SMALL PRESS OMNIBUS REVIEW
Brian Herbert, Timeweb (Five Star Publishing, 2006)
David Niall Wilson , The Mote In Andrea's Eye (Five Star Publishing, 2006)
Tim Waggoner, The Orchard of Dreams (Five Star Publishing, 2006)
Jon F. Baxley, The Blackgloom Bounty (Five Star Publishing, 2006)
Ly de Angeles, The Shining Isle (Llewellyn Publications, 2006)
This is not a 5-star review. It is a review of 5 books: four from Five Star Publishing and one from Llewellyn Publications. One of these books was a good read and shows promise; the other four ranged from pointless to outright bad. So imagine this review as a classic quincunx: one object in the center, the other four arranged symmetrically around it. There's a decent little semi-precious stone in the center -- a garnet, maybe -- surrounded by a granite pebble, a plastic button, a nicely cut bit of beer bottle, and a fossilized chunk of kitty litter.
#1 - Timeweb. Brian Herbert is the son of Frank Herbert, and is almost as well known as his prolific father. Much of that renown has been due to his taking over the endless storyline of the Dune universe. Timeweb, however, is an original tale, touted as the beginning a new story cycle. Initially one wonders how a tiny house like Five Star landed this. But then one begins to read the book, and alas; one discovers that Brian Herbert simply cannot write. The plot concerns a stalwart egalitarian son of privilege (Noah Watanabe), who runs an ecological salvage company in constant battle against evil, wastrel merchant lords intent on trashing the Galaxy. There are shape shifters with purple blood (described with equally purple prose), heroic and/or evil stock figures, and a stereotypical plot to destroy humanity. And it is all really badly written.
Mr. Herbert shares his esteemed father's broad imagination and wide sweep of narrative -- which is to say, these are large ideas and the story goes everywhere. But so would a hundred pounds of overcooked spaghetti, which is what Timeweb closely resembles. It's big, sprawling and tangled, and cools very quickly from a boil to a nasty room-temperature stolidity. The style is leaden and unreadably melodramatic. The characters struggle (vainly) to reach two dimensions, and interact about as smoothly as Punch and Judy puppets. Turgid and stagnant, this is an example of literary Lamarckism disproved -- because Mr. Herbert has just not inherited his father's accumulated skills as a writer. Which is a shame, because it really does have huge ideas behind it, in a universe that Brian Herbert can apparently see very clearly. Sadly, he can't make that vision clear to the reader.
#2 - The Mote In Andrea's Eye, by David Niall Wilson, borrows its title from Larry Niven (The Mote In God's Eye) and its plot from the movie Twister. And there you reach the peak of excitement in this heavy technological tale. Atmospheric scientist Andrea Jamieson (What discipline does she work in? We never find out . . .) loses her father in a hurricane as a child. She grows up with the obsessive goal of stopping hurricanes in their paths, so no other little girls lose their fathers the same way. She falls in love with Phil Wicks, an ex-Navy pilot hired to seed clouds as part of Andrea's government-funded plan to halt hurricanes before they hit land. In the course of Andrea's first attempt at derailing a hurricane, both the storm and her beloved Phil suddenly vanish into the Bermuda Triangle (what!?!?) leaving Andrea to continue her lonely fight against the elements for the next 35 years -- when both Phil and the storm reappear. The storm has not aged. Phil has -- his plane literally falls to pieces shortly after landing. Despite this, he continues through the rest of the story with an agile derring-do at complete odds with his stated age in the low 80's . . .
Aside from the inexplicable excursion into the Bermuda Triangle, the science is unobjectionable, drawing on well-known results of cooling sea water and seeding clouds, but it is pedantically described. (The major exception to this is a dramatic scene describing calming storm-driven waves by dropping "giant water balloons filled with peanut oil": Mr. Wilson's own description, which gave me the only giggle in the book.) Regardless of all the striven-for excitement, this is basically a boring book. The writing is competent, but there is just no spark in either the science or the characterization. It informs, but does not entertain. Even with the thousands of lives hanging on the defeat of the inexplicable killer storm and the long-delayed love story, this is simply not an exciting book. Less description of machines and technology and more of characterization might have helped. But as this is Mr. Wilson's 13th novel, it is probably just his style.
#3 - The Orchard of Dreams -- Godfire: Book 1. Tim Waggoner has come up with an original story concept here, and he deals with it well in this first part of a proposed trilogy. The classic Last Battle between Good and Evil has actually taken place, but neither side has won. Instead, the powers of the gods are shattered and dispersed like wind-blown seeds, taking root in the human population of Athymar, one of the Nine Known Lands. A sudden fugue fells every living human in one day. When they all waken, each human possesses one inexplicable talent. Some are trivial (one man's eyes change color in an endless cycle; a young woman reads the future through the antics of a pet mouse) while others are god-like. The hero, retired warrior Tarian Ambrus, wakes with the ability to heal any illness or injury up to death. His wife, on the other hand, is transmuted into a bat-winged demoness and abandons him.
Tarian and his son (now a werewolf) set out for the capital of Athymar, where they end up as part of a party sent to discover whatever they can from the ruins of the Last Battlefield of Heart's Wound. Human civilization is tottering under the onus of countless uncontrollable and conflicting powers; demons are leaking into the human world from the rifts caused by the Last Battle; and mankind's only hope is a mythical demi-goddess in an enchanted sleep somewhere on the edge of Heart's Wound. Tarian's demon-wife is stalking him, and there is a traitor in their company.
This is really an engrossing story -- it starts out a little slowly but finds its feet within the first couple of chapters, proceeding to draw the reader on eagerly. What might easily have been stereotypes develop life and dimension. (Even the requisite elves, originally presented with a sort of semi-Vulcan asceticism, develop an intriguing culture as Mr. Waggoner's story progresses.) I look forward to the continuing story and the evolution of the beleaguered Tarian and his companions. I just hope Mr. Waggoner finds a better publisher.
#4 - The Blackgloom Bounty. Jon F. Baxley developed this from his eBook The Scythian Stone, described as a medieval fantasy. I think perhaps Mr. Baxley is slightly confused as to the meaning of the word medieval, since this story combines Merlin, Scythians, Picts, classical Greeks, 16th century Scots and a sprinkling of uncanny creatures from a pan-european mythology, with impartial liberality. A young Highlander, Daynin McKinnon (last scion of a slaughtered clan, of course) falls in with a sorcerer, Kruzurk Makshare, a disciple of Merlin's. Daynin wants his family seat of Kinloch Keep back. Kruzurk wants to find and destroy the evil Seed of Cerberus, a rival sorcerer and ex-student of Merlin's, who is (of course) bent on wreaking destruction on the world -- apparently just for the hell of it -- from the bastion of his fortress Blackgloom. Both sorcerers are in search of the Scythian Stone, a source of great power, which is (of course) found in Daynin's field. Daynin falls in with Kruzurk and they spend the rest of the book skirmishing with the Seed and his minions. Daynin finds, loses, and re-finds his true love and his family destiny (of course).
Motives are unclear, as this is a confused mess of a story. Vikings and armored knights mix it up. Saxons are still running around in a culture that has already developed the crossbow. There is nothing wrong per se with a fantasy culture mixing all these disparate elements, but Mr. Baxley has insisted on setting his story on Earth, and it doesn't work. The characters are at best flat and at worst caricatures; the attempted Scots dialect, phonetically portrayed right down to the rolling R's, is painful to read. Had this been intended as a vaudeville take on sword and sorcery tales, it might have been sort of crudely funny -- instead, it is an annoying waste of the reader's time and effort.
#5. The Shining Isle. Ly de Angeles' previous works have been non-fiction dealing with witchcraft and the Tarot. Clearly, she is deeply devoted to Celtic neo-paganism, and The Shining Isle, her first work of fiction, deals with the Tuatha de Danaan in the modern world. The heroine, Holly Tremenhere, is a lineal descendent of Celtic royalty; she has no idea, of course, but is aware that the modern world leaves her unhappy and unsatisfied. Retreating to her aunt's island home off the coast of Ireland, she encounters Travellers (who might be the Rom, but might also be the indigenous Tinkers; Ms. De Angeles is unclear), Holly also finds herself caught up in the very real machinations of the Sidhe, and of the human islanders who protect and hide the ancient culture of the Celts. She also comes to an understanding of her heritage and the arcane powers it can give her, and is ultimately anointed as the next in a long line of queens. Power, love, wisdom and contentment are all hers.
Ms. De Angeles is an initiated priestess and expert on the Tarot: it says so right inside the cover of this book. She seems sincere in her beliefs and has a compelling personal vision to share. Unfortunately, enthusiasm and devotion do not make one a writer of fiction. This book reminded me of nothing so much as the sort of stories teenaged girls write in empty composition books during study hall. The heroine is always brave, misunderstood and a thinly disguised version of the author. She is different from, and thus better than, her peers. She will have a high romantic destiny and finally escape the mundane world. And her story will be badly written: melodramatic, puerile and self-centered with all the tunnel vision of an unhappy adolescent. Sadly and annoyingly, Ms. de Angeles' story fits all these parameters.
Note #1 - Llewellyn Publications is the printing arm of Llewellyn Worldwide, and seems to be a self-publication branch. Their other offerings cover a wide range of occult, neo-pagan and New Age paraphernalia, including such gems as a Da Vinci Tarot, where the ancient symbolism is neatly and totally obscured by modern media obsessions.
Note #2 - Five Star Publishing is an imprint of Thomas Gale, and specializes in library-edition books. They boast that most of their sales are via "standing orders" from libraries - which seems to mean that librarians order grab bags, leaving the choice of what they receive up to the marketers at Five Star. One suspects Five Star, in turn, is mining someone's slush pile. What a shame for the innocents getting their books from their local libraries.
