by Christine Trent (Goodreads Author)
The writing style is very descriptive, which makes for a denser read, and it took me awhile to get used to all the point of view switches, but it soon became apparent that a tight plot was falling into place, and the use of several historical figures’ points of view really helped to bring the political and historical climate into focus. I haven’t read much about what was going on elsewhere in the world during the American Civil War, and I thought it was fascinating to read about it from across the pond, from the outside looking in, getting a sense of how the English viewed the conflict and how careful England’s leaders had to be as they walked a tightrope between the Union and the Confederacy. I really loved the way the story weaved a lot of different aspects of this period in history with both real and fictional characters. It was also a wonderful portrait of Victorian society at the time, especially their obsession with the dead and the myriad rules and customs for mourning.
I was really invested in Violet’s character; she’s a heroine who is strong and driven but is still realistically defined by the times she lives in. Though she is a pioneering woman, thriving as a female in a man’s profession, she is doing so in a time when society frowns on working women, and she struggles to balance her career with maintaining a semblance of “wifely characteristics.” I really felt for her, watching her marriage crumble while her business as an undertaker flourished, and then watching her attempt to survive the fallout from her husband’s messes with graceful stoicism, all the while caring for the dead with compassion and reverence and professional integrity. And then, as if she didn’t already have enough to deal with, she picks up on a pattern of suspicious deaths in the city and unwittingly places herself and those she loves in danger.
This was one of those novels that grabbed me and got under my skin, and I had to keep fighting myself from turning to the last page to see who was still around at the end! It’s also one of those novels that takes a little time to set the stage and builds up to a slow burn until you suddenly realize you’ve gotten to a point where you can’t put it down. My only real complaint is that the last hundred pages or so were a real roller coaster ride and I felt a bit yanked around, but all’s well that ends well, and the ending, though brief, was very satisfying. I believe this book is the first in a planned series, and if so I’ll be in line to read the next one. Lady of Ashes is a Victorian mystery that’s a bit heavier on the history than others I’ve read, and that combination of historical events and people impacting the story, intrigue, danger, emotional drama, and of course, some romance, makes for a sharp, compelling, and exciting read.
by Stephen Baxter
bookshelves: currently-reading
The plot? On the Saturnian minor moon Mnemosyne, a human colony is busy mining the moon for a rare metal, one essential for the developing space industries of the inner system. Of course, something mysterious is happening on the moon – missing materials, strange sightings of blue baby-like beings, and most recently, puzzling deaths. Meanwhile, the TARDIS alerts the Doctor and his companions to a potentially dangerous time anomaly that seems to be centered on Mnemosyne, and they go to investigate. You can pretty much see where this is going: the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe get blamed by the authorities for everything that’s going wrong, an alien entity begins to awaken, and before long a struggle for survival is underway between an ancient being, the Doctor and his friends, and multiple groups within the colonists.
Granted, a lot of this we have seen a zillion times before, both in the series and in its spin-off material. But Baxter keeps the story going with some very fluid writing, some fun and absorbing characterization (Zoe particularly comes off very well in this book), and a plot that is both interesting and engaging. The only complaint I have is that some of the plot digressions, particularly those involving Jamie’s adventures around the Saturn system, seem unnecessary and tacked on simply as an indulgence by Baxter. But that’s a minor quibble, and one that even if its accurate, still make for some fun reading. As an added bonus, if you’re familiar with Baxter’s regular SF work, see how many references to them you can pick out; both the Xeelee and Manifold series’ get near-blatant shout-outs.
Oddly enough, this is not exactly the first time Baxter has entered the DW universe – his acclaimed novel The Time Ships started out as a proposal to Virgin’s old New Adventures line of Doctor Who novels – and hopefully, it won’t be his last. It is very clear from the writing that Baxter has a deep love for this particular era of Doctor Who, and the enthusiasm with which he tackles his story shows. I for one hope we see more Baxter-written Who.
The Inexplicables (The Clockwork Century, #5)
by Cherie Priest
bookshelves: currently-reading
The action is well paced and the dialog is well done. The development of the main characters is very well done. The flaws lie in the development of secondary characters. For the most part, they are confined to the wings: they are talked about, but there is no real history revealed about them and not much development of these secondary characters. While the science may be somewhat flawed, you just need to remind yourself, this is Steampunk. Science is reinvented and re-conceived as needed to fit the times.
Despite these misgivings, The Inexplicables is thoroughly enjoyable and a welcome addition to the Clockwork Century. Overall, I’ll go four stars for this work. If you’re a fan of this series, you need it for your collection. If you are new to Steampunk, the American twist is refreshing.
Did I like it? Absolutely. It had some well designed action and further detailed out the steam punk Seattle that Ms. Priest has so beautifully laid out. After I read it I wanted a little bit more though. I liked the angle of the blight getting out although the whole idea of the capture and illicit use of the blight got tiresome after a while. It became a drug war with zombies playing a bit part and the real bad guys being other drug manufacturers. Good villains no doubt but short lived ones at best.
So was it a good read? 100%. Was it as good as Boneshaker? Not quite. Would I still buy and read it? Absolutely. Was it fun. Unequivocally yes.
by James M. Cain
There are some anachronism problems with this book. When it takes place isn’t clear but the period references drift. Cain’s television references are from the 1950s (Howdy Doody, Dinah Shore). Joan buying a cabinet style color television would locate it in the mid 1960s. The hot pants and topless-bar reference puts it in the late 1960s at the earliest and maybe even the 1970s. A certain drug reference narrows it to around 1960. I’m guessing the scantily-clad cocktail waitress theme was inspired by the Playboy Club, which would put this broadly (heh) in the 1960s.
The language, though, often betrays the aging Cain’s sensibilities from an earlier time, the heyday of the hard-boiled genre starting in the 1920s. That’s when folks talked about someone else getting “sore” about something. People Joan’s age in, say, the 1960s, probably wouldn’t have used the term. I always found the diction just a bit off. Joan thinks she’s positively feasting if a restaurant serves her roast beef, mashed potatoes, peas and salad; food references would ring truer in a Depression-era setting than in 1960s America.
And the aridity of the peoplescape – a lonely protagonist, surrounded by strangers on the make in a world where everyone’s understood to be out for themselves – doesn’t square as well, particularly for someone Joan’s age, with the era Cain puts her in. Youth by the mid-1960s were inundated by rock and roll, the Beatles, civil rights, the Kennedys, pot and Vietnam, a whole cultural revolution of new choices youth were beginning to make. Yet Joan seems to have no awareness of it.
Cain has taken a 1940s world and plunked it down several decades later, and like Dorothy’s house plunked down in Oz, it doesn’t always fit.
Some problems may have been unavoidable. An afterword notes Cain wrote several different versions of the story, working on it on and off until his death, but never finalized it. Editor Charles Ardai had to make choices about characters’ names, steps in the plot and even the ending, because Cain’s different versions varied widely. He effectively pieced several versions together.(I caught one error the editor didn’t: when Joan is interviewed by one of two police investigators on her case, the interview begins with it being the one and ends with it being the other.)
Still, there’s a lot of merit here. Cain was one of the masters of the genre and that definitely shows.
by James St. James
by Hannu Rajaniemi
by Steven Erikson
Side Jobs: Stories From the Dresden Files (The Dresden Files, #12.5)
by Jim Butcher (Goodreads Author)
“Day Off,” between Small Favor (10) and Turn Coat (11). This is Jim and Harry’s first attempt at a comic story. All Harry wants is a day off with Anastasia. But the magical realm, from disciples of Slytherin to psychic fleas, will not leave Harry alone.
“Backup,” between Small Favor (10) and Turn Coat (11). Thomas works hard to protect his little brother, without Harry ever knowing about it.
“The Warrior,” between Small Favor (10) and Turn Coat (11). Michael may still be retired, but that does not mean he isn’t in danger.
“Last Call,” between Small Favor (10) and Turn Coat (11). Mac’s beer is suddenly starting riots, and Harry must thwart the supernatural cause.
“Love Hurts,” between Small Favor (10) and Turn Coat (11). Couples are literally loving each other to death. Will Harry and Murphy survive the effects?
“Aftermath,” after Changes (13). With Harry gone, Karin Murphy must save the day.
I found all of the stories in SIDE JOBS to be fun and entertaining, but you must be a Dresden fan to appreciate them. This is not a book that you can pick up cold; you need to at least be familiar with the Dresden-verse to appreciate them. But if you are a die-hard Dresden fan, then this book is for you. Most of what we love about Jim and Harry is here: the great stories, the droll, acerbic wit, the fast-paced action. SIDE JOBS also gives us some one on one time with other favorite characters – Thomas, Michael, Karin, the Alphas, Mac, Miss Gard are each featured prominently in at least one of these tales. A few are even told from perspectives other than Harry’s. We get to see more of what makes these characters tick, and that adds to the enjoyment.
Overall, if you love Harry Dresden and Jim Butcher, then run, don’t walk, to get a copy of SIDE JOBS. MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
Blameless (Parasol Protectorate, #3)
by Gail Carriger (Goodreads Author)
Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)
by Jim Butcher (Goodreads Author)
(yes, yes, I censored it a wee bit)Which is true, but a lovable one. But everything in the book is filtered through harry’s eyes, which I know could be a turn-off for some people. But I encourage you to pick this book up to see if the style is something you like, there are many worse ways to spend 6 dollars I can think of, and who knows, you just may like it.I love the books because of Harry, he treats the magic with enough sarcasm and respect to make it truly believable, something beyond the usual all powerful stuff that people can just whip out of the air at will that tends to permeate other fantasy. It has logical and interesting rules and barriers that keeps it constrained and confined into as realistic as a device as you could expect magic to be.It makes for a very refreshing change of pace.Plus, Harry is just such an interesting character. He isn’t the strongest or the fastest, he is just a good guy doing what he can to survive the day.Take traditional hardboiled fiction, give it a mind bending preternatural twist and you have Storm Front, the first book in a new series with the potential to send author Jim Butcher to the top of the gumshoe sub-genre of horror/fantasy fiction.Harry Dresden, the series’ protagonist, is everything that’s great about the hardboiled anti-hero, with a twist: He’s a wizard trying to make a living working practical magic in a modern world that’s foolishly rejected the supernatural in favor of science and technology. Part average guy, part renaissance man, Harry’s got a dark side, a wicked sense of humor and a deeply rooted, personal code of honor that drives him to risk everything to fight the supernatural forces preying on his clients, an attitude that puts him at constant, dangerous odds with both the bad guys and the authorities alike.In Storm Front, when a routine murder investigation turns out to be anything but routine, the police reluctantly turn to Harry for help. But a case that started as a way to pay the rent soon gets complicated for Harry when he’s forced to cross paths with the Chicago mob and a mysterious figure known as the Shadowman, drawing Harry into a web of black magic and danger.Already under the Doom of Damocles (a form of probation placed on him by the White Council who oversee the ethical use of magic in the world of the mundane) Harry himself falls under suspicion and is forced to risk execution to solve the mystery and stop the Shadowman, before the killer takes another victim.
Storm Front is a riveting, action packed roller coaster of a novel, a damn good mystery with compelling characters set in a rich alternate reality universe where anything can happen. There’s a little something for just about everyone here from black magic and the Chicago mob to vampire madams, demons and the fey.
I enjoyed this novel immensely.
by William Gibson
Finally, one person who reviewed this book on Amazon.com claimed that the only reason this book got published was because of Gibson’s “name” and his prestige as a writer. This was his first book!! Obviously that isn’t a likely scenario. The reason it was published can be ascertained by reading the first sentence of the book!
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
To any one who is a serious science fiction reader, or any one who has ever wanted to pick up just one book to get the feel of the genre — READ THIS BOOK. It IS a classic, and I feel that it will only get better with each read…
Busted Flush (Wild Cards, #19)
by George R.R. Martin (Editor), Ian Tregillis (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Victor Milán (Contributor), Kevin Andrew Murphy (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Stephen Leigh (Contributor), John J. Miller (Contributor), Melinda M. Snodgrass (Goodreads Author) (Contributor), Caroline Spector (Contributor) , more…
The Cold Six Thousand
by James Ellroy
by Gail Carriger (Goodreads Author)
Ganymede (The Clockwork Century, #4)
by Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)
by Michael Crichton, Richard Preston
Like most of Crichton’s work, “Micro” wants to blend contemporary events and science with more than a dash of scientific fantasy to produce an unexpected – and terrifying – outcome, such as the dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park”.
In “Micro”, seven graduate science students at Harvard are courted by a glad-handing entrepreneur, Vin Drake, to come interview for jobs with Nani gen Micro Technologies. The need for them is immediate and the seven are expected to put their studies aside to visit Nani gen in Hawaii and tour their facilities.
Eric Jansen, the brother of Peter, one of the students, is a Vice President at Nani gen. Peter receives a mysterious text message from Eric, saying only “don’t come”. Peter has also just received word that his brother Eric is missing and presumed dead after a boating accident.
Peter is suspicious, but doesn’t convey his suspicions to the others or the police. The police are occupied in a mild way with what they presume are the suicides of three men who are found slashed to death.
The story moves quickly to the point where we learn that Nani gen shrinks people and things to microscopic size and sends them into the rain forest to search out new ingredients for drugs and other commercial uses.
Vin Drake, it turns out, is not a nice person – the seven students are soon shrunk to a half-inch high and set loose in the rain forest where they are expected to die within a few days.
I won’t go into more detail in order to avoid spoilers. The book stands on its own, just don’t expect it to read like Michael Crichton.
The plot has lots of holes and depends on science, real and imaginary, to keep the reader interested. Character development is weak. The storyline becomes increasingly forced as the novel heads toward a conclusion.
I think the Crichton estate has made an error here and diluted the reputation of Michael Crichton. This doesn’t have the feel of a Crichton novel. It appears this posthumous effort was intended to exploit the Crichton name for money. It would never sell as well under the solo name of Richard Preston.
It isn’t an awful book by any stretch. It simply isn’t what it pretends to be, a Michael Crichton novel.
by Walter Isaacson
The book, though relying on its many candid interviews with Jobs, is something of a squandered opportunity to understand the man. Like Jobs himself, the tears too often remain inscrutable—they are tacked on to the end of events with little to no explanation, and they let us see in Jobs almost anything we want.
Was he a ruthless control freak who cried whenever thwarted, and who used the tears to get his way? Was he a sensitive visionary, so moved by beautiful things that he wept at the sight of them? Was he a deeply emotional man who yet had no trouble belittling and humiliating others? Did he live a life so unusually intense that tears always sat close beneath the surface? Was he unable to control his anger and cried out of sheer rage?
The biography doesn’t often tell us; perhaps all interpretations were true at different times. The tears remain ambiguous much of the time, and in that very ambiguity, they sum up the many contradictory sides of Steve Jobs—and his over-the-top, often-offputting-but-incredibly-productive intensity toward life.
The President is on line one
You know you’ve achieved a special position when the President of the United States calls you directly to ask for personal advice—and when you can call him back on a different day to cajole him into helping you out. That’s the kind of person that hippie-nerd-cum-Apple-creator Steve Jobs became during his 56 years on Earth. All he ever wanted to do was achieve awesomeness—and by any means necessary.
Stories like this litter the intimidatingly long biography, the only authorized work on Apple’s former CEO. But to read the book just for these juicy tidbits, like Jobs’ attitude on fighting Android or why he delayed cancer treatment for nine months, is like picking all the marshmallows from a box of Lucky Charms. (To be fair, though, the book is set up in a way that makes it a little too easy to skim for juicy tidbits and ditch the rest.)
Similarly, to read the book with an eye only for the ways that Jobs could be a vicious jerk (and there are many) is too shallow. Isaacson’s book has enough new material on Jobs’ emotional and mental approach to life that a full read is necessary to understand Jobs in a way that does more than feed into the competing love-him/hate-him narratives about his life.
The biography is not flattering—there are countless stories about how he has hurt people both personally and professionally over the years. And Jobs knew it would be honest. “I know there will be a lot in your book I won’t like,” he told Isaacson during one interview. “That’s good. Then it won’t seem like an in-house book.”
Jobs demanded perfection at all times and was willing to go to practically any length to achieve it—even when it seemed unhealthy. One story in the book has Jobs ripping off his oxygen mask in the hospital after his liver transplant in order to demand masks with better designs. Admittedly, he did this under the influence of pain and drugs, but once you get to this point in the book, it’s apparent that it was a regular occurrence with Jobs. We all know how uncomfortable it can be to go to a restaurant with someone who is perpetually dissatisfied with his dish—just imagine that person sending it back over and over and over (and over) again, then suggesting ways to improve it. Just reading about this sort of perfectionism can be exhausting.
The well-known flip side of these personality traits was the way they led to products like the iPod and the iPad that changed industrial design, put new kinds of devices in the hands of millions, and made Apple into the most innovative consumer tech company on earth.
But despite the mythos around his “taste” and “vision,” Jobs certainly misfired on some key decisions. He was not originally a fan of the now-iconic “silhouette” iPod ads, but later decided that using them had been his own idea. He never wanted to introduce an iPod to the Windows market—mostly because he hated Windows—but eventually did so anyway and ended up making the iPod an even greater success.
And, as confirmed by the book, Jobs not only didn’t want third-party native apps on iOS when the operating system first launched, he was adamantly against them until there was so much internal and outside pressure that he finally agreed (mobile apps—particularly on Apple’s own App Store—have since become an industry unto themselves and a key driver of Apple hardware sales).
Isaacson’s book, of course, is not the first to highlight the tumultuousness of Steve Jobs. Many other unauthorized biographies and books attempt to examine his management style and personality, and many of those books (including Isaacson’s) cover the same historical elements. Isaacson’s bio of Jobs, however, makes it significantly more apparent how deep Jobs’ true feelings were when it came to every aspect of his existence, whether it was the launch of the first Mac or the fantasy yacht that he tried to design and build from scratch as a way to keep focused toward the end of his life. This was a founder who was emotionally invested in every single thing his company did.
Who was Steve Jobs? He comes off as a deeply dissatisfied individual who was also deeply ambitious, someone who made those two qualities feed into one another for the duration of his career.
Age didn’t “mellow” him, exactly, but Jobs was more focused after he returned to Apple. He could still be vicious—maybe even more so—but in different and more calculated ways. His focus was to not simply “save” Apple but to show the world how wrong it was about things that supposedly could not be done. For example, one of the main motivators for Jobs to push along the creation of the iPad was to prove to Microsoft that a tablet like that could be done—previously, Microsoft had openly expressed doubt that the mass market would pick up on tablets without turning them into netbooks.
The biography is filled with little details like this—some we’ve heard before and some we haven’t. If you’re interested in reading a combination of surface-level history of Apple and personal interviews with Jobs and people close to him, then this would be the place to get it. The writing itself is not great; it gets repetitive, and not in a “just reminding the reader” sort of way. Mike Markkula, for instance, is re-introduced to the reader so many times that it becomes awkward, and some repetitive phrases in the book appear to be direct copy-and-pastes of each other. Simon & Schuster apparently rushed this bio out the door following the news of Jobs’ death in October, so be prepared for minimal editing in a quite lengthy book.
Despite this, it’s hard not to recommend the bio to those who are interested in Steve Jobs and Apple, especially since virtually none of the unauthorized biographies currently on the market include any details at all about Jobs’ personal life or his battle with the cancer that ultimately claimed it. In particular, the book reveals that the way Jobs handled his cancer, treatments, and the possibility of death was a bit less stoic than his 2005 Stanford commencement speech might suggest. While his words during that speech made it sound like he was at peace with his illness and ready to accept death when it came, Isaacson includes some painful-to-read quotes that suggest otherwise.
“I’m either going to be one of the first to be able to outrun cancer like this, or I’m going to be one of the last to die from it,” Jobs told Isaacson during one of his more recent medical leaves from Apple. “Either among the first to make it to shore, or the last to get dumped.”
Jobs may have been “dumped” a bit earlier than he had hoped, but he spent his life making sure he would never be forgotten. In that sense, at least, he definitely made it to shore.
Though Jobs could be prickly, controlling, and worse, his mortality certainly humanized him. Surely we can all understand why, when Jobs stepped down from his key role at Apple for the last time this summer, he looked back over his life and forward to the years denied him—and he wept.
by Joanne Bertin
Mrs. Bertin is a published author, with vivid imaginings of a different world from our owns. However from incongruity of the series, with the previous novel essentially incomplete, and an entire storyline (that of Pod and the Healworts) effectively shunted for use in a possible sequel, or possibly not, I cannot give this review 4 or 5 stars.
At the current price of $10 off, it is a reasonable pick up for an avid reader of fantasy, particularly dragon fantasies. Indeed, this was the reason I first bought the initial book in the series so long ago. On the other hand, it is disappointing that, given such a huge scale of the world, we have essentially a personal affair/scary story/murder mystery-except-the-book-cover-tells-you-enough-to-figure-the-plot-out-without-reading. The ‘magic’ in the story is not explained extensively, and there is a large sum of information on plants and animals that, though interesting, will not have much meaning for a modern reader, especially one not interested in herbology or horticulture.
I would cautiously suggest picking up the novel. It can be a stand-alone read, and even could work sufficiently as a duology, but overall there are better authors out there, and I stand as a disappointed former fan who likely will not be reading Mrs. Bertin’s works in the future. The lack of plot conclusions, or clear consciences on the part of the ‘heroes’, as well as open admiration of paganism leaves me unable to truly cheer for these characters anymore, their admirable loyalty notwithstanding.
by Paul Hoffman
by C.H. Dalton
by Cynthia A. Freeland
by Philippa Ballantine (Goodreads Author), Tee Morris (Goodreads Author)
by Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)
by Philippa Ballantine (Goodreads Author), Tee Morris (Goodreads Author)
by Francine Mathews (Goodreads Author)
by Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)
Detroit Breakdown
by D.E. Johnson (Goodreads Author)
A Dance With Dragons (A Song of Ice and Fire, #5)
by George R.R. Martin
Cyrano De Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand, Eteel Lawson (Introduction), Lowell Bair (Translation)
Jason Roberts‘s review
by Jason Hawes, Michael Jan Friedman, Grant Wilson
Jason Roberts‘s review
If you’re a fan of the show Ghost Hunters, then you’ll need to pick this up. Over all it was a good read.There are a lot of good things about this book that were improvements over the last book. All of the cases are cases not seen on Ghost Hunters. That’s a big plus. The cases were new to us, and they were a very interesting read. Jay and Grant both cases where they had evidence of ghosts, and cases they debunked. After all, not every house they come to is haunted. The cases ranged from some that really broke my heart to cases that made me laugh out loud. All’s I’ll say is that on one of the cases, a guy was having a **really** good time. It was really neat to see how Jay and Grant debunked some of the cases. Some of the debunking cases, I’d like to have seen on the show, but they didn’t have the show back then.
I also liked how Grant told us of his first real paranormal experience. I don’t want to say to much of it here because I don’t want to spoil it, but man, it was an interesting read. I wish him the best of luck on it. (You have to read that part of the book to know what I mean.)
It was also interesting to see how Jay and Grant first met Krysten and Steve.
I also like that part at the end of each chapter entitled, “Ghost Hunter’s Manual” This is the part were they tell tips of Ghost Hunting to people just starting out in the paranormal field. It was a really nice touch.
For me, the book feel short in some places. One of the biggest places it fell short for me is the use of the word “globules”. We all know how they feel about orbs, and I’m glad they feel the way they do about them. For me, the problem is that Grant said how globules are signs of the paranormal. Grant gave a definition of the word “globules” and to me, it’s the same definition as the word “orbs”. The same thing. So how can “globules” be good, and “orbs” not be good.
We know that TAPS really doesn’t do an investigation from a religious angle, which to me is fine. Again, the problem is that most of the cases, the guys will call in a “sensitive” to cleanse a house. According to them, it’s the only way to “cleanse” a house. However, in the show, the guys tell the family to “come together to get rid of the ghost”. To me is sounds like their covering their bases. Either you use “sensitives” or you don’t. You can’t have it both ways.
In some of the investigations, we’re told that the guys collected EVP’s. I just wish we were told what the EVP’s said. That would have added so much to the book and hook the reader in further. Granted, on some of the cases, we did learn what the EVP’s were, but for most of the cases we’re never told what they said, rather, “we collected some EVP’s.”
If you watched the show, we know that they bought an Inn, and it’s haunted. We get a lot of detail on that part of the book. I just feel that, that part of the book is awfully self serving. They know that people will come and want to investigate it, and I know that it won’t be cheap. Like I said, for me, it was very self serving on their part.
This next part isn’t Jay and Grant’s fault, but this book needed a better editor. There were a lot of typos in it.
One part I really liked, the “Lost Ghost Hunter’s Episode”. That was a very interesting read. It mentions once case that we’re told about on “Next week on Ghost Hunters…..” but it was never aired. Now we know what happened, and it was an interesting read. I really liked it.
Over all, as I put, it has 4 stars. I like it, well, most of it. Is it perfect? No. That being said, if you’re a fan of the show and want to see the early days of TAPS and read about their investigations, then go and pick this book up. I doubt you’ll be sorry, I know I wasn’t. Overall, I liked it.
The Complete Short Stories of H.G. Wells
by H.G. Wells, John S. Hammond (Editor), John Hammond (Editor)
Jason Roberts‘s review
I discovered H.G. Wells relatively late in life when I stumbled on a discount copy of “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” Like most people, I’d read “War of the Worlds” in high school and thought it pretty good. However, I believe to truly appreciate Wells one must be older. Old enough to have experienced some sort of life and to appreciate fine, clean writing.After reading “The Island of Dr. Moreau” I was surprised at how current the story felt and how horrific some of the details were (it definitely didn’t read or feel like a book written over 100 years ago). As a result, each time I stopped at a used book store I’d peruse the shelves looking for anything Wells. I stumbled on a collection of five of his short stories called “The Empire of the Ants.” What? Wells wrote short stories? No way! I bought the book and read it over my vacation. I was amazed. Wells is known for writing in detail, but I’d say his writing is even more detailed in his short stories (possibly because in a short story you don’t have to worry about bogging the reader down in too much detail- causing them to lose the thread of the story).
What Wells does, and what he’s famous for, is writing in such detail that a scenario becomes supremely believable, then, he adds a touch of the fantastic to really knock the reader’s socks off. Since he’s already created this ultra-realistic world, the fantastic becomes believable and the reader is left thinking, “that could really happen, couldn’t it?”
After reading that collection of shorts, I looked for something more comprehensive and found “The Complete Short Stories of H.G. Wells” edited by John Hammond. I was amazed again! The breadth and scope of Wells’ stories is amazing: from a rogue plant with a taste for human blood, to a voodoo shaman out for revenge, to an upstart student with a conscious, Wells’ imagination knows no bounds.
I’m about half way through the book and my favorite stories thus far are “The Flowering of the Strange Orchid,” “Pollock and the Porroh Man” and “In the Modern Vein: An Unsympathetic Love Story” (the stories I decribed above) also “The Lord of the Dynamos,” “The Sea Raiders” and “A Story of the Stone Age.” I must also add that I read “The Country of the Blind” as part of the previous book containing Wells’ stories and it too is amazing. Also, I admit that sometimes Wells delves into too much detail, which can frustrate the reader and slow the story down. However, of the 30-40 stories I’ve read thus far, it has only happened a handful of times.
I only wish that this collection contained a short critique before each story. Mr. Hammond is a renowned Wells scholar and has even written a book analyzing Wells’ short stories (a book I can’t locate, by the way), that book I believe is essential to really understanding these stories (namely due to Wells’ tendency to critique society in his writing). Unfortunately, no real analysis is available in this compilation, thus, the reader is left to his own interpretation. For the most part, the stories are pretty self-explanatory, but it would be nice to understand some of the other meanings.
In conclusion, I give this collection 5 stars and I highly recommend it for anyone with a taste for great storytelling. Wells’ writing is fantastic, touching, humorous, detailed and very sensitive- I think you’ll be surprised at how he’ll win you over. H.G. Wells is a master writer, and he’s gained me as a fan for life! 
The Odyssey
by Homer, Robert Fagles (Translator), Bernard Knox (Introduction)
Jason Roberts‘s review
From a Homer reader who has read Pope and Chapman and a half dozen or so of the various 19th and 20th century translations I state unequivocally that Lombardo’s translation of Homer’s Odyssey (and Iliad for that matter) is in a category to itself. I state this, by the way, not as a revelation of how a simple translation can open up this epic, but as a revelation of how specifically Lombardo’s simple translation has opened up this great epic. There are many virtues in this translation (one being that, despite the colloquialness and simplicity (or street level) of approach, it is really very ‘sneaky poetic’ in ways that suprise, such as descriptions of beauty and strength and high emotion and understanding and nature that one comes across so often in Homer’s epics); a cenral virtue of Lombardo though is he is able to describe and carry the actual story of the poem in a really actually revelatory way (when other reviewers mention ‘screenplay’ or well-crafted genre type novel it is very much on-the-mark). This comes across more strikingly in his Iliad translation (simply because the Odyssey is more novel-like to begin with), but also in the Odyssey as well. I would even go so far as to say that if you were to make a list of three great English translations of Homer, representing ascending levels of difficulty and poetry, I would choose: Level 1 – Lombardo; Level 2: Pope; Level 3 – Chapman. One final note: Lombardo apparently spent many years reciting Homer for live audiences, and I suspect, speaking with just a ‘little’ poetic license, that the Muse might have been attendant upon him in his efforts to translate as a reward for his dedication.Unfortunately, many of these same lay readers bash Lombardo’s translations because they assume the personable nature of the writing makes it inaccurate. People expect a classic to have a certain formal diction to it, in the vein of Shakespeare and the King James Bible. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The King James Bible, despite having the most formal prose, is certainly not the most accurate translation of the Bible. Similarly, verbose translations of Homer do not mean it is more true to the text. Lombardo’s version of the Odyssey preserves the immediacy and hard hitting nature of Homer’s original Greek poetry. You will notice in other reviews that readers disapprove based on what they imagine Homer should sound like. Trust me, they haven’t read the original texts. Classical scholars, some of whom I personally work with, have given universally excellent reviews to Lombardo’s translations. This translation proves you can have your cake and eat it too. It is highly recommended.
by Mark Twain
Jason Roberts‘s review
by Kakuzō Okakura
Jason Roberts‘s review
Kakuzo Okakura (1862-1919) was born in a Japan that had seen Commodore Perry but had not yet renounced the Shogunate. By the end of his life he had seen the Great War and Japan’s first imperialistic military adventures in Korea and Manchuria that would culminate in the tragedy of the Second World War.The scion of Japanese aristocracy, Okakura chose to spend the latter half of his life as an expatriate living in Boston, Massachusetts, where he befriended the Brahmins of that city. THE BOOK OF TEA was written in this period, sometime in the nineteen-oh-ohs. Written for an American audience, it eloquently introduced the Boston bluebloods to an idealized vision of Japan, the Japan of cherry blossoms, kakemono, and Chanoyu, the Tea Ceremony.Reading THE BOOK OF TEA, one realizes that Okakura was not “selling” Japan to the West. THE BOOK OF TEA does not engage in any lacquer-box hucksterism. Rather, THE BOOK OF TEA is his paean to and his lament for a Japan of the virtues that was all-too-rapidly being consumed by Occidentally-intoxicated militarists and industrialists. THE BOOK OF TEA was written to banish the soot-stained chrysanthemums of Okakura’s deepest nightmares.Although this reviewer came to THE BOOK OF TEA expecting a manual on the Tea Ceremony, this book is nowhere so vulgar as that. Yes, a manual on the highly stylized Chanoyu has its place, but it’s place is nowhere without this book which penetrates to the heart and soul of the ceremony. This reviewer can honestly say that THE BOOK OF TEA provided him with comprehension, a deeper insight, and a first true appreciation for Japanese art forms, so different than the European.
In its simplicity and its elegance, the Tea Ceremony is a form of Zen practice. Every element, from the atmosphere of the tearoom (called in Japanese “The Abode of Fancy,” a world unto itself), the selection of the flowers, the artwork, the bamboo tea implements, the bright, sharp jade green macha tea, and the specially made jangling teapot and ceramic cups, speaks to an aesthetic foreign to the West. Okakura calls it “Teaism,” a play on Taoism, and its purpose is to delight the senses, touch the heart, and place the participant fully in the present moment.
Shambhala Publications has presented THE BOOK OF TEA in a fine paperbound edition, the colors, typeset, and dimensions of which please the mind. Shambhala has also provided color photographs, in truth forms of abstract art, of the tea implements in use, that add a visual dimension to this already fine book.
by William Gibson
Jason Roberts‘s review
The development of NEUROMANCER’s characters has been widely critisized as flat and generally lacking in depth. This hasty judgment is false, however, and is probably the result of reading years of science fiction works that spell out every nuance about a character and force feed them into the reader. What Gibson achieves, through a minimalistic approach, is a fusion between the story’s disturbing, yet compelling mood and the essense of his main characters. His characters are “flat” and “cliche” because THAT IS WHO THEY ARE!Allow me to expound upon this… Imagine that you, for a brief moment, are Case (the main hero/anti-hero of the book).A burnt-out shell of a man living within a burnt-out shell of civilization. You “live”, if that’s what you can call it, day to day, haunted and pursued by the memories of who you WERE and what you COULD HAVE BEEN. Your talent, your identity and your soul has been stripped away — all because you took one wrong step. No longer able to jack-in to the matrix and feel your consciousness freed from your fleshy prison. No longer able to cut through Cyberspace with the precision of a surgeon and intensity of a kamikaze. You are a nobody, a drug-addicted fixer with a death wish. No longer caring; slowly suffocating in a world filled with the jackyls and parasites of humanity, who are ready to feast on your corpse the minute you fall. You don’t even carry a weapon anymore… You have given up and are in many ways already dead. All that remains is for someone to kill the “meat”…What more is there to say? This IS it!! You know who Case is because you, the reader, can FEEL it. That is the magic of Gibson’s writing. He doesn’t go into the intimate details of Case’s torture in Memphis because there is no need to. Just as there is no need to encapsule the characters in neat little packages and paint them in bright technocolor, making them “easy to swallow” for the reader. They are bleak and minimal just as the world they live in is bleak and minimal.
Just as some of the most frightening horror films are the ones that don’t show the gore — leaving it up to the viewer to imagine (which is often far more gruesome), so too does Gibson leave you with just enough so that you can feel the consuming emptiness of his characters.
In addition to this, Gibson does a fantastic job with the plot of the book. At times it is a head-first dive at a hundred miles an hour, and other times is crawls with the primal anticipation and potential energy of a spider, slowly descending upon the prey within its web. This plot isn’t made for “Short-Attention-Span-Theatre”, and only those suffering from Attention Defecit Disorder or expecting this book to be a Cyberpunk module (often the same people) need fear it.
The characters are driven by forces that are often as ambiguous as there own nature, and this tactic is perfect in capturing the essense of the book. Gibson doesn’t bore the reader with 200 extra pages to “define” why the characters act as they do. Instead he hints at it through their personalities, sparse backgrounds and conversations. The essense of who they are and why they do what they do seeps slowly into the reader’s skin through the derm that is Gibson.
That is what makes this book a classic on so many levels. The reader is just another character along for the ride instead of being forced into omnipotence.
BEWARE OF OTHER REVIEWS BY PEOPLE WHO DON”T HAVE THE FACTS STRAIGHT!!!
Gibson stated that he knew nothing about computers or the internet before he wrote NEUROMANCER. While some have said that “this certainly shows” in his writing, these short-sighted individuals have failed to realize that barely any of this technology existed at the time. Almost NO ONE knew anything about it!!
Secondly, people have critisized Gibson’s status as a “visionary”. Here too, these individuals don’t comprehend that this title was not self-proclaimed. It has been the result of 20/20 hindsight vision from a late 80′s to late 90′s perspective! This book was written in 1984!! Cut the guy some slack!!! He never claimed to “predict the future”, but his future is a dark possibility rooted in our own present. That is the essense of his foresight into the fusion of advanced technologies and the corrupting nature of humanity.
Finally, one person who reviewed this book on Amazon.com claimed that the only reason this book got published was because of Gibson’s “name” and his prestige as a writer. This was his first book!! Obviously that isn’t a likely scenario. The reason it was published can be ascertained by reading the first sentence of the book!
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
To any one who is a serious science fiction reader, or any one who has ever wanted to pick up just one book to get the feel of the genre — READ THIS BOOK. It IS a classic, and I feel that it will only get better with each read…
by Joseph Ephraim, Carole Kay
Jason Roberts‘s review
I read the entire thing in one sitting, but found myself unsatisfied despite the quality of the prose. Joseph could have easily doubled the length of the book if he had explored the sub-plots that were mentioned throughout the story. It seemed to me that Joseph was under a deadline and needed to get the project done as quickly as possible. He flew through the story, marvelously writing the necessary parts to still make things flow naturally. But this made his characters a little one-dimensional. He did mention some back stories, but never elaborated on them. This would have made the book even more enjoyable, in my opinion.
by Mike Wells (Goodreads Author)
Do you like stories about deception, mystery, international espionage, and the lengths to which men will go in the name of power and greed? If so, then Lust, Money, and Murder, by Mike Wells may be a book for you.Lust, Money, and Murder was the first novel by Mike Wells I’ve read, and I’m glad I did for several reasons. Mr. Wells writes in a style that grabs ahold of the reader and doesn’t easily let go. Without a lot of emphasis on unnecessary details, the story hits you like a passenger jet landing on the tarmac. You’re off and running and not going to stop or get bored until it’s finished. And even after the long haul, it’s not quite over yet, and I’ll explain that shortly.While the title, Lust, Money, and Murder may seem stereotypical of books you’ve read or movies you’ve seen, this story has some unique components. It starts off very mysteriously, an older sugar-daddy with a young woman, and they’re traveling around Europe having one big party. But there’s something going on, an undercurrent beneath the charade of cordial and passionate behavior that’s impossible to put a finger on. This short story comes to an abrupt end, but we find out that the theme of this little introduction is actually the main thrust behind the novel’s storyline.The narrative focuses on a young girl who grows up under very challenging circumstances. Without a mother, she copes as well as can be expected. Her father wants the best for her, but is doing things he shouldn’t be to help her get not only the things she wants, but the best education. Trying to grow up quickly and find herself, she makes a terrible mistake and inadvertently pulls her father into it. One thing after another goes wrong, and we find ourselves watching this girl set out on a lifelong mission of revenge. Sound intriguing yet?
One of the main components to this story is counterfeit money. Before reading this book, I had no idea what intaglio printing was. But by the time I was finished, I knew quite a bit about it and the process by which official currency is printed.
True to its title, ‘Lust, Money, and Murder,’ at its core, is about characters and motivating behavior. And this is really what keeps you going–seeing who is going to what next, as well as who is hiding what. Again, the story moves fast, and along the way there are many unexpected twists. Just when you think you’ve got things figured out, the story takes a sharp turn and sends you down another path. This makes it a swift page-turner of a novel.
Warning to potential readers–it all ends on a huge cliffhanger. If you poke around and see what else Mike Wells has written, you’ll see that one of the things he does is write series. You can acquire several of the “Book 1′s” for free for your Kindle or Nook or whatever you like to read eBooks on. But at the end of the story, you’ll want to find out how things go and you just may purchase Book 2. It’s up to you. But whatever you do, know that you may find yourself so wrapped up in Lust, Money, and Murder, you’ll probably be looking for more.
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
by J.R.R. Tolkien
Jason Roberts‘s review
“The Hobbit or There and Back Again” is the first story of Middle-Earth that was ever read by the masses, and it remains a beloved favorite due to Tolkien’s exceptional writing, lovable characters, and the fantastic, complicated world with its unlikely hero, a tiny fuzzy-footed hobbit.Bilbo Baggins lives a pleasantly stodgy and dull life in the Shire, in a luxurious hole under a hill. (“It was a hobbit hole, and that means comfort”) His life is completely turned upside-down by the arrival of the wizard Gandalf and thirteen dwarves. The dwarves, led by the exiled king-in-waiting Thorin Oakenshield, want to regain the Lonely Mountain (and a lot of treasure) from the dragon Smaug, who drove out the dwarves long ago. Why do they want Bilbo? Because Gandalf has told them that he’d make a good burglar.So before Bilbo is entirely sure what is going on, he is being swept off on a very unrespectable adventure. Bilbo and the Dwarves battle goblins and spiders, are nearly eaten twice, are captured and Bilbo is forced to riddle with the treacherous, withered Gollum. But even after these obstacles, the dragon Smaug is still in the Lonely Mountain, and Bilbo is not entirely sure what to do…Author J.R.R. Tolkien had been crafting his mythos of Elves, Dwarves, Wizards and Men for years before writing “The Hobbit,” but “The Hobbit” is the first story that people had the opportunity to read. It began as a line scrawled on a sheet of blank paper, and then into a bedtime story for his children. And even though it’s overshadowed by “Lord of the Rings” and “Silmarillion,” this book is an essential link. It’s definitely sillier and lighter, but it provides the springboard for a lot of the stuff in “Lord of the Rings” — especially the magical Ring that Bilbo finds in Gollum’s cavern.
The concept of hobbits started in this book — the quintessential peaceful “wee” people, based on British countryfolk, with simple pleasures and unexpected depths of strength and resourcefulness. And, of course, fuzz on their large feet. Tolkien’s Elves are a little more ethereal and less dignified, and his dwarves are a bit more comical and less grim. But Elrond hints at the full majesty of the Elves, and Thorin Oakenshield is still the most dignified, proud and impressively flawed dwarf there is. The last chapters of the book hint at the epic majesty of “Lord of the Rings,” and some of the same victory/loss themes. And of course, the idea that even little people — like a hobbit or a bird — can change the world.
Tolkien’s writing is quick and light, while providing sufficient detail to let you picture what’s going on. The dialogue is less influenced by Old English, and the pace is a lot faster (not surprising, since it was originally read to his kids before bedtime). Bilbo is a likable little guy — he seems to be the last person whom you’d expect to be a courageous hero, but he shows incredibly strength and smarts when he’s under pressure. Supporting characters like Thorin, Bard the Guardsman-turned-King, the king of the wood-elves, and even Smaug himself are never cookie-cutter, but multidimensional and immensely interesting to read about.
“The Hobbit” was written for children, but adults can appreciate and enjoy it just as much. So read this book, then scoop up “The Fellowship of the Ring” and continue reading. A timeless treasure and classic.
by J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (Editor)
The 12 volumes of the History of Middle Earth take a close look at the creation of Tolkien’s greatest achievement – Middle Earth itself – through early drafts, unpublished texts, and dead end writings. For ardent Tolkien readers it is a fascinating look at one of the great literary creations of the 20th Century. For more casual fans, it’s text better left unread.
“The Return of the Shadow” marks the first in the four volumes dealing with the history of the writing of “The Lord of the Rings.” Like the other volumes in the series, it features unpublished writings by Tolkien, supplemented, explained, footnoted, annotated and expounded upon by his son, Christopher Tolkien.
Here we have the earliest versions of what would later become the most beloved fantasy epic in the world, detailing the extraordinary and convoluted history of the earliest chapters of “The Lord of the Rings.” Some readers might be surprised to know just how different a book this was in its earliest stages, and just how much Tolkien was making it up as he went along in those early days.
The wealth of information is fantastic, and Christopher Tolkien goes to great lengths to examine each text, putting them in the context of the larger puzzle of his father’s writings. The exploration of how “The Lord of the Rings” came about is fantastic – for those interested. Otherwise, it will bore. This is, after all, a series of unfinished draft chapters and essays on the text. I enjoyed it, but many won’t.
Anybody wishing to do a study of Tolkien’s craft, into “behind the scenes” writings, or just interested in finding a few snatches of new Middle Earth material (even if in unfinished form, there are some scattered throughout the series) will certainly find what they are looking for here. Christopher Tolkien’s work here is appreciated by scores of ardent Tolkien fans.
Those looking for fresh new tales about hobbits and heroes, however, will be disappointed. This isn’t new fiction, nor does it even feature finished works. Seek elsewhere if you are looking for more tales in the way of “The Lord of the Rings.”
by Cherie Priest (Goodreads Author)
Jason Roberts‘s review
Cherie Priest’s Boneshaker: the first is the eye-catching cover; the second, that it’s steampunk; the third–only noticeable when you peek inside–is the brown- (née, sepia) colored font. Reading Boneshaker is like looking into an old Victorian photograph–the exact effect I’d want if I was writing a book to fit a genre influenced primarily by that era. This isn’t the first book I’ve read with a font color other than black (an edition of Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story that I own comes to mind), but it was surprising and fit well with the genre.
This book is fast, hugely entertaining and exceptionally well researched, paced and written. It doesn’t get bogged down in the traditional Victorian trappings of Steampunk — there are plenty of gadgets, mechanisms, machinery, weapons, airship and goggles/gasmasks (and, obviously, a [near] lack of electricity and modern technologies)but it never feels forced or overbearing. Some authors use the genre to explore their idea of what “Steampunk” should be, while Priest uses those things I’ve mentioned above as periphery, as necessity that has a purpose but isn’t the point of anything. The steampunk gadgets, the zombies, they serve to move the story forward and to create a living (well, partially), breathing world that I got sucked into and didn’t want to leave. One thing I particularly liked was the use of a 200-foot wall surrounding old-town Seattle. Almost the entire story takes place within this walled-off no-man’s-land, and it worked perfectly to enable the sort of story that just wouldn’t have worked in an open-world setting. The walls also helped to define the characters and the city itself because quite a character in itself (not quite to the extent Mieville creates in his works, but similar in that you can imagine every street, building and underground passage and visualize the geography and even sulk when a loved landmark is inevitably destroyed or lost to the hordes of “Rotters” scouting for food).
All in all this was one of the best novels I’ve read in years, and will be sitting comfortable, front and center on my shelf next to Neil Gaiman’s ‘Neverwhere’, China Mieville’s ‘The City and The City’.
Nocturnal
by Scott Sigler (Goodreads Author)
This novel starts out at a plain police procedural but then adds another minor layer. As it proceeds it adds yet another layer then another and then it starts to twist them making the reader as well as the novel’s subjects constantly revise their beliefs about what exactly is going on and what they are facing.
The skill of the author is apparent because these layers, these twists, these new developments never cloud the narrative power of the book. Instead they add to it. So you have elements which could be related to any police story (crime, whodunit, how to find them) mixed in with several personal stories involving the players’ relationships with their families and finally a citywide mystery somewhat reminiscent of Gaiman’s Neverwhere book.
Finally toward the final third of the book, you are off on a fantastic adventure involving the initially mundane characters of the police procedure but somehow you are buying into it as if it were just one more commonplace ‘police catches the bad guy after a chase’ book.
Let’s say this chase is one you’ve never encountered before. I don’t wish to say more because I don’t wish to give any spoilers. Highly recommended. A really fine read and as the cliche has it, ‘impossible to put down’.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Devil Girls (1967)
A great book for all the wrong reasons! Edward D. Wood, jr. was one-of-a-kind.
If you love this book here are some of his other books.
Black Lace Drag was published in 1963 and reissued in 1965 as Killer in Drag. Among his other books are Orgy of The Dead (1965), Devil Girls (1967), Death of a Transvestite (1967), The Sexecutives (1968) and A Study of Fetishes and Fantasies (1973).
Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1)
by Gail Carriger (Goodreads Author)
About a week ago or so, I happen to be watching Geek & Sundry and Sword and Laser was on. They had an interview with Gail Carriger and talked about this book, Soulless. So I grabbed my laptop and found it on Amazon. About a 4 days later I had this gem in my hands!! A very fun and engaging read. If I had to classify The Parasol Protectorate stories, they are paranormal, romance, adventure, urban fantasy set in Victorian times with a dash of SteamPunk and a good dose of humor. Everything in this book is exquisitely fabulous. I highly recommend.Warning, reading this will make you want to run out and pick up the rest of the books in the series.
Killer in Drag by Ed WoodMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
As a filmmaker, Edward D. Wood Jr. was the ultimate auteur, stamping his work with a signature idiocy that resists even camp appreciation. As if to prove his talents were far too hideous to be contained by the movies, two pulp novels Wood wrote in the mid-’60s are now being reissued with every typo and malapropism intact. The rotten books are actually more fun than the rotten movies, in the same way that a paper cut is more fun than poison ivy.
In “Killer in Drag,” Glen Marker is the top transvestite hired killer in New York. He wants to ditch his life of crime, get a sex-change operation and live permanently as his gorgeous alter ego, Glenda Satin. (Note: The schlub portrayed by Wood in his ridiculous cinematic work “Glen or Glenda” has only the name and nylons in common with the novel’s hard-boiled hero.) Glen finds himself hunted by both the police and the mob, so he goes on the lam and winds up in a small Colorado town, where he buys a decrepit carnival and finds love with the town whore. But his Ferris wheel falls over and kills a few people, forcing him to hit the road again. In the sequel, “Death of a Transvestite,” Glen makes it to Los Angeles and bonds with another hooker, while the beaky, jealous Paul/Pauline, a rival drag killer, chases Glen/Glenda down. In the middle of a hippie riot on the Sunset Strip, Pauline and Glenda shoot it out. Glenda wins the battle but gets the electric chair.
Why does the mob have a roster of transvestite hit men? Who cares? Not Wood. He writes like Jim Thompson if Jim Thompson were a lobotomized monkey on angel dust, and what he does care about, mostly, is angora sweaters and satin panties and what they do for Glen and his girlfriends. Early on, Glen, as Glenda, gets into his car and is distracted by his own angora-covered falsies: “She squeezed harder — then harder — she rubbed it — the sensation overwhelmed her — She sighed aloud — ‘Oh what matter — there are more panties in the glove compartment.’” Wood informs us pedantically that “when Glen talks of Glenda he speaks of her in second person”; he means third, but who’s counting? Here’s Glenda musing as she squashes a black widow: “She was ready to meet the outside world again. A hostile world, with dark passages concealing things and elements of the shadows and unseen dangers. The spider had been the first thing Glen/Glenda had killed since leaving the Syndicate. But death followed him like the deep shadow of disaster it was.” One of the love-struck whores eventually gets tied up nude and pitched into the East River; after a last flashback, she inhales the waters of the Hudson. Oh what matter, there are more panties in the glove compartment.
Ominously, the press material alerts us that Wood wrote at least 20 more of these things. The same publisher has also issued another Wood document from the ’60s, the previously unpublished “Hollywood Rat Race,” in which the would-be industry player regales aspiring starlets with anecdotes about how much persistence and luck it takes to make it big in the movies. As if he knew. After you surf Wood’s stream of inanity in these books, Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the director in “Ed Wood,” the 1994 Tim Burton film — flashing scores of tiny teeth in a wacked-out grin as he plunges ahead, reason and second takes be damned — doesn’t seem at all exaggerated.
Death of a Transvestite by Ed Wood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Death of a Transvestite is the sequel to Killer in Drag (see other review). When last we left former Syndicate hireling, hit man Glen Marker (a.k.a. Glenda Satin) s/he was on the run to California, and a Syndicate hit-man had just been put on her tail (no pun intended) This volume explains what happened next.
Wood gets far more ambitious in this work, even framing it nicely. The opening chapter finds Glen in a prison cell, on the eve of his execution. Yup, the law has finally caught up with him. He has one final wish, and in exchange for it being granted he will tell his story. The wish ? To die as he lived — in drag.
The warden thinks about it, and then agrees. And so we get Glen/da’s confession, or rather a cobbled together account of what happened to him/her after the close of the last book. A new major character is Pauline, the sorry looking drag hit-person sent out to chase Glen/da down.
The Syndicate gets on Glen/da’s trail by getting the information about his/her whereabouts from Rose “Red” Graves, the friendly prostitute Glen/da had packed off to New York. Wood actually does a nice pulp turn here as the Syndicate deals with her. Brutal, but true to the genre, no punches held.
Glen/da settles in in Hollywood, making a nice friend, Cynthia. A kept woman — hell, a [...], but with a heart of gold, ‘course. Touching to watch them get together.
As Pauline closes in on Glen/da, Wood defends his character’s transvestite lifestyle. No question, the book is a manifesto of sorts, half earnest, half hilarious. Glen/da’s problems are big, and Wood relates them with touching concern. S/he wants that operation (yup, s/he wants to get rid of that bulge in his/her [...]that completely destroys the line of those tight-fitting dresses), but s/he’s concerned about his/her sex-life afterwards. S/he never much liked sleeping with men (tried it, but not won over), and s/he can’t imagine becoming a lesbian (really) — but then since his/her only turn-on is the clothes s/he wears, maybe it will work out ….. S/he doesn’t like skin against skin — even when having sex s/he like to have some comfy nightgown or [...] on …..
When Cynthia and Glen/da are finally ready to get it on Cynthia is a bit unnerved by Glen/da’s transvestism. Proudly, Glen/da insists that she take him/her as s/he is. “There I stand in my panties,” s/he states, unapologetically. It’s a stirring moment.
A tragic end is in the coming, though, as the Syndicate hit-man lurks in the background. S/he’s a pretty sad hit-thing, the ugliest drag-queen around, and none too impressive in doing his/her job. Glen/da practically falls into his/her lap; we don’t see how s/he could have gotten at him/her otherwise. On top of that, s/he gets blasted before going after Glen/da. Not very professional. But still fairly realistic for a Wood-creation
The end comes, as we knew it would, and we’re back on execution row. Glenda’s all gussied up, and she can die a happy gal. “So the record has spun its measured spin. The story is told,” Glenda says. This is a grand finale, and Wood actually manages some poignancy to this absurd scene. It’s a sincere and heartfelt effort, and it is, amazingly, not half bad.
The sex in the book is considerably raunchier than in Killer in Drag — definitely not for the kids. It’s decent pulp fiction, though, and perhaps Wood’s most accomplished work, whether as book or film. One can’t really recommend the book, but it shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.
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