This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 2, 2015.

A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not!” Ripley

By Neal Thompson – Crown Archetype – May 7, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

While a somewhat obscure figure these days, this biography shows how Robert Ripley went from humble beginnings to world-famous cartoonist and one of the richest men in America.

Ripley lived the life of a pulp hero, and the book often has the same sort of breathless voice found in the old adventure magazines. I found it interesting that the narrative focuses more on his life in New York (and later Florida) than the details of his overseas excursions. Despite the adventurer mystique, it turns out that he tended to spend his many trips in relative comfort and surrounded by other Westerners, rather than do much in the way of trailblazing. It turns out that his life in America—as a somewhat awkward figure thrust into the celebrity spotlight—is every bit as interesting as his travels, however.

Ripley is represented as an interesting and conflicted human being, and the book doesn't shy away from presenting some of the more negative aspects of his personality (alcohol abuse, womanizing, and a propensity towards fits of rage as his health declined later in life).

The book makes an effort to parallel his unlikely life with the subject matter of his “Believe It or Not” newspaper cartoons, with occasional sidebars mentioning unusual coincidences or people mentioned in passing who later went on to do notable things. While these sidebars are interesting, they didn't feel frequent enough to fully carry off the conceit.

“A Curious Man” is a brisk read. Just like the man whose life it chronicles, the narrative is always on the move. Recommended for those with an interest in early 20th century Americana and world travel.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared at This review originally appeared on Goodreads on August 5, 2018.

Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse

Edited by George R. R. Martin – Titan Books – February 24, 2015

Review by Robin Marx

Much of the book didn't feel as strong as the first Wastelands anthology. That was perhaps inevitable, given the fact that the first book had decades of post-apocalyptic stories to draw from, while the second volume was mostly dependent on those published since the release of the first volume. However, many of the strongest stories are in the second half of the book, with the end result that it matches (or perhaps even exceeds) its predecessor in overall quality.

Scattered thoughts about some of the more memorable stories in the book:

“Animal Husbandry” by Seanan McGuire This starts off as fairly standard post-apoc fare, but has a grim little twist that I appreciated.

“Jimmy’s Roadside Cafe” by Ramsey Shehadeh One of the quieter stories, this one deals with the emotional side of the apocalypse.

“The Postman” by David Brin I had low expectations of this story, given the bland movie adaptation with Kevin Costner, but it ended up being quite the page-turner. One of the more optimistic stories in this volume.

“Patient Zero” by Tananarive Due Very similar to The Girl With All the Gifts, but with a male protagonist and lacking zombies. Well-rendered.

“Tight Little Stiches in a Dead Man’s Back” by Joe R. Lansdale Gory and bizarre, like the best Lansdale. An interesting read, although it felt a bit overstuffed, like there were enough ideas for two different stories here. The reference to tattoos having “stitches” seemed a little odd to me, though.

“The Traditional” by Maria Dahvana Headley Written in the second person, this story is bloody and kind of splatterpunk, like old Poppy Z. Brite. A too-cool-for-school couple shelter together, giving each other outré anniversary gifts as the outside world falls to carnivorous worlds. I wasn't sure where this story was going, but the ending is surprisingly triumphant.

“Monstro” by Junot Diaz This story is about an Americanized Caribbean Islander visiting the Dominican Republic as an odd epidemic breaks out. The narrator's voice and frequent Spanglish was compelling, and the characters were all layered and interesting. The ending is a bit abrupt, but it definitely left me wanting more.

Overall, many the stories collected here had a very experimental feel. A number are written in the second person, one is written in a Wikipedia entry format, and another is written as a multiple choice test. Some of these experiments are more successful than others, but the diverse storytelling kept me interested and engaged throughout.

If you liked the first Wastelands book, this second volume is an easy recommendation. Even if you haven't read the first, this book is worth a look to fans of the post-apocalyptic subgenre.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 3, 2014.

Bait

Edited by J. Kent Messum – Plume – August 27, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

Short and nasty, this little book was sort of a combination between The Most Dangerous Game and Saw. The premise was simple but effective: shadowy figures maroon six junkies on a remote archipelago in the Florida Keys, then place a package of heroin and supplies on a neighboring island. The addicts are forced to deal with aggressive sharks and their murderous audience, who watch from an offshore yacht. The heroin acts as bait for the addicts, and the addicts are bait for the sharks. Exciting stuff!

While the author kept things moving fast, the first half of the book was still hindered by the presence of six unnecessary and redundant flashbacks. The characters' backgrounds were all pretty similar (“I used to be X, then got hooked on heroin. Yesterday I was stalked and rendered unconscious by beefy guys.”), and they end up verbally explaining their circumstances to the other characters anyway. The flashbacks are mercifully brief, but they distract from the characters' more exciting present and end up feeling like filler. The book could have shed this bit of fat and become an even better, punchier novella.

While the characters were a little thin—the non-shark antagonists seemed a bit like comic book baddies—the story's pace was brisk and action-packed. While the term “pulp” is often used by snobs to dismiss stories that emphasize action and excitement over characterization and deep reflection, Bait is a good, modern embodiment of the best qualities of the pulp adventure tale. If the premise intrigues you, by all means give this book a read.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on March 31, 2017.

Thunder on the Battlefield: Sword

Edited by James R. Tuck – Seventh Star Press, LLC – August 20, 2013

Review by Robin Marx

This is the first in a pair of anthologies collecting recent sword & sorcery stories. It contains a dozen stories, all of them with an emphasis on battle and combat.

“The Horde” by G. Jerome Henson The anthology begins with a story about a tribe rising up against the empire that colonized them. The story suffers a bit from being mostly told in flashback form, which is something I tend to think works better in novels than short stories. Not bad, but a bit disjointed.

“Paper Demons” by Jay Requard This story reminded me pleasantly of The Black Company series by Glenn Cook. A squad of colorful mercenaries from various different lands (including an interesting protagonist from fantasy India) find themselves in a China-inspired setting with orders to capture a deceptively cooperative sorceress. The resolution of the story involves both brains and brawn, and the setting and characters appealed.

“The Wolf and the Crow” by D.T. Neal This was another winner, perhaps the best story in the entire book. A wandering swordsman arrives in town just as a witch is to be put to death. Seemingly on a lark, he declares himself the witch's champion, even though it means facing off against a savage, bestial warrior. Nearly the entire story is a blow-by-blow description of their duel, and there's a lot of subtle and effective world-building revealed a bit at a time. This story in particular left me wanting to find out what happened next.

“Forest of Shadows” by John F. Allen An amorous barbarian warrior fights a number of supernatural opponents and encounters some pliant women. Apart from the final one, the action scenes seemed a bit perfunctory and the sex scenes juvenile. As a whole it wasn't bad, per se, but a lesser work of swords & sorcery that doesn't do much to expand upon the usual tropes.

“Emissary” by Marcella Burnard Set in a fantasy Egypt, this story is about a bad-ass warrior priestess and her two lioness companions returning to the city of her birth to avenge the destruction of the temple of her patron goddess, Sekhmet. While I found the minimal amount of resistance she faced on the way to her target—a sorcerer king—a little odd, her climactic battle with a reluctant opponent was well rendered and tinged with a surprising and welcome little bit of romance. “Emissary” was yet another story with a protagonist I would like to see reappear in another story.

“The Dogs of War” by David J. West Set during the Fourth Crusade, this tale is about a Viking and a Belgian mercenary who encounter some surprising supernatural resistance during the invasion of Constantinople. The story felt a little brief, with the threat dispatched a little too handily, but I've really enjoyed how many of these stories are set in the real world. “Historical sword & sorcery” is a subgenre that I would love to see expanded further. This story pleasantly reminded me of Gentlemen of the Road, by Michael Chabon. (It's a minor gripe, but while the editing for this anthology has been largely high quality this story in particular suffered from a number of misplaced apostrophes.)

“The Red Hand” by Alexis A. Hunter In this story centaurs and the undead, led by a powerful necromancer, have been at war for decades. The protagonist is a centaur warrior raised by the dead in the hope of finally putting an end to the conflict. I enjoyed the premise and grim atmosphere, but given the ending I was left feeling strongly that this story should not have been written in the first person past tense. It just doesn't work.

“Where the Red Blossoms Weep” by James R. Tuck Taking place on an Assyrian battlefield, this history-flavored tale involves a struggle between the last two survivors of the conflict and some particularly unsavory scavengers. The story was brief and fairly straightforward, but muscularly written.

“Thief of Souls” by Loriane Parker This story focuses on a specter (in this case, an armored skeleton) who, with the help of a human accomplice, seeks revenge on the treacherous former friend who slew both him and his wife. While I'm not clear on the reason why it took twenty years for the specter to put his plan into motion (if it was covered in the text, my eyes skipped past it), the premise was interesting and the execution effective. A solid entry.

“The Gnawed Bone” by W.E. Wertenberger A group of mercenaries' trip to a tavern leads to a horrific hangover among unpleasant company. The story takes a while to get rolling, the monsters seem to have a poor grasp of tactics, and some holes can be poked in the narrative, but overall it ended up being a lot of fun.

“All the Lands, Nowhere a Home” by Steven Zimmer While the adventure in the second half of the story was enjoyable, the first half of the story spends too much time on the Valkyrie-like main character's dealing with boorish men. The story begins with her killing a number of brigands for raping a refugee, then she beats up multiple leering drunks in a tavern for mistreating barmaids and groping her. This would have been fine if the plot that followed had been some sort of meditation about women's plight in a male-dominated world, but the meat of the story has nothing more to say about gender, focusing on a wilderness encounter with a horrific ghoul-like creature. The second half of the story is exciting and well-rendered, but because of the disconnect between the adventure portion and the opening the heroine's characterization suffers. All the seemingly extraneous verbiage spent on her protecting women against the depredations of men ends up making her look like the cliche of a “strong independent woman who don't need no man” when a lighter hand would have made her more effective as a heroine. Her bravery, loyalty, and battle prowess in the second half do more to exhibit her strength and toughness than the wasted paragraphs punching alcoholics for making sexist remarks. The end was exciting, but this story could have been tightened up.

“The Witch of Rymal Pass” by J.S. Veter The contrast between the heroine in this story and the one from the preceding tale could not have been greater. Themis is presented as a vengeful force of nature throughout this bloody revenge tale, with no words wasted on describing her as a strong woman warrior, her every single action demonstrates it. Nasty and gory, this was one of the highlights of the anthology.

Overall this was a strong anthology that I would be happy to recommend to any fan of the sword & sorcery subgenre of fantasy. The stories by Requard, Neal, and Veter in particular stood out from the pack. I look forward to reading the Sorcery-focused sequel.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 23, 2021.

We Are All Completely Fine

By Daryl Gregory – Tachyon Publications – July 21, 2014

Review by Robin Marx

This brief novel (novella?) is about a group therapy circle where all the participants are sole survivors of supernaturally-tinged massacres. One patient was partially consumed by cannibals, another escaped from a cult that inscribed every inch of her flesh with occult scars, another was held captive by a deranged otherworldly killer that carved macabre artwork into her bones. They meet on a weekly basis, each searching for solace and companionship, but their fragile steps towards peace are halted when the past catches up to one of their members.

This is a fast, fun story with an interesting premise. However, I felt like it selected and followed up on the least interesting plot thread. I found Greta’s story the least compelling of any of the survivors’, and the book suffered in the second half when it made that the central focus. There was so much good stuff hinted at in the other characters’ pasts, and I would have rather liked to learn more about pretty much any of the other characters than Greta.

This story is still worth reading, but it felt like a great premise squandered.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on April 27, 2016.

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen

By Lois McMaster Bujold – Baen Books – February 2, 2016

Review by Robin Marx

An alternate title for this could be “How Cordelia Got Her Groove Back.”

Lois McMaster Bujold is perhaps my favorite living author and her Vorkosigan books my favorite ongoing series. While this book has very little to offer those new to the series and characters, longtime fans may enjoy it provided they don't mind the fact that (continuing a recent trend) it's more of a romance novel than anything else.

The story focuses on Cordelia Vorkosigan (star of the first book in the series, but mostly a supporting character in subsequent books) and Admiral Jole, a pleasant but somewhat minor character that—to be honest—has never left much of an impression on me. Bujold is a master of characterization and I love spending time with her creations. After so many years, reading about them is like checking in with old friends. That feel is present in this book, but Miles' presence is all too brief.

The usual brilliant characterization aside, there's not a lot of action or really even much drama present here. While I appreciate that the romance referred to in the title begins fairly early on, without much “Will they or won't they?” jerking around, there's not much conflict in the story that follows. The romance has some obstacles to overcome, but nothing too wrenching or surprising, and they're all introduced and reconciled fairly quickly and without much trouble.

Over the course of the story, some details are revealed about Aral's past. Without getting into spoilers, I found them interesting and not particularly hard to swallow, but some readers may have trouble reconciling them with the character as presented to date. I don't think this aspect had been hinted about previously, so some readers might feel taken off guard.

The best words to describe this book are probably cozy and sedate. My rating for this book is really 3.5 stars, but rounded up for the Vorkosigan factor.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on June 25, 2022.

Junkyard Leopard

By Oliver Brackenbury – Brackenbooks – November 26, 2018

Review by Robin Marx

This violent tale tells the story of Mary, an awkward and lonely girl who works scrapping cars at a junkyard. By night she dresses in a faceless leopard print costume, murdering the corrupt and venal capitalists of the city’s financial district by the dozens. Where Mary is insecure and shy, her alter ego The Figure is driven and fearless. While Mary navigates daily life as a member of the working poor, even falling in love along the way, The Figure works to hunt down Gerald Byrne, a ruthless financier who barely survived a previous attack.

Despite the Amazon categorization, there’s nothing particularly comedic about the book. It felt like splatterpunk-lite to me; there’s moments of extremely graphic violence, but it always felt like the author took a step back before going full splatterpunk and really reveling in the gore. The tech level seemed about five years or so more advanced than our own, adding some subtle cyberpunk overtones, but urban horror seems the most natural home for the novel.

Tonally, the book reminded me a bit of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but the book feels borne out of an Elder Millennial author’s tremendous frustration and disappointment with the current state of the world. The social contract has been broken. Working hard is no longer a guarantee of a comfortable and secure life, and traditional paths to success like university education and full-time careers are increasingly unattainable. The middle class is shrinking, and everyday we suffer a constant media barrage of suffering and fear. Late stage capitalism is abusive and unsustainable.

And rather than just attributing it to some vague societal malaise, it’s often quite easy to identify the specific companies, executives, and politicians that are taking an active hand in increasing the misery of the world so as to enrich themselves to ever more obscene levels. We know who these people are. And this book offers the cathartic fantasy of being able to take direct action and strike back at our tormentors. To make them feel the same desperation and insecurity they inflict on so many. To fuck up some billionaires with a customized claw hammer.

This is a brisk read. The sympathetic characters are well-rendered, and Mary’s romance subplot is handled in a charming and relatable way. The antagonists, on the other hand, tend towards caricature. They’re irredeemable comic book villains. Certain sections of the book are written from their perspectives, but they’re not leavened with any kind of sympathetic traits. I chalked this up to them being more symbols than characters. Elsewhere in the book Brackenbury demonstrates he can handle nuance, with the antagonists he chooses not to.

Recommended for fans of Fight Club and The Punisher.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on July 13, 2017.

Substance: Inside New Order

By Peter Hook – Dey Street Books – January 31, 2017

Review by Robin Marx

The third book written by ex-Joy Division and New Order bassist Peter “Hooky” Hook, this is also his best. While over 700 pages long, this was a gripping read that was simultaneously both expansive and incredibly detailed.

Joy Division and New Order are bands surrounded by a lot of mystique and mythology, a great deal of it cultivated by the band themselves. They avoided the press and only grudgingly promoted their own albums. I hoped lead singer Bernard Sumner's Chapter and Verse: New Order, Joy Division and Me would shed some more light on the inner working of the band, but I was left disappointed. Much as he did with his previous Joy Division memoir, Hooky stepped up to deliver the nitty gritty details—the Substance, so to speak—that Sumner's book lacked.

Hooky covers the story of the band both on-stage and off-, and he refuses to shy away from painting himself and the others in an unflattering light with tales of their intoxicated revels, property destruction, womanizing, and other rock star antics. There's also a great deal of information provided about the music-making process, the evolution of the equipment used, and set lists for individual gigs.

The core of the book, however, is the deteriorating friendship between Sumner and Hooky. Both were childhood friends and the first members of Joy Division, but it's clear that life in the music industry changed both of them. Hooky has always come off as combative and competitive, and he paints a picture of Sumner as becoming gradually more controlling and diva-like in his interactions with the rest of the band. I suspect that both members are equally to blame for the falling out. Now sober for ten years, Hooky speaks frankly about his damaging addictions to cocaine and alcohol, and it appears that Sumner was equally prone to substance abuse, and perhaps still is. Hooky chalks up the cause of much of his own bad behavior to his struggle with drugs, but seems curiously unwilling to extend the benefit of the doubt to his former best friend.

Regardless of how the blame for Hook's departure from the band should be best assigned, rather than simple hate Hook seems more hurt and wounded by how things have turned out than anything else. New Order fans who read this book might end up learning too much about their favorite band, seeing how fractured the internal dynamics were and how petty the members could be, but even provided by a biased storyteller I found this deeper understanding adds an extra layer of appreciation when listening to New Order's iconic music.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 28, 2020.

Before You Sleep: Three Horrors

By Adam L.G. Nevill – RITUAL LIMITED – August 23, 2016

Review by Robin Marx

This free sampler contains three short horror stories from Adam Nevill's first collection, Some Will Not Sleep: Selected Horrors. I enjoyed Nevill's novel The Ritual (recently adapted as a Netflix movie), and the stories collected here have a similar ominous feel.

The first story, “Where Angels Come In,” is very effectively creepy. It involves two boys exploring an abandoned building, only to find it occupied by a variety of terrifying creatures. The ghostly inhabitants are very imaginatively described, and the impressionistic touch given the violence in the story makes it even more disturbing. I was impressed by how well executed this story was despite the somewhat well-worn premise.

The second installment, “Ancestors,” was well done, but not quite as engaging. In this story, a young girl finds herself living in an old home secretly inhabited by animated toys and a snuggly girl of a similar age who is, to the reader, blatantly a ghost. While the premise is intriguing, there were a few storytelling choices made that ended up hurting the story in my opinion. One was the vague touch with description. While the blurry lens worked in the first story, it obscured events just a little too much this time. I also felt the decision to make the family Japanese was a little baffling. The setting of the story didn't seem tied to a particular locale; the way the house was described (e.g., with several fireplaces) didn't sound particularly Japanese in terms of architecture, and no specific folklore appeared to be drawn on apart from the fairly familiar Sadako/Kayako-style ghost girl. I'm not saying all stories about Japanese people have to go all-in on cultural references, but this story would have been much the same had it been about an English family in Nevill's native England.

The third and final story, “Florrie,” was the weakest one in the bunch for me. A young man buys a house that an elderly woman had died in, and finds himself increasingly influenced by her ghost. The writing was fine, but it happened to be the third haunted house story in a row, and the effects of said ghost struck me as more comical than creepy.

While it felt like the book ended off on a bit of a weak note, it fulfilled its purpose of introducing me to the short fiction of Adam Nevill. I liked what I saw, and I plan to read more by this author.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 25, 2020.

Record Play Pause

By Stephen Morris – Constable – February 7, 2019

Review by Robin Marx

This book made an interesting contrast to the memoirs by Peter Hook and Bernard Sumner. It was more entertaining than I thought it would be, but a bit lacking in other respects.

As the drummer of Joy Division, Stephen Morris was generally silent and stuck in the back. As a result it was difficult to know what to expect from this book. While not as entertaining a storyteller as Hooky, this memoir has a wry, self-deprecating sense of humor throughout that caught me off guard. While Hooky and Sumner more or less grew up together, Morris was a later addition to the band who joined through Ian Curtis, giving him a slightly different perspective on events. Both Hooky and Sumner’s memoirs are largely about how they related to Ian Curtis and secondly how they related to each other, so insight into Morris himself was also in short supply in the previous books. Hooky portrayed him as semi-autistic and Sumner didn’t mention him much at all. Morris relates his own story in a humorous and engaging fashion.

Morris offers his own perspective on Curtis, humanizing this much mythologized figure of post punk music. He also shares his experiences with manager Rob Gretton, Factory Records co-founder Tony Wilson, and record producer Martin Hannett. The frustrating thing about this book is that Morris’ living band mates remain mostly ciphers. Apart from some amusing anecdotes about drug-fueled pranks, he fails to portray Hooky and Sumner in the same depth as his deceased musical collaborators, and some more detail about the band’s internal dynamic would have been greatly appreciated. Perhaps we’ll get more of that in the soon to be released follow-up volume, covering the New Order era.

★★★★☆

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