The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Herbert George Wells, a distinguished English author from UK, has always been one of my favorite ever since I started reading his books. His unparalleled skills in English language presentation have been my reason for addiction to his classics.

One more feather in his cap is this wonderful eye witness narration of invasion of Earth by Martians. The reader is taken through live experience of the mere havoc created by the Martians through merciless massacre of human race and bringing it to near possible extinction. Every minute detail of the men from Mars, right from evolution of their physical form to the description of their food habits had been penned down after great research. The fact as to how weak the human race could be against the extra terrestrial weaponry and intelligence is well elicited. But for the mass destruction caused by the Martians on London and its surrounding counties killing countless humans, they see their end pouncing on them in a quite unexpected way.
How the hell could one think that these powerful men from Mars could be killed by just the invisible microbial bacteria of the Earth, to which human race has already taken immunity? The great moral of the narration, as understood by me, is that, however strong a destroying force is, its final fate is decided by something which they can never even think of, as in this book. The possible impending danger of such extra terrestrial invasions of humanity in future is cautioned by the author for the Governments to work upon.
Somehow there was some boredom experienced in the middle of the book wherein some unnecessary characters were included to drag on. Otherwise, it is a great classic to find a place in one’s library as the reader would be triggered to learn more about such science.

My rating is 4 out of 5


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The Bride's Gift by Raine Cantrell
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A peculiar story of a newly wedded couple, that came together through an arranged marriage. Nicholas Dowling, an extremely short tempered laborer working in a mining camp somewhere in Mexico, gets a new wife through his cousin Patrick from Ireland. On his first night, Nick discovers that his new Irish wife Brianna, is too young, illiterate, and not suitable for his manly figure, but too beautiful to be resisted. The entire story revolves around the couple trying to understand each other and please each other until one day Brianna decides to gift a surprise to her dear husband, given by her mother. The surprise comes in the end in the form of riches grown in a garden grown by Brianna on her self. This is when, the duo discover the immense love that each other have developed in such a brief period.

The initial hatred among the new couple during the first interaction slowly transforms into true love over a couple of days. This transformation of hatred to love is quite well paved by the author. The English language used is more that of native Irish mix and is entertaining sometimes. One wonders why the new bride was hiding the precious gift from her husband until one reaches the end of the story.


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Betrayal and Other Family Matters by Felix Bearden
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

All of us know about how men working in military service of peace keeping nations strive in foreign lands on behalf of their country and sometimes lose their lives for their country. But what if their own country uses one of them as pawn against the terrorist organizations of the enemy country in order to protect their image in the eyes of the world?

This is one such story of a happy American family who served in the Marines wing of the American Army. This family, unknowingly get entangled in a suspected crime against American Government due to their Muslim neighbors who one day suddenly disappear from the neighborhood and surface somewhere in Afghanistan, due to their close ties with the Taliban. Since then this innocent American family fall under strict surveillance of the FBI. The family gives refuge to the children of the Muslim family who still oppose the ideology of the Taliban and escape to USA and in the process discover a dangerous plot of the American Government to negotiate peace terms with the terrorist outfit using one of their family friend’s son as a pawn, an American soldier, under custody of the Taliban. The head of the family, Colonel Ben cleverly rescues the soldier with the help of his friend in Afghanistan and also simultaneously fixes the vices of FBI along with the State Government in negotiating a deal not to harass them in future. One must read the book to know how he did it by using latest technology toys. Though most of the story is in USA, the tough conditions of war and lives of people, living in Afghanistan is once again exposed.

A beautiful story of a clever family who work together to get out of a serious suspicion, harassment from the FBI and at the same time teach an astounding lesson to the Government as to what it might lead to if it uses innocent servicemen as pawns for personal gains.

I would recommend this book to readers in order to salute the sacrifices of servicemen in various armies of countries and to know how their parents and well wishers react if such dedicated lives are used for selfish motives by their own Governments.

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The Communist Manifesto by Kark Marx & Frederich Engels
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Communist Ideology briefly explained in complex terminology. The reader is taken through the history of origination of Communism with emphasis on the need to stabilize the living standards of the people of the world under one common principle of equality.
Some basic principles of Communism like abolition of private property acquiring rights, abolition of inheritance rights and nationalization of production are worth noting down. The emergence of the powerful Bourgeois (middle class) from the feudal lordship and its dominance over a period of time leading to subjugation of the Proletarian (working class) has given a new meaning to Communist ideology.
The major aim of Communism is to raise the Proletarian to the stage of political ruling class thus overthrowing the Bourgeois supremacy. The Communists therefore support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things in the Bourgeois society.
The reader might not understand many terms used by the authors unless and until he has an idea about the economic scenario of his country. Quite complex at times and the ideology goes above the heads of many until read more than once. This hand book gives the basic idea of how a Communist Manifesto works but does not spell out much about the benefits of the ideology at large. It could have been better if some illustrations were included in between, for easy understanding.

My rating is 2.5 out of 5


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Olympus Rises by Jim Roberts
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of the most wonderful action thriller book I have come across in recent times. One cannot stop after starting at the first page. The author has brought out the book in such a way that a serious reader can visualize the entire story in front of him in high definition images. I am sure that the reader will enjoy reading this book more than he watches this in a movie version at a later stage.

Storyline: Olympus, a secret powerful private military owned and operated by an unknown businessman develops a secret war code much more advanced than any known form of CIA’s technology, in order to take control of the entire world at one go. All this happens in a secret base in a country called Kazinistan, north of Afghanistan. NATO forces accidentally discover this secret mission of Olympus and set off a mission to capture the secret Code of War. One must read this action filled book to know whether they were finally successful in achieving their mission or not. The acts, plots, ambushes, are so thrilling that one would detach himself/herself completely from his world to finish the book at one go. It’s worth getting to know about the deadly weapons developed by CIA and Olympus to counter each other, using technology that is generations ahead. Whisper Suit (a powerful exoskeleton to enhance the physical and mental strength of the user), Volare flight packs ( a kind of jet packs armed with latest guns that can melt a man like ice), Dushka machine gun, Hyperion VTOL aircrafts, Composition 9 (C9) detonators (powerful enough to bring down an entire fortress and a near earthquake), Hind E helicopters, anti radar Black Hawk helos are some of the few wonders of latest weaponry the reader gets to learn. It’s quite terrifying to understand that such secret private military outfits can go to an extent of developing weapons much more advanced than those available with the best in class of CIA.

I strongly recommend one to read this book to get to foresee the kind of wars the future is going to witness on this earth. Weak governments of weak countries may all be the slaves of such powerful Private Militaries, if our super power nations do not curtail their dangerous progress into mass destruction weaponry.

Though the story doesn’t end with this book, I am sure that the reader would jump at subsequent books in series to know what’s next.


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