The Mask of Troy

I got really excited when I saw that David Gibbins had released another book. Quite frankly, I was disappointed. There was little action, and while the discoveries were interesting enough, without the excitement of a race to find it first, or a determined bunch of artefact thieves to fend off, the book just wasn't that great. If I wanted to read something just about finding archaeological treasures, I'd much rather read something factual. That said, Jack Howard remains an interesting character, even if there aren't really any particularly new revelations about him, like there have been in past books. It did pick up towards the end, with some kidnapping and action, but not as much as in previous books. I'm glad I finished it, and it most definitely did (eventually) get better, but to be perfectly honest I wouldn't bother starting it in the first place. It was a disappointment compared to the excellent previous books, and had it not been by David Gibbins I probably would have given up long before the end.

I'm glad I didn't rush out and buy it like I nearly did, but I can't help but feel the series would've been better if it had finished at book four rather than have this addendum. However, if there are more books, on the basis that the first four were truly excellent (especially Atlantis and Crusader Gold) I'll probably still get them out the library, even if I won't be rereading this one. I recommend you read the others, I don't recommend you bother with this one. The interesting bit at the end doesn't outweigh the fact that it takes an awful long time to get even vaguely exciting.

Map of Bones

I've practically read this series backwards, or at least, in no recognisable order. However, it has not detracted from the fact that the Sigma Force series is truly excellent.

Ever heard of m state gold? Me neither, but apparently it's possible to create a fine powder from gold, by doing stuff to it that makes every atom split from every other atom and sit on its own. This gold has incredible properties, and unfortunately, they can be used for incredibly deadly purposes. An intriguing thriller, based on real science, well explained and utterly gripping. The characters are great, from Commander Gray Pierce, through Seichan, Monk, Kat, Rachel, and a whole host of other characters. I think Pierce is probably my favourite, but Monk has to come a close second. The novel delivers an excellent mix of ancient (and more recent) history, fascinating recent scientific developments, and action.

A massacre in a church and the theft of the bones of the Magi who visited Jesus at his birth launches the novel, and the action doesn't let up til the end. Nor does the plot wear thin. Highly enjoyable, although you'll probably get more out of the series if you read it in order, simply because everyone doesn't always make it(!)

On a slight aside, James Rollins also writes fantasy novels under the name James Clemens. I've just managed to get hold of one for the first time. Shall let you know how that goes :).

Ancients

Well, I managed up to part way through the first chapter. Which is more than it sounds like, because the prologue was ridiculously long and involved. I'm sure the same amount of background information could've been given in a much shorter period and with a bit more drama. And it seemed excessive to draw on what, four or five separate historical periods to chart the continuation of a secret society. Surely that sort of stuff could've been left to be discovered further on into the book. Instead, it seemed more like the author wanted to get all the historical stuff out the way before getting onto the 'real' story. Hmm. Then the first chapter started with more disparate accounts of various natural disasters, making the whole beginning feel rather fragmented. Getting close to fifty pages in, we finally meet what I assume from the blurb is to be the main characters, lying on a boat and drunk. By this point, I was pretty well fed up, and gave up just as they were about to go and confront some possible archaeological pirate type people with a single gun between the two main characters. Or something of the sort. Perhaps it picked up after that. But I was rather fed up by that point and took it back to the library. Maybe I shouldn't have done, maybe the story would have improved and got rather exciting, but to be quite frank, if a book hasn't grabbed my interest by the time I'm fifty odd pages in, I'm about ready to give up on it if it's not an author I've read before, no matter how good the blurb sounded.

So unless you fancy skipping the prologue (which is a pretty major piece of writing in itself, rather defying what I thought was the general consensus that a prologue will be fairly short), and it does pick up, I wouldn't bother. However, if you did get further, please correct me and I'll get it back out the library. Like I said, it did have the potential to be quite interesting, but I just got rather fed up.

Exit Wound

As promised, pretty much right after reading it. Okay, so maybe I didn't do quite so well with other books I've read recently, but it's a case of getting into a habit of blogging after reading.

Anyway, Exit Wound is brilliant. Fast paced action, featuring Nick Stone. It's the most recent thriller from Andy McNab, and it's well worth the read. I seem to have skipped out Brute Force, shall have to find that in the library. At the moment, I really cannot buy any more books. I have absolutely no space on any bookcase to fit them in, except slotted on top but that doesn't look very neat. I ramble. Nick Stone is a believable first person narrator, intriguing, not so shallow it may as well be third person, not so deep that you end up giving up because you can't understand the main character. Blunt, determined, authentic, Nick Stone narrates a gripping tale of espionage, dodgy dealings and revenge. The series just gets better and better. Unlike some thrillers you're not swamped with technology, terminology and acronyms. Instead, this highly readable book gives the bare bones of technical detail without being patronising, and allows the action and the plot to take centre stage. Up to date issues, realistic coverage of the war on terror, I guess this is what it felt like to read one of the 'classics' of the spy thriller genre when it first came out. Highly recommend it.

The Baa Baa Black Sheep Test

Ever wondered how jets are tested to be sure they'll stand up to stress? No, I can't say I have either. But apparently, the test is done by broadcasting baa baa black sheep and other nursery rhymes at high volume in a special test chamber. Why? Because one day, a technician got bored. It was originally done simply using a number of different frequencies, but after testing the aircraft fully, the technician decided to hook a microphone into the system. Testing testing worked just fine, but singing baa baa black sheep caused the wheel to fall off the jet. So now (according to my dad anyway, but he assures me that the person who told him this wasn't pulling his leg), the US military sings nursery rhymes to their jets to make sure they won't drop apart.

It's possible to make a computer crash... by rattling a plastic bag with coins in it over the keyboard.

On a Sunday afternoon, a bunch of air traffic controllers in Scotland managed to put their machine out of order for several months. They were having a competition to see who could push the most buttons at once.

Can you tell my dad's an engineer?

Hunting Party

Fox hunting and sci fi? Well, Elizabeth Moon brings it off brilliantly, to the extent that you wonder why you never thought of that combination before. In a word: fascinating.

Heris Serrano was forced to resign from the military. Now she has found herself new employment, as the captain of a space yacht for an eccentric elderly lady. The problem? The previous captain was incompetent, and up to something distinctly dodgy. He was not fired because of that, but instead because he took far too long to travel between planets, meaning Lady Cecelia de Marktos has to take her nephew and a handful of friends away on her yacht now they're persona non grata on the planet they had been living on. Forced to adjust to life away from the military, Serrano is determined to sharpen up the crew on the yacht, and then discovers that all is not as it seems on the apparently luxurious yacht. The interior decorator might have done a good job (at least in the eyes of some people...) but the yacht's vital systems are distinctly under-maintained. An amusing and fascinating book, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and will definitely be keeping an eye out for the rest of the series.

Highly recommended.

A Traitor to Memory

Disappointing. I didn't finish it, I couldn't be bothered to plow through and was quite annoyed that I'd wasted so much time to get half way through when it became clear that the plot was being stretched way beyond reasonable limits. I admit, I don't often read crime books any more, but on the basis of the other Elizabeth George books I've read, and the Inspector Lynley TV series, I figured this was worth a go. Especially because my mum reckoned the TV episode that followed the plot of this book was one of the best.

To be quite honest, the plot could have been quite fantastic. In fact, much of the book was fantastic. The problem was with the fact that the book had been seriously bulked out by the inclusion of the ramblings of a prodigy violinist who had lost his memory and possibly had something to do with the violent hit and run that killed his mother--a mother he had not seen since he went on tour aged 8 with his father and returned to find the house wiped clean of both her presence and that of his murdered little sister. Fair enough to include some from the perspective of the possible killer, but really, over half the chapters filled with his ramblings? It just got tedious and boring, and detracted from what could have been a fantastic plot, and quite an original and intriguing one too. Instead, the book dragged. It was almost as though Elizabeth George had two ideas and decided to just combine them into one book, but ended up giving neither the attention or interest value they deserved.

In short, a disappointing book that I couldn't bring myself to finish. Perhaps if you were to skip out all the chapters dealing with the whinings of a musically talented brat it might be a good read.

Land of Ghosts

When Paul Tallis is asked to go to Russia, or, more precisely, to Chechnya (is that spelt right?) he's not initially all that enthusiastic. Especially when he's told that he's going to pull out a spy who may or may not have 'gone native'. But that particular spy is his childhood friend, and Tallis finds himself launched into a deadly race to reach the spy before the attacks in Moscow escalate even further. Because if the British Intelligence Service is implicated, the international repercussions would be terrible.

Fast paced and engrossing, this book was as good as the blurb suggested. A spy thriller for the modern day, an interesting cast of characters, intriguing plot, gripping story telling. I don't know what else to say. For fans of James Bond, Robert Ludlum, Alistair MacLean, this really is a great spy story.

Mad Kestrel

As promised, I'm reviewing as soon as I've read this book. Nearly took it back to the library unread--I'd grabbed it last minute off the shelf and wasn't totally convinced. It was certainly worth reading. Not the best piece of fantasy I've ever read, but certainly a decent enough one. I was about to say it was good enough that I'll keep an eye out for others, but there are none. Just waiting for the author's website to load so I can see if there's anything in the pipeline.

Any rate, it was fantasy, but I would probably call it more of a pirate story than a dragon and magic sort of fantasy. (Hmm, the author's website would appear to be a blank white page...). Kes is a pirate with a secret. (Oh, it's come up now, and it seems there's only short stories other than Mad Kestrel, which is a shame. I don't really like short stories.) Anyway. Kes ran away to sea, to avoid being imprisoned and forced to work for the Danisoba, because she can use magic. And she's safe at sea, because most Danisoba--all, in fact--are severely weakened by water. Kes has never had that problem. Just an interesting note, I wonder what the magicians are supposed to drink if they can't go near liquid... Anyway, it's a reasonable tale. Her captain isn't who she thought he was, gets himself captured, there's a magic plant which offers fifty years without ageing, and a good deal of swashbuckling adventure. So if you're into pirates, Mad Kestrel is certainly worth looking into. It certainly kept my interest, and there were a couple of nice twists to the plot. If you happen to see it, most definitely worth a read. If not, well, it's probably not worth going to a great deal of trouble looking for. A good book, but more of an adventure story with a bit of magic thrown in than a 'proper' fantasy (then again, who am I to talk about proper fantasy, when the angels in my stories tend to go on missions on earth and most don't have magical powers???). At any rate, if you're into pirate stories, I can recommend this one. If you're more of a 'proper' fantasy fan, well, the magic didn't seem terribly thought through in how it all worked, although it was interesting to have it summoned by whistling/humming/singing. It was the whole water thing that got me--I once had a similar idea as a weakness for a dragon-like species, but realised that they would then dehydrate and die, and that rain would destroy them. Oh, I suppose they can hide inside, but it doesn't seem a great flaw to give a magician. Anyway, Kes didn't suffer from it, for reasons that were disclosed late in the book so I won't tell you why.

On a slightly different aside, why is it that books tend to focus on magic users who have a more than usual skill or a quirk that lets them use magic in a way that other people can't? Anyone know of any fantasy that focusses on someone who can't use magic all that well but isn't a satirical poke at some other book?

Any rate, Mad Kestrel was worth the time it took to read it, and was certainly enjoyable even if not the greatest thing I've ever read. But then, if every book was the greatest thing I'd ever read, then none of them would be...

No Mercy

Fantastic. I realised half way through that it was going to get a rave review, and the book just kept getting better and better. I nearly didn't read it as well! I wasn't sure if it was quite my kind of thing, but boy am I glad I picked it up at the library. Wow. Couldn't put it down, as in bursting for the loo but walked to the bathroom with book in front of my nose couldn't put it down. Tense, exciting, great action, great character... I realise it's starting to sound as though I like every book I read, but if I don't like them they tend to get abandoned a few chapters in and go back to the library, and hence don't get reviewed... Anyway.

Jonathan Grave. An expert in hostage rescue, who operates outside the law. The nearest character I can think of to compare him to would be Scott Mariani's Ben Hope, but they do have significant differences. Grave is a somewhat darker, more mysterious character, with enough personal details slipped in to bring him to life, but enough excluded to leave you begging for more. The plot is fantastic. You'd think there were only so many permutations of terrorist + biological weapons + shady government dealings that you could find, but John Gilstrap proves that there's always one more you haven't thought of.

It's a fairly standard mission for Grave, even if it does end more messily than he'd like. The hostage is safe, the kidnappers all dead. Nobody, including the hostage, knows who he is, and the cops should draw their own conclusions and not put too much effort into finding him. Until Grave's ex-wife is tortured and murdered, and the man who she loved is discovered, also tortured. And Grave gets a message in the post, a film of the negotiations between the kidnappers and the victims parents, just in case he didn't succeed. Trouble is, Grave discovers, the kidnappers didn't want money. The boss of the kidnappers was after secrets, or, more specifically, after a deadly bioweapon that he's already promised to an African warlord. And Grave had reckoned without a sheriff determined to obey her promise to uphold the law, regardless of weather the murders were committed to rescue a hostage or not.

Tense, exciting, leaves me in no doubt that I'll be after the next as soon as it comes out.

The Cult of Osiris

Okay, I'm so far behind with book reviews it's actually ridiculous. However, I shall do what I can to catch up, and I shall make a determined effort to review everything I read as close to when I read it as possible. So I didn't actually read this book all that long ago, but it's easy to start with the titles and authors I remember off the top of my head and then go fishing up library records.

So, The Cult of Osiris. My only complaint: it finished. And it finished at a most inconvenient time for me too, as I was sat in the dentist waiting for paperwork to be ready to sign so that I could go home. But I'll tell you this now, the Eddie Chase/Nina Wilde (not sure which character has the official title of the series, I think it depends where you look) series just gets better and better. I mean, I thought the first four books were action packed, with interesting characters (especially Eddie and his dozens of friends who happen to be female scattered across the globe), but this one outdid them all. Corrupt government officials, an interesting legend to prove (and one that I'd not heard of before too, which is a definite bonus as there are, let's face it, quite a few books out there with tales of discovering Atlantis in them), great action, and a diabolical plot to foil. All in a day's work in your average archaeological thriller (and if it isn't a genre, there's enough books I've read that'd fit in that it should be), but the quality of the writing is great. I am torn, I don't think I could say it's my out and out favourite in the genre, because David Gibbins is ace too, but I have to say, it's probably better than the most recent Matthew Reilly. And since I'm quite a fan of his... Basically, the book delivered even better than I thought it would. I mean, the others have been great and I've got them all, but I hadn't bought this one. Half because I'm currently pretty skint and going to uni next year so don't want to start buying loads of books, half because I wasn't sure it was going to be as good as the others. I mean, how many interesting legends can you 'prove'? But this one proved to be better than ever. Now I just have to wait for the next one to come out.

Victory Conditions

Okay, so I kinda ended up skipping book four because I couldn't find it and I was pretty keen to read more from this series. But wow. This book was fantastic. I mean, I don't read that much sci-fi (okay, I suppose I have written a fair few reviews of sci-fi, but honestly, I normally go for thrillers), but this has gotta be in the top ranks of the genre. It's thrilling, it's engaging, it's engrossing, it's full of personal detail about the characters, it's got a fantastic range of societies, it's got brilliant action scenes, it's... Yeh, basically anything good about sci-fi goes in that spot. My main complaint is that it finished :(. I ran out of book. It was perfectly understandable despite not having read any other than the third (five book series), although I do feel like I missed out a bit by not reading it. Hope to rectify that problem asap, but the libraries round here don't seem all that keen on fantasy/sci-fi. The characters are brilliant, from Rafe, struggling to appear respectable and hold down a job as CEO of a major company, despite his wild streak, to Ky Vatta, admiral of a multi-planetary force, determined, set on vengeance, skilled leader, through Toby (young, in love, and a technical genius), Stella (Ky's cousin, head of Vatta Enterprises) and on... One other particularly deserving of mention would be Teddy Ransome. From a planet where the people go through stages before becoming an adult, he's introduced as a Romantic, an adventurer, a wild, impulsive man with a strong sense of honour, but he shifts while in space travel and suddenly finds himself more morose and sensible. Brilliant.

Highly recommended, and I'll most definitely be looking out from other books by this author.

Engaging the Enemy

Just realised I hadn't actually reviewed this book already. It's the third in the Vatta's War trilogy, and boy is it good. Believable sci-fi, with a fantastic plot and all those little details that create an alternate reality to escape into. The Vatta empire is under threat, Ky Vatta one of the only family members who remains alive. More, the communications network supposed to provide real-time communications across the vast distances of space (too big to be aboard a ship), are out in parts. So while Ky and her cousin Stella try to not only stay alive, but begin to run their trading business once more, other members of the family are still under threat. A thrilling novel, full of fantastic societies, gripping action, and spell-binding intrigue.

On a slightly different, but related note: the author's name, Elizabeth Moon. Is that not the best name for a sci-fi writer to have? And from what I can see, it's not even a pseudonym... Just thought I couldn't leave that without comment.

Seriously though, I highly recommend this book. Haven't read the ones that come before, but if they're anything like this one... Ky Vatta is a brilliant character, as are Stella and Toby and Rafe and... I could go on. However, for anyone who's into the whole sci-fi/fantasy thing, I can't recommend this enough. And for anyone who isn't... You don't know what you're missing out on :)

Death Train

Based on a film script by Alastair MacLean, this is a fantastic book. Although you can kinda tell it's not an Alastair MacLean, cos one of the main characters is female *shocked gasp!*. And she's not just a pretty face, a damsel in distress, a femme fatale, or any of those cliches that you tend to find in older thrillers. She's got a brain, she uses it, and she's an integral part of UNACO. The United Nations Anti-Crime Organisation becomes aware that six kegs of plutonium, one damaged, are being shipped around Europe. A fascinating hunt ensues. All the drama you'd expect from an Alastair MacLean, but with even more interesting and well-developed characters than usual. Plenty of twists, plenty of action, plenty of intrigue. Kinda seems mean that Alastair MacNeill didn't get to put his name a bit bigger on the cover, given that he was the person who actually [I]wrote[/I] it, but there you go. I couldn't put it down, a great book that I highly recommend.

This Body of Death

Another gripping novel from Elizabeth George. An out of town cop has been brought in to head Inspector Lynley's old group, but struggles to make headway, particularly with Havers. Scruffy, unconventional, determined to go off her own way, Havers is everything Isabelle Ardery isn't. And Ardery is determined to change her. This novel weaves skilfully between a fascinating murder case and a rather amusing shopping trip, bringing out the characters fantastically. Even if you're not much of a crime lover, this book is well worth the read for the sheer brilliance of the characters, and a plot that will send shivers down your spine. Addressing the issues posed by young murderers along with creating a brilliant atmosphere and drawing you in to the story, I highly recommend 'This Body of Death'. A gripping must read.