Thanksgiving, 2016
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Prepare to Die!, by Paul Tobin
If you’ve seen the move Hancock, this will remind you of it. Except the hero, Reaver, is not a depressed drunk. And he has not one villain to fight, but about eight or ten. And they have extraordinarily cool names–Octagon, Macabre, Laser Beast, Tempest, Siren, Mistress Mary, Stellar, and a few others. Reaver was created from an accident involving a chemical spill (where have we…
Hell, Movie review
This is one of those happy instances where I chose a recommended movie from Netflix and it actually turned out to be a good choice. So, I thought I’d share it with you. It takes place in the future, where climate change has exceeded Al Gore’s wildest dreams, and the earth is a wasteland. A small group of survivors is living off the land, foraging…
Amazonia, by James Rollins
This book is pure adventure–it starts out with a man walking out of the Brazilian jungle in a delirium and dying soon after. There are two things puzzling about this: a strange tattoo covers his chest and he has two arms. The tattoo is from a tribe that no one knows anything about, except for strange rumors, and one of his arms has regrown. He…
Lethal, by Sandra Brown
This was a pretty good mystery, and will keep you guessing right up to the very end. It makes sense, except for one secret that holds the key to the whole plot. A murdered cop hides some criminal evidence, and the hiding place is quite a stretch of believability.The hero, Coburn, is a one man wrecking crew, but he has to use his wits and…
The Drowned Cities, by Paolo Bacigalupi
Beauty and the beast gets a new spin. In this future America, scientists have been able to cross man with beast. But the beast is more like a super beast–huge, powerful, and lightning fast. It’s been bred for military use, and as long as it kills as ordered (notice I didn’t say kills the enemy), everything’s a-okay. But since the beast is half human, it…
The Accident: A Thriller, by Linwood Barclay
Remember the horrific crash that happened in New York in 2009? Mother killed with kids, high blood alcohol content. Weed in her system. Yet she was never seen by family or friends using either? This book starts off with a similar incident. A mother dies in a car wreck, with an alcohol ratio in her blood that’s off the chart. And she’s almost a complete…
Empires of Sand, by David Ball
An epic story covering two generations and two continents. It starts in 1800’s France, with two young boys who narrowly escape death by a wild boar. A passing priest happens on the scene and has the opportunity to have his coach driver shoot the boar before it charges. He orders the driver not to shoot, and the story continues. What? Why would he do that?…
Moonrise Kingdom, movie review
Wonderful story–crazy, but very engaging. Two kids from a small town on an island in the middle of nowhere decide to run away from home. A simple theme, but the kids are very much on the quirky side, kind of like Napoleon Dynamite. And the characters that make up the respective parents are just loony–but in a funny way. Bill Murray is one of the…
Pathfinder, by Orson Scott Card
Science fiction bordering on fantasy. The concept is very unique, and is what makes the book such an interesting read. It’s about three characters who all have unique abilities–not as superheroes, but powerful nonetheless. They’re all centered around time travel: One can see where people have traveled in the past; one can actually travel into the past; and one can move forward in time. These are all important survival ttraits, as they’re being chased by a truly evil Queen.
This quote will give you a taste of what they’re escaping:
“She likes us,” said Umbo. “I know, I could feel it too,” said Rigg. “She’s really glad to have us here. I think she loves us like her own children. Whom she murdered and cut up into the stew. They were delicious.”
Dying of the Light, by George R.R. Martin
Take Game of Thrones and move it to outer space, and you’ve got this novel. Not that Martin can only write one type of novel–it works very well, and Mr. Game does a very nice job of writing in a completely different genre. The world that we’re taken to is in another solar system, where this particular planet (Worlorn) has such an extreme elliptical orbit…