Gilbert M. Stack's Blog, page 75

Review: Gaunt's Ghosts 1 First & Only by Dan Abnett

Gaunt’s Ghosts 1 First & Only by Dan Abnett

First & Only is the story of Commissar Ibram Gaunt—the man who led the critical action that won the most important victory in the first ten years of the Sabbat Worlds Crusade—the Battle of Balhaut. As a reward for his skill and valor, dying Warmaster Slaydo made the commissar a colonel and gave him his own command, the Tanith First, a regiment whose world was destroyed after they were mobilized and so they are the very last of their kind.

 

The crusade after the death of Warmaster Slaydo is bogged down in terrible intrigue between different factions of the imperial war machine—men who resent the fact that the new warmaster is the relatively young Macaroth. First & Only is a tale of that intrigue and of how Ibram Gaunt and his Ghosts get caught up within it. It’s also the story of a heck of a lot of battles that have the feel of World War I—a brutal slog with tremendous casualties on both sides.

 

The enemy are insane by any reasonable definition. Their minds and often their bodies have been twisted by chaos and the warp so that they are fearsome and often terrifying opponents. There is nothing respectable about the forces of chaos, but interestingly enough, there isn’t that much that is respectable on Gaunt’s side either other than the sense of honor, integrity and loyalty that he and his Ghosts adhere to. The Imperium is a fascist state—apparently driven to this condition by the demands of maintaining the never-ending war against the forces of chaos.

 

This is a solid story with a lot of military action and intrigue. It also does a great job of establishing the Warhammer 40,000 universe as a bleak and violent place. I first read this book roughly eighteen years ago and many of the scenes have remained vividly with me throughout all that time. It’s a good beginning to what becomes a great series.

 

 

Review: Muted Veil by Elizabeth Hamilton-Smyth

Muted Veil by Elizabeth Hamilton-Smyth

Hamilton Smyth takes what might have been a routine mystery story and turns it into an extremely tense adventure by creating a heroine with an unusual personality disorder. Frances is obsessed with her personal privacy—so much so that she takes medication to help her control the anxiety her disorder causes her. Unfortunately for her, the modern world is not kind to people who don’t want others knowing what they are doing. Google and its corporate pals spy on everything. The government keeps humongous volumes of information on all of us. Cameras mark our cars’ comings and goings in the streets. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg when you start thinking about shopping, banking, and everything else we do.

 

Frances decides to leave England and resettle in a small town in southern France to escape everyone’s prying eyes and live quietly with her four cats. She plans her escape in meticulous detail and carefully settles into her new property where she hires (for cash) a handyman to fix up the house and put a fence around her land. Then things go crazy. A new boisterous neighbor buys the house next door and immediately starts intruding on her property. He claims the fence is on his land and his building plans would steal from Frances her sense of safety from prying eyes. She reluctantly engages a lawyer to fight his plans and he physically threatens her.

 

Now this is the part of the tale where a normal person would go to the police and lodge a complaint—but Frances can’t do that. Police keep records and her disorder doesn’t permit her to get help in the normal fashion, so she has to figure out what is going on and find a solution to her problem on her own.

 

All of that (Part I of the novel) is great! It’s fast moving, engaging, and suspenseful. I was particularly pleased that I solved the mystery on my own (I don’t always do that) and was shocked by the eventual solution to the problem. Unfortunately, Hamilton-Smyth then spends the next two-thirds of the novel giving details on how the problem that caused the land dispute occurred. I thought all of this was implicit in what Frances discovered in her investigation. I would have much preferred the author to show how Frances—with her peculiar disability—handled the aftermath to the solution to her problem with her neighbor. I see no way for her to keep the authorities from becoming involved and the stress this would have caused her would both further stoke the reader’s sympathy and create a different kind of drama. Perhaps Hamilton-Smyth will show us that in a later book.

 

That being said, the basic mystery is a very good one and the decision to go with a heroine suffering from Frances’ disability was ingenious. This one is well worth reading.

 

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

 

Review: Where There's Smoke by Craig Halloran

Where There’s Smoke by Craig Halloran (Supernatural Bounty Hunter 3)

Halloran comes up with yet another monster rarely seen in urban fantasy novels to make this one of the most exciting books in the series yet. Sidney Shaw is becoming obsessed with the Black Slate files even as her superior (and ex-boyfriend) in the FBI is isolating and ridiculing her for her successes because he thinks being the first person to successfully complete Black Slate missions will damage her career because it involves the supernatural.

 

Sidney moves forward with her new case anyway and quickly discovers that there are personal prices to be paid for confronting these bad guys. Her sister and niece are kidnapped by her latest quarry and this leads to a long and involved end game scenario against a very cool monster. As if this wasn’t enough, there’s also a big surprise at the end. This one is good all around.

 

I received this book free from Free Audiobook Codes in exchange for an honest review.

 

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

 

Review: Wolfbane by Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth

A great new edition of a classic SF Tale

Wolfbane by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth

This novel was written in the 1950s by two of the greats of science fiction—Frederick Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth. As one would expect from two such authors, it is filled with humongous ideas and images that have reappeared repeatedly in the genre since then. The earth has been conquered by aliens who have never appeared on the planet—only sent their pyramid machine to carry out their will from the heights of Mount Everest. The Earth, itself, has been ripped out of the solar system and placed in a new orbit around the moon which has been turned into a miniature sun which needs to be reignited every five years. Most of humanity didn’t survive this and now there are perhaps a hundred million humans left, most of whom have become “sheep” who follow the course of life laid out by the aliens—one in which greed is gone and people spend a great deal of their time in meditation. Occasionally, meditation attracts the attention of the pyramid and the meditator is teleported away to an unknown fate.

 

That’s all the initial setting and things only get grander in scope and scale after that. Before the novel is finished we’ll see an alien world, humans melded to machines, hive minds, and so much more. The action revolves around a man, Glen Tropile, who fancies himself a wolf (capable of acting out of self-interest) but doesn’t truly seem to be either wolf or sheep. Tropile is what makes this book so interesting and is Pohl and Kornbluth’s foil for comparing facsimiles of a Marxist civilization and a more libertarian society—neither of which appear to have what it takes to help humanity escape from and survive its alien conquerors.

 

This is a great book and deserves to be more widely known, but it isn’t the easiest read. Writing conventions have evolved over the last sixty years, so be prepared to give it your full attention to maximize your enjoyment.

 

Review: Starfall by David Reiss

Starfall by David Reiss

The notorious Dr. Fid emerged triumphant once again after the events of Behind Distant Stars, but the price was horrendous. For the second time in his life, Fid failed to protect the life of a younger sibling, but this time, there is just the smallest of chances that he can rectify his error and bring Whisper safely home again. So Fid totally rearranges his life to give one hundred percent of his attention to the task of rescuing his sister, and woe be it to any foolish hero or villain who dares to get in his way. And yes, you guessed it, it’s the heroes who are going to be the major problem this time.

 

Reiss has clearly been thinking of this last book at each stage of writing the first two, because all of the components of Fid’s life come together perfectly here. His unbreakable will, his towering genius, and—just like some of the heroes he most despises—his willingness to go to any extreme to achieve his aim. In this last book, we get to learn once and for all who Dr. Fid is and whether or not he has actually accomplished anything with his crusade against false heroes. The fact that it is not a world at stake but “only” the life of one little girl makes him both more awe-inspiring and more endearing than ever before. Reiss has found a way to answer once and for all the question of whether or not Fid is actually better than the false heroes he’s dedicated his life to bringing down and I think every reader will be totally pleased with the answer.

 

Yet, that was not the part of the book that brought tears to my eyes. Fid is not the only person tested in these pages. And perhaps his legacy will ultimately depend upon whether or not any of the self-proclaimed heroes out there really meet the standards they proclaim. Fid, of course, expects them all to fail.

 

This is a supers trilogy to stand with the absolute best in the genre. My only complaint is that it appears Reiss is finished with the story.

 

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

 

Review: Behind Distant Stars by David Reiss

Behind Distant Stars by David Reiss

The notorious Dr. Fid returns with something of a public relations problem. It turns out that saving the world—even when you had to beat the heck out of a ton of super heroes to do it—softens your image as the baddest of the bad. Add to that a couple of unfortunate instances caught on tape—like saving a falling cat—and the world is asking if Fid has had a change of heart. Could he be becoming the thing he hates the most—a super hero?

 

Fid, being Fid, decides to use this confusion to pretend to become the hero in question, just so he can further expose how unworthy heroes are of the public’s respect, but in doing so begins to learn that the world is much more complicated than the black and white image he has clung to throughout his career and the journey he has started down might just be more true than he wants it to be.

 

It’s amazing that a novel that is as heavily psychological as this one is, could also be packed to the gills with amazing action scenes. David Reiss has given more thought to the armored hero / villain than the creators of Iron Man ever did and the reader benefits tremendously from this care on his part. Plus, Fid is a scientific genius to put Tony Stark and Reed Richards to shame and this time he really has to put his IQ to the test as he struggles to unravel numerous complicated puzzles in both his heroic / villainous career and his personal life.

 

Add to that his developing relationship with a couple of heroes you know he wants to like, his touching guardianship of Whisper, a child AI who oh so obviously reminds him of his long dead little brother, and even his deteriorating relationships with the villains of the world who are convinced he’s going soft, and you have a wonderfully well-rounded novel filled with action, mysteries, and genuine personal growth.

 

Part of the strength of the series is that I’m really not certain where Fid will end up in his personal journey, but I’ve already started the next book so I can find out.

 

Review: Into the Woods by Josh Soule

Into the Woods by Josh Soule

You’ll figure out what the beast is that threatens the village of Carn very quickly, but the truly intriguing puzzle is figuring out who the monster is. Josh Soule lays out his mystery quite well. Three old friends are reunited when John returns to Carn from Paris in the late sixteenth century. He has a secret that is greatly disturbing him. His friends Henry and Thomas are arguing with each other. Thomas has lost a cow to the beast and wants to hunt it down while Henry is more concerned with keeping the villagers from panicking. It’s an awkward situation made worse by Henry’s monstrous temper, but the novel sees the three men struggling to restore their friendship while they try to find the monster. The reader will spend all of that time looking for clues as to which of them is secretly the beast.

 

Soule plays fair with the reader giving out clues, but there were a couple of things that struck me as odd about the story. At one point, several corpses—victims of the beast—are discovered and again “not to panic” the villagers, the decision is made not to tell anyone what was found. In fact, by the end of the novel it is clear that a couple of villagers have known what was going on and who was responsible from the beginning, but didn’t share their knowledge even though doing so would have completely averted all the tragedies in the tale. There are also some minor issues with the setting of the story. For example, Soule uses the term rifle and musket interchangeably—they are not interchangeable and rifles weren’t invented yet. But these are ultimately small issues which do not harm the overall story.

 

In the final analysis, this is a novel about four people (I include the old priest who helped raise two of the boys) who care deeply about each other and there’s a definite sense of growing tragedy as they try to figure out how to protect the town. If you like a historical mystery that is strongly grounded in the characters, you’ll like Into the Woods.

 

Review: Nemesis 2 Sovereign by April Daniels

Nemesis 2 Sovereign by April Daniels

In this sequel to the powerful novel, Dreadnought, April Daniels breaks her heroine down again to rebuild her stronger than ever in this worthy second novel. Everything seems to be going right for Dreadnought until she runs into a problem she can’t simply punch to defeat. The problem is one of money—in the form of a corrupt billionaire (Sovereign) who has decided to attack Dreadnought through her reputation with the public in an effort to remove her as an obstacle to his plans for world domination.

 

As if that isn’t bad enough, Dreadnought still has to deal with the Grey Witch—one of the survivors of the Legion Pacifica whom the world thinks is a hero but we know is evil to the core. Like Sovereign, she’s smart enough to avoid going head-to-head with Dreadnought and remembers that the young heroine is still a teenager with the many vulnerabilities that implies.

 

So there’s a couple of great plots interwoven here that Dreadnought has to figure out how to overcome, but don ‘t think this is a novel without traditional super hero battles. It has plenty of those and they are every bit as exciting and well thought out as those in the first novel.

 

Sovereign is the full package with physical, mental, and emotional challenges which make for an incredibly exciting adventure.

 

If you liked this review, you can find more at www.gilbertstack.com/reviews.

 

Review: The Banshee of the Atacama by Chris L. Adams

The Banshee of the Atacama by Chris L. Adams

Several years ago, Chris L. Adams wrote a great short story called Blonde Goddess of the Tikka-Tikka which mixed a little of the Tarzan atmosphere with a dash of H.P. Lovecraft. He’s just published the sequel and man was it worth the wait.

 

Ansen Grost has the unique background of being a descendant of Vikings raised by the Arapaho at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. He’s a mighty warrior who carries a mystical tomahawk. He served in World War I and has had trouble settling down after his experiences there. In Scotland he comes across an old man looking for someone to find his missing daughter for him. It seems like a simple enough task except that the young woman, Mhairi, is lost in the wilderness of South America and she has an unhealthy interest in the supernatural. Ansen agrees to go look for her which opens the first half of the novel.

 

I’m not going to give a blow by blow of the book, but it’s worth noting that—as was the case with Tolkein—the journey is a significant and important part of the story. We learn a tremendous amount about Ansen and how his years away from the Arapaho have damaged him. We also meet two members of the critical supporting cast and get to understand their unique personalities. This is far more important than it would be in a typical adventure story because Adams has intertwined a truly spiritual quest with his Lovecraftian adventure and that wouldn’t have been successful without the time and care he puts into introducing these characters.

 

The main action of the story comes when Ansen and company finally find Mhairi, but the circumstances are not anything I could have imagined before the start of the story. There are demons and dark gods and monsters by the hundreds, but the most pivotal creature is the banshee of the title and if they can’t uncover her secret motivations, they just might trigger the end of the world.

 

I opened the book expecting a fairly straightforward adventure story, but Adams gave me much more. This is a deep and complicated tale which draws upon multiple world mythologies to create an adventure I will not only long remember, but return to again and again in the future.

 

Review: The Long Silent Night by Shane Berryhill

The Long Silent Night by Shane Berryhill

What happens when you bring the detective noir genre to the land of holiday characters like Santa Clause, Father Time, and the Easter Bunny? You get Private Investigator Jack Frost. When Santa Clause is kidnapped right after he casts the spell that keeps it Christmas Eve until all the presents are delivered to the children of the world, Jack Frost gets the task of finding him. The mystery wasn’t hard to solve—you’ll figure it out very quickly—but the romp through various fairytale lands is certainly fun.