The Miskatonic Manuscript, reviews part 2

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Thomas Mitchell’s review of TMM is here: https://4thst8.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/check-out-the-second-installment-in-the-exciting-adventures-of-a-used-book-dealer/

“The humor can be a bit subtle,” sayeth Mitch, who served as The Editor of a number of big dailies in his day, including (until it passed into the Shadow) Nevada’s dominant Las Vegas Review-Journal, “such as when in the middle of an otherworldly scene frought with imminent danger from the aforementioned prehistoric beasts in another dimension Chantal sarcastically asks Matthew if he has seen any armed gorillas on horseback, to which the inveterate book dealer replies, ‘No, that was “Planet of the Apes,” Pierre Boule, a six-hundred-dollar first edition if the orange print on the jacket spine isn’t faded too badly.’

“A favorite scene of mine has a ‘reporter’ interviewing a long-time architect of the Constitution-bending laws used in the War on Drugs, revealing step by step the gradual encroachment on civil rights.

“Vin managed to snag for the dust jacket an illustration from Boris Vallejo, who has made a career of depicting well-muscled, scantily clad heroines for fantasy and science fiction novels. This one, shall we say, befits the genre. . . .”

— Thanks, Mitch! Oh, and he also includes TMM in his column here: https://4thst8.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/newspaper-column-give-a-gift-that-warms-the-heart-and-fills-the-head/ — along with several other books, including one from Range Magazine that sounds gorgeous.

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John Walker, who surprised us with a lovely review of The Testament of James last year, weighs in again from his Alpine lair to review The Miskatonic Manuscript here: http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/reading_list/?book=1029

“The author is a veteran newspaperman and was arguably the most libertarian writer in the mainstream media during his long career with the Las Vegas Review-Journal (a collection of his essays has been published as Send In The Waco Killers),” writes the Autodesk entrepreneur. “He earlier turned his hand to fiction in 2005’s The Black Arrow (May 2005), a delightful libertarian superhero fantasy. In The Testament of James (February 2015) we met Matthew Hunter, owner of a used book shop in Providence, Rhode Island, and Chantal Stevens, a woman with military combat experience who has come to help out in the shop and, over time, becomes romantically involved with Matthew. Since their last adventure, Matthew and Chantal, their reputation (or notoriety) as players in the international rare books game bolstered by the Testament of James, have gone on to discover a Conan Doyle manuscript for a missing Sherlock Holmes adventure, which sold at auction for more than a million dollars. . . .

“And now things start to get weird — very weird — Lovecraft weird,” John writes. “A mysterious gadget arrives with instructions to plug it into a computer. Impossible crimes. Glowing orbs. Secret laboratories. Native American shamans. Vortices. Big hungry things with sharp teeth. Matthew and Chantal find themselves on an adventure as risky and lurid as those on the Golden Age pulp science fiction shelves of the bookstore. . . .

“Drug warriors, law ‘n order fundamentalists, prudes, and those whose consciousness has never dared to broach the terrifying “what if” there’s something more than we usually see out there may find this novel offensive or even dangerous. Libertarians, the adventurous, and lovers of a great yarn will delight in it. The cover art is racy, even by the standards of pulp, but completely faithful to the story.”

— John, thanks again. 🙂

I don’t in the least feel as though I’ve done justice to any of these reviews — but I feel badly for not having gotten the links up sooner. It’s been the sort of day that has me feeling nostalgic for the hot tub we had to leave behind in Vegas … that sure was a nice way to unwind and relax tense muscles at the end of a long day. Oh well, a good book will do. 😉

 

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