BOOK: After Earth (2013)

by benmweilertNo Comments
After EarthYear: 2013Author: Peter DavidLength: 547 minutes / 9.12 hours It's weird how a bit of hindsight brings a work into full focus. I never watched the movie After Earth (2013) because of its critical reception among audiences and critics alike. I figured maybe I would give the novel a try, not realizing it was not some work that the movie adapted, but instead a novelization of the movie itself. This was clearly a Will Smith passion project and never have I seen such blatant self-inserts in a work of fiction. While the author of this novelization may be Peter David, Will Smith was behind much of this plot. Seeing the home life of the adult character in this book mirroring the home life that we know between Will and Jada is cringe-worthy. What's worse is that these characters (either the Will or the Jaden stand-ins) were so flat and boring as to be completely worthless. The plot that drives their adventure...
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BOOK: The Bridge (2018)

by benmweilertNo Comments
The Bridge Year: 2018 Author: Jim Frishkey Length: 240 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY*** I’ll be honest when I say that I entered the giveaway for this book based on the attractive cover and the premise. Unfortunately, the book delivered on neither (it says it’s a “mystery,” but it had none of that either). There are too many amateur mistakes in this book for me to take any of it seriously. Some of these mistakes are so frustrating that I can’t honestly recommend this book to anyone. It’s a bit sad because a story featuring the spawn of Hitler would probably be pretty interesting. Maybe these interesting stories were in the previous four books, but judging on the errors in this one, I don’t want to read them. Let’s start with the formatting: it’s a mess. Right-aligned text, odd gaps in the paragraphs, and even some text that’s gray for some reason. Moving on to the proofreading errors, they are sprinkled enough...
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BOOK: The Women of Cho – Heart and Seoul (2016)

by benmweilertNo Comments
The Women of Cho: Heart and Seoul Year: 2016 Author: David C. Dagley Length: 294 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM THE PUBLISHER*** Did you know that this book was the sequel to Cale Dixon and the Moguk Murders? Of course not. Once again, Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co. (SBPRA) has put out another sub par book that has numerous mistakes that should have been caught by a legitimate publisher. Almost all of the same qualms I had with Cale Dixon and the Moguk Murders are back, but now there’s a host of new problems. From the unreadable cover containing a collection of fonts and almost random images to the constant peppering of basic homophone errors in the text itself, The Women of Cho: Heart and Seoul is merely a cash-grab by a publishing company that does nothing but release unpolished manuscripts. I actually started reading this book before its predecessor, mainly because the individual who contacted me from SBPRA said that it had little...
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BOOK: Cale Dixon and the Moguk Murders (2009)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Cale Dixon and the Moguk Murders Year: 2009 Author: David C. Dagley Length: 336 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM THE PUBLISHER*** Books like this one are what give independent writers a bad name. Furthermore, books like this should give independent authors pause before becoming contractually tied to a publisher. I found this book (and its “sequel”) to be so bad that I looked into the publisher a little bit. It turns out, Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co. (SBPRA) (also known as Author Marketing Ideas (AMI)) is a big-time scam, and I hope any authors who are reading this review will keep as far away from them as possible. If a reputable publisher released this book, it wouldn’t have been nearly as unpolished as this book is. While I’m sure the author thought his story was terrific, I hope he asks for his money back. Part of the role of a publisher, aside from distribution, is to get a book ready for a broad audience. With...
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BOOK: Nobel Peace Prize (2014)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Nobel Peace Prize Year: 2014 Author: D. Otter Length: 267 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM THE AUTHOR*** In a book about a random person potentially winning the Nobel Peace Prize, there’s remarkably little about the effects of this life-changing award on his life. The author even goes so far as to include this statement in the synopsis, “If ultimately the book fails to satisfy, failure to satisfy may be its motif, in which case it does satisfy in an unsatisfactory sort of way.” And what an unsatisfactory book it is. I’ll forgive the random missing spaces, which are probably an artifact of the e-book conversion process, but I will not excuse the run-on sentences inside run-on paragraphs comprising run-on chapters. I don’t know why the author chose to write this book in a fiction context (subtitling it “a political fantasy”). Considering the majority of the book is comprised of long-winded, unfocused rambling rants, if the author wanted to provide a true political fantasy to the...
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BOOK: Ulysses (1922)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Ulysses Year: 1922 Author: James Joyce Length: 1,797 minutes / 29.95 hours OK, I’ll be the first to admit that perhaps the audiobook version of this story isn’t the best way to digest it. While I did appreciate the Irish accent of the man who read this book, there really wasn’t much of a chance to re-read sections that were quite confusing. As a result, I have no idea what this book is about or what it was supposed to convey. I had a loose understanding that it was based on Homer’s The Odyssey, which helped make a few connections here and there, but I honestly can’t say that this parallel between the plots of the two stories is obvious at all. Perhaps the weakness I perceive in this story is due to its status as one of the great pieces of modernist literature. If that’s the case, then I’ll admit that I don’t understand modernist literature at all. None of it made any sense...
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