The Gentlemen’s Hour is the sequel to Don Winslow’s The Dawn Patrol (which I reviewed in yesterday’s posting). Surfer Private Eye, Boone Daniels, gets involved in a murder investigation of a local surfer and an intricate real estate conspiracy. I liked The Gentlemen’s Hour better than The Dawn Patrol because Boone’s involvement in the murder investigation alienates him from his surfer friends and he’s forced to work on his own. Don Winslow ties things up a little too neatly at the end, but once again the result is a satisfying read. For another review of The Gentlemen’s Hour check out Scott Parker’s posting here. GRADE: B+

I pronounced the Private Eye novel dead back in the 1990s. Yet vestiges of the genre still stagger around like zombies here in the 21st Century. Don Winslow’s The Dawn Patrol features Boone Daniels, legendary surfer, who sometimes works as a private investigator to earn the money that allows him to surf almost all the time off the coast of San Diego. Boone finds himself investigating the murder of a stripper. The murder leads to subplots involving arson and human trafficking from Mexico. At times while reading The Dawn Patrol I felt like I was reading a Doc Savage clone. Doc Savage had the “Fabulous Five” helping him out, Boone has his talented buddies in “The Dawn Patrol” helping out in his investigations. Winslow is a little too facile with the storyline, but the result is satisfying. GRADE: B

Once again, Planet Stories has published a great omnibus volume of Robert Silverberg’s work. The three works in this latest volume, The Planet Killers, features three of Silverberg’s short novels published as halves of ACE Doubles. The Plot Against Earth was published in 1959 (with Milton Lesser’s Recruit for Andromeda on the other side). The Planet Killers was published later in 1959 (with Poul Anderson’s We Claim These Stars! on the other side). One of Our Asteriods is Missing was published in 1964 (with A. E. Van Vogt’s The Twisted Men on the other side). Needless to say, the first two short novels are very pulpy. Silverberg was learning his craft. You’ll see a difference (and more maturity) in Silverberg’s One of Our Asteroids is Missing. A sign of things to come. If you’re a fan of Robert Silverberg, you’ll love this volume and Silverberg’s informative introduction. If you’re curious about Silverberg’s early career, The Planet Killers is the perfect place to start.

American Horror Story is creepy, but it isn’t scary. A dysfunctional family moves into a haunted house in Los Angles. Ben Harmon (Dylan McDermott), a psychiatrist whose wife caught him in bed with one of his students, thinks moving his family to his new home will provide a New Start. Harmon’s wife, Vivian (Connie Britton), is dealing with her husband’s infidelity and a miscarriage. Their daughter, Violet (Taissa Farmiga), has “issues” and is cutting herself with her father’s razor blades. Jessica Lange plays the creepy next door neighbor. The former owners of the haunted house died in a murder-suicide situation. The most intriguing character is the housekeeper, Moira. When Ben looks at her, she’s a young woman in a sexy French maid outfit (played by Alex Brenkenridge). Yet when Vivian and Violet see Moira, they see an elderly woman (Frances Conroy). None of these characters is sympathetic so it’s hard to work up much emotion when creepy things happen to them. I’ll watch a couple more episodes to see if the guys behind Nip/Tuck and Glee can entice me to stay with American Horror Story.

I’m probably the last person in North America to see The Lion King, The Musical. It’s been around since 1997. Diane, Patrick, and Katie saw a performance in Toronto about 10 years ago (I opted to go to The World’s Biggest Bookstore instead). But now The Lion King, The Musical arrives in Buffalo as part of our season ticket package at Shea’s Performing Arts Center. I saw the movie version back in 1994 so I thought a stage version would be superfluous. But Julie Taymor’s talent for spectacle turned it into a hit. Tonight we’ll see what the touring company presents. The Lion King, The Musical is here for a whole month so there must be a big market for this kind of production.

Shakespeare in Love finally made it to Blu-ray and after watching it, it’s just as good as I remembered. What an All-Star cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Ben Affleck, Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, Rupert Everett, and Imelda Staunton. Shakespeare in Love tells a fictional story of how Romeo and Juliet was written. Shakespeare, looking for a muse to help him write again, falls in love with Viola de Lesseps, daughter of a wealth merchant who plans to marry his daughter off to Lord Wessex (who needs the money). Viola disguises herself as a man and wins the role of Romeo. Of course, complications ensue. To really appreciate the subtleties of the screenplay, I bought and read Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard’s volume: Shakespeare in Love: A Screenplay. Amazing! If you’re a fan of Shakespeare, this movie and its screenplay will give you joy.

As a diabetic, I’m always on the lookout for low carb food that tastes good. My latest discovery is Fisher Chef’s Natural Raw Peanuts. I found this tasty treat at Wal-Mart. Although this product is marketed as a baking item, it makes a fine snack, too. The raw peanuts aren’t salted or baked in oil. No empty calories or added fat. Fisher has a whole line of unprocessed nuts in the Chef’s line. If you want real flavor check these out. A quart cup of raw peanuts has 5 grams of carbohydrate (2 grams of fiber). That’s 160 calories. Here’s a healthy snack that will satisfy your need for something crunchy. I’ll be trying the other nuts in this product line soon.

A few weeks ago, James Reasoner reviewed Robert Silverberg’s The Longest Way Home on his excellent blog here. I’m a big fan of Robert Silverberg’s work, but somehow The Longest Way Home had slipped under my book radar. I found a copy and read it. A young boy, visiting a royal family (on this planet called “Masters”), wakes up with the estate under attack by the Folk (the worker class). With some grit and luck, the boy manages to escape the massacre. He finds sanctuary in an alien village and then begins his 10,000 mile trek back to his home. I’m assuming this book was marketed as a Young Adult novel. The boy goes through some terrible deprivations. The journey is full of danger and mystery. If you’re in the mood for a survival novel, The Longest Way Home will grip you. For an even more exciting survival novel, I’d also recommend My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It’s a story of a teenage boy who survives for a year alone in the Appalachian mountains. GRADE: B+

Back in 1964, I bought a copy of Swordsmen in the Sky and immediately fell in love with Swords & Sorcery fiction. From the classic Frazetta cover to the interior artwork by Jack Gaughan, the stories in this collection completely captivated me. Later, I would seek out the works of the authors included in this volume: Poul Anderson, Edmond Hamilton, Leigh Brackett, Andre Norton, and Otis Adelbert Kline. Don Wollheim, advanced for his time, devoted almost half of this book to the work of two women writers. Swordsman in the Sky is one of those books I’ll never forget because of the impact it had on me as a youth.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Swordsmen of Lost Terra (1951) by Poul Anderson
The People of the Crater (1947) by Andre Norton
The Moon That Vanished (1948) by Leigh Brackett
A Vision of Venus (1933) by Otis Adelbert Kline
Kaldar, World of Antares (1933) by Edmond Hamilton.