Review

Review – Captain Nemo: The Fantastic Adventures of a Dark Genius

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Captain Nemo: The Fantastic Adventures of a Dark Genius

By Kevin J. Anderson

Titan Books

ISBN: 9780857683427

4 stars

Jules Verne and André Nemo are almost inseparable as young boys. Exploring and testing André’s new inventions are what drives their days, although Andre’s the brave one with Jules usually watching on the sidelines. When André’s father dies in a shipbuilding accident, he takes off on an adventure of his own while Jules stays at home, goes to school, and prepares himself to enter into the family business with his father. Jules always dreamed of being a writer, and having his own adventures like Andre, but he has trouble finding his writing stride. And his writing income is almost as non-existent as his adventurous lifestyle. But when he starts writing about André’s adventures, he finds worlds previously unknown to him are now wide open.

Captain Nemo is a fun imagining of where all of Jules Verne’s tales come from — 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Around the World in 80 Days, to name a few. Yes, some of it is slightly unbelievable but so are Verne’s tales so I was willing to drift out of reality for this one. There is a love story here as well but it fits nicely in the background without feeling too intrusive. Honestly, I say that because I’m not one for mixing too much romance with my science fiction and fantasy. I agree it has a place but I prefer it fit with the story and not feel tacked on.

Titan Books pitched this one to me around the time I was reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and I jumped at the chance to read it. I’m glad I had at least a small knowledge of Verne’s writing before reading this one too as Anderson does dig deep on some of his adventures. While I’m familiar with Verne’s books, I’m still working on reading most of them and this book made me want to continue.

Anderson is an author I’ve heard of but haven’t read. I think I now want to take a look at a few of his books though — I found this one entertaining and fun and I hope that’s the kind of author he is overall. He obviously has a good knowledge and appreciation of Verne’s work. He captures the adventurous writing style and keeps the pace going throughout. And even at certain points where you know where the story is going, you want to keep reading to see Anderson’s take on it. A few scenes from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea come to mind here. It’s an homage that works well. If you’re looking for something fun, this one was good.

Review – One Way Out: Tommy Pulls the Trigger

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One Way Out: Tommy Pulls the Trigger

By Seymon White

Hen House Press

ISBN: 9780983460459

4 stars

Tommy Dushane lives in a small, rural town in Ohio — a place where nothing much ever happens and nothing much ever will. He wants out but doesn’t see a clear path to his big city dreams. His girlfriend, Dusty Jane, waitresses at the only restaurant in town and while she loves him, doesn’t necessarily want a way out the way he does. He wants the big city, excitement, the promise of a new life. For Tommy, there’s only one way to this shiny new life. Soon he finds himself on a would be interview with a small town criminal, get’s blinded by some fast cash, and when he realizes he’s in over his head, it’s already too late.

You can see how the lure of some easy cash can change a person, and it changes Tommy, a person who already wants out so bad he’ll talk to anyone who mentions a big city. He’s a good person who gets pulled in the wrong direction by his hopes and dreams. White does a good job of tugging on some emotions, even if they are fear and loathing — both of which Tommy has in abundance.

I have a soft spot, which seems to be growing, for dark, gritty tales. This one fits neatly in thriller, suspense, and crime fiction but I don’t want to say that’s it and be done. It’s a novella size book, the copy I read was around 80 pages, but I starting reading it at lunch and finished it shortly after walking in the door that night. It’s a fast read surely but a good one too. White is a storyteller. The dialogue was all believable and not once did I look up and wonder what I was reading. Crime fiction sometimes knocks me for a loop when the unbelievable happens but I had none of those moments here. And I powered though hoping the ending I saw coming would not be there. I liked the ending by the way but I’m not saying anything more on that point. For fear of giving away too much, I’ll stop there and say — if you’re looking for an interesting read, this one satisfies.

Hen House Press shared a copy of this book with me for review. This is the second book I’ve reviewed for Hen House Press, the first, Fiction Noir: Thirteen Tales, can be found here.

Review – A Crimson Warning

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A Crimson Warning

Tasha Alexander

Minotaur Books

ISBN: 9780312661755

4 stars

There’s something fun about discovering a new to me author and when I finish the new find, I’m always happy to know more is waiting for me. This is how I felt with A Crimson Warning. I enjoyed the book and learning it is part of a series made me happy to know I would once more have the chance to peek in on Lady Emily’s Victorian London.

The season begins and Lady Emily is looking forward to the balls, her involvement in lobbying for the right to vote, and of course time with her favorite Greek books. At one of the season’s first events, Lady Emily is happily dancing away the evening with her husband Colin looking for an opportunity to sneak out so they can spend some time alone when a fight breaks out among two men. It turns out an affair has been exposed and the two are arguing over ladies at the party. Suddenly, Colin, an agent of the crown, is called away on urgent business. Emily heads home with friends to discuss the eventful evening. When Colin arrives it is with sad news — a well-known business man has been murdered. His fiancée is devastated but it’s when she starts receiving threatening notes from the person who claims to have killed her soon-to-be husband, that Emily and Colin start investigating. Days later, red paint is found splashed on the homes of some of London’s most well-to-do. The paint is a warning and shortly after secrets are revealed leaving some in London to revel in the disclosures, and others to fear for their lives and what will be revealed about them. When two of society’s ladies are kidnapped, the season that held so much promise for fun, is now filled with fear.

Lady Emily is far from the standard lady of the day. While she enjoys the pleasures of the season, it’s her work lobbying for the women’s right to vote that riles her mother, a more straight-forward Victorian lady, to no end. She’s also smart and extremely well-educated which keeps her highly involved in her husband’s affairs with the crown. And more so, he’s willing to keep her involved even when others think he’s wrong to do so. Their relationship is certainly more open than most at the time and that’s one of the reasons this story is fun. There is romance too but it’s not overwhelming and blends nicely in with the story. As a non-romance reader, I was slightly worried that it would overtake the story and I was happily surprised with the balance that was struck.

While I enjoyed Colin and Lady Emily’s investigation, what I enjoyed even more was the setting. Alexander does a wonderful job with the details creating interesting ladies and a picture of Victorian England that is easy to be swept up in. I do wish Lady Emily’s mother played a larger role in this book — she was quite the interesting character and obviously one very different from Emily. It would have been fun to see more of their interactions.

As a reader of a lot of historical fiction, this is one author I’ll be returning to for a dose of fun mixed with a great historical setting. Alexander does a fantastic job of weaving together interesting characters with a mystery to keep you wondering what secrets are buried deep in the closets of high society. If you like a little mystery mixed with your historical fiction, Alexander doesn’t disappoint.

In addition to this blog, I also do reviews for The Book Reporter website. The above review was done for the Book Reporter which can be found here. The book was provided to me by the publisher.

Review – Super Natural Everyday: Well Loved Recipes from Natural Foods Kitchen

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Super Natural Everyday: Well Loved Recipes from Natural Foods Kitchen

By Heidi Swanson

Ten Speed Press

ISBN: 9781580082778

5 stars

I’ve never reviewed a cookbook before but I thought I’d give it a shot.  Besides, it’s a book I love, I’ve cooked many of the recipes, several are now staples, and none have let me down.  Since I don’t know where to start with a cookbook review, (I’m sure I don’t really need to do anything different but in my head this is what I’m thinking so go with me.) I thought the best way to do it would be to talk about what gems I found among the recipes.

Confession up front — I did not follow the recipes precisely.  I never do when it comes to cooking, and besides I don’t always have all the ingredients, but I’m always sure I can make it work.  This is why some of my friends hate cooking with me — I make it up sometimes!  🙂 Isn’t that the beauty of cooking though?

I was planning to include pictures but I don’t want you to judge the food by my awful camera work.  If you check out the author’s blog, 101 Cookbooks, (which you should do because it’s a wonderful blog and she includes not only the most tasty food but is an amazing photographer) she has food photos so fabulous they’ll make you want to lick your screen.  Yep, I said that.  Moving on…

This is a book of vegetarian recipes, I eat veggie for the most part, and my husband is a good sport and willing to try most things. The beautiful thing about this book is its diversity and mix and match ability of the recipes. I’m sure a few would also work as side dishes for chicken or fish just as well. These are also hearty recipes — you won’t be hungry an hour later which was a big complaint of my husband when I would make an all veggie meal. He’s yet to say that about any of the recipes from this book. We aren’t big eaters and by that I mean we don’t go in for monster, huge meals but we do like to feel as though we ate dinner.

This book contains recipes for breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, drinks, and treats. There is also a section on accompaniments and I’m dying to try and make my own whole grain mustard.

The recipes I’ve tried (which is really a small portion but I do plan to make my way through this one) and loved:

Harissa Ravioli

Tortellini Salad

Tutti-Frutti Crumble (a version of it with my own take)

Broccoli Gribiche (this is seriously one of my favorite recipes in the whole book)

White Beans and Cabbage (another great one and a way to deal with that massive head of cabbage that seems to arrive with our CSA that I don’t know what to do with)

Mostly Not Potato Salad

Wild Rice Casserole

Whole Grain Rice Salad

Open-Face Egg Sandwich

There are a lot of recipes in this book so please don’t let my short list be misleading. This is a cookbook I will go back to and have on several occasions when I don’t know what I want to cook and need ideas. The recipes are easy to follow and while I don’t always have the ingredients on hand, I know that substituting will not cause any major problems. The photos are also fantastic. If you’re looking for something new to add to your kitchen, I recommend this one.

Review – The Last Days of Henry VIII: Conspiracies, Treason, and Heresy at the Court of the Dying Tyrant

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The Last Days of Henry VIII: Conspiracies, Treason, and Heresy at the Court of the Dying Tyrant

By Robert Hutchinson

William Morrow

ISBN: 9780060837334

2.75 stars

Oh the Tudors. What a bunch you are — paranoid, mean-spirited, mean, gluttonous, and in the case of Henry, horny. This book only deals with his last years so a lot of the horny court play had run its course already and what was left was a sick, dying man sadly looking for companionship in his last days.

For a man so concerned with his public image and legacy, specifically an heir, he’s remembered much differently than I’m sure he ever thought possible even in his wildest dreams. In his later years, Henry was incredibly obese and most likely spent every minute of his last days in pain. His ulcerated legs constantly oozed. His diet of meat, meat, and more meat caused digestion issues, and he still worried about maintaining appearances. He’s an interesting figure and it’s obvious why so many people want to write books about him and the Tudor court. Honestly though, a book about Henry’s PR machine is something I’d probably read though.

It’s his final wife, Katherine Parr, who brings his family back together though. Welcoming Mary and Elizabeth into the fold and Henry, at this point, adds them to his succession line. His heir, Edward, dies at the young age of 16, Mary turns out to not be the best at ruling, but Elizabeth, well, she turns out to be Henry’s true legacy. Interesting how that works sometimes isn’t it?

This book is broken into chunks meaning each chapter is about a certain aspect of his life — his sickness, his will, his last queen, and his death. While it’s interesting to see these aspects broken down this way, the timeline gets muddles and I found it slightly hard to follow in terms of what year it was and what was important.

I’ve read a lot about the Tudors, both fact and fiction, and some of this felt too familiar to be as interesting as I wanted it to be. I’m glad I picked it up and I’m sure it’ll add a new perspective to my next Tudor historical fiction read. I realize that while I am sort of tired (sort of bored would be a better way to put it) of the Tudors, I know I’ll probably pick up another book about them and I’m not sure why. Perhaps that will be many days down the road though.

Review – Twilight of Avalon: A Novel of Trystan and Isolde

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Twilight of Avalon: A Novel of Trystan and Isolde

By Anna Elliot

Touchstone

ISBN: 9781439164556

3 stars

Trystan and Isolde is a part of Arthurian legend I’m not very familiar with. I’ve read a few stories over the years, short stories mostly or the characters have shown up as minor characters in other books, but I never really got into the longer stories. I’m not sure why that is but I thought I’d give these characters another chance.

Isolde is attempting to grieve for her husband Constantine, Arthur’s heir, after his untimely death but she finds it hard going. The realm is again in turmoil and lords and petty kings are once more vying for the throne. With little power and very few choices open to her, she makes the decision to marry a cruel man who takes the throne. With the knowledge that her new husband maybe selling out the realm to the invading Saxons, she takes steps to find the information to bring him down and also save herself from being convicted as a witch.

In most stories, Isolde is a healer, and she’s that once more in this book and it’s her need to help people, especially ones who are bleeding, that brings her in contact with Trystan. This is when the story diverged from one I’m familiar with but I was all right with that for the most part. When you read many Arthurian based stories, a change of pace is always welcome. But even with that change, I had trouble getting into the story. Isolde and Trystan are very hard, battered people with stories to tell but neither seems inclined to share their stories or heal mentally. I wasn’t looking for a warm and fuzzy cry fest but it also felt as though they were hiding stuff from each other which they sort of are but I won’t get into that.

This is the first book in a trilogy which is fine but the story ends so abruptly that I thought I had missed pages. Ending in the beginning of action makes sense when there’s to be a sequel but it felt wrong — too abrupt, too soon.

Honestly though, I still might take a look at the sequels because I do want to know how this version of the tale ends. The dialogue was somewhat stumbling for me though. A lot of …she paused. Then: “… I’m hoping this writing tick passes with the following books. Overall, it was an interesting take on the tale that many know so well.

Review – The Pale Horseman

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The Pale Horseman

By Bernard Cornwell

HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN: 9780060787127

4 stars

The Pale Horseman is book two in the King Alfred novels following The Last Kingdom.

This is my third Cornwell series and my tenth book of his overall which means nothing if you know anything about Cornwell as an author. He’s an extremely prolific writer and I’ve barely touch his long list of titles. It makes me happy knowing I still have all that reading ahead of me.

Uhtred, the Saxon raised as a Dane, is once more a pain in King Alfred’s side. Knowing Uhtred would go back to the Dane’s given the chance, he attempts to keep a leash on him but roping him in with religion and responsibility does nothing for Uhtred’s mood. Bored with a farmer’s life, he goes out raiding and meets up with a Dane named Svein who has ambition, ships, and men to back up his wild claims. Svein impresses Uhtred but he still isn’t ready to run back to the Danes, even if that’s where his heart is. Uhtred doesn’t like King Alfred but when the Danes attack, Uhtred finds himself by King Alfred’s side arguing with him over leadership and war skills. Though he never expected it, he is now doing everything he can to keep Alfred on the throne.

As a main character, Uhtred is wonderfully hateful and I mean that in a good way. He’s selfish, impulsive, violent, and a warrior through and through. He’s what I picture a Saxon raised among war faring Danes to be like. He hates his king but stands by him even going so far as to give him his oath; whether he likes to admit it or not. Loyalty means much to Uhtred but he struggles with it. He owes it to Alfred as his king but would sneak away to the Danes if he could and the thought crosses his mind more than once. When the opportunity comes up, he doesn’t go, surprising even himself but when the fight comes he avoids his friends not wanting to face them.

I know very little of Alfred’s actual history other than his being very smart and pious. This story is told by Uhtred so his portrayal is less than flattering. Being a pagan also shapes many of Uhtred’s views — his wife whom he once ran home from a battle to be with is now someone he can’t stand to be around. Her religion is a main a sticking point between the two. He finds a new woman, a pagan priestess, to replace her and while you know he enjoys her company, you also wonder if he does it just to show he’s still pagan and not willing to bend the knee to both Alfred and his religion.

Cornwell is as graphic as ever in the thick of the battle scenes — bones, flesh, and teeth crushing loudly and violently. It’s a rough time, around 870 A.D. or there about, so at least he is true to the period; something I always appreciate about his writing even if I don’t always revel in it.

It’s taken me a number of months to return to this series, not for lack of want, but because of other books that have come into my life. In fact, two additional books have been published in this series since I began reading Cornwell’s books. I don’t plan to let that much time pass between now and the next book.

Review – My Cousin Rachel

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My Cousin Rachel

By Daphne Du Maurier

Sourcebooks Landmark

ISBN: 9781402217098

4 stars

The House on the Strand and Rebecca were truly wonderful books full of atmosphere with dark characters and deep emotional triggers that had me holding my breath till the end of the book. I wasn’t disappointed by My Cousin Rachel but I didn’t feel the same emotional response as I did with the others. Yet I was still happy to see the somewhat ambiguous ending. Hmmm… No worries. I’m not telling. Honestly, I think Du Maurier is the only author that can do that and leave me feeling OK with it. Wonder why that is?

Ambrose Ashley and his heir, Philip, are two men leading bachelor lives on their estate in Cornwall, England. When Ambrose’s health begins to fail, he goes off to Italy for the weather and health benefits and finds a wife in Rachel, a recent widower and countess. When Ambrose sends Philip a strange letter saying his wife may be poisoning him, Philip goes to Italy to help Ambrose but doesn’t arrive in time. Sullenly, Philip returns home to find out Ambrose’s widow will soon be landing in England. Philip has no love, and only a slight respect, for this woman but he welcomes her reluctantly. Somehow, this mysterious woman finds a way into his life.

Philip is so naïve that Rachel’s actions seem perfectly normal to him but all the time you’re wondering why he doesn’t stay true to his original assessment of Rachel. You want him to go on mistrusting her and when he doesn’t, it’s infuriating and there’s nothing to do but stand back and watch the wreck happen. And you know it’s going to happen.

Rachel begins wrapping Philip around her finger. He becomes more possessive and somewhat deranged. Very much like Ambrose which has you wondering who and what Rachel is. He keeps finding letters from Ambrose accusing his wife of poisoning him and warning Philip of her abuse of money. But Philip heeds none of them. He ignores all the signs Ambrose sends him from the grave.

This was a very satisfying read but it didn’t have the same intrigue, buildup, or emotional pull. The notes and Philip’s feelings just aren’t the same here but they do add an otherworldly element, persistent but ignored though they are. If I had read this one before Rebecca, I may have felt differently about it. I keep trying to stop myself from making comparisons but I can’t. That happens with me when I start reading an author’s backlist. I have Frenchman’s Creek on my list and know my library has a copy and I’ll try to keep an open mind while reading that one.

All in all, a good read and I’m glad I’m working my way through Du Maurier’s books. It’s a fun little challenge.