Review: An Unsuitable Job For A Woman

An Unsuitable Job For A Woman by P.D. James
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An Unsuitable Job For a Woman, by P.D. James, provides a brilliant introduction to private detective Cordelia Gray. Cordelia's mentor and partner, a former cop (who seems to have been short on talent but long on decent advice and platitudes), leaves Cordelia his share of their struggling agency and his worldly possessions. On the day that he kills himself, a wealthy client comes calling with a job offer. Cordelia takes the case and sets out to investigate why the son of a famous scientist might have taken his own life.

Cordelia is a pretty interesting character, and the small hints James parcels out about her life are intriguing. She's clever and quick, and perhaps just the right amount of cynical. Her unusual past gives her a very different perspective than her contemporaries, but makes her a plucky and engaging protagonist.

While the plot does, at times, stretch suspension of disbelief a bit--the speed with which she forms a friendship with and is accepted by a group of students, for example, or the motivations of several of the antagonists, for another--it does move at a quick pace. James does an excellent job keeping Cordelia busy on the case. Cordelia is kind enough to keep the reader informed of her methods and observations, so that even casual readers shouldn't have much trouble following her conclusions and seeing how the case is unfolding.

Cordelia isn't quite as hard-boiled as Spade or Marlowe, but she's close, and, in a genre that can sometimes feel overloaded with testosterone and fists, she's a welcome addition to the stable of detectives.

A shifting plot that takes time to properly unfold, a plucky and thoroughly competent female lead, and a solid ending that feels tremendously satisfying make this highly recommended for fans of hard-boiled fiction looking for a change of pace.

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Review: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbott
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, by Edwin A. Abbott, is an interesting, if somewhat dry, novel. In it, we're introduced to the citizens of Flatland, a world of two dimensions. There, geometric shapes live out their lives, oblivious to the existence of the third dimension. One day, a sphere intrudes upon the narrator's life, and forces him to confront the reality of the third dimension. This simple act opens up new avenues of thought and possibility, but puts him at odds with his government, which strictly forbids even discussing the possibility of a third dimension.

Abbott's text is heavy handed satire. His scathing indictments of various aspects of Victorian society are numerous and blunt. Women are denied even minimal education and are treated as complete dullards incapable of controlling their emotions, while the men in Flatland learn to doublespeak around them to prevent raising their ire, lest the women skewer them, killing them. Society is ruled by closed minded clerics who base a person's value on the number of sides they have. The closer to a true circle a citizen of Flatland is, the more perfect and valuable they are.

While the book is overflowing with blunt social commentary, the real meat is in the exploration of dimensions. The book provides a simple and effective allegory to illustrate how difficult-nigh impossible-it is to describe dimensions above/beyond the ones we are accustomed to seeing. The exploration of Pointland, Flatland, and Spaceland, and the accompanying dialog between the sphere and the square, are easily the best part of Flatland. As a criticism of closed minded thinking and hypocritical science, it's quite effective.

A somewhat dry, overly didactic first half but a very engaging and illuminating second make this a somewhat uneven, but mostly enjoyable read.

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Review: Kimmie66

Kimmie66 by Aaron Alexovich
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

How much do we know about the people in our lives, when the people in our lives are online personas? That's the central question in Aaron Alexovich's Kimmie66.

The story itself is simple enough: In the distant future, Kimmie66 sends a note to her friend, Telly, saying that she plans to kill herself. The problem: Telly and Kimmie66 have never met in meatspace; they've only ever interacted online. Telly starts to worry about what might have happened, and how she can help her friend, when things start to get weird.

Alexovich wrote and drew this short work, published under the sadly short lived Minx banner. His visual style, easily recognized by fans of his work on Invader Zim, is sort of quirky sci-fi cyberpunk cute. The characters are very exaggerated and cartoonish, which may distract some readers, but I enjoyed the playfulness of his artwork. It works very well for a story set in such a strange future (also, for a story that largely takes place in a digital world).

The plot does raise some interesting philosophical questions about trust and identity, and it's hard not to wonder how different Kimmie's life might have been if she had more friends offline, instead of all online. That said, Alexovich doesn't preach, and there's not a sense that he thinks there's anything wrong with having an online community. Also of note, he doesn't seek to minimize the pain/anger/hurt that people experience from online relationships.

While the book does raise interesting questions, it did feel like there was a certain level of disconnect or dissonance between the style and the content. The dialog and visuals instantly call to mind Invader Zim or other relatively light fare, but the content of the story felt like it wanted a little more restraint and perhaps a more serious tone overall. The book is addressing real issues that have serious life consequences, and the humorous visual tone ends up conflicting with that goal. That said, this is still an interesting, if too light, read.

The issues Telly is dealing with will likely resonate with teens and young adults, making this a good fit for a YA collection. Because this book does deal with suicide and death rather frankly, younger kids may find some of the content disturbing.


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Review: Whispers Underground

Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

(Note: I accidentally read this before reading Moon Over Soho, which is supposed to come before it. Oops. At first, I just thought Aaronovitch was dropping little bits about cases that fell between Midnight Riot and this deliberately for effect, to show that Grant is a little more experienced now. It took a while for me to put it together that I'd accidentally skipped a book. Oh well!)

Whispers Underground continues the adventures of Peter Grant and his supernatural adventures working for the British police services. The A plot here involves tracking down the murderer of an American living in London who was found after being stabbed on the tracks of the subway system. The B plot involves the team trying to track down improperly trained magicians who may be working with the faceless man (who, as noted above, I don't actually know anything much about, since he turned up in the second book, which I foolishly skipped).

Aaronovitch continues to impress me, here. Whispers Underground unravels like an onion, peeled back layer by layer as Grant and the other members of the Folly follow the clues and interview people. Aaronovitch does an excellent job weaving subtle clues and hints about what is coming through background characters or through conversations that, at first blush, seem mostly there to develop characters or provide flavor to the world. It's a clever way to use some of the world building elements to help push the story and solve the mystery.

More than clever, the book is fun. Aaronovitch's dialog is, at times, laugh out loud funny. The cast are genuinely funny, and Aaronovitch manages to avoid the trap of making all of the characters sound the same. While the younger characters do tend towards the glib, they still largely have unique voices.

I'm definitely glad to have continued with this series, and I look forward to moving backward to check out Moon Over Soho.



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Review: Masks & Mobsters, Vol. 1

Masks & Mobsters, Vol. 1 by Joshua Williamson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Masks & Mobsters is a collection of short, loosely connected stories set in sometime around the 1930s or '40s, in a time when costumed super heroes are just starting to show up. Obviously, for the organized crime families, this is an... unpleasant development. While the families have paid their protection money, making them largely immune from real punishment at the hands of the police or the courts, the bosses still don't like having costumed brutes smashing up their organization's operations. After one hero puts a powerful boss in the slammer, the families vow revenge. Someone is clearly leaking information to the costumed creeps, and they want to know who. But, when an enforcer for the family manages to gun down one of the most famous heroes in the city, war breaks out between the masks and the mobsters.

This volume is a little uneven, but generally a lot of fun. Fans of the pulp era should get a kick out of this reimagining of that time period. Even the weakest stories in this volume (one that is a spoof of the child adventurer stories, and another that is a riff on the Christmas Carol) still entertain, and the strongest stories here make me hope for a second volume. The artwork, black and white throughout, is quite capable, and some of the long shots, showing off the city as people run across rooftops or fly off into the distance, are just fantastic.

I'm not sure how much broad appeal this has, but for fans of that lovely pulp era, this is a loving homage well worth checking out.

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Review: Revival, Vol. 1: You're Among Friends

Revival, Vol. 1: You're Among Friends by Tim Seeley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Revival, Volume 1: You're Among Friends by Tim Seeley is an intriguing book that shows a lot of promise. The basic premise: in a small Wisconsin town several dozen corpses return to life at the same time. They're not like Hollywood movie zombies, though. They're just... risen. For the most part, they're just like they were before they died. Some of them just want to return to work. Others want to know why they've been brought back. Both the risen and their friends/families have to figure out what to make of this miracle and figure out how to go on with their lives amidst the intrigue and publicity this brings to their town.

The first volume lays the premise, introduces the cast of characters, and sets up a couple of different mysteries/plot points that, presumably, function as the major arcs for at least the first few volumes. The artwork is well done (although, be warned, frequently graphic), and Norton does an excellent job giving each character a distinct visual look.

The book does jump around a lot, so many of the "chapters" end up being only a page or two long in places, which might be a little distracting to some readers, but, overall, this shows a lot of promise, and I hope that later volumes are as well written as this.

An interesting sci-fi/horror vibe in the grain of an extended Twilight Zone episode make this a strong recommendation for comic fans looking for something outside of the typical tights and capes stuff, or people who want to see a new take on old ideas.

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Review: The Thief

The Thief by Fuminori Nakamura
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Thief from Fuminori Nakamura is an existential roadtrip through the psyche of a master pickpocket as he faces his own mortality and questions his life choices in the aftermath of a job that didn't quite go as planned.

This felt a little bit like reading the love child of Richard Stark and Camus. Several very well plotted and executed "action" show off the narrator's criminal abilities, but Nakamura gives a lot more space to the narrator's emotional crisis than to his trade craft. As with any post-modern work, there are threads that never really come to a close, and many of the events of the book feel more like dream sequences or hallucinations than lived experiences, but that's clearly intentional.

Not quite my cup of tea, but a fast, engaging read all the same.

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