Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Missing Pieces / Jon Ripslinger


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: YA/Mystery

Approximate word count: 55-60,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

A retired High School English teacher, Jon Ripslinger has several novels available for your Kindle and has had more than sixty short stories published in various magazines. After thirty-five years of teaching, six children, thirteen grandchildren, and three great grandchildren, Ripslinger must still love teens, as he continues writing books to entertain them.

For more, visit Ripslinger’s blog.

Description:

“Kyle Donovan’s life is shattered when his mother goes missing and his father is accused of dismembering her and dumping her pieces into the Mississippi River. He expects his dad's trial for the crime to solve the mystery, but when it ends in a hung jury, Kyle must make a difficult choice: live with the agonizing uncertainty that’s destroying him and his little sister, Kelly, or find the truth himself, no matter what the cost. Either way, he’ll lose at least one parent, but he might be able to salvage what’s left of a normal life for him and Kelly. Compelled by a desperate need to end the madness that his life has become, and with the help of Becky, one of the only people at school who will still talk to him, Kyle forces himself to follow a string of clues the police missed and struggles to face the terrible truth about his own role in his mother’s disappearance.”

Appraisal:

Missing Pieces is a mystery suitable for the older teen, although stricter parents might object on grounds of language or content. Although there is a mystery that the protagonist, Kyle, sets out to solve, I found the psychological and sociological subtext to the story at least as compelling as the mystery. How Kyle and his younger sister Kelly deal with the disappearance of their mother, how the relationship between parent and child is often illogical when viewed from the outside, and the dynamics of a small town, all add significantly to the story. The defense mechanism that Kyle and Kelly have which allows them to envision a happy ending where, at least to me, it was obvious there was no plausible way for that to happen, actually helped drive the story rather than ruin its credibility. My only significant complaint about Missing Pieces are the courtroom scenes near the end, which didn’t ring true for me.

FYI:

Some adult language and adult themes.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four stars

Monday, July 30, 2012

Against Nature / John Nelson


Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Techno-thriller

Approximate word count: 75,000-80,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

John Nelson is Director, Quality and Risk Management, Patient Safety and Infection Control for a community hospital in Utah. Against Nature is his first novel.

Description:

While executing a space walk, an astronaut snags his suit and unknowingly contracts a deadly disease. On returning to earth, the infection is missed during debriefing and the Shuttle crew disperses to their home countries and they begin to spread the disease, which is fatal to mammals within two weeks of being contracted. With no known cure, a worldwide pandemic occurs.

Appraisal:

The premise of the story, while not new, is compelling enough—examining how the world would respond to a highly infectious and incurable disease. However, I struggled to suspend disbelief and therefore found it hard to get immersed in the story. In part this was because of the seeming ease with which sweeping events and decisions were made, for example when the US government tried to cover up the fact that the disease was initiated at NASA, by claiming it came from a terrorist chemical weapons factory situated on the Pakistani border, and immediately mobilized 300,000 troops and invaded Pakistan—this effort would be considerably more difficult.

In part because the characters, particularly the US President and Vice President and various influential media moguls, didn’t ring true to me—too stereotypical and two-dimensional.

The underlying moralistic tale about corporate America being bad and self-serving and elitists—told by realizing a series of well-worn conspiracy theories--and leftist-leaning South American countries having the right political and cultural approach—justified by extolling their social fairness and free health services, often seemed to swamp the storyline. For my taste, too much of the story was taken up with narrative explanations of this political dichotomy. If the purpose was to delivering an Orwellian message through the veil of a story, for me, the story needed to be stronger.

Format/Typo Issues:

None.

Rating: *** Three stars

Friday, July 27, 2012

The Chicken Thief / Fiona Leonard


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Approximate word count: 95-100,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“As a teenager, Fiona took two career aptitude tests. The first said she was unemployable, the second returned only one result - coroner. She decided to ignore both (and give up taking aptitude tests) and instead became in turn, an Australian diplomat, foreign and trade policy consultant, freelance writer, theatre producer, blogger, home schooler and author (and sometimes several of these at once).

She has a gypsy soul that has carried her across twenty countries on four continents, including one year long adventure driving across the USA and Canada with her husband, daughter and the dog.

Her love of Africa was forged during a three year posting to Zimbabwe. She now lives in Ghana, West Africa.”

For more, visit Fiona’s website.

Description:

“Alois is The Chicken Thief, an intelligent young man struggling to find his way in a southern African country wracked by political unrest and a crumbling economy. A chance encounter gives Alois the opportunity to make some fast money, and hopefully improve his future. However, his assignment goes horribly wrong, and he unexpectedly finds himself in the midst of a complicated and perilous struggle to rescue a war hero and transform the political landscape. Though something of an unlikely hero, Alois ultimately learns that both dreams and justice are within his grasp.”

Appraisal:

I enjoyed The Chicken Thief for two distinct reasons, the setting and the plot. The latter could almost be described as a political thriller, but much different from the typical because of its setting in a fictional African country. By using a fictional country, the author was able to build her own world complete with culture, history, and socioeconomic factors that, while I suspect borrowing from actual happenings in other African countries, is a credible composite. In such a world, where the reader has few preconceived notions, the  direction the story might take is harder to guess, and things that might not be credible if set somewhere known are completely believable. I didn’t mention the characters, because, although well done, what made them unique to me was largely due to the setting and plot (although maybe the characters came first). How it came together doesn’t matter, I guess. The result, a fast-paced and suspenseful story made that much better by its foreignness, does.

FYI:

A limited amount of adult language

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four stars

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Angel Dance / M.D. Grayson


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery

Approximate word count: 115-120,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

After working in construction, as an accountant (which he says didn’t work out at all), and a piano player on the Las Vegas strip, M.D. Grayson now writes from his home on an island near Seattle. This is his first novel.

For more, visit Grayson’s website.

Description:

“Beautiful Seattle business heiress Gina Fiore has vanished without a trace. Desperate for help, her family turns to Danny Logan, Gina's former boyfriend, to find her and bring her home safely. Logan is a fifth-generation Seattle native who owns the Logan Private Investigation agency. Along with his associates Antoinette "Toni" Blair, Kenny Hale, and Joaquin Kiahtel, he accepts the case and begins the hunt for Gina.

Logan and his team dig for clues and soon find that they're not the only ones looking for Gina. The Tijuana-Mendez drug cartel is keenly interested in her whereabouts, as is the Calabria crime family from Chicago. The race is on to locate Gina--the stakes could not be higher. In order to prevail, Logan's going to need all the skill and luck he can gather, and he's going to need to confront the unresolved feelings he still has for Gina-- feelings that might just get him killed!”

Appraisal:

Angel Dance is a fast-paced detective mystery (the first of a planned series) with Danny Logan, a Seattle private investigator, and his team. I found that I liked Danny and Toni, who is his business partner (kind of), sidekick, and the person who reins Danny in or gives him a kick in the pants, whichever is needed at the time. The interaction between these two added immensely to the entertainment value of Angel Dance, with this being a typical example:
Toni stared at me with a cynical expression on her face that made it look like she was about ready to call, “Bullshit!” Rather than stare back at her, I did the manly thing—I looked away.

Not only did these two keep me entertained, but their relationship  bodes well for future books in the series. They’re a solid foundation to build on.
This story kept me guessing, always a good sign with a mystery. Just when it would look like the answer was clear, something would happen to muddy the picture. I not only enjoyed Angel Dance, but I’m also eager to see the series continue.

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

My copy of this book was a prerelease ARC copy, so I can’t comment on this area.

Rating: **** Four stars

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Electric Highway / Robert Ryland


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Thriller

Approximate word count: 140-145,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: NO
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Robert Ryland is the pen name of Robert Jacoby. He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, has a degree in English Literature, and resides in the Blue Ridge mountains of western North Carolina. His two books, Electric Highway and 
The Little Rock Messenger" are published as e-books on Kindle. He is a member of several writing groups, and works regularly with new and published writers.”

For more, visit the author’s blog.

Description:

“Patricia Manning suspects that her brother's death by drowning is part of a conspiracy by his energy company employer to keep a fraud from being exposed. Investigating the case, an L.A. cop begins to confirm Manning's suspicions, and they join forces to gather evidence against the conspirators.”

Appraisal:

The line “’But it didn’t stop there,’ she reminded unnecessarily,” from Electric Highway summarizes the biggest problem I had with this book. In fact, with the exception of one minor plot discrepancy I spotted (saying only three people had some specific knowledge when it was four people by my count), it is the only issue I had. But it was a big one. I’ll come back to this, but first I’ll hit on the positives.

That nature of thrillers is such that the reader’s ability to suspend disbelief should probably be stretched with most. The villains or situations are often well outside our experience or real world situations of which we’re aware. While I hope nothing like this story has or will happen, the premise is largely built on the kind of situations that we know have occurred. In an author’s note prior to the start of the book, Ryland lays out the portions of the book that are true. On top of the reality, Ryland layers  a cast of characters and a story that, given the environment, maybe could have happened. Many of the characters, both those on the side of good and those not, were people with qualities we’ll recognize as true to life and very common. Even those who stretch credibility, don’t do so nearly as much as a typical thriller. Ryland’s premise was a good starting point and I enjoyed the overall story.

However, there were two issues with the execution. The first was a tendency to describe much of what happened as a long narrative, possibly too much for some tastes. I’m not going to say he told when he should have showed, but sometimes it seemed to lean a little in that direction. This wasn’t an issue for me, but the other problem, alluded to above, was. There were multiple instances of summarizing what happened earlier in the book. It was as though he didn’t trust the reader to put the pieces together without reminders. One example was mid-book when a detective was reviewing in his head what he knew so far. This took five long paragraphs with five different critical facts reviewed in excruciating detail. Five sentences might have been okay, if done well. Even better would have been  to cut this section out entirely. The detective’s thoughts on what he thought the evidence thus far indicated were more than enough to remind the reader of the pertinent facts. If this kind of thing happened once, it would have been too much. But I saw it again and again. Although the detailed editing functions were handled well, this book could have stood a review by a good content editor to assist in tightening up and removing extraneous sections such as this.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: *** Three stars

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Pascal’s Wager / Mark Jacobs


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery

Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Mark Jacobs is a freelance writer, martial arts instructor, and semi-professional poker player who regularly plays for more money than he can afford to lose. His written work has appeared in publications such as Sports Illustrated, Men’s Health, and TimeOut New York. The author of the acclaimed instructional text, The Principles of Unarmed Combat, he currently serves as a monthly columnist for Black Belt Magazine. Pascal’s Wager is his first novel.”

For more, visit Jacobs’ blog.

Description:

“Pascal Silver is an action junkie down on his luck. One of the best poker players alive, a losing streak has forced him to take work as a private detective. But when the gorgeous daughter of murdered casino owner “Houston Phil” LaPierre turns to him for help, he finds himself in over his head dealing with the cops, the mob and the enigmatic but beautiful Allegra LaPierre.”

Appraisal:

What do you call a hardboiled egg that’s slightly runny in the center? Mark Jacobs’ protagonist, Pascal Silver, is that kind of hardboiled detective. It’s his soft center that sets him apart from the stereotypical hardboiled gumshoe and makes me like him even more. An ex-PhD-candidate in philosophy (should I stretch the analogy and call him an egghead?), the professional poker player and part time private investigator is living in Las Vegas while he searches for the meaning of existence. He’s  going to crack wise in hopes of defusing a tense situation before turning to fists and guns and he’s not afraid to show a sensitive side with a woman. His poker playing skills translate well to his investigative work, both in his ability to read people’s actions to determine the veracity of their claims and a strange but effective habit of applying poker strategy away from the poker table.

The secondary characters seemed as if they were composites or loosely based on real life Vegas denizens. For example, anyone with passing familiarity with Las Vegas history who doesn’t see Benny Binion (former owner of the Horseshoe Casino) as the basis of the “Houston Phil” LaPierre character isn’t paying attention.

Fans of the hardboiled detective form should find Pascal’s Wager a satisfying read, even if they don’t know the difference between a semi-bluff and a semicolon. For poker players or people who recognize the origins of the book’s title, you should consider it a can’t miss. I’m hoping Jacobs has more Pascal Silver books slated for the future.

FYI:

Some adult language and minor adult content.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four stars

Monday, July 23, 2012

The Legionnaire: Mask of the Pharaoh / SJ Parkinson


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery

Approximate word count: 110-115,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Mr. Parkinson is  a former Air Force avionics technician, a decorated veteran of the Persian Gulf War and several United Nations peacekeeping missions. He has lived overseas in numerous countries and travels extensively. He has written a newspaper column on computers and been published in several magazines.”

For more, visit Parkinson’s website.

Description:

“The golden burial mask of Tutankhamun was the most famous archaeological discovery of the 20th century. When it is stolen from the guarded hold of a cargo ship in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the impact of the crime threatens to destroy everything in one man’s life.

Stephen Anderson is living a lie. A former Sergeant in the French Foreign Legion, he deserted after witnessing the murder of a fellow legionnaire at the hands of senior officers. After faking his death in the Algerian desert, Anderson believes he is safe but must maintain a low profile to avoid detection. He began a new life as an investigator for a large US insurance company, letting others take credit for the items he retrieves.

Anderson is assigned as lead investigator by his insurance company to locate Tutankhamun’s burial mask. The theft results in intense international press coverage, threatening to expose his hidden past. An attempt was made on his life immediately before the theft. Were the thieves trying to improve their odds of success, or is someone from his earlier life seeking revenge?”

Appraisal:

Mask of the Pharaoh is a clever mystery based on one of the timeless tropes of the genre, a variation on the locked room mystery. The lead character, Stephen Anderson, combines the deductive skills of Sherlock Holmes with the style of TV’s Remington Steele, and an air of mystery, made necessary by a secret past. The story is fast-paced; the mystery, complex (I had no idea how the crime was accomplished, and just a glimmer of who did it, before the solution was revealed). The story rang true, at least partially due to the author’s extensive research, made evident in the notes at the end. Lovers of a good mystery should find Mask of the Pharaoh an excellent choice.

This is the first of a series, with at least two other books planned. Events near the end of this book appear to set up the next in the series. I can easily see the Stephen Anderson character along with his sidekicks as the basis for a long series. I’m eager for more.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four stars

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Author Interview: Sean Sweeney


I write escapism fiction. I write for the people that hate reality. Their lives aren’t doing so well, so they jump into a book to escape their lives. 

When did you know you wanted to be a writer?

I think I came out of the womb writing, to be honest. Actually, I knew I wanted to be a writer when I was 14 years old. That’s when I met the man—two men, actually—who became my mentors: Bill Gilman, who worked then for the Sentinel & Enterprise, and Mark Ambrose, who was my first semester Freshman English teacher at Fitchburg High School. Bill was a sportswriter then (he’s now the editor of the Tewskbury Patch, an AOL/Huffington Post company) and he covered Fitchburg High football games; he was the one who helped me slide my foot in the door. Mark gave excellent writing assignments that brought out a student’s creative side and made you really think while brainstorming, and he’d always give a new take, like an editor, on how a story should be written.

Who are your favorite authors and how do you think they’ve influenced your writing?

Professor Tolkien, right from the start. When I began this journey in 2003, I wanted to be a fantasy author, and I wanted to write like Tolkien. I wanted to be descriptive. I wanted to create a world that felt lived in. I think I accomplished that, and that story will continue within the next month or so with The Shadow Looms. R.A. Salvatore is a New York Times bestseller who lives a few towns away from me in Leominster, and he was the one who convinced me to write my first novel; I loved Bob’s fight scenes, and I knew I could write like that. Steven Savile is a British author living in Sweden, and I read everything he writes; he has such a way with the written word that I’ve never believed possible. He’s always at the ready with advice. He was the one who convinced me to write thrillers. Kevin J. Anderson is a prolific science-fiction writer who lives in Colorado Springs, a man who writes even while he sleeps. I absolutely want to be like him; he publishes books that resemble doorstops. People say I’m rather prolific, but I don’t even come close to matching KJA.

You’ve worked for several years as a sportswriter for multiple newspapers, I believe both as a staff writer and as a freelancer. How do you think your journalism experience has helped you as a fiction author?

Journalism has taught me how important it is to write under deadline. Every night, I have to submit my game story by such and such a time, which has forced me to write rather rapidly, on a time constraint. I hit my deadline constantly; there are certain times in the summer where a baseball game will begin rather late, and I end up phoning in a brief story for the paper, yet I write a full story for the web after deadline. I’m still writing on a time constraint, technically, because the editor is just as tired as I am and wants to go home. But seriously… writing fiction isn’t much different, and this is something I learned from Kevin J. Anderson. He meets his deadlines with his fiction, and I try to do the same thing, even though I self-publish. Any author making a living at this is writing under a time constraint. I work on a rather tight schedule: I look at a calendar and say that such and such a date is a deadline for my work. I can usually write a large novel in 2-3 months, then give myself some time to recuperate before I dive into the edits. From conception to final edit takes about 9-10 months nowadays. Not exactly a daily newspaper speed, but then again, Rome wasn’t built in a day. I can release four or five novels, whether adult or YA (YA is usually shorter in word count length), a year using this method.

Have you ever had a job that wasn’t writing related? If so, what?

I’ve worked at a Subway restaurant, my local radio station (although I did write news), as well as selling cell phones. Other than the radio station, not too glamorous.

Your first novels were all either fantasy or science-fiction and written under a pen name. Are you keeping the two personas separated or can you tell us about your alter-ego and what he or she has written?

When I began writing, I wanted to honor one of the authors that I had read in Mark Ambrose’s class. Robert Cormier lived in Leominster and was a prolific young adult author who wrote The Chocolate War, I am the Cheese, etc., and I found out a couple of years after that, while a cub reporter for the Sentinel & Enterprise (I started as a sophomore), he had written columns for our paper in the 1970s and 1980s as John Fitch IV. Interesting, I had thought at the time. I had decided to write under the name John Fitch V as an homage to Cormier. That name I have since retired.

My first six novels are under that pen name; I call those the “Classic” novels. Most of them are fantasy, like Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (and if you think I said that for the SEO hits, you know me too well), while I wrote a Star Wars-ish space opera and a historical sports novel that involves a bit of time travel.

Is it true that you actually have five pen names and I haven’t discovered them all yet?

LOL, that is incorrect. The running joke, folks, is due to my author friends considering me to be rather prolific, and they think I’m writing other authors’ books. Supposedly I’m writing women’s fiction under the name Beth Orsoff and YA paranormal under the name Imogen Rose.

You’re definitely prolific. How many full-length novels did you release in 2011? So far in 2012?

I released six books in 2011: The first three Jaclyn Johnson novels, the first Obloeron prequel (The Rise of the Dark Falcon), Royal Switch, and Zombie Showdown. I’ve already released two novels in 2012, Eminent Souls and Cold Altar. Two more are on the way: the second Obloeron prequel (The Shadow Looms) and Federal Agent, the fourth Jaclyn Johnson novel. I may sneak in a YA book before the new year, too.

I don’t think it is a secret that I’m a fan of your Jaclyn Johnson, code name Snapshot series, which I believe are also your most popular books. Some people love them. Judging from some of the reviews on Amazon, other people don’t like them at all. What do you think it is about Jaclyn that attracts such extremes in opinion?

I think it’s the believability of the character, or it’s because the haters are just internet trolls/book snobs, but that’s neither here nor there. Look, I write escapism fiction. I write for the people that hate reality. Their lives aren’t doing so well, so they jump into a book to escape their lives. That’s where I come in. Jaclyn is a kick-ass, half-blind CIA Counterterrorism agent aided by technological enhancements, mainly in the form of a Heads Up Device that resembles a pair of Foster Grant sunglasses that she has to wear constantly. Jaclyn is a cross between James Bond, Mitch Rapp and Lora Craft. She is a shoot first, ask questions later kind of chick who was trained during her teenage years, just after 9-11. She was trained to be heartless, but as we’ve seen (SPOILER ALERT), she has a soft side for a certain man. She also has a James Bond-esque car that usually causes a bit of destruction. I’ve received comments from people who love Jaclyn, and some people who don’t like the books, either because of the believability or because the books are overly descriptive. You’re not going to win over everyone; there are people who put down Tolkien.

Many of your books take place on your home turf, whether in North-Central Massachusetts where you grew up or Boston, the nearest big city. But some of your Jaclyn Johnson books are in places far from home. I paid careful attention to how well you caught the feel of Las Vegas and whether you got the geography right, and you got it right. Have you visited these towns or, if not, how do you get these kind of things right?

Boston is like my second home, and it was easy to take a train ride right into the old city and walk around for a few hours, snapping photos to get the descriptions right at a later time, and I also wrote notes to myself as I walked; one note that I had jotted down when I had approached the Marriott Long Wharf from the north is that the hotel looked like an old-style passenger ship complete with its eastern end resembling that ship’s prow. For some of the other books, like Rogue Agent and Double Agent, it was a lot of map study. I love geography, and I love topography, two subjects I excelled at in school. A story can be envisioned by studying a map. Google Maps and Bing Maps are huge in this. Google Earth is even better, especially in a big town such as Las Vegas, where you can get down to street level and see where the Google car drove, getting a 360-degree picture. It makes it so easy to write on a limited budget.

What other books are on the horizon for you?

Well, I’m deep into the first draft of the fourth Jaclyn Johnson novel, Federal Agent. The second Obloeron prequel is coming out before the end of the summer, I believe. I have YA books in my mind, a fifth (and a sixth, seventh and eighth) Jaclyn Johnson novel, another mystery, as well as some sci-fi down the road. I have enough material to write about. I’ll be here for quite a long time.

What was the last book you read by a fellow indie and what were its strengths and weaknesses?

I read the first few pages of one book last week, and I just couldn’t get into it. It had a massive point of view shift that threw me out of the story. There are some books that have this problem, and I think too much like an editor sometimes. Other authors are just fantastic at dialogue and the quick hit sentences.

Thanks for the opportunity, Al. I really appreciate it, and stop playing snake with me. J

For More Sean:

Visit Sean's website, like his facebook page, or follow him on twitter. You can also like Jaclyn Johnson's page on facebook.

Find Sean's books at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords.

For those by John Fitch V, visit Amazon US, Amazon UK, or Barnes and Noble.

Reviews






Friday, July 20, 2012

Alien Hunters: Discovery / R.G. Cordiner


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Middle Grade/Science Fiction

Approximate word count: 35-40,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

An Australian teacher, this is R.G. Cordiner’s fifth book. For more, visit his blog.

Description:

“A lethal game of hide and seek ... with aliens. Want to play?
In 1968, an alien spacecraft crash landed on Earth. There were survivors. Today, they walk among us, invisible in plain sight. They could be your teacher, your friend, or even .... YOU. Everyone sees them as human. Everyone, except two children.”

Appraisal:

As with Cordiner’s other books, Alien Hunters: Discovery puts the main characters (always close in age to the target  audience) in an adventurous situation  and adds some fantastical elements to fuel the reader’s imagination. Although they take place in a contemporary setting, he has aliens (what kid doesn’t love a good alien story?) and some science fiction elements. It’s an entertaining adventure, which is something you’d expect a middle grade reader to want in a book.

Cordiner’s books also have something parents might be looking for in a book for their children, a subtle lesson. What that was (and whether it is even intended) wasn’t as clear for me in Alien Hunters: Discovery as it was in Cordiner’s previous books. However, when I thought about it, I realized his protagonists are always normal kids, in that they aren’t perfect, but they’re also good examples. They might stretch the rules at times, like most kids, but when there is a big decision with serious consequences, they make the right choice, and in that decision is often a lesson. For this book, the lesson I saw is that part of growing up is experiencing new things that might stretch our comfort zones and that sometimes a decision needs to be made based on altruistic reasons, on what is best for the most people rather than easiest for us.

FYI:

Uses Australian spelling and slang.

Format/Typo Issues:

As a beta reader I evaluated based on a pre-publication version and can’t evaluate the final version in this area.

Rating: **** Four stars

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Drawing Breath / Laurie Boris


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Contemporary Fiction

Approximate word count: 45-50,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES
Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

A freelance writer, editor, proofreader, and former graphic designer, this is Laurie Boris’ second novel. Her first, The Joke’s on Me, was published by 4RV Publishing in 2011. Boris lives with her husband in the Hudson Valley of New York.

For more, visit her website.

Description:

“Students often fall in love with their teachers. Despite warnings from her mother, that's exactly what 16-year-old Caitlin Kelly does. But Daniel Benedetto isn't just any art teacher. Not only is he more than twice Caitlin's age, he rents the Kelly’s upstairs apartment and suffers from cystic fibrosis, a life-threatening disease.”

Appraisal:

A well-written and thought provoking story, Drawing Breath may be a disappointment to those who jump to conclusions after skimming the description and seeing mention of a 16-year old girl, an adult man, and something about falling in love. But those who don’t come to the story with misplaced expectations will discover a tale that should stick with them long after the afterglow of satisfying their prurient interests would have faded. Drawing Breath is a coming-of-age story that raises questions of how we relate to those with serious diseases or handicaps and the roadblocks that even well meaning people may create for them in leading the most normal lives they’re able.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five stars

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Rock Deadly/Kathryn Lively


Reviewed by: Jess

Genre: Mystery

Approximate word count: 70-75,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES
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Author:

Kathryn Lively is an accomplished freelance writer, novelist, editor and EPIC award winner. Some of her titles include: Little Flowers, Pithed, Rocky Horror Twitter Show, and a set of short, funny skits titled Schtick to the Script.

Penned under the name L.K. Ellwood, you can find: Fade Out and Murder Most Trivial. She also writes the Ronnie Lord series under this name, including: Saints Preserve Us, Pray For Us Sinners and coming in 2013, Deliver Us From Evil. For more information on Kathryn Lively you can follow her on Facebook and Twitter, or visit her website at or check out her blog.

Description:

Matt “Lerxst” Johnston, Gramma’s boy, music tutor and local celebrity is awakened to his attempted suffocation via smothering by an attractive stranger. He comes to realize this is the beginning of an adventure that will lead him down a path of murder and mayhem while encompassing a little of the sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll you might expect from a bassist in a RUSH tribute band.

Appraisal:

Ms. Lively’s writing made the time spent reading this book quite enjoyable. I love a good plot twist, and by putting the main character into scenes that contraindicated my assumptions, she was able to entertain me throughout the novel. This tactic kept me guessing and reading long after I should have been asleep. The storyline had the potential to be witty and darkly comical, but came across as intriguing instead as Lerxst’s sweetness is in direct contrast to the situations and supporting characters he finds himself involved in. The ending was a bit far-fetched, playing out more like a made for TV movie, but that only added to the lightheartedness of the read and gave it full closure.

I rarely have to read a sentence twice but found it a frequent need during the first half of the book. Lively has a strategy of bisecting an action sentence with another full sentence or two of the character’s thoughts. This segmentation was difficult for me to get used to and I felt it interrupted the flow, although not too badly.

One thing to note, instead of using the word God in slang terms, she uses Ged instead. It was just odd because it was quite frequent. The mental intent was already there, so I didn’t understand why the change.

Format/Typo Issues:

The book was previously published under the title Dead Barchetta, then revised and republished as Rock Deadly. I felt the book could have used one more edit when published as Dead Barchetta due to the omission of small words like: as, if, when, etc. To celebrate the release of a RUSH album, an additional edit was completed and the revised title of Rock Deadly was given. I'm uncertain if these minor errors were caught then. No spelling mistakes were found.

Rating: **** Four stars

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Time Zones, Containers and Three Square Meals a Day / Maria Staal


Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Travel/Non-Fiction

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

Availability    
Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: YES  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES
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Author:

“Maria Staal was born in the Netherlands (1969). She studied construction engineering and specialized in architectural history. While living in York, United Kingdom, she wrote her first book, Romans, Vikings, Churches and Chocolate, in which she highlights the fact that even in the modern streetscape, York's ancient history is still visible. Her second book, From dissenters to fire engines, was also written in York and focuses on the city's nineteenth century churches.

Back in the Netherlands, Maria wrote about her adventures working on container ships in her book 'Time Zones, Containers and Three Square Meals a Day' and its sequel 'More Stories of Time Zones and Containers.”

Description:

“Deadly pirate attacks and a near collision with an oil tanker are just two of the dangers faced by the crews of today's container ships. Time Zones, Containers and Three Square Meals a Day is the story of life on the high seas, where real adventures still exist. The author recounts her adventures on the container ship Serenity River in this entertaining narrative travelogue.”

Appraisal:

Strange as it may seem if you’ve never heard of it, many container ship companies (think of those big boxes you’ll sometimes see on top of a flat railroad car) also have room for a limited number of passengers. Among other things, traveling this way is a non-airplane alternative when, due to seasonal or route considerations, a conventional cruise ship or other form of transportation wouldn’t be an option. Hired to write a guidebook for passengers of a set of ships that traveled the same route, the author took the trip as research, writing as she went. This book is about what that experience was like.

I enjoy travel narratives of all kinds. This was one of the more unique I’ve read, mainly because the method of travel was so unconventional. The ports of call were often not the normal tourist haunts. Everything about Staal’s experience was much different than the typical travel narrative. Although the author is a native of the Netherlands, she has lived for an extended period in the UK. I never felt that language was an issue; however, I did mark down by one star for exceeding my somewhat strict threshold for typos and grammar errors.

FYI:

Uses UK spelling conventions.

Format/Typo Issues:

A large number of copy editing and proofing issues. The most frequent was a homonym error, confusing the usage of the words “past” and “passed” some, but not all, of the time.

Rating: *** Three stars