Fade to Blonde -- Max Phillips Hard Case Crime, #2

Joining the Hard Case Crime book club was the best $6-a-month investment I made last year. (It was also the only one I made, but I'm confident that if there'd been others, it would still be on top.) Sometimes the books are reprints with awesome new covers, sometimes they're original publications, some of them are stronger pieces of writing than others, but they've all been entertaining. They make me happy. If you enjoy the crime genre and aren't offended by the un-PC (especially in regards to how the ladies are treated), they're well worth a read.

Since I jumped in somewhere in the late-40's, I have, of course, been worrying about what I missed. So I decided to go back to the beginning and read their releases in order. Or as close to in order as I can.

Fade to Blonde was a Hard Case original, and it won the 2005 Shamus Award for Best Paperback of the Year. It's a pretty familiar setup, with a more-striking-than-classically-beautiful woman approaching the narrator and spinning a story about being in danger and needing help, leading him to an underworld of drugs, gangsters, prostitution and pornography. The tension, for me, came from never being quite sure how it would all play out -- Ray Corson is aware from minute one that Rebecca isn't telling him everything, but are her omissions (or are they just flat-out lies?) going to get him killed?

While this book got what looks to be stellar reviews across the board, my feelings were a little more mixed. For the first half-to-three-quarters of the book, I had a hard time believing that Ray Corson would've gotten as involved as he did -- I never believed that he cared much for Rebecca, though I think I was supposed to, and even if his motivation was different (say, simple curiosity), I felt that he was too smart to stick around. There were moments when his temper took over, when he made a decision to do something even though he knew that it would come back to slap him, but those moments were different. They worked for me. There was a distinct turning point where my issues dissolved and it finally made sense to me for him to go all-in, but that was so far into the story -- there had been so many moments that I felt he would have just walked away -- that I felt it was still a problem.

What really worked for me was his voice. Ray Corson was bright and likable and great with the one-liners and literary references (he's an aspiring-but-pretty-much-failed screenwriter) without laying them on too thick:

His suit was what mine wanted to be when it grew up. My suit was kidding itself.

By the time I got there, the bartender had another gimlet waiting. I'd be doing well to get home that night with my liver still attached.

I laid them out in a row and started noodling names and facts and connecting them with arrows and generally smoking my meerschaum and playing my violin.

If you want more, there's a sample chapter up at Hard Case's site.

I also really enjoyed, for the most part, the secondary characters -- Mattie and L. R. Bellinger, especially. And the Hollywood setting was great. Even with the aspects I found problematic, I found myself thinking quite often of Chinatown, actually. Which is in no way a bad thing.

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Previously:

1. Grifter's Game, Lawrence Block
3. Top of the Heap, Erle Stanley Gardner

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(cross-posted at Bookshelves of Doom)

Review- The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd

The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Nick Burd
"It’s Dade’s last summer at home. He has a crappy job at Food World, a “boyfriend” who won’t publicly acknowledge his existence (maybe because Pablo also has a girlfriend), and parents on the verge of a divorce. College is Dade’s shining beacon of possibility, a horizon to keep him from floating away. Then he meets the mysterious Alex Kincaid. Falling in real love finally lets Dade come out of the closet—and, ironically, ignites a ruthless passion in Pablo. But just when true happiness has set in, tragedy shatters the dreamy curtain of summer, and Dade will use every ounce of strength he’s gained to break from his past and start fresh with the future."- summary from Amazon

This was an amazing book; Burd's debut is simply fantastic. It's so detailed, realistic, witty, emotional, pretty much everything you'd want in a novel. Dade is a relateable character and I loved reading about his adventures this summer with his friend Lucy and boyfriend Alex and other friends and enemies he meets along the way. While it is a coming out story, it doesn't feel tired like some seem to be as Burd breathes new life into this kind of story. The prose is beautifully written and compelling, which made the book difficult to put down. Highly recommended.

Summer Reads Roundup

I'm on vacation as of 30 minutes from now and I haven't read anything worth recommending to Guys Lit Wire. So I'll let you know what I'm PLANNING on reading while lying on the beach. Check back next month for what panned out and what didn't.

I'm in the middle of listening to The Enemy by Lee Child which is one of the middle Jack Reacher books and one of 2 I haven't read. If you know anything about Jack Reacher it's that he can't be stopped. And the novels are the same way. I ran out and bought I copy of this one so that I can continue the story without hiatus.

I'm in the middle of reading Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. While not nearly as gripping (or well written) as The Long Walk or Hunger Games the theme of kids fighting to the death is just too good to resist. Though I suspect I know how it ends I'm looking forward to getting there.

I'm bringing along Lost City of Z by David Grann a highly recommended story of Amazon adventure, disease, madness and obsession. I don't really know any more about it than that, but really, do I need to?

Also making the trip is Against Destiny by Aleksandr Dolinin. Its about the desperate escape of Russian political prisoners from the Siberian gulag, a plot point I haven't been able to turn down since my friend Jeff Kinyon told me in elementary school about a movie called Gulag where a guy fell in a crevasse and compound fractured his leg. There are probably BETTER reasons to read a book, but this one comes highly recommended.

And I think I'll throw in Reality Check by Peter Abrahams. One, because I'm a Teen librarian and I should at least TRY to read some teen fiction while I'm away. And two, because Stephen King recommended it and I do LOVE The Long Walk. Reality Check is the story of a high school athlete with a blown out knee and a vanished girlfriend who goes looking for her at her prestigious boarding school. I'm not a huge fan of mysteries but the desperation of the protagonist and the boarding school setting pique my interest.

So that should keep my busy the week I'm away. I'll let you know what I think.

When the Tripods Came, by John Christopher

Before I even get started today, let me just say right here and right now that I am against brainwashing. No matter how good it might make you feel, being brainwashed is something you want to avoid. It’s better to be tormented by confusion but have your own ideas than to become some sort of blissed out zombie with spinning spirals for pupils under the complete control of an insidious master. I hope that’s clear.

When the Tripods Came is John Christopher’s belated prequel to the original series (which I reviewed here). The whole series, in large part, is about brainwashing, and just how bad it is. Though what it means to be brainwashed is something that seems to be open for discussion. Or it seemed to be, anyway, before the prequel existed.

The prequel was inspired, according to the preface, by critics who complained of the story being implausible. Even a few years after the publication of the books, real human technology had advanced so rapidly that fictional Tripod technology looked rather primitive and even silly by comparison. So, how would the Tripods have taken humanity over so easily?

It’s curious that Christopher felt the need to answer these critics. Juding dated science fiction on its plausibility is a little like complaining that 80s fashions looks dated in the year 2009 (oh, wait).

But the author composed an answer anyway. It turns out that the Tripods began their conquest of Earth slowly and rather unsuccessfully. When the Tripods Came opens with two boys, Laurie (short for Laurence so don’t make fun of him) and Andy (short for Andrew, duh) on a camping trip in England who witness a massive (several stories high) Tripod’s initial exploration of our planet. The Tripod mirthlessly destroys a farmhouse, abducts a man, kills a dog, and battles some tanks before jet fighters swoop in and nonchalantly demolish it. Two other Tripods are sighted elsewhere in the world and meet similar fates.

The Tripod technology, then, did look a bit silly to humanity whose long history of warfare had given them quite a few tools with which to engage an invading force. “They didn’t even have infrared!” hoots one of Andy and Laurie’s teachers in a post-invasion classroom discussion. Humans expend much energy patting themselves on the back. There’s even a television show, from America, called the Trippy Show, dedicated to satirizing the Tripods. It acheives wide international success.

It’s so successful, in fact, that a cult begins to form around it and by the time anyone realizes that the audience is being brainwashed by television (imagine that), it’s too late. Communes of TV-hypnotized “Trippies” form to welcome and defend new invasions of Tripods. The Tripods extend their mind control powers by hard-wiring human brains through the use of Caps, and soon their conquest is, more or less, over. Christopher’s answer, to his critics, is that while their weapons of mass destruction may have been primitive, the Tripods understanding of the human mind and human culture gave them what they needed to take over the planet.

Now, my review of the original trilogy gave a general, and I think, generous reading of the Tripod allegory. I claimed the Masters represented authority and that the uncapped represented free-thinking youth. In the comments that followed, A Paperback Writer proposed that the books were a kind of Cold War* propaganda, and that the Masters represented Communists. I didn’t like that reading because I find propaganda insipid by definition and I thought the Tripod series was too interesting and engaging for that.

But maybe I was fooled. While I think the generous reading is still the better one, and the one that may allow the series to remain readable and interesting into the future, its hard to argue, after considering When the Tripods Came, that Christopher did not intend the Masters to represent Communists. There are a number of passages in the novel singing the praises of “individuality” and “freedom”—obvious anti-communist code words. And the countercultural references to “Tripping” (drug use) and “Trippies” (hippies) make it difficult to imagine that Christopher had a lot of warm feelings for tie-dye wearing vegetarians who were often associated with the propagation of socailist/communist ideology in the West. The mass gatherings of Trippies also look a lot like the countercultural protest movement. (Groups that gather in large masses appear from the outside like people brainwashed by common ideology, even to those looking at them while nestled within the warmth of a large mass.)

Does that make When the Tripods Came, or the rest of the Tripod series, Cold War propaganda? Maybe. If you let yourself read it that way. You could instead focus on the things it has to say about the demise of the nuclear family, which I didn’t get into here, but which are actually rather subtle and touching. Or, you could just read it as a ripping good sci-fi saga. Which it is.

The problem, of course, with propaganda is that it’s an attempt to brainwash the reader. And, as we’ve established, brainwashing is to be avoided. So even if the propaganda is against brainwashing, it’s brainwashing that’s against brainwashing. So I’m confused. And tormented. But my mind is free.




*If you weren’t around for the Cold War, let me give you a brief summary. There was the Eastern Block (or Bloch), led by the Soviet Union, which wanted to create an empire in the name of Communism (often considered evil, but on its surface about sharing) and there were the Western countries, led by the United States, which wanted to form an empire (but claimed they didn’t) in the name of Capitalism (which is supposed to be good but on its surface is about selling things for more than they’re actually worth). The two sides really really wanted to blow each other up, but were very nervous about accidentally blowing themselves up in the process.

Crossposted at Critique de Mr Chompchomp

More Graphic Classics, now in COLOR!

I have dim childhood memories of TV shows announcing with great enthusiasm that they were now "in COLOR!" (The irony is, most TV sets at the time were only black-and-white). The latest superlative volume (number seventeen) from Graphic Classics is also their first one in color, so consider this a similar enthusiastic announcement. Subtitled Science Fiction Classics, it proves to contain exactly that, with the possible exception of a Lord Dunsany tale I don't think really qualifies as SF. But original SF gangstas H.G. Wells and Jules Verne rub shoulders with Stanley G. Weinbaum, Arthur Conan Doyle and odd-man-out E.M. Forster's (Howards End, Maurice, A Room with a View) lone SF story.

Although there's not really a weak spot quality-wise in the whole volume, two stories really stand out. One is Micah Farritor's evocative interpretation of The War of the Worlds. The public perception of the story has always been contemporary, from (Orson) Welles' radio drama to the George Pal 1953 movie and including the recent Spielberg/Cruise version. Farritor manages to show the setting as (H.G.) Wells imagined it, with troops on horseback and artillery cannons facing the Martian death machines and doing surprisingly well.

The other superlative piece is "The Disintegration Machine," one of Arthur Conan Doyle's "Professor Challenger" stories. Challenger has always been lost in the shadow of Doyle's other creation, but he's an equally vivid character: brilliant, larger-than-life, quick to fly into theatrical rages and always up for...well, a challenge. He's the hero of Doyle's dinosaur epic The Lost World (adapted in a prior Arthur Conan Doyle Graphic Classics collection), and "The Disintegration Machine" has always been one of my favorites. In it, Challenger is recruited to test the veracity of Dr. Nemor's titular device, a kind of primitive transporter of obvious value to the more aggressive nations of the world. Robert Langridge's artwork catches the perfect tone, and his glowering take on Professor Challenger is marvelous. Why has no one ever cast Brian Blessed as this character?

Weinbaum's classic "A Martian Odyssey" is given a rollicking treatment by George Sellas. Brad Teare brings a woodcut style to Dunsany's "The Bureau d'Echange de Maux," which only enhances its non-SF feel. And Ellen Lindner illustrates Forster's "The Machine Stops" in a style that emphasizes its family resemblance to Wall-E.

Each Graphic Classics volume I've had the pleasure of reviewing has done an admirable job of putting new graphic flesh onto old narrative bones, reminding us why they were considered classics in the first place. With this volume's addition of color, that effect is only intensified. Any reader of any age can connect with these stories and get a little of the thrill that the original readers experienced.

Twilight Zone graphic novels

It's hard to find a modern-day television series that continually offers intelligent scripts and thoughtful commentaries on society and history. Due to its creativity, imagination, and daring, the original Twilight Zone has always been one of my all-time favorite television series. It never scared me; it always intrigued me, and it always made me think, be it about injury, beauty, regret, global warming, fear, or the very essence and meaning of life.

Bloomsbury and Walker Books now bring The Twilight Zone to a new generation, thanks to their line of graphic novels based on the classic episodes. Most of these new adaptations have stuck to the original scripts.

However, something gets lost in translation, and I think it's because of the medium. There are different mediums and different formats for different stories and different people. Though I like graphic novels, they don't have sound. Thus, though Mark Kneece has adapted the original scripts, these new books lack the amazing narration previously provided by Rod Serling. I miss his voice while I turn the pages. I miss real movement and sound: the turn of a head, the whistle of a train, the rustle of wings, the laugh of a villain. I miss seeing a character's face crumble upon hearing or realizing what's happened, hearing the crunch of glass(es) and the final crescendo of music. Yes, some of those things may be conveyed on a page, but not all of them, not in the same way. Graphic novels provide a different kind of movement, from panel to panel, page to page. Graphic novels have benefits TV and film do not, and vice-versa. I just think the other dimensions - the dimension of sight (in this case, movement), the dimension of sound - on the TV show intensify the experience of The Twilight Zone.

The new books are full-color, with art created by students and faculty members of The Savannah College of Art and Design that will surely catch your eye. These bright palettes of color are another notable change from the originals. Though the 1983 film and various remakes of the TV series were shot in color, the original TZ was shot in black and white. Were these wholly new stories, I probably wouldn't think so much about this, but because I know the original series so well, those episodes are burned into my brain. I cherish well-shot black and white films and series, those which are stark and intense, with shadow and substance. If the rumored Leonardo DiCaprio-produced Twilight Zone film ever comes to fruition, perhaps they'll make it in black and white.

Hopefully, these new graphic novels based on episodes of The Twilight Zone will encourage kids to watch the classic television series, and to read the original short stories that inspired so many of those episodes. Maybe these new readers will create graphic novels or short stories of their own. Maybe they'll draw up storyboards and film these stories, beginning their own thoughtful and haunting anthologies.

So far, four Twilight Zone graphic novels are available:
- The After Hours
- Walking Distance
- The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
- The Odyssey of Flight 33

...and more are planned:
- The Midnight Sun (coming out in June)
- Deaths-Head Revisited (coming out in June)
- The Big Tall Wish (fall 2009)
- Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up? (fall 2009)

The Book Fair for Boys is still cranking along

An unexpected late post that is bringing the Book Fair a bit more attention has persuaded us to keep things alive through the week. Please read my earlier post on our project to help the teen boys held in the LA County juvenile justice system. And for everyone who has bought a book so far - thank you so very very much. (And yep Catch-22 is still on the list!)

Behind the cut, read what many contributors have already sent.

These are not all the books purchased - some folks have bought books without letting us know but we thank you all the same! Also, some purchases seemed to have been made concurrently, so we have a few duplicates. Not to worry - this will work out just fine as the guys like to read books at the same time (so they can talk about them) and also some guys read much slower than others. Now on to the list!

Nancy bought Something Wicked This Way Comes (Essential October reading)

Jessica from LA bought Sleeper Code, Sleeper Agenda and The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Leila from Maine bought On Writing (totally indispensable in my book), Acceleration and It's Kind of a Funny Story

Becker from CO bought The Wednesday Wars, Geography Club (one of the best books ever I think) and Wide Awake

Seth from NY State bought Seabiscuit, The Visual Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs (that's about as good as it gets as far as I'm concerned), The Schwa Was Here, Shakespeare Bats Cleanup and Romiette and Julio

Kris from Georgia bought The Things They Carried (this book changed my life) and Runaways Vol. 1

Charlotte from New England bought Holes and My Family and Other Animals (funniest book ever!)

E Luper bought Seabiscuit (this blew my mind when I read it) and Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie

Maureen Frank from LA bought Something Wicked This Way Comes, Riding Rockets (astronauts rule!!), Satchel Paige & Rio Grande Stories

Michael from NY bought Candy

Heather bought Fallen Angels, Autobiography of My Dead Brother (Go Walter Dean Myers!) and Bud, Not Buddy

Brenda from Seattle bought Into the Wild and Hatchet (Gary Paulsen rules)

Michael & Katharine in Austin, TX bought Laika (I defy you to read this book without crying - it's amazing history), Runaways Vol. 1 and Jurassic Park

Scott & Michelle from Kansas bought Looking for Alaska (yea John Green!), Life of Pi, Ranger's Apprentice and Fast Food Nation (the boys who read this will never eat MacDonald's again...)

Jen Robinson (the awesome Jen Robinson!) in CA bought The Giver, Silverfin: James Bond #1, Heat (if you know Jen, it makes perfect sense that she bought a baseball book) and Notes From the Midnight Driver

Elisabeth bought Tyrell, Tears of a Tiger and its two sequels (how cool is that - they weren't even on the list!), Forged by Fire and Darkness Before Dawn

"A Shared Meal" from Shanghai, China bought A Rose That Grew From Concrete (because poetry is cool)

Nephele from Pasadena bought The Alchemist and King Dork (maybe we need to add "Catcher in the Rye to the list now..... :)

Julie from Seattle bought A Long Way Gone

Loree from Massachusetts (the fabulous Loree Griffin Burns actually - author of Tracking Trash whose book would have been on the list if it was out in tpb!) bought the Field Guide to Birds in CA, Snake Scientist and Once a Wolf

Jamison, also in Massachusetts, bought The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman for everyone!

Kelly in Tucson, AZ bought graphic bios for both Jim Thorpe and Jackie Robinson, two great Americans we all should know about

Kerry in FL bought Gregor the Overlander, Gorilla Doctors, Ultimate Spider-man (whoo-hoo!), Zombie Haiku, Looking for Life in the Universe and Beginning Chess (Is this the most eclectic group of books from the list or what?)

Christine bought Ysabel which won a ton of awards and was one of my favorite reads last year. Plus Guy Gavriel Kay is a baseball fan - go Red Sox!

Heidi bought Octavian Nothing Vol. 1 (whoa....)

Julie from VA bought The Sledding Hill (Chris Crutcher rules!) and Schooled

Kimberly from S. Dakota bought Fahrenheit 451 and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Ray and Harry - pretty good reading combo!)

Laura from NY bought the Dark is Rising set (go Susan Cooper!), Sunrise Over Fallujah, Neverwhere, Just So Stories (Kipling!), and It

Catie In CA bought Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban, Coraline, The Hot Zone, Peak, Lonely Werewolf Girl (LOVED this - wicked cool werewolf wars!), Inside Out, Always Running and Pride of Baghdad (can't read this one without crying at the end.......)

Cheryl from San Jose also got Prisoner of Azkaban (we are buying so fast we are overwhelming the system at Powells, I think) and Feed!

Sarah from Austin, TX bought Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (clearly we are all big HP fans...)

Janet bought Kon Tiki (as we know Kristopher's post a few months ago, this is a book that will change your life forever) The Right Stuff, Dogs I Have Met and From Baghdad With Love

Blacklin bought Something Wicked This Way Comes (and Bradbury love keeps going)

Janet from the UK bought From Baghdad With Love, Throne of Jade (go Naomi Novik!), Hitchiker's Guide to the Universe and the Marvel Comics Illus Last of the Mohicans (This is exactly how I learned the classics...)

Lisa from MA bought The Perfect Storm, Territory (wicked cool magic spin on the OK Corral), Baseball in April and Other Stories and Summerland

CC also bought The Perfect Storm (you can not have too many copies of a classic)

Kat bought Two Fisted Science (yea Jim Ottavini!), Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Life, Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, HItchhiker's Guide to the Universe, Worlds to Explore, Winterdance, From Both Sides Now, Found Dogs and The Dogs Who Found me. Kat - YOU ARE OUR HERO!!!

Sherry bought Dreams From My Father (sending some Barack Obama love...)

Natalie from Northern Virginia bought Hoot and Small Steps (the sequel to the fabulous Holes)

Jessa from NH bought Make Lemonade (she was happy to find a girl's voice - we've got a few on the list, Jessa!)

Jessica in VA bought The Man in the Iron Mask (Marvel illus of course!), We Wish to Inform You...., The Photographer (sitting right here beside me right now - it is fantastic) and My Side of the Mountain

Shannon from Richardson, TX bought M is for Magic (Hmm, whose more popular, Gaiman or Bradbury?)

Miss T bought M is for Magic also (looks like that one was bought at the same time by two folks - Gaiman is surging ahead!), Al Capone Does My Shirts, The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night Time and The Gift of Fear

Lynne from Ohio bought Once a Wolf (great nature title - very popular in my house), Code Talkers and finished off Naomi Novik's series with Black Powder War and Empire of Ivory

Chris bought American Shaolin and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (we're closing in on the complete set...)

Jenn also jumped on American Shaolin (these orders went through at the exact same time - I basically watched it happen - who knew this one would be an immediate hit?) and Hero!

Drew ordered Freak Show (wildest cover ever!), The Saints of Augustine and Rainbow Boys

Leigh from Tucson, AZ order Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (almost there...), Interworld and A Dog's Life (we seem to have a lot of dog lovers)

Sherrie from CA bought The Audacity of Hope (Obama is popular) and Among the Hidden

Heidi in TX bought The Martian Chronicles, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (preordered as the tpb is due out in July - now the HP set is complete!), Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, Dogsong, Last of the Breed (awesome Cold War/espionage/fighter pilot/Native American coolness), the Illustrated Book of Myths and the Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Heidi - YOU ROCK!

Kate from Geneva, Switzerland (!) bought Airman, the Caesar Chavez biography, Ghost in the Tokaido Inn, (one of the best MG/YA mystery series out there) Good Omens, The Watsons Go to Birmingham and The Illustrated Man (more Bradbury!)

Trev from WA state bought Misfits, On the Road (Hey Kerouac!) and I Wouldn't Start From Here (my interview with the author runs next week in the Summer Blog Blast Tour)

Patty in Michigan bought Astronomy and Secrets of Sound (animal sounds that is...)

Jodie just chimed in from England with purchases of some second copies some great titles, The Legend of Colton Bryant (I reviewed this last year and adored it), Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Throne of Jade, Last of the Mohicans & From Baghdad with Love

Sara Lewis Holmes (the divine Sara - it was her post way back more than a year ago that sparked GLW in the first place!) bought some of her favs: Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian (never get enough of Sherman Alexie), Son of the Mob, American Born Chinese, Hole in my Life and I am the Messenger (how did we forget to put this on the list?)

Jackie in Toronto bought Julie of the Wolves (tough Alaska girl survival story), Grayson, In Darkness, Death and The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet

Starrie bought The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, Tamar (awesome WWII intrigue) and Ball Don't Lie

Benjamin bought Howard Zinn's Young People's History of the US (cause history is cool you know....)

Julie from NYC bought Redwall #1, The Afterlife, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key and Jarhead (one of the best books on the USMC ever written, according to my brother - who oughta know)

GD (freshly graduated librarian school student!) bought Firewatch (Connie Willis!!!) and Maxiumum Ride #1

Angela bought Runaways #2 (love this series) and Life As We Knew It

Jodie came back for more with Liquor (the first Rickey & G-man novel), How to Draw Cars Like a Pro, Airborn, The Bug Scientists, Mossflower & The Hungry Ocean Jodie - YOU ARE THE COOLEST!! THANKS

Trisha bought Travel Team and Cooked (a memoir that I really want to read)

Lorie Ann from WA (one of the readergirlz divas!) bought Locomotion

Mikki from Brooklyn bought The Sea Dragons (underwater dinosaur-type creatures!), Warriors #2 and A Kiss Before the Apocalypse

Midori from AZ bought The Big Sleep, As Simple As Snow and threw in Walter Mosley's Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned and two Tim Cahill titles, Jaguars Ripped my Flesh and A Wolverine is Eating My Leg (ew.....)

David from New England (and a GLW regular contributor) bought Shark Trouble and Howard Zinn's People's History of the US

Holly from WA (another fabulous readergirlz diva!) bought Fat Kid Rules the World

Pinguinus from Brooklyn, who writes a great birding blog, bought Project Ultra Swan (which makes perfect sense!)

Alyssa, Jake and Gregory three teens from CA bought Ender's Game, The Eyes of the Dragon and Dateline: Troy (which is an amazing book and really brought the Greeks alive for me)

Kim from Portland, OR bought Percy Jackson #1 (we're going to have these guys addicted to like eight different series!)

Eve from East Midlands, England bought The Wee Free Men and A Hatful of Sky - more Pratchett, YEA!

Erin from Portland bought Percy Jackson #2 and #3 (so I just added #4) and Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

Donna from Connecticut bought If I Die in a Combat Zone

Eugene from NYC bought Coyote Road - another great Terri Windling/Ellen Datlow anthology

Melanie from Nashville, TN bought Farthing (Jo Walton is so cool!) and A River Runs Through It

GLW's own aquafortis from CA bought Deogratias (which makes perfect sense as she was the one who suggested we put it on the list!)

"qugrainne" from Milwaukee, WI bought Bad Boy (Walter Dean Myers' excellent memoir) and The Sword That Cut the Burning Grass

Steampunk vamps and undersea adventure

I'm all about cool fantasy titles over at my column in Bookslut this month; two novellas in particular stood out for me that I thought GLW readers would enjoy. If you're in the mood for alt history vamps or Sherlock Holmes with serious style, I have the books for you.

Elizabeth Bear’s new novella Seven for a Secret is a sequel to her alternate history saga, New Amsterdam. This time her vampire main character Sebastien and his companion, the sorceress detective Lady Abigail Irene, find themselves embroiled in a plot by Prussian invaders to conquer Russia -- the last strong holdout in a Europe that has been overrun and occupied. The couple has returned to London for the elderly Abigail Irene’s death but it is not comfort they find in this occupied city. The action begins early on when on a protective whim Sebastien follows a pair of teenage girls out late one night who are in danger of falling victim to loyal Brits who will not favor their Prussian military dress. There is something about the girls that strikes him as odd and as he reveals a few gathered clues to Abigai,l Irene and their friend Phoebe they realize that an attempt is being made by the Prussians to form a squad of werewolves that could be unleashed on the Russian front. Whether the girls (who are part of this) can be saved or must be sacrificed is a point of contention that is not solved until Sebastien meets with one of them and discovers her secret. He realizes that the adults are not the only ones with a plan, nor are they necessarily the most powerful ones in the plot to change the world.

While I enjoyed New Amsterdam immensely (and highly recommend it), Bear surprised me by making this very teen friendly sequel. Ruth and Adele, the teens Sebastien follows, carry their fair share of the story and are strong characters. Bear also does a great job of rewriting history here, with a dark version of 1938 that fits perfectly into might-have-been territory. (See Jenny Davidson’s The Explosionist or Jo Walton’s Farthing for other excellent alt-histories set in this period.) While the book will be most enjoyed by fans of Amsterdam, as it follows up on events there, new readers will find much to be excited about with Ruth and Adele as they face grave choices about loyalty to country, self and each other. It is clear that children are the new weapon of choice in this war but in a very unconventional matter. Bear provides plenty of political intrigue, some tension and enough mythic conversation to make readers long for a mystical library collection of their own. It’s nice to see Abigail and Sebastien still on the side of the good guys here, and even better to find a teenager who is bloody well tough enough to take on the true face of evil.


Alternate history detective Professor Langdon St. Ives returns in Subterranean Press’s The Ebb Tide, a steampunk adventure that includes one wicked cool submarine, a lost (and recently recovered) map, mysterious bad guys with guns and a final confrontation in Morecambe Bay “with its dangerous tides and vast quicksand pits.” St. Ives continues to be his brilliant deductive self although this time around more of the action is focused on stalwart sidekick (and faithful biographer) Jack Owlesby, who affords himself quite admirably in several dangerous situations above water and below.

Together with old friends and new, St. Ives and Owlesby are on the hunt for the suspected alien device from the Yorkshire Dales Meteor, which was lost in Morecambe Bay years before while under the care of Bill “Cuttle” Kraken who created a map of his intended route across the bay before succumbing to its treacherous tides. Just what the device is capable of no one knows but recovering it before the evil Ignacio Narbondo (otherwise known as “Frosticos”) is imperative. When the map is found, Ives is quickly on Kraken’s trail and along with Owlesby, a talented street urchin, and others who support him in his current days of banishment from the Explorers Club, the race is on to beat Frosticos. The discovery of a shipyard below the River Thames keeps things moving while introducing several of the mechanical devices that steampunk fans will enjoy. Everything leads to a confrontation with dastardly villains, one of whom gets his just deserts. All’s well that ends well (mostly) as Owlesby is victorious and the device -- whatever its origins might be -- is revealed at last.

Author James Blaylock keeps the action moving, the pithy comments flowing and the dire circumstances just this side of believable as St. Ives maneuvers his way around his arch enemy. Accompanied by J.K. Potter’s always stellar illustrations, The Ebb Tide is one of the better fantasy adventure characters I have come across in ages. Modern teens will love St. Ives but the inclusion of talented teen Finn Conrad (former circus acrobat of course) will keep them particularly riveted. There is nothing not to like about this novella and a lot to recommend it. Be sure to check out Blaylock’s other St. Ives adventures as well. (And don’t miss his afterword to the The Ebb Tide, a delightful combination of fact and fiction as the author ruminates on writing his story.)

[cross posted from Bookslut]

The Sixth Sense vs. Turn of the Screw

You’ve seen The Sixth Sense, right?

And you remember the super secret shocker ending, right? Now imagine this. What if the movie had ended before the secret was revealed? And you and your pals walk out saying, “That was some weird stuff, but what the heck happened?”

Later a Taco Bell, you go, “Wait a minute! What if the kid saw…”

And your buddy goes, “But the kid didn’t see…”

And you go: “But maybe he did, but he didn’t realize …”

And so on.

Well, that’s what happened 100 years before The Sixth Sense with Henry James and his whacked out ghost story, “The Turn of the Screw.” He freaked people out and forgot to calm them down by turning the lights on at the end of the story. The secret stays secret.

If you’ve thought about tackling a "classic," this one isn’t a bad place to start. For one thing it’s short. For another it’s a page turner. Some of the sentences made my brain glaze over, but there's plenty of straightforward stuff to get you through.

And then there’s the big secret for you to chew over for a while.

The upshot is that a naïve, young lady lands her first job as a governess. “Go to my creepy country estate,” says her new boss, “and take care of a couple of orphans. It pays great, but there’s just one rule: don’t bug me -- no matter what happens.”

Things do happen, of course. AND things have happened in the past, which the boss failed to mention. Such as the untimely death of the previous governess. (You saw that coming, right?)

Then it’s all ghosts and creepy kids and who is lying to whom and more ghosts until suddenly - BAM - the story is over before the big secret comes out. IF there was a big secret. Maybe the big secret is that there wasn’t a big secret.

When you’re done with the story, you can go online and read the many, many theories about just what happened. These are often called “literary criticism,” but they’re really just seriously geeked-out Taco Bell conversations.

Where we stand on books for boys

The books are still arriving at InsideOut Writers for the Book Fair for Boys. We are going to give the project a week for the dust to settle and then we'll share how many books arrived, how the library is being set up (there are so many books we might have books in more than one location as there are three juvenile detention centers in LA County) and what the boys think. Keep in mind though, as awesome as the response has been we are still looking at about 300 books for 2,500 boys. This is just the beginning of our commitment to this project and we look forward to what comes next.

[Post pic of Eve's house as she opens books - read more, including some of the messages from folks who donated books, in her latest entry.]