by Jason Joyner | Aug 23, 2008 | Blog, CFBA, fiction, reviews
How many secret societies ARE there in the world?
Matt Bronleewe is back with another adventure featuring rare book dealer August Adams, his ex-wife April, and his 10 year old son Charlie, in the new book House of Wolves.
In the first book of this tale, Illuminated, we’re introduced to the Adams family as they work to solve a mystery in a old tome. The basic pattern remains, with more twists and turns and new characters to spice things up, like August’s estranged dad Cleveland.
House of Wolves almost never lets up with the suspense, as characters are almost always left hanging in distress while the bad guys (a secret society called the Black Vehm) try to obtain the Gospels of Henry the Lion from August. The action is good and the pacing keeps things moving briskly. For a suspense fan, it will be a good read.
The characterization is a little weaker, perhaps because main characters were introduced in the first book. Other characters receive an extended back story flashback, which slows the pace down at times, and some of these featured people really don’t figure deeply into the tale.
The story moves along from Berlin, New York City, and finally Antarctica. There is a good set-up for further adventures with some questions left unresolved.
The book is aimed to appeal to fans of the National Treasure movies, The DaVinci Code, or perhaps Indiana Jones. They should generally please these people. It was an enjoyable read, but not my favorite of the year.
by Jason Joyner | Aug 21, 2008 | Blog, CFBA, reviews, speculative fiction, suspense
Merciless was a long time coming.
The conclusion to Robin Parrish’s Dominion Trilogy is the focus of the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance this week. I read the first book, Relentless, through the library in November of 2006. It was a great start to an intriguing series, and I was excited when the next book, Fearless, was scheduled for the CFBA tour in July 2007. Then I found out that Parrish is just plain mean…
Fearless was a startling suspense ride, upping the ante significantly. The problem was that the reader was left with a gigantic cliff-hanger, and I was stuck dangling over the edge while waiting another year until Merciless was released. Ugh. In the meantime I bought Relentless and made sure I read through the series again in June to be ready for the end game. Finally, I couldn’t wait for the CFBA tour – I bought Merciless as soon as it came out in July, because I couldn’t wait!
How did Merciless do, with that build-up?
—-
First, let me remind you of the synopsis: Grant Borrows was shifted into a new powerful body, with amazing mind control powers. He was a member of the Loci, a group marked with rings on their fingers all sharing stories of being changed from a previous life into a new one with advanced mental abilities. Peyton had lightning-fast reflexes. Morgan could remember anything perfectly. Alex could manipulate a person’s emotions however she wished.
Relentless showed how the Ringwearers drew together against Grant’s grandfather, the leader of the Secretum of Six, who was trying to manipulate Grant into completing his mad plans. In Fearless, the earth is in throes since that confrontation, and Grant and his friends try to be heroes and help with the devastation. After following clues across the globe, Grant and most of his friends end up in a giant underground cavern in Turkey, where we are left hanging, and where Merciless begins.
Out of the chasm where Grant Borrows disappeared, a new being emerges. Skin like granite, eyes of fire, and touch of death. Oblivion has come, and as time stops around the plantet, the Dark World is being formed. What can possibly stand in the way of such a creature?
—
On to the question now.
Merciless is a high-octane ending to the Dominion Trilogy. Robin Parrish has crafted a new mythology that explores a lot of high ideas in a power-packed reading that again keeps people with a heartbeat dangerously close to needing a cardiologist.
I enjoyed the book greatly. It was a fitting ending for this tale. I think that it suffered in my situation a little from excessive anticipation: since I was looking forward to the end so much, I think it was hard to meet up to my expectations. Don’t get me wrong: the book is very good. However, the plot creates circumstances that dampen some of the characters that I really enjoyed. It was necessary for the story to unfold, but I was a little disappointed to not have the same interaction with people like Alex that there was in the first two books. I can’t see how it could be a different way, but that doesn’t mean I can’t miss something. There are also some characters introduced in Merciless that come across as throw-away characters, there to fulfill some plot/demographic need with no more to them.
The suspense and pacing continue on a breakneck pace, and there are so many surprising twists and turns that he’s been holding on to all this time, it will spin your mind in trying to guess what will happen. I was impressed on how so many threads crossed back and forth, only to reveal an unexpected end.
I read one Amazon review that thought there wasn’t much in the way of ideas in Fearless. I disagree strongly to that, but Merciless does wrestle with various themes and gives them center stage even clearer than the other books. There is a good payoff at the end.
Make sure to read the first two books, as Merciless is not a good starting point. Fans of suspense, speculative fiction, superheroes, and “big idea” fiction will not be disappointed. My 16 year old nephew read the whole series in about 3 days! I eagerly await what Robin has up his sleeve next – though I’m not sure my poor ticker can take much more.
For more info, check out my review of Fearless from last year. Also, that book inspired this essay of mine, which has been one of my most clicked/searched posts on this blog (so thanks Robin!).
Finally, if you would like to read the first chapter of Merciless, go HERE.
by Jason Joyner | Aug 21, 2008 | Blog, CFBA, reviews, speculative fiction, suspense
Merciless was a long time coming.
The conclusion to Robin Parrish’s Dominion Trilogy is the focus of the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance this week. I read the first book, Relentless, through the library in November of 2006. It was a great start to an intriguing series, and I was excited when the next book, Fearless, was scheduled for the CFBA tour in July 2007. Then I found out that Parrish is just plain mean…
Fearless was a startling suspense ride, upping the ante significantly. The problem was that the reader was left with a gigantic cliff-hanger, and I was stuck dangling over the edge while waiting another year until Merciless was released. Ugh. In the meantime I bought Relentless and made sure I read through the series again in June to be ready for the end game. Finally, I couldn’t wait for the CFBA tour – I bought Merciless as soon as it came out in July, because I couldn’t wait!
How did Merciless do, with that build-up?
—-
First, let me remind you of the synopsis: Grant Borrows was shifted into a new powerful body, with amazing mind control powers. He was a member of the Loci, a group marked with rings on their fingers all sharing stories of being changed from a previous life into a new one with advanced mental abilities. Peyton had lightning-fast reflexes. Morgan could remember anything perfectly. Alex could manipulate a person’s emotions however she wished.
Relentless showed how the Ringwearers drew together against Grant’s grandfather, the leader of the Secretum of Six, who was trying to manipulate Grant into completing his mad plans. In Fearless, the earth is in throes since that confrontation, and Grant and his friends try to be heroes and help with the devastation. After following clues across the globe, Grant and most of his friends end up in a giant underground cavern in Turkey, where we are left hanging, and where Merciless begins.
Out of the chasm where Grant Borrows disappeared, a new being emerges. Skin like granite, eyes of fire, and touch of death. Oblivion has come, and as time stops around the plantet, the Dark World is being formed. What can possibly stand in the way of such a creature?
—
On to the question now.
Merciless is a high-octane ending to the Dominion Trilogy. Robin Parrish has crafted a new mythology that explores a lot of high ideas in a power-packed reading that again keeps people with a heartbeat dangerously close to needing a cardiologist.
I enjoyed the book greatly. It was a fitting ending for this tale. I think that it suffered in my situation a little from excessive anticipation: since I was looking forward to the end so much, I think it was hard to meet up to my expectations. Don’t get me wrong: the book is very good. However, the plot creates circumstances that dampen some of the characters that I really enjoyed. It was necessary for the story to unfold, but I was a little disappointed to not have the same interaction with people like Alex that there was in the first two books. I can’t see how it could be a different way, but that doesn’t mean I can’t miss something. There are also some characters introduced in Merciless that come across as throw-away characters, there to fulfill some plot/demographic need with no more to them.
The suspense and pacing continue on a breakneck pace, and there are so many surprising twists and turns that he’s been holding on to all this time, it will spin your mind in trying to guess what will happen. I was impressed on how so many threads crossed back and forth, only to reveal an unexpected end.
I read one Amazon review that thought there wasn’t much in the way of ideas in Fearless. I disagree strongly to that, but Merciless does wrestle with various themes and gives them center stage even clearer than the other books. There is a good payoff at the end.
Make sure to read the first two books, as Merciless is not a good starting point. Fans of suspense, speculative fiction, superheroes, and “big idea” fiction will not be disappointed. My 16 year old nephew read the whole series in about 3 days! I eagerly await what Robin has up his sleeve next – though I’m not sure my poor ticker can take much more.
For more info, check out my review of Fearless from last year. Also, that book inspired this essay of mine, which has been one of my most clicked/searched posts on this blog (so thanks Robin!).
Finally, if you would like to read the first chapter of Merciless, go HERE.
by Jason Joyner | Jul 23, 2008 | Blog, fiction, reviews, writing craft
There’s a saying that those who can’t do a certain something end up being teachers of that topic. That certainly isn’t true of this week’s CFBA Tour author, James Scott Bell. He writes for Writer’s Digest magazine and has published “How To” writing books through their imprint. He got to that point by developing into a fine author in his own right.
His latest book is Try Darkness, the sequel to last year’s Try Dying (one of my favorite books in ’07). Bell is a former trial lawyer, and this series features Ty Buchanan, a former big-shot lawyer who is currently helping down and outers while living as a guest at a monastery and uses a coffee shop as his office. He is approached by a woman being forced out of a hotel that won’t allow long-term tenants (illegally). The woman has a young daughter in tow named Kylie. Ty promises to look into this case, along with other jobs such as defending a murder suspect. The woman ends up dead and Kylie, who has no known last name, is left with no one to care for her but Buchanan. The search for answers takes him from the haunts of forgotten veterans and crazy people to the yachts of the rich and famous. The answers are not always what they seem, and Ty finds that he has a darkness on the inside he must battle as well.
I hadn’t read any of Bell’s fiction until last year – a fact I continue to regret. I had never read much in the way of legal thrillers before. If other authors aren’t up to par with Mr. Bell, I may not want to still. Try Darkness comes across even better than the first book. He hooks you with the opening line and has the reader wriggling on the line by the closing.
Ty Buchanan is a smart-mouthed, fast thinking young lawyer, and his verbal sparring and conflicted character is very enjoyable. Bell has a penchant for sharp, witty dialogue. This is a book to study for how to write good dialogue. I laughed out loud in several passages. The characters are well-developed, from the pious, basketball playing nun Sister Mary Veritas, to Sam DeCosse the real estate magnate, to crazy Disco Freddy down at the run-down hotel. The book also brings Los Angeles to life, from the desert on the outskirts to the rich exclusive neighborhoods in the hills.
The plot is fast paced with short, punchy chapters and enough twists to keep a contortionist occupied. I tried but couldn’t guess the “whodunit” for the main storyline. I enjoyed the book through and through. The only picky little complaint I have is that many people in the book liked to “blink” when Buchanan zinged them with a witty line. That observation is probably due to a wannabe writer who can’t turn off the internal editor, so enjoy the well-crafted story.
My final verdict (groan) is that Bell has written another winning story and has developed Ty Buchanan into a very likable roguish leading man. This book is in serious running for my favorite of the year so far. I look forward to the next book in the series, especially since he truly does leave us dangling…
If you would like to read chapters 1 & 2, go HERE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
JAMES SCOTT BELL is a former trial lawyer who now writes full time. He has also been the fiction columnist for Writers Digest magazine and adjunct professor of writing at Pepperdine University.
The national bestselling author of several novels of suspense, he grew up and still lives in Los Angeles. His first Buchanan thriller, TRY DYING, was released to high critical praise, while his book on writing, Plot and Structure is one of the most popular writing books available today.
“Bell has created in Buchanan an appealing and series-worthy protagonist, and the tale equally balances action and drama, motion and emotion. Readers who pride themselves on figuring out the answers before an author reveals them are in for a surprise, too: Bell is very good at keeping secrets. Fans of thrillers with lawyers as their central characters—Lescroart and Margolin, especially—will welcome this new addition to their must-read lists.”
—Booklist
“Engaging whodunit series kickoff . . . Readers will enjoy Bell’s talent for description and character development.”
—Publishers Weekly
“James Scott Bell has written himself into a niche that traditionally has been reserved for the likes of Raymond Chandler.”
—Los Angeles Times
“A master of suspense.”
—Library Journal
“One of the best writers out there, bar none.”
—In the Library Review
by Jason Joyner | Jul 23, 2008 | Blog, fiction, reviews, writing craft
There’s a saying that those who can’t do a certain something end up being teachers of that topic. That certainly isn’t true of this week’s CFBA Tour author, James Scott Bell. He writes for Writer’s Digest magazine and has published “How To” writing books through their imprint. He got to that point by developing into a fine author in his own right.
His latest book is Try Darkness, the sequel to last year’s Try Dying (one of my favorite books in ’07). Bell is a former trial lawyer, and this series features Ty Buchanan, a former big-shot lawyer who is currently helping down and outers while living as a guest at a monastery and uses a coffee shop as his office. He is approached by a woman being forced out of a hotel that won’t allow long-term tenants (illegally). The woman has a young daughter in tow named Kylie. Ty promises to look into this case, along with other jobs such as defending a murder suspect. The woman ends up dead and Kylie, who has no known last name, is left with no one to care for her but Buchanan. The search for answers takes him from the haunts of forgotten veterans and crazy people to the yachts of the rich and famous. The answers are not always what they seem, and Ty finds that he has a darkness on the inside he must battle as well.
I hadn’t read any of Bell’s fiction until last year – a fact I continue to regret. I had never read much in the way of legal thrillers before. If other authors aren’t up to par with Mr. Bell, I may not want to still. Try Darkness comes across even better than the first book. He hooks you with the opening line and has the reader wriggling on the line by the closing.
Ty Buchanan is a smart-mouthed, fast thinking young lawyer, and his verbal sparring and conflicted character is very enjoyable. Bell has a penchant for sharp, witty dialogue. This is a book to study for how to write good dialogue. I laughed out loud in several passages. The characters are well-developed, from the pious, basketball playing nun Sister Mary Veritas, to Sam DeCosse the real estate magnate, to crazy Disco Freddy down at the run-down hotel. The book also brings Los Angeles to life, from the desert on the outskirts to the rich exclusive neighborhoods in the hills.
The plot is fast paced with short, punchy chapters and enough twists to keep a contortionist occupied. I tried but couldn’t guess the “whodunit” for the main storyline. I enjoyed the book through and through. The only picky little complaint I have is that many people in the book liked to “blink” when Buchanan zinged them with a witty line. That observation is probably due to a wannabe writer who can’t turn off the internal editor, so enjoy the well-crafted story.
My final verdict (groan) is that Bell has written another winning story and has developed Ty Buchanan into a very likable roguish leading man. This book is in serious running for my favorite of the year so far. I look forward to the next book in the series, especially since he truly does leave us dangling…
If you would like to read chapters 1 & 2, go HERE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
JAMES SCOTT BELL is a former trial lawyer who now writes full time. He has also been the fiction columnist for Writers Digest magazine and adjunct professor of writing at Pepperdine University.
The national bestselling author of several novels of suspense, he grew up and still lives in Los Angeles. His first Buchanan thriller, TRY DYING, was released to high critical praise, while his book on writing, Plot and Structure is one of the most popular writing books available today.
“Bell has created in Buchanan an appealing and series-worthy protagonist, and the tale equally balances action and drama, motion and emotion. Readers who pride themselves on figuring out the answers before an author reveals them are in for a surprise, too: Bell is very good at keeping secrets. Fans of thrillers with lawyers as their central characters—Lescroart and Margolin, especially—will welcome this new addition to their must-read lists.”
—Booklist
“Engaging whodunit series kickoff . . . Readers will enjoy Bell’s talent for description and character development.”
—Publishers Weekly
“James Scott Bell has written himself into a niche that traditionally has been reserved for the likes of Raymond Chandler.”
—Los Angeles Times
“A master of suspense.”
—Library Journal
“One of the best writers out there, bar none.”
—In the Library Review
by Jason Joyner | Jul 10, 2008 | Blog, CFBA, fiction, reviews
The CFBA tour is highlighting the latest book from adventure writer Tom Morrisey, entitled Wind River.
The Wind River mountain range in western Wyoming is known for its wild beauty and abundant fishing. It is figuratively and literally a world away from Iraq. Ex-marine Ty Perkins returns to this wilderness paradise to escape demons from the Iraq war. He also returns to fulfill a promise to 86-year-old Soren Andeman, the older man who took him fishing when his own dad was dying.
Ty doesn’t realize that deadly secrets can be hidden in the idyllic scenery of the Wind River range, and as he helps a weakening Soren, he finds that “you can’t outrun the sins of the past.”
—
Tom Morrisey has excellent credentials for writing about adventure, the outdoors, and sportsmen. He is a mountaineer, aviator, shipwreck diver, and explorer, who holds a Full Cave certification from the National Speleological Society – Cave Diving Section. He writes for several travel/adventure magazines as well.
His first novels tapped into this wealth of knowledge. They were straight forward adventure and suspense novels involving diving and other adrenaline-laced activities. Then he took a turn with his last novel, In High Places (with my review here), using his experience of climbing as the setting for a tale of the heart; a relationship between a father and son.
Wind River continues this new direction, spinning a tale of forgiveness, confession, and justice to the tune of peaceful mountain lakes and the camaraderie of fly fishing between an old man and his protege. Morrisey skillfully combines his vast knowledge of the outdoors with a touching tale of relationship and even deeper themes to ponder.
Young ex-marine Ty Perkins struggles with consequences from his time in Iraq, even to the point of shunning his wife Angela. Some of the emotion conveyed here is very well written, portraying real life in a way that maintains a dignity about it. The struggles of Soren Andeman, a mountaineer who pioneered trails all over the Wind River range and who is now fighting is aging body for one last trip, is also deeply felt. The characters are deep pools for reflection and highly enjoyable.
Any fan of fly-fishing should delight in Morrisey’s care with details. The reader sees his extensive knowledge shine through, without losing anyone with too much detail. I live a few hundred miles from the setting of the book, and I can attest to his great touch in using the setting effectively in the story.
There were two aspects that caught my attention as drawbacks. The back cover paints a more suspenseful picture than the book actually gives. The blurb makes the book seem like it was more of a cross between his earlier pure suspense work and In High Places. It actually falls firmly in the shadow of High Places, which is not a bad thing at all, but I expected a little more jeopardy through the book. Morrisey does very well with the emotional suspense, but it isn’t as adrenaline fueled as I thought. There’s also a little letdown with some characters that are introduced for potential conflict that seem to fade away later in the book. I expected a little more out of them.
This is an excellent summer read, perfect for reading while cooling feet in a mountain stream or imagining you were there while on a noisy commute. Tom Morrisey is proving to be a writer of the heart as well as building quality suspense in the context of outdoor adventure. He is a writer that fans of fiction, both men and women, should pick up.
