Reviewed by: The Goose

…Twenty years after Columbus’ Crusade. What Rome called ‘The Final Victory over the Infidel’. Europe and Asia are on fire as the Tlaxcalan Confederacy storms East. Jeruselum is raised and a Temple to Huitzilopoctli is dedicated with the blood of Europe’s royalty. It could have been…

Science Fiction is SUPPOSED to deal with the future. GOOD Science Fiction takes cultural and sociological issues of today and transposes them into an alien environment so that those issues stand out in STARK relief. Novels that deal with how things Might Have Been are called Fictional or Alternative History. So, what do you call a book that deals with two, count them TWO pasts? One of those being a very strict Historical Fiction and the other being a Wild Alternate History. Plus, THREE Futures. As if that were not enough complexity, there are at least SIX identifiable protagonists. As you can tell, Orson Scott Card’s Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus takes these disparate threads, multitude of characters, and weaves a compelling story of the struggle for Utopia.

Imagine a world just after the Cataclysm. Humanity reduced to a very small fraction of its former size. The technology needed to save the planet (read Homo Sapiens) in the Near Past (read Our Present) is now available in the Near Future. It is, of course, too late. Envision this near future with the ability to View the past and One Person who rages at the fact that it cannot be changed. What happens when these Descendants discover that they are living in a world Not entirely of their making. And what if these people discover the ONE individual who can change it all… Again.

Enough, way too much really. Read it! Decide for yourself.

Card, a consummate writer in the Science Fiction Genre, (See Monkey’s Top Ten List) thouroughly researched the historical, cultural, and scientific data presented in this…Novel. There is even an annotated bibliography. With the usual Card Flare he creates entirely believable Worlds, some past, some present, some future. With the Exception of Ender’s Game this would be his Magnum Opus. The characters are Strong, Real, and create a level of Empathy and Compassion in the reader rarely seen from this type of writer. The ‘What Ifs’ it raises are overwhelming and intriguing. The Alienism of the environment is enough to elucidate the social and cultural issues that Card wishes to explore (See Paragraph 2). Yet, Harry Turtledove would stand in Awe of the Alternate Histories raised in this story.

Go! Read! Reply!
I already know what I think. You tell me what you think!

Mass Market Paperback – 422 pages 1 Mass mkt edition (January 1999) Del Rey; ISBN: 0345424603 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.11 x 6.85 x 4.22

Who is Slappy?

Slappy is the incarnation of the Blind Monkey Review’s main collaborative team. He was created to provide somewhat of a comedic outlet (hence his crazy appearance and all) while communicating his benefctor’s love of books, movies and music.

Slappy originated at a small party one night …

I was telling the Blind Monkey and a couple of other friends about a very strange and disturbing dream I had the night before. In this dream, I was a member of the SPICE GIRLS; I actually was on stage and performing with those talented ladies from Britan. In the twenty eight years I have walked this earth, I have never had a more misaligned and frightening dream, and that includes the recurring childhood nightmare when I was being chased in a cornfield by a vampire. Bela Lugosi’s Dracula to be exact. But that is another of column altogether.

So, as I am telling this story, my friends decide this is the funniest thing I have said in quite a while. There was a lot of laughing and guffawing and slapping (no pun there) of the knees. Then, all of a sudden, the Blind Monkey has an breakthrough: “Which SPICE GIRL were you?” I told him I wasn’t one of the existing Girls, so almost immediately, I was dubbed: Slappy Spice. The name stuck, of course, and for a few months I weathered being called Slappy at parties, at dinner, and on just “hang out and watch TV days”…

Until the day Slappy the monkey was born…

Reviewed by: The Blind Monkey

Michael Connelly is ruining my life. I’m addicted. A Connelly-addict and I can’t find a support group for my disease. It’s four in the morning on a Monday night and I’m completely engrossed in the latest homicidal adventure of LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, Angels Flight. I can’t put it down.

This Hieromonyous Bosch guy is one bad dude! Imposing, intuitive, and down right intimidating; with a soft fuzzy underbelly that shows whenever he’s pining for his lovely (and emotionally unavailable) wife – former Feebie, former convict, Eleanor.

But I digress into sub-plots.

For those of you who have experienced the other Harry Bosch novels, you already know this about him. And I do mean experienced, because Connelly takes over your being from page one (AHHHH — Invasion of the Body Snatchers!). I actually felt Harry’s desperation as he paced his Los Angeles home at 2 in the morning and grabbed the phone, hoping against all his instincts that it is the call he is waiting for. And I joined his disappointment when the call was the assistant of Deputy Chief Irvin Irving calling in the A team (no, not THAT “A” team) for a grisly murder investigation that is sure to become a major media event.

Here’s the skinny, a lawyer is found murdered at the base of Angels Flight, an inclined railway in downtown Los Angeles on the eve of a landmark case. The lawyer is Howard Elias, a long-time adversary of the LAPD with countless enemies among the men in blue. And when the case is given to Detective Bosch, colleagues and friends become suspects as any misstep threatens to ignite racial tensions in a tumultuous city.

This story continues Connelly’s development of Detective Bosch as the hard-boiled detective and archeotypical loner. It’s a theme you’ll recognize if you’ve ever read works by early writers like Raymond Chandler (The Big Sleep, 1939) or Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon, 1930). These literary greats spawned the gumshoe Private Eye with compelling plots based on deception, nail-biting suspense, and human frailty. Connelly has been writing the police detective thriller since 1992, but I think you’ll agree, it wasn’t until Angels Flight that his works became worthy of the genre.

So read it — but be sure you don’t have to go to work the next morning. You won’t be getting much shut-eye tonight!!

Hardcover1 Ed edition (January 1999) Little Brown Company; ISBN: 0316152196; Dimensions (in inches): 1.40 x 9.49 x 6.45

Reviewed by: The Blind Monkey

On a quiet Christmas Eve, I was compelled to find treasure in my Grandfather’s book collection. Twinkling out from rows and rows of carefully preserved spines, I made a sparkling discovery… James Hilton’s Lost Horizon.

Now many of you are probably much smarter than the Monkey. You probably already knew about this timeless classic. But I’m sad to admit, I did not. In fact, when I began the first pages, I didn’t even know what the book was about. But as I continued, I knew that I had read it before. No doubt, at a much younger age when I couldn’t appreciate it or recognize its beauty.

In case you don’t know.. or if you, like me, have forgotten, let me reintroduce you to this remarkable story. Published in 1933, Lost Horizon introduced the world to the Tibetan utopia known as Shangri-La. It is the story of three men and one woman who are kidnapped and taken to a remote and secluded lamasery in the Himalayas. There, these travellers undergo a physical, mental, and spiritual transformation.

This story has an amazing timelessness, and could as easily have been written today as it was back in the early 1930′s. The simplest way to put it is that it rings of ‘truth’. The spiritual and intellectual journey of these characters is one that most dream of achieving. A means to shedding the pressures and torment of everyday life to discover a greater understanding of the individual and the world at large.

I highly recommend it to any monkey looking for entertainment and introspection.

Mass Market Paperback – 231 pages Reissue edition (October 1991) Pocket Books; ISBN: 0671664271; Dimensions (in inches): 0.65 x 6.73 x 4.17