Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Blog tour (review): Exodus 2022 by Kenneth G. Bennett




BOOK DETAILS:
Title: EXODUS 2022
Author: Kenneth G. Bennett
Genre: Sci-Fi Thriller (pre-apocalypse)
Audience: NA/Adult
Release date: May 20th, 2014
Publisher: Booktrope Publishing

Summary:
Joe Stanton is in agony. Out of his mind over the death of his young daughter. Or so it seems.

 Unable to contain his grief, Joe loses control in public, screaming his daughter’s name and causing a huge scene at a hotel on San Juan Island in Washington State. Thing is, Joe Stanton doesn’t have a daughter. Never did. And when the authorities arrive they blame the 28-year-old’s outburst on drugs.

 What they don’t yet know is that others up and down the Pacific coast—from the Bering Sea to the Puget Sound—are suffering identical, always fatal mental breakdowns.

 With the help of his girlfriend—the woman he loves and dreams of marrying—Joe struggles to unravel the meaning of the hallucination destroying his mind. As the couple begins to perceive its significance—and Joe’s role in a looming global calamity—they must also outwit a billionaire weapons contractor bent on exploiting Joe’s newfound understanding of the cosmos, and outlast the time bomb ticking in Joe’s brain. 

Book links:

or


Buy links:
MY REVIEW:

NOTE: I received the book from the author in exchange for my honest review.

I hadn't even heard of Kenneth before I read EXODUS 2022. Nor did I know what to expect of the book. I do love science fiction, and thrillers are usually blood-boiling, so I thought "Why not?"

There were scenes that had me laughing. By the end it had me teary eyed and somewhere in the middle I was pointing at the evil dude, saying "That's what you deserve, mister!"

Writing style:
Clean, well structured, and professional. The action flowed from one scene to the next without any stumbling. It was definitely a page turner.
Also, I can't say how much I loved the paragraph length. SHORT!

Story line:
I think I can count on my one hand the novels that kept me guessing until the very end. EXODUS 2022 was one of them. I had no idea what was going to happen until, literally, the very last page.
So, what's the story?
A young man by the name of Joe Stanton is struck by hallucinations. Of the daughter he never had. After a video of him going out of it is uploaded in the global web, he is noticed by a genius scientist and a weapons baron who are suddenly interested in solving the mystery of several Pacific coast victims. Things get tense and complicated along the way ans the mystery gets unraveled.

Themes:
-The power of money and how it can corrupt people;
-The human influence over anything seems to be mostly destructive;
-There are other sentient beings living on this planet. We'll do well to remember that.

Characters:
Joe Stanton was a quiet, peaceful young man. He had his life ahead of him, a life he was hopeful to share with his girlfriend Ella. He had an open attitude, a huge heart and a mind set in the right place. For someone placed in his situation, Joe was doing admirably. He knew what was waiting for him in a week's time, but he never lost sight of what he thought was important. He was a strong man, even when perceived as week, for strength is not always found in the physical body.

Ella Tollefson was not a girl, who would run at the first sight of trouble. In fact, I thought that was going to be how events would unfurl, but I was proved wrong. Ella stood by Joe's side until the very end. She suffered a lot - seeing him fall apart, seeing him struggle to remain with his mind, feeling helpless beside him, being kidnapped, harassed and everything else... Despite all that, Ella remained strong and brave.

Sheldon Beck... well, he was the antagonist. Not entirely, but to a certain extent, he made known that he was the force to be reckoned. And while the forces within him were the main evil, he was still one sick, egotistical man. He cared about nothing but himself. I despised him way before he became evil personified. He wasn't an admirable character to begin with - he was a murderer without a conscience. But he degraded even further as the story progressed. What I liked about him was that he wasn't a flat character. There was depth to him, layers upon layers and not even one of them was the the spectrum of goodness.
So yeah, lots of times I find myself rooting for the villain in a novel, but... dude, not this time.

In conclusion, I'd like to say that EXODUS 2022 was a journey I never expected to take, but am glad I took it.

My rating is:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kenneth G. Bennett is the author of the young adult novels, THE GAIA WARS and BATTLE FOR CASCADIA, and the new sci-fi thriller, EXODUS 2022. A wilderness enthusiast who loves backpacking, skiing and kayaking, Ken enjoys mysteries, science fiction, action adventure stories and, most especially, novels that explore the relationship between humans and the wild. He lives on an island in the Pacific Northwest with his wife and son and two hyperactive Australian Shepherds.

 THE GAIA WARS series was optioned for film by Identity Films, LA in 2012, and both GAIA and BATTLE have been featured as Top 100 Bestsellers in Teen Literature and Fiction on Amazon. Kirkus Reviews called THE GAIA WARS “A solid first entry of a promising, imaginative new young-adult fantasy series featuring a well-crafted character.”

Author links:

 
GIVEAWAYS DETAILS: tour wide giveaway
*Prizes:
1 Kindle Fire
15 signed paperbacks
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Posted by at
Labels: , , , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

I absolutely LOVE comments!!! So, if you stop by my blog, please leave me something nice :)

NOTE: I'm sorry for putting the CAPTCHA back up. I know it can be annoying, but I've gotten so many spam comments in the past week, it's not even funny.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)