Variety is the spice of life

After completing Prodigal daughter, a book which always gives a sense of fulfillment and happiness, i thought of posting about it. But if there is one book that has found numerous reference in this space, that would be it. In fact, i was reminded of how i had a thought of becoming President myself, when i read the book for the first time and how it invited ridicule and embarrassing comments when i shared the same with couple of collleagues from my first company. The fact that i am not even qualified to become president of an apartment association leave alone a country is an altogether different matter. But whenever i read that book, it invokes a sense that if you are determined you can become one. Of course, Archer doesn't dwell into the details of every single day of the life of the characters and obviously the novel deals with key things from their lives. But whenever i read the section where she is first nominated for Senate and the quote that "Kennedy said he had the best ...

One last book in the Blake Crouch series of novels :) Ithoda stopping it for now. Too much of dystopia and even normal mirror looks like "Black mirror" after reading all these books. Now, to the story. I am not sure of the sequence or the order in which his books were written, leave alone getting published. But Recursion seems to be an extended version of Dark matter. In both the books, love and the quest to re-unite with your loved one across multiple timelines or universes seems to be the theme.  In Recursion, the heroine invents a chair, which takes back people in time. She wants to help her mother suffering from Alzheimer, to restore her memories. As expected, the chair falls into other peoples hands and what happens forms the rest of the story. As an one liner, this may sound more sci-fi than emotional. But the way the chair transforms her life and the lives of everyone else in the world, forms the whole of the story. The hero happens to be an alcoholic (surprise! surpri...

As the final part of the trilogy, Last town answers many questions that arise after and while reading the previous two parts. Gathering the remaining population of the town, how Ethan manages to save them from the marauding abbies forms the crux of this story. He breaches the lab where Pilcher, the person responsible for creating the town and all the mess associated with it, resides along with his team. He wins over the support team of Pilcher by showing his evil side where he goes to the extent of murdering his own daughter just to ensure his way of getting things done succeeds. Eventually, Ethan manages to re-electrify the fence, keeping the rest of the remaining population bit safer. In between, there is a K.Balachander movie like love triangle involving his wife and his ex-boss from 2000 years back. After a minor scuffle and some soap opera moments, the ex-boss unites with Ethan's ex-lover while Ethan wins back his family. Not having enough food or rations to sustain them beyon...

 If "Pines" set the tempo for a blockbuster opening, "Wayward" lives up to the name.  In the first book of the trilogy, "Pines" Crouch introduce us to Ethan who finds himself in a creepy hospital where he is not sure if they are treating him to make him better or messing his medication to actually kill him. He is confused as to where he is and why his belongings are missing. The sheriff of the town is not much helpful and even ends up roughing him. He recollects that he was a secret service agent who was sent to that creepy little town in search of his fellow agents who were visiting the town before him and have been missing. While trying to escape from that town he notices an electrified fence and hears weird noises which makes him wonder if the fence was to keep the town people inside or to keep something away. The entire town tries to beat him to death as a punishment for trying to escape the town. Despite getting beaten to his last breath, he somehow m...

Being smitten by the first book wanted to check out his other works and ended up with "Pines". The start was somewhat similar to how "Dark matter" began with Edmund Burke, stumbling into a hospital from a car accident, without any ID or his personal belongings. The nurse and doctor at the remote village of Wayward Pines, seems to be aware of his situation and not at the same time. They give him some medicine but somehow Burke gets a creepy feeling about the whole setup and manages to escape the facility, same as how it happened in Dark Matter. Feels like Crouch has something against hospitals!! And his heroes are all haunted by creepy ones at that!! Burke manages to visit a hotel and convinces the receptionist to give him a room with the promise of paying back once he gets his wallet from the Sheriff's office. He visits a diner where a lady patronizes him with food, with a promise of being paid back later from him. She gives him her address to contact and the ne...

Certain books have a knack of finding its own readers. The universe conspires a plot worthy of a novel of its own to link the readers with their books. I am not able to recollect how i ended up with Dark Matter, but it had been in my unread list of a while. After giving up reading "A state of fear" by Crichton for the umpteenth time, i noticed this one in the pending list. Either it must've come as a recommendation by some algorithm or by some friend. The last book that i read as a recommended one was bit dry and too technical. Probably it might've been right up the domain of the person who suggested the book for it felt way too technical and the language used was more of tech jargons from that industry and was bit difficult to follow. Dark matter for all i know is a stuff that even scientists at CERN are unable to wrap their head around with and considering the reviews were mentioning quantum mechanics liberally thought it was an advanced physics book. But, boy was i...

Michael Crichton along with Arthur Hailey is my favorite author. It gives immense thrill to read their books and their storylines are full of insights on the industry or genre or the institution about which the premise may be based, almost like reading a subject matter book but interestingly written in simple language which can be followed by laymen. I remember reading this book sometime around my college first year or may be bit earlier around that time. It was obviously a hard copy and was shared with me by a school mate of mine, who was also the one who introduced me to Asimov. He gave me "Prelude to Foundation" that i read for almost an year. "Timeline" was intriguing and kept me interested sheerly by its concept of time travel and i was smitten by the thought process when i read it first. This time, co-incidentally, i was also watching the movie based on the same story in parallel and somehow both the book and the adaptation were disappointing! I can understand...

Again, another book of Crichton that i felt had read long before but forgot about it. In fact, whenever i re-read such books, which i am sure had read before but not able to remember anything about the plot or storyline, reminds me time and again that, there was a reason why it wasn't so memorable. Either the plotline would've been too confusing and for someone who hop-skip-jump read such sections very frequently in the past, i would've either lost interest in the story and would've dropped it half way or would've finished it quick, without actually liking anything about it. Sphere, for what its worth, is somewhere deep in between. The premise is fascinating with a group of academic scholars, being air dropped into middle of ocean, and then deep into the ocean to study about a wreckage, that later turns out to be an alien craft. While there is continuous debate till the end, whether it was something sent from the future or from a far away planet, the situations invo...

 I vaguely remember reading about this book a long while back but wasn't sure if i had finished. When i started reading again, i couldn't recollect any major situations or plot lines except for the fact that it was a medical thriller. After finishing the book, i realized why i hadn't bothered much!! Michael Crichton is one of my favorite author right next to Arthur Hailey. They both have penchant for doing deep dive into the respective genres which would put a PhD scholar to shame. There will be way too much information that would be bombarded on the reader, page after page, that at times it would feel as if you are reading a theory paper on the subject, albeit presented in an interesting manner! Wiki says Crichton was about 26 years old when he wrote this story, under the pseudonym of Jeffrey Hudson. May be he predicted his fame down the line and despite winning awards for this book, he knew the topic was at best controversial. The book deals with the big taboo in American...

This book is the penultimate one in the William Warwick series, which culminates with End game, the first book i had read and posted about in this space, from the series. The story begins with a British national, a wealthy and well connected individual at that, who is assigned the task of mediating a defense contract for the British with the Saudi's. The contract has lot of competition in the form of French and Italian delegations. With British and French being the finalists, the responsibility of swaying the result towards Britain lies with that person who reaches out to a shady contact in Riyadh and before he could realize, he is arrested for a murder he didn't commit, but which happened in front of his eyes, as that of the Italian mediator, who gets killed by the son of the Saudi minister. Having been arrested for a crime he didn't commit, he realizes the murky world of politics is not for individuals like him, but for heavy weights who always have higher targets in mind...

The book is interestingly title to start with and right from the beginning is noticeably a much fast moving story than the previous books in the series. Archer is at his premium form in the book and does what he does best - bring in the fiction element amidst well known facts. This time it happens to be Queen's address of the first meeting of the newly formed government after each election. There are certain ceremonies involved like presenting the Crown jewels for the meeting and the story is about how Miles Faulkner, the series villain is set out to steal them and humiliate William and his team who are responsible for the royal protection unit. The story begins as a continuation from one of the conversations that happens between Miles and William regarding a painting donated by the villain to get favorable verdict on an almost convictable case. Only for William to figure out that the painting donated by Miles happens to be a fake and the original is at his US residence. Coincident...

As mentioned in previous posts, this being the 4th or 5th book in the William Warwick series, Archer hardly makes any effort to reintroduce the characters. The story begins as abrupt for those who follow the series or like a pilot episode of a fresh season for those entering new, with a new assignment being given to William Warwick and his motley bunch.  This time, they've a dual responsibility to unearth potential corruption in the royal protection unit at the same time, perform the protection duty as well for the most beloved royal scion possibly, ever - The Princess of Wales, Diana. With Ross Hogan assigned the task of protection duty for the princess, while rest of the crew are split into teams shadowing the existing cops at the royal household. how they go about uncovering the misdeeds and corruption in the existing team, overcoming initial resistance and then slowly gaining their trust, only to investigate further to unearth evidence against the cartel and eventually resultin...

On a spree to finish off the Warwick series and since the entire novel goes like an episode or a season of a drama series, posting the review of "Hidden in plain sight" , "Turn a blind eye" and "Over my dead body" as a combined one. The series follow a set template with William Warwick, getting introduced with a promotion to next level and being moved from one squad to another. If he was in Artefacts and rare paintings squad in the previous one, and then goes undercover to expose the black sheep in police department to Drugs division. His team of officers remain the same and they tag along with him, under the leadership of Hawksby. Alongside the regular recurring foe of Miles Faulkner, there is another villain in this book, Rashidi, who happens to be the drug kingpin. How William and team manage to arrest him, only to find him escape by the barest of loop hole made possible by Booth Watson, the knight in not so shining armour who appears as the defense cou...

After finishing "End game" the next book that i picked in the series was the very first one where William Warwick begins his career as a detective. It felt and in reality as well, as if i was watching the origin story of a new super hero comic. But not as cinematic. For those who have followed the "Clifton Chronicles" they may've a different opinion, but since i'ven't read those yet, it felt a refreshing change from the other series that i've been reading off late by different authors.  The story begins with how William enrolls as a policeman, despite his father's wish to see him as a QC(Queen's counsel). The story traces his life as a beat cop, who befriends his fellow partner and learns the tricks of trade from him. A tragedy strikes and on the last day of his beat, post which he was to be promoted to a different role, his partner is killed in a street encounter, in which William is also badly injured. After he joins Scotland yard as detect...

After triple confirming the author, finally the post!! But one thing for sure if i can feel slightly good about the entire fiasco being, how much i loved both the authors. I've read Grisham's earlier works as well, which are made into Hollywood blockbusters. He is a master when it involves courtroom scenes, but somehow felt the rest of the storyline to be dragging. King of Torts nu oru book. Vandha pudhusula padika start panni almost 2 decades aaguthu. Still haven't finished it. Despite the bias and the confusion regarding the previous book, Archera nenachu padichirunthalum, my opinion remains the same.  When i started "End game" i was actually skeptical, due to the wrong bias based on the previous book that i had misread as his, but within moments, was happily drawn into the storyline, despite it being the most recent one amongst the William Warwick series. Wasn't even aware that it was a series, but the way he had framed the characters and the familiarity wi...

Movie reviews kooda nambidalam pola but online book reviewslam utterly unreliable. May be taste in movies is more relatable to a larger group of people as compared to books? While some enjoy the story line, many enjoy the pacing while there are people who look for literary essence, choice of words and language used. Book reading being a more niche group as compared to movie watchers, their choice of recommendations are quite unique to the individual involved as well. When i was checking for recommendations for thriller novels, this one came up and since Jeffrey Archer is someone i see as my English teacher was immediately into this book. It started slow, infact very slow. The pacing or the way in which the story was progressing was very unlike any of the Archer novel i had read before and considering that this was based on lawyer as a lead character, was kind of surprised at the content. At the half way mark was even wondering, if it was ghost written by someone else, considering the a...

It has been a while since he wrote anything new as he seemed to have been occupied with screenplay writing for his movies. I was randomly checking and lo behold! A new novel from Reilley. It is a typical Reilley novel in every sense, even though the title may say detective. He has tried his best to alter the usual genre of his by venturing into investigative space. But rather than being Sherlock Holmes, Sam Speedman is Jack West Jr. Lite. He may have been mentioned as a person having autism. But seems to have more powers than Batman!! The story is haunting to say the least and one of the most thorniest topics in American history  - slavery! Trust Matt to churn up a potboiler of a novel on such a sensitive topic! Even though the struggles of Black people who are still being held as slaves and the cruelty of the Southern families is the core topic, the usual chase, hyperbolic villains who never seem to die unless pushed to the most goriest of fights, a meek but cat-like hero who has ...

 As mentioned prior, there is a similarity in naming their novels between Matthew Reilley and Chetan Bagat. Though chalk and cheese could have more similarity than their writing styles, Matt at least had a reason for the naming convention, it was a series with a countdown starting from 7 ancient wonders. For CB i guess, it could be more of numerology or a success template that seems to work for him.  Unlike regular people who may use QWERTY keyboard for typing, CB has stereotyping set in his keyboard i guess. Like every other book of his, where the protagonist or the male character with least negativity, always happens to be a Punjabi, it is no different in this one as well. Like every single soul in Punjab, this person also drinks heavily, non vegetarian and as an additional character trait - is a health conscious gymaholic. Like tamils, bengalis and many other characters of different ethnicities that were shown in as poor light, or to be precise only in poor light, possible,...

One of the earlier books of Rollins before he started the Sigma series. There is a downside to success, that it makes you becoming restricted in your thought process, especially true for those in writing industry in the aftermath of hitting bulls eye with a successful launch of a series. You end up restricting your thought process to the set of characters and beyond a point it can't be stretched unless newer characters are introduced which ends up diluting the whole lot. You cannot simply offer the scope and limelight for every character and in fact have to pander to the characterisation of the popular of the lot, which results in the ultimate story line being compromised to certain extent. In the beginning books of the sigma series, the first chapter will set the tone for the book, with an impossible plot or an unimaginable level of danger, involving known places, people or situations. The Sigma series led by Gray and later by Siechan, will travel the length and breadth of the wor...

 I often used to wonder, all those super spies, how do they manage their daily routines, especially in midst of a major action. Sometimes, they are shown to go without sleep for several hours and there are rarely any note about their food habits. But they will be shown as connoisseurs of drinks and have in depth knowledge of several types of cuisines that they will proudly display to impress the villain or his spouse (especially James Bond) many of whose scenes and situations would be depicted around the dining table. While hero would be actively in pursuit, the villain would be shown as sitting and pondering or lashing at this cronies for having either lost to the hero or secretly planning his next action from dining table. Except for James Bond who made the shaken but not stirred Martini, there are hardly any other famous hero character who are known for their taste in any other routine like normal human beings. One reason that i felt was, rather than depicting how they get up, b...