The Emperor's Soul / Brandon Sanderson / 167 Pages Of Bliss

Brandon Sanderson's, The Emperor's Soul
Blew my socks off
My feet are freezing but my heart is warm

The story drew me in immediately
The magic was intriguing, to say the very least
The young female protagonist enthralled me
The story runs on so many levels
I had to install stairs between my heart and my brain

The finish was delectable
I had to savor every word
I had to be sure every player played their part
They did
I am a happy man

New music
Wanda Jackson
Unfinished Business
This is Wanda's 31st studio album

Stormdancer / The Lotus War, Book 1 / Jay Kristoff / Steampunk In Historic Japan

Jay Kristoff has opened The Lotus War
With a Bang reverberating in my head
Stormdancer, book 1, has it all
(I paraphrase)
Japan, Mythos, Steampunk, Strong Fem Protagonist

What more could a boy ask for
Young Yukiko, coming of age
In the most difficult times
Humanity on the brink
Society and Ecology in full collapse

Life teetering on a wave crest
Derived of an economy of drugs
Greed and Avarice the watch words
Depravity of mind, body and soul the norm
Yukiko's nature, always rising

The Glorious Thunder Tiger
Half Eagle, Half Tiger
Staunch and Steadfast
Myth Written in Stone
Yet, willing, begrudgingly, to learn with Yukiko

Heroic Myth
Epic Fantasy
Writ Large
Fresh Canvas
Laudable

Nose to the stone Mr Kristoff
Tell the story
Your readers will grow
The story must be told
I Want More, Please

New music at the library
The Avett Brothers
The Carpenter

Ramez Naam / Nexus / More Than Human / The Future Is Right Behind Us

Angry Robot gave me my first ARC
Advanced Reading Copy
I felt quite Special

It was the book, Nexus, that was Special
Hard Science Fiction
Near future, nano infested, very Special, bliss

Some young grad students
Create a nano based drug
Making Human, More Than Human

Much like the ability to Grok
Ramez Naam does not use Heinlein's word
The results are startling

Don't know about Grok
The ability to be one with another
To be one with many, with "all"

Think Vulcan Mind Meld
On a really big scale
Add computers

WoW
What would Robert A. Heinlein do
He did it in Stranger In A Strange Land

More Important
What would Ramez Naam do
He would take us on a wild wonderful ride

Good guys against bad guys
Good governments against bad governments
Scratch that, There Are No Good Governments

The dilemma
To give it to the world
Hope for the best

Let the governments have it
A hyper oppressive weapon
Mind control is but one of the derivatives

Read at your own risk
Your brain will do a big spin up
Edgy; Edgy Is A Good Thing

Get your radar out
Acquire Ramez Naam
Lock On, And Read

Do not miss the information at the back of the book.
Mr Ramez is a very bright fellow
He explains the current state of brain science
The science in the book is not the great leap we think
We sometimes find the future right behind us

About the music today
Yes, I just posted it in early October
I'm putting it up again
If you like singer songwriter genus
You do not want to miss this guy
"Household Name" comes to mind
John Fullbright
From the Ground UP
This weeks obsessive play
Track 2 Jericho

Blackbirds / Miriam Black #1 / Chuck Wendig, Take A Bow / All Hail, Chuck!

It is not the irreverence of Kadrey
It is not the fluff sassiness of pop uuff
Miriam Black has a mouth
Miriam Black has an attitude

She owns all that she has
She is broken, lost, adrift and afoul
She sails the sea of death
Lots and Lots and Lots of death

Miriam sees death
Exactly when
Exactly where
Exactly how

Every person she touches
Skin to skin
She knows
She knows when, where and how

Who wouldn't be going a little mad
The reader goes a little mad too
Can't stop reading
Just can't stop reading

Damn you Mr. Wendig!
Thank you Mr. Wendig!
Mockingbirds is on my to do list
I really want to know where you are going with this

Miriam Black Novel 1,  Blackbirds

Music
Ray Wylie Hubbard
The Grifter's Hymnal

YA Bliss / Star Kingdom Book 2 / Fire Season / Jane Lindskold / David Weber

I love YA lit
You already know this
It's worth repeating

Fraught with teen angst
Much daring do
Many lessons to learn

Fire Season, Star Kingdom Novel 2
Jane Lindskold writing with or for David Weber
Telling a great tale

If you've read the Honor Harrington Series
You will love this back story
It all had to start somewhere, this is where

Stephanie Harrington stands tall
The Treecats need protection
No one could do it better

All the while getting to know the each other
Both human and treecat
Discovering the sentience of the other

A delightful awakening
A beautiful unfolding
So much to learn

Knowledge brings responsibility
Responsibility brings action
Action brings consequences

Delicious!

Memory Lane Still Shines
Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
The newest by Bob
Tempest

Chris F. Holm / The Collector Series / Book 1, Dead Harvest

Once again
An unread book
I am legion
I am a reader

Dead Harvest by Chris F. Holm
The Collector Series, Book One
Angry Robot Books
Eye Candy

Sam collects souls
The souls of the damned
Sam is damned himself
Sam made bad choices in life

His latest job, stops him hot
Blinded, by the light
What is a poor boy to do
Oh the consequences, Oh the circumstances

He must collect
He will not collect
What can he do
What must he do

Spreck, speck, speckled
Speckled, spec-u-la-tions
Not even the Captain
Could sing himself out of this dilemma

Terrific series starter
Terrific Urban Fantasy
What would Homer say
"Shiny"

This is not a cryptoquote
But it is cryptic
This is scat
Not that scat

A music re-post
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
Trout Mask Replica
Music for the very few

Lee Child / A Wanted Man / Jack Reacher Novels

1. This is not Science Fiction
2. This is not Fantasy
3. This does require some Suspension of Beliefs

Lee Child is a good story teller
He has developed a great protagonist
The Jack Reacher Novels are on my Read Now list
I set aside anything I'm reading and read about Jack
Jack Reacher is just one of those characters
You just want to know what he's going to do next

Reacher does not delegate
Reacher does not avoid
Reacher does not equivocate
Reacher does not whine
Jack Reacher deals with it

"It" is usually a deserving bad boy, or girl
Reacher does not wait for the authorities
Jack Reacher personifies authority
You miss behave, you are likely to die

Jack Reacher, Uber-Libertarian
Reacher is The-Law-Unto-Himself

I should feel guilty
Reading these stories
I don't

If you start, start with book 1, The Killing Floor (1997)
I just finished book 17, A Wanted Man
I am once again, satisfied

Thank goodness for patrons willing to share
The guy said my music picks are just what he listens to
Then he suggested The Avett Brothers
WoW! My Kind Of Music, Our Kind Of Music
Thanks pal!
Coming our way soon
Emotionalism, I love the title
Music for emotional boys (and girls)

Devon Monk / Tin Swift / The Age Of Steam #2 / I Love Cowboy Steampunk / I Live In Wyoming

Devon Monk continues to shine
I am very fond of her characters
You get to know the person wearing the boots
They are not shallow
They are not caricatures

Tin Swift, book 2, The Age of Steam, delivers
Cedar Hunt is still cursed
The wolf haunts his decision making
The Strange have devised a weapon of mass destruction
It must be stopped

Airships come into play
Glorious airships
Dirigibles all
Captain Hink has the best of them
Smaller, Faster, Higher, Further...

Miss Small in enamored with the Captain
Miss Small Loves his airship
Miss Small wants to tinker
Miss Small wants to devise
The Captain is fascinated by Miss Small

The Witch is in peril
Cedar is unhappy
The Coven is messing with his person of interest
Pity the Coven if they harm his Witch
No harm had better come to the Witch

Machinations or no machinations
The job must be done
The Strange must be stopped
The Device must be dealt with
The World must be saved

Cedar is on the job
Captain Hink is on the job
Rose is on the job
Miss Small is on the job
They have some help

Music soon to be ordered
Soon to be in the library
I'm chomping at the bit
I want my music,and I want it now
Don't miss this new boy in town

John Fullbright
From the Ground Up
Whooeee!!
(I'll link this when it arrives)

First Machine Dynasty / Madeline Ashby's, vN / Science Fiction Is Alive And Very Well

I loved vN with all my heart and all my soul
If Madeline Ashby writes nothing more
She has left an indelible mark on me
Thank you Madeline, Thank you very much

It starts innocent enough
Innocents is lost, brutally
Catch your breath brutally
It had to be

Reading this story
Slowly opens your heart
Asimov's three laws begin to percolate
Something new is going on

She is/was, was/is so innocent
Her AI heart is so compassionate
She is not guilty
Her intent is always genuine

The humans
Oh the humans
So human
Heavens to Murgatroyd!

It's time to rethink robots and AI
This is where you begin

Music?
All you need to start a revolution
Bob Dylan, his second Lp (1963)
The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Still on my play list after all these years

The Bookman / Lavie Tidhar / Intelligent Fantasy / More Please

The book sat on the shelf, unread
I kept running across reviews
I realized it was from Angry Robot
My favored, new author, publisher
Have yet to find a book I did not finish
Angry Robot knows what they are doing

I checked out the book
I eased into the slipstream
A delightful mash-up of genre
A story filled with historic players
Marx, Shakespeare, Holmes and many others
A puzzling mystery to unravel
Most importantly, the protagonist, Orphan
A young man just wanting to do the right thing
The Bookman
What denizen of the library could resist the title
What SF&F buff could resist the content
Aliens, Revolution, Alt-History, Romance, Steam
Lavie Tidhar, coming on strong

Music
Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 And Beyond
An interesting compilation

The Mongoliad by Neal Stephenson And Everybody Else

Starting life as a community driven web series
The Mongoliad,book one of the Foreworld Saga
Has been edited, enhance and printed
It is a rousing story set in the year 1241
The Mongols are afoot and wreaking havoc
Everyone falls to their superior force
An attempt to save Christendom is planed
This is the story of the players

Plenty of action
Loads of plotting
Most enjoyable

Credits are given to 7 authors
Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear, Mark Teppo, Erik Bear,
E.D. deBirmingham, Joseph Brassey and Cooper Moo
Neal Stephenson's stamp is everywhere

Neal Stephenson has been on my
Must Read List since Snow Crash (1992)
You need to read his works wide awake
He is a a very bright boy
Reading his stories will make you smarter
Much smarter

Music for smart people
Florence + The Machine 
MTV Unplugged

Cory Doctorow Delivers In YA, "Little Brother"

Little Brother stopped me cold
I lost one night's sleep
It was worth it
Cory Doctorow hits the nail
It penetrates your psyche
Paranoia just keeps building
The description of electronic surveillance 
Clear enough to paralyze you
You start noticing all the cameras
All the radio signal readers
All the Arphid (RFID) tag readers
All the GPS you own; car, phone, tablet...

Biggest questions to speculate
The Constitution of the United Stats (pdf / interactive)
Will it protect you / Does it protect you
Do you recognize the dangers in your life
To live in fear or not to live in fear
Better yet, Do you recognize what you should fear
What or who controls or creates the fear in your life
Do the precautions we take make us any safer
And more, so much more, to think about

Okay! Okay!
The story
Young boy is arrested detained as a terrorist
Young boy does not lay down and roll over
The boy knows how to use the technology in his life
Mighty exciting stuff
And all of this in a Young Adult Novel

The bibliography is a must read
There is hope in the world we live in
There are also many dangers
Be aware, pay attention, be present
Paranoia is healthy, very healthy

New music in the library
All songs a collabration
Rodney Crowell singer, songwriter
Mary Karr wordsmith and memoirist
Kin

***Featuring***
Norah Jones
Vince Gill
Lucinda Williams
Lee Ann Womack
Rosanne Cash
Kris Kristofferson
Emmylou Harris
Rodney Crowell
Even a jaded cynic will emote while listening




Jo Anderton Is Smok'n Hot

Just blistered my way through Debris
Book 1 of The Veiled Worlds Trilogy
Australian author Jo Anderton
Has opened her career with a bang
What a treat for Fantasy / Sci-Fi fans
New and well crafted magic
Very smart world building
The protagonist, Tanyana, is strong
And head strong to a fault
But, she is not a quitter
Again and again she gets up
Again and again she trys to do the right thing

The book reads like a Sci-Fi Fantasy mix
There are elements of Urban Fantasy
There is a subtle whif of Steampunk

The story is relentless
The reader is always engaged

I have my Hold on Suited, book 2
I can hardly wait to get on with the story

Music today
Ray LaMontagne
Gossip in the Grain

Required Re-Reading / Philip K. Dick

1963 Hugo Award Winner
The Man in the High Castle
Philip K. Dick, always at his best

I am generally not a fan of alternative histories
This book is an exception
Leave it to Dick to twist things
Within this alternative history
The reader finds
The Grasshopper Lies Heavy
An alternative history novel

In this story the Axis won WWII
The US is divided into 3 areas
The USA in the East, German controlled
The PSA in the West, controled by Japan
And the Rocky Mountain States
A somewhat free zone buffering the USA and PSA

Throughout the book the characters are constantly
Consulting the Oracle (even the Germans)
The I Ching; or, Book of Changes
The hexagrams derived
Are explained in some detail
The plot continually thickens

Carl G. Jung, in a nutshell, called the I Ching
A book of magic spells that work
Go figure

What will the reader garner from this 1962 book
Life lessons in culture (raceism), polotics and religion
An edgy look at the diversity of the human condition
We are all guilty of egocentric thinking
And soo much more (keep your pennies, no charge)

I could spend days scratching the surface
Philip K. Dick runs deep in my veins
Check the Wiki for a rundown of his accomplishments
They are still making and remaking movies
They are still writing books about the man

Music
Norah Jones
Little Broken Hearts
Oo-Ee!

Benedict Jacka Has A Cool Name

I read Fated on a whim
I liked Benetict Jacka's name
The Jim Butcher quote on the cover nudged me
The Alex Verus novels are going to be read
The magic is complex and well developed
Alex is a diviner
Not the strongest card in the magic deck
The characters are, depending on their role
Endearing and Despicable
Some, a little of both
I liked the spider
I liked her cloth
The first story, Fated, introduced the players well
The love interest was just more than an obvious hint
The challange the couple will face, daunting
Urban Fantasy fans
A Must Read

More music new to the library
1988vnl / 1990cd release
A personal favorite
Helped me stumble out of troubled times
John Hiatt / Slow Turning

James S. A. Corey Is Brilliant

I enjoyed Leviathan Wakes (the post)
I loved Caliban's War
Book 2 of the Expanse series
James S. A. Corey speculates with the best
His future is totally believable
Life at the edges of this solar system
Adapted to, as only humans could adapt
The polotical machinations
As only humans can machinate
The war between Earth, Mars, and the Outer Planets
Messier than ever and full of misunderstandings
The alien proto-stuff?
More dangerous than ever
James Holden and crew continue doing the hard work
Unraveling the mess
Searching for peace
The characters are fully fleshed
As complex as humans are wont to be
Thank You James S. A. Corey!

New music to us.
I am ecstatic
Difinitive alt-country
The Jayhawks
Tomorrow the Green Grass

Redshirts! Redshirts! Aaaahhhh!

This is not a parody of Stargate Universe
John Scalzi said so
It is at times a hilarious poke at B TV
Redshirts are indeed expendable
You will laugh out loud expendable
People will look at you
But you, will know something they don't
All will be right in your world
The Universe is a strange place
John Scalzi makes it stranger (a good thing)
There are three codas to the book
Some reviewers (critics) don't like them
I think they take this riotous read
And gently, tenderly humanize it
They will endear you to the characters
You will be satisfied

Music today
Los Super Seven (all 10 of them)
Canto

Richard P. Feynman, Graphic Boy Genius

I have now read two (2) graphic novels
The latest was a real surprise
Feynman, and Ripley or not, a biography
Written by Jim Ottaviani
Art by Leland Myrick
Coloring by Hilary Sycamore
The book was indeed a strait-ahead biography
The story of a Nobel physicist
One of the men on the Manhattan Project
And someone you can thank for your computer
The guy was an insatiable learner
He shamelessly spoke the truth as he knew it
He was quirky and human to a fault
I am so glad I read this
My mistrust of graphic novels is shattered

A CD from Johnny Cash
Live in Austin Texas, 1987
Cathartic Bliss
Live from Austin, TX
Released in 2007

Dreamblood, Book One, Woo Hoo !

N. K. Jemisin writes for me
The Inheritance Trilogy was so fresh
Now we get book one of Dreamblood
The Killing Moon leaves the gate at full throttle
The power plays between nations
The misunderstandings of religions
The book keeps you engaged
Death is no simple thing
There are Gatherers to ease your passing
Gatherers to collect your Dreamblood
You leave the world satisfied
You leave the book satisfied
But, knowing there is more
Anticipating more
Where the hell can it go from here?
Wonderment 

Bonnie Raitt's newest
Slipstream

Jon & Lobo, Back On Task

I'm a big fan of Mark L. Van Name
His Jon & Lobo series is a pleaser
I just finished book five
No Going Back was just the escape I needed
Jon, a bright, nano infested, ageless, man/weapon
On the other hand, A very sensitive guy
Lobo, a military spec space vehicle
Capable of morphing configuration
And sentient computer with attitude
All in one package
Who could ask for better partners
Lots of fun dialog
Killing machines both, when necessary
Always looking to protect children
Willing to die to protect children
Jon's childhood was not nice
Lobo, well, he's Lobo
enough said
If you like space opera
If you enjoy a good story
read the books

Something a little different in music
A couple of Swedish girls
with the postmodern folk sensibilities of the Be Good Tanyas
Drunken Trees by First Aid Kit

About being wrong sometimes
Same thing happens to me

Paolo Bacigalupi (BATCH-i-ga-LOOP-ee) Writes So Well

My third foray into Paolo Bacigalupi
The Drowned Cities is smokn'
The guy does post apocalyptic dystopia
As good or better than anybody
So believable, So possible, So frightening
You can't help but be enamored with the characters
Humans, one and all; flaws and all
War is relentless
The factions are many
Children are fodder
Child soldiers
Messy, Disgusting, Immoral
Great storytelling!

Music
Dar Williams
In the Time of Gods

Iron Druid Number Four

Kevin Hearne has a good thing going
I laugh, I howl, I roll in the dirt
This boy and his dog are entertaining
Their incessant dialog (not verbal) is hilarious
I want a dog like Oberon
Tricked, book 4 of The Iron Druid Chronicles
Has Atticus dealing with Coyote
Coyote, the ultimate trickster
He is so devious, so relentless
The guy just can't help himself
Even if he's trying to do good
There has to be one more trick
One more hitch in everybody else's get-a-long
Coyote is consistent if nothing else
Atticus, of course, is a get it done guy
When he says he will deliver
He delivers
Atticus is distracted
Keeping pure thoughts about his apprentice
Silly guy
Therein lies the problem, he's a guy
Granualie, on the other hand
Wonders why he's so aloof
Star-crossed madness, fun, fun, fun
She's his apprentice for Druid's sake
Enjoy!

What's listening
Lyle Lovett
Release Me

Quaeryt, The Lost One, Learns More About Himself, Imaging, Politics And War

L. E. Modesitt, Jr's Imager Portfolio Series is so bright
This is some of the shinny stuff in the fantasy genre
The newest, Princeps, was a blistering read
Written with an intellectual clarity that satisfies
The moral and ethical dilemmas are succinct
Quaeryt's frustration is palpable
I love how he solves his problems
Princeps is the second Quaeryt story
Book 5 of the Imager Portfoilio Series
And, if you can follow this,
The second book of the "back story"
Quaeryt is the how and why
Books 1, 2 and 3 (Rhenn's story) came to be
I've read the books as published
I have no qualms or complaints
It was okay to jump back at book 4
It is good to learn how it all came to be
Rhenn and Quaeryt are the "good guys" in fantasy

Music from one of my all time favorite song writers
Strangely enough this CD is all deep covers
Nothing from the top 40's play list
Title cut is a cover of Elvin Bishop's
What The Hell Is Goin On?
Paul Thorn, brilliant singer, song writer, story teller

More Violent Bugpunk; Very Satisfying

Kameron Hurley is on my A list
Infidel was a relentless page burner
Book 2 of the Bel Dame Apocrypha
Book 1, God's War, was so fresh, so violent, such fun
I worried she might not keep her pace
Silly me
The bugs are as interesting as ever
Who needs steam
Bugs rule this world
The power supplies, the building materials
The magic and the medicine
Bugpunk, Brilliant Imagining!
Violent girls at every turn of the page
Gritty, murderous, mean spirited girls
The head, Always take the head!
Oh happy days
Delicious!
The prose? Those of a writer
Grammar Nazis will be hard pressed to fault
Story readers, will be happy, happy, happy

You'll want to wind down after Infidel
New music from new players: Alabama Shakes
A gifted, compassionate singer, songwriter(s)
Boys & Girls will please
Brittany Howard: Yippe-I-O-Ki-Yay!

Harry Potter For Adults

I read something that spurred me to look for a book
The Magicians by Lev Grossman
It was in the fiction collection
It is now in the SF collection
So glad I stopped and read the book
Harry Potter for adults, I was told
I can't agree more

At one point
An emotional trigger
Stopped me cold
Had to put the book down for the day
The story is well told
The prose carry weight
The Magician King is on my short list to read

Here's some Blues that carry some weight
2011 release by Rory Block
Shake 'em on down: a tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell

I Did It, I Read My First Graphic Novel

I put it off for a long time
I wanted to be mature
Old enough to appreciate it
I'm so glad I waited
The Advance Team
Written by Will Pfeifer
Illustrated by German Torres

Graphic Novels are fast
No time is wasted with laborious reading
Just the bubbles mam, Just the bubbles
The reader has to create, much
The emotional content of the characters
Their intellectual head space
If there is to be, much
The reader has to provide it
Surmising, much, from the graphics and bubbles
This can be enjoyable
Or you can leave it be
Read from, The Shallows, as it were

About the book
I enjoyed the story
I'm a sucker for pizza delivery guys
Hiro Protagonist (The Deliverator) in Snow Crash
Hiro will always be number one on my list, always
Zac is constantly getting stiffed for tips
Chump Change is his daily bread
Thank God Vic, the counter girl, is aggressive
Zac would never have gotten anywhere alone
Vic is a lofty goal for poor tongue tied Zac
Vic had to take initiative again and again
I liked the girl
The world needs more Vics
The world needed saving
Zac, got the job

Music for the modern world
Drive-By Truckers
Ugly Buildings, Whores and Politicians:  
Greatest Hits 1998-2009 

I Am Spooked, Always Have Been; I Am Paranoid, Always Will Be

Ken MaCleod has me wound up and jinky
The Night Sessions is responsible
Sentient robots, God, Faith Wars and more, much more
Flashed be back to 1963
Asimov's; I Robot
Asimov's, "Three Laws of Robots", is out the door
My head kept racing ahead of the story
The story never caught me
It went somewhere else. Gadzooks!
Surprise, Surprise, I was Surprised
Again and Again
What fun, What fun!
Easy as this book is to read
This book will evoke some heady thinking
This book will burn some of your calories
Full bodied folk like me
Will see this book as the thinking man's diet

New to the collection and my ears
The Whole Love by Wilco

Cowboy Steampunk Sci-Fi Fantasy To Please The Western Mind

Dead Iron by Devon Monk
I like a good Western
I like good Steampunk
I like the promise of Romance
You know I like Sci-Fi and Fantasy
Cedar Hunt is an educated cowboy
Cedar is a sad, lonely boy
I liked him a lot
Even with the Pawnee wolf curse
The three days of the full moon are a B!*%#
First installment of The Age of Steam
Left me looking for more
I want to hang some "devised" iron on my hip
I want to hunt the Strange
A delightful mash-up of genera
MS Monk also writes Urban Fantasy
The Allie Beckstrom novels
She tells a good story

A necessary aside on Ravenwood by Lowell
I gave the book to my wife
Knowing she would truly appreciate the prayers
Seeing she had been burning through the book
I asked, "Do you think he got her voice right?"
She replied, "This book is written by a man?"
Great job Nathan Lowell
Another story well told

Intriguing new music
Also a mash-up
Revelator by Tedeschi Trucks Band
Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks
Married solo artists, making music together

Something New In Sword And Sorcery

Saladin Ahmed has my full attention
Throne of the Crescent Moon
Book 1 of The Crescent Moon Kingdoms
Reads full and complex, Just what I needed
I was looking for something to fade away in
I found it, so will you
The world is well created, properly aged
The characters are complex and diverse
The action, thank goodness for moments of rest
The pages just keep turning
The finish is complete, but leaves you thirsty
I await book 2
Corkscrew in hand, ready to decant

Something old, Something new
Jeff Bridges, Jeff Bridges
Good Music

Nathan Lowell; I Should Have Known

If you have read my previous blogs
You know I am an over the top fan
Nathan Lowell Solar Clipper series,
I Love the series
Surprise, surprise, perhaps no surprise at all
Nathan Lowell writes delicious fantasy
Ravenwood: A Tanyth Fairport Adventure satisfies
Tanyth, a middle aged woman
Has lived alone, on the road, for over twenty years
Learning her herb lore, learning the art of healing
Her compassionate heart belies her strength
Strength of Mind and Body
The road has tempered her mettle
Tanyth is forged of strong Spirit
She has traveled alone after all

Tanyth is on her way to learn something new
She is delayed.
The story begins


Best news of all
There will be more
I want more, Now!

Another CD from a songwriting, songsinging, master
John Haitt, Dirty Jeans And Mudslide Hymns
Can't tell you how many times Mr. Haitt
Has soothed my spirit

Thought Flash: Cry Love
I'm going to go home to find it on YouTube
I need to hear it today

Peace be with you,
Richard

Two To Scar The Brain And Be Slow To Forget

Will McIntosh has my full and undivided attention
I read his latest first, Hitchers
The dead start hitching rides with the living
One to a customer, so to speak
The inventiveness, the brilliance
Is who hitches with whom
The dearly loved dead wife
Riding in the soon to be girlfriend
The protagonist burdened, overburdened really
With the cantankerous, selfish, mean spirited
Full tilt alcoholic grandfather
The emotional conflict as we get to know each player
We really care about the dead and the living
We flipping hate the nasty little grandfather
This is new emotional turf we are reading
The story doesn't let up
You already know a bit too much
Trust me, I'm a guy; okay, don't trust me
The book is nothing short of brilliant.

The disquiet and satisfaction of Hitchers
Led me strait to last years model
Soft Apocalypse
The title says it all
Walking through this slowly developing hell
Opens and Slams Shut every nerve in the body
Opens and Slams Shut every emotion you have
Disquiet doesn't fit here
Full fledged dread hints of where you are
I love a good post apocalypse story
This one is skim cream
It rises quickly to the top and congeals
It's thick and rich and may not be good for you
But you just can't put it down
You just can't leave it alone
Two day read, tops

Your going to need something from the roots
You will want to settle the mind
Exposed Roots: Best of Alt-Country
2 CDs with 12 songs each
A very rich selection of artists
Old and New, Twang and Twitch
I harp about Alt-Country enough
This will give you a broad perspective
I've included the artists lineup
Disc 1.  Lucinda Williams --  Blue Mountain
Gillian Welch --  Whiskeytown --Golden Smog
Jimmie Dale Gilmore -- Freakwater
Meat Puppets --Gourds -- BR5-49
Tangletown --  Cheri Knight
Disc 2.The Jawhawks -- Kelly Willis
Steve Earle --  Southern Culture on the Skids
Johnny Cash -- The Handsome Family
Vic Chesnutt -- Honeydogs -- Alejandro Escovedo
Marlee MacLeod -- Lampchop -- Gram Parsons

Such a great display of what it is
I donated it to the collection
I wanted to share what I love

Bacigalupi's YA Story Satisfies

Windup Girl By Palo Bacigalup was so good
I had to read his YA entry Ship Breaker
I was not disappointed
I was rewarded, gloriously rewarded
Bacigalupi really gets Dystopia
His not too distant futures are gritty places
The divide between the haves and have nots
Well, It is enormous
Impossible to scale
Ship Breaker's are low on the totem poll
Salvaging the ships littering the California coast
Nailer is a standup young guy trying to survive
Rescuing a wealthy young woman
May well be his undoing
She is but a pawn in her families' finance game
Nailer's sure to be short, brutal life
May be much shorter and much more brutal

The bottom tiers of Bacigalupi's futures
Would insure an understanding of the Blues
Son House, The Original Delta Blues

It's Not Too Late; Two Long Running Series You Can Still Enjoy

I've been meaning to talk to you about this
It's okay, you're not in trouble
Its just a couple of series
Both quite enjoyable
Both for different reasons
We have recently filled in the gaps
We have the entirety of both series

Discworld by Sir Terry Pratchett
39 books and counting
Discworld is good satire
Playing on Literature, old and new
Classic and Popular fiction
Often throwing in current events
Social, Political and Scientific
No one, no idea, is safe

Xanth by Piers Anthony
35 books and counting
As fates would have it
Book 13 is out of print and missing
It would be foolish of me
To try to explain Xanth
You have to take the trip
You have to visit Xanth
You will probably want to visit again and again

The online communities for both series are flush
A good place to start, if interested, is the Wikipedia
You can easily be led astray from there

 After a giddy trip into either of these worlds
You might enjoy something to carry you away
The Harrow & The Harvest by Gillian Welch

Counting And Counting And Counting

Count to a Trillion
Dead center of the road by reviewers
What do I know
I know I finished the book
I never finish what I don't enjoy
John C. Wright has written an intriguing story
I liked the science, be it real or imagined
Most important to me with this story, it felt real
I really liked the "long view" of time
The story stretched my thinking
Our lives are such a tiny blip on the screen
I think he got humanities wasteful trivialization spot on
An abundance of energy in this story is squandered

The protagonist is a trash talking Texan
Reminded me of Joe R. Lansdale stories
I'm reading one at the moment
Laudable in my thinking, I like Joe


What will our first encounter with aliens be
I shudder to think

We can be so great, We can be so petty

Music for a convoluted love story
Within a convoluted story
Love is Hell by Ryan Adams

Hum'n And Shiver'n

The Kirkus Reviews can be a little
Well, snotty comes to mind
I always have to read other reviews
To get to the truth
This one they got right in spades
Named it one of the best SF books of the year
The Hum and the Shiver by Alex Bledsoe
Great story telling
Wonderful characters, good and bad
Satisfying finish
Made me think of Phillip Pullman
He never finishes with saccharine sweetness
Just what needs to be


Folk music for a back woodsy SF folk tale
Divine Providence by Deer Tick

Space Opera / Steampunk / Western / Romance! WHAT?

To begin with, It is in the SF collection
I do not shy away from any of the genera
Romance may be a trail less traveled
But I still walk the trail
A. S. Byatt's, Possession: a Romance comes to mind
Winner of the Mann Booker Award (1990)
And rightly so
The Hunter by Theresa Meyers is a riot
The Legend Chronicles, book #1
No heavy lifting here, but
Great Pacing, Action, Gadgetry, Magic and Romance
This Cowboy Shoot'mUp blends all, seamlessly
The romance smolders, and smolders,and smolders
 Book #2, The Slayer, will arrive in April
I will read it. I look forward to reading it

Freading, The ebooks available from GOWYLD.NET
Available to Wyoming Library Card Holders
(don't forget to use zip code 82001)
Is a sweet gift to all ereaders in Wyoming
I went for a space opera
You will never guess what I ended up with
Space Opera / ROMANCE
Darkscape:Redemption by R. Garland Gray
It may start with a smolder
Not long into the story the flames burn brightly
None the less, an enjoyable escape
Clans rule and sociopolitical machination abound
The protagonist is gene warped
It was short, quick and sassy
I will probably sneak back and read book 1
Darkscape: The Rebel Lord
But, I'm a guy, Its Romance, I'm not telling
Then again maybe I will
AHHHH! Was that a Judy Blume reference?


So Romance? Music?
Sade, Soldier of Love
Nice sound

Time Out Of Mind Or Something

Ryan Boudinot has trashed my brain
Blueprints of the Afterlife shredded me
A not too distant
But distant none the less, Future
Characters appealing, appalling
Characters utterly disgusting
Characters endearing and entertaining
You need to strap yourself down at the start
It's not an inner ear problem
Makes complete sense once your attuned
Scary thought there
I'll not spoil this delight
Trying to describe it would be foolish
Enjoy!

Music to ground you when you return
Guy Clark, Songs and Stories

Everything 80's And Tense Dangerous Gaming

Ernest Cline is known or not known
For his screenplay of the movie Fanboy
I did not know this and do not care
Ready Player One I care about
This Blitzkrieg romp through the 80's
Music and All Things Geeky is a screamer
Had no idea I knew so much trivia
But then again I was alive and it was the 80s
This near future landscape is frightening
The trailer park burbscape with
Trailers and RVs stacked high
Just too frighteningly possible
The pages blister your fingers as they turn
The action is non stop
Most of the action is in the "virtual" world
But tense and high stakes none the less
The protagonists is absolutely my kind of guy
Young, Socially Naive and Very Bright
What's the story
The designer of the OASIS
The virtual world most people
Spend most of their time in, dies
Who ever figures out his game gets it all
Individuals, groups and evil corporations
One and all are vying for the prize
Mega Bucks and Mega Control of OASIS


Apropos of our times
Ry Cooder's newest
A bopping commentary on our times
Pull Up Some Dust And Sit Down

Went Back To Robin Hobb's First Elderlings Book, Happy I Did So

I was truly taken by Robin Hobb's Rain Wild Chronicles
Then, a couple of patrons I jaw with, informed me
Most of her work is all related
There are now four distinct but connected series
It starts with Assassin's Apprentice
I went to book one series one
Assassin's Apprentice begins The Farseer Series
There are no dragons but there is talk of "The Elders"
The protagonist is the bastard son of a King in Waiting
The King in Waiting gives up the throne
Fitz, the bastard, is raised by the Stable Keeper/Soldier
Suddenly he is spirited away by the royal assassin

I have now finished book two, Royal Assassin

I am well (finished it) into book three Assassin's Quest
Here, there be dragons
It's all worth the trip
I'm headed into the second trilogy soon

The Liveship Traders, I can hardly wait

Robin Hobb, satisfies as only the few can do
Her characters are fully fleshed out, complex and conflicted
Fully in the grips of the human condition
Her plotting will grab and keep your attention

Wonderful new music
The Jayhawks got back together
It was a long wait
Mockingbird Time
Worth the wait