Book review: Die Trying by Lee Child

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Description:
When a woman is kidnapped off a Chicago street in broad daylight, Jack Reacher’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s kidnapped with her. Chained together and racing across America toward an unknown destination, they’re at the mercy of a group of men demanding an impossible ransom. Because Reacher’s female companion is worth more than he imagines. Now he has to save them both—from the inside out—or die trying…

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Review:
Last year, I read the first Jack Reacher novel, Killing Floor, and  thoroughly enjoyed it. It'd been a long time since I found a new thriller that I liked so much, and now I plan to read the rest of the books in the series. Die Trying is the second Jack Reacher book, and it's as good as the first.

As a protagonist, Jack Reacher reminds me a little of Dirk Pitt from the Clive Cussler novels, before Pitt became a caricature and Clive started adding himself to his books. He's infinitely capable but is low-key about it. He's like a bomb that's harmless if you leave alone but will do a lot of damage if you mess around with him.

Like Killing Floor, Die Trying is written concisely with short sentences, lending to the plot's already fast pace. I found myself absorbed in the book for long stretches at a time without being aware that an hour had passed. (Yes, reading uninterrupted for an hour is a long time for me, but that's another discussion.)

For those who are sensitive to violence, this book probably isn't for you. Or if you're the type who tends to criticize how unbelievable the things that a Dirk Pitt or a James Bond can do, then you'll find fault with this novel too. I, for one, am happy to suspend my belief for these types of stories, so I thought it was a very entertaining book.

I read this book as part of the Authors A to Z reading challenge. Next up: The Kill Order by James Dashner.

Edits done on third novel

I'm done with the rounds of self-editing that I plan to make on my latest novel! It was probably a combination of thinking the manuscript was in good shape and my getting sick and tired of editing that made me stop. Seriously, although I enjoy writing, I don't like the editing process. Besides, based on my experience with my previous books, I've found that each subsequent round of editing leads to diminishing returns because any major flaws that I'm able to find on my own have been found by the second or third round of edits. Now it's time to hand the manuscript off to proofreaders and let other pairs of eyes go over it. So I've got a little bit of a break to work on something else before it's time to revisit this story again. There are already a couple of short stories I've been wanting to write but haven't had time to. Now I get to play, in the writing sense, of course.

Book review: Outpost by Ann Aguirre

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Description:

Deuce’s whole world has changed. Down below, she was considered an adult. Now, topside in a town called Salvation, she’s a brat in need of training in the eyes of the townsfolk. She doesn’t fit in with the other girls: Deuce only knows how to fight.

To make matters worse, her Hunter partner, Fade, keeps Deuce at a distance. Her feelings for Fade haven’t changed, but he seems not to want her around anymore. Confused and lonely, she starts looking for a way out.

Deuce signs up to serve in the summer patrols—those who make sure the planters can work the fields without danger. It should be routine, but things have been changing on the surface, just as they did below ground. The Freaks have grown smarter. They’re watching. Waiting. Planning. The monsters don’t intend to let Salvation survive, and it may take a girl like Deuce to turn back the tide.

Rating: 5 stars (out of 5)

Review:
Outpost is the sequel to Enclave, a novel I read last year. I gave Enclave 5 stars, but Outpost is even better!

Whereas the first book focused on Deuce's journey topside and was more of an awakening in terms of her experiencing new external environments, this book explores Deuce's internal awakening as a person. Once considered a grownup and a Huntress, in the beginning of Outpost, most of the other characters view Deuce as a child who doesn't fit in. As she learns to find her place in Salvation, she also learns what her relationship to Fade means.

Ann Aguirre does a wonderful job of mixing action with character development. There are happy events and tragedies, and both ends of the spectrum are written effectively. There is also the dreaded love triangle, but even that is handled better than in many other YA books I've read.

It's hard to say more about this novel without spoiling the details, but let's just say that I was sad when the book ended. I can't wait for book 3!

Book review: The Reapers are the Angels by Alden Bell

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Description:

Zombies have infested a fallen America. A young girl named Temple is on the run. Haunted by her past and pursued by a killer, Temple is surrounded by death and danger, hoping to be set free.

For twenty-five years, civilization has survived in meager enclaves, guarded against a plague of the dead. Temple wanders this blighted landscape, keeping to herself and keeping her demons inside her heart. She can't remember a time before the zombies, but she does remember an old man who took her in and the younger brother she cared for until the tragedy that set her on a personal journey toward redemption. Moving back and forth between the insulated remnants of society and the brutal frontier beyond, Temple must decide where ultimately to make a home and find the salvation she seeks. 

Rating: 3 stars (out of 5)

Review:
Part zombie story and part literary fiction, reading The Reapers are the Angels reminded me of reading books like Huckleberry Finn and Of Mice and Men in English class. In other words, the writing style didn't work for me. It's not what I want in a zombie novel.

Some reviews praised the writing, and while I can see why some people liked it, I personally found it to detract from the story. I've read books where the author misspells words or doesn't use correct punctuation on purpose. When it works, like in Moira Young's Blood Red Road, it's because the story is told in first person point of view and it sounds like the main character narrating to you. In this case, the story is told in third person point of view, and I didn't understand why the author chose to write this way except that he thought he was being clever.

The book wasn't all bad though. If you can get past the writing, there's an interesting story among all of the words. For zombie fans, there's some violence and gore that is typical of the genre. Temple was also a character that I could have liked if the book was written differently. She had some depth and nuances that made her compelling but not very sympathetic to me.

Overall, if you like literary fiction and want to try a zombie book, this might be for you. However, if you're looking for a straight-up entertaining story about zombies, I recommend Jonathan Maberry's Rot & Ruin series or Mira Grant's Newsflesh Trilogy instead.

I read this book as part of the Authors A to Z reading challenge. Next up: Die Trying by Lee Child.

Done with first draft

This week, I completed the first draft of my newest novel in progress! After a slow start, I made great progress over the Christmas holidays and finished ahead of my original goal of February. More so than with the first two novels I wrote, this story spoke to me while I was writing it. There were times when it felt like a voice inside my head was reading the story to me, and my job was simply to write it down as quickly as possible. Either I was in "the zone" as a writer, or I need psychiatric help. :-) Because of how easy parts of the book came to me, I was able to really churn through it in the last two weeks of December. That, combined with having a break from my full-time job, allowed me to write more than I'd ever done in a 2-week period.

I hope that my bouts of inspiration also meant that this book will be better than any story I've written before. There were certainly times when I felt that what I was writing at the moment was brilliant, but then there were other times when I looked back on what I wrote and considered it to be rubbish. So who knows? Now I start the unenviable task of (multiple rounds of) editing. I'll soon find out if what I've written is worthy of being read by another person. But for now, I'm glad to be done with the first major milestone in novel #3.

Book review: Feed by M. T. Anderson

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Description:
For Titus and his friends, it started out like any ordinary trip to the moon - a chance to party during spring break and play with some stupid low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie around with nothing inside their heads for days. And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful, brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize human thoughts and desires. Following in the footsteps of George Orwell, Anthony Burgess, and Kurt Vonnegut Jr., M. T. Anderson has created a not-so-brave new world — and a smart, savage satire that has captivated readers with its view of an imagined future that veers unnervingly close to the here and now.

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

Review:
Feed started with a bang. I loved the world it took place in, the way the characters talked, what they did, and how they thought. It was a dystopian world that I could really get into. Without hammering it into our heads, the author showed us a world that we could realistically live in one day if we continue on the path we're on now. I thought it was almost prescient that a book published in 2002 predicted how wired our lives are and also how digital advertising tries to target every consumer in cyberspace.

Then, about halfway through, the author lost his way. The narrator started talking like a normal person, not the futuristic, shallow, Feed-controlled teen he was at the beginning of the book. Maybe the author was trying to show his character developing into a "normal" person? If so, it didn't quite work for me.

Feed tries to be a satire in the vain of A Brave New World or 1984, but in the second half of the book, I found the message to be too preachy. The interactions between Titus and Violet lost their charm, and their conversations sounded more like lessons than a story.

Taken separately, I'd give the first half of the book 5 stars and the second half 3 stars, for an average of 4 stars overall.

Note: there's a good deal of profanity in this book. Don't read it if you're easily offended by the s-word and f-word.

I read this book as part of the Authors A to Z reading challenge. Next up: The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell.

Authors A to Z reading challenge

In 2013, I am taking on a reading challenge that I call "Authors A to Z." During the course of the year, I will read 26 books written by 26 authors, each of whom have last names beginning with a different letter of the alphabet, starting with an author whose last name begins with A and finishing with one whose last name begins with Z. (I'm nervous about finding an author with a last name starting with X. Any suggestions?) Some of them will be authors I know with books already on my TBR pile, but I expect to read new authors who I wouldn't have chosen to read if not for this challenge.

As I read each book, I will also post a review, so that's a minimum of 26 book reviews this year. Because I'm reviewing every book in the challenge, I will likely break my rule of only posting reviews of books that are 4 or 5 stars. The rule still applies to reviews for books that I read outside of the challenge.

Excited? Want to join me in your own Authors A to Z reading challenge?

Let's get started! The first book in the challenge is: Feed by M.T. Anderson.