Adult


Patriarch Run by Benjamin Dancer

Patriarch Run by Benjamin DancerSummary

Nine years ago, Jack Erikson was deployed to China to protect the United States from a cyberattack. Now, suffering from a drug-induced amnesia, he is unable to recognize his own son. What Jack knows for sure is that an elite group of operators is determined to kill him.

What he does not yet remember is that he controls a cyber weapon powerful enough to return human civilization to the Stone Age. If Jack lives long enough to piece together his mission and his identity, he will be forced to choose between the fate of humankind and that of his own family.

From benjamindancer.com

Review

Unfortunately I really didn’t enjoy this book and due to time commitments I wasn’t able to finish the book. While this book does have a decent about of good reviews on Amazon, it really didn’t hook me and make me want to continue to read the book. Now let me make a disclaimer before I continue to review.

This is more of an adult novel and I understand that adult novels are not as fast paced as Young Adult novels, so in that aspect it was okay, but due to my personal time span that I can dedicate to a book to make a review based on authors requests, I need a book to catch my attention in a short-ish time span and help me get a good picture of what this book is.

I had a hard time figuring out just what was going on as it jumps around a lot between different characters and I struggled to figure out who was who and where they were and what was even going on.

The idea behind the entire book is definitely an interesting one, and based on the summary it really had me interested, but after starting the book, I had a hard time really getting into the book and find the motivation to finish reading it. I couldn’t find time to just sit down and read a large chunk so I struggled to get back into it every time I wanted to read it, and even when I did once find a period of time that I could read a chunk, I didn’t really GET into the reading like in other books where I could fly through it. I spent so much time understanding who’s point of view it was being written from that I stopped paying attention to the story and would have to go back. I did have a PDF version on my iPhone sent from the publisher so it was quite hard at times to figure out where a chapter ended to know that the voice would be changing to a different character, so it may be different if you purchase an actual copy.

But, it does have a lot of good reviews, as I said, on amazon so please don’t base your purchasing of this book just based off me. I’m sure many of the reviews were written by adults who find this as their kind of book. But as a young adult, this didn’t fit into my personal kind of reading category and I didn’t really enjoy it.

To purchase this book, click here.

Happy Reading!


The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower I) by Stephen King

gunslingerSummary

““An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King’s greatest literary achievement” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series.

A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King’s most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake.

Inspired in part by the Robert Browning narrative poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” The Gunslinger is “a compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievable to its center” (Milwaukee Sentinel). It is “brilliant and fresh…and will leave you panting for more” (Booklist).”

-From Amazon.com

Review

Well this was certainly an interesting Stephen King book and nothing like I expected. At all. His writing was quite unique in it and unlike any of his others book which I wasn’t prepared for. It has moments that the dialogue and the writing style is definitely quite difficult to follow because it’s set, I guess you could call it, in a post-apocalyptic world and there aren’t many people around and such. I got the feeling, when reading this book, of the old wild west movies were there is sand everywhere and the few buildings which are around are just made of wood and are dilapidated. Then you have the people and they’re either alive or like these demon kind of things. I would go so far to say that they are zombies because some of the people had died but they somehow came back to life again.

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I will state blatantly that after finishing this book, I am still confused on many aspects on it. Such as the man in black. I wasn’t sure if he had magical powers or if he was just a normal man but just knew more than others and was good at messing with people. But then there was this other side character in the beginning who supposedly was dead but then was alive again. So I was not sure if there was a sickness which brought people back from the dead or if someone brought people back from the dead. I mean, I was totally lost in that aspect, but I’m sure that it will be all cleared up as the series continues. And I will be reading the others because The Gunslinger movie will be coming out soon and I want it to all make sense. After reading this book, I can understand why everyone is excited for the movie to come out because if it is done well (which I pray to God that it is), it will be really good!

Now, for the characters, it was quite interesting in how it was all done. I usually get attached to characters or am able to connect to them and understand where their decisions come from, but in this book you aren’t able to do that. You just don’t have enough time to connect with the characters or have enough information to do such a thing as well. It’s interesting. It keeps you on the fringes. Which is kind of useful as well because then you don’t get too attached to the characters, but it also is frustrating because you never know what a character will do. Their decisions and their attitude keep changing depending on the situation, and also how they are in that particular instance, and so you can never predict how someone will react in a particular moment. An example was I thought when the Gunslinger met the Man in Black, he was going to kill him or something was going to go down. But what happened definitely wasn’t expected.

Then there is the whole mission which the Gunslinger has of finding The Tower which was kind of like what? I can’t reveal anything but what the Tower is explained to be towards the end of the book had me sitting there like “mind-blown”. There was a whole life conversation and it hurt my brain but was so accurate and incredibly well written, so kudos to Mr. King for his writing and logic process.

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Overall, I honestly can’t say that I enjoyed it because it took a lot of effort to even understand what the purpose of the story was. But I am definitely intrigued and had more of a like of the book in the last section of it. Even though I didn’t love the book I will be reading on because I want to know what happens and I want to find out more. Which is a good job on King because it’s rare that you can have someone not love the book but still want to read more of the series just because of the story line and such.

I do recommend reading it as this is one of those books that I cannot say to avoid or not because the writing style is so different, and so is the story, that I can’t predict how anyone will react to it. So I do suggest checking it out and letting me know what you think about the story and such.

And I will be seeing the movie because I love books to movies. I just hope that it will be good!!!

But the cast looks fantastic. I mean come on! Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey?! What’s better! But Idris will be the Gunsligner which wasn’t expected because I see McConaughey more as the Gunslinger now after reading the book, but I think the actor choice will grow on me!

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Happy Reading!!!


5 Of The Best Documentaries Around Right Now

In the past 6 – 12 months I have seen a lot of documentaries. A lot. And so it is with some confidence I can list my top 5.

I will tell you now, barring one of them, they are all highly emotional and only two of these I’ve watched because I chose them. The others were thanks to my college English class.

Of course, disclaimer, some of these documentaries are not completely accurate so don’t base all of your knowledge off of one documentary, as you already know.


Jiro Dreams of Sushi

PG – 1hr 22 min

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the story of 85-year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious three-star Michelin Guide rating, and sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimage, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a thoughtful and elegant meditation on work, family, and the art of perfection, chronicling Jiro’s life as both an unparalleled success in the culinary world and as a loving yet complicated father.”

-From Amazon.com

As I love Japan, I chose this movie after looking at the documentaries on Netflix and boy was I happy with this one. It did make me very hungry and want some sushi, as well as to go to Japan like right now, but I also learnt a lot as well. It is subbed, so if you aren’t into foreign documentaries with subtitles, this may not be the right one for you, but come on! It’s sushi! Who doesn’t love sushi?! The filming was fantastic as well. Simple, elegant, and made everything just look so yummy! If you like sushi, or really food in general, and like Japan then you cannot miss this one!


Life According to Sam

NR – 1hr 34min

“A moving look at a couple’s inspiring efforts to save their only son Sam from the rare and fatal premature-aging disease of progeria.”

From Amazon.com

An extremely moving documentary about children who are born with a rare disease that causes them to age rapidly, dying by the age of about 15 years old. My English teacher met one of the kids and so he had wanted us to watch the documentary and learn about it and I have to say that it was one of the more eye opening documentaries. It’s made me appreciate life as these kids in the documentary will not live long and their parents who are way older will out live their kids, due to reasons that are not their own. The filming was great and it was well done though it was incredibly stressful to see these young children being treated like specimens. Overall it was extremely good but if you’re not into seeing something like this with kids and such, then this may not be the documentary for you.


Hot Girls Wanted

NR – 1 hr 22 min

“This 2015 Sundance Film Festival breakout documentary from producer Rashida Jones spotlights the “amateur” porn industry and the women it exploits.”

-From Netflix.com

This was a Netflix original and I probably would have never come across this or really wanted to watch it but something made me curious. It wasn’t my intent to actually finish it because I thought it was all going to be about sex and something stupid like that. But actually it was quite good. It followed one girl who found out about an ad on Craigslist and her story into the amateur porn industry and how it effects these girls and how they even find out about it. It was quite stressful but very eye opening and made me grateful for the family that I have. This is a mature documentary, even though it is NR, definitely because of the content, but it’s good for people to know about as well. People think that porn is all beautiful and perfect but they don’t realize the life some of these people have as well as how these girls get started and this did a pretty good job of showing it.

Warning: The trailer is kind of graphic. NSFW slightly and not for a younger audience. 


The Square

NR – 1 hr 35 min

“A group of Egyptian revolutionaries battle leaders and regimes, risking their lives to build a new society of conscience.”

-From IMDB.com

This was a fantastic documentary to learn about Tahir square and the kind of stuff which was going on around with that event, but I will have to give a few disclaimers. First off, it was quite violence and graphic. And violence and graphic in fiction is one thing but this was actual footage from the event and people died. You saw people shot at and others run over by vehicles and it was sickening and difficult to watch. There was also quite a lot of blood. Another disclaimer is that the translations are not accurate. It is known that they aren’t and while watching it there was a kid in my class who understands Arabic and was saying how some of the words they were saying were more sayings but the translations were making them seem so much bigger and more violent, which of course is what people filming documentaries want so they’d gain support for it and such. It was a good watch and I was able to understand a situation better, but please do not use just this as your information on the Tahir square revolution. Other than that, as supplemental information, as well as seeing it from their perspective, it was quite well done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvVvDYv-4AM


Blackfish

PG-13 – Ihr 24 min

“Killer whales are beloved, majestic, friendly giants, yet infamous for their capacity to kill viciously. Blackfish unravels the complexities of this dichotomy, employing the story of the notorious performing whale Tilikum, who — unlike any orca in the wild — has taken the lives of several people while in captivity. Blackfish expands on the discussion of keeping such …”

-From Amazon.com

This was a good documentary but I honestly hated watching it. It stressed me the hell out and was sickening to watch and I don’t want to go and see animal shows ever! I never went to Sea World as a kid and I’m so glad that I didn’t. Wile this documentary isn’t completely accurate and portrays the horrible side of everything, it was enough to make me not want to support companies in what they do. I had tears in my eyes from the beginning and felt violently sick throughout the entire thing. If you like animals and hate animal cruelty, this may not be the documentary for you because it will make you sick, but it is good to watch and be aware about because not many people know about all of the disasters that occur and what the lives are like for Killer Whales. And this made me know, even though I didn’t really want to know. Would I recommend this? Yes, but would tell the viewers to watch with caution.


Interview with Stephen Leather

As part of the New York Night: The 7th Jack Nightingale Supernatural Thriller book tour, an interview was done with Mr. Leather.

BookBear logoDisclaimer: These questions are not my own and are courtesy of BookBear

 

The questions are great and, if I have time, I’ll be definitely checking this book out because it looks fantastic!

Without further delay, enjoy!


 

Stephen Leather headshot1. What inspired you to write the Jack Nightingale series?

I always loved the Black Magic books of Dennis Wheatley when I was a kid and I’m a huge fan of the Constantine character in the Hellblazer comics (graphic novels as they prefer to be called these days). And I just love supernatural films, especially haunted houses and things that go bump in the night. With the Nightingale series I wanted to explore the supernatural world but with a hero who is very much grounded in reality. The first three books – Nightfall, Midnight and Nightmare – really explain his backstory, how he became the man he is. The next two – Nightshade and Lastnight – explain why he had to leave the UK and the subsequent books will be set mainly in the United States, hence San Francisco Night and New York Night.

2. Do you have a specific writing style?

I try not to have a style. Like most journalists-turned-writers I try to tell my stories simply with uncluttered prose. If I find myself over-writing I tend to hit the delete key and start again. I try to write my books as if I was writing for a newspaper, where it’s the information that is being conveyed that’s important, not the style in which it’s written. I do like to write fast-paced books, with lots of dialogue and not too much descriptions. For me, the story is everything.

3. How did you come up with the title?

As Jack Nightingale is the hero, I decided it would be neat to have the word ‘Night’ in all the titles, though after Nightfall, Midnight, Nightmare, Nightshade and Lastnight I have to confess I was running out of options. I don’t think Nightdress was going to cut it as a title!  The rest of the titles will be the name of a city, plus Night. So I have already published San Francisco Night and New York Night, and later this year I hope to publish Miami Night.

4. What books have most influenced your life most?

The book I have read the most in my life is One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I love the way it’s such a small story but with such depth. It’s a book about character but through that character you understand an entire political system. I read Harry’s Game by Gerald Seymour several times before I wrote my IRA thriller The Chinaman. Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre was an inspiring book but it is so good that after I read it I gave up thinking I could be writer for several years!

5. Do you have any advice for other writers?

Read. Read a lot. Read good books and bad books and learn from them both. Write every day if you can. I think though that real writers don’t need advice, not about writing. Real writers will be constantly reading because they love books. And they will be constantly writing because they love to write. You need to find your own voice, you need to write the books that you want to write, or that you feel you have to write, and I don’t believe anyone else should be telling you what sort of books to write or how to write them. I don’t think real writers need advice because real writers are self-motivated to improve their craft. They know what needs to be done! Self-publishing is a different matter, there you do need advice because you have to take care of covers, blurbs, marketing and so on. Google self-publishing guru Joe Konrath and read everything he has to say about self-publishing and you won’t go far wrong!

6. What books/authors have influenced your writing?

I read pretty much everything by Jack Higgins and Len Deighton before I started writing, but I think I modeled my writing most on Gerald Seymour, who was also a journalist before becoming a thriller writer.  I loved all John Le Carre’s books back then, but always felt intimidated by his wonderful prose. I would finish a Le Carre book and feel that I could never write anything as good as that!  At least with Gerald Seymour I would think that I had just read a wonderful novel and that one day I might be able to produce something almost as good!  In terms of influencing my self-publishing, I have been inspired by self-publishing guru Jake Konrath.

7. What genre do you consider your book(s)?

The books published by Hodder and Stoughton are thrillers, pure and simple. The Jack Nightingale series – which Hodder and Stoughton originally published but which I now publish myself – are supernatural thrillers, though they sometimes get labelled as occult thrillers, which is fine.

8. Do you ever experience writer’s block?

You know, I don’t think there is such a thing, not if you mean a writer who simply cannot write. Like all writers I sometimes have trouble with a storyline or a section I’m writing, but if that happens I simply switch to writing something else, either a different part of the same work or even a separate piece. I always have half a dozen or so short stories in mind so if a book starts to give me problems I might take a few days off and write one of those instead. But as I’m writing a book I usually have several sections already planned out so blocking doesn’t become an issue. My advice to anyone who does feel that they are blocked is to start trying to write something else, anything, just to start the words flowing again!

9. What is your favourite theme/genre to write about?

I love writing present-day thrillers that feel as if they have been ripped from that day’s newspaper headlines. I have lots of contacts in the police, the army and the intelligence services and I love using the information they give me in my stories. Often I hear of things long before they reach the papers. In my book Soft Target I wrote about four Islamic suicide bombers going down the Tube system in London. Several months later it actually happened – it wasn’t that I was psychic, it was the people I was speaking to told me it was the thing they feared happening most.

10. Where did your love of writing come from?

I’ve always loved to write, to create a story from nothing. I like to tell stories to, and I often recite the whole plot of a forthcoming novel to my friends. Often by telling a story it becomes easier to put down on paper. But before I was driven to write, I read. I read so much as a kid and was at my local library several times a week. I loved to read and it was that I think that lead to me wanting to create my own stories.

11. What was the hardest part of writing this book?  

Actually New York Night was an easy book to write, partly because Nightingale is such a great character to work with and partly because I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen. It took about two months, from start to finish, and at no point did I hit any real problems. The ending didn’t come to me until the last week or so and I think that was probably the hardest part, coming up with a satisfying ending.

12. What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I just love the Jack Nightingale character. When Hodder and Stoughton decided they didn’t want to continue to publish the series, there was no question that the books would stop. Jack just wouldn’t allow it. I love his sarcasm, his slight air of pessimism, and the fact that he just takes whatever life throws at him. He’s smart and thinks on his feet, yet because the supernatural world is so alien to him it’s constantly catching him off-balance. Having the books set in the United States is fun, because he’s always a fish out of water. It gives me the chance to explore different cities, too, which I enjoy enormously. This one was good fun because I know New York well, it’s one of my favourite cities. The next one will be set in Miami which is also a fun city.

 


New York Night (The 7th Jack Nightingale Supernatural Thriller) Book Tour!

Stephen Leather's headshotPraise for Stephen Leather’s Jack Nightingale series: 

“Another great thriller from Stephen Leather but this time with a devilish twist!”
– James Herbert 


“Written with panache, and a fine ear for dialogue, Leather manages the collision between the real and the occult with exceptional skill.”
– Daily Mail

“A stunning masterclass in darkness from a ferocious talent who excels in putting the devil in the details”
– Daily Record

Book Information

New York Night by Stephen Leather

Title: New York Night (The 7th Jack Nightingale Supernatural Thriller)
Author: Stephen Leather
Book Genre: Supernatural
Author Website/Blog Link: www.stephenleather.com
Blurb/Synopsis: Teenagers are being possessed and turning into sadistic murderers. Priests can’t help, nor can psychiatrists. So who is behind the demonic possessions? Jack Nightingale is called in to investigate, and finds his own soul is on the line. New York Night is the seventh novel in the Jack Nightingale supernatural detective series. Jack Nightingale has his own website at www.jacknightingale.com
Amazon Link: www.amazon.com/New-York-Night-Nightingale-Supernatural/dp/095662037X/
Apple Link: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/new-york-night-7th-jack-nightingale/id1057762247
Barnes & Nobel Link: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/new-york-night-stephen-leather/1122933866
Kobo Link: store.kobobooks.com/ebook/new-york-night-the-7th-jack-nightingale-novel


This book promotion was hosted by BookBear.

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