Gopal's Bookshelf

“The love of books is a love which requires neither justification, apology, nor defense.” - J.A. Langford

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Book of Lies - Brad Meltzer

Book#2 out of 40

Finished reading The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer today. I liked the premise of the book, but overall it was too confusing and the characters lacked depth to connect to the story properly.

The protagonist Cal's character is not well defined. It lacks the empathy that a person needs to connect to the upheavals in the story. Also mostly the plot was confusing, as the story premise said it was about finding the world's first murder weapon, but the plot switched tracks so many times that I lost count. Starting from the book, the plot introduced a special gun that was used to murder Jerry Seigel's father and is now used to shoot Cal's father, the gun is indicated as important, but it sort of gets misplaced in the entire story.

The antagonist's id is easily suspected, the writer leaves enough holes for you to guess the suspect before long and it's sort of disappointing.

Overall I would rate this only 2/5 and that too only for the story outline.

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Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Scarecrow And The Army of Thieves

Book 1 in 2012.
The ULTIMATE HERO is back. Book 5 of the Shane Schofield series (Scarecrow And The Army of Thieves) is bigger, better and deadlier than ever.

Anarchy... That is the theme in the latest Shane Schofield adventure. Matt Reilly sets this book on the other side of the hemisphere from the Ice Station. Artic Circle - the home to The Dragon an cold war Soviet base which has an atmospheric weapon which when unleashed will cause acid rains on the entire northern hemisphere bringing untold damage to Russia, China, India and the US...

The Dragon has been taken over by The Army of Thieves a renegade band of fanatics loyal to their leader "Lord of Anarchy". The Army sets the tone for the conflict when it promises to unleash the weapon in 5 hours. Their demand: Nothing. Their objective: Total Anarchy.

With Russia scrambling to protect the base unleashes a nuke at it inorder to prevent the weapon from being unleashed, the nuke is re-targeted back to it's base by the Army leaving a chilling message, they have the capabilities and resources to withstand any attack. The US President mobilizes any US asset in the area to help prevent this imminent catastrophe.

The ULTIMATE HERO is then thrown headlong into this chaos, having only Mother, The Kid, Mario, Zack, Emma, Chad and Bertie - the robot for company. Testing weapons for the Marines in the Artic after the repeated assasination attempts by the French DGSE wanting a piece of him for the floating bounty put on his head by the French for his actions in Scarecrow, the "Scarecrow" is dealt with an hand that has seemingly insurmountable odds.

With the diabolical Lord of Anarchy anticipating the "Scarecrows" every move, thwarting his every action and messing with his head by invoking his past.. Schofield has a tough task at hand.

The book sets a frenetic pace with the action jump starting from the first page and not letting go till the end. This one is a page turner and a must read for adrenaline junkies.

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Monday, January 2, 2012

2012 - Target 40

Happy New Year to all of those reading this!!!!!!!!

As I said in my previous post, it has been long since I updated this blog & even longer since I have written any book review. Of late reading has been on the wane, but nothing like a new year and a new season to look forward to rejuvenate the reading habit.

So this year, I am targetting to read atleast 40 books (novels and everything included, except for the technical books) starting off on my list of books is continuing with the Stephen Frey Series - The Chairman. Post that I am open to any suggestions from my friends, colleagues or even my blog readers about books that are good to read.

I am also particularly looking to expand my horizons into the literary fiction genre, something which I have avoided so far - to my loss as per my friend Pravin. So I'm gonna lookup some books from his shelfari and maybe get started with them.

Also these past few weeks reading through Wikipedia has kindled my imagination on history, particularly Indian History; I would like to read William Dalrymple's series exploring Indian History, particularly The Last Mughal.

I am also planning on catching up the works of Ashok Banker, he's a author whose books in Indian Mythology are a favourite of mine. I am planning on finishing the Ramayana Series by reading the last book "The King of Dharma" which is an omnibus version consisting of "The Vengence of Ravana" and "The Sons of Sita" the Books 7 & 8 of the series. Post that I shall moving onto The Mahabharata Series starting with the "The Forest of Stories".

His next installment of the Krishna Coriolis Series "The Fortress of Dwaraka" is also something I am waiting for.

Continuing on the theme of Indian Authors another book that I am eagerly waiting for is "The Oaths of Vayuputra" from the Shiva Trilogy by Amish. This series has to be one of the best books I have read this year. I loved the first two books "The Immortals of Meluha" and "The Secrets of Nagas". So here's hoping for a early release.

A book I'm currently desperate to get my hands on the fifth in the Shane Schofield Series "Scarecrow & The Army of Thieves" by Matt Reilly. The book is out and I'm searching the nearest outlets if they have it.

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