last reads

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu Publishing information: Hardcover; 400 pages Publisher: Tor; 9780765377067 ISBN: 9780765377067 Series: Remembrance of Earth's Past #1 Copy: Out of Pocket Reviewer: Tyson Amazon Synopsis: "The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple award winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin. Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision." Three Body Problem has been sitting on my bookshelf for quite a while an...

Song of the Deep by Brian Hastings Publishing information: Hardcover; 176 pages Publisher: Sterling Children's Books; 12 July 2016 ISBN: 9781454920960 Standalone Copy: Provided by Publisher Reviewer: Tyson Amazon Synopsis: "Twelve-year-old Merryn lives with her fisherman father in a little cottage by the sea. Each day, her father braves the tumultuous waves and returns home in time for dinner. One stormy evening, he doesn’t come back. Merryn has a vision that he’s been dragged underwater by a terrifying sea creature, and he needs her help. Determined to rescue him, Merryn builds a tiny submarine and embarks on a journey through the undersea worlds she’s only heard about in her father’s lullabies. As she faces the dangers and wonders of the world below the waves, she realizes that her father’s stories were all real. Readers can also experience Merryn’s daring journey firsthand in the new Song of the Deep video game from acclaimed developer Insomniac Games." Not long ago I ...

Die Trying by Lee Child Publishing information: Paperback; 552 pages Publisher: Jove; 28 Oct 2008 ISBN: 9780515142242 Series: Jack Reacher #2 Copy: Out of Pocket Reviewer: Tyson Amazon Synopsis: "Jack Reacher finds himself in bad company in the second novel in Lee Child’s New York Times bestselling series. When a woman is kidnapped off a Chicago street in broad daylight, Jack Reacher’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. He’s kidnapped with her. Chained together and racing across America toward an unknown destination, they’re at the mercy of a group of men demanding an impossible ransom. Because Reacher’s female companion is worth more than he imagines. Now he has to save them both—from the inside out—or die trying…" Not long ago I reviewed the first Jack Reacher novel, The Killing Floor (review here), and I found myself enjoying it. So it was a no brainer to pick up the second book in the series. Die Trying flips the typical thriller novel on its head with Reacher quickly ...

UK Edition Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho Publishing Information: Hardback; 416pages Publisher: MacMillian; 1 Sept 2015 ISBN: 9781447299455 Series; Book #1 Copy: Out of Pocket Reviewer: Tyson Amazon Synopsis: "Magic and mayhem clash with the British elite in this whimsical and sparkling debut. The Royal Society of Unnatural Philosophers maintains the magic within His Majesty’s lands. But lately, the once proper institute has fallen into disgrace, naming an altogether unsuitable gentleman as their Sorcerer Royal and allowing England’s stores of magic to bleed dry. At least they haven’t stooped so low as to allow women to practice what is obviously a man’s profession… At his wit’s end, Zacharias Wythe, Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers, ventures to the border of Fairyland to discover why England’s magical stocks are drying up, an adventure that brings him in contact with Prunella Gentlewoman, a woman with immense power and an unfathomable gift, and sets him on a path w...

Minds of Winter by Ed O'Loughlin London: riverrun, 2016 Reviewed by Russell A. Potter Over the years here at the ABR we've reviewed quite a few novels inspired by one or another aspect of the lost Arctic expedition commanded by Sir John Franklin. Since 1990, when Mordecai Richler 'broke the ice,' as it were, with Solomon Gursky Was Here , there have been at least twenty of them, and in their pages we have had just about every version of Franklin one can imagine. As Margaret Atwood whimsically prophesied in a CBC documentary in 1994, we've gone all the way from 'Franklin the dolt' to 'Franklin the mystic' -- and many other versions in-between. Franklin's seconds have not been neglected (Crozier and Fitzjames having a novel apiece), nor have his Dene and Inuit guides, the prisoners he oversaw in Van Diemen's Land, or his persevering, long-searching wife. And now we have Ed O'Loughlin's Minds of Winter -- which may well be the Franklin ...

The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher Publishing information: Hardcover; 384 pages Publisher: Tor; 1 March 2016 ISBN: 978-0765380289 Series: Book #1 Copy: Provide by publisher Reviewer: Tyson Amazon Synopsis: "R.S. Belcher, the acclaimed author of The Six-Gun Tarot and The Shotgun Arcana launches a gritty new urban fantasy series about the mysterious society of truckers known only as, The Brotherhood of The Wheel. In 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon--a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land. In time, the Knights Templar would grow in power and, ultimately, be laid low. But a small offshoot of the Templars endure and have returned to the order's original mission: to defend the roads of the world and guard those who travel on them. Theirs is a secret line of knights: truckers, bikers, taxi hacks, state troopers...