Review: The King of Elfland's Daughter

The King of Elfland's Daughter by Lord Dunsany
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review. I think that is a good estimate of my experience with this book.

This book is one of the early examples of fantasy writing. It tells the story of a village that thinks it will be better off if they experience magic. The villagers hold a parliament to identify this desire. The leaders express this desire to their king who promptly takes steps to bring magic to the village.

He sends his son to Elfland; a magical land that borders the human lands. The son makes the trip, "rescues" the titular King of Elfland's Daughter, and brings her back. She never really fits in with the humans of the village but stays long enough to give birth to a son.

The daughter is eventually called home to Elfland. She leaves her husband and their son. When her husband goes in search of Elfland, he can no longer find it as the King of Elfland has magically withdrawn his kingdom from contact with humans.

The search for Elfland and the titular daughter eventually brings more magic to the village. All of a sudden, the humans don't fit in with their village which is being overrun by magic. Then eventually hold another parliament to determine that maybe they need to get rid of the magic.

I'm reminded of Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory deciding that she does not want a boat like that one after all.

The book offers several different views of characters wanting something very badly and then discovering that they have to make sacrifices to fulfill that desire. Sometimes the sacrifices are worthwhile. Sometimes they aren't.

This is a very quiet story. There aren't any earth-shattering/world-ending consequences. But the people of the village and the inhabitants of Elfland all have to learn a bit about life outside of their narrow experience.

Being written in 1924, the language is not exactly what a modern reader will immediately enjoy. It takes some time to become accustomed to the era of English language being used.

Language aside, this is an enjoyable tale that is worth the reader's time.

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Review: The Dabare Snake Launcher

The Dabare Snake Launcher by Joelle Presby
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. A better estimate of my experience is 3.5 stars. I just couldn't talk myself into rounding up to 4 stars.

The premise of this book is that a large company has developed the holy grail of a substance strong enough for use as the cable for a space elevator. They begin building that elevator. There is a great deal of corporate intrigue surrounding that project. The reader never experiences the process of developing that cable material.

A side problem is that they need an effective means for getting the construction materials from the Earth to outer space. Toward that end, they decide to build a rocket sled that will hurl rockets into the upper atmosphere where the rocket engines take over the task of boosting the payloads into orbit. The forces are too great to permit fragile payloads such as humans.

[a brief aside - there are a couple of interesting concepts for accomplishing that task that do not appear in the book. One is to build a long, sealed tube. The lower end of the tube would be far below the surface of the ocean. A closely fit baffle is lowered to the bottom of the tube. The payload is then lowered until it rests on the baffle. Valves are then opened allowing the pressure of the ocean to flood the bottom of the tube and force the baffle and payload upwards. Once the payload reaches a high enough altitude, rockets fire to boost it into orbit.

Another interesting concept is to spin the payload on a gyroscope with a horizontal axis. When everything is spinning fast enough, the payload is released upward into the atmosphere. Again, at a sufficient altitude, rockets fire boosting the payload the rest of the way into orbit.

Neither of these concepts appears in the book. I ran across them over the last decade. The author's concept is equally interesting/plausible. Back to the review.]

The space elevator's terrestrial base will be on Mount Kilimanjaro. Corporate/tribal/government negotiations make this possible. The reader never really experiences that process.

The company building the space elevator contracts out the construction of the sled to the family of one of the upper corporate executives. The corporate executives don't know about the relationship between the family and the executive that granted the construction contract. The family is an influential tribe in Africa.

The family needs a good location to build the sled. The best location they can find is the side of an active volcano that is controlled by another family. Well the land is controlled by the other family. But do they also control the volcano?

There is some modest family/tribal intrigue as the contract represents a windfall. Many of the family members are just living off of the trust without doing much to replenish those funds. There is a strong temptation to use the seed money to refill the trust rather than actually build the sled.

As an added feature, one of the family members is reputed to be the physical incarnation of a minor snake goddess. One of the younger family members somehow becomes the new manifestation of the goddess. There are religious/metaphysical connotations for the volcano as well. I'm not a fan of supernatural/religious agents actively influencing the plot of a science fiction novel. That other stuff is more properly situated in a fantasy novel.

There are moments of tension within the story. In some cases, the characters have to work through a problem. In a few cases, a modest amount of hand-wavium makes the problems go away. Characters experience the unavoidable consequences of aging, but otherwise, they never lose when they encounter a challenge.

The biggest reason why I just couldn't give this book 4 stars is that there isn't a whole lot of "science" in this supposed tale of "science fiction". The production of the cable happens elsewhere. The design of the space station is ever so briefly discussed within the context of governmental and corporate negotiations regarding the construction of the space station. The design of the sled is pre-packaged to the point where the construction of the sled facility occurs primarily in the background.

The one element that the book got exactly correct is the desire to keep any government from controlling the project. Corporations aren't presented as infallible, just better at managing large-scale projects.

Another enjoyable element was setting the story on the African continent. Rather than showing western governments and corporations rushing to "exploit" the locals, this story focuses on people engaging with one another as equally capable agents advancing their own interests while working to cooperate with others.

The plot was interesting even if it didn't contain much "science". The characters were well-developed. Overall, it was an enjoyable read that held my attention. The author clearly has the skills needed to write engaging books.

In summary, the following kept me from giving this a high rating:

- a focus on family dynamics
- a focus on corporate negotiations
- a dearth of real "science"
- religious/metaphysical deities influencing the plot


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Review: Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense Issue #12 / Fall 2022

Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense Issue #12 / Fall 2022 by David Skinner
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review.

I haven't checked in with Cirsova for some time. The last time I read it, the stories were all self-contained. This issue had more stories that were part of a series. So I was jumping into the middle of a tale in some cases.

I read a couple of other stories and they simply didn't hold my interest.

I've been rooting for this periodical as I appreciate the pulp style that it embraces. The stories in this issue just didn't measure up.

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Review: Summer's End

Summer's End by John Van Stry
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3.5-star review. Every time I talked myself into rounding it up to 4 stars, I found another reason to make it 3 stars.

I picked up Summer's End because it is a finalist for this year's Prometheus Award given to works of fiction that explore or incorporate libertarian themes. Prometheus Award winners are almost always pretty good. This is a worthy finalist.

Our protagonist is Dave "Mongoose" Walker. A former gang-banger who was literally scared straight and made it through enough college to get a certificate as a 5th-class engineer. In the opening pages, his brother tells him trouble is coming Dave's way. His brother has acquired an engineering position for him on a tramp starship. Go now. Dave does.

The author does a great job of using Dave to bring us into a reality of interplanetary travel and settlement. Dave learns a bit about repairing/maintaining various parts of the ship. But we are spared the description of weeks of travel between destinations. This keeps the story/action moving and interesting.

Dave has all sorts of unusual challenges tossed his way. His biological mother's new-ish husband wants him dead for political reasons. Dave ends up being taken by pirates/buccaneers (there apparently is a useful difference). He just happens to have a skill that he can use to negotiate for his release.

This leads to one major criticism of the book. Coincidence. While every book has to have a specific set of narrative circumstances occur for the book to make sense, it begins to strain credulity when, later in the book, so many of Dave's issues are either caused by and/or resolved by people that were tangentially introduced earlier in the book. And in most cases, those people all know each other in some capacity or another independent of their relationship with Dave. The world is a small place, but it ain't that small. Also, there are more than a few occasions where a character that is of interest to Dave for one reason just happens to have the skill set needed to solve an unrelated problem that Dave is dealing with.

A second criticism is basic spelling, grammar, and wordsmithery. A common complaint that I hear about books published by Baen is that there isn't any clear indication of editorial input. The spelling and grammar errors were just enough to tip my inner editor. There were a few instances where I found the phrasing of a sentence or a paragraph needed to require required* re-reading a few times to determine what the author was intending to say. 

A third criticism is how the author treats a sizeable number of female characters. They are "hot". Hot as in "Hot babe sittin' beside me in my 'Cuda." At least one other review notes that female characters are "frustratingly" undeveloped. With the exception of Dave and one or maybe two other main characters, all of the other characters are undeveloped.

Take away (or diminish) two of those criticisms and this becomes a solid 4-star review (maybe 4.5) as the author does a very good job of incorporating a lot of real-world social structures and issues. He dials them up a bit and projects current trends to create a believable future where people are leaving Earth to avoid overregulation. He also points out that leaving Earth is not a panacea; some new polities develop some pretty horrendous beliefs and corporations really aren't to be trusted.

The slow burn in the book is about social structures and trust. Dave succeeds because he demonstrates himself to be worthy of trust primarily because his life has shown him that trust is the only real value a person has. Gangs, families, business partners, corporations, neighborhoods, cities, and societies all rely on high levels of trust if they are going to continue to exist.

The characters and plot were compelling enough to keep me reading all the way to the end. The conclusion was satisfying. I'd like to read more about all of these characters in the future and see if the author can develop them more fully.

*Read the text that was striked out.  Read the replacement.  Which one reads more clearly.  This book contained too many similar passages.  

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A Quilt for Sherwood

Sherwood and I have never met.  Never shared "meat space" as the cool kids would say.

Back in the early-ish days of the Internet, there was a thing called Usenet.  There were a myriad of groups representing a broad range of interests.  In particular, there was a group called rec.arts.comics.strips where people that enjoyed comic strips got together to discuss comic strips.

You might call us "strippers" but we preferred the term RACSals.  Or I did.

Sherwood was there.  As was I.

We didn't agree on a lot of things.  Mostly we disagreed about politics.  We both loved comic strips.

It turns out that we shared a number of other interests such as photography, blogging, and a bit of Irish ancestry.  

I'm not one for calling someone a "friend" at the drop of a hat.  I am not Clintonian in that way.  Sherwood will groan and think "oh that Dann" if he ever reads this.  Some of you kids won't get it without taking a deep dive into the ancient American period of history known as the 1990s.

Despite those disagreements, we shared enough experiences over the years that I consider him a friend.  We are connected on Facebook where we touch base from time to time.

Courtesy of my love of comic strips, I have a significant collection of fabrics featuring the characters from Charles Shultz's "Peanuts".  It is not a small amount of my inventory.

I needed a new quilting project at roughly the time that Sherwood retired from his career as a professor of astronomy.  Retirees take naps.  Naps frequently require quilts.  And we both appreciated comic strips.

Viola!  Inspiration!

I am a big fan of Joe Cunningham and his "rock the block, album style" process for making quilts.  You can take his class (pattern-free quilt making) online and learn four different quilting processes.  I think his perspective regarding quilt design is interesting.

I've made one other quilt using that process for Baby Rose.  That quilt used a stack of fabrics that varied by color, but shared a general visual texture between the various colors.  They all had an imprinted bubble pattern.  They all had color shifts that were similar in process even if they differed in colors.

Sherwood's quilt uses several fabrics that differ quite a bit.  Most of the fabrics have Peanuts characters.  Most of them include some shade of green.  But there wasn't really enough to tie them together in the same way that young Miss Rose's quilt came together.

Color selection aside, I also learned a bit about strip design when using the "rock the block, album style" process.  Joe's process is to use random-width strips.  The only important feature is that the strips have parallel edges.  Then you sew the strips together to make a wide panel.

The rest of the process involves cutting these new panels across the seams into more strips.  These new strips are assembled into strips, cut into smaller strips, and finally assembled into squares.

Take the class to get the details.  It is worth the price.

With all of this slicing and dicing of fabrics, a narrow strip used in the first panel of strips can be a pain in the arse.  It will probably get sliced and diced down into a very small piece indeed.  

Every quilt is an opportunity to learn.  This time I learned to value a bit of restraint when selecting the number of fabrics used in a quilt and to avoid using narrow strips when building panels.

With all of that said, I like the way the quilt came out.

Sherwood's quilt - click to embiggen

Sherwood's quilt - click to embiggen and check out the stitching pattern

Sherwood's quilt - laying it out - click to embiggen

A modest update.  I always ask for a photo of the quilt with the recipient for my little bit of posterity.  Sherwood was kind enough to provide a few.  The first one is himself and his quilt.  The second two show some details of the quilting pattern used to nail the whole thing together.  

For the record, I had someone else do the pattern quilting.  I made the top and did the binding.

As above...click to embiggen.

Genealogically Yours

I have expressed my interest in genealogy in the past in different places.  Most of my work appears on Wikitree.  This is a free service that allows you to assemble a family tree that may, eventually, connect to the work of others.

Courtesy of Wikitree, I receive a nearly weekly email suggesting connections to notable people.  I have started a stand-alone page where I can collect those connections.  The new page is now on the sidebar.

Thus far, I only have two people listed out of hundreds of emails that I have received over the years.  Most of those relationships travel through marriages so we aren't genetically related.  But in a few cases, we do share a common ancestor.

I also should offer the caveat that Wikitree is based on the submissions of individual users.  Some users are a bit more rigorous than others.  A grain...or ten...of salt is well advised.

Review: Swords and Deviltry

Swords and Deviltry by Fritz Leiber
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review which is a good estimate of my experience with this book.

The book is really a collection of short stories.

Honestly, several stories into the book and I really didn't care about the main characters. It was far too easy to move on to something better.

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Review: Shadow & Claw

Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review that is a good estimate of my experience.

I managed to get roughly 1/3 through this book before giving up. Fortunately, I found this review that does an outstanding job of breaking down the significant flaws in this book. They have saved me a ton of time.

I've been told by many people that this is a classic of the fantasy genre and an excellent example of the grimdark subgenre.

It isn't.

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Review: 100 Fathoms Below

100 Fathoms Below by Steven L. Kent
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 3.5-star review which is a fair representation of my experience.

The book is a straightforward vampire tale. One of the crew is bitten just before his submarine deploys from Pearl Harbor for a mission. As with the old shampoo commercial, he bites a friend, who then bites a friend, and so on, and so on.

The tale centers around how the unbitten crew reacts to the sudden presence of horror that is slowly consuming their ship. The crew are highly trained submariners. Their initial responses of treating the problem as a common virus/disease are predictable.

The characters are reasonably fleshed out with unique motivations and perspectives. The authors wisely placed this in 1980 due to the use of racism as a very minor plot element. Racism in the military was not unknown in 1980. Opposition to racism was more prevalent in 1980. The presence of racism as a plot element manages to accurately walk that line.

There are a few plot-related issues that keep this from being a solid hit.

- The crew's responses to the unfolding problems are predictable throughout the book.

- Chekov's Gun makes several appearances. As one example, the book talks about the crew and mechanical spaces but clearly doesn't mention the nuclear-powered engine room. It's not a big surprise when we find survivors here. Nor is it a big reveal as to why the vampires haven't taken over this space. There are many other occasions where something with an obvious implication of utility or danger is mentioned in one chapter only to be revisited as a "reveal" a chapter or two later.

- Up until the last few pages, there is zero effort to explore the motivations of the "big bad". Vampirism is the result of some entity. It is implied that there is a single source of it. Late in the book, it is implied that there is an intelligence for its motivations beyond the need to feed, but no effort is made to explore that intelligence.

- Spoiler - In the closing chapters, the captain intends to dump all of the dead bodies overboard and then return to Pearl Harbor. There isn't any consideration for the impact on his career (and that of the remaining crew) from bringing a partially crewed ship back to base without also bringing the bodies. What explanation will he offer? What proof will he have? That his career (and his crew's careers) is over as a result of this incident is left unacknowledged.

- Second spoiler - The vampires die when exposed to low levels of radiation. The crew has access to waste coolant water that is not radioactive enough to do them serious harm, but radioactive enough that contact with a vampire has instantly corrosive effects on the vampire. They have one...one!!...bucket available to slosh the radioactive water around the ship. No effort is made to locate spray bottles or other containers. Using radiation to kill vampires is kind of a neat twist. The execution was lacking. 

If you like vampires and you like books with a military setting, then this is a great book for you. It is a straightforward and entertaining read. You'll just need to enjoy it for what it is; straightforward and fun without any serious depth.

I think this could be an excellent movie!



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A Quilt for Wesley

Having successfully produced a first progeny, one of my colleagues and her husband decided to take another stab at it.  The product of their labors...literally...is a fine young man named Wesley.

For his quilt, I opted for a selection of fabric featuring Peanut's characters.  

The whole quilt modeled by my beloved bride.  Click to embiggen

Single panel.  Click to embiggen

This pattern is known as "log cabin".  It was the first pattern that I learned and it is one that I enjoy using.  You can do so much within the confines of that pattern.  

Unfortunately, I ran into the quilter's nightmare with this quilt.  There are lots of different approaches to laying out a log cabin quilt.  You can rotate the panels to make several different patterns.  But the ever-present risk is that you can end up unintentionally making swastikas.  This particular fabric selection seemed to make it hard to use any of the other layouts that I know without making a swastika here and there.  There are other quilting patterns that have similar problems.

And well, I wouldn't do that to young Wesley.  So here we are.  He approves!

Young Master Wesley.  Yup.  He's a keeper.  - Click to embiggen

Master Wesley's canine compatriot also approves! - Click to embiggen

A Quilt for Holly

 As detailed elsewhere, I had made a quilt for my sister-in-law Tracy.  It was supposed to be a Christmas present last year.  But my beloved bride wanted to give one to my sister-in-law Holly at the same time.  So off we went to the fabric store!

Oh the pain!  The torture!  To have to buy fabric!

The pattern is the same basic pattern that I used for Tracy's quilt.  The big difference was in the fabric.  Holly is a Detroit Lions fan.

The ever-stylish Holly modeling her quilt - click to embiggen

I did one thing differently on this quilt.  I always complain about using fabrics that are not dimensionally stable.  That fleecy backing material is no exception.

This time around, I used some spray adhesive to hold the backing material to the batting.  That made it quite dimensionally stable when I was quilting the layers together.

Merry Christmas, Holly!

My 2022 Year In Books

Ordinarily, this is the time of year when I would be talking about nominations for the Hugo Awards. I'm not participating this year for a couple of reasons. The most important reason is that this year's Worldcon will be held in China. While I'm sure that Chinese SF/F fans are nice people, they are saddled with a murderous regime that will not hesitate to use any opportunity to propagandize their actions.  I'm unwilling to help create such opportunities. 

Free the Uyghurs.  Hold free/fair multi-party elections.  Leave Taiwan alone.  Then we can talk.

Instead, I thought I would review the books that I have completed this year. Included in the "completed" list are books that I set aside due to a lack of interest. There are some Hugo Award-related comments included.

This was a pretty good year for me in that most of the books I picked up were books that I actually enjoyed. There were a few where the book couldn't live up to the "elevator pitch" and one where the "elevator pitch" was completely wrong but the book was fantastic anyway.

For more complete thoughts, you might consider connecting with me via Goodreads. Or follow this blog. Both work!

Like others, I read for enjoyment and seek books that interest me.  There are times when I read a book simply based on my past experiences with an author's work.  Other times, I will pick up a book based on a recommendation from a trusted source.  On rare occasions, advertising works!

Many of these books are the first in a series.  I once heard Peter V. Brett talk about his approach to writing a series.  The first book, in his opinion, should be a complete story.  The reader shouldn't be left feeling that there is more to come.  After that point, if a reader opts to continue the series, then cliffhanger endings are fair game.  I agree.  I wish more authors agreed with that approach as well.

The books are (mostly) in reverse order of when they were read.  Those at the top (mostly) are the ones that I read most recently.

Title	Author	Rating	Quick Take
The Dream of the Iron Dragon	Robert Kroese	4.5 Stars	People from our future being chased through outer space end up being teleported to our past. Suddenly cut off from modern technology, the survivors have to find a way to make themselves useful so they can survive. Furthermore, they have to find a way to send a coherent message to the future to hopefully prevent the imminent end of humanity back in their own time. By the end of the book, the only thing of value they possess is the knowledge in their heads. A good premise with reasonably interesting characters. This is the first in a series. Fortunately, it tells a complete story.
36 Streets	T.R. Napper	5 Stars	The story is about a Vietnamese girl who went to Australia as a refugee from the war. Not that war. The other war coming a few years in the future when China starts taking control of the Far East and no one is around to stop them. After returning to Vietnam, our protagonist, Lin, ends up in a purported street gang acting as an enforcer. She didn't start out that way, but she had training. A lot of it. Only after her friend and sister end up as collateral damage in the war between the street gang and the occupying Chinese forces does she learn exactly why the gang exists. The story is fully laced with cyberpunk elements as well as crime noir and a bit of MilSF. A great combination. Very worthy of Hugo Award recognition.
Iron Truth	S. A. Tholin	4 Stars	This book recently won the Self-Published Science Fiction Contest. So I had high hopes. The book was reasonably well written with characters that were intriguing. Future miners dig too deeply on an off-Earth planet and unleash "something" that seizes control of people's minds. The event prompts the formation of an authoritarian state to "defend Earth". So fantasy mixed with science fiction. Not really in my wheelhouse. Also, this is the first book in a series and it shows. A good read, but I'm not anxious to return to the series.
Transmutation Texas	R.H. Snow	3.5 Stars	This first in a series is set in a world where some sort of virus has wreaked hell on humanity. Much of civilization is gone. What remains is a population of normal humans and those that have been changed by the virus. Remarkably, there are very few women that survived the virus. The post-apocalyptic society that remains is twisted by the new reality. The story is reasonably well written. A few of the character interactions didn't seem well justified. And this is the "first in a series" where the end of the book is clearly not the end of the story.
Against All Gods	Miles Cameron	5 Stars	This first in a series appears to be based on Bronze Age deities. Ignore the elevator pitch/summary and just strap in for one helluva ride. This world is inhabited by humans and a race of insects. Both are dominated by "gods" that possess immense power. The gods are slowly losing their ability to use that power. By the end of the book, the origins of their power and their ability to control the world become much murkier as the humans and insects are in turn thrust together and then forced into conflicts by gods playing power games. Definitely worthy of Hugo consideration.
Tread of Angels	Rebecca Roanhorse	5 Stars	This is a standalone novella set in a fantasy world where angels and demons once fought on Earth. The main demon, Abbadon, fell in battle and now humans and "Fallen" demi-humans mine the bones of his corpse for the element Divinity that powers the world in steam-punkish fashion. Within that tableau is a tale of a caste structure that condemns some to lesser lives while granting others great privileges. It takes a deft authorial touch to write a story containing so much social critique while keeping the sub-text behind the text. Ms. Roanhorse possesses just such a deft touch. Just take my money, ma'am. Hugo Award worthy.
Warlord	Doc Spears	3.5 Stars	The elevator pitch got me. You take an elite team of US Army Green Berets and drop them in a fantasy world. The fantasy world just happens to be a pastiche of Barsoom as envisioned by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Instead of John Carter, we get Benjamin Colt. A self-doubting professional soldier. His team is teleported to Mars along with a magic taco generator that can print anything. So they will always have ammo for their weapons. If you can set aside the fact that the plot is ripped almost whole from Mr. Burroughs, the repetitive "Green Berets are big and bad" mini-essays, and the beauty worship of Talis Dorman then this is a fun book.
Servants of War	Larry Correia and Steve Diamond	5 Stars	Larry and Steve team up to tell a fantasy/horror tale about people that have been teleported from our world into this magic-infused world as some sort of cosmic refugees. But this new world isn't necessarily better. Our protagonists live in a country with a dictator that demands military service during a war, murders/disappears people for marginal infractions, and generally keeps his people poor and disempowered. If it sounds a bit like the 1930s under the old Soviet Union, then you get the vibe exactly. The dictator's army includes a special unit that operates a set of magical golems/automatons. You have to have some innate magical ability in order to communicate with the golems. One of our protagonists has that in spades. Despite having such power, the dictator's army is at a stalemate (and perhaps losing) with an opponent that embraces change and technology. The fact that they lob hellfire bombs probably helps keep things even. A great ride. Absolutely to the top of the genre writing. Worthy of Hugo consideration.
Fairy Tale	Stephen King	4 Stars	Mr. King is America's master storyteller. He can twist nothing into an engrossing tale about characters so vibrant that you could swear that one of them just walked in the room. In this case, he starts with a pedestrian family dealing with significant (if mundane) challenges. He makes you care about their ordinary lives and starts tossing curve balls at them and at you, constant reader.
The Flock	J. Todd Scott	2 Stars	I'm not sure what attracted me to this novel, but I couldn't finish it. I think it is intended to be suspenseful with an implication of fantasy/horror elements. I moved on after reading roughly 1/4 through the book as there weren't any characters of interest and the implications of supernatural activities were not evolving/resolving.
Strange Company	Nick Cole	3 Stars	I think Nick Cole is too frequently overlooked as an author of memorable genre fiction. But this book was a bit of a miss. It features a modern military unit in a universe where something akin to "magic" is possible. The magic is enhanced "scientifically". I'm not a big fan of mixing science and fantasy, but if that's where you are going, then go all the way. There were powerful magics available in the story that were left unused while people were shooting weapons with wild abandon.
A Crown for Cold Silver	Alex Marshall	3 Stars	I wanted to read this book after reading a short story by Alex contained in the Evil is a Matter of Perspective anthology. The short story comes from the same world as this novel and was very good. Unfortunately, this book didn't live up to expectations. This competently written book was undermined by the use of modern vernacular in a fantasy setting and characters being constantly high/drunk/whatever without any consequences (with one exception) to their ability to otherwise participate in the story.
A Touch of Death	Rebecca Crunden	3 Stars	This book was noted as a hidden gem by the File770 team participating in the Self-Published Science Fiction Contest. I found substantial flaws in the world-building and in the contrived dilemma of the main characters. I only finished it because of the File770 team's recommendation.
Reign & Ruin	J.D. Evans	2 Stars	This book won SPFBO in 2021. I am usually thrilled to read a SPFBO winner. This is a rare clunker. Poor character development/motivations. Poor plotting. If it hadn't won SPFBO, I'd have given this book the Dorothy Parker treatment at least halfway through it.
Fevered Star	Rebecca Roanhorse	5 Stars	The second book in a series continues the tale of Serapio who has been re-made as the Crow God in a world inspired by pre-Columbian Americas. Ms. Roanhorse is the rare author for whom I don't need an elevator pitch to know that her work will be worth my time. Just take my money! Hugo Award worthy.
King of the Bastards	Brian Keene	2 Stars	This book could have been great. But it refuses to stick with any constant plot. The protagonist is a Conan knock-off living in a world of magic that uses modern vernacular. I finished it, but all I can say is that it is "a book".
Tales of the Greatcoats Vol. 1: Swashbuckling Fantasy Stories	Sebastien de Castell	5 Stars	A series of short stories from de Castell's world of the Greatcoats. Sadly, you need to have read the Greatcoats series to maximize your enjoyment of these stories. But they are entertaining nonetheless. Sebastien is an overlooked gem of an author.
Titan	Robert Kroese	4 Stars	A billionaire inventor/businessman looks to increase his holdings by mining asteroids and other celestial bodies. He develops the technology to capture those bodies in the earth's gravitational well. Previously, he had developed a functioning sort of electronic currency which was tangentially related to social media. At the same time, governmental debt is threatening to cause global hyperinflation. His mining operation gets sabotaged at precisely the wrong time. Engrossing characters/plot where the sub-text wears to a diaphanously thin veneer in just a couple of spots. Worthy of Hugo Award consideration
MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors	Richard Hooker	4 Stars	I grew up watching the TV show MASH. The earlier seasons are better, in my experience. I finally took some time to read the source material for the TV show and the movie. The book is a series of vignettes rather than a longer narrative tale. The humor and the tall tales are easily recognizable to anyone who has served in the military. Surprisingly and refreshingly, it didn't contain any of the forced anti-militarism that was present in the TV show.
The Girl in the Gun Club: My Time as One of the Few Good Men	Tracy Salzgeber	5 Stars	Ms. Salzgeber is a US Marine. The book details her relationship with the Marine Corps and the Marines with whom she served. Ms. Salzgeber doesn't hold back in praising or criticizing the Corps, individual Marines, or herself. A refreshing critical take on our beloved Corps.
Son of the Black Sword	Larry Correia	5 Stars	My first Larry Correia novel. It is a dandy of a fantasy novel with a setting reminiscent of India. The best warrior in the world has been living a lie. He is not a favored son of a powerful house. He is a servant from the lowest social caste that mistakenly became bonded to the house's most powerful sword. What happens when he learns the truth. Worth every minute. I'll definitely be back for more. I know it isn't likely, but this series should be a strong contender for the Hugo Awards.
Ice and Monsters	Peter Nealen	3.5 Stars	A US Marine recon team ends up passing into another world populated by fantastic people and creatures with magical abilities. Can the recon team survive? There is a MilSF sub-genre that involves putting a modern military into non-modern settings. This book did a decent job of avoiding the penchant to handwave away serious questions like "what happens when we run out of bullets". If you like that sub-genre, then this book is for you.
Island in the Sea of Time	S.M. Stirling	5 Stars	Great time-travel story sending a US Coast Guard training vessel back in time. They face the challenge of life without modern conveniences while also seeking to preserve their technological advantages. I'd like to continue reading the series. Side note - the author covers several modern social issues within the story without letting them get in the way of the story. Something modern authors need to re-learn.
Isolate	L.E. Modesitt, Jr.	4 Stars	A slow-burn fantasy setting for a discussion of politics and political systems. The political ideas are thought-provoking and interesting. The fantasy setting was intriguing, but not without issues. A couple of plot issues. While a fan of Modesitt's work, I probably won't continue this series.

Ratings in italics are pending. Sorry. Just haven't gotten around to posting a formal review.

I hope your 2023 in books is plentiful and enjoyable.

Edited for spelling and to add 2 books that my Kindle reader didn't share with Goodreads. 12/29/2022

What Sort Of Dwarves Do You Have There

This year, the team where I work came up with something special for our boss.  He has been with the company forever and I consider him to be a good friend as well as an excellent mentor.

The team - click to embiggen

Aside from there being the seven of us looking up to our "prince", there is the array of animals.  The company where I work is at the end of the road with no real traffic and woods on all sides.  The boss keeps the local fauna well fed.

For accuracy, we don't get many rabbits.  We do have a large group of turkeys and a couple families of sandhill cranes.  A couple of the cranes and a couple of squirrels will actually take food from the hands of those that keep them fed.

Review: A Touch of Death

A Touch of Death by Rebecca Crunden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. That accurately represents my experience.

Some sort of biological/chemical warfare has dramatically altered the Earth. The survivors lived underground for years and upon emerging, had to live with the resulting environment.

The rules that work for a society limited by the needs of living underground are grafted onto a society with much more room above ground. The new government is quite authoritarian and forms a sort of modern royalty caste. Those with connections get the goodies.

Within the narrative of the book, it is suggested that attempting to live beyond the range of this society is a death sentence. Yet people have done just that and survived.

There is an underground/resistance movement of sorts.

The biggest plot hole for me was the suggestion that people couldn't live anywhere else despite there being strong proof that they could. Simply leaving is the one solution that is left largely unexplored.

The other weakness is the contrivance of main character's dilemma. Two characters just happen to be hiking when a storm comes and drives them into an abandoned building. That building just happened to be the place where a specific scientist had done experimental research years before. Residue from one of the research projects was still present and the characters become compromised. Too many coincidences all stacked up together.

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Review: The Flock

The Flock by J. Todd Scott
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is a 2-star review which adequately describes my experience.

There weren't any characters of interest. I made it 1/4 way through and still don’t know if the cult’s beliefs are mythical or if there is something supernatural. I was waiting for a cliff of character/plot engagement that never arrives.  I put it down and moved on to something better.



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Review: Fairy Tale

Fairy Tale by Stephen King
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a 4-star review which appropriately represents my experience.

America's master storyteller is back at it. Gently sucking you into one of his fantastical worlds only to make to stick around while he maims and slaughters characters with sadistic glee for your reading pleasure. If you've read the summary, you have the tale's basic nuts and bolts.

I was in terms enthralled and amused as the story unfolded. In true Stephen King style, if you make it past the first few chapters, then you have to hang on to see how it ends.

The only criticism I can offer is that, at the end of the day, it is just another fairy tale. It is well told, but read this book once and you probably won't be back because there isn't anything truly groundbreaking in the telling of this story.



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When A Mind Drifts

Dementia is not forgetting a grandchild's birthday.  It is forgetting who they are.

Dementia is asking the same question.  Again.

Dementia is wearing slip-on shoes because you have forgotten how to tie shoe laces.  You are not likely to ever relearn how to tie them.

Dementia is asking when a person is going to visit when they have been dead for decades.

Dementia is asking when a person is going to visit when they left 10 minutes ago.

Dementia is asking the same question.  Again.

Dementia is not just losing your way.  It is never knowing the way in the first place.

Dementia is not remembering that you broke a bone in your foot.

Dementia is asking why your foot hurts all the time.

Dementia is a series of inappropriate responses.

Dementia is biting your nails.  Please don't bite your nails.  Dementia is biting your nails.  Please don't bite your nails.

Dementia is asking the same question.  Again.

Dementia is asking to go home.  The house in question was sold decades ago.

Dementia is swinging from cooperative to confrontational and back on a moment's notice.

Dementia is pouring your pills into the water cup instead of your mouth.

Dementia is wandering the house at all hours of the night.

Dementia is asking the same question.  Again.

Dementia is napping.  Until your companion naps, and then you are out the front door.  Woohoo!

Dementia is pouring water into your pill cup instead of your mouth.

Dementia is asking to go "home".  The house in question was sold decades ago.

Dementia is expecting kindness in every interaction while being unable to respond in kind.

Dementia is being concerned with modesty one minute and being stark naked the next.

Dementia is biting your nails.  Please don't bite your nails.

Dementia is thinking that your family has abandoned you.  Your family is standing right in front of you.

Dementia is wondering where the guy who was in your room earlier in the morning has gone.  It was your son.  He has a day job.

Dementia is removing the night light from the socket in the bathroom because "I have to turn out all the lights."

Dementia is not being able to see well enough at night to be able to find the light switch.

Dementia is asking the same question.  Again.

Dementia is not giving your family any good options while they are giving you the best options available.

Dementia is always closing the bathroom door despite being told to leave it open.

Dementia is wetting yourself because you forgot where the toilet is and the bathroom door is closed.

Dementia is asking the same question.  Again.

A modest postscript.  This was written over several weeks/months.  I started receiving spam emails for dementia-related services after I started writing but well before it was posted.  The emails started showing up at an email address not directly associated with this blog long before I published the piece.  With Google, we are the product, not the customer.

Review: Strange Company

Strange Company by Nick Cole
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. It is closer to 3.5 stars, but I couldn't round it up.

I have become a big fan of Nick Cole's work as a solo author. He writes convincing characters and compelling action sequences. Those skills are widely present in this book. The back half of the book as our heroes fought a series of running gun battles was engaging and almost captivating.

However....spoilers lie ahead

Review: A Crown for Cold Silver

A Crown for Cold Silver by Alex Marshall
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a 3-star review. I think it is closer to 3.5 stars, but I have a hard time rounding it up to 4 in this case. I made it to the end, but it was a close thing.

A while back, I read the "Evil is a Matter of Perspective" anthology that included a story written by Alex Marshall from the Crimson Empire universe. (also, read that anthology. It's great!)

Like Veruca Salt seeing a boat driven by Oompa Loompas, I so wanted to read A Crown for Cold Silver. I want it, daddy! I want it nooowwww! I did not break out into song.

The short story told of the ascension of the new Black Pope to her current office.

But then I got roughly halfway through the book.

I changed my mind, daddy. I do _not_ want a boat driven by Oompa Loompas.

While the book is reasonably well written, well-paced, and with relatable characters, there were a couple of features that undermined my experience.

The first feature was the use of modern phraseology coming from characters that are obviously not living in our modern world. That approach works when the book is obviously riffing on a modern cultural feature such as Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. It creates a disjointed reading experience when characters in a fantasy setting are using modern vernacular.

The second feature was the abundance of drug use. Almost everyone was almost always high/drunk on something despite either wandering in dangerous wastelands or on the brink of martial combat where a drug-addled mind almost certainly will lead to disaster rather than success.

The combination of the two led to the observation that the characters really were just playthings allowing the author to have a series of "wouldn't that be cool" moments; periodically driven by a smattering of identitarianism.

The third feature is that this was obviously written as the first book of a larger series. It ends with none of the plot threads resolved. I like the Peter V. Brett approach of the first book being a standalone novel with few (if any) cliffhangers.

If those features do not interrupt your reading experience, then give this book a read as it is otherwise well written. I doubt I will be returning to this series anytime soon.

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History Honored - Clarkston, MI - The Maybees

Almost two decades ago, my great-great-great-great-grandparents left New Jersey to take a chance on a wooded lot in Independence Township near what would eventually become Clarkston, MI.  Their descendants worked the farm until the late 1950s.  My great-grandfather's brother eventually sold the farm and the land was converted into various subdivisions.  

The area where the farmhouse once stood (northwest of this marker) is now a very nice subdivision.  A local group that is dedicated to making the community more walkable decided to erect a plaque honoring my family's history in the area.  (Click all photos to see a larger version.)

The main body of the plaque reads:

John and Malinda Maybee started it all when they left New Jersey in 1836 to take a chance on 80 acres of wooded land in Independence Township.  Their success here as settlers was due to careful planning: They brought enough money, supplies and tools to survive for two years until their farm became productive.  The family farm grew to 240 acres, including Spring Lake at its south end and a separate 80-acre "woodlot" at short distance down the road to the west.  Five generations of Maybees thrived here, headed by John, Jesse, John, James Russell, and Charlotte Ann.  They enrished the community and farmed this land into the 1950s.

The "Charlotte Ann" mentioned was my grandmother's cousin and James Russell was her father.  She was a prominent fixture in my life growing up and was my first "date" to a concert at the Pine Knob amphitheater that is located a few miles from the family farm.  I think it was Paul Anka, but don't quote me on that.  It could have been Neil Sedaka.

I don't think that Charlotte Ann ever "headed" the farm, but I know that she worked it with her parents.  After high school she went on to get a teaching degree from Michigan State University; it was probably a college at that time.  She retired from Flint Community Schools and went on to serve as a consultant for the State of Michigan inspecting various primary educational institutions.

The marker is on Maybee Road near Spring Lake.  The family history is that every bull that was kept on the farm was named Sashabaw and that the nearby road was named Sashabaw due to that fact.  It is entirely probable that either the bulls and/or the road were actually named for the First Nations Chief Sashabaw. 

Malinda and John Maybee, in the 1850s. 
All images courtesy of the Clarkston Community Historical Society.

A portion of the 1872 map of Independence Township shows the location of the Maybee property.  #1 is what became Sashabaw Road.  #2 is what became Maybee Road.  #3 is the 160-acre Maybee farm.  #4 is their 80-acre "woodlot" property.  #5 is the Saginaw Turnpike that became Dixie Highway.  #6 is the village of Clarkston.

The Birdland subdivision along Maybee Road was built in the 1950s.  It occupies the 80-acre "woodlot" property that the Maybee family maintained for wood for lumber and firewood.  The Maybees' careful conservation of this woodland is indicated in the large mature oak and other trees that endure amount these homes.

James Russell Maybee milking a cow, late 1940s.  In 1933, he was honored by the Nation Dairy Association for his 11 cows, each producing an average of 316 pounds of butterfat for the year.

Cutting ice in 1911, on Spring Lake on the south end of the Maybee far.  Ice was stored for year-round use before electrical refrigeration became common.

The Maybee farm in the late 1940s.  At that time, under the stewardship of James Russell Maybee, the farm was focused on dairy agriculture.

The occasion for discovering the placard was the memorial service for Charlotte Ann Maybee that was held in May of 2022 at the Clarkston United Methodist Church.  News of the plaque spread during the reception and several of us make the trek out to the site.

We were fortunate to be able to show the plaque to my mom, Nickie Vance.  Nickie's mom, Isabel Stark was born Isabel Maybee to William and Beatrice Maybee.  William was the brother of James Russell Maybee.

Nickie Vance with the plaque honoring the Maybee family farm.