Alien Art by Gordon R. Dickson

Alien Art by Gordon R. Dickson

It could be a decade since I read a Dickson. I'm finally getting around to reading some of the many, many books I've collected.  Dickson's been deceased for more than 25 years, yet his voice and his symbolism still flourish. 

This book demonstrates the power of symbolism and how it can change the face of society. 

It also shows that our nation has lacked a cohesive symbolism.  We, as a nation, need something to bring us together, rather than drive us apart.  

A book published in 1973 drives home the need people have for something to believe, something to follow, something that satisfies the urge to be better than we are. 

Dickson is gone but his power lives on. 

 

Kill All Wizards by Jebediah Berry

 This book never grabbed me. It was good enough to read to the conclusion but not in any way compelling to me.  Gotchimus, the barbarian, seeks revenge against all Wizards for the multiple deaths of his brother. That is the plot.

Gotchimus is involved in action scenes depicting the demise of wizards. The narrator suggests that they are leaving out all the gruesome details.

The end of the book provides an interesting turn.

 

 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance by Chiara Bullen

 Ainsworth Gladsly is a scholar, not just any scholar, a Skarrow Library Scholar.  As an esteemed research fellow, Ainsworth expected respect from his lessers and peers. Lessers being any person who hadn’t achieved his level of intellectual snobbery.

 After a fight with his paramour, Enach, Ainsworth finds himself on the way to the Misnich Inn at the foot of Mount Vengeance.  His goal is to document the travels of adventurers as they scale Mount Vengeance and challenge its dragon.

 Upon meeting Honey, the proprietress of Inn, Ainsworth is dismayed that the country bumpkins are not in awe of his vaunted intellectual skills.

 Bullen weaves a story fraught with emotional parables.  The growth of character interaction and how it changes is paramount to the plot.

 The point is driven home that personal satisfaction and accomplishment are underrated and need to be lauded rather than ignored. Internal rewards surpass transitory praise.

 I liked the book, loved the message, and recommend the book. 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

No Man's Land by Richard K. Morgan

Duncan is a hard man. If he were in contemporary fiction, he’d be a Jack Reacher or a Desmond Limrick.  In his world, he is a survivor of his multiverse’s World War I.  On his return from the war, he ends up as a Forester. This isn’t a man who plants saplings; this is a man who rescues people, mostly children, from the Fae. This book revolves around the rescue of Mimi, which is not a clear-cut changling situation. 

 Duncan strives to deal with the rage he has over his own childhood.  He uses that rage to fuel his searches and battles.   He seems to have a glamour that entices other hard men to follow him.  

 His paramour is a sidebar story.

 The relationship of the resurging Fae and the not-so-United Kingdom is the underlying theme of the book.

 Morgan did an excellent job crafting a noble hero fraught with faults and likeable anyway.

 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer

I loved this book.  Rainy March is a book witch.  Her job is to see that books are protected.  She loves her job and the Duke of Chicago.  Her job is real, but the Duke is not, or is it fiction or fictional?

 

This was a delightful book detailing shared fantasies about fiction.  At least shared by the author and me.  I suspect we are in a large group of fiction readers who see themselves in some of their favorite characters, or maybe as their favorite character. 

 

The author alludes to current events, but carefully keeps the story on track for witchery.

 

I reiterate, I loved this book, I highly recommend it, and hopefully have intrigued you enough to read it without generating any spoilers. 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

Geomagician by Jennifer Mandula

Mary Annning has a serious inferiority complex.  It is the driving force in her life, although she isn’t aware that is what fuels her ambition.  She is a fossilist, one who finds fossils.  Her livelihood is finding and selling fossils; her goal is to be a Geomagician.  Her mentor, Professor William Buckland encourages her work. A spectacular find leads Mary to think her lifelong goal may be within reach.

 

Henry Stanton is Mary’s perceived nemesis.  Lucy is her friend, and Edgar, Lucy’s brother, is the fourth in an unlikely group of friends. Mary, impoverished, parents dead, scrapes by in the little seaside village of Lyme Regis. The other three are “tourists’ who visit in the summers.  The tourists have wealth and privileges, while Mary struggles to put bread on the table. Surprisingly, that does not prevent them from becoming fast friends, until they aren’t.

 

This is not an action-adventure.  This is more of a tale of friends and relationships.

There is magic, but it doesn’t dominate the plot.  The discovery that there are different kinds of magic is a crucial part of the story.  Economic inequality plays a large part in the overall plot, and a driving force for Lucy.

 

It was a good story and I recommend it.
 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

Authors Beware

New scams appear every day.  Now AI enters the picture, and the sophistication jumps exponentially.  This week, I received a very flattering email from the Acquisition Editor of a major publishing house.  The letter spoke glowingly of my work and my interest in the welfare of children.  Then a query as to whether we could have a chat about my upcoming work. 

 The email was polished, very polished.  The amusing part was that I received an email at the same time for another author with similar glowing remarks.   So the clues were flawless flattery with the level of depth that it is characteristic of AI-generated text, a mis-mailed email to another author with an identical approach, and finally emailing the support people at the publishing house, who confirmed it was a scam.

 As many authors feel underappreciated and have wishes to be discovered by a publishing house with the resources to truly market our glowing words, this was a wisely constructed scam, but scam it is. 

So to my fellow authors, beware of silver tongues that will lead you down a prickly primrose path