Forty-Eight X: The Lemuria Project by Barry Pollack
What do you get when you cross monkeys with a couple of archaeologist, the military, top scientists, and a woman who thinks her father was framed for a murder-suicide?
You get an enjoyable action novel with fun characters, an interesting story, and an ending with an ick-factor.
The US military gathers scientists on a remote island to conduct genetic experiments to design new breed of warrior to cut down on the deaths of our sons and daughters in the armed forces. During the first mission of these new warriors, they leave behind a single piece of evidence that leads archeologists on a search for the source of the evidence. And the scientist in charge of the research fakes his own death to explain his disappearance to his peers, only his daughter doesn't believe the story.
From terrorist camps to the halls of academia to neighborhood suburbia and to remote island beaches, Forty-Eight X doesn't monkey around.
Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Sometimes publishers or authors give me their book or product free so I can review it. I got this one from IJustFinished. Sometimes I get books I want to read for my own enjoyment from PaperBackSwap. The product links in the reviews take you to Amazon.com, where if you buy the linked item I get a very small percentage of the purchase price (because I like cash).
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Book Review: Through The Triangle
Through The Triangle by C.P. Stewart
A father and his estranged teenage son embark on a fishing trip; the father with the hopes of reconciling with his son. They are joined by a murderer masquerading as another tourist as the boat captain and his assistant take them out off the coast of South Florida. After losing radio contact with the Coast Guard while attempting to assist another boat in distress during an unusual freak storm, the find themselves in what can only be the future. The future brings them new technology, new dangers, and new friends.
This was a surprisingly good book. Lots of action, some nice character development, and a great story.
Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Sometimes publishers or authors give me their book or product free so I can review it. I got this one from IJustFinished. Sometimes I get books I want to read for my own enjoyment from PaperBackSwap. The product links in the reviews take you to Amazon.com, where if you buy the linked item I get a very small percentage of the purchase price (because I like cash).
A father and his estranged teenage son embark on a fishing trip; the father with the hopes of reconciling with his son. They are joined by a murderer masquerading as another tourist as the boat captain and his assistant take them out off the coast of South Florida. After losing radio contact with the Coast Guard while attempting to assist another boat in distress during an unusual freak storm, the find themselves in what can only be the future. The future brings them new technology, new dangers, and new friends.
This was a surprisingly good book. Lots of action, some nice character development, and a great story.
Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Sometimes publishers or authors give me their book or product free so I can review it. I got this one from IJustFinished. Sometimes I get books I want to read for my own enjoyment from PaperBackSwap. The product links in the reviews take you to Amazon.com, where if you buy the linked item I get a very small percentage of the purchase price (because I like cash).
Book Review: The Gentle Assassin
The Gentle Assassin by William Rogers
What a pleasant surprise! When I requested The Gentle Assassin to review from I Just Finished, it sounded kind of interesting. With a blurb that says "Deep in the Nevada Desert, ex-CIA Agent Nathan Bitterroot is about to embark on the most daring mission of his life", and mentions his brilliant scientist nephew, time travel, a mysterious crystal, and Nathan's "burning desire" to settle an old score". Yeah, it sounded interesting.
Then I saw the cover in-person. Okay, I admit it, I do often tend to literally judge a book by its cover. This book is a good example of why I shouldn't. I put off reading this book for a few weeks mostly because of the cover. The cover shows a boy, maybe a 13-year old, with a broken arm, holding a revolver in his good hand pointed at the reader. His image seems Photoshopped onto a boring blue and white light that seems to be radiating from directly behind him, which is then placed onto the main black background of the book cover.
The boring cover does not affect the story though. Nathan Bitterroot, surrogate father to his scientist nephew Scott who seems to have discovered the ability for a person to travel in time back into his own consciousness, and an assortment of other friends attempt a time travel mission for Nathan to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the Las Vegas mafia.
The act of time travel, though, has unintended, far-reaching consequences for everyone involved. The book ends with another unexpected time-travel event.
There's more to the story, and a surprising narrator to parts of the story that I really want to mention but I think doing so would spoil the surprise.
Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Sometimes publishers or authors give me their book or product free so I can review it. I got this one from IJustFinished. Sometimes I get books I want to read for my own enjoyment from PaperBackSwap. The product links in the reviews take you to Amazon.com, where if you buy the linked item I get a very small percentage of the purchase price (because I like cash).
What a pleasant surprise! When I requested The Gentle Assassin to review from I Just Finished, it sounded kind of interesting. With a blurb that says "Deep in the Nevada Desert, ex-CIA Agent Nathan Bitterroot is about to embark on the most daring mission of his life", and mentions his brilliant scientist nephew, time travel, a mysterious crystal, and Nathan's "burning desire" to settle an old score". Yeah, it sounded interesting.
Then I saw the cover in-person. Okay, I admit it, I do often tend to literally judge a book by its cover. This book is a good example of why I shouldn't. I put off reading this book for a few weeks mostly because of the cover. The cover shows a boy, maybe a 13-year old, with a broken arm, holding a revolver in his good hand pointed at the reader. His image seems Photoshopped onto a boring blue and white light that seems to be radiating from directly behind him, which is then placed onto the main black background of the book cover.
The boring cover does not affect the story though. Nathan Bitterroot, surrogate father to his scientist nephew Scott who seems to have discovered the ability for a person to travel in time back into his own consciousness, and an assortment of other friends attempt a time travel mission for Nathan to avenge the death of his father at the hands of the Las Vegas mafia.
The act of time travel, though, has unintended, far-reaching consequences for everyone involved. The book ends with another unexpected time-travel event.
There's more to the story, and a surprising narrator to parts of the story that I really want to mention but I think doing so would spoil the surprise.
Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Sometimes publishers or authors give me their book or product free so I can review it. I got this one from IJustFinished. Sometimes I get books I want to read for my own enjoyment from PaperBackSwap. The product links in the reviews take you to Amazon.com, where if you buy the linked item I get a very small percentage of the purchase price (because I like cash).
New DVD Series from the Creator of VeggieTales
What's In The Bible? It's a new DVD series from Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, coming in March of 2010. I recieved a sneak preview from Tyndale House Publishers.
The DVD opens with Phil Vischer in a nice office setting telling us about himself, what happened with VeggieTales, and what he hopes to do with What's In The Bible? and why he teamed up with Tyndale. This part of the DVD was nice. Phil, the voice of Bob the Tomato, is like an old friend and it's nice to learn exactly why he lost VeggieTales; a story I hadn't heard completely until now.
After that is a short video promo for the series. The footage from the series saddens me. I understand it's aimed at young children, but so was VeggieTales and that was a great series even for adults. The puppets come across as cheap PBS wannabes. The voice acting seems crude and overdone, sometimes to the point of being unintelligible. And the live action human characters seem frantically overdone imitations of the Wiggles.
My kids are too old for this series. If I had younger children they might enjoy it, since it seems geared towards the very young, maybe toddler-aged children.
I sincerely hope the series will turn out to be better than the promo makes it seem. Kids need good Christian educational TV to distract them from video games and internet and some of the less-appealing shows on PBS and other "children's" networks.
Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Tyndale sent me the aforementioned promo DVD free for review. They didn't pay me. I sometimes get free books and such as review material.
The DVD opens with Phil Vischer in a nice office setting telling us about himself, what happened with VeggieTales, and what he hopes to do with What's In The Bible? and why he teamed up with Tyndale. This part of the DVD was nice. Phil, the voice of Bob the Tomato, is like an old friend and it's nice to learn exactly why he lost VeggieTales; a story I hadn't heard completely until now.
After that is a short video promo for the series. The footage from the series saddens me. I understand it's aimed at young children, but so was VeggieTales and that was a great series even for adults. The puppets come across as cheap PBS wannabes. The voice acting seems crude and overdone, sometimes to the point of being unintelligible. And the live action human characters seem frantically overdone imitations of the Wiggles.
My kids are too old for this series. If I had younger children they might enjoy it, since it seems geared towards the very young, maybe toddler-aged children.
I sincerely hope the series will turn out to be better than the promo makes it seem. Kids need good Christian educational TV to distract them from video games and internet and some of the less-appealing shows on PBS and other "children's" networks.
Disclaimer of Disclaiming: Tyndale sent me the aforementioned promo DVD free for review. They didn't pay me. I sometimes get free books and such as review material.
A Simple Meme
I'm procrastinating on the four (omg, four!) reviews I need to write - writers block sucks! But I found an easy meme to pass the time!
1.What Book Are You Reading Now?
The Thirteenth Hour by Richard Doetsch
2.Why did you choose it?
I thoroughly enjoyed his first two novels.
3.What's the best thing about it?
Action/Suspense/Intrigue, a main character that whole-heartedly is in love with his wife, and a unique story telling device.
4.What's the worst thing about it?
Not enough time to sit down and finish it!
1.What Book Are You Reading Now?
The Thirteenth Hour by Richard Doetsch
2.Why did you choose it?
I thoroughly enjoyed his first two novels.
3.What's the best thing about it?
Action/Suspense/Intrigue, a main character that whole-heartedly is in love with his wife, and a unique story telling device.
4.What's the worst thing about it?
Not enough time to sit down and finish it!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Book Review: Ground Zero
I love the Repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson. The series as a whole has it all; a nice mix of action, suspense, humor, conspiracies, nice character moments and development and, as the series progresses, more and more of a supernatural element. The series started off with each novel able to be read as a stand-alone; but as the series nears completion that's become impossible for the author to maintain as he moves pieces into place and continues the overall story of Repairman Jack and his fight against The Adversary.
I recently finished the most recent book in the series, Ground Zero
, and in doing so realized I had missed the one before it (By The Sword)! Ground Zero finds Jack continuing his fight against The Adversary and his inadvertant earthly minions, the Kickers and the Septimus Order which has been part of the last few books. Jack even meets some old friends from his childhood (and the Jack YA novels).
Ground Zero is an excellent installment in the always entertaining Repairman Jack series and it hits on all the fine points I mentioned before: action, suspense, humor, character development, and that supernatural element that permeates the underlying achitecture of the series.
I'm currently reading By the Sword
, and have Jack: Secret Histories
(the first in the YA series) on my TBR shelf.
Disclaimer of Disclaiming: I picked up this book at my local library. No cash or freebies exchanged hands at all (unless I had to pay an overdue fine...). The link above is an Amazon Associate link: if you click it and buy something you help fund my "pay the bills" addiction.
I recently finished the most recent book in the series, Ground Zero
, and in doing so realized I had missed the one before it (By The Sword)! Ground Zero finds Jack continuing his fight against The Adversary and his inadvertant earthly minions, the Kickers and the Septimus Order which has been part of the last few books. Jack even meets some old friends from his childhood (and the Jack YA novels).Ground Zero is an excellent installment in the always entertaining Repairman Jack series and it hits on all the fine points I mentioned before: action, suspense, humor, character development, and that supernatural element that permeates the underlying achitecture of the series.
I'm currently reading By the Sword
, and have Jack: Secret Histories(the first in the YA series) on my TBR shelf.Disclaimer of Disclaiming: I picked up this book at my local library. No cash or freebies exchanged hands at all (unless I had to pay an overdue fine...). The link above is an Amazon Associate link: if you click it and buy something you help fund my "pay the bills" addiction.
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