The Silver Queen

 

By Jane Candia Coleman

This is the fictionalized story of Horace and Augusta Tabor who, as a young married couple, had joined the many hopefuls heading west to make new lives for themselves, in the 1850s. Eventually they would come to own some of the richest silver mines in Colorado.

Horace and Augusta Tabor first settled on a farm in Kansas. But the unrest occasioned by the anger over slavery and a failed corn crop set Haw, as he was called, on a search for a new endeavor that would take them out of lawless Kansas. He decided the gold fields would be the making of him.

Off they went, Augusta now a mom to the only child she would ever have, Nathaniel, called Maxcy. The trail west was a trial, for sure, but they made it to Colorado intact and set out exploring the rugged mountains looking for the jackpot that would make Haw rich. Augusta struggled along with her husband, who was a bit of a dreamer, but she would have been happy to have an ordinary life. Mining for gold was not the jackpot Haw had hoped for. But they got by, helped out by Augusta's cooking and doing laundry for and selling supplies to the others in the gold fields hoping for the same dream. 

In the course of the years, they acquired several mines, none of which was particularly productive, of gold that is. But it turned out that some of the mines were very productive of silver, an ore Haw had overlooked in his dream of gold. Silver made all his dreams come true. In today's money, his fortune may have been in the $2 billion range. Certainly he was the wealthiest man of his day in Colorado.

But money was not good for the Tabor marriage. Haw had always had a tendency to stray and was perhaps a bit too fond of hanging around in saloons and bars. And his wife, Augusta was maybe a bit too stern, to apt to criticize. Haw had political ambitions and wanted her to be part of his effort to charm people and win supporters. He had a mansion built for her in Denver and she settled in to it and enjoyed her life there. But he was mostly absent, pursuing his political dreams and funding projects in Denver and Colorado. His relationship with a young widow, Baby Doe, who he set up in a suite in the hotel he owned, showering her with fine clothes and jewelry, became a scandal.

It was Augusta who pointed out to Haw that his behavior was not helping his political ambitions. If she thought that would bring her unfaithful husband back home, she was mistaken. The marriage ended in divorce and Haw married his pretty young mistress. But Augusta had taken care of herself financially, maybe she wasn't fabulously wealthy, but she had a very comfortable life. At her death, her estate was worth $1,000,000 in 1895, which is about $36 million in 2020 dollars. Things did not work out as well for Haw and Baby Doe, unfortunately. In 1890s, the value of silver started to decline drastically. Tabor lost everything but was appointed Postmaster, a position he held until his death in 1899.

Stupidly, I did not realize that the story I was reading was based on real people. I kept waiting for Augusta to have her moment of triumph over her ex-spouse, but that never really happened. She got old, he got old, even Baby Doe got old and they all died. That's when I finally understood that this story was about an actual marriage that fell apart because people change, circumstances change and love fades. I didn't get that revenge scene I was expecting but that is my fault for misunderstanding. It was a pretty good story. It's great to see someone's dream come true, but sad to see it all slip away.

Some Girls Bite

 

By Chloe Neill

First book in the Chicagoland vampires series.

In this story all the creatures of our folktales and fairy tales and probably mythology are real and living among us. Including vampires, who have revealed themselves to the world for reasons that are suspicious or just not very clear. The Chicago vampires are divided into Houses: Cadogan, Navarre, and Grey. In addition to the housed vampires, another group of stray or unaffiliated vampires are called Rogues. It is Merit's misfortune to be attacked and nearly killed by a stray vampire one Chicago night. In order to save her life, an affiliated vampire, leader of House Cadogan, who just happened to be nearby, turned her vampire. Without her consent, but she was unconscious and unable to consent to the sudden change in her life.

Before being attacked, Merit was kind of a nerdy college student, working on her dissertation for her graduate work. But that is now all over, as the college doesn't accept vampires as students. Everything she worked for is over, all her plans erased and a new reality that Merit is finding very difficult to accept. She is rebellious and disinclined to cooperate, especially after being told she needs to join House Cadogan or become a Rogue. 

She begins to adapt to her new reality but doesn't really feel comfortable with her fellow Cadogan vampires who all seem to believe she should be thrilled to be included in their company, especially the guy who saved her life by turning her vampire, their leader, Ethan. Merit liked her life before and isn't all that grateful. But the vampires lay down the law, saying that she needs to swear loyalty to Cadogan and to Ethan. Or be an outcast and rogue. 

So she knuckles under and takes the oath and becomes part of Cadogan and swears to protect the house and its leader, Ethan. At which point the story became so boring I had a hard time finishing it.  And there is a serial killer plot that starts out pretty interesting until the guilty party confronts Ethan and blurts everything out without anyone hardly even needing to ask. Like the author got bored with the story too and decided to just wrap it up. 

This book reads like a sixteen year old teenage girl's fantasy about vampires. These vampires are all young (looking) and all beautiful and dressing in sexy black clothing and hanging out together like kids in a dorm. Which is basically what Cadogan House is, a fancy dorm for vampires. Also these vampires eat regular food and drink alcohol, only needing human blood as a supplement. Garlic doesn't bother them, nor does holy water, or crosses and they are not invisible in mirrors. Just really watered down vampires, designed to enjoy the perks of being vampires and human at the same time. Perfect teenage girl fantasy vampires. 

Retief to the Rescue

 

By Keith Laumer

Retief, a diplomat, is posted to the planet of Futheron, home of the Hithers and the Nethers, more unkindly known as the Creepies and the Crawlies. Futheron, or as the natives call it, Ynnezadoog. 

An explanation of life on Furtheron from the book:

"When Admiral Slizz reported that the newly explored world Ynnezadoog was potentially habitable, a full Survey Party was dispatched at once....The landing party was greeted by a heavy bombardment to which the admiral responded by hastily erecting the fortified camp which has now come to be called Furtheron City. The early discovery of valuable mineral deposits provided sufficient incentive to remain, in spite of the hostility of the place....the 'bombardment' is a natural phenomenon, due to an eccentric sort of vulcanism, and has been proceeding continuously for at least some millions of years. Investigations by Groacian geologists revealed that gas pressure within the porous crust constantly expelled particles from surface pores, these particles ranging in size from dust grains to multi-ton boulders. Once expelled and having fallen back to the surface, such an object tended to roll or slide downhill until it encountered an open pore large enough to admit it, in time wearing well-refined grooves which thereafter channeled later objects to the same orifice. These returning particles clogged the gas vents until re-expelled, the repeated expulsions occurring along the most convenient channels, in time smoothing and strengthening them until they attained the appearance of well-polished gun barrels. Having evolved under constant bombardment from an unknown source, they [the native peoples] not unnaturally developed a sense of hostility toward whomever it was who was attacking, as they imagined. Since the enemy could be anyone, mutual hostility became the norm. Thus spurring the growth of intelligence, while the natural conditions kept the population small and prevented  developments of any cooperative nature, such as organizing socially. We Groaci found conditions of complete anarchy here, and of course set about creating local government institutions in the hope of ameliorating the universal impulse to attack on sight any fellow Furtheronian—foreigners, of course, being exempt, since clearly they could not be at the bottom of an assault which predated their arrival by eons. In the end, we arrived at two major factions, which we not unnaturally called Hither and Nether, based on the location of the parley sites at which the protocols were hammered out. We appointed Lib Glip as Premier here aboveground, and one Barf, self-styled 'General' as the Nether Leader."

 And this is the world that Retief has arrived on and on which he will attempt to bring some kind of peace and order to a world that has never know peace and order. With no help from the resident Groaci, an expansionist race that has been competing with humankind ever since they discovered each other. 

This was an OK read. It has the usual silliness which is what I like about the Retief stories. Unfortunately, too large a section of the story is about the super tank that Laumer has written about in other stories, the Bolo, which is an idea he clearly absolutely LOVES. I don't, though. 

 

 

Feet of Clay

 

By Terry Pratchett

Things are rotten in the city state of Ankh-Morpork. Which is nothing new in a city where the river is so polluted it is almost firm enough to walk on. That's just the status quo. 

The sole source of governance in Ankh-Morpork is the Patrician, Lord Vetinari. He rules with a firm hand and naturally he is resented. He has suddenly become very unwell and it is clear that he is being slowly poisoned. How he is being poisoned not known or who among the criminally ambitious of the city is resposible.

Naturally, the head of the city guard, Commander  Sir Samuel Vimes is in charge of the investigation of the attack on Vetinari. And it is a puzzler. No matter what Vimes and his people do, they can't figure out how the poison got into the Patrician nor can they figure out how he is still being poisoned, which it seems he is as his condition continues to decline. 

Meanwhile, back at the city guard headquarters, Captain Carrot, the over six foot tall dwarf and Constable Angua, the werewolf woman, have to investigate the murders of two elderly and seemingly harmless men, one the keeper of a museum devoted to Dwarf Bread who was beaten to death with a loaf of his own bread and the other a priest who was found with his head smashed in and with a piece of paper stuffed in his mouth containing a message written in the priest's own blood in an ancient script.

The phrase "feet of clay" is from the Bible and refers to a prophecy to a king in which the kingdoms of the world are described in terms of a statue. The top part of the statue is gold kingdom, next is the silver kingdom and so on down, each kingdom declining in value, till it gets to the feet kingdom which are of the worst value, clay. It's also come to mean that even the seemingly best people can have hidden or not so hidden flaws: feet of clay. 

But also feet of clay refers to the golems of Ankh-Morpork, who are animated clay statues who actually do have feet of clay. A Golem is an inanimate dummy that is brought to life through magic, something like the puppet Pinocchio from the fairy tale.  

Probably the best thing about this story is Vimes effort to bring more diversity to the city guard. Such as Corporal Angua, the werewolf woman. And Sergeant Detritus, the troll. And new recruit Cheery Littlebottom, a dwarf who startles Vimes by showing up to work wearing lipstick. Eventually the guard even includes a golem, Dorfl, who was freed from slavery by Captain Carrot and hired by Vimes to be a member of the city guard soon afterward. 

The city guard stories are some of my favorites of the Discworld series and this one does not disappoint. It's fun and the mystery of golems and of the poisoning of the Patrician, while not particularly puzzling, are still really interesting. And the Corporal Nobbs subplot is really amusing when Nobbs suddenly finds himself elevated to be among the elites of the city. This one is a definite keeper!