The Charm School by Nelson DeMille was an extremely long, detailed look into a fictional scenario in which the Russian KGB had a secret spy school for the past two decades. Despite the length of the book, over 700 pages in the paperback, I found the book to be engrossing from the beginning to the end. A flaw in many long books is the overwhelming number of characters, but DeMille doesn’t compound the complexity of this novel with too many characters. Instead he gives depth to a limited number of elite people in the story, including some crazed “bad guys” that Mr. DeMille brings to life so well in many of his books.
Despite my little knowledge about Russia and its politics, this international spy novel leads the reader through the complex relationship that defined the Cold War between the United States and Russia. While the story immediately launches into an intriguing progression of events, the novel is much slower in the first half of the 700 pages, but the depth of characters and original plot kept me interested till the end.
I have a special place in my heart for sarcastic characters and John Corey, the main character in The Lion’s Game, an international thriller, is a one of those guys you just love to read about. There’s always a great one-liner waiting on every page. If I were to go back and highlight each time Mr. Demille’s writing made me laugh, the book would look like a freshmen year chemistry book.
The Lion’s Game is the squeal to Plumb Island, which was also a joy to read specifically because John Corey was the main character in that book as well. This squeal is one heck of a story, weighing in at 673 pages in the hardback edition, but the suspense never lets up.
This book is not equivalent to the “summer blockbuster” movie. There are no explosive battles and crazy stunts. Instead, Mr. Demille entertains using merely wit and colorful characters. In this installment, I found the main character to be just as interesting as the antagonist. The point-of-view changes between our hero, John Corey, and the foe that repeatedly shocks the reader with sporadic insights into the daily life of an American. I found myself reflecting on typical American circumstances in a whole new light due to the antagonist’s interesting point-of-view as a foreigner traveling across the country.
The Lion’s Game was a lot of fun to read, not merely for the humor, but also because Nelson Demille can dish out so much more than your typical crime novel. I consider the John Corey series to be among the best crime and mystery books I’ve ever read.
I’ve read many books that feel muted. As if the author thinks the reader is unable to handle the raw, uncensored edge of real human emotion. Call me a pessimist, but I think there is more to learn in pain and loss. Looking at the bright side is a cheap pacifier to learning from failure.
Gillian Flynn’s book, Dark Places, shares a clear picture of life’s venom. The book starts off sharing a few details about one horrible night that sets the tone for the rest of the story. Although the scale of violence seems far fetched, to the point that one may be tempted to think the author is trying to overwhelm the reader with gore and brutality, as the plot progresses the complexities of the tale will reveal that the level of bloodshed is not merely a horror story.
The character intricacies really drive the potency of the story. Ms. Flynn uses a shifting first person point-of-view to give the reader a progressive timeline of events that build into an eruption of revelations about what really happened the night of that horrible night in January.
I have an inclination for books in which the characters are the story, rather than the plot pulling its puppets through a series of scenarios. Dark Places is definitely a book that shoved me through many distressing scenarios, but I was compelled to discover if those dark places were going to overwhelm them.
The story is gruesome, but it’s not without purpose. I really enjoyed the book and would consider re-reading it so I could grasp all the nuances I missed the first time around.
I’m stepping off of a cloud to try and write a summary of my thoughts from The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. I’ve been on a cloud because I haven’t read a book like this in a long time and I feel like I’m coming out of a “book high.” And I say I’m writing a summary of my thoughts because the whole of my feelings are too much to try and share in this brief review.
From my introduction you know that this book deserves my highest rating, but please allow me to explain why it is worthy of such praise. The Warded Man is a character driven story that focuses on three main characters that eventually come together for some greater purpose. Rather than these events pulling the characters towards each other, the subtle choices each person makes flows so easily that the whole story progresses without any hint of a stitch or seam.
The driving force for each main character is completely independent of the other in such a way that I was surprised to find a common thread between them. The characters are so well developed I would have been happy to read a separate story about each of them. The weight of all three story lines gave this book a depth that most stories only hope to achieve through complex plots and confusing twists of narration.
The Warded Man is a simple yet driving theme of fear and fate. I’m thrilled that this is only the first of a series of books. There were several hints at deeper complexities that will be visited in future novels. It’s obvious that there was a lot of planning to this series and I’m looking forward to more from this very talented author.
Deliver Us From Evil is David Baldacci’s latest thriller and I was thrilled to get my hands on an early review copy. I’m a fan of many different types of genres, but Baldacci consistently writes fun and exciting books covering a verity of topics. Deliver Us From Evil is another fast paced crime and mystery novel, but I was surprised to find that Baldacci devoted more time to developing characters and establishing themes.
I strongly believe in a no spoiler rule, so without uncovering too much about the novel I can say that Mr. Baldacci’s characters are not just related to the main antagonist through professional circumstances (their cops and he’s a criminal), but also through personal conflicts and inner turmoil in their own lives. Personally I prefer flawed and conflicted characters in stories so I found Delivers Us From Evil to be not only exciting for all the action (which is common to a Baldacci novel) but also for the well developed characters, a trait not well known in many thrillers.
Overall, I thought Deliver Us From Evil was thrilling with the perfect amount shock and suspense to keep me hooked. Great from the coming summer vacation trips or beach trips. Pick it up when it comes out on April 20, 2010.
Ten months ago I finished reading The Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb and I was not pleased with the novel. I now know that the reason Dragon Keeper was not as enjoyable as I had expected was because it was not even close to a full story, nor was it ever meant to be one. Dragon Haven is the amazing finish to The Rain Wild Chronicles. The Rain Wild Chronicles is the combined story of both The Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven. Each book is volume one and volume two.
In Dragon Haven, the characters were wonderfully full of depth, but not in a warm happy story kind of way, rather in a tragic and flawed way. Hobb takes what she builds up in her previous nine novels and amazingly delivers a rich tale that fans have been waiting to discover for years.
Don’t be thrown off by the name Dragon Chronicles. Hobb does not take lightly the idea of dragons. She has built an amazing back story around a world that is shaped by the presence of dragons. These creatures don’t lose any mystery because as a long time reader of Robin Hobb’s work, I can testify that dragons are the accumulation of years of world building and an immensely deep storyline.
I recommend that you read Dragon Keeper and Dragon Haven one after the other. It is an amazing journey that new and seasoned Robin Hobb fans will celebrate.
Red Chaser by Jon Spoelstra is a 1950′s thriller that is available exclusively on the Kindle. So you won’t see this novel sitting on the shelf of your local bookstore, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve to be there! I typically won’t pick up a book based in the 50′s because I draw no connection with the time period, but I found the novel’s environment warm and inviting.
For those looking for a book that gets straight to the point, Mr. Spoelstra delivers the first few chapters in a way that pulls the reader in quickly. The first line of the book, “I went to war poor,” hints at a deep history beyond the scope of the novel itself, however there is a rather slow build up before I found the main character to be deemed interesting.
I must note that I have very little interest in history, war, or baseball, three strong subject matters of the novel, so I found myself skimming over the more detailed accounts of the Vietnam war and the history of the Dodgers. The good news is that Red Chaser is not limited by one’s disinterest in this topics. By the middle of the novel the character’s level of complexity really drove the interest of the story for me. Jake, the main character, begins the story as a disappointingly simple guy, but as the story progresses he becomes an intriguing factor in the plot as this self diagnosed psychotic will shock you with the level of depravity he allows himself to operate at.
Overall, I felt that Red Chaser starts out slow, but as the level of character detail proliferates halfway through the novel, the book really starts to capture your imagination. The book is fun and entertaining, but the true creative writing really shines as the complex plot lines draw together in the end. It’s an easy read that will charm anyone, especially if you are a fan of baseball or the Vietnam war.
I was originally drawn to Outlander because of the amazing rating on Amazon. It is very rare to see over a thousand people rate a book and it still maintain over four stars. So I quickly decided to pick up the book. Especially since it was available on the Kindle.
First of all, the book is very long. It took me 2 weeks and 4 days to finish it. However, I found the book to be very engaging for the majority of the time. Ms. Gabaldon was able to draw me into the book very quickly and surprisingly, though hundreds of pages where very little actually happened, I was still excited to read the book day after day.
Furthermore, I must state that the book is a grand scale romantic adventure. The book centers around the main character Claire, who is always in need of rescuing. There is also a lot of sex. Very graphic and descriptive sex, but I prefer books that don’t shy away from the adult topics, though I felt that this book bordered on being a little too sexy.
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon is not a girl book. It is mainly about the love between two people, but what book doesn’t focus on romance to some degree? Although it is a major plotline in the book, I didn’t think it was too much to handle. Ms. Gabaldon balanced many different characters around one main story. Basically the entire book takes place following the main character Claire. That basic streamlined story’s focus makes it easy to follow even through the massive 850 pages.
In the end, I really like Outlander. I was excited to learn that it is the first in a series of books about the main Character, so I’m sure I’ll be picking up the next book in the series and I recommend you do the same. I was a lot of fun to read.
Black Hills by Dan Simmons may be the first historical fiction book I’ve ever read. Historical fiction, as I recently learned, portrays fictional accounts of historical figures. In this case, Dan Simmons shares the story of a Sioux indian and through the eyes of a seemingly simple character Mr. Simmons pulls a great amount of depth from the life of a man struggling to overcome the loss of his heritage.
Black Hills is exciting from the moment it opens to the first scene taking place in the middle of a battlefield. As we learn who our protagonist is, Mr. Simmons takes us through multiple points within a very specific timeline that very quickly builds into an exciting complicated plot line with several different aspects.
True to the graphic American frontier, Black Hills is realistically crude and violent. The main character, whose name is Paha Sapa, gives the reader a first person view of the changing times as America expandes westward. This is far from a history lesson. While the story line takes place around some major points in US history the book is driven by the complexity of the wonderful character that Dan Simmons built into Paha Sapa.
This is a character driven novel. As the book progresses, the multiple points of conflict begin to merge into one epic tale centering on the unusual life of one American indian. Several times in the book Paha Sapa assumes fake names as his identity is shaped by his environment. Yet the overall theme is bigger than fulfilling one’s destiny. Black Hills is not driven by war, love, or hate. The story is fueled by the crushing weight of the protagonist’s quest to fulfill his place in the way of the Natural Free Human Beings.
Black Hills by Dan Simmons will be available on February 24, 2010. I highly recommend the book.
Below is a video in which the author, Dan Simmons, gives a wonderful summary of the story. I think he does a great job conveying the tone of the novel. (Please forgive the corny intro…)
To describe The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield would require a string of adjectives more witty, but similar to spooky, complicated, mysterious, multilayered, and cozy. It’s reads like a car starting on a cold day, but once the engine warms up it’s a comfortable and enjoyable journey.
Anyone who says they understood all of the subplots and minor mysterious is a smarter person than me, because I got lost several times over during the tale, but if it wasn’t complicated I would be complaining that it was too elementary.
The character development is very thorough. In fact, the characters are so complex and self aware it’s easy to get lost in the pages of the character’s self reflection, since the novel jumps to different first person views very often.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and I would recommend it to a reader that is looking for an engrossing read. It is not a shallow nightstand reader, because it requires too much concentration and reflection for a reader that might be drifting off to sleep as you turn the pages to the very long chapters. I recommend the book, but stay alert or you might get lost in the details.
The Charm School by Nelson DeMille was an extremely long, detailed look into a fictional scenario in which the Russian KGB had a secret spy school for the past two decades. Despite the length of the book, over 700 pages in the paperback, I found the book to be engrossing from the beginning to the end. A flaw in many long books is the overwhelming number of characters, but DeMille doesn’t compound the complexity of this novel with too many characters. Instead he gives depth to a limited number of elite people in the story, including some crazed “bad guys” that Mr. DeMille brings to life so well in many of his books.
I have a special place in my heart for sarcastic characters and John Corey, the main character in The Lion’s Game, an international thriller, is a one of those guys you just love to read about. There’s always a great one-liner waiting on every page. If I were to go back and highlight each time Mr. Demille’s writing made me laugh, the book would look like a freshmen year chemistry book.
I’ve read many books that feel muted. As if the author thinks the reader is unable to handle the raw, uncensored edge of real human emotion. Call me a pessimist, but I think there is more to learn in pain and loss. Looking at the bright side is a cheap pacifier to learning from failure.
I’m stepping off of a cloud to try and write a summary of my thoughts from The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett. I’ve been on a cloud because I haven’t read a book like this in a long time and I feel like I’m coming out of a “book high.” And I say I’m writing a summary of my thoughts because the whole of my feelings are too much to try and share in this brief review.
Deliver Us From Evil is David Baldacci’s latest thriller and I was thrilled to get my hands on an early review copy. I’m a fan of many different types of genres, but Baldacci consistently writes fun and exciting books covering a verity of topics. Deliver Us From Evil is another fast paced crime and mystery novel, but I was surprised to find that Baldacci devoted more time to developing characters and establishing themes.
Ten months ago I finished reading 
Red Chaser by Jon Spoelstra is a 1950′s thriller that is available exclusively on the Kindle. So you won’t see this novel sitting on the shelf of your local bookstore, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve to be there! I typically won’t pick up a book based in the 50′s because I draw no connection with the time period, but I found the novel’s environment warm and inviting.
Black Hills by Dan Simmons may be the first historical fiction book I’ve ever read. Historical fiction, as I recently learned, portrays fictional accounts of historical figures. In this case, Dan Simmons shares the story of a Sioux indian and through the eyes of a seemingly simple character Mr. Simmons pulls a great amount of depth from the life of a man struggling to overcome the loss of his heritage.
To describe The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield would require a string of adjectives more witty, but similar to spooky, complicated, mysterious, multilayered, and cozy. It’s reads like a car starting on a cold day, but once the engine warms up it’s a comfortable and enjoyable journey.