I had every intention of publishing this on
World Book Day, April 23. However, one
of the drawbacks to being retired is – I never know what day of the week (much
less the date itself) it is. I was thinking
today is the 23rd. It’s
not. Ah well. So, I’m pretending, for a while, that today
is 23 April so …….World Book Day
is to celebrate reading – no matter what form it may take – hard books, digital
books or audio books. It’s all
reading! Over the past months I’ve read
several new books and thought to share …
Dire Earth Cycle by Jason M. Hough
The series takes place in 23rd century Earth. So, a quick
prequel - An empty space vessel piloted by “The Builders”, arrives in Earth’s
atmosphere. It is accompanied by another ship which constructs the cord of a
space elevator anchored in Darwin, Australia. One man, Neil Platz, having discovered the
first vessel in orbit, works out the future location of the elevator and
establishes Platz Industries to exploit it by buying the land where it will
anchor, building the elevator base and climber infrastructure in Darwin, and
eventually establishing orbital colonies along the elevator cord. For a time,
Darwin thrives as it becomes the center of the world. However, a plague has afflicted most of the
earth’s humans. This plague either kills
people out right or turns them into insane killers unable to think, speak, or
reason. The rest of the population is
made up of the rare “immunes” or those that managed to get to the safety of
Darwin’s aura protected safe zone around the space elevator.
Book 1: The Darwin Elevator
The hero, Captain Skyler Luiken,
an immune, leads a team of immune scavengers who can survive outside the aura
where they battle sub-humans while collecting items of value necessary for
day-to-day existence. Unfortunately, Skyler and his crew become entangled in
the political plots and power games of those that control or seek to control
the space elevator. Book one ends as
another “Builder” ship establishes itself in South America and Skyler and
others make their way towards it.
Book 2: The Exodus Towers
A colony has been built around the
new space elevator in Brazil, but things are far from over. There is now a new
group of plague-infected humans who have been enhanced by strange alien
technology. Back in Darwin, there has
been a hostile take-over by a religious cult that is moving on to Brazil to
take over there also.
Book 3: The Plague Forge
In the third book Skyler and his
crew must try to find a set of strange keys left behind by the aliens, in order
to figure out what is the goal of the aliens, and why they have done all that
they did?
It was really hard to give a brief description of these three books
because so much happens non-stop. It’s
really good though.
Hawley Book of the
Dead by Chrysler Szarlan
Revelation “Reve” Dyer grew up listening to her
grandmother’s family stories about ancestors who founded the town of Hawley
Five Corners in Massachusetts. Their history is steeped in secrets known by
only a very few outsiders. An ancient magic runs in the Dyer women’s
blood. Reve and her husband are
world-famous Las Vegas illusionists. They have three daughters, a beautiful
home, and what seems like a charmed life. But Reve’s world is shattered when her
husband is murdered onstage. Fearing for
her and her daughters’ lives, they leave for the place she has always felt
safest, a farmhouse in the forest of Hawley Five Corners. There Reve searches for answers to what has
happened and why it has happened to her and her children.
This
is a really good book. There is just
enough mystery to be exciting and enough spooky to make you look over your
shoulder.
City of Endless Night by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
In Queens, two boys stumble on the body of a headless woman
in a garage. Fingerprinting identifies the body as that of Grace Ozmian, the
missing 23-year-old daughter of tech billionaire Anton Ozmian. Lt Vincent D'Agosta quickly takes the lead in
this strange murder knowing his investigation will attract major scrutiny. Therefore, when FBI Special Agent Pendergast
shows up, he is much relieved. Before
too much progress is made, more people are murdered and decapitated. There seems to be no motive for the killings. Although Pendergast initially comes into the
case reluctantly, ultimately, it will take all of Pendergast's skill to solve
and catch the murderer.
This
is the 17th book in the A.X.L. Pendergast, series. I’ve read most of the books in this series and
mostly I like them. One or two have been
a little tedious to read but I really did enjoy this one..
Queen Anne’s Lace Susan Wittig Albert.
While helping her friend and business partner, Ruby Wilcox,
clean up the loft above their shops, China comes upon a box of antique
handcrafted lace and old photographs. Following this discovery, China (a stout-hearted
pragmatist) hears a woman humming a tune and smells the delicate scent of
lavender. Then strange things begin to
happen – the appearance of old photos, a ringing bell, a sprig of thyme, a mysterious
woman in the garden. With this, China
starts to investigate the story of the woman in the old photographs.
I’ve
read all the China Bayles books by Susan Wittig Albert starting with Thyme of
Death to this latest one. I’ve read them
in order and would suggest doing that because, life for China moves along and
she changes and grows along with her family and friends in Pecan Springs, TX. The books can be read as “stand-alones”
because China does introduce herself and the primary characters in the early
pages. But, it’s better to read them in
order. I also like these books because
the author includes all sorts of herb lore, information, and recipes.
I may have said this before, as I have gotten older, I like
to read things that are completely entertaining and not something I have to
1 think
hard about
2 learn
a “how to improve myself” lesson from
3 back
track constantly to remember who is who and where and why
What have you read????
Take care
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