With the winter holidays nearly upon us, I’d been thinking about what gift I could give my awesome readers. And then… it suddenly occurred to me! “Hey, I’ve got this great unpublished short story called Invasion Day!”
Cover for “Invasion Day” by Adam Bender
On his tenth birthday, a boy living on the moon asks his grandpa about the blue planet glowing in the forever-night sky, and why they live the way they do.
I wrote this story earlier this year, based on a several-years-old idea from my notes, and inspired by the writing of one of my favorite authors — the great Ray Bradbury.
You can read the eBook free on Smashwords and other online retailers including Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Scribd. I’d love to hear your thoughts, so please leave me a review when you’re finished.
So here’s an end-of-summer jam you may not have heard. It’s “El Matador” by the band Semisonic. Yeah, those guys who did “Closing Time” and “Secret Smile.” This one is off their severely underrated follow-up, which was their final LP as a group.
It’s hard to believe summer is coming to an end. Also hard to believe this was my first full American summer since 2011. My wife and I moved to Australia at the start of summer 2012, which meant that it was winter there. We came back at the end of (American) summer 2015, got a lick of the sun, then dove straight into the autumn leaves.
I’ve had a productive year since returning to Philadelphia. After regaining my bearings (I can order a “coffee,” and no one asks what kind!), I spent the first few months doing freelance work for Technical.ly Philly and a few other places. I made a brief sojourn to India (and wrote a tech story about it). In March, I got a full-time gig at Communications Daily as their Philly-based states reporter.
Lately, I’ve been looking with anxiety at my long-sleeve shirts. Soon I will get/have to wear them. We’re racing toward winter and the year 2017. I don’t know exactly what the new year will hold, but my aim is to make it a big one. As Semisonic sings in their end-of-summer classic: “Time keeps pushing me on now, and I’ll ride this wave to the end.”
P.S. If you like my novels, check out the show Mr. Robot. It’s a tech-fueled dystopian rush.
When Adam Bender’s not writing, he’s reading. Or doing other stuff, maybe. I mean, he can’t just be reading or writing all the time!
But I digress (and switch suddenly to first person). Here is a selection of my latest book reviews on Goodreads. If you’re a Goodreads user, please follow me to keep updated on what I’m reading. You can even review my books if you want! The shoe is on the other foot now, eh?
Hm, that’s a weird expression. Oh well. Without further ado, here are three books about totally messed-up possible futures for the human race! Thanks for the nightmares, Blake Crouch, Brian Wood and Warren Ellis.
Pines, book one of the Wayward Pines trilogy, is a fast-paced thriller with a dystopian twist. The writing is lean with short paragraphs and descriptions that wouldn’t look out of place in a screenplay (Come to think of it, that probably made the story very easy to adapt for TV). And while not totally original, it’s undeniably fun.
Crouch acknowledges the influence of Twin Peaks on his novel, saying that he wished to recreate the feelings experienced when he watched the David Lynch show as a boy. It’s obviously a big influence (right down to the name of the town — whoever named “Twin Peaks” could have easily named “Wayward Pines,” too). But I was also reminded a lot of the Wool series, particularly the explanation for what’s going on. There’s also some elements that seemed ripped from Tarantino, like the Kill Bill-esque nurse in old-fashioned uniform wielding big syringe (of course, Tarantino probably ripped this off of something else). But even if Crouch is taking elements from other creators, I must admit that I admire his taste in influences.
Look, this book isn’t going to be on a list of best American literature, but I can’t deny I had a lot of fun reading it. It’s not overly time-demanding, and I even read it free through Amazon Prime. Next time you need a quick dose of Twin Peaks-y dystopia, you could do worse than the Wayward Pines series.
A fast-paced introduction to an exciting dystopian future where America has entered a second civil war. As epic as that sounds, Wood keeps the focus on character to hook the reader in this graphic novel from Vertigo. It all feels very current, too, in light of today’s splintered politics.
Volume 1 just gives a taste of the overall story and feels very much like the introduction. It’s gripping all the same and left me excited to read more. I’ll definitely be continuing this series.
I’d tell you what it’s about, but I think the author would rather you find out for yourself. This is one of those graphic novels where you don’t quite know what’s going on until the end, and even then you’re kind of like, “Well that’s messed up.”
I do have to give the creators credit for this — I read this in one sitting. Despite all the technical jargon coming out of the characters’ mouths, Injection never gets bogged down with a lot of exposition. And the artwork kept my eyes moving from panel to panel. But would I read Volume 2? I don’t know. Maybe if I saw it at the library.
It might be that none of the characters are that likable. They certainly have distinct voices, but … I found it difficult to really sympathize with or get behind anyone.
A warning for those sensitive to violence/gore: this book probably isn’t for you. It’s not that there’s a lot of action, really, but when the knives come out, they REALLY find their target, if you see what I’m saying.
If you’re a fan of Ellis and Shalvey’s excellent Moon Knight run, you might want to give this a go. But you may end up wishing you were reading a new volume of Moon Knight.
Well, that’s the end of today’s edition of Adam Bender reads … If you’ve read any of the above books, I’d love to hear if you agree or disagree with my reviews in the comments below! Or let me know what books you think I should read next!
When Adam Bender’s not writing, he’s reading. Or doing other stuff, maybe. I mean, he can’t just be reading or writing all the time!
But I digress (and switch suddenly to first person). Here is a selection of my latest book reviews on Goodreads. If you’re a Goodreads user, please follow me to keep updated on what I’m reading. You can even review my books if you want! The shoe is on the other foot now, eh?
Hm, that’s a weird expression. Oh well. Without further ado, here’s reviews of three books about travel! No, really. Travel. Today I review a classic Bill Bryson book about his wanderings in the UK, a sci-fi espionage novel by Dave Hutchison about traversing the remnants of future Europe, and a much-hyped sci-fi novel by Ernest Cline about flying through space.
I always have a lot of fun reading books by Bill Bryson. He writes in an immensely readable fashion, with great wit that is a mix of British and American humor (makes sense since he’s lived extensively on both sides of the Atlantic). I studied abroad in London for a semester, so I especially enjoyed Bryson’s commentary on English culture in this one. Looking forward to reading his new followup — The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in Britain!
I like the idea a lot. Europe in Autumn is an espionage novel set in a near-future Europe that has fractured into many smaller countries, and things are about as chaotic as you’d expect. It’s a pretty big concept that gives author Dave Hutchinson flexibility to go in a lot of different directions.
Perhaps this is a disadvantage as well — as some other reviewers point out, in this book we have a series of loosely connected episodes and a lot of minor characters. The book doesn’t really drive forward until the end when we final get a sense of an overarching story.
However, in a way I enjoyed this episodic/serial structure. Much like a short story collection, it’s a great format if you’re the kind of reader that doesn’t have time every day to read. You can kind of dive in and out without getting lost, and still feel a sense of accomplishment when you complete each episode. Hutchinson held me with his writing — occasional spots dragged, but there was always something around the corner to grab my interest again.
Still, this book definitely represents a slow-burning lead-in to a sequel where–I’d imagine–most of the meaty action comes into play. The further into this book I read, the more I felt like it was just setting up the real story. With the right payoff in a sequel, I might grow a greater appreciation for the long setup here.
I loved Ready Player One so I was eager to read Ernest Cline’s newest book. I have to say I’m a little disappointed with Armada.
The biggest rule that Cline breaks is “Show, Don’t Tell.” He writes in a breathless, enthusiastic way, but the whole time it felt more like a friend describing his favorite scenes from a movie. Yeah, that sounds like a cool movie, and I might want to go see it, but I didn’t myself feel involved in the scene.
The constant references to sci-fi books, games and film — while fun — occasionally felt like a kind of cop-out. Rather than describe what a base looks like, Cline will conveniently compare it to a set from Star Wars. All the references can also take the seriousness out of a scene. Like, if you’re really in the middle of a war against aliens, are you going to be thinking so much about which movies really did a good job at capturing the experience?
I feel like maybe I’m being a bit harsh, because the book does have a fun premise and Cline does have a talent for mixing geek references into his prose. I have no doubt that younger readers will get a kick out of this. To me, it just feels a little thin on substance, and — having really liked Ready Player One — I know Cline can do better.
Well, that’s the end of today’s edition of Adam Bender reads … If you’ve read any of the above books, I’d love to hear if you agree or disagree with my reviews in the comments below! Or let me know what books you think I should read next!
The novel and its sequel Divided We Fall are set in a dystopian nation in which the government keeps a Watched list of its own citizens. Citizens must be careful about what they say because there are surveillance cameras everywhere. Meanwhile, the Church has become as powerful as the State, and people who resist are called Heretics and face execution.
The books follow a young man called Seven who wakes with no memory in this surveillance society. His amnesia gives him a blank-slate perspective that helps him see through the propaganda, and he soon gets involved with a group of rebels called The Underground.
The new text adventure follows Chapter One of We, The Watched, in which Seven wakes up in the middle of a forest with no idea of where he is or how he got there. It’s a lot of fun and is a great introduction to my books for new readers! You can play the game below or in full-screen here.
Also don’t forget to check out my other We, The Watched game, Watched Sweeper!
