Review: Dearly Devoted Dexter

Dearly Devoted Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A lovable murdering sociopath that can't take his next victim until he has helped the police to catch a serial killer, without revealing what he really is.
I can't help but love a story like this and it doesn't hurt that Mr Lindsay has a wonderful grasp of the English language and let's it show not only in the descriptive part, but also in the dry wit of the dialogue.



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Review: The Laughing Corpse

The Laughing Corpse by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Thankfully Ms Hamilton's writing style has improved (or she has found an editor that's not afraid to tell her what needs to be improved). The scenes are still a bit short, but flow of the story is better so the reading experience is not at all as jarring as in the first book.

The main character Anita Black helps the police in the search for a paranormal killer.
The story is quite good and adds something to the world of UF.



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Review: Guilty Pleasures

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


The reason I picked up this book was that I was looking for a new series to follow, as the ones I'm currently following are all waiting for 'the next book'. When I bought this book I bought The Laughing Corpse at the same time. If I hadn't I would likely have dropped this series, as Guilty Pleasures isn't close to living up to my quality standard.
What I did like about the book is the somewhat fresh (although gory) approach to UF, where the main character is an animator/necromancer - who raises the dead for a living.

As someone who aspire to someday write a book of my own, this book was very educational as it's only half finished. I don't blame Ms Hamilton for this, but would rather point at the editor that allowed this book to go to printing when it obviously wasn't done.
My main gripe with the book is that it lacks flow, as the scenes doesn't really fit together, making the reading experience jarring, at best. Ms Hamilton is a cue-card writer, dividing the story line into separate scenes, which she appears to write individually. The scenes are then numbered and 'page-broken', which doesn't help the flow. There are a lot of other authors that uses the same style of writing, Terry Pratchett is one, but he avoids the numbering and 'page-breaking' in his novels. With the division Ms Hamilton use the scenes has to be longer than four page on average - in this book the average is about three and a half, with some as short as half a page.
There are also some truly jarring scene breaks, such as where the main character Anita moves from a face-off in a back yard and together with her companions leave in a car. The dialogue continues in the car, yet she has chosen to make it a new scene - with scene number an page break.



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Review: Obsidian Butterfly

Obsidian Butterfly by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book side-steps the continued story of Anita Blacks relationship to the two men in her life, by taking her out of St Louis to pay back a favor to her former tutor Edward.
The story is fairly good, but also fairly predictable.
My main problem with the book is that it adds nothing to the overall story of the series, which any book in a series as prolific as the Anita Black series has been and especially at such a crucial time in the main characters life.
In the previous book Blue Moon Anita has learnt that the two most important men in her life has lied to her and taken action on learning more on her own, but in this book she suddenly drops everything without reason to help Edward solve a paranormal murder mystery. She drops all attempts as self discovery, which is completely out of character for her.

The series has really turned out to be a learning experience for an aspiring author.



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Review: The Word for World is Forest

The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book shows one of the strengths of Science-Fiction has as genre, which is to drive technology and human behavior to extremes to high-light the strengths and weaknesses with said technology and/or human behavior. This is what this book does very well.

The Word for World is Forest was written in the late 60s and is therefore a little too heavily influenced by the Vietnam war, but even despite that it's still one of the most thought-provoking books I've read in a long time.
The story in the book is that mankind has scourged Earth and left it pretty much barren. In search of wood man has started to colonize the planet Athshea, where the small landmass is covered by a vast forest.
However the logging company isn't too concerned with the native Athsheans.

The book covers subjects such as environmentalist, human disregard of how we affect the world around us, human exploit of animals and/or natives during colonization. However what got to me was the exploration of human evil and its origins.



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Review: Burnt Offerings (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, #7)

Burnt Offerings (Anita Blake Vampire Hunter, #7) by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


A paranormal firebug is terrorizing St. Louis and as the paranormal expert Anita Black get to help the police and the fire department to track down the culprit.
The story line is somewhat convoluted, which takes a star from the rating.
Her involvement with the master of the city is growing more intense and complex, without any real explanation.
A good read, but there are a lot better books out there.



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Review: Blue Moon

Blue Moon by Laurell K. Hamilton

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Ms Hamilton seems to have found her stride as Blue Moon is a fast-paced action packed paranormal novel.
She doesn't fully manage to handle the personal development and the romantic part between the main character Anita Black and the two men; one the master vampire of St. Louis and the the Werewolf Alpha of the same city. So there's still room for improvement, but overall an enjoyable read.



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Review: At the Gates of Darkness

At the Gates of Darkness by Raymond E. Feist

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I found this book to be very good, but it's also very much a continuation of the first book in the Demonwar Sage and I wouldn't ever recommend anyone to read this book before having read Rides a Dread Legion. There is also several references to the previous series The Darkwar Saga.

Midkemia is once more threatened by evil and the Conclave of Shadows hurries to find the point of attack in time to avert the threat.



The Riftwar books has grown into a regular franchise with more than twenty books and it's starting to show as the story gets more and more artificial with levels of existence and planet jumping.

However At the Gates of Darkness is also gently hinting at that the end might be within sight as some prophecies is drawing to a close.

I really think that the franchise would benefit from the Chaoswar saga being the last saga.



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Review: At the Gates of Darkness

At the Gates of Darkness by Raymond E. Feist

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I found this book to be very good, but it's also very much a continuation of the first book in the Demonwar Sage and I wouldn't ever recommend anyone to read this book before having read Rides a Dread Legion. There is also several references to the previous series The Darkwar Saga.

Midkemia is once more threatened by evil and the Conclave of Shadows hurries to find the point of attack in time to avert the threat.



The Riftwar books has grown into a regular franchise with more than twenty books and it's starting to show as the story gets more and more artificial with levels of existence and planet jumping.

However At the Gates of Darkness is also gently hinting at that the end might be within sight as some prophecies is drawing to a close.

I really think that the franchise would benefit from the Chaoswar saga being the last saga.



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Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If you've seen the TV-series you'll find the book very familiar, to the extent that you'll recognize the dialogue.

If you haven't seen it on TV, then you're in for an enjoyable read.
The story is a pretty standard detective story, with a twist that makes all the difference.
The main character, Dexter, works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police force, but he's also a sociopath and serial killer.
It doesn't sound like it would be funny, but the whole story oozes a dark murky sort of humor that is both situational, where the sociopath plays the role of a 'normal' human as well as the dialogue, which is occasionally funny and occasionally witty.



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Review: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If you've seen the TV-series you'll find the book very familiar, to the extent that you'll recognize the dialogue.

If you haven't seen it on TV, then you're in for an enjoyable read.
The story is a pretty standard detective story, with a twist that makes all the difference.
The main character, Dexter, works as a blood spatter analyst for the Miami police force, but he's also a sociopath and serial killer.
It doesn't sound like it would be funny, but the whole story oozes a dark murky sort of humor that is both situational, where the sociopath plays the role of a 'normal' human as well as the dialogue, which is occasionally funny and occasionally witty.



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Review: Haze

Haze by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I have read a little over a quarter of the book and have decided to stop and the reason is that the only motivation to go on is to get an answer to the mystery of the planet Haze and to me that’s not enough.
My main problem with the book is that almost a hundred pages in I still haven’t connected with the main character. I know what he does for a living, which is to infiltrate different cultures to find breaches to rules laid down by the dominant culture, but I don’t know who he is and what drives him and to me this isn’t enough. It might have been easier to get immerged in the story if it hadn’t jumped between two different timelines, presumably to highlight differences and similarities between the societies that the main character Keir Roget is sent into. I don’t object to the time jumping per say, but without the emotional tie to the character the frequent change in context becomes jarring.
I speak, read and write English fluently, but it’s still only my second language and there are a few sections early in the book where neuwords (where two ‘current’ words are merged together) are used. These aren’t that uncommon in science fiction, so this isn’t specific to this book, but the use of neuwords are still annoying to someone that hasn’t been speaking English their whole life. It requires that the reader either stop and think through what the origin of the word is and what the new word means or to push through and ignore the word and thereby lose some of the meaning/context of the situation.
The last of my objections is that the beginning is almost completely devoid of action and personal interaction. There is a lot of walking, watching and not much else in the first part of the book and as I’ve already mentioned there isn’t enough in it for me to find out what happens later on in the book.



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Review: Gomorrah

Gomorrah by Roberto Saviano

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Gomorrah is written by Roberto Saviano, a journalist that has written about the Nepalese mafia for many years and in this book writes several stories about the individuals behind the headlines. The stories lets you see how the mafia managed to gain control of the commercial as well as the governmental aspects of Neapel and the surrounding area.
Roberto's language is very visual and lets you see into the brutal reality that is Neapel, under the rule of the Camorra.



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Review: The Alchemist

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


It's one of the best books I've ever read!
The story is quite simple story, but in its simplicity it's really makes you think.
There's more written between the lines than the letters actually printed on the pages.



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Review: Thank You for Smoking

Thank You for Smoking by Christopher Buckley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This an amazingly funny book about Nick Naylor, who's a spokesperson for the tobacco industry and how he deals with what he does for a living.
If you haven't read it and have a thing for situational comedy you're going to love this book.



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Review: The Traveler

The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A throughly enjoyable book, but in a somewhat strange universe.
The setting is quite similar to how Stephen King creates his worlds, which is mostly here, but then there is a place very close to it that is linked to it and... well it's beautifully weird.



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Review: The Magic of Recluce

The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read this the first time about 15 to 20 years ago (when it first came out as a paperback), which was probably an ideal time as it was in the middle of my teen years. It really is a coming of age story about a boys inability/reluctance to see the world the why his parents choose to view it and his (unrealized) need to explore the world to learn more about himself and thus understand his world better.



Now a few words on why I liked this book in particular and also why L.E. Modesitt Jr. is such an interesting author, at least in my book (no pun intended).

As I said I first read this some years back and what I didn’t get then, but really struck me this time was Modesitts use of subtle references. One example is when Lerris has his serious talking with uncle Sardit and he says; “Because you’re like your dad … or your aunt. In the blood…” and later when he meets the girl Shrezsan, who’s driving a wagon of melons, on the road to Nylar and her response to the staff he carries.

Through these little hints the reader is very early introduced to the implicit knowledge that there is something special about Lerris, but like Lerris the reader doesn’t get anything explained to him either. As a reader I’m gently lured into seeing the world through Lerris’s eyes as we know no more than he does and is equally frustrated by the answers he gets to his questions.

The part of the story that takes place in Nylar is somewhat tedious, without being overly so, but once again that helps the reader to bond with Lerris and his lack of appreciation of a good education. :-)

A thing that has made me return to the world of Recluce and other fantasy worlds of Modesitt’s design is his ability to visualize that there’s always at least two sides to a story. This is especially true in the world of Recluce where the viewpoint of the main character can change from one book to the next. In the beginning of the series the Black side of Order are described as the good guys and the White of Chaos is the evil side, from the perspective of the main character, like Lerris in The Magic of Recluce, but about halfway through the series of Recluce this is turned on its head as the main character Cerryl of The White Order enters training as a White Wizard to fight the evil Black Masters.

This is perhaps a bit premature to talk about in the review for the first book, but already in this book there are hints that the Black Brotherhood isn’t all good. That their use of order to fight, what they perceive as evil rulers is hurting the weak and poor.



Overall it’s a very good book, which I thoroughly enjoyed and that I would recommend to all that likes fantasy of the Sword and Sorcery persuasion especially if you enjoy what is likely to make you think one step further..



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Review: The Magic of Recluce

The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr.

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read this the first time about 15 to 20 years ago (when it first came out as a paperback), which was probably an ideal time as it was in the middle of my teen years. It really is a coming of age story about a boys inability/reluctance to see the world the why his parents choose to view it and his (unrealized) need to explore the world to learn more about himself and thus understand his world better.



Now a few words on why I liked this book in particular and also why L.E. Modesitt Jr. is such an interesting author, at least in my book (no pun intended).

As I said I first read this some years back and what I didn’t get then, but really struck me this time was Modesitts use of subtle references. One example is when Lerris has his serious talking with uncle Sardit and he says; “Because you’re like your dad … or your aunt. In the blood…” and later when he meets the girl Shrezsan, who’s driving a wagon of melons, on the road to Nylar and her response to the staff he carries.

Through these little hints the reader is very early introduced to the implicit knowledge that there is something special about Lerris, but like Lerris the reader doesn’t get anything explained to him either. As a reader I’m gently lured into seeing the world through Lerris’s eyes as we know no more than he does and is equally frustrated by the answers he gets to his questions.

The part of the story that takes place in Nylar is somewhat tedious, without being overly so, but once again that helps the reader to bond with Lerris and his lack of appreciation of a good education. :-)

A thing that has made me return to the world of Recluce and other fantasy worlds of Modesitt’s design is his ability to visualize that there’s always at least two sides to a story. This is especially true in the world of Recluce where the viewpoint of the main character can change from one book to the next. In the beginning of the series the Black side of Order are described as the good guys and the White of Chaos is the evil side, from the perspective of the main character, like Lerris in The Magic of Recluce, but about halfway through the series of Recluce this is turned on its head as the main character Cerryl of The White Order enters training as a White Wizard to fight the evil Black Masters.

This is perhaps a bit premature to talk about in the review for the first book, but already in this book there are hints that the Black Brotherhood isn’t all good. That their use of order to fight, what they perceive as evil rulers is hurting the weak and poor.



Overall it’s a very good book, which I thoroughly enjoyed and that I would recommend to all that likes fantasy of the Sword and Sorcery persuasion especially if you enjoy what is likely to make you think one step further..



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Review: Grabben I Graven Bredvid

Grabben I Graven Bredvid by Katarina Mazetti

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The reason I picked up this book was that it was one of a few available during a vacation, as it's really not the type of book I usually read. It has however made a bigger impact on me than I thought at the time; not so much the story, but the way it was told.
The story is about two very different people meeting in one of the few places they are likely to every share, the grave yard. He's a dairy farmer and she's a librarian, so their worlds doesn't really intersect much.
What still sticks with me is they the author chose to write the chapters alternatively from his and her perspective, which really helped to highlight their differences in an elegant way.



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Review: Dragon Blood

Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My view on Dragon Blood is that the narrative is more suited for epic fantasy, but appears to have been reduced (like a fine sauce) making it chock-full of history, legacy, prophecy, religion to the degree that I, as a reader, questions if it all really is necessary or if it could have been rewritten to simplify the world in which the story unfolds. As in The Hob’s Bargain there is a lot more meat in the story, than what Ms Briggs puts to use in the story.

It’s a good story, although a bit harsher than Dragon Bones as the ruler of the land tries to stem the rebellion against him. The harshness is somewhat balanced by the budding love story between two of the main characters. Ms Briggs use of moving POV, helps to lift the story by giving alternative perspectives of the unfolding story.

I sincerely hope that there will be a continuation of this saga as the ending is a bit abrupt and there is still uncertainties to unravel.



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Review: Dragon Bones

Dragon Bones by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Patricia Briggs is a very skilled writer and it seems that whatever sub-genre within fantasy she dives into she does a good job of it. Dragon Bones is the first book in a series of two centering around the Hurog, with Dragon Blood being the follow up. Patricia has on more than one occasion written these type of short, multiple book series, but rarely more than a few in each series. This really is the reason I don’t see her as a writer of epic fantasy, even if the books often has the same elements present in the books, so too Dragon Bones, but it can also be labeled Sword and Sorcery fantasy.

The story centers around Ward, who’s the heir to the Hurogmeiter (Guardian of Hurog). To avoid his father’s rage against anything that threatens his rule, Ward has hid his intelligence, but as the time comes for Ward to rule Hurog he has to convince his people and the king that he’s fit to rule.

My view on Dragon Bones is that the story is more suited for epic fantasy, as it’s filled with history, legacy, prophecy, religion to the degree that it gets confusing why they were mentioned. Religion seems to only have been introduced to create a place of ancient magic where certain events of the book occur. As an example is the slave girl Bastilla’s religion, that doesn’t really serve a purpose in this story, but is still fairly well described in the book. It’s as if she’s painted a picture on a wall, but as she hangs the empty frame it only covers one part of the painting, leaving bits that belongs outside the frame in the story.

This makes the book somewhat confusing, but perhaps Ms Briggs has future purpose. As always her characters have enough depth to be believable and the width of the story prevents it from becoming too immersive and single-sided.

As always her book’s an enjoyable experience.



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Review: Frostbitten

Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong




In Kelley Armstrong’s Frostbitten the female werewolf Elena Michaels returns and together with her mate Clay; the enforcer of the American pack investigates some brutal deaths near Anchorage, Alaska.

Elena Michaels is without a doubt Kelley’s favorite character as this is the fourth book about her, of ten in the series, and it’s not hard to understand as her introductions to the supernatural world is somewhat unusual. At the beginning of this book it’s clear that Elena has accepted what happened and is starting to plan for her future together with Clay and their young twins.

This book has an interesting and compelling mix of actions worthy of the best detective novel and character development where Elena slowly transforms from an insecure working mother to a kick-ass alpha candidate.



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Review: The War of the Worlds

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The War of the Worlds really awakened my curiosity for classic SciFi novels, mainly due to the brilliant form in which it was written. It's laid out as a diary, where a London based writer describing an invasion from Mars of the pre-industrialized England and his struggles to reunite with his wife.

Worth to keep in mind is that it was written over a hundred years ago and published at the end of the 19th century.

This is the book, after a re-write by Orson Wells for radio, in 1938 scared radio listeners due to its realistic portrayal of an alien invasion.



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My Latest Favourite Author

I’ve found a new favourite author and he’s named Mike Carey.
Mike Carey’s production contains an unusual mix of books (Lucifer and Hellblazer, which was filmed as Constantine), scripts for comics (X-Men and Ultimate Fantastic Four) and a movie screen play (being filmed). I’ve seen the movie, mainly as I wanted to see Peter Stormare in the role of Satan, but other than that this is nothing I can comment on.
For more on Mike Carey please visit his home page at www.mike-carey.co.uk.
I would describe the Felix Castor series as a noir detective novel with a supernatural twist. It takes place in London in a not too distant future or parallel now, where the dead have been awakened and returns as ghost, zombies and loup-garous (animals taken over by human sprits that bends them into humanoid shape). Oh and occasionally demons walk the streets as well.
Felix is an exorcist, or used to be, but stopped after he had a bad incident that ended with his best friend has to share his body with a demon. He also has a bad habit of taking on difficult cases, when he knows he really shouldn’t.
Carey paints the imagery bleak to create a great noir backdrop, by mixing sceneries that crumbles in the details with dark stories that build up the characters beautifully. The novels each span about 500 pages and would be unbearable bricks if it wasn’t for his humorous and twisting descriptive language that lifts the reader without breaking the general mood of the story. Here’s a few good examples; Felix restlessness is described as "I prowled about the house all day like a hermit with haemorrhoids.."? or his admiration of beauty during forced silence with "...every man in the room drew in his breath with an audible, almost painful catch. Every man except me, that is: I couldn't make a sound if my life depended on it. Sorry, that should have read 'even though'. " How can you not love language like that?
The books are well written and the story catching, but it’s the humorous language that makes him my latest favourites.

So far I’ve read the first three books in his Felix Castor series; The Devil You Know, Vicious Circle and Dead Men’s Boots. Books four and five; Thicker Than Water and The Naming of the Beast are eagerly waiting in my book stack on the night side table.

Till Next Time,
Martin Frid

Book Binge 101

OK, I confess I’m an occasional book binger and the last week (or so) was a classic example of how to indulge the literary addiction.
It started on April 30th when I passed by the SF book store in Malmö and with some time to kill I started to browse the shelves and found three books from my ’to get’-list. I’ve quite a few authors and book series that I try to follow – unfortunately I haven’t found any good tool to track these – yet.
I left the shop with three books; Dead Men’s Boots by Mike Carey, The Reckoning by Kelly Armstrong and Black Magic Sanction by Kim Harrisson.
By Monday I’d finished The Reckoning and about two third of Dead Man’s Boots and as I Thursday was a Holiday, leading into a long weekend with a grim weather forecast, I went back to the shop after I finished work on Wednesday to look for a few new series and left the shop with SIX new books; the continuation of Mike Carey’s Felix Castor series, Thicker Than Water and The Naming of the Beast, the start of Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels series, Magic Bites and Magic Burns as well as the start of Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series Guilty Pleasures and The Laughing Corpse.
By the end of holiday weekend I’d finished Dead Men’s Boots and both of Ilona Andrews books.
To Sum up five books read and nine bought within the span of ten days, a true book binge.
Oh yeah, I managed to see a couple of movies as well.

Till Next Time,
Martin Frid