Details Abound but Still Quite Good

Despite a weak first few passages (which by the way became engrossing by page 3) and a less than thrilling ending line, Bob Mayer's Eyes of the Hammer was really quite good. It reminded me of a Tom Clancy with a tad less technical detail, a modern days Frederick Forsyth and a more sober and realistic WEB Griffen. I think I've found a go-to author for when I want a decent military style thriller and I'm tired of Clancy.

Despite having liked the plot and the characters I found the pacing a tad arduous at times to take. I've said many times that reading a Frederick Forsyth book like The Day of the Jackal  and especially The Dogs of Wars more like reading a treatise on project management techniques. Mayer goes into significant, sometimes painfully excruciating detail about the planning that goes into the missions his character's undergo. I would have rather had more details about the mission and less about the planning. But, as a former military guy, it did bring back fond memories of Ranger School operation's orders.

I look forward to the next Bob Mayer novel.

Two for One

Savvy readers of this blog know that I run a series on the importance of first lines and last lines. It was due to these series that I started to recognize the need for a series on passages about mornings. It seemed as though every author loved to say things about the morning. Today we have a first line (one that should probably be in the "good first line" subcategory) combined with line that should also be in the series on the morning.

There was a thin robin’s-egg-blue dawn coming up over Tel Aviv when the intelligence analyst finished typing his report.

Forsyth, Frederick - The Odessa File

Perhaps not the most exciting first line, but it does make me anxious to see what else the author has to offer.

Latest Last . . . Not Much Better than the First

Although there was plenty inbetween that I liked about this book, the first and last lines did not make the list of fun to read parts. A few days ago I posted about this first line, now, done too soon, the last line comes up.

Carlos smiled back at his brother. They were back in business again. 

Bob Mayer - Eyes of the Hammer

So, if the first lines set the scene and the last line closes it, I'm thinking that both of these need to be in the "needs improvement" sub-catagory.

That being said, in a couple days I hope to have my review posted, the book probably won't be in the "needs improvement" sub. Go figure.

Kbuuk Starts Up

The name not-withstanding, and even that is growing on me, I read in the local paper about a new ebook publishing company called Kbuuk. It's an interesting name from outset and they describe it in the article as:

That's "K" for "cloud," which is where e-books are hosted, and "buuk" for, well, "book."

I've gone to the site and tooled around a bit, and it's not too bad. I plan on using it as a channel for my books, although from the article it sounds as though they'd rather have me as a reader than an author.

Although the Kbuuk website went live in March 2012, the company is still in that sand- papering stage. The site has some 460 registered users, with the ratio of authors to readers about 3-to-1. 

The article did start me to thinking. How many other channels will be out there in the future for authors to use to publish ebooks. Already I've got mine on Amazon, Smashwords, CreateSpace, and more. So far I fine Smashwords to be the most aggressive and the best experience, but will more Kbuuks come along in the near future? What will that mean for e-publishing? What is the benefiet for Kbuuks over Smashwords?

One benefit leaps to mind immediately, not being lost in the shuffle. At Amazon there seems to be so many books that newer, less well known authors can't be seen as readily. With Smashwords the area is so overwhelmed with writers of less renown that no one stands out. Also, the categorization and display of works is a tad unweildy. Is Kbuuks the first of the "specialization" publishers? Will we soon see e-publishing sites that specialize in thrillers, others in Christian books, others in non-fiction etc.

You heard it hear first folks.

First Line Right Now

Anyone who has been paying attention should have realized when I posted this entry on pricing of ebooks that the next book in the "to be read list" would be this Bob Mayer book.

This series on first lines was started when I was continually being told how important first lines were. There are quite a few first lines posted as a part of the series which can be accessed by clicking on the link to the right or clicking here. Now that there are over 100 I'm beginning to wonder if I should create subsets so that I can group the first lines into "bad first lines" and "good first lines." But, there's a reason I haven't made this change, and part of that reason can be read below:

The convoy was caught in the tail end of the morning traffic crush pouring out of the suburbs and cascading into Washington D.C. The three four-door Chevys with tinted windows were sandwiched in a long string of cars rolling east along Keene Mill Road. Another mile and half along the two-lane road that bisected Springfield, Virginia, and they'd reach the Beltway girdling the nation's capitol.

Bob Mayer - Eyes of the Hammer

The first passage is not good, but the sense of impending doom for that little convoy doesn't necessarily put it in the bad category. Maybe there should be three sub-categories, "bad first lines," "good first lines" and "could be better."

Not Cottoning to Sacketts

As any even less than savvy reading could tell by the two previous posts on the subject (here and here) I did not like Lando by Louis L'Amour.

It wasn't like I was going into the book with pre-conceived notions of greatness. I've read enough Louis L'Amour books to know exactly what I'm getting into, the problem was that this one took quite a while to get into what it needed to. It was as if the entire first half or two thirds of the novel was all just a build up for the last third. That's okay if the first portion can stand on it's own, I don't think this one did. It was weak all the way up to the very end then it became trite and silly.

I never read The Sacketts. I like the fact that L'Amour was able to build an entire family from which to jump off on many stories throughout many eras, but I just never cottoned to em. This, . . . Lando . . . my first foray into The Sacketts did little to compel me to read more about em. Like I said, maybe there's a reason I always eschewed The Sacketts.

All That Middle Stuff

Although the first and last lines weren't bad, it was all that stuff in the middle that made me not like the book.

Looking down at them, I thought it was a strange trail they had followed, those three, and how in the end it had only come to this, to death in a dusty street, nobody caring; and by and by nobody even remembering, except by gossip over a bar in a saloon. 

Seemed it was just as well a man did not know where he was headed when he was to come only to this—a packet of empty flesh and clothes to end it all. In the end their hatred had bought them only this … only this, and the bitter years between. 

It always seemed that for me something waited in those western lands, something of riches in the way of land and living, and maybe a woman. And when I found her, I wanted her to be like Gin. 

Younger, of course, as would be fitting, but like her. 

Somebody likely to have no more sense than to fall in love with a Tennessee boy with nothing but his two hands and a racing mule.

L'Amour, Louis - Lando (The Sacketts)

Not At All Surprised I Liked It

What I like about reading a Barry Eisler novel is that he always has a good story, fun characters, and without fail I learn a new word or two.

The Last Assassin, although it has many of the same characters from the previous novels (see here), but there was one significant difference which frankly I didn't care for. My first three novels have all been written in first person POV. I liked that all of the John Rain novels were written in that same POV. Eisler is one of the few thriller writers who uses first person. In this novel I noticed that he changed.

In the last assassin Eisler switches back and forth from first person POV with Rain then third person for the two female characters, Midori and Delialah. It was off-putting to say the least. J.A. Konrath uses the same technique in his Jack Daniels series and I didn't like it when he did it. Eisler did not make me change my views on the technique.

One good thing, . . . I think the series has seen the last of Midori, and I say "Glad to see her gone." Never liked her.

As for the words I learned, there were two:

Vertiginous - characterized by or suffering from vertigo or dizziness - inclined to frequent and often pointless change : inconstant - causing or tending to cause dizziness - 
: marked by turning : rotary

Eponymous - (of a person) being the person after whom a literary work, film, etc., is named the eponymous heroine in the film of Jane Eyre - (of a literary work, film, etc.) named after its central character or creator The Stooges' eponymous debut album - giving one's name to something, as a tribe or place.

Both great to know. I hope I can remember them.


There were also some compelling passages. Not sure what it was about this line, but I found myself nodding my head agreeing with the sentiment:


She stood up and gave me a long, tight hug. I caught a hint of the perfume she wore, a scent I’ve encountered nowhere else and that I will always equate with her. There were people around, but we were suddenly kissing passionately.

It was always like this when we’d been apart for a while, and sometimes even when we hadn’t been. There was just something about the two of us that wouldn’t let us keep our hands off each other. Whatever it was, sometimes it was overpowering.

I wasn't going to highlight this passage but the last line really got me. It made me bust out in a smile.


She leaned over and straddled me and then I was inside her and I’d never felt anything so good. I thought, Fuck, not again, not without a condom, and it was the most fleeting and inconsequential thought I’ve ever had in my life.

Finally, other than the words, the great writing, the exciting story and the compelling characters I got to remember the blurb I read on Schrodinger's Cat. If you are not familiar with the experiement, it's worth knowing about.

First Line Today

I know that I said it'd be thriller's all year, but I tried to rationalize reading a western by Louis L'Amour by saying to myself that these were the progentitor of the modern thriller. Sadly, Lando might not have been the best foundation for a successful thriller. That being said here is the first line.

We Sacketts were a mountain folk who ran long on boy children and gun-shooting, but not many of us were traveled men. And that was why I envied the Tinker. 

When first I caught sight of him he was so far off I couldn’t make him out, so I taken my rifle and hunkered down behind the woodpile, all set to get in the first shot if it proved to be a Higgins. 

Soon as I realized who it was, I turned again to tightening my mill, for I was fresh out of meal and feeling hunger. 

Everybody in the mountains knew the Tinker. He was a wandering man who tinkered with everything that needed fixing. He could repair a clock, sharpen a saw, make a wagon wheel, or shoe a horse.

L'Amour, Louis - Lando (The Sacketts)

I read a lot of L'Amour books when I was a teen, but eschewed the Sackett's. I think it's an interesting range of characters that L'Amour invented, but I just never glomed onto them. I should have stayed away.

Cheaper in my Dotage

I had just about given up on Amazon. I don't know, I guess it occurred when my wife talked about how much she wanted a new book to read but didn't want to pay so much. That was the seed, the kernel, that grew and germinated until it flowered this afternoon when I finished my most recent book and went to buy another.

A sampling:

$14.99 - Tom Clancy's Threat Vector

$12.74 -  David Baldacci's The Hit

$19.99 - Ken Follett's Winter of the World

I know I've discussed this issue before, but it irks me to no end that by buying and e-book we are saving the distributor on printing, delivery etc, so I'm surprised there isn't a bigger bargain market out there. $19.99? Really?

Don't get me wrong, I know there are some diamonds in the rough out there for just $0.99, but they're hard to find. That's why I went to Smashwords and found a couple, specifically this one by Bob Mayer, Eyes of the Hammer. I was surprised there was only one book on Smashwords by Mayer and doubly surprised it only came in epub format. Then I saw this . . . his works on Amazon.

$0.99 - Eyes of the Hammer on Smashwords
$2.99 - Eyes of the Hammer on Amazon

Having published my own books on both of these sites I know why Mayer has different pricing, but it sure reinforces in me the desire to start with Smashwords and only revert to Amazon when I find nothing better.

Maybe I'm just becoming cheaper in my old age.