3 out of 5 stars
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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.
Genre: Short story, mystery, ghosts.
San Francisco girl Sara rents a mountain cabin as a retreat, having been through a difficult year with a relationship break-up and bereavement. As luck would have it, the landlord is the handsome, single David. No sooner has Sara got settled in than she starts to have sightings of a bear in the garden... and then everything goes from bad to worse, to dangerous and inexplicable.
This is a nicely written story, presented well, and I didn't guess what was going to happen, always a plus with a mystery. I did find the style a little safe; it's all very 'nice', so perhaps just not really for me, though I imagine it would appeal to perhaps an older readership who like a 'clean read', and enjoy a light, undemanding drama. It took me about an hour to read.
3.5 out of 5 stars
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How I discovered this book: Amazon browse
Genre: Post Apocalyptic, Dystopian, EMP
A strange one - I was attracted by the amount of good reviews, but found myself veering between 2 and 5 stars all the way through. A solar storm affects most of the world, and certainly all of North America. The book brings together related scenarios in various places in North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and along the Applachian Trail, concerning the Government, coast guards, various other armed forces including FEMA, civilians, prisoners in a correctional facility, an escaped Ayran brotherhood gang and a 'gangsta' one, and others here and there, over the first 3 or 4 weeks of the crisis. A summing up:
What I liked:
- It's obviously very well researched. From how boats work to the effects of a solar storm, to the likelihood of power being restored, to how quickly supplies might last, to how long certain resources would last and survival techniques - it's all there. At no time did I feel that any practical area had been glossed over.
- The scenes in the White House and about the military leaders and FEMA. An unusual addition to a book of this genre, and a welcome one. I'm sure that in a situation such as this their attitude towards the general public would be every bit as callous as this, and worse. And I am sure that they would mislead the public every inch of the way, as they do in this book.
- The feeling of growing danger and collapse. The building of suspense... all well done.
- The idea of the 'gangsta' gang leader taking over a government building and appointing his crew as 'Minister for Food', etc, was very funny indeed.
- The proofreading was generally good, apart from hundreds of backwards apostrophes at beginning of words, but I could live with those.
- There are some good one-off scenes, dramatic page-turners.
- I liked some of the survival stuff, which was most interesting; for instance, how a rogue government security guard survives with meagre supplies on the AT.
- I wanted to know what was going to happen, in most of the scenarios, and generally; the storytelling itself is basically good.
What I wasn't so keen on:
- Yes, it's very well researched ~ and I think every bit of that research is in the book. Often in dialogue, some of which is unrealistic and information heavy. Too much 'I need the reader to know that I know every single detail about this, so I shall put it all in this conversation'. Even when we don't need to know every single detail. Like, don't have one guy explain exactly to his mates exactly how he is going to get out of one tight spot. Just have them do it; people don't explain in such detail, when in desperate situations.
- Far, far, far too many characters. By about 30% in I gave up trying to remember who everyone was, and just read the story, which was easy enough to do because so much of it is events and information about how the country would come to a standstill.
- Because there are so many characters, there little room for character development. Only a few stood out (the rogue army a**holes, a survivalist called Levi, 'good guy' Luke), but too many were just 1D stereotypes (including the 'feisty' wife who keeps calling her husband by his first name and surname - arrgh!), or names on a page.
- The dialogue is a bit cheesy at times, particularly the black gang; I think the author must have sat down with films like Straight Out of Compton and taken notes. It's actually quite amusing, I kind of liked it, but it reads like a parody.
- Capital letters used for emphasis on words and shouting, thoughout. Horrible. Coupled with the backwards apostrophes, this made me think the book hasn't seen a professional copy editor or proofreader.
- Related to the superfluity of characters - I felt the author had tried to cram too much into one book. I could see why; all these points of view and different situations made the story complete, but I felt that some of the scenarios could have been chopped down to small, snappy one or two page chapters, rather than each one being written in detail.
- The military/boat stuff was far too detailed and a bit boring. But that could just be me.
I did like it, though, or I wouldn't have read until the end, but it needs an edit. I think it's a book for people who are seriously interested in all the survival stuff, end of civilisation fanatics like me, who really want to know exactly how someone might navigate the route east by way of the AT, rather than those who just fancy an action adventure book. The novel ends at 87%, after which there are sample chapters of the next book in the series. I was surprised it ended where it did, but most of the scenarios had reached a reasonable pausing point. I will probably download the next book, because I want to see what happens to some of the characters, though others I lost interest in by the middle of the book.
4.5 out of 5 stars
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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.
Genre: Dystopian, Futuristic, SciFi
I really enjoyed this book. I'm not its target audience, which is (it says) YA/NA, but it's the sort of intelligent YA that's not terribly 'teen'. It's set in the US about 300 years in the future, when a 100 year long fertility crisis means that the human race continues by way of cloning. Obviously this means no families; citizens live in communities, where they are divided into Gold, Silver, Bronze and Grey categories, according to intelligence and capability tests taken at a young age, and assigned a job most suited to them ~ allegedly.
It's all about the community. Most follow the culture and rules laid down by the authorities without question, but the main character, a 'Gold' intern doctor called Yami, has started to think that all is not as it seems. Then the impossible happens: someone gets pregnant.
I liked Yami very much; she's antisocial, doesn't require many friends, and says what she thinks because she doesn't care too much what others think of her. The blinkered believers and followers of rules get on her nerves. Some of her friends are super-irritating in their inability to see what was really going on, but such is the way of things in these dystopian worlds. The writing flows well, all the characters are clearly defined, and the story is not predictable. The science is convincing, too, when it needed to be; I never thought, uh-oh, she doesn't know enough about this stuff. It's clear, for instance, that computer hacking/concealing of data is not her area of expertise, but it's written in such a way that the reader has all the information he/she needs.
There were a couple of areas that I felt could have been dealt with more fully; for instance, Yami and her friends have to leave the community to travel across country to others, over land they have never seen before, but there was nothing about what the country actually looks like, 300 years on. Where are all the old cities and towns? I'd have thought the characters would have been gazing about in wonder, and I was looking forward to knowing what America was like outside these small, artificial settlements, but there was nothing. Or perhaps Ms Faye didn't consider that necessary for a YA/NA novel ~ as I said, I'm not exactly its target market.
Yes, I'd recommend it for any lovers of light, dystopian/futuristic scifi. The ending is excellent, and made me want to read more, which I definitely will do.
3 out of 5 stars
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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.
Genre: Dark comedy/horror
Doctor
Perry is an evil medical man from the pages of an Edwardian horror
story, complete with black leather doctor's bag and a curious potion he
asks patients to drink. The crux of the plot is about what happens
when you drink said potion; this came as a surprise to me, and the
build-up to it was well done.
Much
of the action takes pace in a retirement home, with an abundance of
characters. Some are well-drawn and realistic (Elijah, the main man, was particularly
good), others conforming to perceived stereotypes, which I felt was intentional, as this is
not a 'serious' horror story. I changed my mindset about what I was
reading once I saw that Perry is more a like a dastardly doctor you
might see walking out of the mists on an old BBC drama, or a Jekyll and Hyde type old film. Patients drink a 'tonic' from Perry (rather than one
obtained via a pharmacy) with little questioning about what it
contains. Of course this is pure pantomime, in an era when many patients
look up even prescribed medication on the internet to make sure it is
safe.
The
writing is generally good, with wit and understanding of human nature
(always a plus) but it needs another go-through with a
copy-editor/proofreader who knows how to punctuate/has more of an eagle
eye. There was a fair bit of incorrect punctuation, mostly missing commas or
commas that should have been semicolons, and many, many run-on sentences/comma splices.
The sort of uncorrected punctuation errors present in the book are not
of the type that would be noticed by everyone, perhaps only by those
they call 'punctuation Nazis', but unfortunately I am one of these!
5 out of 5 stars
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How I discovered this book: I'd reviewed the author's last book,The Usurper King, for Rosie Amber's Book Review Team, and thought it was great. The author approached me to see if I would like an ARC of his new release.
Genre: Sci Fi novella
I loved this book and kept rationing the last thirty per cent because I didn't want to reach the end. It's a long novella, maybe almost a short novel.
Jim is the last man left in the universe, staying alive in a small pod that orbits a black hole. Rewind to how he got there: he has been alive for a thousand years, since around our time, achieved by the anti-ageing technlogy available in both the near and distant future. He and his crew of six are travelling to an interstellar colony. From the blurb: En route, the ship gets momentarily
caught in the powerful gravity of a black hole and is flung trillions
and trillions of years into the future. The passengers find themselves
in a time of maximum entropy, where all life is extinct, all the stars
have burned out, and there is nothing left in the universe except a
black hole and a complete vacuum extending in all directions.
On board, those remaining divide into two factions: those who think it is worth sending out distress signals, and those who understand that there is nobody left to receive them.
I love Zeb Haradon's writing style. I know next to nothing about how space stuff works (indeed, that very phrase is an indication of this), but he describes it in such a way that it is a) not even remotely boring, b) understandable and c) totally believable. The book is inventive, gripping, clever, funny, heartbreaking, horrific, and a total page-turner. For those who mind about such things, there is a certain amount of grisly stuff, but this is not unreasonable since he is having to convert his own waste products into calories, and the last people alive are contemplating eating the body of a former crew member in order to stay alive. Just a warning for the particularly squeamish.
As well as his current situation, Jim talks, now and again, about his life before: his wife and son, and hints about what happened to the world in the millennium after our time. I would love to read more about this, if you ever fancy writing it, Mr Haradon....
It's great, highly recommended, and I look forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
3 out of 5 stars
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How I discovered this book: it was submitted to Rosie's Book Review Team, of which I am a member.
Genre: 1980s nostalgia, coming of age
Set in 1984, this story opens with a group of schoolboys who go on a shoplifting trip to Guernsey, keen to get their hands on designer sports gear they crave. Protagonist Ben is particularly desperate for a certain pair of trainers. This is intermingled with him seeing the gorgeous Susie and falling instantly in love with her, all set to a backdrop of Madonna's Lucky Star.
What I liked:
1. It's nicely written, and flows well; it's an easy read. The characterisation is very good, I thought, and the dialogue is, for the most part, realistic; natural. I liked the usage of regional slang words like 'dinlo' and 'clump' (and the fact that the author didn't feel the need to explain them!).
2. There are elements that are very typical of kids of that age, and it's good to read about a time when young people didn't have their eyes permanently fixed on smartphone screens. It certainly ticked a few nostalgia boxes.
What I was less sure about:
1. The basic premise. I realise the kids who flogged the designer gear would have had money, but where did Ben and his friends get the cash to travel to Guernsey, get taxis, eat in cafés, buy beer, etc? There was no indication of him asking his aunt for it. I also don't buy that a group of daft 16 year olds suddenly became proficient at shoplifting from upmarket shops, where assistants know all the tricks. I think it's a fun idea that needed a bit more thinking through.
2. I found the whole Susie-love-at-first-sight thing a little hackneyed, more like something you would see in a 1980s film, but the 'coming of age' genre has grown more sophisticated since then; also I felt the whole novel needed chopping down a bit.
So not really for me, but the fact that it's nicely written and the characterisation is good, and it has the nostalgia thing going on means it may appeal to those who like a light read about a time they remember, and enjoyed films like Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
5 GOLD stars
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How I discovered this book: I'm a huge fan of Deborah Swift and have read all her books,most recently Pleasing Mr Pepys.
Genre: 17th Century Historical Fiction. The Great Plague.
I LOVED this book, so much I think I may run out of superlatives! Without doubt the best book I've read this year, and has taken over from The Gilded Lily as my previous favourite of Ms Swift's.
Set in London in the mid-late 17th century, the main characters are Bess and Will Bagwell. Will is a modest, unassuming but exceptionally talented carpenter, while Bess is a spirited girl who comes from the dingy and dank slums and is determined to build a better life for the couple. But from the moment they buy the house in respectable Flaggon Row, their troubles multiply. Financial disaster is ever-looming, as one stroke of bad luck and bad judgement follows another, not helped by the slippery presence of Will's cousin Jack Sutherland, a man with the eye for a good swindle.
Will longs for work on a ship, in dock, and Bess knows the only person who can help is Naval big shot Samuel Pepys. But for his help there will be a price, and one which might destroy her marriage. Pepys features in the book as a secondary character and the reason for much of what happens to the Bagwells rather than as a main character; I mention this in case potential readers think it is a book primarily about the man himself. For me, though, the real star of the book was London itself, dirty, noisy, 17th Century London, with its dangerous characters, dodgy dealings, the vast chasm between rich and poor, social snobbery, and finally, the plague, which lurks in the background until the last quarter of the book when it takes a terrifying centre stage. It's riveting. The whole book is, but especially the way in which the plague takes hold of the city.
Ms Swift's characterisation is so compelling, her storytelling is a dream, and her descriptions of the time and place and the way the people lived are so vivid, so detailed and intricately researched (without you ever feeling that you're reading research notes), that I felt as if I was being given a window back in time. A special mention for Beth's mother, Agatha, a former prostitute and wonderful character. A short author's note at the back gives more information about Pepys and reveals the real identity of Bess Bagwell.
Utterly brilliant, you have to read it. I've just finished it at one in the morning after being engrossed for two evenings, and had to write the review immediately. Thank you, Deborah Swift ~ I don't think I will be able to pick up another book for a couple of days!
3.5 out of 5 stars
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How I discovered this book: Amazon Browse
Genre: Post Apocalyptic, Dystopian, Pandemic
This is the first in a three book series about a pandemic, the Su Flu. It is told in diary format, the diarist (Chris) being an every-day sort of guy in his thirties, living in Chicago with his wife and two kids. I wasn't sure about it at first; I liked the writing style, but one aspect was badly thought out: he and his wife watch the news about the flu and the increasing panic on TV news, but no reference is made to social media. No mention of videos uploaded to Youtube, of posts on Facebook or Twitter ~ most people of his age use social media as a regular part of their lives. The wife is supposed to have an internet shop—she would need to be social media savvy for this, but 'the internet' seems to be a little-used facility that appears only on her laptop, not on their phones or the TV, in the way of people more than twice their age.
The virus spreads, and within a week or so the fabric of society is breaking down, big time. It's well-written, flows nicely, and I wanted to keep turning the pages; I liked it. Now and again I felt there was too much practical detail, such as the complicated layout of the condos, staircases, doorways, etc; too much, I couldn't visualise it. Callahan would have done better to skip this and let readers form their own pictures.
It's a book for the lovers of this genre who are fascinated by survival on a day-to-day basis (like me), rather than those who want lots of guns, explosions, armies and/or zombies; it reminded me of the first 'Surviving The Evacuation' book by Frank Tayell, and provides great detail about how they eat, wash, keep safe from looters (and worse) outside; this was right up my street. Every day, the family's situation gets a little more worrying, and I very much liked the way in which their awareness that this is the new reality increases all the time.
The diary format has its limitations; sometimes a scene needed playing out instead of reporting, I felt, but on the whole I'd say the author has dealt with these limitations very well.
I was going to give it 4* right up until the end....the surprise development and how it was set up for the next book was a great idea and unexpected, but it had one huge flaw. Much of what I imagine will be one side of the story in Part 2 hinged round them finding a letter from a friend of Chris's called John Stevens, dated 6 days before the diary started, and offering Chris and his family a place in John's bunker type camp in the back of beyond. All through the diary, Chris had been talking about where on earth the family could go if they left Chicago. He never once mentioned this offer; I didn't think I remembered it, and I checked back to the beginning afterwards, even did some word searches to make sure I hadn't missed it. I hadn't. So I reckon the author thought of this great new twist right at the end of the book, but didn't realise he needed to go back and redraft a little, to set it up. So I've got to take a half star off for that, alas. I find that this is what lets so many books of this type down: the lack of planning and redrafting to make them as good as they could be. I liked this book. It's good, I'm going to download the next one and I'd still recommend it, but it needs some more fine-tuning.
