David Woodger

The first in a four-book fantasy series, The Red Wolf Conspiracy introduces us to a plucky young tarboy, Pazel Pathkendle who soon finds himself working aboard the immense Imperial ship Chathrand. The Chathrand is on a peace mission from the Arquali capital city of Etherhorde to the island of Simja at the edge of the Mzithrin territory. Some forty years previously, the Second Sea War between the Arqualis and Mzithrinis ended. Now, in an effort to broker peace, young Thasha Isiq, the daughter of famed admiral Eberzam Isiq has been promised as a bride to a Mzithrini prince. She's not too happy about it either. Complicating things are sentient animals, a race of hand-size warriors, an insane so-called god-king, and many different plotters with their own agendas. There are battles, escapes, captures, magic, weird creatures, and of course, a conspiracy. This was a fun read. Occasionally the author would suddenly dump a lot of information concerning events happening elsewhere which was a little disorienting and a little too pat, but it's a small quibble. The first half of the book kept me interested, the second half ratchets up the level of action and adventure. I'm looking forward to reading the second book when it comes out in paperback at the end of the year.

I was fishing around for another book to read to the kids and this one had many glowing reviews. They were pretty much hooked from the get-go. In this story four young kids answer an newspaper ad that proclaims “Are you a gifted child looking for special opportunities?” All four are in various circumstances in which they don't have parents around. There are two boys and two girls and they become secret agents for the kindly Mr. Benedict. Both of my kids (Luke, 9, and Kajsa, 7) would beg me to read more when it came time to wish them a good night. Luke begged to read ahead but I refused since this was our chosen read-aloud book. So, over the course of a month, I read from this nearly every night. They loved it. And at certain passages they would laugh aloud. When I finished it the other night they wanted to know if we could get the next in this series. They said we should read all of them. High praise. Kids would give it 5 stars but I don't hand out 5-star reviews willy-nilly. Nooo.

I needed a read-aloud book for the kids and although I wasn't entirely pleased with The Tale of Desperaux, I'd heard something good about this from somewhere and decided to give it a shot. The story is simple enough but there are many polysyllabic vocabulary words that I'm sure my nine- and six-year-old wouldn't know. Regardless, they really enjoyed the story. It's basically a boy's quest to find his lost sister. It was nothing earth-shattering but I will say it painted strong pictures in the mind's eye. Both my kids would ask me to read one more chapter when I'd stop reading. We went through this one pretty quickly. Both kids gave it high marks.

Needed another read-aloud book for bedtime and this was available at the local library. (Boy, I seem to be plowing through read-aloud books lately.) This is a cute, breezy tale narrated by a young pre-teen girl who has to write a “What I Did Last Summer” essay for school. Instead, she recounts the tale of a disaster with hamsters and her investigation into it. It's a very light tale especially for one that includes death in the story. There's a good sense of humor in it too. As I read it, I became aware that it's set in England. (There are a few Britishisms sprinkled throughout and of course, many of the characters have a fondness for tea.) I enjoyed trying out my accent for the character of Mr. Tucker (a retired Navy man), but when I accidently let my English accent stray into one of the kids speech, my own two kids said I was making a mistake. The narrator (Anna) and her brother were American, they insisted. (I went along with it.) The story ends somewhat abruptly and you get the feeling there could've been a little more to the ending but no matter – the kids liked it well enough. Now they are very excited at the prospect of my reading the third Mysterious Benedict Society book for the next read-aloud.

Wow. Have I really read five books in this series just this year?! This is the series that I've been reading aloud to Luke (age 9). Tom Ward is the young – almost 14 years old – man apprenticed to the Spook. As such they fight the good fight against the Dark whether that's boggarts, skelts, witches, or other nasties. On a couple occasions my wife listened in a bit as I read some passages to Luke. She'd say that the story was a little too creepy or scary but Luke and I would just roll our eyes and forge on ahead. This entry is essentially a continuation of the previous book as the Fiend once again enters the story. But the title is in reference to a water witch known as the Bloodeye. She is very dangerous. Like virtually all the other books in this series, Luke couldn't wait for me to read aloud the last 50 pages and begged to finish it himself in bed. So he actually finished this one night before I did. We're REALLY digging this series. Currently there's eight books in the series and yes, we'll be getting to book six soon.

A coupla years ago I read Defoe's first two adventures featuring the Pirates: The Pirates! In An Adventure with Scientists and The Pirates! In An Adventure with Ahab. I'm a big fan of this kind of silly, absurdist humor and Gideon Defoe has a deft hand at it. I kept giggling along with this tale too. (It's undoubtedly the funniest book I've read all year.) The pirates don't even get names either. There's the Pirate Captain (who is always dreaming of a fine glazed ham); his second in command, the Pirate with a Scarf; and also the Pirate with a Nut Allergy to name a few. (There's also Jennifer.) And I also enjoy the chapter names which have absolutely nothing to do with the events transpiring within their respective chapters. One that comes to mind is: I Saw Sea Cucumbers Eat Jenkins! Good stuff.

This is the fourth and final book in Park's Roumanian series, easily the oddest series I've read to date. (Could be the oddest story as well but then I recalled Santa Steps Out by Robert Devereaux and for sheer oddness, that one's tough to beat.) There are three main characters in the Roumanian series: Miranda, Andromeda, and Peter. And their trajectory through these books is hard to summarize. Let's just say that the tale involves: an alternate world; conjurers; magical items (including a gun housing six demons, some of which get loose); possesion; a character that changes from female to dog to male to various combinations of the aforementioned; the titular spirit world; and a war between Roumania and Turkey. That said, I enjoyed the journey although at times I found it confusing. I'd recommend it to anyone bored with the same old thing. Also, lots of writerly types give this series high praise including Ursula K. LeGuin and Gene Wolfe.

I've read this one before – 29 years ago. But I was feeling nostalgic for some of the stories I'd read as a teen and I tracked this one down and decided to re-read it for kicks. It's a sf book in a light-hearted vein with a bumbling anti-hero named Roger Tyson who gets caught up a time warp. He meets a comely agent from the the future named Q'nell and the pair of them are pursued by the mysterious Oob the Rhox through a series of time portals. They try to figure out how to repair the damage caused by these as various people all over Earth and from different times find themselves reliving the same day over and over again. Silly, fast-moving stuff. (Written in 1970.)

Wasn't easy to find this book. It was originally published in 1962 and titled The Hunter. It's the first in over 20 books featuring the thief Parker. It was filmed twice, first with Lee Marvin and called Point Blank and then with Mel Gibson and called Payback. I've always liked the Payback movie and now I see that they did a pretty good job of adapting the book. They added some nice flourishes while keeping most of the plot. What they lost was some of the back story and the denouement is different. I'm a big fan of this series (this is the tenth Parker book I've read). It has lean, spare prose, and at heart is just a hard-boiled crime story. I recently came across this quote from the author regarding this book:

So I did a betrayal-revenge-tough guy story, with a cold-blooded lead who got caught at the end. Pocket Books bought it and asked if the guy could escape at the end and appear in more books, and it turned out he could, and Parker was born. If I'd known he'd be back in more than 20 books, I'd have given him a first name. ~ Donald E Westlake

A second adventure featuring the selfish, amoral, necromancer, Johannes Cabal was an automatic buy for me. The first story, Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, was just too much fun, witty, and with a unique plot. This go-round may not be as captivating as the first, but it too is full of dry wit, and Johannes Cabal's unique world view. He's quite an interesting character as evil bastards go. I read this story punctuated by much snickering. This time finds Johannes aboard a very cool airship (a diagram is included) with a mysterious murderer aboard. He tries his hand at detective work purely out of self-interest, of course. Some parts of the story are much stronger than others, but I read the whole thing in a week which is relatively fast for me. I will eagerly snap up the third Johannes Cabal story (due next winter) as soon as possible.

This is a steampunk novel from an author known for SF. In the towering city of Spearpoint, Quillon is working as a pathologist in the district morgue. When a winged angel from the Celestial Levels ends up on his dissection table, it starts a chain of events that causes Quillon to embark on a journey into the hostile lands beyond Spearpoint. The main conceit at play is that the world (and Spearpoint) is divided into several different zones in which only certain kinds of technology can exist. Traveling from one zone to another, if you're heading from a more advanced zone to a less advanced zone, renders any more advanced tech unworkable. In Spearpoint itself the zones range from high-tech, to electricity, to steam-powered, to “Horsetown”. It's a strange set-up that naturally doesn't hold up to close scrutiny but there you are.

The beginning of the story moves along a fast clip and keeps you interested. But once Quillon is beyond Spearpoint, the story slows down considerably. There are a few moments when things get re-invigorated, but they don't last until perhaps the last 70 pages of the book when events once again move at quicker pace. It was interesting enough to keep reading, but just barely. The middle is a slog. And Quillon's not the most captivating character either. My biggest complaint is that the book lacks suspense for 95% of the story.

Some weeks ago I came across another reader who whole-heartedly recommends the author's book “House of Suns” but had warned me not to bother with this one.

This would not have been my first choice for read-aloud reading material but A) I don't have a ton of choices readily available (I'm currently in Sweden after all), and B) it's a old favorite of my wife's and she'd bought a copy recently. So, I found myself reading this 100-year-old story to the kids. At first I couldn't help inwardly rolling my eyes at the overwrought nature of the story and it's perfect little heroine. But as the titular Sara Crewe's fortunes take a turn for the worse, it wasn't so bad and both my kids were hooked. (Honestly, lately they've been hooked on whatever I've been reading to them.) Both my 7-year-old girl and my 10-year-old boy got caught up in the story and would blurt out ideas about the characters. As the tale came to a close even my old cynical self felt moved by the charity shown by Sara Crewe to those less fortunate than herself. (So that's two books by this author I've read now! Huh.)

In this second book of the Fablehaven series, Kendra and Seth are back at school when strange things start to happen. The magical world, especially the sinister Society of the Evening Star, comes looking for them. Soon they are back at Fablehaven along with some new characters. The Society is desperately trying to get their hands on the magical artifact hidden at Fablehaven. Can Kendra and Seth stop them?

Like the first book, I read this one aloud to the kids. They like it. They want me to read the next one. I'm opting not to. I'm not a big fan of the author's writing style. He hasn't met an alternative for “said” that he doesn't use. I find that very jarring – especially when reading it aloud. He'd do well to follow Elmore Leonard's third rule for writing: Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.

This book seemed a little tedious to me. If my 10-year-old decides to continue this series on his own, he'll probably be just fine with it. But I've got some other ideas for the next read-aloud book.

I don't really remember much of anything about this book. But I DO remember that I was reading it on a train while traveling in Europe. And then later being bummed that I didn't meet any hot young French girls to have a torrid one-night affair with like Ethan Hawke gets to do when HE's in Europe. Stupid Ethan Hawke!

I confess that this books cool cover was the first thing that drew me in. Then seeing that it was highly rated among thousands of Amazon users... And then finding out that the sequel was also highly rated... And of course the cool premise. Namely that there are four Londons that our protagonist, Kell, can navigate between. These Londons are all capitals of different countries with different monarchs. Grey London has very little magic and is ruled by George III. Red London (which Kell calls home) is the seat of the Maresh empire and is flush with magic. White London is ruled by the psychotic Dane siblings, Athos and Astrid, and is losing magic fast. And Black London, which no one talks about and has been largely cut off since magic went wild there. Trouble starts when Kell comes into possession of a dangerous magical artefact from Black London. Story moves briskly and I has to read the final hundred pages all at once.

In the middle book of this trilogy, Egg and his new pal Guts find themselves on an adventure southward to new lands. Egg has memorized a symbol map to an old tribes mythical treasure. They meet up with characters new and old and Egg gets into some seriously dangerous predicaments. I read this book aloud to my daughter – it took a while only because the nightly reading routine has been a lot more sporadic of late. I am nearing the end of an era. Although, not yet. My daughter has informed me that I will be reading the third book to her (just as soon as it released in paperback – this April.)

This is the second tale of Egil (big dude, carries hammers to crush little dudes) and Nix (sneaky thief who dabbles in magical artifacts). They get caught up in some shenanigans with a local crime guild and wreak havoc. Just the right thing to read when I wanted something light and sword-and-sorcery-ish to wade through.

This science book club pick attempts to answer why we emerged as the dominant species in the homo genus. For a book under 300 pages it sure seemed like a long book. Partly to blame is the dry writing. It's heavy on fossils and minutia on this or that two-million-year-old bone. I read every word of the first third of this book and then skimmed heavily. I was a little late picking up a copy of this and before I received it, I was dipping into another book that touches on the same theme. It's called Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari. I can tell you from the first 70 pages of Sapiens that it's much better written than this one. Too bad we didn't pick that one instead (although, Sapiens would take a lot longer to read – it's thick). This guy, Tattersall, isn't much of a storyteller, which is what, I, the layman, would appreciate more. And, for the record, Neanderthals aren't ancestors of ours but ancestral cousins. Although, there's enough similarity between Neanderthals and homo sapiens that there was limited interbreeding between them (that could produce fertile offspring). Just a smidge of action there.

This is the second book in the Books of the Raksura series. The winged shapeshifter Moon and his usual cohorts find themselves searching for the thieves of a vitally important artefact to his Indigo Cloud court. This search takes them over the Serpent Sea to an exceedingly strange island. Once there, things get really interesting. I find this world and this series fascinating and fun.