leventmolla's reviews
1640 reviews

Jeffery Deaver is back with a new Kathryn Dance thriller. He is following Agent Dance while she tries to make sense out of the actions of an unknown perpetrator who creates conditions that are suitable for a crowd to panic and triggers stampedes resulting in multiple deaths. The complication is that Dance is demoted to the Civil Division since she misread the reaction of a drug cartel affiliate which resulted in his escape. She can not carry a weapon and she is instructed to keep to insurance related matters.

While the drama is growing, Dance is also confused in her private life with her two children and multiple suitors.

As usual Deaver weaves multiple threads and slowly brings them to fruition. However, I had problems with this book:

1) Kathryn Dance is a "kinesics" expert, thus her special skill is to be able to read the body language of potential criminals and is supposed to get early warning to stop or disable them. However this skill is not used much in this book (apart from the flaw which lands her in the Civil Division). Actually she is portrayed very similar to Deaver's other protagonists (e.g. Lincoln Rhyme)
2) Deaver is famous for his twists and turns. His plot quickly changes direction, perplexing the reader who was sure about a certain protagonist or baddie. Again this book had very few if any of these plot twists.

So, the book is okay but not exceptional.

Daha önce Türkiye'deki nadir fantastik edebiyat yazarlarından biri olan Gülşah Elikbank'ın Günebakan Üçlemesi'ni değerlendirmiştim. Elikbank Ekim 2013'te bir sonraki fantastik kitabı Uykusuzlar'ı çıkardı ve kısa zamanda basında epeyce yankı yapan bu kitabı sonunda okuma şansı buldum.

Elikbank Batı fantastik edebiyatından yararlanmakla birlikte özellikle Günebakan Üçlemesi'nde yeni bazı fantastik kavramları da kullanabilmişti. Bu yeni romanında fantastik edebiyatta (ve tabii ki sinemada) her zaman ilgi kaynağı olmuş bir kavramı, yani rüyaları ve rüyalar aracılığıyla insanlara hükmetme kavramını ele alıyor. Tabii ki bu çok popüler bir konu ve hem edebiyatta hem de sinemada çok ilginç örnekleri var.

Benim sinemada en ilginç bulduğum örneklerden biri olan Nightmare on Elm Street (Elm Sokağı Kabusu) filminde insanlara rüyaları aracılığıyla ulaşan ve onları çeşitli şekillerde öldüren Freddy Kruger rüyaların hakimiydi. (Birinci filmden sonra benzeri her seri film gibi biraz zıvanadan çıkmıştı ama özgün kavram son derece ilginçti) Tabii ki düş görme üzerine çevrilmiş belki de en müthiş film Christopher Nolan yönetiminde Leonardo DiCaprio'lu Inception (Başlangıç) olmalı. Bir kaç katmanlı bir düş içinde bir sanayicinin aklına belirli bir fikrin yerleştirilmesi olarak özetlenebilecek bu harika fantastik filmde özellikle rüyada olduğunu farkedebilme önemli bir yetenek olarak konuyu belirliyordu.

Kitabın adını aldığı Uykusuzlar, insanların düşlerine sızarak onları kontrol altına alan ve böylece insan ırkının kötülüklerinden kendilerini ve dünyayı koruyan bir ırkın adı. Tabii kitaptaki tek fantastik ırk bu değil, erkekleri cinsel güçleriyle kontrolleri altına alan succubus'lar (bu ırk Eski Ahit'ten bu yana efsanelerde ve kutsal kitaplarda yer alan aynı adlı şeytanlardan türetilmiş), enerji kalkanları, telepatlar ve Kehanet Avcıları kitabı hareketlendiriyorlar.

Kitabın kahramanı Nina annesinin ölümünden sonra babası ve üvey annesinin kendisiyle fazla ilgilenmemelerine rağmen büyüyüp başarılı bir iş sahibi olmuş, nişanlanmış ama hep bir şeylerin eksikliğini duymuştur. Rüyaları aracılığıyla kendisini kontrol altına almaya çalışan ve bir kehanetin gerçekleşmesinin anahtarı olduğu için onu yakından izleyenler olduğunun farkında değildir. Kitap Nina'nın dost mu düşman mı olduğu belli olmayan bir sürü fantastik canlı arasından gerçeği keşfetme ve rüyalarına yeniden hakim olma savaşını anlatıyor.

Kitaptaki ilginç konulardan biri de rüya gördüğümüzü farkedebilmek ve rüyaya hakim olmak kavramı. Kitapta konunun gereği yapılması gereken bu eylemi yalnızca fantastik edebiyatın bir mekanizması sananlar yanılabilirler. Daha önce de duyduğum bu kavram Lucid Dreaming (Berrak Düş Görme) olarak anılıyor ve inanılmayacak kadar çok gerçek araştırmanın konusu. Teoriye göre eğer rüyadayken rüyada olduğumuzu anlayabilirsek ve uyanmadan rüya görmeye devam edebilirsek rüyalarımızı kontrol edebilir ve normalde hiç yapamayacağımız şeyleri rüyanın içinde başarabiliriz (uçmak gibi). Budist metinlerde de rastlanan bu yöntem son yıllarda ciddi akademik araştırmaların konusu olmuş. Bunu başarabilenlere oneironot deniyor. Nina da romanda gerçekle düşü ayırdedebilmek için eğitim görmek durumunda kalıyor.

Kitabı ilgiyle okuyacağınızı tahmin ediyorum. Kitap bittiğinde hissettiğim duygu "bunun bir devamı olabilir galiba" idi. Umarım arkası gelir.

Interesting book by Sam Bourne. James Zennor is a scientist at Oxford University during the 2nd World War. His wife and son disappear one day and he has to trace them to find that they have been whisked away to Yale University in the U.S., purportedly to save them from the expected German invasion. James follows them with difficulty to Yale, finding out that they do not seem to be anywhere, but he starts seeing proof of a conspiracy within Yale University, having to do with all the families that were sent from Oxford to the U.S. The strange thing is that these Oxford families seem to have been selected very consciously and they all are the wives and children of extremely intelligent people.

He finds that the conspiracy involves keeping the U.S. out of the War and to try to raise a race of supermen once the war is finished.

Interesting twist on real events and a period of history whereto U.S. had not yet entered the War, the author has created a gripping tale of mystery and has done a good job.

This is an interesting book about medieval London and events surrounding a mysterious and dangerous book which is rumoured to have predicted the deaths of 12 previous English Kings and seems to predict the death of the current King Richard the 2nd. Poet John Gower searches for the book, meanwhile tracking the traces of a vicious murderer who has already killed several women (prostitutes) in search of the same book.

John Gower's friend (to-be-famous in the future) poet Geoffrey Chaucer seems to be involved, so John Gower tries to get hints from his poet friend about what the purpose of the book might be. There is a chance that the book may have been forged by the enemies of King Richard, in the hope to trigger an uprising.

The book contains many details about the era, including the life in London with its three distinct areas, the strict controls over who can live where and the powerful bureaucracy. But essentially it is a detective story. At times difficult to follow, the book provides an exciting narrative if you can adapt and feel like an inhabitant of the 13th Century.

While David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" is waiting on my Kindle to be read, I came across a later book of his with the title "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet". The book narrates the events occurring at the artificial island of Dejima next to Nagasaki, Japan.

Towards the end of the 18th century (Year 1799, to be precise), Dejima is the only location in Japan that foreign merchants can establish trade with Japan. The second Shogun has prohibited foreigners to set foot in the Japanese islands, thus the Dutch dominate trade to Japan via a trading factory they established at Dejima, through the enormously successful company VOC (Dutch East India Company). The Japanese are exposed to European literature, medicine and other influences through this remote Dutch outpost, although the ban about promoting Christianity is still on.

Jacob de Zoet is a new junior clerk in Dejima and is given the task of rooting out corruption that is prevalent in the VOC outpost. This causes some resentment in the Dutch factory, but he is determined to prevent suspicious deals. During this task, he meets Ms. Abigawa, the daughter of a prominent Japanese doctor, who is working as a midwife and is learning Dutch and medicine. Ms. Abigawa has a scar in her face and therefore is categorised as not having the capability to have a proper marriage. Jacob slowly gets infatuated with the girl, but is is almost impossible for a foreigner to confide intimate feelings for a Japanese girl, let alone contemplating to have a relation or marriage.

While he is working on plans to provide some hints to the girl, unexpected developments occur. The girl's father dies and her stepmother sends her off to a remote monastery to help exiled - and mostly pregnant - girls there. Jacob has no clue where she has gone.

The first part of the novel roughly follows the synopsis I have given above, then goes into two more parts to follow the fate of Ms. Aibagawa and Jacob de Zoet separately.

It is a packed book, with detailed descriptions of the life and day-to-day processes in the Dejima factory and close-by Nagasaki as relevant. It is obvious that the author has conducted meticulous research on the 18th century involvement of the Dutch in Japanese trade and the subsequent events that brought the English into conflict with the Dutch everywhere but also in Japan. Supernatural beliefs of the Japanese and the Dutch, the sheer inadequacy of the scientific knowledge, the primitive medical techniques employed, intricacies of trade with a hostile partner are themes that the author has covered in great detail and with convincing realism.

I thought the last part of the book was somewhat hurried and slightly disappointing. The novel follows real events with extensive accuracy, thus it is maybe expected that unfolding events would not necessarily be earth-shattering, still one gets the feeling that the great opening chapter of the book should have been followed up wth equally exciting and gripping chapters. This reduces the impact slightly, but does not change the fact that we have a very enjoyable narrative and great attention on details.

I would highly recommend the book, though be prepared to go through more than 500 pages and make sure you have the self-discipline to carry through.