Karen’s Blog

Category 7 by Bill Evans and Marianna Jameson

My dentist took one look of this cover and said “Oh, science fiction, huh?” But as I was incapable of responding (he waited until everything was installed in my mouth for the work on my back molar) I couldn’t say “Yes, and no, not really.”

I guess he’s right, after all the story is based on scientists and the government being able to secretly control the weather. That’s gotta be fiction, right? At least we all hope so. I think.

The more you read, the more little doubts creep in, but hey, that’s what good fiction does, right? Takes everyday things and tweaks them just enough to make you wonder …

The book is more about politics, elections, power, the influences of business and wealth and government, and at the same time, it is a murder mystery, a character-driven story, and the classic “mad scientist” - though in this case, one might argue more mad-as-in-angry than mad-as-in-crazy …

A really interesting (yes, I use that word a lot) story, in which you learn a lot about the weather and how storms form (a meteorologist is the main female character), and much more. Some of the characters are more well-developed than others, but it is a good story, and a quick read.Had I not grown up on Science Fiction, and have been convinced we’d have FTL travel by the time I was a grown-up, maybe I wouldn’t find some of the weather-manipulation ability quite so convincing. And yes, you are right, there’s no such thing as a “Category 7″ hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale, but that’s how big the storm brewing is …

The Angel Factory by Terence Blacker

Just the title was enough to make me want to read it. Turning the book over, it says it’s “Teen Fiction,” but I don’t care what age level material I read, a good story is a good story. After all, I was pulling Robert Heinlein books from dad’s pile of library books in 4th grade, so why not read “teen” stuff now, right?


A good story it is, not too long or tedious, it gets going pretty quickly. The main character, Thomas Wisdom - yeah, it’s fiction so the names don’t have to pretend to be real - is a teenager who thinks he is a typical kid. He’s got the “perfect” family - normal, boring mom, dad, big sister, and even a little white dog, Dougal, the Westie. His best friend is the school outcast, Gip, a kid who has none of the advantages Tom has - no nuclear family, stable home, etc., so naturally the two are friends. They hack into Tom’s Dad’s computer, and everything Tom thought he knew about life pretty much changes.


The “Angel” of the title isn’t what you think, this is not a religious book, but science fiction. Tom is adopted, and his parents, sister, and he doesn’t know who else in his life are not even really human, they are an extra-terrestrial species sent to “help” humanity, and refer to themselves as angels. While this explains some things, like his ‘perfect’ family, it doesn’t explain everything, and Tom and Gip set out to find out the truth behind the whole thing.


Along the way, Tom finds his birth parents, the “angel factory” where the “angels” go to get “renewed” periodically, and answers to questions that just lead to more questions. It’s a quick read - 216 pages, but set in 12-point type with wide margins and plenty of leading - with a few surprise twists, an interesting look at what it means to be human, and the consequence of being able to make choices, and I think you would enjoy it, regardless of your age.

December 6 by Martin Cruz Smith

The date of the title, and the cover’s image of the “rising sun” Japanese flag give away the time and place of this book. But it isn’t set on that date, rather it is set in the days, and through flashbacks, the years leading up to Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor. The main character is an American child of missionary parents who came to Japan in the 1920s to bring Christianity to the heathens. Harry, however, is pretty much left to his own devices, and grows up going to school with Japanese boys, and being more than an outcast - he is forever the target of every military training exercise. Still, he absorbs far more love for Japan than his parents would have approved of, and makes friends and finds his place in the local culture in Tokyo, albeit in the steamier side with prostitutes, geishas, actors and theatre people.

Here he remains as an adult, somewhat torn in his sympathies - not really feeling American, but reminded at every turn how un-Japanese he is. He runs a bar, falls in love with a difficult Japanese woman, Michiko, and navigates the tricky currents of cross-cultural dealings in an increasingly fanatically nationalistic land.

It’s more of an education of samurai and Japanese culture than a mystery or thriller, I found, and the whole “will-he or won’t-he leave” dilemma that is the purported crux of the plot seems almost incidental in the end. Characters - good and bad and beautiful and ugly and very Japanese and not-so - populate the story, and Harry’s relationships to them and how he interacts are far more interesting. It serves more as a culture lesson, really.

So interesting but not suspenseful, but you might enjoy it anyway. I did.