Book Reviews - '1NG4', 'Vespasian Moon's Fabulous Autumn Carnival', 'The House of Teufelvelt' by Berthold Gambrel
I know these 3 books aren’t on my original list of books I plan on reading before the end of the year. But after the disappointment of ‘Hunted’ and the fact that ‘1NG4’ was on offer as a ‘free read’, I thought I’d give it a go. And I am so glad I did.
Berthold Gambrel – now, there’s a name to conjure with! – describes ‘1NG4’ as a ‘long short story’.
‘Gunnar is part of a team studying a powerful new energy source aboard the seaborne platform Ryojin. But their work is interrupted, first by mysterious attackers, and then by a visitor from the sea even stranger than the new technology…’
The story is told in first-person from Gunnar’s point of view and starts with a brain dump. Normally, I’m averse to that, but being told it was a brain dump helped. Also, it was the most succinct brain dump I’ve ever read. In broad brush strokes, we’re brought up to speed with the state of the world…
‘… rising sea levels forced people to find new places to live. We had more and more people seeking less and less land, and so nations started building on the ocean – at first it was just living on oil rigs and makeshift floating cities, but over time the structures got way more advanced.
…I’ve read enough history to know that borders and nation-states were enough of a problem back in the 1900s, when everyone was living on land. It got that much worse at sea, when a whole country could float to a new location, or spring up practically overnight…’
I like the idea of borders literally shifting. It brought to mind the film, ‘Waterworld’, but way better!
The ‘Ryojin’ is ‘a sleek, new platform, made for a small group of people to live and work on. It was a research station…’
Apart from Gunnar, the other character we see a lot of is his colleague, Jenny. They’re the ones mainly in charge of testing new devices, especially one that could instantly replace conventional power sources. With the growing oppressive feeling permeating the platform, with new people joining in the wake of the attack, they learn to trust one another, and I found the interplay between them believable.
In the midst of rising tension and distrust, something strange shows up underwater containing something totally unexpected, the only identifying mark, 1NG4.
And that’s all I’ll say as I don’t want to head into spoiler territory. What I will say is, the story reminded of a mix between ‘The Thing’, but without the horror, and ‘The Fifth Element’.
I liked that not too much time was spent on scientific explanations. Just enough information was given without losing sight of the story.
As I enjoyed ‘1NG4’ more than I thought I would, I went ahead and got Mr Gambrel’s other ‘long short story’ and his latest, longer work.
I was glad for ‘Vespasian Moon’s Fabulous Autumn Carnival’ after ‘The Gift of Rain’, which turned into yet another disappointing read.
‘Federal Agent Jane Raczyck is tired of her job. So is Sheriff Sixtus Davis, the head law enforcement officer in the town of Turpin’s Gulch. But when Raczyck’s agency sends her to work with Davis on combating the drug epidemic in the small Appalachian hamlet, the two are compelled to investigate the local carnival and its mysterious impresario… even though they’d much rather be doing other things together.’
This one has a completely different feel to ‘1NG4’, but I found it just as enjoyable.
I love the names – Sixtus and his dog, Sergeant Dumbass! Not forgetting Vespasian Moon.
This reminded me of Hollywood’s screwball comedies but with the sexual tension brought right out of the closet. None of it is cheesy or vulgar; it fits the story like a well-cut suit.
There’s the best description of beauty I’ve ever read:
‘… she had whatever you consider to be the most attractive hair color and style… whatever you think is the ideal face shape…’
which finished with,
‘She looked, in short, like your favorite actress, just with less make up and glamorous accessories…’
How brilliant is that?
Vespasian Moon himself doesn’t feature too prominently but his presence is felt through the story once we’re introduced to him. I have to say he was my favourite character and I wouldn’t mind reading more about him.
I had more than a couple of ‘laugh out loud’ moments reading this story.
Like ‘1NG4’, not everything is answered; a couple of things are left open to the reader’s imagination. I like that, not having everything tied up in a neat beribboned package.
I went straight into ‘The House of Teufelvelt’ after that one.
‘Rachel Pounsett takes a job at Leviathan State University, where her daughter Alice is an undergraduate. While at first happy to have the job, she soon becomes ensnared in office politics, a mystery surrounding the fate of her predecessor, and a relationship with her handsome boss, Professor Roderick Teufelvelt.’
I enjoyed the previous two so much, I feel churlish admitting that, while I liked the premise of this one, I didn’t enjoy it as much.
In the two long short stories, the descriptions of clothing and setting are brief enough to not intrude on the story. But in ‘Teufelvelt’, the descriptions didn’t flow as naturally as the rest of the narrative and seemed to stand out; I was too aware of them.
Whereas the ‘telling’ worked in the shorter stories, here I wanted more ‘showing’, especially with regards to Rachel’s relationship with Roderick Teufelvelt. For example, we move from Thanksgiving to the end of January without being shown what happens in the interim, we’re only told about it. That made it hard for me to accept what was going on.
This is making it sound as if I didn’t like the book at all. So, let me tell you what I did like.
The mystery that Rachel becomes aware of has a gradual build-up but isn’t drawn out to the point of becoming annoying. Although I worked out a major part of it when Rachel finally meets Roderick, there were still enough question marks to keep me reading to the end.
Mr Gambrel’s ability to write female characters is impressive. This is written in first-person, from Rachel’s point of view, and she comes across as a very real woman. Anyone who’s a single mum will relate to her as he deftly portrays the worries of being a single mum of a teenage daughter and the constant anxiety of trying to make ends meet.
He also has a remarkable ability to switch writing styles. The story is narrated in a contemporary female voice, but the passages quoted from a book that Roderick is in the process of writing is in a formal, ‘archaic’ style. And that flows very well.
In fact, I was so drawn into that ‘story’, I’d have happily read that in its entirety.
As an example, here’s Rachel describing attempting to drive across campus:
‘It was only about 3 minutes, as the crow flies, from one end of the campus to the other. But of course, I could not move as the crow flew, because I had to contend with students who seemed driven by a desire to cover absolutely every inch of asphalt, often by appearing from the least predictable angles. They paid no attention to niceties like stoplights and crosswalks.’
And here’s an excerpt from the book Roderick’s writing:
‘“… the superstitious and simple-minded peasant folk preoccupy themselves at this time of year with crafting amulets and other devices by which they hope to stave off the encroaching darkness. They sense, even if the merchant and scholar classes cannot, the invisible powers of Nature. They are indeed, more in tune with these than are more worldly folk who, having sought repose among the books and teachings of Man, lose all contact with those more subtle truths of the universe.”’
The switch from one to the other and back again is smooth and effortless.
For me personally, I found the pacing and storytelling were better balanced in ‘1NG4’ and ‘Vespasian Moon’. That each ‘long short story’ can be read in a day makes it easy for the reader to be fully immersed in the story as they’re carried along to the ambiguous yet satisfying end.
I’m pleased to add Berthold Gambrel to my list of ‘go-to’ authors. Hopefully, it won’t be long before he publishes more ‘long short stories’.