Destiny Doll

 

By Clifford D. Simak

Four travelers are off an adventure to track down a long-lost man, Lawrence Arlen Knight. They are Captain Ross, experienced spaceship pilot; wealthy, beautiful Sara Foster, owner of the sleek spacecraft that Ross will own upon completion of their misson; George Smith, a blind man who hears a voice that speaks to him across the vastness of space; and Friar Tuck,  George's friend, companion and caretaker. They are four brave souls on a mission to solve the mystery of Knight's disappearance.

Following George's guidance they arrive at an uncharted planet and follow the planet's guidance beam down to a spaceport. It is centered in the middle of a large white deserted city. The huge spaceport is white too as are all they many vessels parked there.

They are immediately greeted by white hobby horses led by one hobby horse named Dobbin. He urges the travelers to quickly follow him as it is dangerous to remain in the open. Dobbin is persuasive and they hurry to remove their baggage and supplies from the ship. But as soon as they do, their ship is engulfed in an impenetrable coating of white, just like all the ships at the spaceport. Angry and upset, they follow Dobbin to safety to escape the beam Dobbin claims the city sends out to destroy any living creature caught out in the open.

But treachery ensues when Dobbin and the other hobby horses toss them through a warp door and onto a desert world where they encounter a very helpful alien creature that Ross names Hoot. And another creature that makes it very clear they are not welcome.

They make it back through the warp door, bringing along Hoot and angrily confront the hobby horses, forcing them into becoming their pack animals. And so they set off to take on a dangerous new world, led only by the voice in George's head.

This is a strange and enchanting story. At times it is like reading someone's fever dream. The title refers to a crudely carved wooden doll with an deeply sad face that George finds in a building on the white city's outskirts. The strange discoveries continue as the travelers try to make sense of the puzzles of this memorable, odd planet. 

Master of the Five Magics

 

By Lyndon Hardy

Once the son of a wealthy lord, young Alodar makes his way alone in the world, surviving by his wits. His inheritance stripped away by the old king, now Alodar finds himself fighting on behalf of the queen, Vendora, the old king's beautiful daughter. 

Something is amiss in Vendora's realm. Attackers besiege her borders and rumors of men possessed by demons spread through her court.  

Alodar meets the queen at an ancient fortress and is much struck by her great beauty. She has promised to give her hand to the man who helps her the most in her battle to repel the invaders and preserve her realm. This is Alodar's chance to redeem his lost inheritance and reclaim his position within the ranks of the nobility. And rule the land as the consort of the beautiful queen.

So begins his quest that to fulfill his dream and set him on the path to becoming the Archmage and the Master of the Five Magics.

This was a really good story. Every time it seems poor Alodar is close to performing that service to the queen that will win her hand, it is cruelly snatched away. He continues on in his quest, becoming wiser along the way and mastering the five attributes required for eventual success: cunning, perseverance, precision, courage and will. 

It's quite an interesting journey with an exciting conclusion.

Swords Against Wizardry

 

By Fritz Leiber

Fafhrd and Gray Mouser are off on two more adventures, chasing after that ever elusive pot of gold.

Their first adventure takes them to the high mountains of the far north. According to a cryptic poem, treasure and romance await the heroes who can scale the mighty mountain, Stardock. Fafhrd, born and bred at the foot of this mountain range, will use his expertise to guide them up the treacherous heights.
But since this is Nehwon, naturally it won't be just mountaineering. Monsters, visions, lusty maidens, and various opponents will play their part too.
The second adventure is in the peculiar kingdom of Quarmall where two princes are eagerly awaiting the death of the king, their father Quarmal. Naturally, each brother desires to be king. So they plot against each other and this is where our two heroes come in. Unbeknownst to each other, they have been separately hired as body guards, Fafhrd to protect Prince Hasjarl and Gray Mouser to protect Prince Gwaay. What none of them know is that the king has his own plot to place his unborn son on the throne instead of either of his two adult sons. And our two heroes are mere pawns in the king's plot against his own children.

Both stories present memorable locations and plots. The lads struggle up the snowy mountains is like reading a climber's story of going up Everest. And the story of Quarmall, which I first read decades ago, is of a place so odd that it has stuck in my memory all these many years.

Men at Arms

 

By Terry Pratchett

Times are changing in Ankh-Morpork. The Patrician has ordered the Night Watch to become more representative of the citizens of the city, resulting in three new hires, Cuddy, a dwarf; Detritus, a troll and Angua, a woman (and a bit more). Captain Vimes doesn't quite know what to think about this new direction for the Night Watch. But it is hardly his problem any more as he will shortly be marrying the richest woman in Ankhj-Morpork, Lady Sybil and his working days will soon be  behind him. Of course, it will be quite an adjustment for Vimes, going from being so poor that he used to line his boots with cardboard when they wore out because he couldn't afford new ones to having anything he wants just by asking for it.

Lady Sybil has a passion for swamp dragons and runs a sanctuary for them and she is worried about the disappearance of one of her dragons, Chubby. So she asks Vimes to keep an eye out for Chubby as he makes his final patrols. And he does find Chubby, or what is left of him. Someone used Chubby to blow a hole in the wall of the Assassin's Guild. All that is left of the little dragon is its blue collar.

It soon become clear that the explosion was used to gain access to a weapon in the Guild's possession, a weapon that they were supposed to have destroyed in the past. This weapon, the "gonne" is unique in a world were explosives are only used in fireworks. And the person who stole the "gonne" has a demented plot to restore a king to the throne of Ankh-Morpork, and his chosen king is the clueless and innocent Night Watchman, Corporal Carrot. And one of his first victims is the ruler of Ankh-Morpork, the Patrician himself.

This is one of Pratchett's best stories, in my opinion. Vimes finally gets the breaks he deserves and three fun, new characters are added to the watch, Cuddy, Detritus and Angua, with the possibility of even more strange policemen in future stories like zombies and vampires. Plus the story introduces us to Gaspode, a scruffy little street mutt, who, as a consequence of sleeping too near the Unseen University, has acquired the ability to talk, even though most humans refuse to hear what he says. 

Some of my favorite Discworld stories are about the adventures of  the Night Watch and this story is one of my favorites of the Night Watch series.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Welcome to the World, Baby Girl

 

By Fannie Flagg

Dena Nordstrom is a successful news woman in New York City. She makes $400,000 a year, is beautiful and smart and doing exactly what she wants. Her life is perfect. Except for her excessive alcohol consumption and that nasty stomach ulcer.

Dena blames the ulcer on overwork and stress and when it lands her in the hospital, her doctor orders her to take time off and rest. Her relatives take her home to Missouri to her home town of Elmwood Springs. 

Norma Warren is Dena's cousin. Along with 90 something year old Aunt Elner, they are Dena's only blood relatives. So Dena comes to stay, briefly, with these people who she doesn't remember since she was only four when she last saw them. But they remember her and love her and are so happy to have her stay with them while she convalesces. 

Dena is eager to get back to New York and her job. She starts seeing a psychiatrist on the recommendation of her doctor. He feels some kind of emotional problem is affecting her health and contributing to the ulcer. Her life is still busy and stressful and pressures at work once again send her into a downward spiral and another trip to the hospital. This setback causes Dena finally start looking at her life and delving into the mystery at the root of her problems.

I liked this story. It was a bit different than what I was expecting. Although the folksy relatives and the small town where they live do play a part in the story, most of it centers on Dena's life in New York City. I was expecting the story location to be mostly Elmwood Springs and mostly Dena's relatives there. I did enjoy the mystery of Dena's mom at lot, it was quite a surprise when the truth was finally uncovered.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Rite of Passage

 

By Alexei Panshin

Mia lives on a spaceship. Because of humankind's stupidity, Earth is no longer livable. There are a few colony worlds, but life on them is hard and dangerous. Colony people don't like ship people and ship people don't like colony people.

Because room is limited on the spaceships, the space people have developed a method of thinning the ranks. When kids reach their early teens, they undergo a training period that will prepare them for the Rite of Passage. This involves planting the teens on colony worlds and making them live by their wits for a month. Lots of teens die in the attempt.

Mia and Jimmy are two such teens. Together they attend the training classes and become friends. Unfortunately, they have a falling out and Mia ends up facing her Rite of Passage alone. She has some bad encounters with some colonists and is rescued by a local oddball and eventually finds and reconciles with Jimmy.

This was a pretty good read. I was a teenager the first time I read it in the the 1970s and I remember I loved it. But rereading it now I found it a bit slow at times. Still an enjoyable read though.

River's End

 

By Nora Roberts

When Livvy was a little girl, she saw her father standing over the body of her mother, with a bloody pair of scissors in his hand. Her father was arrested and later found guilty of murder and sentenced to prison.

Some twenty years later, the father is being released from prison. He is dying and only has a few months left to live. He wants to reunite with his only child, Livvy, but in Livvy's mind he is the monster who murdered her mother.

Livvy's parents were successful Hollywood actors, wealthy and gorgeous. The dad began using drugs when his career began to decline while his beautiful wife's career was soaring. It caused a lot of tension and he was at times abusive. 

Naturally, the public is interested in the lives of two such Hollywood stars and successful true-crime author, Noah Brady, has been talking to the dad in view of publishing a book about the crime. His research takes him to River's End, the resort where Livvy has been living for twenty years with her maternal grandparents. She doesn't remember much of what happened that night, although she has suffered from nightmares about it. Noah makes a terrible mistake when he fails to reveal to Livvy why he has come to River's End looking for details about the murder. When she finds out, she is enraged and sends him packing, even though they initially hit it off. Then she finds out that her father is free from prison and now someone is trying to kill her. 

This was an OK story. Pretty typical murder mystery. Spoiler: the killer is someone who is barely mentioned in the story. I don't like it when writers do that. 

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Stonewall's Gold

 

By Robert J. Mrazek

The Civil War is winding down when a scary stranger shows up at Mrs. Lockhart's farm. She lives alone with her teenage son, Jamie. The man, a deserter, is looking for something and Jamie sees him looting graves of recently buried rebel soldiers one dark night. Jamie then comes home one day to discover the man trying to force himself upon Jamie's mom and Jamie kills him. Searching through the man's belongings, Jamie finds what is clearly a map. The map is in code but hints that it leads to a horde of looted gold. Jamie gets gold fever and set out on a dangerous journey to find the gold. Unfortunately, he is not the only one who knows about the gold and who are actively seeking it. He ends up in the hands of a gang of deserters who will stop a nothing to get to the gold, including torture, rape and murder.

This was a very exciting story with a rapid and enthralling plot, with a bit of romance included. Very gripping and well worth the read.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Hammer of Eden

 

By Ken Follett

For the first time in his life, Ricky Priest has found peace and contentment at the commune of they call Eden. The commune is thriving and his ex-girlfriend and his current girlfriend are happy to be with him and everyone at the commune looks up to him as their leader.

Priest started out as a street thug but had great success in his young life, even becoming a millionaire at one point before he ran afoul of the law. Now he lives in peaceful obscurity with his fellow commune members. 

But the devil is coming to destroy their happy community. The electric utility company is building a new power plant and part of the plan is a dam that will result in Ricky's little piece of heaven being drowned. Ricky will risk everything to try to stop it, even if it means people have to die to get his point across.

This was an interesting story. I question whether it really is possible to cause a bad earthquake using the method described in the story. But other than that, it was pretty good.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

 

When the Changewinds Blow

 

By Jack L. Chalker

Sam and Charley are two normal teenage girls, living their lives, not outstanding in any way. Except Sam has lately been experiencing terrifying nightmares that only occur when a thunderstorm strikes.
Turns out Sam is the target of two competing wizards, one of whom is trying to take over everything, including our time and place. Although Sam is the target of their plans, both she and Charley end up in an alien place where all things are possible and where, when the changewinds blow, anything can happen, but usually bad.
Initially met by a fellow human, Zenchur, sent by the wizard Boolean (you may recognize the term boolean as having to do with computers and math) to lead the two girls to safety and away from Boolean's rival, Klittichorn. But Sam overhears Zenchur plotting against the girls, and when they arrive at a city, the girls manage to thwart his plot.
But Sam ends up the pampered pet of a local Madame and Charley ends up as one of her drugged whores. It's a comfy trap but eventually Klittichorn will track them down and kill them. Their only recourse is to set out on their own on a dangerous journey, braving bandits, rogues, Klittichorn's thugs and the cruel changewinds in an iffy attempt to reach Boolean and possible safety.

Book was kind of boring. Not a lot happens until the very end when the caravan the girls are traveling on runs into Klittichorn's thugs and a flash flood that wipes out most of the travelers. 
There were some things that I really disliked about the story: the drugged, brainwashed girls forced into prostitution and Charley's willing acceptance of being a prostitute. The author tries to dress it up by labeling her a call girl, but he glosses over the fact that she and Sam are only 17 years old. Also later on in the story two little girls, 9 and 13 are gang raped. Makes me wonder about his proclivities.

Gordon

 

By Edith Templeton

A young woman falls into a dangerous relationship with an older, disturbed man. A psychiatrist, he manipulates her neediness to maintain control over her while he physically and sexually abuses her, much to her outer resistance and her inner delight. They are two troubled people hanging on to each other to satisfy their weaknesses, his to dominate her to the point of torture and hers to be dominated. 

Supposedly based on the author's life as a young woman in post-WWII Britain, it's a tough read only because of her willingness to be abused. It is also quite graphic but not in a romance novel way. This is not the sex act glamorized, this is a brutal man raping & controlling a willing victim. It's pretty messed up.

Review by The Guardian. And by Publishers Weekly.

The Marriage Plot

By Jeffrey Eugenides

A tale of three college students who are just graduating from college and starting their new lives as independent adults. 

There's pretty Madeleine who loves literature and Leonard. There's Leonard who loves biology and Madeleine. And there's Mitchell who loves religion and Madeleine. 

It's graduation day and Madeleine is sad. A few days before, she declared her love to Leonard and he responded poorly and they broke up. Meanwhile Leonard is having a mental breakdown and is regretting his poor response to Madeleine's declaration of love. And Mitchell, always Madeleine's friend but not her boy friend, is a condition he wants to change. 

Leonard is committed to a mental hospital and Madeleine runs to his side when she finds out, skipping her graduation ceremony. Mitchell leaves with a friend on a trip to India where he wants to explore his feelings about religion.

Madeleine and Leonard get married and Leonard gets back on his medication to control his mental problems. But he once again begins to fool with the dosage and is hospitalized. Their marriage falls apart when he disappears. Mitchell returns from India and with Leonard out of the picture he makes his move.

This was an okay read. Leonard and Madeleine are tedious. Leonard is a loon and Madeleine is naive. The only character I really found interesting was Mitchell.

Review by James Lasdun in The Guardian.

The Longest Trip Home

By John Grogan

John Grogan grew up in a suburb of Detroit. His dad had a good job and his children wanted for nothing. At one point, the dad bought his son a sail boat, which tells you something about their situation.
It was a pretty sweet childhood, far from the struggles and poverty of urban Detroit. About the only fly in John's ointment was his parents  religiosity. They were extremely devout Catholics but John never felt an affinity to the religion.
Boys grow up and John heads off to live his life, eventually sharing a house with the woman he later marries. His devout parents find this arrangement very upsetting when John finally works up the nerve to tell them, which takes him a long time. Even after they get married, his parents continue to bombard him with prayers for his safe return to the religion they cherish that they have finally figured out means nothing to their son.
And so it goes. Mom and Dad get old and the inevitable arrives and  though John never returns to their religion, he and his father come to a sort of understanding about it.

I enjoyed the book. It was nice reading about his family. John was a lucky boy, that's for sure: loving parents with a stable marriage, financial security, a safe environment to grow up in. He never even got fondled by a priest even though he was an altar boy! (Or if he did, he doesn't mention it in the story.) He had the kind of childhood many can only dream about.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Canada

By Richard Ford

The story is told from the point of view of Dell Parsons, a fifteen year old boy living in Montana with his parents and his twin sister, Berner.
The father, Bev Parsons, is ex-military and not adverse to a little larceny on the side. But his schemes lead to money troubles and he gets the bright idea to rob a bank.
The mother, Neeva, a school teacher, goes along with his idea and volunteers to be the driver of the get away car.
They get $2500 from the robbery, which they think is successful. $2000 of the money goes to take care of Bev's money problems. But it isn't long until the cops are knocking on their door and the two are hauled off to jail leaving their two teens home alone. Berner runs away and a friend of the mom takes Dell to live with her brother in a small town in Canada.
In this Canadian hole-in-the-wall, Dell lives in a run-down shack and helps the brother's hired man with various chores. The brother, Arthur Remlinger, has a past, the hired man warns Dell. He tells Dell that when Arthur was younger he got involved with a radical group and had planted a bomb that killed a man. He fled to Canada to escape the consequences. Dell believes the warning and isn't surprised when two Americans show up at Arthur's hotel looking for him. It doesn't end well for the two men. Arthur brings Dell into the whole messy business, using him as a kind of prop to disarm the two Americans.

I found this book boring. I think I read about 50 pages then set it aside for several days. And it's a long book, over 400 pages.  You'd think, what with bank robbery, murders, teenagers running wild it would be more gripping, more exciting but it just wasn't. Also, even though it is titled Canada, the Canada part doesn't start until 200 pages in. Finally I found it simply unbelievable that the mother would go along with her stupid husband's scheme to rob a bank. A silly premise, in my opinion.

The critics loved this book. They think it is wonderful. As in the review by Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian.

Still Life

By Louise Penny

The first Chief Inspector Gamache novel.

A small town murder! An well-loved elderly woman has been shot dead with an arrow through the heart! Chief Inspector Gamache is sent to investigate.
Everything he discovers about Jane Neal indicates she had no enemies, no fortune, and no reason for anyone to take her life. A former school teacher, never married, Jane was living quietly in retirement in the town where she  dwelt her whole life. The oddest things about her were her paintings which she never showed anyone. And that she never let anyone into her house beyond the kitchen area.
She was hiding something. But what? Did her secrets have anything to do with her murder?  Did the fact that she had recently decided to share her paintings with the world factor in to her death? These are the questions the Inspector will ask among others. And all the secrets will be revealed, come what may.

This was a pretty good read, for a murder mystery, which is not my favorite genre. I don't remember why I wanted this particular book but I don't regret getting it. I did enjoy it.

Review from Kirkus.

The Memory of Earth

By Orson Scott Card

Millions of years ago, humanity fled Earth after ruining it with their weapons of mass destruction. Scarred by this, on their new home on the planet of Harmony, they built a super-computer to control their thoughts and keep mankind from developing any technology that would lead to such a disaster again.
So forty million years have passed and the super computer, the Oversoul, is starting to fail. People are once again on the path of conquest, empire-building and developing forbidden technology.
To save itself and humanity, the Oversoul reaches out to powerful local family, sending them visions and dreams and influencing their actions to thwart a growing and dangerous faction of violent men trying to take over the local government.

This book is the first in the Homecoming saga which consists of five novels. The series is based on the Book of Mormon according to Wikipedia.
This was a fairly interesting story but not interesting enough to entice me to read any others in the series. I did find it rather disappointing that after forty million years, people are still the same stupid, selfish pigs they have always been. I mean, forty million years is a long time to stay virtually the same!

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Normal Girl

By Molly Jong-Fast

Miranda Woke is nineteen years old and she is a child of wealth and privilege and she has used her advantages to become a drug addict.
Apparently her issues stem from her gad-about mother and her indifferent father and her guilt over the untimely death of her lover. These fuel her downward slide into degradation.
Ending up in rehab at a clinic in Minnesota, she comes to an understanding of her problems and is released to return to New York City where nothing has changed except Miranda. Same old indifferent and absent parents, same old group of promiscuous and drug abusing "friends." But a hopeful new Miranda who doesn't want to end up like her parents and her dead lover.

I found this book a bit boring. I don't really sympathize with the poor little rich girl. The world is handed to her on a platter but she throws it all away for a booze, sex and drugs. Her idea of a good time, I guess. Her story is nothing new and she is pathetic.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Goodbye Kate

By Billy C. Clark

Isaac is out exploring the countryside, as boys tend to do, when he encounters an old mule.  Skinny and rough, Kate the mule has been scrounging a living in the Kentucky hills ever since her owner moved and left her behind. But Isaac and Kate immediately become pals and Kate follows him around like a pet dog.
Isaac is a country boy although his father has a shoe repair business in town. But Isaac's parents are not farmers and don't have a barn or stable where Kate can live. His parents sympathize with Isaac's love for his huge new friend but they can't afford to provide a home for the mule and they tell Isaac to find Kate a home somewhere else by wintertime.
But before that needs to happen, Isaac and Kate will have fun, exciting summer together including getting into a bit of trouble. They get caught stealing field corn, Kate takes on a skunk, and she also falls and hurts her leg.
But these minor troubles pale in comparison to the heap of trouble they land in when Isaac heads off to school in the fall and Kate refuses to be left behind.

This was a fun and touching story, kind of a combination of Mulberry RFD and No Time for Sergeants. Set in the 1940s or early 1950s, and copyrighted 1964, it is a trip to a time and place many would like to experience.

The Sister

By Poppy Adams

Ginny has lived alone for years in the falling- down mansion that used to be the biggest, best house in the area. But those days and the money that enabled them are gone for good. An old woman and crippled with arthritis, Ginny has shut most of the house up and sold off its contents. She lives alone.
It wasn't always like that, of course. She had a mother, a father and a younger sister.  The parents are deceased and the sister, Vivi, left decades ago. But now Vivi has sent Ginny a letter informing her that she is moving back home. Why, after decades of estrangement, Vivi is returning home, she doesn't say.
At first Ginny is thrilled her beloved little sister is coming home. But once Vivi is actually home, Ginny finds her presence too disruptive, too unsettling. And when Vivi starts to rehash old history, laying down a few home truths that Ginny refused to or was unable to see, it is intolerable for Ginny.
Ginny obviously has some kind of mental limitation, though precisely what it is isn't explained. Once the sisters are reunited it quickly becomes clear that they view their history together from completely different perspectives. It also becomes clear that no one in Ginny's life, not her parents, not her sister, not her doctor, not her teachers ever told her about her mental limitations. Ginny isn't stupid and she long ago figured out she was different. But she was never given a explanation as to why or any real help coping with it. So when Vivi pushes her way into Ginny's cocoon of solitude, it really upsets Ginny's precarious mental balance.

This was a rather slow story. I skipped over several paragraphs, especially the mothier parts (moths are an interest Ginny shared with her father).  Although it is usually interesting reading about dysfunctional families,  I didn't enjoy the mystery of what exactly Ginny's problem was, which is never made clear to the reader or even to Ginny. At one point, Vivi explains exactly what it is, but Ginny refuses to hear her and, since the story is told from only Ginny's perspective, the reader doesn't get to hear it either. Any way, the ending was pretty predictable. No real surprises there.

Published in the United Kingdom as The Behaviour of Moths.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Audrey Hepburn's Neck

By Alan Brown

Toshi was just a kid when his parents split up. The separation was amicable and Toshi got to spend time with both his parents. But he was never told why they separated.
Now a young man on his own, Toshi has moved away from the small Japanese fishing village where he grew up. He has a promising career, friends and lovers. But he still wonders about the silence between his parents that dominated his childhood. Why did his mother leave? Why is his father so sad? It isn't until his father has passed away that Toshi's mom reveals the shocking truth of their past.

I really enjoyed this story. As a boy, Toshi saw an Audrey Hepburn movie and was smitten by the beautiful actress. It inspired him to learn more about Westerners and to learn English. After he moves to Tokyo, he makes friends with several Americans, one of whom becomes his best friend after failing to seduce Toshi. But underneath it all, is the puzzle of his parents' failed marriage.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Dewey Decimal System of Love

By Josephine Carr

Alison Sheffield is a forty year old librarian and a near virgin. The last time she had an intimate relationship was in her twenties. But she likes her life, her job, her apartment, her friends. She is content. That is until she saw Aleksi Kullio. Handsome, talented Aleksi is the new symphony conductor and Alison is smitten. Problem is, Aleksi is married and his wife is beautiful, blonde, sexy: the very image of a trophy wife. How can a mousy, quiet, near-sighted, modest near-virgin librarian possibly compete with that?

This was fun read. For a mousy librarian, Alison has a lot going on in her life. Problems at work, volunteering at the concert hall (to get closer to Aleksi), strained relationships with both her father and mother. And a valuable document that has disappeared with the suspicion falling on Alison.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Reap the Wild Wind

By Julie E. Czerneda

The world of Cersi is inhabited by three intelligent populations of beings. The Tikitik specialize in managing the swamp that nurtures their plantations of giant fruit trees. With their long, spindly limbs, they effortlessly climb through the trees. The Oud are pretty much the opposite of the Tikitik. They prefer life underground, humping along their tunnels like massive slugs, mining the ores they use for their various machines. And then there are the Om'ray, who are telepathic humans.
The Om'ray depend on the other two. They harvest the Tikitik plantations, they gather the scraps of metal discarded by the Oud to work into tools for their own use.
These three populations live in peace, abiding by the Agreement. They have all agreed to never change, never innovate. To do otherwise will endanger the peace.
But something has changed. Strangers have appeared on Cersi. And their arrival has upset the balance of the Agreement.

This was an interesting story. The main character is a girl, Aryl, who lives in a small village built high in the trees of the Tikitik plantation. She is one of the first to encounter an offworld artifact. And this turns her life upside down.
I do wish, though, the book wasn't quite so long. The paperback version was over 400 pages long.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Ties of Blood and Silver

By Joel Rosenberg

David is a young human thief. He works with a little girl, Marie, and they work for a cruel master, Carlos One-Hand. On the world where he lives, another alien species is also making a living, the schrift. The schrift are all connected telepathically. As David is admiring a handmade schrift pitcher, the schrift who made it, Eschteef, feels a telepathic connection with David. So, due a series of bad decisions on One-Hand's part that resulted in One-Hand's and Marie's deaths, David tries to rob Eschteef and gets caught in the act. Eschteef captures him and decides to keep him and try to make David part of the schrift community.

This was a good story. Interesting world, interesting aliens, but more violence than I care to read about.

Round Robin

By Jennifer Chiaverini

Sylvia runs a kind of quilting camp or quilting academy. People who are interested in quilting come and spend a week at her country home and attend classes about quilting taught by a group of her friends.
But this story isn't centered on the students who barely mentioned. Instead it is about this group of women brought together by their interest in quilting and about the ordinary trials and triumphs of life.
Sylvia is the leader of the group and the owner of country home where the classes are held and where the students stay. She is helped in this endeavour by her many close friends: Sarah whose husband Matt is having doubts about his career choice. Gwen and her daughter Summer who is going to disappoint her mother, Gwen. Bonnie and her husband Craig who is contemplating cheating with a younger woman. Agnes, whose brief marriage to Richard ended with his death in WW II along with Sylvia's husband. Diane and Tim who have two teenage sons and an irate neighbor who turns the
whole neighborhood against them. Judy, whose father abandoned her and her mother before Judy was born and who has received a letter from a sister she never knew she had. And finally there's Carol, Sarah's mom, who isn't part of the group of friends, but who shows up hoping to improve her relationship with the reluctant Sarah.

It doesn't really sound like much of a premise for a novel, but it was surprisingly interesting.  Starting out, I was expecting the story would center on the quilting students but they are not part of the story. Instead it is about this group of women. And I quite enjoyed it.
The author has a whole series of stories based on the Elm Creek quilters. Round Robin was the second one she wrote in the series. The Quilter's Apprentice was the first. You don't need to have read the first book to enjoy the second, although I think reading the first would have made understanding all the relationships easier.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Patient

By Michael Palmer

Dr. Jessie Copeland is a neurosurgeon who is working on a robotic tool to assist in removing difficult tumors. Claude Malloche is a  terrorist with a brain tumor. He has hatched a plan to force Dr. Jessie to perform surgery on him by blackmail. Unless she does what he orders, his cohorts will release poison gas throughout the city.
Claude may be a smart, ruthless terrorist. But when it comes to brains, he has met his match in Dr. Jessie.

This was a pretty good story. One of the best things about it was Dr. Jessie. She is a true heroine and not only saves herself, she also saves the city, with a little help from a government agent, Alex Bishop, who has been trying to capture Claude for five years. Too bad he didn't have Dr. Jessie to help him back then.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Handyman

By Linda Nichols

Jake Cooper is a contractor hired by Dr. Golding, a psychologist, to install a hot tub in the doctor's office. Dr. Golding is not available to oversee the work because he is in the hospital undergoing bypass surgery.
So Jake is alone at Golding's office when a distraught woman, Maggie Ivey, appears for her first appointment with the doctor whom she as never met before. She mistakes Jake for Golding and he fails to correct her error because she obviously needs a sympathetic ear and she is also very cute.
Jake allows the deception to continue, even going so far as to enlist the help of his family and friends. So "Doctor Golding" continues to use the
actual doctor's identity & office to see Maggie. Of course, eventually the chickens will come home to roost, and Jake will be in serious trouble.
Which is the last thing he wants because he has fallen for sweet, needy Maggie. How will he get himself out of the hole has dug himself into?

This was a pretty good story despite its ridiculous premise. I enjoyed this
simple romance story even if it didn't make much sense. And even though the Maggie character only needs a good man in her life to make all her problems go away, LOL. Shades of the 1950s!

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Lion's Game

By Nelson DeMille

John Corey works on a New York team that fights against terrorism. The team has an important new case when a passenger jet arrives at the airport on autopilot with everyone on board dead. But one passenger is not among the dead, Asad Khalil, a terrorist who was being brought in to the USA by government agents. But the agents are among the dead and Khalil is missing.

Corey figures out that the plane load of dead passengers and crew are just the opening act in Khalil's revenge play. He's gunning for the bomber crews that wiped out his family in Libya. And he is also aiming for the man that authorized the bombing, the now-retired Ronald Reagan.

This was a pretty good story. However, the ending was disappointing. Spoiler alert: the terrorist gets away. For some reason, the author lets the man responsible for over three hundred deaths escape. Maybe it's a cliffhanger to lure the reader on to the next book in the series.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

City of Ghosts

By Victoria Schwab

Cassidy Blake, Book One.

Cassidy Blake nearly died drowning. But she was rescued by a boy who became her best friend, Jacob. And ever since that near-death experience, Cassidy can sense and see ghosts. The first ghost she ever saw was Jacob. Jacob was already a ghost when he saved her from drowning.
Now Cassidy's parents are traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland to film a TV show and Cassidy will be with them along with Jacob the ghost who has attached himself to her. How and why he has done this, he can't or won't
say. But Cassidy doesn't mind since Jacob is the only friend she has.
Together the two teens, one living and one dead, will take on one of the most haunted cities in the world, Edinburgh, with the help of local teen,
Lara, the ghost hunter.

This was an okay story. Intended for teens and older children, it was a fast and easy read. This book is the first in a series. Although this first book was okay, I didn't find it interesting enough to continue on with the series. It ought to appeal to its intended audience, though.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

The Children's Blizzard

By David Laskin

The winter of 1887-1888 was something else in the upper Midwest: cold and snow and cold and snow. So when a sudden warm spell arrived in January, folks relaxed and went outside and tried to enjoy the relatively balmy temperatures. This was a time to do chores, bring in hay, put the cattle in the pasture. Farmers went out to work in their shirt sleeves. Children left for school without their coats, hats and gloves.
At the time there was no national weather service. The Signal Corps was in charge of weather monitoring and forecasting and were a branch of the military. And although they had predicted falling temperatures and snow, they did not forecast a coming blizzard. And what a blizzard it was.
It happened so fast. One moment it was warm and sunny. The next it was a blast of snow, a curtain of black clouds and gale force winds. It hit the Dakotas while kids were in school. Teachers had to choose between trying to get the kids home or staying in the school house with rapidly declining fuel to heat the building and no food beyond what the students had brought from home for their lunch. Those who risked the trip often did not make it home. Their bodies were discovered later after the storm passed.
Farmers who have released their cattle to pasture risked their lives bringing them back in. Many died trying.
Some who got caught out took shelter in hay stacks but died of the cold. It was so cold that even people in their homes froze to death. Cattle died in the thousands.

Parts of this book were really interesting. The stories of the immigrants and how they came to settle in the upper Midwest and set up their homes on the prairie. The stories of the struggle to survive the cruel onslaught of the unexpected blizzard. The stories of those who survived and those who didn't. All that was quite gripping.
What wasn't so interesting was the tale of the Signal Corps and how it failed to warn of the coming and drastic weather change. The author also goes into quite detailed descriptions of how the weather works, meteorological detail that was quite boring. Worse was his description of what happens to the human body when it freezes to death, just gruesome. I mostly skipped those parts.
But even with the more boring parts, this is an amazing story of a terrible tragedy that affected people from the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska. The cold front that came roaring down out of Canada pushed cold weather clear down into Texas with temperatures in some locations there falling into the teens (Fahrenheit). A reminder that we humans are not the rulers of this planet.

A review from Publishers Weekly.

The Beans of Egypt, Maine

By Carolyn Chute

The story of a small town family, spanning about forty years, starting in the early 1960s. The Beans are a numerous, large family. They tend to be physically imposing and are trashy and lawless with the men of the family rough and abusive. The men fill their yards with broken down vehicles while their wives and girl friends fill their homes with multiple children. They are loud and coarse and vulgar and just the kind of people you don't want living next door to you.
Lee and his young daughter Earlene live across the road from the Beans' trailer house. Lee constantly criticizes the Beans to his daughter. She is not allowed to go over there but naturally she does. And when her transgressions are discovered, Lee washes her mouth out with soap. Years later, and Earlene is still living at home and is a young adult, she once again displeases her father and he washes out her mouth with shampoo. Which is how she ends up in the arms of Beal Bean and pregnant with his baby.
Earlene becomes more and more involved with the Beal and his family. She goes from living a secure life with her father and his parents to living in a shack with no electricity, no running water and no indoor toilet. 

What a story. Not a single character in this story made any sense to me. I found them all repulsive and deplorable. I tried to like Beal Bean, but he turns out to be a cheat, a poacher and pretty useless. I think the reader is intended to like Earlene, though why I don't know. Nothing about her or any of the characters was the least bit appealing.
As I've said before, it's hard to enjoy a story when you don't like any of the characters.
Someone must have liked the novel, though. It was made into a movie released in 1994.

Tobacco Sticks

By William Elliot Hazelgrove

Told through the eyes of a young teen, Lee Hartwell, it is the story of how his family's life was turned upside down because of a trial and a political campaign.
One night Lee and his friend observe their neighbor burying something in a grave. Buddy Hillman is the richest man in the area and owner of the steel mill that is vitally important to the local economy.
A local servant girl, Fanny Jones, is then accused by Buddy of stealing a silver tea set, proof of which is the lid to the teapot found under her bed.
Of course, this is all baloney and Hillman has a reason for wanting to frame Fanny.  It has to do with politics and the suicide of his wife and his teen daughter's distaste for her own father. Burke Hartwell, Lee's father and a lawyer, agrees to defend Fanny. First, because he believes her when she says she didn't do it. And second, because Fanny is a relative of his cook, Addie Jones. Does Burke know what a can of worms he is opening up by defending Fanny? Probably. But he has the courage of his convictions.
Meanwhile, the Hartwell family is having problems of their own. Lee's two older brothers are newly home from World War II. Lucas is suffering from the trauma of combat while Burkie was stationed in comfort in Canada. Lucas has pretty much lost his way and is drinking too much. And Burkie is making time with the girl friend of Lee's best friend Scotty, who killed in the war.

This was a pretty good story, up until the trial of Fanny. The last part of the book is taken up with the trail and testimony of the various witnesses. I just skimmed most of that. Turns out Fanny was framed, big surprise. Up until that part, I was enjoying the story. The whole trial story was so predictable and more than a little tedious. I wish the story had just centered on the Hartwell family and left out the political and trial story lines.

Hellstrom's Hive

By Frank Herbert

A well-know but eccentric filmmaker, Hellstrom, who specializes in nature films, has come to the attention of a nameless government agency. One of Hellstrom's workers left a few papers lying in a college library and the papers were seen by the Agency, papers that hinted at a new and profitable method of metallurgy or even a powerful new weapon. Agents who were sent to snoop at Hellstrom's private compound in rural Oregon have gone missing.
More agents are sent in to snoop. They find a peaceful but unnaturally quiet farm surrounded by hills and ranch land. A few people are observed coming and going from the barn occasionally. Hellstrom is interviewed and claims no knowledge of the missing agents who visited his valley posing as birdwatchers and tourists.
Hellstrom is a liar. He knows exactly what happened to the agents. They were grabbed, interrogated and tortured and their dead bodies consigned to the vats. The vats in which Hellstrom and his 50,000 strong hive of specially bred humans brew their disgusting mush, which goes to feed the worker class. And all this is going on under this peaceful rural valley containing this nest of repulsive semi-humans who are also brewing a powerful weapon with which to subdue the rest of humankind.

This was a weird story. The author's sympathies seem to lie more with the Hive than with the outsiders. I found the whole Hive community gross and repulsive. Actually, no one in the story is really sympathetic. The hivers and the government people are equally vile. Still it made for a fairly interesting if extremely unlikely story.

My Brilliant Friend

By Elena Ferrante

The story of two friends growing up together in Naples. The first in a series.

So Elena and Lila are the same age and go to the same school. They are both intelligent girls but live in a society that doesn't particularly value females beyond their traditional roles as wives and mothers.
Of the two girls, Lila is the wildest, the bravest and the smartest. Her intelligence and courage inspire her friend Elena and make her a better person. Without Lila, Elena would have just settled into the role society expected of her. But with Lila, Elena stretches her intellectual wings and becomes quite the scholar, even gaining entrance to higher education as a young teenager.
But since Elena is a smart girl, she eventually realizes that Lila is actually the one with the superior mind. She realizes that without Lila, she herself would probably be just average. And as the two girls enter into their teen years, Lila blossoms into a willowy beauty. While Elena sees herself as unattractive, with a broad face, big nose, acne and glasses. Elena also realizes that she has always been the follower to Lila the leader, always wanting Lila's approval and admiration.
Both of the girls, growing up poor in the 1950s, have to deal with the rampant violence and abuse that is a normal part of life in their world. Men beat their wives, beat their children, screaming abuse, breaking furniture, throwing dishes. Lila's father throws her out a window during an argument and her arm gets broken. No one gets arrested, no one gets punished, this is just the way things are there. Women and children walking around with black eyes and bruises are a common sight, no big deal. Spats with neighbors turn into vendettas. Rage is everywhere.

The abuse and violence was too much for me. I really didn't care for any of these people. Lila is a pill and Elena is a zero. Their society is repulsive. Their willingness to abuse and to tolerate the abuse was dispiriting. I was just tired of the lot of them towards the end of the book, which has a very abrupt ending. I guess it is designed to lead you on to the next book. But I am not interested in finding out anything more about any of them.

The Honk and Holler Opening Soon

By Billie Letts

The Honk and Holler is a cafe run by Vietnam vet, Caney Paxton. Crippled in the war, Caney hasn't left the cafe since he opened it twelve years ago. He has PTSD and copes with it by staying inside. He runs the cafe and lives in a small apartment in the back of the cafe.
Then Vena walks into his cafe one day, cradling a small, ill dog in her arms. She needs a job and talks Caney into letting her work as a carhop, promising him she will work for tips only. Of course, it isn't long until Vena has moved in with Caney and is sharing his bed. And two lonely souls discover that they still have a lot of loving and living to do.

I did enjoy this story a lot. I liked the characters you're supposed to like and hated the one character you're supposed to hate. I enjoyed seeing this bunch of losers turn their lives around and come together to find some happiness.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Failure to Zigzag

By Jane Vandenburgh

Charlotte never knew her father. He died before she was born. She never really knew much about him either. Her father's parents were not part of her life. And her mother was schizophrenic and frequently hospitalized and not a reliable source of information.
So Charlotte lived with her mother's parents mostly. At one point her mother remarried and Charlotte came to live with the mother and her husband. But it didn't last. The marriage ended and the mother went back into the hospital.
The grandparents were probably not the best choice for raising a child. At least under their care Charlotte had all her physical needs met. She was well groomed, decently clothed, had regular meals and attended school. When with her mother, though, she lived in filth and squalor, neglected and ignored by a mother too drunk or too crazy to see that her child needed her care and attention.
When Charlotte was about sixteen, the grandparents decided they were fed up with taking care of her and of her mentally ill mother. They bought the mother a travel trailer and sent Charlotte off to live with the mother. But the mother was the same drunken, demented person she always was. On the other hand, Charlotte was now old enough to not need to be taken care of like a little child. And this time with her mother built a closeness the led to the truth being revealed about the father's death.

The mother in this story really is annoying, a very disagreeable character. Drunk, neglectful, crazy: who needs that kind of drama in their life? Whether in reality or in a novel? She just made me so tired. The whole story is the struggle of the child trying to cope with her mother and her grandparents and her trying to unravel the truth of her father's demise. It was an okay read, I guess.

The Living Is Easy

By Dorothy West

Cleo was a wild child, proud and devious, leader of the pack consisting of herself and her three sisters. Born into a poor southern family, teenage Cleo yearns for a better life and heads off to Boston where she meets the man she will marry, Bart.
Bart is a successful businessman, owner of a fruit wholesale business, specializing in bananas. When Cleo looks at Bart all she can see is dollar signs. Bart has what Cleo wants: money. So even though he is much older than she is, even though she doesn't really care for him, she still marries him. 
But Cleo is missing her sisters. She cons Bart into renting a large home and then she cons her sisters into leaving their homes and spouses and coming to Boston for a visit. But what she really wants is for the sisters and their children to stay. Her lies convince one sister Lily that her husband Victor is a dangerous and vicious drunk. Her lies convince her other sister Serena that her husband Robert is shiftless and unreliable. And her sister Charity's husband Ben has a wandering eye, and without his wife nearby to keep him in line, he takes up with another woman. So Cleo neatly wreaks all three of her sisters' marriages and keeps them by her side in Boston.
But a life built on lies and tricks and deviousness does not prosper. Cleo's extravagance catches up with all of them as Bart's business starts to decline due to new competition. Cleo's eyes are finally opened to her destructiveness as her marriage fails and her sisters leave to make their own way in the world.

It's hard to like a story where the main character is as unappealing as Cleo Judson. I disliked her from the very beginning. She is sneaky, grasping, conceited and blind to her own faults. She has very few redeeming qualities. Even her love of her sisters is self-serving as she destroys their marriages without a qualm.
Reading about Cleo made me wonder if the author actually knew someone like Cleo in reality. Otherwise, how could she invent such a creature?
There is an afterword by Adelaide Cromwell in which she explains that several of the characters were based on real Bostonians. If Cleo was based on a real person, I pity the people who had her in their lives!

Review by Susan Coventry / Reading World.

The Current Climate

By Bruce Jay Friedman

Harry Towns, screenwriter. Fairly successful, living in a rural town with his wife and young daughter, approaching old age, Harry still feels the pressure of paying the bills as he clings to his successes of the past.
In such a mood, he heads off to New York City to hang with questionable old friends and indulge in questionable practices that lead to big city antics a man his age ought to have outgrown.

This first half of the book was certainly the most interesting as Harry indulges himself with his big city sins. But then the story veers off into his youth and his first foray into becoming a writer and young Harry was just not as interesting to me as old Harry.

Review from Kirkus.

Never After

By Rebecca Lickiss

The fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, retold. Only this time, instead of a sleeping princess, it's three princes.
Prince Athelstan is looking for a bride. Due to unknown circumstances, eligible princesses are in short supply. So when he finds out about Sleeping Beauty, he sets off to rescue her and find himself a bride. He is puzzled and disappointed to discover the promised princess is instead three sleeping princes. But he does find a sleeping beauty he quite fancies, one of the ladies of the court. Like everyone is the castle, she is fast asleep. Looks like the Prince is going to have to find a princess to awaken the sleeping princes with a kiss. And he knows just the girl, his willful cousin, Princess Vevila.  She is not fond of court life and longs for adventure. He also invites along three wizards to do magic battle with the witch that put the princes to sleep and who is adamantly opposed  to them being awakened.
So begins the quest to awaken the princes and find a bride for Athelstan. In the process, Rumplestiltskin will play an important part. Cinderella, aka Amelanchier, and her evil stepmom and two ugly stepsisters will stick their noses into the business and the princess of the Princess and the Pea fame also shows up.

I kept waiting for Snow White to show up and join the party. But she never did. We do get a frog prince who gets kissed towards the end of the story. Anyway, this is supposed to be a humorous take on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale but it was only mildly amusing and mostly boring.

The Angry Christian

By Bert Ghezzi

Are you a Christian who finds themselves losing their temper and feel like you need to do something about that? This little book is intended to give some guidance for Christians in dealing with anger.
Basically, the author has a three step method for bringing anger under control:
1. Do not supress anger.
2. Express it righteously.
3. Settle things quickly.

The author uses the Bible to back up his thinking on anger with appropriate references. He points out that anger is inevitable and not a sin. He says anger can be channeled  in positive ways. However, he does caution that those with extreme anger and emotional problems should seek professional help.

His suggestions can be applied to nonbelievers too, except for the parts where he recommends turning it over to the Holy Spirit. Anyone who feels their anger is getting in the way of their happiness can use his advice to improve their peace of mind, believer or nonbeliever, in my opinion.

Our Love of Bees

By Jaret C. Daniels

This little picture book give the reader the basics about bees, mostly honey bees.

I picked the book thinking it would be about lots of different kinds of bees. But it is mostly just concerned with honey bees. Lots of information about honey bees but the other bees not so much.
My fault, I should have looked at it a little closer before taking it home.

Elvis Is Dead And I Don't Feel So Good Myself

By Lewis Grizzard

Lewis Grizzard was a fan of Elvis Presley. When Elvis died in 1977, it caused him to think back on his life. He remembers his childhood, his young adulthood and he complains about the changes modern life has brought and yearns for the good old days when his life was simple and he was content.

Not a particularly funny book, but it does have its moments. Too much sports stuff, though. Which is okay if you like sports. I don't.

Nightmares

By Stase Michaels

Why nightmares? What is the purpose of these terrifying, upsetting dream dramas? The author tries to answer the questions of the why and what of nightmares.
The author suggests analyzing nightmares in a five step process:

1. Emotions -- notice what you feel in the dream and also when you wake up.
2. Create a very simple, brief story line describing the dream.
3. What does the story line say about you and your life?
4. See how the symbols in the dream relate to your waking life.
5. Use the message the dream is conveying to address problem areas in your life.

The author then applies this method to sample nightmares supposedly taken from real life and explains how understanding the root cause of the bad dream helped the dreamers cope with life's difficulties.

I don't know anything about the author. Supposedly the author is an expert at  dream interpretation. But the author also claims to believe that dead loved ones visit people in their dreams. And that dreamers can receive warnings about future events in their dreams. And that ghosts are real. The author also quotes Marianne Williamson, "A miracle is a shift in perception from fear, to love..." which gives you an idea of where the author's head is.

The book was interesting, mainly I enjoyed reading about the nightmares. As for all the mumbo jumbo, meh.
To quote a quote by Noel Coward from the book, "It is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and disbelieve it, and how few respond in the same way to deceit."

Pearls Before Swine : Sgt. Piggy's Lonely Hearts Club Comic

By Stephan Pastis

Daily and Sunday comic strips which appeared in newspapers from December 2001 to July 2003.
For readers of the strip, the main thing you will notice is the lack of crocodiles. They only make a few appearances in this collection. In the early years, the lions were the main antagonists of the zebras.
But reading these beginning efforts, it is easy to see why this comic strip took off like it did. It's funny. Just plain funny. It can proudly take its place among the great strips like The Far Side, Dilbert and Calvin & Hobbes.

Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

By Dorothy Gilman

Mrs. Pollifax is off on a trip to China for the CIA. Her job is to locate a prison camp and assist another agent as he or she attempts to smuggle a prisoner out of China. She will be traveling in a tour group consisting of six people besides herself, one of which is the agent whose identity has not been revealed to Mrs. Pollifax. This person will make him or herself known to her when necessary. So Mrs. Pollifax makes a little game of trying to guess who her fellow agent may be.
The tourists are Peter, a young, sullen man of 22 who was given a trip to China as a graduation present; Malcolm, an elegant successful artist and writer; Jenny, who teaches grade school and is almost as young as Peter; George, a dour, older rancher who falls hard for one of the women in the group; Iris, a thrice-divorced dancer in her early thirties and who is amazingly clumsy; and lastly is Joseph, a bearded college professor in his forties. They are all there to see the wonders of a newly-opened China. Or are they? Mrs. Pollifax has her doubts after she discovers her luggage has been expertly searched. Because the Americans are not the only ones interested in extracting the Chinese prisoner. The Russians are very keen to get their hands on him too.

I really enjoyed this book a lot. There is a lot less spy stuff than in some of the Pollifax stories. Much of the story centers on the group of tourists and their interactions, which I found interesting. The spy stuff only ramps up in the latter part of the story when the secret agent finally reveals his or her identity.

Timeline

By Michael Crichton

On an archaeological dig in France, a cryptic message is uncovered on a piece of ancient parchment. It says, "Help me 4/7/1357." Impossible though it may seem, the archaeologists come to the conclusion that the team leader, Professor Johnston, has some how ended up back in 1357's France and needs to be rescued.
So three of the most qualified archaeological workers are talked into traveling back in time  to rescue their professor. There's Andre Marek, who eats, breathes and lives the 1300s; Kate Erickson, grad student, mountain climber and architecture expert; and Chris Hughes, also a grad student and an expert on the ancient buildings of the dig site. Accompanied by two hired mercenaries to keep the three archaeologists safe, things go bad from the very start upon arrival in 1357 when both the mercenaries are killed by a small troop of mounted men. One has her head loped off and the other takes an arrow in the chest. In the confusion, the three archaeologists split up and escape, running from danger and facing a reality that is a lot more brutal than what they have ever known.

This story is chock full of action, as the time travelers tumble from one disastrous encounter to another. They are caught in the middle of a war zone, as two groups of vie for control of the area.They are constantly on the run, barely escaping with their lives multiple times.  A little too much action, for my taste.

See also the review by Publishers Weekly.