P-Date: 2024
Genre: Thriller
Review: This was a well written thriller that had some good movement. It was just predictable and somewhat boring. The characters were patterned after most movies where time is running out as terrorists implement their evil plans. Throw in a president an Ice cold CIA Deputy Director and an international caste of spies and Bingo! a movie is born.
Hard pass on this series.
Rating: 2.5/5
P-Date: 2023
Genre: SciFi
Review: Conflicted, you are. Hmmmm? Well, I really liked the world building for this alien landscape although the story line was borrowed from John Carter. Like Carter, douche noz……er Liam, arrives on an alien planet with superman like powers and helps the sundered and war torn masses, blah, blah. Despite the obvious rip-off, I thought the author did a good job building unique characters.
Overall an average work that trended towards duplicative emotional inner-dialogue. I think every chapter had the brat crying over his lost parents, either in real-time or in nightmares. Wah. “Crash this, crash that”. Fug. Repetitive instances does not a character build. Dom was also built with the tradgedies of his past. Again wah. Overuse of phrasing was in evidence with the “Rolling his/her eyes”.
This author is on the cusp. Let us see if there is a rise to greatness.
Rating: 3.3/5
P-Date: 2023
Genre: Fantasy/Steampunk
Review: I was really impressed with this work by a relatively unknown writer. This reeks of Holmes and Watson’s pursuit of the arch-evil network, replaced with Cast and Ellyx as our daring duo. The cover art is confusing as the descriptions of our duo is one of an older (graying) alchemist and a grown woman, not a little girl.
There is a tinge of the Steampunkian throughout this novel that plays really well with setting the impression of the world. Alchemy bridged with the mechanical and contraptions that are self-powered, as well as Vril powered gaslights invigorate the story line. Why even an airship is forthcoming. YES!
The character development is what really drives the story, as it is coupled impeccably to the movement.
Get this!
P-Date: 2024
Genre: Romance
Review: This is being sold as a mystery (which it isn’t) and a thriller. This is more along the lines of a romance novel with some daring do thrown in here and there to spice it up.
So, we have a hunky guy with tousled hair, a hot bod, shattered past, and a heart of gold running a detective agency. Check. His partner whom he has constant naughty thoughts about is a super sexy native american (part) and an orphan who wishes they could act on their obvious love and animal attraction. Check. Throw in the gruff but lovable Navy Seal who is always good for a handy plot device and bingo, the formula is set for another patterned “mystery”.
If you like thinly built characters and the constant physical commentary of the lustful kind and a biker gang that rides around with pirate masks and long swords threatening our super wonder duo, then this is for you.
Rating: 1.0/5
P-Date: 2024
Genre: Mystery/Fantasy
Review: This was a fun read albeit short in length. The characters are well built within the limits of the story line. The movement is well paced and the world building is kind of meh.
Although the culprit is easy to spot within the first few chapters, I don’t think that this was the point of the novel. The point was to test how far to bend the genre by mixing mystery and fantasy as well as introducing an MC that will most likely return in another installment.
The editors need to make another go at reducing the grammatical errors and the paragraph duplications. If this was a longer novel, an easy 4 stars.
Rating: 3.5/5
P-Date: 2024
Genre: SciFi
Review: Is it ok that I don’t get it? A story line that is bereft of empathy, inter-change, emotion, and communication makes for inventive writing but leaves the reader empty. Emotionally wilted, our MC does not even question her surroundings and the circumstances in which she finds herself. Her motivations are purely self-centered as evidenced by her constant self-recrimination. Maybe that is natural but within this inner conflagration she will suddenly go to a moon or go to a planet and allow weird shjt to happen and then it is never given any thought again. It is like she is in a constant state of short-term memory loss.
The writer creates for themselves a menagerie of prose that is supposed to be creative/clever. In application this prose or poetical writing is perhaps intentionally vacant in hopes that it adds tension. What it really does is annoy this reader. Nothing connects. Not the dialogue, not the scenes, not the instances of exchange between people and definitely not the science part of fiction.
This is a novel of what could have been. Character exchanges were stilted and bland. Saying one word responses to serious questions does not make the scene pivotal. It is intentionally vague to mask the lack of effort it takes to weave some mystery into the work. In short, I just got angrier with every page turned.
I know I am the lone outcast not exhibiting gushing praise because I need to show everyone how connected and hip I am in understanding “eco-prose” and “lyrical” this and that while promoting drivel.
At any rate, I dug a hole for this book and buried a dead racoon on top of it.
Rating: 1.5/5
P-Date: 2024
Genre: Mystery
Review: Ugghh. Another English Police procedurals novel with no mystery. Endless dialogue coupled with infinte scene descriptions of the mundane. This was as boring as a box of cat food.
Rating: .99/5
P-Date: 2024
Genre: Fantasy
Review: This was like Alice in Wonderland dropped acid with Ayahuasca. What begins as a fairly normal SciFi novel, quickly morphs into something that bridges the past into the fantasical present. It just seems plausible with the back story rendered in the sublime, that talking societal beavers and huge moths used for travel is granted freedom to happlily co-exist within your mind. Wizards that can craft a human body for a talking possum is a logical process when you accept the inception event that made it possible.
The diverse character presentation was the most riveting part of this novel. Every turn in the story line is met with a different persona/being and culture. The twists are sudden and delightful.
The writing is superb. Most of the novel is written from the perspective of the Chronicler. An AI that resides within Ariel, gathering knowledge and providing insights. The world building is like a better version of Alice that embraces the authentic. There is some blah, blah carbon counting science speculation. Most of Earth would have to be bog for that theory to work.
This novel is a fantastic read. GET IT!
Rating: 4.7/5
P-Date: 2024
Genre: Mystery
Review: This was not really my thing at the get go. The interchages between the two DCI police couple was stilted in a sense that every response seemed scripted. This failed to build individual characterization. Exlamation points after one word responses and “What a wonderful day!” etc. seemed a bit pushed in terms of real world instances.
The overly descriptive English writing style is also in evidence. Every single minute detail of their surroundings is strung out as a vehicle to carry the backstory which is uninteresting and somewhat smug in delivery.
Start a murder mystery with intensity as that will grip the reader. The world building can unfold along with the main story line, not subsume it.
Rating: DNF
P-Date: 2024
Genre: SciFi
Review: A boy and his talking dog…er, or a man and his anthropomorphic shepherd? This has been done, at least thematically, a couple of times. I just got done reading a girl and her dog hunting aliens on another planet. Does this measure up?
Kind of. This is a really short story. Maybe half of a short story. Straight forward writing style with plenty of brevity to keep the reader engaged. No irrelevant details to bog it down. Just straight to the dam point with a little mystery thrown in for good measure. Although not technically sound, this writer knows how to entertain and should seek to expand the world in a lengthier novel.
Rating: 3.3/5
Viking Jam 