The Door into Summer by Robert Heinlein

This is my first Heinlein book, and by god is it a cracker! I couldn't stop reading and I was keen to see what 1970 thought 2000 would be. Shame we are not there yet. The story is about Dan Davis a genius and inventor who has, along with his friend, form a small company to sell his inventions all based on making life easier for the housewife (at first) then for engineers, draftsmen and more.

Climbing to success, they hire a secretary but she has plans of her own and when Dan creates a robot (Friendly Frank, I think) she plots her devious plan.

Believing he has lost everything and no longer interested in the business (as he was fired--shares were unevenly stacked), he signs up for cryogenics, only in the book it is called Cold Sleep and Long Sleep.

Waking up in the future he is impressed with the new world, and in love with some of the designs and advances of engineering. This book is heavy on engineering.

Heinlein got a lot about the future wrong but who can blame him, no one can see the future and I remember in the late 80's thinking the future was going to be amazing (like Back to the Future) and I was looking forward to it until science turned from exploration to items to make life easier in the 90's.

This book is un-put-down-able. The writing is crisp, clear and the twists and time paradoxes are awesome. If you haven't read it yet, do so now.

4 stars


  

Project Mimic - (A Sci-Fi Action Thriller Novel) by John Black

I received this copy for a review.

The story line is very interesting, the sort of tale I love. Cryo-soldiers, near future, action packed. And action packed it is, almost from the get-go. But in saying that, I almost put the story down a few times but I promised a review so I kept at it. The main problem is the writing is bland, I felt nothing for any of the scenes or the characters. Every character seemed to lack emotion. The cryo-soldiers are different, they can't remember much, so we get to learn about them as they learn about themselves.

There were some scenes that took me out of the story, i.e. Broc denting a tank with his fists...Johnny Kyoto spreading his arms wide and the holo-girls. Plus they all seem to know how to use their new discovered powers instantly. However, this can be countered by the nanocells injected into them seconds before...no spoilers.

There are a lot of twists in this book and that will keep you reading.

3 stars

Nightmare by Stephen Leather

This is a new kind of review: One of my first green screen attempts. 
this is a review of a favourite series I read. So far there are seven books, I am waiting for the eighth. 

Edited using Corel Video Studio v12 (looking for newer software that won't break the bank. I'm not into hardcore videoing) 
Recorded on a JVC camcorder.

The Twelve by Justin Cronin

Yet again another massive book. Amy appears at the beginning for a very short time and then disappears for several hundred pages and Cronin takes us to our favorite heroes from the previous book. This tale is better than the first and is more bloodthirsty than the first as well.

In this book The Twelve have evolved and they have a vision for the future. The extinction of Man is no longer in the cards. And it is up to our heroes to vanquish them. Meanwhile Amy is undergoing a change of her own.

The ending sucks in this book. After 588 pages I felt kind of cheated. All in all, this is a good long tale and a world easy to get sucked into. Let's see what book three brings.

68%  

Fallen Angel by John Ling

Fallen Angel by John Ling
Kia Kaha Press NZ
Kindle version

I got a copy of this thanks to the author, John Ling. This novella is a prequel and sidequel to his novel, The Blasphemer (which was excellent). This tale involves Kendra Shaw, recently returned from fighting in Baghdad and she is struggling to adjust to normal life. Feeling she has finally gotten kind of a grip on the situation she sees her ex-lover walking along the street. She left him 10 years ago to serve her country. She wants to run up to him but decides to let things be. Then she notices three black ops hovering nearby. Affiliation unknown. Intentions unknown. So she follows and the results are a rip roaring spin through Auckland, a lot of gunshots and a plot fit to today's world.

John Ling again succeeds in driving a thrilling tale at breakneck speed. One quibble (but not a biggie as it is only used twice) is the word "that" being used following Roger i.e. "Roger that." Having worked for airport security at the Airport and trained by an ex-army officer, he informed us 'newbies' to never use that after roger. "Copy that" is perfectly fine. 

Pick this up at Amazon, you won't be disappointed. Then get The Blasphemer (review here).

4 out of 5 stars

Alice in Deadland by Mainak Dhar

Alice in Deadland
Mainak Dhar
(self published?)
224 pages


I bought this on a whim, seeing that it was a #1 bestseller as a Kindle read and the title grabbed my attention, Alice in Deadland. I bought the paperback (reading on the phone can be quite tiresome sometimes).

Alice is interesting and the story pays slight homage to the original. It is a zombie book and interesting as hell. Alice is a 15 year old girl with blond hair in India. She lives in the deadland where those that want to live free and away from Zeus (the military trying to take control of India with masterminds in China and other 1% wealthy of the world) and survive on their own. 

The story starts off at a quick pace and using the woes of international incidents these days makes a plausible reason for the end of days and the escape from infected cities. There is a new unexpected twist with zombies and a zombie queen (a woman infected but only partly turned).

Alice is tough throughout the book but when she becomes the leader of 2000 people she starts having doubts, but she pulls through. The change of a tough 15 year old girls into the fighting machine she becomes is staged step by step though hardcore action. There were parts where I turned the pages so fast, I'm surprised the book didn't catch fire.

4 out of 5 stars
 

Midnight by Stephen Leather

Midnight
Stephen Leather
473 Pages Paperback edition
Published by Hodder


Stephen Leather hooked me with Nightfall, the first of the Nightingale supernatural thrillers. And book 2: The Search for his sister did not disappoint. We faced a known demon from Hell, there were many references to Nightfall (so read that book first) and we discovered a baby eating Satanist and two new kick-arse demons. Awesome.

In this book Nightingale must make a deal with a demon called Proserpine where each question answered she will send one killer after him. He gets the answer for three questions. We don't know what these questions are until much later. After finding his sister and tricking two high ranking demons and two serial killers, the third killer almost gets him. But there's a twist (of course).

I am confused by Jenny's character in this book. In the first it is hinted that they'd get together and she seems like a decent enough assistant and there's a lot of comedy between them, but she comes across often pissed off in this book, especially with Nightingale's sister (considering who she is) and when we reach the conclusion she bitching about the deal that was brokered.

One complaint I have for this book is the dinner party and shooting the next day. I understand why it was added as it casts a weary eye on a few characters, but still, were so many pages needed or were they filler? I did like Nightingale's talk with God.



4 out of 5 stars