I was provided a copy of this book through Goodreads’ READ IT AND REAP program in exchange for my fair and honest review.  I thank the author for providing me with this opportunity.

EXISTENCE IS FUTILE is interesting in that it does not fit any clearly definable genre---or at least not one that I recognize. It is the story of a man who, following his wife’s death, finds himself struggling to determine whether he is sane. Or was it all a dream? Had Henry’s life in fact gone an entirely different way because years back he had decided to go to Asia with Julia after all? The truth is—I’m not sure. In any case, EXISTENCE tells of Henry’s struggle with accepting the loss of his wife, a woman whom it is clear, Henry loved dearly. I found this theme of EXISTENCE rather precious.

I have to address one issue that I admit, I found difficult to overlook. When it first struck me, I questioned myself, but it kept coming up. So, finally, I checked out Grammar Girl at http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/... where I read: “Restrictive Clause—That; Nonrestrictive Clause—Which.” Apparently, the “quick and dirty tip” is to remember that “you can throw out the ‘whiches’ and no harm will be done. . . . On the other hand, if it would change the meaning to throw out the clause, you need a ‘that.’” The reason I mention this is that, aside from anything I thought about the story, within just the first paragraphs, there were a number of uses of “which” for “that.” I apologize if this seems silly or over-critical, but it did distract me, repeatedly, from the story. On the other hand, this would be a fairly easy editing exercise. . . .

Back to the story. As noted above, I am not altogether sure what happened in EXISTENCE, but I do know that one particular line stood out and left me with a question. In Existence, the main character, Henry, had written a bestseller, “The Futility of Sheep,” a book in which Henry argued that there is no God and that nothing would ever convince him to the contrary. People who believe are mindless sheep, waiting for someone else to lead. Henry writes: “The key difference between God and nature is that there is actual evidence of nature everywhere we look. Whereas there is not a single shred of evidence which supports the existence of a supernatural omnipotent omnipresent being which created all.” So, I was struck, when Henry went to his now-dead wife’s former psychiatrist’s office to try to find answers about Julia. While looking in the file cabinet for Julia’s file, Henry stood up, “awash with a confidence. . .” and “said a silent prayer.” Why? 

I was provided with a copy of this e-book in exchange for my fair and honest review through Goodreads’ Read It and Reap program.

I'm not sure what the intended audience is for RISE, but I struggled with seeing it as an adult read. It read more like a story for the juvenile crowd, but for the fact that the main character, Aldrick, is an adult, for Aldrick's relationship with his wife, and the occasional glimpse of violence. It was almost as though it was an outline of bone, waiting for muscle to be added--and blood and cartilage and sinew and skin and. . . . So, I would give it a 2.5, rounded up to a 3.0 for ranking purposes. (It might rank higher if it was revised to target the juvenile crowd, by making the hero a young person and exchanging his wife and son for his friends, etc. ??)

SPOILERS

Aldrick is the rather dubious hero. While he is purported to be the only one who can see through certain events, he is unable to see through his "friend" who is the obvious villain from the outset. He suspects things without the reader knowing why, is enchanted with the smells of food ("ever imaginable kind of cuisine") without the reader knowing what they are (though admittedly, we do eventually learn that this includes "fried vegetables and meats of every description," along with "mixes of cheeses and poultry in thin breads and a wide selection of roasted dishes"), and is supposedly the only one bright enough to figure out the riddle at the end, though in fact it turns out that all the contenders for the crown figure out the riddle in the end. . . .

Aldrick supposedly has a close relationship with his father without the reader getting a feel for it, identifies a list of people as a list of those to be assassinated without any reason for suspecting the same, frequently leaves his wife and son to follow his own way—though he knows they have been the target of assassins, is angry that an artifact he gave to his father for safekeeping was entrusted by his father to a stranger (and is then lost), but shows no anger, and so forth.

For this reader, RISE just—wasn't. It wasn't a story that gave me a feel, a taste, a smell, the sounds of, what was happening; it wasn't a story that kept me turning pages quickly; it wasn't a story that made me want more—in spite of the fact that it ended on a cliff, demanding that the reader purchase the next volume if they are to know what Aldrick's great decision turns out to be. While I very much enjoy series reading, I believe that each one should stand on its own from beginning to end. Alas, RISE did not.  On the other hand, I did not find a plethora of obvious grammar or editing issues and it is a quick read.


Find out more about RISE OF THE DESTROYER here.

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I was provided a copy of REBROBATE through Goodreads’ Read It & Reap program in exchange for my fair and honest review.

I really wanted not to like Katla.  I really wanted to think that a story about an assassin, entirely amoral—yes, a reprobate in the truest sense of the word—would be so disquieting that it would leave me wanting no more.  Instead, I found that Katla was likeable—not lovable—but, likeable and that though she lived by no code that would be readily recognized by most, she was able to—and indeed did—have her own vulnerabilities and feelings for others that helped to make her “human.”  As I made my way through, I realized that not only was I enjoying Katla’s story, but that I would be interested in following Katla further.

The characters were well drawn and believable.  Katla/Loki acted with precision.  If great research had not been done into making her actions believable, it certainly appeared that it had been!  Bram was a believable blind man and had the heart of a musician.  The Rastafarian was a simple hearted assistant; Coen a good hearted friend, Focke, a chain-smoking surprise.  The FBI, DEA and other government agents pursued their quarry while we saw glimpses into the politics behind the goings-on of law enforcement.  All that said, perhaps my favorite character was Katla’s macaw, Kourou.  The pet added realism to the story.  Able to bark like a dog, be angry when left for long periods, greet people with the simple query “happy?” and skate his way though Katla’s apartment, Kourou was a unique, fun and well developed character in his own right

Perhaps the most difficult part of REPROBATE was that the story was located in Amsterdam, where street names and the like are difficult for an American English-speaker to identify.  Even so, they added to the foreign feeling of the story and took nothing away from the enjoyment of it.  

REPROBATE was the kind of story I would expect a traditional publishing company to jump at.  Perhaps such will be in Halm’s future.


Find out more about REPROBATE here.