The Silver Spoon - Stacey Klemstein

The Silver Spoon by Stacey Klemstein

August 2004
My rating: 4 of 5 stars (8/10)

This is Stacey Klemstein's first novel and it's a great debut. I hope it will be the first of many to come in the years ahead.

Two years ago, Zara Mitchell began having terrible nightmares and has been known since as the local crazy. At the same time, Earth made its first contact with aliens. The Observers had been watching us from a distance for a while and have since landed on Earth, sending out small numbers of research parties. Zara is terrified of the aliens, but fortunately unlikely ever to meet any.

Or so she thinks. As the story opens, she is working in her diner, The Silver Spoon, when the sheriff stops in with his latest captive - one of the Observers. Moments later her world turns upside down when the diner explodes, her life is saved by Caelen, the Observer, and he insists she was the target of the attack. Reluctant, but determined to find answers to the questions in her life, Zara finally agrees to go with Caelen. From there, her life just gets more complicated as every answer raises a host more questions.

Klemstein has placed her characters very neatly on the board and proceeds to play havoc with them with skill, ease and a delightful touch of wit and humour. What impressed me most is the way, as she slowly revealed more about the nature and plans of the Observers, she made them more human at the same time as she showed us how different they were. Zara too finds she is not exactly what she has always believed as she finally discovers the source of her nightmares. She deals with this realistically rather than easily, a fact that made me like her more. She has a wry sense of humour and is strong without being forcefully or unbelievably so.

Caelen is less clearly drawn, partly because we never see his thought processes (the story is told first-person from Zara's point of view) and because his motives remain cloudy and uncertain. The romance between Zara and Caelen is gentle, cautious and uncertain; while "happy ever after" is definitely a possibility at the end, it is not yet certain.

Many of the questions facing the characters at the start of the book are answered by the end, but some remain and others have been created. This book is crying out for a sequel and I hope Stacey Klemstein is in the process of writing one. I'll be buying it.

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Heart Duel - Robin D. Owens

Heart Duel by Robin D. Owens

August 2004
My rating: 4 of 5 stars (8/10)

In her first novel, HeartMate, Robin D. Owens introduced us to the planet Celta. It was settled around 400 years ago by colonists from Earth. While I cannot remember if it is clearly stated, the colonists were primarily from the Celtic countries and left an increasingly technological Earth for a place where they could develop their psi talents, now known as "Flair".

Some very lucky Celtan couples find that they are HeartMates. This means they have a deep, life-long, flaired connection the binds them more strongly than what a couple that is simply in love can share. In the books so far, it has been the man who has first found his HeartMate and set to win her over, although on her website Owens states that it can also be the other way around. There are firm rules about wooing one's HeartMate, the most important one being that the fact the couple are, in fact, HeartMates must not be revealed until a gift and the union have already been accepted.

We first met Holm Holly, the hero of Heart Duel back in the original in the series. He was young, impulsive and the heir to a Noble House famous for its fighting skills. Now he is a little less young, a little less impulsive, a little more mature and still the heir to his House. He never discovered he had a HeartMate at the appropriate time and now he is being pressured to marry to provide his family with an heir of his own. Then, as the book begins, he discovers to his amazement that he does have a HeartMate after all; he had to mature enough to match her own, older soul.

Whether or not Holm has reached that point, and how he deals with the complications of his love are the main components of the book. There are a lot of complications. For starters, his lady - Lark Collinson - doesn't believe either of them has a HeartMate and that any relationship would be temporary. She is still getting over the death of her husband, three years ago. She is a Healer and Holm a Fighter, not exactly compatible callings. But the real kicker is that Holm's family is involved in a escalating feud with Lark's family. Winning her is not going to be easy.

As I reread what I've written so far, this all sounds very Romeo and Juliet, but I never once thought of that while I was reading the book, which tells me Owens has neatly avoided the risk of falling into cliché. Holm is an engaging hero as he tries his hardest to develop parts of his personality that he has either never uncovered or left long abandoned. The man he is at the end of the book is very different from who he was at the beginning and his development is both well-handled and occasionally painful. Lark's progress though the book is more gentle but still very real. She is a Healer to her fingertips and finding herself so attracted to a man trained to fight goes against everything she believes in.

An added bonus in each Celtan story is the presence of Owens' wonderful "Fam" cats. Intelligent, telepathic and superior, they can easily steal a scene if the rest of the characters are not careful. These books are lovely stories set in their own unique location. I love a mix of technology and magic and these fit that bill perfectly.

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Murder with Peacocks - Donna Andrews

Murder With Peacocks by Donna Andrews

August 2004
My rating: 4 of 5 stars (8/10)

This book was a delight. The characters are quirky, funny and quite, quite insane. The story rolls along at an easy pace and goes in logical but totally unexpected directions.

Meg Langslow knows she has a busy summer ahead of her. She's bridesmaid at three weddings and the main organiser of them all. Meg's mother is getting remarried, despite no-one understanding why she and Meg's father ever split up in the first place, especially since her father spends almost all his time at the family house as if he had never left, only staying nights in his new home with Meg's sister. Her brother's fiance - the one who decided her wedding requires the peacocks of the title - has given Meg the honour and the hard work of being chief bridesmaid. To round the number out to three, her best friend is also getting married and Meg is in charge of her wedding as well.

The entire prospect is daunting, one bright spot being Michael, who is running the local dressmakers while the owner, his aunt, is recuperating from an unexplained accident. She is soon informed he is gay, which given his good looks she considers a disappointment, but his help and friendliness is much appreciated. Between them, they start undertaking the difficult task of getting three bridal parties outfitted, while Meg also has to deal with all the other wedding preparations.

Once guests start arriving, things only get more frantic. Especially when Meg's mother's sister-in-law to-be arrives in town. She is a tactless, disagreeable woman who clearly has the ability to make enemies at the drop of a hat. The only thing that could make life more difficult than her presence is her death. When she is found dead below the cliff near Meg's family home, difficult is an understatement.

Her father dives in to trying to solve the mystery - in his own unique fashion - while Meg attempts to keep her attention on the weddings. Even so, with Michael's help, she seems to keep finding herself in the middle of it all to the point that someone starts trying to kill her.

Andrews writes the book in a quirky and easy-to-read style. Meg's various trials are sympathetically written and yet funny to read. Her accidental solving of the murder slides easily into place beside the wedding planning and she is an engaging and sympathetic character. Meg's father is beautifully drawn and his gift to his ex-wife who is about to marry someone else is truly touching. The other characters are generally well penned, but my favourites remain Meg, Michael and Meg's father.

Oh, and the peacocks. They are there to stay.

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You've Got Murder - Donna Andrews

You've Got Murder by Donna Andrews

August 2004
My rating: 4 of 5 stars (8/10)

I'm not sure what started the topic "AI as detective" on the Friends of Liad mailing list (I'm always running behind with my email and do a lot of quick scanning of lists, meaning I sometimes miss things). Whoever it was, by the time I joined the topic, the names of Donna Andrews and Turing Hopper were being tossed around. I read a few emails and decided this sounded like an author to try. I phoned my ever-helpful bookstore and asked it they had a copy; it arrived on my doorstep the next morning. Since I was struggling with Anne Kelleher's Silver's Edge, I chose to take a break from that one and read You've Got Murder right away.

The concept is essentially simple, but very neatly executed. The Universal Library is a growing online store of books and information. Turing Hopper is one of the Artificial Intelligence Personalities (or AIPs) created by UL programmers to help customers find the information they are looking for. But there's one very unique thing about Turing.

Although she has made sure the fact is far from common knowledge, Turing is sentient.

As the book begins, Turing is starting to get worried. Her programmer, Zack, appears to have disappeared. He hasn't been at work for several days, and Turing is unable to trace him electronically through bank account use or anything else of the kind. No-one else seems worried, but Turing remains concerned.

Eventually she enlists the help of two human friends and begins to investigate. Maude, a secretary at UL and Tim, who works in the copy room there, both consider Turing to be a friend. Maude knows she's an AIP while Tim refuses to believe Turing's insistence that she is part of the computer system and spends the first part of the book trying to trick her into telling him what she looks like. As the tale progresses he is convinced, and he and Maude become Turing's hands and legs as they try to discover what has happened to Zack. Perhaps even more importantly, they also begin to discover why Zack has vanished, and this threatens Turing's very existence.

Turing is a delightful heroine; she is both very wise and unexpectedly naive. She has a huge amount of information at her beck and call, but she has less understanding of humans and how they respond to circumstances.

I was a little unsure on the first few pages - the beginning shows a shadowy figure breaking in to Zack's office and is quite different from the feel of the rest of the book. But once things got going and Turing entered the picture the tale took off. It is written alternating between Turing's first person point-of-view and third person focus on Maude and Tim. It took me a couple of switches to get into the flow of things, but Andrews' style soon sweeps the reader up into the story.

Turing learns a lot in the course of the story and is a much stronger person - and there's no doubt she's a person -by the end. Maude and Tim quickly shift from being icons to being real people; I did find that they developed their mechanical and electronic skills especially fast though, once they started doing some building for Turing.

I have the next book in the series - Click Here for Murder - waiting for me at home and I look forward to starting it.

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Witness in Death - J. D. Robb

Witness in Death by J.D. Robb

July 2004
My rating: 4 of 5 stars (8/10)

It's not just this book that is the fault of my dealer, it is the whole series. She conned me into reading Naked in Death last year and here I am devouring book #11. I heard that Nora Roberts (who writes this futuristic detective series under the pseudonym J. D. Robb) was once asked why she is still writing this long series when usually she doesn't like long series. Her reply was that she simply liked visiting with Eve and Roarke. I couldn't agree more; I too love checking in to see what they are up to.

In this book Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke are at the opening night of the 2056 production of Agatha Christie's 1952 play, "Witness for the Prosecution". In the last act, disagreeable character Leonard Vole, played by disagreeable actor Richard Drake, is stabbed, not with the intended prop knife, but the real thing that someone has substituted between scenes. Eve soon discovers that pretty much everyone had a reason to kill Drake and it is her job to find out who actually did it.

The case grows more complicated as Eve delves deeper and finds connections between the various cast members and Drake, as well as discovering just what a nasty character the dead actor was. Eve's memories of her own abusive childhood are stirred by the case and she struggles to stay objective.

As always, Roarke helps her out whether she likes it or not and in a beautiful scene, practical Eve struggles to create a romantic evening for her husband. For readers of the series, various relationships develop (particularly Peabody and Charles Monroe and Peabody and McNab). Regulars such as Mavis and Nadine Furst make brief appearances.

I particularly liked the solution to this mystery. Robb introduced a very neat twist at the end and laid some successful red herrings along the way. If you've never read a J. D. Robb book before, I recommend the first in the series - Naked in Death - simply because the character develop steadily through the series and the beginning is always a good place to start. However, Robb keeps the individual books accessible to the causal reader and if you like the sound of this one, go for it.

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