Your Monkey Librarian...

Breaker Boys: The NFL's Greatest Team and the Stolen 1925 Championship by David Fleming

2008-02-24T16:37:00.001-08:00

Pity poor Pottsville, Pennsylvania...
A proud mining town, one of the most productive of the early 1900s, has little to offer its residents other than work in the mines and an early grave. That all changes when Doc Striegel decides to bring a professional football team to the town. At the turn of the century, college football was considered the true sport, where the pro game was a league of mercenaries and thugs who were paid to injure as many people as possible. It all changed when the Pottsville Maroons formed.
They perfected new strategies and tactics that raised the level of the game. They fielded a team of the wildest characters imaginable, including former baseball stars, monstrous brothers, and one iron-jawed stalwart named Tony Latone, who worked his way out of the mines and onto the field. Latone was dubbed the Human Howitzer, a hard running, hard hitting cannonball that left defenders crumpled in his wake.
The Maroons struggle to stay afloat financially, but put together an incredible record, suffering only two losses heir entire season. They make a few enemies along the way, chiefly in the form of other owners, bitter at Striegel for stealing some of their best players, and large cities who are trying to drum small markets out of the NFL.
At the end of the season, the Maroons are crowned champions, but after they agree to play an exhibition game against a team of Notre Dame All-Stars, a conspiracy is hatched to drum them out of the league and revoke their title. Maroons backers have been trying unsuccessfully since 1925 to have their title re-instated, but through one bad turn or another they've been denied. But for reading this book, you'd have no idea this team existed, so cleanly has the NFL expunged them from the records. This was a team of Hall-of-Famers, a group of men who elevated the game and arguably saved pro football from collapse.

After reading this book, you'll want to give them their due. You can learn how to help the cause of Pottsville Maroons at breakerboys1925.com/

Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson

2008-02-24T16:32:00.001-08:00

This book reimagines the origins of Peter Pan and Neverland. Barry and Pearson come together to create a narrative that is compelling for young and old alike. Young Peter, an orphan in London, is sent with some of his fellow children on a boat journey to a faraway island. They don't know where they are going or what will happen to them when they get there. Their ship, the Neverland, is holding a very mysterious and powerful cargo that is sought after by the dread pirate Black Stache. After a massive ship battle, Peter and Company end up on a deserted island. The learn the true nature of their cargo: it is stardust, and it gives its users powerful abilities including flight, mind control, and transformation. Peter must race to save his friends from the pirates and fierce natives while keeping the stardust away from Black Stache.
The book reads like a fantastic serial adventure form the early 1900s, always engaging, and with plenty of suspense and twists.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

2008-02-24T16:17:00.000-08:00

Connolly weaves an amazing tale of a young boy who has lost his mother to cancer. Set in England shortly as a World War threatens to ravage the countryside, David's father eventually remarries and David gets a new sibling. David suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, developed during his Mother's lengthy battle with cancer. After his mother's death, his mental condition worsens. He begins to experience blackouts, and stranger still...he can hear books whispering to him.
He withdraws from his family, and one night sets out from his house to examine a plane crash in a nearby garden. As he makes his way deeper into the trees, he leaves our world behind, finding himself trapped in a land of fairy tales. These aren't friendly Disney characters, these are monsters and flawed beings from the original tales of the Brothers Grimm. David travels across the land in search of a King, who he is convinced can put everything right. Along the way, he must flee from wolves, join a band of seven dwarves (who've never been given such hilarious backstories). He is shadowed by the nefarious Crooked Man, the spirit of all things evil. He must learn what it means to be brave, and to stand up for his family if he hopes to get out alive.
At the end of young David's story, Connolly adds a coda of sorts, an extremely moving tale that takes place over a scant few pages, wrapping up an amazingly told modern fairy tale. Highly recommended.

Bad Monkeys by Matt Ruff

2008-01-31T15:42:00.000-08:00

Bad Monkeys is a slightly confusing headtrip through the mind of a (possible) serial killer. Jane Charlotte, recently arrested for murder, is dealing with a court-appointed psychologist to discuss her crimes. She reveals she works for a secret agency, one of "Them", called the Bad Monkeys. They're a covert group who travel the world killing irredeemably evil people. They do this through the use of secret government technology that makes the killing look like a natural death.

The problems arise when Jane Charlotte discovers the Mandrills, a rival group bent on causing chaos. It becomes a race against time as Jane struggles to find her long lost brother and escape the clutches of the Mandrills.

Ruff begins the novel rather deftly, but by the middle of the novel has gone from stacking plot twists to dumping and dogpiling them. There are double-crosses, triple-crosses, double agents, fake double agents, fake towns, fake organizations that later turn out to be real before they're revealed to be part of a different fake organization, etc. The ending, while providing an interesting twist, didn't do much to clear up the chaos that preceded.

Needful Things by Stephen King

2008-01-31T15:35:00.000-08:00

Much like the Dark Tower, Needful Things reaches tendrils into many of King's past works, drawing together characters and events of the past into a small-town thriller about the Devil coming to town. Leland Gaunt has set up shop in Castle Rock, Maine, a little store called Needful Things. It seems to be open whenever customers need it to be, and sells...dreams. Gaunt discovers what his customers desire more than anything else, and then bargains with them, letting the items go for a lower (monetary) price than the buyer can believe. But, as with any good bargain, there's always a hidden catch to the agreement.

Gaunt has come to cause chaos, pitting friend against friend, neighbor against neighbor, Catholic against Protestant. He wants the town to erupt into hate, he slowly stacks the deck against all of the townspeople, leading to one catastrophic night when the town goes to war with itself. Caught in the middle is Sheriff Alan Pangborn, the one force Gaunt seems to fear. Pangborn is haunted by demons in his past, the death of his wife and son. Inside of him lies the secret to save the town as he slowly realizes he'll have to stand face to face with the Devil to do his job.

King doesn't pull any punches in this novel, and where many authors would shy away, King digs deeper. He examines child psychology, sexual desire, suicide, and the seven deadly sins. I was a little let down by the ending, as it seemed a little too easy, with no deep explanation of Pangborns final confrontation with Leland Gaunt. It's a hefty read, but like any King novel, will hook you in from the start.

World War Z by Max Brooks

2007-12-31T18:20:00.000-08:00

Ah, the great Zombie War. The plague that infected the entire earth...

Brooks weaves a remarkable tale of the days following the "Great Plague", when an unknown viral outbreak causes the dead to...stop being dead. Zombies, those slow-shuffling, brain-eating, nightmare creatures, overrun the world in numbers too large to control, leaving humanity to seek shelter and fight back.

The accounts span the globe, from Asia to India, the United States to Russia, Antarctica, the ocean floors...you name it, no place is safe. Monster tales like this are little better than popcorn movies at face value. Brooks, however, makes some important sociological and political examinations of our world and its flaws. What kind of government oversight led to the disease spreading so rapidly? What short-sighted bureaucracies helped fan the flames? Brooks plays deftly with the imagination, examining the depths of human depravity and the triumph of the human spirit. This isn't a typical rah-rah-America saves the day survival tale. It's about what kinds of things the people of the world must do, right or wrong, to ensure their own survival. What steps could have been avoided? What horrors were necessary? It's a gripping page turner, one that will keep you reading late into the night...and awake for hours afterwards.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

2007-12-31T18:10:00.001-08:00

This is the harowing tale of Chris McCandless, a young man from a well-off family who hitchhiked into the Alaskan wilderness after giving up all of his worldly possessions. He was found four months later, dead, in an Alaska campground.
The accounts of McCandless's life are at once intriguing and infuriating. By Krakauer's description, he seems at times like a petulant, arrogant, whiny trust-fund baby. At other times, accounts of his life show him to be a rugged individualist, a man capable of surviving fairly extreme conditions with little supplies or equipment. Krakauer pieces together diary entries, letters to friends and family and personal accounts of those who knew McCandless to unravel the story of his final days.

Chris begins by donating his trust fund to a charity, burning the money in his wallet, and hitting the road in his car, destination unknown. He takes on the moniker Alexander Supertramp, and makes his living as a migrant worker. When not in solitude, he lives among the homeless, staying only as long as it takes to gather the resourcers to get him to his next adventure. He's able to drive across the country, to travel alone by boat down the West Coast. He's not a lunatic, and by all accounts he was friendly and giving and very personable. He loved to discuss the state of the world with anyone who'd listen. Something inside of him stopped him from making any deep, lasting connections to any people or places. There are hints of family unrest, the pressures of living up to his father's standards. But even this does not seem like cause enough to spur McCandless onto his odyssey.

Krakauer also compares and contrasts his life with those of other outdoor adventurers. He was not the first to attempt such extreme self-imposed isolation, nor is this condition caused by some kind of anti-social mania. Others have taken roads just as extreme, some lived to tell about it, others perished just like McCandless. While many are left with the conclusion that McCandless was simply too reckless and ill-prepared, I was left with the feeling that his arrogance, coupled with a few small planning errors, led to his ultimate demise. That he hung on in the remote Alaskan wilderness as long as he did with meager supplies and only the food he could hunt or forage is astounding. The larger questions loom long after the end of the book: what was he seeking in his solace? What did he know or learn about the world that could benefit us all?

Lord Vishnu's Love Handles by Will Clarke

2007-12-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

Travis Anderson, button down boiler plate dot com Yuppie Texan, is not having a good week. His company is on the verge of collapse due to faulty bookkeeping and Travis's own alcoholism. His marriage is falling apart. His life is out of control. And then he discovers he's a psychic.
He's contacted by a secret government agency to become a remote viewer in exchange for forgiveness of his tax debt. Once he joins this little cabal, his life only becomes wors,e and he's faced with one threat after another against his life and his family's.

It's difficult to review the book without giving away spoilers, as it relies heavily on suspense and twist moments, almost to a fault. Beyond alcoholism and a seemingly stagnant upper middle class life, we don't learn much about Travis or any of the companions he makes along the way. It's all motion, point A to B to C in a way that's by no means formulaic, but somehow takes some of the wallop out of the story. Little time is spent on Travis developing his gifts. Too much time is spent on Rube Goldbergian double-crosses and convenient plot twists to move the story forward. While the ending definitely has its share of humorous scenes, the means to get there don't fully justify it. Everything feels like a thumbnail sketch and takes what could have been an amazingly great premise and turns it into merely a fun read. (strange criticism, I know).

Will Clarke is just getting started as an author, and I have no doubt that he will tell many fantastic tales in the years to come. This was a mere stumble out of the gates: entertaining to watch, but in the end, slightly disappointing.

The Dark Tower: Book VII by Stephen King

2007-12-01T12:57:00.000-08:00

Roland and his ka-tet finally reach the end of the long road they've been traveling. Stephen King began this journey over twenty years ago, and fans have been clamoring for a conclusion to the story. All it too was one near-fatal accident to get him back in gar (and that made for a nice plot element as well).

The final book is a hefty, sprawling volume that seeks to wrap up several loose ends and move the travelers on to their final destination. It's difficult to discuss without giving away any spoilers. When the ka-tet is broken and people start leaving and/or dying (which has been hinted at since the early books) it doesn't feel momentous or earth-shattering, just...right. We're on this journey with Roland, who's already lost one ka-tet and has continued bitterly on in his quest for the Tower. King handles the death of his new friends very deftly, not sending them out with a bang or a climactic to-the-death battle (well...maybe one of them gets that glory), but rather their demise is just part of a series of events, unexpected, shocking, but "ka is a wheel" ever turning. Roland has to keep moving. The fascination comes in seeing Roland finally become human, finally feel some attachment to people and things other than his quest.

King does keep plenty of tension in the story, with Mordred Red-Heel, Roland's half-human half-son, empathic vampires, and the appearance (at last!) of The Crimson King. The Tower books have relied on magic doors between worlds, and this last tale seems to provide a revolving door for a multitude of King's works (Insomnia, The Stand, It, Eyes of the Dragon, Hearts in Atlantis, and more). The Dark Tower books stand alone as an amazing work, but become even greater with the addition of these branches and ancillary tales in King's body of work.

And the ending...well... I was at once elated, pleased, and crushed with the final turn of events. But what has happened has happened.

Black Sunday by Thomas Harris

2007-12-01T12:39:00.000-08:00

A fantastic terrorist thriller from the seventies that feels just as prescient and fresh today (the only thing missing would be cell phones and better computers).
The story focuses on Michael Lander, a disgruntled, psychologically shattered Vietnam Vet who's looking to take out a measure of revenge on the country that he thinks turned its back on him. He's a pilot from a specialized division of the Navy, flying lighter than air craft (blimps). When the blimp program is canned, he becomes a helicopter pilot in the Vietnam War, where he becomes a POW. During his time in capture, he is forced to renounce his country - when he's finally rescued, he leaves the military in disgrace. He returns home to an estranged wife, a job flying promotional blimps, and a life in shambles. When he snaps, he decides to make as big a statement as possible. He designs a huge plastic explosive device that will attach to his blimp and detonate it at the Super Bowl, killing himself, 80,000 attendees, and the President of the United States.

Israeli Special Agents Kabokov and Moshevsky, still stinging from the recent Munich terrorist plot, become entangled in Lander's scheme when he enlists the help of well known terrorists from the Black September cell. They're grasping at straws and trying to find answers with time ticking away and little help.

Thomas Harris displays the gifts for suspense and detail that he'd later use to bring Hannibal Lecter to life. Black Sunday is a fast, fun read - makes me wish Harris would give another try at non-Lecter fiction.

Song of Susannah: The Dark Tower VI by Stephen King

2007-10-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

Roland's Ka-tet is closer to the tower than ever, and now has to find help in the most unusual of places: author Stephen King. In a plot twist that would fail in the hands of lesser writers, King weaves himself into the story in a way that makes it more alive than ever. It cements the Dark Tower as his tale, his chance at redemption, while simultaneously holding Roland's Quest up to the higher power of the storytelling gods.

Susannah, now possessed by the spirit of Mia (and pregnant to boot) sneaks into our where and when to have the baby away from Roland's group. Susannah realizes Mia is delivering herself directly into the hands of the evil Crimson King and struggles to give Jake and Father Callahan time to reach her. As their story draws to a close, they all prepare themselves to face death, one final battle for the Rose, sacrificing all other things.

In another where and when, Roland and Eddie seek out Stephen King, essentially their God, to see if he can help put the tower back in balance. After surviving a tremendous gun battle with Balazar's men, they venture to find first Calvin Tower (to set him back on the right path) and then on to King. And in their dealings with King, the story unfolds into an amazing trip through King's subconscious, as the origins of all of these familiar and unfamiliar things are revealed. The story pounds towards a climax, with Susannah in labor, Jake and Father Callahan ready to make their final stand, Roland and Eddie seek the final steps to the tower, and King's presence in the story becomes crucial. If the final book can hold up to what's been prepared, this work will be King's magnum opus and one of the great literary works of our time.

Storm Front: Book 1 of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

2007-09-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

The first entry in what is now a seven book series,Jim Butcher's work definitely feels like a first novel. I don't say this as an insult, the work just sounds like a decent craftsman figuring out his tools. The action is fairly tight, the plot is somewhat predictable, but the characters are unique enough to keep my interest.

Harry Dresden is a genuine wizard, one of the few openly operating in Chicago. He helps police solve crimes of supernatural origins and moonlights as a private detective to help pay the bills. He's cursed by the White Council (the Supreme Court of wizardry) because of his use of magic in an earlier duel with another wizard. It alludes to an interesting backstory for the character, but mostly provides a convenient stumbling block so he can't magic his way out of any bad situation. And Harry definitely finds himself in many bad situations, doing battle with overzealous wizard-cops, demons, and dark wizards. Several random events congeal into a plot involving a mortal man discovering how to harness black magic to commit murder. Harry comes through in the end, saving the day (barely) with some interesting uses of his magic powers.

My main beef with the book is the extreme use of detail. A tense scene would begin, and a new character would enter, at which point Harry would stop and describe their clothes, shoes, nose and face, hair length, cloth used in said clothes, and anything they might be carrying. People can't think this fast in real life, and it always drags a book down for me when narrators do it. I'm a thinking man, I'll paint mundane details on my own, thankyouverymuch. I may give book number two a try, as this was a solid effort and not nearly as groan inducing and stomach-churningly bad as the Rogue Angel book I reviewed a while back.

Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower V) by Stephen King

2007-09-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

Roland of Gilead and his ka-tet continue their quest to the elusive dark tower. More of the mystery is revealed in this volume. With a classic western shootout as the backdrop, King unravels brings another member to Roland's group: Father Callahan (last seen defeated by a vampire in 'Salem's Lot). Susannah must deal with a pregnancy that is decidedly not of this world, and young Jake continues his lessons in the school of hard knocks.

Calla Bryn Sturgis, a town at the border of Mid- and End-World, is unusual in that twins are the norm. Roughly once each generation, the Wolves come from nearby Thunderclap to raid the town and steal one of each set of twins. Those that are returned are broken (roont, as the locals say).

It falls to Roland and his Gunslingers to save the town. They discover another doorway back to Jake and Eddie's New York, but things are changing there as well. The Dark Tower is crumbling, and all of reality threatens to fall apart with it. The discovery of a Rose in an abandoned lot may hold the key, but the impending showdown with the Wolves means we'll have to wait at least until the next book to get the answers we need.

This part of the tale was excellently paced, but did occasionally feel like an episode of Lost (this close to the end, and they're adding MORE characters and backstory?). I'm anxious to see it through to the end, especially with the twists added at the end of the book involving major figures from our when and where...

clown girl by Monica Drake

2007-08-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

Ahh, the rustic splendor of Baloneytown. Where clowns struggle and scrape to make a living amidst squalor and illicit drug deals. Many of them yearn to produce high art, while most slip into an existence of alcoholism, drug dependency, and prostitution. Enter Sniffles, our protagonist. She's a sad sack of a clown who's not having the best of luck. Her clown paramour Rex Galore has traveled (on money borrowed from her) to San Francisco to try to make it into clown college. She's just had a miscarriage, and even worse - she's lost her rubber chicken!

Drake embues Sniffles with a great deal of pathos, and she saves the story. Most of these scenarios, I'd stop reading about thirty pages in because of all of the misery, emotional angst, and broken-heart-tragedy of the story. When it's done poorly, it reads like a Bizarro-version of Sex in the City (which I hate enough in the normal universe). With Drake, the story absolutely soars. You can't help but feel for Sniffles as she makes mistake after mistake, trying to get her act together, and working like Hell to make something of herself.

The unique setting and likeable characters only add to the joy of the story, as a clown redeems herself and discovers that there's more to life than rubber chickens and fire juggling. More even than finding true love. Sniffles is on a quest to accept herself, and she discovers that everyone's wearing a costume, and that all the world's a stage - but does she (or can she) fit?

Are YOU Dave Gorman? by Dave Gorman and Danny Wallace

2007-08-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

The genesis of many "Stupid Boy Bets" for Gorman and Wallace is found here. They become flatmates near London, and one night while drinking get into a discussion about namesakes. Dave says there are surely loads of Dave Gormans in the world. Danny disagrees. To prove his point, Dave whisks them away from a bar in the wee hours of the morning for a train ride to East Fife to meet a soccer coach also named Dave Gorman. They accomplish this (slightly hungover and much worse for the wear), and the bet is born.
They agree upon a number: 54 Gormans, one for each card in a deck plus 2 jokers. What follows is an odd odyssey that spans the globe, as Dave, ever dogged and determined to prove Danny wrong, drags his roommate behind him to meet and be photographed with as many Dave Gormen (he coins the plural) as possible.
The sheer ridiculousness of the whole thing is half the fun. Their journey is not really one of personal discovery, more of a test of the limits of friendship. When the quest begins, Danny will do anything to end it quickly. He wants Dave to surrender. Yet when Dave is at his most desperate, it is always Danny who comes to the rescue, cheers him on, keeps him going.
The bet ends in an unconventional manner, but led to a TV show for Gorman. From here, they've each gone on to crazier things (see Dave Gorman's Googlewhack! Adventure and Wallace's Join Me! and Yes Man).
They are an inspiration. Even the stupidest of passions deserves to be seen through to the end.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

2007-08-17T11:09:00.000-07:00

You've probably read a million reviews of the book, so I'll keep this short. It was a pitch-perfect ending to an amazing story. The Boy Who Lived faced off against He Who Must Not Be Named in an epic showdown. Wars were fought. Many died. Heroes new and old rose to face the challenge.

For me, the journey of Harry Potter has been amazing in watching the characters grow older. There is a sense of maturity to them, as they are burdened with more challenges than anyone their age should have to face. Rowling does a fine job of showing the humanity of her characters first and foremost, and supporting it with the magical world she's created. The Potter books are sure to be debated and dissected through the years, but it seems a sure bet that they will hold up. The saga is one that can be shared with children and grandchildren to come, but also one that begs to be revisited by adults looking for a great example of storytelling.

What is the What by Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng

2007-08-01T15:17:00.001-07:00

Sudan is a nation mired in war, and its people seem destined to suffer. Valentino Achak Deng is a survivor of the civil wars, one of the Sudanese "Lost Boys" who trekked 1,000 miles to escape his country and grew up in a refugee camp. Eggers combines elements of Deng's story with some fictional narrative to create what is possibly the most compelling book I've ever read.

It's easy to get buried under the landslide of hard luck that comes Deng's way, from his village being leveled to his incredibly painful exodus across Sudan, losing his family, losing his friends, and constantly fighting off hunger and disease. The format of the novel is incredible, echoing Deng's message throughout: somebody please listen to me. Hear me. We begin in the present in America, where Deng has been relocated for safety. He becomes the victim of a home invasion robbery, where he's beaten and nearly killed while all of his possessions are stolen. The book becomes a prayer from Deng, words spoken in his mind, imagined conversations with his persecutors, his friends, anybody who happens through his life. Somebody hear me. Validate me.

Deng grows up in unimaginable circumstances, bringing us through his passage into adulthood. He sees friends killed by lions on the walk out of Sudan. Groups of boys executed by bombers. Dead bodies, horrific mutilations, and yet, Deng struggles on. It's not all horrible. There are moments of great humor, such as Deng falling in love, and uplifting passages that will make your soul sing.

The title of the book refers to the legend of creation told to Deng by his father. "The What" is something endowed to the Dinka tribe of Sudan by God. It becomes the driving force in the story, yet we never hear it fully explained until the end. Deng keeps talking, to his captors, to the police, to his Christian neighbors downstairs, to hospital orderlies, to patrons of the fitness club where he works. Someone will listen. Someone will hear.

Read this book and be changed forever.

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

2007-07-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

I hate it when authors make it look this easy. Imagine, 27 short stories, all on different subjects, only slightly related, that tell a complete narrative of the fall of one culture, and the rise and fall of the next. Some of the Martian Chronicles may seem dated - the language, the "future" technology - but the story is timeless. Man, in all his infinite possibility and wisdom, just can't get his act together.

We blunder forth into new territory, planting our flags and recreating our society. Unfortunately, for all of our good intentions, bad news always follows. Murder, destruction, anger. Themes of isolation, desolation, and helplessness pervade. Bradbury is one of the greatest writers of the last century, using science fiction to hold a mirror to our society, one which we never seem to tire of looking at but so rarely use to find our flaws.

My favorite stories of the bunch were "Way in the Middle of the Air", a fantastic look at race relations, and "The Luggage Store", where one man knows what's happening and is happy to accept his fate.

Wizard and Glass: The Dark Tower Book IV by Stephen King

2007-07-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

The incredible journey of Roland of Gilead and his trusty ka-tet continues. When we last left our heroes, they were trapped on Blaine the Mono, an insane runaway sentient locomotive bent on suicide. They had to best Blaine in a contest of riddles in order to save their own lives. While it's hardly a spoiler to say they make it, I won't say how precisely. They arrive in Kansas, a slightly different version of our flat state, which has been wiped out by a massive plague. People have fled, survivors are few (and if you need to know what happened here, read The Stand). They are brought to a halt on their journey, and Roland must unburden himself of horrible memories. His next test will be to reveal his past to his ka-tet and see if they remain together.

What follows is an amazing sleepytown Western told as only King can. Love affairs, gunfights, bar brawls, deception, horse-thievery, double-crosses, old witches, broken promises, all here. Roland tells of how he met and fell in love with Susan Delgado, and how his quest for the Dark Tower began. Roland saves the town from the invaders, and stalls the plans of John Farson to take over the country, but the cost is high. This chapter of the quest for the tower came over a decade after The Wastelands, and book V took almost another decade to emerge. But the stories are worth the wait.

What Fire Cannot Burn by John Ridley

2007-06-18T21:53:00.000-07:00

Chalk one up for Ridley - a sequel that far outshines its predecessor (Those Who Walk in Darkness- reviewed here). In this outing, Soledad "Bullet" O'Roark is still recovering from the events that transpired at the end of the first novel, coming to grips with her new role as the top bad-ass on the MTac squad. MTac does what cops and SWAT can't do - hunts down rogue superhumans. And they're all criminals in this America, their very presence outlawed by the government after a disastrous fight in San Francisco between two metanormals leaves half a million people dead.

Soledad is a bigot, a true hater of all mutantkind, a very confolicted and troubled cop. Her partner from the first novel, Eddi Aoki, has issues of her own regarding SF. They're both living life to deal justice to the superhumans. Only this time, the cracks are starting to show. Soledad and Eddi are wearing down, becoming aware of their mortality, and society is starting to question the tactics the cops use to bring metanormals down. Worse still, there's a serial killer loose, possibly the strongest mutant ever seen, who's making it his business to murder every metanormal he can.

Soledad and Eddi must track him down, suss him out, and stop him. It proves difficult. Soledad tries to infiltrate the Intelligence Department to find out if the whole thing is an inside job. What she discovers leads to one of the most shocking twists I've ever read in a series like this.

Take the elements of your favorite crime dramas: The Shield, Law & Order, the Sopranos, turn them up a notch and toss in some superpowers, and you'll have Ridley's amazing near-future Los Angeles sci-fi masterpiece. The characters are all too real. Nobody walks away without scars (or missing limbs, or worse...). These cops are real, raw, exhausted, and fighting for what they believe in.

My Dirty Little Book of Stolen Time by Liz Jensen

2007-06-14T20:56:00.001-07:00

This book was a lot of fun, though somewhat predictable. Young Charlotte lives in Copenhagen in the late 19th century. She's a prostitute, a schemer, comically paired with the porcine Fru Schleswig (who may or may not be her mother). The duo struggle to make ends meet, with Charlotte constantly on the lookout for a good grift. When she takes a job with a wealthy widower, she gets more than she could have imagined. Fru Krak is an uppity socialite who's soon to be married to a preacher. Charlotte is brought in to clean the house in preparation for the nuptials. As with any Gothic mansion, there are rooms that Charlotte is told must be strictly avoided...

But of course, with much sneaking and bumbling, Fru Schleswig and Charlotte find themselves behind those locked doors in those forbidden rooms, and discover the secret of Fru Krak's husband's demise. He's invented a time machine and has been happily selling tickets to all Danes interested in traveling into the Great Beyond (which turns out to be present-day London). Charlotte and Fru Schleswig cris-cross time, finding love, food, and vacuum cleaners. Charlotte must make a painful decision: stay in the present with a new found love, or return to the past and her scheming ways in order to keep the time portal open.

In the end, there are few twists or surprises, as this is truly a Gothic novel. There's little in the way of suspense, but much to be found in the historical anachronisms (Charlotte serves as the narrator, and is pitch perfect for turn of the century mysteries). All in all, a fun read that I would recommend to anyone who's a fan of Neil Gaiman.

From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain by Minister Faust

2007-06-04T14:40:00.000-07:00

You have to love comics to write a story like this. And in some cases, you have to love comics to read a story like this. Luckily, I do, and I loved this book. Minister Faust (Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad) brings us the tale of the Fantastic Order of Justice, and their battles with the horrifying entity known as... therapy.

The F.O.O.J. is a supergroup not unlike the Justice League of America (okay, it's exactly the archetype of the Justice League of America), who are struggling with their identities in a "post-superhero" society. After the battle to end all battles, there are few supervillains left to fight, and little heroic left to do. Omnipotent Man, The Flying Squirrel, Iron Lass, X-Man, Brotherfly, and Power Grrrl are at each other's throats, and ripping the FOOJ apart at the seams. On top of everything else, the world's greatest hero, Hawk King, has died (or was he murdered?), and the throne to reign over all heroes is abdicated. While the FOOJ struggles to make it through therapy, two of its members also vie for the leadership position. X-Man is a seemingly paranoid black militant Malcolm-X type who can bring words to life, and the Flying Squirrel is what would happen if Batman became a Nazi (or perhaps an ultra-right wing Republican). Power Grrrl wrestles with her sexuality, Omnipotent Man fights his im-Omnipotence, and Iron Lass confronts her type-A tendencies.

The plot is fairly dense, dealing with societal, political, and interpersonal issues. Sometimes the devices can be grating - Dr. Brain (the narrator of this book) tends to coat her prose in many layers of psychobabble. Omnipotent Man is Extra MidWestern. Iron Lass's lines are written in a quasi-Nordic/German dialect. Sometimes these devices are funny, other times grating. There are elements of the plot and story that may be appreciated only by comic book fans, but overall, this book holds enough to appeal to all readers.

Rant: an Oral Biography of Buster Casey by Chuck Palahniuk

2007-05-27T22:35:00.000-07:00

The happiest time of the year - new Chuck Palahniuk novel time! Palahniuk's last few novels have moved away from the formula that brought him fame and fortune (slightly in some cases, or dramatically in others). Rant seems to be a synthesis of new direction and old drive. The book grabbed me from the start and left me amazed.

Buster "Rant" Casey has died, leaving behind a legacy of lust, destruction, and chaos. It's the near future, a society where people "boost peaks", essentially injecting memories into their brains, a kind of living TV. In an effort to cut down on gridlock and utilize resources, society has been separated into daytimers and nighttimers. The novel plays out as part documentary, part police interview, part eulogy. Those that knew Rant best, and those that claimed to, all offer their own take on who he was, what he was capable of, and how he changed their lives. He became a prime figure in the "Party Crashing" scene, a nighttimer social game where people crash their cars into each other as a sort of high-speed game of tag. We meet his teammates, his childhood friends, his family, and people who played only a small role in his life. He was a friend to some, kind to most, and polite to a fault. He was also a prolific serial killer. Depending on who's talking, he's a combination of any of these things. When his motives and means are revealed, the novel transcends form and genre, mixing science fiction, mystery, documentary, and creating an ending that left me speechless.

Rant is the first part of a trilogy set in this alternate future, with the next installment due in a couple of years. Palahniuk has announced his next book as Snuff, which centers around (among other things) a woman who dies in an attempt to set a record by being the centerpiece of the world's largest gangbang. Let the good times roll!

Remainder by Tom McCarthy

2007-05-27T22:24:00.000-07:00

This novel grabbed my attention when I saw it listed as a giveaway on ChuckPalahniuk.net. I tried to get a free copy, but they'd all been given away. Enter Cultie McMuddle, always ready to lend a hand, or in this case, his copy of Remainder.

The story centers on a young man who's just been through some kind of traumatic incident that's wiped his memory clean. He receives a call from his attorney, who informs him that his settlement for the accident has come through. As long as he keeps mum about what happened, the people responsible will pay him eight million pounds. The narrator stays true to his word, hinting a few times throughout the book as to what may have happened, but never giving concrete details. And in this story, everything is about the details. While pondering how he might spend his newfound fortune, the narrator finds himself in a bathroom at a party, staring at a crack in the wall. He's amazed. Enthralled. His hope is renewed. Why? He's seen this crack before, and knows it's important, but doesn't know why. The room is familiar as well. He decides to focus on his memories and recreate them. Painstakingly. As in, he wants to build an apartment complex around the memory of the crack and some other details that begin to trickle to the surface. His Quixotic quest for self-realization grows into a manic explosion of obsessive re-enactments and recreations, ultimately building to an intense finale.

Some have complained that the novel bogs down with too many details, but that seems to be the point of the story. Early on, the narrator reminds us that he struggles to remember anything - how to tie a shoe, how to leave the house for groceries, how to walk. Each task must be broken down into its smallest possible component in order for him to be able to move forward. While this novel grated on my nerves a little with its open-endedness, it also kept me turning the pages.

Pattern Recognition by William Gibson

2007-04-27T14:07:00.001-07:00

There's little to tie this book to traditional Science Fiction, but the story is truly a distillation of what the genre is supposed to be. William Gibson, father of cyberpunk, is the man who created the concept of virtual reality and explored the concepts and potential of what would become world wide web. He crafts Pattern Recognition into a near-future tale that is an astounding example of what good science fiction can be.

Cayce Pollard is a "cool-hunter" hired by companies to spot emerging trends and subcultures before they become mainstream. She's fiercely allergic to trademarks, having physical and visceral reactions to the strongest of them. The Michelin Man gives her vertigo. Hilfiger gives her a rash. Yet she presses on, because she has a gift. She's obsessed with an emerging Internet art known only as "the footage", snippets of a film released sporadically throughout the web, hunted and treasured by aficionados around the world. Nobody knows who's making the film, what it's all about, where it's coming from. The speculation is endless. Is it a narrative? An art form? Is it being released chronologically? By a studio? A mad genius?

After finishing a job for an obnoxious Belgian design firm, Cayce is given the opportunity for the job of a lifetime. Someone wants to pay her and give her unlimited resources to find the source of The Footage. She accepts, more for herself than for any kind of lucre, and begins a jaunt around the world and the world wide web in search of the source. What she finds is astounding, heartbreaking, and thrilling.

The beauty of the story is its absolute plausibility. Many companies have tried to market themselves through viral videos (the Lost Experience, Sprite Sublymonal, Cry Wolf), and some independent filmmakers have captivated the world (lonelygirl15). Gibson creates an incredibly poignant hero in Cayce Pollard, whose father disappeared the morning of 9/11, and whose whereabouts remain a mystery years later. Technology becomes a portal to loneliness, loss, heartache, fear, reconnection, love, and hope. This novel is the benchmark for modern Sci-Fi.

Also, after reading the novel, you'll be sure to want to investigate Curta Mechanical Calculators, Buzz Rickson's Bomber Jackets, and titanium laptops. The story is mostly about aversion to marketing, but damn. I really want one of those little grenade-shaped calculators.