FLASHBACK by T. R. Davis

June 11, 2020

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Flashpoint, Book 1

From the publisher:

Sarah is a thirteen year old girl who starts experiencing memories that are thousands of years old.

She is initially confused when vivid memories from an unknown woman suddenly manifest within her mind when she’s threatened with danger. She uses the knowledge in those memories to help her get out of trouble.

But a DNA swab exposing a unique gene has brought her to the attention of a company that specializes in genetic research. Sarah eagerly seizes the chance for a better life and the fact that she must share her memories as a condition of being accepted in a research project doesn’t raise any red flags for her. Not yet.

Over time, Sarah discovers she is a direct descendant of Innogen, a woman who lived during the time of the Roman invasion of The British Isles. Despite the excitement and confusion this knowledge engenders, Sarah is enjoying the life of a typical teenage girl, including a budding romance, when she realizes that many of her new friends also have ancestral memories. Sarah suspects the project’s probing questions mask a hidden agenda and that the students’ memories are central to a secret goal, but what is it?

What Sarah doesn’t know is that the company doesn’t exactly have the best interests of their young charges in mind. They have a more sinister purpose, and they don’t mind if it costs a few students their lives along the way.

Flashback is a well-done story about the possibility of “Ancestral Memory” being passed down via genetic transfer. It deals with a science fiction theme in which descendants of historically famous people could be found with the aid of the mapping of the human genome. The events occurring in the life of the ancestor might be available as memories in the current generation.

Sarah is a thirteen-year-old orphan that has been moved frequently through the uncaring foster care system in Canada. She has had no parents to love and has only the prospect of more of the same. At the opening of the story, an anthropological expedition has unearthed the burial ground of three people in England; two males and one female. By judicious process of elimination, the female is found to be that of Boudica who was a warrior Queen of her tribe living in England during the first century A.D. She led her people in battles against the invading Roman armies enjoying some success holding off the conquerors at many points.

The leader of the expedition finding the remains contacts a company that is looking into the genetic analysis of possibly famous people. The firm investigating the DNA found on the bodies and does actually find a prospect living today that might be a possibility to carry Ancestral memories of Boudica and her life.

Sarah does have the genetic disposition to carry such memories. She is contacted by the company investigating these memories and taken into a school that they sponsor. When Sarah is encouraged to accept her memories, she first thinks she is daydreaming but then begins to react as a warrior would when facing physical violence without any training in the martial arts.

T.R. Davis does not overly dwell on the science he writes about but does explain in layman’s terms the possibility of genome mapping supplying many benefits for the human race. These do include better information to fight disease, physical deformities, and other maladies plaguing mankind. The reader is given enough information to understand what the author needs understood to tell his story. A fast read and one that does grab the reader’s attention and keeps it until the end. Certainly guaranteeing that Davis’ next books will be looked for and enjoyed.

6/2020 Paul Lane

FLASHBACK by T. R. Davis. T.R. Davis (April 30, 2020). ISBN: 978-1775382560. 426 p.

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THE LAST DAY by Andrew Hunter Murray

February 29, 2020

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From the publisher:

HALF THE WORLD IS DARK. ONLY SHE CAN SAVE THE LIGHT.

A high-concept, utterly original debut thriller which envisages a world on the edge of catastrophe, perfect for readers who loved Robert Harris’ Fatherland, Station 11, and The Wall by John Lanchester.

It is 2059: forty years previously a solar catastrophe began to slow our planet’s rotation. Now it has stopped so that one side of the world permanently faces the sun while the other is stuck in an eternal frozen night.

Britain is one of the few fortunate countries. Located in one of the few remaining temperate zones, it should have the means to support itself. In reality though it is struggling, and today it is a land stalked by hunger and violence.

It is also home to the American Zone, the last surviving enclave of the United States.

Ellen Hopper is a British scientist living on a frostbitten rig in the cold Atlantic. She wants nothing more to do with her country after its slide into authoritarianism and decay.

Yet when two government officials arrive demanding she return to London to see her dying tutor, she accepts – and begins to unravel a secret that threatens not only the nation’s fragile balance, but the future of the whole human race.

The absolutely impossible happens. The earth stops rotating and causes day and night to be the same day in and day out all over the world. The cold spots are eternally cold and the warm spots always warm, possibly too warm as they face the sun in the same position without change. The cause of this calamity is a huge celestial body crossing space relatively near to our solar system. As a consequence of this event, the earth begins a period of slowing down in its ever-changing position of moving around the sun. Differences in day and night and seasonal change begin to slow down, and eventually cease when our planet finally finishes slowing down and eventually stops.

The author does an excellent job of portraying the effect cessation of motion of the earth has on our planet. How many lose their lives with the ability to survive lost. And how people begin to adjust to a life that is totally different than the one they were used to. England and a portion of the United States emerged as the more powerful countries on the planet. In addition, one man begins taking charge of adaptation in Great Britain and not surprisingly becomes a dictator with plans to take over the United States and expand his hold on England

Ellen Hopper is a woman that has found a life living on an ocean rig with no thought of changing until one day two officials from the British government visit her demanding that she visit her mentor from her days at university. When she does so she is thrown into the middle of a scheme that bids fair to throw the country off from its fragile balance and possibly even negatively affect the remainder of the planet’s population.

Murray has taken on the challenge of developing a novel with a huge amount of interwoven factors and does a very creditable job of tying everything together in a logical way. The novel is certainly one that cannot be put down until finished with every section bringing in different factors to be faced by the characters. The book is indicated as the author’s first and is no doubt a great start for an up and coming writer.

2/2020 Paul Lane

THE LAST DAY by Andrew Hunter Murray. Hutchinson (February 6, 2020). ISBN: 978-1786331915. 384p.

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A BEGINNING AT THE END by Mike Chen

February 3, 2020

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From the publisher:

How do you start over after the end of the world?

“Not just an apocalyptic thriller, but also a timely reminder of what is most important in life―family, love, and hope.” ―Peng Shepherd, author of The Book of M

Six years after a global pandemic wiped out most of the planet’s population, the survivors are rebuilding the country, split between self-governing cities, hippie communes and wasteland gangs.In postapocalyptic San Francisco, former pop star Moira has created a new identity to finally escape her past―until her domineering father launches a sweeping public search to track her down. Desperate for a fresh start herself, jaded event planner Krista navigates the world on behalf of those too traumatized to go outside, determined to help everyone move on―even if they don’t want to. Rob survived the catastrophe with his daughter, Sunny, but lost his wife. When strict government rules threaten to separate parent and child, Rob needs to prove himself worthy in the city’s eyes by connecting with people again.Krista, Moira, Rob and Sunny are brought together by circumstance, and their lives begin to twine together. But when reports of another outbreak throw the fragile society into panic, the friends are forced to finally face everything that came before―and everything they still stand to lose. Because sometimes having one person is enough to keep the world going.

Mike Chen takes us into a world that has been decimated by a global pandemic. It is the aftermath of an epidemic that has literally wiped out more than half of the earth’s population. His well-done tale brings to life a group of people that are forced to come to grips with an event that has forever changed their lives and the lives of their children. Rob has lost his wife in the plague and is caring for his daughter Sunny as best as he can. At the same time a singer, dancer, Moira, stage name Mojo is attempting to escape the confines of a life as a performer but guided by her father who controls her every move.

At the beginning of the novel, Rob has been approached by an agency of the new government established to restore order and rebuild to prove that he is capable of caring for Sunny. If he is deemed not able to his daughter will be taken away from him and sent to a foster home. Rob has a coworker at his job and with nowhere else to go begins to talk to her about the situation with his daughter and his need to prove worthy of caring for her. Krista, his coworker, agrees to help, especially when Rob offers her pay for the time spent.

Rob, his daughter, and Krista meet Moira who enters into the story. The book takes an unforeseen twist when the government announces that a new strain of the virulent epidemic has started attacking the populations of the planet. People are forced into the controlling environment that had become lax as the initial outbreak seemed to be tapering off.

The strength of the novel is the author’s ability to build the characters involved in the story. These people faced with the horrors that have befallen them have no choice but to adapt to conditions. How they do so and their reactions to their surroundings make a good story an even better one. The reader will find that he or she is sympathetic to the reactions of the characters and will surely think of their own possible efforts to face the type of tragedy that has enveloped the earth in Chen’s book. Certainly a five star novel and one that cannot be put down until finished.

2/2020 Paul Lane

A BEGINNING AT THE END by Mike Chen. Henry Holt and Co. (January 14, 2020). ISBN 978-1250133014. 304p.

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THE GOD GAME by Danny Tobey

January 13, 2020

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From the publisher:

“Smart, propulsive and gripping, THE GOD GAME is an ambitious thriller and a terrifying examination of what could–and probably already is–happening in the world of artificial intelligence.”―Harlan Coben, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Run Away

A technological thriller with an all-too-believable premise, award-winning author Danny Tobey’s The God Game follows five teenagers obsessed with an online video game that connects them to their worst impulses and most dangerous desires.

They call themselves the Vindicators. Targeted by bullies and pressured by parents, these geeks and gamers rule the computer lab at Turner High School. Wealthy bad boy Peter makes and breaks rules. Vanhi is a punk bassist at odds with her heritage. Kenny’s creativity is stifled by a religious home life. Insecure and temperamental, Alex is an outcast among the outcasts. And Charlie, the leader they all depend on, is reeling from the death of his mother, consumed with reckless fury.

They each receive an invitation to play The God Game. Created by dark-web coders and maintained by underground hackers, the video game is controlled by a mysterious artificial intelligence that believes it is God. Obey the almighty A.I. and be rewarded. Defiance is punished. Through their phone screens and high-tech glasses, Charlie and his friends see and interact with a fantasy world superimposed over reality. The quests they undertake on behalf of “God” seem harmless at first, but soon the tasks have them questioning and sacrificing their own morality.

High school tormentors get their comeuppance. Parents and teachers are exposed a hypocrites. And the Vindicators’ behavior becomes more selfish and self-destructive as they compete against one another for prizes each believes will rescue them from their adolescent existence. But everything they do is being recorded. Hooded and masked thugs are stalking and attacking them. “God” threatens to expose their secrets if they attempt to quit the game. And losing the game means losing their lives.

You don’t play the Game. The Game plays you….

The God Game is an imaginative novel about a video game being ordered by high school students from a group of underground hackers. The group consists of what is thought of at their school as “nerds,” and are all interested in normal relationships with the so-called “normals.” The motto of the game is “Win and all your dreams come true – lose and you die.” And therein is the basis for an interesting novel by Daniel Tobey.
Tobey is a recognized authority on AI (artificial intelligence) and the idea that this is what is being dealt with is in the background of his book.  However, as soon as the students begin playing the game all sorts of what is normally impossible things begin appearing in a virtual world playing out via their phones and computers. The game begins texting them orders like worship me, obey me and complete a mission. They find that if they obey and successfully fulfill an order they will receive rewards in real life; if not, there is a punishment.
The God Game is an updated and fascinating book based on the science fiction literature about intelligent machines taking over from their creators and subjugating them as servants rather than the masters as originally conceived when the robots were built. The book is a draw for the reader, but not an all-nighter as much of the technical descriptions can be a bit over the heads of non-computer literate people. There is no problem, however, with understanding the events taking place and finishing the novel with an interest in reading more by Tobey.

1/2020 Paul Lane

THE GOD GAME by Danny Tobey. St. Martin’s Press (January 7, 2020). ISBN 978-1250306142. 464p.

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THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION

January 6, 2020

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Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman, editors

From the publisher:

“[STARRED REVIEW] A must-read for anyone interested in the latest and most exciting sf writing out there.” ―Booklist

Your future is bright! After all, your mother is a robot, your father has joined the alien hive-mind, and your dinner will be counterfeit 3D-printed steak. Even though your worker bots have staged a mutiny, and your tour guide speaks only in memes, you can always sell your native language if you need some extra cash.

The avant-garde of science fiction have arrived in this space-age sequel to the World Fantasy Award-winning anthology, The New Voices of Fantasy. Here you’ll find the rising stars of the last five years: Rebecca Roanhorse, Amal El-Mohtar, Alice Sola Kim, Sam J. Miller, E. Lily Yu, Rich Larson, Vina Jie-Min Prasad, Sarah Pinsker, Darcie Little Badger, Nino Cipri, S. Qiouyi Lu, Kelly Robson, and more. Their extraordinary stories have been hand-selected by cutting-edge author Hannu Rajaniemi (The Quantum Thief) and genre expert Jacob Weisman (Invaders).

So go ahead, join the interstellar revolution. The new kids have already hacked the AI.

I entered the world of science fiction back in the days of short stories about BEMs (Bug Eyed Monsters) published in pulp magazines such as Amazing Stories and Astounding Stories. I was fortunate to experience the entrance of authors such as Murray Leinster, Asimov, Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and classics such as “1984” and “Fahrenheit 451”. They took up a literary torch and turned the world of Science Fiction into a serious branch of literature. For some reason, I stopped reading the genre for many years. Upon seeing the title of this collection, I decided to see how the field has evolved over the time I’ve been away from it.

This review is my opinion and in that vein, I must state that I am disappointed in what the genre has apparently become. I found the stories very difficult to follow apparently due to a desire to use language based on the perception of descriptions that are thought to be proper for the genre. I recall being grabbed by the writers cited above and treated to adventures of other times and other places all presented with logical explanations of what allowed these events to occur. Not so with the stories in this anthology most of which left me wondering what the aim was.

1/2020 Paul Lane

THE NEW VOICES OF SCIENCE FICTION, edited by Hannu Rajaniemi & Jacob Weisman. Tachyon Publications (November 13, 2019). ISBN 978-1616962913. 432p.

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ANYONE by Charles Soule

December 3, 2019

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Soule brings us a very imaginative story about a development that literally changes the world, its customs, habits, and the very way people interact with each other.

Gabrielle White, a young inventor has been working on a cure for Alzheimer’s, apparently with no breakthrough, and is ready to expend the last of the funds given her to attempt one final test. She does so and miraculously finds herself transported into her husband’s body. Getting her husband to understand what has happened to them, the two invest all their own savings to try and duplicate the transfer. They succeed and initiate a new industry that changes everything as it takes hold.

Soule describes what happens and outlines what might really transpire if the transfer procedure would really be perfected. The level of human understanding would take a giant leap forward, airline, train, and auto travel would become less important with people going to other lands via host bodies rather than actually going there, and most significantly, the industry surrounding transfer would become the titan of the business world.

The novel shows the evolution of a black market as people clandestinely rent out their bodies as receptors without the required physical exam, and then later, not paying tax on the receipts. In addition, one man has figured out a way to gain eternal life via transferring continuously as he ages. Against the law, the story evolves with a woman’s fight to stop his actions and continue with an ordered procedure for the industry. Where her battle goes forms an important part of the story and puts a capstone on an excellent story, with excellent treatment by Charles Soule.

Note: Soon to be adapted for television by Carnival, creators of Downton Abbey

12/19 Paul Lane

ANYONE by Charles Soule. Harper Perennial (December 3, 2019). ISBN 978-0062890634. 432p.

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CONCLUSION by Peter Robertson

October 8, 2019

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In his latest novel, Robertson has postulated an interesting variation on the science fiction theme of artificially extended human life. It is termed a “meld,” and involves a procedure that will allow the recipient to live 20 years from the date of planting in the body with the added benefit of contracting no diseases. Upon the final day of the allotted two decades, the individual will pass away quietly and with no real pain. The custom, as outlined in the author’s novel, is for most individuals to go for testing on their 55th birthday and if they have no mortal illnesses they will be “melded.”

Colin Tugdale has only one year to live under the terms of the Meld agreement and has already accompanied his wife Ruby to her death by suicide in order not to undergo the meld “conclusion.”  By coincidence, he then meets two people that throw his beliefs into chaos. The first is a man that “died” at the end of his 20 years, and another a woman that hacked her way via computer into taking the treatment when she is physically not qualified to have it. The man is seen calmly walking around in public, and the woman initiates contact with Colin with the two falling in love.

The novel touches on the feelings of people facing the end of their lives with the certain knowledge that it will come at a date known to them. The question of how one “dead” man and a sick woman are where they are touches on the real possibility of corruption existing in the selection process, and if this life and death activity is really subject to illegal maneuvering.

A very different novel, one that is beyond any doubt a book that cannot be put down until done, and of course, a story that will cause the reader to seek Robertson’s future works.

10/19 Paul Lane

CONCLUSION by Peter Robertson. Gibson House Press; None edition (October 1, 2019). ISBN 978-1948721042. 256p.

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BEYOND THE MOON by Catherine Taylor

October 4, 2019

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This is a first novel and is a truly remarkable work for anyone, and one that showcases a top tier author with a bright future ahead of her. I have no difficulty calling it a beautifully written book which neatly ties together several interests of the author. She is, by her own admission, a World War One adherent as well as a person that enjoys exploring history for its own sake and a romantic soul.

Lt. Robert Lovett is an officer serving England during the First World War in the trenches of France and Belgium. He is strongly vested in doing his duty by supplying the soldiers serving under him with skilled and patriotic leadership. He is wounded in 1916 and develops hysterical blindness with no physical reason for doing so. He is sent to Coldbrook Hall military convalescent hospital in Sussex, England to recuperate from his wounds. 

A century after Lovett is hospitalized, Louisa Casson, who experienced the sudden loss of her grandmother, the only person she had that had taken care of her as well as suffering a severe fall is confined to Coldbrook Hall. In the century between Lt. Lovett’s hospitalization and today, Coldbrook has been converted into a psychiatric hospital.

Louisa earns herself a status as a patient that can be trusted gets herself into a position that allows her to be let outside the walls of Coldbrook hospital in order to wander around outside. One day while exploring the area she wanders into a section that is old but quite intact. Entering into a room in that area she stumbles on Robert Lovette. Beginning a conversation with him and returning as often as she can, Louisa realizes two things. The first that she is in love with him, and second, that she has somehow slipped back in time to 1916 and the man that she has met is the wounded officer we already saw that was sent to Coldbrook in 1916.

Taylor shows her knowledge of WWI in describing the battles and areas that Lt. Lovett has been involved with. She describes the horrors of being in a trench just a few hundred yards from the enemy with both sides constantly shooting at each other, the dirt, filth, mud, and dead bodies – the horror of knowing that death is all around and could come in the blink of an eye. Her descriptions of possible conversations between the men are very much to the point, and Taylor gives her readers a realistic set of ideas and values in the midst of a world that no human being should be immersed in.

A well-done fantasy that treats a love across time and a period of great horror as factors in describing the levels that the human spirit can rise to.

10/19 Paul Lane

BEYOND THE MOON by Catherine Taylor. The Cameo Press Ltd (June 26, 2019). ISBN 978-1916093218. 494p.

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EMPIRE OF LIES by Raymond Khoury

October 2, 2019

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Khoury has built his reputation as a top author on novels with a fantasy spin.  Not dragons, Greek gods, nor any of the many situations built on an unworldly story. All are well done, well written and based on a certain change to the real world.

“Empire of Lies” is no exception. The plot revolves around an alternative to our present world with changes to current reality that could be true if one subscribes to the difference between our world and what is presented. The novel opens in the alternative world postulated by the author.

This is a situation in which Polish King John Sobieski at the head of a combined European army defeated and stopped an invasion of Europe by Ottoman Turks in 1683. The Ottoman army had reached Vienna, were surrounding the city and were about to conquer it and then move further into Europe.  The situation at the beginning of this novel is that something happened to Sobieski and his staff killing them, and the Ottoman invasion succeeded setting up an alternative world stemming from the defeat of the west in 1683.

Kamal Arslan Agha, an officer in the Sultan’s secret police and, based in Paris has begun questioning the situation around him which is becoming more and more autocratic.  He feels that the freedoms guaranteed to the people are becoming eroded with the government becoming a dictatorship.

When he is called on to investigate a stranger appearing naked on the banks of the Seine and brought to a hospital, Kamal learns a strange secret which the Sultan wants to keep secret. He begins an investigation of this secret aided by his sister-in-law Nisreen, who is an outspoken civil rights lawyer. The two are caught up in the secrets of the enlarged Ottoman Empire and find themselves learning about the real circumstances of the battle of 1683, traveling through the empire and learning about a concept of time that is unknown to most of the world.

Very well written, ensuring that the reader will finish the book in one sitting this novel is Raymond Khoury at his best.

10/19 Paul Lane

EMPIRE OF LIES by Raymond Khoury. Forge Books (October 1, 2019). ISBN 978-1250210968. 448p.

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THE NOBODY PEOPLE by Bob Proehl

September 29, 2019

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Bob Proehl’s interesting story revolves around the possible next step in human evolution. People are being born with certain abilities beyond those of so called normal people. Levitation, turning invisible, mind control, ability to shape a room beyond the capacity of normal people to see and enter it. Suddenly people with these extraordinary characteristics are being born and growing to adulthood.

Avi Hirsch has noted that his daughter Emmeline is different, but can’t put his finger on how and why until more and more people are found that have an ability beyond the normal. And, as they are identified, the general population begins acting as if they are dangerous. Certainly a feeling held by most segments of the population towards a minority group in their midst. Over the centuries this has included race, religion, color of skin and other factors contributing to a marked difference between this minority and the larger, so called normal, segment of the population.

Avi is a journalist and begins investigating these “others” with the hope that his findings can help prevent harm to Emmeline. It is through him that knowledge of the “different” segment of humans emerges, and as has been done throughout human history suspicion emerges about the new para normals. The novel tracks events from the founding of secret schools to educate the new group to a war developing between them and normals. It certainly doesn’t help when one of the new group turns rogue and is involved with murder of the normals.

An interesting novel somewhat marred by a long mid book section that spends a good deal of time in redundant descriptions of the powers held, and the personal conflicts between the others. This section could force an interested reader to lose interest and elect not to complete the book. If one makes it through this part, the ending is well done and completes the novel.

9/19 Paul Lane

THE NOBODY PEOPLE by Bob Proehl. Del Rey (September 3, 2019). ISBN 978-1524798956. 496p.

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