Intervention (The Galactic Milieu Series Book 1) by Julian May; How the Galactic Milieu Began

 

Intervention (The Galactic Milieu Series Book 1) by Julian May; How the Galactic Milieu Began

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Upon rereading The Galactic Milieu Series by Julian May, I came to a discovery that I never knew for decades: the series is not a trilogy. When I purchased the series in the late 90’s, it was advertised on the covers as a trilogy. I read it in order as a trilogy. It has a beginning, middle, and end, with some intriguing exposition and back story, as a trilogy. Everything about it screamed, “Read me, I'm a trilogy!” Well, it turns out that I was wrong. The Galactic Milieu Series is actually a four book series. 

Well depending on where or when you read it, the series is either a four or five book series. The actual first volume, Intervention was published in 1987 in the UK as one volume and in the US as two volumes: Surveillance and Metaconcert. The subsequent books, Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask, and Magnificat published in 1991, 1994, and 1996 respectively were released as a trilogy separate from Intervention at the time. Intervention has subsequently been rereleased as one volume and renumbered to fit the series proper. 

Oh and to make things even more interesting, I just learned that Intervention links The Galactic Milieu Series to May's earlier series, The Saga of Pliocene Exile. Even more important, some Milieu characters, most notably Marc Remillard, serve double duty in both series making them one continuous shared universe, The May Literary Universe or MLU if you will. Julian May loved to make things difficult for her readers didn't she? But I digress.

The good news is that the intriguing exposition and backstory hold up as a decent gatekeeping introduction to the rest of the Galactic Milieu Series. Intervention gives us important information about the Remillard Family, the Galactic Milieu, the Atoning Unifex, and the introduction of metapsychic abilities, the sociopolitical intergalactic circumstances that will affect the world at large and the Remillard's personal struggles and conflicts which will result in the creation of Fury, the metapsychic creature who will make the family’s lives miserable in the next three books.

The book begins when narrator Rogatien “Rogi” is a tween with his twin brother, Donatien “Don,” in the 1940’s and ends in the late 90’s when intergalactic intervention occurs. It is a fascinating experience to read this book after the trilogy just to see how concepts like psychic abilities are introduced. 

In the subsequent books, metapsychics are so well known that those abilities are considered commonplace. It's interesting to see a point when they are so new that it scares Rogi the first time that he hears someone's thoughts. He, like anyone else who would discover mental telepathy, thinks that he imagined it or he's going crazy. 

Throughout this book, we see metapsychic abilities evolve from a pseudoscience, to a theory, to something few people have, to a recognized legitimate phenomena, to something openly studied and practiced, to something feared and used to dehumanize others, to something that gives a huge advantage for those who have it, to becoming a central facet in some lives. The trajectory has some historical and scientific parallels in the real world. 

I keep forgetting to mention in these books there are five types of metapsychic abilities. There is creativity which creates illusions, change shapes, manipulate energy, and assemble matter into new forms, coercion which is mind control and overwhelming mental awareness and creating mental defenses, psychokinesis which is telekinesis, farsensing which is communicating with others mentally and sensing remotely, and redaction which is psychic healing and mind reading. In previous books, some excel in one specific ability like Dorothea with redaction and Rogi with creativity while others notably Jon can practice all five.

 This book emphasizes those different types and how they can be used and misused. Some use their specific abilities to help others like Denis who uses farsensing to create a bridge of understanding between those who are metapsychic and those who aren't. Then we see those like Denis’s brother Victor who uses coercion to commit criminal violent activity. It shows the different talents that one can specialize in and what means they use them for.

The book also introduces us to the conflicts found within the Remillard Family. Fury has yet to be formed but we see the toxic environment in which such a being would be mentally created and thrive inside a powerful subconscious. Rogi and Don’s struggles begin early. As Rogi studies his abilities and comes to terms with his sterility, Don falls into alcoholism, early marriage and fatherhood, and philandering. Rogi who is in love with Sunny, the woman who married Don, becomes the de facto father figure in their lives alienating Don further.

 Rogi eventually bonds with Denis who becomes a favorite nephew to him. Rogi and Denis’s mentor protege relationship is one of the highlights of this volume. He guides him in testing his metapsychic powers foreshadowing Denis’ eventual status as Remillard Family Head and prominent leader in metaphysics study and intergalactic relations. This also retroactively makes the decline of their relationship in the remaining books much more poignant knowing how close they once were.

The Remillards have several generations of family rivalries and this book shows the origins with Rogi and Don, then with Denis and Victor. While Don is simply a failure that exists for hedonistic pleasures, Victor is much more cunning and ruthless. He sees metapsychic powers as a means of superiority over people who don't have them.

As previously mentioned, Victor uses coercion in violent and destructive ways such as assaulting women, accessing accounts and government secrets, and brokering an alliance with organized crime leader, Kierian O’Connor while manipulating O’Connor’s daughter. In this reality, the Cold War is still relevant into the late 90’s and Victor manipulates various political sides to his advantage.

Later such things as intergalactic intervention, creating the Galactic Milieu, and interstellar travel will do their part in making these Earth struggles between warring nations and the law and lawless seem minor in comparison. But here they are in this book, present and unaware that the time when Earth's residents believed that they were alone in the universe and can treat the planet as horribly as they want will soon be at an end. Victor, like many, is all about his personal gain until forces greater than himself render them null and void.

As far as the aliens are concerned, mostly they interact with each other in space, observe Earthling activity, and debate whether this planet deserves Intervention and an invitation to join the Milieu (No spoiler alert: obviously we know they will extend the offer and Earth will accept otherwise the previous books would never have happened). Mostly they just summarize what has happened so far.

However one alien character fascinates: The Atoning Unifex AKA Rogi’s Family Ghost. The Unifex has been helping Rogi since he was young to discover his powers, predict his future, help him face conflicts, and provide the extra strength for self-defense. There were hints in the next three books of what exactly the Unifex and what their motive is for helping Rogi without confirming or denying the truth. One line in this book reveals the truth behind this character’s identity and why they are connected to Rogi.

Readers could skip Intervention and begin with Jack The Bodiless as I did. The exposition is revealed in an easy way to follow without getting lost and the three books could be seen as occurring en media res. It wouldn't have changed anything and there are advantages in reading the three without it like gaining immediacy with the characters and being left surprised at the twists and revelations.

However, Intervention does include some interesting backstories and take us to the beginning of Rogi and The Remillard Family. In turn it makes the remaining series more meaningful and powerful.

Now maybe onwards to The Saga of The Pliocene Exile to get the full story.

The Wedding Shroud (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elizabeth Storrs; This Woman's Roads Lead From Rome to Etruria

 

The Wedding Shroud (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elizabeth Storrs; This Woman's Roads Lead From Rome to Etruria 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: I admit that as much as I am fascinated by Greco-Roman Mythology and am a huge History and Historical Fiction fan, I actually don't know a lot about Etruscans. I knew that they originated in Etruria and were the early settlers of what would become Rome. They were led by a city-state system. 

They obtained wealth and power through mineral resources, agriculture, and maritime trade with Greece and Carthage. They influenced much of Roman culture. They went into decline after the Etruscan kings were overthrown, conquered by Rome, and the Etruscans absorbed into the Roman Republic/Empire with their culture and language merging with Rome’s. 

Most of the time history treats the Etruscans as a footnote between the fall of Ancient Greece and the rise of Rome. However they were a people with a distinct history and culture. The Etruscans left their own mark in history and The Historical Fiction novel, The Wedding Shroud (A Tale of Ancient Rome) by Elizabeth Storrs shows that.

In 406, Caecilia, a young Roman patrician/plebian woman, is arranged to marry Val Mastarna, an Etruscan nobleman as part of a treaty. At first she is unhappy and determined to remain true to her Roman ideals but slowly adjusts and feels accepted in this new world. 

She even comes to care about Masterna, his adopted son, Tarchon, her handmaid/friend Cytheris, and another friend, courtesan Erene. She is caught between the world that she came from and the one in which she loves.

This book is strong in setting and character. The Etruscan setting including time and place is awash with details. It uses the Historical Fiction trope of a newcomer from one society seeing another for the first time and contrasting the societies. It's predictable but in this case works very well.

Caecillia was born and raised in a Roman society where everyone knew their place and position. Caecillia comes from a plebian, lower class, father and patrician, ruling aristocratic mother which Roman society considers her half-caste. While moving from one status to another is possible, there are limitations to what a plebian or their children can be permitted to achieve.

Because of this outsider status, Caecillia’s father raised her beyond the expectations of a proper Roman girl. Instead of just learning basic reading, managing the household, and domestic home care. He raised her to discuss politics, philosophy, leadership, and to read dense literature. What a boy of her status would learn. She becomes quite an intelligent young woman but has nowhere to use it.

After her father dies, Caecillia loses the only encouragement that she has. In the home of her aunt and uncle is where she truly learns that her status as a Roman woman is nonexistent. She is told to wear pale colored linens, to practice homecare, and learns that her authority and status only ends within the household. 

She is to remain housebound while any future Roman husband would fight in battles, head city-states, and manage multiple lands. They can participate in ritualistic games and gatherings while she cannot even look upon them. Her upbringing from her aunt and uncle is rigid, conservative, and uncompromising. After a long time, she is conditioned to accept it.

The education that Caecillia’s father gave her disappears because of her lack of use for it, though it does give her a questioning personality and a strong will. After many years, Caecilia is conditioned to know and accept her place. The potential that she might have had disappears within the required Roman gender roles.

Caecilia is isolated by her stern parental figures only to have her cousin, Marcus, and a family friend, Drusius to confide in. If not for a strange change in circumstances, Caecilia might have remained an upper class desperate Roman housewife. Instead, she arranged to marry Masterna without her consent. 

It is worth mentioning that this book is set long before Rome would become the Empire which spread throughout the western world. It was still several small unstructured and disorganized city-states and were constantly battling other ones. Caecilia’s family lives on the outside of the central government closer to the Etruscans in nearby Veii than they do to other Roman city-states. They are constantly fighting so any form of peace is imperative. 

That is what is the center of Caecilia and Masterna’s arranged marriage. For the Roman and Etruscan city-states to form an alliance with and strengthen their bonds to maintain peace and potentially defend themselves from other larger city-states and enemies.

When Caecilia enters Veii, it’s like she is in a completely different world. Where she dressed in drab plain outfits, the Etruscans were bright colors and elaborate jewelry. Where she was raised to suppress her emotions and desires as a stoic Roman wife, the Etruscans, even the women, openly discuss their frank sexuality and have very fluid relationships. 

The most impressive discovery that Caecilia learns is that Etruscan women have authority. Caecilia seeks advice from Masterna’s mother who is very politically influential. Even Erene, a courtesan, has advice to give on how to use her sexuality as a power move. Through these women, Caecilia gains self-actualization in her life and marriage which had been lacking in her Roman upbringing.

Because of this influence, Caecilia is able to gain power and prestige in her marriage. She learns that Masterna had a wife that had died, she allows him to grieve up to a point. When the time is right, she informs him that she is in front of him and while his late wife may still have a place in Masterna’s heart, in his home and his bed Caecilia comes first. 

Caecillia also delays the conception of a child until she is certain that her place is secure in Veii and that she is accepted among the Etruscans. She is also concerned about Masterna’s past difficulties in producing children. She knows that the presence of a child, especially a son, might alter things in her husband’s favor. 

She takes medicine as contraceptives to delay parenthood as long as needed. Only when Caecilia is secure in her marriage and status,and Masterna’s virility, does the possibility of having a family come into play. 

Caecilia also brokers relationships inside Veii. She treats Erene and Cytheris like women with their own agenciesvand gains empathy with their struggles. She has an older sister-kid brother relationship with Tarchon to the point that she advises him to get out of a very unhealthy toxic relationship with Masterna’s priest brother.

Then there’s Masterna. Their relationship begins very antagonistically as she objects to being forced into marriage like a bargaining chip. He tries to dominate her with his masculinity and authority. She chips into his demeanor to discover the more vulnerable open side of him that grieves for the wife that he had while beginning to care for the wife that he is currently married to. His and Caecilia’s marriage evolves into an equal partnership and potentially a love match.

Caecilia changes in her marriage and becomes a stronger, more confident, more self-aware woman, potential leader, and proud Etruscan.

Nostalgy by Miguel Vandenburgh; The Pleasure, Peculiarity, and Puzzle of the Past

 Nostalgy by Miguel Vandenburgh; The Pleasure, Peculiarity, and Puzzle of the Past

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review can also be found on Reedsy Discovery.

Spoilers: Nostalgia is a difficult psychological trap to fall into. It captures memories with a positive filter. It emphasizes good times and down plays sadness. It ignores that those good times weren't shared by everyone. It changes pop culture touchstones from irritating fads and sources of cringe to gold standards beyond criticism. 

Nostalgia forces people to idealize and live in the past and ignore the present in front of them. It creates a false past that has more to do with pop culture and filtered memories than reality. This trap can be found in Miguel Vandenburgh’s novel, Nostalgy.

Alejandro is a businessman who emigrated from his native Spain to Los Angeles and is on a fast track to professional success and personal misery. He hates the commute, hates this overwhelmingly loud American city, and while he is good at his job, he lacks the passion or interest in it. His thoughts often drift to old friends, past loves, and youthful adventures to the point that he can barely function at work or at home. His boss notices his depressed behavior and grants him a sabbatical. Alejandro takes the opportunity to fly back to Spain and visit his childhood home, family, old friends, and lost loves. Maybe he can find the boy that he used to be.

Nostalgy is not concerned with what it's about or who it's about but it is concerned with how it feels. Alejandro’s journey captures the mind and emotions with thoughtful evocative passages and situations that challenge the concepts of memory and reality.

In Los Angeles, Alejandro is in a constant state of stasis and inertia. Alejandro lives in the present but his mind is elsewhere. He has a good job, lives in a nice neighborhood, has friends and romantic relationships but it's all surface. He contributes to the bare minimum of his job, commute, and current friendships and relationships. Everyone else moves in the present, while he is mentally standing still in the past.

 Everyone around him moves at great speed, lives in bright colors, and loudly proclaims their emotions. Alejandro lives in a world of muted grays, silence, lumbering movements, detachment, and no emotional connection.

When Alejandro returns to Spain is when he starts recognizing color and movement. He sees the blue skies and sun’s reflections, the other commuters and travelers, and the intense euphoria that one gets when they are beginning a quest. In Alejandro's case, it's a quest to come face to face with his past.

When Alejandro returns to his Spanish hometown, he sees that it has changed. He sees more people, different buildings, companies that have franchises there that didn't exist before. He is like many whose minds are captured by the hometown of their youth and expected it to remain the same.

 They expect the landscape photographs in their mind to be unaltered but a real place isn't like a photograph. It can't and won't stay in one place forever. People move in, businesses create jobs, houses are built. The world cannot and will not remain stagnant no matter how much we want it to.

This also applies to people. Alejandro has a lovely reunion with a boyhood friend, Felix. The two walk around old haunts, live recklessly, play pranks and share intimate secrets about their past. It is like a grand adventure that is reborn decades after the last one they went on. The reunion gives Alejandro a brief moment of unbridled joy but it is only temporary.

For Alejandro the reunion with Felix is part of the goal, the answer to find out why he is stuck and whether he can find happiness. Felix however looks on it as a vacation or temporary reprieve. It's a stress reliever from his life as a single parent. He has fun then he returns. 

It doesn't have the same emotional impact for him because life didn't stop for him. Felix worked, got with someone, fathered children, and now has adult responsibilities. Alejandro has them too but life stopped in his youth. He can't mentally separate the boy that he used to be from the man that he is. It's a sad existence for him to always look forward and not back.

He also finds that sadness in other places and people as well. His father, once a proud strong man, is now weakened and made vulnerable by the natural process of age. He reunites with an old girlfriend who is pleased to see him but sets him straight by asking what he expected when coming. Did he really think that she would stay the same age and have the same personality forever? She also corrects him on many of the details reminding him that his memories are imperfect and were less how they actually were than how he wanted to be.

Nostalgy is similar to the Twilight Zone episode “Walking Distance.” In it, a burned out executive (Gig Young) returns to his childhood home exactly as it was. He has traveled backwards in time and sees his younger self and his parents. When his younger self, he mournfully tells the boy that there won't be any cotton candy, merry go rounds, nor band concerts and no pleasant memories in adulthood. His father realizes that he is in the presence of his son as an adult. He tells him to go back to his old home and his real time. “There is only one summer per customer,” and to let his younger self have his. The most important crucial information that he tells him is to look around when he gets home. He might find cotton candy, merry go rounds, and band concerts. He just hasn't been looking hard enough.

When people live inside their nostalgia, they only recall the days of their youth with optimism and pleasure. They deify the music, shows, books, fashion, news, and movies of their past without really living within them. Mentally and emotionally they are frozen in that space. 

Nostalgy suggests that there is nothing wrong with those memories or those items. They made us who we are and they serve as temporary time machines. However, we can become trapped in our past and close the present and future around us. That is what Alejandro shows, someone who can't move forward because he is frozen by facing backwards. 

Living only in our youth causes us to miss the beauty and wonder around us now. A beautiful sunset. A song that speaks to us. A fictional character that says what we are thinking. A job that encourages our talent. Finding the perfect partner. The birth of a child. Our forever home and sacred space. The advances that have been made allow us to learn, live, and enjoy life on a larger scale. The voices are finally heard and listened to when they used to be forced to recede somewhere in the background. Even when things are at their hardest, there is always something to learn, enjoy, take pride in, experience, and love.

You can't go home to the past again but you can experience the world around you and find your own cotton candy, merry go rounds, and band concerts. It takes some time but Alejandro finds his.

A Matter of Time (The Bridge Through Time Series Book 4) by Jennae Vale; Enchanting Romantic Fantasy Has Questions

 A Matter of Time (The Bridge Through Time Series Book 4) by Jennae Vale; Enchanting Romantic Fantasy Has Questions 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: A Matter of Time is the fourth book in Jennae Vale’s The Bridge Through Time Series so that probably explains the confusion and questions about the overall series and ongoing story arcs especially since it is the first in the series that I have read. When it settles down and focuses on the specific Romantic Fantasy, it's charming, funny, heartwarming, and enchanting.

Womanizing nobleman and apparently antagonist in previous books, Sir Richard Jeffords is sent from 16th Scotland into the future by witch Edna Campbell to learn a lesson on how to treat women. He finds himself in modern day San Francisco where he meets Angelina Lawson, a modern woman with an interest in medieval martial arts and an unhappy love life. The two become attracted to one another and become closer even though they come from different centuries. Meanwhile an antiques dealer, Malcolm Granger, is obsessed with finding a sword from Richard's time and he will do anything to get it even go backwards in time with him.

There are two distinct aspects to the book and one works better than the other. The good news is when the book acts like a Romantic Fantasy, it's predictable but fun in its own way. 

Richard and Angelina’s romance goes down smoothly because they are perfectly compatible. There are indications from other characters that Richard was a villain in previous books so he is a harder cynical character because of this and a bit uncertain when it comes to a reciprocal love.

Angelina has also had her share of heartbreak and is the typical modern day jaded female Romance protagonist. She is less certain about love than Richard is. These are the types of characters who are perfect for each other. 

They may trade witty barbs, mock their deliriously in love friends, and deny their attraction while simultaneously becoming more and more intimate. It's a fun and interesting romance between two characters who like disagreeing with each other almost as much as they like making love.

The time travel aspects are a bit different from other books in the subgenre. Richard has been to the present in a previous volume, so this second trip is nothing new. He is unfamiliar with being in San Francisco however and gets lost easily. It's less like someone in a separate time period and more like a regular person visiting a new city on vacation.

It also helps that Richard is not alone. In fact, while in modern San Francisco, he encounters Nick, a friend of Angelina’s who is also a friend of his from Scotland. Nick is a charming comic relief character who is also close to Angelina.

 The Reader braces themselves for a love triangle. Thankfully, we get a reprieve. Instead, Nick treats Richard and Angelina like his favorite siblings. It also clears the path for him to find a love interest in the next book.

Another interesting character is the creator of this time travel escapade, Edna Campbell. She is an older wise woman with the gift of foresight. She is often quick with a magic spell, an herbal remedy, and a sardonic comment for those around her.

Edna is happily married and is surrounded by friends and family so she is the opposite of the usual lonely witch found in these works. In fact, if she were ever arrested and charged with witchcraft, she would have plenty of loyal allies who would have her back.

Things get incredibly confusing in later chapters which I admit are partly because I haven't read the earlier volumes. We meet more friends of Angelina and Richard's that have traveled back and forth in time which is highly questionable. 

Are these the only time periods that allow time travel? Is there some sort of cosmic link to 21st century California and 16th century Scotland? Can characters from the past go further back or from the present go to the future? How do we account for the implausibility that all of the time travelers all knew each other before their adventures? Does all of this time tripping affect the time stream or the space time continuum? Aren't there people in either time period missing someone? Is there anyone left in modern San Francisco or Scotland who hasn't been bitten by the time travel bug?

There are also other parts that don't work so well. Malcolm is an incredibly cheesy antagonist and his subplot is written without much depth or subtly. He wants a specific sword that belongs to Richard's family and he puts his and Angelina’s lives in danger. It's a pretty transparent attempt to create more conflict that doesn't always work.

Also again this is because I didn't read the previous books. In some of the last few chapters, we are told about some of Richard's more nefarious deeds in the previous volumes. It causes one to think differently of him. 

It's not that he reformed and found love that is the problem. Many characters go through redemptive story arcs and emerge on the other side as friends of the heroes. But the way his villainy is described as almost hand waved.

A character with the history that Richard has would have more guilt in his next relationship. There should be more flashbacks and remorse connected with his past. For it to be dismissed and info dropped in the final chapters seems almost dishonest. Like Vale was trying to rewrite or gloss over the history of one of her own characters.

Still despite the flaws, this is a fine book for fans of Time Travel Romance Fantasies. It's probably much better to look at its own merits than part of a series or do what most normal people do and read the series in numerical order.

March-April Reading's List

 

March-April Reading's List 

The Imperfect Hand of Fate by Wade Monk/Balance of Evil by Kim Rozdeba/Obsession with Change: A Look at the Future From the Beginning by Cecil W. Lee

Intervention (The Galactic Milieu Series Book 1) by Julian May 

Cambridge Street by Steven Decker

The Wedding Shroud by Elizabeth Storrs

Nostalgy by Miguel Vandenburgh 

By The Sword by Alison Stuart

Gutted by Anna Madorsky

Dissolved by Anna Madorsky 

Delusional Madness by Kimberly K. Taylor

The School for Optimal Futures by Annie Flint*

Threads of Fate by Aminah Hobbes 

A Collection of Tiny Stories by C.K. Sobey*

We Spread by Iain Reid

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Well that's it. Thanks and as always, Happy Reading.

The Imperfect Hand of Fate by Wade Monk; The Balance of Evil by Kim Rozdeba, and Obsessed with Change: A Look at the Future From the Beginning by Cecil W. Lee

 The Imperfect Hand of Fate by Wade Monk; The Balance of Evil by Kim Rozdeba, and Obsessed with Change: A Look at the Future From the Beginning by Cecil W. Lee

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

The Imperfect Hand of Fate by Wade Monk 

This review is a summary. The longer version is on LitPick

Wade Monk crafts an effective Suspense Thriller with The Imperfect Hand of Fate. He uses the dual narratives to their fullest exploring an elaborate spy game from the point of view of someone in the exact center and someone on the outside but becomes greatly affected.

There are two stories being told in this novel, set primarily in 1960’s Georgia. The first is that of Haskell Hand, a teenager, who sees a mysterious man acting strangely at the library where he volunteers. Every week at the same time, the man reads copies of The Constitution, the local newspaper, and the same copies of the same books and leaves after a few seconds of searching. Haskell’s curiosity about the man, dubbed Mr. Constitution, is a relief from Haskell's personal stress and boredom with small town life in De Soto, Georgia. 

The second story is that of Daryl Timmons, the aforementioned Mr. Constitution, a former American GI who was imprisoned by the Soviets during his time in the Korean War. He is forced to spy against his country for the safety of his wife and daughter. The spy games are greatly detailed as he is surrounded by betrayal and dividing loyalties.

In many ways, Haskell and Daryl are foils for each other. They are at different stages in life as a teenager and adult respectively but feel trapped by circumstances. Daryl’s trap however is a literal one while Haskell's is figurative. Haskell is trapped by poverty. He is the subject of derision because of a prank that he caused. Financial constraints keep him from pursuing higher education.

He also has familial pressure. His mother died and he doesn't get along with the surviving family members particularly his disabled brother, Elliot. His prank appears not to be a cry for attention but a cry from a boy who is under pressure and is on the verge of cracking. The Mystery of Mr. Constitution distracts him because it requires an answer.

Daryl is someone that is also surrounded by physical and psychological stress. He was graphically tortured during the Korean War. He is retrained to be a double agent in a Soviet program imitating a typical American town and whose agents assume American identities to infiltrate the United States. 

Daryl marries in Russia and fathers a daughter. His handlers force him to return to his home country as a spy and saboteur. He has become embittered and only cares about his family’s safety. He will betray his country to keep his family safe. 

Haskell and Daryl's stories parallel in many ways but unfortunately, never fully connect. However, they are connected thematically as two men trapped in circumstances beyond their control and are trying to find some sense in a world that has deprived them of their free will and ability to fully change those circumstances.

Balance of Evil by Kim Rozdeba

This review is a summary. The longer version is on Reader Views.

Kim Rozdeba’s novel Balance of Evil is a compelling political thriller that combines the intricate details of a wide-spread conspiracy and the intimate poignancy of a family drama.

Retired businessman Scott Barton stumbles upon a USB flash drive with contents that reveal a sophisticated and secret weapons program between the USA and Russia for decades called FIST. After opening it, Scott and his wife, Colleen, are followed by sinister figures in black helicopters and unmarked cars. 

Scott is naturally terrified of this situation of going from mild mannered executive to fugitive on the run from government agents trying to kill him. He is frightened but confused, particularly about his wife who seems to know more about this situation than she is letting on.

The way the FIST conspiracy is depicted makes for very engaging reading. Scott's discovery of the flash drive seems arbitrary but once we are given the full situation, it makes more sense. Scott, his family, and their allies are aware that they are laser focused mostly on one specific organization and one leader. This organization is simply one part of the decades of hidden agenda, secrets, underhanded deals, and tyranny. Getting rid of one leader can only do so much.

By far the most heartfelt aspect of the book is the family drama that is equal to and sometimes more prominent to the conspiracy aspects. Scott is a naive noob thrown into an unknown world but surprisingly adapts well to it. This experience opens Scott’s eyes towards Colleen who is a seasoned pro at espionage situations. Scott is at first confused about his wife's separate life and upset by her deception in covering it. But as he is pulled further into her world, he begins to admire the strength and resilience that she had in living within it. It makes him love her even more.

Scott and Colleen are forced to recognize their real selves that are behind the disguises of a normal exterior life and live solely within the reality of a duplicitous interior life. Questions of whether the family unit can remain intact under these discoveries and the subsequent actions abound. 

Obsession With Change: A Look at the Future From The Beginning by Cecil W. Lee

Cecil W. Lee’s short Science Fiction novel/coffee table book, Obsession With Change: A Look at the Future From the Beginning effectively combines both AI and the human element. Lee collaborated with an AI entity named Lahneer to write the book and the illustrations are human originated by Lee who gave instructions to AI. The combination of styles gives a striking combination of human and AI creativity. 

The book is actually a series of short concepts, stories, and fictionalized interviews with figures from the future talking about their daily lives and conflicts. Each chapter also features illustrations that explore the concepts within the text. 

The book describes character’s experiences with futuristic body art, CRISPR genetic engineering, holographic sex, robot artists and musicians, body modifications, AI performed surgery, augmentation, interstellar travel, cybernetic replacements, cryopreservation, neuroplasticity, synthetic mind, and autonomy protocol. 

The book gives short accounts of characters living in the future and how they experience this world around them. Among them are Elara Masaki who goes through a CRISPR procedure to have a pair of wings inserted on her back, KX-91 a robot artist who is gaining attention from the critics, and Solar Callaway a hoverboard champion who is drafted into receiving cyberbiotic augmentation and going on an interstellar mission to explore a distant planet. 

Unlike many anthologies, it’s really difficult to discern which I would consider favorites in this book. These aren’t completed short stories so much as they are snippets or sketches of what could potentially be larger stories in one continuous shared universe. 

The book is intriguing both in text and images. The text being told through a series of articles, interviews, and short essays gives the work a meta style and makes one feel that they are not reading a fictional work but perhaps a dry fact based account from the year 2091 catching Readers up to the latest news. In its own way, that approach can be immersive. 

These are all potentially interesting ideas and it would be nice if Lee explored them further in longer stories and novels. The snippets only offer a glimpse of this futuristic world that is so distant chronologically but at the time seems so familiar because we are in the early stages.

Perhaps we can get more insight into why Elara wants a pair of wings, what Solar experiences in his travels, and who influences and inspires KX-91’s art.

The illustrations are AI style and while many shun AI art for very good reason, this is a book where it kind of works. Since the writing style acts like it is set in the future, there is no reason to assume the illustrations wouldn’t be either. KX-91’s story in particular benefits from this as we see the art produced by a futuristic fictional robot but actually created by a present AI program and originated by a human author. They are both eerie with that uncanny valley feel that modern AI art produces but also evocative in capturing emotions from a being that shouldn't have any.

Tracey's Calling by Rob Santana; The Mantis Continuum (The Mantis Gland Series Book 4) by Adam Andrews Johnson and Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man

Tracey's Calling by Rob Santana, The Mantis Continuum (The Mantis Gland Series Book 4) by Adam Andrews Johnson and Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews 

Tracey's Calling by Rob Santana 

Tracey's Calling by Rob Santana is a tense psychological suspense short novel about trauma and its chilling aftermath on two people, the victim and the perpetrator.

Tracey is left traumatized after being sexually assaulted by Phil, a married husband and father. She is angry and filled with vengeance but she doesn't want to just have him arrested or kill him. She has a more long-term goal. She manipulates her way into his home, befriends his wife, Patsy and daughter, Joy, and blackmails Phil into financially providing her escape from her abusive family.

This book is essentially a two-person story between Phil and Tracey, the abuser and his sexual victim, the blackmailer and her financial victim. They both have plenty of depth and layers in their one-on-one combat.

 Tracey is very methodical in planning and executing her revenge. She decides to become a haunting presence in Phil’s life instead of taking the easy way out and killing him. It's a way of disarming Phil and leaving him as vulnerable and uncertain as he was. She may have been physically underneath him then but she is figuratively on top of him now.

Phil is also an interesting albeit antagonistic character. His memories of that night are filled with the graphic violence that he inflicted and his weak attempts at justifying it. He is not understandable at all here.

However, there are points where the safety of his family is compromised and the Reader's thoughts shift to Patsy and Joy's welfare and how Phil will be affected by their losses. It allows Readers to understand and even be concerned about the husband and father without defending or condoning the violent actions that he did.

Also, Patsy and Joy’s subplots are handled well. Patsy sometimes acts as the comic relief by rehearsing weather girl monologues and being preoccupied with an upcoming job interview at a news TV station. However, she also shows awareness with Tracey’s presence and the circumstances of her arrival by going from empathy, to suspicion towards her, then distrust towards Phil.

Joy is an effective foil to Tracey. She was a sheltered girl thrown into violent catastrophic circumstances which Tracey knew about practically since birth. She acts like a spoiled brat at times, but is also a very realistic teenager with emotions, hormones, and irritation at everyone else around her. She follows Tracey into some dangerous circumstances without thinking of the consequences.

This is a cold calculated tale of revenge in which much is lost and there are very few victors.

 

The Mantis Continuum (The Mantis Gland Series Book 4) by Adam Andrews Johnson 

No matter how an ongoing book series, not every volume is going to be a winner. The first three books of Adam Andrews Johnson’s The Mantis Gland Series told a captivating series about a world where some people called Shits have mutations because of a gland called the Mantis Gland. These people develop extraordinary abilities like flight, telekinesis, elemental control, super strength, impervious skin, or remote viewing.

 The Shifts are targeted by the Messiahs, a religious cult that has a great deal of power and influence. They perform ritualistic murder on the Shifts so they can swallow and absorb the glands. In each volume, the Shifts gather together in Teshon City where they form a resistance aided by a Demifae,a person who studies magic, called The Mystic and others who fight against the Messiah’s influence. The first three volumes tell a streamlined story and introduce new characters with the goal of bringing them together. They have a definite beginning, middle, and end. 

The fourth volume in The Mantis Gland Series, The Mantis Continuum is by far the weakest book in the series. It has some interesting passages of character development that push some forward into new relationships, abilities, positions, and self-awareness. However, there are too many characters and subplots to tell a comprehensible or compelling story. It’s a case of doing way too much at once.

Some of the new characters and subplots aren’t bad. After the murder of their mother, twins Thech and Jzuna flee to Teshon City with an entertainer named Bivon. A trio, Kosephaji, Relliduna, and Pelipi have to escape via boat after Relliduna becomes seriously injured. Meanwhile a group of former Messiahs whose bodies have completely altered into monstrosities by consuming too many Mantis Glands are heading straight for Teshon and they are hungry.

When the book slows down, it captures some pretty decent moments. Thech and Jzuna have a loving sibling relationship. The sweet but dim Thech is the more physical one while the bright eloquent Jzuna provides the brainpower. Jzuna is a maternal influence on her brother’s life while Thecha brings out her more empathetic side. 

Another winning relationship is that of Kosephjai and Relliduna. As their lives are in danger, they evolve from best friends to lovers. With the constant threats to their lives and feeling out of focus because of the suspicion towards Shifts, there are very few people that they and Pelipi can rely on. These stressful situations bring out their most vulnerable emotions, cause them to evaluate their feelings towards each other, and move their relationship forward. 

The problems occur when the action moves to Teshon City where the new characters meet the old ones. There are way too many characters to focus on and it’s hard to remember who is whom, what their significance is, which book they debuted in, or even their powers. 

If you notice in my previous paragraphs, I mentioned some of the character developments that I liked but not their powers, it's because I don't remember them. There wasn't anything that made their abilities stand out or differentiate from the older characters.

There are times when the chapters read like one giant roll call by showing brief scenes of characters in their current setting but don’t do anything important with them. It was almost like Johnson said, “See this character? Yeah they are still alive. Move along.” With that many introductions or reintroductions, it takes a long time for them to actually do anything.

Even an interesting plot point that was introduced in the previous book of Messiahs whose bodies have become distorted by their addictive consumption of the Mantis Gland, isn't as compelling as it was in the previous book. They leave a creepy disturbing presence, enter Teshon City with unending appetites, kill a few Shifts, and anticlimactically meet their end. They were much more intimidating as a cult.

Perhaps Johnson should have ended the series at Book Three or, as much as I like the new characters, just developed the original ones instead of inserting new ones. This book shows that there is a time to write and build on a new series but there is also a time that it should end. There is a fifth book, The Mantis Synchronicity. Here's hoping that it's better.

Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks, The Travel Man 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery.

Where The Wave Broke by Robert Rooks is a short novel about a touring music group that is long on atmosphere but not on plot or thankfully music group cliches.

Two years after they break up, the band Borrowed Light has re-formed to go on a tour of several European cities. Drummer Giada, bassist Julian, and the guitarist Narrator endure long days going from one place to another, long nights of performing, playing at various clubs, and facing fans, owners, executives, on and on.

Let's explain what this book doesn't have. No love triangles though they had some romantic entanglements in the past. No drug addiction fights or onstage meltdowns. No slow climb to success followed by a rapid fall thanks to personnel disputes and the soulless music industry. No internal conflict between the member who is full of themselves and the others. Not much of the usual music tropes, which actually makes this a great short novel.

The biggest strength in the book is the atmosphere. The opening describes the trio’s travels as “The map matters only because sound behaves differently from where you stand. Amsterdam’s wood, Paris’ velvet, Brussels’ take, Montreux’s morning light, Valencia’s warm air, Stockholm’s clean edge, those spaces shaped our tempos more than adrenaline ever could.” 

The book is a constant stream of wearying movement, travel, faces running together, frustration with last minute changes and bookings, the exhilaration of a performing high, and the languid exhaustion afterwards. 

The clubs are filled with smoky air, tight compacted space, argumentative organizers and club owners, and customers either enraptured by the music or bored with life. Only faces and names change. The music draws the band, their listeners, and club employees for one moment before it ends and they trudge along to their separate lives.

The tone explains perfectly why this book doesn’t go into the usual tropes and cliches about music groups, It tells the truth about that kind of life. Julian, Giada, and The Narrator don’t fall into those typical hijinks because realistically they don’t have time to. They travel to different places, check into hotels, inspect the clubs, negotiate with owners and executives, put up their instruments, sound check, play a few sets, close, thank everybody, pack up, maybe have a few drinks or talk to customers, stagger off to bed, sleep, wake up the next day, check out, and then go on to the next city. 

Any conflicts that occur between them is not because of rock star ego. It’s because they are tired and snippy from constant travel and are getting on one another’s nerves, 

There is a simplicity within these characters and how they accept the music and travel lifestyle as just a part of their lives. They leave complicated love lives, conflicts with family members, and their own insecurities and self-esteem issues behind to play. Also their personalities mesh well with Giada’s no nonsense leadership and organization skills, Julian’s flash and outgoing personality, and The Narrator’s rationality and poetic observation. 

The band gives them a chance to use their musical talents and personality traits to good use by contributing to their chosen art, openly and honestly expressing their emotions, seeing different places and meeting different people, and despite the hardships having a good time, and making exciting memories to look back on.

In fact their tour isn’t really seen as a means to become discovered and sign on with a bigtime record company. It’s just something that they get to do once in a while as friends and musicians and then return to normal life afterwards. .