This book is classified as a mystery by my public library. It has been mislabeled. The only mystery is how it got published. The book starts out with Jasmine finding a body on her kitchen floor. It is the very first paragraph in the book. We don’t get back to it until the last chapter.
How to Cook a Tart seems to be a parody of both the romance novel and the modern push to eat healthy. The author, Nina Killham, is an excellent writer. She paints pictures with her words that are vivid and easy to see in the readers mind. The problem is that one can only take so many pictures of someone stuffing food into their mouth. This book is 250 pages of Jasmine, the heroine, obsessing about or shoveling food into her fat face, her husband obsessing about the affair that he has been driven to by his upcoming fortieth birthday, and her daughter’s obsession with losing her virginity.
Reading this book was like listening to the same joke over and over again. While it is funny the first time, by the third or fourth chapter the variations of the joke have gotten old. Long before I hit the half way mark of this book I was only skimming, looking for the mystery. The characters by this point had become grotesque instead of amusing or even interesting.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
On the Wrong Track by Steve Hockensmith
Steve Hockensmith has done it again. “On The Wrong Track” is an excellent follow up to his first book “Holmes on the Range”. This is another well written story that will keep you both laughing and wondering who done it.
Gustav and Otto, better known as Old Red and Big Red respectively, are back and this time their riding the rails instead of the grub line. They've been hired by the Southern Pacific Rail Road and put on the express to San Francisco where they will receive their training. The problem is that they have to get over the mountains alive first. Not only is the train a target for a gang of outlaws with a grudge against the Southern Pacific but there is a murder committed on board almost as soon as the train gets started.
With a train full of suspects and a bad case of the ‘collywobbles,’ Old Red starts investigating. Not only do they have to deal with a snooty conductor who thinks that the only thing lower then cowboys are company guards but there is a nervous Wells Fargo man with a quick trigger finger in the express car. There is the Chinaman traveling with a drunken Pinkerton Agent, a suffragette who has an almost unladylike interest in her fellow passengers, and an annoying drummer. Then there is the crime scene, a baggage car full of strange things, including two caskets and a snake.
The farther into the mountains they go the stranger and more complicated things get. As the brothers deal with murder and robbery, things go from bad to worse. Using the methods of Old Red's hero, Sherlock Holmes, the two brothers follow the clues to the end of the line.
The relationship between the two Reds is both touching and funny. The bond between them is strong without being sentimental or sappy. The brotherly needling is of the type that anyone with brothers understands.
If you liked “Holmes on the Range” you’ll love “On the Wrong Track.” If you haven’t read either book I highly recommend them both. If you read mysteries or westerns you will find Mr. Hockensmith’s work most satisfying.
Gustav and Otto, better known as Old Red and Big Red respectively, are back and this time their riding the rails instead of the grub line. They've been hired by the Southern Pacific Rail Road and put on the express to San Francisco where they will receive their training. The problem is that they have to get over the mountains alive first. Not only is the train a target for a gang of outlaws with a grudge against the Southern Pacific but there is a murder committed on board almost as soon as the train gets started.
With a train full of suspects and a bad case of the ‘collywobbles,’ Old Red starts investigating. Not only do they have to deal with a snooty conductor who thinks that the only thing lower then cowboys are company guards but there is a nervous Wells Fargo man with a quick trigger finger in the express car. There is the Chinaman traveling with a drunken Pinkerton Agent, a suffragette who has an almost unladylike interest in her fellow passengers, and an annoying drummer. Then there is the crime scene, a baggage car full of strange things, including two caskets and a snake.
The farther into the mountains they go the stranger and more complicated things get. As the brothers deal with murder and robbery, things go from bad to worse. Using the methods of Old Red's hero, Sherlock Holmes, the two brothers follow the clues to the end of the line.
The relationship between the two Reds is both touching and funny. The bond between them is strong without being sentimental or sappy. The brotherly needling is of the type that anyone with brothers understands.
If you liked “Holmes on the Range” you’ll love “On the Wrong Track.” If you haven’t read either book I highly recommend them both. If you read mysteries or westerns you will find Mr. Hockensmith’s work most satisfying.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
The Honor Harrington Series by David Weber
David Weber is a prolific writer of science fiction and fantasy. He has written over 30 books and collaborated on several others with Eric Flint, Steve White and John Ringo. This review covers the first book On Basilisk Station in the Honor Harrington series and a general review of the whole series.
On Basilisk Station
This is the first book of the Honor Harrington series. In it we meet Honor as she is about to take command of her first cruiser. With one hyper-capable command under her belt and a second one about to begin she has finally got her foot on the command ladder. But both her life and career are about to take a turn for the worse.
First, the weapons on her new ship have been gutted to make room for a new weapon. Second, her next in command can’t get past his jealousy and work with her. Third, when the new weapon turns out to be a dud an embarrassed Admiral finds it easier to exile Honor and her crew to Basilisk Station then to admit the mistake. Fourth, her whole crew would rather complain then get on with their jobs. And if that isn’t enough, an old adversary already assigned to Basilisk finds her arrival an excuse to return to Manticore for unnecessary repairs, leaving her holding the proverbial bag.
For years Basilisk Station has been the place that the Navy sent their screw ups. Nobody seemed to care if the job that they were there to do got done or not. Unfortunately for a lot of people no one explained that to Honor. Left with an impossible job she sets about solving it. If her unhappy crew won’t follow her then she will just have to get behind them and push. If the civilian traffic doesn’t like her confiscating their contraband then they had better start following the regulations. And if the People’s Republic of Haven thinks that taking Basilisk Station and its wormhole junction away from Manticore will be easy, they are in for a big surprise.
The Rest of the Series
The first six books in the Honor Harrington series are the best. These are tightly written, well plotted and stand alone. This changes when we get to In Enemy Hands. This is the first book that leaves you hanging, and it’s a real cliff hanger. Although the books written after this one aren’t ‘cliff-hangers’ they all lead you into the next book. They can be read without the background of the rest of the books but not easily.
We see another major change in the books after In Enemy Hands. They are not only much longer but they are also much more loosely written. All of them suffer from a serious lack of editing. There are fewer battles, more politics, plot lines which go every-which-way, and confusing storylines. Echoes of Honor, the follow up to In Enemy Hands, jumped back and forth between story lines so often that it was difficult to read. I actually used post-it notes to mark the chapters according to which story-line it fit into and read the book in sections.
If you like military space opera then I highly recommend the first six books in this series. They are:
1 On Basilisk Station *************4 Field of Dishonor
2 The Honor of the Queen ********5 Flag in Exile
3 The Short Victorious War ******6 Honor Among Enemies
In Enemy Hands is also very good, but I left it off the favorites list because of its ending. I don’t like books that leave you hanging.
The rest of the books in the series are:
7 In Enemy Hands *************10 War of Honor
8 Echoes of Honor *************11 At All Costs
9 Ashes of Victory
There are also four books, edited by David Weber, containing short stories which take place in Honor’s Universe. Some of the stories are written by Mr. Weber and others by other well known science fiction authors. If you like this series then you will also like the stories contained in these books. They are:
1 More than Honor *************3 Changer of Worlds
2 Worlds of Honor************* 4 The Service of the Sword
Two full length books, Crown of Slaves written with Eric Flint and the Shadow of Saganami full out the series.
On Basilisk Station
This is the first book of the Honor Harrington series. In it we meet Honor as she is about to take command of her first cruiser. With one hyper-capable command under her belt and a second one about to begin she has finally got her foot on the command ladder. But both her life and career are about to take a turn for the worse.
First, the weapons on her new ship have been gutted to make room for a new weapon. Second, her next in command can’t get past his jealousy and work with her. Third, when the new weapon turns out to be a dud an embarrassed Admiral finds it easier to exile Honor and her crew to Basilisk Station then to admit the mistake. Fourth, her whole crew would rather complain then get on with their jobs. And if that isn’t enough, an old adversary already assigned to Basilisk finds her arrival an excuse to return to Manticore for unnecessary repairs, leaving her holding the proverbial bag.
For years Basilisk Station has been the place that the Navy sent their screw ups. Nobody seemed to care if the job that they were there to do got done or not. Unfortunately for a lot of people no one explained that to Honor. Left with an impossible job she sets about solving it. If her unhappy crew won’t follow her then she will just have to get behind them and push. If the civilian traffic doesn’t like her confiscating their contraband then they had better start following the regulations. And if the People’s Republic of Haven thinks that taking Basilisk Station and its wormhole junction away from Manticore will be easy, they are in for a big surprise.
The Rest of the Series
The first six books in the Honor Harrington series are the best. These are tightly written, well plotted and stand alone. This changes when we get to In Enemy Hands. This is the first book that leaves you hanging, and it’s a real cliff hanger. Although the books written after this one aren’t ‘cliff-hangers’ they all lead you into the next book. They can be read without the background of the rest of the books but not easily.
We see another major change in the books after In Enemy Hands. They are not only much longer but they are also much more loosely written. All of them suffer from a serious lack of editing. There are fewer battles, more politics, plot lines which go every-which-way, and confusing storylines. Echoes of Honor, the follow up to In Enemy Hands, jumped back and forth between story lines so often that it was difficult to read. I actually used post-it notes to mark the chapters according to which story-line it fit into and read the book in sections.
If you like military space opera then I highly recommend the first six books in this series. They are:
1 On Basilisk Station *************4 Field of Dishonor
2 The Honor of the Queen ********5 Flag in Exile
3 The Short Victorious War ******6 Honor Among Enemies
In Enemy Hands is also very good, but I left it off the favorites list because of its ending. I don’t like books that leave you hanging.
The rest of the books in the series are:
7 In Enemy Hands *************10 War of Honor
8 Echoes of Honor *************11 At All Costs
9 Ashes of Victory
There are also four books, edited by David Weber, containing short stories which take place in Honor’s Universe. Some of the stories are written by Mr. Weber and others by other well known science fiction authors. If you like this series then you will also like the stories contained in these books. They are:
1 More than Honor *************3 Changer of Worlds
2 Worlds of Honor************* 4 The Service of the Sword
Two full length books, Crown of Slaves written with Eric Flint and the Shadow of Saganami full out the series.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)