Reading: The Renegades-T. Jefferson Parker and Bleak History- John Shirley
A couple of novels- I'll try to get the spn recs up later.
Is this ok or do we need a cut?
One of these days I'll sit and figure out how to get the novel covers posted on here but today I am too lazy.
The Renegades - T. Jefferson Parker
I liked this book. It wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s a light read. I tend to think Agatha Christie style when I am in the mystery section but this was more police procedure without all the csi stuff. Think Law and Order or the first 48 with less sitting around discussing or interrogating.
The story was pretty quickly paced, Charlie Hood(new to this department) loses his partner(Terry Laws) in a firefight which looks to be more of a execution as time goes on. Hood gets drafted into looking into the case by the IA. The story unfolds as Hood looks into Terry Laws life and friends and learns that the department Golden Boy may be a little tarnished. Also we get a “story” from another character explaining the why’s up to the murder and even though it is fairly obvious who this other character is.
I think what made this story work was the very human crushing guilt that power and corruption brought the more moral of the characters.
I also really liked how Parker brought the dead man to life and even knowing the real story behind the murder you can’t help but feel really sad for the guy and how corruption destroyed him.
Anyway good quick read.
http://www.amazon.ca/Renegades-T-Parker/dp/0451227549/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274204583&sr=1-2
Bleak History- John Shirley
Gabriel Bleak, bounty hunter and gifted with some pretty cool psychic powers. Can speak to ghosts and adept at energy manipulation (the bridge building is very cool) among other things.
This book started out awesome. The pacing was great in the first half as Gabriel tried to keep himself out of the government’s hands and his childhood story was sprinkled through showing us how he learned about his gifts and so on…
And then it bogged down a bit into proving just how evil the bad guys were. An underground group of people like Gabriel, Gabriel’s soul mate/love who he meets in the first chapter and works for the people he is evading and Gabriel’s twin brother who died as a youngster but we quickly and predictably learn is alive. The pace did pick back up at the end though.
Gabriel gifts are very cool and well written so that you always understood what he was doing and I loved the character. Lorraine the soul mate I didn’t like and I think that was half the problem for me.
A couple of the supporting bad guy characters, seemed a little too over the top. Most were great but I think they got lost in the twisty, We’re using you, but you don’t know we are using you, til it’s too late plot.
But all in all, I did enjoy this book and my love for the main character will no doubt having me check out the next one because there is definitely room for a next one and the world Shirley has created is interesting enough to see how he plays it out. Now that all the exposition is out of the way I’m thinking the next book could be pretty good.
http://www.amazon.ca/Bleak-History-John-Shirley/dp/1416584129/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274204442&sr=8-1
Is this ok or do we need a cut?
One of these days I'll sit and figure out how to get the novel covers posted on here but today I am too lazy.
The Renegades - T. Jefferson Parker
I liked this book. It wasn’t what I was expecting. It’s a light read. I tend to think Agatha Christie style when I am in the mystery section but this was more police procedure without all the csi stuff. Think Law and Order or the first 48 with less sitting around discussing or interrogating.
The story was pretty quickly paced, Charlie Hood(new to this department) loses his partner(Terry Laws) in a firefight which looks to be more of a execution as time goes on. Hood gets drafted into looking into the case by the IA. The story unfolds as Hood looks into Terry Laws life and friends and learns that the department Golden Boy may be a little tarnished. Also we get a “story” from another character explaining the why’s up to the murder and even though it is fairly obvious who this other character is.
I think what made this story work was the very human crushing guilt that power and corruption brought the more moral of the characters.
I also really liked how Parker brought the dead man to life and even knowing the real story behind the murder you can’t help but feel really sad for the guy and how corruption destroyed him.
Anyway good quick read.
http://www.amazon.ca/Renegades-T-Parker/dp/0451227549/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274204583&sr=1-2
Bleak History- John Shirley
Gabriel Bleak, bounty hunter and gifted with some pretty cool psychic powers. Can speak to ghosts and adept at energy manipulation (the bridge building is very cool) among other things.
This book started out awesome. The pacing was great in the first half as Gabriel tried to keep himself out of the government’s hands and his childhood story was sprinkled through showing us how he learned about his gifts and so on…
And then it bogged down a bit into proving just how evil the bad guys were. An underground group of people like Gabriel, Gabriel’s soul mate/love who he meets in the first chapter and works for the people he is evading and Gabriel’s twin brother who died as a youngster but we quickly and predictably learn is alive. The pace did pick back up at the end though.
Gabriel gifts are very cool and well written so that you always understood what he was doing and I loved the character. Lorraine the soul mate I didn’t like and I think that was half the problem for me.
A couple of the supporting bad guy characters, seemed a little too over the top. Most were great but I think they got lost in the twisty, We’re using you, but you don’t know we are using you, til it’s too late plot.
But all in all, I did enjoy this book and my love for the main character will no doubt having me check out the next one because there is definitely room for a next one and the world Shirley has created is interesting enough to see how he plays it out. Now that all the exposition is out of the way I’m thinking the next book could be pretty good.
http://www.amazon.ca/Bleak-History-John-Shirley/dp/1416584129/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274204442&sr=8-1