New Book Alert: My Gift To The World: 24 Inventions & Ideas To Eradicate Poverty, Disease, Death, & The Energy Crisis by Kaloyan Valentin Danchev; The Start of Some Great Ideas

 

New Book Alert: My Gift To The World: 24 Inventions & Ideas To Eradicate Poverty, Disease, Death, & The Energy Crisis by Kaloyan Valentin Danchev; The Start of Some Great Ideas

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

It's amazing how often an idea has a huge impact on the entire world. The idea of combining soap with clean water helped to improve hygiene and eradicated many diseases. Sir Alexander Fleming's accidental discovery of penicillin led to the creation of antibiotics and vaccines that improve our health and help us live longer. 

Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's invention and programming of the first computer, Tim Berner-Lee's creation of the World Wide Web, and Hedy Lamarr's invention of spectrum technology, the ancestor to WiFi, allowed us to scan information, be entertained, and make ourselves known to the world and even some to work from home to avoid office politics and filling already overcrowded traffic congested cities. 

The automobile and airplane as well as things like traffic lights, stop signs, and air traffic control radar allow us to travel long distances and get there safely in one piece.

Devices like electricity, appliances, heating and air conditioning allow us to make our homes easy, clean, and comfortable places to live in.

For better or worse, our lives have changed by invention and every invention begins with a simple idea.

Entrepreneur and author, Kaloyan Valentin Danchev certainly believes this. That's why he not only has written the book My Gift To The World 24 Inventions & Ideas To Eradicate Poverty, Disease, Death & The Energy Crisis, but he is also presenting a contest for anyone who has such an idea or invention. Details and rules for the contest can be found at www.mygifttotheworld.org .*

Danchev's book presents the germs of his ideas in this thoughtful and intriguing book. The ideas presented vary from Vehicle, Aircraft, and Recreation Safety, to Media, Apps, and Gadgets, to Clothing and Hygiene, to Subscription Based Consumer Models, to Interactions of the Future. It's a wide variety of interesting possibilities.

Each chapter follows the same format. Danchev introduces two scenarios. One features a character with a problem. The other features another character with the same problem but using the idea or invention as a means to fix or improve the situation. Danchev then introduces statistics concerning the main concern and why this idea or invention could help. In a way, it's as though Danchev is pitching the product and us Readers are the panelists who have to decide on whether it could work or not.

The "Instant Vehicle Braking System" chapter is one such example. Danchev describes a scenario of a collision between a minivan driven by a harried mother and a Sedan with faulty brakes driven by a distracted driver. To contrast, he presents another scenario in which a driver's Instant Vehicle Braking System allows his car to stop within a few inches of hitting a tree. Then there are a few statistics of death and injuries in automobile accidents caused by faulty or neglected brakes. He then reveals his idea for a braking system that automatically goes into effect rather quickly.

Many of the Inventions and ideas are so obvious that it's a wonder why they weren't invented sooner. It makes perfect sense for a person's swimwear, athletic, and everyday wear to have "Instant Flotation Deployment Swimwear" installed into them especially, if they are visiting a beach or a lakeside or live near a swimming pool and are concerned about accidental drowning. Why wouldn't someone wear "High Heels Adjustment Modification" so they can adjust their footwear to be fashionable and professional for a job interview and comfortable and safe on their way to and from the interview?

Some of the best ideas come from the use of Media and Technology. The "Real News Network (RNN)/Good News Network (GNN)" is a much deserved lighthearted hopeful approach to the usual depressing landscape that surrounds the News. GNN would focus on helpful contributions that people have done to treat disease or provide services to the impoverished, or have won accolades for those achievements. These feel good stories would be the main focus of the network rather than be forced into the final five minutes of the nightly news program.

The chapter entitled "Cemeteries" suggests a more personal approach to the cold often times generic funeral industry. Danchev suggested that recorded messages, such as heartwarming anecdotes, birthday greetings, and sound advice could be put into the cemeteries so the bereaved can have personal conversations with their deceased love ones.

While Danchev presents some good ideas in theories, the practice might lead to further questions. After all, everything has positive and negative consequences. A "Data Pool App" for example could be useful in rating a person's good and bad behavior, but it also raises questions about lack of privacy and the motives of the person doing the rating. If someone doesn't like somebody, say a local celebrity or a person who is not politically affiliated with them, could they then be suspicious of that person's even good intentions purposely to give them a low behavioral rating? Does that give a potential interviewer even more power by giving them yet another reason not to hire somebody (as if searching their credit history, social media apps, and so on didn't give them enough information)?

Not to mention an episode of the Netflix Science Fiction anthology series, Black Mirror had an episode called "Nosedive" which explained why rating people online can be detrimental and do more potential harm rather than good.

I suppose Danchev is only presenting the idea and the negative potential options could be ironed out by further research, study, and interviews with focus groups.

But sometimes the idea itself could be called into question and that should be what potential Readers and especially  contestants for this contest need to put into consideration before they present their ideas.

Despite the potential consequences, My Gift To The World is good for its purpose. It presents an idea for people to consider, think about, discuss, and maybe put to fruition. Maybe it will lead to more.

*The reviewer in no way is affiliated with nor endorses the My Gift To The World contest. I am only posting the link for informational purposes towards potential entrants.

New Book Alert: Behind The Veil by E.J. Dawson; Sinister and Spooky Supernatural Horror Straddles Between Madness and Sanity

 

New Book Alert: Behind The Veil by E.J. Dawson; Sinister and Spooky Supernatural Horror Straddles Between Madness and Sanity

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: E.J. Dawson's Behind The Veil is among the best Horror novels that I read this year. It is a genuinely terrifying account of both paranormal and real life fear with a protagonist who hovers between frightening visions and her own fears which could develop into paranoia and insanity

Letitia Hawking is a 1920's widow who emigrated from her native Britain to California. She is trying to bury the grief of losing her husband, a miscarriage, and a traumatic encounter with a Spiritualist that left her scarred and institutionalized. 

Since Letitia herself has ghostly visions and Spiritualism is on the rise, Letitia offers herself as a medium who is able to peer into the deceased's last days.

Her visions are both sad and eerie as she sees how a person died and their final thoughts. The book begins with her seeing a sickly man who is grateful to die so he can get away from his loveless marriage but worried about how his wife will treat their child and his mother now that he is gone.

 Letitia's visions are complex as she sees deep sadness, frustration, anger, fear, and sometimes relief to get away from the cruelty of the world around them. Many of her clients are grateful to hear the loving final thoughts of their friend or family member. Some are in denial that their behavior was a contributing factor to the deceased's decline and death, as a very stern father is when he sees the final memories of the troubled son whom he threw out.

However, because of the emotions connected with natural death alone and her own trauma, Letitia is reluctant to take on cases where someone was murdered. She fears that she may lose her own mind in the recall of a violent act or that experiencing the trauma second hand may end up killing her.

Besides her frightening second sight that stalks her, Letitia also has to contend with more human persistence. She is constantly followed by the very wealthy Alasdair Driscoll who uses threats and intimidation to take on a personal case for him. At first, Letitia refuses citing previous commitments and her own concerns about what he wants her to do. She also sees a dark presence surrounding him, one that forms a barrier trying to keep Letitia away.

But finally moved by the pleading of his sister, Mrs. Imogen Quinn, Letitia agrees to help him. She meets Quinn's daughter and Driscoll's niece, Finola and sees the real reason for their interest in her. Finola is alive but like Letitia she is gifted or rather cursed with second sight supernatural abilities. And as they did for Letitia when she was younger, Finola's visions are harrowing and threaten to eat away at her sanity.

Behind the Veil is scary for the supernatural and human haunting that surrounds the novel. The horrors that Letitia sees through Finola's eyes become more troubling for her. It's similar to someone becoming blinded by seeing something twice as bright or losing their hearing because a stereo system is cranked way too loud. Letitia and Finola's visions become worse because they are shared between them. When she goes inside Finola's head, Letitia sees spectral images of murder,violence, sexual assault, and pedophilia. She particularly sees a crime affecting several young girls that until now was left unsolved. Letitia continues to see the dark spectral presence becoming larger and more powerful. 

 Because of these dangerous thoughts, Finola is left alone in her room unable to socialize for fear that she may lash out violently. Driscoll and Quinn are so anxious about their young relative, that they are considering putting her away in an asylum.

The more Letitia probes into Finola's mind, the more that she sees echoes of her own past. She too was institutionalized by people who didn't understand her abilities. She even doubted them herself. The passages describing Letitia's time in the asylum are actually more horrifying than her supernatural premonitions. While in the asylum, Letitia was subjected to the ice cold bath treatment, early versions of shock therapy, neglect and abuse from employees, and isolation. What is more frightening is that her memories are not the results of some dark unexplained presence. They are the results of those who were all too human, a system that puts the mentally ill away to forget about them rather than helping them or discovering why their minds are the way they are. It's no wonder why Letitia becomes protective of Finola. She doesn't want her to suffer the same fate that she did.

Behind the Veil is a sinister novel that asks the question about which is scarier: the supernatural world that exists beyond human consciousness and is only experienced by the very few or the real world that surrounds and haunts us every day.

 

Weekly Reader: The Judgement of Seth (The Love of The Tayamni Book 2) by T.A. McLaughlin; The Struggle Among Tayamni, Tlaloc, and Potacas Gets Wider and More Intergalactic

 

Weekly Reader: The Judgement of Seth (The Love of The Tayamni Book 2) by T.A. McLaughlin; The Struggle Among Tayamni, Tlaloc, and Potacas Gets Wider and More Intergalactic

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: The first book of The Love of the Tayamni series took what could be complex themes of Intergalactic space travel, prejudice, fate, and destiny and simplified them into a straight narrative. It was about a woman who was part of an ancient race of aliens sent to Earth and was thrust forward into 1960's Mississippi to protect a child who was destined to become the next Matriarch, head of the community.

It was a good way to draw the Reader into the world created by T.A. McLaughlin and to follow the story and themes. The simplicity of the first volume paves the way for the complexity of the second, The Judgement of Seth.

McLaughlin opens up the universe that she established in the first book. She introduces a larger cast of characters, new worlds and alien species, and expands on the original concepts that were previously introduced in The Love of The Tayamni. In fact, as a sign on how large this book is, most of the main characters from the previous book are reduced to minor roles. 

Batresh, the time traveling protagonist assigned to protect the future Matriarch is initiated into her role as Matriarch after her mother's death (or rather Interim Matriarch until the future one comes of age). Denny, said Future Matriarch, is still a child in 1960's Mississippi, but is beginning to remember their past life and experiencing flash forwards. They are also coming to terms with feeling like an outsider because of a toxic masculine father who insists that Denny should act like a boy. Jerry, Batresh's love interest from the first book, was let in on Batresh's secret identity and mission. He is currently living on Lunar Base and watching over Denny.

While Batresh, Denny, and Jerry are safe and snug in their own subplots (or just barely living in their subplots.),much of the heavy lifting is done by other characters. Now the Tayamni are fighting against rival alien species, the Potacas and Tlalocs. The Tayamni see that this one time private war is threatening other worlds. So many of the characters are dispatched to recruit other planets to join in the struggle.

McLaughlin really gets a chance to explore different types of planets and species. Some are mammalian and human in appearance. Others are cyborgs. Still others resemble other beings. One planet is mostly water and has aquatic beings living in this mostly liquid environment.

 Allowing the core Tayamni characters to interact with new characters shows how large this problem is. In fact, most of the action is set in space or in other worlds. The overall effect is to show that Earth is not the center of the universe (sorry fellow Earthlings). In fact, it's almost like Tatooine in Star Wars. It's far away and remote from the most important decisions made by the higher powers, yet it still ends up in the thick of the action. 

The interactions between old and new characters allows them to open up and build relationships. Kirashi, a Tayamni, develops a romantic relationship with E5, a cyborg. 

She also relates the backstory of the First Ones, the ones who came to Earth and merged their DNA with Earthlings. They were once the Nine but now they are the Eight when Seth broke from the others and killed his brother. (A story that is also known in Egyptian mythology. Remember Set and Osiris?) It is implied that Seth got the Tlalocs and Potacas the power and will to fight the Tayamni. Kirashi's story gives the characters an understanding about why this struggle will eventually affect everyone and why allies are needed.

Batresh's sister, Namazu has a large important character arc. She ascends to the rank of Supreme Commander and takes the lead in fighting against their enemies. She, as many of the characters do, questions the Tayamni Code which encourages love towards everyone, even their enemies. Since Namazu is at the forefront of most of the fighting, she is the most conflicted between the code that she was raised to believe and the current drive to bend and even break it. She also finds and loses love on a personal level as she is mourning the death of colleagues while falling fo someone who is borderline obsessive.

For most series, the second book often feels like filler. The first book introduces us to the world, characters,and conflicts. The third is the final battle where everything gets resolved. Therefore, the second is often filled with personality clashes and side quests that are only meant to fill up pages and not carry any weight in the end. The second book introduces a meeting point for the third book to catch up with in 1977, but everything in the book feels important. Instead of distracting the Reader, The Judgement of Seth, expands on their previous knowledge and helps this universe grow and deepen.

Weekly Reader: The Illustrated Colonials: Home Fronts by Tom Durwood; The Colonial Six Come Home Enlightened But Are They Ready?

 Weekly Reader: The Illustrated Colonials: Home Fronts by Tom Durwood; The Colonial Six Come Home Enlightened But Are They Ready?

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: On the last exciting episode of Tom Durwood's The Illustrated Colonials,six teens from around the world were recruited to attend the School for Young Monarchs in Alsace-Lorraine. They were Jiayi Mei Ying from China, Prince Mahmoud from the Ottoman Empire, Sheyndil from Russia, Leo from Germany, Will from the Netherlands, and Gilbert du Motier from France. Despite their class and social differences, the sextet learned the school's values of enlightenment, liberty, and equality. They used their talents in commerce, leadership, engineering, military strategy, agriculture, and scholarship research to promote those ideals. Through their education and friendship, they formed a tight bond. In the face of old enemies, they defended each other and formed a pact to always be there for each other. If one is in trouble, the other five will come to their aid.

In the second volume, Home Fronts, we experience their lives before and after their education. One of the characters is examined before they enter the school. Afterwards, the characters return to their homes and are met with suspicion and praise.

Mei Ying's early story fills in some blanks that the previous book left out. In the previous volume, we experience the moment when the other five hear about the school and discover their motives for attending whether by family pressure, patronage, or just looking for something to do. In Mei Ying's introductory chapter, we see her disinherited by her grandfather. But we don't learn about how she knows about the school or what motivates her to attend. In fact when some of the other characters enroll,they already hear about "the girl from China" who is attending.

Mei Ying's section in Home Fronts shows her with all of her arrogance and strength, both of which are detrimental and helpful to her subsequent studies. She is reluctant to cooperate with Westerners. ("Why must I learn to speak German and French?," she complains."When will that become useful?".) At times, she develops a diva-esque attitude such as when after getting in a bad mood, she howls that China does not outlaw moods.

However, Mei Ying shows a lot of courage and strength even before she joins the school. In one chapter, she faces a pack of wolves practically single-handed. (One of my favorite illustrations is an almost anime style drawing of Mei Ying facing against the wolves.) When she learns of an attack on a village by mercenaries, she curses the man who led them there by telling him that his cowardice will be known. This glimpse of Mei Ying's pre-school life reveals a lot about her character and what she needed to learn before being accepted as one of the gang.

Besides  Mei Ying's prologue, we also see the kids return to their home countries and try to fit what they learned into the worlds in which they were raised. They quickly learn that it's all well and good to gain new perspectives and to learn new things and put them into practice. But it's hard when the people aren't ready to accept the new way of thinking.

The subsequent return to their home countries is mostly experienced by Prince Mahmoud. He raises many eyebrows when he first arrives. He tells the servants to stop prostrating themselves on the ground. He tells them that they are human and have free will. This is not the spoiled brat from the previous volume who insisted that servants were happy just being servants and would not even think of the word "slaves."

To put his respect for the servants to action and not just hollow words, Mahmoud uses his new found talent in engineering to improve the piping in the servant's quarters so they can enjoy hot baths.

The distance between Mahmoud and his upbringing is painfully illustrated during a conversation between the young Prince and his father, The Sultan. After the Sultan asks what he learned among the "Franks."(Westerners), he goes into a well worn tirade about his kingdom that Mahmoud heard many times before. However, the Prince realizes that his father is shaped by Ottoman Anti-Western views that he has held onto without really wondering, reading about, or questioning them. Where once Mahmoud may have thought of those words as wise, he now sees them as trite. Where he once saw his father as a heroic man beyond reproach, he now sees a man who if not wrong is certainly misguided. 

Mahmoud sees that he changed but the world around him has not and he is uncertain about what he should do about it.

As for the others, well they also learn some new things which challenge their former roles in society. Sheyndil was once a meek peasant who believed that she was not permitted to have a voice. Now she is willing to physically fight and verbally spar against assailants, including Russian soldiers who in the past would have bullied her without a second thought. 

Will was once the much derided second son passed over in the family business for his older brother, Casper. However, the business acumen that he learned and the contacts that he made (particularly with a certain Ottoman Prince and a Chinese woman whose family practically owns the Yunhe canals and harbor), he is able to save his family from trade routes being cut off and potential bankruptcy.

As for the pact that they had made, well one of their own gets in trouble. The final pages show that soon it will be time for the other five to spring into action and honor that vow.

Home Fronts builds on the concepts that began in the first book and shows how the characters evolved. It also shows a world that is on the brink of evolving with those characters, whether it is ready or not.

New Book Alert: The Family Man: Getting Away With Murder by Anna Willett; Efficient and Engaging Psychological Thriller About Cold Unsolved Crimes Finally Becoming Warm and Solved

 New Book Alert: The Family Man: Getting Away With Murder by Anna Willett; Efficient and Engaging Psychological Thriller  About Cold Unsolved Crimes Finally Becoming Warm and Solved

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: No matter how long ago a crime occurred, there will always be a demand for it to be solved.  A deceased John or Jane Doe finally has a DNA match and is reburied under their real names. A murderer or pedophile who long ago escaped justice is finally held under scrutiny, has their day in court, and victims are finally vindicated. Sometimes it takes many years for a cold case to get warm.

Anna Willett's The Family Man: Getting Away With Murder shows just such a situation. It is an engaging and efficient psychological thriller about the resurrection of a long ago kidnapping and murder case that has been screaming to get a resolution and how that resolution is finally answered.

Married couple, Marcy and Dustin just moved into a new house. While cleaning out the attic, Dustin sees an old VHS tape. The curious couple watch and are horrified by what they see. No it's not a home video of an embarrassing Christmas or a Tommy Wiseau film. It's much worse.

What they see are four people, two men and two women, bound, hooded, and dressed in their underthings. Three of them recite the same lines and the fourth is defiant to her captors. It doesn't matter. The results are the same. The screen goes dark and it doesn't leave much to the imagination as to what happens to them.

Marcy and Dustin turn the VHS into the police. DS Veronika Pope leads the investigation. They immediately find out that the house once belonged to Thomas Malicourt, a deceased businessman with a wife, April, and daughter, Hannah. To all intents and purposes, he was the ideal family man. But this tape opens up another darker side to him, one that is depraved and violent. 

Unfortunately, Malicourt is dead and has been for sometime. But this case is far from over. The four victims are not identified. There is also a good chance that Malicourt had an accomplice that is not identified and is wandering around unchecked and not caught, looking for a new opportunity to feed off their lust. 

The Family Man intensely pits Veronika's courage and dedication to her job against Malicourt's violent tendencies and sociopathic ability to cover his crime even after two decades. 

Veronika is presented as an interesting lead character without her personal life taking over her role of solving this case. She is a single mother of a teenage son. Both she and her son live with her mother who helps look after the boy when Mom is on duty. Being both a police officer and a mother, Veronika feels very strongly about this case especially after the victims are identified and some of them were only a few years older than her son. This protectiveness allows her to focus on the case at hand until it is solved.

The more Veronika and her colleagues peer into Malicourt's private life, the more that they see what a sick sadistic person that he really was and spent much time hiding that depravity behind an unimpeachable good name. It turns out that the name was all that was good about him. 

Besides using DNA, the police have to rely on old articles and reports of missing people in the Perth area. (Interesting fact: this is the second suspense thriller  that I reviewed this year that is set in Perth, the first being Robert News' The Colours of Death: Sgt. Thomas's Casebook.)

They also interview friends,coworkers, and family members of Malicourt and the victims. The quiet unassuming man of their descriptions becomes a violent unrepentant monster the more that his private life is investigated.

Some witnesses and interview subjects are grateful to finally see justice done and receive answers to the disappearance of their loved ones. Some like Malicourt's daughter, Hannah, are openly hostile and don't want to reopen bad memories. Ultimately, it's Hannah and her family that become the catalysts that result in a break in the case. 

The Family Man is the type of book that reminds their Reader that sometimes it takes time, but justice will be met. 

Lit List Short Reviews Be A Successful Maverick Vol. 3 How Ordinary People Do It Different to Achieve Extraordinary Results Edited by Paul Finck, The Machine Murders Island Buoys The Manos Manu Series by C.J. Abazis, A Novel Crime: St. Marin's Cozy Mystery Series by ACF Bookens, Salvage Trouble: Black Ocean Galaxy Outlaws Mission One by J.S. Morin

 Lit List Short Reviews Be A Successful Maverick Vol. 3 How Ordinary People Do It Different to Achieve Extraordinary Results Edited by Paul Finck, The Machine Murders Island Buoys The Manos Manu Series by C.J. Abazis, A Novel Crime: St. Marin's Cozy Mystery Series by ACF Bookens, Salvage Trouble: Black Ocean Galaxy Outlaws Mission One  by J.S. Morin

Be a Successful Maverick Vol. 3: How Ordinary People Do It Different to Achieve Extraordinary Results Edited by Paul Finck

Be a Successful Maverick Vol.3 How Ordinary People Do It Different to Achieve Extraordinary Results is a brilliant anthology of various essays by entrepreneurs and other businesspeople to help others get through their difficulties and indecisiveness to become better in their personal and professional lives.

Maverick Millionaire, Paul Finck shares his own personal struggles and what it taught him. His wife Deborah had a tumor in her pulmonary artery. The surgery was successful and she recovered. Unfortunately, he was not permitted to visit Deborah on account of Covid restrictions and his professional life took a hit as 80% of his sales went down.

 Looking back on that experience taught Finck a lot about how to deal with stress and how people consider how they got in that situation. Finck recalled the human factors from what he dubbed the Ultimate Maverick Success including Intelligence Quotient, Social Quotient, Spiritual Quotient, Emotional Quotient, and Adversity Quotient. Finck realized that Deborah's health and troubled sales were testing his Adversity Quotient. He built new systems and attracted new customers and spent as much time as he could with his family as well as contacting his wife to remind her that he was there for her.

Some of the stories deal with personal struggles and what the author learned from them. Forbes Riley, CEO of SpinGym recalled a time when she took a test in college, got every question right, and still got a C. The professor told her that his A students went beyond the test answers. They did extra credit, additional reading, and projects at the bottom of the syllabus. They go beyond what is expected of them. This advice led her down her path of hosting infomercials, building a  state of the art TV studio, and greeting various guests like Deepak Chopra, Grant Cardone, Les Brown, Sharon Lector, Jack Canfield. She also co-hosted the original X Games and worked with Body By Jake to create a reality cable series called Fit-TV, resulting in her getting inducted into the National Fitness Hall of Fame. 

Riley learned a much harder lesson when Dexter, a boy that she helped raise, was shot by a gang member for wearing blue, a target color. The randomness of the shooting and the intense grief she felt after Dexter's death, led Riley to come to the conclusion that "Life happens for you, not to you." She misses Dexter but still continues to inspire and teach, gaining a stronger empathy from this difficult loss.

Some of the chapters aren't always personal stories. Others are words of advice and encouragement. Rae Ann Hall, author, speaker, facilitator, and podcast host of The Optimistic Choice offers a Call to Action with her essay, "The Resilient Warrior-How to Warrior Up in Life." Using all caps, exclamation points, and bold print, Hall motivates her Readers. She writes a process that includes "Know Yourself: STRONG," "Pain to Purpose: BRAVE," "Face it and Forge Ahead: EXPERIENCED," "Optimistic Outlook Does Influence Outcome: RESILIENT," "Action, Belief, and Consistency: DETERMINED," and "Act, Do Not React: PROACTIVE.

Technically, Be a Successful Maverick, isn't telling their Readers anything new. These words of advice can be found in many self help books but in times of great stress, when we need inspiration and encouragement the most, that's when a book like this comes along to provide that.

The Machine Murders Island Buoys The Manos Manu Series by C.J. Abazis

The Machine Murders, part of C.J. Abazis's Manos Manu series, tells a suspenseful mystery in a beautiful setting but also offers interesting conflicts between various law enforcement agencies over the different ways to catch criminals.

Manos is on the island of Mykonos, Greece to attend a friend's wedding. Unfortunately, a serial killer also happens to be working at the same time. The latest murder victim is Bill Casey, an Instagram influencer, is found dead with a chain running through his insides. Manu, a data analyst with Interpol, is naturally dragged from his vacation to get to work.

The suspense and setting work really well for the book. There are many tense chapters with characters chasing various leads before the killer finds his next target. There is a particularly creepy passage when a character is caught by the killer and struggles for their life while he attempts to drown and disfigure them.

The irony is that all of this set on a beautiful island during what should be during a happy time. The descriptions are filled with scenic beaches and clear water that is perfect for swimming. The attractive setting serves as a contrast to the dark actions of ome of the characters.

The most interesting aspects to The Machine Murders are the various approaches that characters take to crime solving and how they clash. There are people like Lena, a profiler, who prefer to analyze behavioral patterns and use psychological methods to learn the killer's identity. Then there are those like Manos who prefer the more technological approach like investigating social media accounts, hits, views, purchases and any information obtained on the Internet. Of course there is also the opinion of those like the Mykonos police department, just going around town, asking questions, and chasing suspects. All methods are used and none are seen as ridiculous even if the characters argue over which method is best. Eventually, they all come to the same conclusion: the identity of the killer.

Besides being suspenseful and beautiful, The Machine Murders shows us that law enforcement like, every other occupation, is in a stage of transition, one that has its flaws but its merits as well.

A Novel Crime: St. Marin's Cozy Mystery Series by ACF Bookens

A Novel Crime is a short but engaging cozy mystery in which a divorcee loses a husband but gains a new career and a penchant for amaterur crime solving.

Harvey divorces her husband, Trevor, the same day that she finds a dead body. Well the divorce is bad but not unexpected. They had been having problems for years and even when a terrified Harvey calls Trevor about the body, he takes several hours to show up.

The body fills her thoughts more. It is that of Juan Ortega Montague, a property dealer. Partly to block out painful associations with the divorce but also to satisfy her curiosity and imagination nurtured by reading many books, Harvey looks into the case herself butting heads with the police.

A Novel Crime covers all of the usual beats of a cozy mystery: violent but not too violent crime, protagonist with a career outside of law enforcement but a tendency to find themselves in dangerous situations, beautiful location with odd locals, in this case San Francisco, a loyal group of friends to help the protagonist, and an obvious murderer. It's very predictable. Even the killer's identity is easy to guess because of a conversation in which the killer followed the old "revealing too much about the case that only the killer would know" trick.

There are some interesting parts such as when Harvey gets glamorous and attends an upscale charity event with a pro athlete/potential love interest. It's also nice to read that even though the divorce hit Harvey emotionally she still makes plans to move on to New England and open her own bookstore.

While A Novel Crime is an average mystery, its main purpose is clearly to set up the situation where Harvey decides to move and open her bookshop, fulfilling a lifelong dream and finding more trouble. On that respect, it works.

Salvage Trouble Black Ocean Galaxy Outlaws Mission One by J.D. Morin

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J.D. Morin's novella, Salvage Trouble is for people who love watching space travel science fiction shows like Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and Firefly. It's about a space crew fighting enemies and taking on new passengers as they learn to adjust to living and working together in space or as they refer to it, 'Black Ocean." It doesn't present anything new to the genre but it provides an interesting and combative crew who argue and bicker with each other as much as they fight with enemies.

Capt. Carl Ramsey of The Mobius travels outer space to look for salvage and transport passengers and cargo to different locations. It's not a glamorous job like exploring space for scientific discoveries or creating diplomatic relations with other worlds, but someone has to do it. He isn't alone. He has a loyal but also argumentative crew at his side. They include: Tanny, a sharp tongued former marine and Carl's ex wife, Mort, a spiritual minded "tech wizard", Chip, a likeable computer wiz, Roddy, a simian looking alien who is a strong fighter and big drinker, and Mriy, a quiet feline-like alien whose job is rather mysterious (but when she is called to fight or defend her crew, there isn't much of the enemy left). While on a salvage mission that ends badly especially for one of the crew members, Carl and Co pick up two new passengers: Adam, a mysterious precocious young boy who was part of a genetic experiment and Sister Theresa AKA Esper, a priestess/teacher who sought to free Adam from his guardian's rigorous and mind altering training.

Salvage Trouble is a delightful tribute to various science fiction movies and shows. The most obvious being Firefly with its sardonic but good hearted blue collar captain living on the outer edges of space and an immensely talented mysterious kid with their protective guardian. There are also some clever references to other sources. The alien characters could have fit in at the Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars. The fact that the alien that is primate in appearance is named Roddy is clearly a tribute to Roddy McDowall, the star of Planet of the Apes. These references will interest science fiction lovers of various generations.

The plot is mostly a lot of fights with various characters with some interesting twists towards the end (more on that later). However, Morin gives us a fascinating crew to follow on this journey mostly because they behave like people who have to spend a long monotonous traveling time together. They aren't going to get along or always like each other but when outside forces threaten, they have each other's back.

I mean when one of the crew members is the Captain's ex spouse, personality conflicts are bound to happen. Besides the awkwardness between Carl and Tanny, there are also other clashes found within the novella's short length. Esper and Carl start to develop feelings for each other and Tanny is deep in grief over the loss of another crew member that is clearly beyond friendship. Esper and Mort get into some science vs. spirituality debates. Adam also has an intriguing back story that makes him a mystery to everyone including himself. 

The story moves along briskly with some twists. One twist in particular was upsetting for me  because I liked this character. However, reluctantly I will admit that it made sense and was brilliantly foreshadowed without being too obvious. 

Salvage Trouble is short but it definitely makes the Reader want to book another voyage with the Mobius crew across the Black Ocean.

Weekly Reader: The Love of The Tayamni (The Love of The Tayamni Series Book 1) by T.A. McLaughlin; Complex Science Fiction Series Begins in Outer Space, Ancient Egypt, and 1960's Mississippi

 Weekly Reader: The Love of The Tayamni (The Love of The Tayamni Series Book 1) by T.A. McLaughlin; Complex Science Fiction Series Begins in Outer Space, Ancient Egypt, and 1960's Mississippi

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: T.A. McLaughlin's The Love of the Tayamni series is complex in theme, narrative structure, and world building but the complexity is what makes it memorable. 

The first book, The Love of the Tayamni, offers an introduction to the overall narrative, story arcs, and characters. Millions of years ago, a species of cyborg humans were forced to leave their home galaxy because of war, disease, and apathy. A group called The Nine or the First Ones brought them to a new world to save their  people. That world is revealed to be Earth and the Nine have names like Osiris, Isis, Nut, Sekhmet, Hathor, and so on. (You might have heard of them.)

The beings that arrived on Earth are called The Tayamni. They  spliced their DNA and taught sacred languages with species that were on the brink of extinction.  Many Earthlings in fact have Tayamni ancestry.

 Many of the Tayamni settled in Kemet AKA Egypt and are human in appearance. They are very spiritual but technologically minded. They believe in reincarnation believing that the body, or ba, dies but the spirit, or ka, will be reborn as is projected for their deceased Matriarch.

Because of their technological advancement, the Tayamni also have far seeing abilities which allows them to see potential destruction in the future and to travel through time into the future to fix the problem. This occurs after the Matriarch dies. Her ka is foreseen to be reborn in the 20th century to a male child who will reconcile both his masculine and feminine sides into a being that exists beyond gender. This future Matriarch will lead the Earth into a new age of peace and spiritual prosperity. 

Unfortunately, the Tayamni also see an alternate timeline in which another alien human hybrid species, the Potacas are going to kill the reincarnated Matriarch as a small child. So the late Matriarch's daughter, Batresh is assigned to go forward to 1960's Tupelo, Mississippi to protect the future Matriarch who goes by the name of Denny Shields. 

Meanwhile, Batresh's husband, Amun, sister, Namazu, and other colleagues are investigating other leads that could bring catastrophic consequences in this timeline that occur on other parts of Earth like Yellowstone National Park, Charleston, South Carolina, and Vietnam. The leads concern another species,The Tlaloc that are also bent on destroying or controlling the planet and are working with or controlling the Potacas to achieve those goals.

The world building that goes into creating The Love of the Tayamni is well crafted with amazing detail. The Tayamni are dissected through their interpersonal relationships, social structure, morality code, and their overall impact with the Earth and their home world. Their species combines ancient spiritual beliefs with futuristic technology. The Tayamni's  connections to Earthlings becomes beneficial for both. The Tayamni are able to preserve their dying race and humans are able to adapt and evolve thanks to the Tayamni influence.

The theory of aliens coming to Earth centuries ago and becoming involved with ancient cultures is almost a joke or a meme now. However, McLaughlin presents a book that not only explores that possibility but does so in a way that becomes believable. 

The Tayamni have a code in which they cannot harm others. However it is not absolute and some like Batresh are told that they can go against the code to achieve the larger picture. This becomes more complicated when the Tayamni reveal themselves as ancient people who still need to learn and that  code is questionable when the enemy wears a human face.

The conflict and themes make the series complicated but McLaughlin wisely limits the first volume to Batresh's experiences. Through her, McLaughlin shows a woman raised as a human with no memories of the home world questioning her existence when her family tells her that they are from another world. She questions her identity and even more so when she is given the task of protecting the future Matriarch (who remember was once her mother but is now a small boy).

While in the 1960's Batresh questions her identity and purpose. She is mated to another Tayamni, Amun, and like all Tayamni is polyamorous. When she meets Jerry, a Mississippian who helps her protect Denny, she has to reconcile her Tayamni lifestyle with her developing human emotions for him. 

Batresh has to struggle with more than the Potacas and Tlaloc who want to do away with the future Matriarch and by extension the future. She has to accomplish her assignment in Mississippi in the grips of segregation during a shameful time of hatred and prejudice in which the Potacas and Tlaloc feed off of. They use that hatred to influence and control humans to do theit vile works for them. Of course in reality, we don't need alien species to commit hateful deeds. On Earth, there are many who are more than capable doing that on their own.

The Love of the Tayamni eases the Reader into the more difficult far reaching complications in the subsequent volumes without insulting the Reader's intelligence and pulls them into the immediate story. It is the first easy step into an increasingly more difficult but 

well written universe.

New Book Alert: It's A Gay Gay World by Tatiana Kolesnikov; Parallel World Reverses Gay and Straight Statuses Has An Interesting Premise But Also Raises Some Questions

 New Book Alert: It's A Gay Gay World by Tatiana Kolesnikov; Parallel World Reverses Gay and Straight Statuses Has An Interesting Premise But Also Raises Some Questions

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Tatiana Kolesnikov's YA novel, It's A Gay Gay World is the type of book that invites the characters and Readers to "see how the other half lives." To see what happens when the majority becomes the minority, when the LGBT and the straight communities switch places. Heterosexual people have to suffer the legal ramifications when they want to have rights that others take for granted. They have to be mocked with stereotypes and derisive comments from entertainment and even from friends and acquaintances. They could face ostracism from family, isolation, sentencing to conversion camps, and could be potentially injured or killed by people so driven by centuries of religious and social hatred towards others who aren't like them.

It's A Gay Gay World takes that premise and brings it up to eleven when two straight teens travel to a parallel dimension where 

homosexuality is the majority and heterosexuality is the minority. It is an interesting idea that Kolesnikov brilliantly explores in her novel. However, the book does leave some questions in terms of plot and character.

High schooler, Katherine Borovsky and her boyfriend, Michael Morrow, wake up from a severe traffic collision to find a different world around them. Instead of her religious mother and father and kid sister, Katherine is greeted by her sister and two religious mothers. Instead of his bickering parents, Michael is welcomed by two loving fathers. 

In what Katherine and Michael dub "The G World" (Gay as compared to the "S World" where they came from), sexes are completely segregated. Boys are raised by men and girls by women. Since homosexuality is the norm, what they dub  "mixing" is forbidden even illegal. (In G World, even the terms gay and straight are reversed but to simplify things for this review, I will use the traditional meanings for both terms.) 

Kolesnikov went into great detail about the history and current structure that would occur in such a world. At a church service, Katherine hears this parallel dimension's version of the Adam and Eve story. This world's interpretation is that the sin that Adam and Eve committed was not in disobedience but in having sexual intercourse. Pretty flimsy, but is it any flimsier than the actual excuses that centuries of people have used citing the Bible as justifications for their prejudices in this world?

While procreation is not ignored, that is the sole reason that G World authorities allow men and women to have sexual relations or it used to be. Now with IVF and surrogacy, there is no reason for that. Straight couples get sent to internment camps like Camp Stork where they are separated from the rest of society and are subjected to inhumane treatments. It's Camp Stork that eventually becomes the source of investigations when Anna, one of Katherine's mothers, Rick, an investigative reporter, and Daniel, a BFI (G World's version of the FBI) agent and Rick's husband, discover a potential conspiracy involving the camp and immigrant straight couples.

The details aren't just found in the main plot.

When Katherine and Michael compare notes with their friends (and in G World, Michael's boyfriend and Katherine's girlfriend), Travis and Sydney, they find that G World's population is much smaller than the overpopulated world in which they came from. 

They also discover other clever facts about this parallel dimension such as that Sydney and Travis have never heard of Facebook, but MySpace is still the most important social media site. The current President in G World is Belinda Floyd, a woman who was a former movie star and is known for her progressive policies. Hurricanes only go up to Category Three. Many of these details aren't really important to the overall narrative, but they show how seriously Kolesnikov took the different aspects between dimensions.

 

This conspiracy develops many of the characters such as Elizabeth, Katherine's mother, who was at first appalled by her daughter being straight but then goes into full Defcon 1 Protective Mom mode when Katherine is threatened. Katherine's discomfort towards Anna thaws as before she refused to acknowledge her because Katherine missed her S World father. However, after Anna not only infiltrates Camp Stork but defends Katherine from attack, the teen lovingly refers to her as Mom like she does Elizabeth.

Besides the teen protagonists, many of the other characters are developed as well. Rick and Daniel are a loving couple who are good at their careers. They use those careers to help others such as investigating murders connected to Camp Stork and helping Nadia and Marek, an immigrant couple, who are kidnapped and sent there.

One of the best characters is Dominique Sullivan, a physics professor who provides details to Katherine, Michael, Sydney, and Travis about travel from parallel universes, something that he experienced first hand. Like Katherine and Michael, Sullivan came from S World decades ago. However, as an African-American gay man, he found love and acceptance in G World, particularly with his husband, David, so he decided to stay. However, Sullivan is not blind to the problems in his adopted home dimension so he also takes part in infiltrating Camp Stork.

It's A Gay Gay World is a great book but it offers some intriguing questions, perhaps for Kolesnikov to explore in a sequel, particularly since this book's conclusion is open ended. This book only refers to heterosexuality and homosexuality. Since gender and sexuality are constructs and are more fluid than that, it would be interesting to see how It's A Gay Gay World explores that possibility in G World. How are bisexuals treated in G World? (There are some indications that one of the characters is bisexual, but it is never outright stated.) What about transgenders, especially with how rigid cis males and females are segregated in this reality? These are other possibilities that could be explored in the future.

Katherine and Michael are aware that they are being discrimated against in this world to the point that Katherine makes a public plea for acceptance but they don't seem to make any comparisons towards their behavior in S World. There are some subtle implications that the two teens weren't exactly paragons of understanding and tolerance towards LGBT people in S World. Michael mentions that he felt uncomfortable towards a male friend who came out of the closet and began to phase him out. Katherine's first scene in G World shows her at a church service and she makes plenty of comments about her family's Christian background in both worlds. Their evolving feelings towards LGBT people could be illustrated in Katherine's growing acceptance towards Anna in her lives and their easy friendship towards many of the other G World citizens, but it would be interesting to see how this trip changes their beliefs once they return to S World.

Speaking of Katherine and Michael in S World, we learn that both worlds have the same people. While the teen couple are wandering around another dimension that isn't theirs, so are an alternate version of Michael and Katherine, both of whom are gay and are just as out of place as their counterparts. They will no doubt be subjected to homophobia and hate crimes. 

One of the most unfortunate implications concerns G World's Michael and his parents. That Michael left a world with two happily married fathers who loved their son and he clearly reciprocated that love. The S World's Michael lives with constantly fighting parents who give their son a toxic home environment. Since this volume involved a lot of Katherine's family, if Kolesnikov writes another volume set in S World, Michael's family should receive a stronger look that focuses on that conflict.

It's A Gay Gay World is an interesting premise that hopefully will be explored more on a future date. It presents an interesting look at both worlds.