Book Review: The Hobbit SPOILERS!

In 1935, J.R.R. Tolkien published a tale known as The Hobbit. It stars and features a story around Bilbo Baggins. It's also, according to a friend of mine, intended to be a child's book, but the omniscient prose and lengthy story seem to hint that it's more adult, as the prose shows. Synopsis: Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life, rarely traveling any farther than his pantry or cellar. But his contentment is disturbed when the wizard Gandalf and a company of dwarves arrive on his doorstep one day to whisk him away on an adventure. They have launched a plot to raid the treasure hoard guarded by Smaug the Magnificent, a large and very dangerous dragon. Bilbo reluctantly joins their quest, unaware that on his journey to the Lonely Mountain he will encounter both a magic ring and a frightening creature known as Gollum.

The novel opens with a lengthy description of a typical Hobbit hole/house and the Baggins family line. Eventually, we're introduced to Bilbo Baggins, who's a recluse and hates adventure. Gandalf shows up and asks for Bilbo's assistance as a thief for a dwarf treasure party led by Thorin Oakenshield, who wants to reclaim his family castle and treasure from the dragon, Smaug. Despite being reluctant and clumsy, trolls, goblins, large spiders, and the ever insane Gollum, Bilbo and company manage to make it to the Lonely Mountain. Despite his fears, Bilbo challenges Smaug. Smaug, angrily, attacks Bilbo and Thorin and the dwarves. They hole up in a hidden tunnel. Smaug then tries to kill the elves and humans in Esgaroth, but the Bard kills Smaug with a black arrow. The Bard attempts to talk to Thorin, but Thorin rejects all such things, even after Bilbo gives the Bard the Arkenstone of Thrain to use as a bargaining chip. A fight breaks out between the Bard and Thorin, drawing in the elves and dwarves over the stolen elven treasure and Arkenstone. The goblins attack, taking advantage of the fight to wreck vengeance on Dain, a relative of Thorin, and his band for the troubles that are never seen. Bilbo is knocked out during the fight and comes to just before Thorin dies of his wounds. Bilbo goes home and finds out that everyone, including his relatives, thought he was dead, and were in the process of auctioning off his stuff. Over the course of a few years, Bilbo is given back his possessions and is considered an oddity when he decides to continue to meet up with his dwarf and elven friends.

All in all, a decent novel if you can get past the pages of prose that do nothing except set up the landscape and family lines of certain characters. With certain content, it is not appropriate for children of any age. It also comes across as a Dungeons and Dragons RPG campaign without the looting from dead corpses.

Addendum: Also, during that fight between the elves and dwarves when the goblins start attacking, yeah. Apparently, there's something major that happens that the novel really brushes over because Bilbo is knocked unconscious. That major something happens to be that the elves and dwarves are fighting together for the first time EVARZZZZ! Yeah, I was being sarcastic when I wrote "evarzzzz." Tolkien really just brushes that fact aside with the goblins attacking both elves and dwarves that he turns around and knocks his main character unconscious so that we don't ever get to really see the whole damn event. That's a cheap and lazy way to speed up the end of a book, especially for a man who's got this weird love-affair/obsession with the English language. You'd think he'd try and describe the battle, but no, he just knocks Bilbo unconscious and then has him wake up after the battle. A very obsessed fan who's also a friend of mine pointed this out, ranting about it. Really, the entire affair was so small by comparison for someone to forget it. People forget most of Bujold's tiny details in her books and do just fine. It's only the major, hardcore, obsessive fans who nitpick at things like this. I mean, really, how many of you actually recognized that as a momentus event? Be honest.

Book Review: Close Contact: An Alien Affains novel SPOILERS!

In June 2010, Katherine Allred and EOS published a sequel to Close Encounters. It's called Close Contact and features a new main character, Echo Adams, who is also a GEP, a spaceship named Lillith, a dragon bird named Periwinkle or Peri for short, and a new planet. Yes, it is first person and from the perspective of Echo. Synopsis: GEPs just want to have fun . . . A Genetically Engineered Person and self-proclaimed "party girl," Echo Adams loves her diplomatic job entertaining alien bigwigs for the Galactic Federation. But the Bureau of Alien Affairs has discovered she's much more than she thinks—that a rogue scientist endowed her with skills and psi abilities dwarfing those of common GEPs. And suddenly Echo's luxury life is over, replaced with a far more dangerous one: a special agent expected to not only chase bad guys but eliminate them. Echo hates being stuck on Madrea—a planet of technophobes off limits to Federation visitors—hunting for a stolen quartz crystal with a powerful alien life form embedded inside. She despises the Bureau's restrictive rules—especially the one warning her away from the dangerously seductive commander of the king's army. And if she doesn't learn how to use her alleged super-psi powers soon, her partying days—in fact all of her days—will be over for good.

The novel opens with GEP Echo Adams--former party girl, current Alien Affairs agent who hates Kiera Smith for ruining her life because of the events of Close Encounters and the revelation that Gertz-made GEPs have psi abilities--being tested by Dr. Daniels in a room full of Orpheus crystals and is both delighted and bothered when Echo bonds with e Imadei--the little sister to the Sumantti, which is the daughter of the Limantii--and decides which assignment she's going on. Daniels and Kiera tell Echo that the Sumantti was kidnapped and no one, not even the Limantii, can tell where the Daughter Stone (Sumantti) is. The ship Lillith--who's obsessed with Kiera's ship Max--is assigned to Echo and Gem and Rayda's last offspring Periwinkle bonds with Echo, much to Echo's dislike. Using the Imadei, Echo locates the Sumantti on the planet Madrea in the Trinal System on the Sagittarius arm close to where it intercepts the main disc of the Milky Way Galaxy. Madrea is banned and its citizens want nothing to do with the Galactic Federation. Daniels give her permission to go and Echo arrives, dressed as a Madrean and, accidentally agianst orders, runs into the commander of the king's army, Reynard du'Marr. He's also a friend of King Politaus. 

Over the next couple of weeks and while searching for the Sumantti via the Imadei, Echo performs at her contacts--Marcus's--bar. She and Reynard start falling in live. Echo psychically finds out that the Suamntii and two girls named Banca and Gaia are held captive in the palace by Politaus's brother, Braxus--who is deformed and also the eldest son--and Losif Strand, leader of Helios One in the Galactic Federation. Echo's psi ability is to travel in ghost for, but only with people who's scent/memory she has picked up. Strand wants the abundant Sunstar gems of the planet for himself to pay for a war against the Federation. Reynard and Echo have sex, somethings that normally done after a promise ring is given to the woman (this giving of the ring counts as marriage). After being trapped for a couple of hours and with the help of allies, and after learning that Strand and Braxus used Echo's knife to kill Politaus, Echo, Reynard, Peri and a soldier loyal to both Politaus and Reynard, fight to free the Sumantti. Gaia is being tortured by the Sumantti--who's scared and pissed off at being trapped in a stasis box--while Banca, the other girl, wants the power and kills braxus. Reynard kils Strand. 

Echo fights Banca and the Sumantti to free Gaia. With no other choice, Echo shifts all the power and symbionts into Gaia. This causes Banca to revert back to her quiet self and child-like.  Echo and Reynard--because he's now married to Echo and, with Politause dead, has no reason to stay behind--with Peri leave with the girls and crystal. Strand's backers break up and the Galactic Federations cracks their whip, so to speak. Reynard, it turns out, loves the technology of the GF. Dr. Daniels gives Echo the job of being his assistant as she was never happy being an agent in the first place. 

All in all, a well paced, decent novel and excellent sequel to Close Encounters: An Alien Affairs novel. Katherine Allred shows us that not all GEPs can measure up to Kiera Smith and that Echo's ambitions are far simpler than otherwise stated. I hope there's a third book in the works because this universe is just too great to end after two books.

Book Review: Close Encounters: An Alien Affairs novel SPOILERS!

Written by Katherine Allred, and published by EOS in April 2009, it depicts a GEP (Genetically Engineered Person) saving a planet's inhabitants from being exploited by a corrupt company who wants the rights to mine the planet for its crystals and they'll stop at nothing to achieve their goal, but neither does the heroine, Kiera Smith and her pet rockcat Crigo. Synopsis: Kiera Smith is not like ordinary Genetically Engineered Persons . . . The Bureau of Alien Affairs needed a special GEP agent with empathic abilities to handle their most extraordinary assignments—and a rogue geneticist saw to it that Kiera fit their specifications. But she turned out stronger, faster, smarter, and more impervious to harm than anyone anticipated. A reluctant "superhero," Kiera wishes she were normal, but it is not to be. On Orpheus Two, the indigenous Buri race faces extinction, a prospect the powerful Dynatec corporation welcomes and, in fact, may be actively hastening. It is Kiera's job to protect these beautiful, exotic aliens . . . and to discover what there is on Orpheus Two that Dynatec feels is worth killing for. But the magnetic allure of Thor, the breathtaking Buri leader, is proving a dangerous distraction. And now, to save Thor's people, Kiera will need a power she's never before possessed—something hidden in the unexplored recesses of her heart.

On her way to newly discovered Orpheus Two, GEP and Alien Affairs agent Kiera Smith and her rockcat Crigo, on her spaceship Max, are sent to investigate Dynatec's claim of Chapter Twenty--meaning that the sentient species is dying out and Dynatec wants the planet. Once there, the Dynatec crew, led by the sadistic mercenary Frisk and his GEP boss and lover, Quilla Dorn, try and suborn Kiera but it's no use as the Buri--the resident sentient species--leader, a man Kiera calls Thor, wants Kiera for a lover. Thor believes that Kiera is the Shushanna--the one meant to help his people (refugees from a centuries-dead planet) repopulate. After the majority of two months goes by, and offering asylum to GEP scientist Thomas Redfield and Dynatec crew member Claudia Karle, Kiera figures out that the Buri were once the Ashwani and left their home planet when it was dying. As such, Thor's people already colonized the planet so Dynatec loses its claim. Kiera and Thor marry during a ceremony and Kiera--much to her anger--becomes the Shushanna. Kiera tells her boss, Dr. Daniels--the head of Alien Affairs--and he takes it to a judge. Papers are signed but Dorn and Frisk hired pirates to wipe out the Buri and Kiera so they can have the planet. And they do this for the one thing Orpheus II has, the Limantii--a sentient crystal that only the Shushanna can use. Crigo kills Frisk while a dragon bird named Gem leads the other dragon birds to kill Dorn after she (Dorn) kills Thor. Accepting the power of the Limantii, Kiera alerts Dr. Daniels to the plot and then resurrects Thor. Dynatec pulls their crew off Orpheus II, but Claudia stays behind to get married to a Buri warrior named Ghost. Daniels takes Thomas back to Federation space to have him rehabilitated and retrain him for Alien Affairs. Keira is appointed to Orpheus II as a liaison between the Buri and the Federation. She remains behind with Thor with the promise of coming back to HQ for occasional updates in person.

Despite it being all first person, which--if you haven't guessed by now--I can't stand, it is really a superb novel and closely bridges the kilometers-wide hole that is true romance in the realm of science fiction. I highly recommend this one for any fan of romance and sic-fi.