Review: Second Star

Second Star by Dana Stabenow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Stabenow builds a very interesting world where this planet has reached its sell by date and off earth stations are being built for colonization. The resources come from the Moon and asteroid belts, the projects are expected to pay back their start up costs with interest, and no one is expecting Utopia, just a place they can safely call home. Where the book falls very short is that there's way too much telling in the first half - literal telling of characters explaining things to each other that they certainly would have already known, but the reader needs to know to get on with the story. The worst offense of this is a brand new security chief who apparently took the job knowing nothing about living off Terra. Then there's a very obvious bias against military leadership that we're supposed to accept without any proof that the military's ends won't justify its means. And finally, every body lies. Without lies, the story couldn't have happened, couldn't have had its big action scene, and worst of all, couldn't have a happy ending. A brave new world built on lies is not a brave world at all.



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Review: The Coldest Night

The Coldest Night by Robert Olmstead

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I have mixed feelings about this book, probably because I couldn't get past that the author seemed to be deliberately writing in the very clipped and brusque style of Cormac McCarthy. I'm willing to admit that could be entirely my impression and not at all what the author set out to do, but when a reader is thinking more about the style of the writing rather than the actual story telling, that's not a good thing. On the plus side, the characters are unique and the setting is intriguing (there really aren't a lot of stories set in the Korean War, are there?). The story sticks to it's dark beginning, never promising a happy ending and never delivering one either.



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Review: The Wolf Gift

The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

My rating: 0 of 5 stars



50% of the way through and I have no curiosity about what happens next because so little has happened so far. The "man wolf" is an interesting idea, but when an author uses the characters very dull internal monologue as plot, all my interest is crushed. Also, having the character do the same research that the author probably did as a part of your story? That's padding AND lazy writing.



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Review: Carry the One

Carry the One by Carol Anshaw

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Beautiful writing that almost masks a go-nowhere story. There's so much opportunity for something to happen to any of the characters who are present for a life shattering moment, but one day after finishing this I realized that not one of them went in a direction different than the one they were headed in before it happened. Maybe that's Anshaw's point, that life doesn't turn on a dime. But if that's true, what was the point of dragging the reader through all that well written angst?



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Review: Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art

Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The first third or so of this book is not Moore's best work by any means. It time jumps so gracelessly that he has to rely on chapter titles to tell the reader where they are and his stabs at bawdy humor are just that - blunt force stabs that inflict as much pain as humor. However, when the story starts to pull together and the characters begin moving the story rather than being moved by it, this becomes a slightly more adult and intelligent Christopher Moore Real Person Fiction. I was thrilled by the reveal of Bleu's real identity that I did not see coming but made perfect sense, and was very happy to read about a Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who was quite happy with his lot in life. Add in the use of a few well known Impressionist paintings with Moore's choice captions and as always in a Christopher Moore book, the best written Author's Notes that you will find in Historical Fiction, and the sins of the beginning are washed away by the glory of the ending.



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Review: Trade

Trade by Oliver M. Bishop

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



A book with a promising plot set in locations that work with the plot almost ruined by lack of editing. At its core, this is a dark story of what happens when damaged people cross into the lives of people who have never imagined such evil exists in the real world. The antagonist makes no apologies because he's not aware that he has anything to apologize for and the group of characters that come together to form the protagonist shows glimpses of being flesh and blood types who make mistakes and sometimes blunder into doing the right thing. Where the book goes bad is the repetition of inner dialog (perhaps used to show the characters intellectual weaknesses, but the smart ones do it too), supporting characters that take actions that aren't supported by what they've shown themselves to be, and way too many uses of gunshots by amateurs , either accidental or on purpose, that always hit the best spot for lazy story telling.

A few more drafts and an impartial editor and Mr. Bishop would have had an impressive first novel.



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Review: Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art

Sacre Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The first third or so of this book is not Moore's best work by any means. It times jumps so gracelessly that he has to rely on chapter titles to tell the reader where they are and his stabs at bawdy humor are just that - blunt force stabs that inflict as much pain as humor. However, when the story starts to pull together and the characters begin moving the story rather than being moved by it, this becomes a slightly more adult and intelligent Christopher Moore Real Person Fan Fiction. I was thrilled by the reveal of Bleu's real identity that I did not see coming but made perfect sense, and was very happy to read about a Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who was quite happy with his lot in life. Add in the use of a few well known Impressionist paintings with Moore's choice captions and as always in a Christopher Moore book, the best written Author's Notes that you will find in Historical Fiction, and the sins of the beginning are washed away by the glory of the end.



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Review: Last Seen in Massilia

Last Seen in Massilia by Steven Saylor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Definitely better than the previous book, but that might be because I took a break between reading Saylor's Sub Rosa series. Perhaps the negatives (anachronistic ethics) aren't so noticeble if you don't immerse yourself in the series, or perhaps Saylor did a better job of writing characters that lived in the 40s BCE. Either way, this was a simple little mystery set in a fascinating time and place. Add in the return of Meto and I was hooked in a "junk food with some redeeming qualities" sort of way. Also unlike a lot of reviewers, I liked the ending.



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Review: The Year of Living Philosophically

The Year of Living Philosophically by Robert Grossmith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Quick fun read that relies a little too heavily on the serendipity of the Dave Gardner, the main character, meeting up with a retired philosophy professor. Without that character entering the story, no one would have been able to offer comparisons or deeper meanings of some of the monthly philosophies to Dave. That weakness also leads to information dump, reading closer to lectures rather than conversations despite Grossmith's attempts to lighten up those passages. Dave's daily life, however, is fun and complicated in all the right ways to keep the reader rolling right along with him through his year. An added plus for this reader is that it all takes place in England and Dave has a really interesting job - dictionary editor.



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Review: Pickit

Pickit by Lee Richardson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



Reading this, I couldn't help but suspect that the author had a lot of historical background and then created characters to populate it and then wrote a novella that he placed them inside. The story has one original twist that caught me by surprise, and that along with all that historical information that does fit quite well takes a very ho-hum story up to three stars.



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