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Due to the accident I was involved in and the resulting severe head injury, I have been forced to slow down my reading because it causes ghastly headaches... ironically, because of being laid up half crippled, the first thing my family and friends think is to bring me books. Thus, the list of things still to be read is longer and the ones I've finished not half as long as I'd like!
What I've recently finished....
The Book of Lies, by Brad Meltzer. Mr. Meltzer has a series on the History channel called Brad Meltzer's Decoded... he is a conspiracy theory enthusiast, and his show is very entertaining.. recent episodes have taken a look at the Rosicrucians, and the Statue of Liberty.. which may not be all that she seems. I enjoyed this novel greatly. It centers around a real-life unsolved murder.. in 1932, Mitchell Siegel, a Cleveland tailor, was shot to death at his place of business. The murder has never been solved and the murder weapon has never been found. Mitchell Siegel's son, Jerry, in the wake of his father's death, dreamed of a bulletproof man... and became the teenage creator of Superman. This mystery is true...and the genesis of Superman in the imagination of a grieving son is also true. The novel connects it with the Biblical mystery of the first murder, namely, Cain and Abel, and goes into theories surrounding another real secret society, the Thule. I did some research concerning the Thule when I finished the novel..they are a truly frightening group, if any remnants of them still exist. Many high-ranking Thule members became Nazi war criminals. Hitler dedicated "Mein Kampf" to a high-ranking Thule member, and indeed, it is a matter of record that the Thule placed Adolf Hitler into power and founded the Nazi party. I know.. I know.. these things don't possibly seem like they could be connected. Mr. Meltzer weaves a clever and plausible story that had me anxious to turn the page and find out what was going to happen next! In the vein of The Da Vinci Code, but in my opinion, Dan Brown is not a talented writer.. and Mr. Meltzer's skillful meshing of fact and fiction was, in my opinion, far and away much better than The Da Vinci Code.
Small Favor, by Jim Butcher. This is a novel of the Dresden Files, which numbers quite a few in the series, and I understand there is also a tv series on the SciFi channel based on the novels. I was unaware of the existence of the novels until speaking with a relative who is wild for them. Subsequently I ran across this novel in a bargain bin and decided on the recommendation to give it a whirl. Mr. Butcher, where have you been all my life??!! Harry Dresden, the hero..think wisecracking tough-guy a la Philip Marlowe or Sam Spade... as a wizard, the wizard of Chicago, in fact, battling fallen angels, evil Faerie critters, and all manner of things that go bump in the night. He works also in conjunction with earthly human law enforcement. Wickedly funny, unsettling in its plausibility, and unbelievably well-written... Small Favor refers to the Queen of Faerie, in particular the Queen of the Winter Court of Faerie, Mab, calling in a favor from Dresden. Remember Don Corleone? "One day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a favor for me." Yup.. that's exactly the kind of favor that Dresden owes to Queen Mab. I am a new convert to the cult of Dresden. This novel was everything that Laurell K. Hamilton could be... if she was capable of writing a balanced line of prose, and if she had any imagination beyond how to get Anita Blake into bed simultaneously with as many men, vampires, lycans, and incubi as possible, in every chapter if possible. Run.. do not walk.. and find a copy of any one of the Dresden Files. Mr. Butcher has also begun a new series called the Codex Alera. This reader for one cannot wait to go further into Dresden's world.
What I'm reading as we speak...
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent, by Galen Beckett. Bored and curious, I went looking for Mr. Beckett on the web, and lo and behold what the Internet can reveal.. Galen Beckett is a nom de plume for an author named Mark Anthony..evidently Mr. Anthony has written a fantasy series called the Rune series if I'm remembering correctly..and he has also written a large number of books in the seemingly eternal Forgotten Realms and D&D novels. This novel, "Galen Beckett's" first, is set in a place that looks a lot like Victorian England... has a history a lot like Victorian England..and a society much like Victorian England.. but it appears to be some parallel realm, called Altania. Mr. Beckett's impetus for writing this novel was in his wondering...what if the social mores of the day, in particular Jane Austen's time, according to his blog, were actually set into place through the intervention of magickal means? So far, it's a treat. It combines the best things we love about Jane Austen and the things we love about fantasy stories.
more later... head is hurting. be well friends!
