In the Shadow of Gene Wolfe

Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor of Gene Wolfe by Bill Fawcett
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Shadows of the New Sun is a collection of stories inspired by Gene Wolfe's work and the author's fond memories of meeting Gene (or not).

Official Business: I got this from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!

The authors included are Neil Gaiman, David Brin, David Drake, Nancy Kress, Timothy Zahn, Michael Stackpole, Aaron Allston, Michael Swanwick, Mike Resnick, and others. Neil Gaiman's story, the Lunar Labyrinth, is my favorite. Timothy Zahn's story and Frostfree, the tale of a refrigerator that transforms into a woman and gives a man love advice, were tied for second place.

To be honest, the stories vary in quality, both in writing and in content. I thought the author's memories of Gene Wolfe were actually more interesting than a lot the short stories. Still, it was great to see Severian again, even if Gene wasn't writing him. Like I said, the Gaiman story was my favorite but most of them were worth reading. If you're a Gene Wolfe fan, you'll probably be entertained by this book.

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Heart-Shaped Box

Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When aging rocker Judas Coyne buys a ghost on the internet, he doesn't take it seriously. That is, until a musty old suit shows up in a heart-shaped box. Soon, Judas begins to see the horrifying spectre of a man wearing the suit. Things take a sinister turn and people start dying so Judas and his girlfriend Georgia go looking for the woman who sold him the suit, the sister of his deceased ex-girlfriend. Can Judas stop the man in the suit from destroying his life?

After NOS4A2, I thought it best to tackle some of Joe Hill's earlier books. His debut novel did not disappoint.

Heart-Shaped Box is a tale of revenge from beyond the grave. Craddock was a suitably creepy antagonist. When your enemy can control your mind, how can you stop him? The powerlessness that Judas felt for a good portion of the story made the story that much more effective.

Hill's writing is like his dad's, back when his dad was still emulating the late Richard Matheson and John D. MacDonald. It flows very well and doesn't get overly flowery. When a ghost is driving people mad, the prose doesn't have to be purple to be enjoyable.

Judas and Georgia wound up being much more developed than I originally thought. As Judas' background was explored, I understood how he got to where he was. Same with Georgia, aka Marybeth.

Joe's about as nice to his main characters as his old man. Judas and Georgia went through the wringer on the way to the end of the story and there was no magic to fix their grievous injuries.

Since Judas is an aging rock star, I expected a lot more references to music and musicians. I liked that his dogs were named after members of AC/DC. There were a disproportionate amount of Trent Reznor references, which I found odd since Judas is in his mid-50's. I'll chalk that up to Nine Inch Nails being some of Joe Hill's favorite music.

It was creepy but didn't keep me up at night. 4 stars.

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The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

While in his home town for a funeral, a middle aged man drives to the site of his parents' former home and visits visits the farm at the end of the road, where he remembers some curious events from when he was seven...

First off, I'll get the gripes out of the way. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is marketed as Gaiman's first adult novel since Anansi Boys. It feels a lot more like a young adult novel, more akin to the Graveyard Book or Coraline than American Gods. Secondly, it's only 175 pages long. In and of itself, that's fine, but with a whopping 25.99 price tag, it's kind of a gouge.

Gripes aside, The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a pretty cool book. Gaiman does a masterful job at portraying the nameless lead character, a seven year old boy who befriends at odd eleven-year old girl named Lettie, who may or may not be as old as the universe, and her mother and grand mother. Maiden, mother, and crone remember the Old Country, which sank, or the really Old Country, which blew up.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, like a lot of Neil Gaimain work, deals with dreams, the effect of belief on reality, and forgotten things, like things that every kid knows and every adult has forgotten.

There's not a lot I can say without giving away the best bits. Gaiman has a way of making his young adult books way scarier than his adult ones and this one falls into that category. Urusula and the hunger birds were both pretty creepy, as was what happened with the boy's foot.

That's about all I can say. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a really quick read but full of interesting ideas and great moments. Four out of five. I may elevate it to a five on a reread.

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Bigfoot, Yeti, and Nessie: Oh My!

Abominable Science!: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids by Daniel Loxton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Abominable Science talks about the origins of cryptids like Bigfoot, the Yeti, the Loch Ness monster, sea serpents, dinosaurs currently living in Africa, and cryptozoology in general.

Official Business: I got this from Netgalley. Thank you, Netgalley!

Confession time: When I was a kid, I was way into books like this, most written by Daniel Cohen. If the book had blurry photos of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, or UFOs, I was all over it. When you're a kid, it's easy to swallow all that bullshit and not notice the taste. After all, the world is an enormous place when you're a kid, with plenty of room for things like Bigfoot, mammoths in Siberia, brontosauruses in Africa, and aliens all over the damn place. As you get older, your bullshit tolerance is worn down and it gets harder to believe in things like the Yeti. I still watch Monsterquest, though, but only for entertainment purposes, although they did find a colossal giant squid once.

Abominable Science debunks cryptids like Bigfoot, exposing known hoaxes and offering possible explanations for witness accounts. The tone is very academic and dry but there are occasional bits of humor. It wasn't something I could blaze through in a couple sittings.

Abominable Science follows the evolutions of various cryptids. Did you know the word "yeti" comes from the word "yeh-teh," which is a word the Nepalese use for more than one mountain animal, and no one reported seeing a white yeti until after someone coined the term Abominable Snowman? Sea serpent trends are explored, like why do a lot of sea serpents have heads and manes like horses?

Known hoaxes are exposed and some unexplained cases are dissected. You know that famous Bigfoot footage from the 70's? One of the men responsible was known to be an untrustworthy, used car salesman type of person and a friend of his came forward and alleged he was the one in the costume. And that famous Loch Ness monster photo? It was admittedly a model but that doesn't stop people from presenting it as evidence. And how about the fact that no one reported seeing a plesiosaur-looking creature in Loch Ness until AFTER the premiere of King Kong in Scotland, which happened to briefly depict a plesiosaur?

What I found even more interesting than the known hoaxes was the lengths that Bigfoot researchers and similar people would go to suppress evidence of hoaxes. Also, some cases, like that of a small Bigfoot-like primate like Jacko that allegedly lived on a farm, were debunked over a hundred years ago but are still cited as evidence today.

Something I didn't know: Some cryptozooologists are hoping to find relict dinosaurs in the hopes that it will disprove evolution and boost creationism.

Abominable Science is full of interesting information but could have been a more engaging read. Three stars.


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Soul Circus

Soul Circus: A Derek Strange Novel by George Pelecanos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Derek Strange is hired to find evidence to keep Granville Oliver from getting the chair. Terry Quinn is helping his girlfriend find a missing girl. How will their cases intersect with a brewing turf war between two gangs?

In this Strange and Quinn outing, Pelecanos explores the gang life in Washington DC even deeper than he has in the past and Strange and Quinn are drowning in it. Strange is tracking down evidence that could keep a known gangster alive out of guilt for killing the man's father when he was a cop. Quinn's helping his girlfriend Sue Tracy find a missing girl. Dewayne Durham and Horace McKinley are heading toward a confrontation that can only end in violence. Dewayne's loser brother Mario touches a spark to a trail of gunpowder with an act of thoughtless violence that sends everything into motion.

Soul Circus has all the Pelecanos hallmarks: pop culture references, philosophical talk about the nature of guns, violence, and life in DC, and of course, Nick Stefanos. Things start getting tense once Mario finds himself in the soup and they don't let up until a couple bloody moments near the end.

The antagonists in Soul Circus are among Pelecanos' best I've read so far. Dewayne's crew and McKinley's crew are all much more developed than the heavies in most detective fiction. Monkey's feelings toward Juwan and his reluctance to harm the kid and Dewayne's feelings for his loser brother made the gangsters seem very real to me. Foreman and his code of ethics and love for his girlfriend made him surprisingly deep for a gunrunner, much more than I thought originally. Strange and Quinn were true to themselves throughout.

Strange and Quinn don't actually accomplish much in this book but the detecting is there, as is the violence. Too bad Pelecanos hasn't written more Derek Strange books since I only have one left.

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Joyland

Joyland by Stephen King
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

On the heels of a breakup, college student Devin Jones takes a summer job at an amusement park, an amusement park haunted by the ghost of a woman murdered on one of the rides. But what does that have to do with a woman and her dying child that Devin meets walking on a beach?

Stephen King throws the Hard Case line another bone with Joyland. Much like The Colorado Kid, it will undoubtedly draw much needed attention to the line despite not being like the other books.

Joyland is the story of Devin Jones trying to get his shit together after being dumped by his girlfriend. What better way to do that than to slave away at a carnival for 12 hours a day? Once Devin learns of the murder, he starts investigating. Well, the investigation is incidental. Mostly he works at the carnival, saving a couple lives along the way and meeting a kid with muscular dystrophy that he takes a liking to, as well as his foxy young mother.

Stephen King's writing is firing on all cylinders in this one and it's a relief that he wrote a story that's less than 800 pages for once. There are some anachronisms but they didn't yank me out of the story. I thought I knew who the killer was but King managed to pull the rug out from under me just before the big reveal.

I liked Devin a lot. He felt like an authentic 21 year old to me, something that a lot of writers can't seem to do. He was also pretty relatable. I think I had an early onset of the 21's and it lasted until I was about 24.

A quick side note: I like that King named a traveling circus after Manly Wade Wellman. I wonder how many people caught that reference.

The only gripe I have with this book is that it doesn't feel like a Hard Case. However, since it will let Hard Case keep the lights on for quite a while with the money it brings in, I'll let Uncle Steve off with a warning this time. Three stars.

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Hell To Pay

Hell to Pay by George Pelecanos
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Strange and Quinn take on two cases, one of a runaway turned prostitute and the background check of a longtime friend of Strange's daughter's new suitor. Complications ensue when a young boy on the football team Strange and Quinn are coaching is gunned down. Will Quinn be able to keep his temper in check long enough to get the girl back? Will Strange find dark secrets lurking in Calhoun Tucker's closet? What is the secret connection between the dead little boy, Strange, and the boy's unknown father?

Strange and Quinn are at it again. This time, most of the book is about the relationships between Strange and Quinn and the supporting cast. Strange and Janine's relationship is explored, Quinn meets another woman, and Strange and Quinn coach a peewee football team. Lurking in the background are Garfield Potter and his gang, a pimp named Worldwide Wilson, and druglord Granville Oliver.

The Derek Strange books, while detective fiction, are also Pelecanos' way of showing the rough way of life of poor black children in Washington DC, showing a different side of DC than we've seen with Nick Stefanos and the DC Quartet. Each of the antagonists grew up rough and while they are all pieces of garbage, they didn't have much choice in the matter.

I really like that Strange is committing to Janine and likely giving up his happy endings at the massage parlor. I also like that Quinn has a girlfriend now that will likely reign him in. Strange and Quinn are much more complex than they appeared at first glance.

Some of this book is hard to take, like the death of Joe Wilson. Hell, the fight between Worldwide and Quinn was one of the more brutal fist fights I've ever read. The connection between Strange and Granville was unexpected but made a lot of sense once it was revealed.

At this point, I'd read the phone book if Pelecanos had a hand in writing it. Four stars.

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