Posts from 2015 :: Page 5

THE SLOW REGARD OF SILENT THINGS (Amazon) is not exactly a title that reaches out and grabs you. No? I mean, when was the last time you actually saw the word “slow” in the title of a book? Okay, there was SLOW APOCALYPSE (EBR Review) — not my favorite. Or there was also SLOW BULLETS (EBR Review) — not half bad. Or “silent” for that matter? Hmm. THE SILENT LAND (EBR Review). Maybe this is turning out to not be the best analogy…) Let alone both in the same title? Hah! I don’t know of any others.
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From Dark Regions Press, we have a great novella from one of my favorite authors, Joe Lansdale. PRISONER 489 (Amazon) is short, sweet, and a terrific read. While I simply adore Lansdale’s Westerns, I’m an even bigger fan of his writing.
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It’s been a while since I sat down here and wrote a review, so you can expect a small deluge from me in the near future. I’m a huge fan of space opera in all genres and forms. I don’t know a lot about John C. Wright, but receiving THE ARCHITECT OF AEONS excited me, and made me want to read this. I’ve never read any Wright, so I was ready to experience a new to me author.

Well.
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Alison Quinn has known her share of disappointments. Being rich, a countess, and beautiful means men only see her for what she can give them, and not for the talented woman she is. But who needs a man when she has an estate to run and works as an editor at her father’s printing business? Certainly she doesn’t need to work, but her passion for books and the printed word outweighs a life of leisure.

However, being a countess obligates her to the request of the Queen, and she is summoned for a six-month stint as a companion to the Dowager. Now Alison finds herself living the very life she was trying to avoid: dressing in gowns, embroidering, attending musical events, and even dancing at the occasional party. Dating a man is one thing, but that doesn’t mean Alison can’t enjoy a good dance. And who should ask her but the Crown Prince Anthony, who is definitely handsome…but also a notorious rake, whose unsavory comments cause a very public altercation. The Queen forces them to be seen together to prevent court gossip. But, surprisingly, Alison begins to think that Anthony may be the one to prove her wrong, and that all men aren’t the same.

One would think that’s where the story ends. But one would be wrong.
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Not only did this series get a major upgrade with the last book (hardcover, anybody?), but we also heard that SyFy had picked it up for a 10-episode series (which begins to air this December), and they also started writing for series two of the SyFy series last month. That’s June. Six months before the series even premieres! Just freaking cool. Still, I’m already itching for book six, Babylon’s Ashes. Although, we’ll get a new novella (The Vital Abyss, Oct 1st) in just a few months, and then the tv series in December, so the time between now and then should just fly.
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K.J. Parker has been one of my favorite authors for quite some time now. Her books, in my opinion, are brilliant fun and have oodles of engaging characters put into absolutely awful predicaments. Even though she overwhelmingly shies away from all things “magical,” there’s plenty within the “fantasy palette” developed by each book that I feel completely satiated at the end of each reading. She makes me laugh, and as I’ve repeatedly found, making a reader laugh can cover a multitude of sins (if there are any). If you’re up on your game in regards to her publications, you might also have noticed that Ms. Parker is NOT A MS. Completely took me by surprise as, when speaking of authors from across the pond, I’ve tended to like the works of more female authors than their more masculine counterparts (with a few exceptions). Never thought I’d see the day honestly. But still, Tom Holt writes the books the same way whether he uses that pseudonym or not. So I’m still happy.
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I’m not sure what I expected going into this novella. I mean…look at the cover. It’s weird, kinda creepy, and automatically makes me want to read the story. Subterranean Press was kind enough to send over a copy of the exceptionally strange novella by Jonathan Carroll, TEACHING THE DOG TO READ. It didn’t disappoint.
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Lucy can hear ghosts. Lockwood can see them. George is tactical support. Together they are Lockwood and Co, ghost hunters extraordinaire. Well, competent if not extraordinaire. Okay, maybe they’re just barely getting by.

You see, only children can see or hear ghosts, so when ghost hunters get too old to hunt them, they lead the teams. However, Lockwood and Co don’t employ adults. They’re three kids who live in the house Lockwood inherited from his parents. DERPAC (Department of Psychical Research and Control–run by adults of course) monitors all companies that deal with Visitors–aka ghosts–and believe that children gallivanting around without adult supervision are suspect, even if they are licensed.

DERPAC’s agent Barnes feels justified in questioning Lockwood when their most recent job results in destruction of a client’s property, which is a strict no-no. Now they’re in danger of losing the house, the business, and any means of gainful employment. What’s a ghost hunter to do?
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There is a tale written by a chap you might have heard of before (Hans Christian Andersen) about an Emperor that is duped by a couple of swindlers into paying for clothes made out of cloth that is not there. It’s called “The Emperor’s New Clothes” (just in case 😉 ), and it’s a wonderful tale that at its face can be viewed as being about not allowing yourself to be lied to and taken advantage of because you want something so badly, but has deeper meaning about not believing what everyone else does just because everyone else believes it. Once I’d written this review, I realized that a triggered remembrance of this old tale is exactly what I’d need in order to finish up. So let’s get to it.
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Promise is a Marine for the Republic, having signed up after witnessing the death of her pacifist father by pirates. Now she can get off the backwater planet where she was born and instead roam the universe, fighting against the same kind of criminals who killed her father.

But in a twist of fate, Promise is promoted for the very purpose of representing the Republic on her home planet, Montana, as a sort of public relations gesture. In the past the Republic hasn’t done its best protecting the rim planets from pirates and the Empire. Now it’s Promise and a single company of Marines assigned to protect a planet of ninety-eight million people, with only the help of a couple of scraggly space platforms, and an aging warship to patrol the orbit. No wonder the Montanans’ view of the Republic is less than stellar.

However, before Promise’s assignment is up she must prove her mettle in the face of impossible odds.
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