Kindle Korner Kontinues......

Well, I am afraid to say that The End Of The World ended up being more than just a little bit disappointing! Not only was the climax of the story a bit obvious but I got the feeling ultimately that the whole thing was just being odd simply for the sake of being odd as the story never really ended up going anywhere in the end! A shame...because to start with, it looked like it had potential!

Thankfully, the next book on my Kindle (another freebie) more than makes up for what End Of The World lacked! The Days and Months We Were First Born- The Unraveling (Book 1 of 3)  By Christopher Hunter is so good it makes number (66) on my 1001 Books And Authors You Need To Read Before You Die list!! Martin Jacobs wakes up one morning in the not-too-distant-future only to find his whole world turned upside down! A man-made virus has begun sweeping the planet separating everybody into one of two groups: those who are immune and going to survive and those who are going to die!

Jacobs' girlfriend goes into a complete breakdown when she learns that all her family have been condemned to an early grave forcing Martin to go on without her. As society breaks down, he joins a local Militia struggling to keep control and keep the streets clear of bodies but then they learn of a group of scientists holed up in a Campus building who may well have been responsible for the release of the virus in the first place! Martin has his reservations but even he cannot predict what will happen next.....the ramifications of which will greatly affect what is left of the world!

This book reads very much like Stephen King's The Stand but on a much less epic scale! There are no big battles between the forces of Good and Evil, no clear cut division of black and white merely more and more shades of grey and what we are left with is King's masterpeice stripped to its barest bones giving this paticular novel its own clear identity! It is a gripping read, highly addictive and only the beginning of a forthcoming trilogy of novels, the second of which is currently available from Amazon! Have no doubt, as soon as I get paid I will be buying the next book in the series as this was something I REALLY could not put down! I loved its style, adored its fresh approach to a familiar theme and think the story shows lots of potential for expansion over the next two novels! Where things are going to go next, I could not even hope to predict and that just makes this story and its characters even more exciting! I cannot wait to see where Christopher Hunter is about to take us next!

Kindle Korner round-up.....

 First up, I have finally finished the Infinities collection of short stories and novel samples on my Kindle and found it, as a whole, largely unsatisfying. The rest of the collection included a story entitled The Wooden Horse by John Grant which tells the story of a vet who makes the decision to change his career to become a film critic after watching a series of unusual war movies at his local art house cinema. This was a not bad, little bit wishy-washy, alternative history tale that felt a tad bland. 

Next up was Phoenix Man by Gary Kilworth about a man whose dangerous obsession with fire and the ability to continually set himself alight damages his relationship with his girlfriend and has disastrous results. This was slightly better and a neat little tale from an established author from whom I have only had minimal experience.

The next book sample comes from Kaitlin Queen and is called One More Unfortunate which reads like a pretty standard and unimpressive thriller which, in these opening chapters, really fails to ignite any interest!

One Step Closer by Iain Rowan is the next short story and isn't bad but falls a little short of being perfect. Still, it isn't bad and might inspire me to read more of his work....

Spotted Lilly from Anna Tambour comes next and is another book sample about a girl who signs a contract with the Devil and has a week to reconsider before the deal becomes final. Okay but not something I would want to continue with.....this is followed by Memory by Linda Nagata which looks like it might be a very impressive sci-fi novel with lots of potential; The Red Church by Scott Nicholson which also looks like it might be an engaging Supernatural thriller; The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch ~ an author I have enjoyed before but whose book sample here fails to impress on so many levels and The Immortal, a sample from Steven Saville ~ a near future story that may just have potential but that I would have to see about...

Overall, to summarise, the Infinities collection was not a bad download but only contained a few stories and samples that I might be interested in. Still, it will be intresting to see if I disccover any new authors because of it...

The other stuff I have been reading on my Kindle include Surviving The Fog which I have reviewed on Dooyoo as follows: "This is the second free book that I have downloaded onto my Kindle and, unfortunately, is the first to be sent to the Archives; the virtual bin held in storage at Amazon where books can be dumped from your Kindle to be restored at a later date if you so wish. The idea of this is that the Kindle only holds 3500 books approximately so you can store those you don't want at Amazon until such time as you want to read them again meaning you only have to download titles once!

Fog reads like a cross between Stephen King's The Mist mixed with Under The Dome with elements of Kit Craig's Gone thrown into the mix for good measure! A group of High-School children on a camping exercise are at a group of Lodges up in the Appalachian mountains when a heavy, dense fog descends ~ cutting them off from the rest of civilisation. Entering the fog has disastrous results: the group's adult supervisors set off to get help and never return and there are later reports of screams being heard in the fog as others are taken as they try to escape!

The group of young children face a struggle to survive as they brace themselves to hold out against an indeterminable future. And when they find out they are not alone in the mountains, things do not get much better.....

This had the potential to be a really good story but unfortunately falls flat from the flaw of not being paticulary interesting throughout! No real explanation is ever really made of the fog, until the author lazily chucks in one possibility right at the end almost as an after-thought, and, aside from at the start, the fog is pretty much ignored ~ it could just as much be a wall of pineapple jelly that stops them from rejoining the rest of the world!

It also quickly becomes confusing just who this book is aimed at! My first impressions were that it was a young adult book but casual use of the C-Bomb and some sexual scenes pretty much rule that out in theory! Certainly though, there is little enough here to keep grown adults interested for long!

The characters are bland, the situation ~ not much better!

Overall then, this is one to avoid if you are a Kindle user!

Summary: Not a very satisfying read...."   Definitely Kindling then and one to avoid!

I have also read Fairytale by Maggie Shayne which is a novel published by Harlequin which is the Canadian Company associated with the Mills And Boon brand over here in England! This is not exactly your traditional romance story though with a tale that sees the main protagonist, a troubled young man called Adam, falling in love with one of two twin sisters who share Royal Fae blood and whose destiny is all tied up in rescuing the Fairy kingdom of Rush from Dark forces that seek only to control and destroy! This was actually a lot better than it sounds and not at all the slushy romantic nonsense you might otherwise have expected from the Harlequin brand! I kind of got the impression that the Company is branching out and though this was only an okay read, it did make me want to read the follow-up novel at some stage which follows Bridin's battles to regain her Royal Crown over in the Kingdom of The Fae! Not at all bad for a freebie!

Next up, I have just started The End Of The World by Andrew Biss; a bizarre comedy fantasy that sees a young man forced out of his parents house after years spent in seclusion who finds himself almost mugged before he ends up at a B And B with an eccentric selection of fellow guests. I am not saying this book is at all weird or surreal or anything but lets put it this way: so far the main character has been introduced to a Serbian woman who has no stomach, an American con-man/ business man who lives in the refridgerator and a Preacher who emerges from the kitchen sink! So far though, it is quite entertaining...just very, very odd!

Until next time...here's Sparky's Kindle Korner signing out! Laters y'all! XXXXX

And Venus was her name.....

The next two stories in the Infinities anthology that I am reading on my Kindle are a short story and a book sample, both by Eric Brown. Venus Macabre tells the story of a performance artist putting on his last ever dramatic performance to a select crowd on the planet of Venus.....but behind all the showmanship lies a secret, hidden past that riddles him with guilt and consumes his whole being. Meeting up with a big fan several weeks later, the artist seeks absolution and contrition but his fan has other ideas.....

A Writers Life is a sample of the novel by the same name and basically tells the story of an author who discovers, by accident, the controversial work of a cult Science Fiction writer and decides to investigate not just his life but also his bizarre disappearance that led to an overnight cease in his work. Both these stories are okay but seem to me to lack any depth and I was not overly enamoured with any of the characters involved. Neither of these samples or examples of Eric Brown's work would encourage me to pick up anything else by him and though they are not awful, it is fair to say I was not impressed! Sorry Eric.......

Introducing Sparky's Kindle Korner.....

Well, I have just finished The Blood That Bonds by Christopher Beuchler ~ my first free Kindle book as recommended to me by the lovely Lainy and as also featured on her Blog "So Many Books, So Little Time" ~ which is the first in a new trilogy all about a series of Vampire who exist hidden amongst us, emerging only to feed and create new fledglings. Two is a heroin addict and a prostitute, forced into her life by a cruel and vicious Pimp when she is hired by the Vampire, Theoren for a single night's pleasure. But Theroen has more than just sex on his mind; he wants to take Two as his Vampire bride. For Two, it is a chance to escape her former life and begin anew but for Theoren, it is just the start of his problems as the Master of his clan, Abraham, questions his decision and decides to take action against him.......

This was a brilliant book and so much better than I might have expected! It put me in mind of Nancy.A.Collins' Sunglasses After Dark, which starts off the Sonja Blue series, mixed with just a hint of a subtle nod towards Anne Rice and really was a gripping and amazing read. Finishing it, I so wanted to continue on with the story and catch up with what happened to the characters next ~ so much so that I have already downloaded the second book in the series, Blood Hunt, at a cost of only 99p! Definitely one to get then for all you Kindle users out there and also a novel that will definitely be making my 1001 Books List! So it is that The Blood That Bonds becomes book number (65)! A big, big thank-you must go therefore to Lainy for recommending the book in the first place! Cheers Hon ~ you really are the best!!

The only other two titles I have read so far on my Kindle are the free-to-buy novella Re:Union by Eric Liu and an anthology called Infinities ~ which is basically a collection of short Sci-fi tales and sample chapters from a small selection of new and established authors.

Re:Union tells the story of a man who has been searching for his lost love for the past fifteen years and ends up meeting her again at a virtual school reunion situated in a futuristic version of Cyberspace. But he soon realises that all is not what it first appears and is forced to make a decision that goes against everything he has ever lived by and which ends up testing his moral principles to the limit! This is a neat little tale that shows plenty of promise and was highly enjoyable. Was it worth downloading? Certainly seeing as it was free but I don't think ultimately I would have paid for it!

Infinities begins with a short story called The Man Who Built Heaven by Keith Brooks which has since been incorporated into a larger novel by the same author called The Accord. The Man Who Built Heaven tells a similar story to the last novella in that it follows an established scientist working hard to create a virtual world where people's personalities can continue to exist long after their body has died. But an illicit attraction to a married colleague working on the same project causes continual distraction ending in tragic consequences. Again this is a really good little Sci-fi tale and would really encourage me to read more by this author! In fact, I may well have to check out The Accord because I would love to learn more about the characters featured here and I will definitely be looking out for more of his short stories!

So, a good start to my Kindle experience then with three decent reads and so far no sign of Kindling......can this good run continue..? Who knows but I have plenty more free stuff to read that I have downloaded from Amazon and have even bought a couple of titles. One of these is the aforementioned Blood Hunt which carries on from The Blood That Bonds, the other is the first in a series set in and around The Body Farm facility in Tenessee by a pair of authors who call themselves Jefferson Bass. And if you know me at all, then you will know I am looking forward to THAT!

The law of the playpark........

I want to talk to you today, especially those of you who are parents, about a hidden threat that lurks in and around our childrens' play parks. That threat is not dirty needles, nor is it dog poo left behind by lazy owners to lazy to sully their hands with the excrement deposited by their perfect little darlings that are replacements for the children they were unable to or just never got around to having. No, today I want to talk to you about The Weirdies!

I'm not talking about potential Pedos', though they could justifiably fall into that category too but which thankfully I have yet to encounter, but instead the kind of people who hang around childrens' play parks for legitimate reasons and then feel the need or compunction to talk to you about totally random and useless shit! In the past few months, I have had two of these such people approach me so, although they are not necessarily overly prevalent, they do constitute a threat to something I like to call "Sparky's time of Peace and Quiet."

I go to the park to give myself a little break. Emilie can go off and  play by herself, or with friends if there are any over there, and the only time she really needs me is for pushing her on the swing, to which I am more than happy to oblige, or when she wants Daddy to go onto the roundabout until he gets dizzy which she finds most amusing! Other than that, I go over there to get ten minutes Peace and enjoy whatever book I am reading at the time. Not necessarily to talk.....and not about whatever random shit enters that little thing that Weirdies mistakenly call their brain but is instead an extension of their mouth!

First Example: we are at the park, me and Ems, just us enjoying our time out of the house in the fresh, beautiful air. She is happy playing, I am happy reading my latest Deathlands book. Along come two Council guys to empty the nearby bin at which point, the older of the two asks me what I am reading. Nothing wrong with that so I oblige him by explaining it is just a bit of pulp Sci-Fi, some random guilty pleasure that just kills a bit of time but which I nonetheless enjoy. So he then goes on to talk to me about how he enjoys Sci-fi (at which point, warning bells begin to sound...) and how his wife picks him up titles she thinks he will enjoy whenever she goes to CarBoot or the local Charity shops of which there is abundance in Dereham! Still nothing wrong there until he then starts going on about how he likes Sci-fi because "YOU JUST NEVER KNOW....SOME OF IT COULD BE VERY CLOSE TO WHAT'S REAL!!!"

He then goes onto talk to me for ten minutes about the possibility of Extra-terrestial life, visitors from other planets and how it is a big universe out there and surely there must be some intelligent life out there somewhere and who is to say they haven't visited us before, there's all those strange lines in the Aztec desert and that guy Daiken thought that God was an astronaut and then there's those markings on cave walls that look like aliens and.......BORING!

Now I'm all up for a philosophical discussion on the very nature of God and the possibility of alien life on other planets but NOT when I am at the park with my daughter please! There is a time and a place, it's called "down the pub", and I really don't want to be talking about this when I am enjoying some quiet time reading my book and watching my daughter have fun! But of course, I am polite so I just sit there and nod and smile until the weird man goes away to empty something else at which point I tell Emilie we are now going home and that if she really wants to play, we can come back later. Like maybe when the Weirdie has gone away. Worst thing is ~ the guy waves at me as we are leaving as if we are now suddenly acquaintances instead of me just being somebody random that the lonely man decided he wanted to talk to until that person lost the will to live!

I would have dismissed this as just an aberration but then a couple of weeks ago, I was accosted again!

This time it was a granddad who had come over with his wife and their grandchild. He started talking about how he had come down from Manchester or somewhere and how Norfolk was very pretty, very picturesque to which I agreed. He then started on about someone he knows in Holt who claims that the only problems she has in her little cafe is with the young people in the town and the so-called "feral youth!" Cue a lengthy discussion about the recent riots all around the country and how the "feral youth" were supposedly responsible. Except it wasn't just them! He has a friend on the Force down in London, a member of The Met no less, and he tells this guy about how most of the troubles down there were caused by blacks. And of course they get away with it because it is all P.C gone mad! I mean he doesn't mind them coming over here and settling down with our women and taking our jobs (and that, I think, is very considerate of him really don't you?) but why can't they just behave themselves? I mean they are more like animals than men and the "feral youth" don't know any better (because presumably they have never been shown the difference between right and wrong ever and are unable to exhibit any kind of restraint of course) and so get pulled into the whole thing by following by example. Blah blah blah, blah-de-blah blah!

What is it with these people that makes them think I actually give a shit? They see me with my daughter, think "oh look, there's a captive audience" and just start unloading. If you see me at the park with my daughter, don't start talking to me unless you have something to say worth listening to and just because I have a little girl, don't presume you can talk to me. If you're a Yummy Mummy or a Milf then I will quite happily talk about our children, what they get up to at school etc etc. Even if you are a fellow Dad, we can talk about our kids, exchange child-rearing tips whatever. But don't come up to me and start puking out random shit that I have no interest in whatsoever! I never had this when I used to go out on my own but now, not even just at the park, I have the most random people stopping and talking to me just because I am a dad. Frak off!! I am not the most social of people and really, there are days when I really could not give a shit what you think! So do one!

Jeez honestly what IS it with these people? Am I the only one? Surely not....surely some of you other mums and dads must have experienced this out there? It can't be just me who has encountered theseWeirdies who feel the need to start such mundane and pointless exercises in conversation can it?

Maybe it is just me, I don't know...all I really know is that when I am at the Park, it's my time alright? So just think before you approach me and do me a favour, if I'm reading ~ just let me be okay?

Thanx 

lots of love...Sparky xxxxx

Joining the reading revolution......

Once again I have proved to myself why I should be careful before adding book titles to my 1001 List willy-nilly as a book I might have added fails to bear up under scrutiny. I had been all set to add James Bradley's The Resurrectionist to my list when I decided to re-read it figuring, as it is a short book, it would not take me too long. Unfortunately, though I enjoyed it first time around, on second reading I found it all to be a bit disappointing!

The story begins in Georgian London with Gabriel Swift apprenticing to a renowned Anatomist only to fall foul to the pleasures of Opium and Dice and who then finds himself falling in with a notorious Body-Snatcher or Resurrectionist when it becomes time to pay his dues. His Master expels him from his Apprenticeship and things all go a bit foul. Then the story jumps to Australia in its closing chapters as Swift attempts to start a new life and leave his demons behind....

 What starts off promising ends up being a bit of a shambles. The book is good but as a complete whole feels fragmented and a bit disparate from itself at times. It is a shame as I recently recommended this to someone who has it on their TBR pile and was considering picking it up! That said, I seemingly enjoyed this more first time around. It is just a shame that it did not match up to my high expecting standards upon a second read!

In case some of you may not have known, last week was my birthday. Mrs.Sparky bought me a Touch-Screen Smart Phone that I am slowly getting to grips with with my fat and clumsy fingers, her mum bought me John Connolly's latest Charlie Parker thriller and I used the rest of my money to buy a Kindle!

I had been umming and aahing about buying one for some time but an E-mail from the Martyn Lewis Money-Saving website finally convinced me! Amazon has just released a new Slim-line version of their Kindle with no Keyboard so have slashed the price of the original models but also have begun selling refurbished Kindles at a bargain price too! Seeing as how the refurbished models still come with a years warranty, I went for the refurbished (I'm not proud!) and I love it! Though I do feel a little bit of a traitor to my Tree books, frak it!

Downloading a book to your Kindle takes sixty seconds tops, it has an in-built dictionary so no more looking up words you don't know and even has a web browser that works off of your Wi-Fi so that you can access the web! I went for the wireless option not the 3G so I cannot access the web anywhere but I don't think I will need that option at any rate. On Thursday, I was all over Facebook shouting out to the world about my new Kindle and cannot shut up about it at home either. I am so excited!

The good thing is that there are plenty of books that you can download for free. Many of the classics are out of copyright so you can get hold of them easily enough but there are also pages on Amazon of free indie authors whose novels are available for nought too! My good friend Lainy (whose Blog "So Many Books, So Little Time" {shameless plug}so encapsulates my whole philosophy when it comes to reading) has already recommended one particular E-book for me and so far, I am loving it! But I have also downloaded another couple of freebies!

All of which means that soon I have decided to start a new irregular feature: Sparky's Kindle Korner in which I will be taking an irrelevant look at some of the stuff you can download from the net for your Kindle and telling you whether or not it is any good! My plan (a work in progress) is to not give it any kind of usual rating but instead mark it in one of two categories: if I rate it Kindle that means it is a good read worth downloading, but if I rate it Kindling it means it is only good as fuel for a virtual conflagration!

Good idea or not? Thoughts would be appreciated.......

Anyway, that's all for now ~ this is Sparky signing out! Laters Taters!

The Last Supper.....

So, last night I had to attend this Company do to say thank-you to some of the staff for all our hard work at The Hotel this last year. All the upper and lower echelons of management were invited which meant that Heads Of Department and their Number Twos got to go ~ hence my invite. The gathering took place at our Sister Hotel in Norwich and consisted of a three course meal with Champagne and Canapes to begin. Sounds alright doesn't it? Actually it was one of the most boring nights of my life!

I don't mean to sound ungrateful but the thought of spending time with the majority of the people I work with in an environment outside of work REALLY does not enthrall me at all at the best of times, let alone at something as formal as a sit down meal!

It didn't exactly help that I was pretty much informed by H.C (Head Chef) that I had to attend! Those of you who know me will know that I am not particularly keen in conforming and if you tell me I have to do something then it makes me less inclined to do it!

Basically what happened is this: I walked in to work the other Friday and there was an envelope waiting for me with my invite enclosed. I opened it, looked at it and thought "What a nice gesture, that's actually quite nice of them for a change....first I get a small pay rise, now this!" Then I considered who else would be going!

Thinking about the people I might have to sit next to filled me with dread. Out of all of them, there were very few people that I actually wanted to be near. I mean sitting in a room with Fingers (nicknamed that behind his back because he is missing a couple of digits), Miss Piggy (with whom I have a bit of a shady working  relationship with at the best of times) or our Function Un-co-ordinator let alone my immediate boss, H.C, really did not appeal. Still I thought maybe it wouldn't be sooo bad.....

Then H.C comes out with a little comment about how it was the kind of thing that you couldn't really say no to, assuming I am going to turn down the invitation before I have even made my mind up, and tells Richard The Manager that he has told me I have to go! To be honest, one of the things that swayed it for me was when Richard turned around and said he was surprised I was going to go as I didn't normally do these sort of things. This kinda made me want to go so I could stick two fingers up and say "Naaah ~ see I did turn up!" Also, I was curious at seeing the other Hotel and having a swanky meal cooked for me!

The best thing about the evening was the food! After Canapes we were treated to an Amuse-Bouche of a pea and mint soup and cheese straw then given a small choice of starters and mains. I had Cajun Beef Skewers which were very tasty and a Rib-Eye steak, Medium-Rare, with Bearnaise Sauce and it was all cooked to perfection. Finally we were given a pre-dessert, a refreshing Sorbet with some Strawberries on the side, and again a small choice of desserts from which I chose Poached Pear with Ginger Ice-Cream which was simply sublime!

The food was the dogs bollocks and looked amazing and tasted really good but service was sooo slow! We sat down a little after 8 PM to eat and sweets went on the table about 10.30 PM-ish. Which was fine except I spent most of the evening bored off my tits. Not just because I wasn't drinking but also because I just found conversation with the people I work with extremely tiresome and there was only a few sparse moments where I felt relaxed and actually enjoyed myself.

I guess I went because I didn't want to look ungrateful and wanted to show I did appreciate The Company taking time out to show how grateful they were for our efforts especially as my job can often be a thankless task at times but they were still going at around 11 PM and by then, I really had had enough! It was all I could do to stop myself from just going to the toilet and making an escape without looking back! In essence, it was four hours of my life that I just lost that I could have spent sitting with my wife and daughter!

I know how this makes me look ~ it makes me seem ungrateful, selfish and a bit spoilt but you know what, who gives a Frak! This is my life, I get one chance to live it how I choose to and why should I spend it doing something I really don't enjoy? I think I summed the whole evening up aptly twice ~ first when I texted Mrs.Sparky to tell her it was "Food off of MasterChef but with the company of CrimeWatch" and then later at home when I told her I would rather put my nuts in a blender than sit through all that again!

There is a reason I don't socialise with people from work, or rather THOSE people, and last night proved it! There were exceptions, I did get on with a few of the people I spoke to there but as a whole I really could have done without all that and don't think I would do it again if I was invited. Or maybe I would because the food was pretty much top notch but I had a chance to escape a bit earlier when Mrs.Sparky's colleague Sarah made her excuses and left and I thought I would stay a bit longer so that I didn't look rude. Big error and one of two schoolboy mistakes I made last night! (The other was trying to gauge where to sit and ending up at the top of the table right next to the two Directors, only one of whom I enjoyed talking to ~ the other being his usual self, a bit of a prig!)

Needless to say, I will not be posting this Blog Post on Facebook! I don't particularly want the wrong people reading this after all and taking it the wrong way and I cannot be arsed to frak about with the Privacy settings just so only the select elite few get to read it! If you can't come on here to read this then that's your let-out and really you're not missing much by not reading this....But I do think I should add that the evening was a very nice gesture but too much about brown-nosing, networking and earning a few precious Brownie points for my liking!

I really am NOT a people person and last night kind of proved that to me! Like I tried to explain to Richard last night I do do eating out, I am just selective about the company I keep. And last night, the company really wasn't to my liking....

This is Sparky signing out and asking:  Do You wanna die young or would You rather have fun? I know what my answer would be!