8. The Drawing of the Dark - Tim Powers

First published in 1979, The Drawing of the Dark is one of Tim Powers earliest works and his first entry in the Fantasy genre.  The novel takes place in Vienna in the early 1500's.  Brian Duffy is a soldier of fortune, who after a confrontation along a venice canal with 3 swordsman, is offered a job as a bouncer at the legendary Herzwestern brewery.  It's an improbable start to a fresh take on the Fisher King legend.  Duffy finds himself protecting the leader of the western world against a siege of Vienna from Suleiman 1st, leader of the Turkish Ottoman empire.  Plenty of sword fighting, along with vikings, Swiss mercenaries, and of course lots of beer! 

If you've read Tim Powers before you'll recogonize many of his familiar themes, especially his tendency to keep you a bit confused in the beginning as snippets of remembrances and conversations eventually begin to make sense as the story progresses.  My only criticism of the novel is that Duffy's love affair with Epiphany never really makes a significant contribution to the novel.  It just seems to labor along without adding much to the story.  

This is a great introduction to Tim Powers work and a great story overall.  Highly recommended.

7. Something From The Nightside - Simon R. Green

"Something from the Nightside" is the first in a long running series of novels (I think its up to 9 now) featuring a down on his luck P.I. named John Taylor. The series takes place in an alternate London called the Nightside. In the opening novel in the series we learn that John Taylor grew up in the dangerous Nightside, possesses the gift of finding things, and left the Nightside 5-years ago vowing never to return. Of course, in walks a female client with a lost daughter and Taylor once again finds himself visiting the gritty world of the Nightside.

Much of what Green attempts to do will be familiar to fans of Neil Gaimon's "Neverwhere", Jim Butcher's "Dresden series", or Glen Cook's "Garret files". Unfortunately this first book is too simplistic and not nearly as in-depth as some of the works mentioned above. For most of the novel it is essentially a straight line progression with two characters, neither of which seems very complex. In fact, most of the novel is with the two characters moving in a straight line and giving the readers glimpses of the Nightside landscape as they turn their heads left and right. Characters come and go without really learning much about them.

Having said all of that, if you're a fan of Gaimon, Butcher or Cook then you'll probably enjoy the story and setting, if for no other reason than it's potential. This wasn't a very good book in my mind, but it was good enough that I'm going to read the second book in the series.

Philip Jose Farmer 01/26/18 - 2/25/09

One of the sci-fi pioneers, Philip Jose Farmer, passed away yesterday at the age of 91.

I re-read "To Your Scattered Bodies Go" just a few months ago. It's the first book in his ground breaking Riverworld saga. The concept is that everyone who has ever lived on Earth is resurrected on this unknown world, next to a large river. If you haven't read this, it's well worth your time. Thought provoking, great characters, and an incredible premise. I'm in my den looking at my "to be read" pile and his second book "The Fabulous Riverboat" is there. It just might be time to pick that one up.

Here's a link to his official website. http://www.pjfarmer.com/

A Reader - Month In Review - February

Total number of books read: 4
Number of pages read: 1482
Books Read:
Angels and Demons – Dan Brown
Riders of the Purple Sage – Zane Grey
And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
Three Days To Never – Tim Powers
Authors
Male: 3
Female: 1
Books Purchased: 3
Something From The Nightside - Simon Green
Eye of the Needle - Ken Follett
The Drawing of the Dark - Tim Powers
Favorite Book:
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
From TBR Challenge:
Angels and Demons – Dan Brown
Riders of the Purple Sage – Zane Grey
And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
Three Days To Never – Tim Powers
Thoughts:
I'm very happy to have finished 4 books this month given my rather hectic work/life balance. I finished 4 books off of my "to be read" pile, and as it turns out all of them were fantastic!

6. Three Days To Never - Tim Powers

Published in 2006, Three Days To Never is a complex, slowly unfolding mystery of time travel, complete with historical figures (Albert Einstein, Charlie Chaplin) and supernatural elements. This one's not as intricately plotted as his World Fantasy Award winner "Declare" but it had enough strange twists and turns that I found myself having to go back and reread pages more often than I'd like to admit.  Urban fantasy, cyberpunk, secret histories; it's hard to classify Tim Powers.  Whatever the label, it's easy to be a fan.

5. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie

This is easily the best mystery novel I've ever read. Published in 1939, it's Agatha Christies best-selling novel, and apparently the worlds best-selling mystery, having sold over 100 million copies to date. "And Then There Were None" is the story of 10 strangers, each lured to Indian Island by a mysterious host. Once the guests have arrived, the host accuses each person of murder. Unable to leave the island, the guests begin to share their darkest secrets -- until they begin to die.

The characters and their reasons for being on the island are fascinating, the dialogue is masterful, and the event after event pacing of the novel kept me hooked straight through to the surprise ending. I highly recommend "And Then There Were None."

4. Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey

Growing up, I can remember my father always reading paperback westerns by Louis L'amour and Zane Grey. And although I read a fair amount of L'amour books as a kid, for some reason I never read any of Grey's novels. Riders of the Purple Sage sat on my "to be read" list for a long time, and now that I'm finished with the book, I'm glad I finally took the plunge.

Published in 1912, Riders of the Purple Sage is the novel that essentially defined the Western genre. The book was a huge success for Grey, selling over a million copies upon publication.

The book is set in southern Utah, in the town of Cottonwoods, and tells the story of three central characters. Lassiter, a gunman in black leather who spends his life searching for a woman abducted long ago. Jane Withersteen, a Mormon cattle rancher, pressured into marrying against her will. And Venters, a Gentile who has been outcasted by the town's church elder for his friendship with Jane.

Although I began the book with a stereotype in mind, expecting a fast-paced, shoot em' up western, I have to admit that Riders of the Purple Sage took a while to get used to. There isn't nearly as much action (gunfighting...etc.) as I would have expected, and the book turned out really to be a love story with an underlying tension of varying religious beliefs. I was also suprised to find it filled with passage after passage of amazing nature writing. In my opinion, the descriptions of the landscape and weather that make up that part of the country, were just as good as anything I've read in Wallace Stegner's classic portrayals of the west.

"... but these were not beautiful cedars. They were gnarled, twisted into weird contortions, as if growth were torture, dead at the tops, shrunken, gray and old. Theirs had been a bitter fight, and Venters felt a strange sympathy for them. This country was hard on trees --- and men."