Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Micro by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston

by Karen S. Wiesner

 This is the 100th book I've reviewed for Alien Romances Blog!!!

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Micro was published in 2011, three years after Michael Crichton's death. The technothriller manuscript was found on the author's computer untitled and unfinished with notes and research for completing it. The publisher chose author Richard Preston (a writer for The New Yorker who was also a bestselling science author) to finish it. In interviews before his death, Crichton spoke of working on a project that was an adventure story like Jurassic Park and would be "informative" but fun and would include information "about how our environment really is structured". 

The story opens with three men found dead in a locked office building in Hawaii. There are no signs of a struggle beyond razor-sharp cuts that cover their bodies and a tiny, bladed robot that's all but invisible to the naked eye. The action moves to Oahu, where new drug applications are being founded with a groundbreaking "biological prospecting" technology. From there, the most brilliant microbiology graduate students are being recruited by Nanigen MicroTechnologies and herded off to a mysterious lab in the Aloha State. They're promised they'll be helping usher in a whole new scientific frontier. Instead, they're dropped into a hostile environment that requires their knowledge to not only navigate but to survive. 

I was wary about reading this book, as I couldn't imagine it'd be as good as something the author had produced every year or so for more than four decades, and there were shades of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids hilarity…only on a much {cough} bigger scale. But I was definitely surprised by how much I enjoyed the book. It was every bit as fun and illuminating as the original author intended. Everything that should be in it is there. I heard there was talk of Dreamworks making a movie version of it, but I'm not sure if that ever happened. 

Whether or not you've read this story before, you might want to consider it if you're looking for a fast-paced, deep and well developed tale from a master of the fantastic and, you know, someone else who took what Crichton started and was able to seamlessly complete it. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Next by Michael Crichton by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Next by Michael Crichton

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Next was a 2006 technothriller fiction novel, the very last published in author Michael Crichton's lifetime. When explaining how he got the idea, he spoke of the issue of nature/nurture and how our genetic material interacts with the environment. As such, he included transgenic (an organism with genetic material that's been altered via genetic engineering) characters--in the form of a chimp-boy named Dave and a parrot with human genes called Gerard--navigating a world overrun with greed and not always legal, let alone, moral agendas. 

In at least one back cover blurb I read for this book, it says: "We live in a time of momentous scientific leaps, a time when it's possible to sell our eggs and sperm online for thousands of dollars and test our spouses for genetic maladies. We live in a time when one-fifth of all our genes are owned by someone else--and an unsuspecting person and his family can be pursued cross-country because they happen to have certain valuable genes within their chromosomes…" 

Crichton has the power to terrify in just this short paragraph, and I remember reading Next for the first time, wondering how real any of it was, or if it's actually possible that, like one of the characters in this book who has an aggressive form of cancer, someone could unwittingly find his disease and treatment becoming little more than a pretext for genetic research being done in a shrouded background. The hospital university of this character's own physician has sold the rights to his cells, and a judge goes on to rule that they were "waste" that was lawful for the college to dispose of in whatever manner it saw fit. In another case, the lawyers for a genetic engineering company claim they have the right under United States law to all of an existing patient's cells and thus the right to gather replacement cells at any time, by force if necessary, and that's not all--they can also take them from any of the patient's descendants. 

So much in this story feels too realistic and terrifying to read with ease and freedom. The tension starts right from the very first page and doesn't let up often, if at all. The cast, especially those in the transgenic characters' families, are so well fleshed out, readers will be racing alongside them through a whirlwind plot filled with terror, hoping they're victorious in escaping capture by those who consider themselves owners of human, genetics, and genetically engineered property. We want to see these heroes securing their individual rights, just as we want to maintain our own. But that outcome is in constant doubt fictionally, and potentially even realistically. 

There's no way to elude the haunting qualities of this gripping, thought-provoking novel. The story might have been ripped from current headlines. It seems foolish to even consider that simply because we go to experts who can help make us medically well, we're giving away things for all time that no one but we ourselves and those we specifically designate should be allowed to rule over. But, all too easily, something like it may happen sooner or later. 

I was reminded of two quotes from another favorite book of mine, The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells, after I finished reading Next for the first time:

"Before, they had been beasts, their instincts fitly adapted to their surroundings, and happy as living things may be. Now they stumbled in the shackles of humanity, lived in a fear that never died, fretted by a law they could not understand; their mock-human existence, begun in an agony, was one long internal struggle, one long dread..."  

"I do not expect that the terror of that island will ever altogether leave me. At most times it lies far in the back of my mind, a mere distant cloud, a memory, and a faint distrust; but there are times when the little cloud spreads until it obscures the whole sky. Then I look about at my fellow-men; and I go in fear..."

Whether or not you've read this story before, you might want to consider it if you're looking for a fast-paced, deep and well developed tale from a master of the fantastic. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Prey by Michael Crichton by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Prey by Michael Crichton

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Published in 2002, Prey is the technothriller result of author Michael Crichton's interest in extrapolating where three current trends of the time might go, including distributed programming, biotechnology, and nanotechnology (a concept proposed in 1959 by theoretical physicist Richard Feynman). 

The story opens in a Nevada desert where a secret facility has been built. The scientists there have undertaken an experiment using predatory micro-robots they've constructed. These creatures have the potential to evolve…and they've escaped. 

Main character Jack Forman is an unemployed software programmer and a stay at home dad while his wife Julia in an executive for a nanorobotics company called Xymos. Her team's development of a revolutionary imaging technology takes up most of her time, and Jack finds himself worried she's having an affair. When Julie shows him a video of what she's been working on, he's impressed but uneasy about the ramifications it could have. 

As the story progresses, Julia's behavior becomes increasingly strange and abusive toward her family, culminating in a car crash. Compelled to investigate what was going on with his wife of late, Jack is led straight to Xymos. The project manager admits to him that they've lost control of the micro-bot swarms that can replicate humans and they've escaped to the outside world. With Jack's help, the team has to figure out how to destroy something that only cares about survival at any cost and sees us as little more than its prey. 

As is so often the case with this author, Prey is a cautionary one. One reviewer for The Observer pointed out that in this novel Crichton does what he does best--probing the latest scientific advances and showing "their potentially terrifying underbelly". Even critics who found the story absurd confessed to being unable to stop turning the pages feverishly. This story has all the elements of great horror. It's grounded in believable science, populated with multi-faceted characters in an intriguing setting, and filled with all the suspense the best thriller novels have in abundance.

Rights to a movie version of the story were purchased but thus far it hasn't been made that I know of--a shame because this would make a great film. 

Whether or not you've read this story before, you might want to consider it if you're looking for a fast-paced, deep and well developed tale from a master of the fantastic. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/ 

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Sphere by Michael Crichton by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Sphere by Michael Crichton

by Karen S. Wiesner  

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

I admit I've always been fascinated by submarines. Here we have a deluxe trailer with all the bells and whistles that's put on the bottom of the ocean where people live in it. Mind you, the fact that I'm claustrophobic and terrified of allowing myself to be encased in a tin can--regardless of how fancy it is--holds zero appeal to me anywhere except in my imagination. 

Michael Crichton's 1987 supernatural psychological thriller Sphere depicts the perfect storm in a book that ticks all the boxes for me with incredible characterization, the coolest setting ever, and a plot that absolutely blew my mind the first time I read it and all the countless times I've re-read it since. The United States Navy discovers an enormous spacecraft of unknown origin on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean--that has English writing on it. They put together a team of the best scientific minds in the country to study it. This group includes a psychologist named Norman Johnson, the main character in the book, along with a mathematician, a zoologist, an astrophysicist, and a marine biologist who ends up being too claustrophobic to make the trip down and is therefore returned to the surface. They're joined by military personnel as they travel to the deep sea habitat that's been constructed at the bottom of the ocean to study the anomaly. 

Figuring out how to get inside the spaceship is the first hurdle the team has to overcome. Once they do, they find inside a mysterious sphere that couldn't possibly have been made at any point in Earth's past. Upon making this discovery, they're contacted by an alien entity that at first seems friendly and eager to communicate. As the being that calls itself Jerry begins to display increasingly child-like, bizarre behavior and "manifesting" deadly,  seemingly impossible sea creatures that attack and kill the crew, its power over the humans on the submarine grows. But is there actually an alien entity, or is the culprit someone or something much closer to home aboard the submarine? Even the most brilliant minds would find it hard to cope with the isolation and claustrophobia involved in being trapped in such a confining, remote, and exotic environment. Their grip on reality slips until even the protagonist isn't entirely sure what's real or true. 

Norman conjectures that the sphere allows subconscious thoughts to manifest in reality for those who figure out how to enter it. The sanity of the team members quickly begins to unravel as their trust in each other erodes hour by hour. The power of the sphere is irresistible to all of them, alternately too awesome and terrifying for any human being to wield responsibly.

I won't say anymore because the spectacular ending needs to be experienced personally. Suffice it to say, I can't imagine anyone who picks up this book will be disappointed with any aspect of the story contained inside it. 

With Sphere, Crichton apparently wanted to write a story about the discovery of an alien artifact with its host intact that was distinctly different than anything "recognizably human" whether it was "9 feet tall with spike teeth and it wants to eat you" or "3 feet tall and it wants to hug you". I'd say he succeeded gloriously. The 1998 movie adaptation with an all-star cast including Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharon Stone, and Liev Schreiber didn't do particularly well in the theaters but is nevertheless a decently watchable rendition of the novel. 

Whether or not you've read or watched this story before, you might want to consider it if you're looking for a fast-paced, deep and well developed tale of the fantastical variety. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/ 

 

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Congo by Michael Crichton by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Congo by Michael Crichton

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

In 1980, Crichton wrote another scary book about ancient creatures inhabiting a forgotten world in the dense tropical rainforest of the Congo. The novel Congo starts when an expedition sent there in search of diamond deposits by Earth Resource Technology Services, Inc. (ERTS) is attacked and killed by unknown beats that look like gray gorillas. Instead of diamonds, this team apparently found the (fictional) lost city of Zinj.

Led by the independent and compelling Karen Ross, another expedition is launched to discover the truth. This time, they decide to bring along a female mountain gorilla named Amy, trained to use sign language, and her trainer Peter Elliot, hoping Amy will be able to communicate with the creatures. Ironically, after the book was published, reviewers found Amy's abilities too incredible to believe. Yet Crichton modeled his fictional gorilla after Koko, who'd been on the cover of National Geographic twice at that point and had done interviews on television using sign language. Apparently, she wasn't famous enough at that point to be a realistic example. Go figure.

I found everything about this novel binge-worthy and convincing. The characters, including lovely, funny Amy, were utterly beguiling, smart, and interesting. I truly enjoyed their journey from start to finish, rooting for them in the face of rival competitors also searching and set against a ticking clock--with a nearby volcano threatening to blow and bury the intriguing find under lava and ash for all time.

A bit of an aside, but while researching this review, I discovered that Crichton apparently pitched the idea of producing a "modern-day version of King Solomon's Mines" to a major film company, who bough the rights long before the book was written. Not surprisingly, the author found himself suffering from writer's block in the face of pressure no doubt instigated by the astronomical advance he was given to produce a novel, screenplay, and secure directing rights. Fortunately, he finished the book, which quickly became a bestseller. A year later, he started writing the screenplay, hoping Sean Connery (who starred in Crichton's The Great Train Robbery) would fill the lead role. The film was released in 1995 with neither Crichton or Connery involved. While enjoying a successful box office performance, the film version was ridiculed most notably with Golden Raspberry Award nominations for Worst Picture. While I found the film decent and worth watching, I strongly recommend that you don't judge the book by this movie. The story version itself is not to be missed.

Whether or not you've read or watched this story before, you might want to consider it if you're looking for a fast-paced, deep and well developed tale of the fantastical variety. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

 

 

Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

by Karen S. Wiesner 

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

The original title of Eaters of the Dead, a1976 novel by Michael Crichton, was Eaters of the Dead: The Manuscript of Ibn Fadlan Relating His Experiences with the Northmen in AD 922 {gasp!}. At some point, that was wisely shortened to just Eaters of the Dead and, to coincide with the wonderful film adaptation starring Antonio Banderas in the lead role, to The 13th Warrior. The focus of the story is the journey of a 10-century Muslim Arab that traveled with Viking warriors to their settlement. In the book's appendix, the author states that the book was based on the first three chapters of Ahmad ibn Fadlan personal account. Beyond that, the story is touted as retelling of Beowulf, the Old English epic poem that's a forerunner of supernatural literature, and an all-time favorite of mine. 

In this historical supernatural fiction novel, the main character confronts many different worlds from his own, as he and the Vikings clash culturally yet danger creates a permanent bond between them. Along the path there are lethal creatures that also transform the protagonist in ways he could never have imagined previously. Aptly described as "an epic tale of unspeakable horror", I devour this story every few years, unable to put it down once I delve into its pages. The characters, settings, and scenarios are so vivid, authentic, and terrifying. Crichton left nothing out of this nearly perfect tale that may give you nightmares, just as the movie adaptation will.

Whether or not you've read or watched this story before, you might want to consider it if you're looking for a fast-paced, deep and well developed tale of the fantastical variety. 

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/ 

Karen S. Wiesner Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

by Karen S. Wiesner

What would it be like to be the young child of parents who'd survived an Amityville horror-like haunting and then went on to tell the story of their terror, living in a house inhabited with evil spirits? That's the scenario of Home After Dark by Riley Sager, published in 2020.

After her family fled the house in the middle of the night, Maggie's dad decided to write a book about their harrowing experience, including the dark history of the house. Home Before Dark opens when Maggie's father has just died. She's learned that not only did he never sell the house, but she now owns it. Maggie is an adult now and remembers very little of the time she spent at Baneberry Hall with her parents. She's a skeptic and believes her father's worldwide bestseller was nothing more than a fraud, him little more than a liar who profited from telling a tall tale as if it'd actually happened to them. As an interior decorator, Maggie decides to renovate the place and then sell it. She discovers the small town filled with locals who don't appreciate how Ewan Holt made them infamous. Additionally, Maggie can't deny the weird occurrences at the house are unnerving her more and more as the days pass. She'd wanted to believe her dad's book was a fake yet ends up wondering if there was more fact than fiction to his story.

While Home Before Dark has been touted a horror novel, I'd categorize it more of mild horror, or simply supernatural fiction. That's not a flaw--merely an observation. Written by alternating present-day Maggie in POV scenes with chapters (each focused on a day of living in the haunted house) from her father's book, there's a similarity in the parallel entries. Through this, Maggie begins to slowly change her mind about all she thought she knew and believed for so long.

Almost from the first chapter, I felt I knew exactly where this story was leading--and that is precisely where it did lead. The last several chapters, however, shattered everything I thought I knew as I was dragged through whip-saw turns, one after the other, twisting and careening around hairpin bends, leaving me breathless and dazed as I took in the truth like the winded survivor of a tragedy. Well did this author earn the title as "a master of the twist and the turn" (Rolling Stone)! I closed the last page, feeling I'd been brilliantly played while the author guided me exactly where he wanted me to go, then, with a smile of glee, turned off the light, locked the door, and forced me to stumble through those final, disturbing, and, may I say, very satisfying chapters.

Home Before Dark is in no way a typical ghost story, though it had all the makings of one. If you've never read this one, you'll find it a thoroughly enjoyable read that's anything but expected. If you have, it may be time to re-experience it (kind of like a second viewing of M. Night Shyamalan's brilliantly haunting The Sixth Sense) just to see how your perspective has changed now that know what's actually going on.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

by Karen S. Wiesner

Note that this book is also published under the title The Lost Book of Salem. I was drawn to the cover of this book when it first came out in 2009 (see it below, though the reproduction is washed out). The cover you see below the original is a newer version. The first edition, in tones of brown, doesn't include the girl on it. The original, I feel, is such a beautiful cover and the back cover blurb on the slipcover leaves of the hardcover was equally compelling.

I took a chance and purchased it when it first came out. I was very pleased with the wonderfully written story with deep, complex characters and a thrilling mystery. The main character, college student and daughter of the university president, Connie Goodwin, is working on her doctoral dissertation. She's spending the summer clearing out of her grandmother's cottage so it can be put up for sale. While there, she comes across a parchment including the name of one of her ancestors--Deliverance Dane, an accused witch from 1692. From there, Connie hunts for Deliverance's spell book, The Physick Book, and in the process discovers her own, previously unimagined power. (Incidentally, physick--pronounced fizz-ick--is what medicine was called in those times, usually implying herbal remedies.)

I personally love books that are set within halls of academia and scholarly research. (Favorites of mine include Charlie Lovett's books--which have little or no supernatural elements--and are similar to this, just as fascinating.) This one is intertwined with 17 Century witch trial narrative, another fascination for me. Combined with danger and nail-biting suspense, you really can't go wrong. If you've already read The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane once upon a time, it may be time for a second perusal. In the course of writing this review, I discovered there was a sequel called The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs, following Connie's adventures as an expert on America's witchcraft history, which I intend to pick up and possibly review here at a later time.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen S. Wiesner: Oldies But Goodies {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Hatching Series by Ezekiel Boone

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Hatching Series by Ezekiel Boone

by Karen S. Wiesner

Despite my avid fear of spiders (little bitty ones and big ones alike; monster queen ones? well, let's not even go there, except within this series), I couldn't resist something that was described as "Independence Day meets World War Z, only with spiders". In other words, apocalyptic stakes riddled with horror galore. I love horror and end-of-the-world stories. I took a chance of ensuring myself lasting months of nightmares all including the creepy-crawlies lurking around us, mostly unseen.

I devoured the first book, The Hatching, in almost no time at all, all the while feeling like I was about to be devoured by some arachnid monster creeping up behind me--and what the heck was that moving along my leg?!! I couldn't put this book down. Readers were taken all around the globe, given a piece of the puzzle from multiple angles. It starts in the heart of a Peruvian jungle, where tourists get the surprise of their lives when an ancient, long-dormant evil awakens…and feeds. Meanwhile, FBI agents are sent to investigate a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis with gruesome connections. Mysteries crop up around the world: Disturbing seismic patterns in India are stumping scientists in an earthquake lab. The Chinese government unfathomably decides to drop a bomb in a region of their own country. A package from South America arrives in a DC lab, and all hell breaks loose.

Mike Rich, an FBI agent, is an engaging main character. On the personal front, he's dealing with an ex-wife who's remarried, something that still wrecks him, and being a father to their daughter Annie while juggling a demanding job that barely gives him time to breathe. Professor Melanie Guyer is fascinated with all things spider, and she's also a loveable slut. The attraction between Mike and Melanie, after they meet through their work, is fun and an enjoyable reprieve from all the action and tension in this otherwise non-stop nail-biter.

Finishing the book was torture for me because I purchased it after it first came out--July 2016. At that time, I had no idea when the follow-up would be released, but I waited about nine months (April 2017). At that point, I was still interested in reading it so I went ahead and purchased it. Skitter was nearly as good as the first, but not quite as compelling. I still liked Mike, but Melanie's insistence on treating sex as unemotionally as she would a mindless massage was really starting to wear on me, especially since Mike was so lovable and her inability combined with unwillingness to commit to anything serious put me off rooting for her or Melanie and Mike as a couple. Zero Day came out in February 2018. I did buy it, mildly enjoyed it, but I think the huge lapse in waiting from one book to the next really harshed my initial buzz. I do intend to read them again back-to-back, as a series, instead of a drawn-out marathon of patience, like my first time around. Now that all the books are readily available, it's a great time to binge-read them again. The stories would also make an amazing movie series.

Next week, I'll review another Oldie But Goodie you might find worth another read, too.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/ 

Karen S. Wiesner {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Ritual by Adam Nevill

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Ritual by Adam Nevill

by Karen S. Wiesner

The Ritual by Adam Nevill is a supernatural horror novel published in 2011. Four males who were in college together decide to take a trip together on the cheap (because the main character Luke can't afford anything else). They strike out into the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle. While the old chums begin with intentions of escaping their individual lives (and their problems that come to light as they spend more time together in a harsh environment) as well as reconnecting as friends, it soon becomes clear that these men can barely tolerate each other's company. With conflicts surmounting between and all around them in the deepening disquiet of gloom, they foolishly decide to take a shortcut to get out of the forest. Two of the members of the party are injured and none of them possess anything that passes as survival experience or skills. Soon, they're lost, starving, and all but swallowed up by the dark, ancient forest that's remained largely untouched for millennia.

The thing this book has in spades is atmospheric setting. Here, the natural world is depicted in such a way that the reader's breath is stilled in the lungs, hesitant to reach toward exhale or inhale for fear of meeting a monster whatever way is turned. One reviewer commented (emphasis mine) on the "isolation, dreariness, and enormous age of the Swedish forest setting", which I heartily agree with because I felt that almost tangibly. The isolated, primal world around the characters becomes oppressive, suffocating, blacker and more menacing the farther in they get, growing to almost painful proportions of horror as their waking and dreaming hours are filled with nightmares that are as real as the enormous trees.

I read through most of this book enraptured by the predicaments of the characters. Mainly, I was spellbound with the setting and the imagery the author conjured in my mind. The anticipation I had was buoyed by a strong sense of expectation about where everything was heading. That crawled to a very abrupt halt somewhere near the three-fourths mark of the novel, where I was filled with startled disappointment at unforeseen and unimaginable events that, for me, came out of nowhere and hijacked the story. One minute, I was hurling headlong into a reader's dream come true and the next I was staring dumbly, going, "Um…what now?" If you don't want a spoiler, skip the next paragraph, which I've placed in very small print so it'll be hard to read without concentrated effort. If you don't mind,  you can read on:

The main character Luke wakes in a strange bed in a house literally in the middle of nowhere, all his friends gone, only to find that instead of discovering the road to salvation and rescue, he's a prisoner of a heavy metal band that worships a creature that requires blood sacrifices. What the actual heck?!

Following the event you may or may not have read about in the last paragraph, the story did get back to something of the hopes I had for a clever twist ending. Other reviewers also found fault in this pre-cursor to the end of the novel, so I'm not entirely sure if I'm in the minority feeling like that aspect didn't live up to the captivating beginning. I also kind of feel like both the book and the Netflix film adaptation (which was pretty faithful) de-evolved into something of a gore fest, something that doesn't really appeal to me.

Here's a legitimate question: Is a book worth reading if the end is disappointing? There's another author I hope to review in this column in the future where it happens with every single one of his books: I'm enthralled all through the story, but the end is without fail a huge disappointment. Was it worth reading if I found out that it ultimately didn't live up to the promise it initially had? My answer is that, yes, if I've taken something worthwhile out of the reading, it is worth the time I've taken, and maybe even the investment. After all, I thoroughly enjoyed three-fourths of the story. In the case of The Ritual, I ended up liking the very end of the novel. It was just that weird blip that ripped me whole out of the story and kind of "harshed my buzz" for a short time before getting back on the road I was anticipating.

Check out my latest novel!

 

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/bloodmoon-cove-spirits-series.html

https://www.writers-exchange.com/bloodmoon-cove-spirits-series/

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Karen Wiesner: I Have Dreamed a Little Dream (Authors and Dream Inspiration), Part 4

I Have Dreamed a Little Dream, Part 4

by Karen Wiesner

"Believe in your dreams. They were given to you for a reason." ~Katrina Mayer

As a writer, the question I get most often is where my ideas come from a lot. While I can honestly say everywhere, more often than not, dreams play a huge role of my fiction writing. Something about that twilight between sleep and dreams is a veritable playground for imagination! Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series is one of my series, in particular, in which many of the stories within it stemmed from a fragment of a dream that I was able to develop into a story. In a series of posts, I've revealed how these nightmarish gifts from the ether came to me. 

This is the final of four posts focusing on my Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series and the vivid nightmares or ideas that inspired the titles.

Karen Wiesner's Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series

** Nestled on Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin is a small, secluded town called Bloodmoon Cove with volatile weather, suspicious folk…and newly awakened ghosts.

Don’t close your eyes… **

What's coming up next in the series:

One of the things I love the most as I'm developing this series is that the characters from previous books make solid (i.e. not simply "glimpses" from one book to the next) appearances in later books. Considering how small Bloodmoon Cove is and how involved they are in each other's lives, it makes sense that the developing characters would be seen all through subsequent stories. I can hardly wait to write each one of these books in order to expand the world I'm creating with them. I hope readers will also be just as excited in seeing more from this series as I am.

BONE OF MY BONE, Book 7 

(release date estimate: April 2022)

** When Bennet was eight, he fell for Ice despite how she concealed who she was and where she came from. When they were 19, she disappeared. Still grieving a year later, he's floored at her return. Her comment about "how to bury what won't stay dead" compels him to solve her mysteries. But how does a mortal fight creation's first murderer when the entity bears an immortal seal and made a pact with the devil? **

I've outlined and I'm currently writing this novel. This is a newer idea I had for the series. At the end of 2020, I couldn’t stop coming up with notes for after a very vivid dream I had of the first “scene” in the story. I already had the title and had some very loose ideas about the story before I had the dream. At that point, I was sure that, with this much material, I could move right into outlining it. Past experience has taught me that, if I can complete an outline, I always know I can write the story. If I can't outline it, I'll either take it off my list of Works in Progress or simply reschedule the release date and work on it at a later time, when hopefully I'm more inspired after a great deal of time trying to brainstorm new ideas for it.

LOST AND FOUND, A Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series 2-in-1 including "Lost", Book 8, and "Found", Book 9 

** "Lost": Damaris remembers nothing of the past 48 hours. A retired couple found her in their woods. Their remodeling efforts uncover a hidden enclosure that cages what they don't dare set free.

"Found": What does a lifelong bachelor do when the woman of his dreams steps into his sanctuary and he finds all he's been missing…but revealing the truth behind their meeting could tear them apart for all time? ** 

The main characters in both books (I'm unsure whether they'll be novellas or novels at this point) will work for the library, so LOST AND FOUND was a great title that played on that. The idea for "Lost" came from a nightmare I'd had about a woman whose car broke down on the edge of the woods and she woke up in a cabin deep in the woods owned by an older couple without technology who are digging up something in the basement of their home. The idea for "Found" came about when my sister was talking about a story she wanted to write about a ghost in a library. 

HELL HATH NO FURY, Book 10

(release date estimate: April 2023)

** Eager to get a cake decorating business up and running, Isabelle inherits an old house in Bloodmoon Cove that seems like a boon…until she pieces together the tragic story of a poor immigrant who lived in this house and the woman he scorned. When Kesara committed suicide over his rejection, her heart-broken mother plotted revenge. Newly awakened to the legacy Isabelle has inherited, two ghosts plan to finish what they started a hundred years before. **

This story came from another dream I had about a young immigrant who came over to America because of lack of opportunity in his own country and fell in love with the daughter of the man who employed him. The bakery angle with the man's ancestor being willed the house the immigrant and his wife lived in wove itself into the story, given my love for TV shows focused on baking.

 

HAUNTED LEGACY, Book 11

(release date estimate: October 2023)

** After a teenage pregnancy, Danielle and Andy unsuccessfully made a go of marriage. After the split, Andy started a business while Dani’s art career took off with the help of Douglas Marx, whose reputation is spoken of in the same hushed tones as black magic. When Doug invites her to join him in Bloodmoon Cove, Dani notices a painting that haunts her as the figure in the painting becomes familiar—more and more like her own… **

The idea for this story has been with me for many, many years, titled for most of that time GILDED PROMISES and a contemporary romance without any supernatural aspects. I had the idea to make the story a suspense with Dani’s art agent being a villain. A little later, the painting I had in the outline I'd started (though never finished) made me wonder how I could make this a supernatural kind of story. I love Susan Hills THE MAN IN THE PICTURE, and who isn't deeply disturbed by Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY? I wanted to put a paranormal spin on my original idea, and merging it into my Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series seemed natural. The title changed, stemming from the concept that not only would Dani’s agent be a villain but he would have a supernatural aid in his villainy—a painting handed down from father to son for generations that “captures” and drains the life from a victim, thereby transferring it to this creature.

ELDRITCH JUSTICE, Book 12

(release date estimate: January 2024)

** Rafe Yager (of CROOKED HOUSE, Book 3) has settled in Bloodmoon Cove with his wife Corinne. Given his former ghost hunting, he can't put aside his paranormal past as easily as he'd like to. He's been following the trail of a law firm that caters to the dead with unfinished business. His quest leads to the sinister Thoth, scribe of the underworld and Ma'at, justice personified …and the weighing of his own heart on the scale against the feather of truth. **

Rafe and Cori's story started in CROOKED HOUSE, but I wasn't ready to let go of them when I was finished with that tale, nor of an intriguing plot thread that actually started earlier in the series about a lawyer that caters to the dead with unfinished legal business (RETURN TO BLOODMOON MANOR, Book 4).

GHOSTLY TALES FROM ERIE COUNTY including "Bad Blood", "Dead Man's Road", "The Haunting of Desolation Cottage", "Keeper of Grimoire", "Cappy's Cupid", and "The Ancient One"

(release date estimate: October 2024)

** Short, haunted stories set in Bloodmoon Cove and Grimoire, Erie County, Wisconsin. **

I knew as soon as I conceived of Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series that I'd want to do a collection of ghost short stories with the volume covering some of the early years of the town as well as following up on the previous novels. The characters--main and secondary--introduced in all that came before will make appearances in the shorts.

Dreaming fragments of a story has happened to me so many times now that I've taken to having a tablet and pen in my nightstand so I can write down everything I remember immediately after waking up. The longer I wait, the more chance I'll forget something that will drift back into the twilight, never to be grasped again. I never know when these pieces might become full-fledged stories. Sometimes it feels a lot like I'm making lemons into lemonade with these gifts from the ether, but isn't that the essence of what being a writer is?

Do you have a pen and paper by your bedside just in case you wake from a compelling dream and need to write it down fast, before it floats away? Leave a comment to tell me about it!

Find out more about Bloodmoon Cove Spirits Series here:

https://www.writers-exchange.com/bloodmoon-cove-spirits-series/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08MLBJ7XP

Happy reading!

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 140 titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

https://www.goodreads.com/karenwiesner

http://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/ 

http://www.writers-exchange.com/blog/ 

https://www.amazon.com/author/karenwiesner