SecondWorld

Here's all I have to say about this novel: Navy SEAL turned criminal investigator, Nazi plots, mass deaths, giving yourself a nickname, conspiracy theorists, old Nazis, long flights, short deadlines, end of the world and Hitler. Put them all into a blender and you too can write a novel like this. Robinson makes Matthew Reilly look like Shakespeare. However, if we didn't read bad novels every once in a while, we would never appreciate the good ones.

The Land of Oz

It took more than a year, but my daughter and I finally finished reading this classic. The reason for the delay had more to do with inertia than anything. I was working nights when we started and tried to keep up over Skype in the evenings, but the work schedule got too hectic and rather than read only a couple days a week, we set it aside. But we got right back into it during a recent mini-vacation and pressed on to the finish.

In this story, we are reunited with the Tin Woodman, Scarecrow and Glinda the Good. Introduced are Tip, Mombi, Jack Pumpkinhead, Woggle-Bug, the Saw-Horse and the Gump. The Wizard features prominently in this as an almost villain. It is his actions that set in motion the events of this novel.

At first I felt this book was slower moving and a little more scattered than the previous book. There was much traveling about and outright wandering. But the story tightened up over time and brought about the somewhat disturbing introduction of a major Oz character - the protagonist of many following books. (On a side note, I imagine someone has already done a "grown-up" version of this introduction and all the ramifications that could go with it. I'll have to investigate.)

We both enjoyed the book and will have to look into further Oz editions after we read a few other books. This version is the 100th anniversary edition with an essay by Harlan Ellison, which was the reason I bought it. I will also have to investigate whether there are similar anniversary versions out there. But if not, the plain old paperbacks will do fine.

On a final note, my daughter spoiled the book for me by reading ahead. While she still wanted me to read the story, she was intrigued enough to push on herself and tell me the surprise ending. Thanks, kid. I wonder if she is too young to learn the concepts of spoilers.

Murder on the Yellow Brick Road

My own summer reading club continues with the second installment of the Toby Peters Mysteries. I pushed through the most recent interruptions and quickly got back to Mr. Kaminsky.

Like Hardy Boy stories of old, this one picks up right where the other left us. Toby, having saved Errol Flynn, comes to the aid of Judy Garland. This mystery was a little easier to divine. The suspect pool was more limited and thus easier to spot, but the motivation was still a little murky. That is okay though. I like this series. The bit with his brother could get old soon, but the rest of the story clicks. And we get a hint of the next mystery in our conclusion.

The next book will be a little harder to pull in as it is one of the two not owned by my library system. Maybe, I'll get started on the other half of my list while I try to locate it.

Iron Gray Sea

Time once again for Taylor Anderson's soap opera that is his Destroyermen series. I still love these books, but the scope keeps getting bigger and bigger and less and less happens in each book.

In this book, we have two engagements with the Japanese destroyer Hidoiame, some land, sea and air battles in India, a small engagement in the Galapagos, assassination attempts, torpedo demonstrations, a wedding, a quick view of Dominion jails, and finally the result of the Grik-Japanese expedition to Africa to talk to the exalted prey. All of this covers two months of novel time, and we are still far from any conclusion. There weren't even any conclusions to the storylines in this book. It was simply another turn at the wargame table. Even the end of some small plotline would have been welcome. But then again, Turtledove does it in his mega series and I read a few of those.

This series is still fun to read, and I took many liberal moments to get through it quickly. But now I am left wondering when the next installment will be. My guess is February, but there is no indication of a future book at this point.

Fair Coin

Before I jump into my summer reading projects, I need to clean-up a couple of outstanding spots in my queue. The first of which is FAIR COIN by E.C. Myers. I saw this book on no fewer than three recommended summer reading lists. The premise interested me, so I took a chance.

Our hero comes into possession of a quarter depicting Puerto Rico as a state and which apparently has the ability to grant wishes. When it comes up heads, the wish is fulfilled. Tails, of course, makes the wish come true with unintended consequences. How reality changes and the effects it has on our hero's life comprise the first half of the book. The second half is more devoted to the origins of the coin and the fallout of all those changes. To discuss more in detail would spoil the plot, and so I will leave it there.

The book reads well enough and some plotlines are telegraphed. However, it was a nice complete novel that most science fictions fans could enjoy. The one thing I did not expect was the news that this was just the first in a series. The novel ends quite distinctly and has no need for further expansion. I can think of some ways to keep it going and am moderately curious to see what the author does. The new book arrives in October. One more book to get out of the way and it is back to old Hollywood.

Bullet for a Star

My summer reading project has two prongs to it. The first is to read three great comic novels (Catch-22, Slaughterhouse Five, and A Confederacy of Dunces) and the second is to read the entire Toby Peters series by the late Stuart M. Kaminsky. Kaminsky was a very prolific mystery writer, creating no fewer than four distinct series. Of these, Toby Peters was his first and longest running.

The premise is simple, Toby is a private investigator in 1940s Hollywood. Thie means he gets to interact with all kinds of movie and entertainment types. It is very reminiscent of Max Allan Collins' Heller books, except Kaminsky was there first. Another big difference between the series is the lack of modern context to the Peters series. The Heller books are written in a memoir form that updates the reader on the various characters' fates. Peters simply moves on from one mystery to the next. In the case of this book, quite literally from this story to the next. Our hero rushes off at the end to begin his next case, much like the Hardy Boy books of my youth.

Our hero is introduced in this first novel as a former Warner Brothers security man turned private investigator. He isn't very successful at his job. He rents an office (really just a spare room) from a dentist; he barely speaks to his brother (a cop) or his ex-wife; his car is falling apart, and he is evicted from his apartment. But he knows how the movie business works and uses that knowledge to his advantage.

The series is light in tone, but also practices that deceptively simple prose that reads well, but is hard to imitate. Kaminsky keeps the book flowing and interesting. My only quibble is that the solution was a bit afield. The killer is well-drawn in the novel, but the connections to the plot are not cemented down. Thus making the denouement a little hard to put together. I don't want to figure out the mystery easily, but I don't want the solution pulled out with no connection either.

I've read a few of these books in the past, and look forward to seeing the evolution over 24 novels and 27 years. Amazingly all but two books are at my local library and those two are in a neighboring system. I love my library.