Book Review: Something From the Nightside

Something From the Nightside is the first book of the 12 book Nightside series by Simon Green.  If you like your fantasy a little darker, a little weirder, and a little more British this would be an excellent series for you.

The book starts with our protagonist, John Taylor, who isn't quite human.  He is a private investigator who is forced to return to the Nightside, a sort of hidden netherworld London, where it is always 3 am and always dark.  Taylor had been living in London, away from the Nightside.  He though he had finally left it for good.  The book focuses on his quest to return a runaway child to her mother.  Along the way we meet an interesting cast of characters, all various friends and enemies of our main character.

There is Suzie Shooter, the human bounty hunter who gets her name from her trademark weapon, and makes her money in very violent ways.  There is also Razor Eddie, the Punk God of the Straight Razor, also violent.   And something more than human, that cannot be killed.  There is also Alex Morrisey, the owner of Taylor's favorite bar Stangefellows, whose family has been attached to the bar for centuries, but can never leave.

One of the driving themes of this story and all the books, is Taylor's special talent for finding things, and what it allows him to do.  A theme that goes hand in hand with his abilities as a finder, is what he really is.  He is a product of a relationship between a human father and an inhuman mother.  What exactly his mother is is unknown to both Taylor and the reader.  Most creatures of the Nightside speak of her with both reverence and fear, but no one will reveal to Taylor exactly what she is or where she can be found.

I found Tales From the Nightside very entertaining.  Think of it as a cross between Stephen King and Neil Gaiman.  It's dark, mysterious, British and a bit gross.  But at all times entertaining.  The characters are well drawn, and interesting, and there are enough different types that Taylor interacts with, that it is never dull.  Beware in the Nightside.  Nothing is ever what it seems.  We have book 1 and 2 of the Nightside series available new in paperback for $7.99+ tax.

Book Review: The Power of Habit

In a first for me in this blog; non-fiction!  I don't think I have reviewed a non-fiction book before here, even though I do read them.  Admittedly my reading habits tend to skew towards fiction, but not entirely.

I really enjoyed The Power of Habit.  I typically will admit to being a creature of habit, but wasn't aware of how much habit actually guides our decisions.  And how if the same behaviors are repeated enough they become almost automatic.

In The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg writes about a number of case studies that show how positive habits can lead to change, including football coach Tony Dungee's transformation of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from perennial losers into Super Bowl Champions.  He also writes of CEO of Alcoa Paul O'Neill and how making safety the most important metric in his company caused accidents to fall and profits to soar.

There are also many different and interesting studies of how Target does marketing, how radio play choices can make an unfamiliar song into a hit, how Alcoholics Anonymous works to help people quit drinking, and how Pastor Rick Warren built one of the largest churches in the nation.  At the end of the book there is even an appendix that shows you how to change bad habits into good habits.

The Power of Habit, is a helpful book if you are in business, or if you just have some pesky habits that need to be modified.  It helps show us the good habits of successful enterprises and how to identify bad habits in ourselves and change them for the better.   A must read for people in business.

The Power of Habit is available on sale for $14 + tax.

What is one habit that you have that you would like to change?

Book Review: The Returned

The Returned by Jason Mott.

Imagine a world where the dead come back.  One day there is a knock on your door and there is a man from the International Bureau of the Returned with a loved one that may have died 10, 20, or even 50 years prior.  The loved one has returned unharmed and ready to start living their life again.  That is exactly what happens to Harold and Lucille Hargrave.  Their 8 year old son Jacob has been returned to them, at age 8 years old, exactly how he appeared before he died in 1966.  We follow what happens to the newly restored Hargrave family, and what happens to their town of Arcadia, amid the chaos of the dead returning to life all over the world.

What are they here for?  What caused them to come back?  Are they still human?  Are they our loved ones or some sort of sinister copy?  Do they mean us harm?  Are they here to stay?  Who comes back?  Who doesn't?  Will they overrun the Earth?  The Returned answers some of these questions but leaves many unanswered, eventually culminating in violence as most stories where people fear the unexplained must.

I really enjoyed this book.  It is a quick read and touches on some really interesting philosophical questions.  It spends a lot of time on the subject of grief, as would be normal considering the subject matter.  It comes off as a sort of supernatural mystery, and it is a quick and entertaining read with many interesting and likable characters.  I would definitely recommend this book.  Although the story has a supernatural bent, it shows us a great deal about human nature, and what people can do when they are motivated by pain and fear, and what they are capable of when they are motivated by love and acceptance.  I'm looking forward to whatever Mr. Mott has in store for us in future novels.

Book Review: The 5th Wave

The 5th Wave, by Rick Yancey.

When I originally picked up this book and started reading it, I knew very little about it.  Only that it was this new dystopian Young Adult novel.  If I had a nickel for every book that thought it could cash in on the Hunger Games phenomenon...but it wasn't entirely like The Hunger Games, although I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to fans.  First of all it's actually about alien invasion.  I can hear your collective groans.  I groaned too when I discovered this, but it is done in an interesting way and it's not like the aliens have lizard faces or anything (I'm looking at you V: The Miniseries and the trauma that ruined my childhood).

If I had to liken this to any book it would probably be Ender's Game, although the main protagonist is female.  There are kids, there a war games, and they are tasked with saving what remnants of humanity from the alien invaders.  It is told in first person point of view, although it is told from the perspectives several different characters to keep things interesting.  It's very well done, and the fast past action keeps you hooked.

Although it is long, this is a very quick read and once you think you have everything figured out, it changes and you don't.  There are at least two major plot twists.  Give it a read to see if you can figure them out yourself before they are revealed.

I would recommend this to young adults and adults as well.  There is a little language, and some pretty mature themes, but it's good for teens.

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane

The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman is his latest adult novel and most recent since the release of Anansi Boys in 2005.  It is an absolute delight of a modern fantasy novel.  It is a quick read clocking at only 181 pages, but never seems too short covering exactly what the author wants you to know and still leaving a sense of mystery.  The story is told from the point of view of an adult male looking back on certain events of his childhood that are both supernatural and terrifying.

The three main female characters, Lettie Hempstock, her mother and her grandmother, are endearingly sketched and unforgettable.  The novel encompasses a time when the narrator lived in a house close to the Hempstocks.  It covers the horror when the boarder who live with the narrator's family, an opal miner, committed suicide, and the surrounding supernatural aftermath.  This part of the book was actually taken from Gaiman's own childhood, when his father's car was stolen and the thief was discovered to have committed suicide in the vehicle.  There is also a delightful photograph on the rear of the book of Gaiman himself as a child standing atop a drainage pipe.

Alas if you are interested in more of the plot, you will have to read the book yourself.  I found it wonderful, so you will not be wasting what little time it takes to finish.  The Ocean at the End of the Lane is another successful entry in Gaiman's pantheon of  modern day fairy tales, and certainly worth a read or two.