Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Final Girls by Riley Sager by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Final Girls by Riley Sager

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Final Girls was published in 2017, written by Riley Sager (pen name of Todd Ritter). Although this was the first book written under the author's pen name, it's one of the last I'm reading of his. It fits into a niche genre that includes psychological suspense thrillers characterized almost routinely by unreliable narrators, unexpected plot twists, and complex and usually immoral characters. Gillian Flynn, Paula Hawkins, S.J. Watson, and Sager himself are the forerunners in this category. 

As you can imagine, this "slasher film" trope is based on the last character left alive to tell the tale. The premise of Final Girls stemmed from the author wondering what it would be like for girls who are the last to survive horrific events in which everyone else around them was murdered. He wondered if they thought about it every day, whether it was possible for them to forget such a thing, and if they can ever trust again. 

The heroine, Quincy Carpenter, was involved in such an event. Ten years ago, her and her college friends were on vacation at Pinewood Cottage. Everyone was massacred by a psychotic escapee from a nearby mental hospital. Quinn remembers little about this, and what she does remember is recalled in scenes interspersed with the current story. After the incident, Quinn involuntarily becomes part of an unofficial club of "Final Girls", so named by journalists and social media websites. Lisa Milner and Samantha Boyd also survived harrowing, similar situations. For the most part, Quinn has shunned not only the press but the other "group members". She's getting on with her life, blogging as a baker and committed to a boyfriend lawyer, her hang-ups from the past locked up in a drawer in her kitchen. Lisa commits suicide and, a few days later, Quincy finds a text from her, begging her to make contact. Not long after that, Lisa's death is rule a homicide, and the other Final Girl Sam shows up on Quincy's doorstep. What happens next is a whole lot of disjointed weirdness, doubts about everyone and everything in her life, and the endless red herrings that complicate (and sometimes overwhelm) stories like these. 

Unlike a lot of Sager's other novels that I've read (and reviewed previously on this blog), he didn't include anything vaguely supernatural in this particular one. While I love stories that blend a thriller with the paranormal, I didn't miss it too much in this story, which I thought was one of his best. While, yes, it's true that I'm going to complain like I always do about his books that this one was at least 150 pages longer than it really needed to be, it was an edge-of-the-seat story and I got so caught up in it, I forgot the cardinal rule of not taking anything the writer says at face value. While I was trying to figure out what devious twist he'd try to pull out of his hat at the last minute, Sager sneaked in the back door with something I should have been looking out for from the first. Clever. I love that he out-thought me. Very few fellow writers have that ability so I can give nothing but kudos to him for achieving it with this story. 

In the author's note in the back, he mentioned that his editor's enthusiasm for the book aided him in setting a personal best in speed writing. Stephen King gave Final Girls a mostly positive review but found it "hampered only by bad writing and lack of literary merit". Honestly, I didn't notice anything but an overinflated word count. The book won the International Thriller Writers Awards for best Hard Cover Novel in 2018, so it can't be too bad. Fans of the genre will no doubt find this one worthy. Talk of a movie based on the book was announced in November 2017 but I don't think anything ever happened with it. Incidentally, there were two 2015-released movies (one called Final Girl with Abigail Breslin and another called The Final Girls), neither written by Sager, as well as a 2021 novel, The Final Girl Support Group (by Grady Hendrix), with a similar premise. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Actors' Looks and Suspension of Disbelief

THE MUSIC MAN (1962) is one of my favorite musical films. (I just ignore the unlikelihood of a happily-ever-after for Harold Hill and Marian. Accustomed to a roving lifestyle, with no skills other than truth-bending salesmanship, will Harold contentedly settle as a domesticated married man in small-town River City?) A made-for-TV version in 2003 starred Matthew Broderick. The plot and songs closely followed the original; the main point of the remake, as I recall, was to feature younger actors. Much as I enjoy Robert Preston in the classic 1962 version, it's true he's slightly too old for the role as a suitable mate for Marian. Not to mention the chronological difficulty that he believably, albeit falsely, claims to have graduated from Gary Conservatory in 1905, and the story takes place in 1912. So he'd logically be in his late twenties at most. Viewers have to use a bit of imagination to accept Preston as that young. Furthermore, both Marian's mother and Mayor Shinn's wife in the original movie definitely look too old to have children the ages of Winthrop and the Shinns' youngest daughter.

The remake of SOUTH PACIFIC, a 2001 made-for-TV movie, poses a similar problem, differing in that way from the classic 1958 film. In the newer version, Glenn Close plays Ensign Nellie Forbush. For me, it takes severe suspension of disbelief to accept her as an ensign, a rank for a very young officer. More importantly, a major point in the relationship between Nellie and the French planter Emile focuses on the difference between their ages. Pairing an actor who plays Emile with a Nellie played by an actress who's close to his own age undercuts a vital element of the story. Their "Twin Soliloquies" duet highlights the incongruity with its theme of a romance between "older, sophisticated man" and "young, naive woman." Consider, too, GONE WITH THE WIND. From a perspective of cool realism Leslie Howard, in his mid-forties, was far too old to portray twenty-something Ashley Wilkes.

On the other hand, generations of audiences have accepted mature actresses in the role of teenage Juliet. In Shakespeare's day, of course, she and all female characters were performed by boys. Laurence Olivier played Othello in blackface. When SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION came out, I was taken aback to learn Morgan Freeman had the part of the narrator, Red, a redheaded Irishman in the novella. Minutes after the movie began, though, I was captivated by his performance and decided he was perfect in the role. After getting over the initial shock of the change in ethnicity (as for the nickname, the script justifies it as a shortening of his last name), I realized Red's race and physical appearance have no substantial impact on the story. (That is, provided one overlooks the anachronism of Black and white prisoners freely mingling during the era of the novella's setting.) Making Othello white, though, WOULD crucially change Shakespeare's plot.

So in my viewpoint making some characters' looks faithful to the source material does matter. In SUPERMAN adaptations, for instance, sooner or later Lex Luthor has to go bald. And everybody knows Lana Lang is a redhead. Even though it's a rather minor detail, the fact that she's played by dark-haired women in two TV series, SMALLVILLE and SUPERMAN AND LOIS, nags at me as just plain wrong. The actresses couldn't have dyed their hair or worn wigs?

Granted, the skill of the performer outweighs the ideal of absolute realism in physical appearance. Still, my personal feeling is that in the naturalistic mode of contemporary filmmaking, some serious attempt should be made to have characters, especially major ones, look "right." It's jarring when one deviates too far from her or his established and expected appearance.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Rumors and Ripple Effects

Last week, my blog post was suppressed, which is not unusual. I poke the AI bear like a short-sighted proctologist from time to time. The ripples from that-- an examination of the enduring brilliance of a British essayist--were minimal.

Angela Hoy blogged this week about terminal AI errors for authors who self-published on Amazon, and who were cancelled and lost their earned-to-date royalties on ebook sales for no reason and with no recourse (because their complaints went to a bot).

I should not have repined, if it had not seemed relevant as an introduction to an important post about the risks of sharing someone else's gossip, from the law firm Venable LLP, which firm I have not cited for some time.

https://www.closeupsblog.com/2025/06/when-gossip-becomes-defamation-liability-for-rumors-and-their-ripple-effects/#page=1

Legal bloggers Lee S. Brenner. Darya Kaboli Nejat, Sam Poursafar, and summer associate Paul S. Bernstein share excellent warnings and advice about second hand defamation in the highly digestible form of Q and A.

Informed by a decision in the case of Holzgraf v Lozier (brought in central Illinois), they conclude:

"The main point is that you do not need to be the original source of the rumor to be held responsible for its impact."

One can be liable for defamation if one tells another person in confidence, but should have foreseen that that other person would not keep a juicy story secret.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™

http://www.spacesnark.com/  

http://www.rowenacherry.com

Karen S. Wiesner: {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci by Barrington Barber

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci by Barrington Barber

by Karen S. Wiesner

Leonardo Da Vinci has long been a fascination for me. An Italian polymath of the High Renaissance, his achievements as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect almost feel alien-like. In too many areas, he's just too far ahead of his time to have been relegated to the years of 1452 to 1519, where most of his radically advanced conceptions couldn't even be made in reality. But he and those who trusted him tried making many of them. I marvel that one person was given so many skills. Most theorists don't necessarily design their own projects even in blueprint, nor go on to actually building it. Either they don't have the skills, the materials, or the funding. But he did so much more than conceiving, designing, and construction. He also worked from the inside out, figuring out the inner workings of the human body, proving himself to be a revolutionary in medicine, science, art, and architecture.

How did one man come by all these incredible secrets? It's beyond believing or conceiving.

Barrington Barber gives us glimpses of the genius. I read this beautiful, gold-embossed, clothbound boxed set with reproductions of Da Vinci's work called The Genius of Leonardo Da Vinci. The three volumes delve into his art, life, and work. I enjoyed the overview, marveled at his range and just how much the world owes to his advancements and innovations in such diverse areas. Who can compare to him in any of those disciplines? Even if anyone has gone beyond since, no one else can claim the discoveries he did in the mere 67 years he spent on this Earth…well, that we know of. 😁

My only complaint is one that goes for all biographies. The very last thing I ever want to know about anyone, especially those I admire, are details about their private lives. I learned far too much, things I really didn’t want to know about the man. In this one area, at least, Da Vinci was indeed mortal, fallible, and depressingly common. Sigh.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Variations on Peter Pan

The Disney animated PETER PAN, to nobody's surprise I'm sure, softens and lightens the source material. Generations of children who've never read or viewed J. M. Barrie's book or play may have grown up imagining Neverland as a carefree realm of adventure offering sometimes scary thrills but no danger of permanent harm, where Peter will help you get home to your family in the end. The animated sequel does include a hint of one uncanny feature of Peter's character, his "out of sight, out of mind" tendency to forget people and events. Only a hint, though, which doesn't last long, when he -- like Captain Hook -- intially mistakes Wendy's daughter for Wendy herself. In the novel, he forgets enemies after killing them, and he doesn't remember Tinker Bell. Fairies have such short lives, after all, and there are so many of them.

In the live-action film HOOK, Peter Pan has become a man in our world and forgotten his past in Neverland. The movie focuses on recapturing the alleged magical joys of childhood. Barrie, however, describes children as "innocent and heartless." Peter Pan is innocent, not in the sense of being good, but of being oblivious to good and evil. People die in his Neverland. Not only does Peter blithely slay pirates, when Lost Boys start to grow up (which is forbidden) he "thins them out." I've always considered the concept of not wanting to grow up rather creepy, anyway. Have you ever met a real-life child who wasn't eager for adulthood?

What I think of as the fanfic impulse inspires writers to deconstruct and re-imagine works of fiction in order to answer questions left hanging, explore the viewpoints of characters not fully developed in the original, compose scenes and side stories that might have occurred offstage, speculate on what happened after "The End," or flip the script altogether for a fresh perspective. If we're fascinated by a story and its characters, we want more of them. If the author doesn't satisfy that desire, we sometimes try to do it for ourselves. I've just read THE ADVENTURES OF MARY DARLING, by Pat Murphy. As the title implies, it considers what Mary, mother of Wendy, John, and Michael, does after they vanish through the open window. Not sit around waiting and fretting! To rescue her children, she embarks on an Edwardian-era adventure from London to the other side of the world, returning to the island of Neverland where she, too, was taken as a child. Murphy's version of the tale envisions Peter Pan as, not a runaway child, but some sort of ancient nature spirit wearing the body and personality of a self-absorbed little boy. If a Lost Boy dies or leaves, Peter forgets and replaces him, giving new children the names of previous ones. Hence the island hosts a succession of multiple Curlys, Tootleses, Twins, etc. The Lost Boys are ragged, dirty, and more often than not hungry. (Peter, in keeping with his changeless existence, doesn't need to eat.) The author's afterword quotes several passages from Barrie's novel to illustrate the underlying grimness of Neverland.

A few of the many other revisits to Neverland: WENDY, DARLING, by A. C. Wise -- as an adult, Wendy returns to Neverland to rescue her daughter, Jane, who has been lured away by Peter Pan. In Wise's sequel, HOOKED, the pirate captain, who has "died a thousand times," repeatedly resurrected by Peter's magic, ends up in London and allies with Wendy. Christina Henry's LOST BOY portrays Captain Hook as a former friend of Peter, his very first Lost Boy, in fact, and traces their evolution from friends to enemies. Jody Lynn Anderson's TIGER LILY views Peter through the eyes of the title character, in love with him and threatened by the arrival of Wendy. THE CHILD THIEF, a dark novel by Brom (both a fantasy writer and an artist), reveals Peter's ulterior motive for offering lost or abused children a refuge in his faerie realm. PETER DARLING, by Austin Chant, especially captivated me; in this novel, Peter is Wendy, or vice versa. When Wendy outs herself as a boy named Peter, her parents naturally think he/she is deranged; the magic of Neverland allows him to live as his true self. The island, though, is far from a paradise, and here, too, Peter and Hook have a complicated relationship.

PETER PAN has never been one of my top favorites, because of the absurdity (as it seems to me) of the "not wanting to grow up" premise. I've always been attracted by its uncanny, dark aspects, though, as well as the strangeness of PETER PAN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS. Therefore, I'm intrigued by published "fanfic" that expands on various hints in the original and explores its world from different perspectives.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Shooting An Elephant

"Shooting An Elephant" by George Orwell is a powerful essay that was originally published in the compilation "Inside The Whale and Other Essays". It is a tale of ugliness, misunderstanding, alienation, enforced cruelty, and social (if not peer) pressure. 

It is well worth reading on many levels, and is probably relevant even today.

One aspect of peer pressure (in this account) is the effect on a policeman in a hostile environment of the expectations of a hostile populace on the decisions he makes. Either he submits to their expectations or he does not submit.
https://www.litcharts.com/lit/shooting-an-elephant/summary

After re-reading Orwell's essay, it seems to this author that--if a trial in the USA is only a fair trial if the jury is a jury of the defendant's peers-- then any trial of a policeman or policewoman, National Guard officer, Border Patrol officer, or ICE officer is only a fair trial by their peers if the jury consists of other law enforcement personnel... just as there is a separate legal system for the military.

George Orwell makes it clear that he did not want to shoot the elephant, did not consider shooting the elephant to be justified (but it was excusable because the elephant had stomped and skinned a coolie and thereby killed the unfortunate coolie).

The elephant's rage was apparently temporary. 

According to one internet commentator, elephants are deeply afraid of causing harm and possess a noble nature. Allegedly scientists have studied the elephant’s brain and discovered spindle cells—rare neurons also found in humans-- which are said to be associated with self-awareness, empathy, and complex social perception.

Spindle cells are also found in other primates to greater or lesser degrees, particularly Bonobo. Spindle cells are also associated with cancer.

Leonardo da Vinci is credited with the opinion that, “The elephant embodies righteousness, reason, and temperance.”

Before starting a new enterprise, some Hindus are said to pray to Ganesha, the Elephant-headed god of Beginnings, Prosperity, and Wisdom. Ganesha is the patron of intellectuals, authors, bankers, and scribes.

For more on elephants: https://www.britannica.com/animal/elephant-mammal/Reproduction-and-life-cycle

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™

https://www.spacesnark.com/  

https://www.rowenacherry.com

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: "The Oblivion Bride" by Caitlin Starling by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: "The Oblivion Bride" by Caitlin Starling

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

"The Oblivion Bride", a romantic fantasy novella by Caitlyn Starling, was published January 21, 2025 by Neon Hemlock Press, the same publisher that released Starling's 2020 "Yellow Jessamine" novella. This new tale has a lot in common with that one, though I liked this one slightly better. Taking place in a made up city-state called Volun, wild magic surrounds the walls, forcing all to stay inside a warded area for safety's sake. The main character Lorelei has lost almost everyone in her family under suspicious circumstances, including, most recently, her beloved mother. The cause is almost certainly magical in origin, possibly a curse. Her remaining kin, an uncle, is determined to figure out the cause of this and so agrees to marry Lorelei off to the top war alchemist Nephele, who applies herself to investigate while the marriage is being arranged and Lorelei is magically impregnated in a way that also includes Nephele's genes. 

Lorelei is, not surprisingly, a mess, grieving the loss of her mother and never expecting to develop feelings for her betrothed. Nephele has a similar reaction, given that this was an arranged marriage and she's an older woman who's been almost totally consumed by her career up to this point. 

While I enjoyed the dystopian quality of the setting and otherworldly mood of the events, as a whole, the story felt as disjointed and underdeveloped as "Yellow Jessamine" did to me when I read it (which is why I didn't review it). My main issue here was that the past really wasn't dug into deeply in this particular tale. We learned very little about Lorelei and Nephele's histories nor about the circumstances surrounding the state of the world beyond what was told us as statements of facts (i.e., whatever might have been written on a character/plot sheet in advance of writing--no more, no less). That crucial dimension of development forced 2D renderings and never achieved full-fledged lifelike status for me. I also have to comment on the fact that the reader can't help but feel Lorelei was projecting on older-woman Nephele her loss and devastation over her mother--desperately needing maternal comfort. It's difficult not to get an icky feeling about their romantic/sexual relationship because of that. 

Additionally, the last few chapters kind of dissolved a bit with far too many instances of the f-word per page. I don't mind some well-placed swearing, but sometimes overuse gets so drastic that it's hard to know what the author meant a word to actually mean. If everything (noun, verb, adjective, you name it) becomes an acrobatic feat of grammar by twisting the same word to the form needed, the story becomes muddied by the appearance of the same word from one sentence or paragraph to the next. Not only that, but using a word like that absolutely does not in any way intensify the reader's sense of suspense, action, or emotional connection--you know, beyond annoyance that genuine portrayal of said suspense, action, and emotional connection is being reduced to childish cursing. Ergo, the reader is thrust out of the story by lazy writing, which is what happened to me toward the end. I really struggled to finish the last few chapters. 

That said, I nearly always enjoy Starling's offbeat and unusual storytelling, and this tale is no exception, despite the areas I was left wanting more and different things than were being presented. I read eagerly at first and my interest only waned slightly from start to finish. (I certainly would have preferred to be more excited about the novella near the end rather than earlier on.) 

As a little bonus, the exterior and interior of the paperback were very striking. The front cover had such a multifaceted and layered image, I found myself going back often for more, to discover something else that might have been hidden in the cleverly rendered artwork. The interior had compelling, black and white, free-form images before each chapter of a similar but always changing nature. Unfortunately, the text was left-aligned, not justified, and that made it hard for me to read. I just prefer text to be tidy and symmetrical to prevent it from distracting from the story. 

For those who like to view the world in an unconventional, even weird way through their reading, this story will more than satisfy. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Graduations

Earlier this week we attended the high-school graduation of one of our grandsons. (Summa cum laude!) Recently I read a joke somewhere to the effect that speakers at a graduation resemble the corpse at a wake -- they have to be there, but you don't expect them to do much. Actually, the talks at this ceremony were short, pithy, and uplifting. One student speaker applied Disney's TANGLED as a metaphor for the end of high school. School was like Rapunzel's tower sheltering them from the "big, scary outside world," and now they're ready to chase their dreams and "follow the lanterns." Brevity of speeches was probably encouraged because that venue hosts something like fourteen county school graduations in one week. As described in an article in our local paper, the staff apparently cycles the proceedings through with the speed and efficiency of June weddings at the Naval Academy chapel.

I was shocked to learn, upon first reading the Harry Potter series, that British secondary schools don't have graduation ceremonies. The students just finish their courses and leave. Academic qualifications are earned by performance on standardized tests administered externally, not by the schools -- the inspiration for OWLs and NEWTs in Rowling's series. As explained by British people posting online, the rationale for not holding a graduation is that their high-school-equivalents don't award diplomas/degrees. Degrees, and therefore graduation rituals, occur only at the university level.

Apparently different countries follow a wide range of customs. A Wikipedia page with examples:

Graduation by Country

Not too surprisingly, Japan seems to have even more elaborate ceremonies than the U.S.

Homeschooled students in the U.S. can join in group rituals or organize private celebrations as simple or elaborate as they choose.

I'm reminded of Isaac Asimov's classic story "The Fun They Had," set in a distant future when schools don't exist. In this society, students get individualized computer instruction from AI "teachers." Here Asimov anticipates not only distance learning but also e-books. The two children in the story find hard-copy books, as opposed to an electronic device that can hold hundreds of texts, as strange as the idea of human teachers. The kids envy children in the olden days for gathering with their friends instead of slogging alone at a computer terminal. Most comments I've read on this story seem to assume it's an unironic exercise in futuristic nostalgia. In fact, Asimov didn't enjoy public school and probably would have welcomed a system like the one in the tale. Anyway, we must assume students in this future world don't have graduation ceremonies at all, not even similar to those of contemporary homeschoolers, since they don't have even a vestigial concept of "school" as a group activity.

When we establish colonies on the Moon or other planets, or social groups on starships, how much will present-day academic rituals be preserved? Will the kids in those cultures participate in something analogous to school as we know it or study individually on computers? Will they "graduate" or simply earn certifications for each phase of what may become a continuous course of lifelong learning? I like to believe some kind of completion rites will still occur for important life transitions, including educational ones. Human beings need ritual.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Warriors Anthology Edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Warriors Anthology

Edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

This post contains my 154 review on the Alien Romances Blog! 

Warriors, published in 2010, is another cross-genre anthology George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois edited and assembled together. As before, this collection with 20 shorts (two of them novellas) was originally published in one large volume. Later, the stories were separated into three paperbacks, and all include Martin's introductory article titled "Stories from the Spinner Rack", which I very much enjoyed reading for its shared nostalgia (though I did wonder if the author actually tried to read a few romances or nurses novels before deciding he'd "never did get into" them). All the authors are big names, award-winning and undeniably gifted, and Warriors won the 2011 Locus Award for Best Anthology. 

While I love cross-genre fiction, there were far too many war stories in this one, which probably makes you laugh as much as it does me at this point. For the most part, I picked up this anthology for one story--the George R. R. Martin Dunk and Egg installment (the third in his A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series). 

I guess the word "warrior" has a positive, noble context in my mind. Most of the "warriors" in this anthology, however, weren't necessarily good people in my estimation. I'd call them "rogues" (or something similar) instead. I prefer to believe the best of warriors, and, in my way of thinking, warriors tend to be ordinary joes or janes who step up and become heroes in a crisis, even if they never wanted to be that in the first or last place. 

Truthfully I was hoping there would be more fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction selections, or that those types of stories would have something more compelling than run-of-the-mill soldiers who follow orders without actually thinking for themselves, or who fight for a good cause and not simply for whatever the agenda on tap is. A few of the stories stood out in this collection--the ones I'll review here--but, with the exception of The Mystery Knight and The Scroll, even those weren't really what I was looking for. I also feel compelled to inject that one story in particular (that I'm choosing not to name here) was so disturbing, I felt dirty after I read it and I'd give anything to just blot it from my mind for the rest of time. Make of that what you will. Another was written in a way that frustrated me and put me off the story instantly. I don't know if I would have liked it if it'd been written differently or by someone else altogether. Again, since it's a subjective opinion, I won't name that particular story either. I was also sad that I didn't like one of the stories by a popular author I've been reading much more of lately and was looking forward to. 

Though similar to other Martin/Dozois anthologies, in that each story in this collection was preceded by a fairly in-depth author biography, the introductory blurbs included for each were so slim, they were all but worthless. It's difficult for me to enjoy something that I don't get an adequate summary for in advance of reading. Probably another "me" thing on that count. I was initially pretty unhappy about the lack of illuminating blurbs until after I read the stories. Then I wondered how to describe them myself. So many defied summary! 

Below you'll find the stories I'm covering in this review listed in the order they appear in the original publication in one volume. Technically, they came in 1st, 9th, 12th, 13th, 17th, 18th, 19th, and 20th. For those of you following my anthology reviews, if I'd edited and assembled this collection, I would have started with "The Scroll", ended with The Mystery Knight, and placed the rest of them in this order: Story #4, 7, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 instead, with the rest of the stories around them.                                                 

1)              "The King of Norway" by Cecelia Holland: Bloodthirsty Vikings, complete with violence and vows, about sums up this story. While I'm sorry to say I found it predictable, especially as the make-or-break-it first included in the collection, I did like the line "All dreams are true somehow". I spent a lot of time considering that line apart from the story, if nothing else.

 

2)              "Seven Years From Home" by Naomi Novik: This was an interesting sci-fi tale about a researcher's role in a manufactured war. I was drawn in by the theme of time not healing some wounds and about how war, "politics and the great concerns of the universe" leave one content to withdraw into a place where peace and simplicity are the rule, not the exception, as it is in reality's ever-present state of violence.

 

3)              "Out of the Dark" by David Weber: Compelling. Literally (and I mean that), humanity's only hope for survival when the Earth is invaded by canine-like aliens is the very last being one would think of in terms of providing help to mankind. All in all, kind of an insane story that makes me laugh in shock each time I think of it now.

 

4)              "The Girls From Avengers" by Carrie Vaughn: Set in 1943, a woman in WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) investigates the death of her friend. While I might have liked this if the subject matter and themes were more interesting to me, I will say that this story did fit the brief of fascinating, worthwhile warriors, the way most of these tales didn't (in my opinion anyway).

 

5)              "My Name is Legion" by David Morell: Set in 1941, members of the French Foreign Legion do their duty, even if it means fighting each other. While the story was generally enjoyable, I felt like I was missing something all the time I was reading. I just didn't get it, which may be more of a commentary on my dislike of war and stories containing that theme than anything actually wrong with the piece.

 

6)              "Defenders of the Frontier" by Robert Silverberg: For two decades, the troops manning a fort that was once teaming with soldiers have done their duty to their realm so completely, they've wiped out every last enemy. There are only 11 defenders left, and they've had no contact with the Empire in long enough for them to wonder if they've been forgotten. I read this in a state of horror from start to finish. These men struck me as the worst kind of monsters--the kind that doesn't even realize what they've become by blindly following orders. After submitting without question for so long, someone and something snaps. It has to. Is all shred of humanity lost at that point? The story tries to answer that question after a fashion by the way the survivors react, but I suspect that my answer to the same question would be on the opposite extreme.   

 

7)              "The Scroll" by David Ball: A French engineer and his fellow slaves under a new regime are mere pawns in a diabolical game in which the madman in charge of building a new city from the rubble follows the whims of an ancient scroll said to prophesize (and predict) what the engineer will do next. Wow, was this yet another horrifying refrain! The engineer trapped in this sad, sordid drama would do anything to stop playing the role he's been cast into. But it seems like everything he says and does, everything he doesn't say and doesn't do leads to one thing and one thing alone: Death. There's no escape. It reminded me a lot of the videogame Fable II, in which the hero is forced to go to the Spire, where the cold, calculating, nutso Commandant tries to teach submission to all the slaves. Devoid of choice or freedom, blindly following some random edict, leaves nothing but no-win situations. This was my second favorite tale in the collection, mostly because it held me so spellbound while I read it.

 

8)              The Mystery Knight (Book 3: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms) by George R. R. Martin: This was hands-down my favorite included in the anthology. I reviewed it back on March 14, 2025 with the two previous stories in its series. 

Warriors had a theme that wasn't really geared toward someone like me, who dislikes war in nearly every context. Those who are fans of war stories and not-necessarily noble warriors will probably enjoy this anthology much more than I did.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

The Power of Stories

The blog of fantasy author Deborah J. Ross, "In Troubled Times," includes a post on the healing function of stories:

How Stories Save Us

She's writing here mainly about true stories, the sharing of our personal experiences, both storytelling and "story-listening." Stories "can heal and transform us" and "also become beacons of hope." Shaping experience into a narrative structure brings patterns out of "seeming chaos." "No matter how scattered or flawed our lives may appear, as we tell our stories, we gain something." Storytelling helps us realize "even tragedies have order and consequence."

Ross also reflects on the power of stories to inspire empathy. We feel a bond with characters we can care about. At this point she brings up the effect of fictional characters on readers. "Hopeful stories provide an antidote to fear-driven stories," a principle that applies to both real-life narratives and imaginary ones. The strongest such narratives have the potential to "create a bridge of empathy, even with people who appear to be 'on the other side' of arguments."

I'm especially interested in how this process works with imaginative creations -- stories and characters effective enough to inspire what Tolkien calls "secondary belief" (a step beyond mere "suspension of disbelief"). Empathy reminds me of "mirror neurons," which activate in our own brains when we witness someone else performing an action or displaying an emotion:

Mirror Neurons

Mirror neurons can "help explain how and why we 'read' other people's minds and feel empathy for them." A neuroscientist quoted in that article says, "This neural mechanism is involuntary and automatic. . . . with it we don't have to think about what other people are doing or feeling, we simply know. It seems we're wired to see other people as similar to us, rather than different. . . . At the root, as humans we identify the person we're facing as someone like ourselves." There seems no reason why we shouldn't react this way to characters in novels as well as people in the primary world.

In AN EXPERIMENT IN CRITICISM, C. S. Lewis declares that fiction enables us to share the viewpoints of others, not only people different from us, but nonhuman creatures as well, and not only sapient species such as elves or extraterrestrials, but plants, animals, maybe even stars or rocks. "In reading great literature," he writes, "I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see." In our experiences of stories, we can recognize entities very unlike us as "someone like ourselves."

Ross connects experiences of viewpoint-sharing and empathy with positive stories, which she maintains can counter "fearmongering" and thereby bring about concrete change in a troubled world. Let's hope so.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Not What He Meant

I hang out on a prolific, partisan news-discussion site, and it is obvious to some of the commentators that inferior Ai is being used, and a live proof-reader is not being employed.... or, if one is, he/she/whomever is semi-literate.

This week, several of us noted an erroneous use of Litotes. When in doubt, go for Cambridge.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/litotes

The journalist wrote of an unflappable senior administrator in the current Administration --who was testifying before one or other of the branches of Congress-- that he was "not unfazed". 

"Not unfazed" is Litotes. The meaning is a wittier variant of saying "fazed", of course. In fact, it was the  interrogating Senator who was visibly outraged, or "fazed" by a remark from the testifier about the Senator's career in the creation of fiction. 

As far as I know, the good Senator does not write or orally relate alien djinn romances, but there are many types of fiction. Or alleged fiction. One term that I remember from my youth was calling a lie a "terminological inexactitude". (Attributed to Sir Winston Churchill).

The EPA administrator was the one who was "unfazed".

Another figure of speech that I have noticed on aggressively-moderated sites is the use of Spoonerism, not for the sake of humor, and not as a mistake, but as an intentional device to avoid censorship.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/spoonerism

One can publish some fairly scandalous allegations, if one transposes two initial letters. Ai has not caught up with that... yet. Not about to test it by giving an example, but if you see a reference to something other than a rodeo horse or bull bucking... you might be getting warm.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Terror by Dan Simmons by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Terror by Dan Simmons

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Two irresistible subjects for me are Antarctica and fictional horror creatures. The Terror came close enough to having both of them for me. This 2007 novel by Dan Simmons takes place in the Arctic, the most northern place on earth, while Antarctica is the most southern, but "ice everywhere you look" is a tidy description for both places. Simmons' fictionalized account of Captain Sir John Franklin's lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage from 1845-1848 has everything a boring, dry history book might skim over or even leave out--and it has the goods aplenty.   

The story starts with two HMS ships, Erebus and Terror, trapped in the ice 28 miles north-northwest of King William Island. They've been there for more than a year, their provisions are dwindling, and there's no wildlife to be hunted. But something is hunting them. Called "the terror", this indestructible monster seems to have taken the form of a colossal polar bear with a hideously long neck. Additionally, one of the parties sent out earlier encountered "Esquimaux" (Eskimos) while out on the ice. They shoot the old man, supposedly an accident, and end up bringing the young woman back to the ships with them. When they discover her tongue has been bitten off, they begin calling her "Lady Silence". 

The main character is Captain Francis Crozier, second to Sir John Franklin, who quickly becomes commander of the expedition when their leader is lost. Crozier is initially a drunk (forced into sobriety by a lingering illness) with insecurities stemming from his Irish heritage and his societally unimpressive beginnings which surely led to him being rejected as a suitor by the Captain's own niece. Crozier may or may not have psychic abilities. Other characters of note are Commander James Fitzjames, third in command, an upper-class officer in the Royal Navy. Dr. Henry D. S. Goodsir, an anatomist, considered the least of the four doctors caring for the crews, was a phenomenal character. In his unflagging humility and compassion, he gained the respect of both crews. The antagonist is most certainly Caulker's Mate Cornelius Hickey, who compels a desperate band of rebels to attempt mutiny. 

Before and after the dwindling crew abandons both ships, they're beset with one catastrophe after another in the form of starvation, illnesses and an unending catalog of maladies. It's discovered by Goodsir that the tinned provisions are all tainted with lead from soldering and are often putrid--the result of His Majesty's Navy taking the lowest bid to stock the ships with foodstuffs. Any help from the indigenous tribes is quickly squandered by the cannibalistic mutineer and his despairingly hungry band of insurgents. As if that isn't enough, the "Chenoo" ice monster that pursues them wherever they go seems to have a personal grudge against them. Does the Lady Silence, herself a shaman, know something about that? 

This book is absolutely not for the faint of heart. The landscape is ruthless and bleak (so well written, you'll feel the icy wind at the back of your neck, making you shiver). The themes explored arise from hopelessness, desolation, trapped and depraved conditions, where human beings are pushed right to the edge of humanity as well as sanity. With players being picked off left and right from every direction, you'll soon lose track of who you're rooting for, in some cases, because the protagonist is ripped from the story by a sudden and shocking death. The ending is unexpected and equally horrifying but I was somehow gratified by how it came back around to the beginning. (Beware spoiler below!) 

 

Crozier and Lady Silence, now lovers with children, are the only survivors of the tragedy. Their family comes upon the HMS Terror, still afloat almost 200 hundred miles south of her original "prison". After touring it, he sets it on fire and watches it burn and finally sink, lost to the ice, as the man he once was is and will now always be. 

 

Another reason this massive tome isn't for the meek is its sheer length. The hardcover is nearly 800 pages, larger than even most history books! One other thing threw me a bit--the story opened in medias res ("into the middle of things”), so chronologically, we were put in the middle of the plot instead of the beginning in these opening pages. I normally wouldn't mind that, but I entered a historical-like account in present tense, and whenever I was thrust in medias res, I felt like I was floundering and ungrounded. Luckily, most of the book wasn't written that way, but that nearly kept me from continuing both times I read this book--the first time when it initially came out as a hardcover in 2007 as well in as my recent reading. 

Additionally, Simmons has a very Stephen King-esque style of writing, in that he includes details that you either didn't want to know or would have assumed anyway if he'd just had the good manners to leave them out. Some call such information flavor. I call it bad taste. (I really don't care what color pubic hair or areolas anyone has, nor what someone's body does involuntarily while he's sleeping. Though flatulence did drive one particular plot of King's, I don't know of any other story that actually "benefits" from sensory details like this.) 

In any case, despite a cast larger than most encyclopedias, the characters in this setting, immersed in such a tense plot, are well worth the endeavor of taking on this intense reading project. Nearly twenty years after its publication, it certainly stands the test of time. 

If you're not up for this in-depth read, though, you don't have to miss The Terror's incredible story. There's a TV series that at least starts on the basis of Simmons' novel. The first season, making up 10 episodes, covers the entire novel, and pretty faithfully at that. Season 2 (and the upcoming 3) is also based on another mysterious event with a supernatural twist. Jared Harris as Crozier, Ciarán Hinds as Franklin, Tobias Menzies as Fitzjames, and Paul Ready as Goodsir were standout actors. In whatever form you choose to take in this story, just don't miss it. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Yesterday's Tomorrow

Another glance at some futuristic inventions from fiction that have come into real existence, in this case from the cartoon series THE JETSONS:

5 Things from "The Jetsons" That Actually Exist

While middle-class families still don't have flying cars (much less a two-day work week that counts as full time or homes in cities above the clouds), we've caught up with the Jetsons in several respects. The article lists video calls, flat-screen televisions, robot vacuum cleaners, tanning beds, and ingestible, wireless, pill-shaped cameras. But they don't mention holograms, another technology brought to life in the decades since THE JETSONS.

One of Isaac Asimov's stories predicts pocket calculators, with the intriguing though rather implausible outcome of their omnipresence that even professional mathematicians have lost the skill of performing basic arithmetic on their own. Another story, "The Fun They Had," postulates remote schooling through computers, taught by AI programs instead of human teachers. J. D. Robb's mid-21st-century "In Death" mysteries have featured handheld devices called "links," essentially the same as present-day tablets or smart phones, since the beginning of the long-running series, well before such personal electronics existed in real life. Her flying cars and fully humanoid droid servants, though, seem as distant from practical commercial application as ever. Admittedly, however, some personal care robots currently produced in Japan show droid-like potential. Consider the over-optimism of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. We didn't get commercial shuttle travel to a permanent lunar base in 2001 in the primary-world timeline, and we still aren't there. No HAL-type self-conscious computers, either. Robert Heinlein anticipated video calls on personal computers in STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. Yet the world of his HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL combines moon bases and lunar tourism with -- slide rules. And I WILL FEAR NO EVIL pairs subcutaneous contraceptive implants for women with the inconvenience of waiting several days for a pregnancy test report, not necessary even when the book was published. (The waits arose from lab backups, not limitations in the test itself.) Even brilliant science fiction authors can display blind spots as to the possibilities of technological advancement.

It's amusing to notice future-set stories with space-age technology alongside social customs frozen in the time period of their writing. Although office drone George Jetson and his housewife spouse are obviously played for laughs, Heinlein seems quite serious with the 1950s-style drugstore soda fountain in HAVE SPACE SUIT, WILL TRAVEL.

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

By No Means Nostril Shots

As is my wont, (or good habit), I check the meanings of words in my titles or works about which I mean to "snark".

It appears that, in the thirty years since I was a full time corporate wife (and spending a lot of time with professional automotive-world photographers), the meaning of "Nostril Shot" has changed.

Words will do that. It is a pity that AI is so literal. 

Once one gets past AI's arrogant assumption that the stupid searcher meant "nasal" and not "nostril", and that the searcher is searching for substances to insert rapidly into facial orifices, one finds that, these days, deliberately immortalizing someone else's nostrils is an art form.

In my day, which was before cameras made it easy to edit-out unwanted elements, "a nostril shot" was a serious annoyance for a professional, and referred to the unfortunate sudden appearance of an unwanted foreign body part into an important portrait, or shot of a show car.

However, my nostril research was a gold mine, especially for authors who might be doing their back matter portraits themselves. Alas, I suppose I need to look up "back matter". Thank goodness, it means what I intend it to mean.

I found Chris Gampat and his article on how to pose a nose.

https://www.thephoblographer.com/2020/08/06/photography-cheat-sheet-how-to-make-a-nose-look-flattering-in-portraits/

Chris Gampat shares some great tips, and a helpful diagram.... and a what-not-to-do photograph!

For Blurb, Dan Milnor (a name that the AI "help" on this platform would love to edit!!!!) shares photography tips but not an url for giving Dan credit.

But, I found him on YouTube and he is worth a second look. 

For Blurb, he tells photographers to use the view finder; to avoid overshooting; to refrain from copying someone else's location photo; to eschew posting in real time; to be sure to edit your work; and to print your photos.

That last tip reminds me of the advice to authors to read their prose aloud as a means of editing.

Final tip:

Angela Hoy of Book Locker and Writers' Weekly shares a list of gigs for freelance creatives

https://writersweekly.com/freelance-writing-jobs/051425?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet&utm_campaign=writersweekly-com-112119_67

All the best,

Rowena Cherry
SPACE SNARK™ 
https://www.spacesnark.com/  
https://www.rowenacherry.com

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: "Caver, Continue" by Caitlin Starling by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: "Caver, Continue" by Caitlin Starling

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Back in June 2023, I reviewed Caitlin Starling's first novel, a 2019 sci-fi horror The Luminous Dead. (Check out the review here: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/06/karen-wiesner-book-review-luminous-dead.html.) In that story, the protagonist, 22-year-old Gyre Price, has risked everything to join the Lethe expedition, supposedly tasked with mapping the cave system, performing mining surveys, and restocking the camps set up along the way. Gyre quickly learns her handler isn't a team of professionals but a single person: Em, who owns the company and has poured a fortune into this cave and investing in perfecting a suit capable of functioning on so many levels to keep cavers alive. Em isn't what she seems, nor is this mission or its endgame. Em had apparently hired on cavers like Gyre often in the past, losing 34 to the horrors of the cave. In that story, readers were treated to the author's expertise concerning diving, climbing, caves, spelunking--things I love to read about, especially in horror and science fiction tales. 

I left The Luminous Dead completely satisfied with every part of the story. But I wanted more. I would have loved a whole series set in just this world but, alas, it seemed as single-title as it gets. I never imagined I'd get anything else connected with the novel. When I heard Starling had a story in the thirty-fifth issue of Grimdark Magazine, I bought it immediately from Amazon (for only $3.99--but keep in mind the magazine is electronic only). The short story "Caver, Continue" (a little less than 15 pages long) is set before and during the events of The Luminous Dead. Interestingly, it's told from the point-of-view of Eli Abramsson, one of Em’s lost cavers. I started it without any clue the two were related and spent a confusing several minutes reading, wondering if this was an early version of the novel that maybe had been written in a male perspective instead. Although I read The Luminous Dead years ago, I remembered the distinctive setting so vividly, I knew there had to be a connection. I did figure out it must be one of the earlier lost cavers long before I finished the story, which I read in one sitting. Eli begins to realize that his handler is seeing him fight for his life--and doing nothing to help him. This is a story well-worth the price I paid for it. My only complaint is I'll never have a hard copy of it. If I lose the e-mag, that's it. I won't be able to read the story again in the future. Sigh, why is everything so throwaway these days? 

As for the rest of the magazine, Grimdark focuses on the "darker, grittier side of fantasy and science fiction". It's published quarterly, and each issue has articles, reviews, interviews, and a selection of short fiction. Issue 35 had 5 short stories. You can find out more about the magazine and a subscription on their website (easily found with an internet search). While I like off-beat fiction like Starling's (among others), I have to say that I wasn't in love with the rest of the material in this issue, which I, in general, found gory and needlessly gratuitous, especially one particular piece with a "fight hate with hate" theme that came off as a thinly disguised metaphor for social injustice alive and well in our current world. I don't condone hate for anyone or anything, and overdosing on negativity is a surefire way to increase violence and turbulence. That said, readers who enjoy dark fantasy will probably like everything this e-mag has to offer. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/