jbronderbookreviews

Doorway to Your Dreams by John P. Goetz

5 stars

(Excerpt from Goodreads) Doorway to Your Dreams by John P. Goetz is a science fiction thriller about Oban DeCarlo’s master plan to use humans with supernatural powers to create remote weapons of mass destruction. His program, Operation Traumland, is a fully funded Black Ops program located in an abandoned lab on Plum Island, New York. DeCarlo has created a laboratory where human ethics have been consciously abandoned, and the success of the mission is more important than any human life. When the novel begins, DeCarlo has already disposed of dozens in preliminary tests and is now ready for subjects with superhuman powers to finalize his first version of the eagerly anticipated U.S. weapon system. DeCarlo identifies and captures a US Army Helicopter Pilot serving in Vinh Long, South Vietnam in July 1967, by organizing a covert operation using North Vietnamese soldiers to kidnap the American they have nicknamed, “Demon” for his uncanny ability to easily find and kill their comrades. “Demon,” known as “Spooncake” by his fellow US Army colleagues, can hear the thought-noise from those around him, and sees spikes of color emanating from people many miles away. The spears of color in the sky depict the emotions of those below. Red, yellow, pink, black, white, turquoise, orange, and green indicate the collective feelings of calm, commotion, intensity, confidence, confusion, and death. His abilities make finding enemy troops easy; he needs only to fly toward the color red signifying anger and let his gunner, Baxter Hammond, take care of the rest. Their hit ratio is legendary. DeCarlo has also identified Linda Fisher, a beautiful card shark living in Las Vegas with a psychic ability to know how the cards will play before they are dealt, making her excessive winning streak a target for the Vegas casino bosses. DeCarlo’s men kidnap her and take her to his laboratory to be another specimen in Operation Traumland. “Spooncake” and Linda are to be used as Operation Traumland’s Adam and Eve. On the island, their supernatural and psychic abilities are channeled and amplified to build an undetectable human war machine. Ultimately, Linda becomes the only person able to bring the tragic, almost dead war hero, “Spooncake,” back to life and plots their escape. Their story follows a perilous journey to freedom, while maintaining honor, seeking revenge, and escaping the horrors of a fanatical sadist focused on doing anything to complete his dream of creating an unimaginable army of unseen killers.

The blurb of this book pretty much tells you what happens in the book. Vietnam veteran Tim McAllister, aka Spooncake, has the ability to hear people from long distances away. He also can sense people’s auras and uses this to kill many people in Vietnam. This makes his life difficult in its own way. But this ability has attracted Oban DeCarlo.

DeCarlo wants to make a team of assassins that can kill people from a long distance away and from a different plane of existence. Thus he has created Operation Traumland. DeCarlo gives Spooncake a mission that is designed to fail and bring him to the island where Traumland is based. Then enter Linda Fisher, she has the uncanny ability to know how the cards will be dealt. DeCarlo has his eyes set on Linda for a key role in the whole Operation Traumland plan.

This is an amazing book. There is an amazing story with lots of action. The book spans from the 1960’s to the 1990’s. I love the whole concept of Operation Traumland. But I have to say that although Spooncake was a great lead character, DeCarlo was the perfect balance. He had a rough past but which gives you the idea of why he is the way he is. But that doesn’t excuse this plans.

If you love the fast paced thrillers this is the book for you. It’s easy to get caught up in the story and very hard to put the book down. Make sure to get your copy today.

For more information on Doorway to Your Dreams or to purchase the book make sure to check out Amazon and Goodreads.

I received this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.

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The Caretaker’s Guide to Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

5 stars

(Excerpt from Goodreads) This guidebook to the Fablehaven magical preserve is filled with everything a new Caretaker might need to know in order to survive. There are entries detailing important information about artifacts large and small, a complete bestiary of creatures (from fairies to trolls to satyrs), a guide to identifying demons, dragons, and wizards as well as valuable insights into the other magical preserves.

Scattered throughout the book are colorful fairies that also mark some of the characters, artifacts, and creatures that will be featured in the upcoming sequel series, Dragonwatch.

If you have read the Fablehaven series, you will know that this is about magic preserves, locations for magical creatures to be safe from humans, and the adventures that involves them. I love this series and when I saw the opportunity to review The Caretaker’s Guide I had to jump on it.

This book is filled with the difference magical creatures throughout all the preserves and some additional that have been included in the adventures. There are beautiful illustrations that add to the descriptions and helped me to understand what the creatures look like in Brandon Mull’s mind. But I have to say the best part are all the notes throughout for the locations and experiences with these creatures. It really linked the guide to the Fablehaven series.

It doesn’t matter if you are young or old, starting this series or a longtime lover, this book is a great addition. Now I’m going to read the Fablehaven series again.

For more information on The Caretaker’s Guide to Fablehaven or to purchase the book make sure to check out Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, and Brandon Mull’s website.

I received this book for free from Shadow Mountain Publishing and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

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