The Midnight Library by Matt Haig; 1,000th Blog Post is About a Captivating Enchanting Library of Lives

 

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig; 1,000th Blog Post is About a Captivating Enchanting Library of Lives

By Julie Sara Porter 

Spoilers: Wow, 1,000th blog post! 9 years! It has been quite a ride! I have been a Book Reviewer longer than I have been anything else and I love it! 

There have been so many authors, so many books, and so many stories that I shared. I feel like I have lived thousands of lives vicariously. So it is fitting that my thousandth review should be The Midnight Library by Matt Haig, a Contemporary Fantasy novel about a library that tells of several potential lives of one woman. 

Nora Seed attempts to take her own life. When she wakes up, she finds herself inside The Midnight Library. The librarian, Mrs. Elm tells her that it is filled with books that represent the various lives that Nora lived had she made different choices. All she has to do is choose one and she is transported to become that particular Nora in that particular reality.

This book has an amazing concept with wonderful themes of choice, regret, memory, loss, possibility, personal happiness, and finding one's true path. The library itself is filled with an endless collection of books, lives, that are untitled and unmarked. They seem to convey sameness and monotony, but instead the stories inside provide a variety of lives with different situations, experiences, and memories.

Nora is the right character for something like this to happen (even if her surname, Seed, and Mrs. Elm’s names are a bit on the nose.) Nora works at a music store and despairs over missed opportunities and lost career paths. She has broken romantic relationships and is estranged from family members. Her life is just going through the motions and feeling like she isn't a part of anything. She feels that her life is one of past regret and barely living in the present.

The lives take Nora through various situations. In many ways, this book is similar to the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once, which presents another woman entering various realities based on different worlds and choices. The realities come from different initial choices. Then those choices result in other outcomes. Some good, some bad but eventually lead to her becoming a more sagacious and perceptive person because of her experience with them.

Nora becomes a pub owner, animal rescue shelter worker, an Olympic swimmer turned public speaker, rock star, climate change scientist, and philosophy professor among other careers. Her family and love life fill the gamut from single, cohabitating, in romantic relationships, married, divorced, to widowed. Her friends are still in touch, grown apart, connected on social media, lost because of breakups, or are completely out of her life.

She is childless, had various miscarriages, has one or two children. She has plenty of pets, allergic to animals, or had pets that died. Her parents are divorced, widowed, still together, both dead, or out of her life. Her brother is estranged from her, supporting her, acting as her manager, alive, or dead. She can be healthy and destined to live a long life, sickly and dying, physically healthy but suffering from various psychiatric disorders, or caught in a serious catastrophic accident.

It's exhausting and also exhilarating keeping track of the various realities, moving along Nora’s life paths, understanding the changes, and finding out the knowledge and wisdom that she obtains from them. Each reality is different but tells a complete beautiful story of a woman receiving the opportunity to explore all of her potential lives to find the one that fulfills her the most.

That is the secret to the various realities. All of them have positive and negative aspects. One where she is rich and famous could also see her as depressed and suicidal. One where she married an ex boyfriend that she still has feelings for gives her lots of friends but various marital problems. 

One where she travels and sees many great places reveals that she experiences them alone. Another where she works for important humanitarian causes puts her in Nihilistic despair when she believes that nothing will improve. Even when she is in a mostly happy reality, there is something that she lost or gave up on. Even when a possibility leads to negative results, she can find something positive inside it. 

The point of the novel is not to find the perfect life or the life where Nora left the biggest impact. It's to find the possibilities that surround her and in turn us. It's for all of us to recognize the hardships and appreciate the pleasures. To find meaning and existence in living no matter the reality. To find everything instead of nothing. In my case, to find the meaning and possibility that exists in every story. All 1,000 of them.

Rebirth Protocol The Return of Earth's Guardian and The Sword Magus Supreme by Nyxaris; Complex Science Fiction About Time Travel, Parallel Worlds, Genetic Evolution, and Seeking Revenge

 

Rebirth Protocol The Return of Earth's Guardian and The Sword Magus Supreme by Nyxaris; Complex Science Fiction About Time Travel, Parallel Worlds, Genetic Evolution, and Seeking Revenge 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Nyxaris’ Science Fiction novel, Rebirth Protocol: The Return of Earth's Guardian and The Sword Magus Supreme is about as long and complex as its name. 

Nick Valiente caught his girlfriend, Sarah, in bed with his best friend, Matt. After leaving in anger, he is attacked by an unknown assailant. When he wakes up, he realizes that he has traveled two years into the past. More importantly, he finds that he shares memories and consciousness with Arlize Dentragon, a master swordsman and magician. He is full of questions about who Arlize really is, what is happening, and why. In his pursuit of answers, Nick stumbles on a conspiracy that goes far beyond his desire for personal revenge.

The book has an interesting plot trajectory. At first it begins as a simple revenge thriller. Since Nick can see two years in advance, he has plenty of time to gather information on when Matt and Sarah’s affair began. The more time he spends observing Matt and Sarah from a distance, the more he recognizes their phoniness and annoying flaws that he overlooked before.

Besides revenge on his enemies, Nick actually uses this two year foresight to improve himself. He aces courses like Statistics, Physics, and Business, courses that the previous Nick barely passed. He also begins to build a nice portfolio by studying and investing in technology and researches prestigious fellowships so he can get his foot in the door of prominent businesses. Even if he doesn't get revenge, Nick is certainly getting the better of Matt and Sarah by living well.

The book expands to an immense Science Fiction novel with the arrival of Arlize. Nick dreams as Arlize, shares his thoughts and memories, and sees Arlize’s world through his eyes. It's a creepy but trippy experience that gets even stranger when Nick recognizes parallels in his own life like a love triangle and near fatal betrayal. 

Nick asks questions about this experience. Who is Arlize? Is he from a parallel universe? Another planet? A previous reincarnation? A future incarnation? An alternate personality? A bit of wish fulfillment? A fictional character? Why do they share minds, memories, and experiences? 

One thing is certain, in Arlize Nick finds someone that is braver, stronger, and a better leader than he thinks that he is. He is the type of person that Nick wants to be. 

Arlize is considered a guardian in his world and is gifted with a sword and magical skills which helps him out fight and out smart any enemy . But yet, Arlize has many of the same problems that Nick did. Despite feeling intimidated and confused by his presence, Nick feels a kinship with this man as he begins to think and talk like him, even becoming him. 

This shared consciousness emboldens Nick as he manifests abilities such as heightened senses and increased mental capacity which reads like computerized analysis. This contributes to reinventing the next two years of his life and  makes people around him suspicious as Nick becomes a target.

After he travels back two years, Nick begins to suspect that he is being monitored when he encounters people that he never met during the previous timeline. This suspicion mounts when he sees people installing cameras in his dorm hall and a hacker friend finds out about wider surveillance. He also learns that his family might have been watched since before he was born and those watching him aren't afraid to resort to violent, even fatal, means.

What started out as a time travel revenge thriller, Rebirth Protocol covers multiple worlds, space travel, parallel universes, alternate realities, government conspiracies, reincarnation, mental telepathy, surveillance, AI, ripples in space and time, and the evolution of characters into super beings. It succeeds in covering various intricate plots, rich characterization, and deep themes of awareness, perception, heroism, self-actualization, and the struggles to find one's personal identity in an increasingly depersonalized world.

A Sense of Home: The Land of The Great Lakes by N.Z. Kaminsky; Beautiful Ethereal Bildungsroman About Lucid Dreaming, Creativity, and Imagination

 A Sense of Home: The Land of The Great Lakes by N.Z. Kaminsky; Beautiful Ethereal Bildungsroman About Lucid Dreaming, Creativity, and Imagination 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

This review is also on Reedsy Discovery 

Spoilers: N.Z. Kaminksy’s novel A Sense of Home: The Land of The Great Lakes lives up to its name. Once you open this beautiful lyrical book and fall into this bildungsroman of a young girl experiencing an ethereal evocative world of lucid dreams, creativity, and imagination you will feel like you are coming home. 

Tyra Blair lived in the city of Moss in the parallel world of Azure. It is much like our Earth with similar history, pop culture, and problems. One of those problems is war. When soldiers and their trained beasts attack Moss, Tyra and her family are forced go into hiding in the town of Marigold which is beautiful but the people there are cold and unpleasant. In exile, Tyra's parents implode as her mother Scarlett becomes depressed and her father Logan retreats into alcohol. Tyra is forced to become self-reliant while dealing with trauma, nightmares, and aching loneliness. She can only find comfort in books and nature. 

One day, she meets Koda a friendly squirrel. He guides her to a mirror where she can visit her favorite books and stories. This experience opens up a brighter lucid dream world. Her lucid dreams appear throughout her life as she grows and deals with many personal issues of loss, fighting parents, unemployment, unsatisfying romances, separation, war, tyranny, and death. These lucid dreams help her survive and dream of the day when she will leave to join The Land of The Great Lakes. Not Minnesota, it is a fabled land of thought, imagination, and beauty that can only be reached by invitation.

This book is one that grabs Readers's attention and holds on causing them to remember the little details long after they are done, particularly Tyra's lucid dreams. They are definitely the highlights of this book. 

Tyra and Koda’s trips into books delight any bookworm. The duo see Lady Death tries to con her godson doctor into letting her kill his patient. A man is confronted by and consumed by his shadow self. Grandfather Frost warms an abandoned maiden and many more. Through these experiences, Tyra is immersed into worlds of imagination, courage, adventure, and escape. The characters aren't content to wallow in loss and self pity like her parents. Instead, they persevere and fight with strength, cleverness, and kindness. In doing so, they challenge the status quo and reshape the world. Through them, Tyra is inspired to find ways to reshape hers. 

The book journeys aren't the only situations that Tyra's lucid dreams conjure up. She is able to befriend fantastic creatures like a pair of adorable furry monsters who would not be out of place in a Muppet special. She communicates with the deceased who send her wisdom that they were unable to when they were alive. They offer guidance on her path through signs, riddles, and visions. Her dreams not only provide an escape from a troublesome existence but gives her the means to survive it and aspire towards a greater path.

The best book to compare A Sense of Home to is another one that I recently read, The Art of Agony by Amy Felix. They are both coming of age stories about young women exploring the inner depths of their minds to survive during dismal dark times but the executions are polar opposites. 

The Art of Agony is about Eva, the protagonist becoming aware that the world is a dark meaningless place, even her own mind can't be trusted, and no one cares about how she feels. In A Sense of Home, Tyra's mind is opened to more enlightened possibilities. She sees a world beyond the one in which she lives that gives her a sense of purpose and more meaningful existence.

 While The Art of Agony is a more cerebral introspective perspective, A Sense of Home is a fuller, more evocative, ethereal, and a more intelligent perspective. It is one thing to come to the realization that life is hard and everything is stacked against you, but it is another to admit that but to find some meaning, purpose, and value in it anyway. That's why in some ways A Sense of Home is more mature than The Art of Agony which while excellent in exploring angst and the source of it, can also be lost in, overwhelmed by, and consumed by that same angst. Why bother doing anything at all if nothing matters? Why bother writing about it?

 A Sense of Home tells us that what we dream about, long for, hope for, create, inspire, love, and bring to life is enough of a reason. If we are only a spark in this vastness in the universe, then we might as well find something that isn't harmful but worthwhile. Something that gives us contentment and some kind of pleasure about being alive.

Altered Parallel by CT Malachite; Romance Turns Tragic in Magic Powers Fantasy

 

Altered Parallel by CT Malachite; Romance Turns Tragic in Magic Powers Fantasy 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: CT Malachite’s Altered Parallel is a powerful Romance Fantasy with some questionable attributes and flaws to keep from being perfect. However, it does tell an interesting story of two souls with magical powers whose love is passionate, emotional, empathetic, all consuming, troubling, and ultimately tragic. 

Skyler Aymon is a teacher who is concerned about the frequent absences, failing grades, and sudden bad attitude of her once promising student, Tate Morrow. After a confrontation, she sees a strange aura and feels a powerful surge of energy around him. Curious, Skylar follows Tate to a group whose members have the same presence. They are able to practice The Magic and live in a parallel universe similar to our own but whose residents can use those abilities. In fact, Skyler is revealed to also come from this universe and can access The Magic but needs to learn how to use it. Since she already has a connection with Tate, he decides to train her so the student becomes the teacher. She learns fast and proves to be quite adept and powerful as they become closer.

The book has an extremely slow and at times awkward start. The initial meeting between Skyler and Tate and the introduction of The Magic works well but it falters a bit. At least three times, the book follows the same scenario: Tate introduces Skyler to The Magic and the parallel universe. She is enchanted and practices some aspects like teleportation, mental telepathy, or clairvoyance. Then after a fun time, she returns to her apartment and wakes up with no memories of her adventures. Amnesia is given to her so she doesn't unintentionally blab The Magic’s secret. Finally, she and Tate get through that hurdle and she retains her memories as she embraces and excels in learning to use The Magic.

It's understandable that they wouldn't want everyone to know about The Magic and the introductions are secret tests of character to evaluate Skyler’s honesty and trust but it gets old. We only needed one trip and amnesia before returning to get the point. Three just stretches the concept too far before the narration really begins. 

There is also the discomfort in the age difference between Skyler and Tate and that they were initially a teacher and her student. It's obviously very uncomfortable when this shared experience creates a bond that veers towards romance. Thoughts of statutory rape and pedophilia might uncomfortably pound into Reader's heads. 

Thankfully, Malachite creates a time portal in which one can enter and emerge years older as Tate does and returns seven years older to Skyler after only one year passes in her world. That however creates another problem in the text. This incident happens so early that it's easy to forget that they started out as different ages. 

In fact their backstory becomes superfluous and unnecessary not to mention creepy which is made less so by a plot device. They not only didn't need the plot device, they didn't need that awkward introduction. They could have started at the same age, perhaps as work colleagues or neighbors and it would have had the same effect. It would also have made the rest of the book more comfortable when it comes to discussing how well written the rest of the Romance is and it is an excellent romance.

Once that hurdle is crossed and the plot fully takes hold, Altered Parallel excels at both Fantasy and Romance. Malachite captures The Magic and all of the strengths, weaknesses, and rules that those who have it would follow.

An intriguing concept is how different locations around the world are connected to sources of power. One place could carry an aura of positive Magic that helps practitioners feel welcome and rejuvenated. Another feels cold, negative, and drains Magic users. 

The locations retain the residual energy, actions, and motives left by the users. There are those who use The Magic to help others and those who use it for darker purposes. Magic itself is neither good nor bad. It just exists as a neutral force. The good and evil lie in the user.

In fact, this tug between the various motives becomes a barrier between Skyler and Tate. At first, they are magically in sync with each other. Their powers increase the closer they become. They can fly to different locations, create objects, and share a telepathic link. Their romance strengthens their magical connections and vice versa.

In The Magic universe, emotions are heightened so what they felt in the previous world increases, particularly the darker negative ones. This is especially true for Skyler. The Magic opens her mind but also opens stronger emotions like rage, insecurity, longing, envy, fear, pride, and terror. She tries to resist and bury them but they only become stronger. In some of the strongest chapters, Skyler and Tate give their separate alternate versions of various key moments that show increased uncontrollable power but a decreased personal relationship. This relationship becomes darker, confrontational, and more tragic as they come to terms with different views.

In some ways Altered Parallel is very similar to another book that I recently reviewed, The Fallen Dreamer The Seers: Storyteller Edition by Kevin G. Broas. They both are novels about people discovering inner powers and some characters explore the darker aspects of what having those powers can bring. The difference is in tone. 

The Fallen Dreamer is more introspective and philosophical. It shows the larger picture of how those abilities impact society around us. It makes Readers think about the process, the results, and consequences and how they affect reality, imagination, free will, and human connection.

Altered Parallel is more evocative and poignant. While there is an awareness of the larger picture, it's more interested in the details of how these powers affect the characters. It makes Readers feel the loss within trusting someone with a deep secret and then using that secret to betray all they once believed in and how that betrayal affected their personal connection. Both books tell the same story and do it well. They just use different words and meanings to describe it. 

Losing Austin by Michael J. Bowler; Affecting, Poignant, and Transcendent Missing Child Novel

 

Losing Austin by Michael J. Bowler; Affecting, Poignant, and Transcendent Missing Child Novel 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Sherlock Holmes said it best, “Whenever you eliminate the improbable then all that remains no matter how impossible must be the truth.” Such is the case in Losing Austin. Michael J. Bowler’s novel about a missing child t is affecting, poignant, riveting, and ultimately otherworldly and transcendent.

Colton's nonverbal Autistic older brother Austin goes missing after Colton insults him. Colton and their parents go through an agonizing search. When they find no evidence that Austin either wandered off, got lost, or had been kidnapped, Colton looks for other possibilities. He remembers a brighter than usual rainbow and a strange unusual presence in the woods at the time and suspects that his brother was abducted by aliens. Other witnesses with similar stories corroborate this theory, a theory that looks more realistic when Austin reappears five years later completely unaged.

Losing Austin is a novel that veers between Crime Thriller and Science Fiction. Bowler produces a novel that is a mixture of the two subgenres and styles.

The book reveals the anguish when a child goes missing. Colton and his parents’ bond bends and threatens to break from the strain and there are hints that this fracture is permanent even after Austin returns. Colton and Austin’s father is so busy trying to be the stoic rock for the family that instead he becomes remote to them. Their depressed mother basically withdraws from everyone else and lives in her own private world of grief and despair. She barely acknowledges Colton’s presence except with occasional disdain and  hovers in and out of life without any real involvement. 

As for Colton, his emotions go from determination, to rage, to guilt. He searches the woods every day long after rescue teams have stopped looking for Austin. Once he admits his theory about alien abduction, he connects with people on social media who have similar experiences. He feels helpless that he couldn’t control what happened to Austin and despite his efforts can’t find him. To respond to that, he takes action so at least he can say that he did everything that he could. 

With that helplessness comes rage and fury. He gets into fights with bullying classmates that make fun of Austin or spread rumors about him. While some want to help Colton, particularly a former bully turned friend, others use the opportunity to isolate him even further. Since Colton and his family have become public figures because of this tragedy, he is constantly aware that he is being watched and monitored by everyone else at school. The scrutiny is so intense that he is temporarily home schooled. This contributes to his loneliness and insecurity. 

Above all,  Colton feels tense guilty and remorse. He obsessively goes over Austin’s last day especially the harsh words that he said knowing that Austin would never retaliate. He acted on impulse, spoke without thinking, and was immediately remorseful afterwards. But what was said was said and it seared into him for a long time. 

Colton reveals his pain and inner torment in an interview with Anderson Cooper (in one of the book’s lighter moments, Colton refers to Cooper as “CNN Dude,” a nickname that the news anchor graciously accepts). Colton bares all partly out of confession but also so people who are going through such grief, pain, and inner frustration can learn from his story. 

The realistic situation that the family goes through weaves with the fantastic theories espoused by Colton and his new friends. One of Colton’s friends shares a similar story of a missing brother and believes that “the rain took him.” 

After rational outcomes produce no results, it makes sense to look for the unusual. At first that seems to be what is at play here. The Reader doubts Colton’s narration but can’t deny that there are some strange things but it’s all understated. The nature around him like the bright rainbow, the rain occurring during disappearances, or the mysterious presence watching him are eerie but not unusual. The other witnesses could be just as confused or worse appealing to a grief stricken boy's anxieties. They could be straws that Colton is trying to grasp to find answers, calm his rage, and assuage his guilt.

However, when Austin returns unaged, the impossibility becomes almost confirmed. It puts the book into a different place than what was presented before where anything reasonable and logical turns into anything supernatural or otherworldly. 

The final chapters open up another solution that wasn’t addressed before. It becomes jarring but it also transcends reality and expands the book’s insights about other worlds into a new direction. The ending is also explained in a way that makes sense despite the abruptness. It makes one curious if Bowler is planning on exploring this scenario in future installments. 

Losing Austin captures the emotions of a Thriller, the themes of a Science Fiction, and the passage of a Coming of Age novel. It is a book that is worth finding.

The Others (Book 1 in the Council Trilogy) by Evette Davis; Blue by Charles Keatts; The Blind Smith (Book 1 in the Forge Trilogy in The Shadow Guardian Series) by G. Russell Gaynor; Eveningstar: Awakening by Samantha Curl

 The Others (Book 1 in the Council Trilogy) by Evette Davis; Blue by Charles Keatts; The Blind Smith (Book 1 in the Forge Trilogy in The Shadow Guardian Series) by G. Russell Gaynor; Eveningstar: Awakening by Samantha Curl 

The Others (Book 1 in The Council Trilogy) by Evette Davis

The entire review can be found on LitPick.

Evette Davis’ The Others is an intriguing concept that is illustrated with intrinsic copious details that fully explores it.

Political consultant Olivia Shepherd is suffering from a professional crisis when she encounters Elsa, a spirit called a Time Walker. Elsa informs her that her rival, Stoner Halbert has made a deal with a demon and is using that influence to grab power. As if that's not enough there is a hidden society called The Others: vampires, fairies, witches, ghosts, and other creatures. They live alongside our own and affect the human world around them. Olivia has some untapped abilities and must use them and her newfound friendships within the Others community to make some important political changes of their own, ones that will benefit humans and Otherkind not dominate it as Halbert wants to do.

The Others Society is captured brilliantly because it seems so much like the normal 21st century human society. The Others live in houses, have regular jobs, and go about their daily lives.

Once she is introduced to the concept, Olivia realizes that she is surrounded by The Others. Her best friend Lily, a teacher, is a fairy. William, a musician whom Olivia begins a relationship with, is a vampire. Gabriel, a multi billionaire who mentors Olivia, is a witch and so on.

There are also some other interesting facets to the plot. William and Olivia begin a tentative romance that is conflicted by differing views but a strong emotional and physical connection.

The political landscape is adequately explored and has some very timely relevance in an already eventful Presidential election year.

The Others takes a fascinating concept and lets the imagination run wild with it.

Blue by Charles Keatts

Blue by Charles Keatts is not an easy book to read. It's confusing, rambling, and disjointed, but it is also honest, introspective, and real. It shows the mental decline of a creative artist who is losing himself to addiction, depression, disconnection, and the despair felt by the people around him.

The Narrator mostly ruminates on his struggles and those of the people around him. They are highly artistic and highly troubled. There's Robert, a music critic, who falls into addiction and various love affairs. His painter friend, Ann soothes herself with heroin. The Narrator, a novelist and poet, has flashbacks of his unhappy youth and is overcome with depression, manic thoughts, and alcoholism. Other names and situations float through the book and disappear quickly as the Narrator’s sanity spirals.

This book is not an easy read. The narrative is confusing, repetitive, jumps from one point of view to another, and rambles on with little to no point. At times it comes across as boring. It tries for a stream of consciousness narration ala James Joyce or Virginia Woolf and sometimes it works but often it doesn't.

Blue works by capturing the slipping sanity of a brilliant but unraveling mind. The Narrator can't keep his thoughts together so it shows in the chapters. He repeats himself, tangles his thoughts, forgets names and places. Even his descriptions of Robert and Ann are causes for concern because The Narrator purposely leaves information out. It is unclear who Robert and Ann even are in his life. Are they friends of his? Is he Robert? Are they parts of his psyche? Fictional characters whose conflicts bleed into his own? We don't know and it is left to interpretation.

At times however, the narration is too complex and pretentious for its own good.

Blue contrasts with another recent book, blue: season by Chris Lombardi which also captures a stream of consciousness narration but does it better than Blue. blue: season is also narrated by a character who is a genius but has a fractured mind but this is a book with a character and plot. It doesn't lose focus so it can tell a good story along with a smart introspective narrative. We care about the characters and want to explore this strange journey into one woman's struggle with mental illness and traumatic memories of her past.

Blue on the other hand is more concerned with showing off the narration than putting it together in a book. It's hard to understand who the Narrator is or who the other characters are partly because of the limited perspective. We only see everyone through the Narrator's eyes. They all live miserable lives and that's it. The bleakness overpowers and since The Narrator jumps around, we can't really know the characters beyond mere sketches. The misery just piles on them without any full understanding of who they are as people or a reason why we should care about them when they reach rock bottom.

Blue is hard to comprehend and sometimes hard to care about, but it is an introspective and honest book about a brilliant mind that is falling apart. As those around him suffer from their own problems, he has to deal with his own heartaches and disappointments. The Narrator lives inside his own head and finds solace in his writing. If in fact, Robert and Ann are fictional characters that he created, he is perhaps using their addictions and psychological problems to confront or even avoid his own. 

As his life and the other's collapse, The Narrator who once found solace in his own mind can no longer trust it. He completely retreats into the fragmented remains in his mind as they slip away into nothingness. 

The Blind Smith (Book 1 in the Forge Trilogy in The Shadow Guardian Series) by G. Russell Gaynor

Note: This book was not selected because of current events. This schedule was made beforehand. Use caution when reading this review.

Even though G. Russell Gaynor’s The Blind Smith is 112 pages, it is a tightly wound and taut thriller about betrayal, revenge, and using one's own abilities and power to get that revenge.

An assassin blinds teen tech billionaire John J.J. Moore and kills members of his security team. He is taken in by Bob, a mysterious figure who teaches the young man how to be an assassin. Within a few years, J.J. excels in his training and recruits some new assassins to help him plan his revenge on the people who attacked him and killed his friends.

The opening chapter begins with a violent attack and there are some other subsequent action oriented chapters. However, the emphasis in this book is on gathering intelligence and planning strategies. Fighting harder takes a backseat to fighting smarter.

J.J. is particularly skilled in the whole “fighting smarter” mindset. He fits the description of someone who “plays 3D chess while his opponents play checkers.” In the beginning of the book, he is taught to use his other senses to become a formidable fighter ala Daredevil.

This style not only sharpens his physical strength but his mental strength too. He almost obtains a second sight and awareness into his allies and opponents's thoughts and actions.

With J.J.’s physical strength and analytical prowess, he is more than formidable against his enemies. Half way through the book only a few years into his training, he is already recruiting and leading his own groups. He picks into his protegee’s desires for revenge and anger at being wronged.

He helps his new recruits channel their anger into being a fighting team that makes up for the deficiencies that he lacks. They will be his force for revenge over the enemies who attacked him and the traitors that allowed it.

The Blind Smith is a brilliant game between a genius who is conditioned to fight and those who he is conditioned to fight against.

Eveningstar: Awakening by Samantha Curl 

Samantha Curl’s first Eveningstar novel, Awakening, skillfully tells three separate stories with the same characters. Curl then entwines them into one wide reaching expansive Epic High Fantasy that passes through three universes.

Alethia Eveningstar is the daughter of The God of War and Queen of the Stars and is destined to defeat Kakaron, God of Chaos before she can inherit her father's title. Kakaron seduces and betrays Alethia before making an escape. The Goddess-to-Be has to live ten or eleven lives encountering and fighting Kakaron before their final battle. Most of the book is set during two of those lives: Our Realm, where she is a high school girl in modern times discovering magic powers while dealing with new friendships, romance, and studies and the Other Realm, a Medieval like forest where her powers manifest as she is involved in a love triangle between her betrothed and a handsome and familiar stranger.

For a short novel of 178 pages, a lot is accomplished in an impressive manner. Curl devotes enough time to all three universes to give us ideas of the plots, settings, and characters and how they overlap and interact with each other. 

With time and interdimensional travel and the decision to set alternating chapters into different worlds, Awakening can be a very difficult book to follow. But thankfully many plot points parallel each other enough so if it already happened in one universe, the Reader will expect it to happen in another.

The key is to make each universe unique from the others and Curl does this superlatively. We know that Alethia and Kakaron are destined to encounter each other in each universe. 

There are also friends, relatives, authority figures, and romantic rivals that carry over in amusing ways. It gets to the point where the Reader goes “Okay there's this character in Our Realm. She should appear in the Other Realm right about..now.” It becomes an interesting game to see how quickly the characters' doppelgangers appear and in what way plots shift in the various worlds.

There are some interesting twists to keep Readers from expecting or assuming too much. One character strangely can jump from universe to universe so instead of being a reincarnated soul or a double, he's the same person in all three worlds and is able to teach Our World Alethia this ability so she can see what her Other Realm counterpart can. The circumstances of how Alethia and Kakaron meet, what forms they take, who seduced who, and how they discover the truth are different each time. Different enough that in one universe, Kakaron’s reveal is a genuine surprise. It keeps the momentum going in this strange novel.

Eveningstar: Awakening has a lot of fun playing with the laws of time and space and taking the Reader along with it.

 

The Counterfeit Zombies of Noc (The Legend of Guts and Glory Freedom Fighters of Nil Book 2) by Jessica Crichton; Sequel to Dr. Fixit is Glorious

 The Counterfeit Zombies of Noc (The Legend of Guts and Glory Freedom Fighters of Nil Book 2) by Jessica Crichton; Sequel to Dr. Fixit is Glorious 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: As this review contains spoilers, please read my review of the previous volume, Dr. Fixit's Malicious Machine . 

Even though Dr. Fixit Malicious Machine, the first book in Jessica Crichton’s The Legend of Guts and Glory Freedom Fighters of Nil series stars twins Trevor and Tabitha Tate AKA Guts and Glory respectively, Trevor is the main protagonist who tells the story and goes through the most changes. The second volume, Counterfeit Zombies of Noc evens the score by giving the spotlight to Tabitha and spinning the series into a deeper more cerebral direction.

When last we left our heroes, they were transported to a parallel universe called Nil by the enigmatic Dr. Fixit and were caught up in a gang war between Kids and Teens. They found their mother but lost their older sister after she was recruited to join the Teens. Their mother revealed the family's connection to this strange place and the truth behind this youthful war engineered by Dr. Fixit who is not what he seemed.

In this volume, the Tate twins and their new companions have to travel to the land of Noc to find out information from Marie, a former scientist who was a part of Fixit's past. Along the way they encounter zombies and other creepy creatures. Meanwhile, Tabitha is questioning her own self worth and the meaning to her name, Glory. Her reflection and intellect may end up being her only allies as her party dwindles and more Kids are abducted and brainwashed into becoming zombies.

Counterfeit Zombies of Noc is good the way other good second volumes of most series are. It raises the stakes, makes things darker, and plot and world building give way to deep characterization. 

The previous volume was dark enough in creating a parallel world where gangs of children fight gangs of teenagers and where teenagers are revealed to be mind controlled puppets who follow Fixit’s will. This volume increases that sense of abandonment and manipulation of other people's free will.

When the Twins and their friends first encounter the zombies, there is a bit of dark comedy as they stop pursuing the kids and then just as quickly wonder in befuddled confusion over why they are chasing them. This first impression makes the Reader think that it is going to be a parody of zombie movies, books, and shows. Maybe this volume might even be funny? But this might give the Reader and characters a false sense of security.

The Tates and their friends follow the zombies to their headquarters and they learn the circumstances of their brainwashing. Unfortunately knowing it and fighting against it are two different things. The zombies return to their programming and come after the kids. Worse in an almost Invasion of the Body Snatchers manner, most of the kids are brainwashed as well. 

In one chilling chapter, Trevor, Guts, is converted. It's eerie to see this once sweet brave kid who would have died to protect his sister now coldly stalking that same sister and treating her like an enemy that he must destroy.

After reading about the full effect of the zombie’s manipulation, it puts their introduction in a more disturbing light. Rather being a humorous random shout out to zombie media, it instead takes on darker implications. The hold on the zombies was temporarily broken to gain the kid's trust and lure them to their lair. A final reveal over who the zombies really are makes the hold on them even more sadistic and cruel. It's a deliberate ploy for the main villain to tighten one final screw of humiliation into these young people. 

Besides the darker plot, Crichton gives her characters depth, most notably Tabitha. While Trevor became Guts, leading by courage and valor, Tabitha is uncertain. She was once an intellectual, the brain to her brother's brawn. Now she is stuck with a name, Glory, that she doesn't understand.

In this world, everyone's names are either given by themselves or someone else who recognizes something unique about them. They could reflect their appearance like “Shark” (who has sharp teeth), convey their interest (“Books” the resident researcher and genius), or personality traits (the aforementioned “Guts.”)

This leaves Glory confused. Glory is such a loaded term one that doesn't seem helpful in battle so why is she one of the presumed heroes of legend? Asking others’ opinions doesn't help because they suggest “pretty,” “spirited,” and other adjectives that Tabitha does not feel that she is. 

Tabitha is crippled with self-doubt and anxiety that impairs her own defenses and abilities. In a strange Fantasy Science Fiction novel, this is a very realistic portrayal of someone with Anxiety. Fears and insecurity can overcome someone's life even if they aren't a hero destined to save a dystopia parallel universe. That person often downplays their achievements and talents as their questions and fears take over their lives. This is what happens to Tabitha. She rejects the name Glory for a time and considers herself a load to the group, something that their enemies gleefully use as a means to taunt and break her.

It is when Tabitha has to fight the zombies alone that she recognizes the power that was dormant and was waiting to be released. She recognizes that just as any group of fighters need Guts, they also need Glory, a light, a purpose, and a reason to keep fighting. In a climactic chapter, Glory truly accepts her name and her place in this world.

Crichton knew how to draw Readers into her world before and now knows how to keep them there. There are definite hooks for a sequel so let's see if she knows the best way to take her Readers out of that world.

Dr. Fixit's Malicious Machine The Legend of Guts and Glory Freedom Fighters of Nil by Jessica Crichton; Crichton’s Science Fiction Children’s Book Has Plenty of Guts and Glory

 Dr. Fixit's Malicious Machine The Legend of Guts and Glory Freedom Fighters of Nil by Jessica Crichton; Crichton’s Science Fiction Children’s Book Has Plenty of Guts and Glory 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: One of the things that I love about working on this blog is becoming acquainted with new, to me anyway, authors by reading multiple books written by them. It is a great journey to discover their entire body of work to see their imaginative literary worlds, to recognize tropes and themes that carry over from book to book, and associate them with a specific genre or style. My latest literary acquaintance is Children’s and YA author, Jessica Crichton.

Crichton’s book, Dr. Fixit’s Malicious Machine: The Legend of Guts and Glory Freedom Fighters of Nil is a brilliant Dystopian/Parallel Universe Science Fiction which gives Readers a fantastic setting, interesting characters that inhabit it, and some very powerful themes about family and what it actually means to grow up. 

Twins, Trevor and Tabitha Tate AKA Guts and Glory respectively find their scientist mother’s lab ransacked and learn that she has been abducted by a weird tentacled creature. They are invited by a mysterious person, Dr. Fixit, who says that their mother is in his world of Nil and they have to be put through a series of tests to find her and prove themselves worthy. The twins and their older sister, Emily, follow a portal to Nil which is revealed to be a dismal place overrun by giant bugs and juvenile gangs. Emily is kidnapped by the Teens, one of the gangs, and is held captive in their fortress Igh Schoo. The twins are found by a local kid named Books who takes the duo straight to the DarkCrows, a gang of kids under 12 who are sworn enemies of the Teens. The Crows think that Trevor and Tabitha resemble Guts and Glory, two legendary figures who have sworn to return to help their people. The Tate Twins find themselves in the middle of a gang war and a world where things aren’t always what they seem.

Crichton excels at subverting expectations and creating a Children’s Novel that isn’t afraid to get dark when it needs to. Many Children’s books series don’t start out completely dark. They introduce Readers to the new world by making it a fun place rich with details that makes one want to visit, saving the major conflicts for subsequent books. Crichton’’s book is different. It starts dark and looks to stay that way. 

For example Nil is a world with few adults, but it is not exactly Peter Pan’s NeverLand. It’s more like a nation wide version of Lord of the Flies. What we see of Nil is a dismal place with destroyed buildings, rampant lawlessness, complete chaos and destruction, and young people running around with no structure or understanding.

With no rules, no structures, gangs of children and teenagers are free to do whatever they want including hurting, abusing, or killing. After all, empathy and understanding are traits that are often taught by example and learning. Without those traits trained into them during their toddler years, they resort to selfish basest instincts. This is what is on display. 

These are children and teenagers who only live for themselves and have only the faintest idea of what deeper emotions like love really are. Family still exists because there are siblings but once a sibling becomes a Teen, that link is destroyed. Friendships are earned and just as easily broken within the gangs. The stress of this world even temporarily breaks Tabitha and Trevor apart. Nil is a nightmare world that many Readers probably would not want to visit unless they were really brave or really foolhardy.

Crichton also has fun playing with various tropes that are common in Children’s Literature by giving us reasons why they exist. As previously mentioned, there is a prophecy regarding Guts and Glory but we learn that the prophecy was made in a surprisingly mundane way. It is not an ancient myth passed down from a loving deity so much as a record accidentally left behind when the writer had to leave in a big hurry. The implication seems to be that these kids were so desperate for a hero or something beyond themselves that they latched onto anything that they could find that encouraged them to look forward to a better day. 

There are some fun and interesting bits that add to Crichton’s excellent writing style. Names are particularly fun. Of course there are Tabitha and Trevor, the aforementioned Guts and Glory. There are also characters that are rich with names like Fist, Shark, Books, Roach, Turtle, and Gadget. These names give you some idea of the characters’ personalities and interests. Of course that the names are chosen not by parents but by other kids adds to the effect. Like in another life, these names could have been used as insults or means of bullying but now they are the only ways that they can identify themselves.

Some names are a bit on the nose. Nil means nothing and that gives some idea of what this world is really like. The biggest laugh is the Teen’s hideout, Igh Schoo  and how long it takes Trevor to figure out what it means. It’s obvious and clever in its own way. 

Above all this is a strong book about love and loyalty. The gang members feign loyalty but are willing to turn on each other at a moment’s notice. Some characters trust others too readily only to find betrayal. In one heartbreaking moment, the Tate Siblings’ bond with other family members are called into question, creating hurt, pain, and ties that may end up being forever broken. However, Tabitha and Trevor’s familial bond is strengthened by this adventure showing that they do have the courage, love, leadership, and perseverance to become the Guts and Glory of legends. 

It takes a lot of Guts to write a book with familiar tropes and do something unique with them. Crichton has them and the results are very Glorious. 

Classics Corner: Imajica by Clive Barker; A Parallel Universe Fantasy That Draws You In and Won't Let Go

Classics Corner: Imajica by Clive Barker; A Parallel Universe Fantasy That Draws You In and Won't Let Go


By Julie Sara Porter,


Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: First I want to thank my sister-in-law Tzyra Andreeva for giving me this wonderful book. It's definitely a great gift.

You don't read a book like Clive Barker’s Imajica. You inhabit it, you immerse yourself into it. The parallel world setting, the magical eccentric characters, the intricate plot and deep themes of religion, gender roles and realizing one’s own identity draw the Reader in and doesn't let them go.

This is the type of book that starts the Reader thinking that it's one thing but early hints show that it becomes a completely different work. Charlie Estabrook, an obsessive Englishman wants to hire an assassin to murder Judith, his soon-to-be-ex-wife and the Reader sits back ready for a psychological thriller. But certain things happen that prove otherwise about the narrative.


There’s the bizarre coincidence that both Judith and her former lover, John Furie Zacharias AKA Gentle can only remember the last ten years of their lives. There's the go-between with Estabrook and the assassin who is murdered by a strange man who not only appears out of thin air but murders the go-between by putting unearthly insects in his mouth that crawl through his skin. Then,there's the passage where the hired assassin,Pie’oh’pah transforms from male to female depending on who is observing it. Well that's horror master Clive Barker, the creator of the Hellraiser and Candyman franchises for you.

Instead of being a conventional thriller or a conventional well just about anything, Imajica reveals itself to be an evocative novel set within five parallel universes. The Universes called the Dominions (Earth is the Fifth Dominion) were connected as one called the Imajica but now have lost those connections. Many sorcerers and magic users have attempted to join the Five Dominions in a ritual called The Reconciliation to no success. Among them, the back story tells us, was a sorcerer who attempted the Reconciliation 2,018 years ago who not only failed but ended up on the wrong end of a cross. (Guess who?) The most recent attempt was made 200 years ago by a Maestro Sartori who failed miserably and made some very magical and destructive decisions that affected the rest of the characters and himself.

What happens next is a road trip through the unique worlds of the other four Dominions. In trying to defend Judith from the eccentric assassin, Gentle begins to bond with it. Soon he and Pie’oh'pah form a friendship and travel to the other Dominions. Pie’oh'pah has its own motives which get revealed later. For Gentle, an art forger and ladies’ man, the trip is to give him direction and possibly some answers for questions that have plagued him for the past ten years.


Meanwhile Judith goes on a magical journey of her own. Astral projection allows her to travel inside the body of a mysterious woman who has been imprisoned in a comatose state for over 100 years inside the home of a member of the Tabula Rasa. They are a secret organization who are driven to destroy any magic users and stop the Reconciliation and aren't particular about the methods to achieve these goals.

The Four Dominions are brilliantly captured in Barker's writing. They are individually characterized with unique details that describe the landscapes. One Dominion is surrounded by a frozen lake with killer tides...literally. Another has a green sky which turns purple at night. Another has a comet for a sun and another has two suns and an immense desert. Another looks like a living city and turns out to be one.

There are also unusual characters in these environments as well. There are human characters with gills, feathers, and fur (some with all three). Pie'oh'pah’s transformations from male to female are illusions to seduce its lovers into thinking that they are seeing their strongest desire. A little girl Huzzah is described as a very ugly girl but is one of the sweetest most adorable characters in the book. There are also frightening characters like the Nullianacs, creatures with hands for heads who devour their enemies. Once the First Dominion is revealed to be a living city, it becomes a thing of nightmares.

Besides describing unique settings, Barker provides brilliant rich characters in the novel, many of whom are more than they seem. The Second Dominion's capital city, Yzordderrex is ruled by the Autarch, a malevolent war mongering tyrant and Quaisoir, his mentally ill wife. In other books, they would be the direct villains of the piece. But Imajica isn't so clearly defined. As Gentle, Judith, The
Autarch and Quaisoir discover they are more connected than they thought, the lines between heroes and villains become blurry making the four very developed.

Judith and Gentle are very developed characters in their struggles throughout the novel to discover their identities. Gentle begins the novel as a dilettante artist who uses his talents to copy other works and hop from one bed to another. His journey through the Dominions becomes one of self-discovery. He and Pie'oh'pah fall in love when Gentle realizes what a loving and loyal creature his companion is. He also embraces some dormant magical abilities which he uses in the protection of his friends and loved ones.


Gentle becomes confused whether his role is to continue the Reconciliation or to stop it. He learns who he once was in a heartbreaking and frightening scene in which he is driven to insanity by the memories of not only his current life but the previous ones before it.
Once he remembers his former identity's cruelties and deceptions, he is determined to make things right in this life. When he confronts Hapexamendios, the God that was the true author of this destruction, Gentle is prepared to face Him to claim his identity for himself.


Judith also goes on her own journey.When she learns that she was created for the purpose of being a romantic object for someone, she seeks to break that pattern to become her own person. Like Gentle, she refuses to remain a plaything for others’ designs.
Judith also discovers some abilities that allow her to free the Goddesses who had been removed by Hapexamendios and The Autarch's theocracy. She recognizes the strength of many of the other female characters and in herself.
It is only when Judith and Gentle are able to accept their former identities and be willing to break their old patterns to become their own people are they able to truly bring completion to the Dominions in a very unique and clever way.

Like his magical characters and setting, Barker weaves a spell on the Reader that captivates them and holds onto them long after the book is closed. That is why this is the best book that I have read this year so far.