“Taking the Highway” – by M. H. Mead
Andre LaCroix moonlights as a fourth. All other times, he’s a Detroit cop. When someone starts to kill fourths, Andre pushes to be involved – and what follows is a race to find those responsible before Detroit is brought to its knees.
This is actually the third book I’ve read and reviewed for these authors, M. H. Mead being a nom de plume for a writing duo: Fate’s mirror in November 2011 (Review) and The Caline Conspiracy in July 2012 (Review). Obviously, something appeals in the writing because here I go again. I really liked Taking the Highway. A small sidebar in Fate’s Mirror has been fleshed out into a fascinating and exciting story.
In a world where car pooling is a necessity, one can earn a secondary income being a fourth – the extra passenger required to meet the strict car pooling laws for highway travel. It’s a competitive market and fourths are well dressed and well adjusted, a pleasure to have in your car. Thus fourths have a favourable impact on the city itself. So who would want to start killing them? I was drawn into this story very quickly, not just because the idea itself is innovative, but because, as usual, the authors write smoothly with likeable characters, witty dialogue that doesn’t become overbearing and a mystery that unravels at a pleasing pace. Additionally, the novel consists of sub-plots in the personal lives of the main characters which add interest without becoming distracting side quests.
I loved the Andre LaCroix character. He was a cool customer on the outside, but had enough personal issues churning around on the inside to keep him interesting throughout the story. He also forms the centre of the plot with everything branching out from him: his relationship with his brother and his nephew, his rivalry and dark past with a key member of his task force, his professional relationship with a suburban cop, even his moonlighting job as a fourth. Secrets are revealed, different parts of his life collide and he is dragged into the wreckage and hopefully back out again.
The story doesn’t always hang together perfectly. As the action heats up, I felt some of the logic slip just a little. Not all motivations were entirely clear to me even after the scheduled revelation. But it was hard to even notice while experiencing the adrenalin-fuelled finale. The last part of this book was like a blockbuster and I’m surprised my face wasn’t blue by the end from holding my breath.
Although this novel occurs in the same near-future as Fate’s Mirror and The Caline Conspiracy, each book quite happily exists as a standalone story and no particular reading order is required. After reading one, however, I believe it will be difficult to resist the others.
This dynamic writing duo always seems to come up with the goods and Taking the Highway is no exception. Good ideas, mystery, human interest, a romance that didn’t make me nauseous and action, action, action! They have me revving my engine for their next novel.
Rating: 4.5/5
Price at the time of review: $4.59 US
Available: Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Diesel, iTunes
Author site: http://www.yangandcampion.com/
GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16181736-taking-the-highway
“The Followers” – by Evan Bollinger
For each of us, there will come a time. A time at which we stop, and with the most confidence that we can have, we know. And we can draw a breath and say… that it was that day, or that event, or that string of thoughts, and emotions, that started it all.
The Followers is a small novella which I’m classifying as a mystery. To elaborate, it could be described as a psychological study – part multi-verse exploration, part unreliable narrator. If I were to draw a parallel to a movie, I would probably choose Donnie Darko.
The main narrator is a young boy who climbs up a tree near his house which he refers to as his Spirit Tree. From there he sees a sinister creature prior to falling. Most of our journey is with the boy and the narrative itself is in the first person. However, there is also a secondary narrative in the third person from the perspective of a adolescent girl named Carly who is driving to a friend’s place for drinks.
To concentrate firstly on the young boy, once he falls from his Spirit Tree, his narrative splinters into two parallel but quite different stories: one inhabits a surreal dreamscape, where he pursues the strange creature he saw just before his fall; the other seems to be a somewhat regular school day upon which a supernatural apparition has intruded. I’m not a big fan of dreamscape narrative. To me, it usually follows a sequence of fairly disjointed scenes and images which ends up feeling like a shopping list. Unfortunately, this novella was not an exception. The fact that this journey was intertwined with a slightly more regularly composed narrative actually made matters worse, the scenes cutting back and forth in a disorienting fashion.
After a while, Carly’s secondary narrative is introduced, which served to make a fairly messy and tiring experience even more chaotic. Who is Carly? How does she fit in with the protagonist’s story? Why should we care who she is and where she is going?
However, in the last quarter of the story, the author starts reaping what he has sown in the earlier stages of the novella. As I was reading, I was starting to feel that some images that had seemed so random earlier, were actually quite deliberate, and that the author was actually starting to work the different threads together. Indeed, the novella heads towards a rather clever intersection that left me with more appreciation of the story construction and not a few contemplative silences.
Overall, I felt that although The Followers was a rather intelligent construction when viewed in hindsight it was a case of the end not justifying the means, or at least not significantly enough for me to praise the work enthusiastically. Fortunately, although he might not have hit a sweet spot for me on this occasion, the effort has opened my eyes to this author and I’ll be looking to sample more of his work to see if I can find something that uses a similar intelligence packaged in a format I can more fully appreciate.
Rating: 3/5
Price at the time of review: $0.99 US
Available: Amazon
Author site: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5814906.Evan_Bollinger
GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13602484-the-followers
“Dark Currents” – by Lindsay Buroker
Bodies found in the aqueducts and a mysterious illness taking hold of the city. Are the incidents related? Is this the mystery to solve that will exonerate a motley bunch of outlaws – and will they survive the attempt?
Dark Currents is the second book in the Emperor’s Edge series by Lindsay Buroker. My review of the first book is here. I felt that the first novel read very much the opening movie-length episode of a steampunk television series which I had affectionately nicknamed The A-Team of Steam. Nothing has changed with the second episode. This is pretty much how I’d imagine a second episode of a TV series would play out. The story arc not much progressed, a bit more of a spotlight on one of the main characters and a convenient mystery popping up to help things get off the ground.
Amaranthe is an ex-enforcer finding herself on the other side of the law and leads the team. She continues the ever so important romantic interest with the shady assassin, Sicarius. There is quite a bit of focus on the relationship of these two during the novel, but not without turning the spotlight on the rest of the team. Episode two is our chance as readers to become more acquainted with Books. We find Books feeling like he doesn’t fit in with the rest of the group and there’s plenty of opportunity for us to examine his feelings, follow his love interest sub-plot and to revel in his inevitable feelings of belonging and greater self-respect by the end of the story. We also get to see him relating to the other team members. In fact, the interplay between the characters takes such a significant portion of the story that as a consequence, the plot itself didn’t impress overly much. It really felt like a stand-in story making room for more getting-to-know-you.
Firstly, the mystery itself just wasn’t that interesting. One might expect in a book like this that small events lead to an epic conspiracy. Not so here. The conspiracy is almost smaller than the discoveries of mutilated corpses floating around in the aqueducts under the city at the start of the story. The novel felt like a 300+ page side quest not much elevated beyond killing the rats in the inn-keeper’s cellar. The action scenes were not very well executed and the author even took what I consider the easy way out by rendering characters unconscious to skip chunks of action. In particular, there is a scene at a dam in the latter half of the book in which unconsciousness seemed to be used as a device to avoid what appeared to be a rather ludicrous finale to a crisis.
While the characterisations were indeed the highlight, I also felt that all the characters including the grim and very serious Sicarius were decidedly camp. Every conversation could be considered witty banter, the barbs flying even in the middle of a crisis. While I think this would probably work quite well in television, I started to find it tiresome by the second half of the book. Perhaps every piece of dialogue doesn’t need to have a joke in it. Perhaps Sicarius doesn’t need to arch his eyebrow constantly like a villain in a Mel Brooks movie.
I think, for me, what worked in the first novel, didn’t work in the second. The prose itself was very good, but it just wasn’t enough of a counter-balance for the content. If this were television, I’d probably watch the next episode where the tom-foolery might remain charming and the lack of progress on the main storyline would be expected. However, I’m not so sure when I’ll get around to reading the next book in the series. I think the series definitely has a market, but I’m beginning to think that the target audience doesn’t really include me.
Rating: 3/5
Price at the time of review: $4.95 US
Available: Amazon, Smashwords, Sony, Diesel, Kobo, Barnes and Noble
Author site: http://www.lindsayburoker.com/
GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11672438-dark-currents
The 2012 Papyrus Independent Fiction Awards
2012 was the first full year of operation for Papyrus Independent Author Reviews. What a great year for indie reading – at least for this reader!
There were some misfires for me, but being self-published has its pitfalls. Professional proof-reading and editing is a challenge for D.I.Y. e-publishing and although editing problems are necessarily reflected in my ratings, I definitely appreciate the issue. For all those authors I’ve read this year – even those I’ve given lower ratings, I’ve respected your achievements and encourage you to continue doing what many of us could or would not do.
For those who have submitted requests that did not actualise into a review, this is not necessarily a reflection of your efforts. Being a single reader/reviewer, my filtering process can sometimes be arbitrary and harsh.
Finally, let me say that although what I say goes on this site, I do not put myself up as the arbiter of good taste or quality either in writing or story-telling. Just like the authors I review here, I am just doing my best to showcase talent.
So in that vein, let me describe some of the more memorable indie reading experiences I’ve had this year.
Highlights
In January 2012, I encountered the fascinating De Bello Lemures by Thomas Brookside (Click for Review). This blend of “found manuscript” fiction masquerading as a controversial historical analysis cemented my appreciation of this author. He applies the sensibility of a historian with the desire to entertain and it’s a winning combination.
March 2012 was a marvellous month for fiction. Wool (Omnibus) by Hugh Howey (Click for Review) demonstrated why this author has become the poster boy of independent fiction for 2012. The novel has gone on to attract interest from the BBC, Hollywood and even a major publisher who purchased the rights for a hardback/paperback release. After reading the book, I not only congratulate the author for his achievements, I will add my voice to the long list of endorsements. Of special note, the first part of this omnibus formed the best prologue to a story I can recall reading.
In the same month, I encountered the wonderful The Survival of Thomas Ford by John A. A. Logan (Click for Review). After reading this book I decided that Scottish authors were worth a risk. A dark and moody literary drama, this novel captivated me throughout. In February 2013, I will be reviewing his anthology Storm Damage. I’m looking forward to it.
In August, I encountered the science fiction anthology Dead Men Don’t Cry by Nancy Fulda (Click for Review). These tales were fantastic and I would highly recommend this author for lovers of science fiction short stories. I’m really looking forward to what she can do with a full length novel.
November was Martuk month with my reading of Martuk … the Holy by Jonathan Winn (Click for Review). This novel may be an acquired taste and not for every reader, but I found the prose to be mesmerising and the tale imbued with both a relentless darkness and an intoxicating sensuality. I’ll be hunting around for his next novel.
In December 2012, I capped off a great year with The Puppet Maker’s Bones by Alisa Tangredi (Click for Review). This was a dark and inventive fantasy that I thoroughly enjoyed. Although part of a planned series, it can be happily read as a standalone. Expect another review of this author’s work in 2013.
Wool (Omnibus) – by Hugh Howey
After an internal debate, I am awarding Wool (Omnibus) the 2012 Papyrus Independent Fiction Award. This is an author who really knows how to tell a tale and the story continues with a prequel omnibus probably out sometime in 2013. The silo obviously has more secrets to divulge and I will be an avid reader for the foreseeable future.
Keep an eye out for a review of the next omnibus released by Mr Howey as I’ll probably make room for it not too long after its released. In the meantime, feel free to head on over to the author’s home page where he blogs about his writing and his books. He also maintains a forum for fans, obviously relishing the interaction with his readers. Indie done right? This reader says yes!
The 2012 Reading List
So how indie was I in 2012? Here’s my reading list for 2012 and my indie scorecard:
| Order | Cover | Title | Author | Indie |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 |  |
The Time Machine | H. G. Wells | N |
| 002 |  |
Across the Nightingale Floor | Lian Hearn | N |
| 003 |  |
Ghosts of a Beach Town in Winter | Kathleen Valentine | Y |
| 004 |  |
De Bello Lemures | Thomas Brookside | Y |
| 005 |  |
Loss | Glen Krisch | Y |
| 006 |  |
Night Camp | L.C. Evans | Y |
| 007 |  |
A Gathering of Gargoyles | Meredith Ann Pierce | N |
| 008 |  |
Harbour | John Ajvide Lindqvist | N |
| 009 |  |
Northwoods Deep | Joel Arnold | Y |
| 010 |  |
Bangkok Burn | Simon Royle | Y |
| 011 |  |
The Pearl of the Soul of the World | Meredith Ann Pierce | N |
| 012 |  |
Tender is the Night | F. Scott Fitzgerald | N |
| 013 |  |
Verdant Skies | Steven Lyle Jordan | Y |
| 014 |  |
Only Ever Always | Penni Russon | N |
| 015 |  |
Work of Art | John Black | Y |
| 016 |  |
Rocannon’s World | Ursula Le Guin | N |
| 017 |  |
The Survival of Thomas Ford | John A. A. Logan | Y |
| 018 |  |
Wool (Omnibus) | Hugh Howey | Y |
| 019 |  |
The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro | N |
| 020 |  |
The Kult | Shaun Jeffrey | Y |
| 021 |  |
Pulchritude | Ana Mardoll | Y |
| 022 |  |
Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | N |
| 023 |  |
Cthulhu in Wonderland | Kent Kelly | Y |
| 024 |  |
The Gods Themselves | Isaac Asimov | N |
| 025 |  |
Speed Dating with the Dead | Scott Nicholson | Y |
| 026 |  |
The Final Solution | Michael Chabon | N |
| 027 |  |
Kraken | China Miéville | N |
| 028 |  |
Diary of the Displaced | Glynn James | Y |
| 029 |  |
Wired | Douglas E. Richards | Y |
| 030 |  |
Symphony of Blood | Adam Pepper | Y |
| 031 |  |
The Eternal Husband | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | N |
| 032 |  |
Turing Evolved | David Kitson | Y |
| 033 |  |
Usher’s Passing | Robert McCammon | N |
| 034 |  |
The Caline Conspiracy | M.H. Head | Y |
| 035 |  |
Thin Blood | Vicki Tyley | Y |
| 036 |  |
Dead Men Don’t Cry | Nancy Fulda | Y |
| 037 |  |
The Tube Riders | Chris Ward | Y |
| 038 |  |
The Annihilation of Foreverland | Tony Bertauski | Y |
| 039 |  |
Lovers and Beloveds | MaeLin Miranda | Y |
| 040 |  |
Season of the Harvest | Michael R. Hicks | Y |
| 041 |  |
The Shadow of the Wind | Carlos Ruiz Zafón | N |
| 042 |  |
The Whitechapel Gambit | Marcin Wrona | Y |
| 043 |  |
Pegasus Falling | William E. Thomas | Y |
| 044 |  |
Heart of Darkness | Joseph Conrad | N |
| 045 |  |
Gunwitch: A Tale of the King’s Coven | David Michael | Y |
| 046 |  |
Carmilla | Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu | N |
| 047 |  |
Martuk … the Holy | Jonathan Winn | Y |
| 048 |  |
Clay’s Way | Blair Mastbaum | Y |
| 049 |  |
Heaven 2.0 | Sam Haworth | Y |
| 050 |  |
The Puppet Maker’s Bones | Alisa Tangredi | Y |
| 051 |  |
We | Yevgeny Zamyatin | N |
| 052 |  |
The Shopkeeper | James D. Best | Y |
| 053 |  |
The Speed of Winter | B. Morris Allen | Y |
| 054 |  |
Martyrs & Monsters | Robert Dunbar | Y |
| 055 |  |
The Wayfarer King | K. C. May | Y |
| 056 |  |
Ethan Frome | Edit Wharton | N |
| 057 |  |
Sea of Crises | Marty Steere | Y |
| 058 |  |
Brilliance of the Moon | Lian Hearn | N |
| 059 |  |
Year of Wonders | Geraldine Brooks | N |
So what is my indie scorecard?
37/59
In 2012 I was 62.71% indie!
Figures for 2011:
32/59 books = 54.24%
For 2013, I have set myself some reading challenges which will probably result in a lesser mix of independent reads. I will still endeavour to complete a minimum of 34 reviews over the course of the year.
“Sea of Crises” – by Marty Steere
Three brothers are trapped in a conspiracy when the tragic death of their father in the last Apollo mission on the moon is suddenly called into question. Will they survive to uncover the truth?
Sea of Crises is a mystery thriller involving the surviving sons of an astronaut thought to be killed during a moon mission that had caused a sensation when the last recorded words were: “That shouldn’t be here”. When one of the sons discovers a clue that the capsule recovered from the sea was not from the same Apollo mission, all three brothers become targets for the machinations of an unknown organisation and a deadly race to the truth begins.
This novel lives up to the mystery thriller label. The action was relentless, the mystery that’s finally revealed was worthwhile and absolutely delicious to this reader. Assassins, secret operatives, government agencies, astronauts; this book was a whirlwind of excitement. Without giving too much away, there were even action sequences on the moon. I’m not joking – ON THE MOON! I don’t know if the sequences were realistic, but I didn’t care. They were gripping while not losing the surreal moonscape atmosphere.
There were several characters explored during the novel, but the main character was the oldest of the three brothers, a top flight legal consultant with a knack for data analysis. It’s through him that we meet his two younger brothers – also elite but in different fields. The relationships were interesting and there were a few skeletons in the closet that were revealed during the course of the story. In particular the two younger brothers had been separated from each other for many years, so being thrown together in this crisis provided some additional interest. One of the aspects of these tensions that I appreciated was that the author didn’t overplay them. This was a crisis and lives were at risk. There was limited time for navel gazing and much was kept ‘off screen’. I can get a little annoyed when pages are lost exploring an issue that the characters would not realistically have had the time or inclination to pursue.
However, although I enjoyed the handling of the three brothers by the author, I need to add the comment that their elite positions in their chosen professions put quite a bit of pressure on my suspension of disbelief. It felt like I was taking a journey with an action hero, a mastermind and a Pulitzer winning journalist – which in fact, I was. This was a little hard to swallow for me and it did take off a little of the shine. Additionally, I found some of the mistakes made by the ‘bad guys’ in relation to the brothers unrealistic in the extreme – fundamental mistakes that I couldn’t credit.
Other characters join the brothers along the way including other children of the presumed deceased astronauts of the Apollo mission. They each had a contribution to the ongoing story including … a love interest. This story didn’t need a budding relationship to remain interesting, but on the other hand, the author didn’t overplay this aspect of the story, for which I was grateful. In parallel, I also learned more about the ‘baddies’ and their place in the conspiracy. This was pretty much as anyone would expect for this type of story, but it didn’t disappoint. They were ruthless, intelligent and always on the trail to tie up the loose ends.
Unfortunately, I didn’t really appreciate the ending as much as I would have liked. I felt like the author had two distinct directions to take with the final stages of this story and in my opinion, he took the less interesting option. There’s no way I could write any more without ruining key aspects of the story, but I’ll leave it that I was pretty disappointed with the outcome. Luckily, in many ways I could view it as a tacked-on ending. There was a reasonable amount of prior closure which I found relatively satisfying.
Gripes aside, I really enjoyed Sea of Crises. The prose was clean, the pacing – fantastic. The action is seemingly disrupted by a large section of back-story, but this becomes a fascinating and exciting interlude that adds rather than subtracts. I’ve put myself on the waiting list for the next release from this author.
Rating: 4/5
Price at the time of review: $2.99 US
Available: Amazon, Barnes and Noble
Author site: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5825152.Marty_Steere
GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13623054-sea-of-crises
“The Wayfarer King” – by K.C. May
With the Runes solved and kingship earned, how will Gavin Kinshield defeat both Brodas Ravenkind and the demon Ritol and free Thendylath in this continuation of the Kinshield Saga?
In 2011, I reviewed the first installment of the Kinshield Saga, The Kinshield Legacy. I was quite impressed with this opening novel – click here for review. With The Wayfarer King, the author continues the saga.
The characters of this novel were very familiar with a welcome return of all the main characters from the previous novel. As in the first, the characters are likable and make great travelling companions for the reader throughout the story. Gavin Kinshield is the same self-doubting, but lovable lout who is now king of Thendylath, albeit a king in secret. Daia Saberheart is the same brave and resilient warrior who has pledged her fealty to Gavin as champion. The repartee between Gavin and Daia is as entertaining as in the first novel and the introduction of a love interest into the story adds another layer to Kinshield to explore.
However, although I thoroughly enjoyed the characters making a return appearance I was less impressed with the story itself. I felt that the author’s heart was not in it when writing The Wayfarer King. Quite some time had passed after the first book was released and it seemed like this novel was a fulfilment of an obligation rather than a labour of love.
When an author puts together a complex plot that progresses from “A” to the penultimate “B”, various milestones must be reached, plot devices employed and characters developed. It’s not unusual for the reader to discern those elements within the prose, but in a good story the reader will see this structure growing organically from the actions of the characters, from the reality of the setting and less from the hand of the author. In this novel, the plot seems to be a contrivance in which the author’s hand is always visible: moving the pieces around the board, setting up the correct sequence of events, ensuring key details are intimated in a timely fashion so that consequences are logical. Basically, it lacked life. A random attack on the road leads to a revelation that the author is clearly intending to use later in the story to create crisis. A random string of questions asked from a figure in the past outlines a series of actions the character will take during a rushed and incomprehensible action climax. All the loose ends are neatly tied and the ending approached as if output from a smoothly running machine.
The Wayfarer King was intended to conclude the Kinshield Saga and although the story definitely ends in the triumphant victory of all that is started in the first novel, the author has cleverly left an opening to explore a further story, one which has been taken up with the release of a third novel, Well of the Damned.
Given that the characters in the Kinshield Saga are worthwhile and the prose itself executed well, I’m tempted to overlook my disappointment in The Wayfarer King, hoping that the author has revived her passion in the Saga enough to produce a more worthy successor to the first book that so successfully captured my interest.
Rating: 3/5
Price at the time of review: $2.99 US
Available: Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Diesel
Author site: http://www.kcmay.com/
GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12272101-the-wayfarer-king
“Martyrs & Monsters” – by Robert Dunbar
In various shades of dark and darker, Robert Dunbar presents a collection of short and often disturbing little tales.
I had been interested in sampling the work of this author for some time, his name often associated with a sub-genre of horror labelled literary horror. So when the opportunity came up to read and review Martyrs & Monsters, I jumped at it. Fifteen stories and some contemplation later, I can write that although I found the collection of stories to be a bit hit and miss for me, there was a writing quality throughout that convinced me that with the right subject matter, reading Dunbar’s work would be an absolute pleasure.
Of all the stories, the first, Getting Wet, was my favourite. The setting, the mood of the narrative and the elements of back-story I could piece together worked perfectly for me. It was the only story that chilled me abandoning the supernatural for the psychological and using silence as a weapon against the composure of both the protagonist and reader. It’s an impressive start to the anthology.
Of the remaining stories, I liked Red Soil which was a fascinating blend of vampire and zombie mythology with a particularly bleak setting. It felt like a dreamscape of sorrow to which both the mindless and the cunning of the undead had laid siege. Like a Story presents two children that creep into the lion’s den, but by the end of the tale I was’t sure who was the beast and who, the lamb. Away presented a mystery suspense, a conspiracy of alien infiltration that may have existed inside a tenement, or inside a psychiatric ward; the pleasure being in the uncertainty. Full was a surreal setting and narrative which gradually brought me through various oddities towards a passionate and violent conclusion that satisfied.
However, although certain stories stood out to me, others fell a little flat. I felt that both Gray Soil and High Rise offered me nothing compelling to hold on to; likewise, The Folly, The Moon Upside Down and Killing Billie’s Boys. None of the stories were poorly written, they merely failed to move in a direction that interested me. Alongside these, I found a couple of the stories a little too cute in their composition – Explanations and Saturday Night Fights being the main offenders. Only one story actually stood out as completely unlikable to me, which was Only Disconnect. The story matched the title – a pointless series of events that made no sense and held no interest for me.
One of the aspects of the author’s writing which I found consistently successful, whether or not I enjoyed the story itself, was his ability to paint with mood. Dunbar has a way of injecting settings with the appropriate level of menace, brooding or despair for me to both picture the surroundings and also feel the atmosphere. He does this so well that I still have fairly vivid memories of the small worlds he created in his stories weeks after reading them.
I think if you like dark fiction that has fairly strong LBGT representation, blends psychological with supernatural and is executed in well-written prose that successfully evokes mood, you will like this anthology. For me, the stories that I enjoyed outweighed those stories that didn’t make as much of an impression and even those that failed to thrill were mostly worthwhile experiences when considered a fraction of the whole. I’m certainly looking forward to reading a novel-length work from this author.
Rating: 3.5/5
Price at the time of review: $3.95 US
Available: Amazon
Author site: http://www.dunbarauthor.com/
GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6608813-martyrs-monsters
“The Speed of Winter” – by B. Morris Allen
Faced with possible extinction on Earth, humanity has taken a chance. It has invested everything in casting the seeds of humankind to several distant planets in the hope of securing a future for the species.
What new worlds would we settle? What if our assessments on our target were incorrect? When hope is dashed and we are orbiting an uninhabitable wasteland in a man made tomb of steel, how will we adapt? Or will we just fall apart?
Be warned. The Speed of Winter is not a hopeful or happy story. This novella is as bleak as the landscape of the frozen planet the crew of the Ark had hoped to colonise.
The average speed of winter is five meters per second in the steppe and in the desert, but only two meters per second in the valleys. When I first read those words, I was in the high plains of my life, had I but known it, and winter was approaching at great speed. Now I am grey and cold, and winter drags on interminably as I wander the pale, silent valleys of this base.
These are the words that introduce the story and with those words it was was clear to me that the crew were unsuccessful in their quest. What follows is an horrific story of humanity collapsing in the wake of utter hopelessness. Everything was risked for an aim that was completely frustrated by miscalculation and the crew of settlers are eventually warped by despair.
Into this is born a child – an ill-advised addition to the crew in the last stages of their journey. The parents breached a strict directive not to reproduce until after colonisation. The child at first becomes a symbol of hope for an aging crew after many years in hibernation. However, after colonisation is deemed impossible, she becomes the target of mounting bitterness culminating in a series of violent outbreaks.
One of the interesting aspects of this story is the child herself. The reader watches her development in a completely hostile environment, a development which becomes poisoned by the despair around her. Eventually, she becomes a monster – an extreme example of nurture over nature.
If sensitive to violence, I can’t see this novella being easily digested. It’s utterly grim and not even a young child is spared the merciless gaze of an author determined to cut an impression of humanity lost into the reader’s mind. Eventually, humankind’s great hope sets down on the frigid wastes of the planet. The story skips through time at this point – the battle already clearly lost, the last passages merely sweeping up the dregs, presenting us with the eventual frozen tableau of failure.
So what did I think? I really enjoyed it. Not one to shy away from dark ideas, I devoured the story. Not even the child’s loss of innocence in a disturbing passage of violence prevented me from admiring the author’s brave and uncompromising view of hope lost and the resulting descent into madness. It was interesting to me to alter my perspective at times and take the Ark as a microcosm of our world and what fate it could suffer at the hands of a humanity turned desperate.
I know many readers like to have a character to sympathise with, but although admirable characters exist in this story, they are either murdered, tainted or remain largely ineffectual. A good feeling is not the wave the author wants the reader to ride and it becomes difficult to sympathise even with the child by the end of the story. If none of this deters, I think The Speed of Winter is a short, brutal, but worthwhile look into the darker aspects of science fiction. The novella is planned to be the first of a quartet – each showing the fate of one of four “ark” vessels sent from Earth to distant planets for colonisation. I will certainly be there for the next issue.
Rating: 4/5
Price at the time of review: $2.99 US
Available: Amazon
Author site: http://www.bmorrisallen.com/
GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13641150-the-speed-of-winter
“The Puppet Maker’s Bones” – by Alisa Tangredi
Pavel is a shut-in, an old man who seems like an easy target to a local predator – but who will be the hunter and who, the hunted?
The Puppet Maker’s Bones is an interesting blend of psychological study, dark fantasy and mystery. The action is set in the present day, but the great majority of the novel is concerned with the historical background of Pavel, the protagonist. Who is this old man who avoids contact with the outside world – and more importantly, why does he avoid contact with the outside world? This question sends the reader into Pavel’s past to explore his upbringing and what follows is a peculiar and fascinating study of a man born an outcast and raised in an eccentric family.
Eventually, Pavel’s origins are understood and his peculiarities revealed. Pavel has had a rather unfortunate life and I really enjoyed experiencing his tragic past. He is a fascinating character and I oscillated between sympathy and horror as he developed throughout the novel. Eventually, I began to understand that this story was unlikely to have a happy ending. Pavel’s upbringing was too unusual, his nature and self-imposed isolation too damaging. He was both highly intelligent and emotionally immature and disaster was inevitable. In another story he would have been a serial killer – in this he is a time bomb, ticking its way to self-destruction.
I always enjoy a story that tries to take a new perspective and for me, this story was both fresh and original. If you were born a curse incarnate, how would that impact your upbringing? If people who came into contact with you met with an untimely death – how would that impact you emotionally? This is the kind of study that the author creates with Pavel as the subject. Meanwhile we’re introduced to a shadowy background organisation created to support such a creature, otherwise known as Death’s Order.
Kevin, our predator, a sociopath destined for serial killer status, provides the mechanism for a one-act climax to the novel. He actually makes an intriguing juxtaposition to Pavel. While Pavel was destined to cause suffering to others, he has attempted even through his growing madness to suppress his nature. In contrast, Kevin has a relatively privileged upbringing – and yet still chooses an evil path. The author keeps Kevin’s character only as fleshed-out as required – to me, a deliberate decision to ensure a lack of sympathy. It is a very strong statement when the author manages to elicit far more sympathy from the reader for a veritable angel of death than for a teenage boy.
The Puppet Maker’s Bones is a successful demonstration of the author’s obvious talent in weaving an original and multi-layered story. The historical Czech setting was vivid, the scenes played out in the puppet theatre were entertaining and the tragic romance of Pavel and Zophie was satisfyingly devastating. Additionally, the prose was clear, well-formed and error free – certainly a bonus.
This novel is apparently the first book in a series or trilogy involving the organisation called Death’s Order. However, given that there is definite closure for the character of Pavel, the book would happily stand alone. If the author never completed a second book, the story would not feel somehow incomplete.
I highly recommend The Puppet Maker’s Bones for those who like creative, dark fantasies with interesting (if warped) characters and rather unsettling conclusions. Another example of indie done right.
Rating: 4.5/5
Price at the time of review: $3.99 US
Available: Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, Sony
Author site: http://alisatangredi.com/
GoodReads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13615256-the-puppet-maker-s-bones
