Spring Book Reviews

Wow, it has been a long time since I updated my book list... Here it goes.

I Am Watching You by Teresa Driscoll
A murder mystery that is very popular with many readers, but that I found to be a little slow.  The ending surprised me, the characters were well developed and believable, but I wish the book had moved faster.  Grade: C

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston
The true story of a series of expeditions to Honduras to find a lost city.  The book was very interesting and very well researched.  My wife was in Nicaragua while I was reading the book so the chapters on mysterious rainforest diseases absolutely freaked me out.  An enjoyable book.  Grade: A-

Red Hope by John Dreese
Blue Hope by John Dreese
Two books that tell one science fiction story.  Do not attempt to read just one of the books.  The story concerns a manned mission to Mars after evidence of a lost alien race is discovered.  From there the story is mostly interesting and moves along well.  I think these may have been the first two books by Mr. Dreese, and it shows.  The story is entertaining -- like the author has wanted to write the books for a while, but the story also contains a few items that lack authenticity -- a common issues with first-time writers.  They are not bad books, and in fact they are very good, but they are not the best.  Grade: B

We are Legion (We are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
For We are Many by Dennis E Taylor
All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor
Three books that tell one science fiction story, and they really need to be read together, in sequence.  I loved this story.  It is about an engineer that finds himself as the first **human** explorer of the the Milky Way.  The books and the overall story is complex with many interwoven, smaller sub-stories.  I usually do not enjoy big, complex, interwoven stories, but it worked here.  Just a fantastic story and highly recommend.  One final note, I listened to a lot of these books via audible.  The narrator for these 3 books is easily one of the very best narrators I've encountered after listening to parts of >100 books.  Consider the audible book here.  Grade: A-