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/

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/

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/

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.

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/

Red Pyramid : Ancient Egyptian Magic Brings Out a New Exciting Adventure

Red Pyramid By Rick Riordan

Did I ever mention I love the Percy Jackson series? I think it might have came up a few times as I made multiple references in my smoothie reviews as well as left positive reviews for all five books. Well I do. So when I heard Rick Riordan was starting a new series. A trilogy set in a brand new mythology all together I was excited. So I went out and bought a copy of the first book in the Kane trilogy called “The Red Pyramid.”

So what is it about? It is a epic fantasy set in deep in ancient Egyptian mythology. It starts off with a broken family. The mother is dead as the siblings are separated by a legal battle after her death. Carter is in the custody of his father, who is a Egyptologist which means the two travel all over the world always on the road. Then his sister Sadie is under the custody of her grandparents in London living a very normal life. They have very different up bringing as well as being complete strangers.

Anyways Julius (their father) and Carter only have visitation rights twice a year. And one of the days is Christmas eve. As they spend the day together, Julius takes them to the museum. There he seems edgy and once inside they witness him performing a spell just as a great explosion happens, releasing Egyptian gods that have been locked away for thousands of years.

As this happens Sadie and Carter are thrown into a world of ancient Egyptian magic. The god of chaos Set is building great red pyramid that will on completion will give him power to rule the world. There is a secret order of Egyptian magicians called the first nome seems to welcome them at first but once discovering that they may have strong Pharaoh blood that can host gods, they are labeled as enemies. Julius is taken by Set locked away and buried in a coffin. Also gods beside Set are trying to possess the siblings. So as they run from everything, they find that they must defeat Set to stop everything. The only ally they have with them is a cat goddess Bast, who promised their father that she would watch over them. Wow a lot to explain there. But hopefully it made sense to you.

So the good and bad? Well start with the bad. There was nothing terribly bad, but there was enough to bother a reader a bit. The problem being this focused on Egyptian mythology. And it seemed it took every long time to explain this world. Gods were talked about many times, but seem to take the longest explain how the hosts worked. There seemed to be lacking explanations of what the demons were. Were they existing inside hosts as well? I’m still not sure. There’s another dimension where gods thrive, a sort of spirit world called the Duat. And then when channeling god, such as Horus, the host can control this nine foot giant puppet form of the god. Nothing terrible here. Lots of good ideas, but it’s a rough first say 170 pages explaining until it actually made sense to the reader. This seems so strange to say as he did the same in the original Percy Jackson much more quickly, but then again maybe Greek mythology is easier because the general audience is exposed to that world so much more. The next thing. I have to say is a major side character is a baboon. And baboons are, have you seen them? They are gross. It’s the last animal I would want with me on a adventure.

Now the good? Despite its bumpy start, once the mythology was all laid out I got into it. It echoes some things form Percy Jackson, but it is in no way the same book. It had new rules, new villains and new fun characters. The author even went far out of his way to make them not resemble characters from the first series in the least which is great. Action is paced perfectly. It jumped back and forth between Sadie and Carter giving the alternation chapters very interesting perspectives.

Overall, in the end it fun. It delivers the exciting adventure it promises and does live up to the author reputation. The only thing that holds it back is the bumpy start.

Overall Rating : Ancient Egyptian Magic Brings Out a New Exciting Adventure

3 ½ Smoothie 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/

Excavation: Nothing new, but breaks the hell out of old ground.

Excavation By James Rollins Smoothie Review

James Rollins is the a master of treasure hunting and tomb raiding adventures, as Ludlum is to spy novels and as Crichton is to science fiction. It is a bit of a tall claim. But this is my fourth book I’ve read by him and so far it proves to be true. He has not proven me wrong with the exception of the Sigma force novels. So now I’m about knee deep into the James Rollins novels and the latest adventure is called Excavation.

So what is it about? It centers on a professor and his nephew. The professor just found a mummy from the jungles of Chili and is sure that it is proof of a civilization that predates the Inca. But he finds that it is actually a Spanish priest. As he looked further he also finds that the skull of the priest is filled with liquid gold. Upon this discovery a secret society of Spanish monks take him hostage because they are searching for this rare gold that they call “the blood of the devil,” because with it they believe they can build the vessel so god can come to earth. The professor’s nephew is Sam, who is with a team of student archaeologists down in the Andes. They have just discovered a new temple in the side of a mountain. They are accidentally trapped in it as it crumbles during a attack from tomb robbers. The temple into the mountain goes to the source of the “blood of the devil,” And it is no surprise that in and professor Conklin’s and Sam’s path intertwine.

So the good? After reading Ice Hunt, and Deep Fathom, I was relieved to not see the military or army of any kind as a big factor. It’s much simpler. The team is stuck inside living on limited supplies, facing a cave of dwelling creatures and booby traps as Conklin’s side foreshadow things to come and reveal secrets behind the temple. Action is fun. The story is also one of the oddest. So it is unpredictable.

The bad? It is very similar to Rollins other book Subterranean. In more ways than one. At one point I thought I was re reading a old book. So there is nothing new or groundbreaking here except for the off the wall scifi twist at the end. I also felt for the first time in a Rollins’ book, the characters were shallow. They felt like cardboard cut outs to me.

But overall it’s a fun read. The end may be silly but its still fine. If you like adventure novels. I most definitely recommend this one.

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/

Micro: Crichton’s Last Dive In Science Shows Us The World Of Entomology

Micro By Michael Crichton and Richard Preston Smoothie Review

In 2007, we had a great loss. One of the world’s best science fiction writers, Michael Crichton died. But right after his death rumors swirled. Works were found on his computer. One was Pirate Latitudes. The other was a unfinished work, that the press refused to reveal any news about it for the longest while. Then out of nowhere, this work appears again. It is called Micro and was finished by Richard Preston, who wrote the “Hot Zone” which proves they found someone knowledgeable in at least one area of science.

So now you’re asking what is it about? It is about seven college students. Many who are experts in environmental sorts of science. One is a expert on spiders. Another studies plants and what not. Despite their somewhat typical portrayals, they are geniuses one way or another. And they are offered a job, at a secretive yet high income research place called Nanigen. But as they began to take off Peter, one of the college students, finds that his brother Eric who works at Nanigen dies under mysterious consequences. So as the students are excited about the new job. Peter uncovers the clue to his brother death. He finds that Nanigen is at fault.

Nanigen is revealed as a place finding and discovering natural resources that are too tiny to study. These include protozoan, fungi, resika and what not. They shrink people with machine like environment to go out into the rain forest and study it. But as Peter reveals his evidence about what happened to his brother, the owner Vin Drake shrinks them and in a crazy turn of events, they are thrown out into the rainforest to die. So there they must survive the wild and somehow make it back to Nanigen to get to normal size again before they die of bends. Bends are internal bleeding they can all die from in three days. It is side effect to being so small.

The good? Well despite the silliness of the imaginative shrink ray shrinking people, who go into the tiny world the entomology science is great. Since there was little detail in the beginning as well as science facts the book made up for it with the tiny world. Having just served a semester in entomology science at college , I loved every bit of it. The characters are realistic. You learn to love them as it goes on. And like always, the action is original and fun.

So the bad? Well there’s a twist about two thirds into the book. And it is a really big change in vibe, direction of the story and sudden instantaneous change of the lead character of the book. This is the part of the book where my jaw dropped. This something I never seen in a Crichton book and I feel this is where the book was left unfinished and Richard took over. The last third felt to me like I was reading another book. The ending also seemed too unreal to me. It involved a air battles between the students on tiny planes and killer flying nano bots. The bad guy, Vin Drake seemed evil in a cartoony fashion leading up the showdown. Also a character that is thought to be dead shows up randomly to be a lead again. The resurrection seemed to come out of nowhere. Overall, the whole book switched tones.

But overall, the books isn’t bad. I love the first two thirds. The last third, I’m not too sure about. I would not recommend this to die hard Crichton fan and science nerd like myself, at twenty dollars. But if you see it at a descent price, grab it. It has its good parts.

Overall rating: Crichton’s last dive in science shows us the world of entomology.

2 ¾ 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/

Deep Fathom : Take A Dive Into Another Archeological Adventure With Rollins

Deep Fathom By James Rollins

Nothing much to say here. I just decided to read a bit of Rollins work after a couple mediocre books. This time it it Deep Fathom.

So what is it about? That is kind of hard to answer because it has such a convulsed plot. The story begins with a Earthquake. A earthquake so big that it effected the whole world. And when the Earthquake happens, a lost ancient city surfaces. Meanwhile a American plane crashes in the Pacific. The story focuses on two different characters. One is Karen, who is investigating the new archaeological city, trying to prove her great grandfather’s theory right about a ancient long lost city. But she is quickly pursued by a ancient order who don’t want her to research there. The second is Jack, a treasure hunter and part of a salvage crew. He is hired by the US navy to extract parts of the plane with his sub. But as he does so he finds a great crystal tower that is connected to the lost civilization. It also has energy flowing through. Jack has a enemy though. A David Spangler who works for the president, but is also working behind his back framing the crash on China starting World War III. And as the war erupts, he has personal agenda to kill Jack, (Who let his sister die long ago) who in, in a odd turn of events decided to help Karen with her research.

Well the good? Well if you’re one of those people who have been waiting for a novel adaptation of Uncharted, this is it. Like most of Rollins Books. Once the action starts, it never stops. Beside running from the feather serpent order, Spangler’s men, they must avoid the chaos of the warfare erupting around them. Things are as bad as they can get and it keeps you entertained because it is just one adventure scene after another. But Rollins did so somewhat more realistic than most authors. Unlike Clive Cussler’s novels people do get injured and die. So there is a sense of danger throughout.

The bad? The story here is silly. Though it’s all based upon theoretical science, I felt it was too theoretical to some degree. Also, there is little emotion. For this kind of story, I know it might not mean much. But sometimes, I wish the author would slow down and let us look into the character’s heads. Then there’s the magical computer Gabriel. A all knowing, all seeing super computer that serves as a character. I thought it was dumb in a sense and I wish the could have connect the dots in the story without something so magical.

Despite it flaws, it was still fun, and a absolute page turner. Still not as good as Rollins first novel, but very good in general.

Overall Rating 3 1/2 smoothie out of four

Overall Rating : Take A Dive Into Another Archaeological Adventure With Rollins

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/

Cutthroat Island: A Tale Of What Could Have Been Epic Witty Fun

Cutthroat Island: A Tale Of What Could Have Been Epic Witty Fun

Cutthroat Island By John Gregory Betancourt

Yes. Another novel from church book give away. This time the novel is called Cutthroat Island and it is written by John Gregory Betancourt. Well I call it a novel, but I’m not sure it really counts. It is a novelization of the screenplay to apparently a old movie I never seen with the same title. So it is a movie tie in. I typically don’t read these things, but when i’ts free, Why not try it?

Anyways, what is the story? The story focuses on a woman pirate Morgan who upon her father’s death inherits the crew and pirate ship he once had. He was killed by her evil uncle Dawg, who is looking for Cutthroat Island and it’s mysterious treasure. Each of his brothers has a piece to the map, so the evil Dawg (who never was given any pieces) is killing his brother for these pieces. Meanwhile Morgan is trying to find the treasure first by stealing the pieces of the maps before her uncle finds them. But because the map is written in Latin, she finds she must break a Latin reading con man/thief out of prison, William Shaw. Together Will and Morgan go on a adventure to find this treasure and fight Dawg along the way.

So I’ll start with good. It’s a pirate book. There are so few of these so I’m glad when I find a pirate book in general. It also has a lot of adventure.

The bad? The book is very shallow. Both the character and story is. It moves quickly and refuses to give is detail during action scenes. There is a complete lack of ambitions and character depth. There is a subplot which is this story between Shaw and Morgan. It is so flat, empty, and emotionless. It just seems to fly out of nowhere. I wasn’t quite sure why this happened. The story had everything going for it. I’m guessing it because it is a movie tie in. And oddly enough there were typos. Not a big complaint. Often times I never do because I care more about the story than grammar. Also as a self publish author I understand how hard editing could be. But this had a lot of typos. But it was a movie tie in so I feel that there was little effort involved. Very odd.

Overall, the control story is good and fair. But the lack of detail and character development pulls it down. This makes it very mediocre when it could have been something much greater.

2 smoothie out of four.

Overall Rating: A Tale Of What Could Have Been Epic Witty Fun.

P.S. Like books? Then check out my book and ebook website, Lelue’s Realm. Google it or go directly to http://www.freewebs.com/lelue/