I've got the Blue Jays game on in the background and Jo is upstairs trying to create a Facebook post. The puppies are sprawled around the house, Clyde with me and Bonnie is probably lying on the half landing keeping an eye on the neighborhood. It's a bright sunny day outside and I am getting impatient to be able to start running again. But, as Jo rightly points out, it's been one week since my hernia(s) op and it takes time to heal. I do still have a fair bit of pain, so I know she's right. *sigh*
OK. Since my last reading update, I've 'completed' 4 books, 3 that I finished, reviewed and rated, one that I finally gave up on. I'll provide my reviews / comments on them as well as the synopses of the books I've started since. I'll also provide the synopses of two new books on my shelves; one by a favorite mystery writer of mine and one by a new author for me.
Just Finished
"Billy Boyle: A World War II Mystery is the first book in the, yes you guessed it, the Billy Boyle WWII spy / mystery series by American author James R. Benn. Since 2006, Benn has written 17 books in the series, with the 17th out in 2022. So I think I have a bit of catching up to do on the series.
Lt. Billy Boyle, new of the US Army, was a Boston cop who was drafted into the US Army. His family being worried about his being sent into action asks their cousin, who happens to be one Gen Eisenhower, if he can take him onto his staff. (Of course they don't realize that Dwight has just taken command of the European front.
Boyle finds himself working in Eisenhower's office, immediately tasked with finding a spy in the Norwegian military. The Allies are planning Operation Jupiter, a commando invasion of Norwegians, British and American commandos of Norway. Boyle is sent off to their training encampment in Eastern England, along with a Polish officer, Kaz, and a British officer, Daphne to try to find the spy. While there a Norwegian is found dead, at first a presumed suicide, but later believed to be a murder.
So the story begins and the investigation progresses, with Boyle, Kaz and Daphne interrogating, searching and trying to find out who murdered the Norwegian officer and who might be the spy. Ultimately the investigation will take Boyle to Norway itself under great danger.
The story is enjoyable and moves along very nicely. Boyle and his team are all very likable people and they draw you in very successfully. I found the first half of the story reminded me in some ways of Rennie Airth's John Madden wartime mystery series, although I thought it was a bit light-weight. But Benn is surprising. Suddenly at one point he turns into George R.R. Martin (you figure out what I mean) and grabs you by the shoulders and slaps you in the face, laughing all the time. The tone of the second half is quite different from the first and the ending, while a bit twisty / turny is very satisfying. It leaves you wanting to continue on with the series. Which is a good thing, right? Satisfying, entertaining intro to what I hope will continue to be an excellent series. (3.5 stars)"
"Terminal Café by Ian McDonald is my first exposure to his Sci-Fi stories. Maybe it shouldn't have been the first one that I tried... It was published in the UK under the title, Necroville|. (Ed Note: I did not finish, basically completing 200 pages so will not provide a rating and just a few thoughts)
Here's the scenario as I got it..... 5 friends head to the Terminal Café, 4 of them invited by Santiago Columbar, on the eve of Day of the Dead. On the way they will be involved in countless adventures and look at their lives???
Everything and the kitchen sink takes place. You've got nano-technology, an invasion of Earth by zombies? that have been sent to populate and industrialize outer space. They battle living humans, aka Meat. One character is a lawyer and is fighting a case and for her life... well, they are all fighting for their lives, it seems... Drugs.. um... Pale Riders...
It's all a bit too much for me to follow and gradually, despite my best efforts, I have just given up. Philip K. Dick on really, really good drugs... I like strange stories but I do like there to be some sense to them. And this really didn't make any sense to me, whatsoever. I'm sure there are others who loved the story and could explain it to me, but I give up...
McDonald has written many Sci-Fi novels, including a Desolation Road trilogy set on Mars.. Maybe someday I'll try it, but not for awhile.. (No Rating)"
"I've had The Name of the Wind, the 1st book in the Kingkiller Chronicle, by Patrick Rothfuss sitting on my bookshelf since 2015. I've avoided trying it because of it's size. It's a tome for sure, 722 pages of fighting fury. And, now, having finally read it, I'm glad that I did.
What is the story about? Hmmm. Basically it's a fantasy. A Chronicler arrives at the Waystone Inn in a small community in the hinterland. He's been robbed. He knows that the innkeeper isn't quite who he claims to be and wants to chronicle his (Kvothe's) life. Kvothe agrees and the story of his life begins. That's the story, and we travel with Kvothe as he follows his family of minstrels around the land and then onward to life in the port town Tarbean where he struggles just to survive and then onto his teen years at the University at Imre, where he wishes to become an arcanist. There you go, that's the story. Interest you?
It doesn't seem like much, does it? But the story has flow, interesting characters and just successfully draws you in to this wonderful world. Kvothe suffers many tragedies on his way to university and I'll let you discover those for yourself. The world through which he travels is well-described and easy to picture. The characters are sympathetically portrayed and there are so many to like and care for. The story -telling takes place over the course of a few evenings (or maybe just one) but the story itself takes years to cover. And as far as I can tell, it's only scratched the bare surface, just Kvothe's earliest development. You can see he is a boy with power potential and it'll be so interesting to delve into the 2nd tome to see where the story goes next.
But read this. Don't be intimidated, just be prepared to enjoy a fascinating, rich story. (4 stars)"
"Over the years I've enjoyed many of the novels of Isaac Asimov. Most recently I have been reading his Mysteries featuring the Black Widowers. I found The End of Eternity, one of his earliest stories (published in 1955) in a used book store down island from where I live and decided to give it a try.
I readily admit I almost gave up on it. I found the writing very basic and the story kind of overwrought and, at first, kind of unintelligible. But it was a fairly short story so I decided to stick with it and ultimately, ended up enjoying it. (Is that what you call 'faint praise'?)
So let's see. Harlan is a Technician who works for Eternity. What's Eternity? It's a kind of alternate reality that runs parallel to normal time. Time travel seems to have been discovered after the 23rd Century and this parallel time was created to monitor activity throughout 'time' and make the necessary changes to keep each century 'safe and secure'. Sort of, anyway.
Harlan is assigned a task in the 482nd Century in order to gauge what sort of Reality Change is necessary. While there he falls in love with Noys and is determined to ensure that the Reality Change doesn't affect her in anyway, even to the point of spiriting her off to the 100+ Century (where there seems to be nobody)
In its way it's a fascinating story, an interesting look at time travel. I did find this a bit over the top for the first 1/3 to 1/2 but as I got into it, I started enjoying the story and how many complexities there were. There were a number of enjoyable surprises as it started to wind down, turning it into a kind of nice mystery as well. By no means is this a perfect story. I found the writing pretty basic and the character development weak but the ideas and the ultimate story ended up grabbing my attention and I was very satisfied with the ending. For its relative shortness, it's worth trying this early work by Asimov, to see where his future stories and ideas were born. (3 stars)"
Currently Reading
"Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.
After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive."
A convict with a thirst for revenge.
A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.
A runaway with a privileged past.
A spy known as the Wraith.
A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.
A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.
Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist. Kaz's crew is the only thing that might stand between the world and destruction—if they don't kill each other first.
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo returns to the breathtaking world of the Grishaverse in this unforgettable tale about the opportunity—and the adventure—of a lifetime."
An international prize of over a million dollars was being offered to the first man to complete an interplanetary journey. Target -- Mars.
It was a race against time. The U.S., Russia, and England were again competitors, fighting for fame an fortune.
Dale Curtance of England didn't need the fortune. He was a millionaire. He was an eccentric. But most of all he was an adventurer and he was determined to win.
But winning was not going to be that easy. There were going to be many surprises. And they all began with the stowaway aboard Curtance's ship.
A stowaway to Mars."
Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.
Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.
Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."
In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.
Is it this world or the other that's the dream? And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined--one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe."
To everyone's surprise, Sir Oliver's elder son, who openly hated his father, inherits most of the estate. His wife, his daughter, and his younger son are each to receive the royalties from one carefully chosen book. But the manuscript of the unpublished volume left to Sir Oliver's wife -- a posthumous "last case" that might be worth millions -- has disappeared. And Sir Oliver's death is beginning to look less than natural.
Into this bitter household comes Inspector Meredith, a spirited Welshman who in some ways resembles Sir Oliver's fictional hero. In Robert Barnard's skillful hands, Inspector Meredith's investigation becomes not only a classic example of detection but an elegant and humorous slice of crime."
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