RATING: 6/10

REVIEW:

In a world, not far in the future, where publishing seems to be a tedious task and publishing houses are fighting for a way to stay in the business, minimizing their losses and trying to maximize their profit, one man aims to find a way to reduce these ever-growing costs.

This one is a story about a man who aims to revolutionize the publishing business by use of his invention which later is called as a ‘Cyberbook’. The concept of a Cyberbook is very similar to our e-books and thus, conceptually at least, this book just doesn’t cut it.

In it’s own way, it provides some inside track into the politics of running a publishing house, but even that has a sense of incompleteness. It is understood that the book is not about publishing houses, but since the very concept remains outdated, the story loses most of it’s interest value in the present age.

It may have been a great book during it’s time, but now, it’s just a fun read.

TYPE:

RATING: 6/10

REVIEW:

I have read science fiction stuff and then I’ve read some more. Maybe it’s just the story that doesn’t seem to attract me because there isn’t any kind of logic involved or even a great amount of mystery. For some unfathomable reason, this one fails to keep me gripped.

No doubt, the story is pretty entertaining. We have a whole lot of people coming in from the future. They say they are from a hundred years hence, when the humankind is destined to destruction because of some alien menace. They are pouring in by the hundreds, through time portals, and causing a whole lot of disruption to the world economy.

These people are necessarily ‘Our Children’s Children’ and the President of the US of A determines that we have to help them at all costs in building a few time portals in this time-zone to allow them to escape to the Miocene age where they hope to remain safe.

The story has some feeling of having been left incomplete, leaving you with a nagging doubt that there was something that remained unanswered.

TYPE:

RATING:    7/10

REVIEW:

The Closers is a well rounded murder mystery. I must have missed Harry Bosch’s description in the earlier books as this just the second book of Connelly that I have laid hands on.

The Closers are a group of people on the fifth floor of the LAPD who work on open-unsolved cases. This usually means that they have to sift through the evidence they have,part by part, because there is only a slight chance, if any, of getting fresh evidence pertaining to cases that may be as old as two decades back.

Harry Bosch has returned to the LAPD after a retirement, and is immediately assigned to this department with his earlier partner Kizmin Rider and together they try to solve the first ‘book’ that they are assigned. This one has a 16-year-old killed by a guy who has conspiracy all about him.

The investigation keeps delving deeper and the conspiracy keeps getting thicker and Bosch finds himself knee deep in a plot he must unravel without risking the reputations of a lot of people.

The book is a slow read at times, however, and makes you want to skip a few pages on the go, which I did.

Good read nonetheless, and look forward to more from this author.

DESCRIPTION:

After three years out of the LAPD Harry Bosch returns to find the department a very different place from the one he left, with a new police chief brought in from New York.

Working with his former cop partner Kiz Rider, Harry is assigned to the Open – Unsolved Unit. These detectives are the Closers, working on the thousands of cold cases that haunt the LAPD’s files – they put a shovel in the dirt and turn over the past. Harry and Kiz are immediately thrown into a politically sensitive and dangerous case when a DNA match connects a white supremacist to the 1988 murder of a mixed-race 16-year-old girl. But as they navigate the case, someone is watching, waiting, and hoping Harry will make a mistake …

‘Excellent … Michael Connelly is always a reliable and The Closers is as dark and thrilling as ever.’ Daily Mail

‘All the excitements of a terrific thriller well paced by a cool and fast-running narrative.’ Literary Review

TYPE:

RATING:    9/10

REVIEW:

This is one classic which had me addicted to it from the moment I started reading it. I especially liked the way the authoress used a small girl to be the narrator in the story.

It is amazing how she managed to get in the skin of the little girl and progressed the story through.

The book is also a great example of all the prejudices that people have against each other. It acts as an eye-opener, even at this point of time, when most of the matters that are discussed here have been taken care of to a lot of extent.

DESCRIPTION:

‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.’

A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of this enchanting classic – a black man charged with the rape of a white girl.

Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irritationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the thirties.

The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice.

But the weight of history will only tolerate so much …

TYPE:

RATING: 8/10

REVIEW:

It had been a while since I’d read a real-good page turner, and this one for some reason, fit the bill.

Though the fact still remains, that I am not a big fan of his work and find most of his stories having a very common thread, this one was certainly un-put-down-able.

The story has Dr. Judd Stevens, a psychoanalyst, who treats few very well known patients. Amongst them is a paranoid patient who thinks everyone is out to kill him. After judging the patient to be an incurable paranoid, Dr. Stevens is surprised to find himself suffering from the same kind of delusions.

Trying to fend the images of his own death off, it is with a great deal of alarm that Judd finds that the delusions are pretty real and that someone is really out to kill him.

While looking for a possible motive for anyone to want to kill him, he has to keep running away from the unknown killer with no idea of which way to take.

DESCRIPTION:

The psychiatrist’s couch holds many secrets. Can it also hold the key to a series of brutal murders?

John Hanson, murdered in the street in a gruesome but apparently arbitrary attack.

Carol Roberts, brutally tortured and left to die in agony.

Now it’s the turn of psychoanalyst Judd Stevens …

In a chilling game of cat and mouse, Judd must trust no-one, especially none of his patients, if he wants to stay alive.

TYPE:

RATING: 8/10

REVIEW:

As with any other Brown book, this one does not fail to catch your attention after reading a few pages. Langdon is back to reading Masonic symbols in yet another page-turner.

Peter Solomon is a thirty-third degree Mason, the highest level of achievement in Masonry. His sister, Katherine Solomon, is a now renowned name in the obscure field of Noetic Sciences. She has made some startling discoveries which if true will lead to a great revelation and will help humanity achieve the pinnacle of all desires.

On the other hand we have one person, who is out to uncover the so-far well-kept-secret of the Masons. However, the keys to the secret are with Langdon who unknowingly gets it closer to the kidnapper/killer of Peter Solomon.

The story takes you through the journey of Langdon as he tries to uncover the secret for Peter’s life as well as keeping the secret away from the unknown caller. Things are getting worse when he gets even the CIA on his tail.

RATING: 8/10

REVIEW:

The second book of Card that I am reading right now, the first one being Tales of Alvin Maker (Vol. 2- Red Prophet). Comparing the previous one and this one, I have to say that there is a lot of difference between both ways of his thinking. I also find that this one corresponds more to my view of the sci-fi genre than the previous one.

The Mueller family is known for its genetic advancements and their regenerative skills. However, when the son of one of the most prominent Muellers sprouts parts that are not part of him, he becomes a shame of the family as a ‘radical-regenerative’ and is sent away to ‘spy’ on the Nkumai, who seem to be getting a big share of Iron, considered the most important commodity of all, from the Ambassador.

Though Lanik Mueller knows that the spy business is just a ruse, he decides to leave anyway, just to be away from his brother Dinte, who would attempt to get him out of the way if he stayed back.

Though Lanik knows that the spying is a lost cause, he nevertheless makes it into Nkumai territory and surprisingly is able to recover some really important details as to what the Nkumai are selling to the ambassador to get a seemingly endless supply of Iron.

It’s a well woven tale of suspense, thrills and chills with enough gadgetry and advanced technology to give a sci-fi reader worth his while.

TYPE:

RATING: 7/10

REVIEW:

This was a book that was recommended to me as a must-read and since he read a lot too, I didn’t hesitate taking it up. Well, turns out that it wasn’t that great a choice at all.

The only book of Sheldon that I have ever liked is The Doomsday Conspiracy, which appealed to my sci-fi sense.

Master of the Game takes you through the life of Kate Blackwell, with a brief history of her father, who made it rich though it had been considered by few as ill-gotten gains. Using the diamonds that he got, he built a successful empire around him.

Kate’s childhood is spent in loving her father’s assistant, whom she has planned to marry. But things don’t go out exactly as she has planned, and from then does she start a life which involves passion, deceit, and a good amount of blackmail.

The story seems too much of a rip-off of Jeffrey Archer’s works. It stays true to my belief that all Sheldon’s novels are pretty much similar and predictable. The book seems similar to a couple of his own novels including Bloodline and The Stars Shine Down.

Though die-hard fans of Sheldon consider it as one of his greatest works, it fails to hold my attention.

DESCRIPTION:

Kate Blackwell is one of the world’s most powerful women and the daughter of a diamond prospector who struck it rich beyond his wildest dreams.

The extravagant celebrations of her ninetieth birthday include toasts from a Supreme Court judge and a telegram from the White House. But for Kate there are ghosts. Ghosts of absent friends and absent enemies. Ghosts from a life of blackmail, deceit and murder. Ghosts from an empire spawned by naked ambition.

RATING: 9/10

REVIEW:

I had started reading this once before but never proceeded after a few pages. It felt dull and somehow too unrealistic.

Now that I went back and re-read it, the feeling is a bit different. Fantasy never felt this good. I could actually put myself in the place that was described and feel everything that the author expressed.

The book here takes us through the lives of Alvin Maker Jr., Lolla-Wossiky who later becomes the Red Prophet and Ta-Kumsaw, his brother. The Whites are at constant war with the Reds who are supposed to be the original inhabitants of the land. However, the Whites, with their customs, seem to have killed the land and the Reds are too drunk to notice.

Ta-Kumsaw acts as their leader and is plotting to overthrow the Whites for good. Lolla-Wossiky, his brother, is one of the drunk Reds, but he sets to search for his dream beast and arrives on White Man’s land where he finds that Alvin Jr. is his dream beast and that he in turn has to open Alvin’s eyes to his power.

Both are now considered to be awakened from their dream and Lolla-Wossiky goes on to turn a prophet of the Reds. The story continues to show the plotting of the Whites against the Reds and vice versa. During the course of all these events, Alvin learns to put his powers to good use and Lolla-Wossiky, now known as Tenskwa-Tawa i.e. The Open Door, is uniting the Reds in his own way of non-violence.

It’s a gripping read once you get through understanding the state of the land and the actual fight between the Whites and the Reds. Looking forward to read the next parts soon.