Posts from 2011 :: Page 4

Celia West had it good growing up. At least that’s what everyone thinks. She’s the daughter of the wealthiest man in Commerce City, and heir to the West fortune. Dad and mom are also superheros. Everyone asks what it was like growing up with Captain Olympus for a dad and Spark for a mother. Celia avoids the question, but if she answered it straight up she’d say, “Not as awesome as you would think.”

But Celia has since graduated from college, moved out of the luxury penthouse she grew up in and into her own place, and works as a forensic accountant at one of the city’s biggest accounting firms. She only wants to be normal. And pretty much avoid her estranged father.
Read the rest of this review »

You know, sometimes I’m a whiner. I admit it. If there’s something in a book bothers me, I mention it. Something I think could be better in a story? It bubbles out. I’m just trying to stay honest, really. There’s a certain set of pieces that I think help make a story good. I also believe that you faithful readers share my opinion of at least part of that set. So when writing these responses, I always do my best to show you the playing field, lay out my set of rules, and then stay consistent from one review to the next. And then someone like Jesse Bullington comes along and shows me that, yes, sometimes, you can even break the big rules and still come out on the other side smelling like roses.
Read the rest of this review »

With all the trouble Kitty has gotten into since she was turned into a werewolf, it’s hard to imagine that it could get any worse. But there’s a reason why book #9 is named KITTY’S BIG TROUBLE (Amazon)–by the end you’ll understand.

But, instead, let’s go back to the beginning. In the last book, KITTY GOES TO WAR (EBR Review), she learned about the U.S. government’s use of werewolves in combat, and she asked herself: how long have they been doing it, and who else in U.S. history could have been hiding their own supernatural origins?
Read the rest of this review »

It’s not often that I let go and enjoy a book just for the ride. I’m more of an intensive reader, who looks for what he wants, enjoys it when it’s there, and complains when it’s not. Simple. Cut and dry. But there’s that something other that comes along every once in a while and just grabs you. There’s something about it. It’s got class. It’s got style. It’s got “Moxy”, kid.

MOXYLAND (Amazon) is Lauren Beukes‘s first novel, and if you’ve been hiding under a rock somewhere (like I feel sometimes) you might not know that she missed getting the Campbell for best new writer this last year by just a hair. MOXYLAND was a very interesting novel for me. Not only is it Science Fiction, but it’s told through four separate first-person viewpoints. This would normally be a tough row for anyone to handle, but Beukes pulls it off really well.
Read the rest of this review »

Admit it. Once upon a time you read Tom Clancy too. There’s no shame in that admission. Clancy had some awesome stuff…you know, before he just seemed to lose his touch. CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER. WITHOUT REMORSE. Yeah. Awesome. But here’s the thing, there came a point where the story took a back seat to Clancy showing off how much he knew about the technical aspects of everything military related. If you go on for a full chapter talking about how a bullet works, and then don’t do anything with that chunk of pages, you’re doing it wrong in my opinion. It’s about the story. It’s about the characters.

Tom Clancy went away well before he wrote TEETH OF THE TIGER (I still shudder), and there wasn’t really anyone who captured my imagination the same way.

This is the part where a lesser reviewer would say, “Until now!” I refuse to say that.
Read the rest of this review »

In THE POSTMORTAL (Amazon), Drew Magary explores what the realistic fallout would be if scientists discovered a cure for aging. A “vaccine” that would stop aging in its tracks. Take it when you’re twenty-five, and you’ll be twenty-five forever. On the surface, this sounds really appealing. Who wouldn’t want to live forever, after all? But that’s where the “realistic” part comes in. The future Magary paints is much bleaker than the knee-jerk reaction everyone automatically thinks of.
Read the rest of this review »

DEMONSTORM (EBR Review) was the end of the Legends of the Raven series. Main characters died horrible and glorious deaths. As readers we all shed a collective tear (or twenty) at the sacrifices the characters made. But then James Barclay wrote another end to the series with RAVENSOUL. I mean, really, what’s a guy to think? There wasn’t really any room to add onto this story. It was done.

Or so I thought.
Read the rest of this review »

A while back I was given my first exposure to Jasper Kent‘s TWELVE (Amazon). In short, TWELVE completely blew my mind. A mixture of Horror and Russian historical fiction, Kent’s first novel, in my opinion, was nothing short of brilliant. I’m still extremely upset that it didn’t end up on the Hugo ballot. If you haven’t read TWELVE, stop reading this review of the sequel. There are some unavoidable spoilers for book one in this review. Do yourself a favor and go buy the first book. You will love Jasper Kent for all eternity. I sure do. My wife may or may not be jealous.

Seriously, this is your last warning.
Read the rest of this review »

Yes, I know, this review comes a little late. After its being nominated for a Hugo. After it being out for over a year. Despite this, I’m still glad I’m the one who gets to review it. Yay me!

It’s probably a good thing that it is me, because while it’s impossible to deny the EBR Overlords’ discriminating tastes in the Speculative Fiction literary world–because, well, they are always right–even they will pass on a perfectly good book because it simply doesn’t appeal to them, or they just don’t have time. They can be quite benevolent that way. Again, yay me!
Read the rest of this review »

Admittedly, there are some great perks to being a reviewer. The lavish lifestyle includes all-expense-paid trips to foreign countries, supermodels, perfectly cooked steaks…OK, none of that. I get books. Lots and lots of books. Some are awesome, and some are terrible. One of the greatest perks is reading a novel I’d never have picked up on my own and discovering how fantastic it is. That happened to me last year when I read Marie Brennan‘s A STAR SHALL FALL (EBR Review). Set in historic London, the novel unexpectedly shoved me down in my comfy reading chair and didn’t let me up until I had finished the novel. Understand, that sort of thing rarely happens to me anymore.
Read the rest of this review »