Millennium 3001 edited by Martin H Greenberg & Russell Davis

Mortification Scale: 4 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for scifi/fantasy
• 2nd for anthology
• 3rd for sucking
• 4th for embarrassing cover

Mitigating Features:

• A couple of good stories
• Short - doesn't waste much of your time
  

Synopsis:

The premise is that the time is 3000 AD. What is up with humankind? These 13 takes on the future range from the tedious to the revolting to the very good. I wouldn't give any an excellent rating, and in all now regret the loss of my life that was devoted to reading this anthology. The best of the lot were Landscapes by Kevin J. Anderson; Bitter Quest by Jim Fiscus; In His Own Image by Mickey Zucker Reichert; and Geometry by Robert A. Metzger. A few were actively BAD, but most of the other stories were just blah. I used to love anthologies because they introduced me to new writers whose books I would then buy. Now, I'd rather just take a chance and get the book. I'm sure this won't be the last anthology that I read, but I'm already embarrassed for my future reading choices. :)

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

Mortification Scale: 1 Tomato Face

• 1 TF for the fantasy novel

Mitigating Features:

• Winner of the 2002 Hugo, Nebula & Bram Stoker awards
• Excellent insider's experience for anyone interested in world religions/mythology
• Really really good story
• Has some major ick factor
  

Synopsis:

Shadow has had a bad run of luck. First, his partners in a bank robbery (he was the getaway driver) decided to cut him out of his share. Then, when he tracked them down and beat the hell out of them, they prosecuted him for assault. After serving 3 years of his 6 year sentence, Shadow is due to be released on parole when his wife, Laura, and his best friend, Robbie, die in a car crash caused by Laura distracting Robbie with a blow job. Ouch. So, Shadow is released a couple of days early so that he can get to his wife's funeral. On the way there, he runs into an annoying old man who wants to hire him for a job. That old man is Odin, the All-Father from Norse mythology. He also happens to be Shadow's actual father, though that isn't revealed until closer to the end of the book.

Shadow ends up traveling all around America meeting gods from the Egyptian, Slavic, Anglo-Saxon, Hindu, and many other pantheons. The book is a combination of Americana and intro to mythology. All the while, Shadow is occasionally met by his dead wife, Laura, who he accidentally raised from the dead with a gold coin he won from a leprechaun. She's still dead, and rotting, but is ambulatory and still his wife. Shadow has many experiences and runs across some genuine mysteries, all culminating in his being tied to the world tree for nine days, dying and being resurrected (alive) by the goddess Eoster. After that, Shadow has the wisdom to stop the war between the old gods and the new gods (media, internet, etc.) that was started as an elaborate grift by Odin and Loki in order to strengthen themselves on the death of gods.

This is an elaborate book that never seems urgent, yet is rarely boring. I like that there is a theme of mystery (as in mystery novel -crime solving) along with the greater theme of the Mysteries (religious terminology). Cute. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about religion or about the United States as well as anyone just looking for a good book to spend a few hours in. Make sure to read Anansi Boys after you finish American Gods. It's not really a sequel, but is set in the same world with one of the same characters.

Gibbon's Decline and Fall by Sheri S. Tepper

Mortification Scale: 2 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for SciFi/Fantasy
• 2nd TF for really over-the-top feminism

Mitigating Features:

• Excellent discussion of anti-woman events and feelings
• Another original work
• A few good scientific ideas
  

Synopsis:

This was actually my third time reading this book, and I didn't like it quite as much as I had at the first and second reading. After finishing The Awakeners, I wanted to read more Tepper and picked this one.

My reading of this book is that it is Sheri's take on the typical women's subgenre of the college group book. You know, the book where the group of women meets in college and then we follow their lives over the course of the next 20-50 years? It's a fairly popular formula, most famously exemplified in The Group, which was made into a film with Candice Bergen, etc. This is the story of one of those groups if the central member of the group happened to be a member of a parthenogenic alien race sent on an anthropological mission. :)

Between the radical lawyer, the fashion buyer turned philanthropist, the molecular biologist, the sculptor, the nun and the doctor (the 6 human members of the group), it's a fairly representational and impressive group. Together they take on the legal defense of a young girl who was gang-raped and then dumped her resulting offspring in a dumpster. The group also tracks down their friend Sophy's hometown and discover the truth about who she was. That is when they discover the force behind the systematic oppression of women that has been going on for a thousand years.

This book is a little less engrossing than Ms. Tepper's other works, mainly due to the Earth-now setting. Some things are a little different, for example, sleep pods for criminal offenders, but most of the setting/world is the same as this world. I do really like a few of the characters. I admire the author's ability to write admirable and unlikable characters. The nun drives me crazy, and in the act of wanting to shake her, I'm falling into the reality of the book. Interesting. This book is not for everyone, but I give it 2 thumbs up!

The Awakeners by Sheri S. Tepper

Mortification Scale: 1 Tomato Face

• 1 TF for SciFi/Fantasy novel

Mitigating Features:

• Amazing, original world that is fully developed with history, flora and fauna, politics, religion, etc.
• Over 10 main characters with individual motivation, and growth over the course of the book

Synopsis:

I've read enough Sheri Tepper by now to know not to try to figure out the plot of her books in the first few chapters. With each of her books, I just sit back, relax, and know that eventually, everything will make sense. Sheri drops the reader into a complete new world without the standard long narrative paragraphs to explain what is going on. Rather, the reader and the characters go on a voyage of discovery together. In this world, a literal voyage of discovery.

Humanity landed on this alien planet a thousand years ago. After fighting a long battle with the resident harpy-like alien race, humans and the Vraish settled into an interesting arrangement. The Council, led by the Protector of Man, agreed to let the Vraish eat all of humanity's dead. They would also supply 1-2 live bodies per month from each village, for the elite of the Vraish. In return, the Vraish would leave humans alone and supply the Council with an elixir to extend life. The current Protector of Man is about 500 years old.

To prevent most people from realizing what is happening, all sorts of religious beliefs have been encouraged, the most strict of which is that people could only move west, never east. There is a river that circumnavigates the entire world. The whole thing can be traveled in about 13 years. There is a Northshore that is inhabited and a Southshore that is never seen. There really is a reason behind this, a fairly gory reason at that.

This is an excellent book with a lot of thought-provoking events. This is Tepper from her early years, I think '89? I can see echoes of her main themes, but here she has not developed any sort of formula, yet. I highly recommend this book.

Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones

Mortification Scale: 4 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for children's book
• 2nd for SciFi/Fantasy
  
• 3rd & 4th for embarrassing cover

Mitigating Features:

• Lighthearted romp of a book
• British!
• Interesting view of the battle of the sexes

Synopsis:

After Mig's father dies, her dad's Aunt Maria becomes a greater and more invasive part of the family's life. The phone rings 3-4 times a day, and someone had better be home to answer the call from Aunt Maria. Otherwise, she'll just start calling everyone they know to find out where they are. Betty (Mom), Chris and Mig develop skills to deal with this intrusive phone presence, but those skills are put to the test when Betty agrees to bring the children to stay with Aunt Maria during Easter holiday. In the small town of Cranbury-on-Sea, the battle of the sexes has a particularly vicious front. Men and women are firmly divided and are engaged in a struggle for dominance. For the last 20 years, the women have been in ascendance, with Mig's Aunty Maria as the Queen.

Mig, Chris and Betty all fall under Aunt Maria's sway, yet somehow manage to break free and to work together to bring about the downfall of Maria and her coven. There are zombies, shapeshifters, clones, and magic dust. This is a fun, light read that is a good 'rainy morning with a cup of coffee' book.

The Margarets by Sheri S. Tepper

Mortification Scale: 1 Tomato Face

• SciFi/Fantasy
  

Mitigating Features:

• A very interesting, complex take on the concept that each decision/event in a person's life could have led to a completely different end result. Think Sliding Doors x7, with galaxy-wide rather than purely romantic implications
• Another great Sheri Tepper rant on the problems facing modern society
• One of the 7 Margarets is a man!
• A fabulous explanation for the existence of the cat - they are mentally retarded aliens
  

Synopsis:

An alien explaining why humankind has so many problems: "You have no memory of 99% of what makes you what you are! Instead you have comfy baby-stories you tell yourselves to explain why you're not good people; what sin you committed or how you didn't do what this god or that god told you. Instead of learning how not to be bad, you learn how to be forgiven and carried off to heaven." (p. 301)

Sorry for the excerpt, but this bit exemplifies what I love about Sherri Tepper. Yes, me reading her books is analogous to the choir and the preacher, but it's still nice to communicate (even passively) with someone capable of seeing through the lies that we tell ourselves. This woman is amazing.

Anyhoo, this book follows the deviating lives of Margaret. While a girl, living on a Martian satellite, Margaret created 6 invisible friends to play with, who are all somehow aspects of herself. There is the queen, the spy, the warrior, the linguist, the shaman, the telepath and the healer. Each Margaret splits off at a crucial point in her life and takes different paths, living completely different lives. Sheri has a little trouble fully developing all of the Margarets (it's clear that a couple of them are the author's favorites), but the concept is brilliant because the whole point is that only one person walking 7 paths can find an alien oracle capable of restoring racial memory to humanity. Only by doing this will human beings be saved from the 4 "evil" races set on our destruction.

An excellent story, with some wonderful concepts. Unfortunately, the end seemed to be a sort of: 'finish this book in 50 pages or less', sort of thing rather than fully developed closure. I was not completely satisfied by the ending, but this is the sort of book that lingers. I think that I'm going to have to reread it sometime during the next year to absorb more of the details. Another great Tepper novel!

Beka Cooper: Terrier by Tamora Pierce

Mortification Scale: 4 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for children's book
• 2nd TF for fantasy novel
• 3rd for embarrassing cover
• 4th for embarrassing back cover

Mitigating Features:

• Return to the world of Tortall
• Interesting speculation on what early police work involved (seems authentic from what I've read in the past about the Bow Street Runners)
• Good read

Synopsis:

Tamora Pierce returns to the world of Tortall a couple hundred years before the events from the Lioness Quartet, The Immortals Quartet, The Protector of the Small Quartet, and the Trickster Duology. Here, we meet Beka Cooper, George Cooper's great-great-grandmother, as she joins the Provost's Guards as an apprentice policewoman. She is just starting her year's training as a "puppy" with a pair of "dogs" in the slums of the Lower City.

Over the course of the story, Beka helps to solve two mysterious crimes with the help of some friendly thieves, a few dozen ghosts (who happen to ride around on pigeons), and her cat (who is either a constellation or a god). The story took a little longer to get into than some of Ms. Pierce's last books, but was over 500 pages long, allowing plenty of time to become engrossed. Beka is another great heroine/role model and I'm so sad that the next installation of Beka's story will not be available until April of 2009. :(

Strangers in Death by J.D. Robb

Mortification Scale: 3 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for a mystery novel
• 2nd TF for a mystery novel set in the future, written by a romance author
• BIG 3rd TF for being the 28th book in the series, each book of which I have read between 1 and 10 times (I discovered this series at about book 5 and used to reread the whole thing when a new one came out to refresh my memory of the plotline)

Mitigating Features:

• This installment of the series was much better than the last 2-3 books combined. I had almost given up on the series
• Nice educational bit on erotic asphyxiation

Synopsis:

Yet another rehash of Stranger on a Train, the Hitchcock classic, thus the title, Strangers in Death. All of the books in this series are titled _________ in Death. By the 28th book, it must be hard to think of new titles!

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is back with hottie hubby Roarke and partner Peabody. I believe that all of the main characters made at least token appearances in this book, which is nice continuity. Her current case is the death by misadventure of a sporting goods king, Thomas Anders, who was found by his housekeeper tied to his bed along with various sex toys and an impressive woody. The black velvet rope seems to indicate a little play gone awry. However, the grieving widow sets all of Eve's instincts humming. Was this an accident or was it MUUURRRRDDDER????

A fun book with a good plot, a satisfying villain and a few new events to move the overall plotline of the series along. I'm still waiting for Roarke and Eve to start talking about having children, but there were some good developments in the overall story. Hint: someone's getting married! I'd recommend this book to those new to the series as well as the hard-core fans. Enjoy! I did.

Dream Chaser by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Mortification Scale: 4 Tomato Faces

• 1st and 2nd TFs for being a paranormal romance
• 3rd for really embarrassing cover
• 4th for unabashed fantasy love scenes

Mitigating Features:

• None that I can come up with
• Wait, it is a quick, entertaining read!
• Oh, and it's hot!

Synopsis:

Xypher, a half-Greek god/half-Sumerian demon, has one month to live as a human and either prove that he is worthy of life, or pursue his vengeance against the woman who betrayed him. While he is still questing for vengeance, he is bound to Simone, a medical examiner in New Orleans. Atlantean bracelets are locked onto their wrists by Daimons sent by Xypher's enemy. These bracelets bind Xypher and Simone so that if one dies, the other does as well. Also, they can't be more than 20 feet from each other without dying. In a stunning plot twist, they fall in love.

There are the predictable conflicts to overcome and miraculous twists in fate that allow them to live together as immortals. Altogether, a nice installment in the series, but that series has now developed into churned out rehashes of one plotline containing the same brooding, sexy hero and practically indistinguishable heroines. It's entertaining, but from what I hear, so are soap operas to those who are addicted to them. Save this book for a beach read or for a rainy day when you want to escape from reality for a couple of hours.

City of Sorcery by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Mortification Scale: 2 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for being SciFi/Fantasy
• 2nd for the silly title

Mitigating Features:

• Wonderful philosophical perspective on how life makes us the people that we are
• Interesting view of life/death/afterlife
• Continues dissertation on women's role in society
• Elaborates on the concept of sisterhood

Synopsis:

Margali and Jaelle go in search of the fabled city of the Dark Sisterhood. With them are Camilla (Margali's lover), Cholayna (head of Terran Intelligence), and Vanessa (head of Terran Personnel - how often does an HR person get to be in a novel?). They are following Rafaelle (Jaelle's former partner) and Alexis Anders (a particularly annoying Terran) who have gone in search of fame and treasure. All of these women are tested both physically and spiritually and 2 die in the search. The quest takes them over mountains and through peril to a place of spiritual peace and acceptance. Very intense, very very good.

MZB was an amazing writer with wonderful insights into interpersonal relationships and why we do the things we do, and feel the things we feel. Truly a gifted woman. The Oath of the Renunciates mini-series within the Darkover series was completed in this book. There are several threads left hanging that I always hoped would be picked up in later books, but that never were. I highly recommend this trio of books.

Thendara House by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Mortification Scale: 2 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for SciFi/Fantasy
• 2nd TF for strong lesbian theme - not the sort of thing I'm comfortable having someone read over my shoulder on the bus

Mitigating Factors:

• Wonderful gender relations insight
• Excellent perspective on the modern way of life - eg. everything by the clock, working to escape mindless tasks, sucking up to the boss, etc.
• An agonizing search for one's true motivations - shuffling through layers

Synopsis:

Book two of the Oath of the Renunciates trilogy, Margali has gone to the Free Amazon guildhouse to spend her 6 months of house-bound time with her new guild sisters. At the same time, Jaelle, Margali's oath-mother and breda (friend) has gone to live in the Terran zone with her freemate, Peter (also Margali's ex-husband), to serve as a female expert on Darkover in Margali's place. The concurrent experiences of culture-shock and alienation are extremely interesting. Jaelle's view of a life lived by the clock in which women scurry around sucking up to men and being treated as cogs is priceless.

Margali's experience in the guildhouse is a little more emotionally intense. Her exposure to so many lesbian couples forces her to delve more deeply into her own sexuality than she has ever done. Through deprogramming sessions with her sisters, she is forced to reexamine her life and relationships with men and women. She also begins to develop laran, the magic of the Comyn. All in all, this is an extremely tumultuous time for her.

Margali and Jaelle's sense of self and their relationship to each other is tested and strengthened over the course of the book. I have to say that I cried like a little girl at least 3 times while reading this book. There's a miscarriage scene that is one of the most powerful bits of writing that I have ever read. I read it for the first time with I was 18 and have revisited this book periodically over the years. This is my first time coming back to it in about 4-5 years, and it's just as good as I remembered.

Tangled Webs by Anne Bishop

Mortification Scale: 2 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for Romantic Fantasy novel
• 2nd for being a tag-on to a series

Mitigating Factors:

• Excellent book with which to while away a few hours in Borders
• Wonderful to catch up with the gang from the Black Jewels series
• Only a couple of love scenes in this one
• A little more background on Lucivar and Daemon

Synopsis:

Back to the Shadow Realm, to catch up with the SaDiablo family. This book doesn't really advance the storyline very much, but is more like a bonus novel for those of us who loved loved loved Anne Bishops original Black Jewels trilogy.

Surreal and Warlord Prince Rainier fall into a trap set for them by a failed artist with delusions of grandeur. They are trapped, with 7 landen children, inside a "scary house" set up by three black widows. They must somehow get themselves out of the house without using Craft (magic). This plotline continues parallel to the plotline for Lucivar and Marion; Daemon and Jaenelle; and Saetan at the Keep. All of the lines converge at the end.

This was a very tight story, consistent with the previous books and a great read all on its own. There is also a bonus short story about Surreal at the end of the book. I'd recommend this to anyone who's read the previous Black Jewels. I don't know if it would be enjoyable as a stand-alone, but I love that Ms. Bishop is writing for her fans. Thank you!

The Shattered Chain by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Mortification Scale: 3 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for SciFi/Fantasy
• 2nd and 3rd TF for seriously embarrassing cover
• 4th TF not given because it is MZB!

Mitigating Features:

• 1st book in a series of three books within the Darkover series that examines the role of women in society
• Fantastic details - an entire world that the reader is dropped into
• Thought provoking dissertation of societal ills
  

Synopsis:

Margali was raised on Darkover, but was born a Terran. She is forever caught between two worlds never feeling at home in either. When her ex-husband/childhood friend, Peter, is kidnapped by bandits, Margali goes in search of him, setting off a chain of events that will end up resolving her internal conflict. Rather than being part of one or the other, she will be a bridge between her two worlds. Of course, all of this is realized over the course of an exciting adventure into the mountains and off to the Ardais Domaine for Midwinter; through the swearing of the Oath of the Renunciates and the beginning of the realization of what sisterhood really means.

Excellent! I highly recommend this trilogy to anyone with any interest in gender studies or anyone looking for a good read.

The Alton Gift by Deborah J Ross & Marion Zimmer Bradley

Mortification Scale: 4 Tomato Faces

• 1 TF for being SciFi/Fantasy
• 2nd for really embarrassing cover
• 3rd for really embarrassing cover
• 4th for being a "posthumous" novel - ick!

Mitigating Features:

• It's a good read
• I'm a Darkover addict
  

Synopsis:

First, let me say that I am NOT a fan of the "posthumous" novel. Supposedly MZB and Deborah Ross sat down and plotted out the continuation of the Darkover series, and so this is the authorized version. However, to me, it still smacks of fanfiction. When I read an MZB book, I am in the story. Deborah instead narrates events. MZB's world was rich with multiple languages and fantastic proverbs. Who didn't long to use, "you don't chain a dragon to light your cookfire" in casual conversation. Deborah's story lacks that richness of detail and instead is a flatter relation of events. The only reason that I finished this book is that I do still care about Darkover and all of our old friends and places, and even a watered down version of that world is better than nothing.

In The Alton Gift, Mikhail is the Regent with Marguerida as his first lady/right hand. Javanne has died after her family discovered that the reason for her extreme bitchiness for so many years was caused by the Terrans infecting her with a brain tumor. Hmm. I have a hard time imagining that MZB approved that plot line. One of the things we all loved about her writing was that her characters were human with likes/dislikes, positives and negatives. Lew Alton has gone off to live with the cristoforo monks up in Nevarsin and Domenic is in love with two girls concurrently. An ex-Terran develops laran (why are we surprised) and then is kidnapped by Francisco Ridenow.

In all, there is much sound and fury signifying little. There is a little advancement in the overall story line, Rory is gay for one, but the ending is a little empty. I had to reread some of the original MZB Darkover novels after this just to verify that they really were as wonderful as I remembered. I would not recommend this to anyone except a die-hard fan.