Books: The Fifth Heart By Dan Simmons (2015)

Dan Simmons started his writing career penning novels in the horror genre, tales like his 1985 debut Carrion Comfort. But while he wrote other books like A Winter Haunting, Summer of Night, and Song of Kali, he turned to science fiction in 1989 with his critically acclaimed Hyperion Cantos and IIium/Olypos books. He's also written a mystery series under the name of Joe Kurtz. In 2007 he began taking on historical fiction, starting with The Terror, a fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's doomed attempt of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to force the Northwest Passage in 1845–1848. In the novel, Franklin and his crew are plagued by starvation and scurvy and forced to contend with mutiny and cannibalism, but they're also being stalked across the Arctic landscape by some sort of monster. He followed that up with 2009's Drood, which was about the final five years of Charles Dickens life as struggled to finish what would be his last (and never finished) book, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The novel is narrated by Dickens' friend, novelist Wilkie Collins. Like The Terror, the plot mixes fiction and biographical facts, but because Collins spent a good number of years under the influence of opium, and it's derivative, laudanum, author Simmons gave us an unreliable narrator so long time fans of Dickens could not take umbrage with the acts that take place in the book. 

I've read both of the books, and enjoyed them. I skipped over, but still own, Simmons 2011 novel Black Hills and his 2013 Abominable (which I don't own, but still want to read). Both of those books continued his current run of mixing fiction with history. Which leads us to his latest novel The Fifth Heart. 

I admit I'm not a Sherlock Holmes fan and have never read a Henry James novel, but the idea of the Great Detective getting a Portrait of a Lady author mixed up in a murder mystery that spans London, New York, Washington, and Chicago was too tempting to pass up. Plus, with my fondness for history, Simmons books are always a fun read. 

It's London in1893, and a despondent Henry James has decided to end his life. But as he stands on the precipice between life and the undiscovered country, he discovers he's not the only one under the bridge contemplating their demise that night. Indeed, it appears that Sherlock Holmes (whom James always assumed was a fictional construct) is waiting for him. Holmes convinces Henry James that they need to travel to America to solve a mystery because James is a well know friend of the family. The murder mystery part begins, actually in 1885 with the suicide death of Clover Adams, wife of the esteemed historian Henry Adams -member of the Adams family that has given the United States two Presidents. Clover's death appears to be more than it at first seemed; the suspected foul play may also involve matters of national importance. Holmes is currently on his Great Hiatus -his three-year absence after Reichenbach Falls during which time the people of London believe him to be deceased. But apparently, Holmes has faked his own death because, through his powers of ratiocination, the great detective has come to the conclusion that he is a fictional character. This leads to serious complications for James -for if his esteemed fellow investigator is merely a work of fiction, what does that make him? And what can the master storyteller do to fight against the sinister power -possibly named Moriarty- that may or may not be controlling them from the shadows?

Once again, Dan Simmons takes us on journey into the past, mixing real history with fiction. We get another unreliable narrator -by the fact that we never learn who is actually writing the book. Well, obviously it's Simmons, but we get another writer who jumps in once in a while, one who is never identified (is it Simmons? Henry James? Arthur Conan Doyle? John Watson?). Still, the book reads like a buddy comedy film at times as well, which I actually think makes the narrative work better than his previous journeys into the historical fiction genre. It's a long book, well over 600 pages and while dense with real history, you cannot help but like the cantankerous Henry James, who ends up being the perfect foil for Holmes antics. It's also fun when we meet real life figures like Teddy Roosevelt (very bullish) and Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain (and whom I pictured asactor Jerry Hardin, who played a version of Twain the Star Trek: The Next Generation 2-part episode Time's Arrow. There is also a visit to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, the same one featured in Erik Larson's nonfiction book The Devil in the White City.

We do get a bit of metaphysical antics about whether Holmes is real person, who's life has been fictionalized by author John Watson and published by his editor, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in The Strand. There is also some "meta" aspects to as well, and up until Holmes mentioned Hercule Poirot, I was going to give the novel the benefit of the doubt. This book also made me think of the classic short film An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge at the beginning. 

Still, out of all his recent historical fiction books, this was the breeziest of them all and one many -including Sherlock Holmes fans- will enjoy. 

Books: Holy Cow By David Duchovny (2015)

To be honest, I had no intention to read a book called Holy Cow by actor David Duchovny. I had taken my last book I finished, Willful Child, back to the library and instead of leaving it in the outside receptacle, I went in. And this is a huge mistake most of the time. I mean, I already had another book checked out, Dan Simmons The Fifth Heart, and I planned to start that. But then I saw Holy Cow, noticed it was by Duchovny, read the premise and I knew I had to read it.

Elsie Bovary is a cow, and a pretty happy one at that—her long, lazy days are spent eating, napping, and chatting with her best friend, Mallory. One night, Elsie and Mallory sneak out of their pasture; but while Mallory is interested in flirting with the neighboring bulls, Elsie finds herself drawn to the farmhouse. Through the window, she sees the farmer’s family gathered around a bright Box God—and what the Box God reveals about something called an “industrial meat farm” shakes Elsie’s understanding of her world to its core. There’s only one solution: escape to a better, safer world. And so a motley crew is formed: Elsie; Jerry—excuse me, Shalom—a cranky, Torah-reading pig who’s recently converted to Judaism; and Tom, a suave (in his own mind, at least) turkey who can’t fly, but who can work an iPhone with his beak. Toting stolen passports and slapdash human disguises, they head for the airport. 

My one question, though, is what he hell the book is really about. Duchovny tries a sort of mash up a Pixar film along with George Orwell's Animal Farm but then he goes off on topics such as vegetarianism, peace in the Middle East, religion and the oddities of actors. It's often goofy, bizarre and weird. Elsie, and her bff Mallory, talk like modern teens, but then Elsie goes off on extended rants about animal cruelty. Then there is the equally strange left turn the book takes towards the end, as our characters become involved with the religious conflict in the Middle East -apparently it involves a pig and Jews and the Muslims hatred of the beast (I wonder if Washington D.C. is aware of this simple solution).

I understand that it's a parable, but the book is too busy to be really taken seriously. I never felt that Duchovny was trying to say anything beyond creating a novel (for adults? for kids?) with a lot of ideas sandwiched in. He seems to not want to commit to one idea, or say one thing that might actually be meaningful. It all reads, in the end, like screenplay for an animated film. One totally bizarre animated film. 

Books: Willful Child By Steven Erikson (2014)

There was Spaceballs, which parody Star Wars. Then there was Galaxy Quest, which parody Star Trek. These were two big budget films that took on two very popular franchises. And while parodying of both have been going on for decades in fanzines, on TV (Futurama in particular) and even books,  most are done by fans who lack a large media company to support them.

And while John Scalzi could be considered a fan of Star Trek (as many writers of the genre are these days, having grown up with it), he is also a well known science fiction writer who won acclaim for his Old Man's War series. He's also published numerous short stories and has a brilliant daily blog called Whatever. But in 2012 he released Redshirts, a send-up of the Star Trek franchise, in particular The Next Generation, but he tackled a lot in that book. It won rave reviews and, to everyone's surprise, the prestigious Hugo for Best Novel.

So true to form in the publishing industry, as in most multimedia, publishers want a piece of the pie that comes with the success of Redshirts. Namely popular fantasy writer Steven Erikson's late 2014 novel Willful Child. 

"These are the voyages of the starship, A.S.F. Willful Child. Its ongoing mission: to seek out strange new worlds on which to plant the Terran flag, to subjugate and if necessary obliterate new life life-forms, to boldly blow the…"

And so we join the not-terribly-bright but exceedingly cock-sure Captain Hadrian Sawback a mixture of James T Kirk crossed with Futuama's Zapp Brannigan- and his motley crew on board the Starship Willful Child for a series of devil-may-care, near-calamitous and downright chaotic adventures through 'the infinite vastness of interstellar space'...

Having not read Erikson before, I still thought it might be fun to read another well-know author take on Star Trek (because even though I love it, I'm always up for people making fun of it). Sawback is a complete idiot and misogynistic ass. There are reasons for it, but you have to slug through nearly 350 pages of story to understand it. Yet even so, he's still unlikable, which makes it difficult to like the entire book. The only fun part, however, is to see how many episodes of TOS that Erikson takes on. But over all I felt the book was too Family Guy potty humor than clever, well thought-out gags. The female crew members are intelligent -and we know Sawback choose them primarily for their looks- but they're still smarter than the captain. And yet Erickson does not allow them to get the better of Sawback, which is something I think should've happened here. There is no comeuppance for the captain's incompetence towards his crew and that makes me, the reader, wonder if this is how the author really sees women -sexy, smart, but always having to acquiescence to a man. Yes, Sawback can be seen clever in his solutions, but Erickson (via the character) writes women pretty horridly here.

I was curious, as I got towards the end, how Erikson was going to tie-in the prologue and I got to admit, he did it wonderfully -even if I have issues with the characters. 

Books: I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett (2010)

I suppose, in some sense, the creation of Tiffany Aching by Terry Pratchett came because of the success of the Harry Potter franchise. This happens a lot in almost every aspect of media, as publishers are quick to jump on the bandwagon once other publisher takes a certain financial risk. Then again, Scholastic Books, which published J.K. Rowlings Harry Potter books, has been releasing kids books for decades, but it took the huge success of that franchise for other publishers to see that there was profit in what was now being addressed as Young Adult book (as opposed to intermediate readers of say The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia). The huge success of the Twilight and The Hunger Games series would have never probably happened if those books ended up in the horror and science fiction sections of bookstores. By branding and marketing towards teens, by creating a middle part beaten kids and adult books, publishers and authors saw a large leap in reading. Which is always good. Whether the books are well written, that's debatable. 

Still, Pratchett had a long and established career writing adult novels. Yes they're satirical, yes they were parodies of the fantasy genre, but most of the Discworld novels were well written with jokes and some situations that were adult-ish in nature. And whether the creation of Tiffany Aching (though Ysabell, the adopted daughter of Death and Susan, his granddaughter are very much the templates that would eventually become Tiffany) was Pratchett's idea or his publisher, the British author joined a list of writers who were generally known for more advanced aged readers and started writing books for a much younger crowd.

Still, like Rowling before him, Pratchett's Aching novels take on a lot of adult issues. And in I Shall Wear Midnight, the 38th Discworld book and fourth featuring Tiffany, the lines between young adult and the adult world get blurred. And much like the last book, Tiffany Aching is still working as the Chalk's only witch at a time of growing suspicion and prejudice. And as modern as Discworld can seem to be, it is clear that Pratchett's universe is set at time before the industrial revolution, a time when reason and logic was surpressed in favor of superstition and fear.

The Baron, who rules the land and who has been ill for years (and is the father of Roland, whom Tiffany saved in Wee Free Men) and whom Tiffany has been taking care of for the last two years, finally dies she is accused of murder. It seems the Duchess (who resembles The Dursely's), the mother of Letita who is Roland's fiancee, does not like Tiffany because she is a witch. At the time of the Baron's passing, Tiffany was taking away his pain by using a poker. This and money the Baron wanted Tiffany to have convinces the Duchess the witch killed the man. But, of course, Tiffany is a bit clever and before much can happen, she travels to Ankh-Morpork in search of Roland to give the sad news. But on the way Tiffany is attacked by the Cunning Man, a frightening figure who has holes where his eyes should be. In the city she meets Mrs Proust, the proprietor of Boffo's joke shop, where many witches buy their stereotypical witch accoutrements. When they find Roland and Letitia the Nac Mac Feegles, who have, as usual, been following Tiffany, are accused of destroying a pub. Tiffany and Mrs Proust are arrested by Carrot and Angua, and (nominally) locked up - although it is mostly, in fact, for their protection as people start to resent witches. But it is here that Tiffany meets Eskarina Smith (a character that has not been seen since the third Discworld novel Equal Rites) and learns that the Cunning Man was, a thousand years ago, an Omnian witch-finder, who had fallen in love with a witch. That witch, however, knew how evil the Cunning Man was. She was eventually burnt to death, but as she was being burned she trapped the Cunning Man in the fire as well. The Cunning Man became a demonic spirit of pure hatred, able to corrupt other minds with suspicion and hate. And now the Cunning Man (who first became aware of her because of the events of Wintersmith) is after her. 

With some knowledge of how to block the Cunning Man from finding her, Tiffany returns home to the Chalk, only to find things in disarray: the new Baron has his soldiers digging up the Feegle's mound. Even though she stops them, Roland throws her in the dungeon. But it is here we learn all of this was the doing of the Cunning Man and Tiffany also learns that Letitia is an untrained witch. But as events move towards a funeral and a wedding, Tiffany finds herself confronting the the Cunning Man, who has overtaken the body of a prisoner. And despite the many witches that have gathered for the historic events, Tiffany knows the only one who can defeat the evil is her.

As I said, this fourth book gets a little more adult, as in the opening chapters Tiffany must deal with the Seth Petty, a man who has attacked his own thirteen year-old daughter who has gotten pregnant. In hurting her, Mr Petty has killed his unborn grandson and it's up to 16 year-old Tiffany to deal with the consequences. There is some very adult things here, probably things some adults may not want their children reading, yet if we look at history and go back in time to England's medieval past, issues like this, while horrible, probably happened. I applaud Pratchett for trying to balance this reality in his lovely fictional world of Discworld. There is also the continued issue of responsibility along with cause and effect. It never occurs to Tiffany that her actions of kissing the Wintersmith would draw the attention of the Cunning Man, yet she knows clearly that it is her and her alone that must confront the evil, even while taking care of everyone around the Chalk. And I give credit to Pratchett who does not use the deus ex machina to solve all of Tiffany's problems, that the very smart, very quick witted teenager must solv her problems with great thought. It's a rarity in fiction where the hero does this.

Notee 1: Since I'm not reading these novels in order of publication, I'm sure I'm missing bits and pieces of information that get played out here. I know certain characters, in particular the witches, come from other books I've yet to read (there are six books in his witches cycle) and that the Cunning Man is the spirit of a long-dead priest of Omnianism, a religion established in Small Gods is referred to many times throughout other books. I have plans to get to them over the coming weeks and months. I hope that I continue to read them, I get a better understanding of Discworld and of Pratchett's view on the human condition. 

Note 2: On September 25, 2015 we'll see Terry Pratchett's final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown. Once again, it will feature Tiffany Aching. And now I feel sadness, despite the fact I have many other Discworld novels yet to go. I guess, maybe, because there is an end in sight with this final novel? I like Tiffany a lot and I will be sad this fall when I read her final adventure. Maybe though, as I mentioned at the end of my Wintersmith review, his daughter Rihanna will take over this magically odd universe. If she is half as talented as her father, I would be happy to see this world continue...

Books: Wintersmith By Terry Pratchett (2006)

Let us now return to Discworld with Wintersmith, the 35th novel set there and the third featuring Tiffany Aching. Almost two years have passed since the last book and Tiffany is still in training as a witch. She spends her days with Miss Treason, a scary witch who -like many other witches of Discworld- use very little magical power and more common sense. In many ways, these witches are more like wise woman of stereotypical small towns, helping solve land, chicken, and cow problems. Helping the sick and the infirm and being the midwife to all that are born. But as a soon-to-be thirteen year-old, Tiffany still feels lost. She misses her family, and even Roland the son of the sickly Baron (and whom Tifffany rescued in Wee Free Men from the Queen of the Elves). As a matter of fact, she's not sure if she even has feelings for Roland, despite the sense that everyone around her thinks she does. Things get complicated when Tiffany is taken to see the Dark Dance, or the Morris Dancers, that is the crossover between summer into winter. Caught up in the beauty of it all, Tiffany does what no else has ever done -she leaps into the dance. This propels her into one of the oldest stories ever told and draws the attention of the Wintersmith. But as an elemental, the Wintersmith does not know humans. So as Tiffany, with help from Granny Weatherwax and, of course, the Nac Mc Feegle, tries to deal with the consequences of her actions -as giant Tiffany-shaped snowflakes hammer down along with giant Tiffany-shaped icebergs causing ship wrecks- Tiffany must figure out how to stop a god bent on becoming human. Of course, even this elemental has never met an Aching who is backed up by a group of blue pictsies who will do a lot of fighting' and thievin' to save their "big wee hag."

What makes these young adult books work is that Pratchett does not water down the themes for kids. As a matter of fact, he seems to think there is no reason to forgo those ideas, which makes for a wonderful, very touching and always funny tale. Tiffany, through her own blundering, must figure out how to save herself and the people around her from the Wintersmith, who really does not know or comprehend the damage he does. This theme of responsibility is woven through out the book. We see her lose a fellow witch, though the sadness is lessened a bit by a cameo appearance of Death. But there is a deep philosophy here about death and about acceptance of it. And Pratchett goes out of his way to alleviate the superstitiousness of witches (apparently there a store where witches can buy everything you would find in tales about witches. It reminded me of the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. Picture her not as evil, but as helpful -yet bitter- woman who must put on the "face" of a witch because no one believe witches could look normal) along with just everything else. And while there is some seriousness to the tale, there is plenty of humor in the form of the ever brave, Nac Mac Freegle. 

The Hijacking of the Hugos

In the universe of science fiction writing, there are two very prestigious awards, the Nebulas and the Hugos. And to put it in a certain vernacular, the Nebulas are the Emmy Awards, while the Hugos are The People's Choice Awards. Over the decades, both awards have generally followed the same path of announcing the same list of people and titles nominated for those awards, sort of the way The Golden Globes and The Oscar's lists are generally the same. 

But while The People's Choice Awards is generally considered silly and sort of pointless, the Hugos (with titles, categories and authors selected by every day readers of the genre) still carries an important achievement for writers of speculative fiction, be it in novels, short stories, or fanzines. But recently, a self-proclaimed group of conservative writers and fans in this field call Sad Puppies, are trying to hijack the Hugos, because, as writer and orchestrator of the Sad Puppies Brad Torgersen, is claiming that the winners always tend to be in the "literary" and (shockingly) "ideological" in style. As Torgersen has blogged, the Hugo's “have lost cachet, because at the same time SF/F has exploded popularly – with larger-than-life, exciting, entertaining franchises and products – the voting body of ‘fandom’ have tended to go in the opposite direction: niche, academic, overtly to the Left in ideology and flavor, and ultimately lacking what might best be called visceral, gut-level, swashbuckling fun”.

He adds that twenty years ago, “if you saw a lovely spaceship on a book cover, with a gorgeous planet in the background, you could be pretty sure you were going to get a rousing space adventure featuring starships and distant, amazing worlds”. In his opinion, today if you see that same book, it's “merely about racial prejudice and exploitation, with interplanetary or interstellar trappings".

And this year's effort to get authors the Sad Puppies believe should be nominated on the Hugos shortlist was rather successful, with three of the five best novel candidates being books by Kevin J. Anderson, Jim Butcher and Marko Kloos. But this has also opened a huge can of political worms, as authors like David Gerrold, George RR Martin, and John Scalzi have tried to figure out if this is a good or bad thing. 

Yes, all awards handed out are generally tinged with politics, but the Hugo's were generally thought to be politically free because the voting bloc was made up common people, so to speak. But in Torgersen's theory is that in the last twenty years, the book industry has been baiting and switching with deceptive covers:

"There’s a sword-swinger on the cover, but is it really about knights battling dragons? Or are the dragons suddenly the good guys, and the sword-swingers are the oppressive colonizers of Dragon Land? A planet, framed by a galactic backdrop. Could it be an actual bona fide space opera? Heroes and princesses and laser blasters? No, wait. It’s about sexism and the oppression of women. Finally, a book with a painting of a person wearing a mechanized suit of armor! Holding a rifle! War story ahoy! Nope, wait. It’s actually about gay and transgender issues. Or it could be about the evils of capitalism and the despotism of the wealthy." In the end, he thinks that "once reliable packaging" has "defrauded" the readers (which is, I think, his explanation of why Science Fiction and Fantasy book sales have tumbled).

But there is a bigger issue here, I think. Science fiction, speculative fiction, call it what you will, has always been about big ideas. It's also been about reflecting the ills of today's society by using science fiction as template to exam social issues as well. Authors like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clark and John W. Campbell told those "swashbuckling" tales and steered away from social commentary, but mostly because when they were writing during the "Golden Age of Science Fiction", it was also the era when social norms dictated that the mainstream media -that would include movies and eventually TV, along with books- stay away from any issue that might be deemed controversial (and then there's the whole issue of women writing science fiction, see Andre Norton and DC Fontana for that). Which meant the social ills of America, always there and always lying just below the surface, could not be discussed because, as  The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling pointed out as far back as back as 1959, that artist "always have compromise" because network TV back then was heavily influenced by "a sponsor", or a "pressure group, a network censor" and getting people upset was a career killer (Serling wrote and spoke extensively about 1950's TV. This interview with Mike Wallace shows how, in many ways, we are still pretty backwards nation when it comes to telling stories that make people think). 

Also, let's realize not just in the last twenty years, but probably well over the last five decades, the field of not only science fiction, but the whole world has become diverse and very complicated. And that's the crux of the conservatives problems, that white straight men are being subjugated by large groups of minorities (liberals, feminists, gays, blacks, etcetera) because no one knows their place anymore. But the folks that have allied themselves with Torgersen, including a group of right-wingers who call themselves Rabid Puppies and led by Vox Day (real name is Theodore Beale) and who've added their voices to the block-voting campaign, are nothing but a group of hate willed white men who feel they're being repressed because awards like the Nebulas and Hugos usually go for quality over quantity. Day has claimed that "the left-wing control freaks who have subjected science fiction to ideological control" are the same people who are trying to muck up the "game industry". Then there is John C Wright, a writer who is known for his homophobic views and who is backed by the Sad Puppies, and who has three nominations for best novella, and one for best novelette and one for best related work. His own website took on the creators of the Legend of Korra, calling them "disgusting, limp, soulless sacks of filth" for having romantic relationship between two women.  

So whatever Torgersen is trying to do here -whether awards should be given to popular books (and look, I have nothing against Jim Butcher, but his Dresden File books are no where near what anyone would call speculative of old; they're well written pop-fiction, but not designed to stand the test of time. Then again, neither was John Scalzi's Redshirts. I was surprised as Scalzi was that not only was the book nominated, it won as well), versus books that have little in the way of sales, but are critical darlings- is being overshadowed by ultra-right-wing conservatives who once again are attacking intellectualism. 

In the end, this could beg the question that if the conservative speculative writer feels the Hugos and the Nebulas are not representative of their values, they why not just start their own awards, as George R R Martin suggests: "Best Conservative SF, or Best Space Opera, or Best Military SF, or Best Old-Fashioned SF the Way It Used to Be." I don't think anyone would have an issue with that, especially considering award shows are a dime a dozen these days. 

But then I can understand why they wouldn't. The Hugos have been around since 1953, but the idea of creating a "conservative" science fiction award that would carry the same weight and prestige as the Hugos or the Nebulas would be a daunting task (I mean, yeah the Golden Globes have been around forever, but only in the last decade or so has even the networks taken them seriously). “But that’s not what they are doing, " Martin adds. "Instead they seem to want to take the Hugos and turn them into their own awards."

I mean, how is hijacking the Hugos going to stop diversity in science fiction?

Books: A Hat Full of Sky By Terry Pratchett (2004)

A Hat Full of Sky, which is Terry Pratchett's 32nd Discworld novel and second featuring Tiffany Aching, takes place two years after the events of Wee Free Men (where our heroine saved Chalk from the Queen of Fairyland). Now at 11 years old, Tiffany is leaving the Chalk to learn witching from Miss Level, a singularly talented witch (and a in-joke on British A Levels). Meanwhile, changes are afoot for the Nac Mac Feegle clan as well, as the new Kelda, Jeanine of the Long Lake, is bound and determined to bring her blue boys into the current century by telling them they must learn to read and write. Of course, for the Pictsie leader, the idea of doing what the Kelda requests is filled with dark implications. Especially since, as Rob Anybody notes, "Words stay." But before this can begin, the Nac Mac Feegle realize an ancient evil called the hiver is stalking their "wee big hag." The hiver is a entity attracted to power and Tiffany is certainly becoming a powerful witch, so Rob and his men (with reluctant blessing of Jeanine) set out to protect her. 

What seems to have made Terry Pratchett such a great writer was his innate ability to give you lessons -like talking about bravery and the human condition- while making you laugh. Tiffany -if I can make a wild assumption- is probably based on Pratchett's daughter and she is turning out to be a fully realized character; she's a bit precocious, smart and very likable (which I assume his daughter to be). She could be what us folks really hope to be. Then there is the Nac Mac Feegle, characters written to be the comic relief (and brilliantly), but they have some great wisdom that can also be very moving. So much like his other fantasy novels, these Young Adult tales (and I'm unsure why I kind of feel kind of insulted they're categorized that way) can be read and enjoyed by folks of all ages. 

Books: Wee Free Men By Terry Pratchett (2003)

One of the advantages I've discovered reading Terry Pratchett's books so late (and one, perhaps, I've should've realized long ago) is that they're all basically stand-alone tales set in his magical Discworld. But Pratchett does connect them, but not in away that's confusing or forcing you to read other tales first (having a general idea of Discworld is helpful, but not at all necessary).  The Tiffany Aching series begins with 2003's Wee Free Men, and thus becoming the 30th Discworld novel, but it is connected to the six books that make up the Witches series, which he started in 1987. And you don't have to read them to understand this, which I find rather refreshing (and it overcomes my thought process that I must read every book in published order. Yeah that is useful when reading George R.R Matin's Ice and Fire series, but not here). Also, Tiffany Aching is considered Young Adult, where the other Witches books are geared toward adults. I plan to get to the Witches series eventually (and finish the other two books that deal with Death) but my move to Tiffany Aching was just happenstance. Or, maybe, that the late Terry Pratchett's last book coming this year will be The Shepherd's Crown*, the final Tiffany Aching story. So I felt maybe I would read the four novels that make up this series so when that last book comes out, I'll be caught up.

Plus, I checked out those four novels from the library and got to get them back sooner rather than later. 

Armed only with a frying pan and her common sense, Tiffany Aching is a young witch-to-be, and is all that stands between the monsters of Fairyland and the warm, green Chalk country that is her home. Forced into Fairyland to seek her kidnapped brother, Tiffany allies herself with the Chalk's local Nac Mac Feegle - aka the Wee Free Men - a clan of sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men who are as fierce as they are funny. Together they battle through an eerie and ever-shifting landscape, fighting brutal flying fairies, dream-spinning dromes, and grimhounds - black dogs with eyes of fire and teeth of razors - before ultimately confronting the Queen of the Elves, absolute ruler of a world in which reality intertwines with nightmare. And in the final showdown, Tiffany must face her cruel power alone....

While Terry Pratchett takes the basic premise of the quest novel and it's many cliches (success through courage, wit, faith, and a lot of spunkiness) he gives it  fresh spin. What works most is the very loyal, sometimes rash, always feisty and really funny clan of Nac Mac Feegle. Also, despite this series being classified as young adult, Pratchett chooses not to talk down to his intended audience. As a matter of fact, he challenges them in the form of its heroine, Tiffany Aching (even I had to look up the word "susurrus" in the dictionary, and I'm as old as the dinosaurs). Tiffany must navigate the world of being a child and understand the world of adults, and under Pratchett's brilliant writing, audiences of young and old will enjoy the story. 

And like other books, Wee Free Men is terribly funny and using the Nac Mac Feegle as a prism between right and wrong (as interpreted by the Wee Free Men) is rather inspired, as is the borrowing of many folktale stories (and I think only Tilda Swinton can play the Queen of the Elves here, even though she played a similar one in the The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe). And Tiffany is such a well-developed character in her first outing. Her courage, her love, her understanding and the ability to dream and know when to stop and open your eyes, is something rarely seen in this genre. 

*There is a distinct possibility that the Discworld novels will continue after The Shepherd's Crown, as Pratchett himself noted, before his passing, that he would like to see his daughter, Rihanna, continue them. 

Books: Soul Music By Terry Pratchett (1994)

Soul Music is the sixteenth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett and the third one to feature Death. 

Once again, Pratchett gives us a modern issues -Rock and Roll and the stardom that follows it- and incorporates it into his sometime vaguely medieval universe of Discworld. Even though this book does feature the further adventures of Death -after Mort and Reaper Man- a rather good chunk of the book deals with Imp Y Celyn, a young harpist who has ventured to Ankh-Morpork in hopes of becoming famous. But to be able to earn a living, he must join the Musicians Guild and pay their fees. But with no money to begin with, Imp wonders how he'll do what he loves. Soon he hooks up with two other unlicensed musicians, the troll Lias Bluestone and the dwarf Glod Glodsson, and form the musical group The Band with Rocks In. When Imp's harp is destroyed, he acquires a guitar from a mysterious shop, unaware that it contains the awareness of a primordial music that was responsible for bringing the universe into existence. Thus Imp takes the new name "Buddy," as "Imp Y Celyn" literally means "bud of holly" (while Lias starts calling himself "Cliff").

Meanwhile, the readers learn that Death's adopted daughter Ysabell and her husband Mort have died. And Death is not taking this very well. As a matter of fact, he has abandoned his post in an effort to avoid the unpleasant memories of their loss. But Susan, the daughter of Ysabell and Mort (and Death's granddaughter) and who has been living (somewhat) as normal girl in the city of Quirm, is forced by the fabric of reality to assume her grandfather's position. While Susan had awareness she is Death's granddaughter, the real truth was withheld from her, so she eventually forgot and spends her days living in a boarding school and trying to avoid unpleasant things by using an unexplained power of being able to fade from awareness of others. But with Death taking a unplanned holiday, Susan's memories return and begins to do her new duties. One such duty brings her to the Mended Drum where The Band with Rocks In is playing and where Buddy is scheduled to die in a riot there. But under the influence of the magical guitar, the riot never happens and Buddy does not die. This creates a new timeline and things only get worse from there. 

Soul Music is no This is Spinal Tap when it comes writing a satire of the music industry and bands. And unlike the two previous adventures with Death, I found the story a bit slow and Pratchett really takes too long to move the story forward. Sure there is the puns and funny bits here and there, but it often reminded me of why I put down the works of Piers Anthony and his Xanth world, as I felt the jokey titles of songs where fairly obvious and a bit too easy for humorist like Pratchett. Still, it contains many funny passages and Susan is clearly the prototype of Tiffany Aching, the heroine of Pratchett's young adult series that would debut in 2003 (which is what I take up next. There are two other novels that feature Death, Hogfather and Thief of Time, but I'll read them later after I complete the four novels featuring Tiffany -if only because I checked them out of the library).

Books: Reaper Man By Terry Pratchett (1991)

In Terry Pratchett's Reaper Man, 11th Discworld novel, and the second featuring Death, we meet the Auditors of Reality, beings who watch the Discworld to ensure everything and everyone, in all the multiverses, obeys The Rules. After the events of Mort, they've suddenly realized that Death is developing a personality. The fear from them is that if Death is allowed to continue, Death may end up "liking" people and that will cause all sorts of "irregularities." So to punish Death, the Auditors send the creature to live like everyone else on Discworld, and he ends up, under the assumed name of Bill Door, working as a farm hand for the elderly and lonely Miss Flitworth.

But because humans need more time to complete their deaths -unlike other species whom creates a new death for them- the life force of dead humans starts to build up; this results in poltergeist in an uptick of ghosts and other paranormal phenomena. Most notable is the return of the recently deceased wizard Windle Poons, who was really looking forward to reincarnation. After several misadventures, including being accosted by his oldest friends, he finds himself attending the Fresh Start Club, an undead-rights group led by Reg Shoe. The Fresh Start Club and the wizards of Unseen University discover that the city of Ankh-Morpork is being invaded by a parasitic lifeform that feeds on cities and hatches from eggs that resemble snow-globes. Bu they have a middle form, shopping carts, and now the Fresh Start Club and the wizards invade must come together and destroy it's ultimate, end form, a shopping mall. 

Pratchett continues his commentary on human nature, our society quirks, our weird desires under the guise of a fantasy novel. Plus he adds an alien invasion of shopping malls that seem to appear from nowhere (and the whole idea that shopping carts are used as way to draw people into shopping for things they do not need is inspired. Through the laughs, Pratchett uses Death and the reality of death (the undiscovered country we will always succumb to no matter what) as an instrument of introspection. There are fe nuggets of wisdom thrown in with other philosophical musings to give the reader a look into why death makes us humans so afraid.

And I think, in someways, my choices to start reading Pratchett again and start with his Death novels was an unconscious choice on my part to see how the writer himself saw death, his death. Yes, this was released in 1991, long before his Alzheimer's diagnoses that would kill him in March of 2015, but I think it's a great look at how he choose to live his life. Like Picard said at the end of the first Next Generation film, what we leave begins is not half as important as how you lived. 

Wisdom, indeed.

Books: Mort By Terry Pratchett (1987)

Back in August of 1997, when I was in my fourth month of working for Borders Books (and whom I would stay with until their demise in September 2011) I experienced the cause and effect of the death of Princess Diana. Over the years, many unauthorized books were published about her, but mostly, they sold to those hardcore fans of hers who needed to know every detail about her life. The fact that most was made up out of pure cloth did not bother them. But when she died,  phenomena that I'm sure existed before, but was the first time really exposed to it, happened. That is people coming into our store the day after her death looking for all the books they could find on her. But these were not the hardcore fans, of course. Mostly these were the folks who, 24 hours earlier, would have never plucked down money for a tabloid style book about Diana because, well, they were tabloidy (the closest they usually got was when PEOPLE Magazine had her on the cover, which was always one of their high selling issues)

But with her death, people had to have all those books, and for a few months after, we sold many as publishers went back to the press to re-publish some titles that had gone out of print, or, just had small print runs. I called them ghouls in some ways, mostly because it was hypercritical in many ways. You knew, as they stood sheepishly in line to pay for them, that the only reason they were buying them was because she was dead. Maybe they felt that these would be collectibles, but the print runs on books, and other ancillary products with her likeness on them, were usually huge. Nothing, including the dolls that I've seen come through the doors of Goodwill over the last two years, have had any lasting value beyond just creating a lot of dust in someone's closet or attic.

Back in the 1980s when I was reading a lot of fantasy books, I did try to read Terry Pratchett's Discworld series that started out with The Colour of Magic (1983) and The Light Fantastic (1986). I read both of them, but I will admit I found them a bit difficult to understand. Part of the reason I wanted to read them, I think, was because they were British and they were satire, two things I adored back then. Still, I was was reading humorist fantasies of Piers Anthony, Craig Shaw Gardner, Robert Asprin, David Bishop, David Eddings (though not technically a parody, his two series The Belgariad and The Malloreon featured a lot of humor), John DeChancie, Douglas Adams, and the underrated science fiction of Ron Goulart. So I think I used that as an excuse not to read the Discworld novels. Also, though, as the Pratchett continued to push out novels set in his fantasy world, I also thought the series was going to get dull -after all, I could no longer read Anthony's Xanth series after book ten when I realized they were becoming formulaic (And Anthony is still writing them, with the 39th book released in 2014 and two more set for the future). I thought then, probably, how long could Pratchett keep up the joke?

With Pratchett's passing last week, it got me to thinking. Perhaps now was a time to get back into Discworld. And at first, I thought, am I the same ghoul as the folks I accused who bought Diana books after she died? Am I the guy who finally waited until an authors death to read his work? I guess yes. But I did read two of his books a long time ago, so maybe his passing just aided me in getting back into his work. Or as the guy at Illiad's Bookstore put it when I went and grabbed a handful of his novels, someone's got to read them.

Which then presented another problem. Where should I start (at the time of his death, he had published 40 Discworld novels, with one last one due this summer) I knew that Pratchett created a huge world -unlike other fantasy novels that clearly are set on a "planet", Pratchett had a giant turtle, the Great A'Tuin, who is something like 10,000 miles long, that is traveling through space. On it's back stands four elephants, and on the backs of those four elephants sits Discworld. After accepting that, you have a universe that is like many other fantasy novels, where you have villains and heroes. Pratchett, while using the many motifs and themes of other fantasy authors, decided to parody and took inspiration from the works of Shakespeare,  J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, as well as ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales. He also took on real-life issues, like politics, religion, the business world, and incorporated them into his fake world. 

He also created a large character base, which meant that while the books appear to be stand-alone in nature, they are all set in the same universe, which meant a character like Rincewind, featured in the first two novels, could and would appear in cameo scenes in other stories. It be sort of like taking a minor character in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series -one who might have one line or two- and expand it into another series that ran concurrent to the main one. And that maybe the reason why I gave up on the series back in the 80s. I liked Rincewind, and wanted more stories about him and did not care (at the time) for anything else. I've done this before, abandoned authors who wrote a series of novels I enjoyed and had finished them and moved onto a new series with new characters, David Eddings was one such author I did that too, as well as Tad Williams and Stephen R. Donaldson. 

But I've grown, I hope, in the last 30 years. And since Terry Pratchett's death, I've discovered that reading his books in publishing order may not be a great idea for newbies. So after stumbling upon a site that put the 40 Discworld novels in some sort of order, I've decided to start with the Death books first, which begins with Mort.

As a teenager, Mort had a personality and temperament that made him rather unsuited to the family farming business. Mort's father, named Lezek, felt that Mort thought too much, which prevented him from achieving anything practical. So Lezek took him to a local hiring fair, hoping that Mort would land an apprenticeship with some tradesman; not only would this provide a job for his son, but it would also make his son's propensity for thinking into someone else's problem.

At the job fair, Mort at first has no luck attracting the interest of an employer. But just before the stroke of midnight, a man wearing a black cloak arrives on a white horse. He says he is looking for a young man to assist him in his work and selects Mort for the job. The man turns out to be Death, and Mort is given an apprenticeship in ushering souls into the next world (though his father thinks he's been apprenticed to an undertaker).

When it is a princess' time to die (according to a preconceived reality), Mort, instead of ushering her soul, saves her from death, dramatically altering a part of the Discworld's reality. However, the princess, for whom Mort has a developing infatuation, does not have long to live, and he must try to save her, once again, since the original reality will eventually reassert itself, killing her in the process. Both the princess and Mort end up consulting the local wizard, Igneous Cutwell, for various methods of assistance with the crisis.

As Mort begins to do most of Death's "Duty", he loses some of his former character traits, and essentially starts to become more like Death himself. Death, in turn, yearns to relish what being human is truly like and travels to Ankh-Morpork to indulge in new experiences and attempt to feel real human emotion with Happiness being the one he finds hardest to understand and so starts some research to try out happiness, something that he has never experienced, he tries a number of very human habits like getting drunk, going to a party, dancing and tries to find a new job that will make him feel happy.

Ultimately, the wizards of Unseen University perform the Rite of Ashk-Ente, which summons both the part of Death that has been taking Mort over, as well as Death himself. Death becomes furious when he learns about Mort's actions, including seducing his adopted daughter Ysabell, and fires him. Conclusively, Mort must duel Death for his freedom. 

Rincewind, who as I mentioned was in Pratchett's first two novels, makes a cameo in Mort -the authors third novel. Death returns in Reaper Man, followed by Soul Music, Hohfather, and Thief of Time.

Books: Red Seas Under Red Skies By Scott Lynch (2007)

There was a Friends episode where Rachel and Joey go on a boat ride round New York. Joey, of course, wants to have fun. But Rachel, who had to deal with her father's anal retentiveness about the rules of boating, forces Joey to actually learn things no one cares about when actually, you know, boating. 

This was what drove me crazy in Scott Lynch's follow up to The Lies of Locke Lamora. It appears that Mr. Lynch got Rules for Old Timey Wimey Ships for Christmas and decided to spend a good majority of Red Skies Under Red Seas informing the reader every detail about those ships. Listen, if I want to learn about masts, waists -those names for everything- I would take a class, read up on it on Wikipedia and then go to town. Here, it becomes a dull class at the College Resource Center. 

The book is structured oddly as well, opening with a scene extracted from late in the book. I'm unsure why Mr. Lynch chose to do it this way, because it really does not impact the story in any sort of way when you get to that same scene some 470 pages later. Like the first book, this tale has chapters set in the present that is alternated with flashbacks. Again, this is was distracting (the beauty of novels over TV or movies is that they don't have to be told linear. But eventually Mr. Lynch abandons this conceit for no apparent reason, which made me wonder why he used this plot ploy to begin with). So in the end, I think the book would've worked better if told in chronological order instead of the bothersome narrative of flashbacks.  

So Locke and his trusted sidekick, Jean arrive on the exotic shores of Tal Verrar to nurse their wounds. But even at this westernmost edge of civilization, they can't rest for long -and are soon back to what they do best: stealing from the undeserving rich and pocketing the proceeds for themselves. This time, however, they have targeted the grandest prize of all: the Sinspire, the most exclusive and heavily guarded gambling house in the world. Its nine floors attract the wealthiest clientele — and to rise to the top, one must impress with good credit, amusing behavior... and excruciatingly impeccable play. For there is one cardinal rule, enforced by Requin, the house's cold-blooded master: it is death to cheat at any game at the Sinspire. Brazenly undeterred, Locke and Jean have orchestrated an elaborate plan to lie, trick, and swindle their way up the nine floors... straight to Requin's teeming vault. Under the cloak of false identities, they meticulously make their climb -until they are closer to the spoils than ever. But someone in Tal Verrar has uncovered the duo's secret. Someone from their past who has every intention of making the impudent criminals pay for their sins. Now it will take every ounce of cunning to save their mercenary souls. And even that may not be enough...

Still, despite Lynch spending so much time detailing every aspect of a ship, the book remains somewhat fun. But the there is nothing new here -a problem I've had with this genre for a while now. Yes the book shifts from a "caper" novel to Pirates of The Caribbean rather successfully, but in the end the ideas he presents here seem like many missed opportunities to take this genre into a new and exciting direction. 

Books: The Lies of Locke Lamora By Scott Lynch (2005)

They say that the Thorn of Camorr can beat anyone in a fight. They say he steals from the rich and gives to the poor. They say he's part man, part myth, and mostly street-corner rumor. And they are wrong on every count. Only averagely tall, slender, and god-awful with a sword, Locke Lamora is the fabled Thorn, and the greatest weapons at his disposal are his wit and cunning. He steals from the rich -they're the only ones worth stealing from- but the poor can go steal for themselves. What Locke cons, wheedles and tricks into his possession is strictly for him and his band of fellow con-artists and thieves: the Gentleman Bastards. Together their domain is the city of Camorr. Built of Elderglass by a race no-one remembers, it's a city of shifting revels, filthy canals, baroque palaces and crowded cemeteries. Home to Dons, merchants, soldiers, beggars, cripples, and feral children. And to Capa Barsavi, the criminal mastermind who runs the city. But there are whispers of a challenge to the Capa's power. A challenge from a man no one has ever seen, a man no blade can touch. The Grey King is coming. A man would be well advised not to be caught between Capa Barsavi and The Grey King. Even such a master of the sword as the Thorn of Camorr. 

Despite what the back cover says, Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora is not a caper novel in the vein of Ocean's Eleven. Sure there is some conning, some stealing, but the book is really not about that. It's more about who keeps the power and control of Camorr's assorted criminal activities. It's also about revenge, but that plot point stays on the fringes until the last quarter of the novel. What we get before is a detailed history of Camorr and it's surrounding villages. We get a bunch of good guy thieves who would be right out of the Bowery Boys -that is if they stole and swore like longshore fishermen. The plot meanders, but that's not a bad thing, for it neither fast or too slow. Then there's Lynch's one narrative conceit; we get "interludes" spaced through the book, which gives the reader a look at Locke's past, how he started out. It's a bit distracting at first, this time shift between Lamora of "today" and one from years before. 

The one thing I liked is that I never felt the twists that happen to Lamora and his band of merry men to be contrived in any sort of way. Though, like a lot of today's fiction, Lamora's problems are frequently and too easily resolved. Once again, its not the character's deeply storied life we've read about many of pages, but by the stupidity of his enemies (via the authors word processing program). 

All the characters get a nice fleshing out, and Lynch creates a large group of supporting characters that the reader will like. Mr. Lynch does spend a great time World Building here, and clearly the reason seems to be that he plans multiple novels set in his re-imaged world of Venice (because there is female character named Sabetha who is mentioned dozens of time through out the book, but never makes an appearance. Let us hope that when she does, Sabetha is half as interesting as she written to be). 

The book does, slightly, turn to torture porn, and despite growing up with the works of Stephen King, having read George R. R. Martin (but have not started the last two books), I'm never pleased with this. Yes the hero (or anti-hero depending on your point of view) may have some justification for what he does, but I found it unpleasant and even a bit disturbing. Sometimes it's hard for me to accept the character when he climbs into the gutter he supposedly hates. And While I understand's Lynch's need to create this world in detail, I think it still goes on too long. There are clearly repetitious parts that seem only designed to tell the reader what a clever writer Scott Lynch is and adds nothing for the reader, who already knows the history of Locke Lamora.

And, finally, I've discovered, despite my best efforts, reading multi-volume series again. I've got series going now by Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, John Scalzi, Tana French, Ransom Riggs, along with starting Ken Follett's Century Trilogy, Katherine Kurtz's Deryni saga and Jennifer Hobb's Farseer series. Plus I've got a number of stand-alone novels to read (including the new Stephen King, but that's not due until June). I guess I should turn the TV off and shut down the laptop. 

Sigh.

Books: The Puppet Masters By Robert Heinlein (1951)

In the summer of 2007 Earth is under clandestine attack. Slug-like creatures, arriving in flying saucers, are attaching themselves to people’s backs, taking control of their victims’ nervous systems, and manipulating those people as puppets. The Old Man, the head of clandestine national security agency called the Section, goes to Des Moines, Iowa, with Sam and Mary, two of his best agents, to investigate a flying saucer report, but much more seriously the ominous disappearance of the six agents sent previously. They discover that the slugs are steadily taking over Des Moines, but they cannot convince the President to declare an emergency. Sam takes two other agents and returns to Des Moines to get more evidence of the invasion. They fail and are obliged to leave the city quickly, but in the confusion of their fleeing the city’s television center a slug sneaks onto one of the agents. Back in Washington the team discovers the slug and captures it, but later it escapes and attaches itself to Sam, using Sam’s skills and knowledge to make a clean escape. Thoroughly puppetized, Sam begins to infiltrate more slugs into the city, using the Constitution Club as a recruiting center. He’s gotten off to a good start when the Old Man captures him, takes him to Section’s new headquarters, and interrogates the slug through Sam. Under drug-induced hypnosis Sam reveals that the slugs come from Titan, the sixth moon of Saturn. After recuperating from his ordeal, Sam finds that the President and Congress are ready to accept the idea that the United States has been infiltrated and they mandate a law that requires people to go naked to demonstrate that they are not carrying slugs.

According to Wikipedia, Heinlein's original version of The Puppet Masters was heavy edited, mostly because it was considered too risque for the 1951 audience -in the original version the book begins with Sam waking up in bed with a blonde whom he had casually picked up the evening before, without even bothering to learn her name!! Anyways, in 1990, two years after he passed, his widow authorized a new expanded version that reinstated a majority of what was cut 40 years previous. However, there is also a few unintentional humorous phrases that may have not seemed funny back even in 1990 -Schedule Bare Back- but now make me snicker every time I read it. Then there is how liberal he made the US, including the idea that everyone who did not want to be possessed by the titans was walking around naked. I'm certain, no matter what, there would be plenty of Americans (stuck in their Puritan ways) who would never walk around in public without a stitch of clothes on. I can see why some of these parts were edited out in 1951. 

As I've mentioned before, reading these novels later in life rather than when I was in my teens, I'm not so impressed with the plotting or the science. The Puppet Masters does try to invoke the Cold War aspect between the United States and Russia (set in 2007 there has been a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the West which left both sides battered but unbroken, but then we fell back in another Cold War), but all I could think about was how this book shared a similar premise with Invasion of the Body Snatchers, even though that film was not released until 1956. But like Asimov's Foundation book, the story is a bit dry -a lot of talking with some minor action. Meanwhile, on the science side, in Heinlein's early 21st Century we have flying cars, we have space stations, and have a colony on Venus. Still, there is no communication satellites and TV broadcast are still line-of-sight as they were when Heinlein wrote the book. While this plays into the plot, it was hard part for me to grasp in 2015. 

I'm guessing that if I continue to read these books from long ago, I'm going to some how figure out how to understand them better. It's not that they're poorly written and all, it's just everything I've grown up with, all those science fiction movies and TV series are all built on the foundation people like Heinlein created. I've got to get passed the block in my mind that says "Seen this done before. Next."

You know what I mean?

Books: Swan Song By Robert McCammon (1987)

While the post-apocalyptic genre has been around for many generations, I've only read a handful of them -after all not many writers bring something new to add to the table. Still, since nuclear war, World War III, was always the catalyst for the story, I usually passed them over. Stephen King's The Stand, which I read around 1980, was the first of this genre (I think) to end world not with a bang, but with a whisper -a super flu (called Captain Trips). Since the 1978 release of King's book, a lot of authors have used some sort of mutated organism to end the world. 

Back in 1987, when Robert McCammon released Swan Song, I was not put off by it's mass market length (956 pages), but by the fact that for me, King's The Stand was the best book ever written about the end of the world. Also, since I had discovered King, he became the only author I really wanted to read in the horror fiction genre. Yes, I read John Saul, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, and few others, but they all seemed to pale next King (especially Koontz, someone I always deemed as conservative Americans safe horror writer; a guy who produced paint-by-numbers fiction designed not to be anything distasteful or liberal). And this tendency to read one author in one genre never applied to science fiction or fantasy that I read, as I bounced all over the place in my early years of reading (though I think everyone has tendency to stick to their favorite author). Yet, despite my misgivings, I do remember owing a copy of Swan Song. But I never read it. 

Now nearly 28 years since its first release, I discovered a copy (first printing as well) of McCammon's epic novel at a Goodwill store. Having given away some books due to moving around (ones that I felt I would never get too), I thought maybe this time was the universe telling me it was finally time to read this book. 

On the edge of a barren Kansas landscape, an ex-wrestler called Black Frankenstein hears the cry..."Protect the Child!"---In the wasteland of New York City, a bag lady clutches a strange glass ring and feels magic coursing through her---Within an Idaho mountain, a survivalist compound lies in ruins, and a young boy learns how to kill. In a wasteland born of nuclear rage, in a world of mutant animals and marauding armies, the last people on earth are now the first. There is Sister, who discovers the strange and transformative glass artifact in the destroyed Manhattan streets; Joshua Hutchins, the wrestler who takes refuge from the nuclear fallout at a Nebraska gas station; and Swan, a young girl possessing special powers, who travels alongside Josh to a Missouri town where healing and recovery can begin with Swan's gifts. While the destines of those who survived the unsurvivable are inedibly bound to meet, there is also another entity, an ancient evil that now roams the blasted nightmare country, an evil as old as time. He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, the Man of Many Faces, and he'll gather under his power the forces of human greed and madness that always seem to survive. For he seeks to destroy the one thing that he knows can stop him, stop his party as he says, a young girl called Swan.

A lot of Swan Song resembles King's The Stand, but I don't think that is bad. My biggest issue with the book comes in the form of James Macklin (though thanks to Parks & Recreation, I kept think of Chris Pratt's character of Andy Dwyer and his fake FBI agent Burt Macklin) and Roland Croninger, two of the villains of the book who the reader knows from their first introductions that they're psychotic and evil sociopaths. As noted, the book is 950 plus pages long, and you would think that you might give the reader a chance to like these guys before turing them into horrible people. Instead, we see their evilness from the get go. Also, we don't get much information of entity that is Friend (as he calls himself towards the end, but went under several names before). We can assume that he's some sort of demon, but who and how he came into existence is never fully explained. 

Is McCammon, as he has said, "'the poor man's Stephen King,' and that I was 'walking on King and Straub's territory,' that I was a rip-off artist and a hack with no style of my own?" I'm not sure, as I thought the book was still well written. The thing is, I understand the publishing industry (like most media) is based on flavor of the month. And what is hugely successful must have an imitation. Stephen King can be credited with bringing the horror genre out of the dark Gothic corner it painted itself into by setting his tales in modern times with easily accessible and (importantly) believable characters, but I always knew that other publishers were going to capitalize on that. I think McCammon does a fine job here, even if he borrows heavily from King.

Will I read more of his work? I'm sure I'll try -Boy's Life has always interested me- but at this stage in my life, I will never say never. All options are open.