Book Review: Freedom

Title: Freedom (Daemon #2)
Author: Daniel Suarez
Genre: Commercial Fiction (Urban Science Fiction/Technological Thriller)
Rating: A+

140-Character Summary: The Daemon is a more powerful force than ever but the battle of good versus evil is happening both inside and outside of the darknet.

First 140 Characters of the Book: "An elderly man emerged from the crowd and aimed a revolver straight at Anthony Hollis's face. As the old worker's thick index finger squeezed..." (p. 3).

140-Character Review: It was Daemon on speed. Same great characters from Daemon (but worse or better than before) and some new characters. Over the top climax.

140-Character Recommendation/Market Placement/Entry Point: If you liked the first book in the series (and how could you not?) you owe it to yourself to read this.

Book Review: Daemon

Title: Daemon
Author: Daniel Suarez
Genre: Urban Science Fiction/Technological Thriller
Rating: A+

140-Character Summary: A technological genius dies and begins murdering and controlling the world from the grave (via the internet). And he uses wicked cars to kill.

First 140-Characters of the Book: "What the hell just happened? That was all Joseph Pavlos kept thinking as he clenched a gloved hand against his throat. It didn't stop..."

140(ish)-Character Review: An amazing techno thriller that may make you wary of defense contractors and sprinkler systems. Some pacing problems because I didn't want the book to slow down. EVER.

140-Character Recommendation/Market Placement/Entry Point: Tech geeks, conspiracy theorists, online gamers, and fans of all-around amazing thrillers will love this book.

Book Review: The City & The City

Title: The City & The City
Author: China Mieville
Genre: Mystery/Urban Science Fiction
Rating: A+

140-Character Summary: A murder occurs in one city-state and the body is disposed of in another. The twist? The two city-states inhabit the same geographical space.

First 140-Characters of the Book: "I could not see the street or much of the estate. We were enclosed by dirt-coloured blocks, from windows out of which leaned vested men and..."

140-Character Review: An innovative twist on murder mystery/police procedural. Interesting "question" in the book: who lives in our city that we choose to not "see"?

140-Character Recommendation/Market Placement/Entry Point: Fans of out-of-the-box mysteries. Also, fans of conspiracy theories and illuminati-infused mysteries.

Book Review: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Title Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Author Jane Austen (and Seth Grahame-Smith)
Genre SciFi/Fantasy/Paranormal Romance
Rating B+

Summary Take Pride and Prejudice (pretty much word for word), ratchet up Elizabeth and Jane's awesomeness by making them kick-butt zombie killers, add in a little sophomoric humor, and you've got a best seller on your hands.

First Line "It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains," (p. 7).

Review Lest you think, based on my sardonic summary of this book, that I didn't like it, think again. I really enjoyed this book. But, hey, Pride and Prejudice is one of my all-time favorite books and zombies are quickly becoming one of my favorite paranormal tropes to read about, so you couldn't really go wrong.

Grahame-Smith (or his editor) was smart to stick faithfully to the book. They took some minor liberties with the storyline (perhaps a better ending for dear Charlotte, a more fitting resolution for Mr. Collins, and a little well-placed comeuppance for Wickham), but all in all, they left the original text of Austen's masterpiece alone. It's actually quite surprising how seamlessly the references to zombie-fighting worked into the story. It was really natural, and a delight to read.

The only part that, in my opinion, didn't feel as natural (and, therefore, wasn't as fun to read) were the sophomoric bits. Grahame-Smith has a real obsession with Mr. Darcy's balls (aka, "His most English parts"). It was just stupid and any laughs he might have earned on those jokes (none from me, I might add) were cheap. He should have been more confident in the brilliance of what he did with the zombie fighting and left Mr. Darcy's private parts, well, in private.

The final thing that I have to add (I know this is a relatively short review for me, but this book has received so much attention that anything I add has probably been said a million times before) is that the illustrations in the book (done by Philip Smiley) were fantastic. They added a lot to the book in their own special way. It was really fun to read a totally absurd line, such as, "Two adult unmentionables--both of them male--busied themselves feasting upon the flesh of the household staff," and have it accompanied by an expertly rendered pen and ink drawing of Mr. Bingley's kitchen staff being eating by zombies. You just don't get enough of that in your literature these days. I'm all for more illustrations (in moderation). I thought the illustrations in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian added to the book, and these do too. Illustrations, if edited well, can really enhance the reading experience.

Recommendation Fans of Austen (with a good sense of humor) will really enjoy this book. This is the first in a long line of SciFi updates to the classics (see Sense and Sensibility and Seamonsters out now), but for a little bit of a different twist, try some of the modern YA re-tellings of classic literature like Troy High, Something Rotten, and Geek Girl's Guide to Cheerleading.

Book Review: Sunshine

Title Sunshine
Author Robin McKinley
Genre Science Fiction
Category Paranormal Romance
Rating D+

Summary Rae "Sunshine" is a seemingly normal 25-year-old who works at her family's coffee shop/cafe, she's dating a normal guy, but things become decidedly un-normal when she's captured by a gang of vampires and locked in a house as a "gift" for another vampire. But she escapes... and helps the vampire (Constantine) escape and then finds that she's got all sorts of latent magical powers that, when combined with Constantine's, are down-right formidable.

First Line "It was a dumb thing to do, but it wasn't that dumb. There hadn't been any trouble out at the lake in years. And it was so exquisitely far from the rest of my life."

Review This book was just kind of okay for me. It moved fast enough, in general terms, but there were a few places were the book would get stuck. Most often it was when Sunshine was dealing with the "police" who were responsible for keeping Other attacks (vampires, were-creatures, demons, etc.) under control. The back story of the mythical creatures and the bureaucracy of other-handling were pretty boring.

But the action sequences and romance sequences (as Sunshine vacillates between her human boyfriend and Constantine) were pretty interesting and kept things moving at a good clip. The climax was dramatic, but the denouement was boring... I skimmed. It was weird, in my opinion, because it felt like Sunshine wasn't making a decision about how her life would turn out in the end. She does thinking and introspection, but nothing is ever really "decided." The book didn't feel like it would be part of a series, so the end was pretty unsatisfying.

Additionally, McKinley uses some non-traditional prose, writing like a stream of consciousness, and it gets a little tedious to keep up because the thoughts are so swirled and divergent (and not entirely interesting). The book was okay, a nice escape read if you've been in something heavy for a while, but nothing that really knocked my socks off. It felt like a grown-up Twilight.

Recommendation People who haven't had enough Bella & Edward in their life (or want a racier Bella & Edward) would probably enjoy this one.

Book Review: The Black Rood

Title The Black Rood (Book #2 of the Celtic Crusades Series)
Author Stephen R. Lawhead
Genre Science Fiction
Category Historical Fantasy
Rating C-

Summary Duncan, Son of Murdo, takes up his own pilgrimage to the Holy Land to recapture the Black Rood (a holy relic that is purportedly a piece of Christ's cross). In the process we find that this journey in the 1100's is related to some work being done by an underground organization in the 1900's, but that connection remains hazy.

First Line "The summons came while I was sitting at my desk."

Review This book is just another example of Stephen Lawhead doing the things that he does well, well (and continuing to do the things he does poorly, poorly). Read my review of Book #1 in this series.

In comparison to Book #1 in this series, I think The Black Rood built off that set-up and provided additional interesting glimpses into life in the Middle East in the 12th Century. Lawhead does active description really well (I have the mental imagery of a pig torture scene in my mind and it's probably going to haunt me for some time) and scenes are very well drawn. I also enjoyed that there was the added complexity that Duncan spent a great deal of time in this narrative in captivity, much of the book takes the form of a letter recounting his experiences. This further fleshed out Lawhead's interesting take on the cagey nature of monarchs and various rulers.

What I didn't like was the loose threads at the end of this book. There are relationships severed and relationships forged, but you don't see any of that resolved. Book #3 takes up the story of Duncan's daughter (which should tie some of these dangling pieces together), but it was all felt too unfinished at the end of this book.

Recommendation Fans of religious conspiracies (a la, Dan Brown) would probably enjoy this book.

Book Review: The Iron Lance

Title The Iron Lance (Book #1 of The Celtic Crusades Series)
Author Stephen R. Lawhead
Genre Science Fiction
Category Historical Fantasy
Rating B+

Summary When Pope Urban sounds the call for all of Christendom to squash the infidels and retake Jerusalem (aka, the start of the First Crusade), a lord of a small land in Scotland and his two oldest sons take up the cross, leaving his teenage son and wife behind to care for their lands. Due to some shady dealings when their lands are seized by a new Norwegian king who takes control of the land, the teenage son (Murdo) must travel to the Holy Lands in search of his father in order to regain the land that is rightfully theirs. Along the way he meets all manner of seamen, monks, and nobles, and might just save the world. (And there's a storyline in Scotland in 1899 that will be fleshed out further in the series about how Murdo's exploits in this book affect the future of the world.)

First Line "My name is of no importance."

Review As I've found with all of Stephen Lawhead's books (my initiation into the world of Celtic mythology and the Fantasy sub-genre), this book was just a little slow on the ramp-up of the book, but, paradoxically, by the end, I couldn't read it fast enough.

The story of Murdo's travels cover a long-forgotten Scotland (with names of places that were entirely unfamiliar to me because this was a Scotland shortly after the turn of the 11th century) all the way across the Mediterranean to the sun-scorched lands of ancient Byzantium and Jerusalem and back. The settings in this book, whether on farms, on boats, in walled citadels, or amongst a military encampment were so evocative that you feel as if you're right there traveling with Murdo and his pals.

Additionally, related to the setting, the description of the battles was really interesting (and hard) to read. Most often Murdo doesn't fight (because of his tender age), but comes through the area after the siege and sees the carnage and the evil that has been played out on the land and its inhabitants, which was a new way to portray war. I actually found it more interesting to read than Lawhead's descriptions of front-line action of fighting that are in some of his other novels. Also, this allowed for some nice philosophising about war and related topics that was interesting to read.

Beyond just describing a place or a feeling well, Lawhead describes people well. From the terror seen on a Turkish woman's face when her baby is being killed by crusading knights, to Murdo's elation at first love, to his crushing grief following his father's death, to the wisdom of Emperor Alexis, every character is meaningful and richly-drawn. The monks who go with Murdo, who are from an off-beat sect of Catholicism (not approved by the church), inspire him to greatness and are an interesting comparison to other monks and clergymen seen in the book (not that all monks and clergymen are money-hungry thieves). I also greatly enjoyed reading about the sea captain, Jon Wing, who gets Murdo safely from Scotland to the Middle East and back. He was so different from both the monks and the noblemen that it made for an interesting character study in contrasts.

The most interesting part for me to read was of the noblemen--I greatly enjoyed their POV--because Lawhead painted the many-numbered lords in various hues, from the down-right silly, to the sage. I haven't read a lot of books that involved a monarchy system, but they're almost always portrayed in literature and film as irrational and brutish, but not all of them in Lawhead's world were like this. It was a different take on a common construct that was worth the read.

There were two things that I didn't like about this book, that resulted in the lowered grade. First, the pacing at the end was problematic. The climax and resolution are the last 10% of the book and, by this point, the book is moving fast and the plot is interesting, you're fully engaged, but Lawhead got a little too purple for my taste. I found myself skimming to get to the dialogue and description of action, I didn't need all the internal monologue at this point; I'd been waiting 400 pages and wanted the goods. It was mostly in the scenes as Murdo is returning to Scotland and trying to find the family he left behind, and I understand that Murdo was equally frustrated at having to wait, and it might have just been a writing device so the reader connects with Murdo's feelings, but the writing came across as unnecessarily over-wraught. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, if your reader is skimming, it means you haven't edited as well as you should have.

The other thing that bothered me, only slightly so, was that the bit of story about how Murdo's actions will affect the future of the world were thrown in at the beginning of each section of the book, but we don't know how they relate. The only evidence in the prose is that the stuff going on in 1899 Scotland is told via someone who is part of the same sect as Murdo's monk friends. Further, the epilogue did not reveal anything more than someone ranting about the Day of Judgment approaching soon. This is likely true, but it doesn't help us understand the connection to the two time periods in the book. I'm sure more will come out in future books, connecting 1100 Scotland to 1900 Scotland, but I feel this should have been edited differently.

Watch for more reviews of the other two books in this series and Lawhead's Pendragon series in the future on this blog.

Book Review: Scarlet

Title Scarlet
Author Stephen R. Lawhead
Genre Science Fiction
Category Historical Fantasy
Rating B+

Summary The second book in the "King Raven" Trilogy, Scarlet tells how one follower of King Bran (aka, Robin Hood), namely Will Scarlet, gets captured by the evil Baron and his much more evil Abbott and much, much more evil Sheriff, and his escape. Horses and woods and sword play... oh my!

First Line "So, now. One day soon they hang me for a rogue. Fair enough. I have earned it a hundred times over, I reckon, and that's leaving a lot of acreage unexplored. The jest of it is, the crime for which I swing is the one offense I never did do. The sheriff will have it that I raised rebellion against the king. I didn't."

Review I reviewed the first book in this series, Hood, and had a few complaints--namely, the characters were hard to follow, the pacing was inordinately slow in the beginning, and the primary protagonist was too wishy-washy. Some of those were solved, some weren't.

The characters were trimmed down (or at least more familiar and there were very few new characters) in this book. Most of the Barons took a big back seat--it was Will, one key priest, Bran, and the band of Merry Men (and Merien) taking center stage in this book. The only truly new character who had a big place in this book was the Sheriff de Glanville (this series' reembodiment of the Sheriff of Nottingham). He was well characterized--evil, nasty, and downright ruthless (and a bit of a drunk, which comes in handy).

The beginning pacing problem was... still a problem. The book started off so slow with Will, a character you don't yet care about, telling a lot of back story and not getting to the meat of the problem--why he's wallowing away in jail--until nearly half-way through the book. The pacing of this book nearly requires that you know going in that it won't get really good until around page 250 or so... be prepared. In my opinion it was worth it, but just be warned that it'll be tedious for a long while.

The third problem, the vascillation of the protagonist wasn't so much a problem in this book. Will Scarlet is the number one guy (narrative-wise) in this book, and he's pretty much with you from jump, and Bran ap Brychan is more focused and reliable than he was in the first book; however, the "bad" characters are shams. Lawhead writes them as ruthless (which they should be), but also drunks who aren't that shrewd. Too many times Bran and his guys are able to easily outwit the Sheriff and the Abbott and the Count. It was too easy, the climax not so much climactic because the bad guys weren't smart enough.

Bran and the rest of his followers (the Grellon) are totally awesome fighters, slippery in the woods, handy with a long bow, worth reading about in a fight, but Lawhead makes it way too easy for them (and kind of boring for you to read). He needs to work harder in the final book, Tuck, and give them a better opponent.

Book Review: Hood

Title Hood (King Raven Trilogy, Book 1)
Author Stephen R. Lawhead
Genre Science Fiction
Category Historical Fantasy
Rating A

Summary The legend of Robin Hood gets transported to the land of Wales (the likely origin of the legend) in the King Raven series. Hood, book one, tells of how Bran (the prince of Wales) loses his father and goes on the run from the invading Normans who have seized control of England (and are beginning their push into Wales). We meet up with "Little John," "Friar Tuck," and Maid Merian and the stage is set for an uprising the likes of which the French and English have never seen.

First Line "The pig was young and wary, a yearling boar timidly testing the wind for strange scents as it ventured out into the honey-coloured light of a fast-fading day. Bran ap Brychan, Prince of Elfael, had spent the entire day stalking the greenwood for a suitable prize, and he meant to have this one."

Review I had heard a lot about this book recently, it was popping up on blogs left and right, and a co-worker leant me the first book (thereby reducing any excuses I had to not reading it), so I read it. And it was good. This isn't normally the type of book I'd read--I've only read one other mythology/historical fiction trilogy (Ted Dekker's Black, Red, and White series) and kept seeing similarities to that.

Most of my issues with the book, slow pacing at the beginning, a ridiculous number of characters that I struggled with keeping straight because their names were not familiar and/or they had a titles from the monarchy/feudal system that were hard for me to remember who was who, etc., were all problems that stemmed from my not reading enough in this genre. I think people who routinely read this type of literature would love this book.

Taking the book on face value, apart from any genre-related issues that were personal to me, this was a really good book. The story was freshened up, which avoided it being too boring to read, the characters were lively, good dialogue, rich setting. Everything you'd need for a good book. I think people who are more Celtic fanatics than me might have a better review of this book--I just feel so out of my element here--but it seemed good to me. For what that's worth.

My only drawback was that the protagonist was overly wishy-washy. Sure, it made sense for him to be wishy-washy at the beginning--he's a reluctant heir to the throne--but still on page 450? He had made a decision to be the king of his people, but when something goes wrong he wants to turn tail again and run to the north. I didn't buy that. By the end (25 pages later) he's suddenly a king full of strength and resolve. The back and forth didn't really work in this sense--it was supposed to create tension (I think) right at the climax, but just hurt the protagonist.

My co-worker has since loaned me the second book in the trilogy, Scarlet, and I'll be reading that very soon. So, if you like this kind of book (or you're willing to step out on a limb), I recommend this series, you're not too likely to be disappointed. For what that's worth.

Book Review: Practical Magic

Title: Practical Magic
Author: Alice Hoffman
Genre: Literary Fiction
Rating: B-

Summary (from Penguin Group.com): For more than two hundred years, the Owens women had been blamed for everything that went wrong in their Massachusetts town. And Gillian and Sally endured that fate as well; as children, the sisters were outsiders. Their elderly aunts almost seemed to encourage the whispers of witchery, but all Gillian and Sally wanted was to escape. One would do so by marrying, the other by running away. But the bonds they shared brought them back-almost as if by magic...

Review: I picked this book for the Modern Classics Challenge because I loved The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman and thought I'd try another one of her books. The premise of this story was interesting, as are all of Alice Hoffman's; she loves to write about family and community and integrates elements of magic and love into all of her stories. She weaves both of these into all types of relationships--inter-generational, male/female, and especially between siblings.

This particular book fell a little flat for me, compared to other works by Alice Hoffman that I've loved. I enjoyed the story, but I actually loved the guys in the story (the guys who loved the Owens women) more than the women themselves. I think the primary reason is that Hoffman did something unique in the way she told this story--dialogue was really scant and, rather than us figuring out the innerworkings of the characters and coming up with our own conclusions based on what they said and did, Hoffman came right out and told us. This book was almost entirely expository, told in a form of lyrical prose.

Additionally, Hoffman covers nearly thirty years of time in the story (all in only 244 pages), so it's covered at a break-neck speed, which is the likelist reason why Hoffman discarded dialogue and just told you what you needed to know. Another "weird" thing Hoffman did in this book is that it's entirely told in the present tense (all throughout the 30 year time span) rather than having a distinct point of view or being told in past tense (which is much more common); the beauty of the past tense is that you inherently feel that the characters have already experienced the plot and have learned their lessons, that's why you want to hear from them so you can learn too.

Here's an example:

"When evening falls, Kylie still doesn't know what to do. Gillian is at Ben's, but no one answers the phone when Kylie calls to ask Gillian if she thinks it's foolish for her to go to Gideon's. Why does she even want to? What does she care?"

The whole book reads like this "She does X. She is Y." It just makes for a very weird read and makes the characters more distant. I think that's also why I loved the guys more because the author didn't fully understand them and/or write them in a way that it appears she did not fully understood them, so I came to know them myself and had invested in getting to know them personally (rather than being told that I should love them).

That being said, it's a quick and easy read. If you're looking for something that is light and extols the virtues of strong family relationships and the beauty of head-over-heels love, than this book (which earned a B- from me) is a good book for you.

Book Review: The Sparrow

Title: The Sparrow
Author: Mary Doria Russell
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: A+

Summary (from Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library.com): The Sparrow, an astonishing literary debut, takes you on a journey to a distant planet and to the center of the human soul. It is the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a twenty-first-century scientific mission to a newly discovered extraterrestrial culture. Sandoz and his companions are prepared to endure isolation, hardship and death, but nothing can prepare them for the civilization they encounter, or for the tragic misunderstanding that brings the mission to a catastrophic end. Once considered a living saint, Sandoz returns alone to Earth physically and spiritually maimed, the mission's sole survivor - only to be accused of heinous crimes and blamed for the mission's failure.

Review: Have you ever read a book that made you want to throw up and you consider it one of the best books you've ever read? Achieving that balance is a rare feat, I'd presume, but Mary Doria Russell has maintained the right mix of the horrifying with the beautiful to keep you absolutely consumed in this novel.

Russell has a great writing style, compact, with an economy of language that makes this book so entirely readable that you'll find yourself finding ways to keep it in your hands (eschewing other books and responsibilities like sleeping and eating). Her ability to write so well, balancing the complexity of telling two story lines occurring on the foreign planet and in her future vision of Earth, may be attributable to her prior life writing academic articles as an anthropologist.

Getting back to the complexity of the story-line and the dual plots, you have to know that Russell has a great storyline because you go into the novel knowing the essence of the plot--eight people go up in a spaceship and only one, Emilio Sandoz, comes back alive; however, you keep reading because you want to know what happened on that planet and why everything went awry. Russell creates characters that you love and you feel invested in, you feel their pain and realize that the worst that Sandoz goes through is not physical pain, but humiliation and complete loss of his worldview, and utter loneliness that is unconsoleable.

The theme of the book is rich, and its clear that Russell is writing to tell a tale of her anthropological roots--how cultures perceive and impact each other. But it goes deeper than that. Russel says, in an interview included in the Ballantine Readers' Circle edition of the book, that at the end of the book she wants readers to realize, "That you can't know the answers to questions of faith but that the questions are worth asking and worth thinking about deeply," (416).

Maybe this theme, the weaving together of science and faith, is especially poignant to me as a Christian who works with researchers that are doing experiments using stem cells in an effort to find a way to clone new livers or pancreases or kidneys for transplant patients--a noble cause sure, but are they playing god?

Also, I loved the ideas that I wrestled with while reading this book. Does God's will make sense? What makes humans think that we have a right to understand the will of God with our finite minds? Why do we attempt to rid the world of sickness or pain that is clearly an effect of the fall and a manifestation of the evil in the world, knowing that we'll never be completely successful? As Russell predicts, you won't come to perfect answers to your questions while reading The Sparrow, but that doesn't mean the pursuit of the answers isn't meaningful.

This book has graphic imagery in it; however, Russell does a great job of not being in the least bit profane. The worst thing that happens is that the priest admits he was raped while on the foreign planet, begging the question, "Is confession good for the soul?", but never actually describes the act(s). Perhaps that's what is so cringe-inducing--Russell doesn't have to explicitly state the details of the atrocities, but our minds have been exposed to such a range of evils (at the hands of our fellow humans) that we knew the implications and, thus, you have a strong reaction.

When I posted a teaser from this book for last week's Teaser Tuesday, avisannschild, wrote that this was among the most disturbing books she's ever read, and Wendi B. said that someone recommended it to her as one of the best books they've read. There in lies the beauty of The Sparrow, disturbing and profoundly great. A+ indeed.

It's Time For A...

...book review! I tout this blog as a review of things culturally-related (tedium of pop culture to haute couture), so I need to get some more literature rocking around on here. [Also, Liam's Alternate Reality today asked about an "under-the-radar" book that you'd recommend to people and it got me thinking.]

I finished The Host at 3:30 a.m. (EST) on Wednesday morning; I read so late into the morning because once the book really ramped up, at the last 150-or-so pages, I couldn't stop, the story was so engaging. I found this book to be good, with good character development that could appeal to a wide audience. It's a science-fiction story with an alien invasion of Earth (in addition to multiple other "planets"). There's an awesome underground resistance movement from a cell of humans, and all kinds of business breaks loose when an alien/soul defect to the human alliance. There's also romance written in for those who don't think they'd like a typical sci-fi book, but it's tame and not the over-arching issue of the book, rather just sort of a side story to draw in more female readership.

Here's a review of The Host that I found from Entertainment Weekly.