Ariel by Steven R. Boyett (review)

Title: Ariel
Author: Steven R. Boyett
Illustrator: N/A
Kindle Locations: 6,547
Genre: Fiction
Dewey Decimal: F Boy
ISBN: 978-0-7592-9932-0
Kindle Cost: $7.19

Do you think the Change should be this neat Disney movie with animals like Ariel? Come on, Shaughnessy—it’s not Disney. It’s Dante.

There are many references out there that compare Boyett's Ariel with S. M. Stirling's Dies The Fire. Some in a kindly, gentle manner and some in a accusatory and disgruntled manner. But we'll cover that whole can of worms in another post.

After shelving those thoughts of Stirling's Emberverse series and focusing on Boyett's work individually, it's actually a very nice read. It is very simplistic, full of action, and even has a sex scene to seal the deal. Boyett's style is just what you would expect from a young author writing a fantasy/sci-fi book in the mid-1980s. In fact, it can be funny at times because you can almost see Boyett pounding away on a shiny, new typewriter (old and rusty by now, I'm sure). Like another powerhouse writer, this book reminded me of the level of work R. A. Salvatore gave when he wrote The Woods Out Back. Simple but fun.



Aside from the overall simplicity of the novel, the characters are a bit thin at times. Something addressed to some degree in the Afterword, but I think it worked. I focused on Pete (the lead male) and Ariel (the lead female). The go a-questing to beat the big bad guy and have mini-adventures along the way. The action was very well thought out and easy to visualize. But more importantly, it was easy to believe. Aside from hang gliding off the World Trade Center, that is.

But as it stands, the Change is an awfully inconsistent phenomenon, isn’t it? I mean, how come a bicycle doesn’t work but George’s watch does? They’re essentially the same thing, using gears to transfer motion. Ditto fires: people smoke cigarettes and light campfires all over the place, but guns don’t work. Why one combustion and not the other?

In the end, it was well worth the money to buy the book. It was entertaining. It was fun. It did not take a lot of thought to digest every nuance written (unlike an epic fantasy novel). And of course, it leads to the big elephant in the room: S. M. Stirling

But more on him later.

LOST - LA X (episode review)

Before we start up with the review of the first episode, I would like to propose a theory. We know that women who get pregnant on the island will miscarry and die. But we also know that Ethan was born on the island and his mother, Amy, survived. Granted, he was born earlier than expected, I think it is safe to assume that it was still beyond the window Juliet gives us earlier (the end of the first trimester).

With that said, could Amy's actions, namely her desire to kill Sayid, have caused the Island to reject pregnant women? Was her desire to kill the trigger for the island to punish anyone that got pregnant?

Just something to think about.

Now, two warnings before we move on. First, I am going to write my LOST episode reviews before I read any other comments. I hope this will keep my opinions clear from any cross-contamination. If I do happen to read or hear something that influences my review, I will say so. Second, these reviews will contain spoilers. You have been warned.

----------SPOILERS----------

First, some random thoughts and notes I had while watching the show.

- I did not like the opening scenes. I was totally convinced that the show had gone in the crapper when the plane did not crash. Obviously later I realized there were two different story lines. And I am still not convinced that I even like that idea yet.

- I was so happy to hear that Juliet was alive. And so pissed off when she died.

- When they cut to the shot of Dharma-ville under water, we got to see the four-toed statue. Was that a Stargate I saw on the ocean floor next to it?

- I was glad to see Frogurt back in the cast. I mean, I hated him, but I am always glad to see a character with the name "Neil." Even if he is cast as a bad guy.

- Super-duper stoked to see Charlie back. I missed him!

- Did Richard Alpert arrive on the island on the Black Rock? I think so after that "chains" comment from the Locke Monster.

- Speaking of the Locke Monster, it clearly explains why Locke disappeared when Ben went to the temple to be judged. Ever notice that last season?

- Did you see the blooper with Sayid hitting a lady in the head with his bag when he deplaned? Funny!

- And finally, who the heck is the guy with the glasses in the temple?

Okay, that wraps up my random thoughts while watching the episode, now into a deeper review. We see two main plot lines, one on the plane with no crash and one on the island post-explosion. I wonder what Juliet's body/soul meant when it told Miles that "it worked." Could this mean an alternate time-line/reality? Our does it mean that everyone we see on the island is dead and these are their souls?

The plane scenes did not sit well with me, but I think I was taking things too seriously when the show started. I put too much faith in answers becoming clear in the first five minutes. I should have known better. So with that in mind, I think we will see answers, but we will need to wait.

Claire's return (and Charlie, Boone, Frogurt, the science guy, etc.) were all very cool. It was great to see things get tied back to the first season. Now I think the question is just how that all relates to the other plot line, the post-explosion island. This story line I really liked. We got to see where the 815 kids went as well as met new characters. How they all relate to the Locke Monster and Richard and Jacob though, I do not know.

Dana Hand Interview

Author Dana Hand, author of Deep Creek (review here), was kind enough to take a few minutes to answer some questions.

Library Dad - I recently finished reading Deep Creek, the story of Chinese miners that were murdered in Idaho in 1887. Would you classify the book as historical fiction, mystery, or something else?

Dana Hand - We wanted to write a rich, dense novel about crime and justice, but one told in a spare, suggestive style. That let us borrow from many literary traditions. Deep Creek is historical fiction; it's also a romance, a thriller, a mystery. Readers respond to the story in all kinds of ways. Goodreads classifies Deep Creek on thirty lists, from Best Historical Fiction to Best Villains.

LD - How did you find out about the murders in 1887 and what drove you to write about them?

DH - Will learned the story on a National Geographic assignment in 1981. Over thirty Chinese gold miners killed, and the killers went free. For years he compiled historical research, but the record was full of errors and lies. The truth about what happened, and why, needed imagination. Once Anne joined the project, our main characters—Joe, Grace, and Loi—emerged to reveal their intricate pasts. Each is a cultural half-breed, and they repeat the struggles between natives and strangers that still consume America today.

LD - There are scenes in the book that are clearly fantastical and others that are historical. How long did it take you to research the true story behind your characters?

DH - We don't make a simple distinction between history and fantasy. Each moment in our lives is a mix of what we think and feel, know and believe, and around every "fact" dances a shimmer of possibilities. Because the miners die horribly, their ghosts cannot rest. For Joe to live with the killers, he impersonates an old prospector. To escape death, Grace and Loi enter other states of being. Even Dr. Stanton, solid man of science, knows how Grace could bring home aspen leaves from a treeless canyon. At the heart of our book lies the conviction that humans constantly seek to transcend their limits. Joe calls it "real pretending."

LD - What's the least glamorous thing you do in the line of duty?

DH - Grading student essays, paying bills, and updating software.

LD - What keeps you up at night?

DH - Fearing that print books, and their readers, will disappear.

LD - Who is the smartest author you know?

DH - John McPhee and Joan Didion; smart in entirely different ways.

LD - Are you working on another book? If so, what can we expect?

DH - Yes, the working title is Lion Rock. It's set in Tanzania, on the northern safari route. It will be what our publisher has called an "intelligent thriller," full of violence, hot pursuit, and lots of brooding about the magnificent lands of East Africa, where mankind arose and the last great wilderness clings to survival. The Chinese will be along as well, but cast in new roles.

PS: many people ask us about the pen name, Dana Hand. It's short, unisex, and comes from both sides of our families.

Deep Creek by Dana Hand (review)

Title: Deep Creek
Author: Dana Hand
Illustrator: N/A
Pages: 320
Genre: Fiction
Dewey Decimal: F Han
ISBN: 0547237480
Kindle Cost: $0.45 (due to NetGalley emailing the PDF to my Kindle email account)

First off, the name Dana Hand is a nom de plume (pen name) for Will Howarth and Anne Matthews. So be prepared for a novel that jumps around a bit in style.

Which brings me to my second point. The plot was not at all what I expected. I knew ahead of time that the basic story was based on real events (the murders of several Chinese in the Idaho/Oregon border area by some unsavory rustlers). What I expected was the story to follow the murders, the investigation, then the trial of the accused.

And that's mostly what I got, but there's a lot of side plots that follow the characters on their progress through life. While this helped me connect with the characters, it didn't help the story much. In fact, only the first half or so of the book was interesting enough to get hooked. Once the lead character, law man Joe Vincent, "solved" the case, the plot took a bit of a nose-dive by jumping around between characters and sub-lots.

With that said, I still enjoyed the story. It wasn't the best story, but I think part of that was my expectation going in. It wasn't the historical murder-mystery I wanted, instead it was a story about Joe Vincent and one particular investigation (and those involved). The various cuts to other characters was a nice change of pace, but at times I was a little lost when the names mentioned didn't ring any bells.

In the end, despite my mixed feelings, I'm still glad I was able to read about this little known moment in history. I got a good visualization of the scenery and the people that lived there. I'm also glad I was able to read it for free (or nearly free) and really appreciate the people at NetGalley for the wonderful services they provide (and to the publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for allowing the galley on Kindle).

Movie Reviews?

That's right, I will be delving into some movie reviews to help expand my audience a bit as well as expand the types of media I cover. Just reviewing books (and audio books) does not seem to cut it considering libraries do carry movies on DVD these days.

On top of that, I will cover the final season of LOST. I know, I know, countless people will be doing the same thing and nearly all of them will do it better than me. But I love the show so much, I feel the need to chime in with my forty-two cents.

So stay tuned for some movie reviews!

Susan Beth Pfeffer Interview

Susan Beth Pfeffer, author of This World We Live In (review here), was nice enough to take time from her day to answer a few questions.

Library Dad - I liked how This World We Live In fit into the post-apocalyptic genre. What made you choose a world in ruin as your background for this story?

Susan Beth Pfeffer - I like disaster stories and there's something so interesting about the end of the world. I have no ability to write what I call leaping the lava stories (where the hero bravely leaps over a lava flow roughly the width of the Hudson River). What I'm good at is exploring family dynamics. So I decided to see what would happen to a family under the worst possible situation.

It turned out I love ending the world. This World We Live In is something of a sequel to two different books, Life As We Knew It and The Dead And The Gone. Both books deal with the immediate aftermath of the same worldwide catastrophe. In This World We Live In, the characters meet each other. The focus in all three books is simple everyday survival. Not just physical survival, but coping with emotional loss as well.


LD - Do you feel comfortable being placed in the same category as other post-apocalyptic authors like Richard Matheson, S. M. Stirling, and Steven R. Boyett?

SBP - When I wrote Life As We Knew It, I thought of it as a family problem novel, with a really really big problem. After it got shortlisted for the Andre Norton Award, I discovered it was science fiction. Since then I've learned it's post-apocalyptic. It is a tribute to my lack of knowledge of the field that I still can't spell apocalyptic.


LD - What's your favorite part of a typical day?

SBP - I have a kitten named Scooter who'll be a year old in February. Every morning around 7, he wakes up and plays what I call Purr On The Neck. He climbs on my face (sometimes he yanks my hair), and purrs ecstatically. Purr On The Neck can last for as long as ten minutes (at which point he tends to start playing Bite The Hand That Should Be Feeding Me).

I've had cats my entire adult life, but Scooter is the only one who's ever done this. It's our morning ritual. There's something quite luxurious about having a kitten proclaim how thrilled he is to be waking up with me.


LD - What's the simplest thing you never learned to do? Whistle? Skip? Ride a bike?

SBP - I'm not sure I remember how I learned to whistle (I'm an excellent whistler by the way, although I can't carry a tune when I sing), but I do remember being taught how to skip (by my brother) and how to tie shoelaces (by my mother). Both times I was stunned that I could actually master such complex tasks.

I never did manage bike riding though. I will never understand why grownups can't ride tricycles.


LD - What accomplishment are you most proud of?

SBP - I really don't like doing things for people. I don't like being asked to do a favor (and I try very hard not to ask other people to do favors for me).

Many many many years ago, a friend of mine asked me to go to a fast food place that was selling different Looney Tune glasses each week. For some reason she couldn't get there.

I did her the favor and I didn't resent doing it.

I remain very proud of myself for not feeling put upon.


LD - Who is the most under-appreciated author you know?

SBP - I have no idea.

I mostly read non-fiction. But I do have a real fondness for domestic thrillers from approximately 1950-1975. Husbands murdering wives. Wives murdering husbands. Perfectly ordinary people doing heinous things (or knowing someone doing heinous things).

It could be that entire genre is under-appreciated.


Thanks again to Sue for her time and answers!

This World We Live In by Susan Beth Pfeffer (review)

Title: This World We Live In
Author: Susan Beth Pfeffer
Illustrator: N/A
PDF Pages: 257
Genre: Fiction
Dewey Decimal: F Pfe
ISBN: 978-0-547-24804-2
Kindle Cost: $1.65 (for conversion from NetGalley to Kindle)

The main character in this novel is a young woman named Miranda. She keeps a journal (or diary if you like) of the events of her life over the span of a few months. And it is quite a depressing life indeed.

But let's back up a little. The main setting is rural Pennsylvania, but it is not the world as we know it. Instead it is a post-apocalyptic world where an asteroid hits the moon causing it to orbit closer to the earth. Which in turn plays havoc on the weather. You can imagine what would happen from there, but Pfeffer puts most of this global catastrophe in the background. It plays a role in the setting and the hardship the characters live in, but the characters drive this story from start to finish.

From there, we have the genre to consider. While not exactly obvious from the blurbs seen around town, this is most certainly a young-adult novel. And while Miranda is legally an adult, she comes across as a very young teenager instead. As a middle-aged guy, it was hard to identify with her without going back to a middle school mindset and thinking about the girls I knew back then.

Despite the genre not being my primary choice, it did work for me in the post-apocalyptic genre. It did a great job conveying the emotional toll that I'd expect to see after a disaster. And it was this emotion that is rarely seen in other post-apocalyptic stories.

And all that emotion gets depressing. As the reader follows Miranda through her life in a wet and cold hell, we learn that she lives with her controlling mother and two brothers. The family grows through marriage and reunions with lost family members but it also shrinks through death and other natural disasters. What Miranda is looking for in life is not clear, but she and the rest of the people certainly do their best to survive.

All in all, this was a good read for the post-apocalyptic genre as it added the proverbial "woman's touch" as well as emotional depth. How it measures up to other young adult books, I do not know. But I would assume it could hold its own.

One side note. I discovered after reading this book that it was actually the third book in a series. While it is unclear what the name of the trilogy is here in the States, it looks like our UK readers call it The Last Survivors trilogy. Book one is Life as we Knew It and book two is The Dead and the Gone.