Category Archives: Science Fiction

Frightful Friday: 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad

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Frightful Friday is a weekly meme in which I feature a particularly scary or chilling book that I’ve read that week.

This week’s featured book is 172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad:

  • Listening Length: 8 hours and 43 minutes
  • Program Type: Audiobook
  • Version: Unabridged
  • Publisher: Hachette Audio
  • Release Date: April 17, 2012
  • Source: Publisher

It’s been four decades since the last manned space shuttle explored the moon. NASA, desperate for funding, creates a massive international contest in which teenagers can enter to win a week-long trip to the moon base DARLAH 2. No one but top NASA insiders are aware this moon base exists.  The three winners-Antoine, Midori, and Mia-have no real interest in space travel and are shocked to learn they won the contest.

Before heading to NASA for training, each of the winners witness strange experiences meant to deter them from their journey. This is unknown to each of them and they proceed with the mission as planned. Little do they know there was a reason NASA hasn’t embarked on a mission to the moon…a dark and deadly reason.

After two months of training, the mission begins. It’s not long before they touch down on the moon that everything starts going wrong: computer malfunctions, sightings of mysterious individuals…and death. Soon, the crew has been nearly depleted and it is up to the surviving teens to find a way to get back to Earth.

172 Hours on the Moon is a completely engrossing and intense read. Quite frankly, I was surprised I haven’t heard much about this book. The premise is completely unique and original. By far one of my most favorite things about this book was the character development. Harstad devoted nearly a third of the book to building up the characters. A great deal is learned about Antoine, Midori and Mia before their feet even touch down on the Moon. The pacing of the novel follows this progression, starting out slow with the development of the characters and dramatically intensifying as soon as the mission begins. And the ending!? Wow…I was floored, never anticipating it!

I listened to the audiobook production of this novel. The narrator, Casey Holloway, does outstanding job of portraying the teen voice of each of the main characters, each from different nations and with different accents. I found myself forgetting there was just one narrator for her range of accents was so profound and distinct.

While I am happy that I listened to the audiobook, I am sorry I missed out on the photos and illustrations that apparently grace the print version. That said, I’m making it my mission (pun intended!) to get my hands on a copy!

Bottom line: 172 Hours on the Moon is a completely thrilling, chilling and frankly, terrifying novel. It will most certainly be making an appearance on my favorites list this year!

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Review: Amped by Daniel H. Wilson

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  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday (June 5, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0385535155
  • Source: Publisher (via Edelweiss)

In a near-future world, the medical profession has found a treatment for various diseases/ailments: brain implants. These implants, referred to as amps cures such diseases as epilepsy and allows individuals who have lost limbs due to various injuries to walk again as well as treat those with mental impairments. What starts out as a medical treatment expands and soon policeman and the military are being armed with amps, giving them super-human strength and abilities. Perfectly healthy individuals are implanted with the device, giving them superior physical and mental abilities. Soon, regular people not implanted with the device are being cheated out of educational opportunities by amps with superior brain power. Unaltered athletes are forced to compete against amps with extreme physical capabilities.

Amped begins with a ruling by the Supreme Court revoking all legal protections from Amps, those individuals implanted with the device. Despite the fact that many of these “amps” are normal people who are being treated for some medical impairment, an extremely conservative politician begins to manipulate the public, creating a fear of those with the device.

Owen Gray is one of these individuals. His father was the designer of the implanted chips. As a young adult, Owen sustained a severe head injury which resulted in horrendous seizures. A chip was implanted to control the seizures…or so Owen thought. In reality, the damage his brain received was so severe that he would not have lived without it. The chip implanted was not standard issue but one his father obtained from the military. As the country around him quickly descends into a military state, Owen has now become one of the country’s most wanted men.

Forced to leave his life behind him, Owen hunts down the man originally behind this rogue group of soldiers, a sort of special forces that was ordered to disband due to the side effects caused by the implanted amps.  He uncovers Eden, the place where all the research into these implanted chips began. In his journey, he learns about the power that has remained dormant in his brain all these years. Owen is just your average schoolteacher, or so he thought. In order to save the lives of thousands of modified human beings, Owen must learn how to control his powers and use them for the good of the nation.

Scattered throughout the novel are legal documents, providing the reader with an evolution of the government’s increased response to public outcry. In addition to Owen’s own observations, these legal documents provide the reader with evidence of the rapid decline of society.

Amped , like Wilson’s previous book, Robopocalypse, has a great deal of social commentary embedded in the text. Issues such as the value of a person, what makes a person, etc. are heavy to this storyline. These individuals have lost all legal rights and are eventually rounded up into camps for their “protection.” Legalized racism runs rampant, high-level politicians suggesting that these “amps” have lost what makes them human and therefore should not be treated as humans. “Regs,”those individuals that have not been implanted, brutalizing and killing amps without fear of prosecution.

This social commentary, compounded with a truly reliable main character that any reader can relate to, all add up to a truly impressive novel. Highly recommended.

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Frightful Friday: Nocturnal by Scott Sigler

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Frightful Friday is a weekly meme in which I feature a particularly scary or chilling book that I’ve read that week.

This week’s Frightful Friday featured book is Nocturnal by Scott Sigler:

  • Hardcover: 576 pages
  • Publisher: Crown; 1St Edition edition (April 3, 2012)
  • ISBN-10: 0307406342
  • Source: Publisher

Inspector Bryan Clauser of the San Francisco Police Department is horrified of the dreams he’s been having, dreams of horrible crimes that have come true. With the aid of his partner, Pookie, he begins to investigate these crimes. Both become frustrated when it seems that those higher up in the department are attempting to prevent Bryan & Pookie from discovering what is really happening. A common thread among all of the victims: they were individuals known to have bullied a teenage boy, Rex Deprovdechuk.

Rex has quite the horrible life, beat up continuously by a gang of bullies at school, then beat by his ultra-religious mother at home. He’s a bit of a wimp, unable to stand up to those that ridicule him. To seek his revenge, he draws horribly graphic pictures involving cruel punishments beset upon this bullies.  When these bullies wind up dead, cause of death identical to the acts in the drawings, Rex isn’t frightened. He feels empowered.

Forensic evidence indicates the savage crimes originally believed to be performed by an animal are in fact done at at the hands of a human. This is just the beginning of a host of evidence revealing a dark and terrifying world, hidden under the streets of San Francisco.

Joined by Aggie, a vagrant held captive by the very men/creatures who are committing these crimes,  Bryan and Pookie embark upon a war with creatures beyond imagination.

Nocturnal is truly a unique book, a perfect combination of police procedural, urban fantasy, bio-tech science fiction, and horror. At nearly 600 pages, this isn’t a book that you pick up and read within a few hours, but a true investment of time. An investment that is well worth it, in my mind.  The length of the book is necessary, giving Sigler the opportunity to really lay out and develop the characters.  The chapters are short, allowing the reader’s attention to intensify with each turn of the page. While I did take breaks while reading, I found myself melded to the pages, unable to take a break, desperate to learn more. Several late nights were involved in the reading of this book!

As with his previous books, Sigler provides readers with a completely unique and ingenious storyline.  The world he creates is one like none other, filled with monsters that make your skin crawl and force you to sleep with the light on. In other words: brilliant.  Certainly not for the week of heart (or stomach), if you think you have what it takes to face the underbelly of San Francisco,  Nocturnal  is the book for you. Highly recommended.

Following is the book trailer. Also not for the weak of heart (or stomach):

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11/22/63 by Stephen King

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  • Hardcover: 849 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner; 1ST edition (November 8, 2011)
  • ISBN-10: 1451627289
  • Source: Purchased eBook

November 22, 1963 is a day that forever changed our country, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. If you could go back and time & change this monumental day in our history?  Jake Epping was provided this very opportunity, to step through a portal to the past, with the promise that he would stop JFK’s assassination.  Each time he steps through the portal, he’s only missing from the current world for a matter of minutes. He could spend years in the past, but will return to the present the same day he left.

Before he decides to test the power of the portal by altering the events that took place on 11/22/63, he attempts to change the past of individuals who have made an impact on his life. He does so and learns that while he may have altered the past, the future that subsequently transpires isn’t necessarily a better outcome than the original. Fate and destiny play a key role in this epic novel.

I think I’ve made my fondness of Stephen King’s writing well-known. I admit, when I learned about the premise of this book I was a bit nervous. King, the master of classic horror, taking on time-travel and the Kennedy assassination? I can’t believe I ever doubted the man.

Fans of King’s previous works will appreciate the “Easter eggs” that appear in this novel. A good portion takes place in the town of Derry, Maine.  Fans will recognize this as the setting of a number of King’s novels.  Those new to King’s work won’t be confused by these “flashbacks” of sorts, however.

Additionally, 11/22/63 isn’t your typical horror, actually there isn’t a single element of horror in this book. There is a bit of violence (hello, Kennedy assassination) but nothing overtly gory at all. Most surprising were the emotions I wasn’t expecting to experience while reading this book: sadness, sympathy, and grief. The characters are rich in this novel; it’s nearly impossible to not form a connection with them.

A note on the book’s length: Yes, it is nearly 900 pages. But, with King’s other books, while there may be a few lulls here and there, I really can’t think of any part of the book I’d eliminate.

A note on the book’s cover: It’s gorgeous! The front depicts what transpired that fateful day in Dallas. The back shows the newspaper headline from the “altered” past.

Bottom line: Read it. It’s worth it. I promise!


 

 

 

 

 

 

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Review: iBoy by Kevin Brooks

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  • Reading level: Ages 14 and up
  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: The Chicken House (November 1, 2011)
  • ISBN-10: 0545317681
  • Source: Publisher

Tom was an pretty unremarkable teen, just another individual to blend into the crowd. Growing up in the Crows, a gang-infested South London housing project, one did what they could just to survive, to remain anonymous, not to be noticed. Then one day, that all changed.  As he was walking to meet his long-time friend (and crush) Lucy, someone calls his name from the top of a towering building. Then, the only thing he feels is pain.

He wakes up in the hospital, learning that an iPhone cracked his skull, bits of the phone are still lodged in his brain. These pieces lodged in his brain start to communicate with his brain; Tom becomes a humanoid iPhone, his brain capable of searching the internet, overhearing phone conversations, reading text messages. 

It is using this knowledge that he learns that Lucy was viciously attacked and raped.  In the Crows, no one talks to the police. The police are unable to apprehend those who attacked her, so Tom takes it upon himself to do so.  In addition to his other new skills, his body has created an electrified defense mechanism of sorts. At will, his body illuminates, capable of shooting out streams of electrical charges to anyone who threatens him.  Tom, in his new identity of iBoy, begins hunting down those people who injured Lucy, desperate to get to the source of the terror that hangs over the Crows and eliminate it…forever.

It is appropriate to mention the famous quote from Spiderman: “With great power comes great responsibility.” Tom’s character is not unlike Spiderman, the two are actually compared in the book. Both Tom and Peter Parker are nobodies, wimps really, until something happens to them that changes their life forever.  Both characters, first thrilled with their newly-gained powers,  soon realizes they have to face the repercussions their actions. They become awfully close to becoming just as bad and evil as the criminals they are trying to stop. Brooks does an outstanding job of portraying this inner turmoil that Tom must face.

Another thing that captured me was the overall grittiness of the book: the setting is dark and depressing, the helplessness that Lucy feels after she is attacked. All of this is so genuine, so real, so pervasive. Brooks really gets inside his characters, allowing his readers to do the same as well.

Due to the violence, I would definitely NOT recommend this to anyone under 14-16 years of age. While the details of the crime are not discussed, it is evident in the retelling. I don’t believe it’s one of those things a young reader could (or should) overlook in their reading of this book.

I have to admit, when I was pitched the book I was sort of skeptical; a boy with an iPhone embedded in his head? Really? Truly, however, this book has really impressed me.  Not only the characters, but the inner battles Tom must face to embrace his new powers and the consequences of his actions.  Highly recommended.

I have one copy of the book for giveaway. To enter, please fill out the form below. The winner will be contacted via email on Wednesday, November 30th. Open to US & Canadian residents only. Good luck!

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Frightful Friday: The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry

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Frightful Friday is a weekly meme in which I feature a particularly scary or chilling book that I’ve read that week. Feel free to grab the button & join in!

This week’s featured book, in this case an audio book, is The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry:

 

  • Publisher:Blackstone Audio, Inc.; Unabridged edition (March 15, 2011)
  • ISBN-10: 144178912X
  • Source: Publisher

In the second book in the Joe Ledger series, ex-Baltimore cop Joe Ledger and his squad with the DMS (Department of Military Science) team are once again facing a fight against a danger beyond the scope of normal police/military work.

The Jakoby twins are unique creatures, purely albino, nearly identical twins despite being of the opposite sex. They are evil to the bone, with a history of creating genetically-altered animals and physically-enhanced mercenaries and the like to sell to the highest bidder. Their influence, in a sense, is their father Cyrus. Unbeknownst to them, he has his own hidden motivation: to continue the ethnic-cleansing plan initiated during Hitler’s rule. Never could they have imagined how far their father’s evil plans go.  It is up to Ledger & the Echo team to put an end to this truly evil family, to stop the extinction clock ticking away…

One of the truly unique things about Maberry’s Ledger series isn’t just the storyline, but the fact that he creates a main character with a heart, real feelings, believable responses to the unbelievable things he is forced to deal with on a regular basis. Joe Ledger is a bad-ass. He’s dedicated to the DMS and to his team.  That said, buried beneath all the bullet-proof vests, he’s a man reeling from losses in his life, both in the past and more recent. A truly genuine character, Joe Ledger is a character that fans from various genres will root for.

The audio production is phenomenal. I’ve said it before, I’ll continue to say it: Ray Porter hits it out of the park in his narrating role. I read this series before listening to the audios, and this is the only time that I’ve listened to a narrator and think “Yes! This man is the only man that could be the voice of Joe Ledger.” He captures the emotion, the grittiness in Ledger’s personality, in a way that others can not.

Bottom line: Looking for an fast-paced, intense, unique series? Maberry’s Joe Ledger series is the one for you. Highly recommended.

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Review: Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry (Audiobook)

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  • Audible Audio Edition
  • Listening Length:14 hours and 45 minutes
  • Program Type:Audiobook
  • Version:Unabridged
  • Publisher:Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  • Source: Publisher

Joe Ledger is a Baltimore detective, recently recruited to lead a new secret task force created to battle forces Homeland Security cannot. The first mission of this task force, referred to as Department of Military Sciences (DMS for short)  is to stop a group of terrorists planning to release a bio-agent that turns the average human into a zombie.

DMS is lead by the mysterious Mr. Church, a man who has connections with every government agency, and a unique hold over the President of the United States. Mr. Church can get whatever he wants, whenever he wants it. It is up to Ledger and his team to literally save the entire population of the United States, and beyond. Nothing like a little pressure.

As with Maberry’s other books, characters are rich within Patient Zero.  Joe Ledger has his share of monsters, he’s still recovering from the suicide of his ex-wife. His best friend, Rudy Sanchez, just happens to be his therapist as well; the banter they share is endearing as well as humorous. The novel is alive (pun intended) with completely likeable characters, as well as characters you can’t help but hate.

The level of detail about the government agencies and government protocol proves Maberry did a tremendous amount of research on this novel. This detail adds to the believability of the storyline, the fact that this could happen in our country will send a chill down the reader’s spine.

Patient Zero is the start of a series, one that I have read in print and thoroughly enjoyed. That experience was intensified after listening to the audio version of the book. Ray Porter is a superb narrator. He successfully captures Ledger’s brute personality as well as his humorous side. Just as I say Dick Hill is Joe Reacher (Lee Child’s thriller series), Ray Porter is Joe Ledger! The audio production was simply stunning; I plan on continuing the Ledger series in this format. For a sample of the audio production, visit Blackstone Audio’s Web site.

Patient Zero is a book that would be appreciated by fans of several genres, including action, horror, thriller, etc. As I’ve mentioned on several occasions, Maberry is the king of zombie fiction; he portrays zombies in a completely different light, putting a new spin on a classic monster. Highly recommended!

 

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Frightful Friday: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

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Frightful Friday is a weekly meme in which I feature a particularly scary or chilling book that I’ve read that week. Feel free to grab the button & join in!

This week’s Frightful Friday read is Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson:

  • Hardcover: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Doubleday (June 7, 2011)
  • ISBN-10: 0385533853
  • Source: Publisher

    •  

    People should know that, at first, the enemy looked like everyday stuff: cars, buildings, phones. Then later, when they started designing themselves, Rob looked familiar but distorted, like people and animals from some other universe, built by some other god.

    In a not too distant future, the world is at war with robots. By this time, human beings have manipulated robots to suit their needs: they are now servants in our homes, maintain & run smart buildings, control the steering in cars. But one day, they begin to think on their own. 

    It begins when Archos, a “super” robot contained within a lab, is awakened by a scientist, Nicholas Wasserman.  This is Wasserman’s fourteenth attempt to awaken Archos; each time he does so, Archos states that he is the rarest of miracles.  To preserve Earth, he must destroy mankind. Due to an oversight on Wasserman’s part, Archos is able to permeate the constraints of the lab and goes live. Led by Archos, the “leader” of the robot uprising, robots, also known as “Robs”, begin communicating.  They rise up and join forces to annihilate human kind. The uprisal is small at first, robots not following orders, smart toys coming to life, attacking their human “masters.”  At Zero hour, they all attack. Cars begin attacking people.  Planes fall from the sky.

    All over the country, small bands of survivors rise up and destroy their cities in order to save them.  Robs are unable to climb over or through demolished buildings or debris, so they begin blowing up buildings, starting fires, etc.  However, it is the actions of one little girl with a unique “talent” that ultimately saves the world.

    The actual possibility that something similar to this could happen really adds to the terror the book elicits.  Think of all the computers we use or have access to on a regular basis.  The computer you are reading this review from, the iPhone you make your calls on.  The GPS embedded in the dashboard of your car.  Imagine of all of those things joined forces, out to destroy the human race? Wilson’s expertise in robotics really creates a level of believability in what would initially appear to be impossible.

    At the surface, Robopocalypse may appear like any other “robots take over the world” scenario. However, Wilson’s attempt at this reoccurring story is unique.  The book is broken up into testimonies of victims of the attack; some survive, others do not.  The characters are genuine, the reader begins to have hope for their survival. Ultimately, while it is a story of a robot apocalypse, it is also a story of human survival, hope, and perseverance.

    Fans of science fiction, horror, sci-fi and action will be sure to enjoy this impressive novel. Highly recommended.

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