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.