14 Hours of Saturn by Mike J. Kizman; Antonio's Odyssey by Mike Pagone; They Know When The Killer Will Strike by Michael J. Bowler

14 Hours of Saturn by Mike J. Kizman; Antonio's Odyssey by Mike Pagone; They Know When The Killer Will Strike by Michael J. Bowler 

By Julie Sara Porter 

Bookworm Reviews 

14 Hours of Saturn by Mike J. Kizman 

This is a summary. The entire review is on LitPick.

14 Hours of Saturn is mostly a great character study of a young woman looking back on the trajectory of her life while embarking on her next step. Saturn's life doesn't by any means contain a lot of adventure or dramatic tense moments, but she is an interesting average person that we explore various moments throughout her young life. However, towards the end, the book loses character by forcing a repetitive and overbearing sermon that slows the book down. 

Saturn O Sayres is unpacking in her new apartment and exploring her new surroundings. She flashes back to memories of her family, particularly her love-hate relationship with her sister Venus, her education, artistic talents, friendships, romantic relationships, and spiritual concerns. 

Most of the book focuses on Saturn's tempestuous relationship with her fashionista logical sister, Venus. The two sisters argued over interests, romances, parent's attention, acting more like school rivals than related by blood. It's a very relatable relationship as anyone who has siblings can understand. 

Although Saturn and Venus's relationship is frosty and tempestuous most of the time, they occasionally show genuine love and support to the point that when the girls are separated by college, marriage, and life plans they miss each other more than either will admit.

14 Hours of Saturn could be a brilliant book about a woman who creates bridges with her conflicted relationships with others, particularly Venus or finds personal and financial success in her chosen professional field. Some of that is present. However, it is hidden by an overemphasis towards religion that overpowers the final chapters.

The final third of the book is almost taken over by religion. Saturn's overbearing college roommate quotes Christian platitudes and tries to convert Saturn which ultimately works.

It's not that the book is Christian Fiction that is the problem. It is that the book was so secretive about it. There was barely any mention of religion through most of the book until towards the end. It's like a Trojan Horse hiding religious meaning in a slice of life novel about two bickering sisters.

 Perhaps, it might have come across better if religious concepts were generously sprinkled throughout the book and that Saturn came into it on her own instead of through her roommate pestering her.

14 Hours of Saturn is a book that turns into a sermon, but at least has an interesting, spirited, creative, intelligent protagonist as the focus. 

 

Antonio's Odyssey by Mike Pagone 

Antonio's Odyssey by Mike Pagone is a charming slice of life novel about the life and loves of a man named Antonio or Tony from his 1940’s childhood to late in life contentment. 

Tony's life is described through various anecdotes and incidents which combine humor and emotion. His childhood is filled with memories of his relatives particularly his lively ebullient grandfather. He also writes about other youthful experiences like shining shoes for a living, joining a street gang, his interests in music and pigeons, and an early interracial romance with a Black girl named Rosetta. 

Antonio moved to Las Vegas to play piano with a band in 1954. This was when Vegas was just beginning its reputation as an entertainment destination during the jazz and Rat Pack Era. At the time, it was a flourishing thriving scene just perfect for a young musician to get his start. 

Unfortunately it's also a place where one could  get extremely close to organized crime as Tony does in a chilling chapter. His interactions with criminals costs Tony his job, his then girlfriend Laura, and ultimately his Vegas residence as he is forced to go on the run.

Antonio describes various people in his life through witty observation and self-deprecating humor. For example, his first wife Kelly had an IQ that was “like one hundred and forty-nine while (his) was probably zero, well maybe ten, but anyway she never used her intelligence to trick or fool (him).”  Another love interest, “Spur-Of-The-Moment” Linda led Tony on many strange antics to teach him to embrace life.

There are also moments of emotional anguish such as the decline of Linda’s friend, Julie, who suffered from addiction and potential psychosis. There is also genuine tenderness such as when Linda and Tony bond with Heather, a young girl from a troubled background. 

Tony, and Pagone, described these events with such earnestness and sincerity that the Reader feels like they really know Tony and his inner circle even if he wasn't a real person.

They Know When The Killer Will Strike (A Film Milieu Thriller) by Michael J. Bowler

This is a summary. The entire review is on LitPick.

Normally reading a later volume without reading a previous one can be a confusing chore because readers get lost. But They Know When The Killer Will Strike by Michael J. Bowler benefits from reading out of order because all is explained through a movie-within-a-book.

Leo Cantrell discovers that his previous adventure (told in the first volume I Know When You Are Going to Die), is going to turn into a movie produced by his ambitious pushy mother. Leo and his friends JC, Chet, and Laura get to experience the making of a film and befriend the actors who will play them. Leo however receives psychic visions of gruesome attacks on set suggesting that a killer is on the loose and has their eyes set on the cast and crew. While this is going on Leo has to weigh his sexuality and feelings for Asher, the actor/model playing him.

Using the device of a film made out of the previous book, readers are given information about characters’s back stories, important plot points, and the occasional spoiler without having read the first book. It's a very unique way of catching up late coming readers while also telling a great story in its own right. Film buffs will enjoy the behind the scenes look on how a film adaptation is made..

They Know When The Killer Will Strike is gripping thriller with a fun satirical edge as it looks at murder on the set of a Hollywood film. 

New Book Alert: Orange City by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Terrifying Science Fiction Dystopia Will Scare The Colors Out Of You

 

New Book Alert: Orange City by Lee Matthew Goldberg; Terrifying Science Fiction Dystopia Will Scare The Colors Out Of You

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: Lee Matthew Goldberg's previous novel, Slow Down was an ironic title of a book. It was a fast paced almost hallucinatory drug trip of a novel in which Noah, a young ambitious screenwriter gets involved with a creepy director's film project which involves several actresses becoming addicted to a drug called Fast which turns them homicidally violent.

So in this, his fifth novel, Orange City has Goldberg taken the predecessor title's advice and slowed down? Well, no. Instead he just has a wider more imaginative arena in which to explore these strange, bizarre, terrifying worlds.

Orange City is set in the future in a dystopian city called, original name, The City. The City is ruled by an omnipresent figure who is literally called The Man. (Thankfully, the common nouns used as proper names device ends there. So we don't run into other characters called The Woman, The Boy, The Girl, The Dog and don't encounter The Bar or The Restaurant.)

The Man is a creepy figure. He wears the same black suit and is fed a strange orange liquid intravenously, so he doesn't eat. His legs are distorted because of surgeries to make him taller. He has several arms connected to his body that are thin and branch-like giving him a spidery appearance. His red eyes are able to cyberoptically view the entire city. He has spies, technology, and a psychic seeming intuition that allows him to keep everyone and everything in the city under his watch and control. Anyone who disobeys can lose their appendages and end up in The Zone, the homeless district, or The Man's Scouts can send them to The Outside World, the area outside The City. The Man's appearance and demeanor are sort of like what would happen if 1984's Big Brother decided to retire and give control of Oceania over to Slenderman.

Underneath The Man's control are the Finances, districts with CEO's that control the banking, business, and advertising. In one way or another everybody works under The Man's ultimate direction, so yes they are in fact slaves to The Man. 

One of those workers is Graham Weathered, a meek little man who works for the advertising firm of Warton, Mind, and Donovan. Graham has been living in The City since he was 19, a scared abused former foster kid from The Outside World. He was given the option, as all convicted criminals are, to remain in the desolate war torn Outside World or start a new life with a job that promises benefits and constant surveillance in The City. Naturally, the naive Graham chooses Option B.

Years later, Graham is given his first real assignment. Warton, Mind, and Donovan are promoting a multi-flavored soda called Pow! His boss, E, wants him to test the various flavors and let them know what the results are. Graham needs some recognition from his employers,  would like to get ahead and does not want to be sent to the Zone. Plus, Graham has the spine of an amoeba and the nerves of a terrified toy dog, so he agrees. The only problem is that Pow! is addictive, really addictive, and it produces some strange side effects. It alters a person's emotions depending on the flavor.

Orange City is a brilliant novel that is a tribute to the Science Fiction Dystopia genre and a satire on advertising, greed, and corporate control. As Graham drinks the Pow! flavors, he takes on various facets of his personality. The orange flavor makes him passionate and sexual. Lime green makes him jealous and ambitious. Blueberry makes him depressed and thoughtful. Cherry Red makes him aggressive and homicidal. All of the emotions that a lifetime of abuse and constant surveillance and control have repressed have finally broken through and overwhelms him.

This book is a wonder to imagine and is one of the few that I would like to see become a movie or limited series because of how impressive it would look. One of the more visually captivating images are the constant changing colors around Graham. Each time he drinks a specific flavor, his eyes zero in and focus on that color on the walls, neon signs, and on people's clothing. Each time he is attracted to women wearing those specific colors or is invited to a club or a bar with that color name (The Citrus Club, Lime Lounge, Blue Moon, and Red Rum.) It would be neat to see any potential filmmaker engage in some interesting details like the walls in Graham's apartment changing color or the neon lights blazing in the background, unavoidable like stars. Goldberg clearly had a lot of fun writing the process of Graham and his mood swings and the shifting environment around him.

Besides setting, Goldberg also creates a memorable protagonist in Graham. Similar to characters like Winston Smith, Guy Montag, Offred/June, or Bernard Marx, Graham just accepts the System at first. He thinks that if he plays along and doesn't cause trouble, then he will live another day, without realizing that it doesn't matter how much he plays along. If that System sees those under them as less than human, they are expendable and completely disposable. They will be killed or exiled anyway, because they have no value as a human being or an individual. 

Graham follows the Man's orders, even temporarily accepts a higher position, more luxurious apartment, and larger stipend to be the Pow! spokesperson/product tester/guinea pig. When he becomes hopelessly addicted and characters appear and reappear to monitor him, even appearing in lucid dreams is when he starts to question what he got into. He also learns some revealing things about his past and what The Man's real goals are.  That's when he can no longer remain a passive participant and slave to The Man. He becomes an active rebel and fighter against those that have controlled him for most of his life.

Orange City is a book with a terrifying premise that questions how much advertising, corporations, and our own self interests control us. It could be as real as tomorrow. That thought is enough to scare the colors out of the Reader.