The Invention of Yesterday - Tamim Ansary

   2019; 407 pages.  Full Title: The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000 Year History of Human Culture, Connection.  New Author?  : Yes.  Genres : Ancient History; World History;  Non-Fiction; Anthropology.  Overall Rating: 9½*/10.

 

    Okay, I admit it.  I’m a history nerd.  I’ve been one ever since 7^th grade when Mrs. Stoudt taught “World History 1”, introducing us to ancient empires and closing with the fall of the Roman Empire.  She made a profound impact on me, but I have noticed, however, that there’s a subtle bias in history classes, even if it’s a college history course.

 

    For instance, in the “Greeks vs. Persians” chapters (Alexander the Great, Thermopylae, Socrates, etc.) the Greeks are always portrayed as the heroic defenders of democracy; the Persians are always the evil bullies.  The Crusaders are invariably cast as the defenders of the Faith, even though they were invading the Near East.  And in 476 CE, after Rome was sacked, we entered the Dark Ages where evidently nothing notable happened anywhere in the world for the next 400 years.

 

    But how did those Persians view their wars with Greece?  What went through the minds of Palestinian Muslims (besides swords and arrows) when the Crusaders fought into the streets of Jerusalem?  And surely the empires in China, India, and the Middle East were doing something while Europe was enduring four centuries of the Dark Ages, right?

 

    Tamim Ansary examines all those questions, and a whole lot more, in his book, The Invention of Yesterday.

 

What’s To Like...

    As the subtitle indicates, Tamim Ansary places the dawn of human civilization at 50,000 BCE (after a brief review of terrestrial life dating back to 15 million BCE), when homo sapiens separated themselves from the rest of animal world via three innovations: tools, environment adaptation, and most importantly, language.  He divides The Invention of Yesterday into 31 chapters, covering world history from way back then up until now, with the last three chapters even giving his musings about where we’re headed.

 

    Squeezing 50 millennia of history into 400 pages is amazing, but what impressed me even more was the breadth of the realms that Ansary focuses on.  Events in China, India, Mesopotamia, and Egypt get just as much attention as European happenings.  The Americas and Africa also get some ink, albeit not as lengthy due to a lack of annals in those areas.

 

    The main point of the book is that there inevitably were a lot more interactions between all the various empires (aka “social constellations”; more on that in a bit.), not only via wars, but also through trading, traveling, technological advancements, and even plagues.  The author even goes so far as to suggest that “the policies of China’s Qing government did contribute to the birth of the United States.  Thank you for asking.”

 

    There are lots of maps, all of them easily expandable.  There are lots of footnotes, a majority of which are the author’s asides, and worth your time reading.  The text is crammed full of fascinating historical tidbits, including Mithraism (I once knew a devotee of it!); the “People of the Sea” (one of the great historical mysteries); Daevas (who?!); and the etymology of the word “Lombards”.

 

    So if you’re looking for a comprehensive history book that’s both enlightening and interesting, which goes beyond just “Western Civilization” and is filled with lots of facts and trivia, The Invention of Yesterday might be a perfect fit.  You’ll even get to see those invading Persians, the Crusaders, and the Dark Ages in an entirely different light.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 307 ratings and 61 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.27*/5, based on 1,022 ratings and 151 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Concatenation (n.) : a series of interconnected things or events.

Others : Reifying (v.).

 

Excerpts...

    In many cases, the paintings in a given cave were made over the course of thousands of years; people were coming there to paint, generation after generation.  But the oldest of them were made about forty thousand years ago, and the odd thing is, those earliest paintings were already quite sophisticated.  What hasn’t turned up are transitional products.  It’s not like Stone Age painters spent a few hundred generations learning to doodle and then a few hundred making blotches vaguely suggestive of animal shapes and then finally figuring out how to make recognizable horses and hunters.  Instead, it seems that around thirty-five to forty-five millennia ago, people rather suddenly started making sophisticated art.  (pg. 13)

 

    The Americas had grasslands too, but the hunter-gatherers who lived there never developed into pastoral nomadic civilizations capable of taking on the big urban powers.  Instead, they continued to refine their hunting-and-gathering way of life.  The reason is simple: North America had no animals that could be domesticated.  It had no sheep, no goats, no cows, nothing that could be herded.  It’s true that millions of bison roamed the great plains, but for some reason, these ill-tempered animals can’t be tamed, and when you can’t domesticate a grouchy two-ton animal with horns, you’d better not try to milk it.  (pg. 170)

 

Kindle Details…

    The Invention of Yesterday sells for $17.99 right now at Amazon.  Tamim Ansary has eight other e-books for your Kindle, ranging in price from $2.99 to $17.99.

 

In 1290, after populist rumors arose that Jews were eating Christian babies for Passover, all Jews of England were expelled.  (pg. 220)

    As one would expect, there’s very little cussing in The Invention of Yesterday; just 4 instances in the entire book: two “damns”, one “hell”, plus one “for Christ’s sake”.  The typos were few and far between, but more than I expected.  Examples: Atilla/Attila; lamas/llamas; unleased/unleashed; Columbia/Colombia; identity/identify; honey bees/honeybees.

 

    The author likes to coin phrases such as social constellations, social organisms, trialectic (a modification of “dialectic”), progress narrative, belief systems, and my favorite: bleshing (a portmanteau of ‘blending’ and ‘meshing’, referring to what happens when cultures, religions, and/or nations collide).  These are quite innovative, but sometimes I struggled to remember exactly what they meant.

 

    That’s all I can gripe about.  For me, The Invention of Yesterday was a great read, giving me new insights into all sorts of historical interactions and an opportunity to learn about various ancient empires that existed in places outside of Europe.  I’m looking forward to reading more books by this author.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  There’s a small town here in Arizona called Bisbee.  It’s not well known, and mostly exists for artists and tourists who want to experience that “Old West” feeling.  Incredibly, it gets mentioned in The Invention of Yesterday (pg. 75).  Wowza.

The Tainted Cup - Robert Jackson Bennett

    2024; 406 pages.  Book 1 (out of 1) in the “Shadow of the Leviathan” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Intrigue; Epic Fantasy, Murder-Mystery.   Overall Rating: 9½/10.

 

    Taqtasa Blas, one of the Commanders of the Engineers, has met a gruesome end.  You can read about it in the first excerpt below.  The “how” is easily determined – exposure, either through ingestion or inhalation, to the malignant blooms of the dappleglass.  It appears there is a murderer afoot. 

 

    Interestingly, ten other engineers also perished recently from dappleglass poisoning.  But they were nowhere near Blas, and they died at somewhat different moments, which indicates they weren’t all infected at a single time and place.

 

    Iudex Inspector Ana Dolabra has been assigned to the case, along with her assistant, Dinios “Din” Kol.  Their task is to figure out who the poisoner, or poisoners, were, and when and where those lethal doses were administered.

 

    But Ana is a topnotch investigator.  She intends to also find out who hired the poisoner(s), which will answer the question of why someone wanted so badly to kill a bunch of engineers.  Good luck on that quest, Ana.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Tainted Cup is an epic fantasy tale set in the Holy Empire of Khanum.  Ana and Din are emissaries of its ruler, the Conzulate, but they are a long way from the capital city, Imperial Sanctum.  Khanum is a hierarchal society where one’s rank is of utmost importance.  Ana’s and Din’s loyalties will be tested, but this is also true for those whom they will question about Blas’s murder.

 

    Our two protagonists reminded me muchly of Arthur Conan Doyle’s heroes.  Din assumes the role of scribe, chronicling the events like Dr. Watson did for Sherlock Holmes.  Ana has some remarkable deductive talents, just like Sherlock, and uses some quirky habits, including most of the time interacting while blindfolded, to better “read” the tones and nuances of witnesses’ testimony.

 

    Din himself has some special talents as well.  He’s an “engraver”, which means he has eidetic memory, which in turn means he is the perfect set of eyes and ears to witness events and to “record and playback” testimony.  And unlike the usually clueless Dr. Watson, Din frequently injects biting sarcasm into his snappy remarks, even when conversing with his boss, Ana.

 

    The action starts immediately with Ana and Din arriving at the manor where the remains of Taqtasa Blas repose.  The servants there seem to be covering something up, but what?  From there the case quickly gets more complicated as additional bodies are found.  The worldbuilding overall is superb, with Robert Jackson Bennett deftly blending it into the storyline, yet somehow avoiding bogging things down with long descriptions.

 

    The ending is how I like them: tense and exciting, with lots of twists, yet quite logical.  All the murders are solved, and both Ana and Din reveal personal secrets to each other.  It is obvious that they are going to be a formidable investigative team for the Conzulate of Khanum.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 3,017 ratings and 463 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.69*/5, based on 22,048 ratings and 4,903 reviews.

 

Things That Sound Dirty, But Aren’t…

    “Pick a glass and stick it up your damn nose quick!”

 

Excerpts...

    The most remarkable feature of the room was the clutch of leafy trees growing in the center—for it was growing from within a person.

    Or rather, through a person.

    The corpse hung suspended in the center of the bedchamber, speared by the many slender trees, but as Otirios had said it was initially difficult to identify it as a body at all.  A bit of torso was visible in the thicket, and some of the left leg.  What I could see of them suggested a middle-aged man wearing the purple colors of the Imperial Engineering Iyalet.  The right arm was totally lost, and the right leg had been devoured by the swarm of roots pouring out from the trunks of the little trees and eating into the Stonewood floor of the chamber.

    I stared into the roots.  I thought I could identify the pinkish nub of a femur amid all those curling coils.  (pg. 9)

 

    “The number of people holding a grudge against the Hazas is beyond count.”

    “Might you also count among that company, ma’am?” I asked.

    She raised her eyebrows at me behind her blindfold.  “My, my.  That’s rather insolent of you, isn’t it?”

    “I would simply note, ma’am, that Vashta just referenced your old grudges with them.”

    “A rumor,” she said dismissively.

    “And you also once said of the Hazas—I wouldn’t mind seeing all their progeny rotting in the ground like a bunch of f**king dead dogs.  Which is, I feel, mostly how one talks of one’s enemies.”

    “Oh, yes, well,” she said, sighing.  “This is why people are so loath to talk before an engraver. . .They never forget a f**king thing you say!”  (pg. 241)

 

“What a tool cynicism is to the corrupt, claiming the whole of creation is broken and fraudulent, and thus we are all excused to indulge in whatever sins we wish.”  (pg. 286)

    There’s quite a bit of profanity – 22 instances in the first 10%, seven of which were f-bombs.  Later on, “localized” expletives were used—“by the Harvester” and “by the titan’s unholy taint”—which I always like.  I don’t recall any adult situations, but homophobes beware, a gay relationship is alluded to.

 

    I didn’t note any typos at all.  Kudos to the editors.

 

    For me, The Tainted Cup was a captivating first book in a series, with fantastic world-building, mystery-composing and witty interactions.  My only gripe is that the second book, A Drop of Corruption, won’t be released until next April.  I have very little patience when I’m forced to be patient.

 

    9½ Stars.  One last thing.  Here’s hoping that the next book’s cover includes a drawing of the main creature in this story, the leviathan.  It has a major impact on the storyline, periodically comes out of the sea, and wreaks havoc on the human coastal bulwarks, even when the humans are tipped off that it’s on its way.  Yet I don’t recall it ever being described. Is it a giant whale-like beast?  Inquiring minds want to know.

Unnatural Exposure - Patricia Cornwell

   1997; 367 pages.  New Author? : No.  Book #8 (out of 28) in the Kay Scarpetta series.  Genres : Serial Killer Thriller; Medical Thriller; Crime Fiction.  Overall Rating: 6*/10.

 

    It began as just a routine cadaver dismemberment case, a body unearthed at the local landfill.

 

    Well, okay, that wouldn’t seem very routine to you or me, but for Kay Scarpetta, the Chief Medical Examiner of Richmond, Virginia, it’s not her first mutilated corpse.

 

    Preliminary lab results offer only scant information.  The victim is female, and was old and emaciated.  A check of missing persons files doesn’t yield any likely matches.

 

    To make matters worse, Kay’s come down with some flu-like symptoms.  Probably picked it up while examining that corpse.  Oh well, she’ll take things easy the next couple days.  What’s the worst it can be?

 

    You’d be surprised, Kay.  Very, very surprised.

 

What’s To Like...

    Unnatural Exposure is my third read from Patricia Cornwell’s “Kay Scarpetta” medical thriller series.  Determining who the dismembered body belonged to is an important part of the storyline, but, as the book’s title indicates, this is more about a possible outbreak of a plague-like virus.  Is it deadly?  Where did it come from?  Do we take two aspirin and sweat it out, or are we all going to die?

 

    Being a chemist, I was fascinated by the lab scenes.  Yes, the analytical chemistry is medical in nature, but it was fun to watch Kay deduce things via laboratory procedures.  Being a medical examiner, Kay also has some knowledgeable and enlightening viewpoints about the details of Elvis’s death.

 

    The book was published in 1997 and it was fun to “relive” that era.  AOL is where you go to send an email.  One of the morgues is hoping to get an intranet computer system installed.  Cell phones are still in their infancy, so most people carry pagers.  A portable color scanner will cost you $500.  Zoom meetings don’t exist, but AOL chatrooms are a nice substitute.  And Kay’s first Virtual Reality experience was mindblowing.

 

     I enjoyed watching the bureaucratic (FBI, CDC, etc.) response to the *possibility* of a plague arising out of all this.  When you have only preliminary medical results, how do you balance prudent precautions with hysteria-inducing drastic measures?  Food for thought since the Covid virus still runs rampant in today’s world.

 

    The ending does tie up both the criminal plot thread (who put the corpse in the landfill) and the pathological one (where and why did the virus come from?).  It’s not particularly exciting, which is a plus for a medical thriller and a minus for a mystery tale.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.5*/5, based on 6,235 ratings and 461 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.07*/5, based on 61,231 ratings and 970 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Hinky (adj.) : nervous; jittery.

Others: Kerf (n.).

 

Excerpts...

    “I can’t believe this.”  I was only getting angrier.  “I have to release information to correct misinformation.  I can’t be put in this position, Marino.”

    “Don’t worry, I’m going to take care of this and a whole lot more,” he promised.  “I don’t guess you know.”

    “Know what?”

    “Rumor has it that Ring’s been seeing Patty Denver.”

    “I thought she was married,” I said as I envisioned her from a few moments earlier.

    “She is,” he said.  (pg. 68)

 

    “Ma’am, this flight is overbooked.  We simply don’t have room.”

    “Here,” I said, showing her the paperwork.

    Her eyes scanned the red-bordered Declaration For Dangerous Goods, and froze halfway down a column where it was typed that I was transporting “Infectious substances affecting humans.”  She glanced nervously around the kitchen and moved me closer to the rest rooms.

    “Regulations require that only a trained person can handle dangerous goods like these,” I reasonably explained.  “So it has to stay with me.”

    “What is it?” she whispered, her eyes round.

    “Autopsy specimens.”  (pg. 247)

 

“I think the public has a right to know if there’s a psycho in their midst.”  (pg. 97)

    There’s a moderate amount of profanity in Unnatural Exposure; I noted 14 instances in the first 10% of the book.  They are all of the “milder” variety, but a couple of f-bombs show up later, as well as a roll-in-the-hay.  I only noticed one typo: PH/pH, but this will only bother you if you’re a scientist.

 

    The text contains lots of references to past books and cases in this series.  Indeed, the tale starts with Kay in Dublin, Ireland, but it has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story.  To be fair though, this would not be bothersome if one is reading these books in chronological order.

 

    The book spends way too much time concentrating of Kay self-examining her life choices and having sharp words with anybody else foolish enough to render an opinion or offer advice to her on that.

 

    And as mentioned above, the ending is anticlimactic.  The key break in the landfill cadaver mystery felt arbitrary, and the whole rationale for the infectious assault seemed hard to believe.  For maximum enjoyment, it's probably best to ignore the crime-solving aspect, and just focus on the plague-stopping aspect.

 

    So read the books in this series in order, don’t try to solve the crime before Kay does, and for pete’s sake don’t try to tell Kay how to live her personal life.  The result will be an pleasant read and you’ll end up saying, “Well, at least it wasn’t Covid!”

 

    6 Stars.  One last thing.  Kay makes a business trip to Memphis, and checks in at the Peabody Hotel.  I’ve stayed there.  The book’s assertion that ducks are privileged guests there is completely accurate.  They even stage a daily “duck parade” there, during the noon hour IIRC.  If you’re ever in Memphis, be sure to check this out.

Mythology 101 - Jody Lynn Nye

   2014; 317 pages.  Book 1 (out of 4) in the “Mythology” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Humorous Fantasy; College Life; YA.  Overall Rating : 6*/10.

 

    Midwestern University only has enough money to do one upgrade: a new library or a new Phys. Ed building, and the Student Council gets to choose which one!

 

    For academically-inclined Keith Doyle, a member of the council, the choice is easy.  Renovate the library.  After all, the reason people go to college is to get an education, not to exercise.  Needless to say, there are a bunch of athletically-inclined students who feel otherwise.  But Keith is pretty sure his side has the votes for an upgrade of old Gillington library.

 

    One thing does surprise him – the stance of his dormmate Carl.  Carl’s not here on an athletic scholarship so why’s he campaigning so strongly for the new gymnasium option?

 

    Even more strange, Carl’s making it sound like the vote’s a matter of life and death.

 

What’s To Like...

    The book’s cover gives you a good idea of what the situation is in Mythology 101.  Gillington Library’s problem is not bats in the belfry; it’s elves in the basement.  They’ve been there for a long time (by Big Folk standards), and via a lot of stealth and magic, they’ve remained undetected.  A few of the human students are aware of them, though, and Keith soon becomes of those.

 

    Renovating will doubtless lead to the discovery of the Little Folk, and the main plotline of Mythology 101 is Keith pondering what he can do about that.  Other plot threads include Keith presently flunking his Sociology class, and in desperate need of some tutoring.  To boot, he’s residing in a men’s dormitory, which means dealing with other male egos, occasionally having his dorm room trashed, and almost zero social contact with female students.

 

    Indeed, the “feel” to college life here rang true.  I spent two years in dorms in my college career, and Keith’s issues brought back old memories.  I liked the setting of Midwestern University, it's located somewhere in Illinois, and I suspect Jody Lynn Nye used Northwestern University as her model for Midwestern.  Dorm life involves getting along with RA’s (“Resident Advisers”), eating very blah food in the cafeteria, and trying to not flunk out of school.

 

    The resolution of the elves-in-the-basement was logical and straightforward.  I wouldn’t call it twisty, but have to admit Keith’s solution to the problem was not what I was expecting.  Book Two, Mythology Abroad, awaits me on my Kindle.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.2*/5, based on 915 ratings and 206 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.76*/5, based on 1,097 ratings and 101 reviews.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Geas (n.) : an obligation or prohibition magically imposed on someone (Irish folklore).

 

Excerpts...

    “I wouldn’t call a C a failure,” Keith said, jumping forward to open the door for her and following her out into the brisk October air.  Leaves swirled away from their feet as they dashed across the narrow streets toward McInroe Hall.  “I’m a B man myself.  I do get A’s but I don’t expect 'em.  If you’re not in the front line you don’t get shot as often.”  (pg. 9)

 

    “So what’s wrong with using nails?”  Not that he could see any in the construction.

    “They rust.  They bend.  Also, we tend to be a wee bit sensitive to having too much metal around.”

    “I heard that cold iron dispels magic,” Keith said teasingly.  “Maybe that’s why you don’t use it.”

    “And maybe the effect is more like heavy metal poisoning, Keith Doyle.  Call it an allergy.  Don’t look for foolish explanations unless no others suffice.  There’s plenty of common sense to go around.  Even you could find some.”

    “I believe in magic,” Keith said softly.  (pg. 81)

 

Kindle Details…

    Mythology 101 sells for $7.99 right now at Amazon, as do the other three books in the series.  Jody Lynn Nye has several other Fantasy e-book series for your reading pleasure, most of which are priced at $6.99 per e-book.  She has collaborated with an impressive list of fellow authors, including Robert Asprin and Anne McCaffrey.

 

“The trouble with you is that you have a basically honest heart.”  (pg. 86)

    The cussing is very light: just seven instances in the first 20%, none of which were f-bombs.  There is a hint of Romance, but no adult situations, the norm for males living in dorms.  It will be interesting to see how Keith’s love life plays out in subsequent books.

 

    There were a couple of typos – stationary/stationery, Crazy/crazy, and lighting/lightning – but not enough to be distracting.

 

    The bigger issue for me was the storytelling.  It’s hard to imagine a tale with elves intermixing with college students being boring and slow-paced, but that’s what happened.  The negative reviews at Amazon and Goodreads show that others felt the same way and you’d think when you have elven magic at your disposal, tying up the various plot threads would be exciting.  It wasn’t.

 

    But things are looking up.  The ratings for the books in this series are:

Book 1 (Mythology 101): Amazon 4.2; Goodreads 3.76.

Book 2 (Mythology Abroad): Amazon 4.6; Goodreads 4.02.

Book 3 (Higher Mythology): Amazon 4.5; Goodreads 4.04.

Book 4 (Advanced Mythology): Amazon 4.7; Goodreads 4.22.

 

    Methinks this series is going to get better as I work my way through it.

 

    6 Stars.  One last thing.  Pennsylvania Dutch Hex Symbols get mentioned twice in Mythology 101.  I was born and raised in that area.  It’s good to see our hex signs are still remembered.

The Bone Witch - Rin Chupeco

   2017; 412 pages.  Book 1 (out of 3) in the “Bone Witch” series.  New Author? : Yes.  Genres : Paranormal Fantasy; Teen & Young Adult, Coming-of-Age.   Overall Rating: 8/10.

 

    It was undoubtedly the saddest day so far in Tea’s brief life.  She and her family had to watch as the casket containing her older brother, Fox, was solemnly lowered into the ground.  He died while serving in the kingdom’s army.  “By creatures unknown” the general said.  Most likely he was attacked by one of those ferocious daeva beasts.

 

    It isn’t fair, Tea thought, he isn’t really dead.  She broke away from the group of mourners and ran toward the grave.  Suddenly a fiery symbol appeared in the air in front of her, and she felt the compulsion to trace it with her finger, again and again.

 

    Then the ground trembled, splintering was heard, and a cold, gray hand pushed up from the grave into the air.  Tea can summon up the dead, which means her magic is that of a bone witch, a perilous and often feared vocation.

 

    So not only is this the saddest day of your life, Tea.  It’ll probably be your worst day as well.

 

What’s To Like...

    Let me be clear, I never intended to raise my brother from his grave, though he may claim otherwise.

 

    Is that a fantastic opening line for a book, or what!  The Bone Witch is the first book in Rin Chupeco’s dark fantasy Bone Witch trilogy.  The series is set in a place called “The Eight Kingdoms” which are situated throughout a group of islands, and whose rulers spend most of their time fighting either the evil “Faceless Ones” or amongst themselves.

 

    I loved the worldbuilding.  The use of magic is common, and wielded mostly, but not solely, in the hands of women, who are called “asha”.  Rulers of the Eight Kingdoms are just as likely to be females as males.  People wear something called “heartglasses” around their necks, glass medallions that change color depending on their wearer's mood, veracity, and/or the type of magic they can command.  Girls who show spellcasting potential enter schools in their teenage years and besides magic, are taught things like history, dancing, singing and fighting.

 

    The tale is written in the first-person POV, Tea’s.  31 chapters cover 412 pages, with short interludes chronicling a second, more recent, storyline in between each chapter.  More on that in a bit.  For the most part, we follow the lives of Tea as she trains to be a full-fledged bone witch.  The Eight Kingdoms are running rather short of them.  Fox's new lease on undeath is also a major plotline, as he takes on the role of Protector of his sister.

 

    Some thrills-and-spills arise along the way, but mainly this is a character-driven, coming-of-age account.  Tea struggles with her studies, Fox struggles with his undeadness, rulers struggle to keep their kingdoms in existence, and asha struggle to not get killed by beasts, swords, or sorcery.

 

    The ending is good, with a couple neat twists, and a tense battle featuring both spells and brawn.  Sometimes might accomplishes what magic fails at doing.  The story stops at a logical place, and sets up, I presume, the next book in the series.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Bezoar (n.) : a small, stony concretion that may form in the stomachs of certain animals, especially ruminants.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 3,433 ratings and 554 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.69*/5, based on 44,739 ratings and 7,063 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Parmina?”  It wasn’t a voice; it was a roar that could have rattled glass, though none of the people running around so much as blinked.  The largest and hairiest man I had ever seen in my life stepped into view.  He was so tall that the top of his hair grazed the ceiling, and his arms looked as if a brown bear had mated with the fuzziest carpet in the land and produced twins.  I could barely see his face, for his beard started somewhere near his eyebrows and ended at a carefully trimmed point several inches away from his chin, at the center of his chest.  (pg. 128)

 

    “Are you sure about this?” she asked me in a softer whisper as the other Deathseekers began making their preparations.  “We’re treading in unknown territory, and I’d hate to die on a ‘maybe.’”

    “The runes may not work, but I can still sense it.  And I was able to control it to some extent back in Ankyo.”

    “I hope you know what you’re doing,” Zoya said from behind us.

    “As I recall, you insisted on coming,” Polaire pointed out.

    “It’s never too late to regret things.”  (pg. 367)

 

“You think in the same way men drink, Tea, . . . far too much—under the delusion it is too little.”  (pg. 2)

    I only recall one cussword in the entire book, which fully justifies Amazon labelling it as a YA book.  There are no “adult situations” either, although I suspect there is some Romance headed Tea’s way.

 

    Rin Chupeco incorporates a lot of made-up words (such as asha) into the text, and defines each one the first time it is used.  I thought it really helped make the fantasy setting feel “real”.  There’s a map of the Eight Kingdoms at the start of the book, and brief descriptions of each realm in the back.  But it would’ve been nice to also have a Glossary back there for easy reference as to the invented vocabulary.

 

    One character displays transgender traits.  I felt this was a nice, daring touch by the author.  It was deftly done, and I’m hoping that person will have a recurring role in the saga.  But homophobes should probably avoid this series.

 

    Overall, I enjoyed The Bone Witch.  Character-driven plotlines are usually not my cup of Tea (pun intended, and the protagonist's name is pronounced differently), but here there was enough magic, fighting, and fascinating beasts and characters to keep me turning the pages.  Now that Tea is a fully-accredited asha, (Which isn't a spoiler.  You knew that would happen.) I’m looking for some serious butt-kicking and spellcasting to show up in the sequel, The Heart Forger.  Rin Chupeco has written several other intriguing fantasy series that I'm eager to get acquainted with. 

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  Deities play a very small part in this tale.  Three of them, Dancing Wind, Blade That Soars, and Great World Spirit, are mentioned, but have virtually zero impact on the goings-on.  It will be interesting to see how this aspect plays out as the series progresses.

Graves' End - Sean Patrick Traver

   2012; 353 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Full Title: Graves’ End: A Magical Thriller.  Genres: Paranormal Fantasy; Thriller; Pulp Fiction.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    They make for an odd trio.  Tomas Delgado, aka “Black Tom” is a former necromancer.  Nowadays his specialty is entering as a spirit into cats of all sizes, from alley cat to panther.

 

    Lia is a child of the streets.  She picks locks and scrounges dumpsters for food and shelter.  She’s going to learn how to be a witch, with Black Tom as her mentor.

 

    Dexter Graves is a Hollywood detective.  Or more accurately, was one.  Sixty years ago, someone put a bullet through his skull.  He’s been dead and buried since then.  Until now.

 

    Their paths have crossed, and somebody’s noticed.  Mictlantecuhtli.  Aztec king of the Dead.  That name’s a doozy, so let’s call him Mickey Hardface.  He’s sending some of his cohorts their way.

 

    It won’t be a social call.

 

What’s To Like...

    Graves’ End is set in the greater northern Los Angeles area, primarily in the San Fernando and Hollywood neighborhoods.  That resonated with me, since I lived close to there for three summers many years ago.  The story's world is slightly paranormal.  You may encounter skeletons, witches, crouchers, archons, or a tzitzimime or two, but only on rare occasions.  And of course, there’s at least one ancient Aztec deity running around.

 

    The “present day” storyline takes place over a Halloween holiday weekend, starting on Halloween night, then on into All Saints’ Day, All Souls’ Day, and the all-important Dia de los Muertos.  There are also flashbacks to 1910, 1950, and 2000 CE, plus a brief stop in 1949 in the Epilogue.

 

    I loved the character-building.  Lia, Tom, and Dex are as diverse as a trio of protagonists can be.  The secondary characters and Mickey’s minions all have their own personality, and even the God of the Dead Himself has some redeeming qualities.

 

    You’ll learn a bunch of Spanish slang, including one or two a cuss-phrases, the oft-used “brujachica”, and the ultra-colloquial “esé”. The party-dance was way-cool, and I liked the artistic nods to Tolkien and Jackson Pollock.  I chuckled at the way palindromes and the value “pi” got worked into the storyline.

 

    The ending was suitably exciting, twisty, and heartwarming.  The climactic fight scene was appropriately epic.  Not everyone lives to fright another day (pun intended), yet all the plotlines get tied up and a new day dawns for the world outside.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Entoptic (adj.) : (of visual images) occurring or originating inside the eye.

Others: Melanistic (adj.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.3*/5, based on 107 ratings and 65 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.74*/5, based on 186 ratings and 25 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Graves looked down at his own fleshless phalanges.  “I keep forgettin’ I’m not as pretty as I used to be,” he said quietly, by way of apology.

    Lia felt guilty enough about her discourtesy to a guest that she began to protest automatically, in spite of her genuine consternation.  “No, no, it isn’t that,” she said, groping for words even though she wasn’t sure what she meant to say.  The man was a walking cadaver, after all, and Miss Manners was sure to be silent on subjects like these.  No index entry for ‘undeadiquette’,’ Lia would’ve wagered.  (pg. 84).

 

    There was nowhere left for him to go.  He held up his hands to fend them off, and he got them to pause before pouncing on him, which Lia found surprising.

    “Whoa, now—” he said.  Who the hell are you two?  What happened to those other ones, Hannah and Miss Lia?”

    “You will call me Lady Night,” the nightsky outline told him.  She indicated her static-filled friend, who was standing there beside her.  “This, my sister-daughter, is Lady Madness.”

    “Sister-daughter, huh?  That must make for some weird Thanksgivings.”  (pg. 122)

 

Kindle Details…

    Graves’ End costs $2.99 at Amazon right now.  A sequel, Red Witch: The Tales of Ingrid Redstone, which I gather is actually three novellas (364 pages total), is available for $2.99 as well.  Sean Patrick Traver offers three other novellas, unrelated to this setting, one for $2.99, the other two for $0.99 apiece.

 

 “After dark, all cats are leopards.”  (pg. 293)

    The profanity in Graves’ End wasn’t excessive—I counted just 12 instances in the first 10% of the e-book, albeit two of those were f-bombs.  The smidgens of Spanish profanity came later on in the story, and at one point there’s a brief reference to a “bag of mota” which brought back memories.  I don’t recall any "adult situations".

 

    At least one reviewer was turned off by the author’s use of “big” words (such as the two listed above) and sometimes “made-up” ones (such as “nightsky” used in the second excerpt).  I noticed that too, but I thought it worked rather well.  Other reviewers thought there weren't action scenes and thrills in the early going.  Maybe so, but I thought all the aim of the storytelling was for the reader to follow the characters around in their befuddlement, trying to figure out what the heck is going on, and which gets revealed nicely in the ending.

 

    Sean Patrick Traver calls Graves’ End a Magical Thriller; Amazon calls it Paranormal & Urban Fantasy, and I’d label it Pulp Fiction.  All are equally valid.  The book kept my interest from beginning to end, and that’s what matters.  Plus I loved the attention given to Mesoamerican mythology throughout the tale.

 

    8 Stars.  One last thing.  In the “Retrospective #2” section, Sean Patrick Traver gives a vivid description of the early beginnings of Los Angeles.  I was absolutely blown away by the “feel” of his research.  Maybe someday he’ll write a full-length novel set in that place and time-period.