First to Find / Morgan C. Talbot

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery/ Woman Sleuth

Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words

Availability    

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

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Author:

“Morgan is an outdoorsy girl with a deep and abiding love for the natural sciences. Her degrees involve English and jujitsu. She enjoys hiking, camping, and wandering in the woods looking for the trail to the car, but there isn't enough chocolate on the planet to bribe her into rock climbing.

When she's not writing, she can be found making puzzles, getting lost on the way to geocaches, reading stories to her children, or taking far too many pictures of the same tree or rock.

She lives in Eastern Washington with her family.”

Description:

“Death is the hardest puzzle to solve.

Margarita Williams escaped death at a young age, but its shadow has followed her all her life. Now, amidst the chaos of a new Australian roommate and mysterious, menacing neighbors, Death has set the puzzlemaker a puzzle of her own. Someone is killing her fellow geocachers, one by one.”

Appraisal:

For those not familiar with the term, geocaching is a kind of treasure hunt where participants start with clues, which are used to get the longitude and latitude of the location of a “cache.” The geocacher then finds the physical cache using these coordinates and a portable GPS. It is kind of like a treasure hunt and appeals to those who like puzzles as well as outdoor activities.

First to Find (a term for the first person to find a new cache) is a murder mystery that revolves around a group of geocachers. When one of them is killed under mysterious circumstances the protagonist, Margarita, starts gathering and putting together clues (not unlike her approach to creating and solving geocache puzzles) in an attempt to discover who is behind the killing. It’s a story sure to appeal to geocachers, but for anyone not familiar with this activity, it’s still a fun book. I’ve never geocached, although I was vaguely aware of what it was and how it worked, and found that aspect of it interesting. This also took the story outside of a typical mystery for me, making it less predictable. Even if you’ve never heard of geocaching before, if you’re into solving puzzles (which is almost surely the case for any mystery lover), then First to Find won’t disappoint.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four stars

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Predation-SJ Parkinson

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Military Science Fiction

Approximate word count: 145,000-150,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: NO  Paper: YES

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Author:

Mr. Parkinson was an Air Force avionics technician and a decorated veteran of the Persian Gulf War and several United Nations peacekeeping missions. Predation was his debut novel.

Description:

Mankind has developed a Stardrive, and as they begin colonizing other worlds they are attacked by the Drakk’Har--an intelligent race with reptilian characteristics, a brutal feudal society, and a liking for eating live animals (including humans). After three years of attacks, humans strike back. The story follows the space fleet on a mission to cripple Mindon-2, the Drakk’Har’s shipbuilding planet.

Appraisal:

The only military sci-fi I had ever read was Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet. I found that series hard going because it dealt with battles fought at the macro level with huge distances, speeds, and formations that I struggled to visualize.

Predation also had a battle scene fought in space, but I found it quite compelling. At a fine grain, the author made me think about how dangerous a tiny rock can be to a huge battle cruiser if they collided at close to the speed of light. And at the macro-level, he did a solid job of describing the dire consequences of a singularity appearing in close proximity to the fleet. The author’s military training imbued a sense of reality to the fleet’s command structure and battle tactics, and despite the often-detailed descriptions of technology, I was always engaged.

Then Mr. Parkinson did something quite unusual: he switched from the massive forces and distances and technology involved in a space battle and dropped me inside a small group of special-forces soldiers, secreted on a hill on the target planet with the objective of gathering intelligence. The stark contrast between the space battle and the reality facing the troops on the ground delivered a level of believability and emotional involvement that I missed in The Lost Fleet.

The story unfolded from these two perspectives, and as the battle progressed the two threads, of necessity, drew closer, until, in the end, they became one as the mission was concluded. The only feature that jarred me from my suspended disbelief was the Drakk’Har. The primitive nature of their culture seemed at odds with the technological advances they had made. But all in all, the tale worked for me, and I think it goes to show that even a story outside of your normal genre-comfort-level, if well written, is enjoyable.

Format/Typo Issues:

No typos worth mentioning but enough instances of word repetition (often in the same sentence) to make me notice.

Rating: **** Four stars

Entangled Thorns / Melinda Clayton

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Contemporary Fiction/ Drama

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:

Melinda Clayton is an odd mix of psychotherapist and writer who has always loved to read, and who loves to explore the motivations behind difficult choices and decisions. She has an Ed.D. in Special Education Administration, and is a licensed psychotherapist in the states of Florida and Colorado. Her vast experience working in the field of mental health gives her a unique perspective on human behaviors. Clayton lives in central Florida with her husband, two children, and various cats. She is the author of Appalachian Justice and Return to Crutcher Mountain. Learn more at her website or at her Goodreads author site.

Description:

After the mysterious death of their brother Luke at the age of thirteen, seventeen year-old Beth and her younger sister Naomi ran away from home, planning to never return. Beth Sloan has spent the majority of her life trying to escape the memories of a difficult childhood. Born into the infamous Pritchett family of Cedar Hollow, West Virginia, she grew up hard, surrounded not only by homemade stills and corn liquor, but by an impoverished family that more often than not preferred life on the wrong side of the law.

Beth manages to suppress the painful memories and create a comfortable, if troubled, life with her husband Mark and their two children in an upscale suburb outside of Memphis, Tennessee. Twenty-seven years later old resentments and family secrets are awakened by a letter from Kay Langley that their mother is dying and it is time to make amends. Beth, at the urging of her sister Naomi, agrees to return to Cedar Hollow risking everything to finally face the truth about what happened to Luke that long ago summer night. 

Appraisal:

Told through multiple points of view, Ms Clayton does an excellent job devoting each chapter to a single character in this heart-wrenching story. She takes us on an emotional journey into the past of a dysfunctional, but proud family, to discover how abuse affects all members of a family and the dynamics of the abuse that surrounds them. By singling out and developing each character individually she explores how these cycles tend to continue, how the courageous ones try to break the cycle, and how things are not always the way they seem. Not many authors have the expertise to accomplish this without making judgments the way Ms Clayton does.

I love the style in which this story is written, through inner dialogue, we are allowed to feel what each character is feeling and gain an understanding of why things are the way they are and how each character perceives them. We are also given insight through the eyes of Kay Langley, the owner of the local café that serves as the town’s hub. Through her eyes we see a caring outsider’s view of how the town views this family and its individual members. One of my favorite elements of this story is the fact that Beth took her seventeen year-old daughter, Marissa, along with her on this difficult trip to face her ghosts. With Marissa along we are given three generations of view points.

This character driven story flows well considering we are getting the story from five different characters. It is incredibly well told and I enjoyed my trip back to Cedar Hollows. There is a definite feeling of hope as this story draws to an end and I found it inspiring. I will share this book with my daughters and grand daughters. One of the things I appreciate about reading a hard story like this one is it makes me reevaluate my life and I realize my life is not so bad after all; things could be a whole lot worse. Melinda Clayton has won herself a spot on my ‘must buy’ list for future books.

FYI:

Although this is the third book about Cedar Hollow Ms Clayton has written, I believe it can be read as a standalone story. You may miss some of the richness of the minor characters or of the area in general in doing so though.

At the end of this story Ms Clayton has included questions for book clubs to consider after reading her book. This would be a great book for discussion because everyone has their own story and view point and I am sure everyone can identify with one of more of the characters in this book. I know I did.

Format/Typo Issues:

I noticed NONE at all.

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Closet Full of Coke / Indra Sena

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Memoir

Approximate word count: 65-70,000 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:

Biographical information is limited to the obvious, the book description. However, the book does have a page on Facebook and the author has a blog.

Description:

“Closet Full of Coke tells the story of how a New York suburban fifteen-year-old girl's savvy, grit, and wit helps turn the small-time drug business of Armando, a Colombian drug dealer, into a multi-million-dollar operation that puts them on the DEA's Wanted List.

This intimate diary gives readers a fast-paced glimpse of the couple’s speedy rise to riches, and their inevitable descent.”

Appraisal:

A memoir such as this works on at least two levels. First, as a human-interest story. What motivates someone to make what, in retrospect, is a series of bad decisions? We see how easy it is for setbacks in life to send someone down the wrong path and that it is easy for a person to see the positives of taking a particular route while ignoring the negatives.

But Closet Full of Coke also works as a story to entertain or a means of escape from the real world, just as much as a novel. It has a novel like story arc, characters that fit the same patterns you might see in a novel, and if it hadn’t been made clear in the beginning that it was a true story, you could easily convince yourself that it was fiction with a first person point of view. I was trying to anticipate where the story would go, as I would with a novel, and found myself guessing based on how the fictional world works rather than the real world.

My only minor complaint is that this book cries out for an “afterword.” There is an author’s note that gives a brief update on one of the characters, but I would like to have known what happened to some of the others. At a minimum, in the twenty or thirty years since the events in the story happened, give us a summary of where the author ended up.

FYI:

Adult language and situations

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four stars

Two Children’s Books / Mary Fam

Reviewed by: BigAl with input from The Princess

Genre: The Idea Tree Children’ s Picture Book

            The Stars Twinkle Brightly Illustrated Children’s Book

Approximate word count:

The Idea Tree Fifteen pages (excluding front and back matter)

The Stars Twinkle Brightly 2,100-2,200 words

Availability    

The Idea Tree

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

The Stars Twinkle Brightly

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

“Mary E. Fam, an Educator, has taught students of all ages locally and abroad. She also serves her community as a Youth Mentor. In addition to her Master's thesis/dissertation "The Social and Academic Effects of Bullying" (Fam, 2006), Mary has published various articles on teaching tools that promote student success and been involved in curriculum development at elementary and secondary levels. She is a member of numerous educational organizations that specialize in professional development for teachers and excellence in Education.”

Description:

The Idea Tree

“This is the fantastical tale of the origin of Fall (Autumn) as the product of a single idea. The story resonates messages of confidence, courage, anti-bullying concepts and the encouragement to go forward with a good idea.”

The Stars Twinkle Brightly

 “The story of an eight-year-old boy who discovers he has cancer. The author transforms an otherwise unpleasant topic into an uplifting and useful resource for parents and children dealing with cancer. The boy’s triumph over cancer leaves the reader feeling joyful and comforted and serves as a testimony to the power of perseverance and love. The story promises to provide a positive perspective on the many negatives of childhood cancer. The illustrations give life to the boy’s courage and determination in a colourful and cheerful way!”

Appraisal:

I gave The Princess, my nine year-old granddaughter, several children’s books to read and then quizzed her about them afterwards. Two were Mary Fam’s books, The Idea Tree and The Stars Twinkle Brightly. As soon as I mentioned the first of these in our Q&A session, she smiled and with excitement in her voice said, “I really like this author.”

Before I had a chance to ask my first question about The Idea Tree, she asked if I wanted to know the grade (on an A, B, C, D, F scale, as I’d asked her to do for previous books). She said it was A++. (Apparently Ms. Fam did some extra credit work and scored over 100%.) She thought the vocabulary and story of both books were a good fit for her age (a couple months into grade three) and a year younger. Those in grade one (at least this early in the year) wouldn’t be reading yet.

The message of this book, that it was okay to be different and to “go for it” if you have an idea, is one that seemed to resonate with The Princess. The photographs in the book, while viewable in a grayscale Kindle, really cry out for a color reader such as a Kindle Fire or other tablet computer, as the colors are a big part of the story, supporting and helping drive the message home.

The Stars Twinkle Brightly is longer with many more words. The pictures aren’t as critical to the story, so the necessity isn’t as high for a color reader, although still preferred. When The Princess said, “I really like this author,” she was talking about both books. This one also received an A++, as well as getting the nod when asked to pick her favorite of the two. When I asked her favorite part, I was surprised that her answer was the beginning. She then quoted the first line of the book from memory, “the stars twinkle brightly when the night is quiet and calm.” It makes sense that catching the attention of a young reader from the beginning matters at least as much as with older readers and there was something about this opening line that hooked her.

However, the story, about an eight year-old diagnosed with cancer, obviously interested The Princess as well. A couple years ago she was in an accident that involved hospital time and multiple surgeries, which she related to the challenges the protagonist of this story went through, and she commented in comparison to the girl with cancer in this story, her experience hadn’t been so bad.

When I read it, I agreed; it was a good story, and would be especially well suited to a child of this age who is going through this experience or knows someone who is. (The author went through this when a child, which lends authenticity to the story.) If The Princess’ reaction is a good indication, the target audience is also capable of relating the story to their own lives and experiences.

The Princess says she “really likes books.” The future author also gave these books high marks for inspiration, saying they gave her “ideas to write her own books.”

FYI:

Although I noticed at least one word using UK spelling conventions (colour) and there might be others I missed, it didn’t seem to be an issue for The Princess, which is how it should be. I’ve noticed that she, and I’m guessing many young readers, who are still developing skills in spelling and constantly increasing their vocabularies through their reading, don’t get hung up on such trivial matters as they focus on the story and work out what words they haven’t encountered before are and what they mean.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: ***** Five stars

The Caregiver / Astrid “Artistikem” Cruz

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Crime Fiction/Thriller

Approximate word count: 25-30,000 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:

Astrid Cruz, aka Artistikem, lives in Puerto Rico with her husband, where she’s currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of Puerto Rico. For more, visit her website.

Description:

“Scarlett Lang has always dreamt of becoming an Interpol agent. When her hard work pays off and she's given the chance to work as an undercover agent with London's biggest drug lord, Armand Sayer, she can't help being ecstatic about it.

She's employed by Armand's sister (to aid in his recovery from a gun attack) as both caregiver and bodyguard. Her resourcefulness in both areas helps her win much more than Armand's trust, to the dismay of both his right-hand man and her ex-boyfriend / colleague.

As she makes her way into the business she swore to help tear down, she's faced with the dilemma of choosing between being loyal to her profession or her heart. And we all know it can't be both.”

Appraisal:

This novella is a bit of a police procedural (the protagonist is an undercover agent for Interpol), part thriller, and at times feels like noir (bodies are stacking up, yet no character seems too bothered or finds that strange). However, amongst all the blood, guts, and intrigue, is an interesting question. Can you love someone who seems to be everything you are not and, if so, what might you do about it? A quick and enjoyable read that refused to follow the route I expected, zigging when I expected it to zag.

FYI:

Adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four stars

The Dead Have Ruled the Earth for 200 years / Noah Mullette-Gillman

Reviewed by: ?wazithinkin

Genre: Sci-Fi/ Horror/ Post Apocalyptic

Approximate word count: 35-40,000 words

Availability    

Kindle  US: YES  UK: YES  Nook: NO  Smashwords: YES  Paper: YES

Click on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Smashwords store

Author:

Noah Mullette-Gillman was born in Montclair, New Jersey. He spent his childhood there, as well as in the town of Manly, Australia, and the woods of Upstate New York. He earned a multidisciplinary degree in Philosophy and Creative Writing at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Noah Gillman is an ESL teacher and the author of six books. He also has a drabble in the anthology 100 Horrors. Mullette-Gillman also loves to discuss his books, as well as others he has read, with readers. He has done several author interviews you can check out on his website.

Description:

Two hundred years after humanity was forced to abandon Earth to the zombie hordes, three humans descend to retrieve the most important possession left behind. In armored battle-suits they set out to destroy the zombie hordes that populate the earth to reach their goal and complete their mission.

Appraisal:

I have loved the books by Noah Mullette-Gillman I’ve read previously, because they always have a different perspective on things and this one is certainly unique. He has taken medical science and twisted it into a devastatingly real scenario. The premise of this story is fascinating, but I couldn’t get past all the blood, gore, and destroyed humans to enjoy it.

The book is largely told as narration with the point of view seeming like an uninterested observer. This made me feel like I was an observer too, so it was hard for me to connect to any of the characters. At least a portion of this may be personal taste. Other readers may feel differently. I also thought the author was repetitive at times with certain facts. The plot moves very quickly and is full of zombie smashing action, if this is your thing you will love this. The way the zombies were created and their characteristics were both unique and repulsive.

This is a compelling story with some distinctive elements and some strange twists at the end of the story. This author’s mind is brilliantly scary; he has a lot of potential. Although this book didn’t work for me because I was never drawn into the story enough to care about the characters, I’m still eager to see what Mullete-Gillman writes next.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant errors with typos.

There are some formatting issues with the Kindle version from Amazon. These include improper line breaks, double quotes instead of apostrophes, and in some cases spaces missing between words.

Rating: *** Three Stars

The Good American / B Sidney Smith

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Politics/Current Events

Approximate word count: 15-20,000 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:

“B. Sidney Smith served in the US Army as an enlisted soldier for five years in the 1980's, much of it spent driving M1 battle tanks around the German Countryside. Although the Chief Tobias mysteries are fictional, their themes, events, and characters are taken from these experiences.

After his discharge, he returned to school, eventually earning a PhD in mathematics from the University of Colorado. While a college math teacher, he became active in Radford University's Peace Studies program, and joined International Philosophers for Peace and the Institute for Economic Democracy, for which he is now an editor and co-director.

Now a recovering math professor, he resides in central Virginia with his wife and their standard poodles, Hypatia and Madeleine, tending his garden and geese, editing and promoting books on economic democracy.”

Smith also has a novel, The Officer’s Wife, available for Kindles or in a paper version.

Description:

“In this exhaustively sourced account, mathematician B. Sidney Smith shines a stark light on every elephant in the room: out of control militarism, the rape of our economy, the propaganda that infantilizes our people and neutralizes their citizenship, and over it all the terrifying spectre of population overshoot—a disaster that is already upon us. But there is no ‘doom and gloom’ hand-wringing here. Dr. Smith ends his account with a stirring call to action, the promise of hope and a bright future—if we but have the patriotic courage to turn aside from partisan folly, redress our errors, and shoulder once again the obligations of citizenship.”

Appraisal:

Subtitled A Situation Report for Citizens, The Good American outlines issues the author feels have to be addressed if the US as a country (and really the world as a whole) hope to survive more than a generation or two. These are problems that require action now. Some are environmental, while others are cultural. Although a short read, Smith efficiently explains each of the problems and makes an excellent case (with endnotes to sources for virtually every claim he makes). As claimed in the book’s description, he avoids the doom and gloom language often found in books such as this, although the picture he paints is far from pretty.

I have only two relatively minor nits to pick with Smith’s approach. The first is that this would have been better if there was no sign of partisanship. In the introduction, Smith summarizes some  current political issues, including the 2012 US Presidential race, and gives an even-handed argument that concludes neither major party candidate is a good choice. That cries out for an alternative, and he suggests one. I’m afraid that going partisan may cause some readers with strong party affiliation to abandon the book for that reason. However, if he was going to do this the way he did, doing it in the beginning and then staying away from any obviously partisan political statements for the remainder of the book, was the right choice.

My other nit is that, at least to me, the language used to describe certain situations often felt like the same kind of verbiage used by conspiracy theorists. Yet what was being described didn’t feel like an organized conspiracy (something requiring multiple people to coordinate), but instead something more informal. He also does a much better job of sourcing his contentions than the typical conspiracy theorist rather than requiring we take it on faith. Possibly his political slant is closer to my own political beliefs, making me more willing to see things as he describes them, but much of what he described seemed self-evident.

Regardless of your politics, regardless of who you’re going to vote for in the next election, The Good American is something everyone in the US should read and decide for themselves. 

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues

Rating: **** Four stars

The Way of the River / Randy Kadish

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Memoir

Approximate word count: 40-45,000 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:

Randy Kadish’s writing has appeared in flyfishing journals and magazines. His stories often combine his love of fishing with people struggling to do good while fighting their demons. Kadish’s fishing tips and more information about his book and stories can be found on his website. 

Description:

“The Way of the River is a collection of memoirs and autobiographical stories that reflect Randy Kadish's long journey of fishing and spiritual recovery. The journey, often difficult, often gratifying, began when he finally admitted to himself that he couldn't communicate, and that his life had become unmanageable.”

Appraisal:

Most of my life, I’ve divided books into three categories, which I’ve read for three disparate reasons. Fiction was for entertainment. Non-fiction was divided into the more technical, which was for learning, and those that were biographical, to re-live things I’ve experienced in the past and to live vicariously those I haven’t. The latter were also good for comparing the thinking and motivations of other humans, both as a means to understand others and to help understand myself. I’ve since realized that benefits overlap more than my explanations would indicate, but as a broad brush definition, I think they’re valid.

My reason for bringing this up is twofold. The first is that Randy Kadish’s writing I’d read prior to this was fiction, yet it was one of those exceptions, where in addition to entertainment, there was a lesson to be learned about the human condition buried in there if you were interested. My second thought is that, in the past (before the days of indie publishing), most memoirs I was aware of were by someone famous (or possibly infamous). While they might be inspirational (maybe a rags to riches story), they were also about people who, because of that fame, were harder to relate to, even if their name made the book more marketable.

I’ve found I can relate to the memoirs from people whose lives are more mainstream. Kadish is much more like you or I than one of those more famous memoirists. That Kadish and I are both male and about the same age might help too. This book is a series of essays where he works through the things that bother him about his life so far, regrets for choices not made and paths not taken. Each is done against the backdrop of his avocation of flyfishing, with his challenges on the river or stream often helping illuminate something about his life. It resonated for me, though I’ve never cast a fly in my entire life.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: ***** Five stars

The Dark Man’s Son-Meg Whitlock

Reviewed by: Pete Barber

Genre: Supernatural Thriller

Approximate word count: 95,000-100,000 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:

Meg Whitlock graduated from Queens University of Charlotte with a BA in Comparative Arts with an Art History specialization and an Ancient History minor. In 2001 her one-act play, The Shoebox, was produced by Catawba College in Salisbury, NC and presented at the American College Theatre Festival. She was honored by Art:21 and the Mint Museum of Art for her essay Kara Walker: Using Stereotypes to Provoke Thought, and she's won awards for both her fiction and non-fiction writing. The Dark Man’s Son is her first novel.

Description:

A mysterious and powerful woman saves Jason Latimer from being beaten up by two muggers. The woman, Alex, is a Guardian (kinda like a guardian angel, but slightly different), and she is drawn to Jason because he (unbeknown to him at the time) is part angel. The story follows Jason and Alex as they discover what Jason’s true purpose is. This is planned to be the first of a series, and much of the book deals with building the world these characters will populate.

Appraisal:

The premise of the story (as told in the blurb and then the Amazon sample) attracted me. I enjoy tales of mythical beings: demons and angels, Guardians with supernatural powers and magic swords. But the writing was so poor that I just couldn’t get into the characters. I think Jason is the main protagonist, although it might have been Alex. The real issue though, is that I didn’t care. For me, it’s impossible to enjoy a story, if I don’t care about the main characters. Because I write, I know why this happened: it’s all about the Point of View. But if I didn’t write, I’d have the same reaction, I just wouldn’t know why. I need to get inside a character and live the events through them, from their perspective. That’s what makes a story compelling. In Dark Man’s Son, I was in everybody’s head all the time.

Here’s an example with three characters in one paragraph:

In that moment Rorik loathed Cassius more than he ever had. Jason boggled at the idea that this ruthless being could really be his father. Asmodeus wondered if there were a polite way to ask for a refill.

Three sentences, three heads. I can’t feel engaged with three characters at once. During the early parts of the story, I felt like the comedian Louis Black—about to explode, but eventually the strain wore me down until my mind was just numb.

The other aspect I found disappointing was with the powers these supernatural beings possessed. These were alluded to, but never explained, and more importantly, rarely shown. If Alex, a lithe, young-looking woman has kick-ass powers, I want to see them work. I want to watch the beams of light, or fires, or shimmering lights. I want to see her vanquished enemy explode, or disintegrate, or something, well, supernatural. But, except in the first fight where she opens some whoop-ass (featured in the Amazon sample), all that happened is her eyes changed color and people disappeared, or were sent to Hell (literally, because they’re demons), or they saw her sword, got frightened, and backed off.

I hate writing poor reviews. I know how much work goes into a novel. But a good fiction editor, or even an online critiquing group, could help straighten out these issues, and maybe if the craft were fixed a story might shine through.

Format/Typo Issues:

Not enough to be of concern.

Rating: ** Two stars