Benjamin Taylor is just your average under-appreciated guy who’s always picking up after his boss. …
There Goes The Neighborhood
5 stars
I'll be honest. This book almost didn't make the cut. I reached the end of the sample and had to think about whether I wanted to commit to the book or not. I flipped a mental coin and went for it.
I'm so glad I did.
Hoefer's tale of alien not-quite-conquest manages to turn a scatological first act into a tender tour de force by the end.
Benjamin Taylor's negative self image and fear of public speaking makes him feel quite real in the midst of a surreal encounter with overgrown caterpillars. His absurd relationship with his boss plays against the blossoming relationships he forms with his fellow travelers as the story unfolds.
If you're a fan of first contact stories, or even alien conquest tales, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.
Emotion is a weapon. Harnessing its power could destroy worlds.
Palia’s emotions are in turmoil. …
Burnin' Down the House
5 stars
Katherine Franklin has created a breath-taking beast of a story blending war, hope, death, and love in a rich, swirling stew. The characters (it's always the characters with me) drew me in from the first view of Ash and Bek skulking around Everatus IV. Palia Terric added spice to the mix that only got richer and deeper as the story unfolds - one thrilling escapade (and escape) after another.
A richly detailed excursion through the underbellies of two star spanning civilizations as our intrepid - but hardly fearless - crew struggle to find the truth about what happened on Everatus IV and why did it happen. When they finally do, the two powers collide in what promises to be a cataclysmic explosion.
Classic galaxy spanning space opera adventure at its best.
Highly Recommended - especially if you like your SF fueled with copious amounts of adrenaline.
Six months ago, I lost my husband. Six hours ago, I found out he had …
Move Over Delphi
5 stars
Transparency: I know Lisa personally. We've worked together with the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I count her as a friend. She doesn't know I'm reviewing her book.
I loved this. Paranormal Women's Fiction is my go to these days when I want a fun, challenging, and engaging read. I've been a fan since the original coven of 13 started writing it back in the day. It's blossomed to it's own Thing now and I hope it stays around for a long time.
Wynter Chastain discovers that she's been picked by "Goldie" - an enchanted armband - for a new role in her life. Her kids are grown. Her husband dead but hardly forgotten - the rat! But she has to pick up the pieces of her life and carry on somehow.
Luckily Goldie gives her something to worry about that isn't "How could he have done this to us?"
I …
Transparency: I know Lisa personally. We've worked together with the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. I count her as a friend. She doesn't know I'm reviewing her book.
I loved this. Paranormal Women's Fiction is my go to these days when I want a fun, challenging, and engaging read. I've been a fan since the original coven of 13 started writing it back in the day. It's blossomed to it's own Thing now and I hope it stays around for a long time.
Wynter Chastain discovers that she's been picked by "Goldie" - an enchanted armband - for a new role in her life. Her kids are grown. Her husband dead but hardly forgotten - the rat! But she has to pick up the pieces of her life and carry on somehow.
Luckily Goldie gives her something to worry about that isn't "How could he have done this to us?"
I ripped through this in a matter of hours, it's that good. Excellent characters, engaging setting. Loved the way the story unfolded one step at a time, each one interesting in itself but building toward a tremendously satisfying conclusion.
Remnants of a shattered moon traverse the skies, memorials …
I've Got a Secret
5 stars
For me, character and setting define a book. The plot is just what happens when characters and setting interact. In this book, Jon Sparks has created a believable post-apocalyptic world and peopled it with engaging and captivating people. More than that, he gave them something interesting to do.
From the first, Jerya and her friend Rodal embark on a journey that is only partly measured by geography as they both seek to find their way in a world beyond their limited experience. The guild, the village, with world as they know it all work together to weave a tale that could end any number of ways. That uncertainty held right up to the end. Hardly a surprise, it simply defined a path and left me to wait for the next leg in the journey.
Actress Dayna Anderson's Deadly New Role: Private Detective
Dayna Anderson doesn't set out to solve …
Who Dunnit?
5 stars
Remember the name Kellye Garrett. You can thank me later.
In this light-hearted take on the serious business of murder, Dayna Anderson, ex-actress soon to be broke couch-surfer, sees the opportunity to get out of debt and save her parents' home. Just solve the murder, collect the reward.
The catch? Well, she has to solve the murder and phone the LAPD Tip Line to collect her reward.
Oh, and not get killed herself.
Easy peasy.
Garrett's narrative flows like water in a friendly creek, burbling over stones and taking unexpected dips and twists that delight at every turn. Her characters - Dayna, Emme, and Sienna - glimmer on the pages. Dayna's frantic attempts to be the first to phone in the tip, and her relationship with The Voice on the other end, flows through the story, a familiar and appreciated running gag.
You don't need to be S. S. VanDine …
Remember the name Kellye Garrett. You can thank me later.
In this light-hearted take on the serious business of murder, Dayna Anderson, ex-actress soon to be broke couch-surfer, sees the opportunity to get out of debt and save her parents' home. Just solve the murder, collect the reward.
The catch? Well, she has to solve the murder and phone the LAPD Tip Line to collect her reward.
Oh, and not get killed herself.
Easy peasy.
Garrett's narrative flows like water in a friendly creek, burbling over stones and taking unexpected dips and twists that delight at every turn. Her characters - Dayna, Emme, and Sienna - glimmer on the pages. Dayna's frantic attempts to be the first to phone in the tip, and her relationship with The Voice on the other end, flows through the story, a familiar and appreciated running gag.
You don't need to be S. S. VanDine to appreciate how cleverly this story unfolds, each new clue taking you closer and closer to The Murderer until the last. Garrett demonstrates the art of the 'Who Dunnit' flawlessly.
The most Arthur could hope for was to someday earn a trash-tier spell card. When …
Pick A Card
5 stars
When this title first crossed my path, I rejected it because "deck building" felt like a step too far - even for litRPG. When a friend recommended I try it, I gave it a go and regretted waiting so long to get into a marvelously imagined and portrayed world of dragons and magic, of friendship and betrayal.
The main character Arthur is thrust too young into the wider world when his curiosity takes him away from his chores and into danger. His trials and tribulations make for wonderful story fodder as he works his way from the only home he's ever known to the center of a dragon hive, where dragons and riders work to contain the vicious scourgling-eruptions.
Cards form the magical conceit with dragons, born with magic, bonding with humans who only gain magic through the acquisition of magic cards which grant them every power imaginable. Some trite. …
When this title first crossed my path, I rejected it because "deck building" felt like a step too far - even for litRPG. When a friend recommended I try it, I gave it a go and regretted waiting so long to get into a marvelously imagined and portrayed world of dragons and magic, of friendship and betrayal.
The main character Arthur is thrust too young into the wider world when his curiosity takes him away from his chores and into danger. His trials and tribulations make for wonderful story fodder as he works his way from the only home he's ever known to the center of a dragon hive, where dragons and riders work to contain the vicious scourgling-eruptions.
Cards form the magical conceit with dragons, born with magic, bonding with humans who only gain magic through the acquisition of magic cards which grant them every power imaginable. Some trite. Some useful. Some world changing.
This is a classic coming of age story that had me rooting for Arthur and the colleagues he acquires on his various journeys. Sympathizing with him when he stumbles and falls.
It's one of those books I wish could go on forever but it doesn't and book 2 isn't ready yet.
Highly recommended.
Especially if you haven't found litRPG yet. This is a good one to cut your teeth on.
The most famous work of Japanese literature and the world's first novel—written a thousand years …
Lost in Translation
4 stars
For a story that's 1000 years old, I found it remarkable - and somewhat depressing - that people haven't really changed all that much over the centuries.
The biggest hurdle I needed to cross was coming to grips with the cultural and literary symbols and metaphors that drive the story forward. The story contains as much poetry as much as narrative and figures prominently in the interactions between various characters. Characteristics like penmanship - this or that person has an elegant hand - and family relationships contribute context.
While it's touted as, perhaps, the world's first novel, it reads more like the world's first serial. Each chapter, an episode in an ongoing chronicle of the golden Genji, so beautiful and elegant he cannot be long for the earthly realm. In Murasaki Shibiku's eyes, he's something of a rogue among the ladies, collecting a harem of those who have attracted his …
For a story that's 1000 years old, I found it remarkable - and somewhat depressing - that people haven't really changed all that much over the centuries.
The biggest hurdle I needed to cross was coming to grips with the cultural and literary symbols and metaphors that drive the story forward. The story contains as much poetry as much as narrative and figures prominently in the interactions between various characters. Characteristics like penmanship - this or that person has an elegant hand - and family relationships contribute context.
While it's touted as, perhaps, the world's first novel, it reads more like the world's first serial. Each chapter, an episode in an ongoing chronicle of the golden Genji, so beautiful and elegant he cannot be long for the earthly realm. In Murasaki Shibiku's eyes, he's something of a rogue among the ladies, collecting a harem of those who have attracted his attention over his long lifetime.
Eventually the story evolves into a family saga, Genji's children and associate relations finding a place in the story. Most of them follow the same paths to success and/or ruin as Genji marked out for them.
For me, the book was a challenge. Trying to appreciate how much more elegant and beautiful the writing might have been in the original Japanese. Trying to understand the metaphors and symbols. I come away from it certain that much of its charm must be lost because I failed in those efforts.
One thing came through. The stories that Shibiku tells could have come from any modern soap opera. The triumphs and tragedies are all personal, all character driven based on the underlying culture and mores of the time - much as they would be in a modern tale of court intrigues and romances.
Just without today's Happily Ever After endings.
Recommended for anybody wanting to immerse themselves in the cultural history of Japan.
Transparency: I picked up a copy from ebooks@adelaide and just grabbed this cover/description from the Open Library.
Dragged from her homeworld, young Mahra Kaitan must discover the key to fighting an insidious …
Meticulous Construction
5 stars
Great characters make for great stories and The Jump Point has a raft of great characters.
The story orbits around Mahra Kaitan - freebooter, mercenary, and refugee from a destroyed homeworld. Then there's Timon Pellis - enigmatic, charismatic captain of The Dark Falcon, a ship with more than a few surprises under its skin. Against them, or maybe with them, Vidor Carr - a man who knows what he wants and isn't afraid of doing whatever it takes to get it.
But what of the Sirona themselves? Mysterious aliens who appear and disappear at will, always willing to trade until they aren't, with apparently deadly consequences.
James has assembled all these parts into an intricate tale of mystery and misery, a veritable Swiss watch of a story with each part keeping the whole ticking along.
In the Celestial Empire, a land ruled by Immortals and stalked by Spirits and Beasts, …
Beautiful Schemer
5 stars
If you haven't tried a cultivation novel yet, this is a great place to start.
Yrsilla spins a magical tale of a girl plucked from a miserable existence of hardship and poverty flung into the very foreign realms of privilege and wealth. Off balance from the start, she slowly builds her knowledge and confidence to rise through the ranks of the Argent Peak Sect. As she grows in power, she undertakes the very difficult task of facing up to her past and choosing to grow as a person. It's a great reminder that in this genre - like litRPG - leveling up in skill can't replace the character's arc.
It's always the characters that draw me into a story and Ling Qi held me spellbound. I particularly liked the use of music as a vehicle for her growth. The setting intrigues me and the story ended on the right notes …
If you haven't tried a cultivation novel yet, this is a great place to start.
Yrsilla spins a magical tale of a girl plucked from a miserable existence of hardship and poverty flung into the very foreign realms of privilege and wealth. Off balance from the start, she slowly builds her knowledge and confidence to rise through the ranks of the Argent Peak Sect. As she grows in power, she undertakes the very difficult task of facing up to her past and choosing to grow as a person. It's a great reminder that in this genre - like litRPG - leveling up in skill can't replace the character's arc.
It's always the characters that draw me into a story and Ling Qi held me spellbound. I particularly liked the use of music as a vehicle for her growth. The setting intrigues me and the story ended on the right notes to make me wish I had more time to read.
After diamond power promises to replace steam, an unemployed labourer and a thieving noble unite …
Brilliant Cut
5 stars
I blazed through this book in a couple of days. I loved that it explored a steampunky world being changed by a new source of energy, upsetting a precariously balanced applecart. The socio-economic underpinning gave steampunk a fresh take in a Second World setting.
The main characters - Alf and Rich - played well with and against each other, backed up by a solid cohort of supporters, opponents, and various others. The world of grit and steam, of science and wish, of rich and poor felt like one I could step into and - if not find my way - at least know who to ask. The story itself twisted and turned just enough to keep me engaged and not so much that it felt gratuitous.
Too often steampunk gets treated like a genre instead of an aesthetic. In The Diamond Device, M. H. Thaung uses the steampunk aesthetic - …
I blazed through this book in a couple of days. I loved that it explored a steampunky world being changed by a new source of energy, upsetting a precariously balanced applecart. The socio-economic underpinning gave steampunk a fresh take in a Second World setting.
The main characters - Alf and Rich - played well with and against each other, backed up by a solid cohort of supporters, opponents, and various others. The world of grit and steam, of science and wish, of rich and poor felt like one I could step into and - if not find my way - at least know who to ask. The story itself twisted and turned just enough to keep me engaged and not so much that it felt gratuitous.
Too often steampunk gets treated like a genre instead of an aesthetic. In The Diamond Device, M. H. Thaung uses the steampunk aesthetic - airships, steam-powered vehicles, and fantastical devices - as a lens focused on humanity in this often light-hearted but quite serious look at how technology and people relate.
Secrets broke her heart... and have now come back from the grave to haunt her. …
Three Fold Rules
5 stars
I love Paranormal Women's Fiction - stories about older characters finding magic sometimes love. It's a refreshing change of pace from the standard tropes where young people have all the fun. Second Chance Magic did not disappoint me.
Lorna Addams and her two friends discover the key to a hidden door and a book that has been lost for a generation. Opening the book opens a new chapter in each of their lives. This one happens to be about Lorna.
The characters are warm, funny, and engaging. We don't see much of the small town but the sketch is more than enough to establish the setting and set the mood for the story.
The plot? I loved it. Just enough predictability to make me feel like I knew what was happening, but just enough twistedness to keep it from being too cliché.
"Lenna Faircloth thought she was content enough to be junior librarian at one of the …
Checks Out
5 stars
Brian Fence has a winning combination with Librarian. The main character, Lenna Faircloth, provides the driving force to push the plot across a complex and interesting territory in this Second World fantasy.
The magic system, perhaps not unique, but different enough to draw me into the story without making me feel like I'd seen it all before.
The details in the world provide the pièce de résistance. Well thought out, specific enough when they matter and fading into the background when they don't. Sufficient to reward a careful reader but not all so well camouflaged that the casual reader might find the story wanting.
When infectious paranormal powers aren't a gift but a threat to society, a man's conscience …
I've Got A Secret
5 stars
M.H. Thaung has a winning combination here.
Terrific world building. Engaging characters. Tightly woven story. All the things I look for in the first book of a series.
The secret paranormal powers fuel the story engine as the Powers-That-Be try to control a secret that threatens to unseat them from being Powers. As the story unfolds, the tightly held secret appears to be threatened by the very actions involved in trying to maintain it.
Jonathan Shelley is at the crux, pressured from his superiors but less and less comfortable with the things he's asked to do.
Eliot’s epic of 19th century provincial social life, set in a fictitious Midlands town in …
Subplots R Us
4 stars
Honestly, there's no mainline, just many subplots braided like garlic.
I have to give Eliot props for meticulously constructing "provincial life" in exacting - sometimes excruciating - detail, yet always with a light hand. The various plots deal with all the circumstances listed on the tin. The characters seem at turns real enough to step off the page and too stiff to bend with the paper they're printed on.
Did I like it? No. I read it as part of my read a classic a month goal for 2023. I wanted to see what this book was about and to study the story structure and Eliot's technique.
Did I learn anything? I don't know. Maybe. The style and tone, the loose relationship with the reader that he shares with Melville's Moby Dick. The use of recurring themes in different subplots - sometimes each looking at the same circumstance from an …
Honestly, there's no mainline, just many subplots braided like garlic.
I have to give Eliot props for meticulously constructing "provincial life" in exacting - sometimes excruciating - detail, yet always with a light hand. The various plots deal with all the circumstances listed on the tin. The characters seem at turns real enough to step off the page and too stiff to bend with the paper they're printed on.
Did I like it? No. I read it as part of my read a classic a month goal for 2023. I wanted to see what this book was about and to study the story structure and Eliot's technique.
Did I learn anything? I don't know. Maybe. The style and tone, the loose relationship with the reader that he shares with Melville's Moby Dick. The use of recurring themes in different subplots - sometimes each looking at the same circumstance from an opposing perspective.
Recommended - But
Set aside some time for this one. It's rare for me to need more than 2 days for a novel. This one took over eight.
A novel of love, vengeance, and a world re-opened to the stars.
The empathic Tolari …
Follow Your Heart
5 stars
Meierz threw me right into the middle of the story and took my breath away while I tried to make sense of it all.
Murder, mayhem. Sometimes violence that seemed all too gratuitous yet became obviously necessary in this story of love, loss, and redemption. A lot of my enjoyment came from sorting out the details of Tolari versus human cultures. I'll leave those details for the reader to explore because they kept me turning the pages to find out all I could.
Farryn and Sharana - literally star-crossed lovers - battle a hostile world where pride and ambition drive them apart and set them on the path to find themselves before one or both of them are "sent into the dark."
I loved this story and found extra time to read because the characters and the setting drew me in and made me want to experience it more.
Highly …
Meierz threw me right into the middle of the story and took my breath away while I tried to make sense of it all.
Murder, mayhem. Sometimes violence that seemed all too gratuitous yet became obviously necessary in this story of love, loss, and redemption. A lot of my enjoyment came from sorting out the details of Tolari versus human cultures. I'll leave those details for the reader to explore because they kept me turning the pages to find out all I could.
Farryn and Sharana - literally star-crossed lovers - battle a hostile world where pride and ambition drive them apart and set them on the path to find themselves before one or both of them are "sent into the dark."
I loved this story and found extra time to read because the characters and the setting drew me in and made me want to experience it more.
