books Archives - Page 2 of 4 - Author JD Lasica

‘Hell Divers III’ delivers with pulse-quickening post-apocalyptic storytelling

Title: Hell Divers III: Deliverance Author: Nicholas Sansbury Smith Pages: 352 My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Release date: May 15, 2018 If you’re familiar with Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller series “Hell Divers,” then you already know the lad can write and tell stories that will keep you turning the pages. If you’re not, well, all you need to know is that “Hell Divers III: Deliverance,” the third entry in the series, is as good an introduction as any to the author’s storytelling talents. In fact, I think this may be Smith’s most absorbing and accomplished work yet.

8 tips on how to manage a book launch team

Launch teams, also called advance teams, street teams or ARC teams (for Advance Reading Copy), are essential for getting visibility for a new book.

‘The Friend’ book review: A psychological thriller with a literary flair

Title: The Friend Author: Teresa Driscoll Pages: 293 My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Release date: March 22, 2018 Thrillers come in all flavors: action thrillers, political thrillers, sci-fi thrillers, and on and on. A subgenre that relies more on intrigue and suspense than flash and bang, psychological thrillers are perhaps the hardest to pull off successfully. Yet Teresa Driscoll has crafted a suspense novel with just the right mix of external threats and internal conflict after an outsider arrives in a formerly sedate village in the British countryside and everything changes.

‘Blackout’ book review: John Milton joins the pantheon of spy greats

Title: Blackout Author: Mark Dawson Pages: 397 My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Release date: Feb. 7, 2017 John Milton – the former MI6 operative with a harrowing backstory and flatlined EQ score – travels to the Philippines in “Blackout,” the 10th in author Mark Dawson’s thriller series. (I would say spy thriller, except Milton does virtually no spying here, though he does put his assassin’s skill set to use on several occasions.)

Review of Matthew Mather’s ‘CyberStorm’

Title: CyberStorm Author: Matthew Mather Pages: 358 My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Release date: March 15, 2013 As a tech-addicted gadget hound, I came to Matthew Mather’s “CyberStorm” with a certain amount of dread reading about a society plunged into unplugged chaos and conflict. I’ve been reading a lot of the books in the technothriller category lately, and Mather’s books are among the very best in the genre because they depict frighteningly realistic near-future landscapes rather than a clash with aliens or some other literary conceit that requires a suspension of disbelief.

Book review: ‘Overclocked’ by Cory Doctorow

Title: Overclocked Author: Cory Doctorow Pages: 388 My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Release date: Re-release on Amazon, Feb. 12, 2018; original publication date Oct. 25, 2016, Blackstone Publishing What we have in “Overclocked” is a passionate, smart collection of shorts and novellas that plies the territory of speculative sci-fi with an absurdist, cyberpunk edge. It reminds one of the Netflix series “Black Mirror,” a sci-fi anthology that explores a twisted high-tech near future—except in “Overclocked” a ray of hope often pierces the darkness.

Book review: ‘Brilliance’ by Marcus Sakey

Review of the suspense novel “Brilliance” by Marcus Sakey, a thriller with rich characterizations, a credible plot and riveting, fast-paced action.

Book review: Michael Grumley’s ‘Breakthrough’

Title: Breakthrough Author: Michael C. Grumley Pages: 322 My rating: ☆☆☆☆½ Release date: March 6, 2013 on Amazon Ihave a break in my schedule, so I’m reviewing a number of suspense novels that I’ve been reading over the past year. I finally got to Michael C. Grumley’s first entry in his four-part “Breakthrough” series.

Book review: ‘No Exit’ (thriller)

Title: No Exit Author: Taylor Adams My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Release date: June 25, 2017 (Joffe Books) on Amazon On my cruise to Central America last month, I loaded up my Kindle Paperwhite with a dozen suspense novels, nearly all of them by independent authors. The story that stays with me one month later is that of the protagonist in “No Exit.”

Book review: ‘A Crack in Creation’

Title: “A Crack in Creation” Authors: Jennifer A. Doudna & Samuel H. Sternberg My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Release date: June 13, 2017 on Amazon More often than not, it’s difficult to determine which new titles will have staying power 10, 20 or 50 years from now. But “A Crack in Creation” deserves to be on any short list of decidedly important nonfiction books of 2017. The reason is not simply because of the authors’ pedigree — co-author Jennifer Doudna is credited as the chief pioneer behind CRISPR, the potentially world-changing gene-editing technique. The book’s impact is also buttressed by the authors’ scientific rigor, deeply felt passion, and understanding of the world-changing consequences of their research. Doudna and