Alex James's Blog: AlexJamesNovels Blog - Posts Tagged "mystery"

The fourth book in the sci-fi space-opera mystery series, The Phoenix War focuses on political upheaval on Capital World, Captain Nimoux’s ingenious struggle to escape from imprisonment to warn the Empire of the replicants, and fear of a Rotham invasion.

At 40% through things really get going, with Calvin Cross ordered by Queen Kalila to investigate the DMZ (de-militarised zone) to discover any troublesome evidence that the Rotham Republic intends to start a war against humanity. Queen Kalila must know whether to split her forces to confront the Rotham or to deal with what could be imminent civil war. Meanwhile Officer Summers is commanding the Nighthawk ship on the search for Isotome weapons.

The Phoenix War displays captivating and increasingly distinctive characters in a plot that continues to grow more engrossing. The writing style is snappy, but cuts to the real issues at hand, and showers the text with impacting dialogue. There was a shocking moment that had my mouth agape, since it was so horrible and “real”. And the author does reward the reader in the last 10% with some space action.

Criticism: It took me a while to really get into The Phoenix War (40%) because there was a lot of political build-up and that a lot of the themes I’d read were frequently repeated in the characters’ thoughts. This acted as a helpful reminder of what had already occurred in the series, some of which I had forgotten, and I was totally engaged in the subject matter. Yet, it extended too many scenes and delayed the real action, which could perhaps shine a new light of perspective on new events, rather than ruminating on the old.

Overall, I suggest any reader who likes mystery, sci-fi, or space-opera to start reading this series immediately because so many of Richard L Sander’s works are enthralling, eye-stinging reads.

Redeye, sequel to Shadow of a Dead Star, is a cyberpunk novel that speculates on to what extent dependence on machines and automation can have in a worst case scenario, where human bodies are seen only as functions or spare parts in a greater alien (Yathi) system that eludes them.

Bobbi takes centre stage in Redeye, and we see her personal life getting over what happened to partner Tom Walken. When a proficient hacker contacts her with vital information, Bobbi is thrust into a complex web of alien conspiracy, where she will make new well-conceived allies who she is not sure whether to put her trust in. The way Bobbi’s vulnerable, anxious and yet chipper mind worked was fascinating to read and such a contrast to former protagonist Agent Tom Walken’s distrustful and paranoid state. Many of the events in Shadow of a Dead Star were smoothly integrated with Redeye, perhaps painstakingly in the early pages. As soon as Bobbi physically sets out to hack alien sites, the author delivers with outstanding action that fans of classic apocalyptic Philip K Dick science-fiction will love.

Sometimes Bobbi must trust in dubious gifts bestowed by technological god-entities if she is to prevail against the enemy aliens. It is a paroxysm, but maybe an unavoidable one considering the circumstances where hacking and computer code are the basis for alien domination. Redeye shines a real light on how superficial, materialistic, and robotic people appear when they follow trends or adopt technologies they don’t really need, perhaps to show status. ‘The land of meat’ is used to refer to human society as if the computer realm views it with disdain. Ironically, despite all the warnings about digital over-reliance, the main protagonist Bobbi actually prefers the cyber-world of hacking, but is frequently ripped out of it by problems in the ruined world of meat.

Criticism: it took a while to get to the nub of the story; mostly it begins with who Bobbi can trust and this continues well into Redeye. At first I thought the group infiltration into a Yathi base progressed at a snail’s pace, with too many references to past incidents and confrontations with the Yathi in order to understand the current predicament. I see how this was used to add background to what the characters were up against, but I would have preferred present action and confrontation to be the deciding factor in how they unravelled enemy’s complexities. There were many typos, mainly between 25-30%. The author didn’t make clear why the Yathi became as technologically advanced as they were, and the characters’ comprehension of this was at times sketchy. Furthermore, this was the case with the explanations and reasons behind the aliens’ motives and their control of the global communications network. And why do the aliens appear as they do?

Overall, I really liked the balance of speculation, mystery, and action in Redeye. It developed existing ideas much better than Shadow of a Dead Star, fusing classic leader-of-the-underground ideas with an exaggerated balloon of looming ill-will and alien conquest. Every character was interesting, having their histories and characteristics. The thread of strong visual imagination continues in this series, and there is a high likelihood it won’t be too long before I’ll be reading the next.

Bryan Romer’s vampire-werewolf novel is not intended as your typical fantasy-romance, but instead combines science with the legends, infusing it with action of a military calibre. Not being au fait with the vampire-werewolf genre, one of the main and easiest comparisons to make was with the Underworld film series, especially with the action, rivalry, and three-way battle.

There is certainly an early glimpse of something intriguing beneath the surface when the protagonists “change”, and I liked the setting and accompanying introductory ideas of a crash into a cave and discovered alien technology that is linked to alien memories. At this point, I had hoped for something like the Alien films or Prometheus. Unfortunately, these ideas were not developed and explored during this particular novel, and it seemed I was going to be led into the vampire-werewolf romp I had hoped to avoid. For example, there were times when I felt I had to be more acquainted and interested in the genre’s films or books when references were made, of which were numerous.

Vampire-Tech is intense and focuses mainly on action, military martial arts, and has a supernatural kick. In this way, it reminded me of the Underworld film series, but with an established setting and clear progression. The multiple POV worked well in this way, and though we saw through the eyes of many inconsequential characters, it did keep the pace rolling at breakneck speed.

Overall, though Vampire-Tech was not the alien/mystery read I thought I wanted it was well-written with precise technical vocabulary. Sometimes the action was so engrossing that I didn’t much care that I was reading a vampire-werewolf novel, and I even took to a winning quote: “If you believe in werewolves, why don’t you tell me what I am?”

The writing has an impeccable flow. Some sentences or internal ramblings were entire paragraphs, or indeed pages. It allowed the voice of the author to shine, but there was not a whole lot to differentiate the voice between the lawyer, the doctor, or even Jekyll and Hyde.

The author, as per Victorian style, narrates events directly to the reader. It was nice to read, and the use of language was absorbing. In some ways it felt like an incomplete Sherlock Holmes mystery where the main events and conclusions were unclear because the summary came later in the story without any drama. Even though it is a novel concept, I can see how the concept of reimagining Jekyll and Hyde would be appealing.

‘She's out to find her killer... and maybe a vegan cheese that doesn't melt her nose hairs.'

At first, I didn’t get into it. I couldn’t relate to the main character, and I didn’t know where the story was going. I continued reading to see how things changed, and I started to appreciate it. There is subtle humour in this story, in the way the language is used by the author, and I had a light chuckle every few pages. More and more, I became invested in the main character’s frustrations with understanding exactly what vampires are, and the light-hearted take on vampires was refreshing.

The story itself was about Mallory finding the ‘rat’ who bit her and turned her into a vamp, with the help of the attractive and mysterious Society enforcer Alex, and it’s clear that she’s a bit of a strange vamp, not intimidating in the least with her baby fangs, and preferring to eat foods such as carrot juice doesn’t exactly scream ‘predator!’

The lower rating is because I didn’t think the style of the story was what I would usually go for, preferring more serious reads. I chose to read Adventures of a Vegan Vamp based on the humorous title, to see what differences a vegan vamp would exhibit and if there was any humour value based on this – to laugh with, not at – but beyond similarities not much was made of it.