The Thirteenth Tower
by Sara C. Snider
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite
In a medieval time period of manor houses and servants, of travel by walking and visiting troops of entertainers that created a festival in town, we are introduced to Emelyn. Emelyn has the unique history in town has the baby that was left on the doorstep of the manor house and they allowed the housekeeper to raise the baby and she became a servant girl. Everywhere she goes she see's pity in the eyes of some, promise in the eyes of a few but no real hope for her in the town of Fallow. Just outside of town is a large tower, this is the home of the Magistrates, of Magi what they really do is unknown to most and Emelyn knows even less about them, but as she is on an errand the morning of the village festival she sees two of them walking past the manor house. The evening of the festival becomes strange and unsettling, a young man Corran befriends Emelyn and rescues her from a dance which everyone seems entranced in but her. The Magi come and offer her escape, and she and Corran follow. The Thirteenth Tower follows Emelyn and Corran on this journey, which will become on of self-discovery for Emelyn. Sara C. Snider does a wonderful job of wrapping a message into a neat package of a story.
The Thirteenth Tower is about the Magi towers, but it is also about discovery. Emelyn will discover who she really is on this journey, what she is capable of where she wants to go with her life. She will face fears and challenges that she never expected and find truths that she never imagined. This is not only about Emelyn, but we learn about the Magi, about two in particular Percival and Aldren, two completely different men. One willing to go to any lengths necessary to gain knowledge no matter the cost, the other determined not to repeat his own mistakes. Sara C. Snider not only gives us a story on the growth and development of a little girl, but on the corruption that power and absolute knowledge can also bring. Humanity is the balance and it must always be weighed when counting the costs of gaining knowledge. This is a great book for young adults and older readers as well. It has a theme and story that should entertain and well as educate readers.
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Evil Town
by J. David Bethel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .
If there is one place in the world that you could call Evil Town, Washington DC would most likely be that town. Politics, corruption and bribery are everyday occurrences. What really makes the place an Evil Town is what happens when someone bucks the trend and refuses to be bribed. John David Bethel creates a mystery and intrigue novel that begins with the wife of a congressman, who has not been corrupted by the town and refuses to take a bribe or later threat to her safety. As the story delves into what happened to her, we are caught up in years of sweeping facts under the rug. From Vietnam to a local sugar plantation, everyone it seems is hiding a secret. What is it about the secrets and how do they relate to each other and the congressman?
John David Bethel takes the reader into the underbelly of Washington DC. He takes what people tend to think goes on there and amps it up a bit to create a novel of intrigue and mystery that keeps the reader guessing with every page. Evil Town addresses corruption, politics, bribery and murder. Everyone has a secret, but how they each relate to the other, and what one person wants and what they are willing to do to get that will amaze and confound you. At times you will believe the story and feel like it could be a true story, and at the same time you will think there is no way people can be this cruel and demented. Evil Town is well written and draws the reader into the novel, to the point that you feel like it is really happening. This is a great novel for adults, and something to keep you guessing.
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Microchip: The Agenda Is Now
by Chey Barnes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reveiwed for +Readers' Favorite .
This generation's version of George Orwell's "1984".
The world is changing, and ever so quickly. It used to be that everyone used paper money, and you got paid with a paper paycheck. Now it is credit and debit cards and your payroll is direct deposited. What is next? Microchip envisions a future that could easily be only years down the road in where now, everything is done with a mircochip in the hand. For the most part, the world goes along with the idea and complies without really thinking, but this story follows a few different types of people who question this process for different reasons. As each of these people search for a way to escape the law of mircochipping, they find themselves in the same place in Utah. Chey Barnes takes each person and their reasons, explaining them and giving them a place, and then you see what happens when they are all together. This is a science fiction story that hits just a little close to home.
Microchip might be science fiction today, but there are real life facts and information included in the book, and indexed in the back, that will leave you thinking hard about what you read. It's not a warning book, but a story of how different people are dealing with the law and what happens to them, there is a real human element in there. It is also very thought provoking and would be an excellent book for a book club or discussion group. Chey Barnes takes the information and technology of today and advances it only by a few years to give us this story. Although there is family and a little romance in the story, there is more a cautionary spirit that we need to be more careful and thoughtful, not just accepting everything that is handed to us. I think this should be a required reading just as George Orwell's 1984 used to be when I was in high school, this is a newer version of big brother.
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John Smith - Last Known Survivor of the Microsoft Wars
by Roland Hughes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Reviewed for +Readers' Favorite .
In only 50 short years, the population of the Earth has dropped to a mere 5500. What? How you are thinking? Well, everyone blames it on something called the Microsoft Wars. What John Smith contains is an interview between a man, John Smith, who lived through the wars and a naive reporter who traveled to met John by horseback. Remember the dated November 13, 2013. John starts by telling her that he can not answer her questions about the wars if she doesn't understand what the world was like before, because it is nothing like that now! Roland Hughes takes the ideas that humanity has taken it's greed and selfishness a little to far and overturned the whole banking system, then separate small factions started using weapons on each other resulting in the Earth of this time having 12 continent.
John Smith references the novel by George Orwell, "1984", and yet I feel this book has that same feel. It is a warning that if we don't stop and take notice of what we are doing and how things are going we could easily end up with this reality. Roland Hughes even gives some great examples how things that are occurring currently in society are actually things that were predicted in "1984".
This is not a sit down and read a feel good novel, this is something to make you think, to invoke conversation. It would be a perfect book for a book club discussion or a roundtable. There are just so many things that can be pulled from this story that will engage your brain. Ir you are in the mood for something with some meat, something to grab hold of and really digest, then this book is what you need!~
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