Archive for December 2012
Just Reviewed Dave Freer’s “The Steam Mole” at SBR
Folks, if you’ve been looking for a thrilling YA action-adventure set in an alternate universe where the science has been meticulously worked out, well, search no more.
Such a book exists — actually, two such books exist, the first being Dave Freer’s CUTTLEFISH, and the second being THE STEAM MOLE, set in the same universe with most of the same characters but a different setting.
Hie thee hence to your local bookstore, online outlet or what-you-will, or if you’d like to read my review first, go here.
Then do yourself a favor, and buy both books.
Now, you might be asking yourself, “Barb, why are you pushing these novels so hard?”
It’s simple, really. Freer wrote two books on contract for Pyr — those two being CUTTLEFISH and THE STEAM MOLE — and now has to decide whether he’ll write another in this universe (as Freer does have other options for publication, whether it’s self-publishing or through the Naked Reader Press). My hope is that Freer will write many more books in this universe, as it seems to me there’s a great many plots that could be viable in such a milieu . . . which is why I urge you to go read my review (better yet, read both reviews, as there’s a link to my review of CUTTLEFISH included in tonight’s review), then go buy the books as fast as you can.
And, as always, enjoy!
Illness and Exhaustion . . .
. . . have kept me from my blog.
Yes, that’s the truth. I’ve been extremely tired due to the flu/sinus infection combo that I’ve been fighting, and that’s the main reason why I haven’t written a blog for several days.
The secondary reason is that a long-delayed edit has finally been completed for one of my private customers. (I have two others in train for a different entity.) I’ll be reading it over momentarily to catch anything else noteworthy, then will put this particular edit to bed.
Tomorrow, somehow, I plan to write a book review over at Shiny Book Review (SBR). I have read several books, but the one I am reasonably sure I’m going to review (unless my mind wholly fails me) is Dave Freer’s STEAM MOLE, a YA action-adventure SF story set in an alternate universe with just a hint of romance to spice up the mix.
Next week, my reviews will include Marie Lu’s LEGEND, at least one of K.E. Kimbriel’s three novels, and possibly the GALACTIC CREATURES anthology as well, all providing that my health continues to improve a mite and that I’m able to have enough strength to order my thoughts in a coherent manner. (Sometimes, writing a book review — writing anything — is a lot tougher than it looks.) Other books that should be reviewed by the end of the year are Red Tash’s TROLL OR DERBY (another long-delayed review), Sharon Lee and Steve Miller’s DRAGON SHIP (I call this the “anti-romance”) and Paul Dillon’s THE MAGIC IN THE RECEIVER — another book that would’ve been reviewed by now if not for my illness gumming up the works.
Plus, there are a few Christmas romances by Sabrina Jeffries and Victoria Alexander that I plan to write a “2-for-1 special” for on the Saturday before the big day, Sherry Thomas’s TEMPTING THE BRIDE (which will be factored in somehow in the next few weeks) and last but not least is Sean Williams’s exhaustively researched and extremely dystopian THE CROOKED LETTER, another long-delayed review.
And I might squeeze another piece of nonfiction in there, too, just to keep everyone on their toes.
Anyway, that’s all for now . . . I need to get back to my editing, or at least make the attempt. (Whichever.)
Vinny Rottino Signs with Orix Buffaloes, Will Play in Japan in 2013
Vinny Rottino has found a new baseball home — in Japan.
According to this article written by Peter Jackel of the Racine Journal-Times, Rottino signed a contract with the Orix Buffaloes, a Japanese baseball team based in Osaka and Kobe, Japan, this past Friday. He’s scheduled to meet with a representative of the Buffaloes on Wednesday, and will report to Spring Training on January 21, 2013, in Osaka.
Here’s a quote from the article:
Vinny Rottino’s ultimate reward for grinding out a professional baseball career the last 10 years just might be more than 6,000 miles away.
The latest — and most lucrative — in a long list of baseball destinations for the 1998 St. Catherine’s High School graduate is Japan. The 32-year-old Rottino signed a one-year contract Friday with the Orix Buffaloes, a Nippon Professional team in the Pacific League. The contract guarantees him $350,000 with the potential of another $100,000 in incentives.
Now what’s the most interesting thing to me in all of this was this following quote:
Rottino said he received offers from the Brewers, Chicago White Sox, Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs after the season, but his decision to head overseas was easy.
“I heard it’s awesome in Japan,” Rottino said. “Everyone’s so polite and it’s got a lot to offer, from what I hear.”
Now, the fascination with Japanese baseball makes some sense here, especially from Rottino’s perspective. Rottino steals bases, can gain an infield hit from time to time, plays good and steady defense, and can be relied upon to be professional at all times while still having fun. These are qualities the Japanese league should appreciate.
And the parks, I’ve heard, are a bit smaller, too, so Rottino’s home run and doubles totals should go up (much less his RBI total).
So here I was, worried about where Rottino would go after the Indians DFA’d him, mostly because I was afraid no one would want him in MLB-land due to his age (32). Yet he got four offers.
Including one from the Brewers (yay!).
Of course, as Greg Giesen of the Journal-Times just confirmed at Twitter right now (in answer to my question, “Was this about the money?”), there was a potential problem with these four offers:
@barbcaffrey Yes. His contract is for $350,000. The MLB offers were minor league deals with an chance to make the majors out of spring.
I told Giesen in reply:
@GregGiesenJT Then it makes perfect sense, Greg. I’d have taken the guaranteed money, too. Plus, his style of play may really fit in there.
At any rate, it’s great that Rottino has signed a guaranteed contract worth $350,000 (with another $100,000 in incentives, no less). I wish him much success in Japan . . . and I hope that I’ll be able to figure out how to start translating Japanese baseball’s stat-lines, stat.
Just Reviewed “The New Arcana” at SBR (Experimental Poetry)
Folks, THE NEW ARCANA by John Amen and Daniel Y. Harris is an extremely unusual book. Experimental in nature and eclectic in the extreme, this was a book that grew on me after many, many re-reads.
This isn’t your father’s book of poetry.
Instead, this is a book full of postmodern sentiment, faux journalism and mock academic writing, photographs of made-up people, and even fake autobiographies mixed in with some excellent poetry of the most trenchant sort. The sly and subtle wit these two writers have come up with takes a while to understand, but once it finally manifests (or once my brain fully processed it, whichever), it’s more than worth the price of admission.
Some pages are far more understandable than others (as I said in my review at SBR, I absolutely didn’t understand the four lines on p. 99), but there’s enough here to please just about any poetry lover if he or she just gives the book a chance. And if the poetry lover enjoys postmodern sentiment, for that matter, as without an appreciation for postmodernism, this book is likely to fly right over the poetry lover’s head.
Look. This is a book I agonized about reviewing, mostly because it is so very different and is the farthest thing from an easy read that I can possibly imagine — and partly because it took me a while to appreciate the golden nuggets floating amidst a veritable ocean of words.
My belief is that THE NEW ARCANA is akin to a jazz improvisation that starts out as tonal, quickly becomes atonal, then does something unprecedented that somehow melds the two yet transcends the two at the same time.
Seriously. Go read my review. Then take a gander at THE NEW ARCANA. Read it several times. Try not to pre-judge it.
Then figure out whether it’s a really good book based off an unusual interpolation of forms, or just an odd mix that doesn’t quite hit the mark. Because while Ornette Coleman and the “free jazz” movement of the 1960s can be really interesting to listen to — especially for lovers of music history and theory — it’s not always an easy experience.
Besides, not every instance of jazz improvisation works for everyone, because humans simply aren’t wired that way. (Thus the reason for poetry in the first place. But I digress.)
My final word is that THE NEW ARCANA is a valuable piece of literature that’s worthy of study by poets and other writers, and should intrigue lovers of postmodern and experimental poetic forms everywhere. (Further part-time poet sayeth not.)
Tragedy in KC: Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher Kills GF, then Suicides
Today, something awful happened in Kansas City.
If you haven’t heard already, the Kansas City Chiefs linebacker, Jovan Belcher, has died. Worse yet, he killed himself in full view of his coach, Romeo Crennel, and his general manager, Scott Pioli, at the team’s practice facility — this after killing his girlfriend in their home.
Belcher leaves behind a three-month-old daughter.
Yahoo Sports explains all the particulars in this article. Here’s a relevant quote:
Police told the Kansas City Star that Belcher, 25, and Perkins got into an argument at approximately 7:00 a.m. Saturday at a residence in nearby Independence, Mo. Belcher shot Perkins multiple times. She was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead there. The couple had a 3-month-old daughter, who is currently safe in the care of a relative.
Members of the Chiefs’ staff tried to stop Belcher from committing any other acts of violence before the player turned a gun on himself. The team’s practice facility was evacuated and put on police lockdown.
This is nearly an unimaginably tragic event. Yet the NFL, in its infinite whatever, has decided that the Chiefs should play their game against the Carolina Panthers as scheduled at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
I don’t agree.
Neither does Yahoo Sports columnist Michael Silver, who says:
I’m appalled that the team and league are sticking to the script, and I question the logic behind the decision. Pardon my skepticism, and that of one Chiefs player who predicted this in the wake of the tragedy: “It’s all about money,” he said.
In this particular situation, it shouldn’t be. If the NFL wanted to do the right thing for the players, coaches and team employees reeling from this horrible occurrence — not to mention the loved ones of Belcher and, most of all, Kasandra Perkins, the woman he is believed to have murdered — the league should have postponed the game until Monday or canceled it.
Silver goes on to state that:
The abrupt loss of a teammate and friend is a tough thing to confront. The fact that Belcher apparently took lives carries even darker overtones. That Belcher’s death happened at the workplace is another level of horror. That his death happened in front of Pioli and Crennel makes the notion of playing on Sunday even more dubious. Asking the organization to soldier on through Sunday’s game – a decision made in large part by Crennel and team captains – is absurd and unreasonable in my opinion. They need grief counseling — which the NFL, to its credit, is providing — and they should get at least 24 hours to collect themselves and assess their respective emotional states.
A head coach typically addresses the team on Saturday night and presides over meetings, then speaks to the players again on Sunday morning before they take the field. In addition, the head coach oversees many other aspects of the football operation during the weekend of a home game. Should Crennel be expected to handle these matters in a business-as-usual fashion? The answer, to me, seems obvious.
During my editorial internship stint today for the Web site Bleacher Report, I came across this article by Brian Kinel. He points out that the Chiefs and the NFL should try to help the orphaned three-month-old baby:
Here’s a chance for sports to redeem itself for fans like me that struggle with this issue.
Take care of that baby.
She should have a whole lot of Chiefs’ “uncles” who will love her, help take care of her and do the best they can to help her have a good life.
Put some money aside from the bountiful gate for the Panthers game tomorrow for the baby.
If this game absolutely must be played, Kinel’s suggestion should be taken to heart by the powers that be in the NFL. Because it’s plain, flat wrong to put those Chiefs players and coaches into a situation like this when nothing good can come of it — except, perhaps, to give that little baby some financial assistance at a time she needs it most.
My quick take — recognizing, of course, that I am not a medical expert — is that Belcher was probably sleep-deprived. His girlfriend, too, was probably sleep-deprived. So the argument they had over her late arrival from a previous evening’s concert may have had a great deal to do with the frustration of being new parents.
Belcher, too, could’ve been more upset than usual as the Chiefs have won only one game all season long. That puts a great deal of pressure on everyone in the organization, but most especially on the players and coaches.
In this case, the argument between a 25-year-old man and his 22-year-old girlfriend escalated into a murder-suicide. That’s tragic. Two lives have been lost, cut down too soon due to pressures we may never fully understand.
That said, if I were Romeo Crennel and I’d just seen one of my best linebackers kill himself in front of my eyes, I think I’d have asked for a postponement of the game. And if the NFL refused, I believe the Chiefs should have just forfeited the game rather than go out and play with heavy hearts and risk serious injury because they can’t possibly be focused on a mere game at such a terrible time in all of their lives.
I understand the NFL’s “play or else” mentality. One of the best games I’ve ever seen was Brett Favre’s complete dismantling of the Oakland Raiders on Monday Night Football on December 23, 2003, one night after his father’s sudden death due to a heart attack or stroke. (See this link from Sports Illustrated for further details.)
But that was one man’s tragedy — bad, but not anywhere near as bad as what happened today in Kansas City.
The NFL should do the right thing and either postpone the game tomorrow between the Chiefs and Panthers, or cancel it altogether. And they definitely should do something for that poor, orphaned baby girl.
And although I know it’s trite, my heart definitely goes out to the people affected by this tragedy — the coaches, players and fans of the Chiefs. The family members of Belcher’s girlfriend. Belcher’s own family members. And anyone affiliated with Belcher in any professional or personal capacity.
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