• Home
• Music
• Entertainment
• Books
• Design
• Technology
• Help/Environment
• Wellness
• Life Banter

Thomas Wharton wrote a fictitious book about a group of people who basically live in a glacier community called Jasper. It begins with a small group who travel to the Arcturus Glacier in the Canadian Rockies in 1898 to adventure and name mountains and glacial aspects others have never viewed before. Dr. Edward Byrne is one of those in the group and he falls head first into an ice crevasse in the first few pages. His group realize what happened and are able to save him, but while he is down in the crevasse he sees something in the ice.

"Icefields" is written wonderfully in terms of imagery and emotion which tends to show up in italics.

The italics were different peoples poetry or journal entries throughout. They were personalized, raw and didn't always make sense until I read them again. Ordinarily that would frustrate me but in this book it intrigued me.

The imagery was appealing because of course it's an entire book about ice. How many different ways can one describe their surroundings when they are surrounded by ice? Well, you'd be surprised my friends.

After Dr. Byrne is saved from the ice he is brought to the nearest house, which happens to be the home of Sara. Sara nurses him back to proper health before he leaves the frigid place for his home in England. But Sara knows he will be back because in his delirious state she hears him talk about the mysterious thing he saw in the ice.

When Dr. Byrne does end up back at the Arcturus Glacier it is ten years later and a lot has changed. There is now a tiny town of Jasper where at one point only Sara and a small handful of other people had lived. Dr. Byrne meets the explorer Freya; the poet Hal; and Elspeth who he falls in love with. And of course one of the old group Trask, who wishes to turn the entire glacier community into a tourist attraction.

Things get a little tricky and difficult to follow as each person has their own thing happening. But for the most part everything ends up focusing back on Dr. Byrne who is in search of the mystery he saw a decade ago. As a doctor and scientist he ends up setting up tent near a place where he sees the glacier receding. He calculate and waits and watches in hopes that the area where he fell will be in view soon thanks to warming and melting of the glacier in areas.

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

There is a bit of a love triangle between Freya, Hal and Byrne. We know Byrne loves Elspeth but there is a sexual charge of sorts between him and Freya. But Hal loves Freya, and as a sappy poet he envisions life with her and kids and everything. At one point in the book she falls through the ice or a tip of it gives way somehow while she is out with Hal. He goes to save her, but she's dead. After losing the love of his life he carries her in a mad state to Dr. Byrne. He ends up leaving and being placed in a hospital away from Jasper. Then he ends up going to war and coming back to Jasper years later. It's a jumble and it's mixed into everything else happening with Dr. Byrne.

As Trask continues developing the area there ends up being a railway put in, roads put in and a plethora of other things. Dr. Byrne fights about it saying the ice is unstable and it's dangerous to build a tourist attraction there.

Elspeth spends time up on the mountain with Dr. Byrne on occasion, but she argues with him about whatever he thinks he saw when he fell. I don't like her character development at all. I really don't understand her place in the book. But Dr. Byrne is quite fond of her and maybe she is the reason he doesn't lose his mind completely while living in a tent out on the ice.

My trouble is the open end. There isn't enough of a plot or development to warrant a sequel and yet the end is left open like you should be expecting one. Though I can't imagine any type of sequel would be more than a chapter long. The entire book is a journey, a search for something one researcher saw a decade ago when he fell into an ice crevase. He never finds it...or does he? No, really, I have no idea.

Interested, then buy Icefields and give it a read I would love to know what you think.

Labels: thomas wharton

Written by:

| 6:35 AM | 0 comment(s)!

My father-in-law likes the author James Lee Burke. I had not read any of his books and so for Christmas last year he bought me one as a gift. The book he chose was the newest at the time, titled "Swan Peak: A Dave Robicheaux Novel."

First I must tell you I very much enjoy mysteries, suspense and thrillers and so I am sure he thought this would be a good fit. In many ways it really was; it kept my attention and I wanted to continue reading through until the end to find out what would happen.

However, there were many sections where the vulgarity of events taking place were quite offensive. I'm sensitive, but I love Dean Koontz and he has intense scenes in most of his books, too. James Lee Burke was just so descriptive it nearly turned my stomach in certain areas.

Clete and Dave were old friends, they were from New Orleans and the book takes place after hurricane Katrina. So at this time they are vacationing in Mnntana to get away from the ruins of their home. Clete is a PI and Dave is a cop so they have worked together on criminal cases numerous times. Their Montana trip is meant to be relaxing. Dave's wife Molly is up there and they're staying with an old friend, Albert Hamilton on his large estate out in the woods.

Unfortunately, the vacation winds up being anything but relaxing when Clete finds himself unknowingly trespassing on the Wellstone's property. Leslie Wellstone is a well known man in the area who runs Wellstone Ministries. Everything about them is crooked, including the nagging feeling Clete has that Leslie Wellstone is really the burnt up live body of Sally Dio, a criminal who was said to have been blown up in a plane crash. (Apparently this is from a previous book).

***Spoiler Alert***

Then we have Jimmy Dale Greenwood who is in prison for having helped a hooker who was being beaten up. He got put away as the assailant even though he was innocent. Jimmy Dale is in prison in Texas where the prison guard Nix takes on Jimmy as his toy and rapes him and humiliates him. Until Jimmy Dale has enough and during one of their out of prison trips he attempts to kill Nix with a shank.

Jimmy Dale escapes and winds up in Montana in hopes to reunite with his lost love Jamie Sue and her son Dale. Jamie Sue is now married to Leslie Wellstone. And Nix inevitable winds up all bandaged and irate in Montana as well; searching for Jimmy Dale Greenwood who is now going by the name of J.D. Gribble. And J.D. Gribble gets a job working for Albert Hamilton on his estate.

See how all the pieces sort of fit together?

The FBI gets involved when two college kids are found brutally murdered on Albert's property. Clete and Dave are interested in the case because of Clete's run in with the Wellstone's previously in that week. The kids were involved with Wellstone Ministries and everything about their deaths is suspicious. But who does it involve, who are the killers and who are the criminal minds? Why Albert's property?

Clete gets too close to the truth and winds up kidnapped, tied to a tree, doused with gasoline and lit on fire. But who is there to put out the fire and save him? None other than J.D. Gribble. Meanwhile Clete has met and slept with Jamie Sue Wellstone, further agitating that situation. And he brags about it a bit with J.D. who we know is in search of reuniting with Jamie Sue.

Trouble just keeps escalating and new clues pop up around every corner. While Clete and Dave are trying to find out who is involved they run into Nix who is in a Church showing people a picture of Jimmy Dale Greenwood and asking if anyone has seen him. Of course Clete has seen him and Jimmy Dale had saved his life, but now Clete knows J.D. is a convict on the run.

I'll stop with all the spoilers now. Everything gets tied up in the end fairly well. Not too many loose ends or questions. I enjoyed the fact that James Lee Burke was able to connect so many plots and characters without much confusion and without giving away too much of the twists. His descriptions of the surrounding areas, people and events were very vivid and in some cases bothersome. I think I missed out on some development by not having read other books which involved Clete and Dave, but I didn't miss out on enough to not be able to wrap my mind around the story.

All in all I liked it, I'd be open to reading another of his books. Hopefully one which doesn't involve a sex-crazed rapist prison guard or ministry.

Labels: james lee burke

Written by:

| 10:19 AM | 0 comment(s)!

Flabbergasted: To cause to be overcome with astonishment.

Ray Blackston's book "Flabbergasted: A Novel" did not overcome me with astonishment, but I did very much enjoy it. I think the witty banter and dialogue throughout the story between all of the characters was the best part of the writing. It was the communication between strangers and new friends which filled in for the holes in the plot.

"Flabbergasted" follows the journey of a young man who has moved across the country to be with his girlfriend, only to then be dumped before the for sale sign is even removed from his new house. His realtor tells him the best place to meet women is at church. This is where the story begins.

Well for Jay Jarvis, who is a financial adviser and stock broker whose heart was just broken, he really doesn't believe he'll meet a girl in church and he also doesn't know if God would even care. So when he starts going to a singles class for the local Presbyterian church he is a bit "flabbergasted" to meet a girl he is very captivated by; her name is Allie. He is especially astonished since Allie is the daughter of the church Elder AND she does missionary work.

Since this book is written by a man and from the man's point of view nothing gets too sappy. In addition, since it does weigh heavily on a Christian single's group there isn't much suggestive content through either. It's wholesome, but it's not hokey and it definitely has it's tongue-in-cheek moments. I loved it. I laughed a few dozen times while reading.

For those of you who doubt your faith perhaps this book can open your eyes a bit. Otherwise, you might feel it is a bit much, but you have to remember Allie has devoted her life to working for God and being one of the main quirky characters you'll be dealing with her opinions throughout. You'll also have the more cynical Jay Jarvis as your narrator and that helps keep things toned down. But Jay definitely ends up finding God, love and a whole new enlightening perspective after many belly flops along the way.

Labels: ray blackston

Written by:

| 11:13 AM | 0 comment(s)!