Phil’s Comments (group member since Dec 21, 2015)

Phil’s comments from the NJ: Month End SF Book Group (Paramus, NJ) group.

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2017:

HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY..................................................Audrey Niffenegger........04/28/17
ARMADA................................................................................Ernest Cline.....................03/31/17
HERO'S GUIDE TO BEING AN OUTLAW (Princes 3)..........Christopher Healy..........02/28/17
HUNT FOR THE HYDRA (Jupiter Pirates 1).........................Jason Fry.........................01/31/17

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2016 Philip J De Parto.

LEONARD: MY FIFTY-YEAR FRIENDSHIP WITH A REMARKABLE MAN
Deb found it interesting to hear Shatner's take on various incidents of well-known fan lore. Pam thought it was sad that Leonard died estranged from his co-star. Jeni was very critical of the author's reading for the audio book. Liz and Jeni thought it interesting and ironic how many childhood experiences they had in common.

MURDER ON OLYMPUS
The work is set in a universe where the Greek gods not only exist, but move among mankind as celebrities. Private Eye Plato Jones is blackmailed into a hush-hush investigation of the death of three members of the Olympians, murders which should not be possible. This is actually one of three cases Jones is working on at the time, the others being a stolen gorgon and a cheating husband. All wind up being connected.

Jackie liked the TMZ world-building worship established by the author. Liz enjoyed some humorous touches and found the brutal torture parties an interesting conceit. Jeni thought the book was poorly edited and disagreed with the rest of the group's evaluation of Aphrodite, but still gave it a 4/5 star rating. Phil liked the depictions of Ares (crude, but brave and true), Aphrodite (unexpectedly empathic) and Hercules (good guy but a real tightwad). Recommended.

ONLY SUPERHUMAN
Christopher L Bennett's fusion of comic book superheroes and hard science fiction, ONLY SUPERHUMAN, was not a popular selection as only Philip De Parto and Jacqueline Moroz attended the Wednesday, August 31, 2016 gathering. Jackie's first words were "I'm sorry I read it," feeling that although there was some decent world building, the story was ruined beyond redemption by the depiction of superhuman lead character Emerald Blair, aka, the Green Blaze, as a male's fantasy figure.

Phil was less judgmental on this point. He agreed that the book's heroine was by no means sympathetic, but felt the work had a number of virtues worth noting. He thought that the concept of gene rape--whereby a victim is pumped with nanobots which reconfigure their genetic code against their will--was an interesting concept. He enjoyed the multi-cultural depiction of the asteroid colonies. He also applauded Emerald's elegy of Jeanette LaSalle, an innocent bystander who was collateral damage on a mission gone wrong. Finally, he appreciated that in a book filled with super heroes and villains, the corrupt leader of Troubleshooters is done in by a quiet, efficient administrative assistant with no superpowers.

UBIK
The novel is set in a near-future where PSI talents are not uncommon. Businesses and governments employ telepaths and precogs as well as anti-telepaths and anti-precogs to steal or protect secrets. Glen Runciter, head of Runciter Associates--the world's largest prudence (PSI security) organization--falls into a trap set by ruthless business rival Ray Hollis. An explosion wounds him and fatally wounds a dozen of his top talents. And then the fun starts.

The mortally wounded are placed in a half-life cryogenic storage container. They share a dream state with a psychic killer who picks them off one by one. There is also a double-agent in their midst. And they receive strange messages about a miracle product which may be able to save them: Ubik.

Like all of Dick's work, reality in UBIK is a very uncertain commodity. Who is living? Who is dead? Who is trying to help them? Who is trying to kill them? Liz thought the book was quite prescient about privacy concerns. Jackie was intrigued by the possibility of reincarnation in this universe. Phil compared the work to EYE IN THE SKY and other novels of the author. Recommended.

PINION
The series plays around with the Clockwork Universe concept of the Enlightenment. God created the universe, set it in motion, and then stepped away. The world runs like a clock. The sun and heavenly bodies move across the sky on a pathway of gears.

The work is formatted as a typical quest. A disparate group of adventurers trek across the world as they move across the world to accomplish their goal: to kill Queen Victoria of England and end the war between the British and Chinese Empires. The books are an alternate history as well as an alternate cosmology. China did not turn inward, but expanded to control most of the Eastern Hemisphere. Chinese Gordon gained his fame not in China, but along the massive mountain range the northern hemisphere from the magical south.

There are airships and submarines, secret societies, grand engineering projects and enchanted devices. I found the book a bit difficult to get into as the actors started out all over the globe. Once they have coalesced into two teams, it is a lot easier to follow. There is nice writing here: "The sun was pitiless, like a shovel opening a grave (237)," and "In the airy green cathedral a profusion of butterflies moved, as though the flowers themselves had detached fro their seats and gone hunting for mates. (88)." I found the discovery of the Seal of Solomon to be a distraction and wish that Lake had cut this subplot. Overall, recommended, but not for everyone.

THE END OF ALL THINGS
The book consists of four interrelated stories: "The Life of the Mind," "This Hollow Union," "Can Long Endure and "To Stand Or Fall," as well as an alternate abandoned beginning of "The Life of the Mind."

There are two related plot arcs binding the tales. The first deals with the discover and neutralization of the shadowy Equilibrium Conspiracy. The second deals with the political changes forced upon the alien Conclave, humanity's Colonial Union, and EarthGov, as a result of developments from earlier works in the series.

This is not a good entry point to the series. The work is plot-oriented, with little time spent on character development except for pilot Rafe Daquin in the opening story. Existing fans, however, should enjoy the way the author pushes the series in new directions.

THE IMMORTALS
The group enjoyed the work which features the Greek goddess, Artemis, working as a P I in contemporary Manhattan protecting abused women. The gods are not what they once were, but there is a plot afoot to restore their former glory by a series of ritual human sacrifices. Karen enjoyed the pacing. Pam appreciated the mechanics of its writing. Phil liked the NYC setting. Overall, it was judged a good, though not great, book. We talked about culture, history and other matters for a long time after the book discussion.

READY PLAYER ONE
The work focuses on a treasure hunt in the virtual world of Oasis in a dystopic near future. An eccentric billionaire has left a real-world fortune to the person who can first solve the puzzle. Noble nerd gamers and villainous corporate flunkies sift through clues based on 1980s games, song and movies on their quest.

Karen and Audrey loved the book. Both were avid video gamers during their childhood. Jackie, who is in the same age cohort, also enjoyed the book. Phil, Pam and Jeni were more restrained, though Phil readily admitted that the book was a well-crafted, if not terrible original, entertainment. This was the last book group that Audrey will be able to make as she is moving out of the area. We will miss her warmth and enthusiasm at our events and wish her well.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SANTA CLAUS
Part history, part secret history, part fantasy, the work is a pleasant enough belated holiday diversion. History: The reason Christmas is celebrated on December 25 is that before Constantine became a Christian, Mithraism was the state religion of the Empire and they celebrated the birth of Mithra on the 25th. The early Church was a very decentralized affair, with different communities celebrating the birth of Christ on different days, so the Romans stuck with the 25th as the birthday of the state god and just changed who they were honoring. Secret history: George Washington's crossing of the Delaware and victory over the Hessians was due to the loose lips of Saint Nicholas. Early Americans kept only the most token of Christmas observances as a legacy of the Puritans (who allowed no Christmas celebration). Germans celebrated the holiday with gusto. This came up in a conversation between the two legends and Washington changed his military plans to take advantage of a lot of inebriated Hessians. Nicholas and his gift-giving associates do not age, can cover vast distances in a short span, and have other supernatural abilities, although they have no idea how and why. The simply accept it as a miracle.

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2016:

LEONARD: MY FIFTY-YEAR FRIENDSHIP..................William Shatner..................10/31/16
MURDER ON OLYMPUS (Plato Jones 1).......................Robert B Warren.................09/30/16
ONLY SUPERHUMAN.....................................................Christopher L Bennett.......08/31/16
UBIK................................................................................Philip K Dick........................07/29/16
PINION (Clockwork Earth 3).........................................Jay Lake...............................06/30/16
THE END OF ALL THINGS (Old Man's War 6)............John Scalzi...........................05/31/16
THE IMMORTALS (Olympus Bound 1).........................Jordanna Max Brodsky.......04/29/16
UNGODLY (Goddess War 3)...........................................Kendare Blake.....................03/31/16
READY PLAYER ONE.......................................................Ernest Cline........................02/29/16
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF SANTA CLAUS....................Jeff Guinin..........................01/29/16

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2015 Philip J De Parto.



THE KILLING MOON, Dreamblood 1
Everyone liked the work, although Jackie was unconvinced by the villain's motivation. Liz liked the setting (the moon of a gas giant) and the culture (modeled on ancient Egypt). Phil appreciated the detail of world building, citing the food dishes as an example. Pam applauded the sweeping story canvas: "Myth! War! Politics! Religion! Family! Addiction!" Recommended.

WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE
It has a fun concept: a psychologist forms a support group for sole survivors of monsters of all shapes and sizes. Stan escaped an American cannibal family. Harrison was the boy hero of Dunnsmouth. Martin sees creatures that no one else can. Greta was raised by cultists to marry a dark god. Barbara was a prisoner of the Scrimshader, who cuts open the flesh of his victims and etches their bones. Psychologist Jan Sayer, who brought the group together, has secrets of her own. As the members of the group slowly open up to each other, they realize that one of them is still being targeted by a monster.

STARGLASS, Starglass 1
The book is a YA science fiction novel set aboard the Asherah, a generation ship nearing the end of its 500 year journey to a world which was judged capable of supporting human life.

The vessel was launched by secular Jews mostly in the United States who wished to preserve their heritage before and approaching asteroid wiped out life on Earth. During the journey, much of this heritage has been lost or transformed by the ruling Council which is more interested in maintaining their grip on power than on faithfully carrying out their mission. An underground movement is underway to overthrow the regime, but it is not clear that the revolutionaries will be any better. Sixteen-year-old heroine Terra becomes enmeshed in the struggle, a useful pawn to both sides.

Phil enjoyed the book. Jeni ("mediocre") and Liz ("so so") were less enthralled. Phil was surprised how mainstream science fiction the work was. The story created is low tech except the propulsion system and would easily (with the exception of the gay subplot) have been published when Heinlein was writing his juveniles. Jeni had issues with the Jewish society which had evolved. Liz felt the book didn't really end (there's a sequel) and the romantic element.

AMERICAN CRAFTSMEN, Craftsmen 1
The work is the opening volume in a secret history of the United States. Although set in the present day, a knowledge of American literature and history add tot he enjoyment of the book as various works by noted Men of Letters like "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and THE HOUSE OF THE SEVEN GABLES are fictionalized accounts of occult endeavors by friends and foes of the Republic.

SHADES OF GREY, Shades 1
The work is very much in the tradition of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams: silly and serious, literate and pulpy, and with a definite British sensibility. The hero of the work is Eddie Russett, a callow youth who does not question the highly color-perception stratified society until he encounters a formidable young woman, Jane Ochre. Fierce, outspoken, and ticketed for the reeducation camps, Jane converts Eddie into a member of the resistance, and the pair uncover secrets too dangerous to know.

Fforde displays the same sort of zany world-building he constructed in the Thursday Next and Nursery Crimes novels: wild zebras and giraffes roam outside the populated areas; lightning and ferocious giant swans present an ever-present danger. The book kicks off a new trilogy which is more serious and less a romp than his other works. If you're already a fan of the author, then go ahead and read it. If you are encountering him for the first time, start with THE EYRE AFFAIR or THE BIG OVER EASY.

SNOW IN AUGUST
The book is set in Brooklyn just after the end of the second World War. Eleven-year-old Catholic altar boy Michael Devlin befriends recent immigrant Rabbi Judah Hirsh. The unlikely pair are drawn together because (among other things) both are targets of the street gang which runs their area of town. Michael learns about Prague, academic discipline and Jewish culture from Judah. The Rabbi learns about baseball and American culture from Michael.

Baseball is important in the work because Jackie Robinson, an outsider like Michael and Judah, is breaking the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. One of my favorite scenes in the book is when a fight in the bleachers breaks out between a group of bigots who are cursing out both Jackie Robinson and Jewish ballplayer Hank Greenberg. An alliance of blacks, Jews and Union Workers thrashes the rowdies.

People at the discussion enjoyed the author's descriptions of snow, Vienna, Brooklyn and other objects and locations. Hamill's recreation of post-war Brooklyn was also lauded. We also enjoyed the irony of having Michael the Goyem be able to create a golem because he is innocent and fervent in his belief, while the Rabbi has seen too much of the world's evil and is unable to place his faith in God. Recommended, but be warned that the fantasy element does not make an appearance until very late in the book.

THE EAR, THE EYE & THE ARM
The book is a fantasy tale set in the future. Everyone enjoyed the setting of future Zimbabwe on many levels: the sense of place (particularly Resthaven and Dead Man's Vlei), the fantasy African spirit folklore, and the default setting of characters being black unless otherwise specified. The story reminded Pam of Dickens. Phil commented positively on the fight scenes: the battle between She Elephant and Mrs Horespool-Worthington, and kitchen staff going into battle with posts and pans. Erica and Jessie talked about how their perceptions of the work had changed upon rereading the book. A good time was had by all.

THE GOLEM & THE JINNI
The book reads like a mainstream historical novel and is set in 19th Century New York where the golem and jinni, much like many other displaced immigrants, must find their way in a new and strange land. Although the work was nominated for the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and won the Mythopoeic Award, I am convinced that many non-genre readers will deny that this is a work of fantasy.

There are a lot of nice touches, from the description of the Arabian Desert to the bustling immigrant ghettos of Manhattan, with memorable secondary characters like Rabbi Meyer. The two supernatural leads have very different ideas about the world and regularly disagree about individualism vs community, the existence of God and other issues. Recommended, but slower-paced than most genre fiction.

CONTROL POINT, Shadow Ops 1
There is an X-Men vibe to the premise. In the near future the magic potential of a number of people Awakens and they are able to manifest various sorts of enchantments. Some can cast healing magic, others assorted forms of elemental magic and still others necromancy. The Awakened are considered a menace to society and must either join the military magic corps or face lifetime incarceration.

The hero of the book is Lieutenant Oscar Britton of the Supernatural Operations Crops who is torn between duty and conscience. Lacking any good options, Britton must decide and choose which is the lest harmful alternative. He sometimes makes disastrous decisions.

CONTROL POINT spends most of its time with the magic training of the hero who has the rare ability to create Portal through which he and others can teleport from place to place. The book is set in the United States, but we catch glimpses of how things play out in Europe, the Mideast, and China. The nation's number one problem is an Apache uprising orchestrated by powerful Native American Shaman.

THE HERO'S GUIDE TO STORMING THE CASTLE, Princes 2
This is the second book in the author's Middle Grade comic fantasy "League of Princes" series. The heroes of the books are Prince Liam, Prince Gustav, Prince Frederic and Prince Duncan, the actual names of the princes associated to Sleeping Beauty (aka Briar Rose), Rapunzel, Cinderella and Snow White who are generally referred to as "Prince Charming."

The plot is set in motion when the rapacious Briar Rose has bounty hunter Ruffian the Blue kidnap Prince Liam, who is living with Prince Frederic and Cinderella, to get away from the woman who wants to marry him only for his treasure horde. What he does not know is that while the money is nice, Rose is really after a fabled sword which has a magic gem as part of its hilt. The jewel will allow the wielder to bind others to their will, and Sleeping Beauty wants it to take over the world. Her plans hit a roadblock when she learns that 11-year-old Bandit King Deeb Rauber had previously stolen the sword, although the thief is unaware of the gem's enchantment. The Bandit King is also in an alliance-of-convenience with the tyrannical Warldord Rundark of Dar. Both also plan to conquer the world and scheme to get rid of the other.

It is up to the League of Princes to make sure that none of the bad guys get their way. Along the way they are helped or threatened by giants, trolls, dwarves, a gnome, mercenaries, shape-shifters and others. While Liam and Gustav easily fit the heroic mode, Frederic the Dainty and Duncan the Strange also play important roles in the quest as do the various girlfriends. We enjoyed the book but felt it was not up to the inspired loopiness of the first volume.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2014 Philip J De Parto.



RAISING STONY MAYHALL
Gregory employs his usual plot framework: at some point in our recent past, an element of fantasy enters our reality. In PANDEMONIUM, it was superheroes. In THE DEVIL'S ALPHABET, mutants. In this latest effort, it is zombies.

Stony is a zombie baby born during the Zombie Uprising of 1968. He is found, hidden and raised by a woman with three daughters in rural Iowa. He eventually leaves home, discovers the zombie underground (although zombies are only the hungry, mindless, shambling Romero variety for the first few days, they are killed or imprisoned whenever the government finds them), spends a decade in prison and finally is instrumental in the second Zombie Uprising.

There are five distinct sections to the work, and everyone most enjoyed the first part which focuses on family life and Stony's coming-of-age. Phil also liked the portion set in the government containment facility. Jeni felt that the conclusion was over-the-top. Both agreed there were some very nice touches like the zombies' pastimes of smoking and watching television. Both found the book okay, but nothing special, though Phil thought more highly of the work than Jeni.

WUTHERING BITES
Phil, who has neither read Bronte's book nor seen the movie, was okay with the offering. The book envisions England coping with a vampire infestation. Heathcliff is a rare half-vampire of gypsy blood. Depending on his mood, he either socializes with vampires or slays them (that's what he's really doing as he wanders the solitary moors). The work follows the plot the book, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, which means it continues the saga to the next generation with Cathy, daughter of Heathcliff's sorta-dead, half-vampire love, Catherine.

The only one to have read the book was Phil. While he had to struggle to finish the work, he laid the blame at the feet of Bronte whose characters are unbelievable, unlikeable, or both. Pretty much everyone in the book has suffered some sort of injustice and their solution is to inflict misery on others. While we didn't get into what the story implies about the English class system, any objective examination of it through the book will find it reprehensible.

THE SWORD-EDGED BLONDE, Eddie LaCrosse 1
The book melds NOIR and fantasy. The hero is a sword slinger with a small office above a riverside bar and a reputation for discretion. Fantasy mysteries are hard to de because mysteries follow the rules of a procedural while fantasy is all about tossing out the rules. Bledsoe resolves this contradiction by having magic be so rare that none of the characters can be certain that they have ever witnessed it.

There are three mysteries in the story: what dark deed made Eddie flee his privileged life and flee to another land; how was the Queen set up as the murderer of her infant child; and why does she look exactly like a woman from Eddie's past? Uneven, but worth reading as an attempt to do something different in fantasy.

THE HUMAN DIVISION, Old Man's War 5
The book is a fix-up mosaic novel. Most of the individual stories were published as short story e-books. The physical book collects these pieces and adds two additional ones. The work introduces a number of new characters to the setting, a new point-of-view (mostly from that of the Colonial Union), and a shadowy conspiracy which may represent a danger to the Colonial Union, the Conclave, and the Earth itself.

Liz particularly enjoyed the work, feeling that the multiple points of view, variety of storylines, and spectrum of settings brought a richness to the collection. Jeni liked a number of characters: Lt Harry Wilson, diplomat Hart Schmidt, and especially the formidable Captain Sophia Coloma. Phil enjoyed the situation turnabout in which the sorta villains of the previous book, the Colonial Union, are the good guys of this one, though Jeni pointed out that everyone in the work operates in shades of grey.

THE DAEDALUS INCIDENT, Daedalus 1
The book relates events occurring in two separate universes. The first is set on a mining station on Mars a bit more that 100 years in our future. The second is set in an alternate universe where alchemy works and specially treated wooden ships sail the space seas between the worlds in our solar system, all of which support human and/or non-human life.

The point-of-view character in the science fictional Mars is Lt Shaila Jain, second-in-command of the station, who investigates a series of inexplicable events happening in and around the station. Her 1779 counterpart in the alchemical universe is Lt Thomas Weatherby serving aboard HMS Navy ship, The Daedalus, whose mission is to apprehend a pirate ship ferrying the alchemist criminal mastermind, Cagliostro. Fortunately, the rebellious colonists on Ganymede likewise want him captured and have sent their most accomplished artificer, Be Franklin, to assist the Royalists.

I enjoyed both storylines. Jeni was less keen, feeling things only really gelled for her when the characters from both universes were able to join forces. Taras felt the work suffered from a failing of many alternate histories by having people in different timelines developing in similar manners.

THE HERO'S GUIDE TO SAVING YOUR KINGDOM, Princes 1
The work is a humorous fantasy about the husbands of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Rapunzel, as well as the famous princesses. The quartet must thwart the plans of wicked witch Zaubera; the Bandit King, Deeb Rauber; and various other foes, aided by their renowned significant others. No one is how you picture them from faerie tales: Prince Gustaff, accidental rescuer of Rapunzel, is one dim bulb. Prince Frederick, Cinderella's husband, is a momma's boy. Prince Liam, betrothed to Sleeping Beauty, is the most traditionally heroic of the lot. But he becomes reviled throughout the realm when the shrewish Beauty spreads ugly rumors about the Prince after he breaks off the engagement. The final prince, Duncan (Snow White's guy), is so weird he makes Dr Sheldon Cooper of THE BIG BANG THEORY look normal.

Everyone enjoyed the book, with Karen and Jeni being particularly enamored. Both said they burst into laughter in public places while reading / listening to it. We will schedule the sequel for reading at the Young Fantasy Reads Book Group.

NO HERO, Arthur Wallace 1
The work is the opening volume in a trilogy featuring British Police Detective Arthur Wallace who is drafted into service by MI37, a secret agency that battles aliens, zombies and other weird threats. Arthur is an Everyman who uses Kurt Russell movies and similar entertainments to guide him in what to do when facing the incredible challenges he encounters.

The book is strongest in the opening chapters and gets a bit lost in the middle ones, but overall I enjoyed the work. There were a number of interesting, weird characters: Clyde, Kayla, Ophelia, Ephemera, and the Sheilas. There was a well-crafted set piece when the book is opened, and the Feeders are truly terrifying. It should be noted that the other people in the group were not as happy with the work.

TROLLS IN THE HAMPTONS, Willow Tate 1
Karen really enjoyed the playfulness of the work and its humor, the rest of the group were less impressed, feeling the early fantasy elements were largely overwhelmed by the romance plotline as the book progressed.

THE SHE-HULK DIARIES
The book is primarily about She-Hulk's alter ego, lawyer Jennifer Walters and her attempts to get her life back in order. When Bruce Banner gets stressed, he turns into the Hulk and smashes things. When Jennifer gets stressed, she turns into She-Hulk and parties. Unfortunately, she parties like a super-powered Lindsey Lohan, leaving a trail of desolation in her wake.

Getting her life together entails getting a job, finding a place to live (The Avengers kicked her out because she kept trashing their headquarters), making friends and landing a boyfriend when she's not out battling super-villains or kidnappers. She keeps a running commentary on these doings in her journal, regularly tweets her cousin, Bruce, reminisces about her past liaisons with Tony (smart, vain, great hair) Stark, practices law, goes dating, and joins a LARP group. Much of the book is about her mixed feelings about her college-days one-night stand with former band Fringe Theory front-man-turned-lawyer, Ellis Tesla. The rocker was smitten with young Jennifer but got her name wrong and wrote songs about her before giving up being a rock star and getting engaged to stunning-but-vicious attorney, Amanda Hammerhead. We had no problem giving a "thumbs up" to the work.

INVINCIBLE, Beyond the Frontier 2
This is the second book of the author's Beyond the Frontier chronicles, one of two sequel series to the original Lost Fleet adventures. The first book in the other sequel series, The Lost Stars, was discussed at last month's book group and characters from that work appear in INVINCIBLE.

The original series dealt with the revival of frozen hero Black Jack Geary, his elevation to Admiral of the Alliance Fleet, and the victory over the Syndicate Worlds. Beyond the Frontier is the story of the fleet's exploration of the territory of the mysterious Enigma race which had manipulated the hundred year long war between the two human political systems. INVINCIBLE beings just after a battle occasioned when the Fleet crossed into the space of a second alien species.

The author juggles a lot of different plot elements in the work: first contact with two different alien races, internal Alliance politics and intrigue, space battles, diplomatic relations with theh Syndicate and the breakaway Midway system, germ warfare, medical ethics and more. Jeni was of the opinion that the book was almost unreadable if you had not read book one and that the author had perhaps too many balls in the air.

Phil really liked how Campbell took pains to develop alien psychologies for his alien races. He also liked the humorous bits like the hunt for the Universal Fixing Substance and the teasing between the Marines, engineers, NCOs and other divisions within the fleet.

TARNISHED KNIGHT , Lost Stars 1
This is one of two spin off series from the author's Lost Fleet series and is set in the territory of the Syndicate, losers of the war chronicled in the prior series.

The central government of the Syndicate has been greatly weakened with the destruction of most of their fleet (detailed in The Lost Fleet Series). CEOs Artur Grakon and Gwen Iceni declare independence from the corrupt central government for the strategic star system of Midway. Even after they eliminate the secret police (the ICC aka snakes), they worry about threats from within (anarchists, democrats), without (the Syndicate, aliens) and each other. I liked the book, with its paranoid culture of people trying to forge a political system which is neither anarchy nor a police state. Others were less enthused.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2013 Philip J De Parto.


JANE BITES BACK, Jane Fairfax 1
Taras had been recommending this romantic fantasy romp for some time. A couple of hundred years ago, Jane Austen was turned into a vampire by Lord Byron. Flash forward to the present. Despite 116 rejections, Ms Austen still has not given up on finding a publisher for her final novel, CONSTANCE. She is now called Jane Fairfax and resides in a small town in upstate New York where she runs a small bookstore. In short order, five events occur to upend her cozy existence: 1) a brooding handsome man appears on the scene (Lord Byron). 2) she is wooed by an attractive, ordinary man, 3) she reveals her secret to her employee and friend, Lucy, 4) her existence is threatened by another famous vampire, and 5) a publisher loves her book and plans a massive publicity campaign for the work (newspaper ads, television appearances, RWA conventions, etc.)

This is not a terrific book, but it has some great bits, poking fun at academia (Austen afficionados vs Bronte boosters), popular fiction (" a wildly popular series about a woman who as a celebrated designer by day and a monster hunter by night") and celebrity culture.

THEFT OF SWORDS, Riyria 1
The volume consists of THE CROWN CONSPIRACY (originally published by a small press) and AVEMPARTHA (originally a self-published e-book) and features idealistic human mercenary Hadrian Blackwater and cynical half-elf thief Royce Melborn. The duo have made a profitable livelihood doing sensitive jobs for the nobility of Avryn when a commission to steal a noble's sword implicates them in the murder of King Amrath of Melengar, an act with political, religious and racial repercussions.

Only Jeni and Phil had read the work and both enjoyed it. There is nothing very original in it, and the author uses workmanlike prose, but knows how to tell a story. It has the same simple, honest storytelling as a good E R Burroughs title.

QUINTESSENCE, Quintessence 1
The book opens in England with the return of a ship sent to establish a colony on an island at the edge of the world (this is a flat-Earth universe). The dying crewmen tell tales of the wonders they found there, but the supposed treasures in the hold are merely barrels of sand and stones. As King Edward VI lies dying and the nation readies for war between Catholics and Protestants, court physician Stephen Parris and his daughter, Catherine, become enmeshed in the scheme of mad alchemist Christopher Sinclair to mount a second expedition to the fabled land.

There are three sections to the book: the preparations for the journey in England, the voyage itself, and the exploration of the new world and its inhabitants. This is too much plot for three hundred pages and short changes character development. The author would have been better served having the Spanish Inquisition arrive in book two. The quest for alchemical quintessence, the flora and fauna of the island, and the relations with the natives would be more than enough to carry the work.

While this may be off-putting to many readers, I really enjoyed that the characters are not 21st Century Americans in attitude. Catherine is warned by her mother that men will not allow her to compete with them, that she must work behind the scenes to bend them to her will. The learned men seek to reconcile the wonders they encounter with scripture and with Aristotle. Sinclair views his setbacks as a retribution from God, but vows to press on and raise the dead nonetheless.

EDGE OF INFINITY
The 13 story anthology is set in the near-future solar system and generally has the feel of traditional, old-time science fiction. In fact several stories seemed almost homages to particular authors: "The Depths of the Sky" (Elizabeth Bear/Hal Clement), "Drive" (James Corey/Robert Heinlein), and "Swift as a Dream and Fleeting as a Sigh" (John Barnes/Isaac Asimov). The best stories (according to Phil, the only one who read the book) were Pat Cadigan's Hugo-Nominated "The Girl Who Went Out for Sushi," "The Road to NPS" by Sandra McDonald and Stephen Covey, and "Bricks, Sticks, Straw by Gwyneth Jones.

NIGHTSHADE, Nightshade 1
NIGHTSHADE is the first in the author's YA contemporary fantasy series of the same name. The heroine is high school student Calla, who is soon to enter into an arranged marriage with her friend, Ren. The pair are alpha werewolves, aka Guardians, whose lives are ruled by the sorcerous Keepers, who also have other supernatural creatures at their beck-and-call. Opposing the Keepers are the mysterious renegade Searchers who have deadly abilities of their own.

Liz and Pam found the writing dull and the plotting formulaic. Phil enjoyed the interpersonal dynamics of the wolf pack and enjoyed the characterization. All agreed that the book really did not have an ending, it just stopped with a cliff-hanger.

THE JENNIFER MORGUE, Laundry Files 2
The volume consists of the novella, "The Jennifer Morgue," the short story, "Pimpf," an afterword, "The Golden Age of Spying," and a glossary of fictitious and real abbreviations, acronyms, and organizations. This is the second book in Stross' Laundry Files series begun in THE ATROCITY ARCHIVES (discussed last year at the Monsters of Horror Book Group) featuring British computer-geek-turned-spy, Bob Howard.

The series fuses the espionage genre with that of dark fantasy / horror. Bob is a mid-level operative who discovers himself cast as James Bond in opposition to powerful, rich, monologue-spewing, cat-cradling, Nehru-jacketed, power-mad industrialist Ellis Billington who plans to raise one of the creatures from "At the Mountains of Madness" to battle the aquatic Deep Ones from "The Shadow Over Innsmouth," who are the true rulers of the world (they simply permit humans to inhabit land masses and other areas of the Earth they find inhospitable).

I really, really liked MORGUE. The writing is dense at times (Liz felt the in-jokes and references would have worked better if they were more spaced out) but rewarding. The footnotes. The Power Point Presentations. The homages. And most especially the plot.

Billington has engineered a magic ritual powered by the psychic energy of billions of people who have read Ian Fleming and watched James Bond movies over the past 50 years. The magic prevents anyone but The Hero, from thwarting his plans. As expected, Bob Howard arrives on the villain's Russian-frigate-turned-luxury-yacht wearing tailored attire, sipping martinis and accompanied by a beautiful-but-deadly American assassin. But Billington has an ace up his sleeve, a method to neutralize Bob without violating the logic of the ritual. I was smiling for days afterwards.

SHATTERED aka CRASHED, Cold Awakening 2
We began with a recap of events in FROZEN (aka SKINNED), the first book in the trilogy, culminating in a reading of the scene in which protagonist Lia Kahn, who had been fatally injured in a car crash and downloaded into a mechanical body, decides to leave her biological family and live with the other mechs.

The early sections of SHATTERED deal with Lia's adjustment to her new "family," abilities, and limitations. Pesonal trials and tribulations soon get pushed to the backgroupnd as terrorist attacks and anti-mech fundamentalism upsets the balance of power in this ravaged world. Phil liked it, Jeni didn't, Karen was so-so. No one else had finished it. Good discussion, though.

HAMMERED, Iron Druid 3
The book is a plot / action driven contemporary fantasy featuring Atticus O'Sullivan, the last living druid who has been alive for two thousand years due to his knowledge of magic and herbs. As a result of events happening in earlier books in the series, Atticus is a reluctant member of a mixed band of supernatural creatures determined to storm Asgard and kill the Norse god, Thor.

Thor is not the noble hero from Marvel Comics. Lots of human and immortal folks would be happy to see the hammer-tosser dead. But there are also warnings from Atticus' Celtic death goddess and Jesus Christ that killing Thor would result in very dire consequences. Still Atticus has given his work, and he must honor it.

Phil was the only one who enjoyed the book. Jeni, Liz and Karen all abandoned reading or listening to it at some point in the narrative. They didn't care for the hero and Jeni found it simply written and very superficial. Phil thought it was weaker than the first two books in the series but had some interesting moments, such as when the invading party sits around a campfire and tells tales why each one has it in for Thor.

EVEN WHITE TRASH ZOMBIES GET BLUES, Zombie 2
Oddly enough for a series with a zombie as the protagonist, the book is character-driven. Zombies in this series function pretty much like vampires, except they need brains instead of blood. As long as they get their fix, they can function perfectly well in society (if they don't get brains, they start to decompose and become mindless shambling predators). High school drop out Angel, who lives in a trailer with her alcoholic father, considers herself a loser. But someone felt she was basically a good kid who never got a break. He turned her into a zombie after a bad car crash in order to save her life.

Angel now has a job in the County Coroner's office (which gives her access to brains) and is slowly getting her act together. Unfortunately, the local zombie population has been discovered by a company that feels that zombies would make wonderful soldiers and is hunting and experimenting on them. A good book.

CONAN THE BARBARIAN
"The Phoenix on the Sword," "The People of the Black Circle" "The Tower of the Elephant," "Queen of the Black Coast," "Red Nails," and "Rogues in the House" are the stories in this volume. "Red Nails" and "The People of the Black Circle" are the longest tales, a pair of novelettes approaching the size of a novella. "Nails" is perhaps the finest Conan yarn written by Howard, a concoction of monsters, magic and madness co-starring the author's finest woman-warrior, Valeria. Conan's sadness for the suffering alien sorcerer in "The Tower of the Elephant" shows a softer side of the warrior than we usually witness. "Rogues in the House" is gloriously pulp, with Conan and two reluctant companions trying to stay alive in a deadly manor house. This book will not be for everyone, but anyone who enjoys action-packed fantastic adventure stories will love it.

YEAR'S BEST SF 17
There was little agreement about the merits of the stories. Every story promoted by one person was bashed by someone else. Karen liked "Tethered" by Mercurio D Rivera and "And Weep Like Alexander" by Neil Gaiman. Phil praised "The Ice Owl" by Carolyn Ives Gilman and "For I Have Lain Me Down of the Stone of Loneliness and I'll Not Be Back Again" by Michael Swanwick. Jeni enjoyed "Home Sweet Bi'ome" by Pat Mac Ewand and "The Middle of Somewhere" by Judith Moffett. Taras lauded "Wahala" by Nnedi Okorafor and "The Education of Junior # 12" by Madeline Ashby.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2012 Philip J De Parto.



A WOMAN WORTH TEN COPPERS, Shadowed Path 1
The discussion could have been subtitled Phil against the World. Phil, who had selected the work, considered it a quiet, enjoyable little read. The rest of the group disagreed. Jeni and Karen disliked the ending. George found the story obvious. Jeni didn't like the pacing.

Phil, on the other hand, liked the characters and enjoyed the quiet despair of the long journey through the lands blasted by the Devourer's influence and the low-key struggle to figure out the right thing and do it. The book is largely about choices: how do people find the strength to go on after setbacks, how they choose to trust or refuse to do so, and how people decide to stand up for what is right. This is not to say the author got everything right. Many secondary characters are sketchily drawn and the expression, "Zounds," should never be used in a non Christian world.

THE MENACE FROM EARTH
The collection consisted of eight stories, with the title story, "Year of the Jackpot," and "By his Bootstraps" having garnered the greatest acclaim over the years. Phil, Jeni and Taras agreed with the assessment for the first two, but Jeni was unimpressed by Bootstraps. Phil, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the mechanics of the storytelling of this time paradox yarn.

Phil identified three themes running through the talks. The first was the presence of strong, competent women (Jackpot, Menace, "Project Nightmare"). The second was duty and sacrifice ("Sky Lift," "Water Is for Washing"). The third was a willingness to argue that free will is an illusion, at least for the sake of a story, (Jackpot, Bootstraps). The third point in particular occasioned a spirited debate.

All in all, this was a collection well worth reading, or rereading, particularly if you had purchased the Baen Books mass market paperback which combines this collection with THE GREEN HILLS OF EARTH that included a forward and an afterward.

REDSHIRTS
The book is told from the viewpoint of a group of ensigns who have recently arrived on the Intrepid, the flagship of their interstellar confederation. They soon discover that command officers of the starship routinely survive the dangers of their away missions, but that the fatality rate of the redshirts who beam down with them is astronomical. They gradually reason that the only way to account for this is that their reality is controlled by a higher one: they are extras on a badly-written scifi show.

This is far from Scalzi's best work. One gets the feeling that the germ of the idea came to him and he thought "Sooner or later someone's going to get rich from this idea, so it might as well be me." As George pointed out, the book is written in best-seller mode: limited vocabulary, lots of dialogue, little description, little depth. Despite these shortcomings, Jeni felt it was a nice, light read except for the three codas while Phil felt the codas were the best part of the book. If you haven't read Scalzi, try OLD MAN'S WAR instead.

AWAKENINGS
The novel is a contemporary fantasy primarily set in New York City and its environs. NYPD Patrolman Cal MacDonnell, sleazy photographer Seth Raincrest, and junior high school student Daniel Huer have one thng in common: they seemingly popped into existence 13 years ago and have no memory of anything before that time. Lelani, a beautiful woman who is not what she seems, comes to the rescue of the two adults when they are separately attacked by non human creatures. She informs the duo that they were part of a group who fled a coup in the magical world of Aandor and that they must located the missing heir (Daniel) before assassins slay them all.

The plot is not particularly original, but I enjoyed the characterization. Cal in particular has an interesting dilemma. He is happily married with wife Catherine and daughter Brianna, but he is betrothed to a princess in Aandor. If he does not marry the woman, the political consequences will be dire, with thousands fo deaths the likely result.

The book has an ending, but Jeni (and to a lesser degree, Liz) felt it was a cheat. She explained that she wants to buy sequels to books she likes because she enjoys them, not because she is force to in order to learn the outcome of the book.

VORTEX, Spin 3
There are three sections to the work The first is set about 100 years in the future. A social worker, a policeman, a drug dealer and other parties become interested in an idiot savant who has a manuscript which details events from 10,000 years in the future. The second is the manuscript itself. The final section deals with the nature of the alien Hypotheticals who created the force field that encircles the Earth in SPIN and the Gateway to another world in AXIS. This last section jumps farther and farther along the timeline of the universe like the works of Olaf Stapledon.

HUMAN FOR A DAY
...an original anthology of 16 stories edited by Jennifer Brozek and Martin Greenberg. Only Philip and Jeni had read the book. Their assessments of the notable stories follow.

Both agreed that Seanan McGuire's "Cinderella City," about a fey creature who incarnates the metaphysical spirit of San Francisco, was the best story in the book. Jeni did not like Phil's choice of "The Mainspring of his Heart, the Shackles of his Soul" by Ian Tregillis. Phil liked the world building of this tale of French freedom fighters holding out against the alchemy-savvy Dutch who were trying to conquer the world. Jeni felt the Pinocciho plot of the mechanical man who wants to become human was trite.

Jeni really liked Tanith Lee's "The Dog-Catcher's Song," about a dog who becomes human for a day and who gets to truly love his mistress. Phil thought it was the worst story in the book. They also disagreed on "Band of Bronze" by Jean Rabe, about the statues in Central Park which annually get together to right wrongs in the park. Jeni liked it, Phil did not.

The both enjoyed "Tumulus" by Anton Strout about a childless woman who wishes to make a deal with a dead witch; "Mortal Mix-Up" by Laura Resnick about a vampiress who winds up in a goth witch's body when the girl's spell goes wrong; "Zombie, Interrupted" by Tim Waggoner in which a zombi PI must solve a case and get to his girlfriend before a spell wears off; and "Destroyer" by Kristine Kathryn, Rusch about a feral cat who takes a human body to right a wrong. The rest of the tales were judged as okay, but nothing remarkable.

THE BROKEN KINGDOMS, Inheritance 2
It is ten years after the events in volume one. The Arameri world empire is teetering. Their patron god, bright Itempas, has been cast down and walks the world as a mortal. The captive godlings of the Arameri have been set free. Godlings and mortals plot and scheme in the capital city of Shadow, formerly named Sky. When the blind artist Oree Shoth discovers the body of a dead godling in an alley, the hidden players set in motion their endgame.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book's world building, characters and plot. A number of reviewers have objected to Jemisin's distracted narration. Both Oree and THTK's Yeine digress a lot. They are in no hurry to tell their stories. I was perfectly content to take a literary stroll with them, but a number of readers prefer that the author plunge straight ahead to get to the point. Different strokes for different folks, but for me, definitely recommended.

CITIZENS
This is a mostly-reprint collection of 15 Military Science Fiction Stories written by military veterans. Robert Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke, Joe Haldeman, Murray Leinster and Gene Wolfe are among the heavyweights present.

The stories which worked best for me were those which focused on the military virtues of duty and sacrifice. Heinlein's "The Long Watch" published in 1941 about a young man who realizes that it is his duty to foil a coup although it means making his wife a widow and his children orphans still pulls on the heart strings. Very similar thematically is "The Price" by Michael Williamson, in which a group of young men and women accept a suicide mission to free their colony from the clutches of a rapacious Earth government.

Those stories are pretty straightforward. It is easy to root for the young and the idealistic. Jerry Pournelle's "Peace with Honor" isn't as pretty a tale. The choices facing the politicians and bureaucrats are all bad. They select the least bad option they can, but realize that each such choice flays away another strip of their honor and decency.

Eric Frank Russell's "Allamagoosa," Murray Leinster's "Exploration Team" and Arthur C Clarke's "Superiority" are all well-respected tales, but I personally enjoyed Patrick Vanner's "The Question" and John Ringo's "Earth's First Improved Chimp Gets a Job as a Janitor" better, at least on this reading. If I read the collection again, I might order things differently.

In summary, this is a solid collection of space yarns and not-at-all gun porn. If you haven't read them before, the book is particularly worthwhile

THE DEVIL'S ALPHABET
Over a dozen years before the start of the novel, the small town of Switchcreek, Tennessee experienced a unique event: most of the townsfolk began to morph into other versions of humanity. There were soon five classes of townspeople: Skips (those unchanged), the dead, giant gray-skinned Argos, hairless seal-like Betas, and grotesquely obese Charlies.

Paxton Martin is a Skip. He left town after the quarantine was lifted a decade ago. He is heading back to Switchcreek for the funeral of his pre-change girlfriend, Jo Lynn. Jo Lynn's death is officially a suicide, but small towns hide many secrets.

The group mildly enjoyed the book. The author does a good job establishing the feel of a small community, of the complex relationship between Pax and his father, and of the importance of the church in the South. There were mixed feelings about the end, with Jeni finding it unsatisfying, Phil enjoying it, and Liz somewhere in the middle. The possibility of the source of the mutations being from another universe led to a lengthy aside about speculations regarding parallel worlds and the multiverse.

MY LIFE AS A WHITE TRASH ZOMBIE, Angel 1
The book offers a very different take on zombies, basically envisioning them as vampires, except that they need to eat brains instead of drink blood. As long as they've had their brain-shakes and brain tv dinners, they blend into society just fine. Of course, if they go without sustenance for a few days, they start rotting and go the George Romero route.

I like the book for three elements. The first was the heroine. Twenty year old loser Angel Crawford gets a second chance at a good life when she is turned after a drug overdose. With the help of an unseen mentor, she slowly learns the ropes of being both a zombie and a functioning members of society. I also enjoyed the setting of a "white trash" suburban Louisiana. Finally, I really liked that it was a cozy zombie tale. No rampaging hordes of undead--there have always been zombies among us. They have supply chains to obtain brains from funeral homes and elsewhere. It was refreshing to have a story where the fate of the world, or a substantial part of it, was not at stake. Recommended, although I am a bit uneasy that it is the start of a series and not a standalone novel.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2011 Philip J De Parto.


ERAGON (Eragon 1)
ERAGON is the first book in The Inheritance series and is more noteworthy for how it became a bestseller than for its actual literary qualities. The work was originally written by the author when he was 15 and published by his parent's small press. It gained a certain following and Knopf decided to mainstream publish the work and heavily promote the author. The decision was a profitable one.

While the plot of the work is heavily indebted to STAR WARS, The Lord of the Rings, and other classics, the book was much better than I expected. The hero was the same age as the author at the time of the writing and the voice rings true. The opening scenes on the farm and the nearby small town are well handled. The transformation from farm boy to warrior is nicely done. The story covers about a year in the life of the hero. Most of the time is spent either running after or running away from the bad guys. As they are on the road, there is little for Eragon to do after hours than fence and learn magic from a pair of master swordsmen. I found it readable, although I'm not in any particular hurry to read the next book.

CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL
PERIL was the first book by Mr Malmont and is a love letter to the age of the pulp magazine. The three main characters are Lester Dent, Walter Gibson and L Ron Hubbard, with Harry Blackstone, John Campbell, Robert Heinlein, H P Lovecraft and Orson Welles among those with lesser roles. All become involved in a complicated plot about a deadly new nerve gas developed in Chinatown. Recommended, especially for people interested in the pulp era and the early days of science fiction..

JULIAN COMSTOCK
The work is set in a 22nd Century America which has partially recovered from the collapse of our civilization due to war, plague, and energy and environmental crises. The nation has conquered much of Canada and is at war with Germany for the remainder.

The story is told through the eyes of Adam Hazzard, a small town writer who chronicles the rise of his friend, Julian, through the ranks of military service to the Presidency to his fall at the hands of forces loyal to the fundamentalist Dominion of Jesus Christ.

The book is part love story, part war tale, and part political struggle. Adam Hazzard's naivete makes him at times an unreliable narrator, and the book has the feel of a boy's adventure story from the 19th Century. Among the touches the group enjoyed were Adam's unique footnotes, the use of theater as propaganda, and the spread of vaccination scars as a fashion statement. This is a solid opus, if not as cosmic as some of Wilson's other works.

MORLOCK NIGHT
The tale begins shortly after the dinner party framing sequence of H G Wells THE TIME MACHINE. Edwin Hocker, the narrator of NIGHT, is joined by fellow dinner guest Dr Ambrose during his walk home. Ambrose cautions our narrator not to dismiss the tale out of hand. The fog rolls in after they part company and Hocker discovers himself in a London which has been conquered by a Morlock invasion. After some adventures with Tafe, a woman freedom fighter, he awakens and finds himself in the desolate future of a dying Earth. Dr Ambrose reveals himself as the reincarnation of Merlin. He needs the help of Hocker and Tafe to rescue the imprisioned reincarnated King Arthur who will defeat the Morlocks.

The group embarks on a series of adventures from the sewers of London where they encounter an Atlantean submarine to the far future citadel where the Morlocks have hidden Excaliber. Eventually Arthur carries the day.

Angry Robot did a nice job with the reissue of this 1979 novel. Their edition has an introduction by Tim Powers and an afterward by Adam Roberts which discuss the origins of the book and the creation of steampunk as a genre. My assessment is that while I am happy to see the book back in print, it is more important as a seminal work of steampunk than as a work of literature.

THE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINDOMS (Inheritance 1)
Karen and Phil were the most active voices in the discussion, although Bruce had the best line of the evening: “I’m a computer necromancer; I bring dead machines back to life.”

KINGDOMS melds several different fantasy traditions. It is epic creation like Middle Earth (although one we do not see much of, at least in the first book). It is a story of the gods and mortals like classic Zelazny. Almost all the action is within one huge structure like Peake. The sex scenes between Yeine and Nahadath are right out of paranormal romance.

Karen felt the compared the book to baklava, with layers beneath layers. (Someone else referred to it as a spam cheesecake.) She said it reminded her of a melding of paintings by Dali, Picasso and Chagall. Phil stated it was a work which concerned itself with family, revenge, and slavery. Karen added caste and betrayal. We liked it.

INFERNAL DEVICES
This seminal work of steampunk has recently been reissued in mass market paperback by Angry Robot Books. The current edition features a forward by the author and an afterward by author/editor Jeff VanderMeer.

The hero of the book is George Dower, a stolid man of modest gifts whose father was an insanely brilliant inventor of all manner of wondrous devices. The action kicks off with the visit of the Brown Leather Man, who asks George to repair one of his father’s devices. Our hero is soon kidnaped and rescued on multiple occasions by a variety of secret societies working at cross purposes. Few heroes have saved the world in quite this manner or with as much reluctance.

DIVINE MISFORTUNE
The book is a comedy set in a world very much like ours, except that the gods take an active, if tightly regulated, role. If you want the hot cheerleader to fall for you, you make a sacrifice to Aphrodite and--assuming you follow the correct procedure, you get your wish.

The heroes are Phil and Teri, a nice married couple who don't want much out of life except a fair shake. But when the best of life's blessings keep going to other, less qualified people, they decide to get-with-the-program and select a god from pantheon.com. They wind up with Luka, a minor god of prosperity, who announces that he has decided to live in their spare bedroom. Hijinks soon ensue.

Karen found the novel hysterical. Phil also enjoyed it. Doot thought that the writing was flat. Pam found herself unable to get into the book. Phil interrupted the pro and con with a reading from Chapter 15 in which a pair of inept cultists attempt to win the favor of the dread god, Gorgoz, by shooting Phil, Teri, and their friend, Bonnie. Pretty much everyone was laughing at the scene. Pam admitted that the words which had just laid there on the paper came to life when read aloud. Karen plans to pick up more of the author's works.

AGENT TO THE STARS
The book has had an interesting publishing history. It was originally intended as a practice novel for the author to prove that he could write a novel from start to finish and produce something which was readable. After the publication of the author’s first “real” novel, Scalzi put Agent on his website with the suggestion that anyone who enjoyed it was welcome to contribute $ 1.00. Thousands of people did so. Next Nightshade Books issued the work as a limited edition hardcover. Then Tor Books published it first in trade paperback and then in mass market format.

The plot is simple. Hollywood agent Tom Stein is hired by ugly, smelly aliens to represent them so that they can go public without causing panic in the streets. Figuring out how to do that while dealing with the rest of his client list of divas, wannabes and bimbos drives the story

Scalzi is at his best when Tom is dealing with his maddening clients. He is not as sure footed with the aliens, but does a nice job depicting them as a highly moral race which has a different moral code than humanity. Taras felt that the manner in which the aliens made their presence known was implausible, but Phil said that it made perfect sense from the point of view of plotting. This is not a great book, but as a practice work which was never intended to see publication, it is perfectly serviceable.

NORSE CODE
the author's first novel, a new slant on Ragnarok, the end of the world according to Norse myth.

Taras felt that the characters were a bit sketchy and that it would make a good graphic novel or movie where the artist or actors could flesh things out a bit more. Phil liked Odin's ravens Munin and Hugin. Karen liked the scenes set in the land of the dead. Pam enjoyed the scenes with the Fenris pack. A bonus was the unexpected visit by Ray and Laura Viquiera who had been shopping in the mall.

LOVE & ROCKETS
Lois McMaster Bujold wrote a very insightful introduction to the work which was worth the price of the book by itself. My favorite story was “For Old Times Sake” by Tim Waggoner which opens with a woman asking her husband, “I want you to tell me how I died.” Other stories which grabbed me were “Second Shift” by Brenda Cooper, “In the Night” by Steven Silver, “The Business of Love” by Kelly Swails and “Music in Time” by Dean Wesley Smith. I tend to read a lot of fantasy, and it was a lot of fun to be back on classic science fiction turf with aliens, space stations and starships.

FRAGILE THINGS
Story highlights included the Hugo-Award winning Sherlock Holmes / H P Lovecraft “A Study in Emerald,” the gothic homage “Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Secret House of the Night of Dread Desire” and “The Monarch of the Glen,” an AMERICAN GODS tie-in. Barry and Phil respectively lauded the poems, “Instructions” and “The Day the Saucers Came.”

Note: There are short stories / vignettes plus 8 poems in the collection.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2010 Philip J De Parto.


DAUNTLESS / The Lost Fleet, Lost Fleet 1
This is the first in a six book military science fiction series which focuses more on the difficulties and obligations of command than on the strategies and tactics of battle. Everyone appreciated the effort the author had made in extrapolating how battles would develop when approaching lightspeed. Philip and Pamela felt that the book ground to a halt whenever Captain Black Jack Geary and co-president Rione had a scene together.

THE LAST COLONY, Old Man's War 3
Taras had read the book some time ago, but did not remember much about it. However, he found many things to dislike about the work based on Phil's recounting of the book's events. Phil disagreed with the critics, both present and at amazon.com. While it lacked the breathtaking creativity of the first book in the series, most detractors seemed to be disappointed by the paucity of military combat in the book. However, Phil felt that the book was an effective look at interstellar politics, diplomacy and censorship. Your mileage may vary.

THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER, Parker 1
The book is a paranormal romance set in the late 19th century and features a mixed group of Londoners chosen by the gods to safeguard the world from supernatural threats. Each member of the group has a special ability, but the group will not be complete until its final member joins them.

There are a number of interesting touches to the work including its setting, use of Greek myth, incorporation of the Ripper murders, and atmosphere. I was also pleased to have a non kick-ass heroine for a change. Where the book really shines, though, are the scenes where the gang rib each other and their leader. They are far more interesting than the scenes of saving the world from an unspeakable fate.

DEAD MATTER, Simon Canderous 3
The series is set in contemporary Manhattan, and makes good use of its setting, from Trinity Church to Columbus Circle. Simon works for the N.Y.P.D. Department of Extraordinary Affairs which handles supernatural incursions and keeps them hidden from the general public. The plot concerns Simon's discovery of a vampire community in New York which has quietly chosen a live-and-let-live policy with the human populace. Unfortunately, a mutant virus has created a more bestial sort of vampire uninterested in maintaining the status quo.

While it lacks the great set pieces first book DEAD TO ME, it is a big improvement of DEADER STILL, and is the best constructed work in the series. Nothing Earth-shattering, but a good read. Taras read excerpts from a very positive review in BLOOD OF THE MUSE.

THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNON
The work swept a whole batch of science fiction awards for best novel a few years ago and is a dazzling alternate world / police procedural / thriller / Jewish culture / metaphysical treatise / noir mash up.

It starts with the premise that in the 1940s, Jewish refugees were given a sixty year lease to the area around Sitka, Alaska (not as farfetched as it sounds, the idea was considered by FDR). A nameless drug addict is found murdered in a shabby hotel. Nothing too shabby there. But the victim turns out to be the son of the head of the Jewish mafia, and perhaps his generation's messiah. And his death may be connected to another mysterious death. And why is the CIA trying to keep things hushed up? Chabon juggles a multitude of plot balls in the air.

The writing is gorgeous, the world creation superb. The characterization falls within the noir formula, but at the upper end of that genre.

ILIUM, Ilium 1
George felt that this tale of the Trojan War being fought again on a terraformed Mars was one of Simmons' finest works. Phil enjoyed the Mars segments but was indifferent to the chapters set on Earth.

ESCAPEMENT, Clockwork 2
The book is sequel to MAINSPRING, discussed by the group last year, and is a much better crafted work. The story takes place in an alternate universe steampunk universe. God, the master clockmaker, created a terra-centric universe in which the heavens revolve around the world in clearly visible gear tracks. The Game of Empire is played out between the two great powers of the northern hemisphere: The British and the Chinese. Both are planning expeditions to the southern hemisphere on the other side of the equatorial wall which supports the celestial gearwork.

Until recently, Lake was a short story writer. He is still learning the craft on novel writing, but is quickly improving. I regret that I did not do a more competent job leading this discussion.

ARIEL, Change 1
Phil was a fan of this post apocalyptic fantasy of the Change, a singularity in which one day technology ceased to work and magic became real. ARIEL is the name of a unicorn who represents the mcguffin of the plot: the bad guys want her magic horn and the good guys want to save her. Pam was unimpressed with the book. Based on the comments, George felt he would not have enjoyed it either, but Phil (who is no fan of Tolkien) is leery of the judgement of anyone who admits to having read THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING 25? 50? times.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2009 Philip J De Parto.


DEADER STILL, Simon Canderous 2
The author continues to make good use of New York City's parks, museums, and waterfront as a setting, but the book lacked the great set pieces like the attacking occult bookcases in the author's debut novel, DEAD TO ME. The book was not bad, but not particularly noteworthy.

BLOOD & IRON, Promethean Age 1
BLOOD AND IRON is the first book written (though not by internal chronology) in the author's Promeathean Age Saga. This is an alternate history in which the secret Promethean Club of human mages have been battling the courts of faerie and other supernatural creatures for centuries. The Promeatheans discover an opportunity to rid the world of the fae once and for all. However, there are players from many folklores, including Christian, which are active in this struggle.

This is a bittersweet tale of love and duty, free will and fate, loyalty and betrayal. No one is completely innocent, but most characters on both sides strive to select the least noxious result from the forces which have been set in motion. Definitely recommended.

AXIS, Spin 2
There are two plotlines in the book. One concerns a desert dwelling cult which has conducted illegal genetic modifications on a child in an attempt to create someone who could understand and communicate with the Hypotheticals. The other deals the activities of the Hypotheticals themselves and what they may be up to. The work was enjoyable, if not up to the level of its predecessor.

TO OULIVE ETERNITY & OTHERS
The collection consists of seven stories of varying lengths, from short stories to short novels. The Hugo Award winner "No Truce with Kings" and the Hugo nominee title story (later expanded to the novel, TAU ZERO) are the best known works.

One theme which runs through a number of the stories concerns government and power. "Truce" argues that man is more suited for life in small political units than large ones. "Un-Man" and "The Big Rain" argue that international intervention in the form of assassination and military action is justified in eliminating rouge governments before they become threats to the entire world. "Progress" argues for both points, as well as positing that a variety of cultures and approaches is a better solution than a monolith. Even "Eternity" is as much about creating a management team as it is about the intricacies of space/time dilation.

The short novel AFTER DOOMSDAY is a puzzle story with a twist. Humanity has encountered several space faring races and launched a couple of interstellar exploration ships when the planet is destroyed by forces unknown. Robot drones are scattered throughout the solar system by the attackers, so the returning vessels barely have time to discover what has occurred before having to run for their lives. They do not know if there were any other survivors and are uncertain which alien race was responsible for the deed. The ending is particularly bittersweet.

THE NIGHT TOURIST, Jack Perdu 1
The book is a retelling of the Orpheus myth set in contemporary Manhattan featuring a brainy 15 year old boy who wants to find his dead mother. A near death experience allows him to communicate with dead who have not moved on due to unfinished business. His guide to the underworld is "Euri," a girl his own age who had committed suicide.

It has been said that Woody Allen's film, MANHATTAN, is a love letter to the city. THE NIGHT TOURIST is like that as hero, Jack, and Euri, it all the hot spots of New York in their search: Grand Central Station, Central Park, the Theater District, etc. A highlight was a Dead Poets society featuring James Baldwin, Allen Ginsburg and Dylan Thomas.

THE SKEWED THRONE, Throne of Amenkor 1
The novel is the tale of the rise of young woman Varis, from Dredge thief, to assassin, to bodyguard, to eventual queen of the great city of Amenkor. The rise is made possible by abilities implanted or released by the sorcerous White Fire which passed through the great city six years earlier which has made the ruling queen dangerously insane.

This is the first in a trilogy, but stands quite nicely on its own. The book's strengths are its sense of place, particularly in the Dredge, the city's ghetto, and the strong and vulnerable heroine, Varis.

PANDEMONIUM
This first novel is set in an alternate history in which demonic/alien/archetype possessions began to occur in the 1950s. No one really knows the agency responsible for these possessions, though there are no lack of theories.

The point of view character is Del Pierce, who had been possessed by the Hellion as a young boy. This uber Dennis-the-Menace "demon" had performed a number of dangerous pranks before departing. Del has recently been in a near fatal car accident and now something is trying to break out or break into his consciousness. He embarks on a desperate quest to learn the truth about the possessions.

The book is a mixture of broad farce, sweet reminisce, exciting road trip and gentle family dynamics. Pam compared the plotting to a rope which starts off tightly wound, then the strands are all moving in different directions, and finally, they all neatly braid together at the end. George agreed that the author makes it look easy. Typically, he said, an author will excel at either plot, dialogue, or characterization, and be passable in the other two, but Daryl Gregory is proficient in all three. The book is strongly recommended, although Phil expressed reservations about how the work would be received by those outside the science fiction community as it is chock full of genre references including having Philip K Dick as a character possessed by the entity, Valis.

THE ANDROID'S DREAM
The book chronicles the adventures of interstellar diplomat Harry Creek, professional bearer of bad news to alien embassies on Earth. Harry, whose bloodline must incorporate both James Bond and James Retief, becomes entangled in a quest to locate a particular sheep needed to avert an interstellar war which would destroy the world.

The book had its moments, but was nowhere near as good as OLD MAN'S WAR and THE GHOST BRIGADES, two other books by the same author previously examined at this group.

THE STEPSISTER SCHEME, Princess 1
The book tells the tale of the kidnap of Prince Charming and his rescue by Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty. However, these are not the fluffy Disney versions, but rather a trio of tough ladies emotionally scarred by their trials.

FROZEN aka SKINNED, Cold Awakening 1
The book is the first in a YA science fiction trilogy by Wasserman, who has previously written eight or so mainstream teen books. The heroine is rich, smart, popular, athletic queen bee Lia Kahn, whose perfect world comes tumbling down when she is destroyed in a car crash and awakens as a skinner--downloaded into an artificial body. She must come to terms with the changes this entails and discover a new place for herself in the world.

ADDITIONAL NOTE: I must not have had room in the issue to talk about how much I liked this book. Strongly recommended.

CRASHLANDER
CRASHLANDER by Larry Niven was the evening's book. It is a compilation of the Beowulf Schaeffer stories from Niven's Known Space series and includes two Hugo Award winner, "Neutron Star" and "The Borderland of Sol," as well as "At the Core," "Flatlander," "Grendel," "Procrustes" and the wrap around linkage story, "Ghost."

The stories are by-and-large classic ANALOG science problem solving mysteries. "Neutron Star" is the prototype. The crew members of an indestructible spaceship are discovered dead with their ship intact after investigating a Neutron Star. It is Beowulf Schaeffer's job to find out what happened.

I really enjoyed the puzzle and world building of Earth and the mystery planet of "Flatlander" and felt that it and "Grendel" were the two best stories in the book. "Procrustes" suffers from Niven trying to be too clever in not spilling the beans in his flashback story telling. "Ghost" is not really a story, but a framing device which also allows the author to fudge some of his science in these 40 year old stories. The Wikipedia download of Known Space was helpful as reference material.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2008 Philip J De Parto.



VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE
The book is a classic space opera. The Space Beagle is an intergalactic exploration ship en route to the Andromeda Galaxy. Along the way they encounter four separate alien threats. Each of these adventures was originally a separate story published between 1939 and 1950.

Each story contains four different themes. The first is the first contact/alien threat problem story. The second is power struggle/group dynamics among the various factions aboard the ship (Leeth, Morton, Kent and Grosverner). The third is an extension of Spengler's cycles of civilization theory which is applied to both the crew dynamics and the civilization stage of the aliens encountered. The fourth is the invented science of Nexialism, a broader based interdisciplinary scientific training.

Five people had read the novel and each of the stories had its defenders. Phil liked "Black Destroyer" best; Taras, "Discord in Scarlet;" and Moira, "M33 in Andromeda." Influences of the work on STAR TREK and ALIEN were noted. Rich felt that Van Vogt had created some of the coolest aliens ever in these tales. Phil offered that Van Vogt resembled Lovecraft, an author whose creative imagination outpaced his literary faculties. This was a strong discussion.

THE DIMENSION NEXT DOOR
This was a long and meandering event, with lots of tea, Halloween Party left overs, a quick tour of the basement for Mark, and digressions aplenty. Among the topics covered were Alternate Histories, Chimp Society, Dervishes, Neanderthals, Out of Print Books, THE OUTER LIMITS, Quantum Physics and Yoga. Phil tried vainly to keep to the topic, but every time he said something about one of the stories, the group was off and running on another tangent. For the record, Phil (who was the only one to read the title) felt that it was a run of the mill anthology whose best story was "The Trouble with the Truth," a nicely told GHOST WHISPERER type story by Nina Kiriki Hoffman.

MAINSPRING, Clockwork 1
MAINSPRING is an alternate world steampunk novel set in a Deist cosmology of sun and planets literally moving through the heavens on tracks of gears. Callow apprentice clockmaker Hethor Jacques is told by the archangel Gabriel that the mainspring of the world is winding down and that it is up to him to find the Key Perilous and rewind it. Hethor is soon off on his quest, thrown into prison, press ganged into service on a gorgeous H M S airship, scaling the wall that separates the northern and southern hemispheres, and being helped and menaced by secret societies and fantastical creatures.

We tried something a little different for this gathering. Those present took turns reading different reviews of the book. After the review, we commented on what the reviewer had to say. All in all, we enjoyed the book, but felt that last third of the book was not as strong as what had gone before.

SMOKE & MIRRORS
There was no attempt to examine each of the 30 stories in the volume. Instead, people tossed out stories they particularly enjoyed, which were then bandied about for varying lengths of times. We spent the most time with "The Wedding Present" (Barry), "Chivalry" (Phil), "The Price" (Pam), "Don't Ask Jack" (Barry), "The Goldfish Pool and other Stories" (Moira), "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar" (Phil) and "We Can Get Them for You Wholesale" (Moira). Pam read the short short "Nicholas Was ..." and Liz, Phil and Barry did a group reading of "Shoggoth's Old Peculiar."

The DVD NEIL GAIMAN'S A SHORT FILM ABOUT JOHN BOLTON contains readings by Gaiman of "The Price," "Chivalry," and other stories as a bonus extra. Past meetings of the Association have featured these readings as a program item. When Phil recalled how much Taras had enjoyed Gaiman's reading of the poem dedicated to Martha Soukup and referred to Taras' expression as "cute," Taras corrected Phil, saying that Taras preferred to think of himself as "adorable." After the event, Phil and Barry ran into each other in the DVD section of Barnes & Noble on Route 17.

REIFFEN'S CHOICE, Stoneways 1
Only Phil had read the book in its entirety, although Pam and Barry had read part of the work. It is not labeled or marketed as such, but the novel is a YA, telling the tale of the capture and rescue of Reiffen, the exiled heir apparent of two kingdoms by a trio of evil wizards. While it is by no means a knock off, aspects of the book have the feel of the works of Tolkien, particularly THE HOBBIT.

The novel is best realized in its depiction of the society and mythology of the dwarves. Barry and Taras each read sections of Chapter 12, The Upside Down City, which was set in the underground city of the dwarves.

Moira felt that the book's cover made it a tough sell to libraries. The Bergen County System did not purchase one, although copies of the sequel, QUEEN FERRIS, are available. Barry had a copy of REIFFEN from the Rockland County library system.

FARMER IN THE SKY
FARMER IN THE SKY by Robert Heinlein was discussed at the Month End Book Group on Monday, June 30, 2008. S F A B Cers Philip De Parto, Richard Factor, Pamela Webber and Barry Weinberger were joined by regulars Helen Webber and Taras Wolansky at the usual table in the food court of the Paramus Park Mall in Paramus, New Jersey. The novel is a Heinlein juvenile about a family that emigrates from an overcrowded Earth to a terraform-in-progress Ganymede. It is a pioneer survivor novel. My favorite passage concerned the view of Jupiter and its moons.

DEAD TO ME, Simon Canderous 1
The book is a contemporary urban fantasy featuring New York City Department of Extraordinary Affairs Officer Simon Canderous and features homeless person seers, zombie file clerks, easily offended bookcases in occult bookstores, and other odd bits. Several bits, including the Help Wanted Add, the Epilogue, and the dinner scene where a major character explains that she signed up with the forces of Evil because she was a temp and they had a great Benefits package.

THE GHOST BRIGADES. Old Man's War 2
BRIGADES is the sequel to OLD MAN'S WAR which was discussed by the group last year, but it stands on its own reasonably well. Technically a military science fiction book, the work is much more concerned with philosophical and moral issues than battle tactics and strategy.

Hero of the book is Jared Dirac, a clone of Charles Boutin, a brilliant scientist who has defected to the side of a trio of alien races preparing to go to war with Earth's Colonial Union. The CU uses an experimental memory/personality implant program to turn Jared into another Charles Boutin, one who can be safely interrogated. However, the implant does not properly take, so the military grabs him to be a soldier in the Ghost Brigades.

In OLD MAN'S WAR, we say the Brigades from the outside. In this book, we experience them from within, witnessing their birth, their training, and their military prowess.

There are a number of funny, frightening, and touching passages. Taras read one featuring the soldier Harry who has a talent for making things go "boom!" Other memorable passages featured the racial insecurity of the alien Obin who were uplifted and are not quite like every other race, and a meditation on fear and existentialism. Both books in this series are definitely recommended reading.

HEARTWOOD, Trickster 1
HEARTWOOD is the tale of two quests by Darak, chief hunter of the Oak Tribe. One quest is to enter the realm of Chaos with his companions and recover the lost spirit of the primordial First Oak. The second is to rebuild his inner self, shattered an splintered by the recent deaths of his wife, his mother, and many of his kin in a recent plague, an inner self already undermined by his tempestuous relationship with his demanding father. The Chaos realm affords many dangers, but also some opportunities as well.

The book has been compared to the works of Jean Auel and Judith Tarr, neither of whom I have read. I did enjoy the hero quest in a Neolithic society, one very different from the quasi-medieval world of so many fantasy novels. The sequel is BLOODSTONE, but HEARTWOOD stands comfortably on its own.

SPIN, Spin 1
Pam and Taras read from some reviews and an interview with the author. Phil led the discussion. The novel won the 2005 Hugo Award and Phil found it a strong work, saying it reminded him of Arthur C Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END. Taras was less impressed.

FIRETHORN, Firethorn 1
The book is almost slice of life fantasy with almost all the action occurring in the camp of an army assembling for a war. It deals with all the goings on in the camp while waiting for the rest of the king's forces to arrive. The book ends with the army going off to war, a place where most other books would just be starting. Phil recommends it.

The following accounts are reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2007 Philip J De Parto.


CITY
... a classic and consists of a group of related stories which collectively tell of the fall of man and the rise of his successor, a race of intelligent canines. Along the way we encounter other players in the game: mutants, robots and ants.

It was a very pleasant discussion, with Barry and Taras bringing hand outs and Phil coming with "Epilog," a years later coda to the work which was published in the collection, ASTOUNDING.

THE BIG OVER EASY, Nursery Crimes 1
Hero of the novel is Detective Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crimes Division. He is investigating the death of Humpty Dumpty. Was his fall an accident, suicide, or MURDER? The book is loads of fun as Fforde–best known for his Thursday Next series–tosses playful bombs in all directions. “Publish or Perish” is how the police department is organized. Detectives whose cases are written up in crime magazines get promotions. People like Jack wind up in dead end jobs.

There are uncountable nods to old myths and fairie tales, Monty Python, and any number of pop culture references. We had a good time with the inspired silliness of the work.

HABEAS CORPSES, Halflife 3
... the third in a series begun in ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE and DEAD ON MY FEET and which continues in DEAD EASY. The hero is Christopher Csejthe, a half vampire who received only one of the two viruses which makes one a classic vampire. The preceding sentence encapsulates the author's central dilemma. On the one hand, he is trying to give a scientific rationale for vampirism. On the other, he has introduced werewolves, demons, and all other manner of traditionally supernatural characters without providing a scientific fig leaf.

Simmons refuses to be pigeonholed into telling a predictable story. At times his books are funny, horrific, relevant, escapist, and wise at times this works well, as when Christopher has a discussion about marital fidelity with the vampire Deidre in FOOT. AT others, it seems like he makes his plot choices by tossing random books into a blender. Certainly Baen has no idea how to market the guy. Book one tried to be fuzzy elf cute. Book two, a thriller. This time they put the voluptuous Deidre in leather with a rifle on the cover.

At its heart, this is a book about power and responsibility. When Christopher killed the vampire who claimed to be Elizabeth Bathery in FEET, he inherited her position as head of the New York demesne. Chris has no interest in this position, so a group of honorable vampires has been holding things together hoping that he will change his mind. Vampires of the less honorable sort have made several unsuccessful assassination attempts on Chris, who decides that he has a better chance of survival if he assumes command than if he continues to remain on the sidelines.

Unfortunately, the author adds in two additional plot threads. The first concerns a man Nazi scientist out to reestablish the glory of the Third Reich. The other is a red herring of a Central American demon who simply wants to go home. The book is okay, but not up to the level of the first two.

PHOBOS
... a mystery/thriller set on the Red Planet and its larger moon. While rebellion brews in the domed mining towns on the planet’s surface, something is killing people at a terraforming research station on its moon. The book combines bits from several genres–police procedural, space infantry, thriller, and mystery. It received strong reviews from PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY and other places, but sold poorly. The author is a past guest of the Association

Pam very much enjoyed the book because it was more than simply a mystery set in space. The science fiction elements were integral to the story. Phil also enjoyed it. It reminded him of books like THE CURRENTS OF SPACE by Isaac Asimov. Unfortunately, his voice gave out after reading aloud the prologue, and he was pretty much a non factor the rest of the evening. Taras had problems with military strategy of the space soldiers.

A CHARMED DEATH, Bewitching 2
... a triple genre book. It is labeled as a mystery on its spine. It is shelved in romance. And it features a woman who can do magic as its heroine.

This is the second in a series that began with THE TROUBLE WITH MAGIC. Heroine Maggie O'Neill--thirty years old, unmarried, always a bit of an oddball-has recently made a batch of cool new friends who have taught her how to make sense of the intuitions and premonitions she has experienced her entire life. She has joined the local wiccan community which is initiating her into the mysteries of the goddess and the hidden realm that most do not see.

She is working at her job at Enchantments, a small upscale gift shop, when she witnesses a confrontation between two groups of customers. The first is a trio of HEATHERS/MEAN GIRLS wannabees. The other is a Goth Girl, a newcomer in town. Before the evening is over, the chief Mean Girl is dead, and the Goth is a suspect, at least in Maggie's eyes.

This is a pleasant enough read, with a nice evoking of small town Indiana and an interesting batch of secondary characters, but I felt that the ending was a bit deus-ex-machina. The bad guy could just as easily fallen through thin ice on his own without the need to have Maggie belatedly discover her magical powers.

AIRS BENEATH THE MOON, Horsemistress 1
... the first in a trilogy which is aimed at both the YA and adlult fantasy markets. It is somewhat reminiscent of Anne Mc Caffrey's Pern series, though with flying horses, with bits of MEAN GIRLS and court intrigue thrown in.

There are two interwoven plot threads in the book. The first follows 15 year old farmer's daughter Larkyn Hamley who, through an unlikely set of circumstances, bonds with a newborn winged horst, an honor normally reserved for the gentry and is sent off to the air riders' academy. The second follows Horsemistress Phillipa Winter, second in command at the academy, who is on the trail of a sinister plot by the dastardly William, the heir apparent of the Duchy of Oc.

BEYOND SINGULARITY
... a reprint anthology of 14 stories dealing with humanity after the evolutionary Singularity postulated by Vernor Vinge and other writers. The Singularity is the moment or series of moments in which advances in genetic engineering, AI development, cybernet interfaces and other technological changes result in a world and a post humanity which is unrecognizable and incomprehensible to that which has gone before.

Except for "Old Hundredth" by Brian Aldiss, the stories in the anthology were published in the past ten years, although in a variety of magazines and anthologies. Writers include Gregory Benford, Cory Doctorow, Greg Egan, James Patrick Kelly, Charles Stross, and Michael Swanwick.

The two stories which most captured the feel of the post Singularity world were "The Voluntary State" by Christopher Rowe and "Rogue Farm" by Charles Stross. The latter story begins with a farmer powering up his tractor and then seeing "an itinerent farm coming down the road." Another significant story was "Border Guards" by Greg Egan, both for its depiction of a game of quantum soccer and for its tratise on the injustice of death. Taras and Bob disagreed, feeling the tale was overly didactic and one dimensional.

We had fun with Walter Jon Williams' "The Millennium Party" which was short enough that Taras could easily read it to the group. It literalizes the observation about how men can compartmentalize their feelings.

This collection is a good starting place for anyone wishing to sample some of the newer writers in the field. Egan, McCauley, and Stoss are also heavily identified with the New Space Opera Movement.

HELL TO PAY, Nightside 7
... a bit of "what has gone before" led off the discussion.

The NIghtside is a sort of fantasy noir version of London created by the goddess Lilith to be neutral territory in the war between Heaven and Hell. It is home to gods, demons, superheroes, monsters, and legends. Lilith herself is long gone, banished to a limbo by her rebellious subjects ages ago. Or so everyone thought.

Twenty five years ago, a greatly weakened Lilith returned and has since been in hiding, quietly rebuilding her might. She also gave birth to a son, John Taylor, hero of the series, and gifted him with a couple of super powers including the ability to locate anything he sought, for reasons of her own. But there is something about Lilith that just makes people want to cross her.

The first six books presented the Lilith story arc. At the end of book six, SHARPER THAN A SERPEN'T'S TOOTH, Lilith has again been banished to Limbo, and many of the great ones of the Nightside are fled, dead, or in hiding. New forces begin to stir.

Jeremiah Griffin, an immortal, and possibly the richest man in the Nightside, hires John Taylor to locate his missing granddaughter (and heir), Polly, in the latest book. Even for the man with the ability to Find Things, this will be no easy task, for someone has magically shut down his ability. John is not the only one looking for Polly and many people may have a motive in making sure that she is not found.

Green alternates between epic struggles and quieter tales in this series. This is one of his simpler yarns. I personally prefer his all-hell-is-breaking-loose works, but this is not a bad place to begin for someone new to the books.

OLD MAN'S WAR, Old Man's War 1
... is several notches above he usual military science fiction genre and was a Hugo Award finalist for best novel. It is in the tradition of such books as STARSHIP TROOPERS and THE FOREVER WAR and is reminiscent of classic Heinlein.

The premise of the novel is that a 75 year old makes a better interstellar soldier than a callow youth. The Colonial Defense Force transplants a sound mind trapped in an aging body into a souped up new body and drops it off to war. Actually, to a series of wars, for a number of alien races are interested in each others colony worlds and an old man has the breadth of experience to adapt more quickly to the variety of hazards and habitats that the soldiers will experience.

The book was full of interesting humans, more-or-less humans, aliens, and technologies. One of the novel's strongest sections detailed the technical specifications of the characters' new bodies. We had a lot of fun having Taras read aloud this section with Phil and Greg chiming "Trademark" in the appropriate places.

THE UNHANDSOME PRINCE
... a fractured faerie tale of a not particularly good looking prince who escapes from froghood due to the kiss of a beautiful maiden. Hijinks ensue when she brings him to court for breach of contract, i.e., she was promised a Handsome Prince and received one who looks like a Dweeb.

There are some very funny scenes in this book like Rapunzel's fixation upon hair products and the effects of a philosopher stone, but the book has received a degree of notoriety in some quarters because an evil prince intends to end the money problems of the royal family by expelling the Jews.

Philip passed out a review of the book complaining about this plot thread and responded to the argument. He and Pamela read passages from the novel.

THE CURRENTS OF SPACE
... my favorite Asimov novel. It is set in Dr A's future history during the rise of Trantor, when its Empire covers about half the galaxy. The basic plot is a mystery/thriller, but there are lots of nice throwaway science fiction details -- race and pigmentation, peace and order, interstellar espionage and intrigue, the upper and lower cities, and the titular currents of space -- to make this a legitimate science fiction novel and not simply a spy novel with a few sf trappings thrown on it.

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2015:


THE KILLING MOON.............................N K Jemisin...............................10/30/15
WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE............Daryl Gregory............................09/30/15
STARGLASS.........................................Phoebe North............................08/31/15
AMERICAN CRAFTSMEN.......................Tom Doyle.................................07/31/15
SHADES OF GREY.................................Jasper Fforde.............................06/30/15
SNOW IN AUGUST................................Pete Hamill................................05/29/15
THE EAR, THE EYE & THE ARM..............Nancy Farmer............................04/30/15
THE GOLEM & THE JINNI.......................Helene Wecker..........................03/31/15
CONTROL POINT / Shadow Ops...............Myke Cole.................................02/27/15
HERO'S GUIDE TO STORMING................Christopher Healy.....................01/30/15

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2014:


RAISING STONY MAYHALL........................Daryl Gregory...................11/28/14
WUTHERING BITES...................................Sarah Grey.......................10/31/14
THE SWORD-EDGED BLONDE....................Alex Bledsoe....................09/30/14
THE HUMAN DIVISION..............................John Scalzi.......................08/29/14
THE DAEDALUS INCIDENT........................Michael J Martinez............07/31/14
HERO'S GUIDE TO SAVING KINGDOM........Christopher Healy.............06/31/14
NO HERO.................................................Jonathan Wood.................05/30/14
TROLLS IN THE HAMPTONS......................Celia Jerome......................04/30/14
THE SHE-HULK DIARIES...........................Marta Acosta.....................03/31/14
INVINCIBLE / The Lost Fleet......................Jack Campbell....................02/28/14
TARNISHED KNIGHT / Lost Stars................Jack Campbell....................01/31/14

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2013:


JANE BITES BACK..................................Michael Thomas Ford...................11/29/13
THEFT OF SWORDS...............................Michael S Sullivan........................10/31/13
QUINTESSENCE....................................David Walton...............................09/30/13
EDGE OF INFINITY................................Jonathan Strahan.........................08/30/13
NIGHTSHADE.......................................Andrea Cremer............................07/31/13
THE JENNIFER MORGUE........................Charles Stross.............................06/28/13
SHATTERED aka CRASHED......................Robin Wasserman........................05/31/13
HAMMERED.........................................Kevin Hearne...............................04/30/13
EVEN W T ZOMBIES GET BLUES..............Diana Rowland.............................03/29/13
CONAN THE BARBARIAN.......................Robert Howard............................02/28/13
YEAR'S BEST SF 17................................Hartwell / Cramer.........................01/31/13

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2012:


WOMAN WORTH TEN COPPERS............Morgan Howell........................11/30/12
THE MENACE FROM EARTH.................Robert Heinlein.......................09/28/12
REDSHIRTS........................................John Scalzi..............................08/31/12
AWAKENINGS....................................Edward Lazellari.......................07/31/12
VORTEX.............................................Robert Charles Wilson...............06/29/12
HUMAN FOR A DAY.............................Brozek / Greenberg...................05/31/12
THE BROKEN KINGDOMS.....................N K Jemisin..............................04/30/12
CITIZENS: MILITARY SF BY VETS...........Ringo / Thomsen......................03/30/12
THE DEVIL'S ALPHABET.......................Daryl Gregory..........................02/29/12
MY LIFE AS A W TRASH ZOMBIE............Diana Rowland.........................01/31/12

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2011:


ERAGON.............................................Christopher Paolini....................11/30/11
CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD................Paul Malmont...........................10/28/11
JULIAN COMSTOCK..............................Robert C Wilson........................09/30/11
MORLOCK NIGHT.................................K W Jeter..................................08/31/11
HUNDRED THOUSAND KINDOMS..........N K Jemisin...............................07/29/11
INFERNAL DEVICES..............................K W Jeter...................................06/30/11
DIVINE MISFORTUNE...........................A Lee Martinez...........................05/31/11
AGENT TO THE STARS...........................John Scalzi.................................04/29/11
NORSE CODE........................................Greg van Hout............................03/31/11
LOVE & ROCKETS..................................Hughes & Greenberg..................02/28/11
FRAGILE THINGS..................................Neil Gaiman................................01/31/11

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2010:


DAUNTLESS / The Lost Fleet.....................Jack Campbell......................11/30/10
THE LAST COLONY...................................John Scalzi..........................10/29/10
THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE...........Leanna Renee Heiber............08/31/10
DEAD MATTER........................................Anton Strout........................06/30/10
THE YIDDISH POLICEMEN'S UNON..........Michael Chabon....................05/31/10
ILIUM....................................................Dan Simmons.......................04/30/10
ESCAPEMENT.........................................Jay Lake...............................03/31/10
ARIEL....................................................Stephen Boyett.....................01/29/10

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2009:


DEADER STILL......................................Anton Strout..........................11/30/09
BLOOD & IRON.....................................Elizabeth Bear.........................10/30/09
AXIS....................................................Robert Charles Wilson.............09/30/09
TO OULIVE ETERNITY & OTHERS............Poul Anderson........................08/31/09
THE NIGHT TOURIST.............................Katherine Marsh.....................07/31/09
THE SKEWED THRONE...........................Joshua Palmatier....................06/30/09
PANDEMONIUM...................................Daryl Gregory.........................05/29/09
THE ANDROID'S DREAM.......................John Scalzi.............................04/30/09
THE STEPSISTER SCHEME.....................Jim Hines...............................03/31/09
FROZEN aka SKINNED...........................Robin Wasserman..................02/27/09
CRASHLANDER.....................................Larry Niven...........................01/30/09

This Thread is for Books Read by the Month End Book Group in 2008:


VOYAGE OF THE SPACE BEAGLE.............A E Van Vogt.......................11/28/08
THE DIMENSION NEXT DOOR.................Greenberg / Hughes.............10/31/08
MAINSPRING........................................Jay Lake..............................09/30/08
SMOKE & MIRRORS................................Neil Gaiman........................08/29/08
REIFFEN'S CHOICE................................S C Butler............................07/31/08
FARMER IN THE SKY..............................Robert Heinlein...................06/30/08
DEAD TO ME.........................................Anton Strout........................05/30/08
THE GHOST BRIDAGES...........................John Scalzi...........................04/30/08
HEARTWOOD........................................Barbara Campbell.................03/31/08
SPIN.....................................................Robert Charles Wilson..........02/29/08
FIRETHORN...........................................Sarah Micklem.....................01/31/08