The Altered - Followup to Them - By MG Hardie... WOW!

Now Devon knew that something much deeper,
 much darker lurked underneath it all.
~~~

Nine months ago, Devon discovered that humans were not alone in the universe and his family was killed for it. He mourned for his family alone. Devon had been altered but faced impossible odds as he was chased around the world by other world forces. Devon’s growing abilities were no match for these unseen creatures and he did the only sensible thing he could do, run. Devon ran from Them. He hid from Them, but he would never escape. 

He returned returned home. In the debris and rain soaked rubble that was once his home, he found a half burnt stuffed butterfly. It had belonged to his one year old daughter Brianna, it was all that remained. Devon attached the butterfly to his backpack.


The Altered

By MG Hardie

Nearly 1100 readers checked out my review of Them when it was published. Now, the second book in the series (predicted because this book was left hanging...), The Altered, presents more extraordinary and unique science fiction with a concept that, simply, blows your mind!

The System, which, generally, refers to the governments across the world, is to blame...for...Them! And everything that happened thereafter! Coming from a second, more advanced earth, Them came to attack and destroy through any, seemingly, natural catastrophe that ultimately will end this earth. Why? Because The System had already done it to most of theirs by using nuclear bombs that blasted beyond and into another dimension where the majority of people were killed instantly and the radiation slowly destroying the rest, as well as animals and vegetation.

Devon has been murdered, altered by Them and has even met with Prime the leader of Them. Devon had lost his family...Prime, more or less, responded, now you know how we feel...

With a mixture of vengeance, empathy and sympathy, Devon began to follow after them, wherever there was a crisis, to try to save, as well as work to rid the earth of Them. Soon he realized, though altered, he still was not enough to fight back. He went to two of his old friends, one a lover, and shared what had happened, provided the means by which they, too, would be altered, and began their training...

Joshua had been saved from Them by Devon. "Will Power" had been coming into his mind at night... motivating him with what they wanted him to do...
Devon could see...Them...and he talked to them to free his mind of what they'd planted. 

Joshua is an interesting character that hooked into the stories and adventure of what Devon was doing...but he wanted to use violence in the process...Devon slowly was weaning his thoughts into more productive thinking. Later, he did the same activities with Gina. 

This is a more slow-paced novel, where training and learning to deal with the future was uppermost in Devon's mind...While, he also was moving across the world helping wherever a tornado or a hurricane had visited. Later, both of his friends did the same in local areas.

Devon had also been seeking out "rifts" that connected the two earths. He was slowly acclimating himself, and later, the others, to move from one earth to another... What he saw was devastating and yet wondrous and beautiful in so many ways.

Hardie presents many conceptual electronic and scientific issues that are amazing or beyond the norm for those who aren't inventive... Either way, many are cool ideas and with the three together, they come up with exciting ways to keep working to fight Them... At the same time, Devon has never given up hoping to convince Prime that they are serious about working together...

Until, he is proven wrong... 

“Coated in Hypernium, I should have known,” Joshua said. He quietly hummed a few bars from ‘I Feel the Earth Move’. His eyes narrowed as the floating percentages of success decreased before him.
~~~

Hardie pulls a shocker at the ending! Wow! NOT expected and even you won't be able to guess while you're reading--right up to the climax! There is a moral to this story...but I'll have to think about it--or maybe you'll be able to discuss after your read! Hate to say it but lots of little errors...But, on the other hand, Hardie knows how to write a story and keep people trying to figure out...What Is Going On?!" 5 for story; 3 for editing...You decide... But I'm already wondering what happened to Devon...

GABixlerReviews

Second in Farm Series by Charles C. Anderson, Tense, Darker, as Terrorists Threaten Nuclear War, Including in U.S...

...Andy and Lindsey's precocious twins, Jack and Ava, had not just grown up. They had taken over...Jack now considered himself Andy's understudy in all matters. Ava considered herself equal to any boy except Jack. Both parents had prepared themselves for an orderly progression of childhood landmarks, like walking by age one and talking in short sentences by age two.
The children had maintained a high degree of alertness as infants. This was their parents' first clue to what was in store for them. Both children had unusually long attention spans as infants and toddlers. At age six months they rocked in mechanical swings and watched television programs intended for two year olds.
At ten months they listened attentively for an hour at a time as Lindsey read from books for three years olds...At fourteen months the toddlers walked into Lindsey's kitchen and announced, "We think Big Bird is stupid." At age two, Lindsey gave them a video called "Elmo's Potty Time." The children watched this video several times with great interest and then announced, "We're potty trained."
...The twins were introduced to the woods on the farm as toddlers. They could recognize each animal on the farm by age three and had been taught by their dad to stalk animals at age five. It was Andy's philosophy that the worst thing a father could say to his child was "You're too young to do that."
Instead, he thought the parent should be saying, "That's such an important subject that I'd like to teach you about it myself, so that you won't make the same mistakes I did."

...Not surprisingly, both twins were enthusiastic about the same things that Andy enjoyed. Lindsey watched her seven year olds paint their faces with camouflage makeup at 4:30 in the morning before walking out in the dark with their bows and arrows. It was easy to see why they enjoyed doing things together. They wanted to be like their daddy. She couldn't tell who was having the most fun...

~~~

If You Haven't Read The Farm, First in Series, Click Over to Read My Review to Learn a Little!

Nuclear Farm

By Charles C. Anderson

This novel turned out to be much more intense as the title warrants. When nuclear weapons are involved, everybody must act immediately and meticulously to track and then ensure the bombs are not used! Almost immediately I noticed a different tone, almost stilted, but then I recognized that it was tense, intensively including details of what was happening, how devastating it could be. And what it would take to complete this assignment...

From the President of the United States...

Dear President Umar:
Within a few days there will be a nuclear explosion
in the Middle East. You are receiving this advance
warning in order that you might better comprehend
what is in store for you in you interfere in the
coming Middle East war...
At this time we have two nuclear warheads already
in the United States, much larger than the one
that you will hear about in a few days...Such
weapons are also in place in Britain. These
warheads can annihilate any city. They do not
need to arrive by missiles. They are already
manned by martyrs...
...We will know your answer by what you do.
And then we will know what we must do.
Islamic Jihad
~~~

Andy was asleep when Lindsey gently shook his shoulder. "Honey, it's me. I'm sorry. Something terrible has happened and I can't watch it by myself."
"Watch what?" Andy blinked his eyes and sat up. Lindsey's eyes were red. He put his arms around her.
"It's started, Andy."
"What's started?"
"The first nuclear war in the twenty-first century."

"there has been a catastrophic
 explosion at the Saudi port of Ras
Tanura. There is no doubt that this
was a nuclear terrorist attack...
Ras Tanura was one of the largest
oil export terminals in the Persian
Gulf...which handled fully ten per
cent of the entire world's supply
of oil...
~~~

...Cnn spit a continuous visual and verbal stream of horrific news. A nuclear blast had destroyed the Saudi port of Ras Tanura in the Persian Gulf. Andy sat down on the couch with Lindsey. Jack and Ava were already riveted to the TV. 
                   ~~~

The President was aware that Andy's family were friends of King Fahd. Andy was being asked to represent the President with the Saudi King. That country had just had a nuclear explosion that destroyed Ras Tanura, a key Saudi terminal near the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. (and Britain) had already been warned to stay out of it...

Upon return to the U.S., Andy had met and reported to the President, along with his own impressions and his recommendations on how to proceed.

Andy and his wife both had experience with warheads, with of course Lindsey having the academic credentials as a nuclear physicist, to perform the actual disarming. Andy also confirmed that they had past knowledge that the warheads in the States were real and referred him to Hamilton of the CIA for the background on the Russians' buying and selling, although never acknowledged.

With the United States and Britain standing down, a war against Israel would begin... 

Jack and Ava's 10th Birthday...

But the ones who were working the U.S. activities had already infiltrated the Carlson family. Ironically, they were still more interested in the Civil War-era gold that had been once stored on the Farm and were making another try for it... The family had been tucked into one of their secret places, but Lindsey was always a Mom first and was upset she had forgotten candles for the twin's 10th birthday cake. They captured her while she was back in the house...

Andy called the twins together and laid out the strategy to be used in rescuing their mother!

But that was not to be the end...When it was apparent that Andy would have to be involved in finding and eliminating the warhead threat, he was reinstated into the CIA and with the loan of a jet from the Saudi King...went about doing just that... I'm just not sure whether the President realized that Andy's entire family would be involved in the operation!

Could you prepare your family to at least protect themselves? Check out my interview with Dr. Anderson this Wednesday when I'll be asking him about training his kids to use weapons to protect their family.

This book is deep into one operation after another and there is little time for anything else and even a birthday party is disrupted by those threatening the Carlson family... When Ava had been given a blowgun as one of her primary weapons, she initially assumed the man she shot was sleeping... She faced it on her own, analyzed what had happened and realized he had been her first kill. It wasn't to be her last, but that first one had helped save her mother's life! She would do it again if needed!

I have mixed feelings about the potential reality of Dr. Anderson's message in this complex thriller. But then I think about the fact that I have a sharp knife next to my bed, a shotgun in the cabin and another knife right inside my outside entry door... Always praying that I'd never have to use any of them, but realizing that today's world already includes such dangers and calls for the citizen warriors that David H. Brown first wrote about and now, also Dr. Anderson. We all must be diligent. Are you prepared to protect your home?

Not an easy book to read...Make sure you know what the plot is and who will be involved with the highest stakes we could ever face! For me, I consider this a must-read...


GABixlerReviews

I am a retired Naval officer and emergency physician who has spent the last 38 years directing intensive care units, directing emergency departments, or working as a physician in trauma centers or emergency departments. I live on a family plantation which was purchased from King George II in 1743. This plantation has been at the crossroads of American history more than once, and I am the direct descendant of its original owner. My passions are history, reading novels, writing thrillers, visiting battlefields, building historical structures like covered bridges and grist mills, and honing my expertise in both primitive and modern weapons.
In my first thriller,"The Farm" I utilized my Navy background and exposure to SEALS, my emergency medicine career, my knowledge of the Civil War, my expertise with weapons, and my childhood experiences growing up on a colonial plantation to weave a story of a modern patriot sucked into a nuclear conspiracy.
In my second thriller,"The First To Say No" I called on my years of experience in emergency departments to highlight a little known scandal in American medicine, the rising level of patient violence toward healthcare workers. Were you aware that healthcare workers are twice as likely to be assaulted on the job as police officers? Healthcare assaults account for over 60% of all workplace assaults in America. In this book, emergency department physicians and nurses in an inner-city hospital devise a unique and permanent solution for a local gang that preys on them. All of the evil people in this book were real patients of mine under different names. I didn't invent them. Every event in this book occurred in front of my eyes over 38 years. People who are unaccustomed to seeing evil are sometimes uncomfortable with the choices forced upon victims, especially if the victims are care-givers. Some people believe that care-givers are obligated to be victims.

Review: Prophecy in Old Testament Revealed in Distant Thunder

Distant Thunder: Book One
“The Lightning Chronicles”
By Jimmy Root Jr.
American Book Publishing
ISBN: 9781589825536
326 Pages

It was Ezekiel who prophesized that Israel would some day be destroyed. Jimmy Root's thriller takes us even further into this story in Book One of The Lightning Chronicles. Distant Thunder is not only instructive in the interpretation of this prophecy; he has created a reality into which each of us can step! Where will you be?

In Plattsville, Missouri, Pastor Ty Dempsey preached from Ezekiel, Isaiah and other passages, and tied the prophetic words into what was happening in today's world. The Chairman of the Board and some others were not pleased; they wanted the quiet feel-good sermons he had been preaching to continue. But how did the congregation feel about it? Most importantly, was the Pastor following God's guidance? For surely he now spoke with new strength and faith in what he shared! Ty believed that God had given the United States over to the narcissistic desires and godless living many wanted and explained why he thought this.

In Northern Israel Moshe Eldan was living within that prophecy. He was a pilot for the Ramat David Air Base and was one of those who nightly patrolled Israeli airspace. He had become even more vigilant since Israel was now completely alone. The United States had become noncommital and a fence walker to keep the black gold flowing. And then one night he was shot down, landing in enemy territory. As he worked his way back, he discovered... Ah, I think you'll have to read the book to find that out! What I will tell you is that for the first time, at the request of his wife, he had recently attended a lecture which explained the meaning of the prophecy from Ezekiel.

Planning had started in 1991 when the KGB directorate head, seeing what was ahead for Russia, stole the entire arsenal of portable, tactical, nuclear weapons that had been stored. Now those who supported his actions were joining with other countries to use those weapons against Israel and America!

And in Kansas City, Missouri, Hamid Jamal placed duct tape around him, converting his body into a humanity-killing bomb, as he prepared to attend a concert at a large arena.

The fulfillment of prophecy was happening throughout the world.

Jimmy Root writes in his dedication, "to the Christian Church of America, my hope is that an awakening to the realities of the world will occur." Root has written an excellent thriller to help accomplish that hope. The novel flows easily into and out of reviews of prophecy into today as experienced by believable characters that are living as prophecy is fulfilled.

Well-written, action-packed flight/war scenes, a delightful love story, and so much more. This is a must-read in my opinion!

G. A. Bixler