Hammett, Dashiell: The Dain Curse 4/2007 While this novel isn’t quite as polished as The Maltese Falcon, The Dain Curse manages to be a slam-bang ride on the hardboiled roller coaster, as the Continental Op takes on a mysterious cult, morphine addiction, and a family screwed-up enough to be the subject of Greek tragedy. While the plot twists do occasionally seem to hinge on coincidence rather than logic (this is, after all, a fix-up), readers willing to sit back and enjoy the ride should have a great time. Plus, Hammett pays tribute to his weird fiction forebears, namedropping Arthur Machen and Lord Dunsany.
Hammett, Dashiell: The Continental Op 6/2007 Hammett’s Continental Op could easily be called the Anti-Sam Spade. Anonymous, overweight, and absolutely loyal to his employer, the Op is one of the finest first-person narrators in all of hardboiled literature, and this collection of short stories bristles with ‘30s slang, droll humor, and plenty of Bay-Area verisimilitude.
Harrison, M. John: Light 2/2007 Light is easily one of the darkest books I’ve ever read, and that’s saying something. With a taut narrative split between three protagonists, a near-future serial killer/brilliant physicist (why are SF characters almost never mediocre physicists?), a far-future woman/starship with the impulse control of a spoiled and heavily armed child, and a "twink," a sort of futuristic virtual reality addict, Light moves along at breakneck speed, combining SF sensawunda, bleak noir cruelty, and lush, violent imagery shown through prose that is both shocking and beautiful. Oddly enough, it’s also the most accessible M. John Harrison (The Course of the Heart, Viriconium, Things That Never Happen) book I’ve read yet. Recommended.
Lake, Jay: Mainspring 7/2007 The core conceit of Mainspring imagines that the solar system is actually a gigantic orrey, and that the movements of the stars, planets, and the earth itself are all controlled through a sort of deistic clockwork, giving physical form to the ages-old watchmaker analogy of creation. When the mainspring of the earth begins to run down, the archangel Gabriel engages young Hethor Jacques, a teenaged clockmaker’s apprentice, to find the “Key Perilous” and rewind creation. As this cunningly-plotted quest plays out over the course of the novel, it is the mechanical universe that continually surfaces as its most beautiful and haunting image, one directing the lives and very spirituality of its inhabitants. Even Christianity is reimagined to fit this mechanical worldview, positing a brass Christ hung on Pilate’s clockface, and when Hethor, in fits of fear and stress, traces the sign of the Horofix around his chest, it is easy to see the care, craftsmanship, and pure imagination with which Lake has written his novel. If it weren't for a handful of explicitly sexual scenes (though tastefully handled), this could be a life-altering, mind-expanding YA book. An easy recommendation, for those mature enough to avoid snickering.
Lake, Jay: Rocket Science 2/2007 Rocket Science has Nazis, G-Men, Commies, and a talking space ship named Pegasus. How could you possibly go wrong with a combination like that?
