Page & Spine

I'm very fortunate to have had a fair number of works published in the virtual online pages of Page and Spine Fiction Showcase.  My stories: "So It Goes", "Franz List", "Hazardous Work if You Can Get It", and "The Horrors of Hawaii" along with a fair number of poems have all been published there.  So I'd like to invite you to head over to the archive page where every single one of my works can easily be found and read.  My thanks to N.K. Wagner, the editor and publisher, for her continued enthusiasm and support.  Here is the link:

https://www.pagespineficshowcase.com/samson-stormcrow-hayes.html

From Tolkien to Oz: The Art of Greg Hildebrandt by William McGuire

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I want to make clear that my low rating is in no way related to the beauty or quality of Greg Hildebrandt's artwork which I think is wonderful. If I were rating the book based soley on his art, it would easily earn five stars. Instead, my rating is based on the book in general and as an artbook, it falls short.

I collected several of Hildebrandt's illustrated books long ago, and unlike his editions of Dracula or Poe, the publisher chose to make this in a landscape format. This would be great if the illustrations at least filled the page, but they almost never do. More often than not, three to five pictures are crammed onto the page making them so small that you have to practically put your nose to the paper to take in all the details. This is not what you expect in an artbook. These wonderful images should have a page to themselves.

And then there's the text. While I enjoyed Hildebrandt's quotes and the captions relating to specific works (I would have preferred more of them), we occasionally come to a page of text introducing us to the next section of the book. These are all terrible. The exception is the opening which gives a nice overview of Greg Hildebrandt's life and work. The book ends with a short interview, but almost all of the questions relate to answers we already have from the introduction (e.g. Who influenced you as an artist?, a question well detailed in the opening). Since the book is unfairly listed as being "by William McGuire" (I say unfair since it's really by Hildebrandt and the text is only there to support the art, not the other way around), I must place the blame for the terrible text sqaurely on him.

I will nevertheless treasure this along with all my other Hildebrandt art books, but this book could have been so much better.



View all my reviews

Satan Black / Cargo Unknown by Kenneth Robeson




For a long time I've been reluctant to read some of the later Doc Savage books and this double novel which includes a story from late 1944 and early 1945 bears me out (not that I won't give others a shot, as a Doc fan I can't help myself). Both stories in this volume involved the war effort in some small way.

In Satan Black, Doc is sent to investigate what's holding up a line of oil pipe in Arkansas. The oil is needed to fuel the upcoming European invasion, but a Hatfield and McCoy style feud has started and one faction is sabotaging the pipeline which is owned by the other.

At first, I thought this would be a solo Doc adventure as he's alone for the first 40 pages or so (in a 107 page book). But then Doc completely disappears and Monk, Ham, and Renny take over till he reappears at the end. It wasn't hard to guess the mastermind behind the plan.

Sadly, it wasn't very interesting and it felt like a filler adventure. However, Unknown Cargo was far worse. So much of this story felt like someone rushing through their homework assignment on a Sunday night.

In this adventure, Renny, Monk and Ham have all finished working on projects in London and are looking forward to coming home. A member of the Admiralty talks them into taking a submarine back because of some unnamed reason that will be revealed later. They board the sub which makes its transatlantic journey without mishap until they're near the east coast. Then, members of the gang masquerading as crew, sabotage the sub. Renny barely makes it out, but Monk, Ham and the rest of the crew are trapped. Renny finds Doc and the rest of the book is about if they can rescue them before they run out of oxygen.

What's interesting about both of these books is that while the characters of Doc and his crew are more human, they're also more sadistic. At one point, Doc threatens Renny with his fist if he doesn't get over his grief of leaving Monk and Ham in the sub. Later, Renny physically tortures a member of the gang for information as Doc watches. Doc used to hypnotize people for info all the time, but I guess he forgot he could do that. But what really struck me is when Doc comes across a man stabbed by the gang and he tells someone to call for a doctor! Doc Savage is a world renowned surgeon! His nickname is "Doc"! He invested a brain surgery to cure criminals and performed a delicate eye surgery on Littlejohn. But he can't deal with a simple stab wound?!? A few moments later, Doc becomes angry with the summoned doctor for taking so long.

Without a doubt, these books are only for hardcore fans of Doc.



View all my reviews

The Golden Age of DC Comics by Paul Levitz

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Having just finished one coffee table style art book, I was ready to dive into another. The previous book, Dungeons & Dragons: Art & Arcana, was divided into nine chapters and had a solid narrative outlining the history and evolution of the game's artwork. This book, though it has a lot of amazing artwork, had no real narrative to speak of and I found the text rather disappointing. First, there is an extremely brief interview with Joe Kubert that felt very superficial. Next, we get an all too brief history of the early days of what would become DC Comics. This is the first 50 pages of the book. The next 350 pages is all artwork, but without any kind of narrative to help pull you through, the tiny text of the captions leave you wallowing adrift. I realize that this is probably typical of most coffee table books which are supposed to be glanced at not read, but I wanted more. Not a lot more, but something to pull you through beyond just flipping pages. Lastly, there are occasional references comparing a featured illustration to a future (post-Golden age) illustration. It would be great if I didn't have to run to the computer to see what they're talking about. They should have had those comparisons side by side. In all, while I loved the artwork, the presentation left me wanting.



View all my reviews

Blizzard!: The Storm That Changed America by Jim  Murphy

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


My local library's computer used some algorithm to recommend this book so it was completely on a whim that I ordered it (knowing a little about the devastating effects of this storm and wanting to know more). When it arrived, I was surprised to discover it's a book for young adults, as I was expecting something much longer and more detailed. Nevertheless, it's quite good and provides a nice summary of events while recounting several individuals struggles and deaths during the storm. It was a quick, pleasant read that I managed to finish in a day. It's kind of like watching a short documentary on the subject. I will seek out other books by author Jim Murphy.



View all my reviews

Iron Maiden Legacy of the Beast Volume 1 by Llexi Leon

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Sigh. I think it goes without saying that if you're reading this you're an Iron Maiden fan and I'm no exception. Unfortunately, this feels like fan exploitation. Very cheesy and yet not very tasty. I think the other fans are being generous with their ratings, but I can't be. If we're true fans, we can't be blinded by our fandom. We need to be honest and this simply isn't very good. One star.

(Aside: I can't help but feel as though Maiden is jumping on the merchandising band wagon heavy of late a la Kiss which is unfortunate. They're better than that.)



View all my reviews

Ronnie James Dio: A Biography of a Heavy Metal Icon by James Curl

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


First, I have to say this was an amazingly quick book to read (I read it in two days and easily could have done it in one) and I really enjoyed it. However, it has a lot of problems, the main one being that it reads like a Reader's Digest version of Dio's life. There is only one chapter (roughly 10-14 pages long) that covers his time with Rainbow and another for Sabbath. Surely, there's more to tell. I've no doubt we're missing out on plenty of anecdotes and stories. The author kind of hits on Ronnie joining, putting out the first album and then rushing through the rest until his departure.

Also, one of the aspects of Dio's life that I've always been curious about is his relationship with Wendy and we get almost no insight into that here. The author discusses their marriage and a tumultuous time in their relationship when it seems as though they're breaking up, but that's it. Decades pass without hardly any mention of her or Ronnie's relationship to her. Obviously, they had a business partnership and they never divorced, but there's so much missing.

While the author seems to have done a good job interviewing Dio's friends and bandmates, he also quotes from Wikipedia. To me, this feels a bit lazy.

Lastly, for some reason about halfway through the book there were suddenly a fair amount of typos. They seem confined to the middle section so maybe someone didn't proofread as carefully. A rather minor point overall, but always worth mentioning since they do take you out of the work.

Despite these problems and even though I would much prefer a longer, more thorough biography, one of the things that prompted the author to write this book was that there were no other biography's of Dio. So I'll happily take this over nothing.



View all my reviews