Life Form

 

By Alan Dean Foster

A team of scientists have arrived to explore the virgin world of Xica, an earthlike planet with oceans, continents, plants and animal life. Their mission is to collect specimens and study them. They set up base camp and are enthralled with the alien creatures they discover. But they are even more enthralled when they find a village of attractive humanoids who seem harmless and friendly. These people have a stone-age technology and are eager to learn about the Earth people and they are eager to improve themselves. So scientists and the natives are spending a lot of time together and getting along fairly well when the scientists are amazed and dismayed to discover that they are not the first humans to land on Xica. A man from Earth has been on the planet for decades, and according to him, Old Con, he pretty much taught the natives everything they know. The scientists are upset that he has contaminated the natives with his knowledge. Once Old Con is part of the story, everything goes from good to bad to awful. 

This is a pretty superficial look at humans encountering a primitive alien culture. We don't get to know the scientists or the aliens very well, not even Old Con, who is portrayed as some kind of superman without it explaining how he got that way other than the school of hard knocks. So when the author kills off most of the humans, it doesn't mean much at all since we really don't get to know most of them. The team includes three female scientists, and we are told several times that they are gorgeous, but then the author never does much with that information.  All in all, a rather unsatisfactory novel.

Faro's Daughter

 

By Georgette Heyer

Deborah Grantham works in her aunt's gambling house. She is one of the attractions that brings gamblers to the tables, being quite strikingly beautiful. She has several admirers among the British upper class men who visit the casino, one of whom is in possession of several bills her aunt owes and mortgage for the house, Lord Ormskirk. He has so far failed in his quest to seduce Deborah and is holding the bills & mortgage over her and her aunt's heads. Deborah's other most persistent suitor is young Adrian, Lord Mablethorpe, who has been trying to get Deborah to agree to marry him. So far she has refused, even though he will come into his large inheritance in a few months when he comes of age and be in the position to help Deborah's aunt out of her financial difficulties. 

Even though her aunt has been pressuring her to accept Adrian, Deborah has stood firmly against it. She may just be a working girl in a casino, but she is not interested in marrying for money. Meanwhile, Adrian's trustee, Max Ravenscar, has heard about Adrian's infatuation with Deborah and he is convinced she is after Adrian's money and Max is determined to prevent the marriage.

When Max tries to buy her off, it offends her to the point of making a very bad decision: in anger, she pretends to only be interested in marrying Adrian because he is a wealthy man of the nobility and she refuses to be bought off. She continues to carry on this charade, with the intention of teaching Max a lesson. Max fails to realize that he wounded her deeply when he tried to bribe her and that she really has no intention of marrying Adrian. Deborah takes it so far as to arrange for Max to be kidnapped and locked in her aunt's cellar, but he manages to trick her and escape. 

Eventually Max begins to see through the game she is playing and to understand that he is very attracted to Deborah despite her being one of Faro's Daughters. But due to a silly misunderstanding, he once again accuses her of being a gold digger and calls her many ugly and insulting names. In a fury, Deborah, forbids him to ever approach her again and bans him from her aunt's establishment.  Too late, Max realizes his error and that he has probably lost the only woman he will ever love.

This is one of my favorite Heyer stories. Deborah is a woman with many strikes against her but she doesn't let it beat her down. She takes on the opposition and doesn't let anyone get in her way, including her aunt and her brother, and, of course, Max. On the other hand, her spiritedness may lead her into questionable decisions, such as locking Max in the cellar or pretending to be a vulgar gold digger just to get back at Max. So even though Deborah makes some stupid decisions, that is just part of the fun of the story. 

Here is a review by Austenprose.

Black Sheep

 

By Georgette Heyer

Abigail Wendover had to go out of town for a few weeks and when she returned home to Bath and her sister Selina it was to discover that Selina and Fanny, their young niece of 17, had become enamored of a fortune hunter, Stacy Calverleigh. A handsome and well-spoken man of an ancient British family, Stacy knows how to charm the ladies. And impressionable Fanny and gullible Selina, who is plenty old enough to know better, have fallen for his charms. Fanny has decided that Stacy is the love of her life. But Abigail has been informed of Stacy's true character, that he is a gambler and is known to be nearly bankrupt and has been chasing after every wealthy female that crosses his path. So Abigail is certain his love for Fanny is based upon the knowledge that she will be a wealthy woman when she comes of age.

Stacy Calverleigh is not the only Calverleigh to enter into the Wendover's lives. Stacy's black sheep uncle, Miles Calverleigh, has returned to England after a long absence of nearly twenty years. He was sent to India as a young man in disgrace for running away with another man's fiancée. Now he is home for good and has made the acquaintance of Abigail Wendover and he is smitten. His feelings are returned but he is still looked at as unacceptable due to his past mistakes and to the belief that he is as poor as his nephew Stacy. What no one knows is that Miles made his fortune in India and has come home a very wealthy man.

So Miles is chasing after Abigail but Abigail considers herself an old maid and is more concerned about taking care of her idiot sister Selina and their niece Fanny than she is about her own future. Plus her family is as against any connection with Miles are they are about Fanny's love affair with the disreputable Stacy.

This was a good read. The repartee between Fanny and Miles is some of the funniest that Heyer ever wrote. The plot is kind of lame, with the supposedly intelligent Abigail willing throw her future happiness away for the sake of naïve Fanny and selfish, silly Selina. But Miles pursuit of Abigail makes this one of Heyer's most amusing romances, especially the ending, which is very satisfying.

Here is a review by Austenprose.

The World Gives Way

 

By Marissa Levien

The last hope for humanity. The best and the brightest and, of course, the wealthiest on a massive spaceship headed to a new world and hopefully a new beginning, leaving behind a planet no longer alive.

Myrra Dal is a young woman, a slave on the ship, her life signed away by her ancestors as part of the price for a place onboard and a chance to survive. Myrra works as a servant and nanny to one of wealthiest families on the ship. So why do both her employers, man and wife, commit suicide one day, leaving behind their vast wealth and their baby daughter? The wife, selfish and privileged though she may have been, asks Myrra to take care of the baby, before jumping to her death, informing Myrra that the ship is failing and it will never reach its destination and everything on it is doomed. 

They filled the ship with the best of everything. They even brought on animals of all kinds, a sort of Noah's Ark. They brought their wealth, their gems, their artworks, all in a bid to save it from extinction. But all to no avail. A tragic flaw is causing the ship to slowly break apart and nothing they do has been able to stop its disintegration.

So here is Myrra, with a little girl not her own, and the wealth she looted from her dead bosses, facing the end of humankind and of all the precious lives of the many plants and animals they brought with them. She is one of the few who know the truth. How is she supposed to cope with the loss of hope? How is she supposed to care for the little one left in her charge who is equally doomed? 

This story is so depressing. If you weren't depressed before reading it, you probably will be after doing so. In the beginning of the story, there is the hope that something will be done to save at least some. But by the middle of the it, the author makes it quite clear that no one will survive. At about page 200 she tells us of "the deafening crashing noise that comes before everyone dies." At that point all hope for the reader of a happy ending is gone. The last half is about Myrra and those around her facing the facts and dealing with their eminent death.

On the plus side, the author really knows how to tell a riveting story that flows so smoothly and logically, it was a pleasure to read even though it left me in sorrow at the ending.  

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Between the Bridge and the River

 

By Craig Ferguson

George and Fraser are at turning points in their lives. Fraser is a disgraced TV preacher in Scotland and George, also Scottish, has been told he has incurable cancer. George abandons his wife and teen daughter without a word and travels to Paris. Fraser gets invited to an evangelical convention in the US and travels to Florida before attending the convention in Alabama. 

When in Paris, George meets the love of his life, Claudette, a woman of grace, charm, intelligence and great beauty. She hasn't had much luck with men, though. They all tend to die on her. And now she has George and he has been honest with her that he abandoned his family and is dying. But that doesn't phase Claudette. She is determined George will not die on her like all her past lovers have.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Fraser gets mugged and left for dead in an alley. Amazingly, his muggers return for him and load him into their vehicle, promising to take him to his meeting in Alabama. Along the way, they collect a motley crew of followers, Fraser now being regarded as some kind of prophet or visionary after having had an epiphany while unconscious in the alley, visions which included George, whom he knew as a schoolmate back in Scotland, and the dead psychiatrist Carl Jung, who visits Fraser quite often in Fraser's dreams.

This is a whacky, fun read with lots of digressions and general weirdness. I enjoyed immensely. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Rabbits

 

By Terry Miles

When K was a young teen, he was in a crash that killed one friend and injured himself and the friend's twin sister. The crash happened because the three teens were playing a game known as Rabbits. Rabbits is kind of a treasure hunt, where you get clues and follow them to the prize, said to be wealth beyond belief and your heart's desire. Following the instructions they had figured out, the three were driving down a road in the dark, with their vehicle's headlights turned off as instructed in the clues they deciphered. Not surprisingly, they crashed.

Not long after, a few years maybe, K lost both his parents in a boating accident. This left him alone in the world with no one in his life except a few close friends. Living in Seattle, his closest friend is Baron. His next closest is Chloe, who works at an arcade where K give occasional lectures on the game, Rabbits, helped out by his friend Baron. 

One day a man who showed up at his lecture asked to speak to him afterward. They went to a nearby cafe and the man, Scarpio, asked K about Rabbits. According to Scarpio, the game is messed up and this could lead to serious trouble. They make an agreement to met the next day, but Scarpio never shows up. 

This starts K and Chloe on an adventure to find out what is wrong with Rabbits even though they get warned repeatedly not to have anything to do with the game, as it seems many Rabbits players have died pursuing its clues, just like his friend did when K was a teenager.

This was an OK read if a bit boring. It takes K and Chloe several chapters to finally leave their homes or the arcade where Chloe works and get out in the city to follow the clues, all of which are conveniently located in the area around Seattle. Then it turns out that the threat to the Rabbits game and to the world is being caused by one nutty genius who is on a quest to bring his dead family back to life. Bit underwhelming, in my opinion.

See also the review by Publishers Weekly.