“One of the things I like, and I’m a voracious reader as well as a writer, is books that surprise me, that are not predictable”.

George R.R. Martin

I don’t read much from the Horror category but decided to try this since it won the 2018 Bram Stoker Award for best novel.

https://www.tor.com/2018/03/05/announcing-the-2017-bram-stoker-award-winners/

Sadly, I don’t know that George is going to have too many good things to say about this one.  To cut right to the chase, it wasn’t what I’d hoped for – I wound up reading through it pretty quickly and superficially and found that it just didn’t have much of an impact.

When I do decide to pick up something in this genre, I want it to really mess with me and creep me out.  I want it to stay with me for a good long while – the way “The Exorcist” by William Peter Blatty or “Carrion Comfort” by Dan Simmons did.  Books like those are unforgettable and they don’t fade over time.  They scar –  not just scare but scar – you just a little bit and you wind up thinking back to them at all the wrong times – sending a nasty little chill up and down your spine.

Really good horror movies have the same effect.  I made the mistake of watching “Night Of The Living Dead” on television and then going to see “Dawn Of The Dead” in the theater when I was younger.  Those are two decisions that I wish I could get a mulligan on.  To this day – I DO NOT like zombies and I will have nothing to do with them – either in print or on the screen.  I have not watched a single episode of “The Walking Dead” and I NEVER will.  For the longest time, I found myself having those occasional dreams where I was being chased by zombies.  I’m smart enough to know that the zombies are stand-ins for things I’m stressing about in real life but those two movies had enough of an impact that zombies became my unconscious symbol for seriously threatening elements in real life.  The only literary and cinematic exception to this rule that I’ve ever made was “World War Z” – both the book and the movie – and while I’m glad I did – I enjoyed both – I don’t think the decision helped to mitigate my feelings about the whole zombie thing.

That’s what I was hoping for when I downloaded the book and started in.  About a third of the way through, I realized that the only horrific aspect of the story was a creeping sense of boredom.  Anyone who reads the blurb on Amazon is going to find the book all too predictable. Start with a biblical teaser, lock a group of disparate and diverse individuals into a room, throw in some religious animosities, sexual transgressions and political tensions and a nasty outcome comes as no surprise to anyone.  You hardly need the demonic presence to drive the story.  The Author throws in some mildly engaging questions along the way related to whether the characters’ early transgressions are driven by possession or arise from their own flaws and life pain but – for me – that was about as interesting as it ever got.

Short to long – if anyone ever offers me the opportunity to hike Mount Ararat – my decision not to do so is going to have absolutely nothing to do with this book.

I’ve always gotten a kick out of the saying – “sex is kinda like pizza…even when it’s bad, it’s pretty darn good”.  I’m not going to make a judgement about it’s accuracy with respect to sex but I do generally believe it to be true about books.  As I’ve said before, I actually read very few books that are so badly conceived that I can’t find something within them to enjoy.  It sometimes happens but it’s rare.

Having said that, it’s not unusual for a book to surprise me on the upside and this one did.  I pulled this off the Verge article I posted – “26 Underrated Science Fiction And Fantasy Gems You Shouldn’t Miss”.

On The Shelf – Interesting Picks – 2/11/2018

I had modest expectations going in but you can probably see from past posts that this type of story appeals to me – supernatural threats to the mundane world controlled by extra-ordinary organizations.  “The Laundry Files” by Charles Stross and “The Dresden Files” by Jim Butcher are the two best examples that come to mind.  I have every book in both series and they are prized possessions – the source of countless hours of fun.

Not to say that this always works for me – I never really cared for the “Monster Hunter” series.  Those books aren’t bad – they’re just not good enough to deserve an investment on my part.  I read the first in the series and just didn’t feel compelled to move forward – it just felt kind of heavy-handed and klunky.

Still, the blurb from the Verge article on this one intrigued me.  I downloaded an e-copy and read through it this week.  While it’s too early to tell – all too many authors have wrecked a great concept with a poorly conceived second book – literary one hit wonders that whose authors write themselves into the same fate as “Dexy’s Midnight Runners” or ‘Tommy Tutone” – I think this may be a long term win.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book – far more that I’d ever expected.

It did what a really good story should – it compelled me to keep reading after the first few pages.  Daniel O’Malley takes a relatively unprepossessing, amnesiac, thoroughly charming heroine – Myfanwy Thomas – and grows her over the course of the story into a thoroughly formidable presence who never loses the relative innocence and overwhelming practicality that made her so charming to begin with.

He also creates a British Governmental Agency – the Checquy – that combines the formidable effectiveness and capabilities of MI5 or the FBI with the oddness of Monty Python’s “Ministry Of Silly Walks”.  There are real similarities to The Laundry in Charles Stross’ books – the difference being that the Checquy is far better funded and enjoys far greater support from the U.K. Government.

I just loved these books – enjoyed them enough to go back and both download a copy of the second book in the series – “Stiletto” and order hard covers of both.  It was an act of faith – I’m fully aware of the possibility that O’Malley might disappoint me with “Stiletto” but I’d be shocked if he did.  This first volume was too well-written, the characters too well-conceived and the story was too thoroughly enjoyable.  Combine that with the fact that “Stiletto” reviews on Amazon come in at 4.5 stars and I think I’m safe.  My  hope is that I have characters and a world that I can live with and enjoy for a very long time – that these books come to occupy a place in the Library similar to that earned by Stross, Butcher, Brust, Erikson / Esslemont, Stirling, Weber and others.

I love to try new titles – that act of faith that you hope leads to a new literary love – but there are very few feelings that compare to the one I get when I see that one of my favorite authors has a new release scheduled – that he or she is going to give me the chance to spend a few more hours with old friends like Bob Howard or Vlad Taltos or Harry Dresden.  I don’t suffer under the illusion that any these books will have lasting significance or that anyone is going to be reading them in 20 years but who cares – they almost always come to me as a precious gift.  Here’s to hoping that O’Malley finds a way to make Myfanwy Thomas and the Checquy into one of those gifts that keeps on giving.

I posted on this book about a week ago when I was about a third of the way through – the link will bring you back to my earlier post:

http://booksofbrian.com/on-the-nightstand-the-brief-wondrous-life-of-oscar-wao-3-18-2018/

I was able to finish last night and you can take everything I wrote in that first post and just double it.  This was an exceptional read and Junot Diaz is an exceptional writer.  Poking around online last night, I found that he has two other books out – “Drown” and “This Is How You Lost Her” – both of which focus on the life of the narrator in “Oscar Wao”.  I have no idea how I’ll make time to read those two additional titles – I’m already pretty overwhelmed with On The Shelf selections – but I will find a way.  Junot Diaz is that good a writer.

There’s an unpolished, very raw, very real feel to the way he writes – it makes it easy to relate to and identify with his characters.  I’m an obvious outsider to the country and culture he’s writing into but he forced me to connect with the family he describes in a very personal way.  Every bad choice is balanced by the realization that there are few good options and that the real challenge for each and every one of the DeLeons is to establish as much control over their lives as possible in a country that offers them very little.  Even as the second and third generations of this family work to build lives in the U.S., they never truly escape the hold that the Dominican Republic – its politics and its culture – exerts.

One of the many things I loved about the book is that, while Diaz is pulling you through a hard, unhappy narrative, he never lets you stumble into condescension or pity.  You never stop wishing for a better outcome but you also never stop admiring the DeLeons for the courage and determination they display on a daily basis.  At all those points in the book where one of the characters could have made a better decision or headed off in a better direction, Diaz builds a context around their choices rooted in history or culture or just humanity that leaves you understanding and reluctantly accepting the outcome.  Some hard stories leave you tired as you arrive at the last page.  Diaz in “Oscar Wao” leaves you accepting.

Even the final, fateful decision made by Oscar – while in no way inevitable – can ultimately be accepted as a courageous and dignified choice that reflects a desire to seek closure on his own terms.  Oscar is extremely intelligent.  You know that he’s fully aware of the consequence of his choice.  By the last page – the final internal monologue from Yunior – the narrator – you accept and understand and admire Oscar for doing what he does.

One final comment – as I mentioned in my earlier post – this book lies well outside my core genres – science fiction & fantasy and history – but it reminded me how important it is to step away from what I’m most comfortable reading and – every once in awhile – head out in new directions.  There are so many incredible books and so many amazing writers that I would normally never find.  I receive really good recommendations from subscribers – in this case from NG – thank you again – that give me the opportunity to expand my reading experience.  I plan to be far more aggressive in seeking out those opportunities.

I wanted to add a brief, partial post before I ended the weekend – for several reasons.

First and foremost, I wanted to thank NG for recommending this book.  After reading my “Ready Player One” post, he steered me in this direction – primarily due to the main character’s interest in the same aspects of popular culture that figure so prominently in “Ready Player One” – science fiction and fantasy, gaming, anime and movies.  It was a great recommendation.

Second – while I’ve only finished about a third of the book – I can’t recommend it highly enough.  It’s beautifully written – heartbreakingly beautiful.  It couldn’t be further from my core genres but I’m probably enjoying it all the more for just that reason.  It’s centered on the life of an extremely intelligent, young Dominican boy who constantly and miserably fails in his every attempt to lead the type of life that his family and his culture expects of him.  The characters in this book are huge – far larger than the relatively mundane lives they lead.  While their stories do not lack for pain and disappointment, they manage – at least in the 1st half of the book – to retain a strength and nobility and humanity that you can’t help but respect and admire.

Third – I’m very thankful for the chance that this book has provided to learn something new – gain some insight – into the history of a country and people to which I’ve never been exposed.  The Dominican Republic is so close and it’s been the recipient of far too much unkind American attention over the course of the last century that I find myself wondering  as I read how I’ve gotten to this point in my life without gaining an awareness of it’s history and it’s interactions with my own country.  All that’s left for me to say is – better late than never.

Finally, the book helps to remind me of something I learned during my 10 years living overseas – there’s a HUGE difference between want and need.  Anyone who’s lived in a developing country should be painfully aware of the fact that most Americans exist within a pretty comfortable and safe and prosperous cocoon – one we all too often take for granted.  Reading this book helped to remind me of this thing that I learned many years ago and I’m thankful for the reminder.

I’ll have more to write on this one once I’m finished – just felt compelled to say a few words based on the impact that the book is having.  It is so worth the time.

It’s been another over the top, busy week but in a good way.  Both of our kids were back for Spring Break this week and, I have to say, it was a good week for everyone.  Not sure about everyone else but I’ve always considered my #1 job as a parent to prepare my children for the day they leave home.  Happy to say that both our son and our daughter seem to have made it in pretty fine form.  They both seem happy and they’ve really grown – gotten stronger, smarter, more confident and more capable of making their own decisions.  While you can’t help to feel a little loss with their growing independence, I find that it gets washed away in a flood of relief and satisfaction in seeing them start to take charge of their lives.

We sent them both off today and I finally have a little time to write.  I have two books that I want to post on and this is one.  There are authors that instantly move to the top of the Nightstand pile – no matter what I’m reading.  Their books are always in my shopping cart, I track the release date and I purchase and download them as soon as they’re released.  I feel that way about Jim Butcher and his “Dresden Files” books.

Steven Brust is another and it’s primarily because of his Vlad Taltos novels.  It’s a mammoth series that I’ve been reading since the first book – “Jhereg” – came out in 1987.  There are 15 novels in the Taltos series with at least 2 more coming as well as 5 titles in a prequel series called the Khaavren Romances – inspired by Dumas’ d’Artagnan romances.  I can’t recommend these books highly enough.  They’re tight, witty, complex and very, very fun.  Vlad is one of those characters who’s aged really well.  He’s a little slower, a lot wiser and not quite as cocky today as he was in 1987 when he first appeared in “Jhereg” but he’s every bit as lovable.  I don’t know how anyone couldn’t enjoy this character or these books.

I saw “The Good Guys” pop up on Amazon about 6 months ago and it went straight into my Shopping Cart.  It was released the same day as “A Call To Vengeance” and I worked my way through both in pretty short order.  I’ve already posted on “A Call To Vengeance” and can honestly say that I’m glad I read it first.  I saved the best of the two for last and ended New Release Week on a slightly higher note.  I can’t tell whether Brust plans to turn this into a new series but he’s certainly left himself room to do so.  While I hope he does, I have to say that I’d prefer him to get back to Vlad and finish his story before returning to the world he’s created in “The Good Guys”.

Don’t get me wrong.  I really enjoyed this book.  It’s just that Brust will never write another book that I won’t -as I’m reading – compare to his Taltos series.  Those books are – and always will be – special to me – mainly because of his main character.  Vlad Taltos is one of my literary heroes.  I have a 30 year relationship with him and he’s NEVER, EVER, EVER  let me down.  Brust made the mistake of getting it all right for me with his first series and I don’t think he’ll ever be able to get over that bar.  The only time he’s ever gotten close is with his Taltos prequel series – “The Khaavren Romances”.

So – the problem for me here is that it’s a good book – it’s just not quite as good as what he’s written for me in the past.  He certainly grabs your attention from the very first page.  He doles out information about his primary characters and the organization for which they work in a measured way that holds you and compels you to read on.  He teases you with ambiguities about the relationship and politics between the two magical societies in a very skillful way.  Brust makes you want to finish this one from the very first page.

Ultimately, the problem has to do with the main character in “The Good Guys”.  Donovan is a very hard-boiled, self-contained private investigator working for one of the two magical societies existing in our world – the Foundation.  He’s competent and confident and capable and worth cheering for.  He’s committed to his team but he’s almost too willing to put them in harm’s way.  He’s not a killer but ultimately proves himself to be all too willing to dispense remorseless, terminal justice.  He has an endearing disdain for the bureaucracy that he serves but it becomes so pronounced that it calls into question where his loyalties lie – if he has any at all – or his reasons for serving at all.  He just didn’t engage me and worm his way into my heart in the same way that Vlad has.  I found very little beyond his professionalism and skill to admire.  Short to long – he’s all nails – displaying very little humanity.

Vlad on the other hand, while he’s an assassin and a mob enforcer – not normally the type of calling most of us would associate with a rich and warm and appealing personality – is all human – something made even more tangible to readers by the fact that he’s one of the few human characters in this enormous 30 year cast of characters.  He’s defined not by his profession but by his love of food and friends and family and his relationship with his Jhereg familiar (who in many ways is actually the most enjoyable character in the 15 books that currently make up this series) – his loyalty and his sense of humor and his chaotic way of always finding the correct answer to seemingly intractable problems.  I live for new Taltos novels in the same way that I live for new Harry Dresden novels – they give me the precious chance to spend another day or two with Vlad.

My last word on this – if this is your first Brust novel – you’ll probably enjoy it far more than I did – largely because you won’t be measuring it against a 30 year literary love affair.

Here’s the second book I finished on the trip – the next volume in what has come to be called the “Honorverse”.  I’ve been reading these books since 1993, when the first novel in the collection – “On Basilisk Station” – was released.  This is a huge, sprawling collection with multiple story arcs and spinoffs.  It currently consists of 26 stand-alone titles – all of which I’ll list out at the end of the post.  While the primary author is David Weber, a whole platoon of writers have contributed – either as co-authors on specific volumes or as short story contributors to Honorverse collections.  I have every single one of those 26 books – all in hard cover and I’m buying the special commemorative editions of the 17 core Honor Harrington titles as they’re released – on average, one per year.

The whole series is actually inspired by the Horatio Hornblower novels by C.S. Forester.  These stories – following the career of a fictional Royal Navy officer during the Napoleonic Wars – are amazing.  The first of these books was published in 1937 and they were favorites of my father.  He actually introduced me to the books and I still have three of his old versions safely stored away in the basement.  If you haven’t read these books and you have an interest in either the British Navy, the Napoleonic Wars or military fiction – you really must – I do truly believe you’ll fall in love with them as well.  The only thing I asked my wife to get me for my last birthday was a four volume, leather bound, commemorative issue of the complete Hornblower collection – it has pride of place within my library and I’m looking forward to the day when I can pull those four volumes down and reread them – cover to cover.

The Honorverse has been a labor of love for me.  It was love at first read – “On Basilisk Station” was a great book that I’ve probably read three times.  Unfortunately, as the series has progressed, it’s become more labor than love.  The thing that always captivated me about these novels – similar to what drives my love for the Hornblower stories – is the time on ship and the time in combat.  Weber spent a lot of time and put a lot of thought into the technology of the universe he’s created and he’s meticulous about the way in which he plans out and describes his battles.  They’re seamless and intense and all too bloody and destructive and tragic and triumphant.  With the Royal Manticoran Navy, he’s also created an organization and a culture that is all too easy to admire and cheer for.

As the series has progressed, however, Weber and his collaborators have spent an increasing amount of time off ship and out of combat.  He’s replaced what initially made these stories truly great with pages and pages of what I consider to be amateurishly conceived and described politics and great power plotting.  He’s also created antagonists that are cartoonishly evil.  With most of the recent volumes, you spend far too much time wading through marginally interesting – almost silly – scheming just to get to the shrinking amount of content devoted to what I really love – the dedication and duty and culture of the Royal Manticoran Navy and the excellently conceived combat – whether it be ship to ship or fleet actions.

This book is no different.  I’ve read through three quarters of the book and the RMN has yet to engage.  It’s fixated on truly boring descriptions of Manticoran politics – an increasingly common theme in all the later titles – wasting countless pages on the activity of those domestic political factions who are consistently and foolishly pushing misguided policies meant weaken or defund the RMN.  When not dragging us through caricatured descriptions of a government at odds with itself – he spends far too much time with cartoonish protagonists that call to mind Boris and Natasha from the Bullwinkle and Rocky show.  I can honestly say that reading through the more recent Honorverse books is hard work.

End of day – it doesn’t matter.  I’ll stay with it, primarily because I do still enjoy the Honorverse, I enjoy Manticore and it’s constitutional Monarchy, I love the RMN and its culture and its heroes and I’m willing to wade through the muck to get to what are still pretty invigorating descriptions of combat in space.  I just wish Weber would get back to his roots and make the whole exercise a little easier on me.

The next book in the primary story arc – “Uncompromising Honor” – is scheduled for release on October 2, 2018 and it’s in my que.  Unlike the most recent titles, it appears to bring the original heroine – Honor Harrington – back to center stage.  I’ll buy it and read it in hopes that Weber finds a way to thrill and entertain me again – in the same way he managed to do all the way back in 1993.

Full List of Titles:

Main Honor Harrington Story Arc:

• On Basilisk Station
• The Honor Of The Queen
• The Short Victorious War
• Field Of Dishonor
• Flag In Exile
• Honor Among Enemies
• In Enemy Hands
• Echoes Of Honor
• Ashes Of Victory
• War Of Honor
• At All Costs
• Mission Of Honor
• The Shadow Of Saganami
• Storm From The Shadows
• A Rising Thunder
• Shadow Of Freedom
• Shadow Of Victory

Prequel – Manticore Ascendent

• A Call To Duty
• A Call To Arms
• A Call To Vengeance

Prequel – The Star Kingdom

• A Beautiful Friendship
• Fire Season
• Treecat Wars

Erewhon Stories

• Crown Of Slaves
• Torch Of Freedom
• Cauldron Of Ghosts