Holsgov

Terry Pratchett - Mort

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 15:38:00 +0000

`Although the scythe isn't pre-eminent among the weapons of war, anyone who has been on the wrong end of , say, a peasants' revolt will know that in skilled hands it is fearsome...'
For Mort however, it is about to become one of the tools of his trade. From henceforth, Death is no longer going to be the end, merely the means to an end. He has received an offer he can't refuse. As Death's apprentice he'll have free board, use of the company horse and being dead isn't compulsory. It's the dream job until he discovers that it can be a killer on his love life...

Terry Pratchett - Guards! Guards!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:25:00 +0000

Guards! Guards! is the 8th Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, first published in 1989. It is the first novel about the City Watch. The first Discworld computer game borrowed heavily from Guards! Guards! in terms of plot.

The story follows a plot by a secret brotherhood, the Unique and Supreme Lodge of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night, to overthrow the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork and install a puppet king, under the control of the Supreme Grand Master (Vetinari's secretary, Lupine Wonse). Using a stolen magic book, they summon a dragon to strike fear into the people of Ankh-Morpork. Once a suitable state of terror and panic has been created, the Supreme Grand Master proposes to put forth an "heir" to the throne, who will slay the dragon and rid the city of tyranny. It is the task of the Night Watch – Captain Vimes, Sergeant Colon, Corporal Nobbs, and new volunteer Carrot Ironfoundersson – to stop them, with some help from the Librarian of the Unseen University, an orangutan trying to get the stolen book back. The Watch is in bad condition; they are regarded as a bunch of incompetents who just walk around ringing their bells, and this is mostly true. The arrival of Carrot changes this; Carrot has memorised the Laws and Ordinances of the Cities of Ankh and Morpork, and on his first day tries to arrest the head of the Thieves' Guild for theft (the Thieves' Guild is permitted a quota of legally licensed thieving, a concept that the book of ancient Laws does not take into account). Carrot's enthusiasm strikes a chord with Vimes; the Watch should prevent crime, not ignore it. Vimes begins investigating the dragon appearances, which leads to an acquaintance with Sybil Ramkin, a breeder of swamp dragons. Ramkin gives an underdeveloped dragon, Errol, to the Watch as a mascot. The leader of the Elucidated Brethren is initially successful in controlling the dragon, but he has not accounted for the dragon's own magic. The banished dragon returns, and makes itself king of Ankh-Morpork (keeping the head of the Elucidated Brethren as its mouthpiece) and demands the people of Ankh-Morpork bring it gold and regular virgin sacrifices. Vimes is imprisoned in the same cell as the Patrician, who has been leading a relatively comfortable life, with the help of the rats he uses as spies. The Librarian helps Vimes to escape and he runs to the aid of Sybil, who has been chosen as the first virgin to be sacrificed. The Watch's swamp dragon, Errol, reorganises his digestive system to form a supersonic jet engine and fights the king, eventually knocking the king out of the sky with a shock wave. While a crowd attempts to close in on the King to kill it, Sybil tries to plead for it, while Carrot places it under arrest; but Errol lets the dragon escape, to be his mate. It turns out the King is a Queen. The Night Watch are offered anything they want as a reward, and only ask for a pay raise, a new kettle and a dartboard.

Part1 -- Part2 -- Part3 -- Part4 -- Part5 -- Part6

Infinite Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:44:00 +0000

"Superman, the Man of Steel. Wonder Woman, Amazon Princess. Batman, the Dark Knight. Together, they are the greatest super heroes of all. But they have turned away from each other in Earth''s hour of greatest need. As space is ripped apart, super-villains unite, and four mysterious strangers threaten reality itself. Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman must put aside their differences to save the world, but even the combined might of all Earth''s heroes might not be enough to stop the coming crisis..."

Infinite Crisis was a seven-issue limited series of comic books published by DC Comics beginning in October 2005. It was written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Phil Jimenez. The series storyline was based on the 1985 series Crisis on Infinite Earths, and it revisits characters and ideas that were from the earlier work. Once again I was treated to a Graphic Audio performance that really brings you into the story. The combination of sound effects and artistic vocal performances creates what Graphic Audio calls a Movie in your Mind, and that is truly what it is. We enter the story just as the Justice League of America's watchtower has been destroyed and the heroes of the world are facing a variety of menaces. Maxwell Lord, the head of the O.M.A.C. project a super-spy satellite that has been gathering information on the super heroes found out that the Blue Beetle discovered the project and shot him dead when he would not be enlisted to the cause. In fact he was going to expose it. When Lord tried to use mind control to get Batman to kill Superman, Wonder Woman stepped in and killed Lord. Now the O.M.A.C project has taken on a life of its own and is broadcasting Wonder Woman's "Murder" of Maxwell Lord while in the process trying to rid the world of magic and the super heroes who use it. Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman are all feuding: Wonder Woman for killing Lord, Batman for being paranoid and developing the out of control O.M.A.C project, and Superman for not being there when people need him most. On this Earth, Earth one, is a dark and cold place where people are distrusting. Is there something that has gone wrong? The only problem that I had with this book was that being unfamiliar with the story and the fact that there are so many characters, it was hard to keep up with at first. This is more of a problem with translating this kind of story from a comic book, where you can read the names and descriptions over again. On audio, you have to rewind if

The Amazing Spiderman BBC Drama

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 10:14:00 +0000

Peter Parker is bitten by a radioactive spider during a college experiment and finds he has aquired the proportional strength and agility of a spider! The amazing Spider-man is born - but will Peter learn that with enourmous power comes enourmous responsibility?
Cast: Actor - Character;William Dufris - Peter Parker;William Duffris - Spider-Man;Lorelei King - Sue Storm;Lorelei King - Betty Brant;William Roberts - J Jonah Jameson;William Roberts - Uncle Ben;Peter Marinker - Reed Richards;Buffy Davis - Aunt May;Jonathan Kydd - The Green Goblin;Gary Martin - The Thing;Gary Martin - Ben Grimm;Gary Martin - The Dead Dormammu;Garrick Hagon - Prince Namor;Garrick Hagon - The Sun Mariner;Eric Meyers - Johnny Storm;Eric Meyers - The Human Torch;David Bannerman - Flash Thompson;Michael Roberts - Doctor Doom;Michael Roberts - Sandman;Simon Treves - Doctor Octopus;Anita Dobson - Liz Allan

Episode List:
Episode 1 It's Clobberin' Time!
Episode 2 Here Comes the Human Torch!
Episode 3 Get a Life, Parker!
Episode 4 Ouch, It Bit Me!
Episode 5 Jeepers, My Zit's Gone!
Episode 6 That's the Greatest Act I've Ever Seen
Episode 7 This Guy Could Be a Threat
Episode 8 I'm Strictly in It for the Cash!
Episode 9 Spiderman Should Be Banned!
Episode 10 Uncle Ben's Dead and It's My Fault!
Episode 11 Look, Up on the Wall!
Episode 12 Spidey, You're Box Office Poison!
Episode 13 Can I Cash This Check, Please?
Episode 14 Doctor Octopus? In There ...?
Episode 15 Hey! You're Talkin' to a Superhero!
Episode 16 The Good Doc Has Flipped His Lid!
Episode 17 I Ain't Dyin', I'm Spiderman!
Episode 18 I Think He's Sorta Cute!
Episode 19 Goodybye, Spiderman!
Episode 20 I Blew It!
Episode 21 I'm Spiderman, I Wanna Join You
Episode 22 There's a Nice Boy Under that Mask!
Episode 23 I'm the Sandman
Episode 24 Find Me a Fresh Pair of Pants
Episode 25 These Kids are My Hostages
Episode 26 I Can't Pull Free
Episode 27 Say Ya Prayers, Web Head!
Episode 28 Take Your Shot, Bookworm!
Episode 29 I Ain't the Thing Anymore
Episode 30 Ben, You Okay?
Episode 31 Enter the Green Goblin
Episode 32 Greetings, Web-Spinners
Episode 33 I'm a Pumpkin Bomb
Episode 34 Spiderman Turned Chicken
Episode 35 I am Prince Namor
Episode 36 I Will Return to Atlantis
Episode 37 Admiral! The Prisoner's Escaped
Episode 38 Farewell, My Love
Episode 39 Stop That Aircraft!
Episode 40 That's No Torpedo!
Episode 41 Doctor Doom Has Returned
Episode 42 What a Disgrace!
Episode 43 Welcome Home Submariner!
Episode 44 Catch Me Spider-Man!
Episode 45 We All Know Where Doom Is!
Episode 46 Kill the Idiot in the Spider-Suit!
Episode 47 The War Has Started!
Episode 48 Help Me, Doctor Doom!
Episode 49 Spidey! You're My Hero!
Episode 50 I Will Have My Revenge!

DISC 1 DISC 2

Kate Wilhelm - Desperate Measures

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:37:00 +0000

Oregon lawyer Barbara Holloway and her father, Frank, formerly her partner, find themselves on opposite sides in the murder of Gus Marchand, a case with two suspects. Kate Wilhelm gives this smoothly told version of "Beauty and the Beast" an interesting added dimension, since the relationship between the two equally hardheaded and talented lawyers has usually been collaborative, at least professionally. But when the school principal, who's Frank's client, dies under mysterious circumstances, Frank's determined not to let Barbara pin the blame on the dead woman in order to deflect attention from her own as-yet-unidentified client. By the time Frank learns that the defendant in question is Alex Feldman, a horribly disfigured and immensely secretive young man who was accused by Marchand of stalking his teenage daughter, the reader has begun to understand why Barbara is so convinced of Alex's innocence in Gus's death and so determined to protect him from public scrutiny. Alex is a man with a secret: was Frank's late client (and friend) killed to protect it? As usual, Wilhelm devises a clever plot and peoples it with a cast of well-developed, fully human and complex characters. There's Alex himself, who's found a way to cope with the circumstances of his disfigurement and the rage and bitterness that might otherwise have consumed him; Graham Minick, the elderly doctor who has been his friend and confidante since he was a teenager; and Shelley, Barbara's beautiful young associate, who sees beyond Alex's ugliness and into his heart. By the time the trial of the man they call "the devil's spawn" begins, Frank and Barbara are on the same side, but it's the younger Holloway's star turn in the courtroom, which is where the novel really shines. A solid page turner that should delight the prolific Wilhelm's (No Defense, Defense for the Devil) many fans. - Jane Adams

Dean Koontz - The Face

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:30:00 +0000

Ten-year-old Aelfric Manheim is home alone when he receives a call from a stranger with a simple and terrifying message, "There is trouble coming, young Fric...You're going to need a place to hide." Meanwhile, security chief for the Manheim estate, former detective Ethan Truman, is tailing a "deader than dead" body that got up and left the morgue when he vividly experiences his own death--twice. In The Face, Dean Koontz delivers yet another spellbinding and chilling novel, where real and imagined monsters walk the streets, ghosts travel through mirrors, and the devil makes house calls. Stalked by both real and supernatural evil, the bright and sensitive Fric, virtually orphaned by his A-list Hollywood parents, and the brave but disillusioned former detective Ethan Truman, himself suffering from the loss of his wife, must rely on their wits and each other to escape a dark and disturbing fate.
The supernatural lurks just beneath the surface of the "real" in Koontz's novels, and The Face is no exception. Ghosts, angels, demons, child predators and serial anarchists run rampant in Koontz's tale--the unsuspecting reader never knows what is real or imagined until the characters themselves know--creating a disorienting and frightening experience, and one that is vintage Koontz. Whether it be the real-life "agents of chaos" who roam the world creating mayhem and death or the phone lines that carry words of the dead to the living, this is Koontz at his most powerful and terrifying. In The Face, Koontz has created a modern fable for adults, taking the bones from tales of old and breathing new life into the characters. Clearly written for adults, The Face nevertheless channels the wit and wisdom of Aesop as well as the violence and villainy of the Brothers Grimm. While Koontz's penchant for elaborately singsong descriptions can be grating, ultimately it lends this tale its folkloric quality, i.e. "The June-bug jitter, scarab click, tumblebug tap of the beetle-voiced rain spoke at the window, click-click-click." In this fable, the world is a menacing and threatening place for adults and children alike, and the naïve and uninformed go trip-trapping through life with no notion of the trolls that lurk in the dark. The moral of this story is that, good or evil, you will get what is coming to you; it's up to you to succeed or fail for you alone decide your path punishment or redemption.

PART1 PART2

Jack Higgins - Pay The Devil

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:28:00 +0000

Searching for the peace and quiet that eluded him for four long years as a Confederate colonel in the Civil War, surgeon Clay Fitzgerald sets out for Ireland to lay claim to the estate and fortune he's recently inherited. Once there, he finds himself caught in the midst of yet another civil disturbanceAthe Fenian Rising. Clay finds he can not stand idly by, having witnessed the awful living and medical conditions of the poor. With the help of neighbors, his new love, Joanna Hamilton, and a dutiful servant, Clay comes to embrace the plight of the passionate Irish rebels. Assuming the identity of a legendary romantic outlaw hero, "Captain Swing," he puts his own life at risk to further the peasants' cause. Higgins (Drink with the Devil) adds fuel to his intense plot with well-defined characters and atmospheric historical details.

John Grisham - Bleachers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:25:00 +0000

With Bleachers John Grisham departs again from the legal thriller to experiment with a character-driven tale of reunion, broken high school dreams, and missed chances. While the book falls short of the compelling storytelling that has made Grisham a bestselling author, it is nonetheless a diverting novella that succeeds as light fiction. The story centers on the impending death of the Messina Spartans' football coach Eddie Rake. One of the most victorious coaches in high school football history, Rake is a man both loved and feared by his players and by a town that relishes his 13 state titles. The hero of the novel is Neely Crenshaw, a former Rake All-American whose NFL prospects ended abruptly after a cheap shot to the knees. Neely has returned home for the first time in years to join a nightly vigil for Rake at the Messina stadium. Having wandered through life with little focus since his college days, he struggles to reconcile his conflicted feelings towards his former coach, and he assays to rekindle love in the ex-girlfriend he abandoned long ago. For Messina and for Neely, the homecoming offers the prospect of building a life after Rake. Physically a narrow book, Bleachers is a modest fiction in many respects. The emotional scope is akin to that of a short story, with a single-minded focus on explorations of nostalgia and regret. The dialogue, especially that of Neely's friend Paul Curry, is sometimes wooden as characters recall Messina history in paragraphs that were perhaps better left to the narrator. But Grisham has otherwise written a well-made, entertaining--if a bit sentimental--story.

John Grisham - The Partner

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:22:00 +0000

Literary slugger John Grisham returns with a story about-- surprise!--a lawyer in trouble. Patrick Lanigan had been a young partner in a prominent Southern law firm. He had a beautiful wife, a new baby girl, and a bright future. Then one winter night Patrick was trapped in a burning car; the casket they buried held nothing but ashes.
A short distance away, Patrick watched his own burial then fled. A fortune was stolen from his ex-firm's offshore account. And Patrick ran, covering his tracks the whole way.
But, now, they've found him!

PART 1 PART 2

Ted Dekker - Thr3e

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:20:00 +0000

Dekker delivers another page-turner with this psychological Christian thriller about Kevin Parson, a 28-year-old seminary student who suddenly becomes the target of an evil nemesis called Slater. Obsessed both with Kevin's downfall and the number 3, Slater initiates a game in which Kevin must answer riddles to avoid Slater's destructive, potentially murderous retribution. Slater particularly wants Kevin to publicly confess a secret sin, and Kevin is at a loss as to what that sin might be. Once Dekker establishes this premise, he masterfully takes readers on a ride full of plot twists and turns. Not only does he spin a compelling tale of cat and mouse, but he also creates a narrative world in which it's possible that no one is quite who he or she seems. Dekker gradually discloses his protagonist's nightmarish childhood and delivers an almost perfect blend of suspense, mystery and horror. Dekker's prose is strong, putting him in a league above many other evangelical Christian writers and showing improvement over his previous work. Aside from following certain Christian fiction guidelines such as making his gorgeous 20-something characters entirely virginal, Dekker eschews most of the conventions of evangelical fiction. His spiritual message is subtle and devoid of the theologically and politically conservative agenda present in other novels.

Bryce Courtney - Tommo and Hawk

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:17:00 +0000

This novel - a sequel to 'The Potato Factory' (a great book, mind you!), is a rollicking tale of 2 unlikely brothers, with a lot of grisly adventure and the typical BC-style of lots of bad things happening that make you really care for the characters and then, gee, things seem to turn out OK in the end (but not without a lot of pain and suffering, thank you Charles Dickens).
Nevertheless, I loved this book for all of the 650+ pages that Bryce decided to put into it... Being very critical, I would say that gee yep, this coulda been better and all (as I did not like all of the things that happenend in the end), but it was a great read from one of the best authors in the land of OZ (for this type of literature). He has a great style and command of words that makes you want to know what is going on with the characters, and is very conscious of what is going on at the time as well. No, this is not big time literary stuff, but it is simply GREAT entertainment that won't leave your head and will keep your mind off the othe worries of the world...

PART1 PART2 PART 3

Robin Cook - Crisis

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:14:00 +0000

Guidall's experienced reading brings a pleasant touch of class to Cook's latest thriller. A distinguished and self-confident physician, Craig Bowman is delivered an ego-shattering blow when he is sued for malpractice by the husband of one of his patients, hypochondriac Patience Stanhope, who died while under his care. The trial takes up the bulk of this wordy novel. Bowman's wife asks her brother, medical examiner Dr. Jack Stapleton, to use his expertise to help with her husband's defense. Stapleton agrees, but what should be a routine forensic exercise quickly turns into a dangerous trail of lies, deception and murder. While it takes some time to get to the story's climax, Cook eventually ties up all the loose ends, although the denouement feels more gimmicky than surprising. Guidall exhibits admirable vocal talents as he manages to keep this overwritten novel moving at a satisfying pace, and the ease with which he works his way through the mounds of legal and medical jargon throughout the book is a testament to his skill as a narrator. Fans of Cook's writing should enjoy this dignified presentation.

PART1 PART2

Michael Connelly - Closers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:11:00 +0000

A city that forgets its murder victims is a city lost. This is where we don't forget," Detective Hieronymus "Harry" Bosch is told by his new boss, as he ends a three-year retirement and rejoins the Los Angeles Police Department at the start of The Closers, the 11th installment of Michael Connelly's Edgar-winning series. Having long ago demonstrated his knack for cracking previously unsolved homicides, Bosch is assigned to the newly re-branded Open-Unsolved Unit (aka "cold case" squad), and charged with resolving the 17-year-old abduction and slaying of a mixed-race teenager.
Rebecca Verloren, 16, was discovered missing from her Chatsworth home on a July morning in 1988. Her corpse and the gun that ended her life were later found on a hill behind the house. An autopsy revealed that she'd recently undergone an abortion, and a piece of skin tissue--presumably the killer's--was found trapped inside the murder weapon. Only now, though, has DNA science matched that tissue to Roland Mackey, a dyslexic 35-year-old tow-truck operator with no obvious connection to the deceased. It's up to Bosch, once more partnered with Kizmin Rider, to determine whether Mackey offed Becky Verloren, or was at least an accessory to that tragedy. But the more Bosch and Rider dig into this dusty crime, trying in part to determine whether racial animosity might have been involved, the more pain and resistance they encounter. Becky's white mother maintains the teen's old bedroom as a shrine, while her shattered father, an African-American chef, has vanished into LA's homeless community. Of the two original investigators on the case, one has since committed suicide, and Bosch suspects that the other--now a police commander--is helping to keep the lid tight on some old departmental secrets, perhaps linked to our hero's nemesis, Deputy Chief Irvin S. Irving.
Understandably rusty after three years sans shield, Bosch makes his share of personal and professional mistakes here--including one that supplies The Closers with a lethal, plot-turning climax. But the greater problem is that Connelly exhausts so much time and effort following his protagonist through the tedium of modern police procedures, that he neglects what readers have liked more about this series in the past: its persistently deft exploration of Bosch's lonely, haunted soul (which remains mostly out of sight in this tale), and the author's frequent flights of lyrical prose (also not much in evidence). Would-be novelists wanting an example of a solidly constructed cop tale need look no further than The Closers. But readers hoping to learn why Connelly is so well-respected in this genre should turn, instead, to previous Bosch titles such as The Concrete Blonde, Angel's Flight, or City of Bones.

Harlen Coben - Drop Shot

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:09:00 +0000

Sports agent Myron Bolitar has under contract one of the hottest young male tennis players around. When a young former tennis star is murdered (shortly after Myron met with her), he finds that the two cases may be connected--and that he's involved. Showing his talents in a story that moves from high society to lowlifes, Jonathon Marosz ably shifts characters and pace, and captures the wry humor of Myron and the grittiness of the physical threats and violence he encounters. Solid narration brings out the best of the characters.

Tom Clancy - Without Remorse

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:04:00 +0000

I do enjoy Clancy novels that exhibit his main character, the famous Jack Ryan. Without Remorse is one of the best military style fiction books of all time, rivaled only by the likes of The Bourne Identity and one of my favorite non-fiction reads known as BAT 21. The introduction to the character John Clark is a peaceful one, and that goes for his newly found girlfriend as well. Soon something terrible happens, and Clark takes on a form of vigilante justice that knows no bounds. His victims have absolutely no idea who they are messing with, because his former background alone puts him at the top of the world's most vaunted class of warriors. The novel is not just a shoot 'em up throat slasher though, and if you know. Tom Clancy and his writing style then you already know that anyways. Clancy has the ability to put great depth and researched details into the background of both the locations that the stories take place in, as well as the characters and the various kinds of hardware used. On top of that, there are sub plots that deal with betrayal and political intrigue that make Without Remorse one of the best fictional tales in quite some time. There are military/techno style writers, and then there is Tom Clancy...
...and then there is Without Remorse. The people like John Clark are not just automated killing machines, make no assumptions there because Clancy is able to add an extreme emotional toll to the players throughout, giving them a dramatic feel of realism that makes Without Remorse a somewhat sleeper of a classic. Without Remorse is also being made into a major motion picture and is set to release some time in 2008. By Mason Vaquero "Engineer" (Colorado)

Batman - Knightfall

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:01:00 +0000

Broken Bat is the first of two volumes collecting Knightfall, the much-talked about Batman storyline--much talked about because it was the story in which Batman gets defeated. The huge, muscle-bound villain Bane has but one goal in mind, to break Batman. The end of this volume is somewhat shocking compared to standard, mainstream comic book continuity.

Dean Koontz - Demon Seed

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:45:00 +0000

This new edition of Demon Seed is an updated version of a novel that Koontz wrote in the 70's (of which a film version was made). The basic plot of the story is that a super-intelligent computer named Proteus becomes self-aware, and falls in what he thinks is love with the wife of the scientist who helped design him. He enters her fully-automated house by way of the controlling computer, and soon has her trapped inside. His aim is to impregnate the woman and inject into the foetus his own consciousness.
What makes this book particularly interesting is the fact that Koontz uses Proteus to make a social comment on the male mind and how it perceives women. It really gives a fascinating insight into the male psyche, through the eyes of the computer who thinks he loves this woman and can use that as an excuse to hurt her as much as he pleases. Definitely an interesting read, and one which will make both sexes think.

Dean Koontz - Brother Odd

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:40:00 +0000

Bestseller Koontz's third Odd Thomas novel (after Forever Odd) offers an irresistibly offbeat mix of supernatural horror and laugh-out-loud humor. A resident of St. Bartholomew's Abbey, a monastery in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Thomas has the ability to see the spirits of the dead, a gift he has used to resolve mysteries and prevent future tragedies. As the story opens, the seer is unsettled by visions of bodachs, sinister ghostlike entities whose appearance precedes some dire tragedy. Thomas frantically searches for some sign that will help him head off disaster, even as St. Bart's is thrown into turmoil by the disappearance of one of its members. Thomas must figure out both the identity of the person or being behind the terror and the most effective way to restore peace to his haven. While newcomers may find the villain's underlying motive a bit over the top, the narrator's engaging voice should continue to give this series cross-genre appeal.

Stephen King - Carrie

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:36:00 +0000

Why read Carrie? Stephen King himself has said that he finds his early work "raw," and Brian De Palma's movie was so successful that we feel like we have read the novel even if we never have. The simple answer is that this is a very scary story, one that works as well--if not better--on the page as on the screen. Carrie White, menaced by bullies at school and her religious nut of a mother at home, gradually discovers that she has telekinetic powers, powers that will eventually be turned on her tormentors. King has a way of getting under the skin of his readers by creating an utterly believable world that throbs with menace before finally exploding. He builds the tension in this early work by piecing together extracts from newspaper reports, journals, and scientific papers, as well as more traditional first- and third-person narrative in order to reveal what lurks beneath the surface of Chamberlain, Maine.

Thomas Harris - Red Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:33:00 +0000

Lying on a cot in his cell with Alexandre Dumas's Le Grand Dictionnaire de Cuisine open on his chest, Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter makes his debut in this legendary horror novel, which is even better than its sequel, The Silence of the Lambs. As in Silence, the pulse-pounding suspense plot involves a hypersensitive FBI sleuth who consults psycho psychiatrist Lecter for clues to catching a killer on the loose. The sleuth, Will Graham, actually quit the FBI after nearly getting killed by Lecter while nabbing him, but fear isn't what bugs him about crime busting. It's just too creepy to get inside a killer's twisted mind. But he comes back to stop a madman who's been butchering entire families. The FBI needs Graham's insight, and Graham needs Lecter's genius. But Lecter is a clever fiend, and he manipulates both Graham and the killer at large from his cell. That killer, Francis Dolarhyde, works in a film lab, where he picks his victims by studying their home movies. He's obsessed with William Blake's bizarre painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, believing there's a red dragon within him, the personification of his demonic drives. Flashbacks to Dolarhyde's terrifying childhood and superb stream-of-consciousness prose get us right there inside his head. When Dolarhyde does weird things, we understand why. We sympathize when the voice of the cruel dead grandma who raised and crazed him urges him to mayhem--she's way scarier than that old bat in Psycho. When he falls in love with a blind girl at the lab, we hope he doesn't give in to Grandma's violent advice.

Part1 Part2

Neil Gaiman - Stardust

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:29:00 +0000

Tristran Thorn falls in love with the prettiest girl in town and makes her a foolish promise: he says that he'll go find the falling star they both watched streak across the night sky. She says she'll marry him if he finds it, so he sets off, leaving his home of Wall, and heads out into the perilous land of faerie, where not everything is what it appears. Gaiman is known for his fanciful wit, sterling prose and wildly imaginative plots, and Stardust is no exception. Gaiman's silver-tongued narration vividly brings this production to life. Like the bards of old, Gaiman is equally proficient at telling tales as he is at writing them, and his pleasant British accent feels like a perfect match to the material. Gaiman's performance is an extraordinary achievement—if only all authors could read their own work so well. The audiobook also includes a brief, informative and enjoyable interview with Gaiman about the writing of the novel and his work in the audiobook studio.

Michael Crichton - Congo

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:26:00 +0000

If you saw the 1995 film adaptation of this Crichton thriller, somebody owes you an apology. While you're waiting for that to happen, try reading the vastly more intelligent novel on which the movie was based. The broad lines of the plot remain the same: A research team deep in the jungle disappears after a mysterious and grisly gorilla attack. A subsequent team, including a sign-language-speaking simian named Amy, follows the original team's tracks only to be subjected to more mysterious and grisly gorilla attacks. If you can look past the breathless treatment of '80s technology, like voice-recognition software and 256K RAM modules (the book was written in 1980), you'll find the same smart use of science and edge-of-your-seat suspense shared by Crichton's other work.

Michael Crichton - Andromeda Strain

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:24:00 +0000

The United States government is given a warning by the pre-eminent biophysicists in the country: current sterilization procedures applied to returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. Two years later, seventeen satellites are sent into the outer fringes of space to "collect organisms and dust for study." One of them falls to earth, landing in a desolate area of Arizona.
Twelve miles from the landing site, in the town of Piedmont, a shocking discovery is made: the streets are littered with the dead bodies of the town's inhabitants, as if they dropped dead in their tracks.

James Clavell - Shogun

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:20:00 +0000

Historical' fiction is something of a misnomer, as books placed in this category are almost always fiction first and 'historical' only in time and setting. Shogun, however, comes close to being a true example of this field, detailing the late 16th century exploration and exploitation of the Orient by the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, and English. As few Americans are aware of some of the atrocities and cruelties committed in the name of crown and religion during this period, some of the scenes depicted in this book may come as shock. But they provide an excellent background portrait of the European mind-set of those times, a palette that Clavell uses to contrast and define the extraordinarily different culture of the Japan of that time.
And it is his portrait of the Japanese, his lovingly detailed characterizations of Toranaga, Mariko, Omi and their deeply intertwined interactions with the English pilot Blackthorne that defines and breathes life into this breathtakingly large and complex story of love, war, and political intrigue. And these characters are not static. Each grows and changes as events unfold, most especially Blackthorne himself, growing from a totally self-centered 'barbarian' of unclean habits to a person who can appreciate the beauty, intelligence, and moral rectitude of others, who comes to care deeply for those around him, who comes to understand a philosophy of life totally different from that of his own culture. The reader will eventually take each of these characters into his heart, will live right along with them and their problems, cares, successes, and failures, until they are almost more real than the mundane world the reader inhabits.
Is this book totally historically accurate? No, but it doesn't really need to be. It is a fictional account of one of the defining moments of Japanese history, with all the requirements of a work of fiction, written for an American audience, and certain items have yielded to literary license to make the story more approachable by the reader. Certainly Toranaga would not have played chess, but would American readers have understood 'Go' as metaphor for Toranaga's deep political machinations? As a story, a tale of high adventure, as a hard look at alternative life philosophies, as an exposition of a very exotic time, place, and culture, this work succeeds on almost every level. This is an excellent read that will expand your horizons and enrich your life, entertain you and satisfy your inner craving for something different from the every-day world of today.

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Part5

Tom Clancy - Bear and the Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 18:17:00 +0000

Power is delightful, and absolute power should be absolutely delightful--but not when you're the most powerful man on earth and the place is ticking like a time bomb. Jack Ryan, CIA warrior turned U.S. president, is the man in the hot seat, and in this vast thriller he's up to his nostrils in crazed Asian warlords, Russian thugs, nukes that won't stay put, and authentic, up-to-the-nanosecond technology as complex as the characters' motives are simple. Quick, do you know how to reprogram the software in an Aegis missile seekerhead? Well, if you're Jack Ryan, you'd better find someone who does, or an incoming ballistic may rain fallout on your parade. Bad for reelection prospects. "You know, I don't really like this job very much," Ryan complains to his aide Arnie van Damm, who replies, "Ain't supposed to be fun, Jack."
But you bet The Bear and the Dragon is fun--over 1,000 swift pages' worth. In the opening scene, a hand-launched RPG rocket nearly blows up Russia's intelligence chief in his armored Mercedes, and Ryan's clever spooks report that the guy who got the rocket in his face instead was the hoodlum "Rasputin" Avseyenko, who used to run the KGB's "Sparrow School" of female prostitute spies. Soon after, two apparent assassins are found handcuffed together afloat in St. Petersburg's Neva River, their bloated faces resembling Pokémon toys.
The stakes go higher as the mystery deepens: oil and gold are discovered in huge quantities in Siberia, and the evil Chinese Minister Without Portfolio Zhang Han San gazes northward with lust. The laid-off elite of the Soviet Army figure in the brewing troubles, as do the new generation of Tiananmen Square dissidents, Zhang's wily, Danielle Steel-addicted executive secretary Lian Ming, and Chester Nomuri, a hip, Internet-porn-addicted CIA agent posing in China as a Japanese computer salesman. He e-mails his CIA boss, Mary Pat "the Cowgirl" Foley, that he intends to seduce Ming with Dream Angels perfume and scarlet Victoria's Secret lingerie ordered from the catalog--strictly for God and country, of course. Soon Ming is calling him "Master Sausage" instead of "Comrade," but can anybody master Ming?
The plot is over the top, with devastating subplots erupting all over the globe and lurid characters scaring the wits out of each other every few pages, but Clancy finds time to insert hard-boiled little lessons on the vileness of Communism, the infuriating intrusions of the press on presidential power, the sexual perversions of Mao, the poor quality of Russian pistol silencers ("garbage, cans loaded with steel wool that self-destructed after less than ten shots"), the folly of cutting a man's throat with a knife ("they flop around and make noise when you do that"), and similar topics. Naturally, the book bristles like a battlefield with intriguingly intricate military hardware. When you've got a Tom Clancy novel in hand, who needs action movies?