880. "The Eye That Never Sleeps" by Clifford Browder – 4 Stars

The Eye That Never Sleeps – 4 Stars

Clifford Browder

ISBN 9781684332335         

New York City in the mid nineteenth century is described in vivid detail. Both the decadent activities of the wealthy and the struggles of the common working class portray the life of the city. The historical aspect of the novel is outstanding’

The characters are well developed. Nicholas Hale, a narcissist bank robber, loves the game of chance and the seedy side of life. Sheldon Minick, a private operative hired to find the person robbing city banks, struggles to be the proper Methodist husband while experiencing all aspects of New York City. An arrangement made between the two is unique and carries the action.

Supporting characters, the parrot owner, the very proper Mrs. Minick, a professor studying phrenology and many others add to the entertainment and color.

The arrangement between Hale and Minick seems unlikely, but it makes an interesting story and is the focus of the plot. It is best not to analyze it too deeply and just enjoy the story.

This is a well researched historical mystery that paints a panorama of the people and life in mid 1800 New York City. It is interesting and entertaining.

Reviewer: Nancy

 

879. "Red Sunrise" by Simon Laffy – 5 Stars

Red Sunrise  by Simon Laffy – 5 Stars

Publisher: ACM Retro Ltd.

ISBN: 9781908431486

This story about a Naval Commander begins during the last year of WW II and ends just after the Bikini atomic bomb test. In just about three or so years, Commander Jack Sampson’s life is presented -- victories, tragedies, struggles, injuries, love, content, bravery, sacrifice.  All of these fall in the category to-the-extreme. The history lesson in this novel is both the war with the Japanese and then the United States’ atomic program controversy after the war with decisions affecting humanity.

I always love the historical parts of the author’s stories which make you do your own research to verify fact from fiction. How much of a challenge existed to defeat the Japanese at sea? How was it accomplished? What were the effects of the bombs on Japanese cities? What were the United States’ strategic plans for follow-on nuclear research? Where and how did the Bikini tests get executed? What was the result of the tests and impact on the natives then and still now?

However, this story in particular was more about the life of Commander Sampson. Being a Navy veteran, living in New Mexico, working at Los Alamos, always having a desire to sail, and often fantasizing about living on a island of paradise, I cherished every detail. It climaxed as expected with the Commander finally coming to grips with his past, enjoying the present, and committing and taking action to secure the future despite overwhelming odds. The lessons learned from his life clarify what we all should be focused on and exhibit. Thanks Mr. Laffy for another great book.

  

Reviewer: Rich

878. "Seed of Satan" by Simon Laffy – 5 Stars

Seed of Satan by Simon Laffy – 5 Stars

Publisher: ACM Retro Ltd.

ISBN: 9781908431349

Like in his fabulous third book Fire of the Sun centered around the conspiracies of nuclear research by the Nazis during WW II, the author this time stretches history a bit and contrives a story about the Nazi’s research of biological weapons and germ warfare during WW I which leads to a world-wide, deadly, uncontrollable influenza epidemic. The plot may not be real, but his story introduces a conspiracy about how the Nazis created and accidentally released a deadly virus. He selects Karl Ziegler, a real character and a Nobel Prize winner, as his villain and adds the military and spy adversaries during WW I as the players. The specifics and details that portray the war, from aviation developments and encounters, to the war in the trenches in Europe, the German raids on the Allies, and then the victories of the Allies over the Nazis will remain ingrained in my memory.

The Karl Ziegler in this book converses and is led by dead well-known scientists to develop THE biological virus that outdoes anything ever developed by man. It is the excitement of hunting him down, through striking, and now memorable, WWI images centered on two identical twins born to a German father and British mother. One develops into a stern and devious Prussian Nazi officer, while the other was influenced greatly by his English grandparents and fights for the British. Both became pilots allowing for the replacement of one for the other in a thrilling story of espionage.

The conclusion of the story will remain not be revealed in this review. Just enjoy the venture through WW I, the threat of biological weapons, the introduction on viruses and their transmission, the need for antidotes, and the men and women who risk their lives and the lives of others.

 

Reviewer: Rich

877. "The Midnight Call" by Jodé Millman – 5 Stars

The Midnight Call by Jodé Millman – 5 Stars

Publisher: Immortal Works LLC

ISBN: 9781792307201

Thank you for offering The Midnight Call for review prior to publishing. We differed in overall opinions, Nancy’s Very Good and Rich’s Excellent. The differences stemmed from expectations. Nancy expected a deep, tense continuous mystery. Rich began that way but changed his expectation to that of a single, professional woman lawyer, Jessie, who is caught up in a murder that affected her both challenged her personally and was beyond her expertise as an attorney.

Jessie gets an awakening call during the night from her life long friend Terrence, both a teacher and mentor, who says he just killed someone. She is immediately forced to take a position as an attorney or just a friend, but first, she the need to avoid his suicide is paramount. Beyond her civil lawyer skills, she engages a criminal lawyer Jessie to lead Terence’s defense. Then during the case she encounters other friends from her past who are involved in the prosecution of Terrence – lover, friends, rapist, etc. Did we mention Jessie was single and seven plus months pregnant? The stress takes a toll on her both physically and mentally. How she manages everything -- her personal physical and mental issues, the confrontations with her finance Kyle, the betrayal of Terrence, accusations that she released client confidential information, the reuniting with her prior lover and now the prosecutor, and the psychiatric stability of Terrence – is masterfully presented in this novel. We feel a clear expectation needs to be provided to really appreciate the excellence of this book. And, was that ending a come-on for a follow-up? That would be interesting if it was.

Well written and interesting throughout.

Reviewers: Rich & Nancy

876. "Fire of the Sun" by Simon Laffy – 5 Stars

Fire of the Sun by Simon Laffy – 5 Stars

Publisher: ACM Retro Ltd

ISBN: 9781908431592

There are myths and conspiracy theories about the secret Vril Society and the German’s belief that the master race was spawned by a superior, maybe extraterrestrial species way before man inherited Earth. As a matter of fact, there was a German nationalist by the name of Maria Orsic (not mentioned in this book) who bent the ear of High German officials claiming to be a medium between humans and the aliens. Her transcriptions were in some strange language derived from Sumeria which supposedly entranced the Germans so much they sought out designs of space craft and weaponry materials. The Internet is full of information about the conspiracy theories that developed.

This book does an excellent job bringing the full details of the conspiracy theories and history related to the German’s search for advanced, futuristic technologies and development during WW II in the author’s unique way. The plot begins with a student nurse listening to a story by a dying patient by the name of Mr. Brown, who is really Wernher von Braun, the famous German rocket scientist who worked on projects for the Nazis and later for the Americans. The author’s Mr. Brown tells it his way as told to him by Ober, an ancient extraterrestrial – note, Ober is very similar to Oberth, a real top rocket scientist who worked with von Braun. Throughout the novel the mysterious search pursues across countries and under the eyes of spies from Britain and other Allies. Alfie is the main character from a British Museum who is called upon to help the British Military Intelligence locate the extraterrestrial secrets before the Germans can obtain them and use them against the Allies in WW II. His secret love is a Miltiary Intelligence woman by the name of Jazz who gets trained as a spy and leads a dangerous operation in German territory.

The story amazingly blends the history and myths through the eyes of Germany’s von Braun with the mystery and excitement of spies and close, often sensitive relationships of the British entities that cast them in dangerous situations and escapes.

You won’t be disappointed in this excellent book. Although it was tagged in the Adult Fiction and Historical Fiction categories, the theories and theory interpretations definitely add reasons to include in the Sci Fi category.  Kudos to the author Simon Laffy.

Reviewer: Rich

875. "Seven Devils" by Steve McManus – 4 Stars

Seven Devils by Steve McManus – 4 Stars

ISBN: 9780996448543

Publisher: Steve McManus

This is an entertaining thriller/mystery with several intertwining stories: the murder of two young Chinese women in Los Angeles, a missing journalist, and a charismatic self-help guru with a cult-like international following. Two journalists investigating the same crime meet in a small town in snowy northern California.

All the different elements of the plot are brought together smoothly. The character and setting descriptions are beautifully done. The plot held my interest throughout the relatively long book and I loved the reunion at the end.

I did feel at a disadvantage for not having read the first book in the series. I wish there had been more background for the main characters, Danny and Ursula, and their obviously adversarial relationship.

I got lost in the Sci Fi  dialogue of the anti-guru Zach group 808. I recognized some names from the original Star Wars movies, but since I have not kept up with current jargon the renaming of people, places and events was annoyingly confusing.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and will read more by this author.

Reviewer: Nancy

874. Suddenlink - Lost SSID - plus changing passwords

While I'm in a technical mood, I simply can't overlook the stability of the Suddenlink ISP connection over the last 2-3 weeks. About ever other day at minimum, my network has been losing access to its SSID! Sometimes just a rebbot of router cleared things, but most of the time the Suddenlink modem had to be rebooted first. Then there were several down times for entire Suddenlink system including the phone.

So, regardless if phone remained up or not a reboot of the Suddenlink modem was required to reestablish the SSID, that is, make it available in the connection list. Well, the reboot sequence of Suddenlink modem (power back on after 30 seconds off), followed by router (power on after off for 30 seconds), then all you devices that need to connect after that. All resolved! btw, Suddenlink did take the system down due to Internet issue in the area for about 2-3 hours the other day and everything has been since. I guess a few weeks of inconvenience is acceptable in today's world!

Except, if you were foolish enough to change passwords for your router and network sign in. This is different issue, but warrants documentation. Changing the router password on a Netgear router is simple enough. Sign in, truck off to SECURITY, and changed the password. No reboots are required. However, if you decide to change the Wireless Network Password, then the whole reboot sequence needs to be done after you find your way on the router to WIRELESS and then SECURITY to change the password.Sequence again is: router, then each device. It may be helpful you  you have a checklist for all the devices you need to change before you wife, so, or daughter hits you up for screwing up. Don't forget the FireTV wireless also. I learned that in order to enter the new wireless password on each device you need to get to your connection and tell to FORGET the router. You will then be prompter at connection for new password.

873. Getting System Restore to work!

My previous blog indicated I ran a System Restore SUCCESSFULLY! After 8 years on this Dell computer I finally learned how to run it without failing. The secret is to NOT run it from your working system, but only rebooting and going into a safe-like mode. To do this, follow along:

1. On your running system before rebooting, do WINDOWS KEY + I
2. Select Update & Security, then Advanced Settings
3. Select Advanced Settings from resulting screen too, then RESTART NOW
4. System will restart and come to a screen to allow you to select TROUBLESHOOT
5. One more Advanced Settings from that screen offers you an option to do a SYSTEM RESTORE
6. Do it and select the restore file desired and proceed to executing the restore
7. The system restore takes about 30-35 minutes on my old Dell PC ... grab a cold one or whatever and return for you success message. Note: I did hit a snag on one automatic checkpoint restore file taken which had a corrupt registry entry and made it unusable. But all others to date worked.

FINALLY!!!!

872. Beware Calibre

I forgot to document my experiences with Calibre the last time, so I again fell into the rabbit hole!

Calibre seems like a slick package to do conversions of file formats. Specifically, I needed to remove DRM protection from a PDF formatted book so I could read it on my Kindle instead of on a laptop PC. I remembered Calibre, but didn't realize it handed the task off to another piece of third party software that no longer supports the latest DRM specifications. So, once again, it was useless to me and I needed to remove it from my piece. Hence, the problem! Calibre is installed via a .msi file and not a Windows installer. It does not land in Programs and Features to allow you to delete from there (Control Panel -> Programs and Features). So, look in the software folders for uninstall exec you say. Wrong. None there either. So how do you remove it and whatever it also installs wherever in your system? How about just doing a System Restore? Did it, but after searching for "Calibre" via a file manager program nothing was deleted. Strike 3!

So, I had to rely on the manual cleanup of installed programs and registry. Of course I also had to run a full virus scan plus a including Malwarebyte scan. Neither of these found anything after the System Restore, so I feel more comfortable that the Calibre installation didn't leave anything behind that would be malicious. Now, whether something resides out there that didn't have the work "calibre" in it, who knows? All I know is to never install this software ever again, or anything from a .msi file that I am not totally confident in. It is really inexcusable not to provide uninstall instructions!

871. "A Hero Born" by Jin Yong – 2 Stars

A Hero Born by Jin Yong – 2 Stars

Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

ISBN: 9781250220608

I suppose my expectation was to read a saga similar to Shogan by James Clavell where history flowed out of the story while the plot covered centuries and several volumes. Was I surprised when my mind became saturated with silly Kung Fu movements, names, and skirmish after skirmish that contributed to the advertised saga. Grammatically it is well written, a reflection of the translator I presume. The underlying plot of two children born to Song parents who were killed by Jin terrorists, manipulators and controllers of the governments for years, who reunite as sworn brothers under the Mongolian leader Genghis Khan was inviting. The continuous Kung Fu was a bit Beyond the Tallest Elephant Head and as interesting as the Boring Boar Trips on Chestnuts movement. Sorry, I just had to create my own nonsensical phrases to illustrate what is, I guess, the image of Chinese fantasy distributed throughout. I love Sci Fi and Fantasies; but, this was far too consuming for the enjoyment obtained -- 11 more volumes of this? No thanks. I’ll be generous and rate it a 2.

  Reviewer: Rich

 

870. "The Dead Girl in 2A" by Carter Wilson -- 4 Stars

The Dead Girl in 2A by Carter Wilson -- 4 Stars  

Poisoned Pen Press

ISBN 9781492686033

I found this an enjoyable psychological thriller. It is sometimes frustratingly implausible and suspends believability. But if one doesn’t get too rational and thinks of it as a Twilight Zone kind of story it is fun to read.

The story of mind altering manipulation is mostly told by Jake and Clara, two victims of a strange experiment. The transfer of the narrative between them flows well, and short chapters that sometimes end in cliffhangers add to the suspense.

The author suggests reading more about the drug scopolamine. I was aware of its medical uses, but found it has other scary effects. Learning about these and about another drug made from the same plant made the basis of the plot a bit more plausible.

The ending did drag with some repetition but overall it was a unique and well written novel.

This is the first book I have read by this author and thank NetGalley for introducing me to his work.

Reviewer: Nancy

869. "The Bazaar of Bad Dreams" by Stephen King – 5 Stars

The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King – 4 Stars

Publisher: Scribner

ISBN: 9781501111679

This collection of Stephen King’s short stories included many stories written before the author went political and lost his muchness. I appreciated the variety and styles, two of which were his version of poetic verse. This had to be at least the third time I read these stories and they were as interesting as the first time. Throughout I got to smile, to laugh, to feel intense, to feel the fear and other troubling emotions of characters, to trip along with the author. Mr. King brings it all to the table. Most of the stories were very good.

Reviewer: Rich

868."Before I Wake" by David Morrell – 4 Stars

Before I Wake by David Morrell – 4 Stars

Publisher: Subterranean Press

ISBN: 9781596069121

There were fourteen short stories in this collection; all good with about eight a 4 Stars +. I particularly enjoyed the way the stories were introduced by the author. Each was prefaced with why it was written, the style, the authors that influenced him to write the story, and what you should probably take out of it. Also his use of real people as characters not only was interesting, but also provided somewhat of a biography of each. I received a good overview of authors and previous characters I never knew. I particularly liked “The Granite Kitchen” which is one of the shortest and was funny in its presentation, despite the sadness of events. Also “The Spiritualist” stood out, pitting Sherlock Holmes against his spiritualist author Conan Doyle in a basement encounter discussing why he now had to wear the deer skin hat, smoked a large, curved calabash pipe and was killed off by Doyle only to be “reused” in later books which he noted was really an imposter. Through the prefaces you also learned about the other books written by the author that were written similarly to the short story allowing you to explore your desire to read one of his novels.

Well written and worth the read.

 

Reviewer: Rich