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Review, SciFi

Paradox Bound by Peter Clines

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Paradox Bound by Peter Clines
Paradox Bound by Peter Clines

This is my second Peter Clines review, and I have to say that I have quickly become a fan. If you missed, last year I reviewed The Fold and strongly recommended it. I know that I normally wait until the end, after a brief synopsis, to give my opinion, but I am excited to say that I very much recommend this one as well.

We begin this novel with young Eli Teague. He is a kid growing up in Sanders, Maine. It is a boring town where noting ever changes. When being forced to play outside, Eli sees a strange person in an uncommon car, a Model A.  The car as well as the driver, Harry, intrigue Eli for the next few years. When he tries to get closer to Harry, he winds up involving himself in the most epic road trip in American history.

The story really feels like a cross between Doctor Who and National Treasure. With Harry being the Doctor and Nicholas Cage’s character Ben Gates. Eli takes on the role of a new companion, or maybe Riley. If you are a history nerd like me, a time travel nerd, also like me, and/or a SciFi/Fantasy nerd, which I assume you are since that what this site is dedicated to, this book should really appeal to you. Harry and Eli travel trough history in search of the American Dream. I am going to intentionally be vague on that to not spoil anything. The idea is bit odd, but trust me, it works. They’re not the only ones traveling through history though. You’ll be introduced to friends, acquaintances, and historical figures. Besides all of those people, there are others who are trying to stop them. All of which adds up to a fun and entertaining adventure.

I enjoyed the story, the protagonists, the antagonists, the pacing, honestly everything. It is rare for me to do this, but I think I have to give it a 5/5. No, it wasn’t perfect, but it was damn good. 4.7 might be a better representation, but lets not get too granular. Its my site, so I’m rounding up to the nearest number.

I was pretty late on this review and regret that quite a bit. I wish I had time to get to it sooner, and once I got to it, I wish I had time to devour it over a few days. Fortunately, since my last review, I got a new job. On the upside, I am happier, i like what I do, and think it will eventually allow more time for me to focus on things like reading these books. On the downside, the first few months been, and will continue to be crazy until the major infrastructure and technology changes are complete. Until then, it is going to continue taking me forever to finish and review book. I may even take another hiatus.

On that note, I have to one more time acknowledge that I received this review copy through Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review. By one more time, I sadly mean one last time. Yes, Blogging for books is closing down. They have been a great site and partner to people like me, providing wonderful books, both ARCs and recent releases in exchange for nothing but an honest review. Over the past four years I have received some fantastic novels from them. I am sad to see them go and will miss them. There are plenty of resources out there for reviewers, but I liked their approach. I mean, lets be honest, it is because of them that I had the opportunity to review and recommend both The Fold and this novel, Paradox Bound, by Peter Clines.Thank you Blogging for books, and thank you to Peter Clines for another great story.

Review, SciFi

The Fold by Peter Clines

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The Fold by Peter Clines

Mike Erikson is a teacher in a small New England town. He lives a quite life and knows practically everyone around. While his life is completely mundane, he prefers the peaceful calm of his uneventful surroundings. Though Mike is much more talented than your average teacher and could essentially do anything he wants, the lack of challenges or craziness keeps his overactive mind at ease. It is his unique set of skills that his friend is interested in, and bring him to offer Mike a job, and not for the first time, with DARPA.

There is a lot going on in this book and I feel like talking about 95% of it will spoil it one way or another, so I’m going to say as litle as can while till trying to give a good representattion. First, let me talk about the feel of the book. It has a very interesting tone. It has a modern day setting, in America. The DARPA project seems really interesting and I can see it being appealing to any science nerd, like myself. There is a lot of talk of the ind of things you might read about in a Michio Kaku book. There is nth dimension theory, wormhole physics, and other theoretical physics that interest the hell out of true nerd and sci-fi buffs alike. To keep it spoiler free, This DARPA research team came up with an amazing breakthrough and there is a lot of speculation from the government and scientists as to how. Mike is asked simply to observe.

Then we jump to the second half of the book. This is where it gets weird. The reader notices little things being… off. Then it happens a little more. Before you expected, you;re out of physics class and $#!% gets weird. It gets really sci-fi-y. It was a very fun jump that I did not expect. I actually knew almost nothing when I first read this, which added to my enjoyment immensely. Which is why I also will not tell you more than that. I fear I ma have said too much already. (Yes, I know this book has been out for a while and this is really late, but I’m sticking to this dammit.)

I thought that this book was a lot of fun. Very interesting for both my nerdy hard science side, and out there enough to awaken my deep SciFi/Fantasy side. I also wanted to bring up one other thing which I usually do not address: I loved the cover. It was very cool. After reading the book it was even more interesting. I do not know about the paperback that is out now, but the hardcover even had this great texture to it. I understand that this is neither here nor there, so back to the review.  I gave it a 4/5 and would give a very strong recommendation.

For more information on The Fold and Peter Clines, please check out links to his site, his blog, and his book page:

PeterClines.com

Blog

The Fold page on PeterClines.com

Disclaimer: I received this review copy through Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.