Nate KenyonRecensioni

Book was meh. Could have been flushed out a lot more.

I think I went in with the wrong expectation - I was thinking this would be more horror than it really is. Not spooky but still interesting.

Lettered ltd ed hardback

One of those horror books that takes a page from a mystery book by starting out seeming complex, mysterious and widespread, but towards the end you realize it's a basic and simple premise. The beginning holds that allure of supernatural tension, but by the end I was a little let down by the explanation. I won't ruin the story by telling the plot outline since the blurb doesn't either - it's better to be left in the dark with this one before you read it.

Writing style works great, even if the plot is familiar. There are a few genuinely creepy pages throughout, especially toward the beginning in the woods. It's not drawn-out gory but there are some chilling images, but nothing that would bother those who read horror frequently.

Pacing is a little slow after the intriguing set-up takes place because there's just not as many places to go from there. The first half of the book is the strongest, David and his family being well written if not a little stereotypical.

It's multiple point of view, and Kenyon changes the viewpoint by starting new chapters. He mainly keeps to the same family, but sometimes a random character pops up for a short chapter. It comes together later why their viewpoint was shown, but it's a little distracting. Since the chapters are short it's not bad though, and he doesn't switch viewpoints too much to where it's annoying.

Overall it's a good book but nothing that will stand out as more than a standard, run-of-the-mill thriller that offers some minor creepiness. Kenyon's writing style is talented, though, so I will definitely be checking out more of his horror novels to see if his imagination catches up to his writing talent.

Pete and his high school friends are looking for a place to party. One of he girls in the group, Sue, suggests that they use her grandpa's newly built bomb shelter. She knows the code to get in. Once inside, a thunderous noise from the outside shakes the shelter. As Pete looks out of the hatch to see what the commotion is, mushroom clouds fill the horizon and the nightmare begins.

Sparrow Rock is an emotionally-charged entertaining read. It's strength is its realistic and flawed characters that are developed and revealed throughout the story. As the danger ratchets up, Kenyon does a nice job taking us along for the ride. You feel like you're in the bomb shelter with the group trying to figure out what to do next. You can almost taste the metallic ash of the fallout, smell the foul odors and feel the tension in the air. The ending wasn't my favorite and it's the only thing that keeps the story from being a full five stars. But, Kenyon does such a wonderful job painting the story and characters with such vibrant colors, you realize that Sparrow Rock is more about the journey and not the destination. 4 1/2 stars.½

When John Hawke leaves for work as a journalist, he has no idea that his world will dramatically change. However, when James Weller, the supposed focus of his story, grants him an interview, he warns Hawk that his former employer, Eclipse, is changing some of his work and not for the better. The rest of the book follows the downward spiral as technology ceases to function as it should, and Hawke tries to get back to his family. I loved the premise of this book, but it just didn't seem to live up to the ideas. There were several elements including the dangerous next door neighbor and his sons possible autism that seemed very marginal and undeveloped while other parts were repetitious and/or described minutely leaving a feeling of unevenness and the need for better editing.

A riveting read with a premise real enough to be truly scary. Day One begins like any ordinary day, with annoyances that gradually increase in tempo and seriousness. The action subsequently moves right along, gaining in intensity as a journalist struggles to piece together the truth of what is happening. As Manhattan's bridges and tunnels collapse and widespread panic takes hold, his determination to escape the island and get home to his threatened family increases. If he can manage that, can he find a safe place for them? Is there a way to contact the people left after the horrific disaster and persuade them to the hard choices that will remedy the unthinkable?

Day One is a well-paced thriller that will have you rethinking computer connections and malware in a new light, as well as questioning what effect the military can have on innovations that start out with beneficence in mind.

The only negatives have to do with AI that is much too human (a common error) and AI powers that are beyond belief (cars can be unlocked remotely but not driven to smash into people and things).

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I really thought that I would like Day One. I'm a member of the tin foil hat group, so the idea wasn't really that implausible to me, and I thought that it would a great addition to the dystopian genre. I was a tad bit wrong there - unfortunately, I just didn't love this one. It was okay, it just wasn't what I was looking for.

Let's start with our main character, Hawke. I just couldn't connect with him. He was too nervous, too jumpy. I also probably had a hard time connecting with him because he's a guy. Let's just throw that out there. He just wasn't the take-charge, bad-ass guy that I would want around in this situation.

The secondary characters all fell really flat for me as well - they were just names on a page. There was a time when I couldn't even differentiate between them, but as the book wore on... they started to disappear, so it became a lot easier. They weren't any better, but there wasn't near as many.

But I have got to move on from the characters, I'm just depressing myself by talking about them. Let's move on to the storyline - an invisible enemy that can take anyone down with a computer chip. If it has an internet connection, it's on to you. It knows exactly where you're at, and what it needs to do to take you down. Probable.

But let's add this tiny SPOILER-it's just a computer. A computer that is thinking and making decisions for itself - that's the improbable part. I believe that machines are tracking you, and that people can track you using them... but machines just can't think on their own. There is no algorithm that they can be taught that will make them think on their own. There's always somebody behind the desk.-SPOILER END.

That spoiler makes it all improbable. This is where my freaked-outed-ness went downhill. Because at that point, the story just lost all of it's meaning for me. Before the reveal, I obviously assumed that it was a covert government operation or something, when it wasn't.

Another pet peeve of mine [in this book] was the overload of details. I generally like details, but there came a point when it just became too much. The flashbacks were interesting, and they added some depth to Hawke, but I feel like that was their only purpose. I never learned any information that helped with the storyline from these, so I'm assuming that it was only to add depth.

Now I ask... what is the point? Day One ends with a fairly open ending, and I'm honestly not even sure how we got there. All in all, this one just wasn't for me.

*I received this ARC via goodreads first reads*
Journalist John Hawke is pursuing the story that will save his troubled career. When James Weller, founder of a startup technology company, agrees to let Hawke write a story about his accomplishments Hawke sees it as an opportunity to uncover a scandal. What should be a normal day on the path to his redemption turns into a nightmare. Everything connected to the internet or with a computer chip goes haywire. He soon discovers things are not only going wrong at the office when his wife calls screaming that someone is trying to break into their apartment. While just managing to get out of the office with his life he finds himself with a small group of survivors who try to navigate through the broken city only to realize that they are in mortal danger making getting home to his pregnant wife and son a perilous priority.
As someone who is not very tech savvy I feared I would be in over my head while reading this, but was pleasantly surprised. I did not once find myself lost and scratching my head. This novel is very fast paced with quite a bit of action making it a thrill to read. The plot is an idea that’s been around for awhile but the author’s managed to make feel different. Even though this is what I would consider a science fiction thriller there is this great story about family under the skin that bleeds through from the beginning. The characters are why I did not give this one 5 stars. Characters are a big deal to me as a reader. I need to love or hate them and I was indifferent to this cast. This does seem to be my complaint with a lot of thrillers that are fast paced. Overall I really liked this novel and will definitely recommend it, especially to science fiction and thriller fans.

Though the trope is hardly original, think 'rise of the machines', the pace of this thriller, which covers a single day as a sentient super computer seizes control of New York, provides an entertaining read.

Day One begins for journalist and former computer hacker John Hawke as it does most days, with a kiss goodbye from his three year old son and a look of reproach from his pregnant wife. Just hours later he is being hunted by every law enforcement agency in the city at the direction of a computer determined to eliminate any threats to 'her' existence.

Fast paced and action packed it reads like a blockbuster film, in fact promotional material describes it as a mix between Cloverfield and The Terminator. With plenty of violence and spectacular explosions any adrenaline junkie will find satisfaction within the pages of this novel, though it was the scene within the hospital which I found most chilling.

If you aren't at all tech-y some of the details of how 'Jane Doe' evolved might pass you by but it isn't of any real concern. It's a little scary how plausible the whole idea is though. It is easy to forget just how deeply technology is entrenched in our lives and how vulnerable we would be in the face of its demise... or its rebellion.

Tense, dramatic and lively, I found Day One to be a quick and exciting read.½

If the premise of Nate Kenyon’s Day One sounds familiar, it should. There are multiple stories about computers becoming sentient beings and turning on their human “masters”. Where the story excels is showing just how filled with computers our lives have become. The action set forth by John Hawke’s first inkling of the problem and his battle to get back to his family is fast, furious, predictable, but shocking at just how many computer chips humans have placed into everyday items. The list is long and quite scary because it shows just how dependent on technology humans have become. Regardless of whether one believes computers will develop sentience, it does not take a great leap of faith to imagine what devastation a terrorist with the right hacking skills could wreak upon the country.

In fact, much of Day One feels more like a terrorist plot than a doomsday story. Many of the scenes will be uncomfortably reminiscent of 9/11. The scenes in the office building are scary in and of themselves but particularly for those still haunted by the images and stories from the Twin Towers on that fateful day. Mr. Kenyon captures the feelings of impotence, chaos, fear, panic, and every other adrenaline-pumping emotion that occurred that day and siphons it into John and his little band of survivors.

The story unravels slightly as John gets closer to his apartment and the focus is less on the unseen enemy and more on what he will find at home, which a reader soon discovers has nothing to do with what he faces in the city. The urgency he feels to get home is not very well-explained. This portion of the story is very anti-climactic compared to everything else that occurs.

No one reading this type of novel should expect huge character development or even fully-realized characters. In this aspect, Mr. Kenyon does not disappoint. Even John is fairly one-dimensional, and a reader lacks the background knowledge to truly understand his motivations and fears. The rest of John’s band is practically nonexistent in their flatness, only serving the purpose to provide targets for the enemy and an audience to whom John can explain his theories. Again, novels like DAY ONE are not designed to involve any character development, so the story loses nothing by having such insipid characters.

Day One lives up to the expectation of being an entertaining but predictable doomsday novel about computers set to destroy humans. There are signs of brilliance in the creativity Mr. Kenyon shows with the insidiousness of the takeover, but that quickly fades as the story progresses down a very familiar and well-trod path of action and drama. The second plot surrounding John’s family is unnecessary and even detrimental to the overall story. None of the characters inspire much in the way of emotion, but the pacing is fast and the tension remains taut. Day One may not be award-winning literature, but it does sufficiently fill the need for interesting and mindless thrillers.

Fine debut novel from Nate Kenyon. Stephen King-esque setting (small Maine town with secrets) has good, strong characters, an atmospheric location and a literary device that works really well. Bloodstone, for me invoked the vintage /old school horror written in the 70/80s by King, Straub, Masterton et al

Okay book. It didn't keep me on the edge of my seat but I didn't find myself wanting to rush through it either. Parts of it especially at the end were very nail biting. I just never got totally caught up in the story. In the end it was just a quick easy read that rated little more than 3 stars.

Bloodstone is a plodding supernatural tale that never got off the ground for me. I struggled to get through the first 200 pages and should have stopped at that point and moved on to another book. I kept going only because a number of reviewers noted that the book improved dramatically during its last third. Well, maybe that was true, but not enough for me to give the book more than one star.

The book contained characters that I really didn't care about, and frankly, found unlikeable. The story, at least in my humble opinion, certainly didn't match the book's exciting and provocative cover. Kenyon's novel has been compared to the work of Stephen King; in my estimation the only thing "Bloodstone" has in common with anything that King's written was that it used Maine as the setting for the story.½

I had real high expectations from this book based on the high reviews from Amazon. Unfortunately I was very disappointed. Half way through the book I found myself having to force myself to finish the book. The book moved at a very slow pace and very little happens until the end. And I am OK with that as long as the characters are interesting or the plot is interesting. In this case the characters were as bland as the story itself. I felt nothing by the end of the book. The tag says reminiscent of Stephen King, which I disagree with, I found no similarities to Stephen King whatsoever. I did find it similar to some of Peter Straub’s stories which move at a slow pace.½

[b:Sparrow Rock|7740386|Sparrow Rock|Nate Kenyon|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1270156573s/7740386.jpg|10547538] by [a:Nate Kenyon|380770|Nate Kenyon|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1266791169p2/380770.jpg] is an outstanding end-of-the world novel. Following a nuclear holocaust, a group of teenagers find themselves (fortunately) in a fallout shelter, and struggle to survive. However, things aren't quite what they seem, and the situation turns from bad to worse.I thoroughly enjoyed this book from beginning to end, and particularly enjoyed all the twists and turns as the story progressed. While reading this book outdoors, right at a critical moment in the story, a bug chose to fly down the back of my shirt. I about soiled my shorts. Once you read this book you'll understand my reaction.Thanks go to Nate for an electronic copy of this wonderful book. I'll definitely be purchasing more of his books.

Sparrow Rock is truly a horrific tale. It's a very different, inventively written apocalyptic story filled with psychological thrills and scenes so disgusting your skin will crawl.

A group of teens looking for a place to smoke pot head down into a bomb shelter. An all out nuclear strike hits while the teens are getting high and they just might be the only people who survived. Things aren't as straight-forward as they seem and after a couple weird but completely convincing twists in the story, it looks like the group may have been better off dying with the rest of humanity. This is definitely not a book you want to read if you have an extreme bug phobia.

Beyond the totally gross chills, Sparrow Rock takes a long look at friendship and what that means between teenagers. It's scary and sad while feeling surprisingly real. It takes the essence of zombies, mixes it with bugs and conspiracy theories, throws in some mental illness, kills just about everyone on the planet and right when you think you've seen everything, it leaves you with a revelation that you could have never even considered possible.

This was pretty awesome. I honestly didn't expect it. I received this as a free e-book to review and I couldn't stop reading it. The story was well done, intelligent, thoughtful, horrifying, disgusting...everything you would want in a great horror story. I totally recommend it if you're a fan of good horror.

Kenyon has a lucid and compelling narrative voice, and the characters of The Reach are agreeably likable or repellent. He also sews up each character's motivation nicely so I never said to myself ‘that person wouldn’t do that.’ While entertaining, most readers will be struck by the similarities to King’s Firestarter , Carrie, and a little Silence of the Lambs thrown in for good measure. I don’t think this is a lack of imagination on Kenyon’s part, but a new artist working from what he’s learned from a master. Leonardo’s earliest know painting is an Annunciation, a stylized manner he outgrew as he came into his own. And Kenyon will, he’s already got style and determination and, most importantly, taste. Techno thrillers with supernatural overtones, a’la Preston/Childe, may be his forte.

An enjoyable, thrilling book with real power and one that lets the reader root for the good guys.

Nate Kenyon’s short futuristic novel is a quick read and a perfect book to read while you are on the road. The slightly larger than normal print makes reading the book very easy on the eyes. The tale takes place in the not too distant future and it focuses on the problems and benefits of the mixing of man and machine. I found the book to be at times predictable but at other times the plot turned and made me rethink my first guess. I like this, because I felt like I was moving through the story with the characters, at times knowing what was happening and then being surprised…which is what happens very often in real life. I look forward to more science fiction books from Mr. Kenyon as he improves his craft.

It would be a bit too cruel to say, "I liked this book better when it was called _Firestarter_." But only a bit.

Nate Kenyon's debut novel BLOODSTONE was so good, that his follow up, THE REACH failed to compare. And sorry to say, BONE FACTORY also fell short of his auspicious debut. Too many ideas in this supernatural mix to make this a satisfying read. He was trying to incorporate the basic premise of THE SHINING, isolation and a child psychic...and a serial killer on the loose...And it fails to provide the expected chills and by the end I had a "So what attitude"... He failed to engage me with any of these characters and that really is the major flaw here....I couldn't wait for it to end.Sorry Mr. Kenyon,but from here on in, my book dollars will be spent on other authors.½

The Bone Factory by Nate Kenyon is a quick, chilling horror story that will have you racing for your child’s room to make sure everything is okay. As the story begins, Dave, Helen and Jessica Pierce are excited to be moving to the Jackson area as Dave finds work on a hydroelectric project taking shape in Canada. What they don’t know is that a farmer has been found mutilated, a little girl has disappeared from her home, and deep in the woods a deputy found a gory storage shed all near this hydroelectric facility. Has Dave been hired as a Patsy? Can he protect his family so far away from civilization? But the house is paid for by the company and the family is sequestered at the finest resort in the area until they can move in. It seems like so much good fortune that it can’t be true.

Helen is a devoted teacher that just wants to do right by her daughter. She has been really stressed in the months Dave has been out of a job. Dave is a very educated engineer who just wants credit for his own ideas and is trying to make this job work for the good of his family. The most exciting character in this book is Jessica herself who has extraordinary visions and intelligence. Even the location is a character in this book as it plays its part in chilling, slowing and isolating the characters. The theme of this book is definitely horror of not providing for or protecting your family and learning to believe in the unseen and in psychic powers.

This book made my heart race. It was fast paced and a quick read. The characters were believable and I enjoyed the mention of places familiar to me. If you are sure you want to be scared make sure your family is around. I give The Bone Factory a big thumbs up and would recommend it, especially for camping out.

The scariest thing about The Reach is the front cover, and that's really saying something. The first 150 pages were very slow, detailed and boring. Mostly psychobabble and character introduction, and it grew annoying very quickly. I didn't develop any interest in any of the characters and only stuck it out to find out what Sarah's powers truly were. The pace picked up the last 125 pages and the storyline became decent, but I was never wowed and never truly enjoyed myself. The Reach is absolutely not a horror book, and I don't recommend it at all.