We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals- Gillian Gill

We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals

Gillian Gill

Ballantine, Feb 23 2010, $18.00

ISBN: 9780345520012

 

This is a fascinating biography that turns upside down the love story of Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert as they cherished one another while battling for dominance of their relationship, which denoted dominance of the British Empire.  In other words the early period until Albert’s death could easily be labeled Albertan-Victorian age.  Prince Albert was a classic example of employing a defense mechanism of being everything his family was not and not being anything they were.  Thus he came across as prim, proper and starched, which ironically set the future’s look back at the Victorian Age are his belief on how a ruler should behave.  He kept his Queen seemingly pregnant all the time and was a major supporter of science and technology.  When he died in 1861, Victoria grieved her loss for several years.  However, when she finally moved on, the Victorian Age blossomed as if the student had learned from her late master while she described his virtues and buried with him his faults.

 

This is a terrific biography of the nineteenth century’s most powerful “power couple” as each thrived in their love and rivalry, especially Victoria.  Gillian Gill makes a strong case that Albert was in some ways her mentor as much as her partner.  With numerous illustrations and letters included, fans will relish this profound fresh look at We Two: Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals.

 

Harriet Klausner

Too Much Happiness-Alice Munroe

Too Much Happiness

Alice Munroe

Knopf, Nov 2009, $25.95

ISBN: 9780307269768

 

This great ten story anthology looks deep into relationships with strong characterizations.  Nine of the contributions are under forty pages; only the title entry is longer at sixty pages.  As always Alice Munroe provides her audience with a profound collection.

 

In “Dimensions” Doree grieves on the bus for her three children who were murdered by their father so they would not suffer the same misery he suffered of their mother leaving them.  “Fiction” stars Christie who tells the stories of her stepmother the music teacher in a published anthology.  “Wenlock Edge” college student explains how her roommate fools her into going on a dinner date with her lover.  Sally learns how “Deep-Holes” in marriage can become.  In “Free Radicals”, Nita’s friends are there at first while she grieves, but she rejects them; now she is moving on and needs them but none are there for her as they were hurt by her when they needed her.  His father stared at his “Face” once after he was born and never looked at his son’s disfigured face again.  Young Mr. Crozier is surrounded by “Some Women” while dying from leukemia; but keeps a stiff upper lip so as not to alarm the female retinue who hide their melancholy from him while caring for him.  In “Child’s Play” Marlene and Charlene become summer camp BFFs, but torture Verna until Marlene muses over “How can you blame a person for the way she was born?”  “Wood” centers on Roy who refinishes furniture, but works alone since he and his wife Lea never had no children. He is hurt and all alone apparently dying in The Deserted Forest.  “Too Much Happiness” centers on Russian mathematician Sophia Kovalevski who has found men limit her choices; still she writes stories in spite of her father insisting she is selling herself and obtains a teaching position in Sweden in spite of her lover living in Paris as she reuses to allow males to limit her.

 

Harriet Klausner

 

A Lady Like Sarah-Margaret Brownley

A Lady Like Sarah

Margaret Brownley

Thomas Nelson, Dec 29 2009, $14.99

ISBN: 9781595548092

 

In 1879 on his way to Texas, Reverend Justin Wells is five days beyond St. Louis when he sees the vultures flying, which means someone or an animal is dying.  Having left Boston and his flock in disgrace, Justin knows he must see if he can help..  He finds a severely wounded U.S. Marshal who makes him vow to take his prisoner to Texas.  However, he is stunned as the prisoner is not a lad in red boots, but a woman whose hair matches her footwear.

 

Sarah Prescott is an outlaw from a family of lawbreakers.  She removes the bullet from Marshal Owen before they begin the trek to Rocky Creek.  On the road, the two seemingly opposites find common ground as they fall in love.  However, when Owen dies, the law assumes she killed him because she is a Prescott although she insists she is a lady; only the preacher and his sidekick Timber Joe might save her life as she has saved the soul of the former.

 

This is a wonderful at times amusing western romance starring two people who on the surface seem totally inappropriate for one another yet God works in mysterious ways.  Fans will enjoy the Americana romance between the exiled Boston preacher and the exiled Prescott outlaw as Justin and Sarah fall in love.

 

Harriet Klausner

SPQR XIII: The Year of Confusion-John Maddox Roberts

SPQR XIII: The Year of Confusion

John Maddox Roberts

Minotaur, Feb 16 2010, $24.99

ISBN: 9780312595074

 

In the year 46 BC in Rome, Caius Julius Caesar is now the Director of Rome. He plans to rebuild the city making it grander as expected of the capital of a great empire.  One of his pet projects is to create a new calendar using astronomers and astrologers from around the world.  Thus he appoints Senator Decius Caecilius to oversee the project alongside of Cleopatra’s head astronomer Sosigenes.

 

At first Decius is more concerned with Cleopatra being in the city than he is of a bunch of scientists creating a new calendar.  However the situation turns dangerous when an astronomer Denades is murdered with his neck broken.  He has strange markings on his neck but the doctor feels it it hard to judge how the killer made them. Even the Chief Physician in Rome does not how the killer was able to extinguish is prey.  Caesar orders Decius to find the killer, which proves difficult to accomplish because all suspects are lying about something or concealing something.

 

As always John Maddox Roberts writes a fantastic Ancient Roman mystery that gives the reader a sense of the era and the culture during the time of Caesar. This enables the audience to envision the City-State Empire warped inside a whodunit.  Decius is a great detective, whose investigation is all the more remarkable because of the limitations of sleuthing in the first century BC.  Sub-genre fans will enjoy joining him on his inquiry.

 

Harriet Klausner

Muse and Reverie-Charles de Lint

Muse and Reverie

Charles de Lint

Tor, Dec 8 2009, $25.99

ISBN: 9780765323408

 

The thirteen Newford tales all appeared in other collections between 2001 and 2005, but never together.  In fact none appeared in the same anthology with several different publishers offering Newford stories as part of various author compilations and one tale (A Crow Girls’ Charismas) was an online entry.  All are super, size matters as the best shorts are the longer ones; like “The Butter Spirit’s Tithe”, “Riding Shotgun” and “Da Slockit Light” as the key characters of each come across human and inhuman, which in turn enhances the de Lint twist that feels as if the author places O’Henry and Bret Harte in the Twilight Zone.  The best read is “The Hour Before Dawn”; this well written compilation is Charles de Lint at his best as he leaves his fans to Muse and Reverie the impact of placing “The World in a Box”.

 

Harriet Klausner

 

Carrion Comfort-Dan Simmons

Carrion Comfort

Dan Simmons

Dunne, Nov 2009, $19.99

ISBN: 9780312567071

 

In 1942 in Chelmno, Saul Laski knows he lies in a death camp having his two former roommates already dead and many to follow; he vows to live although the SS and the Oberst came every third Thursday in the month.  Saul eventually realizes the SS stand perfectly still and soon learns why.  The Oberst not just rape your mind, they control your body.  He vows once again to live for now he has a mission to kill these mind controlling Nazi vampires; a mission that enables him to emotionally survive the horror of the mind rape domination.

 

Almost four decades later, Dr. Saul Laski remains a hunter of the Oberst who hunt humans as nonentities for their entertainment.  His prime target all these years since the concentration camp von Borchert remains elusive.  However, in Charleston he has a clue as he meets with Natalie Preston, whose father died when he met vampire Melanie Fuller, an offspring of billionaire Barent, who resides on a Florida barrier island where he hosts an annual game of deadly human chess.  As Sheriff Bobby Joe Gentry investigates serial killings, Fuller goes Hollywood with Laski following her.

 

This is a reprint of an exciting 1980s vampire thriller with sidebars showcasing

the ability of Dan Simmons.  However, the key to the thriller is the Mind Vampires especially the diversity in their personalities come across as genuine.  With a strong exhilarating prime plot in which the audience anticipates the rematch between Saul and the Oberst who dominated him back in the Third Reich, fans will relish this fine saga while also wishing it was about a third to a half shorter as pruning the Hollywood cul de sacs would have helped.

 

Harriet Klausner

The Light of Other Days-Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter

The Light of Other Days

Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter

Tor, Dec 8 2009, $14.99

ISBN: 9780765322876

 

In the twenty-first century, Hidamani Patel had escaped the impoverished North Sea that has encroached on the fifty-second state England to make a fortune in the Forty-eight as Hiram Patterson.  The successful multi-billionaire built his OurWorld campus on what was once Microsoft back before global warming changed the planet.  Now Hiram explains his newest gizmo to journalist Kate Manzoni because of her article on Wormwood and the hit in the Pacific in the twenty-sixth century while Hiram’s son Bobby stands by.

 

Hiram has invented a WormCam that uses wormhole technology to open a portal anywhere in the world instantly.  Privacy is a thing of the past as a person can see anyone at anytime.  The technology soon also applies to seeing what has been as secrets are no more.

 

The underlying premise is brilliant as history’s mysteries are open for public consumption on a big humanity altering scale, but also on a personal individual relationship scale.  When the story line focuses on the philosophy of what happens to mankind if basic beliefs are shattered, it is an intriguing tale.  When the plot tries to turn inward to the impact on the characters, it loses steam ironically in spite of a lot more action as none of the cast matters especially compared to the historical possibilities.  Fans of the two authors will enjoy their collaboration, but the prime what if question will be what if the cast felt remorse, guilt and shame for the lies they told their loved ones or for the lies their heroes told the world.  Instead they become comic book action heroes who soar as an action-packed thriller; instead of short stories based on major historical events and legends through the ages that would have been enlightening.

 

Harriet Klausner

Turned-Julie Kenner

Turned

Julie Kenner

Ace, Dec 29 2009, $7.99

ISBN: 9780441018116

 

When monstrous Lucas Johnson viciously attacks her sister Rose, Lily Carlyle sought vengeance but died instead only to have an angel give her a second chance at righting all the wrongs she committed (see Tainted).  After being used as an assassin by those she thought she should kill, she went undercover as a double agent destroying demons form within (see Torn).

 

When the demons realize who she is and what she is doing, Lily revises her plan because she does not want on her eternal résumé a description of starting the Apocalypse, which she apparently has done.  Now she enters Hell praying she can find the Oris Clef demonic key to shut the Ninth Gate and control the demonic horde answering the Apocalypse call.  However, treachery from within her allies thwart her efforts, but Lily focuses on what the Archangel Gabriel told her that she is also a key, but that means her résumé will only be read in her eternal residence, the hottest inferno of Hell that Dante failed to describe out of fear.

 

The final End of Days Blood Lily Chronicles is fast-paced and loaded with action from the opening of the final war between Heaven and Hell until the climax with Lily constantly caught in the middle.  Fans will enjoy Lily’s escapades and growth from the bad girl of Tainted as she tries to save humanity from the invading waves of demonic hordes, but the key is for the heroine to accept her apparent fate of spending eternity in the worst pit of Hell.

 

Harriet Klausner

Turned-Julie Kenner

Turned

Julie Kenner

Ace, Dec 29 2009, $7.99

ISBN: 9780441018116

 

When monstrous Lucas Johnson viciously attacks her sister Rose, Lily Carlyle sought vengeance but died instead only to have an angel give her a second chance at righting all the wrongs she committed (see Tainted).  After being used as an assassin by those she thought she should kill, she went undercover as a double agent destroying demons form within (see Torn).

 

When the demons realize who she is and what she is doing, Lily revises her plan because she does not want on her eternal résumé a description of starting the Apocalypse, which she apparently has done.  Now she enters Hell praying she can find the Oris Clef demonic key to shut the Ninth Gate and control the demonic horde answering the Apocalypse call.  However, treachery from within her allies thwart her efforts, but Lily focuses on what the Archangel Gabriel told her that she is also a key, but that means her résumé will only be read in her eternal residence, the hottest inferno of Hell that Dante failed to describe out of fear.

 

The final End of Days Blood Lily Chronicles is fast-paced and loaded with action from the opening of the final war between Heaven and Hell until the climax with Lily constantly caught in the middle.  Fans will enjoy Lily’s escapades and growth from the bad girl of Tainted as she tries to save humanity from the invading waves of demonic hordes, but the key is for the heroine to accept her apparent fate of spending eternity in the worst pit of Hell.

 

Harriet Klausner

Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens-Kate Emerson

Secrets of the Tudor Court: Between Two Queens

Kate Emerson

Pocket, Jan 5 2009, $16.00

ISBN: 9781416583271

 

In 1637 sixteen year old Anne “Nan” Bassett crosses the Narrow Sea from Calais, France to Dover, England along with her older sister Catherine.  Nan wants to join the court as a maid of honor to Queen Jane Seymour.  Surprisingly King Henry selects her to become a member of his wife’s entourage.

 

When Jane dies in childbirth, Nan leaves the court to move in with her cousin, the Countess of Sussex.  Henry not forgetting the élan of Nan orders her back to the court when he marries again and again.  With intrigue everywhere inside Henry’s court, Nan falls in love, but to survive she must give away her child as her family is no haven since they are caught up in Cromwell seditious activities.

 

The latest secret at King Henry’s court (see Secrets of the Tudor Court: The Pleasure Palace) is an engaging historical starting a maid of honor who keeps her head by keeping her head in crisis.  Based on a real maid of honor, Nan is a terrific heroine, but in many ways the aging monarch steals the show as the King seems to obsessively need to prove his manhood as he goes through a few more wives following the death of Jane.  Fans will relish Kate Emerson’s strong historical tale of life and death at King Henry’s court.

 

Harriet Klausner