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Upon A Pale Horse (2013)

by Russell Blake(Favorite Author)

3.98 of 5 Votes: 2

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Reprobatio Ltd.

review 1: One of the most disappointing SF books I've read in a while. The author can certainly turn a phrase so my objection is not with the style or mechanics of his writing. But the book suffers from several major flaws I could just not get by:- Characterization is totally predictable and wooden. Basically all males are 30 something versions of your garden variety frat guy. Thin and uninteresting. Women-- well, let's just say they are here for decoration.- Plot-- painfully slow to develop. I was 40% through the book before the author finally took up the promising thread with which the book started. The author also goes to great lengths to provide a "believable" basis for the plot by going back over history of the HIV virus. This is totally unnecessary. I think most reader... mores will allow an author enough room to get the mechanism of his plot running. There is even a whole appendix in the back re-hashing the same history of HIV. (NOTE: Unfortunately I am a research Biologist with a specialty in Immunology and I was involved in much of the science during the HIV years and know there are huge holes in the author's premise. It ruined it for me. Even so, I always try to give any author the benefit of the doubt. I wish the author had just insisted we believe the plot mechanism works.- The ending was totally disappointing. I got this book because of many good reviews. I must be VERY different so maybe take my review with a grain of salt, but I thought this book was not worth the price or the effort.
review 2: Sleep much? Not after reading Blake's latest pulse-pounder. Upon A Pale Horse is a ride that takes the reader through a fun house of horrors too scary to be called entertainment. Though somehow he manages to get you interested in the characters even while you're tearing through the pages in hopes of discovering that his premise is nothing but a practical joke - you know, a note from the author that says, "Ha! Had you, didn't I? Don't worry, this is just fiction, go back to your lolly pops and rainbows." I warn you, reader, there is a note from the author...but it pretty much says the exact opposite. Many will read this, or start to read this, and fall into some preset scoff mode. I've heard such a reaction to this topic before. You know, all the typical responses - name calling, fingers in the ear, the mature stuff. As if calling someone a name is the trump card to the information presented. There's a proverb that says, He who answers a matter before hearing it is a fool. I think we would all be wise to hear Blake's message, consider his research, put aside the world we wish we lived in, and look at the evidence objectively. It's too scary not to. Is this a fun read? No, because we live in a world that not so long ago was putting people in ovens. If something like that was allowed to happen, anything is possible. Especially if those behind such experiments were later given jobs by other governments to continue their research. Oh, but I'm getting into the story now, and I don't want to give anything away. Will our refusal to believe that something like this could ever happen be the very thing that ensures that it will? Check out Blake's cautionary and exposing tale of a future we all hope never to see. less

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