OYENTE

Dubi

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There's Gold in Them There Hills -- and Computers

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-03-25

What happened to all the gold the Japanese hid in bunkers in The Philippines during World War II? And the Nazi gold stashed in banks in Luxembourg that was used to finance covert post-war activities? And the bitcoin locked away in blockchain in who knows where? These questions propel Cotton Malone in The Atlas Maneuver, catalyzed by a chance reunion with an old flame who coincidentally is the person (fictional, not IRL) who invented bitcoin.

I have to admit, despite being a work of fiction, I learned more about bitcoin and blockchain from Steve Berry that I have ever learned before, and I tried to learn about it before but was, as most people are, seriously confused (and I'm a former computer professional, imagine how much more confusing it is to a non-techie). This is one of the few Berry books where the present-day mystery / mcguffin is more interesting than the historical mystery / mcguffin.

Another plus compared to recent Cotton Malone stories is the elevated presence of Cassiopeia Vitt. Even though they pursue separate plot threads, it's refreshing to have her work the mysteries alongside Cotton. Scott Brick's narration is not as much of a distraction as usual, but I just can't give him five stars, I am just so turned off by the sound of his voice even when he performs well.

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The Story

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-03-25

There's always a risk in writing your memoir at too young of an age, but then that runs counter to the risk of waiting too long and maybe having faded from memory. Brandi Carlile has chosen an almost perfect moment, at the (current) height of her fame but at the start of the covid pandemic when she and her broader collection of family and bandmates have retreated to a family compound. And also a time when she has come to work with some of her biggest influences, like Elton John and Joni Mitchell.

As with so many biographies of successful musicians, the most compelling part of the story (for me at least) is their childhood, which is almost by definition the part of their lives that we know least about if we've been following them during their professional years in the public eye. Brandi's childhood was filled with so many interesting developments, beginning with her unorthodox family life, her youthful illness that nearly killed her, her coming out as a teenager against the currents of her community, and her early entry into the world of singing.

What's missing for me, as a huge fan of her music and as a musician myself, is the kind of deeper dive into her artistic process. With only a few exceptions, she doesn't really get into the background of her music making. Likewise her issues with performance anxiety and the drug dependencies that developed because of that. The solution to her problem seems rather far fetched.

The best part of the audio edition is the music she recorded for the end of each chapter, a song or two that echoes what was in the preceding chapter, whether her original songs like The Story and The Joke or covers like the one that launched her connection to Elton John, Honky Cat. These are stripped down acoustic versions that make the entire endeavor seem like a long form version of Audible's Words+Music series. If you're a fan, this is reason enough to listen to the audio edition.

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Who's On First?

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-03-25

In his last outing, Neal Carey learns who's on first -- I don't know, third base! Tasked with bringing aging Vegas comedian Nathan Silverstein home, Neal hears every bad joke and tall tale the old codger ever told as Don Rickles, er, Nate Silver. That includes not only how he taught Lou Costello his signature comedy routine, but the whole story around it.

There's a mystery revolving around why Silver doesn't want to go home that brings in a few other crazy characters. It doesn't amount to much, but that's hardly the point. This is about a classic road trip / buddy movie, the young guy / straight man saddled with wise old wise-cracking war horse, learning a thing or three along the way.

Don Winslow went on to write some long, weighty volumes about criminals and cartels and con men. But his early work with the Carey series, lighter though it is, is still worth revisiting.

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Revenge Tour

Total
5 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
5 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-03-25

Serge wants to bring Democrats and Republicans together. He wants to continue to punish scam artists who prey on the weak. And he wants to find the assassin who killed his girlfriend, unaware that that self-same assassin has returned to try to kill him. Serge is so busy in fact that he has little time to indulge in his other passion, taking Coleman (and us readers) on a tour of the most obscure locales in his beloved Florida.

There have been entries in Tim Dorsey's long series of Serge Storms travelogue / murder spree books in which the travelogue takes perhaps too large of a role to his build-a-better-mousetrap revenge killings. Not this time. Serge is in rare form, as is Oliver Wyman in giving him his manic voice (as well as Coleman's laid-back pothead drawl). If you're a fan of Dorsey's comic adrenaline-fueled Florida crime fiction, this is for you, and there's plenty more that came before and after.

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Abby Goes From Normal to Vampire and Back

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-03-25

In the third and final entry in his vampire series, Christopher Moore elevates goth girl / vampire minion Abby Normal to lead character, and it's even more hilarious than You Suck, book 2 in which she made her debut. At least half the book is first person POV in Abby's teenage Valley Girl patter which is as perfectly written by the middle-aged male author as it is voiced in the audio edition for the second straight volume by Susan Bennett.

What is this all about? Really no point trying to summarize it. All the vampires in San Francisco along with all the characters that have gravitated to them are back, triggered by a pack of hangry vampire cats. I honestly couldn't follow what was happening to all of them, nor does it really matter. All I really wanted was to get through whatever chapter I was listening to so that I could get to the next Abby Normal chapter.

I have to always add the caveat that I am not a fan of vampire lit (or film or TV). But a send-up like this, doesn't matter what the subject is, Moore almost always nails it. In reviewing past entries I had to compare it to True Blood. Now, a more apt point of comparison has come along, What We Do in the Shadows. Different style of humor, different era, but also a lot of similarities, most importantly the simple fact that they are both just laugh out loud funny.

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Do We Really Want Dexter to be in the Dark?

Total
3 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-02-25

In his third go round, Dexter is preparing to get married, dealing with the presence of dark passengers within his soon-to-be stepchildren, and trying to help his hopelessly irascible sister deal with the latest serial killer stalking the streets of Miami. This time, it's a brutal killer who burns and beheads the young girls that are his/her victims.

On top of all that, Dexter has to deal with being abandoned by his own dark passenger, who has seemingly fled in fright of this new serial killer. Having tried so hard to pretend to be a real person, Dexter has to suddenly be an actual real person. And still try to find the killer.

The revelations behind of all this, which I will not spoil, are so off the reservation for the Dexter series, that the producers of the TV version chose not to use it. I didn't care for it either, especially since a crucial clue requires everyone, from Dexter to the killer, to forget that not all languages are read from left to right, some go up and down or right to left. Major mistake.

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Taylor Reid is Back

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
3 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 04-02-25

Evelyn Hugo got the movie star treatment, Daisy Jones was a rock star. Next up for Taylor Jenkins Reid is the sports star, the GOAT of women's tennis, Carrie Soto. Having retired after knee surgery, Carrie comes back at age 37 to try to reclaim her record of most Grand Slam titles from the current superstar who just tied her.

Through the year's four major tournaments in 1995, Carrie figures out whether she can win again -- on the court of course but also off the court where she has been no fan favorite and a media whipping "boy" for her seemingly ruthless devotion to winning at all costs, and where she has foregone love and friendship for fear of losing her competitive edge.

The only meaningful relationship of her life has been with her father-coach, former Argentinian tennis star Javier the Jaguar, who has instilled in her the drive for greatness that still propels her through life. But once she starts her comeback, she also discovers that Bowe, her hitting partner and one-time one-night stand, a men's star in his own right, has feelings for her.

So how does this story sink to three stars? Because all of the above takes a back seat to a nearly play-by-play recitation of the actual tennis being played during Carrie's comeback, because there is little drama other than the outcome of the final slam (the prior three end rather predictably), and because there are too many iterations of the father-daughter arguments over whether winning is everything or winning is almost everything.

But if you're like me, a big enough tennis fan that you watch almost all of the major tournaments, men's and women's, early rounds as well as late rounds, the tennis itself is expertly written and the inner competitiveness of the characters is authentic. And if like me romance novels are not really your thing, you might even be relieved that the romance angle takes up so little space.

There is as well the theme of how women are treated professionally and in the media and by fans, compared to men, as second class citizens. Especially if they are as successful as Carrie Soto, if they are as driven as Carrie Soto, and if they try to defy aging and expectations the way Carrie does. That this is still a timely theme in 2025 (maybe even more timely than before) is mind boggling.

Most of all, as with Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones, you'll spend most of your time while reading trying to figure out who the real life inspirations are for the tennis players are -- Carrie is clearly based heavily on Serena Williams but not completely, likewise Bowe's resemblance to John McEnroe. TJR has clearly hit upon a great formula to keep people interested in her superstar characters.

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Underappreciated Prophetic Novel

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
5 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 02-22-25

OMG, how has Wanderers not become a sensation? Published in 2019, Chuck Wendig predicted with remarkable accuracy many aspects of the coming Covid pandemic as well as the 6/6 insurrection led by white supremacist militias. Thankfully he was wrong about the worst of his predictions, but still, in hindsight, he was amazingly spot on. Granted, as one of his characters says when being praised for accurately predicting the book's fictional pandemic, it wasn't hard, it was inevitable.

There is very little plot, which is why I'm not going all in with five stars -- either give us more momentum to get us through 32+ hours, or edit out at least half of the exposition and repetition. What plot there is: people suddenly set out on a relentless march with some inscrutable purpose, shepherded by loved ones concerned for their well being, accompanied by CDC epidemiologists trying to figure out what's happening, hounded by both government and right wing extremists.

And all the while being observed by the powerful predictive artificial intelligence being used by the CDC folks.

The ultimate explanations are satisfying, the outcomes maybe less so because they become increasingly extreme. The POV characters are good -- the sister of the original wanderer, the main CDC scientist, a faded rock star hoping to reclaim his fame, a pastor seduced by the forces of xenophobia, a former police officer drawn to the flock of wanderers despite not having her own loved ones among them, and more, many more in the space of 32 hours of minimally plotted narrative.

But the best part, going hand in hand with the prophecy of pandemic and insurrection, is the subtext, so pronounced it's hard to call it subtext. The best speculative fiction says as much about contemporary issues as it does about the fictional world it builds, best done as subtext. That way you can choose to read the story at face value, or you can look for the metaphor and allegory about the real world.

The subtext of Wanderers is so thinly veiled that there is no veil. There is no doubt who President Creel is. The right wing distrust and hatred of the flock of wanderers and the scientists echoes the real life hatred of liberals, immigrants, educated "elites", establishment politics, the whole gamut of the grievance-industrial complex. If that's your thing, don't read this, it will give you one more grievance to add to your list.

Bravo, Chuck! You should get more recognition for what you've accomplished here. Of course, the current state of the union as I write this in early 2025 makes it all that much more difficult to digest. I am interested to see where you take this world in your follow-up, Wayward, published when the current situation seemed unfathomable.

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Early Hiaasen Lacks Humor But Tells a Good Story

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-23-25

Carl Hiaassen's first work of fiction, co-written with Bill Montalbano, as were all three of his first three novels. Drug cartels have become cliche this many years later, but when this book was written in 1981, they were just getting started, as one can tell in one of the sub-plots where Colombian cocaine suppliers begin exploring the economics of cartels.

I wrote a college paper around this time on the economics of the drug trade, focusing on the tax consequences of allowing it to remain illegal. I missed out on several ancillary aspects, such as the economics of law enforcement and the prison system, to name two that draw much of their financing from the illegality of drugs.

This book explores other aspects, primarily political, and also supply chain issues. I guess I was naive as a college student thinking it was just morality versus taxes.

But the reason this book works is because of its protagonist, Chris Meadows, a Miami architect who gets caught up in a war between the Colombians and Cubans as these economic issues begin to play out. He goes from naive and moralistic to jaded -- and very cleverly learns to deal with those from all sides, including LE, who have dragged him into the middle of this war.

Though lacking in Hiaasen's trademark absurdity and humor that would manifest itself in most of his solo outings, Powder Burn is a worthy starting point in his career, as long as readers remind themselves of its publication date when presented with the material about drug cartels that has now become so commonplace in pop culture.

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Convoluted and Dated But Still Fun Coben-Bolitar

Total
4 out of 5 stars
Ejecución
4 out of 5 stars
Historia
4 out of 5 stars

Revisado: 01-21-25

Things get personal for Myron Bolitar when his college girlfriend, now married to his basketball nemesis Greg Downing, tells him that her son has a rare bone disease and the only known donor has gone missing. And that her son is actually his son, the result of an affair the two had right before her wedding to Greg.

The intertwining story lines get somewhat convoluted, and it takes a talking villain (a literary no-no) to somewhat untangle them (actually, Myron does the talking to the villain rather than vice versa). But it's still a satisfying read, primarily because of the non-stop quipsterisms tendered by Myron, Win, and Co.

The pop culture references are seriously outdated -- to wit, an entire set piece based on Charles Nelson Reilly on the Hollywood Squares. But if you're my age, they're still quaint.

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