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

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton

by Karen S. Wiesner  

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

Dragon Teeth was published in 2017, nine years after the author's death, although it was a book Michael Crichton actually wrote in 1974. It's touted as a historical fiction forerunner to his mega-successful Jurassic Park. Right upfront, I'll state as I did about my review for State of Fear by Crichton a few weeks ago that Dragon Teeth really doesn't have anything to do with aliens in any form, despite that the author is known for including elements of that type in his work and despite the title and really cool cover for this. However, in the vein that sometimes books about the future of humanity as well as historical accounts of it, albeit fictionalized, sometimes do seem very outlandish to modern readers can Dragon Teeth be considered alien. 

Set in 1876's Bone Wars (otherwise known as the Great Dinosaur Rush), when fossil hunting was at the height of competition, this story follows two fictional students of paleontology engaged in a heated rivalry that strains the boundaries of everything legal and moral--similar to real-life paleontologists during that time period, Othniel Charles Marsh and Edward Drinker Cope. William Johnson is a Yale student, his rival Marlin. During a fossil hunting expedition in the Badlands, things go from bad to worse, just as one can expect in the Wild West (and yes, Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok do make appearances). 

There were rumors of National Geographic adapting the novel into a TV series that follows the notoriety of Cope and Marsh's intense rivalry during a time of fossil discovery and speculation. I'm not sure if anything ever happened with it, but it would be interesting for those who want to find out more about how fossil hunting first began in America. 

While this story is good and has all the elements of suspense, fantastic characters, and a historical-event studded setting and plot, I'm not a huge fan of Westerns and this book is, at its heart, the best kind of Western. I read and mildly enjoyed it for what it was. Those with an interest in that genre or who want to know more about early paleontology won't be disappointed. 

I can't help wondering why the author wrote this whole book during the time he was probably also working on other early action/adventure novels like The Terminal Man and The Great Train Robbery. Why did he never go back to Dragon Teeth, never try to get it published, as he surely could have during the height of his popularity? Did he find it lacking as several reviewers did following its posthumous release? Any answer I can come up leads me to also question what the author would have thought about this work he abandoned being published at all. But I guess that doesn't matter now, even if it should. 

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: 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: State of Fear by Michael Crichton by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: State of Fear by Michael Crichton

by Karen S. Wiesner  

 

Be aware that there may be spoilers in this review. 

State of Fear was a 2004 technothriller fiction novel written by Michael Crichton that I found utterly authentic each time I've read it. I'll state upfront that there really isn't anything "alien" about this book. No strange beasties or supernatural elements anywhere, beyond extrapolation of current events pushed to the extreme edge toward one possible conclusion. I chose to cover it here because the series of Michael Crichton reviews I've been rolling out for more than a month now and will continue for a few more weeks simply wouldn't be complete without this book included. 

Also, let's dispense with the climate controversy surrounding this particular title right from the off. The author included at the back of the book not only graphs and footnotes, an appendix, but also a 20-page bibliography containing a list of 172 books and journal articles presented "to assist those readers who would like to review my thinking and arrive at their own conclusions". In all this, the author supported his own highly-controversial beliefs about global warming. A host of so-called experts in numerous fields disputed his views, and he fought back with a statement on his website (which you can read here: https://www.michaelcrichton.com/works/state-of-fear-authors-message/). Crichton has also stated that he didn't want to write the book. He was encouraged to do it, tried to ignore the idea, felt like a coward, worried he'd be killed for going ahead and writing it, and, against all logic, he ended up doing it anyway. 

I think everyone needs to be reminded from the beginning of this review that this book is a work of fiction, one grounded in the very realistic science that Crichton was famous for delving into and finding the "potentially terrifying underbelly" beneath. 

That said, I don't have anything nearing an educated opinion about climate change or global warming. (I, in fact, doubt there's a single person alive who actually does. It would take great arrogance and audacity to believe anyone could know much, if anything, about an ancient planet that's been in existence long before any of us appeared on it.) I only know that I believe each and every one of us is a steward and caretaker of Earth by default, given that we were all born here. As such, we need to take care of it and do our parts in protecting our portion of it in whatever ways we can. I'll say no more about this subject than that. 

State of Fear runs the gamut of settings--from Ireland's glaciers to Antarctica's volcanoes, to Arizona desert and Solomon Islands' jungle, the streets of Paris and the beaches of Los Angeles. You won't be bored on the setting front. Each of these locations is described brilliantly, and the characters involved are finely drawn with a lawyer for a rich philanthropist, Peter Evans, leading the extremely large cast. Evans manages contributions to the fictional National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF). Misused funds are noted, and it comes to light that international law enforcement agencies are following the trail of an eco-terrorist faction with the acronym of ELF, a fictional group that's modeled after the existing Earth Liberation Front. This particular group is so fanatical about convincing the world that global warming exists, they're willing to simulate natural disasters, killing countless, in order to get their message across. Surrounding the controversy is the planning of a NERF-sponsored climate conference. Evans, along with a host of others, intends to stop ELF from causing a tsunami to inundate everyone and everything on California's coastline. 

The only reason I can see anyone not liking this book is because they've forgotten it's written in Crichton's usual modus operandi of fiction with "the absolute ring of truth" (stated by Larry Nation, American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), after the author received their 2006 Journalism Award, which has since been renamed the "Geosciences in the Media" Award, for the research he did for State of Fear). This story has everything a reader could want in a tightly-written thriller. It's sad when fiction has to be saddled with overwhelming and usually toxic political agendas. 

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. 

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: 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 {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson

by Karen S. Wiesner

As soon as I finished reading (and reviewing in last week's Friday post) The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton, published in 1969, I moved directly into reading the sequel, The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel H. Wilson, published in 2019. In fact, the story within the sequel is set 50 years after the previous events. This publication also marks the 50th anniversary of the original release.

In the time following The Andromeda Strain, in which an extraterrestrial microbe nearly caused the catastrophic end of the world, Project Eternal Vigilance has waited and watched to ensure the mutating microbe doesn't reappear. With the project on the verge of being shut down for lack of activity, abruptly a Brazilian terrain-mapping drone detects the signature of the lethal microparticle. A team is assembled and sent to investigate, ultimately tasked with attempting to prevent another potential annihilation of all humankind from the latest Andromeda Evolution.

As the previous story did, this one is presented as a classified government report. While there are many characters, it's hard to really define any of them as the main character. The closest is James Stone, son of one of the team members who saved the world in the original book. In this way, the story is heavily plot focused. However, that doesn't mean readers weren't drawn into the lives and situations of the many players involved in this highly suspenseful, race to save the world tale. In particular, I was moved by the relationship between the native Amazonian boy Tupa and James Stone. Early on while reading this book, I wanted to see a character or two from the original cross into this story, and I was pleased to have my hope rewarded. Additionally, the author mirrored Crichton's ability to create such realism, I could easily believe this story was based on actual events.

One of the most interesting parts about reading these two books back to back was seeing the advances made in technology and space travel in the 50 years between them. In fact, the author has stated his intention while writing was to acknowledge "the travel and advances made in space exploration since the 1970s".

I read the last third of The Andromeda Evolution over the course of little more than two hours. I couldn't put it down until I discovered what would happen with the evolved microparticle spurred on by a deranged, short-sighted villain, as well as to the self-sacrificing people working to prevent it from spreading and destroying the Earth as we know it.

A movie adaption doesn't seem to be in the works, despite that the original was made into a miniseries in 2008 and the plot in The Andromeda Evolution could easily comprise a thrilling second season of it. The ending of the book made me long for yet another sequel to see where it would all go, since it concluded on a bit of an unresolved angle. Though there's no indication that it might ever happen, if a follow-up does make an appearance, I certainly hope it doesn't take another 50 years.

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: Alex Hunter Adventures - The Arcadian by Greig Beck

Oldies But Goodies

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Alex Hunter Adventures - The Arcadian by Greig Beck

by Karen S. Wiesner

The Alex Hunter Adventures includes some ten plus books and all feature Captain Alex Hunter, code named The Arcadian (modified to be something more than human--the ultimate super soldier), and his highly trained, elite team of commandos called HAWCS along with some ancient horror they're sent to investigate. I stumbled across this Australian author years ago while looking for my next horror fix, and this series has always delivered from one book to the next.

  

Beneath the Dark Ice, the first in this series, was Beck's first novel, and it was (and possibly one or two of the subsequent were) released in mass market paperback (2009) by a major publisher. I haven't always been able to find print editions of the later books in the series, published elsewhere, which is frustrating, and when they are available, they tend to be shockingly expensive. I'll add that the stories contained in them are worth the price, but only just. Books that aren't hardcovers shouldn't be so pricey, but that's the inevitable limitation of POD.

The characters in all the Alex Hunter stories are complex with internal conflicts that are just as richly weaved and spellbinding as the action-packed plots. There's a lot to love with hidden horrors and/or fascinating, labyrinthine locations submerged, unearthed, and set free. Without Alex's modifications, could anyone survive what the team is put through in each exciting installment? This is a series that's been around for a while, but it's only getting better. A new book was released in 2022 with another coming in 2024. Note that the publication order isn't the same as the chronological order, which is listed below:

Prequel (0.5), "Arcadian Genesis"

Book 1: Beneath the Dark Ice

Book 2: Dark Rising

Book 3: This Green Hell

Book 4: Black Mountain

Book 5: Gorgon

Book 5.5: "Hammer of God"

Book 6: Kraken Rising

Book 7: The Void

Book 8: From Hell

Book 9: The Dark Side

Book 10: The Well of Hell

Book 11: The Silurian Bridge (forthcoming)

Worth noting that Beck is the author of many series and standalones with a supernatural slant. His website at www.greigbeck.com is well worth a serious gander if you're looking to satiate your own horror fix.

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}: The Ruins by Scott Smith

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: The Ruins by Scott Smith

by Karen S. Wiesner

Imagine a 523 page paperback novel without chapters. Literally, that mass of pages filled with just words, no blank spaces, other than single line scene breaks. Does the mere idea of such a thing make you want to run screaming in the opposite direction? I suppose if I'd glanced through the book before I started reading it the first time, I might have had a reaction just like that. Instead, I just jumped into The Ruins by Scott Smith, a horror, published in 2006. I spent 15-20 hours of that same day absolutely enthralled. I didn't put the book down for any reason, not to eat (I can do that with one hand), not to be sociable, not to sleep, until I finished reading it. In the years since that first reading, I've done the same in re-reading it. I just can't help it.

This story has a pretty simple setup. Two American college couples are on holiday in Cancun. They meet some other foreigners on vacation. Tourist Mathias came with his brother, who'd been persuaded by a cute girl he met at the hotel to go to some archaeological dig site not too far away. Mathias is desperate to find him, since he's been missing for a while now.

Of the Americans, Jeff (who's studying to be a doctor) is the smart one in the group, the Boy Scout, the one who wants to be everyone's hero. His girlfriend Amy goes along with things, doesn't trust herself to make a decision, and ultimately doesn't really know who she is. She's almost pathetically obedient to Jeff's every command. She desperately doesn't want to accompany Jeff to help Mathias find his brother, but she doesn't know how to refuse. Eric is trying to live up to everyone's expectations and therefore fails to meet his own. He follows the prescribed path that's been laid out before him because it's easier than having to figure out something new for himself. Stacy is the oft-troped "lovable slut" who's blown about by every direction of the wind. The group follows Jeff without question.

As couples, these two are the worst. I can't even imagine how they got together. As friends, maybe Amy and Stacy make a little bit of sense but Jeff and Eric really are just thrust together as friends by the girls they're dating. I don't think they even like each other, though the thought never occurs to either of them. Jeff seems to hate Amy most of the time, to despise her wishy-washiness yet he can't seem to stop bossing her around long enough to really decide why he's with her (because she buckles to his demands?). She seems to idolize him. She's Edith Bunker to her Archie, running around rather stupidly to please him. Quite honestly, I didn't like any of the characters and there was nothing admirable about them. Jeff had the veneer of an extraordinary human, but he was no better than any of the others once the surface was scratched. That said, they were engaging, well-drawn, albeit mildly clichéd.

What happens next after Jeff forces the group to set off to find Mathias's brother is a combination of bad luck and pure stupidity on the part of three sheep followers, one anguished brother, and a would-be savior who ultimately doesn't live up to the hype. Believe it or not, none of this made the book any less enjoyable. Like Stephen King, I found The Ruins evocative and one long, screaming close-up of horror.

Beyond the foundational basis of horror in this story, you'll discover a scathing commentary on the dark side of societal conventions when Nature in all its pitiless indifference forces unsuspecting human prey into a very unique cage. From there, all semblance of control slips slowly, slowly away, never again to be recovered.

The only true failure in this literal breath-stealing novel is its end. As one reviewer says, The Ruins "just misses perfection because something's wrong with the final spin". Oh, how polite. In my opinion, the end stinks. Having read the author's other novel, A Simple Plan, I have to say that he seems to love to hate his own characters. He creates beings that you can't really like because bad qualities far outweigh the good and the decisions made by these villainous heroes are always questionable, making you as the reader feel ashamed if you make any attempt to root for them. I can't help imagining the author as a cruel entity setting up his characters for failure, toying with them and tormenting them only to destroy them in the end--all with a robustly maleficent parting laugh. Part of the genius in the author's method of madness is equally what I think might be his downfall: He refuses to look away from anything. Everything that happens is like a train wreck that chops off heads and limbs, burns babies alive, and crushes a pregnant woman flat between cars. In the case of a horror novel, that's kind of what you expect and want, but anyone with an ounce of decency would stop at the end, at least, and dole out some well-earned and respectful mercy. Not Smith. His ruthlessness carries over, unrelenting, into the very last words of the novel.

While I tend to be the type who enjoys the book more than any film adaptation of it and that's definitely the case of the 2008 movie version of The Ruins (an absolute gore-fest from start to finish, though basically watchable) produced by Ben Stiller's production company, Red Hour Films, there is one area that the film triumphs. The end of the movie is what should have been at the end of the book.

Despite the flaws in this nonstop, ruthless horror novel, I heartily recommend it to other lovers of the genre. Just be sure to watch the end of the movie version afterward to see the story's ideal end.

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}: Cast a Cold Eye by Alan Ryan

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Cast a Cold Eye by Alan Ryan

by Karen S. Wiesner

Here's a legitimate question that I posed in an earlier review I did (The Ritual by Adam Nevill https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/09/karen-s-wiesner-put-this-one-on-your_0643725852.html): Is a book worth reading if the end is disappointing? In other words, should I "waste" my time, money, and effort on a book if ultimately the story doesn't live up to the promise it initially had? While I'm sure most people would say "don't bother with anything less than perfect from start to finish" (and the logical practicals among us would add that they won't know the truth of that until after they've done the "wasting"), I find myself disagreeing. Before we get into a discussion about my reasons for disputing the majority vote, let's talk first about the basics about this particular book.

I stumbled on Cast a Cold Eye, a 1984 horror story writing by Alan Ryan, while browsing online horror book selections. In this novel, an American writer, Jack, heads to a small, remote village in Ireland to research a book on the Irish famine that took place near the place he settles. In the process, he sees and hears things that hint at a very dark legacy the locals--including a priest--harbor and almost humor. Easier to put up with something, even an evil something, than it is to fight it, right? Interestingly, one reviewer of the book pointed out how this story focused on faith and belief and how those things can sometimes be "horrible and frightening to behold". Indeed.

From the moment I started reading this story, I was intrigued and glued to it. Even when nothing crucial seemed to be happening in the beginning--just a writer going about his usual business--I felt something mysterious and creepy lurking beneath the surface, keeping me on edge as the dangers rousing along the fringes of Jack's present reality become clearer and even more menacing. One of the descriptions reviewers of the work noted was that this is a "slow burn horror" because the story builds slowly but steadily. That's something I love about really good horror novels. The setting was also deliciously haunting and oppressive. When a story's atmosphere settles in my chest like a dense fog, I'm at my happiest. Dread at the horror rising steadily in every direction, hemming in the main character so he was trapped, kept me turning the pages, not wanting to set the book down for any reason.

Sounds ideal for a lover of horror, doesn't it? I was on tenterhooks when I approached the last few pages of the tale. But what should have culminated into a frothing horror instead fizzled and died. Done. Over. Goodbye. All that suspense building only to have that unworthy ending was almost enough to make weep (as a reader and a writer). I'm not the only one who had this reaction. Other reviewers described the end as "inconclusive, anticlimactic" and as a "too quiet" story that "petered out at the end". I read the last few pages over and over, wondering how this had happened. Surely the author himself, his critique partners, his editor, the publisher, advance readers all cried out at the crime that had been committed by failing to make the final denouncement worthy of the rest of the story! I couldn't imagine how any of them could have missed this lamentable flaw in the otherwise flawless material. Speaking as an author, a reader, a fan of truly good horror, in the name of all that's literally good and right, why?

My severe disappointment had me passing the book off to someone else who I expected would enjoy most of the book as much as I had. I wanted to know if another reader would have the same reaction I did to the end. Maybe I was just being overly critical or wanting to rewrite it the way I would have written it? But…no. This person shared my angst at having an incredible story basically come to nothing.

After that situation, I thought I'd trying reading another book by the author. I will note that I had an extremely hard time finding anything. While the books Alan Ryan had written were all listed on his Wikipedia page, finding copies of them proved very difficult. That may be because the author died in 2012, and maybe he gained a post mortem following that caused his books to become scarce as a result. The one short book I was able to purchase of his, accepting a used edition, was Amazonas. This story was written under his full name, Alan Peter Ryan. I'm given to understand that he took a 20-year hiatus from writing horror before this one came out. In any case, the novel was about a man who trespassed the boundaries of something that should have remained untouched. Good premise. Excellent writing. Loving it like I did the previous…and then the end came, and, for me, all the previous tension-building fell flat. Again. I'm sorry to say that this repeated experience did affect my willingness to search harder to obtain the author's other offerings.

That leads us back to my original question: Should I "waste" my time, money, and effort on a book if ultimately the story doesn't live up to the promise it initially had? The reason I'm saying yes, that Cast a Cold Eye was worth reading despite the crushing dismay I experienced at the end of it, is because--save for a few pages at the end of the book--I would have said it was one of the best horror novels I'd ever read up until that point. True that, if I ever read it again, I will know upfront that I'm probably not going to like the end, though the journey would have been immensely worthwhile.

Additionally, I've found as a lifetime reader, I can actually come back to a story that I once read voraciously years ago but ultimately hated or had a violent response to and see it in a whole new light. This has been the case with The Hunger Games series. My initial reaction was modified by a new perspective I simply didn't have when I was younger. In the case of The Hunger Games, I actually liked the trilogy better the second time around. The first time I read it, I was a young mother who couldn't conceive of a world where a parent would allow something so awful to happen to their children. I didn't buy the premise of the series, so enjoying it was because of that was nearly impossible. All my opinions were filtered through that unwilling perspective. Though the story itself was compelling enough to get through each of the books, I couldn't enjoy them or identify with the characters' struggles. The second time, I was older, and I actually felt sympathy for people I'd once cursed.

Could that happen with Cast a Cold Eye? Maybe. As a writer, I learn something when I love a story from start to finish, and I learn just as much when I don't love it fully. Even if I'm at extremes, these are the stories that are indisputably memorable. The characters and situations stick with me permanently, almost like a haunting. It's the mediocre that doesn't cast a long shadow and soon fades from all remembrance. Better to love or hate a story, rather than being lukewarm or cold to it, because it's then that it becomes apparent the author is clearly capable of rousing strong emotions in me. I want to be moved by every book I read, whether for joy or grief. Even if that means some disappointment, those are the tales that will stick with me evermore. However, after having read two books by Alan Ryan that I hated the last few pages of but loved everything else, I found myself unable to consider the dubious investment worth repeating.

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/