Roger's Reads – Page 45 – Author & Book Reviewer

Review of Less by Andrew Sean Greer

October 6, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

This book was a Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 2018 and is named after our main protagonist, Arthur Less, a fumbly, insecure gay man about to turn 50 and whose latest manuscript has just been rejected by his long-time publisher.

To make matters worse, a wedding invitation arrives in the mail announcing that Arthur’s boyfriend of the past nine years, Freddy, is marrying someone else. Hell, Arthur didn’t even realize that their relationship was over.

So he certainly wasn’t about to attend the wedding as that would be majorly awkward. But to refuse would look petty. Deeply discouraged and more than a bit heartbroken, Arthur does what anyone else would do in such as situation:

Run Away!!

As it turns out, he has a stack of nearly-forgotten bookish invites to various literary events all around the world: Italy, France, Morocco, Japan, India, Germany…. so Less decides to accept every invitation, award ceremony, speaking engagement and teaching opportunity that was sent his way and embark on an around-the-world adventure.

After all, what could possibly go wrong?

What follows is a zany series of misadventures, misunderstandings, missteps, and more than a few personal humiliations as Arthur attempts to run away from his problems — or at least momentarily forget about them which he discovers isn’t easy to do.

Along the way, he reminisces about his life, he meets up with former lovers and aging friends, makes new friends and even comes close to falling in love.

The story takes bits and pieces of his current life and his memories and weaves them together into a compelling, insightful narrative — and the author does it with wit and humor.

You know, this quirky book ponders many of life’s important questions — universal questions — so that in this way, it was entirely relatable.

It was especially relatable for me, being a gay male in his 50’s but I think that the universal nature of the themes in this book such as love, loss, nostalgia, lost opportunities, growing older, disappointment, searching for meaning in our life, and acceptance would render it relatable to most people.

This poignant and thought-provoking book had me from the get-go. I thought this was a beautifully written and meaningful book with wondrously descriptive scenes and lush, vibrant prose.

It was an intoxicating and profoundly engaging read with plenty of humor and heart, and I ended up loving the quirky character of Arthur Less. The writing was clever, witty, sophisticated, and utterly charming. I was also pleased with the emotional and entirely satisfying ending which cinched its 5-star rating for me.

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Review of Rule by Ellen Goodlett

September 18, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Rule follows three secretive women: Zofi, Akeylah, and Ren, each of whom harbors a dark, traitorous secret that would no doubt lead to her execution if word ever got out. So when the king of Kolonya summons them to the palace, they each believe that someone has discovered their secret and that their days are numbered.

But King Andros has summoned the girls for an entirely different reason. The king is dying, and his only son has recently been murdered leaving no heir to the throne — except that is, for Zofi, Akeylah and Ren, his three illegitimate daughters that nobody knew about.

The king tells the three women that they will train and work with him in the coming days and that he will choose one of them to be his successor. So now they must compete with one another to prove themselves worthy for the throne of Kolonya, so a rivalry develops between the three half-sisters as only one can be chosen as the heir.

However, there is someone out there who doesn’t want ANY of them to rule — someone who knows each of their secrets and has resorted to blackmail to keep them from the throne. The strange blackmailer has given each of them the same choice: leave Kolonya or their secret will be revealed. So as the danger to the sisters escalates, they begin working together each using her own natural talents to try to stop their blackmailer.

What follows is a fast-paced story of political intrigue, magic, blackmail, deceit, dangerous plots, complicated romances, and an enthralling mystery. I found the characters likable and relatable, with distinct personalities and character voices. I also loved how each woman’s secret built up the storyline and overall, felt that the story is clever, engaging and wildly entertaining.

The only thing that bothered me regarding the story’s plot was the magic system. In this story, the people use a form of magic called The Arts. The Arts consists of blood magic tithing, which provides increased speed, strength, and stamina. To activate the magic, you have to cut yourself to draw blood. I found this magic system a bit disturbing in that one had to resort to self-mutilation to trigger their magic, so there was a good deal of cutting in the book. Now I’m not a fan of cutting, to begin with, but I felt especially uncomfortable by this particular system of magic — or any magic system for that matter which involves self-harm to bring forth power.

Magic system aside, the novel held my attention until the very end and had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. And then came the end and it all went to hell. Or should I say, it didn’t go anywhere. The story ended on a disappointing “cliffhanger” in which there was no resolution to any plot thread. Literally, nothing in the story was resolved. It just fizzled out. In fact, the ending was so abrupt that I felt the author terminated the story in the middle of a chapter. It is my humble opinion that if a novel cannot stand on its own, then the author has failed.

I have no problem with books in a series; in fact, I mainly read series these days. But when a book ends on a ridiculous cliffhanger with no resolution, then it’s an utter failure. After I turned the last page this book, I felt robbed — robbed that I wasted three days reading this novel only to end up with…absolutely nothing. It’s a shame really — I really was enjoying the story right until the end, and it probably would have been a four-star read for me. But given that it is only a half-finished book, the most I can give it is two stars.

Now if you don’t mind cliffhangers, then you may want to give Rule a try as it is quite a gripping story. Unfortunately, the cliffhanger killed it for me, and I won’t be continuing with the series.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy of this book!

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Review of Twice Dead (Necromancer’s Song) by Caitlin Seal

September 18, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Twice Dead is the first installment in a new series titled The Necromancer’s Song.

The book follows our main character Naya, a naive trade merchant’s daughter from the country of Talmir, who is on her first trade mission in the country of Celamor. Her father waits for her on their ship while she ventures off to meet with the client. On the way there, she’s murdered in an alleyway and later brought to back to life as a wraith by a necromancer. After her resurrection, she learns from the Talmirian embassy that she was brought back in order to spy on Celamor.  Now it’s worth mentioning at this point that Talmir is morally opposed to necromancy and because of this, Talmir and Celamor are bitter enemies on the brink of war. There’s not a lot of trust between the two countries. Neya is coerced into spying for her country, but as she quickly learns, things are not as they seem and not all of those she deemed trustworthy can be trusted.

This is a fast-paced, action-filled novel with fantastic world building. I enjoyed the backstory between the two enemy nations, though it took me a bit to get a handle on what was going on. But once I did, I found the intrigue, the politics, the spying and the backstabbing to be quite an enjoyable journey.  The magic system in the story was refreshing — the necromancy as presented here was not the type of magic system you often see in stories. When someone is resurrected, they are bound to their former body by runes engraved on their bones. The resurrection process also involves “singing” the soul back to the body, which is a complicated and rather lengthy procedure. I found this system not only unique but genuinely fascinating (and perhaps just a tad creepy!). This is the first book I’ve read about necromancy, and the system as it was presented here was intriguing. It was fun accompanying Naya on her journey as she discovered her new powers, adjusted to her wraith-body, learned about wraiths and necromancers, and overcame her long-held prejudices.

I found the writing to be crisp, sharp and clean, and well-edited (I didn’t notice any errors), and the storytelling and characterization were expertly done. The characters were well-fleshed out, the pace was spot on, and the storyline kept me flipping the page until it ended.

Twice Dead also had some exciting twists and surprises — it definitely packed some punch. The story, in my opinion, was well-thought out and well planned. There wasn’t one point in this book where I was confused as to what was going on. Naya was an interesting, dynamic character, and almost immediately, I felt comfortable in her head.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fantasy, action-packed thrillers, spy novels, paranormal adventures and worlds with intriguing magic systems. This was a fun ride that I’m glad I got to be a part of. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for the next book in the series.

Note: A big thank you to NetGalley, who provided me an Advanced Reader Copy of “Twice Dead” in exchange for an honest review.

You can check out Twice Dead here at Amazon or at The Book Depository

Review of The Overstory by Richard Powers

September 9, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

This was another long list finalist for the 2018 Man Booker awards, and the premise of the book really grabbed me, so I took a gamble. And I’m glad I did.

The Overstory starts by introducing us to a variety of everyday people, nine of them, each with their own separate story and all of whom have a connection to trees (though they may not be aware of it). We have a scientist who studies trees, a young Chinese woman whose father leaves behind a curious heirloom, a young computer genius, a Vietnam vet, a young woman who dies and comes back to life with a renewed purpose, an artist who inherits a multi-generational tree photography project and others.

At first, it seems like this is a book of unrelated short stories, which kind of surprised me given that the Man Booker, as of this time, does not allow for short story collections. But once we meet everyone in the first part of the book, we then see how they are or will become linked by their connection to trees and in the process, their lives will be changed forever.

This was such an interesting approach to storytelling — linking a group of disparate characters via trees and through this link, telling a remarkable and unforgettable story of the relationship between trees and humans. And along the way, we as the reader learn some pretty amazing facts about trees, data that have only recently been confirmed by scientists. I recall reading about one of the findings outlined in this book several years ago and found it utterly amazing. Yes, I’m an old tree hugger from way back.

The Overstory paints a vivid picture of the effects of humans on the planet and what that might mean for our future. Through our nine characters and the poetry of Powers’ writing, we dive deep into the old ancient forests, the lives of individual trees, our connection to the trees and the forests, and the connection of trees to each other and the entire planet.

There are a plethora of themes to this book: life, death, connection to the world around us, people fighting for what’s right, greed, tragedy, our place in the natural world and hope. After reading this book, I can say that I’ll never look at trees the same way again and in this way, it’s sort of a wake-up call — a call urging us to try and see life from a different perspective to back the balance.

The Overstory is not a book with a fairy tale ending; in fact, it will break your heart. But it’s not entirely without hope either. The Overstory will make you angry at times and is a story that will stay in your mind for a long time after having closed the book. It has for me, and I don’t think I’ll forget it anytime soon.

Though it was at times a difficult book to read, it was also one of the most beautifully written books that I’ve read in a long time: lyrical, poetic, moving and enlightening with the potential to be life-altering.

Hell, it might even make you want to run out and a hug a tree afterward. All in all, a powerful thought-provoking story that I ended up loving.

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Review of The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians Book 1) by Rick Riordan

September 9, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

I read the first couple of books in this series years ago when they first came out, but I don’t remember too much about them. So I wanted to reread this series, especially since I want to read a couple of the other series by Rick Riordan and figured I probably should read Percy first.

For those of you who haven’t read it, it follows 12 year old Percy Jackson, who, after one of his teachers transforms into a terrible monster and tries to kill him, learns that he is a half-blood meaning that he’s half human, half god and that his father is one of the Olympian Gods though we don’t learn until later which one. He also learns that his best friend in school, Grover, is a Satyr – half human and half goat.

When Percy’s mom finds out what happened to him at school with the evil teacher creature, she and Percy hop in the card, and she takes him to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods – the 1/2 children of gods. Oh, and along the way, there’s a fierce battle with a minotaur.

While he’s at camp, there’s an unthinkable crime: Someone has stolen Zeus’ lightning bolt, and unless the true thief is found, the Gods will engage in a catastrophic war amongst themselves, resulting in the potential destruction of earth.

So now, along with the help of a satyr and a daughter of Athena, Percy must journey across the United States to find the thief. Along the way, he faces a host of mythological monsters and old gods determined to stop him.

So I ended up loving this book, as I did the first time I read it. The Lightning Thief is everything that I love in a story: great characters, great villains, and plenty of non-stop action. I can’t wait to get to the next one in the series.

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Review of Still Life by Louise Penny

September 8, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

I’ve been wanting to read Louise Penny for a while now as the people in my book club rave about her books. So I picked up the first one in the Gamache series called Still Life.

The story opens when Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called to the scene of a suspicious death in the rural village of Three Pines, south of Montreal. Jane Neal, an elderly woman and beloved longtime resident of Three Pines has been found dead in the woods. The locals are positive it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache doesn’t necessarily agree and is soon convinced that Jane Neal death was not an accident. She was murdered.

This book has a fantastic cast of eccentric, complex and likable characters, each with more than their share of faults. There were numerous red herrings peppered throughout the story, and as Gamache deepens his investigation, possible suspects began to emerge. By the end of the book, we’ve pretty much gotten to know everyone, along with their faults and their foibles, in the small town of Three Pines — including the murderer. And everyone has layers upon layers of secrets.

Now even though many people refer to this as a cozy mystery, I’m not entirely sure that I agree. While it did take place in a quaint little artsy town, there was a darker feel to it then you see with a lot of cozies. There was long-standing hatred, fear, homophobia, revenge and, as it turns out, multiple murders. Though it certainly wasn’t gloomy, it doesn’t have that light, almost playful atmosphere you see in the cozy mystery genre.

As is the case with mysteries, one cannot say too much without spilling the beans as it were. Let me just say that this was an enjoyable mystery that kept me guessing until the end. This one I did not figure out.

The only niggle that I had with the book was the depiction of the gay couple. The author relied on stereotypical representations in which they ran a B & B and collected antiques. And then there’s the scene where they were singing “It’s Raining Men” in the kitchen, which caused me to roll my eyes so hard that I saw my brain.

If it hadn’t been for this insulting stereotyping, I probably would have given this book five stars. That being said, this is a solid 4-star read for me, and I hope to continue with the series and see what other kinds of trouble our Chief Inspector gets himself into.

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