Déjà Vu: A Technothriller by Ian Hocking
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Deja Vu (The Saskia Brandt Series Book One)by Ian Hocking
I really truly loved this novel. It started out a bit slow and almost pedantic but that sometimes is the nature of these psychological thrillers. If I were to take Philip K Dick and Lewis Purnell Davies and then throw in a healthy dose of excellent writing skill I'd say we have Ian Hocking and Deja Vu all wrapped up in a neat and tidy package.
The story starts out with Saskia Brandt being pulled off her vacation for special assignment with the European FIB. Only when she makes it to the office she finds herself being framed for her secretaries murder, with the added bonus of using her detective skills to discover that what looks like a frame might be the real thing as she catches herself in an image; committing the crime.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for something that is more twisted and on psychological thin ice that's waiting for Saskia. Add to this her newest assignment of bringing in David Proctor while trying to deal with personal revelations and that alone is wild, but we add in a bit of time travel and some virtual reality.
I found his description of the virtual reality quite interesting:
If a race of intelligent beings had evolved in this universe, and developed science, their physicists would discover that matter is continuous, not discrete. Their astronomers would find that their planet is the only planet, their star the only star. They would correctly place themselves at the centre of the universe. Should they build a computing machine, it would never outrun the computer that ran their universe: and what, indeed, would they hypothesize the limiting factor to be? God?
Hocking, Ian (2011-03-06). Déjà Vu (The Saskia Brandt Series Book One) (Kindle Locations 535-539). Writer As A Stranger. Kindle Edition.
Ian Hocking has a richness of language that shows up often in a peculiar turn of phrase that elicits specific unique images.
Such as:
The mimetic cloud of fines rendered the springy crunch of the undergrowth perfectly.
or
Coffee with memory.
Hocking, Ian (2011-03-06). Déjà Vu (The Saskia Brandt Series Book One) (Kindle Location 635). Writer As A Stranger. Kindle Edition.
At first it's difficult to know what to make of Saskia when we discover that she's a criminal convicted of some unknown crime who's memory was wiped to make room for a second memory from a donor. The first memory is suppressed and the second memory is custom arraigned so that the FIB can use her as an agent. They keep her under their thumb by suggesting that the crime is so bad that she wouldn't want those memories to ever return. They are kept in check by an imbedded bio-chip that contains the custom recollections of the donor. Her handler claims he can blow that chip away anytime she gets out of line. This causes her character to appear one dimensional and It makes it difficult to relate or feel any empathy for her.
But as it unfolds we begin to see the battle raging inside her head and as the story progresses we find that there are many more crimes here than those she thinks she needs to avoid remembering.There's a web of intrigue and lies that mixed with critical traumatic memories that give us that point we need to dig in and get a feel for the real character.
There's a second protagonist in the story, David Proctor. And I would almost swear there is a special pop reference in the text at one point. David is talking to a computer named Ego::
‘Sing me a song.’
‘Which song?’
‘Daisy.’
‘Just a moment.’ There was a beep and David heard a crackle. The earpiece was picking up Ego’s attempt to access the Internet via the wireless telecommunications
‘Alright, forget it.’
Hocking, Ian (2011-03-06). Déjà Vu (The Saskia Brandt Series Book One) (Kindle Locations 1206-1207). Writer As A Stranger. Kindle Edition.
This novel should interest any fan of the Psychological Thrillers and SFF. It's sometimes a slower reading than some because you have to pay particular attention to details, but it's worth it.
Definitely looking for more from Ian Hocking.
J.L. Dobias
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The Moon Stealers and the Quest for the Silver Bough by Tim Flanagan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Moon Stealers and the Quest for the Silver Bough(Book1) Tim Flanagan
I liked this book, not loved and not hated. This could have been a lot better than it was but there were some style decisions that got in the way. I could have let some of that slide if there had been a serious effort at editing the whole work.
This is a sort of Dystopic future horror novel that has a lot of bloody gory scenes like you get from the usual zombie terror movies. It starts out almost like a juvenile fiction but quickly takes that horrible turning twist into something that at the very best is Young Adult. It reads like a parallel story of young adult to juvenile fiction because there are two separate stories going though it that center around the same sleepy little town.
The characters are not greatly fleshed out but they are interesting enough to draw the reader in though it takes a little time for that connection to grow and then the author seems to toss it aside in favor of making room for the tense drama of the horror. The story and plot itself are quite interesting and stand well on their own.
The problem lies in the serious number of awkward sentences. I have read many books that have long sentences and when handled well they can really enhance the flavor of the story. These sentences leave a bad taste in the mind. There are a huge number of comma splice sentences that have trouble keeping the same thought throughout and should have been separated into their respective sentences. The sentences that did carry the thought throughout were often not punctuated at all or poorly punctuated. There might be a handful of other grammar problems but the bulk of the problems are these strangely constructed sentences. I could live with one sentence paragraphs if they were constructed properly but too many times I was baffled by them.
As a side note there is an oddity here that runs throughout and it includes the use of the word whilst. Again had there been some consistency maybe I wouldn't have noticed, but the word whilst shows up 66 times and the word while shows up 22 times. In all instances they are interchangeable so the question is; since we use whilst so often why even bother with while. And of course for me the oddity of it is that I was fully aware of all the whilst while I read but did not notice the whiles so much. Now had the while been used as nouns only then that would have made sense but since both are use in conjunctions and the place within the sentence is mostly the same with the same meaning it just raises a question of why not stick to the one over the other.( This is just me and has nothing to do with the quality of the work.)
So if you like YA dystopic horror with all the gore this will fill the bill but be warned that it seems to fall into that new genre of serial novels that Amazon seems to have spawned and I think that the four books in the series could easily have been two without overwhelming the reader. At least they are each over a hundred and thirty pages which is twice the usual 60 page ones I have seen; that always end poorly.(Cliffhanger-ish)
J.L. Dobias
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Rebel Heart by Lizzy Ford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Rebel Heart by Lizzy Ford
I enjoyed this novel and that was quite a surprise all things considered. Though I usually try not to let a cover influence me the cheesy love story cover was a bit of a put off. I was expecting a major romance novel. And that might be a problem for some because the romance is not so much the major part. The story idea was interesting and though the plot plodded along at the beginning there was a break point partway through where it picked up and became interesting.
I'll issue my usual warning that there are grammar issues in this novel. The upside is that there are less than a handful that I found. So if there are any more than that the story does a fair job of hiding it. It could be argued that the character of Lana (Angel) was not well fleshed out but I think that would be in error. She really is well fleshed out and she's just not the heroin that some might expect from today's enlightened media. She's a bit unprepared for battle, but that's what makes her what she is and it's fairly consistent though she does improve near the end, which is all you can really ask of the author.
Brady(Guardian) is the opposite and is everything that we want in a male protagonist although we waffle between his loyalties enough to make protagonist a questionable title. It's mostly amusing to see the dance that goes on between guardian and angel as they fall for each other. (There is one place where Lana might lose some respect from the readers during this romantic battle.)
I will agree that this novel needed more to help flesh it out and that it does suffer a bit in the plot with lack of extensive world building. But it's not hard to follow and the story is pretty linear and though somewhat economic it tracks well enough with the length that it does have. The romance doesn't distract too much though in one place I might have called it a bit cheesy, it mostly adds to the conflict a bit as they do their little dance.(Over all it's more a style decision that makes this a light suspense and if it had been fleshed out more I would have expected more from the suspense and romance and the world building.)
Mr. Tim although mostly a good guy is a big villain here in that he didn't help Lana much by shielding her life to the point that she actually needed the guardian, but at least knowing that, he did make plans. I think once parts of the plot begin to clarify it's easy to see why he trained her for what he trained her for and that puts her in a position of importance and unfortunately one of great danger.
The world of the future has a strange precarious balance between the East and West of the country and everyone is freely blaming the rebels for everything that goes wrong. But the PMF militia are possibly the only people who can save things when someone begins strikes across the east coast.(Even though they have to bear the brunt of the blame.)
While Mr. Tim and the president head west he leaves Lana with the VP. Lana is the main controller of resources throughout the east and it's that position that places her in the right place to find out what is really happening. With nothing but the will to survive she strikes out across a war torn nation to deliver vital weapon control to responsible hands. But she soon has to question who those responsible hands might be.
This novel is for those who like their suspense novels just a bit light and only a marginal amount of romance. There is even the element of Dystopic future here for those who enjoy that genre.
A great light suspense novel with light romance and an entertaining read.
J.L. Dobias
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Echoes of Honor by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Echo's of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington series Book 8)
As always I love this book even three times around. If reading this in order or reading it by itself I always have to keep In Enemy Hands close at hand. These are a companion set that have to go together and they are the turning point for me for these novels.
As I have mentioned before I got invested in the Honor Harrington Series because I like the character of Honor Harrington. Probably in honesty I liked the idea of the character. This was early 90's and we were already seeing many inroads with female characters by then. This character promised to be something almost unique with, and I have to be honest here, being modeled after a famous male character in fiction, Horatio Hornblower.
Honor may have started out as a comparison to that character but it almost seems like David Weber did a sly trick here by further developing the character of Lester Tourville who is with the Peeps but has a brash personality that almost sounds as calculated and colorful as the person Horatio Hornblower had to create when he was around his men.
Throughout this series the character of Honor Harrington has been always best portrayed to us through those who work and die or live around her. It's difficult most of the earlier books to really see her inner self through her own point of view because of the persona she had to maintain to keep the cool calculated person who always tried to do the best with what she was given. These middle novels give us more insight into Honor and a better look at her from within her head as she has to adapt to the new circumstances of being a prisoner of war and trying to keep her head above water.
Even though she has the title of Admiral she has to work hard to maintain the necessary discipline that it takes to drive a multinational force of ex-prisoners to their top form.
David Weber does a tremendous job of creating a world and all the parts that make it run both politically and militarily. Even for someone who is trying to follow the battles and not trying to make comparison's to famous sea battles or plot-lines from other famous fiction it becomes evident that David has a grasp of his world. (Although it's about this time that he does make the admission that he has begun to find it a daunting task to keep up with.)
The Peeps are still in flux, they just don't know it, rebellion looms. There are many characters who are being brought in with strong character and sound values and starting to twist the reader's view of the Peeps. The Manties still have their split in the political arena, but the military is slowly galvanizing and partly because of Honor having dragged Hamish out on the carpet about his views of the plans of Horrible Hemphill. There is still room for that conflict to rekindle, though.
Hamish Alexander has as much as admitted his love for Honor, to himself, despite his loyalty to his wife. Honestly speaking Honor has been way to busy to dwell on the feelings she'd sensed through Nimitz from Hamish.
With everyone certain that Honor is dead they try to move on and forward. It's difficult to say that some decisions that are later shown to be fateful might have been influenced by this frame of mind, but we do get to see the Honor Harrington Medusa class superdreadnoughts come off the line from the Grayson Space Navy's joint effort with Manticore.
The war is winding up on both sides with all the players being showcased in their good and evil glory while Honor is struggling to get out of Hell.
Superb addition to the Honor collection definitely a great read for any fan of Honor Harrington. It's a given that if you have been indoctrinated to these books to this point they will just get better. You must love the Political intrigue and the military buildup descriptions and have at least some understanding of the universe itself.You either love it or hate it by now and it's all pure David Weber.
As always I suggest a person start at Baslisk Station and go from there. If you make it past the first five in the series you're doomed-in a good way.
J.L. Dobias
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Draykon by Charlotte E. English
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Draykon: Book 1 (The Draykon Series) by Charlotte E. English
I really liked this novel. This is not my genre of choice but I think because I had recently read a few books on dragons this came up as a possible choice. This has a sort of YA feel to it at the beginning, but as it develops so does the writing. It took a while to get into this one and it took a while for the world building.
I thought the character of Llandry was quite interesting. She come off as sort of shy and reserved to almost a point of being debilitated by it. I've met a few of these people and Llandry seemed quite real in her fears and anxieties.
I had some difficulty identifying what race Llandry was (perhaps fairy because she has wings) Her parents seem to be a mix but maybe it was just that some have wings and some don't that made this confusing for me.
Eva seems to be of the human race, at least several times human is the word used to associate with her and those she works with. They are sorcerers and summoners.
I was confused about the realms they lived in.
Seven realms are mentioned in the story and shown by the map; they consist of the Daylands and the Darklands. Daylands are kept under the daycloak and Dark under the night cloak. By the map it would be easy to infer that Irbel, Glinnery, Orlind, and Nimdre are of the dayland though the glossary only mentions Irbel and Glinnery. It also seems infer-able that Glour, Orstwych and Ullarn are of the darklands but that is not made clear by the glossary.
In the text we see this which maybe clears up a bit of how the seven are divided.
[Quote]You of Glinnery are Daylanders, as are Irbel and, as far as we can tell, Orlind. Glour, Orstwych, and Ullarn are Darklanders of the Lowers. Only Nimdre has no allegiance: we live halfway in between, faithful neither to one nor the other.[/Quote]English, Charlotte E. (2011-08-31). Draykon (Draykon Series) (p. 282). . Kindle Edition.
Orlind is otherwise mentioned as mostly closed off from people.
To add to the confusion there are the Upper Realms the Middle Realms and the Lower Realms. From the glossary it might be easy to infer that the Upper Realms and Lower Realms are separate from each other and might be existing in intersecting planes to the Seven Realms but its not absolutely clear that the Middle Realms is another plane or the plane of the Seven Realms and the Middle are not in the glossary.
In the glossary Upper and Lower are referred to as Off-Worlds, which reinforces the thought that the middle realm might be the Seven Realms.
[Quote]Nobody knows whether they originated in the Uppers or the Lowers or the space in between: the Middle Realm, which was once a chaos of conflicting influences from both sides.[/Quote]English, Charlotte E. (2011-08-31). Draykon (Draykon Series) (p. 282). . Kindle Edition.
The plot itself became predictable to me about halfway through. The character of Llandry had some similarities in her obsession with the Gem stones with Gollum of Tolkein's Lord of the Ring Trilogy. It interfered with the romance of the story since it was difficult at times to see that her wish to travel with Devary was equal part an attraction to him and her obsession. Predictably the obsession gets in the way of a lot of things.
The predictability of the outcome of the story is important in this novel. I don't want to hand it out because some people might cry spoiler, but I really think the reader has to pick up on this or they might eventually cry Deus ex machina. This novel is far from that, but you do need to pick up on a few things within the plot as it goes along or it will certainly look that way.
I would really love to give this five stars but I am afraid that my confusion about the Realms has caused it to be downgraded and though this may seem unfair, I can't give this five stars when I went away confused about something that is very important to the plot since there is a speculation about whether the upper, lower and middle were meant to be separated as they are. (That's if the middle is the Seven Realms.)
Great fantasy novel for fantasy lovers with well fleshed out characters for the story and I'm looking forward to the next two novels and hoping that they help resolve my confusion.
J.L. Dobias
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Right Ascension by David Derrico
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Right Ascension (Edge of Apocalypse) By David Derrico
I won't say I loved this and I won't say I hated it. It sort of falls between and definitely falls short of what I expected from the description. And unfortunately it's one of a few that I have to agree with the assessment of many that it seems like a rewrite of some of the popular Sci-Fi out there. But if you enjoy the lighter softer side of Sci-Fi it can be an enjoyable read.
Perhaps the biggest problem for many people who found objection is that it doesn't quite live up to the standards of those softer lighter Sci-Fi and even the description it gives itself.
I think also it was a bit jarring to have it start the first chapter with two characters that were probably the most engaging characters and then kill them off immediately. (That's a bit of a spoiler and I'm sorry, but this is an important difficulty with this story.) Chad and Krystal have this thing; two hotshot pilots that are almost on opposite ends of some dipole and yet have this potential chemistry. I got invested in these two and felt really bad when the rug was pulled. Having that happen somehow negated the sympathy I should have felt for the characters who lost these two people. (Well in this case the one who lost Chad since there is no back or forward story involving Krystal.)
The writing is not bad. There is always room for improvement, but honestly it was not anything I felt needed massive amounts of work. It was good and solid with some half way fleshed out characters and some interesting ideas. But I would also agree with people that there are elements too familiar in the makeup of the crew that keep steering the mind to known characters of known Sci Fi.
Also we have a, to be blunt, death-star only owned by the supposed good guys and of course this is a key point in the plot because it is supposedly the death-star that has garnered some superior alien attention. The massive ship Indominable with the doomsday weapon (the omega cannon) that destroys entire planetary systems. Since it's existence causes the mysterious alien race to attack Earth it's key to the plot.
There are a number of elements of this story that are familiar to Sci-Fi fans so the real meat for this novel is the issue of the Moral part. The question of what if everything you have been told about the war with the Korgian Star System was not quite true? What if heroes in the war had to make judgement calls and they weren't the best calls? What if the heroes that saved the day come out smelling a bit tainted? This is what makes this story unique and better. The problem is that it's glossed over too quickly and never fully addressed and then the holier than though people who are taken aback do something later that might actually seem almost but not quite as bad as their predecessors. And that transgression seems to go right over their heads.
We won't even mention that so far as the reader is told these aliens who attack might not know what has been done with this weapon and are only concerned about what it might be used for. And a bit later we do have to ask the question of why they waited 40 years to do something.
If felt like many plot possibilities were missed and many glossed over too quickly for this to come out well as a moral tale. This might be disappointing to people expecting the moral tale to be the bulk of the originality of the story. Perhaps book two will delve into this issue with more clarity.
Sci-Fi fans who like the soft side and don't mind close resemblance to popular fiction should enjoy this as light Sci-Fi and Fantasy. It could have been better and might be in book two, I'm just uncertain where the author is headed with the plot and moral issues. The only way to know for certain is to read the next one.
It is a shame to see some people have left reviews saying they couldn't finish the book, I didn't find it to be bad enough to throw it down and not finish.
J.L. Dobias
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Gunship by John Davis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Gunship(Book 1)by John Davis
I think I download this while I was looking for steam-punk novels, this is not steam-punk. It's more like Firefly with caveat's galore. It might remind some people of Firefly and some people might actually enjoy it. But there are a lot of strange style choices and sense of some sort of rush that starts from page one and goes right through the thing.
The sense of rush itself could be good but in this case it's just damaging. With the style of writing and everything that John Davis wanted to stuff into this story I would have to go against my usual rule of limiting the size and say that he should have made this story much larger to give him time to develop characters and the story in more expansive way. It's really hard to explain without having someone read the story. You have to read this to see. I think that if he'd chosen a style that would have condensed his writing to essentials maybe the length of the story would then work.
The ebook had some other problems that may or may not have been style choices. Either way it causes difficulty reading the story. There are dramatic scene changes that are not separated in any way except the immediate jar (sometimes) that I got while reading. Sometimes I may have gotten scenes mixed in with each other because there was no way to delineate the scenes. Since on occasion a scene break does show up I have to strongly suspect that the missing scene changes may have just never been there, but it's often not quite fair to assume that with a kindle document because the process of conversion often does lose those dramatic spaces.
There is an entire section where we get a shopping list view of every character on the ship and possibly their motivation and such so that this doesn't have to be dealt with in the story and I would rather see something like this developed throughout the story instead of munged into one hill of description. One result for me is the feeling that every motive and every character seem to have been rushed out and I think that creates the feeling of the characters being flat though if the reader goes back to that section they can almost see they are slightly fleshed out. It really ruined the sense of romance for me in the love interests.
I did enjoy the tension of the battle at the end. The climax is helpful in giving the story a bit more depth. I did end up with some issues about how things developed but the largest is a bit of personal preference. I don't mind the female protagonist fighting in dresses and such. It's a common feature of games and comic books. What I have a problem with is when there is clearly no reason for the female to chose that. If it so happens that the battle starts while everyone is at a ball or dance or some swank function then, yes, what they have on is what they have on. In this story in the final scenes there was no logical reason for the character to show up for battle in a red dress. She knew she was going, everyone had time to get ready, and she should have been wearing the same thing the rest of the troops had and maybe even some battle armor. That said she should have been wounded, hurt, bleeding and sorry that she ever wore a dress into battle.I'm pretty sure there is no mention of the red dress being lined with battle armor.
Lastly and this I would not have complained about if the author had made this novel longer with more depth to the characters, but he didn't. This trilogy probably should have been one book and it should have been reworked and condensed. Or it should have been longer with more built in character development. This leaves you hanging, which again is not always a bad thing, but in this instance it seems inexcusable. This is like a short story or at best a novella. It is definitely not 358 pages as is listed. It's probably closer to 100 pages 120 at best.(I'm not sure where they get these page counts from and a word count is a lot better to judge by.)
For those who are concerned about grammar and spelling errors this is not the book for you.
Fans of Firefly who don't mind some light reading with striking similarities might appreciate this. It's sort of SFF with extreme emphasis on the Fantasy part. The vampires, zombies , and pirates are not well defined enough to really be that recognizable and if you don't mind a lot of bloody action then you might enjoy this if you do like Vampires, Zombies and Pirates.
Some more editing, tighter writing, and a bit more character development with a true page count of 350 pages would really help this book. It has a lot more potential.
J.L. Dobias
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Timebound by Rysa Walker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Timebound(The Chronos Files)By Rysa Walker
I like this novel because for me it was a sit down and start running kind of novel. It has an interesting protagonist thrust into an interesting situation. (One that requires the suspension of some reality.) Of course it's a time travel novel, which are becoming a dime a dozen, so it's greatest strengths are the characters in the story. Time travel plots tend to all end up the same with a lot of potential for paradoxes and parallel or alternate worlds spawned from careless actions when traveling in time.(This is why we should never go back in time.)
There seems to be a bit of controversy involved in this story and part of the premise and I will try to stay away from that because I did not see what some people seem to see.
What I loved about this novel is it did something that few recent novels-new novelists-have been able to do. I was so interested in the story itself and the direction the plot was going and my investment in the character that I wanted to read faster than my usual pace, because I wanted to get answers to all the questions my mind was asking. This could in a way be a detriment because it could lead to scanning, which is just plain evil. I reigned it in and read slow enough to keep things in focus.
What I loved next was anomalous for me in that it was the love story because it's sort of split and almost fractured. The main character ends up with two interesting love interest; one that is here and now and real the other not quite so much. I don't usually gravitate to romances. But I was really interested in the details of the building of the crisis which was the series of time-quake like events that were leading to paradoxes and the explanation for how they protect themselves from the effect.
Another interesting thing that doesn't usually happen in my reading is that I got to chapter 17 and thought-I could almost be happy even had it ended then-yet there are 24 chapters and we really haven't done much in time travel by then. It wasn't that I wanted it to end it was just that it could have worked as an end if the author had wanted to leave things hanging.(A number of recent stories I've read have ended worse than this would have if it had ended at chapter 17 and I would have been interested in purchasing the next novel.) So big bonus for me because we got the whole 7 chapters of time travel.
What I liked about the time travel part was that the bulk of it was a single time episode as far as the protagonist is concerned. (There was one character that did describe the sort of time bounce effect where he'd done several recurring trips before success.) For the most part this did not involve a lot of time bouncing which is nice for a change.
One thing that I did find a little odd is that someone is selling a 2.99 review of this novel, which may have fueled some of the rougher reviews. I am not sure if this book requires an in-depth analysis that the reader should pay for. The author did do a lot of research for the time travel part so perhaps that's what that review book is about.(I have not yet decided if I really need to go there so I don't know what value that review has.)
If you love romances and time travel novels you should love this one. If you want to get involved with the controversy that's up to you. I found it to be a thoroughly engrossing read that I couldn't put down.
I definitely want to read more that comes from Rysa Walker.
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In Enemy Hands by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In Enemy Hands By David Weber (Honor Harrington Series Book 7)
As far as the honor character I really do enjoy the first three book much more than the rest. But in regards to the whole story and series this book is a pivotal part and it does have much more of depth into Honor's Character than I might have previously given it.
This is a long book and it carry's on the tradition of Political Military suspense thriller that David Weber has been building from day one. Everything that seemed extra and unnecessary begins to fold out to useful purposes. There is a lot that is going on with shifting loyalties and shifting party preferences within the military and political climate of many of the worlds that make up the Honor Universe.
We get to see Honor lose a decisive battle and we get to see the real evil of the new regime running the Peeps.
We also get a jarring chapter where through Honor's head we get introduced to the major players aboard her vessel that will ultimately go into battle. I really am not a fan of the shopping list character descriptions but I am willing to be forgiving when the book is already well beyond 500 pages, which this one is. That sense of needing to rush was probably too tempting as opposed to making many more pages and feeding us the information through the action.
There was a lot to handle here and in a small way the description, which comes from Honor's POV out of her head does help in a small way to give us more depth to Honor's character.
This Honor is more apparently vulnerable to the reader this time and I think that helps. She still makes most of the right decisions, but things go poorly and she has to face the consequences. These vulnerabilities have always been there, but her success have always managed to push them most of the way into the background.
I think at this point in the series if you are a fan of Honor Harrington that these books will stand well and be appreciated. I also can see that for someone who jumps in at this point or some future point it might become a daunting task to get into the stories.
Fans of Honor Harrington should love this one SFF Military Political Sociological and even Psychological fans might find this one and the next to be of interest.
Once again for the Horatio Hornblower fans this book parallels one of his in the sense of being a prisoner of war. But as for me any other similarities to Horatio Hornblower it goes well over my head. I have yet to get the enthusiasm to try to assemble a library of those works.
J.L. Dobias
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Honor Among Enemies by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Honor Among Enemies by David Weber (Book 6 Honor Harrington series)
Having no power for 8 days seemed like the prime time to catch up on the Honor Series. Honor Among Enemies seemed like the turning point for me. The previous 5 my mind would go numb and white noise would start when all the exposition about tactics and armament would begin. I know they are important to the big plot of the series but I was in this for Honor. This book David Weber seems to have perfected whatever it is he's been trying to do all this time, because I am becoming more focused on what is happening in all the other stories that go on in here.
Honor Among Enemies has 40 pages (over 12K words) and two chapters before Honor even shows up. But instead of throwing it down in disgust I read the forty pages and was somewhat entertained. This time being about my third read with this book I have the advantage of having tried to pay attention to what goes on in the exposition. This book has about 8 strong stories within it dealing with various characters who eventually intersect with Honor somewhere along the way and it might be the first book to begin down the path of romance for Honor and Hamish, which is a long and rocky winding twisted road.
This is the first book that when in Honor's POV I actually noticed some character outside of the stiff rigid character she always has to portray. Most of how we see Honor from her own POV is the front she puts up to deal with the tension of the serious situations she is always confronted with. Sure we saw her break down a few times over the death of Paul, but even then we did not see the depth of her personality. Most of the time that depth comes from how others see here through their adoration, appreciation, and idolization of their commander. We also begin to see the growing plot pertaining to Nimitz and the other treecats as something more than just curious pets linked to their human.
As much as it sometimes pains to have to wade through all the politics and intrigue, the flavor for me now has turned toward what I always loved about Alexander Dumas writing. And we are even being introduced to some very interesting Peeps in this book, all preliminary steps toward moving into the next book In Enemy Hands.
I also begin in this and the next novel to be able to appreciate how David Weber manages to almost seamlessly move his POV in and out of multiple character's heads, with no apparent warning, as a scene shoots by . There are a few places where if when I wasn't quite wrapped into the story I had to stop and backtrack to make sure I was really in someone else head just a half page ago.
Overall this book is probably not that much different from the others and it's likely that I just have finally settled into how David Weber tells his story. I still lack the background in CS Forester's Horatio Hornblower series to make any comparisons though I have managed to do some homework in that area because I usually run afoul of someone in the camp who adore making comparisons.
I'm not sure that I'd be able to make many comparisons to the characters themselves other than at best Honor could only thinly be compared to Horatio. As to the battles its a tough decision since CS Forester put Horatio into few if any situation where he'd be in any historical battles, which makes it more difficult to determine if his battles were of any importance at all especially since he was often out of communication with England and not always up to date with the current diplomatic situations. Honor on the other hand does fight in areas that seem of less concern and yet all her battles become historically important in the stories. Also Honor doesn't have a dowdy husband at her home port that she cheats on.
Anyway this is great stuff for those who like their SFF with military-tactical-suspense and drama.
J.L. Dobias
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C-Shapes by Matthew Fish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
C-Shapes by Matthew Fish
This is a sort of Dystopia novel, a genre that I'm only just warming up to. It contains many elements that look familiar to me already with the few novels I have read in this genre. I like this book a lot though, It had a character that I immediately identified with and then it had a lot of very good character development.
Ethan Chase, the protagonist and person telling the story is just an average guy who in fact prior to day of the great virus had been more of a deadbeat than anything else. Now he's decide to clean himself up and do something useful; if he can.
Imagine a world where half the population has been strricken with something that makes them all seem like a potential threat to humanity. Some suffer amnesia, some catatonia, some are mimics who drift from reality while mimicking those around them and some are downright psychotic. What they all have in common is that they are no longer able to function properly in society and eventually they all pose a threat of becoming what is called Aggro, a state of agitation where they become unstoppably aggressive and begin to kill.
This begins to sound almost like a military secret that has gone awry. An attempt at creating the perfect soldier's that is accidentally unleashed on the entire population. When they go aggro they seem to aggro together and almost seem linked somehow, again almost like the perfect army. But it's a virus and only half the population is afflicted. C-Shapes is a pharmaceutical company that has developed C-Alysium or calm as they call it. This controls the afflicted keeping them from going aggro.
Ethan has gotten the job of being the sitter for two cases of this affliction. One is a memory loss victim and the other is a mirror or mimic. We come into the story on his first day where he is expected to follow specific rules of conduct that seem quite simple and are enforced by graphic examples of what can happen when things go wrong. But imagine one of the cases being an old school friend who you once idolized and is now become debilitate and then imagine another who looks so frail and lost and becomes someone you're easily attracted to. This about sums up Ethan's first day at work. Since he is not supposed to become closely attached or emotionally involved; he's pretty much about to be blindsided.
But things aren't as they seem and Ethan is about to have rude awakening that's even worse than when his parents died from the virus. The world is poised at a moment of decision ready to kill off half of the population that poses such a threat to the rest. Ethan comes into possession of information that could change the way the world sees everything and he's not at all confident about his ability to complete the task he never signed up for.
All of that said I must once again raise a caution to those who insist on perfect grammar. This book will fail that test. My star system does not downgrade for those unless it seriously distracts me from the book. I have some friends though who will have that fingernail on chalkboard reaction too often in this book. I've marked 38 instance and there are likely more and that is more than I usually allow for, but I loved the plot and the character development I didn't feel there were any great out-in-left-field plot twists or that things were rushed along. But there are many odd sentence structures along with the 38 instances of missing words typos and incorrect words and double word that I think that mostly explains why many people didn't finish the book. If the editing had been just a bit tighter many of those people might have made it to the end and I think they would have been satisfied with the overall story.
This is a good novel for those not so picky people who love Dystopic SFF.
The first half of the book is the setup to how things look while the second is the slow reveal of how things really are and it all does fit as long as you don't get distracted by the typos. Given another thorough edit I'd have had no problem giving this a 5 star.
There are editors listed here and I hope they are reading the customer reviews carefully.
J.L. Dobias
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Flag in Exile by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Flag in Exile (Honor Harrington book 5) by David Weber
This book is great, but I think I like the forth book better. This one we get to see another side of Honor. In a way, from her own point of view she starts to look a bit like a whiny woe is me everything I touch turns out bad. And with as many people who have died in the first four novels it's not all that hard to see why. It's a good thing that what David Weber excels at is giving the reader the other picture of Honor from the people around her. I have nothing to truly measure by but I often feel that David Weber creates military characters for both sides that are often overly honorable while they slaughter each other and I'm not sure that it is the way it is or the way many would like to believe it should be.
On half pay and in semi-retirement and shame Honor has moved to her Steadholder property Harrington on Grayson. As with the last book this book involves a lot of political intrigue on both sides of the war and some social upheaval on Grayson.It's difficult to tell sometimes if the Protector of Grayson , Benjamin Mayhew and High Admiral Wesley Mathews have Honor's best interests at heart. Sure they have enough to deal with trying to upend their own social order and religious beliefs, but they seem to have put themselves in a place where they are using Honor more than rewarding her. And though it seems we often see characters in black and white as regards Honor it is evident in this book that there are many who praise her while they hate her which seems more duplicitous and maybe greyish.
Once again I'll caution new readers do not expect a lot of space battles, start at the beginning of the series and work your way up and it will ween you into David Weber's style. We do get to see Hamish Alexander in action a bit and there is a lot of military posturing along with the politics, but the actual battle time is very short and near the end.
This story is almost written as a counterpoint to the events in the last book. Honor will have to go through a similar personal trial but the motive and method created in this book make it quite a bit different from last book.
There is almost too much time spent with the trials and tribulations of both sides political climate. Whole chapters devoted to essentially telling us that 'uneasy lies the head that wears the crown'. Both side seem to be mired in rotten politics and the inability to act decisively. The both seem to bungle along merrily heading into battles that will kill thousands.
While Honor is feeling low we get to see how the men who protect her see her and their very loyalty speaks volumes about the person she really is. The men of Grayson have to struggle with this woman who is an example of everything they've been taught a woman shouldn't be, but to their credit the ones close to her can see her for what she is. Eventually they will wise up and give her the kick she needs to get going again. In some ways though they do tend to drag her down with over-protection.
Once Honor gets back into the routine of things it's back to her cool calculated killer self again, although she does occasionally laps into self doubt based on the faces of people she's lost in previous battles.
I can honestly say that if I didn't have all the other eyes looking at her and showing me the real Honor Harrington I'm not sure how much I would like the person she kept presenting herself as in this story.
David Weber is still doing a lot of world building and because in Grayson things are poised for change it does seem critical to find out what it is that is being changed. If a reader has made it this far in the series they are used to this, or should be. And he does it so elegantly sometimes that I felt like I shouldn't interrupt and tell him to get to the point.
Once again this is a good book for those who like Military Science Fiction with heavy description in strategy and power and the political posturing that goes on beneath the whole mess. It's also a pretty good study of Honor's character if you know where to look.
J.L. Dobias
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Becoming Human by Eliza Green
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Becoming Human (The Exilon 5 Trilogy, Book1) By Eliza Green
I'm not sure exactly who or where this was recommended so I'll have to just give an obscure thanks to whoever. This is an enjoyable read despite a few road bumps some caused by my own neglect where I'd have to back track. It was a slow starter for me and it took about twenty pages or more before I was invested into the story.
Exilon 5 is a planet that was close to earth like located long before man was ready to attempt to make a journey out and to consider colonization. But it initially was not all that promising because its atmosphere was toxic to humans. In this future the future of humanity on Earth is threatened by abuse of Earth and its resources. And by the time humanity has created the ships to travel to Exilon they also have the technology to change the planet to make it habitable and it is their last best hope.
The story starts after a number of years of terra-forming and colonization and one of the main characters Bill Taggart finds himself finally on the planet. Unfortunately its to investigate the presence of an indigent population. One that might be responsible for the disappearance and maybe even death of his wife.
The story itself unfolds both on Exilon 5 and Earth through the eyes of several characters.Some of these characters are the Indigenes. There are questions about the Indigenes the reader will want to address, which I won't mention because it's a plot point and your will have to read to find out.
There is more wrong on Earth than problems with the biosphere. The citizens seem to live in the Orwellian nightmare. And there was even a scene in here that reminded me of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Characters are afraid to talk to each other for fear of those who watch and the consequences. Exchanges made in secret keep the reader cringing waiting for the participants to be caught out and worrying that someone might be drawing someone else out with ill intent.
Then there is the investigation into the Indigenes. There is something not right with all of that and it's becoming a two way street as the Indigenes begin to show greater intelligence and aptitude than everyone has been led to believe. It soon becomes a question of who is watching who and what they are up to.
Plenty of mysteries to go around and a great start to a series of books with engaging characters and insidious villains.
Lovers of SFF and even apocalyptic and dystopic tales should enjoy this book.
As always a bit of caution that I did find a handful of errors with missing words and sentences that seemed incomplete and strange splitting of words like percent into per cent. So beware you who have issues with finding such things in the reading. They did not slow me down or dissuade me.
There are some words with British English spelling and I almost think there is some colloquial terms in here. Not a problem just an observation. And a bit of playful use of Cliches.
Some interesting, potentially brave choices made with a first novel in a series. I think they work well with the writing style.
I'll be looking for the next book, because I want to know what happens.
J.L. Dobias
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The Rat and the Serpent by Bryn Llewellyn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Rat and the Serpent by Stephen Palmer (as Bryn Llewellyn)
First of all; I enjoyed this novel, but I had to make it halfway through the book before it grabbed me. This is by far one of the most difficult reads I’ve had in a while. At some times it felt almost as painful as the poor translation of Don Quixote I’d tried to read long ago. It’s written well and for the most part well edited but there are some style choices that made it difficult for me to follow.
This novel reminded me of Thea von Harbou’s Metropolis. It’s written in a similar style. A modern critic said of Metropolis that it was full of over-the-top prose. I don’t agree because I think it was still apropos for its time though this critic cited a number contemporary works that came nowhere near the OTT of Metropolis. But Metropolis was a blend of mythology with technology in what might be described as a Dystopic environment written in a style that tried to emulate some epic classics. And that’s what you get from The Rat and the Serpent which almost becomes something of an anachronistic style of writing.
The serpent in the story gives us the only clue that might explain why this style was chosen. This serpent seems to be drawn from a description that finds it root somewhere between 1400 BCE to 1100 CE and if we used that as our measure then this could have been meant to take place at that time. In keeping with this style there are words that crop up that demanded the use of a dictionary, not so much to understand the meaning as to first find out if they exist in the sense that many were alternate spellings to other words and then after that finally ascertaining the meaning in the reference. I don’t mind because I always have a dictionary handy. What made it more difficult is that there were occasional slang terms out of modern day urbanized terms and a whole slew of created names and words that were there mostly for world building. There were times I would have been happy to know the etymology of these names although that might have slowed things down and for me slowing things down wouldn’t have helped.
There’s a certain mood and tone that goes with the world building that brings to mind Samuel Delaney’s Dhalgren which is another novel I struggled through many years ago. But the world of Ugliy is a gray world at best in many ways. It’s difficult to try to separate black and white and everything is covered constantly in soot from sootstorms that plague the region. Somehow this reflected in the style of the writing which created a sort mono paced story that dragged me though the first half of the novel.
Just like Ugliy in the novel who experience multiple times of self doubt while being told he could never be a Citidenizen I felt like giving up several times. But(just like Ugliy) I didn’t and by the time I got halfway through there were finally enough questions in my mind that I wanted answers to that I had to stick it out just a little longer. I don’t think the pace changed appreciably even in the moments that would usually be recognized as tense moments.
There are elements of this story that seem often like allegory; the never ending battle against the erosion and erasure of Mavrosopolis. The Thawers the Dessicators and the Bafflers fighting the wind the frost and the water. Each group had its tower and any of the three could be used to begin the test to rise from Nogoth to Citidenizen. In a way it was like trying to stave off the march of time using strange methods to block collect and remove the agents of erosion. But now as I think about it the whole story also seems to be an allegory of me the reader and the struggle to get through the novel as I look back at my previous paragraph.
This novel stands well as a view into world building from the ground up. Through the narrative as told by Ugliy the shaman of the BlackRat we see it unfold. It’s a rather tainted and prejudicial view, but it’s the only view we have beyond the second voice which for most of the story remains a mystery as to who they are. Each chapter has a two page entry into the thoughts of a second character. Oddly this short bit is just as engaging and informative as the longer version from Ugliy.
In the Nogoths there are several social divisions and all of those have in common the fact that they are all considered nonpersons and none seem satisfied with their lot. Since there is that carrot placed before them that invites them to join the Citidenizens they all have this idyllic notion about how those people live. Since we are not introduced directly with anyone of those who have knowledge of how the Citidenizens live who would be willing to share that experience we have only the view from below where everything up looks so much better and only the glimmer of suspicion for the reader to worry about where things are headed.
To make things interesting Citidenizens seemed to be obsessed with perfection of physical appearance and this makes it unlikely that Ugliy who is a cripple (one bad leg) deformed at birth to ever even dream of becoming Citidenizens. But Ugliy is a shaman of the BlackRat and that gives him a small edge in this world of struggle. I confess that at first I thought this BlackRat thing was just a scam he’d tried to pull to alleviate his own humiliation in front of Atavalens the shaman of the Panther when they were fighting over food. In a way though it seems that often Ugliy is congruent in his grumbling over being humiliated since all of them are at the lowest of the low in the class scale and scraping for any bits of food to sustain themselves and one would think he’d be familiar with and comfortable with humility when trying to find crumbs to satisfy his hunger.
As the story unfolds we meet Zveratu who helps Ugliy to begin the test that should lead to Citidenizenship while Ugliy is paranoid and distrustful and even knows that as a cripple it’s improbable that he’d be allowed to become Citidenizen he still allows this man to push him into this. When he joins the Dessicators he finds he’s allied to his enemy Atavalens and he meets Raknia (who in a peculiar twist to her name is the shaman of the widowspider.)At this point the characters become more caricature than real people and they seem to have some duality in their makeup although for the most part Atavalens is portrayed as just stubborn mean when it comes to Ugliy. Rakina vacillates from giving praise and encouragement to Ugliy to ranting and wanting to murder him-she has her reasons but it’s difficult to take her serious after a while.
The plot of the story or the story itself seems to be one of self discovery and improvement and the blinders that one puts on to justify never looking back. Ugliy despite being crippled becomes focused on the end and as with all the characters we seem to have an end justifies the mean mentality that permeates the story. Ultimately Ugliy’s greatest difficulty in life comes from within and is only minimally influenced by the physical deformity. In his quest he appears to try to maintain some of his humanity but one has to wonder if he ever truly had any. It’s this that makes it difficult to sympathize with any of the characters in this story.
Throughout the story there are a number of interesting things and ideas brought into the story in a sort of discovery fashion for both Ugliy and the reader. But as Ugliy struggles forward many or most seem to become disposable though there are smatterings that show up within the final parts and in all honestly there are so many of these loose pieces to the puzzle that I might easily have overlooked how they connected at the end.
Still even with some confusion there is a story with a plot that seems to thread its way into this novel and it’s enough to bring the reader to a satisfactory conclusion even if there might be some level of frustration with some of the outcome. I do enjoy a book that makes you think and takes you out of your comfort zone just a bit; though while I would have liked the climaxes to have reached a bit higher it might have been a delicate balance with trying not to become too absurd.
Though I wouldn’t recommend this solely for entertainment value If a person is a reader who likes to think and have the dictionary handy this is a fair Dystopic tale that includes shades of paranormal and a slow grinding horror that permeates the writing of such classic writers as Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu.
J.L. Dobias
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In a Glass Darkly by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In A Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu
Through a glass, darkly (1 Corinthians 13)
I enjoyed these stories and of course this includes Carmilla which I've already spoken about. The other stories here often come close to making me ask what's the the point. But these are early ghost stories that set the template for many of the strange stories I read in my youth and so I think I understand a bit about the stories.
The first volume of a three volume set that I downloaded has three short stories that would each qualify as a creepy ghost story. They are told from the point of coming from the journals kept by a occult detective Dr. Martin Hesselius as edited posthumously by his medical secretary. The notion is that the doctor had explanations for the phenomenon that might include a combination of medical knowledge and metaphysics.
These are ghost stories so they end poorly for the subject and they contain all of the exciting details that lead up to thier demise with it being left to the reader to decide if this was the work of ghosts or other agencies.
Green Tea is the story of Rev. Mr. Jennings and his brush with demons.
The Familiar is the story of Captain Barton and his struggle with ghosts of his past.
Mr. Justic Harbottle is the story of a corrupt Judges judgment.
These are all also listed as mysteries, but the mystery is never really solved, which is common in ghost stories. Although the reader gets enough background to make some conclusions.
What is interesting to me about these is that they precede the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and there are enough similarities to wonder if Sir Arthur was influenced by the work of Le Fanu although I've found one reference that intimated that Sir Arthur borrowed from his work in Uncle Silas.
The only real difference as detective stories go is that the strange cases Holmes took were mostly solvable cases.
So if you enjoy those ghost stories told in front of the campfire in the dead of night you should probably enjoy these. Perhaps we could even consider Dr.Hesselius as one of the original paranormal detectives if not the original.
J.L. Dobias
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Field of Dishonor by David Weber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Field of Dishonor by David Weber
This is one of my favorites and in a way it's for the reasons that ten percent of the readers dislike this one. It might be the fact that David Weber had three sure books assigned to write that led to this one or it might be that he wanted the springboard for the next couple of novels. Whichever way it might be; this one shows up almost as an experiment to see how well Honor stands without the great battle scenes at the end.
The book starts out with a long setup toward the court-martial of Pavel Young, which is a rehash of everything that happened pretty much in the last half of the half of the book prior to this: "A Short Victorious War", which is the part concerning Honor. This is all a setup for all of the political posturing that's going to occur soon.
So as with all his books, which seem like 50% Honor story 33% political posturing 17% war and instruments of war. This one cuts it 50 50 with Honor and politics. There is no great battle between ships at the end and not much talk of the armament.
What there is is an in-depth look at the characters as they are stuck in the mired political landscape. This time we get a clearer picture of the devotion all the people around Honor have for their captain.
This book can be frustrating especially to anyone skimming the pages of the previous three because there have been some political and cultural references to the story building that are peppered through those like some inane meaningless drivel that are now going to be pivotal to things that happen in this book in the world of Honor. Things the reader might have missed.
Questions of motivation and proper decorum within the universe are possibly raised here that might seem to upend everything, but it's not like you haven't been warned; if you've been able to stay awake through those passages.
That aside what hooks me with this novel is the fact that it's the one of all four so far that has moved me to feel something. Halfway through the book when politics interferes with justice and inevitable tragedy is visited on Honor there are several key scenes that struck me with some emotional impact not only garnering feelings for Honor but also those around her who want to protect her. As I've mentioned before it seems that the character building that David Weber does is more invested in the picture we receive from other characters and how they see Honor and I think that holds true for many of the main characters. I believe that might be one thing that throws people off if they are looking for the actions and narrative around the character to give them the full description. The character development is there, but the reader has to work a bit to squeeze it out of the story.
As I've mentioned, what is missing from this one is all that techno-babel that drives the other three and that's because the battle to be won is not a ship board battle. There is a lot of legalize and probably more of Honor than we see in the other books. And this is the build up for the next few novels setting the stage for where Honor will be and why.
This is again good for the SFF fan but not so much the military science fiction as it is the political. Anyone picking this one up as the first read of an Honor Harrington novel who likes space battles, is going to be disappointed. Start with On Baslisk Station.
J.L. Dobias
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The Ripple Trilogy Books 1-3 by Cidney Swanson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Ripple Trilogy Books 1-3 by Cidney Swanson
"the beautiful and the dark together"
First of all I really enjoyed this set of books; a lot. For me it took off right at the beginning and then just kept me running at a steady pace all the way through. The writing is superb, well crafted characters with an exciting though measured even pace that kept me right there with Samantha and Will.
This seems to target young adults, but I didn't let that sway me. In fact I was doing my usual cleanup of my kindle app on my PC when I recalled I hadn't downloaded this one and so I did and usually to do that the book gets opened so my eyes started scanning the page and I was hooked.
Apparently from the reviews there are some few rare people who seem to escape that hook, but I can't for the life of me see how.
In the Rippler we start with Sam our on the river rafting with her friends when the unthinkable happens. Sam has this problem where she just sort of vanishes like the invisible girl in fantastic four comics. She's been hiding it and she'd had some unusual trauma, the death of her best friend and her mother in an accident so she's been withdrawn up until now, which means that this vanishing trick is not going to help her much. Everyone except for Will has missed her vanishing act and they all somehow think she fell out of the raft so they all have a moment of panic.
With everyone running around Will talks to the invisible Sam trying to get her to make herself visible again while no one is watching. Of course it's puzzling to Sam how Will knows this and how he seems to be so calm about it. Will and Sam are already friends and this is going to bring them closer or tear them apart, but it is definitely going to have some impact.
We soon find out that Will has secrets of his own and that both of them are going to be in a lot of danger. They have special abilities that people are going to want to take advantage of.
One small comment about this story.Neo Nazi plots, characters with special abilities, siblings or parents who have passed away often under mysterious circumstances, and evil people who want to kill or control the special ability group. The themes and subplots are all familiar ones to this genre although Cidney Swanson has added a few ripples of her own to make it unique. But always with these types of stories what becomes the most important is the writing style and the crafting of characters. In those two I was extremely impressed.
The dynamic between the group around Sam and Will drive the story and the plot is driven by revelation of the evil through old journal entries present often through the eyes of the followers of the master mind of all the evil.
The Cameleon continues the story with further explanation of what is really happening and the danger that it poses to not only our main protagonists, but also to everyone they care about.
Will and Sam struggle with the best way to use their abilities to stay out of trouble and with the struggle of the growing relationship between them.
Finally Unfurl brings things all to an exciting dramatic conclusion that you will just have to read once you read the first two. At least that's how it was for me. And it doesn't disappoint. Each book builds on the previous and each one is better than the last.
Young Adults and even Adults who like the SFF should enjoy this and anyone that likes all those comic characters with their special power and angst should enjoy this. (Except they'll have to draw their own cartoon panels. And that seems to be one complaint of a fellow reader about these types of books.)
I loved it and I'll likely be reading a lot more of Cidney Swanson's work.
J.L. Dobias
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Max and the Gatekeeper by James Todd Cochrane
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Max and the Gatekeeper by James Todd Cochrane
Max and the Gatekeeper starts out well with some bit of excitement to get the reader interested and then a slower paced mystery that stretches out only for as long as Max's Grandfather sees fit to torture him.
Max Rigdon is just an ordinary kid who is not quite so ordinary (by virtue of his connection to his grandfather) yet is quite ordinary in the world that he lives because of how things in the story work. The premise is that we have high potential for magic in our world but less inclination and thus less ability to tap into it.
Grandpa was once involved in a science program that examined certain potential and ended up opening a gateway into many dimensions where magic existed and in a way the gateway was emulating what some of the other worlds do with magic. Once the door was open Grandpa and some others were able to tap into the magic of the other worlds and learn how to use it on ours. But there is a sort of war going on and Max's Grandpa is guarding our world from the evil while helping others in other worlds to fight the evil and try to keep the gateway technology out of the hands of others. In the war Max's father was a casualty and that leaves Max as the sole heir to the task his grandfather has undertaken.
What Max doesn't realize is that he has been sent to his grandfather this year to learn all that they can teach him about the gateway and the magic. And the whole town where his grandfather lives is controlled by the evil that is trying to gain access to the Gateway.
I've already probably gone too far so I'll stop there.
There are a number of things I really liked about this novel. First off it obviously is a Young Adult or Teen novel. Max is around twelve and Max's partner in magic schooling Cindy is also of that age. I really enjoyed that Cindy was in no way ever portrayed as being helpless and in need of protecting. She's pretty level headed most of the time and even her mistakes seem to make sense and the consequences only help demonstrate her ability to fend for herself. Max too is an independent spirit and he learns quickly.
These stories-yes there are more- have the potential to be like the Harry Potter franchise. But as some others have noted the reader might get the feeling of things being rushed. The big evil is addressed right away and that helps to rush things along. I at one point was not sure there would be enough left for more story, but there really is plenty of wiggle room.
The parallel worlds or universes give this an element similar to Sliders of TV fame and open the stories for lots of possibilities. The magic rules are interesting and seemed consistent and the pace was pretty well handled to keep me interested.
I'm sure if James Todd Cochrane had decided to spend just a bit more time on developing both the good and the evil characters that this book could have been much longer. I'm not sure how much more improved it would be, but definitely longer and that might limit the age group. So I think in the long run the decision to look a bit rushed may be good for the age group this seems to target.
And the fact that there are more gives room for character development. We'll definitely have to see.
This is a good book for the Younger reader with mostly tame content to give it a wide distribution of readers. I'm well beyond that target age and really loved it.I think people interested in Fantasy and some SFF fans who aren't picky about needing adult scenes and solid science will really enjoy it.
It's a great and fun read.
I picked this up in June and notice that it was updated in November. I'm not sure what all needed fixing but I must have been mostly distracted by the story and didn't notice any problems.
J.L. Dobias
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The Zondon by Robby Charters
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The Zondon by Robby Charters
This was an interesting read unfortunately I can see that it might easily be one that is quite easily discarded before being finished. Overall I think it was well plotted out storyline with interesting features. I read it all the way through but I swear that it took me a very long time to digest the first two pages of chapter one and I'm not sure exactly why other than that the style of writing and sometimes oddly structured sentences were distracting not to mention the notion of twins right away that called for names that were closely related Eddie and Ernie. I had some difficulty being assured that we were always in Ernies head. After that bit it became easier to read.
A word of caution this has spelling errors-wrong words- missing words and very odd sentence structure on occasion that number beyond a dozen and for me reaches the severe warning level. Such things as the word father instead of Farther; Though instead of thought; 'that I do what have now done.'(missing an I maybe.) 'there did came a time'. There were instances where the grammar and word choices were correct but the sentence was a bear to digest and that often comes from passive sentence structure.
Robby Charters has a lot of background in religious study so there is a lot of theology in here. It is quite diverse and probably because his background is with interdenominational church. I did not find it preachy or anything of that sort and it was pretty integral to the plot of the story. What I did find interesting was the exclusion of many religions considered by mainstream Christianity as cults. The main reason for the aspect of exclusion to be of note is because this story reads like at least one of those religions. If I had not checked his bio I'd have thought Robby was one of that ilk. There is at least one time where the dive into theology becomes so steep that it could be construed as preaching (except it wouldn't be preaching anything from any of those interdenominational churches).
This story takes place in many geographical locations but it centers often on Ireland and Thailand, which I gathered from the bio were the two places the author calls home so he's well acquainted with these areas.
Also most of the characters often end up with odd speech patterns somehow related to geographic origin which is okay but when that serves as the only device to give the characters depth it falls short for me and even with that aspect they all manage to sound the same as many people complain when an author fails to use this device. Unfortunately it began to feel for me as though someone decided everyone sounded the same so lets change up the speech patterns. That's always a good trick to start with if you really feel you need to do that. In this case I think most of the time it worked alright, but on occasion I got confused about who was from where and had to keep looking back to make sure that that speech affectation worked for that person. Sometimes for me this use for differentiating characters by speech affectation becomes a distraction when overused.
There are a lot of pop references. Almost too many of those. And there were even some where the reference became a bit obtuse for some reason.
Also it became evident at some point that the quest in this book was patterned like some of the MMORPG's online. Each quest done in a specific order and often portioned out one at a time or at least in that order.
I'd recommend this to lovers of SFF that are not too finicky about the Science part and don't mind a lot if theological discourse. Also Young Adult, but not anyone who hasn't yet grounded themselves in their personal beliefs about religion. This could just get confusing.
There was even a place I started thinking Thetans. (And that's not even the religion this reminds me of.)
Overall I enjoyed the book it contained a lot of interesting information pertaining to mainstream religion and some unusual notions.
There was one very interesting passage that felt like a recurring dream I've had and it was really pretty creepy having someone crawling through ever tightening passages until they get stuck.
J.L. Dobias
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Dark Nights by Christopher A. Gray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Dark Night by Christopher A. Gray
A friend of mine suggested I read this. He gave me a sneak peek of the copy he had and I decided it would be worth the small amount to check the rest out. This is one of those slow moving suspense novels that kind of unravels before the readers eye keeping them hanging there in the same confused place that the characters are at until it finally kicks in.
We agreed on one thing this reminded us of some stuff we've been reading from Robert Sawyer so if you like the Science Fiction of Robert Sawyer you should like this. I read Rollover and the pace and intensity of that story are similar to this. This is not one of those seat of your pants thrillers that are a dime a dozen these days. It's more of an intellectual plodder that requires you to think and also requires wading through a bit of scientific description.
The first thing that struck me about this story was it started out sounding a lot like the (1969) Roy Thinnes movie Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. In this book future technologies allow us to peer beyond and around the sun and we discover a world quite similar to Earth on the other side. And they're pretty sure it wasn't there not that long ago.
Next it begins to sound like the 1966 book by D. F. Jones Colossus:The Forbin project. A story about a pair of computers that go just a little bit out into left field. In Dark Night the Computer has become sentient and has the ability to out think modern day physicist and has found a way to move very large objects through dimensional space and into our dimension. There is a whole end of the world scenario that leads up to this. Now one small hick-up here is that this big brain seems to have overlooked some simple things that must remain intact when making the transfer.(Maybe it was just too much work and energy to move the planet.) Still this is an important plot point to help make this story interesting.
Christopher Gray takes us on the long scenic route to get there, but I think it's well worth the journey. Most of the early chapters are spent in finding cataloging and theorizing. Possibly for me not enough time was spent on development of the Characters. There seem to be three characters that drive the story, I almost said two but I can't ignore the sentient computer of the alternate Earth. Since there is a strong plot thread that runs to the end with this character and it makes a deep decision along with its several errors I have to admit that Mekhos is definitely a sort of antagonistic protagonist. Then we have Doug Lockwood of real Earth and Norman Stravinsky of the alt Earth who created Mekhos. Though there is all speculation about the two worlds colliding eventually and studies to determine the stability of the orbit of the alt-Earth, the real excitement in this story doesn't begin until about one third the way through when we find out how devastating it is to an Earth to try to survive some drastic changes.
Later on there are even elements in this story that remind me of the 1984 thriller Terminator. Pitting man against machine.
On a side note the web comic Skin Horse written by Shaenon K. Garrity and Jeffrey Channing Wells that has rather funny thread about something similar to this story about an AI that goes sentient and causes a lot of grief..
If I had to put Dark Night in a nutshell:
Mekhos, an artificial intelligence that has grown far beyond all expectations finds itself at the cusp of a decision as to how to save humanity from the impending disaster. The very design structure of its computational array is integral to the solution that presents itself. With too little time to allow the inhabitants to make the decision; Mekhos moves its Earth into another dimension and shifts the time reference to insert it's Earth half a year out of sync with the present Earth in the new location. But Mekhos has made a small error by leaving something behind that is vital to the continued survival of the humans. There is a solution because what Mekhos needs is just on the other side of the sun.
Mekhos has a problem. The inhabitants of the alt-Earth are unaware of what Mekhos is doing; mostly because Mekhos has a firm grip on the people of the planet and the real Earth is about to discover Mekhos plan in a most horrifying way.
Soon there will be a mad dash on both planets to pit human against machine and the ultimate consequence could be the destruction of two global civilizations. If that's not bad enough; man being man and already unable to trust himself is going to have a devil of a time trusting his counterparts from a parallel world.
And that's where this story diverges from the comparisons I just made above.
I recommend this for all SFF lovers Hard Soft and in between. Anyone that likes authors like Robert Sawyer and those slow-boiling science thrillers.
If there comes to be a second book to this I'll be reading it. Well written and edited. I did find a couple of minor faults that were easily overlooked and did not impact the read.
J.L. Dobias
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