C Gockel Writes

Book Review: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

by

The Golem and the Jinni: A Novel (P.S.) Kindle Edition by Helene Wecker (Author)

$2.99 in the US and £3.99 as of December 20, 2021 8AM CST
Click for current price Amazon US, United Kingdom

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay available at Scribd as an eBook and Audiobook

Also for sale on Amazon Canada, Australia and as an Audiobook

The Golem and the Jinni is a chance meeting between mythical beings that takes readers on a dazzling journey through cultures in turn-of-the-century New York.

Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay, brought to life to by a disgraced rabbi who dabbles in dark Kabbalistic magic and dies at sea on the voyage from Poland. Chava is unmoored and adrift as the ship arrives in New York harbor in 1899.

Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert, trapped in an old copper flask, and released in New York City, though still not entirely free

Ahmad and Chava become unlikely friends and soul mates with a mystical connection. Marvelous and compulsively readable, Helene Wecker’s debut novel The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of Yiddish and Middle Eastern literature, historical fiction and magical fable, into a wondrously inventive and unforgettable tale.

It is a beautiful love letter to New York at the turn of the century, and of the people of three faiths whose lives were intermingling there–and the monsters of their faiths set loose on the streets.

It’s a beautiful story of redemption, for monsters and men. I don’t think that I can write as lyrically as Helene Wicker, but I consider this a model of folklore transformed for the modern world, and it has certainly influenced my work. If you love history, theology, and fairy tales, you will love this book.

Book Review: A Tale of Two Cities

by

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

It was the best of times to read A Tale of Two Cities. It was also the worst of times. Reading a novel set during the French Revolution was a little bit too close for comfort during a week when the Capital of the U.S. was invaded. I did lay up unable to sleep one night. The way Revolutionaries used the Guillotine to settle old scores was harrowing, as was the presumed guilt of the accused.

On the other hand, the book was comforting. There have been worse times than these. Also, we do have mechanisms for self-correction that the French did not have. I hope we realign.

On a stylistic level I found reading this book a lot more difficult than I expected. I read a couple of of Dicken’s novels when I was younger: Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, and a Christmas Story. It was a lot harder to fall into the older English than I remembered. Perhaps younger minds are simply more flexible?

Also, I found the book to be a bit over the top in the melodrama department. I found myself scratching my head and wondering if people always spoke in a way that was so … flowery.

I loved the grave robber. (Family legend is that doing a little bit o’ that is what got some of my early ancestors kicked to this continent, so I may be biased.) Dickens treated the character with great sympathy, pointing out that the doctors who used the bodies were lauded, while the grave robbers themselves were despised. There was a lot of social commentary in the book, and despite the melodrama, a lot of good insights into human character and into revolutions.

A Tale of Two Cities was free when I picked it up for my Kindle.

Click for current price: Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay also available at ManyBooks.net in exchange for your email address.

Book Reviews: The Winter Fortress

by

The Winter Fortress: The Epic Mission to Sabotage Hitler's Atomic Bomb Kindle Edition by Neal Bascomb (Author)

The Winter Fortress might have been the best book I read all of 2020 in any genre. The story of the Norwegian sabotage of the Nazi’s heavy water supply, necessary for the Nazi’s attempt to build an atom bomb, was rivetting.

This reads like sci-fi with a love–familial, platonic, and romantic as well. There is plenty of action, the science descriptions are some of the most comprehensible ever, and all of the characters are fleshed out and real.

One of the characters is the Norwegian landscape and winter, particularly the Hardangervidda, the forbidding, isolated plateau that was adjacent to the heavy water facility in Norway that the Nazis seized in their war effort. It was so cold and remote, that in winter, the Nazis were afraid to send patrols into it overnight. The Norwegians used remote cabins to hide out in. Covered in snow for six months out of the year, the Nazis couldn’t even see them from the air.

Most of the Norwegian saboteurs had grown up near the wilds. The descriptions of the type of person it takes to survive the vidda were wonderful. They had skills they’d learned in childhood as part of fun and games–hunting and preparing game, skiing, and building shelters–that were essential for their survival later. I would have perished.

There is a lot of exciting near escapes in this story. One thing that stood out was that no matter how carefully planned an operation was, dumb luck was sometimes what really saved the day. (If I used some of the dumb luck escapes in my fiction, I’d be pilloried for being unrealistic.)

I can’t recommend this one enough. I got this as an audiobook, and listened to this during my morning walks. Despite the sometime 13F / -10C temperatures I wound up walking far more than I intended, just to listen to a little more. (Although the descriptions of the heroes deprivations made those temperatures seem inconsequential, especially with hot chocolate and central heating at the end.

Available at Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay also, as of this posting, available to borrow at Scribd (they have a 30 day free trial, and all of my I Bring the Fire and Archangel Project books are there at the moment too!)

(I got this when it was on sale, but didn’t finish the audiobook until the sale was over. However, you can get it through Scribd, and if you have an audible subscription, it’s still a great deal.)

Spotlight: Warm Bodies

by

Warm Bodies: A Novel (The Warm Bodies Series Book 1) Kindle Edition by Isaac Marion (Author)

Warm Bodies is a paranormal romance with a tall, dark, dashing lead who is quick witted and … no. The lead is pale, and talks in monosyllables. Fortunately, as dull a conversationalist as “R” may be, his mind is alive.

This is another traditionally published book that has come on sale lately. It’s sweet, well worth reading, and definitely a fantasy not sci-fi … the enemy is not zombies in the end.

It’s currently on sale in the US and Canada for $2.99. If you want a feel good Christmas … err … Post Apocalyptic fantasy romance, I highly recommend it. Considering the year we’ve been having, it might be just the thing.

Click for current price: Amazon US, Amazon CA,  Nook, Apple, GooglePlay, Kobo

Book Review Off Leash Freelance Familiars Book 1

by

Off Leash (Freelance Familiars Book 1) Kindle Edition by Daniel Potter (Author)

Another fun book! Off Leash is the story of Thomas Khatt, mild mannered, out-of-work, milquetoast librarian who, after a horrific and magical accident, wakes up looking like his last-namesake.

As if finding himself a cat–specifically a cougar–isn’t challenging enough (he misses his thumbs), he also finds himself highly sought after as a familiar, i.e., slave.

To keep his freedom he needs to fend off a fairy godmother-esque slave trader (familiar trader?), figure out who caused the magical accident, and try to save the most abused of all captive magical beasts.

This is a fun ride. Personally, for me, the show was stolen by Rudy, the pyromaniacal squirrel (if you’ve read Chaos and Fates you may have picked up on my fondness for opinionated squirrels.) Rudy goes from bitter familiar trader to ally–and his efforts to keep Thomas and other “carnies” from accidentally eating him are hilarious.

Off Leash is available at  Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, Australia

Book Review Scythian Dawn Book 1 by P.K. Lentz

by

Well this was bloody fun. I mean that in the literal sense. Scythian Dawn imagines an alternative Earth history where humans are kept in an eternal Dark Age by aliens. Anytime a civilization gets too powerful, it is razed.

The hero of the story is Princess Arixa of Scythia. A Princess who gave up princessy comforts to become the leader of a war band, she encounters friendlier aliens, learns the bad aliens’ plans for the city she abandoned, and sets out not to save just her people but all mankind.

She’s tough and that toughness slips into being a tyrant sometimes, or at least duplicitous. But it fits. She was raised to rule and to fight, she (mostly) doesn’t doubt her victory or death is the right course for humanity.

The book has lots of funny one liners, and believable characters. Her horde is barbaric, and it works because they would be. The contrast of a culture that is distantly bloody (the evil aliens) and the barbarians who are in your face bloody is well done.

If you like shoot em up sci-fi, I think you’ll like this. I read it in a day and bought the next book.

Pick up Scythian Dawn at Amazon US, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany