It's not Occam's Razor

Started: February 22
Finished: March 4
Title: Lucy's Blade
Author: John Lambshead
ISBN: 9781416555773
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

Yet another bad cover! The woman depicted is supposed to be a sixteen year old girl in Elizabethan England. Granted, she's sharing her body with a being of pure energy from the far future (or perhaps a parallel dimension), but that still doesn't explain the ridiculous rack. Must be an example of "most common superpower". It's become egregious enough with most books published by Baen that I've begun thinking of the publishers name as being an acronym for Boobs Adorn Each Novel.

This book mostly takes place in the Elizabethan era, but also features both a few modern-day or near future scenes and one bit set in the unimaginably far future. In the more or less now, a woman working (or compelled to work for) a shadowy organization steals a chest from an archeological dig and then, against orders, opens the chest and is hypnotized by the enormous diamond inside. We'll call this the wrapper story, as the book is written somewhat as though the tale is being told to her.

In the short bit set in the distant future, an intelligence is created for the sole purpose of being flung into the past (or across the dimensions) to search for the genesis of her people. It appears that there's a religious schism in the works between those that believe the energy beings descended from or were created by organic life and those that believe they arose naturally or in some way unrelated to the organics. The young intelligence successfully lands in the more or less modern day, colonizes the internet, and sucks up all the information she can lay her mind on. Just as she's getting ready to jump back home (likely causing every computer on the planet to crash in the process), she's grabbed by an unknown force and dragged further into the past, where she is caught first by one demon summoner and then by another. The latter summoner is working for Queen Elizabeth's head spy, Sir Francis Walsingham. Unfortunately, Walsingham's niece breaks the summoning circle and the energy being enters her. This has the beneficial effect of basically turning Lucy into something very like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but means that Lilith (a name the energy being picked up from the first summoner) can't leave without killing her.

Of course, it turns out that the first summoner is working with people trying to assassinate the queen. Lucy, with her new powers and the help of Lilith's vast intellect, jumps into the fray to help foil the plot. A series of adventures occur. At the end of the book, the current-day lady awakes from her diamond-bedazzled daze in possession of immensely important knowledge and also in great danger. A sequel appears assured, probably focused on sleepy-gal.

This appears to be a first novel (the only other things I can find under the author's name are a few Warhammer game supplements), but it reads well. My only real quibble is that the book sometimes feels like a collection of short stories stitched together with bridging text. I'm not going to force this one on all my friends and family, but I do plan on reading any other books Lambshead comes out with (as long as they aren't more sourcebooks for a game I don't play).

A Harry situation

It's been somewhere between two and three months since I read these. Let's hope I haven't forgotten too many details (or moved any bits of plot between volumes).

Read: February 2009
Title: Fool Moon (Book 2 of the Dresden Files)
Author: Jim Butcher
ISBN: 0451458125
Binding: Paperback

At the start of the second book, Harry has been called to a building under construction just outside of town to view a body apparently savaged by a large animal. He just has time to determine that the attacking animal appears to be somewhat but not exactly like a wolf when a group of FBI agents show up to take over the case and somewhat forcefully remind Murphy that she's a little out of her jurisdiction.

Of course, based on the title and the opening scene, I'm sure you've guessed that this book is all about werewolves. What you might not have guessed is just how many different types of were Butcher manages to cram in. As an incomplete list, he's got a pack of college kids who change back and forth with a magic spell, Hexenwolves who transform via magical artifacts given to them by some unnamed other, a Loup Garou cursed to turn into a ravening beast at the full moon, and Lycanthropes who retain their human shape but have souls filled with pure rage (as well as enhanced strength and healing and quite an appetite for blood - think viking berserker). Of course, Harry must bounce from one suspect to another - sometimes literally - as he tries to unravel the mystery of who or what is committing the murders and who or what stands to gain from the results. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention that Marcone, the big Mob boss who played a tangential role in the first book, gets much more time in the spotlight this time around.

There's still a good dose of the screaming stupids in this book. Not surprising, since it was published less than a year after the first one hit the bookstores (though it did take a few years for the first one to find a publisher, so the time spent writing the second couldn't have been all that compressed). My biggest pet peeves with this one are that Harry continues to knowingly do dumb and risky things and also continues to withhold crucial information from Murphy in order to "protect" her. Not surprisingly, this leads to a somewhat extreme lack of trust on Murphy's part which results in some of the bruises Harry picks up coming at her hands.

Overall, I rate this book on par or very slightly above the first book. Well-written fight scenes, but they fail to completely overcome the annoying characterizations.

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Read: February 2009
Title: Grave Peril (Book 3 of the Dresden Files)
Author: Jim Butcher
ISBN: 0451458443
Binding: Paperback

This one opens with Harry and his long-time friend Added Character, er, Michael Carpenter racing to get to Cook County Hospital in time to stop a ghost from snuffing out the lives of every baby in the maternity ward. It seems that something has been stirring up Chicago's ectoplasmic population and Harry and Michael have had a rough week of ghostbusting.

Let's back up for a second and introduce this Michael guy properly. He's a holy Knight, carrying one of only three Swords containing a nail from the true Cross, and sent by the Creator to wherever he's most needed. He's also a contractor (making his last name all the more appropriate) and a family man with several children and a wife who really dislikes Harry. To be fair, she probably has a point, since Michael apparently winds up injured every time he and Harry work together.

Ok, back to the plot. During the battle with the supernatural suffocatrix, Harry figures out that she's probably going completely off the rails because someone has wrapped her in something like spiritual barbed-wire. Soon after, it's proven that the torture spell isn't just for the dearly departed when it hits some of Harry's acquaintances. This includes Murphy, taking her out of action for most of the rest of the book. Harry has to figure out who or what the Nightmare (as he calls the thing causing all the spectral distress) is, whether it's working for itself or for somebody else, and how to take it down before it achieves whatever it is it's working toward. This is further complicated when he's picked to be the representative of the White Council (think of it as the wizards' guild) to a kind of vampire* summit, being held at the home of a vampire he didn't really endear himself to back in the first book.

Of course, just about everything is interconnected somehow. Lots of screaming and large explosions ensue. As has become the norm, Harry gets the everliving shit kicked out of him more than once. And something very very bad happens to someone Harry cares about (in addition to the something merely very bad that happens to someone else). In the end, of course, Harry survives (as you might guess by the fourth book being reviewed below) - but things have gotten quite a bit more complicated and the scars he bears aren't just on his body.

The writing started to come together for me with this one. Apparently, it (in addition to Fool Moon and perhaps the fourth one as well) was already completed before the first one actually got published, but, in the words of Jim Butcher himself, "I had started putting together enough craft skills to overcome the lack of inborn talent." I admit I was thrown a bit by the way Michael was suddenly introduced in such a "I haven't mentioned him yet? But he's always been here!" kind of way. Butcher's explanation for this is that each book only really covers the absolute worst week of Harry's entire year because it's not really worth writing about the other eleven point something months when he's paying his bills by finding lost pets and spending his off hours at the drive-in movie. I guess I can accept that.

*Much like the weres in the second book, Butcher can't stop at just one type of vampire. He's got at least three, with hints of more. There's the Red Court, mentioned in the first book, that look like humans until they rip off their skins to reveal the slimy black batlike monstrosity beneath. Oh, and their spit is a powerfully addictive narcotic. Then there's the Black Court. Dracula was one of these. They're the undead ones with the power to turn into mist and a bad allergy to garlic. Apparently, Stoker wrote his book at the behest of the White Council as a kind of "how-to" guide on destroying the things. And then there's the White Court. They don't feed on blood. Instead, they subsist on emotions and life energy. Think "Sex Vampire."

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Read: February 2009
Title: Summer Knight (Book 4 of the Dresden Files)
Author: Jim Butcher
ISBN: 0451458923
Binding: Paperback

Harry's chilling at his office when a femme fatale straight out of a noir novel saunters in and promptly causes his blood to freeze. Not literally. Though she could. It's Queen Mab, the faerie queen of Winter, and she wants to hire him to clear her name. Someone has killed the Summer Knight, the mortal champion of the Summer Sidhe, and suspicion is falling on her. Even though Harry would love to tell her no, he takes the job because Mab has bought out his debt with his faerie godmother (don't think Cinderella, think more of the one that curses Sleeping Beauty). He has to either find or create proof of Mab's innocence before the Autumn Equinox, when power passes from the Summer Court to the Winter Court, or there will be a war that will likely send the Earth into another ice age.

As you might expect, someone doesn't want him digging into their business. In addition, the war between wizards and Red Court that Harry started in the last book continues to rage on and senior members of the White Council are seriously considering feeding his ass (perhaps literally) to the vampires as a peace gesture. This all leads to him having to dodge (or, at least, survive) attacks of all kinds as he travels through, above, and below Chicago in hopes of interviewing the various principals and suspects, including the three aspects of each of the courts - Lady, Queen, and Mother. My favorite bit is the attack in the garden section of WalMart by a plant monster. This is mainly because Harry insists on calling it a "chlorofiend" because, let's face it, you can't pick up chicks with daring tales of battling azaleas. I also greatly appreciated the reappearance of Toot-toot the pizza-loving fairy.

Harry does succeed in restoring the balance of power between the Seelie and Unseelie barely in time to avert the apocalypse. Just don't expect it to be a happily ever after sort of ending.

Of the first four, this one has faded most in my mind. Some of the sharpest memories of specific scenes stick with me, but the rest of the book has faded into the background a bit. Perhaps ironically, I consider this to be a good thing. It means the writing has improved to the point where it's getting out of my way. I remember so much of the first books because of the ways in which they annoyed me. The parts of the fourth book that are clearest to me are the parts that most delighted me (as those who witnessed my guffaws as I read it over several lunches in the breakroom at work could probably attest). This is the first one I actually feel like recommending.

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head...

Read: January 2009 (and review mostly written then, too)
Title: Storm Front (Book 1 of the Dresden Files)
Author: Jim Butcher
ISBN: 0451457811
Binding: Paperback

For years, several of my friends have exhorted me to read the Dresden Files novels. I finally gave in and I'm not sure if I'm sorry or not. Before I get into that, let me give you the background and plot summary.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden is a wizard in modern Chicago and, unlike virtually all of his brethren, he's not trying to hide it. In fact, he's gone so far as to open a business and advertise in the yellow pages. It's not a gig that pays well, since most people don't believe in magic and he refuses to make love potions or perform at kids' parties. Pretty much the only thing keeping him in beer and nachos is the occasional consultation job for the Special Investigations (ie, weird shit) unit of the Chicago PD. And this time, they have a doozy. A mob guy and a high-class escort have been found dead in a nearby hotel, their coitus interruptused when their hearts literally exploded out of their chests. He loses his lunch, but takes the job of figuring out what happened and who did it. Almost immediately after, he gets another job from a woman who wants him to find her missing husband (he doesn't figure it'll take long). Of course, both jobs are interconnected - as is the new drug that's hitting the streets, giving people second sight and consequently driving them completely insane.

Storm Front is Butcher's first published novel and I've been told it was created as an exercise in use of cliches for a writing class he was taking. Unfortunately, it shows. There's something you run into from time to time in books and movies (usually horror or thrillers) when the characters do something extremely dumb for the sole purpose of advancing the plot. They split up "to cover more ground" or go alone into the unlit basement or leave their weapons in another room, and what they're doing is so manifestly moronic that the reader or audience shouts imprecations at the book or screen. I call this "The Screaming Stupids", and Butcher's characters repeatedly suffer from 'em throughout the whole book. It doesn't really help a lot that the characters realize that they're about to do something dumb and then still go ahead and do it. If you're aware enough to have your main character think something like "this will probably kill me for no good reason", then you're aware enough to maybe come up with something that isn't the spiritual equivalent of having your character shave with a chainsaw because he doesn't want to admit he's run out of razor blades. Just for emphasis, AAAArrgh!

Regardless, the idea is interesting enough that I'll stick with it for at least a few more books. Hell, I kept reading Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake books (pre sexy covers) up through Obsidian Butterfly before giving up. Also, I love Butcher's Codex Alera stuff, so I know his writing gets better with time. I just hope it happens soon.

Gated community

Read: January 2009
Title: Ptolemy's Gate
Author: Jonathan Stroud
ISBN: 0786818611
Binding: Hardcover

Another three years have passed and Mandrake, now seventeen, is in charge of the Information Ministry. This means he's responsible for, amongst other things, coming up with the propaganda leaflets used to tempt commoners into joining up to fight in the war against the rebel colonies in America. He has also kept Bartimaeus constantly summoned for nearly the entire time, partly to keep another magician from summoning the djinn and finding out Mandrake's true name and partly as a reminder of simpler times when he was only under constant threat of immediate horrible death. Unfortunately for Bartimaeus, extended presence in the material world is inimical to a demon's very essence and the poor fellow has been worn down to a nubbin and is barely able to maintain his shape, much less fight or do anything more energetic.

Our third major character, Kitty, has gone underground after the events of the second book and is living under a couple of assumed names. Under one of those names, she's become the commoner assistant to an old and eccentric magician who has undertaken to show her the rudiments of magic - in much the same way that one might decide to teach a pig to sing (ie, she's not really human and the attempt is likely doomed to failure, but it passes the time and the results might be amusing).

Not much can be said without giving away large plot points, but this is the book in which Mandrake/Nathaniel completes his hero's journey, catalyzed by meetings (chance and otherwise) with those he has admired or detested in previous books. We also get even more of Bartimaeus' personal history, Kitty makes a huge choice, and the diabolical mastermind who has stayed in the shadows throughout the trilogy unmasks just before all hell (or, at least, the demon world) breaks loose.

Highly inventive, very bittersweet, and lusciously detailed. I was sorry it had to end and I'd love to someday see a collection of short stories set throughout Bartimaeus' long long life. Recommended.

Oh! What big eyes you have!

Read: January 2009 (again)
Title: The Golem's Eye
Author: Jonathan Stroud
ISBN: 0786818603
Binding: Hardcover

It's been about two years since the end of the first book and Nathaniel, now operating under the use-name "John Mandrake", has secured both a new master and a high position in the security apparatus of the government. His job is to break the growing resistance movement, which appears to consist almost entirely of young commoners who've begun to develop the ability to resist or detect magic. Unfortunately, he's not making much progress and his superiors are beginning to eye him as a convenient scapegoat for their own lack of success. When something huge, dangerous, and apparently invisible and impervious to magic appears and begins to wreak havoc, Mandrake breaks a previous agreement and summons Bartimaeus again. Of course, all sorts of chaos ensues as Bartimaeus repeatedly just scrapes by the Golem (it's not a spoiler if it's in the title, is it?) and Mandrake bounces back and forth between London and Prague trying to gather enough evidence to prove the thing isn't just a figment of his imagination (and save his own skin in the process).

In this novel, in addition to the Mandrake and Bartimaeus story lines, much attention is paid to Kitty (briefly introduced in the first book) and her group of resistance fighters. For the most part the resistance doesn't really amount to much, mainly pilfering magic trinkets here and there in hopes of finding something they can use against the magicians.

The climax comes when the resistance group is hired by a mysterious stranger to steal some very powerful items from an extremely important magician's grave. Mandrake, Bartimaeus, and the Golem converge on the tomb at the same time, much to the detriment of virtually all involved.

Things I have not mentioned yet: Werewolves, ambulant skeletons, much more Bartimaeus backstory, skinny pants and trenchcoats, The Black Tumbler, and the dangers of angering your local print shop.

This is a great middle novel. It continues to flesh out the world, with more insights into the politics and history and the little touches that make a place feel lived-in. It advances the plot. It ends in a moderate cliffhanger to make you read the third book. Recommended.

Djinni & Ifrits & Imps, Oh My!

Read: January 2009 (again)
Title: The Amulet of Samarkand
Author: Jonathan Stroud
ISBN: 0786852550
Binding: Hardcover

When first we meet the main human character, it is through the eyes of Bartimaeus, a demon (of the djinn variety, more powerful than imps and foliots but less so than ifrits and marids) summoned for the express purpose of stealing the title object from a renowned magician in vengeance for a humiliation recently suffered at the hands (at least, by proxy) of that magician. The impression is not a positive one. The summoner is a mere boy of no more than 12 years of age, gangly and greasy and puffed up with pride and ambition. Bartimaeus unwillingly (since most anything a demon does for its master is not done willingly) does as he is told, with unintended and somewhat disastrous consequences, and the plot rolls quite robustly along.

The story alternates chapters between Bartimaeus' first person POV and third person narration about Nathaniel (for that is the boy's name). We learn that Bartimaeus has been around for a couple of thousand years, has been summoned by the likes of Ptolemy and Solomon (though honestly, what demon didn't meet Solomon at least once), and is still around mainly due to his wit (which he's quite proud of) and a certain tendency to slope off rather quickly when the going gets rough. We learn that Nathaniel has been apprenticed to his master since around the age of six, knows quite a bit more about magic than his rather mediocre mentor might suspect (due to a voracious appetite for the books in his master's study), and really should not have gotten into the habit of letting his master's wife call him by his given name. True names have a power, you see, and as soon as Bartimaeus stumbles upon Nathaniel's, the shoe is on the other foot... or cloven hoof... or whatever.

The true joy in this book for me was the marvelous world-building. It's set more or less in modern-day England, mostly in and around London, but the level of technology hovers around the early 1940s (don't need much science when you've got the occult) and there's a very 1984 vibe in the air. Magicians have controlled the entire apparatus of government since the great magician Gladstone became Prime Minister about 150 years ago and commoners (ie, nonmagicians) are very much second class citizens, existing at the whim of forces they can't control and don't understand. One particular detail I noted was the heavy use of search spheres, mystical orbs that roam about transmitting images and sound back to a central location, to literally keep an eye on the populace. The parallels between this and the real-life ubiquity of CCTV cameras in modern Great Britain are pretty striking.

This is the first book in a trilogy so you know the main characters survive, though others are not so lucky. This doesn't keep them from having a few close scrapes. Overall, the level of action in this book stays pretty high and you find yourself rooting for Bartimaeus and Nathaniel throughout (though Nathaniel could doubtless profit from a good bit of ego deflation - a task Bartimaeus undertakes with great gusto). I had first read this book five or more years ago and I enjoyed this second reading just as much if not more so.

Recommended.