Series Saturday: Folley & Mallory

This is a series about … well, series. I do so love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies. I’ve already got a list of series I’ve recently read, re-read, watched, or re-watched that I plan to blog about. I might even, down the line, open myself up to letting other people suggest titles I should read/watch and then comment on.

E. Catherine Tobler’s six-book Folley & Mallory is one of those series that is hard to categorize, an interesting blend of genres. There are alternate history (a recognizable but still different late 1800’s setting) and steampunk aspects (airships that are more than traditional dirigibles, tech that allows a character to have fully-working metal prosthetic arms), shapeshifters (main character Virgil Mallory is revealed as a werewolf early on), Egyptian mythology (the gods Anubis and Horus play significant roles), spy intrigue (Mallory works for an international spy outfight called MISTRAL that has internal intrigues and subdivisions); time travel (to an ancient Egypt that is both like and unlike what we know), historical and sociological commentary (about why Egypt fell to the Romans and about the unsavory nature of archaeological digs in Egypt in the 1800s), and romance (between the title duo of Eleanor Folley and Virgil Mallory, and between a pair of supporting characters). That’s a quick summary of the genres that co-mingle in these books. I may be missing one or two. There’s a lot going on here.

And because this is E. Catherine Tobler, it all melds wonderfully. The steampunk aspects of the narrative enable the time travel as much as the Egyptian mythological aspects; the mythology informs Folley’s family history; the time travel and shapeshifting are sensible roadblocks to the culmination of the romance; the subterfuge of MISTRAL and its sister organization affect the mythological and time-travel adventures. Nothing feels out of place or shoe-horned in.

The arc of the series is instigated by archaeologist Eleanor Folley’s search to discover what really happened to her missing mother. Eleanor’s father claims she’s dead, but Eleanor knows something weird happened when their Egyptian dig was attacked by unknown assailants just as her mother discovered a legendary artifact, “the hand of the Lady.” Now an adult, Eleanor pushes against her father’s constraint to give up the search for her mother. At the same time, MISTRAL agent Virgil Mallory is assigned to protect the Folleys from possible attack by rogue/enemy agents who want to know what Eleanor and her father know about the artifact and the associated “rings of Anubis.” Of course, complications arise that put them in great danger while allowing them to overcome initial distrust. And Eleanor’s search, combined with Virgil’s personal history, will have potentially history-altering consequences as Anubis’ plan becomes more obvious and closer to fruition.

The romance between Eleanor and Virgil is not the primary point of the series. But it is a vital sub-plot as they grow from that initial distrust and miscommunication through to a mutual if unrequited attraction and then to an actual relationship. Their connection helps them to survive some pretty drastic situations that each might not have survived alone. The progression of their relationship feels natural and is not at all smooth. They also discover they have more in common than they thought and that their lives have overlapped even before they ever met.

Eleanor’s life, her family’s history and connection to ancient Egypt, Queen Hatshepsut, and the god Anubis are at the center of everything that happens; to say too much about the family tree, especially her mother’s side, would be to spoil a great deal of what happens in the second half of the series. Suffice to say, we’re very invested in how and what Eleanor’s matrilineal line has done to enable the events depicted. Virgil and the other MISTRAL agents are essentially along for the ride for a good portion of the series. But throughout, we get a lot of background on Virgil: how he became a werewolf and how it affects his daily life, his previous romantic history, certain of his previous cases as an agent that turn out to be connected to his assignment to protect Eleanor. Eventually we also get a bit of detail on fellow agents and distant lovers Cleo and Auberon. Anubis also becomes more fully fleshed out and less of a plot device as the series goes on.

Most of the volumes in the series run around 250-300 pages. These are concisely written books that don’t ramble on about the background world-building. While it would be nice to know more about the history of the MISTRAL agency and the other shadowy groups encountered, none of that is necessary to the plot or progress of this story. (Maybe Tobler will give us adventures of other MISTRAL agents in the future, and that would be wonderful.) The Folley & Mallory series, in order, is:
• The Rings of Anubis
• The Glass Falcon
• The Honey Mummy
• The Clockwork Tomb
• The Quartered Heart
• The Ebon Jackal

(The link leads to the author’s website, which has purchase options listed.)

This is a complete story in six volumes. While there are hints at future adventures Folley, Mallory, and their friends could have, The Ebon Jackal capably and satisfactorily wraps up the main plot and all of the important sub-plots. So those of you who insist on waiting until a series is concluded before you invest in it? You have no excuse here: go get these books, in print or ebook, and get started!

Review of COME TUMBLING DOWN

TITLE: Come Tumbling Down (Wayward Children #5)
AUTHOR: Seanan McGuire
208 pages, Tor.com Books, ISBN 9780765399311 (Hardcover)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): The fifth installment in Seanan McGuire’s award-winning Wayward Children series, Come Tumbling Down picks up the threads left dangling by Every Heart a Doorway and Down Among the Sticks and Bones. When Jack left Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children she was carrying the body of her deliciously deranged sister – whom she had recently murdered in a fit of righteous justice – back to their home on the Moors. But death in their adopted world isn’t always as permanent as it is here, and when Jack herself is carried back into the school, it becomes clear that something has happened to her. Something terrible. Something of which only the maddest of scientists could conceive. Something only her friends are equipped to help her overcome. Eleanor West’s “No Quests” rule is about to be broken. Again.

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: Note: I received a print uncorrected proof Advance Review Copy from the publisher.
The latest entry in Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series returns us to my favorite of the Portal worlds we’ve seen so far: the Moors. In Down Among the Sticks and Bones, we witnessed the twins Jack and Jill’s arrival in the Moors and their subsequent adoption, for lack of a better term, by The Master (a vampire) and Doctor Bleak (a mad scientist). The Moors is a very Gothic / 1920s Universal Monsters / 1960s Hammer Horror type of world; everything feels black-and-white and saturated with color at the same time. Supernatural creatures exist side-by-side with lightning-based mad science. The Master has the regal bearing of Lugosi combined with the physical menace of Lee, Doctor Bleak could easily be Peter Cushing. It’s not that The Master and the Doctor are one-dimensional pastiches so much that McGuire describes them in ways that bring your favorite or most frightening (often the same thing, don’t you think?) versions of vampires and mad scientists to mind. In Come Tumbling Down, McGuire expands what we know of the Moors, introducing a Lovecraftian Mythos aspect to the world via the Drowned Gods and the cult/villagers that worship them. And we get to meet another “wayward child,” Gideon, who is the current high priest of the Drowned Gods. McGuire has mad science, gothic horror, and cosmic horror overlap throughout the book, contrasting the different types of horror and the effect they have on the reader.

I don’t want to say too much about the characters of Jack and Jill lest I spoil aspects of Down Among the Sticks and Bones for people who haven’t read it. I can say that this book showcases McGuire’s ability to craft nuanced portrayals of neuro-atypical characters that help those of us who don’t have those traits to understand them, and perhaps relate to them, a little bit better. Jack’s germophobia and body dysmorphia and each twins’ need to not be who they were before they arrived in the Moors are so well-drawn. This extends to the other characters as well: Christopher’s social awkwardness/anxiety and discomfort with bodily fluids, Cora’s connection to water, Sumi being somewhere on the Autism spectrum, Kade being transgender – all are written in the non-judgmental way McGuire is known for. This is a truly diverse cast not just in physicality and in ethnicity but in neuroicity (is that a word?) as well.

The Wayward Children series is set up so that “present day” books, usually built around a quest or a character attempting to return to the world they’ve lost, alternate with “past times” books that show how characters got to their portal world and what they experienced before returning to our world. This book builds off of events in the first and second books. I don’t think one necessarily needs to have read the third (Beneath the Sugar Sky, a present-day quest into the land of Confection) or fourth (In An Absent Dream, a times-past chronicle about a supporting character who doesn’t appear in Come Tumbling Down at all), although reading Beneath the Sugar Sky will help understand where the characters of Kade, Christopher, Sumi and Cora are coming from as they enter this latest adventure. As a rule, I tend to enjoy novels that alternate chapters between the present and the past to build tension. I absolutely love that McGuire is structuring this novella series this way. It means that the books can be read in almost any order, mixed and matched upon re-reads. And I suspect that the reader will notice different things in each book depending on the order of the reread.

I suspect this will be our final foray into the Moors because Jack and Jill’s combined story now has a beginning (Down Among the Sticks and Bones), a middle (Every Heart a Doorway) and an end (Come Tumbling Down). But I really hope I’m wrong. I want to know more about Gideon and how he became the High Priest of the Drowned Gods. I want to know what The Master will do next. And I really want to know more about the werewolves in the hills and whether this world also has living mummies and other classic monster types.

And regardless of whether this is the last trip to the Moors, it is not the last book in the series. There are so many characters and worlds to explore: Christopher’s Mariposa, Cora’s The Deeps, Kade’s goblin world. I look forward to all of those trips, as well as future “present day” quests for the characters and more insight into what is happening with Eleanor West herself.

Come Tumbling Down releases in hardcover in January, 2020. The first four books in the series are available now.

Review of HUNT THE AVENGER

TITLE: Hunt the Avenger

AUTHOR: Win Scott Eckert

130 pages, Moonstone Books, ISBN 9781328916280 (Hardcover and e-book)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): Out of tragedy, a hero is born! In the roaring heart of the crucible, steel is made. In the raging flame of personal tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human.

A figure of ice and steel, Richard Benson is an avatar of vengeance—a chilled impersonal force of justice masking a cold genius and nearly supernatural power behind a face as white and still as arctic frost. His pale eyes, like a polar dawn, only hint at the terrible force evildoers heedlessly unleashed the day they created…The Avenger!

In the annals of Justice, Inc.’s battles against spies, crooks, and killers, only one malefactor has escaped The Avenger’s clutches not once, but twice—Baron Ulrich Blau-Montag, the half-man, half-machine known as the Iron Skull! But when Benson and his cohorts partner with the mysterious and saucy Domino Lady to hunt down the demented half-robot, and go on to clash with other supervillains, such as the Nazi spy Werner Konrad and a diabolical weapons dealer known as the Countess, a frightening pattern emerges…are they the creatures of a hidden puppetmaster? And is Benson the hunter? Or the prey?

MY RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS: If you’re a fan of the original pulp magazine adventurers or the characters who have followed in their footsteps over the decades since the pulps died, you can’t go wrong with this mosaic novel by Win Scott Eckert, one of the best of the “new pulp” writers. Hunt the Avenger is a fun combination of three previously-published short stories bookended by two new stories that create a fast-paced narrative whole.

When Eckert writes about previously-existing characters like Richard Benson, he does his research. In this case, he fully immersed himself in the original pulp Avenger novels by Paul Ernst and the handful of official 1970s follow-ups by Ron Goulart, as well as all of the Domino Lady’s appearances. He understands the history and nuance of the characters and it shows throughout the book. That being said, readers meeting The Avenger and the Domino Lady for the first time via this book will not be confused or lost. Eckert doesn’t assume his readers are as deeply familiar with the characters as he is; he works in plenty of details (without info-dumping) to help new readers understand Benson, his Justice Inc. support team, their sometimes-ally The Domino Lady, and the villains being faced. (For the record, the book’s Frontispiece helpfully lists all of the canonical Avenger works.)

One of the reasons I find Eckert such a talented new pulp writer is that he respects the traditions and cadences of the pulp style without falling into the racist/misogynistic traps of the time. He retains key phrases from the pulps to describe characters (like Nellie Gray being described as a “porcelain doll,” and frequent references to the low-cut revealing nature of the Domino Lady’s outfits) but he also shows just how smart and capable these women are consistently throughout the book. Benson may be the title (and focal) character but the women in his adventures here are not just arm- and eye-candy. If the licensing could be worked out and his schedule allowed, I’d love to see Eckert write an adventure featuring the Domino Lady, Nellie Gray, Rosabel Newton, and perhaps the Shadow’s Margo Lane and Doc Savage’s cousin Patricia.

Of course, there are the by-now requisite winks and nods at The Avenger’s contemporaries. I may have missed a few but there are definitely veiled references to Doc Savage, the Shadow, and the Spider that will please fans of the interconnected “Crossover Universe” idea that Eckert and most of his peers work in. And there are nods to a variety of concepts originally introduced by the great Philip Jose Farmer as well.

Hunt the Avenger is only available through the publisher, Moonstone Books. I picked up the now-out-of-print hardcover edition. A check of the website indicates that the paperback is still available as of the writing of this review.

READING ROUND-UP: September 2019

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues and stand-alone short stories in e-book format as “books.” I read or listened to 11 books in September: 10 in print, 1 in e-book format, and 0 in audio. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #112 (September 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Rajan Khanna’s “All In,” Seanan McGuire’s “Hello, Hello,” and Kiina Ibura Salaam’s “Desire.”

2.       Beyond the Farthest Star by Edgar Rice Burroughs. I grabbed this off of my bookshelf when I realized that it was ERB’s birthday, mostly because it was the shortest ERB book on my shelf. It’s comprised of two novellas about the adventures of “Tangar,” an Earth human transported to a planet much further away than Burroughs’ more well-known star-faring heroes John Carter (of Mars) and Carson Napier (of Venus). There’s a ton of wonderful world-building that left me wanting more of the main character, his friends, and the planet they’re on.

3.       The Dreaming Volume 1: Pathways and Emanations by Simon Spurrier, Bilquis Everly, and others. Part of DC’s “Sandman Universe” relaunch. I was happy to see old favorite Sandman characters return (Lucien, Jack Pumpkinhead, Cain, Abel, Eve, Matthew, even Brute and Glob), and was even happier to see the return of one of DC’s horror anthology hosts from the 70s who didn’t make it into Gaiman’s run (I won’t spoil the surprise). I’m intrigued by the new characters added to the mix, but am not sure I’m happy with the way Daniel, the current Dream, is handled. Still, I’ll read the next trade collection.  

4.       The Unkindest Tide (October Daye #13), by Seanan McGuire. The latest Toby Daye book takes October into uncomfortable and unfamiliar waters – literally, as all but the opening chapters take place in a floating fairy Knowe in the Summerlands version of the Pacific Ocean. Toby still has most of her support group with her, but none of them can really help her fulfill the destiny her mother and older sister both avoided, helping the Ludiaeg end the existence of the Selkies. Lots of great twists and turns.

5.       Midnighter and Apollo by Steve Orlando, Fernando Blanco, Romulo Fajardo and others.  I really enjoyed this look at Midnighter and Apollo’s relationship, and how far they’ll each go to save or protect the other. (Someday, I really should go back and read all of their earlier appearances.) Also loved Orlando’s use of rarely-seen gay DC Comics characters Extrano and the Tasmanian Devil.

6.       Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I’m very late in coming to Moreno-Garcia’s earliest novel, and it blew me away. Magic through Music in Mexico City, juxtaposing the characters’ teen years with their present-day circumstances. I really don’t understand how Netflix hasn’t snapped this up as a mini-series.

7.       At The Bay by Katherine Mansfield.  An interesting character study of a group of women at a seaside resort for the summer. Full Review Here.

8.       The Ebon Jackal (Folley & Mallory #6) by E. Catherine Tobler. I was sad to see this series come to an end with this installment. I’ve grown to really love Elaine Folley, Virgil Mallory and their companions, and the intrigue of exactly what Anubis has been manipulating them towards over the course of these books. In the final installment, Tobler alternates the stories of Folley, her time-traveling mother, and time-traveling grandmother, to reveal all.

9.       Blood Sugar by Daniel Kraus. The October offering is a disturbing look into the mind of several potential mass murderers.  Full Review Here.

10.   The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria by Carlos Hernandez. A really fantastic short story collection from the author of Sal & Gabi Break the Universe. Combining hard science, Cuban mythology, a bit of fantasy and even a crime story. Hernandez’ wit and wordplay shine in every story. Full Review Coming.

11.   The Storm Runner (The Storm Runner #1) by J.C. Cervantes. Another #ownvoices entry under the Rick Riordan Presents banner. It took a while for me to connect with the main character and his situation, but the second half of the book really takes off. I’m not as familiar with Mayan mythology as I am with Greek, Roman, Celtic, and Norse, and still felt like I understood the interactions and the background. (Also, made me want to seek out books of North, Central and South American native mythologies.)

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) each year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “Exile From Extinction” by Ramez Naam, from Lightspeed Magazine #112 (September 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “Sacrid’s Pod” by Adam-Troy Castro

3.       “Hello, Hello” by Seanan McGuire

4.       “The Answers That You Are Seeking” by Jenny Rae Rappaport

5.       “A Bird, A Song, A Revolution” by Brooke Bolander

6.       “Flight of the Crowboys” by Micah Dean Hicks

7.       “All In” by Rajan Khanna

8.       “Desire” by Kinii Ibura Salaam

9.       “Come Marching In” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “Adventure on Poloda” by Edgar Rice Burroughs, from Beyond the Farthest Star.

11.   “Tangor Returns” by Edgar Rice Burroughs

12.   “Hope Is Swift” by Seanan McGuire, new novella at the end of her novel The Unkindest Tide.

13.   “The Aphotic Ghost” by Carlos Hernandez, from The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria.

14.   “Homeostasis” by Carlos Hernandez

15.   “Entanglements” by Carlos Hernandez

16.   “The International Studbook of the Giant Panda” by Carlos Hernandez

17.   “Los Simpáticos” by Carlos Hernandez

18.   “More Than Pigs and Rosaries Can Give” by Carlos Hernandez

19.   “Bone of My Bone” by Carlos Hernandez

20.   “The Magical Properties of Unicorn Ivory” by Carlos Hernandez

21.   “American Moat” by Carlos Hernandez

22.   “Fantaisie Impromptu No. 4 in C#min, Op. 66” by Carlos Hernandez

23.   “The Assimiliated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria” by Carlos Hernandez

24.   “Brigid Was Hung By Her Hair From The Second Story Window” by Gillian Daniels, from The Dark #52, edited by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia

25.   “Our Towns Talents” by Simon Stranzas

26.   “The Ways of Walls and Words” by Sabrina Vourvoulias, read by Ezzy G. Languzzi and Isabel Schechter, on the Cast of Wonders podcast, September 27, 2019

So that’s 26 short stories in September, keeping me way ahead for the year so far. (September 30th was the 273rd day of 2019.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

365 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  26 read; YTD: 348 of 365 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 23 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 11 read; YTD: 103 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 5 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 of 10 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 books read; YTD: 0 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: I may not do something like this every month but September was Hispanic Heritage Month, so I set a goal to read as much stuff by Hispanic/Latinx authors as possible. It didn’t end up being as much as I wanted to read, in fact not even a majority of what I read for the month, but I did read books by Carlos Hernandez, J.C. Cervantes, and Silvia Moreno-Garcia, plus two stories edited by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, and a graphic novel that had art by two Hispanic creators.

October’s mini-goal of course is: Horror, Horror, Horror! Because Halloween!(October is also apparently German-American Heritage Month, Polish-American Heritage Month, and Italian-American Heritage Month. So I may try to read at least one book by someone from each of those backgrounds. That would be a mini-mini-goal!)

Book Excerpt: SIMON SAYS by Bryan Thomas Schmidt

I had a chance to read an electronic Advance Review Copy of Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s sci-fi police procedural Simon Says a few weeks back. I’ll let the book description that follows tell you all about the plot and focus on what I loved about the book: the seamless interweaving of three very different genres. The book is part near-future SF (androids that pass as human), part police-procedural (well-researched by the author through several ride-alongs with current KCPD officers), and part comedy (mostly from character interactions, but also near-future pop culture references that include Wolfie Van Halen’s band). It’s not easy to get these three genres in perfect harmony, but Schmidt manages it throughout the book. No one genre overwhelms the others. It’s an ideal read for folks who love books that blend genres. It’s also the start of a new series.

The excerpt that follows the book description is perhaps my favorite scene in the book that doesn’t involve car chases or shoot-outs. It also happens to combine all three elements, and features a guest appearance (of sorts) by my favorite rock band of the 1970s. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Master Detective John Simon is a tough, streetwise fifteen year veteran of the Kansas City Police Department with a healthy disdain for the encroachment of modern technology into his workplace. When his partner is kidnapped after a routine stakeout by thugs with seeming ties to connected, wealthy art dealer Benjamin Ashman, he’s determined to find the truth, but the only witness is a humanoid android named Lucas George. Reluctantly, he takes Lucas along as he begins to investigate and soon finds himself depending more and more on the very technology he so distrusts. Meanwhile, Simon’s precocious teenage daughter begins to teach Lucas how to sound more like a cop using dialogue from famous cop movies. If only he’d use them in the appropriate context.

As the two men dig in deeper, they find themselves and every witness they touch faced with danger from assassins as they begin to uncover a conspiracy that may stretch from the heights of the KCPD itself to South America and beyond. Can they identify the guilty before it’s too late without getting themselves killed in the process?

This exciting new mix of near future science fiction and procedural thriller captures the gritty realism of Michael Connelly’s Bosch, the humor and action of Lethal Weapon, and follows the classic science fiction tradition of Isaac Asimov’s City of Steel. From the editor of the international bestselling phenomenon The Martian by Andy Weir, and the national bestselling author of tales including official entries in The X-Files, Predator, and the Joe Ledger thrillers, comes this action-packed first entry in an exciting new series.

EXCERPT

"Who we looking for first?" Lucas asked from the seat beside him.

"Ashman's ex-protege, Mia McGuire—now one of his chief critics and rivals," Simon said, while waiting at a light in the left turn lane at Broadway.

"I thought when you called she wasn't in the office," Lucas said.

Simon nodded. "Yeah, but her assistant said she was at lunch with Japanese clients, Woo Song." He made the turn on Broadway and began scanning the right side for the restaurant.

"Really? What is that?"

"It's a restaurant, karaoke. I don't think the slip was intentional."

"What's karaoke?"

"People singing along to favorite songs," Simon said. "Crazy human antics. You'll love it."

Lucas pursed his lips and mumbled, "Hmmm."

Simon pulled into a small lot and found one of two open spaces, parking the Charger. Woo Song was to the north. He and Lucas got out and headed for the doors.

"Look, it would help me out if you can distract her clients somehow, while I talk with her," Simon said. "We don't want word spreading around about investigating Ashman any further than it already has."

Lucas nodded as Simon grabbed the door handle of the glass front door. Lights fluttered inside from the dance floor and pounding music leaked through to the street.

"I'll see what I can do," Lucas said.

"They're Japanese," Simon suggested. "These people love robots. Improvise."

Lucas shot him a quizzical look as Simon opened the door and they stepped inside.

The place smelled of Chinese food buffet and exotic spices. Half the tables were empty, but Simon immediately spotted two Asian men dancing and singing to Madonna on the stage. They didn't look like "Material Girls," but they were enthusiastic about making the claim.

Scanning the room, he found a dark-skinned woman in an expensive, tailored business jacket and skirt, sitting with three other Asians at a table on the right side, two away from the stage. There were six plates filled to the brim with Chinese food. The three Asians were eating with chopsticks and laughing. The woman—Mia McGuire, he hoped—was using a fork and watching the performers on the stage with amusement. The woman looked to be in her early forties, about right for a person who'd started with Ashman in her twenties and been pushed out a little over a decade later. Now they were rivals and she had her own company, smaller, but still competitive. Her lips were full, round, her eyes intense, focused, very blue, and she wore just enough makeup to highlight her features well but not seem obvious. She was important and she dressed and acted like it.

As Simon headed for the table, Lucas stood to one side, watching the stage with curiosity. The two Asians performing weren't awful as karaoke goes, and Simon had to admit he loathed karaoke, especially when it involved people with voices like cats serenading an alley. The Asians wore business suits and ties, like their three companions, but that didn't stop them from awkwardly moving enthusiastically to the rhythms in some kind of attempt at real choreography. Their voices were far better than their moves.

Simon stopped beside the table and smiled. "Mia McGuire?"

She looked up, surprised. "Yeah. Who's asking?"

Simon was reluctant to flash her a badge in front of her clients. "I need to talk with you about something important."

She frowned. "This is important. I'm with clients." She panned the table with her hand.

"Yes, but official business," he said, emphasizing the third word and locking his eyes on hers, trying to get the message through.

"Official like what? You an agent or something?" She shifted nervously in her chair, looking at the Japanese, who had quickly gone back to watching their friends and ignoring Simon as soon as they realized he wasn't talking to them.

"Yeah, something," Simon said.

The Madonna song ended, and the three Japanese applauded their friends vociferously and stood, bantering in Japanese—obviously deciding who would be next—as the others stepped down from the platform and came back to the table.

McGuire had kept her stare focused on Simon, even as she put on her best smile and joined the applause from her clients and others at nearby tables. "This isn't a good time," she said through clenched teeth.

Before any of McGuire's group could get to the stage, Simon heard the familiar strains of Styx and turned to see Lucas standing before the microphone. The Japanese businessmen brightened with recognition and began conversing, then Lucas launched into:

"Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, Mata au hi made... Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, Himitsu wo shiri tai..."

The android’s Japanese sounded perfect, incredibly so. Then he did the best Robot Dance Simon had ever seen. The Japanese businessmen enthusiastically raced to the stage to cheer him on and Simon found himself alone with McGuire.

He badged her. "It's about Benjamin Ashman."

McGuire scowled at the name then looked toward the stage and her clients. She sighed. "Can we make it quick?" Her gaze found his again with a look that said: not in front of the clients, please.

Lucas launched into the verse now with the Japanese handling the echoes: "You're wondering who I am (secret secret I've got a secret)..."

Simon nodded and sat down beside her in one of the vacated chairs. "You were Ashman's protégé, yes?"

"You clearly know that or you wouldn't be here," McGuire said. "My guess is we have about three minutes. Is that really the stuff you want to ask me?"

Simon grunted, accepting the challenge. "In your time with Ashman, did he ever involve you or himself in anything that pushed boundaries?"

McGuire raised a brow. "That's what his business is about—pushing boundaries, getting there first."

Simon clarified, "Legally."

She chuckled. "Ah, of course." She thought a moment. "Actually, he was pretty clean. In fact, shockingly so for one so rich and powerful in my experience. Didn't even make lewd comments, hit on me—like the others did. In fact, he called them out for it a time or two."

"Really?" Simon knew that wasn't always the case, even in the 21st Century, despite all the progress society had supposedly made. "So, he wouldn't be involved in illegal nanochips, data, forged art..."

McGuire turned back from the stage, stiffening and straightening in her chair. "Are you saying he is?" She seemed totally shocked at the idea.

"I'm saying someone might be," Simon said.

"At Ashman Industries?" she asked, clarifying.

Simon nodded.

She shook her head. "Wow. That would blow my mind if it's Benjamin. I mean, I am pissed at the guy for the way I got tossed aside and written off, and he's a tough competitor, doesn't make it easy for me going out on my own like this, but—" She paused, thinking a moment.

Simon waited, not wanting to interrupt her and break her train of thought.

Lucas and the Japanese hit the chorus now: "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo, Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo..."

"You know, most of it was Paul," she said then.

"Paul Paulsen?"

She nodded, her eyes darkening at the mention of his name, flashing a bit of anger. "Yeah, he's the one who really pushed me out. Ashman hired him out of college like me. Supposed to be his next big protégé."

"Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto, For doing the jobs that nobody wants to. And thank you very much, Mr. Roboto. For helping me escape just when I needed to..." Lucas sang.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," McGuire's clients sang in pronounced accents. "I want to thank you, please, thank you..."

"But Paul hated me from day one," McGuire continued. "Hated women, I think. But he resented me for sure, and I thought he was a cocky, smartass kid who should have respected my position and accomplishments and let me teach him. It started that way, too. Ashman encouraged it." She took a sip of her soda and leaned back in her chair. "But Paul worked on him, earned his trust, his ear, had a couple of impressive successes that didn't involve me, showed me up once or twice—and that was it. I was out, he was in."

"So he replaced you?"

"In Benjamin's favor, yes...and then eventually in my job, too," she agreed. "I wasn't asked to leave. I felt I had no choice. I wasn't going anywhere in Ashman's company anymore, you know? And I had ambitions, goals...I was almost as good at what Benjamin does as he was, and everyone knew it. Maybe Paul targeted me because of it..." Her voice trailed off as she looked down, lost in sad memories.

Simon watched Lucas dance for a minute, amazed by the android's well designed choreography. They'd heard the song on the radio the other day but where did he get that?

"The problem's plain to see: Too much technology."

"Your friend isn't bad," McGuire said with a chuckle.

Simon nodded. "Yeah, I had no idea."

"My clients love it," she said and sounded pleased.

"So if I look at illegal activities, you think I should start with Paulsen?" Simon asked, getting back to business as the song entered repeated choruses, winding toward the end.

"Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto, domo...domo..."

"Yeah, I would," she said, sounding sad. "Hell, for all I know he could have corrupted Benjamin by now. We don't see each other or interact much and haven't for years now. But I know who he used to be, and the old Ashman wouldn't risk his hard work with such crap. But Paulsen...yeah, he's capable of anything."

She grew silent then, watching her clients dance and cheer as Lucas finished the song. Then they all gave him high fives as the android stepped down from the stage.

"Purrfect," Simon heard one of them yell.

Lucas thanked them as they followed him back toward their table and McGuire. Simon stood.

"Get what you needed?" Lucas said softly as he stopped beside his partner.

Simon laughed. "Yeah, for now."

The Japanese men were chattering and circling round Lucas like he was a celebrity.

Lucas shrugged. "You wanted them distracted."

"Where'd you learn that dance?" Simon asked.

"The Robot? It's in my programming," Lucas said sotto voce.

Simon thought it was a joke but couldn't tell for sure. "Really?"

Lucas winked.

If you enjoyed or were intrigued by that excerpt, here’s a look at the cover to Simon Says. Of course, the book is available via all online outlets, including Amazon and Barnes and Noble.



Review of BLOOD SUGAR

TITLE: Blood Sugar

AUTHOR: Daniel Kraus

224 pages, Hard Case Crime, ISBN 9781789091939 (paperback)

DESCRIPTION: (from the back cover): In a ruined house at the end of Yellow Street, an angry outcast hatches a scheme to take revenge for all the wrongs he has suffered. With the help of three alienated kids, he plans to hide razor blades, poison, and broken glass in Halloween candy, maiming or killing dozens of innocent children. But as the clock ticks closer to sundown, will one of his helpers – an innocent himself, in his own streetwise way – carry out or defeat the plan?

MY RATING: four out of five stars

MY THOUGHTS: While the Paul Mann cover art of a beautiful, scantily-clad witch on a broomstick surrounded by candy (which reminded me of a Dave Stevens poster I had back in the 80s) seems almost light-hearted at first glance (until you notice the razor-blades, that is), be assured that Daniel Kraus’ BLOOD SUGAR is not light-hearted in the least. This is a dark, dark book, ranking with Joyce Carol Oates’ The Triumph of the Spider-Monkey and Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange as books that disturbed me so much I almost couldn’t finish them. Almost couldn’t … but did, because in each of these books there’s a narrative voice that pulls you in despite how much you might want to walk away.

Like the Oates and Burgess books, BLOOD SUGAR is a deep descent into the mind of a killer. But where the Oates and Burgess books are largely a single monologue by the main character, Kraus gives us a look into the minds and motivations of three of the four main characters: Jody, the streetwise helper; Dag, the suburban girl slumming for a thrill; and Robbie, the gang-leader.

Most of the story is told from Jody’s point-of-view, a kid trying to make himself out to be cooler, more street-smart, than he really is. There are shades of Holden Caulfield in Jody’s inflated self-defense mechanism as much as there are shades of Burgess’s Alex. Like both of those characters, Jody’s insecurities are illuminated by his choice of targets for ridicule and actual physical violence. This is a kid who has been mistreated by the system and the adults in his life, who has had to fend for himself from an early age. He’s learned when to lash out and when to be subservient, as illustrated by the way he replaces curses with language deemed “more appropriate” by gang-leader Robbie. Jody uses phrases like “mightyducker” and “sharkweek” throughout most of the book, which can take a little getting used  to (much like Alex’s slang in A Clockwork Orange) but when he finally lets the actual curse words fly, it’s a stunning moment of catharsis for him, as well as insight into how much he’s been holding back for the reader.

Jody’s narration is interrupted occasionally by Robbie and Dag. The differences in presentation and character voice provide the reader a respite from Jody’s stream-of-consciousness tumble of linguistic glitches and substitute curse words, and provide insight into his “friends” that Jody would never be aware of on his own. What Jody knows of their backstories allows him to ridicule one and somewhat idolize the other; what we see in the few chapters that show us letters written by Robbie and Dag give us a good view of why Jody is wrong on both counts.

Robbie’s chapters are letters he’s written to various authority figures who have let him down in the aftermath of a violent crime he perpetrated years before the book’s main events. The details of that event, and what led up to it, are teased out through these letters, providing clarity as to what has brought Robbie to his current state (on the verge of homelessness, squatting in his parents’ abandoned house, sharing drugs with young teenagers). The style of these chapters is still very stream-of-consciousness, but Robbie’s mind works in a completely different way from Jody’s, and these letters help us understand why.

Dag’s chapters are also letters, to a sister ensconced in a mental health facility post-suicide attempt. They start out very organized and formal; Dag is the least “if I think it, I’ll write it” of the three narrators, even towards the end of the book. She is also perhaps the coldest and most calculating of the three. But she has her own set of psychoses that propel her, just as much as Jody’s and Robbie’s propel them.

The only main character we don’t hear from directly is Jody’s foster sister Midge, who plays a pivotal role at several moments. She’s the youngest of the characters and, as presented, the most divorced from reality because of her experiences. Perhaps it’s good that we never see anything from her point-of-view; it would either be too disturbing or too heart-breaking.

There are enough twists and turns in the narrative that you’re never really sure how the story is going to play out – will Jody stop the plan or follow through on it; will some innocent secondary characters become victims of the violence or will they somehow skate past it; will the characters’ dark pasts only provide background to their present or will things somehow come full circle? Kraus keeps the tension high by changing narrators at pivotal moments, reverting to back-story to forestall the denouement just a little bit longer. And the shifting narrators also call into question exactly who is running this particular show. Each one thinks they are in control of themselves and manipulating the others. I really had no idea how it was all going to play out.

Daniel Kraus’s BLOOD SUGAR is a disturbing, dark read. Perfect for a series of late October nights for fans of first-person psychological horror. But definitely not for the squeamish.

Reading Round-Up: August 2019

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing.

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues and stand-alone short stories in e-book format as “books.” I read or listened to 14 books in August: 11 in print, 2 in e-book format, and 1 in audio. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #111 (August 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Carlos Hernandez’s “The Macrobe Conservation Project,” Rhajan Khanna’s “Card Sharp,” Sam J. Miller’s “Calved,” and Domenica Phettleplace’s “Robot Country.”

2.       Desdemona and the Deep by CSE Cooney. CSE Cooney gives readers a wonderful new fantasy world to explore in this novella with overlapping layers of human, faerie and goblin realms linked by a mysterious house and an ancient pact. Full review coming soon.

3.       In The Shadow of Spindrift House by Mira Grant. When Seanan McGuire writes as “Mira Grant,” I expect the work to fall in to the “science-horror” realm (things like fungal/epidemiological end-of-world scenarios, or killer mermaids, or computer/AI-based horror). This one is a mash-up: part Scooby Doo pastiche, part haunted town, part Lovecraft … but the parts add up to a fun, genre-blending whole I found really enjoyable and scary.

4.       The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, by Philip Jose Farmer. This was my third, or possibly fourth re-read of Farmer’s classic “story behind the story” take on Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. Farmer adds science fiction and world conspiracy flavors to Verne’s already fun adventure story, along with his classic penchant for sly (and sometimes not-so-sly) literary references. This book is one of the cornerstones of Farmer’s Wold Newton Family world.

5.       Hunt the Avenger by Win Scott Eckert. When you think of classic Pulp Magazine adventurers, you think Doc Savage, the Shadow, and Richard Benson, The Avenger. This “fix-up”/mosaic novel pulls together several of Eckert’s previously published Avenger short stories and adds two new chapters to the mix to tell a complete story about Justice Inc.’s battles with The Countess and The Iron Skull alongside pulp heroine The Domino Lady. A fun romp full of Farmerian winks and nods to other classic characters. Full review for this one also coming soon.

6.       Phileas Fogg and the War of Shadows by Joshua Reynolds. Meteor House is the official publisher of all authorized continuations of Philip Jose Farmer’s works. This novella picks up a few decades after The Other Log of Phileas Fogg and continues the story of Fogg, Passpartout, Nemo and the remaining Eridanean and Capellian agents on Earth. It’s a fast-paced adventure romp and of course has nods to other classic literature, as does….

7.       Phileas Fogg and the Heart of Osra by Josh Reynolds. Reynold’s second Fogg novella picks right up where War of Shadows left off, moving Fogg further across Europe, this time visiting the nation of Ruritania and revealing more folks we never knew were connected to the Eridanean/Capellian conflict. Just as fast and fun as the first book. Sadly, Meteor House has to date not continued this series (although I believe Reynolds planned five novellas total).

8.       The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow by Howard Chaykin. The art is classic Chaykin, the story a nice mix of Chaykin and the feel of the pulps. There’s lots of gunplay, lots of mind-control, and plenty of blood around cutting edge technology and the Cold War. (Kudos to Chaykin for including a short scene featuring The Shadow having dinner with his Wold Newton lineage cousins, with a shot of the Wold Cottage Meteor Monument in the background.)

9.       Lumberjanes Volume 12: Jackalope Springs Eternal by Shannon Watters, Noelle Stevenson, Brooklyn Allen, and others. Another fun Lumberjanes adventure, with a twist. This time it’s their counselor Jen urging them to go out and do something potentially dangerous (search for the legendary Jackalope!) instead of the girls heading into trouble while Jen tries to keep them in their cabins and safe. There’s lots of character growth in this one stemming out of the events in the previous volume.

10.   Tarzan and the Valley of Gold by Fritz Leiber. Leiber was the first writer officially authorized by the Burroughs estate to write a new Tarzan novel, based on the script for the movie of the same name. Leiber doesn’t just deliver a novelization, he delivers a fully-realized, totally Burroughsian take on the story. It’s easy to see why this one is considered by the Burroughs estate to be a part of the Tarzan canon. I intend to get around to watching the movie and then writing a blog post comparing book to movie.

11.   Books of Magic Volume 1: Moveable Type By Kat Howard, Tom Fowler and others. I was a fan of the tossle-haired, bespectacled British boy wizard Tim Hunter long before Harry Potter came along, and I followed the character in his original Vertigo series(s) from adolescence to adulthood. Part of me wanted to be skeptical when DC Comics announced that their “new” Sandman Universe would include a Books of Magic series that returned Tim Hunter to his starting point – but then I saw that Kat Howard was writing the book and I knew our boy Tim was in good hands. And I was correct. This is a great new take on the character, a slow-boil version of Tim coming into his magic and the forces trying to stop him. And Tim Fowler’s art is expressive in a slightly cartoony way that further sets this new iteration apart from the source material, in a good way.

12.   The Quest of Frankenstein by Frank Schildiner. Like Win Scott Eckert, Frank Shildiner is one the current masters of “new pulp,” especially the type with a classic horror bent. This is the first in his new series of novels following up on the French “Frankenstein” novels which were in their turn sequels to the Mary Shelley original. This is a bloodier, more coherent-minded Monster than fans of the Universal movies of the 30s and 40s might be comfortable with, but I enjoyed the book. Oh, it also features a lot of classic vampires and weird scientists.

13.   Untranslatable by Alma Alexander. The theme of this short story collection is words from other languages that are not directly and simply translated into English. Some of the stories are reprints and some are new, and all are intriguing and excellent. I’m planning a longer review, but speculative fiction short story lovers should be picking this one up.

14.   Justice, Inc. by Michael E. Uslan, Giovanni Timpano and others. A graphic novel that gives us an alternate original for Richard Benson, the Avenger, and his ties to Doc Savage and The Shadow. Uslan tells a fun, high-stakes story, and the art is solid throughout. There are beautiful covers painted by Alex Ross as well.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) each year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “Robot Country” by Domenica Phettleplace, from Lightspeed Magazine #111 (August 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “Calved” by Sam J. Miller

3.       “No Matter” by Kendra Fortmeyer

4.       “The Macrobe Conservation Project” by Carlos Hernandez

5.       “The Rock Eaters” by Brenda Paynado

6.       “The Final Blow” by Scott Sigler

7.       “Card Sharp” by Rajan Khanna

8.       “A Leash of Foxes, Their Stories Like Barter” by Cassandra Khaw

9.       “Dreams and Sighs” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “Death and the Countess” by Win Scott Eckert, from his mosaic/fix-up novel Hunt The Avenger.

11.   “Happy Death Men” by Win Scott Eckert

12.   “According to Plan of a One-Eyed Trickster” by Win Scott Eckert

13.   “The Glass Lady” by Win Scott Eckert

14.   “Toil and Trouble” by Win Scott Eckert

15.   “Black Wings of Kjellmar” by Alma Alexander, from her collection Untranslatable.

16.   “Dreamshare” by Alma Alexander

17.   “The Bucket List” by Alma Alexander

18.   “Equinox” by Alma Alexander

19.   “To Remember Riobarre” by Alma Alexander

20.   “Color” by Alma Alexander

21.   “Go Through” by Alma Alexander

22.   “Leaving Via Callia” by Alma Alexander

23.   “Night Train” by Alma Alexander

24.   “She Wore Yellow” by Alma Alexander

25.   “Something That Would Shine” by Alma Alexander

26.   “The Flying Dutchman” by Alma Alexander

27.   “The Painting” by Alma Alexander

28.   “The Bones of Our Ancestors, the Blood of Our Flowers” by Alma Alexander

So that’s 28 short stories in August, keeping me way ahead for the year so far. (August 31th was the 243th day of 2019.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

365 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  28 read; YTD: 319 of 365 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 4 read; YTD: 21 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 14 read; YTD: 92 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 5 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 of 10 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 books read; YTD: 0 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: I may not do something like this every month but August’s monthly special challenge was in honor of PulpFest and FarmerCon, the annual overlapping conventions that celebrate the fiction of the Pulp magazine era and the work of author Philip Jose Farmer. By my count, I read 8 books towards this mini-challenge. One by Philip Jose Farmer, two directly inspired by and involving his creations with his estate’s approval, and 5 featuring pulp characters like The Avenger, The Shadow, Domino Lady, Tarzan, and the French pulp version of Frankenstein’s Monster, Gouroull.

September is Hispanic Heritage Month, so I’m setting a goal to read as much stuff by Hispanic/Latinx authors as possible.

Review of ORMESHADOW

TITLE: Ormeshadow

AUTHOR: Priya Sharma

176 pages, Tor.com, ISBN 9781250241443 (softcover)

DESCRIPTION: (from Goodreads): Burning with resentment and intrigue, this fantastical family drama invites readers to dig up the secrets of the Belman family, and wonder whether myths and legends are real enough to answer for a history of sin.

Uprooted from Bath by his father's failures, Gideon Belman finds himself stranded on Ormeshadow farm, an ancient place of chalk and ash and shadow. The land crests the Orme, a buried, sleeping dragon that dreams resentment, jealousy, estrangement, death. Or so the folklore says. Growing up in a house that hates him, Gideon finds his only comforts in the land. Gideon will live or die by the Orme, as all his family has.

MY RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

MY THOUGHTS:  Note: I received an electronic Advance Review Copy of this book from the good people at Tor.com Publishing.

Priya Sharma’s Ormeshadow is of that particular type of fantasy wherein the reader wonders if the fantasy aspect actually exists at all or is completely in the characters’ minds. It’s hard to walk that “is it real or isn’t it” line without confirming one way or the other and still satisfy the reader; Priya Sharma pulls it off magnificently, putting me often in mind of one of my favorite fantasy novels (and possibly one of my favorite novels of any genre), Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman’s The Fall of the Kings. Even after two re-readings of Ormeshadow, I find myself happily vacillating as to whether the fantasy element, especially the story’s denouement, is real or the product of the main character’s fevered and wishing mind.

There is no doubt in my mind that main character Gideon Belman truly believes his father John’s stories of how the Orme Valley was formed and what is hidden in the mountain’s depths. His belief, forged in the fire of being young and impressionable, sees him through family tensions and tragedies as he grows up and has immense value in that alone. But many areas of the world have legends of being created by mythical creatures the modern world has no record of every existing, and I think Sharma makes it very clear that no-one else in the story aside from Gideon, John, and one other minor character, believe that dragons ever existed. Gideon’s mother, uncle, and aunt all seem to think John less of a man for telling such stories no matter how hard he works upon his return to the family farm, and Gideon’s cousins seem to have had all sense of wonder in childhood whimsy driven out of them by their stern and often drunken father. Only one or two locals seem to be even passingly aware of the legends John works so hard to keep alive for his son.  (The adults’ attitude that a storyteller is less worthy of respect than those who do physical labor is prevalent in our own world. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone said to me, “oh, you’re a writer? So what do you really do to make money?”)

There is one part of the legend that Gideon’s uncle Thomas seems to believe, although he only speaks of it when drunk, and even then obliquely: that great wealth is hidden somewhere in the Orme, and specifically part of the family land bequeathed to Gideon, regardless of how it got there (magical dragon or simply humans skilled at burying things). It’s also clear Thomas thinks Gideon will someday find that treasure. This doesn’t make him treat Gideon any kinder, and in fact makes him even more abusive.

The family dynamic overall is an unhappy and violent one, and so parts of this novella will be difficult for some readers. How Gideon stays so innocent, so caring, in the midst of so much faithlessness, resentment, and anger is a testament to either the positivity instilled by his father or the boy’s own obliviousness to what’s going on around him. As with the overall fantasy elements, Sharma seems to leave it up to the reader as to which option is the more accurate. Ultimately, I came away from the story loving and feeling bad for Gideon and for John, liking one of two of the supporting characters – particularly those introduced in the second half of the story – and disliking/borderline hating the rest of Gideon’s family.

Although Gideon is the focus of the story, I couldn’t help but notice how the author works in a very real assessment of the treatment of women in pre-industrial times. Mistreatment of Gideon’s mother by her husband’s former employer (the exact nature of which is hinted at but never fully explicated) leads to the family’s return from Bath to the farm of John’s birth and childhood, where Clare effectively becomes a weapon between John and his brother Thomas, who fears that John’s return brings problems. There is clearly no love lost between Clare and Thomas’ wife Maud, whose role has been mostly one of brood-mare and servant even before John and his family arrival. When Gideon and his cousin attend school, Gideon cannot help but notice the uncomfortable extra attention the schoolmaster gives certain girls, like the already-downtrodden Eliza Dorcas.

There is about the book a sense of claustrophobia, a sense that Gideon’s world was vaster in the confines of the city of Bath than it is in the rural Orme. Sharma’s descriptions of the hills and valleys are beautiful, especially whenever John relates new aspects of the dragon legend. But those bucolic descriptions are the exception to the rest of the story, brief moments in which Gideon, and the reader, can gulp fresh air and feel relaxed before the claustrophobia and tension of farm and school return.

Weather also plays a part in these alternating feelings of claustrophobia and airiness. Two scenes in particular are so intense that the terror of the events almost becomes beautiful. These second of these scenes is also the closest the author ever comes to telling us whether the dragon legend, and thus the fantasy aspect of the story, is true or not.

Ormeshadow leaves a lot up to the reader to decide, from the truth of the fantasy to what really happened in Bath that precipitate John’s return to his childhood home. And I think that’s what will make this book unforgettable and ultimately re-readable.

Reading Round-Up: July 2019

Continuing the monthly summaries of what I’ve been reading and writing. (This one’s a bit overdue!)

BOOKS

To keep my numbers consistent with what I have listed on Goodreads, I count completed magazine issues and stand-alone short stories in e-book format as “books.” I read or listened to 7 books in July: 2 in print, 5 in e-book format, and 0 in audio. They were:

1.       Lightspeed Magazine #110 (July 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams. The usual fine assortment of sf and fantasy short stories. This month’s favorites for me were Andrew Penn Romine’s “Miles and Miles and Miles,” Indrapramit Das’s “The Moon Is Not a Battlefield,” J. Anderson Coats’ “Mother Carey’s Table,” and Senaa Ahmad’s “Ahura Yazda, The Great Extraordinary.”

2.       Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma. You would think that as an English major in college, I’d have read something, anything, by Willa Cather. But if I did, I don’t recall it at all (please forgive me, Professor Malcolm Marsden!). So I’m counting this as my first Cather work. I’d like to read more by her eventually. I found this one an interesting character study. Full Review HERE.

3.       Sealed by Naomi Booth. An interesting combination of near-future environmental horror, graphic body horror, and a potentially unreliable narrator. Not for the easily squeamish, for sure. Full review appeared at Strange Horizons on August 30th.  http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/reviews/sealed-by-naomi-booth/

4.       Treasure Trail, by Morgan Brice. This is the first M/M urban fantasy/paranormal romance by Gail Z. Martin’s pen name that I have read, and it won’t be the last. This, the first in a new series, takes place in very haunted Cape May, NJ and introduces us to an antique shop owner with “the touch” (the ability to sense an object’s supernatural history) and a former cop turned rental property manager who sees ghosts. There’s also present- and past-day Mafia connections, because NJ.

5.       A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods edited by Jennifer Brozek. A really fun anthology of Lovecraftian Young Adult stories. The stories hit all the requisite Lovecraft themes and monsters, but with settings mostly in the present day focusing on teens – and often, on teens seeing what the adults can’t or won’t see.

6.       The Trans Space Octopus Congregation by Bogi Takács. Bogi’s newest short story collection, due out from Lethe Press in October, has a wonderful mix of science fiction and fantasy, including a few stories set in a shared future setting. Eir stories touch on many present day issues, including the immigrant, transgender, and “alternate sexuality” experiences. A great read.

7.       The Triumph of the Spider-Monkey by Joyce Carol Oates. Not going to lie, this was a very difficult read for me. Long out of print and brought back by Hard Case Crime, this is a very disturbing look inside the head of a serial killer.

STORIES

I have a goal of reading 365 short stories (1 per day, essentially, although it doesn’t always work out that way) each year. Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it:

1.       “The Null Space Conundrum” by Violet Allen, from Lightspeed Magazine #110 (July 2019 issue), edited by John Joseph Adams.

2.       “The Mysteries” by Karen Lord

3.       “Miles and Miles and Miles” by Andrew Penn Romine

4.       “The Moon Is Not A Battlefield” by Indrapramit Das

5.       “Mother Carey’s Table” by J. Anderson Coats

6.       “Sand Castles” by Adam-Troy Castro

7.       “Song Beneath the City” by Micah Dean Hicks

8.       “Ahura Yazda, The Great Extraordinary” by Senaa Ahmad

9.       “Face Your Furs” by Seanan McGuire, on the author’s Patreon page.

10.   “The Good Girl” by Lucy Snyder, on the author’s Patreon page.

11.   “Freak Corner” by John Rolfe Gardiner, from One Story #254, edited by Patrick Ryan

12.   “The Story of O-Tei” by Lafcadio Hearn, from Oriental Ghost Stories, edited by David Stuart Davies

13.   “Green Glass: A Love Story” by E. Lily Yu, from If This Goes On: The Science Fiction Future of Today’s Politics, edited by Cat Rambo

14.   “The Last Adventure of Jack Laff: The Dayveil Gambit” by Steven Barnes

15.   “King Harvest (Will Surely Come)” by Nisi Shawl

16.   “Away Game” by Seanan McGuire, from A Secret Guide To Fighting Elder Gods, edited by Jennifer Brozek

17.   “The Icarus Club” by Weston Ochse

18.   “Stormy Monday” by Chesya Burke

19.   “Pickman’s Daughter” by J.C. Koch

20.   “Us and Ours” by Premee Mohamed

21.   “The Art of Dreaming” by Josh Vogt

22.   “Visions of the Dream Witch” by Lucy A. Snyder

23.   “The Tall Ones” by Stephen Ross

24.   “Just Imagine” by Tim Waggoner

25.   “Holding Back” by Lisa Morton

26.   “The Mouth of the Merrimack” by Douglas Wynne

27.   “The Geometry of Dreams” by Wendy N. Wagner

28.   “Being Emily-Claire” by Jonathan Maberry

29.   “This Shall Serve As A Demarcation” by Bogi Takács, from The Trans Space Octopus Congregation, edited by Steve Berman

30.   “Some Remarks on the Reproductive Strategies of the Common Octopus” by Bogi Takács

31.   “A Superordinate Set of Principles” by Bogi Takács

32.   “Forestspirit, Forestspirit” by Bogi Takács

33.   “Given Sufficient Desperation” by Bogi Takács

34.   “Changing Body Templates” by Bogi Takács

35.   “For Your Optimal Hookboarding Experience” by Bogi Takács

36.   “Increasing Police Visibility” by Bogi Takács

37.   “Good People in a Small Space” by Bogi Takács

38.   “Records of a More Personal Nature” by Bogi Takács

39.   “This Secular Technology” by Bogi Takács

40.   “Three Partitions” by Bogi Takács

41.   “Unifications” by Bogi Takács

42.   “The Size of A Barleycorn, Encased in Lead” by Bogi Takács

43.   “To Rebalance the Body” by Bogi Takács

44.   “Shovelware” by Bogi Takács

45.   “The Oracle of DARPA” by Bogi Takács

46.   “Toward the Luminous Towers” by Bogi Takács

47.   “Wind-lashed Vehicles of Bone” by Bogi Takács

48.   “The Need for Overwhelming Sensation” by Bogi Takács

49.   “Spirit Forms of the Sea” by Bogi Takács

50.   “All Talk of Common Sense” by Bogi Takács

51.   “Standing on the Floodbanks” by Bogi Takács

So that’s 51 short stories in July, keeping me way ahead for the year so far. (July 30th was the 212th day of 2019.)

Summary of Reading Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 3 of 14 read.

365 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  51 read; YTD: 291 of 365 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 0 read; YTD: 17 of 52 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 7 read; YTD: 78 of 125 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 5 of 24 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0; YTD: 0 of 10 read/watched.

Complete the Series Challenge: This month: 0 books read; YTD: 0 of 16 read.

                                                                Series fully completed: 0 of 3 planned

Monthly Special Challenge: I may not do something like this every month. Having checked several different websites, it seems like July is not a month that lends itself to any specific reading goal (it’s the National Month of several foods, though: National Baked Bean Month, Culinary Arts Month, Grilling Month, Horseradish Month, Hot Dog Month, Ice Cream Month, Blueberries Month, and Picnic Month!) So my mini-challenge to myself was to make July Series Month, to help me catch up on one of my year-long challenges (The “Complete the Series” Challenge).

Friends, I completely bombed this self-challenge. I brought two series on a three-week business trip (Seanan McGuire’s Velveteen series, and one of the two remaining books I need to read in Chinua Achebe’s Africa Trilogy) and read precisely none of them. (In fact, I discovered on the trip that I’d brought the wrong Achebe with me, so stopped reading….)

August’s monthly special challenge is/was in honor of PulpFest and FarmerCon, the annual overlapping conventions that celebrate the fiction of the Pulp magazine era and the work of author Philip Jose Farmer. Tune into my next post to see how I did with that!

Sunday Shorts: Three From IF THIS GOES ON

Sunday Shorts is a series where I blog about short fiction – from flash to novellas. For the time being, I’m sticking to prose, although it’s been suggested I could expand this feature to include single episodes of anthology television series like The Twilight Zone or individual stories/issues of anthology comics (like the 1970s DC horror or war anthology titles). So anything is possible. But for now, the focus is on short stories.

Today I’d like to talk about three very different stories from the Parvus Press anthology If This Goes On: The Science Fiction Future of Today’s Politics, edited by Cat Rambo. I intend to read this whole anthology eventually, but figured I’d take a random sampling just to get me started.

“Green Glass: A Love Story” by E. Lily Yu. This one starts out as a classic SF love story: a man literally sends a probe to the moon to get a birthday/engagement present for his fiancée. But Yu does remarkable things with the story progression from there, revealing both the past and present (and a glimpse at the future) of the theoretically-happy couple. Yu gives us a future where the world has been largely despoiled and the working class are increasingly sicker because of it while the rich just get richer and healthier; everything this couple does to prepare for their wedding is expensive and wasteful just to make an impression. But there’s also the undercurrent that some things may never change: in an age of pre-nups that even designate how many children a couple will have, the woman still gets taken advantage of, gaslit and blindsided. I started out thinking the main characters were a bit unlikeable, grew to despise them for their excesses, and then actually felt a little sorry for the main female character by the story’s end. I think Yu manages to show us that while short fiction usually focuses on one aspect of a dystopian (or utopian, or whatever) society, the reality is that no facet of a society exists on its own and ignoring the bigger picture for the details that benefit you the most will almost always backfire.

“The Last Adventure of Jack Laff: The Dayveil Gambit” transcribed by Steven Barnes. It’s no secret that I love noir in all its forms – hard crime to SF. So it was probably a guarantee I’d love this story by one of the pioneers of Afrofuturism. The voice of the narrator/title character is gruff, macho, take-no-prisoners, and yet Barnes also imbues him with more honor and a bit less misogyny than the classic 40s-50s originals of this type. Still, a trope of noir is that the hero gets suckered, at least for a little while, by a beautiful client while ignoring his faithful and loving secretary … and Barnes leans into the trope with skill and subtlety, subverting it by staying true to it almost all the way through the story. All the classic types are here: the femme fatale, the hard-pressed secretary, the questionable businessman, and the links to an earlier case that turn out to be more important than the narrator at first realizes. Culturally, Barnes shows us a future where movements like #MeToo result in every business and personal interaction being filmed by bodycams and the footage securely stored in case of future litigation. The story takes several twists that I don’t want to spoil here.

“The Harvest King (Will Surely Come) by Nisi Shawl. One of the many things that impresses me about Nisi Shawl is her world-building when it comes to alternate (her novel Everfair) or future histories, and the voices she uses to reveal that world-building to the reader. Here, we get the religio-fascist future of a portion of the former United States called “Heartland” shown to us through two very different, equally sycophantic voices. The first voice is that of an American “king,” who has inherited his place from his the previous ruler (who ruled for twenty-one years), and who is now making plans to pass that throne on to the husband of his daughter (whose name happens to be Tiffany) … because in this future even the hereditary throne can’t possibly go to a woman. I’m not sure just how far in the future this part of the story is set. At first, I thought it was very near-future (a daughter/granddaughter named Tiffany), but the other voice Shawl uses – the pages of a Bible section called “Letters to the Oligarchs” makes me think that our present is a dim memory to the “king” who is about to leave his throne. The characters, all unlikeable, refer to slaves and “mud people,” and to ritual sacrifice of living “effigies” to appease the earth and guarantee a good harvest. Shawl wonderfully co-mingles pagan rituals (writ large via monster trucks and harvesters) with the racial purity ethics of a subset of our current population to posit a future where America has turned from democracy to theocracy.