Showing posts with label time travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time travel. Show all posts

The Corn Maiden Review

The Corn Maiden
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The Corn Maiden ReviewSo this collection of short stories.. it packs a mean punch. I mean right out of the gate, Joyce Carol Oates slams her readers with a story about "innocent" young girls and the horrific acts they can commit. Seriously, people, I have goosebumps just thinking about the story and it's been a few weeks since I read it.
One after another, each story hits where you least expect to be hit. From showing the darker side of charity, the immense pain of loneliness, the all-too-human fears we face in moments when we should be thinking of other things, it's all contained within this book.
I've only recently become a fan of short stories - I've come to appreciate them for how quickly I can become immersed in the story and also appreciate just how much of a workout my imagination gets from the (sometimes abrupt) endings. I'm positive I'll be checking out more of Joyce Carol Oates books, just because I have a think for powerhouse female writers - but I will say this...
The last story in this book I couldn't read all the way through. I was just too grossed out, and for that I blame my active imagination - although the story was pretty damn twisted.
If you want the perfect Halloween read, look no further. This book will take you beyond paranormal and sometimes silly scary stories into the very corrupt and twisted mind of some very "normal" people.The Corn Maiden Overview

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Philip K. Dick: Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s Review

Philip K. Dick: Five Novels of the 1960s and 70s
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Philip K. Dick: Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s ReviewProlific. Consistently thought-provoking. Scintillatingly brilliant with uncanny frequency. Hilarious. Living an adult life mostly in poverty but surrounded by many caring people. A binge fiction writer, letter-writer, and talker.
This was Philip K. Dick. He was kind enough to correspond several times with a nerdy high-school senior who had written a ten-page analysis of three of his major works.
That was me.
PKD's heart would soar at being included in a series of books featuring Melville, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Hawthorne, and Thoreau. This latest volume includes FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID, still one of my favorites and the novel that sent me on my own binge of PKD reading.
With an oeuvre of over fifty novels, voluminous short stories, philosophical essays, and a final tome, THE EXEGESIS, which may resemble Prokofiev's Symphony Number 2 in its gargantuan length and ultimate inaccessibility for most fans, Philip K. Dick was a ceaseless writer who found revision a nearly impossible process.
His works are structured by his brilliant mind that thought aloud on paper in the form of stories that questioned the nature of reality but that also revealed a profound love for most of humanity. To read PKD is to become more deeply attuned to what it is to be human--to become an explorer held in suspense by a psychological realist who fabulated fantastic worlds that were strangely familiar.
PKD's best works--five of which are included in this latest volume--are a joy to read. Because he wrote fast and didn't often revise, these are blemished works of art. But all of us are similarly blemished: it's the nature of being human. Brilliance radiates even on pages where archaic slang, incorrect predictions, and other flaws are rife.
One leaves PKD's novels wishing that one could still talk to, correspond with, or hear lecture the author--or simply read brand-new examples of this genius's work. Even with his vast output, one wants more.
One cannot leave the pages of PKD without feeling a strange, perhaps singular, intimacy. These novels incarnate the mind of that brilliant friend who lives nearby and raids your medicine cabinet if you're not looking.
If one is attuned, one leaves the novels of PKD not just loving the words but also loving the man who wrote them, flawed as he may have been.
Rereading FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID for the first time in twenty years, I discovered how much I myself had changed. The jokes had a different tone; the philosophical and psychological dimensions had taken on different shadings and colors. But the engaging ideas, the idiosyncratic but compelling characters, and the sheer energy of the novel convinced me yet again that I was in the presence of a mind that never ceased to teach. Dick, a student of so many disciplines, channelled his deepest loves and fears into his books, and we, the lucky readers alive today who continue to peruse his pages, have been given by PKD a gift similar to Mary Anne Dominic's blue vase at the end of FLOW...-- works of enduring art that are loved by many.
I'm grateful that the Internet was unavailable to PKD: it might have ruined his output of novels and stories.
But I wish I could see the joy and pride on his face at having two volumes (so far) dedicated to his best work.
Emerson himself merited only two volumes.Philip K. Dick: Five Novels of the 1960s & 70s Overview

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The Good and the Ghastly: A Novel Review

The Good and the Ghastly: A Novel
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The Good and the Ghastly: A Novel ReviewUsually when someone contacts me via email about reading their book, they give me a description of it and I say sure, send it, or no that's not for me. And usually, if the description includes a phrase like "gangster noir epic set a thousand years into the future." I'll pass because, well, that's just not for me, in most cases. Usually, the name on the book is not James Boice. I said it once, when I reviewed NoVA, and I'll repeat it here: I don't know why this guy doesn't get more attention.
The Good and the Ghastly is as described in that email. Set in 3348, after the war and the nuclear destruction, after 1000 years of crawling back to a time that reflects our own. Bits of ancient history seep through the years - the great leaders and artists who stand tall throughout the centuries - Alexander the Great, Bob Dylan, Sarah Palin. Thank god Visa is there to hold everything together.
Junior Alvarez grows up in the fractured gangland of Visa NoVA with a God complex, a bad temper, and a will to act violently and decisively against his foes. In a massive teenage gangfight, he beats a boy to death, and the boy's mother starts a never-ending campaign against Junior - first through legal means, and the via a systematic vigilante attack on the gang system.
Junior is the real story here, though. He rises from an anger-fueled street thug, unwelcome (frustratingly so for JR) through the front door of the highest establishments, to a meticulously organized lieutenant masquerading as a community benefactor, to mob boss, sometimes through deception and sometimes through violence. It's a rise familiar to the modern reader or filmgoer - think The Departed, or Heat, or Billy Bathgate with something of a steampunk sensiblity.
Junior is a great character. He's despicable from a young age, seducing minors and busting heads. He believes he is destined for greatness and the shame he feels at his back-door status is palpable and the motivation for the swath of violence he unleashes.
Whereas NoVA was reserved and pointed, viewing suburbia from multiple angles, The Good and the Ghastly is a detached view of a killer, with all his charms and warts, building an empire and chased Javert-like by feds and vigilantes.
James Boice is as good as ever here. He doesn't let the dystopian satire get in the way of the story, relieving me of one of my personal annoyances. He's gritty and reflective, twistedly funny, and his sentences are as sharp as ever. A fearless, unrepentant book of a fearsome future - The Good and the Ghastly will be released by Scribner on 6/14/11.
more reviews at threeguysonebook.comThe Good and the Ghastly: A Novel Overview

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Darkness All Around Review

Darkness All Around
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Darkness All Around ReviewIn Braden, Pennsylvania Risa was married to Sean who became an alcoholic, had blackouts and at times failed to come home at night. In one nasty week, Sean vanished and Risa's best friend Carol was brutally murdered.
Ten years later, Risa is married to Alan who adopted Kevin, her son with Sean, as his. Alan is running for Congress. Sean rocks Risa's world when he calls Statesman reporter Henry to arrange a meeting the next day. He receives a pass from the hospital where he currently resides and Sean heads home to ask the journalist if he ever saw any pictures of Carol's death scene. Henry describes what he saw; Sean now knows for sure he killed Carol on the night he drove to New York as he knew the death scene and the bruises on the corpse before he heard the reporter's description. Sean goes to the local police but Alan has the authorities throw him out of town. Risa considers G.G who was convicted of the homicide is innocent as is she believes her first husband. As Risa risks her marriage, her social standing and her life (and that of her son), Alan does everything to get the one "evil" ex out of their lives.
Darkness All Around is an exciting romantic suspense that grips readers from the moment Sean returns to town. The cast is fully developed so that the audience understands what motivates the key players to behave the way they have now and a decade ago. Doug Magee writes a taut thriller in which the suspense is front and center while the romantic subplot supports the mystery.
Harriet Klausner
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Love and Shame and Love: A Novel Review

Love and Shame and Love: A Novel
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Love and Shame and Love: A Novel ReviewWhat are you doing right now? Well, whatever it is, stop and get your hands on this book because it is easily the best novel I have read this year or in the past several years. I have been a fan of Peter Orner's books for some time now, but Love and Shame and Love just blew me away. This novel combines the epic mutligenerational storytelling of say a Frazen or Chabon with the tight, jewel like sentences that have become the hallmark of Orner's fiction. The result is pure magic. Add to that the beautiful illustrations by Orner's brother, Eric, and this is a novel I guarantee you will not only love but will treasure. In fact, I would endorse you buying both the Kindle edition (so you could start reading it now!) and the hardcover for the illustrations and when you decide to re-read it next week.Love and Shame and Love: A Novel Overview

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A Dark and Lonely Place: A Novel Review

A Dark and Lonely Place: A Novel
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A Dark and Lonely Place: A Novel ReviewOne hundred years ago in frontier Miami, Florida, John Ashley was accused of murder and sentenced to hang. Proclaiming his innocence, he went on the run with his lover, Laura, and their exploits became legend. A century later, in today's Miami, Homicide Sergeant John Ashley investigates a millionaire's murder and is inexplicably drawn to a stunning model linked to the case who bears an uncanny resemblence to an unknown woman who repeatedly appears in his dreams. Her name is Laura, and the attraction is mutual. Even more strange than their connection to each other is their connection to the infamous John and Laura from the past.

When the homicide case goes bad, Ashley is falsely accused of murder. He and Laura go on the run in a repeat of history as they try to prove his innocence, only to realize that the very people who are supposed to help may, in fact, be the ones who want him out of the way.

This is the first book I've ready by this author and I finished it in one day. It started out slow for me but the suspense built as the story progressed and by the end I was figuratively on the edge of my seat, wondering if the modern-day John and Laura would meet with the same fate as their namesakes a century earlier.

There are lots of characters, but the author does a good job working them all into the story without overwhelming the reader with names and relationships. While mostly a suspense novel, it also has elements of history and romance which makes it all the more interesting. I look forward to reading more titles by this author.
I received a copy of this book for review from the publisher but the opinion of it is my own and was not solicited, nor was a positive review required.A Dark and Lonely Place: A Novel Overview

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The Sisters: A Novel Review

The Sisters: A Novel
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The Sisters: A Novel ReviewNancy Jensen takes the reader on an epic journey through eighty years, an emotional roller-coaster ride of happiness, and tragedy. The lives of two sisters are lived far apart, but the bonds of blood are tied in a knot, and never broken. What secrets tear apart Bertie and Mabel? What choices were made that divided their lives, and how did they survive through trauma and heartbreak? I highly recommend this extraordinary, compelling novel to all fiction lovers, who enjoy American literature, blended with history and romance. The story is beautifully written, deeply moving, and the characters come to life as the author illuminates secrets within one family portrait. The vibrant story with unforgettable characters becomes an intimate, captivating journey through The Depression, World War II, and Vietnam. The author describes how life was lived for women through the decades, the power of love, and betrayal. "THE SISTERS" is touching and is filled with joy, sorrow, and triumph!The Sisters: A Novel Overview

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11/22/63: A Novel Review

11/22/63: A Novel
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11/22/63: A Novel ReviewStephen King started publishing books around roughly the same time I started reading them. It was the mid 70s, and I was a precocious young thing. I was fearless, and man I loved what he was writing! I haven't read nearly all of his novels in the decades since, but enough to have a pretty good familiarity with the universe that his works share. Now entering my more fearful middle age, I can tell you there is, oddly, something deeply comforting about submerging myself again in his rich, folksy world where heroes ARE heroic, all stories come full circle, and pretty much all nagging questions are eventually put to rest.
The hero of 11/22/63 is Jake Epping, and early on in this novel he is presented with something inconceivable, a sort of wormhole in time. It leads from 2011 Maine to September 9, 1958. You can visit the past for as long as you like--years even--but when you return to the present it's always exactly two minutes later. Every subsequent visit is a "reset." You can change the past (and consequently the present), but as Jake learns, "the past is obdurate." It resists.
There's more to the set-up, of course, but that's all you really need to know. Because with this portal to the past, Jake is set on a mission that would probably be the goal of most every person of a certain age--to stop the Kennedy assassination. I don't think it resonates quite so strongly with those of us who weren't around to remember Camelot, but, sure, 11/22/63 was one of the most pivotal days in this nation's history. It's a day that surely scarred the psyche of every American who remembers it.
For long-time readers like myself, there are some wonderful Easter eggs to be found in 11/22/63, tying back to past novels, and probably to future ones as well. It's amazing how King does that. Characters I haven't seen for decades make cameo appearances and gosh it's great to see them. If Mr. King has one skill above all, it's the ability to breathe life into his characters. No wonder they live on long after their stories end. And it's not just the characters that feel like old friends, it's merely inhabiting the King-verse with its familiar town names, attitudes, and themes. Like I said, comforting.
So, if it's not obvious already, I loved this novel from start to finish! Heck, I read 849 pages in less than 48 hours. But Mr. King might have written this one just for me. I have a thing for time travel stories. In fact, 11/22/63 has several similarities with an old favorite I recently re-read: Replay, by Ken Grimwood. The ideas of this novel are pretty compelling, and it's not surprising that others have explored them. Reading the two so close together made for an interesting counterpoint, and did disservice to neither.
Thirty-seven years and several dozen novels after his first, Stephen King is still finding new stories to tell in inventive ways. Yes, those familiar echoes are there, but somehow Mr. King is keeping his prolific output fresh. 11/22/63 is a blast from the past. I'm glad I got to travel there with this dear old friend.11/22/63: A Novel Overview

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