WWW: WATCH-Robert J. Sawyer

WWW: WATCH

Robert J. Sawyer

Ace, Apr 2010, $24.95

ISBN: 9780441018185

Mathematical prodigy Caitlin Decter was born blind.  When she was fifteen years old she underwent an experimental treatment of an implant inside her brain enabling her to see the world for the first time.  However an unexpected consequence of the procedure is her uncanny ability to also see World Wide Web space.  Thus a new sentient entity is born inside her head, of whom Caitlin calls Webmind (see WWW.WAKE).

As Webmind relishes learning all about Caitlin’s physical world, top secret government watchdog agency Watch learns about Webmind as part of their scrutiny of Internet terrorist threats.  They want Webmind removed from the Net because they fear it is a security risk.  Whereas Caitlin feels protective of Webmind, her parents fear the intelligent being could lead to an unintended harming of their daughter from a public already concerned that Big Brother is watching.

This is a great middle book due to the power characterizations especially Webmind who provides first entity perspective.  Caitlin is a superb teenager trying to keep her friend safe while her parents have always been protective of her.  In fact protectiveness of others is the overarching theme as even the Watch contains individuals trying to keep the public safe.  Readers will fully appreciate Robert J. Sawyer’s brilliant WWW tale, but should read Wake first to better understand how far Webmind has come and potentially could go; that explains the fears of the Watch group.

Harriet Klausner

One Hundred Great French Books-Lance Donaldson-Evans

One Hundred Great French Books

Lance Donaldson-Evans

BlueBridge, Mar 31 2010, $15.95

ISBN: 9781933346229

This is a terrific introduction to French literature from the Middle Ages to modern times.  Each entry is summed up briefly with a commentary so that no more than two pages are provided on those included.  Starting with the classic Song of Roland and including well known works by renowned authors like Sartre, de Troyes, Pascal, Moliere, Racine, Hugo and others; One Hundred Great French Books is a great introduction to some of the best works ever.  However, what makes this so complete is genres normally ignored by English literature anthologies, but not by Lance Donaldson-Evans.  For instance the editor also includes the comic book Asterix by Goscinny and Uderzo.  With a wide gamut of genres, formats and centuries including twenty-fist century works like W, or Memory of Childhood by Perec, readers will relish this fine easy to use guide that says oui oui Francais.

Harriet Klausner

His Best Mistake-Kristi Gold

His Best Mistake

Kristi Gold

Harlequin SuperRomance, Mar 2010, $5.50

ISBN: 9780373716241

In Houston, magazine sportswriter Kevin O’Brien learns he has aplastic anemia, a disease that can prove fatal.  He also learns chemo treatments leave half of the patients sterile.  Panicking, he decides to do what he believes is the right thing by his girlfriend of eight months Dr. Leah Cordero.  He dumps her so she does not have to grieve his death.

One year later, Leah visits Kevin to tell him he sired a daughter Carly with her.  However, before getting to the point, she tells him she is going home to Mississippi to practice medicine there and is seeing another man.  He is stunned and pleads with Leah to move into his new house at least until she completes her residency and goes back with Carly to Mississippi.  Although in love, she remains distrustful and irate that he hid his health issue from her

This is an entertaining family drama starring a likable lead couple and a supporting cast who enhance the understanding of Kevin and Leah.  Leah is great as her ire seems genuine; on the other hand Kevin’s concealment appears false as he has no reason except perhaps fear to do so.  Still fans will enjoy his efforts to win the trust of the mother of his baby as he already has her love.

Harriet Klausner

A Kiss to Kill By-Nina Bruhns

A Kiss to Kill By

Nina Bruhns

Berkley, Apr 2010, $7.99

ISBN: 9780425233832

In Manhattan, private protection firm Storm agents follow Dr. Gina Coppozi to keep her safe from al Sayika operatives especially her former lover CIA Black Ops ground Zero unit operative Greg Van Halen.  She vows to kill him for selling her out to the terrorists.  Gina also knows he is nearby watching her to obviously kidnap her for his handlers.  Storm agents Alex Kane and Kick Jackson are part of the surveillance team, but are called off it to attend a meeting as NSA insists there is increased al Sayika chatter.

Alex loves CIA Special Agent Rebel Hayward and knows she loves him too, but he refuses to act on their mutual feelings as he feels unworthy of her.  She is sent to Chesapeake Bay to investigate a threat posed by a yacht Allah’s Paradise and told by her boss she will work for Storm on this mission.  Alex is assigned to join her.

In DC Metro Police detective Sarah McPhee leads the investigation of a dead woman Asha Mamoud.  CIA agent Wade Montana calls Sarah to question her about Asha.  Soon all will converge in DC as a diabolical traitor has set up everyone to take a deadly fall.

This is a great tale in which several subplots rotate nicely before blending together into a fast-paced romantic suspense thriller.  The ensemble cast comes across as different and fully developed characters.  Although A Kiss to Kill By can stand alone; it helps to have read the previous tales (see If Looks Could Chill and Shoot to Thrill) to better understand the references to the past.   Still this is a terrific Storm entry.

Harriet Klausner

The 13th Hour-Richard Doetsch

The 13th Hour

Richard Doetsch

Atria, Dec 2009, $25.99

ISBN: 9781439147917

In Byram Hills, New York, the police arrest Nick Quinn for murdering his wife Julia.  The case seems air tight against Nick as Julia called 911 implying Nick was hurting her just before she was shot in the head.  The murder weapon has his prints and his hand has gunpowder residue.  He had the means and opportunity and though not as clear the motive.

While Nick is left alone in the police interrogation room brooding, grieving and frightened, a stranger arrives offering Nick a chance to go back twelve hours in time.  However, he can only do so at one hour intervals.  Nick welcomes the opportunity to simply prevent his wife’s murder.  Yet as he returns to the past, he begins to understand time is not isolated or linear as an event as multiple repercussions; what seemed so simple turns out convoluted as he is soon dealing with a plane crash and other links that he never tied to his wife’s death.

This is a fascinating complicated time travel thriller that grips the audience throughout though only Nick seems multifaceted as everyone else is stereotyped to enhance his degree of difficulty.  The story line is fast-paced even as the more the protagonist works his quest the more intricate the plot turns.  Readers will want to go back in time with Nick as he learns turning back the hands of time is not easy.

Harriet Klausner

Sworn to Protect- DiAnn Mills

Sworn to Protect

DiAnn Mills

Tyndale, Apr 1 2010, $12.99

ISBN: 9781414320519

Even after two years, Border Patrol Agent Danika Morales has not gotten over the execution murder of her immigration activist husband, Toby.  She believes Toby kept secrets from her about his activities because he knew she would not support him breaking immigration laws she enforces.  Her brother-in-law Jacob, also a border patrol agent, has become a dictator of sorts; demanding her and his family adheres strictly to the rules.

Illegal immigrants are being brought over the border and work for free as a form of an indentured servant to the person who paid their transportation into America.  One of these mules is Danika’s nanny Sandra; Danika believes her employee’s papers are in order making her legal.  When her partner is shot, he is rushed to the hospital where Dr. Alex Price cares for him.  Alex knew Toby and when he meets the widow, he falls in love with her though like her late husband did he keeps secrets from her.  Danika cuts him out of her life when she learns what he had hid from her, but he takes a bullet intended for her.  As she begins to believe again, Danika places herself in danger as she feels the attempt to kill her is tied to Toby’s unsolved murder.

Fans of Kathy Herman and Dee Henderson will want to read Sworn to Protect; a thriller filled with action, intrigue and romance.  Readers obtain a glimpse into the dangerous lives of border guards confronting deadly coyote transporters and their illegals cargo who are looking for a better life in America.  Although the latter seems somewhat abated with the recession, the audience will want more works starring courageous Danika.

Harriet Klausner

Gardens of the Sun-Paul McCauley

Gardens of the Sun

Paul McCauley

PYR, Mar 23 2010, $16.00

ISBN: 9781616141967

The Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union, and the Pacific Community won the Quiet War.  To the victors go the spoils, but first the winners must deal with the conquered Outers and their cities on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn before plundering the scientific and technological advancements of the defeated leading to prison camps and forced cooperation.  A century of enlightened pragmatic rationalism in the Milky Way has returned to the Dark Ages of repression.

Some Outers escape the deadly incarceration of the “Final Solution” fleeing to the Uranus moon of Miranda, but chased further away from the sun by the Greater Brazil armada to Neptune’s moon Triton.  An enigmatic leader directed allegedly by a future version of himself and followed by Outer “Ghost” cultists takes Outers further out in the solar system to Nephele.  There the surviving Free Outers change colonization techniques from permanent to portable as they construct detachable “Gardens of the Sun” habitats.  Meanwhile other Outers push diverse surviving techniques starting with the natural habitat genetic genius Avernus with her “gardens” and the human pragmatic cutting by Sri Hong-Owen.  Thus beyond the inner planets where the sun is weak, humans still seek the light of knowledge while on earth people demand freedom having learned of the heroism of the Outers even in defeat.  .

This is a fascinating science fiction sequel to the Quiet War, which makes two strong assertions.  First even in the deadliest of dictatorships, there are tiny lights of enlightenment trying to find a means to get free, and second that war makes the victors pay exorbitant costs and consequences.  The story line is action-packed as the Free Outers flee further away from the sun using diverse paths to freedom while the totalitarian axis of evil sends troops in pursuit to eradicate the survivors in spite of problems back home caused by the war.  Paul McCauley provides a thought provoking yet exciting fast-paced futuristic thriller.

Harriet Klausner

Directive 51-John Barnes

Directive 51

John Barnes

Ace, Apr 2010, $25.95

ISBN: 9780441018222

In 2007, National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD) 51 was signed to allow the executive branch to claim extraordinary power during a catastrophe.  A couple of decades after the announcement of NSPD 51, the Office of Future Threat Assessment Assistant Secretary Heather O’Grainne leads an inquiry into a potential homegrown terrorist cell, Daybreak.  The vision of this diverse group is the destruction of the Big System that each member believes destroyed the American way of life.

Rumors about the group has O’Grainne panicking as apparently Daybreak possesses the nanotechnology to destroy two centuries of technology.  Around the globe catastrophes occur leaving billions dead and American going backward in technology.  With the government failing faster than society is, NSPD 51 is implemented, but perhaps too late as the two spirals of death and technological collapse continues unabated.

Directive 51 is a fascinating near future thriller that looks deep into what would happen if modern day technology somewhat predicted where we would be in twenty years or so suddenly stopped working and reverted back to the early nineteenth century.  The frantic effort to prevent the collapse of the world seems too little and too late as the Feds work at a snail’s pace while the Daybreak antiterrorists move out faster than the speed of light.  Although the story line adopts too easily Stalin’s alleged commentary that “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic”, fans will enjoy this cautionary tale that proclaims that sometimes you get what you wish for.

Harriet Klausner

Freedom by any Means-Betty DeRamus

Freedom by any Means

Betty DeRamus

Atria, Feb 2010, $15.00

ISBN: 9781439126752

These fifteen well written true stories focus on courageous individuals trying to either escape from slavery or applying extraordinary methods to enable blacks to escape from slavery.  The first entry “The Big Bluff” sets the tome when freeman John Bowley arrives at a Maryland Slave auction to take his family with him as they are up for sale.  In “Waters of Hope” slave Arnold Gragston rowed escaping slaves across the Ohio River to safety; others like black barbers Daniel Strawther and Jerry Jones did likewise.  Others are equally brave like Nelson Gant who risks his life and freedom for his love of Anna Maria Hughes or putting their money where their mouths were like James Henry Cole and Clara Brown as economics was as big if not bigger roadblock to freedom.  Although some of the record is missing requiring Betty DeRamus to speculate, the overall courage is documented.  Divided into three sections, this is a winning historical as readers obtain a wider perspective of the risk people took for freedom not just for themselves, but for loved ones and even strangers; summed up in the last entry of “Don’t Call her Mammy” re Mary Ellen Pleasant, the “mother of the civil rights movement in California”.

Harriet Klausner

The First Thing and the Last- Allan G. Johnson

The First Thing and the Last

Allan G. Johnson

Plain View Press, Feb 2010, $22.95

www.plainviewpress.net

ISBN: 9781935514411

In Boston on his wife Katherine’s birthday, David Stuart explodes into a rage.  As he has done before to Katherine, he batters her while blaming her for causing him to use his fists on her.  This time Katherine knows it is different as he hits her face and slams her head several times; he always avoided that.  When he grabs their preschooler Ethan, she begs him to give their child to her.  He throws him against the wall breaking Ethan’s neck.  She knows she is next, but grabs a knife and kills him.

She is rushed to the hospital.  In spite of massive internal bleeding to include removal of her gall bladder, and emergency repair to her ripped liver and kidneys, the cops wonder whether she is a murderer.  At the hospital and later on in her parents’ home, her family cannot cope as they blame themselves for not intervening and her for not leaving.

Vermont resident Lucy Dudley reads in the Globe what happened and visits Katherine at the hospital and invites her to live on her farm; she decades ago survived a similar ordeal.  Katherine leaves for Vermont where Lucy hopes to help her heal.

This poignant shocking look at an abuse victim during a deadly assault from her loved one enables readers to see inside Katherine’s head as she is battered and Ethan killed.  The afterward is also intriguing with the cops and even her brother wondering if she used excessive force while her parents try to avoid any culpability for not intervening.  The two women help one another as they develop a loving friendship though Lucy’s efforts towards aiding Katherine in coping with her trauma are more obvious.  The First Thing and the Last is must reading as Allan G. Johnson gets deep into the mind and soul of an abuse victim.

Harriet Klausner