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This book, by Jim Thompson, is narrated by the main character, Sheriff Nick Corey. Nick has a very large appetite for food and sex, but little for doing "sheriffing". It may seem like he is simple when the book starts out, and this may be the case, but at the same time, as readers soon discover, he is some kind of evil genius.

In the course of the book, Nick murders some people and sets up others to do killing for him. It is hard to be sympathetic to most of the victims, but murder is murder. For the killings he actually did himself, he casts suspicions on others in quite clever ways.

Things seen through Nick's eyes may sometimes seem funny when maybe they really shouldn't. For example, the bank president falling into the privy pit due to something Nick did earlier is hard not to at least smile about.

Near the end of the book, some sort of transformation happens for Nick. Not exactly a good one either and pretty outrageous in a way, but it sort of fits nevertheless.

The book really kept my interest. It is really dark in some ways, but the way Nick narrates it, you may not really notice as you read along. Beyond the murders, the book examines some of the ugly underside of collective humanity as it moves along - notice how Nick manipulates the townspeople when his opponent in the upcoming election seems to be way ahead of him with the voters.

Not for the faint of heart perhaps, but the violence is not described in an overdone manner. The ending may seem a bit unsatisfying until you think about it a bit.

Historical Introduction to Anglo-American Law

This book is by F G Kempin, Jr.

When I was in law school, I found that the history behind many legal principles and procedures that we use today was quite interesting. I was not able to take an actual course in legal history, however. Years later, I happened across this book and decided to give it a try.

The book is OK, but I found it a bit sparse on many topics (even for a nutshell), and the writing was not always very clear. Frankly, my mind would wander while reading, since the book was just not written in a very interesting manner for the most part. Given the history involved, it should be possible to make it more interesting than this I would imagine.

If you are looking for a brief introduction to the subject, I would try to find something else if you can. This one is OK, but hopefully there is something out there a bit better.

The Penultimate Truth

This is a review of The Penultimate Truth by PKD.

Overall, I liked the book. But, there were some things that could have been done better I guess.

The story is set in the aftermath of a nuclear war that started on Mars and then moved to Earth - the West versus the Commies. It seems that the war is fought by robots - called leadies in the book.

Most of the population of Earth was relocated underground just before the war spread to Earth. The people underground work to make robots for what they understand is the continuing war above them. On a regular basis, they get messages via TV from the Protector, "Talbot Yancy", meant to keep up their morale.

Not to give too much away, but the war has actually ended years before the book opens, and the surface is covered in trees, and the land is divided up into estates for an elite who get the robots made by the people underground as servants. And, Talbot Yancy is actually a robot, but a special one.

There are several major characters and plot lines that converge here and there. There is a man, St. James, from underground who goes to the surface to locate an artificial pancreas for a man very important to his crew. There are also the Yance Men - they live on the estates on the surface. One of the Yance Men, Lantano, seems to time travel, and another, Adams, gets caught up in a special project with evil intent. A horrible old man, Brose, seems to be the real power on Earth. Other characters include Foote, who runs a private police corporation, and Runcible who builds condos, really gilded cages, for people who come up from the underground settlements - they can't be allowed back to tell the people there what is really going on. Lots of power struggles.

The book is fairly short, less than 200 pages in the edition I read, but a whole lot happens. I guess the moral of the story is that governments are not to be trusted, at least not all the time. Do the people underground learn the truth before the books ends - read it and see.

One problem I had was the very small print in the edition I read - is there a paper shortage? Also, the author used some very convoluted sentence structure like multiple semicolons and dashes in the same sentence. This did make the book a slower read than necessary.

The ending was not as satisfying as I had hoped for when I got to the last few pages, but I think readers will have a good idea of how things get wrapped up, even if the author does not come out and tell you by the end.

Despite these issues, the book is still a worthwhile read.

A Hell of a Woman

This story by Jim Thompson might not be for everyone. It is very dark and disturbing. But, it will keep a reader's interest, I think.

It is the story of a door to door salesman named Dillon, and how he gets involved with a troubled young woman with an evil aunt. The aunt has a BIG stash of money. One thing leads to another and several people, including the aunt and Dillon's wife, end up dead. Dillon's boss ends up arrested for a crime he did not commit, but there is poetic justice there. Dillon runs off with the young woman, but things turn out badly for her.

The writing is very good - a reader can really feel like he/she is in the midst of the story. Very gritty, noire and all that. Some of the slang is a bit outdated and hard to follow - the book was written in the 1950's - but the context makes it understandable I thought. Dillon's mental state is "questionable" as the story progresses.

In the original edition of the book, the last part was written as two columns side by side. One was the story as Dillon was seeing it, and the other was the story as actually happening. In this edition, they are mixed as alternating lines in regular type and italics in one column which makes things a little hard to follow. BUT, be patient and read slowly. The ending is rather shocking and surprising.

Not recommended for the faint of heart as they used to say.

Slan Hunter

This book, Slan Hunter, is the sequel to Slan written by A E Van Vogt in the 1940's. The present book was started by Van Vogt but not finished at this death; Kevin Anderson recently finished it from Van Vogt's start. Overall, I liked Slan Hunter; looking at some other reviews, I wonder if we all read the same book given the negative comments of some reviewers.

Before reading this book, I would recommend reading Slan, or it may be a bit hard to follow Slan Hunter. One thing readers of both may notice is that Anderson did a decent job on continuity with Slan and modernized the wording somewhat, so it does not appear as dated as Slan does today.

In this book, a slan baby is born to two people who appear human and all hell breaks loose. Kier Gray is deposed and held by John Petty of the secret police; Petty is often called the slan hunter as in the title, but it seems to me that the title was intended to point to something else - but I am not sure what. Jommy and Kathleen, both are slans, are back and in love. Granny is also back as are some other characters from Slan.

The tendrilless slans start an invasion of Earth from their base on Mars and really damage Earth. As the action proceeds, the regular slans, who had been hiding for years, make an appearance and put a stop to the fighting. Jommy has his tendrils cut off before this, but has them restored.

The book ends with the slan baby from the first part of the book getting the identity of an important person who lived long before the time in either book. A possible setup for another sequel? Perhaps.

If you liked Slan, but thought it a little dated, you should really like Slan Hunter. Happy reading!

Aurora Rising

Aurora Rising is the latest anthology of works from Aurora Wolf, the Literary Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy. It is available on amazon.com and elsewhere.

Full Disclosure: One of the stories in this anthology, The Next Stage, was written by me. Of course, I think it is a great story - hope readers do too.

I have read some of the other stories and liked them as well. Many of the authors are just starting out (like me) and/or trying to get established. Hopefully, people reading this review will give the anthology a try and help to get some new talent "discovered" by the public at large.

One point of potential interest is that all the stories have an illustration, many of which I found to be very clever.

Well, see what you think. Thanks.