The Kill Switch

by James Rollins & Grant Blackwood
388 pgs  (Tucker Wayne series #1)

Sigma has a couple new weapons in its arsenal: Tucker Wayne, a former army ranger and his military-trained dog Kane. In The Kill Switch the two are called upon to help extract a Russian scientist who holds in his brain a secret that has the potential to end world hunger or to destroy the world altogether, depending on how it's used. It's up to Tucker and Kane to ensure that those who would use it for the latter, never gain access to him.

The Kill Switch is pretty similar to Rollins' other books. There's a secret that's been hidden from the world for centuries that comes to light and threatens to destroy the earth or a significant percentage of is occupants. There are twists and turns to spare, and Sigma saves the day at the end. I'm not disparaging Rollins' pattern for success. I've enjoyed all of his books and am sure I'll enjoy many more to come. I know what I'm going to get when I start one of his books, and that's exactly the way I prefer it with him.

What I'm not crazy about is this disappointing trend many authors have joined of starting to co-authoring their stories. Tom Clancy did it, Clive Cussler does it, and don't get me started on James Patterson. I don't have any issues with authors who team up and truly write a book together--like Preston and Child. What I can't stand is when an author has the idea for the book, but turns the writing of the book over to a lesser-know author--who writes it, and then gets his or her name on the cover, but in a significantly smaller font than their more widely known "co-author." I really hope that that's not the practice Rollins has taken up here with Grant Blackwood and in Blood Canticle books written with Rebecca Cantrell. If it is, then I'll have misspoken earlier when I said I'd be reading many more of his books in the future.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Kraken Project

by Douglas Preston
352 pgs

In The Kraken Project Douglas Preston brings back Wyman Ford, the ex-CIA agent who has appeared in a handful of other Douglas Preston solo novels. This time around he's asked by the President of the United States to help locate Melissa Shepherd, a young NASA computer programmer who wrote "Dorothy," an AI software program for an unmanned mission to one of Saturn's moons. During a test  run, Dorothy panics and inadvertently causes an explosion, killing several people. Soon after the botched test run both Dorothy and Melissa disappear--Melissa into the mountains of Colorado, and Dorothy into the Internet.

Ford needs to find Melissa and enlist her help in locating Dorothy and shutting her down. No one knows what Dorothy is capable of doing on her own, and he's not the only one looking for the AI program. Others have become aware of her existence and want to use her to their own ends.

The idea of artificial intelligence is not a new one. It gets hauled out by writers of popular media fairly regularly, and so the ethical and moral issues associated with it that Preston weaves into his story are nothing that we haven't seen numerous times. But he does an admirable job of making his story a unique one. The story is a fun one, and while on the surface it sounds outlandish and far fetched, it's written well enough to allow readers to suspend their disbelief and simply enjoy the book.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Gone-Away World

by Nick Harkaway
499 pgs

I believe that for the first time ever, I'm at a serious loss as to how to describe/summarize/review a book--and it's not that this is the first book by Nick Harkaway that I've ever read. Awhile back I read his second book Angelmaker and really enjoyed it. But this one is unlike anything I've ever read before.

To start with, I can't decide what genre if fits in. It doesn't easily fit into any of the already established ones. It's part science fiction, but not in a science fictiony way. It's post-apocalyptic, but not in a Cormac McCarthy's The Road kind of way. It's got ninjas battling mimes in it, but they doesn't help classify it. It is what it is, and it really deserves its own bookshelf at the bookstore.

The next problem I have with writing this review is that I can't really decide how much I liked it. Parts of it were absolutely brilliant, but I'll admit that sometimes my mind tended to wander. Harkaway's writing talent is undeniable though and if I hadn't known better, I would have assumed that this book was written by someone who had a Stephen King-sized bibliography already under his belt. He really is that good. Even at the times in the book when my mind wanted to venture elsewhere, I have to admit that those parts were still well written.

The story is narrated by a character whose name is never revealed but who works for the Haulage & Hazmat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company of Exmore County. As the story begins, he and his crew are called upon to put out a fire that has erupted somewhere along the Jorgmund Pipe, which delivers a substance known as "stuff." The world was destroyed during the Gone-Away War, and stuff is what makes the remaining world livable.

The book is absurd and witty, and it's every creative-writing teacher's dream come true. But it's not a beach read, and it's not the type of book that can be read in ten minute installments. You have to be willing to immerse yourself in the story and let Harkaway's writing talent take over. Overall, well worth the effort it took to read it.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Drop

by Dennis Lehane
207 pgs

Normally an author writes a novel and then someone comes along and tries to make a movie based off of it later on. Sometimes the author is involved in the creative process of the film adaptation, but oftentimes they get their payday and then sit back and wait to see what someone else does with their original creation. In the case of The Drop, which was released this month as both a movie and as a book, the chronology is a little unique. It started as a novel that Lehane tried to write several years ago. He never completed it, but eventually extracted a short story from it that was published and optioned for a film. Lehane then wrote the screenplay for the movie that just came out, and while the movie was being made, he wrote a novelization of the film. That being said, the book itself is much shorter than a typical Lehane novel (which are not very long themselves). So it's a quick, but very satisfying read.

It centers around a bar in Boston, a bar that periodically serves as a "drop" for the mob. The bar is run by Cousin Marv and Bob Saginowski, two cousins who both have sketchy pasts, but whom now seem to be doing their best to get by without getting into trouble. Unfortunately for them, things just never seem to go their way.

One night, while walking home, Bob finds a puppy in a trash can, beaten and abandoned. He takes the dog home with him, but even this dog, which he believes could become a bright spot in his otherwise dark and lonely existence, brings with it more trouble than he may be prepared for--when the dog's original owner gets wind that Bob has him.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Thud!

by Terry Pratchett
373 pgs  (Discworld series #34)

As the anniversary of Koom Valley (a battle between dwarves and trolls) approaches, Grag Hamcrusher, a prominent dwarf leader, is found murdered. His skull has been crushed, and near his body is found the murder weapon--a troll club. It's clear to pretty much everyone that this is just another example in a long line of dwarf-on-troll violence that has been going on in the city of Ankh-Morpork for centuries. But Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch isn't so sure. And if he wants to avoid an all-out war between the two groups that will tear his city apart, he needs to uncover Hamcrusher's true killer, and do it fast.

Pratchett's Discworld books that feature the members of the City Watch have always been some of my favorites in the series and this one is another strong offering. Pratchett uses his keen sense of satire and wit to make fun of the "round-world" issues between different ethnicities and groups. He's a fantastic storyteller whose stories work on different levels.

If you only want a fun and entertaining story featuring trolls, dwarves, werewolves, vampires, wizards, and witches, there are none better than the Discworld books. But they also offer a whole lot more, and that's the real reason behind Pratchett's ever-growing popularity. they're commentaries on human nature and they point out the ridiculousness of many aspects of our culture and behavior.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Devil's Workshop

by Alex Grecian
383 pgs  (Scotland Yard's Murder Squad #3)

Jack the Ripper is the quintessential serial killer. He brutally murdered at least five women on the streets of London in 1888 . . . and he was never caught. Alex Grecian's Scotland Yard Murder Squad books features Inspector Day, Sergeant Hammersmith and the rest of the men assembled by the Yard after the killings had suddenly stopped who were tasked with investigating the new type of killer Saucy Jack represented. The first two books in the series, The Yard and The Black Country featured Jack as part of the backstory--he represented the Yard's greatest failure to date. Now in The Devil's Workshop, he's back.

The reason he stopped killing was not because he died or left London for some far-off country as some have speculated. Nor is it because he had bee committed to an insane asylum bore his identity was discovered, as is the current theory du jour. The reason the killings stopped was because he was captured by the men who had bee investigating his crimes, and instead of being take to jail and tried for his crimes, he was secretly imprisoned in London's secret network of underground tunnels and caverns, where he could be dealt a more satisfying form of punishment.

A year later, having endured repeated torture at the hands of his captors, as they systematically inflicted wounds on him that mirrored those he had given the women he killed, Jack is able to escape. Once again he's able to walk the streets of London, but this time, it's not the women who work there that are his targets, it's the men who held him prisoner.

I've enjoyed reading Grecian's series a lot so far. I enjoy Inspector Day, Hammersmith, Dr. Kingsley and the others. The Devil's Workshop lacks the elements of mystery and criminology that I enjoyed so much in the first two books. But it's still a worthwhile story, and it leaves you excited for the next book in the series.

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

The Magician's Land

by Lev Grossman
401 pgs

The Magician's Land is a very satisfying conclusion to Lev Grossman's adult fantasy trilogy featuring Quentin Coldwater, along with other students from Brakesbills College for Magical Pedagogy, and their dealings with the "Narnia-type" land of Fillory.

Quentin, who grew up reading and loving the books about Fillory, and who became its king in The Magician King, was ultimately stripped of his crown, banished from Fillory, and forced to leave his friends behind and return to his mundane normal life in Manhattan. He's able to get a job as a professor at Brakebills as this book begins, but there's a void in his life and he longs for his friends and the world he had to leave behind.

Meanwhile, Fillory is being destroyed. The magic that exists there is failing and Eliot and Janet must find a way to save their adopted world before it's gone forever.

This book, along with its predecessors, are difficult to describe. To say that they're adult versions of The Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter series feels inadequate, although the comparisons to both are plain and intentional throughout. What Grossman has created with these books is an homage to those others, but one that is wholly original and entertaining by its own rights. The story he's told is a coming-of-age one, containing the themes of love, loss, selfishness, and ultimately sacrifice.

I was not expecting the series to be what it turned out to be when I first picked up The Magicians (which I picked up for no other reason than its beautiful cover). What I was expecting was another boy-wizard tale that I was hoping to enjoy. I'll admit that I was initially surprised by the books' course language (Harry Potter never used a lot of the words Quentin and his friends use) and adult themes, but the books are so well written that I quickly settled into the story and enjoyed the ride.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆