She’s My Dad
Iolanthe Woulff
Outskirts Press (Nov 13, 2009)
6 x 9 Paperback cream, 469 pages
6 x 9 Hardback w/ jacket, 469 pages
ISBN13: 9781432743772
Fiction

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What if rumoured statistics on the internet were true, that the ratio of gay people to heterosexuals is somewhere between 20% (1 in 5) and 33% (1 in 3) of the population? Now, suspend your disbelief and imagine that you can tap into the thoughts and see the private actions of everyone in your world: gays, straights, lovers and haters. Wouldn’t the experience mimic a world where everyone says what’s really on their minds, and everyone does what they really want to do? Personally, I think the result would be a world larger than life in practically every way; it would be the fictional world portrayed in the novel She’s My Dad by Iolanthe Woulff.

Nicholas “Collie” Skinner is the bastard son of a man who is now a woman—Nickie Farrell, the end result of a top-notch sex change program. Neither of them are aware of the connection. Collie’s mother has hidden the truth from both. Which is probably a good thing. Collie supports his drunkard, abusive father (who’s a detailed caricature of the white, racist good-old-boy) and his dying mother, Luanne. Due to his environment Collie struggles with prejudicial tendencies learned from the father he hates. Fortunately, he’s not alone: Collie has fallen hard for Robin, who’s a supportive, loving, church-going friend of his mother’s. The two women want Collie to learn how not to hate. Their message is clear: “Don’t hate, Nicholas. Hate destroys everything. Don’t let it destroy you…” Collie also hates his brother, who’s back in town. Unknown to the family the brother is a homosexual in denial, who, with his wealthy partner, spends his time tracking down and beating up gays (men or women). Then there’s Collie’s sister who, rather than trying to live as a lesbian, hung herself. Quite a family to come from and still hope to be “normal,” isn’t it? And can you imagine what might happen when Collie learns that his biological father is transexual?

Let’s also throw in a crazed, racist billionaire who intends his last act to be the total destruction of the local university, which was founded with a mandate to grow as a tolerant, liberal and forward-thinking haven for learning. The place represents every person and thing he has hated all his life.

Then there’s the self-proclaimed dyke, Cinda, who aspires to be an investigative reporter. She’s very smart and such a narcissist she can’t imagine the damage she does when revealing that her English teacher, Nickie Farrell, is a T-girl (a man-made woman rather than a biological one).

Each of the people mentioned in this story (and there are more) are balanced or challenged by their opposites. For example: jaded Cinda rooms with a rich, beautiful, innocent, Barbie-like, positive thinker who is completely comfortable with Cinda being gay.  Luanne has her pastor and her love child, Collie, to help counter the nightmare of her marriage. And so on…

If you toned down the over-the-top characters, Woulff’s book would resemble some of the old drama standards like Hotel, Wheels, Airport or Chiefs (updated for the times, of course). It’s a big, sprawling book filled with suspense and interesting people. On this level, She’s My Dad is a fun book to read. But something deeper happens when you look closer at the larger than life characters. You’ll find yourself thinking: “I know someone just like that.” or “I wish I could just let go and say what’s on my mind.” or “Could there really be this much hatred in the real world?” and “Is it possible that I’m part of the problem?”

Such questions and statements would suggest that She’s My Dad is, in part, about hatred and intolerance and the possibility of redeeming change. Hatred and intolerance tends to destroy both the victim and the hater. But being tolerant of people who are different from us doesn’t mean much if we turn a blind eye toward all the prejudice and hatred these people face. In reality, it make us part of the problem. More change is required of us.

She’s My Dad deals with this last issue as well… We see something of what it is to be gay, to be straight and have to deal with people who are gay, to be so evil as to revel in your hatred of people who are different, to be so good as to consistently support others with your love while also fighting evil face to face, to hide or flaunt who you are because it’s the only way you know how to survive and, most important, how opportunities always exit for change.

I think the way I would summarize the book is that She’s My Dad is about learning that all forms of hate and all forms of love are a choice, whether those choices are as difficult as learning to accept and love who you really are or as simple as insisting that an old black man retains his position in a line in your local grocery store.

Love, hatred and redemption. She’s My Dad is a book we could all benefit from reading.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010


Note: One improvement that could have made the book even better than it is would be making certain that all characters think and talk as per their education. There were a number of slips in this regard. High School educated people sometimes used words I had to look up in the dictionary. The errors pulled me out of the story a few times.

Who Got Liz Gardner
by Elizabeth Allen
YouWriteOn.com, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84923-888-5
Trade Paperback
355 pages
Fiction

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Liz Gardner wanders into a chat room for members of her 1977 graduating high school class. She’s a financial advisor looking for prospective customers. Instead, what she finds is a discussion between a group of men trying to answer the question “Who got Liz Gardner?” And so begins a trip through Liz’s mind, not so much looking for the answer to the group’s question, but answering, for herself, the question “How did I get Liz Gardner?”

You just know this trip into the past is going to be interesting: Liz says at the outset, “My stories require no embellishing. I didn’t conform to social ideals, pressure or expectations. I drove through my life without a safety-belt, miraculously surviving my reckless choices.”

Having grown up during the same era as Liz, I expected a story of rebellion against authority, drug experimentation and plenty of sex. We were part of the “do what feels good.” generation. But Who Got Liz Gardner is so much more.

Reading like an autobiography, we first see Liz as a victim of a broken home: unloving father, self-centred mother and a young woman determined not to repeat her parents’ mistakes. Instead, Liz makes up her own rules to live by (a lot of us did that). She’s not interested in drugs. But sex is fun, driven by her, not the man. Monogamy isn’t necessary, but you better make that clear up front: Having a father who was a serial cheater, Liz doesn’t put up with liars. She isn’t perfect and doesn’t expect her men to be. Yet Liz is looking for someone, a person she hasn’t even defined in her own mind.

An aspiring actress in New York, Liz’s life is busy, messy and full of some really odd men. In fact, one of them, to whom she is technically engaged, is uncomfortably weird. He eventually becomes the deciding factor in her decision to move to Los Angeles. Happy with her new acting school and the choice of men available within that group, Liz continues living as before. But when she becomes disillusioned with the type of man she keeps returning to, and her former fiancé turns into a stalker, Liz begins her transformation. A new age retreat takes her even further. She comes out of the experience ready to become the person she needs to be for the special someone she can feel coming her way.

And she’s right. It isn’t long before Liz finds her mate: Eric Allen.

Okay, you’ve got the basic outline of the book. Why should you read it? Liz Allen tells it like it is (or was). Sex is natural, described in terms we actually used in those times, and is often funny and clumsy, the author not following the current trend of erotic romance, where everything is perfect, spelled out for you and which often crosses the line into pornography. Even when her life is falling apart, Liz is aggressive; she’s never afraid of making choices. While she may worry, Liz always seems to have a core that can turn anything around, usually in a non-typical, “I won’t run away from life manner.” Oh, there’s also the fact that even when Liz is talking dirty, behaving without regard to what may happen after the current orgasm, she’s charming, larger than life and great fun to read about.

Who Got Liz Gardner is not a book for your teenager. I wouldn’t even recommend it for those of you who prefer sex with the lights off—the book will startle and offend you. Yet it comes off in such an honest, unpretentious and entertaining way, that you, my readers, should buy a copy today!

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye 2010

Solar
By Ian McEwan
Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-307-39924-3
Hard Cover
285 pages
Fiction/Satire

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Solar. My initial thought is “Don’t expect a literary review with comparisons to Ian McEwan’s other critically acclaimed works.” First, I haven’t read any of them, and, second, a book like Solar can be over-thought. You see, McEwan has written a dark, satirical novel about the problem of Global Warming/Climate Change as seen through the eyes of just one person. And while there’s plenty of fodder for a highbrow criticism, I prefer to focus on the story as entertainment, rather than a lofty piece of literature.

Michael Beard is an aging, bald, overweight, narcissistic, Nobel prize-winning physicist who has spent most of his adult life trading in on his one accomplishment. Corporations want him on their boards, scientific institutions want his name on their letterheads, he’s in demand on the lecture circuit and the government has literally thrown money at him to make quick advancements in the field of global warming. This is a man who has had the opportunity to be great. Instead, he is a slave to his wants: food, drink, dalliances, comfort and any short-term goal that captures his fancy. One could argue Michael Beard represents the excesses of the very problem he’s attempting to solve: as he wantonly cuts a swath through his life without thinking of the consequences, one automatically thinks of mankind’s rapacious consumption of Earth’s bounty. Thus, we are, or should be, prepared for his brilliant work in photosynthesis to blow up in his face—just as his life and reputation will be ruined when his shortsightedness catches up with him.

Solar is a sluggish read. The story spans a period of 9 years, all seen through the eyes of an unlikeable person. We are forced to sit inside his abused body and inward looking mind. Clench your fists as he breaks the hearts of a string of beautiful and caring women—because he doesn’t know how to love and doesn’t care to learn. Pound your table with those fists as his narcissism single handedly destroys his greatest accomplishment, and at the very end leaves him with nothing but the love of a child and, to his very great surprise, his love for her.

Interesting as an inside look at the world of scientific research and as a study of a despicable protagonist, Solar is not your typical Sunday afternoon read.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye.

Dead Forever: Apotheosis
by William Campbell
Glyd-Evans Press, June 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9717960-5-8
Trade Paperback
366 pages
Science Fiction/Adventure

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Adam is an important man, perhaps the leader of the resistance against the planetary destroying “Association.” We’re not sure, because Adam isn’t sure himself. You see, Adam is in an extremely dangerous line of work: he gets killed a lot. And while he’s dead, the man’s past lives are open to him. He doesn’t like this at all. He dislikes it so much, in fact, that he chooses not to remember his past lives when he acquires a new body.

His friends, having been through this many times, won’t help him remember who he is. It’s my belief (it’s not spelled out in the story) that these people feel that since Adam chooses to forget, it’s up to him to remember what he’s lost. As you might imagine, this makes it almost impossible for Adam to do his job.

In book one of the Dead Forever series, Adam is a complete amnesiac under the control of the Association. The book follows him as he struggles toward what may be his rightful place in a galactic war. I found the story a fast paced, sometimes funny, space adventure I could really get into. This second book in the series: Apotheosis, left me with mixed feelings.

One of the reasons for my mixed feelings is that Campbell once again drops us into a situation where Adam has no idea of what’s going on. However, with one book already dedicated to this story, there should have been a bridge between the books. There is none. A few references occur here and there, but I can guarantee you that had I not read the first book in the series, I would have been completely confused.

Apotheosis, by the way, means: The fact or action of becoming a god; deification; Glorification, exaltation; crediting someone with extraordinary power or status; A glorified example or ideal; the apex or pinnacle (of a concept or belief). In short (in this novel), elevating someone to the level of a god.

The second book in the series opens with Adam in this exact fix. The two warring races indigenous to the planet he’s on insist on treating Adam as a god. Adam finds this inconvenient, as he’s only interested in finding his missing lover. But as time progresses, he discovers the only way he’s going to get what he wants is to end the war. He might also have to consider that he is a god. Anyway, much of Apotheosis deals with this situation, but the writing lacks the sense of speed I experienced in the first book. It’s not until the war is over (you’re in for a surprise) and Adam heads back to his home planet does the story regain the sense of adventure Campbell managed in book one.

With all this said, I still believe Apotheosis is a solid science fiction adventure with a unique idea that drives it ever forward. At the end of it all, I didn’t resent the slower pace, and I enjoyed the complexities of Adam’s life.

I’ll happily read the third installment.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

Blockade Billy
by Stephen King
Scribner, May 201o
ISBN: 978-1-4516-0821-2
Hardcover
132 pages
Suspense/Horror

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Fans of Stephen King know he’s passionate about music and baseball. In his little hardcover, Blockade Billy, King has written such an authentic feeling baseball story I went looking to see if such a character (or a composite of such characters) actually existed. I knew the story was fiction, yet there I was foolishly researching old-time baseball. That should tell you a lot about the story.

How can you be a baseball fan and not like the tale of  Blockade Billy? Narrated to Mr. King by an old man who was there, the reader gets to meet Billy Blakely, perhaps the greatest player who ever lived. Yet today’s generation has never heard of him. It’s as if the game tried to erase his very existence. Now I don’t know about you, but that’s enough of a hook to keep me reading to the shocking end of the story. And what an end it is. King does not disappoint.

Blockade Billy contains a second story entitled Morality. The questions asked here are  “What would you do if a person you look up to offers you a lot of money to do something you know is morally wrong?” and “How would the amoral choice effect you?”

I thought this second story was more horrifying than Blockade Billy, simply because it made me uncomfortable, where the first didn’t. The end will disappoint many people; a subtle, maybe even simple ending that will anger those used to being spoon fed, I found it to be realistic and therefore more disturbing than a larger than life finish would have been.

A great read for a slow Sunday afternoon.



Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye


Ford County: Stories
John Grisham
Doubleday, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-53425-7
Hard Cover
308 pages
Fiction

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Ford County is John Grisham’s first collection of short stories. Customer reviews were mixed. I mention this for two reasons: first, I believe the people who really disliked the book didn’t understand the function of a short story; second, Grisham’s stories are so unique it may have been hard for people to connect.

I think Ford County is brilliant. The humour runs the full gamut, from dry to witty, laugh out loud to guilty pleasure, even caricature to an assembly of fools. His character’s are drawn with a fine pen and a sure hand, and while we may not be able to love them, it is possible to identify with and even vicariously enjoy places we would never go and people we would avoid anyplace but between the pages of this book.  Grisham’s characters range from the very flawed to the actual criminal. In between you’ll find some gentle souls and some folks trying to live life the best they can. However you read these stories, it’s impossible to miss that the main characters in each tale are changed in some fundamental way (the cardinal rule of short story writing).

There’s Sidney, a quiet, unassuming man who loves his wife and is content to work his life away as an insurance data collector. When his wife leaves him, Sidney’s world collapses, and as he walks dazedly through his new world, he just happens to end up at a black jack table. The hilarious results are so perfect that you may start to look over your shoulder for that one person you did wrong without knowing so.

How about 3 good ol’ boys (actually, they’re the new generation) who head out to the big city to give blood to a friend who may or may not be dying. You just know something is going to go amiss. And when it does, the simple error of judgment escalates to the point of ridiculous. What do the boys learn? Could be nothing more than staying away from the demon alcohol; could be they recognize the need to behave responsibly; it could even be that there’s no place like home.

Ford County is seven meaty stories about a kind of life and people a small town, Mississippi lawyer might see at certain points of his career. My bet is that Grisham had great fun spoofing his old stomping grounds and ending up with a kind of storybook you won’t find anywhere else. Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) would be proud.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

A Terrace On The Tower Of Babel
by Nelson Caldwell
Self Published, 2009
ISBN: 978-1450556569
Trade Paperback
777 pages
Fiction

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Let me begin this review by saying Nelson Caldwell has the technical skills to write a book of this magnitude. However, it is my opinion that he doesn’t understand the concept of story. Allow me to elaborate…

I picked up the giant volume that is A Terrace On The Tower of Babel eager to learn the inner secrets behind the collapse of the dot.coms and the ensuing real estate boom (which we’re painfully aware also collapsed). After all, this is what had been promised me. By page 172, I was able to extrapolate to the point that I could see what was coming. I was also bored to tears.

Nelson Caldwell has written a book that takes you into the boardrooms and offices of the men who are purposefully shaping the landscape of modern business. These are the men with billions of dollars and massive global networks who take part in or influence or finance the creation of silicon valley superstars, the fulfillment of the technological dreams of Arab visionaries and the future of many other organizations. This should be heady stuff, right? It’s not. When the description over several paragraphs of a character emptying a bottle of water, sip by sip, is the extent of physical action a scene, and the characters in the room talk in jargon and in terms of manipulating companies and people like they are pieces on a chess board, my eyes kept glazing over, and I would constantly lose my place. It was like Caldwell was driven to micro-manage his book, to offer up everything in great detail (whether interesting or not), when as most writers know that even in lengthy stories, where you might expect the occasional use of a fine stroke, a single action or word will often speaking volumes.

Story: main characters must be in peril (real or imagined), right from the beginning of the story. Caldwell’s characters show only a hint of what this peril is to be by the time I got to page 172. In other words, those 172 pages are unnecessary to the story. The middle of a book shows how the problem(s) develop and it also shows the hero(s) struggling valiantly against overwhelming odds. The end of the story or dénouement reveals or explains matters, usually during the hero’s victory over the forces which have stood in his or her way.

What I’ve been talking about is conflict. It doesn’t have to be as blatant as I described it, but if there’s no conflict in a story, what is there for the reader to invest in? Again, by page 172 in A Terrace On The Tower Of Babel, I can see some of the business and personal conflicts beginning to arise, but it is far too late. Caldwell has irrevocably lost me. I can’t force myself to read another word. And this is tragic, because I believe Caldwell has written something original and informative, something with real value. He just forgot to entertain me while he was doing so.

Perhaps you, the reader, will have more stamina than I.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

THE SHADOW OF THE WOLF
by Sam Cross

Eternal Press, 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-1-77065-067-1
Print ISBN: 978-1-77065-068-8
366 Pages
eBook
Thriller

Reviewer: Clayton Bye
http://www.claytonbye.com
Alternative-Read.com

An unnamed city (maybe yours) is in the grip of a serial killer the media has dubbed The Wolf.
His victims are young, beautiful women who he takes without leaving clues and who are never seen again. He’s bold! His last victim was in a car pile-up on a main highway; The Wolf took her from her demolished vehicle without being seen. The police are at their wit’s end.

Enter professor Richard Rosenwood, a criminal psychologist who teaches at the local university. The police have asked him for any insights or clues he might turn up by going through the case files. Add in a gorgeous psychology student who is openly interested in the professor, a hooker/thief /compulsive liar who is the only person to ever survive an attack by The Wolf, a couple of sharp detectives and a killer who’s way of disposing of bodies is so horrendous as to be unimaginable and you’ve got yourself an interesting book in the making.

The Shadow of The Wolf is full of interesting characters and many plot twists, but it is also well thought out and written. There’s so much going on, I keep wanting to tell you more. But that would spoil the book for you. Here are a few hint’s to guide you: the professor’s lectures are about real-life serial killers; The Wolf is an appropriate name for the serial killer for several interesting reasons; but most of all, pay close attention to the title of this book and what it might mean (or the number of meanings it may have).

Sam Cross is a pen name for an author with many novels under his belt, and it shows: not a misspelled word, his sentences constantly push you forward—there are no slow spots here; and while I had the story figured out by the time I was a third of a way through the novel, it turns out I was wrong, then wrong again, then wrong again… You see where I’m going with this?

The Shadow of The Wolf is a somewhat unusual, character driven thriller I thoroughly enjoyed. It was time well spent.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

Alien Dreams
John B. Rosenman
Drollerie Press
ISBN: 978-0-9798081-4-2
2007 for eBook/2009 for Print
356 pages/274 pages
Science Fiction

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Captain Eric Latimore leads two husband and wife teams to the planet Lagos to investigate the disappearance of the previous company crew of six. It doesn’t take long to discover what happened to the first crew and what may also become the current team’s fate. Aliens of such beauty that one immediately recognizes them as angels invade the dreams of anyone who lands on the planet. These dreams are so real the beauty represented by the angels eventually causes the dreamer to go insane. One crew member actually digs out her eyes because the angels are just too beautiful to look at.

The team also learns that the angels are imprisoned on Lagos in high-tech/magical cubes one can carry in hand or pocket. And while the aliens are physically restrained, they still command an incredible and influential power over visitors to the planet.

As the investigation progresses the angels manage to influence a crew member to render all means of transport off the planet inoperable, to cause the death of one of the crew and to badly injure Eric’s wife. And now comes the punch-line. The angels believe an ancient prophecy that says a stranger will lead them to freedom and provide the means for them to exact revenge from their captor (a mysterious creature known only as the Gatekeeper). They have been trying to convince Eric that he is the One—with little success. But now, in return for healing the two women and promising safe passage off  Lagos for them (and a second type of alien victim), Eric must agree to become one of the angels, sire their Redeemer and lead them all to a showdown with the Gatekeeper.

Eric feels he has no moral choice but to agree. Then things get interesting at light speed. The more Eric becomes an angel, the more he realizes they are empty, petulant, bored killers who look upon what they consider to be inferior races as their playing and killing grounds. One wonders if they even have a soul. Yet Eric knows, one way or another, he is going to be the one to fight the Gatekeeper on behalf of these aliens. So, he keeps looking for redeeming virtues in the angels, for something he can touch and nurture, that they might eventually be taught a different way of living, a different path—to earn redemption rather than taking it by force.

It’s not until tragedy strikes the very core of the angels that Eric sees his chance. But to accomplish what he envisions Eric must defeat a creature who might well be the God of the Old Testament.

With a strong science fiction setting, John B. Rosenman explores the importance of culture, compassion and love by pitting a race that has none of these qualities against a number of species.

Alien Dreams is, in my opinion, John Rosenman’s most substantial offering to date. One could say that he shows us what it is to be human by slowly tearing everything that means away from Captain Eric Latimore, all the while holding up the angels as examples of the horror of what he is to become.

Yet another enjoyable read from an author who knows how to entertain and make you think. Well done John.

Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye

Fifth Sun: The Awakening
Hilary McLean
Iuniverse, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-595-47871-2
Trade paperback
330 pages
Dark Fantasy

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“Fifth Sun: The Awakening uses the Mayan [2012, end of time] prophecy as a backdrop because it is a classic story of Light and Dark, Chaos and Creation. Humanity enjoys stories with heroes and villains, action and adventure. It is fun to imagine that all of life is in the hands of a reluctant hero who chooses hope over despair in the face of overwhelming odds; a parable for each of us in our life’s journey.”
—Hilary McLean

Sarah Riggs arrived in the tourist town of Jasper, Alberta as a teenager with no memories of her past. In time she built a family there: her husband, Hal, who works as a warden for Jasper National Park; her children, 3 year-old Alex and 5 year-old Andy (Andromeda) and their comfortable home in the lovely mountain town. But Sarah’s past has caught up with her, and it doesn’t care that she’s forgotten who she is.

When her children begin to show strong psychic abilities, “he of many names” begins to appear before them all in dreams that are not dreams. He knows Sarah is his opposite: he’s Chaos and she’s Creation; he has the power to end the world, she has the power to remake it. Old legends say that there have been 4 previous suns where the world was remade. It is told that in the final battle for the last or 5th sun, should Chaos prevail, then the world will end forever. With his opponent unaware of her tremendous powers, Chaos finally sees an end to thousands of years of similar conflict.

Weaving a tale with several story lines, Hilary McLean convincingly follows the terrifying awakening of Sarah as guardian of the world and all its powers. In one scene Sarah accidentally flattens Mexico city and kills millions of people. This incident falls under the mantle of  “remaking of the world,” and leaves you wondering if there’s much difference between Chaos and Creation. McLean also sets up the beginning of world chaos as “Mr. Silver” (guess who) manages to take control of a secret branch of CSIS, Canada’s version of the FBI and CIA. First order of business? The destruction of Cold Lake, Alberta: Canada’s largest air force base.

The Awakening sees Sarah split off from her two children—her husband separated from them all. As each of them moves toward reunion, they must face unbelievable dangers, events, people and things; find out who they are and what their role in this nightmare is; and they must above all avoid the dreams that are not dreams… If they are to stay alive.

Hilary McLean’s Fifth Sun: The Awakening is an interesting story of cataclysmic times caused by people who are but vessels of earth shattering powers, the humans who try to support them as best they can and the immortal King of Lies. Quite an epic and difficult first novel to write. Which brings me to my criticisms. The opening was too loose for the number of ideas and plot lines being tossed out. I found it confusing and had to reread it before attempting the review. The middle and end of the book moved well, entertained and intrigued. The confusion dropped away as the author hung more meat on the skeletons which make up the book. On the other hand, her commitment to describing Creation and Chaos using endless descriptions of light and darkness, with a showing of elementals such as earth, water, wind and fire, made it difficult to arrive at firm mental pictures of what was going on.

In my opinion, if Hilary McLean set out to keep the reader in the same kind of nail-biting confusion her characters face until all is made clear at the end of the book, then she achieved her goal admirably. If not, she should recognize just how important it is to find the professional editing help you need when self-publishing.


Copyright © Clayton Clifford Bye