Another Great Serendipitous Crossover

In an earlier post, titled “Foiled Again,” I managed to get in a literary snag by reading two books at the same time about vampires.  Well, lo and behold, fate has struck me again.

I’m currently working my way through Cory Docotrow’s For the Win, a fun and entertaining book about massive multi-player online games such as World of Warcraft and the gold farmers and people who play them to make a profit.  And I also just finished up Daniel Suarez’s Freedom™, which is the sequel to Daemon, and all about a daemon being set loose through the internet and essentially bringing down the world.  A big part of Suarez’s novels involves MMOs and the people who play them.

Thankfully, while it was a little hard to keep the two vampire stories separate mentally, For the Win and Freedom™ are more two different sides to MMOs and the people who play them.

05/30 On the Bookshelf . . . “Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer”

I’m going to give this a try.

My expectations are not very high.

We’ll see.

“Black Hills” by Dan Simmons (Reagan Arthur, 2010)

In 2008, at a signing for Dan Simmons’ last incredible tome, Drood – as well as in an interview for BookBanter – the bestselling and award-winning author talked about his next novel in progress: the story about a young Native American boy, Paha Sapa, who is possessed by the spirit and soul of General Custer, who recently expired at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876.  It was a very unique sounding story, which is what Simmons does best, but I was certainly hesitant about the novel it would become, Black Hills.  Sadly after the pinnacle of his writing with The Terror, Black Hills is a mediocre at best novel that Simmons clearly put a lot of work into, but at the end leaves the reader thinking: “Is that it?”

The story begins with 10-year-old Paha Sapa visiting the battle ground of Little Big Horn, after the fighting.  He comes upon a man lying on the ground; as he investigates, a cloud form of the man’s spirit/soul enters his body.  Dan Simmons has done his research on Native American ways and culture, as Paha Sapa prepares himself to become a man.  His name means Black Hills, named for the specific hills of South Dakota.  The story then jumps to 1936 when Paha Sapa is an old man, in his seventies, working on the building and sculpting of Mount Rushmore.  Paha Sapa’s specific job is demolitions, strategically placing the dynamite to blast the rock.  But he considers the building of Rushmore a great insult to his people and his country, and with President Roosevelt scheduled to make a visit in the near future, Paha Sapa has his own celebratory explosion planned.

Black Hills jumps back and forth in time with Paha Sapa’s growth as a boy in becoming a man, and then his slow, meticulous planning of the catastrophic explosion of Rushmore as he continues to work on the historical site.  At the very end of the book, as the reader is left wondering why things happened the way they did, Simmons launches into a lengthy ethereal commentary about protecting and respecting this land and this world, which simply comes out of nowhere.

Simmons does what he does best with Black Hills: some interesting characters, strong description, good writing; but the story and plot are lacking in development, depth and interest that his other novels always possess.  Black Hills is simply not a book for everyone: new readers may enjoy it, some Simmons fans may also, but this reviewer found it to be a weak novel from one of the best writers writing today.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on May 19 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

“Northlanders Book Three: Blood in the Snow” by Brian Wood, Dean Ormston, et. al. (Vertigo, 2010)

In the third volume of the fascinating Northlanders series, Brian Wood takes readers on new adventures into the world and history of the Vikings.  What makes Northlanders such an interesting and original series are Wood’s storylines, beginning in the first volume with Sven, but then taking readers on different tangents and facets of the Vikings.  The series is like a full history course on the Vikings, all told through the medium of the graphic novel.

In Blood in the Snow, Wood begins with the monastery at Lindisfarne, one of the richest and favorite areas to attack and pillage, exploring the way of life for some Vikings, consistently attacking and ransacking for more riches.  In the second story, “The Viking Art of Single Combat,” Wood tells the tale of a battle between two champions, between two families who have been at war with each other for generations.  After this battle, they will be at peace for a little while.  As these two war veterans face off, the reader sees their world and their lives through their eyes, understanding what they hold dear, and why their revenge is so strong.

In the third tale, “The Shield Maidens” – which deserves some awards – Wood tells the story of three Viking wives who are trapped and under attack from a hoard of Saxons, and how they work together, use their strengths, and miraculously escape, separated, with their lives, and their reunite years later.  In the final tale, “Sven the Immortal,” the reader sees a Sven now old but still strong, who must fight for his family and his life one more time.

The Northlanders series just gets better with each volume, keeping readers hooked with interest and wonder at what story Brian Wood is going to tell next, what journey he will take the Vikings on, and what battles will be waged.  Well researched, this series is one of the best there is being written today in the world of graphic novels.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on May 18 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

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5/27 On the Bookshelf . . . “One Bloody Thing After Another”

My wife is a big fan of A Softer World, a popular web comic by Joey Comeau which I certainly enjoy whenever she shows me a particular favorite and/or entertaining strip.  When she mentioned about some shorts that Comeau had written that has now been turned into a book — One Bloody Thing After Another — my interest was piqued and now I’m looking forward to reading this new release and who knows, it may turn into an interview for BookBanter.

“Stephen King and Peter Straub The Talisman The Road of Trials” by Robin Furth, Tony Shasteen, Nei Ruffino, and JD Mettler (Del Rey, 2010)

After the success of the brilliant Marvel adaptations of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, the skillful writing hand of Robin Furth now turns to the bestselling story of The Talisman, along with experienced artists Tony Shasteen, Nei Ruffino, and JD Mettler.  Stephen King and Peter Straub co-wrote and published The Talisman in 1984.  It is the epic tale of Jack Sawyer, a young boy with a sick mother, who must travel to the other side of the country to find her cure.  He also must travel to an alternate world known as the “Territories,” where he will meet up with a number of “twinners” from his world – doppelgangers of people he knows.  He also meets up with some very strange and unusual people in this fantasy world: some nice who he becomes friends with, and some enemies who want to hurt him.  Then there is Morgan Sloat, Jack’s father’s business partner who knows all too well about the Territories and is looking to bring over some advanced technology like electricity and nukes to change the world and profit from it.  Sloat also knows what Jack’s up to and is trying to catch him and put an end to him.  The question is whether Jack will be able to make it to his destination and get the talisman that will save his mother, as well as her twinner, the queen.

And now Robin Furth is adapting the powerful words of King and Straub to the world of graphic novels, with stunning artwork from Shasteen, Ruffino, and Mettler.  In this first volume, The Road of Trials, Furth does a great job of shrinking the lengthy beginning of The Talisman to a number of pages, while the artwork brings the great fantasy world of the Territories to beautiful fruition.  The Talisman Volume 1 is a great start to this new graphic novel series that looks to take the reader on as a great ride as King and Straub did with their readers in the original Talisman.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on May 18 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

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“What if the Earth Had Two Moons” by Neil F. Comings (St. Martin’s Press, 2010)

Neil F. Comins is a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Maine and has written a number of popular books including: The Hazards of Space Travel: A Tourist’s Guide and What if the Moon Didn’t Exist? Voyages to Earths That Might Have Been.  In his new book, What if the Earth Had Two Moons, he gives us nine alternative realities, including what our world would be like if we had two moons.  At the beginning of each hypothesis, Comins has a little fun with a short fictional reality existing in the condition he is about to describe, then he analyzes it from a scientific and then sociological perspective.  While he tends to keep everything dry and scientific, and there seems to be a lacking in exploring the alternate world (perhaps that is a different book), Comins nevertheless is thorough and detailed, taking on what ifs like: “What if the Earth’s Crust Were Thicker,” “What if the Sun Were Less Massive,” “What if the Earth had Two Suns,” as well as many others.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on May 18 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.

4/25 On the Bookshelf . . . “Neverland” & “Roseville”

After finding and friending Douglas on Facebook, I look forward to reading and reviewing his book, Neverland, and it may well turn into an interview for BookBanter.

From the renowned and popular Images of America series from Arcadia publishing comes a new book on the history of the city of Roseville, California, where I have lived for the last couple of years.  I look forward to learning more of its history, with the railways, and hopefully interviewing the authors for BookBanter.

“Blockade Billy” by Stephen King (Cemetery Dance, 2010)

It’s a known fact that Stephen King is a big baseball fan, and possibly one of the biggest Red Sox fans (if you doubt this, just read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon).  After the mighty tome of Under the Dome and with a four-novella book called Full Dark, No Stars due out in November, there’s another little story King is releasing to keep fans occupied.  Blockade Billy is a short, little book – just over a hundred pages – about baseball that is a perfect read for the start of summer and America’s favorite sport.

Way back when, in the early days of baseball when the players weren’t making much money and it was all about the rule and the game and the sport, the Titans of New Jersey had a bad start to the new season.  Their everyday catcher, while driving drunk, killed a woman and is in prison, while their scrawny beanpole of a backup catcher is mowed down in a play at the plate and ends up in the hospital.  Then the Titans find a young rookie from Iowa, William Blakely.

Blakely is strange character – in that great Stephen King way – who does an impressive job catching and hitting to boot.  At his first big play at the plate, Billy tags the runner out as the man flies over the catcher and is left with a sliced Achilles heel, never play properly again.  But Blakely wins the team and the fans over in that first game, as well as others to come.  He starts hitting balls out of the park, doing a great job of catching, and making some great plays at the plate.  The nickname – Blockade Billy – sticks and a legend is born.

The season continues and while the Titans don’t win every game, they do well and Blockade Billy continues to wow the crowds and the team.  Then a terrible secret is discovered.  About Blakely.  His career is over; the Titan’s games are stricken from the record, and every effort is made to eradicate the name of William Blakely from history.

The story is told in third person to King from the former third-base coach, now in his old age, who remembers this high time of baseball and the infamous memory that was Blockade Billy.  King writes it in his colloquial, easy to read style, slowly giving out the details and keeping the reader completely hooked, needing to know what the story is behind Blockade Billy.  But I’m not going to give that away here; you’ll have to read the book to find out.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally written on May 18 2010 ©Alex C. Telander.

 

Originally published in the Sacramento Book Review.

“Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm” by Kim Cattrall & Mark Levinson (Warner, 2002)

Warning: this review contains language of an adult nature.

This is certainly a book for guys; girls are not invited.  Just kidding!  But Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm is intended for guys – read the title.  Do girls need to know how to give girls orgasms?  Well, yes, but that is another matter.  The point is guys are not so wise in the ways of giving a girl satisfaction, mainly in the form of an orgasm, or perhaps multiples (contrary to what Jay of Silent Bob fame may indicate).  And so the star/slut (?) of Sex in the City has got together with her husband and written a book about satisfying women, since us guys simply seem unable to do it right, and we  need a woman to teach us how.  But that’s okay, because the best way you’re going to find out what your girl really likes is by her telling you.  Well, now you can surprise her by buying and reading this book.

The book begins with some basic introductions from each of them touching on how this book is mainly for a couple who are in love and are looking to reach new heights in their pleasure, specifically geared towards men making women feel great.  In Cattrall’s words: “No one wants to admit that millions of women have unsatisfactory sex lives and that most men do not know what to do about it.”

Satisfaction takes it a step at a time, chapter by chapter.  With chapter headings like “The Clitoris,” “Circles,” “Figure Eights,” “Up-Down Flicks,” “Lips and Teeth,” “Fingers,” as well as a detailed index, the man has no excuse for losing his way in this book which is not even 150 pages long, and is filled with pictures on almost every page.  Divided into two major sections: oral sex and sexual positions, the book seeks to enlighten and teach a man how to make a woman reach orgasm in many different ways.  Now, the man doesn’t have to perform every  single act from every single chapter in the book in one “session,” nor does he have to “take one page out of the book” for a single session.  The point is to experiment, once the basics are known, and eventually come up with your own style.  Each of the chapters in the book have only pleasure in mind, and whenever there is any possible pain involved there is a warning, plus with detailed sketches and drawings, mistakes are not likely to be made.

Kim Cattrall and Mark Levinson wrote Satisfaction: The Art of the Female Orgasm with the aim of binging couples closer together and improving their sexual relationships.  This isn’t a Men’s Health publication with the “100 Ways to Satisfy Your Woman” piece, but a book that can only help a loving couple.  So don’t feel embarrassed, because ultimate you both want to have as much fun and get as much pleasure out sex as possible.  The key term here is “mutual pleasure.”  So one of you guys buy the book and don’t feel ashamed in using it as a reference tool during sex.  Remember, it is all a learning process, and we have our whole lives to perfect it.  This book is simply offering us a very detailed foundation that will give us a head start on every guy who doesn’t have this book and doesn’t know how to pleasure the woman he loves.

CLICK HERE to purchase your copy from Bookshop Santa Cruz and help support BookBanter.

Originally published on September 30^th, 2002.

Originally published in the Long Beach Union.