Linda Likes to Learn

CAN'T BELIEVE I GOT 'HOOKED' ON A SPACE OPERA!

Revisado: 08-17-21

There are six books in this series - and I still don't believe I actually read - and enjoyed! - all of them. I've never been a big fan of science fiction. I'm not a Star Wars fan. Blazing laser guns don't 'do it' for me. Alien worlds are just that - 'alien' - even though I delight in 'alien-like' beings in paranormal and 'horror' novels. Maybe it's just a preference for 'earth' vs 'off-world'. But, occasionally, when all other 'just released' book offerings have nothing of interest, I can be persuaded - by a catchy title or an interesting bit of cover art - to check out a book's premise.

I usually pass over 'series' books. I want a book to be the whole story - beginning, middle and end - without having to subject myself to more reading time to satisfy all my questions. I was just going to read 'one' book in the series. I had enjoyed the author's latest book, and thought I'd see how he handled other 'less worldly' topics. It is certainly a compliment to the author's personality, as it carried through to his characters, that enticed me to read this 6-book series.

I had just finished "The Wizard's Butler: The Wizard's Butler, Book 1", by Nathan Lowell - and found it a fun and interesting read. Great characters. The main character's position as butler was well-researched, making the history of the house and his position in it more believable. The premise immediately caught my imagination, as something I hadn't 'seen' before. There was just enough of the paranormal to be 'real world believable', and a few 'fairy' house keepers were added to the mix for good measure.

Throughout all of the 'Share' books, Lowell presented real people in situations that we all have known. His phenomenal research (or perhaps acquired knowledge) of topics from the proper way to make a good cup to coffee, to how to clean the sludge from air filters, kept me believing each adventure, and wanting more. I was amused at the wry humor that often popped up, and fascinated by the 'out of the box' thinking that the main character displayed. Who would imagine that a crew-sponsored 'flea market' booth would prompt a 'cottage industry' aboard ship? These were real people doing real, everyday things that made a 'strange situation' (traveling in space on a freighter, for weeks), much more real for me. But, it wasn't just 'ho-hum everyday life aboard ship'. Character relationships, mysteries and challenges took the stories down unfamiliar paths, even ending in a corporate life or death fight for control.

Throughout the series, the main character maintained his leadership qualities - transforming 'problem crew members' into people worthy of a better life. It was the author's sense of 'right wins over might' that induced me to continue following his fascinating story, and I ended up with a sense of well-being for the trip. I'm not sure if I'll read his other 'spacier' books. But for a person who dislikes sci-fi, I certainly enjoyed these books!

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TOO MUCH TECHNO-BABBLE, TOO LITTLE STORY

Revisado: 08-17-21

If you are a computer nerd, a techno-geek - a person who takes delight in flaunting your expensive education by debating the question of 'What is Life', you'll probably love this book. If you love listening to the reading of a Google search - line by boring line - this book is for you. If you want an interesting read about interesting people doing interesting things - look elsewhere. I'm several hours into this 'book', and can't relate to anyone or anything in it. The main character is a self-proclaimed techy wizard who is lacking in socialization skills, it would seem, from his near isolation in an academic world of high-flung phrases and philosophic arguments. Does ANYONE outside of the academic world really talk like this - even dangling the 'unanswerable question' as a pickup line? I don't know about you, but when I'm reading FICTION, I want to be enticed to read more - able to see the characters in my mind - wondering what will happen in the next chapter. So far, I don't even want to read the next PARAGRAPH - much less the next chapter. But, I have slogged on -- hoping that there will be a major 'light bulb moment' when the author relents and begins to write a story with a plot, 'real' people as characters, and puppeteers all these things in a world that doesn't resemble the matrix with a constant stream of data overlying it.

The 'female lead' is not quite as bad - but runs a close second, with at least a little 'female think' to make her more a part of the 'real world'. Both characters are involved in a quest for a copy of a manuscript that was written many years ago, then believed to have been destroyed. It's content is thought to be 'earth shaking' - with answers to all the questions that mere mortals have been unable to discover. An interesting premise - that I bought in to...but I'm several chapters into this ?fictional? work, and can't shake the feeling that I am actually reading a manual on "How To Search the Internet For Artfully Hidden Things".

Don't misunderstand. I'm college educated and not 'afraid of a few big words'. But exchanging techno-babble for a good plot is not a reason for me to keep on 'reading'. Maybe that's the basic problem with this 'book': 0101010101010 will always remain undecipherable to we 'deplorables' that don't write software code for a living. We need a few 'action verbs' and real emotions to get sucked into a REAL WORK OF FICTION. The editor must have been on vacation when this 'book manuscript' turned up - or she/he would surely have cut all the boring line-by-line search engine recitations, and gone immediately to the action - and believability. It may be that, midway somewhere, the writing becomes humanized enough to be mesmerizing. But I won't commit any more time to listening, waiting, and hoping. Thank heaven that Audible allows 'returns'!

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STARTED 3 TIMES, COULDN'T GET PAST CHAP 29

Revisado: 04-09-21

I struggled and struggled to like this book - to just SEMI-VISUALIZE the world that I kept 'bribing' myself to just 'read one more chapter' - but I could not get involved in the story - the characters - and the fluctuating premise. It was like a horrendous combination of Alice in Wonderland meets the Satanic Empire. I expected strange characters and landscapes - but there just never seemed to be enough DESCRIPTION of the walking & talking oddities that kept turning up 'en masse'. You need to take a really extreme pledge to just keep reading and hope that eventually your 'inner eye' will finally open so you can see what is happening. The plot is simply covered with 'strangeness', but it occasionally pops back into sight to 'keep you on the right track' - then veers off again with introduction of another mind-boggling oddity. After making THREE attempts to start it again, I never got past chapter 29. I couldn't remember what I had 'read' the evening before, I'd have to re-read part of it to 'remember' what I'd read before. That is NOT the way one should enjoy a book. Premise was reasonable - friends go on a quest and weird things happen along the way. But when the 'super star satanic villain' houses himself in a humongous elephant whose innards have been redecorated to suit the new owner, I decided to bail...not like the character (who had a 'private exit' through the elephant's anal 'slide'). I should have stopped reading when the somehow alive talking head of Napoleon appeared - and sometimes disappeared. Perhaps it will someday appear as a film - which might attract more interest. Sad to have to return it - it seemed so promising when I read the description.

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enjoyed it all from start to finish ywizsts and

Revisado: 02-04-21

enjoyed it all from start to finish
ywizsts and exciting fascinating fun SURPRISED irritated writing

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Black Ops in detail.

Revisado: 02-07-20

Fast moving, hard to put down. This lady reviewer enjoyed the Bond-ish action & intrigue.

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High speed page turner

Revisado: 07-19-19

Enough detail to make it believable, but there are a few scenes that were too 'coincidental'. Recommended.

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Tom Foolery you can't imagine for the Victorians

Revisado: 06-23-19

Thought this would be a bit of silliness that would soon get tiresome. Wrong. More imagination than you can dream of- and most it outrageously true. Fun read if you are not above a little eyebrow raising.

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Not many surprises but interesting.

Revisado: 04-29-19

Interesting story with only a few twists that aren't too predictable. Characters seemed realistic and engaging, especially the main character "Noah", who was not quite as 'odd' as advertised. Would definitely recommend as an easy read that doesn't require much thought. Narrator was good.

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BEST BOOK I'VE 'READ' IN MONTHS!

Revisado: 04-10-19

Don't ever take for granted what direction the plot seems to be taking - you'll guess wrong most of the time. Pay attention to each little nuance and you may begin to anticipate what's happening next. Great action, characters, settings, and narration (though Brick should slow down a bit. He seems to be rushing so he can start narrating his next book...at the very least, take a couple of breaths between chapters! Loved it all - could hardly bear to put it down long enough to perform tasks in the real world!

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FAILED COMBO - DETECTIVE/PARANORMAL/CONSPIRACY

Revisado: 03-14-19

Maybe I should have read a bit more about this book - before I clicked 'buy'. The idea of a detective story, with a paranormal element, interested me - as I had just watched a British movie "Harry Price: Ghost Hunter" on Amazon Prime (which takes place in the 1940's - and was also a Brit TV series) So, I was interested in this 'paranormal detective' concept - enjoying the 'Alienist' (series) aspect.

What I discovered is a mish-mash of characters and situations that look as if the author had decided to use sure-fire selling tags: 'detective', 'paranormal' and 'conspiracy theory' to create a plot. While this may have worked quite well with another author, this book just continued down a rabbit hole - spiraling into "What did he say?" "Who said that?" and "Surely he isn't going to go THERE with the plot -- too transparent!"

Maybe it was the 'narrator' - and I use the term loosely. He didn't 'narrate', he 'read'. It was difficult to tell one character from another - no real 'acting' to speak of. He was just off-putting from the start with his voice, his accent, and his 'method'.

Then there was the title: "Junk". What do you first think of when you hear that word? Spoiler alert: It wasn't 'them'. It refers to what Vikings used to create a place in Valhalla - 'junk' DNA ' and, I think, a 'junk' plot.

The story is about a detective who goes on a search for a missing girl, finds her dead, and discovers she was murdered by a very strange black-eyed bunch of 'Plusses' who may well remind you of 'gangs'...but think "bigger"... cloak them with a governmental alphabet name....you get the idea. Then we find that the real reason for the drama is that the "13 ruling families of the world" are dying (Hooray!) - because their long-abused genes are so screwed up with hundreds of years of inbreeding. (That part was believable.) But, determined to continue to rule the world, they're in search of a 'cure' to survive long enough to see their complete governance of the entire world. (Conspiracy theorists should find this a bit appealing, at least.)

When the plot thickens with the addition of witches and other 'real human paranormals', it started to get a little messy -- finally ending in a conflagration that may - or may not - have been an end to our protagonist. But - waiting in the wings - is a world-saving young woman who just happens to also be schizophrenic, and, of course, a 'seer'. She awakens the world's suppressed..... Well, you can figure out the rest.

The thing that most irritated me about this book was that - if you happen to believe in conspiracies - it come as close to the 'truth' as could possibly be admitted without suspiciously ending up with an early-age heart attack. Guess you can't blame an author for wanting to stick around long enough to write another book. But, I'd found it much more interesting - and maybe even more entertaining, if he hadn't mucked up the story with all the other 'distractions'. Let's just hope he picks a more believable topic - better characters - and is assigned a heckuva lot better narrator - next time.

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