Looking For a Good Book

The Chinese are nothing if they are not good at keeping secrets.  For forty years they have been preparing a zoo – a zoo unlike any other in the world with only one animal.

As the Chinese government prepares to finally open this special zoo to the public, they first invite some Western reporters and some VIPs to come and experience the zoo and to meet the animals … dragons. Among the guests is Dr. Cassandra Jane ‘CJ’ Cameron, a writer for National Geographic and an expert on reptiles.

The zoo officials are excited to show off what they’ve been working so hard and so long for.  From the many precautions to provide for a space big enough that the dragons can fly but stay contained, as well as the devices used to control the wild creatures to keep them from attacking.

But CJ sees something in one of the creatures when the controlling device (like a dog shock collar) is used. Could it be recognition or even intelligence?

Not long after the VIP guests enter into the zoo itself, the dragons revolt. But this isn’t a wild, sudden frenzy, this appears to be a coordinated assault on the zoo workers (and VIPs) with the aim of breaking free of the zoo restraints and heading out into the world. It’s going to take a reptile expert, like CJ, along with a little luck, to secure the dragons and get out alive.

With the first couple of chapters I really started off enjoying this book.  It took me a little bit by surprise (I knew nothing about the story), but in a very good way.  But the further I got in the book the less enamored I became.

The book is very straightforward – no subplots to speak of – it just rolls forward, full tilt, and once the action starts (it doesn’t take long) each chapter tries to top the one before it with hard-hitting, fast action.  You can practically see the CGI in your head.

The two big problems here are:

1) This feels like it was written for the big screen – but not in a good way.  It feels formulaic. Anyone who’s watched a blockbuster film or two could probably predict what will happen next in this book.

2) This feels very much like Jurassic Park but with dragons instead of carnivorous dinosaurs. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Jurassic Park – it’s just we already have it.

I liked that summer blockbuster feel to the book at the start, but it didn’t really develop and instead became a stereotypical trope and predictable, and even, dare I say it, a tad unbelievable.  Zoo workers are killed left and right, but that’s okay, we didn’t get to know any of them anyway – they were just redshirts, there to create some slaughter and havoc.

Looking for a good book? If you like your fiction to read like a summer blockbuster movie, complete with predictable outcomes, stereotypes, and common tropes, then The Great Zoo of China by Matthew Reilly should be in your ‘to-be-read’ stack of books.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

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The Great Zoo of China

author: Matthew Reilly

publisher: Gallery Books

ISBN: 1476749558

hardcover, 393 pages

 GWENDY’S BUTTON BOX

Twelve-year-old Gwendy Peterson lives in Castle Rock, Maine. Like many girls her age, she has confidence issues and concerns of her weight and fitting in with other students her age.  She will be going to middle school at the end of summer and she does not want her nickname – Goodyear – to follow her to school.

One day a man (he introduces himself as Richard Farris) calls out to her and he gives her a special box … he calls it a button box due to the buttons and levers around it. One lever dispenses chocolates, another issues rare Morgan Silver Dollars. Just as Mr. Farris has promised, the box has magical properties that are just right for a 12 year old girl, and Gwendy will discover that those chocolates themselves have magical properties.  And when Mr. Farris warns Gwendy that there are buttons that she should be wary of, and even a button she should never push, Gwendy comes to learn that as delightful the box can be, it is a burden to care for it.  The temptation to push a button in retribution or punishment for the way she’s treated by other school kids can be overwhelming.  And what would be the harm?  The magical properties of the button box would mean she would never be directly responsible for anything bad that might happen so someone else.  Right?

This is a really great little psychological horror novella. Authors King and Chizmar have captured the desires of a pre-teen girl pretty well, and put some incredible responsibility and power in the palms of her hands … literally.

As readers, we have our hopes and desires for how Gwendy will act with her new-found power and aren’t surprised if she exercises some youthful logic.

I really appreciated the slow approach here – not slow story-telling. We aren’t hit with splatter or gore, we’re connected with a young girl at odds with her peers – but who of us haven’t felt this way?  We’re then kept interested to see what Gwendy will do.

Looking for a good book? The novella, Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar is not the strongest horror story, but is a very good psychological suspense story, with just the right amount of mystery and magic tossed in.

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Gwendy’s Button Box

authors: Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

series: The Button Box #1

publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications

ISBN: 1587676109

hardcover, 171 pages

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GWENDY’S MAGIC FEATHER

Many years have passed since the events of the previous book unfolded. Gwendy is now successful by all accounts.  She is a published author and now also a Congresswoman! But just as things seem to be really flowing her way, life starts throwing curveballs.  First there’s the vile, loud-mouth racist president in office, her mother’s health is rapidly declining, there might be a serial killer in her home town of Castle Rock killing girls, and someone from her past reconnects (which is not a good thing).  There couldn’t be both a better and a worse time for the Button Box to make a reappearance.

This volume in the Gwendy series is seriously dull. We get a lot of set-up … look at Gwendy now! She’s a success! Everything’s going her way … just look! And we’re shown her successful life, with a few minor challenges along the way, but nothing that would be beyond normal or worthy of a Stephen King/Richard Chizmar book (Anne Tyler … maybe).  (And, to be clear, Stephen King did not write or co-write this.  He gave his nod to Chizmar, who co-authored the first book.)

The problem with the book is that nothing happens.  It’s a long narrative hinting at something to come, presumably to keep us excited and engaged, but we don’t need all the mundane details in Gwendy’s life to get the idea that she has put the button box behind her (or at least thought she had) and lives a relatively well-adjusted life.  Chizmar lays it on thick and it slows everything down.

Once the guts of the story really start, we’re well into the book and have already mentally checked out and it’s a bit late.  On top of that, the action, as it is, is all settled quite abruptly which is quite unsatisfying.

This is the middle book in a trilogy, with Stephen King’s name attached to it, so of course we’re going to read it, but it could have, should have, been so much better.

Looking for a good book? If Gwendy’s Magic Feather by Richard Chizmar were only the second of two books, it wouldn’t be worth recommending.  But as it’s the middle of a trilogy, there may be some appeal to get the whole story (we won’t know for sure until after the next book.

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Gwendy’s Magic Feather

author: Richard Chizmar

series: The Button Box #2

publisher: Gallery Books

ISBN: 1982139722

paperback, 212 pages

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GWENDY’S FINAL TASK

Gwendy Peterson, the girl with the button box, is now 64 years old.  She’s a senator from Maine and a successful author. She is also in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. It takes some time for Gwendy to recognize that her forgetfulness is the sign of something bigger to come, but once she does, she realizes the potential dangers of herself, with Alzheimer’s, in control of the button box.  She also knows that it is absolutely impossible to get rid of or destroy the dangerous box.

Gwendy manages to hide her on-coming Alzheimer’s from her colleagues and constituents (though those closest to her are not surprised when they learn of it), and as a special guest/Senator she is planning a trip of a lifetime to visit the International Space Station. She sees an opportunity here to finally take care of a nagging problem.

This third book does a fine job of wrapping up some of the storylines throughout the trilogy.  I liked that the now mature Gwendy faces some real-life issues (Alzheimer’s) and that the button box, which was her own saving grace back when she was a tween, has become a constant burden (and temptation) throughout her life.

It is nice to have Stephen King back as co-author and this book moves the story along swiftly.

A down-side to the book is the very overt politics and clear comparison of the whacked-out politicians in the book to our current (2020’s) political leaders and want-to-be leaders.  I happen to follow King’s twitter posts, so I know his leanings – I don’t need the politics here in this story as well.  Yes, given that Gwendy is a Congressperson, it’s hard to escape, but it did feel heavy-handed.

This was not my favorite Stephen King book (or series), but I’m really glad I took this little three-book trip.

Looking for a good book? For simple reading pleasure, Gwendy’s Final Task, as the third book in the Button Box trilogy, by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar satisfies.

I received a digital copy of this book from the published, through Netgalley, in exchange for an hoenst review.

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Gwendy’s Final Task

authors: Stephen King and Richard Chizmar

series: The Button Box #3

publisher: Gallery Books

ISBN: 1982191554

paperback, 288 pages