Special Edition Book Review: THE BOOK OF DOORS (2024), Short Fiction Reader Poll
Not the usual type of book I read, but still VERY good. And a survey about original stories on Patreon and my panels at StellarFest
(This post was moved up from 4/12 because I got nearly 40 subscribers from The Atlanta Sci-fi and Fantasy Expo last weekend. Welcome to the club!)
The past January, an Atlanta book club I occasionally attend chose Gareth Brown’s 2024 debut novel The Book of Doors as its monthly choice. I didn’t know the club was even meeting until less than week prior (oh the joys of what Facebook does and doesn’t show you), but thanks to my library’s Hoopla, I was able to alternate between listening to the audio book while driving and reading the e-book while not. This allowed me to finish the book much faster despite its length — 416 print pages and 13-odd hours of audio.
The Plot
Cassie Andrews, a 20-something New Yorker working in a bookshop, is given a book by elderly longtime customer Mr. Webber just before he dies. She discovers it’s something called the Book of Doors and can make any door a doorway into another place. She and her cautious roommate Izzy use the book to jaunt around New York City and even other parts of the world, but they soon meet Drummond Fox, an older Scottish man with dire news. The Book of Doors is one of many magical books, and there are people who will kill to possess them.
And two such people, the vicious Hugo Barbary and the outright monster known only as The Woman, soon make themselves known. Cassie, Izzy, Drummond, and other new friends embark on a mind-bending adventure to protect the magical books from those who would misuse them.
The Good
*Brown’s writing is amazingly poignant, especially when narrated by Miranda Raison. You really feel for the characters — happiness for Cassie and Izzy as they innocently enjoy the freedom the Book of Doors gives them, disgust and horror at the actions of The Woman, and sadness as the lives of characters you know will die (more on that in a minute) tick down.
*Per the above, the characters are well-developed.
*The ending ties up the story nicely but allows for future adventures. I hope to see more of them.
*The book is an unashamed love letter to the magic of books and travel and that’s great.
*I hesitate to go farther for spoiler reasons, but the book does feature time travel. Brown puts everything together so well. The best way I can describe it is that it’s well-engineered — everything fits together and makes sense.
The Bad
*I didn’t like the origin of the books. It would have been better to keep them a mystery.
*One of the time-travel plots takes a lot of time and not a whole lot happens during it, even though it does set up one of the more poignant plotlines. Were I writing it, either I’d make it shorter or I’d have more stuff happen during it. Maybe the character takes up some sort of martial-art in preparation for the finale?
*Each section is a tight third-person POV, but American characters often use British verbiage when they think. Using the word “toilet” to refer to the whole bathroom rather than just the appliance, “adverts” instead of “advertisements,” etc.
*The origin of The Woman, although there are some hints dropped here and there, is kind of what TVTropes calls an Ass Pull. Just how this situation would happen — not going into detail for reasons of spoilers — isn’t explained or set up. And it doesn’t explain just how powerful, evil, and dangerous she is.
The Verdict
9.0 out of 10. I would definitely recommend this one (especially in audio) for fans of contemporary fantasy, magical realism, or people who just want to read something good. Brown has got more books coming — here’s the next one — but I definitely hope he returns to this world.
(Here’s a podcast interviewing him about The Book of Doors and his writing career in general. Here’s a Goodreads Q&A session people should check out after they read the book. And here’s a depiction of Cassie someone made and posted on Reddit.)
Would You Buy Individual Stories on Patreon?
As those of you who’ve read my premium posts down to the pay-wall know, I have a Patreon as well as premium content I post here for my paying subscribers. Sometime in later 2024, Patreon started allowing creators to sell individual posts, as opposed to their prior practice of only allowing monthly subscriptions.
So that got me thinking. I don’t have anything novel-length to serialize (yet), but I do have short stories. If I sell a short story at a penny a word to a magazine or collection, I might make $30-50.
(There are higher-paying markets, but they’re much more selective and it’s been a very long time since I was able to get into one.)
However, if I price it individually at the lowest price point of $3 ($4.50 if one is getting it through the iPhone app), I could potentially make much more money depending on how many people buy it.
Soooo….
If there’s enough interest, I’ll rummage through my short-story inventory and see what I’ve got. Then I’ll survey my readers to see what genres they prefer.
My Panels at StellarFest In Early April
In an earlier email, I announced I would vending at StellarFest, a new SF-oriented convention in metro Atlanta running April 4-6. Here are some panels I’m going to be on:
Droid Sentience, Saturday at 2 PM: In this one we discuss which sci-fi robots are truly thinking beings. I’m inclined to think the Star Wars droids, the 2000s Battlestar Galactica Cylons, and the Terminators are at that level, but we’ll see about the other panelists’ opinions and other properties.
Penning Aliens, Saturday at 10AM: How aliens fit into science fiction and even fantasy.
Second Tier Scifi, 1980s Edition, Sunday at 4 PM: This one I’m on the waiting list for, since there were six panelists as of 3/19. Given my experience with the film podcast Myopia Movies, I’d be a pretty good addition to this panel. I’m particularly interested in The Last Starfighter, Abyss (although that was too smart and had too high production values to be a B-Movie), and Leviathan.