My First Update for October 2023

Firstly I just have to get this off my chest. STOOPID BLUE JAYS! DARN! DARN! DARN!... OK, that feels better. Now let's check out October. I've finished 2 books in October so far. I'll provide my reviews of those books. I'll provide the synopses of the next books in line and also of any new reading material I've added to my bookshelves.

Just Finished

1. Dust by Hugh Howey (Silo #3 / 2013). This is the final book in Howey's Silo series. I enjoyed it very much.

"I finished the Silo series this morning with a bit of sadness. Such an excellent Sci-Fi series. Dust was the 3rd and final book in the series by Hugh Howey. It had been awhile since I had finished the 2nd book so it did take me a little bit to get into this final book.

The story moves from Silo 18 / 17 to Silo 1, featuring Mayor of 18, Juliette and brother and sister Donald and Charlotte in Silo 1. Donald has been communicating with the other Silos, presumably trying to help them from devastation from Silo 1. Juliette discovered Silo 17 when she went out to 'clean'. She discovers that people still live in this Silo and determines that she can tunnel between the two Silos. There are few people left in Silo 17, due to some strife and an attack from Silo 1 (so it appears).

With conditions in Silo 18 breaking down, she feels it's necessary to join the two Silos. Disaster occurs when Thurman discovers what Donald has been doing. Thurman is one of the originals who set up the Silo complex. With a push of a button he tries to destroy everyone in Silo 18.

It's a somewhat confusing story. Juliette must fight her own people to try and ensure their survival, as well as decide what to do with Silo 1. Donald and Charlotte hide out trying to help the remaining Silos before Thurman can exact his plan. (You have to read the story to find out what it is.) 😀

But it's a fascinating story of man's destructiveness and weakness but at the same time we meet people who provide hope for their future. Hoping there are people here who have the same values to protect our future. Great series, great story. Not perfect but still worth a 5.0 star rating."

2. Shattered Warrior by Sharon Shinn (2017). I just got this graphic novel and felt I had to read it. Glad I did.

"I bought this because or the art work by Molly Knox Ostertag. I had enjoyed her Witch Boy trilogy very much. So Shattered Warrior was my first exposure to author Sharon Shinn. Having read and enjoyed Warrior now very much, I may be exploring Shinn's work more too.

Shattered Warrior is the story of Colleen Cavanaugh and her fight against a race of Alien invaders, the Derichets. The aliens took over Colleen's home world 8 years before and now use the humans to harvest the planet's crystals which are used as fuel to propel the Derichet space ships.

Colleen was once part of one of the rich families who ruled the planet but now finds herself with nothing. Her family is dead or missing and she is forced to work in a Derichet controlled factory which sorts out the various crystals. One of the Derichets, Angit, has feelings for Colleen and protects her from the overseer, Korso, who also desires Colleen.

Within the factory are humans who work to remove the Derichets, an underground group, the Valenchi (everyone denies their existence.) There are also roaming gangs of Chromati wild humans who threaten the other humans.

It's a dark, depressing world and Colleen struggles to survive. Her niece Lucy is discovered by the Derichet and after paying a fee, she is turned over to Colleen. A gang of Chromati move into the fields next to Colleen's home and force her to move into the city to survive. One of the Chromati, Jann, helps Colleen and they become close. Colleen also begins to help the Valenchi.

It's a complex, fast moving graphic novel, rich with detail and filled with excellent characters. The artwork by Ostertag adds to the richness of the story. I'm definitely happy that I tried this YA Sci Fi graphic novel. (4.0 stars)"

Currently Reading

1. The City of Gold and Lead by John Christopher (Tripods #2 / 1967). This is the second book in the YA Tripod Sci Fi trilogy. I hope to finish this and the 3rd book by end year.

"Will, Henry, and Beanpole have been living in the White Mountains with the last community of free people on Earth, training to fight against the Tripods. Now there is an opportunity for them to obtain vital information -- every year, young men come from all over to compete in a series of Games, and the winners are taken to the City of the Tripods. Will intends to be one of them. But although many enter the City, no one ever comes out. How will he escape with what he must risk his life to learn?"

2. The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009).

"Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...

Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.

What Happens when calories become currency? What happens when bio-terrorism becomes a tool for corporate profits, when said bio-terrorism's genetic drift forces mankind to the cusp of post-human evolution? Award-winning author Paolo Bacigalupi delivers one of the most highly acclaimed science fiction novels of the twenty-first century."

New Books

1. The Sleeper by Holly Roth (1954). Along with Helen MacInnes, Roth is one of my favorite spy novelist. I need to read more of her work.

"They keep teasing you with it... 

Hollister tells you a little, mostly about how it began with the woman, and then Hollister dies because of it... 

The FBI tells you a little more, again about the woman, and then they also stop talking... 

So you go to the woman. And she is very beautiful. Too beautiful. Because after a little while you forget that she may very well be the instrument of your death..."

2. Mermaid by Margaret Millar (1982). Another favorite author, great mystery writer and just a great story teller.

"Cleo Jasper is 22, beautiful, rich and mentally disturbed. And she has gone missing. Her special school, Holbrook Hall, has not seen her. Shortly before her disappearance, she had called at the office of young Hispanic lawyer Tom Aragon. She wanted to know her rights. and so her brother, Hilton, hires Aragon to track Cleo down and bring her home.

In a trailer park, far removed from the kind of place Cleo is used to, Tom Aragon finds her closest friend, a counsellor at Holbrook Hall - dead. But no sign of Cleo. She is as elusive as a mermaid, and the hunt takes on a new urgency..."

3. Tank Girl, The Gifting by Alan Martin (Tank Girl #6 / 2005). A fun graphic novel series.

"She's back! Join everybody's favorite beer-swilling, chain-smoking, kangaroo-lurving lunatic as she embarks on a cornucopia of all-new adventures! Featuring a brace of foul-mouthed, frenzied tales, witness Tank Girl, Booga, Barney and Jet Girl as they debate the merits of pooing in a person's handbag; launch an all-out assault on a kids' TV presenter; and completely mess up Tank Girl and Booga's anniversary. And that's just for starters. Written by original "Tank Girl" co-creator Alan Martin, with art by acclaimed designer and illustrator Ashley Wood, "Tank Girl" - now with an all-new makeover - has never looked so good! Adults Only!"

4. Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith (1963). I've read White's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn a few times. I just saw this as a movie on TCM so I'm looking forward to trying this.

"In 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, Carl Brown and Annie McGairy meet and fall in love. Though only eighteen, Annie travels alone halfway across the country to the Midwestern university where Carl is studying law - and there they marry. But their first year together is much more difficult than they anticipated, in a faraway place with little money and few friends. With hardship and poverty weighing heavily upon them, Annie and Carl come to realize that their greatest sources of strength, loyalty and love, will help them make it through."

5. The Sandman Vol. 9, The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman (Sandman #9 / 1995). Probably my favorite graphic novel series.

"THE SANDMAN is the most acclaimed and award-winning comics series of the 1990s for good reason; a smart and deeply brooding epic, elegantly penned by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by a rotating cast of comics' most sought-after artists, it is a rich blend of modern myth and dark fantasy in which contemporary fiction, historical drama, and legend are seamlessly interwoven. The saga of THE SANDMAN encompasses a series of tales unique in graphic literature and is a story you will never forget.

They have had many names: The Erinyes. The Eumenides. The Dirae. The Furies. Agents of vengeance, implacable and unstoppable, they do not rest until the crime they seek to punish is washed clean with blood. It is to them, THE KINDLY ONES, that Lyta Hall turns when her baby Daniel is taken from her, and it is Dream of the Endless who becomes their target. But behind a mother's grief and unyielding rage, there are darker forces at work, and what they set in motion will eventually demand a sacrifice greater than any the Dreaming has yet known."

6. Sin City, Vol 3 - The Big Fat Kill by Frank Miller (1994). It's been a few years since I read the first two books in this graphic mystery series.

"With The Big Fat Kill Frank Miller is at it again with another comic packed with guns, lovers, losers, and surprises. In Sin City's Old Town, the prostitutes run the show. "The cops stay out. That leaves the girls free to keep the pimps and the mob out." Sounds like an OK place, right? It is until a pushy, loud-mouthed guy who has had one too many drinks comes into Old Town and gets himself killed by the ladies. When they find out who he is, they realize that "it'll be war. The streets will run red with blood. Women's blood."

Women Authors Whose Work I'm Enjoying - Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter was born in Georgia in 1971 and has been a successful crime writer since Blindsighted in 2001. I discovered her thrillers when I first came to the valley and Blindsighted kind of blew me away. She wrote six books in her Grant County mystery series and then switched to her Will Trent series. It's become a successful TV series, one that Jo and I enjoy very much. Over the years I've enjoyed 9 of her books and I've got 3 on my bookshelves to check out.

1. Broken (Will Trent #4 / 2010).

"When Special Agent Will Trent arrives in Grant County, he finds a police department determined to protect its own. Officer Lena Adams is hiding secrets from him, and while her role in the death of the county’s popular police chief is unclear, that man’s widow, Dr. Sara Linton, desperately needs Trent’s help to crack the case of a prisoner’s death. While the police force investigates the murder of a young woman pulled from a frigid lake, Trent investigates the police force. Caught between two complicated and determined women, trying to understand the facts surrounding Chief Tolliver’s death, Trent will uncover explosive secrets—and confront a thin blue line that could be murderous if crossed."

2. Fallen (Will Trent #5 / 2011)

"There’s no police training stronger than a cop’s instinct. Faith Mitchell’s mother isn’t answering her phone. Her front door is open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. Everything Faith learned in the academy goes out the window when she charges into her mother’s house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room, a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn’t see is her mother. When the hostage situation turns deadly, Faith is left with too many questions. She’ll need the help of her partner, Will Trent, and trauma doctor Sara Linton to get some answers. But Faith isn’t just a cop anymore, she’s a witness—and a suspect. To find her mother, Faith will have to cross the thin blue line and bring the truth to light—or bury it forever."

3. The Good Daughter (2017).

"Two girls are forced into the woods at gunpoint. One runs for her life. One is left behind.

Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead. It left their father—Pikeville's notorious defense attorney—devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night.

Twenty-eight years later, Charlotte has followed in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer herself—the ideal good daughter. But when violence comes to Pikeville again, and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatized, Charlotte is plunged into a nightmare. Not only is she the first witness on the scene, but it's a case that unleashes the terrible memories she's spent so long trying to suppress--because the shocking truth about the crime that destroyed her family nearly thirty years ago won't stay buried forever. Packed with twists and turns, brimming with emotion and heart, The Good Daughter is fiction at its most thrilling."

The complete list of Karin Slaughter's works can be found at this link. Check her out.