by Patrick Ogle

Until recently I didn't often read books in long series. Sure, the odd trilogy but ongoing series? Not so much. Enter the most recent Slow Horses book, Clown Town by Mick Herron. 

I am officially hooked on this series. I bought all the previous books but this one I grabbed at the Chicago Public Library. No reason for that, I just recently signed up for a library card. 

I have read all nine Slow Horses books, the novellas and one of the three related stand alone books (The Secret Hours--a favorite). 

Ive at least LIKED all the books and LOVED most of them. There is something interesting about the basic plot device of the "Slow Horses" being screw ups the service is trying to shed; this hems in possible plot lines. They cannot be sent out on secret missions. They cannot be in Russia or the developing world. Why would you send screw ups there?

Herron is often compared to John Le Carre and that makes sense given genre and nationality. Yet, I don't remember any Le Carre books being as funny as Herron. I remember most of them being dead serious. And Le Carre doesn't write about screw ups. Sure, there are incompetents in his books but not THIS level of incompetent.

So these books, getting near double digits in the series, seem to have similar plots. Bad guys who are ex spies,be they English, Russian or American, pop up and threaten the gang. Yet the similarities remain just that, similarities. Each book is different and takes a slightly different tone (to me anyway). Herron  manages to throw in twists and moments where you stop reading and think "Holy SHIT." As it goes on and we find out more and more about the characters. He adds layers and makes them real to us. Just when you think you know what each is capable of they change.

And none of that is out of the blue. It is part of their development.

Every time I finish one of these books I think --"Dammit, now I am going to have to wait for the next one."

by Patrick Ogle

A Summer of Drowning by John Burnside.

Like most John Burnside books this one makes you work. You have to put on your thinking cap and focus to keep up with what is going on.  You wonder; is this all supernatural or is it perfectly natural. What is “natural” can certainly be strange and disturbing. This isn't the sort of disturbing that is graphic or bloody. It is a much more subtle type of unease he calls forth.

At some point, you will ask yourself; how reliable is the narrator? If you go back through this book you will find that narrator contradicting themselves–or at least second guessing their conclusions. Which may seem confounding but in actual life we ALL do this constantly.

A Summer of Drowning may be a bit more accessible than other Burnside books I’ve read–The Glister and The Devil’s Footprints but it has been some time since I read those. This book is dark but those were even darker but there is a beauty to the language. Burnside is also a poet which isn’t surprising because there is something different about his work.  I started to write that it is “poetic” but that is more than a bit unimaginative. I would  say that it leaves options for the reader to choose what to believe, to choose what arc of the story to believe. Even before I KNEW he wrote poetry I knew there was something unique about his style. This isn’t me being clever either. I am not special. Most folks notice this when reading his work.

You will hear “prose writers cannot write poetry” (or visa versa). This is nonsense, of course, it is likely more that poets and prose writers CHOOSE to write what they are most comfortable with–and Burnside is a master of both. I’ve read three books and each stayed with me for some time after finishing. 

I immediately started looking for something else by the author.

by Patrick Ogle

Murderbot Diaries--Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry and System Collapse by Martha Wells are the last of the currently available Murderbot books (excluding some online short stories). I was going to read these slowly and in a measured way, alternating with other books.

Then I just said "fuck it" and read them all in a row. This may have been a mistake.

First of all Network Effect, the fifth book, is the first to be unassailably be a novel rather than a novella. Yes, I have seen, and am indifferent to, the arguments over what is a novella and a novel. Who cares? The first four books are relatively short, concise and therefore move at a quick pace.  Network Effect moves at a more deliberate clip. It is significantly more detailed and involved than the other books. It may even sometimes get a wee bit ponderous. This isn't to say it is ever less than entertaining. It fills in gaps and lets us know more about the important characters (and brings back some that most of us Murderbot aficionados missed).

But it is different from the first for books. Different isn't bad of course but I was slower reading this one. The story is more complex than the previous books and that is a good thing. To me not BETTER than the first four. Simply different.

Fugitive Telemetry is set on a space station that is familiar to Murderbot fans and reads more like a detective novel than the other books. It is another different direction--an interesting new direction for the series. I'm not sure I'd be thrilled if it KEPT on this trajectory (it doesn't as we will see when I get to the next book). But it is a fun, self contained, story. 

It is a good idea to, more or less, read these books in order but if you read this one after book one or two it wouldn't throw you off. It actually seems like it would fit after book one or two in some ways.

System Collapse is basically a direct sequel to Network Effect and feels almost an excised part of the earlier book. It adds together a couple groups of Murderbot's humans (as he calls them).  What that means is even more characters in a crowded book that goes back to the short format of most of these books. It basically works but is a bit less than "action packed." This story relies on suspense; what's going on in Murderbot's head? or what's around that corner?

At least to me the book provides a satisfying ending to the plot. I wonder if there isn't a bit of me wanting different things to happen going on in MY head with these last couple of books. But there is definitely a change in the pace in Network Effect and System Collapse.

Nonetheless, the series continues to impress and, to me, is sort of essential reading. It is all so smart and it tells stories fast for our newly Tik Tok shortened attention spans, while still providing intelligent writing and compelling stories.

by Patrick Ogle

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clarke was a gift. I love books as gifts--especially from people who know the sort of books I like.  In this case it was from my son who always NAILS it.

This one is a supernatural thriller set in the post World War I American South. As you might expect from the time period (a horrible time in American history) and the cover art the Klan is involved. But what is behind the Klan in this book is a little different than what history tells us.

To me it seems...plausible but then I am baffled by virulent racism (this is a joke for those who are literal minded).

I just mentioned, in my discussion of the Murderbot books, how I am a sucker for writers who can create an alternate world. Clarke is such a writer. His topic made me think of the film, Sinners, and how Ryan Coogler could make an ass kicking movie out of this. Of course, he may want to do something a little different....but...still. I was also reminded of a number of writers, chief among them Victor Lavalle and Matt Ruuf, who write horror books with an American twist. They take the real horror of racism and combine it with the fantastical.  Clarke's novella is as good or better than the efforts of these two excellent writers.

This book also calls to mind the lofty work of African writers like Ben Okri and Ngugi Wa Thiongo in their shifting between the world we live in and a mystical realm. I don't want to put too fine a point on this assertion as Clarke's book is a much simpler version of this than either Okri or Ngugi sometimes employ and the writing styles of all three authors are wildly different. But I did think of it. I wanted more of the other world part of this. In truth I just wanted MORE of this book.

I also don't really want to give anything away about this book. Just read it. It is a novella length read. I look forward to a sequel. 

There better be a sequel.

Finally I finished some books-- four of them to be exact (The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 which consist of two books each by Martha Wells).  This year has been a bad one for reading. I started several books and abandoned them. This wasn't always because they were bad (although sometimes they were bad). Mostly though it was that I just wasn't in the mood for them.

But I was in the mood for Murderbot. This series is one I've been hearing about for years but just never got around to reading. What isn't to like? The perspective of a 

Until now.

One thing I have a soft spot for are writers who create worlds. It is not shocking that I am a huge JRR Tolkien fan. But the world doesn't have to be full of elves and goblins for me to fall in love with it.

Part of what is great is how Wells' universe is revealed is that it happens slowly. She never tries to explain how things work or who runs what. Rather she lets the events in the books, piece by piece, reveal this "world" (more of a galaxy). It is a fascinating, scary place.

As is Murderbot himself (that is his private name). The entire series, at least as far as I've red, is from his perspective. Perhaps "his" is an assumption because he isn't a human and has no gender. He is a security unit. He protects humans, well...specific humans...other humans he kills. Hence his moniker. 

Have you noticed I am totally avoiding any plot summary? You will thank me later. Read these books.

by Patrick Ogle

The List and the Marylebone Drop (aka The Drop) by Mick Herron are novellas from the world of Slough House.

Anyone who has had a conversation with me about books in recent memory almost certainly heard me wax eloquent about Herron.  Well, maybe they just heard me jabber on about Herron.

Same difference.

I have read every Slough House book and the one related but not actually Slough House book. I thought they were all pretty close to great. I think the one or two I was lukewarm on had less to do with the books and more to do with the fact I read them in such close succession. It is like binging a series. Once you watch 12 episodes in a row it sort of gets  to be a bit much. Then, in these books, there was also the fact that characters I didn't want to die, died.

Mostly I left time between the books because I didn't want them to end. I wanted Herron to have a slew of them in the can so I could read on and on and on.

I am now left with the novellas which are also good but I'd hesitate to call them great. They are mostly stories about side characters from the other books. The novellas fill in the gaps of some of the novels and expand upon stories and characters. We find out what set the wheels in motion to send some of the luckless denizens of Slough House to their doom (literally and figuratively). Sometimes I had the idea that Herron excised these from the book and expanded upon them but I do not KNOW this to be true. The details here are interesting but the expanded stories would have brought the novels to a screeching halt.

It is still fun but I feel like I read these the wrong way.

Don't read them AFTER you've finished the series. Read them in order and how they fit in with the novels. You can do a search and find numerous websites with the order of the novels and novellas. One is this site, Book Series in Order. The good thing is that when you start the series you have two books before you get to the first novella so you will know whether the book is your cup of tea (or Talisker Scotch as the case may be).

My impression of these books would have been considerably different if I'd read them in order and I wish I had. Also the photo here is of the collected novellas. No need to buy them in dribs and drabs. Just buy them all after you've read Dead Lions.

by Patrick Ogle

Spectral Evidence by Gemma Files is H.P. Lovecraft but with 100 percent less racism! It is like reading the better episodes of the show Supernatural but with women leads. It is good, scary fun.

Although maybe it isn't always...fun. It is also genuinely creepy.

Since I write these mainly as notes to myself I feel compelled to note that I have some sort of brain block with short stories. I read them way slower than I do other books  I think it may be that I get invested and interested in a story or characters and then...BOOM....the story is over and the characters gone! Oh no! It then takes me some time to get into the next story. I suppose if I thought about it I would find I start books slow then read faster.

Spectral Evidence slowed me down but it was worth it. Files is a unique, engaging voice that I am extremely glad I discovered (with help for the Miami Herald Book Page on Facebook...yes, there is something useful on social media).

 by Patrick Ogle

Dracula, Prince of Many Faces, His Life and Times by Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally.

Vlad Tepes, the real one, is actually a much more interesting character than Bram Stoker's creation. In many ways his motivations are more obscure. His life is shrouded in mystery and his deeds, foul as some of them were, often taken out of the context of the times.

Make no mistake he was regarded, even in his time, as extreme and even evil, especially amongst Catholic countries because he wasn't a pal to those supporting Papal authority for most of his life. He was also pragmatic and, in need, would turn to those same people for help and protection. You can make a case (and this is my assertion not the authors') that he was the leader of an over-matched people fighting to maintain their independence. His terrorist (and impaling diplomats and soldiers is terrorism by definition) methods were partly born of the circumstances of Wallachia at the time. What turned the Ottomans around? His military and terror tactics. Without the latter the former might not have worked. The book never asserts this but the area may very well have maintained its "freedom," a relative term, because of Dracula. But Let's not give Dracula too many hugs; he may well have been a psychopath as this book details.

It is interesting that in Eastern Orthodox country the view of Dracula is often more nuanced. Russian historians and near contemporaries have a basically positive view, while acknowledging his flaws. Current Romanian views seem to regard him as a national hero (even though "Romania" wasn't really a thing back then).

There are some points where the book falls down, but only a little and often this is for good reason. In some cases it relies solely on folk tales as evidence of Dracula's deeds and misdeeds. Folk tales and the stories of a people ARE a historical source but here they often are the ONLY source and that is far from definitive. In the authors' defense it seems, in these cases, there simply is no other evidence. There are also some editing issues and contradictions in the book. All of this has, as its source, the nature of such history. Bit players in history are often not recorded with the care of emperors and the like. It is why there are so many gaps in history. Hell, there are Roman emperors we know basically nothing about except that they existed.

Overall though this book provides an window into a lost time and a fascinating character. Sure it leaves you wanting to know more. The authors offer the possibility that more information exists in some archive or collection of records and since the book was first published in 1990 new evidence may have already emerged. I looked at another book but when I researched the author I found out he was a convicted pedophile so I didn't read that one. I hope there is something else by one or the other of these writers and researchers.

Among the interesting aspects of this book is how different people and different families become kings of near by small principalities via acclamation, election or appointment. This book is as interesting for outlining the customs and attitudes of the time as it is for any discussion of the actual Dracula. It dispenses with the myths and movie polluted side plots of the Dracula story while still discussing and acknowledging them. There is a great deal on Stoker and his research and character development in the book (especially in the last section).

If you are interested in Dracula or Eastern Europe in the 1400s this is a well written, well researched work. I will be searching for more by these two.

by Patrick Ogle

House In The Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune is a worthy start, beyond worthy in fact, to a new fantasy series. There is SO much to love about this book.

The main character is a sort of apparatchik, a bureaucrat....but he is also, kind and brave and decent. I won't give away too much plot but the book mostly takes place at an orphanage for ...special....children. You may hear comparisons to "Harry Potter" but that is just because there are children and a bit of magic. I think this has more in common with books by Christopher Moore than JK Rowling. I also wonder about why this is called "young adult" fiction. How much young adult fiction that you know of has main characters that are middle aged men? It has kids in it ...so BAM, it is "young adult." That is just marketing and probably smart marketing.

Klune is also known as a writer who focuses on LGBTQ characters and issues. There are many metaphors here that are obviously relate to the tribulations of the community, past and present. But these also apply to the neurologically divergent, political and religious dissenters....etc...There is a whiff of Orwell in the book but it is a kinder, gentler version and it works wonderfully.

There are gay characters in this book. Good and bad. The fact they are gay is really neither here nor there in the context of this world. Everyone accepts them and their sexuality isn't an issue. It is a subtle, clever bit of writing. For years whenever a LGBTQ character appeared in a book or movie they were either comic relief or the book/movie was about how they SUFFERED. It seemed to imply that all they had in their lives was hardship (this is also true of black folks in film and publishing to some extent).  There is something to be said for just telling a story where characters HAPPEN to be LGBTQ--even when the plot of the book is something of a metaphor.

But I prattle on, this is a lovely book with a wonderful heart and a ton of memorable characters. I wish I had discovered Klune earlier.  One of the reviews I saw of this book said that it was a "feel good book about the Anti-Christ" and there is a great deal of truth in that.

Follow Me To Ground by Sue Rainsford is another unique and compelling fantastical novel that I've wandered across this year (actually, it was a birthday gift from my son). Like the previous books I'd include in this list, by Ryka Aoki and Gemma Files, I had no idea what to expect. This one may be my favorite and that is saying something given my obsession with the other two authors.

Now I am obsessed with Rainsford too.

The magic, the fantasy, Rainsford invokes is far different from that of Aoki or Files. Not as sweet as the former nor quite as dark as the latter. Files book is truly creepy. This one is KIND of creepy and KIND of sweet and it leaves the reader's imagination, or knowledge of folklore, to fill in gaps.

Or not fill in the gaps.

I am fine with the gaps. I don't need to KNOW everything. Authors who need to tell you everything can be tedious and this book is never that.

The basic story is about forbidden romance. A young girl and her father (well, sort of...) live near a small village and busy themselves healing the sick. Forbidden romance intervenes. This description is less than you'll find on the book's dust jacket. Any more description is pointless really. Just read it and find out.