Beazley Books

07/24/2024

12/16/2023

Saw this at the local shopping center this morning

04/01/2022

1 Minute Book Review

The Name Of The Wind & The Wise Man’s Fear
by Patrick Rothfuss

These books are weird and wonderful and some of the best fantasy I’ve read in years. But without the last book of the trilogy to wrap things up, they are ultimately unsatisfying.

The All-Will-Be-Revealed sequel is 10 years late, and I’m pretty sure Rothfuss is holed up somewhere with George R. R. Martin discussing writer’s block. Both authors look like crazed Norwegian whalers and that must mean something but I don’t know what.

If the series is ever completed (and the final book is of like quality), it will be a fantasy classic.

On the Unfinished Business scale, these books are The Sopranos.

03/25/2022

1 Minute Book Review

Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained, two novels by Peter Hamilton

Finally, some Sci-Fi that doesn’t obsess about climate change or a culture of victimhood. Pandora’s Star is an excellent Space Opera and the pseudo-science is plausible. The same goes for its sequel, Judas Unchained. This is the rarest of things, a sequel as good as the first book.

Hamilton handles recent Sci-Fi themes like engineered longevity and instantaneous transport well, and best of all, he’s created an interesting alien race instead of the usual illogical monsters or benevolent beings.

Some of the sub-plots get a little tedious but that’s about it for the negatives.

This is great Sci-Fi, and rates favorably with works like Ringworld and The Mote In God’s Eye.

On the Food Acronym scale, these books are a BLT

03/18/2022

One Minute Book Review

Gai-Jin, by James Clavell

You can’t read this if you have another book going, it has two main plots and many subplots (I once read two biographies simultaneously and almost had a seizure). At 1100 pages, this novel is about 300 pages too long.

A major theme is the cultural differences between 1860s Japan and the West, highlighting the oddities of both in some detail, and written before editing for political correctness eroded interesting descriptions.

At first I couldn’t put it down but by page 800 I just wanted to know how things would end. Imagine my disappointment when the story didn’t end, it just dribbled off. This non-ending might have something to do with author being deathly ill at the time. Delaying the end in those circumstances has its appeals.

Gai-Jin is not as good the other books in Clavell’s Asian series (like Noble House) but it’s worth reading if the concept of time is meaningless to you.

On the Usefulness Scale, this book is a marrow scoop

03/11/2022

1 Minute Book Review

Man Plus & Gateway, 2 novels by Frederick Pohl

'Man Plus'
You can tell when an author has a good idea but no story, the plot never congeals around the idea and all we get is another crappy Sci-Fi novel.

Man Plus is guilty of this, and much more besides, despite winning both the Nebula and Hugo awards. And the title is …. awkward. You know what I mean.

'Gateway'
Gateway also won both awards and deservedly so. It’s well written, cleverly plotted, has twists, and it’s original. Best of all, the protagonist is a snivelling cad and that’s refreshing.

This is one of the most engaging Sci-Fi novels ever. I’ve read it three times in the last 40 years and will have a go at it again one day.

On the Rock & Roll scale, these novels are Bohemian Rhapsody

03/04/2022

1 minute Book Review

Children Of the Night, by Dan Simmons

Everyone is always exhausted in this story, they’re worn-out and ready to drop no matter what they’re doing. It’s tiresome. And while I like a little real science in a vampire story, I shouldn’t need an advanced degree in biology to follow along.

And most damning, when someone travels from point A to point B (which everyone is doing all the time, no wonder they’re tired), we don’t need the details of every village & town, every street name and building along the way. We have Fodor’s guides for that, and even they know when to stop.

Simmons usually writes top-notch stuff, however with Children Of the Night, he had an interesting idea but no story.

On the Pain scale, this book is an achy breaky heart

02/25/2022

1 Minute Book Review

The Cicero trilogy by Robert Harris

Imperium, Lustrum and Dictator

I think so many trilogies begin well but soon disintegrate because authors start boozing with early profits and by the end they’re raging alcoholics.

The first book, ‘Imperium’, is one of the best books I’ve read on Republican Rome, a vivid depiction of senators, generals and assorted aristocracy busily plotting and assassinating. It’s well written and exciting. I couldn’t wait to read the next book.

The second book, ‘Lustrum’, is as good as Imperium. Everyone’s making a grab for power, the Republic is teetering, and the nasties are waiting in the wings. Break out the Pringles.

It’s a red flag that the last book was published 10 years after the first, and sure enough, the third book, ‘Dictator’ is a stinker. It’s disjointed and it rattles; it’s as if the author disappeared and the publishers hired a hack to wrap things up.

On the James Bond scale, these books are Casino Royale

02/19/2022

1 Minute Book Review

Malazan Book Of The Fallen series, by Steven Erikson

There are 10 novels in the series, each about 1000 pages long, and reading them is in the nature of taking certain street drugs, great in the beginning but things end badly.
The first 5 books are well written and exciting, but the next 5 are a self-indulgent mess of introspective whining and endless internal monologues decrying religion and civilization. I kept reading because nothing was ever resolved in the story and I hoped the next book would wrap things up, but that never happened and meanwhile the writing kept circling the drain.

In this story, all the nasty characters are eventually resurrected as misunderstood good people. No one ever really dies, they just keep coming back and back again so that they become so tiresome that you’d kill them yourself if you could.

Call me a traditionalist, but in the medieval setting that every fantasy novel inhabits, tough guys aren’t cry-babies. But here, all the warriors and leaders eventually break down and weep and bemoan their fate. No matter how much it’s out of character to do so, it’s all boo hoo hoo.

And then there are the people who know what’s really going on but won’t share it with anyone, no matter how much others beg them to know, even when it means that their unexplained silence will kill them all. Just because.

Toward the end of the series, the humor is unfunny and the words 'grief' and 'despair' appear on almost every page. I was tempted to contact the author to see if he was OK.

On the pizza topping scale, these books are anchovies

02/12/2022

1 Minute Book Review

The Cromwell trilogy by Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall, Bring Up The Bodies and The Light And The Mirror

Finally, a trilogy the makes it to the finish line without disgracing itself. You might think you don’t care enough about Thomas Cromwell to read a book about him, let alone three, but little is known of Cromwell’s private life, so Mantel was free to fictionalize it in a highly entertaining manner.

She depicts King Henry VIII as a duplicitous man-child and the people around him as parasites and predators. What could go wrong?

Mantel writes sparingly, her prose deceptively simple. There are breathtaking passages without a single adjective. Hemingway did this before the concussions took their toll.

If you’re interested in King Henry and his times, this trilogy is an insightful and engaging take on things.

On the Clever Gorilla scale, these books are Koko