The Abigail Affair by Timothy Frost

I wasn’t sure if I’d like this book at first.  The beginning hit the ground running with a murder of a model in the mansion of an extremely wealthy foreigner.   Then we met Toby, the main character. I thought I’d quit the book after reading a few pages, but I’m glad I didn’t.  The Abigail Affair by Timothy Frost is a fun spy – thriller – suspense – amateur sleuth kind of story.

Toby is kind of a goofball, but he is very likable and has a lot of humorous lines.  The writing style reminds me of something similar to the “young adult” genre in some parts, but this is not a book that is appropriate for children (some swearing, sexual innuendo, violence). The plot became more and more exciting as the book went on, there were actually some places were I honestly couldn’t put it down. The trouble with reading e-books is that if you don’t pay close attention to the counter along the bottom, you don’t realize that the book is ending. So, I was constantly aware of how much “time” I had left because I was really enjoying the action filled and fast paced story.

There were some parts that were unbelievable (like a CIA agent ever admitting they work for the CIA), but all in all, it was a fun, exciting book to read with a lot of humor mixed in thanks to Toby, the poor little rich boy who needed to grow up fast and thanks to a crazy Russian multi-billionaire, the Royal Navy, the FBI, CIA, MI6, a the prince of England and an assortment of other colorful characters, he did in the most delightful way.

77 Days in September by Ray Gorham

I rarely buy ebooks, especially those that are self-published. The reason being, the editing is usually poor, if done at all. But, I took a chance with 77 Days in September and not only purchased it, but paid $3.99! So I was really hoping it would be worth it.

I was pleasantly surprised. The plot was what I was looking for (end of the world/apocalyptic type), the characters were mostly likable and the story-line, though predictable, was interesting. It’s one of those books that makes you take a moment to think about how prepared you would be if there was some sort of disaster.

The book takes off quickly and moves along at a good clip. There was only one type/grammatical error that I could find and that was the use of “your” instead of the correct “you’re” when Hector was taunting Kyle about Kyle’s wife thinking Kyle was dead. The sentence was Your wife’s probably busy sleeping with the neighbors for food, and I bet she’s got the pantry stocked. Probably thinks your dead or something.” I noticed it mostly because it’s one of my pet peeves 🙂

I appreciated Kyle’s loyalty to his wife in the story between he and Rose. It’s something that I’ve found is very rare in most books and I really developed a higher opinion of the author because of it. I also appreciated the lack of foul language in the book. I don’t know why authors feel the need to cheapen their works by having most, if not all of the characters swearing in every other sentence. It’s distracting and frankly, sounds stupid. There are instances in certain books where it just fits with the character and the story, but for the most part it just muddies up good dialogue and cheapens the entire book. So thank you Mr. Gorham, for rising above and relying on your writing abilities to tell the story.

The only part of the book I didn’t like was the weird conversation that Jennifer had with Carol about Doug’s behavior towards her (Jennifer). It just seemed way out of left field and didn’t really make any sense considering the type of person Jennifer was and the type relationship she had with her husband. It might have worked better if the author had built up to it a bit with Jennifer “loosing it” in other parts of her life. The scenes with Doug were just weird and unlikely – she needed to either be submissive or beat the crap out of him.

Am I glad I read this book? Absolutely. Do I think it was worth the $4? Sure, why not? I read a lot of books of a huge assortment of genres. Books by established authors, new authors, self-published and I’d rate this closer to the top of the self-published group. I’d read more books by this author and think he is pretty solid, well on his way to a successful career, if that’s what he wants.

And for my favorite lines in the book:

“We’ve been so conditioned to think that the government is always going to be there to fix things that we just expect everything to work out. But now that the government can’t take care of us, we’re almost too helpless to do anything for ourselves.”

Amen, brother. I don’t think people understand how important it is to be able to take care of yourselves and your family/friends/loved ones in an emergency. This country was built by strong, self-reliant people and we should honor those people as well as those who have fought to maintain our great land by helping prepare ourselves and do our part in being responsible, self-reliant citizens. 77 Days in September is one of many stories of what could really happen if a major disaster struck. And the people who will survive, like those in the book who survived, will be the people who realize that.

 

 

 

Wool by Hugh Howey

I stumbled across this strange tale on Amazon a few months ago.  Though I’ve never considered myself a “sci-fi” fan, I’ve always enjoyed well-told tales.  So, I thought I’d give this short story with the strange name “Wool” a shot.  What did I have to lose?

Apparently a lot!  That is, if I hadn’t decided to read it.  I honestly think that Wool will undoubtably be one of those books that become a science fiction classic.  Not only is the story excellent, it’s one of those rare self-published books that aren’t full of spelling and grammatical errors, which I find hugely distracting.

“Wool is an ongoing series of science fiction novels by novelist Hugh Howey. Howey began the series in 2011, initially as a stand-alone short story. Released through his own self-publishing efforts, Wool rapidly began to develop a passionate following of fans eager for the next chapter in the saga and as of April 8th, 2012 rates #1 in Amazon.com‘s Kindle Science Fiction & Fantasy Anthologies and High Tech^[1]. The series now consists of six novellas:

• Wool (Jul 30, 2011)
• Wool 2 – Proper Gauge (Nov 30, 2011)
• Wool 3 – Casting off (Dec 11, 2011)
• Wool 4 – The Unraveling (Dec 26, 2011)
• Wool 5 – The Stranded (Jan 25, 2012)
• Wool 6 – First shift (Apr 14, 2012)

The series was also released as “Wool Omibus” which includes all 6 novellas in the series.

The story of Wool takes place on a post-apocalyptic Earth. Humanity clings to survival in the Silo, a subterranean city extending hundreds of stories beneath the surface. There is one paramount law within the Silo: never say you want to go outside, for if you do, you will get your wish.  To go outside is a death wish; anyone who has left the silo has never returned.

It all started one hundred and fifty years ago when there was an uprising.  The survivors now live their lives in the silos and have only heard stories passed down through generations about life outside, where the sky is rumored to be blue, not gray; the grass is rumored to be green, not brown. The only way to see the outside is through cameras that have been placed all around the exterior of the silo over a hundred years ago.  The cameras project real-time images onto screens inside and are very much valued by the silo citizens. The world they show is one of destruction and despair – brown, dusty, ruined, colorless and lifeless but everyone wants to see just the same.

The trouble with the cameras comes with the air outside which toxic and filthy that over the course of several months, the lenses become dirtier and dirtier until the view is completely obscured.  Someone has to clean the lenses for the good of everyone.  But who will do it?

After losing his wife Allison to cleaning three years before, Sheriff Holston has uttered the fateful phase “I want to go outside” thus “volunteering” to leave the safety of the silo and go outside to clean the lenses.  Since Allison died, Holston has been tormented with the unanswered question:  Why motivates the condemned to follow through with the cleaning?  Why don’t they just run away or refuse to clean the lenses?  What makes them want to help the very people who sent them to their death?

Hugh C. Howey spent 8 years working as a yacht captain. When he was pulled away from the sea by the love of his life, he turned to his childhood dream of becoming an author. His Molly Fyde series has won praise from reviewers, and now his Wool series has become a #1 bestseller, with Random House publishing in the UK and Ridley Scott and Steve Zaillian securing the film rights. He lives in Jupiter, Florida with his wife Amber and their dog Bella.

2012, USA, Broad Reach Publishing ISBN 1469984202, Pub date 25 January 2012, paperback and ebook, 548 pages.  Kindle Edition, 1st Edition, 70 pages.