Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
If Down: Pinhole is to believed, the Christian idea of Hell is actually to be transported to Europe some time in the mid-18th Century. As if being thrown into pre-industrial society wasn't bad enough, you share your dismal demise with all of the nasty people from throughout history.
Borrowing the idea that the LHC in Switzerland would open up some sort of wormhole which will swallow the earth, Glenn Cooper leverages the idea into a solid 'portal' story where people from the real world are sucked into some fantasy - although not all that fantastic - world.
What the Author does well is to build well-fleshed out characters, and put them in situations where the tension is seeping out of the walls. Although I will admit that there is a certain diminished tension in a world (Hell) where most people are already 'dead' and the possibility of dying further doesn't really exist.
On the other hand, Cooper does take us on a whirlwind tour of famous-European-people-who-are-dead-but-still-want-to-continue-their-former-lives. The characters who stick in for long enough with the main hero are certainly interesting, but they tend to leave a lot of dead bodies in their wake.
It was an entertaining, solid beginning to a trilogy, and I am interested to read the rest. I felt like there were a lot of unresolved issues, even before we got to the cliffhanger at the end, but I guess the author has started a lot of snowballs rolling downhill, and I'll wait and see where they end up.
4/5 stars
Tuesday 22 December 2015
Review - Monetary Men by Kenneth D Alford
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
I have decided to make a rule for myself when reviewing non-fiction books about war - if the author manages to make war boring, then I take at least 1 star off. I am kind of a war nut, in terms of how voraciously I read war-related books, and I don't think I'm that hard to keep entertained.
Monetary Men suffers from several major problems. Firstly, it is being released soon after a movie called The Monuments Men, which is based on an equally excellent book. The Monuments Men covers some of the same ground as Monetary Men, and obviously the books share similar titles. I must admit that was what caught my notice first.
The second problem is that it reads as though it was written by an accountant. Which again, is not in and of itself bad, but it makes it a weighty tome which is largely filled with recounts of the numbers, and values of the gold, and other forms of currency which were stolen and recaptured from from various countries and locations around the world. I get that - if that was the purpose - there may be a market out there for this kind of information, but it hardly makes for entertaining reading.
The third, and probably ultimately the least forgiveable problem with the book lies in the title itself. The phrase "Monetary Men" implies that it would be telling the tales of the men who were out there doing the hunting down of stolen Nazi gold. Instead, more accurately, it is the story of the Tripartite Gold Commission. Unlike the Monuments Men, which took the time to highlight the personalities who were involved in the operations, I came away from Monetary Men with the impression that.
- Nameless Nazis stole the gold
- Nameless Allies recovered the gold
- Nameless Allies were largely reluctant to give it back
*sigh*
At the end of the day the subject matter was just not that interesting, and was not presented in a particularly interesting way. I felt that it had been anonymised to the point where it had ceased to be about the actual eponymous 'Monetary Men'.
I will give it 2-3/5 stars because it clearly has a use as reference material, or for light reading for accountants, but I would judge it to be outside the interests of the casual reader.
I have decided to make a rule for myself when reviewing non-fiction books about war - if the author manages to make war boring, then I take at least 1 star off. I am kind of a war nut, in terms of how voraciously I read war-related books, and I don't think I'm that hard to keep entertained.
Monetary Men suffers from several major problems. Firstly, it is being released soon after a movie called The Monuments Men, which is based on an equally excellent book. The Monuments Men covers some of the same ground as Monetary Men, and obviously the books share similar titles. I must admit that was what caught my notice first.
The second problem is that it reads as though it was written by an accountant. Which again, is not in and of itself bad, but it makes it a weighty tome which is largely filled with recounts of the numbers, and values of the gold, and other forms of currency which were stolen and recaptured from from various countries and locations around the world. I get that - if that was the purpose - there may be a market out there for this kind of information, but it hardly makes for entertaining reading.
The third, and probably ultimately the least forgiveable problem with the book lies in the title itself. The phrase "Monetary Men" implies that it would be telling the tales of the men who were out there doing the hunting down of stolen Nazi gold. Instead, more accurately, it is the story of the Tripartite Gold Commission. Unlike the Monuments Men, which took the time to highlight the personalities who were involved in the operations, I came away from Monetary Men with the impression that.
- Nameless Nazis stole the gold
- Nameless Allies recovered the gold
- Nameless Allies were largely reluctant to give it back
*sigh*
At the end of the day the subject matter was just not that interesting, and was not presented in a particularly interesting way. I felt that it had been anonymised to the point where it had ceased to be about the actual eponymous 'Monetary Men'.
I will give it 2-3/5 stars because it clearly has a use as reference material, or for light reading for accountants, but I would judge it to be outside the interests of the casual reader.
Review - On by Jon Puckridge
I must admit that I hate when a novel is noted as a "cross between" two things, particularly where it claims more famous cousins. In the case of On by Jon Puckridge it was the works of William Gibson, and the movie Bladerunner. My healthy suspicion about such comparisons was well-founded as I discovered.
Oh it began well enough, with a certain Gibson-esque atmosphere to this dystopian future, but it soon deteriorated. There are hints at some of Max Barry's ideas around corporatisation and commodification of everything in the future. I was also reminded of Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk books - before he began writing encyclopedia-sized tomes.
I found this book downright confusing as all hell. There are constant switches in viewpoint, and almost all of them are told in first person. I concluded that about the only thing people were 'On' by the end of it was a boatload of drugs. As soon as I had begun to get a grasp on what was going on, Puckridge was off on another tangent to parts unknown.
I finished the book, but only just. I genuinely felt that I came away not knowing what the hell I just read. It was like a melting pot of recycled plots and ideas from Cyberpunk and Science Fiction novels and movies from the past 30 odd years. And I just didn't care.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
I can't recommend this novel. Interesting ideas, with confusing and poor execution.
2/5 stars.
Oh it began well enough, with a certain Gibson-esque atmosphere to this dystopian future, but it soon deteriorated. There are hints at some of Max Barry's ideas around corporatisation and commodification of everything in the future. I was also reminded of Neal Stephenson's cyberpunk books - before he began writing encyclopedia-sized tomes.
I found this book downright confusing as all hell. There are constant switches in viewpoint, and almost all of them are told in first person. I concluded that about the only thing people were 'On' by the end of it was a boatload of drugs. As soon as I had begun to get a grasp on what was going on, Puckridge was off on another tangent to parts unknown.
I finished the book, but only just. I genuinely felt that I came away not knowing what the hell I just read. It was like a melting pot of recycled plots and ideas from Cyberpunk and Science Fiction novels and movies from the past 30 odd years. And I just didn't care.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
I can't recommend this novel. Interesting ideas, with confusing and poor execution.
2/5 stars.
Thursday 10 December 2015
Review - The Awakening by Adair Hart
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
So a few random humans - The Stereotypical Doctor, the Stereotypical Innocent Child, the Stereotypical Redneck/Soldier (I think), and a random Indian get kidnapped by aliens. They are placed in a ship filled with other aliens from around the multi-verse who have all escaped their holding pens and are probably going to kill said humans in the near future.
Fortunately there's a random stereotypical time-travelling alien and his stereotypically friendly, lovable robot there to save the day and lend a hand.
You know when you start a book, and are super-glad that it is relatively short? That was me with this novel.
This book reminded me a lot of Matthew Reilly's first book, Contest, where aliens from all over the universe are thrown into mortal combat with each other in a confined space. There were also healthy doses of Doctor Who tropes thrown in for good measure. However, the similarities soon ended.
Sure there were plenty of interesting and gruesome death scenes, which I did enjoy rather immensely. But then there was just so much stuff that either made no difference to the story, made no sense, or was so completely convoluted that my eyes began to glaze over.
- Any time Evaran (the aforementioned alien) began mansplaining (or is that aliensplaining) anything involving multiple universes, how he travels through time, and the laws which govern them. I just did not care.
- Wherever they wandered into an errant sub-plot about Evaran and the Mercenaries.
I would hazard a guess that more of the novel made no sense to me than the bits that did. I didn't buy, or understand why the humans were kidnapped in the first place; I guess humans were supposed to be Earth's apex predators, but these particular humans seemed like weak, inept, do-nothings.
Evaran was an interesting character, when he wasn't speaking pseudo-sciencey crap, and his robot sidekick V was quite cool, although there were a few too many "interpret what the human says literally" moments for my liking.
What it all boiled down too in the end was that it was neither overly original, or interesting. However, the bits that were interesting weren't original, and the bits that were original weren't all that interesting. I felt like it couldn't make up its mind whether it was trying to be survival horror or Doctor Who ripoff.
2.5/5 stars.
So a few random humans - The Stereotypical Doctor, the Stereotypical Innocent Child, the Stereotypical Redneck/Soldier (I think), and a random Indian get kidnapped by aliens. They are placed in a ship filled with other aliens from around the multi-verse who have all escaped their holding pens and are probably going to kill said humans in the near future.
Fortunately there's a random stereotypical time-travelling alien and his stereotypically friendly, lovable robot there to save the day and lend a hand.
You know when you start a book, and are super-glad that it is relatively short? That was me with this novel.
This book reminded me a lot of Matthew Reilly's first book, Contest, where aliens from all over the universe are thrown into mortal combat with each other in a confined space. There were also healthy doses of Doctor Who tropes thrown in for good measure. However, the similarities soon ended.
Sure there were plenty of interesting and gruesome death scenes, which I did enjoy rather immensely. But then there was just so much stuff that either made no difference to the story, made no sense, or was so completely convoluted that my eyes began to glaze over.
- Any time Evaran (the aforementioned alien) began mansplaining (or is that aliensplaining) anything involving multiple universes, how he travels through time, and the laws which govern them. I just did not care.
- Wherever they wandered into an errant sub-plot about Evaran and the Mercenaries.
I would hazard a guess that more of the novel made no sense to me than the bits that did. I didn't buy, or understand why the humans were kidnapped in the first place; I guess humans were supposed to be Earth's apex predators, but these particular humans seemed like weak, inept, do-nothings.
Evaran was an interesting character, when he wasn't speaking pseudo-sciencey crap, and his robot sidekick V was quite cool, although there were a few too many "interpret what the human says literally" moments for my liking.
What it all boiled down too in the end was that it was neither overly original, or interesting. However, the bits that were interesting weren't original, and the bits that were original weren't all that interesting. I felt like it couldn't make up its mind whether it was trying to be survival horror or Doctor Who ripoff.
2.5/5 stars.
Review - Target Tobruk by Robert Jackson
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest review.
When I was a kid, there were these little comic books called Commando comics, man I was so addicted to them. I had a huge collection of these things, and was always scouring the local second hand book stores for them. They were kind of on the ground stories of the little people of the second world war. They weren't particularly realistic, and were full of macho American exceptionalism and British stiff-upper-lippedness, but they were just a plain good time.
I say these things because I think in many ways, Target Tobruk, and its erstwhile hero Yeoman something or other, who seems capable of doing everything from flying planes, to acting as a commando, and everything else in between.
I must admit that I was a little surprised in that the author gave a German point of view character, and actually treated him with some dignity which is not always afforded to antagonists. On the other hand, I was often unsure actually what was going on in the bigger picture, and/or what the point of it all was.
I quite liked the novel - accepting its flaws - because it was unpretentious, short, and was just good plain harmless fun. It's part Biggles, part Commando Comic and a little bit of rock and roll.
4/5 stars.
When I was a kid, there were these little comic books called Commando comics, man I was so addicted to them. I had a huge collection of these things, and was always scouring the local second hand book stores for them. They were kind of on the ground stories of the little people of the second world war. They weren't particularly realistic, and were full of macho American exceptionalism and British stiff-upper-lippedness, but they were just a plain good time.
I say these things because I think in many ways, Target Tobruk, and its erstwhile hero Yeoman something or other, who seems capable of doing everything from flying planes, to acting as a commando, and everything else in between.
I must admit that I was a little surprised in that the author gave a German point of view character, and actually treated him with some dignity which is not always afforded to antagonists. On the other hand, I was often unsure actually what was going on in the bigger picture, and/or what the point of it all was.
I quite liked the novel - accepting its flaws - because it was unpretentious, short, and was just good plain harmless fun. It's part Biggles, part Commando Comic and a little bit of rock and roll.
4/5 stars.
Monday 7 December 2015
Review - Eisenhower's Guerillas by Benjamin F Jones
Disclaimer - I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Eisenhower's Guerillas is a book which is dedicated to the stories of the group called the Jedburghs (aka Jeds) which were a multi-national force of guerillas who went into occupied France after D-Day to work alongside the French resistance, the Maquis.
A great majority of this book is given over to the politics of war, and the battles which occurred at the highest levels of the command structure, as well as between the political leaders who had very differing ideas about how the Jedburghs should be used.
I must say that I was slightly disappointed in the book, in that it was so focused on the chess game of the war, that it often failed to deliver on the individual stories of the men involved on the ground. At the end of the book, for instance, it reveals that there were some 190 teams of Jedburghs who were either deployed, or were trained for deployment, and I can respect that it would be an impossible task to capture all of these men's stories. Certainly there were highlights of the action on the ground in bits and pieces, but I felt like the fog of war had descended over the book, with intermittent descriptions of battle, which seemed - for all intents and purposes - to take place in a void.
Another aspect which I found difficult to parse was the often-dizzying array of acronyms which were obviously in use at the time. Having to jump back to a reference guide, or looking up on the internet while trying to read a book isn't the best thing in the world.
Much of the story of the German side of the conflict is glossed over. Probably the most cohesive and interesting section of the book for me was the final chapters and the epilogue, which nicely lifted the fog of war and actually tied it all together.
I have a serious level of interest in history and war; and as such am willing to give a book a bit of leniency, particularly where it is dealing with an aspect about which I was otherwise either unaware, or under-read. However, I came away from the book with only a limited increase in my understanding, due to the way that the information was presented. I fear that this is perhaps too dry a tome for the average reader, perhaps aimed at the academician.
2.5/5 stars.
Eisenhower's Guerillas is a book which is dedicated to the stories of the group called the Jedburghs (aka Jeds) which were a multi-national force of guerillas who went into occupied France after D-Day to work alongside the French resistance, the Maquis.
A great majority of this book is given over to the politics of war, and the battles which occurred at the highest levels of the command structure, as well as between the political leaders who had very differing ideas about how the Jedburghs should be used.
I must say that I was slightly disappointed in the book, in that it was so focused on the chess game of the war, that it often failed to deliver on the individual stories of the men involved on the ground. At the end of the book, for instance, it reveals that there were some 190 teams of Jedburghs who were either deployed, or were trained for deployment, and I can respect that it would be an impossible task to capture all of these men's stories. Certainly there were highlights of the action on the ground in bits and pieces, but I felt like the fog of war had descended over the book, with intermittent descriptions of battle, which seemed - for all intents and purposes - to take place in a void.
Another aspect which I found difficult to parse was the often-dizzying array of acronyms which were obviously in use at the time. Having to jump back to a reference guide, or looking up on the internet while trying to read a book isn't the best thing in the world.
Much of the story of the German side of the conflict is glossed over. Probably the most cohesive and interesting section of the book for me was the final chapters and the epilogue, which nicely lifted the fog of war and actually tied it all together.
I have a serious level of interest in history and war; and as such am willing to give a book a bit of leniency, particularly where it is dealing with an aspect about which I was otherwise either unaware, or under-read. However, I came away from the book with only a limited increase in my understanding, due to the way that the information was presented. I fear that this is perhaps too dry a tome for the average reader, perhaps aimed at the academician.
2.5/5 stars.
Review - No Direction Home by James Baddock
Disclaimer - I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
The plot of No Direction Home is a fairly familiar science fiction trope - a 'ark' ship is sent off a dying Earth to populate the planets of some far-off star system, complete with thousands of people in cryostasis. What could possibly go wrong, right?
The main character - Christopher Vinter - is awakened from the cryosleep and given little to no information before he is tasked with investigating the possibility that there is a spy on the ship.
Okay, back up a bit...
Back on the earth there was a civil war between some group named New Dawn and some other group named Earthcorp, the motivations of both groups are pretty poorly defined, other than they are "Bad Guy group 1" and "Bad Guy group 2". (the BGGs) The ark ship (the Terra Nova) that Vinter and the others are on is sent off the planet to escape the war between the two BGGs - although why they would need to pre-emptively do that is unclear to me.
Fortunately for humanity they did though, because one nuke led to another, and the BGGs wiped each other, and everyone else, off the planet.
So now we have the ark ship - the last hope of humanity - flying through space. And it is being chased by another ship of unknown origin and intent, which just happens to be communicating with other people of unknown origin on the Terra Nova.
I would prefer to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but the author reveals something about the main character pretty early on which meant I ceased actually giving a shit about anything that happened to him thereafter.
At the end of the day I felt like I had read this story all before, and it involved people I was actually able to care about. It's a solid novel, but I just didn't feel like the motivations of the characters - particularly the BGGs were fleshed out well enough. There are a few action scenes, which are generally speaking, well-written, and are probably the most interesting parts of the novel. I just didn't buy the stakes. For all I cared, the BGGs and everyone could sail off into the sunset, never to be seen again.
2.5/5 stars
The plot of No Direction Home is a fairly familiar science fiction trope - a 'ark' ship is sent off a dying Earth to populate the planets of some far-off star system, complete with thousands of people in cryostasis. What could possibly go wrong, right?
The main character - Christopher Vinter - is awakened from the cryosleep and given little to no information before he is tasked with investigating the possibility that there is a spy on the ship.
Okay, back up a bit...
Back on the earth there was a civil war between some group named New Dawn and some other group named Earthcorp, the motivations of both groups are pretty poorly defined, other than they are "Bad Guy group 1" and "Bad Guy group 2". (the BGGs) The ark ship (the Terra Nova) that Vinter and the others are on is sent off the planet to escape the war between the two BGGs - although why they would need to pre-emptively do that is unclear to me.
Fortunately for humanity they did though, because one nuke led to another, and the BGGs wiped each other, and everyone else, off the planet.
So now we have the ark ship - the last hope of humanity - flying through space. And it is being chased by another ship of unknown origin and intent, which just happens to be communicating with other people of unknown origin on the Terra Nova.
I would prefer to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, but the author reveals something about the main character pretty early on which meant I ceased actually giving a shit about anything that happened to him thereafter.
At the end of the day I felt like I had read this story all before, and it involved people I was actually able to care about. It's a solid novel, but I just didn't feel like the motivations of the characters - particularly the BGGs were fleshed out well enough. There are a few action scenes, which are generally speaking, well-written, and are probably the most interesting parts of the novel. I just didn't buy the stakes. For all I cared, the BGGs and everyone could sail off into the sunset, never to be seen again.
2.5/5 stars
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