Bookin'

Reviews

Death’s Dominion by Simon Clark is a kinda nifty take on zombies that moves them away from Romero’s shambling brain-eaters. In this case, science has found a way to revive the dead as super-fit human specimens who are guided by, well, more or less the first two of the three laws of robotics: don’t harm humans, and do what humans tell you. But the novel begins at the point where humans are destroying the zombie creation centers and killing the zombies, and the story follows a small band of zombies who follow the newly awakened uberzombie Dominion. This is more or less mindless entertainment, so I don’t want to mislead you. But I liked the new twist on an old theme; as a rule, zombies bore me, so I appreciate anything that makes them more interesting. The book’s main problem is that it wraps up far too quickly and abruptly. This could have been extended into a much longer and more political novel.

All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris is the seventh in her Southern Vampire series, but it’s not quite more of the same. Her novels have been getting a little darker, and this one reflects both the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina — the books are set in Louisiana, so here the vampire Queen of Louisiana finds her once-powerful domain much reduced — and the Twin Towers disaster, at least insofar as one can’t help thinking of 9/11 whenever one reads about exploding buildings and rescue attempts. It’s a little more serious, perhaps, than some of the previous novels in her series, but still an easy summer read. I’m guessing the next book or two in the series are going to get a lot more into societal human/vampire conflict issues….

Moving away from the horror genre, The Blighted Cliffs by Edwin Thomas is the first of now three novels about Martin Jerrold, a very reluctant officer in the 19th-century British Navy. I’ve finished Cliffs and am now about halfway through The Chains of Albion, book two, with Treason’s River, book three, ahead of me. The series isn’t as “nautical” as Hornblower, Aubrey/Maturin, or even the Alan Lewrie novels, which these most resemble; most of Jerrold’s misadventures in book one involve tracking down smugglers along the Dover cliffs, and he starts book two as the captain of one of the rusted-out prison ships anchored in England’s ports. Jerrold’s an antiheroic character, even moreso perhaps than Lewrie, but not quite the dastard of Flashman, to whom some critics have compared him. He’s got a good heart; he’s just a coward with a talent for making bad decisions and overlooking obvious clues.

In nonfiction, I recently read Rightsizing Your Life by Ciji Ware, which is mostly for older people looking at retirement and rethinking the size of their houses or possessions. I’d picked it up thinking it was about decluttering and voluntary simplicity, and although it addresses those themes, it’s really better-suited for older retirees of some affluence who might want to refurb their house or are considering moving into a new house. Sections on making sure you can “grow old” in your house were kinda interesting — like looking for wider doorways to accommodate possible walkers or wheelchairs. If you know anyone rethinking their housing situation as they get older, this book would be a good one to recommend.

drupagliassotti @ July 6, 2007