weapon to be used in cleansing humanity of imperfections and to keep those same humans from escaping the cleansing.

Next, we flash forward to the Enterprise in 2267, where James Kirk is playing Space Poker with Spock and Sarek, and getting his ass handed to him. They're in the ship's Sickbay, recovering from the events of the TOS episode "Journey to Babel" (an assassination attempt on Kirk; Sarek in desperate need of open-heart surgery; Spock unable to leave the bridge to give blood for the cause). Remember the episode where Cochrane turned up alive on a little planetoid, and in the end Kirk promised that he'd keep it quiet?

Ummmm...ooopsie. Just like before, ships are disappearing in the Gamma Canaris region, and an admiral has come aboard wanting to know why Starfleet wasn't warned about that planetoid and its apparent hazard to navigation. And why a dead woman is asking James Kirk for help.

Then, we visit the Enterprise-D in 2366, where Picard is playing Space Chess with Data, bringing the game to a stalemate three times in a row. Mad skills, yo. It's shortly after Picard's mind-meld from the TNG episode where Sarek is suffering from Space Alzheimer's, and some of the Vulcan's chess-playing ability has stuck with the Captain. Nothing more exciting than this happens for a few pages...then the captain and his crew find themselves wondering how a Romulan Warbird has ended up in Ferengi hands, and what they have to do with the Borg.

The three plotlines are told piecemeal, one, two, three, and the Reeves-Stevenses are on the ball in keeping things organized and bringing it all together. I've read this one four or five times (and haven't read it in maybe 10 years), and as always they tell a good story and keep it entertaining. I especially like their treatment of Vulcans as thinking, FEELING beings. It's not like they're unemotional; no--they're a very (almost excessively?) passionate race who came to understand that emotions can and should be controlled, lest they control you. Too many other Trek writers come up with stupid crap like "Spock had come perilously close to feeling emotion." That's just wrong--you can see that in Spock's behavior in the original series. He does express emotions, but it's a subtle thing.

SPOILERS!

There were some things I had problems with There was little nit-picky stuff--some unnecessary hand-holding from the authors at times (belaboring a point to make sure we get it), a few places where the story gets bogged down, but none of that warrants that point I took away.

Since it's been a while since I last read it, I've changed enough where things that I really dug the first times through are just not so cool anymore--especially the bad guy Thorsen, who simply refuses to die. First he gets himself made into a cyborg, then he's just a personality matrix waiting around to take control of the Enterprise-D and then Data, all in the pursuit of Cochrane. These things happened so often on TNG that I found them as annoying as all the damn time-travel stuff the various Trek shows did. The entire third act of the book hinges on the Thorsen-thing strategically getting into position to capture the ship, and upon its ability to manipulate the Romulans, Ferengi, and ultimately Picard...yet Thorsen is defeated because of a LACK of strategic thinking ability. Didn't sit right, so there goes a point.

Floating Dragon (Peter Straub)

Floating Dragon (Peter Straub)

Rating: 4/5
Year: 1982
Genre: Horror
Read again? Yes.

This is the only book in maybe 25 years that ever scared the crap out of me. The first time I read it--17 years ago--I couldn't sleep soundly for a few nights. The last book that affected me that way was Benchley's "Jaws" in early-Eighties middle school.

The only thing that scares me anymore is the knowledge that George Lucas is lurking under an expensive rock somewhere, ready to ooze out and make another movie.

"Floating Dragon" is set in Hampstead, a small Connecticut town, a bedroom community for New York City. A woman named Stony Friedgood is murdered on May 17, 1980. In nearby Woodville, there's the inadvertent release of a toxic gas at a secret military facility.

Shortly thereafter, people in Hampstead turn up with a bad case of dead. Some are suicides. Some simply drop where they stand. Some begin to liquefy and have to wrap themselves in bandages to keep themselves together. Some have visions and go insane. Some are carved up by an unseen murderer. The survivors--those who didn't leave Patchin County when the troubles
began--are treated to an awful ride from which there is no escape. But is it the effect of the gas (known as DRG-16 to the military wonks)...or is it the evil that has manifested in cycles in Patchin County for two centuries?

Hampstead's a small town, one of those everybody-knows-everyone-else places, home to famous actors, New York power brokers, and professional snobs.

Some of the town's founding families are still here more than three centuries later: Williams, Smyth, Green, and Tayler. These names and more are part of the county's history from the 1700's on. In that regard, "Dragon" reads like a family tree: each generation of these core families bears witness to--or causes--horrifying murders.

The principals are:
Graham Williams, formerly famous author; now a failure and a coward (his own words). Blacklisted by Tailgunner Joe McCarthy.

James Tabb ("Tabby") Smithfield, formerly poor little rich kid; now a poor little poor kid with an alcoholic father.

Richard Allbee (Green), formerly famous child actor; now restores Victorian- and Edwardian-era houses.

Patsy McCloud (Taylor), formerly popular girl, now a beaten wife.

Williams is the first to realize that the four of them--the last of those original founding families--coming together means bad things are afoot. When he was 20, and again in his 50's, he faced that evil alone. This time around, it's plain that the four of them must band together, or all four of them will die.

Straub's writing is tight and flows well for the most part, with good description and characterization. He uses much of the book's 544-plus pages (plus thirty pages of back-story vignettes) effectively, but he doesn't tell the story in a linear manner. To keep us as disoriented as the characters, he bounces from point of view to point of view, from present to past. We see certain events through several sets of eyes.

The down side is that the story drags toward the end: it took a week and a half to finish it this time around. The Big Fight at the end is silly and disappointing in a "You mean that's IT?!" way. Had to take a point off for that.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Main Index--by Title

Star Trek: TOS Prime Directive (Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens)

Rating: 4/5
Date: 1991
Genre: Sci-Fi
Read again? Yes.

Talin IV is a dead world. Five Enterprise officers are blamed: Captain Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura have all resigned from or been kicked out of Starfleet. Dr. McCoy has resigned in protest. Everyone scatters into fish-out-of-water plotlines, learning that they had been living easy aboard Enterprise. Now they can't just go wherever they want. Things they once took for granted cost money now. Finally, they get to see that the Utopian mindset of Starfleet doesn't really trickle down to the regular people.

Kirk goes off by himself, taking odd jobs and moving on as people realize who he is, sort of like Bruce Banner in "The Hulk."

Sulu and Chekov team up, fighting their way into crew positions on an Orion freighter.

McCoy and Uhura join forces. He's the sloppy liberal, she's the neat-freak conservative...hilarity ensues!

Spock joins the Space Hippies.

Mr. Scott is the only Enterprise officer untouched by the scandal, and he's put in charge of recovering the crippled starship. How'd it get crippled? There need to be some surprises.

Naturally, all roads lead back to Talin IV. Starfleet won't investigate further, settling for a quarantine of the Talin system, and it's up to the Enterprise folks to figure out what happened and make Starfleet give them back their jobs.

This is maybe the 5th time I've read "Prime Directive," but it's the first time in about a decade. It's aged well, especially compared to Peter David's "Vendetta" novel. The Stevenses' style is much sharper--and in some ways it's like watching a good "Trek" episode or movie. I especially like the way they don't fall into the stock "Trek" trap of depicting the Federation and Starfleet as near-perfect, Utopian government systems. There's a bureaucracy in each with enormous inertia--and sometimes that inertia keeps the higher-ups from being able to stop and look at a situation carefully. Then, they blame the media (didn't see it specifically in the book, granted; but humans haven't changed much in thousands of years. Why would they be so different in a few hundred?).

Characterization is good, the plot and story are engaging...right up until we find out what killed Talin IV. I didn't care so much for the cause, and that's what I took a point for.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Star Trek: TNG--Vendetta (Peter David)

Star Trek: TNG--Vendetta (Peter David)

Rating: 3/5

Year: 1991

Genre: Sci-Fi

Read again: I don't know.

The Borg. The Ferengi. A planet-killer bent on destroying the Borg. Riker's beard. Foreshadowing via Picard flashback to his Academy days, foreshadowing via Geordi LaForge tilting at Holodeck windmills.

Ever wish you could wipe out the entire race of soulless Borg who eradicated your planet? All you need is a planet-killer--the enormous cornucopia of destruction from the Original Series' "The Doomsday Machine." It's indestructible, chops up planets for fuel, and someone bent on revenge has gotten ahold of one. Picard's foreshadowing has him studying the original Doomsday Machine in Starfleet Academy, hoping to find out where the mysterious ship came from.

Then there are the Penzatti, the latest victims of the Borg. Their planet gets wasted on their equivalent of Thanksgiving, the day where all Penzatti thank their gods for making them sooo much better than any other race. Apparently their gods are irrelevant.

Nitpick: The Penzatti planet is almost utterly demolished by the Borg; yet there's still enough of an atmosphere for the few survivors of the attack--and their rescuers--to survive. "Chunks" of atmosphere scooped away like so much ice cream. I'd like a bit better "sci" with my "fi."

On the Borg side, there's a woman, completely assimilated, playing Dulcinea or windmill for LaForge. He's sure she can be "saved" from Borgdom. Can she? David hits the reader over the head with her condition. After the first couple of times of reminding us that there's no "there" there with her, she's a blank slate, a zero, a cipher, an empty cup...all right, all right, I get it, dude. Just tell the story! That's the first point off. If I want hand-holding, I'll watch a George Lucas movie.

The rub for me is that this and so many other stories have something introduced at the beginning that gets echoed everywhere in the story. In this case, it's the tale of Don Quixote echoed in each of the main characters--Picard's Dulcinea (and his windmill?) is the woman who seeks to destroy the Borg. We have an unimaginative captain (an Academy rival of Picard's) who must be Sancho, yet he's obsessed with Picard, so he's got some Quixote, as well. The major moral is obvious: we all have our Dulcinea to be obsessed with, our own windmills at which to tilt, and our own Sancho moments. The Borg are, in this case, the ultimate unimaginative Sanchos. The rub is that the whole parallel to Don Quixote is forced to the point of numbness. A few threads, subtle references to the original, would have sufficed.

As with most of the other Star Trek books I've got, I haven't read this one in maybe 10 years. It's one of a few I've read 5 times or more. It's not as good as I remembered, and that's a shame, because Peter David was my favorite Trek author. If his stuff hasn't weathered well, I shudder to think of how bad the worst books will be. His style feels a bit clunky, or clumsy. Heavy-handed, and that's the second point off--which is a shame, because the story is a good basic concept. It could be so much _better._

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Amber 03: Sign of the Unicorn

Rating: 5/5

Date: 1975

Read again? Yes.

Man, the little blurb on the back of my copy seems to be about a different book, but everyone knows not to look at them, right?

Corwin has the throne of Amber, but he is not yet king. It's been a week since the end of "The Guns of Avalon." Corwin's been too busy trying to hold the realm together to bother with taking up the Crown.

Someone's killed Caine, one of Corwin's brothers, and suspicion has fallen upon him as the culprit.

Unknown agents have imprisoned Brand, another brother, in a tower in a distant Shadow.

There's the mystery of the Black Road, which leads from Amber through all Shadows to the Courts of Chaos, and upon which the Enemy might be riding even now to lay siege to Amber yet again.

And there's the realization of the true nature of Amber and the Pattern.

Farewell, My Lovely (Raymond Chandler)

Farewell, My Lovely (Raymond Chandler)

Rating: 5/5
Pub. Date: 1940
Genre: Crime
Read again? Yes

Wow.

I've been a fan of Chandler's style since I first read "The Big Sleep" back in 2002. His writing is tight, economical, and about as sharp and subtle as a knife in the ribs.

Philip Marlowe is the smart-ass I've always wished I could be. It's one thing to be sarcastic; anyone can be sarcastic, but unlike me, Marlowe isn't afraid of getting his ass whipped when he cracks wise to a 6-foot-five-inch, 280-pound crowd-pleaser named Moose.

This isn't a book for the easily-offended. If you're one of those folks who tiptoes around racial issues and wants "Huckleberry Finn" banned because of a certain word, you'd best tiptoe along, because Marlowe's world isn't rose-colored, and you might get your feelings hurt. This book will slap you--and if you're gonna read it, you'll take the slap and like it.

Marlowe starts out looking for a barber who's gone missing. Somehow he ends up in front of a club, looking at Moose Malloy--and then he's in the club (Blacks-only) pretty much against his will (Moose was very persuasive). Moose wants to know where his girl is. Hasn't seen her in 8 years. Used to work in this club. He doesn't like the answer the bouncer gives. He doesn't like the answer the bartender gives. He really doesn't like the answer the club owner gives, so now it's murder.

The cops drag their feet going after Moose--it's only a "shine killing," as they put it. The press doesn't make a fuss, either--just a shine killing. Marlowe himself isn't overwrought about a dead black man, but that could just be Marlowe being Marlowe.

This being a detective story, the killing doesn’t end with one black man. Pretty soon there’s a rich guy who hired Marlowe to help him recover a stolen necklace, only to get his head ventilated. Then there’s a dead old lady who knew a few things and had to be silenced.

There’s the rich dame who has it all and wants more, the feisty redhead who doesn’t have much and wants Marlowe, the clean cops who have some leads and want Marlowe to stay out of the way, and the crooked cops who have some lead and want to give Marlowe a share.

Star Trek: TOS--Final Frontier (Diane Carey)

Star Trek: TOS--Final Frontier (Diane Carey)

Rating: 4/5
Pub Date: 1988
Genre: Sci-Fi
Read again? In another few years.

Billed as the "third giant Star Trek novel," the book follows George Samuel Kirk, father of 10-year-old James Kirk. George and his comic-relief sidekick Francis Drake Reed are nabbed from their Starbase, taken to an undisclosed location, and asked to help rescue a bunch of settlers whose ship has been disabled by Space Weather. The back of the book tries to play cagey and mysterious about the ship George and Drake are aboard, but it's pretty easy to figure out from Carey's descriptions--even though the ship is brand new and un-named. Isn't that unlucky or something? Or have the Trek folks moved past superstitious sailors?

We also follow James Kirk, some 25 years later, just after the events in "City on the Edge of Forever." Kirk is upset at losing the woman he loved (Edith Keeler), so he holes up in the barn of his family farm, reads 25-year-old letters from Dad, and ignores the hell out of everyone else, determined to feel sorry for himself just like dear old Dad was doing when he wrote those letters. McCoy and Spock show up in turn to try to help their friend and captain with his grief.

This being "Star Trek," there have to be bad guys. This time it's the Romulans--and they're curious about this unknown, un-named starship that suddenly drops right in their laps. It's a very Cold War story, with all the mutual suspicion and paranoia about the Evil Other. It's a precursor to the "Balance of Terror" episode of the original series in some ways. The episode marks the first "official" time humans and Romulans get a look at each other--but "Final Frontier" has George Kirk meeting a Romulan face to face. No idea whether this book's story line is accepted as canon among fans, but the way the meeting is resolved, it doesn't conflict with the show.

That said, I didn't like the wrap-up of the Romulan plot, so I gotta take a point off.

It's been maybe 10 years since I last read this one--and I've put off reading any sci-fi, any big series, and especially either of the Big Two franchises (Star Wars is the other one) because they wear me out--a lot of the books just plain suck. So anyway, it's been a decade. The book's an easy read and the three main plot threads are nicely braided together, but it will be a long time before I read it again, if only because of the other 1500 or so books I still need to look at.

Hellbound Heart, The (Clive Barker)

Hellbound Heart, The (Clive Barker)

Rating: 5/5
Pub. Date: 1986
Genre: Horror
Would I read it again? Yes

This short novel is what became the movie "Hellraiser."

This is the first of Barker's works I've read. I hope all of his writing is as tight and economical as this example! He doles out only as many words as needed to express a thought, to describe a mood, and not a syllable more. Even better, he doesn't lead you by the hand through his plot or hit you over the head: you are expected to work things out for yourself.

It's been more than 20 years since I last saw "Hellraiser," so I can't say how close "The Hellbound Heart" is to its cinematic offspring. We begin with Frank exploring an intricate puzzle-box. He's been at it for hours, dreaming of pleasures promised by the man who gave him the thing: wild orgies, sated lust, women used and discarded.

He opens the box. Wild orgies, sated lust? Nope, nothing he'd imagined. Frank gets used up--but not discarded--by the horrific creatures summoned by the opening of that box.

Eight months later, his brother and sister-in-law move into the house, not knowing that Frank was even there. Hell-raising ensues!

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Amber 02: The Guns of Avalon (Zelazny)--no spoilers

Rating: 5/5
Date: 1972
Genre: Fantasy
Read again? And again, and again, and...

This is the second of the five original Amber novels.

Corwin travels to the land called Avalon, intending to raise an army, bring guns to Amber, and take the throne from his usurping brother Eric.

He fights dark things from a black Circle, is reunited with a long-lost brother, and encounters a mysterious black road that seems to cut through Shadow to threaten the very heart of Amber.

Amber 01: Nine Princes in Amber (Zelazny)--no spoilers

Rating: 5/5
Date: 1970
Genre: Fantasy
Read again? Absolutely.

This is the first of the original five Amber novels by Roger Zelazny. All of these are written from Corwin's point of view, in a conversational style, as if you're sitting with this Lord of Amber in the castle library (a favorite haunt of his) over drinks.

The book opens with Corwin waking up in a private hospital room. Both legs are in casts, and he remembers a car wreck...but he can't remember who he is. He is certain, however, that it's time he left, though he's not sure why. Broken legs, internal injuries, a head injury--all close to healed, and it's only been two weeks, according to the hospital administrator.

What follows is a chess game between Corwin and a sister he barely remembers, where each move and countermove reveals a tiny piece of the puzzle surrounding him--family names, shared memories.

Who is Corwin? What is Amber? Who caused the wreck that sent him to that hospital--and who arranged to keep him prisoner there?

Monday, October 6, 2008

Quickie: Chronicles of Amber, The (Series; Zelazny, Roger)

Rating (series) 5/5
Year:
Corwin:
1. Nine Princes in Amber (1970)
2. The Guns of Avalon (1972)
3. The Sign of the Unicorn (1975)
4. The Hand of Oberon (1976)
5. The Courts of Chaos (1978)

Genre: Fantasy
Read again? Yes!

Gotta start with this series, since that's the one that grabbed me back in 1983 or so.

I got Volume 1 of 2 from my brother-in-law. The thick hardcover sat unread for a few months before I finally picked it up and opened it. From that point, it was difficult to put the thing down. Zelazny had a sharp, solid writing style that has become the major influence in my own muddling attempts at writing. All the Amber books are written in first person, with Lord Corwin, Prince of Amber, the man who would be king, telling us his life story. Several times--for as events unfold through the five Corwin novels, he is forced to re-evaluate his understanding of things.

There are many literary references, mostly to Shakespeare; and there is enough dealing and double-dealing in Corwin's family to give Machiavelli a migraine. But through all the back-stabbing and throat-cutting, all the intrigues and secretive alliances, through all things runs a single golden thread, the reason for all these things: Amber.

Amber is the archetype of every city, every civilization that has existed, does exist, or will ever exist. It is said that all roads lead to Amber: this is true, if one but knows the way. Amber represents Order. Her polar opposite at the far end of reality is the Courts of Chaos. Between these two poles--Order and Disorder--lies everything, including our own world, which is but a shadow of Amber.

Corwin and his family are granted certain powers by the Power that formed Amber itself, a mysterious glowing design graven in blue fire. This "Pattern" gives them the ability to walk (or ride a horse) away from Amber, working their will upon their surroundings, changing the sky, the land, the people until the world matches what they've imagined. They call these worlds "Shadows," little more than pale copies of Amber herself.

Their other big ability (and the one that I thought the coolest) lies in the Trumps. Basically a set of Tarot cards, with some added face cards representing each member of the royal family. If you have a Trump for a person, you just concentrate on the card, imagine that the person is actually there, and *contact* you're looking at them and talking to them. If you touch the other person, you can bring them through the link to wherever you are.

Who needs Warp Speed, with cool stuff like this?

Another bleedin' blog?!

Yeah.

A friend of mine got me thinking about doing this, because of his own blog:

http://scorethefilm.blogspot.com/

He's a movie freak, in the truest sense of the term. He lives and breathes movies; has a database in his head of composers, directors, producers, and actors; and every weekend I'm over at his place watching stuff I'd never seen before. We've seen great, so-so, and utter crap all in the space of a weekend--and sometimes in one movie.

So. What he's doing with movies, I'd like to do with books. It'll span genres--horror, drama, spies, fantasy, sci-fi--and my favorite authors: Roger Zelazny, George R. R. Martin, Jim Butcher, Mercedes Lackey, Raymond Chandler, and more.

I don't want to just write about the books, though; I want to look at the worlds and "rules" their characters live in and with--how magic is treated, how it works, and like that.

Pareidolia Book Blog