Affliction Z: Patient Zero (L.T. Ryan)

Air Force PJs (pararescumen jumpers) Sean Ryder and his partner/best friend Jules Hoover join up with a Navy SEAL team for a high altitude night jump into Nigeria.

They encounter something strange — a humanoid that wouldn’t stay down after bring shot eleven times. There are more, and it turns out they’d been seen before by a special forces unit that’s now missing. SEAL team leader Turk, his men and the PJs have been sent in to rescue them.

Exploring an underground facility, they meet an old, white-haired man — Dr. Richard Knapp, a researcher who developed a super virus against his will for use in biological warfare. But the virus mutated; 90% of those exposed would die. The remaining 10% become ... zombies.

Jules is bitten, and Sean is forced to end his life, then takes it out on Dr. Knapp, shooting him in the head. Then, all hell breaks loose. But not before they find some of the Delta Force soldiers. The situation gets worse, so bad that their superiors order a carpet bombing of the area.

There is a twist, one that turns out NOT to really be a twist.

Affliction Z: Patient Zero is like a typical war story, except the war is with zombies. It’s not very compelling, I think I’ve read too many zombie apocalypse books.

From the moment I opened the book, I felt a sense of unease. Not because of the anticipated zombie theme, but because there, on the title page no less, were the words: “AFFLICTION Z BOK ONE.” BOK? What the FOK! Now acutely aware that pre-publication editing was a bugaboo, I had that in the back of my mind throughout.

Affliction Z: Patient Zero is the first of four books in Ryan’s Affliction series. The others are Abandoned Hope,Descended in Blood, and Fractured. I have to think about whether or not I want to continue the series.

Grade: B-

Affliction Z: Patient Zero

Author L.T. Ryan

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Survival

Liquid Mind Media (2013)

Here to Stay (Mark Edwards)

London science teacher Elliot Foster first meets veterinary nurse Gemma when she tours his Cuckoo Lane garden during a local Open Gardens Day. Two months later, they marry.

Everything is great, until one day, her parents and 28-year-old sister — Jeff and Lizzy Robinson, and Chloe — return from France and move in with them for a couple of weeks. Right from the start, they establish a mutually irritating and complicated relationship.

The Robinsons are sloppy and overbearing. They’re authoritative, rude and impolite. They are boorish, curt and cunningly insulting. Their clothes are often on the floor and they don’t flush the toilet. Lizzy has allergies and has problems with his cat Charlie. It doesn’t help that their granddaughter Katie shies away from them.

And Chloe. Something’s terribly wrong with her, despite her parents’ protestations. She’s always submissive, secretive, reclusive and terrified.

The Robinsons have secrets, slowly revealed through intermittent flashbacks. Elliot has reason to suspect them of child abuse and the brutal murders of his neighbors — a retired doctor and his wife. A short visit to the town where Gemma grew up reveals quite a bit, thanks to a chat with two fishermen in the local pub.

It becomes intolerable when they refuse to move out and take over the house. Things get ugly. Very ugly. Gemma, it turns out, had plans of her own all along.

There are a few story transitions that could be improved, but this is not too bad a read. Well, except that the first third of the book was rather irritating as the Robinsons’ characters were established. Their behavior reminded me of spoiled bratty kids that bully others. But I guess in this case, it’s a good thing, huh?

Grade: C+

Here to Stay

Author: Mark Edwards

Genre: Psychological Thriller

Thomas & Mercer (2009)

Murder at Volcano House (Chip Hughes)

Private investigator Kai Cooke postpones some weekend Waikiki surfing a bit to discuss a job at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. He takes the case, though it means interrupting another investigation.

Former Miss Hawai’i runner-up Donnie Lam Ransom believes her husband Rex, former CEO of Ransom Geothermal, is the victim of revenge by the Hawaiian volcano goddess, Madame Pele. She wants Kai to shadow him for a couple of days, while they’re at a funeral.

Why? Two of Rex’s former associates have died in Pele’s domain in as many years. Their deaths appeared accidental but in the first incident, an old woman and a dog were seen in the vicinity — a familiar incarnation of the legendary Pele. And, as we all know, bad things come in threes.

It’s interesting, but pretty routine for a while, until the morning the Ransoms (and Kai) are scheduled to fly out. Rex insists on walking the Crater Rim Trail alone, and Donnie gets a cursive note warning her to stay away from Pele. On the trail, a woman in red appears, and Rex dies at the bottom of a steam vent.

Case and investigation over, right? It seems so, and Kai gets back to work on his interrupted investigation. But the Volcano House case just doesn’t go away. Rex’s daughter from his first marriage, Caitlin, gives Kai a call and the case changes from murder prevention to murder investigation.

There are a few revelations that appear out of left field, but eventually things work out for Kai and he’s able to bring his two investigations to satisfactory conclusions.

Lots of local history and customs are presented in the narrative — like why do cars carrying pork stall as they approach Oahu’s Pali Lookout, and descriptions of the Volcano House hotel. It’s almost like being on a narrated private tour.

Murder at Volcano House is quick-moving, interesting, and an easy read. Those not familiar with Hawai’i culture may stumble a little over local vocabulary, colloquialisms and dialect, but they just add to the color.

Grade: B+

Murder at Volcano House

(Surfing Detective Mystery Series #4)

Author: Chip Hughes

Genre: Murder Mystery 

Amazon.com (Kindle, 2014)

The Sixth Extinction (Jack Rollins)

The Earth has gone through five mass extinctions of living creatures, the fifth and most recent being the dinosaurs. Scientists now believe we are in the midst of a sixth, with 30,000 species dying off each year.

The principal cause is us — humans.

The Sixth Extinction begins with three gruesome deaths witnessed by now-famous naturalist Charles Darwin aboard the HMS Beagle as it lay anchored offshore of Antarctica — Terra Australis Incognito (“The Unknown Southern Land”). This reference will begin to make sense in Chapter 7.

One hundred and eighty-three years later ... a biological threat has been released (accidentally, or intentionally?) from a secret military laboratory near Bodie State Historic Park in California. Was it a saboteur? An inside job?

Enter Painter Crowe, director of Sigma Force, charged with solving scientific/technological global threats. What the lab was working on is too technical and complicated to cover here, except to say they were studying desert varnish — Project Neogenesis. But it’s discussed extensively in Chapter 3. (How’s that for a simple non-explanation?)

Meanwhile, 24-year-old park ranger Jenna Beck witnesses an attempted eradication of the site and escapes an ominous bio-hazardous cloud. Jenna joins Painter’s investigation. Something has escaped during the contamination breach. Worse yet, the death zone is spreading.

Some of the team visits the Halley Research Station in Antarctica for answers, while circumstances lead the Painter and Jenna to Brazil, where they root out something called Dark Eden. Meanwhile it’s storming in California, literally, and despite Sigma’s efforts to contain it, the contagion is spreading. The nuclear option is on the table.

Oh ... did I mention the gigantic underground ecosystem — Hell’s Cape, a “shadow biosphere” — being studied in the Antarctic underground? Unbelievable. I could write an entire blog post on that. But I won’t. You’ll have to find out for yourself. Suffice to say it’s “prehistoric-ish” and what Dark Eden is salivating over.

California, Brazil, Antarctica — three operating theaters, all intrinsically tied together. Tension galore!

Interestingly, in light of what’s happening today, Dark Eden’s purpose hints at an eerie relevance to the current coronavirus pandemic.

Grade: A

The Sixth Extinction: A Sigma Force Novel (#10)

Author: Jack Rollins

Genres: Suspense, Action

HarperCollins (Paperback, 2015)

The Seven Dwarfs

Disney's Seven Dwarfs

Quick! Can you name the original seven dwarfs in the Grimm fairy tale, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”?

If you said, with the utmost confidence, “Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey and Doc” you’d be so wrong. I don’t blame you; that’s how I would have answered too ... at least before a few days ago.

In a response to a Facebook friend’s post, I wanted to say I was as “dumb as Dopey.” Except that with my flagging memory, I couldn’t think of his name. So I Googled “seven dwarfs” and was referred to a Wikipedia page. Got my answer quickly, but not before I waded through a list of productions and their dwarfs’ names.

Did you know that the Brothers Grimm did not name their dwarfs in their 1812 story, “Snow White”? True fact.

The First Seven Dwarfs

Also, did you know the dwarfs were first named in a 1912 Broadway play. It was also the first time the dwarfs were featured in the title (“Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”). You’d never guess what their names were: Blick, Flick, Glick, Plick, Quee, Snick and Whick. I was flabbergasted when I read that.

The only times the dwarfs were named Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy, Dopey and Doc, were in the (1) famous 1937 Walt Disney animated musical fantasy feature, (2) the 2012-2018 ABC Television fantasy series, “Once Upon a Time” (plus an eighth dwarf, Stealthy), and (3) the Disney/ABC Television’s 2014-2016 animated kiddie series, “The 7D.”

Wikipedia lists a total of 15 other films and productions, with some pretty incredible dwarf names, like:

• Bertram, Bubba, Barnaby, Bernard, Boniface, Bruno and Baldwin
• Biddy, Diddy, Fiddy, Giddy, Iddy, Kiddy and Liddy
• Gorm, Knirps, Niffel, Quarx, Querx, Schrat and Wichtel
• Butcher, Will Grimm, Half Pint, Napoleon, Grub, Chuck/Chuckles and Wolf

Okay, that’s enough. If you want to know more about them dwarfs, go here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Dwarfs

Alas, Babylon (Pat Frank)

Alas, alas, that great city, Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is thy judgment come. ~ Revelation 18:10.

If you start reading Alas, Babylon without any knowledge of its 1950-1960's contemporary times, you might think that Harry Hart "Pat" Frank was talking about today.

All the world political scenarios are identical to today: Middle East tension, military secrecy, social fear and paranoia, apocalyptic talk, spy satellites.

But no, this classic "day after" novel was published nearly 60 years ago, in 1959, proving once again that the old adage, "The more things change, the more they stay the same," is true.

If you could see it [Sputnik], then it could see you.

Doomsday. Even those who never experienced the looming dread of the Cold War, the Missile Gap, nuclear submarines, and "duck and cover" cannot avoid the chilling shivers when they hear the word. Images of madmen with their fingers poised on the "Fire!" button crowd our minds and inflame our fears.

In Alas, Babylon, those nightmares come true.

Randy Bragg and his small group of survivors in Fort Repose, Florida, are hurled back into pre-technology America—no electricity, no radio, no television, no mail, no commercial food supplies, no law and order.

And of course, no Internet, no computers, no smart phones, no iPads and tablets (these things hadn't even been thought of yet, must less invented) ... just Conelrad 640 and 2240.

So, what happened? A young U.S. Navy ensign F-11-F Tiger fighter pilot accidentally sent a Sidewinder missile into the Syrian port of Latakia, touching off a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union.

When Moscow quits talking, I'm afraid they're acting.

Then, when the reader's nerves are sufficiently on edge following a skillfully induced and tense buildup, two nukes slam into Florida—the Strategic Air Command base at Homestead, and Miami International Airport. Another follows almost immediately, wiping out the Tampa/St. Petersburg-Sarasota area. Not long after, Jacksonville is obliterated.

Randy Bragg correctly surmises that the Soviets hit everything they could, with everything they had, all across the country. In that moment, everything changes. And I mean EVERYTHING. Good Samaritans become a thing of the past. Altruism falls by the wayside. Only family and really close friends matter.

Oh, the foul, life-destroying, child-destroying bastards! Those evil men, those evil and callous men! God damn them!

Alas, Babylon is damned scary, but not sensational horror. It is

predictive, perhaps prescient. Its plot outline has been used in nearly all other post-nuclear or apocalyptic fiction: Heavy chaotic traffic, runs on supermarkets, hoarding, shortage and bartering, breakdown of law and order, marauding escaped convicts, foraging and looting, isolated hysteria ... and radiation poisoning from nuclear fallout.

More importantly for Fort Repose, human person-to-person relations change. They reset, shift and change, many for the better, but unfortunately, many for the worse. It's the model upon which subsequent post-apocalypse stories have been based.

The very fact that I must speak to you as the Chief Executive of this nation must tell you much. [Josephine Vanbruuker-Brown, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare]

Pat Frank takes his time introducing the principal and supporting characters, something for which I have always been grateful. It gives the reader a chance to experience and accept each in turn without having to cope with bunches of new people every couple of pages.

Having read this gripping novel in its Reader's Digest Condensed Book incarnation, I eventually bought the paperback when I was in college, and read it countless times during the Cold War era, the perfect atmosphere for such a nuclear war thriller. Alas, the paperback was lost several years ago.

It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I was jogged out of inaction and purchased the ebook edition (unfortunately, with lots of errors in the optical character scanning). I guess I can thank Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, and the recent Cold War drama, Bridge of Spies for that. They reminded me of Cold War America.

Things close optimistically, but don't be complacent, don't dismiss the scenario as implausible and irrelevant. We are as close to it today as we were 50 years ago.

My Verdict: 5 out of 5 Stars
Genre: Drama, Post-Apocalypse
Published by J.B. Lippincott, 1959; Harper Perennial, 2013
ASIN B00CD360ZQ

Go Set a Watchman (Harper Lee)

Written about five years before 1960's To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman was rejected, put away and forgotten. It remained unpublished until its rediscovery in late 2014. Consequently, Go Set a Watchman is a pre-written sequel of sorts, albeit an unintended one.

It's 20 years or so after the events of To Kill a Mockingbird. Scout's all grown up, now living in New York. She's not called Scout anymore, having reverted to her given name —Jean Louise. Back in Maycomb, Georgia, on her annual two-week vacation, Jean Louis is "almost in love" (her own words) with Henry Clinton, her father's law office assistant.

Little Jeb is gone, struck down prematurely in life. Housemaid Calpurnia has retired. Aunt Alexandra Finch Hancock now lives with Atticus Finch, who at 72 is somewhat hobbled by rheumatoid arthritis.

Torrents of memories flood her thoughts. There are, of course, a few memories of what transpired in To Kill a Mockingbird, even though that book had not yet been written. Some of her present recollections are delightful, but to me, some are quite frankly irrelevant and boring. The Rev. Moorhead takeoff, for example, went way too long.

I whizzed through Alexandra's 10:30 morning tea hutch so I wouldn't doze off, it was so long-winded and boring. The "tossed brassiere" incident, however, is a gem.

The thing is, Go Set a Watchman merely ambles until you reach Chapter 16. That's when author Harper Lee finally gets to the point.

Jean Louise reexamines the past, confronts the present, and contemplates the future. Dr. Jack Finch, her uncle, explains the social change that's upsetting her—how changes are actually the resetting of old ways in different form. He explains that she is a bigot, in the truest definition of the word. She'd called Atticus a racist, delivering a lengthy diatribe that reinforced her opinion.

That's no surprise, unless you see it from the perspective of a To Kill a Mockingbird sequel, which it is not. If you take into account this was written before To Kill a Mockingbird, then where's the surprise coming from? The problem with reading this story written before, but taking place after To Kill a Mockingbird (which is not an actual sequel) is that one tends to think of Jean Louise as Scout. We feel like picturing her the way we knew her in To Kill a Mockingbird, which hadn't yet been written.

The first third or so of Go Set a Watchman reminds me of how my first novel (never written) might have been—loosely scattered memories tossed together into the salad bowl, dressed with a sweet-and-sour vinaigrette of sorts. I probably wouldn't have caught my stride until my second book.

But then, I’m no Harper Lee.

My Verdict: 4 out of 5 Stars

Genre: Drama
Published by HarperCollins, 2015
ASIN B300T3DNKIE

The Colorado Kid (Stephen King)

A confession: Although I’m a big fan of the American Movie Classics (AMC) Channel's Haven, I never read this novel on which it’s based. That is, until a few weeks ago, as the series was finally coming to a close.

The book's setting and characterizations are very different from the TV series. The Colorado Kid story, for example, is narrated by two crusty old small-town Tinnock Village, Maine, newspapermen — Vince Teague and Dave Bowie. In the TV series, Vince and Dave are journalist/publisher brothers.

Haven's principal protagonists — Audrey Parker (Emily Rose), Nathan Wuornos (Lucas Bryant), and Duke Crocker (Eric Balfour) — are absent in the book, as are the supernatural "troubles" that plague the town's residents. Colorado Kid lawman George Wuornos is Nathan's father in Haven.

Stephanie McCann works for The Weekly Islander, Vince's and Dave's newspaper. It's a typical small-town journal, whose page-one stories include such earth-shaking news as a car's parking brake failing and the car rolling into a fire hydrant, releasing a gusher.

Stephanie gets the two talking about unsolved mysteries, including one about the April 1980 discovery of an unidentified dead man, later dubbed the "Colorado kid." He'd been found slumped back against a litter basket at Hammock Beach on Moose-Lookit Island.

It's theorized he choked on a piece of meat, which in turn precipitated a stroke (or maybe it was the other way around). Thanks to some intuitive conclusions and accurate assumptions, he's identified a year and a half later as James Cogan.

But then questions arise: How'd he have coffee at a Starbucks, when the company didn't expand out of Seattle until the early 2000's? How'd he get from Denver, where he was last seen, to Jan's Wharfside Cafè in Maine where he was next seen just three-and-a-half hours later? What do a Russian 10-ruble coin and a pack of cigarettes have to do with anything? And then, even if he did arrange the frantic, theme-sensitive, to the second, and expensive transcontinental odyssey, why?

It's much more complicated than the questions indicate. As Stephanie notes, "It's like trying to ride a bike across a tightrope that isn't there."

Was he murdered? Ah now, that's the $64,000 question. But we'll never know, because it's Vince's and Dave's story (and now Stephanie's) and they're not going to give it to us to solve. Maybe that's why I felt a little incomplete and out of sorts when I put my iPad Air down.

Stephen King's novel is relatively inexpensive ($4.99) and available for immediate download from Amazon.com's Kindle Store. That sure beats the 38 bucks or so one has to shell out for a hardcover edition; and there's no delivery charge.

My Verdict: 4 out of 5 Stars

Genre: Mystery
Published by Hard Case Crime, 2005
ISBN 978-0-8439-5584-2