More Books than Time

Book Reviews - Romance, Fantasy, Science Fiction - By an Adult for Adults

Homecoming: A Montague & Strong Detective Novel by Orlando Sanchez

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I liked Homecoming, just as I’ve liked almost all the Montague and Strong series, but it wasn’t quite up to the standards author Orlando Sanchez set with his first four novels in the series.

On the plus side we have the usual badness from Monty and Simon, we have Uncle Dex, we have Peaches, we have a super villain Oliver who wants to take over the mages first, then the world, we have Professor Ziller, he whom everyone refers to when they discuss the most  esoteric (and scary) magic and we have non-stop action.

So what’s wrong?  First, people just die for what seems like little reason, sacrificing themselves for little gain.  The bodies pile up, which is not uncommon in a M&S book, but usually it’s clear why they are dying.  In Homecoming why do the villainous side-kicks throw their lives away?  Their goal is for Oliver to rule; it is hard to see how that motivates minions and henchmen to throw themselves on Monty’s magic swords.  (I’m having a hard time imagining Oliver’s motivation speech.)

Second, I cannot abide new characters LD and TK Tush.  Who wants people who care only about how scary and how much magical power they have?

Third, the byplay between Simon and Monty is the centerpiece of the M&S novels, it is the reason the stories work.  Homecoming has the interaction but it doesn’t feel as immediate as other novels.  Simon seems to play catch up much of the novel.

Author Sanchez says he is letting us further into the M&S world with each novel, letting us peek behind the scenes and learn more about each character.  He gave us quite a bit on Monty in Homecoming and its predecessor Silver Clouds, Dirty Sky.  I enjoy getting to know the characters and the feeling we truly are getting acquainted.

I couldn’t put Homecoming down, just as with the prior novels in the series.  The super-fast pace has a downside, though, in that a couple of months after reading it I didn’t recall the events very well.  I had to go back and check a couple things when the sequel, Dragons and Demigods, came out (which of course I immediately purchased and read.)  Much as I enjoy speed-of-light plots, it might be wise to linger a bit over some of the Simon/Monty or Peaches scenes and let us readers savor the pleasure.

4 Stars

The Alien Diaries by Glenn Devlin – The Revolutionary War, Aliens, Modern Suspense

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The Alien Diaries takes a refreshingly different look at alien contact with a story that jumps seamlessly from today back to 1781, during the tail end of the Revolutionary War in Virginia.  Asher hires widower bookseller Colin to catalog the collection in the Dibble estate that date back to the late 1700s, and sends him a couple first editions and a few pages of a diary to whet his appetite for the work.  Colin realizes the assignment is odd – for one thing Asher paid off the mortgages on his home and business as a gift – but does not realize exactly how odd, or how dangerous.

Asher insists that Colin and his nominal supervisor Maddy wear 18th century clothing at all times and hide any evidence of modern equipment.  They are both intrigued by the anomalies on the estate:  Running water, electric lights, rudimentary air conditioning and central heating, indoor plumbing, refrigeration, but Maddy acts the hard-nosed supervisor and forbids from exploring and investigating until he finishes cataloging the book collection.

The diary from Kate Dibble, Mary and Dibble’s adopted daughter, gives the framework for the 1781 story.  An enslaved alien sought refuge with the Dibbles, his owners hunted him down.  Now, in 2018, the owners have returned and still hunt their escapee.  Colin and Maddy face terrifying events; they are unable to leave the estate and no one can see or hear them.

Good Points

Plot is intriguing, unusual and the story is self-contained, with a beginning, middle and solid end.

Characters are well done, especially those from 1781.  The modern pair of are somewhat less developed but we see enough to like.  We suspect the two will end up together but the romance is secondary.

Author Glenn Devlin does an excellent job moving between times.  We are not confused as to which group we are with and the events of the past clearly define the events today.

So-So Points

There are plot holes.  Couple examples:

  • How does James communicate with the aliens in our modern time to arrange the 2018 events?
  • Why have the winged aliens not attacked Earth?  We would be pushovers and clearly they have known about us for at least 2500 years.

There are editing problems, missing words, so on.  Also, does not anyone use the irregular past tense anymore for shine/shone or dive/dove?

The biggest problem with the novel is it bogs down about the 40% mark.  I kept reading because I was curious what was going on with the mysterious Dibbles, but the book itself crept along.  There is a comment on Amazon that Alien Diaries “was a finalist during Amazon’s monthly screenwriting competition” so perhaps what felt like doldrums in a novel would be more lively in a movie.

Overall

I liked the novel and read to the end and appreciated the skill with which author Devlin mixed the 1780s into 2018.  It’s not quite 4 stars, perhaps 3 1/2.

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Dragons and Demigods – Montague and Strong Detective Agency by Orlando Sanchez

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I love the Simon Strong and Tristan Montague books; in fact, I immediately re-purchased those I lost when I sold my business.  (You can read about that here.)  Possibly that’s why I was disappointed in Book 6, Dragons and Demigods.

The interaction between Simon and Monty is the heart of the story and the source of the series’ charm; the first several books and some of the short stories show this interaction – their trust, liking, appreciation, complementary styles and strengths – growing over time as they deepen their friendship.  Yet here, in this novel, and to some extent in the book just prior, Homecoming, Simon acts more like a tag-along than an equal.

Monty needs to face TK Tush in magical combat, as payback for his temerity in anchoring a magical bridge to her in a life and death situation.  Of course Simon goes with Monty, yet he shows almost no curiosity before the fight, how it will work, what his role is as Monty’s second, whether Monty even expects to survive.  Remember, Monty is Simon’s best friend and business partner; would you not have a zillion questions beforehand in a similar situation?  Instead Simon trails along, does what he’s told.

The other problem with this book is the secondary helping characters are weak.  In prior novels we had fantastic side kicks, but Dragons and Demigods once more drags in TK and LD Tush.  TK is so full of herself, so convinced that everyone should fall down in awestruck wonder at her awesome powers, that she cannot accept Monty “using” her.  How dare he!  Thus we wasted the first half in a duel.

Overall the plot is decent, fast moving and has some of the same fun quirkiness as the rest of the series.  Castor and Pollux making their first appearance since The Warden, and they are seriously bad news.  I look forward to seeing more of them as they play both helper and opponent roles.

Reading Dragons and Demigods left a bad taste; I felt like author Sanchez zigged left, taking Simon down a dozen notches, when I wanted him to zag right, leaving Simon as Monty’s equal and formidable and growing.  I purchased this from Kindle and think I’ll use the Kindle Unlimited borrowing for the next ones.

3+ Stars

 

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You Are Dead. (Sign Here Please) by Andrew Stanek – Humorous Fantasy

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You Are Dead.  (Sign Here Please) by Andrew Stanek is a cute story of one man fighting the bureaucrats of existence.  You see, semi-hero Nathan Haynes gets killed by a serial murderer intent on increasing his score on the serial-murderer-hall-of-infamy, but when Nathan reaches the afterlife he discovers our entire existence is run by bureaucrats, and if he does not sign his Form 21B, Decenent Acknowledgement and Waiver of Liability he can’t really stay dead.  Since Nathan thinks the form might be a ploy to bilk him out of his house, he refuses.

The story is cute enough to entertain one on a brain-dead evening.  There are some funny bits, some attempts at political satire, some man-vs.-machine moments.  I liked the part where author Stanek (who has a degree in microbiology from Caltech) explains that molecular biology, cosmologists, and deep sea oceanography are all scams, jokes to get funding forever while publishing articles using science buzzword bingo.

You Are Dead has a beginning, middle and it ends, no cliffhanger.  (Although we do wonder how Nathan will dispose of the ever-higher pile of bodies in his back yard.)  I was surprised to see this is part of a series of now five books as the plot and running jokes about bureaucrats are a bit thin for that.

Don’t read You Are Dead looking for great character development, although our semi-hero Nathan does get a little less gullible and a little more clued-in after he dies three or four times.  You will root for him and cheer when he gets tricky.  The head bureaurocrat Director Fulcher is probably the most interesting character who does grow through the book as he develops a very strong desire for revenge and to personally trick Nathan into signing.

Don’t read You Are Dead looking for great writing or great comedy although it’s cute, funny enough to enjoy and written well enough to be easy and pleasant.  The author turns everything on its head, which is funny the first dozen times.  The town of Dead Donkey is a running farce that you can enjoy without searching for deeper meaning or political insights.

Do read You Are Dead. (Sign Here) if you enjoy ridiculous stories and want an easy book for that evening read after work.

3 Stars

A Proper Hellhound – A Montague and Strong Detective Story, or Time for Peaches

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A Proper Hellhound has some good moments.  First, it’s a Montague and Strong short story featuring Peaches, the black hole of meat consumption, aka the hellhound pup, son of Cerebus and gift from Hades.  Author Orlando Sanchez has a hit with Peaches, one of his most endearing characters and one that lets his human bond mate, Simon Strong co-star.

On the other hand, Sanchez continues developing Simon Strong into a whiny, clueless null character, a most irritating development that was evident in the last couple novels (especially the latest, Dragons and Demigods) and a development that I hope he abandons quickly.  Here’s an example.  Simon asks for a weapon; Ezra tells him that he and Peaches are the weapon and Simon says “What does that mean?”  C’mon.  Simon is supposedly a super lethal ex-New York Task Force member, the supernatural equivalent to Special Forces, and he does not understand how he plus his mega lethal hellhound are a weapon?  Heck, I understood it!

Simon stumbles through Peaches’ training session, never quite understanding that what he is doing and what he is learning is the training.  He fights off several baddies, saves his dog (and his dog saves him) and still doesn’t realize that he plus Peaches can do almost anything.

The other thing that’s beginning to annoy me about these books is the number of new secondary characters thrown in while older ones simply fade away.  Some of the older ones were pretty interesting, well worth a few more paragraphs, while some of the new ones, such as TK Tush and LD Tush, would be better forgotten because they are too self-centered to play nicely in the M&S sandbox.  Ezra is one of the best side characters from prior novels and I was glad to see him return.

To sum up:  One the plus side we have a Peaches-centric story that moves fast with the usual dollop of Simon’s mayhem and favorite side character Ezra makes a return cameo.  On the minus side Simon continues his descent back into clueless adolescence.  Ugh.

3 Stars

The Galactic Peace Committee – Great Fun Read, Humor, Science Fiction

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I love this book.  I read it a few months ago and needed to re-read to write this review and once more loved the zany, off-the-wall plot and back story.  It probably says something about my low brow tastes, but I’m giving this 5 stars, just because it was much fun to read the third time as the second and the first.

The Galactic Peace Committee of the title is a cross between a bad joke, a con job and a deadly necessity.  You see, there are thousands of races throughout the galaxy, most love war and fighting far more than we humans do, and most will gladly go slaughter another race for the horrible crime of insulting their hats or preferring pizza to pancakes.   The Committee exists to keep the peace, more or less, or at least keep someone from engulfing the entire galaxy in war or, worst of all, annoying the Ancient Ones.

Ah yes, the Ancient Ones.  One race of Ancient Ones looks like cuddly teddy bears.  The space teddy bears were the first alien race to contact us when Earth developed faster than light travel, and the bears kindly put Pluto and a minor Saturn moon back together, then helped us get over the hump on a few technological travails.

Then the space teddy bears pulled the ultimate con.  They convinced a gullible humanity to accept the immense honor to run the Galactic Peace Committee, while they and the other Ancient Ones, extend their holidays on their favorite beach worlds and enjoyed more drinks with umbrellas in them.  We’re a bunch of optimists with good opinions of ourselves so it tkes a while for humanity to realize they had been had.  No one wants to be in charge of Galactic Peace!

That’s the back story.  Our hero, Jake, is a mid level diplomat on a space station who would like to be successful enough to survive until he can retire on a pension that is very generous, mostly because the Committee rarely has to pay them out.  Jake needs to keep the peace and uses every skill he has and all his patience to stop two interstellar wars.  How Jake works these miracles is the crux of the novel.

The Galactic Peace Committee pulls off the hat trick:  humor, plot with enough science-fiction-y events to feel like we’re reading space opera without all the operatic trappings, intriguing characters, and did I mention humor?  Unlike several wanna-be humorous novels this one uses the ridiculous specifics to contrast with the generally serious back story to make a very good, fun novel.

There are a few minor problems.

  • Jake has a few woe-is-me moments in the beginning that stopped just before they got tiresome.
  • The Galactic Peace Committee is more a novella than a novel.
  • Not sure I like the super robot idea.  In this novel author L. G. Estrella avoids relying on the robots to make everything magically work out (these are military/assassin/bodyguard robots), but he must feel the temptation to have Jake narrowly escape because his bodyguard saves him.

The only one of these problems is number 2.  I want more Galactic Peace!

5 Stars

Saving Paludis by Clayton Graham – Science Fiction I Could Not Finish

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The publishers kindly provided my a complimentary copy of Saving Paludis to review through NetGalley but I simply cannot get past about 40% of the novel.  The characters and plot are all over the place, disorganized and incoherent, and not enjoyable.  I read to enjoy so this one is, sadly, a Did Not Finish.

The basic plot is Earth has colonized Paludis and shoved the natives to a small peninsula.  Now the natives have managed to attack Earth (apparently it is the natives or some other unknown race from the same planet, it isn’t real clear at the 40% point) for revenge? freedom? (also not clear).  The human colonists meanwhile have discovered a sleeping pill that enables long hibernation without side effects, thus opening more of the galaxy to exploration and exploitation.  It’s not real clear yet why the sleeping pill and attacks on Earth are connected, or even whether they are connected; after reading so far I’d expect some hints that the novel is pulling together the disparate strands.

There are three main characters per the blurb, but it isn’t entirely clear what the other characters are doing or why they are present.  The novel is uneven in narrative flow, pacing, character development and plot, and I cannot keep focused.  Please note that many of the Amazon reviews are 4 and 5 stars, so I may be the outlier.

I am very sorry, but I cannot read any more.  There are far too many other books out there to enjoy.

2 Stars

Demon Moon (Prof Croft Book 1) by Brad Magnarella, Good Start to an Urban Fantasy Series

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Demon Moon is the first of several books in the Professor Croft urban fantasy series by Brad Magnarella.  I was reluctant to get into it after several disappointing urban fantasy novels, and a little turned off from the wizard/professor idea after the Alastair Stone series by R. L. King.  I’m glad I took a chance as Demon Moon has potential.

Negative Points

  • Harry Dresden similarities.
  • Resolution with the New York policewoman was obvious
  • Inconsistent pacing and emotional/action ups and downs.
  • Prof Croft needs more personality.

Demon Moon’s set up is very close to Butcher’s books:  Wizard protects the big city with no help and some obstruction from his group, sword cane, Latin invocations, police involvement.  However the plot and character work out differently and it did not feel to me that much of a a Harry Dresden redo; I expect the author will create his own voice and character as we go along in further novels.

Much as I enjoy the first dozen Dresden novels, I don’t care for the Butcher’s new direction with Harry in the Winter Court.  I was glad to read something like the first few Dresden stories but a new character and a fresh start.

Positive Points

  • Everson Croft is passionate about protecting people, whether innocent bystanders or inept conjurers.
  • Croft admits he’s a relative novice in magic skills.  It’s refreshing to see a humble main character!
  • No sex, minimal foul language or blasphemy
  • Secondary characters have potential.
  • Menacing backdrop and setting with New York in a state of near anarchy after a Crash

I am a bit torn on rating this.  Demon Moon is better than blah, not quite as good as solid 4 star novels.  Let’s go with 3 Stars, mainly because the main character needs some work.  It’s a good start to what could be an entertaining series, but we’re not there yet.

 

Modern Sorcery (Jonathan Shade Book 1) – Decent Urban Fantasy

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I’m beginning to think that some of the hardest things in the world are to write a decent fantasy quest novel (5 assorted misfits seek the Object of All Wonderfulness to Save the World) and good urban fantasy.  Quest stories are usually awful unless the quest itself is subtle, downplayed, perhaps the Object is a throne or some event.

Urban fantasy is a growing genre with some hits and more misses.  Some authors make it look easy, but let’s think about it.  Good urban fantasy has to:

  • Have an engaging hero or heroine (hereafter referred to as “hero”)
  • Side kicks are optional, but if present must also be believable and interesting on their own
  • Hero ought to have some unusual traits or magic
  • Have a reason the hero is on the outs/suspected by/worried about/in hock to some overall mystical group that has power over him.  Think Harry Dresden and the White Council.
  • Have a sense of obligation.  Perhaps the hero seeks to save us regular folk from encroaching vampires, or to keep the peace among groups of fae, or is a PI.
  • This obligation must be dangerous and difficult, with moral dilemmas
  • Plus let’s not forget the basics of any novel:  Plot, character, setting, timeline, dialogue, so on

So yes, it’s difficult.

Modern Sorcery (Jonathan Shade Book 1) has some requisite elements.  The main character, Jonathan Shade, is reasonably engaging with a couple well-done side kicks.  He’s without magic himself but is also not subject to it.  Plus he’s dead and come back.  I particularly liked his librarian friend Sharon and typewriter Esther but his semi-partner Kelly lacks appeal and is 2-dimensional.

Overall the book’s main lack from an urban fantasy point is Jonathan’s rationale for taking on magic users.  He’s a PI and his old girl friend asks for help.  That doesn’t give the book much framework to hold the story.

Author Jonas Gary does a decent job with this novel and kudos to him for trying and getting it mostly right.  I don’t much enjoy the story, partly because the overall plot was a little over the top and Jonathan’s girl-to-rescue was a nasty piece.  Dialogue was a bit weak and stylistically inconsistent, sometimes snarky, sometimes frank, sometimes just bleah.

I’m unsure whether I’ll look for more books in the series.  At the moment (June, 2018) there are 10 books in all, so author Gary likely improves his craft.  Book 1 is a solid try.  If you think you’d like to try it, Amazon offers this for $.99.

3 Stars

Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper – Unsatisfying Fantasy Humor

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Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper is meant to be funny, and it starts out well.  The Grim Reaper is Death himself, cape, cowl and scythe; Kingston Raine is the fictional hero of the newly not-supposed-to-be-dead author Don Keaton.  Don writes enormously popular novels featuring the intrepid Kingston Raine but is stuck half way through book number 7.

The book gets complicated.  Death is the CEO of Death, Inc., and under threat by a hostile takeover and hostile unions.  Somehow Death turns Kingston Raine from a character in a story to a person who is now hiding in Limbo.  It gets more and more complicated, and less and less intelligible and less and less interesting as we go.

Death was the best character here and I skimmed most of the book looking for his scenes, which became less enjoyable as the book progressed.  Kingston Raine is a jerk, annoying and I skipped his parts.

The premise, with Death as a company set up to process souls in Limbo before sending on to their final destination, is intriguing and could make a likable story.  Kingston Raine and the Grim Reaper, sadly, is not that likable.

1-2 Stars