Hard Road by J.B. Turner - Book Review

From the publisher: “Sometimes, to protect what you love, you need to operate outside the law…”

Since his wife died on 9/11, Jon Reznick has worked hard to keep his shadowy world hidden from his eleven-year-old daughter. But when he’s ordered by his handler to assassinate a man in an exclusive Washington DC hotel, he discovers the target is not at all who he at first appears to be.

Quickly ensnared in a web of murder, extortion and treachery, Reznick finds himself fighting to outwit not only the clandestine group intent on hunting him down, but also to evade capture by  FBI Assistant Director Martha Meyerstein”

But it’s not only Reznick’s survival that’s at stake. A terrifying plot by a foreign government to bring the United States to its knees is underway. And only Reznick can stop it.

As Jon Reznick questions why the details surrounding his latest hit aren't accurate, he inadvertently finds himself defending the man rather than killing him.  This sets off a string of events that lead to Reznick's daughter being kidnapped, and Jon having to drag around his potential victim as he attempts to find and rescue her.  Why he doesn't follow the orders he's given immediately after he contacts his handler, he isn't really sure.  What he does know is that his personal code of ethics alarm is going off, and he needs to find his daughter.

In the midst of Reznick's search, J.B. Turner, the author of Hard Road, begins to reveal to the reader that there is something bigger at work: a potential terror attack on the United States.  FBI Assistant Director Martha Meyerstein is intent on tracking down a missing scientist, missing vials of a virus, and the man who can create the antidote: Frank Luntz, the man Jon Reznick was sent to kill.  As Turner weaves these two plot threads together, the story comes to an exciting finale.

I like the character of Jon Reznick.  He is a flawed and broken man, with some valuable skills (he is a former Delta operator).  He is willing to bad things to help good people and his country, but there are lines he won't cross.  There is a lot of potential with him.

I liked the plot of Hard Road, too.  It was exciting and moved along pretty well.  There were crosses and double-crosses, and I was never totally sure who to trust.

It was a very cinematic book; it was easy to picture Hard Road taking place on a movie screen.  And that is where my issue is with it.  It didn't seem to break any new ground.  That's okay, as it was an enjoyable book. But, it didn't leave me thinking about it afterward.  It was just like seeing the big summer blockbuster, full of thrills and action, but with no lasting impression.

As J.B. Turner continues to write about Jon Reznick, I'm hopeful he will delve deeper into the character of the man.  However, if Turner continues to write action-packed blockbusters, they will still be a good read.

Check out Hard Road if you are a fan of summer blockbusters and are looking for an easy summer read.

I received a review copy of this book from Angry Robot Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

Three by Jay Posey - Book Review

From the publisher: First book in the series: Legends of the Duskwalker
The world has collapsed, and there are no heroes any more.
But when a lone gunman reluctantly accepts the mantel of protector to a young boy and his dying mother against the forces that pursue them, a hero may yet arise.

The premise of Three, by Jay Posey, intrigued me.  I kind of like the loner-against-the-bad-guys stories.  There is something familiar about them that is right in my wheelhouse, whether its a book, tv show, or movie.  Which brings me to Three.  There are a lot of familiar tropes in this book: loner with a mysterious past; woman on the run from something bad; child with unusual abilities; bad guys who would stop at nothing to find the woman and child; and post-apocalyptic setting, sometime in our future.  Taken as pieces, they would offer nothing new.  Put together by Jay Posey, and they provide an intriguing story.

Three is a loner, possibly a bounty hunter (that's not too clear), who doesn't like crowds and cities.  That's okay, because in the land he lives in, there aren't a lot of either.  The reason why isn't explained, and it really doesn't matter in this story anyway.  In addition to the harsh conditions, at sundown strange creatures called Weir come out and no one is safe (what they are isn't really fleshed out either, although they are some strange combination of human bodies and mechanical impulses).  While Three is waiting to collect on a bounty, he is approached by a woman (Cass) who is looking for help for her child (Wren) and herself.  It is apparent that Cass is a drug addict and Wren is too young to help her, but Three doesn't want anything to do with them.  When a strange looking man comes looking for them, Three finds himself being misleading.  He then runs into another man after Wren and Cass, and reluctantly commits to helping them find safety.  Thus begins the adventure across the barren wasteland, avoiding many dangers, and discovering a few surprises.

In the midst of reading this book, I kept waiting for the pace to pick up, for more to be revealed about Three, Cass, Wren, the Weir, and their world.  I wasn't sure how much I liked the book.  It was interesting, to be sure, but the pacing seemed slow.  It wasn't until I was nearing the end that I found myself caught up in what was happening, reading the last third of the book in burst to discover what happened. Now, looking back at the story as a whole, I find I rather enjoyed it. The characters were engaging and mysterious, and the setting supported them.  And while the plot wasn't entirely something new, I'm not sure that it was intended to be ground-breaking.  I was more of a character piece, very much in the vein of Clint Eastwood's Spaghetti Westerns. Or maybe it was a moral piece.  Either way, the plot wasn't what drove the story, it was Three and Wren, with a little help from Cass.

There were a bunch of questions I had as I read and finished Three.  I would love to know more about Three; what exactly it is that Wren can do; what happened to the world; what the Weir are; and more.  However, as Three is the first book in the Legends of the Duskwalkers, I'm hopeful that some of these mysteries will be revealed in future installments.

Overall, I would recommend this book to fans of the Loner Anti-Hero type (ala Clint Eastwood).  It was interesting and provided many mysteries.  I feel like Posey is on the edge of writing something "New", "Different", and "Deep".  I look forward to following him in the future.

I received a review copy of this book from Angry Robot Publishers in exchange for an honest review.

House of Heroes Concert

Yesterday we picked Lexi up from church camp, "Princess Camp" edition.  She learned a lot about how much God loves her, how she needs to choose a "prince" (Jesus or Satan), why to dress modestly (boys fill in the picture, gasp!), and other valuable lessons about being a daughter of God.  She had a blast.

We also took the kids to a free concert on the way home, headlined by House of Heroes.  They are Christian guys with several albums out, and they rock.  Lexi in particular enjoys their music.  The concert was in a small lodge in a park in Anderson. After a cool opening act, Curt Anderson, we heard Come Wind.  They really weren't very good, some kind of experimental prog-rock, sung mostly in falsetto.  Also, they didn't have much interaction with the audience. 

Finally, House of Heroes came on.  They played for about an hour and a half.  They mostly played songs from their new B-Side album, which included a cover of "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da" by the Beatles (they did a good job).  They also played some from several of their other albums, including one of my favorites "Remember the Empire".  Check out the video below.  The twins were asleep with about 20-30 minutes left in the show; I'm not sure how, as it was so loud we needed ear plugs.

We enjoyed the show and are glad to have Lexi home.  Now we are gearing up for VBS next week.  Oh, and Griffin went to basketball camp last week as well.  It was fun watching him improve his skills.

Comeback by Ed Brisson and Michael Walsh - Book Review

From the publisher:  Reconnect agents Mark and Seth go back in time to save people from their untimely demise — for a fee.

But, when a rescue mission goes awry, both agents find themselves trapped in the past and on the run from both the FBI, who want to jail them, and their own employers who want to kill them to protect their own dark and deadly secrets. 

Comeback, by Ed Brisson, is a pretty cool story.  It is reminiscent of the movie Looper, in that it involves an illegal time-traveling group that uses the technology for monetary gain.

Mark and Seth are agents for Reconnect, a company who will save your loved one from an untimely death for a large sum of money.  To do that, they utilize time-travel.  They also seem limited to using it only within a certain amount of days from the death (that part is never fully explained).  When their latest rescue starts to go sideways, Seth runs into a future version of himself, who tells the younger version what Reconnect is really up to.  Simultaneously, the reader discovers that the FBI has a time-travel department, which is investigating several anomalies created by Reconnect.  In the course of the investigation, the agents run in to Mark, Seth, and Seth.  What follows is a highly entertaining thriller/mystery/noir story that shows the "consequences" of messing with the time-stream.  The time-travel rules are very consistent and there are several cool examples of how the paradoxes created by traveling through time can affect those doing the traveling.

The character development is slight, as the focus is on the twisting and turning plot. However, the characters of Seth, Mark, and Owen provide enough interesting interactions to interest the reader.

The art, by Michael Walsh, is very spare, which adds to the pulpy feel of the story.

I was very entertained by Comeback, and couldn't help but picture it as a movie, much like the previously mentioned Looper.  If you are a fan of noir, pulp, sci-fi, thrillers, or some combination of those, you'll really enjoy this book.

I received a review copy of this book from Netgalley and Image Comics in exchange for an honest review.

Softball Season Ends

The softball season for both girls came to an end this week.  Cami wrapped up her season playing pitcher's helper.  She hit off the tee a couple of times.  She had a great time and really improved a bunch, playing with confidence.

Lexi's team lost in the semi-final game of their tournament.  Lexi got another solid hit and fielded a couple of balls over the last week.  She even took some swings against the other team's pitchers (she usually tried to take four balls, which resulted in getting two pitches from her coach).  She showed a lot of progress this season.

Now we're down to play practice for The Wizard of Oz in the middle of July.  Then Griffin starts football and the girls start cheerleading.

The Bat by Jo Nesbo - Book Review

From the publisher: The electrifying first appearance of Jo Nesbø’s detective, Harry Hole.
Inspector Harry Hole of the Oslo Crime Squad is dispatched to Sydney to observe a murder case.  Harry is free to offer assistance, but he has firm instructions to stay out of trouble. The victim is a twenty-three year old Norwegian woman who is a minor celebrity back home. Never one to sit on the sidelines, Harry befriends one of the lead detectives, and one of the witnesses, as he is drawn deeper into the case.  Together, they discover that this is only the latest in a string of unsolved murders, and the pattern points toward a psychopath working his way across the country. As they circle closer and closer to the killer, Harry begins to fear that no one is safe, least of all those investigating the case. 

The Bat is was my introduction to Jo Nesbo and his series detective Harry Hole.  I'd heard some good things about the series, and having read the Wallendar series by Henning Mankell, I fully expected another excellent, bleak and moody Scandinavian mystery.  I was only partially right.

The Bat, even though it is written by a Norwegian author and stars a Norwegian police detective, takes place in Australia (mostly in Sydney). I hadn't realized this was the setting, and I found it an interesting place to start a series.  That did away with the bleakness I was expecting.  However, The Bat was both moody and excellent.

Harry Hole is a fascinating character, and in the vein of Harry Bosch, he is ripe for further development.  There are layers to the character that are slowly revealed, deepening the intrigue and adding to the mystery.  And like all great protagonists, Harry Hole is a flawed individual; he is a recovering alcoholic, amongst other personal problems.

The mystery is involving, with many twists and turns.  Harry and his Australian "partner", Andrew Kensington (an Aborigine), track every lead and run across many colorful people in their investigation of the murdered girl.  A cross-dressing clown, an Aborigine boxer, a drug-dealer, a homeless man, and a beautiful Swede (whom Harry falls for) are among the strong supporting cast.  Interspersed with the investigation are tidbits about Australia's complicated social history, which add to the atmosphere.

Finally, Nesbo's writing style was quick and crisp. There were never any large info-dumps, and the chapters moved quickly.  The dialogue was sharp and believable.

I really enjoyed this novel and will definitely be picking up other books in this series. Like Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch series, the mysteries run a close second to discovering more of the unfolding life of Harry Hole. I highly recommend this book to mystery lovers.

I received a review copy of this book from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

School's Out (and Softball)

The kids finished up their school year last Friday.  It's hard to believe Lexi will be a 4th grader and the twins will be in 1st grade.  They had a good year.  I'm especially impressed with the fact that Cami and Griffin can both read simple books now.  They know some words by sight, but are doing really well sounding out words they don't know.

In softball news, due to weather, holidays, and our varsity team in semi-state, each of the girls has only had one game in the last two weeks.  Cami had one solid hit and played first base, fielding a couple of balls.  Lexi also had a hit, and made it to third before the end of the inning.  Cami has 1 or 2 more games, and Lexi has 1 plus the tournament.