Noted & Booked
The books mentioned in this space reflect both recent and
rediscovered reading; some will be new and some not. Links
will generally direct you to the Powell's Books Web site, or
sometimes directly to a book's publisher (mostly in the case of
smaller or more specialized presses).
Though best known for her "Mrs. Pollifax" mysteries, Dorothy
Gilman has written a number of other books, and I am especially fond
of this one. A free-standing sequel to The Clairvoyant
Countess, this is a mystery tale -- or perhaps a cluster of
linked tales -- featuring the psychically gifted Madame Karitska as
she solves a number of puzzles with the aid of Lt. Pruden of the
Trafton police.
Gilman's mysteries are old-fashioned in the best sense; while
they fit firmly into what's now called the "cozy" subgenre, they do
not shy away from evil or its effects; on the contrary, they examine
it frankly and thoughtfully through our protagonists' eyes.
And although it's introduced almost entirely via offstage allusion,
there's a nominal SF element here, also intriguingly explored.
Space opera isn't exactly thin on the ground these days -- but
space opera that combines first-rate high adventure with thoughtful
characterization and well-developed political & economic intrigue is
decidedly uncommon. And that's what Command Decision
delivers; fourth in Moon's "Vatta's War" sequence, it raises the
stakes on all sides of its multi-faceted plot, adding dimension to
its various protagonists as it unfolds.
Moon's military background shows in her intricately planned space
engagements. More of a surprise -- and a welcome one -- is the
multi-faceted wit that permeates this installment, by turns
sardonic, impish, and wickedly barbed. David Weber may be more
popular nowadays . . . but Elizabeth Moon is writing better books.
If Laurell K. Hamilton's books are the dark-fantasy equivalent of
hot (read "erotic") romance, Lilith Saintcrow's Dante Valentine saga
is paranormal suspense with a liberal dash of film noir. Dante
-- more often called Danny -- is a Necromance, capable of invoking
and conversing with the recently dead. Hers is a rare talent
even in a future world where magic is an everyday fact of life and
Lucifer wields power on Earth and in Hell alike.
But what the Devil needs from Danny isn't her spiritual ability.
He needs her to track and kill a demon who's escaped from Hell with
a dangerously powerful artifact. She is both uniquely
qualified for the job (neither man nor demon, we're told, can kill
the elusive Santino), and uniquely motivated (among the many humans
Santino's killed was a close friend of hers). And the promised
pay isn't bad, either....
There's an ocean of paranormal adventure available these days;
Saintcrow's work rises above much of it by virtue of its brisk
plotting and well-developed background milieu. Story is what
counts here, and Saintcrow has a powerful story to tell.
Fair warning: the Vulcan's Soul trilogy is more properly
a single extended epic, rather than a trio of linked novels.
And it's an ambitious epic at that, a story designed to integrate
and draw together several somewhat divergent strands of Star
Trek mythology -- specifically, the varying visions of Romulan
culture shown in the Next Generation TV series, in Diane
Duane's extraordinary "Rihannsu" novels (most particularly The
Romulan Way, written with Peter Morwood), and the film Star
Trek: Nemesis, which introduced the sharply mutated Reman
sub-race.
Sherman and Shwartz, though, are up to the challenge, and
Epiphany wraps up the saga in impressive fashion. Like
The Romulan Way, this is in large part a historical tale; where
Duane and Morwood recount the Sundering largely from the Vulcan
perspective, the present tale chronicles the journey only hinted at
in the earlier book -- drawing skillfully not only on Duane's work,
but on strands from a host of other literary and filmed Star
Trek lore. To a degree, the historical narrative
overshadows parts of the "present-day" plot, involving the newly
encountered Watraii, a long-lost artifact, and (as usual) the threat
of interstellar war.
But the authors are as effective at portraying familiar
characters -- Spock, Picard, Saavik, and more than one memorable
Romulan Commander -- as they are at expanding the milieu's
historical dimensions, and the conclusion of this saga sets events
in motion that bid fair to dramatically alter the shape of the
Star Trek universe. Those who insist that "tie-in" novels
can't have solid literary or storytelling values clearly haven't
been reading Trek fiction lately. The Vulcan's Soul
saga is first-rate Trek, but it's also solid straight-ahead science
fiction.