The Sky Suspended, by Laura Montgomery

I realized as I was waiting for this review to post on Amazon that if they mess up, I have to re-write the review. Maybe I'll publish it on here, first.
Anyway:




5.0 out of 5 stars
Tasty, filling, and packed fully of yummy nuggets!
March 10, 2015
By Pat Patterson (Woodstock, Georgia, USA)
This review is from: The Sky Suspended (Kindle Edition)

I've tried to come up with something to compare this book to, but all I get is 'fruitcake' and I am NOT going to go with fruitcake. I don't LIKE fruitcake, and I like this book.
If my big fat Manx cat SugarBelly will cooperate by staying off my left hand and not playing with the touchpad, I will explain the comparison. MOVE, SUGARBELLY! There, that's better.
You will find many little 'stop and look at me' moments, particularly in the beginning, that you probably are going to want to read the book a second time, just to appreciate the descriptions. For example, the book opens with the chase of a young man on the Washington Mall by two mounted police. The second policeman is described as 'a piebald on a piebald.' What? Does the second cop have some awful skin disease that is described rudely? Well, no. As we continue the read, we discover that genetic engineering is in common use, and that one of the options parents are choosing is for their children to have wildly colored skin. And that there has arisen a Department of Souls, to enforce regulations limiting the modifications to non-brain involvement. It is Washington, after all, and bureaucracy thrives in that environment.
The first Laura Montgomery book I read was 'Manx Prize,' and throughout I thought, this book was written by an engineer. Well, I was wrong, and if I had read this book first, I would have guessed correctly: this book is written by a lawyer. That presents us with many of the 'stop-and-look' moments (let's call them nuggets), because in the midst of a crowd event ( a spontaneous line forming), two main characters start talking about legal issues. It's funny enough to me, a non-lawyer type, but it's probably a great yock to lawyers, and it has the look of being fun to write.
When I first started reading Larry Niven in 1978, I was hooked immediately. He says that one of his techniques is to imagine 'ONE' technological change (for example, the transfer booth) and then extrapolate from there to write about the way it will impact society. You can find evidence of this approach (which is an EXCELLENT approach) in the way Laura writes about gene engineering. Not only do we have the Department of Souls, we have the case of Molly, a woman who was selected by her parents for longevity treatments. As an unintended consequence of the treatment, she has the appearance of a 12 year old girl. So, despite her brilliance and academic achievements, she can't get hired as a lawyer, and works as a reporter until such time as puberty hits.
Now, about that line: They have lined up for non-existent lottery tickets to select people to go on the next inter-stellar voyage. The first interstellar voyage is returning, and for me that presented a mystery I wanted SOLVED! I absolutely get that it was going to take months before ship arrived on earth, but I was willing to wait those months. Alas and alack.
Instead, there was a deeper mystery, which is : why has there been only one ship? Why isn't another ship being built RIGHT NOW? And there we have the central issue. And, as is appropriate for a lawyer-written book, the solution comes from the legal process. Watching the lawyers work through their various ethical dilemmas in order to solve the 'real' problem, as opposed to the client's problem, is rather fascinating. It's as if they have to out-think themselves in order to come to a result they can live with.
I have to make a comment about the cover art, which is beautiful. It's from a photograph taken by the author of her son from the Lincoln Memorial. It was set in it's final form by Phil Smith , who has also done covers for her other works.
Any incoherency in this review should not be attributed to Laura's work, but rather to the fact that my fat Manx cat SugarBelly would NOT leave me alone. She demanded to know why this book did't have Manx in the title, and when I told her it wasn't all about her, she turned her cat eyes on me and clearly told me I was speaking nonsense.

Trickster Noir, by Cedar Sanderson

5.0 out of 5 stars
Such a GREAT follow-up to the FIRST pixie book I really liked!
March 7, 2015

This review is from: Trickster Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 2) (Kindle Edition)
Full disclosure statement #1: I received the beta version of this ebook for review purposes. Full disclosure statement #2: I love reading Cedar Sanderson's work.
Trickster Noir takes place immediately after the events of Pixie Noir. It's been four months since I read Pixie Noir, so I did a quick re-read of Pixie to make sure I was up to speed. That may have been a mistake, in one respect: I found myself wishing I had re-read the entire book, just because this series is so much FUN!!!!! But I can re-read Pixie Noir at any time, and probably will.
So, Lom the Pixie Bounty Hunter is near dead, and his love Bella has power she hasn't learn how to handle, and there is Intrigue In Court. And prospective pixie mothers-in-law. The lady is TIRED! (Tired of playing the game, tired of (no, wait, that's Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles)). So, to rest, she gets...
...to go kill monsters.
And here's one of the reasons I really like Cedar's writing: her characters know how to Blow Stuff Up and Kill Monsters. She doesn't write like Larry Correia, but they've seen the same playbook, and she has Bella make use of BOTH her pixie skills AND her human skills to take care of business. A nest full of monsters that eat campers being the first order thereof. Fortunately, her sweetie-pie Lom, despite being bedridden, has an armory that Bela is able to access WHILE IN THE FIELD (!!!) so she can call them out of Underhill to the forest where they are needed, without having to carry them or being asked why they are packing a belt-fed grenade launcher. And there is a Nitro Express .600, which she wisely gives to someone else to fire.
Downside: Bella's backup gun is a .380. The manufacturer is not mentioned, but I do so hope that it's not the model I have, because the thing is so light-weight (at 8.3 ounces unloaded) that the recoil is painful. Maybe Bella has a Ruger or a Sig. It is a good piece for concealed carry/backup, though, and so is another example of the good attention to detail that makes Cedar's work so appealing.
Another thing I like about the series: Bella has great connections with her human relations, she likes pizza, and she is a trained EMT. So, when bad guys fight back, she's there with more than a poof -magic-spell-you-are-all-better, she knows how to stop bleeding, maintain the airway, and control for shock. James Bond never did SQUAT for that.
And I was taken back to 1973, to the barracks at 5th General Hospital in Bad Canstatt, Germany, which is where I first heard of Baba Yaga's chicken legged hut, from the Emerson Lake and Palmer album 'Pictures at an Exhibition.' Baba Yaga is a CREEPY figure, and Lom, Bella, and David the firebird get to fight her.
And the Muppets. Well, one of them. Beaker. That's what they name the dragon that almost kills them, but then becomes their friend. Is that not cool?
I've skipped over such a great deal, like the Herculean tasks set Lom by Bella's mentor. Which I should NOT do, because in the course of it, it taught me something I did not know: Winchester at one point put out a bolt-action .30-30. My .30-30 was lever action, which I bought because it's featured in the first gun battle in 1632, and I just never thought of it as a bolt action cartridge. But CEDAR knew!
And there is at least one more nook in the series. Are we happy? Yeah, we're happy!

Pixie Noir, By Cedar Sanderson

I've just read Trickster Noir, and will post that review, but I thought it best to first post my review about the first book in the series. This was posted on Amazon on November 7, 2014.
I'm a fan!



5.0 out of 5 stars
Rednecks really do love fairies; HONEST!
November 7, 2014

This review is from: Pixie Noir (Pixie for Hire Book 1) (Kindle Edition)
Look: I'm a Southern redneck, motorcycle riding, truck driving gun owning U. S. Army veteran. I read Kratman and Ringo and Correia and (now) Torgerson, and this fantasy pixie pink unicorn stuff: I just pass it by.
Boy, have I ever been an idiot.
Whattya want? Ya want action? You got it. The heroine shoots a troll three times in the back with .44 mag hollow points while the hero shoots him in the eye with her rifle.
Ya want mystery? How about waking up to find your true love has rescued you....or has she?
Ya want sports? Ummm, I don't remember any sports...
But intrigue, conflict, self-sacrifice, honor, courage, and yes, one dare say it, TRUE LOVE: Cedar got the job done.
Now, this does complicate my life. Because just as David Drake and Jerry Pournelle introduced me to to the concept of military sci-fi, Cedar has given me pixies with big honken guns. It appears I'm going to have to look at more places to pick books from, and I'll probably have to buy a peta-byte storage device to house my collection.
Mad geniuses rule the world!

The Chaplain's War, by Brad Torgerson

5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally an enlisted hero who isn't infantry, and a new BEM!
January 27, 2015

This review is from: The Chaplain's War (Kindle Edition)
There is enough action in the book to satisfy shoot-em-up fans (and I'm one of these) but where this book really excels is in character development.
Now, I confess to being a non-impartial reader, because of the selection of the main character. Harrison Barlow is an enlisted man, serving as a chaplain's assistant. I'm third generation in a four generation family of U S Army enlisted. The hero in most military fiction is either an officer, or in the infantry, and Harrison Barlow is neither. He's just a guy, doing his job the best he knows how to do. And, in fact, that's what most people in the military are: just ordinary people doing their jobs. They take care of the mules, load the ammo, make sure that the water is clean, and only sometimes are on the front lines with a rifle. So: this speaks to my personal experience and family history, and therefore, I'm inclined to regard it with favor. But there are only five stars to award, not ten, and so my prejudices have little effect on that rating.
Here's what is marvelous about The Chaplain's War: it is an ENTIRELY NEW take on the Bug Eyed Monster. Sure, the BEMs are evil, wicked, mean and nasty; wait, no, they aren't. Yes they do kill the humans, they have overwhelming technology, but they aren't evil. They are just alien. What makes this treatment different from all the other BEMs that have come before is the way that they have been changed by their technology. Now, maybe Brad had some sort of hippie-dippie idea of making this a metaphor for 21st century man blah blah blah, but IF so, he hides it very well. It's NOT just a twist on man's inhumanity to man, or whatever the latest schtick is; it's a real story about real people, and real aliens who are definitely NOT human, but aren't either superhuman nor subhuman. They are just alien.
Now, apart from that original take on the aliens, and tghe fact that the hero is an enlisted man in a non-combat role, there is nothing original, but that's not a deficit. Just because Heinlein wrote Starship Troopers, it doesn't mean Buettner shouldn't write Orphanage. Basic training is basic training, but the stories are just as individual as a fingerprint. Tell it a million times. Ten million.
I've heard that some people have objected to the story because it has religious content. Well, bite me. You can't posibly tell a meaningful story about real people under stress without talking about how many of them turn to God to find meaning. If they are arguing that sci-fi is supposed to be escapist, and therefore shouldn't carry over any religious themes, I would invite them to devise an escape kit that doesn't have any items from the current reality. Like food, water, flashlights, and a good knife; those are not things found in the world we are escaping into. They are what makes it possible for the escape to be survivable. Brad's not demanding that every story about BEMs include a religious theme, but he does have the right to put a religious theme into his own work. I enjoyed it and found it both believable and an essential part of the story. If you don't like it, then be sure not to use the Force, but don't talk badly of it, or Lord Vader may find your lack of faith...disturbing...

Cricket's Song, by Michael Hooten

5.0 out of 5 stars
“But you created it. It has to obey you.” “You obviously don’t have children.”
Cricket's Song
March 6, 2015
By Pat Patterson (Woodstock, Georgia, USA)
This review is from: Cricket's Song (Kindle Edition)

This is a collection of all three Cricket books in one package, One of the differences between reading ebooks and reading dead tree books is that you can't tell by looking how big the book is; I was wondering why it was taking me so long to read Cricket's Song, but it turns out (I just checked) that it's approximately 356 pages. That is a lot of WONDERFUL STORYTELLING!!!!!!
You know the Jerry McGuire quote "You had me at hello?" Well, Cricket's Song had me in the very first scene. Cricket is an orphan, being raised by a small village. He has lots of questions, but nobody has much time to answer them, because they are farmers, and farmers work hard. The one person Cricket can count on to answer is an old man called Harper, who shows up in the village once a year. When he is six, Harper tells him a little about his mother and father, who died when he was born. Cricket cries, asking if he is truly alone.
The old man gathered the child in his arms and rocked him. “You’re not alone, Cricket. You have the whole dun for your family.” “It’s not the same ,” Cricket sobbed. “I want a mother and father of my own.”
“I know,” Harper said. “I understand.” Cricket sat silently, thinking hard. “My parents loved me, didn’t they?” he asked finally. “More than anything.” Cricket cried for a while then, the soft sobs of a child who hurts without quite understanding why. Harper rocked the boy, singing a lullaby from another, more distant childhood until he quieted. The old man thought he had fallen asleep, but the boy stirred and said, “I love them, too.” Harper smiled in his beard, and kept up his rocking until the boy was truly asleep.
(Hooten, Michael A. (2014-09-24). Cricket's Song (Kindle Locations 45-53). . Kindle Edition. )

Is that not truly excellent story telling?
Cricket grows, and learns, and encounters official and unofficial hostility in his desire to become first a crossain and then a bard. He is drawn into discovering the magic behind the music, and maintains a pure spirit, even when the persecution includes a demonic attack on his life. He finds friendship and love, and experiences loneliness and heartbreak. In the end, his purity of heart wins him powerful allies, and ...
...This is sounding rather corny, isn't it? Well, it doesn't READ that way. The descriptions of Cricket's experiences, his encounters with the Faerie, are nothing but great narrative. Now, if you are looking for dark despair, and plots that end with the bad guys biting off the heads of children, you aren't going to find it here. This is a story of hope and maintaining loyalty to a code, even when others don't. If you have read "The Silver Chair" in the Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, you will recognize Puddleglum's determination to live as a true Narnian, even if there isn't a Narnia, in Cricket's choice to live by the Bardic Code.
How good is this book? Well, it's good enough that I enjoyed it, even though I am more a Monster Hunter kind of guy.
And it's got it's funny spots, too, as my headline suggests.

Pi Day is just around the corner, and...

Pi Day is just around the corner, and it's making me think about God.
We get an approximation of Pi Day every year, on March 14. But this year, we get Pi Day of the Century, because we can express Pi all the way out to the second. Saturday a week from now, the clock will tick forward, and for one, glorious second, it will be 3.14.15 9:26:53 and that's all the pi we can ever reasonably hope for. Of course those who own a cesium clock can claim to have Pi nanoseconds, or something above that, but for humans to be aware of an experience, it has to last longer than that. We could go to tenths or hundredths of a second, but let's just be thankful that a watch with a sweep second hand can celebrate the event, shall we?
Of course, Pi is not primarily a number. It's a relationship between two of the most common art works kindergarteners draw: the line and the circle. Drop of water hits the ground, get a circle (with splashes). And the line drawn from one point of a circle through the center of the circle to the other side of the circle is the diameter of the circle. And the relationship between the circumference of the circle (which is the part you draw in kindergarten) to the diameter of the circle is Pi to 1. Usually, we say 3.14, or 3.1416, but on this Saturday, we can experience Pi all the way out to 3.141592653 and on the strength of that goodness, last until Pi Day of the century 2115, sustained all along the way by the approximations of March 14. It's enough, really.
Now, why does that make me think about God?
It's because Pi doesn't stop even after a trillion digits. It never stops, and it never repeats. Doesn't that strike you as...weird? Why should it be that such a simple relationship contains infinity? Circles with lines through them. Infinity. They really don't seem to go together.
Now, I do not claim to be either a mathematician nor a mystic. I stopped taking pure math after my second course in calculus, and all of the math I took after that in college and grad school was statistics, and nothing about statistics gives you an 'oh, wow' moment, unless you find someone who plays the lottery and expects to win. And I never took philosophy much beyond Socrates.
But there is something about all these circles around me, and the lines through them, and the relationship which goes on forever, and never repeats, that makes me wonder if this isn't a clue left to us by God, to say, 'Here is something you cannot comprehend, which is so simple that a child can construct it."
Cut a pancake in half. Experience infinity.
Wow.

Joy Cometh With The Mourning, by David Freer

Yes, the title is a pun, and yes, it useth archaic language, and it is a wonderful thing that it does, because if you search 'Joy Comes In The Mourning' like I just did, you get 108 results.

The Reverend Joy gets sent to a tiny little community, meets oddballs, makes friends, and solves a mystery. And that description does absolutely nothing to convey to you the richness of the story, the descriptions, and the relationships in this wonderful little book.
By all means, buy this book. The proceeds go to a little parish in New Zealand, hopefully without murder mysteries.




5.0 out of 5 stars
It's not a mystery, it's a love story!
December 29, 2014

This review is from: Joy Cometh With The Mourning: A Reverend Joy Mystery (Kindle Edition)

Dave Freer made me fall in love.
I don't want to read about Felixtown, I want to live there. I want to eat the cream and butter soaked treats, the steak and kidney and oyster pie, and I want to volunteer to work with the kids. I want to have my lawn mower repaired by Tom, and go for a walk on the beach, and have my prescriptions filled by the atheist pharmacist. I want to sit in Reverend Joy's church, and listen to her sermons about the God Who doesn't need to be wound up on Sunday.
And I'd like to find out what a ute is. (Yes'm, I figured it out from context.)
These are real people, with real problems, and real strengths.
And Dave Freer is a real writer. His earlier body of work proves that to those of us who love sf, but this jumps categories and dances the hula,while the jack of hearts spits grapefruit juice in your eye. In other words: you might THINK it is impossible, but it's only very, very improbable. And thanks to Douglas Adams, the Improbability Drive is available.
Buy this book, NOW.