Review: STRANGE DOGS (an Expanse novella), by James S.A. Corey

I received this novella from Orbit Books, in exchange for an honest review.

A confession first: when I saw this title among the monthly proposals from Orbit, I immediately clicked on the NetGalley link, without even checking first what the theme would be, or which character it might focus on.  For me it was more than enough that the story would be centered on the Expanse’s universe, one of the best (it not THE best) space opera series currently running. The rest would take care of itself… And it did, indeed: even though none of the familiar “faces” is present in this novella, the story is totally absorbing and my only complaint is that it ended too soon, leaving me with a lot of questions that I hope will be answered in the next full-length book(s).

Laconia is one of the worlds opened to colonization by the alien portal whose creation we saw in Abaddon’s Gate, and young Cara arrived there as an infant together with her parents; her brother Xan was born on Laconia and both of them don’t know any other life but that of their new home, Earth being more like a fairy-tale than an actual place.  Cara’s life is divided between school lessons, domestic chores and the times she spends near the pond at some distance from her home, where she observes the strange flora and fauna of her home world.  And Laconia looks indeed like a wondrous place: the descriptions of Cara’s surroundings create an image of a beautiful, alien world full of possibilities, a place devoid of grave dangers and just perfect for a young person’s imagination to run free.

Not everything is idyllic in this new world, though: the presence of soldiers, who landed on Laconia in the aftermath of the brutal attack on Earth from Nemesis Games, has placed a veil of unease on the settlers and at times Cara intercepts some conversations between her parents that make her wonder about the seriousness of their tone, and the half-understood sentences she is able to catch. Still, she does not delve too deeply on that, preferring to spend her time observing the animals that visit her pond: the weirdest encounter happens when she sees for the first time a group of peculiar dog analogues, creatures that seem possessed of a superior intelligence and that fire her curiosity and imagination, especially when they seem able to do the impossible.

I’m sorry I can’t be more specific, but to do so would be to spoil the whole story, particularly because at some point tragedy strikes and the dogs – the Strange Dogs – will prove pivotal in the upheaval of Cara’s life and the hard choices she will feel compelled to make.  Also, the fact that rogue Martian admiral Duarte is mentioned, and since he’s very likely the one who stole the protomolecule sample Fred Johnson was safekeeping, this detail lays a very uneasy feeling on the whole scenario, especially where the dogs and their peculiar abilities are concerned…

What I can safely share is how well-rounded Cara appears, despite the short length of the story, how she feels both very young and very mature at the same time, and how she is able to maintain a sort of… lucid innocence – for want of a better word – despite the harrowing events developing in her world.

There are so many narrative threads in this short story, and they are quite tantalizing because the authors just touch on each subject, moving swiftly to another one and so on, and that’s the reason I felt both intrigued and frustrated while reading the novella: my hope is that this might be a sample of what we will find in the next installments of the series, branching off in what promises to be a new and exciting direction, as it has done with every single book.  All the same, this was a very, very welcome “appetizer” while the wait for Persepolis Rising goes on…

 

My Rating: 

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Novella Review: HOPE’S END (Powder Mage #4), by Brian McClellan

Another prequel story from Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage world: this one does not focus on Tamas directly, but rather sees him through the eyes of his subordinates, in particular Captain Verundish, a field officer.  At the beginning of the story Verundish is contemplating suicide: a letter she received from her philandering husband requests she divorce him, so he will be able to marry his mistress. Since it might be difficult for Verundish to grant him a divorce, or rather impossible, since her father – a minister of the faith – married them and he’s opposed to the idea of breaking a sacred bond, she should kill herself to free him – otherwise he will sell their daughter into slavery.  With this kind of threat hanging over the child, Verundish has every intention of ending her life to save her daughter, but the appearance of Captain Constaire – a fellow office and her lover – forces he to postpone her plan.

Constaire has been chosen to lead a “Hope’s End” attack against the stronghold of Darjah, a Gurlish city besieged by the Adran army, under the command of General Tamas: this kind of attack, as the name suggests, is nothing but a suicide mission to breach the wall and open the way to the bulk of the army, and the man wonders whether Tamas wants him dead, since Constaire is noble-born, and everyone knows that Tamas is not fond of people buying their army commissions rather than earning them in the field.   Her lover’s plight gives however Verundish an idea to solve her problem: if she were to lead the attack, and die in the battle, she will be a hero and her daughter would be safe forever…

With this story I realized something, that with Brian McClellan it’s easy, very easy, to grow fond of characters in a very short time, and Verundish is a case in point: a woman who is a capable warrior and at the same time a victim of circumstances and – probably – of warped customs.  If society allows her to enlist in the army and actively participate in campaigns, on the other hand it leaves her at the mercy of a vile husband who would be allowed to sell their own offspring to slavers: there is something twisted, and horribly wrong at work here, something that made me like her instantly as she battled with her options with lucid despair.  Moreover, her lover Constaire appears something of a whiner, and his attitude toward the orders he just received made me wonder if, with them, Tamas wanted exactly to “test his mettle”, and if he had just failed the test…

Through Verundish’s eyes we see Tamas not just as a character in the story, but as the man his soldiers know: a stern, uncompromising man who still has a few axes to grind against society, although he’s very aware of his own shortcomings, especially when he sees them mirrored in others: “Sometimes I envy those men who don’t let pride cloud their judgment”.  The more I get to understand him better, the more I’m eager to retrace my steps in the series and sees how the main story develops.

 

My Rating: 

WESTEROS IN MILAN…

As the start of season 7 for Game of Thrones, the TV series based on George R.R. Martin’s saga A Song of Ice and Fire, approaches – with the premiere slated for the evening of July 16^th – so does the fans’ excitement to see how the story will move forward, now that the all-out war between the various warring factions is about to begin (although I will admit that I will take it all under advisement, while I wait for the next books to come out, since I’m pretty certain that GRR Martin has some surprises in store for us readers and has kept a few cards close to his chest, without revealing them to the show’s creators…)

Nonetheless, the hype is at its highest levels, and many events are being staged to keep it that way: I recently discovered that one of them has been set up here in Milan in the inner courtyard of the Sforza Castle, a 15^th Century fortress located in what is now the heart of the city. Here is a brief video that will give you an idea of the location:

 

A few days ago I learned that a presentation of the world depicted in Martin’s saga and the HBO series would be held on this weekend, culminating in a public showing of the first episode of season 7 at 3 a.m. on Monday, July 17^th, at the same time as the USA airing. Thankfully I will not have to observe such an ungodly hour to see the episode, since Sky Italy will be airing it and, as a subscriber, I will be able to record it and watch it at a more humanly convenient time 🙂

I was however curious about the presentation, my curiosity increased by the huge billboards covering the walls of the Duomo subway station I have been seeing all week long on my way to and from work, and announcing that “Winter has come”, or asking if we were “ready for it”, the more impressive one being a scene of the sword duel between Jon Snow and the King of the Others – a very impressive scene, indeed. So this morning, since I was in the area, I decided to see for myself: in truth, it looked more like a display aimed at younger audiences, especially with the big, bronze-like dragon everyone wanted to be photographed with, and the copy of the Iron Throne with a long queue of people waiting for their picture to be taken while sitting on it – and my heart went to the poor guy dressed like a Wildling standing beside the throne and looking fierce: with a 32 C temperature (that makes it close to 90F) and a 35-40% humidity, it must have been hell to stand there in such heavy clothing!

 

 

The best feature was indeed the fountain in front of the main entrance: it has been dressed to look as if part of it is frozen (after all “Winter has come”!) and despite the July mid-morning brightness it looks good.

The light of day might not be the best to observe the presentation, though, and I believe that at night, with some strategically placed illumination to enhance the location and the displays (and to keep away the darkness and the terrors Melisandre is so fond of mentioning) the castle’s courtyard will take on the properly magical atmosphere required by the event. For those fortunate – or bold – enough to brave the wait until 3 a.m. on Monday morning it will certainly be an amazing experience to see the brand new episode surrounded by the ancient walls of the castle.

For the rest of us, especially those waiting with impatience to know the date of issue for The Winds of Winter, the trailer for the new season will have to be enough.

Are you ready? 😀

Novella Review: RAT CATCHER, by Seanan McGuire

Seanan McGuire’s  October Daye novels are by far my favorite UF series, both for the fascinating juxtaposition of the fae realms with our own world and for the amazing characters moving through both. And if protagonist October is a joy to read as her journey continues through the series, there are some other characters I’ve come to deeply care about, the foremost being Tybalt, King of Cats.  So imagine my delighted surprise when, scanning the stories on offer at LightSpeed Magazine, I came across this one, where Tybalt is the absolute star: the opportunity to learn more about him and his past is not one to be passed by, indeed. Because, you know… TYBALT!   🙂

So here it is:

 

RAT CATCHER, by Seanan McGuire

(click on the link above to read the story)

 

It’s the Year of the Lord 1666 in London, and Rand – the one who will later be known as Tybalt – is summoned by his father, the King of Cats, to attend a convocation at the Fae court of Londinium, to hear some important news. In fact, it will turn out to be a prophecy by the Roane, who have foreseen the burning of the city (the great fire that ravaged London in the September of that year) and urge the fae of Londinium to leave the place, or risk perishing in the flames.    Rand’s father Ainmire, though, is not willing to listen – mostly because he feels that the Court of Cats unattended might undermine his power, a power he holds on to not through wisdom and strength, but with ferocious, stubborn cruelty: as a King of Cats, he rules through fear and intimidation, and does not care about the consequences that might befell his subjects.

This story, besides showing the kind of person Tybalt used to be, helps us understand the kind of King (and person) he is in present times, and how his strength as a King of Cats comes from the respect he earned from his people: this younger version of Tybalt is something of a dreamer, someone who enjoys watching acting troupes perform the works of Shakespeare, someone who feels an affinity for humans that will carry on though the centuries and inform his attitude toward mortals and changelings alike.  One of the best moments of the story is the one where he bids goodbye – in cat form – to those actors, who have somehow adopted him as the theater’s resident feline: there is a depth of feeling in there that says a great deal about how Rand/Tybalt sees his life as a prince in the Court of Cats: “these men, who had never exchanged a word with me and knew nothing of my place or station . . . these men were some of the truest friends I had ever known.”

Another fascinating element is Rand’s growing confidence with the Shadow Roads, the dark, cold spaces between worlds that act as shortcuts for longer distances: in the series, we see Tybalt as a master of these dangerous by-ways, but it was not always so, and here he struggles with his lack of knowledge and resistance, sometimes coming within an inch of his life before reaching a destination, that more often than not is purely random. There is an interesting observation he makes at some point that again says a great deal about the individual he will become: “for the first time, the shadows did not fight me. I had faced them without fear, fought through them to a chosen destination, and now, at last, they conceded my authority”.

This is a beautiful, if cruel, story and one of the best (if not THE best) I’ve read among the corner-filling tales in the October Daye universe: for that alone it’s worth reading, but it takes a special value if you are a Tybalt fan – and in my experience, every reader of this series is a Tybalt fan….

 

My Rating: 

The BOOK OF NEVER box-set and Author Interview

Serialized novels are becoming more and more frequent these days, in a sort of call-back to the 19^th century, when books were issued in weekly installments. Australian author Ashley Capes choose to do so with his Book of Never, and I now understand how those enthralled readers must have felt back then, as they waited to know what happened next.

Never’s story is both an adventure and a quest, and follows the journey of this intriguing character as he moves across a colorful and dangerous imaginary world in search of answers about his identity and his past, while the current civilization stands on the brink of war, a conflict that seems to be instigated by mysterious forces beyond anyone’s control.

There are many indications, along the way, that Never’s world used to host a more advanced civilization, one whose remnants are either puzzling mysteries or dangerous places, and our hero braves those dangers as he’s collecting the pieces of that puzzle to discover who and what he is and what his destiny might be. Even though I’m not a gamer, it was easy for me to see how Never’s quest resembles a game’s structure, with increasing levels of difficulty to be overcome while solving the riddles left by those fabled predecessors.

I’m therefore happy to announce that you can now enjoy the entire Book of Never sequence through the complete box-set that was recently issued, and if you want to know more about this story here are the links to my reviews of books 1 to 5.

The Amber Isle

A Forest of Eyes

The River God

The Peaks of Autumn

Imperial Towers

This event was a great opportunity for me to finally launch into an author interview, so it’s with great enthusiasm that I pass a virtual microphone to author Ashley Capes, so he can tell us more about himself and his work.

Hello Ashley, and welcome to Space and Sorcery! First things first, please tell us something about yourself.

Thanks, great to be here as a guest! Okay, I’ll try and make this at least somewhat interesting 🙂

I’m a poet, novelist and teacher from Australia – where I’ve been told the spiders are terrifyingly huge and I suppose it’s at least half true, they are pretty big. Aside from writing I love music production along with volleyball and also film. Lately I’ve been re-watching a lot of Hitchcock and 90s anime like Cowboy Bebop and Trigun.

I love travel and was once very, very lucky to actually visit Italy – it was amazing! My wife and I think about it nearly every day, mostly about how much we miss it. And not just the amazing food, about everything, right down to the scent of the stones.

Well, as an Italian, I’m thrilled that you enjoyed my country so much, and I hope you and your family will be able to visit again soon. I saw, by reading your Bone Mask trilogy, that Italy has somewhat influenced your characterization and background creation, so I’m certain that another visit will spur some more fascinating stories. And speaking of that, how did your writing career start, and what motivated it?

Like a lot of writers I started young, making my own picture books in primary school, and was lucky to have supportive teachers, parents and friends along the way. Specifically, I think it’s easiest to trace back to high school and being asked to join a band. I couldn’t sing of course (still can’t, really!) but my friends knew I wrote poetry so they thought I’d be good at lyrics. At the time, I remember being influenced by the acerbic nature of Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) but I also owe a debt to Jim Morrison for leading me to The Beat Poets.

Poetry was actually where I got my first publishing success, with several small publishers here in Australia, some years later, but it wasn’t until 2014 that I really started moving forward with my fiction. Again, I was fortunate to receive invaluable advice from my fav Australian fantasy writer, Jennifer Fallon. She helped a lot.

In terms of motivating me to write fantasy fiction I think it was in part reading The Hobbit at a young age and in part just the joy of exploration, the joy of wonder and awe. I felt those things so often when reading my favourite books, seeing my favourite films and even travelling, or walking the bush lands around my small country town. And to jump back to the Bone Mask books, I still remember seeing Amalfi clinging to the coastline, the lemon groves and the calm sea – and thinking that the same sea must have once been so ferocious on the day it swallowed the historical city.

As a long-time admirer of the works of Professor Tolkien, I can perfectly understand the fascination of stepping out of your door and looking for wonders and adventure in a setting that shares so much with fantastic literature!

Your writings, however, move across several genres: there is mainstream with a touch of magic as in THE FAIRY WREN, mystery and inexplicable occurrences in CROSSINGS and ghostly appearances in A WHISPER OF LEAVES, but your heart seems to be firmly rooted in fantasy. You recently published the third (and final?) book of the BONE MASK TRILOGY, would you tell us more about your inspiration for this story and how it came to be?

Yes, I’m a little restless in some ways – I like to try writing almost everything but can’t help adding just a little bit of magic or ‘otherworldly’ elements to my fiction 🙂

And absolutely, I tend to return to the epic/sword and sorcery fantasy stories without fail. I think it’s very immersive for me as a writer to spend time in those bigger, wider worlds. When I’m writing books like the Bone Mask Trilogy (especially the first draft of one of them) it’s almost like watching a movie – but a movie that lasts for months, and one that I’m both in control of and surprised by.

And I suspect that Greatmask (Book 3) won’t be the last time readers will see those characters – there’s a lot of story left, I think enough for a second trilogy. I hope to actually have the first book out late next year and it’s tentative title is The Last Sea God.

Wonderful news! I more than look forward to returning to that world and finding some of the answers to the many questions left unsolved: there are so many fascinating narrative threads in that story, and I for one would love to know more.

Since you mentioned restlessness, there is no one more restless than a world-roaming adventurer, like your latest character Never, from THE BOOK OF NEVER: what prompted you to publish it in serial form?

Speed mostly I think. I wanted folks to be able to read the story quicker than normal, so I wrote Never’s adventures in novella and short novel installments, so that I could release them across the duration of a single year (March 2016 – March 2017). I’d both written and had three novellas edited before I released the first one, allowing me to spread releases quite evenly over the months while working on book 4 and book 5 at the same time.

When I compare this to the three years it took to release all three parts of The Bone Mask Trilogy, I knew my readers would have to wait a much shorter time between stories when it came to The Book of Never. And while it’s true that anticipation is valuable in and of itself, I also wanted to be more ‘visible’ by having regular releases. I know that personally, when I have to wait years and years (or even only a single year sometimes) between releases from my favourite authors I tend to forget when they have a new release.

So true! And from someone who does not enjoy waiting too long, I must say that the serialized form works better, especially since Never’s adventures are – most of the times – self-contained and therefore not prone to cause reader’s frustration. Maybe with the exception of the passage between books 4 and 5, that is…

What about future projects? What can we expect in the next few months?

Sorry about the ending to book 4 there 😀

I’m hoping to release another short novel, perhaps the length of The Peaks of Autumn or maybe The Fairy Wren, by September this year. It’s a Steampunk title and it follows characters I introduced in a short story called Esmeralda, which can be found in a steampunk fairy tale anthology I’m part of.

I love the idea of steampunk because it’s a tough genre in some ways – for instance, there’s usually a historically-specific level of technology that is expected and then expanded upon, along with fantastical elements and of course the key, that ‘punk’ element – suggesting rebellion or an oppressive force needing to be resisted. It makes for great, inbuilt conflict and I really hope that The Red Hourglass will execute that feeling without losing the sense of adventure I like to put in most of my stories.

In the reasonably more distant future I’d love to write another Never story but I think The Last Sea God will be released prior, though I’m still not that far into the writing of it. Still, plenty of time left to get cracking on that one 😀

Of course, and it’s great to know that your schedule is so full, with so many planned projects: I more than look forward to what will come next. I’ve read a sample of your steampunk novel and I’m very, very intrigued, and eager to know more, since it’s happily only a few months away from publication, and the steampunk element is blended with some post-apocalyptic overtones that make for a quite promising story.

Thank you so much, Ashley for taking the time to share your work and your future plans with us. It’s been a pleasure to host you here on Space and Sorcery!

You can read all about Ashley Capes and his works at these sites: http://ashleycapes.com/ and http://www.cityofmasks.com/

Salva

Novella Review: COMING TO YOU LIVE, by Mira Grant (from Rise: A Newsflesh Collection)

After I finished reading Mira Grant’s last  volume in her Newsflesh trilogy about the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, I wanted to know more about the changed world resulting from the rising of the dead, and discovered some of the short stories she wrote to… fill in the corners of her post-apocalyptic world.

When the author announced she was going to publish a book that would gather all this material and a few new stories, I knew I had to read it: Mira Grant (the alter ego of UF writer Seanan McGuire) is an amazing storyteller and I was looking forward to more about this dystopian version of our world, either revisiting the older stories or enjoying the new ones.

This is the last one of the collection:

COMING TO YOU LIVE

This last story in the Rise collection (and the second totally new offering) will be the most difficult to review: for technical reasons, because it develops a few years after the events in the last book of the Newsflesh trilogy, and therefore it represents a massive spoiler for all those who have not read it yet; and for emotional reasons, because finding again a few familiar “faces” was both a joy and a sorrow, since a few of them don’t exactly find themselves in a happy place – not that this surprises me, knowing their history and most of all knowing this author.

So… SPOILER WARNING: read on at your own peril!  I will do my best to remain as vague as possible, but it’s not going to be easy,

Georgia and Shaun Mason have fled from the USA, after the harrowing events described in Blackout, and are now living in the Canadian wilderness.  It should be a peaceful life (well, if you don’t take into account the occasional zombie moose or other dangers…) but unfortunately it isn’t: the Masons might be very good at fighting flesh-and-blood foes, be they living or undead, but they don’t fare as well with the ghosts haunting them.    Shaun is still battling the madness that hit him after the loss suffered at the end of Feed, and although he looks like a functioning individual on the surface, he’s quite broken inside; Georgia is the victim of recurring nightmares of her time as a prisoner of the CDC, and still has trouble adjusting to her newfound freedom – and what’s worse, her… well, peculiar nature is now affecting her physical health.  The two have no other recourse but to risk travel and reach Dr. Abbey to find out what’s affecting Georgia, and cure her, if possible: once they reach the Shady Cove lab they are joined by old friends from their blogging days – at least those who are still alive – and the journey morphs into something different…

At the beginning of the novella, author Mira Grant states clearly that this comes out of her readers’ requests to know more about the Masons, and it sounds more like a challenge than a dedication: if anyone wished for a happily ever after, they are going to be sorely disappointed because – as one of the characters states at some point – “that doesn’t happen until you’re dead”.  I was not surprised to see them still fighting for their lives, although in a different way than the past, and for this same reason I’m unable to picture them living a quiet life like most ordinary people, because in the end they are NOT: their relentless search for the truth when they were highly acclaimed bloggers brought them to face endless dangers beyond those inherent in the post-Rising world, and here Georgia and Shaun are still struggling against the odds, trying in every way possible to keep death at bay, probably because their life made them that way.

Coming to You Live offers the opportunity of seeing again some of the past players, like Mahir, Maggie and Alaric, and the welcome return of Dr. Abbey with her staff (and dog), not to mention the happily mad Foxy, gives this story the flavor of a grand finale, one where the characters I’ve come to know and care for bow out before the curtain falls: I hope this will not be my last visit to this post-apocalyptic world because – as the recently published Feedback showed – there are still many stories to be told about the Rising and its aftermath.  Given that Mira Grant is a quite prolific writer, my hope does not feel so unfounded…

My Rating:

Novella Review: ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES, by Mira Grant (from RISE: A Newsflesh Collection)

After I finished reading Mira Grant’s last  volume in her Newsflesh trilogy about the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse, I wanted to know more about the changed world resulting from the rising of the dead, and discovered some of the short stories she wrote to… fill in the corners of her post-apocalyptic world.

When the author announced she was going to publish a book that would gather all this material and a few new stories, I knew I had to read it: Mira Grant (the alter ego of UF writer Seanan McGuire) is an amazing storyteller and I was looking forward to more about this dystopian version of our world, either revisiting the older stories or enjoying the new ones.

This week I will explore ALL THE PRETTY LITTLE HORSES

In the introduction to this story, Mira Grant describes it as “one of the most difficult, emotionally challenging pieces I’ve sat down to write” and I immediately understood what she meant once I started reading: in the prequel story Countdown we follow several individuals’ plight as the Kellis-Amberlee virus starts spreading, and two of them are Michael and Stacy Mason – the adoptive parents of Georgia and Shaun, the main characters of the Newsflesh trilogy.

In the last scene dedicated to the senior Masons, their small child Phillip is going near a neighbor’s dog that has been infected by a raccoon’s bite: little Phillip approaches his four-legged friend addressing it with his usual “Oggie?”, and that chilling flash is all we need to understand what is going to happen to him.

As “All the Pretty Little Horses” opens four years elapsed and the worst of the Rising has taken its course, while the world is trying to pick up the pieces and to find a way to get back on track.  Stacy Mason does not care about it all though: once the emergency was over, she asked to be punished for having killed her infected son, but when the law did not (and could not) find her guilty she fell into deep depression.   Worried about her, her husband Michael finds a way to pull her out of it by managing to attach the two of them to the army contingent tasked with exploring the Oakland Zoo: it’s while Stacy is taking pictures of the premises that Michael realizes the best way to help his wife is to put her once more in the thick of things, just as they were while they organized the Berkeley enclave to hold on until help arrived.  Stacy thrives in dangerous situations, and so Michael finds a way for them to seek those situations and document them: we can see the birth of the blogging culture that’s at the center of the Newsflesh trilogy here, and how it starts as a way to deal with emotional trauma.

The loss of a child would be emotionally devastating in any situation, but the way Stacy Mason had to face her tragedy adds several layers of pain and guilt that no rationalization is going to erase: as usual, Mira Grant lays out her characters’ souls and their suffering in what I like to call a stark, utilitarian way, and in so doing she confers to these emotions a poignancy and hurtful directness that others not always manage to achieve.   What is fascinating here is the observation of the long struggle of the world to come out of the ashes of the Rising, and the way it mirrors the equally agonizing journey of the Masons toward a new way to deal with their past and the uncertain future before them.

Where Countdown was the story of how the Rising came to be, All the Pretty Little Horses shows the aftermath of it, the birth of a new world where the dead can walk: in a way these two novellas are like the bookends for the origin story of this alternate world, while this one holds many of the seeds of the larger tale that will become the Newsflesh series.  The tapestry, for want of a better word, takes even more shape and substance and, despite the pain and loss that run among the threads, remains a fascinating story.

My Rating: