Parasite – Mira Grant

by FictionSci-Fi

The first in a new series called Parasitology. I was recommended this book by i09 and it wasn’t at all what I expected. I was thinking something like the Scott Sigler books (which I’ve read and loved) or John Ringo’s Under a Graveyard Sky (which I really REALLY loved).
Instead, the socio-political effects of the parasite infection (infestation? I’m not sure what it counts as when the parasites themselves have been introduced in a population by the population themselves) aren’t examined in this story as much as the personal issues of one particular person. Sal Mitchell wakes up from a coma and doesn’t know who she is. 6 years later, she’s got a life back, but from all accounts, it’s nothing like what she had before. New boyfriend, new job and a completely new attitude. Sal has trouble dealing with endless check ups from SymboGen and people who don’t keep their hands on the steering wheel, so when hordes of people start turning into ‘sleepwalkers’ she will do anything to find out what is happening before it happens to her.

But what if it already did?

This is the account of what happens when a major pharmaceuticals company and the American government are fighting over the best way to approach a deadly outbreak. Except Sal just wants to move in with her boyfriend, walk their dogs and have people stop killing each other. But when what’s in your head may be the key to solving the outbreak (or making it much much worse), people tend to not want to let you go.

This book was easy to read and had enough suspense that I didn’t want to put it down. The ‘sympathising with parasite’ angle is similar to the Host by Stephanie Meyer (yes, I read a Meyer book, once), but in this case the parasite isn’t entirely convinced she’s a parasite until the end of the book, even though it’s glaringly obvious to the reader after chapter 2. The inter-personal relationships and the angst and joy they cause are all well developed and although Sal is a dull character, her dullness doesn’t make for terrible reading because you’re aware of why she is the way she is. I like the many layers the book presented, knowing a little bit about parasites and hosts helps the reader discover hidden gems in the text. I’m hoping the next one comes out pretty soon!

In the meanwhile, I’m counting down to Raven’s Shadow Book 2 – Tower Lord by Anthony Ryan. Seriously, the book can’t come soon enough, I read the first book, Blood Song, in what seems like seconds and I’m so hungry for more. It’s so hard to find decent fantasy these days, so waiting in between books is so hard – I also just finished the Two Stormlight Archive books and the thought of waiting up to 4 years for another one is making me sad all the way to my toes.

What are you reading today? Got any epic fantasy recommends for me??

by Uncategorized

It occurs to me suddenly, that I was never the one walking down the aisle. I was always the one watching. Waiting. (..anti-ci-pating, say it ain’t so…)

It occurs to me that nothing was ever right when I was the soft one. And this does not make me masculine or ‘the boy’ or anything other than what I have always been (and I am definitely a mother, not a father. a daughter, not a son).

It just happens that it will be me that asks, rather than is asked. And that is why I have never been asked.

And it happens that I will wait, rather than come.

And it happens that on the best day of my life, she will walk down to me and say she will forever be with me and I will be more proud and more in love than in any other moment leading up to that, and that is honestly the natural path of things – the ‘of course I never imagined otherwise’ path of things.

Book Review: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

by CrimeFantasy

I’m not sure how big this book is because I got it electronically, with the idea of teaching myself how to read on this damn tablet. Between this and the Long Earth, I’ve think I’ve got it, but I have to fight Ava who constantly wants the tablet to watch pepper pig…

Anyway, the problem is the epub reader I use tells you what page if the chapter you are on, not which page of the book. Or how many chapters the book has. And you don’t have the weight in your hand or the option of sticking your thumb where you’re up to and closing the book to see if you’ve come farther than you’ve got to go. As a result, its now past 1am and I’m still awake.

The Night Circus is like a dream. Its beautiful and haunting and eerie and discombobulated and you get lost in it quite happily. Its the tale of two enchanters and the challenge they set for their proteges-outlast the other. But this challenge is unlike any other and its stage is a travelling circus where no fantasy is unobtainable. But the stakes quickly become too high for Marco and Celia-Its not longer only one or the other of them who faces death, but all those who have become enmeshed in the cirque de review, whether willingly or not.

There are so many stories woven up into this book and Morgenstern weaves them deftly, teasing out each strand so you can’t tell what the pattern is until the final thrilling end. The characters are vivacious and tragic, from the enigmatic Tsukiko, to the forlorn Isobel and solid, wonder-struck Bailey who is the most unlikely and perfect hero a book has ever had.

The only part I didn’t like is the jump into second person point of view in the interludes. While I understand its intent to draw the reader deeper into the experience, I found the change in tense a lot more jarring than the changes in timeline or main character perspective, jarring enough that it forced me out of the story and by the third one I’d stopped reading them just to be able to stick with the narrative. The rest of the book is easy to read, sophisticated and elegant (I thought of the opulence of Anne Rice) and very engaging. The biggest benefit of the tablet is you can prop it up so your wrists don’t get sore (a problem when you read the 700+ page fantasy novels I lean towards), so while I can’t legitimately say I never put the book down, I read it from beginning to end starting about 4 hours ago.

I’ll write the review for the Long Earth tomorrow (read it, its fantastic. Then read this,) but in the meanwhile I’m off to dream of crows and kittens and clocks and ice and fire….

Book Review: Voodoo Doll by Leah Giarratano

by Uncategorized

it took me until the end of the book to realize why it’s called voodoo doll, and now I feel a bit sick..

Giarratano is a clinical psychologist and her second novel delves deep into sadism and victim hood. It’s the story of Jill, a damaged cop whose carefully controlled life is thrown out of orbit when she’s assigned a new precinct and a new partner, the enigmatic and clever Gabriel who has a rough past of his own. its the story of Joss and the life he made with his family after a reckless adolescence and the horrors or war and of Cutter, a boy forced into a life of depravity who threatens to take everything from Joss and from anyone else who gets in his way.

The story is brutal and unflinching in its atrocities. Giarratano has truly seen the full gamut of what humans can do to each other and doesn’t hold back from describing torture, sexual sadism, self mutilation and assault. It’s a book that turned my stomach on some pages, but at the same time, it seems an honest recounting. This is what the police deal with, what veterans and doctors and victims and psychologists must deal with on a daily basis.

The book does go over and over Jill’s kidnapping, but in a way that makes you feel sorry for her-you can easily imagine that those events run through her head constantly. You can empathise with these characters, despite their flaws. You understand why Joss drinks. Why Jill runs. Everyone becomes real, even the desperate old school mate in the bar who speaks with a voice that can be found in every seedy bar around Australia at closing time. It’s a hard read, but there is compassion there.

Giarratano had me in the edge of my seat (well, pillow) for most of this book, but I felt like the ending was a bit rushed. Why set the house on fire and then go upstairs to kill people rather than the other way around? Why would Cutter go to the house in Mosman when. It was so obvious the cops would be there? It’s as if Giarratano knew the book was at risk of carrying on forever, but losing all momentum if she didn’t end right there. Still, if you can handle the violent imagery (Warning: there are LOTS of childhood trauma/assault/rape triggers, so read in a safe place if you’re at risk) and you want an interesting read (the attention to detail in the psychology is awesome, not so much with regard to the police work) then give this a go. I think I have her debut, Vodka Doesn’t Freeze somewhere too, but I can’t remember if I’ve read it.

Apologies for any typos- I’m on my tablet at 1.40am with no contact lenses in so cut me some slack and send me new books!

Book Review: The Kingdoms of Dust by Amanda Downum

by Author LoveFantasyFiction

Hallelujah, after a long drought I finally found a fantasy novel I loved. I’ve been dying for something since I finished the Time Dancers (last in the Meq trilogy by Steve Cash and awesome) and no one seems to be writing anything. Or the Corona books buyer is slack and hates me.

So I grabbed this and it looked good and I got one chapter in and was completely hooked. The story revolves around Asheris, a jinni-human demon in love with the empress’s consort and constantly at risk from the church, and Isyllt, a death mage fleeing from her old life, her lost love and the sense of hopelessness that arises when she thinks about her future. The two-sometimes enemies, sometimes lovers- must survive long enough to cross the desert and trap an ancient force threatening to destroy the world*.

I really love when lead characters in fantasy are just normal people. Isyllt carries a black diamond to store the souls she harnesses, but she also sleeps with her body guard and Asheris because she’s lonely and she worries about not being a good guardian to her apprentice Moth, but not enough to actually change how she acts. Asheris is this brash and beautiful fire-winged thing, who longs for freedom one moment and immerses himself in the machinations of the court the next. The characters here become people you know, people you’d be friends with, so you find yourself a little worried for them when there are endless would-be assassins and a hungry manticore.

Another one i read in a single afternoon, Kingdoms is original and well constructed fantasy. I long to live in any of the empires and kingdoms Downum has brought to life. The names are more than my thick tongue can handle, but the prose is quick witted and elegant and while the book is part of a series (the necromancer chronicles) it serves perfectly as a stand alone as well. Except one is not going to be enough, do I suggest you buy them all.

Ps: the author, Amanda Downum is on twitter and is quite lovely.

*Ancient forces rarely do anything else.

Borderline

by Written

Roadside flowers,
Roughly tugged and presented
In a grubby hand
And a tumbler of tap water.
She was allergic.
I’d thought only of the colour.

Often I turned miscellaneous words
Into spiderweb;
Soft but steel-strong, slowly encasing
Dreams. Notions. Needs.
I would spin a cocoon
Of misinterpretation
And abandon anything trapped inside.

I stood, quiet and unknowing
While jealousy roiled and seethed,
To see a friend hold her mother’s hand.
My poor child mind
Made disasters and perversions
Of all that I craved.

My mother brings me gifts of things
She guesses a girl like me would like
And I clutch them
As if they were truly previous
Like I clutch my daughter’s posies of
Sour weed, beach dandelion and clover.
I’ll sneeze later.

Book Review: Creepers by David Morrell

by CrimeFiction

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of urban exploration. I think because I am a photographer and a history/anthropology student and these things culminate in wanting to find places where time has stood still and document them. I’m told the urban exploration scene in Perth is quite active, but I doubt I’ll ever be involved as it’s too hard to find a babysitter and too dangerous to risk not coming back to pick up my kids. Urban exploration will always be just a dream at the back of my mind, a dream I satiate with books like this.

I read Creepers last night. From cover to cover. It’s such an easy read, despite it’s gruesome bits (think razor wire and beheading). It starts off with a history professor and his three ex-students who invite a journalist on their annual exploration, this time heading through storm drains into an abandoned hotel with a strange history. The night seems easy enough, even with malformed albino cats and blind rats dogging them in the tunnels and the smell of decaying wood everywhere, but the group climb higher and higher up the stairs they find macabre remnants of the guests that used to occupy the hotel. A dead monkey. A room full of booze. A mysterious safe filled with gold coins. Perhaps the professor hasn’t told them everything about this hotel.

After an accident renders the professor helpless, the group discover they are not alone in the hotel. There are other who want the gold and will stop at nothing to get it. But then the safe is opened there is a woman amongst the gold, and the thieves are not the only ones with violent intentions – someone never left the hotel.

It’s an edge of your seat story which descends into a hell of gore and insanity and explosions and swirling floodwater. Who is the psychopathic Ronnie and what is his connection to the hotel? Is it just coincidence that Balenger took this story on this particular night or is he looking for something? Or someone? Every truth uncovered reveals another dozen questions and Morrell keeps a reader enthralled right to the very last page. While I’m not fond of gore, this book is fairly matter of fact about it, neither dwelling on it too long or skipping over it completely. The characters are realistic enough – jealousy, attraction, greed, cowardice and stupidity all appear, even in the ‘good’ characters which makes everyone seem more human. Sometimes the conversation is a little wordy and the timeline a little disjointed, but for the man part this book consists of good, solid writing, an amazing plot with unguessable twists and characters who you root for even when their failings are more than apparent.

Book Review: The Art of Eating In by Cathy Erway

by Non-Fiction

The adventures of a girl who only eats home made food for two years while living in New York. It sounds so promising and the first chapter about the history of restaurants and how NY became the ‘eating out’ capital of world is amazing. Unfortunately after that, there is not enough cooking and a lot of ‘discovering oneself’ and honestly, reading a book filled with every day anecdotes about random people doesn’t interest me. When Cathy DOES talk about cooking (and I mean the nitty gritty of cooking, not just ingredient lists and recipes, I mean how you can juggle cooking dinner and desert at the same time and how you can add these leftovers to this meal to make it better and how bone in cooking creates more flavour) it’s really interesting and the writing flows along. But when she’s telling stories which involve several people you’re not sure if she has already introduced in the book or if they just appeared now and the timeline is a little fragmented (WHEN DID SHE PICK UP THE MEAT FROM THE BUTCHER? WHEN??) and the writing weaves knots that suddenly tighten and choke the story without actually getting anywhere.

Somehow I think this concept made a much better blog.

Anyway, the book cycles through Cathy’s initial romance with her boyfriend, their moving in together and eventual break up, followed by her quest for romance which doesn’t involve restaurant dinners. It also shows how hard it is to spend time out with friends and family without eating out. I found that the book gives a good list of things Cathy found hard, from avoiding vending machine snacks to finding the line between eating out and buying pre-prepared food. But the answers are rather enigmatic. This is either because I’m not good at reading between lines (I feel there should be no ‘hidden’ meaning in books. What’s the point in adding meaning if 60% of the readers aren’t going to pick up on it?) or because Cathy didn’t actually come up with any answers during her 2 year quest.

In the end, this book is a long slog which introduces the reader to some interesting concepts and theories, but doesn’t actually elaborate on much. Cathy explores dumpster diving, foraging and low waste eating, but doesn’t actually stick with any long enough to give a detailed analysis. Basically if you want a how to manual about not eating out or alternatives to eating out, this is not a good book. If you want a story about how an average girl spent two years figuring out her life while not eating out, then it is. I was expecting much more practical advice and was a little disappointed.

Book Review: This is not a drill by Paul Carter

by BiographyMemoirNon-FictionTravel

I haven’t read Carter’s first book (Don’t tell mum I work on the rigs, she’s thinks I’m a piano player in a whorehouse – a title which always makes me wonder if he does actually know how to play piano), but that didn’t make my enjoyment of this sequel any less. Carter explodes into the book, immediately diving into the life or death situation that gives the book it’s name. From then until the very end the book is a whirlwind ride of dangerous and comical situations, crazy characters, giant crabs and excessive amounts of alcohol, love and heartbreak.

Carter flies around the word, from Russia to Japan to Afghanistan and back to Australia to see his long suffering girlfriend (now wife) Clare. He reconnects with his Dad and a few of his Dad’s war buddies over single malt scotch, barbecues toes during a storm, discovers the best way to sneak a ciggie on a non-smoking rig and nearly gets blown up researching mercenaries in the Middle East.

Carter’s writing is pretty damn eloquent, given that he’s been a self-professed rigrat for most of his adult life. Sure, there’s some very colourful phrases throughout, but on the whole, the style comes across like an editorial – well researched and factual, but still personal and emotive. Sometimes I found Carter gets a little verbose when he starts talking about causes and issues close to him, which doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the book, but forgive him that and this is a rollicking read which carries itself well into the early hours of the morning.