Carl Alves's Blog, page 9

Living Dead in Dallas by Charlaine Harris

The second installment in the Sookie Stackhouse series was an improvement over the first novel. I’m not entirely sure where this novel fit in with the television show, but my remembrance is that the two primary plot lines encompassed more than one season on the show. The two main storylines are the one involving Sookie going to Dallas to help find a vampire that has gone missing, and Lafayette (who was a much bigger character on the television show) showing up dead in the sheriff’s car.


This novel was an easy read. Charlaine Harris writes in a pleasing style. The plot is not terribly complicated, although there was still room for a plot twist or two. Eric starts to become more of a major character in this novel, which is a good thing since he was my favorite character on the show. He has a certain confidence and swagger about him. Harris did a fine job breathing life into the character. Although not overly complex, the plot had enough meat on it to make it compelling. In a day and age where novels seemed to be growing in word count, this novel was short, sweet, and to the point. This was a fun novel that I would recommend.

The Passage by Justin Cronin

Although there were some elements that I liked about The Passage, this novel was flawed in so many ways. For starters, this novel is way overwritten. It’s 766 pages that could be cut in half. There are entire pages that could be chopped, and it would make this a better read. The editor should have taken a hatchet to this novel. The novel lacks in believability, and that has nothing to do with the sci fi/supernatural elements of it. It’s the parts that are grounded in the real world that lack believability. And then there are the characters. Oh, there are a great many of them, but only maybe two or three are remotely memorable. The rest are drab and lifeless and don’t come off the page.


I got through the first part of this novel, and it wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t particularly good either. When I realized that the novel had fast forwarded into the future, and I had over 400 pages of reading all new characters, I just couldn’t get myself to read the rest of it. I gave it a shot, but it felt more like a chore than entertaining. After about fifty to a hundred pages of the second part, I raised the white flag and surrendered. This was just not compelling enough to keep going forward.

The Queen of Bedlam by Robert McCammon

I was glad to see Robert McCammon return to Matthew Corbett and his circa 17th century novels. I’m both a fan of historical fiction and McCammon, who is one of my all time favorite writers, making his mark in the horror genre. Making it even better, I had a chance to meet McCammon, and he signed a copy of this book for me.


Anyway, I really enjoyed the other two Corbett books prior to this one, and The Queen of Bedlam did not disappoint. The prose is rich in this novel. The pacing worked out great. The character development and the array of characters was really strong. There were some very memorable characters, including the villains, which mostly consisted of some strange individuals. The backstory behind this when it got revealed was compelling. The elements of mystery were well done. There really wasn’t much that I can complain about, except that I thought there some parts that were perhaps a bit too long winded, and some of those sections could have been trimmed to make the novel better.


The novel concluded nicely. The final action sequence was strong, and it left itself open for additional novels in the future, as Corbett now has a job as a private detective and has made some really serious enemies. I look forward to reading more in the series.

Fallen Masters by John Edward

Fallen Masters was a bit of a mixed bag. There were some aspects I liked about it, and some that really didn’t work for me at all. The basic premise of the story is that the forces of evil are trying to destroy the universe, and a select group of people who have the souls of certain individuals who have died most oppose them. I liked the concept of the story, but the execution was really weak at times.


The positives were that I thought for the most part the characters were well done. They were plausible and well developed, although there was a fair bit of repetition since most of the main characters on the good side had lost a spouse. Now to the problem areas. The whole dead people are positive or negative energies just didn’t work for me. It was fairly incoherent and not well explained. At times, the writing was so over the top flowery that I could barely read it at times. It wasn’t plausible based on the rules of the story that the forces of good could even prevail given that they had all of these rules like they couldn’t directly interfere with people but could only guide them, yet the forces of bad could do whatever they wanted. It would be like fighting someone with both hands tied behind your back. The ending of the story made no sense to me at all, and by the end I got so tired of the story that I just wanted to be done with it. All in all, there was just too much here that I didn’t like for the story to be enjoyable and I would not recommend it.

The Rainbow Virus by Dennis Meredith

In The Rainbow Virus, the FBI and CDC are chasing a bizarre virus unleashed by Arthur Lupo, a strange little scientist. Instead of unleashing chaos and killing millions, the virus changes the color of the infected person. The colors are varied, across all spectrums of the rainbow (hence the name). The two primary people on the chase are FBI agent, Bobby Loudon, and CDC scientist, Kathleen Shinohara. It was clear from the beginning that these two would eventually become a couple, something that was too obvious and telegraphed from the beginning of the story. Their belief is that the change in colors is only the beginning, and that Arthur Lupo has mass extinction as his intent.


The writing in the novel was pretty strong. It was professional and competent, and I don’t have much to quibble about it. I really liked the whole concept of the Rainbow virus. Typically in novels of bioterrorism, the antagonist is sinister from the jump, but in this novel, the initial viruses were more light-hearted in nature. After all, nobody was truly getting hurt unless they were particularly offended by their shade of color. Although I generally like the characterization in this novel, I didn’t find Arthur Lupo to be a particularly credible character. His motivation for doing all he did was thin. It was explained that his parents died at an early age. Well, many people have their parents die but they don’t attempt to infect the world with virus. I also didn’t like “the faction”, which was a stereotypical nameless, faceless government organization with unbound ruthlessness consisting of high ranking members of government and law enforcement with nefarious intent. The good guys were better developed and more resembled real people with real motivations.


There was good tension and this novel was overall a fun read that I would recommend.

Apt Pupil by Stephen King

My first exposure to Apt Pupil was the movie starting Ian McKellen. While I remembered the premise, I didn’t really remember the details. Given that Stephen King is my favorite writer and greatest influence upon me as a writer, I thought I would give it a read. The end result was a bit mixed.



I liked the concept behind it. It’s a story of an old Nazi concentration camp warden, Dussander, being blackmailed by a boy, Todd Bowden, into telling him all sorts of luring World War 2 concentration camp stories. Todd, as it turns out, is a complete and utter psychopath. Dussander and Todd don’t particularly like each other. It’s really a relationship of each person using the other for their own needs. There are elements of it that are compelling, and the writing is vintage King, so it’s top notch, but there are some serious issues with it.



The first is characterization. Dussander and Todd dominate the book and neither of them are particularly likeable, although at least Dussander has a certain charm to him. Todd does not. Besides being a psychopath, he is also annoying and whinny. The other big issue is believability. The characters often don’t act in a believable manner. For one thing, they independently become serial killers preying on winos. Dussander is a feeble old man, and it’s not credible that he can overtake and kill all of these people. It’s also not believable that Todd can do all this while being a star athlete and valedictorian at his high school. The book has some definite plot holes. All in all, I would recommend reading it, but it’s nowhere near one of King’s better stories.

10 Questions with Douglas Wynne

1. Who has been your biggest influence as a writer?


I’m tempted to say Clive Barker because his work really shaped me and inspired me to find my own voice, but there’s just no denying that growing up a constant reader of Stephen King influenced me in ways that I’m probably not even conscious of. His books are the foundation of my storytelling DNA.


2. What made you want to write fiction in the world of HP Lovecraft?


I’ve always been drawn to his mythology and cosmic vision. It’s an almost psychedelic worldview that breaks horror out of the traditional religious mold and offers a lot of freedom for telling new stories without just repeating what he did. There are plenty of horror subgenres that don’t resonate with me, but that one rings my bell.


3. What current writing projects are you working on?


I have a few things in the pipeline right now. A supernatural noir novella and a few short stories that are looking for the right home, and a new novel I’m excited about—a mainstream thriller with a subtle weird horror undercurrent. It deals with the anxieties that come with raising kids in the digital age. But, ironically, even though I’ve started moving away from Lovecraftian themes after finishing the SPECTRA Files trilogy, probably the first thing I have in the works that will see publication is an illustrated SPECTRA Files novella I’m looking to release at NecronomiCon Providence this summer. That one is a historical fiction riff in which Becca’s grandmother meets pioneering rocket scientist/occultist Jack Parsons in the 1940s.


4. When you first wrote Red Equinox, did you intend for it to be the start of a series?


I wanted it to work as a standalone book with its own resolution, but I hoped it would launch a series, so I made sure to leave the door open for that at the end.


5. Is there an overall theme to your writing?


There are probably a few I’m not consciously aware of because I’m too close to the books, but I do tend to write about people with deeply personal motives who are up against larger historical forces. Mental health is often an element. I write about artists and outcasts who have internal struggles competing with their external challenges. But probably the most obvious recurring theme is the mystical power of music in my stories. I started out as a songwriter and recording engineer, and I’m still fascinated by how sound can alter consciousness and evoke emotion.


6. What do you prefer, creating fiction or creating music?


These days fiction is my focus, but even when I was writing songs, they were stories, and I often write to a soundtrack, so it feels like I’m just focusing on a different side of the same creative process. Lately, I play guitar just to relax and blow off steam, but my son is starting to play instruments and write songs now, so teaching and helping him keeps the rust off.


7. What made you start writing?


My sixth grade English teacher got me hooked on reading with The Hobbit. That led to the Lord of the Rings. When I finished it, a friend loaned me his dad’s copy of The Stand. He recognized it was the same kind of epic fantasy but set in modern America, which was pretty astute for a thirteen-year-old. Anyway, that blew the doors open for me to Poe and Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury and Shirley Jackson. It was just like how listening to the Beatles made me want to pick up a guitar and have a go. If something creative looks fun, I have a hard time staying on the passive end of it.


8. What makes Massachusetts the hub of paranormal activity as described in Red Equinox?


I was born on Long Island, but Massachusetts is where I’ve lived for most of my adult life, and it’s where Lovecraft set most of his mythos stories. My wife grew up in Newburyport, which inspired The Shadow Over Innsmouth, so I was well aware of the local Lovecraft connections. But I wanted to put the cosmic horror in an urban setting. That doesn’t happen much in Lovecraft’s stories, except for “The Horror at Red Hook” and “Pickman’s Model.” And when I lived in Boston, I remembered hearing a ranting homeless guy saying, “They call Boston ‘the hub,’ and when you at the hub of the wheel, you bound to see the cracks!” That stuck with me and ended up in the book. Along the way, I also found some interesting Masonic symbolism in Boston’s monuments that was fun to weave into the plot.



9. Is there any subject that is off limits for you as a writer?


Nope. I think a sensitive writer can deal with any aspect of the human experience. That doesn’t mean there aren’t subjects I would be very careful with, and sometimes the research required to fill in your blind spots is daunting. But I think it’s all about how you approach the material. Empathy goes a long way in horror.


10, If you could invite five people to a dinner party (alive or dead, real or fictional) who would you invite?


I’d probably have a better time if I limited it to a group of my favorite writers or rock musicians, but in a crazy attempt to have it all, I’m thinking: Buddha, Lao Tzu, Shakespeare, Beethoven and a really good translator.

Red Equinox by Douglas Wynne

For some reason I seem to enjoy modern novels written in the Cthulhian world of HP Lovecraft far more than the original writings of Lovecraft. In this novel, Becca Phillips comes from a lineage of people dabbling with the gods and monsters of old. When Becca’s grandmother dies, she leaves her an ancient relic that she unknowingly can use to stop the Old Gods from returning. On the other side, there are forces at work to ensure that it happens, including a cult dedicated to the gods of times long ago and the Dark Pharaoh, who dates back to the time of the Egyptians.


This was a well-crafted and well-written story. It doesn’t have any of the pitfalls of Lovecraft, such as lack of character development and anything that resembles real dialogue. But it does have a lot of the cool mythology. The character development is strong as well as the world building. I liked how the author incorporated the urban exploration elements into the story. There are some cliché elements to the group SPECTRA, a shadowy government organization designed to defend the world against dangerous supernatural forces. Although the organization was a little cliché, Agent Brooks came off as a genuine and likeable character. I liked almost all of the book, especially the parts where the ancients start to seep into the world and only certain people can see them. My one nitpick is about the use of the dog in this novel. Becca owns him for less than a day but she has to be with the dog at all times, even while all hell’s breaking loose. I fully expected the dog to do something important to justify this attention, but it never happened. This novel is a winner and I would recommend reading it.

The Fearful Gates by Ross Lawhead

The Fearful Gates wraps up Ross Lawhead’s Ancient Earth trilogy. The stage has been set for the final confrontation after all of the knights have been raised, and the new army, consisting of small children throughout Britain, have been raised. Gad has assembled his army of trolls, dragon, yfelgopes, and all other manner of creatures to take Nidergeard by force. Freya, Daniel, Alex Simpson, and company oppose them, but it becomes readily apparent that in a war, Gad’s forces would absolutely overwhelm them, and some other type of strategy for victory is needed.


The final installments in a series are always tricky. By this point, expectations have been built, and in my experiences, the final novel is typically a letdown. In the case of this series, I don’t think that the finale is better than the previous two books, but it’s at least up to par with them. The writing is tight and professional. The characters feel familiar by this point. After having gotten to know them, I wanted a good outcome for them. Typically, the finale of a epic fantasy series results in some sort of cataclysmic final battle, but it wouldn’t have made much sense here given the disparity between the two forces. The author went for something a little different in this case, and I think for the most part it worked. I could nitpick on a couple of things that I didn’t like, but taking a wider view, it made sense. For those who have read the first two novels in the trilogy, I don’t think they will be disappointed.

10 Questions with C Michael Forsyth

1. What made you want to write a novel featuring Houdini and Rasputin?


When I was researching an earlier book, I learned that Houdini had visited Russia in 1903 and performed for Tsar Nicholas II. It turns out that even before falling under Rasputin’s spell, the Tsar was influenced by a long series of “spiritual advisors”—including one who hypnotized him. Believing that Houdini actually had supernatural powers, the Tsar offered the magician the job of court mystic. In reality, the escape artist politely turned him down. But it got me wondering what would have happened if Houdini and Rasputin, who arrived in the capital St. Petersburg that very same year, had butted heads.


2. What type of research did you do for Houdini vs Rasputin?


I read a half-dozen biographies of Rasputin, including one written by his daughter Maria. Another book, The Rasputin File, was based on the findings of a Soviet government investigation conducted shortly after the revolution, in which Rasputin’s followers were grilled at length. Books such as Nicholas and Alexandra gave me insight into court life. To help me imagine Houdini as a real-life action hero, I screened each of the silent film serials he starred in. I also watched films about Rasputin, including one in which Christopher Lee did a smashing job of conveying the mystic’s charisma and sexual magnetism. Of course, the Internet was a constant companion as I returned to it again and again for details about locations, vehicles, train routes, etc.


3. How does your background in film and cartoons affect the way you write fiction?


I write very visually. I really don’t consider a scene complete unless I—and the reader—can visualize it from beginning to end.


4. What’s the greatest moment in your writing career?


The publication of this book. It is my strongest work. I brought everything to it that I learned from my previous efforts about structure, dramatic conflict and incorporating facts into fiction.


5. What is your favorite historical fiction novel?


The King Must Die, a retelling of the myth of Theseus and the minotaur by Mary Renault.


6. If you could pick one other author to collaborate with on a novel or story, living or dead, who would it be?


Milton Davis is a writer of black speculative fiction, including Changa’s Safari, which features a swashbuckling, Sinbad-like African sea merchant. As the author of an adventure story The Blood of Titans set in ancient Africa, it’s a book I wish I’d written myself.


7. What drew you toward Rasputin and how would someone like him operate if were alive today?

What fascinates me about Rasputin is that he truly did have a spiritual side, almost as powerful as his lusting, bestial side. He is one of the great villains of history, whose misdeeds contributed to the destruction of the Russian empire, but a complex villain. It isn’t hard to see Rasputin in modern figures like Charles Manson, who use their personal magnetism to gather around them a circle of fanatical female followers. Today, with social media, he might quickly develop a huge following.


8. Of all the jobs you have held, what is the strangest and/or most interesting?


For nine years, I was a writer for Weekly World News, a tabloid that churned out fake news before it was fashionable. My gig amounted to writing weird, blackly funny tales all day, on subjects ranging from space aliens to Batboy to “Gay Skeletons Found in Titanic Life Ring.”


9. What is your favorite medium to use to tell a story?


It was cartooning that got me started in creating fiction, and my heart belongs to that medium. I am currently working on a graphic novel about vampires in a women’s prison, titled Night Cage.


10. If you could invite five people (living or dead; real or fictional) to a dinner party, who would you invite?


Jesus, Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci, Orson Welles and Mark Twain