The SecUnit
(Security Unit) for the PreservationAux survey group has hacked and disabled
her governor module during her last contract. The hack lets her follow the Company’s
programming or to ignore it. She saves Dr. Bharadwaj from certain death from
the hostile fauna of the planet where the PersevationAux group has been
surveying to decide if they want to bid to the Company on building a colony
there. The SecUnit calls herself Murderbot, but never out loud. Her feelings of
companionship for her human employers impede her programming. What will she do
when an unknown enemy threatens her charges, hide or fight?
Summary
SecUnits are made by the Company and must be used by
every survey team for protection. The Company supplies all the materials to
each survey team from the lowest bidder, so the materials are unreliable and
suspect. SecUnits are half organic and half mechanical, so she is a cyborg. SecUnits
are supposed to be perceived by their contractors
as autonomous robots. They can be
repaired using the MedSystem. She communicates with the HubSystem of the habitat to keep the security of her charges. The story’s complication occurs when they
lose contact with the DeltFall Group survey team, the only other survey team
assigned to their planet. Dr. Mensah, the leader of the PreservationAux Group, investigates
at DeltFall’s habitat despite the SecUnit’s suggestion they leave the investigation
to the Company. What they find at the habitat changes their perspective on the
Company and on their SecUnit’s behavior.
Recommendation
I loved this story. The action is tight, and the
conclusion completes this story. The protagonist has the perfect blend of
sarcasm and drive to understand her
reasons for existing. She wants to sit back and watch her space soap operas,
but her human charges keep getting in the way, making her have feelings she
doesn’t understand. She is not the Murderbot she pretends to be and they catch
on to her deception. This novella begins her transformation into something
else. This story is the first of four novellas in the Murderbot Dairies series.
I want to read the other three novellas available and the Murderbot novel that is
scheduled to be released in 2020.
Hamilton, an American Musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda
and Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Hamilton, An American Musical
I watched the play Hamilton on 08-25-18 at the State Theater
in Cleveland, Ohio. After enjoying the play, I wanted to experience all things,
Hamilton. This review includes five different media I experienced in 2018. I watched
the play; I read the biography; I read the book featuring all the lyrics and
stories about the production; I ripped the soundtrack from the library, and I
ripped the Hamilton Mixtape from the library. All the media was great, and I am
glad I pursued all things, Hamilton. If the play comes back to Cleveland, I
would like to see it again.
Hamilton play Introduction
I made a monthly plan for 2018 to go out with my wife for date nights. The plan was Hamilton on 8-25, the Ohio State Buckeyes versus Oregon State on 9-1, the play of Pride and Prejudice on 10-27, the big ten championship game on 12-1, and the Cleveland orchestra Christmas concert at severance hall on 12-22. They were all great events. I wasn’t sure I would like Hamilton because I had heard about the amount of the rap used by the actors. I’m not a rap fan, I am a rock fan. But when the play started on 8-25, I was hooked. The play tells the gripping story of Alexander Hamilton’s life with no dialog. All the words are sung using different styles of music including rap, rock, R & B, soul, Broadway tunes and Motown.
Hamilton play Summary
Alexander Hamilton immigrated to New York City as a
young man, became a successful lawyer, fought in the American Revolution, was
George Washington’s closest confidant, and created the Federal banking system.
But the people of our culture remember him as the face on the ten-dollar bill
and the guy who lost a duel to Aaron Burr. This play makes the story real and
applicable to today. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the play’s author, the songwriter and
the lead actor, author, the songwriter and the lead actor is a genius. He based
this play on the Hamilton biography of Ron Chernow. It’s so much more than a
play. His lyrics are rich and on point. He tells us a compelling story. The
final song’s title says it all. Who lives, who dies, who tells your story.
Lin-Manuel told Alexander Hamilton’s story, he told it well, and it will be
told for generations to come. That is the definition of a legacy, a wonderful
achievement.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Alexander Hamilton Introduction
Ron Chernow researched every part of Alexander Hamilton’s life to write his biography called Alexander Hamilton. He tracked down all the available sources and wrote this biography, warts and all. Hamilton was brilliant and driven to succeed, but his passions lead him to poor choices in business, love, and pursuing a vendetta that leads to his fatal duel.
Alexander Hamilton Summary
The biography starts with his parents. They were a
black sheep fourth child of a Scottish nobleman and a plantation girl from the
island of Nevis. Hamilton’s drive to better his position in life was from
seeking to avoid being poor like them. He inspired the people of St. Croix with
a published letter about a hurricane that hit the island and they gathered the
money to send him away to school. Hamilton went to King’s College (now called
Columbia) in New York City. He became a lawyer and fought in the Revolutionary
War as George Washington’s most trusted aide. He longed for the glory of battle
but was too valuable for his administrative skills for Washington to risk him
in combat so he saw limited action. After the war, he was the first treasury
secretary for Washington’s cabinet and he set up the Federal banking system from
scratch. Washington and Hamilton were the leaders of the Federalist Party and were
opposed by the Democrat-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and
Aaron Burr.
Aaron Burr started as a friend and colleague to Hamilton, but the slights between the two men graduated up into a vendetta. Hamilton’s aspirations of becoming the next president were ended with a sex scandal started by the Reynolds Pamphlet which was written by Hamilton himself. After Washington retired, Hamilton became the highest ranking general in the army, but they did not go to war with England again at that time. Hamilton blocked Aaron Burr’s bid to become the third president and this lead to the fatal duel.
Alexander Hamilton Recommendation
Chernow makes all the aspects of Alexander Hamilton’s life come alive and it is easy to see how Lin-Manuel Miranda was inspired to write songs and eventually a play about it.
There’s a book on the Hamilton play called Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter. The book has the full lyrics of the songs from the Broadway Musical with annotations by Lin-Manuel. It also includes pictures from the performances. The 46 songs are arranged into 32 chapters and each chapter starts with a short article about different aspects of the production. The articles cover the original solo performance of the song Alexander Hamilton by Lin-Manuel, background information about the main players of the original production, backstage stories on the set, choreography, instrumentation, costumes, cut and unused alternate songs, and other insights. My highlights were pictures of the original notebook notes from Lin-Manuel on pages 36 & 202, the full lyrics of the cut song Cabinet Battle #3 on the debate on slavery on page 212, and photographs of original letters and pamphlets written by Hamilton. This book brings back memories of the play, the annotated lyrics gives insight into the writing process, and studying the printed lyrics help in understanding all the words to the cast recording.
I borrowed the double CD from the library of Hamilton,
American Musical, the Original Broadway recording. All 46 songs, 23 per disk,
of the play are on the disks. I like all the songs but my favorite five tunes
are in order from the best; Alexander Hamilton, My Shot, You’ll Be Back, The
Room Where It Happens, and Who Lives Who Dies Who Tells Your Story.
Hamilton The Mixtape
Lin-Manuel Miranda also commissioned various artists
to cover the songs from the cast recording. The songs are on the CD, The
Hamilton Mixtape. My favorite five tunes in order from best are; Say Yes To
This, Helpless, Dear Theodosia (Reprise), Wait for it, and It’s Quiet Uptown. There
were two songs that were not part of the play that were demoed for this CD. They
were Valley Forge and Cabinet Battle #3. Both songs were interesting, and it’s
too bad they couldn’t be included in the play because of time and material.
My Hamilton Mixtape
I made a 21 song under 80 minutes Mix tape featuring
the best songs from both albums as follows:
Alexander Hamilton from the Cast Recording
My Shot from the Cast Recording
The Story of Tonight from the Cast Recording
The Schuyler Sisters from the Cast Recording
You’ll Be Back from the Cast Recording
Helpless recorded by Ashanti
Satisfied recorded by Queen Latifah
Wait For It recorded by Usher
That Would Be Enough recorded by Alicia Keys
What Comes Next? From the Cast Recording
Dear Theodosia (Reprise) recorded by Chance the Rapper
Say No To This from the Cast Recording
Say Yes To This recorded by Jill Scott
The Room Where It Happens from the Cast Recording
Washington On Your Side from the Cast Recording
One Last Time from the Cast Recording
I Know Him from the Cast Recording
Burn recorded by Andra Day
It’s Quiet Uptown recorded by Kelly Clarkson
The World Was Wide Enough from the Cast Recording
Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story from the Cast Recording
Links
I mentioned watching the play and reading the biography in my Writing Progress Report for October 2018. This is the link.
Bonus: There is a YouTube video of an original solo
performance of the song Alexander Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda at an evening
of poetry, music and the spoken word at the White House on May 12, 2009. It’s
an amazing performance with over 6 million views.
Dean Koontz wrote a book
in 1972 called Writing Popular Fiction for Writers Digest Books. In 1981 he expanded
and rewrote it and published it as How to Write Best Selling Fiction. He
mentions doing another edition in about ten years, but it’s been over thirty
years and no new edition has been released. I heard about this book from many
sources over the years but did not pick up a copy. Recently, an internet writing
teacher I follow, Jerry Jenkins, mentioned it at jerryjenkins.com. He wrote the
Left Behind series and over 190 books. He says Koontz’s book inspired to become
a writer. The advice within helped him to write fast and well. So, with those
recommendations in mind, I resolved to buy the book, since it was unavailable
through my library. It can only be bought as a used original edition. The
cheapest copies at Amazon were $200, so I gathered together my Amazon gift
cards and ordered a copy. My copy arrived, and the dust jacket looked pristine
as showed in the picture attached to this review. The book’s first printing was
1981. This book is from the second printing in April 1982. The binding is broken
in one spot. That can be seen in the second attached picture. The reader marked
the book in ink and highlighted passages with a yellow highlighter. Observations
are written in the margins by the first reader and some of them are insightful.
No pages are missing or torn.
Summary
So, what information did
I learn from this book? The book is 309 pages long with 15 chapters of advice
and definitions. Koontz explains why he wrote this book, explains his writing process,
and gives examples excerpted from his fiction. Key points from page 75 are that
the novel’s protagonist must face terrible trouble at the novel’s beginning and
from page 111 the complications must build up to a final and worst complication
leading to the resolution. He describes how he uses the idea pump on pages 65
and 72, a free-form word association used
to create an idea for a novel-length
work. Koontz describes his four-point classic plot story pattern for successful
novels on page 74. This is the structure that Jerry Jenkins teaches. The main
take away of the book is given in eight points of what a reader demands on page
13.
A
strong plot
Action,
Action, Action
A
hero or heroine
Believable
Characters
Character
motivations explained
Developed
setting
Good
Grammar and Syntax
Style:
use vivid and visual writing
These eight points are explained in chapters 4 to 11. Koontz
specifically gives his advice on how to write successfully in the science
fiction and mystery genres in chapter 12. He gives writing advice in chapter 13
and publishing advice in Chapter 14. Chapter 15 is an exhaustive list of the
authors Koontz recommends reading including their best-known works. He believes
that to be a writer of popular fiction, you must read the popular authors to
learn how to write like them. A serious writer would want to read them all.
There are 101 authors named, and I have read works from 44 of them.
Recommendation
So, what is my opinion of the book? Koontz uses a conversational tone that establishes him as a mentor to the reader. The advice is solid and applicable for today. The examples are dated but also interesting. I can see why this book could not be updated. It would have to be completely rewritten with new examples and updated genre information so that is probably why Koontz has not done it so far. I am a better writer having read this book, so I am glad I purchased it. It is one of the best writing books I have read. If you enjoy writing, then I suggest buying or borrowing a copy.
War has come to the country of Adro in this gunpowder
mage fantasy. The main characters, Field
Marshal Tamas, Powder Mage Taniel Two-shot, and Inspector Adamat, seek to
liberate Adro from its enemies. The Brudanians hold Adro’s capital city of Adopest and the Kez army is
driving up through Surkov’s Alley. Taniel
and the main Adran army is stuck in between them.
Tamas and his two veteran brigades along with their Deliv allies are
hurrying to save the day. Can the two armies meet up in time? Can Taniel’s
savage priestess keep the sleeping god named Kresimir asleep keeping him from
destroying the whole world? Can the heroes win the war and save Adro from its
enemies?
Summary
This is the third book in the powder mage trilogy, so long-standing plot threads resolve though new ones start to set up the next trilogy in this series. Field Marshal Tamas threw over the Adran monarchy before the events of the first novel. He wants to develop a long-term plan to support a republic and throw out the foreign invaders of Adro. Tamas is a powerful powder mage. Powder mages ingest gunpowder by eating it or sniffing it. The powder gives them supernatural powers. Taniel, Tamas’s son, is also a powder mage. His talent gives him healing power, strength, and the ability to direct bullets from his gun to his desired target. Taniel loves fighting in the war but despises politics. Setting up a republic demands the election of a prime minister. The candidates are labor leader Richard, who wants Taniel as his running mate, and Lord Claremont. The election will have ramifications for Adro’s future.
Some people in this world have special abilities of a minor nature and they are called Knacked. Inspector Adamat’s knocked power is a photographic memory which helps him solves cases. He works for Tamas trying to learn about what is going on in occupied Adopest. Another type of magic power is used by the Privileged, who tap into an elemental power they call the Else. Bo is the last living member of the Adro Cabal, a group of privileged, and his apprentice is named Nila. The wildcard is Ka-poel who has a voodoo-like talent using dolls. Taniel brought her to Adro from savage Fatrasta during the time when he fought there. She is honor bound to him. He treats her like a younger sister sometimes, but at other times he thinks of her a potential lover. Vlora, another powder mage, was Taniel’s former lover and almost fiancé. She conflicts Taniel because they have feelings for each other despite their breakup. Olem is Tamas’s most trusted aide. He is romantically linked to both Nila and Vlora.
All these characters have come to Adro in this novel and must succeed in each one’s individual tasks doing their part to save the republic. An unexpected powerful enemy disrupts their plans and they must improvise or not just Adro, but the whole world will be in jeopardy of destruction.
Recommendation
The Autumn Republic was a great conclusion to the powder mage trilogy. The many viewpoint characters complete their assigned tasks and prepares for the final challenge. The conclusion changes the world forever but shows how the next trilogy will begin. The next trilogy is called Gods of Blood and Powder starting with the novel Sins of Empire which was released in 2017. Wrath of Empire was released in 2018 and Blood of Empire is scheduled to be released in 2019. I have a copy of Sins of Empire and will read it soon in 2019. Highly recommended. I suggest reading the whole trilogy, from the beginning to the end.
Jasmine
“Jazz” Bashara is a poor smugggler and thief on the moon colony of Artemis. She
dreams of being rich, but won’t get involved with drugs and guns though that is
where the most money is. That is until she gets an offer she can’t refuse. All
it’ll take is a little sabotage and she can retire with a million Artemisan
slugs. But the best laid plans never work and she must improvise or she’ll be
killed by a Brazillian drug cartel assassin or die with everyone else in
Artemis by poisoned air. How can she survive and get her money too?
Summary
Jazz came to Artemis as a little girl, she is 24 at
the time in the novel, so the moon is all she knows. Her father is a welder who
wants her to work with him, but she doesn’t want that boring vocation. She
works as a porter, waiting until her plans pay off. What she wants is to earn
her EVA license, so she can get big money conducting EVA tours at the Apollo 11
landing site for tourists, but she fails her test which sets the caper into
motion. She longs to pull off the big score. She’s small, smart, and sassy. The
novel is seen from her perspective. Any task she tries, she succeeds, but she
is usually unmotivated to try. Trond, a billionaire speculator, makes her an
offer she should refuse, but she decides to take it to accomplish her goal to
become rich. Jazz starts her scheme but must rely on her friends; techno geek
Svoboda, smuggler partner Kelvin, and her EVA master friend Dale, the gay guy
who stole her boyfriend for himself. All of them and Jazz’s father get involved
with her plans. To accomplish her goal, Jazz must face Rudy the cop, an
assassin, the Artemis colony leader, and the architect of the Aluminum smelter
that Jazz must sabotage.
Recommendation
I enjoyed reading this novel. It runs at a brisk pace. Jazz has a sarcastic voice like Mark Watney from The Martian, also written by Andy Weir, but she remains a young woman. Her challenges come quickly one after another. The science is woven into the story deftly. She analyzes her options and figures out ingenious solutions as she goes. The story barrels on to the end. The side characters are memorable, and the conclusion resolves the plot satisfactorily. Highly recommended.
As the
novel opens, Jasper enters the domain of the white circle, a guild of mages,
looking for a clue to the cure of the plague introduced in the first book of
the Cayn trilogy, Son of Cayn. Xandor and his crew follow the caravan that
holds the plague to the former human city of Cherigov, now held by orcs. Jasper
must find the cure and Xandor must defeat the orcs or the world faces devastation
by the wide release of the plague.
Summary
The first book of the trilogy set up this world and began the plague storyline. The main characters in this novel are Jasper the mage, Sehraine the elf magician, Xandor the ranger, Chert the dwarf priest, Yana the wind rider, Grendel the half-orc, and Sacha the conflicted princess. They head to Cherigov to discover the truth about the plague wars of around twenty years ago. Their opponents are Marko the knight-prince, Sacha’s brother, and the orc king. This novel moves quickly with a clear goal in sight. It is a fitting bridge novel by building up the story while setting up a rousing climax in the third volume of the trilogy.
Recommendation
I enjoyed this novel and am looking forward to reading the concluding volume of this trilogy, Blood of Cayn, due out soon.
Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card, Tales of Alvin Maker Book #2
Introduction
Alvin Miller is the seventh son of a seventh son which gives him special powers in this alternate history tale of America set in 1811 during the time around the historical battle of Tippecanoe. In this series, each of the important characters of European ancestry possesses a folklore talent called a knack. The Indians in the series have a connection to the land which helps them survive and prosper. The Indian way is threatened by the arrival of the settlers. Alvin is a bridge between Americans and the Indians. He must heal the land and broker a compromise, or the Americans and Indians will perish in a destructive war.
Summary
Historical figures are transformed into characters who may or may not resemble their real selves. The American characters keep their historical names like William Henry Harrison, Mike Fink, Andrew Jackson, and Napoleon Bonaparte. The Indian characters have transformed names like Ta-Kumsaw (Tecumseh) and his brother Lolla-Wossiky (Tensquatawa) aka the prophet. Locations also have transformed names like the Hio territory (Ohio), the Wobbish territory (Indiana), and Carthage City (Harrison’s fort at the crossing of Ohio and the Greater Miami rivers).
The main plot involves three characters. Harrison wants to take over the Indian territory of Wobbish and open it to settlers. Ta-Kumsaw wants to fight the Americans and wipe them out to send them back to Europe. Lolla-Wossiky prefers a path of non-violent resistance and builds an Indian town called Prophetstown. The three clash and young Alvin, through his Indian-like talent powered by the strength of the land, try to solve the problem. Through his efforts, Alvin earned the name Alvin Maker.
Recommendation
I wanted to read this novel because I recently read an excerpt novella named Carthage City published in the September 1987 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. I wrote a post on purchasing the missing 60 issues I didn’t have from Spring 1977 to March 2014 in this post titled Asimov Collection. The novella covered the story about the character named Hooch Palmer. It was the only section of the novel that did not involve Alvin.
I was interested in the background information and the magical system, so I bought a copy of the novel. I liked the novel. The only aspect of the novel I didn’t like was the narrative of bad American who is not of the land versus the noble savage Indians who are of the land. I took it as satire, over-exaggeration to prove a point about not thinking through actions. With that perspective, I would like to read the other five novels in the series.
Links
Red Prophet by Orson Scott Card.
This is the link to the Goodreads page of Red Prophet
by Orson Scott Card.
A book that shares some similarities to Red Prophet is Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin. Red Prophet is an alternate history where nature magic exists in America. Fevre Dream is a historical fantasy set in the past in America where vampire/werewolves come to America from Europe. The link to Fevre Dream by George R.R. Martin is linked below.
Black Echo by Michael
Connelly, Harry Bosch Book #1
Introduction
LAPD Hollywood Homicide detective Harry Bosch takes a case that appears to be a junkie overdose, but he soon finds out the case has links to his past. Bank robbers, street hustlers, and FBI agents complicate his case. He must follow the evidence to discover the reasons behind the murder and unmask the plot that traces back to the Vietnam War or face death from the perpetrators.
Summary
Bosch knows the murder victim, Billy Meadows. He was a fellow Vietnam War veteran that fell on hard times. Meadows and Bosch were tunnel rats in the war, who went into tunnels to find the enemy. Tunnel rats call the feeling they get when they were lost in the dark underground, the black echo. The job breaks many and the successful still suffer. The witness to the crime goes by the tagger’s name of Sharkey. He is a street hustler that Bosch searches for and finds. Bosch is contacted by the FBI because Meadows was suspected of being part of a bank-robbing gang that uses the underground LA storm sewers for their crimes. Bosch is partnered with FBI agent Eleanor Wish, with whom he starts a relationship. The various elements come together, and Bosch is tested both mentally and physically to solve the case.
Recommendation
I read this novel after I watched season three of Bosch on Amazon video. Season three was based on the novels The Black Echo, and A Darkness More Than Night. The season was released in 2017 and the novel was published in 2002. Because of the gap in time, certain things had to be changed on the show. Changes in technology were updated and the Vietnam War was changed to the Afghanistan war. The bank-robbing plot was changed to a stealing money plot. The biggest change was how Eleanor Wish was portrayed.
This is the first Bosch novel and FBI agent Wish is first introduced to Bosch in this novel. In the show, Wish and Bosch are divorced, have a high school-age daughter, and Wish lives in Vegas and is a card shark, no longer an FBI agent. The change with Wish was the thing that surprised me the most when I read the novel after seeing the TV show. I did not expect what happened in the plot and I like that. One thing that stayed the same was the character named Sharkey. What he did and where he ended up were the same on the TV and a novel. It was the perfect choice. I like this novel. I plan to read Angels Flight next because it inspired season four of Bosch (released in 2018), which I have also seen.
Links
Black Echo by Michael Connelly
This is the link to the
Goodreads page of The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
A book that shares some similarities to the Dead Key by DM Pulley. They are both mysteries where the key to solving the case is found in the past. The protagonist in the Black Echo is LAPD Hollywood Homicide detective Harry Bosch. The protagonist in the Dead Key is forensic engineer Iris Latch. The link to the Dead Key by DM Pulley is linked below.
Son of Cayn by Jason McDonald. The Cayn Trilogy Book #1
Introduction
Xandor the ranger has a mission from Marcus, the leader of the Kral’s Secret Service. Xandor must infiltrate a caravan headed out of the city of Pazard’zhik with his crew including Chert, Jasper, and Grendel. The caravan is smuggling soap. Soap? Yes, soap. Xandor’s crew must determine where and why the soap is being smuggled. The answer to those questions will task his courage and determination.
Summary
Jasper is hired as the caravan’s cook by the caravan leader, Dragahn. Dragahn drives the Chuckwagon and Jasper rides with him. The second wagon is driven by Sachin, the financier of the caravan who has just hired Grendel, a half-orc, as his bodyguard. The third wagon is driven by Pyotr, the horse doctor, with the cook’s helper Lucky sitting by his side. Xandor is a Ranger and Chert is a dwarven cleric. They try to discover the secret of the soap but are unsuccessful before the caravan leaves the city. They follow the caravan trying to complete their mission. The caravan goes through the Plague Lands, into the haunted forest, and approaches its destination.
Xandor and Chert fight deadly foes along the way. The people of the caravan must also contend with Marco the Knight, Kourash who is a beast, and the unnamed villain leader. Secrets are revealed, enemies are uncloaked, and the next book of the series is set up.
Recommendation
Son of Cayn is a brisk and well-drawn adventure quest. The novel was influenced by Dungeons & Dragons. There is a human Ranger, a dwarven cleric, a human mage, a half-orc, trolls, orcs, elves, and other fantastic beasts. The novel reminded me of the first law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie because both series are about a group on a quest and the setting is dark. I like the smuggling soap plotline. It was very inventive. There were a few things that could have been better. It took too long to establish that Marcus sent this crew to investigate the smuggling operation of the caravan. That should’ve been clearer earlier. There were one too many battles with Xander and Chert defeating a fantastic beast. They both almost get killed again and again and Chert heals them back to full health. Xandor’s powers, like the cat thing, appear unestablished.
My main issue was the villain wasn’t revealed until over halfway through the novel. Early viewpoints from the villain would have increased the tension. I like the Russian names and background including the references to the Christian church. The orcs and other beings are referred to as Sons of Cayn which is an interesting background element. I like Xander’s crew and plan to follow them on their next adventure in book 2 of the trilogy.
The Speed of Sound by Eric Bernt. Speed of Sound Thrillers Book #1
Introduction
Dr. Skylar Drummond has recently been hired at Harmony House. Harmony House is run by Dr. Fenton and is a place where kids with autistic disorders are housed. These kids were specifically picked by Dr. Fenton because they have savant knowledge along with their autism. Skylar connects with her patient Eddie Parks who has Asperger’s syndrome. Eddie’s project is to create a machine that can replicate sound waves, an echo box. He wants to hear his deceased mother sing. If he can make the device work, Dr. Fenton and other government agencies will take it from him. They will kill to get the device. Skylar cannot let them take it from Eddie.
Summary
Eddie Parks doesn’t want to be touched, he likes birds and has designed his room to specific sonic specifications. Skylar connects with him partially due to her experience with her deceased brother, Christopher. She helps Eddie rethink his echo box. Three factions want a working echo box. Barnes, Dr. Fenton’s security chief at Harmony House wants the box for Dr. Fenton to secure the funding for Harmony house. A mysterious group called the Heritage Foundation also wants it. They are a group that has money and connections inside the government. The Heritage Foundation put political candidates into office and assassinate undesirable targets. They want the box to record secret meetings. The third group is Homeland Security who wants the echo box to help in the war on terror.
Recommendation
This novel is a techno-thriller. Eddies’ echo box is the McGuffin that everyone wants. Events proceed quickly after the situation is set up. I thought that some of the choices of the author made the novel difficult to follow in the beginning. Giving viewpoints to characters only to kill them off did not help the reader to identify the important characters. The author’s head hopping, even sentence by sentence, disorients the reader. Readers should know that this novel ends abruptly and leaves plot threads incomplete to be addressed in the next novel in the series. I think that the next novel will be better than this one.
