The Taken by Vicki Pettersson

Griffin “Grif” Shaw is a Centurion, an angel who helps souls cross into the Everlast, especially those who died violently – just as he did fifty years ago. Grif still wants to find out who killed his wife, Evie, the love of his life. One day he comes to collect the soul of a prostitute, and against his better judgment he grants her a few brief minutes of life again before taking her away. That was enough time for the woman (who was actually an undercover news photographer) to leave a message pointing to her killer and endanger her best friend’s life.

Katherine “Kit” Craig is a newspaper reporter for her family-owned paper who dresses and lives the rockabilly lifestyle. She is full of life and always in search of the truth. She’s waiting outside the motel where her best friend has gone undercover when she sees a man dressed as if he was one of the Rat Pack staring out the window. Within mere hours she would be brutally attacked – with the intent to rape and kill – in her own her home.

Grif is supposed to collect Kit’s soul before leaving earth. Fortunately for Kit, he acts on impulse and saves her by beating up her attackers. Now Grif’s in some real trouble with the heavenly host, and has been banished to earth to once again don weak and sinful flesh until he is able to let Kit Craig die and bring her soul home. Only he decides to protect her and help her figure out who murdered her best friend and why in exchange for the ace reporter’s help in solving his wife’s fifty year old murder case.

I really liked this book because the characters are fully drawn and believable and provide some great dialogue, Vicki Pettersson’s world building of Sin City and the rockabilly culture, the whole angel / urban fantasy premise and the story itself was gripping and kept me turning pages. One warning though, there are some slightly disturbing scenes involving forced prostitution of underage girls and there’s a fair helping of violence toward women (by the bad guys). Still, it was very enjoyable and highly recommended for fans of Jim Butcher, Laurell K. Hamilton, Kim Harrison, or Tad Williams‘ newest book The Dirty Streets of Heaven. The next in the Celestial Blues series, The Lost, came out this spring.

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Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn

This heist/caper story is highly reminiscent of the movie ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ with Han Solo & Lando Calrissian in roles similar to those played by George Clooney & Brad Pitt. (And it’s funny because both the positive and negative reviews on Goodreads claim the similarity to that particular movie as the main reason for why readers did or did not like it.) But, this novel is also just a great Star Wars story in its own right, taking place just after the events of Episode IV: A New Hope, when Han Solo helped defeat the Empire and blow up the Death Star to save the Galaxy. Scoundrels mixes familiar and unfamiliar characters in a job involving stealing a hefty sum from one of the richest and most powerful crime lords on the planet Wukkar.

There is plenty of the action that Star Wars fans are used to with droids, aliens, landspeeders and blasters and more that make it easy to visualize the story as if it were a movie. Scoundrels is also sprinkled with some very humorous moments throughout the story. We get some background on Han & Lando’s rocky friendship and even learn what is very likely the reason that Lando ends up betraying his friends in Cloud City in Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. There are a few other references that true geeks will appreciate, incuding one to the Han vs. Greedo showdown in the Mos Eisley cantina.

If you’ll pardon a small *spoiler* I just can’t help myself from mentioning one of my favorite scenes in the novel (which I also couldn’t help gushing about to my wife, who is not exactly a Star Wars geek). While the heist is going down, Zahn throws in a reference to ‘Indiana Jones’ – also created by George Lucas – when Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford, of course) is fleeing in front of a runaway giant ball that is crushing everything in its path.

The book contains a twist ending with another familiar Star Wars character making an appearance at the very end, but I won’t spoil that surprise. This is only the third Star Wars novel I’ve read, and my first by Timothy Zahn, who is a wonderful storyteller that has been writing in the Star Wars universe for a very long time. I’m definitely planning on reading more; in fact, I recently forked over two bucks to get his e-book novella about Lando and a few of the other crew from this novel in an earlier adventure: Star Wars: Winner Lose All.

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Peter and Max: a Fables Novel by Bill Willingham

Do you enjoy fairy tales? How about when classic tales are given a new twist? Are you a fan of the ABC TV show Once Upon a Time? If you said yes, then you’ll want to check out Peter & Max. This novel is based on Bill Willingham’s award-winning Fables series of graphic novels (featured on our blog twice before). But, you don’t have to have read any of the graphic novels to enjoy the story of Peter & Max. Much like in Once Upon a Time there are fairy tale characters now living in our mundane world. They have fled to our world as the invading goblin army of the Adversary has slowly swallowed up their homelands, and they now live in hiding in New York City and on a farm upstate. Also like the TV show Once, the story of Peter & Max alternates between the current day in our world and what happened long ago in their homelands.

The story begins in modern times on a farm, where Peter Piper and his wife Bo live on an isolated parcel.  Rose Red comes to see them and deliver some bad news to Peter. It seems that his brother Max is in our world. Why is this bad news? Well, those old sibling rivalries can turn very ugly when allowed to fester for a few centuries, especially when one brother travels the path of dark magic and destruction. Peter soon sets out to confront his brother and knows that one way or another it will be their final encounter and that one of them will die.

Long, long ago, back in his home world, Peter and his family of traveling musicians went to the annual fair and stopped to visit their friends the Peeps. During their stay with the Peeps, Peter’s father bestows a magical flute called Frost on him. Max is instantly jealous because he is the oldest son and accuses Peter of stealing it. Meanwhile, the Adversary’s army has just invaded and conquered, causing the Pipers and Peeps to flee into the Black Forest. While in the woods the group is savagely attacked and they must split up in hopes of making it to safety. While Peter escapes to Hamelin Town, Max spends years in the vast forest, slowly growing more evil-minded until he is found by a powerful witch who gives Max his own magic flute, which responds to his powers of dark magic.

The alternating chapters move the separate stories forward filling us in on what else happened to Peter, Max, and Bo that led them to where they are today. The conclusion is a powerful showdown that fully lived up to my expectations and even surprised me! This is a very fast-paced book with plenty of action to keep the reader turning pages. The novel is also illustrated throughout by the talented Steve Leialoha (who worked on the Fables comics). I highly recommend Peter & Max – an original prose novel by a guy who’s won awards for writing comic books.

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Redshirts by John Scalzi

Any geek worth his or her salt will know where the title for this book came from. For those of you who aren’t Sci-Fi nerds, it comes from Star Trek and a “redshirt” is a low ranking crew member who accompanies the Captain and other bridge officers on dangerous missions away from the ship. The redshirts almost always die. This concept is so ingrained into Star Trek lore, that J.J. Abrams even included it in his movie re-booting the franchise a few years ago. Here, Scalzi puts his own unique — and hilarious — spin on the idea in his newest* novel. (*Dang it, I wrote this review when the book came out last June, but we’ve had too many hold requests on it for us to promote it on our blog until now.)

Regular readers of this blog may remember what a huge fan I am of John Scalzi, and will note that I have blogged about several of his books before. So, suffice it to say, that I was really, really looking forward to this one! Ensign Andrew Dahl is a recent graduate of Space Fleet Academy and newly assigned to the Universal Union’s flagship vessel Intrepid. He makes a few friends with other new crewmen (and women) while waiting to board the ship and as soon as he’s on board he’s approached by the Chief Science Officer, Q’eeng. Dahl is accompanied to his assigned department (Xenobiology) and on the way Q’eeng asks him if he is interested in participating in away missions. Dahl isn’t necessarily keen to leave the ship on any dangerous missions, but he gets the impression that Q’eeng wants him to agree, so he does. After a few strange incidents in the Xenobiology lab, he and his friends discuss the odd start to their assignments in the mess hall — and they all seem to have noticed some of the same strange things about the U.U. ship Intrepid. Everyone on board, from bridge officers to department heads, to crewmen (and women), behaves VERY strangely about away missions.

Soon, Dahl and some fellow ensigns accompany a couple of Lieutenants to a space station which emitted a distress call to which the Intrepid has responded. The two away teams find themselves in some very deep doo-doo because the machines on board the space station have gone berserk and are killing all the humans. Needless to say, once the survivors have returned to their ship, Ensign Dahl and his crewmates begin to put two and two together about why everyone board is so twitchy about away missions and working directly with the bridge officers.  As the tagline on the front of the book says, “They were expendable … until they started comparing notes.” What follows is a rollicking send up of that old sci-fi show we geeks love, which also has some thought-provoking big ideas – and “meta-ness” – behind it.

If you liked Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide series of books, if you enjoyed the movie Galaxy Quest,  and definitely if you are a Fan of Star Trek (Trekkie or Trekker), you have got to read this new novel by this award-winning author and all around cool guy.

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11/22/63 by Stephen King

If you had the chance to go back in time and change history to prevent a national tragedy, would you? That is the chance given to Jake Epping, a high school English teacher in Maine. Al Templeton, the owner of a local diner, lets Jake in on a secret: there’s a “rabbit hole” in his storeroom that leads back to 1958. Al has a plan to go back and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing President Kennedy. But, Al is now dying of lung cancer, so he needs Jake’s help to complete his self-appointed mission to save the country by changing its history.

Jake also teaches adult GED classes and he read a theme written by his school’s janitor on “the day that changed my life.” It seems that there was a very gruesome and horrible event in Harry the janitor’s childhood – something that has scarred him for life, both physically and mentally. Jake’s not quite sure what to make of this time travel stuff, but decides that if it’s for real, he’s also going to try and change the course of events that led to this personal tragedy, in addition to trying to stop Oswald from killing Kennedy.

Of course, no story this good (and yes, it really is a good as everyone has said) would be so simple and straightforward. We learn that the past is obdurate. Don’t worry, I had to look that word up too. It means “unmoved by persuasion, pity, or tender feelings; stubborn; unyielding.” Basically, when you try to change the past, the past tries to stop you. The larger of a change you are making, the more the past will try to stop that change. And stopping Oswald from assassinating Kennedy is a mighty big change.

What makes Stephen King‘s novel so great is not just the premise (a fairly neat twist on the time travel idea), but the story itself and the characters about whom we come to care so much. Since the “rabbit hole” dumps Jake out in Maine in 1958, and Kennedy’s date with destiny is in Dallas in 1963, that leaves Jake with five years of living to do – as well as making sure that Oswald really did do it and acted alone. Along the way he gets a job teaching, meets a librarian named Sadie, and falls in love.

Does Jake stop Oswald? What would happen to our history if Kennedy had lived? What about Jake and Sadie? You don’t really want me to tell you, you really want to pick this book up and discover its wonder yourself. I’ll just end by saying that I’m not what you’d call a crying man, and it’s rare for a book to bring me to tears, but this is one of two books I read in 2011 that did just that.

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Greatest Hits: The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams

Join us the next five days and kick off the new year with The Book-A-Day Blog’s most popular posts of 2012!

Tad Williams is a well known Fantasy & Science Fiction writer (see The Dragonbone Chair & City of Golden Shadow), but this novel is set in a modern, real world setting (a fictional city in Northern California). Our narrator and main character is Bobby Dollar, a wise-cracking angel who lives on Earth and is an advocate for souls of the recently departed. In Williams’ world, when a person dies there is a trial and an angel and a demon each advocate for the soul to go to Heaven or Hell based on that person’s actions during life. The judge is one of the much higher levels of angels, and all of this naturally occurs outside of our perceived reality. It’s a pretty straight forward system – until one day when a soul goes missing before it can be assigned to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory for all eternity.

Bobby is not like any other angel I’ve ever read about – he drinks, curses and indulges his carnal desires when on Earth, and while he’s good at his job, his behavior means that he’s not exactly held in high esteem by his superiors up in Heaven. Then there’s the opposition: in addition to the demon advocates, Bobby is soon also mixed up with the likes of a higher level demoness known as the Countess of Cold Hands. She and her hellish companions make life – or is it afterlife? – very difficult for Bobby, who just wants to find out where the missing souls (yes, there have been more since that first one) have disappeared to. To make matters worse, a very powerful demon lord believes that Bobby has stolen something from him and has sent an ancient and practically unstoppable monster after him.

This novel is filled with action as Bobby races to find out what’s happened to the missing souls, evades the ancient monstrosity that’s hunting him, falls in lust with the Countess, and tries to avoid getting his friends – fellow angels on Earth – hurt. He’s also periodically “called upstairs” to be questioned by angels much higher than him on the celestial ladder. Even though Bobby is assured by everyone in Heaven that “God loves you,” he gets the distinct feeling that his superiors aren’t telling him everything they know.

Williams’ world building is first rate and he really made me feel like I was right there with Bobby, both in the Bay area and up in Heaven. Tad has also created some wonderfully relatable and highly entertaining characters for Bobby Dollar to interact with and play off of, with tons of memorable dialogue. I’d recommend this book for those who like paranormal detectives, especially the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher, as well as anyone who liked Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series, starting with On a Pale Horse.

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Best ‘New to Us’ Books in 2012: Dan B.’s Picks

Now that we’ve shared some of our favorite new books from 2012, we’ll also tell you about some of our favorite “New to Us” (older) books that we each discovered this year. Again, different library staff will take turns blogging about 5 of our favorite “New to Us” books from this year. Here are mine:

Somewhere in Heaven by Christopher Andersen
This is the fascinating story of Christopher and Dana Reeve’s lives in front of, and away from, the cameras. Chris, a graduate of Julliard and a huge star after Superman, returned to Williamstown, MA  each summer for their theater festival, and it was there that he met Dana, a singer and actress, who became the love of his life. The story continues with their touching courtship, eventual marriage, blending families, and Chris’ horrible paralyzing accident. Through it all, Dana’s devotion to Chris never wavered for an instant, and she helped him with his physical therapy, their profuse charity work, and raising their son. Read my full review.

Dauntless by Jack Campbell
John Geary was a soldier in the first battle of a war that has been raging for the last century. He’s also the sole survivor who held off the Syndicate forces and escaped into a hibernation pod that was just now rescued from oblivion by the flagship of the Alliance fleet. Now “Black Jack” Geary, a man returned from the dead who became a legendary hero, must find a way to lead the Alliance after they lost the latest battle very badly. He must also deal with the culture shock of being thrown a century into the future. Read my full review.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Eighteen year old Wade Watts escapes his life in this dystopian future by plugging into the OASIS, a virtual world where anyone can be anything – given enough credits. The reclusive inventor of OASIS, James Halliday, has died and left a video will in which he states that whoever can solve his 1980’s themed riddles to find three keys and unlock three hidden gates to find his “easter egg” will gain his fortune and control of OASIS. Wade is one of millions of hunters looking for the egg, including several friends, but so is the evil mega-corporation IOI – and they’re using every cheat code they can. Read my full review.

Among Others by Jo Walton
I usually need a lot of action in a story to get me hooked and to really enjoy it. That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate character development and ideas. But, that’s why I’ve had a hard time trying to describe this Hugo & Nebula Award winning novel and explain why I really liked it. It’s about Mori Phelps, a 15-year-old girl who ran away from her insane mother in Wales and is now in boarding school in England thanks to her estranged father’s family. There’s also magic, faeries, libraries, and books – oh so many wonderful science fiction & fantasy books!

Blackout & All Clear by Connie Willis
These two novels form one award winning story from Willis. Time traveling historians from Oxford suddenly have their schedules altered and trips to the past cancelled for no known reason. Three such travelers, Michael, Polly and Merope, mysteriously become trapped in the past while observing the events of World War II. Willis does a fabulous job of putting the reader in the midst of history and letting us know what daily life was really like for Londoners during the Blitz, or the Dover area fishermen during the Battle of Dunkirk. A wonderful mix of time travel and history with plenty of suspense.

Best New Books of 2012: Dan B.’s Picks

We’re happy to once again present our favorite books of the year on our Book-a-Day Blog! Different library staff will take turns each day letting you know their top 5 favorite books from this year. Then, following that, we’ll do the same thing, but tell you our five favorite “new to us” (older books) that we each discovered this year.

I read over 90 books this year, which I believe is the most I’ve read in a single year. My picks for the best new books in 2012 include some funny books and some amazing sci-fi & fantasy.  — Dan B.

Lunatics by Dave Barry and Alan Zweibel
Two very funny authors have teamed up to form the League of Comic Justice! The key to a great buddy story lies in the characters being opposites. Philip Horkman is a quiet, straight laced, play-by-the-rules kind of guy who owns a pet store, and who referees girls soccer. Jeffrey Peckerman is a loud, obnoxious, know-it-all, who always goes out of his way to let everyone know exactly what ticks him off. These two middle aged men from suburban New Jersey end up on the run from the law, and Chuck E. Cheese, for committing acts of terrorism. If you want a good laugh with your next read, try this. Read my full review.

The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde
The hilarious new Thursday Next novel is the best in the series since The Eyre Affair! After having been missing for a whole book, she’s now back in action, although injuries and her age are catching up with her. Thursday becomes the Chief Librarian in town in a world where libraries have enough money for an executive chef and armed security to recapture overdue books. Meanwhile, Swindon is due to be smited by the Almighty on Friday, her son is destined to murder someone that same day, and the evil Goliath corporation tries to replace Thursday with synthetic copies.

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King
Dark Tower fans rejoice! Stephen King has returned to his epic creation of Midworld with Roland the gunslinger and his ka-tet of companions: Jake, Susannah, Eddie and Oy. It takes place between the events of book 4 and 5 in the series, while the band of travelers makes their way toward the Dark Tower they must take shelter during a fierce windstorm. Roland tells a tale of his younger days investigating a murderous shape shifter, witnessed by a now terrified teen. To get the boy to trust him, the younger Roland tells yet another story of magic and horror mixed together.

Redshirts by John Scalzi
Ensign Andrew Dahl and his fellow rookie crew members on the Universal Union’s flagship vessel Intrepid begin to notice something strange about the ship and its crew. It seems that there is rather high mortality rate for low ranking crew members on away missions, the senior bridge oficers have very dramatic monologues, and the science department comes up with technology and solutions that are downright impossible. Sound familiar? This novel is a love letter to a certain Sci-Fi TV series from the late 60s, and absolutely filled with geek-tastic humor throughout!

The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams
Meet Bobby Dollar, a wise-cracking, take-no-guff, drinking, cussing and carousing angel. He’s an advocate for recently deceased souls (determining whether they go to Heaven or Hell). One day the angels and demons show up to argue over a soul’s fate, only the soul is missing. Not only does Bobby have to figure out what happened to this – and other – missing souls, he also has to avoid getting killed by an ancient monstrosity, deal with his lustful urges toward a demoness, and figure out why it seems like his superiors upstairs are hiding things from him. Read my full review.

The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde

I don’t usually write about sequels in a series, but the new Thursday Next novel is the best in the series since The Eyre Affair, so I just had to write to let you know how great this book is. Jasper Fforde‘s writing style is such that he fills in enough for a new reader to be able to enjoy the story and get some of Thursday’s background. Of course, you’ll likely get more out it if you’ve read the others, but I think readers could jump in and start with this newest one, and then go back and read the others.

Thursday Next lives in an alternate universe that resembles ours, but with a few significant differences. Time travel is routine, cheese is an illegal substance, and books & literature are taken very, very seriously. Thursday is a literary detective who was semi-retired when the government disbanded SpecOps, a group of highly specialized police forces. But now they are reversing their decision and reinstating the various SpecOps agencies. Thursday is invited to meet with her old boss and thinks she’s about to be offered the job of head of Literary Detection, but instead she’s offered the cushy job of Chief Librarian for the town.

The new job may sound cushy indeed, especially when one considers that libraries in this world have budgets large enough for an employee spa, an executive chef, and armed security to hunt down overdue books, but Thursday’s life is anything but. Aside from having to learn the ins and outs of librarianship, she also has to deal with the evil mega-corporation Goliath trying to replace her with automatons, her son’s discovery that he will murder someone this week in his letter of destiny, and that same day Swindon is scheduled for a smiting by the Almighty. The book covers Thursday’s life over the course of one incredibly busy week, and we get to know her family better than we have before. Will Thursday be able to defeat Goliath’s attempts to replace her with a creation of their own? Can she help Swindon avoid being smited?

Bibliophiles and library lovers will enjoy this book with Fforde’s British wit and obvious love of books. A couple of quotes from this book really made me smile, including this one from Thursday’s first day on her new job, “Do I have to talk to insane people?” “You’re a librarian now. I’m afraid it’s mandatory.” One that is less humorous, but more touching, is the author’s dedication: “To all the librarians who have ever been, ever will be, are now, this book is respectfully dedicated.”

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The Dirty Streets of Heaven by Tad Williams

Tad Williams is a well known Fantasy & Science Fiction writer (see The Dragonbone Chair & City of Golden Shadow), but this novel is set in a modern, real world setting (a fictional city in Northern California). Our narrator and main character is Bobby Dollar, a wise-cracking angel who lives on Earth and is an advocate for souls of the recently departed. In Williams’ world, when a person dies there is a trial and an angel and a demon each advocate for the soul to go to Heaven or Hell based on that person’s actions during life. The judge is one of the much higher levels of angels, and all of this naturally occurs outside of our perceived reality. It’s a pretty straight forward system – until one day when a soul goes missing before it can be assigned to Heaven, Hell or Purgatory for all eternity.

Bobby is not like any other angel I’ve ever read about – he drinks, curses and indulges his carnal desires when on Earth, and while he’s good at his job, his behavior means that he’s not exactly held in high esteem by his superiors up in Heaven. Then there’s the opposition: in addition to the demon advocates, Bobby is soon also mixed up with the likes of a higher level demoness known as the Countess of Cold Hands. She and her hellish companions make life – or is it afterlife? – very difficult for Bobby, who just wants to find out where the missing souls (yes, there have been more since that first one) have disappeared to. To make matters worse, a very powerful demon lord believes that Bobby has stolen something from him and has sent an ancient and practically unstoppable monster after him.

This novel is filled with action as Bobby races to find out what’s happened to the missing souls, evades the ancient monstrosity that’s hunting him, falls in lust with the Countess, and tries to avoid getting his friends – fellow angels on Earth – hurt. He’s also periodically “called upstairs” to be questioned by angels much higher than him on the celestial ladder. Even though Bobby is assured by everyone in Heaven that “God loves you,” he gets the distinct feeling that his superiors aren’t telling him everything they know.

Williams’ world building is first rate and he really made me feel like I was right there with Bobby, both in the Bay area and up in Heaven. Tad has also created some wonderfully relatable and highly entertaining characters for Bobby Dollar to interact with and play off of, with tons of memorable dialogue. I’d recommend this book for those who like paranormal detectives, especially the Harry Dresden series by Jim Butcher, as well as anyone who liked Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality series, starting with On a Pale Horse.

Find and reserve this book in our catalog.