Book Review – Gerald’s Game – Stephen King

Book Review – Gerald’s Game – Stephen King

Facts:

Book: Gerald’s Game
Author: Stephen King
Genre: Thriller
Year of Release: 1992
Read 332-page hardcover edition in February 2018.

Book Description:

When Jessie and Gerald decide to spice up their sex life in their secluded summer home with some handcuffs, things take a turn for the worst when Gerald ends up dead. Jessie, chained to the bed, begins to realize there is little hope of escape from her bedroom in this secluded area of forested Maine. However, she starts to see and hear horrible things in the house, and in her mind, that create a horrifying state of affairs.

Book Review:

This was not necessarily a typical Stephen King horror novel. King certainly has a variety of novels and genres he has written in, and those looking for quick horror may be disappointed, as this book has its moments of shock, but is often more a psychological suspense and subtle fright.  King succeeds however in creating a story that is extremely frightening in its own right, as we slowly begin to understand the fear Jessie has in her mind’s past memories, and in her current predicament.

The title of the novel has interesting parallels to Jessie’s frame of mind and self confidence, and King brings that up throughout the novel, even though Gerald himself dies in the opening couple of chapters.  Furthermore, King does a nice job of connecting Jessie’s present situation, and the voices that come to the surface, with Jessie’s traumatic past, which comes out as we read more into the heart of the novel.

Jessie spends much of the time alone, and one might think this would make for a slow read. However, King uses many different voices in Jessie’s head to create interesting conversations, and he also uses sequences where we recall Jessie’s past, so that the narrative advances fairly efficiently.  At times, the plot does slow and does feel like it may be dragging, but this only happens a few times in the course of the novel.

The novel has great suspense throughout, and is a great exploration of the inner strength and outer resolve of a character who has been through a lot. In addition, a great twist at the end of the novel that the reader doesn’t see coming provides a further note of shock for readers who enjoy King’s trademark style and imagination.

Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars

Book Review – Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman

Book Review – Norse Mythology – Neil Gaiman

Facts:

Book: Norse Mythology
Author: Neil Gaiman
Genre: Mythology
Year of Release: 2017
Read 299-page hardcover edition in February 2018.

Book Description:

Neil Gaiman uses his skill with language and passion for Norse Mythology to tell us more about these famous and less well known northern tales of old. Stories of Odin, Thor, Loki, ice giants, dwarves, spirits, trolls, and what will happen at Ragnarok: the end of days. Gaiman tells us how these gods of Norse Mythology lived and ruled in the different kingdoms.

Book Review:

Norse Mythology is a fantastic collection of tales that both entertains and educates the reader on the mythology of northern Europe.  Gaiman has done a fantastic job at bringing these stories to life for the modern writer, and his commitment is clear given he has been inspired by these tales from an early age.

Gaiman writes plainly and clearly, yet with great description, creating his own version of these historical tales. The tales are independent, yet many of them link together as well, creating a cohesive whole.  However, one downside is that the book is almost too summary and short, and the plainness in the tales and descriptions sometimes leave the reader wanting, wondering about some of the details in the story, and what came before or after with regard to the characters in question.

Gaiman does succeed at bringing to life some lesser-known characters and events, while also showing us different sides of better-known characters. The result is a broader collection of tales and characters that are fun to read about, and also much more complex than some of the black and white tales we may have heard about from other sources in the past.

As usual, Gaiman’s talent as a writer comes through clearly in this intriguing collection of Norse mythological tales.

Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars

Book Review – Artemis – Andy Weir

Book Review – Artemis – Andy Weir

Facts:

Book: Artemis
Author: Andy Weir
Genre: Science Fiction
Year of Release: 2017
Read 309-page hardcover edition in February 2018.

Book Description:

Jazz Bashara, a young adult who has spent most of her life living on the moon colony Artemis, is tired of living amongst the poor, working class folks around her. She knows that in addition to her job as a delivery person, she can make extra money by smuggling contraband into the colony. When she gets the opportunity to work with a rich associate to pull off a huge crime and work towards a huge reward, she jumps at the chance.

But when things start to go wrong, Jazz finds herself embroiled in a scandal with organized crime, that could put the entire colony at risk. She must figure out how she can stop the damage, and save her home, and its inhabitants.

Book Review:

After the breakout success of Andy Weir’s novel The Martian, expectations were very high for his second novel.  And although this definitely is an enjoyable and intriguing book, this definitely is a bit weaker than his first novel.

Looking at the many positives in this novel, one of them relates to the main character, Jazz. Weir does a nice job creating a complex character that has shades of grey in her personality. There are some things that we don’t like or trust about this character, making her more believable in this “wild west” feeling of the first and only moon colony.  Furthermore, her strained relationships with her father and her former best friend create some interesting dynamics and conversations. These two characters, particularly the ex friend’s gay relationship with Jazz’s ex boyfriend, helps to create additional layers of conflict on top of the main plot, which is nice.

Weir also does a nice job at describing Artemis and the moon itself, including some beautiful shots looking at the moon surface and moon walks conducted by characters which are described intimately.

The plot itself, including the initial crime Jazz tries to pull off, and the outcomes that spiral further and further out of control, are interesting and enjoyable to read. Weir does a nice job explaining what is happening, using his trademark scientific explanations, and being able to limit it to an appropriate amount of detail (except in a couple of places where the reader may get a little tired of technical jargon).

Looking at detractions for the novel, the first one-third of this novel did set the stage nicely, including introduction of characters and description of Artemis. However, it was also a little bit of a slow pace at times, and the reader had to push forward to get to more action and drama in the latter two-thirds.

In addition, some of the humour that was used in the book was a touch annoying, at least for this reader. Humour was certainly valuable and a clear part of Jazz’s character, however at times it felt forced and not actually all that funny.

Overall however, this was an enjoyable science fiction book, and another success for Andy Weir.

Overall: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars

Book Review – Dark Matter – Blake Crouch

Book Review – Dark Matter – Blake Crouch

Facts:

Book: Dark Matter
Author: Blake Crouch
Genre: Fiction
Year of Release: 2016
Read 359-page paperback edition in January 2018.

Book Description:

Jason Dessen feels like he has a new-perfect life. Beautiful, loving wife, happy teenaged son, enjoyable job as a college physics professor, and a comfortable home in Chicago. However, on his way home, he is kidnapped, forcibly confined, and when he wakes up, he is surrounded by people who say they are his friends, with no sign of his family or previous life. As he tries to find out what happened to him, he begins to wonder, is he having some kind of breakdown, and is this his true life? Or was he taken from the real life that he once had?

He will need to call upon inner strength and his knowledge of physics to figure out what is going on, and stay alive.

Book Review:

This novel was a great thriller and definitely one where the reader is in suspense and turning page after page. Given the novel’s format and style, with short, crisp sentences and one-liner paragraphs, it was definitely a quick read.

The novel’s main characters exploring “the box”, Jason and work colleague Amanda, were interesting characters that developed nicely over time. The author did a nice job throwing a surprise twist into the novel half-way through regarding Amanda’s decisions, which were a stroke of genius.  In fact, several times unpredictable twists and turns were added to the ploy which helped create a stronger overall narrative.

The other main characters, Jason’s wife Daniela and son Charlie, were at times believable, but at other times these characters felt a little bit flat and not as critical as perhaps they should be. For example, Charlie is often portrayed as a well-behaved, no-nonsense, getting into no trouble teenager, which seems a little but unbelievable in modern day Chicago.

The plot itself, with its science fiction elements and the idea of different worlds based on the different decisions we make as human beings, was a fascinating concept, and author Blake Crouch does a great job painting a sometimes frightening, sometimes romantic, set of circumstances for his characters.

Overall, although this novel does have a few flaws in it, in terms of some unbelievable characterization and a couple plot holes within the science, this is still a fast, enjoyable, and fun popcorn read.

Overall: 4 stars out of 5 stars

Book Review – Glass Houses – Louise Penny

Book Review – Glass Houses – Louise Penny

Facts:

Book: Glass Houses
Author: Louise Penny
Genre: Mystery
Year of Release: 2017
Read 391-page hardcover edition in January 2018.

Book Description:

In the 13th novel of her Detective Gamache series, author Louise Penny, brings us to Gamache’s home town of Three Pines, near the Quebec-USA border.  When a dark, almost supernatural being starts making his foreboding presence known in the middle of Three Pines, the neighbours and visitors to the town are a little bit worried. However, when a murder occurs in the town, the initial worry escalates quickly, as everyone wonders what really happened.

Meanwhile, Chief Superintendent Gamache is also dealing with a high profile, large-scale drug smuggling investigation, and trying to win the difficult drug and cartel war in Quebec. But what must he sacrifice to achieve true results? And how is this connected to what happened in Three Pines?

Book Review:

This novel was an enjoyable and fast-paced detective thriller from Canadian author Louise Penny.  The author made a smart decision to write the novel jumping back and forth in time, showing us courtroom scenes and the actual events themselves in a push and pull fashion. This was usually effective at creating different scenes that made the reader enjoy the action and see how it impacted courtroom decisions and discussions in the trial.

Penny does a great job writing about characters, and the various leads in the police force, along with Gamache and his family, were all well written and interesting characters. As with many police and crime novels, some of the minor characters were not as well developed, however Penny did a great job developing characters like Gamache’s wife, which made Gamache himself more realistic and complex for the reader.

Although this is the 13th novel in the series, and even though a reader of the entire series would surely understand the novel on a deeper level, one does not need to be well versed in the series to fully understand the plot of this novel.  In fact, one has to appreciate the research Penny did on both main plots, which weave together nicely into an exciting ending.

Overall: 4 stars out of 5 stars