Archived Book Reviews

Acts of the Apostles
 By John Sundman
 Rosalita Associates
Greenwood Avenue, Tisbury MA 02568
192975213X $15.00 www.wetmachine.com

 John Sundman’s techno-thrill-ride Acts of the Apostles is a novel as intriguing as it is strange. In this piece of fiction, Sundman explores the question posed: how will we deal with the “subtle problem of reconciling freedom with technology?” Sundman spins a yarn reminiscent of Peretti’s style, only in this drama the forces are not of spirit, but of flesh and blood, silicon and carbon.

Central character Nick Aubrey faces extinction in the Valley of Silicon. His wife has left him. He teeters on the verge of bankruptcy. And Nick’s position at Digital Microsystems will soon be cancelled. An opportunity for redemption comes in the form of Monty Meekman, a mysterious megalomaniac who has accumulated billions through his connections and advances in the world of technology. Meekman is known for his incredible successes, the loyalty of his inner circle and for the untimely demises of those who fail him. Like Lucifer tempting Christ, Meekman takes Nick to the ledge of a mountain overlooking the night lights of the Silicon Valley, Meekman’s own world. Meekman stretches his arms and lovingly calls it his kingdom. From this vantage point, Meekman offers Nick a contract that will ensure he has all the things he could materially want. He will have enough money to save himself, to save his struggling ex-wife, and a job that allows him to focus on the work he loves. All he has to do is sign with Monty. Nick rejects it. The strangeness has begun.

That same night, Nick boards a red-eye flight to Boston. While flying over middle America, a hysterical man on the flight mistakes Nick for someone else. This man then gives a bizarre lecture about the nature of Gulf War Syndrome and commits suicide. Nick’s desire for a return to normalcy becomes impossible. He is considered a murder suspect and finds himself framed for illegal activities at his work place. Nick begins digging. Mysteries mount one another. From opposite sides of the metaphorical tunnel, Micro Biology and Nanotechnology dig to discover the connecting point. At the subatomic level, the two are the same thing. They can be wedded to each other with a new potential unmatched in the history of civilization. This technology is a double edged sword. Forerunners of the technology saw it as the needed component for the next stage of human evolution. Nick stumbles across a plan that presents it in a different light: it will be a tool used by one who would make himself a god with it, one who would seduce the minds of all, one who would ultimately become an anti-Christ.

Nick’s findings stir those in powerful seats. Soon, Nick finds himself an object of interest for the CIA and a cyber-militia. Circumstances force Nick to examine the uncomfortable truths of his own past. The past provides the only clues for the present. Nick must find a way to unlock ‘the Beast’ of the Kali computer chip—a chip designed by his own close friend and co-worker who lays comatose as the result of a botched murder attempt.

The fate of the known world rests in one man’s resolve to resist the seductions of technology. Nick must do it to reclaim his own soul from infection. His own veins house the wedded offspring of the human genome and the nanomachines. If Nick fails, then the way is paved for the anti-Christ of the digital age.

A haunting story of potential, Acts of the Apostles is a poignant reminder that potential is a neutral commodity—not intrinsically good or evil. The surprise ending is sure to leave readers contemplating the events that are daily unfolding about them.

Cheap Complex Devices
 By John Sundman
 Rosalita Associates
Greenwood Avenue, Tisbury MA 02568
192975230X $11.00 www.wetmachine.com

 ‘Edited’ by John Sundman, Cheap Complex Devices is a small thing, exactly 108.000001 pages in length. This stream-of-consciousness story dodges and weaves through a series of narrative tangents. Looping themes and questions provide cohesion. Taken as a whole, Cheap Complex Devices acts as a critique on social injustice and as a satire on the pretentiousness of academic AI.

Enna boubi…it is cold. I am a swarm of bees. Bees act as one. No, I am one. Enna boubi. The child starves to death. I am excited, about to explode, explode all over… Welcome to page 66.6; roughly 63.451 pages past pi. Moloch—the vileness of what it means to be human—BEWARE, it animates those around us. In us. In you. Enna boubi. I am a swarm of bees. No, I am a bee—a drone. A Shaker Village perhaps. They did not die out because of abstinence.

In the borderlands, somewhere between Ethiopia and Sudan, she stands on the edge of the mountains. The young woman discovers an ancient monastery. She sees the true text of St. Mark. In the village below, a group of separatists are sending up a weather balloon to blow the satellites out of the sky.

 What if Christ returned as a honeybee? RESET. A floating point processor ‘floats’ based on number order and magnitude. What if the return came in the form of a bee, or of a girl? In the woods a woman once told me he would return in 1984. How old would he be? Why he? How old would she be? RESET. Fertilizer can be used to feed the soil and to make bombs. RETURN. He never left, and he’s about to get pissed off. Enna boubi. It is cold. It is very, very cold.

 Social injustice. The unreliability of self. Spirituality. The corruption of establishments. The question of what it really means to be patriotic. Strange. Very strange. Cheap Complex Devices is a puzzle—tricky, teasing, seemingly impossible. But ahh, wait! There is the completed picture: it is beautiful, but oh, it is cold.

The Rhymer and the Ravens: The Book of Fate
By Jodie Forrest
Seven Paws Press
POB 2345 Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2345
0964911302·$13.95·www.sevenpawspress.com

Jodie Forrest’s historical fantasy The Rhymer and the Ravens is a story every bit as rich and unpredictable as the real world. Tomas the Rhymer is half-Welsh, half-Norse—a man with no true home or people. When Tomas accepts the gift of prophecy from a mysterious woman, he discovers that his new ability is twined with the curse of honesty. Tomas cannot lie. He soon finds himself trapped in a world of competing gods, none of whom he can adequately serve. To reclaim his fate from those who would manipulate him, Tomas is forced to join the god of deception. As twisted machinations unfold about Tomas, the worlds of gods and humans are irrevocably changed.

The Elves Prophecy: The Book of Being
By Jodie Forrest
Seven Paws Press
POB 2345 Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2345
0964911310·$16.95·www.sevenpawspress.com

Forrest weaves a beautiful tapestry of characters in this continuation of Tomas the Rhymer’s story. It is the year 878 AD, and Moira, Queen of the Welsh Elves, is pregnant with twins Tomas fathered. In Elfland, some speculate that Moira carries the children of a much disputed prophecy. Division over the prophecy spurs the leaders of the Nine Realms into a violent struggle for power. The Elf Lords Rhys and Finvara lead the resistance that would eliminate the unborn children and the children’s claim to power in Elfland. Also—unknown to all others—the demi-god Loki watches and waits preparing plans of his own.

In addition to the wonderful cast of returning characters, The Elves Prophecy presents an enigmatic Lord of the Air named Nissyen, and two deliciously hateful antagonists: Daniel the Priest and Isolde the dusky Queen of the Sidhe. Despite a slow start cluttered by description, Forrest builds The Elves Prophecy to a raging climax that is sure to both surprise and please.

The Bridge: The Book of Necessity
By Jodie Forrest
Seven Paws Press
POB 2345 Chapel Hill, NC 27515-2345
0964911329·$16.95·www.sevenpawspress.com

The Bridge, Forrest’s third and final installation in the story of Tomas the Rhymer, presents a game of intrigue, a game that will determine who controls the pivot-world Midgard (earth). Elfland sickens as it continues to drift from Midgard. The elves grow weaker. On earth, Loki assumes the name and identity of Lucifer. While Loki seeks to sever all ties between Midgard and the other eight realms, Tomas and his allies strive to create a permanent link between the worlds. Owein and Fraine—the twins of the Elves Prophecy—use their unique capabilities to create a bridge that ties Midgard to the other eight realms. This bridge becomes the focal point of conflict. Unable to destroy the bridge, Loki turns to manipulation. The game boils down to a single choice for those who oppose Loki: love or duty? Both bonds cannot be preserved.

A bittersweet novel about choices and perspective, The Bridge brings the story of Tomas to a satisfying end.

Gudrun’s Tapestry
By Joan Schweighardt
Beagle Bay Books
3040 June Meadows Road, Reno, NV 89509
0967959136·$24.95·www.beaglebay.com

Take a hoard of cursed gold, an ancient dwarf, and a beautiful valkyria. Then add a dragon-slayer and his young lover. Now, skew the narrative perspective and add a healthy dose of historical realism. The result: Joan Schweighart’s newest novel Gudrun’s Tapestry, a story that contains all the conventions of mythic-fantasy, but is not bound by them.

Gudrun—a young woman of the Thuet Tribe—grows to womanhood under the perpetual cloud of violence. Huns decimate and dislocate her people. The divided powers of the Roman Empire tax her clan heavily. When her childhood love Sigurd returns from a quest, Gudrun believes her luck has changed. Sigurd brings with him an intriguing tale and bags of riches. This, Gudrun expected. What she did not expect was for Sigurd to return with a mysterious beauty named Brunhild.

Suspicious minds rule the Thuet’s great hall. Events unfold and the truth becomes apparent: the sacred blood-bond has been broken. Infidelity is revealed and a torrent of treachery is released. Gudrun’s younger brother Guthorm—a mute boy who has a psychic link with Gudrun—becomes a pawn. Guthorm’s older brothers force him to eat raw portions of the serpent and the wolf. Under the influence of dark magic, Guthorm does the unthinkable. The fallout irrevocably changes Gudrun.

All things change in the aftermath of the Event. Life will not return to normal. Normal no longer exists. Gudrun must seek a new path for herself. Her ruined family provides inspiration. Gudrun determines that she will avenge the blow that initiated her tribe’s downward spiral. Gudrun embarks alone on a path to confront the warrior-king of the Huns, Atilla.

In Gudrun’s Tapestry, Schweighardt successfully employs a story-telling technique in which Gudrun’s past and present are spun out side by side. Gudrun’s present tells the ‘how’ of the story, while her past reveals the ‘why’. Gudrun’s motives and ingenuity provide a delightful reading of revelations and twists, all while fully capturing the dark essence of the Norse legends that inspired it.

In the Shadow of Dragons
By Kathleen Cunningham Guler
Bardsong Press
POB 775396 Steamboat Springs, CO 80477
096603712X·$25.00·www.bardsongpress.com

In the Shadow of Dragons is a gritty alternative to the misty myths that have surrounded the Camelot tales. The story focuses on the character of Marcus ap Iorwerth an assassin and master of disguises whose sole purpose is gaining and maintaining freedom for the people of Britain. Saxons threaten from the coast; Picts and Irish present danger in the north. The Britons double-cross and scheme among themselves. It is amidst this sea of chaos that Marcus with the aid of his wife Claerwen (a seer) and the druid Myrddin seeks to secure peace and freedom by reclaiming the Macsen Spearhead—a piece of legendary treasure that will give legitimacy to the ruler of England.

Though the character of Marcus is multi-faceted and downright fun, the story is hurt by forced dialogue and a plot that relies too heavily on captures and rescues.