Night Shift / Stephen King

Night Shift is a short story collection of Stephen King.
Stephen King is known mostly for his novels but he has published several short stories collections and Night Shift is the first and, I believe, the best.
The stories in Night Shift are among the finest horror stories I have read.
Some of the more familiar ones are: Children of the Corn which tells of a couple which stumbles into a town which is populated by a homicidal cult of children who had murdered all the adults in their town. Children of the Corn was made into a film which had several sequels.
The Ledge tells the story of a man who is forced by a gangster to walk a ledge around a building. Very terrifying. The Ledge was included in Cat's Eye which featured 3 Stephen King stories.
Quitters Inc. tells of a smoking rehab program which has gruesome incentives.
And the Lawnmower Man which was also made into a film though one which varied greatly from the story.
Overall a very fulfilling read. A must for horror fans.

Island / Richard Laymon

Another horror novel by Richard Laymon.

Island tells the story of a shipwrecked family, stranded on a seemingly deserted island after their yacht was blown up nearby. There are four women: Billie, Kimberley, Connie and Thelma and there are three men: Andrew, Keith and Rupert. Another man is Wesley who was aoard the yacht when it exploded (or so it would seem). Rupert is the hero of the novel which is written in the form of a journal which Rupert keeps.

On their first night there, Keith is murdered. They find him hung from a tree.

On the second day, Andrew is murdered, and Wesley turns out to be alive and the killer. He blew up the yacht to capture the whole family on the island. Thelma, Wesley's wife, cannot bear to see the others fight him, so she runs off and joins him after trying to wipe out Rupert.

At first, the survivors believe that Wesley is after money, because their family is rich, and killing them all would leave him as a sole heir. But as they realize that he goes for the men and leaves the women unscathed, they realize that his goal is much more sinister and twisted.

After a surprise attack in which Rupert is left for dead by Wesley and Thelma, he finds himself alone and searches the island for sign of the other three women.

He finds them imprisoned by Wesley and Thelma and kept for their psychotic pleasures.

Here the final battle between Rupert and the joint forces of Wesley and Thelma takes place.

Review:

Island is a terrific horror novel. It is graphic as are all of Laymon's novels and this one involves sexual depravity as well. It is not for the squeamish, for it filled with cruelty. But it is a very recommended read. It is fast paced, well written, with believable characters and well established dialogues. It is also damn fun to read.

One starnge thing in all of Laymon novels is the way in which women seem to recover from rape: as if at ease. That's about the only thing that I found wrong with the novel.

Bite / Richard Laymon

Bite tells the story of a guy called Sam. Sam is a regular guy leading a pretty mundane life when one night the love of his life whom he hadn't seen since high-school comes to his door wearing nothing but a robe. This is a pretty exciting turn of events as far as Sam is concerned but Cat (that's short for Cathrine) has a huge favor to ask of him. She tells him that over the last year she has been plagued by a vampire. This vampire, called Elliott out of all things, has been paying her nightly visits and sucking her blood as well as doing other things to her (rape mostly).
Cat asks Sam to come with her back to her house, hide in the closet and then kill Elliott with a stake through the heart when he dines on Cat.
At first Sam is skeptical to say the least, but he cannot stand to let this chance of getting Cat back into his life slip by, so he agrees.
And indeed, come midnight, he watches from the closet as Elliott swoops into Cat's bedroom in his black cape and starts to suck her blood.
Sam comes out of the closet with the stake in one hand and a mallet in the other and hammers into Elliott's back. The blow isn't sufficient to kill and Elliott lunges at him, biting him with steel fangs which he had placed on his own teeth. Cat finishes the job by driving the stake deeper into Elliott.
Sam and Cat decide to take Elliott to a deserted location and bury him.
They drive off towards the deserts of Nevada when they get a flat tire and have to get off the freeway. It is night and they stumble upon a man with long white hair who asks them for a ride. Since they don't know the way they agree and pick up Snow White (the hitchhiker's nickname). This turns out to be a bad decision as White is homicidal and once he gets wind that they are carrying a vampire in their trunk, he decides that he must have Elliott's body so he could remove the stake come nightfall and allow Elliott to turn him into a vampire and thus attain immortality.
Cat and Sam give him the slip in a roadside diner so White kidnaps a van with two inhabitants.
He follows Cat and Sam, and sends one of his hostages to inform them that they should follow him or else they will have the blood of the remaining hostage on their hands.
Reluctantly, Sam and Cat follow White to a secluded dserted mine where they have a final showdown with him and with his two hostages who turn out to be a menace in their own right.

Review:
I have read many Richard Laymon novels and this is one of the worst. The story is a bit farfetched, especially the ease in which Sam is persuaded to kill Elliott. The story is thin and ludicrous and bloody as hell without it serving the story at all. It is very readable but not as entertaining as Laymon's other novels.

The Afghan / Frederick Forsyth

The Afghan's hero is once again Mike Martin, British Special Forces veteran who has already starred in one of Forsyth's novels: The Fist of God (Which is also summarized in this blog).

When information of a pending Al-Qaeda attack reaches western intelligence, Martin is called back from retirement.

He is about to try to assume the identity of an Al-Qaeda operative who is detained by the Americans and try to infiltrate Al-Qaeda. The Afghan, Izmat Khan, is a Muslim zealot and a worshipper of Bin Laden. Martin knows him from when he served in Afghanistan and aided the local fighters against the Russains. He is fluent in Pasthun and Arabic and has an oriental appearance. He is also adept at the arabic and Muslim customs as he grew up in Iraq.

The Americans stage a release of Khan and Martin slips in as the terrorist. He manages to make contact with Al-Qaeda and is brought into a secret terror operation, though he is kept in the dark regarding the exact nature of it.

As Al-Qaeda plan and start to execute the worst terror attack in their history, Martin is faced with the realization that he will have to stop them alone.

Review: As with all of Forsyth's work, this is meticulously researched and presented. Again, Forsyth has mellowed somewhat over the years so this novel lacks the poignancy of his earlier work, but it is still a worthwhile read. Make sure to read The Fist of God first, though, so will know all the major characters.

Cell / Stephen King

Cell is an apocalyptic novel by Stephen King. On October 1, a computer program which will later be known as the Pulse is set loose through every cell-phone in the world. Anyone using a cell is immediately infected and becomes homicidely crazy. Violence is loosed as millions become savage maniacs and kill any who cross their path.

Those who understand that the phones should not be touched strive to survive against the tidal wave of violence. Clay Riddell, a graphic artist, is on a visit to Boston when the Pulse hits. He runs for his life and with other survivors he meets along the way makes his way out of Boston and heads for Maine where his wife and son live. He doesn't know whether they're alright or even sane, yet he has to go.

Over time, the people struck by the Pulse, the phoners evolve and develop telepathic abilities. They lack in hygiene and healt so lose many of their numbers, but they are so many to begin with that it matters very little. They also develop group consciousness and traevl in flocks. Clay and his friends must travel by night as the phoners rule by day.

They try to fight back, manage to blow up a single flock of a few hundred Phoners, but soon the Phoners' psychic abilities prove too much for active struggle. The Phoners lead the survivors to a place where they can "process" them: turn them into Phoners and complete the takeover of the Pulse. It is here that Clay knows he'll find his wife and son, though not in what condition. It is also here where the final chance for a showdown lies, if Clay and his friends will only know how to take it.

Wizard and Glass - The Dark Tower IV / Stephen King

In the beginning of Wizard and Glass, the fourth novel in Stephen King's Dark Tower series, Roland's Ka-Tet (A band of destiny) finds itself on Blain the suicidal mono train. Blain plans to derail itself with them onboard unless they ask it a riddle it cannot solve. Roland rises to the challenge and tries to find a tough riddle for Blain but Blain solves them all one by one.
Roland gives up as his riddles run out and it is clear that Blain knows them all, yet Eddie comes up with the solution: Blain's weakness is questions of stupid nature such as why did the Chicken cross the street?
Blain's logical mind cannot stand such riddles and his circuits snap. It cannot solve the questions and it comes to a screeching stop at the end of the rail.
The Ka-Tet finds itself in another version of Topeka but this one has been struck by a plague. No one is left alive. This is reminiscent of Stephen King's The Stand, one of his monumental early novels.
In Topeka they stumble upon a thinny, which is an area in which reality has grown thin, another symptom of the Tower's weakening. The thinny is hungry for life and can cast a spell at those who come near it and swallow them whole. The Ka-Tet inquires as to how Roland knows about the thinny and indeed regarding his entire past, and Roland tells them the story of his adolescence.
Roland passed his manhood trial at fourteen the younger ever in Gilead, his home barony. After his trial, his father sends him and two of his friends to the barony of Mejis. This is done for fear that Marten, the man in black who has become Roland's mother's lover will kill him.
The Barony of Mejis is far barony in which no trouble is expected to befall Roland and his friends, Cuthbert and Alain. But trouble is there and in abundance, for Mejis has a lot of oil, and John Farson, Gilead's nemesis has discovered how to use it to fuel the ancient weapons of the Old People (Tanks of sorts). He had also sent for safe keeping one of the wizard's glasses: orbs of immense magical power. Mejis also has a thinny.
When Roland comes into Mejis he runs into Susan Delgado, a beautiful girl. The two fall intensely in love, yet she has been promised to be the mayor of Mejis's second wife.
The two meet continually in secret and Roland loves for the first and last time.
In Mejis agents of Farson who are in charge of the Wizard's Glass and the oil plot seize Roland and his friends and jail them. They intend to burn them alive in an ancient festival which is held in Mejis as they blame them as traitors who are working for Farson. Yet Susan aided by a retarded boy named Sheemie help them to escape and they set a trap for Farson's men, killing many and stealing the Wizard's Glass and drawing many more into the thinny which engulfs them. They also set fire to the oil field in Mejis, thus securing that Farson will not be able to tap into it again.
But Susan is killed. The town people catch her and she is burned alive. What is most troubling is that Roland sees his destiny within the Glass and knows that he must desert Susan for the Tower.
He heads back to Gilead with his friends.
When the story finishes, Roland and his Ka-Tet come upon a glass palace which is reminiscent of the wizard of Oz's. In it they come upon the man in black, Walter (also Marten) and nearly kill him. There another one of Roland's crimes is revealed: when he returned from Mejis, he was induced by magic to shoot his own mother. He is a matricide. The lengths to which Roland's quest has taken him, the deaths of his loved ones, is the series' underlying tragedy.

In my view this is the finest novel of the dark tower among the seven. It is beautifully written, suspenseful and touching. A must read.

The Plot Against America / Philip Roth

The Plot Against America is a novel by acclaimed author, Philip Roth, is a fictinalized historical work. The novel takes place at the time of WWII in the United States and its theme is that american aviator Charles Lindberg decides to run for president in the 1940 election vs. Franklin Delano Rosevelt.

Lindberg, a national hero, as he was the first pilot to fly across the Atlantic ocean, receives the nomination of the Republican Party. Lindberg is also an antisemite and an isolationist, i.e., is against the idea the theUnited States should join WWII against Germany.

Here Roth mixes fiction an actual history in an anviable way. Lindberg was indeed a rabid antisemite and a staunch isolationist. He also received a medal by the Third Reich. The possibility of Lindberg running for president was indeed plausible in the 1930's and Roth gets the reader to think of what might had happened had he indeed decided to run.

Roth, a Jewish author, tells the story through the eyes of a Jewish boy of a poor family (he himself, for the boy's name is Phil). In it he depicts the horror of the Jews at the possibility of Lindberg's election and the way inch by inch they feel the way american society alienates them and threaten their community.

The novel makes plain the day to day fear of a minority which is afraid for its very life and the way dormant antisemitism can awaken. Lindberg does win the national elections and the Republicans assume power. Britain is left with fighting the Germans on its own, with Russia joining in 1941, but America stays out of it.

Tales of the massacre of Jews in Europe do little to sway the mind of Lindberg who even summons the German foreign minister to the White House, which the Jews take as a sign of the fascism that Lindberg is planning for America. National programs are decreed whose aim is to assist in the assimilation of the Jewish population in the overall american one. Jewish communities are broken up and Jews are resettled.

Roth shows how easy it can be to start the dehumanizing process of a religion and a minority while keeping a liberal and benevolent face. The novel shows how Phil's father loses his job as a result of his denomination and how his brother is indocrinated by the new educational programs of Lindberg's administration.

Without telling how the book ends, I will say that this is a must read for anyone who wants to see how awful rascism can become, how sophisticated a face it can assume, and how much the public needs to be on guard to thwart it.

Fist of God / Frederick Forsyth

The fist of God is a novel by acclaimed writer, Frederick Forsyth. The novel revolves around Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

The world is taken by surprise as Iraq takes control of Kuwait with its rich oil fields. As tales of atrocities start coming outof Kuwait the leaders of the west begin assembling a coalition in order to force Iraq to withdraw.

Iraq's dictator president, SaddamHussein, threatens to strike a massive blow at anyone who will dare stand against him and claims Kuwait as an ancient part of Iraq.

Britain and the USA find themselves without any real intelligence inside Iraq, but the Israeli Mossad lets them in on a source, codenamed Jericho, it has inside Iraq's regime. This source get wind of something called the Kubth-of-Allah, or the fist of god. What this is he is not sure, but the western allies are determined to discover for they fear that this is a terrible weapon.

British special trooper, Mike Martin, who was born in Iraq and spent a great deal of his childhood there and even has an arabic appearance, is sent on a most dangerous mission, first into Kuwait to stirlife into its fledgling resistance movement and to learn of Iraqi army deplotments and later into the heart of thestorm, Baghdad itself.

Martin overcomes great difficulties in alluding Iraq's efficient secret police and makes contact with Jericho.

Western scientists, poring over great amounts of information and correlating this with Martin's discoveries,come to a dreadful conclusion: with half a million soldiers of the coalition stationed in Saudi Arabia, awaiting the command to strike at Iraq, it is feared the Iraq has managed to develop a nuclear weapon and that it has built a supergun able to launch it. Saddam's apparent madness and his history of use of weapons of mass destruction further increase the level of fear. The lives of half a million troops are at stake as Martin struggles to find out where the supergun is located. As the coalition begins its aerial attack and the date of the ground invasion of Iraq becomes imminent, so does Martin's quest become crucial.

As with all of Forsyth's novels, the Fist of God blends fact with fiction in a seamless manner. While reading it, one cannot but ask himself whether or not this was indeed the case, and how close did the first Gulf War come to be a horrific disaster.

Overall, a very entertaining read, (though Forsyth has written better ones) and recommended to whomever likes spy novels.

Fermat's Last Theorem / Simon Singh

Fermat's Last Theorem is a book about the beauty of mathematics and the quest for truth and knowledge.
Fermat was a top notch French mathematician who was responsible for a great deal of theorems which are studied in universities worldwide. Fermat was very productive and his knowledge of mathematics was far reaching and encompassed many regions of it. But Fermat also had an annoying habit: he would often forego actually putting the proofs of his theorems into writing, for he was in it for the sense of achievement not the acknowledgement of others.
After he died, a remark he wrote regarding a math puzzle was discovered. The puzzle was the following equation: X^n + Y^n = Z^n (when x, y, z are whole numbers and n is greater than 2). Anyone who ever studied geometry in school is familiar with this equation when n=2 and knows that it has many solutions. In fact it has an infinite number of them. But Fermat claimed to have proven that this equation had no solution when n was greater than 2. The aggravating thing was that he neglected to write it down, or if he did, it was never discovered.
Fermat's assertion became a challenge for many mathematicians who took to the task eagerly. The question seemed easy to understand, any child could grasp it, but the solution eluded the minds of great mathematicians for 350 years. Simon Singh details how many struggled with Fermat's last Theorem and failed.
The beauty of the book is that mathematicians who are mostly viewed as dull and obscure figures turn out to be extremely human and fragile, full of desires and obsessions, subject to depressions and setbacks and lead an interesting and passionate life.
As many tried and failed, inch by inch progress was made and in the process a number of great discoveries were made which illuminated other fields of interest within mathematics. Singh not only describes the actual struggles with Fermat's Last Theorem but other advances in math which contributed to the final solution discovered by Andrew Wales in the 1990's.
Andrew Wiles, a British mathematician, stumbled upon the Theorem as a boy of ten and made it a life long quest to find a solution for it. A brilliant mathematician, he spent years trying to solve the puzzle without success. An assumption made in the 1950's by two Japanese mathematicians which also eluded proof became the turning point, for it was proven that should their assumption be proven as correct, so should Fermat's Last Theorem turn out to be true.
At the end, it was this assumption which Andrew Wiles proved, subsequently coming up with the proof to Fermat's last Theorem.
In conclusion, for anyone who likes math or studied it, this will be a great read because many of the people involved are known to us from theorems which we agonized over in school. To anyone who did not, this is an opportunity to see a new aspect of math and science which is warm and emotional.

The Dark Tower III - The Waste Lands / Stephen King

Abstract:
The third installment in The Dark Tower series, Stephen King's life long literary quest, again touches upon Roland's world and our own. As Roland, Eddie and Susannah travel on, they stumble upon Shardik. Shardik is an ancient machine in the form of a gigantic bear. But as with most of the things in Roland's world, it is winding down, or to put it bluntly, crazy as hell. Shardik attempts to kill Eddie who barely escapes to a tree top. But Shardik shakes the tree and it would soon topple. Yet Eddie's shouts bring back his companions, and Susannah manages to shoot the sensory device controlling Shardik and thus causing its death. Roland then tells his friends that Shardik is but one of twelve guardians who stand at the portals of the six beams which converge at the Dark Tower.
The twelve portals stand in the twelve edges of the world (or worlds) and the Dark Tower is in the middle. So they must follow the path of the Beam which Shardik guarded and it will lead them to the Dark Tower, distance unknown.
Meanwhile, in New York, Jake Chambers fears he is losing his mind. It seems that he is torn between two realities, New York and the world of Roland whom he seems to remember having left him to fall to his death in a chasm in the mountains. Yet Jake feels that he loves the gunslinger deeply. He also becomes obsessed with doors and feels that he must find the door to Roland's world soon or go insane. He wanders New York and comes upon a deserted lot in Manhattan. In it he sees the most beautiful rose he has ever encountered.
The rose is like a million suns and from it emanates good being and happiness and strength. Yet Jake senses that the rose is in grave danger and that Roland must become aware of it. Next to the rose he finds a key and takes it with him.
Back in Roland's world, Eddie starts carving a branch that he has found. He does not know why, but feels that he must shape a key out of it. Some days later, Roland's group reaches a demon circle. It is here that they must conjure the door through which they may draw Jake. Since the demon is a male, and all demons are highly sexual creatures, Susannah suffers its rough attention while Eddie portrays a door in the middle of the circle and fits the key in. In New York, Jake overcomes great dangers and fits his key at his end of the door. He it taken to Roland and the two embrace in love.
The four travel across the path of the Beam towards Lud, and ancient city. In it they know that there is a train that can take them over the Waste Lands and closer to the Dark Tower. In their way they stumble upon a billy-bumbler, a dog like creature, but highly intelligent. The billy-bumblers are reputed to bear the gift of speech, and this one is extremely proficient. The boy Jake names him Oy and it joins their group.
Lud bears a striking resemblance to New York, another proof that Roland's world and our own are linked. Lud is in turmoil for two groups fight in its streets and alleys without cease. The city's ancient technology is long neglected. One of the groups kidnaps Jake and Roland goes after him, assisted by Oy and its sense of smell, while Eddie and Susannah seek out the train station. Both Roland and the couple must fight their way against the city's bloodthirsty inhabitants.
The train, whose name is Blaine, is in fact a part of the powerful computer that had once governed Lud. Yet it, as other machines, has gained awareness and lost its mind. Blaine is a riddle addict, and through the promise of more riddles, the group manages to persuade it to carry them to the end of its line.
How long will it take is hard to tell for distances, directions and even time itself have gone hazy as the Tower weakens. They set out at full speed and pass over the Waste Lands. But once they get going, Blaine informs them that he intends to derail at the end of the line, killing himself and them to boot. Roland makes a deal with it that should they present it with a riddle it cannot solve, it will let them live. So ends, the third volume of the Dark Tower.

Review:
An excellent book, exciting and fast paced. A must for all Stephen King and fantasy lovers

The Dark Tower II - The Drawing of the Three / Stephen King

The second volume of Stephen King's grand series begins when Roland of Gilead, the lest gunslinger, wakes on the shore of the western sea to discover that he is being attacked by a lobster like creature, only much bigger, quicker, and hungrier. Even Roland's lightning quick reflexes are not enough to come out of this battle unscathed. Roland loses two fingers of his right hand to the lobstrosity before killing it, and from now on he is a one handed fighter.
Roland makes his way along the shore of the western sea, now feverish with the lobstrosity's poison. He is looking for doors through which he must draw three companions for his quest. This he had been told by the man in black when he had at last caught up with him in the first volume.
The first door is marked The Prisoner, and through it Roland must draw Eddie Dean, a young man who is addicted to heroin which is his prison. But before Roland can draw Eddie, he must help him get out of the mess he is in, for Eddie is also a drug courier for the mob. Roland goes through the door to New York of 1987 to help Eddie out of his predicament and to draw him forth. Now he must contend with his new companion's addiction. There is no heroin in Roland's world.
Together they come upon a second door marked The Lady of Shadows. Through it, Roland must draw Odetta Holmes, a young black woman who has lost both her legs when she was pushed by an unknown man in front of a subway train. Yet Odetta is not one woman, but two, for she is torn between two identities, the soft, kind and righteous Odetta, and the filthy talking, ruthless and crafty Detta. As she comes through, Roland and Eddie must be on their guard for there is no knowing when Detta might gain control of Odetta's body. To make things worse, Eddie finds himself falling in love with Odetta.
Roland is now so sick that the third door must serve as a conduit through which he will find medicine. The third door is marked the pusher. Roland goes through alone leaving Eddie to guard Detta. In New York Roland encounters the Pusher, Jack Mort, who years earlier pushed Odetta in front of the train. Roland uses his body to find ammunition for his guns and much needed antibiotics for himself. He then disposes of the Pusher in front of the same train which took Odetta's legs. He goes back through the door to find that Eddie has been left tied on the beach with lobstrosities approaching. Roland manages to save him and through his killing of Jack Mort he forces and inner transformation in Odetta, resulting with a third woman, Susannah who is a combination of Detta's craft and ability, and Odetta's kindness. Now healthy, Roland and his new companions continue their quest for the Dark Tower.

The Dark Tower - The Gunsliner / Stephen King

In this novel, the first of seven in Stephen King's magnum opus, The Dark Tower which was inspired by Robert Browning's 19th century poem, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came, King introduces the reader to Roland of Gilead, a gunslinger.
A gunslinger is a sort of western cowboy, packing guns and extremely deadly. Roland is on a quest for the Dark Tower, a place of immense mystery and power. The book describes Roland's pursuit of the man in black across desert. Roland's world is a complex place, even though it is foreign to our own, certain things seem to exist in both worlds: The Beatles' Hey Jude is sung in a saloon Roland passes on his way; several machines or remnants of such as should not exist in any Western appear every now and again.
The man in black is a wizard of sorts and holds information Roland must have if he is to fulfill his quest and reach the Dark Tower. The desert on which Roland makes his pursuit is barren and nearly devoid of life. Yet Roland strives on overcoming traps which the man in black lays for him, gaining on the man in black as the days pass and his rations and water diminish. After a time he comes upon a way station that once served a long deserted coach route. In the way station Roland encounters Jake, a boy of New York who has been conjured there involuntarily. Roland takes Jake along with him and they continue the pursuit of the man in black.
Their travels lead them to a deserted rail track that runs into a mountain. In the darkness of the mountains they encounter and fight mutant humanoids, descendants of the victims of an ancient and forgotten cataclysmic war. Upon leaving the mountains they reach a chasm bridged by a rickety ropeway. During the crossing the man in black appears at the other edge. At that point Jake stumbles and holds onto the bridge for dear life. The man in black presents Roland with a choice: forsake Jake and catch him or allow him to flee. Roland has to make the choice that would best serve his quest and not his conscience.
The end of the book, Roland and the man in black sit down to palaver and Roland receives the information he must have to continue his quest.

Prologue

Hello, one and all!
My name is Jonathan and I'm a 28 years old book lover from Israel. In this blog I will review the books I read, include abstracts (spoliers may be included so don't say I didn't warn you) and recommend further reading. I hope that you'll enjoy it. Feel free to write to me regarding my writing or regarding other books which you feel people should read or that I shall enjoy.
Yours truly,

Jonathan