Frank Zafiro bonanza!

Lucky me, I just found out that every River City ebook by Zafiro is on sale for $0.99.

Frank

I've caught up my library by buying;

Some Degree of Murder

Dead Even (short story anthology)

No Good Deed (short story anthology)

And Every Man Has To Die

The Cleaner (short story anthology)

and

Waist Deep

I've been a fan for a while but put his books aside after his third River City novel, only because I found it over-long. Zafiro usually writes much tighter stories and I was disappointed with the departure.

As a matter of fact I am currently reading "The Bastard Mummy", a free download, and will review it soon. Look for a post on the story in early October.

Thanks to Frank.

Frank Zafiro's website is HERE

Book Report #47 - Diving into the Wreck by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Now THIS is SF! Old-school adventure story in space. Like the folks who dive on ship wrecks in the Earth's oceans Boss (who narrates the story but does not tell us her name) is in the business of finding and exploring derelict spacecraft. Mostly she's in it for the history although she's managed to make a fair living at it.

One day she finds a ship, an enormous and old ship, one that should not be in the region of space she's found it in. And it's dangerous; there is a technology on board that is still powered up and it's claiming lives.

This is what I want in SF; nuts and bolts, ships that need repair, crews that have conflicting personalities and desires. There are no aliens with weird names with apostrophes in strange places, no need to learn a new culture or history. We are dealing with humans and although there is an Empire and an Alliance Rush does not waste time explaining the ins and outs of the universe she's creating. In just a few sentences we learn there was a war between the two groups ( the Empire won) and we are in a region of space that is pretty much left alone as a bit of a frontier. 'Nuff said.

I'm sure she'll go on to expand on the world inhabited by the crew of the "Nobody's Business" but if she makes it part of the story without veering off into back story then I'll know that I'm in the hands of a very skilled story-teller.

There is nothing I hate more than exposition. If it takes more than a paragraph or two to explain the environment of the tale then the author is not as skilled as he could be.

The book was laid out in three parts and although the middle section was not very action packed it was a good place to expand our knowledge of the history of the world Rusch is building.

The third part of the book was very interesting and opened wide the door to future books.

I am so glad I read the original short story and now the novel.

I've already purchased the next two books in the series plus an issue of Asimov's for a short story in the "Diving" universe.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch's website is HERE

The original publication of the Diving into the Wreck short story was in Asimov's magazine, December 2005.

It was also collected in Recovering Apollo 8.  Buy it HERE

The novel can be purchased HERE

The Bookless Library

I just read a very interesting article by David A. Bell in The New Republic magazine's website about the impact of ebooks on public and research libraries.

Well worth the read.

Find it HERE

The New Republic website is HERE

Information on the author can be found HERE

Somadeva: A Sky River Sutra by Vandana Singh

Yikes!

First of all - not Science Fiction.

This is a story about stories; about meaning from folk tales. It is self-described as a tapestry, which was apt since it would go off in one direction, come back to the beginning only to fling itself into another direction.

There is a line that describes this story well:

"The fact that you can't wrest meaning from everything like fruit from trees - that meaning is a matter of not only of story but of what the listener brings to the tale - all that is not something she can face at the moment."

So, yea, it went on like that for many pages.

It also suffered from a trope of SF that I find annoying - the use of unpronounceable names. I find that very distracting.

You can judge for yourself by reading the story HERE at Strange Horizons.

The author's website is HERE

About It by Terry Bisson

A janitor takes home a science experiment . . .

This was a touching story about the brevity of life.

Even if somebody takes up a very small place in this world he leaves a mark.

Very sweet story. It left me feeling quiet.

The author's website is HERE

Terry Bisson

Mars Baby!

Congratulations to NASA and the Mars Curiosity team for a beautiful landing!!

Book Report #46, Up in Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard

Up in Honey's Room

by

Elmore Leonard

Set in Detroit in the spring of 1945.

Since this is a Leonard story with all the interesting characters and twisting plot lines; I'll let the Amazon website describe it:

German-born Walter Schoen, now living in Detroit, is a dead ringer for Heinrich Himmler. Walter's American wife, Honey Deal, doesn't know he's a German spy, but she's tired of telling him jokes he doesn't understand—it's time for a divorce. Along comes Carl Webster, the hot kid of the Marshals Service. He's looking for a German officer who escaped from a POW camp in Oklahoma. Carl's pretty sure Walter's involved, so Carl gets to know Honey, hoping she'll take him to Walter. Honey likes Carl and doesn't much care that he's married. But all Carl wants is to get his man without getting shot. It's Elmore Leonard's world—gritty, funny, and full of surprises.

Was it any good? Oh, yes it was. Every time I thought I had a scene figured out it would twist suddenly into something unexpected.

The book is well titled; in the end every character is in Honey's room for a surprising conclusion.

My trouble, as a reader, is that I like to read a series from the first book to the current entry. This paralyzes me and I wind up with a bunch of books I won't read until I fill in the gaps. I recently read somewhere that if an author is doing his job you should be able to jump in at any point. This being a sequel to The Hot Kid I would normal have shelved it but I read it instead and boy am I glad I did. Sure, there were references to the previous book, but it did not take away from the story I was reading.

You can buy the book HERE

Elmore Leonard's website is HERE

A Preliminary Assessment by Vernor Vinge

A Preliminary Assessment of the Drake Equation, Being an Excerpt from the Memoirs is Star Captain Y. T. Lee

What a wonderful story. Interstellar flight is now commonplace and the exploration and terraforming is routine.

In a nice departure from common science fiction tropes, this story plays with the notion that there is NO alien intelligent life. What would it be like to have an entire galaxy to explore and claim?

This was refreshing work and exactly what I'm looking for in science fiction.

Learn more about Vernor Vinge HERE

Learn more about his writing HERE

Book Report #45, Cop Hater by Ed McBain

First published in 1956, the first book in the 87th precinct series has finally come to eBook.

I love the detective fiction from the 50's and 60's, during the paperback hay day.

This story is a straight-up police procedural about a serial killer who's targeting cops.

It was very well paced, considering its the first in a series; I would have expected much more exposition. McBain seemed content in letting the story play out and only giving the reader the minimum amount of back story needed to tell the tale.

I was surprised at the level of sophistication forensics was at for the time. McBain went to great lengths to show police procedures as accurately as possible which makes for convincing story telling.

Ed McBain's website is HERE

If you want to buy the Kindle version, go HERE

Futures in the Memories Market by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

This was a touching and almost sad story told by a body guard of a future "movie star."

Instead of acting in front of a camera Geeta is sent to all kinds of exotic locations and has interesting adventures and experiences. When the day is done her memories are extracted to be sold to the public. Not only does the public see what she saw but they also experience her emotions and five senses.

The cost to Geeta is large; the extractions erase her own memories; the public can have the experience but she cannot; leaving her nearly child-like, to experience everything for the first time.



It was an interesting concept and one that I could see expanded to novel length with a corporate greed element to it.

Learn more about the author HERE

And HERE

Read the story online HERE

Clakesworld Magazine is HERE

Petopia by Benjamin Crowell

The story of two poor African kids struggling to help their family get by. Mina is sorting through a pile of high tech garbage when a child's toy starts speaking to her.

It's a toy dog with an AI built in. She eventually takes it home where her older brother begins to use it for his own reasons.

This has the same feel as the street scenes from Blade Runner; crushing poverty surrounded by wealth, technology, corruption and the hope of youth.

I especially liked the action packed and open-ended conclusion

Well done.

The author's website is HERE


The story can be read for free HERE

Castoff World by Kay Kenyon

Set in a world ravaged by global warming and today's civilization gone we follow the story of Child and Grandpa living on a floating island of garbage.

The refuse is being transformed my nano-bots who Child calls NORA. They are adrift in the North Pacific gyre where Grandpa tells her about her past a prepares her to survive on her own.

Grandpa is dying.

This story is quite touching and sad but is forever laced with optimism for the future. A future imagined by Child.

I enjoyed this story on my patio on a sunny afternoon while enjoying a couple beers. I was very happy to look up from the story to see the green of my back yard.

The author's website is HERE.

Read about ocean gyres HERE

Sleeping Dogs by Joe Haldeman

Year's Best SF 16

Here's a fine story about a former soldier returning to a planet where he fought in a war. His memories had been erased and through a drug therapy he tries to recover them.

What I loved about this is how it just simply reflects the wars of our recent past.

When fiction works best is when it can show us a truth about ourselves.

You can find the author's website HERE

 Buy the book HERE

Book Report #45 - The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

The Power of Habit

Why we do what we do

in life and business

I bought this eBook in with the hope of getting some insight into my bad habits.

It promises to reveal the three components of the habit "loop" and how to control and change these loops.

I found the subject fascinating; because habits work on a nearly subconscious level they are often difficult to observe and understand.

The format is part self-help, part sociological which gave the book a couple hard turns that took me out of it and made completing the it a chore for me.  Since I made the purchase with the expectation of a self-help my difficulties with the read in no way means the book is flawed, only that my expectations and reasons for reading it split away from the narrative.

To get the most out of the book from a purely self-help angle I'd recommend  Part One and  the Appendix which will give you a lot to work with.

The book expands on the notion of habits from the individual to organizations and finally to societies.  Each of these sections are also very interesting especially how organizations can improve performance by experimenting with habits.

This book touches on so many categories that I would find it hard to shelve, if I was running a book store; you could find it in Self-help or Biography & Memoir or Business and Finance or Social and Cultural Studies there's even a bit of Religion and Spirituality thrown into the mix.

This was a solid, well thought out and broad look at human behavior.

I recommend it.

You can purchase the book HERE

More about the author can be found HERE

Magazine giveaway.

Now that I've read and reviewed this issue of EQMM I'd like to give it to anybody who's interested.

Free.

Just email me or leave a comment and I'll mail it to you. It's in good shape, as a reading copy, but it is in no condition to be called collectible. Still, I'd like to give the issue a good home - it's yours for the asking.

Cheers.

Blood in the Water by Janice Law

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

Now THIS story I liked.  It was another life insurance scam tale involving an indebted securities trader a beautiful babe and the sinking of a yacht.

The cold, cold ending made for a perfect closure to this issue of EQMM.

The author's website is HERE

Hank's Tale by Dorothy Salisbury Davis

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

Set in the hills of Rural Whatever, USA, Hank is the local lawyer who tells the story of two strong headed and influential women in the town they live in.

God, I really wasn't paying attention to this story. I found it boring just reading about local gossip; who hates whom because of some slight done years before.

There was a killing from way before this story begins and stories about pastors, baptisms and traveling evangelicals.

This was simply not for me. I kept putting it down and should have just skipped it but I was always just a few pages from finishing, so I kept reading it.

If you like stories a bout human relationships then you'll surely like this one.

Information about the author can be found HERE

The Bones by Peter Turnbull

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

A nice, straight-ahead police procedural set in the UK countryside.

I found the story a bit short, actually. But to be fair it had the feeling of being close to how investigations really happen. It's about how you approach the questioning of suspects and the timing of the interviews that really matter.

I'd be very happy to read one of Turnbull's novels.

Very believable and well told.

Information on the author can be found HERE

The Extortionately Dear Departed by David Williams

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

A clever insurance scam that goes wrong, then ...

This was a well constructed story with a couple clever twists. Set in France and England a couple, in financial stress, cook up a plan to collect the Husband's life insurance benefits.

You can find out about the author HERE (Scroll to the top of the page when it loads)

Sadly, Williams died in September of 2003.  LINK

The Big Shuffle by Clark Howard - short story review

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

This was a very good mystery from the point of view of an insurance claims investigator.

Jack Nash is sent to Nevada to investigate the crash of a plane on Ghost Lake. His boss smells something fishy about it and wants to deny the claim of $4 Million for the death of the passenger, an executive for an oil company.

Clark Howard has been writing short fiction for decades and has won many awards in the process. You are in very sure hands when reading his story.

Nicely done.

The author has no website of his own but you can get a list of his works HERE

The Hunters by J. F. Freedman

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

September/October 2000

This was a quiet, menacing story. True noir.

Two brothers go on a hunting trip. The hunt seems unrelated to the story that is told after they return.

I was disappointed with the ending; it turned out exactly how I thought it would. I kept hoping there would be some kind of twist.

But that was what made it so cold, so calculated. (A twist would have been nice thought.)

You can find the author's website HERE