Books: Harry Potter and The Cursed Child By Jack Thorne, JK Rowling, John Tiffany (2016)

"It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children.While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places."

Despite some negative views from long-time fans who felt the magic and fantasy of the original seven books in the franchise is missing in Harry Potter and The Cursed Child, I really liked the story. It is defiantly more adult and darker than Rowling’s other books (though by The Deathly Hollows, the series had grown up), but this rehearsal edition script of the new play, written by Jack Thorne and based on an original story by Thorne, JK Rowling and John Tiffany, works fairly well here.

Mostly because I believe this is probably the next logical step in the evolutionary life of Harry Potter, which makes the risk of doing this as play much smarter than doing another novel. Cursed Child is, of course, different than a movie, as it’s more character driven (well, it is a play, so like all plays, it relies on the visual effect of the actors performance and not some people behind a computer) than films. It also takes on a lot of different emotions that Rowling avoided in seven book series, such as the believable relationship baggage that sometimes happens between a father and son -and those scenes could be the most decisive for fans, I think as well. While it’s clear Rowling did not write the book, Thorne’s style is not horrendous as some might say, just different. But he still is able to bring right bit of mischief to Albus that harks back to the original novels. I also adored Scorpius, the son of Draco Malfoy, and his obvious puppy love for Albus (who possibly has some mixed feelings as well) along with returning favorites.

The story is somewhat muddled though, using time travel as a plot device. This allows for these new characters introduced here to (sometimes) interact with action and scenes from the previous seven novels, but it also creates a few paradoxes that befall any story that relies on this conceit –and which everyone conveniently ignores for the best. But while I had no real issue with this, those scenes packed an emotional wallop for me when we get to see Severus Snape again, which makes me hope they never try to make a movie of this play. Alan Rickman can never be replaced. 

Mischief managed!

Books: Stiletto By Daniel O'Malley (2016)

Stiletto is the follow-up novel to Daniel O’Malley’s 2012 The Rook. While I generally enjoyed that novel and appreciated this sequel, I’ve found myself finally realizing that writers have nothing new and are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

What I mean is that O’Malley’s book resembles Ben Aaronovitch’s River of London series, and Aaronovitch’s series resembles Paul Cornell’s Shadow Police books and (and probably many other Urban Fantasy’s)  all  borrow themes from each other at an alarming rate. This has made me feel like not reading anymore, because it’s obvious that publishers no longer want original or risky novels –they just want a variation on a theme (The Hike, the previous book I read, is a prime example of a publisher letting a writers imagination out, so hope is not all lost that novels can break down the wall of conformity). 

“When secret organizations are forced to merge after years of enmity and bloodshed, only one person has the fearsome powers—and the bureaucratic finesse—to get the job done. Facing her greatest challenge yet, Rook Myfanwy Thomas must broker a deal between two bitter adversaries: The Checquy—the centuries-old covert British organization that protects society from supernatural threats, and The Grafters—a centuries-old supernatural threat. But as bizarre attacks sweep London, threatening to sabotage negotiations, old hatreds flare. Surrounded by spies, only the Rook and two women, who absolutely hate each other, can seek out the culprits before they trigger a devastating otherworldly war.”

While I sort of enjoyed the first book in The Checquy Files, Stiletto isn’t nearly as persuasive a story (and if possible, even slower than The Rook). It’s overlong (a problem that is increasingly a bad development in multi-volume series), and goes off in often dull tangents -O’Malley has a tendency to create some favorable action buildup only then to have the him “take me out” of flow of that action by focusing on unnecessary history lessons (that go on for pages and pages) and dense exposition that do sometimes later bear fruit, but seem ridiculously arrogant and pointless when you are reading them. There are too many subplots –like a guy who suddenly develops the ability to instantly grow huge crystals out of any hard surface, and is murdering people for no real reason- that a better editor would’ve told the writer to dump, because it really has very little to do with main narrative. The book can be a bit complex, yet it reveals nothing new, just rehashing of themes we’ve seen before (it is, essentially, a British version of The X Men, even though the writer is Australian)

There are many strengths to the book, though, as O’Malley has created some very strong female characters. Even though this book does on focus on Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany –the “w” is silent) Thomas, Odette is a wonderfully three dimensional woman. Still, regulating Thomas to a supporting role was disappointing.  And his humor remains sharp and often times, laugh out loud funny, but like The Rook, the writer cobbles together a lot of other people’s ideas and sews together a paint-by-numbers thriller that should’ve been better.

Books: The Hike By Drew Magary (2016)

“When Ben, a suburban family man, takes a business trip to rural Pennsylvania, he decides to spend the afternoon before his dinner meeting on a short hike. Once he sets out into the woods behind his hotel, he quickly comes to realize that the path he has chosen cannot be given up easily. With no choice but to move forward, Ben finds himself falling deeper and deeper into a world of man-eating giants, bizarre demons, and colossal insects. On a quest of epic, life-or-death proportions, Ben finds help comes in some of the most unexpected forms, including a profane crustacean and a variety of magical objects, tools, and potions. Desperate to return to his family, Ben is determined to track down the Producer, the creator of the world in which he is being held hostage and the only one who can free him from the path.”

Perhaps one the most oddly unique books I’ve read in a long time. 

This wonderfully bizarre, surreal, often hilarious tale takes the tried and true premise of a man on an extraordinary journey to get back to his family, and twists it into a genre bending novel that defies categorizing. It’s like H.P. Lovecraft, Salvador Dali, Stephen King, and Cormac McCarthy (along with doses of Alice in Wonderland) spewed out a kid named Drew Magary. 

The conceit of The Hike is built on the foundation of having Ben doing things the reader does not expect. And while you may think you'll see where it’ll go (because, surely the author will run out of ideas), Magary pulls the rug out from under you and takes the reader farther out than one might expect, especially in today’s world of contemporary fantasy where the ending is telegraphed long before the final page. However here, the ending is brilliant, perhaps the best ending I’ve ever read. So the book, at slim 278 pages, never wastes a page. 

While The Hike is made up of many genres, borrowing elements from The Twilight Zone, King’s Dark Tower series, and the dark fantasy of Margaret Attwood, it’s still one damn fine read; never boring, never predictable. A funny, thought provoking, and a very weird acid trip through the creative mind of Drew Magary.

This should be read by all.  

Books: Just One Damned Thing After Another By Jodi Taylor (2013/2016)

British author Jodi Taylor’s Just One Damned Thing After Another started life a self-published series. Much like Michael J. Sullivan’s fantasy series I began to read earlier this year, there was several books out before a major publisher, Night Shade Books (a division of the independent US based Skyhorse Publishing ) began releasing the series for all of us to enjoy. While I find the premise interesting, on the whole, the book lacks direction, insomuch as much does happen (a lot of it off “stage”), and its heroine a bit two-dimensional.

“Behind the seemingly innocuous façade of St Mary's, a different kind of historical research is taking place. They don't do 'time-travel' - they 'investigate major historical events in contemporary time'. Maintaining the appearance of harmless eccentrics is not always within their power - especially given their propensity for causing loud explosions when things get too quiet. Meet the disaster-magnets of St Mary's Institute of Historical Research as they ricochet around History. Their aim is to observe and document - to try and find the answers to many of History's unanswered questions...and not to die in the process. But one wrong move and History will fight back - to the death. And, as they soon discover - it's not just History they're fighting. Follow the catastrophe curve from 11th-century London to World War I, and from the Cretaceous Period to the destruction of the Great Library at Alexandria. For wherever Historians go, chaos is sure to follow in their wakes.”

While Madeleine “Max” Maxwell is appealing, she is dense, snarky, and maybe too clever for her own good, she is also has everything fall into her lap, and Taylor makes it easy for Max to solve the countless issues that pop up along the way. This may help if this was a TV series designed for a broad audience not bothered by internal logic, but as a book series, you expect the main protagonist to actually figure out the problems. Here, like whole idea of time travel, a lot of stuff is glossed over (we solved this issue a few days later. How?). Still, I give Taylor credit for not really explain how time travel works in this (I’m guessing) alternate universe of England (shades of Jasper Fford’s Thursday Next here).

 “How does it work?” she asks the Chief. 

He just looked at me. Okay then, stupid question.

Trying to come up with a creditable explanation of time travel is always convoluted. Even my beloved Doctor Who has only scratched the surface on explaining how he does it.

There is a nugget of a great idea here, unfortunately Taylor decides that to leave most of that for later in the book, including introducing a villain that shows up for all of a few pages and seems only designed to tell the reader there are more books to come. What we get in the meantime is a mixed up bag of broad humor, paint-by-number rivals, romance, science fiction, history lessons and British people doing what British people do when confronted by things:  drinking a lot of tea. It was as if Taylor decided that the only way her books might appeal to a wider audience was to throw every genre into the bowl and mix it up. It generally works, but not enough for me to continue on.

This is unfortunate, because while the book does read and appear like a self-published title, with a stronger editor and maybe a rewrite, the book could’ve been more than the sum of its basic parts.  

Books: Dark Run By Mike Brooks (2015)

“In this debut space epic, a crew of thieves and con artists take on a job that could pay off a lot of debts in a corrupt galaxy where life is cheap and criminals are the best people in it. The Keiko is a ship of smugglers, soldiers of fortune, and adventurers traveling Earth’s colony planets searching for the next job. And they never talk about their past—until now. Captain Ichabod Drift is being blackmailed. He has to deliver a special cargo to Earth, and no one can know they’re there. It’s what they call a dark run…And it may be their last.”

Dark Run is formulaic, though that’s not a bad thing, but it did reminded me more of a Western than a true space romp the book is sold as. British author Mike Brooks apes a lot that has come before and could be described as the UK version of The Expanse series of books by James S. A. Corey or Joss Whedon’s Firefly. But where Corey’s tales involve a lot of politics and universe building, Brooks forgoes a lot of that for lean, often funny, but never really deep take on interstellar travel. But it never reaches the cleverness of Whedon’s beloved sci-fi western either, which makes it plowing through the book an effort, which is odd considering the praise on the front and back cover of this book. It really does not match what I just read which clearly means that I need to read some reviews from real readers and not be taken in by other authors who are looking for a nice return blurb on their book before checking out something new. 

Ichabod Drift is really a dumb name for our Han Solo/Mal Reynolds type hero mold that Brooks was going for here (though we also get Gideon Xanth, Annie Eclectic, and Nana Bastard, so subtly was not what Brooks was after), and while he shows some charm, the character vacillates between that lovable rogue aspect that girls swoon over to just being a plain ass. There are other things that I find odd, but now that I know there is a sequel out it explains why we don’t get too much back story on Drift’s crew –those will be forthcoming in later books; I really need to know why anyone would want to be on his ship, because as a leader, Drift’s methods are questionable at best and, again, sadly formulaic. 

And correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m almost assuming that a lot of characters and ships (the Serverus) that are in Dark Run were named after Brooks’ favorite author creations? For those that just want a pointless, sometimes fun romp that you’ll quickly forget after reading it, then this is the book for you. Otherwise, I’ll watch Han Solo in Star Wars and Mal Reynolds in Firelfy, or better yet, pray November comes fast enough for the next book in The Expanse series.