Mini-Reviews: Tenth of December by George Saunders & The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout

During December 2013 I was on vacation for half the month, so I didn't review most of the books I read -- some of them excellent and others highly enjoyable. I would like to share them with you. To begin, following are my impressions of two mainstream contemporary fiction books, one of them with science fiction elements.

Tenth of December by George Saunders (2013, Random House)

Tenth of December is a collection of ten short stories by George Saunders. He effectively uses a fusion of contemporary fiction with science fiction elements to develop a few of the stories, while firmly concentrating on contemporary issues throughout the entire book. The whole collection is notable for its sharp, modern literary writing style.

I enjoyed all the stories in this collection, including the first one "Victory Lap," a rather humorous account in which two teenagers ultimately confront a dangerous situation and make momentous decisions. However, there are a few short stories that really stand out as memorable among the rest. Set in a futuristic experimental lab where juvenile criminals are used as ginny pigs to develop new drugs, "Escape from Spiderhead" is a fantastic sci-fi based piece with a slow build up to an unexpectedly devastating climax. The execution in this story is flawless and, frankly, I couldn't stop thinking about it for a long time."The Semplica Girl Diaries" follows as another outstanding sci-fi based short that is slow to build but is grandly developed with slow, morally questionable revelations. This story is written in diary format by a husband and father competing with his neighbors and struggling to give his daughters the best future, but is he making the right decisions? Most memorable, for me, among the contemporary pieces are "Home," a tale of a soldier's homecoming, where Saunders mixes serious issues with sad irony -- "Thank you for your service!" And, in "Tenth of December" Saunders combines the sad realities of aging and terminal illness with the humorous fantasizing of the very young. Life experienced from both sides of the spectrum.

The stories in this collection are relevant to contemporary times and issues, and they flow in a way that makes this a quick, excellent read. I personally love Saunders' sharp writing style and human approach to the subject at hand. It is unfortunate that this is one of those books that lingered in my Kindle for most of 2013, and that I decided to read it during my end-of-year vacation because Tenth of December is an excellent book and highly recommended.

Category: SF/Contemporary Fiction
Grade: A-

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (2013, Random House)

In December, I also read The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout, another contemporary fiction book that lingered in my Kindle for much of 2013. In The Burgess Boys, Elizabeth Strout tightly weaves factual, controversial events that occurred in Lewinston, Maine in or around 2006 involving the sudden influx of Somali and Buntu immigrants to the area, with her fictional story about the three Maine-born Burgess siblings and the dysfunctional relationship that has existed between them since childhood. The two stories are tightly woven and, although Strout utilizes multiple perspectives to develop her story, -- intimate family and individual struggles, and community controversy -- the ultimate focus remains the same.

Of course the fictional story about the Burgess siblings is the core of the book and the one that immediately grabs the reader's attention. There's Jim, the eldest sibling who seems to live a charmed life as a famous criminal defense attorney in New York City, with his wife Helen acting as the perfect foil for such a man both at home and in social situations. In sharp contrast to his brother, Bob, an attorney working in the appellate division of Legal Aid in New York City, leads the lonely, sad, and rather pathetic life of a divorced man who can't seem to move on, and whose dependency on his brother's presence and approval is constant and obsessive. They both hate Shirley Falls for different reasons, but find themselves heading back when their divorced sister Susan asks for help with her teenage son Zach who is in big trouble. He threw a pig's head into a mosque where the local Somali community worships, supposedly as "a joke," and the situation is rapidly getting out of hand.

Strout's main theme poses many questions about "understanding." Do you really understand your parents, siblings, spouses, children? How about your community? Do you really know who they are?

"The key to contentment is never to ask why; she had learned that long ago." Helen

Strout delves on the consequences that arise from not understanding, or knowing. She does so by first presenting the characters as they appear to each other, slowly deconstructing them for the reader by digging into their relationships and struggles for truth and understanding and finally revealing the results. The main characters, Jim, Bob and Susan Burgess carry burdensome guilt due to a family tragedy that occurred in their childhood, and their families are unknowingly affected by this burden. Jim and Helen, Bob, Susan and Zach struggle with the consequences of not understanding, not knowing, as do the Somalis, the Buntu and the rest of the community in Shirley Falls. The story flows with little down time and excellent characterization. As far as sympathetic characters go, there are a couple, but most are portrayed as terribly human with flaws and faults -- worts and all.

The Burgess Boys is a book I really wanted to read last year, and I'm glad I did. It asks some excellent questions of the reader, and the story is good from beginning to end with tight writing, great revelations, and deeply explored characters -- some likable and others that I truly loathed. Recommended.

Category: Contemporary Fiction
Grade: B+

Favorite Books of 2013

2013 is over! I can't tell you how happy that makes me. ;P Looking back at my reading statistics though, it was a very good year.

I read approximately 209 books during 2013, and among them found so many great books that choosing my top ten favorites became problematic. In the end I decided to disregard the publishing year and chose them from the most memorable books read and reviewed during the year (unfortunately, I read some books I loved, but did not review), rated A=5.0 and/or A-/B+=4.5. Once that decision was made, it became easier to sort them out. I still came up with more than ten. So, here they are, in no particular order, my favorite fifteen reads of 2013!*

1) Magic Rises (Kate Daniels #6) by Ilona Andrews
Urban Fantasy (2013, Ace)
A cohesive and emotional read, Magic Rises is undoubtedly my favorite Urban Fantasy book of the year. At its core this is a transitional book, a bridge between the beginning of this fantastic UF series and changes to come, and it is most impressive that the quality in the writing and story telling does not wane one bit. Magic Rises is an excellent example of an exciting bridge book with character growth and a storyline that drives the overall story arc forward to the next level in a successfully established series. The fact that I fell in love with Kate, Curran and the rest of the characters all over again, and this writing team created a fantastic villain with depth, is beside the point. Hah!

2) Heart of Obsidian (Psy/Changeling #11) by Nalini Singh
SFF/Romance (2013, Berkeley)
One of the best installments in Nalini Singh's long Psy/Changeling paranormal romance series, Heart of Obsidian reads more like a sci-fi/fantasy romance piece. With this book, Singh drives forward the overall  story arc with scientific and fantasy details that make sense and are tightly woven with her world-building, and develops an unlikely, but believable romance despite the fact that the male protagonist is portrayed as a cold sociopath with psycho tendencies. That's talent.

3) The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
SF/Fantasy (2013, William Morrow Books)
This fantasy piece is more of a fairy tale for adults. Gaiman tightly weaves in fantasy elements with adult subjects. Gaiman cleverly takes the distortion of childhood memory issue and by having the adult narrate terrifying, magically-driven events that occurred during his childhood, creates an unforgettable, multi-layered, fantasy piece.

4) Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey
Science Fiction (2012, Broad Rich Publishing)
Published in 2012, the Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey is one of the best science fiction books I read in 2013! This is a captivating post-apocalyptic science fiction volume composed of five novellas from Howey's Wool series. Wool serves as the "hook" with subsequent novellas progressively going from great, to excellent, to outstanding. Memorable in and of itself is the oppressive, repressive, suffocating, and tension-filled atmosphere. This is a fantastic series that shouldn't be missed!

5) Duke of Midnight (Maiden Lane #6) by Elizabeth Hoyt
Historical Romance (2013, Grand Central Publishing)
With a stiff, guilt-ridden, duty bound, grief stricken duke as a hero whose perfect solution to past problems is to become a marauding vigilante, Hoyt meets the challenge by creating his match in Artemis, a passionate woman of character, strong enough to conquer and balance his flaws. Add to that a plot that moves and great secondary characters such as the intriguing Apollo and sweet Sophie, and this historical romance is worth a read or two. The Maiden Lane series by Elizabeth Hoyt stays at the top of my historical romance list with this fabulous installment.

6) In Search Of and Others by Will Ludwigsen
Speculative Fiction Short Story Collection (2013, Lethe Press)
With some highly imaginative stories and a gorgeous writing style, Will Ludwigsen takes the reader for a fantastic ride while he explores the "what ifs" and "why nots," the unexplained and unexpected in his collection of speculative fiction stories In Search Of and Others. If, like me, you love well-done speculative fiction and short works that will make your mind soar into other planes that challenge the imagination, then you may appreciate and understand why this collection is such an unforgettable read.

7) Now or Never: A Last Chance Romance (Part 1) by Logan Belle
Contemporary Romance (2013, Moxie Books)
Now or Never is a novella, not a full-length novel. Additionally, it is Part 1 of a series so the romance is not complete. Yet, the depth of feeling conveyed by the female protagonist when faced with a devastating medical diagnosis, and the inadequacies and personal self-doubts that arise while she searches for sexual fulfillment after years of neglecting herself as a woman, made this a contemporary read that I fully connected with emotionally. Logan Belle is a writer whose works I've enjoyed in the past, and is fast becoming one whose work I will follow in the future.

8) The Notorious Rake by Mary Balogh
Historical Romance (2013, Dell)
The Notorious Rake by Mary Balogh is a classic of old. Re-released in 2013 by Dell, I'm pretty sure it will also become a new classic. In it, Balogh digs deep into the most unlikable of heroes, a man whose self-loathing is as deep as the sea, and the woman who can't see past his faults. Balogh's talents are in full display in this fabulous historical romance. If you're a fan don't miss it, if you haven't read Balogh yet, give it a try. :)

9) Written in Red: A Novel of the Others by Anne Bishop
Fantasy (2013, Roc)
Reading Written in Red by Anne Bishop felt like a breath of fresh air with loads of potential. Even with the few concerns that I harbored about the source of the heroine's powers, this book became one of my favorite fantasy (or if you prefer UF) reads of the year. Particularly impressive in this fantasy are the shifters and the world built around them, with characters that maintain their initial impact throughout the story and to the end. The second book of this series, Murder of Crows, is one of my most anticipated books of 2014!

10) Guardian Demon (Guardian Series #8) by Meljean Brook
Paranormal Romance (2013, Berkley)
The end of a series can be a sad time for fans of a series, but with Guardian Demon, Meljean Brook made the end to the Guardian Series a moment to celebrate. The romance section of this paranormal romance is slow in building and worth the wait. But the most impressive and enjoyable aspect of reading this book is the end to the overall story arc in which Brook ties up all the loose ends of this all around successful and complex paranormal romance series.

11) Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro
Literary Fiction (2012, Douglas Gibson Books)
In this collection of short stories by Alice Munro some pieces spoke to me more than others, however, overall I found this to be a quiet, masterful, and memorable book where this author often wraps truth in fiction. She focuses her stories on pivotal but mundane moments that change people's lives. Some moments are depicted as harsh with a sense of distance about them, while others are intimate, personal, emotional. They are all valid. In some pieces, Munro also incorporates a subtle history of feminism that I personally appreciated, along with the last four biographical, very personal, short stories of the collection.

12) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Science Fiction (2010, Ace)
First published in 1969, The Left Hand of Darkness is considered a masterpiece and science fiction classic. The best science fiction novel I read in 2013, this is book #4 (also the first full length novel) in Le Guin's Hainish Cycle series. This is a complex story of a Terran who as an Ekumen mobile becomes the first Envoy to contact the Gethenians in their frozen planet, and his journey to understanding a radically different people and world. The result is a science fiction piece where Le Guin integrates this world's cultural and sociopolitical issues in detail, but at its core brilliantly focuses on the subject of gender and duality. A fantastic book that I won't soon forget!

13) The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley
SF/Historical Fiction/Romance (2008, Allison & Busby)
In this book, Kearsley swept me away to 1708 and Scotland's failed Jacobite conflict as she incorporates three dimensional historical figures, historical facts, and a beautiful romance, while simultaneously taking me to a modern day Scotland where another couple finds happiness. In The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley creates a fusion of contemporary time travel with historical fiction and two romance story lines running parallel to each other. It may sound complicated, but her stories are written with attention to detail, authority, and flair!

14) The Favor by Megan Hart
Contemporary Fiction (2013, MIRA)
In The Favor, Megan Hart takes the talents for writing fiction that she so brilliantly incorporates in her successful erotic romances and ramps them up to create a memorable contemporary fiction piece. With a plot that challenges comfort zones, and flawed, deeply explored characters, this contemporary fiction piece showcases another facet of Hart's talents. A memorable read.

15) Looking for the Gulf Motel by Richard Blanco
Poetry (2012, University of Pittsburgh Press)
In Richard Blanco's multi-layered poetry volume Looking for the Gulf Motel I found an introspective, narrative style, as well as lyrical poems filled with nostalgia, grief, love and hope for the future, all progressively exploring his personal experiences as the gay son of an immigrant family, identity issues, and love. This volume touched and soothed me with its very intimate focus and easy connection with the reader.


* LGBT: 2013 Favorite Books and Authors list is posted separately (See full list here.)
2013: Favorite Quotes

LGBT: 2013 Favorite Reads & Authors

Happy New Year everyone!! It's time to take a look back at the LGBT books that made the past year memorable. Overall, 2013 was a great reading year for me. As always, my list of favorite reads is based on books read and reviewed during the year, and graded A (5.0) or A-/B+ (4.5). This time around, however, I've included 2013 releases, as well as a few previously released books that are too good to ignore. These are the stories that spoke to me throughout the year.

Desire: Tales of New Orleans by William Sterling Walker
Gay Fiction: (2012, Chelsea Station Editions)
William Sterling Walker's collection of short stories set in a pre-Katrina New Orleans is one of those books where everything, from the characters to the setting and from the writing to the subject matter, comes together perfectly into one unforgettable package. Walker's ability to make time, place, and characters come alive is uncanny. I've re-read passages, single, and various stories from this collection repeatedly after my first go round -- Desire, Aubade, Menuetto, Fin de Siècle -- and keep the book handy. I cannot recommend this collection enough.

Red-Inked Retablos by Rigoberto Gonzalez
Creative Non-Fiction: (2013, The University of Arizona Press)
In Red-Inked Retablos, Rigoberto Gonzalez invites readers to contemplation and activism. He speaks with authority and passion from the many viewpoints that make up his life experiences -- the Latino, the gay man, the writer, the teacher, the activist -- but, most importantly he speaks from the heart. I read this book in February 2013 and referred to it several times throughout the year. A memorable and highly recommended read.

In His Secret Life by Mel Bossa 
Bisexual/Gay Romance: (2013, Bold Strokes Books)
Mel Bossa writes beautiful romances filled with conflicted gay and bisexual males in pursuit of understanding, self-awareness, and love. I love her LGBT romances, and in 2013 she did it again with In His Secret Life where Bossa again displays her talents for creating three dimensional characters and a complex, memorable romance by tackling a controversial love affair between a married bisexual man and single gay man further complicated by family ties.

Boystown #5: Murder Book by Marshall Thornton
Mystery: (2013, MLR Press)
Set in Chicago at the beginning of the 1980's, the Nick Nowack Mystery series by Marshall Thornton is gritty and makes an impact on the reader with more than just the great mysteries. Throughout the series, it is Nick's personal life -- sexual exploits and romantic interests -- that slowly become the ongoing source of tension for the reader. Thornton takes the readers back to the 80's and keeps them there with his no nonsense writing style and magnificent central character. Time for Secrets #4 (2012, MLR Press) and Murder Book #5 are both favorite reads, but I highly recommend the entire series!

Death by Silver by Melissa Scott & Amy Griswold
Fantasy: (2013, Lethe Press)
Scott & Griswold's world-building is a combination of high magic and Victorian morals in a quasi-recognizable London. Death by Silver is an excellent blend of fantasy and mystery with steampunk elements. The romance in the making between the two main characters and their inner conflicts, however, give this novel a perfect emotional touch, as do the secondary characters and gray areas that these two authors explore throughout the story.

Dust Devil on a Quiet Street by Richard Bowes 
Fantasy/Speculative Fiction: (2013, Lethe Press)
In 2013, I read three books by Richard Bowes including his collection of fairy tales The Queen, The Cambion and Seven Others (2013, Aqueduct Press) and When Angels Fight (2013, Fairwood Press). I reviewed two of the three books, but enjoyed and recommend them all. Dust Devil on a Quiet Street is a fantastic compilation of short stories that are organically blended into one book or one story. Bowes' knowledge and love of New York City and the intimacy of thought found in his narrative are fantastic. This book is categorized as a fantasy, yet I am still fascinated by the fact that at times it is impossible to tell where truth ends and fiction begins. Richard Bowes is that talented.

Light by 'Nathan Burgoine
SFF/Romance/Suspense: (2013, Bold Strokes Books)
We all need heroes in our lives, even reluctant heroes who hide their light are welcome! Burgoine is a multi-talented author who successfully creates short stories within different LGBT sub-genres such as speculative fiction, romance and gay fiction. His debut full-length novel Light makes it to my list of favorite reads as one of the most enjoyable books read in 2013. This action/adventure, superhero, romance suspense yarn is tough to place into one of those little boxes or categories, what is not difficult to do is love it. It is fun, entertaining, and absorbing with a memorable central character and a grounded, focused central gay theme. Light now resides on my "reread" shelf.

Best Gay Stories 2013 ed. Steve Berman
Anthology--Fiction, Creative Non-Fiction: (2013, Lethe Press)
Best Gay Stories 2013 is undoubtedly my favorite anthology of the year. Steve Berman compiled 20 amazing fiction and creative non-fiction pieces by 20 equally fantastic authors, some already well known to me and others not at all. I read many collections and anthologies during a single year and was greatly surprised to read one excellent piece after another in this anthology, each with a different theme highly relevant to today's gay man -- young and not so young -- some embracing recent history and others dealing with the here and now.

Favorite Short Stories: I chose the following short stories from favorite single author collections and anthologies rated A (5.0) and A-/B+ (4.5).  I'm sort of cheating since the books, as well as the short stories, are highly recommended in their entirety.

"Things I Can't Tell My Father"
"Ice Water"
The Silent Hustler by Sean Meriwether (2009, Lethe Press)

"Boy"
"Between Us"
The Rest of Us: Stories by Guy Mark Foster (2013, Lethe Press)

"Light and Dark" by Damon Shaw
"The Third State" by Lee Thomas
"The Origin of the Fiend" by Hal Duncan
The Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy! ed. by Tom Cardamone (2013, Northwest Press) 

"Sic Him Hellhound! Kill! Kill!" by Hal Duncan
"A Strange Form of Life" by Laird Barron
Wilde Stories 2013: The Year's Best Gay Speculative Fiction ed. Steve Berman (2013, Lethe Press)

Review: The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin

Published by Harper in 2002, The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories is a collection of eight stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. The collection begins with a marvelous introduction in which Le Guin provides readers familiar with her works a behind-the-scenes look at each story and new readers, like me, with enough understanding to enjoy them. Six of the eight stories are connected to her Hainish Cycle* series. These stories are all set in the different worlds Ekumen mobiles explore. In three, Le Guin focuses and expands on distinctive sets of social and/or cultural customs, while in the rest her mobiles confront conflicts arising from either observation or active participation in their attempt to understand different civilizations.

Of the stories focused on cultural and social customs, "Coming of Age in Karhide" is a favorite. Set in the frozen Gethenian world where its inhabitants are androgynous hermaphrodites, Le Guin weaves a coming of age piece filled with detailed intimacy and warmth. Le Guin refers to the other two stories, "Unchosen Love" and "Mountain Ways," as "a comedy of manners." They are both set in the world of "O" where the custom is for marriage to take place between four people -- two males and two females. The complexities used as a base to build this society's familial bonds were both intriguing and well thought out, however, neither story kept me as entranced as the outstanding tales where her mobiles discover conflict through observation or confront it through personal participation.

"The Matter of Seggri" is composed of observation reports written by various "mobiles" throughout years or centuries as they witness changes taking place in a society where women outnumber men. With Seggri's world, Le Guin experiments with the reversal of gender roles, as well as with the inevitable consequences arising from a society where "men have all the privilege and women all the power." Does Le Guin's thought experiment using gender imbalance and role reversal lead to a utopia for women? This is a fascinating study that ends the way it should.

"Solitude," also has a bit of that role reversal happening since villages are composed solely of women and children, while males are thrown out into the wilderness to fend for themselves as soon as they reach puberty. Women choose if or when to visit males for sexual pleasure or to have children, but all inhabitants of this planet, males and females, relish solitude. The mobile in this piece pays a high price when she brings her children to live within this society. Le Guin conducts an intricate, detailed exploration of culture, gender roles, and human nature in this favorite piece.

And finally, in "Old Music and the Slave Women," Le Guin takes on the subject of racism and bigotry and turns it on its head by taking the reader to the planet Werel where slavery has always been the way of life. She picks up the story in the middle of a revolution as the slaves are winning. The long-term chief intelligence officer from the Ekumical embassy is taken prisoner by the losing side to be used as a weapon against them. Narrated from the mobile's point of view, his ideological views soon clash with the cruel realities of what a physical revolution entails as he first meets one faction and then the other. Will things really change? Or in the end, is bigotry and racism so ingrained in this society that it won't matter who comes to power?

Of the two remaining stories, including "The Birthday of the World," "Paradise Lost" captured my attention and stayed with me, not only because it deviates completely from the rest, but because the content and writing are fabulous. This is a space voyage set in a generational ship, focusing on the middle generations whose lives begin and end during the journey. Their duties are that of maintenance and ensuring that the journey continues unimpeded to its final destination. Imagine that! To those middle generations the ship is "the world," where they have built their own complex realities, have no real knowledge of their home planet Earth or Dischew, and little interest in their Destination. These generations's only knowledge of Dischew is through virtual reality programs where they learn about dangers encountered by past generations in their home planet through an educational system established by Generation Zero.

In the Fifth Generation
My grandfather's grandfather walked under heaven.
That was another world.
When I am a grandmother, they say, I may walk under heaven
On another world.
But I am living my life now joyously in my world
Here in the middle of heaven. -- 5-Hsing

"History is what we need never do again." Generation Zero attempts to build a future "world" where subsequent generations learn from their past history. There is no organized religion, disease, crime, and people's lives are highly organized and therefore effective -- all is beautiful, perfect and in its place. But, although certain anomalies are considered, they forget that humans learn through experience, that history is often manipulated and lost to future generations, and that what is important to one generation may become obsolete to others. They fail to take into consideration the human factor and, as expected, there is trouble in Paradise. However, in Paradise Lost that human factor also includes love of freedom and the beauty that life has to offer. This is a 115 page-long study of the complexities (the seemingly simple and deeply profound) found in human nature.

As an added bonus at the end of this book, you will find the fabulous essay "On Despising Genres" (a piece that deserves a post of its own), followed by "Answers to a Questionnaire." Both give the reader further insight into the author's personal thought process.

*Related Post
Ursula K. Le Guin & The Hainish Cycle Series

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Reviewed as part of The 2014 Sci-Fi Experience

2013: Favorite Quotes

My collection of quotes keeps growing by leaps and bounds! I began collecting passages for this post back in February, slowly and carefully choosing my ten (plus one) favorite quotes from some of the excellent novels, short story collections, essays, and poetry volumes I read during the year. Why did these make my favorite list? I have rules! They have to touch me even when taken out of context, either because they are thought provoking and make me ponder or I can relate to them personally, and in other cases, just because they are. . .

***********************************

"I go on writing in both respectable and despised genres because I respect them all, rejoice in their differences, and reject only the prejudice and ignorance that dismisses any book, unread, as not worth reading." -- "On Despising Genres," essay by Ursula K. Le Guin

"Writing is the place where I can be as bold and compassionate and wise as I choose." -- Dust Devil on a Quiet Street by Richard Bowes

[. . .] whether we like it or not the act of writing and the act of remembering is a political gesture; whether or not we call it political activism, we are performing it.” -- Red-Inked Retablos by Rigoberto Gonzalez

"I think there is no way to write about being alone. To write is to tell something to somebody, to communicate to others." "Solitude is non communication, the absence of others, the presence of a self sufficient to itself." "Solitude" -- The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin

"I liked myths. They weren't adult stories and they weren't children's stories. They were better than that. They just were." -- The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

"Light is the left hand of darkness and darkness the right hand of light, Two are one, life and death, lying together like lovers in kemmer, like hands joined together, like the end and the way."-- Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

"He wanted to have her to start his days and as dessert to his luncheon, as a mid-afternoon exercise, as an appetizer before whatever entertainment the evening had to offer, and as a nighttime lullaby and a middle-of-the-night drug."-- Edmund, The Notorious Rake by Mary Balogh

"Irrespective of the storm, the soul struck by lightning time and again, throughout the abominable Eighties there they were: compact, beautiful men spreading the cheeks of their asses on beds of gently rushing water." "Irrespective of the Storm" by Mark Ameen-- Best Gay Stories 2013 ed Steve Berman

"The whole world's a ghost factory. We all fade like the paint on these buildings, sometimes from too much sun, sometimes from too little. We blur and blend to the murky shades left behind when something vivid dies." "The Ghost Factory" -- In Search Of and Others by Will Ludwigsen

"We say of some things that they can't be forgiven, or that we will never forgive ourselves. But we do -- we do it all the time." "Dear Life" -- Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro

*****

"Someday,

I suppose I'll return someplace like waves

trickling through the sand, back to sea

without any memory of being, but if

I could choose eternity, it would be here:

aging with the moon, enduring in the
space

between every grain of sand, in the cusp

of every wave and every seashell's hollow."

excerpt from "Somedays, the Sea" -- Looking from the Gulf Motel by Richard Blanco

Merry Christmas!

I wish you all a fantastic Christmas holiday with friends and family!

Hilcia

Review: The Kassa Gambit by M.C. Planck

I purchased M.C. Planck's science fiction debut novel, The Kassa Gambit when it first released. I picked up the 288 page-long hard cover edition of this rather short space opera because the premise looked interesting. It is a quick read, but I found it to be superficially developed without enough details to make it stand out in any way. The sci-fi world-building is rather generic with action that lacks real excitement, and while the characters did not draw me into the story, to a certain extent, the plot did. The Kassa Gambit is your basic mystery set in space with the two main characters separately, and together, fighting their way to find the answers. I love mysteries, so of course once I began reading, I wanted to know the final resolution.

Captain Prudence Falling and the small crew of the small tramp freighter Ulysses answer a distress call from the small planet of Kassa and inexplicably find it to have been decimated by a full-blown attack. Right behind the Ulysses is a ship from Altair Prime's Fleet and with them comes police office Lt. Kyle Daspar of Altair Prime, an anti-League double agent working undercover, sent there on an unexplained mission. While aiding survivors, Kyle, Prudence and her crew discover a crashed, abandoned "alien" spaceship. This discovery means that humans are not alone in the universe and everything will change.

Kyle comes to the conclusion that an unknown someone from the League sent him to Kassa for foul purposes. Hoping that his undercover anti-League role is not blown, he denies knowledge of the find and carefully arranges for another Fleet Captain to conveniently make the discovery. Meanwhile, as Prudence and her crew leave Kassa and run to safety, she spreads bits of news throughout the ports implying that the planet has been brutally bombed and devastated by aliens. The news quickly makes the rounds around the scattered planets as Kyle barely survives a brutal attack. Soon Prudence and Kyle find themselves on the run together trying to figure out who is really behind the attack on Kassa and what the ultimate ramifications may mean to the human race.

The Kassa Gambit is categorized as a space opera, so the first thing I looked for were the science fiction details and world-building. The science fiction information provided such as the superficial touches on sociological, cultural, and political structures, and the more detailed explanations of space travel with spaceships using the gravitational pull of planets to accelerate and decelerate and jumping through actives "nodes," turned out to be good, but predictable. The action is also there with a few space battles and the threat of lurking danger, it's just not exciting action. Additionally, as expected, this is not a character-driven story. Instead, the central characters serve as the key narrators whose roles are to drive the plot forward by providing details and action. These characters, however, need to be engaging to keep the reader interested and invested enough to care about what happens to them. It is unfortunate then that I never came to care for Captain Prudence Falling.

Prudence is a cold, paranoid, self-centered character who doesn't change by the end of the story -- even when we are told she does, I didn't quite believe in her. Her paranoia boosts her skills as a Captain and gives her good insight. However, there are mixed signals given about this character -- telling and not showing. For example, in my opinion, Prudence's attitude toward her crew says a lot about her. Despite attempts to keep her distance, Pru has supposedly found a "family" with her crew, and is particularly attached to simple-minded Jor whom she mothers. But, there is a disconnect there because one minute she's protective of him and the next she's using or willing to sacrifice Jor to save herself.

Kyle's personality traits match Pru's in that he is cold, calculating and paranoid. He is also willing to sacrifice others, but in his case it is so that he may complete his mission to keep his home planet, Altair Prime, safe. A man with a purpose and nothing to lose, Kyle is dangerous but I also found him to possess warmth and a conscience. Unfortunately, his paranoia is so extreme at this point that at times throughout the story, his way of processing information and working through possible political and personal ramifications become a confusing, frustrating mess. The "romantic" touch in this space opera is awkward with Kyle and Prudence developing an almost instant, and not entirely understandable, attachment for each other.

The thing is that the premise for the mystery plot in The Kassa Gambit worked well enough to keep me reading. And I believe that although this book is lacking in those small details that make a space opera shine, if I had thought of it as entertaining, light science fiction, it may have worked for me. I particularly liked a few of the secondary characters that provide Prudence and Kyle with information while they jump from planet to planet, the fast paced evolution of the story, and the twisty revelations and resolutions Planck uses in the end.

Category: Science Fiction
Series: None
Publisher/Release Date: Tor Books/January 8, 2013

The 2014 Sci-Fi Experience

TBR Review: All She Wants for Christmas (Kent Brothers #1) by Jaci Burton

The theme for the TBR Challenge this month is Holiday Books, any holiday. I've had the Kent Brothers' Trilogy by Jaci Burton in my Kindle for a long time, some longer than others. I read all three, but in the end decided to review Book #1, All She Wants for Christmas.

Big Star, Small-town Christmas

Country singer Riley Jensen would never have returned to her small Missouri hometown if her publicist hadn’t come up with the scheme to tape a Christmas special there. So she never would have known that the man who broke her heart at eighteen—causing her to flee to Nashville—was now a widower with a seven-year-old daughter. Riley has ten years of angst-filled hit songs and Grammy awards to prove she doesn’t need Ethan Kent. But suddenly, she can’t help thinking of all she gave up by running away…

Ethan Kent knew Riley had the talent and the drive to make it as a singer. He also knew she wasn’t going anywhere if she stayed in their nowhere town for him. Then one night and one huge mistake sent her running on the road to fame. Which doesn’t mean he ever stopped loving her…

But with so much separating them, can Riley and Ethan find their way back together one magical country Christmas?

I read a few reviews after reading this novella and there seems to be a bias against it because there's a question of cheating involved in the plot, but in my opinion this is a great example of "read the book and make up your own mind."

Riley and Ethan were high school sweethearts. Broken hearted, Riley ran away to Nashville the day after she found Ethan in bed with her best friend Amanda. Riley's songs about betrayal and broken hearts garnered her fame and fortune. Ten years later, the famous country singer is reluctantly returning home to tape a television special, and the last person she wants to see is Ethan. Riley finds an Ethan who is a fantastic single father and takes his share of the responsibility for what happened that night long ago. Ethan never stopped loving Riley and knowing she fulfilled her potential is satisfying, but he doesn't expect understanding or forgiveness and knows that seeing her again is not a good idea.

Throughout this novella, Jaci Burton utilizes Ethan's adorable daughter, his family, and people from her hometown to bring Riley back into the fold and to set up a small town holiday atmosphere. More importantly, deep conversations between Ethan and Riley give them the opportunity to connect again and to dig into a past that hurt everyone involved. Taking into account the page count, Amanda's betrayal, Ethan's guilt-ridden life, and Riley's heart break and tendency to run are all well addressed. Additionally, the sexual tension and chemistry between this couple works and in the end the romance is holiday sweet.

From the personal perspective, however, I did have niggles along the way. The reasons behind Amanda's betrayal are explained by Ethan and I wish there had been another way of learning that truth. Ethan's actions when he was an eighteen year-old young man did not bother me as much as Amanda's for good reason, but the fact that as an adult he continued to live a guilt-ridden life without love, did. And, I don't know if I would have been as understanding as Riley about certain facts that arose along the way.

This novella is first and foremost about getting down to the truth of what happened ten years before between Ethan and Amanda so that there can be forgiveness between Riley and Ethan. I say that because there is no question from the beginning that chemistry and deep love still exists between Ethan and Amanda. All She Wants for Christmas was a mixed bag read for me, with enjoyable moments and a well-developed plot, but with some personal niggles that I couldn't seem to set aside.

Category: Contemporary Romance/Christmas Holiday
Series: Kent Brothers Series, #1
Publisher/Release Date: Carina Press/December 6, 2010
Grade: B-

Series:
All She Wants For Christmas, #1
A Rare Gift, #2
The Best Thing, #3

Spotlight: Ursula K. Le Guin & The Hainish Cycle Series

About the Author: Ursula K. Le Guin is the author of more than 100 short stories, 2 collections of essays, 4 volumes of poetry, and 18 novels. Her best known fantasy works, the Books of Earthsea, have sold millions of copies in the U.S., the U.K., and have been translated into sixteen languages. Her first major work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness, is considered epoch-making in the field of its radical investigation of gender roles and its moral and literary complexity.

Three of Le Guin's books have been finalists for American Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize and among the many honors her writing has received are a National Book Award, five Hugo Awards, five Nebula Awards, the Kafka Award, a Pushcart Prize, and the Howard Vursell Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

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In the two science fiction books I read by Le Guin, (The Birthday of the World and The Left Hand of Darkness) she seemed to be significantly deliberate in her presentation of race, gender, culture, and social identity. Her characters, in their majority, are racially and culturally diverse, and the examination and exploration of gender roles and sexual identity take center stage. This exploration largely extends to include the psychological and sociological impact that effects individuals as they first interact with diverse indigenous populations, different environmental issues, cultures, and political structures. In some of her stories the cultural exchange shocks one side, however in others, it has the reverse effect and/or is experienced by both sides.

In the introduction to the above mentioned books, Le Guin refers to some of her stories as "thought experiments." I can see why, and believe that she seems to have found the perfect niche to conduct those experiments within the Science Fiction genre. From what I've read so far, I think of her work as social science fiction, although I understand that she's not fond of labels. However, if like me, you are just beginning to familiarize yourself with Le Guin, then I believe there is a need to point out that her science fiction is not composed of epic space battles or fast paced action. Instead, I found that her books are masterful pieces of science fiction written in gorgeous prose, with stories that will make you think, and then think again.

Hainish Cycle Series
Rocannon's World*, 1966
Planet of Exile*, 1966
City of Illusions*, 1967
The Left Hand of Darkness, 1969 (Hugo and Nebula Award Winner)
The Dispossessed, 1974 (Nebula, Hugo, Locus Award Winner)
The Word for World is Forest, 1976 (Hugo Award, best novella)
Four Ways to Forgiveness, 1995 (Four Stories of the Ekumen)
The Telling, 2000 (Locus SF Award, Endeavour Award)

In the Hainish Cycle series, for example, Le Guin conducts her "thought experiments" by utilizing a whole galaxy of worlds inhabited by different civilizations descended from humans originally born in Terra. Throughout the centuries the inhabitants of these worlds have evolved, sometimes physically to adapt to their environment, but more significantly these civilizations have established different cultural and social structures. Using Le Guin's own words, she has constructed a "loose world" in which a galactic civilization composed of different planets are connected by a central organization called the Ekumen. Le Guin describes Ekumen as a "non-directive, information-gathering consortium of worlds, which occasionally disobeys its own directive to be non-directive."

The Hainish are first and foremost observers and collectors of information about other civilizations -- they learn, absorb, integrate, and as a result grow individually and collectively. Their way is not to interfere with the development of the diverse cultures encountered, instead the Ekumen organization first sends out teams of observers to inhabited worlds to learn language, general culture and assess whether the indigenous population is ready to join their galactic civilization in the trade of goods, advanced technology and education. This process may take centuries. Once readiness is established an envoy or "mobile" is deployed to make first contact and to record his experiences. If the first "mobile" fails, they may send another one later on.

The Hain and their Ekumen travel through space and communicate instantaneously through a device called the "ansible." However, although advanced technology is used, they do not possess that of faster-than-light travel. This combination of slow travel with fast communication gives the worlds within the galactic Ekumen organization the ability to trade, but it also keeps the worlds isolated and independent from each other. So there are no nitty gritty details of advanced technologies, instead Le Guin gives the reader enough information to sweep them along with her "mobiles" as they travel and experience different alien worlds, giving her the opportunity of putting into play the exploration of race, gender roles and sexual identity, culture, and social identity, as well as the psychological and sociological impact, I mention above.

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I've had The Dispossessed (1974) in my Kindle for a while, but I decided to explore Le Guin's work through short stories (just a taste first, I thought). As a result, I began reading this series from back to front and then proceeded by picking up a book out of sequence.

I picked up The Birthday of the World: and Other Stories (2002) first, a collection of short stories of which six of the eight are connected to the Hainish Cycle series. I read the first two stories plus the last one, stopped reading the collection, picked up The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), went back to the collection and was hooked. Now, I have the entire series in my possession (some in print and others in ebook format) and hope to read as many books as I can this winter (in order!).

My December posts will all become part of my participation in the 2014 Sci-Fi Experience hosted by Stainless Steel Droppings.


*The Worlds of Exile and Illusion omnibus contains the first three novellas of the Hainish Cycle series: Rocannon's World, Planet of Exile, and City of Illusions.