Review: The Mansion by Ezekiel Boone

Author: Ezekiel Boone
Publisher: Atria
Date of publication: December 2018

After two years of living on cheap beer and little else in a bitterly cold tiny cabin outside an abandoned, crumbling mansion, young programmers Shawn Eagle and Billy Stafford have created something that could make them rich: a revolutionary computer they name Eagle Logic.

But the hard work and escalating tension have not been kind to their once solid friendship—Shawn’s girlfriend Emily has left him for Billy, and a third partner has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. While Billy walks away with Emily, Shawn takes Eagle Logic, which he uses to build a multi-billion-dollar company that eventually outshines Apple, Google, and Microsoft combined.

Years later, Billy is a failure, beset by poverty and addiction, and Shawn is the most famous man in the world. Unable to let the past be forgotten, Shawn decides to resurrect his and Billy’s biggest failure: a next-generation computer program named Nellie that can control a house’s every function. He decides to set it up in the abandoned mansion they worked near all those years ago. But something about Nellie isn’t right—and the reconstruction of the mansion is plagued by accidental deaths. Shawn is forced to bring Billy back, despite their longstanding mutual hatred, to discover and destroy the evil that lurks in the source code. 

I was really looking forward to reading The Mansion.  I was in the mood for a good haunted house story.  Throw in some AI tech and it should have been a good time.  I did like the premise.  A spooky mansion has been fitted with an AI like computer system that should prove to make living there a dream.  "Nellie"'s job is to anticipate what the residents and guests need and make sure it happens.  When Billy is hired to try to get out the bugs in the system, things start to go very wrong.

While I liked the premise, the book ended up just being an OK read for me. I wanted a spooky "ghost in the machine" type book, but it just never quite hit the mark.  The potential was there, especially in the end.  However, I wanted more...more creepiness and more ghosts. I also wanted more of a peek into what Billy was doing during all of those endless work hours. The book really dragged in the middle and then the ending was rushed and anti-climatic.  

The characters were kind of lack luster with Emily being the most annoying out of them all. I found her very whiny. I did like the creepy twins.  They were cool and it would have made the book more interesting had they been a bigger part in the book.  It's not a bad book.  It's worth taking a look, but it wasn't what I was hoping for.  

    

The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone

Author:  Ezekiel Boone
Publisher: Atria/ Emily Bestler Books
Date of publication: July 2016

Deep in the jungle of Peru, where so much remains unknown, a black, skittering mass devours an American tourist whole. Thousands of miles away, an FBI agent investigates a fatal plane crash in Minneapolis and makes a gruesome discovery. Unusual seismic patterns register in a Kanpur, India earthquake lab, confounding the scientists there. During the same week, the Chinese government “accidentally” drops a nuclear bomb in an isolated region of its own country. As these incidents begin to sweep the globe, a mysterious package from South America arrives at a Washington, D.C. laboratory. Something wants out.

The world is on the brink of an apocalyptic disaster. An ancient species, long dormant, is now very much awake. 

I'll start by saying that I am an arachnophobe.  Big time! So I'm not sure how I survived this book.  Actually, it wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be, By that, I mean not as scary.  I was more creeped out than anything. At the very least, I was certainly entertained.  The premise of the book is that there is an ancient species of spider that has awakened and been set loose on the world.  

The story is told through multiple points of view and in different places all over the world.  As I said, this was more creepy than it was scary.  Because ,there isn't a lot of suspense.  This is the first book in a series and it felt like I was watching the first part of a made for TV mini-series.  This first book sets up the series, with everyone learning about the threat, but not a ton of answers.  The book ends with an epilogue, but it's really more of a cliffhanger and a clear setup for the next book, Skitter.  Unfortunately, that doesn't come out until next year.  If you are looking for a "horror" story, this really doesn't fit that category.  But it's worth a read.  If anything, you'll probably look at spiders differently!