Score: 90/100 (9.0 out of 10)
When it comes to world-building and mind-bending fiction, it doesn't get much more ambitious and intricate than Dreamworms by Isaac Petrov! This book is an obstacle course akin to something you'd see on American Ninja Warrior. It might leave you breathing hard and possibly make all the muscles in your head suffer from delayed onset muscle soreness. This book is a winding, weaving cobweb or yarn ball of incredible, impressive, amazing, and sometimes puzzling ideas all wrapped into one. Where do we start with this book? Where can we start? This is one of the most complex, labyrinthine stories we've ever seen—dreams inside of dreams inside of dreams with aliens and alternate histories wrapped inside of a post-apocalyptic, dystopian world in which people are executed before their 30s for the greater good and yet still sent to school to learn to do things. WOW. Just... WOW. In other words, the poor people in this world literally go to school for like 90% of their lives. It's hell! They're like mayflies. They exist only to exist and help a future generation to exist before dying. That's incredibly, remarkably tragic and frightening. What if this were real? What if YOU only lived to be 27? What if the government decided the time and the place of your death? What if you couldn't see your kids graduate, get married, and have kids? This book makes a bunch of profound sub-textual or meta-textual statements about the road that humanity is heading. It is clearly inspired by many of the events that have taken place recently, especially the pandemic and global warming. There is also something to be said about population control. The story takes place in times between 2399 AD to 2515 AD. The world has ended. The remaining humans have incredibly short lifespans and run the risk of carrying a deadly virus that could threaten any hope for a future for humanity. Someone seems to have developed a way around this: Dreamtech—a way for human beings to be able to extend the life of their consciousness and memories through dreamlike states or “dream movies.” This allows people to see things that may have happened even centuries before, preserving that memory presumably for eternity. There are some good characters in this book. The fan favorite is inevitably going to be Professor Miyagi, a character whose dialogue is filled with sass and sarcasm. He also has a bit of a potty mouth which raises the recommended age of readers. Another fan favorite may be Edda van Dolah—whose name kept reminding us of former Super Bowl champion receiver Danny Amendola—a legendary historical figure in the world of the book whose real life may have been very different from the “history” that's been taught to the populace. There's also the main protagonist, Ximena, who effectively comes across like your fairly average college student in an extraordinary circumstance. Ximena idolizes Edda and considers her a personal hero and role-model. Miyagi then turns her expectations upside down by revealing that much of Edda's supposed life-story has not been validated and that the accuracy of her merits is debatable. The main issues we had with the book is that it drags a lot and sometimes seems to have no clear plot. The author seems to get sidetracked a lot and want to tell us about things that ultimately don't matter beside adding some fluff and decoration, like characters' perceptions of Napoleon Bonaparte. Yes, we know, this is about how peoples' perceptions of events differ and how history is written by the victors, but we already got that from the rest of the book. This novel probably took us six to eight hours to read, and it felt like ten. Perhaps some things or “wrinkles” in the plot could've been simplified, ironed out, or cut entirely. If you like being moored to shore and feeling your feet touch the ground, this book might not be for you. If you're the kind of person who loves amusement part rides, haunted houses, lava lamps, and/or wants to be shot into outer space for the next Space-X experiment (dang the consequences), then this might be the book for you. This novel is off-the-walls. It reminds us a lot of The Future is a Memory by Charles Ross. Heck, it is almost identical in its subject matter. It shares some similarities with The Matrix and Inception, which is quite a flattering comparison for any work. If you're in for some mind-bending sci-fi, check out this book on Amazon!
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Score: 95/100 (9.5 out of 10)
Wow! We're impressed! Poems from Heartlands by Dr. C.A. Buckley is a masterful, sophisticated, elegant collection of poems. We have no choice but to give it our highest-ever rating for a poetry book. These poems show a level of refinement that we've rarely seen. It seems clear that Dr. Buckley is an experienced writer and poet. She has been sharpening her sword and honing her craft for years if not decades. We'd be shocked if this were her first rodeo. So, what makes us say all of this praise? Well, the answer is complicated. For one, Dr. Buckley really understands meter, consistency, repetition, and beats. She demonstrates a mastery of these things. In terms of meter and consistency, at least 80% of these poems (by our estimation) are beautifully tight and symmetrical. What exactly does that mean? Well, that means that ultimately means that they're well-structured and consistently structured. When the poet picks tercets, she sticks to tercets (as in “Villanelle”). When the poet picks quatrains, she sticks to quatrains (as in “The Ballad of the Swimming Dog”--arguably the best poem in the book). When the poet chooses to alternate between sestets and quatrains, she sticks to alternating between sestets and quatrains (as in “Death of a Populist”). Very rarely (if ever) do you find “orphaned” lines or words that just stick out like a sore thumb like in other poems out there. You do get times when the poet uses long stanzas, then sandwiches single lines between them for emphasis (as in “Hair”--a poem that says a lot more beyond its simple subject matter—and “To Scellig Michael with Aine”). In terms of repetition, look at the poem titled “Villanelle.” It hinges on the constant and consistent repetition of the motif “Life in itself is not enough.” This line occurs over and over again with new or evolving contexts. This is also masterfully executed in “To Scellig Michael with Aine.” There's no simple explanation for most of these poems, the interpretation is up to the reader. That's arguably the way poetry should be. The only thing we sorta didn't like about the book was the art including the cover. The art looks like doodles and doesn't match the regal, sophisticated, refined tone of the poems in the book. At the same time, this art is accompanied by hand-written parts of the poems. This might help the book to seem “lived in” and “effortful.” It's similar to when you see the sketches of Disney characters before their movies were released. It helps you to appreciate the journey and process. This is also the third-most religious poetry book we've read in the last three months, so keep that in mind as well. You can check this out on Amazon! Score: 90/100 (9.0 out of 10)
Sultry is a solid, suspenseful murder mystery novel full of red-herrings, twists, and turns! Just when you think you have this case all figured out, the author hits you with a surprise. In this whodunit mystery, there are culprits and potential culprits—suspects—around ever corner and around every nook and cranny. This novel came to us after reading perhaps 3-4 other murder mystery novels this season, all of them unique and interesting in their own way. That gave us some perspective and a measuring stick with which to judge this. There are two ways we're choosing to look at this book. First, this book is what we'd describe as “solid.” It does its job. It does what the reader probably purchased it for. It was interesting and entertaining at times, and the central mystery is truly compelling. It is also well-written and formatted. On another hand, there was just a strange feeling we had about this book that is difficult to describe. Let's just tell you our experiences. One of us was initially very interested, then got bored and put it down for three days before finally finishing it. One of us was also quite interested, then got lost, saying that maybe there was a twist or turn too many. They started and stopped, then started reading the book again over the course of a week. That's actually a very long time for one of us to read a novel, especially of this length and this genre. It felt like it was going to wrap up several times, but it didn't. It seemed to plod along through the midway point and into the conclusion. It felt too long. That doesn't mean it was long, but it felt long. Some of us were tired and/or physically and mentally exhausted from reading it. But look, here's the cold, hard truth about all that: this is a GOOD BOOK and we might just be jaded of the subject matter. Like we said, this is like the fourth one we've read in like three months. Let's give this good novel a fair shot and go over some of the plot. This novel follows Dillyn Fitzgerald, the granddaughter of a murdered man, Old Grand, as she takes it upon herself to catch the culprit(s) behind his murder. It is a cold case that the police seem to be dragging their feet on, offering little more than a hollow assurance that they are making daily efforts, daily efforts which end up equating to the length of a TV sitcom (30 minutes a day). While we wouldn't consider Dillyn one of the elite characters we've seen this season, she is definitely admirable as a character. If you look at her as an actual human being, she is brave, intelligent, and incredibly committed to her noble cause. She also has a critical/analytical eye and mind. You can't help but root and cheer for her. She is also a good person with strong ethics, and that clearly shows. Speaking of characters, the author does a good job at setting up multiple different suspects. There are so many character who could be involved in the murder conspiracy. She does this, for better or for worse, by making many of the other characters other than Dillyn seem sketchy if not despicable. Let's look at some of them. There is an enigmatic titular character, Sultry, the source of much of the mystery in the novel. She is the mysterious woman with whom Papa Grand (Dillyn's dad) had an affair, cheating on Dillyn's mother. This also creates one of the biggest conflicts in the story. Speaking of Papa Grand, Dillyn's dad is one of the biggest suspects and shadiest characters in this book. Clearly he is hiding and/or lying about something. Every time it seems like Dillyn is taking the initiative, her father will give her an attitude or express disapproval. What's a little interesting but also sometimes weird is that, despite being shady as all heck, he does express affection to Dillyn and seem to care about her. You can also sense the affection that Dillyn has for her dad as she constantly calls him “Daddy” despite her being a full-grown, mature adult. That's something that jumped out to us constantly as strange, but ok. There is also Detective Shannon, the police officer in charge of investigating the murder who has been dragging his feet for years. Very few positive words are spoken about Officer Shannon, which shines the light of suspicion on him. People even seem afraid of him and talk about him in hush tones as if he might seek retribution if they step over his toes. There are times when Shannon even seems to stand against Dillyn's efforts to solve the case, further casting suspicion on him. But the character we probably wanted to complain about the most is Bellamy Adkins (“Bell”), Dillyn's boyfriend and eventual fiance. He is such an insufferable jerk for much of this book. He just ambushes Dillyn with his marriage proposal, is almost completely insensitive to her desire to settle things with the investigation first, and continues to plow through any and all of her wedding plans—insisting on his own way. And what makes this especially annoying is that Dillyn thinks the world of this jerk, so does her and just about everyone else. While everyone is continuously praising this guy, we as readers just can't stand him. For that reason, he is also suspicious in this book. So, check it out on Amazon if you're into the murder mystery genre. It could be worth it! |
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