Friday, October 30, 2009

GONE TOMORROW: A Review

SYNOPSIS: When Jack Reacher witnesses a suicide on a Manhattan subway, he knows that there is more than meets the eye. Soon he's in deep, trying to unearth a dark secret for which both the feds and Al-Queda are willing to kill to keep from being revealed. Even in a city of eight million, a lone wolf like Reacher tends to stand out, and before long he is being hunted from all sides—which is exactly what Reacher wants.
If you're not familiar with Jack Reacher, here's what you need to know. Reacher is a six foot-five inch ex US Army Major who lives a nomadic life - restlessly drifting across America, drinking black coffee and eating diner food. He doesn't have a driver's license, doesn't claim federal benefits and he doesn't bother with tax returns since he doesn't have an income. He often finds himself in situations where he feels compelled to use his particular expertise to put a small section of the world to rights.

Reacher, who at best can be called taciturn, is more withdrawn in this book. Child spends a bit too much time reminding the reader that Al-Queda used to be our allies when the Russians were our common enemies. Okay, I got it, Mr. Child, move on to the story.

Child often allows Reacher to make amazing detective deductions and even more amazing physical feats, and in Gone Tomorrow, he has stretched these attributes as thin as Gov. Mark Sanford's (R-SC) excuses. The climactic and very predictable violent confrontation has no suspense at all, since we all know Reacher will kick ass. The biggest suspense is when and how Reacher will finally have sex with the female NY cop he is assisting. (I won a bet with myself that it would happen on the night BEFORE the climatic [hmm, pun intendned] scene.)

A quick and exciting read, but a bit sub-par compared to most Reacher books. If you are not familiar with Reacher, this is NOT the book to start the series. Go back to the beginning and read the first novel, Killing Floor.
BIBLIO SAYS: Recommended with Reservations.

Companion Read: Flood by Andrew Vachss

Friday, October 23, 2009

GROUND ZERO: A Review


REJOICE! Repairman Jack is back! And the end-of-the-world as we know it is closer.


This series is finally coming together for an intricate conclusion. For more than two decades author F. Paul Wilson has been subtly pulling off an amazing literary feat - writing a VERY complex story in a series of novels which in hind sight are just smaller pieces of a much larger story. Even Wilson himself admits he did not realize the majority of his novels had some connecting tissue.

Jack's first appearance was in 1984's The Tomb, a slam bang action/horror story. Repairman Jack doesn’t deal with electronic appliances—he fixes situations for people, situations that usually involve putting himself in deadly danger. He is a cross between John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee and Andrew Vachss' Burke. In The Tomb Jack's project is recovering a stolen necklace, which carries with it an ancient curse that may unleash a horde of Bengali demons. Jack is used to danger, but this time his girlfriend Gia’s daughter Vicky is threatened.
Wilson himself wrote that:
"Jack arose from a dream. The scene on the roof in The Tomb was the dream. I worked backward and forward from there to create a character who could survive that situation. I have a wide libertarian streak, so I figured I’d make this guy an anarchic urban mercenary with no identity. By the time I reached the end of The Tomb, I realized I had a series character. I didn't feel I was ready to write a series then, so I left him bleeding to death at the end."


Jack put in a cameo appearance in Nightworld (1993) and in 1998 later Wilson got around to writing the second Repairman Jack novel, Legacies. Since then, there has been one RJ novel per year, with two more to come as the long, complicated story of Jack and the Secret History of the World subtly plays itself out. Wilson is even working on a re-vamped edition of Nightworld which will culminate the entire mythos that Wilson has been weaving through more than 20 novels.
Ground Zero reveals A LOT of juicy plot points but (as we were warned by Wilson) just abruptly ends. There is no easy wrap-up of the story because the story has two more novels to go. Of which millions of Jack fans are already waiting for .... breathlessly. If you're not up to speed on Jack ... Wilson's website RepairmanJack.com is a good place to start. Better yet, go pick up The Tomb start the journey. According to Jack, you've got about two years until the world comes to an end.

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended.

Companion Read:
The Tomb
by F. Paul Wilson.

Friday, October 16, 2009

THE LOST SYMBOL - A Review


HOW TO WRITE A BESTSELLER.

Let's see:

Your previous novel sold more copies than Wilt Chamberlain had sexual partners. What do you do for an encore?
  • Replace the Catholic church with the Freemasons. Check!
  • Replace DaVinci's painting "The Last Supper" with the architecture of Washington, DC. Check!
  • Keep the hero from your previous books, Robert Langdon. Check!
  • Replace Silas (from The Da Vinci Code), who practiced corporal mortification, with Mal'akh, a tattooed, self-castrated and brilliant villain who is in search of an ancient source of power. Check!
  • Toss in another brilliant (and gorgeous, of course) female character named Dr. Katherine Solomon. Check!
  • Make sure the characters get to visit most of the major buildings in DC. Check!
  • 5 million copies for a first run printing. Check!
  • Start thinking about the next project ... hmmm, the Boy Scouts have some shady things in their past, don't they? Check!
Final thoughts: The Lost Symbol is bad, but not as bad as Pat Conroy's South of Broad. No one expects Dan Brown to deliver good writing ... Conroy however, we do.

BIBLIO SAYS: Beyond bad, beyond comprehension. Recommended if you're into agony.

Companion Read:
The Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell.

BEST APOCALYPTIC FICTION

By no means a comprehensive list, just 13 of my favorite stories dealing with the end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it. Thirteen seemed an appropriate number given the subject matter.

"By the Rivers of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet (short story) Written in 1937, this is one of the first apocalyptic pieces of fiction I remember reading in 9th grade. It blew me away. A character named John narrates the tale of his exploration of the forbidden "Place of the Gods" in a world that has nearly forgotten the existence of 20th century civilization. John is the son of a priest of a tribe of hunters, heirs to a global catastrophe, whose curiosity takes him on a journey of discovery and search for truth about his civilized ancestors and the statue of a god called ashington.


A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (novel) Set in a Roman Catholic monastery in the desert of the Southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the day the outside world is again ready for it.

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (novel) It was one of the first post-apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and remains popular fifty years after it was first published. The novel deals with the effects of a nuclear war on the small town of Fort Repose, Florida. David Brin has written that his novel was highly influential for him as he wrote The Postman (see later down the list.)
Emergence by David R. Palmer (novel) Candy is a young girl with a high I.Q., a natural talent for martial arts and the ability to perform quick bursts of near superhuman activity. One day, her father is called to Washington to deal with a mysterious problem. While he is gone, a disease wipes out most of humanity. Candy lives at her house for a while, as she has many emergency supplies. She soon realizes that she must venture outside. She decides to go exploring for supplies and to figure out what happened. Her original companion is a loyal parrot but later she meets other survivors.


Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany (novel) A difficult book to read due to a lack of lineal plot or consistent narrative, reminiscent of Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. Even now I can't really say I enjoyed the book, but for its sheer scope and virtuosity, I have to put it on the list.

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner (novel) With the rise of a corporation-sponsored government (hmmm), pollution in big cities has reached extreme levels and most (if not all) people's health has been affected in some way. Similar to Atlas Shrugged due to its uncanny prediction of our current state of affairs around the world.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegot (novel). A dead-on satire of the world turned to water by Ice-Nine. Vonnegut gets his well-aimed shots in at science, technology, the arms race and religion.


I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (novel) The story of Robert Neville who is apparently the sole survivor of a bacterial pandemic apocalypse the symptoms of which resemble vampirism. The book details Neville's daily life in Los Angeles, as he attempts to comprehend, research, and possibly cure the disease that killed mankind, and to which he is immune (Neville assumes this is because he was bitten by a vampire bat who was "infected". Because it was not a human, it did not kill Neville, instead, he became ill for a period of time). Much of the book deals with Neville's emotional struggle to cope with losing his humanity is dealt with by going about a daily routine. Turned into 3 successful movies. The Last Man Left with Vincent Price; The Omega Man with Charlton Heston and the recent Will Smith sci-fi thriller. Great, great novel.


Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (novel) And long and epic story that details a cometary impact on Earth, the end of civilization, and the battle for the future. It encompasses the discovery of the comet, the LA social scene, and a cast of diverse characters whom fate seems to smile upon and allow to survive the massive cataclysm and the resulting tsunamis, plagues, famines and battles amongst scavengers and cannibals.

The Postman by David Brin (novel) Years after a cataclysmic event, a drifter, Gordon Crantz, stumbles across the uniform of an old United States Postal Uniform letter carrier and gives hope to a community threatened by local hypersurvivalists warlords with empty promises of aid from the "Restored United States of America". The basis of the REALLY BAD Kevin Costner movie of the same name. DO NOT LET THAT KEEP YOU FROM READING THE BOOK.



Swan Song by Robert McCammon (novel) Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel in 1987, this is an epic story after a nuclear war. Similar to Stephen King's The Stand but much better written and more tightly plotted. EXCELLENT!
The Stand by Stephen King (novel) Capt. Tripps, a deadly flu ravages the Earth and the survivors deal with the aftermath. First half of the book is possibility the best thing King has done. However, it dissolves into a mish-mash of feel-good spiritualism toward the end.Trash Can Man rocks!



Doomsday Book by Connie Willis (novel) Winner the Nebula and Hugo Awards, this is a towering work of sci-fi dealing with time travel, an flu plague and medieval history.


BEST FICTIONAL DETECTIVE SERIES

In no certain order ...

1. “Travis McGee” by John D. MacDonald. 21 books all with a color in the title (The Deep Blue Good-bye; Darker Than Amber; The Green Ripper.) McGee, who works as a “salvage consultant” in Ft. Lauderdale, has all the best qualities of Magnum, Rockford, Bond, and Robin Hood, with the addition of yen philosophizing and rueful self-awareness. Must be read in consecutive order.

2. “Burke” by Andrew Vachss. 18 books. Vachss (rhymes with “tax”) is a lawyer who only represents children and youths and writes the darkest, most unrelenting series of books about crime and revenge. Main character Burke is one of the “children of the secret” - abused children who were victimized without ever experiencing justice, much less love and protection. To say the least, the adult Burke is a deeply conflicted character. Must be read in order.

3. “Sherlock Holmes” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 4 novels and 5 collections of short stories. What can you say?

4. “Thorn” by James P. Hall. 10 books featuring Thorn who lives in the Florida Keys and makes his living tying lures for fly fishing. There’s quite a bit of Travis McGee in Thorn, and a little bit of Burke also. You don’t have to read these books in order, but I highly recommend reading the first one (Under Cover of Daylight) so you will know why Thorn is the way he is.

5. “Repairman Jack” by F. Paul Wilson. 10 books. Andrew Vachss calls Repairman Jack “righteous!” An apt description. Jack is a loner who lives off the public grid (no SSN, no official identity) and makes his living “fixing” extreme situations. His adventures also feature touches of the paranormal. Must be read in order.

6. “Joe Kurtz” by Dan Simmons. 3 books – Hard Case, Hard Freeze, Hard As Nails. Hard-boiled crime noir at its best. Simmons is one of my all-time favorite writers. In addition to these great novels, he has also written my two favorite horror novels (Carrion Comfort and Children of the Night), a sci-fi classic (Hyperion) and a great Hemingway historical novel (The Crook Factory). It helps to read them in order.

7. “Parker” by Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake). 24 books. Parker may be the meanest, nastiest character on this list. Very few redeeming qualities. These books are almost nihilistic. Highly recommend you read these in order – some of the books began the second after the previous book ends.

8. “Justin & Cuddy” by Michael Malone. 3 books - Uncivil Seasons, Time’s Witness, First Lady. Great literate mysteries set in small town North Carolina. Uncivil Seasons is one of the best mysteries I’ve ever read. Read in order.

9. “Lew Archer” by Ross MacDonald. 18 books. William Goldman calls these the "the finest series of detective novels ever written by an American". Macdonald is the primary heir to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler but his writing built on the pithy style of his predecessors by adding psychological depth and insights into the motivations of his characters. Archer often unearthed the family secrets of his clients and of the criminals who victimized them. Lost or wayward sons and daughters were a theme common to many of the novels. Macdonald was one of the first to deftly combine the two sides of the mystery genre, the "whodunit" and the psychological thriller.

10. "87th Precinct" by Ed McBain. 56 books. THE BEST. The most consistent police procedurals written about day-to-day cops, the inspiration for "Hill Street Blues" and all the other more realistic, gritty cops show that followed. Steve Carella, Meyer Meyer, Bert Kling, Ollie Weeks, Cotton Hawes, and Andy Parker just to name a few of the memorable characters we have to know and love who work out of the 8-7. And of course, the Blind Man, one of the greatest, coolest criminals to grace crime pages. McBain died in 2005 so alas, there will be no more 8-7 books.

11. “Spenser” by Robert B. Parker. 35 books. I almost didn’t list Spenser here … but I had to. This is an infuriating series … the first 14 books are as good as PI fiction gets … and the rest are hit-and-miss. Hawk is one of the great characters in crime fiction. But then you also have Susan Silverman - Spenser's main squeeze. The more important Susan Silverman becomes to the story the more annoying the book is. I keep hoping Susan gets killed and we get back the old, tougher Spenser, not the Oprah-fied Spenser we currently have.

SOUTH OF BROAD - A Review

THE PROLOGUE: Conroy is famous for his poetic prologues. The one in "The Lords of Discipline" was great, and the prologue in "The Prince of Tides" was amazing. But this time ... come on 
... Conroy seems to be reaching a bit for a romantic, sepia-toned description of Charleston. It reads more like PR copy written by someone from the Visitor's Bureau. One description - "or hear the bells of St. Michael's calling cadence in the cicada-filled trees along Meeting Street" is odd because we all know the major sound on Meeting Street these days are leaf blowers.

One other odd statement about Charleston, Conroy writes that the city is "tolerant of nothing mismade or ostentatious." Yeah, I never see anything ostentatious in Charleston. No ostentatious houses, no ostentatious people. Wow.

CHAPTER ONE: Let's see, another sibling suicide. Another overbearing unloving mother. More lapsed Catholic angst. I've already read "The Prince of Tides."

CHAPTER TWO: OMG. The book has recipes. Leo describes how to prepare benne wafers. *sigh* I expect recipes in a Benton-Frank novel. Not here.

More lapsed Catholic angst.

Okay ... no high school kids are this witty.

Found a continuity error. The mother keeps telling Leo they are having lunch at the Yacht Club. "Noonish," she says. However on page 39 there is this sentence: "Just after three, I began packing the cookies in a tin ... " and on page 45 it says "it was the noonday hour ..."

So, is this a time-travel book also?

********
CHAPTER SIX: Huge continuity and character error on page 99. Previously, (pg.37) Leo spends half a page about how his mother NEVER cooked, how in 18 years he had "seen his mother in the kitchen only during those times when she was passing through on her way to the garage ... I could not swear she had ever lit the stove ... or even knew the direction to the spice cabinets."

Pg. 99 - Leo's mother is making hot chocolate for everyone after a late night disturbance! Hmmm, good thing hot chocolate doesn't need something from the spice cabinets.

************

PART TWO: Okay, This section is written in present tense. *sigh* There are dozens of books I haven't read because they are written in present tense. It's pretentious, disconcerting and, unfortunately, becoming more prevalent. I cannot think of any novel that is improved by the use of present tense vs. past tense.

Resisting the urge to skip along. These characters are waaay too clever and I have yet (pg. 175) found a character that I like.

******

Again, I don't like ANY of these people! Conroy has created a perfect Politically Correct group of friends. The books starts in 1969 and Leo becomes friends with two blacks (one who becomes Police Chief in Charleston), two orphans from the mountains of North Carolina (outcasts that are snubbed by Charleston society), a brilliant brother and sister whose mother is a drunk and father is a psychopath (the brother is a brilliant pianist and homosexual and the sister is gorgeous and becomes a major Hollywood star) and oddly enough, a couple of Charleston elites named Rutledge. Leo (the narrator) is such a wimp (even wimpier than Tom Wingo in "The Prince of Tides") who lives in Charleston society but is not part of it. Why is he friends with these awful people and why is he so devoted to them? There had better be a good explanation later in this book, cause if not ... he is a total wuss!

*****

PART THREE: This section is also written in present tense. *sigh* Here comes the cliched AIDS section. During the 1980s the brilliant pianist lives in San Fran and contracts AID, and suddenly becomes mussing; all the Charleston high school friends come running to the rescue.

Basically, I am now reading this book just to finish it. HIGHLY DISAPPOINTING. I'm beginning to think that "Beach Music" is a better than this novel! And "Beach Music" was tedious. Wow.

*******

Finally finished the San Fran section. Talk about weak plot points. The Chas. group is in San Fran searching for their missing friend and one of them gets mugged and (wait for it) the mugger turns out to be a man from South Carolina who the Chas. men had played football against in high school!!!!! The mugger went on to play professional football for the Oakland Raiders and then became a crack addict and is living in an abandoned car. *WHAT?* So, the Chas. group helps him, reforms him ... I'm sure he will show up later in the book and perform some heroic act.

PART FOUR: The predictable flashback back to high school and the events that made this group to become close friends. *Yawn*.

QUESTION: Why does Conroy keep talking about the palm-shaded streets and " the city of palms". Last time I looked, 99% of them are Palmettos, not palms.

Less than 100 pages to go. YEA!!

******
Finally, DONE!

Okay, Conroy validated something I already knew - most Charleston people South of Broad are inbred morons. You'd have to be to think that riding out a hurricane on Water Street was a good idea.

Predicted the ending 100 pages ago. VERY cliched ... very overwrought. *yawn* The main problem with this novel is - I didn't give a shit about any of these characters.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TO ANYONE!!! Go back and read "The Great Santini", "The Lords of Discipline" or "The Prince of Tides." Those are great books. "Beach Music" sucked. And this one sucks AND blows.

Let's see. Conroy will have another novel written in 10 years (maybe) and I'm pretty sure I won't read it.

BIBLIO SAYS: The worst book this year, next year and last year.

Companion Read: The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

SOME CHARLESTON FICTION, Part 1

Here's a list of some of my favorite (and not-so-favorite) fiction in which Charleston is one of the major settings. Obviously, there are plenty of books I am going to leave out ... feel free to make your own list.

WHAT TO READ

Prince of Tides and The Lords of Discipline / Pat Conroy. The Prince of Tides tells the story of Tom Wingo, a teacher and football coach who is reluctant to help his twin sister's psychiatrist unlock their dysfunctional family's secrets. When the sister, famous New York poet Savannah Wingo, attempts suicide again, Tom is torn from his safe and dull world and travels to New York to help her. Calling the Wingo family dysfunctional is like calling Paris Hilton an annoying skank - it's true but an understatement.

Discipline pissed off a lot of Charleston people when it was published. Why? It was a little too close to the truth. Charleston people like to be in charge of the mirror. They get upset when someone else decribes the reflection. Both books are amazing fiction. Conroy is an emotional and compelling writer.

Great Mischief / Josephine Pinckney. A perfectly creepy little book that unfortunately is out of print. I had to buy it used on Amazon. The year is 1895, and much of sleepy little Charleston is still lit by gas. Timothy Partridge operates a rundown apothecary shop, where things have't really changed much since the glory days of Romeo and Juliet; drugs are still hanging from nails on the walls, such as bat wings, hummingbird feathers and strange, fiery potions. Timothy is supporting his shrewish sister Penelope and has a roguish best friend, the drunken doctor Golightly, who is always encouraging Tim to live a little, stop being such a fussbudget, One creepy stormy evening a young woman enters, dashing into the shop in an urgent, insistent plea for some solanum. Tim knows instantly there's something "off" about the girl, but he has no idea that she's actually a witch from hell, who will intertwine herself to his life and change it--forever.

Carrion Comfort / Dan Simmons. The War and Peace of the horror genre. One of my all time favorite books. It is December 1980, and a small circle of vampires—not the fanged blood drinkers of legend, but monstrously cruel human beings with the psychic ability to possess and dominate others—gather in Charleston for a reunion, where they score points by comparing the latest acts of extreme violence initiated on their command. It is a page-turning marvel, weaving multiple plot threads and over-the-top action sequences into a narrative of genuine, resonant power. One, Nina, is particularly proud of getting a faceless nobody to assassinate the Beatle John Lennon. But the game soon gives way to a power struggle of an even more ruthless sort. The mind controllers turn on one another, initiating a bloodbath fought with innocents snatched from their everyday lives.

Enter Charleston Sheriff Bobby Joe Gentry, nobody's top nomination for action hero: An overweight, soft-spoken failed historian, who is baffled and angered by the sudden eruption of madness that has left Charleston littered with nine bodies in a single night. Gentry is out of his depth when his investigation begins to involve conspiracies that involve superpowers and coverups at the very highest levels of government power. He is soon joined by Saul Laski, an aging Jewish psychiatrist who has spent his life searching for the Nazi whose psychic powers he experienced during World War II, and Natalie Preston, a young black photographer whose own father was a victim of the massacre in Charleston. These woefully outnumbered three take on a global conspiracy, finding themselves alone in a world where any innocent can be possessed and turned into a murderous assassin without warning.
One of the creepiest characters is 'sweet little old Charleston lady' Melanie Fuller, one of the most evil creatures in modern literature.

Porgy / Dubose Heyward. The story of a crippled beggar who witnesses a murder during a dice game and later gives shelter to the murderer's woman, the beautiful, haunted Bess. The Catfish Row community is united in its opposition to the union, but Porgy and Bess make each other happy, and their happiness only increases when they take in a child orphaned by a hurricane. Their idyll is brief, however. The murderer, Crown, returns for Bess, and Porgy, defending his family, kills him. The police detain him for questioning but never dream that a cripple could have been the killer, so Porgy returns triumphantly to the Row. The triumph turns to tragedy, however, when he learns that, while he was away, Sporting Life, the dope pusher, beguiled Bess with "happy dus'" and took her away to New York City to resume, it is implied,her career as a prostitute. The book, for all it's melodrama, is beautifully written.

North & South - Love & War - Heaven & Hell / John Jakes. Historical fiction as it should be ... well written, and well researched and full of forbidden love, illicit sex, double crosses and other intrigue. In North and South, two strangers, young men from Pennsylvania and South Carolina, meet on the way to West Point . . . The Hazards and the Mains are brought together in bonds of friendship and affection that neither man thinks can be shattered. And then the War begins. Love & War: From the first Union rout in Virginia to the last tragic moments of surrender, here is a gigantic five-year panorama of the Civil War! Hostilities divide the Hazards and the Mains, testing them with loyalties more powerful than family ties. While soldiers from both families clash on the battlefields of Bull Run, Fredericksburg and Antietam, in intrigue-ridden Washington and Richmond, strong-willed men and beautiful women defend their principles with their lives ... or satisfy illicit cravings with schemes that could destroy friends and enemies alike! Heaven & Hell: The war ends, but there is no peace for the Hazards and the Mains in a nation still inflamed with bitterness and hatred. The defeated South teems with schemers and carpetbaggers ... and the North has no place for scarred veterans such as Charles Main, who struggles to rebuild his life in the Plains cavalry, only to be stalked by a murderous nemesis seeking revenge against both families. A gripping portrait of Reconstruction America, and a fitting conclusion to the saga of two mighty dynasties!

Celia Garth: A Story of Charleston in the Revolution / Gwen Bristow. This young adult tale of Celia Garth, a 20 year old woman trying to make a living as a seamstress in Charleston, South Carolina during the Revolutionary war. Celia and her friends survive the seige of Charleston by the British, living through the constant shelling and lack of food until the final surrender. At first, things seem normal after the surrender and Celia begins to build a new life, but tragedy strikes after the British go back on their promises and Celia must start life afresh. This time, while working as a seamstress she is also a bit of a "spy" for the colonials.

Galilee / Clive Barker. Clive Barker has earned a reputation as the thinking person's horror writer. His novels mix fantasy, psychology, and sheer creepiness in almost equal quantities. In Galilee, Barker soft-pedals the ghoulish in favor of the gothic. His novel (or as the author would have it, "romance") tells the tale of two warring families caught up in a disastrous web of corruption, illicit sexuality, and star-crossed love, with a soupçon of the supernatural thrown in as well. On one side are the wealthy Gearys--a fictional stand-in for the Kennedys--and on the other are the Barbarossas, a mysterious black clan that has been around since the time (quite literally) of Adam.

Galilee chronicles the twisted course of this centuries-old family feud, which centers around the magical Barbarossa matriarch Cesaria and her son Galilee. Indeed, it's the latter figure--one part Heathcliff to one part Christ--whose relationship with the Geary women sets a match to the entire powder keg of hostility and resentment. Mixing standard clichés of romance and some deep-fried Southern gothic, Baker has come up with an intelligent and shameless potboiler.

Settling Accounts: In at the Death/ Harry Turtledove. This is the last novel of the Settling Accounts tetralogy that presents an alternative history of WWII. It brings to a conclusion the multi-series compilation that is sometimes referred to as Timeline-191. This alternative history began with the Confederate States of America winning the Civil War in 1862, followed by a war between the United States and Confederate States of America in the 1880s which is also won by the South. In the conclusion, the United State detonates an atomic bomb in Charleston, wiping the city off the map, in retaliation for starting the War Between the States in 1861.

The Devil of Charleston / Rebel Sinclair. Full disclosure ... this novel was written by the love of my life. So ... I admit a major amount of bias. However ... Capt. Royal Ashurst was a brooding sea captain branded the "devil of Charleston" by a powerful merchant, Carter Seymour. Royal is sucked into events out of his control when he becomes an "agent" for the city when the notorious Blackbeard blockades the harbor. The events only enflame his passion for Seymour's estranged fiance Josephine.

The Fallon Saga / Reagan O'Neal (Robert Jordan). Great historical fiction on the same level with North & South. Written by Charlestonian James Rigney, Jr, more popularly known as Robert Jordan, author of the massively successful fantasy series, The Wheel of Time. Jordan died in Sept. 2007. Sharp-eyed tour guides often got a glimpse of him walking Tradd Street.

In The Fallon Blood, escaping brutal English overlords, 1760s Irishman Michael Fallon becomes an indentured servant to Charleston merchant Thomas Carver, where his infatuation with Carver's sensual daughter Elizabeth causes life-changing complications. In The Fallon Pride, Michael Fallon's son Robert Fallon survives years at sea fighting Barbary pirates and enduring the siege at Tripoli. He then returns to America with an Irish wife, Moira McConnell, and goes into business in Charleston where he raises a somewhat troublesome family. In The Fallon Legacy, James Fallon, the last scion of the Fallon line, strikes south and west, adventuring in New Orleans, Missouri, and finally Texas (then still part of Mexico). He loves and loses women, ranches and breeds horses, and becomes entangled in the schemes of shady men and women. Enemies made by Michael and Robert during their lifetimes converge upon James, who must find out if he has strength enough to stand against them.

WHAT TO AVOID

South of Broad / Pat Conroy. The worst book of this year, last year and next year! Avoid like a syphilitic whore.

Rhett Butler's People by Donald McCaig. This is AWFUL!! One of the worst novels I've ever tried to read. Silly and poorly written. The narration is fuzzy and the story is well ... silly. Why can't they leave Gone With The Wind alone? First there was Scarlett by Alexandria Ripley which was a snore-fest and now this "Authorized Novel". Rhett should challenge the Margaret Mitchell estate to a duel for this insult!

All of the 'island" books by Dorothea Benton Frank. You know ... those books that have the fill-in-the-blank plot lines; the major change in each book is the characters' names and the sea island she uses as the setting. Frank is the female James Patterson - books written for the barely literate.

All of Mary Alice Monroe's Oprah-fied low country-based fiction.

William Gilmore Simms - praised in his time (1800s) by none other than Edgar Allan Poe, Simms is virtually unreadable today.