The Ask and the Answer

Perhaps it should be called The Great Questions. This is the second installment in a planned science fiction trilogy titled "Chaos Walking" ( how could I resist?) from Patrick Ness. I ran across this one on a sale cart and, even though I hadn't read the first book in the series, picked it up just because it got so much chatter on the YA listservs. Complex characters, plots and interactions between characters are mixed in with non-stop action on this outpost of human exploration called New World. The native species, the Spackle, have apparently been defeated in a brutal war and now civil war among the settlers has broken out with one man--Mayor Prentiss-- apparently stopping at nothing to become leader. He recognizes the potential threat from the anticipated arrival of new ships with additional settlers, and so it is essential that he get information from Viola, who was the lone survivor of a scout ship that crashed. She has been befriended by Todd, and they are on the run, when Viola is shot and they desperately seek help in the town of New Haven. That's what I was able to surmise about the first installment, The Knife of Never Letting Go. This book takes up as they are captured in New Haven which has already surrendered to the invading army. Todd and Viola are separated and skillfully--and horribly--manipulated by two strong leaders, Prentiss and Mistress Coyle, a former leader of the resistance (aka the Answer)and also a healer by training. The moral issues are complex and one despairs of anything coming right as we alternately take our place in the action from first Todd's and then Viola's perspective. This is one where I would definitely recommend reading the first book before jumping into the second. Although it was a compelling read, you can't help but feel that you've missed a lot. But get busy because the next book is coming out this spring!

Brida

I read all but the last 75 pages or so and I never really cared what happened to any of the characters, so I quit. I have liked other books by Paulo Coelho (e.g., The Alchemist) so I persisted, but something was missing. Set in relatively contemporary time, it seemed promising: a young woman is looking for a way to realize her gifts and find her soulmate; there are magi and witches; it's set in Ireland. Lots of my favorite elements, but just no spark. Ah well. I'm trying not to see my lack of enthusiasm as a character flaw...

Two O'Clock Eastern Wartime

Another really satisfying offering from John Dunning that draws on his considerable expertise in the history of radio in America. His usual blend of detailed setting, well-developed characters and complex plotting made me feel I had indulged in a somewhat higher level of my addiction to mysteries. I love a good story that also makes me feel like I've learned something in the process and this tale set on the New Jersey coast during WWII has revealed a brief period when radio ruled and the best writers and actors wanted to be doing the shows. You get to see how things happen from the inside, the points of view of writers, actors, sound effects people and show producers. Jack Dulaney is trying to help the woman he loves, Holly, find her missing father. At the same time he is finding a new passion and talent for script writing with the support of a reclusvie station owner who dares him to push the limits of network censors who don't want to hear anything controversial or vaguely unpatriotic on the airwaves. In the context of our protagonist's zeal for telling compelling and uncomfortable stories about real people we also get bits of history about various atrocities against "the other"--Kitchener's invention of concentration camps in the Boer Wars, the inhumane treatment of blacks and other soldiers at Florence and Andersonville, the rumored Nazi camps in Europe, and of course the Americans' imprisonment of Japanese American citizens after Pearl Harbor. Murder, conspiracies, romance--it's all here. For other wonderful mysteries by Dunning, that draw on his years as a rare and antiquarian book dealer, check out Booked to Die or The Bookman's Wake.