Dark Matters

Dark Matters by Michael Dow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dark Matters is a brilliant start to a new trilogy. In a book that began as a kickstarter project I had a keen interest in it and had heard good things from others, leaving me with high expectations.

I am happy to say that my expectations were certainly met. Dark matters is a spectacular new science-fiction thriller that captures the future of our world from three distinct and vastly different view points. This book hits the ground running and never lets up!

The three main characters that he reader follows are Rudy, Monique and Jonas. Rudy is a newly promoted CEO or the world's first trillion dollar company and become privy to the nefarious existence of a group known as the Consortium. Monique was left with an extremely large inheritance that causes her to want to give back and be charitable in life, and also to have the means to pursue the urging of her ever present visions. Jonas is a scientist who funds his dark matter research efforts with grants from his companies efforts to locate asteroids worth the effort of mining for resources from Earth bound companies. Three vastly different individuals, who cast three vastly different lights to the events going on in around the world.

It was hard to put this book down and not know what was coming next. I can't wait to continue on with this trilogy and hope that subsequent books bring as much action and intensity. An easy 5 stars for me.

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Review: IA: Initiate

IA: Initiate by John Darryl Winston
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the story of Naz, but it is also more than just about one single character. John Winston has created an almost dystopian-type world, that doesn't seem to be so different than a poor neighborhood. If that neighborhood were to be somehow cut off from the rest of society. As I read this book, I couldn't help feeling that there was a vortex around the area that was not escapable.

Naz is an underrated hidden kind of smart, but also has immense dreams that seem to come true in his sleep... without his control. His sister, Meri has soaring intelligence that pushes Naz to live his life for her and push for he to have a better life outside of their neighborhood.

The opening of the book leaves many intriguing questions for the reader, especially in terms of Naz's parentage, and what sort of experimentation may have been going on while he was still in the womb.
Naz faces many challenging issues such as gangs, and foster care and new schools, but he also finds solace in his sister and in chess, and learning how to be a better person and keep himself away from negative peer pressure.

Overall this was a great read, I was left with a lot of questions and would have liked a bit more character development outside of Naz, but perhaps that was intentional. I really wanted to know more about the place they live and why they were there, I hope this will be revealed in later novels. Solid 4 stars for me. A great debut novel!

I received a copy of this book from the author for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.


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Slip

Slip is written by David Estes, and is the first book in the Slip Trilogy.  It is a fast paced dystopian sci-fi thriller geared for a young adult audience and older.

The book opens up to a view of the now Reorganized United States of American.  After natural disasters have changed the landscape of the country and the scare of food shortage has been numerically assessed, the government has determined an exact population number that can be supported by the current country.  Procreation can only occur after a birth authorization has been purchased and following the receipt of a death certificate.  In short, in order for one to be born, one must first die.  Death certificates can be issued for a terminally ill person, but if that person does not die as planned, than a birth cannot occur. 

Pop Con, short for Population Control, is the government agency responsible for ensuring the enforcement and regulation of such laws.  In the event of unauthorized births/beings or UnBees, they are tasked with tracking down and terminating the unlawful child.  Any child that manages to go undetected past their 2nd birthday is henceforth referred to as a “slip” and is deemed a national security threat. 

Pop Con is heralded for their ability to terminate unauthorized births before a slip occurs.  However, one boy finds himself hidden and protected long past his 2nd birthday.  Being raised by a father and a woman who cares for him he finds himself wondering why he cannot be outside with other children as he gets older. 

This child without a name in his youth starts to figure out that things aren’t right in his life when events lead to his father injecting his eyes to change his identity as he becomes instead Benson and is sent to swim in hopes of survival sent off to a futuristic St Louis.  Benson is left alone and outside of society, having no true knowledge of what is going on.  Many questions and theories lead him to suspect that he may in fact be a slip. 

In this book we get to know many exhilarating characters to conclude the head of Pop Con, Michael Kelly: a man who must make ruthless determinations, while in constant battle with his conscious.  Harrison Kelly, his son who finds hatred in his father for missing so much of his life due to work.  Lucy a street savvy friend and romantic interest of Benson’s who fights to protect her little brother.  Janice, the wife of Michael Kelly, who went from eccentric to mental break and now lives in a mental institution; constantly hallucinating about things that may or may not have been.  Domino Destovan is the sadist you love to hate; his evil endeavors grow throughout the book as well as his thirst for death and acknowledgment. 

The first part of the book is told in First Person POV from a young nameless boy and his views in the world.  News headlines and blurbs are interjected to keep the reader alert of the state of affairs in the country.  Then the book moves on to a more third person POV after the nameless boy becomes Benson.  In the initial naming of Benson, I had a little trouble keeping track of the fast paced character change in the story, but once the narratives became more detailed, it was easy to go back to the flow of the book.

Overall I give Slip 5/5 Stars.  David Estes can create a world like no other, and his ability to bring it to life is commendable.  With a slightly rocky character transition, this levels out enough to not detract from the story.  By the time you get over the transition from unnamed boy to Benson, it is practically impossible to step away from as the action is fast paced.  It very readily flows into a desire to want to know MORE about what happens next.  Although this is a young adult novel, it is definitely on the mature end of the spectrum as there are some themes that may be sensitive to include sexual and physical violence.  If you are interested in dystopian, young adult, population control, futuristic, sci-fi, fiction, action, etc., then this book is definitely worth a read. 

*I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Don't forget to also check out my review of David Estes' Fire Country.

Becoming Human

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. 

Becoming Human (the 1st book in the Exilon 5 Trilogy) is written by Eliza Green.  Admittedly I was surprised that this was written by a woman, from the first 1/3 of the book, I had the feeling that it was written by a man.  Considering that the story is told predominantly through the eyes of men, I must commend Eliza on capturing the essence of man in storytelling views. 

Becoming Human is based in the year 2163 when Earth is overpopulated and polluted to the point that the sun is no longer visible in the sky and the temperatures have dropped.  A planet named Exilon 5 has been terraformed and has replicated 5 major cities that people have started being transported to.  However, the race that was on Exilon 5 before the terraforming process were not completely annihilated and have continued to thrive under the surface. 

Eliza does a great job of combining many fears and speculations into her futuristic novel.  Everyone has an ID chip embedded in their thumb that is used for everything from signatures to building entry.  Overcrowding has reached the point that bodies of water have been filled in to create more housing.  Medical advances allow people to live well into their 100s, reaching 175 as a ripe old age.  Optional suicide booths that inject a substance to painlessly kill people due to the mass overcrowding.  Workers are required for weeks at a time with drugs that allow them to stay awake and only getting hours or a single day off after a week or longer shift.  With no space for additional housing and the lack of sunlight from the layer of pollution, food can no longer be grown on Earth and people eat and drink substances from food replication machines to get the appropriate nutrients.  Vitamin D shots are readily available for mood enhancement due to the lack of sunlight.

The Prologue to the book had useful information but was very dry and overly technical.  It kind of set a negative tone for the book, and I was a little worried about whether or not I would be reading an enjoyable story or a science fiction technical novel; luckily the rest of book is much more inviting and easy to become immersed in.  Eliza has written a lot of characters that are cold and detached in many ways, and yet still have the ability for you to get to know them and want to know more about their stories.  The main negative thing that I have to say about this book would be the dry prologue and the fact that it needs a cleaner edit.  There were times within the novel that some sentences would be incomplete or missing a word on the end of them. 

Becoming Human is written from many different perspectives to give a "whole picture" kind of feel.  In the beginning it took a little bit of getting used to with a bit of jumping around in locations, but once I got into the story line and used to the different locations of main characters I had no problems seamlessly switching between people and locations for more pieces of the puzzle that was uncovering the big secret of Exilon 5. 

Overall I think that Eliza has a winning story with Becoming Human.  The build up is done well with hints at possibilities but nothing to amount to the actual ending of the story.  The book closes well, with lead up into the next book in the Trilogy, but not with a complete drop off.  I enjoyed the characters and was definitely feeling anger and disgust at what the leading organizations have been up to, and I am definitely interested in reading the second book: Altered Reality.  I give this book 4/5 stars, and could easily bump it up to 5 with some cleaner edit and a prologue that was easily to connect with.  If you are into Sci-Fi, Futuristic novels, Mysteries, Suspense, Space travel and Terraforming, this book is definitely right up your alley. 

The Hangover III

I have waited to watch this one for awhile, enjoying the first two installments of the movie and had high expectations from the finale.  After all the effort put into this movie franchise I was expecting the "wolf pack" to go out with a bang.  Unfortunately they ended up with more than a fizzle instead.  I have to admit that I was sadly disappointed by this movie. 

In case you know nothing of the Hangover Movie series I don't want to ruin it for you, but let me give you a little bit of background knowledge.  The Hangover is a comedy film, and this is the third and final film in the trilogy.  The first film was based around waking up from a night of  a bachelor party and not remembering anything, trying to piece together the memories.  The second film featured the wedding and having memories to piece together, so when this film came around I had certain hilarious expectations.  This film is featured around the Wolf Pack as they try to get help for Alan (Zach Galifianakis) after he is faced with a personal crisis.  They end up on a road trip heading for a treatment center, but end up having to face past events from the original Hangover movie. 

There are a lot of great actors in this film:

Phil-played by Bradley Cooper: (Silver Linings Playbook, Limitless, Alias, American Hustle)
Stu-Played by Ed Helms (The Office, We're The Millers, Children's Hospital, Semi-Pro)
Alan-played by Zach Galifianakis (Due Date, The Campaign, Dinner for Schmucks, The Muppets)
Doug- played by Justin Bartha (National Treasure, The New Normal, The Rebound, Dark Horse)
Chow- played by Ken Jeong (Community, Turbo, Zookeeper, American Dad, MadTV)
Marshall-played by John Goodman (Roseanne, Monsters, Inc., Argo, Big Lebowski, Alpha House)
Cassie-played by Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids, Mike & Molly, Heat, Gilmore Girls)
Jade-played by Heather Graham (Boogie Nights, From Hell, Emily's Reasons Why Not, Scrubs)
Black Doug-played by Mike Epps (Lottery Ticket, Something New, Resident Evil, How High)

The Hangover III had the second biggest worldwide opening weekend for an R-Rated comedy, coming in only behind the Hangover II.  It ended up with total box office earnings of $362 million.  Most reviews of the film have been negative from critics.  The general consensus being that the film deviated from the story line of the first two films and gave nothing to replace the formula that made them so successful. 

I have to agree with the negative critics on this one.  The Hangover movies became famous and loved for the their backward story-telling and the drunken humor.  While this movie offered no backwards story telling, not even a flashback to the incident from the first film that is in question in this one.  There is no memory loss and not much be way of humor.  There is definitely a darker tone to this movie and it felt like it was rushed in creation when you watch it.  All of your favorite characters are there for you to see, but their personalities seem to be a lot drier and there isn't a lot of scenes worth really devoting your whole attention to, let alone allowing a chuckle to escape.  I think that drifting from the original flow to close the trilogy was a foul.   I give this move 2.5 out of 5 stars.  The only reason to watch it is so get a close to the story and to actually feel better about where Alan ends up in life.  The giraffe incident was just too awful even for me as an opening to the film and it sets the tone for how the rest of the movie will go.  The ending makes you wish that it had been the beginning to this movie instead.   That would have been much more enjoyable to watch.

The official movie website: Hangover Part III

Terminated: Revivalist Review

This is merely the latest novel that I have read by the immensely talented Rachel Caine.  This is the 3rd book in the Revivalist Series and comes behind the amazing Weather Warden Series that made me fall in love with her as well as the offshoot OutCast Series that followed along with the end of the Weather Warden Series and another Young Adult series that should not be discounted, the Morganville Series which will soon be turning into a high quality web tv series which I am extremely excited about!

Rachel Caine falls into my Top 5 Female Authors of All-Time List and for good reason.  She has been writing and publishing novels since 1990 and amazing was also a professional musician.  She is an international bestselling author of more than 30 novels and luckily for us returned to full-time writing in 2010 to bring us even more great stuff in each series! 

Back to the book.  Terminated is the 3rd book in the Revivalist Trilogy.  This trilogy takes an entirely different approach to zombies than anyone has really even touched upon previously.  It is about a woman named Bryn who served time in the military and in a war zone and then doesn't really know how to fit back into society.  She starts working a funeral home and ends up int he wrong place at the wrong time where she is killed.  She is then given a shot of the drug Returne' which puts little machines (nanites) into her body and keeps her alive.  However without recurring shots, she will start to decay and decompose until she turns into nothing and does really die.  Having this condition obviously puts her largely indebted to a huge pharmaceutical company and some 3 letter agencies that want to equally use her and destroy her.  Luckily Bryn is able to make some allies along the way and even find a man that she begins to feel interested in. 

I hate spoilers and if you have not read the Trilogy yet, I don't want to ruin it for you, just wet your appetite.  Therefore I will say that this third book definitely takes things to a whole other level in the troubles that Bryn is faced with and that there is a lot of running and espionage going on.  There is a lot of action and even some vivid horror.  Rachel Caine is tasteful in her approach to sexuality and does not overdue it in her books.  I will say that there is at least one brief sexual encounter per novel.  The least of which would be in this novel.  Seems that there is not enough time between the action and evasion and trying to save the world to really have any sex haha.

I have enjoyed zombie movies in the past but thus far I have not really gotten into reading anything on zombies, unless they happened to make a brief appearance in other series that I have read.  This trilogy is engaging and fresh and keeps you guessing.  You have a hard time thinking of Bryn as a zombie or undead. Bryn plays a great role as a strong, independent, empowering woman while still needing saving from time to time thanks to the ever adaptive and deadly friends that she makes that happen to save her butt when she can't save it herself.  The latest book sees Bryn really coming into her own and doing a lot more saving than being saved.  I definitely commend Rachel Caine on her imagination and would suggest this book to anyone who may shy away from a "zombie" novel.  Don't sleep on this one my friends, it is worth the read. 

A created commercial for the drug Returne'

Rachel Caine's website for Terminated