Tag Archive for 'ghosts'

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Book Review: Supernatural – Heart of the Dragon by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Today I’m going to review the book Supernatural: Heart of the Dragon by Keith R.A. DeCandido (a.k.a. Krad). But first, this book got me to thinking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Can I tell you what’s hot? This is kind of old news, but remember how Alyson Hannigan’s character would get all evil and her eyes would turn black? Dark Willow was HOT! I’m not talking about when Willow got all vampire faced with spikey teeth and stuff. That was kind of intimidating. No I’m talking about when she would get all dark and had veins on her face and she was all ready to destroy the world. That was hot.

* * *

I don’t know about anybody else, but this makes me want to shout. “Give it to me, baby. I want to feel it! Yeah!” Besides hot dark Willow, the best thing about Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the mythos. And the worst thing about Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the mythos. There was all this back story about Buffy being the “chosen one” and how somebody else was actually an angel and then there was this demon lady and of course there were vampires and the whole worldwide anti-occult conspiracy thing and all that other stuff. That was a lot of stuff. I could never keep track of it all. But who needed to?

What was I talking about? Oh yeah, TV shows and mythos… and this book, which is based on a TV show that would appear have quite the mythos: Supernatural. I’ve never seen the TV show. Apparently, it follows the adventures of the Winchester brothers, who are two guys that hunt monsters and demons. From what I’ve gleaned about the show, it’s kind of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer in that there are a lot of implausible things going on, and a lot of people fighting supernatural beings with shotguns, magical swords and bows and arrows and stuff. The Winchester brothers come from two generations of “hunters,” as they call themselves. The book follows the adventures of all three generations of hunters as they fight a particular Japanese menace through the ages.

The Japanese menace in question is known as the “Heart of the Dragon” and is a fiery samurai ghost who is summoned by a gangster to do his dirty work. In the book, the first two generations of hunters fight the samurai ghost, but only manage to banish him temporarily. Will the Winchester brothers be able to defeat him? The book fits into the overall storyline of the TV show in that some higher stakes are involved. While the ghost is controlled by a gangster, it was created by a demon to be a tool for evil during the coming apocalypse. So while the Winchester brothers fight the ghost and the gangster, demons and angels are fighting over who will ultimately control the vengeful flaming samurai ghost, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

The book is a fast read and a page-turner. The writing is clear and gets out of the way of the story. At the same time, it basically is a novelization of a TV show, which cuts both ways. Because there is a back story and mythos that needs to be tended to, one gets the idea that a basic story outline was created, and then a laundry list of necessary mythos points was added to the outline, and then the author filled in the details. In other words, the writing ends up seeming a little bit mechanical. Particularly near the end, where there is a battle between some angels and demons that really doesn’t fit into the plot of the book and was obviously thrown in to make the book tie into the TV series.

Which is part of why I think that people who like the TV show will like this book. It ties into the mythos, and even includes a note for which TV episode it fits in after. Also, it has action, mystery, fights with vampires, some weird gore, San Francisco Chinatown intrigue, and people posing as CIA agents to get into morgues. I also think fans of Buffy would like it. Did I mention that DeCandido has written some Buffy books?

There are some annoying things about this book. Number one: I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but I feel compelled to mention that the term “half breed” is often considered offensive, and the author used it in ways that I thought were careless and/or clueless, considering everything. Number two: It does happen that the Japanese have their own word for dragon, and it’s not “doragon,” which is how they might spell the English word in Katakana. Number three: Since this is partly a travel book, I wished that DeCandido had filled in some details of Chinatown. I ended up imagining the action happening on a blank sound stage.

After that it’s just quibbles. Somebody gets shot in the knee when they should have been shot in the face. Somebody else spouts an overused R.E.M. lyric. There is no dark Willow. I ended up being entertained by the book, but didn’t love it. It sets out to entertain the reader and it gets the job done with a minimum of muss and fuss. I liked how a lot of the action was set in San Francisco’s Chinatown, where I lived for a number years. Let’s see the scores.

Creepy Factor: 2.5 out of 5 (mostly for a Picture of Dorian Gray type scene that happens at the end.)
Suspense Factor: 2 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 0 out of 5 (Yes, dear reader, zero.)
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 1 out of 5

It’s my opinion that fans of the TV show will enjoy this book. As I said, it’s a fast read and a page-turner. I just think it’s a little flat and seems a lot like an episode of a TV show, which makes sense, I guess. That may or may not be a bad thing, depending on what you’re looking for as a reader. I would also repeat that fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer might be interested.

Supernatural: Heart of the Dragon by Keith R.A. DeCandido – 2010 – Titan Books
Buy Supernatural: Heart of the Dragon at Amazon

Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy of this book. See you next time!

Published on March 18, 2010 in Book Reviews. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Book Review: Black Hills by Dan Simmons

Black Hills by Dan SimmonsIt’s good to be ambitious. You might be a giant gorilla who crashes though the jungles of a remote island, where you are worshiped like a god by the natives and wrestle with dinosaurs. But then you might see Fay Wray and think to yourself, “I want some of that.” If you’re ambitious, you might succeed. Or you might find yourself on the wrong side of the Empire State Building with Fay Wray in one hand, and swatting at airplanes with the other. If you don’t try sometimes, you’ll never know what you can really achieve. The problem is that when you get too ambitious things can get out of hand. I think Black Hills suffers from too much ambition.

I’m a little reluctant to review this book here because it’s almost more historical fiction than horror or speculative fiction. There are ghosts and supernatural happenings in this book, but nothing remotely creepy or eerie. Black Hills follows the life of a Native American man around the turn of the century. As a young Lakota boy, he “counts coup” on General George Armstrong Custer at the moment the man dies, and Custer’s ghost invades his body. The boy, named Paha Sapa (the name itself meaning Black Hills in his native tongue), can also sometimes see the futures and pasts of people he touches. We follow Paha Sapa as he grows up and into old age. Being historical fiction, the book involves what was really happening in the United States at that time. Namely, Native Americans were being pushed onto reservations and/or killed. A visit is made to the famous White City of the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, and later Paha Sapa works as a dynamite layer for Gutzon Borglum as he creates Mount Rushmore.

Although there are happy times in Paha Sapa’s life, Simmons chooses to focus on those times which are most tragic and the book is sometimes horrifyingly sad. We watch as Paha Sapa tries to kill himself, directly or indirectly, several times, both as a boy and an old man. Because of his ability to see the future from touching people, he accidentally witnesses the funeral of his future wife on the day he meets her. Don’t get me wrong – just because a book is sad doesn’t make it a bad book. I can name any number of sad books that I think were masterpieces. For the record, I think that many who read Black Hills might have a contrary opinion and really enjoy the book. I wasn’t won over.

For one thing, the haunting of Paha Sapa by the ghost of George Custer is unusual, and so a reader might think that it would play a large part in the goings-on of the plot. It does not, however, and for me the ghost ended up being meaningless to the story. We wait until halfway through the book before Custer and Paha Sapa finally speak to each other, and to me it seemed like they failed to develop any sort of relationship, even at the end. Instead, strangely, we are treated to Custer’s memories of having sex with his wife, Elizabeth, a lot. At one point we find them covered in buffalo blood, enjoying acrobatic sex on the back of a trotting horse. These scenes appear between chapters about Paha Sapa’s violently interrupted childhood.

Much later, Paha Sapa visits Custer’s widow when she is ninety, just before she dies. This chapter is written from the viewpoint of Custer himself and he spends most of it belittling her for how old she has become. He goes into great detail describing her wrinkles, deafness, and old lady smell. Of course it could be that I missed the point.

What all these stories have to do with each other is what escapes me.

I think this could have been a book about a psychic Native American who was unwillingly haunted by a famous killer of his people, and how their relationship changed over the one man’s life. Alternatively, Simmons could have written a book about a man’s search for peace after he lost his only son to a foreign war, in which the son fought for those who had brutalized his people and culture. OR a book about a Native American who helped build (and plotted to destroy) Mount Rushmore in the heart of the land his people held most sacred, and the racism he faced every day. OR a book about Custer’s very interesting wife and their relationship, including how they got it on, and then what his ghost might have thought if he had visited his faithful widow many decades later.

I’ve read enough of Dan Simmons and think highly enough of him that I believe he could have written any of the above books and given them the emotional depth and time they needed to be excellent. I think his main fault here is in trying to do too many things at once and as a result not doing a great job with any.

Creepy Factor: 1 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 1 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 1 out of 5
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 2 out of 5

(As with some other recent books, because this book isn’t exactly in the horror genre, the numbers above are rather unkind.) To his credit, Dan Simmons takes a lot of risks with Black Hills, but I was never won over and did not end up enjoying the book. I do recommend him as an author, however.

Black Hills by Dan Simmons – Reagan Arthur Books – 2010
Buy Black Hills at Amazon

Many thanks to the publisher for sending me a review copy of this book. See you next time!

Published on February 16, 2010 in Book Reviews. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Book Review: Demon and the City by Liz Williams

Demon and the City - by Liz WilliamsYou know how when you were a little monster, and you and your monster friends would scare each other? You might have some scary stuffed rabbits, a fake severed monster head, and a flashlight. And then you would play something that was like hide-and-seek and your friend would jump out of a cabinet, turn on the lights, and throw a bunny at you? Remember how it was fun the first hundred times?

Regular readers will remember that I just reviewed another book by Liz Williams, Snake Agent, last month. Snake Agent is the first book in her Detective Chen series. I really loved it and was excited that there were already three sequels available.

In a nutshell, Chen and Irzh are once again pulled into circumstances very much beyond their control as the powers and bureaucracies of Chinese Heaven and Hell converge on the case of a meddling pharmaceuticals magnate who has made a deal with… well you’ll have to read it to find out. Zhu Irzh finds himself unable to maintain a professional distance from the case, but hey! He’s a demon, so what do you expect?

Demon and the City starts a little differently from Snake Agent. There is a murder, but it becomes clear very quickly who was behind it, so it eschews the murder mystery genre quite a bit more. Also, the demon, Zhu Irzh is more the main character. Detective Chen doesn’t show up until about halfway through the book. The story is very imaginative, and there is the same sort or wry comedy that made Snake Agent so entertaining. Another difference is that there are two romances going on in the book, both of which are very interesting.

This leads me to my confusion. I simply didn’t like this book as much as Snake Agent, and it’s hard to put my finger on why. I do know that I like Detective Chen more than Zhu Irzh. I also enjoyed how Snake Agent is a huge, dark farce. Demon and the City definitely takes itself more seriously. Demon and the City also seemed more scattered, following more characters. At the same time, I’m left with the nagging suspicion that if I had read this book first, I might have liked it better.

Creepy Factor: 3 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 3 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 3 out of 5
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 4 out of 5

Final result: I just can’t get as excited about this book as I did the last, but I think that it was still a good read and would recommend it for fans of dark fiction. I’ve got the next Detective Chen novel, Precious Dragon, ready to roll. For anyone interested in the author, here is an interesting interview with Liz Williams.

The Demon and the City by Liz Williams – Night Shade Books – 2006
Buy The Demon and the City on Amazon

Thanks for reading another one of my book reviews. See you next time!

Published on January 28, 2010 in Book Reviews. 2 Comments Tags: , , , .

Giveaway: Drood and Black Hills by Dan Simmons

the book Black Hills by Dan SimmonsI’m doing a give-away courtesy of the Hachette Group. Next month marks the debut of a new novel by Dan Simmons. You may remember Simmons as the author of Hyperion, The Terror, Carrion Comfort, and Song of Kali. I especially loved Hyperion and its bizarre sequels. His new book, Black Hills, would appear to be a sort of supernatural historical novel. At the battle of Little Bighorn, General George Armstrong Custer lies dying. A young Sioux warrior, Paha Sapa, “counts coup” on him and at that moment, Custer’s ghost enters him. The Sioux warrior, as he goes through the rest of his life, is haunted by General Custer and hears Custer speak to him.

The book Drood by Dan SimmonsI haven’t read his last book, Drood, but it sounds very interesting. I’ll be giving some copies of Drood away as well. Drood is a thriller about Charles Dickens and his friend, Wilkie Collins. The novel creates a sequence of events to explain the inspiration for Dickens’ final, uncompleted novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dickens was involved in a train wreck in 1865. While helping to rescue other passengers on the train, Dickens encounters Drood, a menacing figure who had been traveling in a coffin. Dickens finds himself on a quest though the underworlds of London in search of this enigma.

The Hachette Group Giveaway:

What is up for grabs: Two copies of Black Hills and two copies of Drood.

Who will win: Four winners will be selected. Simply leave a comment on this post. When you post your comment, be sure to enter your correct email address in the email field. That’s how I’ll notify the winners. Winners must live in the USA or Canada (sorry) and the books cannot be shipped to a PO Box.

When and how the winners will be chosen: Giveaway ends at midnight, on Saturday, January 23. Winners will be selected randomly using numbers generated by random.org.

Notification: Winners will be notified by email. The Hachette Group will send the books to the winners.

Published on January 8, 2010 in Giveaways. 105 Comments Tags: , , .

Book Review: Snake Agent by Liz Williams

Snake Agent by Liz WilliamsTo retrieve his wife, a man journeys to hell. How many more times can this tale be told? It’s almost like a band choosing to cover Stairway to Heaven. It has been told perfectly a few times. Countless other writers have tried their hand at it, and most have failed. When I see a man-goes-to-hell-to-retrieve-his-wife story coming, I think to myself. “This better be good.”

Fortunately, it is. I love this book! It begins the way a normal detective novel does, with a vaguely downtrodden detective, Detective Chen. Detective Chen tries not to be cynical. As his police department’s “snake agent”, Chen is in charge of dealing with supernatural crimes. He is brought into a case involving a wealthy woman who has found that her daughter’s soul ended up in hell instead of heaven. Hoping for a simple bureaucratic mix-up, Chen investigates and discovers that someone is trading in souls. Soon he uncovers a conspiracy that may lead straight to the emperor of hell himself.

There are many charming things about this book. Not the least of which is the matter-of-fact way the book lays out its own internal mythology. For example, when asked about what happens when you die, Detective Chen tells it like it is: Souls take a journey through regions with names like the Sea of Night and the Night Harbor on their way to the afterlife, where they are processed by the bureaucratic departments of heaven or hell and then eventually reincarnated. Along the way they are shown their past life, what they will most likely be reincarnated as, and given a special drink which makes them forget everything before they are shuttled back to the living. It is in this sort of play that the book excels.

My only real complaint is that there are too many dues ex machinas. I personally enjoy a dues ex machina here or there, but when there are too many, I think it can be a suspense killer. On the other hand, I enjoyed that conventional detective fiction characters abound in Snake Agent. There is the oafish sergeant, the rogue cop, the captain who is beholden to local politics, and the vaguely threatened detective’s wife. Once the book builds up steam and really kicks into gear, though, a lot of these conventions are broken or twisted. For example, the detective’s wife goes from being vaguely threatened to being on an adventure of her own, and the rogue cop turns out to be a more complex character than one would expect. The book eventually stops being a detective novel and turns into a fantastic journey through hell.

Creepy Factor: 4 out of 5
Suspense Factor: 4 out of 5
Weird Erotic Tension Factor: 2 out of 5
Funny and/or Strange Factor: 5 out of 5

Final result: Great adventure, Chinese mythology, evil alchemists, soul trading, great cover art… This book has it all! Mmmmmm. Fans of dark fantasy such as Clive Barker’s Imajica will be excited to get their hands on some intelligent writing. Fans of detective fiction will be gratified to find a new series of novels with a fresh twist on the genre. The story is ancient, the plotting is Shakespearean, the humor is thick, and it’s a real page-turner. I love this book! I am simultaneously excited and scared to read the next one.

Snake Agent by Liz Williams – Night Shade Books – 2005
Get Snake Agent on Amazon

Thanks for reading another one of my book reviews. See you next time!

Published on December 15, 2009 in Book Reviews. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .