The BiblioFile

THE PASSAGE: A Review

2010-08-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

MarkJonesBooks.com
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First, the good things.

There is NO Bella in this book. No misty eyed teenage romance. There is no soul-searching Lestat who laments his life in overlong paragraphs filled with purple prose. There is no erudite Count with a cape. No Victorian damsels in flimsy nightgowns and heaving bosoms. In Justin Cronin's The Passage, the "vampires" are the result of a military genetic experiment gone horribly wrong and ultimately, out of control. They are vicious, nasty, virtually unstoppable and very very hungry. The first 250 pages of The Passage are the best fiction I have read this year.

Now the bad: Unfortunately, the book is 766 pages long. With two sequels on the way.

The novel covers over 1000 years. The first section follows modern day events. A military/ scientific expedition in South America captures a jungle virus and takes the secret to a lab for study. They discover the virus increases strength in test monkeys and prolongs their lifespan. The government hatches plans to create a Super Soldier. FBI agent Brad Wolgast is put on special assignment with the military to bring "volunteer test subjects" from death row prisons across America to be infected with the virus. But when Wolgast is ordered by his military superiors to capture a 10 year old girl, Amy, and deliver her to the lab, he rebels. The army hunts them down and Amy is taken to the lab to be tested. Then, the world goes to hell.

Twelve of the infected creatures escape the lab and overnight destroy the entire military installation. Wolgast and Amy barely escape and spend the next several years living in isolation. Then ... one day there is a brilliant explosion to the west. Amy is blinded by the nuclear blast, and Wolgast slowly dies of radiation poisoning.

The book then jumps 1000 years in the future. The creatures (called Virals or Jumps) have wiped out most of the human population. Ninety per cent of infected humans die - ten per cent become Virals themselves.

What follows is an alternately entertaining, horrific, tedious and ultimately, frustrating apocalyptic story of the human survivors and their civilization. This is where author Justin Cronin falls woefully short of his goals. Having published two short modern and very literary novels, Cronin branches into territory usually reserved for such "inferior" writers as Stephen King, Robert MacCammon and Richard Matheson. When "serious" writers stoop to write horror or science fiction - genre fiction! - the result is usually well-written crap.

(U.K. cover)

Several years ago we got the novel Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrel, an old fashioned English novel about magic and evil. The literary world loved it ... heaped praise upon and claimed that it "redefined the horror novel." It redefined it as tedious and stodgy. The Historian was also forced upon us as a "brilliant re-working of the vampire legend." The only brilliant thing about the book was it's ad campaign. The book was literary sawdust. Remember when Norman Mailer (a literary giant, just ask him) claimed he could write a great mystery novel, and we got Tough Guys Don't Dance? If you actually finished that book, your place in heaven is assured. Those of us going to hell will probably have to reread it for eternity.

There are sections of The Passage, and I mean dozens of pages, that beg to be skipped. Cronin often forgets he is NOT writing a mainstream novel where nothing is supposed to happen. He has chosen to write a genre novel for money ... and of course, he can make it better than those popular writers because, after all ... he is a serious novelist.

If you really want to read this kind of story, I recommend 2009's The Strain, with a similar story and sweep (volume 2 is being published this fall, our copy has already be pre-ordered) or how about two all time apocalyptic classics: The Stand by Stephen King and Swan Song by Robert MacCammon. Those two pulp writers managed to write a couple of horrific novels that are everything The Passage isn't ... great. Click here to read a list of great apocalyptic fiction.

For all it's posturing (and intellectual promotion among the literary elites) The Passage is not a bad novel, just not a good one. I'm betting the Hollywood movie will be better than the book.

THIS BODY OF DEATH: A Review

2010-06-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

MarkJonesBooks.com
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Thanks goodness Elizabeth George has returned with a huge dose of Barbara Havers.

For the uninitiated, Havers is the unpolished working class detective sgt. who is partnered with the ultimately urbane Inspector Thomas Lynley (the Eighth Earl of Asherton) of New Scotland Yard. The Lynley mysteries are the best written and plotted detective novels of the past 20 years. In each novel dozens of richly drawn characters and their messy lives are expertly woven into the story as Lynley and Havers are drawn into their world due to a murder. But the best part of the books is the complicated, multi-layered relationship between Havers and Lynley.

The previous novel in the Lynley series, Careless in Red, was 99% Lynley. It followed Lynley during his eight month bereavement leave-of-absence after the murder of his wife, Helen, which was covered in the book With No One As Witness. I, for one, applaud George for killing off a major character in a successful series. Like most readers, I had become frustrated with Helen (and her relationship with Lynley.) She was an annoying character who, with each appearance on page, irritated everyone reading. So, George killed her off and created a new dynamic for the entire series. Too bad Robert B. Parker never had the courage to do the same thing in his SPENSER series - to kill off the most annoying character in modern fiction, Susan Silverman.

In This Body of Death, Lynley returns to duty to assist the new department chief, Isabelle Ardrey. Havers and Ardrey are already at odds when Lynley arrives. Ardrey is horrified by Havers typical attire (mismatched socks, T-shirt with an off color slogan, and food-stained pants.) Ardrey is a hard woman, whose management style rubs everyone in the department the wrong way. She also has several personal problems - a bitter custody fight with her husband over their two children, and ducking into the bathroom to suck down mini-bottles of vodka.

In addition, Ardrey mismanages her detective crew (in Havers' opinion) and directs the murder investigation in the wrong direction. Lynley attempts to subtly help her steer the case in a proper manner, and Havers (as she is wont to do) disobeys orders and follows her own hunches in the investigation. Havers also is horrified to pick up the vibe that Lynley and Ardrey may becoming romantically involved!

Welcome back Elizabeth George, and Barbara Havers.

BILBIO SAYS: Read it, read it, read it.

SUREFIRE SUMMER BOOKS

2010-06-05T11:21:00.000-07:00

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The phrase "beach book" should conjure up certain images: a paperback novel, plot heavy and fun to read. A thriller, a comedy, a good mystery. Here are a few surefire books to get you through the hot days of summer.

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THE LORDS OF DISCIPLINE by Pat Conroy. Conroy's breakout novel. Thrilling, passionate and impossible to put down.

ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card. The great sci-fi novel for people who don't usually read sci-fi. Trust me, read this book.

EYE OF THE NEEDLE by Ken Follett. Simply put: one of the greatest thrillers ever written.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO / THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET'S NEST by Stieg Larsson. Two stunning crime novels featuring an unusual protagonist.

THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE by Douglas Adams. As close to the Bible of great reads as you can get.

HARRY POTTER SERIES by J. K. Rowling. Each volume is good, and each volume is better than the previous one.

THE STAND / SALEM'S LOT by Stephen King. The "King of beach reads."

WATCHERS / STRANGERS by Dean Koontz. The second "King of beach reads."

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee. It's not often that a "classic" is also a compelling beach book.

THE PRINCESS BRIDE by William Goldman. As the source material for the movie everybody loves, almost no one has read this delightful (and surprisingly rich and compelling) novel.

SKIN TIGHT /NATIVE TONGUE / SICK PUPPY by Carl Hiaasen. Master of the comic crime novel. Wacky and exciting.

A TOWN LIKE ALICE by Nevil Shute. THE romance book. Harrowing and sweet at the same time.

THE TOMB / LEGACIES / CONSPIRACIES by F. Paul Wilson. The end of the world is coming, so better start reading the Repairman Jack novels to get yourself up to speed. Here are the first three (of fifteen.)

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP by John Irving. Irving's masterpiece. We are all terminal cases.

TARA ROAD / QUENTINS by Maeve Binchey. A great Irish writer doing what she does best, telling stories of real people and their day-to-day lives.

THE SCARLET RUSE / THE GREEN RIPPER by John D. MacDonald. Two of the best of the "Travis McGee" mysteries.

REPLAY by Ken Grimwood. What if you could live your life over again, and over, and over?

CARRION COMFORT by Dan Simmons. Epic horror about psychic vampires. Stunning.

CITY OF DREAMS: A Review

2010-05-24T15:45:00.000-07:00

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Two years before Indiana Jones. Twenty years before Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicholas Cage's character in National Treasure). And even before Robert Langdon of The DaVinci Code, there was Peter Fallon. If William Martin, the creator of Fallon, isn't sharing in the profits of the Treasure and Langdon movies, then he should be!

In 1979, Martin introduced Peter Martin in a superb historical thriller called Back Bay. And over the twenty years he has proven himself to the premier historical novelist of this generation. All the historical grandeur of Michener with none of the bad writing and tedious plots. Back Bay is the book that established his formula, and which the National Treasure producers use to great success. Alternating narratives: one that follows events in history, and the second which follows historian and collector of antiquities Peter Fallon in his search for some lost historical object. Gradually the two plots line merge to a roaring finish.

In Bay the object is silver tea set, made by Paul Revere and given to George Washington. After the War of 1812 the tea set disappears the in the late 20th century Peter Fallon uncovers some clues about the set and begins to pull the thread of history apart. In Harvard Yard it is a lost Shakespeare manuscript. In The Lost Constitution it is an annotated (by the writers) copy of the Constitution that was stolen at the Convention.

And now in City of Dreams Fallon is after some lost Revolutionary War bonds sold my Alexander Hamilton to pay for the Patriot rebellion. Seems like, due to a clause in the Constitution, that the bonds may still redeemable and the lost batch could be worth more than one billion dollars!

While no one will ever accuse Martin of being a great writer, he is a good one. And he is a masterful researcher who knows how to turn tidbits of research into fascinating (and plausible) fiction. All of Martin's books are enjoyable and you will come away with a deeper knowledge of history, and (hopefully) a desire to delve into the subject matter more deeply. Can a historical novelist ask for anything more? Maybe a share of the National Treasure profits, but ... I'm sure Mr. Martin is not holding his breath.

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended for a great read.

MEN AND DOGS: A Review

2010-05-18T10:36:00.000-07:00

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This is an easy review. I did not finish the book. Why? It's written in present tense, a death knell for fiction. Ms. Crouch, tell me one reason that this novel is better because of the present tense narrative point-of-view.

Oh, you argue, a few sections of the book are in the past tense POV. So, why is that? Would the book have been weakened if the entire novel was written in past tense POV?

Answer: No. So, the reason you chose the alternating present/past POV is merely an attempt to be hip, cool, modern?

Sorry, that's no good enough. All it did was annoy the hell out of me. It made me pay attention to the style and distracted from your story, a cardinal sin for fiction. It is nothing more than your pathetic plea to the reader: "Look at me, I'm a WRITER!"

And a poor one at that, Ms. Crouch.

BIBLIO SAYS: Avoid like syphilis.

CHANGELESS: A Review

2010-04-29T18:36:00.000-07:00

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Remember the first time you heard the 1976 LP, Boston? It blew you away. Swirling twin guitars, a sound that mixed Led Zep with Yes and The Beatles, hard rockin' songs with a melody, high harmonies, soulful singing by Brad Delp, and one mean ass rock and roll organ.

Remember the anticipation as you waited (and waited and waited and waited) for Boston's second LP? And then, it finally arrived! Don't Look Back. So you tossed it on your turntable (for those of you under 30, Google it) and you listened to the LP. And about halfway through Side Two you started to get a sour feeling in your belly. The album was good ... but was not great. It was ... the same, but not better. After two years, this is what you got? So, you listened to it again. For the next few days you walked around thinking: "Oh man, this sucks."

Welcome to CHANGELESS, the literary equivalent of Boston's Don't Look Back.

CHANGELESS is the sequel to SOULLESS, last year's Book of the Year at theBIBLIOfile. Read the Soulless review. Soulless was a delicate literary lampoon that seamlessly merged the darkness of Bram Stoker with the sensibility of Jane Austen set in Charles Dickens' London. It was a world in which vampires, werewolves and ghosts were accepted in English society. Author Gail Carriger deftly pulled off a screwball comedy of manners.

So what's wrong with CHANGELESS? The freshness has worn off. The wackiness of a English woman without a soul who can disarm vampires and werewolves with a thrust of her silver-coated parasol and sitting in council with Queen Victoria discussing the "vampire problem" is no longer new. Carriger has done little to move the story (and her world) into something else. We are stuck in a world that we already know, in a story that seems stale and mundane.

Like Don't Look Back, it's more of the same thing ... and then only a mere shadow. It serves to remind you how good the initial offering is.

BIBLIO SAYS: Read, but prepare for disappointment.

GLIMPSES: A review

2010-04-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

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The first rock n roll time-travel novel!

In the song "American Pie" Don McLean asked the question: "Can music save your mortal soul?" Glimpses answers that question with a resounding "YES!"

Ray Chackleford is an unstable, self-employed electronics repairman whose marriage is foundering and whose father has recently died. During his youth (in the 1960s) he played drums in a rock and roll band.

His unresolved relationships with wife and father are complicated when Ray travels to the Mexican site of his father's death and promptly falls in love with a woman even more unstable than he. In the midst of this emotional turmoil, begins to hear in his head and manages to transfer to tape legendary unfinished recordings by Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, and Jimi Hendrix. This music is accompanied by "journeys" into the troubled lives of these rock musicians.

This is a brilliant evocation of the 1960s, and one man's journey through an altered past. Ray is far from being a traditional hero, but during his music quest he begins to heal some of his past angst.

If you love classic rock and roll, this is a must read!

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended!

ESSENTIAL TIME TRAVEL NOVELS

2010-04-16T13:14:00.001-07:00

Books listed alphabetically ...

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THE ANUBIS GATES by Tim Powers (1985)

Quite brilliant. The colonization of Egypt by western European powers is the launch point for power plays and machinations. Steeping together in this time-warp stew are such characters as an unassuming Coleridge scholar, ancient gods, wizards, the Knights Templar, werewolves, and other quasi-mortals, all wrapped in the organizing fabric of Egyptian mythology. The reluctant heroes fight for survival against an evil that lurks beneath the surface of their everyday lives.

BRING THE JUBILEE by Ward Moore (1953)

This is one of the first (and the best) of the alternative history novels that ask: What if the South won the Civil War? Politically complex, astute and endlessly fascinating. The point of divergence occurs when the Confederate States of America wins the Battle of Gettysburg and subsequently declares victory in the "War of Southron Independence" on July 4, 1864 after the surrender of the United States of America. The novel takes place in the impoverished United States in the mid-20th century as war looms between the Confederacy and its rival, the German Union. History takes an unexpected turn when the protagonist Hodge Backmaker, a historian, decides to travel back in time and witness the moment when the South won the war.

A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT by Mark Twain (1889)

This story is both a whimsical fantasy and a social satire chock-full of brilliant Twainisms. Hank Morgan, a 19th century American-a Connecticut Yankee-by a stroke of fate is sent back into time to 6th century England and ends up in Camelot and King Arthur's Court. Although of average intelligence, he finds himself with knowledge beyond any of those in the 6th century and uses it to become the king's right hand man, and to challenge Merlin as the court magician. Astounded at the way of life in Camelot, Hank does the only thing he can think of to do: change them. In his attempt to civilize medieval Camelot he experiences many challenges and misadventures.

THE DANCERS AT THE END OF TIME by Michael Moorcock (1974 onward)

Enter a decaying far, far future society, a time when anything and everything is possible, where words like 'conscience' and 'morality' are meaningless, and where heartfelt love blossoms mysteriously between Mrs Amelia Underwood, an unwilling time traveller, and Jherek Carnelian, a bemused denizen of the End of Time. The Dancers at the End of Time is a brilliant homage to the 1890s. The series include the following novels: An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands and The End of All Songs.

GLIMPSES by Lewis Shiner (1993)

The first rock n roll time-travel novel! In the song "American Pie" Don McLean asked the question: "Can music save your mortal soul?" Glimpses answers that question with a resounding "YES!"

Ray Chackleford is an unstable, self-employed electronics repairman whose marriage is foundering and whose father has recently died. These unresolved relationships are complicated when Ray travels to the Mexican site of his father's death and promptly falls in love with a woman even more unstable than he. In the midst of this emotional turmoil, Ray--a rock drummer during his youth in the late Sixties--begins to hear in his head and manages to transfer to tape legendary unfinished recordings by Jim Morrison, Brian Wilson, and Jimi Hendrix. This music is accompanied by "journeys" into the troubled lives of these rock musicians. Shiner's appealing main character and his gripping style overcome the less believable aspects of his story.

If you love classic rock and roll, this is a must read!

THE GODS THEMSELVES by Issac Asimov (1972)

In the year 2100, mankind on Earth, settlers in a lunar colony and aliens from the para-universe, a strange universe parallel in time to our own, are faced with a race against time to prevent total destruction of the Earth. The invention of the Inter-Universe Electron Pump has threatened the rate of hydrogen fusion in the sun, leading, inevitably, to the possibilty of a vast explosion -- and the vapourization of the Earth exactly eight minutes later . . .

Asimov, is always, accurate and brilliant. The science is plausible.

THE LIGHT OF OTHER DAYS by Arthur C. Clark & Stephen Baxter (2000)

Two titans of hard SF--multiple award-winning British authors Clarke (Rendezvous with Rama) and Baxter (The Time Ships)--team up for a story of grand scientific and philosophical scope.

Ruthless Hiram Patterson, the self-styled "Bill Gates of the twenty-first century," brings about a communication revolution by using quantum wormholes to link distant points around Earth. Not content with his monopoly on the telecommunications industry, Patterson convinces his estranged son, David, a brilliant young physicist, to work for him. While humanity absorbs the depressing news that an enormous asteroid will hit Earth in 500 years, David develops the WormCam, which allows remote viewers to spy on anyone, anytime. The government steps in to direct WormCam use--but before long, privacy becomes a distant memory. Then David and his half-brother, Bobby, discover a way to use the WormCam to view the past, and the search for truth leads to disillusionment as well as knowledge.

Only by growing beyond the mores of the present can humanity hope to survive and to deal with the threats of the future, including that asteroid. The exciting extrapolation flows with only a few missteps, and the large-scale implications addressed are impressive indeed. For both authors the novel's conclusion takes place in familiar thematic territory, offering a final, hopeful transcendence for humanity.

THE MAN WHO FOLDED HIMSELF by David Gerrold (1973)

Daniel Eakins inherits a time machine and soon realizes that he has enormous power to shape the course of history. He can foil terrorists, prevent assassinations, or just make some fast money at the racetrack. And if he doesn't like the results of the change, he can simply go back in time and talk himself out of making it! But Dan soon finds that there are limits to his powers and forces beyond his control. A wild ride!

PASTWATCH: THE REDEMPTION OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS by Orson Scott Card (1996)

Tagiri and Hassan are members of Pastwatch, an academic organization that uses machines to see into the past and record it. Their project focuses on slavery and its dreadful effects, and gradually evolves into a study of Christopher Columbus.

They eventually marry and their daughter Diko joins them in their quest to discover what drove Columbus west. Columbus, with whom readers become acquainted through both images in the Pastwatch machines and personal narrative, is portrayed as a religious man with both strengths and weaknesses, a charismatic leader who sometimes rose above but often fell beneath the mores of his times. An entertaining and thoughtful history lesson.

REPLAY by Ken Grimwood (1986)

What if you could love your life over and over, and over again? Jeff Winston, a failing 43-year-old radio journalist, dies and wakes up in his 18-year-old body in 1963 with his memories of the next 25 years intact. He views the future from the perspective of naive 1963: "null-eyed punks in leather and chains . . . death-beams in orbit around the polluted, choking earth . . . his world sounded like the most nightmarish of science fiction."

Grimwood has transcended genre with this carefully observed, literate and original story. Jeff's knowledge soon becomes as much a curse as a blessing. After recovering from the shock (is the future a dream, or is it real life?), he plays out missed choices. In one life, for example, he falls in love with Pamela, a housewife who died nine minutes after Jeff; they try to warn the world of the disasters it faces, coming in conflict with the government and history. A third replayer turns out to be a serial killer, murdering the same people over and over. Jeff and Pamela are still searching for some missing part of their lives when they notice they are returning closer and closer to the time of their deaths, and realize that the replays and their times together may be coming to an end.

A brilliant book. An all-time classic.

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut

"Listen: Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time." After he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, Pilgrim's life unfolds in a display of plot-scrambling virtuosity, concentrating on his shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Okay, we've all read it. 'Nuff said.

TIME AND AGAIN by Jack Finny

Possibly the best of all time-travel novels. While it is written with an old-fashioned sensibility Finny (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) is a superb novelist and a master at creating paranoria.

Simon Morley, an artist with a premium on imagination, is chosen as a possible subject by a group operating on the theory that time is charted by a myriad of details and if surrounded by what appear to be the artifacts and events of an era, they might be able to project themselves into the actual time slot. For weeks Simon is secluded in an apartment in New York's famous landmark, the Dakota, where he dresses, eats, entertains himself and reads newspapers in tire style of the New York of 1894 and finally he walks out into the Central Park of that January. As Simon wanders and takes photos of the familiar-but-different New York landscape, he becomes involved in the lives of several of his 19th century acquaintances. And there is a mystery that Simon is determined to solve that has to do with a suicide and a cryptic letter that ends "the sending of this should cause the Destruction by Fire of the entire World."

TIMESCAPE by Gregory Benford (1980)

It's 1998, and a physicist in Cambridge, England, attempts to send a message backward in time. Earth is falling apart, and a government faction supports the project in hopes of diverting or avoiding the environmental disasters beginning to tear at the edges of civilization. It's 1962, and a physicist in California struggles with his new life on the West Coast, office politics, and the irregularities of data that plague his experiments. Then he receives an unusual message ...

TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG by Connie Willis

In 2057, Ned Henry, an Oxford expert in the 20th century, jumps back and forth from the 1940s to correct a loose screw in the works of the time continuum. A tongue-in-cheek raspberry to Victorian novels, the story unfolds with such madcap almost screwball intensity makes the pages burn your fingers as you read. This a fun ride!

UP THE LINE by Robert Silverberg (1969)

Being a Time Courier was one of the best jobs Judson Daniel Elliott III ever had. It was tricky, though, taking group after group of tourists back to the same historic event without meeting yourself coming or going. Trickier still was avoiding the temptation to become intimately involved with the past and interfere with events to come. The deterrents for any such actions were frighteningly effective. So Judson Daniel Elliott played by the book. Then he met a lusty Greek in Byzantium who showed him how rules were made to be broken...and set him on a family-history-go-round that would change his past and his future forever!

THE GREATEST LIVING WRITER

2010-04-01T07:10:00.000-07:00

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He has sold 170 million books. He is the only author to have five hardback titles debut #1 on the New York Times list in a single year ... which he's accomplished four times. He has had nineteen consecutive # 1 bestsellers. He's had 46 New York Times hardback bestsellers.

James Patterson is the greatest living American writer. After all numbers don't lie. If that doesn't prove his statue, let's look at his brilliant, often transcendent writing ...

I'M A GIRL OF EXTREMES. When I love something, I'm like a puppy dog (without all the licking). When I'm cranky, I'm a wasp (like, a whole hive of 'em). And when I'm angry, I'm a mother bear with a predator after her cubs: dangerous.(From Fang)

And then, as though God Himself had ﬁnally heard her calling, a cell phone rang inside the trunk. (From Swimsuit)

Getting stuck on a bus in New York City, even under normal circumstances, is a lesson in frustration. But when the bus belongs to the NYPD Tactical Assistance Response Unit, and it’s parked at a barricade that’s swarming with cops, and you’re there because you’re the only person in the world who might have a chance at keeping several hostages from being killed, you can cancel your dinner plans. (From Run For Your Life)

Who can argue with Patterson's brilliance? If Patterson does not win the Nobel Prize for Literature it will be incontrovertible evidence that the Nobel committee is nothing more than a group of political hacks.

BIBLIO SAYS: Please check the date of this posting. Have a great day.

THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON: A Review

2010-03-26T06:05:00.000-07:00

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Sarah Addison Allen has written three quirky small town Southern novels that mix gentle realism with magical fantasy. Her first book, Garden Spells, was a charming novel that set her template, which she followed to perfection in her second novel, The Sugar Queen.

Her most recent novel, The Girl Who Chased The Moon (which debuts at #10 on the New York Times list next week), has also been created out of the same blueprint and is also a winning fluffy concoction Here is what each book has in common:

a small North Carolina town
a couple of disjointed female characters with tragedy in their past
a cast of quirky characters - some of whom seem to possess otherworldly abilities that center around food

In The Moon, after her mother's death, Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, NC hoping to solve some riddles surrounding her mother's life. Why did her mother suddenly and mysteriously leave town and why did she never mention any of her family? Emily is shocked to discover her grandfather is a gentle giant (literally, he is eight feet tall) and that the wallpaper in her mother's room changes patterns. Then there is the nightly mysterious light that appears in their backyard which her grandfather shoos away. Across the street a lonely woman named Julia bakes cakes which has a way of attracting a certain man who lives in town. Through a magical summer Emily discovers that in Mullaby riddles and mysteries seem to be a way of life.

Allen has the ability of balancing the precarious nature of this story realism versus enchanting magic. By this time, in her third book, she seems to have perfected it. The Moon is a short novel (around 65,000 words) but if it was any longer part of the charm would evaporate. It is much like Abraham Lincoln's comment about his legs - this novel is as long as it should be, long enough to get to the end of the story.

However, I am hoping that Allen soon moves away from this template. I'm sure her publisher is clamoring for more and more of the same because publishers have become infected with a Hollywood mentality - they only want what has sold before. I have no doubt Allen is capable of producing several more books from this template. But at the risk of becoming Dorthea Benton Frank.

Frank wrote one entertaining novel, her first - Sullivan's Island. Every book that followed Sullivan's Island has been a weaker knock-off until currently Frank is writing what amounts to a parody of her first success, embarrassing and pointless. Sarah Addison Allen may be approaching that abyss, but she has several things in her favor.

First of all, Allen is a much better writer than Frank, who at best is chatty and sappy. Allen has a real gift of developing characters and situations. Since she is a young woman, I can see a long literary career for Allen, somewhat like Maeve Binchy has created ... yes, Allen has that sort of talent. Here's hoping that Allen soon moves past this magical food realism story line and into meatier (pun intended) and more involved stories. I, for one, will be anxious to read them.

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended.

Companion read: Choclat by Joanne Harris

JULIET, NAKED: A Review

2010-03-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

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I've always had trouble reading Nick Hornby novels. They sound like great ideas, and they usually are turned into good movies, but when you get within the pages something always seems to be flat. I'm happy to report with Juliet, Naked Hornby is in perfect form. The description of the book sounds fascinating, and by page 90 I was wondering what the hell happened.

In a dreary seaside English town Annie lives with Duncan. For fifteen years they have been together, an almost platonic domestic relationship of equal convenience and comfort. Duncan is obsessed with a Springsteen/Dylanesque American singer-songwriter named Tucker Crowe who mysteriously dropped out of sight twenty years ago. Duncan is active in a small (very small) Internet community of Crowe fanatics who endlessly discuss Crowe's music and life and speculate about where he is and what he is doing. Duncan has spent most of his adult life dissecting every word and note and sound from Crowe's masterpiece, Juliet, an angst-filled passionate collection of songs. Halfway during the Juliet tour, Crowe canceled the rest of the tour dates and disappeared. And for twenty years, silence.

Then, suddenly, Crowe's record company releases Juliet, Naked - an acoustic, stripped down version of the classic LP. Annie writes a negative review of the Naked version and posts it on the Internet. Imagine her surprise when Tucker Crowe himself replies and they begin an Internet relationship - two lonely people looking for more than what they've got.

The book is a jumbled collection of scenes, with random characters popping up and the resolution is ... well, abrupt. Like this review.

BIBLIO SAYS: Wait for the movie.

THE PROFESSIONAL: A Review & Parker eulogy

2010-03-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

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Robert B. Parker, who died in January 18, 2010, used to write one of the best private eye / detective series featuring Boston gumshoe Spenser. Unfortunately the good Spenser books stopped about fifteen years before Parker died. And the latest, The Professional, is no exception. What happened to the Spenser series has to qualify as one of the greatest literary drops in modern fiction (if you ignore Norman Mailer.)

When Spenser premiered in 1973 (The Godwulf Manuscript) it was standard P.I. fare - wise cracking detective who used to be former cop, you know the drill. Starting with the second novel, God Save the Child, you could see that Parker and Spenser were atypical. Spenser is hired to find a missing teenage boy, Kevin, but when he understands why the kid ran away (a family that was, at best, ambivalent) Spenser creates an unusual solution. That set the stage for the next dozen Spenser novels - he is often less concerned with solving a crime than seeing that some kind of justice served, be it criminal, emotional or both. Spenser has his own code and he often makes seat-of-the-pants decisions about what is right and wrong.

Unfortunately, God Save The Child also introduced a character, Susan Silverman, who was to become the ultimate downfall of the series. Silverman is the school counselor and during the course of the novel, she and Spenser work together to salvage Kevin and his family. Through the next series of books Susan becomes a minor recurring character (she goes to Harvard and gets her Ph.D) and slowly she and Spenser become a committed couple, culminating in A Catskill Eagle (1985.)

But leading up to Eagle, Parker and Spenser re-defined modern crime fiction in those ten novels. We get to meet a black hired gun/enforcer named Hawk who becomes an uneasy collaborator with Spenser. Hawk is the darker side of Spenser's character, the flip side of the same coin. Hawk is one of the all-time great characters in modern crime fiction - flippant, sarcastic, brilliantly observant and a stone cold killer. Whenever Hawk is on-stage, the Spenser books take a sharp turn toward greatness. Gradually, Spenser and Hawk realize their ethics code is similar, separated by a small gray area. Tracing the development of their relationship through violence, humor and ruminations on good and evil, is one of the joys of the early Spenser novels.

But all that changed in A Catskill Eagle, a disturbing book. In an effort to find herself (oh god!) Susan feels she must separate from Spenser and moves to the West Coast. Then, Spenser receives an enigmatic letter from Susan that she is in trouble. Her lover is a powerful, possessive man whose father is an illegal weapons manufacturer. Susan is being held in the family compound. Hawk and Spenser race to her rescue which results in the men being hired by the U.S. government as contract killers. Susan needs to find her self but instead, gets involved with a control freak and needs Spenser to save her. What a brilliant woman! The Spenser series goes downhill quickly after this book.

In his quest to re-define the genre, Parker pushed the envelope too much and by the mid-1990s, the books had become self-parody. As Spenser and Susan become more intimately intertwined each Spenser book is little more than a exercise in sophomoric psychobabble. A typical novel goes like this: Spenser gets hired for a case; at the end of each day of collecting information and bashing heads, he and Susan will discuss what he has uncovered and analyze his feelings. "How did you feel when you were beating shit out of the hoodlum?" Susan will ask. "I felt like shit," Spenser will answer. "Why do you think you felt like shit while you beating the shit out of him?" Susan will brilliantly ask. So much for the prestige of a Harvard degree!

And then, there's Pearl the Wonder dog, the annoying pooch that Susan and Spenser share custody of. Reading a Spenser book became a sado-masochistic experience ... like listening to Genesis after Peter Gabriel left - you know how good it used to be and now you're stuck with this drivel!

The Professional is just the most recent Spenser exercise in self-parody (and almost the last unless the estate goes the V.C. Andrews route - God help us). The story is more flimsy than a wet Kleenex. Susan and Spenser's so-called sexy repartee does not even reach the level of a middle-of-the-road TV sitcom. Hawk appears in the book because that is now his role in the Spenser books - give Spenser advise on his current case, drop some witty observations and flirt with whatever woman happens to be in the scene. Hawk has become nothing more than window dressing. What a shame!

You may be asking ... why the hell do you keep reading these books? Good question. Answer is: I'm still hoping that Parker has that last great Spenser book in him. Same reason I listened to Genesis for a while in 1980s until they did that Michelob commercial which convinced me it was never going to happen. Same with Parker's death. There will never be another great Spenser novel, but we do have the first eleven still in print.

BIBLIO SAYS: Ignore The Professional.

Instead, go read the first eleven Spenser novels, and enjoy: (my favorites in red)
The Godwulf Manuscipt, God Save The Child, Mortal Stakes, Promised Land, The Judas Goat, Looking For Rachel Wallace, Early Autumn, A Savage Place, The Widening Gyre, Valediction.

A TWISTED LADDER: A Review

2010-03-20T06:11:00.000-07:00

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With all the advance praise and recommendations from writers I love (F. Paul Wilson) imagine my dismay when I discovered this book is nothing more than a torrid mess.

college-freshman level writing
abrupt narrative changes
southern gothic soap opera cliques

And for everyone on Amazon declaring that this book is "original and daring" you obviously need to read more. Check out Dan Simmons' Carrion Comfort or go watch the movie The Skeleton Key. Or better yet, go check out the 1948 novel by Josephine Pinckney called Great Mischief; it deals with another Southern city, Charleston, and a deal with the devil without resorting to Hollywood cliques and southern stereotypes.

Rhodi Hawk works too hard to create the southern atmosphere. Everything in this book seems forced, nothing is believable and often not very precise. Can we please have a novel about New Orleans that DOES NOT trot out the black voodoo queen? THAT would very original.

BIBLIO SAYS: Pass it by.

BONESHAKER: A Review

2010-03-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

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First of all, I enjoyed reading Boneshaker. Most of my complaints have nothing to do with the author or the story. More on that in a moment.

Boneshaker takes place in an alternate Seattle of the 1880s which includes zombies, gas masks, airships, pirates and an American Civil War that has lasted almost 20 years.

Briar Wilkes survived the zombie takeover that claimed most of Seattle. A rift in the earth released a noxious gas that killed thousands of people, and several days after their death, they arose and began to attack and feed upon the living. Seattle built a 200 foot high walled around most of downtown Seattle which imprisons the undead zombies. Briar has dedicated her life to providing for her teenage son Zeke in a very bleak life outside the wall. She works 15-hour days cleaning the air to make it less dangerous to breath.

But one day Zeke vanishes over the wall into the zombie-infested center of Seattle in an attempt to clear the family name. Zeke's father, and Briar's husband, may have created the disaster that destroyed Seattle, that ripped open the earth in which the noxious gas escape which created the undead zombies. Briar takes matters into her own hands, follows her son over the wall and confronts the horrific conditions inside. Along the way she starts to make peace with the demons of her past in the process. Briar is every inch a mother, but flawed, too. She reminds me of the character Ripley (from the Alien films) as she finds strength in surprising places and soldiers on, in spite of the mounting fear and horrors that surround her.

My complaints about this book have to do with the publisher, Tor. What genius decided to print the book in a faint brown type that made it a chore to struggle to read? The book industry is struggling in this economic age, so why would a publisher purposefully make the book difficult to read? Hopefully, someone at TOR will re-format the book when it goes into another printing.

BIBLIO SAYS: Recommended ... if you like to squint.

AN OLD CAPTIVITY: A Review

2010-03-12T12:16:00.000-08:00

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More than just an ordinary plane trip, first published in 1940, this novel is still a stand-out! Don Ross is hired to fly an ageing Oxford professor, Lockwood, to Greenland to prove an archeological theory - that around 1000 AD the Celts had explored and settled Greenland, leaving ruins. The first half of the book is pure Shute, painstakingly following Ross as he purchases an aeroplane and supplies for the trip. He lectures the professor on the rigors of the undertaking and tries to shed light on the harsh reality awaiting. Shute, an engineer, always has a great way of explaining technical details that are both interesting and simple for the layman to understand. We follow Ross as he quietly goes about the sheer overwhelming amount of preparation with determination and the classic British "stiff upper lip."

Accompanying Don and Lockwood is the professor's frumpish daughter, Alix, who is in fear for her father's health and mistrust's Don, thinking him out to bilk her father and rich uncle, who is funding the expedition. As they make the journey - England to Scotland, Scotland to Iceland, etc... - enduring simple hardships and delays, professor and daughter realize their initial idea of this being merely a simple journey was mistaken; their lives and safety are completely in Don's hands, who works himself eighteen hours a day ... becoming frail and weak.

Then, as the expedition reaches its destination, Don falls into a semi-coma of fatigue - and this is where Shute's not-so-modern sensibility shines through. Over halfway through the book, the simple adventure tale of survival becomes an almost metaphysical exploration of love, reincarnation and time travel, done with such a slight and clever hand that the reader barely is aware of what has happened.

Such is the genius of Nevil Shute. He has long been one of my favorite writers. I have also long trumpeted the fact that he is one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Even though in style he is very old-fashioned, he was always on the cutting edge of ideas. Many of his novels explore scientific theory that later was proved correct. A decade after this novel, archeologists began to excavate ruins in Greenland proving settlements more than a 1000 years old.

A slyly brilliant book. Part adventure, part romance, part mystical .... all Shute.

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended!
Suggested other reading: In The Wet by Nevil Shute. Another metaphysical adventure story set in Australia's outback.

THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL: A Review

2010-03-08T16:55:00.000-08:00

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Greg Iles is always dependable and The Devil's Punchbowl does not disappoint. It's another atmospheric thriller set in Natchez, Mississippi that explores on the creeping corruption from the riverboat casinos; a southern town becomes victim to the overwhelming torrent of money flooding in from the gambling, and becomes victim to a dark underworld of depravity. Mayor Penn Cage, a former prosecuting attorney (also featured in the previous novels, The Quiet Game and Turning Angel) finds his family in danger when he discovers one too many secrets.

Let me say this up front: I like Greg Iles' novels. I've read most of them and enjoyed them ... but not as much as much I could have. Let me explain. Iles has a very annoying habit in most of his novels: HE WRITES IN PRESENT TENSE!

I have never read a novel that has been improved by switching from the more traditional past tense ("Joe walked into the room and said, "Stop, or I'll shoot.") to the more annoying and less clear present tense ("Joe walks into the room and says, "Stop, or I'll shoot.") If you're like most readers, as you read your mind changes the prose from present to past tense. As a writer you are doing something you should NEVER do - giving the reader a reason to stop!

When I'm browsing books and I see a novel written in present tense, I put the book back on the shelf and move on. There are very few writers that I will give the benefit of that doubt, and Iles is one. I have read several of his books written in the more traditional method and know that he is a good and entertaining writer ... one whose books would warrant re-reading ... except for one annoying thing.

Come on, Mr. Iles, you're a better writer. Drop the look-at-me-writing-in-the- present-tense-I-can-be-modern attitude and just write good books - in past tense. Your public will thank you.

BIBLIO SAYS: Recommended ... with reservations.

MR. SHIVERS: A Review

2010-03-01T18:05:00.001-08:00

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This is a darkly creepy dust storm of a book, part Stephen King and part John Steinbeck -if Steinbeck lost most of his talent. It starts as a revenge story rooted in the harsh reality of the Dust Bowl days, and transforms into a heavy-handed examination of myth.

Marcus Connelly is a good man who begins a desperate trek through the ruins of 1930s American heartland on the trail of his child's murderer. As he tracks the elusive fiend the hobos call Mr. Shivers, Connelly discovers that he's not the only person whose life the killer has ruined. Connelly gathers around him a group of like-minded desperate lost souls, with each member of the group of vagabonds loosely based on some mythic figure in the literary past. As the Dust Bowl refugees pursue Shivers through a bleak and hopeless world, they gradually realize that he is the embodiment of an elemental force of destruction, and begin sacrificing their own humanity for the sake of vengeance.

The book starts off as slow as a locomotive climbing a mountain, and never reaches the top. However, for the most part Mr. Shivers is tightly written with a great economical style almost as sparse as the landscape, even though some of the symbolism is a bit forced. I'm not surprised to discover the author is a recent university graduate. His professors probably taught him that a "serious" author, you must have literary pretensions.

BIBLIO SAYS: Recommended, with some reservations.

A DARK MATTER: A Review

2010-03-01T06:38:00.000-08:00

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If Stephen King is the Louis L'Amour of horror writers, then Peter Straub is the Henry James. King is the master of blue collar gruesome and Straub is expert in urbane psychological terror. When Straub is good, he is VERY good (Ghost Story, Mystery). When he's bad, he usually interesting (The Hellfire Club, The Throat). But with his new novel, A Dark Matter, Straub is not even interesting, he's almost incoherent.

First, the story: one evening in 1966 (damn, the 60s!) in Madison, Wisconsin, a group of students follow their guru into a meadow and perform some mysterious (and forbidden, of course) ritual. Eight people go into the meadow, six return. One body is left behind munched beyond recognition, and the second body just vanishes into the great netherworld. The leader, Spencer Mallon, is one of the phony Jim Morrison types who spout New Age nonsense to a group of wide-eyed innocent kids; he sleeps with the girls, mooches food, booze and drugs from the group - a typical 60s intellectual hack. After the "incident", he skips town, leaving the surviving kids to deal with the fallout. One goes insane, others become criminals, one becomes a writer (imagine that!) but all have deep emotional trauma that follows them into their middle years.

Through the annoying use of what critics and collegiate types like to call a Roshomon-style narrative (the same story told from different viewpoints) Straub assaults the reader with paragraphs of dense prose which any community college English 101 instructor would have slashed with red ink: "Too wordy! Be concise!"

By page 100 the reader is forced to read a fictional version of the event (by the author character) and within two pages we realize why it has remained unpublished - it's awful. So take heed and avoid this mishmash of supernatural silliness. The last thing you need is to spend time in the overrated hazy past of the 60s with a self-centered guru-on-the-make and a group of easily-fooled kids.

BILBIO SAYS: Stay away!
Alternate read: Ghost Story, by Peter Straub, a classic, and creepy horror novel.

CITY OF THE SILENT: A Review

2010-02-04T16:59:00.000-08:00

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Magnolia Cemetery is one of the greatest unknown treasures in Charleston, South Carolina. Hopefully, this book will help spread the word. For years, I've been hearing about this manuscript. People waxing enthusiastically about "this manuscript Ted has about Magnolia." They kept promising it was going to dig up some dirt of those buried there (pun intended). I even ran into a couple of people who had a copy of it and promised to let me read it ... to no avail.

I met Ted once in passing, through a mutual friend - it was a mere introduction, "hello", "how are you?" and it was over. That day, he was suffering some effects of the HIV that would ultimately be the cause of his demise. Within a year he was gone, so I never had the chance to discuss this work with him.

I have spent many pleasant hours wandering beneath the oaks and Spanish moss and taking hundreds of photos. Magnolia is thoroughly Southern (and soooo Charleston), filled with Gothic flourishes and amazing history is etched on the headstones. When tourists ask me what is the one thing to see in Charleston my answer is always "Magnolia Cemetery."

City of the Silent is a simple book - several hundred concise bios of some of the notables buried in the cemetery. If you're a Charleston history neophyte, you will learn some interesting stuff. There is a preponderance of Civil War figures (of course!), politicians, writers of questionable importance, society belles, gangsters, lawyers, and one madam. One. So much for the dirt.

If you're a Charleston history nut (guilty) ... you already know most of this stuff. So I was (and I am) a bit disappointed with the info contained within - most of it is already available in published form in one book or another.

However, the book is worth it's hefty cover price (well, almost) for the map of the cemetery and the locations of everyone mentioned. With this book in hand, and the map you can take a stroll and find the graves and read the stories. And that is what you should do with it. Read it, mark your favorite people (see my list below) and then take a trip to Magnolia Cemetery and spend an afternoon in the tranquil presence of history - scoundrels and heroines - and everything in between.

MY LIST OF FAVORITE PEOPLE IN MAGNOLIA CEMETERY

Daisy Breaux Calhoun - real name: Margaret Rose Anthony Julia Josephine Catherine Cornelia Donovan O'Donovan Simonds Gummere Calhoun. (I'm not joking.)
Langdon Cheves, Jr. - father of the Confederate Air Force.
Susan Pringle Frost - patron saint of Charleston preservationists.
Frank Hogan - bootlegger, murder victim.
Leon Dunlap - bootlegger, acquitted murderer.
The Crew of the H.L. Hunley - Confederate submariners.
Tristam Tupper Hyde - Charleston mayor who enforced Prohibition. (served one term)
Thomas McDow - doctor and murderer.
Josephine Pinckney - the best Charleston writer and period - period! Two classics: Three O'Clock Dinner, a superb comedy of society manners and Great Mischief, a delicious little horror book where the entrance to hell is somewhere around the corner of King and Broad Streets.
Robert Barnwell Rhett - Secessionist firebrand and newspaper editor.
George Trenholm - Confederate financier, and model for Rhett Butler.
Julius Waties and Elizabeth Waring - probably my all time favorite Charleston story. If you want to know the story ... buy this book, or pick up of my own modest books about Charleston, Wicked Charleston, Volume II: Prostitutes, Politics & Prohibition. The story of the judge and his second wife is covered in great detail.

BIBILO SAYS: 4. Worth having on your shelf.

WEREWOLF SMACKDOWN: A Review

2010-02-03T05:45:00.000-08:00

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In his latest adventure, Felix Gomez, private detective and vampire, arrives in Charleston, SC
to help thwart a werewolf civil war that threatens to expose The Secret to the world at large. The Secret being the existence of vampires, werewolves and other supernatural creatures. If you're familiar with Felix Gomez all this sounds perfectly plausible. If you're not ... then let's back up.

Felix Gomez went to Iraq as a soldier, returned as a vampire and became a private detective. His first case was to investigate the mysterious outbreak of nymphomania at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant, detailed in The Nymphos of Rocky Flats. His subsequent adventures -X-Rated Bloodsuckers, The Undead Kama Sutra and Jailbait Zombie - read like a combination of Ann Rice, Robert B. Parker and Carl Hiaasen.

Author Mario Acevedo served in the U.S. Army and flew helicopters. In civilian life he taught art, wrote hard-boiled detective novels and collected a stack of rejection slips. Finally, in a bit of desperation, Acevedo decided to write a novel "about the wackiest thing I could think of. " That idea was the outbreak of nymphomania and Felix Gomez, vampire detective, was created. Five books later, Acevedo looks to have created his own niche in the recent avalanche of paranormal fiction.

Werewolf Smackdown details the turf war between rival werewolf clans in the South Carolina low country. For history buffs, bet you didn't know that Charleston was the site of the first werewolf settlement in colonial America, and that werewolf regiments served on both sides of the War Between the States.

As in all the Gomez books, the pace is furious and the attitude is breezy with more than a bit of tongue-in-cheekiness. Within his first twenty-four hours in the Holy City, Felix survives three attempts on his life and mixes it up with ghosts, werewolves, vampire hit men and creates an uneasy truce with the local vampire leader, a ghetto kingpin named Gullah. Oh, and he has plenty of sexy women (human and otherwise) at his disposal.

The pages in Smackdown disappear in big gulps. Acevedo cleverly writes this series so it feels like a high concept, glossy TV show, which would not be a bad idea. Given the success of the HBO's soft porn True Blood (based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels), Felix could become an X-Files meets 24 style action show. I'd watch it.

Visit the author's web site: MarioAcevedo.com

Biblio Says: 4. A fun read.

THE GHOST: A Review

2010-01-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

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Every other review of this book makes reference to it's roman a clef nature - the main character Adam Lang is a thinly veiled portrait of former British Prime Minster, Tony Blair. They go on and on about the clever plot and dialogue and point out all the parallel political tidbits. But, I don't give a damn about the political nature of the story. No one single reviewer has pointed out the major glaring (and fatal) error which forced me to literally THROW THIS BOOK ACROSS THE ROOM and say "Screw you, Mr. Harris, be a better writer."

A quick summary: Former British prime minister Adam Lang is up against a firm deadline to submit his memoirs to his publisher, and the project is dangerously derailed when his aide and collaborator, Michael McAra, perishes in a ferry accident off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. To salvage the book, a professional ghostwriter is hired to whip the manuscript into shape, but the writer, who is never named, soon finds that separating truth from fiction in Lang’s recollections a challenge. The stakes rise when Lang is accused of war crimes for authorizing the abduction of suspected al-Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan, who then ended up in the CIA’s merciless hands. As the new writer probes deeper, he uncovers evidence that his predecessor’s death may have been a homicide and begins to fear for his own life.

Okay, sounds fine. The book opens with the ghostwriter meeting with the publishers and taking on the job of finishing the Prime Minister's memoirs. He has one month to take the unreadable manuscript and turn it into something salable. It will be his largest pay day ever - $200,000 for four weeks of work. The writer has made a decent living churning autobiographies of rock stars, celebrities and sports figures, but this assignment is the opportunity of a lifetime.

He also has to sign a confidentiality clause and is under strict guidelines as how and where he can work on the manuscript. He can only work on the manuscript at the palatial house on Martha's Vineyard where the PM and wife are living. He cannot discuss the manuscript with anyone. He cannot make copies. His laptop on which he is writing and editing the book, cannot leave the mansion. The writer has no problem with that ... hey, he's making $200,000 to basically re-write a completed manuscript.

So what does this idiot do? On page 98 of the novel, after an interview session with the PM, the writer e-mails a copy of the manuscript to himself so he can work on the book at night while he's in his hotel room -in essence, he makes a copy of the manuscript. That was the moment when I tossed this book. The only reason for this idiotic action was to give the novel its plot. Who cares if it goes against everything we have learned about the character? It's the plot that counts.

And another thing: if it was so important for the manuscript to stay secret until publication why in the hell is the writer staying at a deserted hotel in off season Martha's Vineyard? Why wasn't the writer sequestered in the mansion with the PM and wife and staff and secret service? Why? Because then, there is no plot.

"Screw you, Mr. Harris. Be a better writer."

BIBLIO SAYS: Stay away from this piece of junk.

Recommended Alternative Reading: The Manchurian Candidate by Richard Condon.

THE GOLD COAST & THE GATE HOUSE: A Review

2010-01-08T18:40:00.001-08:00

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Okay, so I know how much other critics love these two books. I, myself, an a Demille fan. The
Charm School, Word of Honor, The General's Daughter and Plum Island are all good books. Exciting thrillers and well written.

I read The Gold Coast when it was first published in 1990, and remember not being impressed at all. FAST FORWARD to 2009 - with great hype, Demille's sequel to Gold Coast was published so I decided to go back and re-read the book before I read the new one.

Halfway through Gold Coast for the second time I found myself very impatient. One question kept popping up in my head: Who the f*@k cares? I found nothing about any of the three main characters sympathetic.

In fact, by page 350 I was hoping everyone would die. Alas, only the so-called "bad guy" Frank Bellarosa gets it in the end. Frank's crime was being an Italian and daring to move into the cloistered white-bread preppy culture of snobs and shallow people along the Gold Coast - and tempting his ultra uptight neighbors John and Susan Sutter. According to the book description, John's narrative voice is "sardonic - often hilarious." Someone at the publishers has a different definition of hilarious than most of us.

I was thankful when it was finished, and pissed that John and Susan were still breathing valuble oxygen. So it was with trepidation that moved on to The Gate House. Ten years after his wife Susan killed Mob boss Frank Bellarosa, John Sutter returns to the cloistered life on the Gold Coast. John spends pages and pages ruminating about how terrible life is at the country club, on his yacht and in his mansion. Most of his problems are due to the fact that he is too much of a wienie to actually say "screw it" and leave the so-called good life behind. His annoying wife Susan is still annoying. She has a six-figure income from a family trust fund and is a spoiled bratty bitch. What John sees in her - other than her money and taste for kinky sex - is beyond me. So, if you enjoy reading about spoiled, self-important people clinging to an out-dated lifestyle I can recommend several books about Charleston in the 1860s. Stay away from this piece of boring crap.

HINT: next time have the editor actually edit the book. Cut out the boring shit -75% of this book.

BIBLIO SAYS: Stay far, far away.

THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD - A Review

2010-01-04T13:25:00.001-08:00

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Margaret Atwood is the perfect example of the concept that quality is determined by general consensus. That is, something is good when enough people agree it is good, even if it truly is crap. Other examples would be the music of Madonna and The Doors, the fiction of James Patterson, TV's Survivor and every Quentin Tarrentino movie.

Not only is Margaret Atwood a hack, she's a boring hack. And, worse than that, she is a deluded hack. The Year Of The Flood is a companion novel to 2003's Oryx and Crake, which portrayed the world being destroyed by catastrophic climate change and genetic engineering.

TYOTF centers on the lives of Ren and Toby, female members of a fundamentalist sect of Christian environmentalists, the God's Gardeners. Led by the charismatic Adam One, whose sermons and eco-hymns punctuate the narrative, the God's Gardeners are preparing for life after the prophesied Waterless Flood. The believers are ingrained with Adam One's pacificist and environmentalist's teachings - enviro-theology. They are vegetarian - unless you get really, really hungry, and then you start eating from the bottom of the food chain up.

Just to show you how nutty the entire thing is, Atwood had created new saints for God's Gardners to emulate - Al Gore and Rachel Carson.

Al Gore has been proved to be nothing more than a modern-day flim-flam man making millions of dollars off sketchy and unproven theories of global warming. He is either one of the most evil men in the world, or one of the most deluded.

Rachel Carson is nothing less than the greatest mass murderer of the last century. Her book Silent Spring so effectively advocated the banning of DDT against mosquitoes that politicians blindly rushed to pass a ban. Fifty years (and 30 million deaths from malaria) later, Carson's theory that DDT is harmful to the environment, humans and other creatures has been so thoroughly dis-credited than anyone who uses her name to defend environmental causes must be delusional, like dropping Hitler's name to discuss your support of Jewish culture.

But politics aside, Atwood has violated the first law of writing fiction: IT'S BORING! Nothing happens. And what does happen is so silly and flimsy that only someone as deluded as Al Gore could take it seriously.

BIBLIO SAYS: Ignore!

Companion Read: The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner. A true dystopic masterpiece.

SOULLESS: A Review

2009-12-20T07:07:00.001-08:00

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This may be the most entertaining book of 2009.

Poor Alexia Tarabotti. Living in Victorian London as a spinster is not the most enjoyable of lives. However, Alexia has the extra burden of not having a soul - which has the power to neutralize supernatural powers. She is also half-Italian (another burden) and has just murdered a vampire with her parasol in the library during a party, breaking almost every rule in polite society. When the officials arrive to investigate the murder, the head officer is none other than Lord Maccon - loud, messy, gorgeous and werewolf - who is nursing a secret hankering for Miss Tarabotti.

That's Chapter One. Where do you go from there? Into the realm of hysterical hijinks, drawing room dilemmas and passionate kisses, all served with the very best of tea. SOULLESS asks a very simple question: Can a soulless spinster find love with an Alpha werewolf in Victorian London?

SOULLESS is a delicate literary lampoon, seamlessly merging the darkness of Bram Stoker with the sensibility of Jane Austen set in Charles Dickens' London. Gail Carriger pulls it off with aplomb. The heroine has much in common with Austen's Elizabeth Bennett - witty, forthright and headstrong - but also has the additional talent of being lethal with a parasol. The writing style is very much Austenish, with its formality and cleverness, which induces not merely giggles and snickers but out right guffaws.

Here is a typical paragraph:

Professor Lyall was reminded of his Alpha's origins. He might be a relatively old werewolf, but he had spent much of that time in a barely enlightened backwater city in the Scottish Highlands. All the London ton acknowledged Scotland as a barbaric place. The packs there cared very little for the social niceties of daytime folk. Highland werewolves had a reputation of doing atrocious and highly unwarranted things, like wearing smoking jackets to the dinner table. Lyall shivered at the delicious horror of the very idea.

Sweet, and sublime. Unfortunately, SOULLESS will be invariably compared to the recent Jane Austen "rewrites," Pride & Prejudice & Zombies and Sense & Sensibility & Sea Monsters, but this is much better. In addition to her Austen sensibilities, Carriger also has a bit of Terry Pratchett, P. G. Wodehouse and Douglas Adams in her psyche. SOULLESS contains a complete re-imagining of vampire and werewolf lore, an accurate portrayal of Victorian society, a screwball comedy and a splash of steampunk tossed in for entertainment.

As part one of The Parasol Protectorate, this paves the way for 2010 CHANGELESS, which we are already awaiting with breathlessness. Time for some tea. Bravo, Ms. Carriger.

BIBLIO SAYS: Outstanding! Read it immediately!

COMPANION READ: Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

THE STRAIN: A Review

2009-12-08T17:17:00.001-08:00

MarkJonesBooks
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So far, this is the most entertaining book of 2009.

A Boeing 777 arrives at JFK and is on its way across the tarmac, when it suddenly stops dead. All window shades are pulled down. All lights are out. All communication channels have gone quiet. Crews on the ground are lost for answers, but an alert goes out to the CDC. Dr. Eph Goodweather, head of their Canary project, a rapid-response team that investigates biological threats, gets the call and boards the plane. What he finds makes his blood run cold. Everyone is dead, and as the hours pass the bodies do not decompose. What's more, the autopsies reveal that their blood has been completed transformed ... to white. What's more, four of the corpses on the plane revive and are taken to the hospital where ...

No, I can't tell you. That is part of the delicious horror that awaits you. Meanwhile, the non-decomposing autopsied bodies disappear from the city morgue and end up wandering the streets of New York, naked, with toe tags dangling.

In a pawnshop in Spanish Harlem, a former professor and survivor of the Holocaust named Abraham Setrakian knows what is happening. He's seen it before. And he knows the time has finally come, a war is brewing . . . and knows that his collection of antique esoteric weapons will come in handy, if he can convince someone - anyone! - the truth about what is happening. The most esoteric item in Abraham's collection is the human heart the old man has kept in a jar since the 1960s. And it's still beating.

Across town, Vasiliy Fet, a tough New York City pest control expert, is puzzled by the millions of rats that are fleeing Manhattan. Fet knows rats flee their domain only when the habitat is taken over by another, more vicious vermin. So he descends into underworld of the New York subway system where a bewildering horror awaits.

So begins a battle of mammoth proportions as the vampiric virus that has infected New York begins to spill out into the streets. Eph, who is joined by Setrakian, Fet and a motley crew of fighters, must now find a way to stop the contagion and save his city--a city that includes his wife and son--before it is too late.

This is part one of a trilogy, volumes two and three are being published in 2010 and 2011. It is an heady mixture of part I Am Legend, part Salem's Lot, part Outbreak, part Blade. The authors are an odd team. Academy Award winning director Guillermo Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Mimic, Blade II and Hellboy) and award winning mystery novelist, Chuck Hogan have written a medical/sci-fi/ horror thriller of epic proportions.

Fast-paced, filled with quirky characters, and moments of sublime horror, this is a must read! Folks, we are talking about an instant classic.

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended!!
Companion Read: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.

BEST and WORST NOVELS: 2009

2009-12-03T03:49:00.000-08:00

theBibliofile

TEN BEST NOVELS OF 2009

Unlike many other lists (like The New York Times and other snobbish, elite publications), the books listed here are actually enjoyable. I have listed them in alphabetical order.

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DEVIL'S GARDEN by Ace Atkins
Wow, what a book. The 1921 rape/manslaughter trial of silent film star Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle provides the gritty backdrop for this outstanding crime novel. A wild party thrown by Arbuckle at San Francisco's posh St. Francis Hotel results in tragedy after an actress, Virginia Rappe, is mysteriously injured and later dies. The future creator of Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett, then a Pinkerton operative living in San Francisco is assigned to help the defense on the Arbuckle case. Outstanding historical crime fiction.

FOOL by Christopher Moore
Think Shakespeare as taken apart by the Marx Brothers with a bit of porn thrown in for good measure. Hilarious!

GROUND ZERO by F. Paul Wilson
Read the review. Wilson is one of the best writers working today. If you're not reading the "Repairman Jack" series, any description of this book would be a lost cause. This is THE most exciting and groundbreaking thriller series currently being published.

JAILBAIT ZOMBIE by Mario Acevedo
*Full Disclosure: Author Acevedo is a friend of theBibliofile.* This time around, vampire PI, Felix Gomez takes on a coven of zombies in Colorado. More sex, violence and frivolity as only Acevedo can do.

THE LAST CHILD by John Hart
This is an excellent and very brooding story of obsession. After a year Johnny Merrimon is still obsessed with the disappearance of his twin sister, Alyssa. His mother is obsessed with the abandonment of her husband (Johnny's father) due to stress of the disappearance; police detective Clyde Hunt is obsessed with his failure to solve the crime and has become obsessed with Johnny's mother. Dark, brooding and entertaining.

ONE SECOND AFTER by William Fortschen
Read the review. One of the scariest books you will ever read.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

THE STRAIN by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuch Hogan
Possibly the best book of 2009. An instant classic! A vampiric virus takes over Manhattan within a week. One month later, America will be completely infected. Two months - the entire world. Mammoth horror novel (this is part one) about the battle to contain the outbreak and deal with the growing horror. Read the review.

SOULLESS by Gail Carriger, Book 1 in "The Parasol Protectorate"
Probably the most entertaining book of 2009. Read the review. Jane Austen channeled through Bram Stoker, Charles Dickens and Miss Manners. The heroine, Alexia Tarabotti and Austen's Elizabeth Bennett would be kindred spirits, except that Alexia has no soul and is able to disable vampires and werewolves with a touch of her hand and a thrust of her parasol. Let's hope when Hollywood makes this into a movie, it doesn't screw up this delightful story. Bravo, Ms. Carriger

Trust me, read this book.

THE WOMEN OF NELL GWYNNE'S by Kage Baker
Another great steampunk novella, set in 1844 London, this time written by an old pro. This story follows the exploits of the harlots of the exclusive establishment known as Nell Gwynne's, where they gather intelligence for the shadowy Gentlemen's Speculative Society. A great look at the Victorian era which is neatly spiced up with futuristic technology such as mechanical eye implants - an intriguing, bawdy and funny confection.

UNDER THE DOME by Stephen King
Read the review. This is a great book for 990 pages - too bad the ending is sooooo flat. Remember how pissed you were when you got to the end of It? Same here.

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WORST NOVELS OF 2009

To make this list the book either had to be either major disappointment or just truly bad. This list could be soo much long, but we chose the honor the creme de la shit.

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SOUTH OF BROAD by Pat Conroy

MAJOR disappointment.

Read the review.

The worse book this year, next year AND last year.

THE LOST SYMBOL by Dan Brown

DISAPPOINTMENT, but not surprising.

Read the review. B-O-R-I-N-G.

RETURN TO SULLIVAN'S ISLAND by Dorthea Benton Frank

BAD, BAD, BAD.

Read the review. So awful ... it's painful to think about it.

THE SCARPETTA FACTOR by Patricia Cornwell

DISAPPOINTMENT, but not surprising. This used to be such a great series. Then Cornwell tried to get literary by writing several books in present tense, and getting bogged down in long, detailed side trips with characters and drama that turn out to be irrelevant and unnecessary. This book is no different: Agee, his hearing problems, Berger and her romance woes with Lucy, the ridiculous voodoo/poo-poo bomb, Hap and his necrophilia, the missing Blackberry. RIDICULOUS!

ALEX CROSS' TRIAL
I, ALEX CROSS
8TH CONFESSION
MAX
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE
SWIMSUIT
WATCH THE SKIES
WITCH AND WIZARD all by James Patterson (with multiple co-authors)
James Patterson is to writing what Jennifer Lopez is to acting. It's a no brainer that every Patterson book is awful. Any writer who says, "I just want to be the thrillingest thriller writer in the world," does not deserve to be read.

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Have a great 2010. Looking forward to several new books this year like:

A DARK MATTER by Peter Straub
CHANGELESS by Gail Carriger
JACK: SECRET CIRCLES by F. Paul Wilson
FATAL ERROR: F. Paul Wilson
HIDDEN EMPIRE by Orson Scott Card
THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON by Sarah Addison Allen

Happy Reading.

RETURN TO SULLIVAN'S ISLAND: A Review

2009-11-30T06:29:00.000-08:00

theBIBLIOfile

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Frank's first novel, Sullivan's Island, was a best-seller. It was the story of a successful middle-aged woman, Susan Hamilton Hayes, who discovers her husband is having an affair. So she returns home to her family's beach cottage in the Charleston low country to rebuild her life with her moody teenage daughter, Beth. She is mothered back to emotional health by the black family cook who has all the wise knowledge of the world that Susan doesn't.

The next novel was called Plantation. A middle-aged woman named Caroline Wimbley Levine returns to her family's home at Tall Pines Plantation on Edisto Island in the low country after her mother's death and reflects on her life.

Next up was:

Isle of Palms. Anna Lutz Abbot returns home to the Isle of Palms (in the Charleston low country) to rebuilt her life.
Shem Creek. Linda Breland, single mother, returns home to Shem Creek (in the Charleston low country) to run a restaurant and re-build her life.
Pawley's Island. Abigail Thurmond spends most of her days playing golf and gossiping with her best friend, the portly, lovably aristocratic Huey Valentine. But when her life is disrupted she re-builds her life in the Charleston low country.
Full of Grace: The Russos (from New Jersey) retire to the South Carolina low country island Hilton Head and commence to disrupt the quiet island life.
Land of Mango Sunsets. Miriam Elizabeth Swanson's husband leaves her for a younger woman and she flees Manhattan to ... (GUESS WHERE?) Charleston and the low country to heal her soul.
Bulls Island. Betts McGee fled Charleston for Manhattan before her marriage to J.D. Now, years later, Betts is a successful middle-aged real estate developer who returns to Charleston to help develop a former wild life refuge ... and guess who her business partner is?

And now, inexplicably, Frank's new novel is titled Return To Sullivan's Island, even though there are at least a dozen more South Carolina sea islands to write about. This time around, Beth Hayes, daughter of Susan Hamilton Hayes, heroine of Sullivan's Island, returns home to house sit while Mom travels to Paris for a year. The story (and the entire book) is quite ridiculous and bad. Every character is shallow and boring. The prose and dialogue makes Nicholas Spark seem like John Irving. But, of course, if you've read any of the previous Frank novels ... you're not surprised.

My suggestion of titles for Frank's next books:

Plantation, Too
Isle of Palms: Turtle Terror
Swinging in Pawley's Island
Grace: Full of Shit
Land of Mango Sunrises
Bull Island Rumble

And then she could move to other islands along the South Carolina coast: Edisto Island; Wadlamaw Island; St. Helena's Island; James Island; Johns Island; Seabrook Island; Kiawah Island.

BIBLIO SAYS: Stay far, far away.

A SUMMER AFFAIR: A Review

2009-11-30T06:08:00.001-08:00

theBIBILOfile
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How bad is this novel? Let me count the ways.

1. Main character is named Claire Danner Crispin. She lives in Nantucket. The perfect woman: she has a successful and devoted husband, four children and she is an artist. (She is a glass blower with a piece displayed in the Whitney Museum.) BUT, she has stopped her art work because she has no free time dealing with the children, even though she has an au pair (not a nanny!). Claire is also tightly wound and guilty about everything in her life.
2. Husband (who used to be perfect) now likes to watch TV and drink beer.
3. Claire's former boyfriend is one of the world's biggest rock stars.
4. Claire is appointed to be in charge of a fundraiser (they want her former boyfriend to play a benefit) and she gets the hots for her co-chairman.
5. They have an affair and Claire's life goes into meltdown over the guilt.

Trust me, the book is even worse than the description sounds. It is filled with shallow and pretentious people who think they are down-to-earth. Claire has guilt-breakdowns over every little detail in her life. She is so unlikeable that any man who would want to have an sexual relationship with her is not a man I'd like to know.

BIBLIO SAYS: Avoid, or you'll feel as guilty as Claire, and just as screwed.

FOREVER AMBER: A Review

2009-11-28T19:36:00.000-08:00

theBIBLIOfile
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Forever Amber, which sold 3m copies during the first year of its publication (1944), and went on to become a bestseller in 16 countries. Kathleen Winsor's story of an English adventuress who becomes one of the mistresses of Charles II was banned in Boston as "obscene and offensive." The Massachusetts attorney general listed 70 references to sexual intercourse, 39 illegitimate pregnancies, seven abortions, 10 descriptions of women undressing in front of men, and 49 "miscellaneous objectionable passages."

Amber St. Clair is the illegitimate child of unmarried aristocrats, born during the English Civil Wars of 1640-50. Raised in the English countryside she manages to sleeps her way to London, where she is abandoned by her lover, Lord Bruce Carlton - pregnant and alone at age sixteen. She then sleeps with several men who pay for her favors, marries a cad who steals her money and ends up in prison. She sleeps with a charming rogue to get herself out of prison, becomes a thief, then an actress, a mistress of Charles II and then marries a rich elderly man. Upon his death, she is left a wealthy woman. At this point we are not even at the halfway point of the book.

Forever Amber has obvious plot similarities to Gone with the Wind - a civil war, a dashing privateer /blockade runner, a determined heroine named for a color, the contrast between a corrupt society and its slaves and servants.

Reading it today ... your reaction is mainly ... *yawn*. First of all, Amber is nothing more than a selfish, self-centered shallow social climber who beds, weds and beds man-after-man to obtain her goal of wealth. For the one man she does love, Lord Carlton (privateer), Amber freely two-times her husband in order to have a brief sexual affair with her come-and-go lover.

And then we get to the section of the novel that most people think as the redeeming section of the novel: the plague that sweeps across England. When Lord Carlton is infected, Amber heroically throws caution to the wind (gone with the wind?) to care for him, and ignored her own safety. When he survives, he decides that although he loves Amber, Carlton could not lower himself to marry her; he leaves to establish a tobacco plantation in Virginia.

Most people see Amber's heroic efforts during the plague (and later the Great Fire of 1666) to be her character's redemption. I beg to differ. Since Lord Carlton ultimately abandons her (again) I think it is merely just desserts for her past behavior. Unlike her more famous counterpart (Scarlett O'Hara) whose behavior, while self-centered, is more broadly a way to protect her family after disaster and an attempt to regain what has been lost. Amber is a nothing more than an opportunistic whore. The reader never once cares if she is successful. In fact, this reader kept hoping that more misery would heaped upon the unlikable Amber.

However, the book is well-written, and the sections that deal with the plague and Great Fire are justly famous for their harrowing and accurate historical description, but by the time you get to those sections (past page 500) it is too little too late.

BIBLIO SAYS: Avoid like the plague. :-)

Companion Read: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell.
Restoration by Rose Tremain

BEST BOOKS WRITTEN BY LEFT-HANDERS

2009-11-25T18:16:00.000-08:00

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN by Mark Twain
An all-time classic. Funny, sad and perceptive. Huck is the 19th century Holden Caulfield. The people that wish to ban this book due to the use of the word "nigger" are people that should never have any modicum of power over anyone.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll
What a long strange trip it's been.

AND LADIES OF THE CLUB by Helen Hoover Santmeyer
It took author Santmeyer 50 years to compete this massive novel (1400 pages!). It follows the lives of several women in Wayesboro, Ohio post-Civil War who begin a study club. Published in 1982 by the Ohio State Press ALOTC only sold a few hundred copies during the first two years. Then, a filmmaker begin to inquire about purchasing the rights to make a mini-series and the book began to get publicity and in 1984, it was chosen to be a main selection for the Book-of-the-Month Club and became the best-selling novel that year. Santmeyer by that time was living in a nursing home.

FAIRY TALES by Hans Christian Andersen
Includes: The Emperor's New Clothes; The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid; The Princess and the Pea; The Red Shoes; The Snow Queen; Thumbelina; The Ugly Duckling.

THE FRIENDLY PERSUASION by Jessamyn West
A great novel about pacifist Quakers in southern Indiana during the American Civil War. Made into the classic Hollywood movie starring Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire.

GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
The ground-breaking semi-autobiographical novel by Baldwin that examines racism and the effect of the Christian church on American blacks.

THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove
Robert E. Lee is offered the chance to purchase AK-47s after the battle of Gettysburg. A fun alternate history novel.

THE HITCH-HIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams
No explanation necessary. If you've read, you know. If you haven't read, shame on you.

THE INVISIBLE MAN by H. G. Wells
ISLAND OF DR. MOREAU by H.G. Wells
Two all-time classics by Mr. Wells.

THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE by Richard Condon
One of the most paranoid and disturbing novels ever written. If you only know this story from the most recent Hollywood movie version starring Denzel Washington, then you have no idea how great this story is. If you insist on watching it as a movie, then the 1962 version starring Frank Sinatra, Janet Leight and Angela Lansbury is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. You will never look at Angela Lansbury the same ever again.

THE OPTIMIST'S DAUGHTER by Eudora Welty
The 1972 Pulitzer Prize winner.

PRIZZI'S HONOR by Richard Condon
Another twisted dark comic novel by Condon about a mob hit man and hit woman who fall in love and then are hired to kill each other. It's kinda like The Godfather meets The Munsters.

TALES OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC by James Michener
A book of Pulitzer Prize winning short stories that became the basis of the classic Broadway show South Pacific.

THE TIME MACHINE by H.G. Wells
Another Wells classic.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS by Lewis Carroll
Another strange trip with Mr. Carroll.

THE TRIAL by Franz Kafka
One of the most frustrating and disturbing books ever.

THE WAR OF THE WORLDS by H.G. Wells
No explanation necessary.

RHETT BUTLER'S PEOPLE: A Review

2009-11-25T03:39:00.000-08:00

theBIBLIOfile
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At first glance, this book sounded like it may have potential. Certainly, it would have to better than the first approved sequel of Gone With The Wind, Alexandra Ripley's abomination Scarlett. Hell, every James Patterson book is better than Scarlett. Good news: Rhett Butler's People is better than MOST James Patterson books. But that is not a high standard to reach.

The first chapters are confusing, to say the least. Author McCaig employs an annoying technique of putting characters together and then not clearly letting the reader know which character is speaking. The conversation in the carriage as Rhett is heading for duel (can you have a more cliqued opening for a Southern novel?) is bewildering because you cannot figure who is saying what.

And for a novel that is written by a man about a supposed REAL man, the prose is overwrought, dainty and laughable. "The frosty Milkyway stretched across the heavens to the horizon where it drowned in the ruddy penumbra of guns." WHAT?

But gradually, the real awful nature of this book comes clear: McCaig has decided that it was his job to update Rhett's reputation for modern, politically correct sensibilities. There are two Rhetts in this story - Margaret Mitchell's Rhett, and the new, GQ Rhett that McCaig is trying to re-invent. It should have been titled Rhett Redeux. Who knew Rhett Butler was a 19th century animal activist, concerned about the mating habits of loggerhead turtles? Too bad this Rhett didn't have the chance to meet Charleston writer named Mary Alice Monroe who can't help inserting loggerhead turtles into her cloying books. They would have conducted a torrid affair, sitting on the dark beach at night having orgasms while the turtles lumber in-and-out of the surf.

In an interview in the New York Times, McCaig admits that he had never read GWTW when he was approached to pen a "sequel." When he did finally read it, he pronounced everything but the Civil War bits as "Oh dear." What else do you need to know?

Stay away from this revisionist crap. Margaret Mitchell's estate is 0 for 2. Scarlett was long, boring and tedious; Rhett Butler's People is a poorly written fraud. The Margaret Mitchell estate should sue itself for this abomination.

BIBLIO SAYS: Stay away as much as possible.

Companion read: Gone With The Wind.

GARDEN OF SPELLS: A Review

2009-11-25T03:15:00.001-08:00

theBIBLIOfile
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Like many small towns, Bascom, North Carolina has its secrets it likes to keep. Local caterer Clair Waverly lives a quiet life tending her garden and making mouth-water, seemingly magical dishes from the herbs and fruits from her garden. Her food tends to have odd effects on people.

Clair wakes one morning to find her long lost sister Sydney on her doorstep - with her five-year-old daughter Bay! What Sydney had been doing, and where she had been for the past ten years is no one's business. The sisters had endured a rocky childhood with a difficult mother and the two girls had become estranged through the years. But family is family, and Clair takes in her sister and niece who quickly discover there is something unusual about Clair and her garden - it blooms and flourishes year round. The large ancient apple tree in the center of the garden has a way of manipulating events. When the tree wants attention, it throws apples, and tempts passers-by with its fruit - if it likes you. If the tree dislikes you ... then could get nasty.

Then there is cousin, Evanelle, who has a knack for giving odd gifts that eventually become quite appropriate. And the hunk next door, Tyler, has his eye on Clair, who has no interest in romance - but the apple tree has other ideas!

Garden of Spells is a delightful book of charm, romance, myth and magic. Filled with small moments of wonder, quirky characters and situations it is over much too soon.

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended.

GREAT SCI-FI NOVELS

2009-11-23T04:10:00.000-08:00

FOUNDATION by Issac Asimov
Like most kids in the 60s-70s, Asimov was my introduction to sci-fi with these books. A brilliant example of total world building traces a man's effort to save a crumbling empire by establishing a foundation to preserve the intellectual achievements of the empire.

DUNE by Frank Herbert
Come on, the first Dune book is a staggering piece of imagination, and a thrilling story. Ignore all movie versions, and if you want to read the endless Dune books that follow, go for it but be forewarned: each book in the series gets worse and worse and worse and ...

FLOWERS FOR ALGERNON by Daniel Keyes
Poignant story of a simple man with an IQ of 68. Charlie becomes the first human test case for an intelligence increasing surgery. As Charlie's IQ increases to 185 his life completely changes and he ultimate discovers, the surgery is not permanent ... he will revert to his former, simple self after reaching amazing heights of intellectual and emotional achievement. Powerful and sad.

HYPERION by Dan Simmons
A sci-fi Canterbury Tales. The story weaves the interlocking tales of a diverse group of travelers sent on a pilgrimage to the Time Tombs on Hyperion. The travelers have been sent by the Shrike Church and the Hegemony (the government of the human star systems) to make a request of the Shrike. As they progress in their journey, each of the pilgrims tells their tale. Simmons is a powerful writer.

THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Robert A. Heinlein
This is still one of my all-time favorite books, sci-fi or not. The moon has become a penal colony for criminal and political exiles from Earth. Problem is, anyone who stays longer than a few months undergoes "irreversible physiological changes and can never again live in comfort and health in a gravitational field six times greater than that to which their bodies have become adjusted. That leads to unrest and then ...

ENDER'S GAME by Orson Scott Card
One of the greatest books of the past 50 years. Years ago Earth barely survived the invasion of an alien race called The Buggers. Now, Earth is preparing to defend itself again for a second coming invasion by creating super genius children through a breeding program on Earth. The kids are sent to Battle School to prepare to defend their planet. Eight-year old Ender Wiggen becomes the focus of the Battle School administrators as their best hope as a supreme commander.
The genius of this novel is that it is told from the view point of an intellectually brilliant child, but a child nonetheless, so he is unaware of the machinations around him. Quite simply ... a must read.

DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP by Philip K. Dick
The most famous Dick novel is typical ... bleak, clever and just when you think you know what is happening, Dick proves you foolish.

TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG by Connie Willis
In 2057, Ned Henry, an Oxford expert in the 20th century, jumps back and forth from the 1940s to correct a loose screw in the works of the time continuum .... the madcap almost screwball intensity makes this a fun ride.

THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE by Larry Nevin and Jerry Pournelle
Well-written hard science fiction about an alien race called The Moties. When I bought this paperback in 1978, I read it straight through until I was finished. Nevin is a brilliant hard science fiction writer, but b-o-r-i-n-g. Pournelle is a good scientist but a much better writer so they make a good team. Try reading a Larry Nevin book (Ringworld is a good test) and see how much more boring his solo books are.

TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO by Philip Jose Farmer
Sir Richard Burton wakes after death to find himself in a strange world which is made up of a never-ending river. He discovers that the inhabitants of the Riverworld are from the history of Earth - from Neolithic Age to the 21st century. The search is on to find the end of the river and the powers behind the resurrections. His partner? Hermann Goring.

LORD VALENTINE'S CASTLE by Robert Silverberg
Okay, some of you will argue that this is more epic fantasy than science fiction, but I think it has enough hard sci-fi in its storyline to be bone fide. Set on an immense planet teeming with alien races and magical creatures, Valentine wakes one morning with no memory of who he is. He joins a troupe of traveling circus performers and gradually begins to realize he is the rightful ruler of the planet, except no one else believes him.

SPIN by Robert Charles Wilson
One night the stars go out. The book follows how that event affects the lives of three friends - coming-of-age tale, a love story, a literary triumph, and an ecological and apocalyptic warning.

BRING THE JUBILEE by Ward Moore
Written in 1953, one of the first (and the best) of the alternative history novels that ask: What if the South won the Civil War? Politically complex, astute and endlessly fascinating.

TIMESCAPE by Gregory Benford
It's 1998, and a physicist in Cambridge, England, attempts to send a message backward in time. Earth is falling apart, and a government faction supports the project in hopes of diverting or avoiding the environmental disasters beginning to tear at the edges of civilization. It's 1962, and a physicist in California struggles with his new life on the West Coast, office politics, and the irregularities of data that plague his experiments. Then he receives an unusual message ...

THE FOREVER WAR by Joe Haldeman
Mandella starts out as a foot soldier in man's thousand-year war against the Taurans and ends as a reluctant major. Spanning the stars at faster than light speeds, Mandella and his comrades age only months as the centuries zip by on an earth that becomes increasingly foreign. But few soldiers will return to the altered home planet; in battles fought with powered suits and other stranger weapons, the odds for survival approach zero. This is a splendid, thoughtful adventure.

LORD OF LIGHT by Roger Zelany
The science-fiction Siddhartha, with a twist. Earth is long since dead. On a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rules their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons. Lord of Light. Trickster. Very fun.

TRY THESE FANTASY SERIES

2009-11-21T17:27:00.000-08:00

Okay, so you've read Harry Potter. All well and good. It's time to move on to other things. You've read Lord of the Rings (the movies don't count, as good as they are). You've tried to read Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time but found yourself contemplating suicide. Never fear, here is a list of some good Fantasy Series.
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THE ADVERSARY CYCLE (6 books) & THE REPAIRMAN JACK SERIES (15+ books) by F. Paul Wilson ADVERSARY CYCLE: The Keep; The Tomb; The Touch; Reborn; Reprisal; Nightworld. REPAIRMAN JACK: The Tomb; Legacies; Conspiracies; All the Rage; Hosts; The Haunted Air; Gateways; Crisscross; Infernal; Harbingers; Bloodline; By The Sword; Ground Zero.
These two inter-connected series are usually classified as horror. Not matter, they represent a phenomenal accomplishment. The Keep is a traditional horror novel in which a group of Nazis solders in awaken an ancient evil in the mountains of Transylvania. The evil had been imprisoned by an immortal warrior who once again must try and defeat the Evil. The Tomb jumps forward to modern day New York and a lone, secretive vigilante named Repairman Jack is faced with an evil of supernatural origin which threatens his adopted family. The rest of the books in these series (which can all be read as stand alone novels) feature recurring characters and gradually pulls back layer-by-layer of an ancient other-worldly mystery. HIGH RECOMMENDED.

THE BOOK OF WORDS by J.V. Jones (3 books) The Baker's Boy; A Man Betrayed; Master and Fool.
Rebelling against her forced betrothal to the sinister Prince Kylock, young noblewoman Melliandra enlists the help of Jack, a kitchen apprentice, who is overwhelmed by his unexpected magical powers. Jones manages something that is rare in high fantasy - real humor. The series is delightful in the way that the story branches away and doubles back. The secondary characters are as well developed than the main three characters, in particular the two medieval guards Bodger and Grift, who may very well be the Laurel and Hardy of High Fantasy fiction.

THE CHRONICLES OF THOMAS COVENANT - THE UNBELIEVER by Stephen R. Donaldson (3 books) Lord Foul's Bane; The Illearth War; The Power That Preserves.
Thomas Covenant is a bitter and cynical writer afflicted with leprosy who is shunned and despised by society, but destined to become the heroic savior of an alternate world - or, perhaps, only of his own sanity. In the "other world" Covenant struggles against the evil Lord Foul, "The Despiser" who intends to break the physical universe to escape its bondage and wreak revenge upon his arch-enemy, "The Creator." Donaldson's works are infused with a profoundly serious psychological tone involving an unabashed exploration of dark and repugnant aspects of the protagonist Thomas Covenant without reducing him to a caricature or an antihero. Good, deep, serious stuff, and Donald writes with a realism not often found in fantasy literature.

THE FARSEER TRILOGY by Robin Hobbs (3 books) Assassin's Apprentice; Royal Assassin; Assassin's Quest.
The Farseer Trilogy follows the life of FitzChivalry Farseer (Fitz), a royal bastard and trained assassin, in a kingdom called The Six Duchies while his uncle, Prince Verity, attempts to wage war on the Red-Ship Raiders from The OutIslands who are attacking the shores of the kingdom by turning the populace (primarily the coastal people) into Forged ones; a form of zombification which makes them emotionless. Very exciting and face-paced, filled with magic, palace intrigue as young Fitz learns to become a master spy and assassin.

INCARNATIONS OF IMMORTALITY by Piers Anthony (8 books) On A Pale Horse; Bearing An Hourglass; With A Tangled Skein; Wielding a Red Sword; Being A Green Mother; For Love of Evil; ... And Eternity; Under A Velvet Cloak.
The first seven books each focus on one of seven supernatural "offices" (Death, Time, Fate, War, Nature, Evil and Good) in a fictional reality and history parallel to ours, with the exception that society has advanced both magic and modern technology. The series covers the adventures and struggles of a group of humans, called "Incarnations" who hold these supernatural positions for a certain time.

MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN by Tad Williams (3 books) The Dragonbone Chair; Stone of Farewell; To Green Angel Tower.
This is an answer series to Lord of the Rings, and almost as good. The books are set on the continent of Osten Ard, whose inhabitants include Sithi (elf-like immortals), Qanuc (troll-like mountain-dwellers), and other races, as well as several distinct human nations. The youthful conquests of King John the Presbyter (also called Prester John) united most of the human world into a single realm, but by the beginning of the first book, the former conqueror is too old and feeble to stop his sons from quarrelling. As the conflict widens throughout their world and beyond, a young orphan struggles to understand enough of it to survive. Passionate and exciting, Williams is very entertaining.

MISTBORN by Brian Sanderson (3 books) The Final Empire; The Well of Ascension; The Hero of Ages.
This could be the best fantasy series of the last 20 years. Sanderson has invented unique kind of magic that is ingenious and logical. Even though these are in the tradition of epic fantasy, there are no elves, no wizards, and NO BORING SECTIONS. These books read like a thriller, fast-paced with superb characters.

REDWALL by Brian Jacques (21 books) Redwall; Mossflower; Mattimeo; Mariel of Redwall; Salamandastrom; Martin the Warrior; The Bellmaker;' Outcast of Redwall; The Pearls of Lutra; Lord Brocktree; The Taggerung; Triss; Loamhedge; Rakkity Tam; High Rhulain; Eulaila!; Doomwyte; The Sable Quean.
This a delightful and richly diverse series of books about the mice who run Redwall Abbey. Despite the fact that this is a fantasy series, there is no magic, but lots of adventure and supernatural elements blend with religious themes. The books are simply written, face-paced and quite charming.

BOOKS TO AVOID (Even Under Penalty of Death)

2009-11-20T17:42:00.000-08:00

NOTE: I did not list any James Patterson books since it should be obvious you need to avoid Patterson. If not, I order to stop reading the blog IMMEDIATELY.

AMERICAN PSYCHO by Brett Easton Ellis
Sick and badly written. A cruel and vicious book. Anyone who is in a relationship with Mr. Ellis needs to re-think their decision. There are not words strong enough to describe how bad this book is.

COLD MOUNTAIN by Charles Fraizer
Quite simply, one of the worst books of the past decade. It is a great example of the group think among today's university-driven literary community and publishing industry. The book is sophomoric in style, using purple phrases with awkward flourishes that most English 101 instructors give you a failing grade for. It is also a great example of a major problem in today's publishing industry - an author has a wild success with a bad book, so he is given a huge amount of money to produce an even worse book. Thirteen Moons.

FINNEGAN'S WAKE by James Joyce.
It's a classic, right? Yes, classic shit. The last section of the novel consists of 24,212 words and two sentences. Yes, you read that correctly, two sentences and 24,000 words! Enough said.

GRAVITY'S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon

The 11 members of the Pulitzer Prize committee were on the right track when they described the book as "unreadable, turgid, overwritten and obscene." They were actually being nice.

THE MAGUS by John Fowles
Self-important and full of 1960ish mysticism and oblique literary games. AWFUL!

SCARLETT: THE SEQUEL TO MARGARET MITCHELL'S GONE WITH THE WIND
by Alexandra Ripley
Granted, this was a no-win idea from the get-go. Hell, even the title is ridiculous. But the book turned out to be boring, boring, boring. And the other "approved" book, Rhett Butler's People fares no better.

STATE OF FEAR by Michael Crichton
First of all, forget all the political yammering around this novel, and it's claims for "scientific authenticity." IT'S BAD AND BORING! Crichton has never been on anyone's list of good writers; his prose is clumsy and his characterizations are TV depth (hence all the successful movies and TV shows made from his writings).

THE SHANNARA BOOKS (all of them!) by Terry Brooks
How awful, boring and BAD are these books? Pauly Shore bad. Michael Bolton awful. What is frightening is how many have been published. As of this moment there are fourteen Shannara novels. Mr. Brooks ... have mercy! Take a vacation!!!!

TOUGH GUYS DON'T DANCE by Norman Mailer
The result of a self-important (and often good) writer thinking that because he is an "important artist" he could write a better hard-boiled mystery than those two-bit hacks like Hammet, Chandler and MacDonald. Hey Norman, you lose ... by a long shot!

BEST CIVIL WAR NOVELS

2009-11-20T13:54:00.000-08:00

THE AMALGAMATION POLKA by Steven Wright
The story concerns Liberty Fish, the son of two passionate abolitionists but whose grandparents were cruel slave-owners. The plot follows Liberty from his birth to young adulthood, his enlistment in the Union army, and his quest to find his grandparents whom he blames for the despair his mother feels. The tone has hints of dark humor, and at times can be heavily surreal.
The oddest book on this list.

ANDERSONVILLE by Mac Kinley Kantor
This may be the best and most realistic book about the War., and won the Pulitzer Prize. It is told from many points of view, including that of Henry Wirz, the camp commandant, who was later executed. It also features William Collins, a Union soldier and one of the leaders of the "Raiders". The "Raiders" are a gang of thugs, mainly bounty jumpers who steal from their fellow prisoners and lead comfortable lives while other prisoners die of starvation and disease. Other characters include numerous ordinary prisoners of war, the camp physician/doctor, a nearby plantation owner, guards and Confederate civilians in the area near the prison. While based on prisoner memoirs, most notably Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons by John McElroy, the novel is less biased against the Confederates. Henry Wirz, who received an injury earlier in the war and never recovered properly, is portrayed not as an inhuman fiend but as a sick man struggling with a job beyond his capacities. A tragic illustration of the Peter Principle.

GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell
C'mon. You've got to list it. Granted, it's more romance than straight history, but it still casts a long shadow over that time period.

THE GUNS OF THE SOUTH by Harry Turtledove
It is March 1864, and the Confederacy is reeling after defeats at the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Andries Rhoodie, a man wearing mottled green clothing, speaking in a strange, guttural accent, and carrying a strange rifle, visits the headquarters of the Army of Northern Virginia and demands to demonstrate his rifle to Robert E. Lee. The rifle, to the Confederates' astonishment, can fire thirty rounds in only a few seconds, with considerable accuracy. Rhoodie and his comrades, who declare that they are members of an organization called "America Will Break" offer to supply the entire Confederate army with these rifles, which they refer to as AK-47s. Very fun.

THE KILLER ANGELS by Michael Shaara
THE Civil War novel according to most. Beginning with the famous section about Longstreet's spy Harrison gathering information about the movements and positions of the Federals, each day is told primarily from the perspectives of commanders of the two armies, including Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet for the Confederacy, and Joshuo Chamberlain and John Buford for the Union. Most chapters describe the emotion-laden decisions of these officers as they went into battle. Maps depicting the positioning of the troops as they went to battle, as they advanced, add to the sense of authenticity as decisions are made to advance and retreat with the armies. The author also uses the story of Gettysburg, one of the largest battles in the history of North America, to relate the causes of the War and the motivations that led old friends to face each other on the battlefield.

LITTLE WOMEN by Louisa May Alcott
Most people don't think of this as a Civil War novel, but the War does play an understated part in the story.

LINCOLN by Gore Vidal
The novel's emphasis is on the President's political and personal struggles, and not the battles of the Civil War. Though Lincoln is the focus, the book is never narrated from his point of view. However, one gets an insight into his presidency and gets to see just how his mind works. Through thick and thin, Lincoln proves how exceptional he really is and how his death impacted many.

LONG REMEMBER by Mac Kinley Kantor
Kantor (1904–77) spoke with Civil War veterans, and translated what they told him into this startling and convincing portrait of war. Originally published in 1934 Long Remember traces the experience of Daniel Bale, a young man who has refused to fight and struggles to cling to his pacifist principles as his hometown of Gettysburg becomes the center of an immense three-day battle between Union and Confederate forces.

NORTH AND SOUTH Trilogy by John Jakes
Say what you will about the soap opera of some of the plot, but this is historically well done, and told brilliantly. Jakes is a rare breed, a good historian who happens to be an excellent novelist.

ON SECRET SERVICE by John Jakes
This book explores from the shadowy sanctums of the world's first private detective agency, the Pinkertons, to the battlefields of Virginia and the private haunts of wartime Washington, where even the President's hand-picked men cannot stop a plot that may reach from Richmond to the highest offices of the Union government. Jakes is a master at blending his fictional characters in with historical figures like Lincoln, McClellan, Jefferson Davis, Allan Pinkerton and John Wilkes Boothe.

RAINTREE COUNTRY by Ross Lockridge, Jr.
The novel, set in fictional Raintree County, Indiana, is essentially in two parts; before the Civil War and after. It spans the 19th century history of the United States, from the pre-Civil War westward expansion, to the debate over slavery, to the Civil War, to the Industrial Revolution and the Labor Movement which followed. The book is often surreal, with dream sequences, flashbacks and departures from the linear narrative. It has been described as an effort to mythicalize the history of America, which to a great degree it succeeds in doing through the eyes and the commentary of John Shawnessy.

THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane
It is considered one of the most influential works in American literature. The novel, a depiction on the cruelty of war during an unnamed battle, features young recruit, Henry Fleming, who deserts his regiment, but returns to become a hero on the battlefield.

SHILOH by Shelby Foote
It employs the first-person perspectives of several protagonists, Union and Confederate, to give a moment-by-moment depiction of the battle.The story illustrates two of Foote's most strongly held convictions: that Nathan Bedford Forrest was the greatest combat commander in the War and that Confederate society held the seeds of its own doom.

TRAVELER by Richard Adams
The second oddest book on this list. A view of the war as seen through the eyes of Robert E. Lee's beloved horse, Traveler. And before you dismiss that as a silly idea, remember that Adams is the author of Watership Down, a simple story about rabbits told from the rabbits' point of view which just happens to be one of the best books of the last 50 years. Traveler is equally masterful and powerful in its simplicity.

RUNNING WITH SCISSORS: A Review

2009-11-19T04:28:00.000-08:00

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Growing up in the 70’s, Burroughs was left by his mother to live with her psychiatrist, Dr. Finch. Together with the other adopted Finch children, Burroughs experiences adolescence and teenage/young adult years in a very radical house and family with too much freedom.

The family believes that a child reaches his maturity at the age of 13, and no adult can tell him or her what to do. This may sound like paradise to most teenagers. And while Burroughs initially embraced and enjoyed his freedom (he was encouraged to explore his homosexuality) in the end he realizes that he needs boundaries and rules, and that all he really wanted was a “Hamburger Helper” mother.

I am still perplexed by the accolades this book has gotten. It has been marketed as a "humorous memoir," which is half-right. If you find the dysfunctionals on Jerry Springer and Maury Povich funny and entertaining, then this book is for you. White trash ruining each other's lives.

THIS is considered literature?

BIBLIO SAYS: Don't bother.

BLOODSUCKING FIENDS: A Review

2009-11-17T15:59:00.001-08:00

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Jody was a career girl. Working 9 to 5. Working for the weekend. But one evening she wakes up beneath Dumpster in an alley, a badly burned arm, superhuman strength, and a thirst for something NOT coffee. She's ont prepared to be a vampire. What's a girl to do? She needs help.

C. Thomas Flood, country Indiana bumpkin, new in town, a wanna-be writer is the perfect partner. Before he knows what hit him, Tommy's in love with a vampire, juggling a night time job in a grocery store, a homeless Emperor, and an 800-year old vampire killing victims and making the police believe Tommy is the killer. Not to mention all the great sex in the shower.

If Kurt Vonnegut and Carl Hiaasen had ever decided to write a vampire novel, it would have turned out like this. Irreverent and breezy. Fiends has a lot of fun with the oh-so-serious vampire books that have flooded the market recently. Jody and Tommy are so clueless about the life of the undead, they seek guidance from Anne Rice and the local library.

BIBLIO SAYS: Recommended.

THE HISTORIAN: A Review

2009-11-16T16:04:00.000-08:00

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The Historian is billed as an epic work of historical fiction that sweeps across Europe during the four decades between 1930 and the mid 1970s. From all the hype this novel received upon publication, who would have imagined it was going to be so bad and boring. At least The DaVinci Code was exciting.

WARNING: Major plot points and story surprises follow. Trust me, read this review and skip the book.

Dracula (yes, him) has kidnapped an old professor, so a student of the prof sets off to search for the tomb in which Dracula was buried some 500 years ago. I guess it doesn't matter that the Count has been traveling freely across continents and oceans for centuries, the student is positive (AB-, ha ha) that's where he has to be.

So the boredom begins. We follow these bookworms from England to France to Turkey to Bulgaria to Romania to Hungary - city to city, castle to monastery, library to mosque - and nothing happens. Except a lot of coincidences. The woman in the library just happens to be as the professor's long-lost daughter. The Turkish fellow sitting down to dinner at the next table is a lifelong Dracula fanatic and amateur historian, who speaks perfect English because he is a professor of English Lit. How many coincidences can you have in one scene before you have as much credibility as Al Gore?

Six hundred pages later (yes, 600), we discover that Dracula's nefarious plot and kidnapping was to make the professor catalog his library. That's correct, read it again. Dracula wants hi personal library cataloged. At this point, if you're not already catatonic, the Sears Roebuck catalog would be a breezy read.

BIBLIO SAYS: Stay away! In fact, if the ever see this book, DON'T LOOK AT IT!

ONE SECOND AFTER: A Review

2009-11-16T11:03:00.000-08:00

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Electromagnetic pulses can result from natural phenomena and, in much greater strength, from nuclear blasts. The result of an EMPs is the destruction of unprotected electronic circuitry, about 95% of it in the United States. A nuclear bomb set off at a high altitude would cause electronics over a large swathe of the planet to fail and almost nothing has been done to protect the US from this threat. This frightening novel depicts what life might be like in the case of an EMP attack.

With no electronics -vehicles won't run; no phones, computers, radios, or televisions; no electricity. America descends into the Middle Ages.

In One Second After, a lack of food and medicine leads to mass death. Society crumbles quickly. Cities turn against the countryside; friends and neighbors turn against each other in a desperate struggle to survive. Criminals take advantage. Forstchen humanizes it by giving a detailed look at how events unfold around the idyllic small town of Montreat College in North Carolina.

The weeks pass, and society deteriorates quickly - food runs out, people die due to lack of treatment and medicine, tyrants try to take advantage of the weak and confused, and criminals run rampant.

One Second After is a masterpiece of distopian literature that ranks with 1984 and Brave New World, but is even more horrific. You will have restless nights while you are reading this, and several nights after. Particularly when you realize that our government has done nothing to prepare this country for this serious threat.

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended.

Companion Read: Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORREL: A Review

2009-11-13T17:58:00.000-08:00

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Strange is an alternate history novel set in 19th-century England around the time of the Napoleonic Wars. It has a fascinating premise: that magic once existed in England and has returned with two men: Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange. The novel explores the nature of "Englishness" and the boundary between reason and madness. It has been alternately described as a fantasy novel, and a historical novel.

Clarke spent more than ten years writing the novel which draws on various English Romantic literary traditions, part Jane Austen, part Charles Dickens, part Gothic. And she infuses the entire narrative with a very droll, English dry wit which as page 100 becomes page 200, then 300, the 400, then 500 ... tends to wear out its welcome.

I REALLY wanted to like this book, but found myself dreading to keep reading. NOTHING HAPPENS! The first 300 pages of the novel could have easily been discarded since those pages did absolutely nothing to advance the plot. The story doesn't just dawdle, it creaks like a stone statue with rheumatism. And BIBLIO'S Rule #1 is: Be entertaining.

The fact that the book has been almost universally lauded says more about those reviewers bias than the quality of this book. Group think is not always a good thing. Some reviewers rhapsodize about the rich language and clever literary games, while others call it daring and imaginative. They forgot to mention boring.

BIBLIO SAYS: Not Recommended, unless you're one of the university-centric snobs who worship at the altar of 19th century English fiction, still buying into the canard that it is infinitely superior of modern fiction.

Companion Read: American Gods by Neil Gaiman

UNDER THE DOME: A Review

2009-11-12T14:15:00.000-08:00

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During the 21st century the arrival of a new Stephen King book has been greeted with mixed emotions. Each new volume of King's so-called masterpiece, The Dark Tower, was released -thicker and messier than each previous book - and stinkers like Dreamcatcher, From A Buick 8 and Cell were unleashed upon the public, so the arrival of an 1100 page new King novel could be viewed as either an act of torture or a guilty pleasure. I'm happy to report that Under The Dome is less pain and more joy.

Dome is one of those works of fiction that manages to be both pulp and high art at the same time, a trick King has pulled off several times in his career (think The Stand, The Shining and Misery).

The town of Chester's Mill, Maine - just up the road from the equally fictional Castle Rock is minding its own business one dazzling October day when an unseen force field descends upon it, slicing in two pretty much anything that was crossing the edge of town at that moment.

What happens in ensuing days is even more unsettling. Except for Internet service and spotty cell-phone signals, the town is isolated and imprisoned in plain sight. And inside the dome, society slowly, inexorably, almost methodically begins to fall apart. It's a weird combination of Lord of the Flies meets Our Town with some Peyton Place tossed in for fun.

The chief protagonist, Dale Barbara, is a just-retired Army man who fought in Iraq and did some things he isn't entirely proud of. He has retired to Chester's Mill as a fry cook, trying to lay low. But in the days before "Dome Day," he runs afoul of some of the local cretins and becomes persona non grata through no fault of his own. In fact, he is trying to leave town when the dome falls and narrowly escapes becoming one of its first victims.

Barbara becomes one of the focal points in the us-vs-them panic that overtakes Chester's Mill like a slow-motion tidal wave, pushed along by the other focal point - "Big Jim" Rennie, the town boss, who is about as prosaically malevolent (to the point of ridiculous caricature) a character that King has ever devised and who has a genuinely creepy son to match.

First, THE GOOD:

King is always at his best when writing about small town blue collar folks, and Dome is peopled with dozens of great characters, deftly sketched into life by King's great and casual observations.
The story practically gallops. For such a hefty book there are almost no tedious sections -can you say that about equally-sized books like Finnegan's Wake, Gravity's Rainbow or any Tom Clancy novel? It is tightly structured and it propelled toward an increasingly bleak and inevitable (almost) apocalyptic conclusion. Lots of people die ... including many of the good guys.
Kudos to King for some fun cross-referencing of another fictional character. King is a huge fan of Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" books. For the uninitiated, Reacher is a retired military police officer who lives a nomadic drifter's life and is constantly getting into dangerous situations. One of the Dome characters, police officer Jackie Wettington, was a former MP whose training under Reacher comes in handy toward the end of the story. Well, done, Mr. King!

THE BAD:

King often switches into the annoying old fashioned narrative device of addressing the reader directly, from a traditional third person past tense view into a cinematic, omniscient present tense view - "and now, dear reader, we go look at the events transpiring at the diner" - which is jarring and annoying. Just because Charles Dickens used the device in the 19th century doesn't mean its a good idea.
Equally annoying - not to mention downright idiotic - is the narrating a few sections of the story from the viewpoint of a dog. The dog is not only able to understand conversations but makes observations on the conversations. WHAT?
The mystery of the Dome is, at best, laughable. And the reason the Dome exists at all is ... well all we know is based upon the speculation of the characters. The removal of the Dome at the last moment is ... well, unbelievable.

However, the end and resolution are less important than the path taken to get there. The book has very little supernatural elements, but if you've been paying attention to King's career, the point has never truly been the bump-in-the-night creatures. What King is best at portraying is the truly disturbing and horrific reality of human nature.

BIBLIO SAYS: Recommended.

COMPANION READ: One Second After by William R. Forstchen.

BEST VAMPIRE NOVELS

2009-11-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

Okay, before we get to it, let me you tell you straight up that DRACULA is NOT ON THE LIST. And Anne Rice only makes the list once. As amazing as some of her Vampire books are, she quickly ran out of things to say, but continued to take 600 pages per book to not say them!

Mr. Stoker gets his due for inventing the fictional culture of vampirism and laying down the ground rules. We all know the rules; shall I list them? Garlic, mirror, daylight, sleeping in a coffin with your native soil, silver bullet, crosses, wooden stake in the heart. And therein lies the problem. There are way too many books that travel down that tired road. It's okay to break the mold, and believe me, there are plenty of vampire stories that are moldy. Here are a few of the best, whether working within Stoker's tradition or breaking all the rules. Listed alphabetically.
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BLOODSUCKING FIENDS by Christopher Moore
Screamingly hilarious. If Kurt Vonnegut had written a vampire book, this might have been it.

Jody never asked to become a vampire. But when she wakes up under a Dumpster with a badly burned arm, an aching neck, superhuman strength, and a distinctly Nosferatuan thirst, she realizes the decision has been made for her.

Making the transition from the nine-to-five grind to an eternity of nocturnal prowlings is going to take some doing, however, and that's where C. Thomas Flood fits in. A would-be Kerouac from Incontinence, Indiana, Tommy (to his friends) is biding his time night-clerking and frozen-turkey bowling in a San Francisco Safeway. But all that changes when a beautiful undead redhead walks through the door ... hires Tommy to do daytime errands for her and proceeds to rock Tommy's life -- and afterlife -- in ways he never imagined possible.

CARRION COMFORT & CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT by Dan Simmons

Simmons is the only writer who makes this list twice, which is odd since he is only nominally considered a horror writer. After making his initial mark as a horror novelist (Stoker Award winning Song of Kali) Simmons moved on to write science fiction, hard-boiled mystery and literary-historical fiction. However, he did write two great classic horror / vampire novels before he moved into different literary circles.

Carrion Comfort I have written about elsewhere (Some Charleston Fiction). The vampirism featured here is psychic, not the blood-letting kind. The basic plot is about a small group of people who have an Ability, where they can possess someone mentally and Use them to do their bidding. They also use their Ability to Feed, prolonging their lives by mentally drawing sustenance from people. The battle among the Users with the Ability for power leads for a gargantuan plot and a cast of more than two dozen characters, from Nazis to southern sheriffs, to Holocaust survivors to Hollywood moguls to CEOs of the world's largest corporations.

In Children of the Night Simmons takes a completely different look at vampires. This time, however, the count's sanguinary tippling habits may hold the cure for both AIDS and cancer. The key lies with a Romanian orphan adopted by American hematologist Kate Neuman; the infant, Joshua, has a series of rare diseases, and can survive only because his body extracts and processes genetic material from blood transfusions. If the virus in his system responsible for this ability can be isolated, his diseases could be remedied and medical marvels would be within Kate's grasp. The drawback is that Joshua has inherited his talents from the decrepit but murderous Vlad Dracula, and this patriarch of an accursed clan of blood-drinkers is more interested in perpetuating his power than in providing miracle cures for the masses. Simmons makes the fantastical scientific claims easy to swallow and the book offers a mesmerizing tour through the ghostly, gray tatters of Romania.

FEVRE DREAM by George R. R. Martin
Roger Zelazny got it right when he said, "George R.R. Martin, somehow, has managed to write a novel that will delight fans of both Stephen King and Mark Twain."

Set in the middle of the 19th century, Fevre Dream is the story of the strange friendship that develops between river boat captain Abner Marsh and Joshua York, vampire. Marsh is a down-on-his-luck owner of a fleet of river boats that was crushed to kindling by a hard freeze on the Mississippi River; York, a vampire on a quest to unite his race with the freedom to no longer depend on blood for their sustenance. And when York seeks out Marsh and offers to buy him the boat of his dreams in exchange for the right to take that boat odd places when it suits his purposes – no questions asked - the adventure begins.

Featuring everything from quotes from the poet, Byron, - "She walks in beauty, like the night…" - to a truly disturbing banquet featuring a baby's hand offered on the end of a silver fork, Fevre Dream is rich in atmosphere, long on action, and deep in great characters. The vampires are the traditional, blood-sucking, live-forever-unless-you-drive-a-stake-through-their-heart, shun-the-daylight sort of vampires. What makes this novel stand out is the exceptionally high quality of writing, the extraordinary relationships that develop between the characters, and the perfect setting – a 19th century river boat on a Mississippi River that's about to run red with blood.

THE HUNGER by Whitley Streiber
Miriam Blaylock is not a weepy, broody, remorseful vampire. She is stunningly beautiful, intelligent, and very lonely, to whom humans are nothing more than animals. She is a chillingly evil character in the way that she treats her human lovers and dominates them and the matter-of-fact way she stalks people knowing that no one will ever be able to stop her. Strieber does an admirable job of letting you feel her loneliness, as the last of her kind, but then reminds you what it means to be loved by her, that you could end up spending eternity rotting conscious in a box.

Her current lover and companion is John Blaylock, only a couple hundred years old when he starts to age rapidly, showing the signs of degeneration that Miriam has seen so many times before. As John deteriorates, Miriam prepares her next companion ( a woman) for the transformation, but John consumes her before she's ready. Desperate, Miriam impulsively chooses Dr. Sarah Roberts to be her next, for Dr. Roberts has been intensively researching aging and the human biological clock. But Dr. Roberts is not who she appears to be ...

I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson
Written in 1954, this novel casts a long shadow on current vampire and zombie fiction (and movies), although very few people know how great this book it. Most people only know the movies (The Last Man On Earth - Vincent Price; The Omega Man - Charlton Heston; I Am Legend - Will Smith) and each film is good in its own way. But the book ... is a classic.

After a plague decimates society, infecting the living and creating vampires, Robert Neville finds himself as quite possibly the last living human on earth. Even though the book has a huge creep factor, it is ultimately a heartbreaking portrayal of a man faced with the utmost loneliness.

INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE by Anne Rice
The story is a simple one: having suffered a tremendous personal loss, an 18th-century Louisiana plantation owner named Louis Pointe du Lac descends into an alcoholic stupor. At his emotional nadir, he is confronted by Lestat, a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses Louis to be his fledgling. The two prey on innocents, give their "dark gift" to a young girl, and seek out others of their kind (notably the ancient vampire Armand) in Paris.

Rich in atmosphere and literally dripping with vampire lore and lifestyle, this book was justly famous when it was released. I read it when it was first released 1976 upon the recommendation of my high school English teacher. Although Rice has continued to explore this world in with varying degrees of success, Interview is a legitimate classic.

MIDNIGHT MASS by F. Paul Wilson
In Wilson's creepy, terrifying thriller, vampires are rapidly taking over the planet. They've got Europe, and now they're encroaching on the East Coast of the U.S. In New Jersey, Carole, a nun, witnesses the death and transformation into a vampire of her best friend. After killing the vampire who used to be her friend, Carole becomes a vigilante, killing vampires and "cowboys," the humans who have aligned themselves with the vampires. She saves a rabbi, Zev, who is seeking Father Joe, hoping to enlist him in the fight against the vampires. Joe's niece Lacey has turned up with the same idea, but Joe himself is trying to drink away his problems. Zev and Lacey, however, succeed in drawing him into the fight, and all three head to St. Anthony's Church to retake it from vampires led by Father Palmeri, a corrupt priest-turned-vampire. But when the vampires capture Joe, the stakes are raised in ways neither side could have imagined. Wilson makes his vampires truly frightening and the eerie atmosphere of the book not unlike that of the movie 28 Days Later. The undead might have every advantage, but the likable, compelling mortals in this gripping read aren't giving up easily.

SALEM'S LOT by Stephen King
This was King's second novel and was the book that began the King phenomenon, which quickly took off with the release of The Shining. But this was 1975, and Lot was released a few months before Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire and suddenly, vampires (and horror fiction) were hot!

Lot examines about the slow takeover of an insular hamlet called Jerusalem's Lot by a vampire that is consiously patterned after Bram Stoker's Dracula. This novel has two elements that King was to good effect in later novels: a small American town, usually in Maine, where people are disconnected from each other, quietly nursing their potential for evil; and a mixed bag of rational, goodhearted people, including a writer, who band together to fight that evil. Simply taken as a contemporary vampire novel, 'Salem's Lot is great fun to read, and has been very influential in the horror genre. But it's also a sly piece of social commentary. As King said in 1983, "In 'Salem's Lot, the thing that really scared me was not vampires, but the town in the daytime, the town that was empty, knowing that there were things in closets, that there were people tucked under beds, under the concrete pilings of all those trailers. And all the time I was writing that, the Watergate hearings were pouring out of the TV.... Howard Baker kept asking, 'What I want to know is, what did you know and when did you know it?' That line haunts me, it stays in my mind.... During that time I was thinking about secrets, things that have been hidden and were being dragged out into the light."

THE TRAVELING VAMPIRE SHOW by Richard Laymon
On a hot August morning in the summer of 1963, in the rural town of Grandville, tacked to power poles and trees, fliers have appeared announcing the mysterious one-night-only performance of The Traveling Vampire Show.

The show will feature Valeria, the only known vampire in captivity. According to the fliers, she is a gorgeous, stunning beauty. In the course of the performance, she will stalk volunteers from the audience, sink her teeth into their necks and drink their blood!

For three local teenagers who see the fliers, this is a show they don't want to miss.

The Traveling Vampire Show is the tale of what happened to them on that hot summer day. It's the story of their friendship and love, their temptations, their betrayals, and their courage as they went where they shouldn't go, did what they shouldn't do... and ran into big trouble.

Laymon is an interesting writer. Devoid of almost any literary intent, he writes in-your-face stories that begin immediately and take the reader into dark dark places, but often with a wry sense of humor. Laymon is a storyteller, period. And this book is one of his best.

THE TOUCH: A Review

2009-11-11T12:15:00.000-08:00

theBIBLIOfile
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After a dozen years of practicing medicine as a family physician, Dr. Alan Bulmer discovers one day that he can cure any illness with the mere touch of his hand. At first his scientific nature refuses to accept what is happening to him, but there is no rational explanation to be found. So Alan gives himself over to this mysterious power, reveling in the ability to cure the incurable, to give hope to the hopeless—for one hour each day. And Bulmer's life slowly goes to hell, for as he discovers, the "touch" exacts a price for each use form the user.

As always in a Wilson novel, the story pace is quick and the characterizations are deftly and often cleverly established. The Touch is part of The Adversary Cycle (Reborn, Reprisal, The Touch & Nightworld) which itself is a part of Wilson's larger body of work, including the amazing Repairman Jack series. The two story arcs of each series will culminate in new version (totally re-written, according to Wilson) of Nightworld.

Wilson, a practicing physician, has written several medical thrillers, but The Touch is a smooth blend of paranormal and medical. The horrific aspects of the story are not the mysterious paranormal power of the "touch", but the slow, creeping way in which the power takes its it toll on Dr. Bulmer. For more info of the how and why these 20 year old novels are being re-written and republished, go to Wilson's website and let him explain.

BIBLIO SAYS: Recommended.

Companion Read: The Select by F. Paul Wilson.

THE FAMILY: A Review

2009-11-08T06:40:00.001-08:00

Gather 'round, brethren. The Family is a compelling account of power in America and how it has been shaped by religion. It makes a compelling case of how the Christian right can be neither Christian nor right.

Journalist Sharlet chronicles the history and ideas advanced by the elite Christian fundamentalist group called "the Family" at the highest levels of government during the past half century. Through its White House and congressional connections, the Family has influenced the deployment of US power, especially in foreign policy during the Cold War and beyond. Led by the Machiavellian Doug Coe, the group has operated clandestinely in the corridors of power unhindered by democratic accountability, and serves as an uncomfortable mirror of the current administration's (Obama) more overt power grab in the appointing of czars to rule American public life without any accountability and approval from the Senate.

This is a complex and sensitive subject, the intersection of Christian fundamentalist beliefs with the American political system, but Sharlet puts the Family within an historical context, and how relates it to the secular strains of American life. Starlet relates his own personal experiences at Ivanwald, the "retreat" for the elite fundamentalists, those who want to utilize "Jesus" -the tough, muscular Jesus, certainly not the "turn the other cheek" Jesus - to further specific political objectives, as well as the general ones, of expanding the influence of "free-markets" and the American empire.

Next, Sharlet goes back and places the fundamentalist movement in an American historical context, starting in the early 1700's, with the preacher Jonathan Edwards, author of "The Great Awaking," and his relationship with Abigail Hutchinson. He then moves in the early 1800's, and the character of Charles Finney. Slowly, Sharlet lays out his theme that religious fundamentalism has been one of the essential strains of the American historical experience. Finally, the book covers the 20th century and how Abram Vereide (head of the Family) used fundamentalism in his fight against the labor movement of the `30's, and in particular, Harry Bridges of the Longshoremen's union.

The book is densely written - not a quick read! - and there are some poorly edited sections that make a difficult subject even harder to understand. However, as you read, you will be struck with the thought that Sharlet is actually describing a cult that revolves around the idol of Jesus. Most of us encounter elements of The Family on a regular basis. Pay attention to your local mega-church; most of them espouse Family-like doctrine such as convincing religious and devout people that they should vote for candidates that are inimical to their economic self interest.

BIBLIO SAYS: Recommended.

Companion Read: Rules For Radicals by Saul Alinksy.

BLACK WIND: A Review

2009-11-08T06:11:00.000-08:00

I'm always bemused by what critics, reviewers and the book industry categorizes as "Horror" fiction. This book, and author, are perfect example of the cubby-hole approach to the industry. During his thirty-plus year career F. Paul Wilson has written novels that fall squarely in the horror field, however, Black Wind is NOT one of those novels.

It is horrific? Absolutely. Are there supernatural elements in the story? Absolutely. However, Black Wind is also one of the most powerful World War II novels I have ever read. It is saga of passion and terror, the ravages of war, the pain of betrayal, and the glory of love. Herman Wouk has nothing on Wilson.

At the heart of the story are four people torn between love and honor: Matsuo Okumo, born in Japan, raised in America, and hated in both lands; Hiroki Okumo, his brother, a modern samurai sworn to serve a secret cult and the almighty Emperor; Meiko Satsuma, the woman they both love; and Frank Slater, the American who turned away when Matsuo needed him, and who now struggles to repay his debt of honor.

Wilson does an outstanding job of portraying the tumultuous events in Japan and America in the decades preceding WWII, and weaving historical events, people and native superstitions and East/West cultural differences into a emotionally satisfying story. The one major drawback is that as the book rushes to it's conclusion, some extra suspension of disbelief is needed as Matsuo (a Japanese Army officer) and Slater (an American Army officer) are able to slip in out of America, Japan, occupied islands in the Pacific with ease.

The book is also important for people who are reading Wilson's magnificent Repairman Jack series. RJ book #12, By The Sword will make a lot more sense if you have read Black Wind.

BIBILIO SAYS: Highly recommended!

Companion read: King Rat by James Clavell

KILLING SUSAN SILVERMAN

2009-11-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

The murder of fictional character, Susan Silverman, created by Robert B. Parker.
_________________________________________________________

Boston, MA.

Spring in Boston can be delightful. Unfortunately, it was the middle of March and the temperature hovered at 30 degrees. A steady drizzle started at mid day and drove most of the pedestrian traffic indoors; by dusk the streets of Cambridge had been polished into a glossy sheen. As much as Cash hated the New England weather, and as anxious as he was to return south, he did not rush his preparations. He had endured two week’s worth of vile weather, but today was the day. The psychologist he was hired to dispatch was going into permanent retirement today.

All the factors were lined up in his favor. The psychologist worked out of her home and had clients scheduled all day. Her private investigator boyfriend and his sometimes business partner were working a surveillance case in Gloucester. What they didn’t know was that their client also worked for the Corporation. The job was legit, but it served another purpose. It kept the boyfriend occupied and opened the window of opportunity for Cash to complete his job.

Eight weeks ago Cash had accepted the assignment and now he was ready to earn the remainder of his $100,000 fee. The Corporation only had two non-negotiable demands: one third of the money up front and complete autonomy. Since there was no way for a client to directly contact him, once Cash’s percentage of the up-front money was in his account ($16,650) he began to work. The when-and-where of the dispatch was always his decision, and he tended to be extremely cautious. Anna Moss had taught him that there were two parts to a successful operation: preparation and execution. A well-prepared plan could survive poor execution, but a poorly prepared plan would never be properly executed.

The psychologist lived in Cambridge, on Linnaean Street in a green Victorian which had a small fenced-in yard for the annoying dog she owned. Her last client was scheduled for 5:00 pm and all her sessions lasted the traditional psychotherapist hour - fifty minutes.

Cash walked out of the crowded Porter Square T station at 5:25 and briskly walked the half mile to Linnaean Street. Due to the foul weather, foot traffic was light. His fellow pedestrians were bundled up and determined to get from point A to point B. Everyone walked with their heads down and covered.

Cash was dressed for the weather and in the full gloom he was virtually invisible in the mist: a charcoal-colored Field and Stream rain outfit with the hood pulled over his head, and his face covered by a pullover ski hat, all purchased at a Dick’s Sporting Goods Store in Smithfield, Rhode Island; black leather gloves from a Boston area Target; a pair of Earth shoes and a well-worn school backpack purchased at a local thrift store.

At 5:45 he hopped over the short fence into the psychologist’s yard. The streetlight did not filter around to this side of the house so he was quickly absorbed within the shadows of the small yard. He quickly removed the cover for the porch light and unscrewed the light bulb enough so that it would not switch on. He replaced the cover.

From the inside pocket of his rain jacket he pulled out a 12 inch black stainless steel tube which he folded open to double the length. It clicked together and became a .50 caliber blow gun. Cash was accurate within 30 feet with such a short weapon. The four inch dart was preloaded with a strong, fast-acting tranquilizer. He crouched in the corner of the yard, back against the house and fence, hidden by a large bush.

At 5:56 back door opened and the German shorthaired pointer charged out the door and into the grass, bounding around in the rain like an idiot canine. Cash was less than twenty feet away. The psychologist looked up at the light fixture. Her hand was inside the door and she flicked the switch several times. No light.

“Damn,” she said.

She turned and went back inside and shut the door. After watching the evening routine for nine days, Cash knew the psychologist was inside mixing a drink, or getting a new light bulb. Either one worked.

Cash shot the dog in the haunch. The dog yelped and began to paw at the dart but within 20 seconds began to stumble and finally collapsed on the ground and lay quivering. The dog would be out for at least half an hour. Long enough.

Cash yanked out the dart from the dog and slipped it inside a leather pouch in his pocket. He then stood waiting in the shadow of the house stoop, next to the steps leading to the back door.

A moment later the door opened. The psychologist had a new light bulb in her hand. She called for the dog and looked out into the yard. There was enough light from the house that the dog’s shape was visible in the grass.

“Baby,” she called. She ran down the steps and across the yard to the dog.

Cash slipped inside the back door and stood just behind it. He pulled out a cotton rag and a small dark bottle filled with halothane. He doused the rag with the potent anesthetic. Ten seconds later she staggered through the door carrying the limp dog in her arms. Cash stepped from behind the door and clamped the rag over her mouth and nose. He kicked the door shut with his foot.

The struggle took less than ten seconds. He could feel her muscles relax and he gently eased her and the dog to the floor. Halothane was quicker than chloroform, paralyzing the victim in mere seconds, but leaving them conscious.

“It won’t hurt,” he told her. “I’ll make it quick.”

And he did. Potassium chloride injection in her left arm. He left through the back door. Hopped over the fence and strolled along Massachusetts Avenue back to the Porter Square T station. At 6:36 he caught the next Red Line train heading south; changed to the Green line and got off at the Kenmore stop. Ten minutes later he drove his rented Ford Taurus out the parking lot of large grocery store and into a McDonald’s drive-thru and ordered a Quarter pounder with cheese and a large drink in a hard plastic cup. Then he hit I-90 south.

Later, he stopped at a massive truck stop near Framingham and placed the syringe and needle in the empty plastic McDonald’s cup, replaced the plastic lid and dropped it in one of the trashcans next to the gas pumps. He left the rain suit hanging from the hook on the back of a bathroom stall. Somebody could use a good rain suit in this weather.

Three and a half hours later Cash turned in his rental car at LaGuardia in New York. Changed clothes in an airport bathroom. His regular clothes and shoes came out of the backpack. He stuffed the other clothes, gloves, ski mask and Earth shoes into the pack. Took a cab to 34^th and Lexington in Manhattan, and then walked west to Madison Avenue and south to 31^st. He gave the backpack to a homeless guy on 33^rd. By midnight he was in the 600 sq. ft. 8^th floor apartment the Corporation had purchased three years ago in a seen-better-days building on 31^st street.

As he showered Cash thought about the psychologist. As far as he could tell, the private eye boy friend would be better off without her. During the two weeks of surveillance Cash had determined she was high maintenance and a very annoying woman. Other than her obvious overt physical good looks, there was very little to recommend her as a friend or a lover. Cash wondered why there were so many lonely people that they were willing to put up someone else’s bullshit.

The next morning was bright and sunny. He bought breakfast from a street vendor and enjoyed the walk to the New York Public Library. The Corporation had a counterfeit library card which was always kept at the apartment for internet use. Cash had to wait half an hour until a public computer became available. He sent an e-mail which read: Project finished. Please complete at your end.

He searched several Boston news web sites. No mention of the psychologist’s murder. Too early. The body probably had not been discovered early enough to make the next news yet. He signed off the computer.

Later at midnight he took a taxi to Newark Airport, rented another Ford Taurus with a different credit card and name. Then he drove straight through to Tampa, Florida – twenty hours. He only made stops for gas, food and bathroom. At a truck stop in North Carolina Cash used a pre-paid phone card to call the number in the Cayman Islands and discovered that $33,600 had been wired into his account at the start of business that morning.

He dropped off the rental car at Tampa International Airport and retrieved his own vehicle, a 1992 Ford 150 beater truck, from long term parking.

By 9:00 pm Cash was lying in a hammock on the aft deck of the Love Breeze, his 36 ft. sailboat at Dock C, Slip 23 at the Saucy Jack Marina on the Isles of Capri. It was nice to sleep outside in the Gulf coast warmth after the two weeks of hellish New England weather.

BETTER THAN THE BOOKS

2009-11-03T17:24:00.001-08:00

It has been one of the pitfalls that writers have had to endure ever since Edison perfected the camera - movies based on books. Most of us can agree that 99.2% of the time the movie version of a novel is infinitely inferior to the book. Stephen King could write a book about bad adaptations ... come to think of it, he probably has or he probably will.

Dean Koontz' Watchers is one of the most charming, thrilling and entertaining best selling books of the past 30 years and was turned into an unwatchable and offensive film. Bicentennial Man was turned into another Robin Williams embarrassment, whereas Issac Asimov's novella is a subtle and brilliant examination on the meaning of humanity.

But everyone once in a while, Hollywood takes a book and turns it into a masterpiece. Some are good books that benefited from a brilliant adaptation; others are pedestrian books that were actually improved by the filmmakers; and some are just bad and boring novels that somehow someone turned into a great move.

Here is a list of movies that are BETTER THAN THE BOOKS. And it is surprisingly longer than you would think.

GOOD BOOK / GREAT MOVIE

CHOCOLAT by Joanne Harris
This 1999 novel explored the lure of temptation and alternated between sweet and sinister forces of humanity and nature. The movie stays close to the spirit of the story, but is much more positive and cheerful.

LAST OF THE MOCHICANS by James Fenimore Cooper
As is most fiction from that time period (1826), Cooper is virtually unreadable these days, but writers and books from the 18th and 19th century seem to benefit from Hollywood treatments. The turgid prose and stilted dialogue can be glossed over with spectacular visuals. Every one who has seen this movie knows what a great, and emotionally involving, action film it is.

MARY POPPINS by B.L. Travers
Come on, everyone loves Disney's Mary Poppins. Julie Andrews is magical and Dick Van Dyke has never been better than as Bert - street artist, chimney sweep and good time guy. The movie was based a popular series of English children's novels (1935-1988) and portrayed Poppins as more stern and with a darker side than the movie version.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Ken Kesey
The 1962 novel by Ken Kesey is a stunning work that is well written and emotionally compelling. And then director Milos Forman turned it into one of the all time great movies. There are a few differences, the most apparent is the voice of the narrator in the book, but we need a character to anchor our thoughts in the novel, whereas Forman can show us the story that develops, and allows us to become the narrator. We all become just another nut in the nuthouse. Jack Nicholson’s performance is genuinely inspired and the cast that surrounds is like a who’s who of soon-to-be 80s stars.

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION by Stephen King
Based on the short novel "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Prison" from the book Different Seasons, this may be the best adaptation of Stephen King's prose to cinema. While the story has its charms and contains all the elements of the plot, it is a mere shadow of the emotional depth and sheer grand story-telling that director and screen writer Frank Darabont manages to capture.

MEDIOCRE NOVEL / GREAT MOVIE

BEING THERE by Jerzey Kosinsky
The book is an ingenius portrayal of a mentally slow gardener named Chance whose only knowledge of the outside world comes from watching television. Through an series of circumstances, Chance becomes homeless and is left to his own devices to face the world. The book often reads flat and uninvolved, a technique of detached emotionless that makes sense (TV viewing results the deadening of senses and intellect ) but does not make it an enjoyable read. The film, however, as directed by Hal Ashby is a constant joy of subtle humor and ironic social commentary. Peter Sellers pulls off the role of his career with a brilliant and nuanced performance which ranks as one of the all time greatest. The fact that he did not win the Academy Award (Dustin Hoffman in Kramer vs. Kramer ... and when's the last time you had a discussion with anyone about that movie or that performance?) is a travesty. In fact, the film was not even nominated for Best Picture. (Kramer; All That Jazz; Apocalypse Now; Breaking Away and Norman Rae)

THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI by Pierre Boulle
This is a terse novel written by a former French resistance fighter in WWII. What is often a difficutl book to read - it is completely devoid of humor and few of the characters are developed enough to either hate or love - in the hands of film maker David Lean becomes an thrilling story of epic proportions dealing with racial prejudice and nationalism.

HIGH FIDELITY by Nick Hornby
Hornby may be the most successful mediocre novelist of the 21st century. Three of his books (and as of this writing a fourth, A Long Way Down is in production) have become movies: Fever Pitch, About A Boy and this novel about a record store owner and his driftless life after his girlfriend dumps him. The tends to be clunky, but the movie is an intense character study given vitality by a good performance by John Cusack.

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES AT THE WHISTLE STOP CAFE by Fanny Flagg
Flagg, a comedian, actress and perennial game show guest (Match Game; Hollywood Squares) found a second career of writing cheerful comedic Americana novels. But the movie, Fried Green Tomatoes takes the basic story and super charges it with great performances by Mary Stuart Masterson and Kathy Bates.

ORDINARY PEOPLE by Judith Guest
The novel is a chore to read, meandering with emotional passages filled ironic angst. The movie, as directed by Robert Redford, is a brooding study at the fractious nature of a family in crisis and emotionally satisfying.

RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
I recently tried to re-read this 1975 novel (first attempt had been while in high school in 1977 and was bewildered by the bad writing) and still found it boring and stylistic clunky. The fact that Time magazine listed it as one of the Greatest 100 English Language Novels Between 1923-2005 is more of an indictment about the lack imagination of Time's editors than in your taste in books. Almost book on the list is one of those boring academically approved books .. i.e. the books your college professor makes you read in college and which you never have the desire to read again. The movie, however, is devoid of Doctorow's turgid writing and shines. Filled with great performance and emotionally charged.

HAROLD AND MAUDE by Calder Willingham
One of the all-time great weird movies is based one of the all-time weird and unreadable books.

SOMEWHERE IN TIME (Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson)
Matheson is one of those great writers of the 20th century that never make Time's list of 100 Greatest Books because he is a popular writer of horror (gasp!) and sci-fi thrillers. Potboilers! The literati elite can't have that! However, as many good books that Matheson has written, Bid Time Return is at the bottom of the list. It is a time-travel romance that never really seems to take off, and ultimately, becomes more annoying than anything else. The movie, however, is a grand piece of movie-making, lush, romantic and satisfying.

PLANET OF THE APES by Pierre Boulle
Another short novel by French writer Boulle that became a classic Hollywood epic. I've tried to read Planet of the Apes (sometimes titled Monkey Planet) and found it bewildering. The story is told as a narrative found in bottle which thankfully, the movie ignores that plot device. "Get your hands off me, you stinkin' ape," is one of the great quotable lines in cinematic history.

STARDUST by Neil Gaiman
The novel is good, but a bit more dark and sinister ... come on, we are talking about Neil Gaiman. The movie turned out to be a delightfully romantic and ironically hilarious fable. The movie is worth watching alone for Robert DeNiro's campy turn as a lightning-gathering pirate.

THE SEARCHERS by Alan Le May
A very typical Western novel in which a former Civil War soldier becomes driven to avenge the death of his family members by marauding Indians. But in the hands of director John Ford, and John Wayne's (who for once doesn't play John Wayne) deep and disturbing portrayal of a man who is close to being psychotic .. this becomes an epic movie.

TERMS OF ENDEARMENT by James McMurtry
A veeery middle-of-the-road novel by a good novelist is transformed into a 4 star drama / romantic comedy on the strength of all around great performances by Nicholson and Shirley McClaine.

PSYCHO by Robert Bloch
Based on a real life story, Psycho was first published in 1959. Robert Bloch based the novel on the horrific Ed Gein, who was arrested in Plainfield, Wisconsin for murdering women and making furniture, silverware and even clothing out of body parts, in an attempt to make a “woman suit” to pretend to be his dead mother. Gein also was the inspiration for Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. Bloch’s novel was nothing more than a pedestrian thriller turned into a film classic in 1960 by Alfred Hitchcock, THE classic horror film even though there is less than 60 seconds of screen violence.

BAD BOOK / GREAT MOVIE

THE BOURNE IDENTITY / THE BOURNE SUPREMACY / THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
by Robert Ludlum.
How these densely written and over-the-top plotted Cold War novels ever became popular is still a mystery. And the fact that they were turned into a James Bond style thrill-a-minute movie franchise is almost a miracle. Ignore the books, enjoy the movies.

COOL HAND LUKE by Donn Pearce
A book that truly is impossible to read was turned into one of the most iconic movies of the 1960s, and one of Paul Newman's all time great screen characters.

DIE HARD (Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorpe)
The book is really bad. The main character is a sappy ex-cop has-been who spends the entire novel whining and pining over his now-dead ex-wife and worries about his daughter stuck in the building with him and the terrorists. Thanks to screenwriters Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart and director John McTiernan for shutting him up, giving him more attitude and hiring Bruce Willis to play him. The result was a superior action film, smart and funny, as well as edge-of-your-seat exciting. Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker, indeed.

DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
Dickey is one of the most over rated writers of the 20th century. Loved by literary critics and his peers (other college professors who write fiction and poetry) but ignored by everyone else, he even ruined his one great idea for a novel by trying to infuse it with a poetic sensibility that only illustrated the fact that he was a too good of a writer to just write a thriller. It was left to Hollywood to take away all the pretension and strip the story down to it's most basic elements. I've always wondered what this novel would have been like if David Morrell had written it.

THE GODFATHER by Mario Puzo
This may be the second worst written book ever to become a best-seller. We read the book in high school for the sex scenes ... who can forget Sonny pushing Lucy up against the wall? But, as has been documented in abundance elsewhere, this is one of the all time classic movies.

THE GRADUATE by Charles Webb
The 1963 novel was, at best, barely readable, but somehow Mike Nichols, with his writing teem Calder Willingham and Buck Henry took everything the novel had to offer, and expanded it to create one of the most iconic films of the 1960s. One reason the movie is better is one of the most perfect soundtracks ever, by Simon and Garfunkel.

THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER / PATRIOT GAMES / THE SUM OF ALL FEARS / CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER by Tom Clancy
Tom Clancy can't write. Period. We keep a copy of Red Storm Rising next to the bed in case of insomnia. Two pages and your eyes are dropping.Clancy is a high-concept book packager where ideas are more important that creating characters and setting the mood. But they make fairly entertaining movies.

JAWS by Peter Benchley
This may be one of the worst written books ever to become a best-seller. Jaws is one of the first "high-concept" novels which now periodically hit the best seller list (every heard of The DaVinci Code?). But, a young Steven Spielberg turns the material into one of the most edge-of-the-seat movies ever. Roy Schneider, Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss are top notch.

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL by James Ellroy
Ellroy is an enigmatic figure. The real mystery is how his unreadable books keep getting published, and keep getting positive reviews. But, buried within all the turgid prose and literary devices (think of a hard-boiled Thomas Pynchon with none of the humor) someone in Hollywood saw a thrilling and brutal movie ... and they were right.

A PLACE IN THE SUN by Theodore Dreiser
Dreiser is a literary darling and virtually impossible to read. However, the novel An American Tragedy, which is the basis for this movie, had all the plot elements needed for Hollywood to fashion a classic soap opera.

TWILIGHT: A Review

2009-11-03T12:51:00.000-08:00

Unless you've been locked in a coffin for the past four years, you already know that Twilight is the story of the romance between out-of-place teenager Bella and ageless vampire Edward. The novel was initially marketed at Young Adult readers, but Stephanie Meyer's first novel quickly proved that it had the ability to cross age barriers and has become a publishing tsunami.

Stephanie Meyer is either a genius, naive, or perverted. I'm not sure which. What an ingenious feat she has accomplished. The concept of an 100-year old vampire obsessed with a 16-year old girl is more disturbing than anything Anne Rice has written (even in her sado-sexual fantasy novels), and Meyer has brilliantly disguised all this perversion in the guise of a sappy romance ... and the general public has swallowed it completely! Lolita could not find an American publisher for years, but Meyer's books are proudly displayed on the shelves of Wal-Mart and school libraries across America!

The story is told in first person from the perspective of Bella, who is shy and lacking in confidence; her sarcastic inner voice narrates the story for the reader. Meyer keeps Bella's narrative simple and yet full of beautiful passages.

The romance between Edward and Bella is both touching and creepy. There is a melancholic feel to their impossible love, yet at the same time they both are unwilling to give up hope that their relationship is not doomed. The book reaches a fever pitch of excitement as the romance between Bella and Edward turns into a frantic race to stay alive. But again, Edwar is 100 years old, and Bella is sixteen.

I admire any writer who goes against convention; most of us have become bored by the glut of cookie-cutter vampire books that flooded the market in the post 1980s success of Anne Rice. Meyer uses the vampire device as an interesting way to explore a very cliqued story: young teenage forbidden love, and pulls it off with a disturbing touch of dark romanticism. Bravo!

BIBLIO SAYS: Recommended.

Companion Read: The Chosen Sin by Anya Bast.

A TOWN LIKE ALICE: A Review

2009-11-02T11:37:00.000-08:00

This is one of the best books ever. In 1998, Modern Library voted A Town Like Alice #17 on the list of 100 Greatest English-language Novels of 20th Century. It is also known by it's original English title, The Legacy.

Nevil Shute was the author of 30+ novels and can best be described as "old fashioned." His books are literate, with a distinctly British view, but also very worldly. He often explored unusual themes like reincarnation, utopian visions (In The Wet is a very entertaining variation of Brave New World.) Shute was a trained engineer and science plays a huge role in many of his books. Many of his characters are aviators, engineers, and geologists. During his lifetime Shute was one of the most popular writers in the world and his most famous book, On The Beach, while justly famous as the only close-ended novel ever written (no one in the book survives after the final page) is one of his lesser efforts. It is a shame that dozens of Shute's novels do not sit on the shelves of modern bookstores.

SUMMARY
After World War II, a young English woman named Jean Paget learns that she has inherited a legacy from her great uncle. She is now a rich young woman with no need to work ever again. When the Scottish lawyer, Noel Strachan, whose firm manages the legacy asks what she'd like to do with the money, she replies, "I'd like to build a well."

Jean and her family had lived in Malaysa for most of her childhood until her fathered died. Now, Jean was alone living in London. Her mother was dead and her brother died in a Japanese POW camp.

Jean tells Strachan her story. During the war she was working in Malaya when the Japanese invaded and she ended up as one of a party of English women and children who are marched around Malaya by the Japanese, since no camp will take them in and the Japanese army does not want to take responsibility for them. Many of them die on the march, and the rest survive only on the charity of the local villagers. Jean's knowledge of Malay language and culture proves invaluable to the group's survival.

On their march from one village to another, Jean meets a young Australian man, Joe Harman, also a prisoner, who is driving a truck for the Japanese. He steals food and medicines to help them, and they become friends. Jean always carries a small boy, orphaned after his mother died, and which leads Harman to the mistaken belief that she is married; to avoid giving Joe any temptation, Jean does not correct this misperception. The thefts are investigated and Harman takes the blame to save Jean and the rest of the group. He is crucified, beaten and left to die by the Japanese soldiers. The women are marched away leaving Joe for dead.

Later, to survive, the group becomes part of a native village where they grow rice and work as part of the village. This saves their lives, and they live there for three years, until the war ends. This village is where Jean wants to build the well so that the local women will not have to walk so far to collect water: "A gift by women, for women".

With her legacy, Jean travels back to Malaya, where she goes back to the village and persuades the headman to allow her to build the well. While it is being built she discovers that by a strange chance Joe Harman survived his punishment and returned to Australia. She decides to travel on to Australia to find him. In her travels she visits the town of Alice Springs, where Joe lived before the war, and is much impressed with the quality of life there. She then travels to the (fictional) primitive town of Willstown in Queensland where Joe has become manager of a cattle station. She soon discovers that the quality of life in Alice is an anomaly, and life for a woman in the outback is elsewhere very rugged. While staying in the local hotel in Willstown she finds that the local hunters shoot crocodiles and prepare their skins for export, at prices much lower than they are sold in England. To show the locals what their exports are used for, she makes a pair of crocodile-skin shoes in her bedroom, by hand.

In the meantime, Joe has learned both that Jean survived the war and is unmarried. He take the money he won in the state lottery in order to travel to Britain in search of her. In London, he meets lawyer Strachan, who must decide on his client's behalf how to handle this situation. On Strachan's advice, Harman returns to Queensland, and Jean and Joe two finally meet again in one of the most emotionally charged and poignant love scenes ever written.

At this point, you are about halfway through the book, and I would deserve to be crucified myself if I revealed any more of the plot.

BIBLIO SAYS: Highly recommended!!! Read it NOW.

Companion Read: No Highway by Nevil Shute

FADE: A Review

2009-11-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

Why Cormier is marketed to Young Adult audiences? His books explore disturbing subjects, dark themes, and create a generally bleak tone. Thomas Hardy has nothing on Cormier for tragic conclusions. And, not withstanding the constant presence of The Chocolate War, on must-read lists for Young Adults, Fade may be Cormier's best book.

SUMMARY: At the age of thirteen, Paul Moreaux discovers that he can turn invisible. Paul, a sensitive and thoughtful working-class boy, doesn’t even realize it when he first gets The Fade. On a dare, he spies on a meeting of the Ku Klux Klan. (This is the 1930s, and anti-Catholic/anti-immigrant sentiments are running high against Paul and the other citizens of Frenchtown.) When the meeting is ambushed, a crazed Klansman discovers Paul and tries to kill him– but inexplicably, he somehow loses sight of his intended victim.

What Paul doesn’t realize is that he has inherited the ability to turn invisible. Sometimes it’s useful, as when escaping from Klansmen and bullies; more often it’s horrible, as when spying upon people reveals secrets Paul never wanted to know. One male in his family has inherited this "gift" for several generations. At least Paul has guidance from an uncle, also a Fader. A generation later, Paul’s own nephew Ozzie has no such counseling, because Paul doesn’t know he exists; the child had been secretly given up for adoption. Unfortunately Ozzie was raised by a physically abusive father, and when Ozzie discovers his Fading powers, after years of beatings and neglect, the results are terrible, with “terrible” meaning “like Stephen King’s Carrie on prom night.”

The invisible teenaged Paul slowly discovers that his "gift" only helps him learn quickly the tragedy of human existence; he is doomed to lead a life marked by violence, madness, and despair, with relief coming only when health complications from the invisibility cause him to die, lonely and young and unmourned.

BIBLIO SAYS: Thoughtful, horrorific and suspenseful. Highly recommended!

Companion Read: Jumper by Steven Gould. (Note: do not let the bad movie based on this book keep you from reading it.)

TIME AND AGAIN: A Review

2009-11-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

Did illustrator Si Morley really step out of his 20th century New York City apartment one night - right into the winter of 1882? The U.S. Government believed he did, especially when Si returned with a portfolio of brand-new sketches and tintype photos of a world that no longer existed ... or did it?

Published in 1970, Time and Again is one of the greatest and most famous time travel books ever written, and deservedly so. Finney's time travel premise is that if one gets into the "mindset" so to speak - wears the clothes, speaks the dialect, uses only those things that were available in 1882 in New York City, then the black hole will open up and transport one back to that time. Which is exactly what happened to Simon Morley as he sat and lived in his government rented apartment overlooking Central Park.

Indeed, Central Park itself is a major theme within this book, as it seems to be the clock around which New York City was able to judge its progress over the years. Simon Morley does have many adventures within the Manhattan of 1882, and as he rents lodging in lower Manhattan, he meets and falls in love. Thus Finney sets the scene for the conflict of love and time travel, forcing his protagonist to make a decision between different time periods.

BIBLIO SAYS: Written with a charming magic of historical detail. Highly recommended!
Companion Read: Replay by Ken Grimwood

THE NYMPHOS OF ROCK FLATS; A Review

2009-11-01T11:16:00.000-08:00

Summary: Felix Gomez went to Iraq a soldier. He came back a vampire. Now he finds himself pulled into a web of intrigue when an old friend prompts him to investigate an outbreak of nymphomania at the secret government facilities in Rocky Flats. He’ll find out the cause of all these horny women or die trying!

But first he must contend with shadowy government agents, Eastern European vampire hunters, and women who just want his body…

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Easily the best titled book of 2006. This is the first novel (of four - so far) in the Felix Gomez series. Felix is one emotionally tortured vampire. As a soldier he accidently killed some civilians and then he was turned into a vampire so he can experience his guilt for eternity.

Mario Acevedo told theBIBLIOfile that after writing several straight-up crime novels that drew no publishing interest, he decided to write the wackiest story he could think of. "I wondered what would happen if there was an outbreak of Nymphomania at a military base and a vampire was called in to investigate." And then he discovers aliens, secret government agents, Eastern European vampire hunters all hot on his trail.

One of the main drawbacks to Vampire Fiction is that too much of it treads the same ground. Acevedo twists vampire myths to his liking. Felix, who operates as a Private Detective, can go out in the sun (as long as he's wearing sunscreen and sunglasses. Felix can survive on animal blood but to the detriment of his vampiric powers.

The result is an odd combination of hard-boiled PI meets X-Files meets Carl Hiaasen.

BIBLIO SAYS: Not so much laugh out loud funny, but amusing and witty throughout. Recommended.

Companion Read: X-Rated Bloodsuckers by Mario Acevedo

LAST CHANCE SALOON: A Review

2009-11-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

Three friends from a small Irish town have lived in London for the past 12 years. Kathleen leads a quiet, orderly existence as an accountant for an advertising agency. She’s happy on her own, believing that romantic relationships only lead to pain. Tara shares a flat with her boyfriend, Thomas, and works as a computer analyst. Thomas is an opinionated cheapskate who constantly badgers Tara about her weight, but hey, it’s better than being single and she really does love him (she just doesn’t like him very much). Of the three, the gay man Fintan is the happiest, with a fashion design career and a caring partner.

Katherine is by far the most interesting and well-developed character. She is called the Ice Queen at by the men at her work, but she is doggedly pursued by her good-natured co-worker Joe, Katherine rebuffs him constantly until he stops his pursuit, and then Katherine realizes she is jealous when Joe begins to date another co-worker. Slowly, she releases the emotional baggage and wounds that have kept her distant for over a decade. By the end, she is by far the most settled character and her course of lie is set.

Tara is a difficult character to like. Her live-in BF, Thomas is unlikeable in every regard, but her low self-esteem keeps her in the relationship. It takes her waaay too long to grow a backbone and drop the loser, but at that point the reader has given up on liking her.

Fintan is alternating cheery, flamboyant and brooding. His battle with cancer mainly serves as an impetus for Katherine and Tara to change their static lives.

Irish-born Keyes is the most literate of the British slate of chick-lit writers; she also has the best sense of humor and her writing gets better with each book. Last chance Saloon was Keyes' first non-first person narrative, jumping between five different character viewpoints effortlessly. She seems to be on her way to becoming the 21st century Maeve Binchy.

BIBLIO SAYS: Breezy, funny and not-too-annoying as chick-lit. Recommended.

Companion Read: Scarlet Feather by Maeve Binchy.

GONE TOMORROW: A Review

2009-10-30T02:44:00.000-07:00

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

GROUND ZERO: A Review

2009-10-23T18:41:00.001-07:00

theBIBLIOfile

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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.

THE LOST SYMBOL - A Review

2009-10-16T17:10:00.000-07:00

www.theBIBLIOfile.org

BIBILO RATING: 2 - Awful, not worthy. Read at your own risk.

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.