[1] Godsmacked- Paul Cicchini
This concise, humorous, book is absolutely splattered with modern cultural references, and amusing interpretations of the gods of Classical Greece, which can’t help but connect with most inhabitants of the English speaking world. It is hard to go through many lines without finding oneself painting pictures, with all Cicchini’s quick-fire, skimming, mentions. Before long I found myself imagining Cicchini’s crazy chain of eccentric thinking as a cartoon, even though there is not so much as a line drawing anywhere in the book. The whole thing is a little bit Douglas Adams, a little bit Walter Sellar & Robert Yeatman (“1066 And All That”), or Terry Gilliam, or Disney’s “Hercules” and all floating in a Manga world. One may well be reminded of the quirky teacher, who is or was one of the few to inspire you in school; not always quite funny, not always quite to the point, not always quite on your planet, but always engaging and inspirational. This is a book, once started, will almost always be finished and remembered.
Cicchini uses Greek mythology and a heavy dose of the absurd to encourage all, whether we are fortunate enough to still be in the dissidence of youth or in the sometime depression of decline, to lighten up, and cheerfully make the best of our limited talents. We certainly aren’t confined to the original Greek/Biblical use of “talent” as money. Take this message on-board, but don’t for a minute think of this book as being preachy or as some sort of comic “how to be as great as me”. Cicchini is loud on irreverent fun and merely suggestive of dogmatic sermon.
At times in this book I felt more as though I was a listener from the audience of an entertaining speaker, rather than reading quietly to myself, as though watching a pacey lecture with plenty of funny slides. We are one second with Tolkien, the next with Justin Bieber. One time we glance at an image from Clement Moore’s “The Night before Christmas” and then next a sequence from “Pimp my Ride”. A moment later and Athena is defending us from the Gorgons and then before one can blink Hermes is stealing cattle from Apollo. If this book was a painting, it would be busy, bright, even garish, pop art. Its cheerful chaos would say, “lighten up, and try and do what you can to make life just a touch more bearable for everyone in it”. This book isn’t going to interest those who prefer to avoid playful flippancy, and ridiculous comedy, but it worked for me
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466289864
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher
Cicchini uses Greek mythology and a heavy dose of the absurd to encourage all, whether we are fortunate enough to still be in the dissidence of youth or in the sometime depression of decline, to lighten up, and cheerfully make the best of our limited talents. We certainly aren’t confined to the original Greek/Biblical use of “talent” as money. Take this message on-board, but don’t for a minute think of this book as being preachy or as some sort of comic “how to be as great as me”. Cicchini is loud on irreverent fun and merely suggestive of dogmatic sermon.
At times in this book I felt more as though I was a listener from the audience of an entertaining speaker, rather than reading quietly to myself, as though watching a pacey lecture with plenty of funny slides. We are one second with Tolkien, the next with Justin Bieber. One time we glance at an image from Clement Moore’s “The Night before Christmas” and then next a sequence from “Pimp my Ride”. A moment later and Athena is defending us from the Gorgons and then before one can blink Hermes is stealing cattle from Apollo. If this book was a painting, it would be busy, bright, even garish, pop art. Its cheerful chaos would say, “lighten up, and try and do what you can to make life just a touch more bearable for everyone in it”. This book isn’t going to interest those who prefer to avoid playful flippancy, and ridiculous comedy, but it worked for me
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1466289864
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher
[2] Shark & The Wolf: Predators and Prey- Daniel D. Shields
Daniel Shields has created a masterful thriller, which is not just a great vehicle for reminding us all that we are the worst predatory species on planet Earth, but also the species that threatens the existence of all others. But don’t think for a second that there is any preaching here, there isn’t. This is just a great adventure in which the human cast comes off second best to most of this book’s sentient animals.
The words flow easily, in a style that paints a vivid framework into which one’s imagination can build. I felt his words effortlessly brush me over the threshold of a Disneyesque cartoon world that became more believable with every page I turned. The figures may start out from comic invention, but there is nothing shallow about the directions in which we are drawn. The emotions are those of us all, and carry as much weighty sub-text as one finds in plenty of more familiar adult books.
If in the second chapter you can’t quite believe evolution can throw up the Great White Shark that walks tall, plays pool, falls in love with a vixen, and grows into one of the world’s most heroic figures, then within a few more pages of engaging reading you will. If you can’t quite see we modern humans as the same low life that enjoyed the butchery of the Roman Colosseum, you may soon.
This is an exciting story for all to enjoy, from reading teenagers to time worn adults. A slightly mad vision, certainly it is, but one that most can slip into. One may even grow to get a least a glimpse of why the author and his star characters are so engrossed by the game of pool-billiards. I know such a game seems an unlikely backdrop to a book that points up the evils of creature exploitation and slavery, but then I was already snookered by Shields’ story long before the eight-ball slammed into any pocket.
All the locations are well painted, especially for me an exotic beach-bar on the Island of Viti Levu, Fiji. By the time I was caught up in the interplay of characters around the cool-blue, velvet, of that bar’s pool-table, there was not the least chance of me putting down the book before its exciting end.
Obviously this book is going to be best enjoyed by those who can easily go with the flow of the absurd. If you really are not able to see the comedy in a shark riding a chopper motorcycle, or feel an empathy with an elephant watching its parent being carried away by trophy hunters, or even suspend rational belief for long enough to see yourself as some other sentient creature, then don’t bother with this book. If you are anyone else, then grab a copy and enjoy.http://www.amazon.com/dp/1461092396 http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher
The words flow easily, in a style that paints a vivid framework into which one’s imagination can build. I felt his words effortlessly brush me over the threshold of a Disneyesque cartoon world that became more believable with every page I turned. The figures may start out from comic invention, but there is nothing shallow about the directions in which we are drawn. The emotions are those of us all, and carry as much weighty sub-text as one finds in plenty of more familiar adult books.
If in the second chapter you can’t quite believe evolution can throw up the Great White Shark that walks tall, plays pool, falls in love with a vixen, and grows into one of the world’s most heroic figures, then within a few more pages of engaging reading you will. If you can’t quite see we modern humans as the same low life that enjoyed the butchery of the Roman Colosseum, you may soon.
This is an exciting story for all to enjoy, from reading teenagers to time worn adults. A slightly mad vision, certainly it is, but one that most can slip into. One may even grow to get a least a glimpse of why the author and his star characters are so engrossed by the game of pool-billiards. I know such a game seems an unlikely backdrop to a book that points up the evils of creature exploitation and slavery, but then I was already snookered by Shields’ story long before the eight-ball slammed into any pocket.
All the locations are well painted, especially for me an exotic beach-bar on the Island of Viti Levu, Fiji. By the time I was caught up in the interplay of characters around the cool-blue, velvet, of that bar’s pool-table, there was not the least chance of me putting down the book before its exciting end.
Obviously this book is going to be best enjoyed by those who can easily go with the flow of the absurd. If you really are not able to see the comedy in a shark riding a chopper motorcycle, or feel an empathy with an elephant watching its parent being carried away by trophy hunters, or even suspend rational belief for long enough to see yourself as some other sentient creature, then don’t bother with this book. If you are anyone else, then grab a copy and enjoy.http://www.amazon.com/dp/1461092396 http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher
[3] Religion Versus Science- Ron Frost
This is a very readable, academic, book, which explores a hugely important topic. Failure to find compromise between the extremists on either side of the debate could mean that the difficult paths all societies currently face become even rockier. Wherever one rests in the debate this book is well worth one’s reading time. Any work that can help to bridge the gap between materialistic science and fundamentalist religious opinion is helpful, and this book does just that. The extremists in both camps may be lost to what the majority of us would see as rational debate, but that just makes it more important that there are individuals like Ron Frost willing to try to find a rational middle ground, between priest and scientific atheism.Frost points out, on the one hand, the emotional vacuousness in the application of scientific analysis to subjective values and, on the other, the ridiculousness of trying to stand against overwhelming evidence for evolution. The “fact” is that for most emotional humans a purely objective view of life is insufficient. The idea that there is no God, because all the ingredients of life are scientifically explainable, is just not acceptable to most of us. Generally speaking, we feel a degree of spirituality in our lives. This may be anything from just a weak feeling of sentient, mystical, consciousness, and through all variables to extreme, literal and dogmatic, religious fundamentalism. Frost a modern scientist with a deep understanding of the materialistic world and of the requirements of scientific theory, steps out of his regular work shoes to try and identify the vitally needed middle ground. He is perhaps aided in this, or at least not restrained, by his Buddhist principles.
Particularly in the USA, but worldwide, the lack of willingness of the material scientist on the one hand and Creationists, and advocates of Intelligent Design, on the other, to try and talk the same language has been variably stark. The fact is that a century after Nietzsche announced the death of God, 93% of Americans still believe he exists. If the average man is less than happy with the idea that “logos” has all the answers, believing there to be “mythos,” a real spirituality in life, then for a peaceful world it is necessary to find satisfactory ground on which the advocates of both causes can communicate.
Frost achieves what he sets out to do, namely to find a middle ground that can be accepted by open minds on both sides of the debate, but as to whether he is able to actually play a convincing enough hand isn’t so clear. The book spends just a touch too much time looking at the evolutionary evidence, and rather not enough time looking from the Creationists’ field. This is logically excusable, as provable theory and evidence are with science. However, we are trying to look beyond mere logic into consciousness, and mysticism, which in my view required striving for a little more balance.
This book is well written, explaining complex issues in a way that is generally accessible. In our troubled times we need scientists and theologians to work together towards a holistic interpretation of the modern world. Scientist should let in some of the mystery that exists in the unknown, and in “consciousness”; and Creationists need to embrace Darwinism where its factual case is overwhelming. As Frost says, “If we really want to understand the world around us, each of us must be able to integrate objective and subjective reality into a mystical whole.”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064XMECO
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher
Particularly in the USA, but worldwide, the lack of willingness of the material scientist on the one hand and Creationists, and advocates of Intelligent Design, on the other, to try and talk the same language has been variably stark. The fact is that a century after Nietzsche announced the death of God, 93% of Americans still believe he exists. If the average man is less than happy with the idea that “logos” has all the answers, believing there to be “mythos,” a real spirituality in life, then for a peaceful world it is necessary to find satisfactory ground on which the advocates of both causes can communicate.
Frost achieves what he sets out to do, namely to find a middle ground that can be accepted by open minds on both sides of the debate, but as to whether he is able to actually play a convincing enough hand isn’t so clear. The book spends just a touch too much time looking at the evolutionary evidence, and rather not enough time looking from the Creationists’ field. This is logically excusable, as provable theory and evidence are with science. However, we are trying to look beyond mere logic into consciousness, and mysticism, which in my view required striving for a little more balance.
This book is well written, explaining complex issues in a way that is generally accessible. In our troubled times we need scientists and theologians to work together towards a holistic interpretation of the modern world. Scientist should let in some of the mystery that exists in the unknown, and in “consciousness”; and Creationists need to embrace Darwinism where its factual case is overwhelming. As Frost says, “If we really want to understand the world around us, each of us must be able to integrate objective and subjective reality into a mystical whole.”
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064XMECO
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher
[4] Kea's Flight- Erika Hammerschmidt & John C. Ricker
I have fallen in love with this book, and already miss its adventure. The writing style flows like water, painting pictures that seem to float off the page. The main characters are interesting and deeply drawn, serious issues are bridged, suspense is held, and the book unravels to a suitably satisfactory and less than expected end.
A wide spectrum of readers should be as affected as I am, from Young Adult to “Seen-it-All” Veterans of a thousand books. We see the story through the eyes of a slowly maturing young girl who starts life in the deeps of autistic isolation, and follow her as she develops her savant skills in language and learns to interact with her peers. We are on a space-ship that is physically divided between a great number of variously handicapped children, living dormitory lives, and their controllers, the BGs, who “run” the ship. The novel seems to me to so well describe existence amongst the variously handicapped and marginalised, with their sometimes useful gifts. I am sure the insights and deep connections we feel with this bunch of “rejected humanity” would have felt less strong, if it were not for the fact that the authors have a particular closeness to autistic spectrum handicaps themselves.
This book is not just a must for those with an interest in science fiction, but should also be on the reading list of those who aren't naturally sympathetic to that genre. As a writer of speculative fiction I started reading with high expectations, otherwise I would not have chosen this one from a pile of hundreds. It was one of the best totally undirected reading decisions I have even made.
There are a lot of social and philosophical issues covered in this story, from prejudice to individual rights, from the needs of society to equality of opportunity and the future of mankind. There are also many of the more familiar scientific and technological ingredients that are the grist of SF writing. All are blended into a plausible adventure that takes place on a cheaply produced tin can of a spacecraft, run with variously obsolete equipment, as it powers towards a predetermined destination. This is a destiny that needs avoiding if our unlikely crew and passengers are going to have much of a future. A thick fog of expectant failure grabs at us as we follow the story of this unlikely bunch of discordant friends, and get glimpses of their tenuous, unidentified supporters. So many varying emotional strands often weaken, but sometimes strengthen, any hope of survival. We have love, hate, paranoia, fear, pain, inferiority complexes, totalitarian venom, distrust and blind support all rearing their heads in a threatening to be tragic soup. And of course, with having so many classical elements of science fiction, even artificial “intelligence” raises its electronic head.
I really hope there is a sequel to this fine novel, as I really can’t abide the idea of missing out on the future adventures of Karen Anderson and Zachary Drazil.
http://www.amazon.com/Keas-Flight-Erika-Hammerschmidt/dp/1466240482
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/4603/1/Keas-Flight-Reviewed-By-Richard-Bunning-of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html
A wide spectrum of readers should be as affected as I am, from Young Adult to “Seen-it-All” Veterans of a thousand books. We see the story through the eyes of a slowly maturing young girl who starts life in the deeps of autistic isolation, and follow her as she develops her savant skills in language and learns to interact with her peers. We are on a space-ship that is physically divided between a great number of variously handicapped children, living dormitory lives, and their controllers, the BGs, who “run” the ship. The novel seems to me to so well describe existence amongst the variously handicapped and marginalised, with their sometimes useful gifts. I am sure the insights and deep connections we feel with this bunch of “rejected humanity” would have felt less strong, if it were not for the fact that the authors have a particular closeness to autistic spectrum handicaps themselves.
This book is not just a must for those with an interest in science fiction, but should also be on the reading list of those who aren't naturally sympathetic to that genre. As a writer of speculative fiction I started reading with high expectations, otherwise I would not have chosen this one from a pile of hundreds. It was one of the best totally undirected reading decisions I have even made.
There are a lot of social and philosophical issues covered in this story, from prejudice to individual rights, from the needs of society to equality of opportunity and the future of mankind. There are also many of the more familiar scientific and technological ingredients that are the grist of SF writing. All are blended into a plausible adventure that takes place on a cheaply produced tin can of a spacecraft, run with variously obsolete equipment, as it powers towards a predetermined destination. This is a destiny that needs avoiding if our unlikely crew and passengers are going to have much of a future. A thick fog of expectant failure grabs at us as we follow the story of this unlikely bunch of discordant friends, and get glimpses of their tenuous, unidentified supporters. So many varying emotional strands often weaken, but sometimes strengthen, any hope of survival. We have love, hate, paranoia, fear, pain, inferiority complexes, totalitarian venom, distrust and blind support all rearing their heads in a threatening to be tragic soup. And of course, with having so many classical elements of science fiction, even artificial “intelligence” raises its electronic head.
I really hope there is a sequel to this fine novel, as I really can’t abide the idea of missing out on the future adventures of Karen Anderson and Zachary Drazil.
http://www.amazon.com/Keas-Flight-Erika-Hammerschmidt/dp/1466240482
http://www.bookpleasures.com/websitepublisher/articles/4603/1/Keas-Flight-Reviewed-By-Richard-Bunning-of-Bookpleasurescom/Page1.html
[5] An Untimely Love- Tendai Huchu
This is a story about an intended suicide bomber and his physical and mental journey. An already growing awareness of his dubious morality is suddenly sharpened by a deep sexual if initially superficial love. Rather than burn hot then die this passion becomes the catalyst of change.
By the time I had finished this book I could empathise with a terrorist, or at least with the personality behind the misguided hands. I was totally involved by the first person narrative, spoken through Khalid, of this clever book. The private voice had a very believable, a very ordinary, quality to it, drawing me into his situation and his shifting understanding of the world. We feel Khalid’s passions and confusions, almost as though they are our own.
I condemn extremism of all colours and creeds, especially when the drivers of such beliefs lead to violence. When that violence is committed against the innocent then, like nearly every one of us, I am enraged. However, like most close observers, I think I understand how justifiable grievances, marginalised backgrounds, and manipulation by evil people can draw rational and fundamentally good people to perform evil deeds. When those drivers are misplaced loyalties to apparently friendly peers and a feeling of injustice, and when these are fuelled by religious myopia, then sometimes a mind capable of justifying the unthinkable is created. When the individuals that become these terrors are naturally intelligent creatures they can be all the more dangerous, but equally there is sometimes hope that their natural wit will also serve to turn them onto more humanitarian paths. That thought was soon pushing me to turn the pages.
Huchu deals with very difficult issues in a very sensitive way. I fail to see any cultural slight in his narrative, something that is very hard to achieve when we are talking about unspeakable crimes. We all have bias in our views, but this book is so well written that I sense none at all from the author. We are left to fill in a lot of background, which is perfectly fine. In this case the stretching of our own imaginations only helps to further draw us in. We especially have to work our own background for Khalid’s sudden true love, Smokey. I’m sure this is Hushu’s deliberate intention, a device to help us build greater personal empathy. The alternative, the twisting and turning of plot to bring background before Khalid’s eyes, would have made for a much longer book and certainly for a less sharp focus. Hushu kept the book tight. What Khalid did not discover, we are not privileged to know either. As Khalid we are to suffer from imperfect knowledge, just as we all experience life.
This is a very exciting plot with plenty of serious food for thought. It is written looking from a metaphorical window into multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, diverse and variably religious England. But it speaks of marginalisation everywhere. Huchu has created a great plot that draws heavily on real modern events, has great pace and excitement, but at the same time has some sometimes obvious and sometimes very subtle things to say to us all. For me this is an important book. Probably as important as any fiction I have ever read.
http://goo.gl/3trok (Bookpleasures)
http://www.amazon.com/An-Untimely-Love-ebook/dp/B0056ULROC
By the time I had finished this book I could empathise with a terrorist, or at least with the personality behind the misguided hands. I was totally involved by the first person narrative, spoken through Khalid, of this clever book. The private voice had a very believable, a very ordinary, quality to it, drawing me into his situation and his shifting understanding of the world. We feel Khalid’s passions and confusions, almost as though they are our own.
I condemn extremism of all colours and creeds, especially when the drivers of such beliefs lead to violence. When that violence is committed against the innocent then, like nearly every one of us, I am enraged. However, like most close observers, I think I understand how justifiable grievances, marginalised backgrounds, and manipulation by evil people can draw rational and fundamentally good people to perform evil deeds. When those drivers are misplaced loyalties to apparently friendly peers and a feeling of injustice, and when these are fuelled by religious myopia, then sometimes a mind capable of justifying the unthinkable is created. When the individuals that become these terrors are naturally intelligent creatures they can be all the more dangerous, but equally there is sometimes hope that their natural wit will also serve to turn them onto more humanitarian paths. That thought was soon pushing me to turn the pages.
Huchu deals with very difficult issues in a very sensitive way. I fail to see any cultural slight in his narrative, something that is very hard to achieve when we are talking about unspeakable crimes. We all have bias in our views, but this book is so well written that I sense none at all from the author. We are left to fill in a lot of background, which is perfectly fine. In this case the stretching of our own imaginations only helps to further draw us in. We especially have to work our own background for Khalid’s sudden true love, Smokey. I’m sure this is Hushu’s deliberate intention, a device to help us build greater personal empathy. The alternative, the twisting and turning of plot to bring background before Khalid’s eyes, would have made for a much longer book and certainly for a less sharp focus. Hushu kept the book tight. What Khalid did not discover, we are not privileged to know either. As Khalid we are to suffer from imperfect knowledge, just as we all experience life.
This is a very exciting plot with plenty of serious food for thought. It is written looking from a metaphorical window into multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, diverse and variably religious England. But it speaks of marginalisation everywhere. Huchu has created a great plot that draws heavily on real modern events, has great pace and excitement, but at the same time has some sometimes obvious and sometimes very subtle things to say to us all. For me this is an important book. Probably as important as any fiction I have ever read.
http://goo.gl/3trok (Bookpleasures)
http://www.amazon.com/An-Untimely-Love-ebook/dp/B0056ULROC
[6] Welcome to Sarnia- Jan Musil
This is a big read, a big read set in a huge tapestry. This is a read for lovers of sci-fi/fantasy who crave an epic and detailed view of a whole other planetary system. On the most habitable planet Sarnia, there was already an advanced civilisation when man arrived, in fact three separate, indigenous, and variously civilised Sarnian species, plus an earlier colonising one. As well as the invaders that proceeded man, there were two that succeeded their arrival. The present dominant species came as conquerors of Sarian, Toharrian and Human alike, and the last as an already subservient species of these other planetary empire builders, the Mi’ukmac. The new dominant beings allow the existence and a varying degree of independence to their subject races.
Yes it is all most complicated, which is one reason for the length of this book. Of course there is a whole ecosystems worth of other native flora and fauna, as well as species that humans, and no doubt others, have introduced. This book builds the foundations for an intended long series of stories.
Humans have been driven back into a pre-electric power economy, though there are some vestiges of their former technological advancement. The previously available power-grid to the human inhabitants had been cut many years before this story opens. Further increasing the humans’ problems is the fact that the Empire seems to be keeping away new settlers from Earth. We don’t know that the Earth’s population still has inter-stellar travel capabilities, but we may assume it does. There are a very few humans still alive with distant memories of Earth and space flight, but to all intents and purposes that immediate experience is lost.
What of the story, the plot itself? Well, as I have already said, this is just the first stage of a colossal epic saga. Stories within stories are completed but by the last page of Welcome to Sarnia, we are still not far from the beginning of the drama, if this even proves to be the beginning.
Musil writes well, but for me, with consideration to the version I read (May 2012), there are a few too many grammatical imperfections. They don’t particularly interrupt the discourse, but they are a totally unnecessary irritation. The massive amount of work, the fascinating creativity, is let down by this less than thorough editing. I fully expect a comprehensive revision of the script at some time after this review.
This really is a well thought out, plausible, synopsis, with a nice mix of originality, and familiar science fiction/fantasy elements. I think that readers that are drawn into Musil’s world will become loyal fans. There are obviously many adventures to come, with no guarantee at all that the humans will ever again be the dominant force that they once were on Sarnia. Actually, there is little indication beyond a looming battle as to in which chronological direction this planned series will go. This is a book for a long holiday, or for a series of long-winter fireside reads. In other words, this might be one for the sorts of readers that consumed Tolkien, Frank Herbert, or Orson Scott Card novels, rather than one for those that only like the quick fix of a novella, or sharply sculptured standalone stories.
This book should be seen as a strong foundation work for many future, and probably considerably shorter novels. Whatever, for fans of visionary worlds, I think Musil’s is worth pursuing. The detail in this thick volume doesn’t always make for easy reading. Nevertheless, I found the effort rewarding enough. When considered as a foundation work we can’t help but see a huge potential.http://goo.gl/p5LwJ (Bookpleasures)
http://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Sarnia-Planet-ebook/dp/B007JJV4UU
Yes it is all most complicated, which is one reason for the length of this book. Of course there is a whole ecosystems worth of other native flora and fauna, as well as species that humans, and no doubt others, have introduced. This book builds the foundations for an intended long series of stories.
Humans have been driven back into a pre-electric power economy, though there are some vestiges of their former technological advancement. The previously available power-grid to the human inhabitants had been cut many years before this story opens. Further increasing the humans’ problems is the fact that the Empire seems to be keeping away new settlers from Earth. We don’t know that the Earth’s population still has inter-stellar travel capabilities, but we may assume it does. There are a very few humans still alive with distant memories of Earth and space flight, but to all intents and purposes that immediate experience is lost.
What of the story, the plot itself? Well, as I have already said, this is just the first stage of a colossal epic saga. Stories within stories are completed but by the last page of Welcome to Sarnia, we are still not far from the beginning of the drama, if this even proves to be the beginning.
Musil writes well, but for me, with consideration to the version I read (May 2012), there are a few too many grammatical imperfections. They don’t particularly interrupt the discourse, but they are a totally unnecessary irritation. The massive amount of work, the fascinating creativity, is let down by this less than thorough editing. I fully expect a comprehensive revision of the script at some time after this review.
This really is a well thought out, plausible, synopsis, with a nice mix of originality, and familiar science fiction/fantasy elements. I think that readers that are drawn into Musil’s world will become loyal fans. There are obviously many adventures to come, with no guarantee at all that the humans will ever again be the dominant force that they once were on Sarnia. Actually, there is little indication beyond a looming battle as to in which chronological direction this planned series will go. This is a book for a long holiday, or for a series of long-winter fireside reads. In other words, this might be one for the sorts of readers that consumed Tolkien, Frank Herbert, or Orson Scott Card novels, rather than one for those that only like the quick fix of a novella, or sharply sculptured standalone stories.
This book should be seen as a strong foundation work for many future, and probably considerably shorter novels. Whatever, for fans of visionary worlds, I think Musil’s is worth pursuing. The detail in this thick volume doesn’t always make for easy reading. Nevertheless, I found the effort rewarding enough. When considered as a foundation work we can’t help but see a huge potential.http://goo.gl/p5LwJ (Bookpleasures)
http://www.amazon.com/Welcome-Sarnia-Planet-ebook/dp/B007JJV4UU
[7] The Ups and Downs of Being Dead- M. R. Cornelius
This is a very inventive and truly speculative science fiction drama, which kept me interested from page one to the final word. The plot works very well, provided of course one is prepared to temporarily take on-board the very speculative premise. The idea that one may be able to exist, be a ghost, between the realm of the living and the kingdom of God or oblivion, works well enough for me. Cornelius has some unusual "explanations" for some behaviours that actually fit well to many theories about the subconscious and psychotic illness. You will be missing the enjoyment of a great story if you can't embrace the idea that out of body experiences may be portends of the future, rather than just the dying illusions of oxygen starved minds. The revival of tissues from cryogenic suspension has already been shown to work. It may not be long before it is possible to thaw out and give back life to once dead human.
The question of how a mind, a soul, detached from the physical world, might influence and be influenced the living, is the central premise. We all face situations we wish we could intervene to change, when all we can do is watch. We find ourselves as helpless bystanders, constrained from what we wish to do. Imagine an extreme of this, actually watching from beyond the grave your partner sleeping with your best friend, and then being murdered. In this case we are watching through Robert, after his physical body has been preserved.
Cornelius's craft is sound enough that one is easily drawn into the flow, almost forgetting that one is reading. There almost always are a few sentences that need reading twice, but I found very few. My only qualm with the book was a bit of irritation with the mention of a million locations that one or other of the dead visited without really advancing the plot. So perhaps the book was five percent longer than necessary. I am sure that plenty of people, especially ones familiar with some of the locations, would totally disagree with this view. The point was to explain how a ghost could overcome the tedium of years of existence without being a physical influence. I just didn't need quite so much of it to get the point.
The climax was one that I really hadn't predicted, even though it logical fitted. That is, logically enough within the constraints of this fiction. I actually felt that the author wasn't sure until very late how things might end either, not that there is anything wrong with that. I like the feel that I am in an ongoing story rather than working through a pre-solved mathematical problem.
If I find myself dead but not gone I must be careful to avoid viewing those I love. That I suspect would be almost as hard on most of us as it was on Robert. I must do my best to leave a positive legacy, or none at all. Now then, I wonder what I should do about . . . If only I didn't so hate the idea of being frozen . . .
http://www.amazon.com/The-Downs-Being-Dead-ebook/dp/B0086QBAMC
http://goo.gl/nSmFQ
The question of how a mind, a soul, detached from the physical world, might influence and be influenced the living, is the central premise. We all face situations we wish we could intervene to change, when all we can do is watch. We find ourselves as helpless bystanders, constrained from what we wish to do. Imagine an extreme of this, actually watching from beyond the grave your partner sleeping with your best friend, and then being murdered. In this case we are watching through Robert, after his physical body has been preserved.
Cornelius's craft is sound enough that one is easily drawn into the flow, almost forgetting that one is reading. There almost always are a few sentences that need reading twice, but I found very few. My only qualm with the book was a bit of irritation with the mention of a million locations that one or other of the dead visited without really advancing the plot. So perhaps the book was five percent longer than necessary. I am sure that plenty of people, especially ones familiar with some of the locations, would totally disagree with this view. The point was to explain how a ghost could overcome the tedium of years of existence without being a physical influence. I just didn't need quite so much of it to get the point.
The climax was one that I really hadn't predicted, even though it logical fitted. That is, logically enough within the constraints of this fiction. I actually felt that the author wasn't sure until very late how things might end either, not that there is anything wrong with that. I like the feel that I am in an ongoing story rather than working through a pre-solved mathematical problem.
If I find myself dead but not gone I must be careful to avoid viewing those I love. That I suspect would be almost as hard on most of us as it was on Robert. I must do my best to leave a positive legacy, or none at all. Now then, I wonder what I should do about . . . If only I didn't so hate the idea of being frozen . . .
http://www.amazon.com/The-Downs-Being-Dead-ebook/dp/B0086QBAMC
http://goo.gl/nSmFQ
[8] Upload- Mark McClelland
Upload grabbed my attention early on and wouldn’t let go. Having teenage children, in a society where all YAs seem to live half-way towards the world of McClelland’s main character Raymond, I had no trouble in seeing this as a very near future story. This science fiction contains plenty of technology, but it is anchored firmly in speculative and metaphysical science fiction arenas.
Technology has just arrived at the point when human mental complexity, brain memory and an accurate digital version of the physical being can be reproduced and uploaded into an electronic world. In other words, total digital maps of all that we are can be transferred into a created environment populated by whatever programmers choose to build. Many of this story’s characters’ lives have become increasingly dominated by “gaming”. Now they can really be part of the game.
This intriguing technology has led Raymond, who lives on the edge of some sort of autism spectrum disorder, to plan to escape from the real world, into his own creation. Thus he hopes to escape both a criminal past, and his expectation of a bleak biological future. Then real world love starts to corrupt Raymond’s plans, through its inevitable psychological disruption. At the same time, political, criminal and police activities are upsetting his timing.
This is a full length eBook of high quality writing. We start with Raymond in an orphanage, which setting aside some of the props could be in the present day. This is a plot that will hold those often put off by science fiction. The reader isn't expected to place themselves in some technological and distant fantasy, but to simply see the technologies we have stretched further. What makes us all tick now is every bit as relevant as what may or may not make us tick in the future. Upload has a satisfactory end, with a tantalizing unresolved plot element that begs a sequel. I am looking forward to McClelland’s future work.
So what faults can I dream up? I can think of none that really caused any grief. Nothing is totally original. Is any story ever? Some of the insignificant complexities of the plot seemed to miss me, not that that is anything new. No, I can only dwell on positives. This is a well worthwhile download for a broad readership.
I loved the way that McClelland projected some of our current problems, on a quite feasible trajectory, into the future. We can all relate to this science fiction. I was so easily glided into Raymond’s mind by McClelland’s craft, a mind that has built a battlefield for his own competing hopes and ambitions, a projected mind that became an electronic environment, in which many “real” personas and an array of “artificial” ones struggled. We see a man-made kingdom in which man can play at being God, can even play at immortality. Well, at least he can believe in life that can’t be ended by ageing, but just possibly can be by having the cleaning bot accidentally turning off the electricity.
http://www.amazon.com/Upload-ebook/dp/B009E5RI3E
http://goo.gl/2zpws
Technology has just arrived at the point when human mental complexity, brain memory and an accurate digital version of the physical being can be reproduced and uploaded into an electronic world. In other words, total digital maps of all that we are can be transferred into a created environment populated by whatever programmers choose to build. Many of this story’s characters’ lives have become increasingly dominated by “gaming”. Now they can really be part of the game.
This intriguing technology has led Raymond, who lives on the edge of some sort of autism spectrum disorder, to plan to escape from the real world, into his own creation. Thus he hopes to escape both a criminal past, and his expectation of a bleak biological future. Then real world love starts to corrupt Raymond’s plans, through its inevitable psychological disruption. At the same time, political, criminal and police activities are upsetting his timing.
This is a full length eBook of high quality writing. We start with Raymond in an orphanage, which setting aside some of the props could be in the present day. This is a plot that will hold those often put off by science fiction. The reader isn't expected to place themselves in some technological and distant fantasy, but to simply see the technologies we have stretched further. What makes us all tick now is every bit as relevant as what may or may not make us tick in the future. Upload has a satisfactory end, with a tantalizing unresolved plot element that begs a sequel. I am looking forward to McClelland’s future work.
So what faults can I dream up? I can think of none that really caused any grief. Nothing is totally original. Is any story ever? Some of the insignificant complexities of the plot seemed to miss me, not that that is anything new. No, I can only dwell on positives. This is a well worthwhile download for a broad readership.
I loved the way that McClelland projected some of our current problems, on a quite feasible trajectory, into the future. We can all relate to this science fiction. I was so easily glided into Raymond’s mind by McClelland’s craft, a mind that has built a battlefield for his own competing hopes and ambitions, a projected mind that became an electronic environment, in which many “real” personas and an array of “artificial” ones struggled. We see a man-made kingdom in which man can play at being God, can even play at immortality. Well, at least he can believe in life that can’t be ended by ageing, but just possibly can be by having the cleaning bot accidentally turning off the electricity.
http://www.amazon.com/Upload-ebook/dp/B009E5RI3E
http://goo.gl/2zpws
[9] Remembering Love- Nadine Christian
I feel I have to start with Pitcairn Island rather than the book. This island is one of four lumps of rock and/or coral sticking out of the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Only Pitcairn itself is inhabited, being one of the most isolated communities on Earth. The population of under a hundred is predominantly descended from the Mutineers of the Bounty and a few Tahitians, who voluntarily, or not, joined the group. In 1790 just nine individuals 6 men 11 women and a baby found the then deserted island and settled. Since that date the permanent population has never been greater than 240, and is now only a quarter of that number. In recent times the young have tended to leave, firstly for education and secondly for the benefits of the wider world. This problem is now shared by nearly all isolated communities. The life blood is constantly drained, and often faster than it can be transfused.
So what has all this got to do with this fiction novel? Everything! Nadine Christian is the writer in permanent residence, which on my count makes these Islands the most densely concentrated pool of writing talent on Earth. Christian draws heavily on her experience of living on the Island, and of its connections with the rest of the world. The romance is beautifully crafted with a great range of characters, and pulls in so many of the benefits, and problems, both physical and psychological, for communities living in such intense isolation. I really felt I was there, observing a real drama unfold, watching what happens when the pressure cooker of life explodes amongst such an unavoidably tight knit community. The backdrop is truly romantic and at the same time brutally claustrophobic. We see people living in a goldfish bowl when the water is outside.
So what was wrong with the book? Very little, except that in the version I read there were a variety of small typo and sentence construction errors. They may be enough to put off a few pernickety readers, which would be a great pity. Taken as a whole the book reads very well, painting some really beautifully crafted pictures. We look in vivid colour at domestic violence, psychological abuse, passionate and emotional love, lived in and desolate rooms and landscapes, and at the good and bad in people at many stages of life. There is certainly plenty here for the reader of genre romance, which I am only rarely, as well as for those who just like a good read, irrespective of the category a book is pigeonholed in.
Nadine Christian, author, will never have quite the fame of Fletcher Christian, mutineer; but in her own way I think she might well have done almost as much for the future of the Pitcairn Islands as its infamous founding father. Of course, that will require people taking the time to read her stories. I must admit that I only read the book to feed the thin "romantic" ideas I had about Pitcairn. In the process I stumbled upon a more than entertaining story teller; a most fortuitous accident.
http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Love-ebook/dp/B00BA4R2F6
http://goo.gl/nrvCV
So what has all this got to do with this fiction novel? Everything! Nadine Christian is the writer in permanent residence, which on my count makes these Islands the most densely concentrated pool of writing talent on Earth. Christian draws heavily on her experience of living on the Island, and of its connections with the rest of the world. The romance is beautifully crafted with a great range of characters, and pulls in so many of the benefits, and problems, both physical and psychological, for communities living in such intense isolation. I really felt I was there, observing a real drama unfold, watching what happens when the pressure cooker of life explodes amongst such an unavoidably tight knit community. The backdrop is truly romantic and at the same time brutally claustrophobic. We see people living in a goldfish bowl when the water is outside.
So what was wrong with the book? Very little, except that in the version I read there were a variety of small typo and sentence construction errors. They may be enough to put off a few pernickety readers, which would be a great pity. Taken as a whole the book reads very well, painting some really beautifully crafted pictures. We look in vivid colour at domestic violence, psychological abuse, passionate and emotional love, lived in and desolate rooms and landscapes, and at the good and bad in people at many stages of life. There is certainly plenty here for the reader of genre romance, which I am only rarely, as well as for those who just like a good read, irrespective of the category a book is pigeonholed in.
Nadine Christian, author, will never have quite the fame of Fletcher Christian, mutineer; but in her own way I think she might well have done almost as much for the future of the Pitcairn Islands as its infamous founding father. Of course, that will require people taking the time to read her stories. I must admit that I only read the book to feed the thin "romantic" ideas I had about Pitcairn. In the process I stumbled upon a more than entertaining story teller; a most fortuitous accident.
http://www.amazon.com/Remembering-Love-ebook/dp/B00BA4R2F6
http://goo.gl/nrvCV
[10] Reader- Erec Stebbins
This is the first Stebbins I have read; it is unlikely to be the last. The story is very much visionary, speculative and philosophical science fiction. The writing is all in first person narrative form being an episodic interior monologue. In other words, the mental voice, the mind, of Ambra Dawn talks directly to us through the book.
I really enjoy this sort of inventive philosophical science fiction. Condemn me, not Stebbins, if I paint too enthusiastically. The stories structure is pure dystopia, but dark though the story is it leaves a strong glimmer of hope for humanity and the victory of good over evil. To be victorious we will come to realize that we need Ambra Dawn to be heroic. We must also learn to trust and follow where ever she guides us.
Every being in the known galaxy appears to blindly accept a false premise, this being that there are many Orbs, portals, between places in Space and Time. All civilizations in this creation are as seduced by what they observe of the portals as we all once where by the assumption that the Earth must have edges. Ambra comes to see beyond what other beings can fathom. Ambra knows far less about the galaxy than do the cleverest of other races; and yet, she is the first ever to navigate a safe passage through to other remote areas of space. As Ambra starts to gain in learning and intuition she seems to sense that the Orb might be more than a construct of physics, and so raising the prospect that it might be a monolithic physical god like energy. What is more, could she possibly be a sort of messiah for that power?
There is a deep sense of profound tragedy, a feeling that the destruction of the Earth may well be inevitable, unless the history of the past can be changed, and the future controlled. Humans seem to be an insignificant lot, so weak when compared to the destructive Dram and so morally inferior to the Xix. Yet there is just a glimmer of a chance that the greatest human Reader of the past and present can also be its greatest writer of the future. Can a sick girl, with a cancerous like growth in her brain become the leader of a successful rebellion against the murderous Dram? So early physically blinded by her growth, she seems to be inevitably doomed.
Some people have a sixth sense, an ability to see, to feel, with a subtlety and depth that the rest of us can’t equal. We are then inclined to mock, mainly in an attempt to belittle our fear, what we cannot comprehend. Ridicule tends to be especially high when the individual savant is so clearly very far from the norm. A vastly enlarged and distorted head on a teenage girl might not inspire trust, but the surviving humans had better do so, and if the author is to be believed then so must we. Actually, who is author and who is scribe?
I won’t say any more about the plot as the last thing I wish to do is take away the fun of revealing it through your own read. I have tried to wet an appetite, for this story I so much enjoyed, without romping too deeply into its meat. From the moment Ambra is taken from her parents by men hidden behind dark-glasses her life becomes a terrible ordeal, a life that compels us to read the Reader, in desperate hope that despite the odds she will survive.
I wasn’t entirely sure that all the mathematical formulas, one of which introduces each chapter, added much to the book. That though is a minor criticism. This is a well written and thought provoking story for those that enjoy looking beyond the presently rational. “Don’t let us die,” because you see “the final step is yours”.
http://www.amazon.com/Reader-Daughter-of-Time-ebook/dp/B00CL0UQ5G
http://goo.gl/Qx7KX
I really enjoy this sort of inventive philosophical science fiction. Condemn me, not Stebbins, if I paint too enthusiastically. The stories structure is pure dystopia, but dark though the story is it leaves a strong glimmer of hope for humanity and the victory of good over evil. To be victorious we will come to realize that we need Ambra Dawn to be heroic. We must also learn to trust and follow where ever she guides us.
Every being in the known galaxy appears to blindly accept a false premise, this being that there are many Orbs, portals, between places in Space and Time. All civilizations in this creation are as seduced by what they observe of the portals as we all once where by the assumption that the Earth must have edges. Ambra comes to see beyond what other beings can fathom. Ambra knows far less about the galaxy than do the cleverest of other races; and yet, she is the first ever to navigate a safe passage through to other remote areas of space. As Ambra starts to gain in learning and intuition she seems to sense that the Orb might be more than a construct of physics, and so raising the prospect that it might be a monolithic physical god like energy. What is more, could she possibly be a sort of messiah for that power?
There is a deep sense of profound tragedy, a feeling that the destruction of the Earth may well be inevitable, unless the history of the past can be changed, and the future controlled. Humans seem to be an insignificant lot, so weak when compared to the destructive Dram and so morally inferior to the Xix. Yet there is just a glimmer of a chance that the greatest human Reader of the past and present can also be its greatest writer of the future. Can a sick girl, with a cancerous like growth in her brain become the leader of a successful rebellion against the murderous Dram? So early physically blinded by her growth, she seems to be inevitably doomed.
Some people have a sixth sense, an ability to see, to feel, with a subtlety and depth that the rest of us can’t equal. We are then inclined to mock, mainly in an attempt to belittle our fear, what we cannot comprehend. Ridicule tends to be especially high when the individual savant is so clearly very far from the norm. A vastly enlarged and distorted head on a teenage girl might not inspire trust, but the surviving humans had better do so, and if the author is to be believed then so must we. Actually, who is author and who is scribe?
I won’t say any more about the plot as the last thing I wish to do is take away the fun of revealing it through your own read. I have tried to wet an appetite, for this story I so much enjoyed, without romping too deeply into its meat. From the moment Ambra is taken from her parents by men hidden behind dark-glasses her life becomes a terrible ordeal, a life that compels us to read the Reader, in desperate hope that despite the odds she will survive.
I wasn’t entirely sure that all the mathematical formulas, one of which introduces each chapter, added much to the book. That though is a minor criticism. This is a well written and thought provoking story for those that enjoy looking beyond the presently rational. “Don’t let us die,” because you see “the final step is yours”.
http://www.amazon.com/Reader-Daughter-of-Time-ebook/dp/B00CL0UQ5G
http://goo.gl/Qx7KX
[11] Collider- Chris Hejmanowski ~~~~ (Extract 4)
Hejmanowski tried to do too much, to cover too broad a range of ideas under one fiction cover. I can see the broad vision, however, for me he didn’t quite pull it off.
Collider is well written, exciting, and difficult to put down, and yet it doesn’t quite all fit together. For me the two stories, one in the physical life we live, and one set beyond, should be two different books. The science and the true-to-life drama easily stretch into metaphysical speculation, and the afterlife reaches back into life well enough, but the wall between them is less than convincing jumped.
I may well read this book again in a couple of months, and if that helps me climb the wall I shall change this review. It is possible that I was guilty of not reading accurately enough to catch all the joins. I would certainly enjoy reading this book again, being excited once more by the skillfully crafted characters. I really don’t want to put people off reading Collider as it says so much so well; however, be prepared for being drawn across the seam.
This is a harsh book in the sense of the emotion and the violence it conjures, and yet it is also one so full of hope, as it brings together medieval ideas of purgatory and the punishment of sin, our modern society, and the direction of modern science. I felt that Hejmanowski dug deep into himself in painting this mix of speculative science and equally speculative philosophy. At first, some of the violence seems gratuitous. It isn’t. The violence of human life, so starkly drawn, is simply a deliberate attempt to create the feeling that there is no sense at all unless there is an underlying pattern; some meaning, behind the randomness and unpredictability of our often harsh lives.
The writing itself is deserving of fulsome praise, as do the divided parts of the full story. I love the way that Hejmanowski tries to reconnect the physical and metaphysical for the modern, critical reader. There always was a connection before we arrived in the “brave new world” of the 20th Century, before science “proved” so much. The philosophies of beyond life sat easier in the mind until modern physics started to redefine the apparently rational. Will the future draw these dimensions together again? The meaning of life can sound too much like a trite sound bite, so it is perhaps healthy that we have modern fiction writers that are prepared attack the subject head on.
This book, this for me is a must read, takes on so much so well. Possibly its very width was sure to make some transitions bumpy. Perhaps Hejmanowski made the transition to the afterlife less than smooth for a very simple, deliberately emphasized, reason; for so is the transition we know as death.
Am I making too much of this book by categorizing it as top quality speculative fiction? Read Collider, and see what you think. Even if it unfolds to you as nothing more than entertaining, escapist fiction, it is certainly exciting.
http://www.amazon.com/Collider-Chris-Hejmanowski/dp/0985718005
Collider is well written, exciting, and difficult to put down, and yet it doesn’t quite all fit together. For me the two stories, one in the physical life we live, and one set beyond, should be two different books. The science and the true-to-life drama easily stretch into metaphysical speculation, and the afterlife reaches back into life well enough, but the wall between them is less than convincing jumped.
I may well read this book again in a couple of months, and if that helps me climb the wall I shall change this review. It is possible that I was guilty of not reading accurately enough to catch all the joins. I would certainly enjoy reading this book again, being excited once more by the skillfully crafted characters. I really don’t want to put people off reading Collider as it says so much so well; however, be prepared for being drawn across the seam.
This is a harsh book in the sense of the emotion and the violence it conjures, and yet it is also one so full of hope, as it brings together medieval ideas of purgatory and the punishment of sin, our modern society, and the direction of modern science. I felt that Hejmanowski dug deep into himself in painting this mix of speculative science and equally speculative philosophy. At first, some of the violence seems gratuitous. It isn’t. The violence of human life, so starkly drawn, is simply a deliberate attempt to create the feeling that there is no sense at all unless there is an underlying pattern; some meaning, behind the randomness and unpredictability of our often harsh lives.
The writing itself is deserving of fulsome praise, as do the divided parts of the full story. I love the way that Hejmanowski tries to reconnect the physical and metaphysical for the modern, critical reader. There always was a connection before we arrived in the “brave new world” of the 20th Century, before science “proved” so much. The philosophies of beyond life sat easier in the mind until modern physics started to redefine the apparently rational. Will the future draw these dimensions together again? The meaning of life can sound too much like a trite sound bite, so it is perhaps healthy that we have modern fiction writers that are prepared attack the subject head on.
This book, this for me is a must read, takes on so much so well. Possibly its very width was sure to make some transitions bumpy. Perhaps Hejmanowski made the transition to the afterlife less than smooth for a very simple, deliberately emphasized, reason; for so is the transition we know as death.
Am I making too much of this book by categorizing it as top quality speculative fiction? Read Collider, and see what you think. Even if it unfolds to you as nothing more than entertaining, escapist fiction, it is certainly exciting.
http://www.amazon.com/Collider-Chris-Hejmanowski/dp/0985718005
[12] The Rescuer's Path- Paula Friedman ~~~~ (Extract 30)
Friedman brings together so many normally closed circles of life's tapestry, dissects them and spreads them wide. Then she chews on them in a range of partly fictional and partially factual related lives, layer by non-sequential layer.
The plot draws together and demonstrates the connectivity between the political, cultural and private life strands that mould the being. She studies a series of creative snap-shots to demonstrate the fact that we progress by knowing and understanding each other's paths and not just our own. This is a stand against the autistic political and social boxes that are used to justify aggressive action. Innocence knows to mend rather than destroy, despite the messages delivered by the cynical experienced. The strategy of peace, mending at all costs, is too easily abandoned. The Holocaust is connected to the election of Obama, life in Damascus is connected to the war in Vietnam, and a child adopted into suburban California is connected to the child conceived under the advancing guns of the posse. The study of interconnectivity is progress, whilst closed circles lead to mistrust and war.
This so well written poetic prose is a primal scream against the dark rivers of misunderstanding, of ignorance, of inhumane real politics, of our savage behaviours and untrusting expectations. We are all haunted by our pasts, scoured and scarred by life in the continuous present, and scared of our futures. The author so clearly tells us that for progress the only future is one of peace and cooperation, not the usual one of war and deceit born of selfish greed. The incorruptible chains of love must smother, imprison, the unbreakable chains of evil.
The Baby Boomer generation are the first, as a mass population rather than as a mass with a few privileged individuals in the self-serving elites, to have a genuine world view of the complex strands that snake through all our lives. We are the first with enough truths, despite the best spoiling efforts of greedy leaderships, to see through the veils of power. We are the first to have the privilege of viewing enough social and political strands to be able to see the common patterns. Friedman represents us well.
She is a writer with a driving need in her very DNA to proclaim the responsibility of us all to put peace and sentient love before our dangerous primitive, selfish drivers. It is a pity then that the leadership of our generation is betraying us so badly both on the macro and micro political levels.
I can but wonder at those that look at the the mechanical vehicle, the plot, and make some strange claim that the characters wouldn't behave in such and such a way, or that history didn't really happen like that. The view we are shown is receding from the rear, proceeding to the side, and progressing beyond the windscreen. The point isn't in the particular way the strands cross in the text, it is the subtext. As I see her words: we must not remember the message of the hippy generation as give peace a chance, we must remember it as peace is the only chance we have. The rescuer's path is our only sustainable path. So it is sad that the young of Malca's generation, the ones so gifted with vision, now lead the world so badly.
I'm sure that Friedman will say if I have lost my way on the path she outlined.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Rescuers-Path-Paula-Friedman/dp/1935514881
The plot draws together and demonstrates the connectivity between the political, cultural and private life strands that mould the being. She studies a series of creative snap-shots to demonstrate the fact that we progress by knowing and understanding each other's paths and not just our own. This is a stand against the autistic political and social boxes that are used to justify aggressive action. Innocence knows to mend rather than destroy, despite the messages delivered by the cynical experienced. The strategy of peace, mending at all costs, is too easily abandoned. The Holocaust is connected to the election of Obama, life in Damascus is connected to the war in Vietnam, and a child adopted into suburban California is connected to the child conceived under the advancing guns of the posse. The study of interconnectivity is progress, whilst closed circles lead to mistrust and war.
This so well written poetic prose is a primal scream against the dark rivers of misunderstanding, of ignorance, of inhumane real politics, of our savage behaviours and untrusting expectations. We are all haunted by our pasts, scoured and scarred by life in the continuous present, and scared of our futures. The author so clearly tells us that for progress the only future is one of peace and cooperation, not the usual one of war and deceit born of selfish greed. The incorruptible chains of love must smother, imprison, the unbreakable chains of evil.
The Baby Boomer generation are the first, as a mass population rather than as a mass with a few privileged individuals in the self-serving elites, to have a genuine world view of the complex strands that snake through all our lives. We are the first with enough truths, despite the best spoiling efforts of greedy leaderships, to see through the veils of power. We are the first to have the privilege of viewing enough social and political strands to be able to see the common patterns. Friedman represents us well.
She is a writer with a driving need in her very DNA to proclaim the responsibility of us all to put peace and sentient love before our dangerous primitive, selfish drivers. It is a pity then that the leadership of our generation is betraying us so badly both on the macro and micro political levels.
I can but wonder at those that look at the the mechanical vehicle, the plot, and make some strange claim that the characters wouldn't behave in such and such a way, or that history didn't really happen like that. The view we are shown is receding from the rear, proceeding to the side, and progressing beyond the windscreen. The point isn't in the particular way the strands cross in the text, it is the subtext. As I see her words: we must not remember the message of the hippy generation as give peace a chance, we must remember it as peace is the only chance we have. The rescuer's path is our only sustainable path. So it is sad that the young of Malca's generation, the ones so gifted with vision, now lead the world so badly.
I'm sure that Friedman will say if I have lost my way on the path she outlined.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Rescuers-Path-Paula-Friedman/dp/1935514881
[13] The Experiment- Cristian A. Solari ~~~~ (Extract 31)
This is wonderfully inventive speculative fiction. Philosophical 'science' shines through from page one to the last word. Solari's first book certainly isn't one of the all too predictable adrenal hormone blasts that so many readers are addicted to. Rather, tension builds through the intelligence of the plot. There is plenty of excitement for those prepared to get involved in the story, in the well constructed characters, in the concept of looking at humanity from outside of the box. And yes, there are climatic moments to raise one's blood pressure, just not enough to maintain the constant interest of a gastropod.
There are sentence constructions that will unsettle pedantic grammarians, though I don't think many of those reading for pleasure will be the least bit troubled. Anyway, much of the language is emanating from the minds of beings more advanced than mere 'preintelloids'. Solari uses some really gorgeous invented words. This is, after all, speculative writing. I enjoyed reading so much that I happily danced through the pages unaware of any linguistic tortures. I had to reread sections before I could see that the language criticisms of some reviewers were actually quite valid.
I loved this book. So what can I find to really criticise. Um- well, the cover is a bit 1950s, B movie-ish. Um- no actually that's just perfect. We have to see that we really are an advancing species, an experiment in the making.
http://www.amazon.com/Experiment-Cristian-Alejandro-Solari-ebook/dp/B00IOVUYXA
There are sentence constructions that will unsettle pedantic grammarians, though I don't think many of those reading for pleasure will be the least bit troubled. Anyway, much of the language is emanating from the minds of beings more advanced than mere 'preintelloids'. Solari uses some really gorgeous invented words. This is, after all, speculative writing. I enjoyed reading so much that I happily danced through the pages unaware of any linguistic tortures. I had to reread sections before I could see that the language criticisms of some reviewers were actually quite valid.
I loved this book. So what can I find to really criticise. Um- well, the cover is a bit 1950s, B movie-ish. Um- no actually that's just perfect. We have to see that we really are an advancing species, an experiment in the making.
http://www.amazon.com/Experiment-Cristian-Alejandro-Solari-ebook/dp/B00IOVUYXA
[14] The Dance of the Spirits ~~~~ (Extract 32)
This wonderful book has already been heavily reviewed and highly praised. How can I usefully add to the many affirmations of brilliance?
I will start by mentioning the only deficiency, which may be confined to the mobi version I read. A few of the changes of scene were abrupt enough to stagger the flow of my reading. I would have liked a few more new chapters to emphasise scene changes, or even a few dinkus between the paragraphs. I didn't find the extra line breaks sufficient on my reading device as they often aren't noticed between variably formed 'screen pages'. I fully acknowledge that this is pernickety― but the book is so well constructed in most other respects that this easily included little change would be worthwhile. If stronger breaks have been left out to account for differences in line length (dependent as it is on font size), then a compromise might be to position a 'dinkus' on a double or treble width indentation to that of the paragraph opening. This looks stylish enough.
This book has all the story elements of classical tragedy and is as powerful as any powerful classic I have ever read. What is more, this fiction reads as truth. We know from the history record of the Korean War that every detail written in this story did happen, though not in the exact way they have been put together by Aerie. Books like this play a vital part in keeping modern history alive. It is clear that a good deal of basic research was matched to the very good fiction writing. Through books like this, historical fiction really shows its worth. The terribleness of the war story is well balanced by the in depth construction and deconstruction of the emotional lives of several individual players. We come to understand a great deal about just exactly who many of the characters really are, and not just what they individually do. We know what poisoned the mind of Tin-Bo, what kept Jasmine going, why Wesley risked so much, and what made countless lesser characters tick. We see how war turns rationality upside down, how pain twists emotions, how xenophobia, dogma, politics and culture all have many obvious and less obvious facets and many hidden consequences.
This book is written very much from the angle of those in the 'East' in the nineteen forties and fifties, rather than from the often has been recorded 'Western' perspective. Such fiction goes a long way towards helping us understand how the culture we are born into colours our judgements. The greatest of experience of one's own side of a conflict is hollow unless we can experience that of our enemy. Even if our other experience is only ever gained through powerful writing it can provide enough empathy to create some depth to understanding. We don't have to have lived in Shanghai in 1950 to feel what it was like to do so; we can feel by reading Aerie. She writes that well.
I am so looking forward to Aerie's next work, which I hope will be every bit as emotionally powerful as this one.
http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Spirits-Catherine-Aerie-ebook/dp/B00FW0JIRE
I will start by mentioning the only deficiency, which may be confined to the mobi version I read. A few of the changes of scene were abrupt enough to stagger the flow of my reading. I would have liked a few more new chapters to emphasise scene changes, or even a few dinkus between the paragraphs. I didn't find the extra line breaks sufficient on my reading device as they often aren't noticed between variably formed 'screen pages'. I fully acknowledge that this is pernickety― but the book is so well constructed in most other respects that this easily included little change would be worthwhile. If stronger breaks have been left out to account for differences in line length (dependent as it is on font size), then a compromise might be to position a 'dinkus' on a double or treble width indentation to that of the paragraph opening. This looks stylish enough.
This book has all the story elements of classical tragedy and is as powerful as any powerful classic I have ever read. What is more, this fiction reads as truth. We know from the history record of the Korean War that every detail written in this story did happen, though not in the exact way they have been put together by Aerie. Books like this play a vital part in keeping modern history alive. It is clear that a good deal of basic research was matched to the very good fiction writing. Through books like this, historical fiction really shows its worth. The terribleness of the war story is well balanced by the in depth construction and deconstruction of the emotional lives of several individual players. We come to understand a great deal about just exactly who many of the characters really are, and not just what they individually do. We know what poisoned the mind of Tin-Bo, what kept Jasmine going, why Wesley risked so much, and what made countless lesser characters tick. We see how war turns rationality upside down, how pain twists emotions, how xenophobia, dogma, politics and culture all have many obvious and less obvious facets and many hidden consequences.
This book is written very much from the angle of those in the 'East' in the nineteen forties and fifties, rather than from the often has been recorded 'Western' perspective. Such fiction goes a long way towards helping us understand how the culture we are born into colours our judgements. The greatest of experience of one's own side of a conflict is hollow unless we can experience that of our enemy. Even if our other experience is only ever gained through powerful writing it can provide enough empathy to create some depth to understanding. We don't have to have lived in Shanghai in 1950 to feel what it was like to do so; we can feel by reading Aerie. She writes that well.
I am so looking forward to Aerie's next work, which I hope will be every bit as emotionally powerful as this one.
http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Spirits-Catherine-Aerie-ebook/dp/B00FW0JIRE
[15] Peripheral Involvement- Bob Waldner ~~~~ (Extract 33)
Is Jack Caufield a simplified Bob Waldner?
My take is that he more or less is.
So how much of the plot is taken from real life?
All of it?
Well not as a chronology of a single existence, but yes, this all can have happened. The plot is novel in construct, inventive, containing adrenaline kickers, psychological, thoughtful, page turning and ultimately frustrating in a very good reflective of unfolding true life. As individuals we never get all the answers to anything, do we? Crimes and their solutions are usually beautifully dovetailed in conventional genre reads but rarely in the grit and sweat of real life.
To Jack, so much of the life he has cut-out for himself seems to be far short of what he would have liked to achieve, despite the fact that he is more than financially secure. He is pervaded by self-doubt. "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up" and, "I'm not brave enough to be what I want to be" are ever familiar thoughts. We are never satisfied and yet rarely able to change such fundamental truths. How many people actually gain the courage that weak Jack needs? Jack Caufield, the ghost of Waldner, has settled for never trying to achieve more than a 'middle-of-the-road' sum of his parts will easily allow. He could have really done something special with the events, and thus opportunities, that imposed themselves on him. Even a murder can be an opportunity, a bringer of fame or infamy, or perhaps a chance to lever opinion or be a hero. The book is full of possible initiatives not taken. Jack does nothing more than take an essentially easy and predictable safe path, following the lead of those he naively, even timidly, trusts. We suspect that even his single status is a reflection of his total lack of balls.
Real life- We the individual can of course play safe and still be high achievers, be typical Jack Caufields. Though then we are, generally speaking, only achieving cogs because we play patsy to someone else's greater games; just like Jack. We may never be brave enough to unlock the key of our potential, to try and break the mould that life has poured us into. The second main character in this story spectacularly fails, but at least he is brave enough to try. I felt far more sympathetic to his cause whether he is mad or not. He put the physical key, to a door with massive possibilities, into Jack's hands.
Many readers won't like the left hanging questions, the lack of solved clues, the chapter that slides into the worship of baseball, the lack of developed of female characters, the frustrations of looking at a deeply unlikable main character. The list goes on with everyone's choosing from the smorgasbord of often unusual, not quite in any genre, not often mixed together ingredients.
Jack hasn't even got the 'ballgame' to risk his paycheque whatever legal/accounting abuse he is expected to be complicit in hiding, let-alone to really risk his life in helping uncover a murder. It is unusual in this kind of book to be asked to see life through the eyes of such a pathetic and manipulated character. As for my personal view, I love the whole construction. This is a fantastic book. Well paced, Inventive, original, finally believable, grammatically well written, and is typical of the sort of wonderful reading that had as about as much chance of getting through the barriers of the traditional publishers as I have of walking with Richard Branston on the Moon. Certainly at the extreme end of improbable, especially as I don't know that living legend, though ultimately possible.
What a tragedy it would have been if the long time intention to publish had been abandoned by Waldner. How sad if he had given up, in the way that his main character would have done. It is a reasonable conjecture that Jack went on after the final chapter to at least follow some very weak version of his baseball dream, but I doubt it. We will have to wait and see whether he appears in a sequel to stand any chance of finding out.
My view is that this book might have been even better written in the first person. However, even this sort of one perspective narrative is often regarded as best written in the third person. The distaste amongst so many literary heavyweights for first person narrative persists in 2014. Such was certainly a very often recognised 'proof' of amateur stamped on the literary hopes of would be authors in the days when the early chapters of Waldner's book were first drafted. The author is very open about having returned much later to a previously abandoned script. Perhaps Waldner simply prefers that still dominant style and quite justifiably mocks my suggestion. After all the script works well as it is. However, I argue that possibly a little is lost to the reader by being forced to look inside from a distance rather than looking outside from within. I would love to know what you think if you find the time to read this book. We still get a strong sense of Jack's 'point of view', but surely more weakly than we would have felt it with such good writing projected as from the character's mind.
http://www.amazon.com/Peripheral-Involvement-Bob-Waldner/dp/1495302946
My take is that he more or less is.
So how much of the plot is taken from real life?
All of it?
Well not as a chronology of a single existence, but yes, this all can have happened. The plot is novel in construct, inventive, containing adrenaline kickers, psychological, thoughtful, page turning and ultimately frustrating in a very good reflective of unfolding true life. As individuals we never get all the answers to anything, do we? Crimes and their solutions are usually beautifully dovetailed in conventional genre reads but rarely in the grit and sweat of real life.
To Jack, so much of the life he has cut-out for himself seems to be far short of what he would have liked to achieve, despite the fact that he is more than financially secure. He is pervaded by self-doubt. "I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up" and, "I'm not brave enough to be what I want to be" are ever familiar thoughts. We are never satisfied and yet rarely able to change such fundamental truths. How many people actually gain the courage that weak Jack needs? Jack Caufield, the ghost of Waldner, has settled for never trying to achieve more than a 'middle-of-the-road' sum of his parts will easily allow. He could have really done something special with the events, and thus opportunities, that imposed themselves on him. Even a murder can be an opportunity, a bringer of fame or infamy, or perhaps a chance to lever opinion or be a hero. The book is full of possible initiatives not taken. Jack does nothing more than take an essentially easy and predictable safe path, following the lead of those he naively, even timidly, trusts. We suspect that even his single status is a reflection of his total lack of balls.
Real life- We the individual can of course play safe and still be high achievers, be typical Jack Caufields. Though then we are, generally speaking, only achieving cogs because we play patsy to someone else's greater games; just like Jack. We may never be brave enough to unlock the key of our potential, to try and break the mould that life has poured us into. The second main character in this story spectacularly fails, but at least he is brave enough to try. I felt far more sympathetic to his cause whether he is mad or not. He put the physical key, to a door with massive possibilities, into Jack's hands.
Many readers won't like the left hanging questions, the lack of solved clues, the chapter that slides into the worship of baseball, the lack of developed of female characters, the frustrations of looking at a deeply unlikable main character. The list goes on with everyone's choosing from the smorgasbord of often unusual, not quite in any genre, not often mixed together ingredients.
Jack hasn't even got the 'ballgame' to risk his paycheque whatever legal/accounting abuse he is expected to be complicit in hiding, let-alone to really risk his life in helping uncover a murder. It is unusual in this kind of book to be asked to see life through the eyes of such a pathetic and manipulated character. As for my personal view, I love the whole construction. This is a fantastic book. Well paced, Inventive, original, finally believable, grammatically well written, and is typical of the sort of wonderful reading that had as about as much chance of getting through the barriers of the traditional publishers as I have of walking with Richard Branston on the Moon. Certainly at the extreme end of improbable, especially as I don't know that living legend, though ultimately possible.
What a tragedy it would have been if the long time intention to publish had been abandoned by Waldner. How sad if he had given up, in the way that his main character would have done. It is a reasonable conjecture that Jack went on after the final chapter to at least follow some very weak version of his baseball dream, but I doubt it. We will have to wait and see whether he appears in a sequel to stand any chance of finding out.
My view is that this book might have been even better written in the first person. However, even this sort of one perspective narrative is often regarded as best written in the third person. The distaste amongst so many literary heavyweights for first person narrative persists in 2014. Such was certainly a very often recognised 'proof' of amateur stamped on the literary hopes of would be authors in the days when the early chapters of Waldner's book were first drafted. The author is very open about having returned much later to a previously abandoned script. Perhaps Waldner simply prefers that still dominant style and quite justifiably mocks my suggestion. After all the script works well as it is. However, I argue that possibly a little is lost to the reader by being forced to look inside from a distance rather than looking outside from within. I would love to know what you think if you find the time to read this book. We still get a strong sense of Jack's 'point of view', but surely more weakly than we would have felt it with such good writing projected as from the character's mind.
http://www.amazon.com/Peripheral-Involvement-Bob-Waldner/dp/1495302946
[16] Frontier Justice- Charles Ray ~~~~ (Extract- 34)
This book is typical of Ray's easy to read journalistic style. Writing is never effortless, though Ray leaves one feeling that it comes to him nearly as easily as breathing. This historical fiction about the legendary Deputy U.S. Marshall Bass Reeves is a delight, though I would have liked to have had more of the same to read. That we don't is no doubt simply because Ray has no wish to stray far from the factual history. The conversations created to put the bones on the known story ring so true that I found myself on the dusty trail, spitting tobacco with the best and worst of those tough pioneers.
That a black man born to slavery, Bass Reeves, could do so well for himself and so soon after the emancipation that stemmed from the American Civil War is nothing less than astounding. Some of his success seems almost unbelievable, which makes it just as well that the real life author is every bit as big a picture as the man he portrays. I am sure that Charles and Bass would have got on very well if a time skipped century or so enabled a meeting.
It is impossible to say much without lacing my review with spoilers, though to be honest it is enough to say that this short-novel, or long novella, finishes far too quickly. Lone Ranger, eat your heart out, this is how 'The West' was really won.
http://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Justice-Reeves-Deputy-Marshal-ebook/dp/B00I77GTSK
That a black man born to slavery, Bass Reeves, could do so well for himself and so soon after the emancipation that stemmed from the American Civil War is nothing less than astounding. Some of his success seems almost unbelievable, which makes it just as well that the real life author is every bit as big a picture as the man he portrays. I am sure that Charles and Bass would have got on very well if a time skipped century or so enabled a meeting.
It is impossible to say much without lacing my review with spoilers, though to be honest it is enough to say that this short-novel, or long novella, finishes far too quickly. Lone Ranger, eat your heart out, this is how 'The West' was really won.
http://www.amazon.com/Frontier-Justice-Reeves-Deputy-Marshal-ebook/dp/B00I77GTSK
[17] Few Are Chosen- M.T. McGuire ~~~~ (Extract 35)
This is a good comic fantasy title off the same sort of humorous planet as writers like Tom Holt, Ben Elton, and Terry Prachett. There is satire and certainly parody, and as with those listed she has the gift of dramatic timing. In other words, MT McGuire is in great, Great British, comic company. The fact that she used to do stand-up comedy doesn't surprise me a bit.
I'm sure it helps to be a Brit to catch all the clever turns of phrase in this book, but those from once were distant outposts of Britannia will get just as much out of this read; even The US should be able to catch the crest of her comic wave.
Of course, if you are not into Peter Cook, John Cleese, Jennifer Saunders, Sandi Toksvig, or MT McGuire Authorholic then you probably won't like K'Barthan books either. Get a life!
http://www.amazon.com/Few-Are-Chosen-KBarthan-ebook-ebook/dp/B004ASOS6A
I'm sure it helps to be a Brit to catch all the clever turns of phrase in this book, but those from once were distant outposts of Britannia will get just as much out of this read; even The US should be able to catch the crest of her comic wave.
Of course, if you are not into Peter Cook, John Cleese, Jennifer Saunders, Sandi Toksvig, or MT McGuire Authorholic then you probably won't like K'Barthan books either. Get a life!
http://www.amazon.com/Few-Are-Chosen-KBarthan-ebook-ebook/dp/B004ASOS6A
[18] Monsters All The Way Down- Ryan McSwain ~~~~ (Extract 36)
I lost my way in the middle, so I was relieved to find I was meant to have done so.
There are only three main characters, Brennan, Thomas and Joan. The fourth character, the Old Man, never really distils until the end. McSwain deliberately fogs the mind of the reader as much as those of the two characters we are meant to have some empathy towards. So don't feel the need to backup in the middle looking for a missed direction; just enjoy the easy dialogue as it skips you effortlessly through the detached heads to its all revealing and exciting conclusion.
McSwain writes in a way that I found compulsive, as though a word drug was administered in the opening chapter. I was addicted after a few pages, found myself effortlessly zooming through the middle, to then be left fighting and kicking as hard as Thomas to get over this strong compulsion before the close.
Like all good ghost/ghoul horrors, I really, really hope that the all the spooky manipulations of our souls are impossible. McSwain is kind enough to not be over-repetitive, over-gratuitous, by leaving the detail of many repeat performances to our imaginations. That is a technique that many lesser writers should consider emulating. Indeed, McSwain grants us enough signposts to humour to allow the squeamish, me, to divert the words through a pool of more humorous interpretation.
The most rounded character, and only half-normal one, is Joan. She is so tricked and deceived by the interests of others that I wouldn't have been at all surprised if she had just walked off chapter and never come back. Luckily, she didn't, staying to provide a string of sanity for the reader to hold onto.
In his afterwords, McSwain talks about many influences, most of which I can't really vouch for, but yes Stephen King is certainly there. Mostly though, I think the credit for this story truly goes to the author's own unique mix of horror elements. I am not well read in close genres, but truly believe the plot emerged from the author's own grey matter and not from the thoughts gathered from the thousands of heads rolling around on the blood-stained floors of previous writers.
I really am not a horror fan, but as I say the drug got to me and opened up the macabre fears I usually prefer to keep locked away. The whirlwind of thoughts at the end was worth the increased blood pressure during the journey.
Was the book plot perfect? I can't say for sure. Was there an occasional bit of sloppy grammar, some poor continuity between sentences, and once or twice a distracting sprinkling of typos? Certainly. I assume that many of these will be edited out in future editions. Was the book entertaining? In bucketfuls, of both blood and macabre humour!
http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-All-Down-Ryan-McSwain-ebook/dp/B00N70Z58M
There are only three main characters, Brennan, Thomas and Joan. The fourth character, the Old Man, never really distils until the end. McSwain deliberately fogs the mind of the reader as much as those of the two characters we are meant to have some empathy towards. So don't feel the need to backup in the middle looking for a missed direction; just enjoy the easy dialogue as it skips you effortlessly through the detached heads to its all revealing and exciting conclusion.
McSwain writes in a way that I found compulsive, as though a word drug was administered in the opening chapter. I was addicted after a few pages, found myself effortlessly zooming through the middle, to then be left fighting and kicking as hard as Thomas to get over this strong compulsion before the close.
Like all good ghost/ghoul horrors, I really, really hope that the all the spooky manipulations of our souls are impossible. McSwain is kind enough to not be over-repetitive, over-gratuitous, by leaving the detail of many repeat performances to our imaginations. That is a technique that many lesser writers should consider emulating. Indeed, McSwain grants us enough signposts to humour to allow the squeamish, me, to divert the words through a pool of more humorous interpretation.
The most rounded character, and only half-normal one, is Joan. She is so tricked and deceived by the interests of others that I wouldn't have been at all surprised if she had just walked off chapter and never come back. Luckily, she didn't, staying to provide a string of sanity for the reader to hold onto.
In his afterwords, McSwain talks about many influences, most of which I can't really vouch for, but yes Stephen King is certainly there. Mostly though, I think the credit for this story truly goes to the author's own unique mix of horror elements. I am not well read in close genres, but truly believe the plot emerged from the author's own grey matter and not from the thoughts gathered from the thousands of heads rolling around on the blood-stained floors of previous writers.
I really am not a horror fan, but as I say the drug got to me and opened up the macabre fears I usually prefer to keep locked away. The whirlwind of thoughts at the end was worth the increased blood pressure during the journey.
Was the book plot perfect? I can't say for sure. Was there an occasional bit of sloppy grammar, some poor continuity between sentences, and once or twice a distracting sprinkling of typos? Certainly. I assume that many of these will be edited out in future editions. Was the book entertaining? In bucketfuls, of both blood and macabre humour!
http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-All-Down-Ryan-McSwain-ebook/dp/B00N70Z58M
[19] Rise To Power- Uvi Poznansky ~~~~ (Extract 37)
First thing: - Just in case anyone doesn't know, this isn't a biblical studies book. As such that it is, some may find religious offence in the free interpretation. This is a liberal historical fiction based on the authors private view of what just might have happened behind the brief scripture sentences. I am not conventionally religious, but even if I was I'm sure that I would still find this writing very entertaining. It is reasonable, though, to warn the religious scholar rather than reader of fiction as to the nature of the content.
Second thing: - I felt cheated by getting such a short-changed version of the whole story. I felt that the author was more concerned about stretching commercial value than giving the reader a treat. I've been unable to throw off the feeling that I've been offered a half portion. This great read just stops, so demanding more money from those wishing to complete the journey.
There simply isn't a great deal of factual stuff about David, even if one is religious enough to trust every biblical word, so getting a complete story in one volume seems anything but an unreasonable expectation. It isn't like this is a long read, that leaves one already exhausted, anyway.
I did find some of the expressions rather clichéd, fashionable, rather than helpful, and I failed to see what the thin scatter of mildly offensive language did to help the read. I accept that the slang element may well lend realism, but when writing about what is to some people such sensitive material is its use really helpful. It isn't like our language is short of descriptive words.
The rest of this opinion is only positive. Poznansky writes engaging and easily flowing prose. I haven't read anything else she has written. I am anything but put off doing so. This is a very entertaining book, and quite possibly a very good psychological assessment of a particular type of high achiever in any period of history. In the version I read there were one or two inconsistencies of grammar and even a few questionable uses of words, but few of either, and certainly not enough to upset my enjoyment.
I am a fan of first person narrative such as this. Yes, this is first person narrative. Poznansky brings a very real flesh and blood David alive through over two and a half thousand years of intervening time. King Saul is wonderfully reinterpreted as well, as are a number of other personalities, not least of which is the detached head of Goliath.
http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Power-David-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B00H6PMZ0U
Second thing: - I felt cheated by getting such a short-changed version of the whole story. I felt that the author was more concerned about stretching commercial value than giving the reader a treat. I've been unable to throw off the feeling that I've been offered a half portion. This great read just stops, so demanding more money from those wishing to complete the journey.
There simply isn't a great deal of factual stuff about David, even if one is religious enough to trust every biblical word, so getting a complete story in one volume seems anything but an unreasonable expectation. It isn't like this is a long read, that leaves one already exhausted, anyway.
I did find some of the expressions rather clichéd, fashionable, rather than helpful, and I failed to see what the thin scatter of mildly offensive language did to help the read. I accept that the slang element may well lend realism, but when writing about what is to some people such sensitive material is its use really helpful. It isn't like our language is short of descriptive words.
The rest of this opinion is only positive. Poznansky writes engaging and easily flowing prose. I haven't read anything else she has written. I am anything but put off doing so. This is a very entertaining book, and quite possibly a very good psychological assessment of a particular type of high achiever in any period of history. In the version I read there were one or two inconsistencies of grammar and even a few questionable uses of words, but few of either, and certainly not enough to upset my enjoyment.
I am a fan of first person narrative such as this. Yes, this is first person narrative. Poznansky brings a very real flesh and blood David alive through over two and a half thousand years of intervening time. King Saul is wonderfully reinterpreted as well, as are a number of other personalities, not least of which is the detached head of Goliath.
http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Power-David-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B00H6PMZ0U
[20] Sunspots- Karen S. Bell ~~~~ (Extract 38)
First off, let me say that I didn't much like the book and certainly not the main character. That doesn't mean this isn't a good read, this is.
The mix of not quite literary, not quite paranormal and at times over romantic wasn't my cup of tea. That may be in part because I am a male reader. I hasten to add that I found no hardship in reading every word, and in piecing together every loopback in the chronological progress. I enjoyed the long prose, the well worked descriptions, the first person narrative and the deep and convoluted analysis of main character as writer. A lot of the book reads like classic memoir. I like the way Bell so well conveyed the characters confusions through the slow construction of the plot, almost like building a house jumping between bricklaying on different floors in total defiance of gravity.
Those that are expecting a classic paranormal read will be disappointed, because the abnormal never really rises far beyond what might be interpreted as purely machinations of an intoxicated mind, often the toxin being romance itself.
Those that like modern crisp plot in a sharp journalistic Hemingwayesk style will be annoyed. This is a book for those that enjoy deeply painted pictures and can stand lumps of plot diversion that allow the author to develop the grain of the picture rather than its total image. I didn't find the prose leaning to the 'purple' to be any problem. In fact I loved the well studied textures. What did annoy me was the padding with hardly relevant lists and references to film and literary history. Even if I wanted to wade through lists of media classics drawn from diverse dramatic arts it wouldn't be in the middle of a fiction novel. They weren't even marginally necessary to the conveyance of the plots drama and no one will convince me that anyone strung-out individual analyses information in that way.
This is a book centred completely on the mind of the character as guide and director, which means that we only tend to see support characters as one dimensional. The dimension they are usually seen in by the first person's eyes. However, the other players were eventually painted well enough, being shown in greater depth not so much when the plot begged it; but rather more naturally, when the first person narrator became truly aware. But then that is a truth of life, we do tend to see characters as 'flat' personalities, as predictably animated instillations rather than as the rounded people they really are. Of course, people are never simple, but they can still be one dimensional to use even after a long time known. That actually is the whole point of the book, the central theme, being the rigid views that romantic love, social expectation and immediate impression bring. In this clever book we are led through that, even possibly nudged to recognise that flaws in our own observations. People are rarely even close to the masks we first paint and we suffer if we play to the single dimensions others have of us.
Will I read any more of Bell's works? Possibly not, but that is a matter of my taste not the books artistic merits.
http://www.amazon.com/Sunspots-Karen-S-Bell-ebook/dp/B00ANBR4TQ
The mix of not quite literary, not quite paranormal and at times over romantic wasn't my cup of tea. That may be in part because I am a male reader. I hasten to add that I found no hardship in reading every word, and in piecing together every loopback in the chronological progress. I enjoyed the long prose, the well worked descriptions, the first person narrative and the deep and convoluted analysis of main character as writer. A lot of the book reads like classic memoir. I like the way Bell so well conveyed the characters confusions through the slow construction of the plot, almost like building a house jumping between bricklaying on different floors in total defiance of gravity.
Those that are expecting a classic paranormal read will be disappointed, because the abnormal never really rises far beyond what might be interpreted as purely machinations of an intoxicated mind, often the toxin being romance itself.
Those that like modern crisp plot in a sharp journalistic Hemingwayesk style will be annoyed. This is a book for those that enjoy deeply painted pictures and can stand lumps of plot diversion that allow the author to develop the grain of the picture rather than its total image. I didn't find the prose leaning to the 'purple' to be any problem. In fact I loved the well studied textures. What did annoy me was the padding with hardly relevant lists and references to film and literary history. Even if I wanted to wade through lists of media classics drawn from diverse dramatic arts it wouldn't be in the middle of a fiction novel. They weren't even marginally necessary to the conveyance of the plots drama and no one will convince me that anyone strung-out individual analyses information in that way.
This is a book centred completely on the mind of the character as guide and director, which means that we only tend to see support characters as one dimensional. The dimension they are usually seen in by the first person's eyes. However, the other players were eventually painted well enough, being shown in greater depth not so much when the plot begged it; but rather more naturally, when the first person narrator became truly aware. But then that is a truth of life, we do tend to see characters as 'flat' personalities, as predictably animated instillations rather than as the rounded people they really are. Of course, people are never simple, but they can still be one dimensional to use even after a long time known. That actually is the whole point of the book, the central theme, being the rigid views that romantic love, social expectation and immediate impression bring. In this clever book we are led through that, even possibly nudged to recognise that flaws in our own observations. People are rarely even close to the masks we first paint and we suffer if we play to the single dimensions others have of us.
Will I read any more of Bell's works? Possibly not, but that is a matter of my taste not the books artistic merits.
http://www.amazon.com/Sunspots-Karen-S-Bell-ebook/dp/B00ANBR4TQ
[21] Clear Line of Sight- D. C. Black ~~~~ (Extract 43)
My initial enjoyment was thrown a bit by some unnecessarily sloppy grammar, but don't let this put you off. The book develops into good quality thriller. However, the version I read does need one more edit. For some reason the standard of editing improved with a few strange reverses as the chapters rolled by.
The plot is very exciting, though in places the unsavoury activities didn't actually need even the depth of description they got. Some of the descriptions of physical assault walk the line between suspense and horror. But yes, the script does depict the terrible realities that victims of perverted sexual crimes sometimes face. It is clear from early on in the story that Black has a good grasp of the technologies that drive the plot, and an interest in some of the wider debates driven by Edward Snowden et al., our general worries about cyber terrorism and financial exploitation by criminals inside and outside our governmental and financial institutions.
At first, I thought the book was going to play out like a 1970s American cop thriller. It doesn't. However, I did sometimes feel as though there are two separate stories woven together too loosely around one central plot. In Black's defence I admit that I may well have missed a few connections by reading with to many long enforced pauses. The fact remains though, that I never quite got to grips with which nasty character work for which other.
I will not spoil the plot by explaining why the book worked so well despite my minor criticisms. The subject matter is extremely topical, bringing in many levels of concerns about information technologies without ever getting even close to being a geeky read.
I am happy to give five stars, even though I would like to see Black put a few more direction arrows and character reminders in the text and certainly to edit again before he publishes book two. I am very curious to know whether my difficulties are well founded, or simply due to my lack of concentration. Other reviews will doubtless help.
http://www.amazon.com/Clear-Line-Sight-D-Black-ebook/dp/B00NS7L1C8
The plot is very exciting, though in places the unsavoury activities didn't actually need even the depth of description they got. Some of the descriptions of physical assault walk the line between suspense and horror. But yes, the script does depict the terrible realities that victims of perverted sexual crimes sometimes face. It is clear from early on in the story that Black has a good grasp of the technologies that drive the plot, and an interest in some of the wider debates driven by Edward Snowden et al., our general worries about cyber terrorism and financial exploitation by criminals inside and outside our governmental and financial institutions.
At first, I thought the book was going to play out like a 1970s American cop thriller. It doesn't. However, I did sometimes feel as though there are two separate stories woven together too loosely around one central plot. In Black's defence I admit that I may well have missed a few connections by reading with to many long enforced pauses. The fact remains though, that I never quite got to grips with which nasty character work for which other.
I will not spoil the plot by explaining why the book worked so well despite my minor criticisms. The subject matter is extremely topical, bringing in many levels of concerns about information technologies without ever getting even close to being a geeky read.
I am happy to give five stars, even though I would like to see Black put a few more direction arrows and character reminders in the text and certainly to edit again before he publishes book two. I am very curious to know whether my difficulties are well founded, or simply due to my lack of concentration. Other reviews will doubtless help.
http://www.amazon.com/Clear-Line-Sight-D-Black-ebook/dp/B00NS7L1C8
[22] Tannion- Wayne Elsner ~~~~ (Extract 48)
I enjoyed this adventure from the perspective of a superhero. The plot catapulted me into a sort of Batman, or Incredible Hulk type world, a normal landscape inhabited by an individual with Marvel Comic type superpowers. I appreciated the good and bad in his character, the do-gooder who comes to believe that some dark activity is justified by the intention to bring greater light. That is a behaviour that we all see in politics and business, as well as amongst those in pursuit of more personal goals. The cops that support the just bad to bring down to the evil, the wife that turns a blind-eye to her husband's dealings with narcotics because they provide the income to put food on her kids table, the person that robs rich Peter to pay poor Paul. But is it ever right to risk the killing of innocents to get at a greater evil? Arguably sometimes this can be so. This idea provides the binding theme of Elsner's plot.
The book is written in a very easy read style that keeps the plot buzzing along. The writing lacks technical rigour, which will annoy literary readers but that doesn't affect the natural flow. Okay, one has to accept a ridiculous premise at the start, buy in to the superpowers, but provided one can do that the read is a great deal of fun. The plot may have gripped even better if it had been at least partially written from the first person, rather than the omnipresent view. The connection with Tannion may have been fleshed out by 'looking through his eyes'. I read the book as tongue-in-cheek entertainment, which can be read on deeper levels. Like a good strip-cartoon theme, in fact.
There is a lot of cultural cliché both in the plot and in the backdrops full of predictable bad characters and props. This allows the story to bubble along at a good pace without much need for long scene setting explanations. We are guided rather than directed. Whether a reader without the broad cultural familiarities of Elsner would be so easily drawn in I have some doubt about. But then who hasn't watched an American thriller film or two?
The passage of time is extremely fast, while Elsner concentrates on the dramatic incidents in just about every one of the 82 short chapters. This was exciting, but the lack of focus made it harder to learn enough about Tannion to build any real empathy. At times he seems to spend most breathing moments either killing or deciding who should die next. There was far less apparent reticence and serious forethought about killing than curing. The former seemed to be the preferred activity. Perhaps this was as well, as his powers to kill seemed more plausible than those to achieve the much more difficult task of curing. Tannion the superpower enhanced vigilante is more easily understood in his role of judge and jury as 'street fighter' than that of doctor. He has the power to be the saviour of the good, the curer of all ills, with the power to see and understand every mechanism of the human body and affect any chosen outcome within the time of a simple handshake. He would certainly be a doctor that one would be advised to be very nice to. A doctor, that is as keen to kill as to save.
Overall, this is a five star book doing what it does very well. So if you can accept the premise of a man turned into a superhuman by a bolt lf lightning, then this pacy book is for you. This is superb quality superhero genre writing, little more but absolutely nothing less.
http://www.amazon.com/Tannion-Book-1-Wayne-Elsner-ebook/dp/B00OKNRBBO
The book is written in a very easy read style that keeps the plot buzzing along. The writing lacks technical rigour, which will annoy literary readers but that doesn't affect the natural flow. Okay, one has to accept a ridiculous premise at the start, buy in to the superpowers, but provided one can do that the read is a great deal of fun. The plot may have gripped even better if it had been at least partially written from the first person, rather than the omnipresent view. The connection with Tannion may have been fleshed out by 'looking through his eyes'. I read the book as tongue-in-cheek entertainment, which can be read on deeper levels. Like a good strip-cartoon theme, in fact.
There is a lot of cultural cliché both in the plot and in the backdrops full of predictable bad characters and props. This allows the story to bubble along at a good pace without much need for long scene setting explanations. We are guided rather than directed. Whether a reader without the broad cultural familiarities of Elsner would be so easily drawn in I have some doubt about. But then who hasn't watched an American thriller film or two?
The passage of time is extremely fast, while Elsner concentrates on the dramatic incidents in just about every one of the 82 short chapters. This was exciting, but the lack of focus made it harder to learn enough about Tannion to build any real empathy. At times he seems to spend most breathing moments either killing or deciding who should die next. There was far less apparent reticence and serious forethought about killing than curing. The former seemed to be the preferred activity. Perhaps this was as well, as his powers to kill seemed more plausible than those to achieve the much more difficult task of curing. Tannion the superpower enhanced vigilante is more easily understood in his role of judge and jury as 'street fighter' than that of doctor. He has the power to be the saviour of the good, the curer of all ills, with the power to see and understand every mechanism of the human body and affect any chosen outcome within the time of a simple handshake. He would certainly be a doctor that one would be advised to be very nice to. A doctor, that is as keen to kill as to save.
Overall, this is a five star book doing what it does very well. So if you can accept the premise of a man turned into a superhuman by a bolt lf lightning, then this pacy book is for you. This is superb quality superhero genre writing, little more but absolutely nothing less.
http://www.amazon.com/Tannion-Book-1-Wayne-Elsner-ebook/dp/B00OKNRBBO
[23] The Elements of Active Prose- Tahlia Newland ~~~~ (Extract 53)
Okay- so you have your first ever completed fiction book. You are not alone, another thousand have been written today. So, how are you going to add enough to your great story to turn it into something that readers will think is great?
A good idea is to sit down with the 'Elements of Active Prose' for an hour, before you start your first personal edit.
Ten more private edits, then read again. You will hopefully find that you have absorbed at least a little from that hour of advice.
Of course, you could read Newland's guide first. But most of us won't, I wouldn't, I was born knowing how to write. Few of you will be quite as arrogant as I tend to be, but I'm sure you get the picture.
There isn't a wrong way to write, but there is often a better way.
Do I follow all the rules? Not a chance. Will you? I don't know, that's not the point. The point is to learn to sit outside your work looking in, seeing where you could do things just slightly better.
There are no rules though are there?
True, but you do want to be read don't you?
You may well be thinking, there's a self-publishing nincompoop that probably writes total rubbish badly. How dare he suggest I read about how to write?
Well, certainly some readers do have that opinion about my writing- so think how bad I'd be without reminding myself from time to time as to how I might be able to do better.
This is a useful addition to most new writers' armoury and for any old dogs that are slow to learn.
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Active-Prose-Writing-Shine-ebook/dp/B00X5WGPWW
A good idea is to sit down with the 'Elements of Active Prose' for an hour, before you start your first personal edit.
Ten more private edits, then read again. You will hopefully find that you have absorbed at least a little from that hour of advice.
Of course, you could read Newland's guide first. But most of us won't, I wouldn't, I was born knowing how to write. Few of you will be quite as arrogant as I tend to be, but I'm sure you get the picture.
There isn't a wrong way to write, but there is often a better way.
Do I follow all the rules? Not a chance. Will you? I don't know, that's not the point. The point is to learn to sit outside your work looking in, seeing where you could do things just slightly better.
There are no rules though are there?
True, but you do want to be read don't you?
You may well be thinking, there's a self-publishing nincompoop that probably writes total rubbish badly. How dare he suggest I read about how to write?
Well, certainly some readers do have that opinion about my writing- so think how bad I'd be without reminding myself from time to time as to how I might be able to do better.
This is a useful addition to most new writers' armoury and for any old dogs that are slow to learn.
http://www.amazon.com/Elements-Active-Prose-Writing-Shine-ebook/dp/B00X5WGPWW
[24] Detour Trail- Joy V. Smith ~~~~ (Extract 58)
In many ways this is a classic Western. To this is often very masculine genre is added the touch of a female writer. We also have the post-modern twist of the female character that is more able than most men, but here the 'superbeing' augmentations of so much of this trend have been avoided. The central character is indeed a young woman who is more capable than most men, but this is all based on realistic physical abilities, learned skills traditionally considered 'masculine', and a huge amount of female intuition and guile.
A believable heroine matched by an equally plausible and well thought out cast, set in an accurately drawn historical setting on the Oregon Trail of the early 19th Century, makes for a very good read. The book is a feel good story, High Chaparral sort of stuff, in which the good guys eventually win. All the characters are clearly labelled, reminding me of the 1940s/50s movies in which the good guys always had light coloured Stetson hats, and light coloured outfits, often even horses, and the baddies were all dressed in black. This doesn't mean the characters lacked substance, rather that they filled so many familiar Western roles.
There are a few head hopping problems, especially at the start, which made some dialogue hard to follow, and at times the story is just a bit too predictable. Nevertheless, this is a well painted story that centres on Annie Oakley rather than the Jim Bowie types, both of which in reality played equal parts in taming the Wild West.
http://www.amazon.com/Detour-Trail-Joy-V-Smith/dp/1612355706
A believable heroine matched by an equally plausible and well thought out cast, set in an accurately drawn historical setting on the Oregon Trail of the early 19th Century, makes for a very good read. The book is a feel good story, High Chaparral sort of stuff, in which the good guys eventually win. All the characters are clearly labelled, reminding me of the 1940s/50s movies in which the good guys always had light coloured Stetson hats, and light coloured outfits, often even horses, and the baddies were all dressed in black. This doesn't mean the characters lacked substance, rather that they filled so many familiar Western roles.
There are a few head hopping problems, especially at the start, which made some dialogue hard to follow, and at times the story is just a bit too predictable. Nevertheless, this is a well painted story that centres on Annie Oakley rather than the Jim Bowie types, both of which in reality played equal parts in taming the Wild West.
http://www.amazon.com/Detour-Trail-Joy-V-Smith/dp/1612355706
[25] As If It's Real- Jeff Maehre ~~~~ (Extract 70)
This read of four interlocking short stories draws one into what are to most people fairly unfamiliar lives, yet reflects on life truths that affect us all. I have never played cards for big money, or betted more than a few coins in what we accurately used to call 'one-arm-bandits', but the story made me feel as though I had. Equally, I've never given up my freedom to drugs, but felt the sickening 'necessity' of the next fix for a few minutes. My favourite story was about the gambler's mother, trying to understand by learning poker for herself. We get a feel for how each character rubs against the others through different first person points of view.
The stories pass all too fast. This is interesting fiction observing human behaviours from inside fictional characters. I would gamble that the character Elliot has a real thread of Jeff Maehre in him, but then, as I say, I don't put money on it.
The stories pass all too fast. This is interesting fiction observing human behaviours from inside fictional characters. I would gamble that the character Elliot has a real thread of Jeff Maehre in him, but then, as I say, I don't put money on it.
[26] Gypsyroad- Graeme Shanks ~~~~ (Extract 71)
This is an unusual book, of no genre and many, weirdly paranormal but rooted in reality, psychological drama and yet often cultural history, part travelogue and possibly part true biography, explorative of positive new age philosophies and yet at times strangely nihilistic.
What would you do if strangers you touched randomly fell down dead? I would go and live in an isolated lighthouse or in a very empty desert.
What would you think of what I assumed as I read was a basically non-fiction script, that follows an Australian hippie from one of the last cohorts of the baby-boomers, as he toured the English speaking world on a exploratory rap for most of his life? If you were of his age, which I am, you'd find that interesting. At least I did. Now what would you think if he added what the sane must hope is a fictional reason for his wandering behaviour, that being that he is an unwitting mass killer? Could that work? I was interested by Shank's private experiences in last thirty years of the 20th Century, and the beginning of this, despite the fact that he seemed to live and do very little that didn't fit period clichés. However at least some people have to live them to create shibboleths, don't they?
The book could have been called 'A Hundred Tragic Deaths on the Way to Zen': not that the author necessarily actually stayed in that particular philosophical cul-de-sac when he arrived. If he had he may never have been agitated enough to write. Actually, for anyone that didn't live those years the book is far too long. The detail is interesting, if one is writing a history of the Australian itinerant tie-dyed period hippie, but drags us a mile away from the goal of understanding what I pray is only highly unproblematic fiction.
I can accept that people can be killed as easily as this first person actor kills them. That is quite plausible, especially if one chooses to believe the writer is penning a fiction as a cunning serial killer living in denial of his crimes. I can even see the deliberately outlined possibility that Shanks is actually a premeditated killer and that this book comes half-way to a confession. Can one confess to multiple murders and yet not take any real responsibility? If fact is pretending to be fiction then that makes the matter of fact mentions of death in this book into real life horror.
One possibility is that Shanks is not a human at all, but a sort of humanoid triffid plant. My guess is that he is then genetically close to aconitum, better known as wolfsbane. When you've read the book, take a break to look up the ways in which this plant kills its victims.
What I actually subscribe to is the likelihood that Shanks just intended to give the 'killer story' plausibility by weaving it around his very real bohemian life. I was drawn along, hoping to find a true answer. Um- there wasn't one for me, though some readers may find one.
The book is well enough written though I fear, in far too long-winded a form for many time-pressed readers. I give the book four stars for writing and invention, but not five, simply because far too many pages tell the reader too little and advance the drama not at all. If ever a book cried out for a content editor, it's this one. But don't take my word for it. Read the book- It as truly fascinating, and for once the skim-reader may actually pick up comprehensive detail.
http://www.amazon.com/GYPSYROAD-GRAEME-SHANKS-ebook/dp/B00SAP0016
What would you do if strangers you touched randomly fell down dead? I would go and live in an isolated lighthouse or in a very empty desert.
What would you think of what I assumed as I read was a basically non-fiction script, that follows an Australian hippie from one of the last cohorts of the baby-boomers, as he toured the English speaking world on a exploratory rap for most of his life? If you were of his age, which I am, you'd find that interesting. At least I did. Now what would you think if he added what the sane must hope is a fictional reason for his wandering behaviour, that being that he is an unwitting mass killer? Could that work? I was interested by Shank's private experiences in last thirty years of the 20th Century, and the beginning of this, despite the fact that he seemed to live and do very little that didn't fit period clichés. However at least some people have to live them to create shibboleths, don't they?
The book could have been called 'A Hundred Tragic Deaths on the Way to Zen': not that the author necessarily actually stayed in that particular philosophical cul-de-sac when he arrived. If he had he may never have been agitated enough to write. Actually, for anyone that didn't live those years the book is far too long. The detail is interesting, if one is writing a history of the Australian itinerant tie-dyed period hippie, but drags us a mile away from the goal of understanding what I pray is only highly unproblematic fiction.
I can accept that people can be killed as easily as this first person actor kills them. That is quite plausible, especially if one chooses to believe the writer is penning a fiction as a cunning serial killer living in denial of his crimes. I can even see the deliberately outlined possibility that Shanks is actually a premeditated killer and that this book comes half-way to a confession. Can one confess to multiple murders and yet not take any real responsibility? If fact is pretending to be fiction then that makes the matter of fact mentions of death in this book into real life horror.
One possibility is that Shanks is not a human at all, but a sort of humanoid triffid plant. My guess is that he is then genetically close to aconitum, better known as wolfsbane. When you've read the book, take a break to look up the ways in which this plant kills its victims.
What I actually subscribe to is the likelihood that Shanks just intended to give the 'killer story' plausibility by weaving it around his very real bohemian life. I was drawn along, hoping to find a true answer. Um- there wasn't one for me, though some readers may find one.
The book is well enough written though I fear, in far too long-winded a form for many time-pressed readers. I give the book four stars for writing and invention, but not five, simply because far too many pages tell the reader too little and advance the drama not at all. If ever a book cried out for a content editor, it's this one. But don't take my word for it. Read the book- It as truly fascinating, and for once the skim-reader may actually pick up comprehensive detail.
http://www.amazon.com/GYPSYROAD-GRAEME-SHANKS-ebook/dp/B00SAP0016
[27] The Stratosphere: The Birth of Nostradamus- Brian Cox ~~~~ (Extract 72)
I enjoyed reading this science fiction adventure set in a perhaps actually soon to come time, in which mankind, or what is left of it, has prostituted itself to hedonistic pleasure. The doctrine of the modern right, of the selfish individual that has no cares for any less advantaged soul, is laid bare with a worst outcome. On-line digital space, has seduced nearly everyone at the cost of progress in, or even maintenance of, the real world. Time in reality is despised and avoided in favour of pretend life inside the computer's generated parallel world. When the players aren't in the machine themselves there, 'ghosts', still acting shadows of themselves, still are. For most people it isn't even possible to know if those they interact with in digital space are really in the machine with them or not.
Meanwhile, in the real world pollution from the '3D printers' that produce the technological hardware of civilisation, is destroying what little is left of the environment. The Professor, that enabled all this, literally reprogrammed human life, has seen the error of his ways, but who is left to listen? Have I said too much, creating spoilers? I hope not; I don't believe I have. It took me a while to grasp all this necessary to understanding stuff, and I didn't consciously miss any words.
The plot is exciting, drawing one relentlessly forward, while at times running a little short on wide background. The dynamic climax is terrific- but very rushed, as though the author was running out of time in an exam. That annoyed me immensely, as a bit of depth in some of the final scenes would really have added a lot. Was Cox already thinking 'film script' rather than book?
Another edit is certainly called for, with perhaps a bit of thought about how the reader could be interpreting the story. At times, I felt the author forgot the reader, leaving script sitting in his head. Poor editing aside, Cox is a very good descriptive writer. I can only give four stars for the book as is. Another couple of months work between editor and writer could make this a classic of modern science fiction- It potentially, really is that good. This is a case of modern publishing being just too easy, being short of 'house' content editors rattling every cage. I really enjoyed this book, which pulls together three or four recent SF themes. And as I say, with more work, this could end-up becoming a classic.
http://www.amazon.com/Stratosphere-Birth-Nostradamus-Brian-Cox-ebook/dp/B01C6OXDGK
[28] An Aching Kind of Growing- Brittany Rowland ~~~~ (Extract 87)
This is a really engaging piece of social drama that takes us deep into the life of a marginalised and abused teenaged girl. Most of the book appears as profoundly real as any dramatic fiction I’ve been privileged to read. Sadly, I know the story is an accurate reflection on too many young lives. Natalie comes from a theoretically ‘middle-class’ home, in a middle-class street, in a normal enough town, yet her young life is for the main part anything but comfortable.
Natalie is a bright girl who is blighted by having a physically abusive father, and an emotional detached mother. She is the constant scapegoat for every wrong, for every misfortune, for every failure in her family, while being personally deprived of all but the necessities for life. No wonder then, that she ends up on the streets and as the victim of further abuses. Thankfully the author stood clear of introducing sexual abuse as well. Perhaps that on top of everything else wouldn’t have only detracted from credibility. The main thrust of the story is that Natalie is let down by the care system as much as by those close to her. That is a woefully familiar story, as cash strapped social programmes fail in almost every corner of the world.
The story is very well written from a technical point of view, and very well crafted as a story. This appears to be this author’s first real leap into fiction writing, from a non-fiction writing background. I hope there is far more of her penetrating fiction to come. This is the sort of book that encourages all right-minded people to be generous towards those that are struggling; especially the young, routinely down on their luck and short of consistent support. Natalies exist in every towns’ shadows, marginalised by systems that just about support the luckiest, but which seem only to make the lives of the emotionally and physically deprived comparatively and inexcusably more intolerable.
I recommend this book to all those with less than solidly frozen hearts, as a reminder that most street kids, usually driven by desperation to petty crime, or worse, don’t volunteer for their roles; even when that sometimes appears to be the case. This is powerful writing that, as others have said, makes this book hard to put down.
www.amazon.com/Aching-Kind-Growing-Brittany-Rowland/dp/1539986713
Natalie is a bright girl who is blighted by having a physically abusive father, and an emotional detached mother. She is the constant scapegoat for every wrong, for every misfortune, for every failure in her family, while being personally deprived of all but the necessities for life. No wonder then, that she ends up on the streets and as the victim of further abuses. Thankfully the author stood clear of introducing sexual abuse as well. Perhaps that on top of everything else wouldn’t have only detracted from credibility. The main thrust of the story is that Natalie is let down by the care system as much as by those close to her. That is a woefully familiar story, as cash strapped social programmes fail in almost every corner of the world.
The story is very well written from a technical point of view, and very well crafted as a story. This appears to be this author’s first real leap into fiction writing, from a non-fiction writing background. I hope there is far more of her penetrating fiction to come. This is the sort of book that encourages all right-minded people to be generous towards those that are struggling; especially the young, routinely down on their luck and short of consistent support. Natalies exist in every towns’ shadows, marginalised by systems that just about support the luckiest, but which seem only to make the lives of the emotionally and physically deprived comparatively and inexcusably more intolerable.
I recommend this book to all those with less than solidly frozen hearts, as a reminder that most street kids, usually driven by desperation to petty crime, or worse, don’t volunteer for their roles; even when that sometimes appears to be the case. This is powerful writing that, as others have said, makes this book hard to put down.
www.amazon.com/Aching-Kind-Growing-Brittany-Rowland/dp/1539986713
[29] Falling in Death and Love- Magnus Stanke ~~~~ (Extract 88)
This is a good suspense thriller written with an easy read style and a good deal of wit. The 1970s setting in Mallorca works very well, as do the bunch of main characters. All of who are unique enough that one has little danger of confusion. We read into a holiday romance that promises to be so much more, and then for tragic reason proves to be life changing for one and life ending for the other.
This is a plot easily ruined by knowing too much, like so many popular films one sees a week too late. Try to avoid reading the plethora of spoiler reviews. Not easy I know. As to the question of converting this book for film medias, it would make a gift of a screen script.
I don’t usually manage to read books in a sitting, however good they are, and I didn’t quite manage with this one, but not through lack of trying. Young readers for who the ‘70s are ancient history, and older readers put off by early pages of period ‘hippiness’, read on, you won’t be disappointed. This really is a good adrenaline rush read, not just another middle-aged author dreaming up a regretfully missed life of dope, speed, and sex in the sun. And yes, Sushi chefs really were moving in on Europe right back when baby-boomers were still young, even though we associate Japanese style cuisine more with western city life in the new millennium.
The book is so well written, especially when one accounts for the fact that Stanke is German, and writing in a second language, English. Correct me if I’m wrong, someone, but I don’t think this book has versions in German, Spanish, or any other language, and it certainly hasn’t been translated by anyone other than the author. Stanke has both a feel for language and the skill to weave a good yarn.
www.amazon.com/Falling-Death-Love-Retro-Thriller-Magnus-ebook/dp/B0193XMQSI
This is a plot easily ruined by knowing too much, like so many popular films one sees a week too late. Try to avoid reading the plethora of spoiler reviews. Not easy I know. As to the question of converting this book for film medias, it would make a gift of a screen script.
I don’t usually manage to read books in a sitting, however good they are, and I didn’t quite manage with this one, but not through lack of trying. Young readers for who the ‘70s are ancient history, and older readers put off by early pages of period ‘hippiness’, read on, you won’t be disappointed. This really is a good adrenaline rush read, not just another middle-aged author dreaming up a regretfully missed life of dope, speed, and sex in the sun. And yes, Sushi chefs really were moving in on Europe right back when baby-boomers were still young, even though we associate Japanese style cuisine more with western city life in the new millennium.
The book is so well written, especially when one accounts for the fact that Stanke is German, and writing in a second language, English. Correct me if I’m wrong, someone, but I don’t think this book has versions in German, Spanish, or any other language, and it certainly hasn’t been translated by anyone other than the author. Stanke has both a feel for language and the skill to weave a good yarn.
www.amazon.com/Falling-Death-Love-Retro-Thriller-Magnus-ebook/dp/B0193XMQSI
[30] The Gatekeeper- Michael A. Sisti
At first I thought my failure to keep a grip on the long cast of characters was going to sink me and at felt a few early point of view shifts were a little too sharp, however once I settled into this very fast paced book I really enjoyed it. Sisti has structured this story with very short chapters that add to the pacey feel. We are trotted through literally years in which a business grows from nothing into a large regional bank, and then collapses in the trauma field of the financial crisis started by the 2007 sub-prime mortgage collapse in the USA.
The gatekeeper in the male testosterone fired world is a woman, and not one modelled on a kick-arse beauty that can floor any man with a combination of looks, intelligence and gymnastic battle crafts, the likes of which have never yet actually been witnessed in real life. All the characters are just about believable, if in many cases rather clichéd. With so many actors to follow it was as well that many were solidly familiar, stock personalities.
This book makes business acquisitions and mergers seem like exciting stuff, and as if this isn’t enough there is an interesting bit of sexual intrigue as well. This is a fun read, one that once it had me hooked had no trouble keeping me so.
Sisti is a good pulp fiction writer. I mean that with the greatest of respect. He writes in a sharp entertaining, to the point, style, that draws unrepentantly on those characters that surround us all in real life. And all this is done without any demonstrable physical violence, murder, torture, or natural disasters. I’m sure I’ll read another Sisti before very long.
For the traveller, those short chapters make this book just right for reading on a crowded train.
www.amazon.com/Gatekeeper-Michael-Sisti/dp/1938842324
The gatekeeper in the male testosterone fired world is a woman, and not one modelled on a kick-arse beauty that can floor any man with a combination of looks, intelligence and gymnastic battle crafts, the likes of which have never yet actually been witnessed in real life. All the characters are just about believable, if in many cases rather clichéd. With so many actors to follow it was as well that many were solidly familiar, stock personalities.
This book makes business acquisitions and mergers seem like exciting stuff, and as if this isn’t enough there is an interesting bit of sexual intrigue as well. This is a fun read, one that once it had me hooked had no trouble keeping me so.
Sisti is a good pulp fiction writer. I mean that with the greatest of respect. He writes in a sharp entertaining, to the point, style, that draws unrepentantly on those characters that surround us all in real life. And all this is done without any demonstrable physical violence, murder, torture, or natural disasters. I’m sure I’ll read another Sisti before very long.
For the traveller, those short chapters make this book just right for reading on a crowded train.
www.amazon.com/Gatekeeper-Michael-Sisti/dp/1938842324
[31] When a Stranger Comes- Karen S. Bell ~~~~ (Extract 110)
Writers enjoy having the power of God over their characters, but what if they also attract the forces of the devil? What if the power of life and death in a fiction translates into a ‘real’ existence, if some elements of the authors omnipresence on the page slips into physical life? The book is very much paranormal, some of a magical realism bend and some with a quasi-religious one. Through excepting the premise that many good versus evil, religious/paranormal boundaries collide in mystical ways one can enjoy the book. Most of us have little trouble suspending belief to enjoy a good yarn. I preferred to read this is the imagined world of a psychotic personality in total meltdown. This was easy given that the book is written in first person. I enjoyed this as a false reality from which we are supposed to hope the character voice, Alexa, will escape. I was a bit underwhelmed by the lengths Bell went to in exploring the threads of the story as it drew to the end, as for me the detail rather reduced the power of resolution. Climatic events, both in life and books, are best enjoyed without distracting reflections on the rationality of the mechanics.
This book is well written, describing Alexa’s world in a way that easily paints strong scenes in one’s mind. As a writer, I can appreciate the mind games as Alexa the well-established, if quite famous, author, struggles to complete her trilogy. Some of the other characters, especially Margaret, her book editor, are very well-rounded. I may have enjoyed the book more with a few chapters written from the mind of Margaret, watching the mental breakdown of her number one selling author.
This is the second book of Bell’s I have read. She is a very gifted writer who might achieve greater success with psychological thrillers without the distraction of paranormal elements. Provided, of course, she could find the discipline of scripting her stories without occasionally falling for the convenient escapes of the unrestrained supernatural.
It should be obvious that I enjoyed this book more for the qualities of Bell’s descriptive writing than the story it tells. However, I am sure that those that relish the buy-in to the paranormal will find this to be a great read. There are plenty of original elements as well as standard themes of the paranormal and mystical realism genres. We have here a, ‘watch what you wish for’ morality tale. The allegorical foundations of the theme resonate throughout. The four stars rather than five isn’t a devaluation of the Bell’s work. Rather, it reflects my view that this book, despite all its qualities, didn’t do talent full justice.
www.amazon.com/When-Stranger-Comes-gripping-psychological-ebook/dp/B075MR6JVG
This book is well written, describing Alexa’s world in a way that easily paints strong scenes in one’s mind. As a writer, I can appreciate the mind games as Alexa the well-established, if quite famous, author, struggles to complete her trilogy. Some of the other characters, especially Margaret, her book editor, are very well-rounded. I may have enjoyed the book more with a few chapters written from the mind of Margaret, watching the mental breakdown of her number one selling author.
This is the second book of Bell’s I have read. She is a very gifted writer who might achieve greater success with psychological thrillers without the distraction of paranormal elements. Provided, of course, she could find the discipline of scripting her stories without occasionally falling for the convenient escapes of the unrestrained supernatural.
It should be obvious that I enjoyed this book more for the qualities of Bell’s descriptive writing than the story it tells. However, I am sure that those that relish the buy-in to the paranormal will find this to be a great read. There are plenty of original elements as well as standard themes of the paranormal and mystical realism genres. We have here a, ‘watch what you wish for’ morality tale. The allegorical foundations of the theme resonate throughout. The four stars rather than five isn’t a devaluation of the Bell’s work. Rather, it reflects my view that this book, despite all its qualities, didn’t do talent full justice.
www.amazon.com/When-Stranger-Comes-gripping-psychological-ebook/dp/B075MR6JVG
[32] Life Unfinished- Martin White ~~~~ (Extract 111)
White has created a very readable biographical fiction out of the life and times of Franz Peter Schubert. The book is very engaging, even for one that knows next to nothing about the ‘engineering’ of music. Period history is my fascination here, along with my naive appreciation of the music itself. I now know a good deal more about the history of the classic period of European music than I did before the enjoyable experience of reading this book.
There are many books and films about the life of Schubert, all rather building on the same store of facts and sometimes rather weakly anchored conjecture. The widespread, if not consensual, view is that Schubert was bisexual. That is based only on the certainty that many of his acquaintances and friends in the worlds of music, theatre and painting were of diverse passions. Though whether he caught syphilis, a disease that in this account almost came to finally define him from a rare sexual encounter or from a promiscuous existence is debatable. In fact, contemporary records give little evidence that he even suffered from that particular disease, although his general decline in health is well documented. What is known as undisputed fact is that Schubert was extremely socially awkward. He was often shy to the point of this being psychologically overwhelming to his character and even damaging to his career.
He fantasised about several women in his life, most either simply tragically unsuitable or deliberately chosen because of the extreme unlikelihood of any possible union. Whatever the deep reasoning for these ‘affairs’ never leading into meaningful shared physical relationships, he certainly had a talent for focussing his heart on those that were socially unsuitable. Whether servant or aristocrat, the women he cherished were consistently well above or below his social station. Schubert himself was born very much into the educated upper classes, all be it very far short of its summits. White builds on these known elements along with commonly conjectured plot based on his eventual death from syphilis. The second half of the story buildings very much on the medically observed course of the disease and its then treatment.
White’s description of the music, especially of Schubert’s more serious works, which were rather passed over during his life, are very poetic. One is drawn into feeling like a genuine spectator not just in the room, but also one privileged to glimpse many imaginative and plausible mental thoughts. Although there is a drift into substantive speculation I have confidence that White never loses connection with what we know from genuine contemporary records.
I have far from a complete idea as to how much of this book has been based on previous novels and films, and how much has been sparked with true originality. Not that that can make much difference to the enjoyment of this very plausible and generally sympathetic interpretation. What matters is that this is a very well written piece of biographical fiction based available documentation.
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Unfinished-Martin-White-ebook/dp/B078BY5Y8N
There are many books and films about the life of Schubert, all rather building on the same store of facts and sometimes rather weakly anchored conjecture. The widespread, if not consensual, view is that Schubert was bisexual. That is based only on the certainty that many of his acquaintances and friends in the worlds of music, theatre and painting were of diverse passions. Though whether he caught syphilis, a disease that in this account almost came to finally define him from a rare sexual encounter or from a promiscuous existence is debatable. In fact, contemporary records give little evidence that he even suffered from that particular disease, although his general decline in health is well documented. What is known as undisputed fact is that Schubert was extremely socially awkward. He was often shy to the point of this being psychologically overwhelming to his character and even damaging to his career.
He fantasised about several women in his life, most either simply tragically unsuitable or deliberately chosen because of the extreme unlikelihood of any possible union. Whatever the deep reasoning for these ‘affairs’ never leading into meaningful shared physical relationships, he certainly had a talent for focussing his heart on those that were socially unsuitable. Whether servant or aristocrat, the women he cherished were consistently well above or below his social station. Schubert himself was born very much into the educated upper classes, all be it very far short of its summits. White builds on these known elements along with commonly conjectured plot based on his eventual death from syphilis. The second half of the story buildings very much on the medically observed course of the disease and its then treatment.
White’s description of the music, especially of Schubert’s more serious works, which were rather passed over during his life, are very poetic. One is drawn into feeling like a genuine spectator not just in the room, but also one privileged to glimpse many imaginative and plausible mental thoughts. Although there is a drift into substantive speculation I have confidence that White never loses connection with what we know from genuine contemporary records.
I have far from a complete idea as to how much of this book has been based on previous novels and films, and how much has been sparked with true originality. Not that that can make much difference to the enjoyment of this very plausible and generally sympathetic interpretation. What matters is that this is a very well written piece of biographical fiction based available documentation.
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Unfinished-Martin-White-ebook/dp/B078BY5Y8N
[33] Ape Mind, Old Mind, New Mind- John Wylie ~~~~ (Extract 112)
A well written academic book written in a style and at a scientific level that most of us can connect with, even if we can’t quite compute all the scholarly depth that make up the full picture. I definitely place myself in ‘the superficial understanding’ category but never felt intimidated by complexity. Wylie re-explores evolutionary biology bringing into play his clinical and philosophical knowledge and private observations in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy, and medicine. Wylie’s observations which build into a broad psychological theory that fits as a complementary extension to classic Darwinism, add considerably to our conventional understanding of human evolution. With the obvious exception of many dogmatic scripturalists, I think this book has a lot for all those interested in why we are what we are questions. Wylie adds to our understanding of personality evolution, looking at the intellectual creature that with all the psychological baggage we carry from our ancestors.
I did rather question some of what I read to be rather afterthought attempts to tie in sacred spirituality and philosophy. I guess some attempt at this is, though, beneficial if it might draw in all but the most dogmatic of ‘Abrahamists’. Anyway, arguably, religion could not be left out of a fully rounded ‘thesis’. Otherwise I had no personal issues with any ideas in this very well written book. Nearly always, Wylie found simple ways of distilling out the complexity of his arguments. A few more real-life anecdotes from Wylie’s career would I’m sure add a great deal of enjoyment for the general reader, without losing the focus required by the more scholastic. This is a serious book, exploring the whys and wherefores from a full range of psychological illnesses balanced against normal, (average), behaviours, that make us the deep thinking but not always rational creatures that we have become.
www.amazon.com/Ape-Mind-Old-New-Emotional/dp/1543919375
I did rather question some of what I read to be rather afterthought attempts to tie in sacred spirituality and philosophy. I guess some attempt at this is, though, beneficial if it might draw in all but the most dogmatic of ‘Abrahamists’. Anyway, arguably, religion could not be left out of a fully rounded ‘thesis’. Otherwise I had no personal issues with any ideas in this very well written book. Nearly always, Wylie found simple ways of distilling out the complexity of his arguments. A few more real-life anecdotes from Wylie’s career would I’m sure add a great deal of enjoyment for the general reader, without losing the focus required by the more scholastic. This is a serious book, exploring the whys and wherefores from a full range of psychological illnesses balanced against normal, (average), behaviours, that make us the deep thinking but not always rational creatures that we have become.
www.amazon.com/Ape-Mind-Old-New-Emotional/dp/1543919375
[34] El Cajon- Joel Shapiro ~~~~ (Extract 113)
One thing is for certain- this book gives El Cajon, California one heck of a reputation and one no city would want. Another thing, for certain- people don’t do well when addicted to Vicodin. Opiate addiction is very topical. One can only hope the medics and pharma people get a conscience before too many more people have their lives torn apart by addictive prescription drugs. But what the heck has that got to do with this book. Well, apart from the fact that Haim, the first-person narrator, is still somehow alive and even gets a few things right, there is a serious warning here. We see a few heroic deeds, but not from an actor one would ever wish to emulate. He is the very antithesis of John, Die Hard, McClane. A film about Haim Baker would not create quite the same sort of wannabe buzz.
Before you take a first overdose on opiate-based medicines, read this book. However, don’t read this book if you are planning a trip to San Diego County, unless you are open to having your mind changed.
This is a book which quickly becomes hard to put down, but not necessarily because you are enjoying it. Frustration with the first person, no hoper is going to drive you to distraction. Like the effect of the dumb principle in the high-tension film drama, one can’t believe the stupidity for walking into trouble, while not being quite irritated enough to switch channels. Actually, that is probably not so different to having a mild addiction to Vicodin.
This book is extremely violent and at times exceedingly crude. Urine and blood seem to be constantly pouring in equal and often mixed volumes. And this book gets the near fatal stages of opioid addiction about right- except that PI Haim Baker somehow still manages to function, and even kill the right bad people. The book also highlights the terrible world of people trafficking, focussed here on girls bashed and drugged into the sex industry. Actually, that part of the book is particularly sickening. Sickening for the sane and those merely into substance rather than people abuse, that is! But, just as we know that nearly every neighbourhood has an addict at deaths door, we also know that not all our children are safe wheresoever we live. I choose to see a second serious message from Shapiro. That even in places with a veneer of respectability such abuses can be hidden.
The writing is fast paced, and generally of a good quality. However, the grammar is far from conventional. For example, the disappearance of the period, the comma, is used to convey rapid and often chaotic and stressed, stream of consciousness, thought. Shapiro writes well enough to usually pull this off. However, one would want to load up with plenty of oxygen before reading some passages aloud. Even if there was pause for breath, one would have to check the audience first. Haim isn’t exactly shy about some excruciatingly detailed body malfunctions.
Haim is like the most down-beaten, unprepossessing, suicidally inclined private eye one has ever read about, and then some. If it wasn’t for the kindness buried in his soul and for the reported damage in his personal life which has helped draw him low, many might jettison the read unfinished. That would be a pity. But to sustain any credibility, either Haim dies next time out, or breaks his addiction.
Yes, the book deserves five somethings, though five pain killing white tablets may be more appropriate that five yellow stars. But for those that eagerly consume thrillers in which the least bad guy eventually wins this is a good fix. I would absolutely recommend this book for those that like no-holes plugged entertainment. The pictures Shapiro paints look disgustingly real to this reader.
www.amazon.com/El-Cajon-Baker-Cases-Book-ebook/dp/B078RSSJW6
Before you take a first overdose on opiate-based medicines, read this book. However, don’t read this book if you are planning a trip to San Diego County, unless you are open to having your mind changed.
This is a book which quickly becomes hard to put down, but not necessarily because you are enjoying it. Frustration with the first person, no hoper is going to drive you to distraction. Like the effect of the dumb principle in the high-tension film drama, one can’t believe the stupidity for walking into trouble, while not being quite irritated enough to switch channels. Actually, that is probably not so different to having a mild addiction to Vicodin.
This book is extremely violent and at times exceedingly crude. Urine and blood seem to be constantly pouring in equal and often mixed volumes. And this book gets the near fatal stages of opioid addiction about right- except that PI Haim Baker somehow still manages to function, and even kill the right bad people. The book also highlights the terrible world of people trafficking, focussed here on girls bashed and drugged into the sex industry. Actually, that part of the book is particularly sickening. Sickening for the sane and those merely into substance rather than people abuse, that is! But, just as we know that nearly every neighbourhood has an addict at deaths door, we also know that not all our children are safe wheresoever we live. I choose to see a second serious message from Shapiro. That even in places with a veneer of respectability such abuses can be hidden.
The writing is fast paced, and generally of a good quality. However, the grammar is far from conventional. For example, the disappearance of the period, the comma, is used to convey rapid and often chaotic and stressed, stream of consciousness, thought. Shapiro writes well enough to usually pull this off. However, one would want to load up with plenty of oxygen before reading some passages aloud. Even if there was pause for breath, one would have to check the audience first. Haim isn’t exactly shy about some excruciatingly detailed body malfunctions.
Haim is like the most down-beaten, unprepossessing, suicidally inclined private eye one has ever read about, and then some. If it wasn’t for the kindness buried in his soul and for the reported damage in his personal life which has helped draw him low, many might jettison the read unfinished. That would be a pity. But to sustain any credibility, either Haim dies next time out, or breaks his addiction.
Yes, the book deserves five somethings, though five pain killing white tablets may be more appropriate that five yellow stars. But for those that eagerly consume thrillers in which the least bad guy eventually wins this is a good fix. I would absolutely recommend this book for those that like no-holes plugged entertainment. The pictures Shapiro paints look disgustingly real to this reader.
www.amazon.com/El-Cajon-Baker-Cases-Book-ebook/dp/B078RSSJW6
