Sinai

Sinai
by William Smethurst
(4/5 stars)

When a German tourist dies of dehydration in the Sinai desert in only hours, Dr. Richard Corrigan begins to suspect something odd is going on.  He joins forces with an American scientist, who shows him the body of an Egyptian boy recovered in 1973 but believed to actually come from the time of the Biblical exodus.  Thus Richard begins to look for answers.

If you ever wanted a da Vinci Code involving physics then this is your book.  It's lacking a little in terms of chills and thrills, though it has its moments.  Mostly what holds this book back are the ancient Egyptian scenes.  These weigh the narrative down considerably and for what they contribute to the end, it could have been compressed into a prologue.  Really, we didn't need to hear the entire Exodus when all that mattered was what happened around Mount Te.

Another problem was the author clearly did not reference his military aircraft.  At one point he mentions an American Sabre going down; Sabres became obsolete by the mid-1950s.  Another point someone is flying in an SR-71 Blackbird; the last of those was retired in the 1990s.  Then he mentioned something being tested on a Phantom; I'm pretty sure the Israeli's stopped using those a while back as well.  In this age of Wikipedia it's pretty easy for an author or editor to research details like that.  And as I always say, if you don't get the little things right, it worries me about the big things, especially in a book that involves so much history.

Anyway, as I said if you liked the da Vinci Code and like physics then this will be a great book for you.

That is all.

Chet Finley vs. The Machines of Fate

Chet Finley vs. The Machines of Fate
by Eric Filler
(5/5 stars)

Fans of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" or especially fans of "Futurama" should enjoy this smart-alec sci-fi adventure.  The eponymous Chet Finley is an ordinary schlub in Newark until the day he uncovers a galactic conspiracy to control--and profit from--humanity.  From there Chet enlists the aid of a surly robot named Ziggy and a shapeshifting assassin named Sadie to find the root of the conspiracy and free humanity.  The journey takes Chet from Newark to a freighter loaded with bootleg DVDs to Monaco and then into the stars.  From there Chet and company visit a library operated by giant birds, a casino in the Horsehead Nebula, to a planet where time itself has stopped.

As with any book of this type you might not get all of the jokes or think they're all very funny, but there are far more hits than misses.  The book is loaded with geek culture references and a good dose of locker room humor to make it fun for grown-up sci-fi fans.  It won't make you forget Douglas Adams, but it's still a fun read.

That is all.

Superhero (An Action Thriller)

Superhero (An Action Thriller)
by Victor Methos
(4/5 stars)

This is definitely in the mold of grim and gritty 80s style comics like "The Dark Knight Returns" instead of the more traditional Golden Age of comics.  The plot is sort of like "Robocop" meets "The Greatest American Hero" in that our hero Jack is pretty much killed, but thanks to alien technology is able to be rebuilt into a cyborg with superpowers.  He uses these to go after Agamemnon, the guy who nearly killed him and who has pretty much the same abilities as Jack.

Overall it's a pretty serviceable superhero tale if you like the grim and gritty stuff.  Unfortunately an M. Night-style twist at the end ruins what would otherwise be a 5-star yarn.  I do appreciate that the author at least tried to create a different hero with his own backstory, as so many other authors seem content to just mimic Superman or Batman or Iron Man, etc. and set them in play.

For the price I got it for on Amazon I'd have to say it was worth the money.

That is all.