Tuesday 29 December 2015

H10N1 - M. R. Cornelius

RATING: THREE STARS

The world has been thrown into disarray by a coordinated terrorist attack that unleashed the deadly Korean Influenza virus, H10N1, across the globe. Not even the terrorists could have predicted just how destructive the virus would be and humans have been all but eradicated. There are just a few thousand left across the world and civilisation has ended. There are no workers to produce new foods, medicines and electricity. The lucky survivors are fighting for whatever is left, desperate for help from the scant few hospitals that are still able to provide it.

Dr. Taeya Sanchez is one such medic and works in one of America's last remaining hospitals. The staff there are overworked and the only way they are able to help their patients is through assisted suicide, making the pain of H10N1 disappear forever. When Taeya finally has enough and speaks out against the new regime, she is forced to flee her sanctuary at the hospital. She is plunged into a brave new world that is ruled by the gun, surviving only because of the help of an unlikely alliance with a defecting supply gather, Rick DeAngelo.

The Good
M. R. Cornelius has done a fair job with this story and both of the main protagonists are interesting, telling the story from different mindsets. They quickly form a love-hate relationship which Cornelius develops throughout the book as their friendship turns into something more, despite both of them not really wanting it to and disbelieving that the other likes them in a romantic way.

The story itself is also exciting, with lots of action and surprise events, but Cornelius has stayed away from the traditional viewpoints of post-apocalyptic worlds. The book isn't all about violence and people fighting for resources, which features in the book only as pivotal events. Instead, the book is more of a journey of self-redemption, love and survival, which is nicely refreshing.

The Bad
Sadly, some of the characters in H10N1 are a bit bland and stereotypical. Some of them are villains for no real reason and do things which don't actually benefit anyone, even the antagonist themselves. This does make the book slightly implausible at times and, as a reader, I just had to suspend my disbelief and roll with it.

Cornelius' prose it also lacking in description and focuses more on events and dialogue. This does help keep the story moving at quite a fast pace, but it's difficult to imagine the world around the characters some of the time and he often uses generic description to set the scene, such as 'cars pulling up in a forest.'

My Thoughts
Overall though, H10N1 was an interesting read and I enjoyed it. It was more of a story about love and redemption than a grisly post-apocalyptic horror of murder and violence and M. R. Cornelius has a few nice ideas about what living in such a world would be like.

Friday 18 December 2015

The Phoenix Darkness - Richard L. Sanders

RATING: FOUR STARS

The Empire is still in disarray and wanting for a legitimate monarch. Princess Kalila, scion of House Akira, is desperate to reclaim her father's throne and birthright from the usurper Caewyn Martel. The two have already clashed in a devastating battle that halved their fleets and destroyed the Apollo Shipyards - a resource that will be sorely missed in the impending war. For war is coming and the Rotham are mobilising their fleet outside of the Demilitarised Zone. Their ships are being called for one reason: the invasion and occupation of human space.

Calvin Cross is the sole provider of this information, having ventured deep into Rotham space with a small handful of his crew. His mission is dangerous and the warships he scans are not without scanners and he had a Rotham spy in his midst, whose loyalties are ambiguous at best . . . Calvin desperately wants the Nighthawk for this mission, but his ship has been entrusted to Summers. Summers, who must find and destroy the last of the isotome weapons before they can be brought to bear against humankind and its space.

The Good
Richard L. Sanders had written yet another story that is full of twists and turns, The book is exciting and difficult to predict with the sheer number of people trying to create the universe they desire through chicanery and deceit. This means that the story is fast-paced and it gets going straight away, maintaining tension and uncertainty throughout.

The Bad
Once again, Sanders' writing is sadly lacking in description and this did detract from my enjoyment of the book slightly. The Phoenix Darkness is full of novel warships and a whole host of different worlds and environments, yet none of them have been described so there's little guidance for their visualisation. It's a shame really because it means his writing is quite 'stripped down' and predominantly focuses on events. The same is true for his characters and alien races; except for a few vague descriptions here and there, Sanders largely glosses over what they look like.

Another issue with the book is the use of words like should've and hasn't in its prose. Although this isn't a major issue and doesn't really detract from the story, it just doesn't look professional and is a constant (and unnecessary reminder) that the novel is self-published.

My Thought
Overall though, The Phoenix Darkness is pretty good and makes for an exciting and enjoyable read. It's a great instalment to The Phoenix Conspiracy series as a whole and I had a lot of fun with it! It's part of what is one of my favourite science fiction series at the moment and Sanders remains one of my favourite indie authors! I would definitely recommend this book (and series) to anyone who is looking for a sci fi series of action and subterfuge!

Thursday 17 December 2015

Let's Drown Out on 'The Eye of Argon'

One of my friends has just introduced me to a fantasy novel called The Eye of Argon by Jim Theis. Surprisingly, this isn't because the book is a fantastic must-read and the recommendation was actually because the novella was so bad! While I genuinely don't like criticising an author's work, The Eye of Argon is widely considered to be the worst novella ever written and (quite simply), is hilarious to read. I'm not exaggerating when I say that every word the author has used is an adjective and he's basically strung a story together using a theasaurus and terrible fantasy names.

I doubt I'll ever read the actual book per se, but Let's Drown Out have a hilarious video on YouTube where they try to read Theis' work without laughing! It's much funnier than it sounds and is definitely worth checking out!



Wednesday 16 December 2015

The Fellowship of the Ring - J. R. R. Tolkien

RATING: FOUR STARS

When young Frodo Baggins inherits Bag End and a strange ring of invisibility from Bilbo, his eccentric uncle, he pays no mind to it and settles down for the quiet life of a respectable hobbit. Little does he know the significance of the ring and that his possession of it will lead to a dark and arduous adventure. For the ring is none other than the Ring of Power itself and the dark lord Sauron has returned to Middle Earth. His thought is bent on finding the Ring and his only lead as to its whereabouts comes from the creature Gollum. Searching for 'Baggins' in the 'Shire,' Sauron's Ringwraiths speed from Minas Morgal to seize it for their master.

Frodo is forced to flee his home in the Shire and is determined to bring the Ruling Ring before Elrond in Rivendell as Gandalf the Grey instructed. Yet even delivering the Ring to a sanctuary deemed safe is not enough and Frodo is the only one the quarrelling Free Races trust to carry it forth and forever destroy it in the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor. Frodo becomes one of the Nine Walkers to oppose the Nine Riders and, with the help of Aragorn, Gandalf, Boromir, Legolas, Gimili, Merry, Pippin and Sam, means to end Sauron forever.

The Good
So where do I start here?! The Lord of the Rings is still one of the finest works of fantasy ever written and it has a depth to it that has inspired an entire genre. J. R. R. Tolkien is the grandfather of fantasy and The Fellowship of the Ring is a reflection of that. The mythology behind it, the cultures of the races, the history of Middle Earth... The scope of all of these things is staggering and no other author has come close to it as of yet. This book has inspired every generation since it was published, which speaks for the story's enduring quality! It is superbly written and is filled with detail and back-stories that an avid fan can literally lose months of their life reading about.

Furthermore, it's exciting and full of peril. The quest to destroy the Ring truly "stands upon the edge of a knife" and the Fellowship has to give everything of itself for the quest to succeed. I'm sure most people have seen Peter Jackson's stunning film, so I don't really need to go into the plot and characters too much - you all know what it's about!

The Bad
Criticising The Fellowship of the Ring feels like blasphemy, but, to be brutally honest, it was written in a time where authors emphasised description over dialogue and events. The book is quite dry in places and doesn't make for the easiest, page-turning read. In fact, Tolkien spends the first part of the book constructing a very detailed backstory which can get a little stale at times.

My Thoughts
The Fellowship of the Ring is a little dry and over-descriptive at times, but don't let that put you off reading it. It's worth every dry page and the scope of Tolkien's story is simply mind blowing. It really is like you're reading a story from a real world, with a long established history, and the fact that it has birthed the entire genre is evidence enough of its mastery. It's more than worthy of its place on my Shelf of Fame and is a must read for anyone who has only seen the film.

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows - J. K. Rowling

RATING: FIVE STARS

Dumbledore has fallen and the Order of the Phoenix has all but broken. None other than the treacherous Death Eater, Severus Snape, is now the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry and Harry Potter knows that his life will be forfeit if he should return to study there. Even if that was not the case, he knows that he has something much more important to do than continue with his magical education: Dumbledore entrusted him with what is perhaps the most important task of the age and, along with his friends Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry must find and destroy each of Voldemort's Horcruxes. Harry is the Boy Who Lived and fate has prophesied that he must face Voldemort, for neither can live while the other survives.

Harry's task borders on the impossible and he's forced to become a fugitive on the run from Voldemort's Death Eaters and the Ministry of Magic, which the Dark Lord now controls. His life becomes challenging and full of danger, but Harry knows that he must face the adversity before him with a stout heart if he is to defeat Voldemort and finally put an end to his subjugation and terror campaign.

The Good
The Deathly Hallows is an interesting, exciting book that is certainly unique among the Harry Potter series. This is largely because Harry doesn't actually return to Hogwarts this year and most of the book involves his roaming of the British countryside. That being said, the book isn't boring in the slightest and it's as exciting as any of its predecessors, maybe even more so!

J. K. Rowling has proven her unparalleled ability to bring her characters to life once again and they are as real and engaging as ever. As well as adding to the scope and enjoyment of the story, this makes the inevitable deaths in the war against Voldemort all that more tragic and it's extremely difficult to read about the passing of characters that I kind of regard as actual friends!

I also particularly liked Rowling's epilogue, where she describes Harry and his wife, Ginny Weasley, dropping their children off at Platform Nine and Three Quarters so they can board the Hogwarts Express. This provides a nice little tease for what happens after the story and it's nice to know that even after all of the pain and death in the series as a whole, there is a happy ending at the end of it. I also like the way this scene continues the story forward via the new generation of students at Hogwarts and leaves room for the imagination to delve into what is happening at the school and what it would be like to study there yourself (which I think is one thing we've all secretly done and probably has a role in the series enormous success). It's also nice how Rowling doesn't actually say what Harry did after he defeated Lord Voldemort, leaving this open to the reader's interpretation. I like to think that Harry's seventh year at Hogwarts was so disrupted that he--along with his friends and the other students that were forced to flee the school for their lives--were allowed back to complete their education (where Professor Mcgonagall is the new headmistress), finally having a year of peace where evil doesn't rear its dark head. Once Harry graduated Hogwarts with his N.E.W.T.s, I've always liked the idea that he's so sick of fighting and war he sets aside his ambitions to be an auror in favour of the coveted life of a professional Quidditch player. Once his sporting career invariably wound down, I like to imagine Harry becoming the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, working in Hogwarts alongside his friend Neville Longbottom. Obviously, this is just how I like to imagine 'what comes after' and everyone will have their own ideas!

The Bad
Once again, Rowling's storytelling is excellent and The Deathly Hallows is the perfect ending to an outstanding series of fantasy and adventure that highlights the importance of friendship and love! I have just one fault with the book and that is it being the final instalment of the series! Don't get me wrong and Rowling concludes it perfectly, but I'm always disappointed that my great Harry Potter adventure is over and I have to find something else to read . . .

My Thoughts
Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows is the perfect ending to Rowling's world renown series and I can't stress how good a job she has done with it. It's a real page turner, just like the other Harry Potter books and is a must read for anyone - Harry Potter is a definite must for anyone's education and should be added to your reading list immediately if you are only familiar with the series through the films.