Blightborn

Blightborn by Chuck Wendig


Cael, Lane, and Rigo head north through the Heartland, looking for the provisions depot, and stumble upon more than they bargain for in the form of a mysterious hobo and the Sleeping Dogs, raiders fighting against the Empyreans. Meanwhile, Gwennie has found that winning the Lottery isn't all it's cracked up to be and wants to escape the flotilla...

I got this from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!

Chuck Wendig is one of the few authors I've encountered that knows how to make the second book in a trilogy not suck. Blightborn takes what Chuck established in the first book and turns the knob up a few notches.

Blightborn picks up where Under the Empyrean Sky left off. Cael and his pals are on the run. Gwennie is on the flotilla and sees Cael's sister. Rigo's father, Wanda, and Boyland Barnes Jr. are part of a posse looking for Cael and his pals. Things quickly spiral out of control from there.

I don't want to give away too many of the nuts and bolts of the plot or reveal too much of what happened in the last book. I will say that all the threads of the plot advance quite a bit. The new characters of The Sleeping Dogs, the peregrine, Harrington, Eben, and the Maize Witch are all pretty compelling. Not one of the characters emerged unscathed. Who would have thought Cael's father was so interesting back in the day?

I really like what Wendig seems to be building toward in the Heartland Trilogy. The series reminds me of Black Feathers at some times and The Court of the Air at others, with its ecological themes and cities in the clouds. With the full scope of what the Empyrean is planning, I can't wait for the final book!

Four out of five stars. Get crackin' on the sequel, Chuck!

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Wrestlers are like Seagulls

Wrestlers Are Like Seagulls: From McMahon to McMahon by Scott Teal


Wrestlers are like Seagulls is the biography of former wrestling personality J.J. Dillon.

Wrestlers are like Seagulls covers the career on J.J. Dillon. Unlike many similar books, Dillon knows wrestling is the star of the show and his wrestling career coverage starts at the 2% mark.

Dillon talks about working as a referee until getting his break as a wrestler working for The Sheik in Detroit. His career in Amarillo, the Canadian Maritimes, and working for Crockett promotions is covered, as well as his transition from wrestler to manager to behind the scenes booker.

Dillon's account of the behind the scenes part of the wrestling business is why I bought the book and it did not disappoint. He talks about which wrestlers were hard to deal with as well as the logistics involved with taping TV segments and running shows in adjacent towns. He talks about how cable TV and the internet changed the wrestling business forever.

Once his days as an on-air personality were over and he worked primarily backstage, things really got interesting. Dillon talks about how working for the WWF drove him into bankruptcy after Vince McMahon's steroid scandal, and what working for WCW in the declining years of the company was like.

Lastly, Dillon talks about where he ended up when the wrestling business shat him out, working as a thrice-divorced corrections officer in Delaware.

For a wrestling book, it's really well written and surprisingly free of venom. I felt like he might have been holding back a bit but I don't really have any complaints about this book. Four out of five stars.

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Under the Empyrean Sky

Under the Empyrean Sky by Chuck Wendig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the Heartland, genetically modified corn has overrun everything and people struggle just to survive. Young Cael McAvoy is the leader of a salvage crew, finding scraps of a bygone age to sell to bring in money for his home town, Boxelder. But when Cael and his crew find some forbidden plants growing wild amongst the corn, things quickly spin out of control...

Chuck Wendig's foray into YA dystopia is an interesting tale. It reminds me of Ship Breaker, to an extent. A genetically modified corn species has overrun the United States and probably the rest of the world. The haves called the Empyrean, live in floating city ships and the have-nots live on the ground, processing the corn and just trying to survive.

Like all YA, there's something of a love triangle, or possibly a parallelogram. Cael wants Gwennie but she's Obligated to someone else. Cael is Obligated to Wanda but isn't really interested in her. And Cael's arch-nemesis, Boyland Barnes, is Obligated to Gwennie. The teen love isn't an integral part of the story, blessedly. The crux of the story is what Cael and his friends uncover and the secrets they unravel because of it.

There are a lot of interesting concepts in Under the Empyrean Sky, like a lottery that lets one Heartland family a year be selected to join the Empyreans, the Blight, a disease that gradually turns the victim into some sort of corn-based monster, and the corn itself, invasive corn that happens to be carnivorous to some degree.

Pretty much my only gripe is that I found a few of the twists to be all too predictable. It's the first book in a trilogy but stands pretty well on its own. All things considered, I'm glad I spent this month's free Kindle loan on it. Four out of five stars.

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The Last Outlaw

The Last Outlaw by Stan Hansen
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Last Outlaw is the biography of professional wrestler Stan Hansen.

All of my exposure to Stan Hansen is from other wrestlers' books or fourth generation VHS compilations featuring him wrestling various people in Japan. He seemed like he had an interesting career so I eventually gave his bio a shot.

Hansen covers his pre-wrestling career fairly quickly. I think he was in the wrestling business with the Funks by the 10% mark. Like most wrestlers, he endured a few years of driving hundreds of miles a day for very little money before he started catching on.

The majority of Hansen's career was spent in Japan so that's the book's focus, which is what I was most interested in. He talks about working for Antonio Inoki in New Japan before jumping to Giant Baba's All Japan. Like everyone from that era, he talks about Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant. His friendship with Bruiser Brody is also given a lot of time.

Three incidents Hansen is famous for are covered in honest detail. Hansen accidentally breaking Bruno Sammartino's neck, Vader's eye getting knocked out of its socket, and the AWA title controversy are a covered in honest detail.

I thought the backstage stuff from Japan was really interesting but for the most part, the book is pretty dry. Hansen shares some good road stories but most of the book is just the nuts and bolts behind working in Japan for almost 30 years. I felt like he was afraid to say too much about a lot of the more interesting topics. It got a little repetitive by the end.

While I liked the book, I didn't think it was as interesting and entertaining as it could have been. I would have liked more road stories and less of Hansen protecting the business. Three out of five stars.



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Atlas: Too Much, Too Soon

Atlas - Too Much, Too Soon by Tony Atlas


Atlas is the biography of former wrestler Tony Atlas.

Other than his embarrassing stint as Saba Simba in the early 1990s, I don't have many memories of Tony Atlas as a wrestler aside from what I saw in the magazines. I figured the road stories alone would make this a good read, though. After all, I knew he traveled with the Junkyard Dog and Tommy Rich.

The first 20% of the book was Tony Atlas' pre-wrestling life. As with most wrestling books, that part felt about twice as long as it needed to be. From there, Tony went to work with the Crocketts and it was off to the races.

Atlas' book paints a vivid picture of what wrestling life was like in the 1970's. People protected the business and the general public still wasn't sure how real or fake it was. Atlas talks about long trips between towns and tells a lot of hilarious road stories, most of them at his own expense.

The book follows the structure that most episodes of VH1's Behind the Music followed. Tony went from being dirt poor to making $2500 a week, blew his money on cars and drugs, and eventually wound up homeless in Maine. Then his fourth wife help him get his act together and now he's doing fairly well.

My favorite parts of the book were the road stories, of course. Tony talks about hanging with Tommy Rich, Junkyard Dog, Ric Flair, Harley Race, and pretty much all of the greats of the 1970's and 1980's. He talks about seeing Bruiser Brody murdered in Puerto Rico and narrowly missing the Guatemala earthquake of 1976 by mere hours. He also talks about working out with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno back in the day.

It was an enjoyable read overall but there were some rough spots. There are some grammatical errors and his account of the late 70's and early 80's seems really disjointed, although if he was doing as much coke as he said he was during that time, I'm surprised he can recall any of it.

Not the best wrestling biography I've ever read but definitely not the worst. Three out of five stars.

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The Last Picture Show

The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Sonny, Duane, and Jacy come of age in a dusty Texas town. What will happen to them once they graduate high school?

I snagged this for the princely sum of $1.99 on the Kindle. It was worth every penny.

As I said in the teaser, The Last Picture Show is a coming of age tale, a tale of what happens to people as they get older and drift apart. While I never read it before, it fit like a favorite t-shirt.

Larry McMurty paints a vivid picture of small town life as Sonny and the rest graduate high school and struggle to find their places in the world. Duane wants to marry Jacy. Jacy wants to do something that will get the town talking. And Sonny wants Duane's girl. Nothing really goes the way anyone planned. Just like real life.

I thought the three main characters were very realistic depictions of teenagers, not just some middle age guy's faded memories of what high school was like, and likeable, despite their character flaws. Sonny, in particular, was kind of a walking train wreck but I wound up caring about him anyway. By the end of the book, I was feeling almost as lonesome as he was. While all of the characters did some questionable things, everything rang true.

McMurtry's writing has the same bullshitting on the front porch feel Joe Lansdale's does and I have to think he was an influence on Lansdale on some level. The Last Picture Show feels a lot like the coming of age stories Lansdale has been writing the last twenty years or so, only with less cursing.

There were tons of quotable lines. All three main characters said stupid things that were a lot like things I would have said back in the day.

If you're looking for a book about friendship, love, finding your place in the world, and a bunch of high school seniors trying to have drunken sex with a heifer, look no farther. 4.5 out of 5 stars.



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Claws of the Cat

Claws of the Cat by Susan Spann


When a retired samurai is found murdered in a tea house, his son demands his honor be satisfied and he is bent on killing the tea house girl his father was found with. Jesuit priest Matteo stands up for Sayuri and buys her an additional three days of life while Hiro, his shinobi bodyguard, tracks down the real killer. But if Hiro can't, Matteo will be executed along with her...

Claws of the Cat is a historical mystery set in 16th century Japan. I don't remember where I first heard of it but a mystery starring a Jesuit priest and a ninja detective was hard to pass up.

Spann clearly researched the 16th century Japan setting but at no point did I feel like the book suffered from research-itis. There were no infodumps and the introduction to the period customs and culture was fairly painless. The setting was integral to the plot, what with honor, inheritance, and etiquette playing big parts.

Hiro and Matteo were an interesting pair, the Jesuit priest and the shinobi pretending to be a ronin. I thought Hiro would take center stage but they shared the top spot for the most part. Hiro handled all of the sneaking around but Matteo played his parts well.

One thing I really liked is that Spann didn't write Hiro as an unstoppable death machine. He relied on stealth and subterfuge but I got the idea he could handle things if they turned physical. Another thing I liked is that Father Matteo tried to live as a Japanese person rather than surround himself with Western trappings.

The suspects were a diverse mix and I am embarrassed to admit I didn't guess the killer until it was too late. Hideyoshi's family was an interesting bunch, as was the crew at the tea house. Once everything was laid out, I have to say I was very impressed with Susan Spann's debut.

I had a few gripes but they were minor. With all the talk about arquebuses, I was hoping someone would get shot at some point. Also, I wouldn't have minded Hiro getting into a scrape at some time during the proceedings. All in all, I don't have any real complaints, though.

The next book in the series is due out in a couple weeks and I'll have to pick it up. Four out of five stars.

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