Books: Empty Smiles By Katherine Arden (2022)

“It’s been three months since Ollie made a daring deal with the smiling man to save those she loved, and then vanished without a trace. The smiling man promised Coco, Brian and Phil, that they’d have a chance to save her, but as time goes by, they begin to worry that the smiling man has lied to them and Ollie is gone forever. But finally, a clue surfaces. A boy who went missing at a nearby traveling carnival appears at the town swimming hole, terrified and rambling. He tells anyone who'll listen about the mysterious man who took him. How the man agreed to let him go on one condition: that he deliver a message. Play if you dare. Game on! The smiling man has finally made his move. Now it’s Coco, Brian, and Phil’s turn to make theirs. And they know just where to start. The traveling carnival is coming to Evansburg. Meanwhile, Ollie is trapped in the world behind the mist, learning the horrifying secrets of the smiling man's carnival, trying everything to help her friends find her. Brian, Coco and Phil will risk everything to rescue Ollie—but they all soon realize this game is much more dangerous than the ones before. This time the smiling man is playing for keeps. The summer nights are short, and Ollie, Coco, Brian, and Phil have only until sunrise to beat him once and for all—or it’s game over for everyone.”

In what is touted to be the last book in the Small Spaces Quartet, Empty Smiles brings everything to the head, but it also feels somewhat lacking. I’ve enjoyed this series immensely, as author Katherine Arden is able to create an atmospheric world of scary things, with children battling an evil known only as the smiling man. And three quarters of Empty Smiles is great, setting up what I hoped was a satisfying conclusion and some answers to a lot of questions. Arden leaves so many things unexplained and the conclusion feels rushed and unsatisfying. There is no explanation of who or what the smiling man is, and there is no closure for the reader. We are left with our fists clenched and all for nothing.

There is some creepy stuff here, like the attack on the Egg, which often reminded me of the Gentlemen creatures from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Hush. Arden’s talent is on great display here as the clowns (who are carnie people by day) attack Coco, Brian, and Phil’s family, turning them into dolls, which then reminded me of the Doctor Who episode Night Terrors. 

Ultimately, everything falls flat here. The stakes were high, yet the problem is so easily solved that even if I was a middle aged kid reading this book, I would be disappointed. So the book feels rushed, as if the author was trying to meet a pushed up deadline; too many questions left hanging, no real explanation of why the smiling man let everyone go, or why he was afraid of the Funhouse.

Perhaps this is not the end? Maybe she’ll continue the series or move the darker themes up to a more adult world? I mean, I could see her returning to these characters as teens or young adults. But maybe that’s wishful thinking?

Books: Fairy Tale By Stephen King (2022)

 

“Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets Howard Bowditch, a recluse with a big dog in a big house at the top of a big hill. In the backyard is a locked shed from which strange sounds emerge, as if some creature is trying to escape. When Mr. Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie the house, a massive amount of gold, a cassette tape telling a story that is impossible to believe, and a responsibility far too massive for a boy to shoulder. Because within the shed is a portal to another world—one whose denizens are in peril and whose monstrous leaders may destroy their own world, and ours. In this parallel universe, where two moons race across the sky, and the grand towers of a sprawling palace pierce the clouds, there are exiled princesses and princes who suffer horrific punishments; there are dungeons; there are games in which men and women must fight each other to the death for the amusement of the ‘Fair One.’ And there is a magic sundial that can turn back time.”

In many ways, the tale is a accumulation of King’s decades long run as the 20^th and 21^st Century’s generous gift as a storyteller. Here myth and Grimm’s dark fairy tales come to life in one his strongest books in years (and considering her rarely disappoints me, this saying something). It does take time going (a trait he’s always excelled at, though some may find boring), and the first 1/3 of the book is extraordinary, a mystery layered in shadows. His set up with Mr. Bowditch and Radar, the aging German Shepherd, reminded me a lot of King’s shorter fiction, in particular Mr. Harrigan's Phone from his If It Bleeds book. That too had a young man interacting with a grouchy old man.

The rest of the book plays homage to some of his earlier work, including The Talisman, Eye of the Dragon, and The Dark Tower series (there are other worlds than these). It’s a fantasy novel wrapped into horror, as King seemly decides that original Grimm Fairy Tales are better than the Disney version of such tales as The Little Mermaid.

I will say, once again, King’s young hero is a bit anachronistic. If Charlie is 17 in 2013, his knowledge of, say He-Man and the Master’s of the Universe is bit off. That original series ran in the 1980s, and in the early aught’s I don’t think the show aired much in syndication. And apparently he also absorbed a lot of movies that aired on classic movie cable channel, TMC, during his Dad’s alcoholic days, because he drops quotes often (also, TMC get’s called out a lot here). My point is, maybe King should be asking his grandkids what is cool today, or asked someone who actually grew up in this period, because it’s another reminder of writer’s obsession with his early childhood and how it doesn’t really work in his novels set in the current time period.

Overall, a grand book with typical slow parts; he could’ve excised about a 120 pages, really. Also, this was the second book I’ve read recently that featured a world with two Moons, both with names. Wesley Chu’s latest, The Art of Prophecy, and now King’s Fairy Tale. Great writers sometimes think alike.

Books: The Exchameleon: Starpirate’s Brain By Ron Goulart (1987)

 

“Ben Jolson, former member of the glalactic Chameleon Corps and reluctant private detective, returns in his toughest case yet. Someone has stolen the brainchip containing the mind of notorious space pirate Jackland Boggs, and Jolson must find the culprit and recover the chip. But there's a lot of valuable -- and dangerous -- secrets in that missing chip. And Boggs has a lot of enemies, including beautiful rival pirate Flame Flenniken; the strong-arm apeman called the Whispering Gorilla; Lt. Hillman of the Territorial Police Murder Squad; and the evil cyborg Professor Tincan. Jolson and his new partner Sniffer, a state-of-the-art mechanical dog with a nasty disposition, have their hands full. Then when another, renegade exchameleon enters the picture, Jolson must use all his wits to see through his enemy's clever disguises -- and stay alive.”

It's a another madcap romp from the twisted mind of Ron Goulart, with extra doses of over-the-top silliness as Ben encounters the pirate queen Flame Flenniken, the Whispering Gorilla, and the evil cyborg Professor Tincan, all in pursuit of the brain (or, really a chip) of notorious space pirate Jackland Boggs (who has hid money, political secrets, and other unsavory stuff across the Barnum system). I really liked the premise of this book –a real great sci-fi idea that is played for laughs here, but in different hands, could’ve worked as a serious noir detective story like Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep (or, Blade Runner).

Books: Doctor Who: The Return of Robin Hood by Paul Magrs (2022)

 

"Gold had come to the greenwood . . .Robin Hood is disenchanted. Maid Marion has disappeared, and the legend of the Doctor has retreated into the shadows of Sherwood Forest. But the Doctor is back! (Although this is his first visit - time travel does strange things to a story.)And the timing couldn't be better. A new Sheriff of Nottingham is in town, out to get the Outlaws, and behind the scenes, the mythical Mother Maudlin has designs on the realm that are not of this earth. With the Kingdom in peril, it's time for the return of the Lionheart."

Set just after the 12^th Season serial Revenge of the Cybermen and before The Terror of the Zygons, The Return of Robin Hood has the Fourth Doctor meeting Robin of Locksley for the first time, but not the first time Robin has met the Doctor. As with modern Doctor Who, the story is takes on some timey-wimey aspects, as its set about twenty years after the Twelfth Doctor and Clara met the Prince of Thieves in the episode The Robots of Sherwood.

Magrs remains a witty writer, and he captures the voice of the TARDIS cast from season twelve very well, especially Harry Sullivan. But I sense this would’ve actually been a better story had it featured K9 and Romana, and set around season seventeen of the Classic Series. Unlike most tales dealing with Robin Hood, King Richard the Lionheart and his brother King John (the pretend King), we get a more realized, more truthful historical version of era –Magrs goes out his way to point out how bad both King Richard and King John were (and despite his awfulness, King John did sign the Manga Carta). Still, there are some historical flaws within the story, including setting it two decades after the Twelfth Doctor story (reality is Richard was King from 1189 to 1199, ten years, so how does this timeline work?). Also having the Doctor referred by the name Doctor Who is distracting –as much as it was when WOTAN called the Time Lord that in the First Doctor serial The War Machines.

As the third book in this Penguin Kids series, it’s still a fine, easy to read tale. It’s always nice to read a Fourth Doctor story, even if the story has some glaring plot holes which left me slightly frustrated.