Learning to Breathe Fire

Learning to Breathe Fire: The Rise of CrossFit and the Primal Future of Fitness by J.C. Herz
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

From the ages of 19 to 34, I worked out religiously 3-5 times a week. The last couple years, however, I let myself gradually slip out of the habit. After all, that's 3-5 more hours a week I could be reading. However, my girlfriend read up on CrossFit and told me we were going to start going a few times a week.

Since I was still reasonably fit for a couch potato, I figured I could handle it. I could not. It kicked my ass in less than 20 minutes and I was sore for three days, something that never happened to me in over a decade of lifting weights nearly every day. After that, I was more than a little intrigued about the torture we were paying for. Then this book popped up on Netgalley.

Learning to Breathe Fire tells the story of CrossFit and the science behind how it works. It talks about key figures in CrossFit history and explains why health clubs nerf everything and why they are largely ineffective at getting results. It also covers the CrossFit games.

It was pretty enlightening. I thought the people at CrossFit Warrior RX were just torturing me for fun the first couple of times. The science behind it sounds accurate. It made sense to me that we were doing workouts that blended cardio and strength training to spend maximum energy in a relatively short amount of time. The 20-30 minute workouts of the day (WODs) sure seem more efficient than lifting weights and doing cardio for a hour.

One thing I found interesting/terrifying were some of the workouts I might have to endure at some point. Like Fran, 21-15-9 reps of thrusters and pullups, which frequently makes people puke. Or Karen, which is 150 wall balls.

If I had to gripe about something in the book, it's that maybe it went a little too deep into the stories of the notable figures in CrossFit history. They were inspirational but I felt like I was watching a CrossFit infomercial after a while.

For someone who wants to see immediate results with the minimum time spent at the gym, CrossFit is the way to go and if you want to learn all about CrossFit, this is the book to read. Four sweaty stars!


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World's Greatest Dad

World's Greatest Dad by Edward Lorn
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

His life torn apart by his daughter's murder, Carl thinks all is lost until he starts receiving messages on the surface of his World's Greatest Dad coffee mug. Where will Kimmy's messages take him?

I'm not a huge fan of short stories in general but Edward Lorn knows how to get the most out of the format. World's Greatest Dad feels like an episode of the Outer Limits. Messages from beyond the grave!

Like every good Outer Limits episode, there's a bite you in ass twist to go with the creepiness that comes before. The conclusion is very satisfying, as meat hooks to the neck of a child killer often can be.

Four easy stars. Best of all, it's available for a free download on Goodreads!

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Morningside Fall

Morningside Fall by Jay Posey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wren's term as Governor of Morningside is short-lived when it becomes apparent he's been targeted by people within the Council. With his mother and a group of trusted allies, he flees the city. But who is working against him and why are the Weir massing in greater numbers?

I got this from Angry Robot via Netgalley.

The Weir threat escalates in the second entry in the Duskwalker series. Wren is struggling to grow into his role as boy governor of Morningside and the influx of people into Morningside, both the dwellers outside the walls and the Awakened, the former Weir, are making the rest of the population uneasy. Sound pretty good? Well...

Okay, here's the deal. I loved Three, the first book in this series. However, I didn't love this book. I felt like it very much suffers from "Second book in the Trilogy" syndrome. There's a lot of setup toward bigger things down the road but mostly there's a lot of running through the wastelands shooting at Weir. There is no new character to take Three's lead role so we get a lot of interchangeable warrior types acting as Wren's bodyguards and with no lynchpin character driving thing forward, my attention waned quite a bit. If it weren't for the last 20% of the book, I probably would have given it a 2.

The last 20% made up for a lot of my distaste for the rest of the book. A lot of stuff happens. Wren figures out how to stop the Weir, the mastermind is revealed, and a battle of monstrous proportions happens. The revelation of who the blindfolded man was was very satisfying. The third book is going to be an asskicker of Muhammed Ali proportions.

Morningside Fall is worth a read but I don't think it holds up very well when compared to Three. I do plan on sticking with the series, though. Three out of five stars.

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Peacemaker

Peacemaker by Marianne de Pierres
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When park ranger Virgin Jackson witnesses a murder in Birrimun Park, the last natural landscape on earth, things quickly spiral out of control. With an unwanted partner by her side in the form of US Marshall Nate Sixkiller, can she get to the bottom of things? But what do the strange occurences have to do with Aquila, the mysterious eagle that has been appearing to her since she was a child?

I got this from Angry Robot via Netgalley.

Peacemaker is a sf mystery set in the future. Virgin Jackson, stubborn and bull-headed as she is, drags the reader from one catastrophe to another, and takes quite a beating in the process. Her partner on the case, Nate Sixkiller, is a very capable US Marshall who works with the Spiritual Service, monitoring events of a mystic nature.

It's really to pull off a story that uses mysticism in a technologically advanced time period but it works very well in Peacemaker. It brought back memories of how William Gibson was able to pull off a similar feat in Count Zero with the voodoo loas.

The fully urbanized future depicted in Peacemaker is a fairly bleak one. Imagine a world were the only natural landscape left is a park where tourists visit. The combination of Australian and Western culture present around the park makes for an interesting setting indeed, as do the various factions Virgin has to go to for help.

As you can tell, I liked a lot about this book. There were plenty of twists, turns, and double crosses. I loved that Virgin and Nate didn't get their genitals entangled at any point, which is a refreshing change of pace.

However, I did have a few minor gripes. I thought the plot with the Mythos could have been explained better and elaborated upon but I have a feeling that will be explored in the sequels. I also found Virgin's lack of trust and stubbornness to be infuriating at times but that helped drive the plot.

Peacemaker is a good sf mystery for people looking for something a little different. Four stars.

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Fatal Enquiry

Fatal Enquiry by Will Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When his arch-nemesis Sebastian Nightwine returns to town, detective Cyrus Barker and his assistant Thomas Llewellyn are on guard. But why does Nightwine have diplomatic immunity and protection from Scotland Yard? Can Barker and Llewellyn find out what Nightwine is up to without winding up in jail?

I got this from Netgalley and the fine folks at St. Martin's.

This is the sixth Barker and Llewellyn book but, as the blurb on Netgalley promised, serves to reintroduce the pair to new readers and does a fine job at that. While there were a few references to past cases, I was perfectly able to enjoy this one on its own.

When it comes to Victorian detective stories, all things start with Sherlock Holmes. While Barker and Llewellyn might be the literary great grandchildren of Holmes and Watson, they owe little to the Great Detective and his chronicler. Barker, with his keen detective skills, is the Holmes of the pair, but he's a burly world traveler known for his skill with firearms and his fists. And he's not addicted to opium or other illicit substances, which is refreshing in a Victorian era detective. Llewellyn is a young handsome former felon and widower.

Another things that separates Barker and Llewellyn from Holmes and Watson is that Holmes and Watson never took a world class shit-kicking. Barker and Llewellyn go through several wringers in this one.

The story isn't all that complex at the beginning. Sebastian Nightwine, Barker's moriarty, returns to London with a plan of conquest and some maps and gets diplomatic immunity to keep Barker off his back. Soon, Barker is framed for murder and gets a bounty put on his head. Things quickly spiral out of control with a mysterious woman thrown into the mix.

Llewellyn, idealistic young Welshman, is a great narrator since he's normally almost as in the dark as the reader. Barker is a complicated man with a complicated past, far from the Sherlock Holmes-inspired character I thought he would be before I started reading. I felt bad for poor Llewellyn, getting dragged in Barker's wake for most of the book and taking a really brutal beating for his employer.

Will Thomas's writing has a fairly serious tone but was much easier to digest than a lot of similar books. There was also a good amount of humor. I loved that there was a killer named Psmith in it, who found the need to mention the silent P, much like P.G. Wodehouse's Psmith character. Man, I really need to read another Wodehouse book sometime soon.

Anyway, despite being the sixth book in a series and the first I've read, I found Fatal Enquiry to be a very engaging mystery full of characters I want to read more about. To the bookstore! Four out of five stars.

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Dead Five's Pass

Dead Five's Pass by Colin F. Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When a new cave is discovered in Dead Five's Pass, local climbers go looking for it and don't return. Emergency rescue volunteer Carise answers the call and goes to find the boys with her old flame, Marcel. But what does the cave have to do with a bloody and batshit crazy girl that staggered down from the mountains? And what unknown horror lurks in the cave's stygian depths?

I got this from DarkFuse via Netgalley.

Colin Barnes crafts a claustrophobic Lovecraftian tale of horrors from space lurking in the dark places. What's worse than getting stranded in a cave in the mountains with nightfall coming? Getting stranded with a cyclopean horror that drives you mad before it devours you, that's what!

Unlike a lot of HPL influenced tales, I actually cared about the protagonists of Dead Five's Pass. Carise has hit rock bottom after a series of events wrecked her relationship with Marcel and now she's got a drinking problem. Marcel's in an unhappy relationship and can't seem to forget about Carise. Will they rekindle the old romance?

Surprisingly, that's not a big part of the story. The big part of the story is Carise and Marcel discovering what's lurking in the new cave beneath Dead Five's Pass and deciding what to do about it.

Colin F. Barnes' writing does a great job at conveying the feelings of desperation, claustrophobia, and hints of madness as the story goes on. Carise and Marcel are pushed beyond their limits, toward the edges of sanity, as they go up against cultists and the squamous object of their worship.

HPL would be proud. Four out of five stars.

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When We Fall

When We Fall by Peter Giglio
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When a friendless 13 year old boy named Ben befriends the 17 year old girl across the street, things seem to be going pretty good. Until, that is, they make a film together that has a deceased boy making a cameo appearance...

I got this from DarkFuse via Netgalley.

So why is it the best coming of age stories come from authors primarily known for horror? Stephen King had The Body. Joe Lansdale had The Bottoms. And now Peter Giglio has When We Fall.

When We Fall is the story of a 13 year old boy coming to grips with the death of his best friend, the death of his worst enemy, and his first love.

Ben is a 13 year old with a passion for making Super 8 movies. Aubrey is his babysitter turned best friend/love interest. When the film they shoot shows his dead worst enemy, things quickly fall apart.

This is a pretty short novella so I can't divulge too much of what happens. Lets just say there's nothing like a couple deaths to turn a boy into a man. I found Ben to be a very relatable 13 year old and his feelings for Aubrey were very well done. Giglio did a good job of reminding me what it was like to be a 13 year old boy. For a novella from a horror publisher, there wasn't a lot of horror in it apart from a surprising death late in the story.

So far, the DarkFuse novella series can do no wrong for me. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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