----- June, 2004 -----

• 57. A heartbreaking work of staggering genius, Dave Eggers
• 56. Topless, D. Keith Mano
• 55. The Bible as history, Werner Keller
• 54. Talon of the silver hawk, Raymond Feist
• 53. Liquor, Poppy Z. Brite
• 52. Always have, always will, Quinn Brockton [Discussed here.]
• 51. Hidden warrior, Lynn Flewelling [This is book 2 in the Hidden Warrior trilogy. Waiting on book three... Here's the author's website.]
• 50. Delusion, G. H. Ephron
• 49. Hot spot, Michael Craft
• 48. Name game, Michael Craft
• 47. Reckless abandon, Stuart Woods
• 46. The bone doll's twin, Lynn Flewelling [Discussed here. This is book 1 in the Hidden Warrior trilogy.]
• 45. Watch me, A. J. Holt
• 44. Ghost writer, Rene Gutteridge
• 43. Slave to fashion, Rebecca Campbell
• 42. Clanbook: Malkavian, Daniel Greenberg, Andrew Greenberg [RESEARCH for PA]
• 41. Flight dreams, Michael Craft
• 40. Sunshine, Robin McKinley
• 39. Never kill a witch, M. R. Sellars
• 38. Elf defense, Esther Freisner (reread)
• 37. The fall of the kings, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherma
• 36. The fellowship of the ring, JRR Tolkein
• 35. Laws of the night, White Wolf pub. (simultaneous with 28, 29, 32 & 33) [RESEARCH for PA]
• 34. If looks could kill, Kate White (simultaneous with 28, 29, 32 & 33)
• 33. New York minutes, Richard Jeter (simultaneous with 28, 29 & 32)
• 32. Angels A to Z, Matthew Bunson (simultaneous with 28 & 29) color="blue">[RESEARCH!]
• 31. Eric, Terry Prattchett (simultaneous with 28 & 29)
• 30. An acceptable time, Madeleine L'Engle (simultaneous with 28 & 29)
• 29. The most common errors in English usage and how to avoid them, Elaine Bender (simultaneous with 27 & 29)
• 28. Book of shadows, James Reese (simultaneous with 27 & 29)
• 27. Kushiel's dart, Jacqueline Carey (re-read) (simultaneous with 28 & 29)
• 26. Small gods, Terry Pratchett
• 25. Never tear us apart (Queer as Folk Novel), Quinn Brockton [SHUT UP] (simultaneous with 21)
• 24. Worst fears realized, Stuart Woods (re-read) (simultaneous with 21)
• 23. Dirty work, Stuart Woods (simultaneous with 21)
• 22. Seduced by moonlight, Laurell K. Hamilton (simultaneous with 21)
• 21. Dragon's kin, Anne McCaffrey & Todd McCaffrey [Read the first chapter, then put it aside. Is it possible I've out-grown Pern?]
• 20. Good boys, Paul Redinger
• 19. Blitz, or, Brant hits the blues, Ken Bruen
• 18. A forever death, Michael Farren
• 17. Underland, Michael Farren
• 16. More than mortal, Michael Farren
• 15. Blood orchid, Stuart Woods
• 14. Birmingham noir, Joel Lane and Steve Bishop (anthology)
• 13. Zandru's forge, Marion Zimmer Bradley & Deborah J. Ross
• 12. The fall of Neskaya, Marion Zimmer Bradley & Deborah J. Ross
• 11. Traitor's sun, Marion Zimmer Bradley (reread)
• 10. The shadow matrix, Marion Zimmer Bradley (reread)
• 9. Exile's song, Marion Zimmer Bradley (reread)
• 8. Louisiana breakdown, Lucius Shepard [Read a few chapters, then decided it sucked too much to continue]
• 7. Abide with me, E. Lynn Harris [I like trash. Like you don't.]
• 6. The snow garden, Christopher Rice
• 5. Kushiel's avatar, Jacqueline Carey
• 4. A density of souls, Christopher Rice
• 3. Darklost, Michael Farren
• 2. The conspiracy club, Jonathan Kellerman
• 1. The time of feasting, Michael Farren (started in 2003)

PHILIP K. DICK is an institution in SF. Never heard of him? Ever hear of the film Blade Runner? The movie is based on DICK’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Weird title? You don’t know the half of it! DICK is an alternate historian and here he spins a tale of a space-faring society that encourages its citizens to leave the radiation-poisoned Earth for the colony worlds before they themselves are "altered." The radiation has already claimed almost all animal life and it slowly but surely is eradicating the humans. Non radiation- altered individuals are called "normals." To bribe, er, encourage them to leave Earth, servile robots are provided as family servants—read, "slaves." The robots were androids, human in appearance. To meet the demands of the customers, the androids were made continually more "human" until the questions arose, like: have they achieved true AI? and if these are intelligences, albeit artificial ones, they’re people and doesn’t that make the enforced servitude slavery? The androids themselves certainly think so and so they flee to Earth, where they can blend in without fear, since everyone knows there are no androids on Earth, right? Rick Deckard (HARRISON FORD’s character for the Philistines) "deactivates" these runaways (he blows them away). Society doesn’t consider it murder, since androids aren’t officially people. Deckard is chosen to track down the latest group of runaways, one of whom has the most complex matrix ever built—almost impossible to distinguish from a human brain prior to autopsy. Which means Deckard can’t afford to be wrong. Here Deckard is human, completely, and the novel doesn’t degenerate into a mindless love story between the human and the android, Rachel (SEAN YOUNG’s character). A very good read.

If you’d like to see how Merlin would fair in the post-apocalyptic age, check out SIMON HAWK’s The Wizard of Camelot. Here, Merlin is freed from the tree in which Morgan Le Fey imprisioned him. It’s a thousand years later and society is collapsing in the face of a global shortage of fossil fuels. Cities are in chaos, inflation is so bad that enough firewood to cook dinner costs more than a person can make in a week. So Tom Malory, "a soldier, a man who both battles urban rioters and steals wood to keep his children warm", goes into a protected forest and takes an axe to a big ol’ grand-daddy of an oak, freeing Merlin to inaugerate the Second Age of Magic.

The Wizard of Camelot / 1993 Wizard of 4th Street / 1988 The Wizard of Whitechapel / 1993 The Wizard of Sunset Strip / 1989 The Wizard of Rue Morgue The Samurai Wizard / 1991 The Wizard of Sante Fe / 1990 The Wizard of Lovecraft’s Cafe / 1993 The Last Wizard / 1997

This one’s more than a little dry, but the other books in The Wizard of West 4th Street series are a lot of fun! They tell of the Avatars of the Runestones, people descended from the Old Ones, a race of magic users that florished before humanity discovered fire. Back then, they dined on life-force, the life-force released in the ritual sacrifice of lower animals—namely, humans. A war happened when some of the Old Ones hatched a conscience and decided to abandon balck magic for white—magic that "borrowed" life-force from others, but didn’t kill. The ones who refused to give up the power one can only gain from ritual slaughter were dubbed the Dark Ones. The good guys won the war but they couldn’t slay their foes, so they imprisoned them using a spell called the Living Triangle. The keys to the spell, three gemstones inscribed with mystic runes, were removed by an unscrupulous human mage in present times. The runestones were imbued with the essences of the Old Ones and they found their way to three of their descendants, Wyrdrune, a failed magic student, Kira, a thief, and Modred, the last survivor of Camelot. The three became the Avatars and their job is to hunt down and destroy the Dark Ones. And a grand old time they have of it too!

ROBERT HEINLEIN is the author who first seduced me into reading science fiction. Sure, I saw Star Wars in it's many incarnations but that was mind candy; I was astonished to learn that there were Star Wars books! The anthology The Green Hills of Earth is perhaps the best way to start reading Heinlein. My all time faves are The Moon is a Harsh Mistress; Citizen of the Galaxy; Time Enough for Love (Lazarus Long's autobiography!) and, of course, Stranger in a Strange Land.

From Amazon.com:
Synopsis
One of the greatest science fiction novels ever published, Stranger in a Strange Land's original manuscript had 50,000 words cut. Now they have been reinstated for this special 30th anniversary trade edition. A Mars-born earthling arrives on this planet for the first time as an adult, and the sensation he creates teaches Earth some unforgettable lessons. "A brilliant mind-bender."--Kurt Vonnegut.

There is one telling of the Arthurian legends that I am rather fond of and that’s MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY’s The Mists of Avalon. It’s a good book, but I warn you, it’s a l-o-o-n-g one. It’s told from a feminine perspective, or rather it doesn’t assume that which is female is evil. Here, Arthur isn’t simply the Great-Christian-King, out to unite the people under of Christianity and, of course, his own supremecy! In this retelling Arthur is a man, Merlin is more mentor than mage, and Morgan is misunderstood, rather than a cold-hearted witch. Though she is literally a witch! Ms. BRADLEY humanizes all, including the Lady of the Lake. In Mists the Lady is a Goddess whose worship was being eradicated in the British isles by the newly-converted Christians. Mists is a very good read and certainly worth the time it takes to get through it! FYI, a live-action (not animated) mini-series based on Mists is in the works. The only drawback is that cable station TNT is producing it. Did I mention that I don’t have cable?

ARTHURIAN LEGEND Listed in chronological order according to storyline The Lady of Avalon $12.76 The Forest House $12.46 The Mists of Avalon $12.00 DARKOVER NOVELS Darkover: Landfall; The Founding $5.59 Stormqueen! $5.59 Hawkmistress! $5.99 Rediscovery $5.59 The Forbidden Tower $5.59 Star of Danger $7.34 The Bloody Sun $7.34 Exile's Song $5.59 The Shadow Matrix $5.59 Traitor's Sun $6.99

Check out POPPY Z. BRITE if you want a different view of bloodsuckers (and don’t wanna go down to your local IRS office). Yes, that is her real name. What can I say, parents can be cruel. Her most recent work has centered around cooks and kitchens. I recently read - and loved! - Liquor, the story of Rickey and G-man and their (brain) child. Rickey and G-man's story starts with the novel The Value of X (out of print) and continues in stories in The Devil You Know. Ever wonder what would have happened had John and Paul of the Beatles been lovers, rather than friends? Poppy Brite explores that particular "what if?" in Plastic Jesus (out of print). Her vampires truly deserve the name, as they glut themselves on food, liquor, and teenagers! Unusually, for the genre that is, the most memorable characters are not the vampires but the song team of Ghost and Steve, otherwise known as Lost Souls?, which, minus the "?", just happens to be the novel’s title. They have a cameo in Drawing Blood, Ms. Brite’s second novel, and New Orleans reappears in Exquisite Corpse. Ms. Brite has contributed to the Love In Vein anthology series and is the author of Wormwood and Swamp Foetus, collections of her short stories, in one or two of whom we again meet Ghost and Steve. I don’t like the suckers (pun intended) in Love In Vein but I did enjoy Wormwood. Even if, after finishing the last story late at night, I had to turn on all the lights in my apartment...