Saturday, 21 May 2016

Stacking the Shelves #134


Stacking the Shelves is a meme hosted by Tynga’s Reviews

Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks! Click on the link under the book to find its page on Goodreads or Smashwords. 

Please note that I always leave a message on your STS/SP if you visit me, but if you use DISQUS or a similar third party I will not be able to leave a comment on your page. I don't allow any company access to my social media accounts and I certainly don't allow them to edit and take over my accounts the way DISQUS does. So if you use DISQUS, I can't leave comments on your page so I can't really follow you back, sorry! I'm noticing that some blogs set with Google Plus are trying to force you to open a Google Plus account before you can leave a comment. Well, I have no interest in rejoining Google Plus so if your blog uses this set up, I won't be following it or commenting! And sometimes, I have problems leaving messages on blogs hosted by Wordpress-they try to block me so there might not be a message from me some weeks or you might get a double message sometimes! Blame them, not me!
                               
It has been quite a week! As you will have noticed, there was no STS last week because on Friday 13th, my computer went terminal. Thankfully I was able to use my emergency savings on Monday to get a new computer at a decent price and the computer guy saved all the files from my old computer which was great. More details of what caused the disaster can be found on my computer posts! Losing the computer last week was very stressful and it really affected everything I did. I didn't get much reading done so I tried to chill out by watching things like Masterchef and Ground Force. Having a break from reading won't do me any harm I guess! It was Thursday before I could pick up a book! Hopefully this week will be better and stress free!
 
On the book buying side of things it was non existant but the books featured here today are what would've went on to my missing post from last year. So many lovely books to enjoy when I get time to read them all. I hope you guys had a good booky week!
 
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Friday, 20 May 2016

Book Review: Survival Train by Steve Flowers

A small group of people in Texas leaves for a camping trip, only to find them caught up in the start of World War 3. Knowing their only hope of survival was to reach a safe haven in the mountains of North Carolina. Two members of the party work for the railroad and the decision is made to take a train and head east. Along the journey, the group encounters fellow survivors and rouge bands of marauders.
 
The story is that of average people thrust into ultimate battle of survival not only of good verses evil but also of the elements of nature. To survive the group combines talent from people from all ages, backgrounds and walks of life. 

My Review: 
A group of people about to leave on a camping trip execute their emergency plan when a military relative alerts them to an attack. They take refuge at a nearby empty school along with a police officer who tries to stop them, just in time for the nuclear blast hitting. Now it is a waiting game until it is safe to go back outside and see the damage.

I very much liked the idea of the story-a group of people prepared for disaster who jump into their plan and have a clear idea about what they want to do. But there were so many characters that it was hard to remember who was part of which couple, and more are added soon after. We start with our twelve preppers and the police officer that they save. Thirteen people in a bunker together doesn't really allow for any of them to shine or develop their own character. Basically, they are all the same, speaking with the same voice, sounding pretty much identical, so I didn't really connect with them much. To make this worse, the two weeks in the bunker are covered in only a few pages so there is no sense of time passing, or any kind of tension in their situation. It didn't really work for me.

The other huge problem is the way the book is written. The characters don't speak the way people do. They all say 'I will do this' instead of the more common 'I'll do this' so it makes the conversations very formal, when they are supposed to be close friends. It is impossible to tell which character is meant to be talking as there are no paragraphs or spacing, speech marks around descriptive text, no speech marks around the dialogue, dreadful spelling and grammar, no sentence structure and the wrong words in the wrong place. The end of one person talking and the next starting are BOTH in ONE sentence which is really tough to read.

I found myself ploughing through the text trying to work out what was text and what was dialogue, who was speaking and when they stopped speaking and what they were trying to say/what was being described. I found this to be one of the worst 'edited' books I've ever tried to read. It really was impossible to get into the story when understanding it was such hard work. I just couldn't get into it and didn't continue with it, which is a real shame as I liked the sound of the story. Lack of editing and attention destroyed this book for me.
star rating photo: 1 star orange-1star.jpg
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Book Review: A Living Train in a Dead City by Jeffery P Thomas

Zombies flood the streets of Chicago. There is no help coming and no escape. A group of survivors commandeer a commuter train and try to leave the city. Knowing a cure might be possible, will they do what it takes to survive? A Living Train In A Dead City takes you deep into a modern disaster where the promises made by science, economy, government, and politics break down and each individual is left to choose their own Hell.

My Review:
Mike is heading off to catch a train, taking his girlfriend's bag by mistake and something toxic is leaking from it, which turns him into an angry, disorientated and dangerous infected person. Now the toxin is infecting everyone at the station and the train is going to be a dangerous place to be trapped as the zombie type virus spreads.

I love zombies and virus plots so I was looking forward to reading this but it just fell a bit flat for me. I liked the idea of how the infection began and the train setting sounded quite exciting. Imagine being trapped on a moving train with rampaging killers coming after you. I liked the concept a lot but it was the delivery that I had some issues with.

It felt a bit samey to me. Yeah I know, zombies attacking people is a hard plot to make different but the plot in this book just seemed to keep repeating. A commuter is introduced, then attacked or hides and then the next one is introduced and is attacked or hides and so on. There is no real change in the attacks and each one unfolds the same way. There is a lack of tension in the book as the attacks come one after the other, so I don't get to enjoy that tense element which I love in the genre. There was the potential for tense drama in the train setting but I don't feel that it was actually there.

The characters were also flat and I felt that there were too many of them. We only get told the minimum about them but I never really felt as if I was getting to know any of them enough to care about their fate. They were just a bit one dimensional. Sarah was also very dumb. You are locked inside your car, watching the zombie hordes chase a man to the train platform. Instead of taking the chance to drive away, she decides to sit there for 30 minutes as the zombies who failed to get on the train come back to the car park. She waits until they attack another man then steps in to rescue him before finally escaping. That makes no sense at all.

The other issue for me was that it was unclear what was causing the virus. We are told it was the leaking bag that infected Mike but what exactly is it? How did it infect him-touch, breathed in, what? How do the others get infected? Is it airborne? Is it the blood splatter when Mike is shot? It just isn't greatly clear how this infection is spreading. I find that disappointing.

The book was ok but it just didn't grab or excite me the way that other zombie and virus books do. I don't think that there was anything really bad in the writing or anything, but it just didn't do it for me personally.
star rating photo: Two Star Rating 2stars.png
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Book Review: Flare by Paul Grzegorzek

Malcolm King is a journalist living in trendy Hove on the south coast of England. His days are taken up with video meetings and research on the internet while he writes articles for magazines around the world.

When a solar flare  hits the Earth, effectively hurling us back to the stone age in a matter of hours, Malc is thrust into a terrifying new world as he travels the length of the country to find his young daughter. Society, a fragile construct at best, shatters as the survivors fight each other for food and water, neighbour killing neighbour as fires rage through the cities, destroying much of what's left.

Faced with difficult choices, Malc draws his strength from those around him; Emily, a tough, no-nonsense soldier with a soft spot for lost causes and Jerry, a disgraced astrophysicist who may be the only person left who understands what's happening with the sun. With their help, he must struggle to answer the ultimate question. What won't he do to get his daughter back?

My Review: 
I got annoyed with the MC from the very start of the book with his bleeding heart preaching about how those who took part in the London riots are victims of society which is utter rubbish. A lot of those charged after the riots were from rich families so explain to me why they needed to be stealing TV's or anything else? People who use any flimsy excuse to go out looting, assaulting, destroying property, setting fire to property and endangering lives are not victims to be pitied, they are criminal thugs who need locking up. If they were stealing food because of being in extreme poverty, I could understand that, but looting for electrical gadgets is about greed, not survival. The MC also bleats about them being led astray against their will and being poor little lambs, and it just infuriated me.

The victims of the riots were those who lost their homes and businesses, those who were jumping for their lives from burning buildings that some sod set alight 'for fun', those who were assaulted and robbed, those whose businesses were looted and destroyed. They are the real victims. So I was already disliking the tone of the book after the first few pages as Malc gleefully writes his social comment newspaper piece which he believes will elevate him to stardom. Gag.

Malc, the MC, is a journalist who is self obsessed and thinks he is the next great thing. He believes that he knows best about everything, he is right and everyone who disagrees is wrong, and only his opinion matters. I found him arrogant and rude, mocking Jerry constantly and being a total arse. He is a dreadful man and I didn't care what happened to him when the solar flare hits. I bet he changes his mind about criminals when he has to face them on his journey and that will wipe the smugness out of him. Sadly I never found out. The thought of putting up with this idiot on a road trip did not appeal so I gave up quickly. 
star rating photo: 1 star orange-1star.jpg
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Thursday, 19 May 2016

Book Review: Left With The Dead by Stephen Knight (Gathering Dead #1.5)


New York City has fallen to the zombie horde. The greatest city on Earth, once home to millions of Americans, is now firmly in the grasp of the dead.

First Sergeant David Gartrell is cut off and alone in the city, miles away from the nearest military units which might be able to assist. With his ammunition almost depleted, the only thing that stands between him and the stenches are his Special Forces skills, his experience, and his uncompromising desire to avoid being eaten alive!

Together with a frightened woman and her young son, Gartrell sets out to accomplish his final objective: find a way to leave the city of the gathering dead, or perish at the hands--and teeth!--of the ravenous horde.

My Review:
This novella is a direct follow up to The Gathering Dead so if you haven't read it, this review might spoil things for you so read on with caution!

After drawing the zombies away from the river to give McDaniels time to get the cure details to the rescue boat, Gartrell is on his own with limited supplies and no prospect of rescue. He links up with Jolie and her autistic son Jaden, hiding out in her apartment and trying to make contact with the soldiers in the city or get air support to get them to safety. The situation becomes more urgent when the zombie that was once her husband arrives at the apartment block with keys in his pocket...

I'm so pleased that we got Gartrell's story, after the way that the last book ended. In this book, we see the more human side to him as he realises why McDaniels cannot easily turn his back on the civilians even at risk of mission failure. Gartrell becomes determined to get Jolie and Jaden to safety, whatever it takes. It is only his training that is keeping them alive in the face of zombie hordes. I liked the addition of the autistic boy, as this gives Gartrell extra problems. How do you keep Jaden calm and quiet with all the noise and terror going on around him when they need to move silently? It puts them in extra danger but Gartrell refuses to consider leaving the boy behind. It had a very human story within the zombie drama, which I liked.

It would be easy to say that Jolie could be annoying at times-screaming or freezing at the wrong moments, but to be fair, she is a frightened women who has been on her own with her son through the apocalypse. Jaden has no concept of the situation or the danger so keeping him calm is a full time job. I understand why she was reacting to things the way she was. Keeping Jaden away from the windows should have been more of a priority though, especially when you are trying to hide!

The book had the same level of drama, tension and zombie action as the first book and it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster to say the least! It was another very well written book and I look forward to continuing with the series.
star rating photo: 5 Star Rating 5stars.jpg
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