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Previous Readings 2005

December 2005

This is classic newer Stephen King. Desperation has to be one of the more exciting Stephen King books I've read in a while, and I would put it in his top 10 of all time. A great spooky story which starts off with a psycho policeman in the small Nevada town of Desperation. He pulls someone over for a ticket and that's when the horror starts. It preys on one's fear of the power policemen hold and then twists into something else entirely. And by then you are hooked in the story. Stephen King wrote another novel the same year under Richard Bachman called The Regulators and is a sequel of sorts to this novel. This will be next on my list soon.

This is another book in the "Little Book" series from Borderlands press, and is the only one that is sold out. I luckily was able to get a PC version so I can complete my collection. This was a varied collection of stories, some only a couple of pages long to 25 pages long. Oddly enough his best story was not even about monsters. I was curious as to why it was included, but I guess he was all out of monster stories. Also all these short stories were brand new, so it's a nice collection to have. As with every other "Little Book" I have read from Borderlands this was pretty good. There is a great selection of authors for this series and in my opinion it has turned out really successful.

A newer novel by Koontz which I had trouble getting into. To me it seemed silly at the beginning, really engrossing in the middle and kinda chiché at the end. There were a few twists at the end which were surprises but they didn't really thrill me. I do like Koontz' style of making a feel good story with some laughs in between the suspense and horror, so this book did leave a warm fuzzy with me. Overall after getting through the beginning it turned out pretty good, so I was glad to have read it. I would say, though, Koontz has done a lot better.

I bought a trio of Charles DeLint books from a Subterranean Press auction, paying full price for Moonheart and getting two free books. This was one of them, a trio of three short stories. My first foray with this author and I was pretty impressed, but not overly so. Still I did enjoy this book, one story is based of the music band The Clash which I enjoyed since I am also a fan of their music. All three stories were set in the world of Newford; and since I am ignorant of this setting I am assuming it is a fictional place set in North America. DeLint is Canadian so maybe it is set in Canada. The stories are like Gaiman's American Gods setting; real people, current technology but with a fantastical twist. Good stuff!

This was the first book in the "Little Book" series from Borderlands press, and is a collection of short stories about vampirism. You get one or two classic vampire tales, but most are unusual vampire tellings, such as the owners who find out that their dog is a vampire, but they love him anyway. I liked it because it was different than the typical Anne Rice vampires with a European heritage. I liked MaClay's writing style too, I'll look for some of his other stuff.

This is a limited Edition book by Hill House publishing, and is a graphic novel, something Gaiman started his career on with the Sandman series of adult comics. This is the first one I have read and must admit I found it confusing. It runs like a poem with graphic illustrations. You can feel that sadness that is apparent with Melinda's story and the artwork is excellent. This is really a Dagmara Matuszak book, the illustrator, as Neil's story equates to about 150 words and the real focus is on the beautiful illustrations.

This was a book that was expensive, and it took about 15 minutes to read. Doesn't sound like a bargain? But this is an art form that I have yet to appreciate. Neil does quiet a bit of it and I will expand my horizons through some of his work. Stephen King's The Dark Tower is currently being created into a series of graphic novels by Marvel, which will later be released in a hardback collection in 2007. I want to experience reading more from this medium, and was happy I purchased Melinda. Just the book itself is something lovely to look at. A fine addition to my growing library.

This is the first novel by China Miéville along with the first time I have read this author. I was pretty happy with the read. Its an original idea based off the fairy tale, The Pied Piper. The piper is the bad guy who torments and kills the lords or kings of animals. In this case he's after King Rat, who is still furious about being defeated by the Piper in Hamelin 500 years ago when the fairy tale takes place. The piper can control any animal (or human) with his flute, which makes King Rat defensless against the piper. So King Rat rapes a woman and has an offspring that is half man half rat. The weapon King Rat hopes to use to kill the Piper.

Saul is that offspring and he rebels against King Rat but ends up having to face the Piper even though he hates King Rat. This book is set in the 1990's London scene using the back drop of Drums' n' Bass (made popular by Goldie) as the central theme for the Piper. Drums n' Bass is where he can spread his influence in the new world. This novel is part fantasy and part horror, similar in style to Neil Gaiman's American Gods. In fact Anansi (old mythology) the ruler of all the Spiders is a key figure in both books. This was a great fun read with a original story. My only complaints are the strong focus of Drums n' Bass and his writing style is pretty simplistic. But still it is a breath of fresh air, and it seems like China will be one of the new great authors of fiction.

The only reason why I am posting this is because it contains the short story "My Pretty Pony" which has only previously been published as a limited Edition illustrated book. The story is a tale between a dying Grandfather and his grandson. The grandfather tells him he needs to remember My Pretty Pony, because it stands for real time, not like the long time that you experience as a youngster, nor the fast time you experience as an adult. This is not a horror story, but just a simple story told between the two about the importance of time on the human body. "My Pretty Pony" initially was to be a full length novel, but Mr. King grew disillusioned with the story about 5 chapters in, so he cleaned up the first chapter and released it in limited fashion as a short story. Not a bad story, it shows that Stephen King can write heartwarming stories as well as horror novels. A story like this shows his diversity.

Other parts in this calender had trivia about Stephen King himself, his books, movies and anything else related. It was nice to read up on some good trivia about Mr. King.

This is the second reading of this novel; the first time was around 10 years ago. This is a castles and kings type of fantasy story that Mr. King wrote for his children. A little violent for a children's story but nothing more serious than the grimm tales. This story is nothing special but it tells a fun little story, which I enjoyed. This story also is the first instance where Flagg shows up. I wanted to read this book again because Flagg laster shows up in The Stand and in the Dark Tower where he is introduced in Wizard & Glass. This was the last Dark Tower book that I have read in the series and I wanted to brush up on his character before moving into the last three books of The Dark Tower series.

I also am planning on brushing up on a couple of other Stephen King Novels that reference characters in The Dark Tower series. Insomnia, Salem's Lot, Black House (w/Peter Straub), Desperation and Richard Bachman's The Regulators. This is a lot of books to read before delving back into The Dark Tower series. We'll see if I do it or not, as I'm not sure if I want to wait 5 months to get back into The Dark Tower..

I've seen different reviews of this book ranging from horrible to great, I decided to listen to the side that was positive and was glad I did. This book was a mystery type novel with a supernatural twist. Most of the book was a build up to the abduction of the son of a movie star called The Face, by a psychotic individual who lived with the belief that chaos ruled his life and he went out to make sure chaos was felt every day. The supernatural twist was a dead individual who was the friend of the chief security officer of The Face's estate, who died two days earlier and decided to act as a guardian angel for two days to save his friend.

I thought the characters where all interesting and well developed, although maybe just a little too developed as Stephen King also does. This book could have had 200 pages shaved off the 600+ page length. Regardless by about page 200 I was engrossed and just had to finish it. The ending was a warm one where you felt good about what happened to the characters. Also there was a pretty big surprise at the end I didn't realize, but I should have, as there were hints within the book. Also we learned about the different incarnations that was The Face. The only complaint was the efficient end of the villain who had planned everything so accordingly and was so vicious that it was disappointing he had such an quick ending. But I guess with the supernatural help he really didn't have a chance. All-in-all this was a good read.

November 2005

This is a small paperback book about David Bowie during his creation of the Low album, back in 1977. It's kinda hard to get a read on this book to tell if the information is factually correct, as a lot of it seems to be gossipy stuff, which I take with a grain of salt. And a lot of it I haven't heard, which makes me question the book. But on the other side of the coin I am glad it contains a lot of new information I haven't previously read. This is one of David's best albums and this book is a nice size at about 120 pages and focuses entirely on the album and influences that went into creating this album.

There is a similar book by this series for Elvis Costello I want to pick up. I like this 33 1/3 series, I just wish they would print in hardback format.

This is the last book of the High Druid of Shannara trilogy. Terry isn't a complicated writer and his books could be considered high school readings. Nevertheless I started reading him at about age 10 and have continued to this day. This last book was an OK end to the trilogy. There were some great parts with the battle between the Federation, but the actions of Grianne, who was trapped in the Forbidding seemed to be lacking. There could have been so much more to say but there wasn't. Some others disagree but I thought the ending was pretty good. It wrapped up everything nicely.

This was a fun read, but not one of Terry's best works. Another thing Terry has been writing shorter novels the past 6 years but trying to cram more into the books. Less descriptions are being used and many ideas are left open for the readers to decide. This is an evolution by Terry and I like it. He's tackling more serious issues than he has in the past and he's not taking up pages of lengthy descriptions that characterize a writer like Stephen King.

This was limited Edition copy of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. The book was initially released in the U.K. and then for the US release it was edited before released in the U.S. On this version he combines the two, adds some things, and makes the copy that he thinks American Gods should be. Hence the Author's Preferred Copy. I never read either of the two previous versions, so I can't comment on the differences. But I can say this is an excellent book.

This book won many awards and I can understand why. It's an original story up to the climax. The climax was a little cliché, but everything else reeked of originality. The book is set in our time in the United States and it talks about all the Gods that have been stranded in the U.S. Old Irish and Swedish Gods, for example, were brought over in folk tales and from believers when the United States was first settled. Well after a couple of generations in the U.S. these Gods were forgotten. A new set of Gods have arisen taking the place of the old gods. Gods such as Media and Technology which are worshiped in the 20th century. Shadow is the main character who is a ex-convict and is the one human who gets swept up in the story about the Gods. The new Gods are trying to exterminate the old Gods and a war is on the horizon.

Neil really researched his stuff for this book as the old Gods are from Mythology and Faerie Tales. I believe their is a literary critical review of this book talking about where Neil came up with all the Gods in this book (and there are about a hundred mentioned). This book has piqued my interest and I think I will have to pick that one up, as I really enjoyed American Gods.

A critical review of Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicle's of Thomas Covenant. Nothing really new here. All his hypothesis' were already pretty much shared by myself. Nevertheless it was fun to revisit some themes in his books which I haven't read in a few years. Also this included two interviews Mr. Senior had with Donaldson. These were insightful as to what Donaldson felt about his works. I'm glad I read it, as I'm a big fan of Donaldson.

A chapbook with one short story and an afterward explaining the story. I enjoyed the short story, it talks about a mentally crippled immortal who lives her first 10,000 years alone being kept alive by a spaceship. The spaceship finally finds a planet to drop her off on and it then explains her innocence and adventures in dealing with another culture. The people call her Mere because she is a god of no significance. They worship her as an immortal and she lives through the cycle of their world until it is about to die. Nothing special, but it was an interesting little tidbit and it exposed me to Robert Reed whom I will be buying more books from. The afterward tells about how this story has been told in three different incarnations through the years and how Mere will be included in future novels by Robert in this setting. This was some initiative stuff about his sci-fi universe. The afterward was as entertaining as the short story.

OK, I got caught up in the Gunslinger saga and had to whip through the fourth book before I attempted another book. Like I predicted from my last post I think the third book still rates the best of the original four novels, although this was defiantly second best. The reason being this is story about Roland at the age of 14 coming of age, becoming the gunslinger he is supposed to be, and finding out that his goal in life is to find the Dark Tower. It's nice that we get a background story about Roland's world before time moved on, as they say in the novels, and I enjoyed that a lot. We get to know some of the locals in Mid-World and learn a little about the war of John Farson, and we learn Roland played a part in this war, although it was not his intention. The downside is it's almost a children's story since it is about a 14 year old, coming of age having his first (and most significant) relationship with a girl. This is why it doesn't rate as high as The Wastelands, the third book.

But, nevertheless it was a great book, and I'm glad I have re-read these books before tackling the last three novels that have been completed in the last couple of years. I forgot a lot about these books and it will be beneficial when reading the newer installments. After saying that, it's time to take a break from The Dark Tower series as these books are becoming increasingly large and upwards of 700 plus pages. I have a bunch of goodies I want to tackle before revisiting The Dark Tower. But I'm sure I'll jump into book five, The Wolves of the Calla before years end.

October 2005

Well considering I can't remember much from the first time I read the first four Dark Tower novels, as it was back in the 80's, it's hard to say what Wizard and Glass will be like; the fourth book. But as far as I can remember The Wastelands was the best of the first four books. This book reminded me of The Stand, a lot was packed in that probably didn't need to be, but what came out was each little part was pretty interesting and as you went along you found out it did relate to the Gunslingers quest for the Dark Tower. It could be called fluff, but it was glorified fluff, as it gave character and atmosphere to this installment. Also we get a little section at the end where the Wizard shows up and saves the Tick-Tock Man, a creepy fellow that I assume will be the centerpiece of the next novel (can't remember? But it is called Wizard and Glass so it's a safe assumption). It was good spooky little section that got me pumped up for the next book.

In The Wastelands we now start to get a lot of information on what the Dark Tower is, how it is related to Roland's world, and how the decay of Roland's world is related to the decay of the whole galaxy. So we get the feeling this isn't a save the world type of hero's quest, it's much larger. In finding the Dark Tower this ka-tet will be able to save the universe. Or so we are led to assume at this point in the series. And we learn quite a bit of how gunslingers were perceived by others in this world. We find that the Gunslingers were the hero's of the land and held more respect than any ruler, tyrant or politician. Even Blane the Train holds great respect for the Gunslinger. Anyway, a great book, a lot of fun, and we get a strong dose of classic Stephen King horror in the later pages of this book over the standard fantasy fare we have seen so far in the first three books. This book has made me glad I decided to re-read these first four books before starting on the new trilogy.

Just to note, this series is underrated and overrated. If that is possible? Overrated in the fact that it seems to be following the same standard fantasy cliche of finding the Holy Grail, or The Dark Tower at this point resembles Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series' Tanelorn. So nothing new here. Also the quality of these books have not always been the best, heck the Gunslinger was one of Stephen King's first novel's ever written, and it shows. But nevertheless Stephen King doing an epic fantasy series takes a standard fantasy classic like The Lord of the Rings and mixes it up with horror and suspense and adds in some H.P. Lovecraft landscapes. Which, imo, makes this series a little unique and special. But I probably shouldn't be judging so quickly as I have 4 more books to go. lol

September 2005

This started out as a Science Fiction mystery novel, but quickly evolved into a life story of a girl coming of age, a catastrophic environmental occurrence on Mars and an invasion attempt of the True One. The True One is a computer of sorts created on earth which links up the minds of humans and controls their feelings, allowing one to not experience anxiety or stress for example. A human part of the Tue on is called a meme, and this book is party of a loosely based collection of books called the meme wars. This book had a good twist at the end, that I was not expecting. It is not a difficult read, the and perfect length at about 300 pages. This was my first book by this author and I would have to admit I was impressed. I will try out something else from him in the future, probably another one related to the meme wars.

The third book of the series is set within a city. All three of the books so far have been in different settings which has made for some variety, but in essence Salvatore writes battles. And all three books are about three-forth's battle sequences with the other fourth plot and story. So in that sense all the books have followed the same format. Again, a very easy read. And as the title suggests we got to learn about the Night Masks an assassination guild set in the Forgotten Realms. A fun read, but again nothing earth shattering here. One thing I will say is it's nice to read a Forgotten Realm's set of novels by Salvatore that is not about Drizzt. Salvatore's upcoming book is finally going to not focus on Drizzt again. But it is about Entreri and Jarlaxle which I'm sure will include references to Drizzt. But I'm still glad to see him branch off and not doing his 30th Drizzt book.

This is a Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club exclusive. It is six beefy short stories that combine crime mysteries and science fiction, including a good opening story by Mike Resnick, the editor. All the stories were different from each other, which kept the level of interest at a high. A pretty good collection, I enjoyed it a lot. The one exception was Jack McDevitts tale. It was not my style I guess. But the stories all contained a good twist as one would expect in a mystery, along with a couple of interesting moral dilemmas. The SF Book Club can put out some pretty good exclusives, and this is an excellent example of the quality of what they can produce. The bad side is since it's a book club, we get a book club edition with cheap bindings. Not very collectable or does it have a long shelf life span, which it should, considering they are exclusives to the club and not sold in stores.

I have now concluded the 4th book in this series, and it has not become boring, yet. I just started reading Forgotten Realm's books, so I'm not an expert, but these are the best I have read so far. This book by Lisa seems to be focused on developing the characters, more than on action or any critical plot advancement. All the main characters true intentions are becoming known, and some radical changes occur for some of the characters within this novel. There is a breaking of the Fellowship, so to say. Also, there is no climatic ending, unlike the previous three books which had an exciting climatic event to close out the book. This book was an intermediate in-between story, much like The Empire Strikes Back was in the Star Wars movies. Easy read, as are all of Forgotten Realm's books, but nevertheless it was written well, and I enjoyed it. I'm looking forward to the next novel.

August 2005

This second book in the series was a little more mature than the first. Still easy readings for anyone in middle school, but I'm finding his books to be fun. I read a few children's books as it is, so I'm no snob when it comes to authors. I just read them all. And this second book in the Cleric Quintet turned out to be pretty fun and followed perfectly in the spirit of d&d and the Forgotten Realms setting.

Released in 2005 it was nice to read a book about Genesis and their individual members that went all the way up to the most recent releases, like Phil Collins Testify and Tony Banks Seven. My first Genesis book and I liked it quite a bit. The book never really went into much detail about any time period would be my single complaint.

July 2005

Another of the "Little Book" series where each book is printed to 500 copies and signed, and published by Borderlands Press. Odd describes this collection of short stories quite well. Some of these stories come in at 40 words, and are not meant to be poems. Short story indeed! The longer pieces in the book prove to be more entertaining, and yes they are odd little stories. I initially gave my first copy to my brother's wife for her birthday, and bought myself a second one, so I can say I enjoyed this collection.

This is basically a collectors piece. It comes in a very thick cardboard sleeve and houses a hardcover slipcase for the 4 fold out maps by Howe. An 80 page book accompanies the maps written by Brain Sibley. Each section gives an overview of what occurred on each map, and gives a description of each map notation. This is a revised edition (or collector's edition as they call it, and also includes a map and description on Numenor. Not much new to learn from the book, but it is very well made, and the book is string bound. I'm quite happy to have this collector's piece accompany my Tolkien collection

Typical King Book, long drawn out and not a lot of plot. Nevertheless, the beginning and ending of this book is fun to read. Unfortunately it drags in the middle. This is the second time reading this as I want to polish up for the newer Dark Tower Books that I have not read yet.

The Little Books are small books of short stories, published by Borderlands Press and each are signed and limited to 500 copies. These are nice little collector's pieces, while being reasonably priced. This was only two stories, but each were large for a short story. The first was very good and scary, while the second wasn't as good as the first, it was good and weird. As a whole the book was a good read.

May-June 2005

Considering this has been the only Psychedelic Furs book to date I was happy to read it, and since it was completed in 2005. It even mentions the reunion that the Psychedelic furs are now doing. I enjoyed it.

A group of short stories, a little mafia and some crime stories. A pretty good read.

People complain that this work was a rip off of Hold Out an 1982 book. So what, this book captures Jackson up to 2005 and includes his newest album and his introduction into the rock n' roll hall of fame. I liked the book a lot!

Well I finally got around to getting the newest gunslinger books, but I decided I wanted to re-read the older gunsling books first, as a refresher. This version is actually revised to take into account the three new Gunslinger books. It was as enjoyable as the first time. This is also a Stephen King resurrection, as I used to read him a ton but I have taken off about 6 or 7 years of reading him. Expect a resurgence of Stephen King novels as I catch back up.

I used to play dungeons & dragons back in the early 80's as a kid. never played after middle school, but I've always kept interested and will play d&d video games. I never read any of the novels as the authors have usually been horrid. But this past year I decided heck I'll read them anyways even if they suck. Te reason being I've grown an affinity to the Forgotten realms campaign world as played through such classic video games as Baldurs Gate, Neverwinter Nights and the Icewind Dale series. So considering I was spending so much video game time in this world I decided to read the novels.

This series has proven to be the most mature and best written of the books I have tried so far. This book is the third in the Series of the War of the Spider Queen detailing the trouble of the drow in the Underdark, as Lolth their queen has abandoned them. Great stuff, this book was as good as the first two.

This is another Forgotten Realms d&d book. Salavatore can make fun little stories. But that is all they are fun little stories that are basically children's books. I liked it, but it is obviously immature and I wouldn't recommend it. I mentioned I've started getting into the Forgotten Realms, hence my reason for reading the book. If you are not interested in this world, say away.