Review: Storm Glass

Storm Glass by Jeff Wheeler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Storm Glass might be the most unimpressive book I've ever read. It's not bad in any real way, it just doesn't excite me even in the faintest sense of the term. I can't even say it's boring as I was able to finish it without feeling I wasted the last week. Everything was just so middle of the road and clumpy that it was just good enough to read, but not good enough to like.

If you're into world-building porn, this book might be your jam. Because the only thing that had the slightest sense of creative investment was the world-building. The prose and characters were too weak for the case to be otherwise. I'll give the book props for laying out the world without creating a sense of being in the middle of an exposition dump. The problem, however, is that there is so little investment into why any of it matters. A great big world, with lots of moving parts, loses its sense of wonder when it's restricted behind the narrative's limited scope. The book never crosses the threshold of building a world and making the reader care about it.

In other news, the social-political intrigue is too petty and small scale to maintain interest. Too much of the book plays out like a super long episode of 'Downton Abbey'. Just without Maggie Smith. Or any interesting characters for that matter. The dynamics are just too cliched and none it really matters by the everything-fits-neatly-in-a-box ending.

Mild spoiler. This book is really about poverty. Why is it about poverty? Reasons. Is it a good commentary about poverty? No. No, it isn't. I could probably write a five million world essay as to why, but here's the gist: For there to be an effective commentary on an issue, there needs to be an underlining real-world connection and understanding of the institutionalized aspects of the problem. At no time did I feel like the author was holding up a mirror to the issues the book cared about. Not unless it was a funhouse mirror.

I've read books before where nothing really happens. The industry normally calls those books award winners. However, this isn't the case for Storm Glass. Stuff happens. Lots of stuff. Most of it is explaining something about the world, but at least it's something. But from the beginning, to middle, to end, there doesn't seem to be any sense of highs or lows. It's just a very monotone pace throughout. Like a decently worded output of white noise. It's not bad. It's just there.

View all my reviews

Review: Vessel

Vessel by Lisa A. Nichols
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Can writers write smart characters if they themselves aren't also smart? A loaded question to be sure but still somehow begs to be asked. It repeatedly came to mind as I read this novel, Vessel by Lisa A. Nichols. Not that this book is dumb, far from it, but it falls more into the range of above average. This novel uses its brain, which I liked, but the problem is that we have a bunch of characters that work at NASA who don't seem qualified for the positions they hold. I'm not saying you have to be a rocket scientist to write rocket scientists, but it helps.

It starts off well enough, with a strong you-can't-go-home-again feel to it. If it remained a character study about someone returning home after spending years in space than I probably would have liked it a lot more. However, the actual plot that surrounds our characters isn't as strong as the characters themselves. It's more drab and predictable than it otherwise pretends to be. Most of the book sticks with the lead character and her returning to Earth troubles, which is its strength, but every few chapters it has to remind us that it has a half baked plot cooking in the background.

I would say Vessel's worst problem is that it gets less interesting the more it goes on. It doesn't fall apart by the end, I would have hated this book otherwise, but it rather just of fizzles out. By the latter third of the book, it's just not convincing. The secondary characters aren't allowed enough insight, so their actions just seem rather idiotic. At first, I thought something sinister was going on, but no, they were just being stupid.

There is also a secondary narration that feels pretty useless until the closing chapters. It takes away the focus from the main character and it doesn't provide enough insight into the plot to justify it. I know the resolution to the ending conflict was more practical by having someone other than the main character solve it, it just makes for bad storytelling.

Ultimately, I would say this book is flawed but otherwise worthy to be read. So I would recommend Vessel but with an asterisk. It's mostly good, it's mostly smart. It just isn't as good or as smart as something like The Martian.

View all my reviews

Review: Captain America: Sam Wilson, Vol. 1: Not My Captain America

Captain America: Sam Wilson, Vol. 1: Not My Captain America by Nick Spencer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is strictly a middle of the road comic. If you're a die-hard Captain America fan, you could do worse. If you're more of a general comic book fan that'll read anything as long as it's good, you can do better. In a weird way, I hate things that are middling. I can't tear into it without feeling bad, but I also can't praise it. Almost like an annoying talkative guy who sits next to you on an airplane or bus. Sure, you want him to shut up, but, if you hit him, you'll be arrested. And there were plenty of times I wanted to smack this book.

The biggest problem was the writing. Especially the dialogue. While not garbage, the text was highly inefficient. Each character needed to spew out several paragraphs worth of nearly meaningless dialogue when one line could do. Very rarely is this book ever concise and to the point. For example, there is a part in issue 2 where Sam is holding a guy upside down in the air. Even then, in most non-talkative situation someone could ever possibly be in, entire pages of dialogue are exchanged. Then Sam's trained bird, Red Wing, holds him up by the pant leg. And anyone who's seen Monty Python knows that's impossible.

There's also a weird werewolf thing that is used strictly to tell a number of lame jokes that gets really old really fast. Despite spending several days as a literal dog, there is zero character development for Sam or anyone else. Which is another problem this book has.

The art is a mixed bag. Sometimes it's great, sometimes it's average. Obviously, this book had several people work on it so it could stay on schedule. If this was an independent publisher, I would honestly give it more slack, but, if Marvel has enough money to hire A-list actors to play minor roles in their movies, they can afford to spend more money on art.

I don't want to trash this book, but I also want to tell you to avoid it. It's not very good. Keeping track of what is going on with the Captain America character is literally to only reason you would want to read it. And that isn't a very good reason.

View all my reviews

I just flew back from Europe and boy are my arms tired.

Actually, I've been back for a few weeks now, but this is the first blog entry since being across the pond. Europe was great in case anyone cares. I was half expecting some kind of revelation when I was over there, but it was just enjoyable and not some kind of other worldly experience. The only place we visited that I thought would be a good place to live in was Amsterdam. Seriously, legal pot is the least interesting thing about the place. But more on that later.

Mostly it's been a struggle to get back on track since the honeymoon ended. I spent most of June just catching up on stuff. Then, almost as soon as I felt things were back to normal, we had to start moving into the new house. Good news is that we're not in a hurry. Bad news is that the process eats up all my free time. I'm still editing The Variant War, a process that should be done before October. Speaking of October, the 2020 version of the Writer's Market book comes out on the eighth. I've decided to hold off on query letters until then. Just need to focus on personal stuff so I can be ready for what's ahead of me.

Have my other writing projects gotten any love? Not really. I hope to spend the next few months doing prep work for Thermal Kings to be ready for NaNoWriMo in November. I also put in an application to be the regional dude for the event. It will feel good to finally get to do some actual writing again. I also have a new short-form project, but it hasn't gotten as much attention as it probably should. The best solution here would be to schedule two hours every week to work on it. But, you know, personal stuff.

I finally got the Honorable Mention certificate in the mail. I will hang it up in my new office when we move. Wifey has been calling it the 'L. Ron Hubbard certificate', which has jokingly been taken out of context.  Hilarious. I also entered another short story for the third quarter. I won't hear back from them until around September. There has been a new story swimming around in my head, but it will stay in the notes phase until next year. Like most things apparently.

I had to look at the last entry before I realized that I hadn't made an update to the conference. Short version: It was a waste of time and money. There is no long version. I still might go back, but I'll be more careful with who I pitch to. That's all I have to say on the subject.

To end on a more positive note, I visited the Rijksmuseum while in Amsterdam. They had a Rembrandt exhibit but we were unable to get in. It was the last weekend and the viewing was a madhouse. However, they kept Night Watch in its proper place as the centerpiece of the museum. Words don't do it justice, so I won't even try. All I can do is ask a question. If you don't have seeing Night Watch on your bucket list, do you even want to live?

Review: The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As an opening shot in the era known as New Wave Science Fiction, it's not bad. As a novel you're trying to enjoy today, it doesn't hold up as well as Le Guin's other works. It spends so much time being art that it actually forgets it was supposed to be a book. Instead of worrying about plot and character, it plays out more like expanding on a concept that should have been confined to a short story. If you're like me, you hold Le Guin in very high regard, but that still doesn't mean I can give a full recommendation to this novel.

If you do decide to read Heaven, I would say that the first thing you need to do is research New Wave Science Fiction. The short version is that Harlan Ellison wrote stories that borderline on insane and it kicked off an entire genre in that fame. However, what Ellison did right was that he kept all those crazy concepts in short story form. They don't work as well when stretched out into a novel format. I'm the first person to say it's okay to be strange and not easy to understand, but I'm also the first to say that being strange doesn't automatically mean it's good.

Heaven just has too many problems with structure to make it enjoyable. Even though it's below average in length, it still takes too long to really get started. Also, the inherent flaw of the concept means the narrative has to world build over and over again. It's intriguing on a certain level, but it also creates a lack of investment. How do you care about a world that's just going to change by the next chapter? That's just it, you don't.

If you haven't read anything from Le Guin or New Wave before, you should certainly not start here. While well-received in its time, both Le Guin and New Wave has much better works for you to do a deep dive on. If you've already built a shrine around your copy of "Left Hand of Darkness" then this book might be an interesting read even if it doesn't satisfy like you would normally want a novel to do so.

View all my reviews