Nobody's Angel

Nobody's Angel by Jack Clark

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Chicago cab driver Eddie Miles stops in an alley to take a leak and finds a young mutilated hooker close to death. Meanwhile, cabbies are being killed all over the city. Can Eddie keep from becoming just another victim?



Jack Clark, a Chicago cab driver, wrote Nobody's Angel and sold it out of his cab before Hard Case picked it up. That being said, the writing is light years away from where I thought it would be, good noir writing.



Having been to Chicago a few times, Clark really paints a vivid picture of the windy city. The story meanders a bit and not everything is resolved but the ending is satisfying. The little snippets of the fares Edwin takes during the course of the story and the bits of cab driver culture wound up being my favorite parts.



Nobody's Angel is definitely on the good end of the Hard Case spectrum and a good way to spend a few hours reading.







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Boneshaker

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Sixteen years after Leviticus Blue reputedly robbed a string of banks and released the Blight using his drilling machine, the Boneshaker, his son Ezekiel goes back into the walled remains of Seattle, braving rotters and Doornails, to clear his name. His mother, Briar Wilkes, goes into the walled wasteland to bring him out. Can she find Zeke before Dr. Minnericht finds him?



I've got mixed feelings about this one. For one thing, the writing doesn't tickle my innards and the characters are all pretty weak. It also feels like it could have been 70 or 80 pages shorter. A steampunk book with zombies and airships shouldn't have so many dull spots. Also, there was a 35 page block missing from my copy but I don't think I missed a whole lot due to the aforementioned pacing issues. Furthermore, Boneshaker is a misleading title since the Boneshaker doesn't make an appearance until the very end.



However, I did manage to enjoy myself while reading it. I love the idea of a walled up city infested by zombies as well as the culture of those that stayed behind to live off of what was left, the Doornails. The concept of zombies being created by subterranean pockets of gas was interesting, as was lemon sap, the drug made from said gas. The steampunk tech was nicely done, complete with artificial limbs and a sound cannon. The airships were also good, even if under-utilized. Zeke and Briar's struggle to find one another was well done, even if it dragged for my tastes. Dr. Minnericht was a Darth Vader-ish enemy but the reveal of his identity was pretty good, as was his death.



I wouldn't exactly say I'd recommend buying this but if you could find someone to lend it to you, I don't think you'll be very disappointed.







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Dancers at the End of Time

The Dancers at the End of Time by Michael Moorcock

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



Sometimes, after you've just finished killing a man with a horse shoe because you were out of bullets for instance, you need to read something light and funny to make you forget about all the carnage you've wrought. Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time Trilogy certainly fits the bill. It's available as a collection or as individual books: An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands, and End of All Songs.



First off, I will refrain from making jokes like "I'm always in the mood for Moorcock" or "Ladies demand Moorcock." But just imagine how funny it would be if I didn't.



Many of you will recognize Michael Moorcock from his Eternal Champion series, most notably the Elric novels. While his Dancers at the End of Time series falls within the Eternal Champion saga, it's much closer to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Who knew old Moorcock had it in him?



As you all know, Dangerous Dan is rougher than Dollar Tree toilet paper. That's what kept me from reading something with the word Dancers in the title for far too many years, which is sad because the Dancers books made me smile wider than two for one night down at the Golden Garter. The bit that really tickled my innards and made me pay attention was this quote from the first book, An Alien Heat:



What follows, then, is the story of Jherek Carnelian, who did not know the meaning of morality, and Mrs. Amelia Underwood, who knew everything about it.



Couple a winning quote like that with the fact that Jherek has sex with his own mother on the second page and you can see why I just had to read all of them in the space of four days. As the quote says, Jherek Carnelian, one of the decadent denizens of the end of time, falls in love with stuffy Victorian age time traveller Mrs. Amelia Underwood and follows her back in time to prove his love. Hilarity ensues, coupled with the ongoing mystery of why Jherek's friend Lord Jagged continuously pops up in the same eras as Jherek and pretends not to recognize him. There's also the unstoppable end of the multiverse as we know it but that's on the back burner most of the time. Here's another quote just to show you how hilarious these books are:



"Do you plan to have any children, Mr. Underwood?"

"Unfortunately." Mr. Underwood cleared his throat. "We have not so far been blessed..."

"Something wrong?"

"Ah, no..."

"Perhaps you haven't got the hang of making them by the straightforward old-fashioned method? I must admit it took me a while to work it out. You know," Jherek turned to make sure Mrs. Underwood was included in the conversation, "finding what goes in where and so forth."


As you can see, if you're easily offended, these aren't the books for you. However, if you're a twisted soul who likes mannerly british humor coupled with incest, perverse sex acts, drug use, time paradoxes, and the end of time as we know it, saddle up, enjoy the ride, and try not to get sprayed with bodily fluids along the way.



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The Cutie

The Cutie by Donald E. Westlake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Billy-Billy Cantell wakes up from an H bender in a strange apartment next to a blonde that's been stabbed to death with the police outside. He runs to the nearest person that can help him, Clay, a man whose part of the same criminal organization. Clay goes looking for the cutie that set Cantell up. Unfortunately, the same cutie is trying to set Clay up. All the while, Clay struggles with trying to make a life with the woman he's living with. Can she handle being married to someone in the business?



Westlake can craft a tale with more twists than an octopus's tentacles. I only figured out who the killer was about a page before Clay did. Mavis St. Paul really got around.



I'd say this is the best of the Westlake's Hard Case Crime has put out.



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Whose Body?

Whose Body? by Dorothy L. Sayers

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Mr. Thipps goes to have his morning bath, only to find the corpse of a naked man wearing only a pince nez in the tub. A first glance, the corpse appears to be that of Lord Levy, a Jewish financier. Only things aren't always as they seem. Fortunately, Lord Peter Wimsey is on the case...



I really liked this one. I have to believe Dorothy Sayers was influenced by P.G. Wodehouse at least a little bit. Lord Peter Wimsey could easily be a Wodehouse character. He's a short pompous British aristocrat, shell-shocked from WWI, who solves mysteries for fun and has a decidedly Wodehousian manner about him. His manservant, Bunter, doubles as his Watson.



The writing is good although I thought the dialogue was a little long-winded at times. The mystery was well done. There were more than enough suspects and it took me forever to pick out the killer.



I'd recommend this to mystery fans especially those of British mysteries. Sayers's writing is like Agatha Christie with a hint of Wodehouse. Quite enjoyable. I'll be reading more of Wimsey's cases, that's for sure.



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The Warded Man

The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Three survivors of demon attacks spend their younger years learning to fight the corelings in their own ways. Rojer becomes a Jongleur, a wandering minstrel whose fiddle playing can ward off the demon's attack. Leesha becomes a healer and herb gatherer. And Arlen walks the path of a Messenger. At least at first...



Wow. I have to admit I wasn't expecting a whole lot with this book. Fantasy in a pseudo-European setting? Yawn city. Imagine my delight when the book proved to be a breath of fresh air in the stagnating fantasy genre. Demons rising from the core of the planet every night, killing anyone who isn't behind protective wards? Great stuff.



The Warded Man follows the lives of three young characters, switching viewpoints quite often. All three are well drawn. Arlen's anger at his mother's death and his father's cowardice are believably done, as are his later obsessions. Leesha's fear of opening up to people because of the way her mother treated her and Rojer's insecurities about his missing fingers are likewise well done.



While most of the towns depicted were standard fantasy pseudo-Europe, I did enjoy Krasia, Brett's version of the Middle East. The Krasian's attitudes toward fighting the corelings was a nice contrast to everyone else's.



Things really took off in the last third of the book. The Warded Man of the title is a very interesting character, so much more three dimensional than most fantasy heroes. Tattooed, angry, and eating demon flesh. The way the three main characters came together was well done and not contrived.



If you are looking for fantasy with a different flavor, give this a shot.



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Gloriana

Gloriana, Or The Unfulfill'd Queen by Michael Moorcock

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Queen Gloriana rules Albion, an alternate reality British Empire, with the help of her Chancellor, Montfallcon, and his dirty deeds in the name of the throne. Gloriana, as the title indicates, gets no release from sex and grows increasingly distraut. Montfallcon's main henchman, Quire, doesn't like how he's being treated and finds a new patron. His goal: the toppling of Albion...



Like a lot of people, the first thing that drew me to Michael Moorcock was the Elric saga. In my old age, the Moorcock stories I like best are the ones that have little to do with Elric or the Eternal Champion cycle, like Dancers at the End of Time or the Jerry Cornelius stories. Or Gloriana.



As I said before, Gloriana can't have an orgasm no matter what. No man nor woman, ape-man nor robot sheep, nothing can make her climax. Moorcock could easily make this a porno novel but doesn't. Though it takes place in a fantasy universe, it more of a political novel than anything else, with all the court intrigue and backstabbing. The writing is different from Moorcock's other work, more like Mervyn Peake, whom the book is dedicated to. It's easy to see Peake's influence on Moorcock on this one, both in the writing and the labyrinthine halls of Gloriana's palace. Gloriana is a well-written character, as are Una, Wheldrake, Quire, Montfallon, and the rest.



Longtime Moorock readers will note that Una and Wheldrake appear in other Moorcock works as well. Moorcockian gods Arioch and Xiombarg are invoked as curse words and are regarded as old gods. As near as I can tell, those are the only references to the Eternal Champion saga.



I'd recommend this to Moorcock fans with an open mind, as well as Mervyn Peake fans, fans of decadent fantasy, and also readers who like their fantasy to have a political bend.



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