Book Review: Nobody Wake Daddy

Dance in the Moonlight

By A.L. Kessler

 

Following immediately on the heels of In the Light of the Moon, the first book of the Dark War Chronicles, A.L. Kessler has shifted into second gear continuing the story through the eyes of a new protagonist.  Renee is a mid twenties college student who may have had some setbacks in life due to her ability to see supernatural forms around the people she meets.  She is convinced by her roommate to go out on the bar scene one night, coincidentally it is her birthday, and survives the adventure of being stalked, assaulted and mugged.  Luckily she finds herself in a bar called The Corner that is a sanctuary for super-naturals.  She’s human so other than seeing more shapes of freakish things she just accepts that her pursuers didn’t want to risk chasing her inside.

Coran, apparently an Irish version of Fabio, tends bar in The Corner.  He gives her a drink on the house then ends up being entangled in her story through the rest of the novel.  The main theme is that some bad vampires want to raise ‘The Father’ which would lead to basically the end of the world.  Lucius and his collection of shifters, including Jaxon and Kassity from the first book, are thwarting the really bad vampire agenda in favor of Lucius relatively not so heinous…maybe plan.  Yeah.

It is well done.  Standard editing flubs but they don’t so much detract from the story.  The characters are fun and the overall arc seems to be proceeding with twists and turns.  I haven’t been slung off yet.  Four out of five satisfaction units are hereby awarded.  (Sound the trumpets)

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Dance-Moonlight-Dark-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B00IXB6E30/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417303969&sr=8-1&keywords=dance+in+the+moonlight+a.l.+kessler

Book Review: Good Omens like Speculative Fiction

Antiquity Calais

By Jim Henry

 

Antiquity Calais, the protagonist, has portentous dreams which usually warn of impending disasters.  He doesn’t know if this is a gift or that he is anything special.  The arch-evil-villain character played by a bald man with facial hair has serious competition issues with Satan…not so much Hades and wants to destroy everything in all dimensions.  It’s good to have goals.  Antiquity Calais dies and moves into his real job in the afterlife which is what brings him into Leviathan Avalon (Evil A-hole) crosshairs mainly because Satan clues him in on Antiquity’s powers.

Every epic hero has side-kicks of one form or another.  Antiquity has Mundo, Sherman, Gillian, Zeus, Mad Dog (best coffee ever!) and a few other lesser characters including other versions of him.  Enough with the spoilers already, read the book.

Intentionally or not the author has written a work reminiscent of books like Good Omens where there is a struggle for good in the afterlife.  Though some of the verbiage comes off a bit trite with different characters referring to each other as “My main man”, the storyline is really quite interesting.  Another thumbs up is many belief systems are included in this trip to undo all of Leviathan’s destruction.  Yes, there are editing errors but they do not detract significantly from the story.

As a work of speculative fiction I’m giving this work four out of five stars of appreciation.  Enjoy!

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Force-featuring-Antiquity-Calais-ebook/dp/B00886TBMQ/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1417196128&sr=8-6&keywords=Antiquity+Calais

Book Review: Space Opera that really could have been a contender.

Star Liner

By David Drake

 

Considering the number of titles this author has out I considered this to be a good chance or investment in reading a new author who I would not leave me stranded.  I’m going to keep this short.

The story line(s) are good, character development is good and the scenes were well done without hand waving too much on the science.  It is unfortunate that the editing and the quality of the end product were so heinous.  The text has “1” where there should be “I”s.  There are misspelled, misused and misplaced words throughout this work.

Normally I might cut slack to Indies and self-pubs on this somewhat but it looks like the author didn’t do a post production read here.  Those of you who are used to my reviews know that I like to pay forward good vibes.  I am very sorry that it would be a disservice to the reader if I did so here.  In the form I received this I will only give this book two out of five thumbs up.

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Starliner-David-Drake-ebook/dp/B00ARPEAU4/ref=asap_B000AP8T1C_1_14?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1416527682&sr=1-14

Book Review: Blended genre SciFi? and Fantasy

Voidhawk

By Jason Halstead

 

There is a series of books out in the Science Fiction world by Peter Hamilton that have starships that are organic creations with transferred souls.  That was what came to mind when I grabbed this work and I must say that at first I felt a bit betrayed to find that was not the case here.

Voidhawk in this context refers to a hawk shaped wooden ship that can sail between planets, stars, oceans and alight on land using magic, special sail cloth that catches solar winds and a crew working the lines for the sails.  Weapons in this world include magic, ballistae, swords or bludgeoning objects and the occasional flintlock.

Where are their spacesuits you ask?  Okay then.  The assortment of humans, giants, golems, dwarves and elves rely on magically stable air bubbles and a gravity plane tuned by the ship ballast.  Did I mention there are were-beasts?  No.  Okay then, forget that last bit.

Here’s the deal.  I enjoyed the storyline even though fantasy is not really my bag.  Things I didn’t enjoy included:  misused, misspelled words; sentence jumbles that had to be read a couple times because that’s how long it took to get their meaning {no, they were not in dialogue}; and finally the overcrowding of plot and characters.  There are some, I admit, who like that last peeve I listed.  They are not here at the moment.

I’m giving this a three out of five because I liked things about the plot and the character interactions.  Take note, if I want to read about vessels that ‘Sail’ the stars I’m going to be put off by use of the word ‘sale’.  Please use global search and fix that.

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Voidhawk-Jason-Halstead-ebook/dp/B0053KJCSI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1415117248&sr=1-1&keywords=Voidhawk