Review of “The First Lady” by James Patterson and Brendan Dubois

Well, readers what can I say. This is the first novel I have read by either of these authors. It won’t be the last. There is so much of the writing style that I want to emulate. The short, fast paced chapters and the exquisite use of language. The cliffhangers that make it so difficult to stop reading. Hopefully, these are the kind of things I can integrate into my own story telling.

This is an exciting quasi political mystery thriller, which has many twists and turns about a fictional First Lady of the United States that goes missing. The cause of her disappearance is muddied by the fact that her husband, has been caught out having an affair in the full glare of the media. You are left wondering has she just sneaked off somewhere to be by her own or has something more sinister happened? Is she kidnapped or even murdered?

In line, with more modern novels and despite being written by two men, it is filled with strong, memorable female characters. The kind of women who get things done. The male characters are more of a mixed bag. For instance, The First lady comes across as strong. A woman who stands by her moral code and ethics. She works tirelessly for disadvantaged kids and had an intrinsic sense of what was right and wrong. The President, on the other hand, comes across as quite weak and pathetic. Not at all like how The President is usually portrayed.

Agent Sally Grissom becomes the main person tasked with finding her. She is my favorite character; strong willed and never prepared to give up no matter the obstacles are put in her way. And there are many. The irascible Chief of Staff concludes that it would be better for The President’s upcoming elections if the First Lady was to have an unfortunate “accident”. The sympathy bounce could propel him to be re-elected and that was what really mattered. He places his faith in a female assassin who enjoys her work.

Some other reviewers have stated that it was far fetched but no for me. In this crazy world we live in, it seems more than plausible. A must read.

It probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise that I give it a score of five stars out of five.

The Vacuum Catastrophe Part V (Sci-fi)

Candace couldn’t help but notice that Dr. Lenz was constantly fidgeting beside her. As if she wasn’t nervous enough already, she had never landed on an actual terrestrial planet before. She had always intended to visit Earth at some stage, “the cradle of humanity” but had never gotten round to it. There had been so much to see in the Solar System. He had personally requested that she was to go on the lander with him, she hadn’t decided to thank him yet. They were accompanied by six other marines plus the pilot. All, except Dr. Lenz were armed with heavy laser cannons and ultra dense armor plating.

They would be the first of ten landers on the planet. The atmosphere had been scanned, it was breathable. They were on their way to a desert area around the equator. The planet very likely contained life but this was not a biology excursion. They were to establish a parameter and then send a probe into the crust to obtain Negativum, which was vital to faster than light travel. For unknown reasons, to date it had only been found on terrestrial worlds where life had at least once existed. A huge statistical anomaly.

The lander started to rattle. They were entering the atmosphere. It was time for her to take charge of the situation.

“Right marines, you know the drill. Once we land we need to create a perimeter with defensive strong points. The mission is resource extraction but no harm must come to Dr. Lenz.”

Candace saw him squirm. He didn’t like being placed above others, an admirable trait.

Then they landed with a thud. The overhead green light began flashing and the hatch began to lower. The first thing to hit them was the putrid smell of rotting eggs from the methane rich atmosphere. The sky was crimson and the land mostly rocky. The laser felt light in her arms from the low gravity.

“Take up your positions!”

It was flat, there were no good defensive point but they could see reasonably far into the distance through the murky atmosphere. There were no signs of life apart from the odd dark leafed tree here and there. However some of the other landers had found themselves surrounded by giant herbivores who were throttling down pockets of dense vegetation.

Dr. Lenz got straight to work and began assembling the probe. Once she was confident, the situation was secure, she went to the scientist.

“Well that went well so far Dr. Lenz.”

“You can call me Herbert. Let’s just get this done and get out of here.”

“My name is Candace. What makes you so nervous?”

“Just different theories I heard over over the years. What sort of predators hunt these large herbivores we’ve been hearing about and why are there none around here?”

It wasn’t a nice line of thinking but she nodded in agreement.

Hours passed. The probes had now penetrated the crust, acquired their prize and making their return.

Then the first sign of trouble came over the comms.

(To be continued)

The Vacuum Catastrophe Part IV (Sci-fi)

Captain Sheppard sat down and waited patiently in his office for Dr. Lenz. Just an hour before, he had informed his crew that everything and everyone that they had ever known was gone. Not just the things and people they loved, but everything in its totality. Some took it reasonably well, perhaps because this ship was already their existence but most of the mass of blue uniforms sobbed uncontrollably. Not that he could blame them, pat of him wanted to do likewise.

The door opened and Dr. Lenz entered.

“Dr. Lenz?”said the Captain with wide, bemused, eyes.

“Yes, that is me. Nice, spacious office you have here. I know I look younger that what you probably expected, but it’s the nanabots. In reality I’m probably even older than you expected. Dare I say I may be the oldest human left.”

The Captain not wanting to be distracted immediately focused the conversation.

“What happened Dr. Lenz? What caused this catastrophe?”

“I’m afraid I know no more than you. Theoretically there was always a possibility that this could occur. It was always just calculated to be an extremely low probability event so people projected that it would take billions of years to occur. Obviously, they were wrong. But what really matters is what happens now.

Once we have completed our first jump, we must immediately scour our surroundings for resources. I have been studying the long range radar. There is a terrestrial world that looks promising. If it is, we must scan and strip it of resources as a matter of urgency. We won’t have long between jumps before the wall of non existence reaches us.

“Prepare a Team Dr. Lenz. You have have been given access to our Personnel Database. Select who you need for the away mission.”

“But I’m just a scientist!”

“We all have to step up. Now go. We don’t have much time.”

The Vacuum Catastrophe – Part 3 (Sci-fi)

Captain Luke Sheppard paced up and down the deck of the Danu, waiting for confirmation that Dr. Lenz had finally arrived. Around him, he was surrounded by his most trusted crew, each at their control station. Men and women who would die for him and he would do likewise for them. Tucker Murray was the head of Engineering, a genius but fiery and temperamental. Yvonne Gilsenan was in charge of defensive systems to name but a few.

Captain Sheppard had only been informed of his mission in the previous time cycle in a video call from his superiors. All he had ever known was about to be obliterated into non-existence. He knew that he had to keep his head even if all those around him lost theirs. It was still top secret and none of the rest of the crew knew yet. He was planning on telling them after the first jump.

Reports of disorder were reaching were reaching them from throughout the solar system. Riots were breaking out on Earth, Mars and the moons of Jupiter. In some space habitats , there was open warfare. With each new report arriving in faster than faster, Sheppard’s palms were growing increasingly sweaty.

“That’s odd, communications from Starbase A+ have stopped!”

It was Aurelias, the Communications Officer with a deep frown.

Starbase A+ was less than a jump from the system. The anomaly had almost reached them.

“Ignore that, any sign of Dr. Lenz?”

“Yes, sir. They are in the holding bay.”

“Excellent! Prepare to jump on my command Tucker with the coordinates already inputted.”

“Are you sure? That’s uncharted space?”

“That’s an order.”

A siren rang throughout the Danu. Then the jump began. Sheppard told Aurelias that Dr. Lenz was to be brought straight to his ready room.

The Vacuum Catastrophe – Part 2 (Sci-fi)

From the moment Lieutenant Candace Winchester opened her eyes, she had a strange feeling about the timeline in front of her. Not in a warp could she have guessed what was about to happen, just a general, malevolent feeling. Not that many would have listened to her. At just sixty years of age, she was considered far too young to know much about anything by most. At times, it felt that the gerontocracy would prefer no young people whatsoever but there was always new space that needed colonizing, and hence a need for new humans. Still, she had managed to excel, and was now in charge of her squadron.

She had never known her parents as was the case for most of her generation, and was birthed or manufactured biologically on one of the many space habitats in orbit around the Earth. The rest of the batch became her surrogate family. It was a joyous childhood but short. She matched that cohort of intelligence and athletic ability that was assigned to the military.

This ultimately led her to being assigned to the Danu just a few months prior. She remembered the first time she took sight of it. It was giant, majestic with the large circular warp engine far off in the distance to the rear. However, nothing could have prepared her for the inside of the ship. Despite having a crew of over one thousand, one could walk its corridors and chambers for hours without meeting another soul. Parts of it were barren and cold, other parts luxurious with every conceivable manner of entertainment. At times, she would love to lose herself in one of the many virtual worlds.

Her squadron had only been informed of its mission two hours previously. To extract Dr. Lenz from the nearest star-base and to expect trouble. It was a high priority mission and space marines were to be fully armed. This was all very strange to her considering it was a friendly vessel.

However on disembarking from the Supply Vessel – nicknamed Maria and onto the floor of the Space Port, she was sure happy they came prepared. There were screams far off in the distance and the air smelt rotten.

Then she saw a man running towards her with a brief case. He was lean, athletic with blonde hair and shouting “Lt. Winchester!”.

“Dr. Lenz? Where is your security detail?”

“Long story, here is my ID. We better be off!’

The Vacuum Catastrophe – Part 1 (Sci-fi)

It had been going just like any other time cycle but it was one that Herbert would end up never forgetting. It was on Star Base 1580, which at that time was on a wide orbit of the dwarf planet Pluto and its moon Charon. He had spent many hours peering through his telescope at the beautiful white landscapes and the majestic cities that peppered them. He had always intended to visit and had always presumed that he would at some future date. Time had never entered his mind as being some sort of problem. He was already over four hundred years old and the horde of nanobots coursing through his veins should keep him going for many more years. And to worry about existence itself, well that would have just been daft.

Herbert was an expert in the field of negative energy. At times he had to pinch himself. Only two-hundred years prior the thought of a human being an expert in any field would have seemed totally ridiculous. But a small droid rebellion in a simulated world changed everything. The consciousness never realized that it could simply be plugged out. After that, a cap was placed on machine intelligence. Then, shortly afterwards with the invention of warp technology, that required negative energy, his field exploded in status.

Herbert was walking through the main corridor when he heard a familiar ping in his trouser pocket. It was bustling with people going to their work stations and just hanging around in conversation. He lifted it up to see where he was required – Epson Suite 16. The other end of the station. Now that was unusual and he quickly broke into a brisk walk.

His mind raced with what it could be about. As far as he could determine production was on track. He got on an empty rail-car to hurry himself along. It wouldn’t do to be late and anyway it gave him a chance to look up at the stars.

He heard his name being called just as he got out of the rail-car.

“Herbert Lenz?”

Much to his surprise, it was a soldier that was looking for him. His palm grew sweaty.

“Yes?”

“Please follow me.”

A few minutes later, he was led into a side room filled with generals and the civilian leaders of that space quadrant, all sitting in a semi circle. Fear and dismay were etched into their faces.

“Please sit down.”

The room fell silent. It is was President Azin. She had short, grey hair something very unusual in these times. The atmosphere was tense.

“Do you know who I am?”

Her voice was both piercing and authoritative.

With so many colonies and different tiers of government, most might not even recognise her but Herbert always made sure to stay on top of such things.

“There isn’t much time so I’m going to get straight to the point. You’re a learned man so you will probably understand this better than me. During the twenty-first century it was discovered that the Higgs field was at a point of instability, and what we considered to be The Universe was in the state of a false vacuum. Therefore, a quantum tunneling event, though thought to be very unlikely could bring the Universe into a new quantum state. It was thought that this would spread at the speed of light destroying everything it reached,

We were wrong.”

“Wrong?”

Herbert was unsure where this was going and why The President would want to discuss Science with him.

“Wrong.”

A holographic display of the Milky Way galaxy appeared over the table.” Yes, we were wrong. The effect is spreading far faster than the speed of light but not exponentially. Unfortunately, it has happened right in our galaxy. An expanding red circular area suddenly appeared and began to spread outwards.

There is only one hope for humanity – the spaceship Danu. Due to the accelerating expansion of the Universe, if you get far enough away humanity will be saved. You are to join the crew in Space Port One in six hours. Your expertise will be required. Now go, there isn’t much time.

With that, Herbert rose from his seat almost knocking it over in the process.

Review of “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

To those readers who follow my blog closely you’ll know that I am supposed to be reviewing “To Kill a Mocking Bird” by Harper Lee. All I can say is that I really did try but I only made made it a third of the way through. Please do forgive me, I am living through a plague after all. Every page was becoming a struggle and my mind just couldn’t take any more self conflagration. It was like I was slowly making my essence and vie for life fade away.

I was expecting it to be a fast paced court thriller about an alleged rape, featuring fantastical court argument. What I got was unending nonsense about a young girl’s childhood. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against young girls, I’m not a misogynistic pig but this was a particularly boring one. It is brilliantly written but so boring. It’s so boring that it seems quite fitting that school children are tortured into reading it. The film was so good but this novel is dross. To anyone that cares, it gets a zero. I’m sure some people will like, I just don’t know how.

So, I started reading “The Great Gatsby” instead and was I certainly happy that I did. It is set in the Roaring Twenties just outside of the Big Apple and was first published in 1925. It is told through the eyes of Nick Carraway who finds himself immersed in a great love story of sorts. He has moved to a new town and finds himself living beside a great mansion where raucous parties are a weekly event. After visiting a distant cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom Buchanan, he finds out from a fellow visitor Jordan, who he subsequently romances that it is owned by a Mr. Gatsby, a mysterious millionaire.

Subsequently he is invited to one of the parties, where he quickly realizes that nobody actually seems to know much about Gatsby. There are rumours about how he made his money but nothing certain. Little does he know that Gatsby has a secret reason for inviting him and that is to meet Daisy. They had been an item prior to The War and before he was rich.

What follows is a story of intrigue with the odd twist sprinkled in. It is now considered an American classic but didn’t do great when it was first published and the author died destitute. Let’s hope that is not the fate awaiting yours truly. During World War II, free copies were given to American soldiers and this was the beginning of a meteoric rise. I can see how the novel would make a lasting impression on young sold, stuck in a damp, squalid trench. Later, a few films were made telling the story.

My score is four stars out of five. I did feel that some of the characters were a bit too one dimensional at times. In particular Nick’s love interest Jordan. We learn little about her except that she is beautiful and plays golf.

Saturday morning Winter Blues

Well readers it has been a while since I blogged. I have been working in my latest novel, which I’m hoping will be out next year and my day job has been manic. Progress has been very slow to date but I now have a clear vision. It’s just about getting it to all come together. It will be a continuation of The Irish Ripper with many of the same characters.

Talking about The Irish Ripper, I’m thinking about making it freely available on this site. If I’m going to become a famous writer, I need as many readers as possible! Perhaps I’ll release a snippet each week. Not sure just yet. Do let me know your thoughts. A quick aside, all my works are freely available on Amazon for five days from tomorrow.

Over the coming months I hope to do more short stories, book/film reviews and hopefully some funnies too.

On the subject of films I watched an excellent one yesterday – “Olympus has fallen”. It’s actually quite an old one having been released way back in 2013 and I’m surprised that I hadn’t seen it before.

Gerard Butler is simply fantastic as an out of favour Secret Service Agent who becomes the best hope for saving The President when the White House is attacked. The action scenes are shot brilliantly and the terrorist plan of is well thought out although it did seem to depend on a bit of good fortune at one point. That was when The President brought the South Korean delegation to his bunker. This was a clear breach of protocol and I just don’t think it would happen. But hey, I’m a perfectionist.

There was just enough back story to each of the characters that you wanted them to survive without getting too sentimental. This film gets five stars out of five for me.

On a separate note I got my booster shot this morning. This necessitated me getting up early on a Saturday morning, oh the hard life I live. Saturday mornings are for sleeping only.

Till next time..

Review of “Go Set a Watchman” by Harper Lee

This novel was released to much fanfare, although also to criticism a number of years ago. It is written by the same author as “To Kill a Mocking Bird”, the Pullitzer winning masterpiece and is set about two decades later. That is how I came across it. The criticism was due to the fact that it was released based on manuscripts after the author’s death. She didn’t intend for it to be released.

I have yet the read the more famous novel, and that may help give me a different perspective. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch—”Scout”—returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Atticus is the lawyer who saved a black man in a rape trial twenty years earlier. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise’s homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her.

The disturbing truth is just how racist they all are, even her beloved father, Atticus. This comes as a shock to her and leads her to question everything, leading to physical sickness at times. By the end of the novel they are all still racists, but she has come to accept that she can be a little bit less racist and still get along with them. A strange ending where what all she really needed was a good smack from her uncle to straighten her out or at times it definitely felt that way. Although, the novel’s explanation is some psycho babble about Daddy issues.

If you get triggered by racism, this novel is not for you especially the last 60 pages. But it’s really not for anyone at all. The plot is threadbare and the first hundred pages quite boring. I struggled to keep going. The writer though has good descriptive powers, but the story just felt aimless at times.

Also, the fact Jean Louise only now sees the racism lacks credulity. Like, she did grow up there! This novel gets a very disappointing two stars out of five for me. Do yourself a favour and give this a wide berth.

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Review of “Come as you are” (Film)

This is a 2019 comedy-drama film, directed by Richard Wong about three men with physical disabilities who go on a secret trip to a brothel in Canada to lose their virginity. It is currently available on Netflix and is loosely based on the Belgian film Hasta La Vista that was itself based a BBC documentary about three British physically disabled men who did visit a brothel in Spain. However, this film is now so fictionalized I would merely say it was inspired by true events.

In this film, two of the men are in their twenties. One has a condition called Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita that fixes your joints in a fixed or bent condition restricting its movement. Alas, it is a condition I am all to aware of myself and the main character Scotty’s limbs are all affected, just like myself. In other reviews, he has been called paraplegic, but this is not correct as he has full sensation throughout his body. He uses an electric wheelchair to get around. This is the first and almost certainly the last time I will see someone with my condition in a film. My condition is quite rare, especially for those severely affected so this is not something I personally find problematic.

Scotty is a bit on the ratty side and perhaps self centred. The other characters tell him his biggest problem is his personality and not his disability in getting laid.

Then there is Matt, who is paraplegic. He does have a girlfriend and a pretty one at that, at the start of the film but that abruptly ends. Just as well for the sake of the film but still for me this leaves more questions than answers. How long were they together? Did she know him before his accident? He has a strict Asian father, who is overly controlling

Finally, there is Mo who is visually impaired and the the most kind and considerate of the three. He’s far too close to his mother though, and only goes when he receives her blessing.

So, the three of them sneak off one morning with the aid of a nurse who happens to drive a van. We are led to believe that Scotty spends the night in the wheelchair so he can escape first thing in the morning, without the help of his mother. At this point, I know that the film was written by an able bodied person. I have the same disability and it wouldn’t be feasible. He would be in so pain and his feet would be throbbing by the morning. That and the door was closed behind him!

Anyways, liberties are being taken. So what did I think of the film?

I only found it only moderately funny. It felt like there was a thin line. It didn’t want to offend all disabled people by saying this is the only option for sex. Which it isn’t. But the constant qualifications detract from the story.

Mo and the nurse get together. But she is obese and diabetic. A disabled girl at the centre likes Scotty, he now sees her in a new light. Should disabled people stick together for love? Is that the real answer?

Don’t get me wrong, some of the disabled women I know, are the most beautiful women I’ve seen. It’s just that you should love who you love.

I’d give this film three stars out of 5

So, both films were inspired by a BBC film called For One Night only. Asta Philpot who has Arthrogryposis (he was consulted for the film and undoubtedly led to Scotty having the same condition) and lost his virginity in a legal Spanish brothel brings two other disabled men on the same journey. I’d give the documentary five stars.

As an update Mr Philpot states on his website that he is now more interested in looking for love, perhaps showing the whole thing for the pyrrhic victory some consider it to be.