NJ: Month End SF Book Group (Paramus, NJ) discussion
2014 Books Read Thread
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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.
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