Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Jolly Regina (Kara LaReau)

The Jolly Regina
The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters series, Book 1
Kara LaReau
Amulet Books
Fiction, CH? Adventure/Humor
**** (Good)


DESCRIPTION: Jaundice and Kale Bland have lived alone in their drab little house near Dullsville ever since their parents left on an "errand" and never returned (at least, not yet, but surely any day now). In the meantime, they mend socks and eat cheese sandwiches and entertain themselves by watching the grass grow and reading to each other from their favorite (and only) book, Dr. Nathaniel Snoote's Illustrated Children's Dictionary. It's a dull life, a predictable life, and it's just the kind of life they want.
Then the stranger knocks on their door with a surprise - the "surprise" being a burlap sack and an abduction to the deck of a pirate ship. The captain, "Dead-Eye" Delilah, claims that Mother and Father Bland were her hostages not so long ago, but when they refused to give up the location of the famed treasure of Captain Ann Tennille, the pirates marooned them on Gilly Guns Island, then came back to grab the girls. If they can't tell Delilah where the booty is, they'll be stuck scrubbing decks on the ship forever.
Jaundice and Kale know nothing about gold; they don't even like the color (their favorites being brown and gray). Now, though, they at least know where their parents are, and that they're in trouble (and not out on an errand at all). But what can two girls who have hardly ever set foot outside their home before, who don't even like the word "adventure", hope to do about it?

REVIEW: As the description implies, this is a lightweight, often silly little adventure tale starring two girls who would much rather mend socks and stare at their wallpaper than be out and about. Nevertheless, sometimes adventure is thrust upon those who least want it, and with a little scraping of pluck and the help of their dictionary and its educational sidebars, they manage to get by. Characters don't tend to have a ton of depth, but there's sometimes a little more to them than is initially apparent; one thing the Bland sisters learn is that most everyone has a story if you sit and let them tell it. The text is riddled with puns, many of which aim at least a couple generations over the target age, and the narrative is quick and lively. Does the experience turn Jaundice and Kale into seasoned, eager adventurers? Hardly, but they are not quite the same girls they were at the end of their adventure, and the fact that it's Book 1 of a series hints that there's more in store for the reluctant travelers. There's a bit at the end that almost knocked it down a half star, some implications where I was probably reading a little too much into things (with shades of adults misunderstanding possibly-neurodivergent children and their needs and trying to make them be people that they just are not). Overall, though, it made for a quick and amusing yarn.

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Fortunately, the Milk (Neil Gaiman) - My Review
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Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Domesticating Dragons (Dan Koboldt)

Domesticating Dragons
The Build-A-Dragon Sequence, Book 1
Dan Koboldt
Baen
Fiction, Sci-Fi
**** (Good)


DESCRIPTION: Noah Parker didn't set out to design dragons. He didn't even really like them. His interest in genetics research was prompted by his brother Connor's progressive muscle-wasting disease, one too rare for a definitive diagnosis but which Noah is sure is linked to a particular genetic mutation. By studying genes and writing new programs to virtually model genetic alterations in real-time, he hopes to prove it, and maybe get Connor some sort of help before it's too late. Unfortunately, there's only so much computing power he can wrangle from the universities. The best servers are in private hands... such as the ones powering Arizona's cutting-edge Reptilian Corporation. Brainchild of eccentric inventor Simon Redwood, the company started off creating genetically engineered life forms to help curb the exploding feral pig population: apex predators based on reptile DNA (with a little rodent thrown into the mix) that are essentially dragons. Since then, new working forms have been developed, largely to fill roles left open after a devastating disease nearly wiped out the world's domestic dogs... but, to date, nobody has cracked the code to make "dragons" suitable as household companions, the ultimate potential market.
Noah needs access to Reptilian's computers. The company needs a genetic engineer to solve their domestic dragon problem. Maybe they both can get what they want... but one truth everyone forgot about dragons is that meddling with them is almost always more trouble than it's worth. Noah's greatest breakthrough may unleash far more trouble than he can imagine - and test Noah's priorities and loyalties to their limits.

REVIEW: I'll admit going into this one with middling-to-low expectations. (I'll also admit that part of this came from a not-great cover design, at least on the audiobook edition I borrowed via Libby.) But it was almost the exact right length to fill a shift at work (well, the right length at the speed I usually play audiobooks, at least), and I was tired of scrolling through options. The presence of dragons in the title didn't exactly hurt, either. So I figured it was worth a shot. Given that, it may not be surprising that Domesticating Dragons exceeded my expectations, but even I was amazed by how much I ended up enjoying it, enough I came close to giving it another half-star at several points.
Considering how much of this story relies on genetics (the author apparently is a genetics researcher, with published articles), this book manages to avoid lengthy infodumps, managing to set up the world and characters fairly quickly and backfill more details later on. There is a sense of wonder and inherent awe in dragons that even Noah, who is indifferent to fantasy, feels when in the presence of a dragon's egg for the first time. Never mind that it's not a "real" dragon from a storybook. Never mind that, as a genetic researcher, he is fully aware that this is a product of humanity tinkering/meddling with biological code it still doesn't fully understand. A dragon is a dragon, and one can't help feeling something when encountering them in the flesh. For all that Noah comes to Reptilian with ulterior motives - he mostly wants a foot in the door so he can secretly hijack some of their processing power for his own research, without them realizing it - he finds himself caught up in the challenge of designing dragons, which are all crafted in company software and the "God machine" of a biological 3D printer with proprietary (handwave) technology. When a technical error winds up with him inadvertently creating an extraneous, uncounted dragon egg off an unauthorized design - an egg he impulsively takes home - his ambivalence about dragons takes on a new twist... ans when he learns the truth about the company director and the fates of too many of the dragons he has designed, that twist becomes a knife in the gut. Meanwhile, his personal life is shaken by an unexpected reconnection with Summer, the roommate of his former college girlfriend, and by his brother's continued deterioration.
There are acknowledged shades of Jurassic Park and other franchises throughout - at one time, Noah even makes a comment about Pernese dragons, perhaps the original genetically-engineered dragons in a sci-fi setting - as Noah is drawn deeper in the corporate culture and (despite himself) into the world of the dragons themselves. The dragons here may be products of science, but are very much dragons, and even the "pet" models are far more than scaly puppies. They are usually intelligent, often cunning, frequently proud (and perhaps a touch vain), loyal to their allies and absolutely devastating to their enemies... and humans, predictably, often have no clue how to handle them, frequently underestimating them. Interludes with customer service calls show just how far things are going off the rails in the real world, as real people interact with dragons (and demonstrate a sometimes-tragic inability to read the instruction manuals that came with their new companions). Corporate greed, however, sees no reason to even tap the brakes when they're making money hand over fist, and it's too easy to forget the consequences of one's work when one is parked behind a computer screen all day (and focused on personal goals that don't involve dragons at all). At some point, of course, Noah must face what's really going on - and his own role in that, via the dragons he has designed and consigned to uncertain fates - and must decide which takes precedent: stopping the atrocities being committed by Build-A-Dragon, or taking an increasingly-slim chance at saving his brother. This choice is not as simple as it may sound, when even Connor is telling him that this obsession is making him focus on the wrong things.
As I mentioned, I didn't really expect to enjoy this one as much as I did, so I found myself rather pleasantly surprised throughout. There were, however, a few stumbling points now and again, especially toward the ending - an ending that felt both a little too neat and a little too open to the inevitable sequel. I may or may not follow the sequence on to the next book, but I will say that I was well entertained.

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Sunday, March 24, 2024

Nightwatch on the Hinterlands (K. Eason)

Nightwatch on the Hinterlands
Arithmancy and Anarchy: The Weep series, Book 1
K. Eason
DAW
Fiction, Fantasy/Sci-Fi
****+ (Good/Great)


DESCRIPTION: Generations ago, the multiverse was rocked by interspecies war - a war that only ended when the vakari Protectorate inadvertently ripped the very fabric of spacetime with a powerful act of arithmancy. The fissures of the Weep extend into an unknown plane of existence, from which reality-warping entities known as the Brood periodically emerge to ravage anything in their path. The Protectorate, the splinter defectors of the Five Tribes, and the Confederacy alliance of species were forced to the treaty table in order to deal with the threat. But so far no arithmancers, hex-workers, artificers, priests, or others on any side have figured out how to close up the rifts. All they can do is stand watch over the fissures, wait, and pray to whatever gods or entities that might listen that today will not be a surge day.
The backwater world of Tanis was lucky enough to survive the worst of the Weep, but still has a minor fissure running through the system. As such, it has its contingent of Aedis templars - soldiers with advanced nanotech and battle suits and other augmentations, trained to fight Brood - as well as an official Five Tribes vakari presence. Templar Lieutenant Iari, a native tenju and veteran of the last Brood outbreak on Tanis (with the scars and cracked tusk to prove it), is devout and loyal, so when Knight-Marshal Tobin assigned her to be the escort of Ambassador Gaer, she took the assignment without complaint, for all that babysitting a diplomat was not why she took oaths as a templar. In truth, the duty isn't too terrible, for all that Gaer has terrible taste in night club music. But when an excursion to B-town is interrupted by screams, Iari and Gaer stumble into a horrific and impossible murder: a wichu artificer has apparently been brutally killed in their own workshop, but the apparent culprit should not have been able to hurt so much as a fly, let alone a sentient being. The riev - amalgamations of magic and technology wound around the reanimated corpses of deceased soldiers, created originally to fight the vakari - were repurposed after the treaty, their ability to kill removed from their systems. Are the riev going rogue, or is someone controlling them... and to what end? The more Iari and Gaer unearth, the more they realize the terrible plot at work, the danger that might bring Protectorate, Tribes, and Confederacy to their knees.

REVIEW: I greatly enjoyed Eason's Thorne Chronicles, which mashed up fairy tale tropes and space opera to create an original and entertaining world. When I saw Eason was continuing the tale with this new sequel series, I snapped it up (even if it took a while to rise to the top of the reading pile; I read by mood, not necessarily order of acquisition). Nightwatch on the Hinterlands both is and isn't like its predecessor, in ways that were initially a bit jarring but which quickly became compelling and fascinating. This is Rory Thorne's young adult-tinged multiverse all grown up, gritty and battle-scarred. While there are callbacks and follow-ups on some threads from the first duology, and while it uses the same magic-tech blend of "arithmancy", hexwork, turing devices, and such to create an interstellar milieu powered by magic so advanced it's almost indistinguishable from technology, it's almost effectively a standalone work. There is no chronicler adding amusing footnotes, no fairy tale structure or archetype underlying it (at least not one I readily recognized), no princesses or queens or fairies placing blessings or curses upon children to shape their destinies. Instead, there is a thorny tangle of alliances and rivalries, ranging from personal to interplanetary, a collection of nicely rounded and individually flawed characters in a multiverse that has literally been shattered, and a fast-paced, twist-filled murder investigation whose implications could destabilize, even destroy, what's left of that shattered multiverse, wrapped in a noir-tinged tale haunted by past traumas and punctuated with violence.
From the start, it's clear that this isn't Rory Thorne's multiverse anymore, for all that there were definite shades of darkness and significant depth in the earlier tales. Within ten pages, there's a gory murder and a mystery, not to mention loads of confict and tension in the setting. A lot of setting and worldbuilding gets layered in along the way - sometimes pushing toward new-term overload, especially as it's been a while since I read the Thorne Chronicles - but it sorts itself out along the way. As before, nobody is stupid or stubborn just for plot's sake, each doing their best with the information and resources they have. Iari and Gaer make for a good, if outwardly unlikely, investigation team, wending their way through B-town's underworld with some help from Iari's ex, former soldier turned private investigator Corso, as well as a pair of unusually independent riev. The traumas of war - between species and against Brood incursions - have left their mark on everyone and everything, and the notion of facing a renewal of hostilities and a brand-new enemy that may combine the worst of all previous conflicts is almost more than anyone can face. The plot, as mentioned, starts fairly quickly and hardly ever lets up, leading to a high-octane climax that sets up the next book in the Weep series. Despite the change in gears from the first duology, I found myself very much enjoying this new facet of Eason's arithmancy-laced multiverse, and eagerly look forward to more.

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Friday, March 15, 2024

A Night in the Lonesome October (Roger Zelazny)

A Night in the Lonesome October
Roger Zelazny
William Morrow and Company
Fiction, Horror/Humor
*** (Okay)


DESCRIPTION: Full moons have power, as does the night of Halloween. When the two coincide, great and terrible things may happen... depending on who involves themselves, and whether they stand for preserving the world or opening doorways to elder gods who may destroy everything. The dog Snuff, loyal familiar of cursed sorcerer Jack, has been through these events more than once in his long life, but this year's convergence in the English countryside already has unusual hallmarks, drawing all manner of strange characters and their own animal familiars. Before, Jack and his allies have managed to keep the elder entities at bay, but this time, dangerous newcomers are violating nearly every rule and custom to ensure that they fail, and even a loyal familiar like Snuff may not be able to save the day.

REVIEW: This is one of those classics I keep meaning to get to, generally at a more seasonably-appropriate time (this being a very springlike mid-March, with the novel taking place over the 31 days of October), but it's understandably harder to secure the audiobook though the library in autumn. In any event, I'm not sure if it would've been notably improved by the proper atmosphere, for while the prose could be amusing and there are some very interesting and imaginative ideas and images at play, the whole starts feeling less like its own horror tale and more like a fanfic mashup of various gothic figures familiar from page and silver screen, to the point of distracting absurdity.
The narrator, Snuff, makes allusions to the histories of himself, his master (who, though never explicitly named, is clearly Jack the Ripper as well as a very long-lived sorcerer), and the October ritual that may or may not end the world. When not protecting his master on nightly jaunts for spell ingredients, he's protecting the master from various entities contained in various parts of their home (such as the "Thing in the Circle" that keeps trying to tempt Snuff to free it by transforming into various exotic lady canines, and the often-threatening "Thing in the Wardrobe" up in the attic) and keeping an eye on the other local "players" in the coming "game". As part of the latter duties, he develops professional relationships with the other masters' and mistresses' familiars that range from friendly to antagonistic; the cat Greymalk, familiar of local "mad" witch Jill, is perhaps his closest friend, even when they realize that their keepers are destined to stand on opposite sides of the conflict.
At first, Snuff views it all with a certain weary familiarity. This isn't his first supernatural rodeo, after all. But when dead bodies turn up near his house, a wild card turns up in the form of a neighbor with a wolfish secret who may or may not be a player, and other oddities (such as a detective and his portly companion poking their noses into things) shake that complacency, Snuff starts feeling his first sense that maybe master Jack won't come out on the winning side come the end of October. The strongest parts of the story are Snuff's interactions with his fellow familiars, underlings with their own agendas that may or may not coincide with the humans they serve. The humans, on the other hand... despite what Hollywood and many comic book "multiverses" seem to insist, there are only so many disparate "worlds" and rules one can throw together before it just starts getting a bit ridiculous. Here, there's Jack the Ripper, Count Dracula (who keeps a company of stereotype "Gypsy" followers, not the only trace of unfortunate dating in the book), Sherlock Holmes and Watson, Larry Talbot (the Wolfman), Doctor Frankenstein and Igor and the Creature, and numerous others I didn't recognize off the top of my head but which were clearly lifted from other works. They draw too much attention to themselves and clutter the game board until the game itself is almost an afterthought. As a result, the climax feels weirdly muted, too surreal to even begin to care about the stakes or who wins or loses, with a bit of a deus ex machina thrown in the middle. The ending just kind of shrugs the whole thing off with a glib final line that doesn't even fit what we readers were told earlier about the consequences for whoever loses the contest (not really a spoiler if there's not really a point).
This is the second swing-and-miss for Zelazny for me, so I'm pretty sure he's just not an author I'm equipped to really enjoy, for all that I can appreciate some of the writing and the concepts. He may be an inspiration to many in the genre, but for me I fear he's just too dated and not my cup of cocoa.

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Thursday, March 14, 2024

The Lost Words (Robert Macfarlane)

The Lost Words
Robert Macfarlane
Anansi International
Fiction, CH Poetry
***+ (Okay/Good)


DESCRIPTION: When the Oxford Children's Dictionary was updated in 2007, several words were removed as no longer relevant to young readers, replaced with more modern terms related to technology. Acorn, newt, raven, willow... their loss hinted at a loss of nature, a loss of connection to the green world beyond the classroom. With these poems inspired by the missing words, Robert Macfarlane hopes to reforge that connection and spark the sense of wonder that the natural world can bring, even in the internet age.

REVIEW: This is a case where the presentation - in this case, the audiobook - had a distinct impact on the rating. The poems themselves are decent, if a bit variable in quality and content. (I also wonder how much a kid who didn't already know and appreciate nature - particularly the nature of the English countryside - would get out of some of them.) But the audiobook insisted on inserting long lulls between the poems full of birdsong and natural sounds. They comprised at least a third of the total runtime; I timed more than one as longer than the accompanying poem. There's adding atmosphere, and there's just plain overkill... I think this one would work better in the original format, as a picture book with illustrations by Jackie Morris, but as I listened to the audiobook, it's the audiobook version I must review.
(As a closing note, I wonder why the original word definitions weren't included, either with the poems or in an afterword. Wasn't half the point to re-introduce those words to children's vocabulary?)

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