Backcountry Musings

Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie (*****)

2007-08-26T06:35:00.000-05:00

A brilliant "locked room" classic!

"The Mysterious Affair at Styles" might be the locked room mystery that holds down honours for being the novel in which Agatha Christie introduced Hercule Poirot to a grateful reading public. But it is "Murder on the Orient Express" that showcases a confident, polished Hercule at the height of his powers. Standing tall beside Sherlock Holmes and Auguste Dupin, Poirot is arguably the most widely read and best known detective in literature and "Murder on the Orient Express" is certainly one of the finest examples of the mystery genre. In a brilliant variation of the typical British drawing room mystery, Christie places her cast of thirteen suspects together with the victim and Poirot on the Orient Express en route from Istanbul to Calais.

Mr Ratchett, an unsavory looking man who obviously has some dark secrets in his past, approaches Poirot as the train leaves Istanbul with the offer of a very fat fee asking for his services to help protect his life from enemies he knows are out to kill him. Poirot, seeing this as a very uninteresting exercise from a cerebral point of view, politely declines. But when the train is stopped in its proverbial tracks by a huge snow storm and Ratchett is killed in his locked berth, stabbed no less than twelve times, Poirot is pressed into service to solve the case by his long time friend Bouc who is also a director of the corporation that owns the train.

Through the simple process of gathering clues by interviewing the thirteen suspects - a wildly disparate lot that in modern terms would almost certainly be referred to as a "motley crue" - Poirot employs "the little gray cells" and intuits a positively brilliant solution. In that time honoured literary tradition of gathering all of the suspects into a single room, a somewhat less than humble Poirot puts on a flashy show of summarizing the case and revealing the identity of the perpetrator in a brilliant twist that only Poirot could fathom and only Dame Christie could create.

There is nothing about "Murder on the Orient Express" that does not deserve high praise - dialogue; the hilarious mis-translation of idiomatic French into spoken English; the less than subtle but accurate use of class distinctions and behavioural stereotypes unique to different nationalities; characterization; colourful narrative description; plot; suspense; red herrings; and, of course, a brilliant solution that deftly ties up every conceivable loose thread. And all of that is in an all too short package that can be read in the brief space of three or four thoroughly enjoyable hours. Read and enjoy, pass the book onto your best friend but, for goodness sake, keep your lip zipped about that brilliant ending!

TBR Challenge 2007 (On track!)

2007-08-25T13:05:00.000-05:00

Eight months down, four to go! Eight titles down, four to go! On track but just hanging in there by a thread. Friedman's "The World is Flat" was a DNF setback but I suppose setbacks are the stuff of which challenges are made, aren't they?

Here's how the list stands at the moment:

1. Strange Cargo – Jeffrey Barlough (fantasy)
2. The World is Flat – Thomas L Friedman (non-fiction, sociology, DNF)
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)

Next planned read is CJ Sansom's "Dark Fire".

Classic Sci-Fi Challenge 4

2007-08-25T12:56:00.001-05:00

EE "Doc" Smith's "Triplanetary" served double duty in the challenge department. For my self-imposed task of reading new authors in the genre of classic sci-fi, progress has been steady, enlightening and thoroughly enjoyable. Although this particular novel was less than impressive (my opinion alone, of course ... and there are thousands out there that disagree with me), the whole idea of enjoying new authors has proven exciting.

Here's my progress on the challenge so far. Completed titles are highlighted 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 G Weinbaum - Stanley Weinbaum
5. Earthman's Burden - Poul Anderson & 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

Up next is L Sprague de Camp's "Lest Darkness Fall". I've been looking forward to this one for a long time.

"By the Decades" Challenge - Coming Right Along!

2007-08-24T19:25:00.000-05:00

I was a little put off, frankly, with "Doc" Smith's overbearing style and "Triplanetary" didn't exactly thrill me to my toes. That said, there was more than enough content to suggest that I ought to continue with the Lensman series and hold off on final judgment for a little bit.

Having completed this title, I can now lay claim to having completed nine consecutive decades and since I'm currently reading Conan Doyle's "The Poison Belt", I'm thinking that eleven decades is a goal within short range reach. Stay tuned! This is one challenge I am determined to finish completely.

Here's the link to 3M's blog for a detailed explanation of the rules and a list of participants.

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 Triplanetary - EE "Doc" Smith
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

A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson (*****)

2007-08-24T19:15:00.001-05:00

Nature Writing and a Travelogue with "oomph"!

Perhaps it was a fit of angst dealing with his own personal version of a mid-life crisis that led Bill Bryson to tackle the challenge of hiking the 2,100 mile Appalachian Trail! It was certainly a solid understanding of his own personality and clear recognition of his own physical and mental limitations that prompted him to invite his friend, Stephen Katz, an overweight and out of shape recovering alcoholic with an inordinate fondness for snack foods and cream soda to accompany him on this daunting challenge. The demands of the AT ultimately proved too much for Bryson and Katz who sensibly (and with an almost relieved sense of philosophical acceptance) decided to abandon the notion of a complete through hike. But the resulting story, drawn from Bryson's daily journal of the summer's efforts, is an overwhelming success and pure joy in the reading.

"A Walk in the Woods" is an extraordinary, entertaining travelogue on both the AT - the Appalachian Trail - and the people and places of small town America that dot the trail's path along the eastern seaboard from Georgia to Maine. At the same time, it is much, much more. Bryson is scathing in his political commentary and almost enraged criticism of the ongoing state of mismanagement and the sadly misguided policies of both the Parks and Forest Services of the US government. "A Walk in the Woods" is also a deeply moving introspective examination on the nature of friendship, family, struggle and perseverance, joy and despondency. As he and Katz amble along rock strewn trails dappled with sunlight broken by the leafy forest canopy, Bryson frequently, effortlessly and almost without our even noticing the change, wanders metaphorically off the main trail and onto a side path of lightweight but nonetheless informative and educational sidebars of nature writing on an amazingly wide variety of topics. Glaciation, bears, bugs, ecology, continental drift, hypothermia, hypoxia and weather are only a few examples of the topics which he elucidates for the lay reader with his clear, concise prose.

Then there is the humour! It is perhaps an understatement to say that, in this regard, Bryson has a rare gift. He has treated his readers to laughs originating in every imaginable corner of the vast world of humour - wry sardonic wit; biting satire; slapstick; self effacement; sarcasm and insults; fear; and even extended comedy sketches worthy of stage or television. His description of the astonishingly stupid and entirely self-absorbed fellow hiker Mary Ellen who has the annoying habit of constantly clearing her sinuses with a grating honk is definitely laugh-out-loud material.

Pure entertainment and enjoyment from first page to last. I believe Bill Bryson would consider it a compliment if I suggested that "A Walk in the Woods" is the first book I've ever read with a smile on my face during every single moment of the reading. Highly recommended - even if you've never spent a single night under nylon in the woods.

Triplanetary - EE "Doc" Smith (**)

2007-08-24T19:09:00.000-05:00

The grand-daddy of all galactic royal rumbles!

Two civilizations, the Arisians and the Eddorians, old beyond imagining and evolved to the point where their mental skills alone command energy and forces that are unthinkable for lesser species such as humans from our beloved Earth or even the reptilian Nevians, battle for dominance of the universe. In "Triplanetary", Doc Smith has left no room for doubt concerning the identity of the "good guys" versus the "bad guys". The Eddorians, quintessentially and unabashedly evil, have set themselves a modest but extraordinarily clear mission -

"to tear down and destroy every bulwark of what the weak and spineless adherents of Civilization consider the finest things in life - love, truth, honor, loyalty, purity, altruism, decency and so on."

The Arisians, of course, represent all of those virtues which the Eddorians are so bent on removing from the Universe.

"Triplanetary" is the grand-daddy of all space opera adventure novels - a non-stop, red hot action-oriented, plot driven space battle that is a positively orgasmic geekfest of techno-babble on steroids. One need only read a single chapter to envision the origins of the special effects in modern movie and television versions of Star Trek, Babylon 5, Andromeda or Battlestar Galactica. If you like your battles hot, your villains ugly and nasty, and your heroes manly (how could a hunk named "Conway Costigan" be anything but a two-fisted, steely-eyed man's man?), then you'll probably enjoy "Triplanetary"!

On this basis alone, "Triplanetary" is probably worth reading as the acknowledged progenitor of every space war novel that was ever written. One could even make a very strong case that Steven Spielberg, Gene Roddenberry and the entire world of special effects in visual media owe much to Smith's fertile imagination!

But does "Triplanetary" deserve membership in a library of what we now call science fiction classics? I think not. There is so much wrong with "Triplanetary" on the literary side, it's really quite difficult to know where to start.

Other than cartoonish heroic stereotypes, character development is negligible. Dialogue is stilted and the romantic interludes, in particular, are so trite as to be laughable. The raging purple prose is so positively brimful of superlatives and absolutes that one wonders how any progress was made at all, any goal achieved or any enemy defeated - barriers were impassable, obstacles were insurmountable, chances of success were only one in numberless millions, beams of destruction were relentless, forces were cataclysmic, objects were immovable, tractor beams were irresistible - well, it just got tiresome because this was the nature of the entire novel. Science, even as it was known at the time, was effectively ignored and technology in the novel crossed the line from imaginative into purely fantasy.

Recommended as a fast, enjoyable read from the standpoint of understanding the roots and growth of science fiction as a genre. But the novel has not stood the test of time and is weak gruel indeed compared to many of its contemporaries.

Three To Get Deadly - Janet Evanovich (*****)

2007-08-24T19:04:00.000-05:00

Grandma Mazur ... I'd like you to meet Lula!

It was a slow day in the bounty hunting business and the best that Stephanie could do was an FTA. "Uncle Mo" Bedemier, well-loved owner of the local ice cream parlour, was a "failure to appear" on a charge of carrying a concealed weapon. Stephanie didn't like the idea of having to chase down one of the burg's most respected citizens and the local populace, thinking the charge bogus and ill-advised in any event, certainly weren't tripping over themselves to give Stephanie a lending hand finding her man. But business is business and Stephanie is Stephanie. She leaped into the deep end of the pool and soon found herself up to her neck in murdered drug dealers, vigilantes, bible-thumping snake-charming country preachers and the porn industry. Plenty of room for fun and games in this little story!

But from the first moment a grateful reading audience read Stephanie Plum's exploits in her debut novel "One for the Money", the plot never has been the thing. "Three to Get Deadly" doesn't change a thing about that. Character development, slapstick comedy, earthy blue-collar New York dialogue and sticky wickets that would do "The Perils of Pauline" proud are what has rocketed this series to the top of the best-selling lists. No doubt about it. Janet Evanovich continues her string of successes and laugh-out-loud hilarity reigns supreme from first page to last.

Did you like Grandma Mazur in the first two books of the series? Then you'll die for Lula, former juiced hooker, newly minted office assistant and bounty hunter in training under Stephanie's dubious tutelage. She's "f"-ing amazing - funny, frolicsome, free-wheeling, full-figured, feisty, fired-up, frantic, in your face and fabulous! She's got a salty mouth and an attitude that any self-respecting trucker would be might proud of! What a piece of work.

Highly recommended.

"By the Decades" Challenge - Update

2007-08-05T12:41:00.000-05:00

This particular challenge is coming along strongly and shaping up for completion well before the end of 2007 and WAY ahead of schedule. As you read this entry, I'm actually halfway through Doc Smith's "Triplanetary", so even if I stopped at this point I can lay claim to having read a novel published in nine consecutive decades. But this is one challenge I am determined to finish completely. Stay tuned!

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 Triplanetary - EE "Doc" Smith
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 First Men in the Moon - HG Wells (****)

2007-08-05T12:36:00.000-05:00

Social commentary and high adventure!

Mr Bedford, a recently bankrupt Victorian gentleman has retired to the English countryside to recover his spirit and write a play. He meets Dr Cavor, an eccentric, quaintly comical scientific genius researching the preparation of a compound he calls "Cavorite" that will be opaque to all radiation including gravity. When a laboratory error results in the wildly successful early completion of the Cavorite project, Bedord and Cavor use it to create a sphere that is capable of travel to the moon.

The science in HG Wells' "First Men in the Moon" is now known to be wildly off the mark - anti-gravity; a lunar atmosphere that freezes during the frigid lunar night and sublimates into a rarified but breathable air during the warmer day; an extraordinarily fecund flora that seeds itself, germinates, grows, blooms and completes its life cycle during the brief sunlight hours; and a civilized but strictly class structured lunar insect-like people living under the moon's surface that Bedord and Cavor called "Selenites".

Despite its failings in the light of current scientific knowledge, "First Men in the Moon" is still an enjoyable adventure written in typical late Victorian style that gives us an early taste of 20th century science fiction space opera to follow. Just as he did in his better known novel "The Time Machine", Wells successfully uses his protagonists, Bedord and Cavor, as tools to discuss, satirize and critique deeply and dearly held British notions of class and imperialism.

Suspending your belief and accepting the science in terms of what was known and understood at the turn of the century will allow you to whisk yourself away on a space-faring adventure for an enlightening, enjoyable few hours.

Recommended.

Beach Road - James Patterson (**)

2007-08-05T12:15:00.000-05:00

The bizarre ending twist fails utterly!

Tom Dunleavy is a very good athlete who never quite made it to the top. After a very few minutes of near fame as a white NBA basketball player, Dunleavy bottomed out with a career ending injury and retired to a quiet life managing a very mediocre one-man law firm in New York's East Hampton, summer home to America's über-wealthy glitterati set. Dante Halleyville, an old friend of Tom's and arguably the finest young black high school basketball player in the country has been arrested for a triple murder following a pick up game of hoops against a team of all white players. The murder has celebrity, racial and drug overtones and Tom is astonished to find himself in the thick of the affair as Halleyville pleads with him to serve as lead defense attorney in a trial that promises to be front page news across the nation. Dunleavy, intuitively recognizing Halleyville's innocence but sensibly realizing he will be way over his head during this trial, pleads with Kate Costello, an old girl friend and rising star in one of America's upper crust law firms, to join him as co-counsel for the defense.

"Beach Road" is no exception to Patterson's now easily recognizable style of writing short, snappy two to three page chapters that keeps things moving along at a rapid fire pace. But he's introduced a very interesting and quite effective twist - entitling each chapter with only a character's name and writing those few pages from the viewpoint of that particular character. That makes for some very novel fast-paced changes in perspective. But, sadly, this particular style rests for its success strictly on dialogue and action leaving absolutely no margin for error in plot development because it also leaves absolutely no room for the redeeming features of narrative description, atmosphere and character development.

"Beach Road" succeeds admirably and is a lightweight, enjoyable and quite compelling page-turner until the eagerly anticipated and much vaunted twist that the dust jacket exclaims will leave readers gasping in shock. Like a downhill mountain-biker who jams on the front brakes, "Beach Road" vaults up over the handle bars and lands flat on its face! Weak, weak, weak ... the twist is certainly an unpredictable surprise but it is so bizarrely unrealistic and utterly off the wall as to completely derail what was looking to be a pretty darn good book. Thankfully, the twist occurs very close to the end of the book so the disappointment lasts for only a very few pages. That means a summer beach or hammock reader can still derive a little enjoyment from the book and not feel they wasted hours upon hours of their time.

Recommended for die-hard Patterson fans! If you've never read Patterson before, you'd better not be starting here.

Eyewitness Travel Guide to Switzerland (*****)

2007-08-05T12:11:00.000-05:00

Informative, comprehensive and entertaining in the bargain!

I'm not a seasoned or jaded traveler ... yet! So a comprehensive travel guide is critical to my preparation for a trip and a great way of post-filling information and details into some of the holes or places that I might have missed or had to rush through when I was actually on the trip. Along with photographs and trip journals, they're also a wonderful way to resurrect detailed memories of a trip long after you've returned home.

Eyewitness Travel Guides seem to have the market beat by a long margin! That's not to say that Lonely Planet, Frommer, Michelin or the Blue and Green Guides miss the mark entirely but the Eyewitness series, in general, seems to be more informative. The photographs and illustrations instill a higher degree of keen anticipation and provide a better means of choosing in advance between a world of competing destinations and alternative tourist attractions. Their guide to Switzerland, in particular, was astonishingly accurate and complete - history, food, travel, hotels, geography, destinations, estimated costs, highlights, outdoor activities - every last one of them spot on and accurately described from the perspective of an actual trip through St Moritz, Lucerne, the Bernina Pass to Tirano, Italy and Interlaken. Even now the photographs of Swiss cuisine and cheese can set my mouth to watering!

One noteworthy omission that my traveling companion and I discovered by accident - Switzerland offers a museum pass for 30 Swiss francs that will give admission for one month to virtually every museum in the country. That's a remarkable offer given that the countryside is positively littered with a host of attractive museums, castles and attractions most of which charge a 5 to 10 franc admission. We learned that little tidbit from the concierge of the Palace Lucerne Hotel - kudos to the hotel for over the top service and a great piece of advice!

With that one small suggestion for addition to future editions, the Eyewitness Travel Guide to Switzerland easily earns a five-star review. And Switzerland, by the bye, is certainly a delicious five-star travel destination!

Rage - Jonathan Kellerman (**)

2007-08-04T19:08:00.000-05:00

A bewildering conglomeration of psycho-babble!

Troy Turner and Rand Duchay were barely teenagers, little more than children themselves, when they kidnapped and murdered a young child. Troy, clearly the instigator and an evil sociopath lasts mere weeks in prison and receives his just desserts shanked by a fellow inmate. Rand, a somewhat more pathetic slow-witted dysfunctional creature who appears to have been relentlessly drawn into the deed of kidnapping by bad company somehow survives his incarceration. Upon his release he seeks to talk with psychologist, Alex Delaware, whom he encountered briefly during his trial for the murder eight years earlier. Delaware, who only reluctantly agrees to talk with him, is shocked to find Duchay murdered mere minutes before the planned conversation can take place.

"'Rage", an aptly titled psychological thriller, place Delaware and his police colleague, Milo Sturgis, into a complex battle of hide and seek with a brutal, psychopathic serial killer. In marked, almost stark contrast with some of his current best-selling colleagues such as James Patterson, Jonathan Kellerman has chosen to focus his novels on the psychological aspects of crime - motive, character, deviance, emotion, passion - and "Rage" takes this approach to story-telling to levels beyond any he has previously attempted.

So much so, in fact, that the thrill of the story is mostly buried in a web of convoluted, puzzling dialogue between Sturgis and Delaware in which they simply feed off one another in a stacked series of "what-ifs". One dysfunctional misfit after another is introduced, anaylyzed and set up as the possible mastermind of a series of brutal, evil killings. The conversation becomes so dense and the analysis becomes so complex that ultimately the evil devolves into something almost banal and the story is lost in a thicket of psycho-babble.

"Rage" is far from Kellerman's best efforts and ranks as almost boring beside such phenomenal successes as "The Murder Book".

Naked in Death - JD Robb (****)

2007-06-26T22:06:00.000-05:00

An exciting first novel in an imaginative series!

Damn! I wish I hadn't done that!

"Naked in Death" is the first in JD Robb's popular Death series which is now almost two dozen novels strong ... and I loved it! My pocketbook will protest and my bookshelves will be groaning under the ever increasing load as I begin the quest to accumulate the rest of the series.

Eve Dallas is a lieutenant in the New York City Police Department. The story is set in 2058 - a future near enough to be entirely recognizable but far enough away that Robb can postulate some very interesting technological and cultural developments - guns have been banned; prostitution is legal and completely regulated; cars have an auto-pilot setting; VR simulations have advanced to a heart-stopping, palm-sweating, gut-wrenching reality that is light years beyond the technology we know of today; smoking is almost a thing of the past; police weaponry consists only of lasers and high powered stun guns with handguns firing real bullets available only in museums and private collections; and, would you believe it, recreational "hotels" for the über-wealthy are actually in continuous orbit above the earth!

On the other hand, the murder, sadly, is one with which we are all too familiar - the violent, gruesome, almost ritualistic slaying of a sex trade worker, now known by the euphemism "licenced companion", which is only the first of an intended series by a serial killer. He left behind a note ... "ONE OF SIX"! This particular licenced companion, Sharon DeBlass, just happened to be the grand-daughter of a US Senator and you might well imagine the political pressure that is being brought to bear on Dallas and NYPD to solve the case. When the investigation points in the direction of Roarke, a self-made reclusive billionaire, the heat and passion in the novel is turned up a notch as Dallas finds herself in the unenviable position of falling for a man who just might be the killer she's looking for!

I don't think I can give Robb top marks for the plot - the solution is just a little too predictable and can be seen a fair distance from the end of the novel. But "Naked in Death" certainly earns both thumbs well turned up in every other way - dialogue, characterization, setting, humour (the side plot about the husband's murder by Hetta Finestein, a lovable little gray haired old lady, is a positive hoot), imagination, novelty, creativity and more. And I have to hand it to Robb ... she writes a mean sex scene. Whew! They're footloose, they're well-timed, they're playful and they're plenty hot enough to raise a little sheen of sweat on your brow! Highly recommended!

Romance, police procedural, mystery, science fiction ... you name it, they all fit. If you like a lightweight, easy-going enjoyable read in any of those genres, you'll enjoy "Naked in Death".

The Overlook - Michael Connelly (*****)

2007-06-26T22:00:00.000-05:00

A hot Harry Bosch thriller!

Having begun life as a 16 part serial for the New York Times, "The Overlook" has a dramatically different flavour than the preceding 12 novels in the continuing, exciting Harry Bosch canon with which Connelly has thrilled his legion of fans. Less grim and foreboding, less atmospheric, less prone to the philosophical meandering that we've come to expect from the angst-ridden backcountry of Bosch's psyche, "The Overlook" is much more of a plot driven novel - a shorter, snappier, purely action oriented police procedural but no less successful and enjoyable for the differences!

Dr Stanley Kent, a medical bio-physicist who had access to radioactive materials used in the treatment of cancers at hospitals throughout LA, has been found murdered - executed, in fact, with two bullets in the back of the head - on a Mulholland Drive overlook. Bosch, assigned to the murder with his new partner, Iggy Ferras, immediately begins to bump heads with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, called in on the case as a result of the potential terrorist involvement with the assassination. The case is mere minutes old and Kent's body has barely begun to cool when Bosch discovers that the crime also involves the theft of a case of potentially deadly radioactive Cesium-137. That the FBI agent assigned to the case is Rachel Walling, Bosch's love interest who we met in Connelly's last novel "Echo Park" complicates matters immensely but certainly doesn't prevent the inevitable inter-organizational war over case jurisdiction.

Bosch, true to the mantra "Everybody counts or nobody counts" which we first heard in "The Last Coyote", focuses on people and is intent on finding Kent's murderers. The FBI, not too surprisingly, treats the murder as incidental and is intent on treating the theft of the Cesium as a threat to national security.

There is no doubt in my mind ... Connelly is brilliant! Even with a purely plot-oriented novel, he has made sure that Bosch loses none of the flavour or depth of character so carefully built up in twelve previous novels. His interaction with Walling is both hot and heated (if you understand the subtle distinction). The jurisdictional squabbling and in-fighting has a definite tinge of realism and, frankly, it is difficult as a reader to sit in judgment in this particular case and take sides. Bosch and Walling, the FBI and the LAPD were all right and wrong at various moments in the novel!

And what can one say about the ending? There is no way that any reader is going to see this fancy twist coming! If you're a Bosch fan, you're gonna love it! If you haven't read any of Bosch's previous novels, don't start here ... go back and read four or five of the earlier novels (try to pick them up in chronological order - start with "The Black Echo") so you can get that underlying feel for the character first. Then come back and enjoy this one with the rest of us.

Highly recommended!

Beneath a Marble Sky - John Shors (****)

2007-06-26T21:55:00.000-05:00

A monument to undying love!

A romantic reconstruction of imperial life in 17th century India, "Beneath a Marble Sky" recounts the turbulent story of princess Jahanara, the daughter of the emperor who commissioned the construction of the Taj Mahal as a fabulous testament to the overwhelming love of his wife. Well educated, literate, a wily diplomat, savvy political advisor and a bright, witty conversationalist and companion at a time when Muslim women were held in particularly low esteem, Jahanara has been well taught by her mother who bequeathed the solemn responsibility for the care of her ailing father to Jahanara on her death bed.

Now an elderly woman herself, the story is told in the form of a flashback narrated from Jahanara's point of view as she relates the fascinating, complex, violent and disturbing history of her family to her grand-daughters. Her soft spoken, pacifist eldest brother Dara, the rightful heir to the imperial throne dreams of the day he can see the Muslim community in peaceful co-existence with those professing the majority Hindu faith. In complete contrast, her younger brother, Aurangzeb, is so consumed by jealousy of his brother's position as heir and the deep hatred of Hindus whom he labels godless heretics, that he spends his entire life plotting the coup and the civil war necessary to steal the throne from his father and brother. Jahanara's story, set against the backdrop of the construction of the Taj Mahal also tells of her unrequited impossible love for Isa, architect of the Taj Mahal and a commoner that Jahanara can never marry and the exquisite pain of her arranged, political marriage to Khondamir, an ugly, evil, conniving merchant with some very sleazy, distasteful sexual proclivities.

"Beneath a Marble Sky" is many things for many readers - an accomplished historical fiction with lots of savory details for time and place; a compelling political page-turner loaded with intrigue, violence, passion and pathos; as well as a powerful moving romance that tells of three distinctly different but heart-warming relationships that come to fruition in ways that will draw a sigh and a smile from even the most romance-phobic male readers.

My taste in historical fiction would have enjoyed more time spent on the context of the story - more background, for example, as to the religious tensions that were so central to the story and perhaps a little more detail describing the common man's daily life in a setting which to us is so completely exotic and foreign. But, to his credit, Shors did not overstate his case or overstay his welcome by producing a needlessly padded heavyweight door-stopper which, sadly, is often the case with contemporary historical fiction authors.

Highly recommended.

A Study in Scarlet - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (****)

2007-06-26T17:35:00.000-05:00

Dr Watson ... I'd like you to meet Mr Sherlock Holmes!

As Agatha Christie's "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" introduced a grateful reading public to Hercule Poirot, perhaps the second best known fictional detective of all time, Conan Doyle's "A Study in Scarlet" marked the debut appearance of the acknowledged master of detection, the one and only Sherlock Holmes!

John Watson, a medical doctor recently retired from the British military to recover his health and recuperate from wounds received in Afghanistan, is looking to stretch his limited budget by finding another gentleman with whom he can share accommodation. When a mutual friend introduced him to Sherlock Holmes, one might slyly suggest that the game was afoot and the rest, as they also say, became history. Already characteristically melancholy and moody, a jaded Holmes, who labeled himself the world's only consulting detective, is invited by Scotland Yard's Lestrade and Gregson to assist in the investigation of a baffling pair of murders.

With "A Study in Scarlet", Doyle is clearly new to the craft of writing mysteries and the great detective's debut outing suffers from characteristic first novel and new character jitters. The style itself is markedly different from everything that follows in the Holmes canon with the story being told from a third-party perspective. The background to the mystery is revealed through the mechanism of a flashback to the western USA at the time of the Mormon migration to Utah. Feedback from the reading public must have been immediate and - we'll have to hand it to Doyle - he must have been a quick learner. Watson was thereafter appointed official narrator and diarist to the master and Doyle never looked back.

I leave it to others smarter than I to judge whether or not Doyle's historical characterization of the Mormons is justified or accurate! Suffice it to say, that the mystery is entertaining but the details are, quite frankly, entirely unimportant beside the overwhelming fact that this was the first time the world heard the name "Sherlock Holmes". It took Doyle only a few pages for example to treat us to an aphorism that we would come to hear over and over again,

"It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence."

This novel is a cornerstone in the annals of crime fiction, an extremely important piece of the history of English literature and a darned good read! Enjoy it!

Lost - Michael Robotham (****)

2007-06-26T17:30:00.000-05:00

Ruiz is London's very own Harry Bosch!

Michael Robotham is definitely an author who bears watching!

DI Vincent Ruiz, debuted as a supporting cast member in Robotham's first novel, "Suspect", is rescued from the Thames wounded, bleeding, hypothermic and a good deal more dead than alive. Suffering from transient global amnesia brought on by the trauma of the night's events, Ruiz is initially unable to recall anything at all about what he was doing on a motor launch cruising the Thames in the middle of the night. But it's clear that something very important was going down as he is immediately harassed by Internal Affairs who are treating him more like a criminal than a police officer wounded in the line of duty. With what few clues are available about the shooting and with the help of psychiatrist Joe O'Loughlin, Ruiz begins to painstakingly reconstruct his memories and to pick up the threads of his search for the truth about the kidnapping of seven year old Mickey Carlyle.

Ruiz quickly discovers he is the only detective who believes in the possibility that Mickey Carlyle is still alive despite the conviction and imprisonment of Harlan Wavell, a sexual predator convicted three years earlier for the kidnapping and murder. A blue wall of official obstruction is erected in the path of Ruiz's investigation as the department believes that Ruiz's efforts may lead to the possibility of the killer's release on a technicality. The painful Byzantine process of re-constructing the investigation and filling in the blanks of his memory loss piece by painful piece leads Ruiz on a tortuous path through London and Europe - down through the sewers of London and back into the river Thames; into the repulsive thoughts of a "grooming pedophile"; into a confrontation with Russian crime-lord, Alexei Kuznet, who is looking to recover a cache of diamonds worth over two million pounds; and even to London and Thailand's drug and sex sub-cultures.

Despite a plot with lots of twists and turns and a surprise ending that very few readers will suspect before it actually arrives, much of the quality of Robotham's "Lost" is cerebral - atmosphere, characterization, dialogue and psychology - the scion of a loving marriage between a police procedural and a psychological thriller. Those readers searching for comparisons need look no further than Michael Connelly's successful Harry Bosch novels. Like Bosch, Ruiz is a dark, brooding, mature hero with an in-your-face attitude who's toting lots of mental baggage! But I was also pleased to find that Robotham did not neglect to fill in the story with some very interesting technical asides - transient global amnesia; the complex engineering of London's vast and ancient sewer system; the police treatment of kidnapping and ransom demands; some peeks into Sikh family culture, and more.

Most enjoyable and definitely recommended. One tiny tip - if you haven't yet read "Suspect", go find it first and enjoy both!

"By the Decades" Challenge 2007 (Update)

2007-06-23T16:45:00.000-05:00

I've made one substitution in order to consolidate some of the reading I'm doing and make a title do double duty. "Triplanetary", written by EE "Doc" Smith and first published in 1942 will take the place of "The Robe" by Lloyd Douglas as my choice for the fabulous forties. That way I get to make a notch in the belt of my Classic Sci-Fi New Author Challenge at the same time. That will also put my count for consecutive decades covered at nine. Hip, hip, hooray!

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 1
1910 The Poison Belt - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1920 The Mysterious Affair at Styles – Agatha Christie
1930 Burmese Days – George Orwell
1940 Triplanetary - EE "Doc" Smith
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

Earthman's Burden - Poul Anderson & Gordon Dickson (****)

2007-06-12T15:37:00.001-05:00

Life imitating art imitating life imitating ...

"Earthman's Burden" is simply hilarious.

When Ensign Alexander Braithwaite Jones crash landed on the planet Toka, 500 light years from earth, he encountered the Hokas, a cuddly race of aliens that (would you believe it?) resembled oversized, overstuffed teddy bears. The Hokas had the ability to absorb any trace of Earth culture they encountered, whether it be film, radio, television, music or books and reproduce it with devastatingly unpredictable and laugh-out-loud funny results. You'll see an entire world converted into the rootin', tootin' wild west, boffo grand opera in the Italian style starring Don Giovanni, a gaslit, atmospheric Victorian England featuring Sherlock Holmes stalking Grimpen Mire on the lookout for the Baskerville teddy bear, space patrollers, pirates and French legionnaires.

As I read the opening chapters, my initial reaction was to shake my head, blink twice and ponder whether Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson had taken leave of their senses. Surely, this couldn't be serious science fiction! But sure enough, there it was ... the pearl - that serious message of biting satire buried under the flesh of a mountainous oyster of vaudeville and slapstick! Jones was appointed ambassador plenipotentiary to Toka and saddled with what an arrogant government top heavy with self indulgent bureaucratic stuffed shirts labeled "Earthman's Burden" - the responsibility "to raise the primitive". Earth's Chief Cultural Commissioner, referring to himself with the ever pompous royal "we", advised Jones:

"to be patient with the innocent sub-civilized being. We shall often find his attitude uncosmic, his mind naively fumbling in its attempts to grasp the nuances of that which we teach him. He gazes at us with clear, unknowing eyes that plead with us to show him the right way - the civilized way."

How delicious - a double-barreled satire! Two targets for the price of one. Anderson and Dickson impales the arrogance of humanity in its estimation of our importance in the universe while, at the same time, lustily lampooning the idiocies of government bureaucracy.

Enjoy! You couldn't possibly read this without feeling uplifted and entertained.

Classic Sci-Fi New Author Challenge 3

2007-06-09T15:43:00.000-05:00

As a general comment, whoever dreamed up this notion of challenges to focus reading in a desired direction was brilliant. More specifically, my Yahoo reading group Classic Sci-Fi has gifted me with a veritable cornucopia of new and exciting reading.

Here's my progress on the challenge so far. Completed titles are highlighted 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 G Weinbaum - Stanley Weinbaum
5. Earthman's Burden - Poul Anderson & 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

Next up will be "Doc" Smith's "Triplanetary".

Earth is Room Enough - Isaac Asimov (*****)

2007-06-09T12:44:00.000-05:00

"Earth is Room Enough" is an anthology of Asimov's early short stories centered on the theme that anything can and probably will happen right here on earth. It's likely that Asimov and his editors probably had their collective tongues firmly planted in their cheeks and grins on their faces when they tweaked the noses of Asimov's contemporary authors by proving that you didn't need rocket ships and space opera to write great science fiction.

While he didn't wander too far from home in terms of setting, Asimov used his fertile imagination and probing intellect to weave stories that will touch you in a wide variety of ways. Like all good SF authors, Asimov used his craft to question government, human emotions and fears, our development of and reliance on technology, humour and imagination.

Perhaps a couple of examples will serve to whet the appetite of those who have yet to savour Asimov's talent! What collection of Asimov's short stories would be complete without at least one from his vast repertoire of Susan Calvin's robots? "The Dead Past", like most of the stories he wove around his famous three laws of robotics, is a clever logic puzzle but it also probes deeply into the human psyche and our potential interactions with robots. Asimov's "Multivac", a computer character he returned to over and over again in an enormous variety of stories, appeared in "Jokester", a clever tale that probes the very nature of humour and "Franchise", which takes a very well-aimed poke at political pundits and pollsters. "The Immortal Bard", undoubtedly drawn from Asimov's well-documented non-fictional study of Shakespeare, is a clever jibe at our modern interpretation of this master playwright's work. And on and on it goes ...

For those that have yet to sample science fiction in general or Asimov's work in particular, this would be a fine place to start. Intellectual, thought-provoking, and deeply questioning yet humorous and lightweight enough to be entirely unintimidating!

Highly recommended.

The Geographer's Library - Jon Fasman (***)

2007-06-07T16:31:00.000-05:00

A puzzling and ultimately unsatisfying ending!

"The Geographer's Library" has aspirations to that lofty genre, the literary thriller, which is attracting so many hopeful authors and readers of late. For a debut novel, Fasman's efforts come very, very close indeed to success but ultimately a puzzling and cryptic ending left me feeling like I had just dined on that proverbial gourmet Chinese food - you know that old one about eating lots and enjoying it but, when the ending arrives, you're not really satisfied and a few minutes later you're hungry!

The story begins as Paul Tomm, reporter for a small town Connecticut weekly, is assigned to write the obituary for Jaan Puhapaev, an Estonian professor of Balkan history at the local college, who died alone in his rooms. Tomm's questions, initially aimed only at fleshing out the bones on the life of an old man that nobody really knew, quickly began to disclose a much more shadowy past.

Fasman ekes outs the details of Puhapaev's shadowy past and its mystical connection to the shadowy arcane science of alchemy by interweaving a series of fourteen thoroughly entertaining historical vignettes with the main body of the plot. Each story tracks the life line of a different artifact, some now priceless and others barely distinguishable from garage sale junk, all stolen in antiquity from the collection of twelfth century geographer Al-Idris to their resting places in the modern era.

The writing was sharp; the malevolent and stomach-churning plot-line of the thriller was well-paced and compelling; the historical asides were entertaining and informative; the characterization was enjoyable; and the stereotypes - the tweedy college don, small town cops, the laid back weekly newspaper editor, the church-going music teacher and even a Russian mobster - were all spot on and used with wonderful effect. But when the climax arrived and it was time to resolve the thriller and tie the present to the past that magic dissolved in a puff of smoke.

I'm a reader that needs a little more resolution in a novel's ending and this one is anything but - puzzling, cryptic and unresolved with entire futures and relationships left hanging in the balance! I enjoyed the book but I was certainly left with the feeling that it could have been so much more.

Death Match - Lincoln Child (***)

2007-06-07T16:26:00.000-05:00

Enjoyable screenplay but not up to his usual standards!

Eden Incorporated is not your run-of-the-mill matchmaking service. For the rather lofty price tag of $25,000, Richard Silver, the company's brilliant and reclusive founder and Liza, the computer and its state of the art artificial intelligence software that is more person than machine, will guarantee to find you a "perfect" lifelong soul-mate. Well ... not quite perfect, but so close mind you that the paired partners certainly aren't complaining. So nobody was more surprised than Silver and Eden's management when Liza, despite overwhelming odds against such a match, found six absolutely perfect pairings.

But when Lewis and Lindsay Thorpe, the first of Eden's starry-eyed perfect couples, are found dead as the result of an apparent double suicide, Eden's corporate alarms sound wildly and Christopher Lash, a former FBI forensic psychologist is hired to quietly investigate the death from the inside. Lash, struggling with demons from his own past and memories that the investigation has brought to the surface, finds himself faced with a situation spiraling completely out of control when another perfect couple is also found dead - a bizarre second double suicide!

"Death Match" is first-rate brain candy when it's compared to other plot driven thrillers that seem much more screenplay than novel - James Patterson's and Iris Johansen's recent factory driven voluminous output comes to mind. But by comparison to the rather high standards that have been self-imposed by his own previous work - the Pendergast canon in conjunction with his partner, Douglas Preston, and his first solo effort, Utopia - "Death Match" falls well short of that mark.

There were so many opportunities for those technical addenda, side-bars and essays that I think of as part and parcel of Child's and Preston's writing - forensics, artificial intelligence, the computer dating and match-making industries, the psychology of suicide, computer security and corporate espionage, for example. But, sadly, all of them (not to mention character development in the bargain) were virtually ignored and the only motive for turning the pages was a plot. Creative and well-crafted, to be sure, but rather naked and lonely!

Well, I enjoyed it and I'll certainly look for more of his work. It just wasn't quite as cerebral a thriller as I had hoped for. Recommended for those looking for a fast-paced lightweight summer read. Three stars and a thumb-and-a-half!

The Angel of Darkness - Caleb Carr (****)

2007-06-07T16:22:00.000-05:00

Rough and Tumble Late Nineteenth Century New York!

In "The Angel of Darkness", Caleb Carr returns his readers to the atmospheric, intriguing, rough and tumble world of late nineteenth century New York. The story is told through the eyes of Stevie Taggert, a former young thug rescued from a miserable life and almost certain early death as a street kid already up to his eyes in street crime and drugs by his guardian, Dr Laszlo Kreizler, the famous psychiatrist first introduced to us in "The Alienist".

During the politically troubled era preceding the onset of the Spanish-American War, the wife of a Spanish diplomat, whose baby has been kidnapped, frantically appeals to Sara Howard, a private detective and proud feminist who specializes in helping troubled women, for help to rescue the child before it is murdered. Sara in turn appeals to her friend, Dr Kreizler and their colleagues for their assistance in this most puzzling case - Stevie Taggert, Cyrus Montrose, Kreizler's faithful man-servant, Jonathan Moore, crime reporter for the New York Times, and Lucius and Marcus Isaacson, the brilliant yet comedic Jewish twin brothers hired as NYPD detectives by Teddy Roosevelt when he was chief of the force. When the kidnapper's identity is discovered relatively early, the tale changes from a whodunit into that more modern complicated breed of thriller that explores the "why" of the crime!

As the story is told completely through Stevie's eyes, the reader is treated to a wonderfully smooth, linear narration that is both complete and straightforward to follow from the plotting point of view. But that simple statement belies the scope and depth of this wonderful story that includes discussions of the birth of modern feminism, the ravages of cocaine and drug addiction, the growing use of modern crime-fighting tools - forensics, psychological profiling, fingerprinting, ballistics, microscopic matching of hair and fiber samples - and the psychology of that most puzzling and disturbing of criminals, the female serial killer!

For good measure, Carr also treats his readers to appearances of real-life historical figures that are substantially more than tossed off cameos - Theodore Roosevelt as pro tem head of the US Navy prior to his election as president leads a group of feisty sailors in a brawl against a brutal street gang; Clarence Darrow is observed in a thrilling courtroom drama establishing his reputation as one of the most brilliant defense lawyers that the US has ever seen and Elizabeth Cady Stanton whose early musings formed a substantial part of the basis of modern feminism is called upon as a critical witness for the defense.

Four stars and two thumbs up. Lovers of historical fiction will thoroughly enjoy "The Angel of Darkness" and cross their fingers that Carr will deliver on the rumour that there are more "alienist" novels in the works to be narrated by some of the other members of the team.

Coincidences, Chaos and All That Math Jazz - Edward Burger (****)

2007-06-07T16:17:00.000-05:00

Making Light of Weighty Ideas!

What a wonderful motto for learning! To understand deep things simply, investigate simple things deeply.

In "Coincidences, Chaos and All That Math Jazz", Burger and Starbird take that motto to heart and bless their readers with an entertaining, irreverent, always amusing yet eminently readable and completely understandable exploration of some of the frontiers of mathematics.

In the opening chapters, real-life numbers - the roulette wheel, nature vs nurture studies of twin's characteristics, e-mail stock picking scam and spam artists, air safety standards, HIV testing and the puzzle of coincident birth dates at a party - are used to put meat onto the bones of the familiar saying "lies, damned lies and statistics" and to introduce the modern concept of mathematical chaos.

A simple straightforward chapter on the nature of numbers that almost effortlessly leads us into a basic understanding of much more complex topics such as cryptography, the Goldbach and the Twin Prime conjectures closes with the interesting comment,

"... our instinctive desire to wonder about the world of numbers has paid enormous practical dividends in the past - abstract ideas about primes and factoring unexpectedly led to public key cryptography and security in Internet commerce. Somehow human curiosity about numbers from ancient times to the present seems to be in synchronicity with the universe."

Counting spirals on pineapples and sunflowers and the simple act of folding and unfolding a strip of paper is used as a springboard to take the reader, who is now thoroughly engrossed in the enjoyable style of the book, to a basic understanding of the Fibonacci sequence, the golden ratio, chaos and fractals. But for me personally, the most interesting section was the last one. Burger and Starbird used extremely simple notions of counting, matching and a hotel with an infinite number of rooms to guide the unsuspecting reader to a brilliant "aha" moment - a concise, clear understanding of Cantor's ideas regarding the cardinality of infinity, the completely counterintuitive idea that some infinities are bigger than others.

Mathematics is fun and beautiful and this wonderful little book will show even the most math-phobic reader why! Highly recommended.

Mars - Ben Bova (****)

2007-06-07T16:13:00.000-05:00

A realistic vision of the first manned mission to Mars!

The theme of "Mars", Ben Bova's extraordinary vision of a first manned expedition to Earth's planetary neighbour, is hardly unique and imaginative. In fact, it's been pounded into submission on hundreds of previous occasions. Bova succeeds nonetheless and has served up a particularly compelling and realistic entry into the pantheon of space exploration sci-fi that unflinchingly explores the politics, the psychology, the emotion and humanity as well as the danger and excitement of an extended exploratory space mission that would in fact last almost two years. A healthy serving of science and day to day scientific realism rounds out this exciting and eminently readable story of a group of planetary explorers that are ultimately shown to have "the right stuff".

Nominally the hero of the tale, Jamie Waterman is a Navajo geologist selected to be part of the multi-national scientific ground team that will explore the red planet. The story opens as Jamie steps onto the surface of Mars and, overwhelmed with the power and emotion of the moment, he utters his first words to a waiting populace on Earth in Navajo instead of the carefully scripted English he was supposed to use. The resulting political firestorm that erupts on Earth is somehow sadly predictable in its powerful and dramatic realism.

Told primarily from Jamie's perspective, the main plot line unfolds around a debilitating and almost certainly fatal illness that every single member of the ground crew except the doctor contracts. While the forensic medical investigation into the illness is told with an urgent drama that will have every reader on the edge of their seat right to the literally cliff-hanging climax, it's the ultimate discovery of its cause that will leave readers slack-jawed with amazement at Bova's brilliant imagination and the almost absurdly humourous irony of the problem.

The Iron Curtain and the US-Russian Cold War are now relegated to the pages of history so the political structures and international rivalries portrayed in the story clearly date the writing of "Mars" to the latter part of the 20th century. But that takes nothing at all away from Bova's masterful development of full, complex characters whose well-being and success will matter to the readers. What more could a happy science fiction fan ask for - characters, plot and a heaping plate full of informative, entertaining and realistic science!

Highly recommended.

TBR Challenge 2007 (continued)

2007-05-28T19:20:00.000-05:00

5 MONTHS IN AND WE'RE STILL LOOKING GOOD!

With spring well sprung and summer definitely into bloom, May has come and gone. But, I'm SIX titles into the challenge and I've actually started on the seventh. Amazing! Here's the list as it currently stands with completed titles italicized and highlighted in red (OK, OK, I've cheated a little and shown the one I'm only partway through as finshed as well). So sue me ... I'm still pretty proud of it and I've actually managed a teeny, tiny dent in Mt TBR to show for it!

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 Best of Stanley G Weinbaum (*****)

2007-05-26T12:57:00.000-05:00

18 months of astonishing new writing ... and then gone!

Isaac Asimov called Stanley Weinbaum a nova who burst into the field of science fiction writing like an exploding star in 1934 with his debut short story "A Martian Odyssey". Perhaps super nova would have been a better euphemism because, like a supernova, Weinbaum not only exploded onto the scene but disappeared a scant 18 months after his first story was published, a victim of throat cancer. "The Best of Stanley Weinbaum" is a collection of short stories that, unfortunately, probably represents half of this astonishing writer's entire output.

Perhaps the greatest and most enduring charm of Weinbaum's stories rests with his collection of unique extra-terrestrial life - sentient, intelligent life that clearly had alien psychologies and motivations beyond human understanding. The most innovative feature of Weinbaum's collection of creatures was that they were not simply monstrous foils used to showcase the heroism of the human protagonists. Nor were they shallow anthropomorphized critters that merely happened to have green skin and six arms and legs. Tweel, the comical ostrich-like creature from "The Martian Odyssey" was Weinbaum's phenomenal response to John W Campbell's dictum "write me a creature who thinks as well as a man, or better than a man, but not like a man". The outrageously bizarre intelligent plant "Oscar" from "The Lotus Eaters" challenged the thinking sci-fi reader in ways that had never been achieved up until that time. Indeed, a case may be made that no sci-fi writer has created this type of alien intelligence since.

Although current knowledge of our solar system has moved beyond what was available to Weinbaum in the thirties, his presentation of alien ecologies was fascinating, compelling and yet wholly believable in the context of the science of the day. His presentation of a hostile Venusian jungle in "The Parasite Planet" is positively chilling. Beyond that, even within the limitations of the short story format, Weinbaum also demonstrates the ability to create complete characters whose achievements matter to the reader. They are fleshed out utterly human down-to-earth "folks" with foibles, failings, happiness and sadness to accompany the heroism and feats of derring-do that are only to be expected in stories like this.

If you've never sampled Stanley Weinbaum, then you are in for a truly delicious treat. Read slowly and savour it, because, sadly, there is far too little of his work available. Highly, highly recommended!

Simple Genius (****) - David Baldacci

2007-05-26T12:51:00.000-05:00

Wonderful Summer Escapist Thriller!

The seeds of Baldacci's latest novel "Simple Genius" are sowed a book earlier.

Mentally stressed beyond her ability to continue a normal life, Michelle Maxwell simply breaks down. Her horrifying experience in "Hour Game" with a boyfriend who turned out to be a serial killer and the continuing anguish of a deeply buried secret we will later learn she has carried with her since she was only six years old drives her into a potentially suicidal bar brawl with a complete stranger. Her long-time friend and investigative partner, Sean King, convinces her to check herself into a psychiatric hospital for rest, recuperation and serious examination of the demons she is encountering. Assuming full responsibility for the financial costs of this care, he desperately searches for work and accepts a contract to investigate the suicide (murder?) of Monk Turing, a quantum physicist and computer scientist working for Babbage Town, a high powered corporate think tank located across the York River from Camp Peary, a top secret CIA training facility. (That name, by the way - Turing, that is - is no coincidence!)

But like any good modern thriller, "Simple Genius" draws in far more detail, many more twists and turns, unexpected plot diversions and absorbing information than one would expect from this straightforward plot development in the opening chapters - the basics of public and private encryption keys and the related use of enormous numbers and their correspondingly huge prime factors; rogue CIA agents; the history of German POWs during WW II in New England; a treasure hunt from Colonial England and America's first days as an independent nation; the moral issues of civil rights as they apply to prisoners in the current wars on terror and drugs; hypnosis and the difficulties of diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses; and much more.

Like some of his high-powered peers in the thriller racket (Jonathan Kellerman, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child immediately come to mind), Baldacci's side bars on science, history, geography and politics are diverting, informative, interesting and entertaining without interrupting the timing and flow of the plot. This has got to be an art in its own right!

Highly recommended summer escapist reading! If you enjoy thrillers, you won't be sorry for taking a copy of this one to the beach or the cottage with you. And, thankfully, the door is left wide open for return appearances by Sean King and Michelle Maxwell.

How To Shit in the Woods - Kathleen Meyer (*****)

2007-05-19T20:48:00.000-05:00

To the uninitiated, the art of having a dump in the woods probably seems no more complicated than "squat, squint, squeeze and squeegee"! But, alas, as the world shrinks and the use of the world's limited wilderness terrain by outdoor adventurers increases to the limit of the land's ability to withstand the stress of that use, it's just not that simple. When considerations such as ecology, weather, temperature, privacy, courtesy, hygiene, biodegradation, density of camping use in an area, terrain and so on are factored into the decision as to where and how to complete the necessary feat, all is not as simple as it would seem. The methods one should choose are as varied as the terrains one might choose to visit and the times of year in which those choices are made.

"How to Shit in the Woods" is a book that should be read by EVERY person who would choose to venture into the out of doors - whether you want to spend a weekend at the local campground or you're a hardcore toughened backwoodsman heading out into the bush for a week long solo canoe trip in Canada's northern boreal forest!

Be prepared for lots of silly toilet humour, hilarious anecdotes concerning toilet misadventures, lots of tongue-in-cheek jokes, a good number of belly laughs and a very earthy delivery to be sure - but the message ultimately is entirely serious and well worth the read! There is very little humorous when it concerns encountering the leavings of someone who trod the trail in front of you.

Highly recommended for campers of all stripes, sexes, ages and experience levels.

Klutz Book of Knots (*****)

2007-05-19T20:45:00.000-05:00

In the outdoors, knowing and tying the right knot in the right circumstances can save your food, your canoe, your self respect and even your life. The "Klutz Book of Knots" is not the right choice for a sailor looking to win rigging contests. It certainly isn't the choice for someone looking to set records with the world's fanciest macramé creations. Nor is it appropriate for someone looking to begin a course in rock climbing. But it IS a superb primer of the very best set of basic and not quite so basic knot skills for someone who wants to develop an indispensable repertoire for use in the context of hiking, canoeing and backcountry camping - bowline, half hitches, tautline hitches, trucker's hitch, figure eight, double figure eight, figure eight on a bite, sheet bend and more.

You'll not only learn how to tie the knot but also how to tighten the knot and which context is correct for which knot. For example, you will learn that the choice between a bowline and two half-hitches depends on whether the rope you are working with needs to be snug to the attachment ring or post.

And what a brilliant idea ... the book's pages are made of heavy cardboard and are perforated so that the reader can practice with the supplied rope tying the knot to the page of the book directly over top of the illustration. Even a klutz can learn with great tools like that! Oh yeah ... I guess that's the whole point, isn't it?

And a bonus for those of us whose hiking boots or running shoes are constantly coming undone ... an absolutely bombproof way of tying up your shoes with a knot that simply will not loosen but is still a slip knot and comes undone with a simple one handed tug. I fell in love with that one! Highly recommended.

Burmese Days - George Orwell (*****)

2007-05-11T19:09:00.000-05:00

Most lovers of English literature will be aware of George Orwell’s “1984” and “Animal Farm” but, sadly, few book lovers will have even heard of, let alone read, his scathing indictment of colonial British government rule in east Asia, “Burmese Days”. As Orwell’s parents and family were posted to Burma and were obviously participants in, if not supporters of this colonial imperialism, it is difficult to imagine how much putting such criticism and biting satire to paper might have cost Orwell on a personal level.

Like Thomas Hardy’s “The Mayor of Casterbridge”, this is an almost unremittingly dark novel with heroes that are at best deeply flawed. Orwell’s haunting and magnificently economical prose, is a gun turret mounted on a 360° swivel that is brought to bear on every character in the novel in turn.

Flory, a white timber merchant with an embarassingly insipid weak personality befriends Veraswami, a local Burmese doctor who, inexplicably, seems to be an avid supporter of the British colonial government. When Veraswami’s name is floated as the possible token native member of the British “club”, the hostile reaction is immediate and visceral. Flory seems overwhelmed and is simply unable to muster the courage necessary to stand up to the demands of his peers who insist on maintaining an institutionalized prejudice against the local “niggers”. Veraswami comes under attack on a second front from U Po Kyin, the utterly corrupt Burmese magistrate who covets the European patronage to enhance his own wealth and prestige. Beautiful Elizabeth Lackersteen – now there’s a character! If this novel were placed in the US, she would have been a “flapper”! Today she would simply be written off as a vapid airhead! But, in “Burmese Days”, she represents the worst of decadent imperial decline.

“Burmese Days” is not easy or comfortable reading. I felt at times queasy, often appalled, frequently saddened and even embarrassed that bigotry, hatred and corruption at this level is clearly a part of my heritage. Sadly, we are not yet able to claim we have grown completely past this type of behaviour but perhaps it is to our credit that people like Orwell had the courage to commit this to paper solely for the purpose of making us aware of our own shortcomings and that we are to this day profoundly uncomfortable when we read it!

Highly recommended.

The Alexandria Link - Steve Berry (***)

2007-05-11T14:37:00.000-05:00

The world is a poorer place for the sad and never satisfactorily explained disappearance of the Ptolemy's amazing library at Alexandria. With the possible exception of the current collections of the Library of Congress or the Vatican, the Alexandria Library was probably the greatest accumulation of the world's knowledge in history. And it's all gone. But Steve Berry has cleverly parlayed that germ of an idea, the missing library, into "The Alexandria Link", an entertaining if somewhat overwrought geo-political potboiler. The scion of the Alexandria Library, a sadly reduced but still priceless collection of scrolls, papyri and documents rescued from the original library, hidden in the Sinai desert and carefully guarded by a small group of guardians and librarians for over two thousand years is the subject of a winner-take-all, no-holds-barred search by the American, Israeli and Saudi governments as well as a shadowy right wing cabal of the world's wealthiest industrialists known as The Order of the Golden Fleece.

Thrillers like this need their heroes and Steve Berry has chosen to give centre stage to two returning characters, Cotton Malone, recently retired from the US Department of Justice and his ex-wife, Pam Malone. Admittedly, the notion of the good guys chasing around the world getting ever closer to their goal by solving impossibly obtuse archeological puzzles is getting somewhat stale as the reading public has been inundated with an endless string of "Da Vinci Code" copy-cats! The jury was in and out of the room on any number of occasions as I read through book but ultimately the verdict is that Berry pulled it off ... but just barely!

The basic premise of the entire story was, to give full credit to Berry, quite ingenious and thought-provoking. The proof of an inaccurate translation of certain passages of the Old Testament from Old Hebrew through Greek and Latin to modern English rests in the Alexandria Library under the stewardship of The Guardians. If the accurate translation surfaces, the tensions between the Islamic, Jewish and Christian faiths would erupt in such a fashion as to possibly set a spark to a tinder pile that could well ignite World War III.

"The Alexandria Link", unfortunately, is a hit and miss affair that never rises to the level of a truly compelling page-turner but, when you get to the last page, I think most readers would agree that it qualifies as enjoyable reading. First prize for characterization goes to Danny Daniels, the president of the USA, who unabashedly styles himself as "the leader of the free world" and is eminently comfortable with the awesome power his position embodies. In spite of that he somehow remains a very human, compassionate and even humorous character.

The Black Echo (*****)

2007-04-30T19:22:00.000-05:00

"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 (****)

2007-04-27T14:36:00.000-05:00

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 (*****)

2007-04-26T15:40:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-24T16:15:00.000-05:00

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 (***)

2007-04-24T16:08:00.000-05:00

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 (*****)

2007-04-17T17:43:00.000-05:00

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. (***)

2007-04-17T14:05:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-16T18:54:00.000-05:00

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 (*****)

2007-04-16T18:44:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-09T17:18:00.000-05:00

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 (*****)

2007-04-08T06:27:00.000-05:00

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 (***)

2007-04-06T12:41:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-05T15:02:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-01T16:15:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-04-01T16:07:00.000-05:00

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 (*****)

2007-04-01T12:20:00.000-05:00

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.

Goblin Quest (****)

2007-03-31T16:04:00.000-05:00

A HIGHLY ENTERTAINING COMEDIC FANTASY ROMP!

When I first undertook to read and review Jim's book, "Goblin Quest", I have to admit I was nervous! Jim's a regular and valued participating member in your Yahoo reading group Fantasy Favorites. I felt more than a little conflicted. I was pleased to share space and chat with a published author. I was, truth be told, a little jealous that Jim had reached that lofty goal of completing and publishing a complete novel (a goal which I hesitantly admit to sharing but - ah, never mind, that's another story!). I was even a little star struck but more than anything else I was nervous as hell about reading and reviewing his book. Shoot ... just what the hell would I say if I didn't care for the book? How could I be honest to myself and my reviewing if I didn't like it and yet be charitable to a member of my own reading group?

Whew ... all the worries were groundless! Here's my review:

In Hines’ typical fantasy world populated with elves and dwarves, princes and wizards, goblins are definitely at the bottom of the fantasy food chain. But in this apparently quite typical fantasy world, Jig is not your typical fantasy hero. In fact, Jig is an introverted runty little near-sighted goblin with self esteem issues and, as Rodney Dangerfield would quip, he definitely gets no respect.

When a routine Goblin patrol is attacked, Jig and his perpetually nervous pet fire spider Smudge are astonished to find themselves hijacked and pressed into guide duty by a group of adventurers. A human prince dealing with his own set of esteem issues and who feels he has something to prove, his older brother (a wizard still learning his craft), a dwarf warrior and an elven thief who doesn’t seem particularly skilled in the fine art of thievery, need his guidance through the dark maze of goblin tunnels to make their way past The Necromancer and to obtain The Rod of Creation, thought to be carefully guarded by the dragon Straum.

Thus is the scene set for readers, young and old alike, to enjoy a light, easy-reading entertaining comedic adventure romp, the plights and perils of a ragtag little group as they stumble their way from one sticky wicket into another! Jig’s witty dialogue and Hines’ clever jokes and puns, which pile on top of one another with almost dizzying frequency, will elicit reader reaction ranging from wry grins to out loud belly laughs.

But Jig’s philosophizing and deeply probing self-examination also show that Hines’ possesses deeper ability as a writer, to use the device of comedy as a means to probe more serious, more difficult issues – the nature of religious faith, the worship of gods and the form of prayer; loyalty to one’s comrades in arms; the juxtaposition of fear and courage in the heat of a battle; the overwhelming love that one can feel for a pet, even one as off-the-wall weird as a fire spider; and the destructive results of unseemly pride and overwhelming greed; to name only a few. That is not to suggest that “Goblin Quest” is a moralizing epistle in any fashion. Far from it, indeed! This is only to suggest that Hines’ book goes significantly further than a mere collection of goblin runt jokes!

Well done, Jim. I’ve now got my eyes peeled and my breath baited anticipating the arrival of the sequel “Goblin Hero”.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

The Planets (*****)

2007-03-31T08:12:00.000-05:00

If John Lennon were alive today to read Dava Sobel’s “The Planets”, I’ve no doubt he would be pleased to call it “a magical mystery tour”

I’ve always enjoyed reading popular science but, frankly, some of it is turgid, dry-as-dust commentary that is far more soporific than informative. By contrast, Sobel’s “The Planets”, a whirlwind tour of some of the most fascinating features of our very own solar system, waxes lyrical, indeed, almost poetic at times with the compelling beauty of its prose.

Each chapter, written from a unique imaginative perspective, takes what might otherwise be difficult scientific concepts and weaves them into a narrative that will draw in even the most science-phobic reader with an irresistible urgency and fascination. Sci-Fi, for example, the chapter that lucidly tells us the story of Mars, uses the extraordinarily clever device of narration from the point of view of a Martian meteorite, a piece of Martian rock blasted loose from Mars’ surface by an asteroid impact that found its way to earth, landing in an Antarctic icefield over sixteen million years ago.

I don’t think I could improve on Newsweek’s comment … “a guided tour so imaginative that we forget we’re being educated while we’re being entertained.”

“The Planets” is highly recommended and adds to a growing body of work that includes the equally entertaining “Longitude” and “Galileo’s Daughter”.

Paul Weiss

TBR Challenge 2007 - Progress To Date

2007-03-25T15:55:00.000-05:00

Whoopee ... on track and actually one month ahead. Here's where we stand so far this year! Completed titles are in italics!

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)

Twisted (*****)

2007-03-25T15:49:00.000-05:00

In his introduction to “Twisted”, Deaver acknowledges his personal delight with the experience of writing short stories. He suggests that because readers don’t invest the same time or have the same emotional involvement in a short story as they would with a full length novel, the author is free to play an entirely different game – to hit like a sniper’s bullet, to make the story fast and shocking, to make good bad or to make bad badder. But, Deaver says the most fun he had was to make really good really bad.

But - make no mistake - Deaver brings to the short story all the sophisticated skills that have been the foundation of his success as a novelist. He has a gift for dialogue, vivid characterization and suspense and his stories show deep insight into the emotions, the motivations, the fears and the love and happiness of his widely varied cast of characters. Despite its fundamentally gritty nature, his writing shows uncommonly refreshing humour and a capacity to convey deep feeling.

Doubtless everyone will come away from reading “Twisted” with their own personal set of favourites. I was fond of “Lesser-Included Offense”, a crafty tale of shifty, cut-throat legal maneuvers during the capital trial of an accused murderer; “Gone Fishing” in which a daughter begs her loving father not to go fishing in an area which has been the site of a series of brutal killings; and, finally, “Nocturne” which begins with the theft of a priceless Stradivarius violin at gunpoint and ends with a … well, you’re going to have to read it yourself!

The dust jacket reviews liken Deaver’s mastery of the short story twist to O. Henry and Edgar Allen Poe. I was reminded of Jeffrey Archer’s “A Twist in the Tale” and Roald Dahl’s “Tales of the Unexpected”. For some easy going but compelling, rapid-fire, high quality toilet or beach reading that you can pick up and put down without losing the thread, “Twisted” will be your cup of tea!

Definitely recommended.

Paul Weiss

The Time Tunnel (****)

2007-03-25T15:33:00.000-05:00

I would NEVER have found this book were it not for the wonderful recommendations that arise from my fortunate ownership of Yahoo's reading group "Classic Sci-Fi". If you enjoy that old time stuff from the pulp era, you might like to check us out. Here's a link to our home page and here's my review:

From the very birth of the conception of time travel, sci-fi authors and scientists alike have wrestled with the difficulties of time travel paradoxes most commonly expressed in the question of what would happen if you killed your grandfather during your trip to the past. In “Time Tunnel”, Murray Leinster has treated his readers to what was probably the first (and quite possibly the best) instance of the infuriating mental tangles that one can encounter when the immutability of the progression of real time collides with the flexibility of time travel.

Leinster has crafted a positively ingenious combination of characters into a fascinating novel of high adventure that will both delight and fascinate his fans – a scientist who felt compelled to change the past in order to rescue the future from an impending atomic war between China and the US; young lovers who, fearing for their lives in a war-torn modern world, felt compelled to flee to a safer past; a 20th century burglar and con artist who realized the early 19th century was ripe for the plucking; and a playboy who was horrified to watch his grandfather die unmarried and childless.

The story begins in 1964 when Harrison, completing research for his PhD thesis in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, discovers long-buried correspondence showing that, in 1805, a gentleman named de Bassompierre had written to certain scientists handing out modern knowledge long before its acknowledged discovery. In one case, for example,

“He wrote to Laplace, the astronomer, assuring him that Mars had two moons, very small and very close to its surface. He also said that there were three planets beyond Saturn, and that the one next out had a period of eighty-four years and two moons, one retrograde. He suggested that it should be called Uranus. He added that in the year 1808 there would be a nova in Persis, (which there was!) and he signed himself very respectfully, de Bassompierre.”

When Harrison and his friend, Pepe Ybarra, reach the conclusion that de Bassompierre was a time traveler who is attempting to change the future by handing out modern ideas before their time, the high jinks begin in earnest and the time travel conundrums drop into the readers’ laps at a dizzying pace.

And the ending … sigh! What a wonderfully clever simultaneous resolution of both the adventure plot-lines and the time travel paradoxes.

Recommended as a scintillating addition to the library of any reader who savours classic sci-fi from the pulp era.

Paul Weiss

Sicily 2007 with Edward Jones

2007-03-24T15:05:00.000-05:00

Entrance to the Grand Timeo Hotel, Taormina, Sicily

Floating like a jewel in the Mediterranean Sea just off the toe of the Italian boot, Sicily's relaxed atmosphere and attitude are a world apart from the bustling cities on the Italian mainlaind (and, frankly, an apt reward for the hard work and stress needed to win the darn thing in the first place). I was privileged to reach the production levels necessary and this March I found myself en route to Catania airport for a week long stay at the Grand Timeo Hotel in Taormina.

For centuries, visitors have been entranced with Sicily's temperate climate, deep blue skies and lush vegetation. Architecturally, the wondrous sights include massive Romanesque cathedrals, well preserved Greek temples, Roman ampitheaters and magnificent Baroque palaces. Then, of course, there's Mount Etna, Europe's tallest active volcanoes overlooking ribbons of solidified lava that cascade down the side of the mountain.

What a week ... day trips to Mount Etna, the world famous Murgo Winery, the Sanctuary of the Black Madonna in Tindari and the site of a significant portion of the filming of The Godfather in the mountainous village of Savoca.

And what can one say about the accommodations - the true spirit of Sicily is revealed in the Grand Hotel Timeo, an Orient Express property, in Taormina. Built in 1873, the elegant hotel sits adjacent to an ancient Greek theater amid a park filled with olive, citrus and cypress trees.

The entire album of 458 photographs can be viewed either one at a time or in a captivating slide show format courtesy of Webshots. (If you like the website, you can even use their software to dowload photographs for your computer's wallpaper). Check out this link.

Where were those editors? (***)

2007-03-15T06:02:00.000-05:00

A biographical novel re-creating the entire life of an enigmatic, yet colourful, ambitious, conniving and flamboyant character such as Cleopatra embellished and fleshed out with fictional anecdotes and details to bring an enormous cast of characters to life cannot help but be long in the telling. The problem is compounded, of course, when the cast includes a list of players such as Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Octavian and Herod, King of Judea, each of whom is larger than life and worthy of a biography in their own right. Now, any lover of books knows that long need not of necessity be tedious but, frankly, even George's first-rate story telling abilities were simply not consistent enough or compelling enough to render this novel enjoyable for its excessive 1000 page length.

Oh, it had its exciting moments, to be sure – the high speed running sea battle with the Mediterranean pirates off the coast of Sicily; the final epic confrontation with Octavian at Actium; Cleopatra’s heart-rending grief and the conflicting surge of her searing anger and dismay at the moment of Caesar’s assassination; the crystal clear depiction of her character as a strong-willed, self-centered woman who was willing to risk all to further her ambitions and to protect the birthright of her son - but these moments were separated by intervals that were so wide as to render the book a tedious, difficult novel to complete with only sporadic rewards for those who persevered.

On the plus side, George injected her story with plenty of entertaining and informative historical aside raising questions that would certainly serve as fodder for interesting, thought-provoking discussion on a wide variety of topics germane even to this very day. Two examples in particular stood out for me.

This excerpt on the religious beliefs of the Egyptians of the day:

"Together Osiris, Isis, and Horus live as the holy family, a blessed three. The birth-chapel commemorated the miraculous birth of the child. Across the water from Philae, on the neighboring island of Biggeh, part of Osiris lay buried, and every ten days a golden statue of Isis was ferried over in a sacred barque to visit her divine spouse.",

would probably cause a modern Christian to pause, scratch his head and muse at the common appearance of the concept of Trinity.

As Cleopatra waited for news of Antony's exploits in Parthia, she thought:

"The Queen in me yearned for his victory, and prayed for that; the wife feared he would not return alive, and begged Isis only for his life. I was both the Spartan wife, saying, 'Return with your shield or on it,' and the Egyptian wife saying, 'Only return – even without the shield.'"

It occurred to me to wonder what the modern spouse says about their partner who has chosen a career in the military. Are they thinking in terms of honour, valour, career, survival, service to their country??

“The Memoirs of Cleopatra” was a rewarding, informative and interesting novel but an intimidating, time-consuming, slog of a read that took will-power and dedication to complete. Recommended for those that enjoy ancient history, but only just!

Paul Weiss

A satisfying conclusion to an exciting trilogy (****)

2007-03-14T20:53:00.000-05:00

"Ptolemy's Gate", the final novel of The Bartimaeus Trilogy - introduced in "The Amulet of Samarkand" and continued with "The Golem's Eye" - completes the tale of John Mandrake, the magician and now Information Minister in the corrupt government of a downtrodden, dystopian England.

The dominant theme of "The Golem's Eye" - the corrupting influences of power, ambition and greed - left the reader mourning a flawed Mandrake's fall from grace and wondering whether he could find the moral strength and intestinal fortitude to re-assert himself as the fine young man left far behind in "The Amulet of Samarkand". His one-time resistance foe, Kitty Jones, narrowly escaped from her encounter with the Golem three years earlier, has slipped under the radar entirely and is quietly learning the craft of magic herself. Bartimaeus, the witty motor-mouth djinni, is feeling weak, wan, sickly and near death as his essence or spirit has badly deteriorated as a result of his almost non-stop presence in the human's world subservient to his summoner, John Mandrake.

If "The Amulet of Samarkand" was a light-hearted, childlike (and definitely hilarious) romp through Mandrake's early education as a young magician and if "The Golem's Eye" was a richer, more gothic telling of Mandrake's succumbing to the siren calls of power, corruption and wealth as a member of England's ruling government, then "Ptolemy's Gate" is certainly the darkest of the three novels. Mandrake, Kitty and Bartimaeus, each with their own ambitions and motives, are all on a desperate life-or-death hunt for the perpetrators of a coup that threatens to topple the government and throw their world into a dark demon-ruled chaos.

In "Ptolemy's Gate", Stroud has treated us to a much more sophisticated, adult examination of motives such as cruelty and selfishness along with their mirror images, kindness and altruistic selflessness. The ending feels good, warm, cozy and satisfying in a way that is not entirely unexpected for a young adult novel but Stroud has also added the much more adult elements of sadness, death and loss.

Despite this darker approach to the story than its predecessor, readers need not worry that Stroud has lost his flair for comedy. Footnotes, while not quite as plentiful as in the first two novels, are still a veritable fountain of wit. They also introduce the character of Ptolemy and take us 5000 years into the past to build the character of Bartimaeus and provide the readers with an understanding of what it means to be a djinni painfully subservient to the beck and call of a summoning magician.

A highly recommended addition to the bookshelves of fantasy lovers and young adult readers.

Paul Weiss

Suspend your disbelief ... sit back and enjoy! (***)

2007-03-13T20:51:00.000-05:00

“Chill of Fear”, the second installment in Hooper’s new series of mysteries with a paranormal twist, details the continuing adventures of Noah Bishop’s FBI Special Crimes Unit (SCU) – a unique hand-selected team of mediums, seers, clairvoyants, telepaths, empaths and others with an abnormally high ability in the psychic arts willing to devote their abilities to police work.

Quentin Hayes is a member of the team. His abilities received a kick start at age 12 with the abduction and murder of his young friend, Missy, as they both vacationed with their parents at a mountain lodge in Tennessee. Haunted by the experience and driven by a persistent unreasonable feeling of guilt that he ought to have done something as a 12 year old youngster to prevent the murder, he has returned to the lodge every few years during his tenure with the SCU to have another crack at solving the now 25 year old case.

His latest stay at “The Lodge” crosses paths with Diana Brisco, a soft-spoken, introverted lady with an apparent life long history of mental illness, who is attending a therapeutic art class. Hayes quickly realizes that Brisco’s periodic episodes – misdiagnosed and misunderstood throughout her life by her family and doctors – have actually been manifestations of psychic ability. When Brisco weans herself from a chronic blurry haze of sedatives and drugs, her abilities flourish and she blossoms into a medium of astonishing strength and ability. Hayes’ long foiled search for Missy’s elusive killer finds new legs as Brisco provides clues and guidance through her ability to communicate with the victims as they await final peace in “the gray time”.

It seems likely that Hooper’s “Fear” novels will only be enjoyed by either those with a solid belief in the paranormal or those willing to suspend their disbelief and simply sit back and enjoy the ride. Members of either of these two groups will be rewarded with a lightweight but enjoyable novel that is a compelling combination of mystery, police procedural and paranormal horror thriller. The identity of the real killer will come as a pleasant surprise in a climax and dénouement that is well disguised with a suitable collection of red herrings and false trails. The relationship between Hayes and Brisco is nicely developed and the care that Hayes takes in nurturing Brisco’s newly found psychic abilities is warmly tinged with just the merest soupçon of romance.

With a significantly heavier focus on the paranormal than its predecessor, “Chill of Fear” threatened at times to lapse into melodrama but, I think, on balance managed to avoid that failing. A somewhat weaker novel than “Hunting for Fear”, Hooper’s second in the series can still be recommended as a pleasurable way to while away a few of the wee hours reading by candlelight in a cozy, dark corner of your favourite reading room.

Paul Weiss

The Iceman Cometh!

2007-03-04T13:35:00.000-05:00

For reasons that escape me completely, my very erudite and most literate good reading buddy, Jenny from Canberra, has saddled me inescapably with the moniker "Iceman". As I couldn't imagine where that might have come from (other than her joking about my Canadian heritage), I decided that I had better live up to the pre-established reputation that came with such a nickname.

So here it comes ... a few shots from my camping vacation in our local "hot spot", Algonquin Park - a wilderness setting of no small international renown that is a textbook example of Canadian boreal forest.

For those of you not familiar with this particular type of winter camping accommodation, it's called a "quinsee". The basic process involves tossing the snow into a pile about the size you see (when it is hollowed out it will provide a very spacious sleeping area for one person ... two or more people would require a pile of snow considerably larger). After the snow is piled up like that, it should be allowed to set or "sinter" for at least 3 to 4 hours. Typically, to make sure that it is completely set, I sleep in my tent for the first night and only complete the construction of the quinsee the following morning.

As you can see, the hollowed out interior is warm, cozy and intensely sheltered from the elements outside. As difficult as this may be to believe, the exterior weather could be a howling blizzard with raging winds at -40 degrees and inside the quinsee, I'll be snug as a bug in a rug, oblivious to the cold at a comfortable -2 or -3 degrees with a profound quiet stillness that completely belies the external conditions.

Of course, every once in a while, one MUST commune more closely with the weather ... otherwise, one could not lay claim to one's nickname properly! Right?

A humbling, innovative sci-fi thriller (*****)

2007-02-28T15:57:00.000-05:00

The naysayers will do their best to rip Lincoln Child's heart out for his rather erratic treatment of the hard science in his newest sci-fi thriller, "Deep Storm". And, it certainly has its weak or inaccurate moments! But the more important truth is that "Deep Storm" is a solidly gripping, wildly entertaining, credible science fiction thriller based on a truly imaginative and utterly horrifying premise.

Peter Crane, a naval physician, is summoned to a top secret naval operation housed on Storm King, a former commercial deep sea offshore oil platform located off the shore of Greenland. Crane's short term mission - to treat and discover the causes of what appears to be an escalating epidemic of illnesses among the staff - is exceptionally difficult. The myriad symptoms he encounters range from sweats, fever and loss of attention or focus to murderous florid psychotic episodes and refuse to lend themselves to diagnosis and understanding through any common vector.

From the moment of Crane's arrival on the rig, Admiral Spartan, the military commander of the operation and Howard Asher, the senior scientist on board, steadfastly refuse Crane access to certain highly classified areas or their staff. Unable to understand the reasons why Storm King's apparent mission - the excavation of Atlantis, buried for 10,000 years under a volcanic event in the North Atlantic - would be shrouded in such secrecy, he continues to probe into the areas on the rig that have been closed off to him. Ultimately (well, what else did you expect?), the truth is discovered and - trust me on this one - it is not only a truly innovative and speculative sci-fi premise but it is monumentally humbling at the same time!

Just as he did with his writing partner, Douglas Preston, in their jointly written novels, Lincoln has peppered "Deep Storm" throughout with interesting scholarly asides on a variety of topics that inform and entertain without detracting from or slowing down the plot - epidemiology and diagnostic research techniques; the perils of living in an extended submerged and confined environment; "impossible" mathematics; forensic data recovery from catastrophically destroyed hard drives; the physical structure of the earth's mantle; the conflict between science and its potential weaponization by a right-wing military; and more.

"Deep Storm" is truly a winner - non-stop hair-raising action, interesting and informative asides, wonderful character development, respectable dialogue, exactly the right amount of romance without being sappy, a goodly number of twists and turns and red-herrings and a cliff-hanger thought provoking ending that will just blow your mind! The science itself is the only weak link (just one glaring example - since electromagnetic energy propagates at the speed of light, it is impossible to detect it on its way. If you can detect the field ... too late, it's already there!) If Child takes the time to submit his next effort to a more thorough scientific edit, he'll be unbeatable! But, in the meantime, a high-speed page turning frenzy ain't too bad anyway!

Enjoy.

Paul Weiss

Thought-provoking and deeply moving (****)

2007-02-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

One hundred and fifty years after the wars that destroyed an over-populated earth, mankind is now living on over one hundred colony worlds and a handful of giant roaming ships that once ferried men to the stars. Mia Havero is a young girl living on one of those ships whose residents are abundantly aware of the perils of the "lack of moral discipline" of "Free-Birthers" who embrace complete freedom of reproduction, an uncontrolled birth rate and the resulting exponential growth in population. They've adopted the harsh but entirely effective social policy of subjecting their young people to the "Trial". Every young person is dropped and summarily abandoned into a thirty day survive-or-die test in the harsh and cruel environment of a frequently hostile colony planet. Those who survive return to the fold of the ship and are called "adults". Those who don't - well, they just don't!

"Rite of Passage" is written from Mia's first person perspective as she grows through childhood, enters training for her time of Trial and is dropped onto the planet Tintera with her childhood friend, Jimmy Dentremont. At only 225 pages, "Rite of Passage" is a very short novel and for over 200 of those pages seems to be a rather typical coming of age story. It's reasonably well written with any number of heart-warming passages and some seriously thought-provoking essays and interludes on philosophy, education and ethics. In fact, the story concentrates so exclusively on Mia's education, evolution and the development of her character as she comes of age from self-centred girl child to mature young adult that any reader would be forgiven for forgetting that "Rite of Passage" won a Nebula Award as a science fiction novel!!

It's Panshin's epilogue that pulls "Rite of Passage" from mere novel into the realm of "classic", an eye-opening, jaw-dropping dissertation on the results of the irresponsible or reckless exercise of power. In a manner that will remind you of the subtle, quiet, yet compelling style of Simak's best novels, Panshin touches on issues of killing, prejudice, hatred, power and responsibility. When Panshin seamlessly returns our thoughts to the context of a science fiction novel by discussing the destruction of an entire planet, he brutally reminds us that these issues are timeless and are likely to remain with humanity forever unless we make a conscious decision to grow beyond cruelty.

"Rite of Passage" is a deeply moving novel likely to remain in your thoughts long after the final page is turned!

Paul Weiss

Outdoes "The Da Vinci Code" hands down (*****)

2007-02-28T15:48:00.000-05:00

Harvard symbologist and religious historian, Robert Langdon, is intrigued and somewhat puzzled to find himself peremptorily summoned to CERN, the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, world's foremost research establishment in ultra high energy particle physics, to assist with a secret internal investigation of the murder of one of their staff. Leonardo Vetra - a brilliant senior physicist, a still-practicing Roman Catholic priest, and the discoverer of a method of creating and safely containing anti-matter - has been found brutally murdered with the word "Illuminati" branded on his chest.

The near light-speed, explosive pace at which Brown would have us believe the plot of "Angels and Demons" could unroll requires what, for some, will be an insurmountable suspension of credibility. But, if you can find your way over that niggling barrier, you're in for some non-stop, rollicking entertainment.

Langdon and Vittoria Vetra, the victim's beautiful daughter and similarly gifted physicist, follow the clues into the heart of the Vatican, host of an enclave of the world's cardinals convened to elect the replacement of the recently deceased pope where they must confront the current incarnation of The Illuminati, a centuries old secret brotherhood of scientists dating from the time of Galileo and the Italian Renaissance. The Illuminati carries out a high profile symbolic execution of the preferiti, the four cardinals most expected to win the papal election, and plans to use a small sample of Vetra's anti-matter to reduce Vatican City to a pile of rubble as a final close to the interminable battle between cutting edge science and Roman Catholic dogma.

Reading "Angels and Demons", I find it impossible to criticize Brown's character building skills as an author because, frankly, he didn't even try. "Angels and Demons" is plot, plot and yet more plot! But my money says it succeeds wildly and is a novel that is not only spectacularly entertaining but should avoid the visceral polarization of its readership that "The Da Vinci Code" managed to produce. I might go even further. Despite reading from the point of view of a non-practicing and disenchanted Roman Catholic, educated and believing profoundly in the value of scientific research and technology, I would nevertheless suggest that "Angels and Demons" presents a credible, balanced FICTIONAL story of a climactic confrontation between these two long-time arch-enemies. Ah, heck ... if anything, the scientists come out on the cruddy end of the stick and look more the bad guy than the church! That's OK - that provides a rather nice foil to the outlook one gets from a reading of "The Da Vinci Code"!

Enjoy!

Five stars and unconditionally recommended as a first-rate thriller!

Paul Weiss

Chalk up another winner for Patterson (****)

2007-02-28T15:43:00.000-05:00

In "4th of July", the fourth installment of Patterson's Women's Murder Club, SFPD homicide detective Lindsay Boxer finds herself on trial for her professional life. A pull-over after a wild car chase goes entirely sour and results in Lindsay killing a female minor and seriously wounding a male minor condemning him to life as a wheelchair-confined machine-assisted quadriplegic. Boxer finds herself staring down the barrel of a lawsuit for "wrongful death, excessive use of force, and professional misconduct" filed by the parents with a potential price tag of $100 million in damages.

While Boxer's attorney, Yuki Castellano, the newest initiate to the Women's Murder Club, is outwardly poised and confident that she can clear her client, the trial's outcome is far from certain and Patterson has treated us to some truly electric courtroom drama!

Plot number two - on administrative leave to deal with the trial, Boxer has sought seclusion in the quaint town of Half Moon Bay. But the peaceful quiet of her chosen cloister is shattered as the town's residents are menaced by a series of brutal murders. Boxer twigs to an uncanny resemblance to an unsolved John Doe murder from very early in the rookie stages of her career and she reaches the decision to involve herself in the investigation. From that point, Patterson takes Boxer, the local police force, Half Moon Bay's local population and his unsuspecting readers careening down a taut, tension-filled road that's chock-a-block full of twists and turns and slams us all into a climax that nobody but nobody will see coming.

While the two plots are very loosely connected only through the literary device of Boxer's administrative leave, they are cleverly juxtaposed and the two stories become nicely crafted into a seamless whole. Story #2 is a typically well-done thriller that easily succeeds in fulfilling any expectations Patterson fans will have as a result of his long list of past best-sellers but I think Story #1 is the more interesting of the two.

Not your typical thriller brain candy, Patterson raises some serious hot-button issues related to minors and violent crime that won't leave a single reader sitting on the sidelines. As I read, there was more than one occasion on which my own opinions on the issues surfaced and I found myself getting quite warm under the collar. Well done, Patterson!

While I look forward to the next two Women's Murder Club novels, "The 5th Horseman" and "The 6th Target", it is my critical hope that Patterson will return to the original style of "1st to Die" and let the entire club figure more prominently in the novels and the solution to their plots. "4th of July" was clearly a Lindsay Boxer novel with the other members of her "club" being granted no more than token cameo walk-ons. Think of Baldacci's writing a "Camel Club" novel in which Oliver Stone battles the bad guys all by himself and ignores Caleb, Milton and Reuben! Well, it just isn't the same thing, is it? That said, "4th of July" worked well and comes recommended from this reader. Enjoy!

Paul Weiss

Grandma Mazur almost steals the show (****)

2007-02-28T15:39:00.000-05:00

Stephanie Plum is slowly learning the bounty hunter trade but she's got a long road to haul before she'll be ready to tackle the really mean dudes.

In the meantime, "Two for the Dough" opens with Stephanie looking to collar Kenny Mancuso, a bail jumper who's almost a family member, black sheep cousin to her erstwhile policeman boyfriend, Joe Morelli. When Mancuso's trail leads to Spiro Stiva's funeral parlour, Stephanie is surprised to learn that Stiva wants to hire her for his own case - finding 24 bargain basement caskets that have gone missing from a rental garage lock-up! When Stephanie discovers notes from Mancuso threatening her unless she starts to mind her own business and Stiva also wants to hire her as a $100 a day bodyguard to protect him from Mancuso as well, she knows the case runs much deeper than she first imagined.

For those that have read Stephanie Plum's debut in "One for the Money", it will come as no surprise to learn that the mystery is pretty thin gruel and the ultimate solution is easily plumbed (ouch!) by any attentive reader. The mystery, of course, is only the context in which Evanovich loving portrays the comedic antics of Stephanie Plum and Grandma Mazur, the frankly hilarious ethnic stereotypes of New York Italian family relationships, the off-the-wall one liners of Stephanie's long-suffering father, and the stumbling but burgeoning romantic relationship between Plum and Morelli.

Enjoyable lightweight reading easily dashed off in an afternoon on the beach! The thing that will probably slow you down is re-reading passages aloud to the people around you so you can explain what was making you laugh!

Paul Weiss

Some pretty "heavy" ideas here! (****)

2007-02-28T15:33:00.000-05:00

In "Mission of Gravity", Hal Clement created Mesklin, a very odd planet indeed - so massive, so oblate and spinning so rapidly that its gravity varies from 3g at its equator to 700g at its poles! Its day is little more than 20 of our minutes long and its temperature is so low that it has liquid methane oceans. Its high eccentricity orbit causes seasons of grotesquely uneven length. Charles Lackland and his team of human space faring scientists can manage at the equator with mechanically assisted survival suits but existence under 700g at the poles is simply beyond human engineering capabilities. Recovery of a rocket with all of its instrumentation landed at one of the poles is a problem that seems insurmountable until our intrepid explorers stumble into a serendipitous encounter with Barlennan, a rather audacious native traveling merchant. Barlennan's species, best described as 15 inch caterpillars with outrageously strong pincers, has evolved under the extreme conditions at Mesklin's pole. Being on an exploratory mission themselves in Mesklin's equatorial region, they admit to feeling somewhat giddy and "light"-headed under what they describe as virtually non-existent gravity in comparison to what they are used to on their home turf!

Clement has created a delightfully simple plot that revolves around the hard science of his hypothetical planet. Lackland enlists Barlennan's aid in recovering the stranded hardware in exchange for information such as maps and weather forecasts. Along the route to the pole, Clement proposes physical problems and raises questions - What might the weather of such a planet be? How does a reconnaissance satellite achieve a low altitude geosynchronous orbit of a planet that is spinning at such an enormous speed? How might its natives appear having evolved under such dramatically different conditions? How might their psychological outlook on this world be different as a result of those physical conditions? How might engineering problems, simple on earth, be made astonishingly difficult on Mesklin and what modified approaches would be used in their solution? What surprising effects are caused by the universality of physical rules that apply regardless of the local gravity?

It should come as no surprise to a reader to learn that Clement was also a skilled high school science teacher. The development of the science in his story is lean, lucid and clear to a fault. Clement lets the plot and his characters naturally encounter the problems, puzzle through their difficulties and propose and create clear logical solutions which seem to clarify the science. Clement never bores the reader with dull narrative explanations, never over-explains and shows rather than tells.

Sadly, at less than 200 pages, "Mission of Gravity" suffers by its very brevity. Mesklin is such a vast, unique and dramatic concept that Clement barely scratched its surface. I found myself wanting much, much more science and a greater depth in the development of potential avenues to explore. The soft science was effectively ignored. For example, Barlennan's attitudes and reactions were anthropomorphized to the extent of being cartoonish (C'mon, Hal ... let your aliens be alien!). Barlennan's mastery of English came conveniently easily but communication with other races on the planet was abandoned as an unsolved problem.

"Mission of Gravity", while not a frenetic page-turner, is an enjoyable story that ends on a mild plot twist and a universally warm, optimistic note. It has earned the moniker "classic" and I certainly look forward to the sequel "Starlight". Perhaps the broadened scientific horizons that I hope for will appear there!

Paul Weiss

Great science, scary scenario, weak thriller ! (***)

2007-02-04T15:08:00.000-05:00

Daniel Kalla's "Pandemic" is an entertaining, informative and frightening thriller that undoubtedly ought to be taken seriously as an uncomfortably plausible scenario in real-life. But, as a fictional thriller, frankly, it simply isn't innovative enough to make the cut as a first-rate thriller. Good quality, yes, but not with that dynamite rock-em, sock-em, non-stop page-flipping urgency that separates the men from the boys in the thriller section of the library!

The villain of the piece is the ARCS virus (Acute Respiratory Collapse Syndrome), a disease with the lethal virulence of small pox or Spanish Flu but a contagion that spreads with the speed and ease of the common cold! The one (and I would suggest only) truly innovative twist in the novel is in the opening chapter. Kalla posits an ultra-right wing fundamentalist group of Islamic terrorists that purposely infect themselves, in effect weaponizing the virus and using themselves as carriers! Biological suicide bombers, as it were! The notion of using a dastardly right-wing fundamentalist Islamic jihad confronting a right-wing militarist US government whose simplest solution might be to carpet bomb the Middle East and turn the burning sands into a glassy parking lot is getting to be a decidedly tired plot device.

But - make no mistake - Kalla is a skilled writer who has a marked ability to convey the science behind his plot in an informative, interesting fashion. And the logistical details of the World Health Organization and Atlanta's Centre for Disease Control's rapid and overwhelming response to the release of such a viral pathogen are quite breath-taking and humbling. Hats off to these organizations and kudos to Kalla's ability to tell us their story.

Four stars for the science and the real-world details of the response to a frightening pandemic scenario. Two stars for the thriller. We'll average it out at three stars and call it a story worth taking the time to read!

JOHN COREY ... what a piece of work (***)!

2007-02-04T15:04:00.000-05:00

Take Michael Connelly's Detective Harry Bosch, a hard-boiled, talented, nearly burnt-out loner with lots of psychological baggage and absolutely no respect for superiors or procedure. Add the self-deprecating faux stumble-bum approach of Peter Falk's Columbo and toss in a heaping helping of smart-aleck motor mouth Rodney Dangerfield complete inability to control the flow of virulent sarcasm and wisecracks! Sounds a little much, doesn't it? But he's our hero for Nelson DeMille's "Plum Island".

John Corey, NYPD homicide detective, is on medical leave recovering from bullet wounds when his friend, chief of the Southold Police Department, enlists his aid looking into the double homicide of Tom and Judy Gordon, also friends of Corey, and employees of Plum Island, the nearby high-level bio-containment facility studying deadly animal diseases such as anthrax and simian Ebola. First terrifying appearances were that some sort of biological terrorist threat had gone sour but the old rule of "follow the money" lead to a somewhat more tolerable line of investigation. It seemed the Gordons had stolen a vaccine with the motive of peddling it to the pharmaceutical world for billions. But Corey's in-your-face persistence was uncovering clues and details that just didn't seem to mesh with that story. Simple drug-running was a possibility but even that didn't quite click. Eventually, Corey uncovers an amazingly entertaining story of greed, money, murder, mayhem and political skullduggery spanning three hundred years of history and ranging geographically from New York, to the Caribbean, to England and back again.

In a style that reminded me of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's incurable penchant for technical sidebars, DeMille has tossed off a bewildering variety of essays that entertained, informed and, at the same time, moved the story forward. The staged lecture tour of Plum Island's hazardous facility, hosted first by Security Chief Paul Stevens and followed by the facility's director Dr Zollner was worth the reading of the book all by itself. But you'll also be treated to snippets of detail on coastal marine navigation, a cornucopia of procedural information on the necessary foundation police work to solving a homicide and (are you ready for this?) a rather extensive history of Captain Kidd and his 17th century privateering exploits that ultimately ended in his execution in England!

Lots of promise to be sure and there's certainly no doubt about DeMille's skill as a writer! But, just as a little bit of someone like John Corey would go a long, long way in real life, his constant cracking wise left me cold on the printed page as well! If DeMille had seen his way to lopping 100 pages off the final draft, it would have been just right and I would have ended the story not only entertained by the police procedural but laughing at Corey's antics in the bargain. Just three stars but recommended as a quick and entertaining piece of brain candy anyway! Enjoy!

TBR Challenge - 2 down, 10 to go (****)!

2007-01-27T09:39:00.000-05:00

Jeffrey Barlough's "Strange Cargo" was the first domino to drop. The challenge of making a list and attacking it had got under my skin so I decided to dive right into a second title on my challenge. Of course, it didn't hurt at all that Harry Harrison's "West of Eden" had been selected as the group read of the month for January. Bonus! Here's my 4-star review:

With “West of Eden”, Harry Harrison’s abundantly fertile imagination has posited a unique and intensely challenging alternate history. What if dinosaurs had avoided extinction and evolved into a sentient, intelligent, technology-savvy species vying for supremacy on an ice age earth with a less advanced homo sapiens still struggling at the hunter-gatherer stage of evolution?

As global weather patterns deteriorate and the ice age earth begins to chill precipitately, the human Tanu species find themselves pushed into contact with the reptilian Yilanè species. What starts as a lack of understanding and inability to communicate with one another escalates into armed territorial conflict and ultimately festers into intense hatred and an all-out war that can only culminate in complete extermination of one or the other species. Kerrick, a young boy and the sole survivor of a human group of hunters slaughtered by a Yilanè scouting party, is imprisoned by his enemy and grows to manhood among them. Learning their language and culture, he adapts to survive and his links to humankind fade to a distant and all but irretrievable memory. Ultimately, events force those memories to the surface and Kerrick escapes. He struggles to re-learn his true place in the world and becomes the only warrior with the knowledge and skills capable of leading the Tanu to ultimate victory over the rapacious Yilanè.

Harrison’s creations in “West of Eden” are, to say the least thought provoking. The fascinating science of the story, both hard and soft, has clearly been thought through most carefully – genetic engineering and the use of bio-technology at a time when those fields of scientific endeavour were all but embryonic in real-life; the creation of a language and syntax that is obviously (and correctly so) tied closely to Yilanè culture, custom and physiology; the plausible anthropological development of a society that is based on a matriarchal lineage with a class structure that in some respects bears a resemblance to ants or bees.

Our status as readers will be primarily human (at least I expect so)! Inevitably, most of us human readers will slot the Yilanè into the bad-guy role of the novel and our natural prejudices will find us cheering the Tanu on to victory. This almost unavoidable characterization (good guy/bad guy, Tanu/Yilanè) will probably lead many critical readers to the conclusion that Harrison was also using “West of Eden” as a platform to express his personal objections to the US participation in the Vietnam War – a belligerent, spiteful, technologically superior nation (the Yilanè US) attempting to overpower the Vietcong Tanu, a more agrarian society seeking only to maintain their more earthy way of life. The analogy comes complete with a metaphor for the US draft dodgers and conscientious objectors – see if you don’t agree as you read about “The Daughters of Death”!

A fascinating combination of conflict and high adventure, convincing science and alternate history make “West of Eden” a novel well worth the reading for any fan of quality science fiction.

Paul Weiss

A thrilling finale to a superb trilogy (*****)!

2007-01-27T09:35:00.000-05:00

“The Book of the Dead” is everything a thriller fan could hope for – a page-turning, unputdownable, thrilling, decadently readable, thoroughly entertaining, slam bang finale to a colourful, imaginative trilogy!

The basic plot premise is simplicity itself! FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast’s younger brother Diogenes has announced his plan to execute a mysteriously undefined perfect crime. As a result of intense psychological examination, Pendergast has determined that this crime is to be Diogenes’ revenge for a childhood sin perpetrated against his younger brother, the nature of which has been completely suppressed in Pendergast’s unconscious memories! The dastardly crime must be prevented at all costs despite Pendergast not knowing even the tiniest detail of Diogenes’ actual intentions! The story gallops at breakneck speed from crisis to crisis as the life or death clash between Pendergast and his psychopathic megalomaniacal brother escalates to a thrilling climax but we are privileged to watch it being played out with masterful attention to character building, dialogue, detail, pacing and clever ratcheting or release of tension!

As we have come to expect from their previous work, Preston and Child have once again packed their tale with a dazzling myriad of mini-plots that have afforded them a number of stages from which they could also deliver a series of wildly entertaining and informative lectures – the politics and history of Egyptian archeology; the religious beliefs and burial practices of the ancient Egyptians; the nature of security in a modern maximum security prison built for incorrigible offenders; the logistical details of mounting a world class exhibit in a modern museum; the potential for neurological damage caused by intense light and high volume sound bombardment; the trivia of diamond classification, colour, cut and value; and, arcane details of forensic evidence examination such as the study of knots or cloth; to name only a few examples.

Readers who have observed Pendergast’s growing resemblance to Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in the novels which preceded “The Book of the Dead” will shiver with a frisson of delight at the tumultuous Reichenbach Falls style climax which takes place on the very flanks of Mount Stromboli in Sicily. When Pendergast announced his intentions to retire to a period of solitude and contemplation at a Tibetan monastery, I quietly sent up a short prayer to the writing gods with the fervent hope that Lincoln and Child bring Pendergast back for a 21st century version of “The Final Problem”! Quiet retirement or beekeeping would not suit Pendergast any better than it did Holmes.

And, by the way, be very, very sure that you read this novel right to the very last sentence … and what a last sentence it is!

Oh yeah … did I say that I enjoyed the novel?

Paul Weiss

Scientific brain candy, lovingly prepared!

2007-01-27T09:30:00.000-05:00

This time it’s not the Appalachians or England.

In “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, Bill Bryson has taken his readers on an exciting, informative and always entertaining tour of both the history of science and the details of the science itself. Essays covering an eclectic diversity of scientific topics ranging from the Big Bang and quantum physics, to paleontology, geology, biology, pandemics, genetics, evolution, glaciation, plate tectonics, weather patterns, volcanism and beyond are pitched at the perfect level to be accessible to the layman without being patronizing to a reader who happens to be more informed about a particular topic. Even the most esoterically learned science-ready polymath will find at least one or two of the topics set at a level high enough to be challenging as well.

Beautiful illustrations peppered throughout the text, a dash of humour and cynicism plus a wonderful series of amusing anecdotes and side bars make “A Short History of Nearly Everything” a delicious confection of eye candy and brain candy. The multiplicity and diversity of the ideas covered means that “A Short History of Nearly Everything” can be read in bite-sized chunks with the interested reader taking a random walk through the book starting at virtually any paragraph on any page. But the intelligent organization of the topics and the chronology that Bryson follows also guarantees a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience for those that want to travel from first page to last in order!

Science-phobes take note! If you’ve been looking for a way to set your fears aside, “A Short History of Nearly Everything” just might be the ticket you’ve been looking for. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

STRANGE CARGO (*** A Victorian Ice Age?)

2007-01-14T14:22:00.000-05:00

I made these comments in a review of Barlough's earlier novel The House in the High Wood but, frankly, they bear repeating for Strange Cargo, his third novel. Barlow's very special blend of writing styles is probably unique in today's literature and gives us a novel that defies classification. One can say, I suppose, that it represents a delicious blend of Lovecraft, Collins or Poe's version of tension and horror, Brooks' ideas of a modern, dark, urban fantasy and the very best of Dickensian characterization, complex and intricately described environments with superbly comic dialogue and story-telling. But to say that is to suggest somehow that Barlough's efforts are derivative and that is selling him far too short. Barlough's style is quite clearly his own and he has mastered it completely.

Nantle, a small seacoast town and sailor's haunt in Barlough's special universe in which the Ice Age has never ended and a small Victorian population live side by side with saber tooth tigers, woolly mammoths and mastodons, plays host to two simultaneous story lines.

In the first, Miss Jane Wastefield arrives seeking Gilbert Thistlewood with whom she has corresponded. Wastefield, at her wit's end, needs his promised help in ridding herself of a malevolent mirror, a gift she received on her twenty-first birthday, which she keeps locked inside a traveling trunk. The mirror, reflecting eerie visions of a long dead society reminiscent of a fantastic Greece in which monsters and evil demi-gods hold sway, threatens Miss Wastefield's very sanity and, despite her best efforts, refuses to be parted from its owner.

In the second, the Cargo family and their solicitor, Mr Arthur Liffey, seek out Jerry Squailes, the mysteriously elusive beneficiary of a significant piece of their grandfather's estate. This particular sub-plot is more recognizable as the product of the combined influences of Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins. We are witness to a superbly crafted detective story involving skullduggery, fraudulent wills and, ultimately, even the appearance of a wonderfully traditional Victorian ghost.

Unfortunately, the two plot lines, while they bump into one another and occasionally interact, never conjoin and become inter-dependent. I finished the novel with the distinct feeling that Barlough had two independent ideas sufficient unto themselves for a novella length story and felt compelled to shoehorn them together in order to produce something with sufficient length to be classed as a novel. This left me with a mystifying and disturbing sense of non-completion even though both stories wound down with nothing that even the most particular reader could classify as a loose end. It somehow just didn't seem quite right!

That said, Barlough's style and his mastery of dialogue, characterization and scene setting is more than enough to justify reading his work and I'll look eagerly for that next novel in this very special world.

Paul Weiss

AM I THE ONLY ONE?

2007-01-12T20:30:00.000-05:00

The ideals of Olympic competition , "citius, altius, fortius", the sweat, the teamwork, the glories of the medal podium, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, the camaraderie of teamwork and the chill of a stadium full of delirious fans! It's all pretty heady stuff, to be sure ... and I've always been a fan of a good game of virtually any sport well-contested.

But I can't be the only jaded ex-sports fan who has the lost the zest for sitting in the stands savoring these bygone thrills because I now believe the system is seriously confused and has lost its way!

This morning I woke to hear the news report of a 5 year contract for $250 million US dollars ... for a soccer player! Puhleeze, I don't care how skilled the man is. I don't care about his celebrity and I frankly don't give a jot for what anyone expects he might bring to the US game of soccer.

Now, I don't begrudge the man his living and I'm the first to acknowledge that his skills probably represent the pinnacle of world achievement in the sport of kicking a ball around a soccer pitch. But surely even the most drooling, rabid fan can stop a moment and come to the realization that no footballer - indeed, no sportsman at any skill level in any sport - can possibly justify that sort of compensation.

And do you know what it would take to have the team owners and the players snap to attention and return to reality instantly - one game played to a completely empty stadium and a nation of television sets left turned off. If the fans chose to convey that message even just once, it would be unmistakable and I've no doubt it would be heard and acted upon!

And what if the players and owners were still thick-headed enough to misunderstand the message? The advertisers would be walking and ultimately money will still do the talking. The whole house of cards comes tumbling down and sportsmen will perhaps return to playing the game with fundamental values that, for now at least, are hibernating!

EMPTY FAT CELLS AND EXCESS SKIN!

2007-01-11T20:20:00.000-05:00

Help me out, ladies! Please ...

Have any of you new mothers found a natural moisturizing product that works to restore elasticity to the skin that was ultra-stretched as a result of your pregnancy? I admit that I'm thrilled at the weight loss I've achieved but I'd like to really cap it off by rejuvenating the tone in the skin that was rather badly stretched over that formerly overweight beer-belly! I'm working on the six pack but nobody's ever going to see it if I can't achieve a little more tone in the skin that's covering it!

DANCE OF DEATH - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (****)

2007-01-07T15:32:00.000-05:00

Blindly leaping off the edge of the cliffhanger which Preston and Child left us poised upon at the end of "Brimstone", "Dance of Death" quickly moves the rivalry and hatred between FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast and his demented brother Diogenes to centre stage. Pendergast has come to the realization that Diogenes' plan is to utterly destroy his life by killing anyone near and dear to him - colleagues, mentors, friends, his fragile ward, Constance Green and, God forbid, Viola Maskelene, the lady who appears to have stolen Pendergast's heart!

Like any good thriller, the novel entertains us in passing with some red herring sub-plots - the Dangler affair, a sad-sack perv who exposes himself to the security cameras at bank ATMs; and the rather more topical and interesting Sacred Images exhibition at the New York Museum of Natural History that highlights the ongoing conflict between modern man and aboriginal cultures and religions. But centre stage is reserved for Diogenes' evil machinations and Pendergast's efforts to thwart his plans!

With every page turned, Preston and Child's uncanny characters will move further and further into the realm of reality in the minds of a reader. In an almost eerie re-incarnation of Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, invested by fans to this very day with a life well beyond Doyle's writings, Pendergast too becomes warm-hearted and human as his affection for Lieutenant D'Agosta, his very own Watson, rises to the surface. That Pendergast (like Holmes) is devastated and grief-stricken over his own failures is obvious as he drives himself to extreme personal sacrifice to protect Lady Maskelene, his own Irene Adler. One can almost imagine Pendergast, in a refined Southern drawl, referring to her as "that woman"!

Preston and Child's almost trademarked diverting sidebars into science and beyond - details of the forensic investigation into the minutiae of murder scene clues; the disturbing ethical conflicts faced by modern anthropologists and museums; the trivia of diamond classification, colours, cuts and values; the technology of modern building security; and legal requirements for the involuntary commitment of the mentally ill, for example - are not neglected ... and I, for one, enjoy these well placed sidelines of fascinating detail. But, as the three-part story picks up pace, plot and character development, driven by sparkling dialogue, grab the lion's share of the novel's pages!

The break between "Dance of Death" and "The Book of the Dead" is natural enough but - make no mistake - it is little more than a pause in the action. I turned the final page on one, took a sip from my martini and immediately cracked the cover on the next to continue the story. I'm sure you will too!

Paul Weiss

(It's an uphill battle to overtake Harriet Klausner at Amazon but maybe, just maybe, with your votes and support it might be possible ... the review is located at http://tinyurl.com/yzhq4z )

THE CHRYSALIDS - John Wyndham (*****)

2007-01-07T15:14:00.000-05:00

At a time in some unspecified distant future after a nuclear war has left much of the world a barren, poisonous wasteland, David Strorm, Sophie Wender and Rosalind Morton live in Waknuk, a small agriculturally focused community in central Labrador. With modern technology yet to be re-invented, the strict religious fundamental beliefs of this still primitive community label the apocalypse as "Tribulation", a punishment visited by God upon the "old people" for their sins. Genetic variations and mutations, now commonplace (no doubt as a result of higher worldwide radiation levels), are seen as evil. "Deviant" crops and animals are burnt. Humans with even the most minor mutations from their highest religious ideal, a physical norm which the community calls God's "True Image", are labeled as blasphemies and are killed outright or banished to eke out their future existence in a wildly savage outlying area called "The Fringes".

When the community discovers that David and Rosalind together with a small group of other young people have developed the ability to communicate telepathically, they are forced to flee for their lives. They are re-united with their friend Sophie, earlier banished to the Fringes for the disgusting aberration of having six toes instead of the normal five. David's younger sister, Petra, able to communicate her thoughts with a power and at a distance far beyond any of the other children discovers the presence of others like them in a distant community who mount a campaign to rescue the children from their persecutors.

In "The Chrysalids", John Wyndham has mounted a vicious attack on religious fundamentalism, bigotry, intolerance and narrow-mindedness. Analytical readers will be mindful of the irony in the closing chapters as it is clear that the more advanced community is as repressive and intolerant as the community from which the children fled. Wyndham leaves us with the unresolved open question as to whether Man's evolution into a new species will perforce require the extinction of the remaining members of the previous species.

Wyndham's characters, his easy-going unforced and completely natural dialogue, his heartwarming portrayal of children at play, a mother's grief-stricken tragedy as she tries to protect her children from religious attack, and the faltering growth of love between young men and women will all remind classic science fiction fans of the pastoral easy reading style of Clifford D Simak, another giant of the genre.

If you've yet to savour "The Chrysalids", a perennial front runner in the field of soft science fiction, I can't think of a better time than right now. Highly recommended indeed.

Paul Weiss

(For those that care to express their appreciation by voting on Amazon, the review is located at http://tinyurl.com/y7rntt )

2007-01-04T19:07:00.000-05:00

I'VE REACHED MY GOAL!

Just three months on the Bernstein diet and, frankly, I'm blown away by how successful it's been. I started at 193 pounds, size 37 pants, 16 1/2 neck and a 44 chest in a suit jacket. By the greatest of coincidences, a local charity phoned us this evening and asked if we wanted to leave a load of clothing out for pick-up and, you guessed it, my wardrobe is now officially completely useless! I was thrilled to tell the person who called to "come and get 'em!" A whole collection of men's suits that I couldn't wear to save my soul!

I dropped into the local men's shop to buy the first installment of a new wardrobe. Size 40 jackets, size 32 pants, 15 1/2 neck on the shirts and I'm down to 150 pounds even. Not too bad for a former short fat guy!

The New Year's resolution is to keep the weight off now!

2007-01-01T13:20:00.000-05:00

2007 TBR CHALLENGE

I've done it! I need another reading group like I need a hole in the head but I went ahead and joined one anyway.

The whole point of this group though is to reduce the size of Mt TBR as opposed to the other way round. The idea is to select 12 books that have been sitting around collecting cobwebs screaming at you from your library shelves for at least six months. The challenge is to actually read one of these books every month with the ultimate objective being the reduction of your pile of unread books! Great idea (in theory, LOL)!

For better or for worse, here's the list of titles I've selected plus a handful of alternates in the event that a bad mood reading demon decides to attack me and I can't bear the thought of cracking the spine on one of the titles yelling at me:

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)

2007-01-01T07:04:00.000-05:00

2006 #1 READ:

No doubt about it for me at all. Claiming honours for the top spot in my heart for 2006 (drum roll, please) ... "One Thousand White Women" by Jim Fergus.

Every once in a very long while, I am privileged to read a novel that is so compelling, so breathtaking and so utterly absorbing that I find myself holding my breath in awe as I turn the final page. "One Thousand White Women" is one of those novels!

In 1854 at a peace conference held at Fort Laramie, a prominent Cheyenne chief had the temerity (or so the white US Army negotiators thought) to request the gift of one thousand white women as brides for his warriors. Coming from the perspective of a man in a matrilineal society in which all children born belong to their mother's tribe, it seemed to be the perfect solution to the integration of white and native people, society and culture. In fact, white society of the day was appalled at the suggestion and the peace talks collapsed. This novel explores, in fiction, how events might have unfolded had the government acceded to the request and what the lives of the volunteer white brides might have been like in an aboriginal Cheyenne society that knew they were facing possible genocidal extinction in an unwelcoming modern world!

Fergus has done a positively masterful job crafting a fast-paced novel that could be read purely on the surface as a wonderful period piece in the 19th century American West! You'll find it all here - romance, knee-slapping humour, outrageous stereotypes, credible dialogue, a magnificent cast of wildly disparate characters, pathos, sex, violence, guns, battles, bravery and derring-do, political bafflegab and adventure!

But even a moment's pause will furrow more thinking readers' foreheads as they question their stance on a wide array of socially and politically charged issues that persist even to this day - racially mixed marriages; men's roles vs women's roles in both modern and nomadic hunter-gatherer societies; homosexuality; charges of pedophilia in Catholic and Christian ministry; the efficacy (or even validity) of overly zealous Christian missionaries in pagan societies; the current status of aboriginals in modern society; the perennial flouting of treaties between white and aboriginal society negotiated in good faith; the demise of aboriginal language; the forced placement of aboriginal people into reservations, white settlements and parochial schools; and so very many more.

"Must read" is a term far too loosely bandied about in this era of marketing of blockbuster best sellers but I put it to those who enjoy historical fiction that "One Thousand White Women" easily earns it! (I'm willing to lay odds that more than one reader will find themselves teary-eyed at the close of this novel).

2007-01-01T03:07:00.000-05:00

2006 Top 10 Reads:

There were some very clear standouts for me this year so I really didn't encounter much difficulty preparing this particular list. I've allowed myself the luxury of counting three series as single representatives on the list but, that said, my top 10 reads for 2006 (in no particular order) were:

The Liveship Traders Trilogy – Robin Hobb (fantasy)

The Alienist – Caleb Carr (historical fiction)

Jarka Ruus – Terry Brooks (fantasy)

The Bartimaeus Trilogy – Jonathan Stroud (fantasy)

The Suspect – Michael Robotham (psychological thriller)

The Martian Race – Gregory Benford (contemporary sci-fi)

The Lincoln Lawyer – Michael Connelly (thriller, police procedural)

One Thousand White Women – Jim Fergus (historical fiction)

The Bleachers - John Grisham (general fiction)

Freakonomics – Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner (non-fiction, economics)

Honourable mentions that came close to making the grade:

Murder in Grub Street - Bruce Alexander (historical fiction)

The Werewolf Principle - Clifford D Simak (classic sci-fi)

Longitude - Dava Sobel (non-fiction, history)

2005-10-07T19:59:00.000-05:00

To suggest that The Da Vinci Code is a modern day publishing phenomenon is the grand champion of understatements! There can hardly be a reader of any nationality, any age or any reading persuasion who is not aware of a rough plot outline which is at once extraordinarily simple yet sweeping in scope and grandeur - nothing less than the continuing quest to find The Holy Grail! Jacques Saunière, the chief curator of the Louvre and grand-master of the centuries old secret society, The Priory of Sion, has been found brutally murdered. His grand-daughter, cryptologist Sophie Neveu, and author/symbologist, Robert Langdon, follow an exciting and ingenious trail of clues intended to direct them to the final resting place of the real grail, the remains of Mary Magdalene. Bezu Fache, captain of the Central Directorate Judicial Police, is hard on their heels throughout the novel, believing them guilty of this murder plus the gruesome slaying of the three second level senechaux of the Priory's command structure.

The Da Vinci Code is fictional! But its runaway popularity seems based on the controversial interpretation of the history of the grail and all the surrounding issues - the Priory of Sion, the Knights Templar, the Freemasons, the contention that the Roman Catholic Church has been aggressively suppressing the truth for two centuries, the role of Mary Magdalene in the life of Jesus Christ and the interpretation of religious symbolism in art and architecture. Are Brown's interpretations of his research accurate? Is the history of the suppression of this information by the Roman Catholic Church correct? I'll leave that judgment to people who are much more clever than I. Suffice it to say that Brown has an extraordinary ability to weave historical background completely seamlessly into his story and make it just as gripping and compelling as the murder mystery itself! Witness this brief excerpt on the suppression of women:

"The Catholic Inquisiton published the book that arguably could be called the most blood-soaked publication in human history. Malleus Maleficarum - or The Witches' Hammer - indoctrinated the world to `the dangers of freethinking women' and instructed the clergy how to locate, torture, and destroy them. Those deemed `witches' by the Church included all female scholars, priestesses, gypsies, mystics, nature lovers, herb gatherers, and any women 'suspiciously attuned to the natural world.' Midwives also were killed for their heretical practice of using medical knowledge to ease the pain of childbirth - a suffering, the Church claimed, that was God's rightful punishment for Eve's partaking of the Apple of Knowledge, thus giving birth to the idea of Original Sin. During three hundred years of witch hunts, the Church burned at the stake an astounding five million women."

The historical writing is exquisite! As a thriller, Brown has composed a taut, compelling, proverbial page-turner! And all that is accompanied by descriptive detail and character development that can stand proudly beside the output of any author that I'm familiar with. How about this description of the captain of CDJP?

"Captain Bezu Fache carried himself like an angry ox, with his wide shoulders thrown back and his chin tucked hard into his chest. His dark hair was slicked back with oil, accentuating an arrow-like widow's peak that divided his jutting brow and preceded him like the prow of a battleship. As he advanced, his dark eyes seemed to scorch the earth before him, radiating a fiery clarity that forecast his reputation for unblinking severity in all matters."

Unless you're a scholar and a medieval historian, don't try to judge it! Just go out and get a copy and read it!

2005-10-07T12:43:00.000-05:00

Last of the Breed, by Louis L'amour, was a past recommendation of the Historical Favorites Yahoo reading group. I can't understand why anyone would have felt it should be classified as historical but, in any event, it was a thoroughly enjoyable read. Four stars with only a teeny quibble! Here's the review I posted on Amazon:

Major Joe "Mack" Makatozi, a full blooded Sioux and skilled experimental pilot is captured and sent to a top-secret prison camp in the depths of Siberia when his aircraft is forced down over a hostile cold war Russia. His escape over the wire and his flight into the hostile environment of winter Siberia triggers a nation wide manhunt spearheaded by the commandant of the camp, Colonel Arkady Zamatev (who is all too aware of the harsh "career-limiting" results of mistakes in Communist Russia) and Alekhin, a skilled and ruthless Yakut tracker who has never yet failed to reel in an escapee, more often dead than alive.

Initially confident that they can corral their man in short order, Zamatev and Alekhin fail to realize how quickly Mack's indomitable Sioux spirit, his lust for life and his astounding survival skills, learned during his upbringing as a Sioux warrior, will come to the surface and allow him to evade capture over a two year period. Hunting with a handmade bow and arrows, preparation of emergency camps, astonishing hair's breadth escapes, lethal traps set to confound the small army on his trail, construction of leather breeches and moccasins in the field, fire-starting, extreme cold weather survival skills, fording of rivers, cross-country navigation and much, much more are described with an exciting sense of realism and adventure that never falls into the trap of portraying Mack as invincible.

The ending is a grim one that is based on Mack's historical sense of native justice and retribution against his tormenter, Alekhin, and provides a very satisfying completion to Last of the Breed as a stand alone novel. But his sworn revenge against Zamatev and his relationship with Natalya Baronas, a Russian peasant he met in his flight to the Bering Strait remain open and unresolved. Sadly, the obvious plans for a sequel will never come to fruition as L'Amour has passed away.

Nay-sayers and detractors will point out that L'Amour ignored some pretty obvious tools that would have likely resulted in Mack's almost certain re-capture - dogs, infrared thermography and high resolution satellite imagery are three possibilities that come to mind immediately. But then we wouldn't have had a perfectly delightful, fast-paced, exciting adventure to read, would we? Detractors be damned - it was a great story! Read it, live a little and enjoy.

2005-09-27T20:43:00.000-05:00

When I post a review to Amazon, I try to keep it upbeat and positive. On my own blog, I don't have to be quite so subdued. Golden Buddha was a piece of drivel that was truly awful! The number of times in my life that I put a book aside without finishing it can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Chalk up one more for that very small count. Here's the review:

How sad! I’m a Dirk Pitt fan from way, way back. For my money, Clive Cussler is a former heavyweight world champion in the thriller department! But in Golden Buddha, he’s reduced himself to the status of an overweight, out of shape punch drunk fighter that just doesn’t know when to hang up the gloves and retire!

As a musican and former guitar teacher I took personal insult at one point in the story! Cussler would have his readers believe it is possible for a collection of non-musician mercenaries to substitute themselves for a professional band, lip-synch three sets of rock music and fake the instrument playing sufficiently well to stand up to the scrutiny of a few hundred people in close proximity at a private party! Give your head a shake, Clive!

For Juan Cabrillo, the chairman of the Corporation, a collection of high-tech wizards and mercenaries, think Mr Phelps of former Mission Impossible fame! Monica Crabtree is a slutty version of Barbara Bain with boobs on steroids! If that comparison seems a little silly, keep it in mind when you try reading Golden Buddha if you feel like you’ve got a few hours to blow on something that just doesn’t make the grade! Some of the one liners will give you a wan smile or two but, frankly, I was generally uncertain as to whether Cussler was trying to be serious or trying to satirize himself and the thriller genre. It doesn’t matter – whichever one you believe it is - Cussler didn’t succeed anyway!

The thing that makes me angrier than anything else is that I’ve already purchased The Trojan Odyssey. I'll read it but unless Cussler pulls a real rabbit out of his hat, he’s off my list for good! Maybe I can persuade a second hand book store to give me a buck or two to take them off my hands.

2005-09-25T09:14:00.000-05:00

City, by Clifford D Simak, although written in a very easy to read style, was not a happy book to read. But, it is most certainly deserving of the moniker classic - 5 stars and 2 thumbs up! Here's the review I posted on Amazon:

City is a masterpiece of creative genius crafted in Simak's trademark soft-spoken, pastoral style - a breath of fresh air contrasted against today's hard-boiled, fast-paced and typically cynical style of writing. A series of loosely joined short stories is presented as the myths and legends that are told by dogs around their campfires to each other and their pups in a future so distant that no dog is actually certain that the creature Man ever really truly existed. From the standpoint of the reader, City represents a Michener or Rutherfurd style multi-generational family saga - a future history, in other words. Mankind, as represented by the Webster family and their robot, Jenkins, is seen as ascending to marvelous heights of technological achievement while evolving away from a traditional city style government, travelling to the stars and beyond, but ultimately descending into an agoraphobic, dystopian Spartan existence and disappearing into extinction. Jenkins - a ten thousand year old repository of flawless electronic memory and the only remaining human artifact - knows the true story of man's rise and fall but, acting in a fashion distinctly unlike anything Asimov might have attributed to a robot, keeps it to himself. Jenkins has concluded he owes canine society an opportunity to grow and flourish on its own unaware of the fact that dogs were once nothing more than pets to a mean-spirited and violent race of humans.

Although City contemplates a lonely ending to mankind as a species, hard core tech weenie sci-fi fans will rub their hands with glee as they read of Simak's imagination and prescience at work - automatic lawnmowers, atomic powered private planes, televisor ports, laboratories and manned bases on Venus, Jupiter and Pluto, an inter-stellar expedition to Alpha Centauri, the demise of natural farming fuelled in part by the rise of mass production hydroponics, ICBMs, inter-dimensional transportation, fireplaces reduced to an anachronistic self-indulgence, suspended animation called "The Sleep" as a psychologically gentler form of suicide, and, of course, thinking, sentient robots as servants and work mates.

To draw on a cosmological metaphor, the ending for man that Simak tells of is not the violent, catastrophic big crunch type ending that would see us wiped out in a blaze of glory. He rather talks of a much bleaker, almost unbearably sad ending to humanity as it simply disappears - the infinite boredom of heat death, as it were, as all motion ends and the universe reaches a boundless uniformity with the maximization of entropy. Simak is blistering in his criticism of man's arrogant opinion of his own place in the world, a theme he will return to again and again in such novels as Time is the Simplest Thing and Time and Again:

"But man had changed. He had lost the old knowledge and old skills. His mind had become a flaccid thing. He lived from one day to the next without any shining goal. But he still kept the old vices - the vices that had become virtues from his own viewpoint and raised him by his own bootstraps. He kept the unwavering belief that his was the only kind, the only life that mattered - the smug egoism that made him the self-appointed lord of all creation."

At once inspiring, frightening, un-nerving, depressing and yet touching, City is a classic that needs to be read by all true sci-fi fans.

The review is at http://tinyurl.com/8zbxh

Votes, comments and discussion always welcome!