When I needed a book to read recently, I had difficulty finding one to my liking among all those donated to the floating shop. The most interesting seemed One for Sorrow, billed as A John the Eunuch Mystery. I’d simply put it aside if it wasn’t up to par. I was pleasantly surprised. It is a polished, fun read, the brainchild of husband and wife team Mary Read and Eric Mayer. It is set in Constantinople during the reign of Justinian (527-565 AD). Rome has fallen. The Empire is centered in what is now Istanbul, Turkey. John works closely with the emperor, who appears briefly in the novel. He is charged with the investigation of the murder of an officer of the court, a friend. There is a tie in with the quest for the Holy Grail. The narrative has authenticity of place and time. The characters are interesting. The authors, who at first used the hero in short stories published in magazines, have since written nine other installments. I noted that they have changed the subtitle to: A John the Lord Chamberlain Mystery. I doubt I’d have chosen it had not the word “eunuch” appeared on the cover. The change has not seemed to hurt sales. 15 years after its publication, the book is ranked 700,000+ in print sales, and 62,000+ in Kindle. There are at least nine million books listed at Amazon. The 17 contributors who have rated the novel forge to a consensus of 3.7 of five. I rate it 3.25.
Last night This-TV, 111 on Cablevision in NYC, ran Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. As someone never enamored with the original crew of the Enterprise, the flick was exactly what I'd expected, distinguished only by an unlikely participant. When I saw Christopher Plummer’s name in the opening credits, I assumed he’d be playing a Star Fleet big shot, as he is almost always cast as upper class. He played a Klingon, and went at it with pizzazz, gleefully quoting Shakespeare, at times in the “original” Klingon. Shakespeare was an alien - who knew? Well, it would explain why he is the most influential author of all time. In an episode of the The X-Files, Mulder opines that several great athletes were aliens, a rather dim view of earthlings. Isn't it more likely that politicians are the aliens?
One of my regulars, cane in hand, approached the floating book shop sporting a pair of shades. They were hiding a black eye suffered at the hands of a police officer. According to the young man, who seems about 30, he was hanging out in Coney Island, chewing tobacco, minding his business. The cop assumed he was attempting to swallow drugs, clamped his fingers in his throat and punched him several times. He was arrested and released. His sunglasses and book were not returned. He is talking law suit. I wasn't there, but most of the time I see him he seems loaded. That doesn't mean he was when he was busted, or that he was in possession. My advice? Lose the cane. It's a bit much.
My thanks to four other regulars who bought books today, and to whomever bought Exchanges at Amazon this week. To illustrate how meaningless the rankings can be for most authors, my overall standing zoomed to just below 100,000 in May, when I had a couple of Kindle sales. Its has dropped to 360,000th or so.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Horror Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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