Amped by Douglas E. Richards (Book Review Club)

Amped (The Wired Sequel)
by Douglas E. Richards
Paragon Press, 2013
Adult Science Fiction / Thriller

Dr. Kira Miller is a brilliant scientist who has found a way to increase both human longevity and intelligence. But there are downsides. Intellectual arrogance and a sociopathic disregard for lesser people come with enhanced intelligence and could lead to disastrous consequences. The government considers her dangerous and will do whatever it takes to catch her.

In Wired, she convinced David Desh, the operative sent to find her, that her intentions are not evil and that she was set up. After faking their deaths, she and David are secretly married and building a network of brilliant scientists to aid them. She guards her supply of gelcaps to make sure they are only used to enhance intelligence under controlled conditions or extreme duress.

In the prologue of the sequel, Amped, their enemies find them and attack their laboratory. Kira and David escape, but their colleague Ross Metzger isn't so lucky. Kira and David soldier on, until one of their scientists is abducted. This time the government's man is Colonel Morris "Jake" Jacobson who is convinced Kira is the most dangerous human on earth. A cat and mouse game ensues between the two sides.

At first, I found the beginning of the book a little slow and seemingly more of the same. The surprise in this sequel came in the form of a surprising and intriguing subplot involving a space probe approaching earth, apparently sent by an advanced alien society. It will take all of earth's scientists and leaders working together to solve this problem.

Amped is more high powered action combined with cutting edge science and philosophical discussion. Another great read from Douglas E. Richards that entertains while asking questions about the nature of humanity, the limits of intelligence, and the ability of humans to survive their own worst impulses. Enjoyable thriller.

As always, click on the graphic below for more great reviews.

Linda

Click icon for more
book review blogs
@Barrie Summy

Wrapped In The Flag (Book Review Club)

Wrapped in the Flag: A Personal History of America's Radical Right

by Claire Conner
Adult Biography
Beacon Press

Claire Conner was raised by parents who were in the inner circles of the John Birch Society. This is the story of her lifelong acquaintance with the psychology of the radical right. She wrote the book after seeing the rise of the Tea Party movement in 2010, which sounded all too familiar to her.

Though her parents tried hard to indoctrinate her, she had a mind of her own and was open to new ideas. Her parents were conservative Catholics who insisted their children attend only Catholic schools, which were often too liberal for the parents's comfort. Claire was mortified by her mother's numerous trips to the school office to complain about the curriculum. A sympathetic lay teacher gave Claire "plain wrap" books to read. (She literally had a shelf of books with plain brown wrappers on them, so Claire never knew what the book was until she opened it.) One was Black Like Me, which opened her eyes to the way racism operated in the Deep South. In the end, Claire went from devout Catholic to liberal Unitarian. (The pedophile priest scandal was the final straw.) I don't think her parents ever forgave her for abandoning the Church.

The  book is well-written, informative and I had a lot of sympathy for Claire and her siblings. It can't have been easy to be raised by narrow-minded, paranoid conspiracy theorists, esp. since they were also controlling as well as emotionally and physically abusive.

I remember the Birch Society being derided as nutty extremists, and nothing she said here made it seem otherwise. The founder and long-time leader, Robert Welch, had some very strange ideas, as well as a lot of the common prejudices of the early 20th c. He was both bigoted and anti-semitic (as were Claire's parents) and saw a Communist behind every bush. A Southerner by birth, Welch was also a racist. Some of his wilder theories made me laugh, since they defy all internal logic and show an astonishing ignorance of history and economics. Welch thought Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy & LBJ were all pro-Communist. Huh? His other big bugaboo was the much-feared New World Order, which was somehow being fomented by Communists and Jewish bankers! Because we all know how well those two groups have gotten along, historically speaking. The only thing that ever seemed to throw them was Reagan winning the presidency (to their delight) then turning out not to be quite as conservative as expected.

Overall, Wrapped in the Flag is a fascinating yet disturbing look at the radical right and their commitment, dedication and relentlessness. And now, thanks to the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, they are allowed to spend more money than ever before on candidates and political activism.  I admire the author's courage and honesty in exposing her life to public scrutiny, but I was a little discouraged when I finished it, though I think the book well worth reading.

Click here for more great reviews in Barrie Summy's Book Review Club.

Linda

Review: A Dozen Deadly Roses

A Dozen Deadly Roses 
by Kathy Bennett

2011, self-published
Romantic Suspense set in Los Angeles & Las Vegas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Jade Donovan is a training officer for the LAPD who is being stalked by an unknown enemy who leaves dead roses for her. It started with twelve roses, then each day another box arrives with one fewer rose. She fears what will happen when the roses stop coming. She has a four-year-old son who depends on her. Then her professional life is complicated by the return to the LAPD of Mac Stryker, her former alcoholic training officer and Donnie's biological father. Now the tables are turned.

Mac Stryker lost his job five years ago for being drunk on the job after losing his wife and daughter to carjackers. Now a recovering alcoholic, he is rehired but has to go through training under the guidance of his former student Jade Donovan. He still finds her attractive. For years, he's dreamed of making love to Jade, not realizing the dream is a memory.

When Mac figures out Jade is in danger, he springs into action to protect her and Donnie, putting her heart in danger, too.

This is an exciting fast-paced romantic thriller written by a former LAPD officer. The characters are sympathetic and the details of police work authentic. I look forward to reading more books by Kathy Bennett.

(Purchased from Amazon for my Kindle.)

Linda

View all my reviews

Wednesday Book Review: Inferno

Inferno

by Dan Brown

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dan Brown's Inferno starts with Robert Langdon waking up in a hospital room with no clue where he is and no memory of the last forty-eight hours. An attractive doctor named Sienna Brooks tells him he is in Florence and has amnesia due to being shot in the head. Fortunately, it was only a graze, but he is still disoriented. He has vague memories of scenes seemingly out of a horror movie and a white-haired woman telling him "seek and find". Things get even more perilous when a leather-clad woman bursts into the hospital and shoots another doctor. Sienna and Robert manage to escape to her apartment. There she shows him a strange artifact that had been found in his clothes that projects an image from Dante's Inferno but the picture has been altered, leaving him with a puzzle that must be solved within 24 hours to a global catastrophe.But as we and Robert learn, nothing is exactly as it seems.

Enjoyable thriller that give the reader something to think about in between the action sequences. I could tell more, but then you'd want to kill me!

View all my Goodreads reviews

Linda

Dear FCC: I checked this book out of the library.

Book Review: The Firebird

The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Nicola Martin is a London art dealer with a secret. When she touches an object, she sees glimpses of its past. Because of her family's history in oppressive Russia, she keeps her gift a secret. Then a woman comes to the gallery with a small wooden firebird, hoping it will bring her enough money to fulfill her dream of traveling around the world. When Nicola touches it, she gets a glimpse of a scene from the time of Peter the Great. However, her boss tells the woman her Firebird isn't valuable. But Nicola knows the woman is dying of a hereditary disease and decides to do her own investigation. But for that she needs the help of someone whose psychic talents are stronger than her own. She turns to Rob McMorran, a young Scottish policeman she once knew.

I've read several books by Susanna Kearsley and she is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. So far, her books have been set in Britain, so Firebird, with its Russian theme, seemed a departure. But as I began reading, familiar characters popped up. I was delighted to meet the grown-up Rob, whom I first met as a fey child in The Shadowy Horses and who is just as charming as an adult. And as he and Nicola continue to follow the trail of the Firebird, we learn the story of Anna, the child born to 18th c. characters from The Winter Sea.

Nicola and Rob follow Anna's wanderings from Scotland to Belgium as she is brought to safety with her Jacobite uncle. Later she becomes ward of Admiral Thomas Gordon and travels with him to St. Petersburg where he helps Peter the Great build his Navy.

Kearsley does a good job of interweaving the historical and contemporary stories. I found the glimpse into the Jacobite community in St. Petersburg a fascinating piece of unknown history.

If you enjoy the "story within a story" like Possession or The French Lieutenant's Woman, only with happier endings, give this one a try. 

View all my Goodreads reviews

Linda 

PS: Dear FCC, I pre-ordered a Kindle copy.

Book Review: The Killer Angels

(Note: Barrie Summie's Book Review Club is taking a break for the summer, but a few of us will still be posting reviews on the first Wednesday of the month.)

The Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
McKay, 1974

This July marks the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the subject of Michael Shaara's 1975 Pulitzer Award-winning masterpiece. I read it about ten years ago and was absolutely mesmerized. Even though it's a fictionalized account of the battle, it doesn't seem to stray far from the facts, and most of the characters in the book were real people.

The title comes from one of the characters, Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain of  Maine, recalling a time he quoted from Hamlet to his father: "What a piece of work is man...in action how like an angel!" His father's response was, "Well, boy, if he's an angel, he's sure a murderin' angel."

Shaara leads us through the events of the three-day battle, which took place July 1-3, 1863. I never really understood the battle until I read this book. Famous places like the Devil's Den and Little Roundtop seem real, and the people involved come alive in his prose. This is a masterful book, one that alternately moved and horrified me. It is one of those books that once read will not be forgotten.

At least one of my ancestors fought in that battle and was wounded, so I have a personal connection, though the only time I visited the battlefield park was when I was too young to remember it.

Since I can't be there for the reenactment on this sesquicentennial occasion, I dug out my copy of the DVD to watch tonight. The movie Gettysburg, starring Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen and Jeff Daniels, is based on Shaara's book, and I think everyone involved did a great job of bringing it to screen. The only odd note was the counter-intuitive casting of Martin Sheen as General Robert E. Lee, but he does his usual fine acting job. The real star of the movie though, in my mind, is Jeff Daniels, who seemed to channel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. The physical resemblance between the two is eerie, and the interplay between Daniels and C. Thomas Howell, who played Lawrence's brotherThomas, is quite touching. The pointless, insane pageantry of Pickett's Charge always makes me cry.

Wikipedia has more information on both The Killer Angels and Gettysburg.

A perfect choice if you're looking for a good book or movie to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Happy Independence Day!

Linda