Review: The Collapsing Empire

The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review. A 3.5 star rating represents my experience with this book.

I read this book in preparation for voting for the 2018 Hugo Awards.

John Scalzi once again tells an entertaining and serviceable tale. The book relates the story of an empire that is about to collapse; hence the book's title, natch. The empire in question is based on human travel through the "Flow" to reach solar systems that would otherwise take decades to millennia at sub-FTL speeds. Human habitation in those many systems trade among one another for various goods necessary for their mutual survival.

The empire is threatened when access to those systems is about to end as the Flow undergoes a periodic but unpredictable shift. Those habitations are about to be cut off from one another as the Flow will presently shift in a way that stops all trade between those systems.

That ability to trade is controlled/regulated by the monarchy-based Interdependency, ruled by an Emperox, that controls who can access the Flow at the central hub, or Hub, world.

If you don't think about it too much, the story is quite a satisfying little romp. The characters engage the reader by being sufficiently complex in their motivations and experiences. There is political intrigue between the ruling house of Wu, the various other trading families or houses, and the religion that ties the worlds together.

When you consider some of the details, large and small, the story begins to unravel a bit.

Spoilers
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The Interdependency is made of of many human habitations (47, I think) that are located in remote solar systems. Almost all of those outposts are in solar systems where humans cannot live on the surface of a planet. Instead, humans have fabricated massive structures to live in. Alternatively, they have bored into a couple of planets so they can live below the surface; effectively converting a subsurface location into a "massive structure" where they can live, grow food, fabricate "stuff", etc.

Each such habitation houses hundreds of millions of people. Yet none of them are self-sustaining. They all require goods acquired in trade with other systems. Those goods can take months or even years to arrive via ships that travel in the Flow.

Are goods that take years to arrive really necessary to sustain human life?

Some of the goods are produced via a "license" from the nobility. So the means of producing a given "good" is developed in one habitation and is then "licensed" for production on other habitations. When the Flow begins to shift and cut off these habitations, wouldn't the most expedient solution be to do away with the licensing scheme so that all of the habitations will have all of the knowledge needed to survive without the trade? Alternatively, with hundreds of millions of people living in each habitation, wouldn't they have the ability to develop the necessary goods on their own? If those habits are designed to allow hundreds of millions of people to live for months or years without goods coming in from other planets, the they probably have the ability to survive for millennia without those imported goods.

[Mr. Scalzi might be making a bit of an allegory between the nobility of the Interdependency and modern global corporations. The problem with that allegory is that the places with the greatest poverty are places where the local government prevents trade and free market economics. It isn't a problem of corporations licensing trade so much as a problem of governments interfering with trade.]

Consider how much of our Earth simply isn't dedicated to directly sustaining human life. How much "excess" air do we have? How much water is there on the planet? The large volume of both resources allow the by-products of human existence to be diluted and processed without building up to poisonous levels. That condition simply wouldn't exist in artificial habitats.

Only one of the 47 habitations in the empire is a planet that is a viable for human living on the surface. For some reason it is the least desirable "world" where all of the ne'er-do-wells are sent. Wouldn't a planet capable of sustaining human life be at least the second most influential habitation with this empire? Wouldn't that planet be the largest producer of goods that are needed to support life in those constructed habitations? So again, why isn't the one life sustaining planet a more important part of this Empire?

Some of the lesser details:

Mr. Scalzi's use of "The Interdependency" as a name for the empire is a ham-fisted attempt to hammer home the idea that we are dependent on one another for things that we cannot individual produce. It detracts from an otherwise entertaining story. One might almost call it a love-letter to free markets. But it is a ham-fisted love-letter at best.

One woman uses her position of privilege to repeatedly force subordinates into having sex. She is considered to be a bit of a protagonist. Her behavior isn't simply implied as it is with some of the male characters. It is laid out in intricate detail. If it were a male character, I have no doubt that readers would (correctly) be questioning that authorial choice.

Lastly, all the ships seem to be named for mid-20th century songs. The naming convention is a bit quirky given that human contact with Earth was cut off thousands of years ago. It would be more likely that they would use the names of past Emperoxs, heads of guilds, or influential members of the clergy. The naming of ships is a minor detail that removes some of the gravitas from an otherwise decent story.
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As long as you don't put a lot of thought into the mechanics of the world building, this is an engaging and entertaining story. Be entertained and then move on.

View all my reviews

2018 Hugo Novel

This is where I will review and rate the nominees in the novel category for the 2018 Hugo awards.

I make a point of purchasing all of the nominees in the novel category.  Authors should get paid whenever possible.

• The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin - More later.  Very well written while being disturbingly negative in outlook.
• Raven Strategem by Yoon Ha Lee - This is the second book in a series.  The first book was also nominated.  I believe this book benefitted from literary inertia; people that enjoy the first book in a series are likely to find and read the second book in the same series.  I read this year's installment as a fantasy novel wrapped in a sci-fi cloak and had a much better time.
• Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty - More later.  Almost certainly not making it to the top of my ballot due to some plot holes.
• No Award
• The Collapsing Empire by John Scalzi - longer thoughts to come soon.  The short version is that while it is enjoyable, it is not one of the five best books of 2017.  It isn't even close.  The longer version is that the world building was poorly executed, there were problematic characters, and there were features in the storytelling that undercut a more serious reading experience.  While reading this book was an enjoyable experience, it was not of the stellar quality that one associates with being a Hugo Award-winning book.  [For the record, I have found other works by Mr. Scalzi to be definitely worthy of such recognition.  This book is just not in that category.]
• Provenance by Ann Leckie - I made it through about a third of the book before I gave up.  The main character was uninteresting and not terribly inspiring.  She was essentially flailing about in pursuit of some way of lowering the status of her adoptive brother.  She had no plan, she just jumped from one "idea" to the next.  Add to that the incidents where characters were confessing their crimes to her for no valid reason whatsoever.  
• New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson - The level of utter nonsense in this book made it a Do Did Not Finish tome worthy of Dorothy Parker's best.

This was a disappointing group of nominees.  Just off the top of my head, the following are easily as good as (if not better than) the works that I put below "No Award".

• Tyrant's Throne by Sebastien de Castell
• The Core by Peter V. Brett
• All Good Things by Emma Newman
• Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames

Trump - A Year Plus In

Here we are a year and several weeks into the Trump Presidency.  It seems like a good time to account for where we seem to be going.

I could probably write a couple pages on each of the topics below.  To keep this from getting too tedious, I'm only going to keep it as brief as possible.  If there is a part of a topic where you, dear reader, are inclined to say "except.....", please assume that I am not suggesting that successes (or failures) are being offered as without flaw (or completely flawed).

Where are we experiencing progress - 

Judicial Appointments - Mr. Trump has largely been appointing men and women of experience, probity, and temperament to apply the Constitution as written.  The US Constitution was written to think expansively of individual liberty and restrictively towards the size and scope of the federal government.  His appointments mostly are pointed in the correct direction.

Tax Cuts for the Middle Class - The recently passed tax cuts appear to be largely aimed at folks that are not rich.  The updated tax laws apparently will increase the total tax burden on the folks at the top of the income scale by limiting SALT deductions.  Those are reasonable changes.

Cutting the Corporate Tax Rate - Our corporate income tax rate was one of the highest in the world.  It discouraged companies from bringing overseas profits home.  It discouraged overseas companies from investing in facilities and jobs in America.  That is no longer the case with positive results, thus far.

Reductions in Regulations - Just as we are Taxed Enough Already, we are similarly regulated enough already.  While there are areas where new regulation might be useful, there are far more areas where existing regulations are numerous and counterproductive.

Trade/Treaties - I support free trade.  I believe that our general trend towards engaging in free trade agreements has largely served to improve conditions in the United States while also benefiting our trading partners.  At the same time, I also believe in fair trade.  It is hard for American workers to compete in a global marketplace where other nations do not have the same level of environmental and employment regulations.  Persuading our trading partners to embrace worker and environmental protections should be a part of crafting effective trade agreements.

The Economy - I am generally of the opinion that a President's actions take months and years to impact the economy.  I am generally of the opinion that government policy has less impact on the economy than some people imagine.

But you have to admit that the US economy came busting loose starting in November/December of 2016.  Mr. Trump wasn't even in office and things were improving.  Why?

Because we knew that we would not have to face another 8 years of an administration that could not express a limit as to how much government should collect in taxes, how much government should spend, and how much government should regulate.

Couple what Mr. Trump's administration is not taxing/spending/regulating with their other actions and I am hopeful for our economic future.

But not everything is rosy...see below.

Beating the ISIS/ISIL "Caliphate" - ISIS was in control of regions of Iraq and Syria before Mr. Trump assumed the Presidency.  Our military had been supporting local efforts to undermine ISIS for years without much measurable progress.  Within 10 months of taking office, ISIS no longer controlled cities in Syria or Iraq.  The US military can accomplish a great deal worth accomplishing when they are unfettered by overly restrictive rules of engagement.

Foreign Policy/Diplomacy - Right at the start, I want to point out that Nikki Haley is precisely the sort of person that we need at the United Nations.  She fearlessly highlights abusive and despotic regimes with precision and passion.

It is also useful to note that our belligerent administration has caused Iran to cease harassing our ships in the Persian Gulf.  It has motivated North Korea to begin a rapprochement with South Korea without conditioning that action on meeting with the U.S.  Neighbors should talk without the US having to be at the table.  This is what diplomatic progress looks like.

We could also include the change in attitude in the Middle East following our recognition of Israel's capital of Jerusalem as their legitimate capital.  There is a growing recognition that the PA has little interest in a negotiated solution.  As such, the world is moving past their concerns and forcing them to re-evaluate their perspective.

As with every diplomatic issue, events will unfold over time.  History may well render this reading as overly optimistic.  One year in and things appear pointed in the right direction.

Cabinet Appointments - From Jim Mattis to John Kelly, Rex Tillerson, Ben Carson, and Betsy DeVos, the cabinet seems to be staffed by people that are capable and competent.  Mr. Trump appears to be listening to those people...at least some of the time.

Immigration - While a bit of a mixed bag, we have seen some progress in this area.  The Obama administration's DACA program was illegal.  Only Congress can establish our immigration standards.  By terminating the DACA program, Mr. Trump has put the proverbial ball back where it belongs; in Congress.  I'm generally supportive of giving the DACA kids a legal path to residency.  Citizenship begins at a US embassy or consulate.  Not by jumping a fence or overstaying a legitimate visa.

I appreciate the desire to move towards a merit-based immigration system.  I also think we need to re-balance our immigration quota system to make it fairer for people in more populous countries.  (A special hint for those in need, that means that we'd have more legal immigrants from Mexico and fewer from some European nations.)

We need to discuss positive changes to our immigration system.  But at the core of that discussion needs to be the twin principles that our representatives in Congress get to determine the conditions of immigration and that respecting US immigration laws is a pre-requisite for eventually becoming a US citizen.

Where things are off the rails:

Immigration -  This issue can get just flat divisive.  Normal folks just want to know that the government is reviewing potential immigrants to filter out criminals.  I know too many people that have followed US immigration laws to become valued and productive US citizens to want that process to be shut down.

Mr. Trump's insistence on shutting down immigration from south of our southern border while simultaneously signaling that people from Norway would be welcome gives the appearance of racism in public policy.  Given his history, this is probably something more than "appearance".  And it is a deeply disturbing distraction from the process of negotiating sane changes to our nation's immigration policies.

TWITTER! and other acts of randomness -  There just isn't enough space to list all of the weird "ideas" coming out of the White House these days.

There was his idea for a military parade like the one he saw in France.  I will bet that the number of folks serving in the military that would be willing to trade a long, holiday weekend with the chance to practice drill for a couple of months before participating in a general cluster of a parade could be safely contained in a public restroom.  A very small public restroom.

The most recent weirdness was Mr. Trump's praise for Xi Jinping effectively declaring himself China's "president for life".  Mr. Trump suggested that he'd have to try that sometime soon.  Ummm...no.  Just....no.

And as a final example, there was his approval of eliminating due process considerations when seizing guns from people deemed a threat.  Has he never read the Constitution?  On second thought, don't answer that.

We will all have another group of bizarre proclamations to discuss by this time next week.  Fixing that problem will not be easy.

Constant brinksmanship and randomness - While some of his "tactics" have yielded positive results, his other tactics are downright ghastly.  Challenging North Korea was sound.  The use of diminutions like "rocket man" and discussions about who has a bigger red button ought to be beyond discussion.  The man has impulse control issues on a staggering scale.

Again, fixing that problem will not be easy.

The Economy - This was originally rolled into the Twitter and Randomness above, but it rates its own entry.  Now we are going to engage in a trade/tariff war?  Has the man never heard of Smoot-Hawley?  Is he unfamiliar with American history?

I am all for fair trade, but that support ends when it morphs into outright protectionism.  I predict that this "trade war" will not end well for anyone if it continues unchecked.

Racism/Sexism -

My outline for this section used the phrase "whiff of racial animus", but that is a poisonous use of euphemism.  Donald Trump may not be actively racist in the vein of the Klan or other such groups.  His comments in the wake of events in Charlottesville, VA may only represent his being habitually and/or reflexively racist.

The racism is there either way.  His history as a New York landlord also suggests that he is as committed to classifying people based on their race as any left-wing activist engaged identity politics.

His denigration of women from claiming to grab 'em by the pussy....we're going euphemism free here....or cheating on his wife with a porn star are easy indications of how he perceives women's roles in our modern society.

I have no desire to have either perspective as a part of our national leadership.

What are the alternatives?

A Republican could certainly enter the primary against Mr. Trump.  As I didn't vote for Mr. Trump in either the primary or the general in 2016, I'm certainly willing to look at alternatives.

The Democrats could run a viable candidate for a change.  Had they done so in 2016, I believe that Mr. Trump would have been significantly less likely to win.

What would a "viable" Democrat look like?  Not Hillary Clinton.  Not Bernie Sanders.  Not Elizabeth Warren.  They need to find someone willing to supporter lower tax rates and a simpler tax code.  This prospective candidate needs to appreciate the sterling benefits of free markets.  They need to support simplifying and modernizing government regulations.  They should support a position of American strength on the global stage...diplomatic, economic, and military...to support oppressed people that are denied their individual human rights.  They should be focused on broad-scale public policies aimed at blue-collar voters.  They need to abandon the left's obsession with identity politics.

If the Democrats run a candidate that displays most of those qualities, then they might well get my vote.

If they don't, then at the least we will have a President that is guaranteed to have at least one success every day as soon as they get out of bed.  They will not be Hillary Clinton.

Reviewing: My Star Guideline

A recent post by Lela Buis prompted me to recover my personal guideline for using stars in my book reviews.  I had originally posted this in the comments over at Clarkesworld.

As Goodreads uses a 5 star based rating system, all of my reviews use up to 5 stars.  I'll note in my review if a book might fall in between by calling it an x.5 star review or by indicating that the book is either "weak" or "strong" relative to a given number of stars.

My use of 5 stars...
1 star - really....bad. (probably did not finish)
2 stars - poorly told story, but it might work OK for someone else (possibility that I did not finish)
3 stars - good story. if I loan you the book, you can keep it or pass it on
4 stars - really good story. if I loan you the book, I expect it back so I can read it again
5 stars - really, really good story. I might just buy the book for you so you can read it.

I am not shy about giving out 1-star and 2-star ratings.  If my experience with a book is bad for reasons beyond a surface level reaction, then I'm going to pass that information along.  I try not to be stingy with the 4-star reviews as authors put a lot of effort into completing their work.

A good sign that a book will end up with a 3-star rating....or lower... is if I start making notes via Kindle.  That activity generally means that the book has plot holes or discontinuities, and/or it has a slew of spelling or grammar errors.

As of this moment, my starred ratings on Goodreads are:

5		32% (120)
4		41% (153)
3		17% (66)
2		7% (27)
1		1% (6)

Edited to add the paragraph about 3-star ratings.

On The (political) Spectrum

I took this particular political quiz back in 2010.  I'm sure the questions have changed some.  So I'm not sure if the change in my score is due to changes in the questions or changes in me.  Both are reasonable options.

My complaints remain the same as before.  Some of the questions are loaded to get a specific emotional response.  Other questions ask the respondent to endorse A and B where I was inclined to support A but oppose B.  So which one do you choose; support both or oppose both?

Formerly, I was Economic Left/Right: 4.12 and Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.92.  Now I seem to be Economic Left/Right 4.5 and Social Libertarian/Authoritarian -4.46.

They also had a series of graphs of various governments and political parties for comparison purposes.

The US presidential candidates in 2016.  No wonder I voted for Gary Johnson.

The UK in 2015.  I'm not close to anybody there.

Germany in 2017.  Same story.  Glad I'm an American.

France in 2017.  Curiously, Macron is close to Gary Johnson.

Australia in 2016.  Again, I'm all alone.

Canada in 2015.  I could manage there OK.

Ireland in 2011.  I'd manage there as well, oddly enough.

And a conglomeration of European nations.  I'm assuming that they are plotted based on government policies rather than on any specific party.  Here's an odd thing.  Of my interlocutors regarding political subjects that live within the EU, the most earnest opposition that I receive comes from people in countries like The Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany.  And those are the countries to which I am more closely aligned politically!

Mostly these are folks that perceive of their nations as being essentially "socialist".  The truth is that those nations clearly are not socialist.

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I modest note.  I've added the word "political" to the title of this post.  As it was originally posted, the title was a bit too "click bait-y" for me.

Hugo Awards Nominations - 2018

Nomination season for this year's Hugo Awards has opened.  The Hugos are the annual award presented by the WSFS for excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy.  Nominations will continue until March 16, 2018.  Shortly thereafter, the short list of nominees will be released on March 31, 2018, with voting in the final round continuing over the first half of the summer.  The awards will be presented at the WSFS Worldcon.  This year's Worldcon will take place in San Jose, CA.  Information on participating in the Hugo Awards is at the Worldcon website.

Should you choose to participate, please only nominate works that you have directly experienced.  Don't nominate something just because I (or someone else) recommends it.

There are several categories where I do not expect to have a nomination.  I just do not believe that I have either experienced something that is noteworthy or that I have a broad enough experience to make an informed nomination in those categories.

My list of nominations will be updated as I go through the process.

I hope to have nominations in most of the following categories:

Your nominations for Best Novel:

• All Good Things  - Emma Newman  - Diversion Books
• The Core  - Peter V. Brett  - Del Rey
• Tyrant's Throne - Sebastien de Castell - Jo Fletcher Books
• Wizard's Sun Rising - Damien Black - Amazon Digital Services LLC

Your nominations for Best Short Story:

• Empty Nest - Brian Keene - Aliens - Bug Hunt / Titan Books 
• Chance Encounter - Paul Kupperberg - Aliens - Bug Hunt / Titan Books 
• The Divine Death of Jirella Martigore - Alex Marshall - Evil is a Matter of Perspective / Grimdark Magazine

Your nominations for Best Series:

While not a requirement according to WSFS rules, I will not be nominating a series unless it has been completed.  I might vote for an incomplete series in the final round, but I do not expect to nominate an incomplete series.

• The Split World - Emma Newman - All Good Things - Diversion Books
• The Demon Cycle - Peter V. Brett - The Core - Del Rey
• Great Coats - Sebastien de Castell - Tyrant's Throne - Jo Fletcher Books

Your nominations for Best Related Work:


Your nominations for Best Graphic Story:


Your nominations for Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form):

• Bright - David Ayer - Netflix
• Logan  - Marvel Entertainment, TSG Entertainment, and The Donners' Company
• Stranger Things Season 2  - Netflix

Your nominations for Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form):

• The Mission - Styx (band) - Blackbird Studios

    Styx is one of my favorite bands.  This album tells the story of a mission to the planet Mars.  I think it that is worthy of consideration from both a musical and story-telling perspective.


Your nominations for Best Professional Editor (Short Form):

• Jonathan Maberry - Alien: Bug Hunt (anthology)
• Adrian Collins - Evil is a Matter of Perspective (anthology); Grim Dark Magazine

Your nominations for Best Fanzine:


Your nominations for Best Fancast:

• SinCast - by Cinema Sins - Chris Atkinson, Jeremy Scott, Barrett Share
• The Sarcastic Voyage - Ron "Algar" Watt, Matt Rowbotham, & cast
• The Grim Tidings Podcast - Philip Overby and Rob Matheny Ron "Algar" Watt, Matt Rowbotham
• The Horror Show with Brian Keene - Brian Keene, Dave Thomas. Geoff Cooper, Mary SanGiovanni, Mike Lombardo, Phoebe, Dungeonmaster 77.1
• Tea & Jeopardy - Emma & Peter Newman

I changed my ballot at the last minute to include The Grim Tidings Podcast.  As a result, The Post Atomic Horror Podcast with Ron "Algar" Watt & Matt Rowbotham got bumped off the list.  PAH has become a bit repetitive in their discussions of more recent Star Trek properties while GTP had some outstanding author interviews last year.  And there are only 5 nomination slots to be filled. The edit of this blog entry reflects that change.

Your nominations for Best Fan Writer:


Your nominations for Award for Best Young Adult Book (not a Hugo):


Your nominations for The John W. Campbell Award (not a Hugo):

• Damien Black - Devil's Night Dawning 2016/Wizard's Sun Rising 2017
• Nicholas Eames - Kings of the Wyld 2017
• JR Handley - The Legion Awakes 2016

Review: Aliens: Bug Hunt

Aliens: Bug Hunt by Jonathan Maberry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review. It is a weak 4-star book; closer to 3.5 stars.

The premise of the book it a series of short stories told in the Alien universe. While the aliens are not all xenomorphs of the type shown in the Alien movies, most of them are close to that.

A few of the early stories are quite good. They expand on the premise of humanity discovering a harsh and dangerous universe and present characters that are short-sighted in their pursuit of success.

The weakness of the book is that the stories trade extensively on the standard premise of the movies. An evil corporation sends an unwitting military patrol to someplace where the corporation knows is the home of an evil critter. The military discovers that they are suckers far too late in the game.

Mayhem...ensues.

If you enjoy the Alien franchise, then you will largely enjoy this book. The stories are largely entertaining even if it becomes a bit repetitive by the end.

Two standout stories were by Larry Correia and Brian Keene. Larry's story was the most disappointing as it ended up being largely gun porn. Brian's story was the best of the bunch as it delved deeper into his characters rather than focusing on the aliens.

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Review: Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists

Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists by Adrian Collins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a 5-star review.

The premise of this book is to tell stories from the vantage point of the antagonist. It is supposed to present a logical, if not sympathetic, perspective on why villains do what they do.

The stories in this book largely deliver on that premise. I believe that all of the stories take place in fictional worlds that were used to write longer books. So each story ends up being a vignette into a world that already has a book in place. If you like a story, then the chances are that you will like the book (or books) that also take place in the story.

I found the stories by Peter Orullian, Alex Marshall, and R. Scott Baker to inspire much greater interest in their work. If I wasn't already a fan of Brian Stavely, then his entry would have caused me to want to read more of his work as well.

Every story delivers on the premise of the book. Even if you never quite buy into the justifications that the antagonist has for their evil, you will eventually appreciate the logic that supports their actions.

I fully expect this to be a book that I will read again in the future.

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Review: Kings of the Wyld

Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a 5-star review.

Kings of the Wyld is a lovely bit of farce. Bands of adventurers are treated like rock and roll bands. They show off. They "tour". The "play" big halls. They have groupies.

They get old. They retire. They have kids. And then those kids...or at least one of them...decides to show old dad exactly how many poor life choices a person can make.

And one of the bands has to come out of retirement to go save a wayward daughter intent on having her own adventure. Even if it kills here. Which it probably will.

The old bandmates aren't exactly enthusiastic about going back on the road and into the "Wyld". The Wyld is where all the dangerous monsters live. In truth, all the younger bands avoid going into the Wyld because it is dangerous.

Instead their lives are an imitation of how the old bands used to do it. The young bands fight creatures from the Wyld in stadiums where it is easier for the humans to win. The young bands focus on putting on a good show with parades instead of actually going out into the world and having adventures.

In some respects, the book is a great reflection on our modern society where real risk is managed almost to the point of avoidance. Where individuals seem less likely to experience a larger world first hand.

While being a bit of a farce, the book also deals in deeper truths regarding the bonds of friendship, how success can be a bit illusory, and why doing things for real matters more than doing things just to look good.

Saga rides again! Hang on for a wild and entertaining ride.

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Review: The Grey Bastards

The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What happens when a group of half-orcs stands between full orcs and the destruction of humanity? Are the orcs willing defenders or dupes? Is there something else holding back the tide or orcs?

These and so many other questions get explored in this outstanding book from Jonathan French.

The story revolves around a group of almost exclusively male fighters that are loyal to the cause. They know how to fight the orcs and win. They are defending their homeland; bestowed upon them by the humans they protect.

It is only somewhat later that the reader learns that not everything is as it seems.

One one level, this is a straightforward story about males doing male-oriented things and living male-oriented lives. On a second level, this is a story about being cautious about accepting the narrative that you are handed. Both levels are entertaining, engaging, and intriguing.

I recommend this book to everyone except one type of reader. That would be the reader that disdains reading about masculine characters being happily masculine. 'Cause there's a fair amount of that here.

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Review: The Mussorgsky Riddle

The Mussorgsky Riddle by Darin Kennedy
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked up this book due to it using the suite, Pictures at an Exhibition, by Modeste Mussorgsky as a framework for the story. One of my teachers in junior high taught a section on Mussorgsky using the same music suite.

Each movement of the suite was inspired by a series of paintings done by Viktor Hartmann. The teacher told a unique story about each painting that related the visual work with the music written by Mussorgsky. As an example, the fourth movement is entitled "Cattle". The movement features a steady deep bass and percussion beat that mirrors the imagined feet of the ox pulling a cart. The music crescendos just as the oxcart reaches the center of the painting with a bit of a crash before slowly fading as the oxcart goes off into the distance.

The teacher suggested that the crescendo as the oxcart reaches the middle of the painting coincided with the oxcart running over the legs of the man that was sitting against a hut by the side of the road. I guess he should have pulled in those legs.

So now Darin Kennedy decided to use the same musical work as the basis for his book. In this case, an abused boy is experiencing episodes where he travels into an imaginary world described by Hartmann's and Mussorgsky's works. An investigator and spiritually "sensitive" person is hired to help solve the riddle of the boy's episodes. The story was interesting, but a little muddled.

It had a detective style murder mystery. It had some sort of mystical world traveling. It had some sort of spirituality. It tried to have some sort of "science". It has witchcraft.

But all of the elements are rather loosely connected. The resolution was decidedly unfulfilling. The protagonist was successful largely because she emoted enough.

If you have an attachment to any of the features above, then you will have a pleasant time with this book.

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Review: The Forgetting Moon

The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review. That is a reasonable estimate of my experience.

This is the start of a standard sword/sorcery epic with multiple point-of-view characters. The world building is phenomenal.

The short version of the story's hooks is that there are five of everything. Five ancient heroes waiting to be reborn. Five pieces of armor (helm/crown, armor, axe, sword, etc.) worn/used by the lead hero waiting to be recovered. Five sacred stones that also need to be recovered. Five different theological views of the actions of those ancient heroes. Five islands. Five cultures. Five armies (although some are already broken).

The author does a good job of hiding the protagonists. Characters that are presented as being good are also shown performing decidedly non-good actions; calling their motivations into question.

Which of the five theological views of the past is correct? Which has been twisted by the hands of time and machinations of humanity/elves/etc?

Along with the usual sword and sorcery activities, there is also a mystery that one of the protagonists has to solve to save her friend's life.

A personal issue I have is with the tendency of authors to put diminutive female characters up against big, burly male characters and expect the smaller characters to measure up. The author does a very good job of describing why all of the characters are the way they are. He provides an appropriate backstory for each character that meshes well with the events that follow.

One nitpick and one criticism.

The nitpick has to do with the dominant religion. It makes a big deal out of having every person be the product of a known union. Being a bastard significantly reduces the social status of the character.

Under such a religion, there should be a whole lot more focus on chastity. While there is a significant focus on marriage, some of the characters are quite willing to engage in pre-marital sex. The theology doesn't mesh up with the social norms as a result.

The criticism is that an awful lot of names of people and places are thrown at the reader in the first few chapters. Rather than slowly bring the reader into the world and natively building familiarity with geography and personalities, the author tosses a lot of detail at the reader in the first few chapters.

The series is promising. People that enjoy epic fantasy should give this a try.

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Review: Dust

Dust by Hugh Howey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a brief 3-star review. More like a 2.5-star experience.

This book could not overcome the serious defects in Silo, #2 (Shift). The engineering/construction flaws in the imagining of the silos is made ever clearer as the story progresses.

Read Wool.....stop there.

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Review: Defiance: A Narrative Poem

Defiance: A Narrative Poem by Lela E. Buis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review.

The book is a narrative poem about a potential future time when non-binary people are compelled by the government to undergo surgery to "correct" their condition. The story features a woman in love with another person despite the fact that they seem incapable of returning her affection.

The protagonist doesn't want to have to choose a gender. Their non-choice is their identity. They fear that having to choose one or the other would be to ultimately turn them into someone else. Someone they did not choose to be.

This was a very interesting and nuanced treatment of gender-related issues. The one flaw that held back the story is the constant references to "straight white men" as being unimaginative, non-creative, and largely unproductive. In attempting a nuanced discussion of gender-related issues, the author relaxed into a one-note description of the alternative.

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Review: Red Sonja: Unchained, Volume One

Red Sonja: Unchained, Volume One by Peter V. Brett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a solid 5-star review.

This is a stand-alone series about Robert E. Howard's Red Sonja. In this story. Sonja's trademark bikini chain mail is broken and needs to be repaired. In the interim, Sonja ends up wearing the blue fur pelt of a demon that she has killed.

This is a straightforward sword and sorcery tale that is an earnest homage to RE Howard and his characters. The artwork is top notch as is the writing. I learned about this book while attending an author event for Peter V. Brett. I had no idea that he has written it.

The writing, in particular, is noteworthy as it works on two levels. The primary story is well crafted. At the same time, there are undertones that the reader can enjoy if they are so inclined. One of those undertones has to do with Sonja being portrayed in sexy armor that would be pointless in a real sword fight. She was created to give largely male readers a little more flesh to look at.

The side observations on that issue acknowledge that we are living in the 21st century where women are more than eye candy while at the same time not being dismissive to readers that frankly enjoy the eye candy. It is a subtle and sophisticated treatment of that issue.

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Review: Injection, Vol. 2

Injection, Vol. 2 by Warren Ellis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a solid 5-star review.

The saga of the Injection continues. The Injection is a sort of artificial intelligence that exists within computers but is able to manifest itself in the real world. The manifestations may be physical, spiritual, on this plane of existence or another, or some combination of all three.

Instead of following the characters from Injection #1 forward, we get to see the Injection operating in a different way as it continues to figure out how humanity functions.

Great art. Great writing. A series that is worth your time.

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Review: Too Like the Lightning

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review.

I read this book as it was one of the 2017 Hugo best novel nominees.

I made it about a third of the way before a Dorothy Parker response was needed.

The book takes place in the future. Humanity has apparently cast off religion and overt sexuality. There are counselors that offer advice, but due to the current human convention, cannot discuss anything that smacks of religion.

In another development, people no longer align themselves with a national identity. Instead, there are 7 "Hives" that manage global affairs. One can live in one place, exhibit cultural traditions from a second place, and belong to a "Hive" that exists in no place in particular. On the one hand, this is an interesting concept that is modeled somewhat within our modern human conventions. How else does one explain religious groups such as the Mormons or Quakers?

People apparently change from hive to hive as their personal convention permits. The poorly defined government structure seeks to balance those population groups. One crisis in the book results from an action that will severely undermine the "popularity" of one of the Hives. Accordingly, the author appears to be relegating human decision making to the same level as deciding which movie star/media personality we support.

This infantilizing continues when a group of adults is chanting for one of the adults in charge of the government to buy them all some ice cream. Adults would dig into their own pocket and buy their own dairy confections rather than abase themselves before a supposed authority figure.

The book features air cars that can whisk a person halfway around the world in a very short amount of time. Unfortunately, I believe that the mathematics of speed, the physics of energy, and the economics of productivity help move the book from the science fiction category to being more properly fantasy.

The coupling of nearly infinite individual movement with the dissolution of borders creates an intriguing circumstance to discuss the utility of national identities. Breaking the laws of physics and economics so thoroughly undermines that discussion.

The characters apparently hew towards an androgynous exhibition of sexuality. This is highlighted by a scene where one woman who chooses to embrace and exhibit her female sexuality/sensuality. When another character is reluctant to agree to a course of action suggested by her husband, she quietly uses her sexuality to inspire agreement.

Humanity has several million years worth of evolution that includes sexuality and sexually based responses. That's a bunch of long words for saying that boys naturally want to please pretty girls.

Those sexual responses are part of why we have been so successful as a species. Denying that part of our evolution is, in effect, denying our existence.

All that being said, the single greatest sin of this book is that it flips from characters that were interesting over to other characters that are less than interesting. At the send, the book comes off as a high-minded college text book with a message of "sit down so I can teach you something".

A little digging indicated that the author is a college professor. Ironically, I spent some time reading her blog and found those entries to be interesting. I would probably enjoy taking a serious college course with this author. I have no interest in her fantasy writing.

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Review: The Dinosaur Lords

The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book had all of the hooks that should have made it a great experience for me. It had knights...fighting while mounted on dinosaurs. It had the usual palace/court intrigue.

Early in the author reveals that it has an additional hook; people have to be killed twice before they are truly dead.

Yet the book demonstrated just how poorly it can fail to measure up to expectations. While I was expecting to read more about how knights and squires managed their dinosaur mounts, the dinos were just rolled out for the combat scenes. Then they were taken away with little interest in their care, feeding, breeding, selection, etc.

The book also trades in the sort of nonsense that suggests that a lithe character can compete with a more muscular character. In this case, the leading female protagonist imagines that she could be a knight riding a dinosaur alongside her paramour despite her being a demonstrably slender character. The knights are, as one would expect, described as being significantly larger and stronger by comparison. There is no way that she could reasonably expect to don a heavy set of armor and be able to move effectively.

On the flip side, the book does do a good job of presenting characters training and fighting effectively within their "weight class" regardless of gender.

The author, unfortunately, decided to include an unnecessary rape scene. The primary villain is well established as being evil by the time this occurs. Aside from demeaning the protagonist (the same one with visions of armor dancing in her head), the rape does nothing to alter the mechanics of the plot. The female protagonist is seized and imprisoned by the villain. She is accused of treason and expect to be found guilty and killed as a result. The rape does nothing to further diminish her in the eyes of the other characters and it does nothing to further motivate her to escape.

The author felt the need to name every location in the book twice; once in something similar to Spanish or Portuguese and once in English. This was mildly distracting. People that know enough of either Spanish or Portuguese will be able to infer the English translation. Those that do not, being fantasy readers already, will parse as they do elvish or orcish or Klingonee and move on.

At the end of the story, the need for a double death to kill a character was applied inconsistently. The entire phenomenon was largely left unexplored.

And finally, one region decided to go "socialist". This was presented as working reasonably well despite the extensive human history of socialism resulting in shortages. The one realistic aspect that the author got right was the noble that decided to abandon his title and let the region go socialist. The noble ends up being an influential member of the leadership committee for the community. One of the lower caste members observes that the change to socialism hasn't really altered his status. He did whatever the noble told him to do before the change and he does what the noble....and the rest of the committee...tells him to do after the change.

The author wades into the human sexuality arena. The characters display none of the common bonding tendencies that exist within the human condition.

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Review: The Reborn King

The Reborn King by Michael R. Miller
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This is a 1-star review. I made it to chapter 3 before the ghost of Dorothy Parker rose from the pages. I rarely ever give 1-star reviews. Usually, the grammar and spelling have to be atrocious to warrant that sort of review. The grammar and spelling in this book are fine.

The characters and setting exuded an air of cardboard. Fortunately for the reader, this book does not feature any fire-breathing dragons. The resulting conflagration would have required the Herculean efforts of the entire firefighting staff of a minor metropolitan area to contain.

The characters were one dimensional and uninspiring. We start off with a villain being given some greater evil power. Why? Did they ask for the power? Were they on some sort of evil short list? Who knows. What does the greater evil power want? Again, who knows.

Then we get to the protagonists. The king of dragons is morose, defeatist, focused on his belief in an old religion. The king of humans is the only character to raise a modest amount of interest. He has lost one heir and seeks to protect his only surviving heir; a baby girl. The king of humans is in turns insufferably arrogant and incredibly spineless. The queen of the faeries is just.....there....barely.

The setting is sketched out in the barest of terms. The one feature this citadel has is that it includes a large number of objects made from a stone that looks like gold...or that has gold veins running through it. There are vague references to armor, arms, and other trophies of past wars. We have no idea what those wars are about or who the armor, arms and other trophies might be worth having. We really aren't given any idea what they look like, such is the generic description that is in play.

What drove me out of this book was the poor storytelling. Examples:

"I call this council of war to order. Scant as our numbers may be, we here are the leaders of the Three Races (humans, fairies, and dragons), and so our decisions cannot be contested"

This dialog is the king of the dragons speaking to the king of the humans, the queen of the fairies, and his son; the prince of dragons. There are a few servants, but this is essentially a private meeting. They all know that they are human, fairy, and dragon. So why the parenthetic clarification?

Later on, the dragon prince is running to save the baby princess. The forces of evil are battering down the gates and seizing the citadel. The princess' guard promptly begins to carry her down to the ship that awaits her at the port. It is so urgent that they get her out of there that they carry her in a crib that is so large that it requires 6 full grown men. If it is so urgent that she get to the ship, then why not just carry her without the crib?

The dragon prince eventually carries the princess in his arms in an attempt to get her to safety.

From the book - "As the door caved in, he fell with it, and saw a flash of black ripple past his face. His right cheek flared in pain as the arrow sliced through the top layers of his skin."

Wouldn't it be more direct to just say that an arrow grazed his cheek?

Moments later the dragon prince is attempting to bodily ram through a door while carrying the princess in his arms. The door, being magically sealed, rebuffs his attempt and he lands on the floor. His armor is dented badly enough that it now pierces his skin. Despite the obvious violence of the impact, the princess is unharmed.

Children playing with GI Joe action figures have more believable adventures.

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Review: Hell Divers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Hell Divers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2 star "did not finish" review.

The hook for this book is that the world has been destroyed and the only pockets of humanity left alive are on airships. The airships send out skydivers....well Hell Divers (roll credits)....to scavenge for equipment/parts that are in short supply.

Part of the ability to suspend disbelief is the fact that there are other believable elements to the story. By chapter 5 I had more than enough plot holes that could not be filled except by just accepting that this was just a story.

A reader that just wants a cool read might well enjoy this book. The writing/grammar is fundamentally good. It's just that the plot holes drove me out of it early and often.

- So the promotional reading indicated multiple airships. There are two, so the plural is accurate....barely.

- Everything is in short supply on these airships. Yet the hell divers are ready to knife their way out of their parachute harnesses. Also, they don't spend much time recovering the useful gear of a diver that dies on the way down.

- Nuclear fuel is heavy. Nuclear fuels are very dense. They pack a lot of energy into very little space. But it still requires tons of the stuff to power a reactor that can power a city. One hell diver finds a "case" of nuclear fuel cells that weighs 40 lbs. This is supposed to be enough to power the airship for years if not decades. There isn't enough energy in 40 lbs of nuclear fuel to do that.

- Nuclear fuel is radioactive. Yet the hell diver opens the case to see what is inside.

- Again, things are in short supply. But when the hell diver returns to the airship via a balloon inflated using helium, they just let the helium escape.

- And the hell diver "steers" the balloon into the open bay of the airship by pulling ropes/lines like they were steering a parachute or a kite.

- Early on it is established that none of the hell divers has seen any significant signs of surviving down on the polluted/radioactive surface of the world. Yet the two teams that go down instantly run across semi-humanoid lifeforms.

- The divers have binoculars. Things that should have existed before the world was destroyed. Binoculars are normally used close to the eyes to get the focal length right. Yet the divers wear masked helmets. The shouldn't be able to use the binoculars effectively.

- The divers wear helmets and suits that seem to be uniquely well suited for jumping into a poisoned and radioactive environment. Yet it is established that no one knows who started the war that ended the world. Why would those suits exist on those airships before the world ended? How could they have been manufactured on an airship suffering from scarce resources after the world ended?

There were just too many plot holes for me to bother reading any further.

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Review: The Red Knight

The Red Knight by Miles Cameron
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a 5-star review. There were a couple of minor issues with the book, but overall this is exactly what great fantasy fiction looks like.

On one level this is a straight-out swords and sorcery tale. One of the fae has created an incursion into the lands conquered by humanity. His objective is to retake a fortress that is home to a source of magic that is valuable to the fae.

A band of mercenary knights hire themselves out to the abbey that is housed in the fortress. They are led by a bastard son who is young for such a position. He leads this elite group of warriors on the field. He is also in the process of developing the skills needed to use magic.

The nuns of the abbey have rather unusual habits that end up being used to help heal those that are wounded defending the fortress/abbey from the fae siege.

The world suggests that it could be a version of the earth after some sort of cataclysm has wiped out modern technology and replaced it with magic. The religion in the world bears many of the forms of Catholic Christianity; including an opposition/revulsion of the use of magic. It is church teaching about children born out of wedlock that lead the young knight into a mercenary life.

And yet he and his group end up defending a church abbey.

Beneath this straightforward story is an examination of the difficulties of living in a world that uses social/cultural conventions to create a uniform populace. How can a person survive when their very existence is condemned by "the church"? How can a person actively foster a faith that teaches that they are damned?

This is a tremendous start to what I hope will be a fantastic fantasy series.

There are two nits to pick with this book. The grammar editing of the book was quite poor. Fortunately, the story is good enough to pull me right back in after encountering a plethora of easily identified errors.

The second is that the there are times when the book reads like the author just purchased a second-hand copy "Medieval Armor Illustrated". As it turns out, the author's other interest include medieval combat; including armor, natch! It wasn't a huge issue, but there were times when the examination/description of the armor worn by various knights got a little repetitive.

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A brief afterwords:

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Miles Cameron is a fellow United States Marine.  His love of martial experiences definitely comes through in his work.  Now I am looking forward to the next installment of this series even more.

After the afterwords:

Per his profile on Goodreads,  Miles was actually a Naval officer and suffered under the tutelage of firm Marine Corps hands in OCS.  I had misread a common on one of his blogs to mean that he was a Marine.  He's still a vet and still writes great fantasy.

Review: The Watchmaker: A Sweet Contemporary Time Travel Romance

The Watchmaker: A Sweet Contemporary Time Travel Romance by Anna Erishkigal
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A 2-star review.

This is a sort of romance dressed up as a time travel tale that uses a watch as the McGuffin to get things moving.

The story consists largely of the main character thinking about how they could change the past while running through the city.

After the watchkeeper tells her how she cannot change the past, she ends up violating his rules. He explains how at the least, such an attempt will result in the same outcome, or at the worst a freezing her in a time loop. Despite the warnings about the negative consequences, there are no negative consequences after she changes the past.

Read it for the romantic aspect. Not very good as fantasy.

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Review: First Keeper - A Landkist Short Story

First Keeper - A Landkist Short Story by Steven Kelliher
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

A 1-star review. And a DNF.

While the world building had some promise, the plot consisted largely of children sitting around a fire while an adult evaluated their magical colors. Lots of description from within the heads of the characters and not much action or character development.

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Supporting Creators

I enjoy podcasts.  This is not exactly earth-shattering news for regular readers of this space.  All 2.37 of you.

And I try to support content creators whenever possible.  To that end, I participate in Patreon to help support several podcasts.  To keep my budget under control, I limit my Patreon participation to $10 per month.  As of right now, this is how my contributions break down.

• Tea and Jeopardy - $3/month.  Used to be $4, but I had a recent addition that I enjoy just about as much.  This is a Hugo award-winning podcast that is well worth your time.
• The Project Entertainment Network - $3/month.  Again, it used to be $4, but...changes...they happen.  I am a big fan of The Horror Show with Brian Keene.   I haven't been attracted to the rest of their offerings. 
• The Grim Tidings Podcast - $3/month.  This is that recent addition.  They just started their Patreon campaign.  As the name suggests, Rob and Philip focus on the Grimdark sub-genre.  This engaging duo that asks interesting questions.  And they have the best sound effects! 
• The Once and Future Podcast - $1/month.  Down from $2.  It is a decent podcast, but my enthusiasm for it is waning.

People that create content may do it as a labor of love, but they also have expenses.  Support their advertisers when you can.  And hitting the tip jar every once in a while is also a good idea.

Review: Shift

Shift by Hugh Howey
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a well-deserved 2-star review.

After the fantastic experience in reading Wool, this book was a notable disappointment.

In Wool, we learned of a world where everyone lived in silos that ran hundreds of stories deep. There was strict control of information and reproduction. And occasionally, people got fed up and took a walk out in an outside world so dangerous that the air itself was a confluence of corrosion and lethality.

At the end of that book, we learn that the decision to live in these silos was not in response to something that was done to us. It was the plan of action knowing what we would do to others.

Shift presents what we did. And it represents a thoroughly unbelievable belief about how the U.S. government functions. A single US senator creates funding for the design and construction of the silos. He sets of a program to evaluate and select those who would be "saved". He uses a pair of US Congressmen to do the design and construction management.

The US President isn't saved. The cabinet isn't saved. The only people that get saved are this senator and those he has selected. The US government simply doesn't work this way.

The book also indicates a lack of knowledge about geology and civil engineering. The location for each silo is excavated before the silo sections are placed. A void is left around the silos to allow remote detonation and destruction. The laws of physics and limitations of geology mean that this sort of construction methodology isn't possible. Structures of that size must be placed on deep piles to support the load. Deep excavations are subject to collapse of the pit walls.

As a last (but not final) criticism, the premise of having a multi-state political convention be the reason to drive people into the silos creates some further issues. The silos are portrayed as having spaces extending from the central hub for farming, manufacturing, etc. The silo residents are also described as largely having no idea that there are other silos in the world. Most of the residents think they are alone in the world. As vibrations will travel a long distance below ground (and a really far distance in stone/tightly compacted earth) the silos would have to be positioned miles from each other to prevent such vibration transmission.

Yet the campaign event that drives everyone into the silos suggests that each silo opening is close enough to the others to permit people to hear the activities at each adjacent location. It is also a short walk from one silo to the next. If the silos were that close together, then the residents in each silo would have easily heard activities in adjacent silos.

The one brief moment of respite in the book was when the political party responsible for this mess is revealed. I laughed.

Read Wool. Enjoy it. Skip the rest of the series.

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Review: Waiting Out Winter

Waiting Out Winter by Kelli Owen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A 3-star review. Really more of a 2.5-star review.

Thought this was going to be a suspense/horror book. Not really a lot of either involved. Perhaps that explains my response as I was expecting this to involve some level of horror that simply was not there.

A fairly pedestrian "something bad happens and some people survive" storyline. The characters were not terribly engaging.

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Review: Fae: The Wild Hunt

Fae: The Wild Hunt by Graham Austin-King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. Really more of a 2.5-star review.

The world building is interesting. The characters also have a lot of potential.

But this is not a complete story. It is the opening to a good story. It appears to be the beginning of a multi-book saga. The book sets up plenty of conflicts, but it resolves none of them.

As a secondary nitpick, one of the societies involved has a significant physical barrier to keep outsiders from attacking them and maintains a capable and highly competent sailing fleet. When faced with the prospect of being an over-populated nation of islands, how do they respond?

By becoming traders? By becoming a place where wealth can be safely deposited?

Nope. They turn into bloodthirsty pirates abroad who have respect for hard work and private industry at home. Erg.

This book could have been so much more, but it ended up being so much less.

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Review: Black City Saint

Black City Saint by Richard A. Knaak
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review.

While I have enjoyed some of the author's books in the Dragonlance series, this book was quite disappointing.

Most of the characters were pretty two-dimensional. The female lead character was the most frustrating as she had no existential motivation. She loved the male lead character because she loved him.

The plot was pretty straight-forward; mostly a hard-boiled detective does some detecting-with-magic-thrown-in. The setting (roaring 20s Chicago) was uninteresting.

The only redeeming character in the book was the dragon.

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Review: Truthwitch

Truthwitch by Susan Dennard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a solid 4-star review.

I am not in the target audience for this book. The story revolves around two teen girls developing their magical powers into something greater than themselves. It is a story of two girls that share a strong bond of friendship. And it is a story that involves a moderate amount of romance. I'm really not in the target audience.

I loved this book.

The girls were smart and determined. The world building was meticulous. The variety of magic available offered so many intriguing options for the story. It was largely a well-told story.

There were a couple of areas where it fell a little short.

(view spoiler)[
The girls spend a lot of time ignoring the advice, instruction, and direction of the men in their lives. But when I got to the end, it seemed like they would have been better off had they just followed that advice/instruction/direction. They had been told not to get in trouble, yet in the first chapter, they are out robbing a stagecoach. Apparently, they had done something similar in the past. With that action, they open themselves up to a powerful witch with the power to track them down. Had they just avoid that situation, most of the rest of the story would have gone smoothly.

An author has to create tension to tell a good story. But in this case, had they just been a bit more obedient, the story wouldn't have been necessary.

There are other portions of the story that have similar impacts on the unfolding tale. Had the girls not done A (as instructed) then they wouldn't have had to deal with B, C, and D on their way to E. At the end of the story, it seems that our protagonists are in almost precisely the same situation as would have happened had they listened to all those men. The only difference is a whole lot less death, mayhem, and other trouble along the way.

The whole story seems to be a fable instructing girls to always do as they are told.

The other criticism is that the story doesn't really let us see how the non-witches in this fictional world live/exist. It is implied that they exist, but there isn't much information provided about their role in the world.
(hide spoiler)]

Switch your brain into a slightly lower gear and then enjoy the fantastic story offered in this book.

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Review: Death's End

Death's End by Liu Cixin
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review for a book that I did not finish.

The one character that I cared about early on dies early on. What is left is a female character that does as she is told and a male character that is the epitome of a cardboard cut-out, mustache-twirling villain.

The plot early on involves a plan to send a very small spaceship towards an attacking force. To be of any use, the ship must be light with a light payload. They use a solar sail and a series of precisely time nuclear bursts as propulsion.

Not only is this a version of propulsion first envisioned by Vernor Vinge roughly over 30 years ago, it ends up failing.

Which is where I closed the book and went on to something better.

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Review: Legionnaire

Legionnaire by Jason Anspach
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3 star review.

I originally bought this book because Nick Cole is a co-author. I've read a few of his other books and think he has some potential.

Legionnaire was a half step backwards. The first 2/3s of the book is a straightforward MILsf adventure. Fun to read. Several engaging characters. A relatable plot.

But there isn't any purpose to the adventure. We join the story in mid-plot. Our heroes are on a mission to meet leaders on an alien planet to obtain support for the planet's "senator" in the galactic assembly. And they get attacked.

Everything that follows is a series of errors resulting from overconfident officers and an ill-informed military. Read the story as it is worth the trip.

The book really slows down during the last 1/3rd of the book as the authors cram in a separate MILsf adventure story that illuminates one of the better officers from the first section. But it doesn't really do much to further the primary plot. The entire thing sort of dwindles down to nothing by the last page.

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Review: All Good Things

All Good Things by Emma Newman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a solid 4-star review.

The concluding book in the series was a very good conclusion that almost stuck the landing. While I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the series, the conclusion really failed to fill out the rest of the world building. In fact, it sort of undermined it.

Early in the series, we were treated to a comparison between late 19th century-ish England and a modern 21st-century world. The 19th-century version is dominated by fae and magic that maintains a rigid social order that is controlled by men. Our protagonist is a young woman who ran away to the parallel world is supposed to be non-magical and it largely is. It has also benefitted from the progress of over a century's worth of social advances.

As the tale unfolds, we have humans, the fae, sorcerers, and an elemental court with interests that are in turns competing and parallel. By the end, our young protagonist has successfully turned these groups and the world upside down. Sort of like a female version Captain Kirk that destroys social conventions and then sails away to leave the upended society to sort things out for themselves.

The entire series is both fun and thought provoking.

The last book barely misses as the entire creation of these split interests....or worlds to reference the title....is blamed on "the patriarchy". There is no explanation of why "the patriarchy" established the 19th-century magical society. There is no exploration of any potential advantages to that arrangement.

It's a modest bit of niggling, but it took a bit away from the final book to have one of the central themes of the series remain unexamined in the ultimate entry.

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Review: The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An interesting book about a budding race car driver, his wife, their daughter, their dog, and how racing can be a metaphor for how one lives their life.

Some of the plot points were resolved a little too conveniently. Also, the use of the dog as the narrator is occasionally circumvented about allowing the narrator to know/think/feel based on events that should have been beyond the dog's ability to experience. There are many events that occur in places where dogs are not welcome but are later conveyed as discussions about those events that take place after the events occur. It seems like a bit of a cheat on the use of the dog as the narrator as a storytelling tool.

If you dislike cars and/or car racing, then this probably is not a good book for you. The author uses a lot of racing techniques as metaphors for dealing with challenges in life.

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Review: The Lost

The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst
My rating: 5 of 5 stars



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Review: Fortress Beta City

Fortress Beta City by J.R. Handley
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review of a book I did not finish.

This is one of the hardest reviews that I have ever had to write. Book 1 in the series was also the author's debut novel. I gave it 4 stars and nominated him for this year's Campbell Award. It was that good.

All of the heart, all of the connections to the characters, all of the MILsf action are gone in this sequel.

In its place are the fascinating implications of an ever-shifting TO&E. That is a Table of Organization and Equipment for those non-military folks. It is a paper-pusher's dream. People get promoted at the drop of a hat and the TO&E gets updated. Gripping action! There are no events that show characters struggling to fill these new roles. There are no challenges that foster character growth. Paperwork gets updated and the next chapter is up.

Another factor is that all of the "action" occurs over a handful of days after the characters come out of a cryogenic deep sleep. They go from being popsicles to being promoted and in charge of "doing things" within a couple of days. That includes fixing a leaky underground living space for tens of thousands of Marines and then decontaminating it to eliminate a nasty bug that would kill some of their alien allies in the span of a couple hours.

I like the author. From what I read about him and have exchanged with him elsewhere, he seems like a nice guy.

But this book was a big step backward.

Unless you fancy the tale of office pogues in the headquarters company winning battles with papercuts. In which case read on!

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9 Easy Rules About Personal Finance

Coincidentally, or so it seems......

I've been talking to one of our sons about investing and planning for the future.  I have also been listening to the Freakonomics podcast quite regularly.  In one recent episode, they covered the essential rules for managing money.  Skip the expensive financial planners.  Skip investing in corporate stocks.  Just follow these rules and your odds of having a financially successful life experience will increase tremendously.

One might even say exponentially, considering the miracle that is compound interest.

Head on over to listen to the entire podcast.  They discuss sound investing and economic planning with Harold Pollack, Annamaria Lusardi, and John Bogle.  The additional discussion is worth your time.

If you are interested in a little more reading on the subject, you might also consider purchasing a book about those 9 easy rules written by Professor Pollack and Helain Olen about the ideas contained on that one little index card.  I can't vouch for the book, but Professor Pollack even admits that just following the 9....or 10....rules should be enough.  Sometimes more information is better than less information.

In the meantime, here are those 9....or 10....easy rules about personal finance that will lead towards economic success.

Rule No. 1: strive to save 10 to 20 percent of your income.
Rule No. 2: pay your credit card balance in full every month.
Rule No. 3: max out your 401(k) and other tax-advantaged savings accounts.
Rule No. 4: never buy or sell individual stocks.
Rule No. 5: buy inexpensive, well-diversified index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.
Rule No. 6: make your financial advisor commit to the fiduciary standard.
Rule No. 7: buy a home when you are financially ready.
Rule No. 8: insurance. Make sure you’re protected.
Rule No. 9: do what you can to support the social safety net.


Rule 10 ought to be the easiest of the lot.  But you never know.


Rule No. 10: remember the index card.

As an after thought, you might also consider my rules for a successful life that I wrote many years ago.