Reviews by Nickolas

Being a book critic is sort of like getting to experience Christmas at least once a week. Getting books from your favorite authors months before release is the gift that keeps on giving. Earlier this year I read GREATSHADOW by James Maxey (EBR Review), and despite my cynical reservations it blew me away. Now we have HUSH (Amazon), the much anticipated sequel that I had to wait excruciating months for. Months! With great excitement I started reading about the most original and colorful fantasy world I have encountered in recent memory.

HUSH picks up almost immediately after the events of GREATSHADOW. If you haven’t read GREATSHADOW please stop with this review and go buy it. Otherwise you may encounter some spoilers, though I will try to keep those to a minimum.
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Once upon a time I read OLD MAN’S WAR by John Scalzi (Amazon) and it became my favorite book of all time. That said, REDSHIRTS (Amazon) has much more in common with Scalzi’s ANDROID’S DREAM (Amazon) than it does OLD MAN’S WAR. Sometimes a book is worth losing sleep over. Some books are basically begging to be read in one sitting. REDSHIRTS is one of these books.

Andrew Dahl, Ensign of the Universal Union, has a problem. He has been assigned to the capital ship Intrepid, a ship with an alarmingly high casualty rate for low ranking crew members. Recognizing a terrifying trend relating to away missions, Dahl and his friends seek to discover the origin of the trouble plaguing Intrepid. As death draws ever nearer, Dahl must race against fate to save himself and his friends from a most assuredly gruesome demise.
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NOCTURNAL by Scott Sigler (Amazon) is a most curious creature. In all my years of reading I can’t remember coming across a book quite like it. This isn’t because NOCTURNAL features some brand new theme or idea, but because it is a book that showcases Sigler’s evolution as an author and still manages to be an inferior novel than its predecessors. Considered to be Sigler’s most ambitious novel to date, NOCTURNAL is a supernatural police procedural with a score of highs and lows.

Monsters lurk in the ruins of San Francisco’s past, striking out at night to hunt for those who won’t be missed in order to sake their blood thirst. Homicide detective Bryan Clauser is drawn to this dark secret by a crop of serial murders that bear chilling resemblance to his own twisted dreams. With his partner, Pookie Chang by his side, Bryan must uncover the mystery of Marie’s Children and the shadowy vigilante known as Savior who kills the killers with supernatural strength.
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Superheroes are extremely prevalent in pop-culture at the moment. It seems that half the books in my To-Read Pile feature some form of super human shenanigans. With all these options it takes a lot to rise above mediocrity and offer something truly gripping. Ayize Jama-Everett has written a book that does just that. THE LIMINAL PEOPLE (Amazon) is a supernatural crime thriller that reads like NBC’s failed television drama Heroes meets the hit action film Taken starring Liam Neeson.

I make the comparison because when I’m reading a review, comparisons often catch my interest and help me form a basis on which to start considering whether or not I should fork over the cash. THE LIMINAL PEOPLE undoubtedly reflects shades of Heroes and Taken, but in the end it eclipses both.
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If you know me then you know I absolutely hate short stories. If you don’t know me: Hello, nice to meet you, I hate short stories. I hate all short fiction really, novellas and poems and such. I took a fiction writing course and it was all about writing short fiction. I hated that too. But! If there was ever an anthology I was ever going to enjoy it had to be ARMORED, edited by John Joseph Adams and published by Baen. A whole collection of stories solely based around my favorite science fiction concept – power armor. With a foreword by Orson Scott Card and an unbeatable roster of authors from Dan Abnett to Brandon Sanderson to Tobias Buckell, ARMORED (Amazon) could be the military SF Promised Land. So how did it fare? Read on.Read the rest of this review »

Growing up I watched this horror movie called Frailty with my mom. The movie had no cheap scares or gore, but every night for of the following week I had nightmares that eventually led to me sleeping with a light on for years to come. Ever since then it seems as though horror flicks just can’t phase me. Directors are too focused on the gore-factor to see what is really important. The psychological thrills. INFECTED by Scott Sigler (Amazon) promised to be a mind bender, a truly terrifying read. Promises aside, it doesn’t quite deliver.
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Continuing in the tradition of James Lovegrove‘s exceptional Pantheon series comes the e-novella AGE OF ANANSI (Amazon). This is a story that breaks away from the Military SF nature of the previous novels, though it does remain true to the thematic roots.

Dion Yeboah is a successful criminal defendant, a man with the keen ability to bend the law in his client’s favor but never break it. One day, however, the trickster god Anansi pays Dion a visit and offers him a deal he cannot refuse. At Anansi’s behest, Dion travels across the Atlantic to participate in a multi-pantheon trickster god free for all in the United States. The competition is stiff and if Dion wants to keep his head he will have to rely on his precision honed wits to overcome the likes of Loki, Set, and even the infamous Coyote.
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Well it took me far longer than it should have, but I have now finished THIEF’S COVENANT by Ari Marmell. THIEF’S COVENANT (Amazon) is a short (and satisfyingly) breezy read, but finishing up final projects for school has really cut into my reading time. I am pleased to say that I have been having relatively good luck with my reading endeavors lately, and the debut of Widdershins does not disappoint. In a YA market saturated with dystopian settings it’s nice to read one set in a fantasy setting.

Meet Adrienne Satti, also known as Widdershins. Street urchin, turned aristocrat, turned thief, Widdershins has led a rough life. Orphaned at a young age, Widdershins has known both poverty and high class. Having returned to the shady alleys from whence she came, Widdershins has established herself as a daring thief but will her street smarts be enough to save her from the dark conspiracy brewing in the depths of Davillon?
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AGE OF AZTEC (Amazon) is the fourth entry in James Lovegrove‘s excellent Pantheon series. Don’t worry if you have yet to read any of the other Pantheon novels because each book is a standalone adventure. Lovegrove has successfully carved out his own unique niche, a fusion of near-future Military Science Fiction and Alternate Historical Fiction based around the pantheons of the ancient world.
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Reviewing books has its ups and downs. On one hand you are given free books to read and asked to give your opinion of them. Reading and stating my opinion are serious hobbies of mine. On the other hand, sometimes you are asked to read books about dragons. Dragons. I do not like dragons. I have not enjoyed reading about dragons for a long, long time. You’ll imagine my surprise then, when I completely fell in love with James Maxey‘s GREATSHADOW (Amazon).
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