February 2008   |   SFReader.com

A novel about a serial killer surely sounds like a book with a good deal of violence, terror, blood and ugliness, but Darkly Dreaming Dexter is not this kind of book. And that's what makes it a great read, and Dexter a great character. It is filled with ironies and insights which make the reader laugh nervously and consider the people around him. Dexter, a blood splatter expert for the Miami PD, is very good at reading blood splatters. Dexter, however, is not your average serial killer (aside from the fact that he works for the police). He preys only upon other serial killers. Through careful detective work he makes absolutely certain that his victims are guilty. He will not allow his "Dark Passenger" to harm the innocent, part of a code instilled in him by his adoptive father, Harry, a policeman who came to understand that he could only guide Dexter to choose how and when he succumbs to the darkness within. When Harry realized that Dexter would one day kill people -- realized that Dexter actually wanted to kill people -- he coached him carefully. "Some people need killing," Harry said. Dexter's adoptive sister, Debra, it so happens, is likewise a police officer with the Miami PD but suspects nothing about Dexter's "Dark Passenger," although she has grown up with him. To Debra, Dexter's just very, very smart. Darkly Dreaming Dexter is appropriately told in the first person. Dexter tells us that he is not human, that he does not feel emotions as we do. He also tells us that he cannot control himself, that his need flows and ebbs unpredictably (the irony in this, of course, is that Dexter DOES control himself until he finds an acceptable victim). Dexter has also learned how to appear to be normal, thanks to Harry. Dexter does all the things a normal man does, responds the way a normal man should under the appropriate circumstances. He wears the mask of normalcy very, very well. In Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Lindsay tends to paint serial killers as something of a secret fraternity. This is perhaps the most chilling aspect of this series and its main character. When the latest serial killer in Miami begins killing prostitutes, Dexter admires the killer's work and wishes to communicate with him. Like an artist might speak with another artist. As the novel continues, Dexter discovers that this new serial killer is also communicating with him, giving Dexter clues to his identity. Thankfully Darkly Dreaming Dexter is not a particularly bloody or violent book. For some readers, this only makes the book all the more terrifying. Gore and violence aren't frightening. The situations that spawn them are. Read my full review of Darkly Dreaming Dexter >

PS: If any readers knows where I can acquire an inexpensive hardback edition of the first edition of Darkly Dreaming Dexter contact me!

(This review is also published at epinions.com > )

February 2008   |   SFReader.com

For readers who savor details, Night Watchman is a feast. Few books capture details as clearly as James Viscosi in Night Watchman. Viscosi gets extensive extra credit for descriptive writing that makes most of the scenes in Night Watchman vivid and real, like some places we know, or at least some places we imagine that we might know. Nearly every descriptive word in Night Watchman hits the mark. Readers will certainly feel, as I have, that they recognize the places in Night Watchman, or the places are as they would be should readers happen upon them. Fortunately, Night Watchman doesn't rely on descriptions alone. Night Watchman tells the story of Nate Watson, a regular Island City cop who is ritualistically murdered by a small band of juvenile delinquents and resurrected as a zombie with retractable chains, trying to figure out why he has become the undead, what role the delinquents play in the story as it unfolds, and how to stop them since they have also become the undead. Getting into the heads of his characters is another thing that Viscosi does well in Night Watchman. Viscosi's best characters in Night Watchman have distinct and unique personalities, and he shows us this story in turn through their eyes. But the willing suspension of disbelief is not completely earned by Viscosi's Night Watchman. The story begins in a world very much like our own and ends in a world with unfamiliar supernatural laws with only the vaguest notion of how it is all possible. I also find Nicholas Fenton's motives problematic, especially since it is revealed only very late in the book, a cracker jack in the last pages, intended to wrap up the mystery in a paradox: Fenton, clearly evil, does it all for love. I also find Nate's character unsatisfying. For half the book, Nate wanders uncertainly through Island City trying to cope with what he has become and deciding what he should do about the teen zombies, and his own undead condition. For a policeman, he's uncharacteristically indecisive and impotent, even hides behind dumpsters. Despite Night Watchman's unsatisfying elements, the book is an engaging read. Viscosi's undead teenage zombies are interesting characters. The first half of the book is fun just trying to guess what they will do next, how they will do it, and to whom. But the most engrossing elements of Night Watchman are Viscosi's vivid, well-crafted details, which draw readers in to witness the story as it unfolds. Viscosi's descriptions demonstrate a surgically keen eye and imagination for the dark and the beautiful, wrinkles, pimples and all. For Night Watchman, the journey -- and what we see along the way -- is the tale. Read my full review of Night Watchman >

(This review is also published at epinions.com >)

November 2007  |  Epinions.com

A succubus, self-described as one of Hell's best, is on the run from the Devil himself, with several powerful demons hot on her heels, and she escapes to the human realm and, with the help of a witch, assumes an undetectable but desirable human form, and takes a job as a stripper. Dangerous! Sexy! Lots of opportunity! Unfortunately, I expected more from such an interesting setup. This book is clearly written for those readers who enjoy nothing more than the same old standard romance with a few thinly veiled supernatural pretenses thrown in. Nothing scary or threatening about the book at all. No scary dreams afterwards. No Hannibal Lecters. The cast of character types resembles the same found in any romance, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Despite the familiar story line and paranormal trappings, Jesse is like every other female lead in every other romance novel. Her reactions are exactly those of the typical heroine in romances. These characteristics alone are likely to entice romance lovers to give this book a try. They won't be disappointed. With a setup such as we have with Hell's Belles, it would seem anything could happen. In fact, it is the potential in this book keeps readers turning pages, not for the story that is told, but for the story that MIGHT be told. Jezebel should have an insatiable appetite for sex. Who and how many will she seduce? Being from Hell, she must have some very powerful, frightening friends, and even scarier, blood-thirsty bounty hunters searching for her, too. When will they appear and what will happen then? Are all the strippers at the club succubi? What racy scene will we find? How will Jezebel survive the demons who stand between her and freedom? Who will get hurt? Will anyone die? Sex and horror, or the potential for them, clearly sells this book. And will also sell the next in the series, The Road to Hell. Unfortunately, there isn't enough sex or danger in this book to fulfill the promises of the title and the potential of the characters for some readers. On the other hand, there is enough romance to satisfy most romance aficionados. Read my full review of Hell's Belles >

(This review is also published at SFReader.com >)

October 2007  |  Epinions.com

Other reviewers have written that you won't want to put down this book. To some degree, I must agree with them. Though I first thought this book was a biography about a serial killer I had never heard about (the review list wasn't clear about the genre, or it didn't matter because the book sounded interesting, take your pick), I quickly questioned the biography because it was too internalized, too detailed, bordering on too gruesome for most publishers. Despite its flaws, which are a matter of opinion anyway, Absolution: The Ted Roth Story is a violent, bloody but well-written read which borders on fun. It sucks readers in at the start, a twisted coming-of-age story gone murderously wrong, then takes them through Ted's evolution from a personal, selfish murderer into a murderer who can kill without the childish pain or rage necessary to precipitate his first three murders. It should be clear, however, that the ever convoluted and loosely knitted plot can, with a good measure of suspended disbelief, also be fun to witness. This is part of Absolution's charm. Readers don't exactly know what will happen next. Absolution's greatest strength, however, is its powerful writing. No book is any good without powerful writing. Some books are acclaimed for it alone. Despite the loose plot development and the unnecessary frame (the book pretends to be an audio recording made by Ted during his last hours of life, a heavy-handed technique which only serves to annoy readers as it interrupts the real story), Absolution is well written. Sprinkled with a few typos or missing words as one might expect from a digital publisher, Absolution nevertheless hits all the right notes at the right times for the right duration to make the individual scenes memorable and ring like a fine concerto. For the writing alone, readers should pick up a copy of Absolution: The Ted Roth Story, and discover an author worth watching. Read my full review of Absolution: The Ted Roth Story >

(This review is also published at SFReader.com)

September 2007  |  Epinions.com

There are few poets who genuinely engage me as a reader, among them Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, W. S. Merwin, Philip Levine, William Stafford, W. D. Snodgrass, John Gilgun and now Roger Kirschbaum, to name a few. Though I know Roger and his work from the informal poets' circle at Missouri Western State College (now Missouri Western State University) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and enjoy his first chapbook from that era very much, Hunter Ranch is like discovering a new poet. He has matured and fine-tuned his poetic voice and vision into a perfect symphony of sight, sound, color, place, and meaning. Roger revels in the mystical commonplace, writing surgically precise but simple details of every day objects, activities and experiences, and gives them meaning through simple, commonplace language. Like the best of poets, Roger plays no tricks on his readers. Divided into four seasons – Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter – Hunter Ranch takes readers to the heart of the Midwest where nature, love, loss, family and an honest day's work are examined and praised with quiet, religious fervor, striking a nearly perfect balance between compression and accessibility to communicate a mystical labyrinth of ideas, concepts and relationships that cannot be conscionably extricated, separated and dissected without destroying the poems. Some readers, no doubt, are quick to define or dismiss this book by date and region, by time and place, but we must not confuse any of these with simplicity, with being less important, less engaging, less accomplished, less accessible or less rewarding. Roger has skillfully and bravely wrestled with universal themes among the minutiae of the Midwest to publish a moving, timeless and masterful collection of poems. Roger's poetry is not simple. Every syllable, every word, every line, every poem in Hunter Ranch...not one word is wasted. For many poets, the powerful work collected in Hunter Ranch would be a pinnacle, a crowning achievement, their old man and the sea. Roger, however, is a young man, and his final master work, we hope, has yet to be written. Read my full review of Roger Kirschbaum's Hunter Ranch >

February 2007  |  Epinions.com

I bought Strange Candy for a strange reason: its short single paragraph intros to each story as commentary. The stories themselves are indeed Strange Candy. They're short, sweet, and eclectic. Like a small bowl of hard candy. In here are two stories featuring Anita Blake, and another set in her world without the familiar characters. Here are also several stories set in the world of Nightseer, the world of Laurell's first novel. One of Laurell's strengths is a habit "of taking the fantastic and dropping it into the middle of the real," as she confesses. Her best fiction, including the stories in this book, are evidence of this habit. Unfortunately, this collection also features probably Laurell's weakest story, structured like a trite plot from any similarly-themed movie. The theme of dropping the fantastic into the middle of the real world is better expressed in other stories in this collection. "A Clean Sweep," though the shortest story in the book, is a clever, entertaining gem with a sinister end. It reminds me of some of the stories of my friend, C. Dennis Moore. Six stories in this collection are heroic fantasy (including the stories set in the world of Nightseer). They feature wizards, devils, dragons, swords, magic and the like. Though I'm no fan of stories of the fantasy genre, these stories yet engaged me once I had begun to read them. Laurell's best stories are about interesting characters in interesting circumstances in interesting worlds, and have complex relationships and surprises throughout. These elements alone keep most readers engaged. Even those with disposition to not like or enjoy them. Together, these fourteen stories span Laurell's first sale to her most recent. If you're an aspiring writer, you'll find this book perhaps even sweeter and more satisfying than the average reader. Read my full review of Laurell K. Hamilton's Strange Candy >

February 2007  |  Epinions.com

Global warming to many just means that the earth is getting warmer due to trapped greenhouse gases and a shrinking ozone layer in our atmosphere. Big deal, right? Nobody likes too much cold anyway! Well, global warming is a very big deal. So big in fact that the United Nations has recently released its report on global warming. Long before the UN's report, however, this authors looked at global warming and published this book, which helps explain global warming's causes, impact, and one frightening but convincingly possible scenario: A New Ice Age!The best-selling book The Coming Global Superstorm defines a superstorm, describes the conditions under which a superstorm will occur, and considers the lasting effects of such a storm. Bell and Strieber look into our historical past and theorize that superstorms have occurred in our ancient history, and conclude that nearly each superstorm coincided with global extinctions on the scale of 70% of the world's species alive at the time of the superstorm. Superstorms, they believe, also triggered past ice ages. The cause and effect possibilities and implications are powerfully convincing. Along the way, Bell and Strieber look at ancient cultures, consider earth's greatest ancient structures, and compare common traits of worldwide religions to support their theories. In the end, Bell and Strieber call readers and mankind to make our greatest efforts to control our species' role in global warming, and if possible stall it. Bell and Strieber indicate that there is no way to know when this global superstorm will occur, but conditions are ripening for just such a storm to occur. The superstorm such as Bell and Strieber describe is brought to entertaining life in the film The Day After Tomorrow. While the film tells a good story and makes use of very effective special effects, most viewers don't realize that this film is a dramatization of the events described in The Coming Global Superstorm. Unfortunately, this dramatization does not provide enough factual information to understand what happens in the film. The filmmakers could have included some exposition to explain and foreshadow the chain of events as depicted in the film. Though this film is entertaining, and IMHO very good, when compared to the inspiration for it, the book is far better -- and frightening -- than the movie. Incidentally, the UN's report on global warming confirms much if not all the global warming facts and theories found in The Coming Global Superstorm. Read my full review of The Coming Global Superstorm >

November 2006  |  MacCompanion

Drupal, phpBB and WordPress are popular open-source web applications for building online communities. Drupal is a CMS, or content management system. phpBB is a forum (bulletin board) application. WordPress is a blog application. But Drupal, phpBB and WordPress are not necessarily user-friendly applications for the average, every day webmaster. Installing, configuring and editing the behavior and appearance of Drupal, phpBB and WordPress involves creating a database, installing modifications and extensive source code editing. Not for the faint of heart! The average webmaster must turn to some resource for help, such as the book Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB and WordPress. Like most computer instruction books, each section is ordered from system requirements and installation to configuration, modification and maintenance. But readers must expect to spend considerable time not only reading the book but experimenting with their installations, since these applications are mature and feature-rich. Despite its depth, Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB and WordPress could use more illustrations, diagrams, charts, tables and screenshots. The book is written by coders for coders, so visuals are scarce, but they would come in very handy to illustrate points and relationships. In general, readers will be hard pressed to find any better, more complete printed reference for Drupal, phpBB or WordPress. Read my review of Building Online Communities with Drupal, phpBB and WordPress >

July 2006  |  MacCompanion

If you've built even one web site, you've had questions. If you're like me, then you don't have too many friends with more experience to call on for gudance at a moment's notice. The Doug Addison's Web Site Cookbook is the next best thing, filled with hundreds of practical and worldly tips and tricks. The Web Site Cookbook will also prove useful for website owners and help them understand and appreciate the complexity and special skills required to build and maintain an effective web site. Though I expected the Web Site Cookbook to use a trite cookbook theme, it's all business, but Doug does not intend for the Web Site Cookbook to be read linearly, from beginning to end. He understands that his readers will have varied experiences with web site development. So he presents his information in a unique problem-solution-discussion format. He has anticipated common questions readers will bring to his Cookbook and answers them.Though the Web Site Cookbook is a superb web site design and development general reference, it sidesteps some of today's noteworthy web development technologies and trends. Specifically, cascading style sheets, blogs and open source applications. Despite these shortcomings, Doug Addison's wisdom is dead-on with practical, real-world experience. Read my review of Doug Addison's Web Site Cookbook >

April 2006  |  MacNN

Good design is hard to teach. Fortunately, Bryan Peterson makes a better than average attempt to teach good design and recognizes that a solid understanding of basic design principles is at the heart of good design. Though short, the book is a dense, real-world study of these fundamentals. A real plus that informs the book from cover to cover is Peterson's professional work experience. Throughout the book, he takes into account real-world considerations, such as quantity of information, print quality and production, mailing costs, and final destination. Also sprinkled throughout are 200 color illustrations, most of which represent finished products from noteworthy designers. The most important things that Peterson offers in this book are questions that every designer should ask of their designs to assess how well their designs succeed and exercises to help student designers better understand and apply the principles discussed. These exercises are open-ended, so they require time and effort to perform. If readers choose to ignore these exercises, then reading Design Basics for Creative Results is essentially a waste of their time. There is much more to becoming a design professional than reading any book, even Peterson's, but Peterson's book is a very good place to start. Read my review of Design Basics for Creative Results, 2nd Edition >

April 2006  |  MacCompanion

There's a whole subculture out there that most of us don't know about. Bob Parks shows this subculture to us, after trying to explain it and the forces that have created and nurture it. Makers are renaissance people, with experience and interests across a variety of technologies. They are unsatisfied being just consumers and are interested in improving existing products and experimenting with technology, an archetypal blend of toolmaking and science. Makers also like to share. Besides operating their own web sites, Makers also share code and parts openly on the Internet. As with most subcultures, Makers meet to discuss and show off their projects. Makers have a competitive spirit, and these groups thrive on friendly, personal competition, challenging each other. On a larger scale, Makers also compete in formal competitions such as Dorkbot Nights and the Burning Man festival. In February 2005, O'Reilly successfully launched Make magazine, the first magazine devoted to do-it-yourself technology projects. Clearly any book about Makers is first a book for Makers, and second a book for those of us curious in such things. These such things are sometimes interesting, sometimes inspiring, sometimes highly unusual, and often fun. Projects profiled in this book utilize LEDs, all kinds of sensors, jet engines, servo-motors, wood, metal, plastic, fabric, plumbing, automobile engines, car bodies, industrial equipment, paper cups, balloons, discarded electronics, electronic motors, switches, buttons, wiring, paper, digital cameras, lenses, inkjet cartridges, mirrors... anything that suits the needs of the project. Many of these used and discarded elements are acquired through "dumpster diving." Radio Shack and eBay figure prominently throughout the book for those hard-to-find-in-the-trash parts, and several web sites are mentioned as well. Despite the disparate sources, these Makers have made some incredible (and useful!) contraptions: Cap Holter's board-busting machine. Sathya Jeganathan's improvised baby warmers for needy hospitals. Kerry McLean's gasoline-powered monowheel. Peter Madsen and Claus Norregaard's 6.6 ton hand-built submarine. Bathsheba Grossman's 3D digitally printed metal sculptures. Tom Chudleigh's spherical wooden treehouses. Koichi Hirata's robotic fish. Matty Sallin's pig-shaped alarm clock that cooks bacon. Louis Giersch's 1000-degree solar concentrator used to burn up anything he wants to burn up. Richard Flanagan's jet-powered go-kart. Dennis Havlena's working PVC bagpipes. Andy Gustafson's semi-automatic pneumatic potato cannon. These and 90-odd more amazing and unexpected projects are profiled in this book. Read my review of Makers: All Kinds of People Making Amazing Things in Garages, Basements and Back Yards at MacCompanion >

June 2005  |  MacNewsNetwork (MacNN)

May 2005  |  MacCompanion

October 2000  |  inetreviews.com  |  MacWichita

March 2000  |  inetreviews.com  |  MacWichita

February 2000  |  inetreviews.com  |  MacWichita  |  MacReviewZone

August 1999  |  inetreviews.com  |  MacWichita