Books Archives - Page 53 of 71

Yzabel / April 29, 2014

Review: The Oversight

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

“The end always happens faster than you think.”

Once there were hundreds of members of the Oversight, the brave souls who guard the borders between the mundane and the magic. Now there are only five.

When a vagabond brings a screaming girl to the Oversight’s London headquarters, she could answer their hopes for new recruit, or she could be the instrument of their downfall.

Review:

[I got an ARC of this book through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review. Physical copy liable to change upon actual publishing.]

At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of this novel, not knowing if I’d like it or if it was starting too slowly to my liking. However, I soon found myself engrossed in the story—I only read it in more than just a couple of days because I was busy, otherwise I’d probably have gone through it much more quickly.

First, though, one thing must be made clear: this is book 1 in a trilogy, and while it doesn’t end on a strong cliffhanger, readers should be aware that not every single plot line gets resolved in it. The world building is quite complex, and only some of its aspects are revealed in this first installment. When one threat gets neutralised, another one appears; when one character is saved, another one gets into a predicament. All those things are meant to tie into the next book(s). If a reader’s all right with that, then there should be no problem.

I found the 19th century London depicted here to my taste: dark alleys and street urchins; gentlemen dealing with creatures they don’t fully understand; a travelling circus with a battle of “wizards”; the mysterious Oversight, who may be seen as “the nice ones”, but whose members can be just as ruthless as their enemies, if not more. This world is painted in more shades of grey than I could count; the purest-looking ones aren’t so innocent, and the darkest may not be so evil as they seem (the Sluagh’s vindictive attitude, for instance, partly stems from how they feel cheated: they were allowed to keep the forests/wild lands if they stayed out of the cities… but human cities are encroaching more and more upon the wilderness, making the deal somewhat obsolete).

The writing was descriptive and captivating enough, without making me feel that it was delaying too much the setting of the various plots. There was something magic-like to it that made me come back on a regular basis.

What makes this novel’s strength might be its downfall for some readers, though, in that it’s very much plot-driven. The author wove his story in a way that kept me guessing as to who was truly evil and who wasn’t, who was the enemy and who might actually be even more dangerous; on the other hand, while this was very well-done in my opinion, one might also find the characters not so well-developed in comparison. An example would be the relationship between Sara and Jack[Sara and Jack (hide spoiler)]: I could feel it, sense it, but it was perhaps too subtle, so in the end her decision to go through the mirrors[through the mirrors (hide spoiler)] seemed somewhat rushed. The story and the promises it holds for next volume prevented me from resenting this too much, but it could still be a problem, depending on one’s expectations.

Overall, a very intriguing novel which really caught my attention and makes me want to read the next one right now, but with the hopes that we’ll get to know the characters better.

Yzabel / April 22, 2014

Review: Iron & Velvet

Iron & Velvet by Alexis Hall

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

First rule in this line of business: don’t sleep with the client….

My name’s Kate Kane, and when an eight-hundred-year-old vampire prince came to me with a case, I should have told her no. But I’ve always been a sucker for a femme fatale.

It always goes the same way. You move too fast, you get in too deep, and before you know it, someone winds up dead. Last time it was my partner. This time it could be me. Yesterday a werewolf was murdered outside the Velvet, the night-time playground of one of the most powerful vampires in England. Now half the monsters in London are at each other’s throats, and the other half are trying to get in my pants. The Witch Queen will protect her own, the wolves are out for vengeance, and the vampires are out for, y’know, blood.

I’ve got a killer on the loose, a war on the horizon, and a scotch on the rocks. It’s going to be an interesting day.

Review:

A fun read in several ways. I quite liked the tone in general, as well as some of the characters. I think Elise remains my favourite, even though she doesn’t appear that much, and I can only side with Julian when she says, basically, that “very few people manage to give life to something inanimate, it’s a great feat of ancient, difficult magic… and most of the time, they use their creation as a sex toy.” But then, I’m always partial towards golems. And London, because I love this city. Blood magic and creepy fairies and a hive mind of rats. And there’s a Geat vampire prince. Seriously, how fucking cool is that?

However, after a while, some of the recurrent sass became a little, well, too recurrent—notably Kate’s “Huh” and her tendency to underline the crappy situations in which she put herself in (“Here lies Kate Kane, blah blah. Beloved daughter. Sorely missed.”). She didn’t strike me as a good investigator, spending too much time running here and there grasping at straws, too easily distracted, and I felt that the lead she needed rested too much on happenstance, and was made for plot convenience, rather than something a talented investigator could deduce (or maybe she should have deduced it, considering her origins?). At times I wanted to bang my head and call a too stupid to live on her.

I really didn’t connect with the Kate/Julian relationship. I do get lust, physical attraction, spur-of-the-moment desire, but I tend to find it hard to believe when it turns into strong ties in barely a few days. Certainly not when 800-year-old immortals are concerned (I’d expect them to be more jaded about that). The “sweeting” bit got on my nerves pretty quickly—but I have a hard time with pet names in general. Also, every other female wanted to do Kate, or had been her girlfriend, it seems, and this is treading too much into Mary Sue territory to my liking. As for the sex scenes, they weren’t so exciting—too much purple prose and weird metaphors (“She lay underneath me like an unexploded grenade”… How to put it… Uhm, no?).

I still don’t know if the hints at other stories (Patrick, for instance) are intentional, winks, or lack of inspiration. They’re fun, in a way, but… I don’t know.

2 or 2.5 stars, not sure. I can’t say I disliked this novel, because it does contain elements that make me go squee; however, I can’t say I loved it either.

Yzabel / April 21, 2014

Review: What Remains

What Remains by Kay Holland

My rating: [rating=1]

Summary:

Project Fed. It was supposed to be the answer to hunger, but
instead, it was the destruction of the world as we knew it. The growth of chemically enhanced “super” fruits and vegetables began in unmarked farms across the Nations, as well as their distribution in small towns. Within hours of Project Fed’s first delivery and primary consumption, something far beyond expectancy was unleashed. Something far beyond what anyone could help.

Four months later, Seventeen year old Max Cade is trying to
survive amongst what remains of her old life. In an effort to escort an awry “Doctor” from one camp to the next, she will have to reintroduce her two young friends to the horrors beyond their shelter that she so badly wanted to shield them from. Getting there was supposed to be the easy part, but when travelling through a world of ruin, sometimes the undead have other plans.

Review:

[I got a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. The book already been published when I requested it, I don’t think it was an ARC.]

From the blurb, as well as from the first two chapters, this novel had an interesting premise, and looked like a short, nice read; alas, I didn’t enjoy it.

First problem: too many spelling mistakes and misused words. I know a lot of books out there contain the odd typo, and I wouldn’t nitpick about one, but too many will just throw me out of the story, and this is exactly what happened. A few examples:

“Something still stirred in her bowls after all of this time”
“their since of security”
“the extent of differentially”
“A few interns had committed suicide due to depression and fear” (I think the right word was “inmates”?)
“psychical” in place of “physical”

Also weird sentence structures:

“made helped him to decide”
“Just behind him whom Max thought to be his father was standing at the makeshift hole/window watching the kid and wearing a blank face.”

After a while, it really gets hard to ignore those. (There are also a couple of weird tense shifts, as well as point of view changes that sometimes made it confusing when it comes to know who’s thinking/doing what.)

Another problem: the dichotomy between blurb and book. We readers immediately know what caused the epidemics, but the characters learn about it some 69% in, and in a kind of passing way, as if so many people already knew, except for them. I wouldn’t have minded the late reveal, if the blurb hadn’t given it away from the beginning. So basically the whole mystery about the “virus” petered out quickly, and I wondered what was the point.

The story also runs into several plot holes. The well-locked store where they find shelter, for instance: no infected has been able to enter it in months, yet the characters just waltz in? Or a character whos named before he was formally introduced (probably a typo more than a plot hole… but still annoying). Or the crazy camp captain who threatens to throw them out without their weapons if they don’t do his bidding, yet never takes their guns to better keep them under his thumb.

I couldn’t like nor connect with the characters either. Too much telling about their feelings, for starters; as a result, they came off as bland and more like generic zombie-novel-archetypes rather than real people (and Peter being so ready for a zombie apocalypse, just like that? Hmmm…). They also displayed contradictory reactions (Max knows Paul was only a pre-med student, yet blames him for not being a “real doctor”—he never said he was). Sometimes, those even reached the Too Stupid To Live zone: Paul doesn’t do much when it comes to defending himself, and although they know that travelling by car attracts zombies, they still jump in one as soon as they get the opportunity. Guess what happens next?

The novel does contain good ideas that clearly have their place in such a genre: trust issues; fear of losing one’s “family” because any such connection can be severed at any moment; difficult decisions to make (abandoning someone who may or may not be infected); people going overboard, their crazy desire for control running amok now that there’s no more real society to keep them in check. Unfortunately, those weren’t enough to counterbalance the many mistakes and abrupt transitions.

Yzabel / April 20, 2014

Review: Have Wormhole, Will Travel

Have Wormhole, Will Travel by Tony McFadden

My rating: [rating=2]

Summary:

Vampires? No Such Thing.

Aliens, though, that’s something else.

They’ve been here, living quietly among us, since before the Industrial Revolution.

Their goal: To ensure we never leave our Solar System. We have a bad habit of wiping out indigenous populations, and theirs is the nearest inhabited planet to ours.

So when a scientist at Sydney University harnesses the power of wormholes, making interstellar travel a virtual walk in the park, one of these tall, pale-skinned aliens, Callum, is forced to choose: destroy us, or help us survive the inevitable Armageddon.

8 billion Earthlings, and our survival is in the hands of one guy – alien – meant to wipe us out.

Review:

[I got this book from NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

To be fair, I got it a couple of months ago, perhaps a little more, and should probably have read and reviewed it sooner, but… Oh, well.

I liked the basic idea: an alien race has been monitoring Earth (as well as other planets) to make sure none would develop interstellar travel—wormholes would allow just that. It seems we puny humans have a reputation of pillaging barbarians, so they don’t want us anywhere near their home. As a result, their agents have been on planet for centuries, squashing out scientific discoveries (such as cold fusion) as soon as they hit a little too close to home, so to speak. Callum and Jason (we can assume those aren’t their real names) are two such agents, currently living in Sydney, and so when Professor Sam Sheppard stumbles upon the perfect theory to create instant means of travel by way of wormholes, it’s up to them to report to their own bosses and try to fix the problem… or not.

(I won’t pass judgment on the science aspect. String theory isn’t my forte, and I honestly wouldn’t know if what was mentioned in the novel was true to real science or not.)

This premise raised interesting ethical questions, because the aliens are ready to wipe out all human beings just out of fear (but we are the ruthless barbarians). I definitely would’ve wanted to see this developed some more, especially considering the method used in the attempt to save our planet, because there was strong potential in that. On the one hand, it probably would’ve made for a less funny story; on the other hand, the comical aspects weren’t that funny for me, so I guess that’s why I wouldn’t have minded. The novel didn’t do anything for me in that regard, and I felt at times that it didn’t know where to go, whether to be comical or lean towards more serious science-fiction.

The plot was also a bit disjointed here and there, though nothing that prevented me from following what was happening. There was a lot of dialogue and not that many descriptions, so at times it was a little difficult to picture places and people. I’m usually not for long descriptions anyway, but I admit some more this time would have helped.

The characters, to be honest, left me cold. The three girls convinced that Jacob and Callum were vampires made me smile at first; however, their antics tended to become tiring, and I wasn’t sure in the end what was the point, since one of them is only really important because of where she lives, another is simply comic relief, and they were interchangeable. Same with Sheppard, insufferable prick as he was. Though I get those characters were likely meant to be on the cliché side for the sake of poking fun at clichés, it was hard to actually care about them, and consequently about the fate of Earth and how everything would end. They came off as mean and/or stupid more than anything else. Also, Callum definitely pulls a TSTL: what’s the point of being here to stop Sheppard if you give him the means to create wormholes by accidentally doodling equations on a sheet of paper right under his nose? Hadn’t he done that, the problem would’ve been solved from the beginning. I don’t like it when a plot rests on such “happenings” that aren’t too believable.

Some more background about the aliens would’ve been welcome, too. Since one of them appears to lean towards a relationship with a human being, I expected something to explain it. Their race as a whole brushes off humans as expendable, after all.

All in all, as I said, I liked the idea about wormholes, and the book was in itself an easy read. Unfortunately, the unsavory characters, a couple of plot holes, and the way the story seemed to hesitate between “comical” and “actually serious” didn’t allow me to enjoy this novel more.

Yzabel / April 17, 2014

Review: Cipher

Cipher by S.E. Bennett

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Cipher Omega is a failed experiment, an identical clone of the brilliant, damaged woman whose genome the scientists of the Basement were trying to copy and improve. All her life she has dreamt of life outside the laboratory, on the surface world, but when her home is destroyed and she’s left the only survivor of a hundred-year human cloning project, she is forced to face the reality of the military-ruled nation that created her. Aided by the only other surviving child of the Basement, an enigmatic solider named Tor, and two rebel freedom fighters named Bowen and Oona Rivers, Cipher finds herself searching for answers, at any cost.

Review:

[I got a copy from the publisher through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

I quite liked this novel, though I must admit I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had expected.

The Basement setting and situation were intriguing, and I found the story as a whole pervaded with a feeling of oppression. It was more an impression than definite proof, but I had the nagging feeling that everyone was always being watched by someone else. Maybe because of the Feeds, maybe because Cipher remained aware that she had to watch her back at all times, and acknowledged that as soon as she’d let her guard down, it’d be the end. (And I agree she was right in thinking so!)

Cipher was a likeable character, one who was aware of the problems she was in, yet tried to keep fighting, even if it meant lying low for a while. She wasn’t a whiner, she kept focused on what she wanted and hoped for, and she knew how to put her coding and engineering skills to use in order to build a few backdoors. She only allowed herself to trust a handful of people, and wasn’t fooled by the shiny varnish and empty promises of the Municipality. While there were hints of a potential romance too (perhaps even a triangle), she kept her priorities straight and never let herself be engulfed into that, the way too many characters unfortunately seem to do as soon as a love interest appears. Love was an important motivator for her; however, it was ‘love’ in a wider sense, encompassing friendship and wanting to protect the few people she held dear—not the old-as-sin trope of True Love At First Sight Forever for a boy she had just met. And she remained ‘faithful’ to the Basement people, to her father, even to her sisters, in that she mourned them like the people they had been, and didn’t forget about them as soon as she was out, nor no matter how dire her own circumstances.

I also liked the siblings: Oona for her entusiasm for gardening and living things, in a world so devoid of positive life and new births; and Bowen for being overall sympathetic, understanding, and ready to take calculated risks to get the truth out.

A few things bothered me nevertheless. I expected Tor to be more… impressive when it came to planning, and the same went for Sally (deemed quite the strategist, after all). Some things are explained later when it comes to Tor, but I thought his mother wasn’t so foreseeing, and it seemed a little jarring. (Minor quibble about Tor: his way of calling Cipher ‘love’. It’s probably just me, but I can’t stand that, just like I can’t stand ‘babe’.) I wondered about a couple of inconsistencies, too: for instance, how come Cipher didn’t remember Tor from the Basement, when she was only two years younger, and she said she knew everybody there? She was rather young at the time, yet since she remembered classes she took when she was 4-5, I would’ve thought she would remember him as well?

At times, Cipher’s thoughts also intruded too much on the narrative. They weren’t useless, and contained important information, so they weren’t a problem in themselves; only they tended to interrupt the flow, and made me wonder if they wouldn’t have been better included elsewhere.

I wished Bowen and Oona had been given more importance, probably because of The Truth (the unauthorised Feed they broadcast in the beginning): the latter looked like a useful tool, able to ignite a lot of things, yet it just went away, and the siblings became more and more like ‘people to protect’, and not ‘people who mattered thanks to their actions’. (Perhaps I also slightly resented how Oona was important due to her pregnancy; it made sense within the context of that specific world, but I tend to find such things annoying. As a woman, I’m not at ease with the idea that what makes me important is my ability to have children; I want to believe we’re much more than that. This is however a very personal observation, and I doubt it’ll be a problem for every reader.)

In general, I liked this novel, and if there were to be a next installment—the ending kind of begs for one, especially now that Metis[Metis (hide spoiler)] has appeared—I’d probably want to read it. I just can’t push myself to give it more than 3 stars.

Yzabel / April 16, 2014

Review: Night Terrors

Night Terrors by Tim Waggoner

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

It’s Men In Black meets The Sandman.

Meet the fine men and women of the NightWatch: a supernatural agency dedicated to hunting down rogue nightmares that escape from other realms when people dream about them, while ensuring that other dream-folk are allowed to live among the regular, human population… as long as they play by the rules.

Review:

[I got a free copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

Well, what can I say… I really liked this one? I tend to naturally gravitate towards themes such as dreams and nightmares, and when I saw that Night Terrors dealt with exactly that—more specifically, nightmares made “flesh”—I just couldn’t pass on it. Although I’m also a glutton for punishment, since clowns have always creeped me out, and guess what Jinx is? Yep. The cover kind of gave it away, after all.

Audra and Jinx are agents of the Shadow Watch, an organisation bent on regulating interactions between the human world and Nod, a place where dreams have attained a state of self-awareness. Audra is an Ideator, a human whose psyche created and fleshed out a nightmare (Jinx), until the latter became his own self. Since then, both have been working for that special agency.

Some aspects of this novel rest on well-known tropes, such as the two “cops” with a record of regularly causing havoc while on a mission, or the dashing potential love interest with mysterious goals and a mysterious employer. Or the shady bar with shady customers and a shady bartender who deals information. However, those being traditional fixtures of the detective novel/UF genre, I wasn’t too surprised to see them here. What I appreciated was how they were, but didn’t become too heavy.

I seriously dug the world-building here. The narrative, told in Audra’s voice, is peppered with small doses of information here and there, which allowed me to qickly grasp what Nod and the Shadow Watch stood for, how things worked there, what an Ideator was, and so on. Audra has a tendency to address the reader, which can be annoying to a degree if you don’t like that; personally, I thought it created some kind of complicity, as if I was allowed to get a glimpse of what dreams are really made of.

The characters weren’t the most developed ever, but I found them fun and sympathetic nonetheless. The nightmares/dreamt creatures came in many flavours, ranging from relatively human-looking dreams to strange animals, fear-inducing shadows and even Deathmobiles beaming green aging lasers into their enemies. The concept of their having Night and Day Aspects added interesting possibilities in my opinion. Night Jinx was pretty funny (in his own frightening ways), while Day Jinx turned out to be quite the decent fellow. There’s also a hint of a potential love interest, as said above. It never becomes overwhelming, which I was grateful for: the story’s stakes are high enough, and I seldom root for making-out sessions in such cases. The novel paved the way for more in that regard… or not… and it doesn’t really matter.

I admit I wasn’t too keen on the Evil Gloating speech of the villain towards the end, but at least it wasn’t the Bond Villain Stupidity kind.

As a whole, this book simply… clicked with me. I can’t really explain in objective terms.

Yzabel / April 14, 2014

Review: King’s Crusade

King’s Crusade by A.D. Starrling

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

The perfect immortal warrior.
A set of stolen, priceless artifacts.
An ancient sect determined to bring about the downfall of human civilization.

The exciting, action-packed follow-up to Soul Meaning and the second installment in the supernatural thriller series, Seventeen.

When a team of scientists unearth scriptures older than the Dead Sea Scrolls in a cave in the Eastern Desert mountains in Egypt, a mystery lost to the tides of time is uncovered. Heading the expedition is Dimitri Reznak, the Head of the Crovir Immortal Culture & History Section. But the monumental discovery is spoiled by evidence of looting and half the priceless artifacts Reznak has been seeking for centuries have disappeared.

Alexa King is a covert agent for the Crovir First Council. When she is approached by her godfather for a mission that could help elucidate the enigma of her lost past, she finds herself delving into the dangerous and shadowy world of secret religious societies. Assigned by Reznak to assist her is Zachary Jackson, a gifted human and Harvard archaeology professor.

In their search for the missing artifacts, King and Jackson stumble upon the existence of a deadly sect whose origins are as mystifying as the relics they are searching for. From North Africa to the doors of Vatican City itself, they unveil a centuries-old plan that aims to shatter the very structure of civilized society.

With the help of Reznak and a group of unexpected allies, King and Jackson must stop the enemy and uncover the astonishing truth behind the missing artifacts and King’s own unearthly origins before all is lost.

Review:

[I got a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

3.5 stars. I had read and reviewed the first installment a couple of months ago, and I liked this one a little better. The action-to-revelations ratio seemed better paced to me, and didn’t leave me with the same dizzying sensation as Soul Meaning did. There is a lot of action—the characters are, after all, up against a sect that doesn’t hesitate to shoot whoever gets in the way, and whose arm reaches several countries—but I thought it felt more compact, and put to better use. It might be confusing sometimes, in that the author describes various kinds of moves, so if a reader doesn’t know those terms, picturing said moves could be difficult; fortunately, it wasn’t a problem for me (at least those Body Combat classes taught me the names of various kinds of kicks). I keep thinking that, just like Book #1, King’s Crusade would make a good action movie.

At first, I wasn’t sure about what to think of the conspiracy/archaeology side, because it’s been played a lot in so many stories already. On the other hand, though it’s a bit cliché, I do enjoy my dose of sexy-looking archaeology geek professors who find themselves embroiled in secret societies wars.

Speaking of which, I liked Jackson as a character. In the beginning, I was afraid he’d turned some kind of womanizer (when Alexa recruits him, he’s in bed with a woman), but it quickly appeared that once on the job, he’d do it seriously, and involve himself even though things were clearly dangerous. He’s in in for the money, the mystery, the scientific/historical interest, not for the nookie. Neither he nor Alexa let themselves get distracted by feelings in the middle of a fight, and proved to be competent in their respective fields. As for Alexa, she knew what she had to do, she did it well, and she was the no-nonsense kind of character I like.

What dampened my enthusiasm:

– We don’t get to know Alexa that well. What I mean is that she’s got a bit of an amnesia thing going, although it’s only when it comes to her early childhood; and I would’ve liked to find out what happened to her, what led to the events of the prologue, before Dimitri found her.
– I don’t really agree with the ending. Part of me is glad that Alexa and Jackson managed to remain together. However, another part thinks that it seemed a little too easy. I could sense that kind of HEA coming from ten miles, knowing what happened to Reid at the end of book 1.
– Sometimes the characters were a bit… too competent? For instance, early enough, we learn that Alexa has never died, contrary to all the other immortals, and Jackson turns to be a tad bit too skilled when it comes to fighting, even though he isn’t on par with the overtrained immortals, of course.

I couldn’t decide between giving it 3 or 4 stars. I’m giving it 3 on Goodreads—well, I did like it—but if the points I’ve raised aren’t a bother for you, definitely consider it a 4.

Yzabel / April 12, 2014

Review: Division Zero

Division Zero by Matthew S. Cox

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

Most cops get to deal with living criminals, but Agent Kirsten Wren is not most cops.

A gifted psionic with a troubled past, Kirsten possesses a rare combination of abilities that give her a powerful weapon against spirits. In 2418, rampant violence and corporate warfare have left no shortage of angry wraiths in West City. Most exist as little more than fleeting shadows and eerie whispers in the darkness.

Kirsten is shunned by a society that does not understand psionics, feared by those who know what she can do, and alone in a city of millions. Every so often, when a wraith gathers enough strength to become a threat to the living, these same people rely on her to stop it.

Unexplained killings by human-like androids known as dolls leave the Division One police baffled, causing them to punt the case to Division Zero. Kirsten, along with her partner Dorian, wind up in the crosshairs of corporate assassins as they attempt to find out who – or what – is behind the random murders before more people die.

She tries to hold on to the belief that no one is beyond redemption as she pursues a killer desperate to claim at least one more innocent soul – that might just be hers.

Review:

[I got a copy through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

3.5 stars. The idea of mixing cyberpunk, crime, psychic powers and ghosts was really interesting, and in general, I liked what the author created here. The world depicted here seemed true enough to what I expected of such a setting, seen through the eyes of a young police officer who’s had her share of difficult moments and knows how far from rosy and sheltered life is. It addressed the matter of consciousness in various ways, the main ones being ghosts, but also AIs (the most advanced ones are granted citizen status, and failing to repair them is legally considered as murder).

I really enjoyed the way the normal world existed alongside the “dead” world. Ghosts tend to linger due to various reasons, from revenge to being tied to items or places (we get to see a few of these throughout the course of the story). Apart from that, their options are to either “go to the light”, or to fall prey to the strange, shadowy Harbingers, who (which?) come for the darkest souls. The way the novel ends leaves room for more on that, I think, but since we already learn a lot in this first installment, I felt satisfied.

I found it a little hard at times to get into the story, especially in the first half, but after a while things flowed more seamlessly. I think what bothered me in the first part was that a couple of side characters popped up, without exactly being solved. (view spoiler) So I was left wondering, when do I see them again, and… nothing.

Kirsten also annoyed me in the first half, because she’s such a whiner about never finding a boyfriend (they all run away when they find out she’s psychic). She’s 22, there’s still plenty of time for that, and I don’t like it when a female character who has a lot of potential is shown as pining after men, as if everything else wasn’t important. Everytime it happened, I wondered why she kept putting herself in such situations, too (it was as if she set herself for failure?). I must admit that behaviour made me knock off one star here. Fortunately, the second half of the novel was better in that regard, and she was more focused on her job. She also got to battle her own demons, and with this came a new acceptance, too, and another perspective on life.

Dorian… Dorian had his annoying quirks, but I liked what the author did with him, and I hope he appears in the next story. (view spoiler)

In spite of my initial qualms with Kirsten, I do want to read the next installment. I’ve seldom seen ghosts used in such futuristic settings, so the whole premise was interesting, and remained so in my opinion. (Also, I still hope we’ll see some of the minor characters again, such as the ones I’ve already mentioned.)

Yzabel / April 11, 2014

Review: With Zombies (Assured Destruction 3)

With Zombies by Michael F. Stewart

My rating: [rating=4]

Summary:

The final book in the Assured Destruction series!

Jan Rose may already be expunged from the police department’s High Tech Crime Unit. Her mother’s hospitalized, and Assured Destruction’s on the cusp of bankruptcy. But Jan doesn’t wait on anything, she seeks out the customers who used to keep the family business afloat. That’s when everything starts to go wrong.

A computer virus–aka the Zombie Worm–threatens not only her school and Shadownet, but the entire city. A skull with a chain running through its socket links a powerful gang to her former customers, and holds the secrets to why her father left and the identity of her mother’s boyfriend.

To save her family and the business, Jan must determine who is friend and who is foe. And decide what type of hacker she wishes to become: Gray, white, or black. Not only her life hangs in the balance.

Review:

[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.]

This third installment in the “Assured Destruction” series was a little different from the previous ones, in that it didn’t follow their format; on the other hand, it tied a lot of things together, and I’d definitely advise reading all books close to each other, otherwise you may miss a few relevant details. In any case, I appreciated the care put into giving answers to several questions (what happened to Jan’s father, who’s actually Peter)… as well as to others I hadn’t envisioned at first.

I enjoyed the trilogy as a whole, and I enjoyed this last novel, too. Once again, it managed to deal with technical and computer-related aspects in such a way that even a layman would easily understand what was going on. I know “techno-babble” can rebuke people, but here, even if internet and networks aren’t their forte, as a reader, they won’t be lost. Jan’s uses of her favourite tools are always explained in a short, efficient manner. Don’t know what a DDoS attack is? Now you’ll know.

I admit I was slightly tempted to call a “too stupid to live” on Janus a couple of times, because some of her decisions were rash and not that well-informed. I would’ve done it if she had been any other teen, with a regular family life and not that many struggles. However, it was also clear that she was at the end of her rope, what with her mother being sicker, having to find more customers, juggling work and school with the spectre of failing her semester looming close, trying to find her father, trying to find money to pay for the mortgage, wondering about Peter’s motives, not to mention the Zombie virus and the problems she got because of that… Since people in general aren’t known for making the best decisions in such cases, her overall attitude was easily explained. (There was a specific turning point in the story, where her behaviour made me frown and wonder if maybe something fishy was going on; that, too, was explained later. Actually, it’s a wonder it didn’t happen sooner.)

Jan’s friends were also wonderful, for sticking with her, devising the Kickstarter[Kickstarter (hide spoiler)] plan, and helping her the way they did at the end. Her being struggling so much, she probably wasn’t there for them as much as one would expect—but everytime I thought that, I also found myself thinking, “Well, would I be a good friend if I had to tread in her shoes? Not so sure.” (I guess this is one of the reasons why I like this character. In a lot of ways, she reminded me of who I am, with all my shortcomings, and this prompted me to question a few things as well.) Janus can be a really good friend, too—e.g. what she did for Hannah in book 2—but there’s also so much you can do for others when you’re overwhelmed. Can she be blamed for sometimes being oblivious? Perhaps, perhaps not.

One thing wasn’t too clear for me, though, and that was Shadownet’s role, especially at the end. Considering who the “villain” was, and that said “villain” would’ve known about it by now, I was a little surprised the Twitter accounts weren’t monitored at the end, when all hell was breaking lose at the mansion, and it was clear Janus might have had a hand in that. Or is this my paranoid self talking? Because monitoring it would definitely have been on my list.

To conclude on this review (and this trilogy): really enjoyable—and, for once, with a female protagonist who is quite tech-savvy and doesn’t spend her time pining after boys. (Did I say we share a few common points? Yes? Thought so.)

Yzabel / April 7, 2014

Review: The Astounding Adventure of the Ancient Dragon

The Astounding Adventure of the Ancient Dragon by Jose Prendes

My rating: [rating=3]

Summary:

When 12-year-old John Watson is sent to Candlewood boarding school, he makes quick friends with a boy named Sherlock Holmes, a universally disliked know-it-all and amateur sleuth. Before long, Sherlock embroils his new friend in a covert investigation of the mysterious disappearances blamed on a vengeful ghost. Dodging the meaty fists of the bully Moriarty, and aided by bumbling patrolman Lestrade, they uncover a deadly secret hidden deep underneath Candlewood. But does the duo have the brains–and the brawn–to crack this dangerous case?

Review:

[I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.]

Strong points:

The Astounding Adventure of the Ancient Dragon caught my eyes because of its premise: an alternate retelling of Holmes’s and Watson’s adventures, in a “what if those two had been children at a boarding school, instead of adults in London?” As a long-time avid reader of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, I couldn’t pass up on that, although any potential reader has to be aware that these new adventures are, of course, not canon. (The original Holmes and Watson didn’t meet before they were adults.)

This novel will likely provide an amusing and refreshing read to middle-grade children: boys going on exploring an old school, hidden corridors, mysterious kidnappings, peppered with a dose of humour and “old chap” banter. Some quips made me chuckle more than once:

“I ask you to come up with a distraction and you decide to set the boat on fire? Is that best you could come up with?”

And were even reminiscent of a Princess Bride kind of humour:

“I must warn you, I am a fencing champion,” Holmes replied, taking a defensive posture.
“And I must warn you,” Royston said, yanking out another sword. “I have two swords.”

Honestly, I laughed out loud at those ones.

I like boarding schools for a setting, and the latter had the makings for an interesting place, complete with a gang of local bullies and a head mistress who expresses her dislike for the heroes. Those are typical tropes, but I thought they worked well enough here, because they, too, were presented in a humorous way. The investigation and action are nicely balanced, the latter taking the main characters into fights that were easy to picture in my mind (though the former was a bit simple… but then, they’re twelve). Sherlock was true enough to his original self to my liking: oblivious to girls, possessed of a lot of knowledge, able to notice small details (and with a bonus way of talking his way out of the teachers’ wrath in an elegant and funny manner).

Last but not least, I found it easy enough to get into the concept of Holmes and Watson as children—which I wasn’t sure would happen at first. As with every retelling or alternate setting, this is, in my opinion, a matter of either love or hate. A reader who wants to see Holmes act exactly as he does in Doyle’s novels may not be completely satisfied; what worked for me here won’t work for everyone.

Problematic aspects:

I thought at times that the characters were able to do too many things (taking on opponents with a spear, firing a gun…): I can imagine how it fits an adventure-focused story, but the fact is, they’re only twelve. Sometimes I also found them a little callous, dismissing the death of a goon as if it was nothing, or Watson not seeming to care that much about the sick mother her had left behind him. Again, adventure is a distraction for the mind… but they’re still twelve.

I’m torn about the writing style. As an adult reader, I enjoyed it; the novel is well-written, and I could sense the same kind of vibes I’d get from the original stories, with the narrator (Watson) seeming to hit close enough a mark. It has a “gentlemen’s banter” quality that is exquisite to me. However, I’m not sure a 12-year-old narrator, even a precocious one, would master language to such an extent. In other words: I liked it, but I’m torn about how to judge it in an unbiased way. One thing’s for sure, though: the language wasn’t dumbed down “just because it’s for kids”, and this in itself has to be commended.

You may also want to enact suspension of disbelief regarding the school itself: the action is set in 1865, and I highly doubt there were any mixed-sex schools in Great Britain at the time, lest boarding schools. If you’re willing to overlook that in favour of focusing on the adventure, it’ll probably be all right, otherwise it might keep nagging you.

(NB. I wasn’t too keen on the illustrations, which weren’t necessary in my opinion, and seemed to hesitate between looking like a child’s drawing and “real” illustrations. This is a very minor quibble, though, that has nothing to do with the writing itself.)

I realise this review seems to contain a lot of criticism, and more flaws than merits. I’ve tried to write what I enjoyed, and what I found as being or not problems, in terms of intended audience especially. All in all, I enjoyed this novel, and think younger readers would also like it; but it definitely retains some aspects that could make it or break it for others.