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Dorothy is here tonight with a set of reviews for another 3 book categories. Welcome Dorothy!
Science Fiction, Horror, Fantasy
by Dorothy A. Winsor
Welcome to the third Medium Cool post reviewing a book from each category in Goodread’s Best Book of the Year Contest. This post’s categories are Science Fiction, Horror, and YA Fantasy. We have books by John Scalzi, Stephen King, and Isabel Ibanez.
Science Fiction
Amazon.com: Starter Villain eBook : Scalzi, John: Kindle Store
The most common reason a reader chooses a book is a good experience with a previous book by the same author. I’ve enjoyed various John Scalzi books before, so I chose Starter Villain. Also, I’m biased in Scalzi’s favor. He’s generous to his fellow authors, including me. For instance, he’s let me make author guest posts on his blog, most recently for Glass Girl.
Starter Villain is about Charlie, whose life is at a low point when an uncle he barely knew leaves him a company. The company turns out to be an evil enterprise that needs a villain at its head. Its headquarters is even set on a volcanic island. As that description suggests, the book plays with tropes.
The book includes science-enhanced sentient cats and dolphins. Other than that, it’s not the kind of science fiction that explores the possibilities created by science. The questions the book asks aren’t really about science. Instead, it asks about the way extremely rich people have the power to exploit and harm everybody else. Scalzi would probably be at home on Balloon Juice. (Actually, judging by his social media posts, so would Stephen King, whose book I discuss below.)
I also got a personal surprise from this book. It starts and ends in Barrington, Illinois, which is where I live. Scalzi has Charlie walking streets I recognize. He also has Charlie wanting to buy McDougal’s Pub, a thinly veiled version of McGonigal’s, which has been in Barrington for fourteen years. My writer group once held its Christmas party there. Sadly, I recently saw a newspaper story that McGonigal’s is closing.
Horror
Holly – Kindle edition by King, Stephen. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Stephen King’s Holly is about the investigation of a series of murders. The reader knows from the start that, unlikely as it seems, the murders are carried out by a pair of elderly, retired professors. (Why, yes. I, too, am an elderly, retired professor. Why do you ask?) Holly only gradually realizes that the killings are connected, and the reader only gradually realizes why the professors commit them.
That “why” is very creepy. I assume it’s the reason this book lands in the Horror category rather than Mystery and Thriller. Also, the unlikely nature of the murderers makes things weirder. In an author’s note, King says he saw a newspaper story with a headline something like, “Everyone thought they were a sweet old couple until the bodies began turning up in the backyard.” He thought, “Killer old folks. That’s my story.” So, there you go: Seize inspiration when and where you find it.
The book is set in 2021, with the Delta wave of COVID raging. At the book’s start, Holly’s mother has just died of the disease. Mom was a COVID denier who refused to be vaccinated or wear a mask. Holly thinks of her mother’s death as unnecessary and political. Almost everyone Holly interviews asks if she’s vaccinated so they can remove their masks or tells her that COVID is a hoax. It was a real reminder of what it was like to live through those days. It also helps make death omnipresent in the book.
The book has characters of all ages, but one repeated question is how various people react to aging. And once again, we have the nearness of death made present in the book. There’s an elderly poet, an uncle with Alzheimer’s, an old guy who’s had a stroke but is still sharp. There’s also the murderers. All these people contemplating old age made me think, “Hm. How are you doing Stephen King? You good?”
It’s not unusual for writers to include issues they’ve been thinking about in their lives, the politics of COVID, for instance. King is 76. It wouldn’t be surprising if he’s been mulling over issues having to do with aging. I’d say some of the characters are luckier in how they age, but some amount of loss and pain are inevitable, and some characters work through them in healthier ways.
YA Fantasy
In this category, I chose What the River Knows by Isabel Ibanez because I was intrigued by its Egyptian setting. Set in the late 1800s, this is the story of Inez, the daughter of two Egyptologists who have disappeared and are presumed dead.
I admired Inez’s determination and resourcefulness. She bravely throws herself into unfamiliar surroundings and actions. As someone who worries when I don’t know exactly what highway exit to take, I doff my hat to her. Unfortunately, late in the book her naivete also leads to her act in a way that made me roll my eyes. Come on, girl! You’re smarter than that.
For me, some of the most interesting material was the indictment of the English men ruling Egypt at the time. They believed Egyptians were not capable of excavating their own history. They allowed the export of historic artifacts, claiming European museums could care for them better. Not incidentally, they made money off the sales. And some of the artifacts wound up in places such as lawn ornaments on estates. Egypt has not seen those items since.
I’m an impatient reader, and for my taste, this book sometimes feels overwritten. Here’s an example of a moment when I felt that: “My uncle’s shoulders stiffened. He gave a minute shake of his head and then half turned in his chair. He lifted his chin and met my gaze.” I think those three details would be better cut to two. Other readers may not feel the same way.
Finally, (pet peeve here) there’s a point where Inez rips the hem off her dress to bandage a wound. I challenge you to rip the hem off an intact piece of clothing with your bare hands.
What About You?
Do any of these three resonate with you? I liked Starter Villain the best of this batch. I probably won’t read another horror novel or the sequel to What the River Knows. What have you read lately?
Medium Cool – Dorothy A. Winsor: Science Fiction, Horror, FantasyPost + Comments (102)
