Category: Fiction Page 273 of 341

by Seanan McGuire
Series: Wayward Children, #1

Hardcover, 169 pg.
Tor.com, 2016

Read: April 16, 2016

“. . . we went through. We came out on this moor that seemed to go on forever, between the mountains and the angry sea. And that sky! I’d never seen so many stars before, or such a red, red moon. The door slammed shut behind us. We couldn’t have gone back if we’d wanted to — and we didn’t want to. We were twelve. We are going to have an adventure if it killed us.”

“Did you? asked Nancy. “Have an adventure, I mean?”

“Sure,” said Jack bleakly. “It didn’t even kill us. Not permanently anyway. But it changed everything.”

One of my favorite book bloggers to read (and not just because our tastes are similar) began his take on Every Heart a Doorway by saying:

Sometimes we either meet a book (or a novella, in this case,) that is precisely the right fit for your soul, (at the moment,) or just happens to be original enough right when you need it, that it fills your life and your mind with brightness and joy.

For me, this is one of those pieces. To muddy the waters even more, I’m an unabashed fan of the author and I’m likely to pick up all of her writings without even checking the subject matter because I simply trust the woman to steer me to any shore.

If I didn’t start off by quoting that, I’d end paraphrasing/plagiarizing it.

So here’s the deal in a world where portal fantasies are possible, and children all over the world are going through them — à la Lucy Pevensie et al., Dorothy Gale, September, Quentin Coldwater, Alice, Jason Walker, etc. — and, sadly (?) most of these children end up back home. Some of them are glad to be back in this world and want to put their adventures behind them — a lot of them don’t want to be here anymore and want to return to wherever it was they went. Both kinds of children have a hard time coping in this world and need help. Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is for the latter kind.

Nancy is a girl recently returned, and is very different than the girl her parents have been missing. They want her fixed, they want their daughter back — not whoever this person is with different attitudes, actions, clothes, etc. — West doesn’t promise that (but she may have allowed them to think she’ll do that, just so she can help Nancy), but she can help Nancy adjust to this world. So she joins the small student body at the private school/treatment center. The last thing Nancy wants is to be fixed, to be that girl again — which just means she fits in here, with returned kids from all over the country, who’ve been in all sorts of worlds. As Nancy begins to understand the nature of these other worlds, the effects they have on children, and why many of them want to leave again, so do we.

It turns out, all of the residents of West’s Home are going to learn that you can have plenty of adventures here, too. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.

I really liked all of these children — the adults we met, too, actually — Jack in particular. But every one of them — even the less-than-nice ones — are great characters and I’d have gladly spent another 200 pages with them, easy.

The writing is incredible — not that I’ve ever had any real problems with McGuire before, but she kicked it up a notch here — and is writing a different kind of story than I’m used to, so she writes differently. This book took me longer to read than it should’ve, because I had to go back and reread several sentences/lines/paragraphs — not because I needed to read them again for clarification, but because they were so perfect, so quotable, so . . . something. I’m not going to start quoting beyond what I opened with, because I don’t know if I could stop — Laura got two of them I made notes about. You could literally be amused, melancholy, horrified, feeling whimsy, and nervous within a couple of paragraphs — only to turn the page and start all over again. Not because she was jerking you around or anything, it’s just that kind of story, that kind of playing with language, just that kind of broken reality.

McGuire gave us such a satisfying ending — complete, tidy, fitting, bittersweet, heartwarming — and then I read another paragraph or so, and it’s so much better (and all of the above to the next degree) once you got to the actual ending. Then I closed the book and I teared up a little — for no reason at all, really, but it felt really appropriate.

Can I say this is positively Gaiman-esque without making it sound like McGuire’s derivative in any way? I don’t want to even hint at suggesting that — but man, if you like Neil Gaiman’s stuff — get this. If you’ve ever read a portal fantasy and wondered what happened to the kids afterwards– get this. If you like things that are good, and don’t mind magic in your reading — get this.

—–

5 Stars

United States of Books – Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion

By HCNewton

On April 18, 2016

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, United States of Books

Play It as It Lays

by Joan Didion

Author: Elisha at Rainy Day Reviews

Welcome to another installment of the United States of Books! See full details here. Today we will visit California with Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion. <b?Entertainment Weekly says “Didion’s 1970 classic, about a woman and a marriage breaking down, is both an ode to the freedom of the freeways and a eulogy for dreams shriveled by the sun.”

SYNOPSIS

(From Goodreads.com)
A ruthless dissection of American life in the late 1960s, Play It as It Lays captures the mood of an entire generation, the ennui of contemporary society reflected in spare prose that blisters and haunts the reader. Set in a place beyond good and evil – literally in Hollywood, Las Vegas, and the barren wastes of the Mojave Desert, but figuratively in the landscape of an arid soul – it remains more than three decades after its original publication a profoundly disturbing novel, riveting in its exploration of a woman and a society in crisis and stunning in the still-startling intensity of its prose.

REVIEW

I don’t think this book is your typical read, like a James Patterson or Jodi Picoult…not saying they are typical because they are amazing and talented authors. But Joan Didion is not a Jodi Picoult type author. Joan grabs you with this story from the very beginning, waiting for the other shoe to drop. With school, my child, and life in general, it took me a couple weeks to read this “can’t put this book down” book because I wanted to see if this ‘sad female with nothing but time and money’ would do something with herself and stop feeling sorry for herself. I did have empathy for her as the story continued because as the reader can tell she is truly sad and can’t pull herself out of it. You want to go into the book and shake her but hug her at the same time. There was twists and turns in this story I was not expecting but was pleasantly surprised by. I tend to be a cynical person (in the Miranda from Sex in the City kind of way) so when I started reading Maria’s character, I thought oh good Lord…but then, something happens (no spoilers!) This was a memorable read, for sure. It is also one that I would recommend to others.

Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire

By HCNewton

On April 14, 2016

In InCryptid, K-O, Seanan McGuire, Urban Fantasy

Chaos Choreography

by Seanan McGuire
Series: InCryptid, #5

Mass Market Paperback, 345 pg.
DAW, 2016

Read: March 24 – 25, 2016

Hey, wow, who’d have thunk it — a positive review of a Seanan McGuire novel from The Irresponsible Reader?!? Next thing, I’ll be telling you that the sky is blue, water is wet and J. J. Abrams likes lens flares. But what do you want from me? Seanan McGuire is a great author who consistently puts out fun reads. The only reason that she hasn’t taken over the world yet is that she doesn’t want to.

Oh, spoiler alert: I’m probably going to be giving very positive reviews to two other McGuire works in the next week or two.

So what can I say about this one? It’s probably the most enjoyable, most entertaining, most emotionally resonant, best all-around entry in the InCryptid series to date.

Verity and Dominic are living with her parents, which is going about as well as you could expect, and trying to get used to life outside of NYC when Verity gets a call from the reality show she came thiiiiiis close to winning before we met her in Discount Armageddon (well, her cover identity got a call, technically). They’re doing a best-of season, and need her to round out the cast.

Next thing they know, they’re working up a new cover for Dominic and heading for L. A. Where we meet Verity’s long-lost besties, a would-be frenemy (if anyone took her seriously), and a few cryptids.

We get the return of the lady Dragons — both the group we met in Discount as well as L.A.’s very own, plus a few others. The cryptid cultures of L. A. (and the West in general) developed in very interesting ways. Sadly, one of the things that seems to be pretty popular are snake cults — there’s one that seems to be pretty serious about things and are using human sacrifices to power a spell.

Which means that Verity has to do a little more than just dance, she has to find the cultists before it’s too late. She calls upon friends new and old, Dominic, even the Aeslin mice and a Price that we’ve heard of, just never met. Leading to a final confrontation that’s one for the ages — and nothing will be the same again for the Prices family. I’m not so sure that it’ll be the same again for anyone.

I’d happily read about any and all of the new cryptids we meed here again, and most of the humans, too (not the evil ones, just for the record). McGuire’s assembled a great bunch of characters for this one.

I love the fact that not only do we get to see the Aeslin mice developing new religious celebrations, but we see them in action — putting their tiny little lives on the line to save the day. I also like to see Verity coming to grips with the choices she’s been making the last few years, what that means for her, and what place dancing and the rest have in her life.

Major kudos to McGuire for getting me to give a rip — not much of one, but still — about dance competitions. I don’t get dance — I mean dancing, I get. I’m no good at it, but I get. But watching dance — any form – I just don’t see the appeal. But for a few pages here and there I was almost interested in Verity’s other career. That’s a pretty major accomplishment.

Now I’ve just got to settle in and wait a year for lil’ sister Antimony’s first novel. Is it 2017 yet?

—–

4 Stars

Once a Crooked Man by David McCallum

By HCNewton

On April 12, 2016

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

Once a Crooked Man

by David McCallum

Hardcover, 337 pg.
Minotaur Books, 2016

Read: March 22 – 30, 2016

If you’ve enjoyed Hugh Laurie’s The Gun Seller, Eoin Colfer’s Daniel McEvoy books, Elmore Leonard’s lighter works (like say, the Chili Palmer books), or the like — there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll enjoy this.

Max Bruschetti is a pretty successful organized crime figure, but circumstances have brought Max and his brothers, Enzo and Sal to the point where they’ve decided to retire, and live off the smart investments made of their ill-gotten gains. There’s just a few details to clean up first. By “details” I, of course, mean employees who can testify against them; and by “clean up,” I mean “kill.”

Harry Murphy, a frequently employed actor and very occasional public unrinator, overhears the Bruschetti brothers making these plans. For reasons beyond my ken, he decides that instead of calling the police, he hops on a plane to London to warn one of the targets.

Things get strange, twisty, turny and out of control from there.

Along the way, Harry meets DS Elizabeth Carswell who accompanies him back to New York to track down the people who sent the killer to England. Lizzie is a great character — I’d gladly read a series about her (at least her life leading up to the events of this book, I’m not so sure how interested I’d be in what comes after — but maybe); tough, smart, damaged in the way the best police characters are.

The characters in this book are just great — even people we meet for just a few pages. There are so many details to some of these characters that we just don’t need, and other authors wouldn’t bother including. But McCallum does, and I’m so glad he did.

There’s one thing that I can’t believe an editor let go — there’s a rape scene. I’ve read worse (i.e., more graphic, violent, horrific, detailed), but it was pretty unnerving — and an oddly dark turn for this book. But what’s worse is the way that the victim reacted — not immediately, that seemed to line up with reality — but longer-term, that was just wrong. It was tasteless, questionable in terms of characters, and (at least in the eyes of some) socially irresponsible. I really tarnished the whole book for me (and the more I think about it, the worse it gets — so I’m moving on).

I wouldn’t say that this was funny, but there was a comedic slant to it. Plenty of action, a dash of violence, and plenty of good ol’ entertainment bag for your buck. McCallum’s got actual writing chops and I hope has another novel up his sleeve — it’s not like Ducky has a lot to do on NCIS anyway, he’s got time.

—–

3.5 Stars

United States of Books – The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

By HCNewton

On April 11, 2016

In Fiction, General Fiction/Literature, United States of Books

The Yearling

by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

Author: Laura at 125Pages.com

Welcome to another installment of the United States of Books! See full details here. Today we will visit Florida with The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Entertainment Weekly says “Working with Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s editor, Rawlings was pushed to look into her own history for literary fodder, which led to her 1938 Pulitzer winner about a Florida boy and his pet deer.”

bambigif The Yearling is a book I have heard about over the years, but was never super interested in reading. I could guess the outcome of a book centered around a young boy and his pet deer living on a hardscrabble farm in the 1870’s. I had read Old Yeller and seen Bambi, I knew what was coming. So I wasn’t thrilled when the random picking for the United States of Books challenge offered me up The Yearling. I don’t think I can really spoil a book that is over 75 years old, but just in case, I will only say I was right about the ending. However, I was mistaken about how I would feel about the book as a whole.

The tale of the Jody, Ora and Ezra “Penny” Baxter is not one of an easy life. Farming a small plot of land in central Florida, they hunt and trade for what they need. Jody is the only child of seven born, who lived past the age of three. Trailing his pa and learning to do what is necessary to survive, Jody wants nothing more than a pet to call his own. Then on a hunt, he finds a small deer and is determined to make it his own. Flag soon becomes part of the family and even goes on hunts with Jody and his father. Weaving around the story of the fawn and his boy was the epic hunt of a troublesome bear, a snakebite, and a very unique cast of characters.

Now that I have read it, I am glad I had the chance to, as some of the writing was just lyrical. Especially the parts describing the land surrounding the farm.

Around a bend in the road, the dry growth of pines and scrub oak disappeared. There was a new lushness. Sweet gums and bay were here, and, like sign-posts indicating the river, cypress. Wild azaleas were blooming late in the low places, and the passion flower opened its lavender corollas along the road

I could see why this was EW‘s Florida pick as the location was almost a secondary character in the story.

The fall fruits were not yet ripe, papaw and gallberry and persimmon. The mast of the pines, the acorns of the oaks, the berries of the palmetto, would not be ready until the first frost. The deer were feeding on the tender growth, bud of sweet bay and of myrtle, sprigs of wire-grass, tips of arrowroot in the ponds and prairies, and succulent lily stems and pads. The type of food kept them in the low, wet places, the swamps, the prairies and the bay-heads.

Unfortunately, the jarring difference between the lyrical descriptions and the regional dialect of the characters when they spoke, made this a difficult read for me. The way they thought in their heads did not match the words they said and this made the transitions very hard. I would almost prefer a read like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn where, while there were numerous regional dialects, all the characters thought and spoke in them. When you read a description as beautiful as the one above then the very next life is something along the lines of “Don’t go gittin faintified on me.”, it pulls you out of the story and throws a wrench in your pacing.

The Yearling had some amazing moments with the descriptions by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. It is not a book that I would personally read again as the storyline is not what I enjoy and the transitions between characters thinking and speaking was too harsh. For the time it was written though, I can see why it received such high praise. It contained heartbreak, action and basic human survival tempered by a strong family bond.

Favorite lines – A mark was on him from the day’s delight, so that all his life, when April was a thin green and the flavor of rain was on his tongue, an old wound would throb and a nostalgia would fill him for something he could not quite remember.

Have you read The Yearling, or added it to your TBR?

Waylaid by Kim Harrison

By HCNewton

On April 8, 2016

In F-J, Fiction, Kim Harrison, Science Fiction, The Hollows (Rachel Morgan), The Peri Reed Chronicles, Urban Fantasy

Waylaid

by Kim Harrison
Series: The Peri Reed Chronicles/The Hollows

Kindle Single, 87 pg.
Pocket Star, 2016

Read: April 5, 2016

In her Foreword, Harrison says, “Waylaid still reads like self-made fan fiction to me, ” thereby denying book bloggers and other amateur reviewers the opportunity to use that label. Which is a shame, because that’d be a great way to sum it up. Thankfully, it saves us all from making the same joke.

In a move as classic as Uncle Jesse visiting Los Angeles to say “howdy” to Enos^*, Harrison brings much beloved Rachel Morgan into the new, awesome, and in much need of publicity world of Peri Reed. Set sometime after the main events of The Witch with No Name (but not necessarily the last chapter), and before The Drafter, Waylaid will serve as a great introduction for fans of Morgan’s series.

A drunken mishap, inspired by a silly Urban Fantasy TV show (that I’d totally watch), results in Jack summoning Rachel in to Peri’s apartment. Jack and Peri assume she’s a counter-agent who’d been waiting for them to return to attack. Rachel has no clue who they are other than nitwits who summoned her away from a date and started attacking her. It doesn’t take her long to realize that her magic doesn’t work, and wherever she is, it’s a world she doesn’t recognize — Detroit still exists, people have technology she can only dream about, and the ley lines are deader than Arizona back home. The clock’s ticking and Peri and Rachel have to team up to get Rachel back home.

It’s silly, it’s fun — it’s pretty faithful to both series, it hopefully helps boost sales of The Drafter and its sequel.

I don’t really a lot to say without getting pretty heavy into spoilers, but I thought it was worth the pittance I spent on it, probably a little more. Fans of Harrison should give it a shot.

^* I just revealed my age there, I know. I also know there are older examples, but that’s the first in my memory.

—–

3 Stars

The Red Storm by Grant Bywaters

By HCNewton

On April 8, 2016

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

The Red Storm

by Grant Bywaters

Hardcover, 277 pg.
Minotaur Books, 2015

Read: March 24, 2016

So you’ve got a barely scraping by, more literate than he appears, PI in the 1930’s. He’s good with a gun, better with his fists, his mouth gets him into trouble. He has a friend with the police, and many more on the streets (well, at least people who owe him favors and vice versa). It’s not NY or LA, but so far, this is pretty straight-forward — even having his office in New Orleans doesn’t make him stand out too much. Doesn’t mean it’s bad — just that this is a variation on a theme.

What if I told you that he’s black?

Well, now here we have something new. This is a pretty big variation. Thankfully, this isn’t just a gimmick, either.

Once an up and coming boxer in NYC, William Fletcher realized that the color of his skin was going to keep him out of Title contention and falls into a life of crime, acting as the muscle for a minor-league gangster, Storm. He’s not all that crazy about the life, but he goes along for a while. Storm gets desperate, does some really stupid things and has to get out of town. Sometime in the next decade, Fletcher moves down to New Orleans, gets himself a PI license and sets up shop.

Storm comes to town, looking up his old “friend” and asks him to look for his long-lost daughter, Zelda. Without taking money from a fugitive, or even agreeing to work for him, Fletcher tracks down the girl (now a lounge singer), but will only tell Storm where if she agrees. While she’s thinking about it, things get interesting.

People start trying to kill her, for starters, and she hires Fletcher to be a body-guard. While the city begins to erupt in a gang war, somehow Zelda and Fletcher are in the middle of it — neither understands why, but Fletcher is going to find out.

The characters are so rich, so flawed, so human. Fletcher’s having to be creative to get access to people and places while being black in Louisiana in the 30’s is compelling to watch. He’s a realist about the disadvantages his color imposes on him. He’s not happy about them, but he’s not off to change hearts and minds, he just deals with the reality he finds himself in. Zelda’s deeply flawed, but trying to overcome her flaws (mostly). The criminals are great characters, too — classic mobsters in the ’30’s mold.

This is at once a historical mystery and a hard-boiled P.I. novel, a combination I hadn’t realized I wanted. But man, I had a blast with this. Along those lines, I there were a couple of vocabulary choices that seemed anachronistic, but they weren’t so obnoxious that they took me out of the moment or made me want to go look up to see if they were fitting for the time.

I feel like I should have more to say, but I really don’t. At this point, it’s just gushing — Red Storm is taut and well-paced, with a good mystery at the core and a P. I. as knight errant — protecting the damsel and righting wrongs. Fletcher is the real deal, so is Bywaters. I hope to see a lot more of both of them, soon.

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of this by the author in exchange for my review, which didn’t influence my take. The fact that he seemed willing to banter with me and caught a reference I made in an early email didn’t either — probably.

—–

4 Stars

A Few Quick Questions With…Marjorie Thelen

By HCNewton

On April 7, 2016

In A Few Quick Questions With..., Fiction, Science Fiction

Earlier today I posted my thoughts on A Far Out Galaxy, the first volume in Marjorie Thelen’s Deovolante Space Opera. Thelen was kind enough to give me a few moments of her time to A my Q’s — not much story-specific (and no spoilers), but we touched on this book as well as writing in general. I kept the number down, because we’re all better off with her working on her next book(s) rather than spending time answering all the questions I might have. I appreciate her time and answers (you never go wrong with a tip of the cap to Robert B. Parker around here).

There was some pretty extensive world-building in A Far-Out Galaxy — how much of it had you done before starting, and how much was on the fly?

All on the fly. I started with the idea that I had read about at the time, back in the late 80s that we live on an insignificant planet in an insignificant galaxy. And I had read some of Von Daniken’s books like Chariots of the Gods and his ideas that the lines on the Cusco plane were drawn by extraterrestrials. So I thought what if an extraterrestrial civilization had seeded Earth with human beings and then stepped away. That is how a Far Out Galaxy started. I had two main characters in mind– male and female leads. I do no outlining before I write. I just sit down every morning and say, I wonder what they are up to today.

What’s the difference in how you write/how you have to think/how you plot a SF story from a Mystery (or something else)? Is there a genre that you particularly enjoy reading, but could never write?

I don’t plot out the story ahead of time. Whether mystery or sci fic I know I have to keep the plot moving so I try to have a hook at the end of each scene or chapter. There’s always a bit of mystery in the sci fi books I write. I once read to paint oneself into a corner in a mystery and I try to do that. It is sometimes a challenge to get out of that corner! So far I’ve managed to do it. I seldom read fiction anymore. I’ve read so much romance, mystery, thriller, etc. that they all seem the same. I seldom read today’s sci fi because it is dark and dystopian and that bores me to tears. A Far Out Galaxy and its sequels are light and fun and that is what I like to read. I read a lot of non-fiction, which I would never attempt to write. I like to stick to fiction and make things up. My mind needs something to create, or it gets me in trouble.

Who are some of your major influences? (whether or not you think those influences can be seen in your work — you know they’re there)

Robert B. Parker and Tony Hillerman in mystery. I love how Parker writes almost entirely in dialogue and that is how I like to write. In one sentence Hillerman can describe an entire landscape and I try to get close to that and not get wordy in descriptions. Ursula Le Guin, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, Kurt Vonnegut are the sci fi giants on my bookshelf. I especially admire Ursula’s amazing writing career and her ability to take a stand on issues.

I’ve often heard that writers, or artists in general, will forget hundreds of positive reviews but always remember the negative — what’s the worst thing that someone’s said about one of your books, and has it altered your approach to future books?

One time I entered a romance writing contest and one of the judges said my heroine was too stupid to live. That heroine is Vita in A Far Out Galaxy and some people love her to death. The American reading public is very fickle, and an author has to keep that in mind. I just keep on writing ’cause I like to.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on the fourth book on in the Deovolante series called Earth Rising. A Far Out Galaxy is the first book in that series, Hoodoo Canyon is the second, and The Next Universe Over is the third. This past week I resurrected a book called Wings of the Dawn, an Oregon Trail epic, that I started six years ago but never finished. After writing around 100 pages I decided that I would outline the rest of the book. When I completed the outline I thought this is a stupid story and never finished the book. One of my writer friends in my writer group, the Harney Basin Writers, keeps nagging me to finish that book because she really likes what I have written so far. I just might. But I’m not going to follow the dang outline.

A Far Out Galaxy by Marjorie Thelen

By HCNewton

On April 7, 2016

In Fiction, Science Fiction

A Far Out Galaxy

by Marjorie Thelen
Series: Deovolante Space Opera, #1

PDF, 278 pg.
CreateSpace, 2014

Read: March 26, 2016

If you don’t mind getting Romance into your Science Fiction/Space Opera or SF into your Romance in a literary Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, this might be your cup of tea. This is light-hearted, almost humorous — don’t think Scalzi, Adams, Holt, Cline or Rob Reid. Think Evanovich in Space. It’s an odd mix of Space Opera, Romance and humor — mostly pulled off well. In the end, it wasn’t my thing, but it was fairly well executed.

Will and Vita are planetary royalty, who’ve been ordered to go on a mission together by a higher governing power. Vita’s a queen on a technologically-oriented planet, and like many before her, she’s a clone. It’s about time for her to clone herself to get her successor trained and ready in time. But there’s a problem, the cloning device is on the blink and no one can repair it. So, they’re going to have to take care of the succession the old-fashioned way. Enter Will — a Captain Kirk type. Handsome, charming, a gal in every space port, and a heckuva warrior. If anyone can get the might-as-well-be-asexual Vita pregnant, it’s him. There’s a Dave and Maddy vibe going throughout the early chapters, but you know she’s going to succumb to his charms (if only because she has to — at least at first). This would be the Romance bit.

Meanwhile, they’re being pursued by Will’s half-brother and other assorted nefarious types to interfere with their mission to check in on their colony, Earth, as well as to get up to other mischief. The colony is in pretty rough shape, what with the citizens acting the way we do — but they’ve got trick or two up their sleeve to get us back on track (which may or may not be entirely successful). This would be the Science Fiction/Space Opera bit.

Now, given everything that they’re able to do later in the book I’m not sure that I buy the whole “we can’t repair the cloning device” thing — I bet later on that we find out that The Powers That Be orchestrated the sabotage. But…that’s neither here nor there.

Thelen gets into some pretty impressive world-building (even if the science is . . . not that science-y), complete with multiple governing bodies and hierarchies, etc. Although, while I tracked with all the assorted layers of orders and bloodlines and whatnot that they talked about involving those on the mission (and related to it), I found it hard to understand — much less care — about the problems back home in their home galaxy. Hopefully, in future installments Thelen gets the reader to care — or to not worry about it and focus on the characters we do know.

Some of the characters here are pretty well-developed and engaging — though a few were little more than names and ranks, but that worked out okay given the story. The love story didn’t work for me — at least not in the early stages. I had no problem with it i the last half, though, and that’s when the book started working its charm on me (those two are pretty likely linked). The story was okay — but it felt like a lot of it was just to set up the rest of the series, not to tell a story in this book — but there was enough completed here to feel okay about it.

I think this is the kind of thing a lot of people would enjoy — on the whole, sadly, I’m not really one of them — but it’s fairly well written. I did end up liking it eventually — not a whole lot, but enough that I could see the merits and see why others would probably get into the series. I’m glad I pushed through my early disinterest to get to some pretty good stuff in the latter half. If Evanovich in Space sounds like your cup of tea, give this series a look.

Disclaimer: I was graciously provided a copy of this book by the author in exchange for my thoughts, even if it took me 3 months longer than I’d hoped to get to them.

—–

3 Stars

The Watcher in the Wall by Owen Laukkanen

By HCNewton

On April 6, 2016

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

The Watcher in the Wall

by Owen Laukkanen
Series: Stevens & Windermere, #5

Hardcover, 354 pg.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2016

Read:April 4 – 5, 2016

Not too long after the events of The Stolen Ones, a classmate of Kirk Stevens’ daughter, Andrea, a victim of bullying and neglect, kills himself. Andrea wants justice for the classmate — she wants the bullies punished, she wants the message to go forth that this kind of thing can’t happen, and she wants her father to insure that happens. He sympathizes, he even empathizes, but he really can’t do anything. But he pokes around a little bit — and he and Carla Windermere discover that there was a suicide pact — that some girl in Philly is supposed to be killing herself now, too.

They may not be able to do anything for the dead boy, but they can try to keep this girl alive.

Only . . . there is no girl. Or at least, she isn’t who she said she was. Mental alarm bells start going off, and the two agent soon figure out that there’s one person out there online, posing as a concerned stranger, helping others to commit suicide — maybe even talking them into it, for whatever reason they might have. Once you start to learn the reason, you become convinced that this person is a certain level of despicable.

The original suicide brought up a lot of memories for Carla — things she’d tried to forget from her school days. She throws herself into this investigation, putting even more pressure on herself than usual. She talks to her partner and her boyfriend less, develops a shorter fuse, and drinks and smokes worse than she usually does. She also refuses to tell anyone what’s going on == she’ll only say she’s trying to save kids’ lives.

The two start traveling the country, learning more about certain types of online forums than anyone should know, trying to hunt down their suspect before he/she gets talks another teen into making a mortal choice. The novel has breakneck pace, and enough twists to keep you engaged — all of which is good.

Because of the focus on Windermere, and the pressing nature of the investigation (not that their other cases have been leisurely), we spent absolutely no time with the Stevens family after Andrea brought a witness to her father. That’s just strange — granted, it wasn’t until after I was finished with the novel that I realized we hadn’t spent time with them — but I knew something was missing. The Stevens gang has been such a fixture for at least a few chapters in these books, to not have them is jarring. But we did get a lot of time with Carla and Mathers — actually about the same as usual (maybe less). But in comparison, we got a lot more. Still, the lack of personal lives in this novel drove home two things — the urgency Carla felt, and the weight of the rest of the emotions/regrets/anger she was dealing with.

This is the second novel in the last half-year that I’ve read dealing with people being talked into suicide. Both very different, both compelling in their own rights — this was a tad more believable, really. Still, I hope this isn’t a trend that continues.

I couldn’t believe how quickly I sped through this — not just because Laukkanen writes with lean, confident prose, but it was the characters, the plot — you read this and you just have to know how it turns out (okay, sure, you are rightly convinced that Kirk and Carla will get their man — but how, and what the body count will be along the way, that’s the question). Yeah, the weakest of the 5, but it was satisfying, entertaining and engaging. Good enough for me, and enough to keep me coming back for more.

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3 Stars