Veniss Underground
Jeff VanderMeer
Bantam, Oct 2005, $14.00
ISBN: 0553383566

Way in the future, during a time when those living in the twenty-first century would be considered tame, perversion is so wide-spread it is the norm; Living Artists create grotesque biological pieces of art. At the same time the genetically altered meerkats plan to either turn the lesser “natural” humans into drudges or make them extinct, whichever proves easier.

In Veniss, Nicholas is a Living Artist, but lacks the skills necessary to become popular though he fantasizes otherwise while producing what some say is excrement. Perhaps it is from being raped in a chemical tub or just a bi-product of her relationship with her former lover sleazy Shadrach, but Nicholas’ twin sister Nicola sees Veniss much clearer than her rose colored glassed brother does.

Someone breaks into Nicholas’s apartment and steals his artisan tools. Desperate he asks Shadrach to introduce him to his employer Quin, the world’s greatest Living Artist and the uncrowned “emperor” of iniquity. Shadrach provides directions, but Nicholas gets lost and begins a frightening but eye opening odyssey through the layers underneath Veniss.

Take Homer’s rendering of the myths and put them in a future nightmarish landscape painted by Dante to get a feel for the horrific adventures awaiting Nicholas as he journeys through the underbellies of the dissolute city he calls home. The story line is filled with detail that brings to life loosely put humanoid like creatures that will shock the audience as much as it stuns the lead protagonist, who comes from an already depraved society (some will say so do we). A well written and thought provoking parable, VENISS UNDERGROUND is a fabulous novella (there are also three shorts included) that grips those brave enough to make the trek into the degenerate bizarre.

Harriet Klausner

Already Dead
Charlie Huston
Del Rey, Jan 2006, $12.95 288 pp.
ISBN 034547824X

He looks like an ordinary man, can see his reflection in the mirror and has a girlfriend. She has HIV and won’t make love to him but he doesn’t tell her he’s a vampire who can cure her by her drinking his blood but that would mean she catches the vampire virus and would become like him. The vampires group together in clans but Joe Pitt is an independent, working for the powerful Conclave and the Society.

He sees zombies and follows them into a deserted warehouse and kills them all except the one human who wasn’t bitten. His sense of smell is so strong that he smells a carrier, someone who transmits the disease but doesn’t succumb to it. The Conclave asks him to come to their headquarters where their security chief tells him he has to find and kill the carrier that night or things will go bad for him. He is also expected to meet the wealthy and powerful human Merilee Horde who wants him to find her runaway daughter Amanda. During his investigation, he is hunted and almost killed so many times he loses count but he finally realizes that his cases intersect and someone wants to kill him to keep him from discovering what that junction point is and what is means for the vampires.

ALREADY DEAD is an intriguing vampiric romantic investigative tale starring an interesting protagonist whose morality is different from those of humanity yet seems similar especially when it comes to his girlfriend as Joe proves he can love someone. The cast starting with the lead character makes the audience believe that the paranormal is normal while Joe’s sleuthing is fascinating to follow as he struggles with both of his assignments. Charlie Huston provides an engaging supernatural who-done-it that readers will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner

Miracle in the Mist
Elizabeth Sinclair
Medallion, Dec 2005, $6.99, 300 pp.
ISBN: 1932815651

At St. Francis Hospital in NYC pediatric oncologist Dr. Steve Cameron usually buries his feelings towards his terminally ill young patients. However, thirteen years old Ellie Stanton has reached deeper than anyone has ever before her when she whispers Merry Christmas, gives him a present, and thanks him for giving her love. Suffering from battle fatigue syndrome Steve goes on hiatus seeking a miracle, but Ellie died anyway.

Six years later in Central Park, Irma the bag lady tells Steve to go to a cabin in Hudson Highlands near Tarrytown, New York to find what he seeks as she insists she found her miracle there. One look at her and Steve figures what a poor miracle, but he needs to get away to ponder his future so this remote spot is as good as any. The cabin is a portal to Renaissance, a village where those with crushed souls mend. Steve meets Meghan Peece and they fall in love. However his juvenile patients need him; while she fears leaving her village because she will not remember her beloved once Renaissance vanishes into the mists during the Transition.

Elizabeth Sinclair brings Brigadoon with a pinch of Shangri-La into the twenty-first century in an engaging romantic fantasy that has an underlying tone of sadness involving children with terminal illness. The story line focuses on how people cope with tragedy especially when bad things happen to good people. Readers will commiserate with Steve as he struggles to cope with seeing his charges die while Meghan has deep rooted fears of leaving beyond losing her memory of the village and her soulmate that will touch the audience. The support cast augments this fine tale that readers will appreciate.

Harriet Klausner

Pretty Pretty
K.C. Oliver
Echelon Press, Aug 2005, $8.99, 160 pp.
ISBN: 1590802533

Eighteen years old mainlanders Quinn Hunter and Holly Gates arrive in Hawaii where the two friends will work for the summer at Barrington House. However, even before arriving at their workplace, the taxi driver acts strangely towards them and drops them off at the exit from the highway as he refuses to enter the hotel’s driveway.

The two teens meet their employer Edward Barrington and his weird sister Edith. They quickly find out why the natives avoid this place as the hotel is haunted and not just by Edith or Buttons the crazy cat. With the help of a guest Jackson “Jax” Caine, whose parents are also here, Quinn and Holly investigate what happened to cause a ghost to haunt the hotel. Another guest Jack Trainer also assists. However, someone wants the four sleuths to quit and is willing to turn them into spirits haunting Barrington House.

PRETTY PRETTY is a terrific young adult paranormal mystery starring three likable teenagers struggling to solve the haunting while just trying to stay alive. The key to K.C. Oliver’s fabulous story line is that the audience is never sure until the end as to whether the Barrington siblings, some other mortal, or a ghost is behind the danger. Readers will treasure this fine thriller and look forward to more investigations into the unexplained by the likable protagonists.

Harriet Klausner

Lone Star Magic
Karen Whiddon
Love Spell, Nov 2005, $6.99, 322 pp.
ISBN: 0505526417

Recently widowed Texas rancher Carly Roberts sees the strangely garbed man before she looks up to observe in panic a fireball heading her way. Prince Alrick deflects the fiery menace from her, but absorbs it himself. He lies badly hurt on the ground thinking he was lucky that the Warlock was not nearby to finish the job by first killing him and then the human who destiny has named as the only person that can save his race, the Fae of Rune.

The Warlord coming from the distant future also knows this and wants Carly dead before she gives birth to the savior. Alrick is willing to die to keep her safe from the dark sorcery, but also knows that the use of magic on this plane causes “natural” upheavals like earthquakes. What this person from the future does not know is that he will fall in love with the woman he swore to protect as he is part of her destiny.

Mixing time travel with fantasy LONE STAR MAGIC is an enchanting tale. The lead couple is a fine pairing while the villain is a powerful foe who has no compunctions about using magic in the Lone Star state. Fans will appreciate Karen Whiddon’s latest magic show that is mindful of the terminator but in a romantic fantasy story line.

Harriet Klausner

Frameshift
Robert J. Sawyer
Tor, Nov 2005, $14.95
ISBN: 0765313162

In Berkley, California, French-Canadian research molecular biologist Pierre Tardivel works on the Human Genome Project even as he expects to die soon due to the probability that he suffers from terminal genetic Huntington’s disease. His girlfriend psychologist Molly Bond knows Pierre cares deeply for her especially since she has limited telepathic skills. When someone attacks Pierre, Molly realizes that an unknown person hired the assailant to kill Pierre.

Both wonder why he would be the victim of an assassination attempt. Pierre does what he does best, conduct research seeking trends. He soon learns that his health insurance provider Condor has had an abnormally high number of deaths of those members with potentially expensive health costs that they would have to cover. At the same time Molly, wanting an offspring of Pierre, but unable to conceive naturally accepts the kind offer from Pierre’s boss, Nobel Prize winner Burian Klimus to an IVF impregnation. However, Burian uses the opportunity to test something different as he impregnates Molly with DNA extracted from the remains of a Neanderthal at the same time Justice Department Agent Avi Meyer warns Pierre that his superior may be Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka infamy.

This is a reprint of an exciting action-packed medical thriller that grips the audience from the moment readers meet Pierre and never slows down until the final twist. The story line in some ways will remind the audience of Rosemary’s baby except the devil is am amoral human using modern science to impregnate the innocent woman. Though the ties back to Treblinka seem forced and add nothing (Klimus can be a modern day scientist with no ethics without the concentration camp résumé), readers will finish this thriller in one exciting sitting.

Harriet Klausner

The Dream Thief
Helen A. Rosburg
Medallion, Dec 2005, $6.99
ISBN: 1932815201

In Venice, young beautiful women are dying; three bodies found in a boat and two in the garden of their family estate. There is not a mark on them and the authorities are baffled to the cause of death. Pina, an aristocrat with a pure and innocent soul, is not troubled by these deaths because she was not close to any of the victims. That changes when the cousin she grew up with dies in a similar manner. Her fiancée Antonio, who she doesn’t want to marry, persuades her mother to keep Pina locked in the attic.

When they walk to church, Pina sees a handsome man who looks ill. He visits her in her dreams, stalking the essence of her soul. When Pina’s mother sees that she is wasting away like the other women who died, she heeds the advise of a wise man and gets her out of Venice to their summerhouse. Pina’s mother tells the witch Erika what happened and she believes dark magic is involved. The man follows Pina and intends to draw her soul so he can leave but Erika stops him and makes him realize Pina is not like the others. She genuinely loves him and he remembers who he was before he became THE DREAM THIEF. Antonio is following the women intending to harm them because Pina’s mother broke the betrothal but he is topped by a force more resolved than his talent. Pina hopes she can cure THE DREAM THIEF and give him back his life.

THE DREAM THIEF is a creatively original paranormal romance that demonstrates love is more powerful than evil. Antonio is a sadistic, debauched, sadist who hides his true colors to everyone but Pina who sees his true essence. She puts her daughter first after a year of mourning her husband’s death and with the help of a dark spirit turns to the light. Helen A. Rosburg is not only a talented storyteller but creates characters that the audience intuitively understands.

Harriet Klausner

Felaheen
Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Bantam, Jan 2006, $12.00, 384 pp.
ISBN 0553383787

The assassination attempt using a poisonous snake could have come from anyone who had access to Emir Moncef. The viper bites his calf, but he survives because his twelve year old son witnessed the incident and screamed for help. His wife and his heir believe the obvious culprit is either a family member, an un-loyal servant, or another member of the inner retinue. However, an unrecognized son by a different woman Kashif Pasha believes the NR is behind the assault.

To protect the Emir and to uncover the assassin, former cop turned private investigator Ashraf Bey, who may be another unacknowledged offspring of the prolific Emir is hired. The genetically altered Ashraf struggles to uncover who wants the Emir dead; he leans towards the North African rebellion as the source so he goes undercover as a laborer in the lair of the enemy the metropolis of El Iskandryia while his maybe ten years old niece Hana al-Mansour better known as Hani decides to become Uncle Raf’s “apprentice”.

The Third Arabesk alternate history Ottoman Empire Noir (see PASHAZADE AND EFFENDI) is a terrific who-done-it starring a fabulous hard boiled sleuth who is softened by his niece. The story paints quite a vivid picture of a world in which the Ottoman Empire still exists in the twenty-first century. The complex sty line takes the audience all over from Manhattan to the Ifriqiy Desert to El Iskandryia and elsewhere without missing a beat so that the reader knows this is the real stuff. Reading the previous novels would be worth the effort as they are amongst the best in the sub-genre, Jon Courtenay Grimwood cleverly intertwines the key elements into this excellent entry. FELAHEEN makes three winners in a row.

Harriet Klausner

A Feast for Crows
George R. R. Martin
Bantam, Nov 2005, $28.00
ISBN: 0553801503

The War of the Five Kings seems over especially with the deaths of King Joffrey of King’s Landing and the rebel King of the North Robb Stark of the Northlands. No one can fully claim the Iron Throne. However, the widespread carnage and lack of strong leaders seem like A FEAST FOR CROWS especially those willing to pick the marrow out of the survivors’ bones.

While the Seven Kingdoms struggle with criminals and marauders, Queen Cersei Lannister serves as the Regent in King’s Landing, but she apparently is losing her grip on her sanity. While Robb was murdered at the Red Weddings and the other siblings of House Stark are either dead or in hiding all over the land, eleven year old Arya Stark, assumed dead by all, trains with the Faceless Men. Finally Brienne of Tarth seeks the missing daughters of Robb’s mother Lady Catelyn of House Tully. In the breach of leadership that has swept through the Seven Kingdoms no one, whether they be these three, other rulers, those who dance with dragons or commoner are safe.

The fourth Song of Ice and Fire fantasy is a terrific entry in what is one of the top quality ongoing series in the last decade or so. It is hard to write a short synopsis on this book because the storyline is complex and subplots interwoven. The tale is action-packed with just enough magic to give it a fantasy feel, but is more a human endeavor as plots and counterplots make for strange bedfellows. Though this novel seems to close without any climax as if George R.R. Martin has set the stage for truly epic escapades in the next story (Mr. Martin even implies this in his afterward), fans will treasure A FEAST FOR CROWS because this is high fantasy at his best.

Harriet Klausner

Cynthia’s Attic
Mary Cunningham
Echelon, Dec 2005, $9.99, 160 pp.
ISBN: 1590804414

In 1964 Cynthia and Augusta are best friends though they are total opposites. Whereas Cynthia hates to break a nail Gus is a tomboy willing to slide in third base head first. School is out for summer so the pals wonder how to spend all their free time besides irritating Cynthia’s older sister Danielle. They decide to check out CYNTHIA’S ATTIC before her parents clean it out as the adults plan on doing shortly.

In the attic they find an old rusted scratched up trunk containing stuff from Cynthia’s grandmother Clara. Not long afterward, Cynthia and Gus return to the attic, but the trunk looks brand new with no rust, dust or nicks and everything inside seems pristine; additionally Cynthia and all her items and that of her immediate family have vanished. A tall woman calls Gus, Bess and asks where Clara is; recognizing the woman from an old photo as Cynthia’s great-grandmother, Gus realizes she and Cynthia are in the bodies of Bess and Clara in 1914. The adventures are just beginning for what will be the most exciting summer of their lives as they search for a missing locket that once belonged to great-great Aunt Isabelle, who disappeared on an ocean voyage to New York.

This is a fantastic time travel fantasy that middle school children will treasure. The escapades of Gus and Cynthia grip the audience as the two friends adapt to their situation with humor and trepidation, but always with fun while trying to solve an “ancient” mystery that occurred before their parents were born. Readers will appreciate time traveling with this dynamic duo starting in CYNTHIA’S ATTIC and continuing in the past on the high seas.

Harriet Klausner