Book Review

Book Review: Chronicles of Siala by Alexey Pehov

/ Peter Martuneac / Leave a comment

In the summer of 2011, I was in the middle of my first deployment to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, when we received a bunch of care packages from charity groups in the United States. One of these boxes was nothing but paperback novels, which, as a voracious reader who had already shot through everything on my Nook, was the best sight I’d clapped my eye on in months. I grabbed several books, added them to my pack, and eventually read through them all.

One of these books had been particularly enjoyable. A high fantasy novel, the first of a series, written by some Russian author. It was different than most other high fantasy books I’d read, and I was determined to acquire the rest of the series once I returned home. Well, things got pretty chaotic in the weeks that followed. Any thought of home, I pushed to the back of my mind as useless optimism. Survival became the only thing that mattered, and thus was the memory of this book cast out and forgotten.

It was nearly three years later when a random deployment memory triggered my recollection of this book, but I couldn’t remember the title, the author, or anything of note. All I remembered was that the protagonist was a thief, and in this fictional world, the dwarves never grew beards. In the days before advanced A.I. could have helped me search the interwebs with little effort, trying to find this book with so little information was a lost cause. Numerous Google searches got me nowhere, and I resorted to asking the owners of local bookstores if they had ever heard of such a book.

Well, last year, my search finally came to an end. A glimpse of a memory of the book’s title came to mind: Shadow-something. Armed with this new memory, I finally found it after 14 years of searching: Shadow Prowler, by Alexey Pehov, Book #1 of “Chronicles of Siala” trilogy. The entire series was gifted to me at Christmas, and I’ve finally read them all. Now, after an unnecessarily long introduction, allow me to review for you the “Chronicles of Siala”.

The Cast

All three books are told in the first-person point of view from a master thief named Harold. At the start of the book, we join Harold in the middle of a job he’s been commissioned to do: break into a rich man’s house and steal something valuable. Here we are shown a good deal of Harold’s character. He is old enough to be wise, but young enough yet to be nimble. He’s a cautious, patient man, traits which have made him the master thief that he is. He’s also a planner and preparer. He did his homework on this rich man’s house, found all potential hazards, and brought the proper tools of the trade (including some magical baubles) to deal with them all.

This is the only character of note we see for a while. It’s not for another hundred pages or so that we meet the rest of the main cast. An elf princess named Miralissa, a knight of the kingdom, Aliston Mirkauz, and the king’s royal jester, a goblin named Kli-Kli. These three stand out as the most important protagonists not named Harold. Others eventually join the party (too many to be frank), but going through them all would take hours.

The Plot

This series is standard high-fantasy fare: the world of Siala is threatened by an ancient evil, a god-like figure bent on domination and control known only as The Nameless One, and it’s up to a ragtag group of unlikely comrades to find the one magical item, the Rainbow Horn, that can forestall the enemy and keep him locked in the far north, beyond the icy, impenetrable mountains. However, this horn was locked deep in a place called Hrad Spein, the Palaces of Bone. An ancient labyrinth carved into the very heart of the world, it extends miles underground and contains countless dangers, known and unknown.

Harold’s job is to go with a group of mighty warriors known as the Wild Hearts, travel to Hrad Spein, and sneak into the vast catacombs below to retrieve the Rainbow Horn so that the magicians can infuse it with power and keep the great evil at bay.

There are a few plot twists, and later in Book #2, Shadow Chaser, we are even treated to some world-hopping beyond the realm of Siala. But at the end of the day, this one checks all the boxes for high fantasy without becoming a laundry list of cliches. There’s a lot more I could say, but I don’t want to spoil too much, as I’m a big believer in going into books with as fresh a set of eyes as possible.

The Worldbuilding

Here’s what really hooked me on this book. Siala is a unique setting that stands out from your typical fictional worlds. For instance, as aforementioned, the dwarves of Siala never sport a beard, a far cry from the usual depiction of dwarves. Why are they clean-shaven? Because the gnomes all wear beards as a point of honor, and the dwarves and gnomes are bitter, vicious enemies.

Another thing that sets these books apart is the depiction of elves. Don’t expect to see the beautiful, angelic, delightfully aloof version of elves popularized by J.R.R. Tolkien. In Siala, the elves are nearly identical to orcs. In fact, they are cousins. Both elf and orc sport sharp fangs, dark, scaly skin, and golden-yellow eyes. As much as they look like orcs, these elves also act like them, too. They are not bad guys, but I wouldn’t call them good guys, either. The elves of Siala are a notoriously brutal, vicious race. They will torture captives if they feel like it, and they are quick to kill at the slightest offense or insult.

Last of all, one of my favorite features of Siala is how shamanism and magic are distinct practices that exist side-by-side. Shamanism existed at the very birth of the world, first practiced by the ogres. But their shamanism grew too powerful even for them, and it destroyed nearly all of them. Orcs and elves next took up a more stunted form of shamanism, and they practice it throughout the books.

Humans, however, cannot wield shamanism. They practice magic, a separate branch of supernatural power that derives from shamanism. It sounds like splitting hairs, but the differences matter. Magic, practiced by magicians, is not nearly as powerful as shamanism, but magic can be wielded quickly. It is also predictable and repeatable, like a science. If you know the spell for a magical shield, you need only say the words, make the sign, and have adequate training to hold it.

Shamanism, on the other hand, can tap into wells of power with untold depths. It takes years to master, and each spell takes time to conjure up. A magician can raise his hand and blast out a fireball at a moment’s notice, but a shaman needs several minutes to scratch out markings, chant an incantation, and even perform rhythmic movements before a spell will be ready. But when it is ready, it dwarfs the magic of humans. However, as the ogres discovered, it is also chaotic. Unlike magic, a single wrong word or misplaced rune can completely change the nature of the spell in ways that the shaman cannot fathom, and this makes for a key plot point several times throughout the story.

Final Word

For high fantasy fans, I can strongly recommend this book as something that hits all the usual beats while simultaneously presenting a unique world of anti-hero elves and beardless dwarves. The pacing is a bit erratic, and at times the dialogue is clunky and odd, but I’m willing to chalk that up to the difficulties of translating Russian into English. But there were no dealbreakers, and about two-thirds into the first book, I’d become fully emotionally invested in our group of heroes. Book #2 got a bit heavy, I won’t lie, but Book #3 wrapped everything up nicely. While it’s not exactly a ‘happily ever after’ type of story (get ready for some tears), I was satisfied with how it ended.

If you’re not sure about high fantasy, I would advise you to steer clear of this one. I don’t think it would be anything close to something you’d enjoy.

Book Review: “Lost in Shangri-La” by Mitchell Zuckoff

/ Peter Martuneac / 3 Comments

A coworker of mine who functions as my unofficial, personal librarian lent me a book recently that he thought I’d enjoy. The title? Lost in Shangri-La. Sounded like a fun adventure novel. I soon learned it was not a fictional tale of derring-do but rather a true story of a plane that crashed in an uncharted jungle of New Guinea during World War II.

The events took place in 1945, when the end of the war was in sight and certain areas in the Pacific theater were deemed relatively safe. New Guinea was one such place and it was for that reason that so many women from the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) were stationed here.

New Guinea was and is a beautiful island full of exotic locations that, in the time before the internet, were unimaginable to most Americans. Given the beauty of this far-flung land and the relative safety from enemy ships and planes, some pilots would regularly give tours to the soldiers and civilians stationed there. The tours became especially sought after when one pilot accidentally flew over an uncharted jungle inhabited by thousands of natives. This hidden valley was appropriately dubbed ‘Shangri-La’.

The reason this valley had remained hidden from outside contact for millennia was due to its location. Surrounded by mountains on a vast island surrounded by miles of ocean, there were no paths into the valley whatsoever. Even natives from other parts of the island were unaware of its existence. Planes that had flown far over the island were too high to see any details, and flying low over it was almost unthinkable due to the treacherous mountains and sheer cliff-faces.

I say all that to tell you how a plane could have crashed in such a location. The fact is that it took an exceptionally brave and highly skilled pilot to fly into that valley and get out again safely, even in the best conditions. On this particular flight, none of these things were present. The skilled pilot allowed his untested, ‘newbie’ co-pilot to handle the controls, even when a thick cloud descended over the valley. As a result, the co-pilot did not see a mountain stretching up in front of him until it was too late.

The plane crashed, engulfed in flames. Of the two dozen occupants, only three survived: Corporal Margaret Hastings of the WAC, Lieutenant John McCollum (whose twin brother died in the crash), and Sergeant Kenneth Decker.

I don’t want to spoil too much of the rest of the story, but it’s a fascinating tale of survival in the face of unimaginable grief and adversity. The trio of soldiers had to battle disease, hunger, and the jungle itself as they tried to find a way back to civilization from a jungle that had no maps and no discernable trails. But what scared them the most was the previously uncontacted native population. Would they help the trio of strangers, wounded and lost as they were? Or would the warnings of these people being savage cannibals prove true?

This is a great story not only for history buffs but anyone who marvels at the human spirit and the resilience it shows when we find ourselves in our bleakest moments. I recommend this to any lover of books and especially those lovers of non-fiction.

If you’re like me and this book only makes you hunger more for a fictional adventure through jungles and places lost to time, you can also check out my Ethan Chase treasure hunter series on Amazon! The ebooks are only $4.99 a piece and they come with some fantastic reviews.

Book Review: “For the Sins of my Father” by Albert DeMeo

/ Peter Martuneac / 4 Comments

In the course of my deep dive into the history of the American Mafia, one particularly infamous member of the Mafia drew my attention: Roy DeMeo. A notorious hitman loyal to Paul Castellano, he and his crew are suspected of as many as 200 murders. They became so proficient at murdering victims and disposing of bodies that their modus operandi became known as ‘the Gemini Method’, named after the lounge that served as their headquarters.

As it turns out, DeMeo had a son and he has written a book about life with his father. He never tries to excuse his father’s actions or deny who he was. His goal with his book is to simply give the second side of the story. Yes, Roy DeMeo was a monster but, in the author’s words, for 23 hours out of every day, he was a loving father who took care of his family.

The early scenes of the book were the most interesting to me. Albert recounts how, as a young boy, he knew that everyone seemed to admire and respect his father, yet he had no idea what his dad did for a living. He carried a gun but wasn’t a cop. He carried lots of cash around but wasn’t a banker. He did know that his father owned a car dealership but was never there. So that was the story he told whenever some kid or teacher asked what his father did.

As he got to about 8 years old, Albert’s father made no effort to hide his vocation from his only son. Roy was grooming his son to follow his same path one day. This also struck me as interesting as in other books I’ve read about the Mafia, it seems there’s a bit of a split over whether children should be brought up into the ‘Family’. Some mafiosi don’t want their children living the same dangerous lifestyle as them while others believe that to not bring your children into the life of crime is a tacit admission that what they are doing is wrong and unacceptable.

Albert recounts two particular stories that clearly scarred him more than others. In one, as a ten year old he was relaxing with his father and his friends at one of their safehouses. His father left a revolver on the table next to Albert and walked into the next room. Suddenly a masked man burst into the apartment with a gun and pointed it at one of Roy’s friends. Terrified and confused, Albert snatched up the revolver, aimed at the intruder, and pulled the trigger.

Click.

The gun was empty. The intruder pulled off a mask to reveal himself as one of Roy’s friends. His father had set the whole thing up, staging a break in and leaving an unloaded gun with his ten year old son to see if he’d do the ‘right’ thing, that is to pull the trigger on somebody. Roy and the crew cheered for Albert, but Albert recounts how violently sick he felt.

The second formative event came later as an older teenager. His father would occasionally send him to collect money he was owed from some of his illicit business partners. One was a brothel, one that catered to particularly sick, sordid customers. Without getting into details, Albert recounts how the smells and sights of that building have stuck with him his entire life. When he finally got out with the money, he ran home, threw his clothes into the trash, and sat in the shower just crying.

For the Sins of my Father is a tough read at times. As both a son and father myself it’s horrifying to put myself into Albert’s shoes. I can’t even imagine growing up in such a lifestyle, nor could I imagine sending my son into such despicable places, putting him through diabolical tests of loyalty.

Eventually, Roy DeMeo is gunned down. After he and his crew caught too much heat from law enforcement, it was decided by the Commission that Roy needed to be ‘whacked’. According to Albert, his father knew it was coming and went willingly to a meeting that he knew would end with his murder. It’s impossible to know how true that is, but it’s what Albert believes.

The last 30% of the book or so is how Albert’s life spiraled out of control after his father’s death. Despite everything he knew about Roy’s criminal business, he loved the man and the man loved him. If only half of what Albert says is true, then Roy DeMeo was certainly a good father in terms of providing for and showing love to his children. Things got worse and worse for Albert until he eventually attempted suicide, more than once.

Mercifully, he finally found the strength to get help for himself and by all accounts is now leading a normal, healthy life.

All in all, I’m glad I read this book. For all the outsider perspectives and opinions about the Mafia that I’ve consumed, getting an insider’s glimpse was both fascinating and heartbreaking. I can recommend it to anyone with an interest in the American Mafia or the life of crime in general.

Book Review: The Five Families by Selwyn Raab

/ Peter Martuneac / 5 Comments

Longtime readers of this blog may know that I’m something of a history buff. The thing about me, though, is that I don’t want to be an expert on just one thing or one field. I want to know everything. Literally every topic, area, or time period of human history, I want to know about it. I will say that the US Civil War is probably my area of expertise but even then there’s so much more that I could read about that conflict.

Instead, I tend to roam the historical wilds. I look to my left and right and whatever catches my eye, that’s the direction I go. Around last November, it was the American Mafia that consumed my attention. I watched that ‘Gotti’ special on Netflix, then ‘Fear City: New York vs the Mob’, and finally “The Irishman”, a historical fiction film about the Mafia produced and directed by Martin Scorsese.

After all this viewing, I decided I also wanted to read a book about all that. I can’t speak for everyone, but I feel like I can only gain so much knowledge from the TV medium. Reading about something, seeing physical words on the page, helps me retain knowledge much better. So, I went straight to one of the authorities on the American Mafia: Selwyn Raab. Raab is a reporter who has covered the mafia for decades for The New York Times and is considered a living legend among people who have taken on the mob.

It was a fascinating book, and the 800 pages seemed to fly by. Raab rights about a serious topic with the flare and panache of the best novelists. He puts you in the jury box as mob lawyers and public servants wage war in the courtroom. He places you at the scenes of the most heinous murders imaginable, like when mob boss Albert Anastasia was shot to death as he reclined in a barber’s chair with a towel over his face, or when Dutch Schultz murdered his closest lieutenant by encasing his feet in cement and dropping him into the East River. He shows you the backroom business deals and how easily labor unions become huge money-making rackets for the Mafia.

The history in this book spans well over a century, from the birth of the Sicilian mafia in the mid-19th century, its emigration into America following the crackdowns by Benito Mussolini, the mob’s golden age in the New World, and finally with its seeming downfall in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.

I say ‘seeming’ because the mob unfortunately is on the rise again, according to Raab. Many politicians, law enforcement agencies, and investigators believed that the conviction of John Gotti, followed by a few other high-profile indictments, had permanently chopped the head off the snake, and for a while they were right. They had the mob on the ropes, but the mob gained a reprieve in 2001. After the September 11th terror attacks, everyone forgot about the mob. All the time, money, and assets that the FBI and other agencies had in place to catch gangsters was reassigned to tracking down Al-Qaeda operatives.

The Mafia saw their opportunity and took it, and Raab fears that they are as strong as ever, especially with the new revenue streams they’ve gained through the internet and sports gambling.

If you want to learn more about the American Mafia, I can point you to no finer source than The Five Families by Selwyn Raab. It’s a hefty tome, make no mistake about that, but it’s size should only make it more enticing.

Book Review: ‘Shadow Prowler’ by Alexey Pehov

/ Peter Martuneac / 1 Comment

When I was deployed to Afghanistan many years ago, we would routinely receive care packages from businesses, churches, and charity organizations, packages containing myriad items. New socks, snack, and sometimes even books. As a voracious reader since childhood, I always appreciated the assortment of books. I had my Barnes & Noble Nook loaded with some of my favorites, but sometimes I wanted to read something new.

One book I’d picked up was a fantasy story, the first of a planned trilogy, written by some Russian author. I remember enjoying it and planning to get the rest of the books in the series when I returned to America. However, the months passed, the book series faded from memory, and by the time I remembered there was a book I’d really enjoyed, I could no longer remember the name of it or even the name of the author. Even Google searches of Russian fantasy authors were mostly unhelpful. The only thing I remembered for sure was that the protagonist was some kind of rogue, and that in this world the dwarves were all beardless, a significant departure from standard fantasy fare.

Finally, 10 years later I found it! Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov. I got the book for Christmas and dived right in, hoping that it would be as good as I remembered. Much to my delight, it was.

The plot is pretty typical for the genre. A nefarious, ancient evil referred to only as ‘The Nameless One’ is brooding far away, biding its time until it can unleash its full power on the kingdoms of men and elves who defeated him once before. In his service are vast hordes of orcs, corrupted men, and wicked shamans. The only thing keeping him locked away behind mountains of ice and snow is the Rainbow Horn, the most powerful magical artifact in the all the world, created long ago by the greatest shamans of the ogres.

The problem? It’s weakening, and that’s where the protagonist, master thief Shadow Harold comes in.

The pacing of the story is interesting. While the world of men is in mortal danger, the protagonists aren’t exactly rushing into action. They do have time to complete their mission of retrieving the Rainbow Horn, but they’ll only get one shot at it so they need to be prepared. And before Harold can even depart on this quest, he has a shadowy demon dogging him, and he has to deal with that. There’s also a mysterious magician known only as The Master, who is either working for The Nameless One or against the men and elves. Either way, he’s bad news.

As for the world itself, it’s a very unique world for a fantasy story. As aforementioned, the dwarves here are beardless and are proud of it. The reason being their ancient and hated rivals, the gnomes, grow beards. Goblins are present in the story too but are not bad guys. In fact, they are a formerly oppressed race, nearly driven to extinction by men and elves who believed them to be no different than orcs when in fact they tend to be good and fair.

Speaking of elves, they are fascinating in this world. Instead of the wise, restrained, angel-adjacent type of elves normally seen in fantasy, elves in Shadow Prowler are a bit terrifying. Their eyes shimmer with gold, they have razor-sharp fangs, and they are famous for bad tempers. A passing insult from a non-elf can expect to be returned in the form of an elven blade pressed against one’s throat.

So while the plot is pretty typical, the world itself feels different, which is good as far as I’m concerned.

One negative that I’ll bring up is sometimes the writing feels a little choppy. It’s told in first-person present, through the eyes of Shadow Harold, and sometimes the dialogue or his inner thoughts don’t seem to flow very well. However, I’m inclined to believe this is the result of a book being translated from Russian to English. I’m sure there are Russian phrases or sentence constructions that are perfectly good in their own language that just don’t hit the same when translated to English.

I highly recommend this one to any and all fans of fantasy. I’ll be ordering the rest of the books in this series soon and can’t wait to see where the story goes next.