Books: Phases of Gravity By Dan Simmons (1989)

"Richard Baedecker, a divorced former astronaut who walked on the moon, has hit a professional and personal low by the late ’80s. He still mourns the Challenger disaster, hates his mediocre civilian job, and can’t connect with his grown son. When he visits his son in India, Baedecker falls in love with his son’s friend Maggie, who shows him around the country and later meets him while climbing a mountain in Colorado. His travels, which take him to his Illinois birthplace and a colleague’s funeral in rural Oregon, are interspersed with flashbacks to his days at NASA. It's a story about a man's search: for love, for friendship, for family. Along the way, he'll solve a mystery."

 I find Dan Simmons’ Phases of Gravity hard to categorize. It’s not fantasy, horror, or science fiction –genre the author is well known for (Simmons is not known to stay in one lane, which I think makes him unique in a world that forces writers into one genre, book after book).  It borders on philosophy, with doses of speculative fiction and some element of magic as well. But ultimately, it may be just a novel about a former astronaut who walked on the moon who now is facing middle age and is sort of bored with his world, his life. His travels through this book show a man desperate for deeper connection in his life, but seems unsure who to turn to, the free-spirit Maggie, his son, or his two former astronauts –one who has turned to God and the other who has become a congressman. But all give him something to cling to. Since the book is set after the Challenger disaster, Simmons’ does comment on the differences between old NASA days when everyone was excited to land on the moon, and the days of the space shuttle, which now (until January 1986) was ever hardly noticed. Though, those ideals began to wane even in the Apollo days, along with Richard Nixon’s less than enthusiastic love for space travel.  

Some will find Simmons narrative style a bit difficult to get used to, as he jumbles the chronology of the book so that it can be confusing if he’s in the present (1988) or somewhere else along Richard’s timeline. There were parts that I liked, like when he returned to his small Illinois town of Glen Oak (which is probably near the town Elm Haven, which will appear in his later horror novels), but his time spent with Tom Gavin (one of his fellow astronauts) gets weird and while Simmons paints these Born Again Christians respectively, you also sense (like Maggie’s mantra, “I believe in the richness and mystery of the universe; and I don’t believe in the supernatural”) Simmons’ is making a statement about religion in an off-handed and sometimes mean way.

Phases of Gravity was released in 1989, the same year as his Hugo Award winning sci-fi novel Hyperion was published, so I can see where this book got lost in the shuffle. Still, even as an early work by this author, it well written -even if not everyone of his fans will like it.

Books: Once & Future By Amy Rose Capetta & Cori McCarthy (2019)

"When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward over the centuries into a teenager, and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind." 

Oddly, despite my love of fantasy, the whole Arthurian legend and the bazillion retelling’s that have come out over the centuries, have never really caught my interest (though I still have a copy of  T.H. White's The Once and Future King, I'm not sure I'll ever read it) over the centuries, have never really caught my interest. However, I did get this book at the LA Festival of Books this past April, as it was suggested by a dear friend of mine who happens to like this these tales. The difference here was that this tale of Arthur and his Knights was going to be told from the point of view of a young girl -who reaches out and grabs for Excalibur. Now gender swapping has become a big issue in media these days, especially with the recent announcement that the next Thor movie will have Oscar winner Natalie Portman becoming the new God of Thunder. So this book won’t be for those who have issues with male characters (especially these hero types) being rewritten as women. In addition, LGBTQA inclusiveness is part of this universe, to such a point that anything else is jarring out of place for the characters (and maybe to some readers). Therefore, for folks who like to find heroes that represent them in books, those boys and girls who are fluid, gay, bi, pan or whatever, it is here in this new series.

While I did like Once & Future, I do believe the authors -Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy- attempt at social commentary, along with its blend of sci-fi (no timeline is revealed, however it seems a fairly distant future) and quirky comedy (the closest comparison is Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy),  made for a weirdly paced novel. We get a lot of action that goes all pell-mell and then just as quickly, the book settles into more introspective plotting about the dangers of capitalism and trying to defeat the all-powerful Mercer Corporation and romantic pairings of the characters. The problem is a lot of that is dull and predictable, and it has done better in other works (even WALL-E’s subtle criticism on some of these subjects was more on point). Then the rom-com aspect toddle's along (some of the pairs seemed forced, including the Ari and Gwen relationship) along with the writers juxtaposition commentary on the destruction and pollution of Earth, illegal immigration, along with tales of massacres and genocide, and in a great soap opera fashion, familial betrayals.

What I did like was the whole reincarnation aspect of Arthur and Merlin. This one begins the 42^nd cycle (borrowing an in-joke from Douglas Adams, I think. Also, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) rebirth of the King and his trusty wizard. As noted, the book makes Arthur a female (maybe another subtle reference to the Thirteen Doctor being a women on Doctor Who, and which has also hinted from time to time over it’s five decade run, that the Doctor was/is Merlin?) and has Merlin aging in reverse (so now he’s a skinny twinkish teenager in love with a boy). Merlin also recounts (mostly to himself) and with the ghostly image of Morgana, the other versions of Arthur and their adventures, along with how he feels guilty on the times he’s failed each incarnation. But the whole cycle about Arthur obtaining Excalibur, Arthur falling into a doomed romance with Guinevere, and Morgana finally killing him is a fairly interesting when the sword chooses Ari and Merlin feels that this may be the one last attempt at breaking the whole sequence of events.

But the concurrence of the fluffy romantic comedy, a fantasy wizard existing in a science fiction universe, and a lot of queer romances -along with the whole violence and darkness of the Mercer Corporation- does make Once & Future suffer just a tad.

Books: Brothers Keepers By Donald E. Westlake (1975/2019)

"For nearly two centuries, a small order of monks has lived on New York’s Park Avenue. Through the rise of skyscrapers and crush of so many people living in the city, they’ve managed to keep their monastery safe from capitalism thanks in large part to a ninety-nine year lease. But one December Saturday, these monks are surprised to learn that the lease is almost up and that their entire block is about to be sold to build a new office building. As part of the attempts to save their building, Brother Benedict is forced to Travel from his beloved quiet monastery life several times to deal with the family that holds the lease. He also will need to deal with the business people who are buying it. Things become complicated for Brother Benedict when he meets and falls in love with the daughter –whose father holds said lease. Thus, Brother Benedict is forced into a battle of conscious, questioning whether he belongs with her or with his fellow monks. And in the battle of love, war, and New York real estate, nothing is as it seems."

Originally published in 1975, and later re-issued in the early 1980s by Mysterious Press, Brothers Keepers in now back in print after 30 years, released under the Hard Case Crime imprint (great new cover, as well). However, there is not much in the way of crime going on here. The closest, I guess, to having some crime (beyond the greed of men) comes about a quarter into the book when a copy of lease they’ve finally found (in a hilarious scene set in a dusty, dirty attic) that will prevent them from being evicted is stolen. A question arises on how anyone outside the monastery knew of the find, leading some fellow monks to ponder if was an inside job, or has someone managed to infiltrate the monastery without anyone noticing?

Beyond that, Brothers Keepers just showcases the kind of careful and precise character building Westlake seems to do with ease (even though most of the other monks get little in the way of personalities -but then again, most of them are not essential to the story). And his innate ability to add humor and curmudgeonly quirkiness to his characters and make them still endearing is another well earned talent.

But the book is fun and a reminder why New York of the 1970s may have been the best and oddest times to live in. It may not be laugh out loud funny like a lot of his Dortmunder tales, but the wry humor and Wes Anderson style setting (had Wes Anderson been around then) and dialogue surely will keep many amused.

Books: What Lies Buried By Margaret Kirk (2019)

Once again, I will note I happen to know the writers brother, so I’m still going to give my best review.

"Ten year-old Erin is missing; taken in broad daylight during a friend's birthday party. With no witnesses and no leads, DI Lukas Mahler races against time to find her. But is it already too late for Erin - and will her abductor stop at one stolen child? And the discovery of human remains on a construction site near Inverness confronts Mahler's team with a cold case from the 1940s. Was Aeneas Grant's murder linked to a nearby POW camp, or is there an even darker story to be uncovered? With his team stretched to the limit, Mahler's hunt for Erin's abductor takes him from Inverness to the Lake District. And decades-old family secrets link both cases in a shocking final twist."

What Lies Buried is the second Lukas Mahler story and is a gripping tale about an ugly, but very realistic subject of child abduction. There is also an additional sub-plots dealing with a 70 year-old murder and Mahler’s ongoing association with local crime boss Carl “Cazza” Mackay that gets a new wrinkle when it looks like someone is trying kill MacKay.

It’s a fast-paced story, and Kirk easily keeps all the threads of tale from unraveling –though I could do less with the Andy Black and his questionable tactics with his police work and his silly rivalry with Mahler.  While I understand the male ego, it’s very clear Andy’s moral compass is compromised and it irritates me that no one else see’s this. Maybe this is what cops do; ignore some of the other cops obvious flaws just because there is this “brotherhood” among them. And as clever as June Wallace, Mahler’s boss, I’m surprised how much she lets Black get away with. Sometimes I felt it made her a bit of a dim bulb. Also, I felt the whole issue with the Chief –Wallace’s boss- was too much Eastenders, to borrow a British soap opera title. Look, I understand that everyone wants things to be resolved nice and neat, and the press will hound police, but it all seems too predictable soap opera tropes.

This book also sets up the third yet-to-be-released third Lukas Mahler story, ending on a cliffhanger. This may explain why some story points are not resolved (unless I missed it), like why one of the girls who goes missing is later found dead. Why she died is never fully explained (though it’s later revealed that the girl’s disappearance is connected to events sometime prior), and there was no trauma on the girls body, so why was she murdered?

I liked the book, though and will look forward towards book three. But I do hope that Kirk winds down some of sub-plots (like who’s trying to destroy Cazza MacKay), as they do sometimes distract from the main plot.