The Gordonston Ladies Dog Walking Club by Duncan Whitehead

29Nov. Kindle.

DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. It is an utter waste of electrons. So - why did I read it all the way through? I think it was just a sort of horrified fascination, like people slowing down to see an accident on the highway. It couldn't really be as bad as it seemed, could it? Yes, it could. I toyed with the idea that the whole thing was some sort of elaborate hoax. One might think that events so improbable, implausible, impossible would at least be laughable, but they weren't. Everyone in the neighborhood has hired a hitman from the same mysterious international agency? Hitler survived his suicide and escaped to Argentina? They had sex eight times in four hours without chemical assistance? She had breast augmentation surgery and was displaying her new boobs a couple of hours later?

It ought to have been funny, but it was boring. Stilted language, paucity of dialog, characters that never even manage to achieve two dimensions, lengthy pedantic description of pointless activity, no continuity of plot.

He repeats his lengthy prologue word for word at the end. Possibly to stretch the mess out to an acceptable page length? I suppose his idea was to make the "mystery" who the murder victim was to be rather than who did it, but he totally failed to justify the choice of victim. Then he epi'd at seriously excessive length - even if someone actually cared about his characters by that point, they couldn't have cared that much. Of course, he had to - because he hadn't developed his supposed plot throughout. "Oh yeah, they don't know all this secret stuff ---"

I have read and commented here on a number of books which I did not like, but most of them I was willing to concede could appeal to someone whose tastes in reading were different from mine. I even read a rather poorly done book by a friend of a friend which at least had the merit of potential. With this one, I finally concluded that the glowing reviews must have been written by the author's mother. If this is the work of an inept fifteen-year-old, he needs to read a lot more before he tries to write again. And read good stuff, not formula crap. Self-publication makes it far too easy.

I sincerely hope that this rant does not encourage anyone to encourage this writer by purchasing his book to see if it can possibly be all that bad.

Somewhere Safe With Somebody Good by Jan Karon

28Nov. Kindle. Book Club.

This book is very nice. You keep thinking that something dire - or exciting - is going to happen, but it never does. I read the first one of these a number of years ago. I loved the opening in which (as I recall) the rather stiff new Episcopal priest in the village of Mitford is assaulted, accosted, and adopted by a large unkempt dog eventually named Barnabas - no doubt for some Biblical reason which I have totally forgotten. This is the tenth (or twelfth) of the Mitford or Father Tim books and Barnabas is still in there, although he is now frequently referred to as "the old gentleman."

The action (so to speak) only covers a few months, so if that is a pattern, I suppose it is reasonable that Barnabas is still kicking around. So - here is a series in which the dog doesn't die. I suppose I should like it better for that reason alone. Still, not much happens - and it is all so very, very nice.

If I have a serious complaint, it would be that she never lets a character go. The village is going to sink to overpopulation since no one ever leaves. The actual problem with the writing is that she continually makes reference to events from previous volumes in the series which leaves the less than devoted reader occasionally wondering if she (the reader) skipped a page or two. My other problem was with the number of sections that began without making it clear who is thinking or talking or (rarely) doing whatever. Possibly some of that is "Kindle artifact" - but not all, I think.

Still, I did not have to force myself to read it, and managed to get teary over a couple of the more sentimental passages. "Consider it done."

Imago by Octavia Butler

24Nov. Kindle.

Another of Lilith's children. This one has taken a biological leap which is ahead of the Oankali program and there is division in the Oankali ranks between those who want to keep things properly on track and those who believe in the new breed.

Adulthood Rites by Octavia Butler

21Nov. Kindle.

The single volume trilogy is titled Lilith's Brood. This story follows one of Lilith's first generation offspring. The biological son of Lilith and Nikanj and one of the original group resettled on earth and murdered by some of the human "resisters."

Dawn by Octavia Butler

20Nov. Kindle.

Many years ago I read a short story by Butler that totally grossed me out. I think Jack Williamson assigned it in the course I took from him. Sometime later I read and reread Kindred and was completely caught up in it. Why I never went on to read more of her work may be a product of the ambivalence resulting from two such disparate experiences with her writing. This was on the November "100 Kindle books under $4" list, so I got it for me on my second annual birthday shopping spree on Amazon.

The blurb informed me that it was the first of a trilogy, but I hedged my bets and just got the first one. After a few chapters, I bought the rest.

The aliens rescued the survivors of a completely human global holocaust. What comes next is the uncomfortable part. They renew their own species by mixing their genetic heritage with that of new species that they encounter and creating essentially new lifeforms. Humanity as we know it would cease to exist.

Amazingly, the sympathetic characters are the aliens. Butler has created a species which is destroying "us" but they are the ones the reader roots for.

Lilith is the person selected by the Oankali to lead the first group of humans back to earth. She accepts their "deal" but intends to use the return to earth to encourage her people to cooperate until the get "home" then do their best to escape. Only later she discovers that that is anticipated - and the only way humans can reproduce is through their Oankali partners. Still - the most likeable and sympathetic characters are the Oankali.

Silks by Dick and Felix Francis

15Nov. Kindle.

Geoffrey Mason is a barrister (I think that's the right one: barristers go to court, soliciters do everything else - all of which falls under the title lawyer over here). He is an amateur jockey, inevitably nicknamed "Perry" in the jockey's changing room.

He unsuccessfully defends a monster who intimidates his way out of his well-deserved prison sentence and comes back for a little revenge.

This is the "and" that I read when it first came out. I remember being reasonably pleased with it in spite of my bias against "ands." On rereading, I agree with myself. The characters are well-crafted in the Francis mode and the mystery moves right along with sufficient action to fulfill expectations.

The King's Hounds by Martin Jensen

14Nov. Kindle.

Yet another period in ancient history to become the setting for a series of murder mysteries. King Cnut and Angles and Saxons and what all. The detective team consists of a wandering ex-monk who peddles the art of illumination which he learned in the monastery and a young ex-nobleman whose father chose the wrong side. Good fun.

Jensen actually wrote this in Danish. I have learned to be wary of translations, but this is excellent.