Doug Lewars's Blog, page 49

The Return of Kid Cooper

The Return of Kid Cooper by Brad Smith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

It's been a long time since I read a good old-fashioned western, probably because it's not one of my preferred genres and the library has removed the shelf where it used to store them. Now and then, however, I like to read genres I normally pass by and since this is a candidate for the Evergreen awards I thought I'd give it a try.

It was pretty good, a little slow in some places but not so much as to be truly objectionable. Like many westerns the bad guy was a wealthy rancher lording it over those around him. However he wasn't trying for the deed to some poor girl's ranch, he was trying to cover up a land survey swindle that had netted his late father, and by inheritance him, many extra acres of prime pasture - pasture that was supposed to go to a tribe of indians living on a nearby reservation.

There were a few things about this book I didn't care for. First, there was a subplot that just fizzled out. A young ranch hand falls in love with a wealthy rancher's daughter. It seems she loves him back. They're thinking about getting married and then ... and then ... it ends - no reason. It's just over.

I also found the ending a little too pat. Sure this is a western. There's supposed to be a gunfight and bad guys are supposed to die but bodies were stacked up like cord-wood by the time this story ended. In addition, a guy who was once a hero and has pretty much allowed alcohol to take over his life has this sudden reversal back to the man he once was. Hmmmm.

If you like slow-walkin slow-talkin heroes who can rope a cow and shoot straight and true this book may be for you but you have to be willing to accept more than a few stereotypes along the way.



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Things I Don't Want to Know

Things I Don't Want to Know by Deborah Levy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

The best thing about this book is that it's short. In addition, the author has a good command of the English language. This book was labeled 'biography' and I learned some details about the life of the author but not a lot. The best part was a long flashback describing her early years in South Africa under the apartheid regime. That was interesting. The rest was little more than neurotic whining. I won't recommend it but I won't say it's terrible either. It's pretty much in the middle and I'm certain there are more interesting books to read.



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Hysteria

Hysteria by Elisabeth de Mariaffi

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

I couldn't bring myself to knock this all the way down to a 3 but it is well below being a 4. Still, some number of stars are required so there you have it.

Mental illness? Delusions? Hallucinations? Ghosts? A controlling sadistic husband? A missing child? A hysterical wife? A secret research project? It’s all here. The author is attempting to convey to the reader a sense of unreality – of how the protagonist cannot differentiate from delusion to reality to false memory. It’s not perfect but it’s done pretty well. What is extremely effective is the sense of foreboding menace that extends from the first page to almost the end of the book. This book is 414 pages in length so it’s pretty impressive to be able to sustain a mood for that amount of time. However in order to maintain the atmosphere the author had to slow the pacing and frankly I wasn’t sure I would be able to complete reading it. This is far from being a page-turner.

I found the ending just a little too conventional or perhaps convenient for my taste; however, at least this book had one. So many modern writers seem to simply stop writing as if distracted by something, and not having the time to complete the manuscript they just send it off for publishing anyway and hope maybe the reader can fill in the details. Most of the loose ends are tied up nicely.

This book is a contender for the 2019 Evergreen awards and it won’t get my vote but I don’t regret the time I spent reading it. If you don’t mind slow pacing and enjoy psychological mind-benders and lots of creepiness then this is likely worthwhile.




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The Saturday Night Ghost Club

The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

I'm not convinced this book is worth a 5 but since I can't put my finger on anything specific not to like and since when I'm doing reviews I always try to be exact then the rating stands.

It was a nice coming-of-age story like many of that genre and neither better nor worse. The characters are believable, the pacing is good and the settings work well. When I started reading I was afraid that it was going to be too stereotypical - boy growing up as a geek without any friends and being bullied - and there was a bit of that but not so much as to be objectionable.

This story is told as a series of flashbacks, a technique I usually don't like but it was well handled. The current narrator is an adult neurosurgeon in Toronto who comments on the vagaries of the brain even as things are working themselves out. I thought that was very well done.

There probably should be a proper ghost in a book so titled but there was only one possible ghost in the screaming tunnel and it seemed more likely to be the narrator's imagination. This book doesn't travel far into the occult.

Although the author appears to use plenty of foreshadowing of unpleasantness to come it, fortunately, fails to materialize. I was quite relieved by the ending. I hate books that drift into the maudlin and this one avoids that pitfall.

There is one impressive blooper - the kind of thing authors notice long after the book is in print and cringe every time they come across it but I won't spoil the story by identifying it. You may notice it should you choose to read the book and then find yourself going back a few pages to be certain of what you read, or you may shrug and say an author doesn't have to flesh out every little detail and let it go.

One scene I didn't think was described very well was a fight between the narrator's father and the father of a bully. The narrator's dad is knocked on his butt. From that position he stands up and KOs his opponent. In the way the author describes it the angles don't make sense - at least not to me. Perhaps the author envisioned something different but I just can't imagine anyone getting any force behind the blow as it was described. It's a minor detail and doesn't alter the story.

Overall I think this book is worth reading. It's on the nomination list for the Evergreen awards and I don't think it's good enough to win but based on my past experience with those awards it might.



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Mary Boleyn: The Mistriss of Kings

Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings by Alison Weir

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

Mary Boleyn was Anne Bolyn's sister. It was Anne who eventually married Henry VIII and lost her head when he got tired of her and wanted a new wife. Before Henry got interested in Anne, he had an affair with Mary. The length of the affair isn't clear.

This book is well researched and well written but it wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I was hoping that having had her affair, Mary would be in the background and privy to the various court intrigues that made Henry VIII's court resemble Game of Thrones but when Anne was apparently railroaded, Mary was out of the country.

The author is a pretty good historian and does an excellent job of not only explaining her topic but provides some insight into historiography at the same time. Unfortunately this is not an exact science because so few records exist. By taking a bit her and a bit there, she concludes some events were more probable than others and spends an inordinate amount of time working out the probable dating of events but little of that interested me. I wanted to understand the character of Mary Boleyn and it seems there is just too little evidence on the record for that to happen.

All and all, this is a good book if you want names and probable dates and it provides an excellent tutorial into the methodology of a historian but if, like me, you want to understand the working of the court, the political intrigues, the various alliances and betrayals, you won't find it here.



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Foe

Foe by Iain Reid

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

This wasn't quite a 5. I figure it's worth 4.5 and I rounded up.

This book is on the nomination list for the Evergreen awards. Last year I read all the nominees and when I was done, concluded that if a book has been nominated for this award then I'm not going to like it. I had no intention of reading Foe but the head librarian at the library I attend persuaded me to give it a try and she was correct. It is worth reading with a few caveats.

If you like fast paced book then this isn't for you. One reviewer I saw noted that this would have made a pretty good short story. I wouldn't go quite that far but it was pretty slow moving particularly at the beginning. I noticed a number of reviewers commented that they'd figured out the 'surprise' ending my the midpoint so the ending wasn't a surprise at all. I figured it out as well but I considered the eventual ending as one of a set of possibilities. Yes, it was the most obvious and yes, the author did choose to go in that direction but he could have taken a different direction so I didn't lose interest as I progressed.

There were a few things that were, presumably symbolic but if that was the case they went right over my head. One was a barn fire and the other was the rhinoceros beetle. Two characters seemed to have a fascination for it but why and what it was supposed to represent I have no idea.

This book combines a psychological examination of the marriage relationship within a sci-fi genre. I'm not sure there was much to the psychology of the thing. People do drift apart over time. I found the science more interesting although little was made of it in the book. The time is the not-to-distant future and humans can be replicated, combined with AI technology and used as doppelgangers to replace one another during a time of absence. It is suggested that the body could be fabricated using a 3-D printer but I don't think it would be possible to create something organic and apparently alive in the near future. The AI was more interesting because it is possible to create fabricated memories and technically it would appear easy with a computer but the entity so created has to believe and act on these memories and I'm not sure how that would work.

One thing I particularly liked was a fairly unsubtle hint suggesting the company behind the project OuterMore is based on Google.

The two main characters are named Junior and Henrietta but the latter is always shortened to Hen. They live in a rural area that is quite secluded. It appears being isolated is somehow important to the story but that is never made clear. It's suggested that almost the entire human population has migrated to cities leaving the rural area to be farmed by huge conglomerates but why the author bothered with this detail when he doesn't follow up isn't clear. Perhaps he wants to set the stage for a sequel.

With names like Junior and Hen these individuals are portrayed as bland in the extreme. Yet supposedly Junior has been selected to participate in a critical project that will pave the way for human migration into space. Why he was selected for that or anything else is left to the reader's imagination.

Although the pace is painfully slow at times, the author manages successfully to create an eerie feeling of unreality throughout the book and I felt that was done very well. Even if you suspect you know where he's going, the feeling of unreality and the possibility you might be wrong holds your interest. I think this book is worth reading if only for the many hints as to what the author sees making up our future - a future younger readers will still be alive to see.



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That Time I Loved You

That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

I was actually prepared to dislike this book so it came as a surprise to find myself quite enjoying it. I like books, libraries and librarians; however, I generally don't like librarian suggestions. It seems my preferences and those of most librarians are 180 degrees apart. Apparently there is some sort of special library event coming up in September and this book is a part of it. The head librarian at the branch I go to was looking for volunteers to read the book and attend the event. I didn't think I volunteered but suddenly a copy appeared in front of me and that was that.

I wouldn't exactly describe this as a page-turner but I read it in two days without really trying so I guess it is quite compelling. To some extent it reminded me of a movie the name of which I've forgotten but after searching the internet have been Hotel Room. It consisted of a series of short stories of people who check into this one particular hotel room, experience some sort of interesting event and then move on. In this book we have a series of short stories each of which involves a person in a family living in a three-block area of Scarborough. Some individuals feature in more than one story. The neighborhood has been rocked by a series of deaths - two suicides and one deemed to be of natural causes. It's a new neighborhood and the author suggests that beyond the facade of normality there lurks various undercurrents of unpleasant things.

We learn of the deaths in the first couple of pages and I figured this book was going to do nothing more than attack middle-class suburbia and there was a hint of that but for the most part the author explored the lives of various individuals on the periphery of the events and suggested there may be more to their lives than meets the eye. It wasn't heavy handed at all. The characters were believable and well developed.

I rated this book a 4 but in actuality it's more of a 3.8 - good, but not terrific. The best thing is the author piques the readers curiosity enough to keep going from story to story. Because this is a book of short stories and not a novel there is no final conclusion and I found the last story a bit of a downer but not really unpleasant.

If you like to imagine the lives of the people in the various houses in your neighborhood I think you'll like this. Likewise, I suppose, if you like to peek in people's windows and into their backyards you might like it as well. I regard the time I spent reading it as worthwhile.



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Next

neXt by Lance Manion

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

It isn't actually worth four stars but I was feeling generous.

This is described as a book of short stories but vignettes might be a better description. Each entity is about the size of a blog entry and although I haven't checked, I wonder if perhaps the author has been writing a blog for some time and decided to take a bunch of his posts and recycle them in book format. Plots are thin to non-existent and characters are sparse at best. Having said that, I enjoyed some of them, but I would have been just as happy had the book been half its size. The problem for me is that because there are so many small entries I never became involved. I could have walked away at any time without finishing but I did finish it because it is very seldom I mark a book DNF.

In addition, this book is categorized as humorous. I found three or four stories worth a chuckle and since humor is difficult to write I suppose that's good but I was hoping for better.

The reason I selected this particular book is because it's April and April is inde authors' month - a time to support inde authors so I thought I'd select one and read it. It helped that on Smashwords, this book was free and although I can't claim it's a fantastic work, it's certainly worth every penny I paid for it.

If you're looking for a novel or a book of short stories with a plot and characters this one isn't for you. On the other hand, if what you like is short off-the-wall, mildly-humorous blog posts that you can open anywhere without losing the thread of the story then this is perfect. I don't regret spending the time to read it and I did like the author's ability to think outside the box. Had I read this back when I was in university I'd have awarded it five stars and a rave review.



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Letters to a Young Artist

Letters to a Young Artist: Building a Life in Art by Julia Cameron

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

I'm being generous. I figure 3.5 is about right for this book and I rounded up.

The author is competent at her craft but the contents are targeted towards a young person. My work habits are already pretty good so she didn't have much to communicate to me. I think a young person might benefit from some parts of this book.

The creative drive is linked firmly to a deity. I tend to be rather skeptical when someone starts using the word 'God' and I generally check my wallet. There's nothing wrong with believing in God except this author carries it a little too far. She suggests the young writer to whom she is communicating throw caution to the winds, leap into writing and God will see that he's taken care of. I don't like that advice. Just the other evening I met an independent author who self-published three books. He also went the print route using one of the various services that offer that sort of thing. Then, with his first book he launched a serious marketing campaign and by serious he says he invested approximately 100K dollars. The revenue generated was around 10K so he lost roughly 90K. That's a lot of money. He was sufficiently fortunate to have the sort of job that allowed him to take the hit but consider some young person, fresh out of school, throwing caution to the winds and incurring a massive debt that he might be faced with for years to come. Therefore I strongly recommend that if anyone reads this book, proceed with extreme caution. There is plenty of advice in this book that is perfectly fine but not that part. Some might argue 'nothing ventured nothing gained' and that's all very well but there's something to be said for caution as well and when it comes to publishing, the risks are high.

I don't recommend this for older readers. With the above caution, it might benefit a young person.





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Lord of the Wings

Lord of the Wings by Donna Andrews

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***
I selected this book because there are only so many Janet Evanovich in the Stephanie Plum series and I thought this might provide a similar humorous mystery. It wasn't bad. The pacing was quite a bit slower than Evanovich and the book would certainly have benefited from a good editor - or perhaps any editor - but it was certainly readable.

The characters were mildly interesting but not flamboyant and could have benefited from a bit of quirkiness. Much of the story involved the organizing of a Halloween festival that was peripheral to the murders and when the killer is finally revealed, his motive seems a bit questionable.

This was book 19 in the series and I stumbled upon it by accident and because the listing of other books by the author was not in chronological sequence. When I required another light fluffy mystery I may read another book by this author but it won't be soon. I enjoyed it but I can't claim to have become even slightly addicted.






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