Book Review : The Vanishing by Wendy Webb

Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired…and who the world believes is dead.

When she arrives at the Sinclairs' enormous estate on Lake Superior, Julia begins to suspect that there may be sinister undercurrents to her "too-good-to-be-true" position. As Julia delves into the reasons of why Amaris chose to abandon her successful writing career and withdraw from the public eye, her search leads to unsettling connections to her own family tree, making her wonder why she really was invited to Havenwood in the first place, and what monstrous secrets are still held prisoner within its walls. 

I love reading books and watching movies that scare the bejesus out of me. I cannot explain why but I love it and my imagination just punishes me later when I start seeing the bogeyman everywhere. Having read this description I was expecting this book to be really creepy if not very scary. I mean there's this mansion out in the wilderness, isolated, with an old eccentric living in it who in turn was a very famous horror novelist. I mean it just cannot be not scary right? But it just wasn't. There were parts which would send chills down my spine but those moments were few and far between. 

There might be spoilers from here on out

Let's get to the parts that bothered me. I mean here is a woman that has been scorned by all the people she knows and the rest of the public because her husband betrayed not only his clients but also her. And when a complete stranger comes to her and asks her to come take care of his mother - who he claims is a writer that the world thinks to be dead - she takes less than half a day to decide to leave with him. Leaving everything behind. I can probably see her doing this to a certain extent. I mean maybe she was so scorned by her husband that she just wants to disappear and start a new life. 

But once she gets to Havenwood, she starts seeing things which she attributes to withdrawal from her medication. OK, I'll buy that. But the next moment she is talking to Amaris Sinclair about old houses having their own ghosts (the  real kind, not the metaphoric ones) and agreeing with her about their existence in that house. I just couldn't reconcile these 2 thoughts of hers. There were multiple instances in the book where it was alluded that the Sinclairs had an ulterior motive to get Julia to Havenwood, and Julia asks them about it, only to chicken out at the end. 

Even with all of this happening, the book did manage to creep me out a bit. But the story was built up so much for most of the book and only the last 10 pages or so were used to kinda resolve the issues addressed, which just left me in the lurch. All in all this was OK read. I would rate it between a 2.5 and a 3.

Book Review : Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick

A bold, genre-bending epic that chronicles madness, obsession, and creation, from the Paleolithic era through the Witch Hunts and into the space-bound future.

Four linked stories boldly chronicle madness, obsession, and creation through the ages. Beginning with the cave-drawings of a young girl on the brink of creating the earliest form of writing, Sedgwick traverses history, plunging into the seventeenth century witch hunts and a 1920s insane asylum where a mad poet's obsession with spirals seems to be about to unhinge the world of the doctor trying to save him. Sedgwick moves beyond the boundaries of historical fiction and into the future in the book's final section, set upon a spaceship voyaging to settle another world for the first time. Merging Sedgwick's gift for suspense with science- and historical-fiction, Ghosts of Heaven is a tale is worthy of intense obsession

This is my first Marcus Sedgwick book. I have heard of this author from Peruse Project's YouTube feed. She loves his books and I tend to like quite a few books she recommends so I wanted to pick up a book by him. The synopsis of Ghosts of Heaven intrigued me to say the least. Being able to read the 4 stories contained within this book and it making sense - I wanted to see how it worked. I mean its like one of those children's books where you start a story randomly form any page and it works. This book held another attraction for me - Spirals. I had read a manga called Uzumaki (meaning spiral) by Junji Ito. It was one of the creepiest and scariest manga that I had read, so I was intrigued to see how Sedgwick incorporated it in the story/stories.

It has only been an hour since I read the book and I do not think I'll ever fully know how I felt about the book. I cannot clearly tell someone if I loved the book or hated it. I decided to read it like any other book, from start to finish. I sped through the 1st story, partly because it was written in prose. The other 3 were not. The 1st story is I believe based sometime in our past when our ancestors were still cavemen. It follows a girl who wants to be the shaman (for the lack of another word) for her tribe. The 2nd is sometime in the middle ages I guess when the Witch trials were dwindling down. The protagonist of this story is a young girl who gets persecuted as a witch. The 3rd story I think is in the early 20th century and is about a doctor who has just moved to a new Insane Asylum as an assistant superintendent and befriends an inmate. The final story is set somewhere way ahead in our future and Mankind has decided to take to the heavens to find another home. Here the main protagonist is a man who is in charge of the maintenance of the ship while everyone hibernates.

When I started reading the book I just could not see how the stories could be connected at all. It just seemed that the only thing connecting them was the obsessions of the protagonists of the spiral form, but that was not the main focus. Especially in the first 2 stories. It is only in the 3rd and 4th story that you start to see why Spirals play an important role.  After having read the book I think the order in which someone who is planning on reading this book would be to at least start with the 4th story first. It will probably make a little more sense to you. 

I am looking forward to picking up another book by Marcus Sedgwick. The sories and the way he writes are both amazing. This book would have worked as a collection of Novellas/short stories too. The stories are awesome as a standalone. I would rate this book a 3.8 or a 4.

Book Review : The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C. Clarke

It has been a long time since I wrote a book review. Though  I haven't been awesome at writing these I might be a bit rustier than usual, so bear with me please.

I have read quite a few books over the course of the past 6  - 7 months but most of them have been Manga. Maybe I will write a series review for a couple of the one's I really love. 

Coming to the book I will be reviewing in this post - The Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke, I bought it from my local second hand bookstore on a whim. Just because I like the author and I suddenly wanted to read a bit of Sci-Fi. 

Vannemar Morgan's dream is to link Earth to the stars with the greatest engineering feat of all time -- a 24,000-mile-high space elevator. But first he must solve a million technical, political, and economic problems... while allaying the wrath of God. 

For the only possible site on the planet for Morgan's Orbital Tower is the monastery atop the Sacred Mountain of Sri Kanda. And for two thousand years, the monks have protected Sri Kanda from all mortal quests for glory. Kings and princes who have sought to conquer the Sacred Mountain have all died. 

Vannemar Morgan may be next.

I thinks it was the best thing I did going in to this book blind. I just glanced over the synopsis before I started this book yesterday and was intrigued about the Space Elevator bit. I remember reading something like this in 3001 : Space Odyssey and wanted to see where this story takes me. 

This wasn't your typical Sci-Fi book. Or at least it wasn't typical to the books I've read. The whole plot jumped from one time line to the next without notice. It alternated between sometime in the 2nd or 3rd century to the 22nd century. It went back forth a lot in the first few chapters. And this story is based quite close to where I live - in Sri Lanka, which was a major plus. 

This book for me was about 2 people - Kalidasa, a king from 2 millenniums ago and Vannemar Morgan, an engineer a century or so in our future. Kalidasa was a visionary king who created one of the best gardens of his time. and Vannemar Morgan is an engineer whose achievement is a 3 KM high bridge between continents. Now he has his sights set on building a Space Elevator or tower going up from the equator to 36,000 KM high, in space.  What's common between them you ask? They both faced opposition from the monks who lived on the mountain that was the best place on earth for the Space Elevator is supposed to be. Vannemar sees the similarities in the struggles of both himself and Kalidasa. 

This book broaches the subject of religion being a byproduct of us being mammals. There's also aliens in this future of ours. We are visited not by aliens but by a probe (like Voyager) that is named the Star Glider. This is an A.I that has been travelling through space for ages. It learns as much as it can about human life and transmits it back to its home world. The Space Tower is being built with all of this going on in the same timeline.

I think this is a book that someone who doesn't read a lot of Sci-Fi can just whiz through. It was not heavy on the technicalities and the science that was in the book was not something out of college level textbooks. This was a highly enjoyable read that has made me open the door toSci-Fi for me again. I would rate it between a 3 and a 3.5.

Book Review: Inferno by Dante Alighieri

Dante's dramatic journey through the circles of hell in search of redemption—and his encounter with devils, monsters, and the souls of some of the greatest sinners who ever walked on earth—is one of the cornerstones of Western literature, the summit of medieval thinking, and arguably the highest poetic achievement of all time

I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. This book was a lot of firsts for me. This is the first book I've read in verse & the first book that has the original verse and the translated verse in it. I thought the language would be a little difficult and that I would not be able to understand a lot of what's happening as the metaphors used and the events mentioned were those of the 14th Century. But I guess I chose the right edition. There was a brief explanation of what happens before every Canto and there were so many footnotes. 

Anyway, let me tell you what I thought of the book. As you know this book talks of the circles of Hell. Basically it describes what is the punishment for every kind of sin. The graver the sin, the deeper in Hell you are. 

As you can see from the diagram, there are 9 circles of Hell on the basis of the sins committed, with the 7th,8th and 9th circles being further sub divided in to different circles for the kind of sub-sin committed. As you can tell from the illustration above, Hell is a type of funnel and at the end/center of the earth is Satan (a.k.a Dis, a.k.a Beelzebub), the fallen angel. 

Dante must have been one imaginative guy. Or he was someone who was always high on something to have described hell in such gory details.  And Dante's vision of God is one that is pretty strict. An example of this are the souls of those who were good people while they were living but were from a time before Christ. They are all in Limbo. The description of the punishments are also good enough to be on any of the horror movies in our time. I mean, the punishment for heretics is to be put in a coffin/box with  fire underneath it, those who commit suicide become some kind of plants that are attacked by Harpies and they bleed and talk through the wounds, and many more punishments ranging from being frozen to being dismembered and also being drowned in boiling tar. 

But I guess that is to be expected, Hell is something that is made to keep us on the path of the virtuous. One of the things I found interesting in this book was that the old Gods like Apollo, Athena and the other Greek monsters were mentioned in this book and were a part of this Hell. So I was a little conflicted. They were real but we weren't supposed to believe in them? Anyway I just considered it to be another novel while reading it so that I didn't analyze it more than I should. There are still parts that I am unsure of or do not understand, but that just means I'll have to reread this book again. And that is the best kind of book in my opinion, the kind that brings you back to it time after time and teaches you something new each time.

I would highly recommend this to people who have an interest in History and literature. I rate it between 3.5 - 4 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

Sisters Vivenna and Siri are princesses of Idris. Susebron is the God King one must marry. Lightsong is the reluctant minor god of bravery. Vasher is an immortal still trying to undo mistakes of centuries before. Magic from individual breath from everyday objects can perform all manner of miracles and mischief.

 

This is going to be a difficult review to write. The reason for this is that I Loved Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson to pieces and it made me feel and think many complicated, unexplainable things. But there was one thing I know for sure - this book was AWESOME and I just fell in love with it.

Before I talk about Warbreaker I need to take a side step and talk about Elantris. Trust me I need to talk about it to get my thoughts into some semblance of order in this post. I read Elantris recently in May/Late April. I was intrigued to learn that this was a stand alone. That in itself would not be interesting except for the fact that this was fantasy. There aren't many fantasy books that are stand alone, if not solely for the fact that it is difficult to portray a fantastical world without writing at least a couple of books to flesh out the world, the characters and the stories. So I picked this book up and was pleasantly surprised. It was a bit slow to pick up but boy did it get interesting very fast after the first 100 pages or so. What I loved was that there was not a lot of info dump that I would forget anyway a few chapters in. I learnt the history of this world as I read the book.

I loved Elantris. I did not think it could get any better. And then I started reading Warbreaker. You need to know something about the way I read. I am excited about reading books but I do not show it in outward appearance. It was difficult to keep my emotions in check with this book. I was squealing with delight at some parts and cringing with horror at others.

What I love best about Brandon Sanderson's writing is that he doesn't just write characters. I mean he does, but these characters somehow become people in the readers eyes. I can imagine someone like Siri and Lightsong as real people. But let me tell you what I did not like about this book - There wasn't much about the mysterious Vasher, at least till almost the end of the book. A byproduct of there not being enough pages dedicated t Vasher was that I did not get to see enough interaction between himself and the sentient sword Nightblood that he lugs around. 

Now onto the things I loved!! 

The Magic System - Sanderson always lives up to my expectations when it comes to the  building of a magic system. Actually he exceeds my expectations every time. In this one it is to do with BioChromatic Breath and Colors. Each person is born with one Breath. The more you accumulate the more powerful you become. Some equate Breath to a persons soul - mostly Idrians. In Hallandren the Breaths are used as wealth - people sell their breath for money. And then there are the Returned. The Returned are those who have died and come back to life. They are not zombies exactly as they are living but when a person is Returned he comes back with enhanced physical prowess and a powerful BioChromatic Breath. And the Hallandren worship the Returned whereas the Idrians consider them an abomination and worship Austre.

The Religion - I have noticed that in almost every Brandon Sanderson book religion and Gods are a central part of the story and world. His portrayal of religion in Elantris was rudimentary in comparison to the one in Warbreaker. The 2 religions had their origin in the same basic tenet. It was based on the divinity of Breath. On one side the Idrians believed in Austre a God you could not see and on the other there were the Hallandrens who worshiped the Returned. Though both cultures valued Breath - The Hallandrens gave it a monetary value and also sacrificed their breath so that their Gods lived another week where as the Idrians thought it blasphemy to make a business out of it. 

As as we delve in to the history of these lands and cultures we see that the 2 religions have the same origin. But they branched off from one another. This brought out a lot of questions on morality. There was a part where one of the characters, a mercenary, says - everyone thinks they are in the right and that they are doing good. This is something that we migh take as common sense but something that a lot of us ignore.

The Characters - I absolutely loved the main characters. There's Siri, the carefree sister who has made peace with being the unimportant one, Vivenna - the sister who has been betrothed to the God King of Hallandren, a monster and an abomination in her and her people's eyes, Vasher - a mysterious man with an even more mysterious quest & last but not the least, Lightsong a Returned.


I was a little skeptical about Vivenna at first. She was too much of a prude - and seemed to preach and hold herself above others even though according to the religion she was devoted said not to put oneself above others. She claimed to have come to Hallandren to save Siri but it seemed like she had come to Hallandren just because she was upset her place was taken by her younger sister. It took away her purpose in life. She did love Siri, but she was more worried about what this did to her than her younger sister. Then I realized that Sanderson wrote her character that way and her character arc is till the end of the book was well plotted out. She changed over the course of the book, not suddenly. She still was a bit like her old self. But in her case she came to see herself for what she truly was and decided to change what she could and live with the rest.

The 2 people I absolutely loved were Siri and Lightsong (I liked Lightsong a lot more). Siri was the youngest sister of 4 children. The eldest was betrothed to the God King, the 2nd eldest went on to become a monk and the son, the youngest, is heir to the throne. So Siri has been more or less let to run free. Though her religion calls for being modest, humble, not be ostentatious, she has difficulty doing so. But the king of Idris decides to send Siri in place of Vivenna to the God King to stall a war which he deems inevitable. And her world turns upside down. In case of Vivenna we see that there is a complete change in character in Siri it somehow felt that she was always true to herself. But in doing so she became more in control. Her interactions with the God King made me squeal with joy once or twice.

Lightsong, a Returned, is the awesomest character in this whole book. It was mostly through Lighsong that a lot of the dilemmas to do with divinity were brought across. He was a God who did not believe in his own divinity. He constantly strove to undermine himself but the people thought of him as a better God for it. I always loved the parts where he was in the story because he was the most fun characters. His internal conflict was written very well. My most favorite parts of the book is anything where there is a dialogue going on between Lightsong and his High Priest Llarimar and between Lightsong and Blushweaver, a Returned Goddess.

I would recommend this book to any fantasy lover. But I would also recommend it to people who think fantasy is not for them because of the size and length of a series, and what better way to experience fantasy through a stand alone for the first time. You just have to read this book. This will be one of those books that I'll recommend to everybody regardless of their tastes because it is such a good book and I want everyone to love it as much as I do and enjoy the story.

This has become a saga instead of a review but who cares. I love this book and I rate it 5 out of 5 stars.

Book Review: Hyperbole & a Half by Allie Brosh

This is a book I wrote. Because I wrote it, I had to figure out what to put on the back cover to explain what it is. I tried to write a long, third-person summary that would imply how great the book is and also sound vaguely authoritative--like maybe someone who isn’t me wrote it--but I soon discovered that I’m not sneaky enough to pull it off convincingly. So I decided to just make a list of things that are in the book:

Pictures
Words
Stories about things that happened to me
Stories about things that happened to other people because of me
Eight billion dollars*
Stories about dogs
The secret to eternal happiness*

*These are lies. Perhaps I have underestimated my sneakiness!

This book was a complete impulse buy. I had just wandered in to Landmark - a bookstore here in India - with the thoughts of just whiling away a bit of time. I should've known better. There was no way I would've have walked out of there without buying a couple of books. I actually had a couple of books picked out to buy and then my eyes fell on this book.

I had only seen this book on the videos made by Jesse from Jessethereader and Raeleen from padfootandprongs07 on YouTube. So I just picked it up. All I knew was that they thought this book was hilarious. And boy were they right. This book made me giggle incessantly. I mean I read this book out in public, while traveling, in a course of a day. Before this book I had not even known the author was a blogger.


For all those people who do not know what this book is about, let me enlighten you. This is a cross between a diary and a graphic novel. Or more like a memoir which is a graphic novel. The art is simple, child - like actually. What you need to look forward to is the content. She tackles a varied range of topics from training her dog to her childhood antics to her battle with depression. I was touched by the way she handled the topic of depression in her book. I liked that she did not spout theories on how to battle depression and about why she was depressed. She just was. And one day she came out of it. It was a process sure, she did not know the why or the how of it and she stated as such.

The other topics she handled were sooo funny. Especially about the dogs, and the Goose. If nothing else makes you pick this book up this will. Trust me. The part about the goose was HILARIOUS. And the part about little Allie's trip to the dentist.

I would highly recommend you to check this book out, even more so if you want to judge for yourself if you think the above parts were as funny as I thought. I rated this book a 4/5.

Book Rant: Classic Literature

As previously mentioned in another post of mine, I have this habit of reading from the same genre continuously if I find that I loved one book from the same genre. A while back it was Zombie/post Apocalyptic books and then it was dystopian. I think it's going to be the 'Classics' this time round. I just finished reading H.G. Well's The Island of Dr Moreau, War of the Worlds & The Invisible Man and also Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice and Frances Burnett.

In addition to reading a lot of classics I've suddenly bought quite a few of them. And I've bought the Penguin English Library collection that have beautiful covers. I now own the 3 books mentioned above and Persuasion & Emma by Jane Austen, David Copperfield & A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Fairy Tales by Hans christian Andersen and  Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. And the best part about classics is that there's always an edition that is not hard on your wallet. So rest assured that I did not spend a lot of money on these books.(Though it does depend on what you would define as "not a lot of money")

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H.G. Wells Books

I read 3 of H.G. Wells' books - The Island of Dr Moreau, War of the Worlds & The Invisible Man. He has also written The Time Machine but I somehow could not finish it at this point in time. I got distracted by other books. So let us talk about the 3 books I did read. If I had to rank the 3 books I did read The Invisible Man would be ranked 3rd, The Island of Dr Moreau would be 2nd and the War of the Worlds would be 1st.

The Invisible Man was an enjoyable enough story but I just could not relate to the Main Character (MC) at all. I found that the other 2 books that I read were far more interesting than this book. One other reason could be that I loved the Hollow Man better.

I want to talk about the Island of Dr Moreau and War of the Worlds together. Now these stories were very interesting to the say the least. What bowled me over was that these books were set in the late 19th or early 20th century. And they are Science Fiction!! I loved the conflict the MC goes through in Moreau and the narration in War of the Worlds was just Amazing. War of the Worlds was like a Steam punk novel before there was any Steam punk. Both these books, in my opinion, will always be relevant. It is not hampered by time. I mean these books talk about aliens and genetic modification.

I would recommend these books to anyone who loves Science Fiction.

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Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

There are some books that I always go back to re-read. Pride & Prejudice is one of them. I finally bought a copy of my own and it is the beautiful Penguin English Library edition. I have always loved Liz Bennett and Darcy. This time around I felt I understood Darcy more than I did Liz. The last time I had read this book I was as indignant as Liz with Darcy, I mean in my eyes he was an arrogant jerk. But this time around I could see the circumstances through his perspective.

This is what makes me re-read books. The books kinda change for you as you grow older. There is always something new that you can glean from a story, a new perspective at the least. And the romance... It's just perfect. This is why the book is a classic. I would recommend this book to everyone - especially to people who hate insta-love.

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Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

I had read the abridged version of this book when I was a lot younger. So when I got my hands on the unabridged version of this book I pounced on it. I had watched the movie adaptation of the book too. As it has been over a decade since I had read this book it was like I was reading it for the first time.

It was a different feeling reading this book as an adult. I found Mary to be spoiled, at least in the first half of the book. I mean the author herself states so. The story portrays her changing from a self-centered spoilt brat to a pretty agreeable child. I also love the depiction of the moor in this book. I could just visualize the scenery and the garden. Reading this time made me appreciate the writing more than the actual story. But if I were still in school I would have loved this book as much as all the Enid Blyton books I read when I was younger.

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I can tell you one thing, reading the classics wins you brownie points from your parents and also makes you seem very intellectual. This could be because people think that reading something that was written more than a 100 years ago automatically makes you smart. I mean the War of the World is not all that different from the Sci-Fi of today but its got the advantage of age on its side.

I would like to read Little Women and Jane Eyre next. Maybe not immediately but I would definitely read them in the next couple of months.

Book Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Soooo... I though I would get back to reviewing books by reviewing a book that had a very different approach. And for that I chose Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion. I heard of this book after the movie came out. And for some reason I held out on watching the movie before reading this book. That was a great decision.

'R' is a zombie. He has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He is a little different from his fellow Dead. Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl. Her name is Julie and she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape. For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins. This has never happened before. It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave. He wants to breathe again, he wants to live, and Julie wants to help him. But their grim, rotting world won't be changed without a fight...

As you can tell from the synopsis, this is a zombie story. What attracted me to this book was that this was a zombie story told through a zombie's perspective. That in itself was a winning plot in my mind. I admit that R is already a different kind of zombie when it comes to the others. He actually thinks. But what was even more interesting was that the zombies were not as mindless as we would assume. The zombies actually had a sort of society. It was like they were a community - they had a place of worship, a school, of course a school where they taught the young how to kill humans but a school none the less and they also had a concept of marriage.

One of the things that Marion made clear early on was that the zombies ate not because they felt hungry for nutrition but they just felt hungry with something other than their stomach. They could relive a persons memory by eating their brains. This is important because this shows that even though they were the living dead, they were trying to experience the life force by eating brains, by having those concepts of humanity that you would think that the living dead might not have. 

When R attacks Perry, a member of a salvage team, and eats his brains something happens. He suddenly decides to save Julie, another member of the team and girl friend of Perry, and takes her with him to his home at the airport. it is through his interactions with her that he sees the changes that happen. He starts speaking longer sentences, he doesn't feel as hungry as before and so on. Another change is that he starts dreaming. It is just Perry's memories at first but he slowly starts dreaming his own dreams. 

On the other end of the spectrum are the Living who have walled up a stadium and are living inside of it. The Living are barely surviving. They guard their borders, send out salvage teams to get necessary items, teach the children to hunt and kill the zombies. The people in charge think it more important to just keep fighting instead of preserving life. It is from this environment that Julie, Perry and their friends hail. There is a part in the book where Julie asks her friends what they dream of doing. Perry, who wanted to previously wanted to be a writer does not see a point in it anymore, he doesn't understand whom it would benefit. What would be the point of writing a story in a world that is in its last leg? This is how the living live now. They live to survive. The zombies were just the last nail in the coffin to a world already ravaged  with wars before the plague.

In the end the dead are more closer to living than the Living are. The dead are moving towards reclaiming all that they had lost in this plague but the Living have lost touch with all the good parts of being human and are just wrapped up, not in hate, but in fear and fear has always brought out the worst in us humans. 

That is why this book isn't just a zombie book. It is more than that. Even I did not expect such deep messages from this book. I mean it's such a small book too. Just 240 pages long. But it packs such a punch. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I loved it that it made me think so much. If anyone is hesitant to pick this book up because it has got zombies and the like, don't be. It's just that the setting is such that there are zombies. 

I rate this book a 4.5/5

Book Review : 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

It's been decades since anyone set foot on the moon. Now three ordinary teenagers, the winners of NASA's unprecedented, worldwide lottery, are about to become the first young people in space--and change their lives forever.
Mia, from Norway, hopes this will be her punk band's ticket to fame and fortune.
Midori believes it's her way out of her restrained life in Japan.
Antoine, from France, just wants to get as far away from his ex-girlfriend as possible.
It's the opportunity of a lifetime, but little do the teenagers know that something sinister is waiting for them on the desolate surface of the moon. And in the black vacuum of space... no one is coming to save them.
In this chilling adventure set in the most brutal landscape known to man, highly acclaimed Norwegian novelist Johan Harstad creates a vivid and frightening world of possibilities we can only hope never come true.

I read this book over the long weekend (for Ganesh Chaturthi). I had taken a leave on Friday so I would have 4 days to spend in Ahmedabad with my family. So while I was helping my sister move in to her house I read 2 books. One of them was 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad.

I really liked the premise of this book. I mean if I were given a chance of visiting the Moon I would jump at it. But I also understand the view point of those who would be reluctant to do the same. Even though I liked the premise, the execution of it went a little awry in the middle. But the book redeemed itself at the end.

This book is about NASA restarting the Space program and giving a chance to 3 random teenager to go to the Moon, to visit a previously secret space station on the Moon called DARLAH - 2. These 3 teenagers would be chosen by a lottery and would undergo an intense training before heading off in to space. But NASA is not doing this for the sole reason of exploration alone. There is something that they are hiding from the general public when it comes to this trip to the Moon.

There are different narrators in this book. But for the most part the story is narrated by the 3 teens who get selected - Mia from Norway, Midori from Japan and Antoine from France. Each of them have their own reasons for putting their names up for the lottery. Amongst the 3 I was mostly annoyed with Mia a bit at the beginning of the book. But I started liking her as the time for the Moon launch came nearer.

The book was a little slow, especially the parts before the Moon launch.And the author mostly skipped the 4 days spent on the journey. But the story really picked up once the team landed on the Moon.

I cannot really write about what it is exactly that the astronauts face on the moon without giving something away, so let me just say that the ending was awesome and the suspense that was built up in the 2nd half of the book on the Moon was just right.

I rate this book a 3.5/5.

Book Review : Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King

Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything.

So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to?

I have been watching a lot of Book Hauls on YouTube lately. And as per usual, I've been reading a lot of blogs about books. And this book has been talked about a lot. And after Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher I thought this would be a good book to read. I have been searching for this book online for a long time. Why not at a bookstore you ask? Here in India Brick and mortar bookstores usually do not stock most of these books. It's usually difficult to get them online too.

That was the case with this book too. Just recently the price was a bit reduced and as it was in my wishlist my Best Friend Chaitra got me this book. So even though I was reading Tomorrow When the War Began by John Marsden (Which is great by the way) I just HAD to start reading this book. And it's got pretty small chapters so I completed it pretty fast.One of the reasons I got through this book so fast is because I read the book while I commuted to and from work. Considering Bangalore traffic, especially during the rainy season, I had ample time to finish the book.

There might be SPOILERS ahead. Read at your own risk.

Let me get the negative aside first. The beginning was a little slow for me. I mean I knew that Charlie, Vera's Ex-Best Friend had died and that the "Ex-" had been added to Best friend very recently. That was all I knew. Though the reason for the death was alluded to very vaguely it was never explained. But It started picking up about 40-50 pages in. The reason for their estrangement and how/why Charlie died was still not explained but a lot of things were talked about that drew me into the story.

The narrative style of the story was, I will not say unique, but different. And it works. It is mostly in Vera's Point of View but a couple of pages in the middle of her Point of View we get to hear a few things in Vera's father's perspective (Ken), Charlie's perspective and even a landmarks perspective, the Pagoda (a make-out spot) on what happens around it. And the narrative was interspersed with flashbacks to Vera and Charlie's childhood and assorted timelines. This was almost always Vera's point of view.

The things I loved about this book were many. I didn't really have a Best Friend till I was out of school. I finally met a group of people whom I got really close to while I was pursuing my Bachelors degree. That was one of the best times I had in life. And though it did not happen to me (Thank God!) I did see really close friends drift apart (putting it mildly) because of rumors and miscommunication and out and out lying that were floating around. So I understood what Vera went through when Charlie turned his back on her (at least to a certain point).

I get what Vera means by trying to escape her destiny.Of becoming her mother. And I also like that by the end it is she who tries to convince her dad that she is not like her mother at all. I liked the dichotomy of Vera moving away from the life that her mother, or rather her parents had and Charlie moving towards the life that his parents have. And part of the reason he became a bit like his dad was because he was trying to protect Vera from himself.

I liked the way the issue of Vera's drinking was addressed too. And I do not want to ruin the book for anyone so I'll just say this. I thought this book was a contemporary novel but there was another element added to it. Some might say it was because of Vera's drinking, but if you read the book and see the perspective it's written in you'll see that it isn't just a contemporary novel. It is harder to define.

The longer I've had to read this book the more I seem to love it. I would rate this book a 4.5/5. And now I am awaiting The Dust of a 100 dogs by A.S. King. I know that Everybody Sees the Ants would be the next logical book to read but I really loved the premise of this book. So I am now waiting to get that book inthe mail.

Book Review : Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list. Through Hannah and Clay's dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

I've heard a lot about this book, on goodreads, the blogosphere, vlogosphere, literally everywhere. And it has predominantly been good reviews. So I considered this to be a necessary read for me. Not just because a lot of people say it's a good read (though that was a factor in the decision) but I really was intrigued by the synopsis and the premise.

 I got through the book in about 5-6 hrs. It was a difficult read but the morbid curiosity to know who was next on the tape and what they had done to get on the tapes made me read on, Like the morbid curiosity that the people on the lists had. But they did have an added incentive of the tapes getting out to the public.

I do not know if I was the only one but I empathized with Clay more than I did with Hannah. I am not saying that I do not understand what drove Hannah to suicide. Throughout the whole tape Hannah talked of the Snowball effect that a small instance could have on a persons life, that in her case led her to commit suicide. The tapes spoke of the consequences that a simple list, or action that affect a life. But her action of recording those tapes and sending it to the 13 people had its own consequences.

Though the tapes were Hannah's point of view, the contrast of what Clay thought of the same situations was a great insight. It helped me see the other side of the coin. To me this was not just about a Teenage Girls suicide note but the opportunity lost to have a friendship, maybe even a relationship. And the sad part was that this was not just Hannah's loss but also Clay's. And considering that Clay had feelings for her, and he could not do anything about it anymore.

I liked the ending of this book. It was not a sweet ending but it was open ended. There was still hope.

To me this book has a rating of 4.5/5.

Book Review : Constable & Toop by Gareth P Jones

Sam Toop lives in a funeral parlour, blessed (or cursed) with an unusual gift. While his father buries the dead, Sam is haunted by their constant demands for attention. Trouble is afoot on the 'other side' - there is a horrible disease that is mysteriously imprisoning ghosts into empty houses in the world of the living. And Sam is caught in the middle - will he be able to bring himself to help?

Blue Peter Award winner Gareth P. Jones has woven a darkly comic story, a wonderfully funny adventure that roams the grimy streets of Victorian London.

While I was surfing through Goodreads, I came across this book and the synopsis and the cover just made me want to read this  book. There was no reason or logic behind this feeling. I read about the book and I just knew that this would be something I would like. So I ordered the book online at Flipkart. As it was an imported edition they could not procure the book and had to cancel my order. But I did not give up. I really wanted this book (Because I'm stubborn that way). So I placed an order again when the book was available. I received the book last Thursday!!

I took complete advantage of the long weekend this past week and tried to read more and I did. I finished 2 books. The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker and Constable & Toop. I really like books set in England. Most of the books are mostly set in the United States or in a fantasy world and sometimes a different planet. And I really loved Johnathan Strange and Mr.Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This book reminded me a little of that book. Not a lot but a little.

This book was a pretty quick read too. The story seemed simple enough, the haunted houses were missing their residents which was why a 'Black Rot' sets in in the house. The next ghost which enters the house would be trapped in the house. It was only when I started reading the book for a while, that I realized that there was so much more in this story than what meets the eye. The complexities of the relationship between Sam and his father and the contrast between this relationship and the one between Clara and her father. The world of the Ghosts and their bureaucracy. All of this has really made me enjoy this book even after finishing the book a few days.

So even though I thought I would give this book a 3.5 I think I would now give it a 4/5.

Book Review : The Other Life by Susanne Winnacker

3 years, 1 month, 1 week and 6 days since I’d seen daylight. One-fifth of my life. 98,409,602 seconds since the heavy, steel door had fallen shut and sealed us off from the world

Sherry has lived with her family in a sealed bunker since things went wrong up above. But when they run out of food, Sherry and her dad must venture outside. There they find a world of devastation, desolation...and the Weepers: savage, mutant killers.

When Sherry's dad is snatched, she joins forces with gorgeous but troubled Joshua - an Avenger, determined to destroy the Weepers.

But can Sherry keep her family and Joshua safe, when his desire for vengeance threatens them all?

I had read a couple of good reviews for this book on Goodreads and it was a dystopian novel so I was excited when I saw this book at my local bookstore. You would never guess looking at the cover that this is a Post Apocalyptic novel.

This is a world where the Rabies virus has mutated to such an extent that anyone who contracts the virus either dies or is turned into creatures called "Weepers". They are very aggressive creatures who attack and kill their prey, which is the remaining human population.

I did not love this book as much as I did 'Feed' by Mira Grant but this was still a good read. It was a very quick read too. I liked that this was not a typical zombie movie. This was more of a mutation in humans that are still alive. What happens to these people is more scary. They are alive but have lost touch with humanity. And they are not dumb/unthinking like zombies. They retain the intelligence, if not memories, of being human.

The format in which this book is written is really good. A small snippet of Sherry's life before the advent of the virus. This relates to the title of the book too. I was not a huge fan of the insta-love between Sherry and Joshua. I understand her feelings of security when he is around, I mean he did rescue her. But falling in love in the span of a week or so? That just did not do it for me.

SPOILERS

But one of the relationships I did like was the relationship between the siblings. I want to know more about Tyler and about how his and Rachel's relationship will be. When I picked up this book I was not aware that this was a series. Because I usually try and pick up series that are complete or will be complete in a few more months. Now that I do know this is a series I am interested to see what happens in the rest of the books. Especially to see if the Father turns into a weeper.

I would rate this book a 3.5/5.

Book Review : Touch of Power by Maria V. Snyder

THEY DESTROYED HER WORLD. BUT SHE’S THEIR ONLY HOPE...

Avry’s power to heal the sick should earn her respect in the plague-torn land of Kazan. Instead she is feared. Her kind are blamed for the horrifying disease that has taken hold of the nation. When Avry uses her forbidden magic to save a dying child, she faces the guillotine. Until a dark, mysterious man rescues her from her prison cell. His people need Avry’s magic to save their dying prince. The very prince who first unleashed the plague on Kazan.

Saving the prince is certain to kill Avry – yet she already faces a violent death. Now she must choose – use her healing touch to show the ultimate mercy or die a martyr to a lost cause?


I LOVED THIS BOOK!!! Have you ever gone into a bookstore and just browsed through the books? And you think the synopsis looks great so you buy a book? And you completely forget about it once you take it home? That happened to me with this book. So I was just re arranging my book self when I realised I had this book. So I started reading it and it just sucked me in. I did not expect it from this book. I had heard of the other books written by Maria V. Snyder, like the Study series and the Storm glass series, and that they were good. But I fell in love with this book.

----------There might be Spoilers ahead---------

If you see a pattern in the books I usually rave about, they have really strong female characters, for example - Cinder from Cinder by Marissa Meyer, Vin from the Mistborn Trilogy (which I'm yet to finish). You get the idea. And this book has Avry. She is a healer on the run, because healers are considered outlaws. They are thought to be the reason the world is in shambles - that they are the reason the plague spread. So she has had to hide her true nature, till she heals a little girl and she gets outed. Then she gets sprung by a group of people who want her to heal Prince Ryne. Ryne who could be the key to saving the Fifteen Realms.

This is how she meets Kerrick and his merry band of men. There's Flea, Quain, Loren and Belen. Most of these characters are a bit of a cliche but Maria spins the story around them in such a way that you don't really notice. And the back story of each characters are told to us slowly. There is always something that we learn about all of them. The love between Avry and Kerrick isn't insta love, for which I am eternally grateful. She truly dislikes him at the start. But he kinda grows on her, and I guess he kinda grew on me too. But I still liked the parts where Avry interacted with the others in the gang than when she interacted with Kerrick.

And this book was a mix of genres of sorts. I mean it is fantasy, but it also had a bit of the medical genre, covert spy genre and ZOMBIES. Yeah, you heard me Zombies. I couldn't believe it when I read it. And I didn't think it would actually work in this book but it did.

Coming to the villain. Tohon was creepy. He was a good character, for a bad guy. He is a complete sociopath. Which keeps things interesting.

I would also like to see how Avry is going to reconcile with her sister Noelle. I understand why she is pissed off with Avry but going to the extreme that she did seems a bit much. Maybe I'm saying that because I've only heard this story from Avry's POV. Another thing I'm looking forward to in the next installment is a little more explanation on the Death and Peace Lilies and their involvement in the plague and the walking dead.

I am now waiting for the book to be shipped to me. I already put in an order for the Scent of Magic, and I cannot wait for the 3rd and final book Taste of Magic either. All in all I'd rate this book a 4.5+ out of 5.

Book Review : Beautiful Creatures by Kimi Garcia & Margaret Stohl

I really liked this book. There was just something about the story that just ensnared me. The premise is not something new in today's bookverse. But for me the interpretation was done just right. I liked it that the book was from Etan's POV. It usually is from the girls perspective (at least in the books I've read). I know this also has a Love at first sight shtick but there was a good back story for that. Ethan and Lena have been dreaming of each other for months. And there is a curse involved.

Coming to the characters, I really loved Amma. That is one feisty lady. I also loved Etan Wate. I liked Lena too but considering the book was in Ethan's voice, I got to know him better. And how refreshing it is to have a hero who is not an arrogant jerk, like in most other YA novels that I have read.

The addressal of the bullying issue in the school was well done. Especially Ethan's take on it that if it were anyone but Lena he might have stood in the sidelines and not said a word. This honest admission won me over.

The Caster world has just opened up in this book and there a lot of things the authors can do with the world they've built in the next 3 books that are a part of this series. So far the foundations that have been laid have just tantalized my curiosity about this world. I hope more information will be shared in the coming books.

This well developed story is what made me like the book. It might have seemed long to some people but I like my books to be lengthy. Mind you the story has to be interesting and well paced. The relationship between Lena and Ethan was sweet. It was slow. They were together, yes, but they didn't officially become boyfriend - girlfriend till quite a few months had passed.

Another thing I liked was that even though their family was against their relationship, they still got together. What is so different about that you ask? They rebelled but if anyone, even Ethan or Lena said anything negative about Amma or Macon respectively they would lash out at each other. Just because they fell in love did not mean they stopped loving their family.

All in all I give this book a 4.5/5.

Book Review : Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

I heard of Gillian Flynn when my sister came up to me with the book Gone Girl and asked me to buy it for her. She told me that she had heard quite a few good reviews about it and wanted to read it. So I got it for her and the book stayed on our shelves since then. I recently went to our local Landmark bookstore and there was an offer on for 2 other books the author had written. I read the synopsis and liked the premise. I have recently been reading a lot of YA, so I wanted to read a crime novel. That is how I came into possession of Sharp Objects and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn.

Sharp Objects was Flynn's debut novel so I started with that. It is one of those novels that slowly creeps up on you. It was not love at first read with this book but I could not put it down. This book was a little depressing, though not as depressing a read as Flowers in the Attic. Flynn described the dysfunctional relationship between the mother and daughter really well. The contrast of how Adora gtreated her 2 daughters was something that made us appreciate the relationship between the 2 sisters and also between them and their mother. In between all of this there is the dead middle sister.

The best part was that though you could kind of tell where the book was going towards the end (with Adora and Camille, the ending was truly unexpected. I would recommend this book to all Crime novel buffs. Now I am all ready to delve into another paranormal YA. I am now reading Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl. This is based in the South too.

Rating - 3.5/5

Book Review : Cinder by Marissa Meyer

I've been coming across Cinder in a lot of people's favorite lists on Goodreads and on blogs. The first time I came across it I liked the premise, though I did not pay much attention to it. As my friends would tell you I tend to like almost everything when it comes to books and especially when it comes to movies. I have also watched a couple of movie adaptations of the classic Cinderella story - Ella Enchanted and Ever After. I loved the former more than the latter. One of the reasons being that in this version she mostly helped herself instead of a mythical Fairy Godmother who waves her magic wand and makes the problems disappear.

So this book has always been at the periphery of my to be read books list. So when there was a major discount on this book online I took it as a sign and bought the book. I loved this book so much that I've already ordered for the 2nd installment in the series, Scarlet.

This was one exciting read. More than anything the best part was Cinder Linh. I LOVED her!! I mean, at least in the movie Ever After, Danielle - played by Drew Barrymore. had a kind of fairy Godmother in the form of DaVinci. But Cinder has no one. Just an android friend named Iko. Not only is she the Step Daughter that the Step Mother loathes, she also has to contend with being a Cyborg.

Whenever I think of a cyborg I think of the Bionic Woman. You know with increased strength and super sense and gadgets. Lots and lots of gadgets. But that is not the case with Cinder. She has to survive with a leg that she was fitted with when she was 11. And even though she is the sole earner (she's a mechanic) in the house hold, being a cyborg, she is the property of her Step Mother.

Cinder is one of the most kick-ass female heroines out there in the book world. She is right beside Dagny Taggart (from Atlas Shrugged) for me. The story has been paced really well. Though there are places in the books that the story is a bit predictable but the classic Cinderella story has been given quite a spin. I mean not only are people on earth suffeeing from a plague to which there is no cure, they face a huge threat from the Lunars. Descendants of humans who set up a colony on the Moon and now have extraordinary powers that lets them manipulate normal Earth humans.

And the Prince is being pressurized to marry the Queen of the Lunars - Queen Levana. So this book is a melting pot of genres and Marissa Meyer has a great recipe. I just hope this continues with Scarlet.

One of the best scenes for me was when Cinder stands up to her Step Mother and the part where she goes to the ball completely soaked from head to toe in a dress that is a had me down of sorts and silk gloves covered in grease. She is a girl that has not known love at all. And all those that have come close to loving her have left her (either voluntarily or involuntarily). She is ostracized but she still has a back bone (though it is reinforced). She still manages to open herself up a little in this book.

I cannot wait to read Scarlet where I'll meet Cinder and Kaito and hopefully Iko again. I'm thinking this will have something to do with Little Red Riding Hood. I hope it gets delivered by next Monday. In the meantime I am reading Obsidian by Jennifer Armentrout on audiobook and a physical copy of Divergent by Veronica Roth. I would rate this book a 4.5/5.

I am hoping this counts towards my Dystopia challenge. This will be a read count of 1/6.

Book Reviews

Sorry I've been away for so long. My days at the office suddenly became quite hectic, so I've not had the time to even open the blog. But fear not!! I have been able to read quite a few books. I have recently finished reading - The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey, The Surgeon & The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen, Amnesia Moon by Johnathan Lethem, The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu and The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clark.

I had already started on a review of The 5th Wave but had not been able to post it up on the blog. I will do so now and also write what I think of the other books (though the review might not be as elaborate as the one for The 5th Wave)

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

The book had me in its sights the minute I saw that the description said it was a little like Ender's Game. I am also a sucker for a good post-apocalyptic, dystopian novel. This was a good book. I am looking forward to the sequel in the series. This is why I read trilogies and quadrilogies or any series for that matter, when they are already done or almost done. Then I do not have that agonizing wait ahead of me waiting for the end of the book and closure. Or at least I hope for closure, sometimes the quality of the story in the books slips, by the time the end is near. But one can always hope right? And that is basically the theme of every post-apocalyptic book for me - Hope.

Movies have conditioned us to think that when aliens finally make first contact, then it will either be to befriend us or to destroy us for our planets resources or to enslave us. This book falls in the "they've come to annihilate us" category. We also think (probably because of our egos and Star Trek) that the aliens will resemble us, in some basic way. Like them being bipeds and having a humanoid form. This book counters those beliefs by making the aliens that attack earth into beings of pure consciousness.

The strategy used by the Others, as Cassie calls them, is, I have to say genius. First they put the people on edge by showing themselves and not doing anything for almost 10 days. Then they knock out everything electronic using an EMP blast. This was the 1st wave. The 2nd wave was literally a wave in the forms of tsunamis and the 3rd wave was a plague that leads to the death of nearly 7 billion people. The 4th wave are the silencers. The Others in the guise of humans. So that humans couldn't trust anyone.

This book had good characters. Most of the book was in Cassie's POV. I like that she was not a born Bad-Ass. Before the arrival she was a normal teenager with a crush on a classmate (Ben Parish). She was pushed to the edge when she lost her mother to the plague, seeing her father killed and her little brother taken from her.

In the beginning of the book we find her just surviving. Her only goal - to stay alive to see the next day. She has learnt not to trust anyone. And because of this, when she meets another person after a long while, she does not trust him, even when he is in need. This pushes her over the edge and finding Sammy becomes her lifeline.

Then she meets Evan Walker. Who rescues her when she is freezing to death after being shot in the leg. he nurses her back to life and maybe that is why she does not immediately mistrust him. It is this very human need in her that makes her want to trust him that I love best. This has been written very well. Even when she finds out that he is one of the Others she still wants to trust him. This is what the Others saw as a weakness. But is also humanity's greatest strength along with the ability to love.  

Moving on to the topic of the Others I love that they did not make them up to be some kind of reptilian like life form. Instead they are pure consciousness. Also the conflict between their own ranks where one faction pushes for total annihilation of the human race the other pushes for coexistence. Also the Others, while on Earth conquering the human race, have to be in human form. They have absorbed their human counterparts. Not completely replaced them. It is this dichotomy that Evan Walker embodies. While the majority of the Others find humans repulsive or not deserving of earth, then there is Eva Walker. He feels a sense of liberation in his human body. He seems more in tune with his human side. This is what makes it so difficult for him. He has his loyalty towards his own kind and also the love the feels towards a girl   whose race him and his kind are determined to kill. I lie that the author didn't make him go cold turkey towards killing just because he fell  in love with Cassie. He just spared her and kept on fulfilling his mission of being a Silencer. I appreciate that the author does not take us readers to be dumb and did not bring about a drastic change in either personalities, be it Cassie or Evan. It was his love for her and also his wish to be rid of the duality within him that he does what he does at Camp Haven. 

Camp Haven being compared to Battle School from Ender's Saga might be a bit of a stretch. It is similar yes. But Battle School  was far more dangerous in my opinion. There all the adults were against you (at least that is what the kids felt). Here  at Camp Haven the kids kinda felt secure with their handlers/guardians. 

All in all this was a good read. I guess I went off on a wide tangent with this review. It has become more of a rant. Well maybe you can think of it as a rant about The 5th Wave instead of a review per se. Now that its been a few days since I finished the book I'd rate it a 3.8 (leaning towards 4).

The Surgeon & The Apprentice by Tess Gerritsen 

Let me just start off by saying that I love the Rizzoli & Isles TV series. I really enjoy the dynamics between the 2 main leads. Having said that, it was really disappointing to me that the books did not do for me, what the TV series did. I understand that the TV series is an adaptation and not a carbon copy of the book. But I would not have enjoyed the books even if I had not seen the series on TV. The books just did not capture my continued interest. Rizzoli was such a drag. She hated herself, her family, her colleagues (or at least she did not trust them). She did not even have one friend. I'm sorry to say this but this could be because of her attitude. I mean she doesn't always have to act so tough. She acted like being a woman was the worst thing that could happen to her. She could've leveraged the fact that she was a woman quite a few times, but she didn't do that. Not all female cops have to be rigid as she is. She just went on and on about how it is so difficult to be in the police force. I mean I'm sure it is but all she does is whine about it.

The author has not leveraged the rapport/friendship that could be portrayed between Jane and Maura at all. Maybe that happens in the latter books. I'm still debating whether or not I'll read the rest of the series. I rate both the books 2/5.

Amnesia Moon by Johnathan Lethem

I was going through the posts over at the Book Smugglers when I read about The Angry Robot Publishers. I went to their site and was really psyched about the books showcased there. I read a few blurbs of the books on the site and I was very excited about them. Amnesia Moon was one of them.

I did not know what to expect from this book. The description sounded different and intriguing. I still do not know what to make of the book after having finished reading it. If a book is to be classified as good if it makes you keep coming back for more, then this is a good book. But I kept wanting to go back to the book because I could not understand what was going on in the book. It was weird. I can't say if it was a good/bad weird. I think I liked it. It was a plotline with which a lot more could have been done. A lot more could've been done with the concept of the dream sharing. If this was where the story was going this could've been made in to a novella instead of a Novel. Maybe I just didn't get the book (not just maybe, I just didn't understand a lot of the book). But in my opinion it was still a better read than the first 2 installments of the Rizzoli and Isles series. So this was a 2.5/5 for me. 

The Mad Scientist's Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clark

I really liked this book. A lot of people might say this book reminded them of The Bicentennial Man with Robin Williams. But that is not completely accurate. Here Finn, the android, is not looking to 'be' human. He is at peace with the fact that he is a machine. The similarity between this book and Bicentennial Man is that Finn falls in love with Cat & in this book she loves him back. To me this story was reminescent of a small part in teh Asimov book, I, Robot, where a little girl has a robot playmate/nanny. 

This book is not about the fighting for the rights about robots . It is a part of the story but not the core of the story. This is basically a love story in which one of the lovers happens to be an android. And through this book, Cassandra makes us think what being a human really is. I am not saying there was a revelation at the end as to what constitutes humanity. I liked it that it made me think about it, if you know what I mean. It was also made me think of what it would take to love someone for being all that they are and not just what we want to love in a person.

I enjoyed the journey that Cat took in her life. It was a beautiful journey with all the ups & downs. This is the sort of book that you love more once you are finished with it. I really loved this book. I rate it 4.2/5.

The Lives Of Tao by Wesley Chu

Let us get the obvious out of the way. The 5th Wave has a similar setting of an alien being inserted in to the human consciousness. I concede that. But in the case of The Lives of Tao, te alien and the human host co-exist. I mean how great is that? 

This book was not written like a typical Sci - Fi book. It had more of a spy thriller feel for me, that reminded me of the Bourne trilogy. 

Tao liked to call the relationship between him and his host as symbiotic but in my opinion the human did not really have much of a say. He/she had to take part in a war that has been raging for nigh on 500 years between entities that have been stranded on earth for the past 65 million years. There are of course advantages. The human host gets the benefit of all the knowledge accumulated over the lifetime of the alien being - be it Prophus or Genjix.

The writing in this book is quite fast paced. The Prophus who are said to be on te side of humans don't come out smelling of roses in this conflict. But that is the necessity of war. I am unsure of whether this book is a stand alone or a part of a series. I hope it is a series. If it isn't then the ending sucked for me. I would rate this book a 3.7/5.