Zork Nemesis: A Replay Review

I first played Zork Nemesis, a PC game from 1996, in June and July of 2000.  I finished it, with hints, in just under 26 hours of total gameplay.  It instantly became one of my favourite games, scoring 86%.  This put it ahead of the original Myst for me, but behind Riven and Obsidian. Thus it became my third favourite game back in the day.  How does it stand up today?  Deb and I played it as a team, and we took just under 17 hours, using my notes from 2000 to help us out.  There are spoilers, so beware.

We played it on Steam, beginning in April and concluding in June of 2026.  The original CDs (three of them) sometimes got stuck during game play, though I also found some problems with the Steam version.  At the very beginning I was unable to use the cursor to guide us through the game.  It would spin or move far too quickly.  Luckily a previous gamer had posted a solution on Steam, and for the most part it worked like a charm.  Each time the game was started (including after any save) players have to hold down the Ctrl key and then strike the F11 key 18 times!  That seemed to slow down the cursor just enough to allow the game to progress normally.  If that is too many and the cursor gets stuck, use the F12 key to back off a bit.

 

The second problem with the Steam version is that it gave me such a large window that the movies were quite pixelated and the backgrounds were not as sharp as I remember.  Screenshots were also a pain, as the Wind. and PS keys need to be used, meaning that only a single screenshot at a time can be taken.  But I quibble.  Let's get to the game itself.

 

Use headphones.  The music and sounds are just fantastic, and hold up as well today as ever.  The game grabs the player from the very moment of arrival.  The courtyard of a great Cathedral sets the tone for the whole game--dark, gloomy, mysterious and enveloped in faded decadence.  There is very little sunlight, and many gradations of shadow.  This is an enhanced slideshow game, with 360 degree motion, so that looking all around is essential.  Sometimes up and down options are also available, but not always.  Gothic effects intensify once inside the vast interior.  The building turns out to be a kind of Myst Island, in that there is much to see, do and solve before access to four other worlds can be gained.  Most puzzles are based around alchemical procedures, some hard and some easy.

 

A lot of playtime will be spent in the main building, until one solves the mystery of using the orrery, a device which will enable the player to visit four other worlds.  But before that happens there are four main puzzles to solve within the main temple.  Some of these puzzles are quite hard, while others can be solved in time with patience and some careful thinking.  Note-taking is essential.  My favourite initial puzzle was in the room with the paintings, and though far from logical I found it to be quite an ingenious and highly original addition to game puzzles.

 

A fun door puzzle.

 

The cathedral library.

 

The library again.

A map of the entire cathedral/temple can be helpful and will be found in the library. 

 

The room of paintings puzzle, mentioned above.  Great fun!

 

There are four allies to awaken near the beginning.  Solving an early puzzle will awaken one each.  But are they allies? 

 

Sophia's (Venus is her planet) awakening requires solving a water puzzle.  This remains one of my favourite puzzles of all time.  Ice must be melted into water, using the paintings in the room and the chair provided.  Good luck!  Sartorious (Jupiter) requires his upstairs air puzzle to be solved.  Kaine (Mars) involves a terrifying ride in a mine car, which will lead to many deaths before a solution is found.  Save before riding!  Malveaux (Saturn) involves sliding screens in the library, and finding a sun to place in the orrery.  Once these preliminary puzzles are solved, a pretty big task, it's off to other worlds.

 

Solving the orrery puzzles allows travel to four other worlds. 

 

There is an in-game hint system in the game before accessing the other worlds.  Look for the painting of Venus and Cupid for some assistance, which will likely be required from time to time.  Once in the four new worlds, the object is to find a secret lab in each and manufacture a unique symbol, one for each imprisoned mage.  The story is quite good, at its heart a love story thwarted by the mages.  It is up to the player to set things right for the young couple, who have been grossly wronged.  It is highly probable that players will die during the game, so save often.

 

Once the orrery is mastered, the four worlds can be visited in any order.  If players get stuck they may leave the world to visit another, thus working on several levels in shifts, if desired.  However, each world is a closed unit and the puzzles within can all be solved without traveling elsewhere.  I much prefer this kind of game to ones where a player must travel far outside the main puzzle area.  Once a new world is solved, the game brings the player back to the cathedral for a cut scene, and to place the newly acquired metal symbol in its proper place on the the central altar.  Then it's back to the orrery for the next adventure.  Once all four worlds all solved, a final major puzzle must be solved, and the four nitwits outwitted.  Hint: do not drink their offering when it comes.

 

The first world we chose was Saturn, the realm of Malveaux's great monastery. This is a vast place with much exploring to do.  Although the four worlds always begin outside, all of the main events are indoors.  There are maze-like hallways that lead to a library, and from there through to a museum, which holds the key to solving this world.  There are upper and lower levels everywhere, but one of them, the bedroom, is particularly difficult to reach.  Players have to grab a bell rope that moves much too quickly.  It can be done, but patience is required.  Overall this is a fun segment with good puzzles and plenty of areas to explore.  The music is a highlight of the game overall, and we hear it a lot in this world.

 

Saturn is the world of fire.

 

An important book from the library on Saturn.

 

The library on Saturn.  The museum can be reached through here.

 

Part of the fire puzzle.

 

Malveaux's cozy bedroom, if you can reach it. 

 

Opposite side of the bedroom, with an important bookcase.

 

Two items from the museum are needed to defeat a fire monster.  But the museum has an alarm system.

 

The final puzzle on Saturn. 

 

Next we traveled to Mars, the world of Kaine and his on-going war.  Again there is much to explore in Irondune Castle.  We were able to get into all areas without aid, but we needed help towards the end.  To open a gold chest we searched everywhere for a key.  Nope.  You have to blow it open with a stick of TNT. Okay, not so great a puzzle.  If you get far enough you get to drive a tank, though getting it to work is very tricky.  An air freshener and fuzzy dice hand from the windshield, and a girlie calendar decorates one wall.  The tank leads to the final puzzle, again a two storey event involving a secret lab.  Overall the puzzles are good, though the radio code is pretty hard to figure out.  There is a very gruesome dungeon in which I don't recommend spending much time.  In fact, despite many light touches and funny moments, the game is pretty intense and dark, culminating in the asylum sequence (see below).

 

Upon first entering Irondune Castle.

 

Stained glass panels related to war and battle.

 

The central hall is decorated with war paintings and weapons.

 

The staircase leads to two bedrooms, father and son, and a game room and weapons museum.

 

The game room has a pool table with an important puzzle solution hidden in it's game. 

 

Kaine's bedroom, with that damnable chest. 

 

Venus (Sophia's realm) is the music academy, with a very fun series of puzzles involving Zorkian musical instruments of the orchestra.  Records can be found in the music library room (with a grand piano), and when played on the gramophone will help players solve the auditorium puzzle.  Upstairs is the dormitory, where a poster is to be found, as is Sophia's exquisite bedroom.  A lot of design work went into this game.  While the dormitory and Sophia's bedroom exude nouveau charm, the piano room is distinctly Victorian.  Once in the auditorium, the fanfare must be conducted by the player.  Good luck!  Then the backstage area can be accessed, leading to the basement and the secret lab.  This is probably the least violent among the four worlds, and quite fun to visit.  Puzzles are hard, though.  

The music room and library contain minor but important puzzles.

 

The first music puzzle awaits. Remember to return the instruments afterwards, or you will carry them needlessly for the rest of the game.

  

Girls Dormitory at the music academy.

 

Sophia's bedroom balcony door.

 

Sophia's bedroom with art.

 

Sophia's bedroom, third view.

 

Near the entrance to the academy, at the famous Zork dam.  No explanation is given for the damage.

 

Lastly comes Jupiter, Sartorius' domain, with a final air puzzle to solve at the end of this grim scenario.  The asylum is designed like a 21 storey syringe, and it is not a nice place to visit.  Institutional gray colours dominate, and evidence of horrible experiments on inmates abounds.  The touches of humour seem out of place here.  We must use a guillotine to gain a severed head, which will then give us a puzzle clue and tell some jokes.  To avoid electrocution later we must use a cut off hand to unlock a door.  And players must sit in an electric shock chair and endure a disorienting jolt, which is needed to gain access to the final secret lab.

A small model of the museum building is found in the museum room.

Players will eventually have to get to the penthouse from the basement. 

 

Inside the asylum.

 

The bed of Sartorius, the only "cheerful" place in the asylum.

 

The secret lab is in the penthouse, with a doable but tricky puzzle.  I found it a bit Rivenesque.

 

Once the four worlds are complete the player will be whisked back to the original cathedral again, this time to face the four mages.  A ring will eventually be acquired and the final puzzle will commence soon afterwards.  It isn't a difficult puzzle, but will take some time.  The puzzle won't accept wrong answers, so it's just trial and error, putting the rings (there are two now) in various containers and pushing buttons to see what works.  The good ending sees the two lovers reunited and freed, the cathedral blows up, thus forever sealing the doom of the four worlds it held.  So there is no Myst-like ending, where we can roam around afterwards.  Once we click on the Venus and Cupid painting outside the gate the credits roll.

 

The setting for the final puzzle, which is followed by the end game movie. 

 

Zork Nemesis is a humdinger of a game, and should not be missed by adventure game enthusiasts.  The story, based on love and alchemy, is first rate.  The music is excellent, and the orrery as a means of inter-world transport is original and a brilliant touch.  Puzzles are mostly fair and doable, though impatient players like myself will want hints and a walkthrough at times.  This is a game badly in need of a complete update and freshening up.  The actual game will never be dated as the story is timeless and involving, but in its current state it hampers the immersive experience.  So much work went into this game.  At least it's available in it's current condition on Steam.

 

One quibble (spoiler alert).  Like in Myst, when trying to decide which brother is evil, this game sets up the player for defeat.  There is no hint that the character with the voice of Satan is actually the good guy.  This is done simply to misdirect the player into making wrong choices at the end.  Boo, hiss.  After solving so many hard puzzles and dying so many times, players deserve a break at the end, not more punishment for their "wrong" choices.

 

A great game, and I now raise it's mark to 88%, higher than when I first played it.  Happy gaming!!

 

Mapman Mike 

 

 

 

  

A Trip To Sudbury

We are just back from an 8-day visit north to visit family.  We drove a total of 1001 miles!  My mom has had some back problems but seems to be doing much better now.  Last Sunday we drove north as far as Collingwood, staying over before continuing on next day to Sudbury.  We came home express yesterday.  There is road construction on Hwy 69 north of Parry Sound, so we opted for an alternate route north on Monday.  Our return was on a Sunday and there was no construction delay.

We visited a lot of breweries and cafes, some of them new to us.  Our trunk carried a fresh supply of good ales back home, now chilling in the dark basement.  Munro Meadery is closed on Sundays (!??!), much to our surprise.  So we moved on and made our first visit to St. Mary's, a small city north of London.  Known for its rock quarries, the small downtown is thus known for its historic stone buildings.  We stopped at Snapping Turtle Coffee for lunch and a pound of beans.  We strolled the downtown on a quiet Sunday, with only restaurants open.  A small railroad station building just outside of town serves as home base for Broken Rail Brewery.  We made a quick stop before moving on towards Collingwood.

 

One of several impressive historic buildings in downtown St. Mary's, made from local stone.

 

The Thames River passes beneath a bridge in downtown St. Mary's.
 

 

Broken Rail Brewery, St Mary's. 

 

Collingwood is home to several breweries.  We are familiar with two of them, and added a third on this trip.  Side Launch Brewing is an enormous place, and their live music event this Sunday afternoon was very well patronized.  They were selling plenty of beer on a magnificent day of weather.  We picked up some ales before checking into the Comfort Inn, perfectly situated for our next two breweries.  Endswell Beer might be our favourite Ontario pub, with real English style ales on hand pull and excellent vegan pizzas.  We settled in for a late afternoon session, greatly enjoying the atmosphere (it's very small and cozy) and summer breeze from the open doors.  100 meters away is Northwinds Brewhouse.  We had a flight here and left with a few cans.

 

Two home brews were on hand pull. 

 

Next day we headed off to North Bay, with Trestle Brewery our first stop.  Here we had to decide whether to take a roundabout route to Sudbury or try our luck with road construction delays.  We chose the roundabout route and scored big.  Hwy 124 between Parry Sound and Sundridge is a beautiful rural drive, passing many lakes and a most impressive dam and waterfall. We joined Hwy 11 and followed it to North Bay, discovering Gateway Brewing, an-all vegan brewery.  We picked up some cans of ale and pushed on towards Sudbury, following Hwy 17 (Trans-Canada Highway) west.  We stopped for coffee and some sight seeing at Sturgeon Falls before arriving at the Maple Street family home.  My brother Steve lives there with his wife Lynne and daughter Emma-Lee in a downstairs apartment, while Mom lives upstairs.  She is very well looked after by the family.  She was still in hospital rehab when we arrived, so we went next day to visit her with Emma-Lee.  Mom was ready to come home and had been promised to be released on Wednesday.

 

For the first time ever we saw a train crossing the Parry Sound Trestle, from Trestle Brewing.  A truck on rails (not shown) was pulling a work train, with caboose!

 

Highway bridge on 124 crosses the dangerous rapids of the Knoefli Falls.

 

Looking upstream from the bridge towards the dam.

 

Deb spotted trilliums growing near the waterfall.

Sturgeon Falls coffee stop was at Twiggs.

 

View of the Sturgeon River from the dock at the cafe, which sits below the local waterfalls.

 

Sturgeon Falls and dam, along Hwy 17 between North Bay and Sudbury. 

 

Mom did come home Wednesday morning and we got to visit with her there for four days.  We watched some TV with her, including two movies and a 7-part series on Netflix.  We also managed to get her to play a round of Carcassonne with us, and she easily beat both me and Deb.  Deb and I enjoyed daily walks, largely uphill and downhill in Sudbury, as well as coffee at Beard's Bakery (all vegan) and then downtown at Kuppajo Espresso Bar.  We paid a quick visit to 46 North Brewery for some take home cans.  We also had some interesting talks with Emma-Lee, who will be a high school senior next year and is trying to decide what to do with her life.

 

Our only Sudbury photo shows the underside of the famous west end train trestle near the family home.  It is still well used by mining trains. 

 

All in all it was good to get back home to Amherstburg.  Of the past 6 weeks we have been away for 3 of them.  Deb is in the middle of a new film and I am trying to memorize a piano program.  We both need to focus for the next month at least.

 

We got some news from Amanda, who is moving into her own apartment for the first time.  She lives in Toronto and has finally had enough of house sharing, at least for now.  Wishing her the very best with all that extra room she will soon have all to herself!  I would expect some book collecting might commence, among other things.

 

Turning finally to recently watched movies, we saw A Haunting in Venice from 2023, one of three Poirot films directed by Kenneth Branagh.  He also plays the role of Poirot.  Though it's a typical Agatha Christie mystery plot (choose the least likely suspects and they will turn out to be the criminals), it is very stylish with beautiful photography in Venice.  Though we are promised a haunting, what we get is a pretty much down to earth murder mystery story.  It's still fun, if not too memorable.

 

Now showing on Prime. 

 

Next came the 4th Ghostbusters movie, Frozen Empire from 2024.  It's not a great entry in the series, being mostly standard by now.  New York is threatened by an ancient evil spirit that talks very much like most ancient evil spirits, and even acts like them, too.  The city is also threatened by a mayor who wants to be rid of the Ghostbusters.  I wish they had left and gone to Cleveland for awhile, leaving New York on its own to fight the great evil.  Fun effects, a few snappy lines, with appearances by three of the original cast members to liven thing up even more.  Not a favourite with this writer.

 

Showing on Prime. 

 

Because they get Netflix and we don't, I searched and searched and searched for something to watch that wasn't 9 seasons long.  I discovered Queen's Gambit from 2020, an award-winning 7 part series produced by Netflix about a female chess player.  Based on a 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, the series was directed by Scott Frank.  Anya Taylor-Joy stars as the female chess player out to conquer the world.  We follow her progress from ground zero (9 years old and taught how to play by the janitor at the orphanage to which she is sent when her mother dies) to when she wins the world championship in Moscow.  It is quite a journey.  Though the actual story is somewhat realistic, her win at the end once again proving the superiority of Americans over the rest of us poor shmucks is a bit hard to swallow.  Still, we both loved the series and especially the actress.  Watch for her outfit near the end, as she dresses like the white chess queen.  Highly recommended, even for non chess players.

 

Showing on Netflix. 

 

Mapman Mike

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Books Read April/May 2026 and Annual Summary

Because of travel I have combined the last two months.  We were away for the last week of April and the first week of May.  As a result I only read one Tubb and one Bulmer instead of one each month.  I also managed to get through a lengthy Moorcock novel.  The rest is free reading, including four from my Delphi Classics series on Kindle.

 

But the end of May is also the time I look back on another year of reading. It is now ten years since I began the Avon/Equinox SF project (see separate blog).  I am now down to mostly two authors, E C Tubb and Kenneth Bulmer.  I am stepping back even from these two authors somewhat, and will read one book a month by one or the other, instead of both in the same month.  This frees up my time for the Delphi Classics series, as well as for my ever growing list of unrelated fiction.

 

Here is the summary for June to December 2025 January through May 2026.  In total I read 98 books.  22 of those were by authors from the Avon/Equinox SF series, while 71 one of them were novels by various and sundry authors, many from the Delphi Classics series.  My ten year total for Avon/Equinox authors is now at an astounding 898 books!  In the same period I have read 361 books by other authors.   That makes 1259 books over ten years, all reviewed.  I'm a busy guy when not looking at maps.

 

Scorpio Invasion is from 1992 and is 238 pages long.  It is #40 in the Dray Prescott series by Kenneth Bulmer, and we find Dray face to face with the Star Lords once again, after defying them in the previous book.  All is well, however, and he even manages to talk them into following his advice for his next step in serving them.  The Shanks ("Fishheads") are a savage and evil bunch attempting to take over the entire planet and enslave everyone.  Dray has fought them before, but this time he volunteers to go into a city that they have captured and are terrorizing.  He enlists the help of some renegades and like-minded slaves in hopes of timing his attack from within the city with the upcoming one from without.  Bulmer's attention to detail is an awesome feat; I don't know how he kept track of events from earlier books, but he even footnotes where readers can go back and check if they so wish.  Also, his sense of humour seldom lets up, leaving behind all of the much more serious fantasy adventure novels in this aspect.  The novel ends at a cliffhanger moment, so we will have to wait awhile to find out what happens next.  Will Dray Prescott be able to save his friends from slavery, or will he be captured and enslaved himself?  This fun and fascinating series continues to interest me, even forty books on.  *** stars.

 

Incident on Ath is from 1978 and is 188 pages long, #18 in the on-going saga of Earl Dumarest written by E C Tubb.  Any book in this series would make a fantastic SF movie, though the same could be said for virtually any book by Tubb.  But Star Wars marches on.  This time we begin on planet Juba, a place that Dumarest is trying to now leave.  He is being searched for the Cyclan, that race of Cybers--part human, mostly machine) for knowledge he has tucked away in his brain.  This knowledge will advance their cause greatly in their scheme to rule the galaxy, so our hero is always on the run.  Where is he going?  This is the one weak link in this series.  He wants to return to earth, where he was born, but no one has heard of it and thinks it's a myth.  His reasons for returning are never given--when he left as a boy it was a world devastated by war and environmental disasters.  So why not go back and see the old homestead.  Anyway, he hears of the planet Ath, which sounds like the planet he is looking for.  As things turn out, Ath likely had all the answers he needed, but, like the old TV series The Fugitive, Tubb can never give him what he wants.  The computer with the knowledge gets blown up in a man's failed scheme to take over the planet, which has something very much like Herbert's spice.  And so we move on to the next volume.  Tubb weaves an amazing story around these events, with a lot of science mixed in for good measure.  He even includes the arts, with a disillusioned painter and a very beautiful and talented ballerina.  This is one of the better entries in the series.  *** stars.

 

The Whispering Swarm is from 2014, the first book of The Sanctuary of the White Friars series by Michael Moorcock.  The book is 470 pages and is divided into 3 shorter books.  I read one of the shorter books each past month, the first one 190 pages long.  90% of this first book is Moorcock's autobiography, and he throws in a little bit of mysterious goings on in London for seasoning.  I wish he had just stuck to autobiography or to fiction; the two do not mesh very well.  In fact, Moorcock comes out looking like a total idiot, one of the stupidest heroes of any book I have ever read.  Even though he continually wanders into a fantasy London area, he attributes it to LSD.  Really?  Is anybody that dumb?  While he goes on and on about how great his imagination is, the best he can come up with for explaining the strange goings on behind the big gate he sometimes has access to is to say it was LSD.  Very good, Michael.  Very believable.  He becomes one of those characters you want to shake very badly, or see him get run over by a bus.  The fantasy part shows promise, whenever he decides to get more serious about it.  The autobiography is interesting since Moorcock has met so many influential writers.  Right now I have very mixed feelings about the book, as it took 190 pages to convince himself that something strange is actually happening to him.  Great deduction.  More to follow next month.

Reviewed February 2nd/26 

 

The 2nd book of The Whispering Swarm continues pretty much in the same tradition as the first, except that Michael now is beginning to believe something strange is going on.  Ya think?  Was there ever such as moron in fiction who lived to tell the tale?  Michael divides his time between telling us more of his autobiography, how much his loves his wife and daughters, how much he loves the girl from behind the gates he's shagging, and how his tinnitus stops when he goes there.  Yet he still makes no real connection.  In most horror novels such a dimwitted hero would likely die and no one would miss him.  I am coming around to wishinf for that idea in this case.

Reviewed March 1st/26 

 

In the 3rd book of The Whispering Swarm Moorcock continues to use the kitchen sink approach to writing.  He uses autobiography a lot (changed somewhat, of course), fantasy, SF and, in this book, increases the use of historical fiction.  British history is filled with opportunities to write fictional accounts of what might have happened, and is a major genre of fiction writing today.  Moorcock taps into this with his Cromwell versus King Charles I.  He joins a party of loyalists who attempt to rescue the King from prison the night before he is to be executed.  Moorcock and readers know that Charles was beheaded, but with Moorcock and his use of multi universes one never knows where this angle might be going.  Be reassured that history does follow its course, but the reason that the rescue does not come off is that Charles refuses to be rescued.  There follows a climactic scene on the frozen Thames at night during a winter thunder snowstorm.  While the third book in this volume is the best of the three, it still can't really save a sinking ship.  Planned as a series of four volumes, at least one more has been written.  I may or may not get around to it.  If I can pick up the next volume cheaply I will, but that is still no guarantee it will get read and reviewed.  I wish Moorcock had simply written an autobiography.  For now, Moorcock reading and reviews will be rested for a time.

** 1/2 stars

 

My used hardcover edition was read over a period of three months. 

 

Turning now to Delphi Classics I began with another round of stories featuring martin Hewitt, private detective. Just as smart as Holmes, and much more personable, Hewitt and his sidekick Brett tackle a mastermind criminal this time.  Arthur Morrison's The Red Triangle is a series of six stories from 1903.  Mastermind Maes is behind all of the crimes investigated, and though the stories can be read as separate tales, there are ingeniously woven together to form a novel.  Similar to Moriarty and Holmes, Maes is thwarted in all of his misdeeds by Hewitt, and though they do have a final encounter in the sixth and final story, it ends very differently in this telling for the detective.  All of the stories are well written and worth reading, and the linking device used to make us keep reading is a good one.  All of Morrison's Martin Hewitt tales are recommended highly to fans of Sherlock Holmes, and they can stand up against most of Doyle's tales.  *** 1/2 stars.

 

An early edition. 

 

Next came another book by E. Nesbit concerning the Bastable Children.  The New Treasure Seekers is from 1904 and contains several shorter stories loosely linked.  In the first story one of the boys tries to stowaway to Rome, hiding in a clothing basket dressed in a clown suit.  It becomes a true childhood misadventure.  In the next story the children try to concoct a superior Christmas pudding.  This story is pretty funny and more than plausible.  Don't forget to wash the raisins and currents before using them.

The third story is about a distant cousin who visits and is slightly older than the Bastable children. Archibald is also a cad of the first order, but proves no match for his more sensible and decent younger cousins (and their female servant).  In "Over The Water To China" the children get into a situation when they go searching for their lost dog.  It takes them across the Thames from Greenwich and into a very poor area as they follow a lead on their missing dog.  Three of them, led by Alice, end up in a street fight with five thuggish and unpleasant boys tormenting an elderly Chinese man.  After a day long adventure it turns out that the dog wasn't missing after all.

In "The Young Antiquaries" they venture to Red House to meet again with the famous writer who lives there, and this time meet Mrs. Red House, who turns into a very good sport and super fine person.  In the next story their Red House adventure continues, leading to an undiscovered extra room in the cellar and the treasures found there in. 

The next story is one of revenge, but the result is far from sweet.  In the next story the children try to do their writer uncle, who is in Rome, a favour by convincing his London editor that the chapter returned for a rewrite is worth printing as it is.  Good intentions always seem to go off the rails with these children, and this episode is no different.

The final three stories take place at the seaside, after the children are sent there to recuperate following a measles outbreak.  Along with Mr and Mrs Redhouse, a new adult friend is made, the sister of the woman they are lodging with.  It ends by the narrator (Oswald, of course) informing us that there will be no further Bastable stories.  And he was correct.

*** stars. 

 

P D Wodehouse wrote a number of books about upper grade public school boys, usually involving cricket as a central theme.  The Head of Kay's is from 1905 and follows the day to day adventures of several boys at boarding school.  The funny thing about these books, and probably why they were popular with boys at the time, is that there is no mention of actual school work or in-class scenes.  The story revolves around life before and after classes and on weekends.  Girls play no part in the stories, either.  Sport, mischief and getting along with others is a recurring theme, though Wodehouse is such a fine storyteller that a reader can sail through the book effortlessly and not be minded about themes or ideals very much.  Kay's is one of the school houses, identified by the teacher put in charge of it, and old Kay himself is a character to be reckoned with.  His house has a bad reputation and so he pilfers a senior from a different house to try and bring some order to his realm.  *** stars.

 

I brought two books to London with me, one to read at the hotel at night and the second to read on the long plane ride home.  Roddy Doyle's The Deportees and Other Stories was published in paperback in 2007 and contains 8 stories.  All of the stories are concerned with the immigrant experience in Ireland, and while each story has something important to say on the topic, a few say it better than anything I have ever come across.  "Guess Who Is Coming To Dinner" is about a black man coming to dine in a typical working class Irish household, and the father's reaction to the event.  The story is priceless and very well told.  The title story is a sort of followup to the author's best known novel, The Commitments.  This time the band is built using only immigrant talent.  The story is very funny and worth reading just as a lark, never mind the deeper meaning it may have.  It is worth the price of the book.  "New Boy" is a terrific tale of a young black schoolboy enduring his first day in a new school in a new country.  A virtuoso telling of a traumatic experience.  "57% Iris is a funny story about what it means to be Irish, and how such a concept can be broken into a mathematical statement of fact.  Funny and very original.  "The Pram" is a first rate horror tale about a haunted pram and the Polish woman who must push it every day with the baby she looks after for an Irish family.  This is one of the grimmest tales of immigrant experience I have ever read.  All in all this is a rich collection containing several unforgettable tales.  Highly recommended.

***1/2 stars.

 

A terrific story collection! 

 

Outside Looking In is a truly remarkable story by T. C. Boyle from 2019.  It is a fictional look at the history of LSD and its use among early researchers.  The story begins in a Swiss lab during WW II, then jumps to the early 1960s at Harvard.  This is a not very thinly disguised history of Timothy Leary's LSD experiments.  The story centers around Fritz, a grad student studying Psychology, and his wife Joanie and their young son Corey.  Fritz comes under the influence of the very charismatic Tim(othy) and he and his wife begin using LSD for research purposes.  Timothy Leary remains one of the most fascinating characters of the 20th C, polarizing people's views as to his research methods and his use of drugs to gain enlightenment.  While the novel focuses on the early years of experimentation, including several seasons at Millbank and the Mexico summers, the book really dives deep into the milieu of early 60s drug experimentation, with Boyle's focus on one family as a way to show outsiders what was really going on.  Fitz's inability to free himself from the group experience (his wife eventually pulls out with their son), and the fact that his life is going absolutely nowhere, is the tragic outcome of a science experiment that ditched the science and went with the drug experience instead.  Fritz essentially fell into a black hole and was unable to extricate himself.  The final words of the novel are shocking, though we knew all along what was happening and what wasn't.  The search for Truth evaporated into an alcoholic and drug induced haze of existence; it became a never ending party, fundraising event and nothing more.  This is a story that I didn't want to end, but the ending was perfect, as we watch the (sinking) ship sail on.  And on.  **** stars.

 

Timothy Leary and friends get exposed. 

 

A good read to follow up with was Paddy Chayefsky's 1978 novel Altered States.  I have seen the film many times and have always wanted to read the novel.  The author did a lot of research before he began writing it, but he still takes us where no man has ever gone before.  This is a fascinating SF novel about one man's search for Truth, and finding it.  There is a good deal of science talk and the main characters are all doctors of some sort, including medical.  This should not turn off a general reader as the story is as fascinating as it gets.  In the previous novel reviewed above we saw Leary and others fail in their search for Truth through the use of LSD.  In the end they just became addicted to the high.  It would be like just watching the trippy light show scene from 2001 over and over again, rather than the entire film.  The hero in Altered States is just as crazy as Leary, but a bit more serious about achieving his goal.  What a fascinating line of thought to realize that within us might be locked away the entire history of evolution.  Is there a way to tap into it?  Edward Jessop tries an isolation tank, then drugs, then a combination of both before hitting on the bullseye.  Though the film version is terrific, the novel is much better, with clearer goals and outcomes than the film.  The book is pretty short, highly readable and very highly recommended.  **** stars.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

The Starless Sea is a book that I was greatly looking forward to reading.  Erin Morgenstern had written a fantasy masterpiece in her previous work The Night Circus.  I was excited to finally see her second novel arrive at the top of my reading list.  Published in 2019, I can honestly say that the book was a great disappointment.  It is a muddled mess with cardboard characters (less than dolls), no line of direction, and an ending so confusing that I doubt many readers (if they even read that far) came away with anything.  It's the kind of novel that some people might encounter and think they are reading something very profound.  While the ideas behind the book are original and very intriguing, their handling leaves so much to be desired.

 

For starters, the book is way too long. It needs a brutal edit.  That would hopefully knock off about 150 unnecessary pages. The author needs to focus on what it is she is doing, saying and trying to achieve.  None of the characters appear to know, usually a bad sign in a novel.  The lead character is a gay male gamer who gets caught up in a whirlwind of fairy tale activity, most of it below ground.  He is constantly off balance, wondering what is happening to him.  None of the characters grow or change in any way during the novel.  The author seems lost herself in a world of fairy tales, with the Alice stories uppermost in her mind as she writes.  While her fantasy world creations are every bit as enchanting as those found in the Alice stories, Morgenstern's wit and writing skills fall far below those of Lewis Carroll.  I cannot recall a single funny line in the current book, nor any attempt to link what is happening underground to anything above.  Humourless fantasy books become very tiring after a while, and this one really tuckered me.

 

As to the writing itself, there are some passages better suited to poetry; good poetry.  Most of the time, however, the writing is less than stellar.  I will give two examples; if you require more I can  easily provide them.  These examples are from Book V "The Owl King."

 

"A sword and a crown surrounded by a swarm of paper bees.  A ship without a sea.  A library.  A city.  A fire.  A chasm filled with bones and dreams.  A figure in a fur coat on a beach.  A shape like a cloud or a small blue car. A cherry tree with book-page blossoms." 

 

Seriously?  What the hell is that suppose to contribute to a 500 page novel?  Necessary?  Illuminating?  She is supposedly writing for adults.  I feel offended.  Another paragraph:

 

Zachary Ezra Rawlins looks down at words he has been longing to read, near delirious to have finally found another sentence that starts with the son of the fortune-teller in a familiar serifed typeface on a piece of paper removed from a book before being turned into a paper star and then gifted to him by a small owl and then he stops.

 

Quite the run on sentence, is it not?  Did this book even have an editor?  If you want more examples, message me or better yet read the book and keep count.  I stopped counting after a while.  Now we come to the ending, such as it is (spoiler alert).  Zachary Ezra Rawlins (as he is always called in the book by the author) dies.  But his boyfriend (luckily) found a beating heart in a box.  When they finally meet up, after searching for each other a long time, he places the heart (surgical technique not specified) in Zach and brings him back to life.  Afterwards, I believe they live happily ever after.  How's that for a terrific ending, after 499 pages of wandering around aimlessly and trying to figure out what is happening?  You may be wondering about that starless sea we hear so much about.  It's really far underground, and it consists of honey.  Yup.  Honey.  It rises up at the end, too.

 

Was there anything I liked about the book?  I liked the possibility of books being important in more than obvious ways.  I liked the idea of a fairy tale for adults.  I like some of the author's descriptions, and even her original fairy tale stories were quite good.  So it wasn't all a bad dream.  But it was a disappointing one.  ** stars.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

I finished up with "Killer's Choice", #5 in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series and published in 1957.  These are hard boiled police procedures along the lines of Dragnet, but the writing is amazingly good.  In 1957 detective work was an all boys club, and the 87th is no exception.  Usually more than one crime is dealt with in a book, and this one has two murder investigations going on at the same time.  A detective new to the squad arrives from a somewhat softer precinct, and he makes a  mistake that almost gets his partner killed.  Luckily he learn fast.  A brutal thief kills a cop during a robbery, and a woman is murdered at her liquor store workplace.  Both are interesting cases, but the woman's murder is better written in every way.  Two things stand out about the investigation into her murder.  Firstly, every person who knew her and was interviewed by the detectives give vastly a different version of who she really was.  Her ex, her mother, her employer etc all paint almost totally different pictures of her character.  This is not something readers encounter very often in detective stories, and it adds an intriguing dimension.  The second stand out feature is the woman's young daughter.  Monica is 5 and in kindergarten and lives with her mom (now deceased but she is never told in the story) and grandmother.  She is a charmer from the first time we meet her and proves to be a reliable witness after taking a phone call and telling the detectives about it.  All about it.  She has a flawless memory.  We really feel for this girl, who will have to live her life without her mother.  A very good entry in the series.  ***1/2 stars.

 

I read the Kindle edition. 

 

See you next month.

 

Mapman Mike