Linda Raedisch's Blog

Salvage by Mark Baillie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Salvage was published by an Indie press that features mostly books about Scotland. The author sent me a copy because I moderate a book group in which we read works by Romany authors from all over the world. This is the first book I've read by/about Scottish Travellers, and I loved it. So why only four stars? Because Mark Baillie is a writer who's only going to get better, and I want to leave room for improvement. He's written a couple of articles for the Travellers' Times, but this is, I believe, his first novel. There are some abrupt scene changes, but he's spot-on when it comes to dialogue, overall pacing, and making the reader see through the characters' eyes---a skewed ceiling tile, a muddy rag doll, a stained carpet. Fiction loves a large, bickering family. Instead, Baillie gives us the close-knit trio of Nash, who grew up in a world of horse-drawn wagons, campfires, and hawking door to door; his nephew Spence; and Spence's daughter Emma. Spence, who married a non-Traveller and is only in his 40's, is still more of his uncle's world than his daughter's. Twenty-year-old Emma is the first person in her family to go to University. This is 1983, and she seems to be the only Traveller there. Emma has embraced academia and the political activism on campus, but she's derailed by the central tragedy of Nash's life: the removal of his little sister from their Traveller family back in 1929. Emma, who wants to be a social worker, dives right into the search for "wee Jenny," and finds a lot more than she bargained for. Some of my favorite scenes are the ones where Emma is doing research in libraries, archives, and even an exhibit at Rosslyn Chapel. If you're expecting romance of any kind, you won't find it here. (Well, maybe you'll find a little: I'm curious to know if Queen Lacklow was a real 18th century person, or if she's Baillie's own creation.) I wouldn't call this book gritty, either; the characters are too likeable for that! I felt the most for Spence, who experiences loss after loss, but manages to find strength in what he still has, and to change with the times as best he can. The seemingly hopeless search for wee Jenny remains central to the book, and the surprise, when it comes, is both natural and unanticipated. I also love how Baillie takes the trope of the queer kid who must abandon home and family to live their true life and turns it entirely on its head. And I admire his decision to leave Nash's sexuality, or lack thereof, off the table. I'm looking forward to discussing this book with my group, not just because it shines a light on a little known but no less tragic episode of British history, but because it's a rousing good story.



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This Indian Kid: A Native American Memoir by Eddie Chuculate

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


When I pick up a memoir, I want three things: honesty; a glimpse into a life totally unlike my own; and to find out how the author has made the world a better place. Eddie Chuculate is brutally honest with and about himself. His grandparents indulged him but also kept him in line and instilled in him a strict sense of morals. The most enchanting parts of the book, and the best parts of his childhood, were in their "Little House on the Prairie," as it was called. His mother and stepfather were more problematic. Eddie had it tough sometimes--having to cut grass and even steal to put food on the family's table while still a child--but he's not complaining. He did what had to be done. The most harrowing part is the part about the band room. Why, Eddie, WHY? He doesn't make excuses; he tries and fails to explain his own actions to himself, takes his punishment, and moves on. And he makes good! The book a lot less "exotic" than I was expecting--I had initially thought that "Chuculate" was a Mexican name. It's not; he's from Oklahoma. The exotic parts, for me, were the baseball scenes, cause what do I know about baseball? Eddie's about the same age as me, so I related to the TV shows, music and "Soul Train" jeans! Other parts, like picking up cans and flattening pennies reminded me of stories from my father's childhood. And his perennial best friend Lonnie was a great supporting character. (Maybe Lonnie will write a memoir someday, and we'll get his own take on what happened in the car that awful day before Christmas.) I'll be looking for Eddie's short stories next. Note: I would have liked to see a family tree.



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So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion by Caren Gussoff Sumption

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the kind of science fiction I love: where not much happens, but everything happens. There's nothing in the way of plot-slowing action, just James' and Aveliin's (I might have misspelled this, but I passed my copy on to a friend, so I don't have it to refer to) relationship unfolding. At first, I took James' last name, Blackthorne, as a Shogun reference and possible spoiler. If it is in fact a Shogun reference, then it's more of a . . . but that would be telling! I took one star off because I felt that a hundred more pages or so would have more thoroughly expressed the world, especially the languagey bits, which were a bit confusing at times. I have no doubt that the author has spent a lot of time in the world she built--and possibly speaks fluent Zill (sp?)!--and I would have liked to see more of that passed along to the reader. All in all, yes, do read it. You will spent a lot of time thinking about it afterwards



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So Quick Bright Things Come to Confusion

The Shipbuilder of Bellfairie by M. Rickert

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If I could, I would give this book 3 and a half stars. I toyed with giving it 4, but because the publisher, Undertow, advertises "unique genre fiction of exceptional literary merit," I feel like I have to hold them to a higher standard--one the editors didn't live up to. Here are some tips to make it easier for the next reader: "the Sheriff" and "Healy" are the same person. "The Old Man" and "Thayer" are another same person. It took me a bit to figure that out, so there you go. It's mentioned quite late that Quark wears a hat. It's mentioned even later that it's a stovepipe hat. A main character who wears a stovepipe hat? That's something I would've liked to know right away. (When it comes to the randomly placed commas, you're on your own. Again, I blame the editors. That's what editors paid for, after all. They're also paid to know the difference between lie and lay, especially when it comes to an impeccably spoken man lie Quark, so that was another half a star off.) Is the cover pretty? Oh so pretty! But it's totally wrong for this book. The cover said to me, "Long-haired adventurer in boots and a cloak is going to take you on a magical journey." That ain't happening. What happens is a lot more unexpected, and perhaps even more interesting, but instead of going on a journey, I felt like I was walking in circles. There is some really lovely writing and really lovely imagery here, but I felt that the "literary merit" was distancing. I wanted the story to tick along, I wanted to really get under Quark's skin, and that didn't happen, though the author did do a good job of Quark's relentless, unwitting descent into disaster. This is the second Rickert book I've read. The first was her recent Lucky Girl, published by Tor, which I enjoyed very much, and I'm looking forward to reading her short stories. The town of Bellfairie had some really intriguing details: the sour smell of the sea, the masked Christmas giftgiver, the ship-related superstitions, the bird man statue in the middle of town. A longer book might have given me more of what I wanted, which was for Bellfairie to be fully fleshed out like Phil Rickman's Ledwardine. (Perhaps Undertow, like many independent presses, has a strict max word count?) I found myself comparing Bellfairie to Phil Rickman's early horror novels, too. Rickert does creepy as well as Rickman, but this story wasn't as firmly grounded. I wanted it to be either a horror/fantasy novel with a murder mystery wrapped inside it, or a murder mystery with speculative elements that couldn't be quite explained. But then, I'm not sure Rickert intends the reader to know "who did it." It is definitely "unique genre fiction" as Undertow promises; it was just too many genres for me and trying a little TOO hard to be literary. Favorite character: the Old Man. Favorite scene: the Old Man's last appearance, which is Rickert at her creepiest creepy best.



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The Shipbuilder of Bellfairie

This morning, I started my re-read of Oksana Marafioti's memoir American Gypsy, in preparation for the Dec. 7 meeting of the Roma Words/Roma Worlds book group (hosted by the New Providence Memorial Library in cooperation with the Roma Peoples Project at Columbia University and moderated by little old me!)
Hey, goodreads gods: Why is there no tab for "re-reading"? I'm also soldiering through--and beginning to reap the rewards of-- Shadow & Claw Also on the SF front, I had the unsolicited privilege of being the first reader to review The Triangle Ageon both goodreads and amazon. Triangle Age is in the running for Hugh Howey's 2023 Self Published Science Fiction Award.
It's the trippiest book I've read in a long time and I'm pulling for it! I've just put another spussfic contender, T The Crossing on my Want to Read list, and in my kindle basket. I've only read the first page, but it looks like a potential comp title for my own Turn Left at the Mooncrow Skeleton: Book One of The Firefly Tree With all these books to read, and a sequel to finish up,will I still have time to start my Christmas baking this weekend? We shall see . . .

The Triangle Age by David Aumelas

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Aumelas' far future world of Thule is built on a framework of Inuit mythology, specifically the story of the sea goddess Sedna. The first half of the book felt like an arctic fever dream, while the second half had the vibe of a 1980's BBC sci fi series--the kind that's shot all on video, the kind that, years later, you're not sure if you actually saw or if you dreamt it. This book is OUT THERE. There were a few times during the first half that I thought, "No, too weird." Then there'd be a twist, and I'd have to keep going. The people of Thule are not like us: "What mattered in Thule was fragility. We had no notion of heaven. But if we had, the single rule for getting in would have been to die carefully. If you were drowning, then you swam away from any nearby pump intakes. If you'd been locked in a smoker, then you didn't knock over the fish racks. And if you'd been dropped down an evaporation shaft, then you didn't damage the walls." As the main character Lowell's odyssey continues, we learn just how fragile the Thuleans (my word) are. In fact, during the second half, quite a few characters were introduced only a page or so before their violent demises. I could have done with a little less bloodshed and a few more conversations. There's horror here, but there's also humor, often at the same time: "We failed to kill him. He liked to talk. He oozed resin. And now it seemed we needed him." Lowell is a complex little guy (actually, he's a qalupalik). Sometimes I wanted to root for him, like I did for Jamake Highwater's Anpao; a lot of the time I hated him. Imagine Gollum and Frodo rolled into one. I will not soon forget Lowell, that's for sure. A familiarity with Inuit material culture and mythology will enhance your experience but isn't essential. (Have fun googling!) Favorite character: Amarok.



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Lucky Girl, How I Became A Horror Writer: A Krampus Story by M. Rickert

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I read my library's copy of this book. I'm only just now dipping a tentative toe into the horror genre, and this was horror of the best kind: horror rooted in loss, longing, and regret There's a lot here, including a few unexpected twists, and I'm still not sure how Rickert fit it all in, but you'll be glad she did. By "you," I mean . . . well, you know who you are. You've had enough of the Christmas festivities. You long to slip off into the woods or maybe hide behind the Christmas tree, your hands over your ears, your head tucked to your chest. If neither of those options are available, the book is small enough that you can hide it under your sweater on the way to the bathroom. No will guess that you're reading in there. Enjoy! My favorite character: Jovy. Favorite passage: "The three of us, Adrienne, Grayson, and I, answered in unison, "India," which was not such a funny thing, but we laughed, which seemed to elevate the mood. Well, that and the old man refilling our glasses with quivering stealth." (I've taken one star off because there are a lot of very long sentences--the kind I like to write but have been told time and time again that I shouldn't. So there!)



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Turn Left at the Mooncrow Skeleton: Book One of The Firefly Tree by Linda Raedisch

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I still can't figure out how to add pictures to blog posts, so I'm reviewing my own book (Oh look, I gave it five stars!) and linking it to my blog. Who would enjoy this book? Hardly anyone, according to the agents I queried. "Good writing," several of them told me before I decided to go rogue. "Great characters. Intriguing premise. Send me something else instead." So no, I don't expect TLMCS to appeal to the average SF reader. As a very wise person said to me recently, speaking of the current state of science fiction, "We've got too many Tasha Yars and not enough Deanna Trois." If you're looking for another Tasha Yar, you'll be disappointed, but I like to think that my main character, Numi, might someday evolve into a Deanna Troi (she's still pretty young). If you love The Martian Chronicles as much I do, and if you like Becky Chambers, Victoria Raschke, Nathan Ballingrud's The Strange, and Red Valley Podcast, then you might, just might, enjoy Turn Left at the Mooncrow Skeleton.



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River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk Road by Cat Jarman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An improvement on the usual Lindisfarne to Vinland narrative that dominates English language books about Vikings. I was looking for a book that detailed the Vikings' eastern travels, and this book delivered. I hope they do a Secrets of the Dead episode with Cat Jarman. I took one star off for the following: she perpetuates the off-repeated misunderstanding that Icelandic men are descended from Scandinavians while Icelandic women are Irish. It's not that simple, as I'm sure Cat knows, but she didn't make that clear. Also, I was hoping she would touch on the Norwich skeleton, but that's just me. I would've liked more footnotes, and on one occasion she mentioned, "in a saga," and never said which one. She did mention the Saga of the Jomsvikings, which I'll be trying to get my hands on next.



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My not-so-little (450 pages) Halloween novel is here! Or almost here. You can pre-order the ebook now ($1.99 or free with Kindle Unlimited), and you'll be able to start reading on Mischief Night morning. I've also set up a "pre-order" for the paperback, i. e. you can order it on October 23, which should get it to you in time for "Halloweeneen." I know we all value toilet paper a lot more than we did a few years ago, but I miss waking up on Halloween morning to see the trees dripping with it. I've reinstated that tradition in the book, along with door-to-door, unsupervised trick-or-treating on the real actual Halloween. Color me retro-futurist.
Turn Left at the Mooncrow Skeleton: Book One of The Firefly Tree