Red Rising Rises to the Top…Almost

An unsolicited review of Red Rising by Pierce Brown

If you enjoy a fast-moving story about rebelling against social injustice, you’ll love Red Rising by Pierce Brown. There’s a reason Red Rising hit #20 on New York Times’ Best Selling List ((February 16, 2014) and received an A- from Kirkus Reviews (January 29, 2014). Pierce Brown creates a likeable protagonist in Darrow, a man who steps out of his station in life to avenge the woman he loves and the clan he’s grown up with. Darrow exemplifies the theme of Red Rising, which focuses on how social change is instigated by individuals brave enough, not just to see, but to act, outside the box. Red Rising is set in a futurist world on Mars, with rigid social stratification, similar to Aldrous Huxley’s Brave New World. It’s coupled with ruthless invasions, comparable to the Roman Empire’s expansionism. In fact, Pierce Brown uses both the warrior attitude of conquest in ancient Rome and the mythology born out of it to create an exciting story of anguish and conquest. With these established tools Brown builds a world the reader wants to rebel against, so we cheer for the underdog, Darrow. What’s not to like in that scenario?

The tension begins immediately in the Prologue, when the narrator says, “I would have lived in peace. But my enemies brought me war.”

The narrator is listening to a speaker proclaiming that, “The weak have deceived you. … You and I are Gold. We are the end of the evolutionary line. … Rule, dominion, empire purchased with blood. … Soon, we will teach you why Gold rules mankind.”

The Golds rule, much as the Alphas did in Brave New World. However, the Golds have no interest in placating the lower the ranks. There is no concept of a government which wants everyone to be happy with who they are and what they do. And there’s no substitute drug for “soma” to keep each color in its place. Slavery and servitude were dedicated by genetic manipulation generations ago and there is no crossing the color barrier that defines each class.

Then we learn that the narrator is not “Gold. I am a Red. … He thinks men like me weak. … He is wrong.” Hence the social divide is set: Reds, who live in the caverns under Mars and mine the helium-3 needed to Tera-form Mars; and the Golds, who enjoy the luxuries of life on the surface of Mars, as well as the conquest of other planets.

With the main plot defined, we are introduced to Darrow in the first chapter. We see Darrow’s stoicism when he doesn’t cry at his father’s trial or public hanging. He doesn’t even cry when he has to “pull the feet to break [his] neck” because of Mars’ low gravity. Then we see Darrow’s bravery as he works as a Helldiver, doing the dangerous work of gouging into the hard rock of Mars on a massive drill in heat “so thick and noxious it feels like I’m swaddled in a heavy quilt of hot piss” while dodging pitvipers that can bite through a frysuit. We admire this 16-year-old’s agility and audacious risk-taking right away, even though his Uncle Narol reminds him that “Patience is the better part of valor. And obedience the better part of humanity.” However, it is Darrow’s love for Eo, his wife, that captures our heart and helps us understand his personal motivation. The motivation Society uses for the mining colony, Lykos, is a little trickier.

The clans of Lykos are kept in poverty. Always slightly hunger. Always lacking in essential supplies. Only winning the Laurel gives them “more food than you can eat. It means more burners to smoke. Imported quilts from Earth.” Of the twenty-four clans in Lyros, only one can earn the Laurel each quarter. It’s usually the Gamma clan who earns the Laural, but Darrow wants to win it for his clan of Lambda so his wife won’t go without food. In this way, the clans of Lykos are kept in competition with one another for the basics. Their meager living forces rivalry for higher mining quotas, but it also fosters hatred for the Society that created it. That hatred it made more intense by rigid rules enforced by the Grays, Society’s garrison troops. When Darrow’s wife is punished for showing him a secret cavern with “a transparent bubble that peers at the sky,” revenge becomes a narrow concept for Darrow. But the fates have a larger mission in store for him.

A nameless group of revolutionaries wants Darrow to be their front man for revolution, so even though Darrow wants revenge, he must modify his own feelings for the greater good. Like any other noble quest, Darrow must go through many trials on the way to becoming a revolutionary leader. He must enter his enemy’s camp and infiltrate his ranks. He must learn what it means to be a Gold, which teachers Darrow that even being a Gold has its demands. Darrow must change physically, emotionally and intellectually. With each change there is built-in torment and challenge. Murder, war and battles of growing magnitude make Darrow’s journey a compelling read, even if the continuous action makes it more of an escapism than literature. Perhaps that’s why Publishers Weekly wasn’t as gracious with its review of the novel, calling it “Hollwood-ready … with plenty of action and thrills but painfully little originality or plausibility.” Indeed, Hollywood’s Universal Pictures has already taken the bid on the movie version of Red Rising, so PW was right on track about the novel’s direction.

Like so many of today’s other dystopian novels-made-movies, Red Rising is first book in a trilogy. It’s followed by Golden Son, then Morning Star. Red Rising is only the first step in Darrow’s long journey to conquer the enemy which “brought [him] war.” But regardless of whether you call Red Rising escapism or literature, it is still a fun and surprising book to add to your must-read list.

Add Your Comments

I look forward to reading your comments regarding Red Rising. Whether you agree or disagree with my review, I’d like to hear from you. I hope you’ll follow my blog, share it with your friends and join me in reading the next book on my list.

Read Along With Me

First Light by Scott Nicholson. First Light is the first book in the After Series and was hailed as a “read or regret it” novel.

I hope you’ll read this book with me and prepare your own comment on the quality. Let’s see if we can predict if this 2015 novel will be added to the contenders for the Nebula Award. If you’re interested in submitting a book review, read the review guidelines and we’ll share our thoughts.

A Universal Divide, both Social and Spatial

An unsolicited review of Across the Universe by Beth Revis

Across the Universe, by Beth Revis, is a Young Adult dystopian novel about a 300-year mission to settle a new home on Centauri-Earth because resources on Sol-Earth have been depleted. The story is told from the first-person point-of-view of two teenagers. Amy was born on Earth and raised in a traditional family. Elder was cloned on the space ship, Godspeed, during its trip and doesn’t understand the concept of family. The chapters alternate between these two main characters to set up the contrast between Earth-that-was and the social changes that have occurred during the multi-generational trip.

The story’s opening grabs the audience with Amy facing a teenagers’ worst fears: leaving her home, her boyfriend, losing her parents, and seeing them naked. Amy’s mother is a scientist renowned for her genetic splicing work, which will help grow crops in the alien soil. She’s essential to the mission and must go. Her father is a battlefield analyst in the Army, a tertiary figure in the overall goal to claim a new planet for humanity. Amy’s mother wants her to go with them, so thinks Amy should be the first to be processed in the cryogenics chambers. Amy’s father insists that Mom goes first so Amy can see the process. And what a process it is! Amy sees her mother naked for the first time and it surprised by “her…rice-paper-thin” skin and “her stomach [which] sagged in a wrinkly sort of way that made her look even more vulnerable and weak.” No wonder Amy is disconcerted by the workers’ indifference while processing Mom in a clear cryo box that looks like a coffin. These uncaring workers pierce Mom’s pale skin with IV needles and simple say, “Relax,” which is “not a kind suggestion.” The fluid in the IV bag is as thick as honey and Mom “hissed in pain… [her eyes] filled with water.” If that weren’t bad enough, the second IV bag is filled with “blue goo… [that] glowed…her eyes were clamped shut, two hot tears dangling on her lashes.” As the indifferent worker squeezes the IV bag to force the fluid faster, Mom bites her lip until it bleeds and she “whimper[s], soft, like a dying kitten.” Watching Mom in the cryo bed reminds Amy of another coffin when she was “looking down at Grandma last year at the church, when we all said goodbye.” The workers are impatient to “get on with it” as they push lens into Mom’s eyes with “big, calloused” hands. Then they force three thick tubes down Mom’s throat and the cryo bed fills with “water flecked with sky-blue sparkles.” After watching this terrifying process, Daddy surprises Amy by giving her a choice of whether to go through the cryo process and travel to the new planet with them or to stay on Earth with her aunt and friends. He then goes through the process himself, leaving Amy to choose without parental input. The choice between the familiarities of the life she’s known or the uncertain life that would keep Amy with her parents is difficult. Dad giving Amy this choice shows he respects her as a young adult. It’s an adult choice thrust upon on a teenager, but what teenager doesn’t want that respect from their parents? Both prospects seem terrifying to Amy, however she chooses to go with her parents. Amy’s goes through the painful freezing process, consoling herself with, “At least I’ll sleep. I will forget, for three hundred and one years, everything else.” But Amy’s cryogenic state is anything but unconscious. She thinks about her old life and floats in an uncertain consciousness the entire time she’s frozen.

By contrast, Elder doesn’t have a choice which path his life takes. He was cloned specifically to be the next leader of the Godspeed as it hurdles half-way through its journey to Centauri-Earth. The ship is divided into different levels and the only the current and future leaders are allowed on the Keeper Level. Eldest and Elder share this level, but not all the knowledge of its workings. The Shipper Level is only for those who maintain the ship and the Feeder Level is for the simpler farmers and their fields. Though the ship is huge, it’s still confining for the growing population, so privacy and closed doors are greatly respected. Therefore there are no locked doors on Godspeed… except one. Eldest keeps his room locked and keeps secrets that are important for Elder to know as future leader. Eldest has also kept Elder from seeing the great engine that powers the ship and the hatches through which the stars can be viewed. And certain files about the Plague that wiped out a large portion of the population. It’s little wonder that 16-year-old Elder is frustrated by his mentor’s secretiveness. Eldest reluctantly reveals his secrets one at a time and only as needed for training his student. It is a sign that Eldest lacks respect and trust for Elder. Though the people see Eldest as a compassionate protector who is always kind to them, Elder sees his flashes of rage and his threatening demeanor. The tension between Elder and Eldest is apparent and we know there is trouble brewing.

The previous leaders of Godspeed tried to eliminate potential trouble among their people by altering them to be the same. Everyone on the ship has “the same olive skin, the same dark brown hair and eyes” and speak the same language. However, the leaders couldn’t have predicted that someone would thaw the cryo tube sleepers early, killing some and leaving only one alive. Amy is thawed and almost dies during the unsanctioned awakening. Her creamy white skin and flaming red hair are a curiosity and a danger to the mono-ethnic stability of Godspeed. The introduction of someone so different upsets Eldest and he tries to keep Amy under wraps in the hospital. What upsets Eldest more is that Elder is captivated by Amy’s stark differences in appearance and her fiery temper, which causes her to stand up against Eldest. Elder and Amy form a friendship that angers Eldest. He wants to keep them apart so Elder’s vision for Godspeed will the same as his. What is worse, Elder sneaks Amy out of the hospital to explore the ship and together they secretly investigate the murders of the other sleepers.

The plot moves smoothly from one crisis to another, leaving small clues as to the next predicament awaiting the two teenagers. It is resplendent with description of the new culture that has evolved over generations in space, but not to the point of being a distraction to the reader. I recommend this book, not only to young readers, but to adults who sometimes need a simpler read without impediments. My sister recommended this book to me, so I, in turn, recommend it to you.

Happy reading until the next book review. If you care to join me, I’ll be reading Red Rising by Pierce Brown. Please don’t forget to add your comments agreeing or disagreeing with my opinion and adding your take on the story.

A “Visit” to the Geriatric Zone

A Review of The Visit, a movie written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan

The Visit is a bizarre 2015 movie with twists of geriatric horror and humorous flashes – I use that term loosely - of insight into the incongruous behaviors of the elderly, supposedly experiencing sun-downing. It opens with an estranged daughter being interview for a family film documentary by precocious daughter Becca (Olivia DeJonge). Becca asks Mom about her relationship with her parents. However, Mom refuses to talk about the actual events which caused the estrangement, leaving us to question why she allows her two children to visit parents she hasn’t contacted in fifteen years. As a parent, I found it strange that the mother, played by Kathyrn Hahn, would allow her children to board a train by themselves to visit grandparents they don’t know and to whom she hasn’t spoken in years. My first question was, “Why didn’t Mom take them to their grandparents to ease the transition and get to know more about her own parents before leaving the kids with them?” My question was well-founded, as the grandparents’ questionable behaviors prove.

Becca and her want-a-be rapper brother, Tyler (Ed Oxenbould), video-document their journey into the sparsely populated mountains and their week-long vacation with Nana (Deanna Dunagan) and Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie). At first, the movie seems like a Blair Witch knockoff and drags on with 9:30 bedtimes and simple, filmed interviews with Nana and Pop Pop. Then it takes a strange twist of humor with Nana playing a frightening game of hide and seek under the house and flashing her buttocks through a torn skirt. I don’t know about other older people, but my knees would never allow that! And Pop Pop hides poopy adult diapers in the shed. Sometimes funny, sometimes startling, the events turn frightening for the children when they decide to hide the camcorder in the living room.

This movie won the Fright Meter Awards for 2015 and was nominated for the Fanogira Chainsaw Awards for Best Wide-Release Film (M. Night Shyamalan) and Best Supporting Actress (Deanna Dunagan), Golden Schmoes Awards for Best Horror Movie of 2015 and Phoenvix Film Critics Society Awards for Best Performance by a Youth (Ed Oxenbould). But frankly, after watching the movie, I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not. It’s tinged with gerontophobia and moves like a rollercoaster, slow at first, then speeding along an unsettling track only to take a surprising turn at the end. Then I realized that, along the way, there are small interactions between Becca and Tyler that reveal a nurturing relationship and that the ending holds a moral to the story that embraces truth for all of us. In the end, I decided that I like the firm, but I probably won’t watch it again. I don’t recommend for children who still visit aged grandparents, because it is a frightening walk through the geriatric zone. I’m glad I saw The Visit, but I won’t be adding it to my collection, hence the three-star rating. If you have a different opinion, I’d love to hear it!

Dynamics in “Dust” are Downright Delicious

A Review of Dust, third book in the Shift Series by Hugh Howey

Some trilogies lose momentum by the second book of the series and become downright boring by the third. Other trilogies move forward toward the same goal and maintain reader interest with equal enthusiasm from book to book. When it comes to sagas, it’s even more challenging to sustain reader attention. Those sagas that manage to do so deserve respect and notoriety. Hugh Howey’s Shift Saga is one of those deserving respect. Dust, the third book in the saga, keeps the dynamic characters growing and carries the plot to a desirable ending, thus maintaining the interest and satisfaction of the reader.

If you’ve read my reviews of Wool and Shift, you’ll remember I said the Prologues are important. They lay the foundation for each book. This continues to be true in Dust, where we are reintroduced to Lucas Kyle, the starry-eyed dreamer of clear skies who fell in love with Sheriff Juliette “Jules” Nichols in the first book, Wool. Lucas is still manning the radio of Silo 18 as they recuperate from the uprising prompted by Jules’ surviving the “cleaning.” If you’ll remember, “cleaning” means going out into the toxic world to clean the camera lens so those inside the Silos can view the scary outside world. It a death sentence for one, and a license to bear a child for some lucky lottery winner. By surviving the “cleaning,” Jules upsets the proverbial apple cart and starts a chain of events that effects all the remaining silos. Anyway, Lucas survived the uprising and is talking on the radio to an unnamed man from Silo 1 who says he’s “trying to help them.” The man encourages Lucas to continuing studying everything in the secret treasure trove of books hidden under the server room. Lucas thinks it’s a waste of time, but the man from Silo 1 says, “Everything’s important.” Lucas reports he’s reading about a fungus that reprograms brains and the man explains that, “It means… It means we aren’t free. None of us are.” So at the heart of this man-made disaster, which has forced generations of survivors to live in the controlled environment of the Silos, is the need of a handful of people to control human destiny itself. This strikes at the heart of everyone who loves their freedom and we want to rebel alongside those up rose up in the Silos. We root for the men and women trying to regain their physical freedom, and we now know they also need freedom of thought, which is much more challenging to achieve.

Jules, now mayor of Silo 18, is one of those freedom fighters who has transcended into free thinking. She rebelled against her punishment of being sent to certain death during the “cleaning” by surviving it. She rebelled against the narrow environment of Silo 18 by discovering and returning from Silo 17. And now Jules intends to rescue the handful of people who survived Silo 17’s uprising by retrieving them from that silo. In order to do this, she has a team from Mechanical tunneling through the walls in order to reach Silo 17. This goes against all their programmed fears of breaking the walls and letting the toxic outside into their secure world. It pushes the people of Silo 18 against their pre-programmed superstitions about maintaining the seals and pushes them to the brink of an uprising against Jules. Freedom has a cost. This cost is a paradigm shift that not everyone is ready to accept. Jules certainly has her hands full as she tries to free all her people from dungeons both physical and mental. That’s part of what keeps this series alive. We grow to love Jules, despite her tempter, despite her hard-headedness…she is the one we follow because she cares about the people who died in the uprisings. She feels guilty for her part in prompting the rebellion. She wants to save her people. In short, we like her character. In fact, we tend to like most of the working class characters in this book because we, who are also working class, want to break out of our Silos, too. And maybe that, more than any other reason, is at the heart of what drives us to the Shift Saga.

Another thing that accounts for the success of the Shift Saga, is Hugh Howey’s ability to build a world that we can feel, taste, smell and hear. The details of a society living in a 121-story silo underground are marvelous. We feel like we are right there with the characters, yet the amount of description does not interfere with story…they enhance it and shape it into a place we understand.

I recommended the Silo Saga to my sister, but she said it’s difficult to read because of its dark tone. The juxtaposition of life and death seems morbid, but it embraces the danger of nanotechnology released in an uncontrolled environment. The consequences in this case being a dull controlled life for generations of survivors. But if you continue reading the books, you see that, just as life exists beside death, hope exists beside despair and you grow to admire the malleability of the human race to find joy through all trials and purpose during all hardships. My only contention with the book is its ending chapters, which I won’t spoil for you at this time. Let me just say that there were some issue that should have been addressed about the final transition which weren’t. All in all, the Shift Saga is well worth reading and I recommend it to all those who love science fiction and dystopian in particular.

"Shift" in Time and Ideas

A Review of Shift, 2^nd book in the Shift Series by Hugh Howey

If you like a novel that pulls your attention into the drama and the characters, you’ll love Hugh Howey’s Shift Omnibus. I read it in my car during every half-hour lunch break, often still reading it as I walked back into the building. For those of you who haven’t read the first book in the series, Wool, STOP! Read it first, so events are clearer. Plus there are spoilers in this review. For those of you who read have Wool, the second book, Shift is even better.

Shift is aptly named for its contents. It follows one man, Donald, through different work shifts with increasing tension and dangerous outcomes. These outcomes effect the people living securely away in other silos, safe from a toxic environment filled with certain death. It also answers some of the questions which remained after reading Wool. Shift is divided into three novellas which follow Donald through his shifts. “First Shift – Legacy” jumps between 2049, when plans begin that lead to a world which can’t support humanity, and 2110, when Donald is awaken for his shift in Silo 1, the command center of 50 silos. “Second Shift – Order” happens in 2212 and jumps back and forth between Silo 1 and Silo 18 during the year of an uprising. “Third Shift - Pact” takes place in 2345, and involves Silos 1, where Donald is mistakenly identified as the man in charge, and Silo 17 as another rebellion is in progress.

The Prologue to “First Shift – Legacy,” has the same contrasting imagery of life and death as Wool contained. “Troy [a.k.a. Donald] returned to the living and found himself inside of a tomb.” He is, in fact, inside a cryonic chamber and has just been reanimated. Howey fills us with Troy’s sensations of the frosted glass through which he can see dark shapes hovering, the weakness of his muscles surrounded by a paper gown and the horrible taste in his mouth. He is given water and pills that “stung his throat… [and made’] memories fade like dreams upon waking.” He must forget his past life so he can work his shift in the here, beneath the hills of Georgia, and now, 2110. He emerges with “the feeling of deep time and yesterdays mingled.” This is the cycle of Donald’s life: waking, trying to remember what the pills make him forget then being refrozen in a “coffin” to dream of his past life.

In these dreams of his past life, we learn that he was once Congressman Donald Keene, who originally majored in architecture and is recruited by Senator Thurman for a special project. Donald has a keen eye for details, and one that pertains to Senator Thurman is his waiting room, which is “stripped of its obligatory law books until only a handful remained. These tomes sat silently in the dim corners of the glass cabinets.” There are also pictures on the wall of Thurman shaking hands with the last four presidents, in which Thurman hardly seems to change, as if “unfazed by the passing decades.” We have to wonder if this isn’t some hint the Thurman as already been using the cryogenics we read about in the Prologue. Donald also notes, “The two arrangements spoke volumes: the uniform from the past and the coins from those currently deployed, bookends on a pair of wars. One that the Senator had fought in as a youth. The other, a war he had batted to prevent as an older and wiser man.”

It is these minute details that create the Silo world. Details about the people like the Mission Jones in Silo 18, where “Deathdays were birthdays. … An old man dies and a lottery is won. Children weep while hopeful parents cry tears of joy.” As we saw in Wool, population is staunchly controlled in the silos. Of course, it would have to be. Resources and space is limited. Hence the continual paradox of death meaning life. And just as we grow to dislike the cold and memoryless people manning Silo 1, we grow to care about the people in the other silos who live out their daily lives, rather than sleeping through enormous periods of time. The people who work as their daily jobs as porters delivering heavy packages up dozens of flights of stairs, or mechanics in the “down deep” who keep the vital equipment running for producing energy and oxygen. They are real people with families and dreams and hopes. So that when a silo is threatened with a “shut down” during a rebellion, we know it means death to the elderly and children alike. We know it means letting the outside in and an end to lives that never saw the sun.

Shutting down silos is not what Donald wants to do from his secure location in Silo 1. His dream was to save lives, not destroy them. That’s why he worked with Senator Thurman to build the silos, which were supposed to be storage for toxic waste to bring in revenue for Georgia. Even as Donald designed the plans according to Thurman’s specks, he questioned their true purpose. Thurman’s no fool, though. He has Donald working with his daughter, Anna Thurman, with whom Donald had an ex-martial affair. Anna distracts and redirects Donald from the true purpose of the silos.

By Donald’s third shift, we are back at Silo 17 and another paradox: “The Loud came before the quiet. That was a Rule of the World, for the bangs and shouts need somewhere to echo, just as bodies need space in which to fall.” We meet Jimmy Parker, who is still in school, and Mrs. Peterson, his wizened teacher. We also encounter Solo again, who fell in love with Juliette “Jules” Nichols in Wool: Casting Off. Jules is major of Silo 17 now and making more threats. This time to Silo 1, where she’s going to get them, too.

But telling you more would mean ruining many of the twists and turns that Silo contains. What you really need to know is that the book it spell-binding and the silo worlds are built with incredible detail and depth. So much depth that I also read the third book, Dust. I haven’t read all three volumes of a trilogy since Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy. It’s that good!

Casting Off Old Ideas

A Review of Wool: Casting Off by Hugh Howey

In Casting Off, Hugh Howey continues both the story and the metaphors which began in Wool. And, yes, dear readers and fans of Howey, this book is just as engrossing as the first two. Howey maintains continuity from Wool by opening with another “cleaning.” Just as in the first book, which opened with the Sheriff waiting for his cleaning, a new Sheriff now awaits the same fate. This Sheriff is Juliette “Jules” Nichols, assigned by Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes at the end of Proper Gauge. Now we see her facing the same excursion in the toxic outside world to clean the lens on the only camera to the world at large. Questions immediately pop into our mind. Why is she repeating the journey of the previous Sheriff? Is this going to be another series of all flashbacks into what lead her to this dismal destiny? Are we really going to move forward in the story line?

Flashing back was inevitable, but we learn the journey from Sheriff to cleaner has only taken Jules a few days. During that short time, Jules tried to learn how to be the silo sheriff. It’s a self-tutorial that leads her to extended hours of reading case files and staring at the jail’s camera of the outside world. Jules is much more of a pragmatist than many of the other people in the silo. Where they look up, above ground hoping to one day return to the outside, Jules sees their hope as “sad and empty dreams” where gray dust constantly molests gray hills and there hasn’t been life in hundreds of years. Jules knows that “the future was below,” safe in a silo which needs repairs. Below is her world and she is the ultimate mechanic of its social intrigues. Jules must solve the problems that rise up from the deep, one of which is Mayor Jahns’ murder.

Mayor Jahns’ last words to Jules were, “People were like machines. They broke down…Her job was to not only figure out why this happened, and who was to blame, but also to listen for the signs of it coming.” Deputy Marnes is one of those broken people in the Silo 17. He loved Mayor Jahns more than he ever let her know… until it was too late. Now his mourning casts a shadow over the sheriff’s office, just as the people’s mourning casts a shadow over the silo. The silo needs a new Mayor to go along with its new Sheriff and it seems that it will be the blind leading the blind. Both will have to learn as they go. Jules reads the Law portion of the all-important Pact, which is supposed to keep the silo a smooth-running machine. Yet she has unsolved murders, civil disruptions and the distasteful Head of IT, Bernard Holland, who claims the right to serve as interim mayor until elections can be held.

Jules is up to the challenge! She takes up the challenge and searches records, talks to people and narrows in on some of the secrets of Silo 17. During that time, she meets Lukas, a star gazer and an artist who becomes attached to Jules. Her friends in the down-deep of the silo send her words of encouragement and Walker, an old eccentric electrician, sends her a mysterious note saying, “The truth is a joke.”

Jules takes that final walk through the airlock to the outside world, where she is the first – SPOILER ALERT! – cleaner to make it over the hill and out of sight of the camera. You’ll be surprised by more of the silo’s secrets, which Walker knows and uses to help her.

I share this spoiler with you for two reasons: 1) it marches us up the hill with Jules and into the next book, The Unraveling, and 2) because we don’t read simply to get the facts. We are drawn into stories by good storytellers, and that is exactly what Hugh Howey is: a good storyteller. He takes devious political plots mixes them with murderous schemes on a grand scale, then seasons them with vivid, yet simple, details told with real human emotions. These details are Hugh Howey’s strength. They are what allow him to build a convincing contained world underground. He pulls us into the world of Silo 17 with descriptions and nuances that, once tasted, make us want more.

I, for one, am continuing to read this intriguing and well-written series. My only regret is that I didn’t get this review finishes back in December 2014 after I finished the novel. Now I’ve not only read all the Wool novels, I’m reading the Shift Omnibus and STILL loving the read. 

The Harbinger: Fable or Philosophy?

Before I began writing my review of The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn, I researched other reviews and got a surprise. I found several sources analyzing the accuracy of Cahn’s proposed Isaiah 9:10 Effect and criticizing Cahn’s argument that it applies to modern-day America as much as it did to ancient Israel. I also found reviewers who praised the book as a wake-up call for America. So I asked myself, “Why are the reviews so extreme?” Ordinarily we might expect a small variation of opinion about a book; it’s okay or it’s good. Maybe a one-star difference in overall rating. But these responses are radically different, more passionately argued with long statements about inaccuracies of facts and quality of argument. So I questioned whether I had read a philosophical argument or …what?

I went back to the beginning of the book to search for clues. Prior to the table of contents of The Harbinger, Cahn tells us that what we are about to read is a story which contains real information. I was instantly reminded of Aesop’s Fables. Even though each fable is make-believe, the morality associated with the fable is real. So we accept these morality tales, even though they contain talking animals, simply because they are teaching us something about real life. Who can forget that the tortoise’s slow, steady progress allows him to win a race with an overly confident, very fast hare? So if The Harbinger is a modern-day fable, why are so many reviewers complaining about argument quality and fact accuracy?

Perhaps the answer is in the presentation. Cahn formats the story as a Socratic argument: a dialogue about a philosophical idea. The main character, Nouriel Kaplan, relays his story – through dialogue - to a well-known, yet unnamed news reporter. Within Kaplan’s story is another story - also told totally in the dialogue between Kaplan and the Prophet – about how he anonymously receives an ancient seal with Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions and begins a quest to unravel its mystery. The set-up is good for a philosophical argument and yet Cahn doesn’t use it in that manner. Kaplan parrots everything the Prophet says and, likewise, the Reporter recaps everything Kaplan says. There is no opposing point of view and no argument ensues to persuade the reader that what is being said is either accurate or right. As a Socratic argument, the book falls far short of the mark. However, The Harbinger is NOT a philosophical argument. That’s not the purpose of the dialogue or the story within story use of repetition.

The purpose of the duel dialogues is so the information about the nine harbingers and their relationship between the downfall of ancient Israel and post-9/11 America can be repeated numerous times. As an educator, I know that most people must hear something at least five times before they remember it. Well, Cahn is using repetition of key information so the majority of readers will internalize it. It is the morality of the story that is the theme, NOT the correctness of his supposition. It is the warning that America is morally off-track and, as such, at risk of further humiliation, violence and defeat.

I gave The Harbinger a five-star, two-thumbs-up, must-read book based on perceiving it as a fable, a twenty-first century morality tale drawing parallels between ancient Israel’s pride with its fall and America’s arrogance prior to and since the terrorists acts of 9/11 with our possible future demise. Not unlike the warning in Proverbs 16:18 about pride going before a fall or Aesop’s arrogant hare losing the race to tortoise. But I’ve just skimmed the information in the book, which draws logical conclusions from compelling historical events... allowing for some flexibility. Don’t take my word for it. Read it and be enlightened. Read it and weep. Read it and change your own moral standing…and possibly our nation’s overall morality. The choice is yours. Just read it and draw your own conclusions.

Acceptance: Sometimes Difficult to Accept

Jeff Vandermeer’s Acceptance completes the Southern Reach Trilogy with detailed descriptions and complex sentences, sucking us into a world that’s changing. Here is where we expect answers, demand resolutions to the why those changes occur and what will happen to the major characters: the Biologist, Control, the Lighthouse Keeper, the Psychologist, and her assistant, Grace. Yet here is where we find true changes; changes in perspective on the landscapes of Area X, and changes in point of view.

The first book, Annihilation, is written from the first-person point of view of the Biologist on the twelfth expedition into Area X. Authority, the second book, is written from the limited third-person point of view of Control as he struggles in his new position as Director of Southern Reach. As changes have occurred within Area X, the border expanding, the wildlife being absorbed and mutated, so do changes in perspective occur within the book. Acceptance includes multiple points of view: the Biologist’s first-person perspective AND the third-person limited from Control’s eyes.  Acceptance adds the third-person point of view through the Lighthouse Keeper and we see the Psychologist’s childhood in ground zero of Area X and learn about the strange Science and Séance Brigade through his eyes. But the changes don’t stop there. A second-person point of view is added which observes the Psychologist prior to the twelfth expedition. The unknown voice speaks directly to the Psychologist and we have to wonder who this new speaker is?  We can only assume it is the voice of Area X’s creator, but this is never confirmed. This whole jumping back and forth between different types of viewpoints creates a feeling of unease in the reader and pulls you into the chaos and confusion of those expedition members who came back from Area X different, changed, damage psychologically and physically so that they died in less than a year. All accept for Lowry, who continues his deranged pursuit of conquering Area X from the safe distance of Central…or is it a controlled lab so his own changes can be easily observed?

                The affect is unnerving as we scramble over these changes in point of view, changes in Area X and changes in us, because of the answers we are compelled to seek. Like Control, who clutches Whitby’s terroir report, we seek answers to our questions: Who or what is behind the changes in Area X? What does it mean for humanity? But like the Lighthouse Keeper’s father told him, “Once the questions snuck in, whatever had been certain became uncertain. Questions opened the way for doubt.” So we follow the Lighthouse Keeper into the cryptic world of Area X as it impregnates Earth with – we know not what - and are only partially satisfied with the answers.

                Answers, like candy, often leave us with more questions, and though this is true in the world of Jeff Vandermeer’s Acceptance, it is perhaps the most original dystopian I have read in a long time. The writing style, the characters and the plot are compelling and definitely worth the read!

Proper Gauge is Engaging in More Ways Than One

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A Review of Wool: Proper Gauge by Hugh Howey

Hugh Howey continues building the Silo world of Wool in Proper Gauge. We left Sheriff Holston dead with his secret after his “cleaning” of the outside camera lenses in Wool. In Proper Gauge, it is the next day. A day when revelers celebrate the release of tension about who will do the next “cleaning.” They are grateful they didn’t have to clean the lenses, now they can express that joy. While most of the population in the silo are celebrating, Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes are weighted down with grief over the loss of their friend and sheriff, Holston. They also face the grueling task of finding the right person to fill the empty sheriff’s position. This choice is of supreme importance to the mayor, because “Whoever we decide will probably be here long after we’re gone.” Mayor Jahns knows that choosing the right person for sheriff is as important as choosing the right needle for her knitting project. The proper gauge in needles or in people is, not only important, but “critical.”

Deputy Marnes offers three possible candidates for the job, but only recommends one, Juliette Nichols. Juliette, or Jules, was born into a family health practitioners, but she chose a different path. She is content as Mechanical worker in the lowest levels of the silo, which is 144 floors deep, and will probably refuse the position. Mayor Jahns wants to visit these lower levels to “get us a proper gauge of this Juliette” and take time for silent mourning. Both Jahns and Marnes are older people, so the journey is a grueling trek down. Plus they are going against the flow of travelers who are going to the first floor to celebrate the cleaning.

As they travel into the bowels of the silo in search of a new sheriff, the people they pass look to Mayor Jahns with eyes crying, “Keep us going, … Make it so my kids live as long as me. Don’t let it unravel, not just yet.” But Jahns knows it “only [takes] one snip for it all to unravel.” This is a heroic quest to save their people for one more generation and we begin to see the possible threads that might unravel in a segregated society divided by floors. “The silo was mathematically divided into three sections of forty-eight floors each…” with the administrators and white collar workers live on the upper floors of the silo. The workers who keep the silo functional (farmers, electricians, mechanics) are on the lower levels. And smack in the middle is IT with Bernard Holland, whom we instantly dislike, Head of IT. We learn that it’s customary for the Head of IT to approve the Mayor’s choice for sheriff.

The quest for a sheriff also turns into a personal quest for unfulfilled love between our two travelers. It is chance to build on a relationship they both chose to keep professional for years and so, “out of nothing comes something,” has multiple meanings to the plot. But not everything that comes out of this trip is beneficial and the hitches in the overall plot of the whole Wool series becomes more complex.

I still have to give this novella kudos. It continues to keep us interested in the overall series even though it limits the number of character we are exposed to. In this way, the characters are developed into realistically people with pasts and hopes and dreams -even in what we believe is a depressingly limited world. Each peripheral character from one story becomes the main character in the next, so there is still continuity in the storytelling. In fact, our entire knowledge of the silo world of Wool grows with each reading. The rich imagery and smells carry through from the top levels to the “down deep” of the silo, and so do the political struggles over power usage and supplies. It’s still worthwhile, so I’m on to reading, the third book in Hugh Howey’s Wool Series: Casting Off.

It’s a Wooly Dystopian Conundrum

A Review of Wool by Hugh Howey

Why name a novel Wool? Wool, wool. What wool? The cloth that’s itchy on sensitive skin? The fleecy covering on sheep until they share it with us? Wool, like fuzzy heads or unshaved faces? As it turns out, wool in Hugh Howey’s novel is the steel wool used to clean camera lenses on a buried silo. A silo buried for life, for the living in some post-apocalyptic world in which the descendants of survivors only have a camera’s eye view of the outside world and that camera lens must be kept clean. So wool, steel wool, is essential to this society. The title makes sense.

The opening line gets our attention with an opposition of imagery and attitude. “The children were playing while Holston climbed to his death…” The obvious dichotomy of playing children, full of life and dying creates enough curiosity to engage the reader. The contrasts between living and dying continues as Holston takes his time, moving up each step in a methodical and ponderous way. He wears “old boots” as he climbs a metal spiral staircase, paint chipped with age and metal floor worn so thin even the diamond no-slip pattern is flatten by time and numerous footfalls. Holston punctuates this difference as he reflects on how the sounds of “childlike delight” and youthful nativity “who in their minds were not buried” are “incongruous with…his decision and determination to die.” And we ask ourselves, why is he so determined to die? Holston’s ponderings about what the “untold years had done, the ablation of molecules and lives, layer and layer ground to fine dust” help us empathize with Holston’s resignation borne of desperation.

Questions, pulled from reader with incongruities like laughing children and death, are marvelous tools for writers and Howey uses them well. We are engaged with Holston and this generationally buried society enough to read the entire account. We learn about the importance of cleaning the outside camera lenses, which needs to done every couple of years because toxic soot builds up and clouds the exterior view. We also learn that the job is fatal. The toxins in the air are still so powerful they deteriorate the chemical safety suits in a matter of minutes and kill the “cleaner.” Criminals are sometimes used to clean the lens, but at other times there are those who actually volunteer for the job, like Holston does now…like his deceased wife did a year ago.

Sheriff Holston was married to Allison, one of the few IT workers in the silo. In this limited space, controlled environment procreation is only permitted for couples who win the “lottery.” The lottery allows couples to attempt to produce offspring for one year, then that privilege goes to another winning couple. Holston and Allison won the lottery the year she volunteered for “cleaning.” The laughing children remind him of what might have been, of the child he and Allison might have had if not for the secret she learned while recovering deleted computer files. However, as Holston learns, the secret Allison thinks she discovered is not the real secret.

I highly recommend Wool by Hugh Howey because he builds his setting with rich details and his characters, though a bit stagnant, are engaging. You sympathize with the main characters and feel their pain. We don’t learn a lot about Deputy Marnes or Mayor Jahns in this first book, but we are deeply involved with Sheriff Holston, Allison and a society living in a silo. It’s not an action-packed, plot-driven escapism novella, but it does keeps moving with twists and turns you don’t see coming. And it does move quickly along, taking us into a dystopian world with rich texture and compelling traditions. We don’t get answers to questions like, “what happen to create this mess,” but we are sucked into the world of one man and his desperate reaction to the loss of a spouse and the loss of hope.

I’ve only seen one drawback to Wool. It’s a free standalone novella in the Wool Series of five separate books. (Wool, Proper Gauge, Casting Off, The Unraveling, The Stranded) It is part of the Silo Series which includes the Shift Series (First Shift: Legacy, Second Shift: Order, Third Shift: Pact), plus the final novel, Dust. It was free, so I can’t complain too much. And it did pull me in enough to read the second book in the series, Proper Gauge. FYI enjoyed it too, and now I’m working on the third book, Casting Off. More to come about those books later. My only regret is that I bought the books individually and didn’t go ahead and purchase the Wool Omnibus Edition, which contains those first five books. Don’t make the same mistake I did!

The Question of Who has the Authority?

One of the greatest challenges for any author writing a trilogy is to preserve in each successive book the momentum of the plot as well as the interest of the reader. Not all authors can achieve these goals, however Jeff VanderMeer accomplishes both of these objectives plus adds to our understanding of Area X without solving its mysteries in his second novel of the Southern Reach Trilogy, Authority. Like Annihilation, Authority is told from the limited point of view of the main character. Whereas Annihilation is told from the first person point of view through the journal of the biologist on an expedition into Area X, Authority is told from the third person through the eyes of Control, the new director of Southern Reach.

What is perhaps most fascinating in VanderMeer’s novels is his ability to effectively relate the details of both the biologist’s and Control’s observations from very different perspectives with clarity and realism. In the case of Annihilation and the biologist, we see the details relating to species of plants and animals and the ecology of Area X in which they thrive and change. In Authority, we see both the overt communication and the subtle nuisances of character in the staff working for Southern Reach. We see their quirks, their strengths and weaknesses, and their value or possible threat to the goals of Southern Reach. First and foremost, we learn about Control.

The opening segment of part one takes us into Control’s recurring dream of standing on a cliff overlooking a cove which is ever-changing, where behemoths “glide…like submarines or bell-shaped orchids or the wide hulls of ships, silent, ever moving, the size of them conveying such a sense of power that he can feel the havoc of their passage…” then he falls and keeps falling. Control’s dream ties us to the first novel, Annihilation, in which the biologist observes strange behemoths in the sea by the Lighthouse in Area X. It also hints at the ever-changing nature of the area which all the previous expeditions observed. Plus the dream shows us a human weakness in Control and hints at a link between him and this mysterious area. Then he falls, and in falling causes the reader to immediately question whether this link between Control and Area X will help or hinder the goals of Southern Reach to contain the “contamination” and keep its real nature a secret.

The second segment opens with Control’s first day as director at Southern Reach and we learn that this is his “last chance.” That first line hints at career problems which have plagued Control during his time with Southern Reach and we begin to see him as a rogue agent and a possible hindrance to the mission. Through Control’s observations of the assistant director’s reactions to him, her not sparing him an extra word or an extra look, “except when he’d told her and the rest of the staff to call him ‘Control,’ not ‘John’ or ‘Rodriguez,’ we see the antagonism that is set up between the characters. When she replies, call her “Patience,” not “Grace,” we know Control’s reign will be tenuous. Grace also insists on calling him the “acting” director, indicating the temporal nature of his tenure during the transition period in which she is still actually in charge. Control acknowledges that, “Until then, the issue of authority might be murky.” This segment sets up, not only the conflict of man versus the unknown threat of Area X’s possible expansion, but man versus man to gain power and authority which carries throughout the entire novel.

Even though it’s only Control’s first day, he admits he “already felt contaminated by the dingy, bizarre building with its worn green carpet and the antiquated opinions of the other personnel he had met.” Here is foreshadowing of the contamination from Area X expanding behind the confinements and barricades and Army guards which surround it. The very building housing Southern Reach has “a sense of diminishment” as if it has been blanketed in deterioration of hopelessness about solving the mystery of Area X. It is feeling from which Control struggles to remain aloft as he begins his job of interrogating the three returnees from the twelfth expedition: the surveyor, the anthropologist and the biologist. Control sees something different, something special in the biologist and he focuses all his attention on her as he wades through reports about Area X, meets the team of scientists studying the area and gives secret reports on his progress to The Voice via phone. We also learn the missing psychologist from the twelfth expedition was, in fact, the previous Director of Southern Reach.

Amid the antagonism of the assistant director, the peculiarities of the scientific team and the oppressive feeling of stagnation, Control and the biologist develop an unusual relationship. Southern Reach: Authority is a well-written book, not only worthwhile reading, but one to add to the personal collection of your library. I look forward to reading the third book in the trilogy, Acceptance.

C.L. Cohen

Annihilation: X Marks the Spot to Read

Annihilation is a fascinating tale that grips you from the first chapter to the last. Jeff VanderMeer pulls the reader into the story by creating a cascade of questions about the mysterious Area X which is being monitored by the clandestine organization, Southern Reach. The opening line sets the tone and style. “The tower, which was not supposed to there, plunges into the earth…” This line presents both questions and conflicting images at the same time. We not only ask how and why is the tower there, we also wonder how a tower can plunge into the ground when normally they go up toward the sky. This dichotomy continues throughout the novel, presenting us with overt questions and stimulating us with opposing visuals.

Area X, which has been abandoned for decades “for reason that are not easy to relate,” is described in vivid detail without emotional attachment. We later learn that we are reading the journal of a biologist, one of four members of an expedition sent “to continue the government’s investigation into the mysteries of Area X.” We know by end of the first paragraph that the expedition didn’t end well because she says, “Looking out over that untroubled landscape, I do not believe any of could yet see the threat.”

 The members of the expedition are only identified by their function: the biologist, the surveyor, the anthropologist and the psychiatrist. We have to wonder why? We also learn that expedition members were not permitted to bring any electrical equipment or modern tools of their trade. They are instructed to only keep a personal, hand-written journal and they are not allowed to share any of the information they record with other members of their team. This restriction seems scientifically inefficient and questionable. All the members chosen for this twelfth expedition are women. The vague and unsatisfying explanation given is that they were “chosen as part of the complex set of variables that governed sending the expeditions.” No further information is given. Thus begins a series of questions that seem to lead to more questions as we delve into the enigmatic Area X in order to find the answers.

The questions continue as we learn that something strange and inexplicable happened to all the members of the previous expeditions. Some expeditions killed each other, others killed themselves, still others unaccountably “disappeared” from Area X, only appear home and have other problems there. And yet with as much as I have already told you, I have barely scratched the surface. Each revelation in Area X leads to multiple possibilities and more questions.

This is a must-read novel whether you’re a science fiction fan or not. It grabs your attention from the first chapter and consumes you with the craving to solve the mystery of Area X. Now that I’ve read Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, I eagerly await the release of the second book in the Southern Reach trilogy, Authority, which was published at the end of May 2014. Jeff VanderMeer’s dynamic narrative style promises future reading of a first class writer equally the likes of Steven King and Michael Crichton. This series is not to be missed!

C.L. Cohen

“Among Others”: Growing Up One Page at a Time

Title: Among Others
Author: Jo Walton
Publisher: Tor Books
ISBN-10: 0765331721
ISBN-13: 978-0765331724
Format: hardback, paperback, Kindle & audio editions
Paperback: 304 pages
Genre: Fantasy/Coming of Age
Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 Stars

Distorting Time with Words

Have you ever noticed that when you’re young time oozes like syrup, but as you get older it runs like water? Psychologist Jeremy Dean confirms this observation in his article “10 Ways Our Mind Warp Time.” He says there are studies which show “people in their 20s are pretty accurate at guessing [time] … but people in their 60s systematically overestimate it, suggesting time is passing about 20% more quickly for them.” So how does an author create this illusion in a novel? Jo Walton seems to have found just how to capture it in her fantasy novel for young adults, Among Others.

Walton first captures our attention by opening with a pivotal moment in the young heroine’s life. Written as a journal entry for May 1^st 1975, we watch as 11-year-old Morganna, and her identical twin, Morwenna, approach the Phurnacite factory in Abercwmboi. Their goal is to destroy the factory with fairy magic because it “looked like something from the depths of hell, black and looming with chimneys of flame, reflected in a dark pool that killed any bird or animal that drank from it. The smell was beyond description.” Our heroines are challenged by the looming presence around the factory, which has “no vegetation here, not even dead trees. Cinders crunched underfoot, and clinker and slag threatened to turn our ankles.” And there is a sign warning about dangerous watch dogs. Though Morwenna is terrified of dogs, the brave sisters throw the magic flower they’ve brought into the black pool and the next day the factory announces its closing. Magic is real, though not the way we imagine it. A post script from the journal’s author says she write this first because “it’s compact and concise and it makes sense, and a lot of the rest of this isn’t that simple.” This statement entices us to read further.

Slowing Time with Daily Details

The story then jumps ahead four years to September 5^th 1979 and we learn that Morwenna died in a car accident and a seriously injured Morganna has been sent to live with her estranged father after running away from her insane mother. Using details about the mundane aspects of daily life and numerous references to science fiction and fantasy novels, the remaining scenes unfold slowly with only hints of magic, its unpredictable nature and the dangers of using it for self-interest. Morganna choses to be called Mor, connecting herself to her dead twin, yet in the first part of the story, she distances herself from her father by just calling him “he.” We meet “the aunts”, Anthea, Dorothy and Frederica, who control “him” by having him manage their estate. The aunts “get rid” of Mor by rushing her off to the boarding school, Arlinghurst. Walton sets the contrast between Mor’s life with her mother’s family and life at the aunts’ house, enhancing the distance from her poor side of the family and her father’s rich side. Mor’s only connection to her father is books. They share an interest in science fiction/fantasy which Mor reads with an OCD consumption. Since she is in constant pain from her injured leg and has nothing else to do, we can sympathize with Mor and understand her reading compulsion. However, continuing references to titles and authors slows the pacing and makes it a challenge to continued reading even in the face of the subtle threat of her mother’s magic.

We are almost half-way through the novel before the pacing speeds up with the introduction of Wim, a boy Mor meets at a SciFi/Fantasy book club. Like a lot of things in life, the joy of being in Wim’s presence carries Mor through the daily rituals of boarding school until the next time with meeting him. Wim adds flavor to the plot with his questionable reputation and his curiosity about magic until the final scene where Mor must confront her mother.

In order to improve my own writing, I read “Among Others” because it won the 2011 Nebula Award. Through the first half of the book, I kept asking why it won such a prestigious award when other novels held so much more interest. But after finishing the book, it makes sense, and so does the slow pacing of the first half. My kudos go to Jo Walton for using the technique of slowing time with Mor childhood and then speeding it up as she matures and for winning the 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novel. If you haven’t read this novel, be as patient as you would with any teenager, knowing the maturity at the end is worth it.

Red River Runs True to Form

Title: Red River
Author(s): Kelly Van Hull
Publisher: Kelly Van Hull
Copyright: 2013
ASBN: BOOGQLNDOG
Format: market paperback & ebook
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Part of Series: Book Two in the Tent City Series
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Kelly Van Hull continues to keep our attention in the Second Book of the Tent City Series: Red River. Many writers of dystopian fiction can fall out of balance between maintaining realism versus “crossing the line” in the sequel. However, Van Hull maintains a realistic balance in this novel for young adults despite her apocalyptic theme, the Biblical references to end of times plagues and the “advancements” which empower some of the characters. Continuity is maintained between the first and second books with the first-person point of view narration through the eyes of 17-year-old Dani. We learn that Dani’s 5-year-old brother, Brody, is the prophesized “Golden Child”. Dani’s determined to protect Brody by keeping his identity secret, even from their friends in Tent City. Like Van Hull, Dani is doing a balancing act. Dani is still undecided about her feeling for the brothers, Bentley and Jack, but that’s the least of her worries.

The novel opens with Dani discovering that Brody has the mark of the Golden Child as the young people from Tent City, along with Dani’s mother and father are on their way back to Tent City. The second plague occurs as they cross the river, which has turned to blood. This means that Bentley and Jack’s father, General Burke, can no longer be called a religious lunatic, he’s right! They now know they must face the remaining plagues soon. However, even concern about the plagues must be put on the back burner because winter in the Black Hills is approaching and they need a new camp.

The plot pacing is enjoyable, as Dani and Bentley search for a winter camp, but for me it’s just a backdrop for the inner conflict which Dani faces as she wavers between the pouting teenager whose parents are “in charge” and the strong young woman she is becoming. I like that her protectiveness of Brody keeps her firmly rooted in her own strength and that she constantly battles her own temper when she is forced to share the camp with the infamous General Burke. New characters are smoothly introduced into the sequel and flesh it out to create a lively conflict for Dani’s inner conflict. A few surprising twists toward the end makes us wonder what will happen in the third book to this trilogy.

Though I enjoyed Kelly Van Hull’s second book, Red River, it didn’t capture my attention as much as the first book, Tent City, which I gave five stars. It’s still a good read, though, and I highly recommend it for the young people and adults who are following Van Hull’s series.

Full of Grace: Tuesday’s Child Earns It!

Title: Tuesday’s Child

Author(s): Dale Mayer
Publisher: Valley Publishing
Copyright: 2010
ISBN-13: 978-1-927461-31-0
Format: trade paperback & ebook
Genre: Paranormal/Romance
Part of Series: Book #3 of Psychic Visions
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

A Gift I Wouldn’t Want Either

We’ve often heard that psychic “gifts” can be a curse, but Tuesday’s Child takes the cursing part to the extreme. Dale Mayer creates a compelling paranormal/romance novel, where the main character is reclusive psychic Samantha Blair. Sam’s psychic gift isn’t just an audio-visual or emotional connection to the subject; she has a physical connection to murder victims. Sam lives through each ghoulish detail with the victims in real time, including their bleeding. She gains our sympathy in the opening scene while experiencing one of these psychic episodes: “The attack became a frenzy of stabs and slices, snatching all thought away. Her body jerked and arched in a macabre dance. Black spots blurred her vision and still the slaughter continued.” Experiencing these horrific episodes leaves Sam physically depleted, often with wounds that heal at a paranormal rate. We see how frail and vulnerable she is in a wide world that doesn’t accept her strange ability. Where police suspect her involvement if she tells them about the murders and where harassment or rejection is what Sam expects from everyone. Mayer compels us to want to see Sam nurtured with vivid descriptions. We want someone to come to her rescue, to help her, protect her and offer her some repast from the brutality she lives.

Dale Mayer creates the perfect compatibility in the form of Detective Brandt Sutherland. Brandt is researching cold cases he believes are related to a series of murders he’s been investigating. Brandt isn’t the stereotypical hard-nosed cop we’ve come to expect. He is an intelligent and capable member of Law Enforcement, but he is also open-minded. Hints of his previous work with a psychic gives us hope for Brandt working with Sam. There is the added bonus of the patient way he handles his mother when she gets in trouble at the assisted living facility. We feel confident that he can nurture Sam in the same way. So even though Sam doesn’t trust Brandt, we do and we root for their successful union through the period of mistrust that’s bound to occur.

A Plot That Moves With Intelligence

Tuesday’s Child combines a dichotomous plot of both fast-moving murder investigation and the importance of friends and family that keeps us reading to the end. Brandt’s gentle interactions with his mother combine with Sam’s helping dogs at the local vets to create a loving backdrop in which a serial killer strikes at select victims with horrifying violence and blood-letting. The murder has the glee of a naughty child who doesn’t get caught with his hand in the cookie jar. This contrast of gentleness versus violence, love versus hatred continues throughout the novel’s plot and subplot giving us the real-world feel of both the safety and danger around us and reminds us why we fight to keep the world safe. Dale Mayer creates an interesting read blended with a formula romance to produce the perfect book to read on a rainy night or at the beach.

Rapture Trilogy: Not as Enrapturing as Hoped

An Author-Requested Review

Title: Rapture

Author(s): Phillip W. Simpson
Publisher: Arete Publishing
Copyright: 2010
ISBN-10: 148394963X
ISBN-13: 978-1483949635
Format: ebook
Genre: Young Adult Dystopian
Part of Series: Part I of Rapture Trilogy
Rating: 2 1/2 out of 5

Phillip W. Simpson’s young adult novel, Rapture Trilogy, paints a dystopian world after the Biblical Rapture has occurred and the believers have been taken to heaven. Written in third-person, limited point-of-view we follow the teenaged protagonist, Sam, through a demon-infested landscape where the sun is blotted out, the moon is red as blood and ash continually falls from the sky, contaminating exposed water and food. Sam’s goal is to reach Los Angeles from his home in Jacob’s Ladder, Utah. Along the way he battles demon’s, trying to help the unbelievers left behind and fights beside the survivors holed up in caves and old businesses that remain standing after the earthquakes. But Sam is up to the challenge because he’s half-demon, half-human so has superior strength and speed coupled with life-long training in martial arts using the katana (long blade) & wakizashi (short blade). Of course, he has horns, which makes gaining survivors’ trust more difficult. Along the way, Sam befriends Joshua, who agrees to travel with him to Los Angeles, and together they save a girl named Grace from a group of roughen survivors. This unlikely trio makes their way across the brutal, post-Rapture landscape.

Simpson uses alternating chapters to give Sam’s background, which works well in telling us about Hikari and his daughter, Aimi who Sam loves, but slows the action a bit. His descriptions of both the setting and the fight scenes are engaging, but his characters lack depth. For instance, Sam is raised by Hikari, his sensei or teacher/foster-father who is, by all accounts in the novel, perfect. We learn through the flashbacks that Hikari takes Sam in as an infant from a Christian mother who was seduced by a demon. Hikari devotes his life to Sam’s martial arts training and Biblical education. Though Hikari was once a teacher, we have no idea how he supports Sam and Aimi. He seems to always be at home, that is when he’s not at church. How he provides for his family is a complete mystery. Aimi is also portrayed to perfection. She’s an obedient daughter who happily takes on the responsibility of cooking and cleaning for two men. On top of her household chores, Hikari trains Aimi in the martial arts almost as rigorously as he trains Sam, and all the while she maintains academic excellence and superior cheerleading skills. Excelling at everything she does is a bit unrealistic. No wonder Sam loves her, she is perfection incarnate. Neither Aimi nor Sam displays the rebellious nature that occurs in 98% of American teenagers. As an ex-high school teacher, I found that lack a little disturbing. Teenaged rebellion is part of growing up and developing self-identity.

While Phillip W. Simpson’s Rapture Trilogy provides us with a good escapism story, it lacks the depth and breadth of realism to make it worth a second read. Though the main character is the picture of social isolation, he lacks the rebellion, “to liberate himself or herself from childhood dependency on parental approval for always being the "good child." (Carl Pickard, PhD., “Surviving (Your Child’s) Adolescence”, Psychology Today December 6, 2009). Neither does Aimi, the quintessential “good child”. I doubt whether the teen population which Simpson’s targets will identify with either character.