The Curse of the Sequel Persists...

Contagious - Scott Sigler   



Let down by two sequels in  row - that has to be some kind of record!

Let's be clear, my expectations for this book were WAY high. When I read Infected, it had me by the throat. Any time I wasn't at school or sleeping, I was reading that book.  Dishes?  Let them pile up. Papers to grade? They'll still be there in the morning. This one just didn't have the same effect - it took me a week to finish.

When the action picks up, Perry Dawsey has been successfully rid of his triangles physically although to say there is emotional backlash is an understatement. He has a lingering psychic connection to other triangle hosts, and is working with hard-boiled CIA agent Dew Phillips (my latest literary crush - I am determined that Xander Berkeley from 24 should play him in the movie, if there is ever a movie)...

Xander Berkeley

...and CDC scientist Margaret Montoya to track down new hosts of the strange disease. The main conflict for the first part of the book is that Montoya and Phillips are desperate for a live host in order to study and hopefully conquer the disease, while Perry's idea of "helping" is to kill the hosts on the spot.  Arguments ensue, but subside when it becomes evident that there is a new strain of the disease, much more threatening, and....wait for it...CONTAGIOUS. (And also spread in the GROSSEST WAY YOU COULD EVER IMAGINE.) (And no, it's not what you're probably thinking.)

One of the problems I had with this book is that there are just TOO MANY CHARACTERS.  Infected focused very tightly on the trio of Perry, Dew, and Margaret; there were supporting characters, but they were just that: supporting.  In this volume there are at least seven or eight characters who get their own point-of-view chapters, and I'm still not quite sure I could keep them all straight. One of them is one of the most disturbing villains I've ever read - a seven-year-old little girl who is a host of the new strain of the disease. And she's not disturbing in a Hannibal Lecter, oh-that's-kind-of-intriguing way; she's disturbing in an I-think-I-want-to-skip-to-the next-section-and-see-what Perry's-doing way. Shudder.

I also hated, hated, and give me one more HATED the ending.  It was a logical ending - perhaps the only logical ending - but I still hate it.  Damn you, Sigler, why did you have to leave your readers with a bad taste in their mouths? (An unfortunate metaphor, as you'll know if you read the book.)

3.5 out of 6 stars

Greeks Beat the Romans, Hands Down

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Reading this book, I got an inkling of what it would be like if J.K. Rowling wrote a new Hogwarts series, with Harry and Co. as mentors.

Don't do it, J. Ro.  Rick Riordan is a far more skilled writer than you, and he fell short of the mark.

In this first volume of his Heroes of Olympus series, Riordan introduces us to three new fledgling demi-gods: Jason, an amnesiac who learns that he can fly; Piper, a not-really-kleptomaniac; and Leo, the mechanical genius who is haunted by his mother's death at (he thinks) his hands.  In due course they find out who their godly parents are (some nice twists here - one of them is the child of the Roman aspect of one of the Greek gods) and shortly thereafter are off on a quest to save an imprisoned deity and, of course, stop the end of the world as we know it.

Oh, and that Percy guy? He's missing in action. He's mentioned a lot, but we never get to see him. (You'll find out why about two pages from the end, and yeah, that was a nice twist as well.)

I liked this book.  There was plenty of action, Leo and Piper are cool characters (Jason, the protagonist, is oddly un-charismatic for the child of a major deity) and the references to famous and not-so-famous myths are a blast. (What's better than a book that makes you feel smart.)  What I didn't get was the "Oh my god, I can't wait to read the next one, let me go on Barnes and Noble and order it RIGHT THIS MINUTE!" feeling.   Part of this, I think, was the fault of the shift from a first-person (which all of the Percy books had) to third person point of view.  One of the things I enjoyed about the first five books was Percy's smart-ass, sardonic narration, and that was sorely missed in this book.

4 out of 6 stars.

That Bug Bite Looks a Little Funny....

From B&N.com: "Across America a mysterious disease is turning ordinary people into raving, paranoid murderers who inflict brutal horrors on strangers, themselves, and even their own families."



The creatures who are responsible for the infection in Scott Sigler's Infection are not vampires. They're not zombies.  They might be aliens, but we're really not sure yet. What they are, completely and unequivocally, are CREEPY.  And the disease they spread, which attacks body and mind alike, starts with little bumps that look (and itch) like spider bites, but rapidly morph into something that Lovecraft could only dream of creating. I'm not going to give it away, but look at the cover of the novel for a hint...

Anyway, at the center of the story are three deeply flawed but somehow still likeable "heroes":  Long-time FBI agent Dew Phillips, who's out for vengeance after his partner is killed while trying to take down one of the victims of the infection; CDC scientist Margaret Montoya, who has an inferiority complex and the hots for one of her co-workers; and ex-football star Perry Dawsey, who has more at stake than anyone.  He's been infected, and, determined not to go out with out a fight,  is going mano a mano with the bug bites from hell.

This is not an easy book to read.  I don't mean the style; Sigler has a dry, smart-ass narrative voice with plenty of dark humor.  It is, to put it in the mildest way possible, GROSS.  And I'm probably understating. But if you've got a strong stomach, this not-quite-horror, not-quite-scifi thriller shouldn't be missed.  I've already bought the follow-up, Contagious, for the Nook.  5.5 out of 6 stars.

Ultra-Super-Mega Post

A few of the books I've read in the last six weeks, while enjoyable, can be summed up succinctly. Here are five quickies:

All Over the Map by Laura Fraser - Travelogue meets midlife angst.  Eat, Pray, Love without the charm. 2 out of 6 stars.

Being Nikki and Runaway by Meg Cabot - Teenage fluff, but with a smart, sarcastic narrator that makes them enjoyable for adults as well.  Female adults, anyway.  Female adults who remember being nerdy and scaring boys away by being smart.  4 out of 6 stars.

The Spice Necklace: My Adventures in Caribbean Cooking, Eating, and Island Life by Amy Vanderhoof - Not all mid-life travelogues are irritating.  Vanderhoof and her husband took a year off from life to sail around the Caribbean (chronicled in her first book, An Embarrassment of Mangoes) and, after retirement, decided to make sailing from island to island their way of life. I've been to many of the islands that she writes about, and it was fascinating to see the "behind the scenes," vicariously hanging out with the people who live in paradise.  The narrative is peppered with island recipes, and I am looking forward to making the Escoveitch Fish. 4 out of 6 stars.

The  Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver - It is a tribute to Deaver that I almost just typed, The Burning Wire by Lincoln Rhyme.  That's how real Deaver makes his characters in this latest volume in the chronicles of the quadriplegic crimefighter and his assistant/girlfriend Amelia Sachs, who in the novels looks absolutely nothing like Angelina Jolie. Anyway - this time, Rhyme is toe to toe with a killer who uses the ultimate, ubiquitous, invisible weapon - elecrtricity.   Deaver clearly does his homework in every novel, and I learned more about the Northeast Power Grid than I ever thought I'd need to know.  But if some passages drag with technical detail, the overall plot is gripping enough to make up for it.

Deaver has a gimmick: he throws in red herrings and plot twists, sometimes just a few pages before the end of the novel, that leave you smacking your head and saying, "What an idiot! Why didn't I see that coming?"  So, if a reader can go into a book knowing that the author has that gimmick....and the gimmick still works...well, I don't think the label "genius" is exaggerating. 5.5 out of 6 stars.

The One That I Want by Allison Scotch - Vaguely entertaining chick lit, but the characters were so shallow and one-dimensional that I didn't really give a toss if they found inner fulfillment. 1 out of 6 stars.

The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran - Remember in my very first post, about Cleopatra's Daughter, I said that I'd be working my way through this author's backlist?  I'm not wasting any time.  The set has switched from ancient Rome to ancient Egypt and re-wound 2500 years, and this time the narrator is Nefertari, niece of the heretic Nefertiti.  (I won't let my enthusiasm for Egyptian history run wild and bore the pants off of people who are NOT so interested, but if you want to know why she's a heretic, just ask. Or better yet, read the book!)  Nefertari is the constant companion of the heir to Pharoah's throne, Rameses, who will one day be known as Ramses the Great. He wants to make her his wife, but her family's tainted past causes all manner of strife and intrigue.

This books is fun to read just for the story, and the details and views into ancient Egyptian life are the icing on the cake.  Moran is another author who does her homework. (Rameses the Great was a redhead! Miw means cat!) I am trying to hold back on reading Nefertiti, as it's the last in her backlist, until she publishes something else. 5 out of 6 stars.

Spider Bones by Kathy Reichs - I tried to like the TV series Bones, truly I did.  But it can't hold a candle to the winning voice that Reichs gives to Tempe Brennan. In this latest installment, a man's body is found underwater - weighed down with a rock, dressed in women's clothing, and determined to be a victim of autoerotic asphyxiation gone horribly wrong.  Brennan and her team are quickly able to establish an ID based on  the victim's fingerprints, but there's only one problem - he died in Vietnam thirty-five years ago.

Interesting and fun to read for any fans of thrillers or crime novels, but especially those (like me) who like to vicariously live the life of a forensic scientist. All of the thrills, none of the smells.  Everyone wins!  4.5 out of six stars.

Faithful Place by Tana French - French is probably the most frustrating author I've ever encountered.  She writes engaging thrillers with sympathetic narrators - the fact that they're set in Ireland is an added bonus - but her conclusions just fizzle away.  She has you by the metaphorical balls for the first three quarters of a novel, and then the ending leaves you asking the fabled question, "Is that all there is?"  Faithful Place is no exception - gripping up until the last 50 pages, which are a total letdown. 3 out of 6 stars.


So that's where I stand eight weeks in, at twelve books. Two of them, Dexter is Delicious and Infected, deserve proper posts of their own, which I'll get to - eventually. Right now, I have to go and finish The Lost Hero, so I can give it to one of my students tomorrow.  And if I take this long to update again, give me a kick in the can, okay?

Cheers,
Joann

I have been reading, I promise...

...I just haven't been blogging!  Have read about 10 books since last I posted, but school has kept me "busy" (loose translation: just this side of bonkers) and whenever I'm on the computer I seem to have work to do.

I promise an update this weekend - they will probably be super-short, like thumbs-up/thumbs down, but I'll get it done!

Joann