Review: The Cure by Doulgas E. Richards

 

The Cure follows graduate student Erin Palmer who due to a close encounter with a psychopath in her childhood now studies them to determine what makes them different to ‘normals’. Unbeknown to her supervisor she is not just studying psychopaths but is experimenting on them, and with her mysterious partner has finally discovered a genetic cure for the condition. There are some who would do anything to stop Palmer succeeding, and soon Palmer is on the run and unsure who to trust. Will she chose the right allies?

I really liked how The Cure began as it had a good balance of exciting action and science, we get to know and feel for Erin early on and this helps draw the reader into the story, which in the first third of the book is very believable. I was a bit perturbed when the story suddenly took a fantastic leap into the unknown and introduced not one but seventeen races of extra-terrestrials and a plot to save the Earth from humankind and an overwhelming alien threat. As a fan of more realistic Sci-Fi this jolted me, and whilst I did enjoy the rest of the story, the alien plot was just a little too unbelievable for me and also a bit clichéd. The sudden introduction of all of this lead to lots of exposition, which did become tedious after a while but there was plenty of action which kept me going, in addition to several interesting twists and terms.

Whilst not what I was expecting, The Cure turned out to be very readable, as long as you checked your disbelief in at the door. Aside from the psychopath thing, the plot is pretty run of the mill for Sci-Fi but works well. I would recommend this to fans of action-based alien Sci-Fi.

The Cure will be available in dead tree format from September 18th from Amazon.co.uk and from Amazon.com

[An ARC was provided through NetGalley]

Review: The Uninvited by Liz Jensen

The Uninvited is a dystopian novel set in the present day, where children start behaving oddly and attacking adults close to them. From a few isolated incidents, modern society soon reaches breaking point and a new equilibrium is reached.

The underlying message of The Uninvited - that our current society and population growth is unsustainable - is an interesting one, and is explored in a novel way. However, I felt the idea was not delved into as much it could have been, and I, as a fan of dystopian fiction, was left wanting more. The start is absorbing but slow, with the rest of the novel feeling rushed which leads to very little attention being paid to the issues arising from the collapse of society. Instead the book jumps forward to a unsatisfying ending. 

The novel itself is easy to read, with the characters, particularly Hesketh, making an emotional connection with the reader. The inner monologue from Hesketh, was particularly interesting in its portrayal of someone with Aspergers, and this aspect of his charactersation was particularly well done. The logical approach of Hesketh makes it easier to take in some of the more far-fetched aspects of the plot. 

I enjoyed the book on the whole, and finished it in a few hours; the intrigue surrounding the source of the 'pandemic' carrying me onwards. The eventual explanation is somewhat unexpected although not all together convincing, which the author alludes to with a line "Let string theory work that out". One niggle with the ARC version was extremely poor formatting, with many missing letters and several misspellings  This made reading it on my Kindle frustrating, and hopefully the retail version is better. 

Overall the premise is a good one, with an intriguing take on the issue of overpopulation, however the author fails to take full advantage, and as such the novel is merely a good read - rather than something more outstanding or thought provoking. 

The Uninvited is available from Amazon as an e-book for £7.40 or as a paperback for £5.99. 

[An ARC was provided by NetGalley]

Review: The Transformed by Raphael Hirsch

The Transformed had me gripped from page 1, and I read it in one sitting. It follows scientist Doctor Newman, who is obsessed with finding the cure to his sister-in-law’s genetic condition. His research, on which he has worked tirelessly for years, is nearly complete when he is attacked by a woman who has woken from a coma shouting the strange word Sartan. One attack from a demented patient can be explained away, but when he is attacked again by someone shouting Sartan he starts to get worried. But what has an ancient Hebrew word for cancer got to do with the attacks.

From Amazon

There are so many ways The Transformed could have gone wrong. The back story about the dead wife and her ill sister is clichéd, but is written beautifully and believably, and provides a ticking clock that drives the story along. Similarly I nearly stopped reading when it became obvious what Sartan was, but I’m glad I pushed on, as the story, while taking on a sci-fi plot nearer the end, is very gripping and well written.

For fans of medical thrillers, this is a fantastic read. Raphael Hirsch is a well known scientist, and as such the scientific detail in the novel is of the highest standard. The back story of Sartan is also believable, although maybe too 'out there' for some medical thriller fans. Apart from the heavy sci-fi plot near the end of the book, which stretched believability, it was a great book and an author I’ll will be watching.

The Transformed is available from Amazon UK for just 69p.