The Dragonbone Chair

by Tad Williams
654 pgs  (Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series #1)

The Dragonbone Chair is the first book in Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series, a series that originally began as a trilogy 30 years ago, but which he recently picked up and began expanding. The series is set on the fictional continent of Osten Ard during the reign of King John Presbyter.

This is an epic fantasy series, so there is a dozen-or-so page appendix at the end of the book to assist in keeping track of the different characters and races. But the primary character in this first book is Simon, a 14-year-old kitchen servant in Hayholt Castle. Simon spends every day going through the same mundane chores assigned to him until he's eventually granted a reprieve of sorts and assigned to apprentice Doctor Morgenes, the castle's healer. Morgenes takes Simon under his wing and begins teaching him how to read and write and about the mysteries of the natural world.

Soon after the book begins, King John Presbyter dies, and his son Elias becomes king. But Elias turns out to be little more than a puppet of forces whose goal is to end the reign of mortal men in Osten Ard and return it to the ancient races that inhabited it originally.

Simon eventually finds himself in the crosshairs of the machinations taking place on Osten Ard and is forced to flee Hayolt Castle. He embarks on his journey and is soon joined by an assortment of characters from other races. After they come together, they discover the true danger facing Osten Ard and they learn of the existence of three ancient swords: Minnear (Year of Memory), Sorrow, and Thorn, whose combined magic is the only force powerful enough to save Osten Ard. It's believed that the forces they're up against already have possession of one of the swords, so Simon and his companions embark on a journey to find the other two.

It's pretty clear Williams, like many fantasy writers, found inspiration in the works of Tolkien. But Williams took that inspiration and did something most writers before him didn't do...he raised the bar. George R.R. Martin has said this book was the one that made him realize what level fantasy writing could attain, and he credited the series as the inspiration for his A Song of Ice and Fire series. That should give you an idea of the breadth and depth of the series this book begins.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Doomed

by Chuck Palahniuk
329 pgs  (Madison Spencer series #2)

In Doomed, Chuck Palahniuk inexplicably returns to the story of Maddy Spencer, the 13-year-old dead girl who woke up in Hell in Damned. She's now been cast of of Hell by Satan to wander Earth in a state of
purgatory.

As she travels the earth, visiting places where pivotal events from her life occurred, we learn more about the privileged, chaotic life she once had, and it's revealed what she did to warrant being sent to Hell in the first place. She haunts her celebrity parents, the former atheists who now run a cult based on a phone call they received from Maddy while in Hell.

But there's a reason Maddy has been consigned to Purgatory, and it's not just because Satan is sick and tired of her (and I can't blame him). She may hold the key to the eventual end of the world.

I don't have anything good to say about Doomed. I felt like Palahniuk gave me a peek at what Hell is like. Thankfully, it came to an end on page 329.

★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Moonglow

by Michael Chabon
430 pgs

To understand and appreciate Moonglow by Michael Chabon, it's useful to read it as a memoir written as a novel. According to the narrator, who appears to be Chabon himself, the story is based on conversations he had with his grandfather near the end of his life. His grandfather recounts the most interesting and slightly fantastical events of his life, and then instructs his writer-grandson to write it all down and "make it mean something."

The story Chabon tells describes his grandparents' marriage, two Jews who survived Nazism. It also tells of his grandfather's brilliance, which was instrumental in laying the groundwork for early rocket technology and ultimately, space flight. He also recounts his grandfather's pursuit of the Nazi rocket-builder Wernher von Braun at the end of the war.

The reason I said it's useful to read the book as a memoir...written as a novel, is because the book seems to be a combination of the two. It's hard to believe Chabon didn't take quite a bit of literary license in telling the story. And the story he tells isn't told linearly, it jumps around between different times in his grandparents' lives. But there are still aspects of the book that read very much like a memoir. It's told with a matter-of-fact style, without the buildup to a climactic ending you'd expect to have from a novel.

I'm on the fence when it comes to how I ultimately felt about the book. It's beautifully told, and die-hard Chabon fans should enjoy it for all the same reasons they're fans of his. But for me, there have only been two books that I can say I've thoroughly enjoyed: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and The Yiddish Policemen's Union. Beyond those two, I've found his books a little hard to get into. I always appreciate his writing style and skill, but his stories have been hit or miss.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Syrup

by Max Barry
294 pgs

Syrup is the first book written by Max Barry. I've read others of his and really enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to getting my hands on this one. It's a satire focused on the marketing industry and features a young ambitious marketing graduate named Scat.

Scat has an idea for a new soft drink he wants to pitch to Coca-Cola, a drink targeted at the newest generation that Scat believes could bring in millions of dollars in increased sales--and make him rich in the process. He takes his idea for the new drink to 6 (that's her name), an equally young and ambitious marketing manager at Coke, who loves the idea. The two start working together to bring the drink to market, but before they get very far, they learn that Sneaky Pete, Scat's roommate, has stolen the idea and registered for its trademark behind their backs.

Sneaky Pete leverages "his" idea into a senior position at Coke and gets put in charge of one of the largest marketing endeavors ever undertaken, a $140 million movie to advertise Coke. Scat and 6, furious with Sneaky Pete's machinations, set out to do everything they can to undermine and discredit him and take back what they believe is rightfully theirs.

Barry sets a pretty good pace for this story and keeps things moving along nicely. It's a creative plot and this characters, while a little too contrived, are relatable and somewhat appealing. Barry does his best to keep you on your toes wondering what's going to happen next. There were times I found myself rolling my eyes a little at some of the dialogue and characters and had to remind myself that he was writing satirically. Keep that in mind and the book is good for some laughs and provokes some thoughts about how much our choices are influenced by those who market products to us.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Devil's Star

by Jo Nesbø
452 pgs  (Harry Hole series #5)

The Devil's Star is the fifth installment in Norwegian author Jo Nesbø's crime series featuring detective Harry Hole. This time Harry is brought out of his alcohol-infused stupor to track down a serial killer in Oslo.

It begins when a young woman is found shot dead in her apartment. One of her fingers has been severed and a red star-shaped diamond is discovered under one of her eyelids. Five days later an actress goes missing. When her finger arrives at the police station wearing a ring with a red star-shaped diamond, Harry realizes more victims will likely follow. Sure enough, with the precision timing Scandinavians are known for, they do.

But finding and stopping the killer isn't the only thing Harry's trying to do. He's also trying to expose one of his colleagues, Tom Waaler, whom Harry believes is behind many of the illegal weapons being smuggled into Oslo. He also believes Waaler was behind the killing of Harry's former partner.

For those not familiar with the series, this one's probably not the one to start with. Not because it's not a good book. It's as good, if not better than it's four predecessors. But a reader would be better served getting to know Harry and his tumultuous life through the earlier books before reading The Devil's Star. It's also important to know the backstory between him and Waaler.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Saint of Wolves and Butchers

by Alex Grecian
388 pgs

The Saint of Wolves and Butchers is the first stand-alone novel by Alex Grecian. His previous four books were all part of his Victorian-era "Murder Squad Series," which follows the exploits of the officers who failed to capture Jack the Ripper, a series I've enjoyed a lot.

The book begins when Skottie Foster, a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper, pulls over a Jeep being driven by Travis Roan. Roan was sent to Kansas by the Noah Roan Foundation, an organization that hunts down former Nazis living in the United States and brings them to justice. Roan is following the trail of his father, who was sent there weeks ago to confirm a report of a sighting of a man named Rudolph Bormann, a Nazi doctor and assistant administrator of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp during World War II. No one has heard from Roan's father for quite some time, and Roan has been sent to first find out what became of him, and second, to find out whether the sighting of Bormann was legitimate.

It is revealed right away that Bormann is indeed living in rural Kansas now and going by the name of Rudy Goodman. he's the founder of a controversial right-wing church in the area and even at 94 years old, he's a powerful man in the community.

I was really hoping to enjoy The Saint of Wolves and Butchers more than I did. It's not a bad book by any mes. But it would have been a much better book had Grecian incorporated some twists or surprises in the plot. There's no mystery around who Rudy Goodman once was. And there's really no suspense regarding what his fate will eventually be. On top of that, Roan was a pretty boring protagonist. If this is the first book in a series featuring him, I don't think I'll continue reading it. I'm hoping Grecian quickly returns to the Murder Squad.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Outsider

by Stephen King
561 pgs

In his latest book The Outsider, Stephen King creates a seemingly impossible murder mystery. A teenage boy is savagely killed and the police quickly have no question about who killed him. Multiple reliable witnesses saw Terry Maitland, a local English teacher an popular Little League coach, with the boy right before the time of death. They saw him get into a van with the boy, the same van that soon turns up filled with the boy's blood and covered with Terry's fingerprints. DNA evidence matching Terry is found at the crime scene as well. There's so much evidence against Terry, and so much outrage over the nature of the murder, that Detective Ralph Anderson makes a public spectacle out of arresting Terry during the middle of one of his Little League games, in front of the whole town.

But Terry is adamant in proclaiming his innocence. He's a well-loved family man and an admired member of the community, and he claims he wasn't even in town the day of the murder. he was at a teachers' convention hundreds of miles away with a group of his colleagues at the school. All of them can attest to him being with them the night of the murder. There's even video proof of him being at the convention. In fact, there's just as much evidence of him being at the convention as there is of him being at the crime scene.

Who else but Stephen King could begin a story with a premise like that and then ride it to such a satisfying conclusion? No one.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆