Rating: 
Summary: Humans, not Aliens, Highlight this Tale
Review: On July 4th a large unidentified crafts crashes into the lake of a small Georgia town during the holiday firewors and kills a large number of citizens. Yet the craft isn't the real story in this excellent novel by horror writer James Moore. This isn't a novel about space aliens and sci-fi happenings, it is a story about people. Moore does an good job with this character study which draws largely on books like Dean Koontz's Strangers. He allows you into the minds of many of the main player's in this tragedy and turns tradition sci-fi roles on its head. Here we have a stiff military leader with a heart, a independent minded sheriff with a conscience, a preachers daughter with a past and a faithful soldier with a secret. These are all good people and their values are put to the test by the trying situation and the fears and prejiduces of the people surronding them.
Rating: 
Summary: Moore writes a great pain book....and that's horrible.
Review: Suspend your disbelief as an alien spacecraft, while being tracked by a supersecret US anti-extraterrestial force, purposely plunges into a lake in a small Georgia town during the 4th of July celebration, killing or maiming most at the lakeside. Never is any reason postulated for this act. One receptive townsperson is sucked into the craft when he approaches it; all others are blithely ignored.
Generally likeable citizens are subjected to martial law as the US forces attempt to enter or carry off the spacecraft, which in the end leaves, utterly unaffected by these attempts. No one can leave; those who try die trying, impaled on erected razorwire or shot. Those who are injured by the spacecraft's arrival are quarantined, unable to see their family or their doctors or pastors. As citizens begin to crack under the pressure of the occupation, some begin to kill soldiers and are killed in return. The rich small town mill owner spins his plots, attempting to control events to his liking, regardless of the danger he brings down on all the townspeople. Some really ugly characters begin killing and maiming soldiers and fellow townspeople alike. The resultant anarchy after the only responsible town leaders (the sheriff, the pastor and the mayor) are eliminated prompts the military forces to call in their mind benders, to reprogram all the remaining citizens to live lives elsewhere, with no memory of this town and their old lives.
Such relish is evident on the part of the author as he describes the injuries that individuals sustain and perpetrate upon others that a tone of malignancy pervades the entire plot. Is this pain autobiographical? How does one write about such events so vividly if he hasn't experienced them? Is he venting? What is he trying to say? What is the purpose of detailing such interpersonal evil? By way of contrast, Robert McCammon writes great horror novels about the unknown, unseen and humanly incomprehensible that can encapture men, but this novel is about the malignancy of man. If you like that genre, if you like gore, you'll LOVE this book. I didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful SF thriller
Review: The residents of Collier, Georgia always enjoy the annual Independence Day celebration especially the fireworks. However, this year the fireworks are different as a huge UFO crashes killing or severely injuring approximately twenty-five per cent of the locals.Top secret elite military cadre ONYX arrives in town to secure the perimeter. No one will enter or leave quarantined Collier. To the surviving townsfolk, the operation looks more like an invasion force, which turns worse as the soldiers obey orders of strict security enforcement. Violence between both sides of Americans break out even while the UFO remains under the waters of the nearby lake. Unless cooler heads prevail, further tragedy seems like the only outcome. FIREWORKS is not an Independence Day or War of the Worlds ET invasion tale though the alien craft crash serves as the catalyst to the theme of how will the Feds react to a UFO and how will locals react to the heavy handed Feds' response that "incarcerates" them? Instead the novel feels more like the Hoffman thriller Outbreak though the impetus varies. Though why the UFO was flying over earth is never revealed (sequel perhaps) the action is loaded, but James A. Moore forces his audience to ponder what seems like believable actions and reactions of real people, soldier and resident alike. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Powerful SF thriller
Review: The residents of Collier, Georgia always enjoy the annual Independence Day celebration especially the fireworks. However, this year the fireworks are different as a huge UFO crashes killing or severely injuring approximately twenty-five per cent of the locals. Top secret elite military cadre ONYX arrives in town to secure the perimeter. No one will enter or leave quarantined Collier. To the surviving townsfolk, the operation looks more like an invasion force, which turns worse as the soldiers obey orders of strict security enforcement. Violence between both sides of Americans break out even while the UFO remains under the waters of the nearby lake. Unless cooler heads prevail, further tragedy seems like the only outcome. FIREWORKS is not an Independence Day or War of the Worlds ET invasion tale though the alien craft crash serves as the catalyst to the theme of how will the Feds react to a UFO and how will locals react to the heavy handed Feds' response that "incarcerates" them? Instead the novel feels more like the Hoffman thriller Outbreak though the impetus varies. Though why the UFO was flying over earth is never revealed (sequel perhaps) the action is loaded, but James A. Moore forces his audience to ponder what seems like believable actions and reactions of real people, soldier and resident alike. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Buyer Beware!
Review: This book is labeled a horror novel by the publisher, and although the first half is very promising, it turns into nothing more than a military controlled warzone. Where's the horror? Where's the aliens? Where's the protagonist? The book shifts from one character to another without reason and fizzles out at the end. The first half was 4 stars, the second half was 2... so Fireworks deserves a 3. My other gripe is all the spelling errors in the last third of the book. Did the copy editor just give up two-thirds of the way through? It was very annoying and pulls you right out of the story. That being said, James A. Moore is a good writer, and even more importantly, he's a good storyteller. I know he'll pick himself up from this little slip.
Rating: 
Summary: It came out of the sky
Review: What would happen if a Fourth of July celebration was interrupted by the crash landing of a ufo? That's the gist here, but Moore infuses his story with characters that are just too darn good for a Leisure paperback. It's true that there ain't much when it comes to extra terrestrial interaction (to put it mildly) but that's not the point. The fear gradually shifts from the dry docked flying saucer to the government agents given the task of keeping the entire town of Collier, GA quiet. (The media is given a story about a terrorist) Like the best episodes of the X-Files the audience plays ping-pong between the threat of invasion and the threat of shadowy government figures calling the shots. Only here the scenario is expanded to include the terror of martial law. That's pretty scary. It's a literary smack in the head, where logically the issues and priorities are eschewed in order to maintain a semblance of order and the more you read the more plausible a situation like this seems.
This is the second book by this author that I've read and I can honestly say this fellow right here has what it takes to be another King, Koontz, or McCammon-his writing is amazingly similar to those lofty three and just as enduring. The only way we can ever see that happen is a hardcover deal and good press and James Moore is deserving of both. Even Hollywood could potentially make good on this story (but it'd probably get screwed up). Bloody, insightful, with well written characters, and compelling enough to keep those pages a turnin'. Fireworks goes high on the recommendation list. Also check out Under the Overtree.
Rating:
Summary: It came out of the sky
Review: What would happen if a Fourth of July celebration was interrupted by the crash landing of a ufo? That's the gist here, but Moore infuses his story with characters that are just too darn good for a Leisure paperback. It's true that there ain't much when it comes to extra terrestrial interaction (to put it mildly) but that's not the point. The fear gradually shifts from the dry docked flying saucer to the government agents given the task of keeping the entire town of Collier, GA quiet. (The media is given a story about a terrorist) Like the best episodes of the X-Files the audience plays ping-pong between the threat of invasion and the threat of shadowy government figures calling the shots. Only here the scenario is expanded to include the terror of martial law. That's pretty scary. It's a literary smack in the head, where logically the issues and priorities are eschewed in order to maintain a semblance of order and the more you read the more plausible a situation like this seems. This is the second book by this author that I've read and I can honestly say this fellow right here has what it takes to be another King, Koontz, or McGammon-his writing is amazingly similar to those lofty three and just as enduring. The only way we can ever see that happen is a hardcover deal and good press and James Moore is deserving of both. Even Hollywood could potentially make good on this story (but it'd probably get screwed up). Bloody, insightful, with well written characters, and compelling enough to keep those pages a turnin'. Fireworks goes high on the recommendation list. Also check out Under the Overtree.
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