Micro Mention "The Keeper of the East Bluff Light"

Kevin Parham’s “The Keeper of the East Bluff Light” is a neat mystery with some sci-fi elements mixed in there. People are dying on Emerald Island, and somehow the East Bluff Lighthouse is involved—but how?

Like I said in my full review, Parham’s story often feels like several related stories strung together, but his attention to detail in each section of the novel is admirable. There are a lot of uncommon touches that he weaves into the narrative of this mystery that makes it feel genuine. Minus the more science fiction elements, of course, but I love sci-fi, so I’d never harp on that.

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Micro Mention "Chasing the Moon"

“Chasing the Moon” by A. Lee Martinez is a weird one. It’s Lovecraft-like, but it's also far lighter of a story in terms of tone than the usual fare for weird fiction and cosmic fiction. In any case, it has big unfathomable cosmic entities from beyond space and time—and they mainly just want to hang out.

I actually had a conversation with the author about this book on Twitter where I had called this book "Lovecraft-lite," and I didn't mean any harm by that, but it was pointed out that "lite" suggests lesser. I apologized because it wasn't my intention to comment or compare quality levels, one way or another, but just to point out it's lighter in tone. In any case, the precise care for word choice is critical, is what I'm getting at here.

As a book, if you're looking for an entry into this sub-genre but are a little dubious about an overly terrifying book, "Chasing the Moon" would be a good entry point.

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Author's Website: http://aleemartinez.com/

"Keeper of the East Bluff Light," by Kevin Parham--Fiction Review

For today’s review, we’re heading to Emerald Island for a murder mystery involving a lighthouse by Kevin Parham called “Keeper of the East Bluff Light.” 

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

I like the setting of this story since I’m a fan of nautical and seaside stories. Having worked on riverboats myself, while I never worked on ocean-faring vessels, I enjoy stories about sailors. The lighthouse was interesting as well, and I enjoyed the bits about what being a lighthouse keeper entails, especially over generations of time. 

At the end of the narrative, in this story’s legal portion—while not an exhaustively precise take on a criminal court case—it’s still next level sublime. Little touches like knowing about the hearsay rule exceptions show an uncommon level of knowledge and care for authenticity.

In fact, one of Parham’s greatest skills as an author for me is his attention to little details, be they historical, situational, or occupational in nature. At the beginning of the story, he captures that gut-wrenching feeling anyone who has worked on the water knows. It’s when the weather unexpectantly changes, and the whole character of the water transforms in moments. 

Parham has the steeled nerves to tell a story that doesn’t pull punches on characters even though they might be likable. This can be hard to remain objective on—most people aren’t too keen on making their heroes suffer. I do, however, feel that this good storytelling impulse did lead him to make at least one overcorrection, which didn’t make sense to me though. 

What I don’t love about this book:

This story’s focus lacks a center, other than the lighthouse itself, which causes it to feel like a series of short stories tenuously related. Writing a story without a single protagonist is a valid artistic choice, but it means that the non-character elements need to go above and beyond, and I didn’t feel that they did.

Each third of the novel reads like a completely different novel from another genre. That alone would be an ambitious feat to pull off, but it’s hampered here because the cast of characters tends to change with each phase. The characters retained between phases rise and fall in relevance to the story being told at the moment.

There are at least three occasions within this story where my suspension of disbelief snapped, and I didn’t feel that the story logically flowed. To be fair, though, at least one of these was partly due to a miss-read on my part, which I’ll explain further down in the spoiler section.     

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Author's Website: https://kevinjparham.wordpress.com/

***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***

The quick and dirty synopsis:

First, we’re introduced to the erstwhile captain Samuel Biggs who serves as the protagonist for the first third of the story. He’s being informed by the Coast Guard inspector Jones that they are looking into what, if any, involvement the lighthouse Sam keeps had in a recent naval accident. 

"Slaughterhouse-Five," by Kurt Vonnegut--Fiction Review

Today we’re going to talk about “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, the novel that made that man’s career. Sometimes, the hype is real, and while my personal favorite Vonnegut story is “Sirens of Titan,” I felt I should talk about the most well known Vonnegut story first. 

“Slaughterhouse-Five” is a hard story to classify because Vonnegut was one of those literary darlings who didn’t constrain himself to any one mere genre. But since I hate the dreaded catch-all “fiction,” classification let’s give it a shot—“Slaughterhouse-Five” certainly has its share of science fiction elements, with the time travel and whatnot. However, I’d probably have to peg it most accurately as a darkly humorous anti-war novel. 

***The Non-Spoiler part of this review***

What I love about this book:

To steal a descriptor I find fitting that I had read about a character in a novel I’d read recently, Kurt Vonnegut was cheerfully disappointed in the entirety of the human experience. His writing captures that feeling at all times. While typically, I consider myself an optimist or would like to think I make an effort at being an optimist, and let’s face it I’m probably just a deluded pessimist. It’s sometimes fun to read someone’s work, which takes the diametrically opposite outlook on life. That’s why I love Kurt Vonnegut’s work, including this book, he reminds me that no one and nothing should take itself so seriously.

The time and place Vonnegut manages to conjure with his writing specifically when he’s talking about Dresden. He talks about his brief impressions of the city before the firebombing, immediately afterward, and years later. In the section immediately after the bombing, when the POWs are conscripted to sift through the ruins, I was especially disturbed by his description of the hunt for bodies as being the worst Easter Egg hunt ever. It’s that jarring contrast that makes Vonnegut’s writing powerful. 

What I don’t love about this book:

Kurt Vonnegut is often remembered or accused of being pretentious, and it’s a charge that even if you don’t agree with it, you can see the argument for, even in “Slaughterhouse-Five.” There are numerous times where Vonnegut delves into metaphysics in this novel that become eye-crossing tedious to follow. It’s especially likely to happen when he discusses his beloved aliens, the Tralfamadorians, which normally I’m thrilled by the inclusion of space aliens.   

Another thing I’m not a fan of is the numerous and varied characters don’t develop. They are precisely the same people when you meet them as when they leave the scene forever. Part of this, is there are a lot of them, when you have a large cast of named characters it’s hard to give them all the spotlight to grow and change—but nobody does. It makes sense why Billy doesn’t change throughout the book—he’s unstuck in time and experienced all the moments of his life and therefore has nothing to cause him to change or grow. The other characters orbiting Billy, make less sense, though. If I were to hazard a guess, the implicit messaging is all characters are like Billy, they just can’t perceive it as he can, and therefore no one is capable of change. I get it—it’s just not something that resonates with me.   

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***The Spoiler part of this review***

***Ye be warned to turn back now***