A Dragon, A Gargoyle, and A Faery Walk into a Pub - Lisa Barry & Nicole Dragonbeck

    2024; 299 pages.  Book 1 (out of 4) in the “Dragon and Gargoyle” series.  New Author(s)? : Yes and Yes.  Genres : Adventure Fantasy; Dragons & Mythical Creatures Fantasy; Witches.  Overall Rating: 6*/10.

 

    Meet Detective Aiden Moss.  Director Warren is mighty proud to have him on the Dublin, Ireland police force.  Moss always obeys department rules and regulations.  He loves to write up reports.  He happens to also be a dragon.

 

    Meet Aiden’s partner, Detective Torloch “Loch” Doyle.  He has a short temper and a sharp tongue.  Director Warren frequently has to write him up for breaking department rules and regulations.  He hates to write up reports.  He happens to also be a gargoyle.

 

    You might wonder how well these two dissimilar agents get along with each other.  They have their moments of mutual irritation, but they’ve made things work.  For several centuries.  It helps that they have a mutual source of annoyance.

 

    Meet Rudy.  He's a youthful faerie blessed with the magical gift of being able to materialize out of thin air.  Much to the mutual annoyance of Moss and Doyle.

 

What’s To Like...

    If you like your fantasy novels to have a bountiful selection of magical creatures, you’re going to love A Dragon, A Gargoyle, and A Faery Walk into a Pub.  Besides the three mentioned in the title, you’ll crosspaths with leprechauns, harpies, vampires, minotaurs, witches, sirens, something called a púca, and a bunch more.  There’s even a crossword puzzle-loving ogre.

 

    The storyline starts out straightforward.  There’s a new drug in town which has mind-numbing side effects.  Literally.  Victims of the drug smell of magic (well, actually of coriander) and our heroes are charged with tracking down its source.  Things quickly get a lot more complicated with powerful forces determined to thwart the efforts of our detective duo, no matter what.

 

    The use of profanity is refreshingly sparse; I only noted 8 instances in the first third of the book.  In most cases where a cussword is called for, a “milder variant” was used, including shite, feck, arse, bollox, and biatch, and as such, I didn't count those as cussing.  I thought this was a great innovation, which could be used by any authors writing lighthearted stories.

 

    The tale is told in the third-person POV, alternating between Aiden and Loch, with one exception.  That might sound confusing, but I thought it worked quite well here.  The world-building and character development were both done well, and the pacing was brisk, without any slow spots in the storytelling.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Púca (n.) : a mischievous spirit, often depicted as a shape-shifting creature.

Others: Skeevy; (adj.); Craic (adj.).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.3*/5, based on 84 ratings and 10 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.13*/5, based on 82 ratings and 11 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Our clothes were stolen.”

    Claudine looked at them in shock.  “Stolen?”

    “Yep.  One minute they were there, when we came back they were gone,” Torloch shrugged, then smirked “I guess someone wanted a free show.”

    Claudine did not appear amused.  “Guys, that’s bad.  Really, really bad.”

    “Why?  Torloch looked confused.  “It’s just a pair of jeans.”

    “Intimate items—items that have touched your skin—can be used in spells.  Tracking spells, binding spells, concealing spells,” Claudine counted them off on her fingers.  “Love spells.”

    “That last one doesn’t sound too bad,” Torloch said.  (loc. 1193)

 

    “If any of this turns out to be intentionally misleading, we’ll come back and find you,” Torloch said as he skimmed the names.  “And if you aren’t here, we’ll hunt you down, and drag you by the ears out of whatever hole you’re hiding in.”

    “What my partner means to say is thank you for your assistance, we’ll be in touch if we need anything further,” Aiden said, grabbing the gargoyle’s arm and wheeling him away.

    “No, his partner didn’t mean to say any of that,” Torloch protested.  “Don’t put words in my mouth.”

    “I have to put words in your mouth, otherwise there’s too much room for your feet,” Aiden muttered back as they made their way to the door.  (loc. 1632)

 

Kindle Details…

    A Dragon, A Gargoyle, and A Faery Walk into a Pub sells for $4.99 right now at Amazon, as do the other three books in the series.  There are also several “holiday-themed” novellas related to, but not part of this series, all in the $0.99-$2.99 price range, plus one full-length Halloween-themed entry for $4.99.

 

“You do realize going to a pub and going to a pub to work are two very different things?”  (loc. 187)

    There a couple of things to quibble about.  First of all, typos abound.  A lot of them were punctuation slip-ups, plus things like diving/divining and this/his.  I was perplexed by several spelling inconsistencies, such as malarky/malarkey, fairie/faery, and Brennan/McBrennan.  These all fell into the “either way is correct category; but not both ways”.  Perhaps this is an inherent drawback of multiple authors, although good editing should catch these.

 

    The biggest issue was a ploy used in the ending, which I've never run into before.  There’s a whole chapter missing; and it’s the all-important climactic one.  At first I thought it was my faulty memory, from reading too late at night and all that.  Then I thought that somehow the printers and/or the conversion formatting process had waylaid it.

 

    But no, in the extras at the end of the book, an offer is made: “Want to know what really happened when Aiden torched the pub?  Click here to get the bonus chapter and jump onto our email list!”  Really?!

    I thought that closing with a cliffhanger ending was as low as one could get.  I stand corrected.

 

    6 Stars.  One last thing.  At one point a Latin phrase “in sanguine, vires et veritas” pops up.  The translation for it is: “strength and truth are in the blood”.  I suck at Latin.  Thank goodness for Google.

Foundation and Empire - Isaac Asimov

   1951; 255 pages.  Book 2 (out of 7) in the “Foundation” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres: Classic Science Fiction; Colonization Sci-Fi.  Overall Rating: 7*/10.

 

    It’s all happening according to plan, just like Hari Seldon said it would.  The Galactic Empire is now a shadow of its universe-encompassing past, and the Foundation, originally a bunch of exiled thinkers, is on the upswing.

 

    General Bel Riose of the Galactic Empire and military governor of Siwenna faces an important decision: Fight or Flight.  If Seldon’s “psychohistory” calculations hold true—and so far they always have—to fight the Foundation will surely end in disaster for the Empire.

 

    By the same token, for Bayta and Toran, supporters of the Foundation, the chances of success are much greater.  True, as individuals, they could die in combat.  Seldon’s predictions apply to galactic powers, not to the individuals thereof.  Still, it’s nice to be confident you’d be on the winning side.

 

    But what if something new arises, something which the psychohistory calculations could not have factored in?  Something that could finally cause an error in Hari Seldon’s perfect predicting record?

 

    Oh, come on.  What are the odds of that happening?

 

What’s To Like...

    Foundation and Empire was published in 1952, but it’s actually a combination of two novellas which first appeared in a magazine called Astounding Science Fiction way back in 1945.  Most sci-fi authors had only one way of getting published back then: write episodic tales short enough to be sold to some sci-fi magazine publisher.  This needs to be kept in mind when reading any Science Fiction work from prior to the 1960s.

 

    The two parts of Foundation and Empire are set in the same areas of the Galaxy, but at different time periods, and with different sets of characters.  The first part, The General, focuses on the aforementioned Bel Riose and his Foundation opponents, and is roughly one-third of the book.  The second part is titled The Mule, and focuses on an upstart stranger who is does not ally himself with either The Galactic Empire or The Foundation, much to the annoyance of both.

 

    Isaac Asimov comes up with lots of fascinating places for our adventurers to visit.  Seven worlds are featured, the most interesting being “Trantor”, the former home planet of the Galactic Empire, now reduced to desolation and replaced by a nearby orb called “Neotrantor”.  Asimov invents some nifty gadgets as well, including a “Time Vault” which allows Hari Seldon to speak from beyond the grave, and a “Visi-Sonor”, which—well, to give details would be a spoiler.  Let’s just say I need to get me one of those.

 

    The main “mystery” in Foundation and Empire, for both the reader and most of the characters, is discovering the whereabouts and the identity of The Mule.  The book’s ending resolves this adequately via an exciting plot twist which I had considered previously, then discarded.  Things close at a logical point, but I wouldn’t consider this to be a standalone story.  The resolution of the conflict between The Foundation and The Empire is not resolved, nor is the role that The Mule will play in it.  I presume this is addressed in Book 3, Second Foundation, which fortunately sits on my TBR shelf.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 13,400 ratings and 493 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.22/5 based on 217,316 ratings and 5,846 reviews

 

Excerpts...

    Mayor Indbur—successively the third of that name—was the grandson of the first Indbur, who had been brutal and capable; and who had exhibited the first quality in spectacular fashion by his manner of seizing power, and the latter by the skill with which he put an end to the last farcical remnants of free election and the even greater skill with which he maintained a relatively peaceful rule.

    Mayor Indbur was also the son of the second Indbur, who was the first Mayor of the Foundation to succeed to his post by right of birth—and who was only half his father, for he was merely brutal.

    So Mayor Indbur was the third of the name and the second to succeed by right of birth, and he was the least of the three, for he was neither brutal nor capable—but merely an excellent bookkeeper born wrong.  (pg. 119)

 

    “We came right through the war-zone to get here—on purpose.  We traveled about a light-minute or so, in neutral, right past Horleggor—”

    “Horleggor?” broke in a long-legged native, who was playing host to that particular gathering.  “That’s where the Mule got the guts beat out of him last week, wasn’t it?”

    “Where’d you hear that the Mule got the guts beat out of him?” demanded the pilot, loftily.

    “Foundation radio.”

    “Yeah?  Well, the Mule’s got Horleggor.  We almost ran into a convoy of his ships, and that’s where they were coming from.  It isn’t a gut-beating when you stay where you fought, and the gut-beater leaves in a hurry.”  (pg. 162)

 

“So far there’s been more drinking than thinking, and more wooing than doing.”  (pg. 169)

    There is zero cussing in Foundation and Empire which was the norm for science fiction written in the 1940s.  When situations arise where profanity is called for, Asimov comes up with some innovative euphemisms, such as “unprintable” (as in “my unprintable eye”) and “Bescuppered” (as in “Bescuppered if I know”).

 

    There are no “adult situations” as well, but keep in mind, in the 1940s, there were no adult situations in books of any genre.

 

    My big problem with Foundation and Empire is the storytelling style.  There are almost zero firsthand thrills-&-spills to read about.  It’s not a matter of “telling vs. showing”, it’s a matter of “action versus talking about it”.  Even when epic space battles occur, the reader only finds out about it when somebody later relays the news to somebody else.

 

    Still, this is the way sci-fi was written eighty years ago.  I was aware of that when I started reading this series.  For me, Foundation and Empire was an entertaining read, but mostly as a benchmark for appreciating just how far the Science Fiction genre has evolved since then.

 

    7 Stars.  One last thing.  On page 68, the subject of "Transmutation of Elements" comes up.  Specifically, a process for turning Iridium into Iron is discussed.  It would be great if this were even theoretically feasible, but it isn’t.  Trust me, I'm a chemist.

Pineapple Grenade - Tim Dorsey

     2012; 552 pages.  Book 15 (out of 26) in the Serge Storms series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Florida Crime Noir; Dark Comedy; Stoner Humor; Beach Read.  Overall Rating : 9*/10.

 

    Serge Storms.  What a fine, upstanding citizen!  Right now, he’s concerned about carjackings and their effect on tourism in Florida, so he and his stoner buddy Coleman are patrolling the roads around Miami airport, looking for cars that are pulling over other cars with evil intent.  So patriotic!

 

    Serge Storms.  Also wants to become a spy, even though he has no training or experience.  He’s testing out an intriguing way to get hired as one, though.  Just hang out around the various Latin America consulates in Miami acting suspicious, until someone notices him and offers to hire him to do espionage for them.  Ingenious!

 

    Serge Storms.  A firm believer in vigilante justice, something he has lots of experience in.  Well okay.  Nobody said Serge was perfect.

 

What’s To Like...

   Pineapple Grenade is the fifteenth book in Tim Dorsey’s Serge Storms series.  For the most part, it is set in the greater Miami, Florida area, with a couple of scene shifts to the fictitious Latin American country of Costa Gorda (Spanish for “Fat Coast”) and one visit to the Everglades.

 

    Serge’s “I’m a spy; hire me!” plans work even better than he expects.  Various security agencies are on extra-vigilant alert, due to an imminent influx of foreign heads-of-state into Miami for an upcoming “Summit of the Americas”.  Serge’s suspicious loiterings are quickly noted, and countermeasures are duly taken, not all of which would be to Serge’s good fortune.  Mayhem and mystery ensue.

 

     There’s a nice bunch of characters to meet and greet, some recurring, others new.  Coleman’s excessive drug and alcohol consumption actually aids Serge (and the reader) to figure out what’s going on, although the correct interpretation of those clues is a challenge.  It was fun to make the acquaintance of newcomers Felicia Carmen and Ted Savage, and I was elated to see Johnny Vegas, aka “The Accidental Virgin”, back for a brief appearance.

 

    As always, Tim Dorsey weaves an abundance of fascinating Florida history, geography, and culture into the storyline, including something called the Metrozoo seemed a bit far-fetched, but which really exists.  Trivia about the erstwhile TV series Miami Vice also pops up, as well as insight into Florida pro wrestling techniques.  Diprivan, the drug that killed Michael Jackson, gets some ink, and I learned that TEC-9 is a machine-gun.  Jeez, I thought that last one was a rap group, which reminds me: it was a treat to be in the audience when Serge does a rap routine.

 

    The ending is excellent: exciting, twisty, and both logical and unforeseen by both Serge and myself.  Both good guys and baddies suffer losses, one of which left a lump in my throat.  And for those readers who keep track of such things (which includes me), Serge’s “Vigilante Execution Count” for Pineapple Grenade is five, all of which are performed in new and imaginative ways.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.5/5 based on 830 ratings and 203 reviews..

    Goodreads: 3.99/5 based on 2,531 ratings and 221 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Let us out here.”

    “But we’re still a few blocks from your stop,” said the driver.

    “I like to take in the neighborhood on approach.  Here’s another ten.”

    “It’s your funeral.”  The cab screeched off.

    Coleman looked around an arid landscape of sunken-eyed scavengers milling outside barricaded buildings.  He clung to the nearest arm: “Serge, that guy coming toward us on the sidewalk is swinging a giant machete.”

    “Are other people around?”

    “Yes, lots.”

    “Does it seem unusual to them?”

    “No.”

    “Then it shouldn’t to us.”  (pg. 274)

 

    They started across the street.  Three men approached them from the opposite curb.  White face make-up, black-and-white striped shirts, and red berets.  The trio tipped their caps in recognition as they passed Serge.

    “You know those guys?” asked Coleman.

    “Serge nodded.  “You heard of the Guardian Angels?”

    “Yeah, vigilante group that protects people.”

    “Those three guys are from Tampa.  They started their own group, the Guardian Mimes.”  (pg. 330)

 

 

Kindle Details…

    Pineapple Grenade currently sells for $13.99 at Amazon.  The rest of the books in the series range in price from $1.99 to $14.99.  Generally, the newer the book, the higher the price.

 

Escobar was short, soft, and plump, but made up for it by being stupid and pushy about it. (pg. 188)

    There’s not much to nitpick about in Pineapple Grenade.  I counted 16 instances of profanity in the first 10% of the book, five of which were f-bombs.   Later on, there was a get-together for the use of cocaine, and there are four rolls-in-the-hay, including one involving “dendrophilia”.  See below for another “-philia” mentioned by Serge.  This is not a cozy mystery.

 

    There were only a couple of typos, two of which made me chuckle.  One was naplam/napalm; the other was a hyphenation of the word “restroom”, which, presumably via the conversion program, was split up into “re-“ and “-stroom”.  Wow.

 

    The title reference occurs at 31%-Kindle.  It doesn’t have much significance in the storyline, but hey, it serves well as a catchy book title.

 

    Overall, I thought Pineapple Grenade was a great read.  The pacing was quick; the dialogue was witty; the thrills-&-spills were plentiful; Serge’s mini-lectures were informative; and the ending was the best I’ve read in months.  I highly recommend it when you’re in the mood for an exciting beach read.

 

    9 Stars.  One last thing.  At 59%-Kindle, Serge mentions something called “ursusagalmatophilia”.  I thought for sure this was a bit of Tim Dorsey's imaginative wit, but found out it's real.  Google it.  You will be amazed.

The Lost Continent - Bill Bryson

   1989; 299 pages.  Full Title: The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Travel Memoir; Americana; Anecdotal Humor; Non-Fiction.  Overall Rating: 8½*/10.

 

    A little bit about the author, Bill Bryson, mostly courtesy of Wikipedia.

 

    He was born in 1957 in Des Moines, Iowa, and grew up there.  In 1973 he visited Britain, then opted to stay there.  He married, moved back to Iowa in 1973 to get his college degree, then moved again to Britain in 1977.

 

    His father, Bill Bryson Sr., died in 1986.  Shortly thereafter, Bill Jr. journeyed back to the US and made two long sightseeing trips, mostly by car, to the less touristy places in America.  The first one was in the fall of 1987; the second in the spring of 1988.

 

    This book chronicles those journeys, blending in a healthy dose of memories about his dad, along with the author’s trademark style of wry humor.

 

    Wikipedia notes that The Lost Continent was Bryson’s first travel book.

 

What’s To Like...

    Bill Bryson divides up the two legs of his odyssey into 28 chapters.  The first trip is to the East, and takes 34 days, 6,842 miles, and 19 chapters.  The second phase covers 7,136 miles (total: 13,978 miles) but only 9 chapters; Bryson discovers that things are farther apart in the West.  By the end, he’s traveled through 38 of the 48 contiguous United States.

 

    For the most part, he adheres to the subtitle’s goal of visiting small towns, but he occasionally hits the large cities as well, including Washington D.C., Philadelphia, New York City, and Las Vegas, where his slot machine luck was spookily similar to mine the one and only time I played the slots there.

 

    There’s no Table of Contents in my paperback version, but there is a 13-page Index in the back which lists, among other things, all the small towns mentioned in the book.  In addition to the author’s personal impressions of each stop, the text is full of fascinating touristy and historical tidbits concerning those places.

 

    It was fun to compare my experiences with Bryson’s in places we’ve both been to.  He bemoans Boston’s freeway system; I almost had a head-on collision doing that once.  He was wowed by the colonial attire in Williamsburg, Virginia; so was I.  He cringed while driving through the ghetto area of Philadelphia; I did likewise.  He had a blast in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Yellowstone National Park; so did I.

 

    The book is a trivia lovers delight.  You’ll learn the proper way to pronounce “Cairo”, the city in Illinois, not Egypt.  The Melungeons in Appalachia will mystify you.  You’ll visit Mark Twain’s home in Hannibal, Missouri, and nearly plummet to your death off a “scenic road” in Colorado.  You’ll delight in eating at a genuine Pennsylvania Dutch restaurant, although Bryson doesn’t give its location. (Hey, I was born and raised in that part of the country.)  And that's just a small percentage of Americana highlights you'll read about in The Lost Continent.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Apposite (adj.) : apt in the circumstances, or in relation to something.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.0*/5, based on 5,152 ratings and 879 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.81*/5, based on 63,169 ratings and 3,597 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    The most splendid thing about the Amish is the names they give their towns.  Everywhere else in America towns are named after either the first white person to get there or the last Indian to leave.  But the Amish obviously gave the matter of town names some thought and graced their communities with intriguing, not to say provocative, appellations: Blue Ball, Bird in Hand, and Intercourse, to name but three.  Intercourse makes a good living by attracting passersby such as me who think it is the height of hilarity to send their friends and colleagues postcards with an Intercourse postmark and some droll sentiment scribbled on the back.  (pg. 135)

 

    People in the West like to shoot things.  When they first got to the West they shot buffalo.  (. . .)

    Many people will tell you that you mustn’t call them buffalo, that they are really bison.  Buffalo, these people will tell you, actually live in China or some other distant country and are a different breed of animal altogether.  These are the same people who tell you that you must call geraniums pelargoniums.  Ignore them.  (pg. 214)

 

“Hah doo lack Miss Hippy?”  (pg. 58)

    The profanity level in The Lost Continent is higher than what you’d expect in a travelogue, although I wouldn’t call it excessive.  There were eleven instances in the first 20% of the book, including a couple of f-bombs.  I don’t recall any “adult situations”, although some of the author’s comments on female physiques might be viewed as misogynistic by today’s standards.

 

    Some reviewers were turned off by Bill Bryson’s negative and/or snarky opinions of a portion of the little towns he visited.  They have a point, but I imagine it’s difficult not to become a bit jaded if you drive to, and walk through, dozens upon dozens of tourist traps like Bryson does.  After a while, all of the gift shops look the same.

 

    Other reviewers weren’t thrilled with Bryson’s writing style, which is folksy and often goes off on irrelevant tangents.  Again, they have a point, but this is an early Bryson effort.  It's the ninth book of his I’ve read, and I can say that with time, his technique becomes more refined, without losing its edginess we devoted readers all expect and look forward to.

 

    All in all, I enjoyed The Lost Continent, especially since it brought back childhood memories of family vacations where we rode around in station wagons, slept in tents, and cooked our own meals.  We got our cheap thrills by doing things like feeding the black bears on the roads in the Great Smoky Mountains and walking around on the Gettysburg battlefield, two places that Bill Bryson also visited.  Those were good times.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last thing.  In walking through the touristy area of Gatlinburg, Tennessee, Bryson comes across a shop called the “Irlene Mandrell Hall of Stars Museum and Shopping Mall”.  Now there’s a name that I haven’t heard in a long while.

The Dark Deeps - Arthur Slade

   2018; 288 pages.  Book 2 (out of 4) in the “Mission Clockwork” series.  New Author? : No.  Genres : Steampunk; Young Adult & Teen; Action-Intrigue.  Overall Rating : 8½*/10.

 

    Matthew Wyle is a covert British intelligence agent based in New York City during the Victorian Era.  He’s been monitoring French agents there, and he’s just stumbled onto something strange.  Unfortunately, it’s in code.

 

VSVYWBT KEUW 6035236.  Grand Poisson 6035236.

 

    Hmm.  Those numbers and uppercase letters could mean anything, but “grand poisson” is French for “big fish”.  Something about a whale maybe?  But that seems a bit far-fetched.

 

    Well, he’d better let his London-based boss, Mr. Socrates, know of his discovery.  Maybe he can crack the code.

 

    Alas, two strong hands have just closed tightly around his throat and a voice out of nowhere says, “Ah, that is the information I’ve been trying to decode.  What do the numbers mean?  Tell me!”

 

    Those are the last words Matthew Wyle will hear in his life.

 

What’s To Like...

    The Dark Deeps is book 2 in Arthur Slade’s Mission Clockwork series.  I’ve read the first book, Mission Clockwork; it is reviewed here.  The hunchback Modo has now completed his training to be an agent for Mr. Socrates, even though he is still a teenager.  His shape-shifting skills will be put to the test on this current assignment, as he’ll be posing as part of a young married couple alongside his fellow teenaged agent, Octavia Milkweed.  At least they get to go on a cruise.

 

    I liked the inclusion of foreign language phrases in the text.  There were snippets of French, Latin, and what I presume was Catalan.  The mention of penny dreadfuls made me chuckle.  And being a chemist by trade, I loved the inclusion of the Oxygen-creating reaction involving Manganese Dioxide and Potassium Chlorate.  Does that sound nerdish?  Well, it enables humans to breathe underwater.

 

    The storyline has a very “Jules Verne” feel to it; the book’s title and cover image confirm this.  It is not a spoiler to say that both our protagonists will be spending a lot of time beneath the sea.  Add to our two protagonists a ship’s captain who’s both idealistic and fatalistic, a French spy who’s both shapely and pragmatic, and a dude named Griff who nobody is real sure about; and you end up with an extremely fascinating tale.

 

    The ending manages to be both death-defyingly exciting and predictably logical at the same time, which is not a criticism.  Both the good guys and the baddies get their just desserts, and since this is a teen-YA book, it’s mostly done without any gore.  All the plotlines are tied up, and although there’s room for a sequel (how can you be certain someone is truly dead if no bodies are recovered?), I’m predicting that Book 3 will be a completely new setting for Modo and Octavia.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Dummacker (n.) : a knowing or acute person. (British slang)

Others: Dulse (n.);

 

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.4*/5, based on 77 ratings and 29 reviews.

    Goodreads: 3.84*/5, based on 1,111 ratings and 137 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

   “Now, where exactly are we supposed to go?”  She sat at the mahogany table, and looked down at the carved map.

    “Assuming this is accurately carved, it’s right here!”  He tapped on a point about an inch below Iceland.

    “Sounds dreary and cold; good thing we get paid such riches to do this job.”

    “You get paid?”

    “Mr. Socrates said he is setting aside a fund for my retirement.  I assume he has done the same for you.”

    “I didn’t know we could retire.”  (pg. 62)

 

    “Ah, Mademoiselle Brunet.” Captain Monturiol said.  “Good morning.”  She sounded pleasant enough, but Colette would not give her the benefit of a smile.  “Comrade Girona and I will help you into your aquasuit.” The two women removed a suit from hooks and shelves along the wall.  Then the captain stopped to study Colette’s face.  “You have a mind like an oyster, did you know that?”

    “What do you mean?” Colette replied.

    “It is closed.  But I know there are pearls inside.  I eagerly await the opening of your mind today.”  (pg. 120)

 

Kindle Details…

    The Dark Deeps sells for $2.99 right now at Amazon.  The other three books in the series cost either $2.99 or $3.99.  Arthur Slade has several other series for your Kindle.  The e-books in those are generally in the $0.99-$4.99 price range.

 

“I don’t cough,” she said.  “I expel air daintily.”  (pg. 57)

    Finding things to quibble about was difficult.  As was true for the first book, there is zero cussing in The Dark Deeps.  Ditto for adult situations, although I wouldn’t be surprised if some affection eventually develops between Modo and Octavia.

 

    The book is written in “Canadian”, which means us Yankee readers will occasionally run into some odd spellings, such as marvellous, tonnes, centred, and defence.  Interestingly, both centimetres and meters were encountered, which seemed inconsistent.  The editing is topnotch; I only spotted one typo—a capitalized “Stopped” that should have been the lowercase “stopped”.  I'll blame the printer for that.

 

    But enough of the quibbling.  The Dark Deeps was a page-turner for me, despite it being in labeled a “Teen and Young Adult” book.  Yes, it is clean enough for kids.  Yes, it’s fast-paced, and filled with lots of action-intrigue, a YA requirement.  But adults will enjoy it just as much, because skilled authors are capable of accomplishing that.

 

    8½ Stars.  One last thing.  The Latin phrase in The Dark Deeps was “Plus Intra Plus Extra”, which Modo translates as “The Deeper The Better”.  Really?!  My Latin skills suck.