Category :: Review :: Page 76

Siblings Jill, Megan, and Brian were orphaned while in their youth—but now as adults they still don’t know what really happened, since their parents simply disappeared. It turns out that their parents had something to do with the development of Q, a sort of world network of education and communication, and its later incarnation: the Device, the machine that will change the world.

But someone wants the Device for their own use, and Jill and her family are in danger.
Read the rest of this review »

You may remember that THE UNINCORPORATED MAN (EBR Review) followed the adventures of Justin Chord, a man who had frozen himself in a time capsule to be reawakened when the cures to his diseases were found and he could be revived to live again. Justin indeed was awakened to a world run by the system of incorporation, the selling of personal shares to individual lives. The vast majority of mankind was working, not able to make their own decisions, towards being a majority share holder in their own stock thus taking control of their decisions and their lives. Justin saw the system as tantamount to slavery and started to oppose it immediately. The end of THE UNINCORPORATED MAN saw Justin forced into space towards the outer planets starting a revolution that pitted the outer planets and asteroid belt versus Earth and its incorporated system.
Read the rest of this review »

In THE FALLING MACHINE (EBR Review) you were left with a cliffhanger: during the battle with Lord Eschaton, Tom is dismantled and Sarah leaves home after a fight with her father.

The continuation, HEARTS OF SMOKE AND STEAM (Amazon) begins over a month later. Even though Tom was destroyed, Sarah was able to recover his heart in the chaos. Unfortunately it’s broken, and she needs to find someone to repair the heart, but doesn’t trust the majority of the people in New York who are able to do it. Her search leads her to Emilio Armando, an Italian immigrant and inventor—whose past, if Sarah knew it, would make her think twice about trusting him with Tom’s secret.
Read the rest of this review »

James Barclay. You know the name. You know that his Raven novels made him one of my favorite authors. If you live in the US, finally getting his novels has been a welcome breath of fresh air. That’s all great and dandy, but there is something we in the US are missing that our UK buddies still have exclusive.

The Ascendants of Estorea.
Read the rest of this review »

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.
Read the rest of this review »

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?
Read the rest of this review »

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).
Read the rest of this review »

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.”
Read the rest of this review »

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.
Read the rest of this review »

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.
Read the rest of this review »