World War Z

The subtitle says it all: "An Oral History of the Zombie War."  Although some of the numerical and factual data was previously published in the UN Postwar Commission Report, this collection of individual experiences told in the words of the individuals concerned adds an important personal dimension to the tale of the worldwide zombie attacks, from the earliest known outbreak in China to the clean-up operations that still continue ten years after the official end of the war.

From vampires to zombies, and holy cow, this is a brilliant book.  The author, Max Brooks, had written a humor book on how to survive a zombie attack, and follows it up with this...novel? collection of stories?  I'm not sure what to call it, and I'm not the only one confused by it; my library catalogued it as non-fiction, in the 818s--the humor section, maybe thrown off by the author's previous classification as a humor writer or maybe just by the fact that he's the son of Mel Brooks.

It is not humorous, though it is occasionally funny.  It is violent, gory, frequently horrifying, and wonderfully written: the oral history structure requires the author to tell his story in short sections, each in a different "voice," and he pulls it off beautifully.  I can't wait to recommend it to everybody I know.

Originally posted at MySpace 3/10/07

Morrigan's Cross et al.

Twelfth-century Irish sorcerer Hoyt fails to destroy either the newly-made vampire that used to be his twin brother Cian or the demon queen Lilith who made Cian into what he now is, but is promptly recruited by the Morrigan, goddess of battles, to find five other individuals to join him and form the core of an army to defeat Lilith in the far future.  In the 21st century, family feeling is something Cian hasn't thought about in a long time, and he isn't sure how Hoyt persuades him to help, but he finds himself persuaded nonetheless.

Only Nora Roberts could make me like a series with vampire sex in it.

I cordially dislike paranormal romance, especially the kind with vampires.  I picked this one up on the recommendation of a friend, and was pleased to find that it's really more fantasy than romance--although the romantic subplots in this book and its two sequels, Dance of the Gods and Valley of Silence, are quite strong, and the sex scenes can get pretty steamy, as you'd expect from the author.  I've read some of her science fiction/detective/romances too, and the same holds true there.

But what I like about Nora Roberts is that her books (the few I've read, anyway) have good plots.  The sex advances the plot instead of the other way round, as in some other vampire books I could mention.

Originally posted at MySpace 3/9/07

Some Danger Involved

Broke and homeless in 19th-century London, and unable to find honest work because of prospective employers' aversion to his stint in prison for theft and assault, young Thomas Llewelyn drops the battered suitcase containing all his worldly possession in the trash as he stands in line to apply for one more job; one way or another he won't be needing it any more.  Either he'll be hired, or he'll jump off a bridge into the Thames.  He gets the job, as assistant to private enquiry agent Cyrus Barker (who hates the term "detective"), and is soon caught up in his first case when a young Jewish man with a marked resemblance to conventional depictions of Jesus is murdered and left hanging up on a telegraph pole as if crucified.

No surprise that some of the author's previous publications were in Sherlock Holmes journals, though Llewelyn's character as smart-mouthed amanuensis occasionally seems more like Archie Goodwin than Watson.  He's a bright kid, though, and learns his new profession quickly.  There's some anachronistic dialog, and some unlikely elements--would an Englishman, even one who grew up on the streets after the death of his missionary parents in China, be teaching martial arts classes to the police?  I wonder.  But a fun, well-plotted story.

Originally posted at MySpace 1/28/07

The Beautiful Cigar Girl

When John Anderson employed a young woman named Mary Cecilia Rogers in his Tobacco Emporium in 1838, pretty shopgirls were fashionable in Europe, but a novelty in the United States.  Her presence behind the counter drew hordes of customers into the shop, she was described in the papers as the Beautiful Segar Girl, and she became pretty much the first young woman in New York to be famous for being famous.

Three years later she was dead, her battered body pulled from the Hudson River.  The crime has never been solved.

That didn't stop Edgar Allan Poe from thinking he'd solved it.  He transferred the setting of the story to Paris, named his murdered girl Marie Rogêt, and gave it to his armchair detective Dupin to figure out (as Poe thought he had figured it out) purely from newspaper accounts.

Daniel Stashower's book about the murder and its aftermath, The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder, has more to say about Poe than about Mary, if only because the historical record doesn't tell us a lot about Mary.  It's a very clear and interesting portrait of Poe, though, and it doesn't pretend to have solved the mystery of Mary Rogers.

Originally posted at MySpace 1/15/07

Childe Morgan

I stumbled across Katherine Kurtz's first novel, Deryni Rising, when I was exactly the right age: thirteen, a year younger than one of the main characters in the book.  At the time I thought the fourteen-year-old king was the main character; only later, rereading the book from the perspective of my own increasing age, did I realize it's really about the 29-year-old Duke Alaric Morgan, halfbreed of a detested and distrusted race of sorcerers and one of the flat-out coolest characters I've run across in a fantasy novel.

I tore through the three volumes of the Chronicles of the Deryni, and hunted down the Legends of Saint Camber trilogy as well--a prequel series that I didn't like as much, largely because it had to lead into the vicious persecution of Deryni described as historical fact in the other series, written first but set two hundred years later.  So as a fan, I was personally a little disappointed when I heard that Kurtz had chosen to postpone writing a Childe Morgan trilogy (even though I didn't know any more about it than the name) in favor of three more thoroughly depressing Heirs of Camber novels, in which nearly all the sympathetic characters die wretchedly.

And now she's finally come around to the Childe Morgan series I've been waiting for, leading up to the events described in her very first novel.  And I have to admit I'm disappointed in them.

I suppose they could never have lived up to my hopes for them.  But it just seems like this one in particular, the second in the series, is just a place holder.  An Amazon reviewer described it as a collection of characters in search of a plot; I also got the impression that really not much happened except some traveling back and forth.

Originally posted at MySpace 1/7/07

What Angels Fear

On a foggy morning in London, days before the Crown Prince becomes Regent for the mad old king, Viscount Devlin is minding his own business in much the same way he has since he sold out his commission in the army and came home from the Napoleonic Wars, waiting for his opponent in his fourth duel in six months.  At the same time, a murdered young woman is discovered drenched in blood in a church, and the evidence points to Devlin.  A young constable is mortally wounded during his arrest, and Devlin decides on the spot that his only chance of vindication is to investigate the crime himself, even though that means fleeing from the law.

I've read a lot of Regency romances in my day, so Regency mysteries are right up my alley as well.  This one reminded me of the short-lived Julian Kestrel series by the late Kate Ross, not only for the setting but for the author's unflinching look at the underside of London society--something that most of the romances don't even consider, or gloss over.  Devlin is an intriguing character, and the supporting cast are all well-drawn.

This book is the first by C.S. Harris, a New Orleans author {edit to add: at least under that name; she's also written romances as Candice Proctor, and thrillers as half of C.S. Graham} ; the second novel is called When Gods Die, and I've got my name down for it at the library where I work.

As a side note, not long ago I also read Jane and the Barque of Frailty, the latest in Stephanie Barron's series featuring Jane Austen as the sleuth.  In this one she was in London to oversee the publication of her first novel, whereas previous volumes had been set in various parts of the country; so this one was more like the romances I'd read, with its social round.  It also dealt with less respectable characters, but in a more genteel way, mostly evading the hard necessities of a courtesan's life; a scene where the current star of the demimonde explains in no uncertain terms just what made her run away from her family seems out of place, almost anachronistic.

Originally posted at MySpace 1/1/07

Eragon

I finally read this book last weekend when I was trapped in an airport and didn't have anything better to read.  I suppose I could have found a news stand and bought a Sudoku magazine or something, but the friend I was traveling with had loved this book and forcibly lent me her copy, and I wanted to get through the thing and give it back to her before we landed at home.  I did this, although I wouldn't have made it if our flight hadn't been delayed for 45 minutes.

I'm not even going to bother describing the plot, except to say that if you've seen Star Wars, picture it with a telepathic fire-breathing dragon and you've got the gist of Eragon.  The only excuse for this tripe is the author's youth: he's retelling the stories he liked, which is exactly the same thing that I did at his age.  The difference being that I didn't have parents who would self-publish my tripe. 

It's an inoffensive book, and acceptably entertaining if you don't expect any original characters or insights.  Not bad as airplane reading, but I won't be rushing out to buy the sequel.  Nor will I be seeing the movie.  No need; I've already seen Star Wars.

Originally posted at MySpace 12/17/06