Adventure, Romance, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Lee, Sharon and Miller, Stephen: Ghost Ship (2011)

2012-12-24 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Ghost Ship is a fun space opera adventure that gives its reader plenty of action that just happens to be placed in a science fiction environment. Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are good at this sort of world building. They have actually been quite good at portraying the Liaden Universe in the few novels I have read.

Ghost Ship is a space vessel with unusual abilities. This vessel is a ghost ship because it keeps hiding from humans in general in its quest to get its pilot onboard. The pilot it has chosen for such a fate is Theo Waitley. Having control of a vessel like Bechimo (its real name) is deemed essential by several parties and some of them shun nothing in their attempt to find and take it over.

While Ghost Ship is essentially an adventure novel, it also deals with FAMILY. As we all know, families can be a boon or a drag. Where do we belong and who do we belong to can be questions we all struggle with at times? I like the way Lee and Miller deal with this issue.

I found reading Ghost Ship a light and fun adventure. It fulfills its promise to me as a reader.

Adventure, Science Fiction

Kress, Nancy: Crucible (2004)

2012-12-23 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Cover by Jim Burns

Crucible continues where Crossfire left off. Nancy Kress was married to the author Charles Sheffield. In Crucible the characters Lucy and Karim talk a bit about the effects of the McAndrew drive. Charles Sheffield invented the term in his books and Nancy has borrowed the term as an explanation for the way the space vessels behave while travelling at their various speeds. If you are a nerd/semi-nerd like myself, you will probably check the information out.

One of the effects of travelling at near-light-speed is the problem of your ageing compared with the people you have left behind. They will be older (or even dead) when you return to them. I imagine that could be quite traumatic. Crucible deals with that question.

Crucible can mean “test by fire”. We see Karim and Lucy go through their test of fire when they are stuck on the Vine world trying to survive and hopefully get back to other humans. The Vines are strange plantlike creatures whose existence seems very harmonious. For humans that can be difficult to deal with. We probably get off on a bit of conflict in our lives, predator/prey that we are. That and the fact that Vines don’t communicate the way we do makes life extremely difficult for Lucy and Karim.

Crucible is also the name of the vessel travelling from Earth to Greentrees. The passengers onboard are modified humans. What they bring to Greentrees is an arrogant attitude toward the people living there. Being modified makes the people on Greentrees listen to their beautiful voices and beautiful looks. Even Jake Holman (at age ancient) is fooled by them. But the people from Crucible come with an agenda of their own.

A lot of conflict is in the cards and Kress manages to convey the various personalities quite well. She is an interesting writer.

2005: Nominated – Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel

Adventure, Science Fiction

Kress, Nancy: Crossfire (2003)

2012-12-21 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Cover by Jim Burns

Crossfire is Nancy Kress‘ first book in a duology about the travellers from Earth to Greentrees. They have all pooled their resources so they can get away from an Earth where the people are rapidly self-destructing. All Greentrees needs is a bit of terraforming for humans to be able to enjoy it fully. But the people who have travelled to Greentrees have done so for various reasons and their personalities are more or less suited to this type of adventure.

Jake Holman and Gail Cutler are the group’s leaders. However, there are subgroups. These are the New Quakers, the Environmentalists, the New Cherokees, the Islamists, the modified Soldiers, the scientists and Jake the lawyer. Once they begin to settle on Greentrees, the New Cherokees take off as planned. Their aim is to live as indianlike as possible and to have a little as possible to do with the rest of the humans. The majority of the humans try to keep their differences in check and work together on building a town to live in.

However, any new world is bound to have some trouble for the arrivals and on Greentrees it just happens to be a group of primitive humanoid aliens. In spite of there being more than one group of these aliens, it does not seem as if they are native to Greentrees. The various groups of aliens behave very dissimilar to each other even though they share genetic material.

The humans who had thought themselves alone in this arm of the Galaxy discover that they have now, in fact, become embroiled in an interstellar war. The side chosen by the humans will also decide the fate of humanity.

I quite liked Crossfire. The characters were a bit much at times but I liked the way Kress presented different types of conflict and the resolution to them (where that was possible). There was plenty of action and psychology in this novel. Preaching was present but not to the point where it got annoying.

Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Butcher, Jim: First Lord’s Fury (The Codex Alera VI) (2009)

2012-12-21 humanitysdarkerside 2 Comments

Map by Priscilla Spencer

The last book of The Codex Alera is another brick. First Lord’s Fury is almost 700 pages long.

I think the reason I like Tavi’s character is because he is a bit crazy. Just crazy enough to see possibilities where the rest of us aren’t able to. Me, I lack that piece of genius that I sometimes meet in other people. Not often, but enough times to know how precious that ability is.

Tavi sees allies in traditional enemies, possibilities in impossibilities and hope where the rest of us give up. (Yes, I do realize he is a fictional character!) Sometimes people like this can be terribly annoying because giving up can be soooo tempting. He does annoy his friends at times. But this trait is also what has brought enemies to help and now another enemy needs to be brought into the battle against the Vord.

In Princep’s Fury Tavi discovered once and for all that the Vord were impossible to talk with/to. Their only aim in life is to convert Alera into Vord (land and creatures). However, the first Vord queen is a bit off for a Vord. She has limited the number of queens and made them sterile to boot. This gives Tavi some hope that Alera might prevail against them in the end.

Invidia Aquitaine is still fighting on the Vord queen’s side while her husband is the leader of the people left behind in Alera. The First Lord is dead and Tavi needs to hurry back to resolve the succession question at the same time as he utilizes any and all means to prevent the further spread of the Vord. But to do that he needs to take down the queen and that is quite a task. Thankfully, his old allies and family are still alive and fighting for the survival of Alera.

My reviews of books 1 (Furies of Calderoon), 2 (Academ’s Fury), 3 (Cursor’s Fury), 4 (Captain’s Fury), and 5 (Princep’s Fury)

Fantasy, Thriller

Fredsti, Dana: Plague Town (Ashley Parker) (2012)

2012-12-19 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

p style=”text-align:center;”>Wonderful coverart by Amazing15.com

Mwahahah. Zoooooombies. Funny in a really gross way. Let me give you an example:

“She fell often, the lack of connective tissue around her left knee making balance a problem. Her feet were bare and the flesh was torn, but she felt no pain, not even when she landed face first in a bush and a broken branch punctured an eyeball. It snapped off with the force of her fall, leaving Maggie with a stick jutting out of her ruined eye socket, vitreous egg-white oozing from the puncture and sliding down her cheek like thickened tears.”

I am NOT a zombie person, but the descriptions in Plague Town were wonderfully zombieish. Absolutely perfect for a novel that seems to want to be tense yet kind of funny. I think authors must love it when they get to hand us gory descriptions. Dana Fredsti seems to fall into that group of authors and I love her for it. I am still not a zombie person, but Dana has made a really good case for this category.

Plague Town does have a serious side – be careful what you release into society. There are some excellent fighting scenes and a couple of hot ones between Ashley and … You’ll guess it in two seconds, but you ought to have those two seconds. Plague Town also manages to be kind of twisty – in a good way. Yeah! I think I will wholeheartedly recommend this zombie novel.

Fiction, History

Ford, Jamie: The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet (2009)

2012-12-18 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Wow. Sad in a happy way this novel. I’ve read the Norwegian version of it. There are a couple of translation hiccups but the translator has done an excellent job.

People are strange and we have a dark side, a side we seldom like seen in the light of day. The treatment of Japanese-Americans during WWII illustrates this dark side of humanity. Letting ourselves be ruled by our fears is incredibly tempting. I cannot count the times I have allowed my own fears to rule my decisions.

The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet gives an excellent account of what it must have been like to be a child during this time. Henry (Chinese-American) has to watch his father be completely ruled by his old hatreds and fears of the Japanese. Seeing him forget that people who just happen to be of Japanese heritage are also Americans was difficult for Henry. Falling in love with Keiko and having to stand up to his father while 12/13 years old must have been horrifyingly difficult for a young boy. Yet Henry did.

Such courage.

The beauty of this novel lies in Ford’s touching depiction of a difficult subject. While the novel is fiction the internment was not. Panama Hotel is there and people were placed in camps with razor wire around them and soldiers pointing at the prisoners with armed weapons. This is also who we are.

Science Fiction, Thriller

Johnson, Jean: A Soldier’s Duty (2011)

2012-12-17 humanitysdarkerside 2 Comments

A Soldier’s Duty is my introduction to the writing of Jean Johnson, and a pleasurable acquaintance it has been. Gene Mollica is the cover artist. He captures the spirit of this novel really well.

A Soldier’s Duty is the first installment of the series Theirs Not To Reason Why. From the cover you can probably guess that the main character in this heroic tale is going to be a woman.

Is it possible to change the future? Maybe, if you are a precog like Ia. She has seen a future for the Galaxy so horrifying that she is willing to do anything to stop it. But to change the future will mean following a trail so narrow there is no room for mistakes. For Ia it will mean sacrifices beyond what she thinks she can bear. However, bear them she must.

In a sense, Ia is somewhat like Honor Harrington. She is willing to put the good of the group before her own wishes. Ia is also willing to work incredibly hard to be the best that she can be. A Soldier’s Duty was full of technical data (no idea how realistic it was). Where Honor and Ia’s likeness ends is in the style of writing that Jean has. Jean takes her writing that tiny indefinable step beyond David Weber’s. You know that step that drops you into the river of her words almost immediately.

I have come to realize that this artistic quality that separates the really good from the word-artists is so small that it is sometimes barely felt. However, it is felt. Jean manages the leap. A person has to be born with it I think.

Anyways. You get the picture.

Biography, Reblogged

December 16 1775 Jane Austen born

Link 2012-12-15 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

I remember reading Pride and Prejudice as an 18-year-old and loving it. This is almost 30 years ago. I wonder what it would be like to read it as an ancient woman? Another thing I wonder about is what Jane Austen would have thought of her own novels if she had been a practising author today.

Craig Hill

On December 16th 1775, English novelist Jane Austen was born, the seventh of eight children of a clergyman in a country village in Hampshire, England.

Jane was very close to her older sister, Cassandra, who remained her faithful editor and critic throughout her life. The girls had five years of formal schooling, then studied with their father. Jane read voraciously and began writing stories as early as age 12, completing a novella at age 14.

Austen’s quiet, happy world was disrupted when her parents suddenly decided to retire to Bath in 1801. Jane hated the resort town and found herself without the time or peace and quiet required to write. Instead, she amused herself by making close observations of ridiculous society manners. After her father’s death in 1805, Jane, her mother, and sister lived with one of her brothers until 1808, when another brother provided them a permanent…

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Fantasy, Romance, Thriller

Bonilla, Amanda: Shaedes of Gray (2011)

2012-12-13 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Shaedes of Gray seems to be Amanda Bonilla’s first novel and is a pretty good debut. There are places where the text doesn’t work completely, but Bonilla manages to hit the flow quite often.

Another plus point for the cover. Choosing Cliff Nielsen as her artist was well done. He has illustrated quite a few authors I really like and, of course, some I’ve never heard of. The way he manages to catch the mood of Shaedes of Gray is awesome.

This Seattle is a Seattle that apparently only has one supernatural living there. Darian was told this by her “maker” and has believed it for the past 100 years or so. By my “apparently” I am certain you know that supernaturals are going to be popping out of the wood-work as the novel progresses.

Let’s see. What makes Shaedes of Gray different from the rest of urban fantasy. Hmmm. For one thing, Darian is a Shaede. This means that she can travel through the shadows, yet she appears as human when she is in her corporeal form. She doesn’t know how she was made into a Shaede. Shaedes don’t really appear to be bad/good. Instead they are a kind of distilled in-between gray creature.

Not so unusual, is Darian being an assassin. She makes her living taking on hits to people of dubious morals. When she is asked to kill the resident of a certain address, Darian discovers that she was lied to by her maker. There are indeed other supernaturals living in Seattle. When she discovers just how duped she has been and who one of the dupers is, Darian feels stupid.

So. A good beginning. If what I’ve seen in this novel continues, Amanda certainly has the makings of one of the better authors out there.

Fantasy, Romance, Thriller

Carlson, Amanda: Full Blooded (2012)

2012-12-13 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Hmmm. Full Blooded falls within the paranormal romance category (I think). As such, I’m not the best person to say something about it. Having read it, I am going to anyways.

I don’t know why this category is having such a difficult time getting into my heart. With Full Blooded it had a lot to do with the fact that the text kind of hiccupped. When I get the feeling of “hang on-need some more editing here”, I feel like someone is hurting the text. I know I’ll never write a book. For one thing, my writing is simply not interesting enough for that. So I really admire the people out there who actually do write.

As a reader, though, I am top-notch. Full Blooded was average. It picked up after the first half. Some of the weeds got pulled out more and Carlson was a whole lot closer to getting her text to flow. The story itself wasn’t especially original either.

But remember my motto – just because I might not like a novel doesn’t mean it isn’t good. It just means that it needs another reader.

Fiction, Humour

Grisham, John: Skipping Christmas (2001)

2012-12-13 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

My, my, my, isn’t Christmas fun????? I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of the holidays. I find them costly and full of weird little things that are supposed to be “the right thing to do”. My head just doesn’t get what the big deal is with all of the decorations and having to buy gifts.

Skipping Christmas by John Grisham is about that. Lucas is overwhelmed by all of the “things” that need to be done surrounding the so-called holidays. Sick and tired of all of the work and money that goes into Christmas celebrations, Luther Krank gets his wife to go along with his idea of dropping Christmas and instead go on a cruise.

The only thing Lucas and Nora have forgotten is that they are part of a group, and as such certain sanctions and rewards follow any decision that will affect the group. Not putting up Christmas lights and decorations is a major break from group traditions.

It is difficult to go against group decisions. Not only you, but the group you belong to, struggle with the new situation. I feel Grisham is really good at describing these effects. I’ve seen it in his mystery/thrillers and now in Skipping Christmas. Skipping Christmas is only 177 pages long and is an interesting look at values and things we do just because we have always done them. Humor, warmth and insight are excellent qualities in a novel about humanity’s strangeness.

Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Butcher, Jim: Princep’s Fury (The Codex Alera V) (2008)

2012-12-09 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Princep’s Fury is the fifth and penultimate book in The Codex Alera series. What can I say about this series now that it is almost over? One thing that is obvious is that Jim Butcher‘s writing is getting better and better. Hard work does pay. I’m hopeful that Jim benefits from this. As a reader, I certainly do. Having read books of all kinds for around 40 years, I have certainly learned to spot and appreciate which authors are serious about their craft.

Tavi has set off with his regiment to assist the Canim with the Vord in their homeland. With his usual tolerance of the Ocean, Tavi vomits his way quite a ways accross the Ocean. Thankfully he has good helpers who assist him whether he wants them to or not. Once they get to the land of the Canim, both Varg and Tavi discover that the situation is a bit more dire than Varg had thought and hoped.

Back in Alera the Alerans are finally realizing that the Vord are real and they are coming to get them. Unfortunately, that usually means that the Vord are about to take over your whole country and population. As we might have guessed by the previous books, the Vord Queen that started the ball rolling this time around is not quite as Vordish as she should have been. This might just be the factor that ends up being a saving factor for the Alerans, Malat and Canim.

Not all Alerans are able to help the First Lord as they are fighting for their lives to save their own people. Which is why Isana is sent north by the First Lord in an attempt to make historic peace between Alerans and Ice-men. Her work might very well be the feather that will tip the scales in the Aleran’s favor.

There is as much action in no. 5 as there has been in the previous four books. Political in-fighting is not quite as extreme as necessity binds people together to an extent.

My reviews of books 1 (Furies of Calderoon), 2 (Academ’s Fury), 3 (Cursor’s Fury), 4 (Captain’s Fury), and 6 (First Lord’s Fury)

Adventure, Fantasy

Bradley, M; May, J and Norton, A: Black Trillium (1996)

2012-12-09 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

“Black Trillium” is a collaboration between Marion Zimmer Bradley, Julian May and Andre Norton. These three women are oldies but goodies within the science fiction and fantasy genre. As such one might be tempted to think that this three-in-one package would create a work of wonder. However, three strong personalities can make for problems as well.

The end product has the three authors writing about one character each. Sadly, this is quite apparent to me in my role as reader. While the story keeps to its plot (I presume), the different writing styles makes me have to adjust again and again as I go from chapter to chapter. Sometimes the writing is very young in its audience appeal and sometimes I connect a bit more to it.

As the princesses Haramis, Kadiya and Anigel go on their separate journeys to save Ruwenda from the Labornok and its magician Orogastus they also have to face their own flaws and failings. In a typical younger audience hero-writing style, we are presented with three young women who face difficult challenges and overcome them in a manner that destroys the wicked, changes the hearts of brave people and brings the heroes back as saviors to their people.

A younger reader than myself might very well find this book a completely different journey to my own. Perhaps I have become too old and jaded in my reading experience to fully enjoy something so clearly intended for a younger audience.

Adventure, Fantasy, Humour, Science Fiction

Pratchett, Terry: A Blink of the Screen (2012)

2012-12-04 humanitysdarkerside 2 Comments

As all of you must know by now Terry Pratchett is one of my all time favorite authors. It turns out he started publishing his writing from the age of 13.

What A Blink Of the Screen gives us is a look at the development Pratchett has had as an author through he varied and lengthy authorship. We also get an excellent example of how some people are born with the gift of writing. Thankfully, Pratchett decided to develop that talent into what we see today.

I read Pratchett’s story from when he was 13 without much hope of entertainment. But, you know. There is a reason Pratchett is my favorite author. He simply has the gift. And that is the feeling I am left with after reading A Blink of the Screen.

A Blink of the Screen is a collection of everything from short stories to poetry and even an Ankh-Morporkian anthem.

The Anthem is the “Ankh-Morpork National Anthem“. It is properly pretentious and has a second verse worth memorising.

Pratchett does well in a great many genres. Death as a disco-lover, football cards, heroes that are resurrected, x-mas cards that draw you in, silly laws and regulations, alternate earths, evolving chickens, biographies, the Discworld: this book has it all. The art of Josh Kirby is excellent. Seeing it in such vivid colors is a delight.

Like all of Pratchett’s books, A Blink of the Screen shows the world to me as it is. Sure, you have to strip away the fantasy bits first, but the people are real in all their glory and horror. I’ve met some of these people. I am some of these people (definitely not telling who). Add this to his gift of communication and we have magic.

Adventure, Fantasy, Romance, Young Adult

Butcher, Jim: Captain’s Fury (The Codex Alera IV) (2007)

2012-12-01 humanitysdarkerside Leave a comment

Jim Butcher‘s series, The Codex Alera, is well worth a read. Captain’s Fury is book number four in the series. In it we meet a Tavi two years older from who he was in Cursor’s Fury.

The hard work that Butcher puts into his books shows. He himself says that being and author is about work, work, work and not giving up even if you are rejected. I guess I must have been wrong about the Muses just dropping into people’s heads and taking over their hands.

I love it when I can tell that an author has worked for my pleasure. How selfish is that? However selfish, it is true. There is just something incredibly wonderful about an author that takes hold of me and brings me into their text.

That is the kind of author Jim Butcher has become.

Tavi is yet a couple of years older. As a character, Tavi is a warm-hearted person. Somehow he feels that friendship is possible with everyone and works toward that end. Unfortunately, not everybody agrees With that point of view. Senator Arnos is one such person. His goal in life is to destroy Tavy but also to destroy the Canim with what he considers Aleran superiority. Boy is he in for a surprise.

Sadly, Tavi will be impacted (in the shape of Captain Rufus Scipio) by Arnos’ scheming and Tavi’s captaincy hangs in a thread. When Tavi discovers who he really is, his life is not made any simpler.

The First Lord is quite a schemer himself. He knows that he is more or less alone in his battles and seeks a quick resolution to the problem of Kalare. That means that Gaius will have to og undercover and absent himself from the political infighting in Alera. To assist him in his quest, the First Lord brings along his faithful Amara and her Bernard.

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My reviews of books 1 (Furies of Calderoon), 2 (Academ’s Fury), 3 (Cursor’s Fury), 5 (Princep’s Fury) and 6 (First Lord’s Fury)