“Whisper of Crows,” by Jameson Hesse

FM's ratings:

1. Premise 5
2. Prose 2
3. Plot 4
4. Characters 3
5. Overall 4

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

This is the book we should have thought would result from "Independent Publishing" or "Indie" novels. The editing is pretty much non-existent - but very much needed. It's hard to understand the desire to be a novelist on the part of someone who has so little skill in actually writing. The spelling, grammar, syntax - absolutely everything an editor would be on the lookout for - are mangled on virtually every page. It's a "horror story" and it fits the bill, including many stereotypical tropes you would expect to find in such a trope-friendly genre. Beyond that - it's trash. The illogic applied throughout the story is mesmerizing. One thing often simply doesn't follow from the thing that came before. It's a mishmash of "horror" ideas pretending to be a novel, and we are shaking our heads in disbelief at every turn. Other than that - it's readable. I finished it without too much of a struggle which is more than I can say for a handful of novels have read by name authors. 



Here’s the December line-up!


"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff..." by Christopher Moore [12-2-17]
"Santa Clawed," by Rita Mae Brown [12-9-17]
"Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed," by Mignon Ballard [12-16-17]
"When Elves Attack," by Tim Dorsey [12-23-17]
"The Alpine Christmas," by Mary Daheim [12-30-17]

“Bell, Book & Candlemas,” by Jennifer David Hesse

FM’s ratings:

1. Premise 10
2. Prose 8
3. Plot 8
4. Characters 9
5. Overall 8

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

Another rewarding Cozy Mystery by yet another quite talented writer. How many of these writers can there be!? One hates to pigeon-hole them into a class, because they really are superb at what they do, but they seem to be coming out of the woodwork! My favorite examples of these books seem to be those, like this one, that include an element of witchcraft. I'm not at all a believer in such things, but the topic seems to make for fun fiction. I guess it's the "what-if" element that drew me to Science Fiction for so many years. The protagonist is almost always the "practitioner" of the Wiccan arts, and telling the story in first-person lends it a believability it otherwise might lack. This particular one assumes perhaps a little too much open-mindedness on the part of the reader, and I can't help but feel many readers might be really turned off by the casting of spells and the details thereof depicted here. These passages are almost as obligatory as the "love-making" passages sprinkled throughout other types of novels. Skim and move on. Otherwise, this one might merit an Overall "9". The literary device of a system of tunnels connecting various points around town is intelligently introduced and utilized - not over-used. The atmosphere of this story is nicely palpable - a huge plus. And there's a cat. Points for the cat.




Here’s the December line-up!

"Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff..." by Christopher Moore [12-2-17]
"Santa Clawed," by Rita Mae Brown [12-9-17]
"Hark! The Herald Angel Screamed," by Mignon Ballard [12-16-17]
"When Elves Attack," by Tim Dorsey [12-23-17]
"The Alpine Christmas," by Mary Daheim [12-30-17]

“Demian,” by Hermann Hesse

FM's ratings:

1. Premise 5
2. Prose 7
3. Plot 5
4. Characters 7
5. Overall 6

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

This is a twist, though not a very novel one, on the "coming-of-age" type of story that seemed to be popular years ago. The "premise" - if you can really call it that - is essentially the main character's struggle with growing up. Yawn. The success of such a story must depend on how unique the approach is and how compelling the prose is. The approach here seems to be the importance of a certain individual - in this case, Demian - to the protagonist's search for meaning. The deeper we get into the story, the more metaphysical and even metaphorical the special individual and his influence become. But one gradually gets the feeling that the author is rather disingenuously using the story to influence the reader's beliefs; in this case, to encourage us to accept the tenets of the author's supernatural beliefs. One of Hesse's more important novels is "Siddhartha," his re-telling of the story of Buddha. Personally, I find these ideas interesting and even meaningful to a degree. And if the prose of this book had been up to the task - rather than tedious; sometimes grindingly so - I might personally have been more impressed with the effort. Even F. Scott Fitzgerald's "coming-of-age" work, "This Side of Paradise," tedious as it is, was more engaging in its prose than this. Stories of this nature may find a more accepting audience among those who are going through their own teen- or early-adult-self-searching struggles. But those of us who have moved on and would just as soon not relive it yet again, or who have worked for many years with people of that age and watched the "drama" unfold ad nauseum, must, perhaps, be so jaded by it as to want nothing to do with such navel-gazing ever again!

“Misery Loves Maggody,” by Joan Hess

FM’s ratings:

1. Premise 7
2. Prose 9
3. Plot 8
4. Characters 8
5. Overall 8

Comments (optional - but try to keep it under 3000 words!)

I have been an admirer of Joan Hess and this Maggody series for many years. The last one or two that I read didn't quite live up to the first several [I haven't read them in anything like their chronological order] but this one has renewed my enthusiasm. The humor has a decidedly "Beverly Hillbillies-meets-Rhoda" flair to it often with a wicked sardonicism thrown in for spice - right on target as far as my own sensibilities are concerned. Arly Hanks, our protagonist and reluctant but effective sheriff of the podunk town of Maggody, Arkansas, serves as a type of "straight man" to a plethora of buffoons and/or stereotypes. These novels very deftly employ the technique of alternating first-person segments as experienced by Arly with third-person narratives describing the hilarious backwardness of Maggody's populace. Religious hypocrisy is mercilessly lampooned in passages involving the local religious leaders and their followers. (Again, right on target for me.) And the depictions of the thought processes of the simple folk seem to be spot on as well. Imagine a female, jaded Andy Griffith recovering ungracefully from a bad marriage surrounded by Barney Fifes and Gomer Pyles, and you have another apt comparison. This series isn't for everyone - my wife can't stomach it at all! - but the almost sit-com nature of the narrative should certainly have broad appeal.