Ambler Alert : An Engaging Mystery About A Man Out To Prove That He Does Exist

The Ambler Alert By Robert Ludlum Smoothie Review

Long long ago, I was a Ludlum fan. Starting with the Bourne Identity and then venturing out into his other work. I found I loved his work. But spy novels, even the best ones, can only go so far as they wear out their welcome. So began a search for more variety, I left Ludlum behind to find other things which have been both good and bad. Yet you can not stay away from a good author forever. After a while, you start to miss the author’s work. So years later, I returned to Mr. Robert Ludlum with a book called the Ambler Alert.

So what is it about? Well it starts on Parish Island. There is a psychiatric facility for CIA and special operations members who become mentally ill with the inability to keep government secrets secret. There is a patient named Harrison Ambler, who has been thrown in there, drugged with dozens of psychiatric medications and is told over the course of two years that he is not who he thinks he is. Given the chance, Ambler escape. He makes his way off of the island into the real world to reclaim his life. But that is not easy as he hopes when he finds that everything he remembers does not exist. People he knows does not recognize him. His house is gone. Any trace of a man named Harrison Ambler is gone. And on top of that, when he looks in the mirror for the first time since he was admitted to hospital to see his face and finds that he does not recognize it. So as the mystery reveals itself, Ambler must find out if the life he remembers is real or if he is really insane. That is not where the trouble ends. Government men from Parish Island are after him. Also as a ex special ops agent, he is recognized by a number of people as the code name Tarqin. The moment that he is on the loose, private sectors and organization see the assassin on the market for hire. These various groups are trying to grab him, as well. He is able to avoid it, until he meets an operative he remembers working with on the job. A old friend who said he can work for someone who can tell him about who he really is. Ambler takes it, falling deep into a world of trouble with his much needed answers getting farther and farther out of reach the harder he tries to get it.

So the good? Ambler was a realistic character. Where an spy would be portrayed as some thing cold hearted, Ludlum makes Ambler real. Ambler is a man coping with the fact that his whole life might be fake and a man who was abused as a child. The fact that he may have been betrayed by the very country he worked for also adds something to the emotional depth of this character. Its something a reader can relate to. Like always, action is good. Also Ludlum, having served in the CIA himself, portrays the espionage world in a realistic fashion. He can describe the way that world works without confusing the reader. There are no James Bond elements. It is very real world.

The bad? Given it starts out with a bang, it does slow down a lot surprisingly just after the halfway point. It could just be me comparing this to the Bourne and Covert One novels that I read from Ludlum before, but I must realize that this is the only story. It just was not as exciting as past Ludlum books I read. Also there was one unrealistic issue concerning the internet. The book was written in and is set in 1992, yet there are parts of the book where they look up video files through the internet on certain people. I remember playing with the internet for the first time in 1994. And found it took up to three minutes to get page of text to show up. The government might had more powerful computers back then, but I highly doubt they had video that came up as quickly as it did in this book. It felt that Ludlum didn’t know much about computers when he wrote this , breaking up the realism.

Overall, its not perfect but it’s a interesting read and one hell of a mystery. Its a pleasant reminder of why I love Ludlum’s work so much. If you like spy novels it’s a must read. If you like action, and/or mysteries you might want to give it a try. Its most definitely is worth the read.

Four smoothies out of 4

Overall Rating: An Engaging Mystery About A Man Out To Prove That He Does Exist

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Winter Kill : A Mediocre Tale of Earth Witches.

Winter Kill By Laurell K Hamilton Smoothie review

The last three novels haven’t been too amazing for me. What I’ve read have range from descent to absolute stinkers lately. So I must say I was very hesitant about starting another novel right away. Instead played it safe and went with a short story. This one is Winter Kill by Laurell K Hamilton.

So what is it about? It is a story set in a medieval sort of world. It focuses on the on the Earth witch Jessa. She is a witch hunter. But when she was a child a witch murdered her family and when she grew up to be a assassin, she killed him in return. But there was a catch. His mother is a very powerful witch and is slaughtering those in villages to find the witch that killed her son. To set things right, Jessa heads out to kill her and stop the madness with the aid of her friend Gregoor.

So the good and bad? I guess I’ll start with the good. Detail is great, and the snowy icy hell tundra is easy to picture. Also even though the character of Jessa is cold, there’s a little humanity in there. Especially in the parts that had to do with her mother who never wanted her to be evil or use magic to help others. Its interesting how she accepts and regrets the fact that she continue stood is a point her own family as she avenged her.

The bad? Not much. It was sad that Gregoor played such a small roll that he became the cliché side kick. Also, there was not much originality here. Everything in this story you have read before in something else.

Overall, its simple and fun. Its not a must read by any means. If you happen to stumble upon it, give it a read. Just don’t pay anything for it.

2 smoothies out of four.

Overall Rating : A Mediocre Tale of Earth Witches.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Mirror Mirror : A Terrible Retelling Of A Classic

Mirror Mirror Smoothie Review

For the longest time by best friend has been trying to get me to read Wicked. The darker the Wizard of Oz centered on the wicked witch. But considering I had so much to read already, I never got a chance to. But years later I got a free copy of the book Mirror Mirror, which happened to be darker more realistic tale of Snow White, written by the same author who wrote Wicked, Gregory Maguire. I know its not the famous “Wicked” but I thought that whatever charm this author had may translate into his version of Snow White.

So what is it about? Well it is the tale of Snow White. The setting is slightly different set in the back drop of a fractured and at war Italy of the 1500s. The tale itself focused on Bianca de Nevada who is a helplessly isolated girl who lives on a bit of farmland called Montefore. There she lives with her father, a elderly caretaker, and a priest. Things changed when a couple siblings, a daughter and son of the pope come to ask a impossible task of her father. They force him to take a quest to find the apple of Eden as Lucrezia (the pope’s daughter) is to stay behind to watch over the estate and Bianca de Nevada. Lucrezia fills in as the wicked step mother and surely it can be assumed from there where the story is going.

So now the good and bad? Sadly, I have to start with the bad because there is so much of it. The first big complaint about the book is that it is not the so called “darker” version this supposed to be. I feel that the author needs to look up the word “dark.” because for this book I feel he went for shock value trying to make things supposedly dark. Let list the things that he added to the tale of Snow White to make it darker, heavy doses of incest, child rape, a old woman who loves to have sex with a squid, a very disgustingly detailed scene about Bianca’s first period and the list goes on. All of this portrays all of it in a fashion of “Oh my god!” shock value. All of which has nothing to do with the story and many of the scenes concerning those points comes up as a “Yuck I didn’t need to read that” rather than “This story is so dark.” The tone was just very awkward more than anything else as this would come up randomly without any reason. The detail is poor. So poor that there are pages when it is hard to know what is going on or where they are. There are chapters that randomly jump to first person but failed to address who’s point of view it is coming from and from the detail in the chapter I failed to even have a good guess of who it is coming from. The characters are shallow. The one that is the most detailed is the villain and she still has very little to offer. The character who fills in as the prince is barely there and acts so oddly, that I got a sense that he was handicapped. Bianca is helpless to a fault making her step backward from strong female leads. Her role in this, is beauty and stupidity. Her story is both embarrassing and depressing. And don’t get me started on plot holes. That’s a topic for another whole essay.

The good? I give the rather credit for putting up a effort, but it is done so badly. Nothing here is good. People are better reading the old fairy tale because he has nothing new to offer at all. The only creepy element was a single scene. Soldiers who came back from war had the ‘rot.” The rot, was a infection that made the men decay while alive in a since. Very creepy stuff that’s only mentioned once.

Overall this book is a disaster. It should be avoided. And after reading this, I have no intention of reading anything else by this author. Not even Wicked.

½ smoothies out of four.

Overall rating: A Terrible Retelling Of Snow White.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Fire at The Center: An Old Fashioned Scifi Tale Missing a Purpose

Fire at the Center BY Geo. W. Proctor

This is another book giveaway gem. This one, I just grabbed for the hell of it. It’s a ancient paperback featuring image of a dinosaur in chains, and astronauts on the cover. And as crazy as it sounds, I figured it could be fun. Plus its a science fiction novel and as much as I like science fiction, really good books are hard to find. So I gave it a chance. It’s called “Fire at the Center” by Geo. W. Proctor.

So what is it about? Well its set in the far future where the human kind has populated many planets, yet human kind is divided. One side are a bunch who believe that a united dictatorship like government should rule everything. Of course it is a scifi space opera tradition and the faction have silly names I can’t remember. Then there’s group two with another silly name that makes up of free independent. The story focuses on Kendlers a man who is a member of the free thinking side who works for psi corps agency that uses psychics for multiple purposes. Kendler can read and take over minds. After returning from a time travel trip on earth to help scientists study a dinosaur he receives a new assignment. He is given a partner to investigate odd events on another planet. People are randomly going insane for no reason for hours at a time. They must sneak in, as silly name group number one suspect that Kendlers’ silly name group is at fault. So they must spy on others to find this source.

So the good? Well I must say its imaginative. I always like that. But one thing I must give them credit for is explaining everything thoroughly. These space things always lose me, because I don’t care about the politics, space crafts, ray guns and star fighting. I feel that it just did the right thing by staying focused in a realistic manner and telling the reader only what is important. The author also goes through the trouble to add detail and explain the scifi elements in the story to allow the readers to understand what it is like.

The bad? Well this story has too many ideas. Its short two hundred page read and the author tries to shove way too many topics in one book. It would have worked better if he focused on one and elaborated on it. Also the pacing is weird. The beginning with the time travel was long, extended with a lot of action, and character development and detail. Yet the most interesting part, the investigation with strange riots was extremely rushed, which was quite disappointing with little detail at all. And at the end was rushed even more taking place in twenty five pages. Overall the story starts off with a great concept but the wanders around aimless, back and forth between a lot of concepts with no real sense of story progression what so ever.

Overall, the writing it self is confident but the story seems t have little purpose. It saves itself because it does not fall into the world of nerdy star wars or star trek, but it just didn’t live up to its potential like it should have.

Overall Rating: A old school space opera missing a purpose

2 smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Here Be Dragons : Dreamscapes and Murderers Make Up a Unusual But Astonishing Scifi Tale.

Here Be Dragons By Laurell K Hamilton

Once again, I’m in between books so I resort to shorts so I went to my current favorite short story collection call Strange Candy where all tales are written by Laurell K Hamilton. This time around the book is call “Here Be Dragons.”

Given the title, “Here Be Dragons,” the reader would automatically assume the it is a fantasy, but that not is the case. It is a science fiction actually and is as Hamilton says in the intro, her only science fiction piece. The story focuses on a phenomena that is happening. Children are being born with powers. Telekentetic. Telephatic. Dream control. That sort of deal. When they develop these powers they go to the “school” where children are evaluated and trained to operate in society and if they are considered too dangerous they are killed. The story focuses on Jasmine Cooper, a successful empath (Dream controller), who has the job of torturing sociopath murderers in prison as punishment. She gets a call from the “School” she went to as a child for a case about a girl killing other students by controlling their dreams. Jasmine arrived to meet the girl and having the ability to see pure evil in anyone, she sees it in this ten year old girl. Yet refusing to believe that the little girl is so shallow and sinister in nature, she tries to “fix” her. She tries to prove she is a person, not a sociopath to not have her killed by the school.

The good? This story has so much depth that no one would expect in a short. It has theme of what is evil? Can a sociopath be anything but evil or is that just their fate? The murderers are considered evil from the beginning but given that Jasmine has a shallow personality and tortures people for living she holds what seems to be sociopath tendencies as well. She even seems to struggle with it, but finds a lighter side of herself when she helps this girl. This girl was like Jasmine once, hurt others for fun, despite how innocent she seems. The idea and concept is very compelling it makes the reader think. It is also very dark. Though it is not graphic, there are things that happen in this story is not suited for anyone other than adults. And even then its not for everyone.

The bad? I would have to say is detail. There is very little detail about what the school looks like and less about the dream realm. The dream stages were dying for detail and tended to move too quickly.

So “Here Be Dragons” has no fantasy or dragons. But it has a strong psychological factors that makes the reader think. And that is exactly what science fiction should do. Leave the reader thinking what if? Its not a bunch of space opera or explosions. Its real world with deep problems explored in a scifi setting. I really wish Hamilton would explore the scifi field a bit more, since good scifi authors are lacking at the moment. I recommend this to the adult crowd out there who are not afraid to read something dark, yet intriguing.

Overall rating: Dreamscapes and Murderers Make Up a Unusual But Astonishing Scifi Tale.

4 smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Small Favors : A Surprising Fun Paranormal Thriller

Small favors By Jim Butcher Smoothie Review

Here is yet another book I pulled from the mount of the “To read,” books I own. This time it’s a Dresden Files novel. And with that said I never read a Dresden Files novel. I have been recommended the series for a very long time but never tried it. I think the reasoning behind that the only previous exposure I had it was a very boring TV show. But sooner or later I had to give it a try so it is either now or never. The book is Small Favors by Jim Butcher.

So what is the Dresden Files? It is a about a paranormal detective who happens to be a wizard. Or to simplify things further he is practically the male counter part version of the Anita Blake series in a sense. The book Small Favors is the tenth book in the series (Yes. I entered a bit late in the series) In this one, Harry Dresden is pulled into a deal with the winter court’s Ice Queen of the fairy realm Mab, because he owes her a favor. He must investigate the disappearance of a crime lord. While this is happening, summer court of the fairy realm believes Mab hired him as a knight and sent these crazy goat men after him to stop him. During the investigation he seeks the aid of his friends who is made up of a very colorful cast of characters and find that he desperately needs them as the case quickly turns into a war against fallen angels.

So the good? This is a fun, light hearted and never takes itself seriously. Imagination is fantastic. Harry Dresden is just such a likable character. The story fell deeper on a emotion level than I would have first thought by the end. I was so worried about who would die, and I cared about their relationships. Another thing that is most impressive of it all, is that this is the tenth book in the series and this book had enough detail about what was going on, that I had a clue of what was going on. The writer did not assume that I knew the back history of everything and laid things out perfectly. Though the red court and white courts were just names to me, but the book made their importance very clear. So the author was doing a good job on that.

The bad? Well to be honest there isn’t much. The biggest problem I had was the attempts of the witty comments, that Dresden would throw in throughout the book. Some are funny and witty but half of them are lame and down right corny. I rolled my eyes who Dresden said, “Talk to the hand” after a punch. But the rest of the book does make up for that.

Overall, reading this book is like tuning into a random episode of a TV show that you never heard of. You don’t know the back story, but what’s there is a hell of a lot of fun. And since Anita Blake has taken the route of paranormal erotica rather than paranormal investigating lately, I’ll give Harry Dresden a shot. So you should know by now from the review if this is your thing. If you like this paranormal mystery adventures this book is a good one. I can’t say how it compares to the rest, but this book was fun.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Throne of Fire : A Strong Second Installment In The Kane Chronicles

Throne Of Fire By Rick Riordan Smoothie review

Yes. As you may have noticed from the reviews so far, I am a very big Percy Jackson nerd. I can go on forever as to why I love those books so much and could go even further on how I find them more enjoyable than Harry Potter. But I’ll let that slide for a moment to talk about Riordan’s second series called The Kane Chronicle that I am also hooked onto, and this review is on the second book called Throne of Fire.

So what is it about? Well much like Percy Jackson it’s deeply set in a ancient mythology. This time it’s Egyptian mythology. The story focuses on Sadie and Carter, two siblings who are godlings. They have the ability to channel the power of two of the great gods, because they share the blood of the pharaohs. Carter can channel the power of Horus and Sadie can channel the power of Isis. The teenagers, after the events of the last book have created a new house of life (or order if you like that word better) where magicians are trying to restore the way of the gods. Magicians up until then have refused the gods way because they would corrupt people with power, which has been proven wrong as the House of Life society of magicians have became just as corrupt since without the gods influence. In this book Horus comes to Carter telling him that he and Sadie must find the three scrolls of Ra before the world ends in five days without much else info to go on. Sadie and Carter rush to the job to learn the whole truth. The great god Aphophis, (god of chaos) will break out of its prison in the Deut (A netherwordly other dimension for Egyptian gods and magic) and the only thing to counter act him is the long lost god Ra who was banished out of a fit of jealously by Horus and Isis. The only way to get him back is by finding the three scrolls and performing the spell to pressure Ra. Also the leader of the first sector of the house of life who does not support the gods, believes that bringing back Ra is part of some evil plan so he is planning to kill the Kane siblings and their order of the house of life, to stop all of it.

So now it’s time for the good and bad. I’ll start with the good. One good thing about this story is the characters are layered. Sadie and Carter both split up for selfish reasons bringing about the imperfection of both of them. At the end of the world, Sadie refuses to help to hangout with her friends on her birthday. Carter ditches Sadie as she searches for the last scroll, because he found out where his girl friend is held prisoner at. They are not cut and dry heroes we typically see in fantasy novels. And for the first time since book one, the author shows a softer and jolly side and Bast the cat god guardian of the Kane family reveals she made some big mistakes in the past. The book is unpredictable and fun. Action is always rolling and seeing things from Sadie’s and Carter’s point of view is always funny.

Now the bad? Well there is nothing terrible. The Egyptian mythology though, Riordan seems to have trouble translating to paper time to time. With the first book, I didn’t really understand the mythology until halfway though and didn’t understand it completely until the end. This book however, he seems to be apologizing for that with over explaining things. Also there was a character I didn’t like all that much named Bes who is the ugly dwarf god. He has the power of scaring off demons by tearing his clothes off (he’s wearing a speedo underneath) and screaming “Boo!” If that strikes you as silly, well that’s because it is. Young adult novels are fun adventure books that can be aimed at anyone from thirteen and up. But I feel even a thirteen year old would look at Bes and think he is silly. But then again it could just be me.

Overall its fun. The story is still strong second installment in the series. (much better than Sea of Monster or Chamber of Secrets) and I’m interested to see what will happen next. So if you enjoy these kind of things and can handle Bes, then recommend it to everyone. It’s a great story overall.

Overall rating: A Strong Second Installment In The Kane Chronicles.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Shadow Of The Lion: A Historical Soap Opera Told Against the Backdrop of Venice’s Magic, Religious Intolerance and a Upcoming War.

The Shadow Of The Lion smoothie review

I had a friend in high school who loved Mercedes Lackey. She always had a book in her hand reading her latest fantasy adventures. Oddly enough as I was just discovery Crichton and Ludlum, she was always pushing this author onto me. “Read them! They are so good!” she said. Now five years after high school I finally got a hold of one of her fantasies and took my friend’s advice. The book is The Shadow of The Lion By Mercedes Lackey which is also co written with Eric Flunt and Dave Freer.

So what is it about? Well that’s a bit complicated but let’s start. It starts with the crumbled version of the Holy Roman Empire, where the emperor has little control over the divided regions that can still be called the empire to some extent, as the church, or the holy trinity knights hold the most power spreading the word of god and burning anyone in relation to the northern Germanic pagan clans as witches. (As someone who took two years of European history, that info really helps with understanding the setting) Magic is seen as evil. This ideology also leads holy trinity to killing pagan gods, in the name of the Christian god. Meanwhile, a man from the north Japellion who made a deal with a demon and wants to take over Venice, sends a shaman, using the power of the demon Churnobog to spy on Venice. The demon is up to something very dark in the north. Also a Icelander Erik is hired to take care of the emperor’s nephew. The two soon go under cover as the holy knights discover odd things are brewing in Venice. There are magical murders that Venice is tying to solve. Then there are the Casa Veches, the of the noble families of Venice that play a big role here. Marco and Benito are the Voldosta brother, long lost members of one of the noble families. Benito is a skilled thief as Marco is honest hiding in the marshes. They hide who they are as there is another Casa Veche trying to kill them. After a assassination attempt the two hide under the over of the great assassin named Ceasure Aldonta. Katerina is a girl who works the canal and is a part of a financially dying Casa Veche family. She smuggles shipments with Benito, but builds a stronger relationship between a prostitute name Francesca and Marco over the story. The third noble family is Dorma. Marco is welcomed into the family as he fell for the daughter through leaving her poems, as he ignores him to be with Ceasure which causes a bad relationship between his girlfriend Maria. There is also a amnesia struck assassin named Bespi put under a spell by a friend of Marco’s in the swamp to protect him. Francesca holds a strong piece of the puzzle finding that she has noble blood as well. And through the story, war, and religious intolerance dances in the background. This also takes place over a number of years. And yes, this is the simplest way I could have explained it all.

So let’s start with bad? The story is very convoluted from the setting to the characters and there is not a flow chart detailed enough to make sense of everything. The only reason I could understand the politics and world, is I took the years of European history. I can’t think of what it would be like for someone who didn’t. As for the characters? Who’s in the council? Who’s part what family? Who’s partnered with who? It is a lot. Even at a point on the story, Marco tries to figure all out, and gives up because it’s too confusing. Also there is too much talk of politics too. They spend so much time talking about politics, that it is ridiculous. I mean there are a couple who talk about politics during a sex scene for crying out loud. They couldn’t stop for those five pages without inserting that politics. Also the last complaint would be very little does happen. The reviews that said “Fast pace and intense” on the back cover are lies. The book also has very little fantasy to it. It is overall historical fiction more than anything else. Magic shows up rarely.

The good? Well it’s original. The setting is great. What makes this book strong are the characters. The are developed fleshed out and grow as the story goes on. They are done with great detail. The idea in this book of merging Christian and pagan beliefs were amazingly original. It brought about something I never seen in a book before and is one of the few fantasies that made me stop and think. Detail is fantastic. The world is fully explained, and the ending gives an appropriate fate to a surprising villain in the story.

Overall, the book is a historical fiction drama sat in the back drop of world where magical paganism and Christians must come together to save Venice from the darkness that growing in the north. There are not so many monsters. It had very little action that doesn’t show up until toward the end of 905 pages. Relationships and drama between the characters in the course of roughly three years and watching them become stronger people is the heart of the book. It’s not bad. It was not just my kind of book. I felt it was drug out of bit. But I’ll be generous with my ratings. Personal opinions aside, it wasn’t a bad book.

3 smoothie out of four.

Overall Rating: A Historical Soap Opera told against the backdrop of Venice’s magic, religious intolerance and a upcoming war.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Carrie : A Tale of a Lonely High school Student In a Bland World

Carrie By Stephen King Smoothie review

Okay. Where did the book came from? I’m not sure. I just kind of found it. It had yellow pages and a battered paper back cover that made me wonder about it’s origins, but the mystery does not spark any interest enough to pursue why and how it ended up in my house. I just read the darn thing. The book is a very old copy of Carrie with a photo of Sissy Spacek on the cover covered with blood. The title had big drippy front and another bold message saying “Soon to be a motion picture.”

So in case you know absolutely nothing about the literacy world, Carrie is suppose to be a literacy horror “classic” by Stephen King. The film is also considered to be a sort of a cult classic too. I never saw it. So the book held all the surprises for me. The story of the book focuses on a teenager named Carrie. A girl who has been tormented and picked on by those around her, class mates usually and is obedient to her abusive psychotic overly religious mother. Carrie takes torment from everyone, that is until one day she discovers that she had telekinetic abilities. Meanwhile after treating Carrie badly, a girl named Sue, wants to make it up to her. But it was not like Carrie will take a apology. She had be abused and pranked too long. So she lines her boyfriend up to take Carrie to prom. She wanted to at least give the girl one night where she is not the butt of some joke but someone special.

Also during this Christine, a girl who hates Carrie because she lost her prom tickets for torturing the girl, wants to get revenge. She and her boyfriend intend to ruin her night unaware of the new power Carrie can now fight back with.

So the good? It is a interesting promise. The general story contain concepts and imagination that is wonderful. The potential is great. Also the layout of the story it self is that of third person and news reporters, scientific essays, and interviews with survivors after the fact. This is something I found a bit intriguing.

The bad? Well there wasn’t anything real bad. It was just overall bland. Given that Carrie is a neglected, abused teenager and the world hates, I was so surprised at how shallow of character she was. Most authors would try to make the reader understand the character. Show the humanity of her so you can feel pity. But it was so hard to feel sorry for a girl when the only emotion king decides to reveal for Carrie is rage. I wanted to know more about Carrie. I wanted to see a human being not a cardboard cut out, King created. The other characters were just as shallow with the exception for Carrie’s mother. Which brings another issue. Why is it that King’s novels there is always a psychotic evil Christian at work? I’m not religious, so I’m taking offence, but it is cliché that is very old. Also I felt the climax is a bit over the top. At the midway point of the book Carrie can barely levitate a hair brush, but just a couple days later at the Prom, she has powers that are godlike. Though this is ridiculous story not based on facts, it still stands the author put a little effort into logical reasoning behind this evolution so the reader will not be pulled out of the tale. The power is described as a muscle, but you can’t work a muscle up to do that much in two or three days. I felt it was too much to be taken seriously. Also interviews and news reports scattered through out the story foreshadowed things to come. They sometimes foreshadowed way too much. Such as who will live and who will die. It took away the shock value of any deaths. Also in her rampage, Carrie is evil, which was out place as she was portrayed as victim until that point.

Overall, the story wasn’t bad. It wasn’t good. It was just meh. Maybe with stronger and more developed characters I might have enjoyed it more. It’s something to pass up and skip reading. I only suggest this your one of those Stephen King fans.

Overall Ratting: A Tale of a Lonely High School Student In a Bland World.

2 smoothies out of four.

P.S. If you like books then check out my book and ebook website Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/

Bourne Deception : A Disappointing And Brainless Bourne Novel

The Bourne Deception By Eric Van Lustbader Smoothie Review

Okay, the reason why I am reading this book is not as random as usual. Yes. I did get it used from a odd source, but my reasoning for grabbing it went well beyond “Hey, why not?” The book is The Bourne Deception, a Bourne novel written by Eric Van Lustbader who bought the rights to the series shortly after Robert Ludlum died. (RIP Mr. Ludlum. I adored your work.) And I read his first Bourne novel (where he continued off of the original series) a while back called the Bourne Legacy. I had low expectations at first with this, “How dare they!” attitude of taking the work of my favorite espionage writer, taking it as his own, and was pleasantly surprised by how much I love it. So I decided to try another.

So to start off with, before I go into detail about the review, I want to get something clear. Lustbader Bourne is not the Ludlum Bourne. Ludlum Bourne was serious, was written with deep knowledge of the CIA woven in, and was set in the sixties and seventies. The last one he wrote, the Bourne Ultimatum was in the seventies focusing on how Bourne is getting too old to do thins anymore. The Lustbader Bourne is magically young again set in modern day as well as the fact the characters from Ludlum’s books with the exception of his wife and kids are dead. It’s more fun dumb action scenes in exotic locations. They are nothing like the earlier novels so you can’t expect the same thing from the two.

So as I started reading I realized that there apparently a book of two between the last one I read and this one. (a very annoying thing I hate about book series. I try to read stand along more often a than not because of this.) Jason Bourne is on the tropical island Bali with his new girlfriend Moira. His wife Maurie is not mentioned other than the fact he mourns her, so I could only assume she is dead and there’s no mention of his children at all. And while there Arkadan, Bourne’s arch enemy from Treadstone (Introduced in the previous books I assume), sends a man to kill him. Bourne’s shot right in the chest and among the chaos it assumed (except for Moira who knows the truth) that Bourne is dead. But of course Bourne is not dead. A doctor and old friend from Treadstone got him in a hospital where he went through multiple surgeries to get the bullet out of his chest that graze his heart.

Meanwhile Moria goes back home. She hears from a friend that there is something she needs to know only to see him shot but not before getting a thumb drive from him. From there on out, she is on mission to find out what is happening as men from Noah Pearl’s government agency Black try to kill her every step of the way. Meanwhile Soraya another government figure heads to Egypt with a team, to arrive at a suspected terrorist attack on a plane. But as she investigates, she find that it might not be Iranians as they first thought, but Americans behind it falling into a web of conspiracy. Arkaden meanwhile is viciously training a army for a secret mission with the help of some their crooked Russians allies. And for the first half of the book Bourne is in Bali recovering on a spiritual journey annoyingly pondering questions about his identity (which were all answered in the Ludlum novels) until someone sends a man to kill him again making him seek revenge finally to track down his killer. All of this does oddly tie up into one web of conspiracy thankfully.

So the good and bad. First, I think I will start with the bad. It is sticking in my mind so much better than the good right now. The first thing I must mention is that this is a Bourne novel with very little Bourne at all. It is much more about Soraya and Moira. Bourne’s spiritual journey and reacting to the fact that his fate is the same as that of Shiva, the god of death and resurrection, did not fit. And once the ball gets rolled on the action, Bourne is in only two fight scenes. Also I wonder if Lustabador read Ludlum’s books at all, because if he did, he would realize that all of Bourne’s questions of identity were answered. Believe it or not he did get his memory back in Supremacy. So playing the confused tortured soul in book seven or in this case four of Lustabador series seemed silly to me. The pacing was disjointed making it boring and there was huge problem with this book, was the lack of realism. I know I’m not expecting this author to live up to Ludlum but there’s a difference between dumb fun and insulting stupidity. For being a spy as clever as Bourne, he makes some of the dumbest decisions and the people around him were just as stupid. Not to mention some of the things done in this book was absolutely ridiculous. Like there is scene where Moira’s locked in a closet. They tape it off leaving a crack. Then crank the vacuum to suck the air out. But excuse me, what kind of house vacuum does that? Even if it was a secret government weapon of some sort, it would have to have a fitting that is air tight in relation to the opening. Highly unlikely . And the key hole anyone? And then as the book builds up the tension in this scene. Guess what? There’s air vent like in every room in a house has. So there is name chance of suffocation. Just one example of a stupid area showing this author’s mistakes, not just with the spy themes, but just physics to general. Also the climax is disappointing.

So now I’m moving onto the good. Even after I just butchered the book, you’re probably asking what could be good? Well there are a couple redeeming qualities and that comes in from of a couple side stories later in the book. The first is Arkadan tries to help a abused wife and child after he fails to stop the killing of her son. Though it has nothing to do with the main story, its nice to see another side of the bad guy. I always love it when the author is bold enough to blur the lines between good and evil. It Reminds us all, that not all bad guys are pure evil and are human in some sense. It was interesting. Another side story is a girl Bourne meets. She’s delivering a painting, and is oddly suspicious, is lying to Bourne, just as Bourne is lying to her.

……………………………..Spoiler alert……………………..

It turn out she is a spy as well, living a double life just as Bourne is never being herself. She double crosses Bourne leading to her death. As she dies she talks to Bourne. “Why is it people feel they have to lie with each other?” she begins the scene with. It is such a moving sub story. At her death, I thought I might have been reading a different book. It was done so well another compared to the rest, which only frustrates me. Why couldn’t this be the central story of the novel? A story where Bourne ran into a femme fatale double agent maybe. It just had so much more substance. Collectively this is above thirty pages out of six hundred though.

……………………………..End of spoiler…………………………………

The only other interesting element is Bourne trying to limit what he can do. But this is not used to potential it had. It is only mentioned off and on here and there.

Overall, the book biggest crime is, as it tries to be smart, the dumber it becomes. Simple fun like his first novel the worked perfectly, but the entire book here was ultimately horrible and the exception of the two tiny subplots. I have another Lustabader Bourne novel somewhere and now I’m afraid to read it. That’s how bad it was. And if for some crazy reason, you have it laying around, I say rip out those tiny substories and read those only. Other than that I recommend you to avoid this novel. I read reviews of this on Goodreads after finishing and a reader said, “Ludlum would be rolling over in his grave if he knew what became of his work,” and sadly I must agree.

Overall Rating: A Disappointing and brainless Bourne Novel.

1 Smoothie out of four.

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