Alden and the trash truck trailer

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Alden And The Trash Truck by William G. Bentrim Now Available on Amazon

ALDEN AND THE TRASH TRUCK

Toddlers are often fascinated by vehicles.  Trucks and construction equipment are always popular gifts.   This story focuses on a little boy’s fascination with Gladys, a trash truck, and Mike its driver.   There is no overt message or moral.   It just celebrates the passion of children and their innate goodness.

Alden loves trucks but his favorite truck is Gladys.  Gladys and her driver, Mike, collect trash.   Alden becomes Mike’s hero when Alden jumps into action and demonstrates remarkably mature responsibility when faced with a crisis.

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The Ferryman by Justin Cronin Now Available Everywhere

 Proctor is a Ferryman.  He is a senior Ferryman whose duties are to take retirees to the ferry that goes to the Nursery.   When citizens reach the end of a self-acknowledged lifespan they return to the Nursery for rebirth.   Prospera is an idyllic paradise.

Proctor discovers that there may be a dark side to the beauty and wonders of his paradise.   This book takes a look at some interesting concepts of travel, sleep, dreams, and success.

It takes some very abrupt turns than make you rethink the entire plot.

I recommend it.

 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

Nightborn: Coldfire Rising by C.S. Friedman

It has been a minute since I’ve read any C.S. Friedman.  This story takes place on a far distant planet where a colony ship that has gone awry deposits its occupants.  After reading the book, I recalled watching Forbidden Planet, a movie that came out in 1956.   The monster in the movie was created by a manifestation of Moibius's Id. I don’t know if Friedman is old enough to have seen the movie but there are some parallels between the book and the movie.   The colony finds the planet itself seems to be opposed to them settling there.   The immediate problems are resolved and the story jumps 600 years in the future and occupants of that time period are now the protagonists.

I enjoyed the book.  The concept of Earth Mother has been explored many times.   This iteration is entertaining and thought-provoking.

I look forward to the next book in the series. 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid

If you are a romance reader and you want one with some unsavory aspects and some disturbing creatures, you will no doubt love this book.   Sadly I get hung up on romance books and let it color my overall appreciation of a story.   The last real wizard in Oblya lives with his three witchy daughters and exploits their powers.    

The daughters are rebellious.  Undine and Rose appear beautiful while Marlinchen is the ugly duckling who is unfairly selected to be her father’s servant.  The time and setting seem to be in a pre-industrial revolution in Russia with the move from large landholders to city industry.

Marlinchen discovers a love interest and things get complicated. 

The book abounds with lies, treachery, deceit, and love.

Romance readers should love it, me not so much. 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

The Price of Rebellion by Michael C. Bland

Bland projects a future where the population has been wired with cerebral implants allowing the government to constantly surveil them.  Dray Quintero is an engineer who designed and invented some of the technology that enables the government to do ubiquitous surveillance.  He reevaluated his work and tried to reverse it, which led to his rebelling.

The rebellion existed before Dray entered it so he was not a policy-level leader.   His diving into the rebellion has led to his separation from his wife and the destruction of his family.  Raven, his elder daughter, joins him in the rebellion.

The story has a wealth of action with a lot of interpersonal angst.   Dray doesn’t play well with others and he and his daughter also butt heads.

I enjoyed the book and shudder at Bland’s projected future.   I have some issues with it though.  I have a son who is a mechanical engineer with a plethora of patents.   Mechanical engineers can do wonders but Dray seems to be able to repair highly sophisticated devices with paperclips and super glue.  There seems to be a disconnect between reality and future reality.   I guess things could progress to a point where repairs can be done in the field under stress but it appears technology is going the other way.   No repair, just abandon something if it breaks.  It may be nitpicking.

I also don’t like cliff hangers.  I like series but I like each book to provide a modicum of closure. 

I still enjoyed the book and recommend it. 

This book may have been received free of charge from a publisher or a publicist. That will NEVER have a bearing on my recommendations. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases if you click on a purchasing link below.#CommissionsEarned

Artifical Intelligence, A Grade School Explanation by AI, edited by William G. Bentrim

 Artificial Intelligence is a hot issue. Children pick up technology fast. I asked ChatGPT to explain what AI is at an upper elementary school level. In addition, I asked it to suggest an illustration for each page. The prompts ChatGPT provided were inputted in Catbird.ai which generated the illustrations. This resulted in a book, AI A Grade School Explanation by AI.

If you want a FREE pdf of how an AI explains itself, message me

wbentrim@bentrim.info