Saturday, October 27, 2012

The Island-Michael Stark

I was perusing the free books available on Nook and Kindle last week and I came across Micael Stark's The Island. It was broken down into 5 parts, with the first 3 being free and the last 2 installments only being 99 cents. The description grabbed my interest enough to read for free and I figured that at less than 2 bucks, it was worth the investment to finish even if it sucked in a most royal fashion.

That being said, I actually liked the story. It got a bit slow and redundant at times, but I kept on reading. I'm just having a bit of problem with my review. I don't know how to review it without being spoilerish. I could just give a synopsis, but that's not reviewing, that's more like screening(and cheating). So, I guess I'll say what I can, without giving too much away, but start with.....

POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT....

The island starts off with William telling about how he is leaving the world behind to die in peace. He's not harboring some death wish or anything, he knows all is lost and he'd rather spend his last days, as well as that of humanity, doing something he wants to do. There's a viral outbreak spreading through Mexico and William can read the signs and he knows that all is not as it seems. He doesn't believe the media and the government when they assure everyone that all is ok and there's no need to worry. He sees this as an apocalyptic scourge about to wipe out most of humanity. He also knows that with his own chidhood health issues that he has no hopes of being one of the few that survive. So he pretty much empties his life, cuts ties and heads out to this island off the Caronlina coast, not to run away so he can live, but so he can die as he wants.

 Stark does a good job of fooling you into thinking that this is another zombapocalypse story. But as the story goes on, you find out that there is much more going on than some random case of 28 days later. I really like the development of characters and the back story he built, although he does get a bit sluggish and repetitive at times. He also does a good job of tossing in some gore and creepy. He leaves you hanging somewhat at the end, but then, that's what a writer should do when he wants you to read the next installment. Another thing I really liked was the way that I was able to "see" everything. He wrote the story to where it was very easy to visualize the places and characters. Of course it helps that he used some actual places to reinforce the scenic imagery and any southerner could picture the exact people he was writing about. Overall, I was pleased with the time I put into reading this and will defintely read The Rock when it comes out in early 2013.

 I give it a B-.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Finally read Awakening

I'm not going to do a in depth review since the sister did one months ago and also, it's "chick lit" and I have a manly ego to keep inflated. :)

All b.s aside, I enjoyed the second installment in Nicole's MacDonald's Birthright Trilogy. She picks up a couple of months after the explosive ending of The Arrival and continues to move the story and characters forward.  There was a couple of twists that I really liked, especially the addition of a new pet/friend(speaking of pets/friends, my massively huge cat, patches, aka fathead, is trying to crawl up on my chest as I write this). 

This book was a lot putting pieces together. It was like the first book started us on a journey, and the second one was like the road trip. We didn't see the "big stuff" happen, but we got filled in on a lot, saw some great development and she kept it interesting enough that it reads real smooth. I feel like its a book of revelations, because some pretty important things were revealed and I just can't say too much without being a big ol' story spoiler.  But, even though this is the transit story getting us to the real treat, she did toss in some excitement.

One thing I will comment on is the POV. Nicole writes this with changing POV's. A lot of folks don't like it and for those that lay the book down, it's their loss. I mentioned in the first book that it was a tad confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, and get to know the characters, it levels out fine. But, all that being said, she did tackle that issue with this book. She still has the ever-changing POVs, but its better organized and she even explains it up front for us thickheads.  At first, I thought it was a crazy style, but she makes it work and she does it well.

All in all, I definitely recommend picking it up. If you haven't read the first book in the series, she has it for free on her website and the second book is definitely worth the 4 bucks I shelled out for the Nook version.
Thanks Nicole for sharing your story with us and I look forward to Feel the Burn.
 

Sample text

Sample Text

I review for BookSneeze®

Sample Text

Fate's Edge- Ilona Andrews
Tricked- Kevin Hearne (IDC 4)
The Doors of Stone (King Killer Chronicles) Patrick Rothfuss
Whatever Jim Butcher writes in 2012
Bear meets Girl- Shelly Laurenston
Biting Cold- Chloe Neill
Sacrificial Magic- Stacia Kane
Molly Harper- Jane Madison Nice Girls don't Bite Their Neighbors
Patricia Briggs- Omega #3
more, but that's a good start for now.