I wish I could do Math good.

The movie "21" is out at theaters right now, so when I saw the book the movie was based on, I thought it would be a good one to blog about. All I knew of the storyline was what I had heard on the history channel, that some MIT math geniuses had come up with a way to count cards with alarming success, and it paid big. This was true to an extent, but the casinos caught on eventually, and banned the people from the casinos completely. I thought this was what this book was about, but it turns out the people I had learned about were from the 70's, and this was about a totally different group of kids.
The author writes it in an interesting style, alternating from a third person story of Kevin Lewis, and a first person account of the author researching his book. Kevin Lewis (we find out in the second paragraph that its a fake name) is one of about a dozen math whiz kids who were recruited to be on a card counting team. These guys learned an effective method for determining when the deck was going to be hot, even with six decks in circulation. They worked in teams, and played different parts to trick the casinos into believing they were playing the game the losing way. The thing is, card counting isnt illegal, so all the casinos can do is ban you from playing blackjack. This isnt a good thing, since the word started to get around about these kids. They started getting shook down at every casino they went into, and this wasnt very good for business.
Even though Kevin was eventually driven out of the business, his team made like 4 million dollars in three years. Pretty amazing. The author does a great job describing Kevins struggle with his duel life, and all the scenes with casino security are pretty nail biting. This book is definitely worth a read, and it stirs up thoughts that probably are better left alone..
So double down and enjoy.

Neverwhere

This book was one of the stranger ones I decided to read at the advice of my girlfriend, but it was really quite good. The story is easy to follow, and the character (I say this because none of the other people are revealed that much) is likeable. The author does a good job of describing the mood of Richard Mayhew, and you really get a sense of what it would be like to be taken to a strange place just beneath your own streets.
The premise of this book is interesting and strange at the same time. There are undersides to every major city in the world, and these sides are filled with magic and strange creatures. It was like the author took all the local myths from London and turned it into a real place, with competing groups, legends, and heroes. The main guy, Richard, is accidentally drawn into this world when he comes across a woman bleeding on the street. Her name is Door (seriously) and we already know that she is running from two creepy hired killers named Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar. By helping her and trying to save her, Richard is drawn into this world on accident, and the result is that people in the normal world can no longer see him, and barely notice him even when he is shouting in their faces. Due to the craziness of this, he is forced to go hunting for Door, and through the people she led him to, is able to gain access to this world. in fact he is becoming part of the world. Richard eventually finds her and helps her to avenge the deaths of her family. They are drawn into service by an actual angel, and through this they are constantly assailed by Croup and Vandemar, and a variety of other obstacles and problems. Richard is finally faced with the reality that he is becoming more a part of this world than his own.
It sounds like a childrens book now that I am looking at my review, but it is actually quite good, with some seriously dark stuff in there regarding the corruption of good, loss and regret. I know I say this too much, but if you are looking for a good story, try "Neverwhere."

When does CPR become deadly?

Well in keeping with the theme of my last few posts, this time I am posting about another dark suspense novel by Dean Koontz. This one is called "Hideaway" and it was pretty good. The author definitely did a good job of keeping me on the edge of my seat. The plot was a little out there, but overall I think that any fan of scary books or scary people would think this was worth their time.

The book is based around four people, with a fifth loosely intertwined at the end. There is a couple named Lindsay and Hatchford(called Hatch), who at one time were very much in love with each other, but found their love strained after the death of their only child to cancer at the age of five. They were reminded of his death by each other, but neither had the courage to leave the other. Well they are on a trip to some cabin or something, and are driving in a blizzard when they accidentally hit the back of a semi which is stuck in the road. They are thrown down an embankment and into an icy river. We find out that the driver was drunk, and feels bad, kind of. Well anyway, Lindsay manages to pull Hatch out of the car, but he drowns and freezes or both.

Enter the creepy Dean Koontz stuff. Well there are some doctors who have found ways to bring people back from the dead after they have been gone for over and hour. Hatch is the perfect candidate because he is frozen and thus well preserved. But, and this may come as a shocker, SOMETHING GOES HORRIBLY WRONG..........

well not at first really, but Hatch comes to find that is somehow psychically connected to this really frightening young man who calls himself Vassago. After this there are a number of chapters from Vassago's point of view, and I must say the author created a very psychotic character. I have to wonder a bit about the overall sanity of any author who can come up with someone that creepy. Vassago was also brought back after a long time dead by doctors, but he isn't all nice like Hatch, oh no.... He wanted to go to hell, and is now killing as many people as he can to earn his way back in.

Well since Hatch can see his crazy counterpart, it works the other way too. Vassago starts to obsess about killing Lindsay, and their newly adopted daughter. You can see how all this might come to a thrilling conclusion, but I won't ruin it by spouting the details.

My opinion of this book is that it was very well written, and it had that elusive original premise. Mr. Koontz is now 2 for 2 for books I liked. I guess he's not as cheesy as I was led to believe..... Or maybe I'm cheesier than I'm willing to admit.

When robots attack

I was reading some other book reviews online, and I came across a review of a book I had recently read. The book was called "Dune: the Butlerian Jihad". This is a science fiction book which is actually a prequel to the dune series by Frank Herbert. The original Dune series was a classic in science fiction writing, and was popular among readers for years. The prequels are written by his son and another writer twenty years after his death.
Sometimes you read a book because you are bored, and that book entertains you. It is a good story, there's lots of action, pretty decent characters, and it keeps you distracted until its done. Then you talk to somebody about it, or read someones review, and you realize that the book wasn't all that great. Actually it was pretty bad. Oh well.
This book is based in some future time, when mankind is being brutally assaulted by thinking machines,which were created by people, but overthrew their masters and now seek human extinction. Sound familiar? (Terminator, The Matrix, and even Planet of the Apes if you switch robots with primates) So we get introduced to some human characters who desperately don't want to be made extinct. These characters are distantly related to people who live thousands of years later in Frank Herbert's Dune series. They have the same last names, and thats about it as far as comparisons go. Well the book chronicles the events which led to mankind's decision to declare a jihad (religiously based war) against the machines.
The chapters are so short, it seems like the writers were drinking and coming up with ideas for chapters, one drinks and talks while the other writes it down frantically. At the time I read this, I was working a lot and I was tired all the time, so the short chapters were cool. No long commitments right? Well now that I look back on it, it was not that well written. The writer of the review I read had some good points which made me think:
"But like so many enormous projects --- especially inherited ones --- THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD falls into some common traps. It tries to navigate too much territory between only two covers; one often craves more sustained focus and less repetitive clutter. Additionally, it lapses far too frequently into extreme blood-and-guts violence that rapidly loses its power to shock, but not to disgust."
All of the things I tried not to think about while I was reading this book.....
Well I can't really recommend reading this one, unless you are a diehard Dune fan in which case it's kind of worth it to hear about the origins of all the weird stuff we fell in love with when we read the originals. But these prequels all fall short of the kind of brilliance the Dune books possessed.
Next I'm reading another Dean Koontz thriller novel: "Hideaway"

Would you like your own guardian angel?

The next book I am reviewing is called Lightning by Dean Koontz
This was another great suggestion by my very smart and intuitive girlfriend. So lets all thank her.

This book, from the opening pages, is an interesting story of love, and surviving. It begins with a drunken doctor who is about to go try to deliver a baby, even though he knows hes too drunk and will probably screw things up. However he is stopped by a blond man who really only wants to prevent the man from killing the baby. The man ties him up and pours out all his liquor. So anyway, the baby is born but the mother dies in childbirth, leaving the father to take care of baby Laura.
Skip forward eight years and Dad and Laura are getting robbed by some junky who says he wants to rape Laura. He gets shot in the head by the same blond man, who apparently is protecting Laura from all harm. He keeps showing up at certain times, and protects her, usually violently. Her father dies of a heart attack and she lives out her teenage years in an orphanage. During that time, the blond man again shows up to help her, this time to beat the tar out of a pedophile who works at the orphanage. Laura grows up despite some horrible instances, and eventually marries a nice man and has a kid. Well of course its not over for her yet. I dont want to continue any further with the description, because a lot gets revealed and it wont be fun for you to read it.
This book has an original-ish idea, and the author does some great character development. The story gets pretty confusing, but there are some really scary and really funny moments all tied together with this crazy premise. So be careful if you said you would like to have a guardian angel, because it just might not be what it seems.

Mayhem, Murder, and Masons

The book I am reviewing this week isn't technically a book, it is a graphic novel(long comic book), but the narrative and storyline are so confusing and engaging that it kind of counts anyway....

It is called From Hell, and it is about the events surrounding, and resulting from the Jack the Ripper murders in East London in 1888. The crime remain unsolved to this day, but many theories have been thrown back and forth throughout the years. This book is really just a glorified conspiracy theory, but the implications are interesting enough to make it worth while. The idea is that the victims, who were all drunken prostitutes, were not chosen at random, as the mainstream theory say. They were all in on a huge secret that they evidently had to die for. The crown prince had secretly knocked up and subsequently married a common, poor woman, and the Queen was forced to take action to ensure the reputation of the royal family was preserved. So she enlists the aid of the royal surgeon, Sir William Gull. Gull is a very popular suspect among Ripperologists, because of his close ties to the throne, and his knowledge of anatomy. Apparently he was kind of a psycho too.....

The book has some weird religious ideas about the masonic order, and one whole chapter is devoted to explaining the myths of the Masons, and the symbolic and powerful architecture of London. The masons are the most secretive and powerful order throughout europe at this time. So anyway, Sir William is a bit nuts, and he takes the order of the queen entirely too seriously. He enlists the help of a coach driver to take him to and from the murders. From what I know of the real Ripper crimes, the authors used a lot of documented information and spun it into the story. The women are hunted down one by one, and horribly murdered. The violent illustrations are a little over the top, and it was obvious the authors were trying to shock the readers. There is also the side story of the chief investigator on the case, who is pretty much the only cop who doesnt know who the real killer is. The killer actually walks up to the chief of police and tells him what he is going to do, and orders the chief to put pro-masonic cops on the case. This way he is never even suspected and the police wont really investigate to the best of their abilities.
The artwork is a little dark, and looks hastily drawn, but this just lends to the foreboding and tense feeling to the whole work. I would definetely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of crime dramas, and just comic books really. It is pretty violent, and sex filled, but the real meat is in the narrative between the characters caught up in the middle of all the horror.
All in all, not a bad read!

"The Doomsday Book"

The first book Ive decided to review is called The Doomsday book. It was actually really good, even though the premise is kind of obscure. It was suggested to me by my girlfriend, who said she really loved it.

The story revolves around two people, Kivrin and Mr. Dunworthy. Kivrin is a younger girl and Mr. Dunworthy is her mentor, and apparently she has no family, because he is the only one who seems to care about her. The story takes place in 2054, and the idea is that historical research in the future is done by time travel. This is the obscure part, that if you can get over, becomes quite interesting. Kivrin has always wanted to travel to the middle ages, but this is not allowed because it is considered too dangerous to put a person into the situation. People mostly go back to the 20th or 19th century, since the records are more reliable, and they know pretty much what they are getting into. Well of course this doesnt stand up, and one self promoting man named Gilchrist takes advantage of the absence of the head of the project, and lift the ban on the middle ages. Of course, Kivrin volunteers.
The project is predictably not run very well, and Mr. Dunworthy becomes angry at the audacity of Gilchrist to send a teenager to 1320 a.d. What makes matters worse is that the technician in charge of making sure the machinery works falls violently ill with a type of influenza. Kivrin herself, after arriving in the past, becomes very ill, and is rescued by the people of a small village. She has trouble translating their form of english for a while, but figures it out eventually. She becomes the nursemaid for two little girls, Rosemund and Agnes. Meanwhile, Dunworthy is dealing with a quarantine in the future, and people are paranoid, and the author keeps hinting at some terrible worldwide disease outbreak that happened sometime before 2054. Well without telling you too much, Kivrin ends up becoming a kind of savior to these people, who fall victim to the Black Death(she is immune as a preparation to go back in time).
Dunworthy finds out the project was more messed up than he thought, and scrambles to figure out how to get Kivrin back to present day.
This book was a really excellent read. There is a lot of great character development, and you start to care about what happens to these people. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a good story, although some parts can get pretty depressing. All in all, this is one I would tell other people to read. Its not going to change your life, but there are some good messages, and its always fun to imagine going back in time. Until you actually get there, and you realize its freakin horrible. The middle ages were scary.

Thanks again, next I am reading another GF suggestion, "Lightning" by Dean Koontz