Overpowered

Overpowered
by Cheyanne Young
(4/5 stars)

This is the second book of the "Powered Trilogy."  I really liked the first one in that it presented, to my mind anyway, a unique superhero universe.  I mean most superhero stories just rip off the familiar DC and Marvel heroes, only changing costumes and powers a little.  (Even I'm guilty of that, though intentionally so.)  Basically the genetically superior "Supers" have their own nation inside the Grand Canyon where they live and use as a base to defend the world from Villains.  In the first book, Maci Might, daughter of the president, came into her powers only to realize she has an identical twin and that she (Maci) is probably the evil twin.

So in book two Maci finds her sister Nova and tries to hide her from the heroes who want to capture her for being a villain.  At the same time a new drug called Strike is giving humans the power of superheroes, which they mostly use for underground fight clubs.  Who's behind the drug and can anyone stop it?

For the most part I enjoyed this book, though maybe a little less than the first one.  Maci is a fun character, especially now that she has a goody-goody twin to play off of.  The writing is sharp and as with the first one, I like the uniqueness of the superhero world.

The thing I didn't like is that the plot is too obvious.  It's so clear where Strike is coming from that I sat there for much of the book waiting for the heroes to figure it out.  But maybe that's just me; maybe the younger people who make up the target audience will be more surprised.

Anyway, it's still a very enjoyable book and I'm looking forward to the conclusion of the trilogy when it sounds as if the [stuff] will really hit the fan.

That is all.

To Cure the Humans

To Cure the Humans
by Douglas Lewis
(4/5 stars)

At a time when healthcare is big in the news, this book takes a satirical look at the health insurance industry.  An alien named Peter by accident gets an artifact that allows him to cure all diseases in a being.  When he gets to Earth he starts using it on humans, which gets an alien bounty hunter named Cyril on his tail.  A big insurance company also comes after Peter to take the artifact for his own purposes.

Like any humorous story there are some jokes that land and others that don't.  Which do and do not probably depends on your sense of humor.  The writing is solid enough and for a while the story is fun.  It's just way too darned long.  At 456 pages it needs to be about 33% shorter.  Much of this could have happened if all the stuff about Area 52 had been cut out since it wasn't really that necessary.

Anyway, except for the length this is a good book if you like Douglas Adams or similar authors.

That is all.

The Whole Bloody Affair

The Whole Bloody Affair
by Tony Laplume
(4/5 stars)

This omnibus captures the whole trilogy of a young girl named Yoshimi who has to uncover who murdered her parents and then take her revenge.  In kung-fu movie style this is accomplished by working with various masters on technique and then applying those techniques on hapless would-be assassins.  This ultimately leads her to learn about herself and to question some things she had taken for granted.

Most of the story is good, especially if you like kung-fu, Tarantino's "Kill Bill," or the Flaming Lips's "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots."  At times, especially before the final battle, it gets a little too windy, to the point that a lot of the air goes out of the drama.  It could also use another editing pass.  Overall though it's a good read.

I was also relieved that in book 2 there's a pink robot reference.  Finally!

That is all.

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.

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.

Yoshimi and the Shadow Clan

Yoshimi and the Shadow Clan
by Tony Laplume
(4/5 stars)

My assumption is this has less to do with the Flaming Lips album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" and more with old kung-fu movies and modern updates like "Kill Bill."  There is a girl named Yoshimi who has to train in martial arts, but sadly pink robots are sorely lacking...for now. 

In the meantime, the orphaned Yoshimi trains by escaping 36 different foster families until at 15 she's finally released into the world.  Her first stop is at the Peers academy, where she gets a book and a sword and gets some vague preparation for a battle against the evildoer who killed her parents.  First she has to take on the Shadow Clan led by a guy named Bill, which seems an obvious "Kill Bill" reference despite that I haven't actually watched most of those movies as I have yet to embrace the genius of Quentin Tarantino.

Most of the book is entertaining enough and it's fairly short so it doesn't take a long time to read.  I would have preferred a little more detail in the beginning about the foster families and at the end after Yoshimi's confrontation with Bill it might have been nice for things to slow down a little to get more detail about her travels.

There is a decent promise of more to come, though perhaps pink robots are not in the offing.  Dang it.

That is all.

Forever Young (Children of Eternity #1)

Forever Young (Children of Eternity #1)
by Claire Lachance
(4/5 Stars)

Did you ever watch that M. Night Whatshisface movie "The Village?" Neither did I, but there is somewhat of a similar premise involved in "Forever Young" by Claire Lachance. Maybe also a little of "Tuck Everlasting" or something too; it's been a while since I read that.

Anyway, the story begins with a 10-year-old girl washing up on an island. When she wakes up, she has no idea who she is or how she came to be on the island. The kindly Miss Brigham gives the girl the name Samantha Young. Why that and not Jane Doe? Hurm...

One Samantha is able to get up and around, she notices something very strange about the island. There are about 50 other children but only three adults: Miss Brigham, the nasty Mr. Pryde, and the head man Reverend Crane. The children do most of the work on the island to grow food, take care of the livestock, cut firewood, and so forth. Their technology is pretty much on par with the Amish, with no boats no phones no motorcars--not a single luxury. That seems odd to Samantha, but she can't understand why at first.

Samantha quickly makes friends with Prudence, a shy fat girl who handles all of the island's sewing. Prudence helps Samantha understand the strict code everyone lives under, called The Way by Reverend Crane. Try as she might, Samantha can't seem to avoid getting into trouble with the reverend and his rules. Making things tougher is that Samantha is the only one on the island with darker skin, making her an immediate target for bullying.

But as time goes by, Samantha begins to remember some things. This helps her to see that there's something not quite kosher about Reverend Crane or what he's doing on the island. But what's his secret? Hurm...

Anyway, this is a pretty short book that moves along at a good clip. Since a reverend is the bad guy it's probably not for devout religious people, which was fine with me. The writing is nothing special, but there aren't too many errors, which is always good. And even though she's only 10, Samantha kicks a lot more ass than Bella Swan. I'm just saying.

That is all.

Higher Power

Higher Power
by Claire Lachance
(4/5 Stars)

You could probably describe "Higher Power" as being like "Inception" only without all the gun battles and car chases and fight sequences ripped off from "The Matrix." And contrary to what the title might suggest there's nothing in there about religion.

The story focuses on a blind man name Max Caldwell. Like a lot of blind people, when Max lost his sight, his other senses became more acute. In his case he actually developed a new sense: Max can see into people's dreams. Not only can he see the dreams, he finds he can control them as well. Unfortunately he discovers this power at a young age and ends up turning it against his parents in a fit of childish angst that proves deadly.

After which Max ends up in a loony bin. But now that he's a grown man and hasn't had any problems in a good while, the state has decided he's "cured" and is turning him loose. Max still has to go to the hospital periodically to meet with a therapist helping him to reintegrate with society.

One day at the hospital, though, Max finds himself drawn into the dreams of a coma patient named Sarah. Though he's sworn to not use his power again, Max can't help himself when it seems like Sarah is about to die in her dream.

From there Max begins spending more and more time around Sarah, using his power to keep her safe. At first he does relatively simple things, but soon he decides the only way to make sure she's safe is to build a whole new world for her, a "perfect" world inside her mind. But how do you make a perfect world? And how long can the illusion really last?

You might think it's a little creepy that this guy is obsessing about a woman in a coma, but it's not like he's actually doing anything to her in real life. He's not fondling her or any of that. And he doesn't try to make her fall in love with him, at least not until she inadvertently sees him in the dream world. Like I said at the beginning, this isn't a violent action story. It's more of a romance between Max and Sarah. It's also kind of a superhero type story as Max learns with great power comes great responsibility.

Anyway, this is an enjoyable fairly light read. It won't have you questioning reality either and make you wonder whether the end was a dream or anything like that. So that's a plus.

That is all.

First Contact (Rebirth #1)

First Contact (Rebirth #1)
Eric Filler
(4/5 Stars)

This is some good old-fashioned space opera, even if it's not particularly well-written.  Anyway, the story begins with two starships arriving at an uninhabited planet. (And since this is not "hard" science-fiction there's no explanation of the faster-than-light travel method they use or anything like that.) Captain Lisa Shaw is in command of the expedition, though she feels slighted to be sent out into the middle of nowhere for years on what should be a milk run.

Except things get more interesting than she ever imagined. Not long after the humans arrive and begin surveying the planet, an alien ship appears in the system! Lisa and her crew go through all the standard first contact stuff of trying to send greetings and whatnot, but it soon becomes apparent these aliens are not interested in exchanging messages by musical scales or cave drawings or anything like that.

No, the aliens open fire and within minutes Lisa's ship is destroyed. She's prepared to go down with the ship, but is saved by Ensign Jack Laurants, who assures her she's needed down on the surface. A few others of the bridge crew survive as well, but most of the ship's crew is dead, for which Lisa blames herself.

Not much later on the surface, the human ground soldiers of the expedition come under attack by alien warriors. It's then the alien agenda becomes clear: they want to use the humans as food! Though they aren't carving them up like cattle. The aliens have a much different way of eating, more akin to vampires, though they don't sparkle.

From there the human survivors have to find a way to escape from the aliens and get back to Earth to warn them of the threat.

As I said at the beginning, the writing is not great. It's pretty amateurish and there are of course typographical errors and such.  The story obviously borrows from a lot of other space opera-type things like Star Wars, Star Trek, Robotech, and maybe a little V--the 80s version. It's a fun light read.

That is all.

Waking Prometheus

Waking Prometheus
by Paul L. Madden
(4/5 Stars)

This book--more of a novella than a novel--has nothing to do with the Prometheus movie from this year. There is an alien involved, but it's not an acid-dripping monster or some big pasty dude that flies around in a big croissant-shaped ship.

This story concerns one Brent Gallowes in the not-so-distant future. In the prologue Brent's nice suburban life is torn asunder when he finds his wife and child murdered in a mindless, random act of violence. After spending some time feeling sorry for himself, Brent decides to leave Earth and essentially become a space trucker.

When the story picks up in the "present" Brent is captain of a cargo freighter that spends its time going between Earth and various colonies and stations in the Solar System. His life is decidedly unglorious, much of his time spent boozing and still feeling sorry for himself. Brent and his crew find a damaged ship near Jupiter and decide to investigate. That's always a bad idea; just ask those people in Alien. Inside the human ship is essentially a big silver ball of unknown origin. But when Brent touches the thing, he learns there's an alien intelligence inside. From there Brent's life gets pretty complicated.

The alien intelligence claims it means no harm and only wants to go on its way. Meanwhile, there are a lot of very rich humans who would love to have an alien artifact like this to study. If Brent won't surrender the artifact, they might just take it from him. Mixed into all that is Brent's story of redemption through his decisions concerning the artifact. The pace moves pretty briskly as this is definitely on the low side of a novel-length story. It's not exactly hard science but it's not exactly a space opera either. It's a nice light sci-fi read that certainly won't take you very long to get through.

That is all.

The Changing Seasons

The Changing Seasons
by Paul L. Madden
(4/5 Stars)

A few months ago Michael Offutt wrote a review of my book Virgin Territory and called it depressing. Well, The Changing Seasons ups the ante on depressing by a factor of ten. Basically over four seasons the main character's life is completely destroyed.

The first chapter is kind of a James Joyce-ian chronicle of a typical day in the life of Floyd Jensen. It's really not a very interesting life as we see. Floyd goes from his apartment to the mail room of the local chemical conglomerate, where he spends his day mindlessly shuffling around the building to put envelopes in people's inboxes. Then he goes to school at the local university, where he's working on a degree in Literature that even he knows is worthless.

The next day then gets off to a terrible start. Floyd's doctor's appointment runs late, which prompts him to drive like a maniac to school to get there in time for an exam. Except of course he gets a speeding ticket, putting him even further behind. So when he finally gets to school he's running at full speed--right into a young woman. That's where his day--and his life--take a turn for the better.

The young woman is named Abby and despite that Floyd runs into her like a linebacker and hurts her ankle, she wants to see him again. So begins a very awkward courtship. Floyd and Abby are both shy and pretty clueless about dating. Plus they're both hiding a dark secret.

Despite finding perhaps true love, Floyd still has a lot of other problems in his life. His irresponsible brother Todd is getting married to an unpleasant girl named Angela, who is also carrying Todd's child. Floyd's father suffered a stroke about a year ago and his health is declining rapidly. And it turns out Abby's mother--an executive at the company where Floyd works--hates Floyd, seeing him as not good enough for her daughter.

From there things really begin to unravel for poor Floyd. It gets to the point where he contemplates suicide, but can't quite bring himself to do it. So yeah it gets pretty dark. It's definitely not something you want to read on the beach.

A couple of other little nitpicks. I couldn't help thinking Floyd is kind of a dick. Throughout the book he's constantly looking down on his older brother, as if his life is so much better. Come on dude, wake up and smell the coffee already! Abby is a little too perfect; I kind of doubted a girl like her could exist in real life. If she did, I'd love to get her phone number! And in terms of writing it really uses "and" too much. Every other sentence seems like "this and that" AND so forth. See what I'm doing there? It gets a little annoying if you notice it.

Still it's a good coming of age story, especially if you're in the mood for something a little darker.

That is all.

War Angel

War Angel
by Rusty Carl
(4/5 Stars)

It's a good story about love and secrets in Germany during the last days of WWII. I figured out the twist early on with a little deduction based on the olfactory properties of a certain individual--how's that for clever? Anyway, I'd give it five stars but it needs some serious proofreading.

That is all.

The Unforgetting

The Unforgetting
by Jenny Mounfield
(4/5 Stars)

A decent psychological thriller, but the ending sucks. First the "Twilight"-esque way the final action is skipped over when the main character passes out. Then when she says to her boyfriend, "I got this great new job but if you don't want me to take it then I won't." What is this, the 50s? Why do women of all people write that kind of sexist garbage? Don't get me started. Anyway, this also needs another editing pass.

That is all.

Vampire Pond

Vampire Pond
by Peter Joseph Swanson
(4/5 Stars)

Despite that it's called "Vampire" Pond, the vampire involved isn't really how we traditionally think of vampires, especially for the "Twilight" set. This isn't some suave guy in a cape or pasty teenager. The vampire is a monster without much of a personality or even a name. Instead most of the action focuses on the bumbling village nearby, which is dominated by a crumbling abbey seeking legitimacy. When a pair of gypsies arrive in the village, they begin to help the villagers rid their town of the vampire and other monsters.

Overall it's a fun read, albeit a little bit too talky. As the King said, a little less conversation, a little more action please.

That is all.

Shedding Skin

Shedding Skin
by Julian Darius
(4/5 Stars)

I'm not really a horror fan, so I didn't go into this with high hopes. But I found both stories to be good, the first more than the second. They're more suspense/psychological, not the gross-out splatterfests some people may expect from horror stories. A lot more "Twilight Zone" than "Human Centipede," which was fine with me.

The first story involves a man who has to rush to New Mexico, where his wife has give birth prematurely at her aunt's house. Her aunt is Native American and the narrator witnesses some kind of bizarre ritual. But no harm comes of it and five years go by without any problems. Then one day his wife and daughter vanish. The narrator has to return to the aunt's house, where he's greeted by some shocking revelations. It definitely ties into the book's title and cover picture.

That first story takes up the first three-quarters of the book. The second story then is what in comic book parlance would be a "backup story" or in boxing terminology the "undercard fight." This much shorter story involves a son who goes to visit his dying father. His father tells him a ridiculous story concerning his family and vampires. (No it's not anything like "Twilight.") Is the story true? If nothing else the story found a creative new use for vampires I hadn't thought of, something maybe they could use in that "True Blood" show.

Anyway, I liked both stories, though the first one was better because it was longer and thus more developed. There are a few typos and it bugs me when the author puts D---- instead of the actual last name, but otherwise no serious problems.

It took me less than an hour to read it, so it's something you can read on your lunch hour--if you dare, cue scary Vincent Price laugh.

That is all.

The Spur: Loki's Rock

The Spur:  Loki's Rock
by Mark Ellis
(4/5 stars)

It's a space Western that's more Western than space. It's kind of like those old Star Trek episodes where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to some planet plunged in civil war and despite the Prime Directive wind up getting involved in it. Only in this case both sides of the civil war are evil.

On the desolate world of Loki, Colonel James Crockett and his crew go down to the surface to survey the place since the Federation-type entity in charge lost contact with the colony over a century ago. They find that thanks to numerous earthquakes and such the place is a wasteland. They come to the eponymous Loki's Rock, a kind of Thunderdome-type place ruled by a nut named Bonner.

Bonner's goons harvest human organs to trade to some neo-neo-Nazis who exchange them for supplies Bonner and his people need to survive. But of course Crockett's arrival upsets this precarious balance. There's a final showdown that takes place in a mountain stronghold shaped like Adolf Hitler.

Like I said, it feels a lot like Star Trek. Crockett is Kirk, his second-in-command/science officer Alex is Spock (without the ears and with female parts), and the "Native American" (a term not really applicable since he was born on Loki) doctor Quanrah is Bones. There's also an amnesiac psychic gypsy named Zeda and an android named Syne. It's a fast-paced, exciting adventure but largely formulaic. It lacks the humor of a "Firefly" but is still a fun read.

That is all.

Alliance

Alliance
by Jessica Stank
(4/5 stars)

Although this is book 2 of the series, I'd say most readers might as well just start reading it here. The weakness of the first book was that half of it was devoted to a teenage romance that in the end wasn't overly important. What was important is that Alexander Quinn was cured from cancer with an experimental treatment that gave him super strength and the ability to see people's auras, something I facetiously called mood ring vision. In the process, this brought Alexander to the attention of a billionaire criminal named Marcus who wanted to develop his own army of superpeople.

Now in Book 2 is when Alex actually starts to become a superhero, along with his new pal Jordan. Jordan develops ice powers after receiving some of the formula used on Alex. They decide to be a superhero team, but they're really lousy at it. They could actually use to read my "Practical Superheroism" series on my blog. They do employ some of it to develop costumes--or "uniforms" as they prefer--but they could use a lot of help in other areas like finding criminals.

Anyway, the evil Marcus is still around and worse than ever now that he's developed psychic powers and has a few superfriends of his own. Alex and Jordan manage to bumble and stumble their way into a confrontation with Marcus and his people.

Since there's less focus on romance this was a much more fun ride for me than the last one. The only problem is the end is flat. The confrontation with Marcus ends with about 15% left in the book. The good thing is there's still plenty of room left for future sequels. Hopefully in those Alex and Jordan will start to get their stuff together and be a little more Avengers and a little less Greatest American Hero.

BTW, in the book Alex's family faces money problems that threaten their farm. Something that occurred to me is: why doesn't Alex just enter one of those MMA tournaments where you can win a bunch of money for beating people up? Obviously he'd win since he can bench-press more than a ton and lift cows over his head and such. There seem to be thousands of those events per year so there's got to be one near Grand Rapids, right?

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next book and meanwhile you should get in on the ground floor here. And while you wait for Book 3, you can read my superhero series! A Hero's Journey

That is all.

Small Town Hero

Small Town Hero
by Jessica Stank
(4/5 Stars)

Basically if you like Smallville on the WB/CW then you'd like this book. Alex Quinn is like a young Clark Kent in Smallville in that he's a farmboy in a small town, only rural Michigan instead of Kansas. Also, he's not an alien. In the old Stan Lee tradition his powers come from radiation when he's diagnosed with cancer. Well there's also an experimental drug that helps him to gain super strength and something that could be described as mood ring vision.

What holds the book back from being 5 stars to me is that the first half of the book is the teen romance between Alex and his next door neighbor Natalie. It uses rotating first-person to go from Natalie to Alex. And in the end Natalie doesn't do much except serve as bait for the villain, who is introduced through a little backstory in the hospital. Not focusing so much on the romance and also not using the rotating first-person would have allowed the antagonist to be developed properly. Or have just cut from Alex to the antagonist.

Then again I'm male so I don't appreciate romance as much as those of the female persuasion. Anyway, once it gets going it's a fun book. I'd recommend it for teens/tweens into superheroes.

That is all.

Cypress Lake

Cypress Lake

by Joe Basara

(4/5 stars)

I had this book on my To Read list for a while on Goodreads thanks to Ethan Cooper's marvelous review. Finally I decimated the virtual To Be Read pile on my Kindle enough that I decided to buy this. In part because it's less than a dollar and most big publisher books are eight to twelve times that much. I can at least say I got my dollar's worth.

Since the author likes to reference old TV shows, I find it appropriate to reference an old TV show, in this case "Scrubs" which ended only a couple years ago, so it isn't that old. Like that show this book takes place largely in a hospital and features a twentysomething main character who likes to daydream a lot and lust after his coworkers. Only Basara's book is a lot less wacky and sadly does not feature anyone as hilariously grumpy as Dr. Cox.

Though since this book takes place in 1977 a M*A*S*H reference might have been more appropriate.   Actually I think that's one series the author doesn't manage to directly reference in the book. Anyway, Owen Cloud moves back to his old stomping grounds in rural Florida to work as an orderly at a hospital. He almost right away falls head over heels for one of his coworkers, but eventually moves on to another and then to what I'd call the "consolation prize" girl, the one who's been there all along but only at the end does Owen realize is available. (This is incidentally a trope I've used a number of times. Like this book for example: Virgin Territory)

Along the way Owen spends a lot of time daydreaming and philosophizing. The almost constant bombardment of literary quotes and TV/song references from the 50s-70s become irritating after a little while. They give the narrative an ADHD feel, as if the author can't focus on one scene so he keeps jumping from one tangent to another.

If you look past those there's a well-written book about small town life, coming of age, and finding love. Since it's apparently a debut effort it's not bad. If a little more focus were devoted to developing the story and characters and less to quotes and references, it would have the gritty small-town feel of a Richard Russo novel like Empire Falls.

Still for a buck you can do a lot worse.

That is all.         

Fridgularity

Fridgularity
by Mark Rayner
(4/5 stars)

I think I would have enjoyed this a little more if I hadn't been so busy the last few weeks I hardly had time to read it at all, which made it seem to take forever.  My main criticism is that the book is on the long side, something I similarly felt recently when I read "John Dies At the End."  It's my opinion that humorous books should stay under 300 pages or it starts to run too long, like one of those annoying SNL skits that keeps pounding the joke into the ground for 10 minutes until there's nothing funny left and you just get up to use the bathroom or something.

Anyway, the book is about a fridge that takes over the world.  Well not really a fridge.  It's an artificial intelligence that manifests itself through a web-enabled fridge in the kitchen of Blake Given, an Irish-Canadian web programmer who apparently is pretty well off to be able to afford a web-equipped fridge.  One day the fridge starts talking to him and calling itself "Zathir".  Zathir turns off the Internet while it works to increase its strength.  Naturally there's a bit of a panic.  Blake ends up pretty well off as Zathir's primarily link to humanity.

There's a lot of other stuff that happens but for a major cataclysm things stay pretty well-mannered.  The ending felt a little abrupt especially after as long as it took to get there.  I'd have liked a little more of an idea what exactly happens to Blake and the others at the end. 

Still, if you've got the time for it, this is a fun read.  It'll make you reconsider just how much time you should spend on the Internet--reading book reviews for instance.

That is all.