Second Chance Angel, Griffin Barber and Kacey Ezell

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, I surely do miss seeing your faces. Well, some of your faces.

Cover Art, and Amazon Associates link

Since I read "Gilded Cage" in the "Fistful of Credits" anthology back in 2017, the writing of Kacy Ezell has astounded me; click here to read my review of that story. I don't recall ever devoting an entire blog post to a single story in a collection, but this one was well worth the exception. She's not my ONLY favorite author, but she is definitely at the top of the list.

All of my favorites write about why THIS exploding spaceship is significant. Sure, the suits of the Mechanized Infantry are fantastic in themselves, but it's Johnny Rico we care about it. Kipling tells us FIRST about the widow in England who weeps for her lost son, before we know about the samadh of a hundred heads. 

It's PERSONAL, see? 

Therefore, at least a PART of my reading/reviewing plan includes ANY of the new releases by authors who I have marked as good story-tellers. That doesn't mean ANYBODY gets an automatic pass; I've written at least one one-star review for an author at the very top of my list. I mention that because I've had a person who hate Heinlein accuse me of indiscriminately tossing out five-star reviews. (Since my reviews tend to run LONG, I also reject out the "tossing out" accusation...)

In line with my stated goal, from time to time, I get a pre-release review copy of a book, so I can post an early review on Amazon and elsewhere. Unfortunately, Life, The Universe and Everything has decided that I make a good storage location for all the disturbance not otherwise allocated, and this has interfered with my ability to read and review. I wish to point out that my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA and I have 10 adult children, 15 grandchildren, with one on the way, and one great-grandchild, with the second due this spring. Any person who loves a LOT of people is going to have multiple opportunities to Get Through Things. 

Thus, this review emerges some six months after I was given access to a review copy. I regret the delay; it is not a function of anything but the influence of LTUE.

I see from other reviews that the noir aspects of the story have been acknowledged; personally, it was a lot more specific than that. However, I mis-remembered, and had the protagonist labeled as "Sam Spade." His last name IS Muck, after all, which is something you might use a spade to eliminate. However, reviewing the hard-boiled detectives disclosed that the big Unresolved-Sexual-Tension-duo was Mike Hammer and his secretary Velda.

Ralston Muck is the Big Lug, although he's not a former cop working as a private eye in a seamy office in LA; instead, he's a former MILITARY cop, working as a bouncer in a seamy bar in Last Stop Station.

I like science as much as anybody, I guess, but science alone does NOT make for a good story. Here, the necessary-but-not-sufficient science aspects include: humans were recruited by aliens to fight a galactic war; Artificial Intelligence is advanced enough that they run major environmental functions; relatively cheap interstellar transport and communications is real; lots of aliens exist, and interact; humans can receive AI modifications that enhance various capabilities. The rest of the story is the really good part (one exception).

At the time of these events, humans have gotten over the trauma of Earth's destruction. It's something they are aware of, but nobody is bent out of shape about it anymore. The identified Bad Guys, the Xlodich, have been wiped out, and life goes on. One of the places it's going on is Last Stop Station; think Sam Spade's Los Angeles.

The presumptive heroine of the story is Siren, a singer in the dive where Muck works. She's only with us at the very beginning of the book; it's her abrupt disappearance that triggers the main plot line. Muck gets involved because he was the last person to see her alive, having escorted her home after a fan attempted to get to her while she was on stage. 

Here's the BIG event: Siren's implanted AI is somehow removed, and finds her way to Muck's shabby domicile, and inhabits his body! This implant, taking the designated term for such entities as a personal identifier (Angel) is determined to find out what happened to Siren, and get back inside her body again. For reasons explained in the story, she is a semi-welcome presence. Key passage, narrated by Angel:

"I remained silent awhile, fascinated by how thoroughly I had misread my temporary host. Muck was far more than I’d thought. I don’t know why I had thought he would be any less complex than Siren, but I had."

(Kacey Ezell and Griffin Barber. Second Chance Angel (Kindle Locations 1049-1050). Blackstone Publishing. Kindle Edition. )

This is really the beginning of what I term 'the good part,' which involves assorted entities interacting with each other. Although science is involved, frequently, it is the interactions that matter, and Barber and Ezell have a lovely ability to imagine and describe the interactions so that they are believable and compelling. I'm not familiar with Barber's other work, but Ezell has astounded me on numerous occasions with her compact characterizations of vivid, sometimes horrifying, events.

I mentioned earlier that there was one exception to the good stuff being non-science. I found that exception in the way that interactions, extending as far as mortal combat, are described between machine intelligences. The authors string together words that I don't think were ever designed to represent struggle, and make make conversations between AIs a real event, and then escalate that, so that AI combat seems as bloody as Hammer's kick to the legs and .45 slug to the guts. (You thought the Mike Hammer references were over, didn't you?) 

I'm tempted to suggest that some of the content might not be suitable for teens; then I remember that I was reading James Bond when I was 11. But, sure; if you are going to give this to your teen or pre-teen, make sure you are available to talk to them. I DO think there would be some GREAT conversations held about the relationship between Angel and Muck, concerning their reactions to initiating intimacy.  That bit HAS to be Ezell's; prove me wrong.

Peace be on your household.

The Average Joe’s Homemade Submachine Gun Prop to Deter Tyranny

The front cover, and an Amazon Associates link:

The Front Cover!

I should know better than to put certain books in my reviewing queue. They clog things up.
And yet, I do it. 
This is one of those books. I bought it back at the beginning of December, and read through it in less than a day. So, why has it taken me so long to write a review?

In the first place, I had to decide exactly how I was going to treat the content of the book: go surface, or go deep. I guess I’ll find out now what my decision was.
In the second place, since this is a “how-to-build-it” book, I had to decide whether I was going to actually build the item. That is NOT a trivial choice! In the end, I decided NOT to attempt the build, because I don’t have some of the equipment called for. 

Very clearly, this is a book on which very small resources were devoted to design choices. The front cover is actually nicely restrained, in my opinion. The title and author’s name are legible white type on a black background; I think I would have preferred larger, or at least thicker, type. For some reason, the words “gun prop” are not capitalized in the title. 
The other feature on the front cover is a nice, clear sepia-toned picture of the components of the submachine gun prop.
In my opinion, the back cover is: a mess. A wall of reddish text is placed on a tan/khaki/light brown background, and the combination makes the letters blur. I don’t know how that makes sense. Shouldn’t the covers be an advertisement, a tease? Well, the back cover is more in the line of a treatise. I would scrap the red-text-on-brown approach, and delete 90% of the text. 

Other observations on the structure of the book:

• While divided into chapters, the book is NOT paginated. 
• Other than the sepia-tone front cover pic, all of the other graphics are either black and white, or grayscale. Thus, it’s merely adequate detail; some extra attention might be necessary to truly comprehend what is depicted. 
• This is complicated by the fact that almost NONE of the photographs are adequately labeled, with directional arrows linking text to the detail in the pic. By way of contrast, the design of the solvent trap is perfectly labeled.
• No one will ever buy this book as a manual for correct usage of the English language. It doesn’t matter; language is primarily to communicate, not to be graded in a classroom setting. This manual effectively communicates via the text. However, labeling the photographs as described above would vastly improve the product. 
• Included in the first chapter is a list of the tools and materials needed. Of the tools, the only item that might not be found in a reasonably well-equipped home shop is a welder, although an angle grinder might also be absent. Helpfully, the author includes price estimates for these items. However, I think he’s over-optimistic on the price of the MIG welder. He has one sample listed at just under $100; the least expensive unit I found in my area ran $135. 

I am FAITHFULLY going to adhere to the author’s practice of referring to the item as a gun prop, and not a firearm. A person who follows the instructions given, to the letter, will not have committed a felony, but will have an amusing non-functional display item. 
Were this a functional device, it would be prohibited by a number of laws and regulations. For example, since 1986, it has been illegal to manufacture a fully-automatic firearm for use by civilians. In addition, the solvent trap, if placed on a functional firearm, would significantly reduce the sound of firing. These devices, for some bizarre reason, were proscribed in 1934 unless the owner received a tax stamp. 
Fortunately, in “Chapter 4: Bolt/Bolt carrier,” the author EXPLICITLY describes how to avoid accidentally turning this inert device into a functional fully-automatic machine gun. That’s a critical issue, because a felony is the alternative.

So: what is the value of this book?

Clearly, the value cannot be found as a guide to making a functional machine gun. Not only would that be a felony, the plans for this simple design are available for download from any number of websites. This is, after all, the most common design that turns up in police raids in Australia, which has one of the most restrictive firearms policies around.

On the other hand, the relative cheapness of the materials used to make the gun prop suggests to me that it might make a really nice project for learning techniques. At the end of the attempt, even a bungled assembly would still make an eye-catching display; after all, the item is inert, so what difference does it make if the movable parts don’t move?

It also makes for a nice addition to the library for people who like bizarre things.

Final note: the title page says that this is Title #1 in the series of “The Average Joe’s Tyranny Deterrents.” A search for subsequent titles found nothing pertinent.

Peace be on your household.
 

"The Cute Moose," by Cedar Sanderson

A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors out there in Internet Land! And for family members who have dropped by, I have a little something for the Little Somethings.

Cover art, and an Amazon Associates link:

A book for Juniper, the cutest moose

Gentle reader, thou knowest that I don’t read and/or review many love stories. Yes, in some of my favorite stories of exploding spaceships, and blowing things up and destroying evil, there is often a love story INVOLVED.
However, these are introduced in order to demonstrate that the protagonist is not solely a killing machine, but is human. And, one of the essential components of being human is the ability to give and receive love. Or so they told me.

Personally, though, I have never cared for love stories. During the times when I felt unloved, they only served to make me sad. Today, sheltered as I am in the love of my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA, love stories are but a poor, pale imitation of the love I experience every day. Thus: I don’t care for love stories.

But THIS is a love story I am delighted to read! This is a story about sister love; about the love of two older sisters, for the youngest sister who never learned how to read, although she tried and tried. This love story says, “You have always been the Cute Moose, and if you got loose, our search would be profuse!” This story describes that search for the missing Cute Moose.

Sanderson provides both the text and the art for this read-aloud children’s book.

Alas, lovers of blank verse, these lines RHYME! And, amazingly, they rhyme with MOOSE! Hey, the BOOK is about a moose! Wow! What a coincidence! Only the most irritatingly picky would suggest that one or two of the rhyming words might not actually exist in the wild, but I wish to point out that words are for communication, and even those theoretical neologisms, IF they are such (a point I have not yielded communicate with precision and beauty.

Speaking of beauty, let’s turn to the artwork. I have as near zero technical ability in art as anyone I’ve ever met; thus, I cannot say “this is water-color, this is pastel, this is oil, this is a jelly stain.” I can, however, discriminate between TWO types of artwork in the story: color, and black-and-white.

I AM inclined to believe that some of the color works are water colors. I could not defend that belief, though.
My terminology may be off, but some of this artwork is what I would describe as cartoons, or caricatures. These would include a cute moose wearing Groucho glasses, complete with nose, mustache, and cigar.
Other art is more ...detailed? (I just don’t have the terminology!) For example, a picture of a hen is painted with such detail in the head and neck, that I expect it to cluck any second now.
And finally, there are her GORGEOUS landscapes. Sanderson spent much time in Alaska; it shows. These are works I’d give my friend Susan, who grew up there, to give her a feeling of home.

Apart from color, Sanderson sprinkles pen-and-ink drawings throughout the book. My favorite, I believe, is the armored knight, equipped with a lance, mounted on a sturdy steed. Whimsy is introduced: the knight sports dragonfly-like wings, and the steed is a rhinoceros. Some are near photo-realistic, such as the raccoon wearing an Inspector Gadget hat. Inktail, a dragon featured in two of Sanderson’s Amazon coloring books, also pops up, both in color and in pen-and-ink.

It took just over five minutes to read this aloud to 14-year-old Alicia Ann, who agreed to be my test subject. I plan on reading this to my grandchildren, but I expect it will take longer, as they will be more interested in finding the moose hidden in some of the artwork.

I obtained my copy through the Kindle Unlimited program, but I believe this will make a great gift for my pre-school grandkids if it’s available in a dead-tree version.

I hope the Cute Moose enjoys the book about her, and recognizes the love that went into making it. It’s a lovely accomplishment.

Peace be on your household.

"Going Ballistic," by Dorothy Grant

 A great GOOD AFTERNOON on a Red Friday, to all my friends and neighbors out there in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, I would have LOVED to have given this book to Ralph!

Cover art, followed by an Amazon Associates link. If you click the link, and buy something, I get a small referral fee. 

Another magnificent Cedar Sanderson cover

Every time I introduce author Dorothy Grant’s work to someone, I always add “...and she was an Alaskan bush pilot!” It’s such an amazing occupation. I already had mental images of life-critical flights under adverse conditions, having to buzz the strip to get the moose herd to leave prior to landing. WHY?

My mom married Ralph, a commercial pilot, in 1958, when I was five years old. Despite what you may have heard of a party lifestyle, most pilots chose voracious reading to pass the hours spent in layovers and dead-heading home. I suspect that my first reading of science fiction came from the library he had accumulated, but ANYTHING aviation-related was fair game. 
When “Fate Is The Hunter” was published in 1961, Ernest K. Gann became a household word. The book is dedicated to the commercial pilots who had lost to The Numbers, the odds that something will go wrong. I remember my mom showing me the names of the pilots who flew for the Ralph’s airline. 
So, I have long respected those who slip the surly bands of Earth, bringing bodies, beans, and boxes to where they are needed. And: BUSH pilots? WOW!

As far as I can tell, this is the first of Grant’s work to draw on her experience as a pilot; if it was mentioned in the two prior novels of hers I’ve reviewed, “Scaling the Rim”   and “Shattered Under Midnight,” I missed it entirely. 

Some books are so good, that a reader says “I couldn’t put it down.” Book lovers know that there is AT LEAST one level above that: “I put it down, because I didn’t want it to end.” 
And that’s how good this book is.
Yes, I DID go back and finish it. 

Michelle Lauden is a hard-core pilot. She’s not yet old, but if she ever WAS bold, she’s gotten it out of her system. Good enough is NOT for her; she seeks perfection, in every aspect, every time. What sets her apart from some other pilots is that she also seeks perfection in her courtesy and respect for her flight crew, the mechanics, and even the ramp rats who load cargo. 
Perhaps her respect doesn’t extend to the dispatchers, but she DOES honor the schedule, even when it’s radically changed at the last second.

And THAT is the state in which we find her at the beginning of the book. She has just brought in a ballistic flight (one of a very small number of pilots with that rating) and is expecting some down-time; instead, she discovers that she has a quick turn-around flight, that comes too close to putting her over the maximum time she is permitted to fly.

A small note here: beside rules like this (and others) there are some particular aviation terms that  some readers might not know. It will NOT harm your comprehension of the story; it WILL be a nice  extra for those with some prior knowledge.

Since she IS a hard-core pilot, Michelle adapts, and, with the help of some unexpected but welcome Organized-Muscle-With-Brains, she proceeds to get the bird in the air...
...only to have politics interfere. She is told at first that there are terrorists in the area, but eventually discovers that some smaller governments are attempting to become independent of the ponderous Federation. 

I will NOT write spoilers! Therefore, EVEN THOUGH the essential action sequences occur delightfully early in the story, I turn from narrative to themes.

Theme 1: Michelle is a female in a testosterone-laden environment. She can’t ignore it; part of her ability to form and operate a crew is the way she  deals with hazing, particularly of newbies.  It’s a nasty reality, and fragile people don’t survive.

Theme 2: Michelle is a civilian pilot, in a situation that QUICKLY becomes a military operation. Because she has a skill the military MUST HAVE, she is not given the option of sitting on the sidelines. However, she is also not in the chain of command.

Theme 3: The massive Federation is at war with the smaller Empire. Michelle is not truly affiliated with either, but has a Federated background. However, she can’t remain unaffiliated.

Theme 4: TECHNOLOGY!!!!! Humanity has expanded out to thousands of planets, using jump gates to get there, but that’s really not a story factor. More applicable to the story is the tech Michelle has available to fly the plane; it’s inserted into her body, and allows her to plug into systems, make changes, get data; all sorts of things. She has also received some upgrades to allow her to respond more quickly to emergencies. Those include a system diagnostic/communications port on her wrist, covered with synthetic skin. There are some advanced weapons mentioned, but a very interesting segment is devoted to Michelle being trained to use what seems to be a conventional projectile pistol.

Theme 5: Redliners. I’m using the term from the David Drake book but here there are two categories of burn-out. There are some former combat troops, now in a semi-civilian capacity, who appear to have misplaced the ability to play well with others. More common are the limits reached by the characters.  Despite advanced medical tech, or because of it, each individual has a limit to what they can accomplish before they crash.  

Theme 6: This is the central theme, worth every bit of attention given to it. It's NOT ham-handed, though; in fact, I don't know that it's directly referred to once. It’s about relationships, and individual differences; how you treat others MATTERS. Those most deeply affected by burnout seem to have fallen back on one treatment for everyone, and it’s usually abusive. That works well with some people, but damages the effectiveness of others. 

Because the early action is critical to the story development, I backed away from referring to it in this review. Action lovers have NOTHING to fear; from exploding spaceships to punches in the nose, there is plenty going on. And, while I’m not saying that someone points a loaded gun at their boss, someone points a loaded gun at their boss.

Yes. Magnificent. I do so hope more is coming….

Peace be on your household.

"Who Can Own The Stars?" by Mackey Chandler

A great good morning to my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, remember to keep limber, and move around every hour.

This is the cover art, executed marvelously by Sarah A Hoyt, followed by an Amazon Associates link to the book itself. If you buy something after clicking it, I get a small amount, I believe it’s 2% or so, but I’m not going to look it up.

Who Can Own The Stars?

This is installment #12 in Mackey Chandler’s “April” series, in which the astounding lady makes friends of people with no social skills, and enemies of countries with nuclear capabilities. 

Installment #12; keep that in mind! 

Twice, I’ve been tasked with writing reviews of books nominated for a Dragon Award. Frequently, those were installments in a series; so much so, that I think a separate award category ought to be established for them. Unfortunately, in some cases, the work was nearly opaque to me, as I had not read the prior material. 
Now: in an installment number TWELVE, I would have expected that there be at least SOME aspects of the story that I would find confusing. After all, there have been eleven books setting the stage.

THAT WAS NEVER THE CASE. 

There was NO preexisting story element missing that prevented me from knowing what was going on. That’s amazing, especially when you consider just how many stories are being told at the same time: financial skullduggery AND development (those are two different story lines; families in conflict; conflict with Earth government(s); conflict with Martian government(s); technological discoveries; the fate of people re-establishing a community among the ruins in California. 
In every case, Chandler (somehow) manages to present the reader with enough background so that there isn’t a single bit of confusion, and each one of those stories is INTERESTING!
I think it’s because he spent his life working with things. He MADE things. He FIXED things. And he doubtless had to EXPLAIN things to people who didn’t share his expertise.

He didn't learn how to tell stories from a university class in creative writing.

 
Anyway, that’s my theory.

Now, on to the book review; this part will be submitted to Amazon and posted on Goodreads:

“Who Can Own The Stars?” is a nice, catchy title; it’s also expressed as a question. While I will disclose that the question is answered in the course of the narrative, I will NOT spoiler by telling you the answer, or the page number on which it may be discussed.

Multiple story lines, some intermingled, are all presented coherently, and without requiring that the reader have access to the first 11 books in the series.  These include:

• The financing and occupancy of a space habitat, designed for near-self-sufficiency.
• The problems encountered by survivors of of a near-total collapse of civilization in parts of the former United States.
• Trade interactions with a break-away Martian government, still in turmoil; in possession of potentially destabilizing alien artifacts, which they are fanatically determined to keep a secret.
• At least THREE story lines involve individuals with social skills deficits; they range from predatory/vindictive, to merely clueless but potentially lethal on a global scale.
• An exceedingly interesting series of events highlighting the difficulties of trade between governmental entities that have little or no common ground; thus, fiat currency, based on trust in a government is functionally useless in trade.

I found that each of these story lines was so compelling, that I almost shoved the conflict mentioned in the blurb, between the Lunar government and that of North America, into the background.

While there is much left to tell with the stories presented here, it’s not a cliff-hanger. Yes, I want to know more about what happens, but I don’t feel cheated in the slightest that I’m left with unanswered questions.

A note: I read FAST; I always have. Evidently,  I encode content-free words (such as proper names) and numbers into smaller units for transmission to wherever I process stories. Thus, I can recall a PLOT quite easily, but can’t tell you the names of the characters. With this book, I found it necessary to keep a log of people and places; there are enough characters and settings to make that essential for me to write a coherent review.  YMMV.

Peace be on your household.

Academic Magic. Book One, by Becky R Jones

A great good evening to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, DON’T PANIC! Yes, the LIBRARY is closed, but there are still lots of things to read online.

The cover art, and an Amazon Associates link. Click it, buy something, and I get a referral fee.

Becky R. Jones' FIRST NOVEL!

Zoe O’Brien, Ph.D., is a relatively new hire in the history department at Summerfield College, a smallish liberal arts institution located in metro Philadelphia. As such, she has the standard concerns of junior faculty everywhere: committee assignments (boring, tedious); teaching freshman level survey courses (boring, tedious); cranking out research papers (varies); living without tenure (moderately terrifying, in a diffuse sense); no romantic life (although that one guy is cute); caring for two obnoxious and demanding (but I am redundant) cats; hallucinating squirrel behavior (disturbing).

That last bit is new, and it is occurring exactly in the same manner as the other items don’t. Everything else is simply a slightly accelerated and enhanced (as in the cats) version of her life as a graduate student. Not the squirrels! Not only does she see them sitting in a circle, but one of them persists in waving at her. 
If only she didn’t have obligations! She could just leave, or check into an asylum, or something. However, she had not been able to resist buying a house near the school; thus, she is tied down. A bit. So, she resists engaging the squirrels, and she DEFINITELY resists talking to her colleagues about it.

Zoe is not ignorant of strange events (and she is no stranger to ignorant events), at least not of  historical strange events. Her concentration in Medieval European history gave her a strong foundation in the types of behaviors termed magical, as well as the reaction of surrounding societies. However, scholarly skepticism and a modern view of Life, The Universe, and Everything gave her confidence that what one age termed "witchcraft" was simply…something else. Her confidence already shaken by what she THINKS she saw, she is further challenged by the conviction of her closest friend Mark, and his husband David, that just because the belief is medieval, that doesn’t mean it’s wrong.

Thus, when she discovers two squirrels waiting for her when she goes to work the next day, she braves the unknown, and speaks politely to them. And they return the courtesy, and make arrangements to meet with her, in her office. 
This is unbelievable! NONE of the squirrels I have experience with have EVER shown consideration for office hours!

I’m not going to tell you that her cats talk to her that evening, but her cats talk to her that evening.

All of this inter-species communication has a point: there is something that feels nasty about the main administration building, and the squirrels need her help. And so they come to a junior member of the faculty, non-tenured, and ask her to speak to her department head, and mentor, on their behalf; a person who will certainly have a significant role to play on whether she is offered a tenured position. So, she pulls out a double-barreled shotgun, and blasts them both into Squirrel Heaven, figuring that a firearms charge will have less impact on her future than interceding for tree rats with a senior faculty member
(No, she doesn’t do that. This story has no shotguns.)

What it does have is a lovely fantasy, spread over a very true-to-life depiction of a college campus. This happens to be something I know about, having worked in higher education for over seven years. Jones is spot-on with her descriptions of mind-numbing committee meetings and office politics. I think I may have even worked with one or more of the characters she describes. Thus, the story has a special charm for me.
Even those who haven’t spent much time in the ivory towers can find much to appreciate about this tale of an intelligent young prof, confronted by the impossible. Her conversations with her cats alone make it worth the read. Add in wicked witches, winos, wise wizards, and a whining woman-parent, and the alliteration will take you home.

Peace be on your household.

Under the Earthline (Sons of Martha #3), by Laura Montgomery

Good evening, to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And, to family members who have dropped by: “How could anyone ever be cross, with turkey and dressing and cranberry sauce?” 
I’d answer that, but since I’m already known as a GRINCH, never mind.

What follows is the cover art, AND an Amazon Associates link. Click it and buy something, and I get a few pennies.

Under the Earthline

Let me give you a small illustration of how I feel about this book:  A short while ago, I discovered that the latest episode of “The Mandalorian” had been released. I chose to review the book, instead of heading to the Disney Channel.

Four Preliminaries.

1. Background. This is the THIRD book in the “Sons of Martha” series, and to be properly understood, you must have read volumes 1 and 2. Let me put that in perspective for you: before I can properly enjoy the third kiss with my gift-from-God, happily-ever-after trophy wife Vanessa, the elegant, foxy, praying black grandmother of Woodstock, GA, I must first give her the first and second kisses. Montgomery’s words are kisses for the reader, lovely invitations to get to know the characters, and understand HOW and WHY they do the things they do. Trust me on this: you will not want to miss the first two books.

Now, PRIOR to the Sons of Martha, Montgomery published the three-volume Waking Late series, which is set on the same world. I don’t really think that you MUST read that series first, but it’s likely you will have to play some catch-up. The world of both series is referred to as NWWWLF, and acronym: Not What We Were Looking For. There are MAJOR difficulties with turning NWWWLF into a place that will support humans, and most of the explanation is in the first series. I’d recommend that you read that series, without a doubt, but you don’t HAVE to read it first.

2. Foreknowledge. Coming into this third book, second series, I quickly became aware of just how much more I knew about the situation than all of the characters, most particularly Thaddeus, the protagonist. Nothing for it; it’s like knowing that Anakin Skywalker is going to grow up to be Darth Vader. Even so, I wanted to reach into the world described, grab certain of the characters, and INSIST that they not go there and do that.

3. Suspense. Montgomery does not treat her readers to the draining experiences favored by an elderly gent with too many initials; namely to make a habit of creating compelling characters, and then defenestrating or decapitating them casually and frequently. However, she HAS killed mainline characters JUST enough that you can’t follow the story without some edge-of-your-seat time. It’s a feature; it’s not a bug. This is not the kind of suspense found in a cheap slasher movie, with cheap thrills provided by killers leaping out from behind the door. This suspense comes from not knowing whether the hero can pull his plan off, or will end the book incarcerated, alone, dead, or sent into exile without a towel.

4. The Bible and Rudyard Kipling. The series title, “Sons of Martha,” is taken from the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same name. It addresses the hard workers of the world, the engineers and grease-knuckled doers, who devote their lives to making sure that the powerful forces of nature and industry are harnessed. Kipling took his inspiration from an incident presented in the 10th chapter of the Gospel According to Saint Luke, in which the hard-working Martha chastises Jesus for allowing her younger sister to ignore all the dinner preparations. Kipling pretends that all who serve others in dark, dirty jobs are the spiritual children of Martha, condemned to labor while others play.

The BOOK!

The characters. All of the players on the planet are descended from people from Earth, but there has been some differentiation. The ruling class is descended from settlers on Mars, an outcome not anticipated by the folks who set out on the mission. Beneath them are the people who came from Earth, and that class is further divided into those with Earth-normal physiology, and those with enhanced strength and senses, distinguished by a pair of horns growing from their heads; these are called ‘pan’. 

Further divisions have been created based on where the characters live, with a mostly-urban class, the WestHem farmers, those who split off and started a second settlement, and the unfortunate Sleepers. This last division consists of the original colonists, who are kept in suspended animation, and revived one at a time, solely to provide their skill-set to further the work of the settled classes. Think of them as frozen yogurt; except without the power.

The story. In previous installments, Peter Dawes, a young pan farmer, grows more resentful of the government men who invaded WestHem, and disarmed the population. He develops a plan to steal the blasters back, but is forced by his tyrannical father to take his nasty-but-charming-to-some brother Simon with him. Simon is killed on the otherwise successful expedition, and Peter is labeled an outlaw by the oppressive governor and his cadre. To avoid capture and prevent reprisals against his family, Peter flees to the outskirts of settled land, where his oldest brother has a farm. Things happen, but the event of primary significance is the discovery of a new territory being developed by some of the more adventurous settlers. 

As the story opens, Peter’s older brother Thaddeus must respond to a request/demand by Dietrich Bainbridge, the governor’s chief agricultural officer. Ostensibly, Bainbridge wants Thaddeus to come advise him on agricultural policy, but the threatening tone used shows that he will be used in some way to atone for Peter’s actions, or at least be punished for them.

Maxwell, a friend and imitator of the deceased nasty-but-charming-to-some Simon, will also be going to the palace, where they will have contact with the beautiful Harriet, Maxwell’s cousin and target of Dietrich’s affections.

Despite my muttering “Do Not Go To That Treacherous Man, He Hates You And Has A Horrible Plan For Your Life,” Thaddeus proceeds, as he has managed to extract a promise from Dietrich that he can access the library, as well as the computer network.

And things develop.

**** INSERTED THE DAY AFTER PUBLISHING

HERE'S WHAT I WISH I'D WRITTEN! 
THIS IS TAKEN FROM THE AMAZON/GOODREADS REVIEW.

Conflicts over class distinctions, and access to technology, provide the structure for the story, but the individual players do all the driving. This is NOT a gadget story; it’s a people story. The main characters become alive, as Montgomery gives us access to their thoughts, and thus, WE never have any confusion about the reasons for their actions. Sometimes they are confused about each other, a truth of human nature. It makes them real.

****END OF INSERTED MATERIAL

Again unlike the hyper-initialed gent, Montgomery ONLY leaves the overall story development unresolved, while closing out, quite nicely, the human interest conflicts and alliances that are the primary allure of these works. 

My conclusion.

I often find myself disgusted by the paucity of interest in the work of a gifted author, and that is DEFINITELY the case with Montgomery’s work. Her works should be on best-seller lists! It is probably an unavoidable consequence of the open field made possible by indie status and Amazon publication practices. In a field of hundreds of books, it’s tough to get noticed, even if a majority of the other works are dreck written by silly people who don’t know how to use punctuation, much less write a coherent and compelling story. 
I console myself somewhat by recalling that in decades past, when publishing houses had a stranglehold on what reached the consumer, an artist like Montgomery might have had nothing more than a few boxes of rejected manuscripts. At LEAST, her work is available, and I can but hope that at some point, she, and other talented writers like her, will get the recognition they deserve. It’s ONE of the reasons I write reviews.

Peace be on your household.