Doug Lewars's Blog, page 50

The Fifth Doll

The Fifth Doll by Charlie N. Holmberg

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

A slight variation on Brigadoon, we have a village that is locked away from the rest of the world in a collection of five dolls inserted one inside another. The village is slightly reminiscent of Handmaid's Tale although not quite so religious but marriages are arranged and daughters must be obedient. The story traces the fate of one particular girl who his selected to be the protege of the magician who controls this world but as she learns more she struggles to attain the freedom of the real world and eventually succeeds.

Unlike many books, I found this one interesting because I couldn't predict where the author was going. All too often readers can figure out upcoming plot twists long before the principle characters but not this time. The pacing was a little slow but not excessively. However those who require explosions and car chases will NOT find them here.

There is considerable irony that is not developed. The village is locked away in this mythical environment for twenty years, a period in Russian history that spans the fall of the Tsar to the rise of Stalin. One has to wonder if perhaps the villagers might have been better in their prison rather than freed but this is never touched upon. Perhaps the author is saving it for a sequel.

I quite enjoyed the book and think it's worth the time to read.



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Curious Minds

Curious Minds by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

This book is a collaboration between Janet Evanovich and Phoef Sutton which probably means Phoef wrote the book and Janet put her name on the cover to generate sales and likely took much of the revenue. Still, she had brand image and although he's apparently been in the business for over 20 years I'd never heard of him.

I have to admit I was rather skeptical when I selected this book because most collaborations don't work and it would have been necessary for him to copy her style which can cause problems. As it turned out, the book is pretty good - not, in my opinion as good as the Stephanie Plum series but certainly readable. I had a couple of credibility problems with some of the details but, this is fiction and if in this world a young woman can graduate from Harvard with both a business and law degree and then be relegated to the position of junior financial analyst at a financial institution then I guess I have to believe it. Still it seems a bit of a stretch. One would expect such an individual to be front and center in international banking.

It seemed like Mr. Sutton had some initial difficulty capturing the voice and around the one-third mark everyone began to sound like Lulu for a while but that passed and things improved considerably by the middle.

I didn't like the ending but I suspect that wasn't the fault of either Mr. Sutton or Ms. Evanovich but possibly an over zealous editor who had to get the thing down to some target word count and was prepared to cut with an axe if necessary.

Overall I thought the book was good but not great. It's not the kind of thing that would make me immediately take a copy from a shelf but, I wouldn't rule it out either. Perhaps sometime in the future I'll read the next book in the series and perhaps not. There's no rush.



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Look Alive Twenty-Five

Look Alive Twenty-Five by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

Like all Janet Evanovich's books, I enjoyed this one although not as much as #24. Possibly, after her 24th book, Ms. Evanovich decided to changer her pitches slightly but this one seemed just a little flat.

There wasn't as much bounty hunting going on and what did happen seemed pretty cut and dried. In the past, the heroine, Stephanie Plum, managed to mess up in a spectacular manner with amazing consistency. This time there wasn't as much action to those scenes.

There is a running gag throughout the series that Stephanie will destroy at least one and possible several cars by the end of the book. Not one car was totaled in this one.

Stephanie's rather eccentric family barely made a cameo in this book.

Occasionally, Stephanie finds it necessary to work at a job other than bounty hunting. When that happens she generates chaos for all concerned. This time she became the manager of a deli restaurant and, while it eventually burned down, it was Lulu, her sidekick who managed it.

I can't say there's anything categorically wrong and I still recommend it for those who enjoy the series but lower your expectations just a little because this one isn't quite as amusing as we have come to expect.



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Hardcore Twenty Four

Hardcore Twenty-Four by Janet Evanovich

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

Janet Evanovich's books are not for everyone. If you're looking for complex introspective characters with deep emotions and progressive character arcs, you should probably take a pass on these. In addition her plot structure is pretty straight forward. She makes use of the mystery, or perhaps detective genre but her chief focus is on humour and she's quite good at that. You will find a number of literary tropes in these pages but she uses them in such an engaging fashion that it's impossible to become bored. When reading these books you know before you open them what you are going to get and she provides it. They are light, rather frivolous, works of entertainment and they are very much entertaining.

In Hardcore Twenty-Four she branches out very slightly by adding a crossover character, Diesel, to the mix. She doesn't actually write fantasy for the most part but she does include the occasional hint that perhaps some of her characters have abilities that transcend the norm. In this book she makes use of zombies but, of course these aren't real zombies. They are perfectly normal humans who act as if they were resurrected from the dead, and, yes, they do have an interest in brains but, it turns out, not in the culinary sense.

Ms. Evanovich makes use of short, terse sentences to a large extent that convey something of the feeling of classic detective novels - Phillip Marlowe, Sam Spade - that sort of thing. They keep up the pacing but she softens them just enough so the reader isn't overwhelmed. She is an absolute master of her craft and if you like this genre, Hardcore Twenty-Four is one you will thoroughly enjoy.



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Alien Sex: 19 Tales by the Masters

Alien Sex: 19 Tales by the Masters of Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy by Ellen Datlow

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

Some of these stories were great. Some were awful. On balance I'd say that it was about 50/50. I almost gave up after the first two but the third was by Harlan Ellison and he seldom disappoints. For me that story was the highlight of the book. There were other good ones but that was the best. I'd say there's something here for everybody but definitely not everything for everybody. A wide variety of themes were covered.



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Chessboard of Darkness

Chessboard of Darkness by Doug Lewars




New book in the Dark Lord Rising series.



A soul severed in two. A terrorist plot. Two children - together they comprise a power that might someday destroy the might of Stasis and bring down the Dark Lord. But the power of darkness is subtle and ever seeks to corrupt the two. Drawn together, they find themselves caught up in a kidnapping along with others and become hostages in a terrorist plot aimed at the heart of western society. There are wheels within wheels as people and events are manipulated like pawns on a chessboard - one in which the fate of all things hangs in the balance.



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Fields of Blood

Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence by Karen Armstrong

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

If you're a devote atheist adamant in your belief that religion is the root of all evil then this book isn't for you.

Karen Armstrong attempts to make the case that religion is just one factor, and a comparatively minor one at that, in the promotion of violence. For me, she doesn't quite succeed with the 'minor' part but she does expand the idea of religious violence to include other thing. To start with she points out that once societies turned agrarian, some sort of organization was required that led to an imbalance of power which in turn, necessitated violence to maintain its structure. She also points out that it was only comparatively recently that a separation of church and state was possible. Her argument is, that if religion and state were inseparable, how can one point the finger exclusively at religion to account for violence. That's a fair argument and I think I might concede her premise that religion isn't solely the prime motivation for violent acts but many of her examples suggested that it's a factor.

I found this book well written, well organized and well researched. It is a splendid history of violence and well worth reading. The conclusion I came to from reading it was that it's not religion per se that is the problem, it's irrational thinking. Whenever humans surrender rationality to belief whether it's in religion, nationalism or some other cause, violence follows.

Although published in 2014, some descriptions of historical trends and incidents display a remarkable parallelism to events happening today. If you are a history buff with a passing interest in religion and politics then I think this is a good choice to read.





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Toil and Trouble

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft by Tess Sharpe

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***
I'm not positive but I believe this book falls into the Young Adult category. This is not what I normally read; however, I was hoping to get a better perspective on how young people perceive magic. I didn't quite get that but I did get 15 pretty good stories. They were interesting and well-written. Of the fifteen there was only one I didn't really care for and that was because the pacing was pretty slow. It was still an interesting story - just one that could have been told in about a third of the pages. All the rest were first rate.

Although witches are a part of every story, magic isn't. In some cases it's just a matter of women being persecuted for being perceived as witches. Personally I would have preferred more magic but that's because I was looking for a relationship between that and the young protagonists.

Overall I quite enjoyed the book and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys tales of witches.



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Kill the Farm Boy

Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

This wasn't a bad book but it wasn't great either. It was okay. The authors tried to focus on the humor as opposed to the story and approaching writing from the other way around usually yields better results. There were plenty of puns and innuendo.

Some of the writing was a little choppy but I found it improved as I got further into the story so either the authors became more comfortable with what they were doing or I stopped noticing it. One thing I didn't like was the attempt to be 'cute'. That seldom works outside of books aimed at very young children.

This was book one of a series and while I enjoyed it I don't think I'll press onward. Nevertheless if you enjoy wordplay and don't mind sentences like, "Quite bloodful back there." it's okay. For whatever reason the authors chose the suffix 'ful' for any number of words. I believe it was supposed to be cute but it was merely tedious. Some, however probably like that approach.

In summary it wasn't great but I was never tempted to toss it aside for something different.



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A Lot Like Christmas

A Lot Like Christmas: Stories by Connie Willis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***
Reading Christmas stories in March might be a little strange but I enjoyed them nonetheless. Just like they're supposed to, they have happy endings. The writing is smooth and the pacing is well done. The only thing I didn't care for was the many references to movies along the line of - as such-and-such a person said in Whatever, and then the quote. However I think that someone who watched and enjoyed films might find that charming. I think I can recommend the book but perhaps closer to Christmas.



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