The Bartender Between Worlds (Steuernagel)

The Bartender Between Worlds
Herman Steuernagel (2024)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

It would be faint praise to say that this is the best book that I've read in a while. However, I really enjoyed this book. I don't remember how I heard of this book, but once I heard the title, I looked it up. The cover didn't sell me on the book, but it did help.

To be honest, I was curious because one of my writing prompt responses does have a bar between worlds. But it isn't an actual story. It's more of a behinning of something that needs a lot more. It could be a setting for a related set of short stories.

Thankfully, this book was nothing like mine.

First of all, the main character Emma isn't a bartender. She's a Hunter of people touched by magic, until she realizes that she's touched by magic. Then she tries to escape her life and wants to be a bartender because her magic affects alcohol. And she doesn't become a bartender "between" worlds but across different dimensions. Also, dimension hopping happens through portals, so there isn't any "between", no etheral plane, as well. That's not a criticism, just an explanation.

The story takes place across a handful of worlds that are all recognizeable but wildly different. Still, the counterparts of the main characters can, and do, inhabit these new Earths.

The original Earth starts generic fantasy English although there is mention of railroads. Emma encounters a fairy and a wizard. The wizard is a professor from another world who is trapped here because his device no longer works. I thought he was going to be steampunk, but he's actually from a 21st century world like our own without any magic. This proves difficult for the magic users, so they leave again to do more research on dimension hopping.

It was a quick read and under 300 pages, both of which I appreciated after a couple of books that I slogged through.

I enjoyed this book. I would consider reading a sequel.

If you stumbled across my page via the Internet, please check out my short book series, Burke Lore Briefs. A fantastical foursome of flash fiction and short stories.

Jake and the Gingerbread Wars (Foley)

Jake and the Gingerbread Wars, by E. J. Foley (2013)

The Gryphon Chronicles #3.5

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

Another Christmas book that I thought should get its own entry. It's a standalone book in a series, but you don't need to know anything about it. For once, the chapter at the end of the book is a reprint of the first book to interest new readers into investigating the rest of the series instead of a chapter from the next book.

The story is set in Victorian England. Jake Everton grew up in an orphange and stealing on the streets. It turned out that he was part of a magical family and the lost heir of Griffon (the first book is called "The Lost Heir"). The only magic he does in the book is telekinesis, although he does use a borrowed wand at one point.

Jake has cousins Archie and Isabelle, and Isabelle has a friend named Dani. Jake also has a pet Gryffin named Red. While in London, they come across two bake shops, a French one upstairs and a British one downstairs. The owners seem to be rivals in a contest with each other. While in Madame Marie's shop, Jake sees a trail of sparkles which he is sure belongs to a fairy. He believes that Marie is cheating in the contest and decides to find the fairy. In the end, the fairy sets Jake up to take a fall. The Constable comes in, and it's a former foil of Jake's from his thieving days. Jake leaves but vows to get rid of the fairy.

It turns out that the creature is actually an elf named Humbug, who ran away from the North Pole. He hates Christmas and wants to impress Old Turnip Head, Jack O'Lantern. and became a Halloween elf. (He'd be the first, obviously.) The group catch him, and discover that Santa has offered One Wish for his safe return. The elf had put a spiteful spice on some of the confections in the bake shop and had brought the gingerbread people to life in both shops. The gingerbread, taking after their owners, are now at war with each other.

The four kids and the elf flew in a sleigh, lifted by fairy dust, and pulled by Red, off to the North Pole. Humbug manages to free himself enough to cause chaos. They sleigh drops in the Arctic at a point where it could be attacked by Yeti. Humbug escapes while the four defeat the Yeti. They follow the elf's trail to a castle that it owned by Jack Frost and occupied currently by the Snow Maiden, who wants them to be her friends and entertain her.

The four manage to escape with Humbug's help because he doesn't wish to be a prisoner either. They then have to get to Santa's workshop and find a way home.

Enjoyable and well-written. The series should be popular with kids. Will I read more of them? I don't know. Maybe if I set aside some time in a couple of months to go through my "series" tag.

Grimm's Fairy Tales (Grimm)

Grimm's Fairy Tales, Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (unknown)

The ebook has a publication date of 2012 online. The book itself has a date of 1922, which I assume is for the illustrations. Wikipedia puts publication at 1812.

Over the past few years, I have read a few books that were updated takes on fairy tales: either continuations or retellings from a different point of view, with or without "modern sensibilities". Going through some of these made me realize that I've never read the original fairy tales, even though I've had hard-cover copies of them.

I don't remember when I downloaded this book, probably a couple of years ago. Like with most fairy tale books, though, I can only read so many before I need to move on to something else and get back to it. Basically, I started this sometime last year, reading a tale or two on short train rides or when I was between books.

Most of familiar with the sanitized or "Disney-fied" versions of the stories, and many know the harsher realities. I thought I did. Maybe it was the translation, but it seemed that some of the "real" endings that I thought I knew to some tales weren't real. Likewise, it seems like there was some borrowing amongst the stories as well. Plus, some tales have similarities, like "Tom Thumb" and "Thumbkins", or similar names, like "Snow White" and "Snow-White and Rose Red". Most have similar morals and harsh penalties.

This is something everyone should read (maybe not this particular version). This edition has only 25 tales, so I could see myself downloading another one in the future. Just not right now.

Bluebeard (Johnson)

Bluebeard -- And Other Folklore Tales, by Clifton Johnson, 1920

I don't know how long ago I downloaded the free ebook of Bluebeard. I'm not even sure why I did. I probably was looking at the best-selling (or most-downloaded) free classics on Amazon, and it was probably there. I hadn't read it before, so why not.

This was a short, in-between other books, book to read when I didn't have something else available -- or when I was going to sleep and I had the light turned off already. (It disturbs the wife.)

The book is short (Amazon says 52 pages) and I probably could've read it in one sitting. However, the nature of the book and the times when I was reading it caused me to nod off more than once. It is a collection of fairy tales/folk tales from around the world. They might have been children's stories once upon a time, but with all the monsters and mayhem in them, I wouldn't want to read one to any child right before bed. Not unless I wanted them crawling into bed with me in the middle of the night -- or screaming for me to come to them.

The odd thing is that the book is divided up into 19 chapters, but there aren't 19 stories. For example, the story of Bluebeard is two chapters long, and then without any segue or transition, we're into the Goblin in the Bottle, which is a few chapters itself. That's an odd way to compile a book.

The stories seem a little out of time, given that they were written down in this form nearly 100 years ago. But it's a little piece of history.

I enjoyed it.

As for any 2016 GOALS: it is over 90 years old, but not 100. It is a collection of short stories. It was a short read (well under 100 pages). I check the lists later.

Shards of the Glass Slipper: Queen Cinder (Mauritsen)

Shards of the Glass Slipper: Queen Cinder, by Roy A. Mauritsen, 2012 I was first drawn to this story by a series of paintings hanging in the Art Room at Lunacon (a long-running Northeastern science fiction convention, usually held in Rye, NY), each with its own vignette, giving a new twist on each of the fairy tale characters that were more in line with the original interpretations than the 20th-century incarnations. The artist was Roy A. Mauritsen, and his book uses these characters.

His incarnations flow together very nicely with a few odd twists among them, most of which are enjoyable. (I have a couple of quibbles about how some of the characters, and their relationships to each other, but they work within the story.)

I don't want to give anything away -- I'd rather let the characters reveal themselves as the story progresses, even if you think you know who's coming next, as you get caught up in the tales of those grim days after the Beanstalk War when Cinderella has to ascend to the throne. Fairy magic is on the wane and with it the power of witches, but is there another source of power that can be tapped into?

My only complaint was that the subplot was actually the build-up to the sequel, which I now have to find. (Like I wasn't going to get it anyway!)