The Ocean at the End of the Lane

Gaiman has become a highly visible writer in the science fiction/fantasy field with pretty impeccable taste, an accessible prose style, a good sense of humor and sense of wonder. This has deservedly gained him vast popularity outside of the genre. I once saw hints once of an ambitious writer. His first two books Neverwhere and Stardust were a little clunky at time showing that they had been pulled together from other mediums, and his comic book work had some amazing stuff in it even though I never fully fell for Sandman (never fully worked for me but certain storylines where remarkable). Then American Gods which was a very ambitious epic possibly a bit derivative of Tim Powers but savage and wonderful as Power’s work, and up there with his peers and friends Kathy Acker and Alan Moore. It was a thoroughly ambitious but accessible novel that rightly placed him in the literary firmament. . Since then it has been comic novels, books for children, movie scripts, and unsuccessful returns to comics, and plenty of blogging and twittering. Now we this charming little book, one that started as a short story and probably could have stayed that way. It has great ideas and characters and was a thoroughly engrossing read but could have been an equally great short story, doesn’t quite justify being a novel. I still have this concern looking over his recent career that we are witnessing a talent in full coasting mode.

Tenth of December: Stories

Saunders was a remarkable fresh voice when I first encountered him. His combination of surreal settings and technology mixed with the dirt and grit of human experience and an absurdist vision of American life and workplace mores placed him in the pantheon of American satire alongside Matt Groening, Nathaniel West, Twain, and Vonnegut. His double punch of Civilwarland in Bad Decline and Pastoralia signaled an impressive career. He has never made the move into novels and has concentrated on his short pieces and essays. His stories have occasionally moved towards realism which may be necessary but could render him indistinguishable from many other contemporaries. I would like to see him stretch his core vision into a novel; I know we should treasure the rare writer that concentrates on the neglected form of the short story but the results are getting increasingly spare. “Home” is the best story here where his dialogue resembles the zing of such masters as Charles Portis and Joy Williams. The story itself a despairing state of the union, could be criticized for hitting so many obvious points of contemporary American life (war, home foreclosures, health problems, domestic violence), but the story itself doesn’t feel like a polemic and is fresh, lively, comic, and humane. I will probably keep enjoying these occasional short story collections from Saunders but will keep hoping for more from him.

Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt

Second nonfiction I have read recently that has evoked Dante’s inferno for me. Sacco and Hedges takes the reader on a tour of our sacrifice zones. Areas that capitalism and other forces (racism and classism mainly) have made into third world failed states that exist in the borders of the world’s number one economy. Pine Ridge reservation, Camden, New Jersey, West Virginia Coal country, the produce fields of Florida, and finally the Occupy protests. These pieces are intended as both prophesy of unfettered capitalism and a shaming for our collective turning of the back. In other words this is muckraking piece in the classic style. There is a tension between Hedge’s manic street preacher of doom delivering an erudite and passionate sermon that critiques history and safely held preconceptions with Sacco’s more humane and thoughtful portrayals. This tension gives way in the last and weakest section on the Occupy movement as Hedges turns most of the piece into a plea for revolution (without any real answers though many of his critiques seem trenchant) which makes it the weakest section, as good reportage on the Occupy movement is needed more than his rant.

Red country has been labeled as Abercrombie’s take on the western. This partially true, as Abercrombie has managed to squeeze as much of the tropes and furniture of said genre into this book. Showdowns in bars, scouts, wagon trains, native attacks, cattle stampedes, frontier towns, a stagecoach chase, ravaged homesteads, kidnappings, last stands, and others are all gloriously skewered and given homage. There are references to many of the classics, The Unforgiven, Outlaw Josey Wales, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The Searchers, Blood Meridian, but the atmosphere most resembles Leone or Kurosawa’s similar grafting of westerns tropes onto a Samurai milieu.  I say only partially true as this essentially at its core nothing but yet another prime piece of Abercrombie fiction, a writer so thoroughly on the top of his game that it is kind of disappointing to read anyone else. This book is another rollicking black comedy with existential dread and skewered moralism and terrifically drawn characters. He has always skewered genres. His original trilogy was just his take on the classic fantasy trilogy, followed by a revenge/thriller, and then war fiction. These paint by numbers genre frameworks are just place for him to splatter paint all over. He is getting better and better and this is my favorite by him yet. He brings back many of his characters from his previous books. I will not give any spoilers by revealing which ones (one is barely disguised, one receives an ending I felt a little anti-climactic, and another is well disguised but I think I guessed who.), but while this will bring smiles to long time readers I believe you can read this book without any introduction. Waiting for his next book is going to be tough, but unlike Martin I know I won’t have to wait that long.

Dennis Lehane Live by Night

Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lehane has always had one foot in the gutter as he gazed towards Hollywood. Maybe he that gaze has grown increasingly longing over the years. This book features lots of crowd pleasing action pieces, stylized and over the top dialogue, some glossed over historical bits, and a super rushed and arguably botched ending. I was thoroughly entertained on each page though. Is that enough to recommend? I'll mull it over for awhile.

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The Curfew by Jesse Ball
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Curfew by Jess Ball is a fable somewhere near the intersection of a fairy tale, European political allegory, and hipster cuteness. Not entirely successful but the most effective I’ve encountered by the author and possibly an indication of future successes. He has mixed cuteness and the ominous before but the usual result has been dreamy, poetic dribbles. The narrative in this one derails in its last third and doesn’t quite pull itself together for an effective end. This author could produce something if got his tone, narrative, and language working as one. A frustrating but readable novella.

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Zoo City

The pop energy of vintage cyberpunk brought to the tropes of Urban Fantasy. Urban fiction is my preferred choice, but urban fantasy with its use of mythic themes and gritty modern life rarely works for me (too wish fulfillment or something), but author’s pop sense, bloody South African noir, third world angst, and wit, redeems this tired form.

The Last Page

An inventive modern fantasy from a promising first time author. Nerdisms like invented languages…especially the invented slang (I tell you authors be wary of its use…hard to ever take seriously). Beautiful elevated language which occasionally clunks but usually is a thick stew that pulls back for intimate characters moments. Intimacy and excess, too much and not enough of something and it stumbled in the initial school sequences. Like the high language as it provides a beautiful feeling of otherness that fantasy requires. Frustrating and uneven with some segments unsettlingly beautiful then crude character dialogue which works maybe better than trying to elevate the dialogue but is tonal shift nonetheless, I guess if it was more artfully handled and the character less distant to me it would work better. Also for an author who creates such superb terms for things why call airships zeppelins? Is there a Count Zeppelin living in this alternate world? These flaws are present but this a work of full-bore imagination and I can’t wait for the next segment (it’s a duology). A mix of new weird, high fantasy, steampunk that is full of wonder and has me impatient for what is next.

This Wicked World

Richard Lange’s debut novel is character driven literary crime novel influenced by Elmore Leonard and George Pelecanos. Like those two masters’ originality and complexity of plot isn’t the name of the game, its characters. Stretching out to handle a novel Lange looses some of the focus of his short stories but retains his grasp on L.A. and its surreal surroundings and his subtle sense of humor. Some descriptions and in some character’s background his imagination really unfurls. The pit bull breeder’s war story, Mando’s ghost story, Robo’s camping preparations, and apocalyptic finale are especially memorable. So if you want a beautifully written novel go for this, which it’s true doesn’t bring anything new to the game but will still burn into your imagination. Plus it starts with Minuteman quote (the awesome San Pedro punk band not those desert patrolling losers) which is a cheap way to my heart.

Cherie Priest Clockwork Century

Boneshaker


Trafficking in two tired zeitgeists (zombies and steampunk) Ms. Priest is not adding much to those two genres. But, to be fare she that really isn’t her intent. She seems to want to craft an adventure, and she crafts a fun one. Dragging some unlikely protagonists ( a social pariah single mother and her teenage delinquent son) and some lovable rogues and some fiendish villains into a series of close calls and last minute rescues. She has written a world to have these adventures in that reminds me of Escape From New York, Dr. Who, Mike Mignola, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, George Romero, and The Wild, Wild West. Lots of action, pulp clichés, and a couple of surprising plot twists happen along the way. It moves and is easy to read. She seems to be writing a series and I think I’ll probably read those as they come out.

Clementine



A fun adventure in Priest’s Clockwork Century a steam punk alternative history of the American Civil War (an underused idea since a war fought with gatling guns, ironclads, primitive submarines, and balloons should fire more steam punk imaginations).Pirates, Pinkertons, A woman confederate spy, escaped slaves, airship battles, and a doomsday weapon and the barest sketching of the historical background are along for entertaining a pulpy ride. I feel like I’m just getting tastes of this series so hurry with more Ms. Priest! For fans of Howard Waldrop, Mike Mignola, and Joe Lansdale’s weird west




Dreadnought


I was about to dismiss Cherie Priest and her Clockwork Century series as over hyped, finding them pleasant enough while being slightly confused by enthusiastic praise being heaped on them. But, this final scheduled volume (hopefully there will be more) changes most of my concerns. This is a great adventure with lots action and terrific pacing. There are too many characters with too little differentiating a lot of them and the ending is a bit of a fizzle. The extended Civil War has always been in the background in the first two books and here we finally get to see some of it. So this is an adventure with war, steam punk gadgets(never overbearing), zombies, intrigue, bandits, and some terrific set pieces. I could definitely read more of these.

Ganymede
Coming soon!

Dark Property (02 Edition)

Evenson’s Dark Property is described as post-apocalyptic but it is one of the most abstract and bizarre examples of said genre pushes into a new category. A linguistic journey like Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian (its been wondered if this was an influence on The Road, which if it wasn’t a trunk novel is possible) and Gene Wolfe’s New Sun books, but its descriptions odd rituals, strange behaviors, and odd dialogues brings it closer to Beckett, with some twitching monstrosities worthy of Brothers Quay or Guy Maddin film. Mad and beautiful in equal measures.

Ends of the Earth by Lucius Shepard

Shepard brings to mind Conrad’s dark adventures, The Twilight Zone, James Triptree jr., films of John Carpenter, debauched yanqui in peril existentialism of Greene, X-files, Robert Stone of Dog Soldiers and Flag for Sunrise, and the crumbling fantasy worlds of Swanwick and Gene Wolfe. This collection is even better than Jaguar Hunter without a clunker in the batch. Gnostic visions, other dimensions, time travel, train rides through hell, ghost patrols, and other pulpy concepts are either thrown on their heads or revitalized with dense prose, great dialogue, setting, and characters. These stories are pretty relentlessly dark but so convincingly pulled off that exhilaration rather than misery is the end result. Highlights are the Mad Max meets Carlos Castanada in the “Heart of Darkness” dystopia of the U.S./Mexican border “On the Border(more of dystopia than it already is), Gnostic vision of “Noman’s Land”(we are all dreams of white spiders...ugh), the brutal Nepalese spy thriller “Wooden Tiger”, surreal western of “Bound for Glory”, the various war stories(Vietnam and future Guatemala), the Triptree evoking time travel fable “Aymara”, the vivid and grotesque fantasy epic of the “Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter”, and the pulpy allegory for the real world nightmare history of Guatemala in “Surrender”. This book seems to be out of print so look for it at the library, used shelves, and friend's collections.

Aurorarama by Jean-Christophe Valtat

Valtat’s Aurorarama is a sui generic creation filled with bizarre and loopy humor, dreamlike images, and a playful skewering of literature and history. A combination of its dreamy style, Valtat’s use of English (he is French writing in English for the first time), complex plot and a large cast renders much of this hard to follow and to be honest a little incomprehensible, but push through and it will be mostly worth it. Lots of stuff gets pulled together here, Pynchon( Against the Day seems a spiritual reference and there is an underground mail service in the style of Crying of Lot 49), steampunk, late 19th and early 20th century pulp(especially dealing with anarchists), the tales of Wells and Verne, Guy Maddin weirdness(check out the trailer), and tales of polar explorers, is thrown together into a nutty whole.
P.S. This book is absolutely beautiful as an art object.