Book Review: Mind Space Volume 1: Conspiracy / Book 3: Mind Space by David S. Moore

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Mind Space Volume 1: Conspiracy / Book 3: Mind Space by David S. Moore

A Science Fiction Novel published on amazon.com (01/10/2014)

 

Summary:

 Book three of the Mind Space Series follows the last years in the race to ready the planet for Mind Space on the target date of 2084. Jaimeson-Cale is doing everything in their power to reach their target percentage of Mind Shield hosts planet-wide. The Mind-Freedom Alliance is still in the game to take down Mind Space, the Mind Shield, and Jaimeson-Cale with their increasingly threatening tactics. “…No, the problem wasn’t the Mind Shield itself. The problem was with the people who were behind it– the people who were determined to use it to assert control over all of humanity.” (Page 400).

 

Keywords:

Science Fiction, Mind Control, America 2070’s and 2080’s, Technology, Resistance Movement, Rival Product, Monopoly, Free Market, Restoration

 

My Review:

The Mind Space Series has a powerful message: Is it ok to enslave the mind for the good of the masses? “‘War will cease,’ Daniel added. ‘Hatred and prejudice will be gone. Drug abuse, obesity, domestic violence– the self-destructive behaviors that ruin lives in every country– they will all quickly become things of the past.'” (Page 303). The Mind-Freedom Alliance and almost all who had a Mind Shield removed, believe that it isn’t alright to enslave the mind no matter the results. Adam True and the Defenders of the True believe the opposite, but they are also deluded enough to think that the Mind Shield doesn’t enslave the mind, only frees it from the tyranny of its own doubt and confusions (Page 79). Those who are in control of their own thoughts and not under the influence of the sales pitch of the Mind Shield propose individual freedoms over any alternative. Many people, though, cannot discount the life saving and wonderful characteristics the Mind Shield has to offer. That’s where the Limbic Freedom comes in. It offers all that the Mind Shield offers, plus a thought sharing network to boot. Yet, the masses are still being converted by the millions to Mind Shield, but not through completely moral sales tactics.

As this is the third book in the series, it brings the finale. Throughout the third book I began to change my allegiance from rooting for the underdogs and those trying to free the mind to Jaimeson-Cale, but for a unique reason. I wanted the Mind Space to happen because I kind of wanted to see how a society without drug addiction, eating disorders, racism, hate or violence would look like. The world building for this type of world is silent, as we are only given one side of it: the planning, development, marketing, scheming world but what would a Mind Space world be like? What kind of world would David Moore build for his readers?

The vision of Jaimeson-Cale for humanity with the Mind Shield and Mind Space is warped, though, and I really would never want them to win the fight. Moore brings up an interesting point when he says, “The Mind Shield exerted a moderating influence on all behavior, even otherwise harmless behavior. It made one wonder what the masters of the Mind Shield thought ideal human behavior should be.” (Page 84).

I almost didn’t notice the fact that Moore had seamlessly given women and men equal roles in his novel. Women (just like the men) were in positions of power, they were victims and saboteurs, security guards and leaders.

I very much enjoyed the Mind Space series and look forward to more science fiction from David Moore. He brings up thought-provoking questions in his novels, can describe a world stirringly, and flows through his story seamlessly from beginning to end.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a well written novel and easy-to-read science fiction novel. This book reminds me of Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke  in it’s sweeping narration through long periods of time with a focus on a single aspect of society.

This novel was published through Createspace Independent Publishing Platform 01/10/2014 and is available on Amazon here.

 

TLDR Star Rating: 4.75

 

Links for more information:

David S. Moore’s Website

FreeValley Publishing’s David S. Moore

Book Review: Click Date Repeat by K. J. Farnham

by in Author Tuesdays, Book Review, Dating and tagged , , | 1 Comment

Click Date Repeat by  K. J. Farnham

A Chick Lit Novel Published thorugh CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform  (August 21, 2014)

 

Summary:

 Chloe is your average 25-year old. She hangs out with her friends, she goes to bars, she spends holidays with her families. On the urging of a friend she tries out online dating and almost every possible combination of hilarious encounters with questionable profiles ensues.

Keywords:

 Online Dating, Chick lit, Twenty-somethings, Dating mishaps, Dating baggage, Teachers.

My Review:

Click Date Repeat is one of those delightfully fun novels that is so relatable in today’s dating world. The story may be set in 2003, at the early stages of online dating, but almost every single detail and horrifying dating story is still applicable today. This book is everything you wanted and didn’t want to know about online dating. Farnham shows both the darker side of online dating as well as the hilarity of the situations that can and do arise from meeting potential partners online.

Chloe is a relatable character that any dating twenty-something will root for. She makes mistakes and poor decisions, but she maintains an unquenchable positivity in her experiences. “After a first-date kiss, guilt usually causes me to feel the need to continue seeing someone, regardless of any red flags. I get in too deep, too fast, often because of that physical intimacy.” (Page 59). Chloe is a loveable character, hopeful and able to see the good in people, giving them the benefit of the doubt to a fault because not everyone she meets is as well-intentioned as she is. But she is not without her own personality quirks and emotional baggage, which is the very reason you want her to succeed. She is like any person in the dating scene, vulnerable to the clutches of those who might have ulterior motives or those who lie about who they are to get what they want.

Not only did I relate to the main character, but also to the experiences she had with her first (second and third) dates. Who hasn’t had a bad first date at Applebee’s? Who hasn’t tried to assess the intelligence of a potential partner with the game of Scrabble, only to find the person didn’t  how to do simple arithmetic to add up the tiles? This book is like the quintessential online dating experience all wrapped up in a nice little package so that you can read about Chloe’s mistakes and potentially avoid making them yourself. The author also packages the novel with a great writing style, some well-worded phrases and well-laid out descriptions of all the characters. I was not at all confused between the myriad of dating prospects and Chloe’s friends because Farnham is able to give me short to-the-point unique descriptors. My favorite was: “Drew’s smile is contagious. He’s an eye-smiler: The type of person who isn’t capable of faking a smile. He also oozes emotion through his facial expressions.” (Page 54).

I absolutely love the author’s title, and her cover is spot on. The very first page contains the stats of the main character, an interesting choice, but perfectly placed considering the material of the book itself.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a light read, a chick lit novel, or reliving the ins and outs of dating.

This novel was published through Createspace Independant Publishing Platform is available on Amazon here.

 

TLDR Star Rating: 4.25

 

Links for more information:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClickDateRepeat
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8496528.K_J_Farnham

Book Review: The Boy Who Fell into the Sky (The Possessor Wars, Book 1) by Chad Spencer

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The Boy Who Fell into the Sky (The Possessor Wars, Book 1) by Chad Spencer

A Teen/Young Adult Science Fiction Novel published by PossessorWars.com (July 22, 2014)

 

Summary:

Jeff Bowman lives a normal life… for a kid living in a mile-wide thousands of stories tall ‘arcology’ in a world where there are colonies beyond earth. Jeff, his friends Harriet and Akio, and a growing network of their friends have found a way to make extra money for school, lessons, and programs for their datapads. They rebuilt robots to help garden, because everybody eats synthpaste and real fruits and veggies are valued highly. Their friendship is disrupted when they are separated by colonization, and Jeff begins his true path, following in the footsteps of his father as an engineer on a Spaceship.

 

Keywords:

 Futuristic, 14-year-olds, friendship, revenge, life-changes

 

My Review:

The immediate opening of The Boy Who Fell Into the Sky is full of catchups, aka backstory. The reader is inundated with current technology and sci-fi knowledge of how space travel works. The author spends a lot of his first few pages defining all the new aspects of technology, which intrudes into the developing story and drags out the explanations that most readers of young adult will skip over entirely for the good stuff: the story and the action. The author even employs textbooks to help him tell the story of this modern society, dulling the impact of the crazy wonder of a new world by straight out telling the reader all about it instead of letting it soak in naturally from events, dialogue, etc.

I was intrigued by synthpaste, the concept of every food (flavor) from one tube. I was also quite intrigued when Jeff and his friends subverted this concept of fake food by growing a garden (illegally), but the author didn’t take this action anywhere. The gardens were a plot dead end and only showed the reader that Jeff was a nice guy and took care of his friends, which he continues to do throughout book, rendering the entire first part of the book unnecessary.

About a third of the way into the book, the author threw in a bright yellow wrench of surprise that blew me away. O cruel, cruel writers to give your characters their worst nightmares and have them struggle along, attempting to be the heroes and heroines of their own stories. What a grand plot twist.

Hissing and booing, I cringed when I came to this line: “Did it ever occur to you that girls like to do different things than guys?” First the author makes the one girl fit in as one of the guys, calling her Harry and then we find out she never wanted to be called by that name. Then the author gives her such a weak personality that is so stereotypically girly that I just want to tear the pages out. The other females introduced later are no better and none would pass the infamous Bechdel test (a work of fiction featuring at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man). Granted, the female characters are not that bad, but when Harriet tells Jeff and the guys that she wants to be treated as a GIRL because she is a GIRL, I take offense as a GIRL. Surely this novel was not just written to be read by young male readers?

Supposedly these three friends are approximately 14-years old. To me, their behavior and speech pegs them at a middle school age, not at a high school age. Their inappropriate behavior and near tantrums give the impression that they are younger and that the novel is intended for a younger audience.

The stylistic choice for capturing Jeff’s thoughts became annoying and intrusive to read. I understand the novel was written in third person from the point of view of Jeff (most of the time), but to tell the reader “Jeff thought” every time Jeff has internal dialogue was repetitive and annoying. I wish the author had thought to place Jeff’s inner-thoughts in italics or did away with them altogether. Were all of them truly necessary? Probably not.

I did really enjoy the concept of referencing others by Sirsen and Mamsen for Sir and Miss/Mrs./Ms. respectively.

One of the biggest issues in this novel was the pointlessness of the first part of the book. What is the essence of the story if not about Jeff’s great problem in space and the first part was a buildup to nowhere with Jeff and his three friends. Understanding that this book is a part of a series might come into play later on in the series, but looking at this novel as a unit in and of itself, it come up lacking in this regard.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys early reader young adult novels or futuristic space stories.

This novel was published by PossessorWars.com July 22, 2014 and is available on Amazon here.

 

TLDR Star Rating: 3.00

 

Links for more information:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22907331-the-boy-who-fell-into-the-sky

Website: http://possessorwars.com/the-series/book-1.html

Book Review: High Born by Natalia Leigh

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High Born by Natalia Leigh

A Fantasy Novel published through CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (July 22, 2014)

Summary:

Blaer is the servant who wants the prince, but when her dreams of marrying for love are dashed, she runs away. She only means to go to the next town, but is chased into the forest. After being rescued, captured, imprisoned, slapped, threatened, and kept under close watch, Blaer must find out who she truly is and what she is really capable of to save those she loves.

 

Keywords:

 Forbidden romance, Princes and Princesses, Lycanthropy, Heroine, Series

 

My Review:

Blaer is a character that blossoms in High Born. She starts out as that whiny pathetic female character archetype who can hardly think on her own, let alone help herself out in times of trouble. She was on her way to being a static character and I was puzzled that she was chosen as the main character, that she was somehow “special.” It is her very uniqueness that pulls her out of her character rut and into a more dynamic and take-control person. Slowly, so slowly, she changes. That is, in fact, more realistic. If in real life people don’t change suddenly from weaklings needing to be rescued into heroes and heroines, neither should characters in books. Leigh gives us a complete character, one with misgivings and timidity, one who learns to accept who she is and what she must do, and becomes our perfect plucky heroine.

I was surprised at the oxymoron presented in this novel, that it was said Dominic was a stickler for traditions, but his actions did not support this statement. If Dominic were such a stickler with tradition, why would he deign to talk to the servant Blair? What is tradition in this world? I was left wanting for more description of time and place. The specific settings were very much developed, but the overall context of the world that they lived in was left unnaturally blank. How am I to know what “traditional” truly is if I cannot peg the time period? The dialogue does not suggest medieval or renaissance, although the use of kings, queens and servants, does. In my mind I rectified this because I thought of this novel as taking place in an alternate reality similar to our own. And that is what I love about Young Adult as a genre. It is approachable and understandable for such a wide audience. The dialogue is similar to our own. The characters and their problems are similar to us and our own. When Leigh adds the fantasy element, voile, a book is born.

I didn’t care for a lot of Blaer’s personality before she blossomed. She was kind of dense and pathetic as a person. If I can guess the caveats in the book when it is written in first person, she should too, or at least make guesses hereslf, but they go over her head entirely until a big reveal. She should have been able to guess or even know who Rowan’s father was, who the wolves at the bottom of the trees were. If “The makings of a great leader were in my blood.” (Location 4043), she should have been able to make these simple deductions.

I was worried when Leigh introduced her main fantastical element, because of its previous cliched use in literature. I didn’t have to worry. Other than the too serious label for the magical element: lycanthrope, I was not disappointed in the author’s use of the concept of animal transformation/werewolves.

I rather enjoyed the author’s subtle, perhaps even unintentional, minor character role reversal. It was a play on the traditional and the cliché. The mother held the role of the father and gave away her daughter’s hand for the good of the girl. This tradition is usually reserved for the girl’s father, going against her wishes and desires to give her a better life. The relationship between Blaer and Dominic was also akin to role reversal. Dominic had the very small role usually reserved for the wench the main character (a la a man) falls in love with and who has no personality.

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a story with a female main character or a fantasy story with animal transformations.

This novel was published through CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform August 14, 2014 and is available on Amazon here.

 

TLDR Star Rating: 3.75

 

Links for more information:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22969892-high-born

Blog: http://natalialeighbooks.blogspot.com/

Book Review: Empress Chronicles by Suzy Vitello

by in Author Tuesdays, Book Review, Local Authors and tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Empress Chronicles by Suzy Vitello

A Fantasy Novel published by Diversion Books (09/01/2014)

Summary:

Two young women are separated by time. They are both at the height of their adolescence, growing and learning. What is expected of each is different because they are separated by 150 years, but both women want what they can’t have.

Liz wants to be normal, but is surrounded by an unstable environment and troubled with an obsessive-compulsive disorder with secondary anorexic symptoms. Elisabeth of Bavaria (Sisi) wants a man who is not in her future and will go to great lengths to try to change this destiny.

The two realities collide through a common diary, and a story of two ladies trying to control their own worlds is born.

 

Keywords:

Teens, Drama, Finding Yourself, Disorders, OCD, Family, Fitting In, Love

 

My Review:

The Empress Chronicles by Suzy Vitello was so raw and convincing that my real life was influenced by the abundance of sensory detail in the book. I had a chiropractor’s appointment and I was so enveloped in Liz’s character’s aversion to germs and dirt that I myself was so grossed out by the minuscule hand print left on the lie-down table that I had to have the entire surface wiped down for me. Vitello uses the senses unlike any other author in her novel The Empress Chronicles. She made me revolt against a normal amount of dirt, not to the point of obsessive-compulsiveness, but  I emulated Liz’s symptoms. .

Vitello not only put me through the discomfort of Liz’s disorder, but also through the awkwardness of a teen coming of age, of the confusion that comes with divorce, and all the unpleasant thoughts and things that happen to teenagers. At times the language was hard and vulgar and into the nitty gritty of the unpleasant realities of a teen girl’s life.

It was as if the book was written about someone the author knew intimately, knew all about. Vitello describes classical music, horses and the intricacies of a teenager with the eye of someone who knows, who has seen this person. All that sensory information from someone living in a world of a disorder was detailed and knowledgeable.

I recently read a coming of age novel of a boy trying to grow into a man and I was very happy to read this book, a coming of age novel for a girl trying to become a woman. Not only that, I got two very different, yet very similar examples: Elisabeth Wittelsback and Liz.

I commiserated with both young ladies. Liz had a tendency to add drama to things when there wasn’t a reason, her imagination and reality wiggling together at times. For Sisi, “The world of pranks and misbehavior was past. Soon, I would be slathering on the beauty potions, quenching my hair in oils, and saving my smiles for what the governess called ‘appropriate occasions for mirth’ – a funny part in an opera. The antics of a young child.” (Location 1030).

Liz and Sisi were part of that limbo stage of beyond puberty, before adulthood that Sis describes as, “Not a child. Not a lady.” (Location 1201). I was very impressed with Vitello for giving her two teenagers life and vitality. Vitello didn’t settle for the easy angsty teen character who commits herself entirely to one bad decision. Teenagers (and adults for that matter) are not just one bad decision, they are many poor choices. Sometimes one of those bad decisions turns into a big mistake with big consequences. Authors tend to turn to the worst case scenario to build up the character of a mixed-up teen, but Vitello stuck with the everyday and the normal in real life. Liz makes a stupid error, brought out in part through her disorder, and part through her poor decision and lack of knowledge (all part of young adult life) and the results are grave, the consequences severe, resulting in a catapulting in her life that begins the story. Vitello used a real teen’s thought process resulting in bad consequences. A logical event with a grave conclusion. Teens are not always at their worst, just make some bad decisions at times. But it only takes one bad decision to have the worst case results.

“The real tragedy to one’s soul is regret.” (Location 2309).

 

I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a coming of age novel starring a female (two females actually), two tales interwoven into one story, or a story featuring young teen-girl drama

This novel was published by Diversion Books 09/01/2014 and is available on Amazon here.

 

TLDR Star Rating: 4.25

 

Links for more information:

On the web: http://www.suzyvitello.com/books/the-empress-chronicles/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22748429-the-empress-chronicles

Blog: http://www.suzyvitello.com/suzys-blog/

Miscellaneous Mondays: FreeValley Publishing Block Party

by in At One's Beast, Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams, Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors, Local Events, Miscellaneous Mondays, Rachel Barnard | 1 Comment

 

Had a blast this Saturday at the Snoqualmie Block Party with FreeValley Publishing:20140920_09400720140920_093957

 

The following photos from Sheri J. Kennedy (second from right), for more see here.

 

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This cute little boy came right up to Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams.

 

Seattle Specific Saturdays: Snoqualmie Block Party and Kindle Free Promotions

by in At One's Beast, Ataxia and the Ravine of Lost Dreams, Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors, Local Events, Seattle Specific Saturdays

At One’s Beast and Wandering Imagination, both by Rachel Barnard are free for Kindle this weekend! If you want to come meet the author and get a signed copy, come down to the Snoqualmie Block Party, where FreeValley Publishing is hosting a booth. Rachel Barnard will be at the booth from 10AM – 12PM. Click on the images to for more information or to download the books for kindle. atonesbeastWanderingImagination20140920_093957The Block Party - FPC