New Book Alert: Slipstream (Book 1 of The Slipstream Series) by Alice Godwin; Strange and Lovely Mixture of Science Fiction and Fantasy Found in Travel Through Cyberspace

 

New Book Alert: Slipstream (Book 1 of The Slipstream Series) by Alice Godwin; Strange and Lovely Mixture of Science Fiction and Fantasy Found in Travel Through Cyberspace

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Slipstream by Alice Godwin is a very odd, strange, but somehow lovely mixture of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Thanks to the ability for one character to travel through dimensions and cyberspace, these genres have the ability to exist side by side, sometimes at the exact same time.

Jo, a detective, is investigating the death of a woman that seems to be connected to the Rapturists, a religious cult that disappeared at the turn of the century but has returned. During Jo's investigation, she encounters Connor, a stranger with a close connection to the deceased.

Meanwhile, Raven, a young woman, is investigating her ability to physically travel through the web. Many can in this book, but what makes Raven different is that she can do it without a device. Because of this, she is sensitive to electromagnetic pulses around her and can see various realities shift around her side by side. She can see figures from what she calls the slipstream when others cannot.

Halo, a Japanese immigrant, just left his family and is settling down with a pushy and persistent girlfriend, Azura.

 While going out, he encounters Raven after one of her slipstream encounters.  Halo learns Raven's backstory that she is considered a "Carnie," an orphan with no familial connections who steals codes and information to earn a living. He is attracted to her and wants to help her.

Eventually, these plots converge and are revealed to be connected. They offer more details to Raven's history and abilities.

By far the most interesting character in this book is Raven. Her powers are explored to their fullest and while Science Fiction in origin seems almost to border on Fantasy and Magic in their presentation. 

One of her travels is to an in-between world that she calls Ghostlands (where she floats around like a spirit). There she encounters a leonine creature that she calls Ceriful. Ceriful acts as a guide through these alternate realities, but his behavior is ambiguous whether he is helping or hurting Raven.

After receiving a tapestry from and growing closer to Halo, Raven has slipstreams in which she encounters fairies and unicorns. It's fascinating that Raven's version of Slipstreaming often involves fantasy and magical characters.

If you think about it, Raven's interest in the fantastic makes sense. She is a young woman with no known family. She was forced to mature at a young age and lives in a futuristic society where magic and fantasy is no longer valued. Slipstreaming is Raven's way of living in a world of the impossible, to capture the magical aspects of fairy tales and legends that she could not find in the physical world. Slipstream helps Raven find a measure of power and control to these narratives that she is deprived from.

In a way, Raven is like a futuristic Anne Shirley, a girl with no biological family and a fully developed imagination who can't always separate fantasy from reality. Though Raven's slipstreaming gives her the ability to interact with them in a way that Anne was unable to.

For the imaginative Bookworm, or Science Fiction or Fantasy geek, slipstreaming would seem like an ultimate thrill. It seems like a way to literally travel through cyberspace and into the imaginative dream worlds that exist in our minds.

However, through Raven's experiences, the Reader learns that slipstream can be a curse. Raven can't always control where she goes or what appears before her. She is sometimes attacked by her own mental demons to the point that she is in danger of succumbing to insanity. 

We also learn her history in which she has been targeted and experimented on from the time that she was born. Even her family has been the target of experiments that resulted in her astronomical powers. 

The end results of the experiments on Raven are a frightened embittered woman with an amazing ability to see into different worlds and dimensions but can't trust her own mind.

New Book Alert: Merchants of Knowledge and Magic (The Pentagonal Dominion) by Erika McCorkle; Unique World Building Is The Highlight of This Odd Unforgettable Epic Fantasy

 

New Book Alert: Merchants of Knowledge and Magic (The Pentagonal Dominion) by Erika McCorkle; Unique World Building Is The Highlight of This Odd Unforgettable Epic Fantasy 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Of the various worlds in Epic Fantasy that I visited this year (and there were many), among the most evocative, unique, and intriguing is The Pentagonal Dominion in Erika McCorkle's Merchants of Knowledge and Magic.

It is the strangest, most bizarre, most fantastic world that I have come across in some time.

The plot, or rather plots, are mostly slight. They involve a pair of merchants hired by various people throughout the book to find someone or retrieve something for some greater purpose. The missions aren't fully connected and they don't really seem to add up to anything important, at least not in this volume anyway.

 The book's structure is in loose anthology form as each mission is introduced separately and equal time is given for the characters to resolve that mission. Then that assignment usually leads them head (or heads) first into the next assignment or adventure.

Instead, Merchants of Knowledge and Magic's strongest virtues are in character, setting, and world building. In fact the main purpose of the various missions is to introduce the Readers to this strange new world. Since it is a world that captures the imagination and is impossible to forget,  I would say "Mission Accomplished."

 Every character and setting seems to come from someone's weirdest fever dreams or nightmares. Boy, is it ever a crazy oddball fever dream that we stumbled into.

The two Merchants in question are Calinthe Erytrichos and Zakuro "Pom" Rathmusen, the eponymous Merchants of Knowledge and Magic respectively. They are a very fascinating pair. 

Calinthe is half-Ulese and half-Odonata, species that many believe can't reproduce until they meet her. She has green skin, wings, and is intersex (though prefers she/her pronouns). Calinthe is a Mind volkhv which means that she can obtain knowledge. She often interrogates suspects with a game of Eight Questions in which they have to tell the truth (though they aren't above using certain points of view or telling half-truths to cover up information). 

 Zakuro has four arms, dark skin, and is  a Godblood, which means that she is descended from gods. She is practiced in various magical abilities such as making herself invisible or shape shifting. She was isolated by her abusive mother and had barely encountered non-deities until she met and fell in love with Calinthe.

The two travel together to do various assignments as Calinthe obtains information while Zakuro serves as a bodyguard and protector using her magic to help or hide them if things go badly. They earn money by trading magic and knowledge as currency.

Already this book stands out from many other Epic Fantasies and Science Fiction because of the lack of humanoid characters. Many times authors insert characters who are human in appearance as though their imaginations couldn't conceive of a world where humans, or species resembling humans, don't exist. With neither of her two leads being human, McCorkle stretches the imagination by looking through the perspectives and lifestyles of different creatures and species that are different from those who are reading it.

Calinthe and Zakuro aren't the only unique characters that this book encounters. We first encounter the duo as they walk into a bar which has a Kraken bartender and a Werewolf suspect that they have to interview. (Sounds like a bad joke from another dimension). Things go awry when the Kraken gets stabbed by the nervous Wolf.

One of the characters that they meet in the bar is Paivi Valkoinen, who may be a spy or a deserter from the powerful Aloutian military. One of Paivi's unique traits is that her belly is hollow and can be used to store objects which are chilled or warmed by her body temperature. So yes she is in fact a walking cooler (which excites Zakuro since they can have an ongoing supply of ale). 

That's nothing however. Calinthe's father is so large that her mother and sometimes she can travel inside his abdomen. (Take from that what you will).

Many of the settings are also unique. People can travel from dimension to dimension and gravity is different on each one. A person who is considered thin in one place can be weighed down by the gravity in another one.

One of those places is Ophidia, a misandrist society in which women are considered superior and men, intersex, neuter, and non-binary species are looked down upon. Calinthe hates the place and has to hide her intersex qualities whenever they visit (including a newly growing appendage which is synonymous with a penis). 

Their arrival attracts two sisters, The Ryuugas: Requiem, a white skinned purple haired biped-bibranch and  Sayuri,a reptilian Orochijan, with thin vertical pupils and a forked tongue. Oh yeah and they travel with horses who can change their shapes into bipedal forms. The Ryuugas  want to leave Ophidia even though they are members of the ruling class because it's a "f$#@d up country that treats men like mud and sludge." So they tag along with and befriend Calinthe and Zakuro.

The strangeness in character and setting is only augmented by the Pentagonal Dominion's pantheon of demons and gods. While most Earth pantheons acknowledge their deities' offbeat qualities (like Zeus' womanizing, Loki's tricks, or The Morrigan's association with death), the gods in these worlds come right out and admit their infallibility with their titles. They are rich with names like Lord Selfishness and the Lord of Ignorance. 

Lord Williford, the Lord of Ignorance, is a particularly memorable deity in that he acts less like a god and more like the lovable storytelling drunk at the bar. He uses Welsh slang terms like "ditty" for little and "tidy" for nice. He also uses profanity and is more interested in carnal pleasures and being sarcastic than in being a positive vessel for his mortal followers. He is hilarious and fits right in with the rest of the Pentagonal Dominions' weirdness. 

Despite or maybe because of the strange world building embedded in Merchants of Knowledge and Magic, the book surprisingly has a lot of emotions and heart.

In one chapter while they are in Ophidia, Zakuro and Paivi try to end slavery by killing slavers and slaves much to Calinthe's chagrin. The decisions that the three are faced with are ethical ones in which the characters debate whether they should put their personal experiences and safety over the greater good and whether using violence to prevent injustice causes more problems than helps.

Zakuro and Calinthe also show strong love and devotion towards each other particularly when they encounter their families. After a heartbreaking conversation with her abusive mother, Zakuro is cut off, feeling like she doesn't have a family. Calinthe takes her on a detour from their current assignment to visit Calinthe's loving parents so Zakuro could feel loved and accepted and they could adopt her as a second daughter.

In one of the most traumatic sections, Calinthe is forced into slavery for several chapters. Her narration reveals the pain and anguish, particularly when she goes from referring to her masters by name to the title of "Master" in her narration. She goes from a free spirited, independent, intelligent, intersex Merchant of Knowledge with lovers and friends to a passive, dependent, traumatized victim who isn't sure if she ever had anyone love her. It is a striking heart wrenching transformation that suggests that it will take some time in the next volume for her to recover, if she ever does.

Merchants of Knowledge and Magic is a masterful novel of world building which offers unique characters and settings that are strange but also believable. Because of that, this is one of the Best Books of 2022.

Weekly Reader: Mysterious Aisles (The South Hertling Chronicles Book 1) by B.G. Hilton; Hilarious Send Up of Superheroes, Ghosts, Conspiracy Theories, and Stores That Are Actually the Den of Evil

 

Weekly Reader: Mysterious Aisles (The South Hertling Chronicles Book 1) by B.G. Hilton; Hilarious Send Up of Superheroes, Ghosts, Conspiracy Theories, and Stores That Are Actually the Den of Evil

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Last year, I thought that Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys by B.G. Hilton was one of the craziest, weirdest novels that I ever read. A Steampunk Science Fiction Adventure novel, it had a madman who wanted to destroy the moon, bat and badger like aliens living on Earth and assimilated into typical English citizens, Irish pirates ready to take out English nobility, a stage magician with a wand that had real magical powers, and a dowager noblewoman who used her nobility as a secret identity for her real self as one of Britain's most renowned crime stoppers.

Now, having read Hilton's Mysterious Aisles (The South Hertling Chronicles Book 1), I have come to realize that Champagne Charlie and the Amazing Gladys was simply the warm up act. Mysterious Aisles dials up the crazy, weird, bizarre, and silly up to eleven. This book is brimming with supervillains and heroes, drunken ghosts, demigods, conspiracy theorists, magic portals, and a store that is actually a den of all evil.

 Refrain from the obvious (and somewhat accurate) Wal-Mart and Amazon jokes. For once, it isn't about them.

If you peer close enough and I'm talking with a magnifying glass peering very very closely, you might find a coherent plot in this book. At least in all of the madness in Champagne Charlie and the Amazing Gladys, there is something of an actual engaging and suspenseful story involved. With Mysterious Aisles, it's more of a string of random weirdness, one silly goofy event and character after another that gets sillier and goofier as the book continues. By the end, I expected The Colonel from Monty Python's Flying Circus to show up, break the fourth wall, and say this book is too silly.

But plot is not what we come for in these books. We come for the funny and the weird. That's what this book delivers. Boy, does it deliver.

The main protagonist of Mysterious Aisles is Axel Platzoff, AKA Professor Devistato, a retired supervillain. His days of plotting world domination are over and now he works at the Handy Pavilion, a hardware and outdoor enthusiast store. Unfortunately, Axel's customers include Captain Stellar, Axel's former archenemy who is now going into maudlin detail after his boyfriend dumped him. Stellar and Axel's relationship is less of a villain/ hero and more like two acquaintances turned reluctant friends who see each other and bicker all the time. It's similar to the animated series, The Venture Bros which also shows superheroes and villains having reluctant friendships with each other when off the clock or during retirement. 

Besides Axel, Handy Pavilion is also staffed by other specimens of weirdness. There's Laura, a new hire, who after an accident becomes the new superhero on the block. Bruce, a former contractor, who now haunts the store as a ghost, a drunk foul-mouthed ghost. Zorbar Ofthechimps, a staff member, was raised by chimps. Gwen Harper has a magical connection to wood. Angela and Sadie McGregor, twins who take the good twin/bad twin dichotomy to the next level. Buck Dusty, a wannabe cowboy, works in power tools and has a lot of knowledge of different dimensions. Karl Wintergreen, owner of a nearby stationary shop, writes a business newsletter that is actually filled with his conspiracy theories about the Illuminati and the Trilateral Commission. Norman, a young employee, has divine family connections. Seamus, a garden gnome, comes to life during the full moon. Nalda, a killer cyborg from the future, works in Arts and Crafts. Did I mention this store was weird?

Besides the weirdness within, there's also weirdness outside. Handy Pavilion is in frequent rivalry with the nearby DIY Barn. Rather than the conventional means like sales, business acquisition, and better advertising, this corporate rivalry is more like war between countries. The stores resort to such means as kidnapping and explosions to cut the competition.

 It turns out that DIY Barn is actually DIY Evil because it apparently is a trans-dimensional portal that welcomes evil  demons, spirits, and  so on. Handy Pavilion has to battle for more than just awesome savings and friendly customers. They have to battle for souls.

Both DIY and Handy have their go to person to commit the nastier deeds. DIY has the Phantasm, a mysterious figure (who ends up being not really that mysterious)  who covertly spies on and sabotages the Handy Pavilion staff (though really not that covertly).  Many of Handy's more ruthless endeavors are overseen by Axel, who even though he is officially retired from the supervillain game, is glad to put his talents to good or bad use.

Mysterious Aisles is a book that has a joke on just about every chapter and page. Some don't make sense and don't have to. They just have to be very funny and they are. It's the kind of book where when Handy Pavilion needs the assistance of a plumber, two somewhat familiar characters appear. Two sisters named Maria and Luigina. I said somewhat familiar. 

We also learn that Norman is the most recent child of Zeus. Isn't it nice to know after thousands of years, the king of the Greek gods still can't keep it in his robe? All of these character traits add to the overall humor.

There are also hilarious interactions between characters. When Stellar is drunk and heartbroken about his recent breakup, Axel comes up to him and the two act less like opposite sides of good vs. evil and more like the last two guys to exit the bar during last call.

My favorite interaction is Karl's Newsletters which are supposed to mostly be accounts of local business news and sales but are really just platforms for his craziest conspiracy theories that are then edited and mostly redacted by Claudia, his hapless editor. Karl and Claudia's war of words is uproarious particularly when Karl personally insults her and she comments "Redact this!" Then she leaves a particularly damning accusatory conspiracy theory in just so she can sit back and see what happens.

Then there are the moments that mock the entire plot and the conventions of the genre that this book is in.

One character goes into an overly long diatribe about how the store rivalry is only a small part in a larger plan. Unfortunately, this character's rambling is so boring and confusing that the others (and the narration) lose interest. Something tells me that come Book 2, they are going to wish that they had paid attention.

Mysterious Aisles is what it is. It's crazy, weird, and hilarious. It's not to be taken seriously. Just taken with a good sense of humor and a huge pound of salt. You're going to need them.