Under the Whispering Door by: T.J. Klune

 

T.J. Klune’s Under the Whispering Door is one which I probably would have seen on a shelf and not thought twice about picking up.  It’s a contemporary fantasy romance about death, and when it comes to romance, I’ve never particularly found that much of an appeal for romance.  A friend recommended it to me on a whim thinking I’d like it, so I picked up a copy and read it.  It’s a book that does a lot to engage the reader with the concept of death and dealing with death in a contemporary setting.  There’s this contemplative nature to the book, not really too much of a plot, but more a series of vignettes that evolve the characters and overlap with one another.  There are five core characters coexisting, three of them dead, two of them alive, all of them understanding the scenario of life after death.  The book could be best described as a warm blanket of going through grief with hints of absurdism like the fact that the closest thing to God that makes the universe of life and death work is a pre-teen boy who has a thin veneer of omniscience but there’s quite a bit of evidence in the text that it’s just a façade to keep things running.  They eventually make the ending, which is a really well done deus ex machina, feel all the more satisfying as this character has been built up throughout the book and they’re eventual reveal and position as the closest thing to a primary antagonist.  The ending may be an issue for some, but I found it emotionally satisfying in spite of the fact that there is a trope at the end that would usually not work.  Klune provides enough context on this particular world and enough of the book is devoted to setting up the ending that it works.

 

Klune’s writing style is interesting.  Each of the characters has a distinct voice, but they are all youthful voices which makes it seem some of the dialogue will be aging as there are several colloquialisms that are modern, but never enough to be distracting.  Mei, one of Klune’s two takes on a psychopomp, is a teenager and speaks like a teenager.  A lesser writer would have perhaps copied too much of Neil Gaiman’s Death from The Sandman, with Mei’s general attitude, but instead of attempting to make the psychopomp’s immortal, they are human beings tasked with psychopomp duties.  Klune examines the toll this would take on the human psyche, with spirits coming to a tea shop to move on and accept their death.  The Kubler-Ross model of grief, though acknowledged as not an accurate model of grief by Klune, is essentially the guiding principle of the novel.  The point of the Reapers and Hugo running his tea shop is to give spirits the chance to move on, and the novel puts the reader in the mind of one of the souls, Wallace Price.  Wallace Price was a lawyer who died of a heart attack, introduced firing a woman from his firm with this stark indifferent cruelty which sets the tone for the entire novel as just a bit absurd.  Wallace dies at the end of the first chapter in such a matter of fact way it makes this inciting incident essentially a footnote which offsets the heavy nature of the fact that Wallace Price has just died.  Wallace’s point of view is also incredibly stubborn and Klune writes this very human person who has wasted his life, wasn’t happy, and uses his afterlife as a chance to come to terms with it and move on.  Klune is excellent at having Wallace not just discover where he went wrong and life and immediately change for the better, there’s an examination of change taking time, relationships take time.  Hugo and Wallace form a bond over drinking tea and listening to the stories of the people who go to the tea shop.  The romantic element begins as incredibly subtle and a lesser writer may have been tempted to tie it into Wallace’s journey of self-discovery, but Klune makes this romantic relationship happen with a slow burn.  Wallace begins the experience hostile to basically everyone who can see him and embarrassed of his situation when certain shenanigans ensue and regresses back to old ways when he finds himself upset.  He is a human being and he is going to make mistakes on a journey to accept his death and move on, and ultimately he both does and doesn’t move on.  What is wonderful is that all of the characters are allowed to be human beings, with the good and the bad that comes with it.

 

There is a saying about three cups of tea bringing someone from stranger, to honored guest, to family, and that is a perfect summation of what Under the Whispering Door is doing.  It’s an examination of death and living one’s life to the fullest and drinking tea through an absurdist, non-religious lens.  It was a book I wouldn’t have picked up weren’t for a recommendation so let this review perhaps do the same my friend did for me.  It is a contender for one of the best books for the ideas it plays with and the delightful characters.  10/10.

Ghost Devices by: Simon Bucher-Jones

 

Ghost Devices is a weird book.  The second from author Simon Bucher-Jones and the first of the New Adventures to feature Bernice Summerfield that really feels like it was meant to be a Doctor Who story but the Doctor has been removed.  Not even the previous book, Deadfall, which was an adaptation of a fan Doctor Who audio story, felt like it was meant to be a Doctor Who story.  Ghost Devices is different, it’s a story that feels divided into several 50 page chunks which almost changes like it’s meant to be a classic Doctor Who serial.  Importantly, there is a cameo from the Seventh Doctor with the serial numbers filed off implying that this is all one of his plans a la Birthright, but because the Doctor can’t be used his influence throughout isn’t integrated which was what made Birthright work.  The final 50 pages are actually the most interesting going into several possible timelines which is as densely written as Simon Bucher-Jones is known to be, but the story is also all about a mysterious artefact and an amnesiac of the People.  There are reptilian races and imperialism and honestly a lot going on for a 250 page book, especially when the plot likes to go off in different directions every 50 pages.  Bucher-Jones’ prose is quite difficult to follow in places, especially as it feels like the first 50 pages especially could be cut and the plot would remain largely unchanged.  The final 50 pages which go into an almost dreamscape/alternate universe sequence which is what Bucher-Jones excels at, especially when there’s an imperialist soldier version of Benny who honestly deserves a novel on her own, who grew up with her father present as he didn’t run away in this timeline.

 

The Spire itself, the alien artefact on the planet, has this weird presence in Ghost Devices, in a way that it’s mentioned on the back cover as this important thing, but when you’re reading there really isn’t importance put on it until what feels like quite late in the novel.  The same can be said with the People: Clarence is a character who appears here in a stereotypical angelic form, is an amnesiac People, and is set up as a major player, but then he really isn’t.  Like he appears throughout, but he feels more supportive than being a main character in the novel.  Clarence is a given name from Benny, with Bucher-Jones not really doing a lot to explore the people, at least not like Ben Aaronovitch or Lawrence Miles would.  He gives his People character a normal name, a reference to It’s a Wonderful Life, not following the naming conventions Aaronovitch laid out in The Also People.  Clarence being essentially a reference to It’s a Wonderful Life, and to a lesser extent The Bishop’s Wife, is perhaps an encapsulation of the issues with Bucher-Jones’ style and Ghost Devices.  It’s a book that is full of references to things inside of Doctor Who and pop culture and film at large.  There’s also a tendency to switch perspective to in universe books and other perspectives, marked initially in bold in between paragraphs, but then after the first 50 pages stops happening unless it’s an extract from Benny’s in universe diary which makes the transitions from scene to scene more difficult then they had to be.  That isn’t to say there aren’t things to like, Clarence is fun and the last 50 pages could easily be their own story on their own, Benny’s characterization is fun and it’s clear Bucher-Jones preferred her to Chris and Roz, plus a few other characters who appear here and there.

 

Overall, Ghost Devices is a short book that feels quite long, almost too long.  It’s a book which doesn’t know exactly what it wants to be about, wanting to play in a box of the Doctor Who universe but doesn’t know how to do that without the Doctor there, going so far as to putting him there in a way that wasn’t just tangential to the plot like some of the other cameos.  It’s a story whose title including ghosts feels like this book is almost a ghostly imprint of something that could have been great, but doesn’t quite have bones to pull it together.  3/10.

The Riyria Revelations: Rise of Empire by: Michael J. Sullivan

 

The Riyria Revelations is a series which I picked up over a year ago and enjoyed the first two installments contained in Theft of Swords, but despite owning the three omnibus installments didn’t think about continuing until a year later.  Promptly I reread Theft of Swords and swiftly moved on to Rise of Empire.  Rise of Empire is an apt title for this installment as it’s two installments, Nyphron Rising and The Emerald Storm, chronicle just how a powerful, but unjust empire can grow, seemingly fulfilling prophecies to prove by the gods that this new Nyphron Empire is just.  Both books focus heavily on the expansion and the terror that comes with that sort of imperialist conquest.  Author Michael J. Sullivan never quite has his characters come to the conclusion of what forms of government could replace empires and monarchies in general, but there are several points between Royce and Hadrian which makes for some interesting quips.  Sullivan is at least partially self-aware of many of the fantasy tropes he is playing with, but never looks down upon them, but questions just why, leaving in the reader a question of how you can blend classic and modern fantasy.

 

Royce and Hadrian are the driving forces for both books included, Hadrian starting this installment at a point where he genuinely wants to be done, not to be wrapped up in prophecy and a lot of Nyphron Rising gives us some of his backstory.  Sullivan does a nice subversion of the Chosen One trope by having our protagonists being the ones searching for the Chosen One, the true heir to the Empire.  The subversion is so skillfully executed yet somehow signposted so obviously when it eventually happened it almost felt too obvious, but in a good way.  There’s the satisfaction of seeing a really well executed twist play out and your theories and setups actually pay off.  It’s something we don’t see as often in recent media as plenty of stories try too hard to play things off as a surprise to the viewers that nobody could possibly see coming which is honestly not great for storytelling.  There is also something great about Hadrian’s backstory being simple and fairly embedded in classic fantasy tropes which is a great parallel to what we know about Royce’s backstory from Theft of Swords.  His village is a great reflection of who he is, with an interesting implication as to his relationship with his father as not a bad one, but not necessarily the best.  It’s a complex thing and perhaps not fully explored.  It should also be mentioned that Royce and Hadrian as a double act is genius through both, but especially in The Emerald Storm where they are put on a boat and have to pretend to be sailors to great comedic (and later dramatic) effect.

 

There is also a dark undercurrent with the empire, Thrace being rechristened Modina and essentially traumatized into being mute.  This was a plot that worried me at first because it could easily play into harmful tropes, but Sullivan mainly avoids that by having the character generally just trying to stay alive and eventually coming into her own near the end of Rise of Empire.  Modina is assigned a secretary called Amilia who helps her through who herself is under threat of murder if she cannot keep Modina under the thumb of the empire.  Amilia gets quite a large portion of the point of view, with Thrace being seen from the outside and Modina being treated as a completely new character/personality which has supplanted Thrace.  There is a compassion to Amilia who genuinely wants to help the Empress but cannot and is a good person without any real power.  She is contrasted with Arista, who is essentially a morally grey person in power, leaning towards good, but willing to manipulate to protect those around her and get people to further her (and their) goals.  Arista gets a lot of focus throughout as she leads a revolution in Nyphron Rising, finds herself going against Esrahaddon, her mentor, and even against her brother.  Becoming mayor of a town during the war is one of the sections of the book where Sullivan questions the forms of government of fantasy novels, but she is never portrayed as a despot, mainly because the reader can get into her head.

 

Overall, Rise of Empire is a book who’s title is perfect at explaining what it sets out to examine.  It’s a book which somehow manages to be very much going to entertain while slipping in some of the deeper ideas.  It’s improved on the already great double act of characters by delving into their pasts and what makes them tick while bubbling the tension underneath as imperialism becomes the enemy in the end.  It’s a book about accepting your place and your past and is near perfect popcorn, but also genuinely fulfilling, fantasy.  9/10.

The Dragon Reborn by: Robert Jordan: The First Cracks in the Tower (Chapters 10 to 12)

 

“Siuan Sanche had been poor in Tear, and had worked on her father’s fishing boat, one just like the boats in the drawing, in the delta called the Fingers of the dragon, before ever she dreamed of coming to Tar Valon.  Even the nearly ten years since she had been raised to the Seat had not made her comfortable with too much luxury.  Her bedchamber was more simple still.  Ten years with the stole, he thought. Nearly twenty since I decided to sail these dangerous waters.  And if I slip now, I’ll wish I were back hauling nets.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 158.

 

It would be remiss of me not to mention the importance of Robert Jordan’s use of alternate points of view throughout The Wheel of Time.  From the final point of view in The Eye of the World being from Moiraine to each of the prologues being from minor characters or even villains, Jordan already began hints that the perspective would be expanding as the series would progress.  The Dragon Reborn is the last of the books to keep the points of view insular to the Emond’s Field Five, but it’s already an indication of things to come with Chapter 12 “The Amyrlin Seat” being from Suian Sanche’s perspective coming after two chapters dedicated to reintroducing Egwene, Nynaeve, and the White Tower in general (and don’t worry we will be discussing that), but going to Siuan allows the reader a peak into what has happened in their absence.   There is this idea that the there is something slipping in the tower, there are cracks.  Siuan has been the Amyrlin for a decade but now that the Dragon has declared himself Reborn there is an increased danger in fracturing the White Tower.  There are two False Dragons, one captured and executed, the other captured.  There’s already a crack in Suian and Moiraine’s plan coming to light here with Mat Cauthon’s blowing of the Horn of Valere at the end of The Great Hunt, and implication that they could let him die because it’s believed the Dragon will be the one to blow it at the Last Battle.  It’s Verin whom she meets with at this point to be filled in with goings on in the world, not Moiraine who is still with Perrin following Rand at this point.  There’s also the problem of the Seanchan and their mastery of the One Power without the Three Oaths.  This is recap but it is important to note that there are dangers coming from within and without.

 

The previous chapters, from Egwene’s perspective, is also an important piece in creating this idea of danger.  The section opens with a chapter before the party arrives at Tar Valon and an encounter with the Whitecloaks.  Egwene’s focus is on getting Mat to the Tower due to his worsening condition, here implying that it may only take a few hours before he is killed, and their attempts to Heal him, something Verin has explicitly forbade due to Egwene and Elayne being Novices.  There is, however, lasting trauma here, which wouldn’t be present in the hands of lesser writers.  “There’s no more time to wait, Egwene thought.  I will not be chained again!  She opened herself to the One Power.  It was a simple exercise, and after long practice, it went much more swiftly than the first time she had tried…It was like being filled with light, with the Light, like being one with the Light, a glorious ecstasy, she fought to keep from being overwhelmed, and focused on the ground in front of the Whitecloak officer’s horse.  A small patch of ground’ she did not want to kill anyone.  You will not take me. The man’s hand was still going up.  With a roar the ground in front of him erupted in a narrow fountain of dirt and rocks higher than his head.  Screaming, his horse reared, and he rolled out of his saddle like a sack.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 140.  Egwene is damaged, something that Verin doesn’t have time for, immediately calling what she did an abomination “you will be bound to obey the Three Oaths, but even novices are expected to do their best to live as if already bound.” – The Dragon Reborn, p. 142.  Verin doesn’t actually do the full force of punishing the girls, or even Egwene, she has her own motives, but just puts them under guard in their own rooms so they will be dealt with later.  There are other things occurring, they are guarded by three Accepted Nynaeve observes are bound for the Red Ajah due to the way they revel in the power over the three novices who fled.  The cracks are there, they may be hairline, but it’s only seen by those on the inside something that will continue with this plotline and this installment.

Decalog 4: ReGenerations edited by: Andy Lane and Justin Richards

 

After Decalog 3: Consequences, Virgin Publishing knew they were losing the Doctor Who license and to continue their short story collections, much like the shift of the novels towards stories starring Bernice Summerfield, it was decided that Decalog 4 would follow not a single original character, but the family of companion Roz Forrester.  So Vile a Sin was a successful book, even with the delays on the release of that book and the stepping in of Kate Orman to finish it.  It introduced the Forrester family as spanning centuries, descending from humanitarian Nelson Mandela and as a family are mainly involved in the expanding human empire with Roz Forrester being the black sheep of the family, an outlier due to going against her rich heritage to be an Adjudicator on Earth.  Decalog 4: ReGenerations does not include a story with Roz Forrester as instead each story takes a different member of the family and chronicles their finest moments and many of their downfalls.

 

The collection opens strongly with “Second Chances” by Alex Stewart which is a perfect example of the format for many of these stories.  We start with an introduction to the Forrester narrator, in this case Jack Michael Forrester, a maintenance worker with a wife and child.  Stewart sets up the story very much with the idea that Jack is just one day from retirement, so it isn’t long before he’s been murdered and his consciousness has been downloaded into an artificial intelligence.  The prose is intriguing as it takes a few pages for Jack and the reader to realize just what’s actually happened with some very nice misdirect before it becomes a murder mystery.  Jack has to find his killer just so there can be some closure to his life as a piece of artificial intelligence, his wife has grieved and moved on, and he has nothing left but needs the closure.  The narration is compelling and the prose is great but the eventual resolution of the short story almost feels rushed, which is odd because this collection has fairly small text and nearly 300 pages which could have been extended.  Still a great opener.  8/10.

 

“No One Goes to Halfway There” is next from the pen of Kate Orman and with that name as writer you already know you’re in for a good time.  Orman shakes things up immediately by playing with the format of the short story, a decent amount of the prose is dedicated to several logs of Theresa Forrester, the first of many Forrester explorers, this time a shuttle pilot.  The setting, Halfway There, is bleak and essentially a metaphor for losing all of one’s prospects and as is the case of many Forresters, Theresa’s story is not a happy one.  Orman’s effort is essentially a Greek Tragedy where we start with Theresa happy and content with her lot and ending in a very heavy short story.  While the switching of the format works for the most part, by the end it does become a touch too repetitive and feels like it might be taking up just a little too much of the word count, but it does what it means to, so it doesn’t hinder things too much.  It’s a short story that perhaps should have been spun into a novella or even a full length novel and it would be perfect.  8/10.

 

The genre of the collection then changes to a sci-fi western with “Shopping for Eternity” by Gus Smith which is contender for one of the best installments in Decalog 4: ReGenerations.  This one is the rise and fall of Jon Forrester who is a conman, think Sabalom Glitz mixed with every snake oil salesman you’ve ever known.  There isn’t quite a sense of conman with a heart of gold, but his perspective immediately endears him to the audience.  The setting is New Zion and when Jon arrives he ends up entangled in the religious mess where he is basically a priest and eventually Messianic figure which he just wants to get away from the settlement to move his con on.  There are people there he does have a connection to, making it all the more tragic when he is dragged back and brought in for another tragedy, the story ending with his execution in a religious fervor.  Throughout this story you really see Jon grow as a person and die in a state of almost contentment, despite knowing he is coming write to his death.  10/10.

 

Ben Jeapes’ “Heritage” is perhaps the biggest step down thus far, though still being a good story.  Jeapes’ style is heavy on exposition and putting in two Forrester’s makes it become slightly confusing as to who is who and what is what.  The title is a clue as Jeapes explores what it means to be a Forrester as one of the characters featured is a pirate while the other is in charge of keeping sleepers on a spaceship alive.  This is a classic story about family having to turn on each other when the cards come down, again fulfilling the theme of Decalog 4: ReGenerations of family tragedy.  The confusion comes in as the two Forrester’s featured aren’t quite distinct enough from one another to feel like their own characters.  As it stands it’s still fun to read and a satisfying experience but it feels slightly like there is a running out of steam in the collection as a lot of the Forrester family have found themselves in similar situations.  6/10.

 

The first misstep is “Burning Bright” by Liz Holliday, one of the many first time writers (at least for Doctor Who and Doctor Who adjacent stories) featured in this collection, and perhaps the weakest of the stories in Decalog 4: ReGenerations thus far.  The title is a reference to William Blake’s “The Tyger” and it’s not exactly obvious why this allusion is used, possibly because that’s just a thing that stories by Virgin Publishing generally are, because this isn’t a story which has any sort of plot hook.  This is a story which just limps along before a satisfactorily tragic ending.  Holliday’s prose is at least readable, something that comes from her several previous short stories for various science fiction publications, but it almost feels like an outlier of something that wasn’t meant for a collection like this but adapted into a collection like this.  4/10.

 

“C₉H₁₃NO₃” is a chemical formula most recognized as the formula for adrenaline and the title of Peter Anghelides’ story for Decalog 4: ReGenerations.  “C₉H₁₃NO₃” is actually quite a rush from start to finish with Anghelides’ style being really well suited to a short story format while his novels (at least the ones I have read) have the tendency to be feeling really thin.  There is a fairly standard short story here, but it is helped by the experimental format.  Anghelides writes this installment in a second person viewpoint, a viewpoint that is rarely used because it means that the narrator is saying what ‘you’ are doing.  This could have been an issue, making it feel like a bad Choose Your Own Adventure short story, but Anghelides, while having a confusing narrative which brings it down, does employ the style really well.  It makes you have a connection to the Forrester as the reader is in their shoes even if the style takes a bit of getting used to nor will it be for everyone, but it shakes things up enough and makes it such an intriguing read with a brilliant ending.  6/10.

 

The formula of introducing a Forrester, using some time to getting to know them, them getting killed is essentially what runs through Decalog 4: Regenerations.  “Approximate Time of Death” by Richard Salter is the weakest example, it’s almost another murder mystery but what it tries to do was done better in this collection with “Second Chances”.  The Forrester characters are also the most bland versions.  Yes, they all have essentially been explorers or working for the military/a space force in some way, but George and Mark are really bland.  Honestly, this is one that doesn’t stick in the mind at all after it’s done, it just goes right past.  3/10.

 

“Secret of the Black Planet” by Lance Parkin picks everything back up to lead the collection towards a genuinely satisfying conclusion.  This is also the one Forrester who has a different life story, this time being an actor whose starring in a remake of a film only a few years old.  There’s a decent amount of commentary from Parkin about Hollywood’s tendency to only do remakes and adaptations, something that has only gotten worse since this short story was published.  Kent and Troy Forrester also have this brilliant sibling dynamic throughout the short story which is short but packs so much character into its lower page count through Lance Parkin’s beautiful prose.  It’s like Parkin knew what the formula was going to be, hated it, and decided to do away with it, the story even ending without the typical death of a Forrester.  It’s a story with an almost happy ending and just grabs the reader from the start and doesn’t let go until it’s all over.  10/10.

 

Paul Leonard continues the streak with “Rescue Mission” which concerns well, a rescue mission.  Leonard writes the story in a pulp fiction style in both the plot, setting, and the characters.  The plot is simple, the setting is intentionally every science fiction spaceship that you’re expecting, and the characters are intentionally all one-note.  The formula is back which does bring it down slightly just because of how fatigued it is at the end, but it being put in the style of a 1930s pulp magazine helps even when you realize that the substance isn’t quite there.  Leonard does avoid his usual inability to finish a plot cohesively and coherently, something that is rare from him, especially when this was published.   Abe and Callie especially are great, fitting the style of close Forrester’s that has been throughout the collection, and honestly they’re up there with ones who could have a whole novel written about their exploits.  7/10.

 

Decalog 4: ReGenerations closes with editors Andy Lane and Justin Richards writing “Dependence Day,” a sequel to So Vile a Sin exploring Leabie and Thandiwe Forrester’s relationship as mother and daughter, as well as some aspects of the fallout from Roz Forrester’s death.  There are essentially two plots here and the big thing is that this should have been two stories, one for Leabie and one for Thandiwe, with Leabie’s opening the collection and Thandiwe’s closing it.  Before each story there’s an extract from the fictional From the Gutter to the Stars: A History of the Forrester Family and it’s author, Tranlis Difarallio is the villain for this story wishing to see Thandiwe dead after Leabie’s untimely death.  We see the death of Leabie here and it is great, but something I won’t spoil as it’s something that reveals a lot on her character.  Thandiwe also has some brilliant moments but the problem is that this should be a total bookend and two stories and not just the one.  Lane and Richards’ styles do mesh fairly well together and end up giving us a full picture of Leabie and Thandiwe, but there are issues.  8/10.

 

Overall, Decalog 4: ReGenerations while being a bit of a mixed bag and a short story collection that adheres almost too closely to its formula, is definitely worth the time and money spent in tracking down a copy.  It shows once again that Virgin Publishing has what it takes to continue beyond the Doctor Who license, but sadly the final Decalog would be basically 10 completely unrelated science fiction stories and not following up the interesting characters featured here.  It also is essentially a case of the whole being more than the sum of its parts.  7/10.