October 22, 2006

Books of the Week: IN THE COMPANY OF OGRES and GIL'S ALL-FRIGHT DINER by A. Lee Martinez

I read a scream of a book this week, A. Lee Martinez’s “In the Company of Ogres.” It’s very safe to say that if you like Terry Pratchett or John Moore, you’ll love this book. Martinez’s previous “Gil’s All-Fright Diner” was a lot of fun, but I think “Company” is even better.

Never Dead Ned, a human who can be killed an infinite number of times but always comes back, is sent to take charge of the rather hopeless and unprofitable Ogre Company. The Company’s leaders keep dying in suspicious circumstances, so an officer like Ned is indicated. The Company’s three second-rank officers – an Amazon named Regina, an ogre named Frank, and a supposed orc, Gabel –all have their own axes to grind, literally. Then there’s the company’s morale officer, a scaled siren named Miriam, who takes her job in a very hands-on way.

Martinez’s world is a fun world to visit; it’s hard to write sustained fantasy, and he is proficient at extending the world he’s built.

Many goblins died in the writing of this book.

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My dogs found something dead to roll in this week. This is when I wish I had a small fenced-in yard. I could find the deceased animal and remove it; or better yet, talk my husband into doing it. But we live in the country on an unfenced six acres, and I’m not tromping through the damp woods to find a dead animal. We bathed Oscar and Rocky yesterday, and I hope we don’t have to repeat the process. Sugar is too big for us to lift into the tub. If she goes roaming and rolling, we’ll have to take her to the groomer in town.

Aside from that smelly little incident, I had a good week. I went to Dallas to meet some Waldenbooks store managers and employees, and they were without exception pleasant people who seemed to know their books. It’s the fable among writers that lots of chain bookstore people are not book people; they’re in books by chance, they might as well be in furniture or lighting fixtures. I’m beginning to believe that’s far from true. Certainly the ones I’ve met care about books and their customers, and they know books, too. And by golly, they know their customers; many of the Waldenbooks workers in my signing line begged for an extra book for a favorite customer, because they knew that customer really enjoyed my work. It’s always a pleasant feeling to make someone happy, even second hand.

It was Homecoming week here in my little town. The maids wear white, the queen wears red, the football players look heartbreakingly young and manly. My daughter is on the Student Council, and she spent all day Friday decorating the stadium; wait a minute, wasn’t she supposed to go to class at some point? I guess not. The weather stayed clear and cool. Our team won the game by a comfortable margin. What could be better? It’s pure Americana, like the shout of “Play ball!” that follows the national anthem in baseball season.

I hope all of you have weeks in which the good is wonderful and pleasing, and the bad is not too bad.

--Charlaine Harris