Spirit of Steamboat

by Craig Johnson
146 pgs  (A Longmire story)

Spirit of Steamboat is a slight departure from Craig Johnson’s usual Walt Longmire story. This one is a novella, and instead of the usual mystery Johnson sets Sheriff Longmire out to solve, this time around it’s an adventure story from Longmire’s past he tells.

The story begins on Christmas Eve. A young woman shows up at Longmire’s office asking unusual questions about Lucian Conalley, Longmire’s predecessor as sheriff. Longmire takes the woman to the nursing home Lucian now resides at, but neither he nor Lucian has any idea who the woman is. It’s not until she says the word “Steamboat” that both men know instantly who she is, and they’re both transported back to an earlier Christmas Eve. This one in 1988, shortly after Walt became sheriff of Absaroka County, Wyoming.

A young girl had been seriously burned in a car accident and the medical helicopter that picked her up at the scene had had to make an emergency landing in Longmire’s jurisdiction because of a storm. The girl was going to die if she didn’t get medical treatment beyond what they were capable of giving her in the small Wyoming hospital and she needed to be transported to Denver. But the storm that had forced the helicopter to land was also preventing any airplanes from making the trip.

There was only one plane around that Longmire knew could make the trip, Steamboat, an old World War II bomber that hadn’t flown for decades. Fortunately, Walt also knew someone who had flown a plane very similar to Steamboat in the war and thought he could probably convince him to make the dangerous trip.

Spirit of Steamboat is a great story. It’s easily read in one or two sittings and Johnson keeps the action moving the whole time. But it’s not just an adventure story. Johnson seemed to pack more emotions and feelings into this one than he has in any of the rest of his books.

In hindsight, I wish I would have waited till December to read this one. It’s a great story with a message worthy of that time of the year.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Hundred-Year Christmas

by David Morrell
96 pgs

I hadn't decided on a Christmas book to read this year until I learned about this old book written by David Morrell. It's a short novella, and nothing like the thrillers he usually writes, but it's heart-warming and equally appealing to adults and children. I read it to my seven-year-old son, and we both enjoyed it.

 Every hundred years, a new Santa is chosen. The old one selects his replacement during his hundredth year, and on that Christmas Eve, leaves this world by climbing and disappearing over a snowy hilltop by his home.

Every New Year's Eve, a new Father Time is born. He ages eight years every month, and on the very next New Year's Eve, he also climbs and disappears over that same snowy hilltop.

The Hundred-Year Christmas takes place during the current Santa's one hundredth year. He has a year to select his replacement before his time is up, but finding someone willing to serve in the iconic role is proving to be extremely difficult. But the search for his replacement isn't really the story Morrell is telling. The real story of the book is the relationship between the two men. One that lives his whole life in a year's time, and the other that watches those hundred lifetimes knowing the exact moment his own life will end.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Unholy Night

Unholy Night by Seth Grahame-Smith

I should start off by saying that I found both of Seth Grahame-Smith's previous books to be surprisingly well written. Before I read them I was expecting to enjoy them, but wasn't expecting them to be as intelligent and literary as they both were. When I mention Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter to people who haven't read them, they tend to assume I'm talking about amateurish books written as some sort of literary prank. But they're far from that. Think I'm kidding? Read'em.

Unholy Night is one more example of why people should take Seth Grahame-Smith seriously as an author. He takes an idea or story that is generally well known, and then springboards off of it and ends up with a book that you simply have to read to appreciate. This time around it's the story of the three wise men of the nativity that are the genesis.

Balthazar is a thief with a grudge against the Roman Empire. After being caught and thrown into Herod's prison, where he meets up with two other prisoners, Balthazar pulls off a daring escape for the three. After they flee Jerusalem, they decide to hide out for the night in a stable in Bethlehem where the meet up with a young couple and their newborn child. Balthazar has no desire to get caught up in their lives, but the next day, as he and his two companions are trying to slip out of Bethlehem they're drawn back by the screams of the mothers whose babies are being killed by Herod's men. Balthazar decides to help the new family escape to Egypt, where they should be safe until the disease-ridden Herod finally dies.

Unholy Night is a great book. This time around Grahame-Smith doesn't rely on the writings of any other author for the frame of his story. This time there were only a couple of biblical verses at his disposal. But he is very successful in using them as the origins for a story that is unique, violent, and at the same time, respectful to the story that plays such an important role for so many peoples' beliefs.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Krampus the Yule Lord

Krampus the Yule Lord by Brom

I've been looking forward to this holiday season for awhile now--not because I love the extra traffic anytime I get anywhere near a shopping mall, or because I can't hear "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" enough times during these five weeks, but because I've been holding off reading a couple holiday-themed books until the season arrived. Krampus is the first of the two.

It's the fourth book written by renowned fantasy artist Brom, who I came across a few years ago when his first book Plucker came out, a story I'd describe as "Toy Story meets Guillermo del Toro." It was so unique and imaginative that I later read his next two books as they came out, including the fantastic The Child Thief, an adult retelling of the story of Peter Pan who was not as innocent as Walt Disney would have you believe.

Krampus is not for everyone. My children will not be reading it for many years to come, that is, if they choose to read it at all. After all, they might not grow up with the same literary tastes their father has. But one can hope. That being said, I enjoyed the book immensely.

Krampus is a character from European folklore whom parents would warn their children about around Christmas time--if children were good, they were told that Santa would come and leave presents, if they were bad, Krampus would come instead and put them in his sack and beat them. He's the son of the Norse god Loki, and in Brom's tale, has been imprisoned for the last 500 years because of what he perceives as Santa Clause's betrayal so long ago. Now he's managed to escape and plans to exact his revenge on His Jolliness.

Jesse Walker is a down-on-his-luck estranged father and husband who had aspirations of one day becoming a successful songwriter. While sitting in his truck Christmas Eve, contemplating taking his own life, Jesse witnesses something that will significantly alter the course of his life--Santa Clause being chased and attacked by seven devilish figures. Jesse watches as Santa makes it to his sleigh and begins to take off as several of his pursuers jump on board. As the sleigh begins to climb, he hears screams and cries and then sees a sack fall and land nearby. That sack, which Jesse finds to possess magical powers, drags Jesse into the war that has been going on for centuries, a war between the man whose image appears at every turn each December, and the one who December 25th originally belonged to, the Lord of Yule.

Krampus is really a fantastic story. Brom takes his in-your-face writing style and portrays a character that on one page is ruthless and terrible, and on the next, sympathetic and endearing. He successfully incorporates Norse legends along with the origins of the Christmas tree and other customs now so intrinsically tied to Christmas into a highly entertaining and surprisingly uplifting story.

At times, the language can be rough, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Here's a small taste from the prologue:

Santa Clause, my dear old friend, you are a thief, a traiter, a slanderer, a murderer, a liar, but worst of all you are a mockery of everything for which I stood.

You have sung your last ho, ho, ho, for I am coming for your head. For Odin, Loki, and all the fallen gods, for your treachery, for chaining me in this pit for five hundred years. But most of all I am coming to take back what is mine, to take back Yuletide. And with my foot upon your throat. I shall speak your name, your true name, and with death staring back at you, you will no longer be able to hide from your dark deeds, from the faces of all those you betrayed.

I, Krampus, Lord of Yule, son of Hel, bloodline of the great Loki, swear to cut your lying tongue from your mouth, your theiving hands from your wrists, and your jolly head from your neck.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆