New Book Alert: Rite Judgement: Heads Roll-Corpses Dance (The DaDa Detective Agency Book 2) by Pete Adams; Bizarre Farcical Absurd Mystery That Is Short on Plot But Long On Tone and Theme

 

New Book Alert: Rite Judgement: Heads Roll-Corpses Dance (The DaDa Detective Agency Book 2) by Pete Adams; Bizarre Farcical Absurd Mystery That Is Short on Plot But Long On Tone and Theme

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Pete Adams' Rite Judgement Heads Roll-Corpses Dance is the second book that I am reading this month that prefers to ignore the heart, slightly focus on the head, but heads straight for the funny bone. However, this and Lakshmi and The River of Truth take different approaches in their pursuit of laughter.

Lakshmi and The River of Truth was a savage biting political satire disguised as a fantasy. The satire is obvious as various characters and situations in this dream world are intentional parodies of people and events surrounding the real world.

Rite Judgement's humor is less abrupt and more fanciful and whimsical. While there are some satirical moments and hidden important themes, the characters and situations are absurd and farcical. There isn't as much of a recognizable plot as there are excuses to throw a bunch of odd silly things together to create a whole book that focuses on the silliness and bury important messages inside of it.. Let's put it this way, if Lakshmi and The River of Truth is Saturday Night Live, then Rite Judgement Heads Roll-Corpses Dance is Monty Python's Flying Circus. No one is better than the other. Both are hilarious, they just have different ways of making people laugh.

The main characters in Rite Judgement are former Police Detective Jack "Jane" Austen and his wife former Detective Superintendent Amanda "Mandy" Austen. Even though they are retired, they still thirst for adventure. That's why they formed the DaDa Detective Agency named for their other nicknames "Dick" for Jack (which Mandy jokes is perfect for him) and "Duck" for Mandy (which she objects to because she is not a bird and even if she were "why a f$#@_&g duck?"). 

The duo's latest case involves the appearance of St. Winifred, a martyred saint who has reappeared in modern day sans head. (Her head is on a conductor's stand.) As if it wasn't weird enough, the saint plays the violin and dances even though she's headless.

 Then there's a religious group called Umble Pie who is less than umble because they seem to be overly involved with the British government. There is also an actor posing as the Pope when the real deal ends up missing, a parrot that speaks Italian, and a goofy politician with the name of Pimple (yes you read that right) and his wife Crumpet. If you squint, you might be able to put these weird situations together and find a coherent plot.

The focus of the book is less on plot and more on tone.Situations happen that are too broad to be believable and the stabs at mystery solving are more resolved through contrived coincidence than any form of detection.

 In fact the main couple, Jack and Mandy Austen's disagreements and personal digs towards each other make them seem more like a sitcom couple than a pair of detectives. Jack is a pompous twit and Mandy's sarcasm brings him down to Earth. Think less Temperance Brennan and Seeley Booth from Bones and more Ray and Debra Barone from Everybody Loves Raymond uh with deductive reasoning and a license to investigate criminal activity of course.

Besides the humor of the bickering pair of crime solvers, the whole point of the book is not to have a straightforward mystery. Things don't have a linear structure. Conversations and incidents take place that have no real bearing in the overall narrative. 

The clue of the overall tone of the book is in the name, The DaDa Detective Agency. The name is a reference to the Dada Art Movement that began after WWI. Those involved with the movement rejected logic, aesthetics, and reason and embraced nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeois views in their works. Even the name itself was coined by using a baby's words evoking childishness and absurdity. 

The works included collages, sound poetry, cut up writing, and sculpture.

Artists in the movement included Hugo Ball, Max Ernst, Hannah Hoch, and Beatrice Wood among others.

 Dadaism was an influence on later movements like Surrealism, Abstract Art, Avant Garde, Pop Art, Nouveau Realism, and others. Chances are if it's a weird way of looking at the world, the Dadaists made it.

Rite Judgement is right in the Dadaist style. A headless dancing corpse is treated not as a miracle but more like a money making opportunity and a booking on reality television. It's a ridiculous moment made even more ridiculous because of the behavior of the people around it.

There are groups of Holy Hairdressers and another group called Fishers of Men (which the narrative tells us "does exactly what it says on the can.") Of course it's hard to take seriously an organization that controls everything called Umble Pie. 

If there is a point, Rite Judgement is mocking religious institutions and society's dependence on them. It also mocks how those institutions exploit their symbols with the intentions of gaining money, followers, and governmental power. The book just does it in a way that plays the laughs before the message.

There is another theme that is more subtle than religious exploitation: that of class conflict. There is a constant allusion to spring throughout the book, which heralds new beginnings, rebirth, and awakening from what is considered cold and dead.

 The Arab Spring anti-government uprisings in the Arab World, a grassroots campaign that was spread throughout social media, in the early 2010's is referred to.

Igor Stravinsky's composition Rite of Spring keeps coming in and out of the book like a motif. The composition was a ballet depicting primitive people engaging a ritual sacrifice on a young maiden.  (Fans of Disney's Fantasia may remember the composition in the animated segment depicting the evolution of Earth from the formation of the land to the death of the dinosaurs.) 

Reportedly, the Rite of Spring ballet was so controversial that riots broke out in protest and defense of it. Stravinsky's music was favored by many revolutionaries and considered the music of the Russian Revolution. 

The motif of Rite of Spring adds to the subtle theme of earlier conventions passing away and dying out to make way for newer ideals. That older constraints like class distinction, religious schisms, and oligarchy politics are not working. If they aren't working, then the book suggests that the way must be made for something new. A return to spring if you will.

All of this is hidden inside a book with a headless dancing saint. 

New Book Alert: Zodiac States by William Stalker; Brilliant Satire Pokes Fun at Politics, Socioeconomic Interdependence, and the Zodiac

New Book Alert: Zodiac States by William Stalker; Brilliant Satire Pokes Fun at Politics, Socioeconomic Interdependence, and the Zodiac

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Before I begin this review, I wish to express my condolences to the victims of the shootings in Gilroy, El Paso, and Dayton. No matter the affiliation, violence is never an answer. Neither is hatred, racism, and prejudice. May we find a way to see beyond hatred and look upon each other with respect, love, understanding, equality, and acceptance.

Spoilers: People who follow astrology and the signs of the Zodiac often study the characters of the various signs and the people born under them. Many can't help but notice that people born under certain signs share many personality traits and interests. They often attract certain kinds of people, work in certain jobs, and act in certain ways towards their parents and children. There are many books and memorabilia made about this concept.

Of course not everyone fits neatly in a category and there are always exceptions. So matching a Zodiac sign to a personality is not always accurate, but it is a fun past time as long as it Isn't taken too seriously.

The theme of matching something as complex as the human personality with something as arbitrary as a sign of the Zodiac is found in William Stalker's clever satire Zodiac States. Zodiac States satirizes several things like personality tests, human classification, segregation, gun use, corporate greed, feminism, toxic masculinity, religion, and just about everything else in between. No concept is safe from Stalker's biting wit.

Zodiac States begins the way many satires in the past such as Gulliver's Travels, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, or Brave New World, begins with an outsider looking inside a bizarre world. College student, Jack Rivers and his friend, Budd “Fort” Knox, a former Navy Seal, are on a mission to find Jack's girlfriend, Sylvia Darling and Sylvia's mother, Jean. Along the way, they meet Reverend Adam Gaines who is concerned that his parishioner, Jean, has fallen in a bad way.

The trio find themselves at the foot of the strange Universe Island where the Darlings were last seen. The Universe Island is separated into twelve states, the Zodiac States. Travelers can move from state to state along the Zodiac Road, but only people who were born under that specific astrological sign can live in their corresponding state and yes visitors have to bring records to show when they were born.

Like Jonathan Swift did with his Lilliputians, Brobingdangians, Laputans, Yahoos, and Houyinems, the Zodiac States stand in for different microcosms of modern society and are set up to satirize specific aspects. The Zodiac States are as follows (in order of their appearance in the book):

Leo-The bankers of the Zodiac States. All of its residents are wealthy money managers, and are in charge of the financial welfare of the other states. Many of the residents are arrogant Yuppies who try to outdo one another in cutthroat schemes to obtain more wealth. Their currency, solars, are used throughout the states and stored in Leo's banking system.

Cancer-The armory of the Zodiac States. It's like the Wild West because all of the resident sell, buy, and carry guns. Many of the residents are bad tempered and prone to violence. A gunfight is nearly always guaranteed to break out. The Cancerians also provide arms and weapons for the other states.

Virgo-The health care center of the Zodiac States. It is a matriarchal society in which women are the main leaders and decision makers. It has the best equipped hospital and the latest medical research, staffed and maintained entirely by women. Men born in Virgo have three choices: leave Virgo, remain in the Stadium where they can practice sports and play video games to their heart's content (a giant man cave), or remain with the women but be castrated.

Libra-The Intellectuals of the Zodiac States. The Librans live in a quasi-socialist city-state which is ruled by 15 representatives called Philosopher Kings. Money is dispersed evenly and education and health care are free. Libra trades alcoholic beverages (which are grown there in wineries and breweries) to the other states for services.

Scorpio-The astronomers of the States and among the strangest of the twelve. The Scorpions believe that they are descendants of aliens that arrived from a spaceship that crashed. The architecture is designed in a futuristic style. The residents study the stars awaiting the day when their alien forebears will return to take them to their home planet.

Sagittarius- The soldiers and celebrities of the Zodiac States. This one is a feudalistic style society. The Sagittarians are arranged by Nobles-Kings, queens, Lords, and ladies, townspeople-merchants and tradespeople, and serfs. Because of the rigorous training and chivalric nature, many of the Zodiac State's best soldiers are from there and are used in the other states for battles. Also, the elite nobles of Sagittarius set the trends in fame, fashion, and style for the others.

Capricorn-These residents live as hunters and gatherers. The Capricorns live in Native American-style tribes and remain close to nature, living close to the animals and plants. They also give unprocessed ore like gold and silver to the other states in exchange for solars.

Gemini -The communicators of the States. Everything runs in twos in this state and twins have special privileges. The residents are made up of two distinct societies, the Pubs and Crates who can’t agree on anything, so both sides rely on a supercomputer to feed them information. The supercomputer offers ludicrous suggestions like “kill all lawyers.” The Gemini provide information to the other states.

Aquarius- This chapter is my favorite because Aquarius is my birth sign. The Aquarians are psychedelic hippies perpetually stuck in the ‘60’s. (What did you expect for the “Age of Aquarius”?) The residents exchange drugs, listen to rock music, and live independent artistic lives. They trade drugs and crafts to other states for goods and services.

Aries-The businesspeople of the States. Aries is run like a corporation and is ruled by a CEO. Everybody in Aries drills, pumps, and sells oil to the other states. The residents live in houses, learn in schools, and worship in cathedrals owned by the CEO.

Pisces-The most spiritual of the States. It is like a New Age religious commune. The Pisceans meditate to the universe and believe that they have psychic abilities that are bestowed upon them by their ancestors. While they are spiritually centered, they are ineffective in battle (relying on stronger states for defense). However, the Pisces’ land contains many rich minerals and resources, such as oil, they offer to the other states.

Taurus-The warriors of the States. The Taureans are trained fighters and avid athletes. They are raised with the strictest discipline and fight against adversaries. They are often called to defend other states in times of great trouble.

The Zodiac States’ residents believe that theirs is the most important state and are either active rivals with or insult the members of other states with jokes and stereotypes. (“If you ask a Sagittarius what's new, they won't tell you,” jokes a Capricorn.) They are unaware that they live in an interdependent society in which each state needs the goods and services that the others provide. Tensions outside and within some of the states (such as Gemini’s fighting factions and the Leo families vying against each other) are boiling at the surface just waiting to explode and explode they do.


The characterization is not particularly strong in Zodiac States. The visitors are mostly tourists to act either appalled or seduced by how the different states operate. Some even find love interests that dwell in the Zodiac States.

There's a sinister character called Killer Joe who creates dissension in Cancer which is then spread to the other states putting them at war for……reasons. Though tension is so high among the twelve states, they don't need an outside instigator to entice them to do what they would eventually do on their own.

Of course the residents of the Zodiac States are all stereotypes, but that's who they are supposed to be. They live and exist within their own sign only acting as the people born under that sign are supposed to act with those assigned personality traits.

It's interesting that I am reading this book the same time that I am reading Unbalanced by Courtney Shepard, in which four women harness the power of the four elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. They also behave according to the traits that are associated with that element. In both Unbalanced and Zodiac States, the characters are weakened by their acceptance of only that sign or that element. It is only when they work together and realize that they are connected to each other, that they become stronger.

In Zodiac States that moment follows much violence, destruction, and infighting. The residents of the States finally recognize that connection and interdependence and accept each other as beings that contain more than just traits associated with the sign of their birth.

Zodiac States is a winning commentary about modern society and how many countries and people look down on and yet depend on each other for survival. It also shows that prejudices are found when people set themselves higher to the point that they look upon others as subhuman.

Once they remove the humanity from a rival or an enemy, it becomes easier to fight them. This book is a must-read comparison to our modern society when racism and violence are so prominent and how violence is often created when certain types of groups are thought of as stereotypical enemies.
When the humanity is removed, it becomes easier to do horrible things. When we start accepting and understanding others and realize how connected we truly are, then real healing and change can begin.

Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: Something Rotten (The Thursday Next Series Vol. IV) by Jasper Fforde; Return to Swindon Brims With Shakespearean Jokes and Comedy

Weekly Reader Thursday Next Edition: Something Rotten (The Thursday Next Series Vol. IV) by Jasper Fforde; Average Return to Swindon Brims With Shakespearean References and Comedy




By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews




Spoilers: On Jasper Fforde's website, he stated that when he wrote The Well of Lost Plots, that he missed writing about Swindon and Thursday Next’s eccentric family, so he had Thursday immediately leave Book World to return in the next book, Something Rotten.

Unfortunately, I am just the opposite. Swindon is nice and it's good to see some characters returning like Thursday's time-hopping father and her well-meaning but intrusive mum. As before with the books there are plenty of humorous moments, literary references, and strange situations. But darn it all, I miss Book World!

Anybody could write about a place like Swindon, anybody. It takes a true creative spirit like Fforde to take his and other literary characters and build an entire world around them with its creatures, rules, technology, and events. It's like coming down from the ultimate Imagination Trip or a high. You have been to this exciting colorful place that afterward seems like a let down.
It's not that Something Rotten is a bad book. It's great, but the Swindon setting is dull in comparison to the bright, imaginative, colorful Book World.


Anyway, Thursday misses her normal life in Swindon so after two years as the Bellman (leader in Book World), she returns to Swindon with her two-year-old son, Friday and memories of her still-eradicated husband, Landen. No sooner does she return to her hometown and her LiteraTec job in Spec Ops, than she as usual is hit with problems.

First, she has to bring Hamlet along so he can study how the various Outlander play productions and movies portray him. In his absence, the other characters in Hamlet revolt and write their own play called The Tragedy of the Not-At-All Boring Polonious, Father of the Noble Laertes, Who Avenged His Fair Sister Ophelia, Who Was Driven Mad by the Callousness of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Catchy title aside, the characters need a master copy and since one no longer exists Thursday has to find a clone of Shakespeare's to break up their revolution and set things straight with the characters.

St. Zvlkx, a friar from the 11th century has returned to Swindon and his prophecies are spot on including that something bad will happen after Swindon wins the Super Hoop Croquet Tournament. So Thursday and co. have to dust out their mallets and do some footwork on the croquet field.

The Goliath Corporation is suddenly declaring itself a religion and Yorrik Kaine, who had been a disgraced politician and a fictional escapee from Book World, now suddenly has gained a cult-like following and goes on a rampage against all things Danish (Don't ask.) including burning books by Danish authors. Not to mention that Landen is still eradicated and Thursday is the target of an assassin who kills by slapstick (No, really don't ask.)

Let's get the good stuff out of the way first. The way Fforde draws in Hamlet is pretty clever. According to Thursday, he is concerned that he is portrayed as a “ditherer” and he would worry even if he had nothing to worry about so he makes the most out of his trip to the Outland. He compares notes on various productions with his favorite being the Zeffirelli Film where he is played by Mel Gibson (“Horatio is played by Danny Glover, yes?”) He also spends some time flirting with Lady Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Lord Horatio Nelson who is staying in the Next home after a time traveling expedition gone awry.
Thursday also reveals a secret shared among book, author, and Reader. Everyone brings a little of themselves into what they read so each time they read a book, they experience it differently. “To each their own Hamlet,” she says.

Thursday deals with the various adventures with her usual cunning and resourcefulness, particularly when she is assigned to locate and destroy Danish books. She sends SpecOps agents in the wrong places (“The Danish Embassy is the first place they think we’ll look! Check the Singaporean Embassy instead!”) while gathering up all the Danish books by truck loads and sneaking them into the Socialist Republic of Wales. (By a stroke of luck, there also happens to be a Shakespeare clone in Wales so two of her problems are resolved.)

There is some great attempts at political satire with the character of Yorrik Kaine. A political figure with no previous experience suddenly luring followers against a select group and creating legions of fans who are mesmerized by his every word and swayed by his “off-the-cuff-he-tells-it-like-it-is” shtick may sound awfully familiar until you realize this book was published in 2004! Still, the parallels are so uncanny that this Reader wondered if Kaine’s followers wore hats that said “Make Swindon Great Again,” before they were considered cool.

There are parts that don't work so well. After the nuances and cleverness that Fforde gave to the various literary characters, the Swindon characters just aren't as interesting.

After three books, Thursday finally gets Landen back. But his return is so anticlimactic and his presence in the book is so minor that he may as well have stayed gone. 

There are a couple of new characters like St. Zvlkx and an assassin called the Windowmaker (a typo on the business card) that seem very Pythonesque in their characterizations. They have some interesting clever moments, but they are more set up as jokes, jokes that run thin after awhile. 

Many of the various plots and characters don't jell as well as they had in the first three books. They make a hodgepodge of ideas that don't go anywhere and aren't tied together very well. The less said about the croquet and Goliath-as-religion plots, the better.

Something Rotten was intended to be the final book in this tier of the Thursday Next series and it shows. Certain storylines are wrapped up and character's identities are revealed. One revelation appears odd at first, but it makes sense the more one thinks about it and answers several questions.
The other character revelation doesn't work quite so well because it leaves a large gaping plot hole about how another character didn't know about that person’s identity. Not only that but another possibility would have made a lot more sense.

Something Rotten is okay for a normal book series but when the previous three Thursday Next books were so creative, so clever, and so bursting with literariness and imagination, it becomes even more of a shame than it should be.