Freedom’s Sword / J.R. Tomlin

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Historical

Approximate word count: 75-80,000 words

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Author:

J.R. Tomlin is a native Texan who grew up in Texas and Scotland. A former Texas Longhorn, she now lives in the Pacific Northwest. She has six novels, some which are Scottish historical fiction and others, co-written with writing partner C.R. Daems, are fantasy. J.R.’s short story A Long Lonely Time, won fourth place in a contest held by Red Adept Reviews and was included in the anthology of contest winners, Twists and Turns. For more, visit the author’s blog.

Description:

You may have heard of William Wallace or Robert the Bruce, both depicted in the movie Braveheart. Freedom’s Sword is the fictionalized story of Andrew de Moray, another historic Scotsman who played a key part in Scotland’s battle to maintain its independence from England.

Appraisal:

Historical fiction is a genre I’ve typically shied away from. I think this is because I didn’t think I could relate. This is a prejudice I’ve had with other genres, mostly science fiction and fantasy. By making a conscious effort to expand the universe of what I read, I’ve found that my prejudice was unfounded, at least partially. While the world in which these stories take place is different, when done well the characters are still very relatable in their hopes and struggles.

Although the setting of Scotland in the thirteenth century is very different from our modern world, the characters in Freedom’s Sword experience the universal struggle of keeping what is theirs: property, culture, and the right to govern themselves. Wartime is a good setting for a story with lots of action, plenty of heroes to love, and more than enough villains to hate. The author tells the story well and I found myself drawn into the story. Unfortunately, I also found myself jarred out of the story by minor, but frequent typo and proofing errors.

Format/Typo Issues:

A large number of typos and proofing errors.

Rating: *** Three stars

Amityville House of Pancakes, Vol. 3 / Pete S. Allen (Ed)

Reviewed by: Arthur Graham

Genre: Humorous speculative fiction

Approximate word count: 85-90,000

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Author:

Gary K. Wolf is the Hugo-winning author of Who Censored Roger Rabbit?, an obscure novel adapted for the big screen in the similarly titled (if better known) 1988 film. Jehane Baptiste (a man “who has known many priests in the course of his career”) joins Wolf to co-author his first published work of science fiction.

K.M. Praschak’s work has appeared in Star*line, a science fiction poetry journal, and Jigsaw Nation, a short fiction anthology.

Paul Kane is a widely published writer and teacher. The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy (McFarland, 2006) is one of his nonfiction efforts.

Description:

Amityville House of Pancakes (“AHOP” to the initiated) is an anthology of humorous speculative fiction first released in 2004 by Creative Guy Publishing. This 3rd volume from 2006 features three medium-length works from the above-mentioned authors.

Appraisal:

The UnHardy Boys in Outer Space relates the foibles of two unlikely heroes on board an international space station in the not-too-distant future. A perfect odd couple by any other measure, novelist Michael Henry and Father Jack Edwards are nevertheless drawn together by their shared love of science fiction, suggesting interesting parallels between the two authors (Wolf & Baptiste) and their chosen protagonists. Equal parts comedy, bromance, and action adventure, this first offering from AHOP 2006 bears a satirical resemblance to the popular teen novels referenced in its title.

Praschak submits Paragon, a space opera drawing heavily from the well-worn conventions (some might say clichés) of that particular genre. All of the expected elements are here (bony-browed aliens, sentient machines, doomsday scenarios, etc.), and fans will find the service fair enough. Unfortunately, however, the story suffers from mediocre presentation at points. While not poorly written by any means, it lapses into bland description and wooden dialogue often enough to pale in comparison with the two tales sandwiching it. Further displacing “Paragon” was its overall tone, which was serious enough to make me wonder why something so incongruously heavy was selected for a humor anthology in the first place.

Dalton Quayle and the Curse of King Tuti Fruiti (Kane) represents an episode from the continuing adventures of the title character and his colleague, Dr. Pemberton. In this campy caper, the duo is hot on the trail of a recently escaped mummy. Over the course its telling, the author lays down enough puns to build an entire pyramid (or at least a “pun”ctilious base), but they rarely grow corny enough to take much away from the otherwise snappy banter between our intrepid investigator and his bumbling sidekick. Droll, tongue in cheek humor abounds throughout, and frequent references to previous Dalton Quayle adventures add quite a bit to the story despite providing only a minimum of context.

As for the collection itself, I’d love to give it higher marks overall, but the uneven quality of the stories and the lack of any real cohesion between them (the running commentary feels tacked on and half baked) left me longing for a more fully realized experience. I’ve not read anything else from the AHOP series, but despite my complaints here, I must admit that I do find myself curious what the others have to offer.

FYI:

Some mildly suggestive humor, UK slang/usage.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Overall rating: *** Three stars

Initiation / Imogen Rose

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: YA/Paranormal

Approximate word count: 90-95,000 words

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Author:

Globetrotter Imogen Rose is Swedish by birth, went to college in London where she received a PhD in immunology, and is now a Jersey girl. After her eight-year-old daughter insisted she write down her stories, Rose wrote the first of her Portal Chronicles series and decided to let it out into the world. The response was so positive that she’s continued with three books in the series. at least one more planned, and started two other series. For more, visit Rose’s website.

Description:

The first book in Rose’s Bonfire Academy series. This new series ties into the Bonfire Chronicles series, of which Rose has one book thus far, Faustine.

Initiation could be considered a prequel to Faustine as that book takes place after Faustine’s graduation from the Bonfire Academy. This book introduces us to several students, including Faustine, at that exclusive private school for paranormals near St Moritz, in the foothills of the Alps, and takes us through their first year.

Initiation has been picked as a Red Adept Select book. These are books that “stand out from the crowd” among those edited by the team at Red Adept Publishing.

Appraisal:

Think about the average high school, full of hormonal teens pushing all the limits set by those in authority (I had to dig deep into my repressed memory to remember. If I can do it, so can you.). Now give those teens paranormal powers that they are still learning to control (not unlike those hormones in humans). In fact, learning about their just emerging powers — how to control them, and how to put them to the proper use — is the reason the Bonfire Academy exists. With werewolves, vampires, shape shifters, and wanderers, along with various hybrids, life at Bonfire Academy is even more complicated than a regular high school.

Although Initiation focuses on Faustine, who Rose fans will know from the book of the same name, and Cordelia, an older student assigned as Faustine’s mentor, the book has enough other characters who play major roles that it could easily be viewed as an ensemble cast. It appears the Bonfire Academy series will be a prequel to the Bonfire Chronicles series. Those who haven’t read Faustine should have no problem understanding, while those who have will meet a younger, less mature version of Faustine along with an earlier glimpse of a few characters they’ll remember from Faustine.

With Initiation, Rose introduces a series that should be a hit for fans of YA Paranormal (a demographic that seems to include as many adults as teens). She has laid the groundwork for at least two more books in the Bonfire Academy series and the possibility of many more in the Bonfire Chronicles series.

FYI:

A small amount of adult language and a small amount of relatively mild sexual content (implied, rather than explicit). Nothing a typical high school student won’t hear in an average school day.

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: ***** Five stars

Double Agent / Sean Sweeney

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Thriller

Approximate word count: 125-130,000 words

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Author:

Sean Sweeney lives in Massachusetts, where he covers sports for the local newspaper. He has written several novels. This is the third in the Jaclyn Johnson, code name Snapshot thriller series.

Description:

After a bombing of the Las Vegas Monorail narrowly misses killing the President of the United States, CIA Director Alexandra Dupuis sends her top agent, Jaclyn Johnson, to find out who is responsible and stop them from committing additional terrorist attacks.

Appraisal:

The Jaclyn Johnson novels partially follow the same formula as Ian Fleming’s James Bond, novels with their overblown villains and sexy protagonist with a toolkit full of futuristic tricks-of-the-trade. By moving the setting to the future (albeit, just a few years) and making his protagonist a female, Sweeney has added his own twists to the formula. Rather than communists and megalomaniacal psychopaths with the goal of world domination, Sweeney gives us villains who are religious fundamentalist terrorists or megalomaniacal psychopaths with the goal of world domination. Sweeney’s heroine shows her humanity and the chinks in her armor much more readily than Fleming’s Bond. Where Bond’s only nod to human frailty is an apparent sexual addiction (offset by his superhuman ability to bed a series of unbelievably beautiful women), Johnson makes mistakes. While she tries to hide it, she has doubts. And as for her sexuality, her upbringing stunted her development in this area, which is just starting to catch up to her peers in this third installment of the series.

In a thriller, the plot matters more than the character, and Sweeney has put together a good, fast-paced plot full of the usual action, weapons (including the infamous WOMTD aka weapons of mass transit destruction), and technological tricks. But what separates one thriller from the next is the characters. While I’d rather be James Bond, I’d much rather know Jaclyn Johnson.

FYI:

Some adult language and sexual situations.

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: ***** Five stars

How the West was Weird / Various

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Western/Science Fiction/Paranormal/Short Story

Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words

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Author:

Multiple authors: Joshua Reynolds, Joel Jenkins, Ian Taylor, Thomas Deja, Mike McGee, Barry Reese, Ian Mileham, Derrick Ferguson, and Bill Kte’pi each contributed a story.

Description:

“Nine original tales of the weird, Wild West.”

Appraisal:

Although one of the stories is futuristic and set in space instead of the historical Wild West, the environment is still not unlike the old west (it does deal with rustlers). Most of these stories are set in the old west and are at least marginally in the western genre. However, each has something more, whether a paranormal twist (vampires and zombies make appearances) or a supernatural element of some kind. None of them is going to be mistaken for Zane Grey.

Although it has been several decades since I last read something in the Western genre and many would claim the genre is dead (despite John Locke’s Emmett Love Western series proving there is a market among Kindle readers), I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. As you can expect with an anthology, some of the stories resonated more than others, but the strange genre blending was weird in a way I liked. If you like westerns or paranormal, taking a walk on the weird side should feed your normal craving while adding a little of that spice that some call variety.

FYI:

Some adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues. 

Rating: **** Four stars

His Wife for a While / Donna Fasano

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Romance

Approximate word count: 50-55,000 words

Availability
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Author:

A bestselling and award-winning author of romance and chick lit, both under her own name and as Donna Clayton, Fasano has written over thirty novels and sold more than 3.5 million books in her twenty-some-odd year career. Fasano lives on the Atlantic seaboard, and loves to go to the beach whenever she can, although actually getting in the water where creatures live is a different story. For more, visit her website.

Description:

A strange but ironclad condition in his grandfather’s will means Ben Danvers must get married or he’ll lose the family business. With the deadline rapidly approaching, Chelsea Carson approaches Ben with a win-win solution, a temporary marriage. If he’ll agree to her simple terms, she’ll get what she wants and Ben can save the business. A great professional arrangement for both, as long as love doesn’t enter the picture.

Harlequin previously published this book under Fasano’s Donna Clayton pen name. It has been updated, expanded, and re-edited for this Indie re-release.

Appraisal:

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover the diversity of character and plot possible in romance novels, despite the constraints of genre convention. Even though you know the hero and heroine will end up together, understanding the hurdles they must overcome and how they stumble their way to the happily-ever-after ending is entertaining. In the case of the better authors such as Fasano, they often provide insight or new perspectives into the human condition. His Wife for a While explores some of the things that get in the way of love blossoming and the importance of communication. If there is any truth to the cliché that “love makes the world go round,” I guess it makes sense that the quest for love in romance novels could help our understanding of the world.

FYI:

Some very mild sexual content.

Format/Typo Issues:

The review is based on a Beta copy. I can’t evaluate the final product in this area. 

Rating: **** Four stars

A Light to Starve By / Axel Taiari

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Paranormal

Approximate word count: 8-9,000 words

Availability
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Author:

The creator and co-editor of Rotten Leaves magazine (an online literary magazine), Axel Taiari’s short fiction has appeared in many magazine and anthologies. For more, visit the author’s website.

Description:

This dark novelette imagines a time in the not too distant future when vampires and werewolves are “hunted like rabid dogs.” A vaccine, which most people have received, makes their blood poisonous. What’s a poor, starving vampire to do?

This novelette was previously published as part of Eternal Night: A Vampire Anthology.

Appraisal:

It seems vampire tales are everywhere these days. Sometimes they are almost like “one of us” (maybe even prime boyfriend or girlfriend material), while others they’re the enemy of humans. In A Light to Starve By they are the enemy, yet it is much different because the protagonist is a vampire, setting the reader up to sympathize and root for him – not because he is, or despite him being, a vampire, but due to his human qualities. Taiari does a great job in quickly acclimating the reader to his imaginary world, and ramping up the action to the story’s conclusion.

FYI:

Some adult language. Although the author grew up in Paris and I would assume English is his second language, nothing offered a clue that this was the case. His command of the language is on par with (and better than many) native English speakers.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant errors

Rating: **** Four stars

#OWS (or how to get "The Book" for free)

I'm sure most of those who follow BigAl's Books and Pals, regardless of where you live are familiar with the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and the many localized movements patterned after it in cities and towns across the US. Even my little town of 60,000 has an Occupy encampment on the grounds of the local university. I'll refrain from taking a stand, for or against the movement here. 


However, I got an email from author M. Clifford a few days ago asking me to help spread the word about a chance to get his novel, "The Book" for free. He explains why he is doing this on his blog, where you can see his full explanation. The short story is it was inspired by the eviction of the Occupy Wall Street protesters from Zucotti Park in New York City last Tuesday morning. Here is a part of his explanation:


What is most disturbing to me as an author is knowing that the 5,500 books from The People's Library that had been donated to the protesters were tossed into the back of those trucks!Now, this isn't Hitler's Germany here. I don't mean to come across like some activist who thinks there is a conspiracy to rid the protests of thought provoking literature. BUT - - - truth - - - it still happened. Dump trucks filled with books were hauled away from a peaceful protest by a dominating government agency without warning and under the cover of darkness in the middle of a media blackout. It sounds bad - it probably isn't - but it's still something to stir your blood. Are there justifiable reasons? Apparently. Is it likely that these books will find a home somewhere? I suppose. But the point is that the books had a peaceful home and they were forcibly removed.

His book is about a future where all books are electronic (kind of like those on our Kindles and Nooks) and can only be read on a government issued reading device called "The Book." It explores topics that should be of interest to all readers, especially those of us who are consuming much or all of our books in an electronic form.

To claim your free copy of The Book visit Clifford's website where you'll see a very prominent link to start the download.

Phone Kitten / Marika Christian

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Mystery/Thriller/Chick Lit

Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words

Availability
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Author:

Dog lover Marika Christian lives in New Orleans. This is her first novel. For more, visit Christian’s blog.

Description:

Wannabe newspaper reporter Emily is shy and slightly overweight. When she gets fired from her foot-in-the-door job at the paper, she takes a position that seems totally unsuited to her personality, as a phone sex worker, and discovers she has a hidden talent. All goes well until a client is murdered and Emily decides solving the crime is her ticket to a reporting job.

Appraisal:

In spite of a problem with typos and proofing errors, primarily missing “little” words (of, a, and such) enough to cause me to trip over sentences as I was reading, this is a fun story. The main character, Emily, is fun, humorous, and much more likeable (to both the reader and other characters) than she would think, given her self-esteem issues. Emily’s friends, especially the gay couple who run one of her favorite restaurants and her love interest, are all entertaining characters who add a lot to the story. The combination of mystery and chick lit should appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum.

FYI:

Limited adult language and situations. (Much less and more mild that you might expect based on Emily’s job.)

Format/Typo Issues:

A large number of typos and other proofing errors. 

Rating: *** Three stars

The Burning Sky / Joseph Robert Lewis

Reviewed by: BigAl

Genre: Fantasy/Thriller/Steampunk

Approximate word count: 130-135,000 words

Availability
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Author:

Lewis says he began his career writing “about deadly firefights in Afghanistan and Iraq, studying cutting-edge information technologies, and chronicling personal journeys of exploration around the world.” (That sounds like he was a writer in the military to me.) He now writes novels, with eight available in multiple genres plus an omnibus edition of the Halcyon Trilogy. For more, visit Lewis’ website.

Description:

Airship engineer Tazri Ohana survives an attack on the airfield and is drafted to help chase the criminals responsible. This is the first book in the Halcyon trilogy.

Appraisal:

I’d heard of the steampunk genre (usually when someone in a forum referenced it as a sub-genre that is underserved by traditional publishers), but don’t think I’ve read anything that fit the definition until now. For those as clueless as I was as to what fits this genre, here is what Wikipedia says:

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain—that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or more recently Philip Pullman and China Mieville.

Unlike many steampunk novels, The Burning Sky isn’t set in Victorian era Britain, but on an alternate version of the Earth, based on the premise that Europe didn’t emerge from the Ice Age and is mostly uninhabitable. Lewis gives a brief author’s note explaining this and setting expectations. Wikipedia calls steampunk novels with this type setting fantasy or fantasy-world steampunk.

My favorite things about The Burning Sky were the plot, which is a thriller, and understanding the alternative world Lewis has created. The premise of Lewis’ world means the history of the world would have changed; how everything, from science to culture, would have developed differently from the Ice Age to the time the story is set. This makes anticipating how people will react and the direction the story might go more unpredictable. The Burning Sky kept me guessing, right up to its dramatic conclusion.

FYI:

A small amount of adult language.

Format/Typo Issues:

No significant issues.

Rating: **** Four stars