‘No Time for Goodbye’ by Linwood Barclay is a thrill ride! I couldn’t put the mystery down for two days! I read through the night until I nodded off, ‘No Time for Goodbye’ by Linwood Barclay is a thrill ride! I couldn’t put the mystery down for two days! I read through the night until I nodded off, waking up three hours later with my face imprinted on my ipad. I realized I needed to sleep, which I did reluctantly. As soon as I woke up, I was reading the book until I finished it! My cat is mad at me, too. Never fear, gentler reader, her water and dry-food bowls are freshened and full. But she had to wait for her silly rabbit wand toy to begin his run over my couch….
I have copied the book blurb:
”Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family, mother, father, brother had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she'll learn the devastating truth.
Sometimes better not to know. . .
Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn't over. A strange car in the neighborhood, untraceable phone calls, ominous gifts, someone has returned to her hometown to finish what was started twenty-five years ago. And no one's innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time Cynthia discovers her killer's shocking identity, it will again be too late . . . even for goodbye.”
The story reads like a well-done movie script, though, especially the dialogue, so more discriminating movie-fan readers might feel it has some derivative scenes of suspiciously familiar lacking-in-full-disclosure conversation and married-couple fights between protagonists here and there. There also was what to me were peculiar inserts of italicized conversations between unknown speakers that didn’t make sense for awhile. I still don’t believe they were necessary paragraphs at all, even though they did serve eventually to deepen the mystery. There is one character I correctly guessed early was involved. I figured at least one of the characters was lying or unreliable which had me on the wrong track. The character Cynthia was incredibly annoying because of her intense irrational reactions.
I really liked the story despite what I was recognizing as similar ‘gotcha’ set-ups that are familiar to fans of good, fast-moving horror movies. The ending, after a number of twists and turns, was amazing! I didn’t see that coming!
It was great fun reading ‘No Time for Goodbye’!...more
‘The Fury’ by Alex Michaelides is truly an epic tilt of reality! My brain was turned inside out and upside down!
I have copied the book blurb:
”A master‘The Fury’ by Alex Michaelides is truly an epic tilt of reality! My brain was turned inside out and upside down!
I have copied the book blurb:
”A masterfully paced thriller about a reclusive ex–movie star and her famous friends whose spontaneous trip to a private Greek island is upended by a murder ― from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Patient.
This is a tale of murder.
Or maybe that’s not quite true. At its heart, it’s a love story, isn’t it?
Lana Farrar is a reclusive ex–movie star and one of the most famous women in the world. Every year, she invites her closest friends to escape the English weather and spend Easter on her idyllic private Greek island.
I tell you this because you may think you know this story. You probably read about it at the time ― it caused a real stir in the tabloids, if you remember. It had all the necessary ingredients for a press a celebrity; a private island cut off by the wind…and a murder.
We found ourselves trapped there overnight. Our old friendships concealed hatred and a desire for revenge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse ― a battle of wits, full of twists and turns, building to an unforgettable climax. The night ended in violence and death, as one of us was found murdered.
But who am I?
My name is Elliot Chase, and I’m going to tell you a story unlike any you’ve ever heard.”
Elliot narrates, but he is not a reliable one until the last page. As part of the toxically damaged clique Lana gathers around her, Elliot’s objectivity is a bare-bones achievement . But telling Truth is demanded by his therapist. So he does tell reluctantly the tale. However, omissions tilt his story into a more benign malignancy until he is forced to finally come out with telling it all.
The “love story” that Elliot Chase want to tell you, gentler reader, is one involving toxic friends and frenemies. Lana’s choices in her “friends” she feels she wants to hang out with IS shockingly terrible! The villain of the book is one only in comparison of the degree of poisonous attraction all of Lana’s closest buddies have for Lana and each other! With friends like these, etc. etc. etc.
I highly recommend ‘The Fury’! It is a unique spin on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, a homage of sorts, but given an Alfred Hitchcock’s movie twist. I loved it! ...more
‘Voyage of the Space Beagle’ by A. E. van Vogt was eye-opening for me! The science fiction novel is actually four linked stories in the manner pursued‘Voyage of the Space Beagle’ by A. E. van Vogt was eye-opening for me! The science fiction novel is actually four linked stories in the manner pursued by the newer Star Trek series - the having of one major story or a character’s dilemma carried in the background from episode to episode until a Big Finish episode, while each of the episodes individually had a new story in the foreground. The four stories originally were published separately in popular science fiction magazines. The Space Beagle is an intergalactic space ship traveling through space: “Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before!” Does this sound familiar?
Three of these stories were written in 1939, the fourth being written in 1943.
But there’s more!
In one story, there is a space creature which is almost invincible. It lays eggs inside of living people. The egg, upon hatching inside a person, eats it way out.
One of the crewman, thirty-one-year-old Elliott Grosvenor (our apparently selfless hero), practices a holistic self-education system called Nexialism, “… integration of many sciences…”. It’s about learning a little about a lot of stuff, not specializing in any single field of science. Nexialists specialize in training the mind’s mental approaches to acquiring knowledge and information, so that a practitioner is able to be more of a polymath than an expert in one thing. Practitioners also learn emotional self-control. Their Big Picture mental process puts facts before emotions even as the practitioner takes care to examine the emotions of everyone around them, taking the feelings of individuals psychologically into account as a factor in conclusions. The purpose is to arrive at logical conclusions which are the best option for survival of the many, even at the expense of the one.
Sound familiar?
Of course, almost every department head, military leader and technician boss on the ship thinks Grosvenor is too stupid to live. Only their subordinates and junior scientists bother to answer his questions - IF their bosses haven’t ordered them not to talk to him. Which some of them have done so.
The ship’s crew are divided into two groups of men with authority: scientists and military types, with the military men believing the scientists are fools, and the scientists thinking the non-scientists incapable of logic or having intelligence. Since the stories were written in 1939 and 1943, there are no women aboard.
Such a happy ship! Clearly they will pull all together in facing several strange monsters who attack them before they understand the nature of what is attacking them or why.
No, not. Sigh.
Gentler readers, this is a novel which is the source of many ideas which were extrapolated by science fiction writers later in the twentieth century! There are a lot of science and sociology discussions between the various scientists that reminded me of the discussions that happen on the Star Trek shows, especially the newer ones, as the specialists try to understand the nature of the monsters and how to defend the ship against them.
I have to admit I enjoyed the book the most in identifying what plot points have been rebooted and make-overed by our current crop of science fiction writers.
Some quotes from the novel are eerily appropriate in the interrogation of recent witnesses who were summoned by U.S. Congress extreme right-wing Republicans to a hearing before a House subcommittee. The witnesses/scientists were insulted, threatened and verbally intimidated in Congressional hearings by House Representatives who are followers of Donald Trump’s manner of controlling everyone around him.
From the book:
””I notice,” said Grosvenor, “you didn’t say anything about his qualifications for the job.””
“”It’s not a vital position, generally speaking. He can get advice from experts on anything he wants to know.”” McCann pursed his lips. ““It’s hard to put Kent’s appeal into words, but I think that scientists are constantly on the defensive about their alleged unfeeling intellectualism. So they like to have someone fronting for them who is emotional but whose scientific qualifications cannot be questioned.””
Grosvenor shook his head. ““I disagree with you about the director’s job not being vital. It all depends on the individual as to how he exercises the very considerable authority involved.””
McCann studied him shrewdly. He said finally, ““Strictly logical men like you have always had a hard time understanding the mass appeal of the Kents. They haven’t much chance against his type, politically.””
Grosvenor smiled grimly. “”It’s not their devotion to the scientific method that defeats the technologists. It’s their integrity. The average trained man often understand the tactics that are used against him better than the person who uses them, but he cannot bring himself to retaliate in kind without feeling tarnished.””
The Republicans are definitely using the approach the character Kent uses to acquire power over the other men traveling in the Space Beagle. Truth be damned, even if one’s lies or one’s egotistical need to be in charge kills more people.
The crazy nonsensical attack approach using exaggerations, misdirections, false narratives, the not-relevant sideways issues and lies:
In the hearing, various Republicans accuse Dr. Fauci and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of being responsible for bringing the virus Covid-19 to America. In tones of severe disapproval, the Republicans express amazement that this rumored creation of Covid-19 for the NIH and Dr. Fauci was paid for by American taxpayer money. The Republicans give no reason WHY the NIH or Dr. Fauci would want the American people specifically to die from Covid. Republicans are convinced the proof of their suspicions have been deleted from computers. The absence of proof is the proof. They also quote from published articles stating suspicions and opinions of individual medical professionals who are known to be on the fringes of real science supporting their accusations.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) gave a small amount of money, $120,000, to the Wuhan lnstitute of Virology, which has an annual billion-dollar budget of operating funds. NIH did NOT instruct the Chinese scientists to create Covid-19 with the money from the NIH. It was for another study, for which there is ample proof. Plus, there is no way $120,000 would begin to cover the cost of development of a virus like Covid-19. There is absolutely NO proof at all that the NIH or Dr. Fauci personally required the Chinese to develop the Covid-19 virus for the purpose of distributing the virus throughout America to kill American citizens.
Every country in the world had people dying from Covid, including Chinese people. I find it difficult to believe the Chinese government had a design of genocide to kill off all of Humanity, including their own people. Since Covid-19 was deadly mostly to the elderly and the sick and the immune-compromised, I think this is a very strange designer virus for genocide, created apparently by the Chinese on behalf of Dr. Fauci’s and the NIH’s plot to kill everyone in the world. It clearly isn’t very efficient at killing everyone, unless you are sick, immune-compromised or old, which, hello, is not EvErYOnE, is it?
Making children wear masks is not a type of torture. Making adults wear masks is not type of torture. Wearing a mask does not hurt at all. Many Republicans in the hearing equate it with being an evil torture terrible to endure. I have worn a variety of masks. None of them hurt me. I have friends, relatives and neighbors who wore masks. None of them expressed any pain from doing do.
Beating up a kid hurts a kid. Burning a kid with fire hurts a kid. Breaking a kid’s bones hurts a kid. Spanking a kid hurts a kid. Physically assaulting a kid hurts a kid. Falling down hurts a kid. These are facts. A kid wearing a mask does not hurt a kid’s face, or his body for the matter. Lots of kids wore masks during the pandemic without any pain. Some experienced annoyance, though.
Wearing a mask does not hurt. Since it doesn’t hurt, it can’t be defined as a torture. Full stop. This is a fact.
Statistically, children are more resistant to Covid, but they can carry the virus home to their parents and grandparents who do not have the resistance that children have. Many children were discovered to carry the virus if they were exposed but they were asymptomatic. However, when adult teachers, parents, grandparents, fellow adult passengers on trains/planes/cars/buses are exposed to Covid-19 consisting of virus particles being breathed out by asymptomatic and not-sick-at-all kids, the adults around them can get very sick. Teachers were very afraid of catching Covid-19 from the kids, not vice versa. Not that any of the Republicans mentioned this FACT. Many teachers refused to come to work because they were afraid of catching Covid-19 from their kids. Fact. This is why kids were required to wear masks. It wasn’t the kid who needed protecting from Covid, generally. Also, sidebar, many kids are immune-compromised because of health issues. They COULD get sick and die from Covid-19. Also, a mask was intended not only to protect the wearer from the virus which might be being passed around in the room by another person, but they were worn to protect others from a person who had the virus and was wearing a mask because they were breathing it out of their mouth.
They also went after Dr. Fauci for recommending people get vaccinated. Most private corporations and state institutions gave people the choice to get the vaccination or not. If they didn’t get it, they were told to stay home. Many of the unvaccinated lost their jobs because they weren’t permitted to go to their place of work to do their jobs unvaccinated. If they had got vaccinated, they would have kept their jobs. The corporations and institutions, and especially the government which would and did foot most of the bills from taxpayer money to care for sick people, did not want the other employees to get sick with Covid, mild as it was if one was vaccinated. Or worse, while vaccinated employees might be asymptomatic because they were vaccinated, they could still pass on the virus carried into the room by the unvaccinated to elderly or immune-compromised family members or friends or neighbors at home who could not get the vaccination safely due to poor health or youth. From what I heard from non-vaxxers and the House Republicans, they did not think passing on the virus to their fellow employees, family members and friends and children, and possibly killing them, was as important as what they felt was their own right to not get vaccinated. They want to choose to not get vaccinated even if it meant killing other people who could not get vaccinated because of their health or for whom the vaccine did not work well. Somehow, non-vaxxers can’t hear themselves, I guess, because what they are actually saying is “I will kill you if your genetics has made you susceptible to the virus, and your immune-compromised children, your elderly parents and grandparents, by giving you the virus to make you sick and then pass on, because I don’t want to get vaccinated. Or wear a painless mask that doesn’t hurt but it annoys me.”
The Republicans pointed out vaccination didn’t work for everyone. In their spinning of the science, that made the recommendation of getting vaccinated or getting fired if one doesn’t get vaccinated an evil demand without merit. Many of them would not allow Dr. Fauci to point out the obvious reasons why the vaccine didn’t work for everyone, interrupting his explanations. A few questioners finally allowed him to talk and explain. The main reason is the Covid virus mutates. A Covid vaccine works very well on one variety of Covid. But soon there is another variety of Covid circulating and the vaccine being used doesn’t work on it. So another vaccine has to be created to deal with the new type of Covid virus. Simple, yes? Dr. Fauci pointed out the measles virus does not mutate, so the vaccine one gets for the measles lasts for decades. This is not true with Covid-19 vaccines because the Covid virus in the wild mutates all of the time.
The Republicans didn’t want him to really respond, though, and shouted him down with insults and misdirection.
Another reason the vaccine does not work was the vaccine designed for a specific type of Covid stops working in time, its protective effect of stimulating the body’s immune system working less and less. The science answer to that is booster shots.
I mean, it is what it is. Perhaps in the future the scientists will develop a vaccine which works for decades against all the different mutations of Covid-19, but that day is not here. But, as far as the Republicans are concerned, these unavoidable problems with vaccinating people against Covid with the current manufacturing processes and science discoveries about the virus are a conspiracy against the American people.
Again, can these Republicans hear themselves? They are angry that people are being saved by getting vaccinated? The vaccinated are not killing the immune-compromised and the elderly and others who have weakened immune systems, by passing on the virus to them because they got vaccinated?
Well, the character Kent reminded me a lot of these House Republicans. Grosvener reminded me of poor Dr. Fauci.
If those Youtube videos on that wild so-called hearing to discover facts that was performed by House Republicans doesn’t blow your mind, here is what was recommended by a different United States Congress, along with many other countries around the world faced with a pandemic exactly similar to the one caused by Covid:
”Responses Public health management
Coromandel Hospital Board (New Zealand) advice to influenza sufferers (1918)
In September 1918, the Red Cross recommended two-layer gauze masks to halt the spread of "plague".
1918 Chicago newspaper headlines reflect mitigation strategies such as increased ventilation, arrests for not wearing face masks, sequenced inoculations, limitations on crowd size, selective closing of businesses, curfews, and lockdowns. After October's strict containment measures showed some success, Armistice Day celebrations in November and relaxed attitudes by Thanksgiving caused a resurgence.
While systems for alerting public health authorities of infectious spread did exist in 1918, they did not generally include influenza, leading to a delayed response. Nevertheless, actions were taken. Maritime quarantines were declared on islands such as Iceland, Australia, and American Samoa, saving many lives. Social distancing measures were introduced, for example closing schools, theatres, and places of worship, limiting public transportation, and banning mass gatherings. Wearing face masks became common in some places, such as Japan, though there were debates over their efficacy.[228] There was also some resistance to their use, as exemplified by the Anti-Mask League of San Francisco. Vaccines were also developed, but as these were based on bacteria and not the actual virus, they could only help with secondary infections. The actual enforcement of various restrictions varied. To a large extent, the New York City health commissioner ordered businesses to open and close on staggered shifts to avoid overcrowding on the subways.”
In what is becoming the usual mystery novel style by Benjamin Stevenson, ‘Everyone on this Train is a Suspect’, book two in the Ernest Cunningham seriIn what is becoming the usual mystery novel style by Benjamin Stevenson, ‘Everyone on this Train is a Suspect’, book two in the Ernest Cunningham series, is funny, but readers can only know how funny when the last chapter is being read! The entire book is a parody of mystery tropes and writers of genre fiction, but done is such a fashion as to be not overtly noticeable. The jokes are fast and steady, but not obviously upfront. The plot inevitably leads to an ending where only then is the author’s tongue-in-cheek obvious. In fact, it is stronger than tongue-in-cheek. It is pure tongue-in-cheekiness! I love this Ernest Cunningham, amateur detective/fake mystery writer since his books, as he himself says, are really fictional non-fiction memoirs masquerading as genre mysteries, with the only truly reliable narrator, series!
I have copied the book blurb (copying of which has never been more appropriate, its importance only now being considered by me):
”When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.
The program is a who’s who of crime writing royalty:
the debut writer (me!)
the forensic science writer
the blockbuster writer
the legal thriller writer
the literary writer
the psychological suspense writer
But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.
Of course, we should also know how to commit one.
How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?”
Honestly, whoever wrote the book blurb should get an honorable mention, given the plot of the novel! Movies give credit to the people who drive and cook in the street food-wagon that the actors preferred over the movie cafeteria food in the end credits today. Book blurb writers are sort of a type of ghostwriters, aren’t they?...more
‘Five Survive’ by Holly Jackson is a heart-pounding thrill ride!
I have copied the book blurb because I don’t want to reveal too much myself:
”Goodread‘Five Survive’ by Holly Jackson is a heart-pounding thrill ride!
I have copied the book blurb because I don’t want to reveal too much myself:
”Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Best Young Adult Fiction (2023)
Eight hours. Six friends. Five survive. A road trip turns deadly in this addictive YA thriller from the bestselling author of the worldwide phenomenon A GOOD GIRL'S GUIDE TO MURDER.
Red Kenny is on a road trip for spring break with five friends: Her best friend - the older brother - his perfect girlfriend - a secret crush - a classmate - and a killer.
When their RV breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, they soon realize this is no accident. They have been trapped by someone out there in the dark, someone who clearly wants one of them dead.
With eight hours until dawn, the six friends must escape, or figure out which of them is the target. But is there a liar among them? Buried secrets will be forced to light and tensions inside the RV will reach deadly levels. Not all of them will survive the night. . . .”
I highly recommend this exciting novel! Ok, ok, at the end, after calming down and resting from not being able to put the book down for hours until seeing how it all turns out, readers will notice the coincidences, but never mind. I loved ‘Five Survive’. Shut up. ...more
If Dilbert, the office nerd from the eponymous comic strip, was working for a top-secret English organization (called The Laundry) which specializes iIf Dilbert, the office nerd from the eponymous comic strip, was working for a top-secret English organization (called The Laundry) which specializes in tracking down Lovecraftian critters and Old Gods who are escaping from other dimensions into our own, you’d have the personality and life of main character Bob Howard, narrator of the Laundry Files series. ‘The Fuller Memorandum’ is the third in author’s Charles Stross’ alternate universe science fiction/horror/fantasy series. Howard is a computer geek who has by necessity learned special skills of magic in addition to those of a computer technician. Besides being a whiz at math and computer programming, he now knows a lot of magical spells and the art of dispelling demonic Cthuloid attacks.
Howard is not happy about this, but he doesn’t have a choice in working for The Laundry. In the first book, The Atrocity Archives, he accidentally almost destroyed an entire English city by creating a magical computer algorithm. So. He was given a choice - work for the good guys of The Laundry, or die, or something. Because he activated a portal, he demonstrated he had the talent The Laundry needs. This talent made him dangerous to be loose in the world without any knowledge or training about his skill set. Besides, in the second book, The Jennifer Morgue, he falls in love with another Laundry employee, Dr. Dominique (Mo) O’Brien.
There is an American and a Russian spy department which also deals with the Old Gods and the various magical monsters who invade our universe. Everyone in these national organizations try to play nice together, but, you know, nationalist pride of place in defeating horrific stomach-turning monsters.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Bob Howard is taking a much needed break from the field to catch up on his filing in The Laundry's archives when a top secret dossier known as The Fuller Memorandum vanishes - along with his boss, whom the agency's executives believe stole the file.
Determined to discover exactly what the memorandum contained, Bob runs afoul of Russian agents, ancient demons, and the apostles of a hideous faith, who have plans to raise a very unpleasant undead entity known as the Eater of Souls...”
It's in the book of rules for agents of The Laundry that officers keep a classified journal of their assignments, thus Howard’s narration. This is a good thing, gentler reader. The horrors of Howard’s job, both human- and monster-caused, puts his life in exciting jeopardy every time he must go into the field. Not to mention the awful rules of corporate life which drain the mind of energy because of the time-sucking horrors of required expense and activity reports, and attendance at Human Resource meetings, with which many of us can sympathize. We readers would never know about the terrors going on behind the screen of what we think of as ordinary life, or the bravery of the secret agents of The Laundry otherwise, if not for these books! You go, Bob!...more
‘The Cabinet of Curiosities’ by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, is the third novel in the, to me, bonkers pseudo-science thriller series featuring ‘The Cabinet of Curiosities’ by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, is the third novel in the, to me, bonkers pseudo-science thriller series featuring FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast. I LOVED it! However, I felt it did not reach the usual Mount Everest heights of pulp horror as the previous two novels. The authors appeared to tone down the bloody terror slightly, very slightly, as a sacrifice (sacrifices being something of a go-to plot device for these authors) to their changing their usual over-the-top monster mayhem story for this book. ‘The Cabinet of Curiosities’ fits in more of the usual expected elements of a detective story.
I have copied the book blurb:
”In one of NPR's 100 Best Thrillers Ever, FBI agent Pendergast discovers thirty-six murdered bodies in a New York City charnel house . . . and now, more than a century later, a killer strikes again.
In an ancient tunnel underneath New York City a charnel house is discovered.
Inside are thirty-six bodies--all murdered and mutilated more than a century ago.
While FBI agent Pendergast investigates the old crimes, identical killings start to terrorize the city.
The nightmare has begun.”
The character of Pendergast has been surprisingly more of a supporting one in the previous novels, but not so much in ‘The Cabinet of Curiosities’. Readers finally learn about who he is in this book, and more importantly, why he is so peculiarly knowledgeable about the occult! Hint: it runs in the family.
Readers should begin with book one, Relic. Actually, it isn’t absolutely necessary to begin with ‘Relic’ in keeping up with continuing series developments so far in this particular novel, but the series is really fun! You’ll be missing out on a lot of pure traditional horror silliness which has been elevated into a higher class of pulp novel. One caveat: do not get too attached to any character! Survival is not a given....more
‘The Housemaid’s Secret’ by Freida McFadden is book two in The Housemaid series (start with The Housemaid). And no, these entertaining mysteries are n‘The Housemaid’s Secret’ by Freida McFadden is book two in The Housemaid series (start with The Housemaid). And no, these entertaining mysteries are not about cleaning tips to get food stains out of the carpet!
Wilhelmina (Millie) Calloway is sort of a low-rent vigilante who often gets involved with rescuing wives of abusers. She is currently going to school to become a social worker. To support herself, she works as a housemaid. Millie was in prison, so she has a difficult time finding work because most prospective employers run a background check. In the first book in the series, she had to sleep in her car because she did not have enough money to pay rent. But she is getting work on occasion. However, some of her employers who have been hiring her so far in this series tend to have dark motives in doing so. They hire her because she has a criminal record!
I have copied the book blurb:
”Goodreads Choice AwardWinner for Best Mystery & Thriller (2023)
It's hard to find an employer who doesn't ask too many questions about my past. So I thank my lucky stars that the Garricks miraculously give me a job, cleaning their stunning penthouse with views across the city and preparing fancy meals in their shiny kitchen. I can work here for a while, stay quiet until I get what I want.
It's almost perfect. But I still haven't met Mrs Garrick, or seen inside the guest bedroom. I'm sure I hear her crying. I notice spots of blood around the neck of her white nightgowns when I'm doing laundry. And one day I can't help but knock on the door. When it gently swings open, what I see inside changes everything....
That's when I make a promise. After all, I've done this before. I can protect Mrs. Garrick while keeping my own secrets locked up safe.
Douglas Garrick has done wrong. He is going to pay. It's simply a question of how far I'm willing to go....
These books have twists I never see coming! The novels are not Great Literature, but they are great fun!...more
‘Primeval’ by Eldon Farrell and Connor Farrell is a fun science fiction thriller similar to the kind of novels Michael Crichton is famous for writing.‘Primeval’ by Eldon Farrell and Connor Farrell is a fun science fiction thriller similar to the kind of novels Michael Crichton is famous for writing. A corporation, Perception Films, more interested in profits than safety, crosses its fingers that the safety protocols it has in place will work while the company and its stockholders make money from dangerous new technologies. ‘Primeval’ is a virtual-reality game show, a programmed world similar to Crichton’s Jurassic Park. It is televised to entertain viewers. The dinosaurs are programmed characters as are the prehistoric environments they and other critters eat, fight, and live in. Ten real-world contestants who are accepted as Primeval game players have their brains hooked up to computers while their bodies sleep inside pods. Their avatars struggle to stay alive while traveling in the VR environment while they compete to reach ‘home’ for a prize. If they ‘die’, they are immediately pulled out of the VR world and regain consciousness inside their real bodies in the pods. At least, that is what is supposed to happen…
I copied the book blurb:
”They’ve always played for fame and fortune. Now they play to survive.
A chosen few are selected each year to have their minds uploaded into a virtual world filled with adventure. In Primeval, they’ll pit their skills against each other, facing off against savage prehistoric creatures in an unforgiving environment, to see who will be crowned victorious.
Cary Glaser may be new to the game, but she has no interest in winning, or the celebrity status it entails. She wants answers. When last season ended in tragedy, her best friend Tara didn’t regain consciousness. Despite the official story, Cary believes Tara’s still inside Primeval, and she’ll stop at nothing to find her.
But what she doesn’t know could get her killed. Because when you die in the game this season—it’s for real.
Fans of Ready Player One and Jurassic Park will love this standalone adventure.”
While the premise is a familiar one, the writing is excellent! Once started, the novel’s thrills and chills as well as the confrontations with various dinosaurs are a delight! Well, it is a delight as long as you don’t mind various characters being eaten alive…
Thank you, Graeme Rodaughan, for the recommendation!...more
Guess what, gentler readers? Some in the Republican Party have banned dictionaries from many schools! Dictionaries! Yikes.
” Dictionaries were removed Guess what, gentler readers? Some in the Republican Party have banned dictionaries from many schools! Dictionaries! Yikes.
” Dictionaries were removed from library shelves in a Florida school district last year as part of an investigation of more than 1,600 titles for mentions of “sexual conduct” that could violate a 2023 state law.
Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus for Students, Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary, the American Heritage Children’s Dictionary and other titles were pulled from schools in Escambia County, Fla., where officials are reviewing books for compliance with the law’s prohibition on materials with “sexual” content.
Also investigated were the World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places, the World Almanac and Book of Facts, and other reference books on topics including science, mythology and the Bible, according to a list published by the school district and circulated this week by PEN America, a free speech group that has sued the school board over the removals.
The review of the dictionaries is a small piece of the larger book ban uproar in Escambia. The district, home to more than 50 schools in the panhandle, began pulling books for review after Florida in May passed H.B. 1069, which also prohibits instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity for 8th grade and below.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his allies hailed the law as expanding “parental rights in education,” and have claimed that “pornographic and inappropriate” materials were being placed in schools. -Washington Post
The Republican Party officially wants American children to grow up without knowing or how to spell proper English and maybe, how to read....more
‘A Line in the Sand’ by Kevin Powers left me bedazzled and shocked! It is a fast-moving and convoluted detective mystery with a lot of moving pieces. ‘A Line in the Sand’ by Kevin Powers left me bedazzled and shocked! It is a fast-moving and convoluted detective mystery with a lot of moving pieces. I loved it!
I copied the book blurb because it is accurate:
”In this “spellbinding and totally original thriller” (Philipp Meyer, author of The Son ) a lonely veteran’s gruesome discovery throws him right into the face of danger as a twisted investigation unravels the secrets of his dark past.
One early morning on a Norfolk beach in Virginia, a dead body is discovered by a man taking his daily swim—Arman Bajalan, formerly an interpreter in Iraq. After narrowly surviving an assassination attempt that killed his wife and child, Arman has been given lonely sanctuary in the US as a maintenance worker at the Sea Breeze Motel. Now, convinced that the body is connected to his past, he knows he is still not safe.
Seasoned detective Catherine Wheel and her newly minted partner have little to go on beyond a bus ticket in the dead man’s pocket. It leads them to Sally Ewell, a local journalist as grief-stricken as Arman is by the Iraq War, who is investigating a corporation on the cusp of landing a multi-billion-dollar government defense contract.
As victims mount around Arman, taking the team down wrong turns and towards startling evidence, they find themselves in a race, committed to unraveling the truth and keeping Arman alive—even if it costs them absolutely everything.
I think the inspiration for this novel is a real-life incident that occurred in Iraq during the occupation of American forces, although the author has changed most of the details of the incident.
(view spoiler)[Because Republicans were in power in the American White House and Congress during this Iraq war and occupation, a lot of off-the-book mercenaries and private black-ops military firms were paid by the American government to act in Iraq with official status as if they were regular American government soldiers rather than employees of companies with stockholders and a presence in the Wall Street stockmarket. There has been an occasional eyebrow raised because some government employees who were responsible for selecting what mercenary organization would be given a contract to work for the American government in foreign dustups were later hired by the mercenary group whose contract had been approved by that particular so-called servant of the people. Worse, third-party mercenaries hired to do a military policing job meant in practice less oversight and vetting of personnel by American officials. The government depended on the mercenary company’s assurances they and their employees would meet the high-bar of American government practices, rules and regulations of military conduct.
Right? Right?
I have copied a link to the Geneva Convention Rules of War:
I LOVED this novel! I thought it a terrific story, engrossing and thrilling. I could not put it down, often reading until the wee hours of the night! I highly recommend it....more
‘Quite Ugly One Morning’ by Christopher Brookmyre is an unexpectedly good book, one of an 8-book mystery series for me that I didn’t know existed! I h‘Quite Ugly One Morning’ by Christopher Brookmyre is an unexpectedly good book, one of an 8-book mystery series for me that I didn’t know existed! I have never heard of the author’s main character or this series, the intrepid investigative journalist Jack Parlabane, before. I hope to continue with the series.
Parlabane is not a shining example of being Good, though. He drinks a lot, and breaks into buildings and computer systems surreptitiously in order to investigate bad guys. He pushes buttons. Forthright and upstanding he is not. However, it is all about chasing down corporate and political misbehaviors that hurt regular folks, most without any ‘juice’ or knowledge about how they’ve been screwed to fight back.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Quite Ugly One Morning is the book that made Christopher Brookmyre a star in his native Britain, establishing his distinctive, scabrously humorous style and breakneck, hell-for-leather narrative pacing. The novel that won the inaugural First Blood Award for the best debut crime novel in the United Kingdom is now available in America for the first time, and comic crime writing on this side of the Atlantic may never be the same.
Quite Ugly One Morning introduces Brookmyre's signature protagonist, the hard-partying, wisecracking investigative journalist Jack Parlabane, who is not afraid to bend the laws of the land (or even the laws of gravity) to get to the truth. Parlabane is nursing a horrific hangover when he stumbles across the corpse of the scion of a wealthy Edinburgh medical family. Determined to get to the bottom of the murder himself, he quickly becomes enmeshed in a wild adventure that will take him through all the strata of Edinburgh society and into some dangerous (and hysterical) situations.
Laced with acerbic wit and crackling dialogue, Quite Ugly One Morning is a wickedly entertaining and vivacious thriller.”
One of the characters in the novel has a lot of sideways graphically violent stuff happen to him that had me ROTF! Plus, there are some, I assume, Scottish, or British (?) slang terms that caused me huge belly laughs despite that I realized I shouldn’t have been amused because of the obvious disrespectful tone of the slang. I guess I love satire and amusing wit more than maintaining a sense of refined sensitivity.
The story involves a private hospital that is losing money because of elderly people who need 24/7 care taking up bed space for months, if not years, because they are too sick to go to somewhere else. The author has the ‘hero’ characters speak more frankly than American readers may be ready for:
””Crumbles never die. I told you that.They last forever, unturfable, permanent fixtures. Now and again, one of them is bound to cack it eventually.””
””These weren’t lovable old grannies, either. George Romero’s [the hospital] full of the living dead, remember? Bewildered shells, bereft of all the things that usually let us identify with another human being. The only distinguishing characteristic of each one would be their phrase, their shriek. “Take me out, take me out, take me out!” “Come down from there, come down from there, come down from there.” “Ming-a-dring, ming-a-dring, ming-a-dring” Most of the language is gone, just some fragment somehow remaining, and that’s what they’ll scream when they’re scared or need some attention, what they’ll shout when they’re angry or when they’re happy, and what they’ll just mutter for no apparent reason at all.””
“Relatives - if they have any - seldom or never visit. Christ, who’s going to come in for that? “How’s it going, Uncle Bill?” “Ming-a-dring.” “Nice day for it, eh?” “Ming-a-dring.” “I see Hearts won on Saturday.” “Ming-a-dring.” Seeing the person they once knew reduced to a living corpse that doesn’t even know they’re there, and may not even know he or she’s there - who wants to put themselves through that?”
Although the above is totally truth, it is not often one sees what might be thoughts one keeps to oneself said out loud, right? Nonetheless, I admit I was not politically correct in my amusement in reading this, and other bits in the book, some of which had me guffawing. However, I may be misleading you, gentle reader, in thinking this novel a satire. It is more of murder mystery with humorous overtones, and the subject matter is involving serious current events.
When I was young, I can remember speaking in silly disrespectful terminology about serious things that mattered to me to my closest friends. This novel brought a lot of that back to my mind, which is probably why I laughed when I should have been full of disapproval. Well. Now you know who I am, gentler reader. I plan on using the slang “crumbles” and “cacked it” at some point when I can. I live in a senior park, after all…....more
‘Silver Nitrate’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a fun and wild trip! Eventually, anyway. The author not only writes well, her characters and the story are‘Silver Nitrate’ by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is a fun and wild trip! Eventually, anyway. The author not only writes well, her characters and the story are engaging and interesting. That is a good thing, because the occult mayhem doesn’t really start until the last third of the novel. But while the book held my attention, it is truly a story that is more about the process of revealing a mystery than it was about building thrills or a sense of horror until near the end.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Best Horror (2023)
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Daughter of Doctor Moreau and Mexican Gothic comes a fabulous meld of Mexican horror movies and Nazi occultism: a dark thriller about the curse that haunts a legendary lost film--and awakens one woman's hidden powers.
Montserrat has always been overlooked. She’s a talented sound editor, but she’s left out of the boys’ club running the film industry in ’90s Mexico City. And she’s all but invisible to her best friend, Tristán, a charming if faded soap opera star, though she’s been in love with him since childhood.
Then Tristán discovers his new neighbor is the cult horror director Abel Urueta, and the legendary auteur claims he can change their lives—even if his tale of a Nazi occultist imbuing magic into highly volatile silver nitrate stock sounds like sheer fantasy. The magic film was never finished, which is why, Urueta swears, his career vanished overnight. He is cursed.
Now the director wants Montserrat and Tristán to help him shoot the missing scene and lift the curse . . . but Montserrat soon notices a dark presence following her, and Tristán begins seeing the ghost of his ex-girlfriend.
As they work together to unravel the mystery of the film and the obscure occultist who once roamed their city, Montserrat and Tristán may find that sorcerers and magic are not only the stuff of movies.”
‘Silver Nitrate’ takes such a very long time to begin the creepy paranormal activity that I began to think this book was like the ghost-hunter TV shows where there is nothing spooky found but a rotting house falling apart at the end of the show, or like the “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You” cartoon where it always was a criminal pretending to be a ghost or monster, unmasked by the final scene. It is very good read nonetheless.
I have to admit I am surprised this novel was a Goodreads nominee for Best Horror! I think the horrors of Mexican Gothic by the same author truly reach the top levels of scary and horror! However, I enjoyed reading ‘Silver Nitrate’! I knew silver was an original component of early films, but I never made the connection between the magic of watching moving pictures “come to life again [on the screen] like flowers in water” and the usual trope of silver being a magical mineral in many critter myths such as the werewolf, or in many tales about silver-wearing or silver-avoiding sorcerers and other beings welding magical powers.
‘The Jump’ by Brittney Morris is an intense and exciting thriller for teens and for those readers interested in how some scavenger games (very very po‘The Jump’ by Brittney Morris is an intense and exciting thriller for teens and for those readers interested in how some scavenger games (very very popular in some circles, especially those whose members are young and/or in college) are being played in the 21st century.
I’ve copied the book blurb:
”From the acclaimed author of SLAY and The Cost of Knowing comes an action-driven, high-octane novel about a group of working-class teens in Seattle who join a dangerous scavenger hunt with a prize that can save their families and community.
Influence is power. Power creates change. And change is exactly what Team Jericho needs.
Jax, Yas, Spider, and Han are the four cornerstones of Team Jericho, the best scavenger hunting team in all of Seattle. Each has their own specialty: Jax, the puzzler; Yas, the parkourist; Spider, the hacker; and Han, the cartographer. But now with an oil refinery being built right in their backyard, each also has their own problems. Their families are at risk of losing their jobs, their communities, and their homes.
So when The Order, a mysterious vigilante organization, hijacks the scavenger hunting forum and concocts a puzzle of its own, promising a reward of influence, Team Jericho sees it as the chance of a lifetime. If they win this game, they could change their families’ fates and save the city they love so much. But with an opposing team hot on their heels, it’s going to take more than street smarts to outwit their rivals.”
The book blurb is accurate, and from reading magazine articles about how scavenger hunts are being played currently by today’s aficionados, so is the description of the clue/hunt game that the main characters love to do. The only thing I thought was missing in the novel’s fictional scavenger hunt was there are no gps coordinates that are utilized as they are in today’s real-life adult scavenger hunts. Instead, a working knowledge of a map of Seattle and the surrounding cities is the information most necessary to win.
One more thing. I suspect conservative right-wingers generally will not like this book for their kids. At all. Unless they are right-wing libertarians (view spoiler)[ who might agree with the author’s take on how police authority might work (hide spoiler)]. This story represents a politically liberal (and accurate, imho, except for perhaps a slight exaggeration in one plot point) point of view. I was born and lived most of my life in Seattle, and the police have been in trouble with the US Department of Justice several times https://youtu.be/pFRtEouh-OU?si=kp3HA.... If the book isn’t on the Christian/white-supremacists list for YA books to be burned/banned, I suspect it will be.
‘Point of Origin’ by Patricia Cornwall, #9 in the Kay Scarpetta series, finds our heroine, genius medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, feeling nervous and ‘Point of Origin’ by Patricia Cornwall, #9 in the Kay Scarpetta series, finds our heroine, genius medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, feeling nervous and angry. Because of previous events in the other mystery novels in the series, her life is teetering on the edge of emotional chaos. She is still looking over her shoulder, traumatized by her close encounters with a pair of serial killers! One is dead, the other confined to a psychiatric facility. But it isn’t over, gentler reader….
However, another case has come up!
I have copied the book blurb:
”A farmhouse destroyed by fire. A body amongst the ruins. Dr Kay Scarpetta, Chief Medical Examiner and consulting pathologist for the federal law enforcement agency ATF, is called out to a farmhouse in Virginia which has been destroyed by fire. In the ruins of the house she finds a body which tells a story of a violent and grisly murder. The fire has come at the same time as another, even more incendiary horror: Carrie Grethen, a killer who nearly destroyed the lives of Scarpetta and those closest to her, has escaped from a forensic psychiatric hospital. Her whereabouts is unknown, but her ultimate destination is not, for Carrie has begun to communicate with Scarpetta, conveying her deadly - if cryptic - plans for revenge. Chillingly mesmeric in tone, labyrinthine in structure, POINT OF ORIGIN is Patricia Cornwell at her most dazzling.
Expect the usual graphic violence and investigative science, gentler reader. The book is not really standalone, either. Start here: Postmortem....more
‘The Devil’s Playground’ is my first time reading a Craig Russell novel, but it won’t be the last! This one is an atmospheric gothic novel which has f‘The Devil’s Playground’ is my first time reading a Craig Russell novel, but it won’t be the last! This one is an atmospheric gothic novel which has flashbacks to 1893 bayou Louisiana and 1897 Kansas, as well as skips forward in time to 1967, but the action primarily takes place in 1927 Hollywood.
I have copied the book blurb:
”A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist. This is the breakout from Craig Russell, author of The Devil Aspect.
1927: Mary Rourke—a Hollywood studio fixer—is called urgently to the palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in American silent film. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone is openly talking about…a terrifying horror picture called The Devil’s Playground that is rumored to have unleashed a curse on everyone involved in the production. Mary finds Norma’s cold, dead body, and she wonders for just a moment if these dark rumors could be true.
1967: Paul Conway, a journalist and self-professed film aficionado, is on the trail of a tantalizing rumor. He has heard that a single copy of The Devil’s Playground—a Holy Grail for film buffs—may exist. He knows his Hollywood history and he knows the film endured myriad tragedies and ended up lost to time.
The Devil's Playground is Craig Russell’s tour de force, a richly researched and constructed thriller that weaves through the Golden Age of Hollywood and reveals a blossoming industry built on secrets, invented identities, and a desperate pursuit of image. As Mary Rourke charges headlong through the egos, distractions, and traps that threaten to take her down with the doomed production, she discovers a truth far more sinister than she—or we—would imagine. This is Craig Russell’s strongest novel to date, and one that will resonate with American readers.”
The book blurb is very accurate! There isn’t much graphic violence but there are a lot of mysterious horrors nonetheless (even if much of it is indirectly suggested)! If it wasn’t for the murders, sensitive readers, the book would be a pleasure to read because of the writing! In any case, the writing is exceptional, near literary quality, rich with atmosphere. In addition, it accurately captures the more historical gothic rumors which titillated urban Americans of the era which were particularly commercialized in gothic silent movies in pre-Hays Code Hollywood. This is a fun beach read!...more
‘A Twisted Love Story’ by Samantha Downing would make a fantastic Lifetime Channel movie! It is an absurd Romance dramedy. I was reminded of some off-‘A Twisted Love Story’ by Samantha Downing would make a fantastic Lifetime Channel movie! It is an absurd Romance dramedy. I was reminded of some off-kilter black comedies made by the Coen Brothers, particularly ‘Fargo’, but ‘A Twisted Love Story’ doesn’t have the bloody gore or the over-the-top absurdity of a Coen film. Every character makes decisions which are slightly bent because of some kind of attraction they have for certain people, which leads to every character trying to contain the damage from the fallout of their attraction. It is a book full of eccentric Agatha Christie suspects, all playing off of each other, trapped by circumstances beyond their control because of romantic affiliations or illusions. Like dominoes, one bad decision or accident starts sh*t rolling downhill into inevitable coverups, lies and disaster. However, Downing doesn’t really go outside the lines into true absurdity. Sigh. I wish she had. This could have been a truly hilarious dramedy instead of merely a mild-sauce chic-lit thriller.
I copied the book blurb:
”From the bestselling author of My Lovely Wife comes a reckless, delicious thriller about a young couple that gives a whole new meaning to the dangers of modern dating.
Wes and Ivy are madly in love. They've never felt anything like it. It's the kind of romance people write stories about.
But what kind of story?
Because when it's good, it's great. Flowers. Grand gestures. Deep meaningful conversations where the whole world disappears.
But their vicious cycle of catastrophic breakups and head-over-heels reconnections needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy--and she's a detective.
There's something Wes and Ivy never talk about--in good times or bad. The night of their worst breakup, when one of them took things too far, and someone ended up dead.
If they can stick together, they can survive anything--even the tightening net of a police investigation.
Because one more breakup might just be their last…”
If, gentle reader, a fun relationships-going-off-the-rails somewhat dangerously sounds perfect to you, if you are actually in a relationship that irritates your friends or need a cathartic, mildly darkish, chic-lit read, this is it! I think fans of the “Seinfeld” tv show, but who also have a taste for black comedy twists of murder without too much bloodshed included in the story, will enjoy the book. However, although Wes and Ivy’s romance is supposed to be volcanic, and it is the spinning center around which the book’s various plots circle, I don’t think the author really permits the volcanic nature of the main characters’ relationship to be center stage. I was disappointed ultimately after finishing the novel....more
‘The Lightening Thief’ by Rick Riordan is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which consists of 6 books at the moment. Appar‘The Lightening Thief’ by Rick Riordan is the first book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which consists of 6 books at the moment. Apparently, there will be a seventh novel in 2024. I think the fact the book is a bestseller, and that it has a special, more expensive, art edition in addition to the regular paperback, speaks to its popularity.
Reviews on Goodreads are mixed. It seems to me that the intended audience is middle-school kids, which may be why reviews are all over the map. I believe if I had read this when I was twelve years old, I would have demanded that I get the entire series! I thought it a fun adventure and an interesting, if very young teen, modern reboot of the Greek myths. The Ancient Greek gods and goddesses are real! And some are living in Manhattan….
There also is a bit of what has become common in young teen novels, those annoying (to me) teaching moments that emphasize by just being yourself you might find you have surprising talents or strengths. However, I believe the exciting adventures of Perseus (Percy) Jackson will overwhelm any underlying or overt messages. I’m not sure if any knowledge of the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses is necessary, but I suspect yes. I also don’t know if some Harry Potter fans will be able to make the adjustment from that dark fantasy series to the Ancient Greek myths that the adventures of Percy Jackson are based on.
Twelve-year-old Percy is a demigod, but a young undeveloped one. He has powers which are appropriate to the Ancient Greek gods and goddesses and critters of Olympus. However, his human mom is currently married to a human, Percy’s stepfather. As a result of growing up with his awful stepfather and abused mother, Percy has daddy issues. His real father is the god Poseidon. But unfortunately, Percy’s mom never told him about Poseidon, or the fact Percy is a demigod, or that sooner or later Percy’s other magical Olympus relatives would come looking for him, and that some of them would hate him. Ancient gods and goddesses have a lot of ancient feuds, grudges and jealousies which have been going on for millennia!
Percy needs demigod training which he hasn’t been getting in an ordinary human middle school. After all, he wasn’t even aware he is a demigod - until the Furies show up trying to kill him….
I have copied the book blurb:
”Percy Jackson is a good kid, but he can't seem to focus on his schoolwork or control his temper. And lately, being away at boarding school is only getting worse - Percy could have sworn his pre-algebra teacher turned into a monster and tried to kill him.
When Percy's mom finds out, she knows it's time that he knew the truth about where he came from, and that he go to the one place he'll be safe. She sends Percy to Camp Half Blood, a summer camp for demigods (on Long Island), where he learns that the father he never knew is Poseidon, God of the Sea.
Soon a mystery unfolds and together with his friends—one a satyr and the other the demigod daughter of Athena - Percy sets out on a quest across the United States to reach the gates of the Underworld (located in a recording studio in Hollywood) and prevent a catastrophic war between the gods.”
I liked the book and I think I will be continuing with the series, eventually. I need something to counter the usual dark horrific murder mysteries and adult literary masterpieces full of sad multidimensional commentary about real life I usually indulge in....more
Book one in The Poppy War trilogy, ‘The Poppy War’, is an almost literary historical fantasy covering a lot of the same themes as what were in Moby-DiBook one in The Poppy War trilogy, ‘The Poppy War’, is an almost literary historical fantasy covering a lot of the same themes as what were in Moby-Dick or, The Whale!
Yes, gentle reader, I said ‘Moby Dick’. Don’t let the author’s use of 21st-century idioms in all of the characters’ dialogues throw you off. I thought this fantasy novel is masquerading as typical Young Adult fantasy fiction only at the surface. It really is high-end historical literature which is taking on the task of encouraging some deep thinking about social issues.
‘The Poppy War’ is on the surface a book about the life of young war orphan Fang Runin, ‘Rin’, who climbs up out of poverty and the lower classes and gender expectations by becoming a warrior. Her foster family, shopkeepers who are also illegally selling opium on the side, raise her as an unwanted child, putting her to work as a hired servant. Eventually, the family intends to sell Rin when she is fifteen years old as a wife to a husband. But Rin is determined to change her aunt’s plans to marry her off to some elderly man for sex and cleaning house, perhaps nursing him in his old age. She plans to educate herself and gain social capital by earning a scholarship to an elite military college, Sinegard, primarily because it is the only college in the country that is free to those who pass a tough entrance exam called the Keju. She begins studying under a tutor, Feyrick, when she is thirteen years old. She is driven by rage because of mistreatment as much as by ambition.
Used as the guide for the scripted action in the novel, which is set in a magical ancient world of gods and shamans, sword and martial arts warriors, Emperors and Empresses, is the real-world twentieth-century war between Japan and China, as well as some of the real-world colonialism imposed on China by European and American nations. The author has renamed all of the real-world places where the war actually occurred in China, Japan and Taiwan. She set the time that the actual war happened back a thousand years. Instead of the anonymity of killing with guns and bullets and tanks and airplanes which actually happened, the author’s fictional warriors fight up close, mano a mano, in hand-to-hand combat with swords and martial arts. To me, the death and destruction of war is awful no matter with what technology it is being fought with, but there is without question heightened drama in a fight to the death between two, and only two, combatants.
I have copied the book blurb:
”Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Best Fantasy (2018), Nominee for Best Debut Author (2018)
An epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic.
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.
But surprises aren’t always good.
Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.
For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .
Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.”
‘The Poppy War’ is definitely an epic historical fantasy, an operatic drama of social competition and warfare, graphic mass killing, friendships and betrayals, lust for power, cultural shaping of one’s personality and understanding of how the world works, and how social constructs (taught and instinctual) determine unjust prejudices and what is a hero. I think the author has also quietly slipped in themes about patriotism and how it is created (and expected), too.
I was struck by how Rin was expected to, and was trained up to, having loyalties and social behaviors in accepted patriotic and social class pathways, and to never ever express her rage at (or even feel vengeful) or act against those countrymen who have unjustly oppressed her. Despite how China’s upper classes, aka the Nikara Empire, maintain artificial social walls by controlling access to education and wealth, (view spoiler)[ and who had destroyed her birth family and ethnic culture by setting them up for the invasion of Japan, aka the Federation of Mugen (hide spoiler)], she is required to emotionally adore and support the Nikara empire. Despite that as a female she is barely acknowledged as a person of value in the culture of her adopted country, she is expected to feel a patriotism for that country which would prefer to make of her an uncomplaining slave and baby producer to a husband and force a proscribed life on her that is not of her choosing. Rin destroys her womb by using a drug, believing the having of a womb will define her and thus hold her back in her ambitions. Even her best friend advises her to accept her adopted country as is whatever its failings and its maintenance of the horrible social prejudices against her and other cultures (even attempted genocide by the country’s rulers), to choose turning the other cheek, to choose saving lives no matter what the provocation over revenge and hate. Easy to say, especially if one has never felt the physical beatings, the unjust social redlining restrictions, the lack of access to education and opportunities to better oneself, and social rejections of those who think they are superior to you because of your gender or race or skin color or speech accents. Yet any perceived lack of patriotism and obedience from the oppressed classes of any country causes deep outrage and more overt and supposed justification for social ostracism and punishments from all the artificially created classes in any country.
Just saying. Right? Right?
It seems to me the author shows Rin undergoing several intellectual evolutions in regards to her views on spirituality, heroes, class prejudices and political awareness as the book progresses. At first, she is a naive sixteen year old, only wanting to advance herself socially. She is seeking a way to have autonomy and social acceptance and she thinks that can happen through education and military service. By the time she is fighting a war as a soldier she is a young adult, a fully trained martial arts fighter who has learned quite a bit about how the elite classes maintain their artificial social superiority over others. Education was not the stepping stone to the prosperity she hoped for because in the eyes of quite a few elite members her skin color and accent continue to deter full acceptance of her participation in upper society. Also, scholars, mentors and leaders are not the cohesive group of wisdom she expected. However seeing the horrors of war resets a number of her priorities and ambitions.
Some reviewers thought a few of Rin’s experiences were written in a ham-handed and overly graphic fashion, especially the scenes of war and genocide, and rape. I got the feeling some of these reviewers somehow wanted the author to present military actions in warfare with genteel discretion and offscreen violence. I am personally uncertain as to how such a genteel performance of writing can be accomplished in a novel of which one of the points in writing the book is expressing how violent and terrible war is. There were some who were shocked at the “adult” nature of the story, having been “led to believe this book is a YA read.” I am very confused by this comment, which appears to show some definition of YA reads I am not familiar with - some of the books with the most graphic violence I’ve read in the last decade have been designated and accepted as YA, and they have also sometimes been intelligent and almost of literary quality the same as ‘The Poppy War’.
I intend to read the next two books in this series! I loved it....more
'Stars Uncharted' by S.K.Dunstall is an exciting action movie disguised as a novel! The characters, as well as the world building, are wondrous and fe'Stars Uncharted' by S.K.Dunstall is an exciting action movie disguised as a novel! The characters, as well as the world building, are wondrous and feisty, full of vigor and energy! This science fiction novel is fun to read! I think Netflix or Amazon Video should try to bring it to the screen. But it does take the concept of body modding to a new level which might be expensive to visually produce. Plus, the protagonists are constantly running from the bad guys, fleeing from one impossible locked-room trap after another, bad guy after bad guy, outgunned and outmaneuvered, seemingly doomed!
I have copied the book blurb below:
”A ragtag band of explorers are looking to make the biggest score in the galaxy in the brand-new science fiction adventure novel from the national bestselling author of Linesman.
Three people who are not who they claim to be:
Nika Rik Terri, body modder extraordinaire, has devoted her life to redesigning people's bodies right down to the molecular level. Give her a living body and a genemod machine, and she will turn out a work of art.
Josune Arriola is crew on the famous explorer ship the Hassim, whose memory banks contain records of unexplored worlds worth a fortune. But Josune and the rest of the crew are united in their single-minded pursuit of the most famous lost planet of all.
Hammond Roystan, the captain of the rival explorer ship, The Road, has many secrets. Some believe one of them is the key to finding the lost world.
Josune's captain sends her to infiltrate Roystan's ship, promising to follow. But when the Hassim exits nullspace close to Roystan's ship, it's out of control, the crew are dead, and unknown Company operatives are trying to take over. Narrowly escaping and wounded, Roystan and Josune come to Nika for treatment--and with problems of her own, she flees with them after the next Company attack.
Now they're in a race to find the lost world...and stay alive long enough to claim the biggest prize in the galaxy.”
While I enjoyed the world building most of all, the characters might feel a little a bit as if ordered from a catalog of action figures George Lucas put together. Most are ordinary rascals who find themselves pushed into doing extraordinary things to survive, or are entrepreneurs whose lives are upended by thugs who are looking to extort money from folks normally less violent than themselves. But the author keeps the pot boiling chapter after chapter!
The book can be read as a standalone, but it is obviously an introductory novel to a longer story. Issues are unresolved by the last chapter. Some of the characters have become a ship’s crew. They are people who started off not knowing each other but circumstances have brought them together. I want to know what happens next! I guess I’ll have to check out Stars Beyond, the next book!...more
aPriL does feral sometimes
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Books:
cheap-thrills-but-i-loved-it
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