Reviews :: Book Rating :: Books that are Mediocre :: Page 8

This one was a while in coming. I picked it up after reading Tobias Buckell’s short story compilation, Nascence, on my own because he was an author that I had often heard good things about but had never taken the opportunity to read, and because the compilation was aimed toward authors in training. The collection worked for about the first two-thirds.  The rest was reserved for different iterations of the same story that wasn’t so short and honestly kinda boring. But it was pretty decent up until that point, and I decided to give him another go.
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As an Advertising/Public Relations major and a lifelong gamer, Nick Cole’s SODA POP SOLDIER (Amazon) immediately appealed to me. The premise of the novel revolves around professional matches being waged online over choice advertising real estate in the real world. Told from the first-person perspective by a character known only by the gamer tag PerfectQuestion, SODA POP SOLDIER is pitched as Call of Duty meets Diablo. The gaming segments of the novel deliver on the action packed promise of the book’s description. Unfortunately the sections of the book that take place in the real world lack the same punch.
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I’ve been thinking about the concept that lies at the crux of this review for quite a while now. I’ve come across it a couple times in the recent past–the most recent while watching Disney’s Frozen–and each time my realization as to why I wasn’t enjoying the story as much as I should have been eluded me for quite a while. Hopefully I’ve learned something about this concept after having seen it in action for the third time.
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Roen Tan is a truly ordinary guy. He’s got a software-coding job he tolerates, his roommate is smarter and better-looking than he is, he visits the bars on weekend, could use a gym membership, and can’t bring himself to asking out that cute co-worker for a drink.
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Silver and her mate Andrew are the alphas of the Roanoke werewolf pack, the largest in North America. But they’re more than just that, they’ve been sworn fealty by the alphas in all the other packs in North America, as well. There’s a benefit to having two alphas–they can  divide and conquer, which comes in handy when there’s an entire continent to manage.
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Stranded on an alien space station when she’s left behind by her colony ship, Tula is never able to contact them again. She must now learn to survive as a lone human among less than friendly aliens. Tula prepares for the day when she can have her revenge on Brother Blue, the man who left her behind, and who was responsible for the disappearance of the colony ship.
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It’s the year 1877, but not like we would recognize. Egypt’s capital Memphis is the center of civilization, its Pharaoh the lord over Europe, Africa, and much of Asia. Scott Oken and Mikel Mabruke are agents of the Pharaoh, even though they have royal titles of their own (like the Pharaoh, they are descended from Cesar and Cleopatra). They travel the world to secure intelligence for the empire, to keep it safe and strong.
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Kestrel is the teenage daughter of a general in the Valoria army, the equivalent of the ancient Roman Empire. He helps the provincial governor in the Herrani territory, where they have enslaved the invaded locals. As a Valorian she must soon decide to join the military or be married. But despite a knack for strategy her combat skills are lacking–her true talent lies in the piano.
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James and his wife Linda are scientists at the famous biotech company GeneFirm, where they’ve engineered a gene therapy that will eradicate cancer as we know it. But the world’s population may not get the chance to enjoy a cancer-free future when a deadly supervirus outbreak becomes a world-wide pandemic.
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Captured as a slave while a child, Laura escapes and finds a new life in the home of a mountain healer and midwife. Clever and industrious, Laura learns her new profession so well that her adoptive mother, Crescia, sends her to Solerno’s famed medical school so she can become a physician and bring her worldly learning back to the midwife’s humble cottage.
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