Posts from 2011 :: Page 2

Review

The Restoration Game

Posted: November 16, 2011 by Shawn in Books that are Mediocre Meta: Ken MacLeod, Science Fiction
The Restoration Game

Sadly I think I can write up this review for Ken MacLeod‘s THE RESTORATION GAME (Amazon) in one, short sentence. Ready for it?

Too little, too late.
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Review

Chicks Kick Butt

Chicks Kick Butt

Yeah, yeah, don’t roll your eyes at me. The title CHICKS KICK BUTT (Amazon) sounds totally cliché and dumb and silly. But it’s totally fun and entertaining. CHICKS is a short story compilation of several popular female Urban Fantasy authors—some you’ve heard of and some you haven’t—and other than a couple of mediocre entries, is a solid group of stories. So let’s get to it, shall we?
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Review

The Third Section

Posted: November 11, 2011 by Steven in Books We Love Meta: Jasper Kent, Horror
The Third Section

By now most of you faithful readers should have picked up a copy of Jasper Kent‘s novel, TWELVE. If you are like me, TWELVE (Amazon) completely blew you away with its terrific blend of Historical Fiction and Horror. I mean, come on, that ending? That was freaking awesome. And the twist made it even more horrific and awesome. TWELVE easily became one of my favorite books last year. The sequel, THIRTEEN YEARS LATER (EBR Review), was awesome in its own way, but fell juuuuuuust short of its predecessor.

And now we get book three, THE THIRD SECTION (Amazon).
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Review

Gateways

Gateways

I’m not sure if I’ve ever read anything quite like GATEWAYS (Amazon). On the outside it looks like any regular old collection of short stories and novellas. Sometimes those collections have a central premise or theme, and this one certainly does. But it’s the premise and how it’s put together that really got to me. The premise is “Isn’t Frederick Pohl awesome? Let’s have a book to celebrate him.”
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Review

Siren Song

Posted: November 7, 2011 by Vanessa in Books that are Mediocre Meta: Cat Adams, Urban Fantasy
Siren Song

In BLOOD SONG (EBR Review), Celia was attacked by a vampire, but not turned completely. Instead she’s an “abomination”, a sort of vampire limbo, with both perks and disadvantages. She also learned that her great-grandmother is a Siren—yes, the magical variety who can sing men to their deaths—and since being bitten it appears that these traits have finally manifested for Celia. The perk: men come when she needs. The disadvantage: women hate her.
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Review

The Alloy of Law

Posted: November 4, 2011 by Steven in Books We Love Meta: Brandon Sanderson, Fantasy
The Alloy of Law

My favorite works by Brandon Sanderson are his Mistborn novels (Amazon). From the moment I picked up THE FINAL EMPIRE all the way through the last page of THE HERO OF AGES, I was loving the series. I like all of Sanderson’s novels, but the Mistborn series, for me, is far better than all the rest.

And now we have a new Mistborn novel, THE ALLOY OF LAW (Amazon). When I received a copy of this in the mail, everything else went on hold.
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Review

Spellbound

Posted: November 2, 2011 by Steven in Books We Love Meta: Larry Correia, Urban Fantasy
Spellbound

If you are a fan of Larry Correia‘s work, you’ve had a sweet year. MONSTER HUNTER ALPHA (EBR Review). DEAD SIX (EBR Review). HARD MAGIC (EBR Review). Yeah… that’s some good reading. You know from my reviews that I have liked all of these books. But of all of them, HARD MAGIC is the one that grabbed my attention. It marked the start of a terrific Alternate History Urban Fantasy Dieselpunk Science Fiction Fantasy novel. For the sake of having a usable category, I call it Urban Fantasy.

Anyway…
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Review

Dark Jenny

Posted: October 31, 2011 by Writer Dan in Books that are Mediocre Meta: Alex Bledsoe, Fantasy, Mystery
Dark Jenny

Important disclosure: this book was completely not for me. At the same time though, I think that there are a bunch of people that will really like the thing. Let’s make this clear though: I’m not one of them.

DARK JENNY (Amazon) is the third Eddie Lacrosse novel by author Alex Bledsoe. I haven’t read any of the other novels in the series prior to this, but I don’t think I suffered because of that. This time is told as a frame story about something that happened a while ago in Mr. Lacrosse’s life, dealing with the history of Great Britain… erm… Grand Bruan.
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Review

The Falling Machine

Posted: October 28, 2011 by Vanessa in Books We Like Meta: Andrew P. Mayer, Steampunk
The Falling Machine

Sarah Stanton is the only child of business magnate Alexander Stanton. She’s a woman ahead of her time—her time being New York’s 1880s, the Gilded Age of industry and technology, but otherwise behind on women’s suffrage.

However, Sarah doesn’t let her father or society’s strictures slow her down. Sure she has to wear a bustle and corset, and her father wants to marry her off by the end of the season, but that doesn’t stop her from trying to find Sir Dennis Darby’s killer.
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Review

Dead of Night

Posted: October 24, 2011 by Steven in Books We Love Meta: Jonathan Maberry, Horror
Dead of Night

As much as I liked zombies, I think there was a point where I reached my limit. I used to get all sorts of excited when I read the back of a novel and the golden word “zombie” jumped out at me. But then things got a little out of control. Zombies were everywhere; TV, movies, books… wherever you looked a zombie was staring back at you. So I cut back. I stuck to AMC’s The Walking Dead and the excellent comic it is based one. I limited my zombie novels to those by two authors: Mira Grant and Jonathan Maberry. A month or two ago I started feeling an itch. A desire to read about zombies. Right when I was about to give in, I got Maberry’s new, straight-up zombie novel in the mail, DEAD OF NIGHT. Not only did I get to indulge my slight itch for zombies, but I did it by reading one of my favorite authors.
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