Any Day Now - Terry Bisson

   2018; 344 pages.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Alternate History; Coming of Age Fiction; The 1960s.  Overall Rating : 5½*/10.

 

    It’s the 1950s, and all over the USA, the times they are a-changin’.

 

    You can hear it on the radio.  The “big band” music of the two previous decades is being replaced by a new sound that makes you want to snap your fingers and move your feet.  They call it “jazz” for whatever reason.

 

    Clayton “Clay” Bewley Bauer’s was just in grade school back then, in a small town called Calhoun, Kentucky; just outside the much bigger city of Owensboro.  His future, like all those in the Bewley clan, is already set in place:

    Graduate from high school,

    Graduate from Vanderbilt,

    Get a job in upper management somewhere.

 

    That sounds good.  The trouble is, that’s the “old way”, and Clay yearns to be part of those times that are a-changin’.

 

What’s To Like...

    In Any Day Now we follow Clay through three phases of his life.  Let’s call the first one his “Jazz Phase”, in the late 50s, wherein high-schooler Clay is introduced to new music from his friends and new ideas in the science-fiction books he reads voraciously.

 

    The next one is his college years in the early 60s; and we’ll label this his “Beatnik Phase”.  Clay eschews his family's tradition of attending Vanderbilt and instead opts for a small college in Minnesota.  But he soon drops out of there and moves to New York to be part of the Beat Scene and fulfill his career dream of becoming a poet.  His third phase is his “Commune Phase”, set in the late 60s and early 70s, after he moves out west and embraces the hippie lifestyle, including partaking of lots of recreational substances.

 

    The storyline resonated with me in several ways.  Clay’s approximately the same age as I am; we both spent our childhoods in small towns; and both had our long-haired, “Peace-Love-Dove” counterculture days.  To be honest, though, I never was tempted to go live in a commune.

 

    The first half of the book is Clay's Coming-of-Age saga, and felt like Terry Bisson was incorporating parts of his youth into the story.  One example: both the author and the protagonist were born and raised in Owensboro, Kentucky.  At that point I was disappointed that there wasn’t a bit of the Alternative History that the Amazon blurb promised.  Then abruptly, around 50% Kindle, a timeline anomaly pops up, and leads to a very different world that's going to sorely test Clay’s ideals.

 

    The ending is so-so.  After some exciting events in the “commune community”, Clay gets a much-needed rest.  But nothing is resolved, which makes me wonder if Terry Bisson intended to one day write a sequel to this.  Alas, it won’t happen.  Terry passed away in January 2024, and Wikipedia lists Any Day Now as his final full-length novel.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.1/5 based on 24 ratings and 11 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.36/5 based on 189 ratings and 38 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    "It has to be real jazz,” said Clay.

    “So what’s real jazz?” Ruth Ann asked.  They were sitting on the hood of the Ford with the motor cooling underneath, still warm on their bottoms.

    “Felonious Monk, Charles Mingles, Billy Ladyday,” said Clay.  “Very experimental stuff.  But it has to swing.  White people don’t do it as well.  Coal Train is good.”  (loc. 447)

 

    They were calling themselves Redeemers.  They wore masks on TV and talked about freedom.

    “The freedom to burn things,” Rotella said.

    They burned bridges in Indiana, barns in Idaho, buses in Detroit, cars and crosses in Georgia, and two kidnapped King’s Men in a locked shed in Illinois.  MLK called them misguided pawns; the UN called them terrorists.

    “Terrorism in the defense of liberty is no vice,” said Haig.  “It’s time the silent majority spoke up for America.”

    “Got a light?” muttered Clay.  (loc. 3649)

 

Kindle Details…

    The Kindle version of Any Day Now is presently priced at $9.99 at Amazon, which is rather steep.  Other Terry Bisson e-books are in the $2.99-$9.99 range.  It appears that a number of the author’s best-known works, such as Bears Discover Fire, are not yet available in e-book format.

 

Ernest was a rich kid working at being poor.  (loc. 862)

    There’s a fair amount of profanity in Any Day Now.  I counted 22 instances in the first 20%, but to be fair, half of those were the n-word racial epithet, which was mostly used to show Clay didn’t like the word, even though it was used frequently in the 1950s.

 

    Recreational drug usage is one of Clay’s frequent habits, and is generally presented in a positive and/or humorous way here, such as learning how “hold in” a toke, and how to properly prepare peyote before partaking of it.  I thought Clay’s first acid trip was presented particularly well.  Gay people are a common occurrence in both the Beat Scene and the hippie communes.  So if you’re a homophobe, you probably should skip this book.

 

    My biggest issue with Any Day Now is the storytelling.  Terry Bisson’s writing style is good, but the plotline doesn’t go anywhere or reach any conclusion.  Plus the previously mentioned genre-switch at the halfway point didn’t work at all for me.  Moreover, judging from the extremely low Goodreads ratings and several reviews there, I’m not the only one that felt this way.

 

    Despite that, I enjoyed Any Day Now, presumably because I could relate to so many of Clay’s experiences and have enjoyed so many of his sci-fi novels.  So let’s just call this one an ambitious and noble literary experiment that didn’t work.  RIP, Terry Bisson.  Your devoted fans dearly miss you.

 

    5½ Stars.  One last thing.  At one point during his Beat Phase, Clay goes to hear a 1950s hipster speaker by the name of Lord Buckley.  If you’ve never heard of him, go to YouTube and listen to some of his routines.  You will be amazed.

Captain Hawklin At War - Charles F. Millhouse

   2024; 504 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book #11 (out of 11) in the Captain Hawklin Adventures series.  Genres : Pulp Fiction; World War 2; Military Fiction.  Overall Rating: 9*/10.

 

    It’s 1940 and Americans can smell the smoke of the second World War in the wind.  Which is not surprising since much of Europe and Asia are already embroiled in fighting.

 

    Captain Steven Hawklin’s friends and fellow Crusaders are scattered all over the globe.  Hardy Miller is in Crown City, California attending to the business affairs of Hawklin’s flight school.  Desa Wintergreen is in Paris, on some sort of mission so secret that she won’t even divulge the details to Steven.

 

    Who knows where Steven’s friend and fellow American Zane Carrington is?  He could be anywhere on the Pacific Ocean, hiding out so he doesn’t get arrested and put on trial in America for murder.

 

    And Steven?  He and his longtime friend Oscar “Oz” Lyman are presently in a plane over a very hostile Japan, carrying out an affair of honor, while a bunch of Japanese Zero fighter planes try to shoot them down.

 

    In other words, Captain Hawklin is just doing his usual stuff.

 

What’s To Like...

    Captain Hawklin At War is the latest entry in Charles F. Millhouse’s “New Pulp” Captain Hawklin Adventures series.  The book is divided into six sections, each one spanning a year’s worth of dashing deeds, beginning in 1940 and closing with 1945.

 

    For the most part we tag along on the escapades of the characters mentioned above, switching from one hero to another, with the happy result of a ton of thrills, spills, and nefarious conniving, without any slow spots.  If you’re new to the series, like I was, there are some very helpful “Character Bios” at the start of the book, including one for a baddie I was especially intrigued by, Maximilian Odenthal.

 

    Each section starts with a quick recap of the historical World War 2 events that take place that year, but keep in mind that Captain Hawklin At War is a work of the Pulp Fiction genre.  Although clearly on the side of the allies, Captain Hawklin and his associates are battling the Nazis in a different, lesser-known arena: Occult Mysticism.  It may surprise some readers that there is historical justification for this, but several of the leading Nazis did dabble in it.  The Wikipedia link about this subject is here.

 

    I loved the character development in Captain Hawklin At War.  Yes, the Crusaders are all Pulp heroes, but they can get on each other’s nerves at times, and Hawklin himself can be short-tempered, especially when around high military/government muckamucks and/or his in-laws.  The two main female characters, Desa and Juno, are not the sort you want to be condescending to.  And Hawklin’s Crusaders are integrated, much to the discomfort of the US Navy.

 

    There are a slew of characters to meet and greet, some of which I’m sure are recurring from the earlier books in this series.  The bad guys are just as resourceful as the good guys, and I always like that.  I’m a history buff, so I appreciated the tie-ins to World War 2 events, but I’m also a sci-fi/fantasy enthusiast, so the pterodactyls, tree people, lizard men, and zombies delighted me as well.  I thought the catacombs scene was particularly well done.

 

    Despite their far-flung starting points, the main characters eventually come together for an exciting, action-packed ending.  The #1 bad guy, Sykes Revan, is a formidable opponent, whose planning and anticipation skills are incredible.  Anyone foolish or brave enough to confront him does so, knowing the outcome will be costly.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: -.-*/5, based on 0 ratings and 0 reviews.

    Goodreads: -.--*/5, based on 0 ratings and 0 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word…

    Cataleptic (adj.) : resembling a condition where the body is stiff, and stops moving, as if dead.

 

Excerpts...

    “What’s your business here?” another English soldier asked as Zane and the others came nearer.

    Keeping his pistol leveled to the ground, Zane said, “I’m the captain of the Fortitude.  Just wanting to get my ship and get the hell out of here.”

    “You should have left hours ago,” the first soldier said as he lowered his rifle away.  “You’ll be lucky if you can clear the harbor before you’re blown out of the water.”

    “That’s a chance I’m willing to take,” Zane said.

    “Why are you Americans so pigheaded, ay?”

    “We come by it natural,” Zane replied.  (pg. 194)

 

    “Don’t let it get to you.  It’s war.”

    Hardy stood.  “It’s war,” he said in a dark tone as he turned away from the boy’s body.  He regarded Demonte in a fever pitch of ferocity.  “That one simple word with so much power, that gives us immunity from committing the most heinous of acts.  It’s war will be a phrase that criminals hide behind, that soldiers will tell themselves when medals are pinned to their chest.  How many of the dead will be forgotten, whittled down to, it is war?  How will history remember this time?  ‘It was war’ they will say.  But how many more wars will we have to face, huh.  How many more innocents will die behind the phrase, ‘’it’s war?’”  (pg. 382)

 

“Why is it, Max, that every time there’s a castle around, I find you lurking in it?”  (pg. 291)

    The profanity is sparse in Captain Hawklin At War.  I noticed just nine instances in the first 20% (100 pages) of the book, and they were all of the milder ilk.  I don’t recall any “adult situations”, and the one racial epithet later on is given its proper comeuppance by Oz.

 

    My main issue is the number of typos in the book.  Some examples: Oman/Orman, Oaf/Oof, flower/flour, Metals/Medals, distain/disdain, fare-shear/fair share, and many more.  I’d suggest another round of editing before the next edition is published.

 

    But enough of the quibbling.  Captain Hawklin At War is an incredibly ambitious undertaking by Charles F. Millhouse to: a.) chronicle the efforts of at least seven major characters over the course of entire Second World War and in all parts of the world; b.) do so with utter clarity and no slow spots; c.) seamlessly blend Military History with New Pulp Fantasy; and d.) keep the reader turning the pages to see what happens next.

 

   Ambitious?  Yes.  Successful?  Yes, on all four of those endeavors.  Despite being 500 pages in length, Captain Hawklin At War was a quick read for me, mostly because I kept reading “just one more chapter” to see which Crusader was going to find himself/herself in what sort of new mayhem.  So if you’re looking for a “pulpy” action-adventure novel with a World War Two setting, this book is for you.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  If you’re new to this series, and upon finishing Captain Hawklin At War, you want to read more stories about our hero, a section titled “The Captain Hawklin Timeline”, located at the end of the book, lists 10 more novels and 8 more short stories featuring him.  Happy reading!

Revenge of the Jinx - Benjamin Laskin

   2018; 344 pages.  Book 2 (out of 4) in the “Murphy’s Luck” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Magical Realism; Cozy Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    The security camera captured the entire sequence.  Murphy Drummer singlehandedly foiled the plans of a pair of gun-toting bank robbers, while simultaneously protecting all the bank patrons and employees from any harm.

 

    He did it in spectacular fashion too, utilizing, among other things, the Heimlich maneuver, a baby bottle, and a seat cushion.  Everyone in the bank appreciated his odds-defying heroics, except, of course, the bank robbers.

 

  His actions also caught the attention of another group.  The FBI.  They’re sending two of their agents to talk to Murphy about a possible job opportunity for him at the agency.

 

    Hmm.  What kind of job would cause the FBI to prefer a civilian operative instead of one of their own experienced field agents?

 

What’s To Like...

    Revenge of the Jinx is the second book in Benjamin Laskin’s four-volume Murphy’s Luck series.  I read Book One last year; it is reviewed here.  Several years have passed between the events of the two books.  Murphy and Joy have married, a daughter is born, and little Phaedra is now five years old.

 

    Murphy is still afflicted by his jinx, but he’s mitigated its effects by living way out in the sticks and rarely if ever being around any outsiders.  Joy and Phaedra, both of whom seem to be immune to Murphy’s jinx, share his solitude.  Phaedra is a happy little girl, and her dad has built his daughter her very own playground called Cloverville.

 

    I liked the character development here.  Two inept FBI agents, Lester McDougall and Milo Lowenstein, provide the comic relief for the story.  The main bad guy, Lucius Valentine, has an excuse for his vileness: a giant wart on his chin.  And his two enforcers, Lamar and Miguel, are a lot less “thuggy” than stereotypical goons usually are.

 

    The storyline moves along at a pleasant pace.  Murphy’s boundless optimism and naivete keeps the jinx at bay, and by now he’s honed his “murphometer” skills to where he can shrewdly discern what disasters are about to befall innocent bystanders.

 

    The ending is appropriately over-the-top, and includes a couple of neat plot twists and dei ex machina.  which is consistent with the storyline.  Good triumphs over evil, of course; but good also smiles upon the baddies to a certain extent.  The last two chapters are of the “Whatever happened to…” ilk.  Chapter 38 covers the fates of various secondary characters; Chapter 39 does the same for Murphy and family.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 150 ratings and 33 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.41*/5, based on 94 ratings and 17 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “What amazed Lowenstein was why two incompetent schlubs like he and Lester McDougall would be assigned to such an important case.

    As if reading Lowenstein’s thoughts, Dunlap replied, “Exactly, Agent Lowenstein.  I can’t think of two worse agents for such a top-secret operation, but this is something we want flying under everyone’s radar—way under.  Subterranean—get it?”

    “Um….”

    “I do!” McDougall blurted.  “You want us to pose as oafs so that no one will suspect we’re up to something!”

    “No posing required,” Dunlap said.  (loc. 625)

 

    “Joy, honey,” Mrs. Daley said, “what about your—?”  She saw Phaedra listening and caught herself.  “Your rhymes with sphinx?”

    “I thought you guys didn’t believe in rhymes with finks.”

    “We don’t,” Mr. Daley said, “but if you believe in rhymes with stinks, then aren’t you acting irresponsibly?”

    “Yes,” Mrs. Daley said.  “Look at all the ‘chinks’ you went through to get here.  If you’re right, then going twice the distance could result in twice the, er, ‘tiddlywinks.’”

    “Leave our kinks to me,” Joy answered with finality.  (loc. 3714)

 

Kindle Details…

    Murphy’s Luck sells for $4.99 currently at Amazon, as do the other three books in the series.  Benjamin Laskin has several other series in e-book format; their books cost either $2.99 or $4.99.

 

Lunch was seafood served up with an assortment of near catastrophes.  (loc. 2646)

    As with the first book, cussing is sparse in Revenge of the Jinx.  I counted just seven instances in the first 25% of the book, all of the mild variety.  A technical term for male genitalia pops up later on, but not in an “adult situation”.  And though we find remnants of past victims of the main bad guy, there’s not really any gore.

 

    There are a lot of conveniently-timed saving graces, but here that’s a plus, not a criticism.  Murphy’s “gift” may be a jinx for everyone else, but for him it’s a source of incredible luck.  Revenge of the Jinx is meant to make you smile and feel good, not keep you on the edge of your seat, wondering whether Murphy and his friends are going to die.

 

    Overall, I thought this was a fine sequel to the opening book in the series.  The tone was heartwarming, there was sufficient action and intrigue to keep the plot moving, and enough witty dialogue to keep the reader smiling.  I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, Curse vs. Jinx.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last tidbit.  I loved the inclusion of the lyrics of one of my favorite songs ever, Radar Love by Golden Earring.  I’ve never met him, but I am certain that Benjamin Laskin has fantastic musical tastes!

2010: Odyssey Two - Arthur C. Clarke

   1982; 285 pages.  Book 2 (out of 4) in the “Space Odyssey” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Space Exploration; Hard Science Fiction; Movie Tie-In.  Overall Rating: 9½*/10.

 

    It’s 2010, and it’s been almost a decade since the first manned space mission to Jupiter.  That one was a disaster, due to a computer malfunction.  Everyone but Dave Bowman perished, and no one knows what happened to him.  The space vehicle Discovery was abandoned, and presumably is still orbiting around Jupiter.

 

    That ship is still American property though, and now US Intelligence has just learned that the Russians are building a spaceship to go to Jupiter and claim the Discovery as "salvage".  The USA has started a crash program (no pun intended) to build a spaceship, but there’s no way we can beat the Russians’ projected launch date.

 

    But aha!, we’ve got a trump card: Dr. Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai (called ‘Dr. Chandra’ for short), who programmed HAL-9000, the computer on Discovery that caused all the trouble.  He works for us, and he will be a great asset to anyone trying to get Discovery up and running again.

 

    So let's do something unexpected—call the Russians and propose the venture to Jupiter be a joint American-Russian mission, with Dr. Chandra as one of the American guests.

 

    Those Russkis are probably dumb enough to accept the offer.

 

What’s To Like...

    2010 – Odyssey Two is the sequel to 2001- A Space Odyssey, both in movie and book format.  I’ve seen the 2001 movie three times, a record for my cinematic attendance.  I haven’t seen the 2010 movie.

 

    I liked the book’s premise of Russian and American scientists cooperating with each other.  2010 – Odyssey Two was written in 1982, when the Cold War was still very much a reality.  To portray a group of Russians as normal human beings, and not the usual brainwashed Communist stereotypes, was a pleasant change.  Arthur C. Clarke also inserts a number of Russian phrases into the text, usually without translations into English.  Thank goodness for Google.

 

    There’s a multitude of plotlines to keep track of.  It’s not a spoiler to say that HAL-9000 is successfully reactivated, but how trustworthy will he be?  Will they find out what happened to David Bowman?  Is there life of Jupiter’s moons?  What’s with those monoliths?  And why is a cryptic deadline given for them to leave and return to Earth?

 

    I loved the attention to scientific details.  Arthur C. Clarke writes in a “hard science fiction genre” style.  I’m proud to say I knew what “Lagrange points” were, but had to look up “von Neumann machines”.  The “1:4:9 Ratio” twist was sheer genius, and I was amazed to learn that the name of the “EPCOT center” is actually an acronym.

 

    The pacing was similar to the 2001 storyline.  There’s not a lot of action in the first 2/3 of the book, but the reader’s interest is kept by the interactions of the multinational and mixed-gender crew, plus the reawakened HAL.  Then comes an extended and exciting ending, which resolves some questions about the mysterious monolith-building extraterrestrials, while posing new ones.  Presumably those will be addressed in the remaining two books in the series.  Things close with an altered solar system, one that is both hopeful and scary. 

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 3,323 ratings and 410 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.95*/5, based on 58,208 ratings and 1,601 reviews

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Perijove (n.) : the point in a spacecraft’s orbit around Jupiter when it is closest to the planet.

Others: Posmotri (v., Russian).; Lingam (n.).

 

Excerpts...

    “You naïve Americans! We’re more realistic; we have to be.  All your grandparents died of old age, Heywood.  Three of mine were killed in the Great Patriotic War.”

    When they were alone together, Tanya always called him Woody, never Heywood.  She must be serious.  Or was she merely testing his reactions?

    “Anyway, Discovery is merely a few billion dollars’ worth of hardware.  The ship’s not important—only the information it carries.”

    “Exactly.  Information that could be copied and then erased.”

    “You do get some cheerful ideas, Tanya.  Sometimes I think that all Russians are a little paranoiac.”

    “Thanks to Napoleon and Hitler, we’ve earned every right to be.”  (loc. 922)

 

    “It’s all very well to feel grateful to Bowman—or whatever gave that warning.  But that’s all they did.  We could still have been killed.”

    “But we weren’t,” answered Tanya.  “We saved ourselves—by our own efforts.  And perhaps that was the whole idea.  If we hadn’t—we wouldn’t have been worth saving.  You know, survival of the fittest.  Darwinian selection.  Eliminating the genes for stupidity.”  (loc. 3821)

 

Kindle Details…

    2010 – Odyssey Two sells for $7.59 at Amazon, the same price as Books 3 and 4.  Book 1, 2001 – A Space Odyssey, costs $9.99.

 

How did one annoy a two-kilometer-long black rectangular slab?  (loc. 1764)

    Profanity is almost nonexistent in 2010 – Odyssey Two, which is what I expected.  I noted only 4 expletives in the whole book, all of which were of the “milder” variety.

 

    The quibbles are minor.  Tame, playful, intelligent dolphins are worked into the storyline several times, and I kept waiting for them to make some sort of impact, presumably of the “goodbye, and thanks for all the fish” ilk.  Alas, it never happened.  Maybe they play more important roles in the remaining two books in the series.

 

    A Chinese space team also enters into the plotline, although it sort of a cameo appearance.  But theirs was an obvious fate since only one of them is even identified by name.  I suspect they'll all be wearing red shirts in the movie version.

 

    That’s all I can gripe about.  If you read 2001 – A Space Odyssey and liked it, you’ll enjoy 2010 – Odyssey Two just as much.  Now I'm wondering how Stanley Kubrick handled the cosmic ending in the movie version.  I'll have to search the Netflix files to see if they carry it.

 

    9½ Stars.  A brief mention of a novella by Leo Tolstoy called The Kreutzer Sonata intrigued me  Wikipedia says it was published in 1889 and promptly censored by the Russian authorities.  Here, it is described as “Russian erotic fiction”.  I never knew such a genre existed.