The Colonel and The Bee by Patrick Canning; Fun Charming Victorian Adventure That Ascends to Great Heights

The Colonel and The Bee by Patrick Canning; Fun Charming Victorian Adventure That Ascends to Great Heights 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: Patrick Canning’s The Colonel and The Bee is a throwback to an earlier time of a 19th century Adventure Novel. Pastiches of Victorian Adventures are not unfamiliar with this blog. I reviewed Jon Stephen Jones’ Victorian Adventure Stories and B,G, Hilton’s Champagne Charlie and The Amazing Gladys. Where Jones used familiarity with the Victorian tropes to write stories that echoed them perfectly and Hilton used those tropes to write a novel that brimmed with quirky originality and bizarre goofiness, Canning walks a middle ground. He wrote a novel that presents a fantastic Victorian Adventure with a postmodern darker edge. 

The book is narrated by The Amazing Beatrix, a former acrobat, who instead of running away to join the circus is instead running away from the circus to join something, anything else. She resents the abusive treatment from the circus ringmaster, Ziro so during a private performance for a nobleman, Beatrix makes a dramatic escape to the protection of Colonel James Bacchus, an eccentric treasure hunter with a reputation of daring adventures and romantic escapades. The Colonel takes her into Ox, The Oxford Starladder his floating house (no seriously it’s a four story wicker house attached to a red hot air balloon). She befriends his colleagues, the Newlyweds, obtains a nickname, “Bee” and joins them on their latest hunt for The Blue Star Sphinx. Unfortunately, some dangerous characters are also looking for the Sphinx and the Colonel including an intrepid law enforcement officer and two feuding criminal families. 

The Colonel and The Bee walks a fine and interesting line between the fantastic situations of the past and the rich character development of the present. Canning captures both expertly by giving us realistic characters in a fantastic setting.

What stands out at first is the fantasy, the adventure, the outlandish fantastic tropes of the past. We know realistically that a hot air balloon can’t carry a four story house, but that doesn’t matter. In this book, it does. We know that buried treasure isn’t really found by searching for intricate clues and x doesn’t always mark the spot, but who cares? That’s part of the fun. The Colonel and The Bee opens up those childlike parts of ourselves that read comic books or old adventure novels and imagine ourselves as the characters. Characters like Indiana Jones, The Doctor, Jules Verne’s Phileas Fogg, Sherlock Holmes, Professor Challenger, James Bond, Nancy Drew, every superhero ever. Characters that we imagine wake up every morning wondering what adventure they will get into today. 

Canning captures that childlike wonder that these stories convey. The adventure is solid with many twists and turns. There are written clues that provide context to the Sphinx and its backstory. We are treated to various locations such as Switzerland, Belgium, Spain, Gibraltar, Britain, and The Sahara where The Colonel, Bee, and their allies encounter dangers that require cunning, intelligence, stealth, strength, and daring to survive. It's an adventure that moves at a brisk pace but contains enough plot threads to go into different directions and hold the Reader's interest.This is a light hearted fun adventure for the most part.

While the majority of the book is fun and light, the way that most of these quaint Historical adventures are, there is some depth and attention to character psychology that give this book a postmodern edge. The Colonel and Bee reveal themselves as more than the flashy outlandish exterior that we see at first. 

Bee left behind a lifetime of abuse and degradation at the circus. The maltreatment takes its toll on Bee as despite trusting The Colonel enough to rescue her, she is incredibly cynical and suspicious towards his actions. She had been exploited and used so this is what she expects from people. She for a time is unable to trust The Colonel and suspects the worst from him, particularly because of his history with women. She is looking for an escape out of her situation, maybe some money, but nothing else. 

As she travels with The Colonel and his friends, Bee begins to relate to and bond with them. She sees their vulnerabilities, kindness, and acceptance towards her. Her agility is useful for getting them out of tough situations and her earthy nature provides a nice contrast to The Colonel’s flightiness. As she uses her skills to become a member of the group, she opens up to her new found friends. She also begins to let go of her earlier trauma from her time at the circus even to the point where she even bonds with some of her former colleagues when she recognizes their suffering as well.

Since Bee is the first person narrator, we see her various layers but it takes some time to see The Colonel’s. He lives a seemingly enviable life from land to land, adventure to adventure, and lover to lover. He has a charming flirtatious enthusiastic demeanor. He seems less drawn to search for the Sphinx because of wealth than he is for the thrill and excitement. As the book continues, The Colonel is revealed to have a past and troubles of his own that he hides under his gregarious devil may care personality.

The Colonel reveals that he comes from a very dysfunctional family and this adventure is not just a treasure hunt but a search for some family members. Now, his adventures are seen as means to fill the empty voids in his life. They give him some purpose and significance. He was made to feel like he didn't belong anywhere so he became a citizen of the world. His only real family and friends are those that travel with him on The Ox or aid him on his journeys from the ground. 

The Colonel and Bee move from flashy adventurers looking for treasure, to two lost individuals looking for familial connections. Through their journey, they find both.

 

The Crystalline Crucible by Adam Rowan; Witty and Satirical Treasure Hunt with A Quirky Cast of Seekers

 The Crystalline Crucible by Adam Rowan; Witty and Satirical Treasure Hunt with A Quirky Cast of Seekers

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

Spoilers: The Crystalline Crucible could be considered one of those treasure hunt adventures in the tradition of Cameron Jace’s Anne Anderson and Avanti Centrae’s Van Ops Series. Though instead of going for thrills, it goes for laughs. Instead of the prize being an ancient and valuable object or buried wisdom, it's a few minutes of Internet fame.

Max Jacobs is definitely an odd one. He is an amateur treasure hunter who belongs to various social media groups where members look for hidden prizes. Max’s latest hunt is for the Crystalline Crucible, a prize offered by a mysterious organization that is rumored to be the Illuminati. To help him, Max recruits two acquaintances: Rosie Shaw, his would be girlfriend and Khalil Ahmed, a coworker and rival.

Everything about this book is both odd and strangely adorable in its oddness. The treasure hunt itself has some intriguing clues that require knowledge and accessibility to various English locations. (It’s a good thing England is a somewhat small country so the Crucible hunt can be completed in such record time. One can only imagine how long the hunt would be if it was set in the United States.) Max and Co. find themselves in some pretty uproarious situations to achieve the clues. The book begins as Max breaks into a local museum to receive a clue, only to be arrested and  interrogated, and to later learn that the actual clue was on the museum’s website all along.

The hunt is made even stranger by the hunters themselves. The emphasis on most hunts is wealth and knowledge. There is some potential wealth that could help them. Max wants to provide funding so the local library won’t be shut down. Khalil wants to support his family and get some dangerous gangsters off his back. Rosie wants to travel the world and fulfill a lifelong dream by having her children’s book published. But equally important than the money that they hope to gain is the fame. If they find the Crystalline Crucible the trio will achieve the pinnacle of niche success: the achievement of looking cool among their army of social media treasure hunting nerds. You have to take the victories where you can find them. 

Naturally a strange hobby would feature strange people pursuing it and we are given some weird ones. Max is probably the strangest of the trio. He is obsessed with Medieval history, carries a sword, and speaks in faux Middle English. The treasure hunt gives him a chance to fill out his quixotic fantasies of being a hero on a noble quest. His obsession with certain things like trivia and the Miss Marple series add to his overall quirkiness.

His treasure seeking cohorts are quite colorful themselves. Rosis is a Math teacher and is called to lend her expertise when the clues become numerical and analytical. Rosie’s fascination with trivia is greater than Max’s own to the point that she is the founder and leader of a group called the Quizties who participate in trivia tournaments and she is just as obsessed with that as Max is with finding treasure. Her children’s book consumes her thoughts so much that she sometimes visualizes her friends as anthropomorphic animals. 

Khalil is somewhat of the normal one of the group but he also has his eccentricities. He is a photographer and first encounters Max during a nightly photo session of the local area. Partly because of his history with criminal activity and partly because of his suspicious personality, he is on the lookout for any sort of rivalry, competition, or troubling activity. Even something as innocuous as working in a co-op market causes him to sense conspiracy when he is forced to work with Max and then when Max recruits him to join the hunt. The subplot concerning Khalil’s involvement with gangsters gives a dark perspective to a book that did alright without it but it also emphasizes Khalil’s different status from the rest of his friends. They live in their fantasy world of medieval quests and anthropomorphic animals. He lives in a grittier, more realistic world of a crime thriller. He can’t hide in his imagination like they can. He has to face the violence especially when his friend’s lives are in danger. 

Much of the humor of the Crystalline Crucible lies in the meta commentary. This book knows what genre it is in and what tropes are at play and they acknowledge them even by adhering to and playing with them. When Max and Khalil agree to join forces, Max scoffs that this doesn’t mean that they will become friends bound together by their journey. Of course not even a few chapters later, they admit to becoming friends. When Max receives some disappointing news at the end, he lampshades the “it’s the journey not the destination” cliche right before he gains some enlightenment from his search to show him that yes it was the journey. The meta commentary is both parody in pointing out the tropes and respectful by paying them a touching tribute. 

The Crystalline Crucible is a fun delightful read in which Readers might find that treasure can be found in a good laugh just as well as in a  hidden bejeweled objet d’art.

New Book Alert: Cleopatra's Vendetta (A Stryker Thriller) by Avanti Centrae; Complex,Suspenseful, and Exciting Combination of Fanciful Adventure with Gritty Thriller

 

New Book Alert: Cleopatra's Vendetta (A Stryker Thriller) by Avanti Centrae; Complex,Suspenseful, and Exciting Combination of Fanciful Adventure with Gritty Thriller 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Avanti Centrae's books could be considered the Indiana Jones of adventure novels. They are exciting suspenseful chases in which the characters find some lost treasure that contains knowledge about history that challenges our previous perceptions of the past. Of course there are villains following close behind with the drive to kill the good guys, steal the treasure, and bury the information.

Centrae's previous series, The Van Ops is a great example of these adventures, featuring twins who are part of a secret government organization that searches for these treasures. Her other series, The Stryker Thrillers combines the style of the more fanciful adventure novels with the more grounded political thrillers. It's a strange but effective crossover of genres.

The estranged wife and daughter of Timothy Stryker, leader of M2, a military SpecOps Unit, have been kidnapped. It's up to Stryker and his sister-in-law and fellow M2 member Sam to find her. Meanwhile, Stryker's partner Jeronimo Guerrero Reyes is investigating a series of assassinations of high profile leaders with the assistance of Jane Parish, a British agent. Eventually it is revealed that the kidnappings and assassinations are linked because of an ancient religious sect called Sons of Adam that is tied to the true circumstances surrounding Cleopatra VII's death and it had nothing to do with asps.

There are some exciting moments that are to be found such as when Stryker and Sam trail a suspect to a bar to learn about Angie and Harper, Stryker's wife and daughter's whereabouts. Then there is the moment when Rey is an eyewitness to an assassination and follows the hitman through India.

Angie herself has some gripping scenes during her captivity when she struggles to find out where she is and what her captors want her for. Every character has several moments where they have to use strength, skill, and intelligence to get out of a bad situation.

There are also some great chapters that piece together the story of Cleopatra and characters explore what might be her tomb. The clues are tantalizing and very revealing about who she was and what information the Sons of Adam want to suppress.

This is the kind of book where there is a cliffhanger in nearly every chapter and the Reader can't wait to see what happens next and what it all leads to.

Even though politics are often involved in Adventure stories (usually the characters are employed, hired, or stopped by some government), it is often in the background with fanciful almost cartoonish representatives. Since Cleopatra's Vendetta is combined with the political thriller genre, there is an air of gritty reality to the suspense that goes beyond the archaic clues and narrow escapes in most of these books. 

Stryker's team for example is a veritable buffet of PTSD, addictions, and horrible pasta that make them characters that wrestle not only with antagonists outside but their own inner demons.

 While she and Harper are kidnapped, Angie fears that they might be taken by a human trafficking ring (and she's not too far off). 

Many of the protagonists commit violent actions in the name of gathering information and work for shady government representatives who couldn't care less if they live or die. Even though the adventure is rooted in the old tradition of black and white, good vs. evil, Cleopatra's Vendetta features characters who live in a world of muted gray.

There is treasure to be found, information to be learned, and a history that is faced and seen with new eyes. Most of it surrounds the true character of Cleopatra. Even the opening prologue focuses on the Egyptian queen moments before her death. 

Like the adventure surrounding Cleopatra and the clues about her death, the aura of mystique is removed from her giving a more complex portrayal than most of her representations. Usually, Cleopatra is portrayed as a highly wealthy femme fatale who took both Mark Antony and Julius Caesar as lovers. 

But many historians do not focus on Cleopatra's rule and immense leadership skills. She was considered one of the last great rulers of the Egyptian royal dynasties. She successfully wrestled the kingdom from her brother Ptolemy and was a consummate strategist who spoke several languages and studied the philosophers in learning how to adapt her thinking. In fact, her unions with Caesar and Antony weren't solely for carnal pleasures as they were to form powerful alliances with the Romans. She was thought in her day to be the reincarnation of Isis, Egypt's Goddess of fertility, magic, healing, death, and rebirth. This book restores the Egyptian queen's character and makes her just as powerful in death as she was in life. 

To focus only on Cleopatra's beauty and her lovers tell only half the story. It's like talking only about Elizabeth I's relationship with Robert Dudley but not focusing on her long reign and leadership. In her own way, Centrae allows her characters to bring the real Cleopatra's legacy to light.

The thriller aspects of espionage match well with the adventurous look at history making Cleopatra's Vendetta a complex, suspenseful, and exciting combination.

New Book Alert: Solstice Shadows (A VanOps Thriller) by Avanti Centrae; Follow Up To The Lost Power Offers More Adventure, Suspense, Treasure Hunting, and Characterization

New Book Alert: Solstice Shadows(A VanOps Thriller) by Avanti Centrae; Follow Up To The Lost Power Offers More Adventure, Suspense, Treasure Hunting, and Characterization

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews


Spoilers: When last we left the Wonder Twins, Maddy Marshall and Will Argones and their secret agent friend, Bear Thorenson, they found some obelisks that acted as a superconductor and a star chart that points to an ultimate power source. This journey led them to the top of the Great Pyramid of Giza where Maddy used the superconductor to create ball lightning to blast their pursuers sky high. Will accepted the offer to join Van Ops still in mourning for his murdered wife, Maria. Maddy got accepted into a secret organization, the Order of the Invisible Flame, and considered joining Van Ops and adopting A.J., her orphaned student in aikido martial arts, while beginning a romance with Bear.


The second volume in the Van Ops series, Solstice Shadows, is pretty much more of the same. Usually, that's not a good thing but in this case, that is definitely a compliment. Avanti Centrae gives us more adventure, more treasure hunting, more suspense, more exotic locations, and more great characterization. It is not better or worse than the previous one. Instead they are equals in great escapism and high adventure.


The star chart that Will, Maddy, and Bear found is stolen from Maddy's apartment. Now, a dangerous assassin, with a taste for garroting his enemies, is after them. Meanwhile the Indian ambassador to Russia is murdered and his mistress is kidnapped and tortured. It flies right into Will and Maddy's world when they learn that the mistress is their step-grandmother and that they were attacked so their enemies could find the star chart and the location of the power source.

So now the twins, Bear, and a pair of new allies are led on yet another treasure hunt to look for this power source before the winter solstice (where the chart predicts that it can be found). They have to hurry because their enemies knocked out the power in the Philippines where a terrified populace is rioting and A.J. is hiding with an ally.


The novel jumps around from various locations to the Maldives, to the United States, to Brazil, to Russia, to Israel, to Mexico, to Belize, to the Philippines, to Turkey, to Morocco, to Egypt, to Sudan, to Jordan. If Readers want to take an imaginary journey to get their mind off their troubles, this book is the literary equivalent of getting your Imaginary Frequent Flier Miles.


The adventure is pure Indiana Jones meets James Bond. Everywhere the characters go, they run into villains in hot pursuit and have to use their wits to escape. There are many tense passages such as when Will and co-agent, Jags have to travel through the Sahara to avoid assasins.

Another suspenseful moment is when Maddy, Bear, and Will come to the archaeological dig of Anu Kumar, an archaeologist who can provide information on the star chart. She becomes the sole survivor in an attack that almost comes out of a psychological thriller or a horror movie.


The characterization is as sharp as ever mostly because Centrae doesn't forget the human element that lies in the adventure. Maddy goes through some angst and indecision throughout the book. She is reluctant to join VanOps because of how guilty she felt about committing murder in the last book, even though it was in self defense of herself, Will, Bear, and A.J. She is also torn between living a normal life as an adopted mother and getting back together with her ex fiancee or saving the world and taking all these dangerous risks with her new boyfriend, Bear. There is an emotional moment where Maddy has to face the consequences of keeping secrets even from her and Will's older sister, Bella.

One part that doesn't quite fit is her relationship with A.J. While she clearly cares for the boy, the fact that he is in danger in this book, yet again, suggests that he could become a frequent target by their  enemies. Maddy debates whether to adopt him, but this book gives several good reasons why she shouldn't.


Will also benefits from the extra care that Centrae provides in writing him. He is no longer grieving for his late wife. In fact, Maria's death and his last adventure has turned him into a dedicated agent who has learned to use his physical skills in knife throwing as well as his mental skills in engineering.

Will also has a potentially romantic relationship with Jags and a lot of cute moments as the two are running from their potential assailants. Jags also provides a sympathetic ear when Will confesses that he feels guilty about being involved with another woman so quickly after Maria's death.


While the antagonists aren't as well written as Ivan, the Hitman with a Heart of Gold from The Lost Power, there is some depth provided within Pyotr Argones, a relative of Will and Maddy's that is after them. While chasing the twins, Pyotr is also worried about his mother who is kidnapped and tortured by a sinister Russian character called the Baron. Oh yeah, and his mother is the aforementioned Indian ambassador's mistress. Pyotr realizes that he is a pawn in a larger game and the players that claim to be on his side could careless about him.

With extra adventure, locations, and great characters on both sides, Solstice Shadows continues the excitement started by The Lost Power. The VanOps Series is a series that could be considered The Great Escape.

New Book Alert: Van Ops: The Lost Power by Avanti Centrae: Thrilling, Suspenseful, And Engaging Treasure Hunt Begins New Series

New Book Alert: Van Ops: The Lost Power by Avanti Centrae; Thrilling, Suspenseful, and Engaging Treasure Hunt Begins New Series

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews



Spoilers: Thanks to the Da Vinci Code, for a time in the early to mid 2000’s, you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a book about a treasure hunt. Several books were written where the protagonists looked for some treasure or knowledge that had been hidden for centuries that could shake up the known usually western world. The protagonists are on the run from dastardly villains, usually working for the church or government that are determined to keep the secret.

One of the better of those treasure hunt novels was 2005’s Labyrinth by Kate Mosse which involved books that contained references to the Holy Grail, the history of the Cathars in France, a commentary on gender roles, and two strong female protagonists in modern day and 13th century France.


We return to that trend that now reaches 20 years old (yikes) with Avanti Centrae’s The Lost Power, a book in her Van Ops series. When done right, these treasure hunt novels are interesting lessons in history and speculative fiction, filled with intense suspenseful action-based passages, and feature interesting characters that guide the action. Lucky for us, Centrae gets it right.

Twins, Will and Maddy Argones are invited to visit their father who tells them that he has important news. Before he can reveal it, however both he and Will’s wife, Maria, are killed by an assassin's bullet. The twins barely have time to grieve before their father’s attorney sends them a letter which tells them to return to the family's ancestral home Aragon Castle in Spain and locate the Aragon Chassé, a small box that contains an object of immense power. This quest takes them and their old school friend and current military man, Teddy “Bear” Thorenson on a journey through Spain, Israel, and Egypt with dangerous assassins in hot pursuit.

The book is an escapist fantasy of exotic locations and roller coaster actions designed to end several chapters with cliffhangers. There are various tense situations where the Argones Twins and Bear hide from assassins in various locations including the Dome of the Rock and a hot air balloon. There is an interesting subplot when the trio take part in various tests to determine their strength, knowledge, and worthiness to find the Aragon Chassé.

The characterization is brilliantly executed. Will and Maddy both shine with individual moments. Maddy is a seventh level Dan and martial arts instructor and uses those skills to defend her loved ones. She is also psychic and has premonitions of people being hurt or kidnapped. She shows a strong maternal bond with A.J., a young student who unfortunately gets caught in the middle of these struggles.

Will is also well written. He is a skeptic where Maddy is intuitive. While it stretches credibility over how skeptical he can possibly be, with not only a psychic sister but going on a journey that includes some unexplained phenomena, but this can also be attributed to Will’s stubborn nature. Also, the plot offers scientific possibilities which gives Will, an engineer opportunities to use his expertise. On an emotional front, Will shows genuine grief over Maria's death which is refreshing to see when in many novels of this sort ignore the personal tragedy when someone dies in favor of action. This book shows the grief that would be involved when someone dies particularly when they were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Bear isn't as developed as the twins but he offers some interesting possibilities when it is revealed that he is part of Van Ops, a secret military organization that studies unexplained phenomena. He also harbors a secret crush on Maddy and shares some sweet heroic moments with her.

The antagonists are fairly decent as well. The stand out among them is Ivan, a gun toting hit man who hides a heart as big as the number of his confirmed kills. Ivan can be a ruthless killer, but that's not all to his story. Centrae reveals that he is worried about his kidnapped son whom his employers hold hostage in an attempt to get Ivan to obey them. Ivan also shows protectiveness over the kidnapped, A.J. revealing the fatherly side he hides behind his gruff violent exterior.

The search for the Aragon Chassé is pretty tight as clues are given and tests are required to find the object. When the Chassé is revealed, it proves to be every bit as powerful as advertised and during the climax that power is unleashed in a violent and ultimately satisfactory moment.

The Lost Power is a treasure hunt worth going on with a thrilling plot, great characters, and a truly intriguing adventure.