I joke about the fact that I keep different buckets of friends. I have the gaming group, the college homecoming group, the gay group, the LA group, the artist group, etc… Up until recently, almost everyone fit into one group. There are a couple of exceptions. For instance, Ellen fits into the gaming group but also paints and does greeting cards. Yesterday, I found out that I know a published author. Steve was already in two groups, now he fits into a third group. Maybe I need another bucket for people that are in multiple buckets.

Being in the LA group, people should expect him to be somewhat eccentric. So his book might reflect some West Coast new age ideas. If anyone checks it out, let me know what you think. Extra gaming points to the person that figures out what else he has done.

On a related topic only different, another friend of mine has started a website to sell some of his photography. He hasn’t left his day job yet. Take a look and feel free to buy me stuff. Tell him ‘Chuck sent you.’

http://www.unbownd.com/

These are definitely not the 4 color stories that many  super hero tales are. Instead, they are thoughtfully written pieces containing tough choices. In many cases, I often am trying to figure out who the good guy is.

New items are posted each day at 10 am EST. Books can be downloaded for free only on they day they are posted. I just grabbed today’s titles and I can’t wait until Wednesday because one of the books they are giving away is a Pirate book I am using right now. I can’t wait to have it in PDF format as well.

This is just one more reason that I love RPG Now.

Thanks to Dice Make Bonk for the tip about the Thanksgiveaway.

One thing that I loved about this series was that it got stronger as it went along. Book 1 (A Secret Atlas) mainly set the stage and got everything in place for the conflict that was coming.

I thought that book 2 (Cartomancy) had some great character development. Further, two revelations at the end of book 2 are both unexpected and fantastic. Finally, book 3, while also filled with significant character development, was a great action book as well. The series leads toward a climactic battle between good and evil.

Stackpole has handled this battle brilliantly by showing it as a series of battles, with lots of twists, turns, successes, and defeats.

Stackpole has also created a complicated suite of characters who are anything but one dimensional. The characters have flaws and fall victim to them. Further, just as in real life, some people are deceptive and are not quite who they appear to be. I for one will admit that a couple of the characters had me completely fooled until their aspects were revealed.

If you look epic sweeping fantasy, with interesting and unusual creatures (but no elves), great character development, complex story lines, and some great story telling, I cannot recommend these books highly enough.

The only reservation that I have about the books is that sometimes it was difficult to keep the names of some of the people straight. Stackpole has a list on his website in which he provides pronunciations for the various unusual names. I suggest printing this list and keeping notes for yourself about who the people are.

In terms of the complex nature of this work and keeping everything straight, I can compare it only to my experience reading Cryptonomican by Neal Stephenson. Although the books have no story features that are similar, to me they seem similar in terms of their sweeping epic nature.

Unlike most fairy tales, however, this alternative world is not bright and cheery. It is dark, depressing, full of monsters, and ruled by a king that has less and less power. Much of the book concerns David’s travels throughout the land to reach the king. He does this with the hope that the king will be able to help him return to the real world. In the meantime, David is shadowed and, at times, protected by The Crooked Man, who needs David’s help in order to live.

Connolly is a great storyteller and that shines through in this book. On his trip to find the king, the boy encounters several people from familiar fairy tales. However, those fairy tales have been twisted. For example, Little Red Riding Hood is willingly responsible for the half human, half wolf creatures that spend most of the book chasing the boy.

Despite the darkness of the world, Connolly manages to inject some humor into the scenes in which the boy meets Snow White and the dwarves. In Connolly’s world, Snow White is a lazy, overbearing, taskmaster that is hated by the dwarves and who scares off any potential prince who might marry her. In fact that best exchange of the book occurs when the boy is leaving the dwarves. The dwarves are retelling the Goldilocks story and they volunteer the information that the bears ate Goldilocks. David says that Goldilocks just ran away. The dwarves then say:

“That’s what ‘ran away and was never seen again’ means in these parts. It means ‘eaten.’ ”

“Um, and what about ‘happily ever after’?” asked David, a little uncertainly. “What does that mean?”

“Eaten quickly,” said Brother Number One.

As with his other books, Connolly takes what we know or what is normal and then twists it in a demented or unexpected way to keep his story fresh and interesting.

Although this book is different from Connolly’s others, I would not hesitate to recommend it.

The basic premise of True Evil is that a divorce attorney is providing a service to the super wealthy in which, instead of divorcing their spouse, the doctor arranges for the spouse to be murdered. The twist is that the spouse in murdered by causing her (or in some cases him) succumb to cancer or a stroke. By ensuring that the spouse dies from a disease such as cancer, no one suspects that the spouse has been murdered.

Alex Morse, an FBI agent with a series of personal problems, discovers this plot after her sister tells her that the stroke she suffered was caused by her husband. Alex becomes convinced that, Chris Shepard, a doctor in Mississippi, is the next target of the murdering divorce lawyer.

Given the far fetched nature of the allegations, Alex is unable to convince anyone to believe her that the deaths she has identified are murders. Iles does an excellant job in the first half of the book of keeping the reader unsure as to whether Dr. Shepard’s wife actually is trying to kill him.

The second half of the book takes off as Morse and Shepard begin to learn more about the murder plots and as the attorney and his partner become more paranoid and begin plotting their escapes.

The final third of the book contains some great action scenes as well as just enough twists to keep you on the edge of your seat. One of my favorite scenes occurs near in the end of the book in which the lawyer’s wife chooses to exact revenge rather than save herself.

If you like thrillers or have liked other books by Greg Iles, then you should check out this book.

Jack Daniels, the main character, is not your typical detective protagonist. She is a 46 year old, divorced, woman who is, for the most part, light hearted. In Bloody Mary, Jack and her partner are looking for a killer who is leaving body parts around Chicago. The twist is that each of the parts has something on it connecting the body part to Jack.

The majority of the book is not dedicated to figuring out who the killer is, but instead, it is dedicated to either catching him or trying to keep him in jail. The last third (or so) of the book, in which Jack and her partner attempt to locate prior crimes committed by the killer, reminded me a lot of a Law & Order Special Victims Unit episode.

Back from the first book, Whiskey Sour, is Jack’s former partner Harry McGlade. Just as in Whiskey Sour, I was not sure whether I liked Harry or hated him. Nevertheless, Konrath does an excellant job creating a memorable character. Konrath does a similarly good job with the killer’s accomplice. He ends up being a well written, memorable, minor character.

I also really like the fact that Konrath is not afraid to let things happen to his characters and have them change over time. Jack’s ex husband shows up in the book and the interaction between him of Jack’s boyfriend is good. I also absolutely loved the fact that Konrath allowed the killer to savagely attack someone close to Jack. I thought that the attack scene and the fallout from that really brought the characters alive.
If you enjoy fun detective stories with a twist of humor, you could not go wrong with this book.

“I’ll write you your own short story. Because, damn, if you’re paying $5K, you deserve it.”

Bill Schafer, the publisher of Subterranean Press bid $5,000 and won the auction. The short story that Scalzi promised to write in exchange for the $5,000 bid became The Sagan Diary, a novelette set in Scalzi’s Old Man’s War universe. The Sagan Diary is a first person narrative told from the perspective of Jane Sagan, a major character in all three of Scalzi’s “Old Man” books.

This book takes place after the second book, The Ghost Brigades, and before The Last Colony. If you have not read either Old Man’s War or The Ghost Brigades, I suggest that you take a pass on this book.

The book is short, 89 pages in my “trade” edition (which is hardcover), and is divided into eight chapters, each dealing with Jane Sagan’s struggles in converting from a person created in a lab to be a killing machine to a “normal” human who settles down with a family.

The third chapter, which deals with communication, really reinforced the difference between the members of the Ghost Brigades and the regular soldiers. Although both are genetically altered to be superior fighters, the members of the Ghost Brigades are “born” into a state of communicating electronically rather than physically. The thoughts in the chapter about dealing with “normal” people who speak really emphasized those differences.

My favorite line in the books opens the fourth chapter: “I rose early the day I killed my friend.” That line grabbed me the first time that I read it. So much about what the members of the Ghost Brigades are like are contained in just those few words.

The chapter on Sex was surprisingly good. Again, the beginning of the chapter is just great:

“I must apologize to you. I am sitting with you and you are talking to me, telling me about the world to which we are going, where you and I will start our lives together. I’m sure what you’re saying is important–critical things I need to know, about a place I have never been but where I will spend the rest of my days. I am sure you are telling me things I need to hear, but I must confess I’m not hearing a single word.

Instead, I am intent on your face, and the movement of your lips, and the memory of how those lips feel when they are on me.”

That is great stuff. In those short paragraphs, Scalzi demonstrates that, despite the fact the two characters present in the scene are genetically engineered super fighting machines, they are still human, just like the rest of us.

The final chapter also hit a nice note in describing the internal conflict that Jane is facing as her consciousness is about to be transferred to her new body. Although we will likely not have to face that scenario, the demons that she struggles with in Chapter 8 are the same demons that we all struggle with in facing new challenges in our lives when major changes (whether chosen by us or foisted upon us) occur. Scalzi strikes nice balance of bringing these issues to the forefront without getting sappy.

Overall I enjoyed the book. I will say, however, that I am not sure that I really like looking that deeply into anyone’s mind. If you enjoy the Old Man’s War series, I recommend picking this up. Alternatively, on the same day that the book was released, Scalzi released a free audio version of the book on his website. The readers are all women and include Elizabeth Bear, Mary Robinette Kowal, Ellen Kushner, Karen Meisner, Cherie Priest and Helen Smith.