The One with Infernal

149. Title & Author: Infernal (A Repairman Jack Novel, Book 9) by F. Paul Wilson (351 pages)

Genre: Fiction--Thriller & Science Fiction

Completed: 25 June 2010

Summary & Review:

Jack and his brother Tom reunite after their father is brutally murdered in a New York airport. Tom, however, has more than just his father's death to deal with as federal prosecutors close in on him because of years of corruption as a judge. He enlists Jack to help him locate a mysterious item that legend claims has the power to rescue its user from his enemies. They find the item, known as the Lillitongue of Gefreda, but its power threatens to rip jack away from everyone in his life--permanently.

I wish that Wilson had decided to split the two main elements of this book, i.e. the murder of and the subsequent revenge of the murder of Jack's father and then the reunion with his brother, into individual novels of their own. The latter story got far more of this book devoted to it and I think Wilson missed an opportunity to have a stand alone novel featuring Jack coping with his father's violent death. As it was, it didn't quite satisfy me with how Wilson handled the death of his protagonist's father. But, it was still an entertaining novel.

Rating: 7.0

The One with Gone Tomorrow

148. Title & Author: Gone Tomorrow (A Jack Reacher Novel) by Lee Child (543 pages)*

Genre: Fiction--Thriller

Completed: 14 June 2010

Summary & Review:

As Jack Reacher is riding a subway train in New York, he notices a woman passenger that appears, to his expert eye, to be a suicide bomber. In slight disbelief, he approaches the woman who, upon interaction with Reacher, shoots herself in the head. Reacher can't escape the feeling that somehow he was responsible for pushing this woman over the edge, so he investigates what drove her to that point. He finds a trail leading to a photograph picturing Osama bin Laden with a senatorial candidate that everyone wants: the feds to hide it, the candidate to destroy it, and Al Queda to exploit it.

After the last Lee Child book I read (Nothing to Lose, #112), I said that I was never going to read another book by him. I was just so sick of his liberal agenda being shoved in my face as I read. I was planning on holding to that literary mental embargo, but my dad convinced me to give this one a shot. He said that the first fifty pages of this book were as good as any thriller gets. Well, the first fifty pages were pretty good, as was the rest of the book overall. Thankfully, Child wasn't as obnoxious with his ideology so I was able to stomach the novel without wanting to hurl it at the wall every other page. Will I read another of his? I really don't know. I'm still upset about that last book despite this one.

Rating: 7.0

The One with The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

147. Title & Author: The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephenie Meyer (178 pages)

Genre: Fiction--Fantasy

Completed: 8 June 2010

Summary & Review:

Bree Tanner was a starving runaway when a handsome young man named Riley took her under his wing and changed her life forever. After enduring the burning torture of becoming a vampire, Bree awakens to a world of new possibilities and new priorities. Just one priority, to be exact: to satiate her thirst with as much human blood as possible. Her life is hectic and dangerous as the coven of young vampires she lives with fight and kill one another in mindless bloodlust. Only when she meets Diego, a slightly older and more level-headed vampire, is she able to see there is more to her life than hunting, and more to her seemingly benevolent creator than meets the eye.

This was a very quick read, but overall it was an entertaining addition to the Twilight Saga. Its main weakness was that it had nothing to do with Bella, Edward, Jacob, or the residents of Forks. I'm not sure about other Twilight fans, but I didn't read the books because I am obsessed with vampires and the occult. In fact, I read the books in spite of those things (I mean really, vampires fighting werewolves?!). So, to read an entry, albeit a tangential one, in a series based around a very concrete nucleus of characters with barely a cameo from those characters and their stories, the very stories that have drawn so many people to Twilight, feels a little empty.

Rating: 7.0

The One with The Big Switch

146. Title & Author: The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, from Edison to Google by Nicholas Carr (233 pages)

Genre: Nonfiction--History & Technology

Completed: 2 June 2010

Summary & Review:

Just as Edison changed the face of the country with his readily available electricity, the creators and pioneers of the internet are shaping, and reshaping, the future of commerce, culture, and community. Nicholas Carr explores the history of electricity and the future of computing as he compares and contrasts how the two technologies have affected our lives.

I found the passages about the history of electricity to be pretty interesting, but the rest of the book about computers, and more specifically the internet, wasn't a cohesive argument or thesis. At times Carr seemed to be presenting a "what's next in the business world" kind of book, attempting to prepare and inform the reader of technological advances that could help his business. Other times, he was waxing poetic on the amazing things computers will be able to do just around the corner. Still, in other chapters his focus was almost philosophical as he ranted about the loss of privacy and the potential for economic collapse, just two among many dangers of the world wide computing grid. Many facts and insights were very eye-opening, but on the whole I wish Carr had stuck to one of his theses and focused on convincing the reader about that.

Rating: 6.0

The One with The Last Battle

145. Title & Author: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis (228 pages)

Genre: Fiction--Fantasy & Adventure

Completed: 29 May 2010

Summary & Review:

In this final installment of The Chronicles of Narnia, the last King, Tirian, faces an unparalleled crisis. After a devious ape creates an imposter Aslan and shackles the residents of Narnia under his rule, all in the name of "Aslan," many begin to lose faith in the real guardian of Narnia. Tirian is imprisoned and the pagans of Carlomene invade the once free lands of Narnia. With the help of Eustace and Jill, featured in The Silver Chair, Tirian is able to break free and make a stand against the unbelievers.

It has been an inconsistent experience reading The Chronicles of Narnia. Some of the books, like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, were full of powerful religious allegories and subtle, nuanced lessons and meanings. These books were appealing to me as an "older" reader because of the deeper elements under the surface fantasy storylines. Other entries in the series seemed more like placeholders or served only to orient the reader to the broader story. Books like The Magician's Nephew and The Horse and His Boy fell into this category. Without the layers of meaning found in some of the books, these books fell a little flat. The Last Battle was one that, to me, was of the latter type and was found wanting. Yes, it helped explain the end of Narnia and inform the reader as to what happened to all of the major human characters from the series (even Digory and Polly who appeared in book 1, The Magician's Nephew), but other than that, I thought that the story was fairly weak. Having an ape dress up a donkey in the guise of a lion as the catalyst for the end of Narnia, a land with millenia of history and mythology, was very unsatisfying and not nearly grand enough to close such a series.

Rating: 6.5