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Nippon 2357: A Utopian Ecological Tale This was not the easiest book to get behind and cheer. It was start and stop, start and stop. When it clicked however, holy shit did it click. Nippon 2357 follows Thomas Redburn. Tom is an American expatriate, Japanese citizen, married man, photographer, bicyclist drunkard who is riding in the pitch black of the Japanese countryside totally sloshed. After wrecking his bike in a ditch, he finds himself aboard a vessel manned by several bizarre individuals, each with a modgepodge name (example, Kropotikin Tsuda, aka Kro-chan). The craft is named Doug, and Doug is a Time Machine, Doug is flying through time space to 24th century Japan. Tom was historically found as ready to die, and minimally impacting on history, so they grabbed him and brought him to the future, an ambassador from the past. Drunken Redburn begins the long and confusing journey to sobriety and grief over his now dead and long buried family. Do we have your attention? Because we are ...

Song of Ice and Fire – A Clash of Kings- A couple months back someone turned me on to George R.R. Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice series. I recently finished reading book 2 of 4 (with seven total expected in the series). In a nutshell- Everyone you hope the best for will be violated. Everyone you hope will live is not safe from death, no matter how attached you are as a reader. There is no good nor evil; only survivor, conqueror, and dead. It may not happen in this book, but it will happen. I can see it looming on the horizon… they will all die horrifically. I cannot discuss this book as any discussion will spoil plot. Just let it suffice that I “loved it long time”. -- Instead, imagine that George R.R. Martin (GRRM) takes William Goldman’s “The Princess Bride” (TPB) out on a fancy date. GRRM picks TPB up in a nice car and say ‘Hey babe, ready for a fun night?’ to which TPB would reply ‘yes m’lord, let us be off (giggle giggle)’. They drive off into the glittering lights of downtown big ...

Robin Spano’s “Dead Politician Society”.. How to put this.. I was happy but not surprised. Let me explain. Dead Politician Society (DPS) is an undercover detective novel. The Mayor is poisoned and dies on stage during a speech. A cryptic untraceable email from the killer is received by the Toronto star, it is signed by a rumored Utopian secret society on the local college campus. The police send in Clare under cover to see if she can fish for more details. they have no other leads. Clare really leads the novel. She is very likable. Working her first undercover job, she is prone to some understandable mistakes. Clare drinks, smokes, rides a motorbike. She juggles guys and overall does what needs to be done to get the job in the can. I really enjoyed her as a character and am glad this is geared to be a series. With detective novels, in many cases they are designed to give you all the same clues the investigators receive. If you work it a bit, you can come up with the conclusion to the b...