The Edge of Reason

It's been a while since I read a book of my own. I've been getting so many quality reads from the library that I just can't shrink my ever growing pile down. And this will not change for the near future because up next is Cory Doctrow's LITTLE BROTHER.

Melinda Snodgrass is a co-creator on my all-time favorite series WILD CARDS. She also wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation. This background gives her the instant credibility a new novel needs to be picked up. I didn't pick up on it though until John Scalzi discussed the book in his Big Idea column. With few exceptions, most of the books Mr. Scalzi discusses tend to be good reads.

THE EDGE OF REASON represents a battle between the forces of reason and magic. Simply, the Old Ones (read these as Lovecraftian menaces, religious figures, or something else) are using our world as food and power. To do this, they exploit the beliefs in religion, magic and miracles. The other side uses science and reason to defeat them. In this mix, a policeman, a student, and others are thrust into battle.

Ms. Snodgrass develops her characters well and moves the plot along smartly. The book resolves the main plot while leaving open the possibility for a sequel. In a way it reminded me of Star Wars - where Darth Vader is defeated but not destroyed, the Empire is dealt a severe blow, but nor eliminated and the rebellion is triumphant but not all victorious, however a sequel is not necessary. Perhaps if Matthew Reilly had taken this approach, I would not have had the visceral reaction I did to THE 6 SACRED STONES.

All in all, it is a good book and if there is a sequel, I may pick it up.

Rolling Thunder

A couple years back, my friends at First Friday Fandom recommended John Varley's RED THUNDER as an entertaining read. I picked it up from the library and greatly enjoyed it. In short, it is the story of some enterprising young people and their mission to Mars.

Since the book had been out for a couple years, a sequel was on the shelves already. RED LIGHTNING was a weaker follow-up following the son of REDTHUNDER's hero. In a nice twist, Varley looked at the downside of the technology he created in the first book and how it may affect governments and society. However, the book was more disjointed and rambly than the first - perhaps because there was a solid narrative thread in RED THUNDER. RED LIGHTNING jumps between separate Mars, Earth and space travel plots and manages to tie them loosely toghether.

Now a third and final sequel, ROLLING THUNDER is out. What caught my eye at first was the adapted U.S. Marine Corps logo now featuring Mars on the globe. (To digress, I gave a copy of RED THUNDER to a former Marine neighbor and he did not like it.) The story stars the daughter of the son of the hero of RED THUNDER. The book examines the fallout from RED LIGHTNING and brings even more disaster upon Earth. For what started as a hopeful futuristic novel, it has become an Irwin Allen storyline. This novel suffers from the same problems as RED LIGHTNING - no solid story hook. Again disaster visits Earth and the consequences of Martian technology continue to affect politics and society. The story plays out to a logical conclusion and manages a few twists on the way. It is a decent book, but not up the standards of that first novel.

T is for Trespass

Sue Grafton is a nice reliable read. TIS FOR TRESPASS is a fun read and probably one of the more engaging Kinsey Millhone novels of late. Also it is the second one after S IS FOR SILENCE to change the style from a straight first-person novel. Almost like James Patterson, Grafton uses select chapters to tell the story from the criminal's POV. But unlike Patterson, it adds to the story rather than act as a tease.

Unlike other series, Kinsey stays rooted in the 1980s and the detail work Ms. Grafton puts in to keep the series accurate are fun. Another nice touch is her use of a current crime hot button - identity theft - and how it was done in the past and was probably more devastating because of the lack of criminal prosecution or traceability. The mystery in this book is thin - it's more of a procedural - but the story flows and the pacing is perfect.

It seems strange that I have been reading these novels for almost 20 years, but Ms. Grafton keeps pulling me back in. I can only think of a couple authors who have held my interest that long in a character or series. Keep up the good work.

And while I'm here, let me refocus my previous comments about THE 6 SACRED STONES. I knew this book was part of a series and I should have expected some carryover. Additionally, I should have realized as I was reading that there was no way Reilly could have wrapped the story up in that number of pages. However, the book does such a good job of pulling the reader through at a breakneck pace that the ending just came up. Kind of like THE MATRIX RELOADED, it just ended without resolving anything. Maybe it's just me but I like to be able to stop a series without being stuck mid-story if possible.

The 6 Sacred Stones

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but with one this bad, I should have known better. It's not a horrible cover, but it just doesn't say anything about the book. Which is too bad, because I should never have read this novel.

Normally, I like Matthew Reilly. As I said before, his books are fun if somewhat cheesy. But this time he did the unforgivable - he had a cliffhanger ending. If there is anything I despise in my readings, it is the unannounced multi-part story. If it is planned, I am just as likely to never read one as I am to wait until the whole thing is over and read it in one swoop. However, unannounced endings like this just turn me off the whole plot and we'll see if I pick up the next one.

The last book I read with this problem was GHOST ROAD BLUES by Jonathan Marberry. I couldn't tell you the names of the sequels or if they have seen print yet.

This is not to say that books cannot be multi-part or have cliffhanger endings, but what I hate is the need to have to read the next book to get a resolution. At least I got this from my library and didn't pay 25 bucks to learn that I have to pay another 25 a year from now.

I'll take a pass on finishing the series for now though. There are too many books out there to read to be forced to wait for the conclusion of the story.

Hold Tight

Well RAGAMUFFIN is on indefinite hold until I can get it back from the library again. But they did have a quick-turn copy of Harlan Coben's latest New Jersey novel - HOLD TIGHT.

I started reading Coben at the tail end of the Myron Bolitar books. I loved them so much that I gave my copies to my local librarian who loved them so much that she then ran out and bought the set for the library.

I thought Coben was an excellent mystery writer and then I read TELL NO ONE. With this book and GONE FOR GOOD, he moved to a whole new level. It was like watching Tiger Woods go from winning the Masters by 12 strokes to winning all four major golf tournaments sequentially.

Coben has abandoned the Bolitar series for the most part - there was a coda of sorts with PROMISE ME and the tease of a short story included in THE INNOCENT. Now he writes complex thriller-mysteries centered on New Jersey. Each novel features its own protagonists but characters like P.I. Cingle Shaker, criminal attorney Hester Crimstein and county investigator Loren Muse recur and link most of the books together loosely. The stories revolve around a past crime that has ramifications on the present. Coben takes disparate characters and plotlines and weaves them into a cohesive story by the end - usually throwing a major (but perfectly logical) curveball or two in at the end.

HOLD TIGHT keeps this format and is a vastly entertaining read. I picked out some of the clues early on but missed others entirely until they were revealed. If Coben were a magician he would be Johnny Ace Palmer doing his tricks right at your table and never letting you see where it was coming from.

I can't wait for his next trick.