Category Archives: Challenges

Cowboys & Aliens

Book Review of Cowboys & Aliens, by Joan D. Vinge & Scott Mitchell Rosenberg

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Cowboys & AliensI rented an audio edition of Cowboys & Aliens (by Joan D. Vinge & Scott Mitchell Rosenberg) from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
1875.  New Mexico Territory.  A stranger (Craig) with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution.  The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist.  What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don’t welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford).  It’s a town that lives in fear.

But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky.  Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known.

Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation.  As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he’s been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force.  With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents—townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors—all in danger of annihilation.  United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.. 

Review:
I obviously wasn’t looking for a serious read when I picked this book up to listen to. I thought it might be silly and fun, and since I never saw the movie, I’d at least know the plot then. The problem is that I didn’t realize that it is a novel based on the screenplay for the movie, as opposed to the book the screenplay is based on. Thus, it reads just as a movie would play out and any of the additional depth that makes a book preferable to the screen is missing.

While I the occasional shadows of important themes pop up, not a single one is ever explored or expanded on. The book is action-packed, but not much else. All-in-all, there wasn’t much to recommend it. At least the movie had some cool actors in it; all this had was an overly breathy, over-acted voice. Meh

Clearing off the short story request shelf

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Short stories

Man, I’m a softy. I really am. I keep saying I don’t particularly care for short stories. It’s even in my policies. But people still send them to me as review requests. “Please review my 26 page book,” the request will say and I generally want to scream, “That’s not a freakin’ book.”

Yes, even I’ll admit that if it was in hand in a physical format, with a cover and actual pages, I’d have to begrudgingly accept its existence as a book. But as an e-copy, I don’t consider short stories books I consider them just that—stories—that you could publish several of in a book. All beside the point, obviously, other than that this is my blog and I don’t run a ‘short story review’ but a ‘book review.’

I tell myself to just delete them, but that feels…I don’t know, wasteful. I may not really want to read them, but if I delete them no one will ever be able to read them. It doesn’t really make much sense when discussing a digital format, I know, but that’s still how I feel. So, I keep them and eventually I always seem to give in and read them. I usually end up writing a ‘clearing off the shelf’ post, just like this one. I bet I do it twice a year.

So, in an attempt to get some short stories off my review shelf (because they really do clutter everything up), here are a few short words on some of the stories that have been sent to me by their authors. I know I’ve had a bit of a rant, but despite short stories not being my preference, I gave each one a fair shot.

Reunion of Souls, by Paul Lonardo

Reunion of SoulsOK, I’ll be honest, sappy romance is not my thing and this is super sappy romance and not much else. So, I wasn’t particularly predisposed to enjoy it. I gave it a shot though, sometimes stories surprise you. This one did not. Not only is it super sappy, but it’s hollow. Essentially a girl hasn’t seen a guy since high school and barely knew or noticed him then. But on receiving an invitation to their 5 year reunion she immediately thinks of him and KNOWS, just knows, he is the one. They meet back up and fall instantly in love, just as she knew they would. That’s basically it. There are a few inspired moments in the writing, but it was almost entirely a dud for me.

Little Guide to Enjoy Life: A Simple Path to Self-Confidence, Happiness and Success, by Myriam Chery

To Enjoy LIfeIt’s basically what’s on the tin. It’s a small book that reminds you to be positive, confident and mindful in life. There is a definite “Duh” element here, but I believe it really is meant as a reminder rather than a lesson learned anew. And in that regard it’s a sweet, quick read with some lovely illustrations. I do wonder if the author noticed that she made almost all of the bad examples (the person who keys a car instead of asks for his job back, the person who blackmails someone instead of blames himself, is petty and concerned with a boyfriend instead of a job) female. I suspect a little of America’s underlying sexism slipped in.

I, Corinthius: The Vasterium Saga, by Shae Christi

I, CorenthiousThis novella and I had some serious disagreements. The least egregious of them being that it was largely written as tell and not show and I felt absolutely no connection to any of the characters as a result.

More problematic for me was how very cliché some aspects of it were. The villain is a scorned woman. Seriously, is there really no other reason a woman might turn bad than over a man? It’s a literary device that I am simply bored to tears with (and becoming slightly offended by).

Most troubling however was the fact that it kind of misses its mark as a myth. Ancient gods and goddesses were often depicted as representatives of chaos or destruction or even evil, but they were just that, representations of a recognizable aspect of humanity that usually had a converse somewhere. Their madness or pettiness or jealousies were part of a bigger picture. To me, Belovaya was just an evil, jealous woman with godly powers. There was no sense that she played a part in a pantheon, that there might be a balancing persona (be it hers or in another) anywhere that gave her existence purpose or context.

Meh, this one was a miss for me.

The Afterlife Decision: The Offer, by Michael Smith

The Afterlife Decision

Here is a note I made after reading the 1st page: “Desperately needs some editing, not least to address punctuation (especially around dialogue, periods seem to be used instead of commas and commas seem missing in other places), apostrophe usage and repetition like the fact that prison officer is used 6 times in one ~135 word page (and the word prison once more too boot).” And that was from the 1st page without looking purposefully for errors. And my opinion didn’t change by the time I reached the end. There are a number of repetitions “Steven’s cell mate,” for example and grammar/punctuation is a mess.

The story itself, has potential (the idea) but it’s very rushed and not well set up. What’s more, notice the “Chapter One” in the title. This is LITERALLY the first chapter in a longer work. There is no conclusion or even a suggestion of one.

On a special side note, I find it especially interesting that this author chose to send me this for review. He emailed the proper address, which suggests that he read the policies (yay). But those same policies state, “…with the exception of self-help, Christian fiction and short stories there isn’t much that I’m unwilling to read.” So, sending me a Christian short story is the obvious thing to do if seeking a positive review. Yes? I still gave it a fair shot though.

Penumbra, by  Kat Micari

PenumbraRushed, under developed, cliched and clumsily written. Plus, the title is never explained.

Chained Melodies

Book Review of Chained Melodies, by Debrah Martin

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Chained MelodiesAuthor, Debrah Martin sent me a copy of Chained Melodies for review.

Description from Goodreads:
“Chaos is about rejecting all that you have learnt, chaos is about being yourself.” Emile M. Cioran

If chaos theory applied to anyone, it’s Will and Tom. Best friends since childhood, life takes very different courses for them until they’re thrown back together in the middle of their own individual chaos. Surviving the terrors of war in Northern Ireland and the heartbreak of childlessness and a broken marriage, Tom learns that bravery isn’t about daring death, it’s about facing life. For Will, it’s about being yourself – or in his case, herself, as he starts an unusual journey towards being just that; the woman, Billie.

Review:
Spoiler Alert: I’m not planning to give anything significant away, but I do plan to discuss the ending.

I have some real mixed feelings on this one, because some aspects of it I really loved and others not so much. Before I get to any of that, let me just say the writing here is marvelous and the late 70s-through 80s was a wonderful setting. My only real complaint, writing-wise, is that Will/Billie’s journaling didn’t really work for much of the book. His/her* POV is provided in the format of a diary, and it works in the beginning. But as the book progresses his entries become longer and more narrative-like, until eventually they no longer read like diary entries at all. The language is too florid, the descriptions too rich, the details too frequent to be a believable diary entry. It was a pleasure to read if you ignored the fact that it was supposed to be what it was supposed to be.

I liked both characters a lot and I really liked their…I’ll call it a romance, even though it’s not really. Neither acknowledges it as such. But their thoughts about eachother are sweet in a romantic (though not erotic) kind of way. I liked this a lot.

I did have some trouble believing Will’s transsexualism. And I don’t think I should have. The author’s research was apparent…a little too apparent at times. Some of his experiences were just a little too textbook. But mostly my trouble arose because his self-exploration took the form of some kind of soft focus, bemused curiosity. There was no anger, shame, disgust or bad feelings about himself or his body at all. Not to suggest all transgendered individuals must feel this way, but every real-world account I’ve come across or interview series or personal account, etc all heavily accentuate this as part of recognizing they are not residing in the correct body. Will just sort of floats along wondering if he’s gay or not and then suddenly meets a transsexual and decides that’s what he is. I couldn’t buy it.

I understand that up until a certain point he can only consider himself in ways he has a perspective for, and sexuality was something his worldview presented as possible for exploration and gender was not. I understood that, but I never sensed he had any real issue with his body, until suddenly he did. It all felt kind of sanitized.

This was all exasperated a little bit by the fact that he’s described as being so obviously feminine. This is emphasized to such a degree that I felt that having a feminine appearance was integral to being transgendered, as if he couldn’t have been if he was 6′ 2″, 200lbs and balding. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked him as a character and I was willing to accept what I was being told, but I had to make a conscious decision to do so.

Tom, however, Tom I bought completely. I really enjoyed his oblique self-revelations. I liked that he tried so darned hard to be a good man and failed over and over again. I loved his self-reproach and cowardice. He was a shit (and I’m pretty sure that’d be the word he used to describe himself), but he was a shit who was trying to learn to be a better man. But this is part of why I had trouble with the events involving his ex-wife that led to the ending. It’s not that I don’t think he would do it in some circumstance, but I thought that bridge had been burned a little too thoroughly for a man trying to break free to cross again. Especially since the ex-wife was such the cliché manipulative harpy.

Actually, I had a lot of trouble with the end. I have to just come out and ask, what is with all the unnecessary tragedy? I mean, it’s the story the author wanted to tell, so it’s not pointless per se, but a very real part of me wants to ask why non-cisgendered/heterosexual characters almost never just get an unmitigated happy ending. It’s like they’re the Red Shirts of the romance realm. Why do they have to suffer (be punished) before being given a little scrap of happiness they are expected to be thankful for, even in books like this one, that I’m confident was written in support of such characters?

I did really appreciate how richly the characters lives were depicted and how visceral the time period was shown to be. People have real problems—mental illness, abuse, neglectful parents, alcoholism, hopelessness, illness, infertility. And I liked that these are realistic blue collar people. Tom joins the army then works in a factory. Nothing glamorous in that, but it’s real-life for so many people.

All in all, I had a few rather major complaints about the book (or certain aspects of it), but I generally really liked it. I liked Will/Billie and Tom. I liked their slow realizations. I liked the depth of writing and the patience with which the plot progresses. I think the book is well worth picking up.

*I use both pronouns here, instead of just the feminine, because for much of the book Will is unaware of his gender dysmorphia and Will and Billie are almost presented as separate characters. To ignore Will (him/he) would leave out an integral part of the story.