As any regular follower of this blog knows I am an avid admirer of both high concept science fiction and post-apocalyptic literature. In The Feed, Nick Clark Windo’s debut novel, I hoped I might find myself a new favorite in these genres that I would enjoy revisiting for years to come. Unfortunately, all I found myself was disappointed. While The Feed is by no means a bad read it is possessed of several flaws that keep it from elevating itself into that can’t miss category of new releases. Let’s start with the plot. The entire world is connected via a…
Category: In Stores Now
In Stores Now- Artemis
I’m not sure if it’s because of some subconscious effort on my part to reassure myself as I prepare to release my own sophomore manuscript but I seem to be making a habit out of using this section of the blog to review the second outings of author’s whose first outings were personal favorites of mine. This month I picked up Andy Weir’s new novel Artemis (coincidentally the name of a character in my next book). If Weir’s name sounds familiar its because is initial outing The Martian was an international bestseller and was adapted into an Oscar-nominated film. This…
In Stores Now- Armada
Sometimes in life you just get so excited that you set yourself up for disappointment. Your imagination sets the bar so high that you make it impossible for reality to measure up to your expectations. This has happened to me a few times in my life; my first trip to Paris, the fourth Indiana Jones Movie, Star Wars Episode 1, bacon flavored vodka, the list goes on. And it happened to me again when I sat down to read Ernest Cline’s second novel Armada. Hopefully by now you’ve read Mr. Cline’s Ready Player One which can best be described as…
In Stores Now- The Girl On the Train
Today I’m not even going to bother with a preamble. There will be no smooth segue into our topic of interest. No this post will be jarring. And disconcerting. And hopefully will be an absolute pain to read. And still it will have more narrative cohesion than The Girl on the Train. This mess of a book debuted at number one on the NY times best seller list and stayed there for thirteen weeks. And because of that I hate all of you. Maybe I should be nicer. After all someday I will have a debut novel that someone will…
In Stores Now- Station Eleven
So I have a confession. Originally I had planned on writing this review about a fantastic non-fiction gem The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson before realizing that it was published all the way back in 2003. A novel that had been out for over a decade did not fit the goal of more current reviews that I had put forth for this particular set of posts. So I decided I should find something else to read and review. No big deal. Then I spent a fantastic booze-filled weekend in San Francisco with old friends and wasted all the reading…