Review: Kodachrome by Jason Jahns

Title: Kodachrome
Author: Jason Jahns
Publisher: North Star Books
Publish Date: November 28, 2011
Source: I received a copy from the publisher; however, this did not affect my review.

Why You're Reading This Book?:

• You like thrillers with good back stories.
• You like really unique stories.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "A global revolution cuts across cultural, economic, and geographic divides; it is an epic conflict between the forces of rampant greed and demands for fairness and dignity.

Our two heroes are extraordinary yet solitary reluctant warriors who never meet. Miranda Carter is a cloistered graduate student dispatched to meet her estranged Mormon grandmother and examine a bizarre medical prognosis. Zhuli Cai is an unassuming young Chinese army officer willing to give everything to save the members of his unit. He holds a heavy secret.

Miranda and Zhuli are thrown headlong into technological and supernatural intrigue and deceit. They reckon with true impossibilities and face their own worst fears in a world of double-crosses, prophets, spies, presidential candidates, and Chinese revolutionaries.

On its way to a truly surprise ending, Kodachrome will beguile you with thriller-like tempo, the foresight of science fiction, deep social truths normally found only in historical novels, and a plot that you have never seen before ... anywhere."

My Two Cents:

How do you describe this book? It's a little bit of a thriller with a pinch of science fiction and a well written back story to help the reader understand the characters in the book and where they're coming from. At first, all of the characters seem on very separate trajectories. There are two main story lines. The first involves Zhuli, a man in China, who isn't exactly sure what's going on in his world. Everything is not always what it seems. Then there is Miranda, a scientist who is meeting her grandmother for a first time. She's pulled towards meeting her grandmother to explore some sort of mysterious power that her grandmother has.

I thought that it was pretty cool how at first the two story lines seem like they're so far apart from each other and you don't really know how they fit together and how amazingly and shockingly that they come together in the end. It's really awesome because I was not able to guess what was going to happen and I love a good surprise.

I'm not usually a thriller fan but this book had enough of a whiff of science fiction and a strong supporting back story to keep me happy. This book definitely has a wide appeal!