Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto

First published in India in 2012; published by Penguin Books on June 24, 2014

Imelda's son calls his mother Em; his father, Augustine, is the Big Hoom. Em is apparently a suicidal manic-depressive who sometimes hears voices and suffers from paranoia, but in the vernacular of her family, she has "gone mad," a condition that has existed for some time. In their effort to experience a normal childhood, her children "snatched at her during the intervals" between up and down. Other than the two years during which lithium seemed to stabilize her, those intervals were infrequent. We are told that Em's illness often sealed her off from her family.

Em's son, a cultural journalist, narrates the novel, which is partially about the impact Em's mental illness has had upon him and his fear that he has a genetic predisposition to the same disease. The novel is also the story of Em, who talks to her son about her life in uncensored candor. Em's son listens and questions carefully, looking for clues to the origin of his mother's breakdown. The conversations follow a winding and amusing path.

To a lesser extent, the novel is the story of the Big Hoom, as his son pieces it together from stories told by each of his parents. The combined story of Em and the Big Hoom is one of a lengthy but traditional courtship (complete with conniving families), but it is also a story of love and obligation which, from the Big Hoom's perspective, are the same thing.

Jerry Pinto writes effortless prose with a light touch that emphasizes the quirky behaviors and conflicting beliefs of each character. As a general rule, the characters find a way to do what they want, traditions and religions and castes and social opprobrium notwithstanding. They also find, to the extent they can, ways not just to cope, but to find pleasure in an environment of misery. Much of that comes from caring about each other, even when Em's provocative behavior might make it difficult for her family to care about her.

Of course, it helps that Em is delightful, as are her idiosyncratic relatives. Whether in or out of "madness," Em's brash humor is unfailing. That makes the novel a fun read but it also minimizes the tragic aspect of the story. The adverse impact that mental illness has on the family members is less apparent than the humor that bond them. Em's son talks about the anguish he has experienced but the novel did not give me a good sense of his pain. Perhaps this light novel is therefore too light, but that also makes it an easy and enjoyable read.

RECOMMENDED

Soulminder by Timothy Zahn

Published by Open Road Media on September 23, 2014

Jessica Sands and Adrian Sommer are trying to trap the life forces (or souls) of people as they die. Preserving a soul, Sommer thinks, might allow its return to a body that is not beyond repair. When the technology finally works, they find they've created a resurrection machine -- or maybe the ticket to immortality -- but they fail to foresee all the ways in which their creation will be misused.

The technology here seems suspiciously shaky but I'm not a neuroscientist so I was willing to let that slide. The notion of a soul (or life force) that can be trapped seems equally shaky but that's the premise so I was willing to let that slide also. As long as I can swallow the story, my concern is whether the story is any good. Timothy Zahn has crafted an adequate story, although the novel suffers from being scattered.

A popular televangelist, confident that souls exist, is equally confident that mortals like Sommer and Sands should not be messing with them. Religious and ethical discussions about whether God objects to using technology to save lives follow paths charted by the stem cell debates. It eventually becomes apparent that souls can be returned not just to their own bodies, but to any soulless body, which raises all sorts of interesting ethical issues. The possibility of gaining immortality by repeatedly entering new bodies is an obvious one, but what will people give up in exchange for that opportunity? Other uses for the technology include allowing the soul from a murder victim to inhabit a living body long enough to testify against the murderer, allowing disabled people to occupy a living body temporarily or a soulless dead body permanently, and renting out a living body to other living people who want to use it to experience vicarious thrills without putting their own bodies at risk.

All of these (and a few others) are interesting ideas with ethical implications that Zahn explores in enough detail to provoke some serious thought. Like all technologies, the soulminder is capable of being abused, particularly to benefit the rich while exploiting the poor (the most likely to rent out their bodies), but this technology raises more concerns than most. Soulminder, for instance, allows the government to torture a suspect to death, to revive the corpse, and to cause death by torture again and again. If a government has that ability, you know it will eventually use it. Zahn deserves credit for thinking through the many ways his imagined technology might be used and misused.

My complaint about Soulminder, other than its slow start, is that it tends to bounce from one ethical issue to another, from character to character, in a disjointed plot that never permits the full development of any storyline. That makes Soulminder more intellectually than emotionally satisfying, although a satisfying resolution adds some cohesion to the story. Another novel that explores the separation of body and soul, Ian Watson's Deathhunter, is a better literary effort with stronger characters and equally intriguing discussions of philosophy. I nonetheless recommend Soulminder to science fiction fans who want to take a break from space opera and more conventional sf themes.

RECOMMENDED

Duffy by Dan Kavanagh

First published in the UK in 1980; published digitally by Open Road Media on February 4, 2014

Two men enter Rosie McKechnie's home, bind her, and make a precise three inch cut on her back. They mention the name Barbara, which means nothing to Rosie but has significance to her husband Brian, who has good reason to keep Barbara's existence a secret from Rosie. Brian is soon being blackmailed and when the police prove to be useless, he turns to Nick Duffy, a former vice officer who is a bit touchy about his reason for leaving that job.

Duffy spends quite a bit of time trolling the sleazy side of Soho, an area he got to know well when he was working vice. His investigation takes him to peep shows and massage parlors and places that show dirty movies (this is before video rentals and the internet put X-rated theaters out of business). A few chapters explore Duffy's diverse sexual interests and his frustratingly impotent relationship with the woman in his life. There aren't many bisexual detectives in mainstream crime fiction (at least, not that I've seen) and Duffy offers an interesting perspective on such issues as the difference between one night stands with men and women.

With crooked cops, gangsters, and the denizens of Soho's underbelly, Dan Kavanagh (the pen name used by Julian Barnes) provides a colorful cast of unsavory characters to enliven Duffy's life -- although it is exactly the sort of life in which Duffy wants to wallow. The sharply written story moves quickly and reaches a satisfying resolution. This novel (and presumably the short series) would not be a good fit for cozy mystery fans, but readers who like their detective fiction served with a side order of raunchiness should enjoy it.

RECOMMENDED

Inside Man by Jeff Abbott

Published by Grand Central Publishing on July 1, 2014

A woman walks into a bar. That could be the opening line of a joke, but it's also a logical opening of a Sam Capra novel, given the number of bars that Sam owns. This one is a dive near Miami. Sam's friend, who used to work security, is meeting the woman because he's doing an unspecified job for her. When the friend gets shot, the woman's problem becomes Sam's. The woman vanishes but Sam isn't someone who lets go of a mystery, particularly one that involves a friend.

The mystery takes Sam to Puerto Rico where he reengages with the woman and becomes involved with her family. There is a dirty side to the family business and enough family drama to power a television miniseries. Whether someone in the family killed Sam's friend is the central mystery, but as Sam gets drawn more deeply into the power struggle that preoccupies the family members, he has additional mysteries to solve. Before he learns the answers, he finds himself in a predicament that echoes the classic television series The Prisoner.

The story is full of action but none of it is mindless. The mysterious Round Table and the mysterious Mila, his Round Table contact, work their way into the story, causing Sam (and the reader) to wonder again about the Round Table's true agenda. That theme fades into the background after providing some tantalizing clues about the Round Table's true nature. A neat surprise at the end also sets up a plotline that will probably be advanced in the next installment.

I wasn't a fan of Adrenaline, the first Sam Capra novel, but the novels have steadily improved since then. Inside Man is the best of them. While it doesn't add much to existing characters, it delivers the strongest story in the series.

RECOMMENDED

Sabotage by Matt Cook

Published by Forge Books on September 9, 2014

Sabotage initially pursues three storylines. The first involves Austin Hardy, who is pursuing a doctorate in aeronautics. Hardy's professor offers him a position as a military consultant but cannot explain any details prior to acceptance. Before Hardy can decide, the professor disappears. Hardy and the professor's daughter, Victoria, decide to find him.

The second plot thread follows Dan Chatham, whose company has launched a secret weapon into space. The orbiting weapon is taken over by someone known as the Viking, who threatens to sell it to terrorists if Chatham doesn't outbid them.

The third introduces Jacob Rove, a retired military man who is variously described as a meteorologist, a marine biologist, and a bioacoustical oceanographer. Having helped a wealthy banker's daughter avoid kidnapping, Rove has been rewarded with a luxury cruise. The cruise becomes less luxurious after the cruise ship is hijacked by scores of armed pirates.

The conspiracy is grounded in a conventional and dull high tech threat. A Russian friend of Hardy's professor explains it all to Hardy in simple terms because Hardy, despite pursuing a doctorate at Stanford, apparently needs things explained to him at a middle school level. I didn't buy the plotline involving Hardy and Victoria. They cruise through the novel with unbelievable ease. Hardy jokingly calls the professor's daughter "Nancy Drew" and that is about the level at which Hardy and Victoria operate. Their lighthearted banter is too childish to believe, given the gravity of the situation. Too much of their dialog is meant to educate the reader, not to inform each other, resulting in expository lectures that do not sound remotely realistic. They concoct a "plan" that could go wrong in too many ways to count, but the novel fails to create any sense that Hardy or Victoria are in danger. Tension is notably lacking in their part of the story.

Some parts of the story are ridiculous. Victoria takes time out from her effort to save her father's life to purchase (and apparently memorize) a tourist guide to Iceland, allowing her to lecture Hardy about Icelandic history. Hardy, having never fired a gun before, proves to be an adept marksman when firing from a moving airplane. A confrontation at the end turns into a chat-fest while dozens of criminals with guns let all the important people live instead of shooting them. Even more preposterous is the password that Victoria's father writes down, encoded in a ridiculously complicated way for no apparent reason, since it is a password he is unlikely to forget (or, for that matter, to write down).

The plotline involving Rove is stronger than the Hardy/Victoria chapters. His heroics are also improbably easy, but Matt Cook at least creates a sense that he might be at risk as he works his way through hordes of armed thugs. The reveal of the Viking's identity is mildly entertaining. If Sabotage had featured more of Rove and less of the Hardy boy, I might have liked it better. As it is, while I commend a young author on getting his debut novel published, I can't recommend it.

NOT RECOMMENDED