Review: FROZEN SOLID (Hallie Leland #2)

Exciting, enigmatic, suspenseful intriguing, dangerous, conspiratorial, global, circumscribed, paranoia-inducing, fatal: FROZEN SOLID is rip-roaring adventure at the Frozen South Pole. Antarctica at the end of Summer: from dangerous to super-dangerous. If the extreme temperatures, massive eight-months darkness, hurricane winds, dangerous ice sheets, Polar madness don't get you, a terrifying global conspiracy will. South Pole Station is no more than a laboratory for the trio of planners who have conceived and introduced a destructive plan they call, simply, "Triage." 5 Star Excitement!!

Review: ANTARCTICA by Kim Stanley Robinson

First of all, Kim Stanley Robinson is a STORYTELLER, in the classic sense of the word. Remember, for example, Chaucer's CANTERBURY TALES, and think also of Classic Greek plays.

Second, he has a deep and wide-ranging background in the Sciences, and a deep understanding of Science and how it frames politics, culture, sociology and Society. So reading anyone of his books is an education in disparate avenues of Science, and also in the Scientific Mindset. Even for those who aren't into that, each novel is an exquisite Story whose characters are exposed down into their deepest, even unconscious layers.

I absolutely cherish ANTARCTICA: not only is it about my favorite Continent/Lifelong Dream, but the story is enrapturing, and at the end I intensely longed for continuation, for a sequel, so I could continue to follow these characters! I actually stewed for a while trying to decide what to read next ...because the novel I wanted to read I had just finished. That's how powerfully affected I was.

Review Tour: THE GREEN PANTHERS by Tom Vater

Review:
THE GREEN PANTHERS is riproaring Ecoterrorism adventure, on Earth and in Space, and is akin to gazing through a telescope, from an Environmentalism viewpoint, towards the destruction of the planet and the unthinking and uncaring ravages effected by an ultra-wealthy few upon the only world we have on which to live. Cast against the unthinking depredations are a tightly knit cadre calling themselves The Green Panthers, well-funded, who won't scruple to perform whatever acts are necessary to save our precious home world. Set in the very-near future (2029), THE GREEN PANTHERS whirls us across Europe to Siberia, Bangkok, UK, and even into space in a mad wild race to stop wanton destruction of our Environment and Wildlife.

Release: September 7, 2022

Review: VOSTOK STATION by J. D. Huff. TBR PILE CHALLENGE #1 2023

Acquired 09/02/2017. TBR PILE CHALLENGE #1 2023

I chose VOSTOK STATION because it promised to slot into one of my favorite Horror subgenres, Frozen Horror, and because I cannot resist anything set in Antarctica [or in the Arctic]. As it turned out, the Freeze is non-stop, the Horror is present and constant. But in contrast to John W. Campbell's classic Science Fiction novella "Who Goes There?" (filmed by John Campbell as THE THING), the Horror in VOSTOK STATION is primarily Biological [although the author delivers very human, living, monstrosities, towards the end, providing terrifying spine-chilling moments...because sometimes, Humanity is the most terrifying of all experiences].

Biology gone radically wrong (because of course scientists must always persevere to the end) and in this case, governmental intervention, inevitably leads to unstoppable destruction. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read it prior to the 2019-20 onset of Coronavirus, because by January 2023 inescapable Plague and governmental machinations just seem...all too real.

I granted VOSTOK STATION 4 Stars for plotting, wonderful setting, and character (although by the conclusion Professor Feckless Hero's antics and humour were wearing thin). If I could, I would deduct .5 Star for lack of sufficient proofreading [including using nouns for verbs), so ideally this would be 3.5.

Review: CORE RULESET by Timothy Bryan

Release January 15, 2023

First off, let me start at the end, and shout THAT ENDING!!! THAT ENDING!!!
[NO! Do not turn immediately to the end to see what I mean!!] On the surface, CORE RULESET is a novel about a downtrodden "David" vs. a multitude of unstoppable "Goliaths," from overbuilt bullies, to snooty self-centered, to the "Big Billionaires" whose octopus corporations seem to control the economy. Author Timothy Bryan elicited my empathy for this "feckless hero," whose life seems doomed to rejection and repulsion at every turn, the "guy who just can't get a break." Next level is a story of Supernatural Villainy vs. Police Procedural, as individual after individual--some connected, most disparate--are struck down in unlikely but unstoppable ways, ensuring not only their imminent demise but also their punishment. Third level: what you think is happening is just the facade. Life-changing AND life-ending: but HOW? and WHY? and WHOM?

The classic confrontational Denouement of Law vs. Villain is startling and amazing, then Anticlimax, then THAT ENDING!! 5 Stars for Implacability!!!

WINTER RESPITE READATHON

February 2023

WINTER RESPITE:

1. ALL HALLOWS own new 5
2. NINTH HOUSE Reread own Mount TBR 5
3. HELL BENT Virtual Libby 5
4. A FLICKER IN THE DARK Virtual Libby 5
5. SHE WILL RISE KU 5
6. ONE LAST BREATH Author ARC -5
7. THE MISSING FILE own 4
8. ALL THE DANGEROUS PLACES Libby 5
9. BENNY ROSE THE CANNIBAL KING KU 5
10. CHURN THE SOIL 4
11. THE RESIDENCE Scribd 5
12. TEN YEARS GONE HOOPLA 5
13. WHO MOVED MY GOAT CHEESE? HOOPLA 5
14. HOT PINK SATANISM 4
15. THE FAVOR 4
16. STEEPED IN SECRETS HOOPLA 5
17. WASPS IN THE ICE CREAM 4
18. CHLOE CATES IS MISSING Libby 5
19. VANDAL: STORIES OF DAMAGE 5
20. EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE LIBBY 5
21. LETTER TO THREE WITCHES LIBBY 5
22. WITCH HITCH 5
23. THE WRITING RETREAT 5
24. DARK INVASION 5
25. ADRIFT 5
26. TRAIL OF THE GHOST BUNNY 4
27. WE WERE NEVER HERE LIBBY 5
28. UNDER ONE ROOF [LOATHE TO LOVE YOU] LIBBY 5
29. BELOW ZERO [LOATHE TO LOVE YOU] LIBBY VIRTUAL 4
30. STUCK WITH YOU [LOATHE TO LOVE YOU] LIBBY VIRTUAL 4
31. THE MONSTERINOS AND THE CHATTERING RABBITS 5
32. LOVE ON THE BRAIN 4
33. LADY'S MAID'S BELL SCRIBD 5
34. MR. NIGHTMARE KU 5
35. THE FEAR 5
36. THE COPPER MAN 5
37. THE SHADOW KING 5

Review: ESCAPE FROM YOKAI LAND [THE LAUNDRY FILES 7.5]

I've read many of Charles Stross's THE LAUNDRY FILES Series, finding each suffused with wry British (perhaps Scottish) humor, combined delightfully with Urban Fantasy in an overpopulated modern London metropolis, set into the Lovecraft Mythos . Possibly the Master himself might even approve. As good fiction often does, THE LAUNDRY FILES enables the author to examine contemporary Society and its many themes and foils. In ESCAPE FROM YOKAI LAND, author Stross takes on the hefty topics of Japanese Folklore and mythology, current Japanese society, the Japanese workplace culture, sexism, corporate profiteering at the expense of Innocence [and innocents], and the friction of Japanese-British political relations since 1931.

One needs look closely though, to discover these themes, as agent Bob Howard of the British government's Capitol Laundry Service is immensely occupied with battling severe jet lag, cultural dissonance, and an intense incursion of entities previously encountered only in Japanese Folklore.