Mini-Reviews #35…
Quiet. Susan Cain, author. (Broadway Books, 2012, 2013.) Goodreads (AKA Amazon) offered this on sale, and I grabbed it. I’m glad I did. What it’s about in a nutshell is the quiet anti-social people who do the creative things in the world, the introverts, as opposed to the extroverts, those blustering, often narcissistic, and outgoing people who often do nothing creative, unless putting down the nerds and pounding their own chests can be called creative.
OK, I’m being excessive maybe, and certainly biased. I’ve led a creative life, whether in science or in my writing, and I felt vindicated while reading this. I also came to understand myself a lot better. Writers are introverts in general. We sit behind our laptops creating our prose and poetry, quietly persisting until the job is done—at least for that story or poem we’ve been working on. Then on to the next. It seems contradictory that nowadays we’re also expected to be extroverts, meeting and chatting with readers and marketing our books in book events and on social media. Maybe that’s why writers become neurotic.
Everyone should read this book, though. It’s enlightening and shows, for example, that our educational systems are completely crazy. I’m glad I read it!
The Legacy. S. P. Brown, author. (Black Opal Books, 2017.) This book illustrates S. P. Brown’s breadth for mystery/thriller/fantasy/paranormal/horror storytelling. I previously reviewed his Veiled Memory. While there are some similarities, this tale starts out more strangely and becomes weirder at a galloping rate.
The protagonist’s grandmother, the matriarch of a rich southern family, is dying, and she has some secrets she wants to share. At first, her grandson is only interested in his inheritance. He soon learns that his legacy goes far beyond material wealth as a centuries-old feud rears its ugly head and changes his life.
This book is the perfect example of how fiction, no matter how fantastic, must follow Clancy’s dictum: fiction must seem real. In sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, and horror, world-building narrative must also establish a set of rules everyone has to play by. Here the rules are exposed during the tale, giving it the necessary air of mystery, but they’re logically consistent albeit fantastic.
I had a great time reading this book. Not for the squemish, but certainly a great read. Kudos to this author for bringing me back to genres and subgenres I’ve neglected in my reading. The plot is a wild ride, and the characters are complex and entertaining. Adult fiction at its best!
Rescue at Waverly. T. J. Mott, author. Time for some space opera? Except for the title that could signal one of Dame Agatha’s mysteries, this sci-fi story has a lot going for it. Thaddeus Marshall wants to find Earth. He’s from there, you see, was kidnapped there, wants to know why the galaxy was already filled with humans bent on enslaving Terrans, and how this came to pass. I would have liked this quest better if I knew more about it towards the beginning of the novel. Thad’s motivations alluded me until then.
The admiral was an engineer by training (i.e. back in the Sol system that’s lost in legend). Now he’s a renegade, mercenary, and pirate with his own fleets ready to plunder and kill to finance his obsession. In this novel, he learns to hate himself for that.
If that sounds bleak, it’s not. Thad’s a flawed protagonist, a complex but interesting and entertaining SOB. While this is space opera for the most part, most of the principal characters are as complex and interesting as the action is intense. I can imagine Matt Damon playing Thad; Jennifer Lawrence playing the Earth woman he saves from slavery, Adelia Devaux; and Ben Kingsley as Reynolds, the commander of Thad’s personal fleet that carries out the raid to save her. I’m not sure which actor I’d choose for the evil prince who’s put a huge bounty on Thad’s head that causes everyone else to pursue him. This prince is a narcissistic, deranged tyrant. While there’s someone everyone knows with these exact characteristics who could play the role because of his TV experience, he’s not available right now, so maybe Arnold would help out. Doesn’t he play that role in some computer game commercials?
I had great fun with this book. It’s not hard sci-fi, but maybe militaristic sci-fi in addition to space opera? (Of course, a lot of the former is the latter.) It’s not for the squeamish, by the way, and provides a glimpse of a galaxy wrecked by humans (isn’t Earth enough?). And where are the ETs?
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Comments are welcome!
The entire “Clones and Mutants Trilogy” is now on sale at Smashwords. Full Medical, Evil Agenda, and No Amber Waves of Grain are sci-fi thrillers featuring (surprise!) clones and mutants, heroic protagonists, and a criminal mastermind that’s as creepy as he is complex. These books are 50% off on Smashwords. Use the coupon codes for each book to get this discount.
In libris libertas….
