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| Futuristic YA Action Adventure |
MY REVIEW
I loved this short, sneaky, serious and yet full of whimsy
book. I read it in 2 days. I just couldn’t put it down. Can a book about
killing someone be whimsical? Well it can if David Pereda writes it. He seems
to be able to write any kind of book. I love the way he always gives us an
education all the while trying to fool us into thinking we are having a fun
read.
This time it was math; last time in Havana Blue it was the
social and economic history of Cuba and the hard times of a boy growing up in
Havana. Yet all the while I was having a blast reading both books. I enjoyed the
analogies he made between real life and mathematical equations in this book and
how even though the story switches back and forth between the current and the
future he still managed to keep a symmetry to his storyline.
He has provided another very different and very enjoyable
story. The characters in this latest
book were unlike any others, yet as alive as his characters always seem to be. Intelligent
young characters with very finite minds and yet still young and uncertain. Living
through and growing up with the same questions and dreams we all had no matter which
generation we grew up in. I loved the futuristic
setting. I could almost believe I had my own robot and my own flying car, sort
of like the Jetsons but now, in today’s technology very little of it seems very
far away or impossible. In fact, everything he wrote about seemed like a normal
progression of how things will be in another 40 years. In other words, it all
seemed very believable.
Is this a book for young people? I think so, but I don’t
think there is any age that wouldn’t enjoy it. I obviously did.
David Pereda has several books with great reviews. Check
them all out.
P.S. Dear David, I tried to use at least a few simplistic mathematical
terms just to tease you. Hope I used them in a proper way or should I say from
the proper angle:)
***This book was provided to me free of charge in exchange for
my own very honest review.
Read an Excerpt
Year 2066
8:30am. Asheville, North Carolina
Today I’m going to kill the love of my life.
This deliberate act should not to be misinterpreted for what the sensationalistic media will surely call a crime of passion, because it isn’t. There’s nothing passionate in what I am about to do. My action is premeditated, has been planned for a long time, and will be executed for the benefit of our city, our country, and our crumbling world – as well as for my own peace of mind.
I have chosen this date for a reason. Today is my birthday, and the anniversary of our first kiss, fifty years ago. I turn sixty-three years old today. Five decades ago, I would have been considered an old woman at this age, gray-haired and wrinkled, and possibly
overweight. But that was then. Nowadays, thanks to the medical advances of the past fifty years, of which I have partaken freely – they’re there, right, so why not make use of them? I’m in the prime of my life. I look and feel not a day over thirty and have the sculpted
body, the vigor, and the mental acumen of a highly intelligent woman in her twenties.
When I was a teenager, there was this beautiful model named Cindy Crawford, who in her sixties looked like she was in her late thirties and was an example to women all over the world. She was to me. But the world has evolved, and that was then, and this is now.
Were Cindy Crawford alive today she would look like my older sister or maybe my young-looking mother, even though we would both be about the same age.
But I digress. I have, perhaps, too much on my mind. Images of the past keep streaming through my head. I think of the love of my life, him, and wonder what could have been but wasn’t; what was and shouldn’t have been.
I feel like crying as I see my life play out, in black-and-white like an old movie, on the screen of my mind.
AUTHOR Bio and Links:
David Pereda is the award-winning author of nine novels, including Havana Blues and However Long the Night, as well as the Havana Series of thrillers featuring the dashing Doctor Raymond Peters and the beautiful but deadly Cuban assassin Marcela. He has traveled to more than thirty countries and speaks four languages. Before devoting his time
solely to writing and teaching, David had a successful international consulting career with global giant Booz Allen Hamilton, where he worked with the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Peru and Qatar, among others.
A member of MENSA, David earned his MBA from Pepperdine University in California. He earned bachelor degrees in English literature and mathematics at the University of South Florida in Tampa.
He lives in artistic Asheville, North Carolina, with his youngest daughter Sophia, where he teaches mathematics and English at the Asheville-Buncombe Community College. He loves sports and is an accomplished competitor in track and show-jumping equestrian events.
Author’s Amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/David-Pereda/e/B002BML17Q
Buy Link:
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteThank you for hosting me on your blog today and reviewing my latest novel, Freaking Fast, as well as for the nice comments you made about my previous novel, Havana Blues. I will be checking in and out during the next week or so to answer any questions you or your readers may have about the book, writing in general, sprinting technique, mathematics, flying cars--or my life as a writer.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right about the technology I describe at the end of the book in the future. Most of it either exists right now or is under development or is in the well-advanced planning stages. Self-driving cars? Done. Flying cars? There are at least six companies I know of with flying prototypes, three of them supported by heavy investments from the Google co-founder, and so on. So you're a mathematician too; I'm impressed. There is a mathematician in Cambridge, a young lady who does MMA for relaxation, who has developed a number theory that goes to the 8th dimension. It's amazing what our kids and grandkids will experience in fifty years.
HA, David, I'm no mathematician. My teachers would have told you that years ago. I'm a musician and a retired librarian although math and music do have a lot in common. I just loved your book and decided I would find a way to play with a few math terms. It fits with the book right?
ReplyDeleteYou did great with all your angles, Kathy. I so enjoyed your review, your insightful comments and your wry wit. And yes again, math and music have a lot in common. Thank you once more for having me on your blog today.
ReplyDeleteI would love to read your book.
ReplyDeleteBridgett, thank you for your comment. I'm sure you'd like the book. It's now up for an award, and I'm thrilled. If FF wins, it would be my seventh literary award--but it always feels like the first one.
ReplyDeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteI think the visitors here at Bookaholic would agree...you are so very good at getting back to people and making them know their comments are important. I know you'll give me the simple answer that we are after all, "your readers" and it's true. However, not too many writers seem to remember it as you do. Thanks for letting me host your book on Bookaholic. I hope the voters of the next award have good taste and good sense:)