Phoenix Island

by John Dixon

320 pages - 22.99 $

Gallery Books (7 janvier 2014)

I've received a mail from NetGalley informing us that a new book was available. Then I've read that that book inspired a TV show, so I looked on the Internet what was that TV show, it sounded promising and knowing that books are always better that TV... So I must say, between the cover (really cool) and the story around that book... I was intrigued enough to decided to give it a try. Thanks Gallery Books !

The blurb

The story that inspired CBS TV’s Intelligence. Phoenix Island was supposed to be a boot camp for troubled children. But as one boy learns, the secrets of this jungle are as vast as they are deadly.

When sixteen-year-old boxing champ Carl Freeman jumps in to defend a helpless stranger, he winds up in real trouble—a two-year sentence at an isolated boot camp for orphans. Carl is determined to tough it out, earn a clean record, and get on with his life. Then kids start to die.

Realizing Phoenix Island is actually a Spartan-style mercenary organization turning “throwaway kids” into super-soldier killers, Carl risks everything to save his friends and stop a madman bent on global destruction.

What I think of it

I can't think straight... so much was I blown away by that book! It's brilliant. The writing, the pace, the characters, everything was great. In fact, I've started this book at 3 am one night, thinking that it would help me go back to sleep and I stop reading because of my alarm clock: I had to go to work (duh). As I've already said to John Dixon on Twitter, he should include some excuses in his book that we can bring to our boss not to go to work (what with not being very effective...) I must say that I'm not into YA books, in fact I didn't notice that Phoenix Island is a YA book. As the TV show is about adult, I thought it was an adult book (lame I know). Then, I went back to check the book more seriously after an all night session of reading it and discovered it's YA. Well, that book is so much darker than I thought a YA was! 

Well, so what's so good about that book? For starter, the characters. You'll love Carl, one of the toughest and bravest guy possible. OK, he did get into trouble a lot of time, he did hurt people, but always to defend the weaker and fight the bullies. Who wouldn't love that kind of guy? (well, the bullies obviously!) Granted his young age, he's still got a lot of wisdom and keeps deeply rooted in reality. Then, there's Ross who fights his way through life with his humour which gives us some very good replies. Octavia, the girl in the trio, is more enigmatic but she's still able to fight for what's right. These are the good guys. Then, there's Drill Sergeant Parker, Stark, Decker and his gang. Those, you don't want to know them nor to meet them! Parker is one of the most loathsome character you'll met. The worst part is that a lot of us have meet that kind of guy: a bully who reach some authority and overuse it. In any case, I've met some Parker in my life, maybe that's why I could relate to Carl. 

Then, it's not all good vs evil in Phoenix Island (some of the bad guys turn good). Stark can be good for his people, in his wicked way. In any case, it sure is a dark book! Dixon, like George R. R. Martin, is that kind of author who's able to kill one character you'd love to see to the end. So, in some way, it's realistic. In an island where bullies are kings, you can't expect the good guys to win without some casualties, right? Still, it's heart breaking to read some part of the book. And there, I've said too much already! 

Furthermore, John Dixon is a former Golden Gloves boxer and it's easy to see how he relates to his character, Carl, also a boxer. All the feelings expressed by Carl about the fighting are too well described not to be first hand experiences. I'm not a big fan of boxe but I must say that it's so cleverly writen I appreciated those parts. The fighting scene are thrilling and chilling and the reason I read all night... so that might not be a good point (just kidding!) Other than that, the pace is incredible alterning between action, fight and contextualization, I've never grew tired or bored. As for the end, I found it intelligent and incredible (talk about taking rough decisions!) 

In a nutshell

One hell of a book, suspenseful, chilling and thrilling that will keep you awake at night but guess what? You'll ask for more! I give it a 5/5. 

The Corpse-Rat King

de Lee Battersby

Angry Robot; Original édition (28 août 2012)

416 pages - 8.99 $

Again, It's the cover that caught my eye... and the fact that it comes from Angry Robot, a publishing house that does not stop to pleasantly surprise. This is a real chance, in my opinion, to find a publishing house that suits you so that even without knowing an author, you expect to enjoy the book. I received this book via NetGalley, so thanks! NetGalley and Angry Robot. I get a lot of book for to review but the fellow blogger who comes here knows that I give my unbiased opinion, be it good or bad...

The Blurb

Marius dos Hellespont and his apprentice, Gerd, are professional looters of battlefields. When they stumble upon the corpse of the King of Scorby and Gerd is killed, Marius is mistaken for the monarch by one of the dead soldiers and is transported down to the Kingdom of the Dead.

Just like the living citizens, the dead need a King - after all, the King is God's representative, and someone needs to remind God where they are.

And so it comes to pass that Marius is banished to the surface with one message: if he wants to recover his life he must find the dead a King. Which he fully intends to do.

Just as soon as he stops running away.

What I think of it 

Honestly, I was a little hesitant to read it, because of the dead thing. Zombie stories are not really my cup of tea but the adventurous side that the book offered overcame my resistance. And so much the better! This book is really cool.

Marius is the anti-hero in all its splendor. He's wily, liar, thief but also cunning, clever and very funny. This book is the story of his personal journey, because if originally when he's caught red-handed, he tries to escape, the misadventures he lives make him aware of his responsibilities. From there, he will demonstrate that his qualities as much as his faults, are very useful to carry out his task. Gerd, young naive who had the misfortune to trust Marius initially eventually gains confidence in himself and becomes a man. It's after all an initiatory trip for both, one to take his responsibility, the other towards maturity. The two partners complement each other perfectly, despite their differences, and their exchanges in the book bring a freshness and a pleasant lightness.

The story begins badly... the two accomplices find themselves in the realm of the dead with a mission to bring a king for Marius and for Gerd to monitor Marius. Marius fled, only to realize that it's better to fulfill his mission if he wants to regain his life. All his journey to his awareness is fraught with challenges, adventures and especially misadventures. This is probably one of the most epic initiatory trip story I've read! I didn't get bored in this book: initially because I was glad to see Marius in trouble (well done, you big coward!), then because there are funny adventures and finally, because the pace is accelerating.

A word about a part of this book that I really appreciate in books, it's its humour: impertinent, pungent and grotesque found throughout the story. Whether in dialogue or in situations, there is always something to smile or laugh.

In a nutshell

This is not just a book of undead (or living dead for Marius) but a true adventure book, funny and epic. I give it 4/ 5.

L'enfant des cimetières

Sire Cédric

Science Fiction - Fantasy

Pocket - 2011

527 pages - $ 13.95

ISBN: 9782266203654 (2266203657)

I can't remember how I discovered this author, probably through fans of Maxime Chattam as both authors give in the fantastic kind... It seems that Sir Cedric is in any case a rising figure in France, so I was happy to discover his book that is my second book in the R.I.P. VIII challenge.

Synopsis

A gravedigger living near a cemetery is taken from a hallucinatory madness and kills his entire family before committing suicide.

A teenager, believing he's chased by shadows, threatens occupants of a hospital with  his weapon and kills Kristel, a painter. David photojournalist - and Kristel's partner - decides to discover the origin of this wave of sordid murders and suicides, which is increasing. Soon he will face the unimaginable...

What I think of it

There's undoubtedly strengths in this novel... but also some weaknesses that have hindered me.

About the strengths, Sire Cedric knows how to generate dizzy spell, anxiety and apprehension among his readers. I have experienced very unpleasant sensations several times while reading passages. I admit I even have hesitated to continue reading the book after some time in the night, because I was not sure of being able to sleep ! Sometimes there is an atmosphere like in Hitchcock's " The Birds": you know from where the danger comes, it's all around, but you do not know when it will attack... and that, that's nerve-racking!

I also liked the characters whose emotions are well transcribed, particularly the mourning of David, who seeks to find the origin of the evil which has taken his partner. Everything is done with subtlety, you feel his grief, his denial of his loss, his need to foresee if only an image of the woman he loves. It's nice to read, despite the pain. As for the anxiety or irrational fears that the other characters experience... it's sufficiently well written that I wanted to look under my bed ! When the young Villeneuve explains what he saw, you feel close to him, you hear him, you're part of his team (a not so winner team in the game of cat and mouse...), you begin to stress. Clearly, this is a strength of the author.

I appreciate that the so imposing cop with so boorish manners is not a caricature of the asshole cop without finesse. Instead Vauvert proves to be able to take into account what the majority of people refuse to believe. He does not necessarily believe in spirits, demons and other supernatural aspects but as he puts it: "What I think does not matter, replied Vauvert, I'm trying to prevent people from dying. That's my job." There is a duality between the scientific evidence and what the victims experience. The fact that the characters do not believe in supernatural phenomenon in principle but seek a logical and technical explanation makes the esoteric side even stronger.

What I dislike about the book concerns two points, probably less important to some people but it bothers me a lot. Very often when it comes to demons, there is sex, or at least some sensuality and this book does not lack it. But the inclusion of children in the sex scenes, THAT, it bothers me. I think it's sick and regrettable. The author is very good to make us feel emotions so if he wanted us to feel a mixture of desire and embarrassment, the fact that there are women and men of all ages who are shadows or rotted corpses in the scene is enough, right?

The second weakness relates to certain shortcuts used by the author to advance the story. Honestly, when do we have seen a person who has coincidentally ALL the ingredients for magical protection? Because frankly, if the devil comes home today, I 'm screwed! Apart from the salt... I have no other ingredients. There are other shortcuts in the book, but fortunately, they are not so numerous. It's just that when reading, I've been saying a few times... Duh! as if it was that easy!

In a nutshell

A novel which reads very quickly, whose plot includes several tracks that come together, well done with some weaknesses. I do not know if I can recommend it, especially because of the children (unacceptable in my case), but it will appeal to fans of the genre. I give it a 3/5.

My thought on closing the book : It's a shame, those small gaps...

Thy Kingdom Fall (After Eden Series, Book #1)

by Austin Dragon

Well-Tailored Books

359 pages

ARC

I requested the book because I thought it could be a change to read a mystery novel set in the future (kind of like the serie Continuum). I must say I was a bit afraid of the religious side. 

Synopsis

It is the morning of September 11, 2125. The New York City police commissioner stands on the 170th floor of the Three Towers, clutching his chest in shock. The sky goes dark, filled with dozens of them—the opening attack of World War III. Not merely the planet’s third global war, but the first one of the Tek Age— a hell we have never seen before.

How did we ever get to this place?

In 2089, a former skin-runner-turned-star-reporter quietly investigates the Washington DC daylight murder of the most powerful political king-maker in the nation. It is just the tip of a wider conspiracy and the start of a chain of events leading to this world catastrophe.

The world is a very different place: Western Europe has fallen to the Islamic Caliphate, Israel is gone, Eastern Europe has merged with Russia and Beijing runs the anti-American Chinese-Indian Alliance. America is very different too. The US Constitution has been found unconstitutional and replaced, presidential term limits are gone, and the culture wars are over. The three-term American president is obsessed with keeping the nation safe at all costs—by ending religiosity. But the Resistance stands in his way.

Thy Kingdom Fall is Book One of the epic After Eden Series.

What I think of it

I wish I was able to read more of the book but I couldn't. I abandoned the book on page 94. Too much sanctimonious and religious for me. Dragon describes at length why religions collapsed, how they're now organised, what they should have done... Pages and pages on the subject. 

Sad, because the characters are well described. We easily know who are the good guys and the bad guys. The reporter is likable as well as his boss. The way they interact, the way Dragon describes them in their daily routine is cool. I wanted to know how the investigation would go on but the investigation is completely lost in the details. 

Dragon sets his world (which is 80 years from now) but it's quite the same world I must say except for the religious part of course. USA are now governed by pagans, people rejected all religions, which is difficult to accept knowing it's set in less than 80 years. I mean, some people in the books don't know nothing about religion... have they killed all the old people? That's not believable. Maybe he should have set his world in a future more distant. 

I didn't like reading whole paragraph about the way people dress (mostly when they dress like nowadays bare a few change) or paragraph about the way people behave (which is mostly like nowadays one more time). For example, everyone has an e-pad and spend time reading his message including while discussing with someone else. Does it not remember you something? 

In a nutshell

Dragon's book is the first in a series to come so obviously he needs to set the decor. Elmore Leonard, one of the finest author of crime fiction, wrote his 10 rules for writers. One of them is not to drown the reader in descriptions of characters, places and objects. An advice that Dragon did not follow unfortunately. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's too much. So I won't give a rate but I won't recommend it unless you're really fond of religion and plot. In that case, you should really like it!

A Clash of Kings

by George R. R. Martin

Fantasy

Random House Publishing Group, 2011

1009 pages - 10,99 $

En français ici

Why this book 

Because after having enjoyed the first book, I did not want to stop there. I love  series, because it gives you all the time and leisure to know the characters and love (or hate) them. To read a sequel, it's a bit like getting friends at home: hours of fun - well, normally, if not... you might want to read the Marquis de Sade.  I could not wait to plunge into the world so complete and complex of Martin.

Summary

A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. And from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing to stake their claims through tempest, turmoil, and war. It is a tale in which brother plots against brother and the dead rise to walk in the night. Here a princess masquerades as an orphan boy; a knight of the mind prepares a poison for a treacherous sorceress; and wild men descend from the Mountains of the Moon to ravage the countryside. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel...and the coldest hearts. For when kings clash, the whole land trembles.

What I think of it

Once again I have not been disappointed. Martin is truly a master in story telling. We are spellbound throughout the book. I love the way paragraphs succede each other according to the points of view of characters. It's different and it avoids the chronological appearance in most other novels. There may be two actions simultaneously, but in different places and I like very much this impression to see the unfolding of the story through the eyes of the characters.

Another plus point for which the author is known, nobody is totally good or totally bad, everyone has their reasons. At first I was afraid of the result - because yes, I like that the heroes are heroes unconditionally - but ultimately one can be closer to the characters, because let's face it, it is not easy to compare oneself to a hero without fear and without reproach (especially the blameless side...)

In any case, the 1000 pages of the book go like lightning. I loved Tyron Lannister and his rogue intelligence, I wondered if Arya would return one day to her family, I felt like killing Theon - but then he was looking for trouble - I exulted when Robb became king of the north, I was afraid for Jon ... what amount of emotions experienced! Finally, the only one that I like less is Bran, but perhaps it will eventually revealed something of his adventures.

Let's be brief

A sequel not to be missed ... but honestly, if you've read this book, it's that you have already read the first ... and I do not have much to say to convince you of the quality of this story!

Midnight's Children 2/100

by Salman Rushdie
Vintage Canada Edition - 2006
533 pages - 22 $

En Français ici

Why this book

I wanted to read at least one book by this great author I've heard about at the exit of The Satanic Verses thanks to the scandal it generated. I said to myself "I should read an author who unleashed such passion, be it for whether he is worth it." And most importantly, the Satanic Verses not tempted me a lot... the story of a guy who flies and turns to end up with horns and hoofs ... how to say: too metaphorical for me? Anyway, I decided to try this author with Midnight's Children whose summary tempted me more.

Summary

Saleem Sinai is born at the stroke of midnight on August 15, 1947, the very moment of India's independence. Greeted by fireworks displays, cheering crowds, and Prime Minister Nehru himself, Saleem grows up to learn the ominous consequences of this coincidence. His every act is mirrored and magnified in events that sway the course of national affairs; his health and well-being are inextricably bound to those of his nation; his life is inseparable, at times indistinguishable, from the history of his country. Perhaps most remarkable are the telepathic powers linking him with India's 1,000 other "midnight's children," all born in that initial hour and endowed with magical gifts.

This novel is at once a fascinating family saga and an astonishing evocation of a vast land and its people-a brilliant incarnation of the universal human comedy. Twenty-five years after its publication, Midnight's Children stands apart as both an epochal work of fiction and a brilliant performance by one of the great literary voices of our time.

What I think about it

Rushdie is undoubtedly a master in the art of carrying us into a world of magic and poetry. He is capable of creating a world full of color, brilliance and magic. Reading the book I had the impression of being in a setting of the Thousand and One Nights and for that alone, it's worth it. It is rare that a book enchants me by his descriptions and settings. As for the story, it is also powerful and for who knows or loves India, it's parallel with the history of this country and Pakistan is not to be underestimated. I also liked to see what I enjoyed in India: that every action, every gesture, every adventure is fraught with meaning. Nothing is left to chance and the rich context of this country is an endless source of discoveries. Midnight's Children is no exception and everything that happens there makes sense.

For cons, I found some passages a little too long - euphemism: I was bored - especially the chapter in the forest. I also had trouble with the multiple metaphors the author uses, resulting in completely fantastical scenes - in my case - hard to understand, but as I said earlier: metaphors and me ...

Let's be brief

A book to read for its magic and richness of imagination in which we are transported - even imported - but that's also serious and concrete. After all, it's not every day that a country political history is also written in such a pretty way!

A Storm of Swords

by George R. R. Martin

Fantasy

Random House Publishing Group, 2011

1177 pages - 10,99 $

En Français ici

Why this book

I don't know if I can pretend that I read this book just because it was part of the first four book set that I bought? Well, no, I'm not like to flog me reading a book - let alone a series of books - that I do not like! The truth is that I really love A Song of Ice and Fire serie. So I read this book, because I was eager to see the further adventures of the seven kingdoms and its protagonists - and it was already in my library, as a not buried treasure just waiting to be read.

Summary 

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and still the wars rage as violently as ever, as alliances are made and broken. Joffrey, of House Lannister, sits on the Iron Throne, the uneasy ruler of the land of the Seven Kingdoms. His most bitter rival, Lord Stannis, stands defeated and disgraced, the victim of the jealous sorceress who holds him in her evil thrall. But young Robb, of House Stark, still rules the North from the fortress of Riverrun. Robb plots against his despised Lannister enemies, even as they hold his sister hostage at King's Landing, the seat of the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, making her way across a blood-drenched continent is the exiled queen, Daenerys, mistress of the only three dragons still left in the world....

But as opposing forces maneuver for the final titanic showdown, an army of barbaric wildlings arrives from the outermost line of civilization. In their vanguard is a horde of mythical Others--a supernatural army of the living dead whose animated corpses are unstoppable. As the future of the land hangs in the balance, no one will rest until the Seven Kingdoms have exploded in a veritable storm of swords. . .

What I think

This is the best of the first three volumes. I've never regretted leaving a book and its world so much - except maybe Harry Potter ... - I've been through some terrible and incredible twists and exaltations (frankly, *** spoiler **** when Daenerys kills the slaver, it's so great! Especially after the fear of seeing her sale her dragon ***).

George R. R. Martin is an author who is not afraid to write what pleases him. He thinks that an author can't please everyone anyway and he kills the characters that we expected to see longer. And it works! This is what is great about the realism of Martin in his novels : as in real life, people die, people betray people band together. This is a fantasy world sprinkled with realism, with characters we love and others we love to hate. Personally, I have a soft spot for Jon, Daenerys and Arya and I would gladly slap Cersei! And you?

Let's be brief 

A must have, must read! We always talk about classics that should be read and here is a classic fantasy to offer and to provide, to read and reread because you never get tired of a world so rich! 1177 pages of pure pleasure ...

Good to know

A Storm of Swords was the first of the series to be nominated for the Hugo Award in 2001 (one of the two most prestigious awards in science fiction and fantasy, but Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won.

George R. R. Martin also finds that it is the most intense of his books in this excellent interview. He is very cool as author right?