Eye of the Monster

 

By Andre Norton

Ishkur is a planet that has an intelligent native population that, so far, has been welcoming to the humans who have arrived to set up trading posts and other small operations. They humans have been joined by group of Salarikans, cat-like fellow off-worlders anxious to exploit a newly discovered world. 

Rees Naper, a young man on the cusp of adulthood, lives at his uncle's mission. He came to live with the uncle after his father died. But he doesn't get along with his uncle. Once of the main sources of disagreement is Rees' assessment of the native Ishkurians. Rees doesn't trust these reptilians while the uncle refuses to admit they might be dangerous, even after they have received word that the natives are up to something and they are advised to leave the mission and come to safety at the spaceport, where transportation off Ishkur is available if needed.

Giving up on reasoning with his stubborn uncle, Rees heads off to his job and on the way he also comes across the young child of one of the local traders, Gordy. He lets Gordy tag along with him and arrives at his job only to find everyone missing and his boss' pet dog cruelly abused and tortured. He has to put the poor dog down. He realizes that the warnings his uncle decided to ignore have come true and that the native Ishkurians are on the rampage. He needs to get back to the mission but decides to stop at the Salarikan compound to warn them of the danger. But he is too late. He finds a scene of slaughter and only one survivor, a young Salarikan girl. All three of them head to the mission, but once again it is too late. The natives got there first and no human is left alive, including the uncle. 

Now Rees has to get himself and his two young charges to safety and away from a native population seems determined to eradicate every foreigner on their world. 

High adventure as the young hero struggles to respond to the dangers he now faces, a story meant to appeal, I think, to teenage boys. It was a good read, but we are never told what sparked the native rampage. Which was quite annoying. 

Daybreak 2250 A.D.

 

By Andre Norton

Fors was different. His most obvious difference was his silver white hair. But he had other differences that weren't so obvious, like his superior night vision. Too bad for Fors, mutants were not appreciated in his village, the descendants of the survivors of worldwide  nuclear war. 

Keeping human lineage pure was very important to these people, fearing the mutations that result from a poisoned world. So when Fors came of age, instead of stepping into the role of scout and explorer that he expected, he was ignored as if he did not exist. So he left, setting out to explore the world on his own and prove that he was just as worthy as anyone, accompanied by his cat companion, Lura.

His father, who died while out exploring, had a scrap of an old pre-war map that might lead to a ruined city. These urban areas were a source of materials and knowledge to the survivors of the catastrophe. But the cities were dangerous. They were the lairs of the Beast Things, dangerous half-human, half-beast mutants that killed everything that entered their domains. Fors' father may have even fallen victim to the Beast Things. But Fors is determined to follow the map his father left behind.

It is not long before Fors sees other people out in the world but he avoids for his own safety. It is also not long before he has an unfortunate encounter with a wild boar that results in a bad gash to his leg. The injury slows him down for a time, but soon he gets back on the trail, riding on a horse that has escaped from the Plainsmen, a nomadic tribe of cattle herders. 

His father's map does leads him to the city. It is full of fascinating treasures. And something else: the Beast Things. It is too dangerous to stay there. But before he can leave he finds one of the men he noticed on his travels laying in a deadfall trap, gravely injured. He helps the man out of the trap and in the process finds a true friend. Together, the two young men will explore the world, facing dangerous creatures and hostile humans and learning that maybe the old ways are not always the best ways. 

This was quite an action adventure, as Fors and his cat companion Lura and his new friend and fellow explorer Arskane go from catastrophe to catastrophe, from scrape to scrape, from battle to battle. For me, it was exhausting as these two guys struggle to survive all the dangers they encounter. I think maybe the book was really intended for a younger and male audience, not a tired old woman like me. It's not a bad read. Just not for me. 

Dork Covenant : The Collected Dork Tower, Volume 1

 

By John Kovalic

From Wikipedia: "Dork Tower is an online comic created, written and drawn by John Kovalic. It chronicles the lives of a group of geeks living in the fictional town of Mud Bay, Wisconsin. Mud Bay's design is strongly influenced by the author's home town of Madison, Wisconsin."

Here are a couple of comics from this really funny collection:

Sanctuary Sparrow

 

By Ellis Peters

Its 1140 CE in Britain. Liliwin is an itinerant entertainer. He juggles, dances, plays a rebec and sings, and is an acrobat. He was hired to entertain at a wedding reception but during his performance the guests got rowdy and jostled Liliwin, and a vase is broken. 

The matriarch of the family is a tightfisted old harridan and she refuses to pay Liliwin his full fee, deducting the cost of vase from his pay. This upsets Liliwin and words are exchanged and he leaves. But he comes back later, to speak to the father of the groom, asking to be paid, and is successful.  Liliwin leaves and goes to sleep in the fields since he cannot afford to pay for a room, being a very poor young man.

But the father is attacked soon after Liliwin was there. He gets bashed in the head and robbed, but doesn't see his attacker. The wedding party is still going on and the guests jump to the conclusion that Liliwin was the attacker and set forth in an angry mob to hunt him down. Liliwin hears them coming but manages to escape to the Abbey, where he claims sanctuary. The mob is forced to back off when the Abbot honors Liliwin's claim and give him sanctuary. Claiming sanctuary was an old custom where a person can reside within the safety of a church for about a month. So Liliwin can remain safely within the bounds of the church for forty days while the sheriff's men investigate the attack on Walter Aurifaber, the father of the groom. Of course, the one of the investigators is Brother Cadfael, member of the Abbey and well-known for his investigative skills and herbal concoctions.

Clearly Liliwin is innocent of the attack and the theft of Aurifaber's treasure. It doesn't take long to turn up another likely suspect, the man's own son, Daniel. Even though Daniel is the newlywed, he has lover, a beautiful and greedy young woman who is the wife of a much older man, an older man who often has to travel out of town on business. In order to keep her happy, both men ply her with gifts, the spouse, of course, not aware of Daniel's connection to his wife. The spouse can afford the gifts and trinkets she requires. But Daniel cannot. His tightfisted grandmother keeps control of the family finances and that means Daniel is chronically short of funds. Did his desperation to placate his lover drive him to attack and rob his own father? 

But then someone else turns up dead: a local busybody who was known to stick his pointy nose in other people's business. Was he killed because he knew too much? Or did he try to blackmail the wrong person? Brother Cadfael will root out the murderer and all the secrets too. 

This was an enjoyable read, with an interesting mystery that Cadfael figures out with his usual wit and compassion and his vast knowledge of plants and herbs. 

Here is a review by Kirkus Reviews.

Seeker

 

By Jack McDevitt

About 9000 years in the future, humans have spread throughout the galaxy. But back in the early days of spaceflight, a group of wealthy people put together an expedition to a new world, the location of which they kept secret, because they were disaffected with the state of society on Earth at the time. They left Earth and were never heard again.

So much time has passed that these early pioneers are dismissed as ancient myth. Their story has become a fantasy and no one really believes it was an actual event. 

Alex Benedict and Chase Kolpath are famous treasure hunters, an occupation that has made them very wealthy. One day a woman brings a cup to them, a gift from her ex-boyfriend, that she believes may be valuable. And it is because it is over 9000 years old and may have been part of the table service of one of the spaceships that took the lost colonists to their secret world. 

Alex and Chase are now on the hunt for that ship and the lost world, not just for the riches it will bring them, but just to figure out what really happened to all those people and why they were never heard from again. But with a treasure this important and valuable, a soon as word leaks, others are going to want a piece of this fantastic pie. 

This was a pretty good story, if a bit too long. I thought his solution as to why the colonists vanished was really interesting and clever. 

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Adulthood Is A Myth

 

By Sarah Andersen

Sarah Andersen is a young artist who started posting comic strips online. She now has several collections of her comics available for purchase. Adulthood Is A Myth was her first book, published in 2016.

I came across her comics on Bored Panda. I didn't find out she had a book out until recently but since I enjoyed her comics on Bored Panda, I gladly bought a copy. And I really enjoyed it. 

Here are a couple comics from the book: