The Black Echo (*****)

"The Black Echo", Michael Connelly's debut novel and LAPD Detective Harry Bosch's premiere appearance to a grateful reading public, opens with Bosch being assigned to what is supposed to be a pro forma investigation. A "hype", a derelict drug addict, has been found dead of an apparent heroin overdose in a drainage pipe. The expectation is that a routine report would be filed and that would be that. But within moments of crawling into the pipe to examine the scene, Bosch begins to spot details that don't fit the accidental overdose scenario. More than that, Bosch is surprised to learn that he knows the deceased - Billie Meadows, a fellow "tunnel rat" veteran from Vietnam.

From the opening paragraphs of the novel, Connelly's magnificent story-telling introduces the reader to Bosch's dark, troubled persona and his now familiar investigative style - doggedly picking at the unhealed scab of tiny details that don't fit, skillfully peeling away the layers of deceit on an onion that doesn't smell quite right until the kernel of truth at the centre lies exposed. In this case, Bosch quickly finds police records showing that Meadows was a prime suspect in a major bank robbery that fell under federal jurisdiction. Even though he is assigned to work with FBI Agent Eleanor Wish, their obvious reluctance to share information on the details of their investigation into the bank heist has Bosch smelling a rat! And finding the rat - trailing that rat from present-day Los Angeles to 1974 Saigon, into the jungles of Vietnam and back - the rat he knows is on the inside of either LAPD or the FBI, proves elusive indeed until Bosch makes his way past the final turn of this complex maze of subterfuge.

The dark underpinnings of Bosch's meticulously crafted complex character start here - his disdain for authority; his unwillingness to fit the mould of the "police family"; the troubled nature of a psyche that is undoubtedly all too common in Vietnam veterans; his fear of surrendering to an unconditional love; the disturbing family history that began with his birth to a hooker who was subsequently murdered and his childhood travails at the hands of government agencies; the surprising extent of Bosch's visceral reaction to the murder of a street punk. Pathos is presented without pity or despair and Bosch emerges a very real and very human police officer indeed.

Much of this ground will be familiar to veteran Bosch fans but "The Black Echo" will serve to bring an even deeper level of understanding to his motives and his conduct. For those that have yet to savour Connelly's brilliant creation and his mastery of the police procedural genre, "The Black Echo" is definitely THE place to start.

Highly recommended.

The Other Side of the Sky (****)

A MARVELOUS COLLECTION OF SCI-FI SHORTS!

"The Other Side of the Sky" is a collection of short stories by Arthur C Clarke, an author whom many consider as an icon of both classic and contemporary science fiction. Frankly, I never agreed. I always felt that his work was pretentious - "literary" in the most pejorative sense of the word, mystifying, muddy and purposely deep, yet without clarity, for the sole purpose of achieving the lofty height of being arty.

No doubt others may disagree with me, but when I read the opening story in this collection, "The Nine Billion Names of God", my first reaction was disappointment - "oh, oh, more of the same"! Why would anyone, even those with an abiding faith in their god, believe that there was some sort of deep religious or philosophical ramification to the act of physically preparing a complete list of the permutations of an arbitrarily selected set of letters? What meaningless drivel!

I almost closed the book at that point and I suspect it was because the next story was only a few pages long that I decided to try it anyway. And what a lucky choice for me! From that point on, the collection was a thoroughgoing winner with everything a reader could wish for - charm, characterization, fun, pathos, warmth, wit, depth, twists, humour, human interest, solid science and thought-provoking questions - all of this without ever stooping to being either mundane or, worse yet, snobbish and superior.

A few examples will perhaps serve to whet the appetite. "Refugee" manages to humanize the British royal family in a most appealing way. "Special Delivery" explains some of the difficulties of living in a satellite and the physical implications of a jammed autopilot that accelerates a rocket delivering supplies for just a few seconds too long - a very, very small incident that illustrates the enormous implications of such a tiny event. "Cosmic Casanova" is pure space humour with an unexpected ending reserved for the final sentence in the manner of Jeffrey Archer's "A Twist in the Tale". "Publicity Campaign" is tongue in cheek and humorous but it is also a clear and scathing condemnation of bigotry and man's xenophobia. "The Star" could not be perceived as anti-religious in its tone but this tale of a very special and unique supernova should provoke more than a little head-scratching and puzzlement in those that would interpret the Bible literally. (This was probably my favourite story in the entire collection)

If you're already an Arthur C Clarke fan, I'm sure you'll enjoy "The Other Side of the Sky". If like me, you were unconvinced of his right to icon status, try this one on for size. Plenty enjoyable enough that I'd be happy to pick up more of Clarke's work and give it a try again. Maybe I'll even go back and try some of his other stuff again to see if perhaps I missed something. It's happened before!

Recommended.

Utopia (*****)

A ROLLER COASTER THRILLER ... LITERALLY!

Dr Andrew Warne is a brilliant computer engineer with some very avant garde theories in the field of artificial intelligence and robotic learning. Warne's hardware designs and his cutting edge software - "The MetaNet", an operating system that allows large numbers of robots loosely tied together in a common network to operate quasi-autonomously and to learn and improve from their day to day activities - have been used to create the wildly successful theme park "Utopia" located in the Nevada desert. Following in the tradition of Disney World's "kingdoms" but light years beyond in conception and execution, Utopia uses a fanciful, creative blend of technology, engineering, holographs, robots, set design and special effects to create an astonishingly, indeed almost frighteningly realistic set of worlds in which awe-struck patrons can enjoy a completely immersive experience - Victorian England, Camelot, a spaceport, a turn of the century American boardwalk seaport in the style of Atlantic City and a re-creation of Atlantis, still under construction!

When a series of bizarre accidents, injuries and even fatalities occur in the park, circumstances seem to point the finger of blame at problems in the MetaNet and Warne is summoned by Sarah Boatwright, Utopia's CEO, to supervisor the dismantling of his pet creation. Naturally, this does not sit well with Warne and he strenuously insists there is nothing wrong with the network. With the assistance of the park robotics expert, Theresa Bonifacio, he hurriedly struggles through a forensic hunt for the proverbial needle in a computer haystack and frantically debugs his code virtually line by line. As a very nasty chap, who styles himself John Doe, enters the park and calmly attempts the extortion of a copy of the park's invaluable state-of-the-art holographic software threatening the lives of Utopia's 65,000 guests, it now seems clear that Utopia has been the target of a well coordinated team of terrorist thieves - including very sophisticated hacking and tampering with the MetaNet.

The next four hours erupt into a non-stop series of adrenalin charged confrontations with the terrorist team as the good guys attempt to foil the thieves' escape with the software CD and their plot to explode the dome covering Utopia which would almost certainly kill thousands of innocent guests.

"Utopia" is a techno-thriller, the first (and quite clearly very successful) solo effort by Lincoln Child, one half of the Child/Preston duo famous for their Aloysius Pendergast series that started with "Relic". Child has enough output behind him that it is safe to label the style of this novel as vintage - wonderful characterization, enough romance to be heartwarming without indulging in even a hint of prurient sex or sappiness, and high speed action juxtaposed with a number of technical explanatory sidebars that explain, inform and educate on a wide variety of topics that, almost magically, seem to happen without slowing the action and the novel's pacing and plot.

Highly recommended for those that love their thrillers (and Child's next book "Deep Storm" is just as good!)

Update - "By the Decade" Challenge

These challenges are the greatest thing since sliced bread! What a great way to motivate, focus and direct your own reading. I'm about 2/3 of the way through George Orwell's Burmese Days so I'll allow myself the indulgence of updating the list as though it were complete. Here's how I stand at the moment:

Here's the link to 3M's blog for a detailed explanation of the rules and a list of participants. Completed titles appear in red italics.

1870 The Law and the Lady - Wilkie Collins
1880 A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1890 The Well at World's End - William Morris
1900 First Men in the Moon - HG Wells
1910 The Poison Belt - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles – Agatha Christie
1930 Burmese Days – George Orwell
1940 The Robe - Lloyd C Douglas
1950 The Voyage of the Space Beagle – AE van Vogt
1960 The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
1970 Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement
1980 West of Eden – Harry Harrison
1990 Plum Island – Nelson DeMille
2000 Ptolemy's Gate – Jonathan Stroud

The Voyage of The Space Beagle (***)

With all the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to read Van Vogt’s “Voyage of the Space Beagle” with the same clarity and futuristic vision that perhaps inspired Gene Roddenberry to spin off Star Trek vesting the Enterprise with the five year mission to go where no man has gone before. In a style that will remind readers of Bradbury’s “The Martian Chronicles” or Asimov’s “I, Robot”, this quintessential example of early pulp science-fiction and space opera - at once fun-loving, thought-provoking, intense, frightening and entertaining – is actually a series of four short stories joined together by the common theme of inter-stellar exploration and alien first contact.

Each of the four stories is brim full of the stock in trade and requisite hard sci-fi toys and elements of the typical stories of the day – blasters, stun guns, force fields, teleportation, bizarre aliens, hostile landscapes, communicators, travel at near light speeds, and the like. But assessing it from the hard side of the sci-fi spectrum, “Voyage of the Space Beagle” is certainly not unique, has little beyond short-term entertainment value to recommend it and I think most readers would be unlikely to accord it the status of “classic”.

But look more closely at the softer side of the sci-fi field of play! Ah, now there’s where “Voyage of the Space Beagle” comes into its own with some compelling and imaginative ideas, insights and questions – Elliot Grosvenor as the expert in the newly founded science of Nexialism which purports to be the nexus or bridge between hitherto unrelated fields of scientific endeavour such as physics, chemistry, metallurgy, geography or sociology for example (a means of looking at the “big” scientific picture from a new meta-level, as it were – do you think we’re talking about a 1950s version of Science Officer Spock here?); the social difficulties of a population living in the confined quarters of an exploratory vessel for extended periods; the political, command and management clashes between scientific, technical and military personnel with their varying motives, agendas and decision making styles on such a mission; the completely ineffectual nature of democracy as part of a command structure in the context of such an operation; and the unbridgeable philosophical differences and overwhelming communication difficulties that might be encountered in an alien first contact situation.

Clearly Van Vogt was appreciative of our ultimate smallness in the universe. Like Clifford D Simak, he was also openly critical of man’s history of violence and the arrogant impression of his own power and importance:

“You assume far too readily that man is a paragon of justice, forgetting, apparently, that he has a long and savage history. He has killed other animals not only for meat but for pleasure; he has enslaved his neighbors, murdered his opponents, and obtained the most unholy sadistical joy from the agony of others. It is not impossible that we shall, in the course of our travels, meet other intelligent creatures far more worthy than man to rule the universe.”

I wonder if Van Vogt appreciated the irony in his own writing. Despite the obvious criticism of the human condition inherent in his character’s words, Van Vogt persisted in writing stories in which every alien encounter failed to transcend that hostility and savagery and either began or ended with violent confrontation or battle. For the most part, the inhabitants of the Space Beagle barely even tried. Sigh!

“The Voyage of the Space Beagle” is fun to read, entertaining and imaginative to be sure but not truly visionary and capable of lasting other than as a memento of what good space opera was like in the 50s! Recommended for lovers of classic science fiction.

Paul Weiss

The Mysterious Affair at Styles (*****)

HERCULE POIROT ... IT ALL STARTED RIGHT HERE!

“The Mysterious Affair at Styles” can only be categorized as a classic among classics. In 1920, on the strength of a dare, Agatha Christie penned a cozy mystery that introduced a grateful reading world to Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings, the detective and sidekick duo who hold their place in literary fame alongside such luminaries as Holmes and Watson or Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe.

Captain Arthur Hastings, a guest at Styles Court, the family manor of long-time friend John Cavendish, finds himself hip-deep in a locked room murder mystery when Cavendish’s mother, Emily Inglethorpe, is discovered poisoned by strychnine inside her bedroom! Hastings, who fancies himself a competent amateur sleuth, suggests the Cavendish family engage his friend, Hercule Poirot, a recently retired Belgian detective of no small skill and reputation, to find the culprit.

There is certainly no shortage of possible motives, clues and suspects – John and Lawrence Cavendish, the victim’s sons who are suffering from pecuniary difficulty and constant financial embarrassment; Alfred Ingelthorpe, the blackguard, money-grubbing husband who stands to inherit the entire estate at the expense of the rest of the family; Evie Howard, Mrs Inglethorpe’s companion and long-time family friend recently dismissed from the estate after a bitter argument with the matriarch over the intentions of her new husband; Cynthia Murdoch, the chemist with access to strychnine; or perhaps Dr Bauerstein, a renowned expert on poisons entangled in an affair with Mary Cavendish!

A thoroughly enjoyable novel, easily read in a couple of sittings, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” introduced us to all the hallmarks of typical Poirot mysteries – the quirky, vain fastidiousness of the little Belgian detective and his love of method, order and the use of “the little gray cells”; the loyalty, charm, unfailing gentlemanly behaviour and decidedly humorous upper class character of the ex-military man, Hastings; the liberal sprinkling of clues and possible suspects; and, of course, the much-loved and often imitated stereotypical congregation of the entire cast in the single room climax in which Poirot outlines his deductions and reveals the culprit for the edification of all!

If you’ve never read an Agatha Christie mystery, this would perhaps be THE place to start! If you’ve read her work before, then pick this one up again, re-read it and discover why you fell in love with Agatha Christie and Poirot in the first place.

Highly recommended.

TerrO.R. (***)

A CHILLINGLY PLAUSIBLE SCENARIO!

In his first outing, Neuschatz has done himself proud and written a novel that bodes well for more work to come! But "TerrO.R." is a debut novel that is not without its flaws.

The good news is that the plot premise is imaginative (dare I say unique), compelling and frightening.

As an anesthesiologist, Dr Philip Newman is all too aware that tragic, sudden, unexplained deaths sometimes occur on the operating table. So when James Walker, a young man in perfect health, succumbs to cardiac arrest during a routine cosmetic surgical tattoo removal, Newman is devastated but not unduly surprised. But when an autopsy is forbidden by the family on religious grounds and a massive malpractice suit is served with such blinding speed that Walker’s body has barely had a chance to cool, Newman begins to question events more closely. Eerie similarities between Walker’s operating room death and other similar unexplained fatalities have Newman balking at what would otherwise be an automatic out of court settlement of the malpractice suit. With the cooperation of hospitals, surgeons and anesthesiologists from across the country, Newman conducts an Internet based epidemiological investigation that uncovers a plot so frighteningly plausible you’ll find the hairs on the back of your neck tingling with horror.

The even better news is that Neuschatz writes well! The daily life and work of an anesthesiologist are included with a wealth of arcane minutiae and technical detail that could easily blow right over the heads of lay readers or simply bore them to death as the plot bogs down and fails to move forward. But Neuschatz seems to have deftly avoided these problems. His writing educates, informs, entertains and manages to keep a compelling plot firmly on track.

Now here’s the bad news.

It is clear that Neuschatz has serious criticism to level at the US legal system, the liability insurance system, the overwhelming litigiousness of US society and the fact that many malpractice suits are settled automatically out of court (regardless of actual fault) with the resulting costs being passed on to medical practitioners in the form of increased liability premiums. In fact, it is these very problems that form the quite plausible basis for Neuschatz’ ingenious plot premise.

However, Neuschatz let his emotions get in the way of his writing and the resulting ending was a serious letdown for this reader. He forgot that the criminals in his thriller were the perpetrators of an enormous fraud that got discovered. The hospitals, the doctors AND the insurance industry were the victims - I repeat - the victims. But once the plot had been uncovered and revealed for the fraud it was, Neuschatz simply dropped the thriller plotline like a day old hot potato now gone cold and swiveled his gun sights to the insurance industry.

Instead of offering constructive criticism as to how the insurance and legal industry might make changes to prevent the real occurrence of a fictional story like this one, he ended his novel with an epilogue that was pure vitriol and sarcasm directed at judges, medical malpractice lawyers, juries and HMOs. As a result, I was left with the final sour thought that perhaps Neuschatz considered the cons as simple users of a flawed system and the system itself to be the criminal. Neuschatz is entitled to his opinion, of course, but … purely from the point of view of reviewing “TerrO.R.”, the ending flattened the entire reading experience and dragged what might easily have been a 4 or 5 star exciting debut down to a 3-star overall impression at best.

Paul Weiss

TBR CHALLENGE 2007

SO FAR SO GOOD (4 MONTHS AND STILL ON TRACK!)

It's the middle of April and I seem to be one title ahead of the curve. Amazing! Here's the list as it currently stands with completed titles italicized and highlighted in red:

1. Strange Cargo – Jeffrey Barlough (fantasy)
2. The World is Flat – Thomas L Friedman (non-fiction, sociology)
3. Angels and Demons – Dan Brown (thriller)
4. The Angel of Darkness – Caleb Carr (historical fiction)
5. Vancouver – David Cruise and Alison Griffiths (historical fiction)
6. Dreaming the Eagle – Manda Scott (historical fiction)
7. Rite of Passage – Alexei Panshin (classic sci-fi)
8. The Man Who Mapped the Arctic – Peter Steele (history)
9. The Historian – Elizabeth Kostova (fantasy)
10. Dark Fire – CJ Sansom (historical fiction
11. Backbeat – J Frederick Arment (sci-fi)
12. The Lions of Al-Rassan – Guy Gavriel Kay (fantasy)

Alternates:

1. Colonization: Aftershocks – Harry Turtledove (sci-fi)
2. War of the Flowers – Tad Williams (fantasy)
3. Clothar the Frank – Jack Whyte (historical fiction)
4. West of Eden – Harry Harrison (sci-fi)

The Man Who Mapped the Arctic (*****)

THE INTREPID LIFE OF GEORGE BACK, FRANKLIN'S LIEUTENANT

It takes considerable flair and panache to write history in a way that makes it read like a novel and not very many authors have that ability. Canada’s Pierre Berton has it! Dava Sobel and Simon Winchester are certainly up to the task!

In “The Man Who Mapped the Arctic”, Peter Steele demonstrated his rightful claim to membership on that short list. Steele, a physician who has spent most of his life in the North and an arctic adventurer and mountaineer in his own right, has eloquently told us the astonishing tale of George Back, Franklin’s undeservedly obscure and unsung Lieutenant and his astonishing exploits in exploration that rival Samuel Hearne’s or Lewis and Clark’s in their extraordinary scope and difficulty.

Steele’s prose has painted a vivid picture of Back’s working life as a Navy Lieutenant and explorer and the compelling setting in which the story takes place – endless waterfalls and rapids; excruciating clouds of mosquitoes or black flies; extreme temperature swings; backbreaking 90 to 100 pound loads hauled over strenuous ankle-breaking portages; the open water of Lake Winnipeg, Lake Superior and Great Bear and Great Slave Lake that might better be described as inland oceans when observed from the perspective of a canoe; changeable unpredictable weather; the dumb-founding athleticism of ten to twelve men paddling in perfect synchrony at 50 strokes per minute for hours on end singing, if you please, to provide a rhythm and take their minds off the numbing pain in their backs and shoulders; lost rations, near starvation and cannibalism; the stinging cold and near endless dark of sub-arctic winter camps; the political struggles, bickering, corporate fighting and espionage that occurred as a matter of course in the conflict between the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company; and much, much more.

Of Back’s cultural indoctrination by fire upon his arrival in Canada, for example, Steele wrote:

“He knew nothing of the rival fur companies’ years of bitter forest skirmishes, sniping from riverbanks at each others’ canoes, occasionally taking prisoners, and resorting in extremis to arson and theft, kidnapping and murder – tantamount to open warfare.” “Neither did he understand the cultural differences that might arise between himself and a disparate group of French Canadian voyageur canoemen, Indian hunters and Eskimo guides, who he expected would guide them through the most barren and inhospitable land anyone could imagine, among people utterly ignorant of intrusive Westerners and their strange ways.”

Of Back's almost supernatural skills in the art of mapmaking and navigation, Steele writes:

"Since both chronometers had frozen and broken during the previous winter, he relied on dead reckoning - courses and distances checked by compass bearings each time they changed direction. By the much more complicated method of lunar observation, he estimated latitude and longitude every week or so - weather, clear skies, and moon permitting. Nevertheless he produced a map that was out by only twenty seconds over a thousand miles of uncharted coastline."

In other words, Steele has provided us with an exciting biography of a talented naval officer, artist, scientist, explorer, mapmaker, outdoorsman and survivor who has languished for too long under the shadow of Franklin, his considerably less talented superior. The Yukon News praises “The Man Who Mapped the Arctic” by suggesting that it is destined to become a classic story of Canadian Arctic exploration. I concur.

Paul Weiss

Classic Sci-Fi New Author Challenge - 2

I'm awestruck, blown away, entranced, gobsmacked, utterly shaken!

By definition, one can have the thrill of reading a classic author for the very first time only once in a lifetime. Well, I just had that rare privilege! My first experience with AE van Vogt has left me at a loss for words. Give me a few days to let the experience sink in so I can prepare a more literate review and I'll post it here.

But, in the meantime, suffice it to say, that if you are a lover of classic sci-fi, I would strongly encourage you to join me in this challenge and seek out new authors. I can hardly wait to see what the other eight have got to say for themselves. God knows, my reading friends from the Classic Sci-Fi group have showered them with endless praise.

Here's my list with the first completed title marked in red italics:


1. Lest Darkness Fall - L Sprague de Camp
2. The Voyage of the Space Beagle - AE van Vogt
3. A Mirror for Observers - Edgar Pangborn
4. The Best of Stanley Weinbaum - Stanley Weinbaum
5. Earthman's Burden - Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson
6. Triplanetary - EE "Doc" Smith
7. Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
8. Tales of the Dying Earth - Jack Vance
9. Cities in Flight - James Blish

A Guide to the Royal Observatory Greenwich (*****)

A MUST BUY SOUVENIR OR ADVANCE GUIDE TO A TOUR!

If you are lucky enough to travel to London, England, you MUST take in The Royal Observatory at Greenwich and the nearby National Maritime Museum. At the conclusion of your tour, you'll be offered an opportunity to purchase "A Guide to the Royal Observatory Greenwich: The Story of Time and Space". Don't pass that opportunity by!

A magnificent piece of adult brain and eye candy, this magnificent booklet not only serves as a wonderful souvenir of an exciting tourist attraction but would also act as a stand alone collection of short introductory stories and photographic essays on a wide variety of scientific topics relating to measurement of time and space on our planet - the historical basis for the establishment of Greenwich as the location for the prime meridian and the use of GMT as the basis for the International Time Zone System; the crucial search for longitude; the historical foundation of the observatory by King Charles II and the appointment of John Flamsteed as the first Astronomer Royal; the story of John Harrison's painstaking construction of his prize-winning chronometer; the creation of standard time and the life and work at the observatory as it exists today.

For those privileged to attend at either the Royal Observatory or the related displays in the adjacent National Maritime Museum, this book is an inexpensive memento that should not be missed. As a stand-alone read, even for those not so lucky to see the real McCoy on a trip through London, England, it represents an enjoyable half hour's reading and gawking at some thoroughly delicious photographs. If you know you're going to have a chance to see the Observatory in the future, try to get a copy of this book in advance. It will make your visit infinitely more informative and enjoyable.

Highly recommended.

The Skewed Throne (***)

A GRITTY DEBUT FANTASY!

Like Jim C Hines, Joshua Palmatier is also a valued member of our Fantasy Favorites reading group! And, as a result, I was just as nervous about posting a review for "The Skewed Throne" as I was for "Goblin Quest". Perhaps even more so ... because, frankly, I found myself slightly on edge over the unresolved ending. It was definitely a tougher book to like - grittier in its approach, even harsh and violent to what I thought were unnecessary extremes at times. I can but hope that I voiced my thoughts in a positive and constructive fashion. Here's the review I posted on Amazon:

Varis is a young urchin, “gutterscum” by her own admission, a street smart thief who manages to survive on the margin by her own wits, resorting to violence when the circumstances are forced upon her. Living from hand to mouth in “The Dredge”, a shanty town and slum beyond the borders of Amenkor, her developing abilities for murder and thievery attract the attention of Erick, a royal guardsman and assassin who seeks out and kills any marks the ruling Mistress has judged must be eliminated. Under Erick’s tutelage her abilities are honed to a ruthless edge but Varis has another skill she has not disclosed to anyone – an innate magic she calls “The River”, a supernatural flow into which she can submerge herself. In “The River” she sees evil in shades of red and innocence in shades of gray.

When Erick assigns her to kill a mark that Varis knows to be innocent, their ways part and Varis retreats back to the core of Amenkor proper. Once again, her agility, her survival skills and her murderous ability with knives bring her under scrutiny. Borund, a local merchant, hires her as a bodyguard and Varis finds herself embroiled in a conspiracy among the Amenkor merchants, an attempt to seize monopolistic control of trade at a time when the survival of the city itself seems in question. The First Mistress seems to be losing her sanity and is issuing nonsensical orders. The pitiless unfolding of events places Varis in the position of being the only one who can save Amenkor!

A fine plot line with much promise, to be sure! And, in his debut outing, Palmatier has certainly crafted his story with enviable writing skills in the development of his characters, in the clever narration of exciting action sequences, and in the layout of easy-flowing natural dialogue. Varis’ own brief and lucid description of her young life seems brutal in its crystalline clarity but totally natural in its presentation:

“I decided I’d be better off on my own. So I left. I ran away, moved deeper into the slums beyond the Dredge. I lived like an animal there, scrounging in garbage heaps, eating anything I could find, scraps you and Borund wouldn’t even feed to a dog. I was dying and I didn’t even know it.”

But I also felt that Palmatier was tip-toeing across a knife edged ridge far too narrow for my liking - the difficult decision an author must make about how much to introduce, how much to disclose, how much to resolve and how much to leave for explanation and completion in future works! Oh sure, there is obviously a sequel in the works. But there are only two plot devices which move “The Skewed Throne” from normal medieval fiction into the realm of fantasy – the magic of “The River” and “The White Fire”, some sort of bizarre, powerful event that sweeps through Amenkor from time to time! Even Varis owns up to having no idea about the meaning of The Fire:

“I felt its purpose. Nothing to do with Amenkor, nothing to do with me. It was residual energy, the remains of an event so powerful it had stretched across the ocean, burned across the sea from a distant land. The consequence of a magic that no one in the throne knew the intent of, that was totally unfamiliar. It was nothing to us.”

Personally, I’d need more resolution in this introductory novel to move it to a higher rating as a stand alone novel. But (and this is a fervent hope), in the belief that all will come clear in future novels, I’ll certainly move on to the second novel in the trilogy “The Cracked Throne” and recommend it to other fantasy lovers as well.

Well, fellow bloggers, what do you think? Did I achieve the right tone?

"By the Decade" Reading Challenge

What a pushover I am!

My bookshelves groan under their own weight. My budget positively squeals with protest when I log on to Amazon or walk into the local book store. Mt TBR grows ever higher at an astonishing rate and threatens to bury me, my reading chair and my computer desk under an avalanche of as yet unread paper.

But I see a new reading challenge and I still rise to the bait. 3M posted the challenge on her blog and I simply couldn't resist. The idea was to experience time and literature by reading an example of a novel from as many consecutive decades as possible. What a great concept! Thank goodness, she had the courtesy to set the rules to allow books that we'd already read this year and to let cross-over titles from other challenges count as well.

Here's the link to her blog for the detailed explanation of the rules and a list of participants.


And, of course, here's my tentative list. Completed titles appear in red italics.

1870 The Law and the Lady - Wilkie Collins
1880 A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1890 The Well at World's End - William Morris
1900 First Men in the Moon - HG Wells
1910 The Poison Belt - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles - Agatha Christie
1930 Burmese Days - George Orwell
1940 The Robe - Lloyd C Douglas
1950 The Voyage of the Space Beagle - AE van Vogt
1960 The Chrysalids – John Wyndham
1970 Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement
1980 West of Eden – Harry Harrison
1990 Plum Island – Nelson DeMille
2000 Ptolemy's Gate – Jonathan Stroud

Classic Sci-Fi New Author Challenge 2007

It would be almost impossible to quantify what my ownership of the Yahoo reading group, Classic Sci-Fi, has meant to me in terms of the exponential growth of the breadth and quality of my reading in this particular genre.

Oh sure ... when I was a young boy, I cut my teeth on the core mainstream authors of the genre - Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke and Frank Herbert! And, I'm grateful to them. I loved sci-fi from the very get-go and I never looked back. But odd as it may sound to more widely read afficionados, until very recently I had never read some of the other sci-fi giants - Clifford D Simak, Andre Norton and Ray Bradbury. Heck ... I'd never even heard of Hal Clement (Mission of Gravity and Starlight!)

So, after almost 3 years of watching these wonderful nominations for group reads come and go and reading the ravings of the members about how wonderful all of these authors are, I've decided to set myself a challenge (as if I needed another reading challenge)!

Over the 12 months beginning May 1, 2007, I've set myself the task of reading six examples of classic sci-fi novels from authors that I have never read before. Culled from the suggestions and the discussions on the reading group, here's my selected list:


1. Lest Darkness Fall - L Sprague de Camp
2. The Voyage of the Space Beagle - AE van Vogt
3. A Mirror for Observers - Edgar Pangborn
4. The Best of Stanley Weinbaum - Stanley Weinbaum
5. Earthman's Burden - Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson
6. Triplanetary - EE "Doc" Smith

and three alternates to accomodate that miserable ol' DNF possibility because of personal taste:

7. Dying Inside - Robert Silverberg
8. Tales of the Dying Earth - Jack Vance
9. Cities in Flight - James Blish

Does anyone out there care to join me?

Switzerland, Here I Come!

Having just returned from an enjoyable week's stay at the Grand Timeo Hotel in Taormina, Sicily, courtesy of Edward Jones travel program, I confess I was thrilled to learn that I had also qualified for the next trip. So it's off to Switzerland I go at the end of July - 3 days in St Moritz, 3 days in Lucerne and then 3 days in Interlaken and Grindelwald. Wow!

The guided portion of the trip will be in St Moritz and Lucerne so there will likely be plenty of laid on advice, day tours and sight-seeing provided by the travel agency that works for Edward Jones. But I've chosen to extend the trip by three days to focus a little more on the scenery and the out of doors in central Switzerland in the Interlaken and Grindelwald area.

If anyone reading this has any experience in Switzerland, any words of wisdom, any hints or ideas, lay 'em on me! Please! I'm all ears.

The Closers (*****)

ANOTHER HUGE NOTCH IN CONNELLY'S SUCCESS BELT!

After three years off the force, Harry Bosch opens “The Closers” re-instated to the LAPD. His experience has earned him a plum posting with his old partner, Kizmin Rider, to the “Open Unsolved Unit” but the chief has made it clear that Bosch is under probation as the oldest “boot” on the force. Perhaps smarter, more matured, more mellow and definitely more introspective and cautious, Bosch realizes that his future with the force is contingent on staying out of trouble and sticking rigorously to the letter of the law and regimented procedure according to the book. But trouble has a way of seeking out Harry Bosch and getting under his skin.

Bosch is handed his first case, supposedly a slam dunk with new evidence. Rebecca Verloren was murdered 17 years ago. Rebecca’s white mother is hopelessly mired in the past and mourns her death to this day. Her black father, formerly a successful restauranteur, fell into the bottle and vanished into LA’s homeless community. DNA analysis, that didn’t exist at the time of the murder, leads Bosch and Ryder toward Roland Mackey, a tow truck driver with connections to a radical fascist white supremacy group. But Bosch and Rider aren’t satisfied. While the DNA ties Mackey to the murder weapon, there doesn’t seem to be any way to tie Mackey to the murder or to a relationship with the victim. Further investigation into the racial aspect of the case begins to point Bosch into that most treacherous territory of “high jingo” – internal police wrongdoing and cover-ups related to the LA race riots that were happening at the time of Rebecca’s murder.

“The Closers” is considerably less character driven than previous Harry Bosch novels but Bosch’s character is still an important consideration. It’s clear throughout the novel that Bosch wrestles internally with his old demons - the compulsion to lapse back into unorthodoxy, the drive to get the job done at all costs, his inability to deal compassionately with those around him. I will admit, however, that it was probably more clear to me as a confirmed lover of Harry Bosch novels than it would be to a new fan choosing to pick up “The Closers” as a first Harry Bosch entrée. Kiz Rider, by contrast to Bosch, matures and strengthens as an understanding partner and a highly competent female investigator in a primarily male world. She has the ability, the courage and the compassion necessary to let Bosch know about his shortcomings and to hold him firmly in check when it’s necessary. Her innovative, insightful and independent thinking seems unhampered by a much more strict “by the book” approach.

The plot – well, what can one say about Michael Connelly’s mastery of the police procedural that hasn’t already been said? The textbook layout of the clues and the investigation is impeccable and compelling in its intensity. And the twist at the end is worthy of the finest thriller. Five stars, two thumbs up and a bonus of two big toes as well!

Highly recommended.