Book Review: I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas

Book Review: I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas

Paperback, 256 pages

Published August 2016 by Night Shade Books

If this seems like a negative review, it is only because I had very high hopes for this novel. It is less of a novel and more of a thinly veiled act of trolling that takes potshots at members of the Lovecraftian lit scene. This is my third time reading a Mamatas novel and I think my problem with it is it seems a little below those books. When I read Bullettime and Love is the Law I was impressed and felt like I was reading works of genius.

I enjoyed I Am Providence, but it seems like an idea hatched at 2 AM in a bar during a convention. That is not to say that it wasn't worthy of exploring, hell my novel The Vegan Revolution With Zombies was no less an act of thinly veiled trolling. I get it, but I feel like Mamatas has more important stories to tell. I think highly enough of his writing that this just felt beneath him.

So OK lets talk about the novel itself. The story shifts between two POV characters one a stand in for Mamatas, named Panossian who is actually dead in the morgue the victim at the heart of the mystery. The other main character is Colleen Danzig who appears to be based on author Molly Tanzer. While their fictional counterparts are not as accomplished as Nick and Molly, there are hints if you are tied into the community. Each chapter is titled by a Lovecraft story that gives insight into the theme of the chapter. Well played.

The story goes that Panossian is murdered at the start of a weekend long convention for Lovecraftian fiction fans. Danzig (the character not the singer) tries to solve the mystery and that leads through a pretty funny look at the ridiculous factions and drama at the heart of this lit movement. The best laughs I got involved Lovecraft's cat.

The mystery is less interesting to me than the body blows and jabs the author takes at real life figures, and that doesn't help. The story starts off with some interesting structure and POV shifts but then as the novel goes on it loses focus. Mamatas was probably having too much fun roasting the scene, and it would have helped to keep the story itself a it more focused.

When I say this is trolling I mean the title is the exact same title as ST Joshi's biography of Lovecraft. While the character in the novel based on Joshi has their gender switched there is no mistaking what is happening here. The list of authors who are parodied here is long. Robert Price and Jason Brock get probably the most harsh treatment.

During the week I was reading this short novel Jason Brock and Mamatas had another flame war that was actually dramatized on the Horror Show Podcast with voice-actors. I shit you not. That was a real thing. It is all fun and amusing stuff. It is worth getting out popcorn and watching the drama unfold but really is a novel needed on the topic?

Sadly I think this novel will get more attention than many other fantastic novels coming out in the same year, or even Mamatas's own fantastic novels such as Love is the Law which I think is more worthy of your attention.

I suppose there is a certain curiosity surrounding a novel that sprung out a internet flame war about the racism of a long dead pulp writer. I don't know of any other novels based on internet arguments. I was entertained, however I don't know how the novel will play with people who don't know people being mocked or in the case of some writers given respect.

I think the less seriously you take it, then the more you'll end it. I think my hopes were too high.

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Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published July 2016 by Mulholland Books

I am a sucker for alternate history, most automatically think of the Nazis win classic Man in The High Castle and sure WW II has been ripe for these types of Stories. Harry Turtledove however did a classic novel about the South winning the civil war (Guns of the South) and in a sense this novel is more connected to that classic. The writing is not perfect but over all I find this novel to be a excellent entry in the subgenre.

Set in a modern alternate history Indianapolis, I could tell as a Hoosier native that the author actually knew the city. I think Indiana readers will enjoy that aspect of the novel. The story in set in a America where slavery remains legal in four states called the hard four. The main character is A US Marshall agent - a freed slave named Victor who tracks runaway slaves. He is in the circle city to infiltrate a abolitionist cell.

This world is well realized even if it is a little far fetched, you just kinda have to ride with the idea to enjoy what the author is trying to get across. In 2016 when a national movement exists just to remind many in this country of the basic concept that human rights and black lives matter I think this is a important novel. Speculative fiction at its best is a story not grounded in realism, but one that explores ideas. So to think that four states would still hold on to slavery is hard to follow, but so is a world where Trayvon Martin was shot for wearing a hoodie and his killer walks free.

Victor is a complicated character, but one who carries the novel quite well. I worried during the novel that Winters waited to long to give Victor's motivation for doing such a horrible thing as sending other slaves back to bondage. It makes sense when it is explained and provides to me the most heartbreaking reveal of the novel.

One of the most unbelievable things is Victor's obsession with Michael Jackson. ha-ha.

The side characters and plot-lines carry the novel, but it would not have worked without characters like the Abolitionist priest and the slave owning factory operator being believable. The world building is solid, a author without a foundation in the genre might not get the details right, thankfully they are done in subtle ways. Non-genre authors often write those moments with a hammer.

Underground Airlines is a terrific politically charged novel, it is not a fun world to visit but an important one.

Book Review: Star Wars Aftermath: Life Debit by Chuck Wendig

Star Wars Aftermath: Life Debit by Chuck Wendig

Hardcover, 430 pages

Published July 19th 2016 by Del Rey

I surprised by the slew of one star reviews on this book. I have read plenty of bad Star Wars novels, and frankly I am surprised to see how poorly this book was received. I admit when i first heard that Disney and LucasFilm were ejecting the EU I was disappointed as someone who spent many hours of my life reading books in the EU. Creatively I understand why they are doing it. I enjoyed the first book of the aftermath Trilogy and was blown away by the Claudia Grey novel Bloodline.

As for Life Debt, I enjoyed the ride and more than anything this felt like a trip in the Star Wars universe. Wendig has done a cool thing with the structure of these books. Telling the story of of a Galaxy spanning collapse of empire is hard thing to do. He has effectively captured this by spreading out around the galaxy in interlude that become like unconnected short stories. It a neat bit of foreshadowing the plot of the second book was hinted at in a interlude in the first book.

It was clear to me that Wendig would focus the second book the liberation of the Wookie homeworld Kashyyyk. I admit I was a little worried with Han and the Falcon which graces the cover had not appeared by the page 100 mark. That not totally bad to me since I really like the characters Wendig has created. Norra Wexley is an excellent character, I enjoyed both her and her son. The idea of her team which includes ex-imperial loyalty officer, a bounty hunter and battle droid hunting escaped Imperials was cool enough to me to carry novels on their own.

the story centers around this team who Leia hires to find a lost Han Solo who left to find a captured Chewbacca. The treachery inside the empire, the fumbles of the new republic help to make sense of the events we saw in episode 7. Those events drives the plot which I feel was well organized with perfect three tiered Star Wars action at the end.

If there was a weakness to the novel for me were several of it's elements deserved to be expanded into their own books. Like the team hunting War criminals the resistance on the Wookie homeworld could easily have carried a whole novel. It felt like those cool elements were brushed over.

I have seen a few reviewes that complained about Wendig's writing. Yes he has a few moments that took me out of the story when a character would fall to the "Earth," or non-Star wars elements. Those are nitpicks I care far more that the story felt grounded in the universe by way of character. I am excited for the third book.

Book Review: Panacea by F.Paul Wilson

Panacea by F.Paul Wilson

Hardcover, 383 pages

Published July 5th 2016 by Tor Books

In the Thrash Metal world there is a phrase the Big Four, that describes the biggest most popular bands. F.Paul Wilson is one of my personal big three when it comes to favorite living authors. I have a huge collection of his books. I flew across the country to the Borderlands writers bootcamp - mostly because I heard he was teaching plotting. The man is a plotting and structure Yoda in my opinion. No one writes thrillers with better pacing. He has written many types of novels but he is most known for his genre hopping Repairman Jack series with ties to his Adversary Cycle horror novel series. I would read the phone book if F.Paul Wilson did a draft.

So when it was announced that F.Paul Wilson was putting out his first non-Repairman Jack novel in years I marked the calendar and counted down the days. It took me a few weeks to get to it but I have read Wilson's latest novel Panacea and yes it is great.

Panacea shifts Points of View but our main character is medical examiner Laura Hanning who is called to the scene of a John Doe burned to a crisp. It seems like just another body at first but Laura discovers a web of conspiracy connected to a liquid - the mythical cure-all Panacea. Laura has a sick child herself, but she doesn't believe in the Panacea. After a string of miracle cures at a local hospital she is hired by a dying billionaire. She still doesn't believe but the money is too great. Follow the cures, the money the clues. With a Ex-navy SEAL (maybe?) named Rick Hayden as her bodyguard they set out across the globe to discover the origin of the Panacea.

This is a great global trek thriller that follows Rick and Laura across the global as the CIA, ancient cults and more try to beat or stop them. This is a fun tale! Trade mark Wilson plotting and reversals are on display, and yes it connects with several easter eggs to the Secret History that expands through his whole universe. Rick and Laura are great characters and they make the book for me. You can certainly see how Wilson will expand into another book, and he is working on one now.

The very coolest aspect of the plot of this novel is the ticking time bomb. Wilson toys with this well known trope but creating a situation where we the reader are watching the ticking clock storyline but our hero is totally clueless that the clock is ticking. Wilson does it again!

It is not a repairman Jack novel at all, but I think Jack fans will find this novel like putting on a comfy sweatshirt. It has all the feel of and consistency we enjoyed. If there is a weakness it is that so much of how the plot comes together SEEMS convenient. This might throw off new readers, but long time fans of Wilson's Secret history knows that there are forces at work directing EVERYTHING.

Wilson's medical background adds small but important moments of Clarity, but they never slow down the story. Globe trotting thrillers need a frantic pace and Wilson swift and no nonsense prose moves the story quick. Very pleased and ready for book two!

Book Review: God's War by Kameron Hurley

God's War by Kameron Hurley

Paperback, 288 pages Published January 2011 by Night Shade Books

Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novel (2011)

Arthur C. Clarke Award Nominee (2014)

British Science Fiction Association Award Nominee for Best Novel (2013)

Gaylactic Spectrum Award Nominee for Best Novel (2012)

The Kitschies for Golden Tentacle (Debut) (2011)

James Tiptree Jr. Award Honor List (2011)

It was really hard for me to give this novel a completely fair review. I first learned of Hurley from a interview she did on Geek's Guide to the Galaxy. The interview was focused on her recent book of essays on the important topic of Feminism in Science Fiction. I really enjoyed the interview and really was sold on Hurley as a important I NEEDED to check out. However she did make one statement I couldn't shake. It is not right but I couldn't shake it the whole time I read this novel.

She said that Ursula K. Leguin's writing was not radical enough. Wow, really the 80 something anarchist author who wrote Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and Always Coming Home is not radical enough? Alright I had to read one of her books. I started with God's War. I am sure Hurley didn't sit down to outdo Leguin when she wrote this novel and as much as I know it ain't right that was the prism I was reading this novel through. OK first off I love the setting, which the lazy reader would look at as a sci-fi re-telling of the middle east. We have a far future human colony that is wrecked by the ravages of the wars that took place long ago. This world clearly colonized by Muslims follows a strange mix Matriarchy (as most men left to fight a war) and the Koran. The main character Nyx is a bounty hunter who claims heads across the wasteland. I had this image that reminded me of the old Shaw Brothers movie Heads for Sale.

The novel starts with a excellent opening line. "Nyx sold her womb somewhere between Punjai and Faleen, on the edge of the desert." The body and organ sale aspects of the story were very compelling. the main character Nyx didn't look like the lady on the cover of the book in my mind. A survivor. She is a part of a society of assassins called Bel Dames.

There is a interesting balance going on between the setting of the novel and the marketing of the book. I know don't Judge a book by it's cover. To look at the book cover and skim the novel God's war sets up for standard male fantasy sci-fi. The "hottie" buff action star that kicks ass and excites the boys in a tank top and fresh lipstick. However a deeper look and understanding Hurley paints a world where woman dominate, not in a sitting on a throne type of way. The women in the novel do not have typical roles. This not a Matriarchy in the sense of power structure, just in the way society exists. In my mind Nyx was not a video game lady with fresh lipstick, she was a burly, dirty, hair legged woman who kicked serious ass. I liked her and believed her that way.

There was curious mix of excellent subtle world building, but other times where the writing got dense and lost me. I was kinda in the mood for a a light read so some of that is on me. Sometimes the author expected us to pick up on parts of the world I just didn't understand. Overall I enjoyed the novel, I probably will finish the trilogy at some point and I excited to read her other works. Maybe then I will find this stuff she thinks is more radical than Leguin. ha-ha.

Book Review: The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill

The House of Small Shadows by Adam Nevill

Hardcover, 320 pages

Published October 2013 by Tor

Winner of the British Fantasy Award for best Horror novel

I read this book based on the recommendation from Rob who slings books at San Diego's best book store Mysterious Galaxy. He really loved this novel and that was enough for me to check it out. Consider also that it was nominated for a British fantasy award for best horror novel. so take everything I have to say with a understanding this novel may just not have been for me. There is quality here, but...

This novel is the story of a woman named Catherine who is hired to to assess the value of the many dolls, puppets and battles scenes made out of animals stuffed by an artist taxidermist that makes up the creepy setting of the Red House. Catherine has a job to to do thus giving her the important haunted house trope of "why the hell do they stay."

If dolls and puppets creep you out then the red house in this novel is your absolute nightmare. Me personally I didn't find that creepy. I respect Nevill, he is clearly a talented writer and there were lots of elements that really worked there were just two elements that didn't work for me.

Catherine was not really a sympathetic character and in this case the suspense kinda depends on but worst of I don't find her believable. She was whinny and devoid of any back bone. Just didn't dig her at all. The second element I could not jive with was that the the book started strong but got weaker as the pages went along. I got bored in the second half, was starting to lose track of the story and felt there was no satisfaction the pay-off that was so well set up.

The author is talented and there was plenty of strong moments. I was unhappy with the ending but there are plenty of elements enough to get me back to check more of his work. I know this is a short review, I wish I connected to this book more.