Category: Fiction Page 136 of 346

Phantom Song by Kate Sheeran Swed: Cyborgs, a Vigilante, and an Opera Star in a Solid Follow Up Novella

By HCNewton

On February 22, 2021

In Fiction, Science Fiction

Phantom Song

by Kate Sheeran Swed
Series: Toccata System, #2

Paperback, 179 pg.
Spells & Spaceships Press, 2019

Read: February 15, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

Before I dig into this, here’s a warning—this is the second novella in a trilogy. I cannot talk about this in any understandable fashion without talking about a couple of the things from the first book. Most of what I want to say is no big deal, but one thing is a spoiler for an important revelation in the first book. If it were me, I wouldn’t mind knowing what I’m about to say when I started Parting Shadows Still if you’d prefer to be careful—you should just go read what I had to say about Parting Shadows and move on.

Are You Still Reading? Good.

So in Parting Shadows, we hear something about a vigilante running around Landry City—Astra speculates about that vigilante being one of the SATIS girls. Also, when Isabelle goes to the Opera in Landry City, something happens that rattles her—but other events are going on which makes that not such a big deal.

Phantom Song tells us about what happened at the Opera and about the vigilante. And that’s just the early chapters.

This book overlaps the events of Phantom Song but largely happens in its aftermath. We begin with a cyborg attacking a transport ship carrying a friend of Isabelle’s, Claire, and her mother. Claire is injured, but her mother gets her to safety. She wakes up as a cyborg herself—it was the only way to keep her alive. We later learn that it was SATIS who arranged for that. While she waits to see how raising an assassin goes, she has one constructed, too.

Claire spends her nights as that vigilante in order to find the cyborg that attacked her family (actually, she’s just hunting for the cyborg, the vigilante stuff is a side effect—but let’s not get into that). During the day, she’s the star of Landry City’s Opera.

Astra comes looking for the vigilante—to see if she’s right about the SATIS tie and to recruit some help in her efforts to stop Keyes. The two end up joining forces to take down the Cyborg first.

On Odd Prejudice

For a society so run by various AIs, there is a deep-seated prejudice against humans with cybernetic augmentation—no matter the reason for it. The prejudice is so strong that hospital staff—the same people that just saved Claire’s life through the implants—treat her with scorn because of them. It’s powerful but makes no sense.

Then again, no one said prejudices have to make sense. The ones that seem most prevalent in human society certainly don’t. So, spot on there.

Because of this hatred, Claire has to adopt a new identity and cover her cybernetic parts with long sleeves, dresses, and mask. Which works because of her new identity’s celebrity, but wouldn’t cut it in any other circumstance. That’s a nice touch—and the lengths Claire has to go to to protect herself paves the way for a very successful way to protect her double life.

So, what did I think about Phantom Song?

I know even less about Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera than I do, so I’m not going to pretend to be able to talk about this take on Phantom.

This is a short enough work—and so easy to spoil its own events, much less those of the prior book, that I feel like I’ve been unusually shallow talking about it. But that’s all you’re getting from me.

After doing all the heavy lifting in the first novella—setting up the rules of the world, the way AIs work, SATIS and her girls, and so on, Swed can just play in this novella. The story is more developed, she can sink deeper into the characters (having characters who have had a natural emotional development also helps), she can involve more characters and plotlines. In short, she can do more. Which leads to this being a more enjoyable read.

I don’t think this works that well as an entry point into the series—it’s a trilogy, that makes sense. But this is a great way to follow up on Parting Shadows and sets the stage for a big conclusion in Prodigal Storm. Which is exactly what you want in the middle book of a trilogy.

3 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK XVI., iii. – vi.

By HCNewton

On February 19, 2021

In Fiction, Fridays with The Foundling, General Fiction/Literature

Fridays with the Foundling
Black George smuggles that letter Tom wrote to Sophia with the breakfast he brought her, and it was a good one. She was so excited to see it that she ignored her favorite dishes, brought by George for her specifically to get over the hunger strike.

What Sophia said, or did, or thought, upon this letter, how often she read it, or whether more than once, shall all be left to our reader’s imagination. The answer to it he may perhaps see hereafter, but not at present: for this reason, among others, that she did not now write any, and that for several good causes, one of which was this, she had no paper, pen, nor ink.

She’s immediately distracted from her lack of office supplies by a heated argument in the house, it doesn’t take long for her to figure out that her aunt had arrived and isn’t happy with her father. At this point, Fielding states:

We shall therefore take our leave at present of Sophia, and, with our usual good-breeding, attend her ladyship.

Mrs. Western’s not happy with the way her brother is treating his daughter. Naturally. For one, she isn’t impressed at all with the quality of the place the Squire has rented. And, of course, the whole locking her in her room thing. After some choice words, and an offer by the Parson to mediate, the two come to an agreement—Mrs. Western will take Sophia to her residence and Squire Western will drink to excess. Each playing to their strengths, I guess.

Sophia gets her hands on some stationary and a pen at her aunt’s lodging and writes Tom back. Essentially saying she has no intentions of marrying Blifil, but won’t defy her father and marry anyone else. Basically what she told her father in last week’s chapters. She commands Tom to write her back, too.

Tom’s so relieved by her freedom from confinement that he keeps his appointment to go to a performance of Hamlet with Mrs. Wilson and her youngest daughter—and they bring Partridge along. Patridge is unfamiliar with the play and is like one of those little kids in the movie theater talking to their parent. “Who is that?” “Ghosts don’t look like that…” and so on. He’s more entertaining to those who hear him than the play is. Fielding has a lot of fun with Patridge at this point—even going so far as to say that the guy playing the King was the better actor:

“The king, without doubt.” “Indeed, Mr Partridge,” says Mrs Miller, “you are not of the same opinion with the town; for they are all agreed, that Hamlet is acted by the best player who ever was on the stage.” “He the best player!” cries Partridge, with a contemptuous sneer, “why, I could act as well as he myself. I am sure, if I had seen a ghost, I should have looked in the very same manner, and done just as he did. And then, to be sure, in that scene, as you called it, between him and his mother, where you told me he acted so fine, why, Lord help me, any man, that is, any good man, that had such a mother, would have done exactly the same. I know you are only joking with me; but indeed, madam, though I was never at a play in London, yet I have seen acting before in the country; and the king for my money; he speaks all his words distinctly, half as loud again as the other.—Anybody may see he is an actor.”

While Partridge is telling Mrs. Wilson how hams are clearly the better actors, Mrs. Fitzpatrick approaches Tom, having seen him across the room. She has something to tell him, and they agree to meet the next morning.

Fielding starts the next chapter on a great note:

It is almost impossible for the best parent to observe an exact impartiality to his children, even though no superior merit should bias his affection; but sure a parent can hardly be blamed, when that superiority determines his preference.

As I regard all the personages of this history in the light of my children; so I must confess the same inclination of partiality to Sophia; and for that I hope the reader will allow me the same excuse, from the superiority of her character.

This extraordinary tenderness which I have for my heroine never suffers me to quit her any long time without the utmost reluctance. I could now, therefore, return impatiently to enquire what hath happened to this lovely creature since her departure from her father’s, but that I am obliged first to pay a short visit to Mr Blifil.

I like that even Fielding sees Blifil as an obligation.

Upon hearing that Western has Sophia locked up and is ready to marry her off, Blifil talks his uncle into going to London right away. Allworthy isn’t inclined to at first, because it’s clear that Sophia doesn’t want to marry him, and Allworthy won’t consent to a forced marriage. Blifil convinces him that he’ll persuade her, not force. And so

the affection of Allworthy for his nephew betray the superior understanding to be triumphed over by the inferior; and thus is the prudence of the best of heads often defeated by the tenderness of the best of hearts.

Fielding’s prose was at its best this week—as you can tell from my multiple quotations above (and I cut about half of what I wanted to cite). Between that and how things are progressing, I had a lot of fun this week, and hope it continues.

So what’s Mrs. Fitzgerald got for Tom? Can Blifil continue to fool his uncle? What dumb thing is Partridge going to do next? We just might get an answer to at least one of these next week.

Flashback Friday—Some Assembly Required by Kevin Smith, Phil Hester and Jonathan Lau

By HCNewton

On February 19, 2021

In Comics, Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Whoops, I got distracted reading last night and by the time I realized what time it was, it was too late to finish a post. I tried, but it was…vague and scattered. So, I decided to look at what I posted 5 years ago, just for giggles. This was technically posted 5 years and 2 days ago (the post exactly 5 years ago isn’t one I really want to revisit). I’ve been in a Facebook discussion about the TV series this was based on this week, so this one jumped out at me.

The Bionic Man, Vol 1: Some Assembly Required

by Kevin Smith, Phil Hester and Jonathan Lau (Artist)

Trade Paperback, 248 pg.
Dynamite Comics, 2012

Read: February 16, 2016

I was a big fan of The Six Million Dollar Man as a kid, and when I got a little older I stumbled onto — and devoured (repeatedly) — Martin Caidin’s Cyborg. Throw in a strong appreciation for Smith’s work? And I’m clearly the target audience for this (so why did it take me 3+ years to read it? Good question).

The main story hasn’t changed: Steve Austin is a test-pilot, horrifically injured — almost killed — when a test flight goes wrong. A team of experts save his life, rebuild him with bionics, and set him loose fighting for truth, justice, and the American way and so on.

The story was nothing special — good, solid action/adventure story. There were a couple of nice twists on the TV show’s story/characters. Just enough to keep it updated and fresh. I’d have appreciated something closer to Cyborg, but I understand why they made the choices they made. Austin goes up against his bionic predecessor, who has gone rogue and now is running around attacking and raiding technology companies. The battle scenes may have been a bit too big and epic — but they fit in with the current cinema trends, so, I guess they worked.

I was sure I’d seen Jonathan Lau’s art somewhere before, but from what I can tell, I haven’t. Which is a shame — it’s great. I’m not going to say that it’s my favorite comic art — but it’s exactly what I want comic art to look like. Which seems like a contradiction, but let’s move on. Yeah, some of the gestures are over-done, and a couple of the men are just too huge. But otherwise, dynamic, easy to tell character-from-character, nice detail, overall very attractive. I’d be willing to give a book a second look just because of his art in the future.

There are some nice references — visual and verbal — to the TV series that are pretty seamlessly worked in. Which I appreciated — looks like the next volume will be less subtle about it (which is not necessarily bad). I’m not going to say this was a great comic that leaves me chomping at the bit for the next, but it was worth the time and entertaining. Not much more to ask for.

—–

3 Stars

A Few Quick Questions with…Matthew Iden

By HCNewton

On February 18, 2021

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

I posted about the eighth Marty Singer novel, Chasing the Pain earlier this morning, and now I have a Q&A with the author, Matthew Iden to share with you. I had a harder time than I’m used to coming up with spoiler-free questions for this book, but think I pulled it off. I enjoyed this, hope you do, too.

Help us get to know you a bit—could you sketch out your path to publication and where the Marty Singer series came from?

After several frustrating years scaling the walls of traditional publishing only to be pushed off the parapet, I turned to self-publishing when it was still just a gleam in Jeff Bezos’s eye, about 2010 or so. I was lucky enough to have some immediate success with sales, but more importantly I realized what the important stuff was: connecting with readers, getting feedback, telling my story. It was empowering to see people who were not my mother actually appreciate my writing—this is the core piece of advice I give writers on the fence about self-publishing: as corny as it sounds, reaching readers is its own reward.

After three or four years, I’d done well enough to catch the eye of Thomas & Mercer—Amazon Publishing’s mystery and thriller imprint. They picked up all of my Marty Singer books (six at the time) and contracted for two standalone thrillers, which became THE WINTER OVER and BIRTHDAY GIRL.

The blush eventually came off the romance, but we parted amicably. I regained the rights to my Marty Singer series and self-published them, then added two more to the pile (THE BITTER FIELDS and CHASING THE PAIN).

The idea for Marty as a character came from my desire to write about a “real” individual. I love the Jack Reachers of the literary world, but I have a very hard time writing about them. I identify much more with Henning Mankell’s Kurt Wallander: solid, unvarnished, relatable.

I imagine that bringing back a character from a previous novel (at least one not designed to be a recurring character) is a tricky proposition—what came first, the desire to write more about Karl and this storyline lent itself to that, or the idea to do something with the “rehab industry” and he was a convenient way into that?

I really wanted to return to Karl. I make a few passing comparisons to him in CHASING THE PAIN as a King Pellinore-type figure: an aging, knight-errant who can’t seem to catch up with his own reason for being. Presenting him as someone with a substance abuse problem helped me solidify that framework; showing him dealing with his vices and corresponding fallout gave his story more substance.

I like to ask about supporting characters, and have at least a dozen things I’d enjoy asking about Madame Cormier (starting with: when can we expect a spin-off?), but something tells me that we can’t do that without ruining something for the readers. So, let’s go with Don D’Amelio instead. Where did he come from? He has certain, shall we say, sanguinary impulse that a lot of writers wouldn’t have given him—was that a little fun to write?

Watching Don come to life was a hoot. He started out fictional life as a sad-sack wasting his golden years sipping espresso and reading the sports page. Originally, his only function was to give Marty some more info about the rehab industry—what we call a “spear carrier” in the writing biz. But when I realized I needed a side-kick for my side-kick, I just went all-in and couldn’t stop laughing at how, uh, sanguinary I could make him.

Regarding Madame: you’re like the fourth person who’s wanted more. I think I might take the hint! I had a great time watching him come to life.

You’ve written in a handful of genres—are there any you wouldn’t want to try? What is it about Crime Fiction that brings you back to it?

I don’t have an interest in writing romance. Not because it isn’t a “real” genre, because the romance writers I know are some of the sharpest, hardest-working writers in the business, but just from a simple interest perspective: the stories don’t click with me and I can’t write what I don’t read.

Actually, my first love is fantasy, then science fiction, then crime fiction, but the world-building required of F/SF can be quite intimidating; my first attempts were dismal. Now that I have some writing experience under my belt, I have plans to go back and try my hand at a trilogy or three, but I’ve also come to love what I can do with crime fiction and won’t be abandoning it.

Let’s play “Online Bookstore Algorithm” (a game I’ve recently invented). What are 3-5 books whose readers may like Chasing the Pain?

I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t want CHASING THE PAIN sitting next to Elmore Leonard’s GOLD COAST on someone’s bookshelf. CTP is not as caper-ish as Gold Coast, but I think there’s a similar flavor and not just in the setting.

Robert B. Parker’s Spenser is really the ur-private investigator so many of us try to emulate, not just for the tough guy persona, but the humor. LOOKING FOR RACHEL WALLACE would probably please the same kind of reader.

And, as long as I’m getting too big for my writing britches, I might as well throw in James Lee Burke’s BLACK CHERRY BLUES and James Crumley’s THE LAST GOOD KISS.

What’s next for Matthew Iden?

I’m about two-thirds done with a standalone spy novel (working title: SCIMITAR) set in modern-day Paris that occurred to me during a vacation there. I’ve struggled with it for almost two years now while I’ve written other things, but it’s time to get this one done. I’m pretty excited to see how it wraps up…because then I’ll feel free to write Marty #9 or Madame #1.

Thanks to Matthew Iden for his time and these answers!

Chasing the Pain by Matthew Iden: A Missing Addict (or two), a Missing Friend, and the Ex-Cop Out to Find Them

By HCNewton

On February 18, 2021

In Fiction, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Come back in the next hour for a Q&A with the author!

Chasing the Pain

by Matthew Iden
Series: Marty Singer, #8

eARC, 274 pg.
Life Sentence Publishing LLC, 2021

Read: February 3-4, 2021

The Set-Up

Once upon a time, it seemed like at least 40% of the P.I. novels/TV shows I read started out with an old friend (usually that the reader/viewer had never heard of) coming to the P.I. for help—or getting word to him that they were in trouble. It was a quick and effective way for the P.I. to get involved in the case without all the bother of interviewing a prospective client and worrying about money and whatnot. Obviously, it was better if it was someone the reader/viewer knew so we’d be invested, too.

And that’s what we have here, Marty Singer gets a visit from the ex-wife of a man he’d worked with not that long ago (Book 6, Once Was Lost, for the reader). He’s gone missing, leaving a note for his ex that reads:

If you’re reading this, then you haven’t heard from me in three weeks, maybe more. If that’s the case, call Marty Singer. He’ll know what to do.

Marty, a former DC Homicide detective, really has no choice (not that he wants one). He needs to find the retired US Marshall, Karl Schovasa, and bring him home—and helping Karl out however he needs to in order to get him able to come home.

The Protagonist

So, I’m coming into this series late (this is Book 8), but here’s what I picked up about Marty. He’s a retired detective and a cancer survivor. He now does favors for people, acting like a P.I. without a license (for undoubtedly a good reason). Think Matthew Scudder without the alcoholism.* He’s got a great girlfriend and there’s a young woman in their life that might as well be an adoptive daughter**. Drawing on his experience and contacts, he seems to be fairly successful at what he does.

* This is just my impression at this point, I could be way off.

** Think Spenser and Paul Giacomin.

I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with his girlfriend or daughter-figure, but they seemed like the kind of characters you’d want to spend more time with, and the interaction between the three of them served to make the reader like Marty.

The Victim

Karl Schovasa ran into Marty when they were on opposite sides of a case a couple of years back—but at some point, they realized they weren’t really on opposite sides and combined their efforts, forging a friendship. In the meantime, Karl’s addictions became worse—although Marty sees signs of him sobering up (and signs that the sobering didn’t last).

It looks like Karl befriended a young woman in a treatment group and decided she was in trouble. She’d ended up in a treatment center in Palm Beach, and it looks like Karl followed her there. Then he disappeared.

So, it’s off to Palm Beach for Marty to look for Karl—and probably the girl, too—and then the trouble really starts. And I’m going to leave it there.

A Refreshing Take on Violence

Like any good P.I. (or P.I. adjacent) novel, there’s a little violence—really 4 incidents of it. There’s nothing all that dramatic or over-the-top with them, they’re pretty straightforward. The biggest one—in terms of importance, and I think word count—is a fistfight. This is about as far as you can get from a Jack Reacher kind of fight. It’s nasty, brutish, and short.

Usually, in fiction—even among the more “realistic” works—a fistfight is something that the protagonist/their allies can shake off pretty quickly. Not this one. It really wasn’t that entertaining (the way that a Reacher or Spenser fistfight typically is), but it comes across as how things actually go down when someone is attacked from behind by someone swinging a piece of lumber against their head.

I loved that. I need to see more of that.

I Demand a Spin-Off!

Being a fish out of water as he is in Palm Beach, Marty needs to make some allies—and he does that with a little help from an old contact. I really liked all the allies we meet, Iden knows how to quickly get you to like a supporting character (he does it 3-4 times effortlessly). There are some characters that you encounter in various novels that basically steal every scene that they’re in. In this book, that character is Madame Cormier. I can’t say anything more than that without diminishing your experience in meeting Madame (but, boy howdy, I want to). All I can say is that I didn’t get enough, and I’m certain the character is worth a novel—if not a series—without Singer or the rest around.

Iden talks a little about this in the Q&A I had with him. (which will post a little later today)

The Real-Life Crime

Like so many Crime Writers do, Iden took the central idea for the crimes at the center of this novel from the news. I’d never heard of the way that these unscrupulous addiction treatment centers were gaming the system using the Internet and Insurance Payments to make a ridiculous kind of money. Iden provides links to his sources (at least some of them) at the end of the book—they made my blood boil and almost took away from the pleasant experience I had with the book.

I mention this just to say, while you read Chasing the Pain and you think, “this is preposterous, no one can get away with this…” Just know that it’s not. John Rogers would frequently say they had to tone down the crimes they based Leverage‘s crooks on because no one would believe what had actually happened. Something tells me Iden did something similar.

Also, I mention this all to say: if you’re someone who gets mad when they read news stories? Maybe skip the research at the end.

So, what did I think about Chasing the Pain?

First off, this book has a nostalgic feel for me—this feels like the Crime Fiction that I cut my teeth on back in Junior High/High School (both in books and on TV). Both the way Iden tells the story and the character of Marty Singer just takes me back to that time. So I like it for that alone.

But the story he’s telling isn’t really the kind of thing that anyone was telling in the 1980s (and not just because of the technology involved). And that is just as appealing to me, if not more so.

There’s something about this book that was just fun to read–I sat down to read about 10% on the first night, just to get the book started and get a feel for it. Before I knew what had happened, I was about one-third of the way in. I just didn’t want to stop reading—I could’ve easily finished it in that sitting, if I didn’t have a list of things to get to. It was still early in the book, so I hadn’t got hooked by the story or anything yet. It was just a pleasant read—I’m not sure I can put it into words, but everyone reading this knows what I’m talking about. A book like that gets me to come back to the series.

I liked this enough that I’ve purchased the first Marty Singer book, A Reason to Live, and am looking forward to catching up with this series. I bet I’m not the only one who reacts that way to this book.

This is a fast, easy read with characters you’ll like and believable conflicts for Marty to resolve. Marty himself has a strong, engaging voice that’s a pleasure to read. I recommend this novel and expect I’ll recommend the rest.

Disclaimer: I received this book from the author in exchange for this post and my honest opinion. I appreciate the opportunity, but, as always, my opinions are my own.

3.5 Stars

A Two-Fer: Twenty Palaces and Child of Fire (Audiobooks) by Harry Connolly and Daniel Thomas May

By HCNewton

On February 17, 2021

In Audiobook, Harry Connolly, Twenty Palaces, Urban Fantasy

Twenty Palaces

by Harry Connolly, Daniel Thomas May (Narrator)
Series: Twenty Palaces, #0
Unabridged Audiobook, 8 hrs., 14 min.
Tantor Audio, 2020
Read: July 29-30, 2020
4 Stars

Child of Fire

by Harry Connolly, Daniel Thomas May (Narrator)
Series: Twenty Palaces, #1
Unabridged Audiobook, 10 hrs., and 9 min.
Tantor Audio, 2020
Read: September 8-10, 2020
4 Stars

What is The Twenty Palaces Series?

The Twenty Palace Society is a secretive and ancient group that has devoted itself to the regulation of magic in this world for the benefit of humanity. Those who use magic outside of the Palaces control have a tendency to unleash disaster—and by disaster, I mean things with the potential to destroy the world—and the Society stops them with extreme prejudice (and if collateral damage happens, so be it—we’re talking about the survival of the human race here).

Most of these threats come by way of unleashing Predators—beings from the “Empty Places” between dimensions. Their main drive seems to be coming into this (or any) reality and snacking on whatever life forms they can find. They typically begin by seeming to obey and/or help the humans who summoned them. But eventually, they turn on their summoners and exact a horrible price.

The Society’s methods, structure, and personnel largely lie in darkness, but we know a little bit—there are peers (magic users of impressive strength, but not as strong as others in the Society), investigators (whose purpose is to look for magical/Predatory activity), and wooden men. Wooden Men are cannon fodder. They’re the designated redshirts whose purpose is to draw the attention of the humans or Predators the Society is attacking so their peer can come in and eliminate the threat while they’re focused on the Wooden Man. It’s obviously not a place to be if you’re all that concerned with living a long and quiet life.

Our protagonist, Ray Lilly, is a Wooden Man (or becomes one in TP). In that book, he stumbles upon some unauthorized magic use, casts one spell himself (which would be enough to kill him over, but he proves useful to Annalise so she delays that), and then stumbles upon a group of predators and helps Annalise stop them from turning Seattle into a home base to bring in others of their kind and then to destroy humanity.

In Child of Fire, the two find themselves in a small town, where a man/company (it’s hard to tell at first) seemingly has made a deal with a Predator for some benefit to the town, but at the cost of the children of the town—and it happens in such a way that the memories of parents are affected enough that they don’t remember their children ever existed.

Publication/Listening Order

While I do think a good prequel can be fun, by nature they are wholly unnecessary. If you don’t have everything you need in the books/movies/whatever as they were published, the author/creators failed. Also, you probably don’t get something successful enough to generate a prequel.

Again, they’re fun. It can be entertaining to get an explanation for something in the original work (“Oh, so that’s why there’s a lampstand in the middle of the wood”), occasionally it gives you a new perspective on the series, that kind of thing. I was more than happy to read Twenty Palaces when the series had been mothballed, but I wasn’t clamoring for it.

But last year, when Tantor started putting out the whole series in audiobook form (the first book had been already, but the rest hadn’t been), I went with the order that Tantor published—Twenty Palaces first and then moving on to the rest.

I was surprised at how well it flowed. There’s very little time between Twenty Palaces and Child of Fire and it really felt like CoF was a sequel. There were just so many throwaway details in CoF that were there to make it seem like Ray had a past (not that we learned much about it), that there was a little bit of history with Ray and Annalise (but not much of one). As you read it (assuming you read in publication order), there’s a mysterious, violent past—one that it’s good to know Ray has, but we don’t need to know it.

Connolly did a great job of taking those details and building events in Twenty Palaces around them. I’m not saying this is the best way to listen to the books—but it makes them a lot more approachable. I can see why Tantor went the way they did.

Ray Lily

Yes, Ray Lilly is an ex-con with a violent streak. But he sincerely wants to live a straight life—while he admits to himself that he enjoys the rush of violence. He also likes the fact that his work for the Society matters. He tries to be a good, law-abiding citizen as much as possible. He works hard to prevent injury to those who have nothing to do with the Predators.

He’s incredibly loyal to Annalise—which is not a little twisted because Annalise has told him repeatedly that she will kill him.

He’s essentially what you expect in a male UF protagonist—but he’s as close to powerless as you can be in this world and yet survive. Which definitely marks him out as different. He also has a real talent for getting people (many people, anyway) to trust him and is better at inspiring bystanders to action than most UF protagonists (although most of them don’t need to recruit help, and Ray does). There’s a very human quality to Ray that makes you like him.

Annalise Powliss

Annalise is old (well over one hundred years old), but looks younger than Ray. She has a high voice and looks like she hasn’t had a decent meal in ages. But that’s deceptive—she’s supernaturally strong and magically powerful. While she doesn’t relish the prospect of collateral damage/fatalities—she’s familiar enough with the treat posed by Predators that she’s more than willing to let a town’s worth of citizens die to prevent all of humanity from being consumed. Still, she’s largely willing to indulge Ray’s compassion—up to a point.

Annalise has all the powers of your typical UF protagonist—maybe even more. But none of the wit, sarcasm, or optimism. For her, this is a duty, not one she particularly enjoys, but it’s something that has to be done.

Daniel Thomas May

I admit that I was worried about Daniel Thomas May as the narrator for these audiobooks. All I know him from is the Venators series, and this is about as far from a YA Portal Fantasy as you can get. But my worries proved groundless and he does a bang-up job portraying Ray Lilly and the horrors that this world holds.

More than that, I’m glad I listened to these if only for Annalise’s voice. It’s both exactly what Connolly says it sounds like—and is about 3.4 million miles away from what I’d imagined.

So, What Did I Think about these Audiobooks?

They’re just great—I thoroughly enjoyed being back in this world and I still don’t understand why the books weren’t bigger sellers. I hope they find a new audience in audiobook. I don’t know if I’ve ever talked about the series on this blog without using the phrase “criminally underselling,” (or words to that effect). It comes to mind once again, I just don’t get why readers didn’t get behind this.

They’re dark, they’re grim, they’re on the violent end of the UF spectrum (but I can easily find darker, grimmer, and more violent series)—but there’s a glimmer of hope throughout them all. Not just from Ray’s undaunted trust in humanity, but that’s where most of it comes from. Even with all the death and destruction, they’re entertaining reads and you get immersed enough in the world that you don’t want to come out of it.

You really should get these in your earbuds or in front of your eyes.

Smoke by Joe Ide: What Happens When Isaiah Quintabe Leaves LA?

By HCNewton

On February 16, 2021

In Fiction, IQ/Isaiah Quintabe, Joe Ide, Mystery/Detective Fiction/Crime Fiction/Thriller

Smoke

by Joe Ide
Series: IQ, #5

eARC, 336 pg.
Mulholland Books, 2021

Read: February 8-12, 2021
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

Not that any of the previous IQ novels have been cookie cutters of the rest, but this really feels less like an IQ novel than I was ready for. In fact, it felt* like this was more of a Juanell Dodson novel for most of it. When Isaiah left town at the end of Hi Five, he left his friends behind. But their problems didn’t leave with him, they all have to step up and take care of things now without him. But the way they go about taking care of these problems is heavily influenced by Isaiah—he might not be playing an active role in most of the storylines in this book, but this is still his book.

* Yes, I said “felt like,” I could be wrong. This isn’t the kind of blog where you’re going to find me doing word counts to prove things like this.

The LA Stories

Grace is trying to get over Isaiah and focus on her art. She’s got a show coming up and needs to get some more paintings ready—that’s all that matters.

But while she and Isaiah know they’re over—most people don’t (and some of those who do know, believe it’s temporary). When someone that Isaiah helped put away gets back to town and is looking for a little payback, he only hears that Grace is Isaiah’s girl. Which puts her right in the cross-hairs.

Deronda’s life is going great—she’s getting some media attention for her success (which is only serving to build that success), her food trucks are doing great, and her son is fantastic (just ask Deronda, she’ll tell you). But then someone comes along to help himself to a share of that success and uses Janeel as his tool. Deronda goes nuclear and tries everything she can think of to stop this.

Grace tries to help—and gets one of Isaiah’s former clients involved, too. And even Dodson gets in on it. There’s nothing about what they try or the solutions they come up with that Isaiah would have done. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’d have seen some of the problems with her theories and stopped Deronda before she tried to act on them. But for fear of repeating myself, without Isaiah’s influence on the three of them, none of them would’ve tried anything like they did.

Cherise has had enough of Dodson’s bouncing around from opportunity to opportunity, trying to make some money, but with no stability. He needs to grow up and get a real job, and to help with that, she’s arranged for an internship at a local advertising agency. Dodson isn’t interested at all in this, but she’s not negotiating.

So he shows up for the first day, and something clicks. He thinks about the way Isaiah had approached goals in his life and applies it in his way to this situation. It wasn’t quite a “What Would Isaiah Do?” thing, more of a “How Would Isaiah Do This?”

Now there is zero percent of the Dodson storyline that is Crime Fiction. It’s about character development, character growth—it’s a transition point for Dodson. Yet this is my favorite part of this Crime Novel. Because it’s Dodson going through all this. Also, as Dodson pops up in their storylines to help Grace and Deronda, he gets plenty of Crime Fiction action.

There’s a fun part of this storyline where Dodson, who started as Isaiah’s Dr. John Watson, now becomes an Eliza Doolittle figure. Cherise’s mother, Gloria, who tries to equip him into someone who could make it in the Corporate World. On the one hand, I felt bad for poor Dodson—this wasn’t easy for him—but man, it was funny. We also got Dodson’s commentary on Pop Music and TV—which is not to be missed.

The LA stories interweave, Grace helps Dodson, Dodson helps Grace, Dodson chips in with Deronda…and so on. IQ is mentioned, he’s talked about and he even converses with some of them—but not about the challenges they’re dealing with (and vice versa) in this novel. He’s as removed from their stories as possible. Yet, without him, without his influence in their lives—none of this would’ve happened. So it absolutely was still part of an IQ novel, even if it was for all intents and purposes IQ free.

Isaiah’s Story

Isaiah’s trying to be IQ-free, too. He’s pulled up stakes to get away from the enemies he made in Hi-Five, and away from everything else, too. He’s decided he wants a new life. He wants nothing to do with the violence, the depravity, the danger that has so characterized the last few years of his life.

Which, of course, means that despite his best efforts—and really by dumb chance—he’s brought into a hunt for a serial killer by one of the least likely, least credible people we’ve encountered in this series.

While I did say this felt like Dodson’s book most of the time, at one point the Isaiah/Serial Killer story took over—and we see heroism and depravity on display (not quite in equal parts, but we get an excess of both). As much as Isaiah has said he wants away from this life—when the chips are down, he finds a way to try to stop another murder, at great risk to himself.

The final confrontation can be seen as darkly comic or as intensely human and maybe even realistic to an extent you don’t usually see. There’s a visceral desperation to it—everyone involved seems to believe on some level that they’re doomed, but they press on anyway. It’s harrowing really.

So, what did I think about Smoke?

This really feels like a transition novel—probably for the series as a whole, and definitely for all these characters. In a book or two, it’ll be easier to see (not that it’s difficult now) exactly what role this is going to play in things, but choices are made, steps are taken that insure wherever Isaiah ends up, he’s going to be a different man than he was in Hi-Five, ditto for everyone else. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing where Dodson is. Hopefully, he’s still going in the direction he started to move in here.

But that’s for 2023. What about the 2021 novel? While Ide seemed to be writing with an eye to the 2022 and 2023 novels, he also produces a fine read in Smoke. There are a lot of balls in the air, a lot of Point of View characters (those we know and those we only meet here). There are blasts from the past and new characters that we could be seeing in the future.

And while we get some very strong resolution to just about everything in the novel, there’s a cliffhanger at the end that makes it difficult for me to say most of what I want to say. It’s a complete novel, this isn’t just a book that you read so that you have to read the next. But I tell you what, when you finish you want that next IQ novel now.

I think it says a lot about the kind of world that Ide has created that his main character can only show up in 50±% of a novel/its stories and the novel to still be as strong as any of the others. The series isn’t about Isaiah (and other characters) now. It’s about Isaiah, Grace, Dodson, and Deronda—and their families, no matter what the series is called. I love that evolution, that development.

I think existing fans will find their enthusiasm for this series rewarded. I think new readers are going to want to grab the earlier novels to fill in how the characters got to where they are. Either way, people who pick up Smoke are in for a treat.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Mulholland Books via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding: BOOK XV., xi. – BOOK XVI., ii.

By HCNewton

On February 12, 2021

In Fiction, Fridays with The Foundling, General Fiction/Literature

Fridays with the Foundling
We left off last time being told that a great temptation was coming to Tom as another effort by Fortune to keep him away from Sophia.

It may be a great temptation, but it’s one that takes very little time or effort on his part (well, maybe some effort), and a mere 5 paragraphs—from the introduction of temptation to resolution. A rich widow who lives near the Miller residence asks Tom to court her and pretty much says she’ll make his worth his while monetarily. As he’s practically broke, this is tempting. Also, he really likes the woman, and it seems as if Sophia’s about to be out of reach really soon. He might as well, right?

But something stops him—it wouldn’t be right, so he turns her (and her money) down. “While Jones was exulting in the consciousness of his integrity,” Partridge comes in with news—he ran into an old friend, Black George. It took George a while to remember him, but once he did their friendship had been rekindled. George is in town for Blifil’s marriage to Sophia, but isn’t a fan of the man. He’ll gladly take a letter to Sophia from Tom. And so ends Book XV.

Book XVI begins with a chapter on the difficulty of writing prologues, and well, yeah…not much to say there.

Sophia refuses to consent to marry Blifil, so her father locks her in a room and then goes to drink and talk with the parson he brought along for “that evening and great part of the succeeding day, during which period nothing happened of sufficient consequence to find a place in this history.”

Then an army officer shows up to make Lord Fellamar’s proposal again. It doesn’t go well. At all and a tussle ensues. Eventually the officer leaves and Western tries again to convince Sophia to just give up and go along with this plan. She refuses again, definitively. Then she offers to stay with him, as she loves her father so much. If he’ll only stop pressuring her into an unhappy marriage, she’ll take care of him and only marry if he approves.

That doesn’t appeal to him at all. So he locks her up again,

departing with a very vulgar observation on the effect of tears…and returned to the parson, who said everything he durst in behalf of the young lady, which, though perhaps it was not quite so much as his duty required, yet was it sufficient to throw the squire into a violent rage, and into many indecent reflections on the whole body of the clergy, which we have too great an honour for that sacred function to commit to paper.

I don’t see the point of the whole Widow-throwing-herself-at-Tom Chapter, hopefully, it pays off eventually. But the other two chapters of story are pretty entertaining—full of great overly-long speeches. Still, it feels like too much time was spent spinning our wheels. I should be used to it, but it felt like momentum had been building lately. I glanced at chapter titles for the rest of Book XVI, and I think it’s going to be pretty slow, but building to something big. There’s not much left to go, things had better happen soon.

The Friday 56 for 2/12/21: Phantom Song by Kate Sheeran Swed

By HCNewton

On February 12, 2021

In Currently Reading, Fiction, News/Misc., Quotations, Science Fiction, The Friday 56

This is a weekly bloghop hosted by Freda’s Voice

RULES:
The Friday 56 Grab a book, any book.
Turn to Page 56 or 56% on your ereader. If you have to improvise, that is okay.
Find a snippet, short and sweet.
Post it

from page 56 of:
Phantom Song

Phantom Song by Kate Sheeran Swed

“The new ballet dancer entered from the wrong wing tonight,” she said-slash-sang, switching on the apartment’s news holo as she passed through the living room. She loved to fill her home with layers of background noise, constant streams of chatter over music over more chatter. She had no trouble flitting around or holding conversations without paying attention to any of it.

Sam, on the other hand, could never fully tune out the babble of voices. He tended to get pulled in. But Aunt C had given him a place to stay, and he didn’t feel right complaining.

She bustled into the kitchen and set her bags on the counter without glancing at him, removing containers that smelled like chicken and peanut sauce, with a tang of something peppery.

A Few Thoughts about Forged by Benedict Jacka

By HCNewton

On February 11, 2021

In Alex Verus, Benedict Jacka, Fiction, Urban Fantasy

Forged

by Benedict Jacka
Series: Alex Verus, #11

Mass Market Paperback, 294 pg.
Ace Books, 2020

Read: December 17-22, 2020
Grab a copy from your local indie bookstore!

The whole time I read this, I kept thinking, “How do I write something about this?” More than a month and a half later, I’m still not sure.

Book Blurb

I’m so unsure what to say, that I’m not even going to attempt to summarize the setup. I’ll just steal the back of the book:

To protect his friends, Mage Alex Verus has had to change–and embrace his dark side. But the life mage Anne has changed too, and made a bond with a dangerous power. She’s going after everyone she’s got a grudge against–and it’s a long list.
In the meantime, Alex has to deal with his arch-enemy, Levistus. The Council’s death squads are hunting Alex as well as Anne, and the only way for Alex to stop them is to end his long war with Levistus and the Council, by whatever means necessary. It will take everything Alex has to stay a step ahead of the Council and stop Anne from letting the world burn.

Not Quite Fully-Formed Thoughts

I was blown away by the first novel in this series, Fated back in ’12. The cover caught my eye, the pull-quote from Jim Butcher on the front put it in my checkout stack at the Library. I was impressed enough that I bought the paperback almost immediately. And the series has been an auto-buy for me since. Here we are at the penultimate novel and so much of my loss for words is attributable to not knowing what he’s going to do with the events of this book.

Yes, it’s a complete story—we even get introduced to a new character. But I’m not sure what any of the events will actually mean for Alex/the series, so my judgment feels like it’s in limbo. If he does X, Y, or Z in Risen, well, sure it’ll be worth it. But if he goes in another direction…I just don’t know.

I’ve read four Urban Fantasy series from start to conclusion. Anna Strong, The Hollows,* Kitty Norville, and The Iron Druid Chronicles. If you stand back and take in the series as a whole, the first three had a very similar arc, and the IDC had a different one. It sure seems like Jacka’s taking a more IDC approach. If I’m right, that puts things in the last couple of books in a certain kind of light, and I can evaluate them on that basis. If I’m wrong (to some extent) it puts those things in a different light, and I’ll think about them differently. At the moment the book is in a pretty “is the dress white and gold or black and blue” kind of place for me. I don’t usually say that kind of thing about a book, I normally know what I think about a book without wondering too much about the future of the sequel/series. But I can’t help it this time, even if it feels like a cop-out.

Which is not to say that I think there’s a superior way for Jacka to land this plane—I’m confident he’s going to nail the landing regardless.

* Yeah, sure, that was temporarily concluded, but let’s pretend that Harrison didn’t come back for the sake of this paragraph

So, can I say anything? Yeah. This was the most violent of any of the books, Alex knows full well that this is the endgame for something, and has nothing holding him back. I’m sure that in many ways the Alex Verus of the early series wouldn’t do what he’s doing now, and wouldn’t want to. But things have changed him, and he doesn’t have time to waste pulling his punches.

Alex is running out of choices—an odd thing for a diviner. He’s burnt a lot of bridges lately—many of which I held out hope that he could repair. Instead, he burnt them to the ground, gathered the ashes, stomped on them, and then scattered them to the four winds. I’m not sure that he has a whole lot of moves left—if Alex is the King on a chessboard, it truly seems he’ll be checkmated in just a couple of moves.

I enjoyed this book, I don’t particularly like the choices that Alex is making—but I get why he’s making them. I don’t particularly like the choices Jacka’s making, either—but I think he’s probably doing the right thing for the series.

I’m not sure what else to say, really. Come back this fall after Risen and I’ll probably be a bit more definitive.

There was another realisation too, something that was harder to explain. I had the feeling that Morden was going to survive all this. He wasn’t aiming to settle grudges and wasn’t seeking the crown, and because of that everyone else would always have someone they wanted dead more badly than him. When this was over he was going to be walking away, back to the forests and streams of his shadow realm and to his new group of disciples. The same wasn’t likely to be true for me.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.