Posted by fitz in Books on Sep 02
Welcome back!
Hello there!
Chicago has wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden. Denver has Kitty Norville, alpha wolf in a pack of werewolves. And now New York City has jewelry designer Garet James. One of these things is not like the others… A jewelry designer? How does that work?
It’s no secret that I am extremely enthusiastic about the latest surge in urban fantasy fiction being published. Sometimes my world seems far too antiseptic, purged of the everyday magic I wish was everywhere. To solve this problem, I retreat into fictional worlds where real magic exists on the streets of today’s urban jungle.
Lee Carroll is a pseudonym for the duo of Carol Goodman (Arcadia Falls, The Night Villa) and her husband – poet and hedge fund manager Lee Slonimsky. The couple live in New York and you can tell from the way they handle NYC as the setting for the book that they love where they live. NYC in the pages of Black Swan Rising comes to life in expected and completely unexpected ways.
Garet James doesn’t see herself as an artist. She takes signet rings, typically bearing the coat of arms of the family of the original wearer, and makes medallions out of them. As a result, she’s always on the lookout for new rings she can use in her own work.
One day she gets caught in a downpour in the city and stumbles into a strange antiques shop. The strange shopkeeper, John Dee, after revealing that he knows of her jewelry, asks if she would look at opening an old silver box. The box just happens to be sealed with a symbol of a swan exactly like the signet ring given to her by her mother before she died. She agrees to take it home to work on it and bring it home the next day. Unfortunately, like Pandora – once the box is open, her world changes dramatically…
Garet and her father own an art gallery that’s been down on its luck in recent years. When thieves break in to steal three paintings, the box, and shoot her father, it’s just the beginning of her troubles. A 400 year old vampires and the King of Faeries help her find her way to stopping the diabolical plans of John Dee before Garet’s beloved city and then the world suffer the consequences…
Black Swan Rising starts at a simmer and rises to a boil. If I have one complaint, it’s that as you move through the book picking up speed, the second half of the book is crammed to the gills with wall to wall action. But that’s a very minor complaint, considering that I hope the next book in the series will continue to tell the story of Garet, the vampire Will Hughes, and the tale of the declining world of the fae barely holding on in an industrialized world…
Throughout the book, I was impressed by the use of passages to describe difficult concepts such as auras and elemental transformation. The hand of the poet was definitely at work as the writing duo show how those with positive, healing or helping auras can affect those around them with a touch or simply by being in the same area…
After a nurse with a healthy green glow got on the train, she gave her seat to an angry man with a red aura… “I saw the angry red glow subside to a pale pink. The woman who’d given up her seat still had the green glow around her, but now it shone brighter and extended farther out around her. It touched the elderly woman with the headache, turning her mustard yellow into a clear daffodil gold. The girl who’d started out with the yellow aura sang a line from a song on her iPod, which made the old man with the gray aura laugh out loud. Colors rippled down the car, turning brighter and clearer, as if that one act – the woman in the scrubs touching the sick man’s arm and giving him her seat – was a pebble cast into the water radiating out into widening circles…”
It’s those scenes that ripple throughout this book and story from beginning to end.
If you’re a fan of urban fantasy or simply want to read a well-written story, check out Black Swan Rising by Lee Carroll… It’s an enjoyable ride that left me wanting more.
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up this and other great urban fantasy books at Barnes & Noble below!
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Posted by fitz in Books, Opinion on Aug 26
Hey guys…
Most of you know I’m pretty apolitical. If it smells of politics, I’m typically walking the other way. But recently, a few things have ticked me off.
If you don’t want to read further about my minor political and education rant, you might as well stop now… [Hopping on my soap box...]
I’m pretty liberal. And not religious at all. If anything I’m probably an agnostic with atheist leanings. But I believe firmly in the power of humankind to do amazing things for both good, selfish, and evil reasons. My hope is that we as a whole balance out so we’re not tilting to the wrong side, whatever that may be.
So that’s me. You’re entitled to your opinions and beliefs so long as I am also afforded that consideration. 
Today I saw that there’s a new political humor book for kids called Democrats are Dumb, A Children’s Guide. The press release states that the book “harmlessly and humorously works on detonating the left-wing landmines the Democratic Party has left lying around in its attempt to indoctrinate us and our children in ‘Socialist Think.’”
Before I get going, let me say that I’m all for political humor. We need it. Politics is absurd under the best of circumstances and we need to keep some perspective.
But… and you felt there was a “but” there, didn’t you… Kids need to form their own opinions based on the history they learn in school and based on observations of the world around them. If they become conservative, liberal, or independent-minded, more power to them. But we shouldn’t urge them to do more than think for themselves.
This kind of Dr. Seuss rhyming sing-song for kids who don’t yet have political opinions of their own is like giving them a loaded gun… One quoted rhyme says…
“Khrushchev said, ‘.without firing a shot.’
To elect more Democrats was a Communist plot.”
I think we could just as easily write a book making fun of the Conservative right wing that is pushing us towards religious intolerance and scientific ignorance depending on who you listen to.
Let’s let our kids be kids. Keep politics out of the equation until they have the facts about history, government by the people for the people as laid out in the U.S. Constitution, and can form opinions of their own in coherent sentences.
I fear that planting sing-song political land mines in their minds too early will backfire like so many other indoctrination techniques wanted by those wanting to influence our youth. Let them think for themselves.
Please avoid “political primers” for kids like Democrats are Dumb.
I’ll get off my soap box now…
–Fitz
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Posted by fitz in Books, Movies on Aug 19
Hi all…
Before I can talk about the book Terminator Salvation: Trial By Fire by Timothy Zahn, which follows upon the events of the 2009 movie Terminator Salvation, I need to provide a bit of background.
Arnold Schwarzenegger truly was a machine in 1984 when James Cameron’s movie Terminator burst onto the scene. He played a cyborg assassin from the future sent to the past to stop John Connor from being born. To do that, he needs to kill Connor’s mother, Sarah (Linda Hamilton) before he could be born. Of course, the Terminator wasn’t the only thing sent back in time. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) was also sent back by the John Connor of the future to prevent this from happening. These three characters – John, Sarah, and Kyle – are intrinsically tied across time throughout the entire series.
Putting aside the dangers of time travel and altering the future by affecting the past, Terminator was a science fiction phenomenon that inspired two other movies further exploring the potential of world domination by machines – Terminator 2: Judgement Day (T2) in 1991, and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (T3) in 2003. Though I would like to forget T3, the first two were amazing films with special effects and ideas that really pushed science fiction films to become more technologically adept.
I saw Terminator Salvation in May 2009 and seem to be firmly in the minority when it comes to thinking the movie didn’t suck. Personally, I liked the film and feel it held true to the spirit of the original three films. Unlike the first three Terminator films, which started in the “present” of 1984 and headed toward the inevitable “Judgement Day” when the machines take over, Terminator Salvation picked up in 2018 after the machines had already taken over.
Skynet, an artificially intelligent computer system, started a nuclear war to destroy or enslave humanity to better protect it. The Resistance is a loose federation of quasi-military groups around the world hoping to destroy the machines and free mankind. The machines are pretty good at plotting to destroy the Resistance too.
[Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen Terminator Salvation yet.]
At the beginning of the film, John Connor (Christian Bale, Batman Begins) isn’t quite the all mighty Resistance leader he is when he sends Kyle Reese back in time in the first movie. But he’s rising through the ranks. After a successful attack on a Skynet base, he stumbles upon evidence of new type of Terminator incorporating human tissue. Along the way, they also discover a group of human prisoners used for some sort of experimentation. After John and his team leave with the rescued prisoners, one more form rises from the rubble – Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington, Avatar)…
Wright stumbles through the remains of Los Angeles and runs into a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, Star Trek) and his quiet companion Star (Jadgrace Berry). They save Wright from the attack of a T-600 Terminator only to get taken prisoner a bit later. Marcus finds a downed Resistance pilot – Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood, TV’s Burn Notice and Human Target) and the two set off for Connor’s base…
Through the course of the movie, we discover that Wright himself is unknowingly one of this new type of Terminator. Skynet is testing the new model as an infiltration unit that can get inside Resistance cells and with a command from the central computer destroy anything and everything around him. It would be devastating for Skynet to have that kind of capability. No one could be trusted and the Resistance would fall apart.
At the end of the film, the Resistance and Wright attack a Skynet base to try and free Reese and some of the other prisoners before a massive attack on the base can be initiated by the Resistance high command. Though they free the prisoners, Connor gets injured and the high command is destroyed, leaving Connor in charge. To save Connor’s life, Wright gives up his own supercharged heart to be transplanted into Connor’s body.
[End spoilers]
Ultimately it’s a great exploration of what makes us human. Are we simply parts of a big machine or more than that? Can a Terminator still have humanity?
So back to the book now… Connor is still recovering from surgery, but he and his lieutenants are directing Resistance members to kill as many “live” Terminators at the Skynet base as they can and collect as many working or repairable guns and ammunition as they can for the inevitable counter-attack from Skynet.
Connor’s second in command, Barnes (Common in Terminator Salvation) and Blair are on a secondary mission to find Barnes’ brother and give him a proper burial. Reese has been sent out to collect ammunition with a team and Star has stayed behind in camp to help with repairing weapons, which she has turned out to have a gift for.
While Barnes & Blair are away, they discover a data cable leading into the mountains above the ruined base. Thinking it might be a secondary base, they follow the cable until they lose it in the trees, but find a group of people staying in the town of Baker’s Hollow. Led by Mayor Daniel Preston and his daughter Hope, the townspeople have struggled to keep a low profile and simply keep their population of 80+ safe, fed, and out of harm’s way.
Meanwhile, Kyle and his team have stumbled upon a hole covered by a partially intact Terminator. When one of the team gets stuck and they find a number of alert and intact machines below, it leads them in a perilous game of cat and mouse as they try to figure out what the machines are up to and how they can get out safely to get more backup.
Though I’ve not read anything by Timothy Zahn before, his name has appeared on my radar many times in the last 30 years. He’s written fiction in the Star Wars universe, as well as numerous novels of his own – the Cobra Series, the Conquerors Trilogy, the Blackcollar Series, and many others.
I found the book to be an extremely quick read once I got back into the Terminator mindset. It was fascinating to look at Baker’s Hollow as a pocket untouched by the machines so far. The people there were simply trying to hold on to some sense of normalcy in a world torn apart by war and doing a pretty good job of holding things together. Its residents fell back to a simpler way of life – hunting, gathering, and trying to keep sheltered from the elements.
But once outsiders arrive in town, things start to fall apart…
If you want to learn more about the world of Terminator Salvation, I’d encourage you to pick up Terminator Salvation: Trial by Fire. It’s a fast, enjoyable read that fills in a few of the blanks and shows more about how Kyle Reese becomes the man we know from the original Terminator movie. Look for the book in bookstores now!
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Look for these great books at Barnes & Noble.
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Posted by fitz in Books on Aug 12
Hi again…
Prior to reading her latest novel, Discord’s Apple, I have to admit I’d not read anything by Carrie Vaughn. As much as I love urban fantasy, somehow I’d missed her series about a werewolf named Kitty entirely. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, Vaughn is a Colorado author (based in Boulder) who has set Kitty up in Denver. So how did I miss this?
Well, much like the “Dresden Files” series by Jim Butcher, thankfully I didn’t have to start all the way at the beginning to get into this series. Kitty Goes to War is the eighth book in the series and the first published by Tor books. The previous seven are published by Grand Central Publishing. Lucky for me, Amazon doesn’t really care who publishes them and will send me the first seven books in the series before too long…
Back to this book though… Kitty Norville is the alpha dog of a pack of werewolves based in Denver. She hosts “The Midnight Hour,” a radio talk show she uses to talk to her small (but dedicated and growing) audience about paranormal events in general. Unfortunately she is getting sued after running a series of shows about weird things happening at Speedy Mart convenience stores across the country. Is the owner, Harold Franklin, really up to something nefarious or is it just a series of coincidences? The fact that Franklin is suing the show for libel tends to hint that he has something to hide…
In addition to the weirdness with Speedy Mart, Kitty gets called in to help with three Army soldiers back from Afghanistan having some serious trouble readjusting to civilian life after their leader dies in the field. Though Kitty wants to help, her pack is a bit less inclined to let trained killers into the fold. Can Kitty convince the military and the soldiers that they want to control their wolf halves? Or will they continue to run wild until the military has to use a more permanent solution?
Being from just north of Denver and now living in Colorado Springs myself, I was happy to find that the streets I knew and remembered were included in the book as Kitty and her friends navigated up and down the Front Range of Colorado. It was actually kind of cool to be able to picture the locations described in the book based on places in the real world.
Vaughn has a very easy to read style that flows amazingly well and makes for a quick, satisfying read. I couldn’t help but see some similarities with the sarcasm and humor to Butcher’s style, but I honestly can’t imagine Dresden the wizard for hire hosting a radio show. Wizards and technology don’t mix well in Dresden’s world – but that doesn’t seem to be a problem in Vaughn’s.
It was easy to slip into this book and empathize with Kitty’s struggles to not only keep control of her werewolf pack, but keep their respect while she tried to help the soldiers find a clear path through the paranormal world. I also found it very interesting that the story centered around a group of soldiers who fought in the war in Afghanistan coming home only to be mistreated by the system that sent them in the first place. The story really drives home the point that we need to do more to support the men and women fighting the good fight on the other side of the world and help them come home safely and securely.
Something tells me I’ll be reading more about Kitty’s trials as a werewolf in the near future. Kitty Goes to War may be my first foray into Vaughn’s paranormal world of werewolves, but it certainly won’t be my last.
For more information about Carrie Vaughn and her books, be sure to check out her website at CarrieVaughn.com.
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Check out this and other great books from Barnes & Noble below!
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Posted by fitz in Books on Aug 09
Hey all…
What do you get when you cross Near Earth Objects (NEOs), two ex-military tactical and scientific experts, Las Vegas criminal organizations, an amazingly successful assassin, and a talking machine intelligence named FRED? You get one heck of a wild ride written by a real-life rocket scientist who also just happened to fly more than 15,000 hours for the Air Force and NASA. If you like amazing details, likeable characters, and thrillers by Robin Cook or Michael Crichton, you have to check out Specific Impulse by Charles Justiz.
My journey started with the first few chapters of the book that are available on Justiz’ website – CharlesJustiz.com. By the end of chapter 4, I was hooked enough that I knew I needed to read more. Those first chapters introduce you to scientist Carin Gonzales, former submarine commander Jake Sabio, and assassin with an agenda Antonio Crubari. Gonzales and Sabio manage to survive a strange explosion over the huge meteor crater near Winslow, Arizona… an explosion that mysteriously led to the deaths of everyone else at the crater at the time…
Things only get stranger for Carin and Jake from there as they start manifesting new abilities such as the ability to slow down combat and see minute details or even being able to smell minute traces of chemicals in the air around them that normal people would never notice. Add to that the head of a covert action squad with ties to Las Vegas crime and a poor FBI agent and his team who always seem to be a step behind and you’d have a strong science-based thriller already.
But Justiz doesn’t stop there. By the end of the book, there’s a third member of the Carin/Jake team named FRED who just happens to be a sentient computer who can help them out of numerous jams and a NEO that just might be more than it appears to be. All of these threads weave to a spectacular climax that’s only major flaw is that this is the first book of a planned trilogy and dang if the next book isn’t out yet!
Since Michael Crichton passed away, there have been no new science-based thriller writers who have really stepped up to wow me. Justiz not only has a grasp of how to make complex topics such as determining where the object that explodes above the crater came from or how the Doppler shift works…
The Doppler shift was the way you could tell when a train went by. The frequency of the sound suddenly shifts much lower, but Jake had it all wrong. Carin was shaking her head. “There’s no way the Doppler could have shifted. You’ll only hear a Doppler shift in the first place if some object changes in motion relative to you. This thing was coming at us the whole time, so the Doppler can’t even shift once, much less twice…”
Justiz also has a great grasp of working humor into his writing. The exchanges between Carin and Jake are full of sarcasm and many of the characters the pair run into, including the computer, add to the wry amusement scattered throughout. I absolutely loved Chief Tuckman, the police chief in a tiny Idaho town with an airstrip. The main pair help out Tuckman realize he’s in love with the diner owner at the airstrip. And you may be thinking “what’s romance got to do with a thriller”? But believe me when I say it works and provides a bit of comic relief along the way.
Somehow Specific Impulse manages to weave a compelling story with plausible science and great characters you can relate to, leaving you wanting more by the end. If you like science-based thrillers, be sure to check out Charles Justiz’ Specific Impulse. I wasn’t sure I was going to like the book, but now I know I’ll be keeping an eye out for the next one in the trilogy!
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Be sure to pick up a copy of these great books at Barnes & Noble!
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Posted by fitz in Books on Aug 02
Hey there…
There’s nothing like the feeling I get when I discover a new writer. It’s like opening a door to a brave new world. Sometimes I have to admit I don’t like what I find on the other side. But then there are those rare moments when I get there and don’t want to leave. Discord’s Apple from Carrie Vaughn drew me in from the opening chapter and didn’t let me go until I finished the book just a few hours later.
This is the story of Evie Walker, a successful comic book writer from Los Angeles, and her trip home to Hope’s Fort, Colorado, to help her father Frank face his own mortality. It’s also the story of Alex, a stranger who has truly seen it all who is looking for something he can’t seem to find. Together, Evie, Frank, and Alex face new challenges as the mysteries around them deepen and things really hit the fan.
Let me start by saying that, though I love Colorado authors, I’d never read anything by Vaughn. She lives in Boulder, Colorado, which is only a couple of hours away from me in Colorado Springs. And evidently she’s been writing about a werewolf named Kitty for a while now in a series of urban fantasy novels – the latest of which is called Kitty Goes to War. So how have I managed to miss her?
Discord’s Apple was paced amazingly well. From the subtle beginnings of Evie’s drive into the tiny town of Hope’s Fort to the way she slides characters from myth and legend into play alongside the heroes of the comic book Eagle Eye Commandos, the plot builds and beckons the reader ever forward and back from present to past and back again.
But not since reading Dan Simmons‘ books Illium and Olympos, which managed to weave the Trojan War and Greek gods together with a far flung science fiction, have I seen those stories made relevant. Vaugn masterfully tangles the tale of Sinon, the liar who encouraged Troy to open its gates, with a different spin on the Greek gods that grants Sinon the curse of immortality.
Somehow she also manages to mix in the tales of Longinus, Arthur, and the glass slippers of Cinderella while bringing in elements of the warehouse from the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark where a nameless government employee stashed the Ark of the Covenant. Add to that a sprinkle of a world where the balance of power has tipped enough to make everyone paranoid…
However, at no time in the novel did I feel that any of these elements was ever out of control. Somehow she tames these tornadoes, each of which has their own Oz attached, and pulls them into a coherent tapestry of plot, character, and story. I don’t know how she did it. I only know that I really enjoyed it and want to know what happens next!
So if you’re looking for a book for summer reading, be sure to add Discord’s Apple by Carrie Vaughn to your list. It’s a fun ride. Now I have to go back and see what all the fuss is about this werewolf named Kitty…
For more information about Vaughn, be sure to check out her website at CarrieVaugn.com and look for her books published by TOR/FORGE!
This review first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up this and other Carrie Vaughn books below!
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Posted by fitz in Books on Jul 20
Hi all…
This book had my attention from the moment I saw the amazingly creepy picture of the hairless cat on the cover (Creepiosity Index: 9.47). Of course, I had to check out Creepiosity. Author David Bickel has managed to pull together about 90 pictures and concepts that somehow capture the bizarre, uncomfortable realm we all find ourselves dealing with from time to time. And like many people, Bickel’s response is to point them out to us and help us laugh about them. Will it help us get over how creepy some of these things are? Probably not, but let’s give it a shot.
Creepiness surrounds us in everyday life. From the creepiness of a restaurant’s animal mascot encouraging you to eat its own kind (p.36) to kids on leashes (p.86), from the ancient, mysterious candies found in a Grandma’s candy dish all wrapped in colored cellophane (p.104) to kiddie beauty pageants (p. 118), and everything in-between, above, below, and on the edges of things brought forth from the human mind.
But how do you measure this realm of the unintentionally creepy? I’ll leave the tale of how the Creepiosity Index came to be for Bickel to tell, but it all boils down to a fancy looking mathematical formula involving neck hairs per square inch standing on end, the number of time you wince, and a 10% factor if there are clowns involved. Clowns are damn creepy at times (Steven King’s It ring a bell for anyone?) so I certainly get that. And there’s enough pseudo-science to the formula to sell me on the idea. Some things in life are too creepy to NOT be measured!
Obviously Bickel is one of the world’s most respected creepiologists. “Creepiologist” is a term not to be confused with Creepologists who study creeps (which are in a different category all together), or Crêpeologists who study crêpes (tasty thin French pancakes served with a variety of fillings). Though Bickel might get a kick out of eating a crêpe with a creep, I’m guessing he’ll stick with finding creepy pictures and determining their Creepiosity.
By far my favorite part of the book talks about “Squirrels That Look At You a Bit Too Long.” He describes squirrels as basically rats “with a great PR person” and I’ve had my share of their knowing, creepy stares from time to time. These days, the squirrels in our neighborhood are more likely to raise the ire of my two dogs in the back yard. But every once in a while I still see an occasional squirrel with a suicidal streak standing his ground in the middle of the road tempting me to “make his day.”
Bickel manages to capture those odd moments we all have in pictures we can share with others and have a laugh together. I think Creepiosity would make a great gift for a friend or as something to break the tension in a room. But overall, I’m still pondering the Creepiosity of Nursery Rhymes (p.160) and whether I should continue to warp my children…
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up this book below!
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Posted by fitz in Books on Jul 14
Hey…
Have you ever had a sinking feeling when you read a new book by your favorite author? I’ve read the last three books from Thomas Emson – Skarlet, Maneater, and Prey. He’s brought vampires and werewolves into the real world, so I was looking forward to seeing what he’d do with zombies.
I love zombies. But I really only love them when they’re presented in a unique way, not relying on standard cliches. Unfortunately, I found myself wondering when the bad zombie movie would end.
Zombies are wonderful beasts. They’re men, but they’re monsters. Add in the fear of disease, the dead rising, and the repulsion of teeth ripping human flesh and organs, and you can really push some buttons. George Romero knew this when he wrote and directed Night of the Living Dead in 1968. He and other directors and movie makers have been terrorizing moviegoers ever since.
More recently there have been some great zombie novels that have been reinventing the genre. Mira Grant’s FEED and Jonathan Maberry‘s Patient Zero have been among my favorites. Grant merges blogging, politics, and a zombie apocalypse and Maberry uses biological warfare to spread a zombie plague.
With Emson’s previous reinvention of vampires and werewolves, mixing myths and history with the modern day, I was expecting more inventive approach to zombies. That “inventiveness” only went as far as having the dead rise during a particularly nasty heat wave in Great Britain.
Three main characters drive the action… Carrie Asher is a mother seeking to get through a zombie-infested London to rescue her six-year-old daughter Mya. Vincent is a young man stuck in a Welsh castle with the girl he loves and the zombies closing in all around. And Craig Murray is trapped with his family in a traffic jam in Scotland. Not only must he battle the undead, but the people seeking to prey on the weak during a time of crisis.
Woven into the narrative are all the typical zombie tales… They eat flesh and infect those who get bitten and manage to survive an attack. The survivors are like zombie grenades thrown into the future. When the victims die, they become zombies themselves. Add to that the people who break under the pressure – relying on their dogma to explain the situation, controlling others through fear and intimidation, and the people who simply give up.
I really like Emson’s prose, but I couldn’t get past all the cliches. Perhaps if I’d seen this on the big screen instead of read it as a novel, I would have enjoyed it more. But it’s been done to death, no pun intended.
If you’re interested in how the zombies capture London, I’d recommend the book. But if you’re looking for an original take on things, I’d avoid Emson’s Zombie Brittanica. Instead, check out his books Skarlet, Maneater, and Prey.
This article first appeared on BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Check out these great books below:
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Posted by fitz in Books, Childrens on Jun 23
Hi there!
Kids’ books are a funny thing sometimes. One book might provide an exciting adventure but be light on substance while another might have too many lessons packed into a story that won’t hold a child’s interest. Lately however, there have been many authors who have provided great fiction with just the right level of moral lessons, history, or mythology – the Harry Potter series from J.K. Rowling and the Percy Jackson series from Rick Riordan are great examples and two of our current favorites.
But Frank McKinney isn’t someone I would have expected to write or been involved with one of those “just right” books for children. McKinney is the author of multiple best-selling books, including The Tap, Burst This! Frank McKinney’s Bubble-Proof Real Estate Strategies, Frank McKinney’s Maverick Approach to Real Estate Success, and Make it BIG! 49 Secrets for Building a Life of Extreme Success. The closest a child might come to one of these books is as an impromptu step stool or booster seat.
However, McKinney was inspired by his adventures walking his daughter Laura to school through the years. As a father, I certainly understand the power of spending as much time as possible with your kids and their imaginations as they grow up. They grow up so fast that it’s far too easy to miss things if you don’t.
That’s just one of the lessons hidden inside Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle (or just Dead Fred for short). The book tells the story of Ppeekk (pronounced “Peekie”) Rose Berry – a thirteen year-old girl forced to relocate from Indiana to Florida. Walking to school on her first day of school, she encounters a strange little man on the back of a cement truck who blows a magical smoke ring. Soon after that, she encounters a dead fish who comes back to life in her hands and talks to her. And that’s just the beginning…
It took a long time to work through this book with my two daughters, ages 5 and 9. Not because the book wasn’t entertaining or well written, but because things kept getting in the way. Finally we managed to find the time to get all the way through Ppeekk’s story and her adventure with her friends Mini Romey, Quatro, and the rest of the gang – and it was well worth the effort!
Dead Fred leads readers on a magical journey above, around, and beneath the waters of an inlet near Ppeekk’s house into Dead Fred’s underwater kingdom of High Voltage. Dead Fred, also known as King Frederick the 9th, was regent of an area teeming with ocean life. But there’s a problem. Dead Fred has been deposed by Megalodon, a huge, evil prehistoric shark who wants to turn everyone above and below the water into joyless zombies.
As Ppeekk and her friends learn more about what they are capable of and what Megalodon and his minions (vicious crabs and remora fish) are capable of, they begin to understand the dire situation that High Voltage finds itself in. Dedicated to helping Dead Fred save his kingdom, the kids learn just as much about themselves as they do about the amazing creatures beneath the sea as they struggle to find some way to get rid of Megalodon for good.
We had a lot of fun reading this story. Even my five-year-old daughter was engrossed right away – as soon as Dead Fred spoke, she was hooked to the end. In the book’s 300 pages, kids learn about many of the creatures of the sea as well as how to treat themselves, their friends, their parents, and the world around them. And what was amazing was that it wasn’t preachy at all – the message seemed very genuine and organic, not forced.
If you’re looking for a fun book with many great messages for kids, Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle by Frank McKinney and Kate Mason presents a perfect opportunity to read together. Great characters, amazing adventures, and learning opportunities await within! For more about the book, be sure to check out Dead-Fred.com.
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up this and other books from Frank McKinney at Barnes & Noble!
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Posted by fitz in Books on Jun 21
Ok, I’m a bit perplexed…
What is it about sexual hangups in more mature fantasy offerings these days? I’ve run across shame about homosexual feelings, marital infidelity, and spousal abuse in two recent novels from Robin Hobb (The Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven) and now I’ve hit the social and personal stigma of developing a lesbian relationship in J.A. Pitts’ debut fantasy novel – Black Blade Blues. I’d say it was just my imagination, but I don’t think so…
Anyway, Pitts’ novel is an urban fantasy set in the Northwest United States that centers on the life of Sarah Beauhall, a blacksmith by day and a movie props master by night with a love of medieval weapons and armor. As a collector of such forged materials, she has been known to prowl antique auctions offering swords, axes, knives, and such for sale and occasionally acquiring a piece for herself. One such piece is a beautiful black bladed sword.
When the sword is accidentally broken on the set of the latest movie Sarah is helping with, it begins a bizarre chain of events in her life. Offered help by an extra who claims to be a real live dwarf, Sarah is thrust into a world where dragons are real and magic exists. When she fixes the sword on her anvil, she becomes the central figure in a new cycle where myths and legends not only walk the Earth, but threaten the very lives of Sarah and her friends.
In recent years, beginning with Neil Gaiman‘s American Gods, the upcoming Thor movie from Marvel in 2011, and most recently with Jim Butcher‘s latest Dresden Files novel Changes, Norse gods such as Odin, Thor, Loki, and Sif have found their way into modern works of fantasy. And I have to admit that I absolutely love this trend. For far too long the gods of Asgard have remained dormant and it’s great to see them stalking the pages of fiction once more.
But back to the sexual revolution in modern fantasy for a moment… Sarah is estranged from her father, a devout believer in the Christian God and a misogynist who seems to believe that women should serve men and not get in their way. And she’s dealing with the new love she feels for her girlfriend Katie, a schoolteacher who knows who she is and what she wants – and that is Sarah. Sarah unfortunately isn’t so sure and struggles with feelings of shame brought on by her father’s intolerance for anything other than the union of a man and a woman…
I think I get it now that I’ve had time to consider it a bit. Finding yourself and your loves is a quest all of us is on throughout most of our lives. And weaving the storyline of self-discovery into the novel as Sarah goes from self-doubt about her relationship with Katie to somewhere nearing acceptance balances out the supernatural story elements surrounding the sword. It’s just interesting to see that these more modern relationships, unbounded by the “traditional” union of man and woman, are working their way into what I think of as mainstream fiction. Really it’s probably overdue.
Honestly, I was surprised to discover that this was a debut novel. The 400+ pages of Black Blade Blues went extremely quickly. As I learned more of how Pitts intertwined interpretations of Norse myths into a modern setting, it picked up speed and didn’t let me go. I can’t wait to see what’s next for Sarah Beauhall, Katie, and the rest of their friends as they deal with a world of dragons, dwarves, and magic. If you like urban fantasy and are looking for a female answer to Harry Dresden, be sure to check it out at your favorite bookstore!
This article first appeared at BlogCritics.org here.
–Fitz
p.s. Pick up Black Blade Blues from Barnes & Noble today!
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