Leonard - LaBrava

LaBrava. Elmore Leonard. Avon Books. 1983. Not that Leonard needs a plug. But while Glitz was his first best-seller, I always preferred LaBrava. The title character is a former secret service agent turned pro artsy photographer. He suffers regrets over the only time he had to kill someone. Soon he runs afoul of a crazy ex-cop the force is well rid of. Next his mentor/friend and a sultry ex-starlet are threatened in an extortion scheme. LaBrava is happy to help, but soon notices that some aspects of the case resemble plot elements from the star's movies. A coincidence? A deranged fan? What's the answer?

Hesse - Siddharta

Siddharta. Hermann Hesse. New Directions. 1951. An exploration of Eastern Buddhist thought written by a western (Swiss) author. Young Siddharta is a Brahmin's son: "... growing up to be a great learned man, a priest, a prince among Brahmins." But Siddharta is not happy. He feels a spiritual void within himself. He decides to leave the world of the Brahmins behind, and, accompanied by his friend Govinda, he joins the Samanas of the forest. These are aesthetics who neglect the body to feed the mind. While with them Siddharta learns the arts of the mentalist, including levitation and mind control. Eventually he leaves the Samanas and encounters the Buddha in person. In these and other adventures Siddharta seeks the answers to his spirtual quest. Does he discover the secret of existance, the meaning of life, the true nature of humanities' place in the universe? Perhaps he discovers these are the wrong questions. Hesse's 'Steppenwolf' is his best known work, but 'Siddharta' is arguably his best written and most important.

Crichton - Rising Sun

Rising Sun. Michael Crichton. Ballantine. 1992. This is a murder mystery-thriller with political undertones. Actually the political issues are very blatant. It is different from much else of Crichton's work in that there is no science-fiction element. A murder is commited in the offices of a powerful Japanese conglomerate. Two police officers are assigned. They are part of a unit titled Special Operations, which seems to exist soley to interact with the Japanese. This book was made into a very good movie starring Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes back in the early 1990's. The book tells the same story in more detail, and clears up some of the inconsistencies of the movie. It was written when Japan's economy was very hot, and the international power of their companies was growing. Some Americans became paranoid, or at least concerned, that Japan might gain control of the U.S. through purchasing its assets. This idea is outdated today, and seems so when reading the book. But even so, Rising Sun is an excellent murder mystery very much worth the read.

Zimmer - The Lost Prince and King Chondos Ride (The Dark Border series)

The Dark Border duology. Incl: The Lost Prince, and King Chondos' Ride. Paul Edwin Zimmer. Playboy Paperbacks. 1982. I recently bagged a re-read of Zimmer's fantasy duology. Outwardly these are excellent works of drama, intrigue, and war. Inwardly, for those who care to look, there are themes of love and death, of honor, friendship, loyalty, and redemption. Zimmer, brother to famed author Marion Zimmer Bradley, was known more as a poet, swordsman, and scholar. These were his first novels, and in them he created a major work of fantasy. The dialogue is visceral, the character development crisp, the action scenes stirring, the drama absorbing. His following work did not live up to this excellent beginning. But in these works we have an underrated duo of epic fantasy that deserves to be read and studied.