City of the Shrieking Tomb | Patrick Rogers

*Free copy received from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Summary:

Rick is a photographer who's wandered the world photographing the most beautiful mosques in the world. He's in some of the more remote parts of India trying to get to Bidar to see their mosques. Unfortunately the engine of the bus he's on literally falls out and he's stuck in the town of Humayunpur, which he's never heard of before and has little contact with the outside world. While he's there, he's warned not to go near the tomb, don't even photograph it. A demon lives there and killed the village's imam who thought himself stronger than the demon. Rick's curiosity and skepticism get the better of him and he ends up staying longer than anyone in the village thinks he should.

Review:

This book scared me. I read it late at night with mood music and definitely wasn't going to sleep any time soon. Rogers does a great job of setting up the environment and describing the world. I could visualize everything that was going on and was easily spooked as a result. The vivid nightmares, the haunting noises that woke the entire town, the blood filled stories about the tomb's history. All were really well done.

It was also one of those books that energized me because I kept wanting to reach into the book and smack some sense into the main character. He's seen the scary stuff with his own eyes! He's heard it with his own ears! And yet, he's still driven to photograph the forbidden stuff and stay in the village. He even asks "but does that mean I should leave?" YES! I get that this revolutionizes his work and interest in preserving the masques, but still.

The ending of the book, though, I found really appropriate. I'm really trying not to spoil anything here, but it was one of those "what did you expect?!" kind of endings. In some ways it was heart-breaking, I feel really bad for Rick's friend, Awaz. In other ways it was pretty predictable, if still disturbing.

Really the only thing that didn't quite fit into the book for me was Rick's encounter with Rocket Rajan. He gives a lot of needed exposition but feels so very out of place. His sudden appearance and disappearance don't help and part of me wonders if he was actually a heat induced mirage with a spirit guiding it to give Rick information.

I'll admit, I'm sensitive to the spooky stuff so this probably won't scare those who are well-versed in the horror genre. But I really did enjoy the very different setting, the mystery over gore approach, and the mythology. It was well written and certainly an entertaining read. 4 hoots!

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The Green Unknown | Patrick Rogers

*Book provided by the author for an honest review.

Summary:

Patrick Rogers recounts his travels to the Khasi Hills in the Northeast Indian state of Meghalaya in search of living root bridges.

Review:

This book was a very fun and informative read. In the preface, Rogers says that the read may feel a little disorienting since it parallels his own adventures, but I was never lost. It was easier to follow along than he made it sound. Because the book is written from his perspective, with him including his mistakes and troubles, it actually makes learning about the area a lot more interesting and fun. It's one thing to be told about kwai and its potential side effects. It's another to read about the author going through those effects after a bad dose. Not to mention the massive storm he, Morningstar and Cena went through was made way more scary when written from his perspective.

Before reading this book, I had no idea what a living root bridge was. There is a noticeable lack of verified information on the subject.. After I learned what they are, I was hopeful that there would be a lot of myth-like stories about them to inspire the imagination. Turns out, the locals look at them the same way we do a sidewalk. Nothing too special about it. I do wish there were more pictures of them, but the author didn't find many of them as the practice is dying out.

I greatly enjoyed this excursion to a new world where the safest paths are still some of the most difficult to access. Where the struggle to get somewhere makes the destination all the more beautiful. Where almost every TV that has a satellite signal is watching WWE. I absolutely loved Rogers' depiction of the local children.

If you're interested in a non-fiction about a little-known place in India with beautiful photography and funny stories, I highly recommend this book. It's a short book, but for only $1 on Amazon, it's definitely worth taking a look. 4 hoots!

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The Clockwork Dynasty | Daniel H. Wilson

*Image and book provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

Summary:

June has been studying ancient mechanics ever since her Grandfather showed her a relic he'd picked up from an "Angel of Vengeance" who'd saved him on the Russian battlefront in the war. She's spent her entire career trying to figure out the mystery of this relic. When she finds, and "revives", an old mechanical doll given to the Pope from the Tsar of Russia, the doll writes the word avtomat and June gets thrown into the middle of a war that is ages old.

Review:

This was quite the enjoyable, engaging book. A little bit of an alternate history, but mostly a "they've been here the whole time" kind of thing. I greatly appreciated the cutting back and forth between June's present perspective and Peter's past perspective. This allowed me to build up on clues from both time periods to figure out what was going on. 

I do wish there had been a little more world building. I'm quite curious to know who The First Men are or were. Of course, given that each avtomat loses a big chunk of their memory every time their anima shifts or shuts down for a while, I can see why that information would be left to the reader's interpretation. The anima themselves have left me with several questions. If Wilson writes a sequel to this book, I will be looking for answers. 

Probably my favorite part of this book was the character development. As I read more and learned more about the characters, I grew to appreciate them. Though June is a human in an avtomat war, she is still very resourceful, clever and strong. Though Peter is torn about how to properly serve his anima of Truth and Justice, he is willing to learn from his mistakes and admit when he's wrong, especially to protect those he cares about. 

If/when Wilson writes a sequel, I will be expecting some more information about the technology used to create the avtomat and keep them held together. I appreciated what information I could get. That an avtomat can be forced to "hibernate" when they've endured too much damage and repair. That the remaining energy of one anima can be used to refuel another. It's a good start, but it's set my curiosity on edge. And that ending gave Wilson plenty of room to write a sequel. 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, this was an interesting and engaging book and I need to know more about this world. 4 hoots!

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