The Saturday Morning Post (No. 118)

 

This week, for a change, we have a movie to review. A movie adaptation of a book I've read. I had come across this movie before, but when I came across some music for the score of the movie in my music playlist feed, I tracked down the movie itself and found it was free on YouTube. So I watched it.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below. 

The Lightkeepers (2009) Written and Directed by Danial Adams  C

I found the film here on YouTube. It may not be here when you see this review, who knows? You can find the Rotten Apple reviews of the movie here as well. To save you a click, its tomatometer score is 20% and popcornmeter score is 45%. 

As I mentioned above, I had come across this movie from a different direction some years ago - from the novel it is adopted from. I'm not a movie person, so I didn't follow up on it at the time, and only watched it now, because I could do so for free. 

From the scores I've quoted, it should be clear that this is not a very good movie. But what really annoys me is this Danial Adams fellow. Not only is he apparently a bad director, but he pirated the story and claimed it as his own. Almost. If you wait, the very final entry on the end credits reads; "Story Inspired by "The Woman Haters" by Joseph C. Lincoln." Inspired by? That's a bold-faced lie in little print. It was Joe Lincoln's The Woman Haters from 1911, beat by beat. 

I haven't read the book in some time, but I have it, and glancing through it; from the opening scene to the end of the book, I could see episodes in this movie that follow the story line of the book, including using the same names for the characters. Anything this Adams wrote would have been what would have been expected adopting a novel to a movie. Why, there are illustrations in my copy of the book that could just as well illustrate scenes in the movie. The only thing that this Adams fellow changed is the back story for the young "woman hater" for no good reason. It's just as trite as Joe's. 

I watched part of a Mansfield Park movie based on the Jane Austen novel, and it was less faithful than The Lightkeepers, but was still considered an adoption of that novel. Now, I will admit that adding "From the Novel, The Woman Haters, by Joseph C. Lincoln" somewhere on the movie poster and in the opening credits would not likely have sold more than three additional tickets, unlike putting Jane Austen's name on a movie that only vaguely resembles the book. But still, to put in small print at the very end of the movie, when everyone has left, that it was "inspired" by Joe Lincoln's book is a lie. The bright side is that Joe Lincoln seems to have dodged a bullet, in that this movie is bad movie. 

The Lightkeepers is bafflingly lame in execution: A number of cuts don't match, and the entire film has a herky-jerky stop-and-start lack of momentum. - Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine

The movie is about a lighthouse keeper on Cape Cod who "hates" women for reasons that we learn over the course of the movie. A mysterious young man washes up on the shore from a passing steamer, who gives an obviously fake name, and who is in no hurry to leave the lighthouse, also for reasons we learn over the course of the movie. The lighthouse keeper's assistant has just quit, so the young man takes his place, temporarily. They bond over their disgust of womenkind, a disgust that is tested, and found wanting, when two women take a nearby cottage for five weeks. 

As the critic I quoted above suggests, the pacing of this movie is off. The events almost seemed like they took place in just the span of three or four days, rather than over a summer. Scenes run on too long, with too few scenes to suggest the passage of any time at all. Costumes and the settings were authentic looking, but very limited, I suspect because Cape Cod is a very crowded place these days, and if it was shot on location, they would likely have few angles to shot the lighthouse and beach from without having to do a lot of CGI stuff in post to eliminate its modern surroundings. I'm no judge of acting, but I guess it was serviceable, though not with a lot of chemistry, in my opinion.

The Woman Haters is far from my favorite Joe Lincoln story, so it is not surprising that I wasn't very fond of the movie made from it. It seemed an odd choice, given all of the good Joe Lincoln books... 

Joseph Lincoln and his books are pretty much forgotten these days, the fate of almost every author, no matter how popular they happened to be in their age. Indeed, popularity in their time almost guarantees it. And yet, there was one more Joe Lincoln story made into a movie in this century...2009 to be exact. I can also watch it on YouTube, but for $3.99. It's called The Golden Boys, a film adoption of Joe Lincoln's Cap'n Eri, However, it tomatometer rating is 31% and popcornmeter rating is 22%. Even with good actors, it seems to be hard to drag Joe Lincoln's stories into the 21st century. 

Fields and Fence Lines (Part Two)

A month ago I posted a piece in which, using the metaphor of fields and fence lines, I compared my talent to a field or pasture, and its limits as my fence lines. Fence lines that I could look over to see what was likely beyond my talent, and fences that I could, perhaps, climb over, if I cared to.

I believe I concluded that some of those fence lines were a matter of personal taste, while others defined the natural limits of my personality and intelligence. Let's explore more of those fence lines.

This installment talks about one fence line, at least, that pretty much insures I'm never going to write a book that will become a classic.

Great books, classics that last the test of time, usually have certain characteristics. Not all have all these characteristics, but have most do. When I look around the pasture of my talent, I don't see many/any of those characteristics. They are not in my skill set. I have to look over the fences to find them. Still let's have a look over the fence to see what I lack in this regard.

One of the adjacent pastures that, I think, would need be enclosed in the fences of one's talent in order to write classic great stories is that of intellectualism. One needs to think in terms of, and have a passion, for "themes." 

When I hear people talking about the truly great books one of its characteristic is often that the book offers deep themes that make them think, and/or challenge the way they think. There are even readers who, finding a story itself unpleasant to read, persist in doing so because they feel it's good for them. It offers lessons to be learned. They hold their nose and swallow their medicine. And pleasant or unpleasant they remember those books because of the thought-provoking themes linger long after they finish reading them. Books, when they click with a reader for whatever reason, stick in their minds long after they are read.

Alas, this type of story is on the far side of the fence for me. I'm not a great and deep thinker. I'd like to think that's a choice, but I'm not the one to say so. I just know that I am quite content not to waste time and words pondering questions with no answers, though I know is amuses many people. I am quite content to take life as it appears. I'm not curious enough to want to peek behind the curtain. 

It is the same when it comes to social issues. I've come to understand that everything takes time, usually much more time than we'd like to think it should take. Change happens at its own pace. Still, when I look at the big picture, the history of mankind is going in the right direction (left) slowly, but surely, even if it moves with all the speed of a glacier. Knowing this, I don't get too deeply wrapped up in all the fleeting issues of the day. Headlines, if that, are enough. Oh, and I'm not a very detail orientated person.

This mild mannered indifference extends to the study of humanity itself. I have no interest in human phycology and so I have nothing useful to say about us. I am quite content to take us as we appear on the surface. Basically, people are strange, and having said that, I'm content to leave there. 

My explanation, or excuse, for being content with my limits, content to stay in my pasture on these issues is that I'm an old and simple philosophical Taoist. I'm a "The Way That is Spoken is not The Way," sort of person. Instead of living by words, I live largely intuitively. I am content to "know" what I know without the need to put that knowledge into words, into a set of "facts." As I said above, I'm content to live with mysteries. And I don't do details.

So, in summery, I have no interest in exploring Western Philosophies, no interest in exploring current world or social affairs, or human psychology, no interest in exploring humanity; all great themes explored by great literature.  Nor do I have any special knowledge or brilliant insights to offer readers; i.e. things people claim to find in great literature, as well as in any book that people remember after they close that book. 

Given my lack of knowledge and interest in these subjects, I don't think I could leap this fence, write a heavy book, even if I wanted to. Which I don't. As a result, you'll find none - or little - of those things in my books; by choice as well as lack of talent. So, "Deep and/or Universal Themes" is unchecked in the checklist of the type of stories I can write.

Stay tuned for more unchecked boxes. There are more. Many more.

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 117) SUNDAY EXTRA!

 

This EXTRA! installment, marks a return to the Regency Romances of Georgette Heyer. 

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below

Faro's Daughter by Georgette Heyer  C+

Faro is a game of chance, and the orphaned daughter in this book title is the niece of a widow who has turned her London house into an unofficial, and illegal gambling house. This venture has not gone well, and the aunt is in great debt. However, a young lord has fallen in love with her niece, who is, of course, viewed as not the thing by society. His mother fears that the niece will marry her son for his money, and requests that this young lord's older cousin, a rich man about town, try to buy off this gambling house's girl. He does, offering her money to drop his cousin, an offer which she finds insulting, since she had no intention of marrying him in the first place. And in mutual anger, they both set out to better each other in a game of wits. The ultimate end is predictable.

Tropes are both good and bad, or so I've been led to understand. Many readers, at least of genre books, expect to find the customary tropes of their genre in their stories, since they often are the essence of the genre fiction. On the other hand, an over reliance of them, or the use of generic tropes, is a sign of a less accomplished author. These Heyer Regency Romances all have her trademark tropes, which include a single, handsome, cool, competent and rather domineering male, and an unmarried, level-headed, young woman who, at first, dislikes the domineering male, but eventually falls for his masterful charm, and he for her beauty and common sense. Heyer has used this scenario with various variations, in her romances to date, which, taken in small doses, can be very entertaining. But, after a half dozen or more of these stories over the last several months, I've had my fill of them for now. It will be some time before I return to Heyer's romances. Still, I am going to give her mystery stories a try, though I'd have to drive down to the library to do that, since there are no ebook versions available at my library. Such a pain...

Note: I have done so, and as this is posted, I have one of her mysteries in hand. Review in a few months...

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 116)

 

This week a double feature, a two novel series by one of my old standbys. Do they hold up to expectations?

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below. 

Bel Lamington by D E Stevenson  C

This book relates the life of the title character during a six month period. Bel is a twenty-something (four?) year old woman. Her parents were killed in a car crash, so she was raised by an aunt in the country. When her aunt died, she inherited just enough money to learn how to be a secretary to make an independent living. For two years she has been working for an importer in London as a typist, and eventually as the personal secretary of one of the partners in the firm. Lonely in the city, she still yearns for the country, and, like the cover art shows, had made a rooftop garden out one of her windows. There she meets a painter, who found his way there because he likes to climb mountains, and when in cities, climbs buildings and roofs. He talks her into posing for a painting. She briefly falls in love with him... and from there, has a variety of other experiences and trials at work and in her life, of which I won't spoil. It is a nice snapshot of the life of a single woman in London in the late 1950's.

My problem with this book, and indeed with the writing of D E Stevenson in general, is that she "reports," rather than spins her stories. By this I mean that she writes her stories in a rather cold, clinical, and unemotional way. Oh, her characters have lots of emotions, but her stories are often related with as much heart as a newspaper news article. Or at least that how it seems to me. Sometimes this unemotional storytelling is more evident in some stories than in others. It was evident in this story.

I find that many of her characters are not particularly likable. In this case, Bel is a strange mix of competence, and overwhelming timidness, such that I found it hard to reconcile who and what she was. She strikes everyone as levelheaded, but then acts in ways that are not at all level headed. For example she panics at the prospect of staying at a country inn when her boyfriend's car breaks down, because she doesn't like the look of the owner. While all this is quite possible, people are strange, after all, I find it hard to get into the mind of such a character and makes sense of the character. Plus, given Stevenson's very remote way of telling her story, I found it hard to care for her. But that's just me. 

The happy ending came as no surprise. But at least there is one.

Bel goes on to be featured in another D E Stevenson novel, the book below.

Fletchers End D E Stevenson  C

This second of the Bel Lamington novels features her friend, pictured on the cover. Bel gets married in this novel, and they buy an old house in the country known as Fletchers End. Over the course of the novel, we get to know the history of the house and the people who lived there. The romance of her friend with a rather irresponsible navy lieutenant commander adds what drama there is in the story.

My same remarks about the coolness of D E Stevenson's treatment of her characters and story in general apply here. What might have been a cozy story, is lost in the fairly heartlessness of its telling. The truth is that after these two books, I don't think I'll be all that eager to read more Stevenson books any time soon.

The Strangest Thing...

 

I was scrolling through my YouTube feed when I came across the video on the center left of the screen shot above. It proved to be an "album" of piano pieces by a Japanese composer/pianist, Yuriko Nakamura. Some music on YouTube Music also appears on You Tube channels and vise vera, and this is an example of that; a song with just a static version of the cover. I clicked on the video and found this;

The only reason I believe it appeared on my feed, was that I had been listening to some eastern music during my morning writing session on YouTube music. Which just goes to show you how much "they"  know about you and what you're up to, at least on the web.

And from there I went to the home page of the musician, and found this;

So why the curiosity?

It was the fact that the cover art for this collection of piano pieces is one of my paintings. Indeed the two covers on the left of the home page above are both my paintings. One is Upland Road in Winter which you can find HERE. The second one, Woods Along the Harniss Road you can view HERE.

Let me tell you, it is very strange experience to find your work as an the cover art of a Japanese new age-ish musician while scrolling through videos on YouTube. And rather cool as well.

The paintings were likely found on and downloaded from my DeviantArt gallery. It's a place where a lot of people go looking for art they can use. I don't watermark my paintings, and have no problem with people downloading them for their own use and enjoyment.

While I release all my work under a Creative Commons License, that license does require that if used, I be credited as the artist, and that it should not be used for commercial purposes without my permission. And since I was neither credited, nor was my permission sought to use it, and these videos and songs are commercial ventures for the benefit of, I presume, Yuriko, the use of my art is clearly not in accordance to the CC license. Hmmm...

Looking into the matter further, it appears that the music, along with the cover art, was uploaded to YouTube by Distrokid, a company that operates something like D2D, in that musicians use it to upload their work to music apps like YouTube and Spotify, whose Yuriko Nakamura page on Spotify is below also has my artwork for those albums.

From what I could find on the Distrokid site, the person uploading the music would also need to provide the cover art just like self-publishing authors do. Now I don't know who uploaded this music, whether it was Yuriko herself, or someone else, but in any event, I doubt I would have any easy way to reach out to them and at least request credit as the artist.

I suppose there could be some remedy for this, I could file a complaint with YouTube or some such thing, but I have no interest in pursuing anything like that. Why bother? Its use costs me nothing, and displays my work. Besides, I'm rather flattered that someone would choose my art for their album cover. Though I don't know exactly why they chose those particular ones, since I didn't see any title the paintings would apply to.

Besides, I am perfectly aware, and have been from the very beginning, that if you convert your analog work to digital and upload it to the internet, you have conceded control of it. Its use is out of your control, and there is no point losing sleep over that fact. I suppose, if you are trying to make money from your work, you might be tempted to try to find and put out all the little fires of piracy sites, but it is largely a futile effort. You'd best just look on it as free advertising.

So there you go, an illustration of how connected we are. Weirdly connected.

Strangely enough, I just used the Harniss Road piece for a recent posting myself.

The Saturday Morning Post (no. 115) SUNDAY EXTRA!

 

In this week's Extra! edition we return to a series for which I've reviewed three books already for one last adventure, though it happens to be the second book in the series....

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below. 

The Body at the Tower by Y S Lee  B

As I mentioned in the lede, this is the second book in The Agency series, AKA a Mary Quinn Mystery. I've read the other three already, and reviewed them here, with their grades, book 1.(B) Book 3,(C+) and Book 4 (C) I have been getting these books from the library, and this book had, for some reason, a much longer waiting list, so it only became available three months after the others, and I didn't care to wait for it, so I read ahead.

I describe the first book, and subsequent books as rather over the top penny dreadfuls, but with an authentic flavor, being written by a scholar of the Victorian Era. They are also marketed as YA books, with a young, 18 year old heroine. 

The premise of these books is that "The Agency" is a private detective agency being run by two women who also run a school for orphan girls, training them to make a living in the male dominated Victorian Era. The best and brightest are offered the chance to become detectives, on the theory that women in that era were more or less invisible, and could investigate things without attracting attention.

This installment is perhaps the most down to earth one of the series, though the crime Mary Quinn is asked to solve involves a dead worker, and possible embezzlement or theft of building supplies, involving the building of what we usually just call "Big Ben", the clock tower of the Parliament Building. To investigate the questions surrounding the death of the worker from a fall from the tower during the night, Mary dresses up like a young boy and is hired as a helper to the bricklayers, who are clearly up to no good. Her romantic lead from book one returns from India, ill from the effects of malaria, and is hired to inspect the working of the construction on the tower for the inquest. Together, in an uneasy alliance, they begin to solve the case, along with a somewhat shady journalist, who shows up in later books as well. 

The writing is fine, the highlight is a fairly well rendered Victorian London, and some thrills and chills, without being quite so over the top as in the other books of this series. Considered as YA books, they are probably a better read for that market than for me, who doesn't read YA, except by carelessness, as in this case. Still, I don't regret my time with them.

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 114)

 

A work of historical fiction this time around, one that comes highly recommended by a number of fantasy booktubers.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cronwell   B-

The Last Kingdom is a story about the youth of Conan the Barbarian, that is to say, Uhtred, son of Uhtred. Rather than a sword and sorcery story, it is a historical novel set in 9th century England when England was being invaded, occupied, and partially subjugated by the Danes, often called the Vikings. That said, Uhtred and Conan seem to have very much in common as fictional characters.

The story is told by Uhtred, son of Uhtred from the vantage point of his old age. It begins when he is 10 years old, the second son of an English nobleman of the north of England. Three Danish ships are spotted and his father, Uhtred, sends his eldest son, Uhtred, son of Uhtred, to spy on them. This sone does something foolish, gets himself killed, so our narrator is given his dead elder brother's name, Uhtred, son of Uhtred, as was custom. His father is then called to raise a force to fight the invading Danes and he takes Uhtred et. al. along, though he's only a boy of 10. They lose that battle. His father is killed. However, Uhtred, seeing the Dane leader who brought his brother's head back to taunt the elder Uhtred,  attacks him with his little sword. This amuses the Dane, Ragnar, who then takes him prisoner and raises him much like a son.

Uhtred finds life as a Dane appealing. He wants to be a warrior, and warriors the Danes are. Over the course of the next six years, he becomes a Dane, and a third son to Ragnar, and serves the Danes in their wars against the English, though in his heart he still believes himself an Englishman. And, as the heir of of a noble, he hopes to regain his rightful place in England.

Telling the story from the view point of Uhtred in his old age, allows Cornwell to prove a historical perspective to the events and people the young Uhtred meets in the ten years this book covers, something he could not do if written from the young Uhtred's point of view. And it is very clear that he wants to write a history of these times and uses the eyes and memory of Uhtred to do so. Uhtred's story is a vehicle for telling the history of the time. He is given various adventures that serve to move him about the land so as to view the history and people Cordwell wishes to write about. As such, less attention is paid to him as a character, though Cornwell does try to give him some depth, such as his dual loyalties to this Danish foster-family and his claims to be an English noble, who's land had been usurped by his uncle. Still, his character comes across as somewhat shallow. He's merely a warrior very much in the mold of Conan; a simple barbarian who loves to fight, rape, and murder like the Danes he was raised by.

This is a finely written book that moves along at a nice pace, which earns it is B grade. It has a lot of history to tell of the period when Alfred the Great ruled southern England, and resisted the Danish invaders. Cornwell went on to write 12 more Uhtred novels in this series known variously as the Saxton Chronicles, the Warrior Chronicles, or The Last Kingdom, from the TV series that adopted 10 of the books. 

That said, I have no desire to read more of them. Perhaps, if I had seen the TV show, I might have a different opinion. Or not. As I have implied, Uhtred, as a character, is very much a clone of Conan the Barbarian; someone who loves battle and killing his enemies. Other than his love of battle, and scheming, there's not a lot to like about him, for my taste. 

There are a number of battle scenes in the book, which, as I have often mentioned, I just skip over, as I can't picture them - making them a waste of my time. Plus, I'm not a fan of old men telling stories of their youth, tossing in hints of what's to come. Which is to say, I'm not a fan of foreshadowing. These negative factors are which earns it its " - " grade. However, I recognize that all of these things I don't like, are things a lot of readers love, so if you are one of them, give this book a try, knowing that if you love it, you have a dozen other books to read with Uhtred. You won't have to leave the 9th century anytime soon.

Books I've Read So Far In 2025

With half of the year having slipped by, I thought I would talk a little bit - without too many spoilers for upcoming Saturday Morning Post reviews - about what I've read this year so far.

At the time of this posting, I started 40 books so far in 2025. I did not finish 8 of those, so I read 32 books as of now. Last year I read in total 48 books, so I'm reading at a slightly faster pace than last year. I am also ahead in the number of books I DNFed, since the total for all of 2024 was 5 and I'm already at 8 only half way into the year. There is a simple explanation for the jump in DNFs that I'll touch on in a minute.

First the books I read. Below is the list of the books I've reviewed to date The first number in the listing is the Saturday Morning Post number of the review. I still have 15 more Saturday Morning posts written for the rest of the books I've read, or attempted to read. Clearly, I'm going to have to start releasing "Extras!" posts again, since I'm now nearly four months behind my reading in posting my reviews. I like a backlog, but I don't need four months worth.

Below is a list of the books which I've read so far this year, and have posted reviews of. The most recent review is on the top. The number before the title is that Saturday Morning Post (Number)

Blog Post # Title -Author-grade

113 New York Minute Stephen Aryan C

112 An Infamous Army Georgette Heyer C

111 Convenient Marriage Georget Heyer DNF 31%

       Emma Jane Austen DNF 6%

110 Winter Journeys Audrey Driscoll B

109 What Comes of Attending Commoners Ball Elisabeth Aimee Brown DNF 55%

108 The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 7 Beth Brower A

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol Beth Brower A

107 The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 5 Beth Brower A

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 6 Beth Brower A

106 The Old World, Book One, By the Hands of Men Roy M Griffis C

105 The Wizard’s Butler Nathan Lowell DNF 29%

104 The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 3 Beth Brower A

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 4 Beth Brower A

103 The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 1 Beth Brower A

The Unselected Journals of Emma M Lion Vol 2 Beth Brower A

102 John Nuclear at the Perihelion Palace Berthold Gambrel B

101 The Devil’s Cub Gerogette Heyer B

100 Brother Cadfael’s Penance B

99 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen C+

98 The Reluctant Widow by Georgette Heyer B+

97 The Quiet Gentleman by Georgette Heyer B+

96 Friday’s Child by Georgette Heyer A

95 Mansfield Park by Jane Austen B-

94 These Old Shades by Georgette Heyer B+

93 Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett DNF (40%)

92 The Toll-Gate by Georgette Heyer B

91 Black Sheep by Georgette Heyer B+

90 The Dawning of Everything by David Graeber & David Wengrow DNF

Despite a DNF to start the year, as you can see, my reading year took off strong, even with the 4 books I DNF'ed. The list includes lots of "B"s, and then we get to those 8 Emma M Lion A books. with their "A" grades. And I enjoyed the first Georgette Heyer books as well. However, my most recent reads of her books have not fared as well going forward. 

However, like the Heyer books, all my reading has taken a turn for the mediocre. Going through the list of the upcoming reviews, I see that I have another 4 DNFs, to bring the yearly total to 8, with only 4 "B"s and no "A" books. The remaining books, 10 books in all, are "C"s of one sort or another with one movie review. In short, not a single book to write home about in the last couple of months. The saving grace of this period of book reading, was that I had gone back and reread the Emma M Lion series. Just as good, if not better, the second time around. No doubt it casts a long shadow.

Much of this downturn can be explained by the fact that I am exploring books that are out of my usual orbit of reading. This includes a number of classic authors and books, as well as some odd one-offs. For example, one book was suggested by neighbor, as well as several suggested by one or two of the booktubers I follow. And it also includes a first draft of a book by an author that I did not expect to like, but was curious anyway. There were also two books I reread that did not live up to my expectations. In short, my reading has been somewhat all over the bookish landscape, sampling this and that, mostly based on recommendations and a "What the heck" attitude. Prospecting is a risky venture. Sometime you discover gold, other times... "C"s and DNFs

I must confess I'm getting rather weary of "C" books, and fruitless quests to find new authors to read. I have a book on hold at the library from a new author recommended to me, but beyond that, I've grown rather leery of the recommendations I've been coming across on booktube. I think I'm in the mood to start pulling out some old favorites from my shelves. What's the point of having a library if not to keep the books you love, close at hand to reread again?

As a bonus feature, below is a map I came across of fictional London's St Crispian's as featured in The Uncollected Journals of Emma M Lion by Beth Brower.

Source: https://emma-m-lion.fandom.com/wiki/St._Crispian%27s

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 113)

 

Given our less than spectacular run of Regency era stories, we're off in a new direction this week with a speculative fiction novella by Stephen Aryan. Mr Aryan's YouTube channel is one of the channels I used to watch, so I know a bit about him. 

On his channel on YouTube he was "A Traditionally Published Fantasy Author." "Traditionally Published" being the operational words, as he offered advice on how to be published traditionally, and dispelled "myths" about traditional publishing being promoted by advocates of self publishing. I was a member of his author Discord server for a while, with the hope of being able to discuss writing with other writers. I discovered the Discord format wasn't for me, and dropped out after six months or so. I still get his newsletter each month, so I still follow his career. I'm not a fan of his type of fantasy, so I haven't read more than a few sample pages of his work before picking this novella up on Kindle Unlimited.

Stephen Aryan's first trilogy was published by a major publisher in 2015, it earned out and he was offered another contract for a second trilogy. That didn't do as well, and he seemed to have been not offered another contract, since he ended up selling a duology to a smallish publisher, Angry Robot. The first of those books did well enough to be offered a second contract for a trilogy. However, the second book has only 1/3 the number of ratings on Goodreads - which I use as a stand in for sales numbers, which indicates a big drop off in sales. The first book in his next trilogy has even less ratings then that second book. When the first book of a trilogy bombs, the next two books are usually DOA, and the second book did nothing to change that trajectory, nor does the third book appear likely to change that trajectory either. 

He is now without a book contract. 

It is said that 90% of the authors in traditional publishing are out of the business within 10 years, so Aryan's trajectory is, well, let's say, educational. Being without a contract, and with a track record of his books not selling particularly well...he could well be said to be out of the business within 10 years. This is not to say he's given up. He has several ongoing projects that he hopes his agent can sell, perhaps by changing genre. But in the meanwhile, he has released his first self published novella, which is what I will be talking about below. And, though he is no longer putting out new videos, he had been, in the last year, calling himself simply "A Fantasy Author", no doubt seeing the handwriting on the wall. We will have to see how he fares going forward.

As the fantasy author Mark Lawrence said in a recent blog post:

"The trajectory of most author careers is a modest boom followed by a rapid return to the day job as sales trail back down to insignificant." 

Anyway, enough of a backstory. On to the review.

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

New York Minute by Stephen Aryan  C

This is a crime-noir novella set on a world settled by humans. The New York in the title is the name of the city on this new world that was meant to reproduce the Earth city of that name. But things didn't go as planned, so we have a much more primitive culture living in the remains of that high-tech, but unfinished city. The story involves an ex-cop now private eye, Cole Blackstone, who is hired by the most feared crime boss of the city, Karl Dolman - a job he dared not refuse - to locate the crime boss' missing daughter. We follow Blackstone as he, and an old pal of his, with an incurable disease, one that makes him tougher before it kills him, try to trace the whereabouts of this wayward daughter. It takes them into the meanest streets of New York. Here they meet ruthless gangs and ends in a long running fight scene with lots of action, blood, and death. It turns out the plot was pretty much one big MaGuffin.

If you are going to write a private eye noir story, it is going to be compared, in my mind at least, to the work of Raymond Chandler on the lyrical end of the spectrum and Georges Simenon on the other, cold, hard attention to detail end. There are many other writers of private eye stories, but those are the two I know and appreciate the most. They're tough acts to follow. 

Aryan is neither. Indeed, I found it somewhat surprising that, as an author of 11 traditionally published books, his writing was, while serviceable, very mundane, nondescript. There was, I felt, no real style or flair in it. None of Chandler's wit or deft descriptions. This was not too surprising, since I had read those several pages of a previous book, and felt the same way. So the bar was low going in, and while he may have reached it, he did not exceeded it. 

However, since I am big fan of style in writing, my criticisms may be ignored by many, if not most readers. The story has lots of action, if that's your cup of tea, going for it, just know that nothing in the story sets it apart from any other book in the genre.

However not only was his writing uninspired, his plot was as well.  It had all the familiar tropes; Blackstone is an ex-cop, the police are corrupt, the hookers are alluring, the streets are mean, in a medieval style, with horse drawn trollies and all the usual smells of a rotting city are cataloged. Everything in the story is, in fact a mashup of, bog-standard noir and urban fantasy settings. There is nothing really unique about this New York.

Strangely enough, he has his first person narrator spend a great deal of time explaining the whole backstory of the city, even though most of it has nothing at all to do with the story he's telling. As for the New York of the story, he uses just the names of the various locales of the real New York, which have no relationship to the real city save that it was originally meant to be a new version of it. There is really no sense of the original New York, and the use of the old locale name adds nothing to the story, save confusion. He plans to write several more stories to build out his world, so there was really no need to do all that info-dumping world-building in this one. It could've been left for later stories when that information might be more relevant. 

All told, my rather  low expectations were more or less met. I am, however, still surprised that an experienced, published author of 11 novels, should still be writing on what I consider an such an unexceptional level*. As always, I grade books more or less on how much I enjoy them. This book wasn't my cup of tea. It may be for you. Kindle Unlimited readers can read if for free and see what they think. It's short enough to read in a day.

*Since reading this story, I've read the beta version of a best selling self-published sf/fantasy author's newest novel, and I was no more impressed with his writing. Indeed, I didn't even bother to finish it it was so sparse and elements of the story so unbelievable. I guess for most readers of genre fiction, story does indeed trump writing. They don't think about the underpinnings, or the lack there of. Being a writer myself, I do. I'll talk about that story in a couple of months...

(Some More) Thoughts On AI

Art Flitter, human foreman of Warehouse 73B, after three years at his desk without having to do anything, began to suspect that the small sealed gift box included in his ‘Welcome to Warehouse 73B’ information packet handed to him on his first day on the job, with a note stuck on it saying, ‘Do not open for 30 years,' likely contained an inscribed gold watch thanking him for his 30 years of service and wishing him well in his retirement.

I swear, I thought that I'd never written a piece on AI before. I did know, however, that I had posted something using the robot/AI cartoons like the one above, so I searched down through my posts to see what I'd done, only to discover that I had, indeed, written a post about AI in July 2023. Rereading my 2023 piece, it seems like I've not changed my mind much, if at all. So this post covers much of the same ground as the previous one. But it also has a few different points as well. And having already spent several hours writing it, up it goes...

I recently watch a video on YouTube where an author, as a proof of concept, went through the entire process of creating an entire science fiction novel from scratch using AI. He had the AI generate the story idea then write the story, scene by scene. While it took an elaborate process with various checks and balances, and using several pro-level AIs, with some human proofreading to check for continuity, since the scenes were produced independently, the story it produced was good enough to be published, a big improvement from his results a year before. 

So clearly, AI generated novels are possible, and will only get better. And a tidal wave of them is likely on the way. I think most readers will never notice the difference. Commercially successful books in genre fiction are usually, with a few exceptions, not great art. Good enough is all that is necessary to please most people. AI will soon become good enough.

Should writers be at all concerned? I don't think so. For most of us it will simply be business as usual. For one simple reason. Books sell largely on the basis of how many readers become aware of them. Quality may matter, but they have to come across them before quality first begins to matter. It doesn't really matter how good, or not, the AI novels will become, since, the market is already very over saturated. Even now, we're talking about 30,000 to 50,000 books released every month in the most popular genres on Amazon. 

For the commercially successful writers, they too need not worry. If you can beat those odds, well, there's little different between too many books, and too too many books. They've already figured out how to deal with an over saturated market. Whatever works for best selling authors now will work just as well against ten or more times those numbers because they know how to reach their readers. Unless the generators of AI written books know their secret, all those books they turn out will never be seen, and thus never be sold. In short, AI publishers will still face the almost insurmountable odds of making a worthwhile amount of money as any independent publisher. And good luck with that.

When looking at the broader picture, I have no doubts many jobs are going to be eliminated by AI. Just Google a photograph taken in a factory at the turn of the last century and compare it to any one of today's factories. You will see that machines have all but replaced humans in manufacturing, arguably to our benefit.

Is art different or more important, than producing cars or toasters? Your call. Clearly however, capitalist don't see a difference. They see that creating all sorts of art will be more cost efficient and require smaller HR departments. It is simply a question of time, as they now have the machines needed to replace this set of human workers. This is what machines, and capitalists, have always done. And have done for centuries. 

Nevertheless, we're told that machines can never truly create art. That AI will never replace human artists because, well to put in a simple phrase, AIs don't have souls, and all the attributes assigned to having one. If they can't replace human artists, why such outrage, such angst?

I don't think the discussion is really about art and creativity at all, even if they make it sound like it is. AIs are not a threat to any sort of art, as art

Let's be cynical realistic here; it's because AI threatens artists' incomes. This discussion, this angst, is not about art. It's about money. Art as a job. Anyone who doesn't need money to motivate them to create art can still be creative. AI doesn't effect making art at all. It affects making money from making art. 

The real issue is that many commercial artists will have to get new jobs. 

Now, looking for work sucks. I know this from experience. But it is also part of most everyone's life. So there's nothing new here. Artists can still do their art. All that may be changing in the coming decade is the opportunity to profit financially from doing their art.

And, well, we all know that money is the root of all evil, so one can make the case that AI is here to save artists from evil. Or at least compromised art for the sake of popular taste and commercial viability.

Also, on the positive side, many of these commercial writers and artists are, or soon will be using, AI as a tool to supplement and streamline their workflow and become more productive, while still being considered human artists. Good AI, not evil AI.

Bottom line for authors is that AI won't starve writers. The industry has been quite adept at starving them for centuries. Writers, and most other artists, are used to little pay for their creativity. Most of them already have to have, you know, real jobs, to make money. AI is going to eliminate jobs that produce art, which is sad, but that doesn't mean AI is eliminating art. It's just eliminating jobs. And, maybe, dreams.

Like it or not, replacing humans with machines pretty much defines capitalism and the march of progress. Arguably, it has made the lot of humans better. Will it continue to do so? Stay tuned.

Disclaimer

I use free Google Docs, Grammarly, and Scribbr online grammar tools to proofread my manuscript for typos, wrong words, and comma placement, to the benefit of my readers.

I use Google, Apple, and Amazon auto-generated narration for my audiobooks, giving my readers more options.

I don't use any Ai tools in either my writing or art. I do use the old school spell checker for my manuscripts and photo retouching tools in Gimp for my art - all aids that have been around for several decades.

The Darval-Mers Dossier -E book FREE on Amazon

 

I just noticed that Amazon, all on its own, has slashed the $2.99 ebook price of The Darval-Mers Dossier to $0.00 price matching all the other ebook stores. I don't how long this sale will last, but get it while you can!

The Darval-Mers Dossier on Amazon can be found HERE

The Saturday Morning Post (No. 112)

 

Another Regency Story this week as well. Did it fare any better than the last two? Am I growing tried reading this genre?

My reviewer criteria. I like light, entertaining novels. I like smaller scale stories rather than epics. I like character focused novels featuring pleasant characters, with a minimum number of unpleasant ones. I greatly value clever and witty writing. I like first person, or close third person narratives. I dislike a lot of "head jumping" between POVs and flashbacks. I want a story, not a puzzle. While I am not opposed to violence, I dislike gore for the sake of gore. I find long and elaborate fight, action, and battle sequences tedious. Plot holes and things that happen for the convenience of the author annoy me. And I fear I'm a born critic in that I don't mind pointing out what I don't like in a story. However, I lay no claim to be the final arbitrator of style and taste, you need to decide for yourself what you like or dislike in a book.

Your opinions are always welcome. Comment below.

An Infamous Army by Georgette Heyer  C

To answer the lede question, sort of. For both questions. This book is the third book in a loose series of stories starting with These Old Shades. That book had as its main character the cold and ruthless Duke of Avon. The second book, The Devil's Cub tells the story of his son, and in this one, we meet his granddaughter, Barbara, and two of her brothers. Most of them take more after the Duke than his wife, meaning that they are bold, seemingly heartless, and prone to scandals.

While the story has a romance, such as it is, of the wild and headstrong Barbara with an aide de camp to Field Marshall Wellington, it is at its heart, a work of historical fiction set during he 100 Days after Napoleon returned from his exile to his defeat at Waterloo. The first three quarters of the story is set in Brussels and begins several months before that famous battle, as the English slowly gather an army of local allies and their own troops. Meanwhile, the wealthy society, having flocked to the continent after the defeat of Napoleon (the first time) find themselves seemingly in the way of the French army, though it is only a distant storm cloud at first. In this part we have all the domestic drama of an ill-advised romance, and the affairs of the wealthy families residing in Brussels - lots of names, lots of people, lots of parties and such. Heyer also weaves in historical characters into her story, drawing on the memoirs of the people involved in those events to recreate the time and mood. Truth be told, I did not find the story all that engaging, perhaps because all of the side characters as well as with a focus on Barbara, who's not likable.

The last quarter of the story is a description of the battle of Waterloo, in great detail, as she weaves her fictional characters into the action of the battle's final day. As I have remarked before, not having the ability to create pictures, much less movies in my mind, I find that all the elaborate description and detail accounts of the action to be wasted on me. I just find them tedious, a string of words that create nothing but confusion. These days I don't even bother to read them. I skimmed the battle almost entirely, picking things up again in the final pages to find out what happened. 

I haven't been very lucky with my last several Regency books. I probably should take some time away from them. Ah, but what to read next? At the time I'm writing this I still have a month plus of Kindle Unlimited, but I find it very hard to find books that appeal to me there. I find it hard to find books there, period. They only show you so many of them in certain categories. I think you need know what you're looking for to find what you're looking for. At the moment. I don't. Stay tuned to find out what I did find to read next.

Fields and Fence Lines

Lately I've been wandering about the field of my imagination and storytelling, walking its fence lines, and looking over the green fields beyond.

That, I believe is a simile. If I had said; "I have been considering my writing talent like walking in a field, enclosed by the fences of my limitations," that would have made it a metaphor. I think. Maybe. I looked up the differences a month or so ago. I things like that never quite stick. 

And yet, I've been writing for more than fifty years.

This tells you what sort of writer I am. Or maybe not.

I consider myself an organic writer. I've not been taught how to write fiction. I haven't taken courses in fiction writing. I haven't read books on how to write. I know next to nothing about the terminology of the written word. But for better or worse, none of that has kept me from writing.

This is due, in part because I developed my taste and talent long before the internet. Such information was a lot more inconvenient to acquire back then. And in part because I'm not a book learner. Instead, I came to appreciate the writings of a variety of authors I've come across over the course of my life and several thousand novels. I've "learned" from them, informally, and with practice. 

These days I will sometimes read blog posts and watch videos on "how to write,"  just because I'm curious as to how other writers do it. Not to learn, since, I know how to write. Or I believe I do. I find these how-to-write articles and videos interesting because I couldn't imagine writing they way they approach it. So often it seems almost an mechanical process that is alien to my thought process. 

Still, as I said, it is interesting, going back to that simile or metaphor, to look over the fences of my field to others beyond.

And then consider my field.

I've come to realize that the size and shape of my creative field is fenced in by my personality. While I credit all those novels I've read over the years for shaping my writing style, finding what I liked and disliked those likes and dislikes are a product of my personal taste. I wasn't taught what or how to appreciate what is good, what is great, and how to write. I just decided for myself.

The beauty of my approach is that I never have had to un-learn anything to find my own style. My voice is all mine, for better or worse. My style is my own, for better or worse. It is, as I said, organic. Homegrown.

That said, I also realize there is a price to pay for this approach. Perhaps my field of talent would be larger and richer if I had taken a more formal approach to writing. Looking over the fences, I recognize what I missed with my approach. But they are fields that I haven't, can't, or perhaps, just don't care to roam through them.

Since the limits of my talent and imagination in storytelling are largely the fences of my personal traits and preferences, I do have choices. Some of those green fields on the far side of the fences might be accessible to me, if I cared, or dared, to climb over the fence, or in the case of barbed wire fence, slip under it. You don't really want to climb over barbed wire fences. But to do explore those fields, I'd have to leave my familiar field behind.

To be honest, I have no real desire to do so, even if possible. Too old, too late. And, well, or better or worse, I am content in my talent, my field is large enough for me. Leaving it would make writing feel like an writing exercise, a writing assignment. Class work. Work. 

Work is a four letter word for me. And as I wrote in last week's blog post, I'm writing for fun.

Still, I think there is some value in walking its fence lines, thinking about what they are, why they are, and what lies beyond them. As well as the price I pay for staying on my side of those fences. I expect to have a lot to say about my limits and the fields beyond. This post is just an introduction, or a warning of things to come. I don't know how many posts that might take or when I'll be posting them, but I have a weekly post to fill, so they will be coming.