Polaris by Sheldon Perkins

Posted on August 1, 2011 by Michelle

I was looking for Space Opera and got Star Trek fanfic with name changes.

Though written in the 70′s, Polaris emulates what Star Trek would become and adds a dose of sexism, union bullying and stereotyping.

Captain Alexander Traynor takes command of the Polaris, a ~~Starfleet~~United Space Republic ship with a fractured crew.

The Polaris is in need of an overhaul to get battle ready. The United Space Alliance is at war with an Alien race and with itself. The USA (get it?) is made up of Earth, it’s sister planets and a few planets around Barnard’s Star. Each planet was colonized with a specific racial or ethnic group. The Irish planet all speak like bad leprechauns, for example.

The main conflict has to do with the politics of the USA. A new planet wants to join, but Earthers of the Earth First party believe that Earth should control all the governments and not allow other planets in. The party members on the Polaris are shocked and dismayed that the new captain is an Earther but likes and hangs out with non-Earthers. All the Earthers harass, sabotage and even try to court martial anyone who doesn’t put Earth First or is not an Earther.

Combine that with stilted dialog, and lots of procedure. You get a lot of politics and a very dry story. The worst of it though is how the woman are treated in the book. They cannot accomplish anything with a man to support them. Every time a woman enters the scene she is degraded and basically patted on the head. Every time they leave a scene the men spend a few minutes talking about why they’d like to “hit that”. When the men of the Earth First team are take down, the women turn into wilting lilies and resign willingly to take care of the injured men.

Some of the characters were likable. However the plot drags, the characters are flat and I found the captain and his doctor friend very unlikable.

The Kings & Queens of Europe: From Medieval Tyrants to Mad Monarchs by Brenda Ralph Lewis

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Michelle

I picked up a series of books from Barnes & Noble because they looked interesting. Mostly they contain writing of a tabloid nature.

Kings & Queens is almost nauseating. Not because of the scandalous nature of the book but because the author choose to write this as if they were shocked by all the behavior then cry foul about how sad it is that monarchs fell out of fashion.

The book does have redeeming qualities…it focuses on lesser-known monarchs by which I mean the lesser-known ones here in the west. The art and photographs the most enjoyable part of the book, printed in full color. The write seems to gloss over parts of the reigns it covers and give very lurid details all of a sudden. Therefore, you may not know why they got divorced but you’ll know how many boys someone slept with, for instance. This is indicative of the whole series of books. In addition, you may miss important details if you don’t read the captions for the images. The pull quotes are set out of context and distract from the actual text.

Interesting but ultimately fluff, but fluff is okay from time to time.

Runes for Transformation: Using Ancient Symbols to Change Your Life by Kaedrich Olsen

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Michelle

I picked up Olsen’s book because I went to take a class from him up at It Must Be Karma. The book lays out basic Norse beliefs and each rune is listed with its corresponding rune poem(s) and his interpretation of those.
The book goes further than a book of meanings. Olsen discusses how to use the runes in divination, mediation, assigning futhark to items and concepts, intonation of the runes and other techniques. With this book, you could easily setup a daily practice with the runes that goes beyond divination. Having the rune poems laid out for all of the Elder Futhark is worth the price of this book alone.

Arch Enemy by Frank Beddor

Posted on July 4, 2011 by Michelle

Arch Enemy continues where Seeing Redd left off. Redd is in retreat after losing her imagination, Wondertropolis is dealing with unimaginative factions taking revenge on those that used to have imagination and Arch is finding out that he has more power now that Redd and Alyss are helpless.

What follows is the bittersweet climb from the ashes. Just like previous books in the series, Beddor delivers such poignant prose even while using nonsense words of Wonderland. I have been so happy with this trilogy that I would be happy to read Beddor’s future works as well. He manages to weave a tale of past mistakes catching up to his characters amid a world of whimsy. I cannot tell you how much I loved this book but it is on par with the last two.

We learn more of Redd’s past and her decent into black imagination. We get to go back to the real world and see the effects of lost imagination. Alyss has to contend with the other royal clans for power when she has none. And, as always, there is Dodge by her side his own turmoil forcing him into action.

The twists and turns in this book are not easy to guess but fit with overall story. I read it over the course of a day and was enthralled until the very end.

Persuasion by Jane Austin

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Michelle

It’s hard to state why Persuasion is my favorite Jane Austin novel. Then novel is procession of rationalizations behind motives. Each one a march towards a relationship between Anne and Fredrick. It is a slow torturous novel which forces the reader to see the pain caused by one person to persuade another to give up the man she loves and how they persuade themselves and each other to get back together.

Reasons unfold like flowers. Conclusions are thrown about like seeds. The climactic moment comes when Anne reads Fredrick’s letter, which he almost didn’t leave for her, and finds out that he would have her back if only she said so and he was a fool to think he would be with anyone but her.

There is something about he pace of the story, the denial of happiness for properness and the final conclusion in which they come to the understand of wanting to be together that has the essence of romance without the tropes we normally see.

I downloaded this book for the Kindle app on my MyTouch 4G. I like having my favorite books available where ever. Now if I could only trade in my physical books for digital ones I’d buy an ereader in a second.

The Thanatos Syndrome by Walker Percy

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Michelle

Lots of conflict today. just working through it all.

I expected more from The Thanatos Syndrome. Instead, I got a convoluted story of a ex-con psychiatrist track down the horrific experiments of his colleges, break up a child pornography ring and stop another Holocaust.

Dr. Tom More, on parole for selling prescription drugs as a truck stop, has come home to Feliciana to find his wife cheating on him and a sudden bridge champion, old patients with complete personality changes, and colleagues with ulterior motives offering him a dream job even though they are his parole officers.

The whole book made me wants to take a shower and use a salt scrub. The main character is put in the position as savior. He does not seem to be connected to his past at all. Instead, it is used as a reason his colleagues hold power over him. His own morals come into question even as he’s questioning others. He puts no stock in claim of a second holocaust, though the author expects us to make the connection when More confronts them and the problem of the school/porno ring. I’m not even sure he thought the euthanasia was wrong in the first place. He had nothing against chemical behavior modification only that it was being used by others (non-colleagues) for sex with minors. Until that came to light I worried that Tom had no morals at all.

Besides the name, I could not tell if he was trying to connect Tom to Saint Thomas More or not. There was no other connection.

Overall, the book is fast paced so the convoluted story line can be easily glossed over.

Ancestral Path Tarot by Tracey Hoover & Julie Cuccia-Watts

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Michelle

It’s been a long time since I reviewed a tarot deck. I don’t buy as many as I used to and there are plenty in my house which have never gotten any attention. I pulled out the Ancestral Path tarot to see if I could read with it. I bought the deck because it has some beautiful art. Each suit is designed around a regional ancestral group, Egyptian, Ainu, Western/Arthurian, and Native American. The majors pull from cultures all over the world.

The book gives meanings and background for each of the cards. There are nine spreads with sample readings for each of them.

For me, though, I felt the deck was scattered. I couldn’t come up with a coherent reading using it. The images evoked chaos more than harmony when in conjunction with images from across the globe. I think sticking with the Rider-Waite pattern was this deck’s down fall. With that restriction, the double meaning of the cards warred with each other and in some cases the image one and some the symbolism.

I can’t work with such a scattered deck. So pretty but non-functional for me.

The Oak King & the Ash Queen by Anne Phillips

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Michelle

The Oak King & the Ash Queen tells the story of Aidan and Diana, two English children who get involved in the wars of the tree people over the course of the year. The twins are kidnapped by the Summer tree’s King and Queen on day on a walk in the woods. They learn the magic of the trees and help the Summer trees against the invasive Winter trees.

The story is well-researched, fun to read and holds up well since I read it as a child. Many terms are English, so have an internet connection handy to look them up. Read this book with your child. It’s a great trip through a simple fantasy.

The Borrowers Afloat by Mary Norton

Posted on February 23, 2011 by Michelle

I read this book to my daughter recently. I haven’t read it in almost twenty years. Unlike The Dawn Treader, The Borrowers Afloat by Mary Norton stood the test of time. The story of a displaced family of borrowers is just as endearing now as it was then.

Pod, Homily and Arrietty have lost their home following the events in The Borrowers Afield. They move in with Homily’s sister for a short time until the humans leave and are forced to find a new home.

The story conveys a sense of loss and longing, punctuated by dire events endured by small people in a large world. If you are looking for older children’s books that are as good now as they were then, check out the The Borrowers Afloat.

The Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Michelle

I saw Dawn Treader a while ago. The movie was fantastic, more so when I went back to read the book. The book is filled with almost no conflict, and snarky off hand remarks at government and other people the author wasn’t happy with.

The book was sappy, incoherent (why are we just forgiving slavery?) waltzes through problems, and very little depth. The move changed the order of islands, Eustace’s time as a dragon (which is barely a footnote in the book) and gave the characters something to fight for as well as dialog to say. Reepacheep in the book is not the likable yet stalwart defender of decorum he in the movie. Instead he’s a rat bastard who is hard to sympathize with at all. Pun intended.

This was my favorite book of the Narnia series when I was a kid. Now, especially in comparison to the recent movie, this is my least favorite.

Fuzzy Thoughts

You think this is busy? You should see what's in my head.

Tag Archives: Reviews