From the Mounds

From the Mounds by James A. Moore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From the Mounds can be downloaded from here for free.

Tusk is a fierce warrior and a king. This is the story of how he became king.

This story was intense. Learning more detail of Tusk's story just shows how insane life is for the people of the Seven Forges and how dedicated they are to their gods. Tusk is terrifying to say it nicely.

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AMERICAN GODS BY NEIL GAIMAN

American Gods by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

***Now a celebrated TV series on Starz.***

“‘I read some book about brains,’ she said. ‘My roommate had it and she kept waving it around. It was like, how five thousand years ago the lobes of the brain fused and before that people thought when the right lobe of the brain said anything it was the voice of some god telling them what to do. It’s just brains.’

‘I like my theory better,’ said Shadow.

‘What’s your theory?’

‘That back then people used to run into the gods from time to time.’”


Shadow Moon is played by Ricky Whittle. Excellent casting.

There are few experiences that will teach someone more about himself better than going to prison. It is a microcosm. It is like shoving the world into a shoebox. There are rules, not prison rules, but prisoner rules, and you better get them figured out in a hurry. It is one of the few places remaining where people really have to interact and deal with other people. Inmates learn how to cooperate, or really bad things happen.

Plenty of bad things happen anyway.

Time keeps traveling at a normal rate outside, but inside the box, this minute is the same as the last minute, and when a person emerges from prison, it is like being dropped into a different world because his brain is still shackled in place, in whatever decade he first went into prison. A person spends a lot of time with himself in lockup. They become either a better version of themselves or a horrible twisted version of who they were supposed to be.

Shadow lost his temper and lost three years. He came out of prison probably a better person than who he was going to be. He learned to ignore the bullshit and focus on what was most important...living.

The universe is not done fucking with Shadow, not by a long shot. Prison is just the beginning, the burnishing of his character. He barely has made footprints in the dusty highway of his new life when he meets a god. Like it would with any of us, it takes a while for him to really believe he has met a god. This supposed god doesn’t glow or have a thunderous voice. He is abnormal, but in a kooky uncle sort of way, who besides being weird also happens to be a con man. He is frankly...kind...of...annoying.

Gods have fallen on hard times in America.

This god needs Shadow to work for him.

“The land is vast. Soon enough, our people abandoned us, remembered us only as creatures of the old land, as things that had not come with them to the new. Our true believers passed on, or stopped believing, and we were left, lost and scared and dispossessed, to get by on what little smidgens of worship or belief we could find. And to get by as best we could.”

Christianity commits deicide. The whole convert or die thing sort of makes pagans and what would be considered alternative religion types to quickly reevaluate their level of faith in the old gods. It is easier, after all, to focus on one god than figuring out the pantheon of gods they were trying to please before the first bedraggled priest washed up on the shores of their community. Christianity simplified faith. This left all the old gods, used to receiving tasty animal sacrifices, fresh fruits, virgins, bereft of not only sustenance but also...love.

We brought these gods to America with us and then abandoned them.

The new gods who are putting the final nail in their celestial coffins are the new deities, such as internet, media, and cell phones. They hurl insults like these: “You-you’re a fucking illuminated gothic black-letter manuscript. You couldn’t be hypertext if you tried. I’m…I’m synaptic, while, while you’re synoptic…” It is hard to be insulted by a compliment, isn’t it? These new gods are even starting to chip away at the strong foothold that Christianity has on the minds of the American people. If he doesn’t watch out, JC is going to be bumming rides from truckers on the interstate and hoping for the kindness of his former people, eyes focused like zombies on the screens before them, for a handout.

Not to mention the fact that Shadow has televisions asking him, ”Do you want to see Lucy’s tits?”

I’d explain that, but it is more fun for you to find out for yourself.

Needless to say, things are dire.


Ian McShane plays Mr. Wednesday, brilliantly of course.

Shadow’s boss, Mr. Wednesday, you can probably figure out who he is, decides it is time to wipe the new kids off the block (a version of Titan vs Olympian) and seize the power the old gods so passively let slide through their fingers. Shadow is caught right in the damn middle of it. He is Odysseus in the midst of the Trojan War.

Shadow naturally asks himself, why me?

When Neil Gaiman first submitted this book for publication, his editor/publisher suggested that he cut 12,000 words out of the manuscript. If you are having deja vu feelings of The Stand by Stephen King, you are on the right fright frequency. Gaiman won a plethora of awards for American Gods, so how can you argue that the cuts weren’t a good idea? The thing is, those orphaned 12,000 words were still whispering to Gaiman, and when the decision was made to put out a tenth anniversary edition, he decided it was time to put the kids back with their parents. I would highly suggest reading the 10th anniversary edition. I do not feel the book is bloated. All the scenes are relevant to the larger arc of the plot. I would be nervous to lose the experience of reading any part of this book.

I was skeptical when I began reading this book. Gaiman introduces these gods from different cultures and does not exactly explain who any of them are, or at times he is even being cagey with their names. He is expecting a certain sophistication from his readers that is not only refreshing, but startlingly bold. I thought, in the beginning, that he has the Stephen King magic figured out with the easy accessibility of the writing and enough interesting factoids to make people feel like they are learning something as they work their way through the plot. He has those things, but he doesn’t just let us dog paddle on the surface of the water. He snags our ankles and thrusts us deeper beneath the waves to where things get dark, and we have no choice but to examine ourselves in the context of this story.

And what a pleasant surprise it has been.

”Fiction allows us to slide into these other heads, these other places, and look out through other eyes. And then in the tale we stop before we die, or we die vicariously and unharmed, and in the world beyond the tale we turn the page or close the book, and we resume our lives.”

With books like this, we resume a richer life.

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Futureshocks

Edited by Lou Anders
Roc Books
Reviewed by Nancy
3 out of 5 stars

Summary

In this stunning collection of short fiction, 16 of today's masters of speculative fiction reveal the terrors, triumphs, and seeming impossibilities awaiting humanity in the years to come. Featuring never-before-published stories by Kevin J. Anderson, Paul Di Filippo, Alan Dean Foster, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Louise Marley, Sean McMullen, John Meaney, Paul Melko, Robert A. Metzger, Chris Roberson, Adam Roberts,Mike Resnick & Harry Turtledove, Robert J. Sawyer, and Robert Charles Wilson.

My Review

Overall, an enjoyable collection of stories that offers diverse visions of the future.

★★★★★ Shuteye for the Timebroker by Paul DiFilippo – One of my favorites in this collection. An exploration of the effects of anti-somnolence drugs on a near-future society. Sure, people can increase their effectiveness and accomplish more, but there is always a price to pay.

★★ Looking Through Mother’s Eyes by John Meaney – Told from the perspective of a newborn who is aware of its own birth and the effects on both parents. Nicely written, but kind of icky. I don’t enjoy stories about pregnancy.

★★★★ The Man Who Knew Too Much by Alan Dean Foster – In the future, acquiring knowledge is as simple as downloading data directly to your brain. There is a limit, however, to how much information one’s brain can process at once. In the hands of specialists, knowledge is disseminated gradually without danger to the recipient. Some people, however, are just not satisfied and crave all the world’s knowledge much as an addict craves drugs.

★★★ The Engines of Arcadia by Sean McMullen – A man builds a time machine to escape his dull, safe life only to find that millions of years later, some things never change.

★★★★ The Pearl Diver by Caitlin R. Kiernan – Recurring dreams, the consequences of deleting unread company correspondence, and transformation. A sad and lovely story.

★★★ Before the Beginning by Mike Resnick & Harry Turtledove – A humorous story that shows why God’s chosen people have lasted so long.

★★★★ Man You Gotta Go by Adam Roberts – An AI is enlisted to help solve the problem of FTL travel. Human consciousness becomes obsolete. A little long and drawn out, but interesting and thought provoking.

★★ Homosexuals Damned, Film at Eleven by Alex Irvine – A bleak and sad story that portrays the downside of living in a theocracy. A geneticist who attempted to save the life of his son fears he may have caused his death. I may have liked this story better if it was longer and the characters more developed.

★★★★Contagion by Chris Roberson – Jaidev Hark is a Vector employed to carry data-encoded retroviruses in his blood. He lives in a society divided by castes; the higher the caste, the more they can afford protection from disease. Pursued by data-thieves, he reveals to his employer that they are looking for Panacea, the mythical (or is it?) cure of every human infirmity. In order to survive, he goes to work for the other side. This is a thought-provoking story that makes me wonder about the dreadful state of our health care system and if we will ever achieve affordability and equity.

★★★★Absalom’s Mother by Louise Marley – This hard-hitting and powerful story moved me to tears. In a society where children as young as 11 are drafted for service, a group of mothers hides their children and volunteers to go in their place. The characters are strong, rich, and vibrant.

★★★Job Qualifications by Kevin J. Anderson – Politicians have to work hard to be all things to all people. In the distant future, Berthold Ossequin’s clones help to make him a more suitable candidate for grand chancellor of the United Cultures of Earth.

★★★★The Teosinte War by Paul Melko – After reading Melko’s novel, The Walls of the Universe, I knew I could count on him to write a fun and thought-provoking story about the bad things that could happen when an ambitious professor uses an MWD to mess around in other universes and involves his TA, Ryan Greene. Though Ryan is kind of a jerk, he is ultimately a sympathetic character as he witnesses one disaster after another and learns that one can’t play God.

★★Slip by Robert A. Metzger – Getting what you ask for doesn’t always result in a positive outcome.

★★All’s Well at World’s End by Howard V. Hendrix – Memory erasure, annihilation. It would have been more interesting if too many scientific terms hadn’t made my eyes glaze over.

★★★★Flashes by Robert J. Sawyer – Unlimited information from a technically advanced alien planet renders human knowledge and theories obsolete. This gripping and sad little story explores the dire consequences of information overload.

★★★★The Cartesian Theater by Robert Charles Wilson – A performance artist uses advanced technology to duplicate living creatures. This chilling story explores life, death, and the question of the soul’s existence.

Scars

Scars by James A. Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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While Wollis March escorted the people of the Seven Forges to the Empire, they discussed their scars. I wish I could write more, but that's basically all that happened.

2.5 out of 5 stars

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THE PRONE GUNMAN BY JEAN-PATRICK MANCHETTE

The Prone Gunman by Jean-Patrick Manchette
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

”’Basically,’ said Maubert, ‘anyone could do your job. I bet they pay you well, but anyone could do it. You’re paid for running the risk. For the responsibility. I mean, if you’re nabbed one day, you’re nabbed as a killer--that’s what I mean when I say risk. They don’t pay you for your skills.’”

Martin Terrier is a hired killer who decides it is time to retire. He had, before venturing out in his chosen profession, elicited a promise from his childhood sweetheart, Anne, to wait for him. He will return in ten years.

Now unless you are going off to fight the Trojan Wars and your sweetheart is Penelope, the chances of any person waiting for anyone to reappear after ten years is somewhere south of zero. If you have seen the movie Before Sunrise, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have trouble hooking back up after a year apart. Even if Anne is a woman of immense fortitude and stoically waited for ten years,...Martin is a bit late.

Things in his life do not go as planned.

Killing for hire doesn’t come with a retirement plan. In fact, “The Company” he works for is reluctant to let him go. He is, after all, a ticking time bomb of knowledge. He has the type of information knocking around in his brain that a government would pay large sums for or they may just toss him in a dank hole in some undisclosed location in some third world country willing to look the other way as they explore his ability to be reticent.

First problem is that The Company is not going to just let him walk off into the sunset. The second problem is that Anne is married. She will not go down in literary history as the woman who waited. She didn’t wait years, nor months, barely a matter of weeks. Out of sight, out of mind, and I’m not sure that Martin deserved any more consideration than what she gave him.

The reunion is...interesting.

”Terrier gave her an ironic smile and poured her a stiff shot of J&B. Anne sighed and sat down on the bed. She took a sip. Terrier sat down next to her, took her by the head, and kissed her. She let him do it. Her mouth was passive, studious, plump, and tasted like scotch.

‘Stop,’ she whispered after Terrier released her.

‘Undress.’

She took off almost all her clothes.

‘The panties, too,’ said Terrier.”

Jean-Patrick Manchette is a student of hardboiled noir, and as you can see from this example, he must have had grit in his teeth at the end of each day of writing. I love the description of her mouth. When I look at synonyms of the word studious, which seems like an odd descriptive term to put with passive, there are several interesting interpretations of what he could mean with the use of that word.

I also find it interesting that Martin’s favorite drink is J&B Scotch, which also happens to be the drink of choice of Patrick Bateman in American Psycho. Is there some correlation between drinking J&B and having murderous impulses? I’ve never drank J&B, but I may have to snag a bottle the next time my wife is safely out of town for the weekend and see if I start to develop fiendish ideas in a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sort of way.

If you love the hardboiled genre, you can not ignore Manchette. He pares down all the excess baggage in every sentence he writes. His books are short, clean, and laced with the right amount of cynicism. He is the French response to Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. So grab a bottle of J&B (well, you might wait until we see how my experiment goes first. :-)), and look through the crosshairs with Martin Terrier for a few hours.

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Dan Stout's "Titanshade" is a winning combo of cop investigating murder on an alien planet with magical elements

What do you get when you mix alien murder, dark world building, a retro 70’s aesthetic and elements of magic and science fiction?  If you are lucky, you will be reading “Titanshade”, Dan Stout’s entertaining debut novel which combines politics, murder, aliens, magic and a charging plot in a boomtown city on the edge of catastrophe. It’s a mix of cop cars and dying magic, disco music and necromancy.  And a great portrait of a cop who lives for the hunt and solving crimes.  Stout’s gritty hero is Carter, a homicide cop, who is always in trouble with the brass, but finds the investigation of the murder of a Squib diplomat has far reaching consequences for his city and the people who live there.  Stout’s writing is spot on and the noir detective story with magic and modern technology works really well.

The Squibs are an alien amphibian race who live and work in Titanshade, a boomtown, which has been awash in a sea of greenbacks from the discovery and oil drilling.  But what happens when the oil runs out.  Cities try to get a new investment and reinvent themselves. Titanshade is deep in negotiations with a Squib delegation, who are interested in making a new investment in Titanshade by turning the oil fields into wind farms, when one of the members turns up dead in a sleazy hotel. This is not a novel for the squeamish, as the victim seems to have been involved heavily with human and other alien prostitutes.

Carter has been joined on the case by Ajax, a young Mollenkampi, another alien race that made its home in Titanshade.  As part of the investigation, Carter calls on the services of DO Guyer, a magic user, who can, with the use of manna, examine the entrails of a dead person or even call up the dead through a type of necromancy.  Manna, a magical substance used to power spells, that once was abundant in Titanshade, is also disappearing from the city, making all magical spells much more expensive. As a reader, unless you are in a world of total magic, the less magic that is used in a world the more believable the world becomes. Magic is like having a superhero run rampant through your story. So Stout’s limited use of magic in the story increases the velocity of the cop elements of the story by focusing it on investigation and not miraculous cures.

The Titanshade elites want the investigation wrapped up quickly, but Carter will not be pushed into arresting the wrong perp.  And there are a lot of crimes going on. An entire family is murdered. Is it connected?  The elites want it to be.  And there are a lot of power players.  Ambassador Paulus, a leader, and prime magic user in the government and her assistant, the diplomatic envoy Gellica, who has her own secrets, soon reveal themselves to be involved in some way.  Harlan Cedrow, the current head of one of the old oil families, who has the most to lose from the oil field devastation,  and there is Flanagan, a disgraced ex-cop, who has fallen in with a religious cult.  Carter takes a flame thrower approach, everyone who touches the investigation is burned.

Stout mixes all of the elements well and sets his bulldog investigator to follow the clues to the killer. It’s a complex investigation, but Carter is not going to walk away. 

This is what we as readers want in a cop story set in an alien landscape peopled with interesting characters and situations.

It is a find. Go discover it.

Blind Blondie

Scarlet Blackwell
eXtasy Books
Reviewed by Nancy
4 out of 5 stars

Summary

Artist and playboy beach bum Sam's life is turned around when he meets blind Kieran and falls hard for him. Kieran is fiercely independent and doesn't need a man like Sam in his life. But Sam needs a man like Kieran and it's up to him to persuade Kieran he's worth a shot.

My Review

This story is told by Sam, who happens to be cruising down Main Street in the summer, catching glimpses of the gorgeous male bodies strolling around. Right away he spots Blondie, carrying a walking stick and using a sign to hail a taxi.

Sam pulls over and learns Blondie is on his way to the animal hospital. Blondie is gorgeous, but Sam doesn’t need the hassle of dealing with a blind guy or his dog, so he drops him off, never expecting to see him again.

Blondie knows Sam is no cab driver and calls the cops to prevent him from picking up other vulnerable people. After the cops pay him a visit, Sam is furious with Blondie and knows he should forget about him, but it’s just not happening.

Sam continues to pursue Blondie and is rejected at every turn. It takes a lot more than bribing a prickly concierge, a dog toy, flowers, and gifts to warm Kieran’s heart and melt his resistance. Kieran is perfectly capable of taking care of himself and knows that very few men are interested in dating a disabled guy. Sam is persistent, however, and won’t give up until Kieran relents.

Sam is a fun-loving, slutty guy with a big ego. He’s also a very talented artist who lacks ambition. He is starting to fall for Kieran and must prove to him that he can be the kind of man Kieran deserves. It’s a tough challenge for Sam, but he gradually changes and matures. Kieran is a tough nut to crack and it takes a tragedy to finally make him see that Sam is perfect for him in every way.

I loved Sam’s inner thoughts, his artistic expression, Kieran’s dog, and the kinky sex.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable, funny, sweet and heartwarming romance. Blind guys need love too.

When Korwa Fell

When Korwa Fell by James A. Moore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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Korwa was the capital of the old empire and it's remains are within the blasted lands. The is a story from the people of the Seven Forges about the fall of Korwa.

On its own When Korwa Fell seems largely unimportant. Perhaps after finishing the series the details of this short story will take on greater importance. As it stands the short story seems to simply be a story shared between the people of the forges.

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"Crisis" by Felix Francis is a good murder mystery in the vein of Dick Francis, just not as good

What if Dick Francis never wrote novels and what you started with was a Felix Francis novel. When do we stop comparing the son to the father. Their styles are completely different. Dick Francis wrote in your face, mano a mano novels where the hero set out to defeat a evil plot in the horse racing world, typically taking the evildoers to the cleaners himself, but not before he faced extreme pressure to give up. As I have said before, a Felix Francis books lacks the early Dick Francis's pacing, wording and ties to horse racing, but he does know how to paint the numbers. He has overcome the stylistic differences between his writing in some instances. I felt, however, that this was not one of them.

"Crisis", Felix Francis latest murder mystery set tangentially in the English horse racing world, has a good little murder mystery at its heart and a decent hero sort, who shows some spine and lust. But this is just a good book, nothing spectacular and maybe that is what we should continue to look forward to.

There is a lot of good horse racing information. From a brief walk through of an auctioneer area, to morning gallops of the trainers and information about signing horses up for runs. But the information is dropped (info dump style) in as if we are observing from afar or reading something written just to be inserted therein. It lacks punch and vitality. In one instance, the info dump does not even advance the story at all.

Harrison Foster, the nattily dressed hero is a "crisis manager", who is investigating the death of seven horses trained by Ryan Chadwick at a training yard that used to be owned by his father Oliver Chadwick. Tony Chadwick is a jockey who rides for the family. The horses are owned by Foster's client Sheikh Karim. He soon learns that human remains were found at the scene of the fire, and picks up another client, Declan Chadwick, Ryan's brother who is suspected of killing the victim, who turns out to be a relative of the Chadwick men.

While the early going of the book establishes Foster's bona fides and that he knows nothing about the horse racing world, it takes a little time to do so, but reads okay.

But Francis's book bogs down in the middle because he telegraphs "Why" the victim of the crime was suffering psychotic episodes way too early and the "Who" is limited to just a small coterie  of the Chadwick men Also, the novel feels a little too soap opera like. Feuding brothers, dominating father, cowed mothers, women in their cups way too early in the morning, the tropes are standard mystery fare.

Its been said many times that Dick Francis mostly failed to have female love interests in his novels. But Felix Francis has never been shy to include some love interest, so this book also has Foster finding true love.

Foster will be stuck in a barn with a violent horse, and has all the spine of previous Francis heroes and will have to use some wit to figure out the killer but it takes a long time coming.

Not my favorite read.

But if you never read a Dick Francis novel, maybe you will be satisfied with this work.

But for the rest of us, its a good mystery, but not a "Dick Francis Novel"

With This Ring

J.M. Snyder
JMS Books
Reviewed by Nancy
4 out of 5 stars

Summary

Matt diLorenzo’s ex, Jordan, confesses all to a tabloid, telling the world Matt’s secret—something in his semen gives his sexual partners super powers. After the article appears, Matt expects all sorts of weirdos to try to track him down, but the only call he receives is from a research scientist at a local condom factory who claims to have a solution to his little “problem.”

The offer is tempting, since the powers Vic Braunson receives from Matt during their lovemaking sessions are unpredictable and scary. Matt wants to keep his lover safe, and is eager to hear what the scientist has to suggest. And Vic is willing to try the cure and lose his superhero abilities for his lover’s peace of mind...even if it means losing the special mental connection they share, a bond formed by the powers, a bond that has become such a part of their lives that neither is quite prepared when it suddenly disappears.

Then Vic discovers that the scientist has an agenda of his own. Can he protect Matt, even without his super strength or their mental bond?

My Review

After 5 years together, Vic grew accustomed to the superpowers bestowed on him every time he and Matt made love. Matt worried that his powers would eventually harm Vic. When an Indian researcher reads about Matt’s superpowers in a tabloid magazine, he contacts him and offers a cure. Matt wants to get rid of the powers and live a normal life, so he willingly accepts the offer.

The cure works, but neither man is prepared to deal with the fact that they can no longer communicate telepathically. Doubt and insecurity creep in until Matt decides to visit the doctor so he can make an adjustment to the “ring” that would allow Matt and Vic to keep the telepathic powers, while ridding themselves of the other undesirable ones.

As Matt will soon learn, the “doctor” is not what he appears to be. Vic will have to use every means at his disposal, minus his superpowers, to save Matt from a potentially dangerous situation.

I really enjoyed this fourth installment in the Powers of Love series. Vic's and Matt’s growing love for each other is always very sweet and satisfying. It was nice to see Vic’s boss has a softer and more compassionate side, and I loved how Matt fought off the security guards roughing up Vic.