Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn

Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn

Han Solo and Chewbacca are hanging out in a cantina when they are approached by a guy about a job.  (Sound familiar at all?)  Of course they take the job.  To pull off the heist they need to assemble a merry band of scoundrels.  And it’s an interesting bunch.  If you like mystery books that are told from the point of view of the thieves and how they pull off “impossible” robberies you’ll enjoy all the trials, tribulations, mishaps and luck that go into pulling this one off.

If you are a Star Wars fan and haven’t yet listened to a Star Wars audiobook – you should!  I was a little skeptical at first since the story stars Han Solo, Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca but the reader does great voices for all the characters including a convincing Harrison Ford and Billy Dee Williams.  The audiobook producers were smart and use sound bites from the movies to “voice” Chewbacca.  The only disturbing things about the recording were the electronic beeps and background noise that accompanied parts of the audiobook.  I got used to it, but at first it was hard to determine what was on the disc and what was not.  One of the electronic noises sounded disturbingly like the warning beeps from my car!  

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

Lavinia is a young girl crossing the Atlantic with her family from Ireland in 1791.  During the sea voyage both her parents die and she is sold as an indentured servant to a wealthy plantation owner in Virginia.  She is sent to work in the kitchen house with the slaves who tend to the big house.  There Lavinia makes lifelong friendships but her role changes when she returns after a short absence away as the new lady of the house.        

Told from Lavinia’s point of view as well as Belle’s (the daughter of the plantation owner and a former slave) these two perspectives tell a heartbreaking story of misunderstandings and betrayals.  It is fascinating to see slavery and role of women of all races and classes during this time on plantations.  Romanticized versions of antebellum life are definitely smashed by the harsh realism presented here.  Fans of historical fiction should not miss this one.

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold

Leo Graf is an engineer.  He loves what he does.  He keeps space stations together, troubleshoots and inspects them, unknowingly saving thousands of lives in his career.  He also teaches.  In his next job for mega-corporation GalacTech he is to visit a space station and teach the residents all about his specialty.  He is a little shocked when he arrives.  There are 1,000 bioengineered people on the station ranging in age from birth to about twenty – affectionately called quaddies because they have arms where we have legs – engineered to be especially good workers in the zero gravity of stations.  They are learning from Graf because the quaddies are getting ready to be deployed to company interests throughout the galaxy.  But a new invention is about to make the quaddies obsolete.  Can Graf put his career on the line to save the quaddies from destruction?

Above all this is a great adventure book.  The last half of the book deals with the enactment of a plan, and I have never read a book where so many things go wrong all at once.  You are rooting for Graf and the quaddies all the way!  The book also brings up interesting ethical questions, like the rights of the bioengineered, as well as an interesting social dynamic which is created on the station.  And if you enjoy this first entry in the series there are fifteen more!

Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

Gun Machine by Warren Ellis

Detective John Tallow is the most unpopular man in his precinct.  While responding to a call on Pearl Street everything goes horribly wrong very quickly.  His partner, a beloved detective, is shot dead, and a stray blast from the perp’s shotgun opens a hole in the wall of Apartment 3A.  Tallow just had to look inside.  Inside, arranged in intricate patterns on the walls and floor are guns.  All types: Rugers, flintlocks, Glocks, you name it.  It is a CSU nightmare that only gets worse.  Every gun has been used to murder someone in New York City over the last 20 years.  Every one of those murders is unsolved.

If you are a regular serial killer thriller reader and want something different – here it is.  It is set in the near future, but that’s only apparent when technology is brought up (private security firms using very nifty surveillance gear).  Otherwise it is a game of cat and mouse and the way the guns each fit their crimes, and the way the gun machine is being assembled and why, is something you would expect from the mind that created the graphic novel RED which became the movie starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren.

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank

In 1959 the crisis in the Middle East comes to a head with the misfiring of a missile into Syria.  That stray American missile starts World War III.  Now the major cities in the world are destroyed.  Fort Repose, Florida, is a small clear zone in the midst of wasted irradiated cities and bases.  (Sorry all, New Jersey is pretty much gone.)  The day of the attacks is called The Day by all who have survived and life continues in this small town as best it can.

I was amazed at how the author was able to tell such a convincingly set tale.  It felt like 1959.  One of the main characters is a spinster librarian and you can picture her, and all the other people, in your head.  And while she becomes a vital part of the community after The Day the way she is portrayed and treated, and all the female characters are treated, is very much a clear division of women’s work and men’s work.  Basically what you would expect in 1959, but very rarely happens in modern day works set in the time period.  When I got to the end of the audiobook I found out why.  This post-apocalyptic tale was recorded in 2010 yet written in 1959. 

Devil’s Wake by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due

Devil’s Wake by Steven Barnes and Tananarive Due

This is a new and weird twist on an old story.  The zombie apocalypse is brought on by the flu shot mixed with strange African mushrooms, mushrooms that are the core of a new weight loss craze.  Basically if you have been taking the mushrooms and you get a flu shot your mind is taken over by a strange red alien fungus and you become a biting machine infecting as many humans as you can. 

Delinquent teenagers from the Northwest are the heroes (read: survivors) in this story.  The zombies are quite disturbing because they can run and even speak a little bit – don’t trust convenience store clerks tempting you with tasty treats! 

This is definitely the first in a series.  The book ends quite abruptly.  Devil’s Wake is the name of an island in California that the teens are thinking of heading towards.  The decision is never made but since it’s the book’s title you have to think that’s where they will be in the next book.

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

The world as we know it ended nine years ago.  That’s when the pandemic swept the country and killed everyone Hig knew and loved except Jasper: his co-pilot (literally), best friend, and dog.  Hig and Jasper have survived by keeping isolated at a small airport in Colorado.  He and his only human neighbor, a man very talented in the ways of weaponry, live in abandoned homes around the runway.  Hig patrols the skies by air to protect themselves from other survivors.  This is the story of Hig’s restlessness.  His need to see who else is out there.  His need to fly past the point of no return.

Yes, it’s a post-apocalyptic story.  Yes, some humans have degenerated into a savage state looting and killing for necessities.  Yet, I didn’t find this story depressing or disturbing.  It is an almost lyrical look at how one man, one very human man, copes with the loss he has suffered and continues to suffer.  He is an eternal optimist and a just plain nice guy so you want him to succeed and you want what’s best for him.  This is a novel about friendship, survival, being human, and the need to know what’s out there beyond the next ridge.

Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick

Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick

Charlie Beale arrives in the small town of Brownsburg, Virginia with two suitcases.  One is full of possessions; the other is full of money.  Charlie is looking for wonderful and when he looks around Brownsburg he thinks he has found it.  Using his suitcase of funds Charlie begins buying land around the county and a house in town.  Friends he has made help him make that house a home.  Life is perfect until Charlie meets an exotic married woman he can’t get out of his mind.  Will things turn out as wonderfully as Charlie hopes?

 I really enjoyed the first 90% of this book.  The relationship between Charlie and his young friend Sam is well-crafted and so realistic you can see these two walking along a riverbank and chatting while you read.  However, as much as you as a reader fall in love with some of the characters and want them to be well, you fear that things will not continue to be wonderful…and they do not.  The journey, getting to know them, is worth it, but be sure to be prepared for a conclusion that is as far from wonderful as you can get.

Sorry Please Thank You: Stories by Charles Yu

Sorry Please Thank You: Stories by Charles Yu

Ever wonder how a conversation with yourself in an alternate universe would go?  If you could pay someone to experience your physical or emotional pain for you, would you?  How do zombies get ready for a date?  All these questions are answered in the short stories in this wonderfully quirky collection.  Some are funny, some are sad, all are thought provoking. 

It looks like 2013 is going to be a big year for short stories and this is a great place to start rediscovering them.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I am ashamed to admit that I have never read this classic little book.  Considered a children’s book, I think it should be read by all adults.  There is just so much here to ponder and contemplate.  I sat down to read this 90 page illustrated story, figured it would take about an hour and I closed the back cover three hours later.  This story is philosophical musing couched in a delightful story of an aviator who has crash landed in the desert and the small young prince of a distant planet whom he meets.  A must read for anyone of any age.

Winter of the World by Ken Follett

Winter of the World by Ken Follett

Follett follows Fall of Giants with another weighty tome, this time about World War II.  Following families in Germany, Russia, Great Britain, Wales and the United States this is a detailed account of their lives and how the events leading up to and including World War II changed them all.

It was very interesting to have the perspective of the Nazi opposition and spy network within Berlin during WWII, as well as the views of those who would believe and follow Hitler wherever he led them.  While I enjoyed the stories, I felt that too many events were contrived.  There were too many happy coincidences for my taste, but overall I enjoyed the book.

While he follows the same five families introduced in the previous volume, it is not necessary to have read that one first.  However, there is a lot of backstory that you will miss if you haven’t read them in order.

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan

In Paris during the 1880s there aren’t many choices for poor young girls wanting to bring income to their families.  Most hope for a place in the ballet.  The ballet is an opportunity for even the poorest girls to excel and catch the eye of wealthy patrons who will lavish gifts upon them and give them a life of luxury.  Marie is a promising dancer.  She is dedicated and kind and pushes herself to bring money to the family taking a morning job as a baker’s assistant and modeling for Monsieur Degas a few afternoons a week.  Her world starts to come apart when her older sister falls for a man Marie feels is no good for her and Marie starts to question what fate has in store.

This historical novel is alternately told by two sisters: Marie, the aspiring dancer, and Antoinette, her older sister who failed as a ballerina but does what she can to bring money to her family.  This novel is a great glimpse into the time, the ballet and the lives of those barely scraping by day to day.

If you have ever looked at the bronze statue Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen by Degas and wondered about her – this is her story.

Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach

Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach

Essentially this is a mystery: who shot Lizard’s parents and why?  It is also a complex story about family, fame and love (or something like it).  Two of the major characters are larger than life.  One is David Hochmeyer a.k.a. Lizard – when we meet him he is seventeen and almost seven feet tall.  The other is Sylphide, a tiny, world-reknown ballerina who lives in the mansion across the pond from Lizard’s house. 

The structure will not appeal to those who prefer their stories completely linear.  The novel starts with the murders and then shoots into the future, then way into the past and then to the present.  These chunks each reveal more about what was going on between these two families, interwoven in unexpected ways.  It is well-crafted, but I found myself wanting more mystery, less relationships.