Books Read 2016

[Jolor]

Sharp Ends - Abercrombie

A (mostly) chronological set of short stories from his First Law universe. Some of the stories are one-off tales while a few others are part of an arc. As a fan of the series and of all his books, I enjoyed the focus on some of the minor characters, as well as the added background on the major characters. The stories are indeed 'short', making for an engaging read.

7 o' 8 tentacles

[Jeff V]

Empress by Alma Alexander

This novel is loosely based on the Byzantine emperor Justinian and his wife, Theordora.

Simona is the daughter of a bear keeper recently appointed to the hippodrome in the capital city of Visant. (the location of all manner of public entertainment, including animal fights and chariot races). When her father takes ill and dies, the wife and two daughters left behind are left to fend for themselves in a world not kind to single women and girls. Her mother immediately takes up with her father's replacement, Simona becomes a street urchin who eventually is recruited to be a courtesan and spy. After running off with a john who was appointed governor of a remote province, she gets knocked up and is summarily cast aside. After a perilous journey back to Visant, she catches the eye of young Maxentius, whose tale is told in parallel.

Maxentius is the adopted son of Leontines, a smart boy who contrives to position his adoptive father as successor to the dying emperor. Soon after hooking hooking up with Simonis (who, after marriage, changes her name to Callidora to help break the connection with her whorish past), Leontines dies, and they become Emperor and Empress.

This book is more like a biography than anything. Action is mostly passive, and the result was a ponderous story that was as slow to read as the action in the book. A few events defined their reign, a plague and an uprising. There was also a diplomatic issue involving a kingdom at the far border of the empire. In between, there's a lot of "yadda yadda."

The setting was well done, the characters believable, but overall just too mundane to make a compelling tale.

[Jeff V]

Always Hungry by David Ludwig, MD

Another year, another diet book. As with recent trends, this book is more about sustainable lifestyle change than it is a compendium of what and what not to eat. Curiously, the author is not an advocate of rigorous exercise, the one thing that can make even my infamous all-pizza diet successful. He does, however, suggest a 15 minute walk after every meal (citing good outcomes from skinny Italians who culturally made it a habit).

The depravation in this diet is attainable -- he instructs people to start with a two week break from foods that should be consumed in moderation -- sugars, starches, and alcohol. The second phase gradually reintroduces them in a controlled fashion, and by stage three the diet should habitual. Dr. Ludwig recognizes what I call the "entertainment factor" of food, and presents on his website easy recipes that pack a lot of flavor thanks to sauces, relishes, and other home-made condiments.

My main problem with the book is that most of these recipes are off-loaded to the website, and instead too much of the book includes tiresome affidavits of adherents to this diet. A few at the beginning would get the point across -- they are not needed every single chapter. That is something better suited to the website.

[Jeff V]

The Appeal by John Grisham

A Mississippi town becomes a "cancer cluster" thanks to irresponsible toxic waste dumping by a chemical company that has since pulled up roots in the area. Several high value law suits are filed by small town lawyers, and the initial verdict is a windfall, with many more cases to follow.

This is a tale of them getting squashed by big money, big industry, and their lobbying dollars.

In orchestrating their success, the chemical company, their egomaniacal owner, and out-of-state political interests combine to rig the appeal from the ground-up, going as far as to arrange the replacement of a potentially sympathetic state supreme court justice with a owned puppet. As he is wont to do, Grisham gives us hope -- the puppet suddenly finds himself in the position of victim when his son suffers brain injury from an ball hit from a metal bat that had been recalled because of safety concerns. But in the end, the puppet masters get what they want, and the reader is just left pissed off that even such a hypothetical situation could conceivably happen. Kudos to Grisham for making it seem so plausible.

[Jeff V]

In the Name of Rome by Adrian Goldsworthy

In the Name of Rome: The Men Who Won the Roman Empire takes us through the Roman Republic and Empire, introducing generals and commanders that left a mark on history. From Cincinnatus saving the early Republic, to why Pompey earned the sobriquet "The Great" even though he was the celebrated loser of a civil war against Julius Caesar, to Germanicus, Trajan, Hadrian and other champions of the empire, Roman historian Adrian Goldsworthy hits most of them in this sweeping narrative. My only complaint is that some of these commanders led such extraordinary careers as to be the subjects of many books just on themselves -- this overview is necessarily brief and having read more detailed biographies on many of these generals, seems a little incomplete. But this is an enjoyable read for anyone with casual interest on the subject.

[Jeff V]

Thai Tales: The Sunday Club by The Blether

This is a horror story that is entirely too plausible, and that makes for a very uncomfortable story. A young Thai mother catches the fancy of a foreign business man, who negotiates a deal with the girl's mother -- he will pay her a regular stipend, enough to live well, if she raises the girl's young child. Much to the horror of the daughter, the mother agrees. She struggles to content herself with a husband she loves, but without her precious child.

Then things get twisted. Relations with her husband start to wane, and one Sunday, he sitting in their yard with a bunch of old men, drinking. After humiliating her in front of all of them, he demands she remove her clothes, and what follows is a horrific rape orgy while her husband sits back and lets it happen. Apologizing for whatever insult resulted in such treatment, the husband would hear none of it...this was to become a weekly thing and she had best bring a better attitude next time. Fleeing from this nightmare, she returns home only to be beaten by her own mother for ruining the deal that had her finally living a good life.

The really creepy thing is the audiobook reader sounded like he was 80 years old.

[Jeff V]

Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall

Lisa Randall attempts to connect the dots between diverse topics such as particle physics, astrophysics, biology and archaeology. I think she succeeds admirably, but then again, I try to keep up with major developments in these fields and the names she drops and the research cited are all pretty familiar to me. It is not, perhaps, the entry-level book Randall might have hoped this would be.

In some cases, this book seemed to be a lot of thinking out loud...trying to make a case for interdependencies as well as cause-and-effect of micro, macro, and galactic systems. It's an overview of the current state of research in many disciplines, and is of particular interest if you are following and are familiar with a previous snapshot of the research. Much of it, as the title indicates, revolves around the presumptive abundance of "dark matter", matter that is not directly observed, but inferred and must be of a certain quantity for other physical models to make sense. Dark matter theory has long been an interest of mine, but my technical knowledge is rather permanently stuck at just the level this book is fortunately written.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Sherlock Holmes on the Western Front Novella by Val Andrews

Embroiled in the Great War, UK and France is losing badly, and Mycroft Holmes, is forced to called upon John Watson and implore him to recall Sherlock Holmes out of retirement... to solve the spy problem. You see, German spies have apparently penetrated deeply into the British Army, and secrets seem to be leaked to the Germans almost as soon as they are made. Strangely, Sherlock Holmes agreed to go undercover with Watson as entertainers to ferret out the traitor(s) within... and their adventure will take them from the Stonehenge to the Coast, then across the coast into France all the way to the Western Front...

Another thrilling adventure, with Holmes tracking down spies and fly in airplanes with Watson, among other things, including impersonating... themselves. It's a good ride.

Six and a half out of eight.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Tanner Box Set 1: Book 1-3 by Remington Kane

Book 1: Tanner is a killer for hire, and he's out for revenge. His intel broker sold him out and he was caught by Mexican Federales and sent to jail for drugs planted in his car. But Tanner never gives up on his contract, and he always finishes his job. His target: Albert Rossetti, mob boss of Las Vegas. Not even an obsessed FBI agent and a boatload of made men will stop Tanner. The outcome is inevitable.

Book 2: In finishing the job a Conglomerate boss had assigned him, but later reneged, Tanner has now a Conglomerate price on his head. Elsewhere, Conglomerate's heavy-handed tactics in breaking a strike has gained a new ex-military enemy. When he and Tanner joined forces, Conglomerate thugs and members started to fall. Then conglomerate brought in the big gun... a German assassin named Gruber reputed to be better than Tanner...

Book 3: Tanner's war with the Conglomerate have came to a end with the apparent "death" of both Gruber and Tanner, but the Conglomerate boss Frank Richards is taking over. However, Richards have made too many enemies, including his daughter and some kid hacker, not to mention other mob bosses. Tanner goes undercover, and play off all sides against each other. But who will be left standing?

Tanner books are basically serial adventures where things just happen almost non-stop. Tanner is one of those guys that is just VERY good at what he does, and he doesn't take "domestic" contracts (i.e. no husband on wife or wife on husband). He's killer with scruples, so to speak, and it's quite a bit of fun to finish all three books. And the teaser for book 4 is "Wait, what?!" Which is a bit of a "coincidence", but it's not an impossible one. And the end of book 3, Tanner had sent off the two lovebirds he kinda rescued to start a new life with fake IDs, and at the beginning of book 4, he heard a strange sound... a phone was ringing. He just picked it up when his nemesis, Sara Blake, ex-FBI, walked in, looking for the same phone. Just at the same time, a trio of bank robbers tries to hide out on the "abandoned" farm, and run into them as well. AND the bank robbers apparently killed someone VERY important at the bank for staring too much. It's a too teaser for the next trilogy.

I got this trilogy for a buck, and it's well worth it. Six and a half out of eight.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Take it by DJ. Stone and B.E. Raj

Yes, it's romance / almost erotica, okay?

Jenny Collins is stuck. Her boyfriends don't know how to satisfy her. Her job helps people but had to deal with lecherous boss and watch male colleagues promoted over her while she tries to balance among bitch, slut, or invisible. Then she ran into Harrison Burke. Burke is the lover she always dreamed of... knows exactly how to please her, in every way. But he's also her company's client, and sleeping with him is going to be... VERY unethical, and he's got a huge secret and it may destroy both of them...

This book is uneven, with a very jarring middle that doesn't fit, as if the editor forgot about it and left it there. The plot generally just follows Jenny around, but right about middle of the book, at the big "cut-off", it suddenly got a chapter where the viewpoint switched to Burke, then a few pages later, it's back to Jenny and remain so till the end. WTF? However, the ending is quite satisfying and seem to make up for it. The deep dark secret twist was fun, but the technojargon they used to resolve the end was below par. The ending scene is also marred by unrealistic behavior of cops among other WTF? moments.

All in all, five FOUR out of eight. Could have been a six with a bit more editing.

[Jolor]

Planetfall - Newman

One of those stories that I simply cannot summarize properly so I'll let this copy/paste do it for me:

More than twenty-two years have passed since Ren and the rest of the faithful braved the starry abyss and established a colony at the base of an enigmatic alien structure where Suh-Mi has since resided, alone. All that time, Ren has worked hard as the colony's 3-D printer engineer, creating the tools necessary for human survival in an alien environment, and harboring a devastating secret.

Ren continues to perpetuate the lie forming the foundation of the colony for the good of her fellow colonists, despite the personal cost. Then a stranger appears, far too young to have been part of the first planetfall, a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Suh-Mi.

Oh, so many mixed feelings about this book. I felt like it would never take off, but I read it in two sittings. I felt like it was being obtuse but then appreciated how, instead, it revealed just enough at the right time. I thought it would be a straightforward and simple story but it was anything but.

6 o' 8 tentacles

[Isgrimnur]

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

The story of the most damaging spy in British intelligence history, responsible for the deaths of uncountable agents, and political enemies of the Soviets, is told here against the backdrop of his friendship with fellow agent, Nicholas Elliott.

It covers the entirety of his life, from Cambridge through WWII, and the Cold War, exploring the people closest to him, his work colleagues, who trusted in the old-boy network, and broke the cardinal rule of need-to-know over innumerable lunches and dinner parties.

Audiobook version, read by John Lee, giving his interesting take on the accents of the parties involved.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Pike Chronicles as explained earlier, basically book 3 and 4. While book 3 and 4 makes a bit more sense, and the characters do become a bit more sympathetic, they still read like cliches. The plot moves along at a very good clip though. Overall is still a 5 out of 8.

[YellowKing]

War Brides - Helen Bryan

I get promotional offers for Kindle books all the time since I'm an Amazon Prime member, and one day I got an email saying I could download one of a selection of Kindle books for free. Somehow or another when I clicked on the link in the email it downloaded ALL four of that month's books. So that's how I found myself with this title, which I really had no interest in whatsoever.

One night as I'm poring through my backlog for something new to read, I opened this one up for grins just to see what this "girly romance novel" was all about - with every intention of reading a chapter or two then deleting it. Of course, an hour later I was eagerly trying to find out if one of the leads' baby was her fiance's or her African-American lover's. Here's the deal - I'm a sucker for historic melodrama. I binged on Downton Abby like it was a crack. And this book reads a lot like a Downton Abbey episode.

It tells the story of four (I think - I never really had a great grasp of every character) women trying to survive in World War II. Now if it had been full of actual bodice-ripping sex scenes and things I probably would have ditched it, but all the romance here was strictly of the PG "old-time Hollywood" variety. What I think kept my interest is that you rarely hear about WW2 from a civilian perspective - and certainly not from the women - and I just found that whole viewpoint fascinating.

The book's not great. It kept my interest through its 400 pages, but the dialogue was exceedingly melodramatic at times. It also began and ended with a weird wraparound story showing the ladies in 1995 as elderly women, and I found the ending very inconsistent with the tone of the rest of the book.

At any rate, sometimes I think it's good to just go read something completely outside of your comfort zone. You may miss most of the time, but occasionally you may find out you like something you never knew you would. I'd count this one as more of a "miss," but it was a decent break from the fantasy/horror I typically read.

[Kasey Chang]

Trying to read Creation: Technopia Book 1 by Greg Chase

When I read a book I want it to get to the point, and I hate to say this, while the world building in this book is beautiful, the plot is so plodding slow I'm about to quit when things may start to get interesting.

Samuel Adamson would do ANYTHING to get off the dead-end he's in on Earth. Climate's a mess, and the family is barely surviving on the dole. So when a chance came along, he jumped at it, even if it involved working with... "pirates". He's a computer guy, and he's needed to fix a derelict colony ship's main computer, way out in the kuiper belt. He got the job done, but he's stuck in the core in cryosleep. When he woke up six months later, he was rescued by the colony's remnants, his employer long since left him for dead. There he found a new utopian society of free love, and he was accepted once he unlearned the habits he had on Earth.

Samuel Adamson was content to live out in the fringe of solar system with his love Jess had he not been called back to Earth... For his success in fixing the main computer, which was what put him into the coma, created a new AI, and from there, AI spread to all the major computer systems, and they are sentient and self-aware. And they consider Samuel Adamson their God, and humans are in fear of this new specie...

Can Adamson teach His "children" how to behave and help humanity in order to gain their own? Or will he be too late?

I'm at 50% point of the book and we're just getting to the point where he's heading back to Earth. That's how slow this book is. It's almost as if the author built the world first then try to find some plot within, then his editor didn't bother to tell him "tighten it up!".

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Alive and Killing: A David Wolf Novel #4 by Jeff Carson

David Wolf, Sheriff of Sluice County, Colorado, looked forward to some quality camping time with his son Jeff, hoping to leave his small-town politics behind. Unfortunately, trouble has a way of finding him. On the way up to camp site, they ran across a man with some fresh burns and clearly running AWAY from something, with a VERY heavy backpack. But the man refused help and walked away. Wolf knew something ain't right, and later was proven correct when hostile men with intent to kill ambushed him and his son at their campsite, and only their training and survival skills allowed them to survive the encounter, killing one of the assailants. FBI soon descended on the mountain along with the deputies and Wolf is surprised to find that FBI had been on the case, and the suspects may deserters or MIAs from Afghanistan, and they are after any and all witnesses, and now Jeff, David's son had seen the assailant, he is also a target, and little did Wolf know that there is a mole in their midst... Can Wolf and the FBI agent Catherine Luke figure out the problem and save Jeff in time?

Nice tight thriller / mystery as the stakes are raised slowly and the mystery is peeled back layer by layer. Nobody acted stupid, as far as I can tell. I can give this a 6.5 out of 8. It's not a "can't put down", but it's certain quite good.

[Kasey Chang]

Note: Queen's Poisoner and the sequel, Thief's Daughter are both on sale for $1.99 at Amazon.

Preview quick reaction to Queen's Poisoner

[MonkeyFinger]

Note: Queen's Poisoner and the sequel, Thief's Daughter are both on sale for $1.99 at Amazon.

Preview quick reaction to Queen's Poisoner

And... two more books quietly slip into my backlog. Thanks Kasey.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Book 1 of The GIrl in the Box series by Robert J. Crane (NOTE: As of 8/14 the first 3 books are FREE on Kindle store)

Sienna Nealon is a 17 year old girl who was raised and kept by her mother indoors for 12 years. Her mother trained her to be ready for anything, but to NEVER look outside or the leave the house. Then her mother didn't come back from work, and a few days later, two strangers entered her house, forcing her to escape into a world she's not ready for, as she ran into a friend named Reed, and an ultra predator simply known as Wolfe... who is bulletproof and has claws that can rend people into pieces. And Wolfe wants Sienna... preferably alive for his employers. Sienna barely survived the first encounter, and was rescued by "The Directorate", who gave her some answers... She's a metahuman. Of what type, that requires a test, but she's got high strength and fast healing, but beyond that... No idea, but powers generally manifest at 18 (i.e. any day now). And no, they have no idea where her mother is, but they are willing to help her... if she'll submit to some tests. Not knowing who to trust, Sienna must choose a side even as Wolfe started terrorizing the city, random victims and families day and night, and police / SWAT can't stop him. Wolfe does this to force Sienna to surface. The Directorate's top MetaHuman team is occupied elsewhere. Sierra knows that she will not survive the encounter with Wolfe, but she can't standby and let the city be slaughtered day in and day out. And thus the stage is set for the final showdown... and for Sienna to truly realize who she is...

Not a bad beginning. The girl was fully trained in martial arts and guns, but neither works on Wolfe. The ending is a bit... abrupt, but it really does make sense, if you want to weave the world of metahumans as origins of myths and such.

Spoiler:

Wolfe was one of three brothers with adaptive skin and almost dog sprinting technique that inspired Cerberus the 3-headed beast... And Sienna... She's a lifeforce vampire, i.e. a Succubus.

Reading book 2 now, and there are more books in the series (it's up to book 10). I can give this book a solid 6 out of 8. Will report back after book 2 and 3.

[YellowKing]

Finished a graphic novel and a short story collection this week:

Severed by Scott Snyder and Scott Tuft

I'm a sucker for any kind of horror comic, a love that goes back to my teens when I was picking up old EC Comics TALES FROM THE CRYPT reprints. I was also particularly interested in this one since it was co-written by Scott Snyder, who has famously written a ton of great Batman comics. As a huge Batman fan, I'm also a fan of his take on the character.

This story, set in the 30s, follows a young boy who runs away from his adopted parents and hops a train to look for his real father. Unbeknownst to him, however, he will soon cross paths with a serial killer. A killer with fanged teeth and a taste for human flesh. It's a simple story, but the time period in which it's set makes it really unique. Great artwork by Attila Futaki captures the feel of the period with a heavy dose of gore and horror. Enjoyed it quite a bit.

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King

I'm a big Stephen King fan, but as much as I love his novels, I love his short fiction even more. I devoured all of his short story collections like FOUR SEASONS and NIGHT SHIFT when I was younger, and I've eagerly awaited every collection he's put out since. This collection consists of new stories as well as some that have been published before but reworked. I particularly enjoyed the forewords he put before each story giving a little color about how he came up with it or what he was going through at the time. There are some truly great pieces in here, and King once again shows why he's the master of horror fiction. I read a lot of horror anthologies by a lot of great writers, but King's stuff seems effortless and operates at a different level. Maybe that's just my fanboy perspective talking, but in my defense I've been highly critical of many of King's novels. I've never found fault in his short stories though.

[hitbyambulance]

Finished Alive and Killing: A David Wolf Novel #4 by Jeff Carson

[Kasey Chang]

Finished books 2 and 3 of The Girl in the Box series

Basically urban fantasy treated somewhat scientifically.

Book 2 Sienna Nealon was still living at the Directorate compound when a new threat emerged... a metal armored metahuman sent by the same organization that hired the Wolfe (see Book 1) while the heavy hitters captured and brought back an new dangerous metahuman... Aleksandr Gavrikov... a metahuman so powerful he can destroy a city, and is believed to be the true origin of the Tunguska explosion in Siberia back in 1908. He can fly, and can explode, not to mention turn his skin into fire. But Gavrikov soon escapes, and vows to bring down the Directorate, for the Directorate has his sister, or so he thought. Sienna soon realized that Alek's sister is none other than her fellow cadet agent Kat Forrest, who wants nothing to do with Alek, as she had no memory from way back when. But Alek is not the kind who will take no for an answer, and he's now holding the entire city of Minneapolis hostage...

Book 2 is a bit of meh. The intro seems out of place, as author threw in Alek's origin story. Though I guess it wasn't that bad.

Book 3 Sienna Nealon saved Minneapolis and has earned a place in the Directorate training program as a new cadet agent, and the three rookies after training are sent out to trace a possible string of metahuman crimes. Nealon also ran into her aunt "Charlie" another metahuman with same power. At the base, her relationship with a fellow Directorate officer, Zack, is turning complicated, as due to her... meta powers, she and Zack cannot ever get... physical. On assignment, chasing down the new metahuman crime spree, Sienna ran into James, a recruiter, who is more than he lets on... as he seems to have immunity against her powers... and be the only person she can be intimate with. But soon the team ran into more than they can handle, as they ran smack into an Omega safehouse... Omega being the mysterious organization that sent Wolfe and Tin Man after Sienna, and may be behind a mysterious project named simply Andromeda. And only timely intervention of Aunt Charlie and Reed, who belongs to a rival organization Alpha. Then they got the bad news... Omega has declared open war on Directorate, and the three rookies are on their own... They need to find Andromeda, and failure is not an option.

The twists in the book were very well done in book 3, though the author used shifting viewpoint. In book 1, all POV was third-person following Sienna. In Book 2, other than the intro about Alek it's all 3rd person Sienna as well. In Book 3, aside from Sienna 3rd person there's also a couple "mysterious 1st person" view to setup the twist. It does make sense at the end though.

Pretty solid 6 / 6.5 out of 8.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Aeon 14 Book 1: Outsystem by M.D. Cooper

Major Tanis Richards, recently demoted, is nonetheless the most effective counter-insurgency officer in the Terran Space Force. She was assigned to a simple protection job... Guard GSS Intrepid, an interstellar sleeper colony ship in construction at the Mars Outer Shipyards. But immediately upon arrival she had to foil a sabotage attempt. Soon Richards found herself embroiled in a vast conspiracy where the richest conglomerates in Sol System and traitors within the military, are doing everything to prevent the ship from leaving, or to destroy it outright, including putting a price on Richards' head. Unfortunately for the conspirators, Richards and her AI are extremely lethal to the conspirators. But when the enemy has summoned every sort of mercenaries and seemingly have unlimited resources including military grade weapons, gunships, and assassins, will Richards save the day? And why are the conspirators so desperate to destroy the GSS Intrepid before it can get... Outsystem?

Military Sci-fi Space Opera is not bad. Though Tanis Richards doesn't much feel like a girl except she almost romanced one of her junior officers. Plot and twists makes sense, for the most part.

Five and a half out of eight.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Devil's Due by Thomas Warren

Ex-CIA assassin Thomas Caine was betrayed and had to reinvent himself in Thailand as Mark Waters, but his contacts and his ruthlessness yet fair dealing with the locals earned him a grudging respect, and possibly love by a local dancer Nairaya. Then one day, Nairaya disappeared, and a cop came to Caine for help... The cop has discovered a website where the most beautiful barmaids, dancers, and other "entertainers" were placed online as if on a dating site, and those who got more than 100 votes simply... disappeared. And the police can do nothing, for they have been warned... should they continue to investigate, there will be a bombing every week in the central market. The warning was delivered... written in a policeman's blood. Caine was hesitant to help, but his mind was made up when the cop was murdered as well. Caine was able to find a clue after tearing through the Thai underworld... the girls, with some Russian help, had been smuggled up north near Myanmar border to be shipped out soon, and the group was lead by someone who's called Prisic... "The Devil". Caine is no stranger to violence, and he will do all he can to rescue those girls. But this time, Caine may have met his match...

The action is quite good, but one wonders how much resources does Caine have access to for him to throw away resources with no appreciable return, as he was spending Bhat tens of thousands at a time and even has weapons caches apparently hidden years in advance. Still, it's a pretty good "yarn", and the description of Thailand as a exotic location is pretty neat.

Six out of eight tentacles.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Far From Home: Book 1 by Tony Healey

Captain Jessica King never wanted to command the Defiant, but she had no choice when the previous captain died leaving her in charge of a ship trying to survive against the implacable enemy known as the Drax. Barely limping into Starbase 6, King was soon forced to flee when the enemy dreadnaught broke through and annihilated the base. King, seeing no escape, hoping to destroy the enemy, forced both ships through a blackhole... and emerged in a different galaxy altogether. King also rescued a legend, Captain Gerard "Hawk" Nowlan, lost through the same backhole 50 years prior. Unfortunately, the Draxx dreadnought picked up Hawk's nemesis... General Carn, who was also forced by Hawk through the blackhole. Now with both sides far from home, with no way of returning, both sides picked up new allies... and new enemies. Will King and crew of the Defiant ever find their way home? Will Hawk ever prevail over Carn?

Space opera wise, this is a pretty darn good read, if a bit... WTFish. The war against Draxx would have ended in utter defeat for the humans if the Draxx just deploy all their battleships at once, as this one ship was basically able to punch through every ship thrown up against it from a Starbase, brave the starbase's weapons, and annihilate the starbase with a single shot. Only some serious tactical gambits allowed the Defiant to beat the battleship, but obviously that's not the only battle.

There's also a problem of the book introducing new characters to fit the plot, and kill them off when they no longer serve a purpose, a lot like episodic TV. That simply makes no sense.

All in all, I guess I can give this 5.5 out of 8. It's a quite long book, and there are two more books in the trilogy. Plot *mostly* makes sense.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished The Jade Lady by Patrick Wayland

Lance Roven was living his life... being a software engineer in the Pearl of Orient, i.e. Hong Kong, when he was called home... His grandpa is dying. Upon his arrival, grandpa handed him a safety deposit box key... and did something he'd never expect... Grandpa spoke Mandarin Chinese. The key lead him to a safe deposit box, which contained some documents he couldn't read, and cryptic notes, which lead him to Sacramento, San Francisco, and all the way into Taiwan... for a document that could rewrite China-Taiwan relations... or ignite a civil war. Barely staying ahead of Chinese "operatives", Lance, along with Taiwanese museum researcher Annie Lee, must keep themselves alive while finding the document and a figurine from before the founding of the Republic...

The author knows his Taiwan and China references well, but that's nothing extraordinary. It's not a particularly long novel, and it's basically your typical "geek got into way more than he bargained for" sort of story. Pretty good.

Six tentacles out of Eight.

[Kasey Chang]

Getting started in Code Breakers Quadrilogy by Colin F. Barnes. Just finished Book 1.

Good world building, gradual peeling of the onion revealing ever more so slices of the world.

Gerry Cardle had a great life. He had a happy job, wife, and two beautiful daughters... operative word here is "had". As algorithm designer of the Death Lottery, he is exempt from the Death Lottery... Until somehow his name ended up on it any way. Dumped into the gutters in an eyeblink and given 7 days to live, he was picked up by two renegade hackers: Gabe, and Petal, and got a crash course into a world he never suspected existed below the city where humanity had retreated to after the collapse and under the shepherding of "The Family"... An hostile AI is attacking the city, and it's hacking people in order to break through, and Gerry is next on the list. Gerry must do something he'd never contemplated... Cut himself off from the network, disconnect and erase his own AI agent, and live off the grid, in order to survive long enough to defuse the threat against the city. Who or what is attacking the city? What do they want? As Gerry tries to find the answer, he will discover that much of what he thought he knew was a lie...

Good world building. Gerry has a particularly unique gift... He can sort data and spin code directly with his mind, and this makes him a very formidable hacker, but the enemies against him are operating in the shadows, and commands much more resources than he suspects, even as he tries to learn how to exist in a world he did not know. There are some cliched parts, and some overly convenient plots here and there, but overall it's a good yarn.

6.5 out of 8 tentacles. Will report back for the next 3 books later.

[MonkeyFinger]

6.5 out of 8 tentacles. Will report back for the next 3 books later.

So, tomorrow then?

[McNutt]

Ha

[Kasey Chang]

Finished Sherlock Holmes: Duel With the Devil by Roger Jaynes

A series of crimes seemingly unconnected, yet bizarre enough to get the attention of Sherlock Holmes, has swept England. First, Jonathan Thatcher, brother of acclaimed Math professor, Aubrey Thatcher, reported that his brother has been missing for three days, on the eve of his engagement and appointment to the school Senate, and may even have something to do with the murder of a clerk at the university. However, nothing is as it seems... A second case involves a solicitor Howard Montclair, who was hired to deliver a specific envelope to a particular hotel by a specific time hours away. It took Sherlock Holmes to link the solicitor and his bother who lived in Rome as a member of the diplomatic corp... and the theft of the largest emerald in the world. Finally, Lestrade asked for the duo's help in taking down the Crimson Vandals, who had been adorning landmarks of British Monarchy with red paint, leaving undecipherable code in their wake. But Sherlock Holmes soon saw through the disguise, for the crime is to merely conceal a yet bigger crime. And the only person capable of a crime so elaborate yet so intricately set wheel within wheels... is but the Napoleon of Crime himself... Professor James Moriarty.

Nice yarn. While the cases are separate, they are linked together by the common thread: Moriarty. And no, you're not getting any spoilers. At $1.00 it's quite a good read. Some of the plot should be familiar to the Holmesians..

[coopasonic]

Getting started in Code Breakers Quadrilogy by Colin F. Barnes. Just finished Book 1.
...
6.5 out of 8 tentacles. Will report back for the next 3 books later.

Interesting. I think I would have given it more like a 4/8 max. I had to push to finish the first and then got about 20% into the second book and just gave up.

[El Guapo]

I just finished a book, and since I've been playing some Warhammer themed games lately, I was thinking about reading a Horus Heresy book next. So I google it...and the Horus Heresy is 39 f'ing books (of ~ 400 pages each)! And it's not yet done!

So...maybe I'll pass on that.

[Isgrimnur]

At one point, I decided that I wanted to read the BattleTech books to explore that universe. Given that the first book, Decision at Thunder Rift, hasn't been printed since 1992, and used copies are over $20, I decided to do something else with my time.

[Kasey Chang]

Getting started in Code Breakers Quadrilogy by Colin F. Barnes. Just finished Book 1.
...
6.5 out of 8 tentacles. Will report back for the next 3 books later.

Interesting. I think I would have given it more like a 4/8 max. I had to push to finish the first and then got about 20% into the second book and just gave up.

Maybe I like the cyberpunky stuff better than you, could be an explanation. THere are sections of the book that dragged on though. Wonder how he'd top it with book 2.

[Jolor]

The Magician King

8 o' 8 tentacles


The Magician's Land

7 o' 8 tentacles

[Pyperkub]

The Magician King

8 o' 8 tentacles


The Magician's Land

7 o' 8 tentacles

Yeah, while the first book was fascinating, these two were much more readable. Quentin was less of a self absorbed prick.

[Kasey Chang]

Finally finished Poor, poor Ophelia by Carolyn Weston

It's the 1970's in Santa Monica, and the old gruff Detective Krug of SMPD is getting a new partner, Casey Kellog, the youngest detective on the force, university educated, ex-surfer. The two couldn't be more opposite, but they have a begruding respect for eachother. Krug has been on the force since simple patrolman and worked his way up, while Kellog has fresh eyes and easier to fit in, along with the education. And together, they have to investigate a body dragged in from the bay: a beautiful girl, drowned, with good cloths, and a lawyer's business card, laminated, hung around her neck. The lawyer was clearly lying... but about what? Krug was going on instinct that the lawyer did it, while Kellog was a bit more hesitant... Autopsy says the girl was severely beaten and killed by blow to the head... And the lawyer took karate lessons. the more the checked, the more did the evidence point one way... or did it?

Decent thriller, not like can't put down, but good enough. Call it... 5.5 out of 8.

[Jag]

The Magician King

8 o' 8 tentacles


The Magician's Land

7 o' 8 tentacles

Yeah, while the first book was fascinating, these two were much more readable. Quentin was less of a self absorbed prick.

Don't forget the show that aired on Sci Fi.

[Scuzz]

The Magician King

8 o' 8 tentacles


The Magician's Land

7 o' 8 tentacles

Yeah, while the first book was fascinating, these two were much more readable. Quentin was less of a self absorbed prick.

Don't forget the show that aired on Sci Fi.

My daughter (the 23 year old) is currently marathon watching that between classes.

[Kasey Chang]

Finished all four books of the Codebreakers Quadrilogy (linked earlier).

Overall, I guess I'll have to lower it down to 5.5 as later books basically pulled a Jurassic Park on us... "Site B" kinda of idea.

Code Breakers: Beta

Gerry had risked it all to save the city from the malevolent AI threatening to destroy it and did so (in CodeBreakers: Alpha), but paid the ultimate price, only to be restored by the Family and sent back to Earth to retrieve Petal, his partner, for she's apparently dying. And soon, Gerry and the city will have to face a new menace... The Red Widows, female survivors of the Red Army, has vowed to destroy any bastions of technology... such as the city. And in the shadows, a malevolent digital entity is stalking them. Together, they shall forge mankind's destiny.

Code Breakers: Gamma

Gerry and the merry band has destroyed the Red Widows, but now the true enemy is clear... The malevolent digital entity is once the head of the Family, the first man who had his consciousness uploaded into a computer... Elliot Robertson, and he's utterly mad. And through agents under his control, known as the Ronins, he has infiltrated the city... and killed Gerry. But before Gerry can die completely, Petal managed to download Gerry's consciousness... and set off on a quest with her other companion, Gabe, to possibly fix up a server that can be used to end Elliot's reign of terror. But in their way are assassins, Ronins, droids, and other enemies controlled by the greatest foe they faced yet: Elliot himself.

Code Breakers: Delta

Through some hard sacrifices, Elliot has been isolated and defeated, and the city went back to rebuilding itself, while Petal suddenly received the news that a new body is ready so Gerry can be reloaded and reintegrated, with the help of an old friend, Jacht, who was the Family's liaison/ambassador. Unfortunately, Jacht picked up a stowaway, a viroborg who kidnapped a friend that helped the duo defeat Elliot before, the girl Jess, and it appears that they are heading to a hidden facility on Earth left by The Family (who has since vacated the space station and moved to Mars, only to meet a different fate). And this facility has... nuclear weapons and other nasty stuff, ready to depopulate Earth. As Gerry, Petal, and others head into the unknown for a rescue mission, and encounter more remnants of the Family's experiments gone awry, they were met with the foulest betrayal... and the fate of Humanity hangs in the balance.

The post-apoc world mixed with cyberpunk is an interesting mix which is probably why I enjoy this series than other. But the later books just dragged on a bit. The fourth book reads almost superfluous, as if the series should have ended at three.