Covenant

What if you had nothing to lose? However, what if you had everything to gain? What if you were a party to discovering a secret going back millennia, possibly to the beginning of the rise of mankind? Of course, you know there will be others involved who want the secret for themselves. Thus it is in Dean Crawford’s debut thriller, Covenant. From the untamed and violent Israeli deserts to the equally wild urban jungle of Washington, D.C., two sets of individuals try to unravel a mystery while a third, looming group seeks to control the secret for its own fanatical purposes.

His fiancé abducted three years ago, Ethan Warner, former soldier and war correspondent, has been living a rough life. Then, he is recruited by a military buddy to find the man’s granddaughter, Lucy Morgan. An archaeologist working in the Negev Desert, Lucy has been abducted by an unknown party shortly after discovering remains of a humanoid some are suggesting is alien in origin. Meanwhile, back in Washington, D.C., two homicide investigators stumble onto what, at first, looks like a simple case of three overdose victims. However, after the post mortem, one of the victims is rife with anomalies. Evading a ruthless civilian security force, Warner and Lucy’s mother seek answers not only to Lucy’s whereabouts, but to life itself, while the investigators piece together clues that implicate a powerful and controversial pastor.

With short chapters and death defying action scenes, Crawford presents a fast moving tale of intrigue, science, and technology, while revealing some of the mysteries of the origins of life. Where did mankind originate? Why do cultures around the world have similar stories of and throughout history? This book doesn’t seek to answer these questions, but it does spur the imagination.

Reviewed by Stephen L. Brayton, November 2011.

Ashfall

Alex, a fifteen-year-old living in Cedar Falls, Iowa, is alone for the weekend, having browbeat his parents into letting him stay home while they take his little sister to visit relatives in Warren, Illinois. He’s looking forward to doing his own thing (mostly geek stuff) for a few days but, after several hours of online questing on World of Warcraft,  Alex’s life changes forever.

Nine hundred miles away in Yellowstone Park, the supervolcano has exploded and Alex’s house is shattered by what feels and sounds like incoming artillery. Digging himself out, he struggles to escape the blaze and finds shelter with neighbors. The noise, the continuous explosions, the fear of the unknown are nearly overwhelming. All telephone communication is out so Alex has no way to reach his family.

Then the ash begins to fall. And the darkness comes with it, along with a sulfurous stench. Two days later, water flow is gone. Finally, the first looters come and the resulting terror and devastation give Alex the resolve to find his family no matter what it takes. The journey ahead will be long and fearsome, a nightmare Alex will face alone until he meets 17-year-old Darla who has a maturity far beyond her years. Will these two survive the journey or will this nightmare prove to be too much?

I have a particular fondness for post-apocalyptic and disaster-related fiction and have, I think, developed a discerning taste over many years of reading such novels. Ashfall is one of the very best I’ve read and is more remarkable because it’s Mullin‘s first book. His descriptions of the conditions, environmental and human, that will most certainly follow such a cataclysmic event have the ring of truth and he maintains a level of intensity and despair, as well as strength and hope, that are difficult for many writers to convey without being “over the top”. It’s a compelling tale with dystopian elements and what could be an overpoweringly dark story is alleviated by flashes of humor and a bit of romance. In fact, the way Mullin handles the developing relationship between Alex and Darla was especially appealing to me as it is realistic and tasteful. Parents should not be concerned when their teens pick up this book—it was written with them in mind.

Ashfall is the first of a trilogy and I’m looking forward to Ashen Winter in October 2012. In the meantime, I’m waiting till Ashfall is released so I can buy a copy for my bookcase and I’ll be including it in my list of Top Five favorite books for 2011. I strongly recommend it to adults and teens alike.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, August 2011.

Montooth and the Canfield Witch

Carty Anderson and her “Crew” give the readers a peek into life in the fifties in Winter Free, Florida.   Carty (Catherine “Carty” Andersson) is a 14 years old girl who has learned a lot from spending time with her Dad.  Her friends Blake Holmes, Hale Wending and Maximilian “Mack” Stein make up the group known as “The Crew”.

Carty had agreed that she would help her Aunt Lilly with the housework since Aunt Lilly had fallen and broken her arm.  It was a seven-mile ride on Carty’s bicycle from Aunt Lilly’s home to Carty’s house and she had stayed a little too long.  Aunt Lilly told Carty of a short cut between Duck Luck and Morose Swamp so Carty decided to take the short cut, which Aunt Lilly said, would take her out by the old Hostetter’s house.  The house had been vacant since the death of Cora Hostetter.  Aunt Lilly also told Carty about Sally Canfield, the woman who lived next to the Hostetter property.   People in the area thought that Sally Canfield was a witch.  Carty reminded her Aunt Lilly that it was 1950 and there just weren’t any witches around.  At least Carty did not believe that there was a witch living nearby.

On her way home using the short cut Carty spotted Sally Canfield in her yard.  She also noticed two men who seemed to be watching Sally.  Carty managed to sneak away after she scared the two men and the men wound up being chased by a giant gator.

Back at school, the next day Carty’s teacher Mrs. Tryon explained a field exam that would constitute 50% of the credit on their botany final exam.   The students were to divide into groups and the groups were to find specimens of native Florida vegetation.   Carty and her crew determined that they would have the best luck searching through the swamp.  So began the adventure of Carty and her crew.

The search led them close to the Canfield house and the group met up with Sally Canfield who had many stories to tell the group.  The men that Carty had spotted in the swamp earlier were still lurking around.  It seems the men felt that Sally Canfield had a fortune hidden somewhere on her property.

Montooth and the Canfield Witch is an exciting tale that brings out a lot of history of the area and brings to light old legends.  The one I enjoyed the most was the tale of Green Duck.  The references to times in the 50’s prompted the author to place “End Notes” in the back of the book explaining many phrases not heard often in current times.  One example is the word Mercurochrome.  Mercurochrome used to be used for any scrape or bruise but mercurochrome was removed from distribution in the United States due to its mercury content.

Although this book is primarily a young adult novel, readers of any age group can enjoy the story.

Reviewed by Patricia E. Reid, January 2011.

The search for Noah’s Ark has been the goal of archeologists the world over for centuries, even those who consider themselves to be nonbelievers.  Now, her father may have been successful, but archeologist Dilara Kenner knows very little about it other than the fact that people around her are being killed and she herself seems to be a target.  Led by the urging of an old family friend, who tells her as he’s dying that the lives of billions are at stake, Dilara seeks out Tyler Locke, a former combat engineer.  The two have little idea what is happening but they quickly learn that time is truly short and that the truth—and the terrible peril— of the Flood is something they could never have imagined.

Boyd Morrison is one of those rarities, a self-published author who gets “discovered” by a traditional publisher.  The Ark was originally released as a Kindle ebook; after following the time-honored route of finding an agent, a good one, the book just didn’t sell, apparently because lots of publishers loved it but didn’t believe there was a place for it in the currently overfull thriller market.  Morrison decided to try putting it up as an ebook but was smart enough to recognize the pitfalls if he also self-published a print edition.  Within three months, he had become an unqualified ebook success, much to his surprise, and his agent took that success back to market.  Voila!  A contract came, probably the first offered by a Big Six publisher to a self-published Kindle author.

I, for one, am very glad for the author’s success and especially that a print publisher finally recognized the worth of this book so that I, a hardcore non-ebook reader, could enjoy it.  The story is a good one and is fast-paced; that speed is the one thing that made the audio edition a bit less than terrific.  Unfortunately, the narrator’s voice is sometimes too studied and deliberate, actually slowing down the tempo.  He also tends to let his voice drop off and his female interpretations are often too low in tone and these two aspects of the reading caused me to frequently have to adjust the volume so I could hear it properly.  Another thing I wasn’t crazy about was the length of the tracks, making it difficult to find my place if I needed to do so for whatever reason.

Having said that, I did thoroughly enjoy this thriller and will read or listen to the next one, gladly.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, June 2010.

Modo is an abandoned child in Victorian London, a child with such a fearsome appearance that no one could possibly care for him.  Mr. Socrates, though, a mysterious gentleman of means,  takes Modo in and raises him in a somewhat aloof fashion but with a purpose in mind.  A governess and a man with martial skills are his only companions and teachers but the approval of Mr. Socrates is of utmost importance to Modo.

Besides the education and training he has received, Modo has learned to develop and control, to a certain extent, his unusual physical powers.  Unwilling to let the world see his face, he wears a mask, but he also has the ability to transform his appearance for brief periods.  This ability is of special importance when he is suddenly forced to fend for himself as a test of his readiness to take his place as a spy at the age of 14 for the Permanent Association, secretive defenders of Queen Victoria and Great Britain.  Fend for himself he does, finding that he can support himself as a detective, and thus he meets a client, Miss Octavia Milkweed, and embarks on a most unusual case.

The Hunchback Assignments UK Cover

Technically, this is young adult fiction, but many elements make it very appealing to an older reader who will recognize many of the literary shout-outs.  A combination of steampunk, fantasy, mystery, espionage and action adventure lead to great fun and the villainous Clockworld Guild, with the mad scientist Dr. Hyde and his dastardly invention, may prove to be an ongoing adversary for Modo, Octavia and the Permanent Association.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and will look forward to future installments; I wish Mr. Slade would write faster.   I do have to say he has a terrific website (see the link above) and this is one time I think the UK and US covers are equally cool.   Also, Jayne Entwistle, already one of my favorite narrators, has done a great job again.

Very highly recommended for young adults and adults.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, March 2010.

There have been countless reviews of this book, including synopses, so I’ll confine myself to my reactions rather than spitting out another synopsis.

Is Dan Brown a great writer?  No, but I enjoyed The Da Vinci Code (also read by Paul Michael) from the standpoint of action adventure (I’m also hooked by action adventure movies) and was willing and able to overlook its many literary and fact-based flaws.  I just thought it made a really good story and I read it with the intention of putting aside my nitpicking persona so I was pretty well pleased.

The Lost Symbol falls into the same vein but not quite as successfully.  Because of his fame, I suspect his publisher was not willing to step on toes and give it the full edit it needed and, as a result, the pace is too slow and the book is too long.  It’s not actually much longer than The Da Vinci Code—about 50 pages in print, the same number of CDs in audio—but it seems nearly endless at some points, particularly at the end.  I really felt the last CD could have been largely  dispensed with because Mr. Brown’s exposition just took much too long and I felt myself zoning out.  It was sort of like, “OK, get on with it, I don’t care this much”.

Another thing that bothered me was the use of the word “orientate”.  This happened twice so it wasn’t a typo and there’s no excuse for it.  The word is “orient” and, if Mr. Brown doesn’t know that, a good copy editor should have caught it.  I hate the word to the point where it brought me to a screeching halt both times.  (Two other pet peeves are “conversate” instead of the correct “converse” and “irregardless” instead of the proper “regardless” but those don’t appear in this book, thank heavens.)

Above all, the one thing that really didn’t work was near the end when the bad guy is revealed.  The victim, who has been physically and psychologically tortured, suffers a final enormous mental and emotional shock, one that would send most of us to counseling, but within just a few minutes, he is actually chuckling and is totally focused on the exposition mentioned above in which he essentially explains everything to Robert Langdon.   I kept expecting to hear that he had pretty much gone off the deep end because of the trauma but, nope, that didn’t happen.  Completely unbelievable.

There are some positive notes here, though.  The reader, Paul Michael (same as for The Da Vinci Code), is good and I never lost my attention because of him—he made Robert Langdon sound “real”, so to speak.  I’ll be looking for more audio books read by him.

The story revolves around Freemasonry and its secretiveness and takes place in locations of Washington, DC, that are intriguing.  I want to go see for myself if the things that are highlighted at these locations are real.  I’m also very curious as to whether the Freemasonry secrets “revealed” by Mr. Brown are completely made up or whether they have some basis in truth but I suspect I’ll never know since the members of this organization do keep things to themselves.  It was refreshing, though, that Mr. Brown did not make Freemasonry an evil entity swirling with conspiracies, a ploy that is much too common.

Finally, there is one episode in which I found myself thinking Robert and Katherine are incredibly stupid but, as it turned out, this was one of those times when the author’s cleverness became evident.   Much of the reading public may turn up their collective noses at Dan Brown’s books but it’s hard to deny that he does tell a good story.  At the end of the  day, that’s really what I want more than anything.

Recommended with some reservations.

Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, December 2009.