Book Review: Hurricane Fever by Tobias Buckell

Hurricane Fever by Tobias Buckell

Summary

Prudence “Roo” Jones is long retired from working in the Caribbean Intelligence Group, the Caribbean version of the CIA. But that doesn’t stop his old partner Zee from sending him one last voicemail. Zee is dead, and he’s got some information that will help Roo find Zee’s killers. Multiple ocean storms, the inability to decipher the meaning of Zee’s information, and the sudden appearance of Zee’s long hidden sister Kit spur Roo to action he doesn’t want to take. He’s retired, after all. But he can’t help getting drawn into a plot that could end up in a huge culling of the world population. And thanks to Zee, Roo is the only one with the information to stop it.

That's my summary. Here's the one I pulled from http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/

A storm is coming…

When former spy Roo Jones receives an unexpected package from a dead friend, he’s yanked out of a comfortable retirement and is suddenly embroiled in a global conspiracy involving a weapon that could change the face of the world forever.

But as one of the largest hurricanes to hit the Caribbean begins to sweep through the area, Roo just may find that time is running out – not just for himself, but the whole world…

Perfect for fans of action-packed espionage, Hurricane Fever is a kinetic techno-thriller for a new generation.

Context

Fans of spy novels, you’ve got a winner here. You get the gadgets and the fun, and for those of use who don’t live in the Caribbean, well there’s your exotic locales right there. We have a psychotic villain bent on changing the world to fit his own design.

I’ve got to say, I was at least a quarter of the way into the book before I realized it wasn’t actually set in the now. Hurricane Fever has a timeframe that’s hard to pin down. It could be an alternate present or a not-too-distant future. But it wasn’t a point of contention for me. It wasn’t something for me to dwell on. I just sank into it, enjoying coming across technology we don’t have. But I could accept the tech, especially the medical treatments, because they were just matter of course for Roo. It’s just the way that world is. Attention wasn’t brought to them as being odd, and I loved that about the setting. There was all this cool stuff, but it didn’t distract from the plot. They supported events.

I also didn’t realize until the afterword that Hurricane Fever isn’t the first book that Roo Jones appears in. You may want to check out Buckell’s other works. This is the first one that is starring Roo, though. He’s a very easy character to love. I didn’t feel left out by not having read any of Buckell’s other novels, but having read Hurricane Fever does make me eager to read more.

Style

Tobias Buckell has a writing style that is clean and easy to read. As I mentioned before, he knows how to offer details of setting without them drawing attention from what’s happening. He has a light hand when it comes to that information. It shows a masterful control of his material and the language he’s using to bring the reader to discover a detail of the world that you didn’t know before while still following the actual content of the sentence. I’m honestly in awe of his skill here. I do feel like his work in the action scenes was a little clipped. I wouldn’t have minded a little more detail when there was some real crap going down and the bullets were flying.

My Thoughts

I spent quite some time in my high school years reading all the James Bond novels I could get my hands on, and Buckell has brought me back to that love I used to have for the genre. In fact, if there are books out there like this, new spy novels of this caliber, then I need to reacquaint myself with this old flame. I admit I did have a little bit of culture shock or maybe geography shock from this being set wholly in the Caribbean, but it was so easy to sink into the characters that I got over that quickly. Buckell tugged at my emotions more than once. There were a few tidbits I wouldn’t have minded a little more information on, and in comparison to the Bond novels I was used to in this genre, this seemed short. I’m not saying it was uncomfortably short for a novel. It was a good solid length. I think my own expectations might be a tad biased toward the length and convolutions of Bond novels, though. I wasn’t unsatisfied with Hurricane Fever by any means. I think it’s my own inexperience with this particular genre that left me with furrowed brows at how quickly it ended.

Would I Recommend This Book? I definitely would! Hurricane Fever is an exciting, risky, emotional roller coaster of a novel. Buckell isn’t afraid to hurt his characters. This is a great read that will bring you flying into the Caribbean and won’t let go. Hurricane Fever gets a two-hulled 4 out of 5 stars.

For more on the author, visit http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/

Book Review: Discount Miracles by Brand Gamblin

Discount Miracles by Brand Gamblin

Summary

Jason Faught’s tiny crew, consisting of him, his engineer, his navigator, and a stowaway con-man wanted for more crimes than Jason cares to list, have crashed on a planet that’s both off the radar and centuries behind them technologically. With no way to communicate a distress signal, they’re effectively trapped. The people of this planet are more inclined to think of the crew as witches than as anything else, so how is Jason supposed to keep his crew alive while they try to find a way home? That’s easy. Sell their technological prowess and services as “magic” and perform miracles upon request. There are some who aren’t afraid to pay for the service of witches, after all. But when they’re hired to make a show of a certain ruler ascending to godhood, there’s a second request from the buyer. Get the ruler out of the way. Do miracles include kidnapping royalty? And what do they do with the prince once they’ve got him?

That's my summary. Here's the one I pulled from amazon.com

The crew of the space salvage ship JNE-0518 (the Jenny) have crashed on a planet that has lost its link to civilization. Surrounded by kingdoms stuck in the dark ages, the crew decides to hire themselves out as wizards, available to make any prophecy come true. But the latest job goes bad when they find themselves transporting a deified prince. Can the team get away from two different nations before they are caught and burned as royal kidnappers and witches? Even if they can escape the two armies, can they escape the iron grip of prophecy itself?

Context

Think about time travel for a second. Think how people from even a century or two ago would look at a computer, at an iPod, the internet, or any of a hundred other techno-gadget things we think of as commonplace today. They might think it’s magic, right? Now imagine if people from two centuries in the future came to visit us with their everyday tools that to us, look like something straight out of a sci-fi novel or movie. And they have a hundred more gadgets we’ve never conceived of and have no idea how they work. Would we not just deem it magic, since we don’t understand it? I’ve heard it said that magic is just science we don’t understand yet, and that science is just magic without the lies. It’s all about perspective. How quick are people to deem things magical just because we don’t quite get how they work? That’s the underling premise of this whole book. Gamblin has thrust technologically-savvy spacegoers into a world that likely once had science. There’s postulation that this planet was populated by a colony ship that crashed. It’s just been so long since the crash that generations have come and gone and forgotten how they got there. So now, LED lights, sound systems, jetpacks, and the other tools Captain Faught’s crew take for granted are centuries ahead of the civilizational development around them. What’s science to them is magic to the people around. Kind of makes you think.

Style

One thing I love about Gamblin’s writing is how simplistic it is without being over-simplified or condescending. This is the first of his books I’ve actually read. I’ve listened to another of his, and the same can be said about The Hidden Institute. The science-y elements are well-described; you don’t have to know the exact way the technology works to understand how the crew use it. The differences in the cultures on the planet are diverse but with those obvious ties and deep similarities you would see in people who, generations ago, were all one people. So they split and built their own cultures, traditions, and even religions and prophecies. They’re still, deep down, descendants of the same original group, and it shows in little ways. There is some great detail and some intriguing plot points scattered in this book. Even the people are real, even if some of them did come across as one- or two-dimensional. All in all, it’s still a great concept, and Gamblin pulls it off pretty well.

My Thoughts

I feel like the pacing of this book was a little off. Some of the same issues got hashed and rehashed at length, the same arguments between the crew that got to be a little draggy as time went on. Where you generally want to have a couple smaller peaks building up to a great climax at the end, I feel like the big climax was much earlier, before the halfway point of the book. That weakened the great bit that was supposed to be the final peak, the great climax at the end. And I think the final skirmish really ended too soon. There wasn’t a real feel of danger or threat, because so much happened so quickly and got resolved so fast. I don’t really feel like there was any threat, even when the crew split up to face down the leaders of a couple separate armies. It ended up too neat, and that bothered me. The epilogue, on the other hand, I did like, mostly because it added a new dimension to the planet and its goings-on, as well as to the prophecies the crew was working to make come true (or to prevent). But I admit I was a little disappointed with the second half of the book.

Would I Recommend This Book? Yeah, for the most part. It’s still a pretty good read, just on the principle of it, the idea behind the book. It’s pulled off kind of weakly, though. I give it a technologically advanced 3 out of 5 stars.

For more on the author, visit http://brandg.com/

Book Review: Invito Rex by Brand Gamblin

Invito Rex by Brand Gamblin

Summary

He's known as Dizzy, but Disraeli Augustus McCracken III isn't his real name. He calls on people as an Earl, but he isn't that either. He's nothing he says he is. And the police are on to him. But someone else is looking for him, someone who has very different plans than imprisoning him. Dizzy, it turns out, is the illegitimate half-brother of the king, and sadly, the king died without heir. Now Dizzy finds himself on the throne, finally one of the nobility he always pretends to be.

But he wasn't trained for this position. Every move he makes seems to tumble him further and further from kinghood. How long until he fatally missteps?

That's my summary. Here's the one I pulled from amazon.com

In a fantastic world not too far ahead of us, Victorian sensibilities have brought back the monarchy, with a caste system that is lethally enforced. Dizzy is a con man, a commoner who makes his living impersonating the nobility. But one wrong turn leaves him trapped in the most dangerous place of all, the palace of the king.

Context

This is the sequel to The Hidden Institute, and we see much more of the world in this novel. Where with The Hidden Institute, I would have called the world modernistic fantasy with a splash of steampunk, I really don't know how to classify Invito Rex. It's not really steampunk, because the year-setting is more sci-fi, being future. It's not modernistic, because it's again so futuristic. But it's not hard sci-fi. I've seen the term neo-Victorian applied to it, and I suppose that will have to. The world of this series is technologically parallel to ours in some ways, futuristic in others, and fancifully vintage, mostly thanks to the way his culture has developed in America. We see a strong caste system with clear lines between noble and commoner. While it can be hard to pin down the sort of what, where, and when of this novel, it's clearer to me than The Hidden Institute was. In this novel's predecessor, I had difficulty realizing it was set in America at all. Due to the nature of the subject matter and plot of this novel, that at least is far more clear. Limitations of technology seem somewhat arbitrary in this novel, and I'm not sure if that's a boon or a problem.

Style

At the very least, I do enjoy Gamblin's imagination. The characters and setting are fun, to say the very least, and I love that this sequel actually followed the story of Dizzy, a supporting character from The Hidden Institute, rather than Cliffy, who was our protagonist for that book. Dizzy intrigued me from the start of THI, and now I was rewarded with a novel centering on him.

My Thoughts

There was a sense of imbalance in this novel. I did listen to the audio version of it through iTunes, and I'm not sure if that really did justice to the book. Gamblin's voice is pleasant enough, and he does a decent job with most characters' voices, setting them apart. But there always seemed to be a sense of "I know something you don't know" from the author. Honestly, I believe that would apply to reading it as well. I just never seemed to get enough information, to really understand who was doing what and why. This might have been the intent of the author, to throw the reader as off balance as Dizzy himself is through the book, but on the whole, it left me uncomfortable the whole time I was listening.

Similarly, this lack of information left too many unanswered questions in the plot. I won't give any spoilers, but I felt like the rope of this novel's plot was fraying away as it went along. Add that to an ending that came out of nowhere far too quickly, and I was left highly unsatisfied with the entire experience. As much as I loved the book up to the last chapter (and even well into the last chapter), I was completely surprised by the fact that it ended when it did. Not HOW it did. WHEN. In my opinion, there was at least another 4 or 5 chapters to be had, but they're not there. It seemed to me that Gamblin wrote a decent enough ending, but then arbitrarily decided, "I'm tired of writing this novel. I'm just going to slap the ending here and call it a book." It felt like he gave up, digging Dizzy in too deep and not bothering to find a way to dig him out again. And then there were the unexplained actions and unfinished plot lines. It left me really disappointed.

Would I Recommend This Book? No and yes. The story itself is good, but considering how unsatisfied the ending left me, I would generally say no. Honestly, it makes me sad. I wanted so much more from this book, and it was setting me up for it, only to leave me wanting, and not in a good way. Mostly because of the ending, Invito Rex gets a byblow 2.5 out of 5 stars.

For more information on the author, visit http://brandg.com/

Book Review: The Hidden Institute by Brand Gamblin

The Hidden Institute by Brand Gamblin.

Summary

Cliffy is a nobody, a commoner without much hope for anything. But when he witnesses a murder, he starts down a path of blackmail that will get him an education at the illegal Hidden Institute. The course of study offered will teach him to behave like a nobleman and pass himself off as one of that number, effectively opening many more doors than he could ever have hoped before. Of course, this practice is highly illegal, and there are a group of people who specifically seek to expose people like Cliffy. They’ve got their sights right on Cliffy. It’s only a matter of time before they catch up to him, but can he evade them long enough to stop a plot to kill a head of state?

That was my summary. Here's the summary I got from http://brandg.com/

Rising above your station can be deadly.

Cliffy is a child born on the streets of a Neo-Victorian world. Witnesses to a murder, he blackmails a nobleman, receiving a unique bribe. In exchange for his silence, the nobleman introduces him to the Malcolm Rutherford Holden Institute of Regentrification. There, Cliffy learns to walk, talk, and act like a nobleman, so that he may infiltrate high society. But that type of fraud is punishable by death, and when Cliffy uncovers a plot to assassinate a head of state, he's hunted by more than just the aristocracy.

Royal intrigue, daring escapes, sub-dermal machines, and bear polo. A grand adventure in a not-so-distant world. 

Context 

I could very easily go into a huge rant about class systems and the “unspoken” social devisions in America, but I won’t right now. Suffice it to say a finishing school like The Hidden institute would do a lot of people a lot of good these days, although the class divisions and the social ceilings in the novel make their need for it necessary. It’s impossible to cross stations in the novel due to extensive background checks. You have what you have, and that’s your entire lot in life. Even getting into the Institute is expensive, and it’s something Cliffy could never have hoped to do in his normal life. There’s a scene in one of Cliffy’s classes that goes into the economy that created the social structure of his world, and that does worlds to explain the attitudes of the nobles towards the commoners. It’s very well done.

Style 

I did not read The Hidden Institute. I listened to it via podiobooks.com. It was a one-person narration, read by the author. What I like about this sort of format is that there are two ways to go. It can be a straight read, or the narrator can actually differentiate voices for the characters. Gamblin took the latter route, and it was spectacular. It’s pretty obvious that the text itself is written in lingo/dialect (where appropriate), and his performance was so characterized (especially for Cliffy) that the transformation from street kid to young gentleman was made even more clear and drastic. I don’t think you’ll lose anything if you read the novel rather than listen to it, but Gamblin’s performance really speaks to the audio medium.

The writing itself is clear and easy to understand without being condescending. The slang that Cliffy uses as a boy isn’t ever fully explained, but I don’t feel idiotic for not knowing exactly what is meant by each word. I swear, there were about twelve different uses for a single slang word and I’m still not sure I could use it right if forced to. But that doesn’t feel wrong. Cliffy and the others of his kind knew how to use it, and that was perfect. They expressed themselves in such a different lingo than I use that it almost comes across as a whole other language, and that was fascinating to me.

My thoughts

I heard about this first through a promo on another podcast, and it grabbed my attention so that I had to read/listen to it. And I am so glad I did! I immediately fell into the world, the culture, and became engrossed in the characters. They’re all clearly defined and their actions are really constant to their own personalities and natures. Dizzy does things because there’s no way he could do anything else. He simply is himself, take it or leave it. From start to finish, Cliffy is himself, but his transformation is still more than just surface. The Institute does make someone different out of him, sure, but the badly-spoken boy from the beginning is still underneath that exterior. This book is a great draw and is well worth the time (not much) to read or listen to it. Seriously… I listened to it in a single work day. And I enjoyed every minute.

Would I recommend it? Oh hell yes! This was a great trip in an awesome setting with a killer premise. Don’t miss out! I give The Hidden Institute a regentrificated 3 out of 5 stars.

You can find more info on the book on the author's website. http://brandg.com/