This is the second featuring featuring war veteran Peter Ash — Burning Bright — and it’s even more entertaining. I’m hooked.
If you like the Jack Reacher books, you’ll like these.
… Peter Ash sought peace and quiet among the towering redwoods of northern California, but the trip isn’t quite the balm he’d hoped for. The dense forest and close fog cause his claustrophobia to buzz and spark, and then he stumbles upon a grizzly, long thought to have vanished from this part of the country. In a fight of man against bear, Peter doesn’t favor his odds, so he makes a strategic retreat up a nearby sapling.
There, he finds something strange: a climbing rope, affixed to a distant branch above. It leads to another, and another, up through the giant tree canopy, and ending at a hanging platform. On the platform is a woman on the run. From below them come the sounds of men and gunshots. …
Manabu Yukawa, the physicist known as “Detective Galileo“, is speaking at a small coastal town on whether or not to approve an underwater mining operation.
The night after the tense panel discussion, one of the resort’s guests is found dead on the seashore at the base of the local cliffs. The local police at first believe it was a simple accident-that he wandered over the edge while walking on unfamiliar territory in the middle of the night. But when they discover that the victim was a former policeman and that the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning, they begin to suspect he was murdered, and his body tossed off the cliff to misdirect the police. …
My first impression of “Port of the Cross” was to be disappointed in the waterfront. It’s not nearly as developed as other tourist cities. The beaches are volcanic black stone and ash.
I ASSuME it’s because the Atlantic waves are so massive here. Much of the coastline is protective concrete.
Once finding my way around, there are lovely tourist spots, especially in the evening.
Here’s the plaza closest to my hostel.
Sunset.
One highlight is the botanical garden. Almost anything can grow here.
All in all, tourists are happy in Puerto de la Cruz. Mostly Europeans. I didn’t meet even one Canadian or American in a week on Tenerife. It could be they are in all inclusive resorts.
Atypicap Capsule Hostel is the first capsule establishment in the Canary Islands.
I’ve stayed in a few airport Capsule hotels — but this is the best hostel version I’ve ever seen. ALL hostels should offer these capsules. Singles and doubles.
Cost for my single in 2022 was $26.15 / night (25.24 EU).
Shared leisure areas, kitchen, bathrooms for individual use, and a Chill-Out Terrace on the roof with bar service.
Electronic door-opening and closing with card. Lockers.
Equipped with USB connections and Bluetooth, air ventilation, 26-inch screen with headphone connection where you can download the multimedia content on your device (mobile, tablet or laptop), wifi, a 15x12x12 cm safe, adjustable led lights for reading, luminous alarm clock, vanity mirror, digital thermometer, power outlet, cloth hangers, smoke detector, and ‘do not disturb’ option.
The Devil’s Hour tells the story of Lucy who wakes up by terrifying visions every night at exactly 3:33 AM, in the middle of the so-called devil’s hour between 3 AM and 4 AM.
Her eight-year-old son is withdrawn and emotionless.
Her mother speaks to empty chairs.
Her house is haunted by the echoes of a life that isn’t her own.
When Lucy’s name is inexplicably connected to a string of brutal murders in the area, the answers that have evaded her all these years will finally come into focus …
I’d put Blake Crouch in a group of speculative fiction writers including Michael Crichton and Robert Sawyer.
Crichton doomsday. Sawyer looking at the potential upsides of ever changing technology.
Personally, I was super psyched by Jennifer Doudna, one of the co-creators of CRISPR, an astonishing new technology. Precisely editing DNA.
BUT it turns out Doudna had nightmares about someone like Hitler getting hold of CRISPR.
This book is set a few years from now in a dystopian future. Climate change flooded New York. Wildfires have devastated many parts of the world.
Lead character, Logan Ramsey, is the adult son of a defamed scientist whose CRISPR-like technology caused millions of people to die. His Mom was trying to change DNA for the better — but the unintended side effects were catastrophic. Famine.
In hiding, his Mom decides to hack her own children — Logan and his sister.
Logan becomes an “upgraded” version of himself: he can focus better, read faster, and operate on a lot less sleep. But his upgrade comes at a cost.
Ultimately the book is a look at whether or not our species will survive on Earth.
And should we try to improve our odds by changing our DNA?
Of many exhibitions and museums I visited in the hometown of the Beatles, best for me was British Music Experience.
Born 1957, it was like walking through a timeline of my life:
Beatles ➙ Petula Clark ➙ Stones ➙ Kinks ➙ The Who ➙ Pink Floyd ➙ Led Zeppelin ➙ Queen ➙ The Police ➙ UB40 ➙ The Clash ➙ The Smiths ➙ Arctic Monkeys ➙ Coldplay ➙ Amy Winehouse ➙ Adele ➙ Ed Sheeran… to name a few artists who had great influence on me.
Rick McCharles 