LAST UPDATE
3/8/23
The Cabinet of Dr.
Leng by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child, Grand Central, 2023
The
latest Pendergast novel is mostly about his friend Constance who travels
magically back to 1880 - making this a fantasy - in an effort to rescue
her sister, who died in a work house. Unfortunately, the sister has been
spirited away by the mysterious Dr. Leng, supposedly a doctor but really
a serial killer. In the present Pendergast attempts to find a way to
bring her back. In the past, she refuses to abandon her quest and puts
herself in danger. There are several good scenes in the novel -
which is actually only half of the novel, ending in a cliffhanger. That
said, I only marginally enjoyed, probably in part because it was not
what I expected and had been looking forward to. The lack of a
conclusion is also a negative. 3/8/23
Quest
for the White Witch by Tanith Lee, DAW, 1978
Final
volume in a trilogy. Vazkor is a powerful sorcerer who sets out on a
quest to find and kill his mother, an equally powerful sorceress. He has
various adventures along the way and learns a good deal about himself
before the final confrontation. The story is hampered by the breadth of
his power – he can cure wounds, control the weather, generated deadly
bursts of force, restore youth, etc. This means that he is never really
in danger. He is also arrogant and lacks affection, which makes him more
of an anti-hero than anything else. Not one of my favorites by this
author. 3/3/23
Vazkor, Son
of Vazkor by Tanith Lee, DAW, 1978
Sequel
to The Birthgrave. The protagonist is the son of the superhuman
female from the first book, although she substituted him for an ordinary
infant and he grew up believing himself to be the son of a tribal chief,
despite his unusual strength and recuperative powers. He is not a nice
person. After various adventures, he discovers his true lineage, becomes
outcast from his tribe, is briefly a tortured and then a pampered
prisoner in one of the cities, is condemned to death but escapes, and
ends the book casting off in a boat in search of new lands. Not nearly
as powerful as its predecessor. 3/38/23
The Birthgrave by
Tanith Lee, DAW, 1975
A
woman wakes up under a volcano with amnesia. She is a survivor of a
cruel elder race who once enslaved humanity – although it is not
entirely clear that they were not human themselves. She has healing
powers and other magical abilities, including being able to recover from
being dead and climb out of her grave. She has adventures with
villagers, bandits, soldiers, and a chariot race before encountering
another of her kind, who is seizing power over one group of cities in
order to conquer several others. The world is an unpleasant one and the
protagonist is not a particularly nice person, but the story has power
in its language and its gradual portrayal of a somewhat atypical fantasy
world. I never cared for the ending, which tries to rationalize
everything, but the book is still powerful and gripping. 2/19/23
The Dragon Hoard
by Tanith Lee, Tempo, 1971
Tanith
Lee’s debut novel was for children. It’s a cute, somewhat silly, quest
story drawn from familiar fairy tales. A young prince sets out to steal
treasure from a fierce dragon. He gains allies along the way and
succeeds despite efforts by a nasty sorceress to sabotage his efforts.
The dragon is taking some personal time and does not appear in the
story, so our heroes simply gather up the treasure and leave. An evil
sorceress tries to interfere. Fun but slight. 2/14/23
Dead Country by Max
Gladstone, Tor, 2023, $17.99, ISBN 978-0-7653-9591-7
I
burned out on fantasy novels a while back, so I was surprised to
discover this author had written so much during my lapse of interest. I
read and enjoyed some of the earlier novels in the Craft series, but I
felt as though I was coming to it for the first time. This appears to be
the opening volume in the final arc. The protagonist has clearly had
more than her share of adventure and danger already and deserves a rest,
which obviously is not in the cards. When she meets a young girl on her
way home to her father's funeral, she is caught up in yet another
struggle against the forces of chaos. Gladstone has created a distinct
fantasy world for this series, wirh an underlay of rampant capitalism.
He has a deceptively light handed narrative style that leads one easily
through sometimes complex situations. I should go back and fill in the
books that I missed. 2/1/23
It’s All in
Your Mind by Robert Bloch, Curtis, 1971
This
was an expansion of the 1955 short story “The Big Binge.” A cloddish
protagonist is exposed to an experimental machine, after which he can
literally strip women naked by looking at them. He suppresses the power
with alcohol, but that allows him to physically manifest his
hallucinations. Further exposure, designed to cure him, just makes
things worse. At one point he creates ten duplicates of himself and
forms a football team. The comedy is rather forced and sometimes pretty
juvenile. 1/6/23
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