Recent Reads

13. The Seventh Plague (Sigma Force #12)
Book blurb: If the biblical plagues of Egypt truly happened - could they happen again - on a global scale?

At 35.0%: The intersection of science, religion, history and conspiracy is absolutely my sweet spot. If only the writing were better ....

I read some of the earlier Sigma Force books and enjoyed them. Did not love them, but they were fun airport or beach reads. Well, as I was neither flying nor on a beach, this one, the 12th in the series, did not fare as well. I hadn't read past the first handful of books in this series, and it didn't really matter for this one. The premise is fascinating, but the writing is really bad, the characters boring, and oh the cliches! The bad guys are really bad, and the good guys really good, the women all needed saving by some dude .... I'll stop there. The only reason I added a star is because I was intrigued by some of the new theories explored. I do not plan on picking up another Sigma Force book in the future. Over and out. Rating: 2 stars.

14. Irmina
I actually think the less you know going into this graphic novel the better, so I'll keep my comments to a minimum.

The author finds a cache of letters and journals that her Grandmother kept, and creates a fictionalized biography based on that material. The story unfolds over three sections, and the major action occurs in the mid-1930s in London and Germany. The art while not as polished and finished as some, wonderfully evokes the right mood for each of the sections.

I am always fascinated to read stories told from the German point of view, and while it is easy to judge others harshly, until we walk in their shoes we don't really know how we might act. Especially if our options are limited, and one is a woman. After all, would your late teen/early twenty year old self even begin to comprehend the person you are today?

This graphic novel explores the tension between integrity and social advancement, and is rather pertinent to our times. Rating: 4 stars.

15. I Am Number Four (Lorien Legacies #1)
Book blurb: They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya. They killed them all. I am Number Four. I am next.

I recently asked my nieces and nephews to recommend books they thought I must read. This was Luke's selection. He's 14 and loves the entire series, and is delighted when a new installment is released.

See that blurb above? That's the style of writing throughout this book. Simple, plain, and so pedestrian it might have been written by a computer, though that might be an insult to computers. I'm always leery of book with multiple authors, and this one has two; the author name is made up and "he" leaves notes for the reader in the book.

What's it about you ask? Well, there are these aliens who fled their planet's destruction and landed on Earth. This all happened about nine years ago. Unfortunately, the bad aliens who killed everyone and destroyed their planet are now also on Earth, or might have been for a long while, and are out to kill each of the nine. Because they are special and might one day exact revenge. Fortunately, our boy, Four, and the rest of the good aliens look human, only are much stronger, faster, etc. and as they hit puberty there are more goodies in store. Will Four survive long enough to even have a first date?

There are so many things wrong with this book that I'm not even sure where to start. Maybe with the aforementioned bad writing. So bad. You'd be lucky to get away with a D in high school with this schlock. The characters are ridiculous and are not fleshed out at all. Every scene is a cliche, and I mean every single scene. Why make the aliens look human? Well, because then we can have a sappy love triangle, that's why. Ugh. You know you're in trouble when your fave character is a dog, and he has more personality than all the aliens/humans combined.

On the plus side, it's all plot and action and reads so fast that I was done before I could DNF it. My library copy of this book (you surely did not think that I bought this did you?), had a Guys Reads sticker on it, so I guess it is written to encourage guys to read, something I'm all in favor of, but if not for my nephew, this is not one I would have picked up, as I am surely not the target audience. I can see why Luke loves it though, and boys, and maybe even girls, around that age might love it too.

Do I need to mention that I will not be continuing with the series? Rating: 2 stars.