Kelley Armstrong's Cainsville and Otherworld

Kelley Armstrong at a local bookstore in 2009

This past week I read two books by Kelley Armstrong, the author of the "Women of the Otherworld" series (not to be confused with Yasmine Galenorn's "Otherworld" books--same genre, different worlds and plotlines):  Brazen, and Omens.  Brazen is a recent novella set in the Otherworld universe and features North American Wolf Pack member Nick Sorrentino as he leads the search for the elusive (and somewhat psychotic) former Alpha, Malcolm Danvers.  Although the series officially ended with the publication of the novel 13, Kelley continues to write the occasional short story and novella set in her created milieu, such as this one.  It is always nice for both readers and authors to re-visit familiar settings and people, and this little book was no exception.  In the series, we don't see Nick play a leading role, as he is generally overshadowed by the more dominant (pun intended) members of the Pack, Clay and Elena, who play a minor role in this book.  This was a good story, picking up some loose ends from the series, and not resolving things fully.  So, I imagine we will see more of these characters in the future.

Kelley's new series is called "Cainsville" and the first book is Omens.  Although this series is has a definite supernatural/fantasy theme, it is also a mystery, and, in my opinion, would also fit very well in that film genre that we call "the buddy movie."  Cainsville is a small town about an hour outside of Chicago, and there are mysterious and interesting things that happen there.  Although it is never explicitly stated in this first volume, it appears that this town is a haven for the Fae/fairies/wee folk who immigrated from the British Isles at some point in the past.  There are strong hints that the main character of the book, Olivia Taylor-Jones, has some of that magical blood flowing through her veins, as does her reluctant partner, Gabriel Walsh. 

The book begins with Olivia's comfortable upper-class life in suburban Chicago being turned upside-down as she learns that she was adopted as a toddler and that her biological parents are infamous convicted serial killers.  That is only the first twist in Olivia's life, as readers transition with her to a new way of living and thinking both about her world and herself.

I liked this book, maybe better than the Otherworld series, but I'll hold that thought until I read more.  I devoured the 486 pages in two days, which shows how it held my interest.  There are enough hints that readers of fantasy will see where things are headed, but can't really tell what this particular series' take will be on these supernatural/magical beings.  Readers of fantasy should like this book, as will readers of mysteries and thrillers.  The relationship between Olivia and Gabriel, and Olvia and the town of Cainsville will no doubt develop much more as the series goes on and we see what happens with her and her mothers (both adopted and biological).  I, for one, am very excited for the second book in this series.

Superheroes, zombies, and soldiers, oh my!

Last year I read Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines.  I was drawn to it by the quote on the cover that said "The Avengers meets the Walking Dead."  Well, I like the Avengers, and I like the Walking Dead, therefore, this book is worth a try.  This past week, I read the second in the series, Ex-Patriots, which takes our heroes out of their movie studio "safe zone" in L.A. to the Arizona desert, where they meet up with a new hero and a new villain.

Clines' superheroes are archetypes:  the invulnerable flying hero (St. George); the scientist/engineer with crazy high-tech battle armor (Cerberus); the introverted mystery woman--with no discernible powers--who possesses high intelligence, superior martial arts skills, and a high-tech apartment that clearly cost a fortune (Stealth); and, the guy who can transform himself into pure energy/electricity, while spouting non-stop witty banter (Zzzap).  In this second book, we are introduced to Captain Freedom (his real name, by the way), a super-soldier created through a secret military project (code name Krypton).  Even though we, as readers, are not presented with "new" heroes per se, the characters are more than two-dimensional, and the interactions between them help to carry the story (not to mention the many, many pop culture references from Zzzap). 

Add to this, the ex-humans (zombies), which, really, are standard, run-of-the-mill, reanimated-after-a-virus, walking corpses.  Naturally, the only way to dispose of them is with a shot or blow to the head.  The fun twist here is the setting.  Because Clines has established Los Angeles as the center of his world, there are zombies walking around who used to be famous people.  There is an underlying sub-plot that involves the citizens of the Mount (the movie studio that has become home to the survivors) keeping score of what famous ex-humans they take down.  We are not told exactly what the point system is, but from the dialogue, I can only guess that the more recognizable and A-List the star is, the more points they're worth.  We are also told at one point in Ex-Patriots that with the amount of silicone in L.A., some of the bodies don't decompose as fast as others. 

Peasy, the super-villain from Ex-Heroes returns in the second volume, although he was presumably killed in the first book (fans of this genre will know that it's awfully hard to keep some of these folks dead).  He seems to now be incorporeal, but can control, and speak through, hordes of the ex-humans at a time, giving a mind to the mindless creatures.  In addition to Peasy, our heroes must deal with Agent John Smith, and his particular version of mind control.

To me, this series is a fun read.  Although the characters are archetypes, as I mentioned (for those who didn't figure it out:  Superman, Iron Man, Batman, and the Human Torch(?)), they have a life of their own in the zombie apocalypse that Peter Clines has created.  I am looking forward to the third volume of the series, Ex-Communication, to see what new characters and situations arise.

Corporate Enemies in Print and on the Screen

My last post about Max Barry's Lexicon inspired a few comments on facebook and moved in a direction that has been on my mind:  corporations as the bad guys in books and other popular culture.  In a series of comments that moved beyond the bookshelf to Netflix, the TV show Jericho came up.  I had never heard of this show until it popped up as a recommendation for me based on prior viewing, but apparently when it was on it was quite popular.  For those unfamiliar with it, the basic premise is:  23 nuclear bombs have been detonated in a number of cities across the US (Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego--I think, and D.C., among others).  The series is set in the town of Jericho, Kansas where citizens had a clear view of the mushroom cloud over Denver.  Throughout the first season there is much speculation about who the perpetrators/terrorists were.  Then, in season 2 we meet Jennings & Rall, the corporation that has "partnered" with the new Allied States of America government to rebuild the country.  Without giving too much away, the relationship between Jennings & Rall and the politicians is corrupt (gee, who would have guessed that?).

This seems to be a theme, or at least, I'm reading and viewing a number of titles that have this in some part of their creative skeleton.  Aside from Jericho, I would add Torchwood Miracle Day (season 4 of the series), The Northern Star: The Beginning by Mike Gullickson, and Marie Lu's Legend trilogy (Legend, Prodigy, Champion).  In all of these we see some sort of questionable/evil collaboration between government and corporations that the heroes must somehow try to overcome.

Torchwood Miracle Day

One day humans no longer die.  No matter how sick, injured, or mutilated, their consciousness and life remain.  The pharmaceutical company Phi Corp seems to have been ready for this to happen.  How?  Why?  Well, that's up to Captain Jack Harkness and Agent Gwen Cooper to find out.  In my opinion, this is the best series of Torchwood to date.  It had a really good cast, was edge-of-your-seat interesting, and, what's always fun to see, featured guest star Star Trek alums John de Lancie (Q) and Nana Visitor (Kira Neris).

The Northern Star:  The Beginning

In this book (apparently the first in a series), society has reached the point of being able to access the internet via an interactive helmet.  It all seems to be virtual reality, and is controlled by (big surprise) one corporation and its CEO.  Through a series of seemingly disparate events, the corporation ends up in bed with the government (didn't see that one coming, did you?) and the corporate technology is utilized to create a new super soldier.  To be fair, the CEO, Cynthia Revo, didn't know about the backroom machinations, but it was her technology that was utilized.  This book really didn't really hit me the way others have.  I highly doubt I'll read the sequel.  It does however stand as an illustration for this discussion.

The Legend trilogy

In a dystopian future America (and that's a topic for a whole 'nother post) the former United States has divided into the Republic of America and the Colonies of America.  The two sides are at war (naturally).  As with The Hunger Games, we see the main characters become more and more drawn into the war and its strategic center.  What's interesting here is the division of the US.  While the Republic of America has seemingly become a hereditary dictatorship, the Colonies of America are corporate-run.  With a lack of strong leaders, and a bankrupt company, the four largest corporations divided the running of the country among them: one is in charge of security, one provides society's needs, etc.  Although the third volume of the trilogy climaxes with the showdown between the two sides, the Colonies are not necessarily the single enemy throughout the books.  These were a good read, and Lu's style of alternating first-person chapters between the two main characters, Day and June, made it different from other Young Adult dystopian fiction (the chapters are even printed in different fonts and different colors of ink).  If you liked The Hunger Games or Veronica Roth's Divergent series, you'll probably like these.

So what's the point here?  Is this the Zeitgeist of the American creative class?  Many of today's readers and viewers of these genres are too young to remember the Cold War, and perhaps "traditional" terrorists have become cliche (although apparently some Republican is complaining about the lack of Muslim terrorists in Hollywood, so I guess there is an audience for that).  Or is this just that "liberal Hollywood" we keep hearing about staging some sort of protest?  I'm not sure I have enough data yet, but if I get to that point, I'll be sure to bring up this topic again.  In the meantime, happy reading!

The Power of Words

I have been a bit lax in keeping my writing up-to-date with my reading.  I have read three books in the past couple of weeks:  Champion by Marie Lu (#3 in the Legend series), Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, and, the subject of this post, Lexicon by Max Barry.

The Power of Words.

This is really the most basic way to sum up what Max Barry has created in this book.  What would you think if you were presented with the following questions?

1. Are you a cat person or a dog person?
2. What is your favorite color?
3. Pick a number between 1 and 100.
4. Do you love your family?
5. Why did you do it?

Based on these five questions, a clandestine organization--the Poets--is able to assess a person's aptitude for becoming a member of said organization.  Through their training, Poets are taught to assess a person's psychological type (there are 220, or so), and through that assessment, know what words can be used to persuade, or even control, that individual.  Thus:  the power of words.

It is through this assessment and training that Emily Ruff becomes Virginia Woolf (and trust me, many are afraid of her), and becomes part of a chain of events that release the most powerful word (a "bareword") upon the town of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.  What ensues involves T. S. Eliot, William Yeats, Sylvia Plath, and Charlotte Bronte (not their real names, of course), and the fate of the free world (cue evil music).  Oh, and just for kicks, there's Harry/Wil, an outlier, someone who is immune to all words used by the Poets.  There's love, there's sex, there's shooting, and there are card tricks.  I'm sure you want to read it now!

In some very small ways this reminded me of Lev Grossman's The Magicians, in which candidates for a special school were also assessed in mysterious and unusual ways and then trained to join a larger organization or brotherhood.  Barry, however, wraps his school in science, not magic (although, truly, is there really a difference sometimes?), and places his characters in our world, not worlds of fantasy.  All in all, I liked this one.  It was a bit different than other things I read, and seems to be a single book, not part of a series (which is refreshing).  This is the first of Max Barry's works that I have read, but it's not likely to be the last.  He has a couple of others that look intriguing, so stay tuned!

Jack Reacher

A couple of days ago I finished One Shot, the ninth Jack Reacher novel by Lee Childs.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Reacher, or who may only know him as portrayed by Tom Cruise (more on THAT below), Jack Reacher is a former Army MP who has no fixed address or employment.  He is a man who enjoys being off the grid, living a simple life, and seeing the country.  Unfortunately, things seem to seldom be simple (if they were, there would be no point in writing a book about him).  In each novel Reacher seems to show up somewhere, usually by bus, and is somehow drawn into a murder, kidnapping, or other violent crime investigation.  Often there is a personal connection, as in One Shot.

James Barr has been arrested for shooting and killing 5 people in a sniper attack.  He tells his lawyer to find Jack Reacher.  With this scene we must read on to find out the connection between the two men, and the intricate interactions in this small Indiana town that resulted in James Barr being arrested.

Reacher knows how to investigate.  As a character he comes across (to me anyway) as intelligent, observant, with a mind that is always working.  He tries to live simply, as I stated above.  He travels mainly by bus, seeing the country, stopping off in towns and cities as the mood strikes him.  In a couple of the novels we see him staying in a place for a few months and working, but usually, he is on the move.  He travels light, buying inexpensive clothing, then replacing it after he feels it has been worn enough.  He does not do laundry, he does not carry luggage. 

I think much of the appeal of these books is Reacher's lifestyle.  I'm certain that I'm not alone in thinking how nice it would be to live like that for a while, seeing the country, studying the human condition.  On top of that, the twists and turns of each case grip readers right to the end of the story.  Childs writes the mysteries well, letting us in on Reacher's thought processes a little at a time, until everything falls into place in the end.  At this point in the series for me, I will say that there is absolutely a bit of formula to these novels, however it hasn't started to feel old yet.  Within each novel we are also given a piece of Reacher's backstory:  his brother, his mother, his former lovers, and military colleagues.  There are a few more of these to go, so I will post more as I read them.

Now, Tom Cruise.  I learned that this movie was being made before I read the first book, and I have not seen it (and I doubt I will).  After starting the first book I thought:  What were they thinking??????  Tom Cruise????  Reacher is described fairly accurately and consistently in each volume.  He is 6' 5", 250 lbs.  Tom Cruise is.... not quite either of those.  If I can be allowed to go off topic just slightly... The key (in my opinion) to ensuring that loved characters can carry on in new formats or new versions is to cast the parts correctly.  J. J. Abrams did this in Star Trek.  That cast is very true to the original iconic characters.  Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher misses this mark.  If you disagree, convince me I'm wrong and maybe I'll watch the movie.  Until then, I will move on to the 10th book:  The Hard Way.

Lula and the giraffe

"Lula slung the bag over her shoulder to take it for a test drive, and a giraffe loped past up."  Takedown Twenty, p. 4

Janet Evanovich has brought us another visit with old friends.  The twentieth installment (not counting the holiday specials) in the Stephanie Plum series brings us the usual cast of characters:  Stephanie, Lula, Connie, Grandma Mazur, Morelli, and Ranger.  Along with these folks, there is a giraffe, which consumes much of Lula's attention throughout the book (I mean, a giraffe in Trenton, NJ??? That's funny, right there). 

This whole series is light and entertaining, with episodes of laugh-out-loud humor.  I recommend for anyone who likes their bounty hunters with unloaded guns and big hair.

"Al-safar zafar" (Voyaging is victory)

"...the creme de la creme of the chess world
in a show with everything, but Yul Brynner"  - One Night in Bangkok from Chess

The Eight by Katherine Neville focuses heavily on the chess world, and, indeed, Yul Brynner is one of the few famous names that does not show up.  Throughout this novel we see interactions between Neville's created characters and

• Catherine the Great, czarina of all the Russias
• Talleyrand
• Robespierre
• William Blake
• William Wordsworth
• Napoleon 
• Benedict Arnold
• Muammar Qaddafi

Those who are included as off-stage personages include: Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Bach.

What do all of these folks have in common?  The search for the Montglane Service, the chess set that was gifted to Charlemagne by the Moors.  The search for the pieces, and the secret they contain, stretches across the centuries from medieval times to 1973.  This is an epic story, and I was quite impressed by the amount of research that must have gone into the production of its 598 pages.

This book was an adventure, a mystery, a bit of supernatural/sci-fi, numerology, mythology and featured strong female characters.  Although some of the "loose ends" are tied up a bit too conveniently (i.e. contrived, in my view), the book itself is an absolute page-turner.  I rated it 4 out of 5 stars on goodreads, mainly based on the research involved in integrating all of the myths, history, math, and chess knowledge.

The quote that titles this post was referenced in the book, and resonated with me.  Originally found in The Arabian Nights, it seemed to me to be related to the saying "It's not the destination, but the journey."  And many people do believe also that the hunt is more interesting than the final outcome.  If that's your view of life as well, read The Eight; it will expand your mind.