Temple-Matt Reilly

Professor William Race is a linguist at NYU. One day when he gets to work the army is waiting for him. They want him to translate a four hundred year old manuscript. Within the manuscript are clues to the where about of an Incan idol that is made out of a very rare and unearthly material. Who ever has that idol will gain control of the world. Now the race is on to find the idol, from the mountains and jungles of Peru to the U.S. the action moves back and forth. The search for the idol takes Race to ancient Incan villages and temples, with terrorist and government agencies all fighting for the idol. The book jumps back and forth from the past to the present tracing the path in both times. If you like ancient civilizations, mythical creatures and potential world destroying action you will like this book. I give this novel 4.5 stars.

When chip designer Todd Griffith discovers something odd about the chip he is working on, he is shot and left for dead. Years later when his friend software engineer Nick Aubrey is offered a job that he turns down, he is framed for murder. His fight to clear his name leads him into conspiracies that lead from the cause of the gulf war to a world take over by a leading corporation. His fight is made more difficult because of his personal problems. With human genetic manipulation and the use of nano technology the world may be on the verge of loosing its freedom and Nick may be the only one able to stop it from happening. This is the author's first book and it's not a bad book. It takes a while to get going and I think he spent a little too much time on all the different conspiracies. The book tended to slow down when he took the time to explain the technologies and the conspiracies, but it speeded up towards the end and came to a clear and logical conclusion. As a first book it was pretty good and I give it three stars.

This is a stealth book! What I mean is that all it says on the cover is that it is "A Fairy Tale for Grown-ups." Well it would be more accurate to say it is an adult horror. This is not the Santa you grew up reading about. I picked up this book thinking that it is another horror book about Santa, boy was I wrong. The story goes something like this. The tooth fairy, who really likes teeth or to be more precise bone and is the only one who remembers who she was before she became the tooth fairy, wants Santa. So she sets out to seduce him. Santa, who also was not always Santa, is just about helpless before her. Which gets him in trouble with his wife, who decides to get even. You won't believe what she does to get revenge. Naturally all this gets out because the Easter bunny is pissed off, cause no one pays any attention to him. Now the tooth fairy, who is not a very nice person, really does not like rejection. So she with the help of the Easter bunny gets revenge. So it is up to God, who also was not always God to set things right. Did I mention there is a lot of graphic sex in this book? The originality of the book gets it a better rating than it other wise would have gotten. 

Deep Fathom-James Rollins

This is James Rollins third novel and he sticks to his familiar plot elements. There are ancient lost cities, hidden treasure and some kind of world wide threat. Jack Kirkland is on his ship Deep Fathom looking for a treasure ship in the pacific, while there a solar eclipse is happening in the area. Along with the eclipse, the pacific ring of fire erupts with massive earthquakes that cause islands to sink and ancient cities to rise. When Air Force one goes missing and the world stands on the brink of nuclear war. Jack and his crew must find out what an ancient civilization has got to do with the events happening in the world. This is a fast pace novel, once again James Rollins has done a very good job mixing fact and fiction. He also brings together real places and mysteries in a exciting adventure. I give this novel 4.5 stars.

Valhalla Rising-Clive Cussler

Dirk Pitt is back and this time he is rescuing a cruse ship full of people. As always it will lead him into a adventure against a cartel that has designs on becoming a global power. Along the way he solves an ancient mystery and discovers a technology that can change the way things are done on Earth. There is almost non-stop action as with most of the novels involving Dirk Pitt. The novel dose have one problem area and that is at the very end. The changes introduced in Dirk's life at the very end happened too smoothly, one would have expected that something like that would have created a few problems. Over all this is a big improvement over his last novel, Blue Gold. I give this novel 4.5 stars.

The Last Vampire-Whitley Strieber

This can be considered a sequel to The Hunger. Miriam Blaylock is back and this time she is the hunted. For the first time in her long life she is being perused by humans intent on killing her. Paul Ward, a CIA agent has been hunting and killing vampires for a long time and now he is up against one that is smarter than any he has faced before. Now Paul has a secret that will change the way he looks at himself for ever. This is a well written book with a view of vampires that is different than most others. I recommend this book and give it 4.40 stars.

The Talisman-Stephen King & Peter Straub

Two great horror writers bring their talents together. This is the story of Jack Sawyer and his quest to find a cure for his sick mother. Out of that simple premise comes a journey across America, from New Hampshire to California. The journey will take him not only into dangerous situations in America, but also into a strange alternate world where people and creatures both familiar and strange will try to stop him. The character of twelve year-old Jack Sawyer can be a bit annoying and the novel does tend to run on a bit. But this novel is a very good example of the fusion of horror and fantasy. The quest to find the talisman and save his mother is also a quest to save two worlds. Overall this is a very good novel and I give it 4.5 stars.

Black House-Stephen King & Peter Straub

This is a sequel to The Talisman and it takes place twenty years after the events in that novel. Jack Sawyer is now a retired cop and living in Wisconsin. It so happens that a series of murders of kids is taking place in the county he lives in and the local police is over matched. The killer, called The Fisherman after a serial killer from the turn of the century, is some how tied to the alternate world that Jack knows of as the Territories. So only Jack have a chance of catching him. While this novel makes a lot of reference to events that take place in Stephen King's ongoing Dark Tower series, you do not need to have read that series to enjoy and understand this novel. But it wouldn't hurt to give that series a look to fully understand the references. While Black House is a very good novel and has a gripping story for the most part, the one flaw I found with it is that it is a tad too long. I give this novel 4.85 stars.

Blood And Gold-Anne Rice

This is the latest installment of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles. In this novel we follow the story of the Vampire Marius from his making to the final resolution of the Queen of the Vampires. The story is being told to Thorne, a newly awakened vampire, who has been asleep for centuries. Included in the story is Marius relationship with the Talamasca. As she does with most of her books, Anne Rice brings to life the times in which the story is told. She also brings to her vampires a humanity that most others do not. Delving into the lives of the different vampires as she does here with Marius, the world of her vampires is slowly being filled out. This novel is a good addition to that world. I give it 4.5 stars.

Area 7-Matt Reilly

The new President of the United States has taken a trip to Area 7,  a top secret Air Force base in Utah. He is going there to inspect, but waiting for him is a surprise. Now it is up to Marine Captain Shane Schofield and his crew to get him out. This is a fast pace novel that holds your attention all the way to the end. The action takes you from the underground base to the edge of space. Matt Reilly has gotten better with each book and this is his best one so far. The characters are a bit more fleshed out in this novel. This novel can be considered a sequel to Ice Station, his last novel, but it is more of a stand alone. The only nitpick and it is a small one is that it is a little hard to believe that a Air Force General could do all this with no one finding out. But I recommend this novel and give it 4.9 stars.

The Jaguar Hunter-Lucius Shepard

This is a book of short stories, maybe novellas would be a better way to describe them. There are fourteen stories in this book and most of them have a supernatural bent to them with a dash of horror and Sci-Fi thrown in. They range from a story about a man hunting a jaguar that is not what it seems to a story about an alien ghost trapped on Earth. Most of the stories are pretty good. My one beef is that a few of the stories are a bit too long. But if you want to read some short stories with different sort of horror then this is for you. I give this book 3.75 stars.

Everything's Eventual-Stephen King

This is a book of short stories, the first by Stephen King in a long time. If you are a fan of Stephen King, then you probably have read some of them before, but a few were new to me. They are all pretty good, but there were a few stand outs. Autopsy Room Four, the first story in the book, about a potential mistake in the autopsy room. Then you have The Road Virus Heads North, a story about a painting that changes and has consequences for its owner. The other two stories I considered outstanding is Lunch at the Gotham Cafe and 1408. The first is about a divorcing couple that runs into trouble and the latter is about a haunted room in a hotel. These stories show the range of Kings talents as a writer and story teller. These stories are also a good addition if you are a fan or a good way to be introduced to King if you have never read him. I give this book four stars.

The Shelters of Stone-Jean M. Auel

The very popular Earth Children series  continues with Ayla and Jondalar finding their way back to Jondalar's people. The story follows Ayla as she tries to gain acceptance and a place among Jondalar's people. Ayla with her animals and her healing skill is an almost mystical person as far as the Zelandonii are concerned. The story is best when it shows how Ayla and Jondalar teach their new skills to the Zelandonii and uses those skills to help make life easier. But the novel fails on two points. First some of the stories of their journey is repeated over and over adding to the length of the book. Second while there are some problems for Ayla to overcome, they are not as challenging as they needed to be to make this novel as good as the first book of the series. Also some aspects of Ayla's character still needs to be explored, such as her interaction with the spirit world. Hopefully the next and last book in the series will rise to the level of the first one. I give this novel 3.75 stars.

The Cabinet of Curiosities-Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

When a basement full of bodies is found in lower Manhattan, FBI agent Pendergast enlist the aid of archaeologist Nora Kelly to find out more about the killings since they happened around the turn of the century. When a new series of killings begin to take place, the race is on to find the killer before he can kill them. The novel works best when it is bringing old New York City to life as it follows a turn of the century killer. It also does a good job in linking the modern day  killer with the old one. My problem with this novel was the way it ended and the motive of the original killer. First the ending seemed rushed and after the build up was disappointing. Second the motive of the killer is not fully explored and also leads to a disappointing ending. Overall the novel while good is not up to the level of their last  few novels. I give this novel 4 stars.

One Door Away from Heaven-Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz is one of those authors that write novels that is hard to classify.  This novel is no exception. It begins with several main characters, each following separate paths. A little girl who seems to be in a desperate situation. A boy, who is more than he seems, on the run with killers and government agencies chasing him. A ex-cop with one reason to live. You follow all these characters with their separate stories, along the way you run into aliens and serial killers until it all comes together. This is a very good book, I think one of his best. But I do have one nit pick, he gets a little preachy in certain parts, not that I disagreed with him but it went on a little long there. I give this novel 4.85 stars.

From a Buick 8-Stephen King

Stephen Kings latest is about a car and the officers of troop D that have kept watch over it. The story is told in a series of flash backs as each officer tells his portion of the story to their newest member, Ned Wilcox. It is also the story of Ned's father Curt, a side of him that Ned never knew. This novel is not a gripping as the ones King normally writes. It is more slow, with the car giving it just that bit of weirdness as a portal to somewhere. The problem I had with this novel is that to me seemed a little to long. I think it would have been better off as a short story or a novella. I give this novel 3.95 stars.

Decipher-Stel Pavlou

Decipher is the first novel by this author. It is a fast pace novel about the Earth facing a catastrophe with only about a week to stop it. The author packs a lot into this novel, every thing from super powers facing off to the finding of Atlantis. Along the way he takes you on a trip around the world from North America to the pyramids of Egypt and South America to Antarctica. When clues point to an ancient civilization having something to do with all that is happening, the race is on to find out before the end comes. The author does a good job in taking different facts about many different subjects and fitting them into one story. My one complaint is that he tended to get a bit carried away on his technical explanations. For a first novel this is a very good one. I give it 4.0 stars.

Blackwood Farm-Anne Rice

Tarquin Blackwood is a new vampire with a problem. He has a companion that has become very powerful and dangerous and he is afraid that this companion is about to become even more so. This companion is a ghost, so he turns to the one person that he hopes can help him. The Vampire Lestat. Anne Rice has created a powerful new character in Tarquin Blackwood. In this novel, she has written a story that not only pulls you into his world but also unites her vampires with her Mayfair witches. This is one of Anne Rice best books and I recommend it highly. I give it 4.85 stars.

By The Light of the Moon-Dean Koontz

With this novel Dean Koontz once again prove that he is master of genre that is difficult to define. Part X-Files, part mystery novel and part Sci-Fi this novel is typical Koontz. The novel follows three main characters. Dylan O'Conner, Shep O'Conner and Jillian Jackson when they are thrown together after getting attacked and injected by a mysterious doctor. Now they are on the run for their lives while fighting compulsions brought on by whatever substance they were injected with. This is a very fast paced novel and they characters pull you in to the story. My main problem with this novel is that over the first few chapters, he gets a bit over descriptive. But later in the novel that settles down and the novel really takes off. I think that most of Dean Koontz fans will like this one and if you never read him then this is a good one to start with. I give this novel 4.35 stars.

The Fifth Horseman-Richard Sherbaniuk

This is the author's first novel. It is a novel about bioterrorism. Mike Zammit is a environmental investigator, the head of the government agency INERT. He is the one they call when there is a environmental disaster and they want someone to fix the problem. He and his agency has been called in when a dam in Turkey has been contaminated and people are beginning to die. When it becomes clear that it is an act of bioterrorism, Mike is off to find a way to stop the contamination and the terrorists before they can complete their plan. Now some people may have a problem with the fact that Mike is like an environmentalist James Bond and like James Bond gets into and out of places that someone like him probably wouldn't be able to. But that's one of the reasons I like this novel. If I have one nitpick it's that I would have liked to read more about his cast of supporting characters like Dikka Spargo and her robot spiders. Maybe in his next book he will have one of them be the main character. I think this was a very good first novel and I give it 4.45 stars.

Contest-Matthew Reilly

This is the latest novel out by this author, it was also his first novel. A novel that at the time he self published. Now reading this knowing that this is the first novel he wrote, you can see the style that he has begun to perfect in his later novels. This is a fast pace adventure in which he mixes with science fiction and as a first novel it is very good. The novel takes place almost entirely in the New York Public Library. A doctor and his daughter are placed there and forced to fight for their lives. I guess you can look at this novel as an alien abduction novel with a very big twist. There are a few problems with the plot, but overall it was a very enjoyable novel. I give it 3.95 stars.

Still Life with Crows-Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

FBI Agent Pendergast is once again looking into a murder, this time in Kansas. When a body is found in the middle of a corn field, Pendergast goes to Medicine Creek to help find the killer. This time his help is not really welcome, be cause he is digging into some secrets the town would rather forget.  The character of FBI Agent Pendergast is becoming one of my favorites and this time with the help of some interesting supporting characters such as Corrie Swanson and Sheriff Dent Hazen this has turned out to be a very good book. The identity of the killer also turned out to be pretty good as was the reason for killing. I give this novel 4.85 stars.

The Face-Dean Koontz

The Face is another one of Dean Koontz hard to classify novels. Part mystery and part supernatural thriller, he mixes both to come up with a style that is uniquely his. In this novel we follow Ethan Truman, an ex-cop who is head of security for Channing Manheim. Channing, who happens to be the biggest movie star in the world, has been getting a series of threatening packages. While investigating the source of these packages, things will happen the Ethan that will test his sanity. That part of the novel works fine. The characters of Ethan, Fric who is Channings son and Hazard the cop that helps Ethan are believable. The villain is unique as is his reason for killing, make you wonder if there are people like that out there. The problem I had with this novel is that I thought it was too long. losing fifty pages could have improved it. Also I never really bought into the character of Channing Manheim, he was always just this disembodied character sitting in the back ground that you never get to meet. Over all this is a good book but not one of his best. I give it 4.00 stars.

Lilith's Dream-Whitley Strieber

The author continues in this novel the stories of vampires that he began back in The Hunger. This  novel seems to be the last of these vampire novels. In this vampire series, humans have been hunting and killing vampires for a long time and now what seems to be the last two vampires on Earth have given themselves away. Nothing new has been added with this novel. This novel seems to be nothing more than a vehicle to introduce a new type of human. The characters are familiar and except for the introduction Lilith who seems to have started it all, we seems to have read it all before. Whitley's vampires are not like any other in the fact that they seems to have created modern humans. Maybe more should have been told about that side of the story. I give this 3.50 stars.

Battle Royale-Koushun Takami

This novel has spawned television shows, movies and comics in Japan. It is considered a classic over there, some people have gone so far as to compare it with Lord of the Flies. I think that is going a bit far. What it is turns out to be a very fast pace action novel that takes place in a alternate world in which Japan is a totalitarian state. Once a year a class of junior high students are taken to an isolated area and made to fight to the death leaving one survivor. This year it is students from the Shiroiwa Junior High that's chosen for this dubious honor. The novel follows fourty-two students as they are taken to an island to fight, they think they are going on a field trip. There are very few fully developed characters in this novel, which makes sense when you realize that most of the characters are going to get killed off.  This is a novel that does not pretend to be anything else than what it is, a fast pace action novel.  I give it 4.85 stars.

The Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy's new book is some what of a departure from what he has written before. This time he is dealing with middle-eastern terrorists who have come to a working arrangement with a  group based in South-America. Opposing them is a new secret organization known as The Campus that works outside the government. This novel is shorter than most of his previous novels and lack the familiar Clancy effect that made his other novels so hard to put down. The novel is by no means a bad novel and it does have the added plus of having the next generation of Ryans thrown in. But this novel reads like the first half of a much larger book and you keep waiting for it to really take off and it never really does. There are several good points and the teaming of the terrorists with the cartel is one. For Tom Clancy this is just above average and I give it 4.0 stars.

Golden Buddha - Clive Cussler

Clive Cussler is back with a new series starring a character he introduced in the novel Flood Tide. The character is Juan Cabrillo and his ship the Oregon. The reader is reintroduced to Juan and his ship as they go about a mission to steal a religious icon and restore it and the Dalai Lama back to power in Tibet. As with all of his novels this is a easy and fast read with characters that you tend to like. Don't expect any in-depth characters or plot lines in this novel, but if you want something fun and easy then this is it. If you are a fan of Clive Cussler's novels then you will like this one. I give it 4.50 stars.

Another fine novel with everybody's favorite adventurer Dirk Pitt. This novel continues the changes in Dirk's life that began in Valhalla Rising. If this is the last adventure Dirk will go on then it is a good one. It begins with one of the worst hurricanes in history continues under the Nicaraguan jungle and ends on a Caribbean island. With one of the best villains Clive Cussler has every come up with opposing them, Dirk and Al seems to be rapping up their adventures while the twins are starting theirs in good fashion.  If you are a Dirk Pitt fan and a fan of Clive Cussler in general, then you do not want to miss this novel. Even if you are not this is a fun novel to read. I give it 4.65 stars,

In this the latest by Dean Koontz, Odd Thomas is a man with some very unusual gifts. He can see ghosts and he helps them with their problems when he can. This time his talents lead him to a man that could be planning something big for his small town of Pico Mundo and it is up to Odd to find out what and stop it. This novel reads like a cross between  Kolchak and The Others. The novel for the most part was very good, I will say to me the middle slowed down just a little. But the end of the novel more than made up for it. The Character of Odd Thomas is one I enjoyed and I hope we get to read more about him in the future. I give this novel 4.20 stars.

Phillip Mercer is an geologist who is offered a job that he turns down, but is soon forced to take. Now he is in a race against time and enemies to find a diamond mine before someone he loves is killed. The novel takes you from the U.S. to Africa with most of the action taking place in Africa. It is an adventure novel in the style of Clive Cussler and people that like Mr. Cussler's work will most likely like this novel. One of my problems with this novel is that end is wrapped up to neatly and the story was not as gripping as it promised to be when I first began reading. This novel just makes to 4 stars.

In this novel Phillip Mercer is off to Greenland as part of a team to open up and explore an under ice U.S. military base that has been closed since the 50's. When he gets there he finds that there is more going on than he was told. Now he has to stop a group of people from getting a hold of a very dangerous weapon from the past that they plan to sell and stop a company from destroying the evidence. Once again as with the previous novel it begins good but never reaches that point where it breaks through from the pack and so it ends up being just another adventure novel. Another thing is that you never get to really know the character of Phillip Mercer. I give this novel 3,75 stars.

This is an adventure novel whose premise is that the end of the cold war was a big lie, set in motion by the former Soviet Union to get the U.S. to let down it guard. Which it does and is now blackmailed into pulling out of the international arena. With the deadline fast approaching the U.S. turns to its top agent to find a way out. Now this novel is obviously based on some unsubstantiated rumors that were given to the FBI, after the fall of the Soviet Union, by ex-KGB agents. The ex-KGB reported that the missing suitcase nukes were hidden in different U.S. cities. Getting back to this novel, the problem I had with it is that this type of story line has been done before and done better. This novel is just average, it does not stand out in any way. I give this 3.20 stars.

Dean's latest novel is a take on the alien invasion theme. He comes at it from a slightly different angle. The entire action takes place in a small California town and follows the characters of Neil and Molly Sloan. When an odd smelling rain begins to fall, the Sloans wake up to find that the strange weather has spread all over the world. With alien ships cruising over head and their environment slowly changing, the Sloans must do all they can to survive. The problem I had with this novel is that you never know why any of this happened. I know that in the novel a very soft ball reason was given as to why the aliens came, but is was not very satisfying and it left the novel with a incomplete feeling . In the end I can only give this four stars.

This is basically a alternate history novel with a twist. The author, Philip Roth writes this as if it happened to him years ago. The story takes place between the years of 1940 and 1942, when in this version of things, Charles Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt to become President of the United States. So this is the story of a young Philip Roth growing up in Lindbergh's America, an America that Lindbergh is pulling closer and closer to Nazi Germany. Now this is a well written novel and one can see this possibly taking place given some of the things Lindbergh was reported to have said about Jews. My main problem with it is that it ended to pat. It reads as if this was just a minor bump in the path of history that quickly corrected itself. My other problem is the kind of back door explanation giving for Lindbergh actions. Overall I give this 4.0 stars.

In this new Kurt Austin novel, when a pilot and his plane is found under a glacier and the discovers are trapped under that same glacier, Kurt and his team go to the rescue. From there They get into a race against time to save the world from a family bent not only on world destruction but also on world domination. As with all of Clive's novels the action races all over the place from Alps to the Atlantic to Europe. For those of you that love Clive Cussler you have a winner in this novel. While the character of Kurt Austin is not as fully fleshed out as Dirk Pitt, it is slowly getting there and it does not detract from the enjoyment of this novel. I give this 3.85 stars.

In this new novel Clive Cussler returns with Dirk Pitt. Both of them, father and son come together to fight a North Korea plot to use an old secret world war 2 Japanese weapon against the U.S.  This time the action takes place in Japan, the Pacific and the American northwest. If you are a Dirk Pitt fan you will like this novel and if you have never read a Dirk Pitt novel this is a good one to start on. My one nitpick is that more of a difference needs to be shown between Pitt the younger and Pitt the elder.  Overall I give this novel 3.80 stars.