Review - "Those in Peril" by Wilbur Smith

Genre: Adventure/Action

Hazel Bannock is heir to the Bannock Oil Corporation, one of the major global oil producers. While cruising the Indian Ocean, her yacht is hijacked by Somalian pirates and her nineteen-year-old daughter, Cayla, kidnapped. The pirates demand a crippling twenty-billion-dollar ransom for her release, and complicated political and diplomatic sensitivities render the major powers incapable of intervening.

With growing evidence of the horrific torture to which Cayla is being subjected, Hazel calls on Hector Cross to help her rescue her daughter. Hector is the man behind Cross Bow Security, the company contracted to Bannock Oil Corporation to provide all their protection. He is a formidable fighting man. Between them, Hazel and Hector are determined to take the law into their own hands.

Wilbur Smith himself introduces his new book

A book teaser

My evaluation

I cannot disagree more with the hype of this book - I am very disappointed! I had never thought the day would come when Wilbur Smith was able to disappoint me with one of his books, but this one did the deed.. And I have been a life long admirer of this author through all his many books about the Courtney and Ballantynes of South-Africa, the Egyptian series and all his other novels.

I sit with a bad feeling that this book isn't written by Smith himself... The way of writing is wrong, the characters are not developed well at all, and where Smith has always been a wordsmith and artist with words he is now not more than an average amateur. Something's wrong!

What another reviewer has said with a perfect choice of words...

"I can not believe that Wilbur's support team of publishers, editors and managers would allow such damage to be done to his brand by releasing this amateurish & vacuous drivel...

If Wilbur Smith has come to the end of his writing life, fine, and thanks for all the great reads over the years; well done, you were a true wordsmith! But to plod on in this fashion? Please, someone who knows him, throw a bucket of icy cold water over him. Did he and his support team really think that no-one would notice?"

I couldn't agree more...

My rating

of 5

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 690 KB
Print Length: 400 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0312567251
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (May 10, 2011)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B004OA641Q

Pic of the day: Abstract

Review - "The Devil's Star" by Jo Nesbø

Genre: Mystery/Crime

A serial killer taunts Harry Hole in Nesbø's searing third crime novel to feature the Oslo police detective to be made available in the U.S. (after Nemesis). 

Still suffering from alcohol-fueled demons and obsessed with hunting for evidence against a clearly dirty cop, Hole grudgingly agrees to help look into the murder of a woman whose finger has been amputated and a red diamond stuck under her eyelid. More bodies follow, with the murderer leaving identical five-pointed diamonds (the titular devil's star) at each crime scene. At first the killings appear to be random, but Hole soon discovers an ominous pattern.

"Harry had felt the gnawing ache for alcohol from the momenthe woke up that morning. First as an instinctive physical craving, then as a panic-stricken fear because he had put a distance between himself and his medicine by not taking his hip flask or any money with him to work. Now the ache was entering a new phase in which it was both a wholly physical pain and a feeling of blank terror that he would be torn to pieces..." 

My evaluation

Jo Nesbø writes as always good mystery novels, and his Harry Hole character is one of my favourites, even with - or perhaps because of - his many flaws. Nesbø brilliantly incorporates threads from earlier novels, including Hole's often tumultuous relationship with his lover, Rakel, without ever losing the current story's rhythm. 

This third novel is also very well written, with surprising twists and turns. When you think you have a good idea of what's happening, something complete different turns up. You never know what to expect, just as an exciting mystery/crime story should be!    

Jo Nesbø is my favourite Norwegian author at the moment, and has been for a few years now :-)

My rating

 

of 5 (with a tiny "+" behind the stars)

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 747 KB
Print Length: 544 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0099546760
Publisher: Vintage Digital (November 10, 2009)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B0035OC80I
 

Pic of the day: A Buddha figure from Burma

Review - "Extinction" by B.V. Larson

Genre: Sci-Fi

Earth's Star Force Marines invade an alien world!

In the second book of the Star Force series, Kyle Riggs has another bad year. The Nano ships have a new mission--one that sentences their pilots to death. Meanwhile, the governments of Earth want to steal Star Force's Nano technology for their own. Worst of all, Earth has made a promise to the Macros, and the machines are coming to collect.

EXTINCTION is the story of Earth's entry into an interstellar war between living creatures and machines. To buy the peace, we've signed up with the machines....  

My evaluation

This is the second book in the StarForce series, and I have to say - the story is picking up! It feels like the author has settled more with his writing, and the story picks up both speed and action. Caught myself laughing out loud several times. The story is still written in "first person" form. This makes an interesting twist to the story. "I" is a cool guy :-) I gave book 1, Swarm, a 3+. This is definately a 4! Give me book three, Rebellion!

My rating

of 5

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 1090 KB
Sold by:  Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B004UBFVPO

Pic of the day: A cool building in Houston

Review - "Swarm" by B.V. Larson

Genre: Sci-Fi

Earth arms marines with alien technology and builds its first battle fleet!

Kyle Riggs is snatched by an alien spacecraft sometime after midnight. The ship is testing everyone it catches and murdering the weak. The good news is that Kyle keeps passing tests and staying alive. The bad news is the aliens who sent this ship are the nicest ones out there....

SWARM is the story of Earth's annexation by an alien empire. Long considered a primitive people on a backwater planet, humanity finds itself in the middle of a war, and faced with extinction. 

My evaluation

A well written book, entertaining and a pageturner. It was not the most original or unusual Sci-Fi book I have read, but it was good fun - with quite a bit "dry" humour in it! This novel of B.V. Larson made me interested enough in buying the next book in The Star Force Series, Extinction!

My rating

of 5 (put a "+" behind the 3 stars! :-)

Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 854 KB
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1460953134
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B004H8FVEQ

Pic of the day: Sign of summer in Norway...

 

Review - "Enders Game" by Orson Scott Card

Genre: Sci-Fi

Intense is the word for Ender's Game. Set in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind who have barely survived two conflicts with the Formics (an insectoid alien species also known as the "Buggers"). 

In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, an international fleet maintains a school to find and train future fleet commanders. The world's most talented children, including the novel's protagonist, Ender Wiggin, are taken at a very young age to a training center known as the Battle School.

Ender Wiggin is a genius among geniuses; he wins all the games they play at the Battle School. He is smart enough to know that time is running out. But is he smart enough to save the planet? 

"What else should you be? Human beings didn't evolve brains in order to lie around on lakes. Killing's the first thing we learned. And a good thing we did, or we'd be dead, and the tigers would own the earth..."

My evaluation

Even if the main characters in this novel are children and focus on the premise that children geniuses will save the world, the book is packed with adult themes and references to older, political history. The way themes of murder, fraud and abuse of children for adult purposes are described also better suits  the adult reader. 

That said - this is still a book for all ages. The reading is not difficult, yet the characters and plot have astounding depth. This is the book that started it all. This is Orson Scott Card's legacy. Almost everybody who has read Card has read Ender's Game at one time or another.

This is one of the most incredible Science Fiction/Fantasy novels I have ever read, along with the "In Her Name"-series of Michael R. Hicks. Some say this book is perfect. If it isn't, it's very close...

My rating

of 5



Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 623 KB
Print Length: 352 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0812550706
Publisher: Tor Books (April 1, 2010)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B003G4W49C

Pic of the day: Black Winged Stilt, Botswana

Review - "Scarecrow" by Matthew Reilly

Genre: Action/Thriller

The seemingly indestructible Marine captain Shane "Scarecrow" Schofield returns in this high-octane adventure from Reilly (Area 7, etc.). This time out, Schofield finds himself, along with 14 other members of the world's most elite military units, being hunted by a seemingly endless army of bounty hunters. 

The prize for the hunters is $18.6 million per head, and all 15 heads must be taken within six days. The search for the person behind this bounty hunt takes Schofield and his loyal band of marines around the world and in and out of one life-threatening situation after another. Reilly knows exactly what kind of book he's writing. 

His heroes are brave and self-sacrificing, his villains are bloodthirsty and ruthless, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Narrator Sowers is in perfect synch with Reilly's storytelling. Obviously enjoying himself, he knows just what words to punch in order to get the most out of each action-packed sentence, and he supports his Clint Eastwood-like delivery of Schofield's dialogue by giving each of the numerous secondary characters their own distinct voices and accents. Those who like their adventures fast and furious will not be disappointed by this energetic production.


A book teaser:

My evaluation

This is Reilly at his best! Very fast action, densely packed with plot and strong characters with Scarecrow as the natural born hero. This is James Bond style - on steroids! It helps to read the other two Scarecrow-books to fully understand the relationship between the characters from the beginning, but it' definately not a necessity! The story is outrageous and entertaining to the end!

My rating

of 5


Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 1673 KB
Print Length: 416 pages
Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1 edition (April 1, 2010)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B000FC1BQU

Pic of today:The sun sets over Sua Pan, Botswana

Review - "Neuromancer" by William Gibson

Case was the hottest computer cowboy cruising the information superhighway, jacking his consciousness into cyberspace, soaring through tactile lattices of data and logic, rustling encoded secrets for anyone with the money to buy his skills.

Then he double-crossed the wrong people, who caught up with him in a big way, and burned the talent out of his brain, micron by micron. Banished from cyberspace, trapped in the meat of his physical body, Case courted death in the high-tech underworld. Until a shadowy conspiracy offered him a second chance - and a cure - for a price.

Here are the books famous first words...

"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel..."

My evaluation

I'm impressed by Neuromancer, even today. This reprint of a 1984 classic shows that William Gibson's tale compares well with the cyberspace and nanotechnology revolution of the last decade or so as if the author had a crystal ball.

It's complex, entertaining and confusing and shouldn't be your first introduction to Sci-Fi, but if you enjoyed the movie "The Matrix" you might love this book! 

My rating

of 5



Format: Kindle Edition
File Size: 496 KB
Print Length: 288 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0441007465
Publisher: Ace (July 1, 2000)
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
Language: English
ASIN: B000O76ON6

 
Pic of the day: An African Pied Kingfisher