Adam Johnson
Author of the masterful The Orphan Master's Son, Johnson follows up with a set of short stories. I don't normally choose short stories since they fall into one of two categories: not good (no engagement, character development, plot arc, or resolution), or excellent (but leave you wanting more). Johnson falls into the later. The range of topics in this collection is astounding (sci-fi future tech, post-Katrina itinerant single parenting, child porn, post glasnost retired East-German prison warden, North Korean defectors, autobiography of breast-cancer survivor). Each of these stories quickly established engaging characters, providing enough background for depth and leaving me wanting more. The connective tissue in all of these stories is the search for life purpose by ordinary people dumped into extraordinary situations. Or maybe it is extraordinary people portrayed with ordinary problems and life outlooks. For each of these stories, I would gladly read a full length novel exploring the characters history, decisions and life struggles. Whether you like short stories or not, these will engage.
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Saturday, April 30, 2016
The Fate of Ten
Pittacus Lore
Book 6 of the Lorien Legacies series
So I missed book 5, and will have to pick it up later. This installment finds 4, 5, 6, 7, 9 & 10 remaining. We open with 5 & 9 fighting each other in NY, but barely noticed as the Mog warships hover over the city and are destroying Manhattan. Warships are over DC, Tokyo, Beijing, LA, London, etc. The war is officially on and there is no more hiding. 4 and Sam are battling in NY, 6 and 7 are in Mexico at "The Sanctuary" with Adam (major plot development in book 5 I presume) and 10 is captured by Setrakus Ra and in on the invading flagship. So the crew is still trying to figure out what Ra's endgame is, as well as finding out who they can/cannot trust. Along the way, they continue to discover new allies in surprising ways. Of all the books, this seems like the most in the vein of a "plot setup" as any. Not really any seriously new or exciting alien stuff or battle technique, but finally moving the plot around to allow for a conclusion to the series. So not quite as good as prior episodes, but worth continuing none-the-less.
Monday, April 25, 2016
Nothing to Lose
A Jack Reacher Novel
Lee Child
Reacher is traveling through Colorado, gets a ride to Hope, and on a whim decided to walk on to Despair. Of course they have to go together. He proceeds to get run out of town, for no reason. And this gets him curious, and of course it leads to a conspiracy/crime/military connected mystery. He makes friends with a local cop from Hope and they work together on another short term relationship. There is a bit of religious fervor here and Reacher makes an interesting comment "We are all atheists. You don't believe in Zeus, or Ra, or 1000 other gods. Why does it bug you that I don't believe in 1001?"
Read
Lee Child
Reacher is traveling through Colorado, gets a ride to Hope, and on a whim decided to walk on to Despair. Of course they have to go together. He proceeds to get run out of town, for no reason. And this gets him curious, and of course it leads to a conspiracy/crime/military connected mystery. He makes friends with a local cop from Hope and they work together on another short term relationship. There is a bit of religious fervor here and Reacher makes an interesting comment "We are all atheists. You don't believe in Zeus, or Ra, or 1000 other gods. Why does it bug you that I don't believe in 1001?"
Read
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Golden Son
Pierce Brown
Book 2 of the Red Rising Trilogy
Starting a couple years after Red Rising, Darrow is now leading House Augustus in final exam for The Academy, effectively a massive war games set in the asteroid belt. Right on the verge of winning the games, he is blindsided by House Ballona and loses not only the games, but his entire ship and crew. The result is that he is disowned by Augustus and put on the auction block. The remainder of the book is effectively a political thriller in how to run a revolution. Very well done with keeping the intrigue and suspense alive while offering the reader opportunities for thoughtful consideration of truly sticky moral issues. An excellent second book that is way more than the placeholder of most book two's in trilogies. Looking forward to the final installment.
Read
Book 2 of the Red Rising Trilogy
Starting a couple years after Red Rising, Darrow is now leading House Augustus in final exam for The Academy, effectively a massive war games set in the asteroid belt. Right on the verge of winning the games, he is blindsided by House Ballona and loses not only the games, but his entire ship and crew. The result is that he is disowned by Augustus and put on the auction block. The remainder of the book is effectively a political thriller in how to run a revolution. Very well done with keeping the intrigue and suspense alive while offering the reader opportunities for thoughtful consideration of truly sticky moral issues. An excellent second book that is way more than the placeholder of most book two's in trilogies. Looking forward to the final installment.
Read
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Gone Tomorrow
A Jack Reacher Novel
Lee Child
Reacher is on a NY subway in the middle of the night when he notices something strange. A woman riding in his car hits all 11 markers on the Israeli suicide bomber checklist. When Reacher goes to confront her, she kills herself. So not a suicide bomber. But true to form, Reacher is intrigued, and then drawn into a political corruption/national security drama that pits him against the local NYPD, the FBI, DIA, a US Senator and a local Al Qaeda cell. Another day at the office.
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Lee Child
Reacher is on a NY subway in the middle of the night when he notices something strange. A woman riding in his car hits all 11 markers on the Israeli suicide bomber checklist. When Reacher goes to confront her, she kills herself. So not a suicide bomber. But true to form, Reacher is intrigued, and then drawn into a political corruption/national security drama that pits him against the local NYPD, the FBI, DIA, a US Senator and a local Al Qaeda cell. Another day at the office.
Read
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Red Rising
Pierce Brown
Book 1 of the Red Rising Trilogy
Set on the planet Mars at a time in our future where the moon, the rocky planets and several moons of the gas giants have been colonized. Society is organized in a color caste system, with Red being the miners, Pink the servants, Gold the elite rulers, etc. Darrow is a Red and gets drawn into a resistance movement that aims to change the system. He does not go willingly, but is pushed in by his wife Eo. The result is astounding. This is part Hunger Games and part Divergence. Yet is is bigger than either, maybe based on the solar system sized scope of the world. In many ways it takes on the larger questions of world building that are explored in the Red Mars Trilogy and even, to a certain extent, Asimov's Foundation Series. An excellent first book in what I hope is an excellent series.
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Book 1 of the Red Rising Trilogy
Set on the planet Mars at a time in our future where the moon, the rocky planets and several moons of the gas giants have been colonized. Society is organized in a color caste system, with Red being the miners, Pink the servants, Gold the elite rulers, etc. Darrow is a Red and gets drawn into a resistance movement that aims to change the system. He does not go willingly, but is pushed in by his wife Eo. The result is astounding. This is part Hunger Games and part Divergence. Yet is is bigger than either, maybe based on the solar system sized scope of the world. In many ways it takes on the larger questions of world building that are explored in the Red Mars Trilogy and even, to a certain extent, Asimov's Foundation Series. An excellent first book in what I hope is an excellent series.
Read
Sunday, April 3, 2016
61 Hours
A Jack Reacher Novel
Lee Child
The first in a what turns out to be a four novel set. 61 hours refers to a countdown from the beginning of a novel to something that will happen. Reacher is hitching on a bus through South Dakota that wrecks in a storm and finds himself stranded in a local town. He gets involved with the police, who are adjusting to a new Federal Prison, and trying to evict a meth-dealing biker gang from squatting on an old military installation. In particular, this book is a bit different because Reacher starts out with a positive relationship with the local police. Instead of adversarial, they immediately see his skills as being useful to their particular problems and he helps with a couple of investigations along the way. He also makes contact (for the first time since his discharge) with the new CO of his old MP unit as he is trying to uncover information about the mystery military installation. This contact starts the thread of the next four novels of Reacher traveling to Virginia to meet this officer. Of course, nothing in the town is quite as it seems at first glance, and in typical Lee Child fashion, nothing is quite as surprising to the reader as it is to the characters. Still fun.
Read
Lee Child
The first in a what turns out to be a four novel set. 61 hours refers to a countdown from the beginning of a novel to something that will happen. Reacher is hitching on a bus through South Dakota that wrecks in a storm and finds himself stranded in a local town. He gets involved with the police, who are adjusting to a new Federal Prison, and trying to evict a meth-dealing biker gang from squatting on an old military installation. In particular, this book is a bit different because Reacher starts out with a positive relationship with the local police. Instead of adversarial, they immediately see his skills as being useful to their particular problems and he helps with a couple of investigations along the way. He also makes contact (for the first time since his discharge) with the new CO of his old MP unit as he is trying to uncover information about the mystery military installation. This contact starts the thread of the next four novels of Reacher traveling to Virginia to meet this officer. Of course, nothing in the town is quite as it seems at first glance, and in typical Lee Child fashion, nothing is quite as surprising to the reader as it is to the characters. Still fun.
Read
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Worth Dying For
A Jack Reacher Novel
Lee Child
Reacher is on his way to Virginia when he gets dropped into a small town in Nebraska. And of course, he is dropped into the middle of a strange situation. This one feels more like a Hitchcockian drama than a CIA political thriller, but that kinda makes it fun. There is a local family that controls the county (and for comic relief, they use washed out Nebraska football players as their enforcers, with everyone refering to them as "cornhuskers" as if it is a job title). This family has a dark secret and Reacher ends up uncovering it, and then resolving the problem. And he teaches the local townspeople to have some backbone along the way.
Read
Lee Child
Reacher is on his way to Virginia when he gets dropped into a small town in Nebraska. And of course, he is dropped into the middle of a strange situation. This one feels more like a Hitchcockian drama than a CIA political thriller, but that kinda makes it fun. There is a local family that controls the county (and for comic relief, they use washed out Nebraska football players as their enforcers, with everyone refering to them as "cornhuskers" as if it is a job title). This family has a dark secret and Reacher ends up uncovering it, and then resolving the problem. And he teaches the local townspeople to have some backbone along the way.
Read
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