Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Review Policy

**NOTE: SporadicReviews is no longer located in the midwest, we're now Pacific NorthWesters!**

Questions, comments or products can be sent to: SporadicReviews AT gmail DOT com or send your book or other material for review to:

Sporadic Reviews
3727 154th Pl SE.
Bothell, WA 98012



If you are a publisher or author (published or otherwise) or a marketer of other products, I'd be glad to review your book or product as long as you are okay with the following:

-I'll only review books or products that I think I might remotely enjoy. I won't review something that I believe I won't like. But if you send me something to review, I'll give it a shot.

-I will be honest in my review.

-I won't recommend a book if I don't like it. My review will mention that. I won't be mean or derogatory about the book or author though.

-I reserve the right to not finish a book if I'm not enjoying it. I read for enjoyment.

-I like deadlines.They keep me productive. If there's a date you want a review posted by, perhaps before the book is released, please mention that so I can plan my reading accordingly. But again, I'm reading for enjoyment, and sometimes stuff I want to read will come before stuff I've been asked to read. This blog is called "Sporadic" for a reason.

-I don't post reviews of every single book I read for my own enjoyment. I post reviews of those when a book really says to me "talk about this!".

-I'll post your review on this blog, and links to the review on Facebook and Twitter. If you want a review posted at Amazon as well, I'll be glad to provide that, but I might not remember to do so if not asked directly.

Questions, comments or products can be sent to: SporadicReviews AT gmail DOT com or send unsolicited material to:

Sporadic Reviews
3727 154th PL SE.
Bothell, WA 98012


Disclaimer: Sometimes publishers or authors give me their book or product free so I can review it. When they do, I'll mention it in the review. Sometimes I get books I want to read for my own enjoyment from my local library or buying one one. The product links in the reviews take you toAmazon.com, where if you buy the linked item I get a very small percentage the purchase (because I like cash).

Sunday, February 17, 2008

The Black Sun by James Twining

The Black Sun is James Twining's second novel. Tom Kirk, from Twining's first novel The Double Eagle, is back - and so is the FBI - but not Jennifer Browne, though she is mentioned a couple of times. The FBI is investigating the theft of an Enigma machine from an NSA museum; and Tom, along with his partner Archie and Tom's assistant Dom, is investigating a stolen art print.

Plots intertwine again and everything is related in the end. Some nice misdirection comes up during the story, keeping the suprises coming. Characters weave in and out of the story, sometimes seemingly unrelated at first, only to show up later to move the story along.

The story involves that stolen Enigma machine, stolen Jewish art, a Nazi cabal, a Russian crime boss, and so much more.

I think my favorite scene in the book is when Archie is snatched by the FBI in Russia. To me, reading it, it seemed a "wait, what? did that just happen?" kind of moment, and it made me laugh out loud.

I like the character of Tom Kirk - while he is amazingly smart and a world-traveler, he's not indestructible, but like any "everyman" action hero, he pulls through when needed. He's not an all-capable action hero like Dirk Pitt; Tom Kirk is more of an art-world Jack Ryan - the reluctant hero. He's got his sidekicks in Archie and Dominique, both with qualities of their own. And we get to know both of them much better in this outing.

As for FBI Agent Jennifer Browne, while she was only mentioned couple of times in this book, it looks like she's back for more adventure in the next Tom Kirk novel, The Guilded Seal (which I've got to find!).


Sunday, February 10, 2008

The Double Eagle by James Twining

The Double Eagle by James Twining is an adventure novel in the ilk of Dan Brown, but without the religious malarky.

The FBI is investigating the theft of amazingly expensive rare coins from Fort Knox and suspect art thief Tom Kirk. They send in Jennifer Browne, an FBI agent that's been buried in Atlanta because of an incident in her past. She comes to need Kirk's assistance in solving the crime.


This is a good globe trotting action/adventure story with some nice twists and interesting character interaction.

It takes us awhile to learn what Jennifer did in her past that the FBI didn't like. We get Tom's history from two different angles. Characters mentioned briefly at one point early on pop up again later to move the story along and change the dynamics of the story.

I've got the second Tom Kirk novel, The Black Sun, up next on my TBR pile!

Deeper by Jeff Long

Deeper, by Jeff Long, is a sequel to Descent that came out a few years ago. I enjoyed Descent, though it was dark, morbid, and creepifying. Deeper is too. And gory (I don't recall if Descent was gory).

Deeper takes places 10 years after Descent. The huge expanse of the underworld discovered in Descent is being colonized and exploited in Deeper. But the Subterrain still has an unwelcome effect on most people that spend any time at all below: it can change you physically in the form of physical mutations or just plain drive you crazy.

The residents of the underworld, the Hadals, were thought eradicated in Descent. Some have survived and have kidnapped groups of children from across America on Halloween.

The novel follows two stories: one mother's quest to form an army and recover her beloved daugher, and the only survivor from the first book is searching for the "king" of the underworld, what she thinks is the true Satan.

In between those two main stories, the book also gives us glimpes at a brewing Surface war with China, and conversations between that leader of the underworld and one of his captives. Those conversations hint that this king really is the devil that has lived thousands of years and tinkered with our world from his hiding spot in the bowels of the earth.

As I mentioned, this is a dark book. And gloomy. I'm not sure what the point of the story is. We start out in one place, and apart from the war with China, pretty much end up at just about the same place with no real resolution to anything. It's a quest story where nothing happens besides people dying and going crazy. There's no happy ending here. Although... now that I think about, the main character - Ali from the first book - wants to know what the symbols in the caves mean, and she gets to a point at the end where she can finally spend time figuring them out.

If you like horror/suspense/adventure novels. You might like Deeper, but it's a little too dark for me.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Free is good!

I wish I had an eBook reader.

From SF Signal

Irene Gallo, Art Director for Tor
Books, tells us that Tor has something exciting and new on the horizon:
Something new is coming. Register to be one of the first to join us,
and receive
free digital books from bestselling and award-winning SF and
fantasy authors.
This is just the beginning.

Once you
register, you'll receive our newsletter and a link to download a digital book.
And you'll receive a link to another new book every week.
The first week's
free book is Mistborn, by rising fantasy star Brandon Sanderson. Next week's
will be Old Man's War by John Scalzi, 2006's winner of the John W. Campbell
Award for Best New Writer. Over the next several weeks, other books still.
So
sign up. Stay in touch. And watch the skies.


I like free stuff. I'm not crazy about reading full-length books on my PC screen though. I've two CD-ROMs full of digital versions of older Baen (I think) books that came packaged with Hard-back novels. Actually, I think one of the CDs has Trek eBooks on it, maybe New Frontier stuff.

But I'd love to have a "real" ebook reader, or even a PDA capable of dispaying ebooks.

Why should you read ebooks? Here's an article with 30 reasons!

And here's a free ebook based on the TV-show Firefly. This one is technically fanfic, since the option to publish it was never picked up.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

A Book Meme

While I try to decide how I want to copy over my book reviews from my family blog, I'll start things off here with a book meme (also recently posted on my family blog).

Taken from Carrie at Mommie Brain.

Which book do you irrationally cringe away from reading, despite seeing only positive reviews?

Anything non-fiction.

If you could bring three characters to life for a social event (afternoon tea, a night of clubbing, perhaps a world cruise), who would they be and what would the event be?

Hmmmm... Since this is supposed to for some kind of Social Event, how about: Lije Bailey, Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchins, and Alex Benedict. Lije Bailey (from Asimov's Robot novels), because he's a parent and a cop - and kind of set in his ways. Hutch (from Jack McDevitt's Priscilla Hutchins novels), because she always knows what to say no matter the situation, and Alex (from McDevitt's Alex Benedict novels) because he's a relic collector and has lots of money. As a bonus, all of them would have probably limitless stories to tell.

You are told you can’t die until you read the most boring novel on the planet. While this immortality is great for awhile, eventually you realize it’s past time to die. Which book would you expect to get you a nice grave?

I don't know. Probably something I'd not be interested in at all, like a Jane Austin novel or something like that.

Come on, we’ve all been there. Which book have you pretended, or at least hinted, that you’ve read, when in fact you’ve been nowhere near it?

The original Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. A classic in SF. I have the original trilogy on my shelf. I think I've reads part of each book, but never the entire thing. There's hardly any dialogue in them, it's mostly long paragraphs describing what's going on and why. Like a Clancy novel, but without the action, dialogue, and extraneous plot threads. I really should read those. I've read the books in the series that follow the original three (and that come before chronologically), sometimes more than once. Those were written more recently and reflect a writing style geared more towards my generation.

As an addition to the last question, has there been a book that you really thought you had read, only to realize when you read a review about it/go to ‘reread’ it that you haven’t? Which book?

I'm pretty sure I remember that happening, just don't remember which book.

You’re interviewing for the post of Official Book Advisor to some VIP (who’s not a big reader). What’s the first book you’d recommend and why? (if you feel like you’d have to know the person, go ahead of personalize the VIP).

The Bible.

A good fairy comes and grants you one wish: you will have perfect reading comprehension in the foreign language of your choice. Which language do you go with?

Oooh, interesting question. Ancient Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic. I'd love to be able to comprehend the Bible in the language parts of it were originally written in.

A mischievous fairy comes and says that you must choose one book that you will reread once a year for the rest of your life (you can read other books as well). Which book would you pick?

The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy.

I know that the book blogging community, and its various challenges, have pushed my reading borders. What’s one bookish thing you ‘discovered’ from book blogging (maybe a new genre, or author, or new appreciation for cover art-anything)?

That I should probably pay a bit more attention to what I read. Especially if I want to write a review of the book or discuss it at a book club or online. I tend to zip through books, and once I'm finished I barely remember what I read - even if I really enjoyed it.

That good fairy is back for one final visit. Now, she’s granting you your dream library! Describe it. Is everything leather-bound? Is it full of first edition hardcovers? Pristine trade paperbacks? Perhaps a few favorite authors have inscribed their works? Go ahead-let your imagination run free.

A big room, plushly carpeted full of floor-to-ceiling book cases. Those are full of books of all kinds: nice leather-bound collector sets, paperbacks, TPBs, comics, oversized, those tiny little "gift" books, old books, new books, fiction, non-fiction, and a few collectible non-book items as well, etc. There'd be several too-comfortable chairs that recline and a sofa. There'd be a fancy desk with a window/glass door behind it overlooking a deck and a lake surrounded by a sparse forest and mountains all around. There'd be a computer on the desk, with a comfy chair behind the desk. There would be several eBook readers in the library as well. On the wall opposite the desk, the wall is covered with bookcases. One of those bookcases conceals the door. To the left of the desk, if you're sitting behind it, that wall has a fireplace and plenty of spacing between it and the bookcases on that wall. In those spaces, several pieces of art hang on the wall. The wall to the right of the desk is covered with bookcases. The wall behind the desk, with the window centered in it, has bookcases to either side of the window. The window itself, apart from being part of a door, is floor-to-ceiling with room darkening blinds and curtains. The comfy chairs are in the center of the room on a large rug and surround a small table. The sofa sits between the circle of chairs and the wall to the right of the desk, facing the fireplace, with plenty of room to walk behind or in front of the sofa. Lighting in the room is subdued, a small lamp with shade on the desk and a matching one on the table in the middle of the room. Recessed lighting in the ceiling and track lighting on the ceiling to spot-light collectibles placed on certain shelves and on the mantle of the fireplace. The chairs, table and rug in the center of the room conceal a trap-door in the floor that leads to a storage room under the library, separate from the rest of the house, that includes emergency exit tunnels that lead to the garage, out to a cabin in the woods, and to the boathouse on the docks.

I really like my library.

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