Tuesday, April 20, 2010

An Okay Cross Thriller


Double Cross
By: James Patterson
Little Brown 2007

Psychiatrist and former FBI Alex Cross has settled into a quiet and comfortable private practice. That is until his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, is assigned to a case that brings Cross back into the game. The killer using the general populace as an audience for his heinous murders and wanting to get the famous Alex Cross’ attention.
After 13 Alex Cross thrillers it does become difficult to keep coming up with new and interesting psychopathic killers. What keeps me coming back for more is Alex Cross himself. I am interested to see what will threaten him next. However; while I do still enjoy the Alex Cross series of books above all other Patterson novels, when I look back on the earlier Alex Cross novels, I know that there is no comparison in the quality of the stories. For fans of James Patterson and the Alex Cross series, you will probably read this book regardless, but otherwise I don’t think there is anything really amazing or different to keep the average reader enthralled.

             Story                    **
             Characters           ***
             Readability           ***
             Overall Rating      ***

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Not Rice's Best


Blood Canticle
By: Anne Rice
Knopf 2003

Anne Rice continues her Vampire Chronicles once again narrated by her long suffering vampire Lestat.  Along with Quinn Blackwood, Mona and Rowan Mayfair, and Rowan’s husband Michael Curry, Lestat sets out to uncover the mystery of the Taltos. I thought this book was somewhat a departure of what I love about Anne Rice’s novels.  The story is a little scattered and, in my opinion, not nearly as interesting or engaging as her previous books in the Vampire Chronicles. One thing in particular struck me as I was reading. In recent books Lestat has been searching for redemption and purification from being a vampire. Now Rice’s books have always had a religious undertone, her characters have always sought justification and understanding for what they are.  In earlier novels they have almost scoffed at religion, firmly believing that there is no God and that’s it. This definitely mirrors Rice’s own search for religious belief.  Lestat is one of Rice’s alter egos. And like Rice in recent years, Lestat in Blood Canticle has come around, had a reawakening to religion. I found that this made Lestat soft, no longer is he as evil and menacing as we like him.


           Story                 *
          Characters         **
          Readability         ***
          Overall Rating    **


www.annerice.com

Not the Best of Buffy


Blood and Fog
By: Nancy Holder
Simon Pulse 2003

When Sunnydale is blanketed in a mysterious fog, Buffy enlists the help of Spike to help her unravel the mystery of a demon, who Spike later discovers to be Jack the Ripper.  Spike encountered him before with Drusilla, Angelus and Darla in Victorian London, and knows the magiks he evokes from the Celtic Faery to attain his power.

In Blood and Fog we are once again transported back to the 1880’s when Spike and Angelus were causing havoc on the streets of London.  Since this book takes place during the sixth season of Buffy when Spike has an alliance with Buffy and the Scoobies, it is nice to be able to go back and remember what he is really like.  I always enjoy when we can see that. 
The story of Jack the Ripper initially sounded very interesting to me, but I didn’t like what Holder did with it.  Historically not that much is known about JTR, other than who his victims were.  There are a lot of theories as to who he was, but it is essentially unknown who he really was.  This leaves a lot of room for interpretation.  Holder makes JTR a mangled monster, a devotee of an ancient dark Celtic following called the Faery.  Of course Buffy can’t kill a human, so it was necessary to make his a demon of sorts.  But I still didn’t like this route.  I think it would have been better if Jack had of been, not the killer or demon himself but the one pulling the strings, conjuring a demon to do his bidding.  Not my favourite Buffy based story.

                Story              *
                Characters      ***
                Readability      **
                Overall rating   **

Not as Good as I Was Expecting


Before Green Gables
By: Budge Wilson
Penguin Canada 2008

A prequel to Anne of Green Gables, Before Green Gables tells the story of Anne Shirley before she arrived at Green Gables.  Born in Nova Scotia, Anne is orphaned as a baby, and then spends her young life moving from one foster home to another, escaping the reality of her life through her vivid imagination and her untameable spirit.
Trying to create a prequel to a classic Canadian novel like Anne of Green Gables and trying to re-imagine one of the best loved Characters in Canadian literature is no easy feat.  Budge Wilson gives a nice try, but I just think it’s too hard to re-create that character, due to the fondness we have for her.  Even though Anne is a very imaginative upbeat and intelligent little girl in the original story, I found in this novel that Wilson made her a little too eager and a little too intelligent for her age.  The story wasn’t that creatively written. The way Wilson makes a lot of everyday events a large portion of the book kind of drags the story out and makes it too padded down, like when Anne is walking to school or going to get eggs from the local “Egg Man”. 
I guess I’m just a purest; I like to think of Anne as I have known her my whole life.  However I did like the way the end of the book ties nicely with the beginning of the original story.  I suggest to read the original saga of Anne and imagine for yourself what Anne’s life was like before.

Story               *
Characters       **
Readability       **
Overall rating   **

Discovering Charlotte Bronte


Becoming Jane Eyre
By: Sheila Kohler
Penguin 2009

Artfully written and beautifully imagined, Becoming Jane Eyre is a mastering novel and a look inside the life of author Charlotte Bronte.
While she is at her father’s bedside, Bronte shares the story of her life and the writing of her masterpiece Jane Eyre and interweaves both narratives. Charlotte recounts her years as a student in Belgium, then a teacher and her affair with the married school master, then her years as a lonely governess for a wealthy family.
 This novel really exhibits what it was like for female authors in the 19th century as Charlotte and her sisters, Emily and Anne, struggle to get their novels published in a male dominated society.  
If you have read Jane Eyre or any of the Bronte sister’s novels, you will see how much the sisters drew from their own life and experiences that informed much of their writing. In fact, you can really see how similar Jane Eyre is to Charlotte. Throughout  we see the many inspirations for the construction of some of literatures finest and most profound novels by the Bronte sisters including; Wuthering Heights by Emily, The Tennant of Wildfell Hall by Anne and Shirley one of Charlotte’s other masterpieces, the two latter titles being some of my favorite novels.
It really seems as if the three sisters had a lonely solitary life and I can somewhat identify with that. That is one of the things that drew me to Jane Eyre, which remains to this day to be my favorite novel. The sisters were really familiar with the plight of being a woman and even after almost two centuries, for those stories to still resonate is very special.
If you have read Jane Eyre, you will like this book. If you haven’t maybe this book with inspire you to pick it up.

Story                   ****
Characters           ***
Readability          ****
Overall Rating     ****

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Religious Dogma


Will the World End in 2012?
By: Raymond C. Hundley, PH.D.
Thomas Nelson 2010

Is the world coming to an end in the year 2012? For centuries, many people have made predictions and held beliefs that the world will end in 2012. In this book, Hundley gives an overview of the top 2012 doomsday predictions. These include, the Ancient Mayan predictions, Solar Storms, the Large Hadron Collider, the predictions of Nostradamus, the reversal of the magnetic poles, collision with planet X, Earth’s alignment with the magnetic plane, eruption of the super volcano, the Web Bot project and then finally ending with religious predictions of the end of the world. Each chapter talks about a different theory, and ends with a final assessment of the likely hood of the given prediction.
It is interesting that Hundley, a self confirmed Christian, also gives consideration to scientific apocalyptic theories. However, it is obvious that his personal opinion lies with belief of religious predictions about the end of the world.
As someone who is not religious, I felt the book got a little preachy at the end where Hundley devotes two chapters at the end to preparing Christians for the end of the world. He believes that one can be saved by “beginning a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”, and outlines the steps to saving yourself from the apocalypse. Is this another tactic to scare people into religion? I felt that the entire book was just a vehicle to preach religion.
Hundley gives much misleading information in this book like such as when he states, “NASA has issued a public warning that a massive solar storm may strike the Earth soon.” This is not true. I looked at NASA’s website and they say, “Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.”  As you can see, they say nothing about it solar storms ending the world. After being given false information about one thing, I think this author loses all credibility.
If you are interested in fanciful ideas that committing yourself to Jesus will save you from an Apocalypse, than you will probably enjoy this book. Otherwise, I suggest if you want to know really good information about many of the topics covered in this book, visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html.
The world may end one day, but I do not believe that anyone can predict it.

Overall Rating *

Monday, April 12, 2010

Ancient History


Antony and Cleopatra
By: Colleen McCullough
McArthur and Company 2007

Antony and Cleopatra is about so much more than just the relationship between the infamous doomed lovers.  McCullough weaves a story that follows the decline of the Roman Republic, in fact I think that would have been a better title for this novel, Marc Antony’s military failures against Octavian, Cleopatra’s role in that and Octavian’s rise to become the first Emperor of Rome following the assassination of Julius Ceasar.
All set to the back drop of the bustling city streets of Rome and the exotic beauty of the struggling remnants of Egypt, Antony and Cleopatra is a well researched novel that allows us to see such a powerful and infamous historical figure as Cleopatra in a very human realistic way.  The way she was able to use her sexuality to influence Marc Antony to her own end.
It’s also a study in the way of life at the time.  The hardships that many had to endure, whether you were a pleb or a patrician.   Going to war meant many month sometimes years traveling by foot, away from family.
I really liked the portrayal of Octavian.  So many things have been written about him and so many actors have portrayed him over the years, many times not showing a flattering portrait of him.  But something has to be said about a young man who can overcome ill health and the shadow of a very successful uncle and rise to defeat one of the most successful military leaders in Roman history.
For those who love history and love to read this novel is the best of both worlds.

Story                   ****
Characters          ****
Readability          ***
Overall rating      ****


http://www.colleenmccullough.com

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Truly Unique Story


The Little Book
By: Selden Edwards
Dutton 2008

"The Little Book" is a love story that spans generations, ranging from 1897 Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.
"The Little Book" is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legends son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero. In 1988 he is forty-seven, living in San Francisco. Suddenly he is his modern self wandering in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: fin de siA]cle Vienna. It is 1897, precisely ninety-one years before his last memory and a half-century before his birth.
Its not long before Wheeler has acquired appropriate clothes, money, lodging, a group of young Viennese intellectuals as friends, a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young American woman, a passing acquaintance with local celebrity Mark Twain, and an incredible and surprising insight into the dashing young war-hero father he never knew.
But the truth at the center of Wheelers dislocation in time remains a stubborn mystery that will take months of exploration and a lifetime of memories to unravel and that will, in the end, reveal nothing short of the eccentric Burden family’s unrivaled impact on the very course of the coming century.
A truly unique story, Edwards’ The Little Book is a labour of love 30 years in the making. It is amazing how Edwards constructs his story around a most pivotal and burgeoning time period in history while including a few notoriously famous historical figures such as Sigmund Freud and the child Adolph Hitler. Edwards whisks us away to turn of the century Vienna.This book is not about time travel, but about the relationships in one’s family, the people in one’s family and getting to know who you are through getting to know them. It’s about revelations and the time travel aspect is just a vehicle to get us there.
At times I didn’t know quite what to make of the hero, Wheeler Burden. But his presence in the book is just as mysterious as his journey is.
The plot is filled with a lot of twists and turns and I truly didn’t know how this story was going to end.

Story               ****
Characters       ***
Readability       ***
Overall Rating  ***


Page Turning


The Andromeda Strain
By: Michael Crichton
Ballantine 1969

A satellite lands in the desert near the small southern Utah town of Piedmont.  Within hours, everyone in the town is dead.  Piedmont is a virtual ghost town.
As the US government assembles a team of doctors and scientists to investigate, the race is on to find out what killed everyone in the town.
Although The Andromeda Strain was written in 1969, I think it was far ahead of its time.  So much so, that while reading it, it is not hard to imagine the events taking place today.
Like most of his books, Crichton writes about things that could possibly happen, and in recent years we have seen how mysterious viruses can spread.
Like all of his books that I have read, I couldn’t put this book down.  In fact I read it in 33 hours.  I think that helped to keep the tension of what the characters were going though in the book.  However I did find the characters to be mostly forgettable.
And Even though Crichton uses a lot of technical jargon, as he usually does, it doesn’t hamper the understanding or slow the narrative down, until, however; the end which I thought was anticlimactic.
This is an exciting fast paced novel that will have you turning the pages to find out what will happen next.

Story                 ****
Characters         ***
Readability         ****
Overall rating      ****

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Dracula The Un-Dead
By: Dacre Stoker & Ian Holt
Penguin

After one hundred and twelve years Bram Stoker’s great-grand nephew, Dacre Stoker (aided by Ian Holt) and using Bram’s own unused notes, decided to write a sequel to the original classic.
In Dracula The Un-Dead we catch up with the characters introduced in the original twenty-five years later.  Mina and Jonathan now have a twenty-five year old son, Quincey Harker.  Dr. Jack Seward is addicted to morphine and consumed with guilt and mania.  Arthur Holmwood, grappling with his own guilt, is angry and a shadow of his former self.  And Abraham Van Helsing is a weak decrepit old man close to death himself. 
Trying to shield her son from the truth of the past, Mina is eternally youthful and somewhat estranged from her alcoholic husband.   
Much to the disappointment of his parents, Quincey leaves law school to pursue his dream of performing on the stage.  Therein he meets the infamous and mysterious actor Basarab.
As mysterious events start to take place, it seems as if Dracula has returned to hunt down the band that defeated him twenty-five years earlier.
It is interesting and albeit a little shocking to see what has happened to the heros we met in the original Dracula.  And in this one we see Dracula as a more sympathetic character. 
Dracula is not the main villain in this story.  Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt include the real life legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian Countess who was known as the Blood countess in the sixteenth century.  There were legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth.  They draw her as being more sinister and evil than Dracula himself.
The common feeling I kept getting while reading this story though, and confirmed after I read the Author’s note on how this novel came to fruition, was that Dacre Stokers name was just put on the cover to sell more books.
As well, there are a few plot lines that I felt were just thrown in and they seemed a little odd, like the one that closes the book.  I wouldn’t call this a true sequel.  However this novel is an interesting expansion of the classic story and I really did enjoy it.  Definitely for those who love Dracula or vampire novels.

Story                ***
Characters        ***
Readability        ****
Overall rating    ***1/2



www.draculatheun-dead.com/

Back in Time

The Accidental Time Machine
By: Joe Haldeman
Ace Books 2007

The Accidental Time Machine is a story unlike most time travel stories.  It’s not about going back in time to see your parents meet, or going into the future to see what your life will be like in 35 years, it’s not even about seeing the earth as a futuristic society.  Matt Fuller is a research assistant at MIT.  When one day, while working with a proton calibrator that measures subtle quantum forces that relate to time changes in gravity and electromagnetic force, the calibrator disappears then reappears a second later.  Every time he pushes its button, it disappears twelve times longer than the previous time.  After examining it Matt is convinced that what he has discovered is a time machine.  After testing it with a pet store turtle that he affectionately calls Herman, Matt realizes that he has to try it for himself. 
I like that the time machine itself wasn’t a thing to actually stand in or ride in.  The time machine is just a small box that, when connected to something metal, can carry with it anything that is touching it.  That gave such a fresh perspective on the traditional model for a time machine.  Haldeman doesn’t let the story get too bogged down in technical jargon, and the story starts right from the first page.  However I did have a feeling that I wanted to know more about how the time machine works, and what makes time travel possible, but I don’t think that is really the point of the story.  This novel is more about a man trying to figure out what he has discovered and its possibilities.  Matt takes the journey of his life, and the different societies that he visits are completely different than anything I have see in other time travel stories, and he offers some interesting insights into how it is possible for societies to evolve over time.  However there was a bit of reoccurring stuff about Jesus that I didn’t quite understand.  Nothing in this story is what you expect it to be and I found it to be thought provoking and, despite its subject, a nice light read.

Story               ***
Characters       ***
Readability       ****
Overall rating   ***
    

Coming Soon

  • Mockingjay By: Suzanne Collins

Search This Blog