Kim Miller
Four residents of a senior living village decide they want to investigate unsolved murders. Luckily they represent a range of backgrounds and abilities that seem to fit together like a Tetris game. With a bit of manipulation they recruit the community liaison Police officer who comes to teach them to lock their doors at night. And the game is on.
This is a 'cosy detective story' in the tradition of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency series by MCall Smith. The people are delightful, if somewhat one dimensional. The police vacillate between dismissive and accommodating. The murders are many and varied and the investigation is highly intuitive but ultimately successful. And the amateur sleuths retain secrets at the end that the police won't uncover.
Osman has a way of story telling that is engaging and funny. We start out loving the characters and we still love them when their flaws are revealed. However, I was left with the feeling that murder is OK as long as the victim deserved it.
Four residents of a senior living village decide they want to investigate unsolved murders. Luckily they represent a range of backgrounds and abilities that seem to fit together like a Tetris game. With a bit of manipulation they recruit the community liaison Police officer who comes to teach them to lock their doors at night. And the game is on.
This is a 'cosy detective story' in the tradition of The Number One Ladies Detective Agency series by MCall Smith. The people are delightful, if somewhat one dimensional. The police vacillate between dismissive and accommodating. The murders are many and varied and the investigation is highly intuitive but ultimately successful. And the amateur sleuths retain secrets at the end that the police won't uncover.
Osman has a way of story telling that is engaging and funny. We start out loving the characters and we still love them when their flaws are revealed. However, I was left with the feeling that murder is OK as long as the victim deserved it.
Rachel works with the British Secret Service and she's found out there is a mole she needs to track down. Trouble is, he's dead. And how do you chase down a dead man? With the help of other dead people, of course.
In a world where the afterlife is accessible through tech advances, Rajaneimi gives us a high stakes spy novel that crosses the boundary between life and death. While the British are trying to maintain the post-passing city, the Russians are developing an artificial deity that will bring it all down.
Set in 1938 and with the backdrop of the Spanish civil war looming dangerously overhead as the battle ground between the life vs the death advocates, the story dances between politics, social upheaval, and the conundrums of advanced mathematics. Rajaneimi has advanced degrees in mathematics and physics so we will allow him this indulgence.
The plot increases speed as it advances, and what starts out as a rather whimsical story populated with pompous British snobs develops into a rapid 'fire and response' mystery as we try to work out what is really happening, hoping we can keep up with the recklessness of the characters.
And at the end? No spoilers, of course, but this is not the ending you were looking for.
Rachel works with the British Secret Service and she's found out there is a mole she needs to track down. Trouble is, he's dead. And how do you chase down a dead man? With the help of other dead people, of course.
In a world where the afterlife is accessible through tech advances, Rajaneimi gives us a high stakes spy novel that crosses the boundary between life and death. While the British are trying to maintain the post-passing city, the Russians are developing an artificial deity that will bring it all down.
Set in 1938 and with the backdrop of the Spanish civil war looming dangerously overhead as the battle ground between the life vs the death advocates, the story dances between politics, social upheaval, and the conundrums of advanced mathematics. Rajaneimi has advanced degrees in mathematics and physics so we will allow him this indulgence.
The plot increases speed as it advances, and what starts out as a rather whimsical story populated with pompous British snobs develops into a rapid 'fire and response' mystery as we try to work out what is really happening, hoping we can keep up with the recklessness of the characters.
And at the end? No spoilers, of course, but this is not the ending you were looking for.
Pulling a city along rail tracks for some strange but urgent reason, a community of people struggle to keep ahead of some un-named horror that those at the top wanted kept secret. The story started out innocently enough, then became strange and then weird before turning dangerous. At the end everything came unstuck with a final resolution that was very cleverly understated.
Pulling a city along rail tracks for some strange but urgent reason, a community of people struggle to keep ahead of some un-named horror that those at the top wanted kept secret. The story started out innocently enough, then became strange and then weird before turning dangerous. At the end everything came unstuck with a final resolution that was very cleverly understated.
Biopunk at it's finest. The world of the not so distant future has survived the 'decade of plagues', a time when countless people died. One company has risen to dominate the health scene and it keeping billions of people alive with biochips that monitor and treat any hint of disease that appears.
Inara has an inherited protein deficiency that means her body produces cancer cells at an alarming rate. She lives in a commune, Darkome, where people resist the dominance of the biochip and they research and treat disease themselves. Her mother died of cancer and Inara is rushing to complete their shared research to stop her disease.
When she is forced to choose between family, health, and Darkome, things take a disturbing turn. She finds that her body is able to intervene and ignore any medical intervention, changing her DNA on the fly, and she is on the way to understanding how to turn that to her advantage. Trouble is, there are other people who want to know how she does it. They only want her body, they just don't want her.
Inara tries to maintain her own autonomy but finds herself as a pawn being played by forces that want domination on the world scene.
As the book came towards the ending I mused that Rajaniemi had better finish things up here or he will run out of space. The story rushed to a conclusion and the last three words were, 'To be continued'. Darkome was published only three months ago. Looks like a longish wait for the continuation.
Rajaniemi has a winner of a story here and his prose is captivating. Where his Quantum Thief trilogy was dense and opaque, this story is Windex clear and leads the reader through a maze of technology and biology with ease. The hard science never gets in the way of the story and Inara shines as a relatable person. I found myself torn between reading nonstop to the end or taking breaks so I could stay longer in the story. It was totally delicious.
Biopunk at it's finest. The world of the not so distant future has survived the 'decade of plagues', a time when countless people died. One company has risen to dominate the health scene and it keeping billions of people alive with biochips that monitor and treat any hint of disease that appears.
Inara has an inherited protein deficiency that means her body produces cancer cells at an alarming rate. She lives in a commune, Darkome, where people resist the dominance of the biochip and they research and treat disease themselves. Her mother died of cancer and Inara is rushing to complete their shared research to stop her disease.
When she is forced to choose between family, health, and Darkome, things take a disturbing turn. She finds that her body is able to intervene and ignore any medical intervention, changing her DNA on the fly, and she is on the way to understanding how to turn that to her advantage. Trouble is, there are other people who want to know how she does it. They only want her body, they just don't want her.
Inara tries to maintain her own autonomy but finds herself as a pawn being played by forces that want domination on the world scene.
As the book came towards the ending I mused that Rajaniemi had better finish things up here or he will run out of space. The story rushed to a conclusion and the last three words were, 'To be continued'. Darkome was published only three months ago. Looks like a longish wait for the continuation.
Rajaniemi has a winner of a story here and his prose is captivating. Where his Quantum Thief trilogy was dense and opaque, this story is Windex clear and leads the reader through a maze of technology and biology with ease. The hard science never gets in the way of the story and Inara shines as a relatable person. I found myself torn between reading nonstop to the end or taking breaks so I could stay longer in the story. It was totally delicious.
A razor sharp novella that reads as if it's coated in teflon. Napper serves up a grim cyberpunk world in a futuristic Melbourne that spreads out across the Nullabor and ends with the reader asking, "Is this some happy ending or is it something I should be very worried about?"
Jack is the son of Vietnamese migrants, and that is where any follow-on from Napper's previous 36 Streets starts and ends. He's a small time crook who gets swept up in a matter of international importance. Trouble is, all he did was steel a pair of shoes. Within days he's being pursued by firstly a modern day ninja, then a carload of corrupt police officers, and then anonymous men in black four wheel drives. It's the full catastrophe.
And there's also Sally. She thought she was merely giving a ride to a fellow university student. Melbourne uni is not what it used to be.
As Jack and Sally race across the country Napper spices up their existence with the unexpected presence of a sentient AI. So it seems we now have three people in the car, each one trying to work out what went wrong and how they are going to fix things.
This is a book that I wanted to go on well after it ended. The characters are real people, the pace is rapid and the story takes them into dark places. As Napper delves into what it might mean to have an AI implant adding to human brain power his treatment of the topic is well balanced and always on point for the story.
A razor sharp novella that reads as if it's coated in teflon. Napper serves up a grim cyberpunk world in a futuristic Melbourne that spreads out across the Nullabor and ends with the reader asking, "Is this some happy ending or is it something I should be very worried about?"
Jack is the son of Vietnamese migrants, and that is where any follow-on from Napper's previous 36 Streets starts and ends. He's a small time crook who gets swept up in a matter of international importance. Trouble is, all he did was steel a pair of shoes. Within days he's being pursued by firstly a modern day ninja, then a carload of corrupt police officers, and then anonymous men in black four wheel drives. It's the full catastrophe.
And there's also Sally. She thought she was merely giving a ride to a fellow university student. Melbourne uni is not what it used to be.
As Jack and Sally race across the country Napper spices up their existence with the unexpected presence of a sentient AI. So it seems we now have three people in the car, each one trying to work out what went wrong and how they are going to fix things.
This is a book that I wanted to go on well after it ended. The characters are real people, the pace is rapid and the story takes them into dark places. As Napper delves into what it might mean to have an AI implant adding to human brain power his treatment of the topic is well balanced and always on point for the story.
Under the guise of writing a murder mystery thriller, Lehane gives us an extraordinary exploration of human darkness. Three boys, eleven years old, are playing in the street and something happens. Something that refuses to 'unhappen'.
As adults they live very different lives. One's a reformed criminal. One's a copper. One is just surviving, unable to throw off the darkness of the childhood experience. They rarely meet until a teenage girl is murdered. As the investigation proceeds the intertwining of their lives becomes shrouded in suspicion and alienation. They are drawn together but repulsed from each other at the same time.
Lehane writes very realistic characters. His prose is masterful as he lays open the deep emotions of these three men and their families. The plot has few twist and turns, this is not Agatha Christie dropping everything into place at the very end, it is the people that matter here. We become engaged in the lives of these disparate people, we feel with them, and we feel committed to them.
My only frustration with the book was the time it took for the setup. As Lehane fills in the stories of the three, first in childhood and then as adults, it is not until 30% of the way through that the strands start to draw together. I was engaged with the book from the start but it was not until that 30% point that I was hooked.
There was another point late in the book that he hinted at the identity of the killer. The 'means, motive, opportunity' triplets appeared on the horizon but the final reveal pulled the rug from under that idea. In the end, and after experiencing the depth of suffering of the main characters, it is the utter mundanity, the meaninglessness of the murder that hits the hardest.
This is my second Lehane novel and it certainly won't be the last.
Under the guise of writing a murder mystery thriller, Lehane gives us an extraordinary exploration of human darkness. Three boys, eleven years old, are playing in the street and something happens. Something that refuses to 'unhappen'.
As adults they live very different lives. One's a reformed criminal. One's a copper. One is just surviving, unable to throw off the darkness of the childhood experience. They rarely meet until a teenage girl is murdered. As the investigation proceeds the intertwining of their lives becomes shrouded in suspicion and alienation. They are drawn together but repulsed from each other at the same time.
Lehane writes very realistic characters. His prose is masterful as he lays open the deep emotions of these three men and their families. The plot has few twist and turns, this is not Agatha Christie dropping everything into place at the very end, it is the people that matter here. We become engaged in the lives of these disparate people, we feel with them, and we feel committed to them.
My only frustration with the book was the time it took for the setup. As Lehane fills in the stories of the three, first in childhood and then as adults, it is not until 30% of the way through that the strands start to draw together. I was engaged with the book from the start but it was not until that 30% point that I was hooked.
There was another point late in the book that he hinted at the identity of the killer. The 'means, motive, opportunity' triplets appeared on the horizon but the final reveal pulled the rug from under that idea. In the end, and after experiencing the depth of suffering of the main characters, it is the utter mundanity, the meaninglessness of the murder that hits the hardest.
This is my second Lehane novel and it certainly won't be the last.
The bones of a good story but brought down by poor writing. This was highlighted for me as I had just finished Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. Lehane is a master of prose and very definitely a hard act to follow.
The book opens with a chase on foot through the city. The author tries to convey urgency and danger with complicated sentences and his grammar fails him. It's not a good first impression.
For instance, the narrator, a copper, is chasing a suspect and is referring to himself in this sentence. "Pushing forward and closing the gap, the lights of street vendors and stores blur past my vision." The grammatical subject here is 'the lights of the street vendors', not the narrator. Such clumsy grammar continues through the book.
Two sentences later we read, "Hologram advertisements dance and pulsate above autonomous vehicles designed to promote the latest thing you need to buy." Once again his grammar fails. This sentence tells me that autonomous vehicles are designed to promote the latest thing. I know that is not what he means but it is how the English language works. It is as if the author does not know how to maintain the grammatical subject through a sentence.
Both of these examples are only three or four paragraphs into the novel. And sadly such clumsy writing continues through the book. Add to this the constant use of heavy handed adjectives, I suspect for the purpose of conveying drama, and reading the book becomes tiring.
However, let's move to the story itself. Set in a dystopian world I imagine is inspired by the movie Blade Runner with a bit of cyberpunk added in, the narrator, Sol, a police officer is trying to close a case. He's pursuing a suspect through various layers of the city, from desperate poverty to the ultra rich. Body modifications are the norm for many people, some legally allowed but others most certainly not. Some of his adversaries are fully human, some of them modded to the point of being machines, and very dangerous machines. As the story unfolds Sol finds that his initial suspect leads him to levels of society that have unlimited influence in the city. Is the whole society compromised by these links to the ultra wealthy?
The story moves rapidly and Sol rushes from one crisis to another. Through it all his motivation is to provide for his wife and daughter, who are always on his mind. The author is keen to show Sol as a man of integrity with family as his prime concern. His behaviour, however, is less constant. I'm prepared to say that as an Australian, I'm not the best judge of character or actions of a US police officer. He jumps too suddenly from being calm and reasoning to volatile and chaotic for me to appreciate him as a person.
Finally, this is the debut novel of the author and I always want to support new authors. The book is let down by his prose and it could be improved with a good editor. The story has potential and if this is indicative of the imagination of the author then hopefully his next book will show some maturity of language and form.
The bones of a good story but brought down by poor writing. This was highlighted for me as I had just finished Mystic River by Dennis Lehane. Lehane is a master of prose and very definitely a hard act to follow.
The book opens with a chase on foot through the city. The author tries to convey urgency and danger with complicated sentences and his grammar fails him. It's not a good first impression.
For instance, the narrator, a copper, is chasing a suspect and is referring to himself in this sentence. "Pushing forward and closing the gap, the lights of street vendors and stores blur past my vision." The grammatical subject here is 'the lights of the street vendors', not the narrator. Such clumsy grammar continues through the book.
Two sentences later we read, "Hologram advertisements dance and pulsate above autonomous vehicles designed to promote the latest thing you need to buy." Once again his grammar fails. This sentence tells me that autonomous vehicles are designed to promote the latest thing. I know that is not what he means but it is how the English language works. It is as if the author does not know how to maintain the grammatical subject through a sentence.
Both of these examples are only three or four paragraphs into the novel. And sadly such clumsy writing continues through the book. Add to this the constant use of heavy handed adjectives, I suspect for the purpose of conveying drama, and reading the book becomes tiring.
However, let's move to the story itself. Set in a dystopian world I imagine is inspired by the movie Blade Runner with a bit of cyberpunk added in, the narrator, Sol, a police officer is trying to close a case. He's pursuing a suspect through various layers of the city, from desperate poverty to the ultra rich. Body modifications are the norm for many people, some legally allowed but others most certainly not. Some of his adversaries are fully human, some of them modded to the point of being machines, and very dangerous machines. As the story unfolds Sol finds that his initial suspect leads him to levels of society that have unlimited influence in the city. Is the whole society compromised by these links to the ultra wealthy?
The story moves rapidly and Sol rushes from one crisis to another. Through it all his motivation is to provide for his wife and daughter, who are always on his mind. The author is keen to show Sol as a man of integrity with family as his prime concern. His behaviour, however, is less constant. I'm prepared to say that as an Australian, I'm not the best judge of character or actions of a US police officer. He jumps too suddenly from being calm and reasoning to volatile and chaotic for me to appreciate him as a person.
Finally, this is the debut novel of the author and I always want to support new authors. The book is let down by his prose and it could be improved with a good editor. The story has potential and if this is indicative of the imagination of the author then hopefully his next book will show some maturity of language and form.