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Richard Pastore, the author of The Devil and the Wolf, came up with a fun idea:

I have all sorts of ideas for this, but most of them involved outdoor stuff, and since it’s freezing cold where I live at the moment, I’m not sure I’ll do them today. We’ll see.

But one thing I decided to do that will be new is that I’m going to post about my to-be-read (TBR) list. I don’t often do that, because I know a lot of you come here to read reviews, and listing the books I haven’t read feels a bit like telling the teacher excuses for why I haven’t done my assignments.

But, my TBR list is huge, and I don’t know when I’ll ever get time to read and review all these.

  • First and foremost, my good friend Pat Prescott has a new book out–Stephanus, the sequel to Optimus: Praetorian Guard. Now, because I’m privileged to be Pat’s friend, I have seen some earlier drafts of this, but I am very eager to see the final version!
  • Photos of You, by Tammy Robinson. I read her first novel Charlie and Pearl, and it was brilliant. After Mark Paxson’s review, I’m definitely reading this.
  • Our Skirmishers of Lace, Steel, and Fire, by R.J. Llewellyn. I read Volume One of this series last year. Volume Two is sitting on my Kindle just waiting for me to fire it up. The only reason I haven’t is that I know it’ll be long–it’s epic fantasy–and I want to make sure I have blog posts scheduled far enough in advance to cover me reading this for weeks on end.
  • All of Lorinda J. Taylor’s books that I haven’t already read.
  • Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan, by Andrew Crowther. A Gilbert book by a leading Gilbert scholar? Why I haven’t I read it already? “For, duty, duty must be done! / The rule applies to every one.” However, this duty I will undertake gladly.
  • A Great State: The Divide by Shelby Gallagher. Why would I want to read a book about the United States collapsing into civil war, you wonder? Well, my friend Eurobrat wrote about this book last year, and it made me curious. As you can perhaps tell, I like to try things that are different, unexpected, out of the ordinary–in short, weird. I just keep hoping the price will come down.
  • Napoleon in Egypt, by Paul Strathern. I like reading about Napoleon. I like reading about Egypt.
  • Daughters of the West Mesa, by Irene Blea. Pat Prescott recommended this one to me. I know this one will be tough, because it’s based on real events–specifically, a series of murders in New Mexico. Books about real-life crime are very hard for me to read, even–maybe especially–when well-written. The Devil in the White City made me physically sick to read, for example. But Pat’s recommendation means a lot to me, so I will tackle it at some point.
  • Written Out, by Howard Mittelmark. Noah Goats says this is good, that’s all I need to know.

Now, they’re might be a few more books on my TBR list that I haven’t posted here because I expect to get them read and post reviews relatively soon. So don’t be surprised if you see a few titles not on this list in the coming weeks.

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Twisted Tales 2These stories are ideal for when you just want something quick and light. After reading some long, emotionally-charged novels, I find it’s a perfect change of pace to read one of Drayden’s weird tales. My mother told me once that in ancient Greek drama, after the heavy tragedies were over, they would close the evening out with a slapstick comedy.* That’s kind of what this is, and it works beautifully as a break after reading a serious novel.

If you read my review of Volume One in this series, all you need to know is that this is more of the same. If there’s a difference, it’s that the first volume was more sci-fi in tone, and this one is more fantasy/horror. But that’s the only difference–otherwise, these stories exhibit the same twisted sense of humor and the same bite-sized length.

Again, these stories are very short, so I won’t review them in-depth. Half the fun is realizing what the concept of the story is, as they each usually involve combining some mundane, familiar concept with something from the world of mythology or fantasy. The stylistic parallel to the comic strip The Far Side that I noted in my review of Volume One still holds.

If you read the Amazon reviews, you’ll notice some people complain about the brevity of these tales. This, in my opinion, just speaks to how tough the book market is. It may not seem like much to readers, but it takes a non-trivial amount of effort to come up with four funny stories, write them all down, proofread them, and get them published. The thing only costs 99 cents, for heaven’s sakes! 99 cents for a few good chuckles is a bargain, in my opinion.

With that said, you can get a set containing Volumes One through Six of this series, also for 99 cents, if you’re really serious about maximizing the quantity of stories you get for your money. Drayden’s stories are the perfect little treat for when you want to read something to tickle your imagination, but don’t want to commit to a whole novel.

(*My mom is a classicist. I didn’t want you thinking she was actually around in Ancient Greece. 🙂 )

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I’ve let the indie book review page get out of date. The reason is largely that the format of it is so clunky. Even with the hyperlinked genre listing, it’s still awkward to navigate a long list like that. And so every time I think I should update that, my next thought is Ugh, but it’s such a chore to use; I should fix that first.

But… nothing springs to my mind as to exactly how I can make it better. What do you think? What would make that page more visually interesting than just a list you have to scroll through?

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Check it out here, and be sure to read her excellent blog. She does regular posts about indie authors, as well as book reviews.

Thanks for having me, Barbara! It was a pleasure. 🙂

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VokhtahI’ve known about this book for a few years, but I kept putting off reading it because the premise seemed so forbidding. It’s set on another planet—Vokhtah—and the characters are all aliens. Well, alien to us, I mean–they are the creatures that evolved on Vokhtah. Not a human to be found, is my point. It’s intimidatingly exotic and strange, and that’s why I didn’t read it for so long, even though I enjoyed Flory’s other, unrelated sci-fi novel Miira. 

And for sure, Vokhtah is strange. The most intelligent creatures that inhabit the eponymous planet are a species—or really two closely-related species—with characteristics suggestive of birds, bats and perhaps insects. To make things even tougher, they don’t have names; only titles and ranks. There are traders, plodders, apprentices, healers, and a range of characters referred to only as numbers. Not only that, they are hermaphroditic—so, before mating, they have no defined genders.

Technology on Vokhtah is primitive—it appears to be largely what we would consider Stone or maybe early Bronze Age, although some references are made to machinery of some sort, but it’s not clear exactly how it works. There are different seasons that dictate the tribes’ customs, and time is kept according to the planet’s two suns.

And then there is the language. Obviously, the book is written in English, but the characters speak their dialogue with a different grammar. For example, instead of saying, “Are you hungry,” they would say, “Being hungry?” I don’t think the word “is” occurs once in this book. It gives you the feeling that you’re genuinely reading something spoken in a different language and translated into the closest approximation possible in our own tongue.

I’m telling you all this to prepare you up front: Vokhtah is not a typical or familiar book. The first half or so, you have to get acclimated to the alien planet and its population, their customs, and their ways of life. 

Flory does a great job crafting a profoundly different world. Even though I will admit that in the first half I found the story hard to follow, it really didn’t matter because I was just enjoying experiencing the atmosphere. Although it was sometimes hard for me to tell who characters were and how they related to the larger thread of the plot, it didn’t bother me, because I was just enjoying reading these fascinating little vignettes of life on this world.

My favorite of these is the dramatic performance of an old piece of Vokh lore—the story of the Great Nine and the Rogue. We learn that there are actually two versions of this story, and finding out the differences between the two versions and why they exist is just a fantastic concept. I loved this part.

Over the second half of the book, things coalesce, characterizations take shape, and I found myself sympathizing with members of this bird/bat/bug species more than I ever would have believed possible. The journey of the Messenger and the Apprentice along the Spine of the World (great name) was riveting. There’s even a little bit of a mystery element to it as well, which I won’t spoil here.

Yes, this book is different and weird and unlike anything else I’ve ever read. But that’s the point!  If intelligent life exists on other planets, it’s going to be bizarre and foreign and at least semi-incomprehensible to human intellects. Reading this book really did feel like being transported to an alien world, and that was fantastic. I wish I’d read it sooner, because it really is a master-class in world-building. Vokhtah is a haunting, vividly-constructed depiction of a fascinating world—one I’d happily revisit.

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WTF posterAh, interminable wars waged by hegemonic powers in the Middle East! They’ve been the cause of unfathomable amounts of human suffering for centuries, but on the other hand, we’ve gotten some really good movies out of them. Lawrence of Arabia, The Beast of War, The English Patient… maybe it is home to the graveyard of empires, but it sure is good for showbiz.

All right, maybe I’m being a bit cynical and snarky here, and that’s something I try to avoid doing, but Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is a war comedy-drama, so there’s inevitably a gallows humor quality to it.

The film follows journalist Kim Baker, (Tina Fey) who quits her desk job writing news scripts to cover the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan.  She’s embedded with the Marines, and, after initially being perceived as a bumbling civilian, gradually wins the respect of the unit and its commander, as well as veteran reporter, Tanya Vanderpoel. (Margot Robbie.)

Slowly, Baker gains the trust of important officials in the Afghan government, and, with the help of her guide and translator Fahim, (Christopher Abbott) gains a better understanding of their culture. She also starts a romantic relationship with journalist Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman) after breaking up with her stateside boyfriend. 

Ultimately, Baker is forced to use all her wits, contacts, and knowledge of Afghan politics in order to save not only her career, but her lover’s life. And she is forced to come face-to-face with the horrors of war, as she interviews a young soldier badly-wounded after an IED attack.

WTF1
This poster looks more like the kind of film I expected.

I went into this film with low expectations. I like Tina Fey and Margot Robbie, but wasn’t expecting it to be anything more than “Liz Lemon goes to Afghanistan.” And that’s what it seems like at first.

But over the second half, nuances emerge. The characters show unexpected depth and nuance. As I said, I’ve always liked Fey’s comedy, but I gained new respect for her skill as a dramatic actress. As the CineMuseFilms review put it, “she nailed her part” by not playing it solely for laughs. Billy Bob Thornton is great as the commanding Marine officer, and Christopher Abbott’s performance is absolutely fantastic. His character’s friendship with Baker is one of the highlights of the film—frankly, I found it to be the real emotional core of the story, much more so than the romance thread. 

There’s one dialogue between Fahim and Baker in which he warns her that she’s becoming addicted to the adrenaline rush of mortal danger. It’s a moment of real tension in their friendship, and a dramatic turning point in the film.

I mention it because addiction to the thrill of war was also the theme of the film The Hurt Locker, which is about a bomb disposal squad in Iraq. That film won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2010. Personally, I found Whiskey Tango Foxtrot to be a vastly superior war film compared to The Hurt Locker, and this more economical portrayal of the same basic theme is only one of many reasons why.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot has humor, but never at the expense of characterization. It shows both the horror and the heroism that every war entails. It ended up being a far more thought-provoking film than I was expecting. I’m now curious to read the book on which it was based, The Taliban Shuffle by Kim Barker.

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Assassin's HeartAssassin’s Heart is a romance in a medieval fantasy setting. The protagonist, Lillie, is a woman raised from a young age to be a ruthless assassin by an organization known as the Va’Shile. When we meet her, she is undercover as a palace servant, and all the court is awaiting the naming of King’s heir—whom the Va’Shile have assigned Lillie to kill once his identity is known.

While gaining the trust of servants in order to move freely about the castle, Lillie meets a handsome young stablehand named Nef, and the two soon fall in love. Despite her brutal upbringing, Lillie finds herself increasingly distracted by her new beau, as well as questions surrounding her past that nag at her mind—questions relating to her mysterious ability to communicate telepathically with animals, which troubles even the brave and handsome Nef.

The wheels of political machinations continue to turn. Complications ensue. Soon enough, Lillie and Nef find themselves fleeing the Va’Shile and hiding out at a brothel managed by a woman named Brava. But even as their relationship deepens, Lillie and Nef are increasingly drawn into a conflict with the Va’Shile which can only be ended with a lot of death.

Assassin’s Heart is first and foremost a romance. Once we get about a quarter of the way in, it seems Lillie and Nef are sneaking off every chance they get to fulfill their, ah, romantic desires. (Sometimes their romantic desires need fulfillment 3 or 4 times a day!) And they aren’t the only ones constantly running off to the bedroom, either; there are several other romantic sub-plots as well.

But Norse does a good job of balancing the sexy interludes with character development and plot twists. The story never grinds to a halt. Other things may grind to something, but never mind that now! 

There isn’t a lot of description of the world in which the story takes place. Most of the descriptive passages are, as you might expect, about the physical attributes of the cast. Lillie and her red hair, Nef and his blue eyes, Master Jaidon and his… well, I don’t want to spoil everything!

All right, I’ll stop with the Nudge Nudge Wink Wink routine. There’s a lot of sex in this book, that’s my point. But there’s still a good story and a few other things that even those, like me, who don’t regularly read romance can find interesting.

For example, there’s a scene where Lillie is relishing finally being free from the confines of the Assassin’s Guild where she spent most of her childhood, and gets up in the middle of the night to dance in the moonlit corridors of the castle, with only statues and suits of armor for an audience. It’s very Gothic. Beautiful, but also slightly eerie, and Romantic in the artistic sense of the word, with a focus on creating a feeling rather than plot advancement. I liked it a lot.

Some of the reviews on Amazon—which are otherwise positive—bring up the issue that the characters often speak in very modern language. I admit, at first I noticed this and found it jarring. But as I kept reading, my attitude about it changed a little—because the story isn’t set in a specific time period, but just an unknown medieval-ish place, the modern phrases actually gave it a more distinct “flavor.” So, I guess it was jarring, but kind of in a good way, maybe? All told, I couldn’t make up my mind whether I liked this or not, but it certainly didn’t ruin the book for me.

Also, I really liked the character of Brava. I usually find prostitutes and brothels in fiction to be pretty tiresome—largely because there are so many works of fiction where I swear it feels like the entire economy is prostitution-based. But Brava worked as a character for me—her no-nonsense attitude, coupled with her dirty sense of humor, was very amusing.

This is an enjoyable romantic fantasy tale with enough non-romance plot that it will appeal to non-romance readers as well.

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Shady AcresThis is a collection of short stories. If you read Mark’s other collection The Marfa Lights—and you should have, especially since this fellow said to—this will feel like picking up right where you left off.

My mini-reviews of each story:

  • Shady Acres: This story is the longest in the book, and interweaves the life stories of residents and staff at the Shady Acres retirement community. It’s a moving story, with many poignant moments, and some very funny ones as well. The “main” character does something rather dubious early on, but by the end, I felt more sympathy for him. I enjoyed this story, and would happily read more stories in this setting.
  • A Warm Body: A quick sketch of a post-apocalyptic world. I guessed the twist ahead of time, but that’s probably because I’ve played many a post-apocalypse role-playing game. It’s a quick glimpse into a grim, brutal world. Made me think a little of Harlan Ellison.
  • Gramps’s Stereo: In the afterword, Mark explains that this story was partly inspired by the film Gran Torino. That’s one of my favorite films, so maybe that’s why I liked this one so much.
  • Jeopardy: A young man returns home to his bickering parents with some surprising news. Now, here again, I guessed what the twist would be; but the story isn’t really about the twist as much as it is about the atmosphere and setting the scene. Of all the stories in this collection, this is the one that I could have most easily identified as the work of the same author who penned The Irrepairable Past. The tone feels very similar to me.
  • Forever: Now this one is peculiar. As explained in the afterword, it strikes many readers, including me, in a very different way than the author intended. Not to give too much away, but the protagonist’s behavior can be interpreted in a number of ways. And here’s the weird part: I was happy that the story turned out differently than I expected it to, even though it might seem more of a “conventional” ending. In other words, I was surprised by how unsurprising it was, if that makes sense. 
  • Getting Through the Night: This story is about a man caring for his young daughter after a car accident leaves her on life support. I admit, I kind of hurried through this one.  It was just too grim for me, but that’s not a criticism of the writing, which is quite good, of course. And the backstory of how Mark came up with the idea is really interesting. So it’s not that it’s a bad story; it was just…. too dark for my tastes. Your mileage may vary.
  • My First True Love: Probably the most relatable story in the whole collection—I think everybody probably has a story kind of like this one in their past. There’s a character in it named Luilu, which made me think of Leeloo from The Fifth Element, even though there’s really no connection otherwise—but still, aren’t those just fun names to say?
  • Sunbaked Sand: I view this story almost as a kind of companion piece to “Jeopardy,” but with this one, I totally did not see the “twist” coming. (By the way, calling these “twists” kind of cheapens it—it’s more like revelations about people that make us see them differently. I’m using “twist” as shorthand here.) In any case, this story is really good. It only has two characters who are in conflict for most of it, and at the end, you feel a ton of sympathy for both of them. 
  • He Slept: This story epitomizes what I consider Mark’s signature talent, which is his ability to take a minor incident from life; the sort of thing that 99 out of 100 people would scarcely think about, and expand upon it to tell a compelling story. (To be fair, “Getting Through the Night” also does this, but if I were introducing somebody to Mark’s work, I’d recommend this one.)
  • Tentacles: A haunting depiction of how abusive behavior can ruin many lives. It’s dark, it’s powerful, and it has this other sort of weird, unexplained thing going on in the background that gives it a very unique vibe. Probably my second-favorite story in the collection.
  • Who Is Maureen Nesbitt?: I think this is the shortest story in the collection, which makes it ironic that it will be the one I write the most words about. Part of it is that it’s a big departure from Mark’s typical style of melancholic literary fiction. This one is sci-fi. And it’s funny. It takes place in a world where there are things called “Information Zones” or “izzies,” which are essentially artificial intelligences that have access to all the information on the internet—and then some. And the izzies have developed personalities of their own. They’re almost like mischievous ghosts. I’m not sure exactly when Mark wrote this, but I’m pretty sure it was before the rise of things like Siri and Alexa. Yes, this story is short, but I absolutely loved it. I want to read more stories set in this world—there’s so much potential in this concept. This is one of those that you read and just shake your head and go, “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that.”

All in all, this is a fine collection, with plenty of variety. Every story has its own unique “flavor,” and the notes at the end where Mark discusses the story-behind-the-story are quite interesting in themselves. Studying the way he draws inspiration from the most seemingly-insignificant things is a great technique for writers to cultivate. Give Shady Acres a try. 

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time enough at last
“Time Enough At Last” – Image via IMDb

There’s a famous Twilight Zone episode about a man who loves to read, and who, upon finding himself the only survivor of a nuclear war, begins gathering all the books from the ruins of the library, eager to spend the remainder of his life reading without interruption. Then he falls and his glasses break, and he finds himself with plenty of time to read, but unable to do so.

It’s dark, it’s ironic, and it evokes Cold War fears of annihilation, so small wonder it’s practically the quintessential Twilight Zone episode. 

But here’s an even darker proposition for you: what if we forget that we can read?

I don’t mean forgetting the basic act of reading written symbols and associating them with meanings; we can still do that. No, I’m talking about something more insidious than that.

I used to say I didn’t read as much as I wanted to because I didn’t have time. But then I thought about it, and I realized that wasn’t completely true. What about the time I spend watching TV? Or playing video games? Or—and this was by far the biggest time-sink—mindlessly scrolling through the internet, watching videos or looking at the latest news.

I decided to make a conscious effort to spend that time reading instead. And I mean seriously reading, as in focusing on a novel and getting absorbed in it, not the “reading-lite” that is skimming social media or most websites.

It’s important to remember that, not that long ago in generational terms, reading was one of our best forms of entertainment. As recently as the early 1900s, there was no TV. Netflix and Xbox and Twitter were unfathomable. The only remotely comparable entertainment was the theater, and that was largely for the upper-class. For most people, entertainment was reading, telling stories, and maybe playing some music.

I read that, when he was a boy, Isaac Asimov would loaf around reading pulp science fiction novels, which he justified to his disapproving father by saying that they had the word “science” in the name. This tells you a lot about how the world has changed—nowadays a parent would probably be thrilled if their child, especially their son, was reading anything. 

It’s well-known that reading is very different than watching television in that it involves imagination to a greater extent. The less serious reading you do, the more your skills at translating written words into complex thoughts will begin to atrophy. 

Put simply, reading is harder than watching TV or surfing the web. (I’m less sure about how it stacks up vs. gaming, but at the very least it seems safe to say it engages different parts of the brain.) It requires an active effort to put the mind in serious reading mode, although once you do it’s also much more rewarding. There is an obvious analogy with exercise here: it takes more of an effort to lift weights or go jogging than to sit on the couch doing nothing, but you feel better afterward.

I’m not saying that television or movies or scrolling through your timeline are inherently bad, by the way. What I’m saying is, these are the things we gravitate toward doing automatically, unless we make an effort to check ourselves. Until recently, I never consciously thought, Would I rather look at the trending hashtags right now or read a novel? The hashtag thing came easier, and so that was just what I naturally did without stopping to wonder if there could be a better use of my time.

It took consciously reminding myself I could be reading right now to change this. I’m still very much a work in progress in this regard; I skim the political news more than I probably should. But at least I’m now in the habit of considering the fact that there is a trade-off.

When I tell people I write books, they often shrug and say, “Nobody reads anymore.” While obviously an exaggeration, the underlying point is true: most people are spending their leisure time watching YouTube or Netflix or looking at Instagram, not reading novels.

I’m not here to judge anyone else for what they’re doing. But as the proverb says, “Physician, heal thyself.” So I’m trying to make sure that I, at least, frequently ask whether what I’m currently doing is more valuable than reading. After all, if we learn nothing else from the Twilight Zone, it’s that just having the time isn’t enough—you also need to be able to use it effectively.