Alan's "Whatever" Blog

The Prisoner of Cell 25 is a YA novel that follows a high school student named Michael Vey who has a very unusual secret, he can control electricity.  As with most YA novels this one starts out with Michael in high school, he's not one of the popular kids and only has one true friend.  He gets picked on a lot and because he's trying to keep his "powers" secret, he can't fight back against the torment.  Michael of course is in love with the hottest girl in school, Taylor Riddley.  One day when Michael is leaving school three bullies start jump him, after a little bit of scraping Michael reaches his breaking point and zaps the three other boys.  Taylor who is leaving cheer practice see's all this take place, and now she know's his secret.  Come to find out Taylor has electrical powers as well, although they differ from Michael's.

All in all this was a pretty fun read, nothing too deep and meaningful though.  I've heard the term "mind candy before and I think that fits this book pretty well.  It doesn't do anything different, and pretty much follows the same pattern as the rest of the YA.  I also noticed a few grammatical errors, but those don't really bother me unless it gets REALLY bad.

Pretty good YA read so far, following the same lines as every other YA novel.  The non-popular kid in high school has amazing powers and is in love with the hottie cheerleader.

So the first half of the novel is about how Michael deals with high school and the second half is how he deals with the people who want to exploit his power.  Typical YA novel but fun none the less.

**Spoiler Warning**

Just to for warn any one who hasn't read the first two books, there's going to be major spoilers from both of those books.

Recap

In book one we saw Alex, an average 14 year old teenager from Cedar Falls Ohio, after having an argument with his mother he's left home along while his parents take a trip to Illinois to see his uncle.  While he's home along a super volcano erupts and puts the world into turmoil.  After the initial shock he decides to try and make the trek to Illinois to find his parents.  On the way he runs into trouble and even though he escapes he is still injured in the process.  Fortunately he comes across a girl and her mother living on a farm, surviving on corn that they dig up from under the ashfall. The girl, Darla, and her mother nurse him back to health.  Then a few weeks later, while Darla and Alex are in town trading for supplies, their farm is attacked.  Darla's mother is killed and the farm is burned.

With nothing to keep Darla she goes with Alex to Illinois in search of his parents.  They have more adventures, some of which involve a FEMA refugee camp that's run like a prison camp, and all the while a young love blossoms between Alex and Darla.  Once they finally reach his uncles house, half dead from their journey they find out that his parent's have left to go look for him. 

The second book takes place six months later, in this one we watch as Alex and Darla to strike out in search of his parents.  While hunting for his parents they run into a gang of cannibals, and Darla ends up captured.  Now with Darla captured he must first try and rescue her and then search for his parents.  While he's trying to find out where they took Darla he again gets stuck in a FEMA camp, and amazingly he finds his parents stuck in the same camp.

After they escape from the FEMA camp Alex is dead set on rescuing Darla even though his mother is against the idea.  During the rescue, Darla and Alex's father are shot, Darla survives but unfortunately his father does not.  To make matters worse, when they return home they find that the neighboring town attacked, and took over their town.  Now the town citizens are living in a tent city around Alex's uncle's farm.

Sunrise Review

As with the first two books, this one is told in a first person format from Alex's POV.  The book opens up with the towns people of Warren getting ready to mount a counter attack to retake their town.  The battle doesn't go down the way they planned and a lot of people end up dead.  That night Alex gets a few volunteers to go to Stockton and lead a sneak attack and take over Stockton while most of Stockton's people are raiding Warren's food reserves.  Alex takes the leader of Stockton captive and ends up make a deal to get Warren back, although he has made an enemy out of Stockton's leader, and he's bad dude.

Overall this one is as good as the first two, it really shows the growth of Alex and Darla's characters.  Unlike the last couple of books this book told over the course of two years.  Even though at first Alex doesn't like it, people tend to look to him for leadership even though he's only 16.  I enjoyed watching him grow into that role, and accept that people would follow his lead.

Through all three book Alex and Darla's romance has been a side story.  In the first book we watched the start of their romance, in the second book Darla gets kidnapped and Alex runs into the beautiful Alyssa, and even though Alex doesn't have feelings for her, that doesn't mean Darla has to like her.  In the third book we see their romance take the next step as they build a safe community together.

One of the big controversies is between Alex and his mother, see his mother is blaming Darla for the death of Alex's father.  His father went with Alex to rescue Darla in the second book and ended up getting killed, and now his mother is having a hard time dealing with that.  Alex is now caught between the two women he cares most about, all he wants is for them to get along.

I didn't really feel like there was one main mission in this book, like in the first two books.  That didn't detract from the book however, felt it was very well done, and I loved watching Alex overcome one obstacle after another.  Just as in the first two book this one had a plenty of brutal scenes, showing mankind at it's worst.  This book is classified as a "young adult" but if I had kids I don't think I'd let them read this until they were more mature.  That being said, I think Mullin does a good job showing what the world would be like if a super volcano really did erupt.

Oh another thing, the ending was awesome, not going to tell you anything about it, just know it ends well.

I think after reading "Sunrise" I'm feeling in the mood for more YA reading, and this one's starting pretty good.

I finished this on Sunday, but wasn't feeling well yesterday so I'll be working on the review a little later.

Woot!! I forgot all about this book that had just come a couple months ago.  Bam!  Book withdrawal over.  Now let the new binge begin!!

Ugh..this really sucks, I try starting one book, can't seem to get into it.  So I try another, that just doesn't feel right either!  

It's been a while since I've read a book that I've enjoyed this much, it's told in a third-person point of view with many different story lines running at same times.  The first and most prominent of which follows Mike Streans, a mine worker and president of the mine workers union from West Virginia.  He's attending his sister's wedding when there's a flash of light and all the power goes out.  When Mike goes outside to check on things everything looks normal until he spots smoke rising in the distance.  So of course being the hillbillies that they are, Mike and a bunch of his friends all grab their guns and go out to investigate.  They end up finding is a small group of 17th century German soldiers raiding a peasant farm, they intervene and so starts an adventure where a small town from 21st century West Virginia is thrust into the middle of the 13 years wars in 17th century Germany.

While I found the author's writing style slightly hard to read, it did not detract from the story any.  The characters are all very well fleshed out, as well as showing good character growth over the course of the book, which encompassed a year in their timeline.  One aspect that I usually don't like in most books it the multiple stories going on at once, but in this one I didn't mind it, enjoyed it actually.  It's probably because of the authors ability to write such engaging characters.  The beginning revolved mainly around Mike and Rebecca(his romantic interest), showing how her and her father acclimated to the way of life of the Americans. 

My favorite character has got to be Gretchen, she was introduced mid way through as a slave in one of the small raiding parties that have been roving across the countryside.  Her, and her younger brother and sister were taken as slaves 4 years before when her village was raided and her parents were killed. Because of her great beauty she was able to help protect her younger siblings by becoming the concubine of the party's leader, and also becomes somewhat of a surrogate mother to other children  taken as slave from other villages.  

Gretchen finds herself thrown in with the Americans when her raiding party joins up with the main army to lay siege to the America town.  The battle is virtually non-existent due to the superior firepower of the Americans.  The thing I liked best about her is her strength, while Rebecca is a strong female character in her own right she never had to endure the hardships that Gretchen did.  It shows in her later on, after she has settled into life with the Americans she sets up a spy network with some of the other prostitutes in the surrounding towns.  She becomes an integral part of the Americans military efforts, and is absolutely unforgiving when it comes to an enemy which is threatening her or her new family.  

Now for the things I disliked, there really wasn't much.  First, I felt it was really odd how non-existent the rest of Mike's family was, his sister had a little bit part in the very beginning at her wedding, and then half way through she got maybe two more lines.  Mike's mother had no scenes at all and was later explained away as being an invalid.  Now I don't know about you but even if my mother is an invalid she, and my sister, would be a major part in my life, especially in those circumstances.  I just think he should have had more interaction with his family, I know the second book has his sister being held captive in another country so maybe she'll be featured a little more in that one.

The second thing that sort of bothered me was how the author went into overview mode at around 70% and lasted until around 83%, it was almost like he was trying to fill space until the ending, which by the way was really good.

On a whole this was really a great book, it does a good job showing the different issues caused by the differences between our 21st century society and their 17th century society.  Things that were thought acceptable back then are now thought to be heinous crimes.  

One thing to note though, I am not very knowledgeable about that time in the worlds history, so I'm really not sure how historical accurate some of the events taking place in this book are.

This is a topic near and dear to my heart, and I believe I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't share this with everyone I meet online, offline, or in seedy bookstores where they charge fifty cents for an entire bag of hardcovers.

LaVar Burton needs our help in bringing back Reading Rainbow. Either you grew up watching this show, or you watched your children and grandchildren enjoy this amazing program. The fact is, this show works. It's been proven time and time again that reading to your child not only serves to create a future lover of literature, but increases your child's chance of not becoming Honey Boo-Boo. 

All jokes aside, GIVE ALL THE MONIES!!! I plan to go slap-broke sponsoring this Kickstarter, and I suggest you do the same. Do it for yourself. Do it for the children. Do it for our future. 

My name is Edward Lorn and I approve this message.

Link to Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/readingrainbow/bring-reading-rainbow-back-for-every-child-everywh

It's kinda odd, I blew through the first 70% of this book, absolutely loved it. It was very character driven, giving a good, indepth look into the characters interaction with eachother and the new world around them.

Now, the last 15% or so that have read, has read like a history book. It's reading like an overview, stating the events taking place rather then actually watching the characters live through them.  Might get better though, when I get to the finale scene.

I started this one yesterday morning, and I literally had nothing to do all day(nothing important anyway).  Now I'm 70% through, if that's any indication on much I'm enjoying this one.

The writing is a little hard to follow at time, but hasn't detracted from the story so far.  I've really enjoyed the concept of a modern day town being stuck in 17th century Germany.  Mr. Flint does a good job showing the difference in POV's, switching between the Americans and Germans.  

Once a long time ago a village, in what is now known as Ireland, came under attack by a neighboring village.  They killed most of the young men, and kidnapping most of young women as slaves.  So the village elders got together and made a deal with the Celtic god of the underworld, Sanheim.  They agreed to sacrifice a young man and woman, they tied the couple to a tree and left them for Sanheim.  The next day the couple came back to the village, while they looked the same, they had definitely been changed from their experience.  The couple then went to the neighboring village, killed everyone, and brought the kidnapped women back home.  As legend has it, if the right two people, a man and woman, can face the trials of Sanheim and pass they will be blessed with powers not of this world.

This is the legend that underlines this book, which is pretty cool too because it is based off of different Celtic folklore.(I linked a webpage at the bottom where I found some info on Sanheim, it was pretty interesting.)  

The book follows two newspaper reporters hunting a serial killer who is making a reemergence after a 12 year hiatus.  It is told in a 3rd person format from many different POV's, but mainly it follows either Quinn and Kate, the hero and heroine.  Quinn works as beat reporter for a failing local newspaper.  He is, also having nightmares in which he is running away from a shadowy horseman, and the nightmares only occur during the month of October.

Kate, in my opinion, is the more interesting character, she has more depth and background.  I can't get into it too much without giving away the story, but she is coming back to her childhood home after having moved away under suspicious circumstances.  She is also a reporter, and has just started working for the same paper as Quinn.  Quinn first sees her in a coffee shop and is instantly drawn to her, while Kate's attraction to Quinn takes a little more time to unfold, even though she feels that there's some sort of connection between them.

On a whole I really enjoyed this book, it follows the same basic rules as any good serial killer mystery, but then throws some paranormal in just to make it fun.  As with most books the serial killer is made out to be invincible and is always one step ahead of the heroes, all the while taunting them with little notes he leaves behind.  The only problem I had with this book was how the killer seemed too invincible.  I felt the killer was able to get into places unseen and unheard that would not be humanly possible if it weren't written in a book.  

Even with that little problem I still really liked the book.  With many thrilling suspenseful scenes, a few touching heartfelt scenes, and even a little comedy relief you really can't go wrong if your a fan of either the paranormal or thriller genres.

So we have the two main characters having freaky, realistic dreams.  Other people seeing apparitions of a headless horseman with a sword, but then he just disappears without a trace.  And to top it all off we have a psycho going around killing people, calling himself Lord Halloween.  It's shaping up to be a pretty good read!

Just starting this one, it sounds really good so here's hoping!!

This was a very fun read, lots of tongue and cheek humor, lots of good action scenes with a little dash of romance thrown in to make the story complete.  The world building wasn't the greatest but it was good enough not to detract from the story.  The characters are what drives this book.  Throughout the book the main character has flash backs that does a good job of explaining his back story and why he makes the decisions he does later in the book.  As well as, later on, switching between Jazen's POV and the Alien's perspective, which gives you a good feel of how things look through his eye's

This book starts out following Jazen Parker almost exclusively in a first person format, he has been discharged from the army under some what suspicious circumstances.  Now he has been hired by a millionaire big-wig, who wants to hunt one of the most dangerous creatures in the universe, which can only be found on an obscure, out of the way planet.  

What starts out as a big game hunt adventure quickly changes into a race to try and save an alien race, which are thought to be nothing more then sub-intelligent beasts, but are actually much smarter then the humans could ever imagine. 

I'm having fun reading this, there's been some good action scenes, some comical scenes, and even a little romance.

She smiled down on me as the day ebbed behind her.  Her cheeks scrubbed pink, her fine blod hair was pulled back and she smelled of soap and water.

 

I'm not one to impress a date by making her dinner, but I can squeeze a Meal Utility Dessicated until its internal heat triggers, as well as the next GI.  I could mix a tube of buttery alfredo sauce with a couple tubes of marini fila, which would showcase my romantic side

 

I said "You busy tonight?"

Yup that's my kinda romance!