The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci

The 6:20 Man by David Baldacci, 432 p.

"Every day without fail, Travis Devine puts on a cheap suit, grabs his faux-leather briefcase, and boards the 6:20 commuter train to Manhattan, where he works as an entry-level analyst at the city’s most prestigious investment firm. In the mornings, he gazes out the train window at the lavish homes of the uberwealthy, dreaming about joining their ranks. In the evenings, he listens to the fiscal news on his phone, already preparing for the next grueling day in the cutthroat realm of finance. Then one morning Devine’s tedious routine is shattered by an anonymous email: She is dead. 

Sara Ewes, Devine’s coworker and former girlfriend, has been found hanging in a storage room of his office building—presumably a suicide, prompting the NYPD to come calling on him. If that wasn’t enough, Devine receives another ominous visit, a confrontation that threatens to dredge up grim secrets from his past in the Army unless he participates in a clandestine investigation into his firm.

This treacherous role will take Travis from the impossibly glittering lives he once saw only through a train window, to the darkest corners of the country’s economic halls of power…where something rotten lurks. And apart from this high-stakes conspiracy, there’s a killer out there with their own agenda, and Devine is the bullseye."--Goodreads blurb

This was Baldacci's usual fast-paced and deadly thriller. This was a great introductory story to his new character, Travis Devine. This seems like a promising series that I will be continuing!

 

Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert

Chapterhouse: Dune by Frank Herbert - 624 pages

Book 6 of the Dune Chronicles

The Bene Gesserit, an ancient and mystical order of women, find themselves questioning the Golden Path of Humanity set into place by the God Emperor.  These women face annihilation by another group of women, the Honored Matres.  The Honored Matres are recklessly seeking to restore the Old Empire, but with their women ruling.  In order to stop the Honored Matres from destroying their order, the Bene Gesserit find themselves searching through histories and discover a new way to save the dying sandworms.  The Bene Gesserit struggle with staving off the Honored Matres and sacrificing all that they know to establish a new, safe place for the sandworms that so desperately need them.  Will Leto's prophecy still hold true or do the Bene Gesserit solve humanity's greatest issue without his prescience?

Reader's Note:  The ending of this book is rather open-ended; some readers believe that Herbert left the story unfinished.  Knowing that Herbert lost his wife shortly before completing his series perhaps helps readers to better appreciate and understand the ending.

Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert

Heretics of Dune by Frank Herbert - 688 pages

Book 5 of the Dune Chronicles

God Emperor Leto II has been dead for thousands of years after his assassination.  Humanity is still on the Golden Path, despite the Empire falling to ruin.  The Great Scattering, as it is called, has seen millions of people abandon the lives they had known within the Empire to spread out far and beyond the known reaches of space - hence scattering.   The planet Arrakis has become a desert climate again and its sandworms are dying.  The "Lost Ones" of Arrakis are returning home to their planet in the pursuit of the Empire's lost power.  A young girl named Sheeana is found in the wastelands of the planet and begins to rise due to her newfound religious prominence.  Sheeana is the one who possesses the abilities to save the sandworms, as foretold by the late God Emperor's prophecy.  

God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert - 608 pages

Book 4 of the Dune Chronicles

Leto II, son of Paul Atreides, has become the God Emperor of the planet Arrakis.  He has been ruling for almost 4,000 years because a sacrifice he made for the Golden Path and the sandworms of Dune.  His sacrifice has made him nearly immortal and barely human.  Leto's rule has not been a benevolent one.  There have been numerous assassination attempts at his life throughout his rule.  Siona, a member of the Atreides line, forms a rebellion against him.  As her rebellion rises, Siona starts to realize that Leto has other plans for her; he has had a vision and knows that her destiny is the Golden Path.  Siona has to fulfill a destiny she never knew could exist... all to help humanity survive.

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert - 624 pages

Book 3 of the Dune Chronicles

Children of Dune opens nine years after Messiah and Muad'Dib's exile.  The desert planet of Arrakis has started to become greener; its people evolving to live in cities.  The old ways of the Fremen are starting to die out.  The Atreides twins, Leto II and Ghanima, are hyper-mature for their age and are working to clean up the mess left by their family.  Leto experiences prescience like their father and he realizes that the new terraforming of Arrakis will be the extinction of the sandworms --- the providers of the spice drug everyone in the galaxy needs to live.  Leto eventually discovers what he needs to do to complete the Golden Path that his father failed to live up to, potentially saving the galaxy from utter devastation.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert - 352 pages

Book 2 of the Dune Chronicles

Twelve years after Dune, our protagonist, Paul Atreides, has become known to the locals on Arrakis as "Muad'Dib," their emperor and messianic figure.  He has conquered most of the known galaxy within his twelve years of ruling.  Paul is prescient and can foresee every possible future, which is how he is entrapped by conspirators.  Controversy arises from the displaced rulers of the places that Paul has become emperor of, as they have lost all power to the Muad'Dib.  Conspiracies to overthrow him as emperor leave him physically blinded and exiled to the deserts of Arrakis, as twin children are born to bear the burden of the Atreides dynasty.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Dune by Frank Herbert - 412 pages

Book 1 of the Dune Chronicles

Set in the distant future, where human beings have spread far and wide, colonizing throughout the entire universe.  We meet our protagonist, Paul, of the House Atreides.  His father has recently become the duke to a desert planet, Arrakis.  Arrakis has a surplus supply of melange, a spice drug that has become essential to most people in the universe.  Paul's father disregards his advisors' warnings against ambush and goes forward with his planetary fief, mostly because he has no other options.  Dune follows Paul's experiences on Arrakis trying to bring his father's ambitions to fruition.

I am rereading the series with my current surplus of free time because I am preparing for the movie to come out.  Highly recommend!

The Man with Two names by Vincent B. Davis II

The Man with Two Names: The Sertorius Scrolls: Book I by Vincent B. Davis II --- 278 pages including maps. Acknowledgements and Glossary.

From Google Books:
To preserve his village, a young man from the Sabine tribe must survive the cutthroat politics of the city of Rome. "Gripping and graphic... Davis's narrative strengths lie in portraying the horrifying realities of war and in vivifying the ancient setting..." (Publishers Weekly).

Rome, 107 BC. Quintus Sertorius has just lost his father and he may soon lose his home. When his native Nursia is stripped of its political status, he leaves his family to secure assistance and protection from Gnaeus Servilius Caepio, head of one of Rome's powerful consular families, and the hereditary patron of Setorius' tribe. During his time in Rome, Sertorius has an inside look at Rome's murderous politics, and decides it is no place for an honest man. Instead he joins the Legions, where he finds his brother Titus and his childhood friend Lucius are partisans of the plebian General Gaius Marius, famous for his reorganization  of  Rome's Legions and seven terms as consul, but despised by the old patrician families who have ruled the Republic unchallenged for many generations.  As Sertorius adapts to military life he finds to his sorrow that politics can also invade the battlefield with bitter and deadly results. 

The author, born and raised in Tennessee, is an avid student of Roman history, an entrepreneur, and a proud members of the U.S. Army Reserves. This is the first in a planned series of books retelling the story of Quintus Sertorius, (born c. 123 BC, Nursia, Sabini—died 72 BC, Huesca, Spain). Sertorius was a Roman statesman and military commander. He fought in four major wars; the Cimbrian War, the Social War, the Second Civil War and the Sertorian War. During the Second Civil War he was part of the popular faction of Cinna and Marius and upon their deaths he was outlawed.   Defying the Roman Senate, Sertorius became the independent ruler of most of Spain for eight years.

Click HERE to read the review in Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review in Paste Magazine.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara-355 pages

I have seen the movie "Gettysburg" several times and have known for a while that this is the novel the movie is based on. I really enjoyed reading the novel and was surprised at how closely the movie followed it, with a few minor exceptions (one being that Chamberlain reports to General Sykes in the book and merely passes by General Hancock, whereas in the movie he reports to Hancock and there is no mention of Sykes). I am somewhat of an expert/student of American history, especially from the Civil War era, so this type of historical fiction really appeals to me. I have read Jeff Shaara's four novels on major Western Theater Civil War battles and want to read "Gods and Generals" and "The Last Full Measure." Also, I intend to read Ralph Peters' Civil War novels. Overall, this is one of (if not the) the best Civil War novels I have read so far.