ICFA 46

The 46th annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts was held in its usual Orlando hotel last week. Guests of honor were Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of MEXICAN GOTHIC and other horror fiction as well as an editor of the sadly now defunct Innsmouth Free Press online magazine, and guest scholar Sarah Juliet Lauro, a zombie specialist. The con focused on the theme of "Night Terrors" (not in the technical meaning of a specific sleep disorder, which one attendee who's a medical doctor as well as a horror film scholar brought up, but in the broader sense).

My plane took off an hour late because of an unspecified maintenance-related delay but miraculously landed only 30 minutes late. Orlando had bright sun all week. However, Thursday was unusually cool for this time of year and Friday downright chilly. Saturday warmed up nicely.

The two luncheons and the Saturday night banquet served abundant and delicious food, as usual. Happily, each meal's dessert included plenty of chocolate. (Sometimes banquet menus miss the point on that requirement.) They're always buffets, so there's something to please everybody and lots of it.

At the guest author lunch, Silvia Moreno-Garcia proposed that horror fiction articulates experiences we can't find words for in mundane contexts. She also discussed the concepts of "hostile architecture" and the horror of the "unplace." Sarah Juliet Lauro's guest scholar lunch talk elaborated on the connections among zombies, slavery, and capitalism.

Some other items I particularly enjoyed: A panel on horror in comics. A paper on Dark Lords, their motivations, typical traits, etc. A session on fairy tales and folklore, including a presentation on diseases that helped to shape the folkloric images of vampires, werewolves, and zombies. The annual iteration of "Fifty Shades of Nay," about issues of consent in speculative fiction.

I read three flash fiction pieces at a "Worlds and Words" short-reading session for multiple authors. People seemed to enjoy all of the stories, especially my own favorite, "Interview with a Reluctant Vampire." (All my experiments in flash fiction are available as free reads on my website, whose URL is below; click on "Complete Works" in the sidebar and scroll most of the way down.) I also participated in a panel called "Reimagining the Night," on the development of monsters in popular culture, especially contemporary fiction and film. It was organized by the Lord Ruthven Assembly, our vampire and revenant division. A lively, fun discussion with good attendance.

The annual LRA business meeting took place on Friday, followed by a screening of THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, Hammer Studio's adaptation of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's "Carmilla." The film adheres fairly closely to the original story, aside from pointlessly switching the names of Le Fanu's heroine (Laura) and her friend who's killed early in the movie. The LRA awards for work produced in 2024 were announced at the Saturday banquet: Fiction, WHAT FEASTS AT NIGHT, by T. Kingfisher (my top choice among the many novels considered); nonfiction, THE PALGRAVE HANDBOOK OF THE VAMPIRE, edited by Simon Bacon; other media, a tie between ABIGAIL and the latest adaptation of NOSFERATU.

My Sunday return flight launched on schedule and arrived home on time.

Margaret L. Carter

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

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Lock Every Door by Riley Sager by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Lock Every Door by Riley Sager

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

Lock Every Door was published in 2019, written by Riley Sager (pen name of author Todd Ritter). This is the second Sager novel I've read (I reviewed Home Before Dark on July 26, 2024). This Gothic suspense horror drew many comparisons to Rosemary's Baby, maybe because Sager dedicated the book to Ira Levin. I can see the reason for the comparison in the story parallels. 

In this novel, Jules Larsen is without family or job, and her boyfriend kicks her when she's down by cheating. Needing money and a place to stay fast, she interviews for a luxurious apartment sitter position at an exclusive New York City building called the Bartholomew, which has both rich and famous tenants and a checkered history filled with intriguing deaths and disappearances. 

In exchange for apartment sitting for three months, Jules will be given $1200 (which I found to be a pretty pathetic sum, considering the limitations placed on her during this time, but I suppose the point is that most of these sitters have no other place to live and need money badly). The only catch is three weird rules that she has to follow while living there: No visitors, no nights spent away from the apartment, and no disturbing the other residents. From the first, Jules can't seem to help herself from playing amateur sleuth. The disappearances of previous sitters is uncanny, considering all were broke, homeless, and without family. 

I enjoyed the Rosemary's Baby overtones that opened this story, along with the creepiness of the building with gargoyle statues guarding it, and the believability of this desperate character taking a job that doesn't seem quite smart. However, I strongly felt that the mystery investigation aspect smothered the very long, middle portion of the story. I found myself bored as more and more suspicious disappearances were discovered, and Jules tracked down every lead. I think at least a hundred pages could have easily been cropped out of the middle without significantly changing much of anything in the overall story. I guess ultimately I wanted much more horror, much less Scooby Doo. I did appreciate the social commentary aspect of how easy it is for penniless, orphaned young adults to fall through the cracks with hardly anyone--least of all law enforcement--even noticing. 

This well-written story did provide a rich tapestry when it came to setting and character development. I will say that I guessed the culprit or culprits almost right away, and I actually had a strong inkling why it was done as well--the second, short "flash forward" scene that the author included told me basically everything I needed to know. Admittedly, I'm a mystery writer myself so maybe it's harder to fool me than the other reviewers who all claimed this story had a lot of twists, turns, and surprises that I didn't find evident myself. However, oddly enough, I did think the red herrings were particularly well done and compelling. There's talk of this novel in development as a TV series by Paramount. All in all, this one is worth a read, and I do plan to pick up more of Sager's books in the future. 

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/

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Ice Limit and Beyond the Ice Limit by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child by Karen S. Wiesner

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Ice Limit and Beyond the Ice Limit by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

by Karen S. Wiesner  

   

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Before collaborating authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child conceived of the character Gideon Crew in 2011, there was a single-title, standalone book called The Ice Limit, published in 2000. In this book, a massive meteorite, maybe the largest ever discovered, is found near an island on Cape Horn, part of West Antarctic claimed by Chile. A billionaire, Palmer Lloyd, wants it for his rare and exotic archaeological artifact museum. To that end, he hires Effective Engineering Solutions, Inc., a not quite legal, "problem solving" firm headed by Eli Glinn, who eventually hires Gideon Crew first a freelancer and then full-time in the Gideon Crew Series. EES is tasked with recovering and transporting the meteorite, traveling undercover in what appears to be a rusty freighter to steal it from Chile. Eventually, it's discovered that this meteorite is in the range of 25,000 tons (more than double the weight that it was initially anticipated) and that it must have come from outside the solar system. And it may not be at all what they originally thought it was. 

The cast of characters involved in this harrowing endeavor were some of the most interesting I've encountered in a technothriller where plot tends to be so prominent, external conflict all but overshadows those populating the world the action takes place, so that deep internal conflicts may be neglected entirely. That was not the case here, although there were simply too many characters to name in this short review. Suffice it to say that nearly all of them played decently-developed roles in the events within this book. 

As long as this story was (464 pages in the hardcover), reading it was so compulsive, it didn't feel anywhere near its size. I binge-read it not long after it was first published, unable to put it down over the course of a matter of days. That said, I was devastated when I reached the end because it felt like the story was far from finished. The cliffhanger it ended on was frustrating because, at the time this book was published, there was no sequel in sight. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who felt disgruntled. While I didn't realize it at the time I read The Ice Limit, the authors posted a number of fictional newspaper and magazine articles as kind of an epilogue to the story to provide more closure. Naturally, these did nothing for me, since I didn't know they existed, but for years I felt locked into the disappointment of how the book ended. The authors moved on to other books, other series, but somehow they circled back arou

nd to this story--this time within a series they'd begun featuring Gideon Crew, who'd been hired by the EES Corporation in The Ice Limit. Beyond the Ice Limit became Book 4 in that series, published in 2016. Some websites include The Ice Limit as the prequel to that series, though Gideon Crew wasn't really in the original book.

 

In the sequel, the seed of an alien lifeform that had started sprouting thanks to the endeavors of the retrieval crew at the end of The Ice Limit has become a massive structure that's destroying the Earth. Gideon Crew (a master thief and nuclear physicist) is hired to take down this unnatural enemy before that happens. He's promised that this will be the last project before EES is permanently closed, however I see a new book, The Pharaoh Key, was published for that series in 2018 so promise obviously broken. 

While I enjoyed this story immensely, my attempts to read the other Gideon Crew novels didn't go far, maybe in part because I attempted to read them out of order. Whatever the reason, I didn't feel a draw toward the stories or the characters in the one other book in that series I tried to read, though Gideon Crew is much better fleshed out than a lot of action thriller protagonists are. I may attempt to read that series again in the future. In any case, Beyond the Ice Limit is just as exciting and page-turning as its predecessor. I couldn't put it down within the couple days it took to devour it anymore this time than I'd been able to last time. 

Something I love to see as a reader and an author is how the authors have created a shared world connecting many of their novels that cross between their series or standalone novels. For The Ice Limit, at least a few characters moved into the Gideon Crew Series with the sequel Beyond the Ice Limit. Bill Smithback, Jr., a reporter also did that in the Pendergast and Nora Kelly series'. Additionally, in the third Pendergast book, The Cabinet of Curiosities, Palmer Lloyd's museum proposal is mentioned. In Dance of Death and the sequel The Book of the Dead, Eli Glinn appears as a supporting character. 

The Ice Limit and Beyond the Ice Limit are good, old-fashioned horror fests with all the hair-raising developments and excitement you want in a top-notch thriller. I must add that, within a Pendergast novel, Dance of Death, the sixth in that series, a reference is made to a third book for The Ice Limit with what they call there Ice Limit III: Return to Cape Horn. Here's to hoping another sequel is on the way eventually! 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

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/

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Relic and Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Relic and Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

by Karen S. Wiesner

  

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Relic (which is the original title the authors prefer, not the 1997 movie title of "The" Relic which actually did make it to several versions of the book) was written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and was published in 1995 as the debut collaboration by two authors who write separate masterpieces on their own. The authors' website includes information about how they met--via the museum Preston worked and Child, an editor at St. Martin's Press, was so fascinated by that he commissioned a book about its history. They've included very interesting histories and stories behind all of their works on their website https://www.prestonchild.com/ which is definitely worth a look. The sequel, Reliquary, was published in 1997. Classified as horror technothrillers, a genre creation that's predominately credited to Michael Crichton, reviews actually likened the premiere book to a story where a dinosaur-like creature gets loose in a museum. Simply defined, it is that, and very enjoyably so. 

In Relic, an expedition in the Amazon Basin searching for a lost tribe goes horribly wrong (as they so often do), and years later the relics discovered on that journey, along with the journal of the leader, eventually find their way to their intended destination--the fictional American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The setting of the first two books of what later became The Pendergast Series is very nearly the star of this show. As someone who was actually involved in the inner workings of a museum similar to the one portrayed in the books, Preston's early connection lent credulity, insight, and wonder to these two stories. Readers are treated to the labyrinthine corridors and showcases that fill the stories with tantalizing displays that can alternately seem informative in the daytime and horrifying in the night, along with long forgotten treasures from other, lesser explored worlds in secured vaults. 

Additionally, inner workings of the politics and personnel within this structure are intriguing. Naturally, once the bizarre killings begin, centered in the museum, readers can't be sure of what's actually happening, given that there are plenty of real-life bad guys in this setting without having to resort to otherworldly monsters. But, lucky for all us horror fans, there actually is an ancient beast plucked from a shrouded world roaming the maze of hallways, secret rooms, and the long-deserted basement and sub-basement connected below the museum. 

The museum has been planning to unveil the ill-gotten findings from the expedition that causes all the tragedy in both Relic and Reliquary in a massively funded exhibition. The murders threaten to shut it down before launch, which would be financially catastrophic for the museum. As a lover of all types of these, the museum itself was one of the things I loved most about these two books. There's a whole world there that could be explored indefinitely. Inject horror into the equation, and I'm utterly beguiled. 

The murders in the museum are investigated by NYPD Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta until the FBI gets involved. Initially, Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast takes over, having an interest to the similar pattern of these murders to others he's seen before, elsewhere. Before long, he's replaced by another agent, Coffey, who's a complete and utter idiot. He makes a series of bad choices that very nearly leads to disaster for the entire city. If not for a select few, all would be lost. These heroes save the day, though not permanently, as the story continues into a sequel in which they discover that the horror and murders associated with the museum aren't over after all. 

In terms of plot, action, and suspense, these two books have an absolute playground of all. Like Dan Brown books, the external conflicts in the works of not only the collaborating authors but their individually written titles as well are filled with seemingly unending mystery and thrills--a dark side to natural science and history. You read these books for the nonstop twists and turns, and you're never disappointed by what you're given in that vein. In Brown's stories in particular, I feel that the action is relentless and exhausting, and I've been known to fall asleep in the middle of them--solely because the author doesn't provide enough, if any, downtime. In Preston and Child's books, it isn't quite that extreme, but the plot-heavy stories tend to run in that direction more often than not. Characters and readers alike desperately need downtimes in order to catch their breath so they can continue engaging in fast-paced stories like these. That's where I'm convinced these authors fall just a little bit short (Brown mostly, not as much with the others mentioned).

Additionally, deep characterization in books of these types is generally poor. In Relic and Reliquary, most of the characters are only mildly compelling. Almost entirely because they showed up the most, the ones that made at least vague impressions are D'Agosta; Special Agent Pendergast; Margo Green, a graduate student at the museum, and Dr. Frock, her advisor and a department head there; along with Bill Smithback, Jr., a journalist who's been hired by the museum to writing a book about the upcoming exhibition. Smithback and Pendergast make appearances in a variety of the collaborative authors' works, not always in the same series. For instance, Smithback returns in the Nora Kelly (a renowned archaeologist Smithback eventually marries) Series, as well as more than a few of the Pendergast Series books. His tragic history is chronicled on the following website, https://prestonchild.fandom.com/wiki/Bill_Smithback, for those who are curious about him, but be aware that his character was cut from the movie version of Relic, which is kind of inconceivable to me, if for no other reason but that he was a great comic relief (and the favorite of the authors themselves). To give you an example, during one tense moment where the museum beast is wreaking havoc in another area of the exhibition, Smithback has free access to the tantalizingly fine spread the museum has laid out for those who show up for their new exhibit. He gorges himself without inhibition. Okay, so it's in poor taste (excuse the pun), given the extenuating circumstances, but it was also just the comic relief needed in this situation. Of all the characters included in these two books, Smithback was the one who received most of the fleshing out, and I enjoyed several of his other appearances in the two authors' other works as well. 

On the subject of characterization, in my point of view, whipsaw thrillers that are more focused on plot tend to have the characters necessary manufactured on the fly within the story. They fill the roles they're intended to occupy for the moment, then they disappear altogether or, rarely, make minor returns to the story in random other scenes. Relic and Reliquary are very nearly smothered under the weight of so many point of view characters that enter the story only to die or pass almost unceremoniously out of the book in the same scene. It's very hard to choose who was actually the main character in either of these books--I suppose D'Agosta, Margo, or Smithback come the closest but I wouldn't say that definitively. For each, we learn a few things that were probably listed on a characterization worksheet about them, little or nothing personal that doesn’t pertain to the immediate story, and any internal conflict is almost always directly related to the external conflict. As two examples of that: 

In Relic, D'Agosta relates something about his own son in direct correspondence with the horrific murder of two children at the beginning. We learn precious little beyond that of the police detective's personal life.

Also in Relic, Margo Green's father supposedly just died. At no point in either books are we privy to feelings of loss or grief in this character about that fact (and that was what it felt like--a mere factoid). Little more is said except Margo's single thought about really, really not wanting to go home to take over the family business legacy her father's death leaves to her. 

I guess the best that can be said in books of these types is that characters are meant to serve a purpose. No more. No less. And that's the end of that. But I admittedly prefer much deeper characterization than providing a convenient face to hang the external conflicts in the story on. 

Another character I feel I have to mention because he got a whole book series devoted to him from these two authors is Pendergast. Back in 2016, a potential TV adaptation featuring Pendergast was being tossed around but it was announced early in 2017 that it'd been canceled. I will note here that his character was combined with that of D'Agosta's in the movie version and was completely written out of the story. Further irony is that he spawned a series of more than twenty books, and yet the authors initially found him to be "a pompous windbag, pontificating to Margo about 'compartmentalization of labor' and 'extended similes'." I actually liked him in Relic and Reliquary, but when I tried to follow him into his own series with The Cabinet of Curiosities (published in 2001), where he became more of what readers could expect of him as the main character of the series, I found it much harder to get into the stories. I did read several of them and intend to try again reading all of them. Let's see how far I get this time and whether I'll feel compelled to write reviews of them. 

Other than the superficial characterization you can expect in these two books (and many of their others), there's a lot to love in Relic and Reliquary, especially if you're looking for edge-of-your-seat beastie scares set in a wonderfully creepy environment. I also recommend the movie. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

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/

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Hatching Series by Ezekiel Boone

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Hatching Series by Ezekiel Boone

by Karen S. Wiesner

Despite my avid fear of spiders (little bitty ones and big ones alike; monster queen ones? well, let's not even go there, except within this series), I couldn't resist something that was described as "Independence Day meets World War Z, only with spiders". In other words, apocalyptic stakes riddled with horror galore. I love horror and end-of-the-world stories. I took a chance of ensuring myself lasting months of nightmares all including the creepy-crawlies lurking around us, mostly unseen.

I devoured the first book, The Hatching, in almost no time at all, all the while feeling like I was about to be devoured by some arachnid monster creeping up behind me--and what the heck was that moving along my leg?!! I couldn't put this book down. Readers were taken all around the globe, given a piece of the puzzle from multiple angles. It starts in the heart of a Peruvian jungle, where tourists get the surprise of their lives when an ancient, long-dormant evil awakens…and feeds. Meanwhile, FBI agents are sent to investigate a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis with gruesome connections. Mysteries crop up around the world: Disturbing seismic patterns in India are stumping scientists in an earthquake lab. The Chinese government unfathomably decides to drop a bomb in a region of their own country. A package from South America arrives in a DC lab, and all hell breaks loose.

Mike Rich, an FBI agent, is an engaging main character. On the personal front, he's dealing with an ex-wife who's remarried, something that still wrecks him, and being a father to their daughter Annie while juggling a demanding job that barely gives him time to breathe. Professor Melanie Guyer is fascinated with all things spider, and she's also a loveable slut. The attraction between Mike and Melanie, after they meet through their work, is fun and an enjoyable reprieve from all the action and tension in this otherwise non-stop nail-biter.

Finishing the book was torture for me because I purchased it after it first came out--July 2016. At that time, I had no idea when the follow-up would be released, but I waited about nine months (April 2017). At that point, I was still interested in reading it so I went ahead and purchased it. Skitter was nearly as good as the first, but not quite as compelling. I still liked Mike, but Melanie's insistence on treating sex as unemotionally as she would a mindless massage was really starting to wear on me, especially since Mike was so lovable and her inability combined with unwillingness to commit to anything serious put me off rooting for her or Melanie and Mike as a couple. Zero Day came out in February 2018. I did buy it, mildly enjoyed it, but I think the huge lapse in waiting from one book to the next really harshed my initial buzz. I do intend to read them again back-to-back, as a series, instead of a drawn-out marathon of patience, like my first time around. Now that all the books are readily available, it's a great time to binge-read them again. The stories would also make an amazing movie series.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

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/ 

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Leech by Hiron Ennes by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Leech by Hiron Ennes

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

I picked up Leech by Hiron Ennes at a used bookstore and bought it because 1) it was in the science fiction/horror section, 2) it sounded like a combination of genres I love and the back cover blurb definitely appealed, and 3) I liked the intriguing cover, which, by the way, my wastewater treatment manager husband immediately said, tongue in cheek, "Look, a BOD bottle--but what's that weird, black gunk coming out of it?" 

I barely know where to start with this review. I've never before read a book quite like Leech, which was published in 2022 and was the debut novel by the author, who works in the field of medicine. Leech runs the gamut when it comes to genre classification: Gothic, Victorian era literature, historical, science fiction, horror, medical mystery, speculative and post-apocalyptic fiction are some of the fitting categories, along with two others that may also (but I'm not quite sure) qualify: steampunk and body horror. In the case of the latter, I've only heard of such a thing in relation to Caitlin Starling, an author I really like who's also a narrative designer that creates art exhibitions. These could be considered (by the squeamish like myself) body horror. 

The back cover blurb barely seems adequate to cover what takes places in this unusual novel. But maybe that's the best place to start, with a posting of the blurb on the book. This reveals to us what the author and publisher intended to give away freely about the major themes in the story. 

Meet the cure for the human disease. 

In an isolated chateau, as far north as north goes, the baron’s doctor has died. The doctor’s replacement has a mystery to solve: discovering how the Institute lost track of one of its many bodies. 

For hundreds of years the Interprovincial Medical Institute has grown by taking root in young minds and shaping them into doctors, replacing every human practitioner of medicine. The Institute is here to help humanity, to cure and to cut, to cradle and protect the species from the apocalyptic horrors their ancestors unleashed. 

In the frozen north, the Institute's body will discover a competitor for its rung at the top of the evolutionary ladder. A parasite is spreading through the baron's castle, already a dark pit of secrets, lies, violence, and fear. The two will make war on the battlefield of the body. Whichever wins, humanity will lose again. 

There are strongly overt clues running all through this blurb as to what the underlying plot is, but it's not really something that's realized fully until the reader is well into the novel--something I'll talk about again soon. 

I instantly liked this story when I started reading it because it has evocative depictions of the Victorian era--the picturesque setting (in this case, a desolate one filled with frigid, imposing mountains, dense forests, and a ruin of a "castle"); the genteel manners and mannerisms practiced by all with the classes of society always firmly occupying their proper places; the quiet, subtle, eerie, and insidious sense that absolutely nothing is as it seems on the surface. In fact, one of the things I liked most in those beginning chapters was how much the main character (who isn't specifically named through most of the story--it's written in first person point-of-view) reminded me of Jonathan Harker, a new solicitor, traveling to Eastern Europe to meet with his very first client. Leech takes place mainly in Verdira, located in a remote, frozen stronghold where wheatrock--an extremely valuable commodity used for many different things--is mined. 

What the back cover blurb plainly hints at but doesn't firmly verify for most of first two-thirds of the novel is that the pathologist the Institute has sent to investigate the death of the previous one is in fact a hive-mind body host of a parasite that's replaced all medical practitioners in existence in the past five-hundred years since it established predominance over living creatures. This very same parasite was in part responsible for most human beings being transformed into mutated states while some other, unspecified (but hinted at being caused by a "{galaxy?} flying machine") physical disaster turned the world's oceans acid, shattered the moon, and created feral machines called ventigeaux ("orphans of biotechnology", as the author describes them). 

Most of the characters in the book were transformed by that parasite in one way or another from mechanic hearts, to vestigial tails to Verdira's Baron being kept alive mainly through arcane machinery. The author intended it to be the norm in this world for regular patients to display "unconventional physical attributes" such as "a mechanical limb or a migratory birthmark or a literal doppelganger". 

In this feudal society, while the Institute handles all medical matters, powerful barons run local areas. In addition to the misery-inducing Baron who rules over Verdira and doesn't have a kind word for anyone living in the crumbling chateau with him are his family and servants. His grown son Didier cares nothing about the lost miners and numerous massacres that have and are taking place in Verdira so long as the precious wheatrock is capable of being mined to contribute to their ongoing wealth. His wife drinks but never escapes the fact that she is, sadly, little more than a breeder. Her only worth is in producing heirs. And she knows it. Due to the mutations from the pathogen, she's suffered a long series of stillborn births. Her only surviving progenies are twin girls creepily described as "A tangle of dark hair…two small bodies sprouting like stems from its middle." Additionally, there's the tragic houseboy, Èmile, the last survivor of genocide against indigenous cave and mountain dwellers. 

While the back cover blurb and the writing itself were almost blatant about touting the "symbiont" parasite that's running the medical show in this world, it wasn't immediately apparent what exactly was taking place in the story as I read through the first two-thirds. It took me that long to make all the necessary connections to comprehend that I was reading a book that was in the point of view of a pathogen for most of that time. (Guess having been in the POV of a dinosaur in another book I read isn't as odd as I formerly thought compared to this.) Only later in the story, when the previous owner of the host body re-exerted her (or them-) self and emerged despite the controlling parasite inhabiting the Institute's hive-mind also being there, did it become clear that the true horror of the story was that the main character in the host body had come to realize what had happened to her or them. At the same time, the hive-mind of that parasite had identified a brand-new parasite called Pseudomycota that killed the former doctor's host body and infected nearly everyone in Verdira. 

Stated in an interview on the BookPage website as the author's main influence for writing Leech are "…the stories science can tell us about our own cells. … Deep in our mitochondria lives a strand of DNA…an essential piece of our cellular network without which we would die. …Scientists…propose it is the genome of a foreign organism that hitched a ride inside us back when we were single-celled. It’s been sitting there ever since, perpetuating itself. … Does it care about me, or does it only care about my reproductive success? … You stay awake so many nights thinking about stuff like that, and eventually you write Leech." I found this to be one of the most unique premises I've ever heard for a story. It's part of why I found it so tantalizing as I tried to piece together the tapestry of what was happening. 

It's a brilliant story that was well-written…up until the last bit of the book, where the narration shifts from hive-mind parasite to former host-body consciousness. While this does make sense in the theme of the story, the end made for a lot of curse words strung together with poor grammar in an almost too modern tone of voice that I don't believe fit the previous Victorian style. Or maybe that was the point. I also felt like the book dragged on too long near the middle. Firmer editing in both these situations wouldn't have been remiss. 

Beyond that, the unfortunate side effect of keeping readers in the dark about the basic scenario of the story is that, when details are finally given to fill in the many, many gaps that'd been deliberately left hanging earlier in the story, now suddenly readers are overwhelmed, smothered, even crushed beneath the weight of it all. I found the last third of the book very hard to process, and quite honestly, I didn't understand the end scene one iota. It almost seemed to imply that one of the characters turned into a werewolf or a dog, like the ones he cared for at the chateau (gulp! a ventigeaux???). I wasn't entirely sure, and I could be completely off about that. 

In reflecting after I finished reading the book and then allowed myself to research it so I could figure out all the things that seemed foggy while I was reading, I asked myself if I actually liked the story. My answer is kind of the same answer as I would give for Never Let Me Go written by the absolutely brilliant author Kazuo Ishiguro. You can read Margaret Carter's review of the book here on Alien Romances Blog: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/01/clones-as-organ-donors.html. Ishiguro is the same writer who gave us The Remains of the Day, which will probably always be in my top ten of favorite novels. When I read Never Let Me Go, I felt like I was missing a vital piece of the puzzle--the one in fact that would give everything else there focus an intense meaning. Without it, nothing made sense. I had flashes of feeling like I understood what was going on in the story while reading it, but nothing cohesive, nothing strong enough to help me bridge the gap. When I finished the book and then, again, allowed myself to research it, I found myself deeply and irrevocably disappointed. If the author had given me one crucial bit of information, I would have not only liked the book I would have loved it. Instead, I felt disgruntled by the lack of clarification that should have been given within the book--in my opinion, as early as possible. Without it, I had no sense of cohesion or resolution, and I felt cheated. I was left angry enough to not read another Ishiguro book to this day. I know, sad. I've decided this manner of not quite finishing a book in a way that brings everything full circle isn't really my cup of tea when it comes to reading. 

In a similar but nowhere near as drastic way, Leech kind of gave me everything other than the illuminating key to understanding the whole book until the very end, at which point I did eventually get most of what was needed for clarity and closure. Nevertheless, I did feel that a search for deeper explanations to bring everything together was needed even then. Unfortunately, a lot of the websites that I found information about Leech saw this as an allegorical tale. Like Tolkien, I distrust and abhor allegory, and I try not to include it in any of the books I write. So I passed over all that without reading much, not wanting or even being willing to read "real world parallels" into a fictional story. I do recommend Leech, especially for those who love speculative horror set in the backdrop of Victorian-era-like literature. 

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/

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte

by Karen S. Wiesner

Quite a few years ago, a trend started going around writing circles that was in direct opposition of everything I'd ever taught about going deep with characters. In this trend, writers were advised not to include more than basic information about main characters, allowing readers to fill in the blanks and make the characters whatever they want them to be. Can character development can be fluid enough to allow something like that without compromising everything vital in a story? In a word, no. Individual character choices directly influence outcomes. If a character isn't well defined, motives and purposes are constantly in question as well as in flux. Readers are more likely to say "Sucks for you" to characters they can't invest in, let alone care about enough to root for. Ultimately, characters that have little or no impact on readers make for a quickly forgotten story.

Personally, I want a good balance of character and plot development in any story I invest myself in. With most of the new stuff coming out, I'm not getting that. So I've been re-reading the books that have made it onto my keeper shelves in the past. To that end, here's another "oldies but goodies" review.

Most people know about this book under its other title in a very different format: In 1999, a highly recommended horror film directed and produced by Roman Polanski was released titled The Ninth Gate, starring Johnny Depp and Lena Olin, who both give brilliant performances. The 1993 novel was beautifully written by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, set in the world of antiquarian booksellers--a topic the author apparently hadn't gotten enough of in his 1990 work The Flanders Panel.

Hired to authenticate a rare manuscript Lucas Corso, a book dealer, soon finds himself led on a harrowing investigation in search of copies of a fictional rare book known (in English) as Of the Nine Doors of the Kingdom of Shadows. The author was burned at the stake, given that the book is said to contain instructions for summoning the devil. Corso is thwarted in his journey, as you might expect, by devil worshippers, obsessed bibliophiles, a horny femme fatale with an ulterior motive, and an obscure woman who actually seems to be helping him but may have an agenda of her own if she is what she suggests--a fallen angel who'd wandered for millennia looking for him. Corso finds multiple copies of the book, none of them exact matches. Some of the plates bear the initials "L.F." and those form a complete set of nine without duplications. Corso realizes that, together, the nine illustrations are the summoning ritual--however, one is a forgery. But which one?

From start to finish, this one is a thrill-ride of suspense and fascination, from the details included for forging a 17-century text, to the unfathomable obsessions of book collectors and the lengths they're willing to go to to obtain their crown jewel, all the way to the unexpected life of a book dealer willing to go to hell (maybe literally) and back all on the quest of extraordinary literary discovery. You can't go wrong with this book or the movie. It might be a good time to give either a replay.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

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/

Karen S. Wiesner: {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Fractal Noise, A Fractalverse Novel by Christopher Paolini

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Fractal Noise, A Fractalverse Novel

by Christopher Paolini

by Karen S. Wiesner

In the previous two weeks, I reviewed Christopher Paolini's previous Fractalverse novel, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars, in an article called "Combating Big Book Overwhelm with Audiobooks"; I also reviewed "Unity", An Interactive Fractalverse Story. The Fractalverse Universe encompasses all known space and time, binding everyone everywhere as fellow travelers.

Before we get started, a word of explanation about the order of this series is necessary. Here's what's currently available in the order the stories were published:

1.     To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (2020)

2.     "Unity" (2021)

3.     Fractal Noise (2023)

Influenced by an intense nightmare he'd had while writing Inheritance, the fourth in his Inheritance Cycle, Paolini wrote an initial draft of Fractal Noise (originally a novella) but wasn't happy with it and set it aside. Eventually, he moved on to To Sleep…, also set in the Fractalverse Universe. This project took him much longer than he intended to finish--years--and only after he completed that did he go back to Fractal Noise. With new ideas and direction, he did a major revision and it became a 300+ page novel. It's unclear when "Unity" was written but I'm going to guess soon after To Sleep… was completed, probably before he revised Fractal Noise into a novel. In any case, the chronological sequence of the three stories is the exact opposite of the publication order:

1.     Fractal Noise

2.     To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

3.     "Unity"

According to the timeline included on the fractalverse.net website, the Great Beacon on Talos VII, which is the focus of Fractal Noise, was discovered between 2234 and 2237. It was the first alien artifact discovered in the universe. Twenty-three years later, between 2257 and 2258, the events of To Sleep… took place, starting on the moon Adrasteia. "Unity" follows To Sleep… chronologically, and within the "Unity" story, on a doctor's report, the date is listed as "2335" so it's been just over 75 years.

As for suggested reading order, I would have to say either Fractal Noise or To Sleep… should come first; it doesn't actually matter which. "Unity" should follow the reading of To Sleep… regardless of what order you read the two novels. I prefer following chronology as a general rule for all series, but the author felt that To Sleep… "would be a better introduction to the Fractalverse". I read To Sleep… first because it was published first. I followed that with Fractal Noise because it was published second. I only found out about "Unity" after going to the author's website. If I'd had a choice, I would have read Fractal Noise first, then To Sleep… and finally "Unity". Make of that what you will.

I have to comment on the fact that I didn't understand the connection between the two novels published in the series beyond that they shared the same world. I wasn't sure if there were characters in common, a plot, place, or something else. It wasn't until after I read both books (and the short story) and then listened to the audiobook version of To Sleep… that I finally figured out the connection between the two novels: Alien artifacts. That's what ties the two books together, other than the shared universe. The first alien artifact was discovered in Fractal Noise, the second in To Sleep… The question whether the same alien species created both artifacts is much tougher to answer, and I couldn't find a definitive answer to that anywhere online and it's lost in the combined 1,184 pages of the two books. But at least I discovered that there really wasn't any other connection between the two novels beyond the shared universe and ancient alien relics. Sounds simple, but it was frustrating not knowing that. I always feel like crucial information that most readers will wonder about needs to be included in the series blurb. Saves on wear and tear of reader nerves to know something unifying like that upfront.

So, the focus of Fractal Noise is the anomaly found on Talos VII, an otherwise uninhabited planet. From space, the stellar survey crew onboard the SLV Adamura sees a pit fifty kilometers wide, definitely not natural. This giant abyss is broadcasting a signal, to whom or what, is unknown. Eventually (in To Sleep…), this hole is called the Great Beacon. A small team is sent out to check it out, and most of their journey has to take place on foot with limited supplies and protection. The group of four consists of (to be blunt):

1)    A stereotypical religious fanatic who believes no one and nothing matters other than divine will. This woman is one crack away from becoming the next Interstellar Psycho. Bad luck for everyone involved: She's made the team leader.

2)    An opinionated tough guy with a chip on his shoulder who starts out as fun and personable, but then becomes the religious fanatic's archenemy as he vies for control of the team and the mission.

3)    A spineless weakling who will cave to whoever's strongest at the moment, incapable of doing anything but flying into the wind from one moment to the next, especially after he's injured so badly, he has to be carried the rest of the way.

4)    A scarred-from-childhood man so immersed in his grief from losing the woman he loved--the woman he's only realized in retrospect that he mistreated before her violent death by a tigermaul--that he doesn't really care about anyone or anything except in reflex. This person is Dr. Alex Crichton, a xenobiologist.

Alex is the main character. None of the other three major characters are really given more than a brief sketch in terms of fleshing out. We learn very little about them, beyond what's absolutely needed to tell the story, and so the book always felt a little lopsided to me. I might have learned too much about Alex, who became a little sickening since he was a train wreck personality, and not nearly enough about the other three pivotal characters. The loss of personal information became harder to take especially as the first two characters disintegrated in their escalating conflict with each other, the third became less and less useful to the team as he cringed away from their ongoing battle, with only Alex trying to keep the peace--mainly by staying out of the argument altogether. Alex is also the one who ended up picking up the pieces in the fallout and kept them moving forward steadily toward their goal. Clearly, he should have been team leader, but until someone is under duress in the field, I guess it's hard to know who might crack first. I suspect the captain of the ship believed he'd chosen the last person who seemed capable of falling apart as the team leader. Bad call leads to big mistake.

The conflicts with each other, the conflicts of their individual pasts that are motivating and driving each of them, and the conflict with the relic they're moving toward steadily despite all that's preventing them from reaching it are intriguing. The tension culminated, small outbursts becoming bigger and bigger, the results of the team’s in-fighting and bad luck making the journey even more stressful. I truly enjoyed the trek across the planet to the beacon, providing constant suspense with the internal conflicts of the team, physical injuries, the mission in jeopardy nearly from the beginning, and the things thrown in their way, like the growing, deafening noise, "turtles"--creatures that were obviously guarding the broken beacon's equipment, and numerous equipment failures.

Earlier, I said that the *focus* of Fractal Noise is the beacon. However, it's in no way the *purpose* of the story. If you don't want spoilers, don't read the next two paragraphs bracketed with asterisks:

**Within the pages of this book, you don't ever learn what the beacon is, who put it there, why it was constructed, what it was supposed to do or supposed to contact. You learn nothing important about the Great Beacon by the end. It's simply a relic that might have been covered over by the sands of time if not for the signal it was sending out that unfortunately captured attention from this crew and later the world. By the time the story To Sleep in a Sea of Stars rolls out, humans still don't know anything solid about that ancient artifact. In that book, it's revealed that they're called whirlpools by the Wranaui and that there are many of them around the universe. The Wranaui allies believe the Vanished created them but even they don't know for sure. But none of the species can even venture a guess what they're for.

Anyone reading this would have found it frustrating not to learn anything worthwhile about the relic. Initially, it seemed like the point of the story, though the back cover blurb did make it clear that the "ghosts of the past" following the members of the team were the true focus. In the end, Alex came to grips with his past and his grief. That's the best thing that happened--the only bit of closure provided. I presume he made it back to the ship, maybe with the weakling still alive, and that's how Kira and the other characters in the time period of To Sleep… know the beacon even exists.**

Despite a bit of annoyance about not getting any part of what I felt the story was building toward, I did find the story worthwhile reading. I savored the journey, weathering the disappointment in the end, yes, but I remained excited about where this series could be leading. Of the three Fractalverse stories I've read thus far, Fractal Noise was my favorite. Maybe in subsequent books, we'll learn what the beacon in Fractal Noise was intended for. At the end of To Sleep…, Kira learned that the Maw had left seven other parts of itself in different locations within the universe, and she intended to track them down alone. Perhaps we'll learn more about the rest of her journey to either kill or convert those seven fragments, as she did before.

As a reader, I look for closure in a story and series, and I felt both Fractalverse novels left a lot of the opposite, though not in a way that could be described as a deal breaker. I accepted the loose ends, though I'm not sure all readers would be as forgiving, because I'm eager to know more about this world. I suspect the author will produce many other stories that are connected to the universe but not tied closely to them, leaving even more fragments littered around the Fractal galaxy. Eventually, there may be a way to tie them all together--what I'm ultimately hoping for. In the meantime, there has been talk about either a film or TV series adaptation of To Sleep… with the author and his sister already writing scripts and presumably too occupied for Paolini to work on the next installment in the series. I look forward to hearing more about whether the visual adaptation goes forward, assuming that, in some way, the events of Fractal Noise and "Unity" will be included in that. At this point, until the author gives us a clue, who knows what might happen next in the Fractalverse? If you have any conjecture, leave a comment.

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/