Sorry, I'm going back

I'm going back to my old blog. I moved here because of better G+ integration, but I just couldn't get used to Blogger. You may thin I'm indecisive, but I'm only choosing the platform I like more at the end of the day. Please do come over to see what I'm up to. I continue to post reviews and I plan to share my thoughts on books and writing from a readers' point of view.

Empty Places by Martin Roy Hill

Empty Places by Martin Roy Hill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I start with the title: it has two meanings. In the beginning of the book Robin Anderson is killed in a deserted place, alone. The other empty places aren't that obvious, they are hidden in the souls. Inside Peter, the ex-husband, who has seen brutal things leaving marks on him figuratively and literally. And inside men, who sold their humanity for money and power.

I like the voice of the author, his style is smooth, I enjoyed reading the story.

The characters are well drawn, not only the hero, but the smaller ones too. Some of them showed really interesting traits, for example Laurie, who... wait, I don't want to spoil it, better if you read it yourself.

Unfortunately I could guess the main villain, even if the author made an attempt to divert me from it. Besides that there were quite a few surprises, for example the identity of the killer. And did I tell you what Laurie did? You won't believe it. There was even a turn after I thought it was over, the killer got what he deserved.

If you want a good read, Empty Places is the right choice.

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Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Allegiant by Veronica Roth
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This one is an irregular review.

I'll be short.

Listening to the audiobook I couldn't really believe that the crazy genetic experience happened. (No government is that stupid.)

Then the author killed the protagonist.

I could not decide if it was crazy or brilliant.

But at the end I was shaking my head, which sums up my total impression.

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Blue into the Rip by Kev Heritage

Blue Into The Rip by Kev Heritage
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I went back in time and read this book through the eyes of the teenager myself.

I found the story quite interesting. I love time travel, it's awesome, it's a paradox itself. This time the Blue, the hero travels into the future. I appreciate the novelty in the method of the time travel, it's not the cliché of time machine or shimmering portal, but a brutal force through time and space: the Rip.

In the story the future is similar to other distopian futures: the climate is warmed, the most part of the Earth became desert, the fauna and flora is distorted, new, dangerous species emerged. But. Unlike other books, this one offers several alternatives: underground habitats, space colonies, new worlds discovered through the Rip. The distopian books are on the rise, and I'm starting to be fed up with the dark, ugly picture of the possible future. Blue into the Rip offers a fresh take on the subject. And some hope.

The Crater, the underground cave with artificial sun and rich vegetation is awesome.

The story is full of action. Blue gets into more and more trouble, as he finds out secrets of the future and try to solve puzzles which seems to go beyond his comprehension. And not only the mysterious organisation called SEARCH has secrets, but his superiors and his mates at the Academy. He finds out strange things even about himself as the events unfold. The middle of the story slows down a little as we follow Blue through the military training, but the special tasks the cadets have to perform still grabs the attention of the reader. At the end of the book you have to hang on, because the action really speeds up.

The plot has a big arc, and this book raises further questions making the base for sequels.

good characters

There was one thing which distracted me time after time: the author often used sentences without verbs. This type of writing can be considered as the voice of the writer, however it should be used with care, only sparingly. To make it clear, here is an example: "A warning siren and the porthole closed". I was confused, because the it says that both a warning siren and the porthole were closed. Should be: "A warning siren sounded and the porthole was closed."

The Blue into the Rip is a decent read, I enjoyed it.

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The Human Division by John Scalzi

The Human Division by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When reading a book I often was wondering what happened to the secondary characters. What they did when not helping the hero? What kind of life they lived? Now I had the possibility to get to know more about some of them.

In The Human Division I met Harry Wilson of the Old Farts. If you haven't read the Old Man's War, you may not know who the hell I'm talking about. I can tell to you: you missed a great story, so you better go and read it. If you did, probably you remember the group of old people who signed up for the Colonial Defence Force, got a new enhanced body and became green in the process. Yes, they were the good Old Farts. They went in different ways in the CDF, Wilson became a Lieutenant in the technical service. Lately he got assigned to assist diplomats, who - well, to put it mildly - were the B Team. But don't get it wrong, in this dangerous universe even the B Team saves the ass of the Colonial Union once or twice. You may think that the most dangerous in diplomacy could be that you die of boredom during endless speeches in meetings. But rest assured: even diplomats get shot at or sucked out into vacuum from the space lock of the ship. And the assisting personnel may be beaten up by half size aliens and they may have to perform skydiving while the space station they just left is blown up. Yo know, the usual space stuff.

The book consists of 13 seemingly separate stories, but by the end a grandiose conspiracy plot takes shape against the Colonial Union. Or the Conclave. Or both. It's not really clear who is behind the scenes, and what is their purpose exactly. This is why I can hardly wait for the next book of the Old Man's War universe.

I really enjoyed Scalzi's sarcastic humour, it is one of the reasons he became one of my favourite authors.

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Ballistic by Mark Greaney

Ballistic by Mark Greaney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was hooked on Mark Greany's books right from the first one. He writes just the type of stories I like: fast paced action spiced with special human relations.

In Ballistic Greaney takes us to Mexico, and shows the dark shadows of los amigos. I live in Europe, so the setting was exotic for me. The Ballistic is a work of fiction, and I'm pretty sure Greaney made up the Mafia characters, but based on the news sometimes I hear there must be some truth in the Mexican gang wars. It adds to the reliability of the story.

The Grey man is a strange hero: he is an assassin, but he takes on only bad guys and criminals. Which makes him the good guy in the reader's eye. He isn't James Bond, sometimes he is betrayed and deceived, which makes his character more believable. In this book he has a love affair. I liked the way it was written, the Grey man remained totally in his character, with his past and fears.

The story of Ballistic is compelling: the Grey Man finds himself between two Mafia groups trying to save the family of his respected but dead friend. Can a loner win against two armies of bad guys? Can he be smart enough to outwit them? Is the loyalty and friendship more important than his own life? Well, you can guess the answers, I suppose, I don't need to tell you.

The book has elements of torture and inhuman treatment, so read it only if you don't mind some hard story parts. And it has a lot of shooting, fortunately most often it is the bad guys who fall.

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Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I'm slightly above the young adult age (around twenty five years plus), so consider my opinion taking that into account. You may ask why I read YA books then. Why not? I'm curious.

I enjoyed Insurgent. And I didn't.

The setting is quite compelling, the basic idea is really interesting. How could a society work if people are divided into factions based on their mental attitude? And I arrived to the first point I have problem with. I'm not a sociologist nor psychologist, but I'm sure it cannot work. Humans are not black and white. Humans are not of four clear colour, they cannot be put into boxes. It just doesn't work like that. The idea of creating a society based on this is born dead. But it still could be interesting to see how things can develop in a scenario like this, so I suspended my disbelief and I wanted to know, you know, "what if". It reminded me of religious cults suppressing general truths worshipping only one (often false one). I continued listening (to the audio version) as it was an experiment on one possible way to solve the society's serious issues. I put my doubts aside and flowed with the story, and I did enjoy it more. By the end of the book I learned that this environment didn't evolve, but it was established artificially. That helps a little to believe the scenario. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

In the factions individuals start to pup up as divergents, (of course they do, if they didn't the story wouldn't exist), and this society cannot handle them. They blend in pretending having one aptitude or get hunted because they cannot fit in the system. That creates a lot of tension, and gives the floor for the action.

The action moved the story forward, and kept me listening. I really liked the action scenes, those were the best parts of the book. Unfortunately in between there were scenes when the heroin agonized over exaggerated dilemmas. Maybe I've a very simple personality, maybe it was too long time ago when I was teenager, maybe being a man I cannot understand the girls (who can? :) ). Maybe Tris had mental issues. But some of the whining should have been cut out.

I would have enjoyed more world-building. There were some explanations about the supporting equipment like power supply, but I missed some technicalities how they could sustain the supporting services. It was a closed environment after all.

By the way, can somebody tell me who drove the train? People died, factions fought each other, but that damn train still run no matter what.

As I mentioned I'm not in YA age anymore, that may explain my disbelief concerning the hands off love between Four and Tris. At the age of 16-19 teenagers are much more interested in the hands on stuff of sex. It was annoying how the circumstances (or their fears or anger) "accidentally" stopped Four and Tris to get into it more deeply. I don't say there should be explicit sex scenes, not at all. But their love would have been more believable if there were scenes like "Four pulled Tris' shirt off, kissed her on the mouth and... Cut.... Tris smiled at Four and nested herself in his arms with satisfaction". Like in an old movie ;)

The character of Tris is well drawn, we get to know her deepest secrets and fears. She had a special power, she could resist the simulation. Awesome. She is mentally off balance in my opinion, but I gather that was the author's intention. But it didn't help to like her that she made stupid decisions. I mean stupid. For example when she joined Marcus. She loved Four, she knew that Four hates Marcus, she didn't trust Marcus, and didn't have evidence that it was true what he was saying, but she went with him instead of being and fighting on Four's side.

I'm sure my daughter enjoyed the book more, because she already told me she hardly can wait for the third one to come out. She is at the right age, I suppose.

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