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Review of Thrill Switch

This book is extremely well-written, suspenseful and entertaining. I couldn’t stop turning pages. I really enjoyed the read.

It also came to the #SPSFC3 with a content warning that was basically a laundry list of the worst ills plaguing modern society. Rape, torture, sex, foul language, child endangerment — you name it, it’s in here.

This is going to be a book that I score differently for the contest than I would anywhere else. For SPSFC, I will score it high. The writing skill displayed here is very very good. Rising action, plot structure, obstacles for the MC to overcome… the author is obviously good at his craft, and I don’t think the book should suffer just because it happened to come across a squeamish judge.

That said, I wouldn’t really recommend this to my own newsletter subscribers. Generally speaking, people are repeat customers of my books precisely because they want an entertainment option where they don’t have to read explicit sex, profanity, and graphic torture scenes.

I’ll also add, this is how a political book should be done. The book has something to say about an issue in modern-day American politics, but it addresses it without sermonizing, without forcing characters to say something they wouldn’t, just to deliver the author’s favorite message. For a reader who’s not hyper-attuned to these things, it might even be possible not to be aware that there’s a value statement going on here. I’m pretty sure I disagree with the author’s politics, but it’s refreshing to see someone write about issues and values without descending into blatant speechmaking from one of his helpless character’s mouths.

If you have the stomach for a graphic serial killer/terrorist story, buy Thrill Switch here.

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Review of The Curse of Sotkari Ta

The first novel in Maria Perez’s space opera series really lives up to its billing as a steamy romance. Our heroine Mina is kidnapped from Earth because, unbeknownst to her, she has alien DNA that gives her telekinetic abilities. Taken to a faraway galaxy and trained against her will for war, Mina discovers that part of this alien DNA she never asked for is a powerful attraction to anyone else who has the genes. The end result is a soap opera tangle of men who cannot resist Mina’s charms, set against the backdrop of a rebellion against the evil Lostai empire.

I’m not usually a reader of the steamier end of the romance spectrum, and this got a bit wordy and slow at times. But I enjoyed the elaborate world building and the galactic war elements, and things got really suspenseful at the end. Readers of romance, especially those who like the racier side of the genre, should hurry up and get your copy of The Curse of Sotkari Ta

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Review of Through Stranger Eyes

I just finished Through Stranger Eyes by Chris Sarantopoulos, and wow, I recommend you check it out here.

There’s so much to say about this book. It starts with a great mystery, moves through revelations that keep getting more and more powerful, creates potent suspense, has an empathetic main character, and a couple good side characters.

Pros:

The MC’s rejection by his hospital and his wife really made me feel for him. I kept turning pages hoping things got better. 

Solpeau and Sherry are both well-characterized. 

The ending is practically guaranteed to take you by surprise. 

Cons:

The conflict between the different “matriarchs” was hard to keep track of, as were the various groups of non-matriarch people Rick encounters on his journey.

The book is marred by editing errors and by some structural flaws.

A gruesome scene in the middle.

Overall I really enjoyed reading Through Stranger Eyes. Be warned about a bit of horrifying content in the middle, but otherwise, grab your copy here.

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Review of The Sequence by Lucien Telford

The true power of The Sequence lies in the middle of the book. Between 20% and 65% I simply could not put it down. What has Kit discovered? Who is trying to acquire her discovery, and killing all these people to do it? I came to care about the characters — so much so that the author succeeded in creating powerful conflicting emotions in me about one of them. I can’t remember the last time a book gave me feelings this strongly. I cared about these people and this story.

I did not experience the ending in the same way I did the middle. Characters and tech crucial to the ending are only hinted at, or not introduced at all until the last act.

The Sequence presents a fascinating world, probably 100-ish years into the future. There are three protagonists/antagonists, who work both for and against each other in fascinating ways. One is a detective with the Hong Kong Police named Johnny Woo, a genuinely good character who I liked and wanted to see succeed. The second is a smuggler for the criminal underworld named Dallas, who does most of his smuggling at the helm of a stealth jet.

And then we have Kit McKee. Kit is a genetic engineer who has discovered something for which people are willing to kill, and kill in large numbers, and kill gruesomely. If you look in the dictionary under antihero, you will find Kit McKee.

Pros:

  • A compelling mystery, made more compelling by the horrifying revelations about genetic engineering uncovered by the Hong Kong police in the course of trying to solve it. The mystery pulled me in like a tractor beam.
  • A character who’s at the same time easy to relate to and easy to abhor. I rarely experience fascination and disgust in such equal measure for a fictional character.
  • A likable detective, very relatable. Every other character in this book is either evil or morally gray, but Johnny Woo is the bright, shining hero. I kept hoping for another Woo section of the book, so I could feel clean again.
  • A vividly imagined world, including a criminal underworld that feels terrifyingly real and a genetic engineering profession that I dearly wish was not as realistic as I think it probably is.

Cons:

  • Significant characters were barely hinted at, or not introduced at all, until the last quarter of the book.
  • Dallas’s connections make a lot of challenges fall too easily.
  • Moves very slow at the start.

My opinion: Very very strong writing, characterization and world building made weaker by the ending.

Before you read The Sequence, you should know that the means by which Kit and the other genetic engineers in this book advance their work are gruesome and horrifying. Many people may not have a strong enough stomach for it. I almost didn’t. Take that into account before you buy. Check it out at this link.

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Review of Red Sky at Morning

Red Sky at Morning is a suspenseful, fun sci-fi thriller and I recommend that you read it. Grab your copy here.

I’m volunteering as a judge in the third annual Self Published Science Fiction Competition, and I read Red Sky at Morning as part of that contest. My review here does not reflect anything other than my own opinion, and may have no relation to whether the book advances in the contest.

Red Sky at Morning is a thriller set in a future where humans have colonized Mars. It starts with a man framed for a crime he didn’t commit and a jaded detective put on the case by mysterious forces. It races through one revelation after another, some of them truly surprising. The pulse-pounding conclusion had me tearing through the last third of the book unable to put it down.

It’s not perfect. Some of the challenges before the characters fall too easily. Some of them have mysterious proficiencies that are just too convenient. Overall, though, the suspense more than makes up for the flaws and I truly enjoyed this read.

Check out Red Sky at Morning at this link.

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Review of Apocalypse Parenting by Erin Ampersand

Apocalypse Parenting is just flat out fun. You should read it. Buy your copy at this link.

I’m a judge in the 3rd annual Self Published Science Fiction Contest, part of team Tar Vol On, and each member of the team was assigned a certain number of books to read. People in SPSFC use a 10-point rating system, which I’ll use internally, but I don’t think I’ll post those scores publicly. Any internal score that I use in judging SPSFC3 will be entirely unrelated to the number of stars on Amazon, because I’m a super wimpy Amazon reviewer and I don’t post a review there unless I can, in good conscience, give it four or five stars.

Alright, Caveats aside, let’s dive in to this awesome book!

Apocalypse Parenting: Time to Play (Book 1 in a series) is from a genre called “LitRPG,” of which I had read nothing before this. Basically, in this genre, the story is told from the point of view of a character in a video game. In the case of this book, aliens turn all of human existence into a life and death video game for their amusement, and the characters must survive the introduction of monsters, gain experience, learn new powers, etc. like a game.

My first instinct was suspicion of the premise. It seemed kind of silly. But the book just plunges in without feeling any obligation to explain it, and I thought that method really succeeded in getting me to suspend disbelief. It only took a page or two before I was immersed in a world where characters had to pick starting abilities and start fighting creatures in their front yard.

The series gets its title from the fact that the main character is the mother of three. Her husband was off on a business trip when the aliens turned the earth into a video game, so we meet her trying to handle three kids alone in the middle of the apocalypse.

Her name is Meghan Moretti and she carries this entire show. She’s so authentically believable that she just instantly sells the reader all the crazy stuff that happens to her and her family.

Another element that really worked is the lighthearted element of whimsy that comes with this book. Any time you’re trying to corral three kids, chaos is going to ensue, and these kids give the new monsters hilarious names, accidentally animate their stuffed animals from not understanding abilities, and ride around in a wagon turned into a tank, which the kids want to call “Wank” but our MC insists on naming “Tagon.”

This lighthearted fun eases the threshold for willing suspension of disbelief, making it easier to accept the premise, and the harried “single” (for purposes of this story) mom MC trying to balance keeping her kids out of trouble with leveling up as a video game character simply made me smile through the whole thing.

I caught a couple (literally two) typos, and I thought the plot structure could have been better, but overall I loved this book.

A note about the cover: people in book marketing say that your cover makes a promise to your reader about what they can expect if they read it. I have never seen a more accurate promise made by a book cover. This cover IS the first 20% of this book.

I will advocate among my team for Apocalypse Parenting to advance in the contest, and I’ll probably even buy the sequel.

Check out Apocalypse Parenting today!

If you like science fiction, you can check my own Sci-Fi out at www.ExileWar.com.

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Book review: As it Seems by Eric Lewis

As it Seems by Eric Lewis is an exceptionally well written book, full of suspenseful short stories. I got myself out of my comfort zone again: A few stories in this are much darker than I usually read. If you’re a fan of grimdark fantasy, you’ll love this. If, like me, you’re a more delicate sort, maybe pass over the first story. Other than the really dark moment or two, there is nothing bad about this. It keeps you turning pages, it gives you interesting characters, several of them show up over and over in different stories. This makes me want to know more about the world of Vril, which I assume I will learn in the author’s book The Heron Kings.

If you like low fantasy, dark fantasy, and especially grimdark fantasy, hurry up and download As It Seems. You won’t be disappointed.

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Book Review – Grim Lions: Templar Wars Book 1

I’m going to start with the topic that fascinated me throughout this book: The universe in which it’s set. It’s intriguing to say the least. Grim Lions (and, presumably, its sequel, Dark Wolves) is set on an alternative Earth where the Ottoman Empire rose to become the main superpower. The book mentions three empires, but the Ottomans are clearly dominant, at least from a plot perspective. “Europa,” dominated by a big metropolis, is not one of those empires, but rather a kind of introspective, almost decadent second-world power. The continent of North America plays a role, but nothing like the United States at all.

The book never pins down in exactly what year in this alternate history it takes place, so trying to figure that out became one of my favorite games as I read it. There’s mention of “the 1918 war,” so it has to be after that. Bolt action rifles are used, but zero mention of automatic weapons, which probably places it not all that far after 1918. Troops are moved on ships rather than planes, and zeppelins are the main method of air transport, at least in Europa. So my guess is probably in the 20’s or so. But the only real conclusion is that the change in geopolitics changed the way technology advanced.  It’s a world in which you might find a broken-down covered wagon and men on motorcycles almost in the same scene.

The series is called the Templar Wars because whatever caused the change in history that brought the Ottoman Empire to prominence also caused the Knights Templar (of medieval fame) to continue into the era of the book, as a secret society. These Templars, and a corporation in Europa, conspire to send a private expeditionary/mercenary force to fight in a war between the Ottoman Empire and the “Qing” dynasty, which is clearly China in this world.

My main criticism of the book is that it’s slow-moving. It takes forever to get to the war. But once it does, the outnumbered and disorganized Templars and their mercenaries become very attractive as characters. Their heroic stand against a terrifying Janissary army pulled me in. I burned through the last 30 percent of the book about ten times faster than it took me to get through the first 70 percent.

What kept me reading through the slow parts was a richly imagined and detailed alternative history that comes alive in this book. If you enjoy world building, definitely read Grim Lions.

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Adult coloring books

I had never tried “Adult coloring books” until Annie Douglas Lima’s “Hide it in your Heart with Thankfulness.” I was surprised at how relaxing and de-stressing it was. The Bible verses are good ones, and I appreciated the journaling prompts. Click here to check it out.

 
The concept of adult coloring books was a surprise to me, but before she passed away my mother told me about trying them. So when I heard about this one, I decided to give it a try. It’s a surprisingly satisfying way to pass the time, and have something pretty to look at when you’re done.
 
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Book Review: Coventry 2091

Coventry 2091 was a really fun book with a prose style that moves you right along. It’s a well-thought out world. There’s always a little bit of “hand waving” in science fiction, but for the most part it’s clear the author thought about the details quite a bit. I recommend this highly.

I freely admit that I’m not as well-read in science fiction as I could be. Nevertheless, the “travel oaks” in this book were a fundamental sci fi mechanic I had never encountered before, and I credit the author with a lot of creativity for that. If I’m wrong and someone else invented it, that’s cool too, it was still a lot more unique than I’d seen anywhere else.

There are some similarities to Atlas Shrugged here, in a small group of people able to preserve technology in the face of a tyrannical regime.

Coventry 2091 is a very well thought out colonization novel with the most unique system of FTL travel I can ever remember having encountered. You should read it today!