Robopocalypse: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson Review

by Daniel H. Wilson
Doubleday Publishing
ISBN:978-0385533850
Review posted 06/17/2011


Technology sneaks upon us when we least expect it. In Robopocalypse: A Novel, we learn how robotics and artificial intelligence can actually put the human race on hold. How even the smallest robot created can be damaging to life as we know it.

Through interviews, stories of damaging first person accounts, like a man playing a prank on a senior citizen who has a robot that he loves with dire consequences, military extractions and battles, that the robots and machines have taken on new identities, and all are here to eventually destroy the human race.

With slight of his mighty pen and with the experience he has, Wilson tells a tale of destruction that may not be foreseen because of the obsession with advancement in artificial intelligence. Even though this is a story of fiction, it makes one aware of what can come about if we push the laws of the world. If we create something that are for our own needs, but forget how the creation can develop its own wants.

I was floored when reading this novel. As several novels before, it can tell how the human race with one fleeting idea, can destroy itself. Wilson has the flare to push the envelope and dive into the human reaction, the human soul.

To find out that this book will also be a movie in the future was thrilling to know. What better story than this to put on the screen and allow us to really or should I say hopefully, learn what can happen if we push into an area we are not sure of.

Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders by Gyles Brandreth Review

by Gyles Brandreth
Touchstone Press
ISBN:978-1439153680
Review by:Gina Desory
Review posted 06/16/2011

It all starts with a conversion between Oscar Wilde and his friend Robert. A conversation in which Mr. Wilde seems to have forgotten key situations and incidents that are about something weird, something not normal. Robert encourages him to publish his findings, Oscar does not remember what they are. Then Robert hands him a file with all the information in it. We then go to Oscar at a party for the Duke and Duchess of Albemarle. A telling of where Oscar meets Rex LaSalle, who he believes is a vampire.

The story of Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders is told through various flashbacks, through letters, invitations and a whole slew of characters that give us a backdrop of what Oscar Wilde did while not writing.

Without falter, Brandreth gives us another look into the literary great.
When I first opened this book I was a bit worried. There are so many books out now combining vampires or zombies with some classic author. However, this book did not disappoint. It was not only different from those many other books that at times we are now groaning over, but it was interesting to see how Oscar's life was portrayed during such an ordeal of vampire chasing and clues that came from the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders is no ordinary mystery, nor is it a horror book. It is filled with excitement, some bizarre moments and certainly will fill you personally with a want for more.

Lakewood Memorial (Zombie Trilogy, Book 1) by Robert R. Best Review

by Robert R. Best
Library of the Living Dead Press
ISBN: 978-1448644193
Review by: Terry Morgan
Review posted 06/14/2011

Lakewood Memorial is the first book in Robert R. Best's trilogy.

We start the story with Angie Land, a nurse aide at Lakewood Memorial. She does her job, sometimes hates it with certain doctors and has two kids with very different attitude problems. On this particular night's shift, she feels something is off. Her two kids get a babysitter, even though her daughter objects, and Angie walks around in a haze wondering why she feels something is off.

Then it starts. The strange injuries that start to come in; gashes, bloody bites and several other wounds Angie can't figure out where they came from. Soon afterwards, the monsters come, the people who were bitten, chewed or dead from one of these wounds, sprouting up and attacking. Angie, along with Park, Kristen and Kristen's cranky father who is in a wheelchair, fight for survival in the hospital against these awful things.

What was different about this story was not a typical zombie story. In most cases there is blood, guts and gore, a bit of shooting and wham zombies down. However, this book has depth, feeling for the characters. I caught myself several times as if I was watching a horror movie and yelling at the characters in there not to do something or why did you do that?

The book was a short account of what I assume to be a longer zombie outbreak. But what's wrong with that? In the first few moments of a zombie breakout what would you do? Perhaps, worry about your kids or fight your way through the mess or maybe just sit there and complain like Kristen's father in the book always does. Either way, Best has done an amazing job of showing all sides of fear, anger and just plain being fed up.

You never know what lurks in a hospital. I know I will be looking around more if I ever have to go to a hospital again.