Category Archives: Fiction

Fiction, Reviews

Reading Dune for the First Time

3 Comments

You’ve likely seen other bloggers writing about the first time they read Lord of the Rings. It seems appropriate to treat Dune the same way. With a new movie adaptation coming up (though I usually don’t see movies until months after they release, if then), I wanted to read the book that’s been sitting on my shelf a while.

I didn’t know anything about the world of Arrakis beyond a few images from the 1984 movie. Having reviewed a bit of the trailer from that movie, I don’t think I’ll spend any more time on it. I watched Zardoz as an impressionable youth. I don’t need anymore rank garbage like that.

I’ve just learned there are 19 books in the series and apparently more on the way, but only six of them are by original author Frank Herbert, so I doubt I’ll make it through even that many.

What I’ve read so far is book one of three in the original book. It’s a great part one, ending on a cliffhanger after all the foreshadowed conflict has crashed on the beach, leaving readers to wonder what happens next.

That foreshadowing though. Granny telling Little Red Riding Hood not to stray from the path easily sets up the idea that she will at least be tempted to stray. But Herbert doesn’t foreshadow as much as foretell. The narrative doesn’t stick to a single point of view but flits between characters, sometimes only for a moment, revealing their hidden motives. I thought I would hate it after a while, but I didn’t. Herbert’s style carries the story pretty well, but I have to wonder why he felt the need to quickly reveal this or that betrayal, when half the time it could have remained unsaid or supposed by one of the two especially perceptive characters.

“He nodded. ‘Of course.’ And he thought: If only there were some way not to do this thing that I must do.“

Well, for starters, you could consider avoiding loud whispering that everyone can hear.

That doesn’t touch on the quotations from backstory books that begin each chapter, saying one character is super, super bad or another one is going to die later on. No spoiler alert labels either. The main thing these quotations communicate is that Herbert is working on something of epic length. This won’t wrap up soon, gentle reader; note the gravitas of Princess Irulan’s history.

Despite this, I found book one to be compelling. The gifted, young Paul Atteides, only son of Duke Leto and his mistress Jessica, is remarkably perceptive, asking serious questions an adult should ask. His father works hard to gain and sustain loyal for his royal family, and he has a measure of success, but it becomes plain (that foretelling again) that the deck is stacked against him. A gifted observer or historian may be able to critic the Duke’s decisions and point to critical weaknesses or failures, but the story reveals a man who is trying to do his level best.

While reading, I thought I would see far more similarity to Star Wars, but so far the two stories are not alike. Paul is not some untrained kid hoping to get off his desert planet, and while the Empire is in the background and doesn’t look too good, it isn’t hunting down rebels. The story pits two ruling families against each other with a third, not-entirely-neutral party, a labor union that’s so large it could be an empire of its own. Add to this the free tribes of Arrakis, whom the Empire calls Sand Pirates (not at all like Sand People or Jawas).

I look forward to the rest of it and maybe even a sequel.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Harry Starke,’ by Blair Howard

4 Comments

Harry Starke is a high-end private eye working in Chattanooga. (No doubt Phil Wade has run into him). Son of a successful personal injury lawyer, he works out of a nice office and owns a beautiful home. He’s dating a woman police detective. As Harry Starke, the first book in this series begins, he watches a beautiful young woman flee a couple of tough guys in a seedy bar, tries to rescue her as she flees over a bridge on the Tennessee River, and watches helplessly as she plunges to her death.

In the tradition of fictional private eyes, he immediately vows to find out who’s responsible for her death. The girl turns out to be the daughter of a prominent surgeon, who immediately hires him to investigate. With the help of his highly competent staff (though he does the dangerous stuff alone, of course), and in cooperation with Kate, his police squeeze, he follows the clues to the offices of a local drug dealer, who appears suddenly more prosperous than he should be, and a corrupt local politician. With occasional stops to investigate a secret sex club.

Harry Starke kept me reading to the end, but I didn’t really like it a lot. It seemed superficial to me, assembled from shiny parts like a TV series pilot, with nothing behind the facades on the set. I especially thought Harry’s relationship with Kate, the cop, was implausible. Would any real-life police department allow a private operator whom a detective was dating to consult on a case and run around with her, chasing suspects?

The language, I should note, was fairly clean for this kind of novel. There were several sexual encounters, but they weren’t described explicitly. However, there was one sexual moment that was just creepy for this reader. It was that creepy moment, though not that moment alone, that decided me that I probably won’t be investing in any more Harry Starke books.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Bookseller,’ by Mark Pryor

1 Comment

Outside the car’s window Paris flashed by, the sluggish river Seine appearing and disappearing beside them, seeming to slow their progress with her magnetic pull, a seductress winking through the plane trees, teasing them with glimpses of her silvery skirts, and with the threat of more death, more bodies hidden within their deadly folds.

Along the river Seine in Paris, there is a class of booksellers known as bouquinistes, occupants of much-coveted stalls. Hugo Marston, head of security for the US embassy, is fond of browsing their offerings, and has made particular friends with an old man named Max. As The Bookseller opens, Hugo asks Max for something special, out of his private stock – a conciliatory gift for his girlfriend, who recently abandoned him and returned to the US. Max offers two rare books – an Agatha Christie first edition, and a rare copy of the poet Rimbaud. Before he leaves, Hugo witnesses Max being bullied by a thug, who forces him down to the river bank. Max is shoved onto a boat, and Hugo is unable to do anything to prevent it. When he reports the abduction to the police, they seem uninterested – and quickly drop the investigation.

Meanwhile, Hugo discovers that the Rimbaud book is an extremely rare signed copy, worth hundreds of thousands of euros. Why did he sell it to Hugo for less than a thousand? Was he trying to send a message, leave some kind of clue behind? When Hugo learns that Max was once a Nazi hunter, and when other bouquinistes start turning up dead in the river, Hugo begins his own independent investigation. His friend Tom, a CIA operative, comes along to watch his back and help out with the rough stuff. And Hugo meets a charming female journalist with a shocking secret.

The Bookseller was a first novel for author Mark Pryor, and for my money it was a home run. (Our commenter Paul alerted me to it.) The writing was superior, and I liked the characters very much. Hugo and Tom have great rapport, and they’re fun to watch in action. I look forward to reading the next books in the series.

The usual cautions for language are in order. Some time is spent on Hugo’s agnosticism, but he himself is forced to admit occasionally that it’s inconsistent with his actual life experience.

Fiction, Religion, Reviews

‘A Wolf At the Gate,’ by Lexie Conyngham

Leave a comment

I was pretty happy with this book at the beginning – A Wolf At the Gate, by Lexie Conyngham, offered pretty good prose, along with evidence of some serious research on Viking Age life. But as I read on, I grew less happy with it.

Ketil, the apparent hero of the book, is in the service of Earl Thorfinn of Orkney (which sets the story in time a little later than my Erling books). Ketil generally operates outside of Orkney, and he’s about to sail away, but the earl calls him back to investigate a murder. Ketil solved a previous killing for the earl, so he’s assumed to be good at that sort of thing.

Secret murder is rare among the Norse, and this murder is all the more puzzling because the victim, a man in the earl’s service named Steinar (recently back from Colonia in Saxony, which I take to mean Cologne) seems to have been universally liked. He was a devout Christian, rather strict about church rules, but harsh only with himself. Someone split his skull with an axe in front of his own house.

I said that Ketil was the apparent hero of this book, because he is in fact just the Inspector Lestrade here. The real detective is a woman named Sigrid, a childhood friend of Ketil’s who now lives as a widow in Orkney. She was the one who actually solved the previous murder. Gradually she and Ketil renew their friendship – there’s some suppressed attraction there, but both of them deny it. Together they consider the multiple puzzles that face them – does the murder of a man just back from Colonia have anything to do with the fact that an abbot from Colonia is visiting the island? Does someone covet Steinar’s beautiful wife? Or was the killer Ketil’s follower Lambi, who seems to be a sneak thief?

The further I read in this book, the more disappointed I grew. First of all, the characterizations were fairly flat, especially the male characters. Author Conyngham seems to have a problem I’ve often noticed in books by women – she doesn’t get men at all. There’s a famous line (unjust but funny) in (I think) the movie, As Good As It Gets, where Jack Nicholson, asked how he writes women so well says, “I think of a man. And I take away reason and accountability.” Conyngham writes men by thinking of a woman, and taking away any clue.

Also, the story began to bore me. Although the plot gets sweetened by further murders, I never felt any sense of urgency, any idea that great things were at stake.

Also, the narrative falls into what I believe to be serious factual falsehoods about the Christian church. It’s not an anti-Christian book as such, since most of the serious Christians are depicted sympathetically. But the author states and reiterates – and this is a major plot element – that the Catholic church denied baptism to the children of slaves, and to deformed babies.

I had never heard of this before. It entirely contradicted my own understanding of the matter. Now maybe author Conyngham, whose biography says she’s a historian, knows something I don’t know. But my online searches find documentation directly contradicting these contentions.

On the issue of slaves, this article from Christianity Today, by Rodney Stark, is behind a paywall. But the passage I need is right there above the barrier —  “That the Church willingly baptized slaves was claimed as proof that they had souls, and soon both kings and bishops—including William the Conqueror (1027-1087) and Saints Wulfstan (1009-1095) and Anselm (1033-1109)—forbade the enslavement of Christians.”

I also found numerous references online to the historical fact that the early Christians made it a practice to hunt through the dumping sites where the Romans – quite legally – habitually discarded their unwanted babies. The Christians would baptize these infants, adopt them, and raise them in the church. One of the primary excuses the Romans gave for “exposing” babies this way was that they were born deformed.

So in the end I was both bored and irritated by A Wolf At the Gates. Too bad. It showed promise.

Fiction, Reviews

‘The Art of Danger,’ by Stuart Doughty

Leave a comment

Interesting concept. Over the top execution. That’s how I’d describe Stuart Doughty’s The Art of Danger, first book in his John Kite series.

John Kite is a former London policeman, now working as an investigator for an insurance company that writes policies on objects of art. What no one knows is that John Kite is not his real name. He has a secret history, a former life from which he has cut himself off completely.

The theft of an obscure painting by a middling German Renaissance painter wouldn’t appear to offer any major challenges. But when John shows up with the ransom money to buy the painting back for its owner, no one meets him. Instead, someone gets killed, and John is plunged into a convoluted mystery involving Middle Eastern terrorists and an English public relations guru. John doesn’t know how a forgettable, not-at-all-priceless portrait could relate to the World Cup finals in Qatar. But he will learn the truth, even if it takes high-speed car chases and a helicopter pursuit.

John Kite is an interesting character, and art crime is an intriguing field for mystery fiction. John’s gradual revelations of his past, and the surprising things he himself learns, were strong plot elements. I felt the second half of the book lost credibility though, as the author resorted to high-speed chases right out of a Hollywood movie to tie up his story with a bang.

Cautions for language and some sexual content.

Fiction, Reviews

‘A Silent Death,’ by Peter May

2 Comments

Through the window of his taxi, he watched rain-streaked red sandstone tenements drift past, the colour leeched from them somehow by lack of light, like watching a black-and-white movie of his childhood spool by.

Peter May excels at creating interesting protagonists for his novels. He’s given us another winner (at least for this reader) in John Mackenzie, hero of A Silent Death. Mackenzie is a policeman with issues – highly intelligent but utterly lacking in interpersonal skills. Kind of like Monk, or Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes (in fact, Cumberbatch would be a good casting choice if this book is ever filmed). He made himself unwelcome at the Metropolitan Police, and now works for the National Crime Agency, not a step up career-wise.

It’s as much to get rid of him as anything else that his boss sends him to Spain, to collect a criminal being extradited. Only when he arrives, he finds that the criminal, a murderer and drug dealer named Jack Cleland, has escaped. This fact is of particular, urgent concern to Spanish officer Cristina Sanchez Pradell, who is tasked with meeting and escorting Mackenzie. Jack Cleland blames Cristina for the death of his fiancée, and has vowed to take his revenge on her – by targeting her husband, her son, and her blind-and-deaf-aunt, Ana.

As Mackenzie applies his considerable brain to the problem of where Cleland might be hiding, Cleland kidnaps Ana. Surprisingly, an odd relationship gradually rises between the two outsiders, as Mackenzie also learns a few things about being human from Cristina.

Silent Death was engrossing, poignant and exciting. I rate this book very high. Occasional references to religion are not positive, but are fair from the characters’ point of view. 

Fiction, Reviews

‘Immortal Hate,’ by Blake Banner

Leave a comment

I recently reviewed a novel that I found a little difficult to read. Blake Banner’s Immortal Hate was not like that at all. It was fast and easy and very quickly finished. Popcorn reading, well done according to its kind.

Harry Bauer, hero of Immortal Hate and the other books in the Cobra series, is an international assassin working for the customary shadowy international organization. His brief is to eliminate the worst of the worst monsters in the world. He’s good at it, and remorseless.

“The worst of the worst” certainly applies to General Kostas Marcovic, fugitive Serbian warlord, who was guilty of one of the greatest atrocities in the recent Balkan troubles. Now he’s been identified as living under a pseudonym on the Caribbean island of St. George. Harry’s orders are simple – go in, kill the man (make it look like an accident if possible) and leave without making a fuss.

That, however, is not Harry’s style. On the ferry to the island he meets Helen, an attractive woman who runs a bar on the island. Helen senses that this is a dangerous man, and sets about enticing him to help her friend Maria extricate herself from the affections of a local drug lord. Harry is in no way reluctant to help out – he has a particular hatred of drug merchants – but Helen is not prepared for the swift and ruthless way Harry will go to work.

But that’s just the beginning. It turns out there are two old Serbians living on the island, and each claims the other is the real Marcovic.

On top of that, there’s a hurricane coming.

Over the top, lightning-paced and morally problematic, Immortal Hate was the equivalent of a Hollywood action movie. I enjoyed it, but I’m not entirely proud of myself for it.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Relentless,’ by Mark Greaney

Leave a comment

The tenth novel in Mark Greaney’s exciting Gray Man series is Relentless. The Gray Man, you may recall from previous reviews, is Courtland Gentry, a former CIA assassin who was expelled from the service, operated as a free-lancer for a while, and has now been reinstated, though off the books. In Relentless, we find him in a hospital, being treated for wounds and a bone infection. But his boss asks him to interrupt his recovery to do an emergency extraction of a fugitive from Venezuela. That mission goes sideways in a big way. But Gentry learns that Zoya Zakharova, a former Russian agent and the woman he loves, has been assigned to a dangerous assignment in Berlin. He figures he’ll just postpone his treatment a little longer, to watch her back until the operation is over.

The mission is a complicated one – more complicated than most of the participants think. A private security agency called Shrike has been hired by a group – whom they believe to be Israeli Mossad-backed – to carry out an operation in Berlin. Only it’s not the Mossad they’re really working for, and the objective is known to only one man – a terrorist with lots of money and grandiose ambitions.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I found this book slow reading, and wasn’t sure why. I think the problem was that it was very, very complex – involving three nested covert operations. Also there were several different groups maneuvering against one another, and I had trouble keeping them straight. I think that kept me from getting emotionally invested until I was fairly well along in the story.

High stakes, lots of action. I’m not sure my trouble getting involved was the fault of the book. So, recommended, because I like the series as a whole.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Fool Moon,’ by Jim Butcher

3 Comments

Many of my reading friends seem to be fans of Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden books, a fusion of hard-boiled detective and fantasy stories. Harry is a working wizard operating in Chicago. At the beginning of Fool Moon, he is roused from a dry period in his career when his cop friend, Karrin Murphy, calls him in to look at the scene of a horrific murder – lots of blood, and gigantic wolf prints on the floor to boot. Harry isn’t an expert on lycanthropy, but he studies up on it quick, learning that there are several kinds of werewolf, and what he’s dealing with here is the baddest of them all.

Which leads us into a very complex story involving hostile police, hostile FBI agents, hostile werewolves, and hostile mobsters, all at odds with each other, but mostly agreed in not liking Harry. Much blood will be spilled before we get to the big final showdown.

I read one Harry Dresden book already (the first), and wasn’t greatly taken with it. My Butcher Brigade friends said I should try it again – the books get better. I have to say, I still don’t get it. The writing wasn’t bad, but it didn’t grab me. My main problem, I think, was that I just have a visceral reaction to the mechanics of Magic. Gandalf’s okay, because he’s a supernatural being (essentially an angel). But potions and magic incantations and pentagrams and all that stuff – it repels me.

Also, I sometimes had trouble following the story. In particular, the penultimate climactic scene involves a pit trap below some kind of wooden superstructure, and for the life of me I couldn’t picture the thing in my mind.

So I guess I’m not going to add the Harry Dresden books to my reading rotation. But lots of people like them, so you may react differently. The story, I must admit, was exciting, and sometimes stirring. And by the way, I should note that there’s lots of violence and gore.

Fiction, Reviews

‘Murder Unseen,’ by bruce Beckham

Leave a comment

Bruce Beckham’s Inspector Skelgill series, set in Cumbria, continues with Murder Unseen, though Skelgill himself takes a somewhat reduced role this time out. He’s off on a different assignment (and on holiday) much of the time, so the focus is on DS Emma Jones, his subordinate, mentee and secret admirer. DS Leyton, the other main member of the team, has a smaller case of his own to look into.

Lisa Jackson, an attractive young employee at a Carlisle design firm, walks into the office one morning and disappears from the face of the earth. The office is in a blind alley, and there is no back exit from the building.

A suspect quickly appears. Ray Piper, a married man and co-worker who recently ended an affair with Lisa, is seen with his car backed up to the office door shortly after her disappearance. But he has an explanation for every suspicious act and piece of evidence in the case, and it’s notoriously difficult to prosecute a murder without a corpus delicti. As time passes, the team will begin to despair of a conviction – until Skelgill himself returns to apply his intuitive investigative approach, and his close familiarity with the local terrain.

The Skelgill books aren’t highly charged thrillers, and that suits me just fine. They’re slower, quieter, and more character-driven than most mysteries, and the author loves to pause to describe the Lake District scenery. I enjoyed Murder Unseen, and recommend it.

I do wish Skelgill and Jones would get together, though. If she waits for him to make a move, she’ll probably wait forever.