Showing posts with label sci fi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sci fi. Show all posts

Apr 19, 2016

Book Spotlight: BLOODLINES - AWAKENING by K.D. Harris

Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter, First Paragraph every Tuesday. Share the first paragraph(s) of your current read or book interest, with information for readers. Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books And A Beat.

BLOODLINES - AWAKENING Prequel to Medusa from the Lark Song Chronicles by KD Harris, published February 20, 2016 by Xlibris. Genre: YA fiction, fantasy

KD Harris' new novel immerses readers in Caribbean mysticism and young adult adventure, fantasy

Prologue, first paragraphs:
Though Cora's and Charlie's day together was coming to an end, they intended to squeeze every last drop from the time they had left. The two, though nineteen and twenty, though appearing to be no more than twelve, sat side by side on the bus, surrounded by other individuals, conversation and music.

The song playing on the bus's radio was "Boom, Shaka Laka," the hit song by Hopeton Lewis. It was 1970, and that was the winning festival song for Jamaica's independence celebrations. Some were moving to the beat and singing along....


First chapter, first paragraphs:
Charlie's first memories were of his grandmother, Matilda Wright, Mattie, or Miss Mattie,whom he called Gmaa. She was his world. 
He lived with her in the small country village of Maggoty, in the parish of St. Elizabeth, on the south coast of the island of Jamaica.  
Charles never knew his father. He had died before the boy was born. Charles' mother, Agatha Wright, otherwise known as Mumaa, Agatta, or Gatta, would come to see Charles on Saturdays at his grandmother's house.  
Agatha looked very much like her mother, Miss Mattie. They both had dark skin, broad faces and bright smiles. They were stocky in build and had bright shiny black hair. They both usually wore their hair in the same way - one plait which hung to their waists. The hair was inherited from Gamaa's father who was of East Indian descent. 
    From the publisher: 
"BLOODLINES – AWAKENING” focuses on two children - Cora and Charlie - growing up in two incredible families in rural Jamaica. Some members of these families can make things disappear into nothingness, others seem to effortlessly kill and maim at will. Thrown into this mix, there are loving relationships but also domestic abuse and neglect. Harris uses a combination of Jamaican patois and standard English to introduce the reader to Jamaica's intoxicating sights, sounds, smells and tastes, transporting them to a magical world where paranormal events are not that unusual, and wonder and danger become almost indistinguishable. 
More information about this novel and other books in the LARK SONG CHRONICLES, visit BloodLines - Awakening or Harris's first book, Medusa: The Beginning

About the Author
“Bloodlines” is KD Harris’ second novel. Her first, “Medusa: The Beginning,” published in 2007, received rave reviews. Since then, she has written six more novels and a miniseries for TV. This second novel, though penned for young adults, will also attract the young at heart who delight in seeing wrongs made right and do not mind shedding a few tears or having a good laugh. Harris has authored short stories, poetry and plays which were performed by local drama groups. She is a regular contributor to the blog Four Friends and Their Friends. 

Harris was born and grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. Attending university in the United States, she graduated with a Ph.D. in higher education. Excerpts of her writing can be viewed online at Medusa the Beginning by Kathi Harris, and in Kathi Harris’s Book Corner, also on the blog Four Friends and Their Friends. This author lives with her family in Ohio.

By KD Harris
Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 328 pages | ISBN 9781514433683
Softcover | 6 x 9in | 328 pages | ISBN 9781514432457
E-Book | 328 pages | ISBN 9781514431931
Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Apr 7, 2013

Sunday Salon: New Books for April

The Sunday Salon.com Welcome to the Sunday Salon! Also submitted to Mailbox Monday hosted by Mari Reads. Visit to see the new books of other bloggers.

A few surprises plus two books I requested and got! How cool is that?

First the surprises:



Title: Paper: An Elegy by Ian Sansom
Published October 25, 2012; Fourth Estate
Book description: A history of paper, in all its forms and functions. Both an international cultural study and a series of personal reflections on the meaning of paper, the book is a timely meditation on the very paper it's printed on.


Title: Out of Range: A Novel by Hank Steinberg
Publication: June 4, 2013; ARC from William Morrow
Book description: In Uzbekistan, journalist Charlie Davis was wounded when the government fired on a group of protestors he was covering on assignment. He and his pregnant wife, Julie, barely escaped. Years later on a trip to Disneyland with their children, Julie vanishes. Charlie soon discovers this isn’t a random abduction and Julie isn’t who she seems to be. She’s been harboring dark secrets that have come back to terrorize them.

Ooh, suspenseful. Can't wait to read it!

Two books I hoped to get:


Title: The Cooked Seed: A Memoir by Anchee Min
To be published May 7, 2013; ARC from Bloomsbury
Book description: In 1994, Anchee Min made her literary debut with a memoir of growing up in China during the violent trauma of the Cultural Revolution, Red Azalea. The book propelled her career as a critically acclaimed author.Twenty years later, Min returns to the story of her own life as an immigrant to the U.S., from the deprivations of her homeland to the sudden bounty of America, without language, money, or a clear path.


Title: A Natural History of Dragons: a Memoir by Lady Trent by Marie Brennan
Published February 5, 2013; Tom Doherty Associates
Book description:  All the world, from Scirland to the farthest reaches of Eriga, know Isabella, Lady Trent, to be the world’s preeminent dragon naturalist. She is the remarkable woman who brought the study of dragons out of the misty shadows of myth and misunderstanding into the clear light of modern science. A science fiction and fantasy novel.

Now if these don't pique your curiosity, as they do mine....

What's your Sunday like? 

Feb 18, 2012

Movie and Book: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguru



I saw the movie Never Let Me Go on TV yesterday and it's still haunting me today. Based on the book of the same name, this is dystopia, sci-fi at its best, in one sense, and its worst, in another.

Have you read the book and seen the movie, and what do you think? Should I read the book, which I have on Kindle, or will it just disturb me more? It's a great story and the movie was very well done, but.....I don't normally read dystopia!


Title: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ichiguro
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Vintage; Mti edition (August 31, 2010)
Genre: dystopia

Publisher's description:
A devastating novel of innocence, knowledge, and loss. As children Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were students at Hailsham, an exclusive boarding school secluded in the English countryside. It was a place of mercurial cliques and mysterious rules where teachers were constantly reminding their charges of how special they were.

Now, years later, Kathy is beginning to look back at their shared past and understand just what it is that makes them special–and how that gift will shape the rest of their time together. Suspenseful, moving, beautifully atmospheric, Never Let Me Go is another classic by the author of The Remains of the Day.

Dec 29, 2011

Book Review: The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees


Title: The Demi-Monde: Winter by Rod Rees
Hardcover: 528 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (December 27, 2011)
Objective rating: 3/5

"The Demi-Monde:

1. A subclass of society whose members embrace a decadent lifestyle and evince loose morals.
2. A shadow world where the norms of civilized behavior have been abandoned.
3. A massive multiple-player simulation technology that re-creates in a wholly realistic cyber-milieu the threat-ambiance and no-warning aspects of a hi-intensity, deep-density, urban Asymmetric Warfare Environment.
4. Hell.

Welcome to the Demi-Monde, the ultimate in virtual reality—a military training ground and vivid, simulated world of cruelty and chaos run by psychopaths, madmen and fanatics. If you die here, you die in the Real World . . ." (publisher's description)

My comments: I started out liking Chapter 1 and thought it would be fun to read the rest of the book. The premise was promising: an 18-year-old jazz singer Ella Thomas is sent into the shadow world of the Demi-Monde to find the missing daughter of the President of the U.S., a girl who entered a simulated world that is too lifelike, full of history's most notorious characters, and extremely dangerous.
However, I soon found the book was not for me, for the following reasons:
1. I would have preferred new villains instead of the old ones rehashed - the bad guys in history showing up again and again in this book.

2. I was put off by the names of the groups, names which made it hard for me to take the book seriously. UnFunDaMentalism is the name of the new religion in the ForthRight. Then there is HimPerialism, another religion in an Arabic sector. There are the HerEtical Sisters of Suffer-O-Gettism who serve the witch Jeanne Dark. These names all seemed to me extremely silly (my apologies to the author). Add to the groups "the Zulus and the Chinks"....need I say more?

Here is some of the dialogue: "I need an assistant, Miss Thomas - a beautiful, vivacious and intelligent assistant - who can assist me in the execution of certain elements of theatricality I, through necessity, have been obliged to incorporate into my performances."
Ella smiled."So you want me to be your assistant flimflammer?"  (ch. 16. This is taken from an uncorrected proof. The final copy may differ.)

The book has been nominated for prizes in England. I don't know how it will do in the U.S.

About the author: Rod Rees lives near Derby, England. He has traveled throughout Africa, the Middle East, Bangladesh, and Russia. The Demi-Monde: Winter is the first in a planned four-book series.

I won an ARC of  this novel from the publisher.

Nov 17, 2010

Book Review: The End of Marking Time by C.J. West

Title: The End of Marking Time
Author: C. J. West
Paperback: 284 pages
Publisher: 22 West Books (May 22, 2010)
Source: Review copy provided by the author
Genre: Sci-fi, dystopia

Product description: Gifted housebreaker, Michael O'Connor, awakens inside an ultramodern criminal justice system where prison walls are replaced by surveillance equipment and a host of actors hired to determine if he is worthy of freedom. While he was sleeping, the Supreme Court declared long term incarceration to be cruel and unusual punishment and ordered two million felons released. The result was utter chaos and the backlash from law-abiding citizens and police departments reshaped the United States. Felons now enter reeducation programs where they live freely among the population. At least that's what they think. In reality they are enslaved to an army of counselors and a black box that teaches them everything they failed to learn from kindergarten through adulthood. Michael believes he's being tested by the black box, but what he slowly begins to realize is that everything he does is evaluated to determine whether he lives or dies. (amazon)

My comments: I expected a traditional thriller and was surprised by a dystopian futuristic novel in which felons are controlled and watched to an extreme degree by the government. The plan for rehabilitation and training sounds like a good one, but the punishment for failure to comply with the rules are pretty harsh. Be prepared for a surprise ending in this very unusual and inventive novel, as you follow the very human Michael trying to survive the minefield process of being turned into a model citizen.

Objective rating: 4 out of 5 for inventive plot and characterization.

Sunday Salon: Letting Go of September by Sandra J. Jackson

  Books reviewed Letting Go of September by Sandra J. Jackson, July 31, 2024; BooksGoSocial Genre: thriller , family drama Themes: reflectiv...