I first encountered Simon Green and his hero john Taylor in the SF Anthology MEAN STREETS, which I purchased for the Jim Butcher/Dresden files story THE WARRIOR. I loved the tale of the deranged and horrifying Nightside of London, where every sin, degradation, vice and desire can be found, and where dwells every monster, demon, and things not yet classified. And someone's graffiti "has misspelled Chthulhu, as usual." A street gang of punks wearing fake demon horns is actually a real band of demons masquerading as a street gang, but they're probably on day release. Humans can have sex with machines, a dead nun will show off her stigmata and an angel trapped inside a pentacle burns forever.
We know we're in for real horror when Taylor says he's seen a werewolf skinned and eaten by the Salvation Army sisters, whose motto is "Save them all and let God sort them out." Taylor's ambiguous friends include Razor Eddie, who rescues him from nightmares he's sent Taylor's way, and Death Boy, forever young, with his symbiotic race car which can handle any marauder and outrun anything.
John Taylor can find things, anything, by using his third eye, his "private eye." Why did no one come up with that joke before? Probably because there are few traditionally trench-coated PI's treading the mean streets of hell itself. This book starts, of course, with a beautiful dame coming into his seedy office, needing him to find her daughter. He'll charge her triple, and then wish it were more, to return to the Nightside he left five years before. I expect great things of this writer.
...Which, with a little more Googling, I find is like saying I think we'll see more of this Stephen King guy. Green has published at least forty novels in multiple different series. He's one of the most prolific SF authors ever.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
FLINX'S FOLLY, by Alan Dean Foster
Pip and Flinx are two of my favorite characters in all science fiction. Flinx (Phillip Lynx) first surfaces as an orphan boy on frontier planet Moth. He has an unusual mental talent which allows him to sense other's emotions. He acquires a companion, the flying snake, Pip, with whom he has an empathic bond, and who defends him with a venomous spray. I love Flinx, and marvel at his increasing powers. He eventually did a favor for an alien species for which he is opulently rewarded with his own starship.
It was disappointing, then, to see Foster use the lazy literary device of deux ex machina. Flinx, newly re-united with his old flame Clarity, has escaped two attackers sent by Clarity's suitor, and then is drugged by a third set. Since Flinx had demonstrated remarkable powers even if he appeared to be unconscious, I anticipated his coming through again. Just in time two old friends, Bran Tse-Mallory and the alien Thranx "Tru" Truzenzuzex show up to shoot the villains. Bran and Tru have searched through many worlds and somehow happen on him exactly when they're needed. Pfui!
In a satisfying story, the hero must be tested as hard as possible, and then triumph through his own strength. He can have some aid, but the efforts must be his own.
Harry Potter can destroy Voldemort, but he needs all his friends and allies in Hogwarts to battle the rest of the death eaters.
This is sloppy writing, and it kept me from finishing, let alone enjoying, the rest of the book. I expected better of such a prolific writer.
It was disappointing, then, to see Foster use the lazy literary device of deux ex machina. Flinx, newly re-united with his old flame Clarity, has escaped two attackers sent by Clarity's suitor, and then is drugged by a third set. Since Flinx had demonstrated remarkable powers even if he appeared to be unconscious, I anticipated his coming through again. Just in time two old friends, Bran Tse-Mallory and the alien Thranx "Tru" Truzenzuzex show up to shoot the villains. Bran and Tru have searched through many worlds and somehow happen on him exactly when they're needed. Pfui!
In a satisfying story, the hero must be tested as hard as possible, and then triumph through his own strength. He can have some aid, but the efforts must be his own.
Harry Potter can destroy Voldemort, but he needs all his friends and allies in Hogwarts to battle the rest of the death eaters.
This is sloppy writing, and it kept me from finishing, let alone enjoying, the rest of the book. I expected better of such a prolific writer.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
HEARTLAND, by Mark Teppo
Mark Teppo's quotes about HEARTLAND, the second novel in CODES OF SOULS:"The little mantra I hummed to myself while I was writing was: “Men and Mantras/Shotguns and Sigils.” I was going to write an urban fantasy book without vampires, lycanthropes, zombies, angels, or demons.
"Anyway, we kill a lot of our monsters every year in the fiction we read. By making them desirable, we defang them. We take away what is terrifying about them when we transform them into sex objects, as we convince ourselves that we are mastering our fear of the unknown. But are we?"
Desirable as the idea of a w-v free urban fantasy is, HEARTLAND is hard going.The main character, magus Michael Markham is a "Lightbreaker," who can take souls into his "Chorus," the internal voices which guide and confuse him. He's returning to Paris where he was nearly killed,and suddenly finds himself in the middle of a war where magi battles to become Hierarch, the top man of the mysterious organization. Michael accesses his tarot cards endlessly, but they give no helpful results.
These guys are apparently descendants of the Templars, and they may possibly be searching for the Holy Grail. Or not. It's sort of like THE DAVINCI CODE, with more deaths, only boring. The setup is interesting, but it goes nowhere. Markham is passive, takes no action on his own, and is pushed this way and that both by the Chorus, and his ex-and-future girlfriend, Marielle, who may be his enemy as well. Reading this in the same week as ANATHEM is very heavy going. I am going back to DEADER STILL, in the delightful Anton Strout series. This and the Gail Carriger "PARASOL PROTECTORATE " series are the antidote to this bloated story.
"Anyway, we kill a lot of our monsters every year in the fiction we read. By making them desirable, we defang them. We take away what is terrifying about them when we transform them into sex objects, as we convince ourselves that we are mastering our fear of the unknown. But are we?"
Desirable as the idea of a w-v free urban fantasy is, HEARTLAND is hard going.The main character, magus Michael Markham is a "Lightbreaker," who can take souls into his "Chorus," the internal voices which guide and confuse him. He's returning to Paris where he was nearly killed,and suddenly finds himself in the middle of a war where magi battles to become Hierarch, the top man of the mysterious organization. Michael accesses his tarot cards endlessly, but they give no helpful results.
These guys are apparently descendants of the Templars, and they may possibly be searching for the Holy Grail. Or not. It's sort of like THE DAVINCI CODE, with more deaths, only boring. The setup is interesting, but it goes nowhere. Markham is passive, takes no action on his own, and is pushed this way and that both by the Chorus, and his ex-and-future girlfriend, Marielle, who may be his enemy as well. Reading this in the same week as ANATHEM is very heavy going. I am going back to DEADER STILL, in the delightful Anton Strout series. This and the Gail Carriger "PARASOL PROTECTORATE " series are the antidote to this bloated story.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)