Lone Woman by Victor Lavalle is yet another excellent offering from Lavalle. I have to confess an affinity for Lavalle. At this point I've read everything he's written. I actually held off reading this because I knew it would be awhile before anything new appeared.

One of the things about his books that I love is how each one creates its own world, its own reality. This is usually couched in some other reality--a mental institution, the streets of New York or like here, early 20th Century Montana.

In many ways these new versions of the places are more appealing than the reality (if you don't mind people occasionally being torn to pieces).  He creates a magical world and fills that world with characters you care about. You may sometimes hate them but even the ones you hate you can relate to.

Here is the other thing; Lone Woman may be his best effort yet. Previously I would have said Big Machine but Im revising my opinion. When you ask fans of the writer what their favorite is you are likely to get different answers. I will confess that I didn't love The Ecstatic but given how much I loved his other work I more question myself than Lavalle. What is wrong with ME that I didn't get the book?

Another of his books, The Changeling, is about to become a limited series. Truth is that most of his books really lend themselves to translation into movies or TV.  I just hope Lavalle was involved in the script.

I don't really want to write about every single book in this series! I want more to just note that I read them.

Of course, going through the series and noting how it progresses is an interesting process. Once you get used to some characters...poof, they vanish. Other times the plot development that would seem best placed at the end of a book is smack dab in the middle of the book (of course in The Master and Margarita the two characters named in the title don't appear until the book is half way done).

There is something of a "Game of Thrones" problem here--not to compare what many regard as the pinnacle of science fiction to a throw away fantasy series.

But the problem is real.

You get to a section labeled "Tyrion" and you want to read it. Then you sigh and trudge through a section from the perspective of a less interesting character. That happens in these books. When certain character's story arc ends they are not always taken over by an equally interesting character.

One great thing about these books is how difficult plot summary is. You can give a BROAD summary but then it breaks down into smaller plots that sometimes stand on their own. There is something akin to a history book in these novels.

The next book will be interesting. It is the fourth book and one that came after a nearly 30 year lay off from writing this series. How will the tone change? The 50s were a lot different from the 80s!