TO THE DEATH by Patrick Robinson

Several years ago, George W. Bush said, speaking of the war on terror, that "You're either with us or against us." This black-and-white philosophy pretty well defines To the Death, a Patrick Robinson thriller that has as much gung-ho American patriotism as any episode of 24.

Set in 2012, this novel opens with two thwarted terrorist attacks: a bomb in Boston International Airport and a hijacked plane. After interrogation in Guantamano, the captured terrorist reveals the location of the main nemesis of To the Death: General Ravi Rashood, the Commander-in-Chief of Hamas and a former British military man. After a failed attempt to kill Rashood by the Israelis, Rashood and his femme fatale wife Shakira are given a mission: to assassinate Admiral Arnold Morgan, the controversial Presidential advisor and main enemy of terrorists.

Meanwhile, Lt. Commander Jimmy Ramshawe, the Assistant Director of the NSA, has begun piecing together the various seemingly random events that indicate what Ravi and Shakira are up to. The bulk of the novel are the parallel workings, as Ravi and Shakira work to place themselves in a position to kill Morgan while Ramshawe tries to figure out their plan and protect Morgan.

As a thriller, To the Death is decent. There's quite a large number of people -- the first three pages are a cast of characters -- but since the focus is on action and the procedures of covert missions and interdepartmental cooperation, character is mostly secondary. The twin operations are contrasted nicely, and there is some good suspense.

What really put me off To the Death was how absolutely wonderful the good guys are and how absolutely evil the bad guys are. All the good guys get along perfectly, have no flaws (except, gosh, that they love America just too darm much), and are perfectly willing to ignore any pesky laws that interfere with their plans. By absolute contrast, every single Arab or Muslim is either a terrorist or providing support to terrorists. (Robinson also has some of his heroes toss around the slur "towelheads" quite often.) The wicked press is only interested in selling stories, making up stuff and endangering America in the process. Any politicians who don't automatically support this our-way-bar-none approach to national security are motivated by selfish ambition. "With us or against us" indeed!

The best thrillers give us characters we care about, and plots that make us think, as well as action and tension. To the Death, alas, is too mired in shallow stereotypes (both of the good and bad guys) that distract from what could have been a decent thriller.

Overall grade: C-

Reviewed by James Lynch

The Watchmen - Ben Bova (1964, 1969)

The Watchmen is a collection of two books by sci-fi great Ben Bova, collected into a single volume. Both deal with an Interstellar Terran Empire and the Star Watch which is charged with holding it together and keeping the peace. Both are interesting, but for different reasons.

Science fiction, as I've said before in reviews, can be a vehicle for writers to comment on issues which are of very real import in a way which provides a little distance and perspective. Star Watchmen, the first of the two short novels, is a fine example of this type of writing. Published in 1964, it is a pretty clear analogy for the proxy wars and colonial in-fighting that were flaring up in Southeast Asia. As an allegory for Vietnam (and other places), it works well. Bova renames the various parties involved, and without a real-world name as a peg to hang one's hat, it becomes a lot harder to tell who the "good guys are." The book is a little dated, but it's still a good read.

I remember reading The Dueling Machine back in the early 80s and thinking how cool it was. It bears up pretty well on this rereading, even though the whole book is essentially written around a single cool idea. That idea is sort of what has come to be called "virtual reality" - a machine which allows the participants to share a dream and fight to the "death." When the machine is used to cause actual death, investigations are spawned and the plot proceeds. However, the book revolves around the neat technological idea. It is handled deftly enough - and still makes our current VR look a little lame.

Bova writes well, and the books are entertaining. They both look a little dated, but that is not a bad thing. When one realizes that the books were written forty years ago, one cannot help but admire the vision of the writer. Taken together, they are a fine time capsule.

Overall Grade: B

Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer (2001)

Artemis Fowl is billed as a children's book, like Harry Potter, and like that 600-lb gorilla of the genre, it makes perfectly acceptable reading for adults. The premise of the book (and of subsequent sequels, one assumes), is that young Artemis Fowl is a criminal genius in a world where magic and superscience exist, if not by side-by-side, at least in the same universe. Fowl is on the mad scientist side of the equation, his nemesis, Holly Short, is on the magic side - although even as a Faerie in the employ of the Lower Elements Police, Recon (or LEPRecon) Captain Short makes full use of superscience. The appeal of the book lies in the interesting world created by Colfer for his characters to inhabit and in those characters themselves.

Comparisons to Harry Potter are inevitable. If the books lacks the epic scope of the Harry Potter books, they compensate with a darker tone (darker, at least, than the first few Potter books) and with tighter plotting.

Colfer's writing is good, drawing on numerous genres for inspiration and melding them into an engrossing whole. The book reads almost like a hard-boiled police procedural or thriller, toned down a bit for a younger audience, and with magic and a twelve year-old protagonist thrown in. It's an eclectic mix, but one that works.

It is interesting that Fowl is a master criminal. Unlike most heroes of books aimed for this crowd, he is not a good, upright but misunderstood hero in waiting (cf. Harry Potter, etc.), he's a villain. At the same time, he's a young boy trying to make his way in the adult world, with reasonable success, which is a very appealing image.

Overall Grade: B

Psycho Shop - Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny (1998)

Bester and Zelazny are two great names in sci-fi, so a collaboration between the two sounds like it has great potential. The fact that it is an unfinished novel by Bester, finished by Zelazny after Bester's death does not in any way diminish that potential. The introduction compares it to a jazz duet between two master musicians, an anaology which is perhaps apt. Improvisation when it works well is magical, but also very much of the moment. For a novel, the result is a fast-paced and amusing story but one which lacks the structure and craft to be truly great.

The premise is packed with tropes of the genre - time travel, a magical (or in this case, following Clark's 3rd Law, scientific) shop where almost anything can be traded including personality traits and ephemera like "genius", and highly evolved supermen and women.

The action veers back and forth through time and space, as our hero, Alf Noir, is sent to investigate the "magical shop" and it's owner Adam Maser. Along the way, increasingly disconcerting gaps in Alf's own past start showing up, leading to a final showdown.

The style is brisk and a lot of fun, and some of the asides or "riffs", if I may stretch the metaphor, are brilliant. Overall, however, it lacks coherence. While incidents and vignettes shine, the novel as a whole does not scintillate. It is certainly a pleasant enough read, but it will not stick with you the way that the great works by either author do.

Overall Grade: C+

The Soddit - Adam "ARRR" Roberts (2003)

Parodies are tricky. When they work, they can be incredibly funny - especially to those who know the source. When they fail, they can be truly miserable - especially to those who know the source. The Soddit hits neither of these extremes, landing in a middle ground which is, while not particularly inspired, at least fairly amusing.

The book is not a note-for-note or incident-for-incident parody of Tolkien's The Hobbit, rather it aims for a more general or thematic pastiche. Overlaid on the plot of The Hobbit is a completely separate plot, original to Roberts, which is actually quite good. At the conclusion of the book I was left dissatisfied. The parody was only adequate but the original plot was interesting enough that I would have preferred a book where it could be fully developed without being shoehorned into a Tolkien parody. Ironically, had it been an original book, though, I would have been much less likely to purchase it in the first place - a literary Catch-22 of sorts.

In any case, the book has it's moments, but ultimately is merely average. For those looking for a good Tolkien parody, I recommend seeking out The Harvard Lampoon's Bored of the Rings, but for those looking for straight-ahead fantasy, Mr. Roberts' other books might be worth checking out.

Overall Grade: C

A World Between - Norman Spinrad (1979)

I am continually amazed by the prescience of some science fiction novels and books. It is possible that what I should be amazed by is really the fact that "the more things change, the more they stay the same." A World Between is one of those books that, while written in 1979, could have been written about, say, the 2008 US Presidential race-thus-far. It takes on issues of sexism, political correctness, media culture and media manipulation with side-trips into hetero-sexism and inter-gender relationships, all executed with the deft touch of a master.

Set in the moderately distant future, the plot revolves around the fate of the planet Pacifica, whose role in the interstellar community is that of media producer and information broker. The Pacifican constitution mandates free access of the press and is founded on "electronic democracy." You may begin making Twilight Zone sounds in your head any time now. Into this vibrant culture, where "information wants to be free," two spaceships arrive close on each other's heels, each representing a competing ideology.

First to arrive are the technocratic Transcendental Scientists. This male dominated faction's main crime in the eyes of the Pacificans is that they restrict their advances to their own people rather than engaging in free market trading and sharing; in short, they use technology as a weapon for market trading and sharing; in short, they use technology as a weapon for political purposes.

They are followed by the Femocrats, radical feminists and lesbians in a communistic vein. The scene is set for a clash of titanic proportions. Since faster-than-light (FTL) travel does not exist, the battle will be fought for hearts and minds with propaganda and politics rather than with guns and bombs.

What follows is the struggle of our Pacifican heroes (of both genders) as they try to negotiate a middle path between two extremes. As the TS and Femocrats try to manipulate the Pacifican elections and government, both sides engage in the type of gender politics that have been so prevalent in the past year. Thirty years ago, the book must have seemed like a wild flight of imagination, today in almost reads like a documentary.

Spinrad tackles his subjects with wit and humour, as well as consumate craftsmanship. Admittedly some of the style and conceits seems a little dated, but remarkably few. Some of the characterizations are a little heavy-handed as well, but Spinrad's writing is strong enough to make this a quibble. While this is not Spinrad's best book, it is still a very good book, and the issues he addresses are amazingly timely.

Overall Grade: B+

Whitechapel Gods - S.M. Peters (2008)

Whitechapel Gods is an urban fantasy, set in an alternate Victorian London, where the titular gods have established a metaphorical beachhead in the world to expand their power. A small band of rebels are fighting against their oppression against seemingly overwhelming odds.

Peters handles his material well, blending elements of Lovecraftian Horror, steampunk and dark fantasy into a rich nightmare world. A soupcon of pulp fiction adds a little spice to the mix. The two "gods," Mama Engine and Grandfather Clock, are mechanistic monsters, a dream of industrialization gone horribly wrong. The rebels are a rag-tag bunch of broken, damaged outcasts and dreamers.

The story is driven by plot rather than character, since most of the major players are so fantastic as to be more plot-devices than fully developed personalities. This is not a fatal drawback by any means, but it does skew the feel of the book toward epic fantasy. The real strength of the book is in the setting. A dark, super-industrial Whitechapel, built and fueled by magic, policed by inhuman mechanical killers and covered in a permanent debilitating smog which is killing slowly those who are not killed more quickly by the servants of insane divinities, is painted vividly in a palate of browns and blacks with the occasional splashes of bright red arterial blood.

The story builds with increasing velocity, even if at times parts of it become a little incoherent, and an epilogue which is all sweetness and flowers is somewhat out of character, but overall the book is fairly satisfying and the setting completely engrossing.

Overall Grade: B+

Household Gods - Judith Tarr and Harry Turtledove (1999)

Household Gods is a fish out of water tale, where a high powered 90's lawyer and single mother is transported back to the body of an ancestor living in the Roman city of Carnuntum towards the end of the 2nd century AD. Nicole, our protagonist, finds life in the distant past jarring and most of the action and conflict in the book comes from her adjusting to daily life in a frontier town during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. Nicole learns a lot about herself during her time in Carnuntum and when she is returned to the present she's a better and happier person.

If you think that sounds like a heartwarming Disney or Lifetime channel movie, you're not too far off the mark. This book annoyed me, which is not to say that I didn't finish reading it. To be a bit clearer, Nicole annoyed me. Her constant culture shock, powered by late twentieth century American self-righteousness, was an almost constant grating presence through the first half of the book. Ironically (at least, ironically for those of you familiar with my "Daily Life ..." reviews), this was the portion of the book where Nicole learned to deal with "Daily Life in the Roman Empire". The problem was that every new facet of daily life was viewed through Nicole's eyes, which meant that it was all horrible, primitive and barbaric. That means that almost every bit of history which appears in the book is prefixed by a sentence like, "Everything was suddenly horrifying." After the first twenty times, that gets a little old.

As far as the history goes, that works rather well. The Daily Life portion of the book is interesting and even pointing out the differences between now and then isn't a bad idea. If only you didn't have to endure Nicole's whiny internal debates.

The book does settle down by the middle, and even if it resolves itself into a rather too tidy ending, it has some very enjoyable moments. As a fictionalized account of life in a frontier Roman town, it's fascinating and well executed. The grafting of a rather cliche plot on top of it works less well, but is only really intrusive at the beginning and the very end. I can't recommend the book whole heartedly, but neither is it without merit.

Overall Grade: C+

To The Death (2008)

We've been big fans of the Patrick Robinson series of naval novels, and have reviewed some of them. Apparently, we got someone's attention, and I've been sent an advanced excerpt of the first third of his latest novel. I've also been given permission to "share the wealth," and now you too can download it in a PDF. So, now in an Armchair Critic first, you too can get started on To The Death, which won't be out in hardcover for a few weeks. Happy reading!

Download here

Jonas

Inconceivable - Ben Elton (1999)

Inconceivable is the punny title of Ben Elton's book about a couple and their difficulty having children. One might not think that infertility is a subject rife with comedic potential, but in the sharp and sometimes cruel hands of Ben Elton it makes for a very funny book indeed.

The book is written as an almost epistolatory novel, although instead of letters it is told in alternating extracts from the journals being written by Sam and Lucy, the childless couple. It is a device which works pretty well, giving a "he said/she said" feel to the proceedings. Sam's entries are funny and have a distinct male voice. Lucy's entries are funny and have a distinctive voice, too, but I wonder if the voice is a little stereotypical rather than distinctively female. (The voice sounded plausible to me, but I'm not a female and by definition poorly equipped to judge ...)

The through line, of course, is the various ups and downs of trying to get pregnant. There is lots of material here from New Age suggestions to make love on sites of mystic power to the indignities necessary for the various modern medical techniques. Interweaving with that story are subplots concerning Sam's attempt to kickstart his writing career by writing about their problems, and Lucy's response to that.

Elton's style is sharp and biting, almost mean at times, with an earthy streak that crops up now and then. Those familiar with British television might recognize the names Blackadder, The Young Ones and The Thin Blue Line, shows for which he was a writer. That's not to say there aren't moments of tenderness in the book, far from it! He brings a sense of reality to the relationship between Sam and Lucy, which is tender but tense, a complex and conflicted affair.

The book was adapted into a screenplay and made into the movie Maybe Baby, which is a little ironic since that's what happened in the book itself. There's a sort of snake eating it's own tail sense to that. The movie was directed by Elton and stars the usual passle of folks, including Hugh Laurie of House fame. All of which is rather beside the point.

The point being that the book is quite good, not a deep and world shaking read, but funny and a little poignant at places and worth the time if you need a break from Proust or whatever magnum opus you are currently perusing.

Overall Grade: B+

Majestrum - Matthew Hughes (2006)

Majestrum, subtitled "A Tale of Henghis Hapthorn," is the first book in a series of tales featuring "the foremost freelance discriminator" of a far future "Old Earth." The setting is at a point where technology is about to enter a period of decline and magic is about to return to ascendancy, part of a cycle which has been repeated numerous times we are told. Hapthorn is a detective in the classic vein with more than a simple nod to Sherlock Holmes, although less than a full pastiche.

The plot, as one would expect, revolves around the tension between the "highly calibrated mind" of a scientific detective faced with the possibility of magic involved in a case. The ground covered here is something of an inversion of the idea covered by quite a few authors over the years - "The Magic Goes Away" by Niven comes to mind - and a look at the cycle coming back around to magic is refreshing. Hapthorn has, in a backstory which is never fully explained, faced a thaumaturge with the result that his intuitive faculty has been split off into a separate sort of consciousness sharing his head. The adventure also caused his "integrator,"a sort of programmed hardware/software agent and AI, to turn into a familiar which serves the same function.

The story is essentially a mystery, which means that it can not be too fully explicated without giving away the solution. Hapthorn is drawn into a complicated plot when an aristocrat, Lord Afre, hires him for what seems like a straightforward investigation into his daughter's suitor. Afre fears that the suitor is a gold-digger and wishes him investigated. Hughes starts from this well-trodden ground and develops a complicated and devious plot. Some of the twists and turns will be no surprise to those familiar with the mystery genre, but they are handled deftly enough.

Hughes style is consciously artificial; it reads like someone writing in a mock Victorian style, which is part of the reason why there is a Holmesian feel. It is affected, but works well with the plot and setting. The first chapter or so took a little getting used to, but then it settled down and was actually quite delightful. Hughes handles his characters moderately well, although to be fair, the only ones who truly matter are Hapthorn himself, his "other self" and his integrator/familiar. All the others are mere supporting characters, sketched in sufficiently for the short time they are present in the narrative.

The book, thus, is concerned almost exclusively with Hapthorn as articulated in Hughes' style. Readers who are not engaged by Hapthorn will find little else to distract them; although the plot is sturdy enough, the true meat is Hapthorn and his inner conflicts. Fortunately, that's enough.

Overall Grade: B

A Baronial Household of the Thirteenth Century - Margaret Wade Labarge (1965)

I am a fan of "daily living" style history books (see Daily Living in the 12th Century and Scotland Under Mary Stuart) and this book is a solid entry in this category. Working from surviving household rolls of Eleanor de Montfort, augmented by similiar sources, Margaret Labarge attempts to paint a picture of the mechanics involved in administering a large noble household with a reasonable degree of success.

The book is well laid out, discussing first the castle as a dwelling, then the position of noblewomen in household management. From there she proceeds to questions of provisioning, cooking, clothing and so on, addressing costs, the household organization to monitor and provide the goods or services and so forth, with the result that the reader does get a certain Upper Management view of the time. The conclusions that Labarge draws from the scanty information in the rolls is correlated with and supported by other documentation so that she offers an interpretation of a specific point, one feels fairly confident in accepting it.

The book is particularly useful if one is interested in the economics of the time since it contains quite a bit of information on pricing, something which is missing from many books of this type. On the other hand, unless one is interested in it, the discussions of, for instance, why the wheat prices are higher in one location than another and how much may leave one cold.

A Baronial Household ... is perhaps not as accessible as, for instance, the Gies'books, being aimed less at the casual reader and more at the reader with an interest in medieval history, but that is no crime. It is fine addition to any collection of "Daily Life" books.

Overall Grade: B

ARKHAM TALES: LEGENDS OF THE HAUNTED CITY

H.P. Lovecraft's fictional city of Arkham has become a staple of Lovecraftian fiction. It has a history of the supernatural, it contains the New England people and architecture so beloved by Lovecraft, and it is nearby such significant locales as Miskatonic University, Innsmouth, and Dunwich. The anthology Arkham Tales: Legends of the Haunted City uses the city as the focal point for its horror tales. Alas, it doesn't deliver stories worthy of the Arkham name.

The stories here range from the 1920s and 1930s (when Lovecraft wrote) to the present day. There are numerous elements from Lovecraft's work, from evil tomes to Professor Wilmarth. Unfortunately, the stories don't deliver the horrors or creativity of Lovecraft or other authors who have ventures into his mythos. There is little of the universal horror that lingers after the reader has finished a story. Repeated references to the Pinkerton detectie agency seemed to promote the Call of Cthulhu card game more than add to the history.

These stories aren't awful, but they aren't inspired either. (The sole exception is "Disconnected," whose deliberately chronologically-jumping story provides a chilling result at the end.) I'd recommend fans of Lovecraft read the originals, or take a look at one of the other numerous Lovecraftian anthologies out there.

Overall grade: C-

Reviewed by James Lynch

Men At War, Book III, The Soldier Spies

We turn our attention, once again, to to the Men At War series by author WEB Griffin. Our regular readership will recall that I've recently reviewed book one of the series, The Last Heroes, and its followup novel, The Secret Warriors. This Men At War series focuses on the role of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II.

It's pretty obvious by this third novel, that this series is done before the more masterful works by this author. Like listening to a debut album of your favorite musician, or watching a high school game from a professional athlete, clearly the writer was still learning his chops. Much of the later formula is followed, but it is still getting developed here, and doesn't quite have the same smoothness found in The Corps or The Brotherhood series.

In The Soldier Spies, we have two basic plots intertwining. The first is the plan to nab a German scientist and his daughter that is involved in their jet engine production. They reasonably figure that if they grab their metallurgist, they can back work what they're using, and bomb the heck out of the factories and mines that produce it. This story is told from both the Allies and Axis side. At times it's a bit much as griffin insists on using the German ranks, ad nauseum, and I'm still not exactly sure what an Obersturmfuhrer is, for example (and I shouldn't need the Wikipedia to understand a novel). In later works, he uses footnotes liberally to explain this minutiae, and more than a few of them are an interesting read on their own. However, this time around, we're on our own.

The other basic plot involves the effort to destroy the German submarine pens. With concrete reinforced roofs, Allied bombs bounced off with little damage, and suffered heavy losses from Nazis fighters and antiaircraft fire. There was also the matter of "pilotless bombers," better known as missiles that were in their infancy. The Allies countered with a plan to develop remote controlled bombers that could deliver a larger payload of explosive to the target. Of note, Joseph Kennedy, Jr makes a cameo as being involved in this project.

Any Griffin novel always has a few side trips. In The Soldier Spies there are two that stand out. The first is when a senior naval officer goes along on a B-17 for a bombing run into Germany. While he is an observer, he has to step up to the plate and attempt to pilot this large bird home even when he has no multiengine flying time. The other is the talk about "General" Fertig. I put his title in quote because this guy was a Lt. Colonel in the Army Engineering Corps who after the Fall of Bataan in the Philippines didn't surrender, promoted himself to Brigadier General, and led a resistance against the occupying Japanese that not only proved General MacArthur wrong, but did influence the course of the war as the Japanese had to devote resources to dealing with this resistance. Fertig is a fascinating character, and he also comes up in another Griffin work, Behind the Lines.

Despite many parts of The Soldier Spies being good, too much of it isn't. The sum of the parts isn't any greater, unlike much of this author's works. I'd recommend that readers start with Griffin's other works first.

Grade: B-

Reviewed by Jonas

You can read the beginning of the novel here.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke (2004)

To call Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell a modern fantasy would not be quite correct; while it is certainly urban, it does not take place in some medieval or psuedo-medieval time, rather it is set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. This works quite well, giving the novel a flavor of being slightly distant while still somewhat familiar. The fact that it is well written and intricately plotted certainly adds to the success of the book.

The plot starts out simply enough, with Mr Norrell, a reclusive scholar, bringing "practical magic" back to England. The distinction is important, for theoretical magicians, those who study the history of magic, abound, but Norrell seems to be the only one who can actually perform magic. To convince the authorities that he is capable of restoring magic to England, Norrell bends his principals slightly and bargains with a faerie to perform a great work of magic. Thus the plot is set underway.

This is, in many ways, a classic faerie tale. I do not mean by that the Disnified versions of faerie tales with sparkles and happy, laughing bluebirds. No, indeed, this is a tale where inhuman and immortal (or nearly so) creatures interfere with mankind for their own reasons, which may be nothing more than amusing themselves with our pain. The idea that any bargain with the fae is likely to be more trouble than it is worth is an old one and runs throughout the novel.

Clarke has deftly woven together her alternate history of Britain with real history and populated her book with characters both fictional and historical. The book reads quickly and well, drawing the reader in almost before he is aware of it. The two main characters, the unpleasant but compelling Mr Norrell and the charming but reckless Jonathan Strange, are by turns partners and rivals, but their relationship never seems forced but follows clearly from their individual characters.

The ending, while moderately upbeat, does not dispel the dark cloud which hangs over the whole novel, the cloud of that danger which covers those who dabble in the supernatural.

Overall Grade: A

Dance of Death (2005)

After reading Brimstone, I couldn't wait to get into the follow up novel, Dance of Death. The dynamic writing duo of Preston and Child have carefully crafted an story that brings a new level to serialization.

In Brimstone, you may recall that Agent Pendergrast was hot on the trail of his archenemy brother, Diogenes. Clearly there was bad blood between them, and that was before Pendergrast got bricked up inside an Italian castle. This time Diogenes is planning a horrific crime, and Pendergrast enlists the aid of his policeman friend, Vinny D'Agosta to stop the crime. The only thing blocking them is that they don't know what he's going to do, when he's gonna do it, or even where he really is. And they can't turn to conventional law enforcement because according to them Diogenes died years ago, and isn't even alive. Yeah, this is an easy crime to solve!

What follows is a great story on two levels. The first is that this book's story stands on its own, and is a decent read as the plot progresses at runaway freight train speed, or maybe faster in a few spots. The second level is what makes it even better. Throughout Dance of Death, there are references to characters and plots from many of the other novels that these authors have written. It's a real treat for the dedicated reader to find references to (and characters and locations from) Relic, Cabinet, Thunderhead, The Ice Limit (my favorite is the Extreme Engineering Solutions stuff where they even talk about the unfinished mission of a certain large rock...), and the more recent Still Life With Crows, and even Mount Dragon. Preston and Child have labored hard to populate their universe with complex and dynamic characters, and they are not afraid to call on them as the situation arises. They refer to this as "pangea" and it clearly sets them apart from other authors.

In my view, Dance of Death is a really fine thriller, and about as good as it can get. While it's a lot of work to read such a pile of books to really appreciate it, the serious fan will be well rewarded for their effort. Any fan of thrillers should put the Preston & Child duo at the top of their reading list as I do.

Overall Grade: A+

Reviewed by Jonas

Polar Shift (2005)

After enjoying Cussler's latest novel, The Chase, I'm back on the quest to read his older works. Polar Shift is the follow up novel to Lost City, and is in the NUMA files series. It is cowritten with Paul Kemprecos, as the other novels in this series are.

In typical Cussler form, this author takes a bit of scientific theory, and educates the reader in it, while weaving a plot around it. From the title, it's not exactly a spoiler to tell you that the novel revolves around the pole shift theory that hypothesizes that the north and south poles could be reversed at some point with devastating consequences. Along the way we meet a Hungarian scientist that was smuggled out of Europe. Cussler also takes us to some far off places, including the Aleutian Islands (he has used them before, I believe in Black Wind). While up North, we also get a front row seat on a wooly mammoth dig. Also, only Cussler could pull off a car chase involving a Stanley Steamer.

While not as excellent as Lost City, it is still a strong novel. It has a strong "Cussleresque" feel to it ( to coin a term). My criticism is that I would have liked to see more of the Cussler universe of characters in it, although Dirk Pitt did make a cameo appearance at a car show (where else?). Still, the usual cast of maritime experts would have really completed this work. If you're a fan of Cussler, Polar Shift is still one of his better works.

Overall Grade: A-

Reviewed by Jonas

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. (and Christopher) Tolkien (1977)

At this point, thanks to the movies, everyone has heard of The Lord of the Rings. Before that, the books were a cult favorite - to be fair, the books probably still are. There was enough interest, though, for JRR's son, Christopher to collect, compile and edit his father's copious notes and publish them as The Silmarillion.

What sets The Lord of the Rings apart from most fantasy books is the completeness of the world. Things exist in Middle Earth for a reason, and where they exist and what they do there have underlying causes rooted in the history of the place. To muddle terms from multiple media, there is a backstory to Middle Earth. That backstory starts in the Silmarillion.

The books are therefore a collection of myths and chronicles, resembling medieval works or written transmissions of oral history. This is not really too surprising when one recalls that Tolkien was a history Don at Oxford. What it does not resemble, therefore, is a novel and by extension it does not resemble The Lord of the Rings. This caused a problem for me when I first tried to read it back in my junior high school days; I wanted more The Lord of the Rings. Returning to it recently, after yet another rereading of the trilogy (and The Hobbit,) I found it to be much more congenial.

The book has all the problems of history, most obviously that different groups of people call things by different names ("John, known to the elves as Mithtake and named Fred by the men of the East"), and like the early chronicles, it tends to be short on character development. In many places it reads like a cross between the Bible and Bulfinch's Mythology, which is not a bad thing - unless one is expecting a novel. It does mean that each character does tend to "appear on stage" for a short period of time before vanishing again, making it a little difficult to keep track of some of them.

I can not in good conscience recommend this book to everyone. The style and the material are not wildly accessible. For Tolkien completists, of course, it is a necessity.

Overall Grade: C (A for Tolkien completisits)

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks (1984)

The Wasp Factory is a creepy and oddly compelling book. It is, I suppose a sort of a coming of age story about sixteen year old Frank Cauldhame. The cover blurb quote is this:

Two years after I killed Blyth I murdered my younger brother Paul, for quite different and more fundamental reasons than I'd disposed of Blyth, and then a year after that I did for my young cousin Esmerelda, more or less on a whim.
That's my score to date. Three. I haven't killed anybody for years, and don't intend to ever again.
It was just a stage I was going through.

While somewhat sensational (shades of A Clockwork Orange!), the killings are not really the the disturbing part. The entire story is told in the first person, and while the narrator is clearly, by most measures, insane, it's a very logical and clear insanity. What is frightening is how much sense it all makes once a few basic, but crazy, assumptions are made.

The structure of the book is handled masterfully. I was struck while reading it, that if the book had been written in the third person, it would be a work of urban fantasy. So many of Frank's obsessions and rituals look "magical," and in the first person in a realistic setting they come across as artifacts of madness. In the third person, they would be "blessed" with objective truth (or at least could be) and suddenly Frank is no longer a crazed semi-psychopath, rather he is the stereotypical misunderstood magical child who sees more than those around him.

The book ends with a remarkable twist, or two depending on how you count. It is another tribute to the author that I was so engaged and caught up in the narrative, fascinated and repelled, that the twists caught me by surprise.

This is not a sweet and happy book, make no mistake. It is ugly, violent, macabre, bizarre ... and thoroughly engaging, in the literal sense; having read even the first few pages, you are likely to be hooked like a fish and dragged through the rest of this short book. When you are done, I suspect it will stay with you for a while and provide food for thought for anyone with even a hint of introspection.

Overall Grade: A-

The New Lovecraft Circle

H.P. Lovecraft is one of my favorite authors, and his horror has incluenced countless other writers. Many have delved into his mythos of unspeakable, eldritch horrors, and The New Lovecraft Circle, edited by Robert M. Price, collects 25 stories written in the Lovecraftian vein. These stories, largely bringing Lovecraft's New England terror of the 1920s and 1930s into contenporary times, venerate the work and memory of the master.

In his introduction, Robert M. Price ponders whether the critics who claim there is nothing new in Lovecraftian horror are right -- and whether or not that is a bad thing if one enjoys the stories. Certainly there are very familiar elements present here: cursed tomes, ancient and alien entities, mysterious family histories, and italicized final, shocking (!) sentences to end the stories.

Mythos fiction is as much about originality and effect as it is about using the elements begun by Lovecraft, and the authors here bring their originality to this genre. Settings vary from the traditional New England haunts to a beach house in California ("The Horror on the Beach"), a pre-rock show interview ("The Whisperers"), an ancient land ("The Doom of Yakthoob"), an experiment with LSD ("Saucers from Yaddith") and even an English Pub ("I've Come to Talk with You Again.") There are triumphs over evil, a sense of doom and despair, madness and triumph, and two insanely wacky stories: "Lights! Camera! Shub-Niggurath!" mashes together Lovecraftian horror, gung-ho filmmaking and outer space together, while "The Slitherer from the Slime" -- "written" by H.P. Lowcraft and "found" by Lin Carter and Dave Foley" -- will tickle the funnybone of anyone the slightest bit familiar with the actual Lovecraft's work.

The New Lovecraft Circle is a testament to the mythos begun by Lovecraft -- and the freshness and originality than new writers can bring to continue the mythos. These stories are well written, often chilling or scary, and a worthy addition to the library of any horror fan.

Overall Grade: A-

Reviewed by James Lynch