Quicksand by Steve Toltz

First published in Australia in 2015; published by Simon & Schuster on September 15, 2015

Liam Wilder is a writer. At least, that’s his ambition. Aldo Benjamin, fresh out of prison, is Liam’s unwilling muse. Liam thinks that a book about Aldo will be a best-seller as well as a needed eye-opener for Aldo.

To help the reader understand all of this, Liam flashes back to discuss his life, his marriage, his failures, his career in law enforcement, Aldo’s life, Aldo’s failures (which are many), Aldo’s mental health issues (also many), Aldo’s ideas and opinions and theories (which spew forth in energetic bursts), Aldo’s marriage to Stella, Aldo’s unfortunate reaction to an unfortunate situation involving Stella, Aldo’s relationship with his mother Leila (who suffers the sins of her son), and more. Much more.

Aldo has a gift for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, a gift he exercises throughout the course of the novel, inevitably leading to misfortunes of his own making. He might be better off dead but that, too, is something he can’t quite manage to get right. At the same time, the novel is a testament to perseverance, most clearly expressed in Aldo’s attempts to surf when he is physically incapable of doing so.

I would complain that the plot goes off track early and often if the plot actually followed a track. This is an episodic novel, each episode representing a highlight (or lowlight) of Aldo’s life. One portion of the novel is presented in the form of a police interrogation, with Liam questioning Aldo about a crime he possibly committed. Another portion consists of a transcript of Aldo’s trial. The story is engaging but overwhelming, to the extent that I was only able to absorb it in small doses.

Readers looking for likable characters might be put off by Quicksand. Aldo isn’t necessarily unlikable, but he’s far from admirable. Liam has identified himself as a tragic failure (certainly a failure as a novelist and not much of a cop) which isn’t an attractive quality. Startling prose, offbeat humor, and meaningful (if underdeveloped) themes are reasons to spend time with fictional characters you wouldn’t invite to a party.

The comedy is dark but amusing. I’m not sure why anyone would put up with Aldo (and most people don’t), but his enduring and unlikely friendship with Liam is probably the story’s point. Liam sees something of value in Aldo that the reader occasionally glimpses -- something more than sharp wit -- that allows their friendship to survive. Aldo might be a walking catastrophe, but even a catastrophe deserves a friend. Anyone who has maintained a friendship with someone who has been rejected by the vast bulk of humanity will likely appreciate Quicksand.

RECOMMENDED

Night and the Enemy by Harlan Ellison

First published in 1987; revised edition published by Dover on November 18, 2015

Over the years, Harlan Ellison wrote several stories about the Earth-Kyba War. Five of those were eventually adapted to graphic format with artist Ken Steacey. A couple appeared, or were slated to appear, in magazines. All five were published as Night and the Enemy in 1987. The Dover edition (2015) adds new introductions by Ellison and Steacey and includes the story “The Few, the Proud” which was not in the original edition.

“Run for the Stars” first appeared in 1957. A drug addict who is forced to run or die at the hands of the Kyben might be Earth’s last best hope of preparing for a Kyben attack. The addict discovers himself as he runs, finds courage he did not know he possessed. As he explains in the introduction, Ellison wrote the original version of this story in his early days, when he was banging out stories as quickly as he could to keep food on the table. That explains why the prose has a first draft quality, but with Ellison it is the gut-punch power of the story that matters.

“Life Hutch” is a vivid account of a man who steers his disabled ship to a planet with a life hutch, only to be attacked and nearly killed by a dysfunctional robot. The story first appeared in 1956. Again, the prose is a little rough but the intensity is pure Ellison. There is almost no dialog in “Life Hutch” so this is more an illustrated story than a graphic adaptation.

“Untouchable Adolescents” (1957) is a “first contact” story with a planet whose inhabitants have already had an unfortunate contact with the Kyben. The kindly humans want to save the alien planet, which is about to crumble apart, but the aliens, having experienced “help” from the Kyben, aren’t interested. “Trojan Hearse” (1956) is a very short story about a Kyben attempt to invade Earth. These are both mildly interesting stories, but weaker than the others in the collection.

“Sleeping Dogs” (1964) is one of the volume’s highlights. Probably influenced by Vietnam, the story concerns the destruction of innocents in blind devotion to a cause. This is a subtler, more nuanced view of the Earth-Kyber war than the earlier stories portray. Not only is it one of the volume’s best stories, it is one of the most successful graphic adaptations of Ellison’s original text.

Another highlight, “The Few, the Proud” (1989), did not appear in the original edition of Night and the Enemy. It is an unillustrated addition to the 2015 edition. The story is basically a monologue, the statement of a man who is about to be sentenced for desertion, after being sold on the glory of military service, only to realize that killers aren’t heroes. No matter the cause for which they kill, no matter how hatefully the enemy is portrayed, they are still nothing more than killers.

This is a volume that Ellison fans will want to acquire, but any fan of graphic storytelling should also enjoy it.

RECOMMENDED

Zero World by Jason M. Hough

Published by Del Rey on August 18, 2015

My reaction to Zero World is much like my reaction to Jason Hough's Dire Earth novels. I thought the trilogy told a fun action-adventure story that lacked depth and strong characters. I also thought the novels seemed padded and could have been condensed into a tighter, stronger, single novel.

So it is with Zero World. The novel sets up a sequel. It seems longer than it needs to be. The characters are bland and the story isn’t thought-provoking. But as an action-adventure novel, it is fun, easy reading with a couple of surprising moments.

Peter Caswell is an assassin. His memory is wiped after each assassination, so he starts fresh every time. He has 206 kills as the novel starts (a statistic he knows only because of a little trick he plays with beer bottles).

Peter is sent through something like a wormhole to track down Alia Valix, who is making mischief on an Earthlike planet called Garta where people conveniently speak English. Hot on the trail of her mischief is ace reporter Melni Tavan, who seems to be the Lois Lane of the planet Garta although she may not be what she seems.

In fact, none of the major characters, including Peter, his boss, and Alia are necessarily the people they appear to be. Hence the surprising moments. In addition to some interesting plot twists, the story moves with a good pace despite the apparent padding. I suspect that, after reading the sequel, I will again think that the same ground could have been covered in a single novel, but I enjoyed this one despite its wordiness.

RECOMMENDED

Death by Water by Kenzaburo Oe

Published in Japan in 2009; published in translation by Grove Atlantic on October 6, 2015

Most of Death by Water is comprised of conversations among artistic intellectuals. Reading it is like pulling a sled up a snow-covered hill, exalting at reaching the top, enjoying the speedy ride down the other side, wandering for a while, and then trudging up the next hill. There are times when the novel is fun and times when it is rewarding, but most of it is tough sledding.

At the novel’s center is the novelist Kogito Choko, the alter ego of Kenzaburo Oe, but Choko is the least intellectual (or perhaps the least chatty) of the characters. His sister and other admirers spend most of their time dissecting Choko’s work or, more often, his life. My impression was that the characters love hearing themselves talk, even when they don’t have much to say -- which I suppose makes the characters realistic, if not particularly interesting.

The novel begins with Choko’s preparation to write the story of his father’s drowning. Since Choko cannot rely on his own memory, which he has either suppressed or is unable to distinguish from his dreams, he needs access to a red leather trunk that, he believes, contains the story of his father’s life. His mother has instructed Choko’s sister Asa to give Choko the trunk ten years after his mother’s death. His mother lives to the age of 95, making Choko a senior citizen before he can claim the trunk. Returning to his childhood home to do so, he consents to being interviewed by The Caveman Group, an acting troupe that wants to incorporate the interviews into stage adaptations of Choko’s work. That setup enables many of the conversations with Choko that drive the novel.

The core of the story is promising. Choko plans to write about his father through the prism of the “Death by Water” section of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland.” As Choko discusses his past and his writing with members of The Caveman Group, we learn about Choko as both a person and an artist. We also learn about the process of making art from the perspective of a craftsman who uses art to reflect himself.

The best segments of Death by Water involve Choko’s attempt to understand his recurring dream about his father’s disappearance in a small boat. According to Asa, Choko’s dim memories of his father and of the flood in which he drowned have been conflated with Choko’s childhood fantasies, which include an imaginary friend named Kogii who is young Choko’s exact duplicate. Choko also wants to view his father as brave and heroic, although he portrayed his father in quite a different way in one of his novels. Choko is unprepared for the reality of his father’s political extremism -- a reality from which Choko’s mother wanted to shelter him. Unfortunately, anticipation of learning the truth about Choko’s father’s death builds and then wanes as the story gets sidetracked by endless conversations concerning the details of Choko’s life, including his inability to make a connection with his developmentally disabled son.

I had difficulty developing the same keen interest in Choko's life that the characters have. No incident in Choko's life and no sentence in his writing seems too trivial to dissect at length. I also had difficulty caring about the acting troupe’s artistic achievements, which mainly consist of having audience members throw stuffed dogs at actors who are performing dramatic readings of Choko’s work.

Key themes in Death by Water include folklore and myth in world and Japanese history, the nationalist movement in post-World War II Japan, the relationship between aging and attachment to (or detachment from) an era, and whether an aging writer (or any other artist) whose best works are thought to be behind him might still be capable of producing something memorable. Rebirth might be the most important theme, as explored through the discussions of folklore and of Japan and as applied to the life of Choko. At least to me, those themes are more intellectually interesting than emotionally engaging.

The novel might be more meaningful to someone with greater interest in Japan’s uneven transition from “traditional/imperial” to “modern/democratic.” It may be more enjoyable to someone who has more patience than I possess. It is a serious novel, to be sure, but I found it to be more self-important than elevating. If Oe wonders why Japanese readers are turning to modern writers instead of, well, to novels like this one, perhaps it is because they do not want to undertake all the uphill climbs that Oe, despite his sincerity and perceptive analysis of modern Japan, forces them to endure.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Crimson Shore by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Published by Grand Central Publishing on November 10, 2015

New York has been depressingly free of serial murders, but a stolen wine collection in New England gets Pendergast’s attention -- or, rather, the opportunity to earn a rare bottle of wine as a fee gets his investigative juices flowing. Of course, the investigation quickly reveals a more serious crime, one that inspires allusions to Poe. And of course, murders and mutilated corpses soon follow, giving Pendergast the chance to probe the kind of weirdness he relishes.

Constance Greene plays Watson to Pendergast’s Sherlock. I’m not sure what Constance sees in Pendergast (perhaps she admires his ability to move “like a snake” with “feline grace,” “more nimble than any bullfighter,” and with the “uncanny ability to move without sound”), but her burgeoning desire for him plays a key role in the story.

Also playing a role is the dark history of Massachusetts. Shipwrecks, economic downturns in the whaling industry, troubled race relations, and the Salem witch trials are among the historical tidbits that contribute to the plot. Local legends of witchcraft and ghosts of sailors lost at sea add a supernatural element that is customary in Pendergast novels.

Pendergast’s investigation introduces him to several residents in a small New England town. Those characters are crafted with the authors’ usual deft touch. As always, the story moves at a good pace, occasionally enlivened by fights and other action scenes.

Pendergast is a pretentious sun-of-a-gun and therefore not always the most likable of protagonists, but in Crimson Shore his pretensions are less overbearing than usual. I always like the prose and the plot in these novels more than I like Pendergast, but touches of humor soften his disagreeable nature during the novel’s first half.

Pendergast takes advantage of his ability to see into the past, a superpower disguised as meditation that has always seemed a little odd in these novels, although it is certainly a convenient way to solve crime. Shouldn’t Pendergast’s Sherlockian deductive ability be enough to carry the plot?

The story seems to reach a conclusion with nearly a third of the book remaining. At that point it branches off in a new and, I thought, less satisfying direction. That was a bit disappointing to me (it pushed the boundaries of credibility almost as much as Pendergast’s ability to see the past) but other readers may well have a different reaction.

The ending is unresolved and is clearly meant to set up the next novel, which always strikes me as a cheap way to sell more books. On the whole, I liked the first two-thirds of the story and I always enjoy the authors’ prose, but Crimson Shore isn’t one of my favorite entries in the series.

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS