Great read. Book not to be missed
Some great Sci-fi novels and other books I’ve enjoyed reading and I have give five star rating.
Great reads. Books not to be missed. Mixing swords and sandals with Sci-fi. My rating five stars
The aliens were looking for low-tech soldiers to comply with recognized rules of engagement. They needed fighters that weren’t reliant on state-of-the-art weapons. What better than a highly trained Roman Legion being sold into slavery.
Once the legion had proven their worth on the battlefield, the Romans’ alien masters provided them with everything, including near immortality. However, the Romans want only one thing, and that is to go home
The book is set in 1984 in Oceania, one of three perpetually warring totalitarian states (the other two are Eurasia and Eastasia). Oceania is governed by the all-controlling Party, which has brainwashed the population into unthinking obedience to its leader, Big Brother.
The Party has created a propagandistic language known as Newspeak which is designed to limit free thought and promote the Party’s doctrines. Its words include doublethink (belief in contradictory ideas simultaneously), which is reflected in the Party’s slogans:”War is peace,” “Freedom is slavery,” and “Ignorance is strength.”
The Party maintains control through the Thought Police and continual surveillance. Posters throughout London warn residents that “Big Brother is watching you.”
In Oceania “Thought-criminals,” are hunted down The book’s hero, Winston Smith is arrested and sent to the Ministry of Love and is tortured. After re-education, he rejects his girlfriend and learns to love Big Brother.
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The novel is set in A.F. 632. A.F. stands for the year of Ford, named for the great industrialist Henry Ford who refined mass production techniques for automobiles. World Controllers rule the world and ensure the stability of society by creating a five-tiered caste system.
The novel describes s future world where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anaesthetized to passively serve a ruling order.
The Counterfeit Candidate by Brian Klein
Great reads. Books not to be missed. This thriller grips from the beginning, and you won’t put it down.
It starts with a bank robbery which sparks unexpected consequences.
The bank heist swiftly becomes a political conspiracy.
The police officers who become involved in the initial robbery quickly find themselves faced with ruthless opponents who are happy to use torture and murder when it suits them
The police officers then realize they have become involved with Neo -Nazis intent on building a Fourth Reich.
I didn’t count the bodies but there were a lot of them.
People were being shot and blown up with rocket propelled grenades as the novel progresses.
The Counterfeit Candidate has echoes of The Boys From Brazil and The Odessa File but treads its own path.
Well written, pacy, tense and nail biting. I loved it.
BLACKOUT
SIMON SCARROW
A Great read for anyone who likes action / historical fiction.
The novel is set in the bitterly cold, freezing snow ridden winter in Berlin 1939 and approaching Christmas and as the book title suggests set, in the Berlin Blackout.
The Germany of 1939 is a country where perceived disloyalty and opposition to the ruling Party could be is a death sentence. The novel also brings to life the ambitions of warring factions in the Nazi party. It’s set in a world where everyone is under heavy surveillance and needs to be extremely careful about what they say.
Kripo Criminal Inspector, Horst Schenke, head of Pankow station, a former racing driver who suffered a terrible accident that left him with a permanent limp, is forced into taking on a murder investigation that could involve a senior Nazi official.
The powerful and ruthless SS Oberfuhrer Muller, head of the Gestapo, forces Schenke to lead the sensitive and perilous investigation of the rape and murder of the glamorous former film star, Gerda Korzeny, married to a senior party official, a woman with connections to Goebbels.
The Jig-Saw Man
by Nadine Matheso
n
I don’t normally, read many crime novels or “whodunits”.
The Jig-Saw Man was a read put forward by the book club I belong to.
Copy Cat Killers
There are two killers involved in this crime novel; Peter Olivier (the Jig-Saw Man) and a copycat killer.
Peter Olivier is in prison. DI Anjelica Henley helped to put him there.
During the arrest of Olivier, Henley gets knifed by him . As a result of the knifing Henley is suffering from from post traumatic stress diorder.
She has additional stress because her husband wants her to resign from the police.
The central storyline centres around trying to catch the copycat killer and work out why he’s copying Olivier’s style of killing by dismembering each corpse.
The book is full of characters (jurors from the trial of Peter Olivier.) After a while, I found it difficualt to remember who was who. However, it was a gripping story
The book comes to a breathtaking end when …. No, I’ll stop there. Read the book and find out.
