MemoRandom Review

MemoRandom by Anders de la Motte is an intricately webbed thriller you have to read in one sitting.  It comes off to a slow start, but after about chapter nine, it picks up and you can really see the connections.  The only real problem I had when reading it, and this may be because I don’t read a lot of mystery/ thrillers, is the multiple plotlines.  There were just too many characters for me to follow after a while, which can be good for a thriller or a complete mess of character arcs.  But like I said, if you read in in one sitting, you’ll get it and it cleans up nicely.

Artful by Peter David Review

 

              Artful by Peter David combines classic storytelling with modern style.  Some years after Oliver Twist left his company and Fagin had been executed, Dodger finds himself among new friends.  After all, who else would the son of Van Helsing go to if he needed help in London?

              Dodger will always be Dodger, a rogue element, but he certainly gained hero points in this narrative.  First, he saved a princess without knowing who she was.  When he found out her lineage, he and the Van Helsing boy use The Artful’s talents to save Buckingham palace, and indeed, the whole of England.

              What I liked most about this book is that it wasn’t a classic with vampires stuck in random places.  This work is intelligent and well written based on some of the characters in Dickens’ classic that David took efforts to flesh out and build a proper plot around.

              Though it is not a steampunk novel per se, Artful can stylistically fit into that category, probably owing to the mix of classic and modern literature and legends.

It’s fun, frightening, action packed and edgy, but it will sneak past you if you’re not careful.

Make sure all your friends pick this up it’s a worthy read.

Rules For a Knight Review

              Formatted as a letter from a knight on the battlefield to his children, it describes virtues of the life of a knight as he learned them followed by brief anecdotes to complement the importance of such rules. 

              What I found interesting is that the narrator intended these rules, this final letter, for all of children, even the girls.  Not only so they would know how to behave, how to treat others, but they in turn should expect to be treated.  Although this letter was written in the 15^th century, it reads, to me at least, like modern self-help books.  These rules are applicable to anyone in any walk of life.  I think many would benefit from reading Rules For a Knight.  We can all use guidance, and we all have a knight in us somewhere. 

Dean Koontz Interview

Dean Koontz Interview

Becky: When and why did you start writing?

Dean Koontz: at the age of eight, I was writing stories, making them into little booklets and peddling them to relatives for a nickel.  Which was odd considering that there were no books in our house, and reading wasn’t considered a sensible use of time.  I was a regular presence at the library by ten.  As a college senior, I sold a short story, and thereafter never looked back.  But why?  I’ve long been compelled to write, no less than to eat.  I don’t really know why.  It’s just the way I’m made.

I’ll tell you though, I’m glad that I began when I did, long before this dreadful economy.  It’s much more difficult these days for a young writer to build a career.  In the last few years, the average family has lost nearly $15,000 in disposable income, which means a lot less money for books and other pleasures.  No one ever imagined that the paperback market would collapse to 15% of its former size, but people without jobs won’t buy any books.  It really isn’t primarily the internet that’s eating away at the audience for books, it’s the lack of economic growth.  Until that changes, it is going to be a cold market for everyone but especially for new writers, which is a terrible thing for the culture

B: How have you managed to produce such a large, successful, and diverse amount of work in a relatively short amount of time?

DK: I spend on average 60 hours a week writing, and I’ve been doing that for over 40 years.  It’s hard work but at the same time it’s play.  A long writing session flies by, whether I get six or seven pages out or only one.  When you stay at it like that, it’s surprising how much you can produce.  And I’ve come to the conclusion that the imagination is like a muscle, that it grows stronger the more you use it; over time your ideas get better, your execution gets better… the success of the work depends on how in tune you are at any moment with the culture at large, by which I do not mean scoping the market and writing what is wanted.  You can strive to connect with the culture only so long, only with limited success; the connection has to be natural, a consequence of who you are, of what you’ve read and seen, of what you’ve thought and dreamed.  Diversity?  I bore easily.  So I like to go from flat-out scary, like The Taking, and then do a change-up with a comic novel that is full of heart, like Life Expectancy.  I read everything.  I have no prejudices about genres of fiction, and I find “literary” fiction to be just another genre.  I also read a lot of science—especially quantum mechanics, molecular biology and associated subjects—poetry and philosophy, and I particularly enjoy really intelligent cultural theorists and critics like Philip Rieff, whose book My Life Among the Deathworks is brilliant.  If you take in a variety of material, you’re almost certain to produce a diverse body of work.

B: How do you manage such seemingly effortless transitions?

DK: Do I?  Does it seem effortless?  Hah!  I conned you.  What I already said about packing your brain with a wide variety of fiction and nonfiction is key to being able to shift gears.  It also helps to set challenges for yourself, take on a story or an approach to storytelling that you’ve never tried before.  Risk falling on your face in a public way.  That tends to inspire the extra effort that might make the change-up look effortless.  With Innocence, because of the nature of the narrator (as it is ultimately revealed), I had to a lyrical voice that from start to end spoke in luminous prose that suggested transcendence.  In The City, I chose to tell the story through the first-person narration of a 57-year-old piano man who tells about a wondrous, scary, and amazing chain of events that occurred when he was only 8, 9, and 10.  I’d never done a looking-back kind of first-person narration, which allows an adult voice to recall the conditions of childhood, sort of like Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, looking back as an adult to those key events in her past.  There are great advantages to this, but there are also limitations and traps that make the task challenging and exciting.

B: If you could choose one book that defines your personality, not necessarily one of your own, which would it be and why?

DK: The book that is most like me,  that is infused with my own take on life is Life Expectancy.  As Jimmy Tock says in that story, “No matter what happens, no matter how bad things get, there’s always cake.”  I’m no Pollyanna, but I’m an optimist, and I find humor in almost everything.  The character that I like to think is most like me is, strangely enough, a young girl with a disability, Leilani Klonk in One Door Away From Heaven.  Every moment I spent writing her scenes was a dream, and I felt as though I knew her as I know anyone in real life.

 

Forget Tomorrow Review

This is going to be an incredibly brief review since I could not even finish the book, which dissapoints me. 
There were so many great ideas in the plot and in the characters, but the author chose to weave in a romantic storyline and every move of the protagonist became predictable.
If that storyline was dropped completely this book could be an epic science fiction thriller but as is it's barely a decent crossover romance.

Seeds:

1. Future memories
2. government manipulation
3. psychic abilities

Then Logan drops in out of nowhere to be a prince charming saving the day.  Why couldn't Callie save herself?  This plot move weakens the character and makes me as a reader distrust her.  If she couldn't even rescue herself, protect herself, how can she protect her sister?
It broke the whole wall for me then they spend every moment they can in Harmony making out like there's not more important things they need to worry about.
That's about when I dropped the book all together.
Great potential poorly maximized.

The Scorpion Rules By Erin Bow Review

I try not to get too engrossed in politics, and while I use technology on a daily basis, I don’t trust computers, as a rule.  The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow is a book I could have written.  Anything along these lines that I would attempt would fall short of the genius behind this creation.  So let’s break it down shall we?

Right out of the gate the reader gets a detailed explanation of the political weather.  Bow goes into the history of the AI, Talis, how he took control and how he kept it. 

Enter the Preceptures, akin to monasteries where the children of world leaders are held hostage to keep peace.  If war is declared, the children are forfeit.  These children are called the Children of Peace.  Greta was such a child and had come to terms with her imminent demise, or so she thought, until a new hostage arrives and changes everything she understood about the Precepture. 

Elián Palnik arrives at the Precepture in chains and spends most of his time there bound to one AI or another designed to discipline troublemakers.  Greta sees Elián’s arrival, sees his “discipline” and begins to question the sanctity of her own life.  Elián fought so hard for freedom, so hard to live, and she had simply accepted her own death.

When Elián’s grandmother Wilma Armenteros takes control of the Precepture, Greta understands who she is and what she is willing to fight for.

Greta fights for control of her body, her mind, but most importantly to her, her love.  She wants to live.  She wants to live because she is in love with Li Da-Xia, her best friend, because she wants to change how the world works.  Because she wants a true peace.  So when it comes down to it, she has a choice, become AI, or die as a hostage of war.

She becomes AI.

She saves the Precepture, saves Elián, Da-Xia, all of her friends and thousands of civilians who would have been killed in attacks from Talis and Greta’s mother, the queen of the PanPol Confederacy.  She sacrifices her humanity for peace.  She is a Child of Peace, the very embodiment of the title.  A slave to a crown, a hostage to a treaty, yet she chose her own fate, and it saved countless lives.

Every moment is a choice.  Our lives are not as dramatic as Greta’s.  We may not be children of important people, but we could become important people.  Look at the sacrifice Greta made and think if you would do the same to save lives of strangers.

Choose your own fate.

Legend By Marie Lu: Review

June and Day

Two prodigies, two resulting fates.

The soldier, the criminal.

Revenge brings them together.  The truth can save them both, or it could destroy all they have left.

Lu uses carefully crafted point of view shifts to shift the story from point to emotional point.  She uses two characters and switches between them in first person POV.  It’s risky, but in this case it worked.  Using physical cues, slang, and sentence structure, Lu managed to create two easily distguishble characters.

June, for example, is very precise in her speech and direct in her actions.

Day is rough, using more regional street slang and at times talking to the reader, which pulls you in further. 

I think this is why Lu chose to open with Day.  It gave the reader an emotional attachment to the character, but is also provided an easy platform for world building and plot setup.  June’s POV on the other hand works well for exposition since she’s investigating her brother’s murder, tracking Day.

This is a thriller that leaves nothing to chance. Everything leads somewhere.  The story is crafted to fit together perfectly.

This is my first look into Marie Lu’s work and I can’t wait for more.