Blue Diablo / Ann Aguirre

Blue Diablo

category: fantasy, romance, author:

Ann Aguirre

book 1 of Corine Solomon
original copyright 2009,
read in Sep 2011

Agamedes' opinion:7 out of 10

Now that's interesting... I selected the categories for this book: fantasy, romance. Then had second thoughts.

Is this really fantasy?

Is Blue Diablo fantasy? Or is it horror...

I changed the categories. "Fantasy, romance" became "horror, romance". Then I changed my mind again... back to, "fantasy, romance". The fantasy is fantastic -- but perhaps a bit too brutal. Is it slipping into horror? Time to check Wikipedia...

Horror fiction is a genre of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. (Wikipedia, 29 Sep 2011)

Yes, Blue Diablo could frighten its readers. If the readers were sweet innocents who had not grown up on graphic computer games and violence in tv news. If the readers could believe that evil could possibly conquer a heroine who worries that her arse is too big, or a hero who could probably crack walnuts on his abs. If the readers would have feelings of horror and terror when it's revealed that the villain is the person who has very shifty eyes and an evil sneer...

Yes, it's that obvious!

To be more accurate I should say that this book is "romance, fantasy/horror". It is a romance. With a plot based on fantasy or horror themes, take your pick. In the genre of Twilight and True Blood. With the be-still-my-beating-heart feel of Twilight. The beautiful yet insecure southern heroine of True Blood but without the tie-me-up-and-whip-me-please approach to "love".

Corine Solomon -- the heroine of Diablo -- is sweet and uncertain but with a tough and independent centre. She's a slave to her hyperactive hormones -- but attempts to fight back with realism and logic. Of course, her hormones will win -- and be right :-)

. . .

Perhaps I just haven't noticed it before... Perhaps a heavy back-story has been used for many years. Perhaps it's just that I have only noticed it in relatively recent books: Blue Diablo -- apparently the first Corine Solomon novel -- is written as though it is book two. At least, for the first half.

The heroine is constantly referring to past adventures. I began to wonder, Have I missed book one? Yet by the end of the book, all is clear. The back-story is merged into the current action; merged in smaller chunks than I am used to.

I have struck that before, in just five or six other novels: a back-story which is referred to as though it were an already-published prequel. Diablo makes it all clear by the end. Of the others, perhaps half left me wondering. And for one, there was an already-published prequel...

So this book is a heavy breathing, should I shouldn't I, which incredible hunk is my true love, sort of book. Set in a fantasy world of modern America with warlocks and other magic.

The body count rises rapidly at the end. The blood flows, flesh is splattered. The evil warlock uses magic to support the modern evil of sex slavery. The violence is cartoonish but it is not kids' stuff.

Yet the key conflict remains unsettled, waiting on book two, or three, or... The key conflict? Will the heroine ever get back with her one true love...

Ah shucks :-)

btw: I passed this book to a young woman who needed a light book to fill an idle hour. She commented, Yes, it's good. Very tight.

So Blue Diablo may, in fact, be a tightly written novel. But I don't worry about that.

I enjoyed the book. That's what PissWeakly reviews are all about: Did I enjoy it?

I enjoyed reading Blue Diablo. You may, too.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

Dark Space / Marianne de Pierres

Dark Space

category: science fiction, author:

Marianne de Pierres

book 1 of Sentients of Orion
original copyright 2007,
read in September 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

Complex, violent and well-imagined. An interesting world and one which is not really missed when it is mostly destroyed...

Lots of characters. Most have a part to play -- though some do not. Yet. This is clearly book one of... several. It does, however, stand by itself.

Lots going on, it takes a while to follow the various characters. After a while it gets clearer.

Still, there is -- perhaps -- too much going on. It does make for an interesting book. It could have been simplified... perhaps.

This book can be read by itself; there is a satisfying conclusion. Really, though, it is very clearly a book which is meant to be read as, part one of... several.

..o0o..

These reviews are provided by Agamedes Consulting. For an independent and thoughtful review of your processes, problems or documents, email nickleth at gmail dot com.

The Venus Series / Edgar Rice Burroughs

Pirates of Venus
and
Lost on Venus

category: space opera, author:

Edgar Rice Burroughs

book 1 & 2 of The Venus Series
original copyright 1932, 1933,
read in September 2011 (and before, in 1997)

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

Carson Napier makes a one way trip to Venus... How does his story get back to Earth? Luckily for us, Carson was taught telepathy...

Amtor (or Venus, as we call it) is populated by humans, near-humans and sub-humans. Evolution on Amtor follows a similar path to that on Earth, with the human form being top of the evolutionary ladder. The good humans look good and the bad humans have shifty eyes.

The jungles of Amtor are populated by wild beasts -- mostly ferocious, mostly bad-tempered. There are many harmless beasts but they are generally eaten then forgotten. Only the vicious killers get more than a page of description!

These adventures on Amtor are full of heroic acts and incredible coincidences...

Do androids dream of electric sheep? / Philip K. Dick

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

category: science fiction, author:

Philip K. Dick

original copyright 1968,
read in September 2011 (and before, in Feb 05)

Agamedes' opinion: 5 out of 10

Sadly dated.

Or, perhaps, it's just me...

In 1968 -- when Androids was written -- perhaps I would have agreed with Dick, that the world was going downhill fast. That nuclear war, lifelike androids and interplanetary migration were just around the corner. That by 1992 emotional control and telepathic empathy would be implemented and automated. By 1992!

Perhaps it is just me. Perhaps I have changed.

As I started to read Androids I thought, What a gloomy world. What an extreme case of all that is bad overcoming all that is... well... better. I seem to have a less negative view of the future of humanity.

Not a positive view. Just, less negative.

Turn Coat / Jim Butcher

Turn Coat

category: fantasy, author:

Jim Butcher

book 11 of the Dresden Files
original copyright 2009,
read in Sep 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 8 out of 10

With each Dresden Files book, Butcher adds complexity -- and danger. Not quite the right word... Let me explain.

The plots have always been somewhat complex: these books are detective mystery fantasy. The complexity is added by the scope of characters.

Dresden works in modern Chicago. With various "fantasy" realms which add magic to the mix. Each novel stands alone but each novel adds to the background. In Dresden's world you can't simply say, this is a Vampire problem... It's, Which group of Vampires? How does it affect the Wizard Council? Will the Faerie get involved? etc, etc, etc.

I have not read all of the Dresden Files, so some references go over my head. Doesn't matter, there is sufficient explanation in this book. I suspect, however, that it would not be wise to read this book -- eleventh in the series -- as your first Dresden novel. It would be like joining a tv soap opera in the middle of its third season...

Hunter's Run / George R.R. Martin et al

Hunter's Run

category: science fiction, author:

George R.R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Daniel Abraham

original copyright 2007,
read in Sep 2011 (and before, in Feb 2009)

Agamedes' opinion: 7 out of 10

In its first 20 or so pages this book would normally have been ringing serious warning bells. Bad book, bad book, bad book. However, I also remembered that I had read this book before -- and enjoyed it. So what was... almost... so bad?

• The hero starts the book with no knowledge of who or where he is. Bad sign. The reader can expect to be confused. Even worse, the hero doesn't know how he got to his current position. Warning: confusing flashbacks dead ahead...
• The hero is Mexican. A "non middle-class white American" sometimes works... but is often just... because. In an author's note Dozois had read, "Where is the space hero who is Mexican?" and thought, "that was a fair question." So, although he "didn't know much about Mexican culture," he decided to make his hero a Mexican. This token Mexicanism should scare the sensitive reader...
• The hero has just killed someone in a knife fight. The reader is lead to wonder, Who will he kill next?
• Final danger sign: there are three authors. The first is George RR Martin. The same author who put his name to Busted Flush -- a comic book which forgot to include the explanatory pictures.

Despite all this... Hunter's Run is not too bad at all.

Sure, the introduction -- called an "Overture", for no good reason; there is no musical theme to the book -- the introduction is set a few solid steps into the plot. We then flash back... and forward... and back... and... Anyway,

The Uplift War / David Brin

The Uplift War

category: science fiction, author:

David Brin

book 3 of Uplift
original copyright 1987,
read in July 2011 (and before, several years ago)

Agamedes' opinion: 9 out of 10

We were heading off on holiday. I needed a book to read... (Never be caught with an hour to spare and no book to read!) Picked up The Uplift War...

What a great book! Just as much fun as the first time I read it. And that was long enough ago that the book was still able to surprise me. (Mind you, even when I immediately re-read a book -- I am surprised by how much I missed the first time!)

Unfortunately... I then read another book on that holiday. Came home to re-start yet another... And failed to review Uplift.

So memory has faded.

There was action and adventure. Suspense and humour. Excellent Earthlings -- of several species -- and believable aliens. All tied into a universe so exciting -- so full of possibility -- that you just wish it were true...

Though there is one... over-riding... problem:

Nimisha's Ship / Anne McCaffrey

Nimisha's Ship

category: science fiction, romance, author:

Anne McCaffrey

original copyright 1998, read in September 2011

Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10

McCaffrey at her sweetest...

It's an easy book to read... as long as you can stand saccharine! Well, no, not that bad. But really:

A wormhole in space is swallowing spaceships. The ships get damaged in transit and -- at best -- land heavily. On unknown and highly dangerous planets. Crew and passengers die horribly as they learn the dangers of their new home...

Until Nimisha arrives.

Nimisha has a brand new spaceship which she designed and (almost) built by herself. So Nimisha and Nimisha's ship arrived undamaged and introduce themselves to the earlier castaways... And no-one else dies. Well, they can't die, because everyone is so nice.