Reviews :: Book Rating :: Books that are Mediocre :: Page 11

Celia’s life hasn’t been easy since she was turned into an abomination in BLOOD SONG (EBR Review) — not quite human, but not quite vampire, either. At the same time her siren abilities manifested, giving her supernatural skills she only wished she had in a profession (bodyguard) that needs all the advantages she can get.

Be careful what you wish for.
Read the rest of this review »

The irony of the title of ALL MEN OF GENIUS (Amazon) by newcomer Lev A.C. Rosen is that the main character is 17-year-old Violet. While not exactly a tomboy, she’s a scientist at heart and isn’t afraid of the grime, oil, and dirt involved in her love of making machines. Unfortunately for her, the exclusive London-based science university, Illyria, doesn’t accept women. Violet, however, is reckless enough to concoct a scheme that allows her to attend the university–posing as her twin brother Ashton.

ALL MEN OF GENIUS is Rosen’s steampunk re-telling combination of Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Ernest” and Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night.” It’s more a comedy of manners than anything resembling the conspiracy mystery he prologues the book with. While fun, creative, and entertaining, I can sum up GENIUS with two words: heavy handed.
Read the rest of this review »

I have an awesome boss.  Well, all of us are pretty cool here at EBR, but Mr. Steve is a class act.  He’s smart, he’s debonaire, he’s… what’s that? Why all the sycophantic flattery?  It doesn’t even sound like I’m talking to you? Dang. Well, here’s the thing.  You might have noticed the title of this book review already, and maybe even more than that you might remember the fact that Mr. Steve was going to have another short story in this anthology. Yeah. Well, his story rocked, but… um… wow, I better just get into it.
Read the rest of this review »

Christine is a princess of the magical world of Chrysanthe, but at the age of four was kidnapped and taken where she couldn’t be found. With no real memory of her former life, she’s dismayed at the appearance of Quentin, a knight of Chrysanthe come to take her home. Should she trust this man with a familiar voice? Because her “guardian” will not let her go easily…

The prose in CHRYSANTHE (Amazon) has a lyrical quality with some lovely imagery, and Yves Meynard clearly wanted to write the best he knows how. Every word, sentence, and image is carefully crafted.  He creates setting elements with imagination, taking old cliches and breathing new life into them. Meynard is very precise in the forward movement of plot and storytelling, placing foreshadowing with subtlety.

Unfortunately, he could have chosen a more interesting story to tell.
Read the rest of this review »

LIGHTBRINGER (Amazon) is newcomer K.D. McEntire’s first novel in a new YA series. It starts off with Wendy’s twelfth birthday, and a terrible car accident that awakens her inherited latent ability–she’s a reaper, and can help lost souls to leave limbo and find the Light. But she came into her powers too early, and learning the nuances of guiding the dead has come with a price.

By the time she reaches high school she’s already reaped a thousand souls under her mother’s strict tutelage. But during the summer mom was in an accident and lays comatose at the hospital while Wendy struggles with helping her dad with two younger siblings, a secret but increasing reaper load due to her mother’s absence, and as a result her grades are slipping. Poor girl has no time just to be a regular teenager.
Read the rest of this review »

I have a kid that has a blanket.  Anyone with kids (or who can still remember their “blanket”) totally knows where I’m going with this.  This raggedy piece of purple stitching gets dragged around everywhere.  Actually, it only used to be a blanket–these days about 12 square inches in size–but it’s still the only source of comfort that works every time.

DOWN THE MYSTERLY RIVER (Amazon) is a novel written by Bill Willingham that contains an amalgam of other authors’ characters caught up in a young-adult adventure story right out of the storybooks.  The main character, Max the Wolf (originally written by Lawrence Swift) is a scout’s scout that teams up with a number of talking animals (from the minds and imaginations of several others) after waking up in a forest with little to no memory of how they got there.
Read the rest of this review »

I was pretty torn when I read WOLFSANGEL (EBR Review), the first in M. D. Lachlan’s historical fantasy series about the Norse god, Odin, and his eternal battle with the wolf, Fenrir. It had a whole lot that I loved and bundle more that really bothered me. Going into this book, I considered myself to be hopefully optimistic with a couple major concerns. Now that I’ve read Lachlan’s second offering, I again find myself torn but for completely different reasons. Because of this, I am going to do my best to give you my honest opinion.
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.
Read the rest of this review »

History, steam-punk, and the Wild Wild West. What’s not to love, right? I tell you, Lou Anders and Mike Resnick absolutely had an awesome brain-child of an idea when they decided to run with this one. There’s so much possibility with this mixup. So much real estate at your fingertips. And yet the first book was a bit iffy. Being fun and fast but not necessarily the awesome read I had hoped it would be.

THE DOCTOR AND THE KID (Amazon) is the second of those “Weird West” tales by Resnick and continues the story of Doc Holliday and his life in a Wild West twisted by the power of steam and electricity. The three main characters from the first story, THE BUNTLINE SPECIAL (EBR Review) — Doc, Ned Buntline, and Thomas Edison — have all moved to Leadville, Colorado where they hope to escape the after-effects of the OK Corral. Doc wants to set up shop as a dentist and drift into retirement/consumption-driven-death, and Ned and Tom follow him to have a quiet place to continue their research.
Read the rest of this review »

When David’s father is killed before his eyes, he believes his world is ending. Unfortunately, not only is David’s personal world ending, it’s also ending for everyone else: the Roil is coming.

Margaret is the only child of famous inventors. The Roil has laid siege to their city for thirty years, and it’s through their inventiveness that the city survives. But their big experiment goes horribly wrong.

Cadell finds David alone on the street and saves him from a fate similar to his father’s. Cadell is an Old Man, born thousands of years before, cursed with sanity and an unquenchable hunger. He may be the only person able–and willing–to save the remaining cities of Shale from the Roil.
Read the rest of this review »