Meerkat Book Reviews

Welcome to the new Meerkat Musings Book Review page! It exists for one purpose – to review and reflect upon books I’ve read. If you’re an author and you would like me to review your book, you can contact me at darth_timon@yahoo.co.uk and I’ll review your material – I am on Goodreads and I am also on Amazon, so from this point forward (the date being 10th September 2020) I’ll put any reviews on here on those two sites as well. If I get around to it, I’ll retroactively put reviews up on Goodreads and Amazon as well.

Generally speaking, I’ll gravitate toward science fiction, but that doesn’t mean I won’t read other stuff too. One thing though – I do not promise glowing five-star reviews. My aim will be honesty. I would expect nothing less from anyone reviewing my work. It is also entirely possible that there will be spoilers for the books I’m reviewing. I will try to keep them to a minimum, but I can’t guarantee there’ll be none.

Let’s begin…

Qualify (The Atlantis Grail Book 1) – Vera Nazarian

For me, this was a five-star read. It is best described as The Hunger Games on steroids. There are some massively high stakes, and a very desperate race against both time and other competitors to win a prized, very valuable ticket off a doomed world. There are some fascinating, enigmatic characters and some very ingenious ideas woven into this story, both in terms of technology and also history. It was a story I couldn’t put down.

Such is the strength of it that I am eager to move on to the second book (yes, there are several books in this series), as I am have become somewhat invested in seeing whether the main characters can overcome the horrible odds and achieve something that, by rights, should be impossible. I don’t want to reveal too much, but I would also like to see one or two characters taken down a peg or two. 5/5

Wings of Steele – Destination Unknown (Book 1) – Jeffrey Burger

I have to confess, I didn’t make it to the end of this. My original Amazon and Goodreads review had me get about a quarter of the way through, and I forced myself to read a bit more, but I just can’t get around a few issues. The author’s lead character, Jack, is damn near perfect, too perfect, able to master piloting alien spacecraft in no time, seducing nearly every woman he meets (and women are handled in quite a sexist manner in this book), and it just doesn’t work for me. The most likable character by far is the dog. 2/5

Kor’Thank: Barbarian Valley Girl – Kent Wayne

Where do I begin with this? This is the craziest story I’ve ever read. It is buzzing with creative insanity. It is an frenzied, eclectic piece of mania on an epic scale, spanning parallel worlds, dimensions of warped thought and a large quantity of psychedelic drugs, terrifying monsters, robot soldiers and a land filled with raptor-riding barbarian hordes, complete with wizards and sorcery. Oh, and there’s brutal fight scenes, flying cars and entities that span the multiverse. Yeah, it’s pretty intense.

My only tiny issue is that it felt a little like there should have been something before the beginning of the story – that there was more to unwrap regarding the characters, pre-introduction. Beyond that, it was brilliant. 4/5

Dark Matter – Blake Crouch

There’s a haunting, creepy quality to the story Blake Crouch has written. Imagine losing everything to…. yourself.

That’s the premise, and it’s terrifying. Alongside this idea, Dark Matter asks questions about how we define ourselves, what we’re capable of, and of the road not taken. However, the central core of all of it is: love. Love and its power to change the world. Love, and the strength it provides to fight on when everything seems bleak.

It’s a compelling page-turner, of a level I hope to aspire to. 5/5

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