Coffee Addict - One Decade Later

I begin to wonder if I have a coffee habit requiring intervention. Currently, on my countertop I have a Mr. Coffee 12 cup brewer, a Keurig single cup brewer and a quadruple-shot Krupps espresso machine. My wife and I each have individual French presses we take on motorcycle camping trips, and I also have a small camp percolating coffee pot, plus I keep a large percolating pot at my parents' cabin. I have an aging electric coffee grinder on the counter that's in use, plus one NIB up in the cupboard, just in case the old one fails in the early morning hours. I have boxes of K-cups on the shelves, bags of coffee beans in the freezer, and a 1 lb can of Folgers in the pantry for the truly dire emergencies.

Do you think I have a problem?

So, both of the french presses broke - the plastic cracked. The old coffee grinder died, but I still own the one that was new in the box. I seldom use it, as I have recently acquired a burr grinder. The Mr Coffee has been replaced by a Ninja, and I have a Starbucks brand pourover coffee outfit used to make single cups. The Keurig still lives. The can of Folgers is long gone, but a neverending stream of beans and K-cups lives in my pantry.

Mystery by Jonathan Kellerman

I've long enjoyed the writings of Jonathan Kellerman, and his wife, Faye. Getting to hang out with Alex Delaware and his pal, Milo, or Peter Decker, is always a rare pleasure. Kellerman continues the usual fun with the latest novel, true to form.

When one of Alex and Robin's favorite watering holes, the Fauborg Hotel, closes down after its new owners lose interest, they get all gussied up for one last hurrah there. Unfortunately, the usual employees have already been paid off, and the temporary help doesn't have the zeal for quality to which our friends have become accustomed, but while they are there they observe a young woman, whom they assume to be some sort of minor celebrity because of her behavior and the presence of a man who looks like a bodyguard outside the hotel, being stood up. When Milo visits them later and they find out that the woman's body has been discovered, a victim of a brutal murder, in Topanga Canyon, Alex has all the justification he needs (though we know from experience he needs very little) to become deeply enmeshed in Milo's investigation.

The trail leads to a very successful Internet dating service, run by Armenian immigrants, which connects rich sugar daddies with young, beautiful women who are "searching for their soulmates". It seems to hit a dead end shortly after that when it turns out that the woman's last "daddy" died over a year ago due to natural causes. So Milo and Alex pursue an alternate course investigating the "bodyguard", who has a bit of a shady history.

There's a second plot thread, in which Alex consults with a former "Hollywood Madam" who has terminal lung cancer about helping her young son to deal with her impending death. It provides a bit of distraction from the main investigation, and the minor clues that she provides for Alex and Milo don't really contribute all that much. I wonder if it was included just so Kellerman, a clinical psychologist, can sprinkle a little shrink lore into the story.

The identity of the murderer was fairly obvious to me in the early going, but Kellerman does a good job of suspensefully dragging out the solution for our two heroes. I'd rank this mystery about average in the Kellerman canon.

The Behavior Gap by Carl Richards

I used to stop in at The Behavior Gap blog every so often, and enjoy his cocktail napkin graphs or Venn diagrams illustrating some tidbit of financial wisdom, so I was excited to see that author Carl Richards had written a book, which turns out for the most part to be a compilation of many of the subjects he wrote about on his blog. Richards is a certified financial planner and runs a capital management company in Utah, as well as writing and speaking about money, so he definitely knows his subject, albeit with a twist most financial planners don't have.

The title of the book refers to the difference between the overall return on investments in the stock market and the actual return that the majority of investors get. When the market as a whole goes up, for example 10%, individual investors on average are only getting 6%, and Richards calls the difference, which is caused by irrational or emotional behavior on the part of investors, the Behavior Gap. The book attempts to help us to understand those incorrect behaviors and to quit losing money over them.

Of course, the most common mistake that people make, which I know I personally saw happening during the economic meltdown of 2008, is to buy high and sell low. When all the word on the street is exciting, and prices are going up up up! everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon and buy more stocks - at precisely the time when they should be wary, and should hold or sell, instead. Then, when the market begins its inevitable correction, people tend to be fearful and to sell everything they bought at high prices, locking in losses. When the market is down is the best time to buy, instead. However, it takes a cast iron will and a strong stomach to buck the trend and not follow the herd in these situations.

Another problem is overconfidence. In a bull market especially, investors are prone to thinking that their investment decisions are bulletproof, and will often make decisions about where to invest their money without enough analysis. Richards suggest three questions to ask yourself and to go over the answers with someone you trust before you make an investment decision, which he calls the OC (Overconfidence Conversation):
1. If I make this change, and I am right, what impact will it have on my life?
2. What impact will it have if I am wrong?
3. Have I been wrong before?
Question 3 seems a gimme, but...

I liked what he had to say about the Greater Fool of stock market lore. The most recent example was in the run up to the housing crisis recently, when it seemed everyone was speculating on the rapidly rising price of homes, either using their paper home equity as an ATM by taking out more and more loans, or buying up properties and hoping to sell them after a short period of time for a profit. I was watching all of this happening, as well as the mass migration of previously sane engineers, salesmen and others into the professions of real estate broker, mortgage broker and loan officer, and wondering how long it could go on; how people were affording homes that had skyrocketed in price past all sane loan and budget guidelines. It seems that, when you're doing something dumb, whether it's buying high priced real estate or beanie babies, the only way out is to hope someone else is dumber, and hope they'll come along and take your investment off your hands before the bubble bursts.

It's often difficult to ignore the noise, to hold a steady course with your financial plan (which Richards suggests creating with the help of a professional and then following no matter what Jim Cramer says), while the media is screaming about the end of the world or about old rules no longer applying. Richards says that people are often surprised, in conversations with him at social events, given his profession, at his lack of interest in what the stock market as a whole, or individual investments, are doing. If pressed, he tells them that he helps "people make smart decisions about money so they can build and protect their wealth over time" and that "the ability to build and protect wealth is often inversely related to knowing what's going on in the market." Very refreshing.

This book is a quick, accessible and interesting read. There are lots of his sketches, helping to make what seems complicated very simple, scattered throughout the book. Even if you know nothing about the stock market or about investing, it will all make perfect sense.

Awakenings by Edward Lazellari

I'm always on the lookout for new authors, and I happened to see this book on the New Books shelf at the library, so I thought it was worth checking out - both ways. As I began reading it, it seemed to me highly derivative, as a tale of a band of desperate travelers from a magical universe crossing into modern day America, a little bit like the Keepers of the Hidden Ways series by Rosenberg.

Strangely enough, it turned out to be a really easy read, and I got interested in the characters and their dilemmas. Sometime in the past, it was agreed that the land of Aandor  could only be ruled by a king who contained the blood of all twelve of its kingdoms. When such a child was born, rival nobles began to plot how to prevent the child's ascension to the throne. To remove the child from danger, a group of loyalists, led by Cal McDonnell, went through a portal into our world where the child would be hidden.

Unfortunately, one of their own betrayed them, casting a spell which left all of them with total amnesia, and they all wandered off different directions, eventually dying or creating new lives for themselves on Earth. After thirteen years local time, however, another group has been sent, to find the boy emperor and capture or kill him, while a lone loyalist, a centaur named Lelani, has also headed for Earth, to try to find out what became of the original travelers and to help them protect and return the boy to be crowned.

A quick, amusing read, obviously meant to be the first of a series, as nothing is really resolved in this installment.

Tuscany by Jonathan Keates

Keates paints a beautiful picture of the midsection of Italy known as Tuscany in this travel guide. It's not a typical guide, listing places to stay, establishments to dine in, trains to catch, or handy phrases to know. It's more of a descriptive, narrative journey through the regions of Tuscany. Beautifully illustrated by landscape photographer Charlie Waite, the photos all seem to have a slightly mysterious and misty quality, lending the whole thing a bit of a fairytale air.

Keates is very well-versed in the history of Italy's warring factions, from the strictly secular to the papal succession rivals, and seems to have his finger well on the pulse of the literary and artistic scene of modern and ancient Italy. The area was named for the Etruscans who used to live her, six centuries or so before Christ, and I get the feeling that there is perhaps more history to be discovered in Italy than pretty much anywhere else.

He mentions St. Zita, the patroness of chambermaids, canonized in 1952...I guess every profession needs a patron saint, eh? Patron saint of network administrators?

His turn of phrase is often amusing:

"Now the island is a haven for wildlife outside the annual period of grotesque carnage which passes in Italy for 'hunting'".

He speaks of the Fortezza Orsini, "built on medieval foundations by the Sienese architect Anton Maria Lari in 1552 and traditionally never taken by besiegers."

How's that work? The besiegers are about to break down the gate, rape the women, pillage the treasury, and one of the guardsmen says, "You can't do that! We have a tradition, you know."

If you're not interested in a practical how-to guide, but enjoy a rambling, bumbling sort of tour, not in any great hurry, you'd do well to pick up Keates' guide.

Blogoversary

Hard to believe the blog has been live now for two years. The time has certainly flown by. I've been averaging reading 3 to 4 books a week for another year, and haven't forgotten to review and post even one - though a couple barely deserved it.

Not a lot of progress on the Followers front, and I understand Google/Blogger is discontinuing that feature anyway. I appreciate everyone who has been faithfully following my blog, and hope y'all continue to stop by and comment on my thoughts.

Let's raise a toast to another good year!

Raven Cursed by Faith Hunter

The only downside to this Jane Yellowrock novel is that it's the last currently written for this series, so there's going to be a wait for the next one. I think I'll have to check out Hunter's other series.

After the mess at the summit between the witches and vampires in New Orleans, Jane decides to get out of town, so she heads for Asheville, North Carolina to get away from it all...but not really. Her boyfriend, Rick LaFleur, was bitten by a were panther, and is anticipating turning furry at the next full moon, so he's also hiding out near Asheville, in the woods, with the head of the African were cat delegation, Kemnebi, who has agreed to help him through the transition, but who secretly hates Rick, and intends to kill him when he's helpless.

Jane's witch friend, Molly, and the rest of her family are also living near Asheville, and when Master of New Orleans and most of the southern U.S.A., Leo Pellisier needs to have a high level audience between his delegate and a powerful vampire from Asheville, he requests and requires Jane's participation as head of security. Jane recruits the ex-military group headed by Derek to help out, so, aside from a change of scenery, the gang's all here for a wild and , crazy brawl.

Oh, I forgot to mention that two of the werewolves whose pack Jane and her friends wiped out in Mercy Blade, while Jane thought they were safely tucked away in jail, have gotten out and headed for the wilderness nearby, where they are attacking campers, hoping to infect some females, to rebuild the pack. Did I fail to note that the grindylow, whose race is responsible for catching and killing rogue weres, is also marking territory in the woods of NC?

Jane must use all of her powers to help local law enforcement track down and kill or capture the renegade werewolves, rescue Molly and her younger sisters and the rest of the family from a spell cast by their coven leader and elder sister, Evangelina, banish a demon, execute a rogue vamp, help Rick through his transition, and somehow or other - survive.

There's a couple of brief appearances from another vampire faction, either attempting to take control of some of Leo's territory, or disrupt the negotiations for some other reason, we never know just why - probably fodder for a sequel.

Molly's daughter, Angie, who has come into her witch powers far earlier than the usual puberty-based awakening, turns out to have some surprisingly strong powers and allies, which makes it fun.

Jane learns more, perhaps, than she bargained for about her own and her people's past from the demon, and only her connection to Beast keeps her from being overwhelmed by this evil monster. In the end, to defeat it, she sacrifices almost more than she can bear.

Lots of action, plenty of fun!

Throw Them All Out by Peter Schweizer

I had always somehow assumed that the members of Congress and the Senate were somehow covered by the same sorts of insider trading rules and conflict of interest policies that the rest of the country has to abide by, but Schweizer's book has rapidly disabused me of that quaint notion. I always knew that the politically powerful had financially advantageous connections, who steered them to business deals that the rest of us would never be privy to, but the practices described in Throw Them All Out go far beyond my innocent imaginings.

The book attempts to be non-partisan, and lists examples from both sides of the aisle of those who have benefited from their access to insider information and their abilities to manipulate the market, as well as steer legislation that would benefit their private coffers. There is, however, a fairly heavy focus on the party in power today, which I believe has two reasons: first, the party with the most control over legislation is the most heavily courted, and gets to appoint its cronies to positions of power, and second, our memories are short, and we'd probably have no idea who Schweizer was talking about if he detailed all the business wheelings and dealings of previous administrations.

I'm certain that we all recall the broad strokes of the events that led to the banking crisis in this country. Schweizer relates the story of a briefing that took place between the leaders of The Fed and major Senators and Congresscritters from both sides of the aisle, warning them of the coming collapse of many of the megabanks. Within days after that meeting, many of the attendees sold off large blocks of stock that they owned in those banks, knowing that the prices would go tumbling down. While the rest of us took our losses in the market meltdown that followed, our humble representatives didn't lose a dime!

Then, as meetings went on throughout the crisis, when it became apparent that the TARP bailout was actually going to be passed and put into place to rescue many of the banks, the same group of folks quietly bought back bank stocks that they knew would be getting bailout money, at bargain basement prices.

"One study by scholars at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business and the University of Chicago found that during the critical votes on the subprime-mortgage bailout and subsequent matter related to the financial crisis of 2008, a key facto in how members of Congress voted was whether they held stock in banks and in the financial sector. Personal equity ownership also influenced congressional committee decisions on the amount of bailout money particular financial institutions received and how quickly they got it."

The truly scandalous thing about all this, however, is not that they're doing these sorts of things, but that the Congressional Ethics Committee deems it acceptable. When a particular member of the House Financial Services committee approached the ethics experts there about whether it was OK for him to use options puts and calls to double his congressional salary, they gave him the green light. If members of Congress buy and trade stock based on "valuable information revealed in private meetings, phone calls and correspondence" they are not guilty of any wrongdoing - by their own rules!

Members of Congress also are known for increasing the value of their private real estate holdings by the legislative earmark process. They can be instrumental in determining which local municipalities get federal money, and see to it that roads are built granting access to previously undeveloped plots of land which, coincidentally, they own, or approving light rail projects within walking distance of their commercial buildings, and they are!

Companies or industries that make the investment, not in R&D, but in political campaign donations, seem to have an edge when it comes to receiving government contracts or funding. In the case of the stimulus package recently, billionaire venture capitalist John Doerr has donated almost $2 million to Democrats over the past twenty years.
"...well over 50% of the companies listed...as part of his Green-tech venture capital portfolio received taxpayer grants or loan guarantees from Obama's stimulus program."
Some highlights:

• One company alone received $102 million in credits!
• 60% of another of Doerr's company's customers were winners of government grants totalling more than $560 million!

That was $20 million well spent!

These are just a few examples of the outrageous actions of our ruling political class. Plenty more in the book. I consider this book a must-read for all voters before Election Day 2012.

Shadows in Flight by Orson Scott Card

Card has, for many years, been one of those authors whose novels I'm unable to put down until finished, once I start. This novel, part of the endless Ender's Game saga, wasn't quite that enthralling, but it managed to wrap up one dangling plot thread from the tale of his old sidekick in Battle School, Bean (Julian Delphiki). Bean was a genetically engineered human, designed by a scientist to have extremely high intelligence, but an unfortunate side effect of the process was that it turned off the genetic switch regulating growth, and Bean is destined to continue growing, becoming a giant whose body will not survive past his mid twenties.

In an earlier book, Bean and Petra (also from Battle School) fell in love, married, and had children. Three of the children, Andrew, Carlotta and Cincinattus, were afflicted with Anton's syndrome, and Bean takes the children away from Earth with him on a starship, hoping to take advantage of the time dilation effect to allow researchers to work on a cure. They are well into the voyage at the beginning of this tale.

They discover an Earth-like planet in a distant solar system, at the same time as a ship of the Hive Queens goes into orbit around it. Everyone believes that all of the Hive Queens (save the one in its cocoon that Ender, Speaker for the Dead, is still dragging around the galaxy with him) are dead, and the Formic threat destroyed. Bean and the children decide to attempt contacting the aliens, and there's some interesting stuff about what they discover on board, as to the fate of the Formics.

Not his best work, but amusing, and it wraps up a sub plot nicely.

Embassytown by China Mieville

I've seen Mieville's works on the shelves at the library quite frequently, and finally decided to give him a try. If Embassytown is representative of the quality of his writings, I may have to read some more. Embassytown reminds me of some of the older science fiction authors. Suzette Haden Elgin leaps immediately to mind, as well as LeGuin, the first because this novel deals primarily with xenolinguistics, and the second for the odd human and alien cultures she described in her novels.

Avice grew up in Embassytown, an enclave on an alien world occupied by the Hosts, or Arekei. The Arekei have two mouths that they use for speaking, and are only able to understand humans speaking their language when it is spoken by a pair of humans, The Ambassadors, who have been specially cloned, raised and trained to think the same thoughts as they speak. The other odd thing about the language of the Hosts is that it is impossible for the Hosts to lie while speaking. They are only able to say things that are true, by some strange quirk of their neural programming and biology. Ordinary humans are able to understand, to some extent, the Hosts' language, but when they try to use it, the Arekei hear only meaningless noise.

When Avice was young, she became a simile for the Hosts. As the hosts are capable of only literally speaking what exists, in order for them to speak figuratively of something, they use the humans to perform strange actions and become similes or metaphors to which they can refer. Wild stuff, I know, but this is the sort of creative thing that Mieville uses that I found so intriguing. Avice became "The Girl who Ate what Was Given Her", and when she returns to Embassytown after a career working on space vessels traveling the "immer", she is still recognized and even acquires a coterie of Host groupies.

Another little creative bit that I found amusing was when the "automa" (mobile self-aware artificial intelligences) in Embassytown are infected with a virus that turns them into preachers of a new religion, and "...their catechisms changing as the 'ware degraded and threw up protestant, variant sects."

When a unique form of political sabotage sends a new Ambassador, EzRa, to Embassytown whose voice acts as an immediately addictive drug on the Arekei, all hell breaks loose. The addiction is contagious, nor merely limited to those who hear EzRa, but also by biological contamination between the infected Hosts and other Hosts, as well as many of their biological creations - they're supergeniuses when it comes to genetic engineering, and use biological constructs for all of their industrial applications.

Very serious, world-threatening problems develop, and the solution is totally amazing. I highly recommend this novel, and I'll let you know as I try some more Mieville.

The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer by Lucy Weston

This review is coming in as a twofer today, as it is extremely brief. I only got about 44 pages into the book before giving up on it. Perhaps folks who are more into historical romances might like it, though I'm sure any Arturian purists won't.

The events of the book, purportedly written by the character, Lucy, from Stoker's Dracula,  center around the coronation of Elizabeth Tudor. She has some previously unexploited spiritual powers which, I am assuming, will make her a powerful vampire slayer. The main antagonist in this book appears to be Mordred, bastard son of Arthur and Morgaine, who has survived for centuries as a powerful master vampire. When he took Elizabeth on a flying tour of the capital cities of Europe, offering her the opportunity to jointly rule them with him, a la Satan and Christ, I gave up.

P.N. Elrod did a better mixing of Arturian legend and vampire adventures quite some time ago with Keeper of the King and a companion volume, His Father's Son, I believe.

Becoming Ray Bradbury by Jonathan R. Eller

This is an extraordinarily complete and comprehensive account of how Ray Bradbury was inspired and created all of his stories and novels. Painstakingly filled with details, it's a very slow read.

Bradbury began writing while quite young, and was heavily involved in the science fiction fan community in the Los Angeles area. The book is full of information about his relationships with many of the players in the early SF field, such as Leigh Bracket, Henry Kuttner, August Derleth, Hannes Bok, and many others.

Unfortunately, it tends to loop back upon itself chronologically at times, which can be a bit confusing.

One quote I found amusing:

"Late in 1945, he would remark to (August) Derleth, 'God, are there no happy big-time writers?'"

It seemed to take him a while, personally, to find happiness, as he lived with his parents and even slept in the same bed with his older brother until his marriage at age 27.

The book mentions "Franz Werfel's perennial bestseller The Song of Bernadette", which I found interesting. I am not alone in having nominated Werfel's Star of the Unborn as the all-time worst SF novel ever published.

Another interesting passage:

"He (Bradbury) was able to use the evolving Dark Carnival collection to signify that a literary author had emerged from a genre where writers were often seen as entertainers rather than authors..."

I tend to enjoy "entertainers" more than "authors", myself. Non-fiction reading keeps me well aware of the miserable state of most human experience. I much prefer to read to escape from reality.

A great book for the serious Bradbury student.

Mercy Blade by Faith Hunter

Getting close to being caught up with this series, finally. I have to go grab the fourth book, Raven Cursed, at the library tomorrow.

Jane is still working under contract with the master of New Orleans, Leo Pellisier, when the recently "outed" werewolves and werepanthers bring a delegation to the city. The panthers appear to be friendly, while the wolves are openly hostile, having been banned from the city a century ago for violating their own laws against infecting humans with the lycanthropy disease.

Leo asks Jane to meet with "a persona non grata" with his authority to warn him away at a remote location. Jane assumes that it's a were, and heads to the meet, but encounters an entire pack of werewolves who are ready to rumble. When they attack her, the person she was really supposed to meet comes to her aid, and rescues her from the pack. His name is Girrard DiMercy, and he once was the "mercy blade" for the vampire clans in the city, the one responsible for killing the vampires who did not escape the madness that lasts for a time after a new vampire has risen from the grave. Jane is not sure what Girrard is, as he's not one of the well-known supernatural types, and he remains mysterious throughout most of the book.

Jane's relationship with Rick LaFleur has gotten very serious, and she begins to worry about him when he disappears into an undercover assignment, and doesn't contact her at all for several days, but she's got her hands full with preparations for a diplomatic meeting between the werecats and the vampires, while the negotiations with the witches are still ongoing. Unsurprisingly, the meeting at vampire central rapidly dissolves into a bloodbath, with the uninvited werewolves crashing the party and starting a brawl, and the female werepanther, Safia, ending up murdered, apparently by one or more of Leo's minions. The prime suspects include Bruiser, Leo's prime blood servant and head of security, with whom Jane has had a seriously flirtatious relationship, which gets even more "touchy" when he moves in with her, seeking sanctuary from the police and supernatural politics.

So, Jane has to unravel the whodunnit, clear Bruiser's name, get rid of the werewolf thugs, find and rescue Rick, all without revealing her skinwalking nature to anyone. Plenty of action, good plot twists, and some self-discovery on her part. The ending has really got me wondering if the series will be seeking a new venue, maybe heading to the countryside instead of the urban landscape.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

My friend, Scott, is now two for two on recommending new, intriguing authors for me to read. The first one he told me about was Patrick Rothfuss, whom I've really enjoyed. I thought when I saw the title of this one that it was going to be some sort of retelling of Gaelic myth, but it turned out that Lynch has created an interesting and rather exciting new world, with this first tale centered around the island city of Camorr.

It's got a bit of that Oliver Twist flavor at first, as the protagonist, Locke Lamora, is an orphan purchased by the Thiefmaker, who is sold to the blind priest known as Chains when it turns out that Locke is just a little more than he bargained for. Chains is not actually blind, but is running a con on worshipers at the Temple of Perelandro. He has recruited his own select small band of boys to train in more ambitious and devious ploys than the pickpockets and second-story men that infest Camorra.

Chains teaches Locke and his other proteges all of the scholarly and noble arts, as well as sending them off to be trained in various forms of combat, and to other temples of the Twelve Gods, to learn the customs and secret rituals of the other temples, so they may pass unheeded and unhindered in their business around the city. Camorr's underbelly is ruled by Capa Barsava, a ruthless ruler of all of the Right People, as the criminals call themselves, who has established a Secret Peace with the ruler of Camorr, Duke Nicovante. As long as the thieves do not steal from the nobility, they are free to molest all of the lower and middle class at will.

The action moves smoothly back and forth between Locke's adventures as the leader of the Gentlemen Bastards, the gang he leads after Chains passes away (we never find out when or how this happened), and his early indoctrination by the cunning false priest. When an interloper known as the Gray King begins to kill, one by one, all of Capa Barsava's gang leaders, Locke is drawn into a game far more deadly than the scams he and his friends have begun to ply upon the unsuspecting noble dons of the city.

The Gray King has, in his service, one of the infamous bondmages of Karthain, a group so powerful that none dare cross them, as they seem to have a Hells Angels motto of "mess with one of us, you mess with all of us." The Gray King selects Locke to be an unwitting dupe in his schemes to dethrone Barsava and to wreak a horrible vengeance on the nobles of the city as well, and Locke's Gentlemen Bastards are in for the caper and fight of their lives. Locke's current scam also gets him crossways with the mysterious leader of the Duke's secret police, the Spider, and he needs to avoid the webs spun to catch him by that shadowy entity in the midst of chaos.

Very brutal, with a richly imagined new world, complete with mysterious magics, vanished ancient races and their ruins, and a whole host of fun new characters.

Phantasm by Phaedra Weldon

I've been puttering along, enjoying this series bit by bit, until I bit into Phantasm. I found it confusing, with many twists inserted into the plot, for no apparent reason, and it turned into a bit of soap opera.

For example, Zoe has had a serious relationship building with Detective Daniel for the first two books, but he got seriously freaked out at the end of Spectre when he saw her, in her Wraith incarnation, releasing the ghost of a murdered policeman. Instead of dealing with this in a constructive fashion, Zoe and Daniel don't communicate at all, and she flirts with former undercover cop, Joe, who is a bit more sanguine about the supernatural, and then ends up having wild monkey sex with Dags (Darren) after a death-defying battle scene. Joe and Rhonda are apparently living (and sleeping?) together, but Rhonda has been in love with Dags all along, and Zoe's impulsive behavior sends all of the gang's personal relationships into a death spiral.

Various factions within the spiritual community are constantly trying to kill, capture, suborn, or influence Zoe in one way or another, and her erstwhile enemies become allies, for a time, then enemies again...It's just too much crazy stuff going on for me to follow.

Near the end, when Daniel has been driven insane by being overshadowed by The Horror (the main bogey man in this book), he ends up killing his supervisor in a street shootout, though Zoe was his real target, as he's become convinced that she's the devil incarnate. At that point, Zoe and TC (the spirit entity that's caused her so much grief from the beginning) team up to wipe Daniel's memories, so he will no longer remember what she has done. If they could do this, why didn't they do it right after they found out he was confined in a mental institution for his paranoia? Too much semi-convenient discovery of new abilities.

Deeply flawed, it leaves me wondering whether I'll bother reading the next book, Revenant.

Rule 34 by Charles Stross

If William Gibson had waited twenty years to write Neuromancer, it might have turned out to be very much like Rule 34. Gibson had no idea what kind of odd things might crawl out of cyberspace in a couple of decades, but Stross seems to capture a near future that's far too real for comfort. The story takes place in the same milieu as Halting State, not too much later, but doesn't seem to have many of the same characters.

There are several separate story lines and characters that Stross follows from beginning until the end, when he weaves all of the strands back together again. It's a little confusing on that score, as well as trying to learn the new slang that all of the characters spout so naturally.

Detective Inspector Liz Kavanaugh is the head of the Rule 34 squad, which is tasked with monitoring the internet and heading off memes that can mutate from harmless fetishes and amusements to criminal activities. When some ex-cons turn up dead, in various locations around Europe, some disturbing coincidences and their manner of death leads Liz to believe that there's a common entity and purpose behind the bizzare killings.

A muslim immigrant from India, named Anwar, has just been released from jail on probation. He needs to keep his nose clean, not associating with the petty criminals, including his brother-in-law, who got him involved in dubious undertakings to begin with. One of his old friends, and sometime lovers, Adam, puts him onto a job lead, working as a part-time consul for a breakaway republic of Kyrgiztan, Przewalsk. Unfortunately, though the job appears to be quite proper, Anwar soon finds himself involved in some unsavory activities, and realizes that the entire consulate may be a huge scam.

A representative of The Organization (like a high tech mafia), who goes by the name of The Toymaker, arrives in Edinburgh to interview executives for a new operation he's begun. Unfortunately, both candidates for the position are among the recently deceased, and he suspects "enemy action".

So what do a bunch of spammers' murders have to do with the economy of Kyrgiztan and the plots of The Organization? You'll have to read through this tortuously twisty book to find out. Very imaginative vintage Stross, though he paints a rather dismal view of the digital future.

The Amazon Legion by Tom Kratman

In The Amazon Legion, Carrera is desperate for more troops, and proposes a novel experiment, especially for the male-centric culture of Balboa, training up a legion of women warriors, and another one consisting solely of homosexual males.

Most of the book has as its protagonist Maria Fuentes, a young woman of impeccable family, who gets herself in the family way by trusting the blandishments of a young man of good family. When he denies being the father, she is disgraced and runs away to raise the baby on her own. This doesn't work out too well, as she is repeatedly victimized in the underbelly of Balboan society. A chance meeting with Carrera, however, puts her on track to apply for the new Amazon Legion where, if she succeeds, she and her daughter will be taken care of, and once again feel part of a family.

We follow Maria through her training, which is about as brutal as basic in the U.S. Marine Corps, aside from some minor modifications made to account for the relative strength and endurance of female troops as compared to males.  After she graduates from basic, she goes on to a form of OCS intended to turn her into the equivalent of a noncommissioned officer in the Legion.

When the Taurans finally lose patience with Balboa, and attack, we get to tag along with Maria and her Amazons on some fairly normal military missions, and also a long sojourn as a guerilla fighter against the invaders. As we've come to expect from these stories, there's plenty of blood and gore to go around.

I loved the Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress tribute, naming the mountain camp Camp Bernardo O'Higgins.

One great quote:
"All the courses and books in the world on building self-esteem are largely exercises in learning how to be a bad judge of character."

Kratman spends a great deal of time in this novel expounding on the idea that social experimentation, in the form of attempting to integrate gay soldiers and female soldiers into the general military population, has serious consequences and repercussions upon fighting effectiveness and morale. There are quite a few discussions, as well, on the subject of "why we fight".

More good reading in the ongoing saga of Terra Nova by Kratman, though I can't determine whether this amounts to a side plot, with the main action still to be published in a new installment.

Spectre by Phaedra Weldon

The second novel in the Zoe Martinique Investigations series seems just slightly less dark than the first one. Zoe has mostly recovered from her adventures in becoming a Wraith, aside from having lost her voice completely, though she's picked up enough sign language to compensate for it, mostly. She's become romantically involved with Detective Daniel Frasier, but between the injuries he sustained in the last battle and his innately chivalrous nature, they haven't consummated their attraction yet.

Her mysterious client, Maharba, contacts Zoe with a "make-up" assignment, sending her to a political fundraiser for Congressman March Knowles, asking her to listen in on any meetings he might have with a certain businessman (very similar to her first troublesome assignment for Maharba). Fortuitously, Daniel is also attending the fundraiser, to keep an eye on things for the Atlanta PD, so she gets all prettied up and it looks for a bit as if she might have a lovely night on the town with her beau.

Unfortunately, when she goes out of body to listen in on the meeting, a woman is murdered in the restroom where she's left her body resting, and things begin to be complicated.

There are a couple of magic-using factions that are vying for power, and they've begun a cycle of violence aimed at possessing for their sides five objects of power called Eidolons, which have been secretly held by five different astral travelers for decades. Zoe and Daniel, and an undercover detective named Joe, who was coincidentally the same person who helped Zoe revive after she ended up on a slab in the morgue in Wraith, must try to unravel the plots and counterplots.

Zoe gains a few new mystical abilities, finds out more than she bargained for about her family and friends, and remains sexually frustrated to the bitter end. Still a fun series.

The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Retrieval Artist books, by Rusch, came highly recommended by Orson Scott Card, one of my favorite authors. I've had the third one on my shelves for a while, and finally broke down and bought the first one in the series for my Nook just before Christmas. In The Disappeared, we are introduced to a world where humans have spread out into the solar system and beyond, occupying Mars, Luna, and some enclaves in other solar systems already inhabited by several races of aliens.

From a hard science fiction standpoint, there's nothing really interesting in this novel, just the usual space yachts and laser guns, and people seem to live on the Moon in more or less the same manner as more mundane locations. The interesting concepts here relate to how our society relates to the alien societies with which it must interact.

The timing of my reading the book ended up somewhat topical, as the Iraqi government's refusal to allow our military and contract personnel immunity from prosecution under their laws had a great deal to do with the timing of our troop withdrawal there in the waning days of 2011. In The Disappeared, the real conflict is generated by seeing what happens when our ideas about justice, crime and punishment come into conflict with the legal systems of alien cultures.

On various worlds where humans have been allowed to settle, there are at least three different races who, first, consider different acts to be criminal than we do, and second, punish those acts in ways we seldom, if ever, consider. The Disty punish crimes by brutal acts of murder and dismemberment (in a sort of pour encourager les autres way). The Rev require repayment for a crime by the criminal working at slave labor for twenty years or more. The Wygnans take, by force if necessary, the first-born child of the offender, who is then raised as a Wygnan, not a human, and will never return to human culture nor see her family ever again.

Understandably, people who run afoul of the justice system of these races will go to great lengths to avoid punishment, sometimes taking advantage of a disappearance agency, which relocates them and establishes a completely new, untraceable identity for them. The Disappeared is the story of what happens when the largest of those agencies is sold to new owners who decide that there's a great deal of money to be made by selling the information about the people in their files to the aliens, and turning the perps over to them.

A pretty good start, and worth following up on.

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

In honor of the fact that I saw the trailer for the new movie, John Carter, the other night, I bring you a true golden oldie, in this first book of the Barsoom series by Burroughs. This story was first serialized in All-Story Magazine in 1912, and later published under its current title. Burroughs begins the tale with a type of preface which seems to have been a stock gimmick in those days, claiming that he received a manuscript in a secretive fashion after the passing of John Carter from this world, containing the story. I wonder if Joseph Smith read the pulps, it might explain a lot.

John Carter is a protagonist who claims to have no recollection of his antecedents, remembering only having been a soldier for many years, most recently fighting in the Civil War. After the defeat of the Confederacy, he and a fellow combatant head for Arizona to prospect for gold. They discover a large lode, but when his buddy heads back to town to file the claim, he is ambushed by Indians, and Carter's attempt to rescue him ends with Carter fleeing for his life, taking refuge in a cave, where he is somehow mysteriously (astral projection, anyone?) transported to the surface of Mars.

He is captured by a tribe of four-armed green barbarians, but manages to improve his status when he fells one of the warriors with one blow, so is awarded provisional status as a member of the tribe. The green martians have just made the pilgrimage to one of their egg incubation sites, where they claim their young after a five year interval, and so Carter is fortunately able to learn the language with the young martians, as well as study the martial arts, being cared for by a member of the entourage of one of their chieftains, Tars Tarkas.

The green martians are beings without the finer sentiments of love, affection, kindness or compassion, but Carter is able to impress them by his skills in winning the loyalty of the traditional riding beasts, the thoats, and of the beast set to guard him, a toad-like dog analogue, Woola, with his affectionate treatment of the animals.

The tribes have long been at war with other tribes of green martians, as well as the other races of Mars, including the red martians, who are more civilized, and who guard the ancient technologies of Barsoom, preserved from a time before the seas of Mars dried up. When the daughter of the ruler of the largest group of red martians, Dejah Thoris, from the city of Helium, is captured by the green tribes, Carter is smitten by her beauty, and becomes her protector against the cruelty of the green men.

I had no idea the sentiment had been around for so long, but Burroughs, in an early passage, says: "In one respect at least the Martians are a happy people; they have no lawyers."

In his attempt to help Dejah escape the clutches of her captors, and traverse the harsh Barsoomian lands to return to her people, Carter has many wild adventures, however improbable. A true classic.

Blood Cross by Faith Hunter

Skinwalker Jane Yellowrock is still hanging out in New Orleans, with a contract from the vampire council to track down and deliver the final death to rogue vampires and the old rogue who is creating them. Her witch friend, Molly, is staying at the house with her while her sorcerous husband is away in South America, along with Molly's two children, Evan Jr. and Angie, who has some serious witchy talents of her own, even though she's nowhere near puberty, the traditional age for the manifestation of such things.

Vampire politics are always tense, but they seem even more intense than usual when Jane attends a party in the Warehouse District with Master Vamp Leonard Pellissier's human servant, George "Bruiser" Dumas. Long-held clan alliances are fraying, and some clan leaders are hoping to change the balance of power, to rule in Leo's stead soon.

Jane's Beast hasn't mated in quite some time, and neither has Jane, so the sexual tension ratchets up in an odd potential love triangle between Bruiser, Jane and Rick LaFleur, NOPD detective. Killing two bats with one stone, perhaps, Jane convinces Rick to allow her to use the police files to investigate the city's vampire history, and discovers that a number of witch children have disappeared in New Orleans over a long period of time, with no serious investigation by the authorities. There's a certain segment of the population that believes that witches aren't fully human, and so, often their cases aren't really followed up thoroughly. But Rick, and a few others on the force, are not prejudiced, and hope Jane can help them bring closure to these cases.

There's a fairly significant side plot where Jane seeks counsel from a Cherokee shaman woman, grandmotherly type, and goes through a sweat lodge ritual to purge herself of weakness. This leaves her well-prepared for the coming battle with those who are kidnapping and sacrificing the witch children, who, coincidentally, turn out to be the same group of vampires who are plotting the overthrow of clan Pellissier.

Jane seems to grow less secretive with her friends in this book, and perhaps begins to trust some of her allies, discovering that she can't always go it alone.

Downpour by Kat Richardson

Downpour is the sixth book in the Greywalker series, and Richardson has indeed allowed Harper Blaine to chase after lesser monsters for a time. This is a good thing, as after she was shot at the end of the last book, she's lost stamina, and a certain amount of her Grey manipulating abilities, though perhaps has gained some more subtle arcane skills. The saga continues to be a little dark, but as one might expect from a setting in the western rain forest zone, gets pretty wet, as well.

While investigating a witness for a lawyer friend in a mundane case, Harper encounters the ghost of a man who has been murdered and his car disposed of by dumping it in the middle of Lake Crescent, near Port Angeles. For better or worse, Harper is still the chosen agent of the Guardian Beast of the Grey, and it's up to her to remedy disturbances in that realm.

The lake area has long been a center and source of magical power, and two major ley lines cross there. But  one of the ley lines has come unglued when its anchor was removed, and the resulting flailing around of the untethered end has resulted in a free for all situation for the magic users, magic creatures, and other denizens of this sleepy little resort area.

Richardson weaves a lot of local flavor into this tale, and spent a significant amount of time in the area researching its history. Harper and Quinton take their relationship to a whole new level, which may foreshadow a more active role for him in future installments. In place of the Egyptian mythos that we saw in Labyrinth, she adds an element of Chinese mysticism to this story. Will she continue to have Harper roam farther and farther afield, or will we return to her old stomping grounds in the next novel?

Of Thee I Zing by Laura Ingraham

My mom is a big fan of Laura Ingraham, so I thought I might check out her book, though I've seldom seen or listened to her in the media. I think it's possible that she's channeling Andy Rooney at the moment, as it mostly reminds me of his curmudgeonly rants on Sixty Minutes over the years. Some of her observations of our cultural craziness are spot on, but some of them fall a bit short of the mark, and descend into mere snark.

For example, when she criticizes church goers who spend more on a latte than they put in the collection plate, it's definitely a sign of the times, "The father pulled out his billfold and after flipping past several twenties, dropped exactly one dollar into the basket. Let me get this straight. Six dollars for a drink. One dollar for Jesus. I hope their barista will save them a place in Paradise." but when she goes on a rant about the use of modern musical instruments in worship services, she merely sounds like a cranky old woman. Every era in Christian history has made use of whatever instruments they had to sing praises, and there's no point in trying to hold on to the traditions of the 1950s forever, it's just counterproductive and drives off younger believers.

I did get a chortle out of her attack on a new vegan tradition, "The vegans among us have made a recent habit of serving a 'Tofurkey' on the big day...Anything that has the consistency of curds is not likely to reemble a turkey when it comes out of the oven. It looks more like a smoking, spongy brown helmet."

She hammers pretty heavily on the kids wearing baggy pants, "on the ground", and the increasingly slutty styles for preadolsescent girls, bad behavior on airplanes, horrible manners, and sexting, among other symptoms of the times.

I rather liked her approach to attending late evening neighborhood parties.

"Occasionally, I'll stop by the parties to check out the spread (to be polite). Then once I get home, I go up to my room, get into my PJs, and call the cops."

She's almost as bad as the warehouse club lunch crowd she criticizes.

A mixed bag, but if you enjoy a bit of sarcasm aimed at pop culture, worth a few hours investment.

Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara

I thought I knew where this novel was going, but very near the end, it went sharply off in a new direction. Not a bad direction, just unexpected.

Kaylin receives a message from the lord of the fief of Barren, where she spent some time after leaving the fief of Nightshade. Barren has some dirt on Kaylin's past, and threatens to reveal it to her new friends on the right side of the Ablayne River, if she doesn't come to visit.

There are quite a few flashbacks in this one. The message was delivered by a woman called Morse, who taught Kaylin (then known as Eliana) most of what she knows about killing. Barren used Kaylin as one of his assassins, removing troublesome folks from the fief, until he sent her on a suicidal quest to kill the Lord of Hawks, in the city of Elantra.

Through the flashbacks, we learn how Kaylin first arrived in Barren, how she survived there, and even get some insight into her early life, when her mother was still alive. We also learn quite a bit more about the nature of the fiefs, the towers and castles at the hearts of the seven fiefs, and their creation by the Old Ones.

There is a theme that runs through this book about the nature of love, belonging, and dealing with abandonment and guilt. It's a bit heavy for entertainment in a fantasy novel, but every author should get their chance to say what's on their mind, right?

The battle with the shadows, the Outcaste dragon, and the evil at the heart of the seventh fief is still coming, and being well set up in this installment. I definitely need to put the next two books on a library hold request.

No Apology by Mitt Romney

I find myself wondering, as I often do after reading a political manifesto from an "active" candidate for office, whether the book was written by the candidate, and all of its facts, figures and opinions are internalized and part of the real package, or if it's been ghostwritten, and we're merely seeing the product of his handlers' marketing efforts. The only way to tell, I suppose, is to see what happens after they reach office, whether their actions turn out to be consistent with what was written. If former governor Romney actually knows all of the subjects in his book as thoroughly as is written, I'm impressed.

If you want to just cut to the chase, and not bother getting fully educated, you can turn to the epilogue and read the summary, but I think the whole thing is worth reading, in any case.

Romney is a strong supporter of private enterprise, as one might suspect, given his business background before entering politics. One thing he says:

"It has been my experience that almost always government is far less productive than enterprises in the private sector. That's why private companies build roads for governments and make equipment for the military. It's also part of the reason why FedEx and UPS can make a profit shipping and delivering packages while the U.S. Postal Service loses money, even with its inherent competitive advantages."

He talks a bit about the process of "creative destruction", wherein old industries become obsolete, and innovation results in new industries, where workers are now employed. Too much of the efforts of our government and labor unions are spent protecting old industries, discouraging competition, rather than embracing change and encouraging new development, in his opinion.

Romney was also opposed to the federal government's takeover of General Motors, and the sweetheart deal the auto workers unions received, and believes its alleged return to private management is a myth. "A CEO of an automotive industry corporation told me that in spite of what is said in public, the government is calling the shots on every major decision at GM, including which plants to expand and which to close. Management by politicians is a losing proposition."

He identifies the things that are currently draining our economy:

"Wasteful spending by government drains capital that could otherwise fuel growth. Excessive taxation and outmoded regulation are economic brakes. Efforts to impose unions, restrict competition, and limit trade retard innovation and productivity. Frivolous and excessive litigation burdens businesses and discourages invention. And annually draining hundreds of billions of dollars from our economy to buy foreign oil slows down our economic growth."

On the great Social Security "trust fund" fraud:

Suppose two grandparents created a trust fund appointed a bank as trustee, and instructed the bank to invest the proceeds of the trust fund so as to provide for their grand children's education. Suppose further that the bank used the proceeds for its own purposes, so that when the grandchildren turned eighteen, there was no money for them to go to college. What would happen to the bankers responsible for misusing the money? They would go to jail. But what has happened to the people responsible for the looming bankruptcy of Social Security? They keep returning to Congress every two years."

Burn!

Romney appears to be a proponent of an effective educational system, saying that it's one of the key factors in maintaining America's productivity and economic growth, as well as individual success. He talks about how life is a bit like the old TV game show, Let's Make a Deal:

"All of us necessarily make 'deals' that have either fortunate or unfortunate consequences. But in life, you often know what lies behind the curtain before you have to make your choice. If you choose to stay in school and get a high-school diploma, for example, your lifetime income will be $400,000 greater than if you drop out. If you choose to go to college and get a bachelor's degree, you income will be $1,700,000 greater...A high-school dropout is more likely to go on welfare, become divorced, and spend time in prison....Choosing education is a very good decision..."

He mentions a phenomenon I've seen over and over again in local politics:

"When citizens vote to reduce education revenues or the state cuts back on funds, the education officials typically make the cuts where the voters will feel them most - in sports, music, arts, libraries and computers. You simply don't see administrators being fired or (admin) salaries being cut across the board."

One thing that always puzzled me a bit, when my teacher friends said it, was that the result of the testing regime begun with the No Child Left Behind act, forced them to "teach to the test."

Mitt addresses that idea here:

"Yet when I went online and personally took the exam that Massachusetts now administers to prospective high-school graduates, I discovered that 'teaching to the test' can only mean teaching the fundamentals of math, algebra, geometry, calculus, reading comprehension, and English composition. If giving students these skills is 'teaching to the test,' then I'm all for it - our kids can't succeed in life without these basic literacy and numeracy skills."

If you want a good picture of what Romney believes, and how he may govern if elected President, this is probably a good start. It certainly is better than the debates' limited format, and media soundbites.