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Three bodies are found in Gorky Park, buried in the snow, shot dead, their identities all but erased. You'd expect a police inspector to relish the challenge of discovering who the victims were and what happened to them. But this is Moscow during the Cold War, and the Chief Inspector for the Militia, Arkady Renko, knows that this is no ordinary triple homicide. It reeks of the KGB. Unfortunately for Renko, his superior is insistent on his remaining on the case. The KGB is even "cooperative." So, Renko does what he does best: investigate, all the while hoping that the KGB will take over sooner rather than later. As he discovers the identities of the three victims and how they came to lie in the snow, he discovers the length that some people are willing to go to get what they want, including himself.

I decided to read Gorky Park after recently seeing the film that was based off of the novel. It's a good film, starring William Hurt. The book is much, much better. The author does a brilliant job of creating a realistic <i>fictional</i> Moscow, exposing a world of fickleness, hypocrisy, and corruption that Renko must navigate both professionally and personally. I must stress the fictional nature of the book. Gorky Park was first published in 1981 at the height of the Cold War. The USSR was the enemy of the U.S., the "Evil Empire," as pointed out by Lee Child in the book's introduction. Smith had a very limited time to do research in Russia. He was not going to be able to give an accurate portrayal of Soviet society, let alone its security bureaus. He just had to create something <i>believable</i>, and in that respect, he succeeded. The characters, if not likeable or relatable, are realistic. From the friend of the victim's refusal to accept their death, to Arkady's KGB nemesis, Major Pribluda who is just doing his job and who loves to garden (and is a great departure from the film!), to Arkady's sense of duty and justice, all of the main characters are well-developed and well-written. The plot is well-developed, with the reader finding out what happens as Arkady does. If you've only seen the film, it deviates quite significantly in the book. That said, there is a point in the book around the second and early third parts were the plot momentum slows down almost to a crawl before picking up again towards the end and not all of the subplots are resolved. As this is just the first book in a series, I'm willing to give the author a pass on this.

Overall, Gorky Park was a hard-t0-put-down, entertaining read for me. I look forward to reading more of the Arkady Renko series and discovering what other impossible situations he can find his way out of! Definitely scoring 5 stars with me.

An entertaining story about an elderly Chinese woman whose wakes up one morning to discover a dead body in her tea shop and takes it upon herself to find out who the killer is. Before long, she's insinuated herself into the lives of her young suspects, changing their lives forever. This is less a traditional detective story and more one elderly woman's search for purpose in life.

I would like to start out by saying that I'd have given this book a 4.5 stars if possible.

1984 is a truly frightening look at totalitarian regimes taken to their logical conclusions, where the Party controls everything, the Past, Present, and your mind. Even though it was written 75 years ago, much of what Orwell writes about could have been lifted from the news and social media today, especially in the US and the UK where the past is being erased, statues torn down, sweet names changes, cctv follows you everywhere and where you can be imprisoned for Thoughtcrime. This makes 1984 a disturbing, but necessary read today.

Max and the Multiverse was a book that grew on me. Max is an unsocial gamer who lives in his parents basement and who has a better relationship with his cat than with his girlfriend. Through a mishap, Max manages to hit the precise keyboard combination to thrust him into the multiverse, where every time he wakes up, he has changed universes. Eventually, he ends up on a delivery (space ship) job with Zoey and Perra, two aliens who are trying to ditch their undeliverable cargo.
The multiverse part of the adventure stops once Max gets to space. It doesn't stop, stop, it just isn't mentioned except once. And this is a good thing because the adventures Max and his new friends was more entertaining. There's not much character development, a few funny moments, and a fast pace (once the universe hopping stops), making it a good book to escape reality for a while.

I really wanted to like this book, but just couldn't get into it. The premise seems sound enough. A woman with a hidden past joins a crew of worm-hole tunnellers on the big run that can set them up for life. Unfortunately, I gave up reading after little over a hundred pages as nothing happens. There's a lot of talking, a lot of eating. There seemed to be no plot development other that this big job was on the horizon. I never got a sense of who the crew were, just how different they were from other humans. I did get that preferred pronouns are a big deal to aliens for some unknown reason, and that the main character must remind herself that speciesism is inappropriate. The injection of modern day identity politics seemed completely out of place because they didn't add anything to the story. So, all in all, I have to say that this book was not for me.

Bookmarked for Death follows bookstore owner, Tricia Miles, as she attempts to solve the murder of a local bestselling author who winds up dead in her shop's toilet. There isn't a lot of character development and the plot is pretty straightforward, nevertheless, it was an entertaining and enjoyable read. I'd give it 3.5 stars if I could.

In Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel of the future, Fahrenheit 451, books have been forbidden. The Fire Department is tasked with uncovering the hordes of books around the city and setting fire to them (and the house, and sometimes the residents as well). Guy Montag is one such fireman. He doesn't question the orders he's given, nor does he wonder why books are forbidden. He doesn't have any friends and is in a loveless marriage with his wife, Mildred. Mildred prefers to spend her time with her real "family" that lives within the projection walls of the couple's living room, than spend time with her husband. Then, Guy meets Clarisse, a teenage girl whose family has moved in next door. Clarisse and her family are not like any people Guy knows. They talk to each other. They appear to even enjoy being in each other's company. And Clarisse asks awkward questions of Guy, like "Are you happy?" This friendship, however brief it is, leads Guy to ask his own questions. Like what is so dangerous about books?

Fahrenheit 451 is a fast paced account of a society that has taken censorship to the extreme in the efforts to eliminate offence. Books are banned because someone might object to what is written. Entertainment is sanitised and atomised. People are in their own little bubbles (courtesy of ear transmitters) and bombarded with nonsensical, meaningless programmes to ensure that they are kept ignorant of the events in the world around them. There's a war going on, after all, but if people notice the bomber planes flying overhead, it's just background noise to the show. And any one who dares to ask themselves if they are happy, like Guy and Clarisse, or who stand out from the masses, paint a huge red target on their backs. This is a timeless story, it seems. As relevant to today as when it was written. It is more than just about book burning, it is about controlling a population through entertainment lest they discover what is really going on.

A Robot Named Clunk is about a delivery guy, Hal Spacejock, and his efforts to complete a delivery job and pay off some debts. A simple enough plot. But, Hal is the type of delivery driver who will get lost, phone you for directions, run out of petrol, knock down your garden wall when he does eventually find your house, and then complain he didn't get a tip. If he's delivering food, he'll likely have eaten some along the way. He's inept, out of his depths, but he keeps trying. He's assisted by a robot named Clunk, who while more competent, is too naïve for his own good. Together, they are able to get the job done, leaving vast swathes of destruction in their wake.

This is a silly book. A fun book. Fast paced, outrageous action. And cows. I look forward to reading the other books in the series. A definite 4.5.