Lightning by Dean Koontz

Lightning is a novel by the best-selling author Dean Koontz, released in 1988. …

A storm struck on the night Laura Shane was born, and there was a strangeness about the weather that people would remember for years. Even more mysterious was the blond-haired stranger who appeared out of nowhere again and again to save Laura from tragedy. …

The stranger “guardian” is a time traveler.

Lightning

Amazon

I read Lightning because it was recommended as a believable time travel novel. I’d been pissed off at the absurdly impossible plots in most time travel fiction.

Time Travel in Lightning is more believable than in most other yarns. And some consider it Koontz’ best book. (His publisher at the time considered it unpublishable.)

I’m glad I read it. Any time travel paradox problems were not obvious to me. Koontz is a good story teller as most pop fiction writers are.

Rape and the Justice System in a College Town

Why did famed author Jon Krakauer decide to write about sexual assault?

It was after learning that a family friend had been raped by an acquaintance.

In his research tracking rape cases around the country he came across the sentencing of Beau Donaldson, a University of Montana football player who pled guilty to raping his childhood friend, Allison Huguet.

Beau Donaldson - rapist

He’s guilty. But it’s a weird story.

All the rapes covered in the book were wildly different. In each case both the man and woman involved could have made better choices. Alcohol was involved in all.

Krakauer researched College Football players because of their far too elevated social status in the U.S.A.

They feel entitled. Expect that women will want to sleep with them, even when they don’t.

Krakauer studied 230 rapes in town, most of which either weren’t prosecuted or the prosecutions were bungled. Most rapists walked away without punishment.

The stories told in Jon Krakauer’s new book, “Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town,” remind us of what a brave and risky thing it still is for a woman to report a rape.

Krakauer, who has written for this Web site, explores a spate of sexual assaults that occurred on and around the campus of the University of Montana between 2008 and 2012. For several of the women involved, the risk of reporting their rapes felt even more acute because the men they were naming were football players in a town that, like a lot of college towns, is football crazy. The team was the Grizzlies; Missoula is also known as Grizzlyville. …

The New Yorker

This guy went to trial.  If I were on the jury I would have found star quarterback Jordan Johnson guilty of rape.

Jordan Johnson

Instead the state of Montana paid Johnson $245,000 under a settlement where he agreed to drop claims that the school and its officials mishandled the investigation against him.

Later he had a tryout with a Canadian Pro football team.

As far as I’m concerned, Jordan Johnson is a rapist. Women should be warned about him.

This is Kirsten Pabst. One of Johnson’s lawyers. She comes off very badly in the book. Women do not want to report a rape to her.

Pabst

A good gift for a student going away to University for the first time would be this book – Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town

Most young people don’t know the law. Are clueless when it comes to date rape. Acquaintance rape.

By the way, Missoula has a lower than average rate of sexual assaults. If you don’t count football players.

And things are getting better.

In the three years Krakauer spent writing Missoula, the University of Montana (UM), the police department, and the prosecutor’s office have all established agreements with the DOJ to reform their handling of sexual assault. (The prosecutor’s office agreed to oversight by Montana’s attorney general only last June, after first filing a lawsuit against the DOJ.)

Reamde by Neal Stephenson

ReamdeReamde is a technothriller … published in 2011.

The story, set in the present day, centers on the plight of a hostage and the ensuing efforts of family and new acquaintances, many of them associated with a fictional MMORPG, to rescue her as her various captors drag her about the globe. Topics covered range from online activities including gold farming and social networking to the criminal methods of the Russian mafia and Islamic terrorists.

Stephenson is the darling author of geeks. His 1992 novel Snow Crash often cited as one of the best books of all time.

Snow Crash was ground breaking. But still over-rated in my opinion.

Stephenson is too smart. His plots too complex. Too many characters. Too many dead-end side plots.

The title of this book – Reamde – is a good example. Almost brilliant. But ultimately too cute. Stephenson tries too hard to be quirky, original and unpredictable.

I have similar complaints with Seveneves (2015).

Wanting to be cool, I wish I loved Neal Stephenson. But I don’t.

Gold Farming

Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Red Rising is a 2014 science fiction novel by American author Pierce Brown, the first of his Red Rising trilogy. I did enjoy it..

The critically acclaimed sequel, Golden Son, was released in January 2015.

Golden Son

Sadly it was not nearly as engaging to me as the first book.

The hero in a dystopian future is trying to bring down  a genetically-engineered elite is ruling the universe. A good premise.

But the story wandered. Rambled. I found the plot illogical at times.

The writing is not sophisticated. It seems targeted to teenage boys.

The third novel, Morning Star, was released in February 2016. I’ll skip it.

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

By the time I reached the 6th and final book I was ready to be done with the First Law world.

Yet this book turned out to be – perhaps – the best of all.

red-country-audio

This one is quite different. A Western set in a fantasy world. Abercrombie is a superb writer.

They burned her home.

They stole her brother and sister.

But vengeance is following.

Shy South hoped to bury her bloody past and ride away smiling, but she’ll have to sharpen up some bad old ways to get her family back, and she’s not a woman to flinch from what needs doing. She sets off in pursuit with only a pair of oxen and her cowardly old step father Lamb for company. But it turns out Lamb’s buried a bloody past of his own. And out in the lawless Far Country, the past never stays buried.

Their journey will take them across the barren plains to a frontier town gripped by gold fever, through feud, duel and massacre, high into the unmapped mountains to a reckoning with the Ghosts. Even worse it will force them into alliance with Nicomo Cosca, infamous soldier of fortune, and his feckless lawyer, Temple, two men no one should ever have to trust…

The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie

HeroesThe 5th book in the First Law series world is probably the weakest. But I have to admit the plot is tight. There are few enough key characters you can actually follow the story easily.

Bremer dan Gorst, disgraced master swordsman, has sworn to reclaim his stolen honour on the battlefield. Obsessed with redemption …

Prince Calder isn’t interested in honour, and still less in getting himself killed. All he wants is power, and he’ll tell any lie, use any trick, and betray any friend to get it. Just as long as he doesn’t have to fight for it himself.

Curnden Craw, the last honest man in the North, has gained nothing from a life of warfare but swollen knees and frayed nerves. He hardly even cares who wins any more, he just wants to do the right thing. But can he even tell what that is with the world burning down around him?

Over three bloody days of battle, the fate of the North will be decided. But with both sides riddled by intrigues, follies, feuds and petty jealousies, it is unlikely to be the noblest hearts, or even the strongest arms that prevail…

Three men. One battle. No Heroes.

wikia

WhirrunThe most compelling character by far is this oddball.

Whirrun of Bligh – a famous hero from the utmost North, who wields the Father of Swords.

He’s the most philosophical character. Most of the book is man-to-man fighting, while discussing the stupidity of war.

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

Best_Served_Cold_US_mmpb2Best Served Cold is Joe Abercrombie‘s fourth novel …

It is the first stand-alone novel set in the First Law world. …

War may be hell but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso’s employ, it’s a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular – a shade too popular for her employer’s taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto’s reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die. …

Wikia

The most interesting and entertaining character is Nicomo Cosca , the mercenary from the First Law trilogy. Drunk, eloquent, funny.

Lengthy fantasy fiction series like Game of Thrones are good for me as I spend a lot of time listening to audio. But they are loose, scattered and – very often – have no real conclusion. I suspect George RR Martin doesn’t know how to wrap things up.

By comparison this stand alone novel does have a tight plot. It kept me guessing and surprised right up until the final pages.

I’ll definitely continue to the last 2 books in this series.

First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie

I finished the The First Law  series by British author Joe Abercrombie. Now started the first of a series of stand-alone novels set in the same world.

If dislike blood, guts and battle scenes, you won’t like this series.

1-the-first-law-2

Sand dan Glokta is a compelling character. A champion swordsman turned torturer in the Inquisition. Who – by the end of book 3 – is running the The Union itself.

Book 1 begins with Logen Ninefingers, infamous barbarian warrior of the North, falling off a cliff into a river. Book 3 ends with the Bloody Nine jumping out of a window. Into water.

Aside from that nice touch, book 3 is the weakest. As so often happens in lengthy fantasy fiction, the author has problems wrapping things up in a satisfactory way.

Still … I’ve started book 4. It’s got me hooked.

The author has finally begun a new work, by the way.  The Shattered Sea series for young adults.

 

Red Rising trilogy – Pierce Brown

Red Rising is a 2014 science fiction novel by American author Pierce Brown, the first of hisRed Rising trilogy.

A sequel, Golden Son, was released in January 2015, and the third novel, Morning Star, was released in February 2016.

Set on Mars, the novel follows lowborn miner Darrow as he infiltrates the ranks of the elite Golds.

In February 2014, Universal Pictures secured the rights for a film adaptation, to be directed by Marc Forster. …

Red-Rising-Pierce-Brown

I did like book 1. And have now downloaded book 2.

The Blade Itself – by Joe Abercrombie

The First Law is a fantasy series written by British author Joe Abercrombie. It consists of a trilogy and three stand-alone novels set in the same world. …

bladeitself2

Sand dan Glokta is a fascinating character. A champion swordsman turned torturer in the Inquisition.

Highly recommended.

Review: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie