A Sunday Review

My NetGalley book this week was Seraphina by Rachel Hartman. A gifted young musician attempts to hide her dark secret while trying to solve a major mystery. Rachel Hartman is best known in my circles as the writer and artist of Amy Unbounded. But with this novel she's taken the plunge into a different world, and in the process fleshed out Amy's world unexpectedly. Yes, the novel is set in Goreed, no, Amy does not appear. But a couple of other familiar characters do, and the result is something that will please Amy's fans while still appealing to a whole new audience. I can't speak to the details of the book yet, though I plan on writing a more thorough review. Let's just say this is the kind of book that you read once, set aside for a bit, then reread with a great deal of joy. I haven't found such an appealing read in awhile, and I'm actually excited that I'm going to read it again. Parts of the novel remind me of Bujold's Chalion series, in a good way. And parts are very much Hartman's old style, also in a good way. I want to read the sequel, and my only real regret about this book is that the official edition won't be out until summer. In the meantime, get ready, fans of Amy Unbounded will want to read this, fans of young adult fiction will want to read this and fans of well-designed fantasy worlds will want to read it as well. Put it on your wish lists now.

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This week's comic book related review is Brody's Ghost Volume 1 by Mark Crilley. A total slacker wins a staring contest with a ghost, and suddenly is drawn into an unexpected world. I like the art, of course. Not Crilley's old style, but it's still got that strong sense of storytelling and clean lines. The main character is kind of annoying, but he grows on you. The ghost... well, she's really annoying, but that's the way she needs to be for the story to work. If you are looking for Akiko, you won't find it here. But this is something just as good in its own right.

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Agatha Christie this week was Postern of Fate in 1973. Tommy and Tuppence move into a new home, only to find mystery is still around them. I enjoyed this final tale of the pair of investigators. I like how they casually talk with one another, so linked. And I figured out some of the mystery, although not all of it. I regret that I'm so close to the end of Christie's works. I wish I could do what Holly did in Red Dwarf and just erase my memory of the whole lot and start over again. They are that good. I wonder if there are any mystery writers out there that even come close?

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Past Sunday Reviews -- Comics at Amazon.com -- Previews -- My Wishlist -- My Kindle Wishlist

Review - Hellboy Volume 11

Hellboy Volume 11: The Bride of Hell and Others by Mike Mignola and various others.

Release date: October 12, 2011, pre-order now! I got an advance copy via NetGalley.

This is a collection of previously published material. It includes "Hellboy in Mexico," "Hellboy: Double Feature of Evil," "Hellboy: The Bride of Hell," "Hellboy: The Sleeping and the Dead," "Hellboy: The Whittier Legacy," and "Hellboy: Buster Oakley Gets His Wish". All were written by Mike Mignola, with a variety of artists on the visual chores. Each story is prefaced with an introduction by Mignola that tells where he got the idea for the story and when it was originally published.

If you aren't familiar with Hellboy, don't worry. It isn't really hard to figure out. Each story is capable of standing on its own or contributing to a collection like this. All you really need to know is that, despite his appearance, Hellboy is a good guy. And, again, it's made obvious early on.

The stories are nicely varied in this collection, giving a decent overview of the Hellboy universe. The Mexico story was both funny and tragic. The Double Feature had a terribly freaky framing sequence with a couple of nice little stories. The Bride story was the usual misdirection and a character that was actually fairly sympathetic, although evil. The Sleeping story added a LOT to the Hellboy world, and if you know much about that world, you'll understand what I mean. The Whittier story was probably the weakest of the lot, with a bunch of frenzied activity in a handful of pages that wasn't as easy to follow as the other tales. Buster Oakley was just plain hilarious. My favorite story was probably the first, as the mix of sadness and fun just worked for me.

I was introduced to Hellboy many years ago by my hairdresser, and I started to love the character almost immediately. Readers unfamiliar with him may find him hard to like, but I promise you won't have trouble understanding the stories. If you already enjoy Hellboy, this is a must get. If you haven't met him yet, it's not a terrible place to start. Definitely recommended.

Review - Green River Killer: A True Detective Story

Green River Killer: A True Detective Story by Jeff Jensen and Jonathan Case.

Release date: September 28, 2011, pre-order now! I got an advance copy via NetGalley.

My interest in this is fairly obvious. I grew up in the area where the Green River Killer stalked, and I heard about the killer during times of my life when it hit pretty hard. When they announced his capture, I posted an entry in my blog about it that summed up my feelings. It was unreal. It would always be unreal. For me, the Green River Killer was a bogeyman that haunted the background of my world. And his capture never seemed to satisfy the need I had for closure. So I went into this book hoping it would wash away some of that childhood terror for me.

This book mostly follows Tom Jensen, the father of the writer and a member of the Green River Killer Task Force. Tom's life is sketched out in jumps through time, and then we get to the capture of the Killer and his plea bargain deal. My biggest issue with the book was the scattered nature of the timeline. The whole thing was flashback after flashback. It could have worked, but for some reason it managed to confused me more than once. The worst problem is how the prologue starts with the Killer, then the first chapter jumps to Tom. For a page or two I thought we were reading about the Killer's early life. That made Tom a disturbing character from the outset, something I really don't think the writer was going for. That was pretty much my only complaint though. The jumps through time made this a hard book to follow in places but the information and feeling in it... well, that was important.

Particularly the emotion. We get to see Tom as a man who has worked hard to bring this killer to justice, and we get to see him finally face off against the murderer and ask him the questions that we all wanted to ask. We see him break down, like any sane person would, when finally confronted with what the killer truly was. And we see his exhaustion and sense of relief when his part in the whole thing was finally over.

Did this book exorcise the nightmares? Perhaps. I see the killer more as a very sick man than a supernatural being of terror. I see how regular people reacted to him, and struggled to find and stop him.

For the record, I have no problem with the killer spending his life behind bars instead of dying. Dying is easy, and a much kinder fate than he deserves. Let him live to be 100 with no hope of release.

Review - Moon Shot

Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings by Jay Barbree, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton.

I got an advance copy via NetGalley.

I've always loved the stories of how America made it to the moon, and I wanted to love this book. But it is fatally flawed. The whole first half reads more like a jock bragging about his exploits than an inside history of one of the greatest technological achievements of mankind. Perhaps the flaw is actually in the men who lived that history, but this book makes them into unlikable hotshots. The second half covers the events, but jumps through major events to get to some of the less significant ones.

From a sheer historical perspective, the book does deliver on some of its promise. The timeline of events is clear enough, the little anecdotes sometimes add but often detract from the narrative. The made-up conversations are enough to make you want to throw the thing across the room. It's a loose and wild book. If you like reading about astronaut antics in a strange half-PR style, this book is for you. If you just want information and facts, go somewhere else.

The book tends to focus on the two astronauts that are listed as co-authors. While that's not a bad thing because they were both heavily involved in the space program until the end of Apollo, it also seems to dismiss some of the other accomplishments or at least gloss over them. Don't get me wrong, they are mentioned, talked about, given space. But, for example, leading up to Apollo 13 the focus of the book is on Deke and Alan's medical issues and Alan being on the next mission, rather than the men of Apollo 13. I can understand why, but that makes this less a book about the trip to the moon than a book about Alan and Deke's involvement in the lunar program.

I really wanted to love this book. It isn't a bad read, but it's not good enough for me to call it great.

Review - Baltimore Volume 1: The Plague Ships

Baltimore Volume 1: The Plague Ships by Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden.

I got an advance copy via NetGalley.

If you aren't familiar with Mike Mignola's work, the blocky art can be a real turn off. I was turned off when I first encountered Mignola's artwork on an Aquaman cover many years ago. But since then I've read a bit more of his work, and come to appreciate his style and what it conveys. This book has that style, a deep feeling of horror and beauty at once. It works extremely well for this book.

Lord Baltimore is on the hunt, following a major vampire who is responsible for the plague that ended the Great War. This book details his visit to a town where he is helped by a woman who wants to escape the boredom and sense of waiting for death. Despite his warnings, she follows him, and learns exactly who and what he is.

The story is set in a Europe just after WWI has been ended by disease. Worse than a normal disease, some of the dead rise to kill the living. That's the horror part. Or at least a portion of the horror. There's much much more to it. Baltimore is an anti-hero with very good reasons for doing what he is doing. His unwitting follower sees more than any sane human would want to see. And there is lots of action in the form of fighting monsters and lots of atmosphere and build up to the fighting of the monsters.

If you like horror at all, this is worth a look. You should also seek out the Free Comic Book Day short story that also features Lord Baltimore, as it will tell you even more about what's happening in this world. I'm not a huge horror fan, but I think I'll be keeping an eye out for this series as it continues. It's just really well done.

Review - All Different Kinds of Free

All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann.

I got an advance copy via NetGalley.

Margaret Morgan is a free black woman living with her husband and children in Pennsylvania. But her life is shattered when the family that owned her parents decides to kidnap her and her children into slavery. This book backs away from the Supreme Court ruling of Prigg v. Pennsylvania and looks instead at the woman in the center of the case, and what being sold into slavery meant for her.

I wanted to like this book. I had fears from the start that I wasn't going to like what happened in it, but I wanted to enjoy the book itself. Jessica McCann is a good storyteller, and the action moves at a good pace, but there are a few issues with the writing itself that made it hard for me to get through. The story jumped from viewpoint to viewpoint a little jaggedly in the beginning, and the writing level is slightly simplistic for such a powerful message. The grammar is a bit choppy, as well, but that might be deliberate. For a first novel, this isn't bad. For such an important and ignored story, it's just ok.

My biggest issue with the book was that I thought I knew what the ending would be, based on the historical record, and so was bracing myself for it... but it never really came. And while the tragedy throughout the book certainly lived up to the pain, it never really felt like it bleed through to the reader. Horror after horror, but it just didn't leave an impact. And while I cheered at the end, it felt a little too tacked on to be real. If I sound ambivalent about this book, that's because I am.

In the end, just remember that this book is a fictional guess at one way Margaret's life might have gone. To be honest, I'd really like a follow-up from a serious researcher of a historian who can find out what really happened to Margaret Morgan. The author made an attempt, but I would like someone else to give it a try. Sadly, that information may not exist.

Review - The Last Dragon

The Last Dragon by Jane Yolen and Rebecca Guay.

Release date: October 11, 2011, pre-order now! I got my advance copy via NetGalley.

It's hard to say whether I've read more "dragons are the enemy" or "dragons are our friends" books over my lifetime. Coming into this one, I wasn't sure which it would be, but it became clear enough quickly enough.

I was completely entranced by this book. Draw into the story by the artwork, I felt myself carried along by the story right until the end. The characters are fantastic, described in a few words and with just a few lines of dialogue then filled out with the art into recognizable people. Within a few pages I was feeling comfortable and at home in the village. The art successfully treads that thin line between being too fanciful to work in a graphic story and too explicit to work as fantasy. I was delighted throughout, and only wished that I had the hardcover in front of me instead of a pre-publication PDF so I could fully enjoy the double-page spreads.

There are moments when the action jolts from one scene to the next, or a character seems to know more than she ought. But those are few, and the fantastic artwork pretty much covers for any slight flaws in the writing, just as the strong writing covers for any slight flaws in the art. This is an exquisite work, and one that I would be honored to have on my bookshelf.

Review - Aliens on Vacation

Aliens on Vacation by Clete Smith with illustrations by Christian Slade.

Release date: May 3, 2011, pre-order now! I got my advance copy via NetGalley.

Scrub is a twelve-year-old from Florida who has been exiled to Washington State for the summer to live with his grandmother at her bed-and-breakfast in a small town. He's missing basketball and his best friend, and it doesn't help that his grandmother is both a hippie and an outer space fan. He thinks he's about to deal with a lot of Trekkies, but the Tourists he meets in Forest Grove are considerably stranger than even he could have expected.

The book is told in the first-person from David "Scrub" Elliott's point-of-view, and it manages to develop him as a character very well, much of it from his reactions to the people he meets. The rest of the cast is seen through his eyes and so are colored by his reactions to them, an appropriate style for this type of book. The reading level is pre-teen or younger and the artwork by Christian Slade on each chapter heading makes for an attractive read, as well. There are a lot of references that adults will appreciate far more than children, making this a good read for any age.

As a Seattle native with a great love of my state, I was tickled by the jokes about Washington and the references to other places, including Canada. I was able to figure out approximately where the fictional town of Forest Grove must be located, and enjoyed when a former hometown of mine got a namecheck.

This is a good book for children of all ages to enjoy, suitable for family reading time or a solo read. Fans of science fiction will probably enjoy it a lot, but people who generally don't read fantastic fiction will likely find it palatable as well. It is the first book in a proposed series, but manages to stand alone very nicely. I'm looking forward to seeking out any sequels, personally. Worth a read.

Review - Turn Right at Machu Picchu

Turn Right at Machu Picchu: Rediscovering The Lost City One Step At A Time by Mark Adams.

Release date: June 30, 2011, pre-order now! I got my advance copy via NetGalley.

Mark Adams became interested in the story of Hiram Bingham after all the news coverage when it was learned that he wasn't really the discoverer of Machu Picchu. And eventually Adams decided to walk in Bingham's footsteps, following the trails he took, and see Peru the way Bingham had. This book is essentially a travelogue that explores both Adams' and Bingham's journeys, and reflects on what both of them did and learned in Peru.

The writing style is engaging enough to make this an easy and comfortable read. It slips a little when Adams gives us too much about his own life, coming perilously close to "too much information" territory without ever quite falling off the edge. He manages to cram a lot of detail into the narrative without becoming monotonous. At times I almost felt I was there in the jungle or high mountain passes with him because his descriptions conjured up familiar sensations. Adams also ventures into political territory at times to explain events, and does so effectively and without strong bias. Although it's easy to tell from the text that Adams is passionate about the subject, his writing manages to be dispassionate enough to make him a trusted narrator of events.

The galley I read did not have any images and was missing the index, although there was a space for it. The book did include a very nice glossary and a timeline of events in Peru. I could also have used a bibliography of all the texts mentioned in the narrative, many of which I felt like reading after Adams described them so enthusiastically.

I'd recommend this one to anyone interested in South American history, anyone who loves a good adventure tale, and anyone who wants to go on a trip to Machu Picchu. It's a nice solid read, and worth checking out.

Review - A Spark of Death: A Professor Bradshaw Mystery

A Spark of Death by Bernadette Pajer.

Release date: July 11, 2011, pre-order now! I got my advance copy via NetGalley.

I made the mistake of starting to read this book very close to bedtime. I was quickly drawn into the story, and found myself staying up entirely too late. It was with great difficulty I reluctantly set the book down to sleep, only to take it up again as soon as I could the next day. And so I finished it in two sittings, and could have easily finished it in one if I had started reading earlier in the day. Be forewarned, it's a very engaging read.

The story is set in Seattle (which is what attracted me to it on NetGalley) in 1901. This is a meticulously researched Seattle, with only very minor details different from the real world. I was expecting another Steampunk novel but I got lovely historical fiction with just a touch of mad scientist brilliance. Did I mention that it's well-researched? As a Seattle-area native, I had no problem following the action, even the visit to Snoqualmie Falls, and loved the short history lessons that managed to sneak into the text (like the dynamiting of Seattle Rock at the Falls in 1900 and the great Seattle fire).

The story itself is a non-stop push against time and unknown consequences, as Professor Bradshaw is suspected of a colleague's death and must figure out how the murder happened to clear his own name. Having read a lot of Agatha Christie lately, I cannot say this one equals her best work, but it's certainly as strong as many of her mysteries. I'm sure a true mystery aficionado or an electrical engineer would have figured it out sooner than I did, but that's just quibbling. The action presses forward at a pace that, as I've already said, makes you want to keep reading.

The characters are a tiny bit weak in some areas. There are some standard types in the cast, and only the main character is deeply explored. But the characters serve the story well and by the end I really want to read more about Bradshaw, at the least, even if the people around him aren't quite as compelling. As this is the first novel of the author, and the first in a series to boot, I think I can forgive those issues in anticipation of seeing this writer grow and develop.

I'd recommend this book to mystery fans, historical fiction fans, and electrical engineers. It's a safe book for almost all ages, except for the murder bits, but I'd think only teens and older would get enough of the historical references to really appreciate the book. This is a good read, and I enjoyed it a lot.

Review - Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel

Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel by Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris

Release date: April 26, 2011, pre-order now!

I got an advance copy of this book via NetGalley, and enjoyed it quite a bit. This is Steampunk meets the Avengers, and it's a very fun ride.

This book introduces us to the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, a British secret service, and two of their agents. Books is a archivist with a mechanical bent, and Braun is a brassy New Zealander with a fondness for explosives. The characters are introduced in the same manner as their natures: we are allowed a look into Books' logic-filled thoughts as he first appears, while Braun makes a dramatic entrance in a haze of chaos.

The book starts on a high action note, and doesn't really slow down all that much throughout. There are places with a more sedate pace, but those are generally setting up more action or important plot points. The setting is a Victorian England with plenty of fun steam-powered gadgets, nicely but not off-puttingly described, to keep the reader entertained. Besides the main pair of agents, we also get some nicely fleshed out side characters, which always makes for a better read. The Ministry itself has endless plot potential, with the Archives being a focal point for artifacts and mysteries. And the book conveys a strong sense of both history, of the world and our characters, and future, as there are unresolved plot points clearly pointing to a sequel or sequels. At the same time, the main story within the book is self-contained and complete.

I'd recommend this to fans of action, anyone into Steampunk as a genre, and readers looking for a strong female character. There are a few disturbing adult scenes, but the action cuts away or changes dramatically quickly enough to take a squeamish reader safely through them. Definitely a fun read.

Review - Today The World Is Watching You

Today The World Is Watching You by Kekla Magoon (2011)

If you want to know about a subject, without analysis or too much detail to absorb quickly, the best place to go might be a textbook aimed at a young audience. I certainly found this book to be an incredibly comprehensible, if not completely comprehensive, overview of the events surrounding the integration of the high schools in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The focus of this book is the Little Rock Nine, the nine brave students who fought through the challenge of integration against people who were violently opposed to it, just to go to school. The book starts with a quick overview, starting as the students attempted to enter the school on September 4th 1957, and ends with some questions for the book to answer. Its inability to quite answer the first question isn't a flaw in the book, because it would be very hard to look into the hearts of teenagers from over 50 years ago to see where they found their courage. But the book successfully answers the second question, regarding the experiences of the students and the meaning of the actions in the future.

The first chapter covers the history of African Americans in the United States, touching on many major moments and emphasizing the unfairness and sheer wrongness of the treatment of an entire group of people throughout time. Chapter two is about Brown v. Board of Education from 1954, and the situation it set up.

In Chapter three, the book focuses on Little Rock and begins to really get interesting. The next few chapters take us through the events of that year, and do so in a compelling way. I found myself reading intently and learning facts I did not know. Sure, I'm an adult and I knew all about segregation, but there were details I'd never learned or I didn't remember about this part of the story in particular. The text is illustrated with ample photographs and sidebars that detail further information about the events. One sidebar explains the source of the book's title, taken from an article in the Central High School newspaper.

This book is aimed at children or young adults, but it's definitely worth reading for anyone. It covers a part of our history that is well-known, but does so in a sympathetic and interesting way. The information is well presented and laid out, and the book includes a timeline, who's who, glossary, bibliography, and index. In short, a great introduction to the topic for anyone.