Conspiracies

Conspiracies
by F. Paul Wilson
Recommended Ages: 14+

In The Tomb, Repairman Jack saved New York from a cargo ship full of monsters out of mankind's darkest, oldest nightmare. In the sequel, Legacies, he helped his client figure out why a bunch of Saudi-oil-backed mercenaries were willing to kill for a secret hidden in her late father's brownstone. By the time I came to Book 3 in this sixteen-book series, I didn't know whether to expect a straight mystery-thriller or a novel of fantasy and horror. The answer turned out to be Yes.

Jack is still trying to live life his way—which means being nonexistent in the eyes of the System. No criminal record. No tax filings. No social security number. Fake identities only. The rapid pace of technology both helps and hinders him in this quest. Email and voicemail are easier to deal with than having to check the answering machine in a dummy office. Credit cards, paid off promptly though in the name of dead children, make it easier to go unnoticed as he buys supplies for his problem-fixing business. On the other hand, government databases make it harder to get away with all this victimless identity theft. It's hard for a hands-on kind of guy to keep up with the fast-changing world, especially when (going by the books' publication dates) last summer was sixteen years ago. It's hard to stay committed to a risky, often violent line of work when there's a beautiful woman worrying about you and a sweet little girl counting on you. And that's not even bringing up Jack's Dad, who wants him to move down to Florida and get a real job.

Meanwhile, he has things to do. Jack works two cases simultaneously in this installment. One of his clients wants help stopping his sister being beaten up by her husband. That's simple enough. Jack only needs to confirm for himself that the abuse is really happening, then send the jerk a message. But even though Jack has no intention of killing his client's brother-in-law, this simple, straightforward case turns into sheer, bloody murder.

But surely, his other case will be a harmless piece of cake. Right? The client's wife has been missing for a few days. She's supposed to deliver the keynote address at a conference of conspiracy theorists. She claims to have discovered a common thread that unifies all the different theories, ranging from apocalyptic religious leanings to UFOs, black helicopters, and mind-control experiments. And now she has contacted her husband through the television set, claiming that Repairman Jack is the only one who can find her. What's up with that?

What's up is another encounter with beings from another reality. An evil mastermind who plans to use the energy of a hotel full of "sensitives" (namely, the conspiracy theorists) to open up a portal to the Otherness. A shape-changing capuchin monkey who speaks fluent English. A pair of identical, inhumanly strong "men in black" who definitely aren't good guys, even though they're working against the bad guy. An outbreak of mutant babies, an epidemic of epic nightmares, a gruesome murder, and a machine that materializes out of thin air, needing only to be assembled in order to accomplish the will of a nameless force that does not mean well toward mankind.

In case you had any doubt (and I, for one, did), the Repairman Jack series really is about a regular guy who collects antiques, hides from officialdom, and earns a living fixing problems that call for such tools as a hollow-tipped bullets and a sockful of buckshot. But his real job, whether he realizes it or not, is saving the world from eldritch horrors that serve forgotten gods, and from machines that shoot beams of pure evil. He does it in an atmosphere that goes from zero to creepy in six pages, and that sustains a crescendo of agonizing tension until almost the last page.

Needed comic relief comes in the form of Jack's friend Abe, whose Yiddish-inflected wisdom is at odds with his slovenly ways and his hilarious inability to remember the acronym SESOUP. Nevertheless, it is a conversation between Jack and Abe that triggered the only twinge of disappointment I found in this book. Although this series comes recommended by Dean Koontz (among others), there is no confusing the worldview of Jack and Abe with that of Odd Thomas. When these characters, with (I suspect) the author's concurrence, lumps all religions together with conspiracy theories and reduces them to a self-therapeutic instinct to create order out of a meaningless world, their smugly simplistic sermonizing lowers them in my esteem. It sounds more like the mentality of servants of chaos whom Jack battles in this book.

I wonder how much his outlook will grow and mature after this. He has plenty of time to work on it, with another thirteen novels coming after this, plus a collection of short stories and several prequels. The next book in canon order is All the Rage, and in spite of my reservation about Repairman Jack's worldview, I have it on request at the library. Stay tuned!

Legacies

Legacies
by F. Paul Wilson
Recommended Ages: 14+

Jack, last name withheld, lives off the grid in New York City. He has no Social Security Number. He pays no income taxes. All his IDs are fake. As far as officialdom is concerned, he doesn't exist. And that's the way he likes it. "Repairman Jack," as he is professionally known, fixes problems for a living. When people come to his website looking for someone to fix their broken appliances, he ignores them. When they need help with a trickier problem, he chooses whether to get back to them or not. He can afford to be picky. His fee is very high. But he's a tough, resourceful guy who knows how to stay unnoticed, how to follow and not be spotted, how to move and not be followed, how to find out what's really going on, and then how to deal with it. He's not a bad guy. But he's no stranger to deadly force either. If you mess with him... look out.

In this second of (so far) sixteen Repairman Jack novels, Jack works three cases for two clients. The easy job is catching the junkie who stole a truckload of donated Christmas toys from a clinic for HIV-positive children. The middling job is helping an Ecuadorian immigrant recover money a client cheated out of his office-cleaning business. Then there's the hard job. The first two wrap up simply enough. Weighted gloves, a Santa suit, and a couple other risky tricks do for the toy thief. A real estate scam turns the tables on the other bad guy. But what about Case No. 3? What is Jack to do about a client who has just inherited her father's house, and who would rather burn it down than sell it to her half-brother? Why has everyone else this lady hired to help her been murdered? Who is providing her brother the financial backing to offer millions for the house, and why do they want it badly enough to kill for it? And most mysterious of all, why haven't they tried to kill the woman herself?

Dr. Alicia Clayton is a troubled woman. The thought of having anything to do with her father's house disgusts her. The idea of setting foot in it positively terrifies her. Her half-brother Thomas has some kind of hold over her, something she has never discussed with anyone. Thomas's associates—including a Saudi diplomat and his team of American mercenaries—seem desperate to find something hidden in the house. And a mysterious Japanese agent is shadowing everybody involved, including Jack, with an agenda of his own.

In The Tomb, author Wilson launched his series with a terrifying novel about a family curse and a monster out of the darkest, most sensibly forbidden sect in Hinduism. The impression that this would continue to be a series about a hitman-with-a-heart-of-gold who specializes in slaying monsters is not entirely accurate. While there are monsters in this novel, they are technically of the human kind. Monsters who victimize children in the cruelest way. Monsters who feel justified in murdering countless innocent people to achieve their aims. Monsters so dangerous that good people hardly have a chance against them—unless they start to become monsters themselves.

This isn't so much a fantasy-horror novel as a mystery-thriller with a technological MacGuffin. The thing everybody is after turns out, in the end, to have some thought-provoking implications, especially in light of Dr. Clayton's inner struggles. But the wonders Jack works are feats not of wizardry but of survival skill and tactical expertise. The powers of evil arrayed against him are not based on magic or mad science or arcane religion, but simple old-fashioned guns, dollars, and personal frailty. And though Jack can be as scary and ruthless as any of them, it is his sense of honor, courage, quick thinking, and basic decency that make the most difference.

Based on these first two books, the picture of what we can expect in further Repairman Jack novels comes into clearer focus. Besides confounding mysteries, nerve-wracking tension, violent action (not for the squeamish), we can also expect variety. Anything could come next, from a tale of industrial espionage to a bloodcurdling encounter with eldritch demons. The one thing you can expect is that unique something that comes in the package with a sleuth who operates outside the law: invisible and loving it. Book 3 in the series is titled Conspiracies.

Besides the sixteen Repairman Jack novels, F. Paul Wilson has also published two "Repairman Jack: The Early Years" prequels, three "Young Repairman Jack" books, a volume of Repairman Jack short stories, a six-book "Adversary Cycle" (which, mysteriously, includes two of the Repairman Jack novels), a science fiction trilogy, and lots of other novels, novellas, and short story collections. He has authored or co-authored at least a couple vampire novels, including one called Midnight Mass; a whimsical children's story titled The Christmas Thingy; and the new Nocturna series for young adults, beginning with Definitely Not Kansas.

55. Ascension Hymn

Disciples, why gaze up in awe?
He who was taken from your sight
Will us and others heavenward draw
Till He returns in clouds of light.

God's Son from heaven came to mend
The schism twixt His heart and ours;
The Son of Man must now ascend
To be enthroned above all powers.

In Him humanity is raised
To fill all things eternally;
The Godhead who alone is praised
Thus graces man with dignity.

He took a Servant's form and work,
Of sin and death to make an end.
Since cross and death He did not shirk,
Now every knee to Him shall bend.

A little while, and we will see
The Lamb once slain who lives again,
Returning whence He gloriously
Was taken from the sight of men.

O for that awful, wondrous day
When every heart will be revealed!
Till then, dear Christians, know the way
To find your Savior and be healed.

Our Christ dwells in no distant sphere,
Confined in some celestial space;
For God's right hand is ever near,
Unseen yet present with our race.

Behold the marks whereby He now
Is pleased to visit us with grace:
Through word and sacrament, His vow
Assures us He is in this place.

Amen, we cry: come quickly, Lord!
Come where we gather in Your name;
Come where Your life is given, poured;
Come live within us through the same.

Amen, we cry, and thrice Amen!
Like leavened dough, like branches spliced,
We live with Him who comes again,
The never gone, returning Christ.

To Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
One God from whom all goods descend,
We raise, with all the heavenly host,
A fume of worship without end.

Side Jobs

Side Jobs: Stories from the Dresden Files
by Jim Butcher
Recommended Ages: 14+

Here is a collection of eleven stories, ranging from very short up to novelette length, supplementing the novels of the Dresden Files. One was written before Storm Front, the very first Dresden novel, when Harry was still an apprentice detective and Jim Butcher was still learning to write. Another was suggested by his publisher as a promotional gimmick for one of his earlier books. One was written for this collection. And the rest were originally published in anthologies with stories by other authors, organized around themes like weddings and honeymoons, mead and beer, birthday mayhem, comedy, and romance. Also included is the novella Backup, originally published as a standalone title.

Here's what you want to know about these stories in general: Their writing was spread out over most of the years Butcher has been working on the Dresden Files. They fill cracks in the canon between the Dresden novels, and blanks in the background of Harry and his friends. They spotlight a rich variety of themes, tones, and secondary characters. They cover a range of moods between deep cold terror and urgent panicky thrills, between laughter and tragedy, between light detective jobs with a side of magic and crises that shake the fabric of creation. Two of them are told from the point of view of characters other than Harry, while he himself remains in the background. And yet all of them are charged with the unmistakable energy of fun that we have come to associate with a certain wisecracking, tough-as-nails wizard.

And now for the stories themselves! "A Restoration of Faith" is the first Dresden adventure ever written. It features a vanilla missing-persons case that quickly swirls into nuttiness. First the runaway kid doesn't want to come home. Then her parents try to get out of paying the detectives they hired by accusing Dresden and his partner of kidnapping. The involvement of a bridge troll is just the magical cherry on top. Though the story oversells its emotional impact, it has the added value of introducing Dresden to police officer Karrin Murphy, who goes on to be his most reliable colleague in the long run. Skip ahead to the end of the book, where "Aftermath" presents a case where Murphy takes the lead, after Dresden's apparent death and her own suspension from the police force in Changes. By that point, it is clear to everyone that she's the first person to call if you can't get Harry. But her hair-raising case, involving members of the nefarious Fomor—amphibious people who shoot acid-tipped spines at their victims—proves in frenzied, violent action that an ordinary mortal on her own has very little chance against magical nasties. Carrying on without Dresden means arming for bear, taking the bad guys by surprise, and hitting them fast, hard, and with exceptional cleverness and skill. But even that wouldn't be enough without some backup from a young werewolf named Will, whose pregnant wife is one of many "specials" the Fomor have abducted for some sinister purpose.

Will and Georgia are also involved in the story "Something Borrowed," in which an evil faerie named Jenny Greenteeth tries to turn their wedding day into a marriage of horror and death. The honeymoon-themed story "Heorot" also confronts Dresden with a client whose newlywed wife is missing. This time, Dresden partners with Ms. Gard, the literal Valkyrie who works for "Gentleman" John Marcone, to solve a case that also involves a stolen keg of mead—the very thing to help a mythological monster get in the mood for love. Yuck! Harry's bartender friend Mac, who brings him on board for this case, needs his help again in "Last Call." This time a batch of Mac's craft beer has been magically tampered with. The resulting mayhem puts several people in the hospital, including Mac; and more of it is about to turn a Chicago Bulls game into a deadly riot.

Humor predominates in "Vignette," a slender story featuring Harry and his lab assistant, Bob the Skull. We get a more substantial look at the lighter side of the Dresden Files in "Day Off," in which Harry just wants to spend a bit of rare free time getting ready for a hot date. Instead, he has to deal with terrorist threats from a lame, would-be dark lord whom he calls Darth Wannabe, plus a love spell that brings out the animal in a couple of his werewolf friends, plus an apprentice whose potions practice has reached the stage of blowing up Harry's lab.

In "It's My Birthday Too," Harry wants to give a present to his half-brother, the White Court vampire Thomas Raith. Delivering the package on time means crashing a vampire-themed cosplay party at a big suburban mall. Luckily, he's there when a group of Black Court vampires decide to turn the game into something terrifyingly real. Thomas returns the favor in "Backup," when he saves Harry from a case that could destroy the world. His brotherly assistance goes unappreciated, because neither Harry nor the rest of the world can ever know about the secret war in which Thomas is engaged—an ages-long war to guard the mortal world against evil beings who need only be remembered, or believed in, to get in.

"Love Hurts" is a Dresden-and-Murphy adventure that climaxes at the Tunnel of Terror at the Illinois State Fair. Strangely this, rather than the Tunnel of Love, proves to be Ground Zero of an outbreak of mind-altering magic that causes each pair of its victims to fall passionately in love. Almost as bad as the fact that some of these victims have been driven to insanity, and even suicide, is the heartache that Harry and Karrin will experience when they realize that they must destroy their one chance to be happy together. And finally there's "The Warrior," in which Harry's friend Michael Carpenter, Fist of God emeritus, is dragged out of retirement by the abduction of one of his kids. The culprit is a rogue priest who knows about the two angelic swords that Harry holds for safekeeping. He believes Harry is a force for evil, deliberately preventing these weapons of goodness from being used. But the steps Father Douglas is prepared to take to right this wrong shows that he has gotten some of his notions of good and evil turned around. This case hits Harry with a moral dilemma—and I don't just mean the choice between safeguarding the swords and saving Michael's child. It culminates with an interesting chat between Harry and an archangel about the age-old question: Why does a good God let bad things happen?

I haven't described these stories in the order in which they appear. And I'm afraid this still isn't an exhaustive collection of short stories based on the Dresden Files. I know of at least a few more stories that are out there, perhaps waiting to be collected in another volume. Each of these stories gives instant satisfaction to friends of Harry Dresden who have read the series at least up to Changes. They bring Harry and all your favorite secondary characters up against a variety of threats; and while each helping is only snack-sized, you'll recognize all the flavors of the full meal deal.

If this metaphor suggests that I'm thinking of sinking my teeth into something, you might also like to know that the audiobook edition is ably narrated by James Marsters, who played the vampire Spike on TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As one might expect of an actor whose range also includes Superman villains and bisexual Time Lords, he knows how to put the chill into villains' voices, innocence into the voice of a child, sensuality into that of a seductive female, grim endurance into characters like Thomas, grit and charm into ones like Harry and Murphy. Jim Butcher is lucky to have a talent like that reading his stuff. But he's probably too busy launching the latest book of the Dresden Files to think about it. Skin Game was officially released today. I doubt it will be long before I sink my claws into it.

Seeds of Rebellion

Seeds of Rebellion
by Brandon Mull
Recommended Ages: 12+

After reading the first book in the Beyonders trilogy, I decided to drop everything and go to the library to fetch Book 2. This turned into a whirlwind tour of five (5) library branches, after which I came home with two armloads of books to read. Happily, I was able to get my hands on this, the middle book of the trilogy, and read it with an exquisitely tuned balance between relish and haste. And since I already have Book 3 in hand, my only regret will shortly be that it's over too soon.

But first things first. In A World Without Heroes, we met Jason and Rachel, two thirteenish American kids who get swept into a magical world where they are the only thing standing between an evil wizard emperor and absolute power. Their attempt to unmake Maldor with a certain word of power proved a complete failure. The whole quest was a setup, designed by Maldor to waste his enemies' time while he moved forward with his plans for conquest. Plus, a spy named Ferrin, having betrayed both sides, sent Jason back to Earth before he could even warn the resistance about this.

Just imagine Jason's difficulty readjusting to normal life. Suddenly playing baseball, working at the zoo, and having fun with his friends don't seem to matter so much. All he can think about is how Rachel is still back in Lyrian, possibly in great danger. Their friends don't know whether he's dead or being tortured in Maldor's dungeon. As along as they keep trying to kill Maldor with that Word, they're wasting time that their world can ill afford. Desperate to find a way back, Jason finally tries his previous route: down the throat of a hippo. And what do you know? It works!

After that, however, things get tricky. While Rachel becomes an adept at using Edomic, the language of creation, to work feats of magic, Jason merely becomes the world's most wanted fugitive. Things come after him that he never guessed existed, even after his first visit to Lyrian. It's a big land, full of many wonders, including wizard-born races—both friendly and deadly. There are these shadowy creatures called torivors, or lurkers, who can move with incredible speed, give people horrible nightmares, and put a hurt on them if they try to fight back. There are these people who become dwarves at dawn, and giants at sunset. There is a race with a lifespan of about two years, giving new meaning to the phrase "live fast." As for the "die hard" bit, that describes the forsaken kingdom, whose entire population has become the walking dead, thanks to an infestation of blood-craving worms. These "worm zombies" are further divided into the mindless dead, the hungry dead, and the reasoning dead—just let that shudder roll around inside you for a while. And that's all besides people who live life after life and grow back from a seed when they die; spies who can pluck parts off their bodies and stick them on again, sometimes sneaking an eye or an ear onto someone else; a giant mutated creature who lives in the ruins of a sunken city; and a mountain pass where the wind shrieks with a deafening voice, hurling travelers to their death.

So whatever Jason and Rachel have to do this time, it isn't going to be easy. They will have to run from their enemies night and day, taxing themselves to the edge of oblivion. They and their friends will fight both big battles and solitary duels. They will face the music at a political gathering whose decision may decide the fate of the world. They have to travel across an entire continent full of enemy armies, to take counsel from an oracle who may well declare their cause hopeless. They have to convince the remaining free peoples of Lyrian to join forces in an active rebellion, when even defending their own lands already seems hopeless enough. Joined by a smuggler, a musician, a princess, a spy, a blind hero, and other strange but valiant characters, Rachel and Jason are not even sure they have anything to offer in this fight. Their best chance may be to weather the storm and try to find a way home. Or maybe the world of Lyrian's only shot at defeating Maldor depends on them.

This is unmistakably the second book of a trilogy. As such, it should come as no surprise when it mainly serves as a bridge between the beginning and the end of the story. But it's a very eventful bridge, fraught with terrible and wonderful scenery, fascinating new races, exciting feats of magic and battle (sometimes both at the same time), passages of gut-clenching tension, charming patter, and ever deepening insight into the hearts of already established characters. The end of the book foreshadows a fateful double quest in Book 3, Chasing the Prophecy.

54. Commemoration Hymn

In Your name, Christ, we honor
Those servants, brave and true,
Who bore their nation's banner,
A righteous cause in view.
Protect what they defended
By faithful sacrifice,
And let them be commended
To peace and Paradise.

As You, from heaven mustered,
Were geared in manly birth,
By hardship never flustered
While garrisoned on earth,
They answered when their nation
Called them from town and field,
Trained hard, and stood their station,
Their people's pride and shield.

Your death in this world founded
A kingdom not of this;
Your rising shout resounded
In realms of blood-bought bliss.
Though lesser foes contested
These men of honor pure,
By grace let them be rested
Behind your bulwark sure.

53. A Hymn in the Hour of Temptation

Christ, who was tempted as are we,
Yet who remains unstained by sin,
Our weakness view with sympathy;
Redeem us from the foe within!

Our self-approving pride enmesh
In cords of mercy; by Your rod
Subdue our willful, craven flesh;
Cast down our soul's devouring god!

Of sin and righteousness convict,
Yes, crush our stubborn hearts of stone;
From lusts and pleasures that addict
Free us, who hope in You alone.

Take out each day that stony heart,
And give us living flesh instead;
As for our blood's pale, poisoned part,
Infuse that which for us You shed.

Now sin and righteousness are sure:
The one because of unbelief;
The other since, to make us pure,
You bore our cross and came to grief.

Of judgment too the Spirit cries,
For fully judged is this world's lord;
With You sin's title o'er us dies,
With You we rise, revived, restored.

Lord, since You bore and gave so much
To save us from the tempter's power,
Brace us to bear the scourge's touch,
The cultured sneer, the trying hour.

Brace us indeed, nor ever leave
Us helpless, hopeless, or alone.
Be near us; help us to believe,
Till Your bright vision greets our own.