This review originally appeared on Goodreads on June 21, 2012.

The Book of Taltos

By Steven Brust – Ace – January 8, 2002

Review by Robin Marx

This omnibus collects the fourth and fifth volumes in Steven Brust's Dragaera series, Taltos and Phoenix. I read the first three books collected as The Book of Jhereg about five years ago, and while I remembered a bit about the world Brust presents, those stories had completely faded from my memory. I expect the same will happen with these two installments as well. The world of Dragaera is interesting and appealing, but other aspects of the books aren't quite as strong.

Although published fourth, Taltos is chronologically the first story in the series. It introduces Vlad Taltos, a human assassin operating in the Dragaeran Empire. In an interesting twist, the tall, magically-adept Dragaerans (nicknamed “elfs” by the humans) are the dominant species in Brust's world, with humans (called “Easterners” by the Dragaerans) generally relegated to the fringes of society. This book covers Taltos' youth, with a parallel plot-line involving a quest into the Dragaeran land of the dead. The story provides a good deal of insight into the character of Taltos, as well as describing how he gained some of the powerful allies that feature so heavily in the other stories.

The other book in the omnibus, Phoenix, was the more troubled of the pair. In this story, Taltos is called upon by a goddess to assassinate the king of a minor nation. Just why this is necessary is never satisfactorily revealed, although there's some hinting about portents, etc. There's another thread dealing with the human liberation group Taltos's wife belongs to and it's struggle with the Dragaeran Empire, but this plot seemed fairly muddled as well. The ending was much better than the rest of the book, however; Taltos and the final pages of Phoenix are good enough to earn three stars, rather than the two I would've awarded otherwise.

I'm starting to thing Brust may not be the author for me. I find the world of Dragaera interesting and I'm fond of fantasy crime stories (Lankhmar, etc.), but the plots in this volume were a little weak. The Vlad Taltos character is well realized, but the (unnecessarily numerous) supporting characters basically seem to have one shtick. There's Sneaky Guy, Thief Girl, Uptight Swordsman, etc. Whenever Sneaky Guy appears, he's being sneaky, that's it, there's no further development. Uptight Swordsman is Uptight, and Long Cat is Long.

Vlad Taltos's “voice” (the books are written in first person) also rubs me the wrong way. He relates the story in a very casual, modern tone. He talks like every Joss Whedon character, basically. (It didn't surprise me at all to find out that Brust has written a full-length Firefly fan-fic novel.) For some readers (who may also be Whedon fans), this is probably not a drawback. However, I can only take Whedon in small doses, and when Brust (speaking through the character of Vlad Taltos) is describing life and death struggles and the fate of nations in a Whedonesque flippant, detached manner, I find I can't muster up much emotional involvement in the story. If the narrator isn't taking things seriously, why should I?

I own one more Dragaera omnibus, collecting the next two volumes in the series. I'll read Athyra and Orca before deciding whether to keep going or to abandon the series entirely.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on January 20, 2019.

When Gravity Fails

By George Alec Effinger – Arbor House – January 1987

Review by Robin Marx

This sleek cyberpunk novel is set in the Middle East after the decline and Balkanization of the Western superpowers. It focuses on Marîd Audran, a low-level fixer in the Budayeen, the seamy red light district of an unnamed city. When a number of his acquaintances are viciously murdered, he finds himself breaking a number of his personal rules—including becoming entangled with powerful underworld figures and adopting personality-changing cybernetic enhancements—in an effort to find the chameleonic killer.

While very different in terms of subject matter, this book reminded me a bit of the contemporaneous Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams: solid cyberpunk fiction that includes popular cyberpunk genre hallmarks while adding some innovation of its own. Like many of the best cyberpunk novels, When Gravity Fails draws inspiration from hardboiled detective novels, peppering the narrative with shady cops, dangerous mob bosses, femmes fatale, sympathetic bartenders, and a world-weary protagonist. On the other hand, the Middle Eastern setting and “moddies” (personality modifying software) in particular felt very fresh. I was also pleasantly surprised to see multiple transgender characters presented as sympathetic human beings in a book published in 1987.

When Gravity Fails had everything I like to see in cyberpunk fiction plus some new twists. I look forward to reading the sequels.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on November 7, 2016.

The World Without Us

By Alan Weisman – Thomas Dunne Books – July 10, 2007

Review by Robin Marx

This intriguing book attempts to elaborate on the various ways Earth would be impacted if humankind were to suddenly vanish. The results of this thought experiment are a mixed bag, with some of the environmental damage and visible impact caused by humans fading relatively quickly, while other results of humanity's reign (particularly consequences associated with nuclear waste) having repercussions lasting for geological epochs. The end result is a planet that is not necessarily better or worse off for the lack of human habitation, but one very different from its current state.

Given the vast scope of the topic, the book feels necessarily a bit unfocused. Most chapters introduce a general question (“What happens to X without humans around?”), then the story's “lens” progressively zooms in on narrower details within that topic, going from macro scale to micro. Scientists, conservationists, architects, energy industry professionals, and so forth are introduced along the way, providing insight into their fields of expertise. I especially appreciated that alternate views were often provided, adding nuance when one expert's perspective veered too far towards rosy optimism or unvarnished pessimism.

By positing a scenario in which humans are completely absent the author encourages us to reflect upon humanity's current stewardship of the world. We're reminded that monumental structures and other proud feats of engineering may not be as permanent as they seem, while other more subtle byproducts of humanity's influence can have long-reaching, unintended, and permanent consequences.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on April 11, 2013.

Callisto

By Lin Carter – iBooks – July 14, 2010

Review by Robin Marx

This book collects the first two installments in Lin Carter's eight-volume Callisto series: Jandar of Callisto and Black Legion of Callisto, both originally printed in 1972. They're planetary romance stories specifically written in the vein of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of Mars/Barsoom series. This is both a strength and a weakness. Fans of the Barsoom novels will see a lot of fun familiar elements, but the imitation is too slavish, frequently crossing the line from homage to outright fan-fiction (a common complaint regarding the work of Lin Carter).

The hero of the series is Jonathan Dark, and the books are written in first person POV. Like the classic Barsoom stories, there's a goofy metafiction element where Lin Carter directly addresses the reader, insisting that he is not the author of the Callisto stories, he's only acting as editor of a series of mysterious manuscripts delivered to him through unorthodox methods. (This particular collection of the novels goes even further, with a new introduction by publisher John Betancourt that somewhat crassly hints that the late Lin Carter isn't really dead, he's just joined Jonathan Dark on Callisto.)

Jonathan Dark is a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam war who ends up on one of Jupiter's moons—Callisto—after crashing in the jungle and encountering a mysterious portal. Just as John Carter was captured by the four-armed Green Martians, he's taken prisoner by mantis aliens. Like John Carter, he grows to understand their ways, gradually winning the respect of their leader. Like John Carter, he encounters a bodacious alien princess with whom he is immediately smitten. Like John Carter's lady-love Dejah Thoris, she gets kidnapped frequently. This series is like John Carter.

To be fair, things do get shaken up a bit. It's not a straight-up retelling of Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. Most of the events, aliens, and interactions are different enough to keep things interesting. But while I was pleased to read new (to me, anyway) stories written in the tradition of the Barsoom novels, the Callisto stories would've benefited had Lin Carter taken the basic “stranger in a strange land” premise and done his own thing, rather than directly translate nearly every element found in the Barsoom books. After a while it starts to feel like the author is working from a checklist. Skyships? Check. Romance with a princess? Check. Alien warrior BFF? Check. Despite being a Vietnam War-era American, Jonathan Dark speaks in the same antiquated, slang- and contraction-free manner as Civil War Veteran John Carter. Why?

While not unexpected given what I know about the author, the imitation was a little disappointing. Complaints aside, I did enjoy this volume. It's not as good as the best Edgar Rice Burroughs, but these two stories were better than some of ERB's less-inspired work, and among the better Lin Carter output I've read. I'd like to read the subsequent volumes, but I think I'll work through the last few remaining Barsoom novels before spending any more time on Callisto.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on February 19, 2016.

The Man of Bronze (Doc Savage #1)

By Kenneth Robeson (House Name)/Lester Dent – Street & Smith – March 1, 1933

Review by Robin Marx

I had heard a bit about the titular “Man of Bronze,” but had never previously had the chance to read one of the stories. As a fan of pulp fiction I read this, the first of the Doc Savage novels, with great interest.

Both the characters and the story lived up to expectations. Doc Savage was, as expected, a paragon of mankind. He's a genius with the physique of an Olympian. His close friends—a lawyer, geologist, chemist, historian, etc.—are equally as remarkable, but I found it interesting that even in their chosen specialties, they're still second to Savage himself. Savage is basically perfect. And while this would grate in many forms of literature, it's easy to accept in pulp fiction from this time period. Savage is JUST that good.

While I had a bit of trouble keeping Savage's five friends straight (some have more of a presence in the story than others), I enjoyed their first adventure. The pace was brisk and it involved both strange assassins and the treasures of a lost Mayan civilization deep in the jungle. Just the kind of thing I was looking for when I picked up this book.

This book is a product of its time, but I was pleasantly surprised with how the Mayans were treated in this book. They weren't all ignorant savages, many of them were shown to be intelligent, civilized, and generous. They worked with the main characters and had agency, rather than being presented as inferior cannon fodder. There's only one named female character in the book, but she too is shown to be bright and resourceful, and is never reduced to a mere victim or damsel in distress.

I found the ending to be a bit abrupt, but the heroics and breakneck pace of the story appealed a great deal. I look forward to reading future installments in the series.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on October 31, 2018.

Heart-Shaped Box

By Joe Hill – William Morrow – March 25, 2010

Review by Robin Marx

This extremely entertaining ghost story involves an aging heavy metal musician (I basically pictured him as Danzig with a beard) haunted by the ghost of a dead groupie's stepfather. Simple yet effective, this initial premise develops additional layers over the course of the story.

This was my first Joe Hill book, and I was curious to see how his work compares to that of Stephen King, his father. Their styles are decidedly similar. Most of the story takes place in the kind of rural locales favored by King, but Hill emphasizes the South as opposed to Maine. Hill also excels at characterization, one of his father's strengths. But he also avoids some of King's weaknesses. Stephen King characters often tend to have a catchphrase or tic that inevitably wears out its welcome, but that's not present here. Hill also sticks the landing, and ending the story is something that his father has struggled with. While it'd be doing Hill a disservice to compare him to his father too much—especially since he's carved out his own successful career without relying on the King name—if you like King's work you'll probably like Hill's.

I was especially impressed by the characterization and the pacing of this book. Hill starts off with some fairly stock characters in a rockstar and associated hangers-on, but all of them are humanized and made real as the story progresses. The pace is also breakneck. Events in the story built at such a speed that it seemed like I was reaching the climax at only the one-third point. I had to check and make sure this book wasn't a collection of novellas instead of a full novel.

This was a very satisfying read and something I can wholeheartedly recommend to horror fans.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on March 9, 2021.

The Angel of Darkness

By Caleb Carr – Ballantine Books – March 25, 2010

Review by Robin Marx

The second Dr. Laszlo Kreizler story, this one involves a kidnapped baby and a disturbed nurse whose youthful charges tend to end up dead.

While this was an enjoyable read, it didn’t equal or surpass The Alienist. The pacing felt a bit off in several sections, with strange detours and an occasional lack of urgency despite the core conflict. While it’s not really a complaint for me, there are a number of action sequences (and one particular supporting character) that cross a bit into pulp territory, which is not something I remember from the first book. Also, Dr. Kreizler seemed to take a back seat to much of the proceedings. Perhaps it was due to the new choice in narrator, but Kreizler spent much of the story off-screen, doing vague psychology stuff while the scrappy kid narrator got into punch-ups with juvenile gang members.

That being said, this book offers an opportunity to spend more time with Carr’s appealing characters, which is what I (and probably many readers) wanted most. There’s not as much mystery or investigation as the previous book, but the characters are solid and the historical figure cameos are fun, if a bit forced at times.

The first thing I did after finishing this book was check when the next book in the series is expected to arrive. I think that can be taken as a solid recommendation.

★★★☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on May 31, 2012.

Siddhartha

By Hermann Hesse – S. Fischer Verlag – 1922

Review by Robin Marx

As an atheist fascinated with religion, I have an especially ambivalent stance towards Buddhism. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed by its complexity and counter intuitiveness, other times—a bit disappointed—I wonder “is that all there is? A lot of cruft surrounding a few basic recommendations?” I've read D. T. Suzuki's writings on Zen, a translation of the Lotus sutra and even Buddhism for Dummies, and still my confidence about “getting” Buddhism wavers. Happily, Siddhartha wasn't just a pleasant, lyrical read, I felt it furthered my understanding of Buddhist concepts as well.

Despite having five translators listed for the Project Gutenberg edition I read, it was a surprisingly smooth read. The story was told in a fairly straightforward fable-like manner that reminded me a bit of Lord Dunsany, of all people.

The characterization was especially deftly handled; there are several places in the narrative where the reader is subtly tipped off that Siddhartha is straying from the path towards enlightenment or becoming a bit sanctimonious, only to have that become a major plot point later on. I also enjoyed that this wasn't a story of one righteous man surrounded by fools and the misguided. Although Siddhartha himself has an ingrained tendency to be skeptical of teachers and condescending towards those he calls “the childlike people” (i.e., you and me), all of the other characters in the novel, from the exalted to the lowly, end up playing a crucial part in his journey.

Although it's never called out directly, the Buddhist precept this book seems to deal with most directly is mindfulness, one facet of the Noble Eightfold Path. Siddhartha sees the most when he's quiet and receptive, willing to pay attention to the small things in life. Like a lot in Buddhism, it's almost childishly simple but sometimes hard to put into practice.

★★★★☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on September 24, 2012.

Free: The Future of a Radical Price

By Chris Anderson – Grand Central Publishing – June 22, 2009

Review by Robin Marx

“Business books are basically romance novels for men. Silly fantasies, terrible writing, large type, cheap paper and one good idea per book.” – @BenedictEvans @Twitter.com

It's becoming clear that freemium business models cannot be ignored, and this book heralds those models as the way of the future. For digital content in particular, Anderson argues that the march to free is inevitable. While laudably detailed in some respects, this book is disappointingly glib and superficial in others.

Anderson unleashes a veritable deluge of cases in which free services or content can play a role in a successful business, but while he acknowledges some of the concerns held by skeptics, all too often he dismisses them out of hand without effectively rebutting them. Sheryl Crow is concerned about the increasing difficulty of selling music? Pshaw, says Anderson, you'll make it all back on live performances and merchandise sales! I'm not a particular fan of her music, but I'm willing to bet that she has a more functional knowledge of the music industry than a dude from Wired. But maybe she's just a square and not with the hip new digital economy, man.

Another concern is that many of Anderson's success stories have, in more recent years, turned out to be not so successful. He mentions Digg, which was huge for a while before becoming a shell of its former self. Facebook has had trouble providing value for shareholders. (Facebook's inability to provide a return on investment for advertisers is actually called out in the text, but subsequently glossed over.) Freemium game giant Zynga is seeing huge drops in profit. He cites Radiohead's pay-what-you-want album In Rainbows as a great success, but doesn't mentioned the fact that Radiohead abandoned this model after about three months in favor of CD sales and standard iTunes distribution. If pay-what-you-want was such an unalloyed success, why didn't the band stick with it?

The whole book is written with a wide-eyed, breathless tone that immediately puts this reader on his guard. Free is the way of the future, man, and if you don't get it you're a fossil. (Ignore the burned out husks of countless companies that were unable to turn a profit with freemium.)

Despite what this book says, I think the jury is still out on freemium. There's been a huge die-off of freemium gaming companies over the last year or so, and other companies are struggling. I suspect we're in the middle of another, more low-key, dotcom bubble. In the end, freemium will probably resume its place as just one tool of many, rather than become some dominating trend.

★★☆☆☆

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This review originally appeared on Goodreads on June 11, 2022.

The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart

By Jesse Bullington – Orbit – October 27, 2009

Review by Robin Marx

Natural Born Killers in the 14th century. Grand Theft Wagon. This grimdark picaresque romp through the Holy Roman Empire and points beyond follows two grave-robbing brothers on a grandiose journey to loot the tombs of Egypt.

Hegel and Manfried, the titular Brothers Grossbart, are not good people. They rob from the dead and have zero compunctions about creating new corpses. Shortly after being introduced to them, we see the pair murder a family of farmers with no real provocation. This inciting event plants the seeds for future strife experienced by the brothers as well as marking the start of their medieval international crime spree. Along the way they encounter witches, demons, and brigands every bit as cruel and vicious as themselves.

The brothers are churlish, thuggish, and ignorant. They’re hot-tempered, violent, arbitrary, and petty. They’re also pious in an idiosyncratic way: they’re reverently horny for the Virgin Mary, but they don’t think much of her son. Like most villains, they view themselves as the heroes of their narrative, and despite their repellant natures, they make compelling protagonists.

The Grossbarts are perfectly at home in the medieval Europe portrayed in the book. The people they encounter tend to be every bit as treacherous and untrustworthy as themselves. The supporting cast is vicious, diseased, demented, avaricious, and/or occasionally literally in league with the devil.

This book isn’t for everyone. People who require likable protagonists and happy endings should stay away. The book is full of graphic violence and drenched in various bodily fluids. Children are casually murdered. Blasphemy is present and accounted for. But for those who can enjoy grim and dark tales, this book is exhilarating and slyly humorous.

The dialogue was the highlight of the book for me. The brothers speak in a crass and blunt dialect that never ceases to entertain. Their interactions with other characters pleasantly reminded me of Jack Vance’s Cugel the Clever stories, albeit with Cugel’s highfaluting bloviating replaced with hammer-blunt gutter slang.

My only real complaint with the book is that the pacing lags in some sections. The brothers’ sojourn in Venice seems to go on longer than necessary, and there’s an ocean journey that feels a little slow. That being said, a lot of territory (geographically and spiritually) is covered over the course of the book, and it was sufficiently gripping that I finished the final third of the book in a single sitting.

As I said, this book isn’t for everyone, but I found it a lot of fun. If you have an affinity for grimdark, this is an entertaining and wryly funny read.

★★★★☆

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