Mind in the Clouds by Bruce Perrin

Blurb:

Recently graduated and newly hired Ruger-Phillips employee, Dr. Sam “Doc” Price is excited to be starting his new assignment. He will be assessing training developed for a team. It is, however, a team like no other, because only one of the team members is human; the other is one of the most intelligent and lethal systems ever built by man—the Joint Aerial Combat Capability or JACC. Loaded with the latest in detection and threat assessment technology, JACC is a silent, deadly hunter in the sky. Doc discovers, however, that JACC may not be the only killer on the remote, Nevada test range where he now finds himself. Soon, he is involved in a cat and mouse game with an unknown adversary. In this fight for his life and the lives of his friends, Doc asks himself, how do you match wits with the mind in the clouds, when you are not sure if you are facing the cold, exact logic of machine intelligence or the coldblooded urges of a human murderer?

Mind in the Clouds is book two in the Mind Sleuth Series. It is not necessary to read book one in order to understand this novel. The story in this book is standalone.

About the Author:

Bruce Perrin has been writing for more than twenty years, although you will find most of that work only in professional technical journals or conference proceedings. But, after completing a PhD in Industrial Psychology and a career in psychological R&D, he is now applying his background and fascination with technology and the human mind to writing novels. Besides writing, Bruce likes to tinker with home automation and is an avid hiker, logging nearly 2,500 miles each year in the first two years of Fitbit ownership. When he is not on the trails, he lives with his wife in St. Louis, MO. For a closer look at his writing life, book reviews, and progress on his upcoming works, please join him at http://www.brucemperrin.blogspot.com/.

Review:

I found Mind in the Clouds a bit confusing, as the book is not organized by chapters, but by dates and times, which seem to jump back and forth. The preface describes an incident that occurs a few months before Dr. Sam “Doc” Price ever even hears about the JACC project. Maybe part of the problem is that I did not read the “blurb” or plot summary before I read the book. It probably would have made more sense if I had, and I was a bit confused at first as to who the hero was.

At any rate, I liked Sam, but I felt as though I was kind of slogging through the beginning a bit. There was a lot of foreshadowing with inferences like, “I would come to regret this decision later.” I found myself yelling at my Kindle, “quit foreshadowing and get on with the plot!” Finally, Mr. Perrin did get on with the plot, and the last forty-percent of the book got to be pretty page-burning. But even then, he interrupted the pacing and took us back in time yet again. Doc was fighting for his life, and he went back to a conversation he had with one of the developers of the system. He couldn’t just say to the guy in the room with him, “Hey, Troy, Dillon said JACC could…” Did we really need a rehash of the entire conversation when their lives were at stake?

I’m really grateful Mind in the Clouds didn’t have a cliff-hanger ending. It’s nice to find an author who writes a series of standalone books. I just wish he had an editor who would encourage him to tamp down a bit on the foreshadowing, flashbacks, long technical conversations, and keep the action going forward a bit more smoothly.

Author Website:  http://www.brucemperrin.blogspot.com/

Heat Rating:  PG-13

Length:  284 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $10.99

Digital:  $3.99

Buy Link:  https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Clouds-Sleuth-Book-ebook/dp/B01BYRX220

Thanks for visiting.

The Second Coming A Love Story by Scott Pinkster

 Blurb:

Two men claim to be the Second Coming of Christ. Each claims the other is Satan in disguise. But only one is telling the truth.

In The Second Coming: A Love Story, the devilish new novel by Scott Pinsker, the culture war between Red America and Blue America turns shockingly real when two self-declared saviors appear on earth. The first “messiah” attracts legions of liberal and secular-progressive followers with his message of New Age brotherhood, quickly becoming the darling of the left. The second “messiah” preaches fire-and-brimstone traditional Christianity, gaining a grassroots army of conservative worshipers ready to battle to the death.

It’s finally happened: Red America and Blue America are headed for Armageddon!

Review by Rochelle Weber:

When Mr. Pinkster first offered The Second Coming: A Love Story to me to review, I had some qualms about it.  It’s not that as a Pagan I don’t know the Bible or the stories related to Christ’s return and the Anti Christ.  It was more of a case of “been there; done that; don’t wanna be preached at.”  But I was assured the book wasn’t preachy, so I accepted it.  Warning:  die-hard Christians would probably be scandalized.  It reminded me of a rock song a few years back that asked, and I’m paraphrasing here, “Would you know Christ if He was on the bus like one of us?”  I’m betting most of us wouldn’t.

The Second Coming: A Love Story is really kind of a hoot.  The two entities claiming to be Christ are each rather humble, self-effacing men who recruit followers with names one can certainly relate to Biblical figures.  So is it the one who lives on the beach and whose disciples include Margaret Madala and Peter the Bum?  Or the one who appears in Washington, DC, and recruits the gay speech writer David and his partner Michael?  Is it the one who preaches Old Testament fire and brimstone?  Or the one who says, “All you have to do is leave the world a holier place than it was when you arrived here”?  Mr. Pinkster kept me guessing.  In fact, the book ended and I’m still not sure which one it was, because Mr. Pinkster used a ploy that is one of my pet peeves.  He ended the book with a cliff-hanger.  Apparently this is part of a series, and I’ll have to buy at least one more book to learn which one is the real Christ, and which is the Anti Christ.

Mr. Pinkster could also use a better line editor.  I found a few glaring grammar issues.  Well, glaring to a grammar Nazi like me, anyway.

Overall, it was a good book.  In fact, it was a much better read than I expected.  I would definitely recommend it, but only if you have an open mind and can take a joke.  I mean, really—would you know Christ if you met Him on a bus?  How about if He was pan-handling and said He was hungry and you had a couple extra bucks?  Would you take Him into Micky D’s and buy Him a burger and fries?  If He was selling a paper the homeless sell to get back on their feet would you buy a copy or tell Him to “Get a job.”?  I actually heard a yuppie say that to a guy selling Streetwise in Chicago.  As far as I’m concerned, selling a newspaper is a lot more honest than selling stocks or hog futures.  You pay a dollar and you have a product in your hand that will still be worth a dollar tomorrow.  But, I digress.  You’ll enjoy Second Coming: A Love Story.

Length:  238 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $16.00

Digital:  $3.16

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Second-Coming-Love-Story-ebook/dp/B00KT6B3G0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420404771&sr=1-1&keywords=the+second+coming+a+love+story

Thanks for visiting. Rose, Julie, Donna, & Rochelle

Made for More by Curtis Martin

Blurb:

Life is an adventure, and while everything you do and every decision you make is aimed at making you happy, you may step back from time to time and ask yourself, “Why am I here?” and “Is there a deeper meaning to life?”  To find these answers, you need to go beyond the distractions of the world and be open to discovering your true purpose and potential.

Review by Rose Thornton: 

Author Curtis Martin in Made for More takes a serious look at ethics and morals as the sources of happiness in this otherwise materialistic world:  “Many of our choices deliver only temporary or fleeting happiness, sometimes at the cost of our ultimate happiness.  Good choices offer a lasting, deeper kind of happiness.”  This book does have a strong underlying religious principle, which a reader may or may not be drawn to, but I did not find it to be overly preachy or persuasive.  However, it’s true that I am someone who reads a variety of materials and I’m likely to find something thought-provoking in every book whether I agree with the author’s premise or not, so I am personally not adverse to reading materials with various ideologies.  For instance, I found his statement above to be true regardless of any religious connection…..which indeed was not introduced until later in the book. 

One of Albert Einstein’s famous quotes from an interview with The Saturday Evening Post, 1926, clearly demonstrates how this great thinker kept his interests and beliefs separated without threat to either:

 “As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud.  I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene……no one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus.  His personality pulsates in every word.  No myth is filled with such life.”

I believe every reader can do this and it will be up to the individual reader to decide if this book is appealing enough to enjoy.  The one section that most intrigued me as merely an objective reader was where Martin quotes H.G. Wells who, although not a supporter of Christianity himself, wrote :

“I am an historian.  I am not a believer, but I must confess as an historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history.  Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.”

Martin then asks: “How is it, then, that Jesus has become the single most influential person in the history of the world?”  That kind of question either interests a reader or it does not.  If it does not, then I would recommend this book as one to skip; however, if it does pique an interest, I could recommend this book as one man’s answer to the question and suggest reading it with an awareness that it is only one man’s answer.

Length:   130 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $4.60

Digital:  $8.99

Buy Link:

http://www.amazon.com/Made-More-Curtis-Martin-ebook/dp/B004EPZ0Q6/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1407946117&sr=1-2&keywords=made+for+more+by+curtis+martin

Thanks for visiting, Rose, Julie, Donna, & Rochelle