SAPPHO SINGS by Peggy Ullman Bell Sunday, Jun 14 2009

SAPPHO SINGS
Peggy Ullman Bell
Publisher: CreateSpace
ISBN-10: 1438214316
ISBN-13: 978-1438214313

Sappho Sings. And so does Peggy Ullman Bell in her lyrical, painstakingly researched, emotionally involving novel about the Poetess of Lesbos.

Will Durant in his “Life of Greece” is quoted as saying that Sappho “called herself Psappha, in her soft Aeolian accent” and Psappha is the name by which she is known through this wondrous novel. Because the title uses the more familiar name “Sappho”, that is the name I shall use.

Many people have heard the name of Sappho but not many know who she was, what she did, or what she was famous for. There is, however, a sadly amusing idea in certain quarters that Sappho was “the founder of Lesbians,” to quote someone of my acquaintance. (I didn’t know Lesbians were “founded” but I guess that’s a different issue.) At any rate, she is associated in modern thought with Lesbians (in the sexual sense, that is, not as in “citizens of Lesbos”) and nothing else. Many people don’t even know that the Island of Lesbos, in the Aegean Sea, actually exists and is not some mythic legend like Atlantis. I did actually know it existed, but that’s the extent of what I knew until I read Sappho Sings.

Though Sappho was a prolific writer of poetry only a few original fragments of her work remain in existence, and it is with these fragments that Bell weaves the mesmerizing tale of an accomplished, passionate woman as real and flawed as any woman alive today.

Bell’s vision of Sappho begins with her as a fatherless, feisty teenage girl, small in stature but a lion in spirit, who defies a tyrant and pays for it by being banished from her beloved island home and the adored little brother whose birth took her mother’s life. On the miserable journey from Lesbos to Syracuse, Sappho loses her lifelong friend and betrothed, Alkaios, in a storm. She is rescued and “captured”—at least that’s her view of it—by Kerkolos, a sea-going, wealthy merchant, who takes her to his home in Syracuse.

He treats her with utmost respect that eventually calms her fears of becoming a slave or concubine, and his gentle ways, so at odds with his appearance, win her over to friendship. They wed, and Sappho gives birth to his daughter. She feels great fondness for him, if not passion, and is grief-stricken and frightened when she finds herself suddenly widowed and at the mercy of her truly horrible mother-in-law.

Eventually Sappho initiated in the rites of the Sisterhood of Iphis and discovers that, though she is capable of physical passion with men, her heart is taken by women. The cast is large; some of the names are vaguely familiar from Ancient History in High School many years ago. I didn’t find them very interesting back then. Now they certainly are!

The characters are unforgettable, especially Praxinoa, the nurse and lifelong friend; Lycos, the elegant and somewhat effeminate man whose loving friendship also lasts throughout the book, and the tall, Nubian queen, Gongyla, the love of Sappho’s life, a woman who sold herself into slavery to save her people from a similar fate. I will never forget these people who have been my companions for many days.

Bell’s knowledge of society and of place seems encyclopedic and yet not overwhelming. The language is just archaic enough in structure that it keeps you grounded in the ancient world but not enough so that it seems overdone. Names are pronounced in footnotes, which is very helpful. Sappho Sings is also the most sensuous book I have ever read: the lush descriptions of place, the elegantly expressed passion of depicted intimacy are poetic without crossing the line into the ludicrous, as sometimes happens when less gifted authors attempt it.

It is simply a wonderful book. It is not a quick and easy read, and it’s certainly not a genre romance although love of many kinds permeates the pages. Part of that is the author’s love of her subject.

This book should be winning awards. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

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THE SEA HAWK by Brenda Adcock Saturday, Jun 6 2009

THE SEA HAWK
Brenda Adcock
Published by Yellow Rose Books
ISBN-10: 1935053108
ISBN-13: 978-1935053101

The tall, lean captain of the privateer strides the bloody deck of Le Faucon de Mer – Falcon of the Sea, cutlass in hand, short black hair whipped by the breeze, a striking figure in white shirt, tight breeches and boots, a ruthless figure that brooks no disobedience. The captain’s cutlass is as quick to enforce discipline among the crew as it is to cut down a British officer.

But that’s not the beginning of the story. The beginning lies not in the past but 150 years in the future, and it does not begin with the ruthless captain of a privateer but with a marine archaeologist named Julia Blanchard. With her personal life in shambles, Dr. Blanchard has turned her every thought to the newly discovered sunken vessel off the Georgia coast, which she has lovingly named The Georgia Peach. While she is foolishly diving alone, with a storm threatening, her boat is stolen by 21st century pirates. She manages to get on board unseen to take an extra air tank but is discovered. She escapes the threat of a brutal rape by diving back into the sea. But in escaping one fate, she finds herself facing another. Barely clinging to life, buffeted by the sea and fried by the sun, she drifts on the uncaring sea until she loses consciousness.

And thereby hangs the tale.

Julia Blanchard, burned, dehydrated, unable to speak, wakes up in 1814, on board a British frigate, rescued from the sea and certain death. Not long after her rescue, as she recovers her health due to her youth and strength, the frigate is captured by Le Faucon de Mer. It is then that Julia sees the captain of the privateer—a woman, by name Simone Moreau, called “Faucon”. (I picture a young Sigourney Weaver starring in the film).

Yes, Gentle Reader, this is a time traveling, f/f romance, if one must label books with a genre. But even if you have never read a book of this kind, I hope that you’ll give this one a try. It is an accurately depicted, meticulously researched “age of sail” historical novels with strong female characters who take no guff from anyone of either gender. It’s a swashbuckling adventure complete with decks slippery with blood, the deafening boom of cannon fire; with old Andrew Jackson and elegant Jean Lafitte; with a love triangle, violent jealousy, and enough sexual tension to sink Le Faucon de Mer. It ends with a satisfactory twist that you know will become a happily-ever-after, as a good romance should.

If you think you would feel uneasy reading f/f sex scenes, you can skip them; there are not many and they are brief, nor are they overly graphic. Please don’t use them as a reason not to read The Sea Hawk. I really believe you’d enjoy it. I haven’t read very many f/f novels, but the few I have read have been very good. I enthusiastically add The Sea Hawk to that number and recommend it highly.

The author has a really great video trailer at her website www.brenda-adcock.com

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BLUE HEAVEN by Joe Keenan (old-but fun review) Saturday, Apr 25 2009

BLUE HEAVEN
By Joe Keenan
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ISBN-10: 0140107649
ISBN-13: 978-0140107647

I read this some years ago and recently re-read it while killing time in a hospital waiting room. It gave me some laughs at a time when I really needed them, and I just had to share it with you. It has no socially redeeming value, the characters have no depth and are stereotypes. But who cares? It’s hilarious.

Who knew scamming the Mafia could be this funny? OK, OK, it’s also dangerous. But funny! At least reading about it is hilarious when you’re reading Blue Heaven by Joe Keenan. Not a new book, it was copyrighted in 1988, but—dare I say it again? Funny.

The story is narrated by one of the principals, a struggling playwright named Philip Cavanaugh. Philip is gay, as are many of the people he knows, including his best (usually) friend and first-boyfriend-while-in-their-teens and occasional mattress buddy, Gilbert Selwyn. Gilbert is a pretty, scheming, self-centered, ambitious lover of luxury and lots and lots of money he doesn’t have to work for. Gilbert’s mother’s most recent husband is Tony Cellini, whose vast wealth, unbeknownst to the naïve woman, is from Mob activity.

Gilbert attends a Cellini family wedding and is starry-eyed at the mountains of loot the newlyweds get from the family/Family. His thinking goes something like this: wedding = gifts and money, unbelievable piles of both. He needs money. He ALWAYS needs money but is allergic to work. Ergo: the perfect answer would be to have a wedding which would bring in tons of gifts from the family/Family. Only one problem: a wedding required a female bride.

Enter the villain(ess) of the piece: Moira Finch, who is as much a pretty, scheming, self-centered, ambitious, lover of luxury and all the things money can buy as is Gilbert. However, while Gilbert has a few, slight and barely noticeable scruples, Moira has none. As in, NONE. Moira’s mother is married to a British duke. (And thereby hangs the tale). Moira and Gilbert come up with the perfect scheme. They will marry, rake in the swag, stay married a few months, then divorce and divvy up the take. What could go wrong? A better question would be: what could go right?

The two conspirators become three when they rope Philip into helping, for a price (he really does need a computer). The three become four when things start to go wrong in a major way and Philip goes running to his good friend and collaborator, Claire, who is smarter and more sensible than Philip and Gilbert combined and who MIGHT be able to make the devious Moira stop weaseling about and complicating things. Moira, as it turns out, is far more devious and things are far more complicated than they knew. Then the four become five when a hysterical gay chemist, Winslow, is convinced (with a lot or effort) into putting on drag and pretending to be Moira’s mother the Duchess. But he can do it only if he’s coked to the gills, and while under the influence of coke and Ecstasy s/he flirts with the widowed, elderly Don and ends up engaged to marry him as soon as she divorces the Duke…

Before it’s over, a mechanized Christmas Wise Man is assassinated by a gun-blazing bodyguard; three warring factions of the Family have separately threatened the five conspirators with various, creative, and gruesome methods of death and each demands something different—and contradictory—from them or else; the horny, gay, teenage son of a mobster tries to lure Philip into flagrante delicto under the same roof as his homophobic dad; there is a shootout at the wedding, the Duchess vanishes leaving behind nothing but her bloody gown which does not contain her body, and … well, there are more twists, turns, double-crosses, triple-crosses, blackmail, and one-liners than you can imagine.

Only one other book made me laugh as much, and that was Ruby Sweetwater and the Ringo Kid. Les Miserables it is not. But if you ever appreciated send-ups, silliness, Monty Python, MAD Magazine, Saturday Night Live, and Laugh-In you’ll love it. I recommend it if you need a laugh.

Joe Keenan, who was one of those responsible for that intelligent, very funny, and still lamented sitcom, Frazier, also wrote two sequels with Gilbert, Philip, and Claire: Putting on the Ritz, and My Lucky Star.

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THE ANGEL SINGERS (A Dick Hardesty Mystery) by Dorien Grey Sunday, Apr 19 2009

The Angel Singers
By Dorien Grey
Publisher: Zumaya Publications, LLC
ISBN-10: 1934841064
ISBN-13: 978-1934841068

To paraphrase Sally Field’s famous Oscar speech, “I like him. I really like him!” Him who? P.I. Dick Hardesty, that’s who, the Private Investigator protagonist of Angel Singers.

Many, many, many years ago when I was young, I picked up my first private eye novel. I recall only that I hated it, it was by Mickey Spillane and it started out with a gal who was naked under her raincoat/ trench coat. I didn’t like the snarky hero, didn’t like the book, didn’t like the writing and did not plan to read another of the genre. Then recently I read one of Richard Stevenson’s Donald Strachey novels (Ice Blues)and one of Josh Lanyon’s Adrien English novels (The Hell You Say), and discovered P.I. stories I actually liked. A lot. And now—one of Dorien Grey’s Dick Hardesty novels.

Angel Singers is the latest in the series. There is a complete list of titles in the series at the end of the review.

The title intrigued me because I love anything to do with music. When I learned that Dick Hardesty’s life partner, Jonathan Quinlan, loves to sing and has joined a men’s chorus, I was hooked before I ever got to the mystery. The director of the chorus is quoted as saying to his singers, “When you talk, you’re human. When you sing, you’re angels.”

Because the chorus is made up of human beings, there are often bruised egos, jealousies, rivalries, and the other side of the coin, firm friendships. And then into this band of angel singers comes Lucifer, in the form of Grant Jefferson who is young, beautiful, talented—and a manipulative, selfish egoist without a shred of conscience. To say he wreaks havoc among the chorus is like saying the bull in the china shop caused a little damage. His evil even extends to running down one of the chorus members, nearly killing him. Grant Jefferson ends up dead, blown to bloody shards by a car bomb. But whodunit?

When a murder victim has gone out of his way to infuriate most of the people he came in contact with, as Grant Jefferson did, there is a small army of suspects with means, motive, and opportunity. Is it the obvious suspect: the rich sugar-daddy Grant Jefferson was playing like a violin while tricking on the side? Is it the bitter son of a man whose career Grant Jefferson ruined, causing his death from a heart attack? Or could it be an earlier sugar-daddy who didn’t like being dumped for someone richer? Could it even be the jealous partner of a chorus member whose long-term relationship was ruined by the late unlamented Lucifer wannabe? Or is it an as-yet-unknown man whose life was malevolently marked by the deceased? It’s up to Hardesty to find out. And of course he does because, after all, he is the hero of the series. That he will find the killer is the only unsurprising thing about this tale. The killer was one I did not even suspect!

One of the things I like most about this book is that Dick Hardesty and Jonathan Quinlan have a believable and almost enviable relationship. They’re good parents (Uncle Dick, and Uncle Jonathan) to five-year old Joshua. In fact, my only quibble is that it wasn’t explained, though I’m sure it was in an earlier story, who Joshua’s parents were, what happened to them, and how Hardesty-Quinlan came to be his dads. Joshua adds a pixie quality to a murder mystery; he’s a typical five-year-old who is by turns endearing and a pint-sized tyrant. In other words, Hardesty-Quinlan are complete human beings and their being gay is only part of their identity. An adult reader knows from that the two men are a couple and that they have sex, but it’s not explicit and isn’t shown in any detail whatsoever. Even someone who would be uneasy with even a small amount of gay sex in a book could read this and not wince.

Highly recommended for everyone who doesn’t get apoplectic at the thought of committed gay couples with children!

Once I get down farther in my stack of TBR books, I fully intend to read some more of this series, as well as more Richard Stevenson and Josh Lanyon.

The series titles in order of appearance, are: The Butcher’s Son, The Ninth Man, The Bar Watcher, The Hired Man, The Good Cop, The Bottle Ghosts, The Dirt Peddler, The Role Players, The Popsicle Tree, The Paper Mirror, The Dream Ender, and The Angel Singers.
They are all available in or on order from any bookstore or on-line bookseller.

http://www.doriengrey.blogspot.com
www.zumayapublications.com

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Whistling in the Dark by Tamara Allen Monday, Apr 6 2009

Whistling in the Dark
Tamara Allen
Publisher: Lethe Press
ISBN-10 1590210492
ISBN-13 978-1590210499
see publisher’s website for buy links lethepressbooks.com
Available in print & electronic

I’m a sucker for any book about music and musicians, and a sucker for a well-written book about gay men, and a sucker for anything in the era 1890-1930. And Whistling in the Dark gave me all three. Tamara Allen made a convincing New York on the cusp of Prohibition, and has created characters the reader comes to know and care about.

Jack Bailey is cynical, unapologetically homosexual, smart-assed, a little bit flamboyant at times, quick-tempered, prone to drinking and gambling and borrowing money from questionable sources. And beneath the bluster and the Attitude, he has been wounded psychologically by double tragedies: service in France in WWI and the influenza death of his beloved parents before he returns home. If the term Post Traumatic Stress Disorder had been invented then, it would certainly apply to Jack. Jack isn’t a musician, except in a ham-handed sort of way, but he believes with his whole heart in the future of technology, in his case in the magic of wire and tubes called radio. He is determined to keep his parents’ business going, a mom-and-pop store of oddities and imports, (including a live crocodile named Woodrow) but has no head for business. What he has a head for is getting into trouble with the law, loan sharks, and potential bootleggers.

Sutton Albright is also a young veteran damaged by life. He had it all: good looks, wealth, adoring and indulgent parents and he grew up in the Midwest, far from the corruption of the Big City. A gifted concert pianist with a brilliant future, a war injury took away. He lights in New York, rootless, futureless, unable to go home. On first returning home he enrolled in a university only to become involved with a male teacher and finding himself expelled. He has no way of explaining that to his parents, no way of explaining that he is a “pervert.” (The word “gay” has not, at this time, gained common usage in that context.

Sutton is mistakenly caught up in a police sweep of a public park and jailed over night. There he first meets Jack. Friendship eventually becomes more, and that, plus Jack’s devotion to developing radio and Suttons’ hesitant resumption of playing the piano, combine to make this a compelling story. Rather than go further with a plot synopsis (I’m awful at them), let me just tell that you will enjoy this book if you enjoy stories of “opposites attracted” to each other. Here are two damaged young men who find each other, sometimes irritated and a little quarrelsome, sometimes tender and loving. Eventually comes the time when Jack has to face an unhappy choice that could lead to a new life for Sutton.

The supporting characters are very well done, individualistic without being overpowering, and most of them are Jack’s friends, eventually becoming Sutton’s friends as well. I especially liked Ox, who was big, and shy, and often mistaken for being slow. I felt there might be just the tiniest bit of stereotyping in some of Jack’s gay club friends; they reminded me a little of the “bitchy queens” in the film “The Boys In the Band.” But the characters in Whistling in the Dark aren’t as annoying.

It’s an outstanding debut novel and I’m sure Allen has many more just waiting to be written. Highly recommended.

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Angel Land by Victor J. Banis Sunday, Mar 22 2009

Angel Land
By
Victor J. Banis
Publisher: Quest
ISBN-13 978-1935053057
224 pages
Available: Print & Amazon Kindle
Because there are so many wonderful books and authors, I intended to review no more than one book by each author just to be fair, but sometimes a book comes along that just has to be talked about. So I guess I have to rescind my original decision.

Angel Land by Victor Banis will keep you off balance like nothing you’ve ever read before. It switches not only p.o.v., sometimes within the same chapter, but switches voice as well, from the first person narrative of the escapee, Harvey Milk Walton, to the third person thoughts of other characters. Only a master like Banis could pull this off without driving the reader crazy.

Angel Land is sly, sardonic, and funny. It’s also frightening and will make your scalp crawl with the feeling that Banis is channeling George Orwell and you’re reading the next 1984.

Angel Land is a tale set a century or so in the future, after the global society has been devastated by wars and pandemics, all the things we see now, carried to their ultimate end. It was an end that came “not with a bang but a whimper”, to quote T.S. Eliot. Among the other curses of the 20th and 21st centuries, the HIV virus has mutated repeatedly until reaching the always fatal HIV-VII, known as Sept, a virus so virulent it does not even require human contact. And there is a soul-chilling reason for the mutation, one that will make you gasp.

Into this vacuum of power came The Reverend Elihu Gaston, founder of The Fundamental Christian Church. Is he the antichrist? Though such a thing isn’t suggested in the book, as one who read the Bible many times when I was younger I couldn’t help thinking that he certainly fit the requirements. The other churches were swallowed up by Gaston’s new church; everyone not a believer in Gaston was suspect, especially Jews, Baptists, and Catholics; though free in theory they are severely restricted in every way . Supposedly as a way to deal with AIDS/HIV, Gaston divided much of the nation into Fundamental Christian Territories, of which Angel Land was the first. There, tourists can “See—close up—the Bridge of the Golden Gate, once crossed by motor cars,” and the walls of the ghetto that, in the dim past, been known as the Castro, that is Angel Land’s Zone of Perversion. Officially sanctioned violence and murder of gays makes some of the inhabitants of the ghetto believe it might not be such a bad thing after all: if the walls keep them in, they can also keep the brutes out. It doesn’t always work that way.

Angel Land has a twisted plot about marginalized people in a disintegrating world run by a rabid demagogue aided by a committee of equally rabid demagogues, a world in which the European Middle Ages seem to reoccurring with a dark helping of Hitler and Stalin at their worst, stirred in. It’s a society where books are banned, knowledge by any but the rulers is illegal, freedoms are virtually unknown except for the few; a society where a form of slavery is perpetuated, particularly upon the young, and gays leave their ghetto at the risk of their lives.

The characters in this book are vintage Banis: brave with the courage of the mythic Stonewall drag queens; defiantly smart and smart-ass like the first Harvey Milk; able to sometimes find love in spite of the danger; daring to flip the bird to deprivation and hatred.

Our hero is, perhaps, an unlikely one: Harvey Milk Walton, a skinny kid who’s not particularly beautiful (imagine that, in a gay novel!), a slave who has accidentally killed his master and fled for his life. In the ghetto Harvey finds friendship, love, sanctuary, his courage, and a purpose that transcends and transforms his life. There is Dell, the blustering, blunt, and brave lesbian and Sarah, the abused, feral child she adopts. The endlessly quotable “Auntie” Tom, present in spirit if not in flesh. The elderly Manager, a man of age, wisdom, and quiet defiance. Chip, Harvey’s friend. And many more wonderful characters worked in true Banis fashion.

Is every gay character brave and admirable? Not at all. Banis would never create such an unrealistic cast. And that’s one of the things you can count on with a Banis book: the situations and plots may be unusual; the people are always believable.

When Harvey, to his amazement, finds love it is with a tormented soul named Aram; more than that I’m not going to tell you; you’ll have to read it for yourself. The Bad Guys are bad to the bone, some of them, like the jack-booted, taser-armed Lay Workers, are overtly bad. Others wouldn’t lift a finger to crush a bug and who mouth scripture and platitudes…but who are the Ultimate Evil because they are the creators and maintainers of the evil.

Books of froth and fun have their place and sometimes even I like them. But as you undoubtedly surmised, Angel Land isn’t a froth-and-fun tale. It’s full of grim, black humor and it’s a book that gets the thought processes whirring, a book that grips you by the gut. It’s a book that would make certain people froth at the mouth from indignation if they dared to read it. My kind of book.

Because I find Banis’ language usage so engaging, I can’t end this without quoting a sampling of my favorite lines. The Sept. virus: “A dish, a fork, a spoon, probably a cow jumping over the moon, almost anything could be the instrument of infection, almost anyone the messenger of death.” Legendary things called automobiles: “Of all the jewels of antiquity, none fascinated me more than those, the automobiles, songs of freedom sculpted into metal.” The suppression of other faiths: “One by one the lesser fishies succumbed to the great black shark in the sea of religion.”

I know you won’t be surprised when I say Angel Land is highly recommended.

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A Face Without a Heart by Rick R. Reed Thursday, Mar 12 2009

A Face Without A Heart: A Modern-day Version of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray
By Rick R. Reed
Paperback: Backinprint ISBN: 0595399169
Amazon Kindle: Bristlecone Press
Author’s website: http://www.rickrreed.com
Image above is the Kindle cover

I first read “The Picture of Dorian Gray” when I was around 13 and really had no idea what kind of debauchery he was getting into (this was the 50’s!), but it nonetheless filled me with creepy, delicious horror. I read it many times in succeeding years and each time I read it, Dorian’s wickedness was clearer. It has remained one of my favorites (the book, not the wickedness).

All too often, when classics are rewritten into a contemporary setting, the result is depressingly unsatisfactory. Happily, award-winning author Rick R. Reed succeeds in recreating the greed and decadence hidden behind the beautiful face of the ageless Dorian who keeps pushing the envelope of evil until he finally goes too far and the devil literally gets his due. Reed achieves the delicate balancing act of being true to Wilde’s tale while putting a patina of his own shivery vision over it, enhancing but never obscuring the original.

His anti-hero is Gary Adrion, an anagram of Dorian Gray, and the cynical Lord Harry Wotten (who was actually my favorite character in Wilde’s book) is transformed into a cynical black drag queen named Lady Henrietta Wotten. Decadent London of the 1890’s becomes decadent Chicago of 2006+. One of the most inventive devices in the book is that of making the painting of Dorian Gray a living, changeable hologram of Gary Adrion. (Wilde would be enchanted by the idea.) The shock at the end when Gary comes face to face with the hideous, evil thing he has become is more stunning than Wilde’s scene in which Dorian saw the painting.

At 196 pages it is proof that Rick Reed doesn’t waste words, that every syllable of every word has a purpose and works toward an effect. He is a gifted, prolific writer, a master of horror and, I expect, would be successful in any genre he chose to put his hand to. Someday soon I hope to read his “Orientation,” which recently won the Eppie Award for Best GLBT Novel of 2008.

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Witch’s Boy by Alex Beecroft Monday, Jan 5 2009

Witch’s Boy
By
Alex Beecroft
Website: http://www.alexbeecroft.com/

Since reviewers are not supposed to gush and are supposed to find something to criticize, I’ll do that and get it out of the way before I get to the Good Stuff. There is an occasional wrong word and once in a long while there is a misspelled word. The layout is much like that for an ebook, with a space between every paragraph, which is a little off-putting. And … well, there’s no ‘and’. Honestly, those are all the negatives I have to offer. So if anyone sees this as a “gushing” review, then so be it.

Witch’s Boy is the first book I’ve read in eons that almost left me speechless.

It is self-published through Lulu—and, incidentally, has a beautiful cover, something all too often missing in self-published and small-press books. I don’t know if the author submitted it to mainstream publisher, but she should have. It’s a dark masterpiece of raw emotion, vivid color, violence in thought and deed, convoluted plotting, unforgettable characters and descriptions. Maybe Tolkienistas will consider this to be sacrilege, but Witch’s Boy is a modern Lord of the Rings in one volume.

Although thirty years ago I read The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings, I’ve never been much of a fantasy reader so I can’t really compare it to others of the genre,. More recently I have read two others which I enjoyed and have reviewed on this site (Orphan’s Quest and Immortal Journey.) One thing I especially liked about Witch’s Boy was that, although it’s a fantasy, the setting felt very medieval European or perhaps Russian, with people and place names that felt familiar enough they didn’t bring me up short. There were serfs, castles, familiar plants, mountains and trees, ravens and fish, white wolves and horses. In short, the setting made it all very believable and familiar, and to someone who likes realistic books that’s a definite plus.

It is as full of Good vs. Evil as is the Bible. Witches (who are not at ALL of the stereotypical “boil-boil-toil-and-trouble” or “Bewitched” variety!) are primary. The first witch we meet is a peasant child, Oswy, who has been sold into slavery, or so he believes, and who is unaware he was born with the powers of witchcraft. The second one we meet is Tancred, the embodiment of evil, a creature who is guilty of every vile act in the book, though we first meet him in another guise—a man of just ordinary evil rather than metaphysical evil. The third is Sulien FitzGuimar who, at first, also seems evil. When we come to know him we realize that he is a tragic and noble figure, and every moment of his life is a struggle not to become like his mentor, Tancred.

There is a subplot which, at times, seems puzzlingly disconnected from the main story, but such is Beecroft’s gifted plotting that it all comes together and we realize that Adela’s story is spectacularly crucial. When we meet Adela she is a young Lady set to become a nun, whose all-concealing black garment, a grima, hides not only her face and form but a rebellious heart. She literally escapes from a forced marriage with an unscrupulous and wicked man and puts her life in peril by doing so. Along the way to her sanctuary she meets both magical creatures in the form of elfish shape shifters, and beyond-horrible demons and a beyond-exquisite angel. I love it that Adela’s reaction to the beauty and mystery of elves and angels is just as confused and frightened and yet intrigued as any of us would be.

One of the best supporting characters is Leofwine, the kind of man Knights of legend were meant to be – brave to a fault, kind, generous, and loyal unto death.

Violence, horror, and the insatiable thirst for revenge permeate the book. Some acts carried out by Tancred, demons, and other forces of sickly evil are often breathtakingly cruel; one is perpetrated by the child-witch, Oswy, while he is possessed by Tancred.

Beecroft’s descriptions are music in print. If you’ve ever listened to “Night on Bald Mountain” by Rimsky-Korsakov, based on themes by Mussorgsky, then you have an auditory idea of the descriptions in this book. I’m not a very visual writer, myself, and am tremendously impressed with those who are—and I am in awe of the visuals in this book. I’m going to pick a handful of very brief ones at random.

“…the squabbling of rooks and crows as they fought over a dead hare, its soil-brown fur appearing and disappearing among the clot of black.” (page 147)

“…moorland swept up in billowing rises to a higher hill, and then to a sharp peak crowned with a tumble of gray boulders and another thicket of thorn. … The bare hills shone like a child’s face scrubbed for a festival.” (page 205)

“A wind sprang up—silver edged, glittering—and streamed around her. Her hair unraveling from its braids, lifted and floated behind her—showering crystal bells onto the earth. … and behind her, green as every kind of leaf, each feather edged with sunshine, her great wings unfurled in a fan of spendor.” (page 232)

“Like writhing black slime they came creeping out of the arrowslits, oozing head-downward over the walls. …The presences which lurk unseen in nightmares were made visible, the beings who haunt night’s shadows were coming down over the battlements with heavy reptilian purpose.” (282)

Dang! That’s addictive. If I don’t stop now I’ll wind up typing the entire book!

OK, here’s the short review: if you like dense, dark, intelligent, action-packed, beautifully written books Buy It! Urge your local library to buy it also.

The Witch’s Boy
By Alex Beecroft
Paperback: 316 pages
Publisher: Lulu.com (May 7, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1847537294
ISBN-13: 978-1847537294
Available on Amazon.com

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King of Cats: A Life in Five Novellas, by Blake Fraina Tuesday, Dec 30 2008

KING OF CATS
Blake Fraina
0595307566
$16.95
I Universe
Forward Magazine Book of the Year Award, Bronze Medal

I read KING OF CATS by Blake Fraina three or four years ago, and only recently realized I had not added that review to my review blog—an oversight I truly regret.

I hope readers will not keep prejudices against the iUniverse label—often, alas, justified– from reading this book. It’s true there are some errors that a traditional publisher’s editor would have caught, and that’s unfortunate, but they don’t distract from the intense, dark stories.

This is no light read. It has layer upon layer of meanings beneath the obvious and should carry a warning: ENGAGE BRAIN BEFORE READING. If the book has a weak part, it’s the first novella which is told in first person by a wannabe filmmaker obsessed first by a painting, and then by a kid named Elliott. It’s the only novella in first person in the book, and Sam, the filmmaker, doesn’t appear in any of the other novellas.

Five novellas make up KING OF CATS. In terms of time, they leapfrog. The first, “King of the Cats”, about the filmmaker, takes place in 2002. The second “The Bargain” is set in 2001. Number 3, “Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter” is 1995. Number 4 “My Father’s House” is 2003. And “Hidden History” is in 1987. It’s not as off-putting as it sounds. When you read them, it actually makes sense. It’s like the famous movie scene with the fun house mirrors—this splinters off of that which splinters off something else….

On the surface, the rest of the novellas are about “sex, drugs, & rock ’n’ roll.” But under the music of electric guitars, drums, drugs, and promiscuity there is a seething pit of anger and physical abuse, neediness and tragedy, and most heartbreaking of all, the waste of potential in human life.

This is a complex book with characters that you alternately feel sorry for, despise, sympathize with, sometimes love, but will never forget. Elliott, the pathological baby-faced liar and hustler. Adam, the singer who spends a lot of time trying to convince himself he’s not gay just because he has sex with men. The character who will never leave your mind is Jimmy, the guitarist—to his fans and contemporaries he’s so cool he’s a gay Fonzie on drugs, somebody who gets what he wants when he wants it. They don’t see the tortured soul that looks through his eyes. By the end of the last novella, “Hidden History” you have seen Jimmy’s soul being twisted like a lone tree in the wind.

Highly recommended to adult readers.

I hope we may soon see another book from Blake Fraina, a vastly talented writer.

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Orphan’s Quest: Book One of the Chronicles of Firma by Pat Nelson Childs Sunday, Nov 2 2008

Orphan’s Quest: Book One of the Chronicles of Firma

By

Pat Nelson Childs

ISBN #978-0-9795912-1-1 (softcover)

Available also in hardcover and E-book

Publisher: Glynworks Publishing

© 2007

 

I hope the author doesn’t mind a comparison. I do this because I am not really a fantasy reader and so am unsure what is more or less standard in the genre and what isn’t. I read Tolkien fifty years ago and that was it.

 

Orphan’s Quest is Lord of the Rings for the rest of us, especially for those who think there might have been more between Sam and Frodo than meets the eye. Orphan’s Quest is colorful, action-packed, intricately plotted, filled with vivid descriptions of places, weapons, etc. that have the combined flavor of Medieval Europe and Middle Earth.

 

There is a group of stalwart friends on a dangerous quest; a handsome, swashbuckling elf with magical ability and deadly aim with an arrow; an Elven city, a mysterious and malevolent evil power out to destroy the friends and, indeed, the entire world. There are noxious swamps, trees that communicate, and poisoned weapons; bizarre creatures that fly, swim, and shift shapes; hideous and deadly Harpies. There are wooden ships, arrows and swords galore, even enslavement by a race of warrior women.

 

Running through the narrative is a gay love story, that of the elf Flaskamper, nicknamed “Flash,” and the orphan, Rokey, who is not quite what he seems to be in the beginning. Rokey is not even quite what he, himself, thinks he is. Repeatedly, his life and the lives of his companions and his true love are threatened and, since this is the first in a trilogy, it ends with a cliffhanger. However, I hasten to add that it is also a very well done stand-alone novel, which some series books are not. I would say more about the plot, but I always try to avoid spoilers.

 

One of the things I, personally, found very appealing about the book is the way Childs handled the love scenes. Did Flaskamper and Rokey have sex? Yes, they did. Was it described in erotic detail? No, it wasn’t. They were written in such a way—without silly euphemisms, incidentally—that a younger reader isn’t going to be puzzled or shocked, and the reader who is old enough to know the details can use his or her imagination. I like that. Another thing that struck me as especially poignant was Childs’ invention of the appellation “samer” for homosexuals, who were accepted in Firma. Isn’t “samer” a lovely, evocative term? Much nicer than any of the words used in our world. I wish someone had thought of it a long time ago.

 

Though I was a tiny bit hesitant in starting the book simply because of the fantasy factor, I’m so glad I read it. I thoroughly enjoyed Orphan’s Quest. Childs is an excellent writer with an elegant use of language that I appreciate. I hope someday, when I have waded through my stack of waiting books, to read the rest of the trilogy.

 

Though this book is an adult story, it is also geared toward young adults. I feel that any reader who likes good writing will enjoy it, even if fantasy is not normally a reading choice. I’ve never read Harry Potter but I expect Harry Potter fans would like it.

 

Christmas is coming. This book would be a great gift, and to book lovers there is no better gift than a book.

 

Also now available: Book Two/ Scion’s Blood

Book Three / Numen’s Trust is tentatively scheduled for release in late 2009

Author’s website: www.chroniclesoffirma.com

 

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