The Cure by Douglas E. Richards

It started slow, that's a valid gripe - or slow for Douglas E. Richards. He usually starts with something like pulling the rip cord and the parachute lines tangle. The jumper fails to cut away the tangled parachute and in a panic deploys the back up which only tangles things up further. Petty intense.

This one does start with some traumatically cringe-worthy psychopathic brutality and only one surviving child, who is our protagonist. So my slow argument doesn't really hold up very well. But that's just shoving you in the door. Once you're in the book, you're waiting for grandma to make the tea… there's the fuss about Earl Grey or Cinnamon Apple… boring... metaphorically. Then Erin, our traumatic surviving child has grown up. She has overcome the massive trauma and is now studying psychopathy. It's about that time you think you've figured out where Mr. Richards is going with "The Cure".

You'll be wrong. He does some writer "magic tricks."

While you're looking at the "cure psychopathy" presumption, he changes where you're not looking. When you turn the page you're rubbing your chin thinking, well..., ok..., didn't think it would go that way.

Amped by Douglas E. Richards

I recommend Amped which is another 4-5 star Sci-fi thriller by Douglas E. Richards that reads so fast its 350+ pages seem like a short story. Mystery has been one of the factors Mr. Richards loves to weave into his action, adventure, Sci-fi thrillers. In that way he reminds me much of Isaac Asimov and his way to "teaching" through the dialogue of his characters reminds me of Robert Heinlein.

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Mr. Richards returns to Wired series and delightful co-protagonists Kira Miller and David Desh. By now they have assembled a collection of folks committed to their cause. Kira has found a way to enhance human intelligence for brief periods of time and her collection of brilliant scientists take her drug under strict conditions and while "enhanced" realize discoveries that are far more advanced than current technology.

Wired by Douglas E. Richards

What I probably liked best about his 4-5 star science fiction story is that it hints of golden age Heinlein or Asimov while skipping the golden age's glaring foibles. In those days, science fiction writers were often like having teachers of future science telling you an exciting story about how it will be, THEN. That, and I think Mr. Richards wants to test the idea of how long he can get a reader to hold their breath.

The author, or editor, knows commercial fiction rules, like… something has to be happening at least every other page. This makes the book an extremely fast and exciting read. This is the case with Wired.

In retrospect, the prologue seems odd at best. Introduce one of you main characters with a false name being betrayed by one of the bodyguards she hired to guard her. No doubt that turned out to be a solid hook dragging you quickly into the book, but looking back, it seems irrelevant, except for the mighty fact it does drag you over lumps and bumps well into the story.

The story starts proper with another of our main characters, David Desh, an ex-special forces soldier, being asked by a top tier black ops officer, Col. Jim Connely to come in and consult on an operation their black operatives have already failed more than once. This alerts us that David is extraordinary, and he's being asked to do a job his fellow special ops buddies have already failed. It tells us just by the meeting that the Colonel in charge believes David Desh is uniquely qualified to do the job. Then we learn rather quickly that the mission is a higher priority than trying to stop UFOs from messing with our nuclear arsenal.