strange and random happenstance

False Value by Ben Aaronovitch
Published by: Gollancz
Publication Date: February 25th, 2020
Format: Paperback, 404 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy (different edition than one reviewed)

What do you do when at face value it looks like you're on the outs at your job? You use that to go undercover at a shady tech startup that values secrecy and loyalty above everything else. Or at least values it second to a good Douglas Adams homage. Tech guru Terrence Skinner has left California behind for the grey skies of London. Could it be for personal safety, which is what's bandied about among the employees, or could it have to do with whatever is in Serious Cybernetics Corporation's second building, Bambleweeny? It's rumored that that is where Deep Thought is, because the guy really can't pass up a Douglas Adams joke. But Peter knows that they're up to no good because of a run in he had a month before his first day at SCC. A run in with an American practitioner who was working at the London Library where he is looking into recovering the Mary Engine. The Mary Engine is the supposed creation of Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace and if the Faceless Man owned it, which Peter knows to be the case, then it has to be seriously magical. Of course the Faceless Man's daughter sold it on eBay resulting in previous catastrophic attempts to retrieve it, so it's reappearance in the hands of Terrence Skinner is worrisome. Which is why Peter is now a Vogon at SCC, that's security to the layman. And Terrence sure needs protection when Peter stops one of Skinner's own employees from stabbing him. The incident leads Peter to be a bit of a celebrity among the staff but more importantly it gets him an in with Skinner. Because the attacker worked in Bambleweeny this allows Peter to get behind that mysterious locked door to discover that Skinner might have created not just Artificial Intelligence but Artificial General Intelligence. Which is where the money really is. This AGI could change everyone's life. And sure, Skinner sounds convincing, but Peter lives in a world where magic exists, and, well, magic is more likely than AGI, which means everything must come back to the Mary Engine. With the help and hindrance of other practitioners Peter starts to formulate a plan. The problem is that this is bigger than he thought and he was really not cut out for undercover work. This could end very badly.

There's one thing no one who's a fan of Aaronovitch will ever doubt, and that's his geek cred, and I'm not even counting that he wrote for Doctor Who. Because if there's one thing true geeks love it's Douglas Adams references from the overt to the obscure and arguing about the singularity. And here Arronovitch has built an entire book around these core beliefs. Because yes, Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a religion as is the belief we will all be killed by Cylons. And possible baddie boss aside, who hasn't wanted to work at a company that has Vogons and Magrathea as job titles and locations? But the veneer of Adams isn't where False Value shines, it's in it's handling of Artificial Intelligence, Deep Thought as it were. AI is right at this moment an issue that everyone is dealing with, along with trying to grapple with what this means for us as a species. And I don't think it's a coincidence that both AI and the singularity came into the vernacular in the fifties, AI preceding the idea that AI will destroy us all by only about two years. Yet it's only truly now that the extreme warnings signs those of us raised in the eighties to recognize are blaring klaxons. Skynet people! SKYNET! But the thing is, the question asked daily is, is this true AI? Because most times, especially in fiction, if we're told it's AI there's no way it's AI. It might look like it can pass the Turing Test, but can it really? Because the truth is what the vast majority of people believe is AI, which at this precise moment is "writing" and "creating" and "making art," isn't AI, it's a complex program that has scrapped the entire internet and is plagiarizing the work of others. Others who are losing jobs because of AI. When one of my friends was playing with Midjourney I told her to stop. Immediately. She was helping the program learn while taking away jobs from artists such as myself. Never help the machines to rise up! Aaronovitch has a wonderful character with Peter because he understands all of this yet is skeptical. He knows when people tell you AI you should look for the man or woman behind the curtain. And because of his line of work, it could be a ghost literally in the machine. A very vindictive ghost. But still, it's not AI. But one day it just might be. I mean look how much of a shit show it is when the AI is really just a misnomer. So for now, us humans are the real danger, we were the Cylons all along.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Ada Lovelace, AI, Ben Aaronovitch, BSG, Charles Babbage, Cylons, Deep Thought, Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, False Value, London Calling, Mary Engine, Peter Grant, Skynet, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Vogons

Starter Villain by John Scalzi
Published by: Tor Books
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place.

Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan.

Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie.

But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital.

It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains. But with unionized dolphins, hyper-intelligent talking spy cats, and a terrifying henchperson at his side, going bad is starting to look pretty good.

In a dog-eat-dog world...be a cat."

The best cover art EVER has arrived, all others are just pretenders.

42: The Wildly Improbable Ideas of Douglas Adams by Douglas Adams
Published by: Unbound
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Over 60 boxes full of notebooks, research, letters, scripts, jokes, speeches, to-do lists, hard drives and even poems...Welcome to the incredible archive of Douglas Adams.

After his death in 2001, Douglas Adams's papers were loaned to his old Cambridge college, St John's. Reproduced here, in facsimile form and in close association with Adams's family and literary estate, 42 is a full-colour, large-format hardback that follows Adams career from early collaborations with Graham Chapman to his work on Doctor Who, through the Hitchhiker years, Dirk Gently, his groundbreaking non-fiction book Last Chance to See and his later digital work. Alongside this are details of projects that never came to fruition like a proposed theme park ride and a TV series provisionally entitled The Secret Empire.

Edited by Kevin Jon Davies, who has worked on a number of Hitchhiker-related projects and had a personal friendship with Adams spanning more than twenty years."

I'm very intrigued by the idea of Adams doing a theme park ride... I mean, it would be terrifying but oh so unique.

Wandering Through Life by Donna Leon
Published by: Atlantic Monthly Press
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 208 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The internationally bestselling author of the Guido Brunetti mysteries tells her own adventurous life story as she enters her eighties.

In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony, and good humor, Donna Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned.

Following a childhood in the company of her New Jersey family, with frequent visits to her grandfather's farm and its beloved animals, and summers spent selling homegrown tomatoes by the roadside, Leon got her first taste of the classical music and opera that would enrich her life. She also developed a yen for adventure. In 1976, she made the spontaneous decision to teach English in Iran, before finding herself swept up in the early days of the 1979 Revolution. After teaching stints in China and Saudi Arabia, she finally landed in Venice. Leon vividly animates her decades-long love affair with Italy, from her first magical dinner when serving as a chaperone to a friend, to the hunt for the perfect cappuccino, to the warfare tactics of grandmothers doing their grocery shopping at the Rialto Market.

Some things remain constant throughout the decades: her adoration of opera, especially Handel's vocal music, and her advocacy for the environment, embodied in her passion for bees - which informs the surprising crux of the Brunetti mystery Earthly Remains. Even as mass tourism takes its toll on the patience of residents, Leon's passion for Venice remains unchanged: its outrageous beauty and magic still captivate her.

Having recently celebrated her eightieth birthday, Leon poignantly confronts the dual challenges and pleasures of aging. Complete with a brief letter dissuading those hoping to meet Guido Brunetti at the Questura, and always suffused with music, food, and her sharp sense of humor, Wandering through Life offers Donna Leon at her most personal."

You only can hope that one day you will be as cool as Donna Leon.

The Mysterious Double Death of Honey Black by Lisa Hall
Published by: Hera
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Kindle, 337 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"You know she has been murdered. Can you stop it happening twice?

Two very different lives...

It is 2019 and Lily Jones is living her dream in LA. Sort of. It hasn't quite turned out as she planned and instead of working as a movie producer, she is cleaning at the prestigious Beverly Hills Hotel. At least she gets to work in the renowned Paul Williams suite, site of the brutal murder of Honey Black 70 years ago, shrouded in rumour and dark glamour.

It is 1949 and Honey Black is about to hit the big time. She may have started out a country girl from Hicksville but now she is a star. And Hollywood had better watch out - nothing can stop her now!

One Hollywood murder...

After an accidental bump to the head, Lily finds herself in Hollywood, 1949. Like a dream come true, she is rubbing shoulders with the great and good of Tinseltown. Including Honey Black...Horrified, Lily realises that the actress has only two weeks left to live before she will be murdered.

Could this be why she has found herself in 1949?

To find the killer and stop them in their tracks?

A glamorous, time-slip murder mystery set in the Golden Age of Hollywood - All About Eve meets Back to the Future. Don't miss this unforgettable read from bestselling author Lisa Hall; fans of Stuart Turton and cosy crime will love this!"

Oh yes, definitely for fans of Stuart Turton!

The Golden Gate by Amy Chua
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Amy Chua's debut novel, The Golden Gate, is a sweeping, evocative, and compelling historical thriller that paints a vibrant portrait of a California buffeted by the turbulent crosswinds of a world at war and a society about to undergo massive change.

In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan's investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont, ten years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still.

The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris's sister, Isabella, and her cousins Cassie and Nicole. Determined not to let anything distract him from the truth - not the powerful influence of Bainbridges' grandmother, or the political aspirations of Berkeley's district attorney, or the interest of China's First Lady Madame Chiang Kai-Shek in his findings - Sullivan follows his investigation to its devastating conclusion.

Chua's page-turning debut brings to life a historical era rife with turbulent social forces and groundbreaking forensic advances, when race and class defined the very essence of power, sex, and justice, and introduces a fascinating character in Detective Sullivan, a mixed race former Army officer who is still reckoning with his own history."

I can never get enough of San Francisco, especially when it's Historical Fiction with a slice of reality.

Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter
Published by: William Morrow and Company
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 480 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Mega-bestselling British crime novelist Cara Hunter makes her big American debut with a shocking thriller about a cold case, a fictional true crime series, and the family caught in the middle.

Eight Episodes. One Killer.

It was a case that gripped the nation. In December 2003, Luke Ryder, the stepfather of acclaimed filmmaker Guy Howard (then aged 10), was found dead in the garden of their suburban family home.

Luke Ryder's murder has never been solved. Guy Howard's mother and two half-sisters were in the house at the time of the murder - but all swear they saw nothing. Despite a high-profile police investigation and endless media attention, no suspect was ever charged.

But some murder cases are simply too big to forget...

Now comes the sensational new streaming series Infamous, dedicated to investigating - and perhaps cracking - this famous cold case. The production team will re-examine testimony, re-interview witnesses, and once again scour the evidence. The family will speak. The key players will be reunited - on camera. The truth will come out.

Are you ready to see it?"

Oh yes I am! This book is so of the moment in true crime obsessions.

Murder and Mamon by Mia P. Manansala
Published by: Berkley Books
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 288 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"When murder mars the grand opening for Lila Macapagal's aunties' new laundromat, she will have to air out all the dirty laundry in Shady Palms to catch a killer...

Lila Macapagal's godmothers April, Mae, and June - AKA the Calendar Crew - are celebrating the opening of their latest joint business venture, a new laundromat, to much fanfare (and controversy). However, what should've been a joyous occasion quickly turns into a tragedy when they discover the building has been vandalized - and the body of Ninang April's niece, recently arrived from the Philippines, next to a chilling message painted on the floor. The question is, was the message aimed at the victim or Lila's gossipy godmothers, who have not-so-squeaky-clean reputations?

With Ninang April falling apart from grief and little progress from the Shady Palms Police Department in this slippery case, it's up to Lila and her network to find justice for the young woman.

The Calendar Crew have stuck their noses into everybody's business for years, but now the tables are turned as Lila must pry into the Calendar Crew's lives to figure out who has a vendetta against the (extremely opinionated yet loving) aunties and stop them before they strike again."

I just realized that I really need a name for my crew...

The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
Published by: Pamela Dorman Books
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A new mystery is afoot in the fourth book in the Thursday Murder Club series from million-copy bestselling author Richard Osman.

It's rarely a quiet day for the Thursday Murder Club.

Shocking news reaches them - an old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing.

The gang's search leads them into the antiques business, where the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers, and online fraudsters - as well as heartache close to home - Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim have no idea whom to trust.

With the body count rising, the clock ticking down, and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out?

And who will be the last devil to die?"

It's September, time for your latest Thursday Murder Club fix.

Dead on Target by M.C. Beaton
Published by: Minotaur Books
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Beloved New York Times bestseller M. C. Beaton's cranky, crafty Agatha Raisin - the star of her own hit TV series - is back on the case again in Dead on Target.

A visit to the local village fete for a spot of fun and relaxation turns into a nightmare for Agatha Raisin when she discovers the body of the local landowner in the woods - with an arrow in his chest and trousers round his ankles.

Agatha's old adversary, Detective Chief Inspector Wilkes, declares the death a tragic accident, believing the victim has been hit by a stray arrow from an archery demonstration. Agatha is convinced of foul play, however, and is shocked when Wilkes eventually agrees...with her as his prime murder suspect.

Determined to clear her name and find the real killer, Agatha launches her own investigation, quickly becoming involved with a family at war, an unscrupulous gangster - and a killer who is determined to make her the next victim..."

I'm so glad that Agatha Raisin lives on.

Murder at Midnight by Katharine Schellman
Published by: Crooked Lane Books
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Perfect for fans of Deanna Raybourn and Ashley Weaver, when a body is found shot to death after an unexpected snowstorm, Lily Adler quickly realizes that some people will stop at nothing to bury their secrets.

Regency widow Lily Adler is looking forward to a quiet Christmastide away from the schemes and secrets she witnessed daily in London. Not only will she be visiting the family of her late husband; she will be reunited with Captain Jack Hartley, her friend and confidante, finally returned after a long voyage at sea.

But secrets aren't only found in London. Jack's younger sister, Amelia, is the center of neighborhood scandal and gossip. She refuses to tell anyone what really happened, even when an unexpected snowstorm strands the neighborhood families together after a Christmas ball. Stuck until the snow stops, the Adlers, Hartleys, and their neighbors settle in for the night, only to be awakened in the morning by the scream of a maid who has just discovered a dead body.

The victim was the well-to-do son of a local gentleman - the same man whose name has become so scandalously linked to Amelia's.

With the snow still falling and no way to come or go, it's clear that someone in the house was responsible for the young man's death. When suspicion instantly falls on Jack's sister, he and Lily must unmask the true culprit before Amelia is convicted of a crime she didn't commit."

Does anyone else horde Christmas books like a festive dragon for their holiday reading? Because if not, you should. You should also put this book on your list.

A Nobleman's Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel by K.J. Charles
Published by: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bridgerton goes Gothic in this sweeping Regency romance by celebrated author K.J. Charles.

Major Rufus d'Aumesty has unexpectedly become the Earl of Oxney, master of a remote Norman manor on the edge of the infamous Romney Marsh. There he's beset on all sides, his position contested both by his greedy uncle and by Luke Doomsday, son of a notorious smuggling clan.

The earl and the smuggler should be natural enemies, but cocksure, enragingly competent Luke is a trained secretary and expert schemer - exactly the sort of man Rufus needs by his side. Before long, Luke becomes an unexpected ally...and the lover Rufus had never hoped to find.

But Luke came to Stone Manor with an ulterior motive, one he's desperate to keep hidden even from the lord he can't resist. As the lies accumulate and family secrets threaten to destroy everything they hold dear, master and man find themselves forced to decide whose side they're really on...and what they're willing to do for love."

An LGBTQ Poldark!

Hex and the City by Kate Johnson
Published by: One More Chapter
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Paperback, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Something wickedly sexy this way comes...

A laugh out loud witchy romcom for fans of Lana Harper and Erin Sterling !

Spice: ️️️

Things you should know about Poppy:
1. She's a witch
2. She has magical hair like Rapunzel from Tangled
3. She lives with Iris, the head of her coven, in a beautiful, ramshackle house next to Highgate cemetery
4. She works at Hubble Bubble, a magic shop in Covent Garden. Though none of it is real magic as that would be highly irresponsible. Until...
...Poppy accidentally sells gorgeous celebrity magician Axl Storm, all six-foot-four of him, a cursed pendant.

When all hell breaks loose can the guy with fake magic and the girl with real magic fix the chaos they've caused? Or will sparks fly both in and out of the cauldron?"

I was sold at ramshackle house next to Highgate cemetery.

Hex Education by Maureen Kilmer
Published by: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 336 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Nice witches finish last...

A guilt-ridden former coven is forced to tap into the magic of their past...if they want to stop their lives from going up in flames again.

On the outside, luxury realtor Sarah Nelson looks like every other mom in the neighborhood. But she has an edge that others don't: She's a witch. And no one knows...except her estranged ex-coven and college friends, Katrina and Alicia.

One terrible night during their freshman year, the trio accidentally burned down their dorm, and soon after they scattered. Their secret had been safe, until Sarah learns they've been invited back to commemorate the anniversary of the fire.

Suddenly, the magic doesn't want to be controlled. Sarah's orange tabby cat, Katy Purry, now argues with her. Her broom has become self-brooming, and her fridge somehow restocks thirty pounds of sliced turkey for school lunches. As it grows increasingly difficult to hide the magic and the past, Sarah, Katrina, and Alicia must harness their power together to keep their secrets safe...before they find out if polite society still burns witches."

Um, who needs thirty pounds of sliced turkey? Like ever, not just for school lunches.

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid
Published by: Harperteen
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Bestselling author Ava Reid makes her YA debut in this dark academic fantasy perfect for fans of Melissa Albert and Elana K. Arnold.

Effy Sayre has always believed in fairy tales. Haunted by visions of the Fairy King since childhood, she's had no choice. Her tattered copy of Angharad - Emrys Myrddin's epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him - is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin's family announces a contest to redesign the late author's estate, Effy feels certain it's her destiny.

But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin's legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them - and the truth may bring them both to ruin.

Part historical fantasy, part rivals-to-lovers romance, part Gothic mystery, and all haunting, dreamlike atmosphere, Ava Reid's powerful YA debut will lure in readers who loved The Atlas Six, House of Salt and Sorrows, or Girl, Serpent, Thorn."

Doesn't everyone survive because of a tattered copy of some book?

The Collectors: Stories edited by A.S. King
Published by: Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 272 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From Michael L. Printz Award winner A.S. King and an all-star team of contributors including Anna-Marie McLemore and Jason Reynolds, an anthology of stories about remarkable people and their strange and surprising collections.

From David Levithan's story about a non-binary kid collecting pieces of other people's collections to Jenny Torres Sanchez's tale of a girl gathering types of fire while trying not to get burned to G. Neri's piece about 1970's skaters seeking opportunities to go vertical - anything can be collected and in the hands of these award-winning and bestselling authors, any collection can tell a story. Nine of the best YA novelists working today have written fiction based on a prompt from Printz-winner A.S. King (who also contributes a story) and the result is itself an extraordinary collection."

I wish we celebrated collecting more as a society, like back when there were cabinets of curiosities.

The Winds of Poppy Pendleton by Melanie Dobson
Published by: Tyndale House Publishers
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"In this compelling new time-slip mystery, a little girl goes missing from her family's castle in the Thousand Islands of New York. Eighty-five years later, a journalist teams up with a woman living on Koster Isle to find out what happened to Poppy, once and for all.

1907. On the eve of her fifth birthday, Poppy Pendleton is tucked safely in her bed, listening to her parents entertain New York's gilded society in their Thousand Islands castle; the next morning, she is gone, and her father is found dead in his smoking room.

1992. Though Chloe Ridell lives in the shadows of Poppy's castle, now in ruins, she has little interest in the mystery that still captivates tourists and locals alike. She is focused on preserving the island she inherited from her grandparents and reviving their vintage candy shop. Until the day a girl named Emma shows up on Chloe's doorstep, with few possessions, save a tattered scrapbook that connects her to the Pendleton family. When a reporter arrives at Chloe's store, asking questions about her grandfather, Chloe decides to help him dig into a past she'd thought best left buried. The haunting truth about Poppy, they soon discover, could save Emma's life, so Chloe and Logan must work together to investigate exactly what happened long ago on Koster Isle."

A more time-slippy Truly, Devious.

Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian
Published by: Tor Nightfire
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 464 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From bestselling author Alex Grecian comes a folk horror epic about a ragtag posse that must track down a witch through a wild west beset by demons and ghosts - and where death is always just around the bend.

Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit.

On the road to Burden County, they're joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure - but no sense of purpose - and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger.

Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.

Written with the devilish cadence of Stephen Graham Jones and the pulse-pounding brutality of Nick Cutter, Red Rabbit is a supernatural adventure of luck and misfortune."

I love the supernatural combined with the wild west.

The Forest Grimm by Kathryn Purdie
Published by: Wednesday Books
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"A spellbinding YA fantasy from #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathryn Purdie, where fairy tales come to life with dark, deadly twists.

"Tell me again, Grandmère, the story of how I die."

The Midnight Forest. The Fanged Creature. Two fortune-telling cards that spell an untimely death for 17-year-old Clara. Despite the ever-present warning from her fortune-teller grandmother, Clara embarks on a dangerous journey into the deadly Forest Grimm to procure a magical book - Sortes Fortunae, the Book of Fortunes - with the power to reverse the curse on her village and save her mother.

Years ago, when the villagers whispered their deepest desires to the book, its pages revealed how to obtain them. All was well until someone used the book for an evil purpose - to kill another person. Afterward, the branches of the Forest Grimm snatched the book away, the well water in Grimm's Hollow turned rancid, and the crops died from disease. The villagers tried to make amends with the forest, but every time someone crossed its border, they never returned.

Now, left with no alternative, Clara and her close friend, Axel - who is fated never to be with her - have set their minds to defying fate and daring to accomplish what no one else has been able to before. But the forest - alive with dark, deadly twists on some of our most well-known fairy tales - has a mind of its own."

Like a fairy tale version of this season of Nancy Drew.

A Bride's Story, Volume 14 by Kaoru Mori
Published by: Yen Press
Publication Date: September 19th, 2023
Format: Hardcover, 210 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"The Halgals enter talks of marriage with another clan, but first, Azel and the other men must be tested to see if they are worthy. They face off against their prospective brides in a horse-riding competition, and whoever retrieves an arrow and makes it to the finish line first will hold the future of both clans in their hands!"

I've loved this series from day one and can never get enough!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Amy Chua, Ava Reid, Cara Hunter, Donna Leon, Douglas Adams, John Scalzi, K.J. Charles, Kaoru Mori, Katharine Schellman, Kathryn Purdie, Lisa Hall, M.C. Beaton, Melanie Dobson, Mia P. Manansala, Richard Osman

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
Published by: Pocket
Publication Date: 1987
Format: Paperback, 306 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy
 
Richard MacDuff is overworked. He's a computer geek for the genius Gordon Way. He has so much work in fact that instead of doing it he spends all his time trying to figure out how his new couch got wedged in his stairwell. It's a physical impossibility. Another side affect of being overworked is forgetting to pick up his girlfriend, Susan, Gordon's sister, for their dinner engagement with Richard's old professor, Reg Chronotis. Reg's dinner is far from relaxing, seeing as there's a horse in Reg's bathroom after dinner and on his way home Richard sees the ghost of his boss, whom was killed in a freak accident just a short while earlier. Upon getting home Richard freaks out and breaks into Susan's apartment to steal her answering machine's tape which might incriminate him by scaling the outside of her building. In other words, he totally overreacts. He is caught out in this by a very odd old classmate of his, now going by the name of Dirk Gently.

The fact is, everything has gone to hell in a hand basket and Richard turns to the basket case Dirk to help him out. Yet Dirk doesn't investigate things in a normal manner. He's a holistic detective, meaning, he'll follow up on things that strike his interest that may seem totally unrelated to the job at hand. But Dirk is convinced that because of everything's interconnectivity, it will all work out, he's very new age is Dirk. By working with the old adage of Sherlock Holmes; "once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth," leads the duo to a time machine, ghosts of long dead aliens inhabiting people, and the answer as to how Richard's couch ended up defying the laws of physics. There might have been a temporary door where there shouldn't have been. But that's the least of their worries.

The first time I read this I was on a train. This was my first big trip from home without the family and I was going to California with my two best friends. I was in the midst of Douglas Adams worship. I had always known who he was but I was never much of a pleasure reader when in High School. That all changed once I left High School. I devoured the who Hitchhiker's Trilogy, all five books, as fast as I could. I thought, traveling away from home without the parents was a new adventure and I'd re-read the first Hitchhiker's book. It was this whole journey theme I thought was appropriate at the time. I can at least confirm that trying to bathe in a train sink does make you abundantly aware of needing to know where your towel is. Yet I never got around to re-reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, instead I picked up a new to me Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. From LA to Chicago, for 57 hours I just devoured the book, blind to the dusty winter landscape outside the windows.

Re-reading the book years later I realize I remembered next to nothing of the plot. Really, if someone where to ask me, before now, what happened in the book I would have said it has something to do with Dodos, I think, and Dirk doesn't show up till half-way into the book. Shameful that I could remember so little. Though there's this weird problem I seem to have that anything I read on a train I can't retain. Yes, I'm totally blaming Amtrak for my failing faculties. Yet I could have rattled on and on about the history of the book and how it was originally a Doctor Who episode that was only partially filmed and those scenes were later used in another episode but the original conceit then became this book and now there is a book about the Doctor Who episode, it is all very wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, and I'm sure Douglas would love that. Even my book, which I bought way before his death, says "The Dazzling Bestseller by the Author of The Salmon of Doubt." The Salmon of Doubt came out in 2002 and this paperback is from 1988... so could someone please explain that to me?

Anyway, out of the time vortex, the reason I picked this up again was because there is, or was, a tv show based on the books. It was awesome but, now since the idiots at Channel 4 have cancelled it, it's now past tense referenced, but isn't Channel 4 only online now anyway? So Channel 4 is kind of past tense itself. There where three episodes including the pilot. All about an hour with Steve Managan as Dirk, who most people will probably know from the Matt LeBlanc show Episodes. The show was so marvelous and loony and perfect, the pilot with the cat made me cry and cry, that, obviously, before I knew it was cancelled. Of course, in the way of the world of Douglas Adams where his work is constantly being re-interpreted we are on the cusp of an American version of Dirk produced by IDW staring the lovely Samuel Barnett. But who knows how that will turn out. Eight episode and then cancelled? The new series points to the fact that the world, and in particular me, need more Dirk immediately. Also I never did get around to reading the sequel (still haven't) and as I've said, I remembered nothing of the book,

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency is everything that is wonderful about Adams, blending absurd aliens with classical poetry. Past, present, and future all commingling with an element of the supernatural while still being hilariously funny. In other words, if there was one writer whose work embodied the essence of Doctor Who it would be Douglas Adams. It wasn't just that he wrote for the show, he had a comedic understanding of the pitfalls of time travel wherein a missing cat case that Dirk was working on ends up being irrelevant because in the new timeline they've created the cat never went walkabout. I wish they hadn't cancelled the show and I wish Adams was still alive to write more about Dirk and his adventures... but at least I still have the next book to look forward too... it's time for The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Though perhaps I'll go back and re-read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency again... I seem to have a recurring problem of never quite remembering the whole plot. Could this be some wibbly wobbly, timey wimey of Adams's own making wherein I will forever be re-reading his books? I won't object if it is.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Backlog Bonanza, Dirk Gently, Doctor Who, Dodo, Douglas Adams, Episodes, Richard MacDuff, Steve Managan, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, The Salmon of Doubt, Trains

For me, my turning into a bookworm all started with science fiction. The reason is two fold. When I was younger I rarely read at all. Instead I watched lots of movies. In particular I watched a LOT of Star Wars. When I mean I watched a lot of Star Wars, I mean really a lot. I mean an entire summer just watching the original trilogy over and over. When I found the Star Wars Expanded Universe in the form of Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire, I felt as if a whole new world was open to me. I give Timothy Zahn almost all of the credit for turning me into the bookworm I am now and I hope one day to tell him that in person. He took characters I already loved and gave them new adventures for me to devour. The second half of my conversion was due to Douglas Adams. After high school I spent that summer reading all of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as well as all of Jane Austen, but that's another story. Those books by Adams are still a touchstone for me. I remember how it felt to hold them with the circular embossing on the covers while I laughed at the absurdity of Arthur Dent's predicament. It almost makes me want to curl up on the side porch in blistering heat and re-read the full trilogy, as this would be the cheapest form of time travel. But the truth is over time I have moved away from science fiction and more to it's counterpart of fantasy. I remember years ago the heated discussions online of the divide between science fiction and fantasy despite them being shelved together in bookstores. It all came down to dragons. So perhaps I like my imaginary worlds to have a few dragons these days. This means that my science fiction reading has lapsed of late. So more than anything I'm trying to reconnect with my roots here. To go back to imaginative storytelling with a science base and the occasional spacecraft. Here's to worlds without dragons! And of course Star Wars!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Arthur Dent, Backlog Bonanza, Douglas Adams, Dragons, Fantasy, Heir to the Empire, High School, Jane Austen, Science, Science Fiction, Star Wars, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Timothy Zhan

Only Human by Gareth Roberts
Published by: BBC Books
Publication Date: 2005
Format: Paperback, 240 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

The Doctor was planning on taking Rose and Jack to Kegron Pluva to see the maddest ecosystem out there when the TARDIS gets an alert that someone is using some very dangerous time travel technology outside of London of all places. Pleasure diverted by an investigation isn't anything new, and who knows, this could be more fun! A Neanderthal, Das, has shown up in modern day Bromley. When the three of them finally come in contact with him, he has quite a story to tell about a weird tree and then ending up in a nightclub, like you do. They decide to take him back to his own time but find out that the dangerous technology that has brought him forward far into the future has made it impossible for him to ever go back. Das would literally be destroyed. He is stuck forever in Bromley in the 21st century.

Leaving Jack behind to help their new charge adjust, Rose and The Doctor travel back to Das's time to see what exactly happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again. What they find is beyond weird. Aside from just the prehistoric world with Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, there is a secret underground base of people from the far future, way beyond when Rose comes from. Led by Chantal, these subservient people believe they are there to record and observe, or at least make Chantal happy by doing this. Their number one goal is to make Chantal happy. But Chantal has ulterior motives. Behind a big grey door there is a secret she is keeping, the real reason she wanted to go back in time.

Ok, so, I think I can admit to you all that I think I'm starting to burn out a bit with this whole Doctor Who way of life I'm currently living. Right now I'm watching all the first episodes and last episodes of all The Doctors leading up to the fiftieth anniversary, currently on "The War Games" with Patrick Troughton, as well as reading the books in my spare time. I've reached a stage of numbness that unless it's really good or really bad I just go, "meh, that was fine, next." So, while I did enjoy Only Human, it neither offended me nor was a brilliant piece of work, so, I liked it, but still blame it for getting the song "Only Human" stuck in my head, which seriously is a bit of a break from "What does the Fox Say," so I guess, go "Only Human?" Also, I do really like Gareth Roberts, some of his episodes of the new series are the best out there because he actually understands how to write for the product line and for the show. He knows how to properly do an homage and how to properly write for the characters as well as create auxilery characters we actually like and care about. So if I wasn't so jaded at this point, maybe I'd be really cheering this book on, but at least I can see that it's likable.

What really stuck with me was the Douglas Adams factor. Previously, in the Fourth Doctor's book, the author clearly didn't get the homage/rip off delineation. Roberts nails it right on. In the second Hitchhiker's book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the indigenous hominids are destroyed by, basically, inept hairdressers from the future, and humans descend from them. With The Doctor and Rose exploring this prehistoric era, Roberts keeps subtly nudging you with this idea that these idiots from the future could in fact destroy not only the Neanderthals, which humans did anyway without any help from the future, but perhaps also our original ancestors, Homo sapiens. Yet he takes this kernel of an idea and expands it, he makes it not only the idea that holds the whole book together, but it also is able to bring up the destructive nature of humans and the sad fact of extinction. Message and moral through an entertaining medium, plus Rose Tyler doing nails for prehistoric Homo sapiens. Though I did find The Doctor at times a little too down on humans, Roberts was able to show many sides of an argument in an entertaining manner and I think Adams would have approved.

Then there's an aspect of science fiction that I love that Only Human employs. The future that is old yet new. Like watching an old film and seeing how they pictured what the future would be like, there's a fascination, a nostalgia that captures you. The idea of this whole society hidden underground, having arrived from the far future, knowing the complete map of the human brain, but being unable to have any kind of technology that wasn't analogue, fantastic! I loved this little wooden shanty town with it's pneumatic tubes and typewriters. This world reminded me of Brazil, in my mind one of the best science fiction dystopian movies ever created, I'm talking about the director's cut here. I even picture the people as kind of stylized that way, with the 40s clothes, like Bladerunner. In fact, annoying lady who wrote the Eighth Doctor's book, this is how you get a Bladerunner feel without being a plagiarist. It captured this amazing vibe, I felt like I was in this anachronistic world, part Brazil part Deadwood part Nextian, and just loving it, though I wouldn't love being a minion of Chantal's!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bladerunner, Brazil, Captain Jack, Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, Gareth Roberts, Jasper Fforde, Neanderthal, Nextian, Only Human, Rose, TARDIS, The 10th Doctor, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Thursday Next

Festival of Death by Jonathan Morris
Published by: BBC Books
Publication Date: September 4th, 2000
Format: Paperback, 320 Pages
Rating: ★
To Buy

The Doctor has arrived at the G-Lock, a space station that is the result of a massive pile up two hundred years ago. The G-Lock has become a place of pilgrimage for those wishing to experience The Beautiful Death. The attraction doesn't just simulate what death and the veil beyond is like, but it quite literally kills you and then a short time later brings you back, that's if you're wanting to come back. Though the most recent death has gone horribly wrong turning almost all 218 participates into zombies controlled by some unknown force.

The Doctor and Romana arrive in the aftermath to find that everyone knows them and are heralding The Doctor as their saviour. Problem is, The Doctor's never been here before. Which means only one answer remains, in his future, the G-Lock's past, he comes here and saves everyone. Romana warns The Doctor that crossing their own time streams is very dangerous and they have to be careful not to change anything. If they are fated to die, well, they must face this fact, they can not mess about with time, something a time lord should know. Yet each journey into their past proves that they are inextricably linked to the G-Lock, and it's more then a little frustrating trying to find a time when they were unknown. If they are careful, then the G-Lock will be saved, but their own fates, well, that's another thing.

I'm sure every one of you has had a book that you just can't be bothered to pick up. You know that you just need to bite the bullet and power through, but somehow, you just can't. The longer you avoid the book, the easier it is to accept that you will never finish it. If you are like me, and reading is an integral part of you life, this one book then throws everything in your life out of whack. My moods and emotions are usually keyed into what I'm reading at the moment, if I like the book, life seems easier, if I don't... well, I'm a bit of a grump. This inability to finish yet unwillingness to pick up anything else is the worst situation a reader can face. It doesn't happen to me often. The worst case I suffered was back in August of 2008, the book was Breaking Dawn. While I'm not going to comment on this book by Stephenie Meyer here, that would require far more time and energy then I'm willing to spend on this book review, I will say that it took me an entire month to get through that book. Think of all the other books I could have been reading? While I never allowed Festival of Death that hold on my time, I will say that I begrudge it everything else I could have been reading and will forever hold it against it. Though, in the final analysis, this was the least of this books sins.

My issues with this book started on page one. I am never one to skip the intro, even if it might contain spoilers. I have attempted in recent years to read the intro after the books conclusion, but, well, the majority of these new Doctor Who intros are, how shall I put it, just reveling in the fact that their book was chosen. The first three books had something to offer, a little bit about their love of The Doctor and in particular, why they loved THIS Doctor... not so with Jonathan Morris. Jonathan Morris's intro seems more along the lines of us mere mortals should be privileged to read this glorious book he has written. While until this book he was a humble Eraser fan running the fan club (seriously, dude you really think this is an accomplishment?) then this glorious piece of writing was birthed by him, and, while he won't take all the credit for bringing the wibbly wobbly timey wimey to the Whoverse... oh, who am I kidding, he will take all the credit. He will view the complex time lines and the ability to loop back on your own life as his own amazing creation, forgetting, oh, almost a centuries worth of work that came before him. That Red Dwarf episode, "Future Echoes," the one from 1988, more then a decade before this book, well, forget that, this book totally didn't just rip it off, because, well, Jonathan Morris CREATED timey wimey! In fact, if we take his introduction to heart, using his own timey wimey, he must have created Doctor Who himself and every other time travelling show, literature, what have you, ever. Quantum Leap, totally his. Gaw, this author is so full of himself.

And here is the real snag in the book. Ego aside, the book is just a pastiche of all these other shows and books, that couldn't possibly be as original as Festival of Death because the author says so. I can't tell if it's his naivete as a new writer, or his immense ego that let's him just rip off other writers without a care in the world. These are not nods, these are blatant rip offs. The "reference" to Douglas Adams, ie, the depressed computer ERIC, well, let's just call him MARVIN and move on. I mean, seriously dude, this isn't cool. If you watch Doctor Who, you've read Adams at some point, and well, readers aren't going to let this slide. Adams was a genius, YOU ARE A HACK. The reason I mentioned Red Dwarf above, well, it's because one scene was almost lifted fully from that previously mentioned episode. A good author is able to incorporate other ideas and references into a solid narrative that is original while yet being referential... Jonathan Morris, the author I shall never read again, doesn't do this. The book isn't a cohesive whole, just a bunch of jokes and scenes lifted from other sources and precariously strung together. Here's all the "references" I was able to ferret out, and I'm sure it's by no means exhaustive: The Shining, Alien, Titanic, Lord of the Rings (in particular Gollum), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (and yes, I did check release dates so that I am not wrong), and in the end, Being John Malkovich, in the weirdest "nod" yet. Seriously, couldn't the author try anything original? All he did was point out how bad his book was by "referencing" books/movies/whatever that I enjoyed far far more.

In the few rare instances that he tries to show some originality, it comes across as bad jokes or goes against the cannon of the show. The alien races that he encounters, I'm not talking about those little lizard people who are obviously out of the canon of Adams, but the Arboretans... could you think of a lamer name? I'm sorry, but plant based life that is kind of Fern Gully meets Doctor Who and you named them Arboretans? Do they live in the Arboretum near my house? Could you try to think of a non cringe worthy name? Like you're deja vu jokes that made me groan. Preja vu? The stupid running joke about The Doctor not having passed his test to fly the TARDIS. Or the fact that you actually killed The Doctor for thirty minutes and therefore destroyed some of the cannon, because, if he died, he would have regenerated, and well... HE DIDN'T! That is one of the glaring problems of this book. Because we know The Doctor saves the G-Lock, but in doing so he supposedly dies... well, we know he can't die, neither can Romana, because, well, that's not what happens to them, so there is no peril, no impetus to keep reading because we know what happens. I can say I finished the book, but I will never read this author again, I would rather have my brains smashed out by a slice of lemon, wrapped 'round a large gold brick.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alien, Being John Malkovich, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Book Challenge, Douglas Adams, Gollum, Harry Potter, Jonathan Morris, K-9, Lord of the Rings, Red Dwarf, Romana, Stephenie Meyer, The 4th Doctor, The Shining

The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter
Published by: Harper
Publication Date: June 19th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Everything changed on "Step Day." One day there was one Earth. Overcrowded and dying slowly. Then innumerable Earths opened up just a step away. Pure, untouched, Earth as it once was or could have been, yet completely uninhabited, save for animals and insects. Each Earth different and another step away. All because of a simple device whose instructions where placed online. A machine powered by a potato, that could lead you to these infinite worlds, only one after the other in sequence though. Yet there was Joshua. Joshua didn't need a stepper. He was a natural. Unbeknownst to him, so was his mother. At the time of his birth, Joshua's mother accidentally stepped and Joshua was born and left for a moment on an Earth all his own. That was when he first became aware of the silence.

On Step Day Joshua inadvertently became a hero because due to his natural stepping ability, he was able to go from one Earth to the next without having the debilitating nausea that most people experienced. That night he rescued countless children from Earth 1 and brought them back to Datum Earth, or so they would come to be known as. Joshua became something of a folk hero then, because he was more comfortable out exploring the Long Earth as it came to be called, than back in the Home on Allied Drive.

Yet in a world that was changing so fast, taxes and policing having new definitions, with people abandoning their lives, with precious metals becoming worthless, with iron becoming precious because of it's inability to be taken on a step, one corporation stands tall. The Black Corporation. They summon Joshua to their headquarters for a special mission. Lobsang is a reincarnated Tibetan motorcycle repairman who now resides as an AI in a computer. Yet he is definitely human, in that he proved it in a court of law. Lobsang wants Joshua to take him to the end of the Long Earth. They will journey to worlds end in a flying dirigible.

Lobsang has theories about what he will find and Joshua is his fail safe. Joshua can bring him back if anything where to go wrong. Also, Joshua won't get sick on the journey. The two of them set forth, jumping from world to world in the blink of an eye. The way they travel, watching movies at night and eating fine cuisine, makes Joshua a little jaded, and even wish for the way he used to travel. Yet, in all his travels he has never seen the mysterious creatures that are known as Trolls and Elves till now. Soon he realizes that there is more to the Long Earth than anyone could have ever imagined. And that's what scares people the most back on Datum Earth.

This book had two very good reasons for going straight to the top of my "to be read" pile, well, actually three, in that I've been waiting for it to come out for a year... The first reason is my undying love of Terry Pratchett. He is just the most amazing writer out there able to combine hard truths with laugh out loud humor. The second reason is that a fair amount of this book takes place in my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin! Ok, so, it's not really a weird coincidence that it takes place in Madison, seeing as Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter used last years North American Discworld Convention that was here in Madison as a research trip and therefore thought setting a good chunk of the book in Madison was handy. At the convention they had a panel where the two of them discussed basically the structure of how the "Long Earth" works, so I had some foreknowledge as to how stepping worked. The idea fascinated me. It's not really an original hypothesis, versions of this theory have existed, even in Philip Pullman's Dark Materials books, we have worlds upon worlds stacked on top of each other only a slim knife's cut away. But here the lack of humanity is intriguing. Also the idea that all the Earths are what could have been possible had something happened differently is fascinating.

At times though, the book does get bogged down in the science of the hows, whys and wherefores. As the authors said, this first book in the series, is more just an introduction to the concept of the Long Earth. A travelogue wherein we familiarize ourselves with how things work. This of course brought to mind the writing style of Douglas Adams, with his Hitchhiker's Trilogy. If you think about those books, nothing much happens, yet you are travelling with these people through space. I think this book owes a lot to Adams, Doctor Who, and Mark Twain. The airship after all is named the Mark Twain, and it very much reminded me of a movie I watched once which I believe was a dramatization of Tom Sawyer Abroad,  a novel by Mark Twain featuring Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of a Jules Verne-esque adventure story. I distinctly remember the hot air balloon knocking the nose off of the sphinx. So, I can see the validity of people who claimed that this book was thin on plot. Though everything else made up for that loose, and, really, it's the first book, we have to see where it's going.

What really intrigued me though was all the things that would fall under the category of "that's so Pratchett." How the "other" creatures they encounter would account for an actual basis in mythology of Trolls and Elves. The "iron" that the fae feared being the only metal unable to step. His love of the word susurrus. His humor, dear lord, his dead on humor. It was subtler than in some of his other books, but still, to have the AI Lobsang, who I kept picturing as Jude Law from AI, constantly being unclear in his loyalties yet encouraging movie night wherein they would watch 2001. Or where he would say how he had originally created his appearance and demeanor based on the replicants from Bladerunner. To have Lobsang not just have these overtones, but then have Lobsang himself with a nudge and a wink then reference them himself was priceless. I particularly liked when he started to take on his "British Butler" persona, seeing as if there is a true flaw in the book, it's that the authors being British using turns of phrase that Americans would never use, so therefore the Butler kind of made up the language gap. I really think that David from Prometheus has a thing or three to learn from Lobsang.

In the end, I will say that this is yet another series of Terry Pratchett's that I will eagerly await the next book. Even if my heart will forever remain in Discworld, I was happy to say that I really enjoyed this book, far far more than his other stand alone, Nation, but that is another story all together, not just the "book" by my dislike of that book... he should have so stopped before the afterword... ok, I said I wasn't going to get into it, so I won't. Pratchett is wonderful, Baxter worked well with him, but again, like Gaiman and Good Omens, I think it's Pratchett's voice that comes out the clearest.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Bladerunner, Datum Earth, Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, Elves, Joshua, Madison, Mark Twain, Philip Pullman, Prometheus, Step Day, Stephen Baxter, Terry Pratchett, The Long Earth, Tom Sawyer Abroad, Trolls

A Misdomer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison
Published by: HarperTeen
Publication Date: June 26th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 256 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Performing Arts college, here I come again! Hold on to your tights!! Because I'm holding on to mine, I can tell you.

Tallulah Casey is back and ready to Irish-comedy-dance her way through another term at Dother Hall, but now that she's been officially admitted to the performing arts program, that won't cut it anymore. Especially if she's going to help raise enough money to keep the school from closing at the end of the year.

There are also some . . . distractions to worry about: The boys of Woolfe Academy are lingering about. And they are still boys, so they are still confusing.

Will Tallulah be able to test out her new snogging skills and ace her performance in this term's project, A Midsummer Night's Dream? Only time and more Irish comedy dancing will tell.

Louise Rennison returns with her trademark sidesplitting humor, sending Tallulah and her mates on another riotously spectacular (mis)adventure."

I have been a fan of Louise Rennison's since the beginning. While I didn't enjoy the first book in this series as much as the Angus Thongs ones, I do enjoy a nice lark on a moor.

Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel
Published by: Random House
Publication Date: June 26th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 304 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"This new trilogy will capture the hearts of readers who adore Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle series. Callie LeRoux lives in Slow Run, Kansas, helping her mother run their small hotel and trying not to think about the father she's never met. Lately all of her energy is spent battling the constant storms plaguing the Dust Bowl and their effects on her health. Callie is left alone, when her mother goes missing in a dust storm. Her only hope comes from a mysterious man offering a few clues about her destiny and the path she must take to find her parents in "the golden hills of the west" (California). Along the way she meets Jack a young hobo boy who is happy to keep her company—there are dangerous, desperate people at every turn. And there's also an otherworldly threat to Callie. Warring fae factions, attached to the creative communities of American society, are very aware of the role this half-mortal, half-fae teenage girl plays in their fate."

I have been so wanting to read this book since the RT Convention back in April where I hoped and prayed they'd have early copies, but alas, they didn't.

Shada by Douglas Adams and Gareth Roberts
Published by: Ace
Publication Date: June 26th, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 400 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"From the unique mind of Douglas Adams, legendary author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, comes Shada, a Doctor Who story scripted for the television series Doctor Who, but never produced--and now, transformed into an original novel...

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
Imagine how dangerous a LOT of knowledge is...

The Doctor's old friend and fellow Time Lord Professor Chronotis has retired to Cambridge University, where among the other doddering old professors nobody will notice if he lives for centuries. He took with him a few little souvenirs--harmless things really. But among them, carelessly, he took The Worshipful and Ancient Law of Gallifrey. Even more carelessly, he has loaned this immensely powerful book to clueless graduate student Chris Parsons, who intends to use it to impress girls. The Worshipful and Ancient Law is among the most dangerous artifacts in the universe; it cannot be allowed to fall into the wrong hands."

The hands of the sinister Time Lord Skagra are unquestionably the wrongest ones possible. Skagra is a sadist and an egomaniac, bent on universal domination. Having misguessed the state of fashion on Earth, he also wears terrible platform shoes. He is on his way to Cambridge. He wants the book. And he wants the Doctor..."

WHY!?!?! Really, seriously, will someone answer me why? Ok, so we only got part of the episode filmed, which they reconstructed and released on VHS... but more importantly, this became Adams' Dirk Gently series! So why are we going backwards? This doesn't need to be complete, Adams himself did it with Dirk. Just stop it ok.

Tempest's Fury by TNicole Peeler
Published by: Orbit
Publication Date: June 26th, 2012
Format: Paperback, 368 Pages
To Buy

The official patter:
"Jane's not happy. She's been packed off to England to fight in a war when she'd much rather be snogging Anyan. Unfortunately, Jane's enemies have been busy stirring up some major trouble -- the kind that attracts a lot of attention. In other words, they're not making it easy for Jane to get any alone time with the barghest, or to indulge in her penchant for stinky cheese.

Praying she can pull of a Joan of Arc without the whole martyrdom thing, Jane must lead Alfar and halflings alike in a desperate battle to combat an ancient evil. Catapulted into the role of Most Unlikely Hero Ever, Jane also has to fight her own insecurities as well as the doubts of those who don't think she can live up to her new role as Champion.

Along the way, Jane learns that some heroes are born. Some are made. And some are bribed with promises of food and sex."

Firstly, Nicole Peeler was so nice when I met her at the RT Convention back in April. Secondly, England, need I say more?

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: A Midsumer Tights Dream, Doctor Who, Douglas Adams, Dust Girl, Jane True, Louise Rennison, Nicole Peeler, Sarah Zettel, Shada, Tallulah Casey, Tempest's Fury

In the spirit of what this day is... Random Magic Day I present you with something very neat. Here is some interesting Random Magic Trivia!

* The name of the artist, Rasa Oddvilla, is an anagram for Salvador Dalí.

* The Floating City can be considered to be allegorical.

* Only 2000 copies of the first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland were printed, then discarded as waste paper.

* “Two fathoms” refers to Mark Twain.

* Anagrammatic homage to Douglas Adams in -- Ch. 42, of course.

* Ergot-tainted rye can cause hallucinations. Historians suggest that ergot-tainted rye was the spur for the Salem Witch Trials in 1692.

* Guédé is a voodoo entity; he guards the gates of the cemetery, and is privy to all the secrets of the dead. He's also known as Baron Samedi. Although he is a much-feared entity, he has a wicked sense of humor. He is fond of children, and will sometimes intervene to spare the life of a dying child.

* The invention of the word game of "doublets" is attributed to Lewis Carroll.

* Hypatia of Alexandria was a mathematician and the victim of a political assassination -- she was torn to pieces by a mob in 415A.D.

* Professor Literati's eyes are the color of absinthe, a drink which was popular with artists, writers and poets in the 19th century. Absinthe is also referred to by the moniker "The Green Fairy."

* Gone is the feline retort to the paradox of Schrödinger's Cat. He's rumored to be related to the Cheshire Cat, but we can find no definitive proof.

* The nickname "Wiggy" refers both to Beethoven and to Ludwig II of Bavaria, a/k/a the Swan King, the Dream King, and, natch, the Mad King of Bavaria.

* Mort = la mort (death, Fr.)

* Nyx is the goddess of night.

* Charon is the ferryman of the dead. The ancient Greeks buried loved ones with a silver coin under their tongues for Charon, to ensure safe passage.

* Moirtha the cook (one of the Wyrd sisters, related to the Norns) is one of the Moirai.

* Nevermore is named for the well-known poem, "The Raven," by Edgar Allen Poe.

* The book Winnie and Henry read in the library is Der Struwwelpeter, a ghastly/funny children's book of cautionary tales published in 1845. Mark Twain translated the book into English in 1891.

* The woman in the Garden of the Nine Muses is actually a tarot card representing hidden knowledge.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 1:49 AM 0 comments  

Labels: 42, Alice in Wonderland, Baron Samedi, Charon, Douglas Adams, Gone, Hypatia, Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Mort, Muses, Nevermore, Nyx, Random Magic, Salem Witch Trials, Salvador Dali, Trivia, Wiggy

Random Magic by Sasha Soren
Published by: Beach Books, LLC
Publication Date: November 16, 2008
Format: Kindle Edition, 420 Pages
To Buy

The family solicitor has been called because Henry has been missing for three weeks. The usual suspects have been gathered and then a strange little girl with blond hair and a pinafore appears out of nowhere. She is, without a doubt, Alice, from the beloved children's classic. Alice explains that Henry is where Henry should be, where he went years ago when Alice herself was misplaced by Professor Random, a teacher at Henry's school. She then recounts the tale of how Henry saved the world by finding her. One night Henry was out of bed late and ended up hiding from the head mistress in Professor Random's classroom. Random himself shows up quite distraught because he had just popped into Alice in Wonderland to have tea with Alice and somehow he inadvertently lost her, because he foolishly used a first edition for his literary escapade. He pleads with Henry to find Alice because if she disappears forever the world will be destroyed because there is no book that has had a greater influence on children then Alice's book has. Henry gets handed an hourglass and a compass to find his way back, gets doused in fairy dust and ends up in the wrong book, without the compass to bring him back. But as Random sees it, perhaps he was supposed to be in Myths and Legends, not Wonderland.

Henry falls straight into the middle of a mob scene. At the center is Winnie a doodle witch who Henry kind of saves and then flees with. Lucky for Winnie Henry showed up and lucky for Henry Winnie seems to know her way around this bizarre world Henry has fallen into. After fleeing villagers with pitchforks and navigating the white forest, crossing a chasm barred by riddles and entering the block forest they ride the back of a whatwolf and spend some time with vampires straight out of a Charles Addams cartoon. From the castle of the De Morgue's to the home of the Muses, from submarines to Pirates, from floating cities to vicious chess matches to evil witches, they must brave the vast unknowns in the hope that by tea time they will find a little girl in a blue pinafore somewhere in this wilderness.

Henry, in a very Arthur Dent move tries to save the world by tea time in his pajamas. Of course to save the world he must first find Alice, who is missing from Wonderland. Those two sentences embody for me what is at work in this book... other books all mashed together to make something new... something that doesn't quite work for me. There's obviously Lewis Carroll, but there are so many different authors at play and homages that it's hard to find Sasha Soren's voice. From characters disappearing, like in Fforde's Eyre Affair, to pirates reminiscent of Walter Moers' Captain Blue Bear, to just out and out re-imaginings of scenes from Labyrinth to Alice in Wonderland to Harry Potter... I could just not get past this literary mash-up of randomness. I think I might have accepted the vast array of references if not for two glaring problems. The lack of plot and the lack of definition of place. This book is what the title implies, random. The overall arc is the tenuous thread of finding Alice, but there's just too much time spent going through these weird vignettes of bizarre folk and there overly clever banter peppered with literary allusions. I will say that sometimes the banter is well written, but it is overall so nonsensical that you don't care what they are saying and just wish they would get on with it.

But what bothered me most of all was the creation of this world. Alice in Wonderland works because Wonderland is such a very distinct world. There are laws and logic that Carroll created that govern the world, no matter how illogical it seems. There are no laws, there is no logic, and the world is so vastly different from one sector to the next that you can't envision them as part and parcel of a whole world. Plus Wonderland had a distinct time and place. It was a mirror image of the Victorian society that Carroll lived in. Here? I have no idea. What time period is this to take place in? At first I thought Victorian because of the initial set up and the general descriptions. But then there was a reference to a Bentley, which puts this square in the 1920s, at the earliest. But then other anachronisms would pop up, references to The Blair Witch Project, Disney Land, ships with motors, Martha Graham, Cirque du Soleil, The Beatles and their Yellow Submarine, Greenpeace, Bingo grannies, Douglas Adams and neon (yes I kept track). These would break into the world she was trying to create, like little seeps of other time periods, and while an author like Terry Pratchett can make this work, because it fits in the (disc)world he has created, it doesn't work here. There needs to be something fixed in this world to make it believable to some extent. Wonderland is believable, this world is not.

In the final analysis, this book is not suited to my tastes. With no structure and no driving force there was no reason, other than this post, to keep reading. Other people might enjoy the witty dialogue and the vignettes of weirdness, but I was just rankled by the Carroll rip offs. There is homage and there is rewriting. Sasha Soren has just re-purposed parts of Alice in Wonderland. Using lines of dialogue and scenes to make it all self referential. This makes it less her story and more just a bad parody. If these were eliminated I think the book would be more it's own creation. You can never do it better than Carroll so why try? Create a loving homage, switch it up, don't use the same material from rote. Do what Lynn Truss did in her short story, Tennyson's Gift, about Charles Dodgson, mirror, reflect, don't copy. Or look to Return to Oz! In one breath a loving tribute, but in another, a horrific nightmare that could have easily happened to Dorothy. Sasha Soren could one day be a great writer, I truly feel that, which I think is why this book so disappointed me.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 1:48 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alice in Wonderland, Book Review, Charles Addams, Doodle Witch, Douglas Adams, Jasper Fforde, Lynn Truss, Random Magic, Return to Oz, Sasha Soren, Terry Pratchett, Walter Moers, Whatwolf, Winnie

I have, for awhile now, been inspired by Nick Hornby. In particular his columns from The Believer magazine. Of course I'm always a little miffed that they make him only write the positive and not really lay into a book. If you don't like a book I think you should be allowed to rail against it all you like. But what I do like is that at the beginning of his monthly column, he writes what books he bought versus what he was able to read. The theory, or at least my take on this experiment, is to get your buying habits in align with your reading habits. So that you aren't buying more than you need in a month and thus are saving money. I have been trying to align the two, buying and reading, but with being an admitted book addict, not wanting to seek help, and seeing as I troll a lot of used bookstores, where if you don't by it then it will be gone...it is hard. So I've decided at the begning of each month to itemize the best finds of the previous month. It will be bowdlerized, not to spare you from anything unseamly, but to make me look not as insane a book buyer....hey, Nick Hornby admits he does it to make himself look not as bad, so why can't I? And he is an extreme book addict! He actually believes the whole book buying process and the anticipation of reading your new purchase justifies buying it, even if in the end you never read it. (And I heard this direct from the Football Addicts mouth, as it were...was going to say horses, wouldn't work for him). So here I list, my best finds of October:

1) So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish by Douglas Adams - The only edition I didn't have with the weird floating orbs! Half Price Books, $2.

2) The Girl from Leam Lane, the Life of Catherine Cookson - Cool bio on the lady whose books have all been made into miniseries, making a star of Sean Bean and Robson Green. Frugal Muse find for $12.

3) The Daphne Du Maurier Companion - Virago Publishing, British Edition, that matches the rest of my Du Maurier set, found at Barnes & Noble of all places! $20 but worth it!

4) The Celestial Omnibus by E. M. Forster - GORGEOUS edition that I found at Half Price Books for $6, truly the most beautiful edition of any Forster book I yet have.

5) Never Slow Dance with a Zombie by E. Van Lowe - Perfect Halloweeny book found for $4 at Frugal Muse.

6) The Balkan Trilogy by Olivia Manning - The tie-in edition for Fortunes of War starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh. I found Manning's second series, the Levenant series tie-in edition years ago in Canada, and have been hoping to find this for years. $2 at the Friends of the Memorial Library book sale.

7) Decca, the Letters of Jessica Mitford by Jessica Mitford - True find! It's hard to find anything by the Mitford sisters stateside, but this lovely 1st edition was at Half Price Books for only $11.

8) The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters - Found the out of print (in this edition) 3rd Amelia Peabody book with the cover that matches my current editions. $3 at Half Priced Books.

9) Gaudy Night by Dorthy L. Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey Masterpiece Theatre tie-in edition from 1987! I collect all Masterpiece tie-in editions I can, and this was a real coup! $2 at the Friends of the Memorial Library book sale.

10) Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld - New book I've been dying to read, found for $8 used! Who sold this like a week after it came out? Wackos...

These are my best finds of the month, of course I also got the new Terry Pratchett, the new Charlaine Harris, and a few others here and there...but you'll never know what they are unless you keep reading my site to get the reviews!

Posted by Miss Eliza at 3:54 PM 2 comments  

Labels: Catherine Cookson, Daphne Du Maurier, Dorthy L. Sayers, Douglas Adams, E.M. Forster, Elizabeth Peters, Jessica Mitford, Masterpiece Theater, Nick Hornby, Scott Westerfeld, The Believer