Finished
Gangster State, Pieter-Louis Myburgh. An alleged Sicilian proverb says that fish rot from the head. Myburgh, an award-winning South African investigative journalist, makes the case that this happened in South Africa’s Free State at the hands of former premier ‘Ace’ Magashule. This will be of greatest interest to readers with a knowledge of the RSA.
Kut: The Death of an Army, Ronald Millar. The Western Front epitomizes the bloody futility of World War I combat, but this digital reissue of a 1969 volume shows Allied ineptitude was more widespread. In the winter of 1915-6, a failed British drive up the Tigris and Euphrates from Basra led to thousands of soliders being lost when they were besieged by Turkish forces. The British combined poor leadership, failure of imagination, terrible logistics, arrogance, ignorance of the local and human terrain, bad tactics and worse strategy. This is, in short, a parable of organizational failure. Parts of the book are clearly a product of another era in its phraseology and attitudes, but the staggering string of failures laid bare here remain relevant today.
The Broken Veil, Steven Jenkins. This is a bundling of four free-to-read stories from Jenkins.
The Den is the surprisingly crisp and compelling story of a ghostly little girl who harshes a heroin addict’s high.
Thread explores daily work for police in a world where a highlty addictive drug turns users into vampires--and why you shouldn’t give crowbars to addicts’ kids.
Under is a ghost story that starts as a hallucination and takes a twist or two from there.
Finally, Rotten Bodies is about...well, what it says on the cover: five vignettes about zombies.
All are well-written and move smartly through their plots.
Over The Top: Alternate Histories of the First World War, Peter Tsouras and Spencer Jones. I approached this with a little concern, since my first memory of “alt history” was reading an execrable number about a time traveller who goes back to the 1860s and gives Sten guns to the Confederacy. This is an altogether more serious undertaking built around a series of generally plausible turning points in the First World War. Some of the individual cases require a little suspension of disbelief--although nothing on the level of Grey Tide: Tidal Effects-- but a few are entirely plausible “what if” cases. Interesting volume, worth the read.
Risk: A User’s Guide, Stanley McChrystal and Anna Butrico. A famous name takes on a perpetual topic, but this is strictly entry-level. Longer standalone review coming.
Tomorrow’s Cthulu: Stories At The Dawn of Posthumanity, Scott Gabe and C. Dombrowski, eds. Decent anthology mixing the Elder Gods (or is it Old Ones?) with a serving of SFF. This managed to walk the fine line between invoking the canon with one foot into the sometimes very far future.
“Author of the month: October, 2021: Jayaprakash Satyamurthy
Come Tomorrow: And Other Tales of Bangalore Terror, June 2020.
Weird Tales of a Bangalorean, July 2014.
Strength of Water, November 2019.
Satyamurthy was a pleasant, if inadvertent discovery. His Weird Tales was included in a bundle, and then I branched out to the other pair of works, above. The first two are anthologies of weird/horror writing set in Bangalore, a city with a distinct problem with permeability between our plane and the afterlife.
Satyamurthy writes well. His prose is entertaining and generally moves along well. There is a distinct heavy metal undertone to several of the stories, reflecting the author’s other artistic calling.
Strength of Water is different and more overtly political. Here Satyamurthy extends his writing style to exploring the experience of two young people in an India which is rapidly sinking into fascism—short, but definitely not light reading. It’s as dark as the other two, but in a way that’s somehow a bit more...current. ”
By Any Means, Kurt Ellis. This is a coming-of-age novel with a tragic, violent twist. Set in a coloured (in the South African sense) community in post-apartheid KwaZulu Natal, it traces the efforts of three cousins to make their way through often-violent, always difficult lives. Ellis pulls no punches. The book takes a little time to get moving, but in the end it delivers.
He is having a very, very bad week.
The Package, N Gray. A short, clever story explaining the back story to a longer series which I haven’t read. Decent as a stand-alone story, it didn’t make the leap to making me want to read more.
Gideon the Ninth, Tamsyn Muir. The Emperor needs new necromancers, Gideon wants out from her dismal life in a death cult that’s extreme even for a place where necromancy is normal, and Harrowhark Nonagesimus needs Gideon’s help. This background sets up a whodunit in a most unusual, and compelling, book.
Worthless, Carter J. Thompson. “X” is a slum-dweller in a city where being out at night likely will be fatal--one way or another. When he heads out of the city with an unusual companion, he gets significantly more than he bargained for. First of the “Against the Night” series.
Scourge, Devon Ford. Space marines vs. aliens, but done with above-average writing for the genre. Our hero gets a nearly-fatal butt kicking on a colony world where something has gone very, very wrong. What ensues tests him to the limit, and may (cue dramatic music) bring humanity to war both with the enemy, and itself. Fun read!
A Song For Quiet, Cassandra Khaw. This rounded out an earlier review of Khaw’s work, here. Persons Non Grata #2 brings back John Persons, paired this time with a bluesman carrying the seed of something which will destroy the world if it’s not stopped in time. Another virtuoso effort from Khaw -- loved the whole (short) thing.
Abandoned
The Damned Highway: Fear and Loathing in Arkham, Brian Keene and Nick Mamatas. The authors try to bring a gonzo sensibility to Lovecraft. Your mileage may vary, but I found the cross-country bus trip unendurable. Sent to the back of the bus at 20%.
Outcast Marines Boxed Set, James David Victor. Outcast Marines, vols. 1-9. Got a stand-alone review here. Less than honorably discharged at 37% done.
The Crimson Deathbringer, Sean Robins. This is an interesting one, shooting for the widely under-appreciated comedic space opera/time travel genre. It tried hard, and had some neat sight gags, but it veered too quickly from “V for Vendetta” to Marx Brothers. First appeared in stasis here, I gave up trying thaw it out at 41% through book one of four.
The Philosopher’s Stone, Colin Wilson. The tome is a very 1960s (at least from my perspective) exploration of conciousness and human nature. Found it ponderous and lethargic, but kept alive some hope for improvement until I gave up at 20% through.