Anyway, I finished two short books the past two days and have started one new one. So let's go there before I continue with my Author's A - Z.
Just Finished
"I didn't think I'd enjoy The Ash Garden by Canadian author, Dennis Bock. The subject was definitely depressing and it took me a bit to get into the flow of the story, which jumped from the past to the present and back again. But as I settled to it, it quickly drew me in.
The main theme of the story is the bombing of Hiroshima during WWII with the first atom bomb. The story revolves around 3 people; Emiko, a Japanese girl who was a child in Hiroshima when the bomb explodes and has her life turned on its end; Anton Boll, a German scientist who had escaped from Germany and was involved in the bomb construction; Sophie, Anton's wife, an Austrian woman, half - Jewish, whose parents sent her from her home to America to escape the terrors of the Nazi regime towards their community.
Emiko is disfigured by the bomb and her family destroyed and she is part of a group of girls who are sent to America for plastic surgery. Anton goes to Hiroshima immediately after the bomb to work for the Manhattan project in seeing the effects of the bombing and radiation. Sophie, who has her own physical limitations, tries to resolve her life with Anton and her desire to find out what happened to her parents.
It's a much deeper story than this premise and the journeys each person travels during the course of the story is fascinating. Their links to each other become apparent as the story progresses and there are a few surprises as well. It is a depressing story but still excellent and worth reading. (4 stars)"
"The Maracot Deep by Arthur Conan Doyle published in 1923, brings to mind his adventure books such as his Professor Challenge books; The Lost World and others of that type. It also reminds me of Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, of John Wyndham's early The Secret People. If you're of an age like me, you might remember those serials that you would watch at the movie theater where the heroes ended each episode in a perilous situation....
In The Maracot Deep, which starts off at a fast pace and just moves steadily along after that, Professor Maracot hires a ship and brings along scientific acquaintance Cyrus Headley to explore the depths of the Atlantic. These two and the designer of their diving bell, Scanlan, are lowered into the depths of the Maracot Deep (a deep sea channel discovered by Maracot) to see what is down there. Disaster strikes as a large sea denizen cuts the diving bell off from its umbilical chord to the ship and they are lost, sinking to the bottom. This information is discovered by some objects which float to the surface at a much later date.
I won't ruin the story by going into any more detail. But suffice it to say that the intrepid trio discover amazing life under the sea and have other adventures. The story is short but filled with action, not a lot of deep thought. It's entertaining in the way of so many books of the time; did you ever enjoy Edgar Rice Burrough's Tarzan or other series? Well, there you go. I will say for all this stories fantastical materiel, it even goes a bit further at the end but even that doesn't ruin this neat little adventure. It would have excited the imaginations of all young boys and, heck, even a crusty old fella like me. Good read and a nice change from the creator of Sherlock Holmes. (3 stars)"
Just Started
""The Time: A millennium after the Mayflower, on Solthree, once Mother-of-Worlds, now merely an area government in the Galactic Federation.
The Place: Solthree's immense Grand Canyon, temporary habitat for the great telepathic cats of Ungruwarkh.
The Grievance: The great cats had come in peace from a distant planet, to let Solthree scientists study their remarkable powers of perception. They were docile as Solthree house cats, until ... the unthinkable happened! And Solthree suddenly had a terrible wrong to right, before peace would come again to ... The Kingdom of the Cats."
Bill's Author A - Z
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| Alfred Bester |
"An interesting collection of short stories but at times hit and miss with me. It contains six short stories and one novella, The Flowered Thundermug. The novella was nicely witty but then it sort of ended and left me feeling.... well, like eh?? Time is a Traitor took a bit of getting into but ultimately I liked it very much. I also liked the premise of The Men who Killed Mohamed, dealing with the impact of traveling into the past and the consequences of trying to change events. Out of this World was fascinating, a problem with phone lines (a problem I didn't suspect) that results in a relationship you don't expect. The Pi Man was also very interesting; actions vs reactions, cause and effect. I liked that one. Will You Wait was quite humorous, I mean how hard is it to try and sell your soul to the devil? The Don't Make Life Like they Used to is about the last man and woman on earth. The ending was very creepy... All in all a good collection, not a great collection but worth reading (3.5 stars)"
" The Demolished Man is a science fiction novel, published originally in 1953 by Alfred Bester. This is the 2nd book of Bester's I've read, Dark Side of the Earth being the first. It's a strange little story, but then again, that can probably be said about many SciFi stories as they delve into strange and interesting ideas.
Ben Reich is a powerful businessman in this story, set some time in the future. He competes for power with another man, Craye D'Courtenay, for domination. He wishes to make a deal with D'Courtenay but is rejected. He sees that his only opportunity for defeating D'Courtenay is to murder him.
The problem is there has been no murders committed for yonks; homicide is virtually impossible. The Earth is monitored by telepaths (Espers) who detect crime before it can happen. But Reich has a plan to get around this monitoring. Will he succeed? (Well, that's for you to find out)
The story is written at a high speed pace as Lincoln Powell, a Class 1 Esper police inspector, rushes to stop and discover if and how Reich plotted his murder. It's a fascinating concept with many interesting ideas; how the Espers communicate, now Powell tries to help D'Courtenay's daughter whose mind has been drastically affected by the events. Very readable, interesting story from a SciFi writer that I haven't explored fully. Golem100 is next on my list of Bester stories. (4 stars)"
"In a mega-city of the future...
They were nice ladies, really. Just bored. And they never expected to succeed. But intoning ancient rituals to raise the devil, they unwittingly began a rampage of rape, torture and murder. For they concocted a new devil, Golem100. And the Golem continues to grow...
Tracking the monstrous path of depravity are three super talents: Gretchen Nunn, beautiful, black master of psycho dynamics; Blaise Shima, her brilliant chemist lover; and the shrewd policeman Subadar Ind'dni. Their hunt takes them into real and subliminal worlds of dazzling intensity, through the heart of the collective unconscious and beyond...where they battle for their souls and for the survival of humanity.
But even these three super intelligences are up against their limits. For now the Golem has acquired a new identity. And the Golem continues to grow..."
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| Mark Billingham |
"It's rare for a young woman to die from a stroke and when three such deaths occur in short order it starts to look like an epidemic. Then a sharp pathologist notices traces of benzodiazepine in one of the victim's blood samples and just traceable damage to the ligaments in her neck, and their cause of death is changed from 'natural' to murder. The police aren't making much progress in their hunt for the killer until he appears to make a mistake: Alison Willetts is found alive and D.I. Tom Thorne believes the murderer has made a mistake, which ought to allow them to get on his tracks. But it was the others who were his mistakes: he doesn't want to take life, he just wants to put people into a state where they cannot move, cannot talk, cannot do anything but think. When Thorne, helped by the neurologist looking after Alison, starts to realise what he is up against he knows the case is not going to be solved by normal methods - before he can find out who did it he has to understand why he's doing it."
"This is the 2nd Tom Thorne thriller and as the first one, this was just as interesting a read. A story with 2 serial killers following each others kills. I like how the story moves from Thorne to the killer's perspectives. I like the relationship/ friendship between Thorne and his friend, the coroner, wry and funny at times. I do like that even in a tense thriller, that there is room for humour; note Thorne's continuing battle with the corner of his desk. It's a tense ride and well-directed. I recommend this series."
"Teenager Luke Mullen is missing. He was last seen by schoolmates getting into a car with an older woman, and it is unclear whether he has disappeared voluntarily or been abducted. Police looking for the boy are pretty certain they are dealing with a missing-persons case. The son of a former police officer. Luke has no history of being out of touch, no track record of truancy or misbehavior. And they know that the longer he is missing, the more likely he is to turn up dead. Then the videotape arrives ... On special assignment, Detective Inspector Tom Thorne searches desperately for the boy and for anyone who might have a grudge against him or his father, former detective Tony Mullen. As someone responsible for convicting many tough villains in his time, Luke's father is asked to list a few potential suspects. But it is the names Mullen carefully omits from the list that intrigue Thorne. Has Mullen simply forgotten about the criminal who threatened him? Is he so distraught in the emotional trauma of his son's disappearance? Or is he hiding something? When the kidnapper demonstrates, shockingly, that he is not reluctant to kill, Thorne knows he does not have the luxury of time. He must dig hard and deep into old cases and past lives. He learns that secrets are as easily hidden as bodies, and that even if Luke Mullen is still alive, making assumptions is the quickest way to get him dead and buried."
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| John Bingham |
"Nineteen years is a long time. But when Peter Harding and Philip Bartels meet up again in the French countryside of their youth, the history and the dark secrets it holds are still there, tempered only slightly by time. The two men share more than a past friendship. Decades earlier, trapped in a disenchanted marriage with his wife, Beatrice, Philip meets and falls in love with the graceful, charming Lorna Dickson. Overcome by the prospect of a humiliating divorce, Philip makes the decision to poison Beatrice. But when he invites his best friend, Peter, to meet his mistress at lunch one day, he unwittingly sets off a shocking chain of events that will forever change the lives of everyone involved."
"Michael Sibley and John Prosset shared a history that dated back to their first years at boarding school, and so the news of Prosset's murder came as a great shock to his old friend — especially because Sibley had been staying only the day before at Prosset's country house, where the body was found.
When the police arrive to question him in connection with the murder, Sibley finds himself lying about his recent visit, and thus begins to reveal the true nature of a longstanding but volatile friendship, fraught with mutual deception and distrust. As he tells his version of the truth to the police — and to the reader — Sibley makes the first of many fateful mistakes and finds himself not only under suspicion, but a primary suspect in the investigation."
Well there you go, some reading ideas to start your weekend. Have a great weekend.
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